Juno News - January 19, 2023The elites run away from the media
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Summary
The World Economic Forum prides itself on transparency. They stream live, accrediting members of the media, even people like me that have been critical of the organisation. But the big question that we ve been asking all week is: what exactly is happening outside of public view? There are rooms for bilateral meetings and multilateral meetings, for business leaders and country leaders to all get together in ways that are not on the public agenda, and on the sidelines, no one knows what conversations are taking place. So the question remains: if there is nothing to hide, why not be open about what you re doing here?
Transcript
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Coming to you from Davos, Switzerland, here for the World Economic Forum 2023 Annual Meeting.
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The World Economic Forum, an organization that many people have many different perspectives of.
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On one hand, the way that we can foster global cooperation to solve the world's crises.
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On the other hand, this sinister, evil, scary, bond-villainy corporation
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that is trying to do all sorts of things to control the world.
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Like with anything, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of those.
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The World Economic Forum prides itself, it says, on transparency.
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They live-stream sessions, they accredit members of the media,
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even people like me that have been somewhat critical of the organization.
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But the big question that we've been asking all week is,
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what exactly is happening outside of public view?
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There are rooms for bilateral meetings and multilateral meetings,
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for business leaders and country leaders, heads of government and state and NGO leaders
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to all get together in ways that are not on the public agenda, that are not on the public program.
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And on the sidelines, no one knows what conversations are taking place,
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but certainly we probably see the policy implications of those conversations
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when politicians come home and start putting into action ideas
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that they've discussed with their counterparts around the world.
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So the question remains, if there is nothing to hide,
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This was one of the questions I wanted to put to Deputy Prime Minister of Canada,
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Chrystia Freeland, who, as you know, is a member of the WEF Board of Trustees,
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isn't having those two roles itself a conflict of interest?
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That was what I asked Deputy Prime Minister Freeland.
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I was just wondering if it's a conflict of interest for you to be a trustee,
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And if so, why is there an issue answering a question about it?
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As you can see, she didn't want to answer any questions whatsoever,
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This is the woman who once tried to ban True North from asking her a question
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at a Media Freedom press conference at the Global Conference for Media Freedom,
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which she was co-hosting a couple of years back.
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She's not the only politician to want to duck questions.
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Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
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let alone talking to any members of the media as he was walking through Davos today.
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And also John Kerry, the United States climate envoy,
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was in a very controlled environment talking about all the great things the U.S. is doing
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But you take him outside of that environment and he's a little bit more tight-lipped.
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Why should anyone else in the world have to deal with emissions reductions when China is not?
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Why should we have to deal with carbon prices when China is not lowering its emissions?
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Most people have been all too friendly and all too willing to chat about what it is they want to do.
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And certainly if you look at the panels, you get remarkable candor from some WEF partners
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and invite a guest about the policy prescriptions they believe the world needs.
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On that last one, I think I will combine it with your question,
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what it would be your wish, is to get much higher carbon prices
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and to use that money to subsidize clean energies.
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But in Europe, we've seen an enormous response this year,
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It's not difficult, but we're not doing it, certainly not globally.
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Now, you may agree with that, you may disagree with that,
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but remember, you don't vote for any of the people here.
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You do not have any oversight or any say in what happens in those rooms
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Yet all of the influence and all of the authority that the WEF has
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is because people decide to give it to the organization.
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People like Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland,
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who lends her name and influence as a Minister of the Crown in Canada
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about whether such a relationship is a conflict.