The civil service grew by more than six per cent in both 2021 and 2023. By comparison, the size of the civil service shrank in each of the last five years the Harper Conservatives were in power.
Big Government
How Government Psychological Manipulation of the Public Became Normal
My recently published research into the U.K. Government’s deployment of behavioural science strategies – ‘nudges’ – leads to a startling conclusion: in every sphere of daily life, our thoughts and actions are being psychologically manipulated so as to align them with what the state’s technocrats have deemed to be in our best interests. It seems that open, transparent debate is no longer considered necessary.
How did my nation, a purported beacon of freedom and democracy, descend to such a position? While there have been multiple participants in this journey into behavioural science-fuelled authoritarianism, a historical review of the key players indicates that American scholars have contributed in crucial ways to this trajectory.
British academic ‘deplatformed’ by Canadian government over gender stance
A British academic has claimed she was deplatformed by the Canadian government over her views on transgender issues.
Alice Sullivan, a professor of sociology at University College London, was set to give an online talk to staff at the Canadian Department of Justice last week about the problems with prioritising self-described gender data over biological sex, which the Canadian government now does “by default”.
Red Deer Catholic school trustee faces dismissal over ‘hate-filled’ post on social media
A Catholic school board trustee in Red Deer could face dismissal from her role after public backlash from a social media post that likened LGBTQ pride to Nazi Germany.
Monique LaGrange, a trustee of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, posted on social media last week a now-deleted post that featured a picture of children waving Nazi flags above a picture of children waving Pride flags.
“Brainwashing is brainwashing,” her post read.
She made a valid point government indoctrination is evil. Dismissal is a violation of her right to free speech.
Catholic couple sues Massachusetts after their foster parent application was denied because they do not support procedures to change a child’s ‘God-given sex’ and believe in ‘traditional’ marriage
A Catholic couple are suing Massachusetts after their application to become foster parents was denied over concerns they would not be ‘affirming’ to a child who identified as LGBTQ+.
Court documents filed this week show that Catherine and her husband Michael Burke, who are devout Catholics, applied to be foster parents after experiencing ‘the heartbreak of infertility.’
However, their application was denied by Massachusetts Department of Children and Families in April after staff were concerned over the couple’s responses to questions regarding care for an LGBTQ+ child.
The cruelty and snobbery of the nanny state
Britain’s nanny-state policymakers seem intent on punishing those on lower incomes. Over and over again, they cast snobbish judgement on the eating and drinking habits of poorer Brits. Policies such as sugar, alcohol and tobacco taxes disproportionately target working-class people.
Supreme Court Sides With Christian Who Refused to Create Same-Sex Wedding Websites
The Supreme Court Friday ruled for a Christian web designer in Colorado who refused to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings due to her religious objections.
How Canada’s FOI system broke under its own weight
Information held by the government is supposed to be yours. Yet at every turn, the process gives institutions incentives to keep records hidden
A developer from Cornwall, Ont., is perplexed to find that his building permits are suddenly being denied. He files a request under freedom-of-information law for copies of any city records about him or his company. Three months later, he’s told he will need to pay a $1,963.50 processing fee. When he does, he receives pages of mostly blanked-out paper, a full box of his own building applications and files and a note that 3,500 records are being fully withheld.
Canada’s alcohol industry says warning labels about health risks unnecessary
Canada’s alcohol industry is pushing back against a call for mandatory warning labels on booze containers as suggested in new guidance that also greatly limits the recommended amount Canadians should be drinking.
CJ Helie, president of Beer Canada, said the industry is voluntarily informing people to drink responsibly so there’s no need for any labels.
TRUTH COPS – Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation
THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents — obtained via leaks and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public documents — illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms.
The work, much of which remains unknown to the American public, came into clearer view earlier this year when DHS announced a new “Disinformation Governance Board”: a panel designed to police misinformation (false information spread unintentionally), disinformation (false information spread intentionally), and malinformation (factual information shared, typically out of context, with harmful intent) that allegedly threatens U.S. interests. While the board was widely ridiculed, immediately scaled back, and then shut down within a few months, other initiatives are underway as DHS pivots to monitoring social media now that its original mandate — the war on terror — has been wound down.
h/t Mauser
Lawsuit reveals vast censorship scheme by Big Tech and the federal government
A little noticed federal lawsuit, Missouri v. Biden, is uncovering astonishing evidence of an entrenched censorship scheme cooked up between the federal government and Big Tech that would make Communist China proud.
So far, 67 officials or agencies — including the FBI — have been accused in the lawsuit of violating the First Amendment by pressuring Facebook, Twitter and Google to censor users for alleged misinformation or disinformation.
Victims of the Biden-Big Tech’s “censorship enterprise” include The Post, whose Hunter Biden laptop exposé was suppressed by Facebook and then Twitter in October 2020 after the FBI went to Facebook warning them with great specificity to watch out for a “dump” of Russian disinformation, pertaining to Joe Biden, with an uncanny resemblance to our stories.
Why is a Trudeau government funded group attempting to demonize schoolboard candidates?
Every time the media tries to pretend that @antihateca is a reputable source, I'll be right here to remind people who the group's leader is https://t.co/Z9JvtwWcqF https://t.co/SuX6haAJ7a pic.twitter.com/K23tCwGtt7
— Jonathan Kay (@jonkay) October 21, 2022
How we could end the COVID pandemic almost instantly
Any government in the world could do this. It’s easy and obvious. But none of them will do it. Do you want to know why?
h/t Mom
YouTube might be asked to manipulate algorithms under online streaming bill: CRTC chair
The chairman of Canada’s broadcast regulator says it might ask platforms such as YouTube to “manipulate” their algorithms to make Canadian music easier to find, under powers in the proposed online streaming bill.
Ian Scott told a Senate committee examining the bill that although the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission would not want to manipulate algorithms itself, it might tell platforms, “I want you to manipulate it (the algorithm) to produce particular outcomes.”
This won’t end well, they won’t stop at your personal hit parade. Google manipulates search results as it is. Imagine a Trudeau government calling the shots.
MO, LA Strike Back Against New DHS Ministry of Truth In Federal Court:
“DHS’s so-called ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ [DGB] … was not a novel initiative by the federal government to launch a new censorship program to silence disfavored voices on social media. On the contrary… federal social-media censorship program is already in full swing at DHS and other federal agencies on a massive scale. In fact, a massive scale that the DGB was created to centralize, normalize, and impose a bureaucratic structure on the massive campaign of online censorship that Defendants have already launched.”