Friday, May 13, 2022

Luxury vehicles of former federal cabinet minister torched in Montreal suburb
Incendie/fire - FILE PHOTO. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

Daniel J. Rowe
CTVNewsMontreal.ca Digital Reporter
Updated May 7, 2022 

The Montreal police (SPVM) arson squad is investigating after a fire at a former federal cabinet minister's residence destroyed two vehicles.

The possible arson may be the act of anarchists.

Police confirmed that a 911 call at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4 reported an explosion on Chester Ave. in the affluent suburban Town of Mont Royal (TMR).

Police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said a Jaguar and Land Rover were destroyed in the fire, but no residences were damaged, and there were no injuries.

Police have looked at surveillance footage and the charred carcasses of the luxury vehicles are being analyzed.

"At this point, we're still gathering some information," said Brabant.

ANARCHIST ACT

An anonymous letter sent to the anarchist website Montreal Counter-info said the act was directed at the former Conservative cabinet minister under Stephen Harper, Michael Fortier.

It was done, the letter reads, "in the spirit of vengeance" in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en land defenders and "all those who fight the extractive industry."

Wet’suwet’an land defenders could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fortier is currently vice-chairman of RBC Capital Markets. He left politics in 2008.

The authors of the anonymous letter say RBC's involvement in the controversial pipeline in northern BC was the reason for the alleged arson.

"Tucked away in his big house in the Town of Mount-Royal (a wealthy Montreal neighbourhood separated by a long wall from the poor and exploited), Mr. Fortier no doubt feels at ease with his employer’s decision to continue funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline (or any other disgusting project financed by RBC)," the letter reads.

"As glaciers melt and drought, fire and famine spread, Mr. Fortier may think that his money and connections will protect him, his children and his grandchildren. But the ecologically dispossessed will know the names of those responsible. He must understand that no one is safe amid this storm."

The letter says that an incendiary device spread to "the engine block of his Jaguar, parked in front of his home."

Police say, after interviewing the residents of the home where the vehicles were parked, that there were no threats made, no letters sent and no conflicts before the fire.

The SPVM is taking the anonymous letter seriously.

"We're going to look into it, but we're still trying to clarify what the reason is for the arson," said Brabant.

Police investigating if anti-pipeline anarchists torched cars of RBC executive who was an ex-Tory minister

Christopher Nardi - Tuesday
National Post

© Provided by National Post
Environmental activists outside an RBC branch in Vancouver, B.C., call on the bank to defund the Coastal GasLink project, April 7, 2022.

OTTAWA – Montreal police are investigating if anti-pipeline anarchists are behind a fire that destroyed two luxury vehicles at the home of former Conservative Minister and current RBC executive Michael Fortier.

The incident is just the latest of a rash of attacks against Royal Bank of Canada and its executives’ properties over the last few months by anarchists opposed to the organization’s funding of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline in British Columbia.

They claim to be acting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders, who oppose the project.

Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) confirmed they were investigating how a Jaguar and a Land Rover caught fire during the night last Wednesday. On Tuesday, police spokesperson Gabriella Youakim said police sent both vehicles to a specialized garage for analysis to determine if they were destroyed by arson.

She also confirmed that police were analyzing both surveillance footage from the property as well as at least one video she said was circulating online involving the incident.

“As of now, I can’t confirm that it’s criminal because they have to look at the cars and the videos, so we’re just waiting on that. It may take some time for the cars, maybe a bit less (time) for the videos, but I think they’re waiting to see something concrete to be able to say yes, it’s an arson,” Youakim said.

RBC CEO defends pipeline funding, calls for net-zero incentives

But according to an “anonymous submission” on anarchist website MTL Counter-info , the fires were started by a group of anarchists “acting in the spirit of vengeance” using an “incendiary device” on the engine block of Fortier’s Jaguar parked in front of his home.

“As glaciers melt and drought, fire and famine spread, Mr. Fortier may think that his money and connections will protect him, his children and his grandchildren. But the ecologically dispossessed will know the names of those responsible. He must understand that no one is safe amid this storm,” reads the communiqué.

“This act is in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders and all those who fight the extractive industry.”

Fortier did not respond to a voice mail left at his Montreal home.

In a statement, RBC said it was relieved that no one was hurt by this “act of violence.” Spokesperson Rafael Ruffolo would not say if the bank was concerned about more similar attacks on bank or employees’ property.

“The safety of our employees and our communities is our primary concern and top priority. This act of violence could have put anyone at risk and we are grateful no one was harmed,” Ruffolo said by email.

Ian Brodie, former chief of staff to Stephen Harper, denounced the “appalling political violence” against Fortier, adding that it was a “miracle” that neither Fortier nor his family was injured in the process.

But the project has received strong opposition from both environmental groups and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. The latter recently travelled to Toronto to express their opposition to RBC’s financing of the project during the bank’s latest annual shareholder meeting.

Videos posted on various websites show Montreal “anarchists” smashing windows and spraying paint on five RBC branches on the night of Oct. 26.

“It’s easy: a well-masked crew or individual emerges from an alley, takes a look around to make sure that the coast is clear, then dedicates under 30 seconds to throwing rocks through the windows before disappearing,” reads the video caption.

In April, anti-Coastal GasLink activists proudly announced that they had “a good time vandalizing” the home of RBC Quebec President Nadine Renaud-Tinker using a paint-filled fire extinguisher, according to another post on MLT Counter-info .

The same month, a group of Montreal anarchists shared a video of them sneaking into downtown RBC offices and spray painting anti-pipeline messages and putting stickers on the walls. The video also shows them unfurling a banner that reads, “RBC divest from CGL.”


Abortion rights activists in the US can learn from recent progress on abortion access in Latin America


Stefano Pozzebon - Yesterday 
CNN


The prospect of the United States overturning decades of abortion rights, which materialized this week in a leaked draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, triggered shock waves in many countries in Latin America, where many feminist organizations have often looked at the US as a model of greater reproductive rights and freedoms.

However, that model has flipped on its head in recent years. Just as several US states have put in place further barriers to abortion access through various restrictions, some countries in Latin America have moved in the other direction, with a growing number of countries liberalizing such laws.

Laura Gil, a gynecologist and abortion rights activist in Bogota, Colombia has experienced this turnaround firsthand. “I remember we would meet with health professionals in the US, and for years they would always look at us with admiration for our struggle to expand reproductive rights. Now it’s the opposite,” she told CNN.

The doctor was in Florida when news of the leak broke on Monday. Her US colleagues were disparaged, she said. “They come from an environment where abortion is legal, while for us, abortion used to be banned and now it’s not,” she said.

Gil was at the forefront of a yearslong popular campaign to legalize abortion in Colombia, a movement that achieved its goal in February when the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of legalizing abortion up until 24 weeks of a pregnancy.

Colombia’s decision followed similar recent measures in Mexico and Argentina, where abortion rights advocates demonstrating collectively as the “green wave” – the color of choice for the movement – celebrated their victories.

Argentina’s Senate voted to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks in December 2020, making the country the largest nation in Latin America at the time to legalize the practice.

In September, Mexico’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, a decision expected to set precedent for the legal status of abortion nationwide, although individual states have moved at different paces on its implementation.

And just last month, after years of court battles, Ecuador took a first step to liberalize its laws by legalizing abortion for pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape up to 12 weeks.A woman holds up a banner that reads "My body, I decide" in Saltillo, Mexico, after the country's Supreme Court ruled that penalizing abortion is unconsitutional in September. - Daniel Becerril/Reuters
Valuable lessons

Now that it appears the tables could be turning, some Latin American activists say they can offer valuable lessons to their US counterparts to defend the right to abortion.

Giselle Carino, an Argentinian political scientist who took part in the campaign for legal abortion in her country, now serves as the New York-based CEO of Fos Feminista, a feminist alliance of more than 170 organizations around the world.

“I look at Argentina with a lot of pride, of course, because that was a truly democratic effort,” Carino told CNN.

“It took 20 years for us, and we had many defeats. When we succeeded, it was because mobilization was huge: People would talk abortion at the dinner tables, in bars, cafes – and at the same time we managed to put women in positions of power. We elected feminist representatives who would try to expand our struggle,” she said.

“Those were the two lessons: To make abortion a mainstream topic and to advance through political victories, bit by bit,” she added.


© Provided by CNN
Abortion rights activists celebrate in Buenos Aires after Argentina's Senate approved a bill to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks in December 2020. -
 Emiliano Lasalvia/AFP/Getty Images

Carino points to Donald Trump’s presidential win in 2016 as a turning point for abortion rights. “This is his legacy because, who put those judges to the Supreme Court? It’s a legacy of authoritarianism and attacks on basic human rights. When you elect a leader like Trump, the damage is far more profound than four years in power,” she said.

But Carino views the striking down of Roe v. Wade as far from a defeat. Instead, she sees it as a call for progressive activists to renew their struggle for full reproductive rights and as an opportunity to elect politicians who support those goals in the upcoming US midterm elections.

“The US know how to put people in the street, look at Black Lives Matter. Now it’s the time to elect feminist leaders,” she said.

Despite the marked gains for the pro-abortion movement in some Latin American countries, activists still worry about the fragile state of abortion rights in several nations across their region.
Social justice

Society has long been hostile to women seeking abortion in Latin America, where the Catholic church remains a major influence, although the influence of Protestant churches are increasingly impacting policies in countries such as Brazil.

In many Latin American countries, women face prosecution and lengthy jail sentences for the procedure – and in some countries, for even for miscarrying.

In El Salvador, for example, Sara Rogel spent almost 10 years in prison after being convicted of murder after she lost her pregnancy in what she said was a fall at home when she was 22 years old.


© Provided by CNN
Activists in El Salvador demonstrate against gender-based violence and in favor of abortion rights in San Salvador in 2016.
 - MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Abortion rights activists fear that that could be the state of some US states in a few years’ time.

“A great victory of the feminist struggle in Latin America is to show that abortion is a social justice issue,” says Luisa Kislinger, a Venezuelan abortion rights activist who now lives in the US.

Venezuela only allows abortion when the life of the pregnant person is at risk, with thousands of clandestine abortions performed in the country each year by people who can’t afford to travel abroad for the procedure, Kislinger told CNN.

While data on illegal abortions is hard to collect, organizations such as Faldas-R, a Caracas based NGO that provides counseling to people looking to terminate their pregnancies, say that more than 70% of the people seeking their assistance live in poverty.

“In Venezuela, abortion is effectively off limits for poor women, and that often means Black women, indigenous, disabled… all these are minorities,” Kislinger said.

“It’s exactly what might happen in the US, because communities like African Americans, Latinos, or migrants often do not have the resources to receive an abortion (there too),” she said.

Data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, supports this concern.

Abortion is “increasingly concentrated among low-income women,” according to the group, which says that “women who are low-income and lack insurance coverage for abortion often struggle to come up with the money to pay for the procedure.”

“As a result, they often experience delays obtaining an abortion or are forced to carry their unintended pregnancy to term.”

This fall, Latin American abortion rights activists will have all eyes on Brazil, where presidential front runner and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently said everyone should be allowed to access an abortion.

Da Silva and incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – who is a staunch opponent of legalizing abortion – are likely to go head-to-head in October’s elections. Brazil’s own Ministry of Health acknowledges that the country is among the top 25% of countries with the most restrictive abortion laws.

By the time Brazil chooses its path, in the US, a federal right to abortion could well be a thing of the past.

This story has been updated to correct Giselle Carino’s profession. She is a political scientist.

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Anti-abortion rally held outside Alberta legislature as debate percolates

Lisa Johnson - Yesterday .
Edmonton Journal


An annual anti-abortion rally brought the fight to the steps of the legislature Thursday amid heightened political tensions.

© Provided by Edmonton Journa
lProtesters on both sides of the abortion debate clash during a March for Life rally that drew an estimated 200 to the Alberta legislature grounds in Edmonton, Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Parliament Hill in Ottawa saw a similar rally, but this year the events came on the heels of reports that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the landmark Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

With an estimated 200 people at least, the crowd wasn’t as big as it was during the March for Life in 2019 , when between 800 and 1,000 people gathered at the legislature grounds.

UCP MLA for Peace River Dan Williams, who has called himself pro-life, Catholic church leaders and advocates spoke at the event. Many attendees chanted and held placards that said “choose life” while counter-protesters blasted music and carried their own signs, including one that said “mind your own uterus,” leading to some tense confrontations.

ABOLISH THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES CHARITY STATUS FOR POLITICKING

Rev. Dean Dowle, pastor at the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, encouraged attendees to push provincial politicians for legal change.

“Please call or email your local MLA to register your support for legislation that protects children as our future citizens and honours the frail and elderly with the health care they have earned,” said Dowle, while counter-protesters yelled “my body my choice” nearby.


© Ed Kaiser/Postmedia
Sheriffs try to keep the pro-choice and pro-life supporters apart at a pro-life rally drawing an estimated 200 supporters to the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Attendee Chris Taylor held a sign that read “defend the poor and fatherless,” and said he believes abortion equates to ending human life. “It’s not something we should just stand by and ignore,” he told Postmedia.

NDP women’s issues critic Janis Irwin told Postmedia she was silently expressing her pro-choice position, carrying a large sign that said “I can’t believe I still have to protest this s–t.”

She said the event shows reproductive rights continue to be under threat.

“Women and other folks who access abortion need to know that they are valued, they’re loved. And, we — an NDP government — will do all we can to ensure access to abortion in this province,” said Irwin.


The event comes after an amendment passed on a proposed Alberta labour bill offering unpaid bereavement leave on Wednesday.

After critics, including Irwin, had called for the bill to explicitly offer time off for abortion and termination for medical reasons, Labour Minister Kaycee Madu said the revised language will cover all situations involving pregnancy loss, including abortion and termination for medical reasons.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix
Friday's letters: Abortion rights are not settled in Alberta: NDP leader
Edmonton Journal - 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal
NDP Leader Rachel Notley and NDP MLAs call for a guarantee that the Alberta government will protect existing abortion services and work to expand access during a news conference on the steps of the Alberta legislature in Edmonton on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

Re: “Kenney, Notley not far apart on abortion rights,” Opinion, May 10

Columnist Rob Breakenridge could not be more wrong in his recent column. He relies on a stale cliche, that abortion rights are a “settled issue,” and that Kenney has preserved the “status quo.”

The status quo isn’t good enough. Access to abortion in Alberta before 2015 was extremely poor, and my government worked hard to change that. We passed legislation to prevent harassment outside abortion clinics. We provided full public coverage for the abortion pill, a critical step towards access in rural Alberta. We were also working to provide clinical abortion services outside of major cities. The Kenney government halted this work.


We have a long way to go, but Kenney refuses to move.

We don’t need to recite Jason Kenney’s life-long hostility to women’s rights.

Upholding the right to abortion is more than landmark court decisions. It takes work every day by health providers, community organizations, and elected representatives to ensure that rights translate into accessible services. Only the NDP can be trusted to advance women’s health care.

Many Albertans have taken access to abortion for granted. Perhaps Breakenridge is one of them. But those who would roll back the clock on women’s rights have never rested. The news coming out of the U.S. will embolden these groups in Canada.

Albertans deserve a government that strengthens public health care and expands access in every community. I commit that an NDP government will take up this work every single day.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley, Edmonton

Most Canadians support the right to choose to have an abortion: poll

Wednesday
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — As the United States faces turmoil over the possible overturning of the right to have an abortion, a new poll offers a picture of how Canadians feel about the issue.

About four in five respondents to an online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies said they are in favour of a woman’s right to an abortion if she so chooses, while 14 per cent said they are opposed.

Seventy per cent of all respondents said they were concerned about the leaked plan to overturn Roe v. Wade, and almost half said they think the situation in the U.S. on the right to an abortion may have an effect in Canada.

The online survey of 1,534 Canadians between Friday and Sunday cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

"Is it the old adage that if the if the U.S. sneezes Canada gets a cold, that whatever happens in the States is bound to have an impact on Canada? That's always been sort of how we position ourselves against the U.S.," said Christian Bourque, Leger executive vice-president.

Bourque said the high level of concern is notable given the vast majority of Canadians say they support the right to choose to have an abortion.

"In Canada, whenever there's been attempts at reopening this debate, it was fairly quickly shut down. So why now would some people think that this would in some way launch this debate in Canada?" he said.

"It's not as if there was this overwhelming feeling that the views of Canadians were changing on the topic."

The right to an abortion doesn't exist in Canada in the same way it is enshrined in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that has served as a legal scaffold for reproductive rights champions around the world for nearly half a century.

Abortion is decriminalized in Canada because of a 1988 Supreme Court decision, but no bill has ever been passed to enshrine access into law and it's also not considered a constitutionally protected right under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"We know Canadians like to pay attention to U.S. politics but I think this shows really that there's a concern over this leakage of Supreme Court documents and what it's leading up to right now in the States," said Bourque.

About two in three survey respondents said the Canadian government should introduce a bill to protect the right to freely choose to have an abortion.

Many advocates fear that any effort to codify abortion access into law in Canada would risk triggering an erosion of those services. Limits on how late in a pregnancy an abortion can be performed are determined at the provincial or territorial level in Canada, and enforced by the medical community, not the courts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government sought to assure Canadians last week that it would protect access to a safe and legal abortion, though it was not entirely clear about how.

Trudeau said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos and Status of Women Minister Marci Ien are examining the “legal framework” to ensure “the rights of women are properly protected” under both the current and any future government.

The Liberals promised during the last election campaign to introduce regulations under the Canada Health Act to ensure that abortion services are considered medically necessary and publicly funded.

It is among the abortion-related election promises that have thus far gone untouched. The Liberals pledged a $10-million information portal on reproductive health and rights, but there was no mention of it in the federal budget last month.

A promised $10 million for youth organizations to “respond to the unique sexual and reproductive health needs of young people” has also yet to materialize.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2022.

---

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Erika Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Randy Weaver, participant in Ruby Ridge standoff, dies at 74

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Randy Weaver, patriarch of a family that was involved in an 11-day Idaho standoff with federal agents 30 years ago that left three people dead and helped spark the growth of anti-government extremists, has died at the age of 74.


Randy Weaver

His death was announced Thursday in a Facebook post by daughter Sara Weaver, who lives near Kalispell, Montana.

“Love you always Dad” was written on Sara Weaver's Facebook page, posted with a picture of an older Randy and a smiling Sara, along with the dates Jan. 3, 1948, and May 11, 2022.

Sara Weaver did not immediately return Facebook messages and email requests for information. Details of Randy Weaver's death were not immediately available.

The standoff in the mountains near Ruby Ridge in the Idaho Panhandle transfixed the nation in August of 1992.

Randy Weaver moved his family to northern Idaho in the 1980s to escape what he saw as a corrupt world. Over time, federal agents began investigating the Army veteran for possible ties to white supremacist and anti-government groups. Weaver was eventually suspected of selling a government informant two illegal sawed-off shotguns.

To avoid arrest, Weaver holed up on his land near Naples, Idaho.

On Aug. 21, 1992, a team of U.S. marshals scouting the forest to find suitable places to ambush and arrest Weaver came across his friend, Kevin Harris, and Weaver’s 14-year-old son Samuel in the woods. A gunfight broke out. Samuel Weaver and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed.

The next day, an FBI sniper shot Randy Weaver. As Weaver, Harris and Sara ran back toward the house, the sniper fired a second bullet, which passed through Vicki Weaver’s head as she held an infant and wounded Harris in the chest.

During the siege, Sara Weaver crawled around her mother’s blanket-covered body to get food and water for the survivors until the family surrendered on Aug. 31, 1992.

Harris and Randy Weaver were arrested, and Weaver’s three daughters went to live with their mother’s family in Iowa. Randy Weaver was acquitted of the most serious charges and Harris was acquitted of all charges.

The surviving members of the Weaver family filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The federal government awarded Randy Weaver a $100,000 settlement and his three daughters $1 million each in 1995.

“Ruby Ridge was the opening shot of a new era of anti-government hatred not seen since the Civil War,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in a 2012 interview on the 20th anniversary of the siege.

After Ruby Ridge, federal agents laid siege to the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. It ended violently after 51 days on April 19, 1993, when a fire destroyed the compound after an assault was launched, killing 76 people.


Timothy McVeigh cited both Ruby Ridge and Waco as motivators when he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Ruby Ridge has been cited often by militia and patriot groups since.

In the 30 years since the standoff, Ruby Ridge remained a rallying cry for anti-government extremists. The Spokesman-Review reported Weaver remained popular among white supremacists and extremists in the years following the standoff, and was often seen selling his book, “The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge,” at gun shows and survivalist expos.


Sara Weaver lives near Kalispell, Montana, a city in the northwestern part of the state that is the gateway to Glacier National Park and more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Ruby Ridge.

Sara Weaver said she is devastated each time someone commits a violent act in the name of Ruby Ridge. “It killed me inside,” she told The Associated Press in 2012, regarding the Oklahoma City bombing. “I knew what it was like to lose a family member in violence. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

After graduating from high school in Iowa, Sara Weaver moved to the Kalispell area in 1996. Her sisters and father followed shortly after.

She has been back to Ruby Ridge, to the land her family still owns. All that remains of the family’s modest home is the foundation, she said.

Nicholas K. Geranios, The Associated Press

 

The WEF conspiracy theory is in the Conservative leadership race, and Canada’s main streets - The Globe and Mail

Author: @NSW4Freedom
Posted: Thu, 12 May 2022

The WEF conspiracy theory is in the Conservative leadership race, and Canada’s main streets
- The Globe and Mail

"After a lunchtime Pierre Poilievre rally in Fergus, Ont., a woman named Ava had a burning question: She wanted a journalist to ask how Mr. Poilievre can be trusted when a “member” of the World Economic Forum is co-chair of his campaign.

"She was talking about John Baird, the former foreign affairs minister under Stephen Harper. Ava believes billionaires Bill Gates and George Soros are trying to take over the world, in league with a German octogenarian named Klaus Schwab, who founded the WEF more than 50 years ago."

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-conservative-leadership-race-world-economic-forum/


The Klaus Schwab WEF ‘Great Reset’ Conspiracy Theory On The Pandemic And War


Photo: World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, left,
and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right,]
at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 28, 2009.
(AP Photo/Michel Euler)

The Great Reset” — a conspiracy theory triggered by the World Economic Forum 2021 theme of the same name — claims that the global elite plans to dismantle capitalism and enforce a socialist world order.

In the new world order, covid-19 would solve overpopulation, pandemic survivors would be forced to get the vaccine and be enslaved by it, and private property would be abolished.

The theme of the 2021 WEF summit was “The Great Reset.” The event is attended each year by some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people at a ski resort in Davos, Switzerland. Organizers launched an initiative in June 2020 ahead of the 2021 event — the second one in a row held virtually because of the covid outbreak — calling for the covid-19 pandemic to be seen as a chance for what they called a great reset of the global economy.

President Vladimir Putin was invited to deliver a virtual special address at the World Economic Forum summit, held on Jan. 25–29, 2021 — in hindsight, possibly a really bad idea for its value in fueling a conspiracy theory.

By inviting Putin, forum founder and director Klaus Schwab was arguing for the need to nurture honest dialogue to end the era of polarization and isolation, Pavel K. Baev wrote for the conservative defense policy think tank, Jamestown Foundation.

However, in his speech, Putin talked about rising inequality and the inefficiency of global institutions. But the core of his message was a warning about the growing risk of war. He talked about the “bad peace” after World War I and the crisis in the 1930s that led to renewed global conflict within 20 years.

Putin warned that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated preexisting imbalances and tensions.
He said these could deteriorate to war of “all against all.”

“In the 20th century, the failure and inability to centrally resolve such issues resulted in the catastrophic World War II,” Putin said in the speech. “Of course, nowadays such a heated conflict is not possible, I hope that it’s not possible in principle, because it would mean the end of our civilization. But I would like to reiterate, that the situation might develop unpredictably and uncontrollably if we will sit on our hands doing nothing to avoid it. And there is a possibility that we may experience an actual collapse of global development that might result in a fight of all against all.”

“Left unsaid but strongly implied, however, (was) that Putin (was) supposedly ready to resort to military force in order to fight off the perceived encroachments on Russia’s interests,” Baev wrote.

In his speech, Putin also denounced the “digital giants” that he said want to manipulate societies. “The Russian special services are able to execute effective cyberattacks against the U.S., but they cannot control domestic information channels,” Baev wrote. However, he added, Putin “is more irked by the decision of Facebook and Twitter to block the accounts of his (oligarch friend).”

“Rampant corruption and rigid central control are the main causes of Russia’s protracted economic stagnation,” Baev wrote, “and their continuing impact denies the country any chance for a post-pandemic recovery.”

Schwab, a German engineer, economist and head of the World Economic Forum, wrote a book published in 2020 called “The Great Reset” with co-author Thierry Malleret. According to the dust cover, the book is “a guide for anyone who wants to understand how covid-19 disrupted our social and economic systems, and what changes will be needed to create a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable world going forward.”

An international non-governmental and lobbying organization, the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum was founded in 1971 by Schwab. Its reason for existence, according to the WEF website, is to engage “the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas” for public-private cooperation.

While living in Germany during World War II, Schwab’s family was monitored and interrogated by the Gestapo. Schwab was later awarded a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was a professor of business policy at the University of Geneva for more than 30 years. Since 1979, he has published the annual Global Competitiveness Report, which assesses the potential of countries around the world for increasing economic growth and productivity.

The Great Reset proposes a stakeholder model, “where government, business, and individuals collaborate; where longer-term planning for future generations replaces short-sighted presentism, and where better measures of success allow us to move beyond a myopic focus on GDP and short-term profits,” Schwab wrote in a WEF blog.

Political scientist and writer Ivan Wecke was intrigued by the attention “the great reset” term was getting on social media — 8 million-plus interactions on Facebook and almost 2 million shares on Twitter as of August 2021. Wecke set out to “find out what the WEF’s Great Reset plan was really about,” he wrote for the openDemocracy media organization.

What he learned scared him.

“At the heart of conspiracy theories are supposed secret agendas and malicious intent,” Wecke wrote. “While these may be absent from the WEF’s Great Reset initiative, what I found was something almost as sinister hiding in plain sight. In fact, more sinister because it’s real and it’s happening now. And it involves things as fundamental as our food, our data and our vaccines.”

There are three main benefits in adopting a conspiratorial mindset: One: A conspiracy theory brings order to random events and provides a framework for understanding the world. Two: A conspiracy theory can distract its believer from facing fears about sociopolitical upheaval and uncertainty. Three: A conspiracy theory provides a social benefit — with a community of like-minded thinkers who validate each other’s anxieties and shared worldview.

Wecke wrote that in the multi-stakeholder model of global governance, instead of corporations serving many stakeholders, corporations are promoted to being official stakeholders in global decision-making, while governments are relegated to being one of many stakeholders. In practice, corporations become the main stakeholders, while governments take a back seat “and civil society is mainly window dressing.”

Covid vaccines are a landmark in the development of stakeholder capitalism, he wrote. He cited the COVAX initiative, a multi-stakeholder group of public and private partners that aimed to accelerate the development and manufacture of covid-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. But it turns out, “It’s more important for (the pharmaceutical companies) to protect their interests and market mechanisms than to protect universal health or protect people from covid,” he wrote. 

Big tech is another landmark in the development of stakeholder capitalism, Wecke wrote. Civil society organizations fear Big Tech will create a global body to govern itself. This could increase their power over governments and multilateral organizations. If that happens, it would be a victory for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft in their war with governments over tax evasion, antitrust rules, and their ever-expanding power over society.

In his critique of multi-stakeholder governance, Wecke found that such governance entails removing democracy by sidelining governments and putting unelected “stakeholders” – mainly corporations – in their place when it comes to global decision-making.

“Put bluntly, multi-stakeholder partnerships are public-private partnerships on the global stage. And they have real-world implications for the way our food systems are organized, how big tech is governed and how our vaccines and medicines are distributed,” Wecke wrote.

The Great Reset started as a marginal conspiracy theory on the fringes of the internet but has grown into a disinformation ecosystem in itself, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The London-based nonprofit works to reverse polarisation, extremism and disinformation worldwide.

This disinformation has been amplified by right-wing U.S. media figures including Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro, who both appropriated elements of the Great Reset theory as proof of a plot to erode freedoms and capitalism, wrote Ciarán O’Connor, an ISD analyst with expertise on the far-right.

The most prolific communities promoting content about the Great Reset theory are Facebook groups that frequently feature covid-19 misinformation, O’Connor wrote.

Schwab wrote about the Great Reset agenda in a World Economic Forum blog in June 2020. “There are many reasons to pursue a Great Reset, but the most urgent is covid-19,” Schwab wrote. “Some countries have already used the covid-19 crisis as an excuse to weaken environmental protections and enforcement. And frustrations over social ills like rising inequality – US billionaires’ combined wealth has increased during the crisis – are intensifying … the pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future.”

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and war in Europe sent shock waves around the world, The Great Reset and a new world order were on the minds of some Twitter users. Here are some of their comments:

  • “This is a WEF op” Keiko J.D. tweeted.
  • “The bankers want a great reset and World War III,” Wendy Rogers tweeted.
  • “They will use whatever means necessary to implement their NWO aka ‘Great Reset.’ They will use pandemics, climate change, cyber polygon, false-flags, and wars to finalize the destruction of Western civilization. This is all justified in their eyes so they can ‘build back better'” Sikh For Truth tweeted.
  • “A CONSPIRACY THEORY: Putin, a WEF Young Global Leader, is a superb actor. He’s fooled many into believing he’s on the “good side.” The Ukraine invasion has been partly set up to divert attention from the overwhelming evidence of Vaccine fraud and deaths. It’s just a theory” Mark Alan Marks tweeted.
  • Cameron 🇺🇸@IAMCAM3RON tweeted about a new world order: “Crash all the economies to bring in a NWO digital currency they all agree on. It’s beyond obvious what’s going on here….New World Order. By design.”
  • “Here are two alternative scenarios I’m considering,” Michael Krieger tweeted. “Putin is in on WEF great reset and this is his contribution and sacrifice. Putin/China wanted the west to overreact so they have cover to implement bigger plans.”

READ MORE: Fact Check: Covid Vaccines Produced 9 New Big Pharma Billionaires

https://twitter.com/meme5isalive/status/1497630847511322627?s=20&t=K0mr5ojCAf8gIT0nipEj-A

https://twitter.com/Mrsking20081/status/1496368087125618690?s=20&t=gHWT7Hc4TJru5iKj2WdxwQ

Photo: World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, left, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)