Bogus Survey Used to Justify Establishing "Foreign Influence Transparency Registry"
In its 2015 election campaign, the Liberal Party promised it would "involve Canadians in policy-making." Under the heading "Your Voice," its election platform said, "Technology makes it easier for citizens and government to share ideas and information. We will explore new ways to use technology to crowdsource policy ideas from citizens."
Since then, it has become common practice for governments at both the federal and provincial levels to use bogus surveys, masqueraded as "public consultations," to justify taking all kinds of decisions which go against the public interest. The anti-social direction in which ruling elites have been taking the country is all about narrow private interests usurping power and taking decisions which pay the rich. They have spawned private marketing companies, consulting companies and companies which do "surveys" which they pay handsomely to then declare that self-serving policies have the support of "the public." They provide an indication of how mechanisms are being created to facilitate a government of police powers that claims its decisions are based on democratic consultation despite the low level of participation of "the public" and the nonsensical questions asked. Not surprisingly, the process itself is anything but transparent, all controlled by the companies hired to carry out the surveys.
These surveys in fact constitute one of the ways that the political mechanisms once used by the party-dominated system called a representative democracy have been systematically destroyed. Whatever vestiges remain of the participation of the members of the polity in the political process are being/have been eliminated. The civil society constituted on the basis of the rule of law for all intents and purposes no longer exists.
A case in point is the online survey conducted by Public Safety Canada from March to May of last year about a possible Foreign Influence Transparency Registry (FITR). Called a "public consultation," it serves as one example of many such surveys and consultations which hide another aim. Its significance can be seen when one considers how Canada's political police are staging their takeover of Canada's executive powers in the name of protecting the democracy from foreign interference. While the survey about the FITR has been used as proof that Canadians want greater powers given to the police, it precedes another consultation, announced on November 23 to seek more input from Canadians who say they want "deeper engagement with the Government of Canada on national security issues, including foreign interference."
In the FITR survey, Public Safety posted five prompted questions, with the sixth asking for additional comments. The total number of individual responses received was reported to be 932. As a percentage of 35 million registered voters, this amounts to .0026 per cent. Of these, 51 per cent, or about 440 people, identified themselves as "member of the public." The remaining respondents came under the categories described as: business (17 per cent); academic (8 per cent), "member of the Canadian government" (8 per cent), non-governmental organization (6 per cent); "community representative organization," (2 per cent); religious organization (1 per cent); while the remaining 7 per cent self-identified in the category "other."
It may be that the private interests who designed the survey have some explanations for the categories cited but these are not self-evident. What these categories are is anyone's guess. It is also a fact that a modern democracy is understood as a polity comprised of citizens and residents each with rights and duties and equal recognition on this basis. "Member of the public" does not even begin to cut it, let alone the other categories. Presumably one could be a member of several at once!
The conclusion drawn from this "consultation" is that the "consultations ... yielded a large number of responses from across Canada [that] demonstrated broad support for the introduction of a Foreign Influence Transparency Registry in Canada."
Having also consulted separately with non-disclosed "stakeholders," Public Safety adds that "one of the main themes that emerged [is] that a registry is not a universal solution, and should be accompanied by other legislative amendments to address other aspects of foreign interference."
Based on what any reasonable person would call a fraud, Public Safety Canada is now claiming that its consultations show not only that Canadians support the creation of an FITR, but that they also want more to be done to thwart "foreign agents."
Any objective consideration of the number of respondents, let alone who they might be, would have to conclude that this survey is a fraud from A to Z. It shows the abject failure of the ruling elite's ill-advised attempt to line Canadians up behind the warmongering agenda of turning international relations into potential crime and to incite hatred, fear and suspicion against purported "hostile states."
These surveys masqueraded as "public consultations" constitute one of the ways that the political mechanisms once used by the party-dominated system of representative democracy have been systematically destroyed because the anti-social direction of the ruling elite cannot withstand the participation of the members of the polity and the public scrutiny and opinion that emerges from it. They provide an indication of how mechanisms are being created to facilitate a government of police powers with a veneer of democratic process.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Numbers 1-2 - January - February 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540018.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca