Why did a Toronto police officer turn off the PA system at City Hall that plays our national anthem? And who replaced Sir John A. MacDonald on the $10 bill instead? Ezra explains why, and the story of Viola Desmond.
00:13:06.420Excuse me. Don't touch my property, first of all. That's all Canada you just disrespected. Do you understand that? Do you understand what you just did? You disrespected our country, ma'am.
00:13:21.340But keep our land glorious and free. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God bless Canada.
00:13:51.340So just, just turn it off. You're just, you're just going to do that. You're just going to turn off the anthem. On whose authority? Under what law do you do that?
00:14:01.560What law could possibly allow a cop to turn off someone's Canadian anthem, but zealously protect pro-Hamas supporters, many in masks, by allowing them to have their PA system to scream at Jews? By what law?
00:14:15.320They're waving the Palestinian flag, not because it's a country. It's not.
00:14:29.900They're waving the Palestinian flag precisely because it's anti, it's anti-Israel, it's anti-Canada, just like they are.
00:14:38.040I don't think they actually really even care about Palestine as a country. Trump has offered Gaza a new future, just like Bill Clinton did, just like half a dozen peace proposals has done, just like the United Nations did back in the 1940s.
00:14:52.800I don't think they actually care about another Arab or Muslim country. There are already more than 50 of them.
00:14:58.920This isn't really about making another state for the Palestinians. I think it's about destroying a state, Israel.
00:15:06.640And in Canada, I think it's about destroying our country too, our history, our beliefs, our heroes as well.
00:15:16.480Well, I first heard of the nudge unit of the British government during COVID times, where the government was trying psychological tactics to nudge Brits to make certain decisions in their lives.
00:15:39.820It was different than an ad. I've always found it odd when governments take out ads, especially for monopoly services about which you have no choice.
00:15:49.820But this was different than an ad. This was using certain ways of phrasing from a psychological, almost a scientific way to get people to do what the government wanted, even if it was against their individual interest.
00:16:05.060I don't know if it worked. I don't know how many people do what the government says, but I think it's got to be a certain number.
00:16:12.660Otherwise, the nudge unit wouldn't be nudged.
00:16:16.760Well, imagine my surprise when I learned that here in Canada, we have our own government nudge unit too.
00:16:24.180And the story is covered in a Justice Center report published by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms that reveals the existence of something I had never heard about.
00:16:36.440Apparently, there's something in Ottawa called the Impact and Innovation Unit.
00:16:44.240And they follow behavioral psychology such as nudge theory.
00:16:50.840Joining us now via Zoom from Calgary is the president of the Justice Center, the organization that has published Manufacturing Consent, Government Behavioral Engineering of Canadians, written by veteran journalist Nigel Hannaford.
00:17:29.440The government fixated, created its message already that the vaccine is safe and effective, so get vaccinated.
00:17:35.880That was designed and developed before the testing had even been completed.
00:17:43.740And so it was very much in a vacuum of knowledge.
00:17:47.700There's no conclusive evidence that the vaccines were safe or effective.
00:17:51.260But this message was put out by the Impact and Innovation Unit, which is in Ottawa, part of the Privy Council Office, which sits at the apex of the federal bureaucracy.
00:18:02.940And it's an organization with a large budget in the report on their own website.
00:18:11.220It says, since 2017, the Impact and Innovation Unit has experienced rapid growth with 28 active or completed outcomes-based funding projects worth over $725 million, spending economic, environmental, and social policy.
00:18:29.680So these are behavioral scientists that are not merely just providing information about government programs, but they are pushing Canadians to behave in certain ways, like feeling enthusiastic about rolling up your sleeve to get injected with the substance for which no long-term safety data was in existence.
00:18:50.400You know, I think the word brainwashing is what comes to mind.
00:18:54.980Here, let me read one sentence from your press release today.
00:18:57.360Okay, IIU, again, that's this Impact and Innovation Unit, techniques include emotional framing using fear, reassurance, or urgency to influence compliance with policies such as lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements.
00:19:37.480Accepting mass immigration, accepting crime on our streets?
00:19:41.120Like, I'm trying to think of the kind of press-to-digitation that the government would hire these psychological manipulators for.
00:19:48.920Well, definitely, the thesis that mankind controls the world's climate, which is very much subject to debate.
00:19:58.180But you can expect the impact and innovation unit to swing into, if the government were to impose the 15-minute prison districts or 15-minute cities, other things where they want us to change our behavior.
00:20:14.620And they want us to accept the violations of our human rights or fundamental freedoms of expression, association, religion, conscience, travel, mobility, so on and so forth.
00:20:26.480If they want us to accept and obey and comply with all the measures that violate our charter rights and freedoms, you can see this coming on the climate front for sure.
00:20:38.560In fact, some of the documents that I have seen that are publicly posted online, they talk about climate change, and they've got the thesis that mankind controls the climate.
00:20:51.120And so, don't be surprised when we get millions of our tax dollars spent on nudging us to obey whatever the government has in mind for us in the name of saving us from the climate holocaust that, of course, we should all be very afraid of.
00:21:09.960You know, I just can't believe that this sum of money here, and again, this isn't polling, this isn't regular advertising or sponsorships.
00:21:18.440This is psychological nudging, which I think by nature has to be somewhat deceptive.
00:21:27.380If people knew that the government was being overt about manipulating us, we'd be resistant to it.
00:21:34.240I mean, that's why advertisements in a newspaper are marked ads, so they don't trick anyone, so people know, oh, they're trying to persuade me, I can have my guard up.
00:21:45.600As opposed to if you read an editorial, you think, okay, this is genuinely the view held by the newspaper.
00:21:51.320There's a reason why ethical news companies have tell me or sell me, and it's clear which one you're getting.
00:21:59.600But it seems to me, and again, this is the first I've heard about this nudge unit, that it only works if it's sort of under the radar, if it tricks you.
00:22:10.820If someone said, excuse me, this is a message from the government, take your jab, well, then you would discount it.
00:22:17.820You'd say, okay, that's their point of view.
00:22:19.220But if it came in more subtly, if it came in emotionally, if it came in in a hidden way, then it would be a kind of trickery.
00:22:29.960Yeah, this is not like a poster you might see in a washroom recommending that you should not drink alcohol while you're pregnant.
00:22:38.460Okay, that's pretty straightforward, and it says who it is, and the message is obvious.
00:22:42.560But this was about crafting messages to alleviate anxiety when, once a vaccine was made available to the public, and initially it was voluntary, immediately there were reports, you know, 13-year-old boy in Wisconsin died two days after a second dose.
00:23:01.360People all over the world, we had people dying shortly after getting injected with COVID vaccine, and so the government was asking what kind of messaging is most likely to reduce public anxiety about adverse events following vaccination.
00:23:18.880And so this is manipulative to get people to behave in a certain way as opposed to merely providing objective information.
00:23:28.900It's also interesting, they did not change course once it became quite clear that there were adverse impacts from the vaccine.
00:23:38.860It was full speed ahead with the same message, it's safe and effective, you need to get vaccinated.
00:23:45.340They were not going to be influenced by the reality of what was actually emerging on the ground.
00:23:49.880You know, in your report, you have three recommendations, and it makes sense because if you participate in a psychological experiment, let's say at a university, if there's a professor who wants to do some tests on you, there's all sorts of ethical obligations that surround that.
00:24:09.420You have to, there has to be informed consent, you have to know who, you know, there's a lot of things you need to get someone to sign off on before you can do an experiment on them.
00:24:18.600And that's even on very beneficial, positive experiments.
00:24:22.440I think one of my favorite social, psychological experiments of all time is called the Ash Conformity Test or the Milgram Experiment.
00:24:31.760These are actually somewhat troubling that they get people to test their conformity and their obedience.
00:24:37.160Stuff like that has to, you have to tell people that you're part of a test, you have to disclose things to them.
00:24:44.740Otherwise, it's, it's a form of abuse.
00:24:47.580And we got some of these rules, frankly, after the Holocaust, after the Nazi doctors' trials in Nuremberg, where you, you cannot run experiments on people without their consent.
00:24:59.600So let me read to you the three recommendations from your report, and then maybe you can expand on these.
00:25:04.040Number one, parliamentary oversight of all behavioral science uses within federal departments, ensuring elected representatives retain oversight of national policy.
00:25:15.100Two, public disclosure of all behavioral research conducted with taxpayer funds, creating transparency of government influence on Canadians' beliefs and decisions.
00:25:26.100And finally, independent ethical review of any behavioral interventions affecting public opinion or individual autonomy, ensuring accountability and informed consent.
00:25:37.780That's that informed consent we were just talking about.
00:25:40.540So I take it none of these things are there now.
00:25:43.000No, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
00:25:47.960I mean, if you get transparency, typically in many situations, that's going to immediately get rid of half of the problems or more than half of the problems if you just have transparency.
00:25:59.320So if our tax dollars are going to be spent on behavioral science and nudging us to comply with violations of our charter rights and freedoms, that needs to be fully disclosed, publicly disclosed.
00:26:14.760I mean, it's a great start already that this report is based on publicly available information that you can find on the Internet.
00:26:24.880So there is, you know, a partial disclosure already, but it needs to go further and there needs to be parliamentary oversight.
00:26:35.660It's at the apex of the federal bureaucracy.
00:26:37.940But that bureaucracy is or should be accountable to Canadian citizens and taxpayers.
00:26:44.900Let me ask you one last question, because privacy historically has been something that the left, at least sometimes, claims to care about.
00:26:55.360And I think right now of the United Kingdom, where there's something called Big Brother Watch, and that's actually a left wing group run by a left wing leader.
00:27:04.760And I admire what they do, by the way, here in Canada, there's a few accountability groups sort of on the left.
00:27:11.060I think I put Democracy Watch in that category.
00:27:19.700Like, for example, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
00:27:22.320Is there anyone on the left, even the Green Party or the NDP or the Bloc, who cares about privacy or are they all in with the surveillance state and the nudge state?
00:27:36.580Fortunately, and I can't say too much about the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on some of their issues.
00:27:44.320I mean, they were terrible on embracing the government narrative during lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
00:27:49.880To their credit, they were ferocious, outspoken opponents against Bill C-2.
00:27:55.620And there's lots of individuals, law professors, organizations, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, that were very critical of Bill C-2, which is the Strong Borders Act, but which should be called the Strong Surveillance Act.
00:28:10.960So much so that the federal government has now put Bill C-2 on the back burner.
00:28:16.580And so some of the worst provisions of it, like giving Canada Post the right to open letter mail without a warrant, creating this brand new Authorized Access to Information Act, which would give federal government officials, not just police, but many government officials would have access to warrantless searches of computers and cell phones.
00:28:38.040There was such a big outcry against Bill C-2 across the spectrum, including groups that you might call left-wing groups, that the government has actually put Bill C-2 on the back burner.
00:28:50.940And they've taken out the core provisions about immigration, refugees, and borders, put that into a separate bill, Bill C-12, which they're going to fast track, and they may well get support from the conservatives on it.
00:29:03.780And the really bad parts of Bill C-2 about increasing the surveillance state have been put on the back burner.
00:29:10.940And that's because we've had it across the political spectrum.
00:29:14.620There has been opposition to the surveillance state.
00:29:18.540I would hate it, you know, if the conservatives and libertarians are the only ones against the surveillance state would be a sad state of affairs.
00:29:28.340But I think on this issue, it is across the board that we have support for the free society on this issue.