Category: World

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IBC #7: Debt For Nature Swaps, Usury & Exploitation Masked As Compassion

Some background information on how this process works (in theory at least). See here and here. Does it matter that many countries are unable to repay their loans? To the creditors, not really, as there is always another way.

These “swaps” involve selling a country’s debt (at a discount) to a 3rd party, but one who has its own agenda.

1. More On The International Banking Cartel

For more on the banking cartel, check this page. The Canadian Government, like so many others, has sold out the independence and sovereignty of its monetary system to foreign interests. BIS, like its central banks, exceed their agenda and try to influence other social agendas. See who is really controlling things, and the common lies that politicians and media figures tell. And check out the climate change hoax as well, as the 2 now seem intertwined.

New Development Financing, a bait-and-switch.

2. Important Links

UN New Development Finance Paper
UN.new.development.financing.2012.178pages

UNDP Explaining Debt-For-Nature Swaps

CLICK HERE, for World Economic Forum, debt swap support.
https://archive.is/LTw1r

World Bank Working Paper, March 1990

CLICK HERE, for World Wildlife Fund Climate fund page.
https://archive.is/43sHz

3. Debt Used As A Weapon Against Nations

This cannot be emphasized enough. Countries take foreign loans in times when they are desperate, and often are unable to meet the terms to pay them back. This is a form of predatory lending. What may end up happening is that those debts are sold to people and organizations who have their own agenda.

And where do these loans originate in the first place? Many are (debt financed) by countries like Canada, the U.S., and in Europe. Western nations — who use private parties to borrow money from — borrow money which is then handed over as loans to the 3rd World. Those loans are distributed to countries who can’t pay them back. They are then forced into options like debt-for-nature.

4. World Economic Forum & Climate Swaps

Debt swaps can be one solution to tackle both challenges at once. Traditionally, these instruments represent an exchange of the existing debt contract with a new one, where the previous contract is normally “written down”, or discounted. Usually, this action is associated with specific conditions for investments, agreed both by the creditor and the debtor. In the past, such instruments have also been used to achieve climate-related objectives.

The idea of a “debt-for-climate” swap was first conceived during the 1980s by the then Deputy Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund, Thomas Lovejoy, in the wake of the Latin American debt crisis. The idea was simple: an NGO would act as a donor, purchasing debt from commercial banks at its face value on the secondary market, hence providing a level of relief on the debt’s value. The title of the debt would then be transferred to the debtor country in exchange for a specific commitment to environmental or conservation goals, performed through a national environmental fund.

In 2018, the Seychelles government worked with The Nature Conservancy, Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop a debt-for-nature swap for $27 million of official debt, to set up vast areas of protected marine parks for climate resilience, fishery management, biodiversity conservation and ecotourism.

This came out just the other day. The World Economic Forum, which pushed for a declaration of a pandemic also goes on about how this can be used to advance the green agenda. But don’t worry, it’s not preplanned or anything.

5. UNDP Explains Risks And Consequences

Cons
.
-DNS have only resulted in relatively small amounts of debt relief, limiting their impact in reducing developing countries’ debt burden;
–Transaction costs might be high compared to other financing instruments; negotiations can be time-consuming, spanning several years and might result in limited debt reduction or discount rates. The length of the design and negotiation phase of a DNS can span one to three years, mostly depending on the willingness of the parties and the complexity of the deal.

Risks
.
-Lengthy negotiations. Disagreement between the creditor and debtor country on conservation goals or other details of the agreement can increase the costs of the operation.
–Currency exchange risks, the impact of which (and the response strategy) is dependent on the financial structure of the DNS. The currency risk can be mitigated, for example, by making payments in local currency at the spot rate on the day payments are due. In the latter case the risk is lower for the entity managing the DNS cash flow.
–Inflation risks, the value of future payments in local currencies might be highly by inflation. Mitigation strategies to inflation risks are similar to the ones for currency exchange risks.
-The DNS might prevent the possibility of negotiating a more comprehensive and favourable debt treatment (debt relief and restructuring).
-The debtor-country might not be able or willing to respect its commitments. Fiscal and liquidity crises can undermine the capacity of the debtor-government to meet its obligations.
-Management risks related to the capacity of the fund selected to administer grants from the DNS proceeds, including mismanagement, corruption and failures in the identification of good projects to be financed.
-While rarely reported, it is possible that the projects financed might create discontent in local communities (e.g. removal of access to resources by local communities).
-ODA substitution (no additionality). While a DNS is an option for increasing ODA, it might just substitute for other committed flows.
-The debtor-country may lose sovereignty in deciding about the spending of public resources. Grants may be disbursed according to donors’ preferences, which in turn might or might not better mirror local conservation needs. In most DNS the debtor-government decides in agreement with the creditor(s) about the modalities of funds’ disbursements, both participating in the boards of the trust fund responsible for grant-making.
-Debt swaps may be tied to the purchase of goods or services for the creditor(s).

There are an awful lot of drawbacks to getting involved with this sort of loan. Specifically, countries cede their sovereignty, are forced into conditions they don’t like, and it may not even result in much of a debt reduction.

6. World Bank 1990 Working Paper On Swaps

The first debt-for-nature agreement (Bolivia) was the only one in which land was set aside, and development restrictions adopted, as a result of the agreement. This deal was extremely controversial at first, as many Bolivians thought that the country had relinquished sovereignty to the international environmental group. There is, however, no transfer of land ownership, and development decisions are not based on agreements between the local environmental groups, the government, and the regional population. The Bolivian government has been slow in dispersing the local currency funds, and controversies have arisen over the development use of the buffer areas.

Finally, prior to the debt-for-nature concept, environmental groups had little or no direct contact with either commercial banks or debt countries’ finance ministers. Debt-for-nature swaps, however, have entailed intense negotiations between all three groups, leading to a network of relationships that may prove valuable to international environmental groups beyond simply debt-for-nature agreements.

Much of the interest in using official debt for debt-for-development swaps first began as a result of the 1988 Toronto Economic Summit, in which the G-7 countries established guidelines that allowed Paris Club Creditors to forgive debt to the poorest of the Sub-Saharan countries. One of three options given to Paris Club creditors was to forgive up to one-third of the debt of the developing country (with the other two being extended maturities and lower interest rates). France has generally chosen the first option, while the United States (until July 1989) has been reluctant to forgive debt.

World Bank Working Paper, March 1990

This scheme has been going back many decades. The basic principle is that countries are loaned money they cannot realistically afford to pay back. Loans are then forgiven — or reduced — but with strings attached. One such arrangement is the debt-for nature swaps.

Although the land isn’t officially ceded, for all practical purposes it is.

7. Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Seychelles

In 2017, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation helped finance a debt-for-nature swap with the Republic of Seychelles to set aside some 400,000 square kilometers of water for conservation.

8. World Wildlife Fund Conservation Finance

Debt-for-Nature Swaps
WWF has worked with the U.S., French, German, Dutch, and other creditor countries to structure foreign debt-for-nature swaps, including the first one in Ecuador in 1987. Since 2001, WWF has helped design several debt-for-nature swap agreements under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (and previously under the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative). Both mechanisms were formed to relieve the debt burden of developing countries owed to the U.S. government, while generating funds in local currency to support tropical forest conservation activities. Capital raised through debt-for-nature swaps can be applied through trust funds or foundations specifically set up to channel funding to local biodiversity conservation.

Carbon Finance
WWF believes that carbon finance, if used appropriately, will play a critical role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to biodiversity conservation, and promoting a range of local economic and social values. WWF is developing pilot carbon projects in Peru, Brazil, Central Africa, Indonesia and Nepal to capitalize on the rapidly growing potential for carbon finance. We contribute to these efforts by securing private and public financing for carbon projects and providing technical support to implement carbon finance mechanisms.

The World Wildlife Fund is quite involved in financing the nature-for-debt swaps. Should make Canadians wonder what is the real reason Trudeau and Butts present themselves as eco-warriors.

9. Gerald Butts, Megan Leslie Head(s) of WWF

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Gerald Butts was once the President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada. This conflict of interest isn’t limited to the Liberals though.

Megan Leslie used to be the Deputy NDP Leader, and was Deputy Opposition Leader for a time. Now, this Trudeau Foundation Director is also the head of the World Wildlife Fund.

It’s also worth a mention that Elizabeth May, the former Green Party Leader is also with the Trudeau Foundation. She was, at a time, Head of Sierra Club Canada. At least 3 of the major Federal parties are compromised, and in bed with the eco-lobby.

10. Mockingbird Foundation Of Canada

To see a little deeper just how many tentacles the Trudeau Foundation has, see these connections between the House of Commons, the Senate, the Courts and the media. Truly disgusting.

11. Usury Disguised As Humanitarianism

Despite what is said publicly, there is nothing compassionate about what is happening. Countries are taking loans they can’t pay back, and are forced to cede sovereignty in order to “service the debt”. Not at all what we are led to believe.

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Sex-Selective Abortion And The Mental Gymnastics Of “Conservative Inc.”

Modern conservative politicians make it clear that they will take money and votes from social conservatives, but will never advance their interests in any real way. Abortion is a major issue, but not the only one. They act as a form of controlled opposition.

1. Other Articles For Abortion/Infanticide

While abortion is trumpeted as a “human right” in Western societies, questions have to be asked: Why is it a human right? Who are these groups benefiting financially, and why are so they so fiercely against free speech? Do these groups also support the open borders industry, or organ trafficking? Not nearly enough people are making these connections.

2. Mental Gymnastics In Abortion Policy

CPC Policy Declaration 2018

The CPC explicitly states in their policy declaration to support no legislation to regulate abortion. However, MPs support Private Member’s Bill C-233, to ban the practice of sex-selective abortion (which would target female babies). But that contradiction is not the only problem.

Today’s “conservatives” have no issue with killing babies itself. However, they are adamantly opposed to letting them be killed simply for being female. The obvious answer is that Conservative politicians don’t actually care about the lives of the unborn, but just virtue signal to show how feminist they are.

Side note: it seems the CPC’s stance on euthanasia is to do nothing. They won’t expand access for assisted suicide, but they won’t do anything to restrict or roll it back either.

3. Conservatives: Only Fund Local Genocide

From the Canadian Press. Trudeau announces that Canada should be fund abortions globally. Conservatives object to the “globally” part, not the “abortion” part of it.

A slim majority of Conservative convention delegates voted Saturday against a resolution backed by anti-abortion campaigners while at the same time affirming the party’s opposition to using Canadian foreign aid to fund abortion services abroad — a mixed bag result for social conservatives.

Other controversial resolutions, including a push to limit citizenship rights for those born in this country to non-Canadian parents and an endorsement of moving Canada’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, received overwhelming support.

The abortion resolution, No. 65, would have struck from the party’s policy book a pledge that a Conservative government would not support any legislation to regulate abortion, something added under former prime minister Stephen Harper to reassure some Canadians that the Conservative Party did not have a “hidden agenda” to legislate an abortion ban.

More gaps in logic. Many conservatives don’t have a problem with using taxpayer money to kill CANADIAN children, but they oppose using public funds to exterminate FOREIGN children. So it’s not about principles, but simply how tax dollars are used.

The article refers to the August 2018 CPC Policy Convention. Of course, it wouldn’t be a conservative gathering without some pandering to Israel. In this case, the moving of an embassy.

4. Summer Jobs Grant Attestation

Ineligible projects and job activities:
Projects consisting of activities that take place outside of Canada;
Activities that contribute to the provision of a personal service to the employer;
Partisan political activities;
Fundraising activities to cover salary costs for the youth participant; or
Projects or job activities that:
restrict access to programs, services, or employment, or otherwise discriminate, contrary to applicable laws, on the basis of prohibited grounds, including sex, genetic characteristics, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression;
advocate intolerance, discrimination and/or prejudice; or
actively work to undermine or restrict a woman’s access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Please note the following definitions:
As per section 2.1 of the Canada Summer Jobs Articles of Agreement, “project” means the hiring, administration of, job activities, and organization’s activities as described in the Application Agreement.
To “advocate” means to promote, foster, or actively support intolerance, discrimination, and/or prejudice.
To “undermine or restrict” means to weaken or limit a woman’s ability to access sexual and reproductive health services. The Government of Canada defines sexual and reproductive health services as including comprehensive sexuality education, family planning, prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence, safe and legal abortion, and post-abortion care.

Conservatives claimed to oppose the move to make the attestation mandatory for groups where their social beliefs conflicted with official government policy. To be clear though, this was framed as a free speech issue, not because the beliefs they held may be valid. See this piece for more information on the topic.

5. “Social Conservative” Leslyn Lewis

This weekend, Ontario-based political activist Tanya Granic Allen distributed an email making the case that social conservatives should not support me in the upcoming CPC Leadership election because of my past involvement with the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF).

They knew I held strong pro-life beliefs, and I hoped to be a balancing influence on the Board. After a few months of earnestly trying to make a difference, it was clear that it wasn’t the best fit all around, and we wished each other well, and I chose to conclude my term early with the Board.

I have chosen to be upfront with my pro-life views, and the fact that I will personally advocate for a law that fights the misogynistic practice of sex-selective abortion.

In the recent CPC leadership race, Leslyn Lewis promoted herself as a social conservative. She (sort of) defended her previous membership with Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). Problem is, LEAF is far more extreme than she is letting on, so the membership makes no sense. One would have to wonder why she became a director without doing any research on the firm — or why they would pick her.

Interestingly, Lewis condemns the practice of sex-selective abortion as “misogynistic” for targeting girls, but she doesn’t condemn the practice of abortion overall.

A much more likely explanation is that Lewis ideologically agrees with the pro-death LEAF, but simply reinvented herself for perceived political gain.

Lewis also claims to oppose funding foreign abortions, but stays quiet on the topic of financing domestic ones.

6. What Conservative Inc. Really Stands For

To sum up, these are the official party positions of mainstream “conservatives” in Canada. Try to wrap your heads around them.

[1] We have no issue with the principle of abortion, and will pass no legislation against it, as long as children aren’t killed specifically for their gender.

[2] We don’t have a problem with paying to abort Canadian children, but we believe that killing children abroad is a waste of taxpayer money.

[3] We don’t agree with the principles that many religious groups stand for. We oppose the summer grants attestation requirement purely on free speech grounds.

[4] Yes, abortion leads to an overall lower birth rate, but we can just continue to import a replacement population to fill in the gaps.

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CV #29: The Financial Ties Between Sick Kids Hospital And The Gates Foundation

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Co-Director, and Director of Research at Sick Kids Hospital. He has also held positions with: Aga Khan University, as the Founding Director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health; GAVI, as a Global Academic Research Member; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Scientific Advisory Board; and more.

Time to explore another uncomfortable topic in the vaccine industry: the ties between Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

1. Other Articles On CV “Planned-emic”

The rest of the series is here. Many lies, lobbying, conflicts of interest, and various globalist agendas operating behind the scenes. The Gates Foundation finances many things, including, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, GAVI, ID2020, John Hopkins University, Imperial College London, the Pirbright Institute, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and individual pharmaceutical companies. Worth mentioning: there is little to no science behind what our officials are doing; they promote degenerate behaviour; the Australian Department of Health admits the PCR tests don’t work; the US CDC admits testing is heavily flawed; and The International Health Regulations (IHR), that the WHO imposes are legally binding on all members.

2. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, His Many Roles

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, M.B.B.S., D.C.H., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.P.C.H., F.C.P.S., F.A.A.P., Ph.D.
Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, co-director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, and the founding director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Aga Khan University. He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading universities, including the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, Boston University School of Public Health, University of Alberta, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was the founding chair of Pakistan’s National Research Ethics Committee from 2003 to 2014.

[1] Sick Kids Hospital Directory
[2] Gates Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee
[3] World Health Organization
[4] Aga Khan University
[5] John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Quite the busy man. An interesting side note: Anthony Fauci used to be on the Gates Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee as well.

3. O’Toole Campaign Chief A Sick Kids Director

OTTAWA — Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole called Monday for the country to be placed on “war footing” to combat the spread of COVID-19, the latest escalation of rhetoric in the race now thrown into flux by the rapidly evolving crisis.

O’Toole said the federal government should invoke the Emergencies Act so the federal government can prohibit travel, enforce self-isolation and control assemblies, while also mobilizing the military to back up the health system.

“Now is the time to put our government and our economy on a war footing, with leadership from the top,” he said in an email to supporters.

Erin O’Toole is now leader of the CPC. At the time, he was campaigning for the position and criticized Trudeau for not being authoritarian enough. What a strange way to act as an opposition leader.

Interesting this connection: his chief of staff, Walied Soliman, is a Director of Sick Kids Hospital. Sick Kids gets large donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, promoting and conducting vaccine research. Could this be why O’Toole offers no real opposition to the draconian measures? Because his Chief of Staff is involved in it?

After all, Trudeau’s Chief of Staff, Katie Telford, is married to Rob Silver. Silver co-founded Crestview Strategy, which GAVI hired to lobby public officials over the last few years. One of those lobbyists is Zakery Blais, former assistant to current Attorney General, David Lametti. See Part 4 and Part 5.

4. Daniel Roth, $15M Bangladesh Research Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Roth, Clinician-Scientist at SickKids, and his team on being awarded a $15 million USD grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the Synbiotics for the Early Prevention of Severe Infections in Infancy (SEPSIS) project. The project will build an adaptive research platform aimed at describing the early infant microbiome and assessing the safety and efficacy of interventions to prevent severe infections and promote growth during early infancy (0-60 days of age) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The platform will include a large phase III randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of a specific synbiotic (probiotic-prebiotic combination) formulation to prevent newborn sepsis. The research will be conducted in collaboration with numerous partners including the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF), both based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This grant is listed as a 4 year project posted on the Sick Kids website, and is to cover research in Bangladesh.

5. Epidemiology, Vaccine Grant, $250,000 In 2019

Date: September 2019
Purpose: to promote sharing among scientists and public health practitioners on topics relevant to pneumococcal biology, epidemiology, treatment, and vaccines
Amount: $251,100
Term: 24
Topic: Pneumonia
Program: Global Health
Grantee Location: Toronto, Ontario
Grantee Website: http://www.sickkids.ca

Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto received a quarter million dollar grant a year ago, in September 2019.

6. Kenya Project: Aga Khan, Gates Support

The aim of the Kenya case study was to undertake a robust national and sub-national analysis (at county level) in order to evaluate progress over the last two decades on key Countdown coverage indicators as well as improvement in health financing to achieve MDGs 4 and 5. Outputs to inform both central and county governments will be invaluable in informing multi-level planning, especially considering the significant management, policy, financing, and accountability challenges associated with the recent decentralization (‘devolution’) of health services as per the new constitution. On the basis of this analysis, we will develop a model of what interventions can be effectively implemented to accelerate improvement in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and reduction in mortality over the next 10 years.

Project collaborators include Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Aga Khan University, Karachi, University of Nairobi, Family Care International, Africa Population & Health Research Center, Ministry of Health, Kenya.

Supported by: US Fund for UNICEF under the Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Aga Khan University (Nairobi) and the Aga Khan University (Karachi) provided additional in-kind support.

Sick Kids hospital undertook a research project for maternal health in Kenya, with the reduction of infant mortality as a major goal. The major donors include Aga Khan and the Gates Foundation.

7. Gates Funding Maternal Health, SKH Toronto

Hospital for Sick Children
Date: July 2020
Purpose: to document county successes in the reduction of anemia among women of reproductive age, and SDG indicator
Amount: $1,399,280
Term: 24
Topic: Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, MNCH Discovery & Tools
Program: Global Development|Global Health
Grantee Location: Toronto, Ontario
Grantee Website: http://www.sickkids.ca

Another $1.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Sick Kids Hospital. This was in July 2020, so very recent. The two organizations seem to align ideologically, as we will see a bit later.

8. Gates Donates $5.9M Last Year To SKH

http://www.sickkids.ca/AboutSickKids/annual-report/81509-2019-2020_SickKids-Annual-Report.pdf
2019-2020_SickKids-Annual-Report

In the last year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated some $5.9 million to Sick Kids Hospital.

9. Sick Kids, Gates Allied On Vaxx Rates

Acknowledgements
We thank Diego Bassani, Hospital for Sick Kids, Toronto, Canada.
.
Funding:
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research (299960) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1067851) funded this study.
.
Competing interests:
None declared.

In 2015, Sick Kids Hospital and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation teamed up in order to conduct research into raising the vaccination rate in children.

10. More Than What Meets The Eye

To many, Sick Kids Hospital comes across as being above the politically driven agendas that plague Canadian health care. However, things are not as they seem. Those grants from the Gates Foundation can’t be ignored, especially given the vaccination agenda.

Are there other links? Yes, but this should give a good idea as to what is really going on.

It also can’t be brushed aside that Walied Soliman, is both the Chief of Staff for Conservative Party Leader, Erin O’Toole, and a long time Director at Sick Kids. No wonder O’Toole supports heavy handed measures.

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UNESCO Continues Crackdown On What It Calls “Misinformation”

UNESCO is still pushing efforts to combat “misinformation”, which of course is anything that conflicts with the official versions of events (the ever shifting versions). However, you aren’t supposed to notice such inconsistencies or gaps in logic.

UNESCO reminds people to only trust official sources.

1. Developments In Free Speech Struggle

There is already a lot of information on the free speech series on the site. For background information for this, see: Digital Cooperation; the IGF, or Internet Governance Forum; ex-Liberal Candidate Richard Lee; the Digital Charter; big tech collusion in coronavirus; Dominic LeBlanc’s proposal, and Facebook, Google, and Twitter lobbying.

This article is Part I for UNESCO agenda.

2. Other Articles On CV “Planned-emic”

The rest of the series is here. There are many: lies, lobbying, conflicts of interest, and various globalist agendas operating behind the scenes, and much more than most people realize. For example: The Gates Foundation finances many things, including, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control, GAVI, ID2020, John Hopkins University, Imperial College London, the Pirbright Institute, and individual pharmaceutical companies. It’s also worth mentioning that there is little to no science behind what our officials are doing. The International Health Regulations (IHR), that the WHO imposes are legally binding on all members.

3. Important Links

CLICK HERE, for Sept 8 UNESCO article on “misinformation”.
https://archive.is/wbkP1

CLICK HERE, for $27M in research projects announced.
https://archive.is/uGjO6

CLICK HERE, for Ryerson gets $478,000 grant to study CV misinfo.
https://archive.is/Rjq9y
CLICK HERE
https://archive.is/qguDf

CLICK HERE, for UN Global Pulse mainpage.
https://archive.is/BGVUo
CLICK HERE, for UN Global Pulse policy page.
https://archive.is/Gg1l3

CLICK HERE, for International Telecommunication Union.
https://archive.is/tJjKD
ITU-COVID-19-activities

CLICK HERE, for UNESCO, and fighting fake news.
https://archive.is/JFCrx

CLICK HERE, for WHO, and reporting misinformation online.
https://archive.is/BC3ql

CLICK HERE, for UN “Verified” program.
CLICK HERE, for ShareVerified website.

4. Decisions On CV/Masks/Vaccines

2015 ONA Arbitration Ruling (Sault Area Hospital)
2015.ontario.college.of.nurses.mask.ruling

2016 ONA Arbitration Ruling (William Osler Health System)
2016.ona.masks.or.vaccinate.ruling

2018 ONA Arbitration Ruling (St. Michael’s Hospital)
2018.ontario.college.of.nurses.mask.ruling

2020 BC Ombudsman Ruling
2020.BC.ombudsman.report.2.orders.overreach

Oregon Court Rules Against Measures
Oregon SHIRTCLIFF ORDER

Wisconsin Court Says “Stay At Home” Orders Illegal
wisconson.may.2020.coronavirus.order.overturned

2020 Pennsylvania Judge rules against Governor
pennsylvania.covid.measures.illegal

The above 7 rulings are helpful to our cause. However, this recent one in Newfoundland and Labrador is a potential setback, as the Judge ruled travel restrictions are justified.

September 2020 NFLD Rules Travel Ban Justified
Justice-Donald-Burrage-decision-on-NL-travel-ban

I wonder if UNESCO would consider it “misinformation” to post about the several rulings with conflict with the official narratives of lockdowns, masks, and vaccinations.

scotus.allows.nevada.to.discriminate

scotus.allows.california.to.discriminate

scotus.on.religious.advertising

Finally, a few American rulings on enshrining freedom of religion in the face of a false pandemic. Unfortunately, these don’t really help the cause.

5. UNESCO Article On CV Misinformation

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide will be better able to spot the difference between information and misinformation about COVID-19, as a result of a new co-operation within the UN system.

The co-operation is supported by a grant of $4.5m from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

The fund was specifically set up to support work to track and understand the spread of the virus; ensure patients get the care they need and frontline workers get essential supplies and information; and accelerate research and development of a vaccine and treatments for all who need them.

For UNESCO, the contribution to the partnership will be in training journalists and supporting community radio.

Thousands of journalists will be trained for updated reporting on the pandemic and related disinformation through a series of online interactive briefings with experts and mentors.

UNESCO will also work with partners to produce content for radio channels, particularly in vernacular languages for areas with scarce or no Internet access, with the topic covering preventive measures, debunking myths about the virus, and highlighting the importance of non-discrimination and solidarity.

Part of the package will be training on how to operate a home-based radio studio during lockdown.

WHO, through its offices in Africa, is developing an “Infodemic Response Alliance” that will bring together ministries of health, civil society, media, fact checkers and UN actors to ensure early warnings of misinformation. Other WHO activities are planned in the Eastern Mediterranean, European, the Americas, and South East Asia regions.

Besides UNESCO and the WHO, the other UN partners include UN Global Pulse and the ITU (The International Telecommunication Union).

The UN Global Pulse, within the UN Secretary-General’s innovation team, will use artificial intelligence to analyse radio coverage for trends in misinformation such as rumours around vaccines, promotions of false cures, and discussions about financial hardships. “We will use this infodemic intelligence to support community level responses and do predictive analytics to fuel decision making across all pillars of the UN response,” says Global Pulse’s chief data scientist Miguel Luengo-Oroz.

The ITU will engage with more than 200 mobile network operators to use short message service (SMS) and voice messages to provide healthcare advice. “We will also share good practices such as replacing default ringtones with special caller tunes containing voice messages about the virus,” says ITU’s Roman Chestnov.

As part of the project, WHO will create an Infodemic Observatory with the Fondazione Bruno Kessler as well as a suite of scientific tools to manage the infodemic, including through “social listening” and assessing people’s vulnerability to misinformation.

The UN’s Health Organization will also initiate a pilot project with Ryerson University in Canada to create a “Global Misinformation and Factchecking Centre” to serve as a comprehensive public repository of fact-checking organizations around the world and to identify and document best practices for tackling the COVID-19 infodemic crisis and help to inform future policy interventions.

Yes, that is the entire September 8, 2020 article, quoted verbatim. Nothing has been added to alter its meaning. It’s difficult to make UNESCO look worse than it already does, but let’s try.

6. Canada Takes Grant Applications In February

Even as the Canadian Government was telling public in February that there was nothing to worry about, it was shoveling out millions in grants money. There were at least a few grants designed to “study and counter” misinformation. Ottawa knew even then that this would last a long time, but lied about it.

7. Ryerson Uni Gets CV Misinformation Grant

TORONTO — As the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, so too does the flow of information and misinformation related to the virus. In a recent announcement by the Government of Canada, researchers at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management and Royal Roads University will collaborate to examine the spread of digital misinformation related to the coronavirus. The study seeks to mitigate the spread of misinformation, stigma and fear through education.

The study, Inoculating Against an Infodemic: Microlearning Interventions to Address CoV Misinformation, will be a two-year study that aims to develop online learning interventions to improve people’s knowledge, beliefs and behaviours related to COVID-19.

Professor Anatoliy Gruzd, Canada Research Chair of Social Media Data Stewardship and Philip Mai, Director of Business and Communications at the Social Media Lab at the Ted Rogers School, will examine how COVID-19 related misinformation propagates across social media platforms and will be developing a real-time information dashboard that will help the public track efforts to debunk coronavirus misinformation online.

It’s disturbing that the Government of Canada (taxpayers, really) decided to give a University almost half a million dollars to combat misinformation. Worse still, are 2 details:

First, this was March 12 the article went off. The deal had already been inked, and Canada hadn’t even officially declared a pandemic yet. Almost like they knew in advance.

Second, this study was to last 2 years. The Canadian Government knew before March 12, 2020, that this “pandemic” would last for at least 2 years.

8. UN Global Pulse, AI Implementation

UN Global Pulse leads efforts to develop data privacy, protection and ethics principles, engages privacy specialists and regulators to contribute to policy frameworks for the use of big data, and works with governments to facilitate synergies and knowledge exchange to create strategies for the ethical use of artificial intelligence. The areas of work that our policy agenda focuses on are:

Data Privacy & Protection
UN Global Pulse advocates for the accountable and responsible use of data and provides expertise to UN partners and to governments in developing data privacy and data protection frameworks.

AI Ethics
UN Global Pulse promotes human rights-based AI innovation through the development of standards and guidelines to ensure a safe and equitable digital future.

Digital Cooperation
UN Global Pulse works to foster global digital cooperation and realize the potential of digital technologies to advance human well-being and mitigate the risks of misuse and missed use of data and artificial intelligence.

All of this sounds completely harmless, but then, it always does.

So-called “digital cooperation” is actually a reference to a subgroup at the United Nations, who is working towards global internet governance. Global Pulse works with AI, supports digital cooperation, and is involved in efforts to combat “misinformation” online. What could possibly go wrong?

9. International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

ITU-COVID-19-activities

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, digital technologies and connectivity have become a critical enabler facilitating business continuity and connecting people more than ever before. The sudden increase in internet usage and upsurge in data consumption are putting heavy pressure on existing broadband networks decreasing the quality and speed of the Internet. We are also confronted with increased opportunity for digital technology’s potential for misuse – from cyberattacks and crimes to misinformation, as well as burgeoning issues related to data privacy and security. Most importantly, as 46% of the global population/almost 3.6. billion people are still without internet, the lack of connectivity and issues of accessibility will become even more pressing: translating directly into missed socio-economic opportunities and missed learning opportunities, and so widening the digital divide and inequality gap in our society.

This Webinar series started with a discussion on assessing current connectivity gaps and challenges in different regions, followed by best practices and success connectivity stories; capacity building (to implement misinformation management); online safety and security, with a final discussion session on how to balance public health, privacy and human rights. Each session was prepared and organized jointly by strategic partners, including leading UN agencies on action to address the subject matter.

The ITU also has a very long section on “digital cooperation”. Again, this is code for global governance of the internet. The ITU, Global Pulse, and the United Nations as a whole seem to be completely for this agenda.

10. UNESCO, Journalist “Training” On Pandemic

Yes, UNESCO is actually training journalists on combatting misinformation around this “pandemic”. In short, only official sources can be trusted.

11. WHO On Reporting Misinformation

The World Health Organization actually provides guidelines on how to report what it calls “misinformation”, on common social media platforms.

12. UN ‘Verified’ Initiative Flood Digital Space

https://twitter.com/UN/status/1263499796016435202
https://archive.is/LzGVz

28 May 2020 — As the world unifies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations recently launched ‘Verified’ — an initiative aimed at delivering trusted information, life-saving advice and stories from the best of humanity. The initiative also invites the public to help counter the spread of COVID-19 misinformation by sharing fact-based advice with their communities.

Melissa Fleming: Verified is a United Nations initiative that calls on people around the world to become “information volunteers” and share UN-verified, science-based content to keep their families and communities safe and connected. You can sign up to become “information volunteers” at www.shareverified.com.

The initiative is a collaboration with Purpose, one of the world’s leading social mobilization organizations, and supported by the IKEA Foundation and Luminate. Led by the UN Department for Global Communications, the Verified initiative will produce a daily feed of compelling, shareable content around three themes: science – to save lives; solidarity – to promote local and global cooperation; and solutions – to advocate support for impacted populations. It will also promote recovery packages that tackle the climate crisis and address the root causes of poverty, inequality and hunger. Our priority audience: those who are being targeted with misinformation. We are also partnering with First Draft, an organization which closely monitors the spread of misinformation.

https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/%E2%80%98verified%E2%80%99-initiative-aims-flood-digital-space-facts-amid-covid-19-crisis

13. Silencing Legitimate Criticisms

Make no mistake. This isn’t any well intentioned effort to prevent serious harm from coming to the public. Instead, this is about coordination to PREVENT THE EXPOSURE of harmful efforts, and to show the truth to the world.

This is censorship, masked as public safety.

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IBC #6(B): Bank Of Canada & Other Central Banks Promoting Climate Change Scam

Various central banks around the world — including the Bank of Canada — have fully embraced the climate change scam. They promote “green finance” as a way to enact larger social change.

1. BoC Fully Supports The GREAT RESET


https://twitter.com/bankofcanada/status/1296788907724623873

bank.of.canada.great.reset.agenda

The pandemic, central banks and climate change
• COVID-19 is a shock and an opportunity
• Pivot to a greener, smarter economy?
• Focus here on climate-related issues
• Our contributions to scenario analysis
• To start: how we view climate change risk

For those who are unfamiliar, the GREAT RESET is a plan hatched a long time ago, which involved using this “pandemic” as an excuse to bring about larger social change. Check out the previous piece on the World Economic Forum.

2. BoC Calls Climate Change A “Vulnerability”

Climate change creates important physical risks both in Canada and globally. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the average world temperature in 2017 was around 1°C higher than pre-industrial levels and is projected to rise by 0.2°C per decade. One consequence is an increase in extreme weather events such as flooding, hurricanes and severe droughts. Insured damage to property and infrastructure in Canada averaged about $1.7 billion per year from 2008 to 2017, up from $200 million per year from 1983 to 1992. Canada is particularly affected—it is estimated to be warming significantly faster than the rest of the world.27

The move to a low-carbon economy involves complex structural adjustments, creating new opportunities as well as transition risk. Investor and consumer preferences are shifting toward lower-carbon sources and production processes, suggesting that the move to a low-carbon economy is underway. Transition costs will be felt most in carbon-intensive sectors, such as the oil and gas sector. If some fossil fuel reserves remain unexploited, assets in this sector may become stranded, losing much of their value. At the same time, other sectors such as green technology and alternative energy will likely benefit.

Both physical and transition risks are likely to have broad impacts on the economy. Moving labour and capital toward less carbon-intensive sectors is costly and takes time. Global trade patterns may also shift as production costs and the value of resources change. The necessary adjustments are complex and pervasive and might lead to increased risk for the financial system. In addition to insurance companies, many other parts of the financial system are exposed to risks from climate change. Banks have loans to carbon-intensive sectors as well as to connected sectors—for example, those upstream or downstream in supply chains. Asset managers hold carbon-intensive assets in and outside Canada. The Government of Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance is studying these issues.

(From part 5), the Bank of Canada has written off the oil & gas sector, and others, in favour of “transitioning to a low carbon economy”. It would be nice for those people in Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan to have been made aware of this. It’s not like their communities will be gutted.

3. BoC & “Greening Financial System”

In response, central banks are stepping up efforts to assess climate-related risks. The current suite of central bank economic models, however, do not incorporate climate-change effects. Uncertainty over future developments related to climate change also makes assessing these risks challenging. These developments include policy developments, technological developments and changes in the natural environment.

Some central banks and private financial institutions are developing tools to carry out climate-related scenario analysis. Scenario analysis examines different plausible future states of the world. It forecasts a set of situations that could happen rather than predicts what will happen. It can help users evaluate a range of hypothetical outcomes based on different assumptions of what may occur. Scenario analysis is particularly useful for climate change, where the evolution of key variables is uncertain. To be the most useful, these scenarios should be extreme yet plausible. This will give a sense of the full range of possible risks.

Rather than focusing on monetary policy, which is its mandate, the Bank of Canada has decided to wade into the climate change agenda. The BoC alleges that climate change is directly tied to the financial health of the country.

4. Initiative Launched December 2017

The Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), was launched on December 12, 2017. It started off with 8 central banks, but has grown exponentially since. Many more, including the Bank of Canada, are now part of this group.

5. Central Banks “Greening Financial System”

founding.members.greening.of.financial.system

Joint statement by the Founding Members of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System

Financing the transition to a green and low carbon economy consistent with the ‘well below 2°celsius’ goal set out in the Paris agreement and promoting environmental sustainable growth are among the major challenges of our time. In the process of responding to environmental and climate challenges, there are both opportunities and vulnerabilities for financial institutions and the financial system as a whole.

Post Paris, official sector and private-led initiatives have accelerated the awareness of climate related financial risks and the scaling up of green financing. The G20 Green Finance Study Group and the FSB Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures also recommended steps towards encouraging financial institutions to conduct environmental risk analysis and to improve environment- and climate-related information disclosure. We are very pleased to announce today that eight central banks and supervisors decided to collectively commit to establish a Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. The Network will help to strengthen the global response required to meet the goals of the Paris agreement and to enhance the role of the financial system to manage risks and to mobilize capital for green and low-carbon investments in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development.

This group was started by the central banks of 8 countries. It has since grown to encompass many more. People should be skeptical that organizations involved in the monetary system are getting involved in the climate change industry.

6. NGFS Scaling Up “Green Finance”

This section provides an overview of the workstream’s mandate.
The workstream on scaling up green finance is structured around 3 main topics:

1) Promoting the adoption of sustainable and responsible principles in central banks’ investment approaches
2) Understanding and monitoring the market dynamics of green finance
3) Providing a joint central banks’ view on the various challenges climate change raises for the conduct of monetary policy

7. Mark Carney, Former Bank Of Canada Head

Mark Carney used to be the Head of the Bank of Canada, and later headed the Bank of England. Anyway, this man is now in charge of “UN Climate Finance”, and openly threatens to bankrupt companies who don’t play ball with the climate change scam. It used to be that gangsters would burn down your business if you didn’t pay. Now, they just pass laws to make it impossible to operate.

8. BoC Pushing Digital Currency

https://twitter.com/bankofcanada/status/1276160904456003584

You know all that hype about the Bank of Canada looking to push some form of digital currency to replace money? Well yes, they are actually looking into it.

9. Should Banks Push Climate Agenda?

Banks, like any institution, should stick to their assigned role and not meddle elsewhere. Why stray so far into unrelated areas? It’s because they have an agenda, and are just using the financial sector as a means and excuse of implementing that agenda.

(1) https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/08/the-great-reset/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SPPB200820
(2) bank.of.canada.great.reset.agenda
(3) https://archive.is/129UE
(4) https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/05/staff-discussion-paper-2020-3/
(5) https://archive.is/GP1d5
(6) https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2019/05/financial-system-review-2019/?#Vulnerability-5-Climate-change
(7) https://archive.is/Ji1bg
(8) https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/06/bank-canada-contributes-new-publications-network-greening-financial-system/
(9) https://archive.is/uCN97
(10) https://www.ngfs.net/en
(11) https://archive.is/8wUbJ
(12) ttps://www.banque-france.fr/en/communique-de-presse/joint-statement-founding-members-central-banks-and-supervisors-network-greening-financial-system-one
(13) founding.members.greening.of.financial.system
(14) https://archive.is/o1PaR
(15) https://www.ngfs.net/en/about-us/governance/workstream-scaling-green-finance
(16) https://archive.is/cYahU
(17) https://www.ngfs.net/sites/default/files/medias/documents/ngfs-a-sustainable-and-responsible-investment-guide.pdf
(18) ngfs-a-sustainable-and-responsible-investment-guide
(19) https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/06/staff-analytical-note-2020-10/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SANH200624
(20) https://archive.is/0EeTp

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UN Global Internet Governance Forum, Meeting Since 2006

Getting your own politicians to protect free speech is difficult enough. How does it work when the rules are being drafted by unelected officials in other countries?

1. Important Developments On Free Speech

There is already a lot of information on the free speech series on the site. Free speech, while an important topic, doesn’t stand on its own, and is typically intertwined with other categories. For background information for this, please visit: Digital Cooperation; ex-Liberal Candidate Richard Lee; the Digital Charter, big tech collusion in coronavirus, and Dominic LeBlanc’s proposal.

IF you think that Canadian laws don’t do enough to protect free speech in general, or online free speech more specifically, just wait until it is regulated globally.

2. IGF Meetings Held Since 2006

2006: Athens, Greece, https://archive.is/g2NnZ
2007: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, https://archive.is/uiFsE
2008: Hyderabad, India, https://archive.is/6rV0k
2009: Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, https://archive.is/dS2SO
2010: Vilnius, Lithuania, https://archive.is/uzC3U
2011: Nairobi, Kenya, https://archive.is/Dl71r
2012: Baku, Azerbaijan, https://archive.is/XUDaX
2013: Bali, Indonesia, https://archive.is/wksxQ
2014: Istanbul, Turkey, https://archive.is/XKnUe
2015: João Pessoa, Brazil, https://archive.is/1CiSE
2016: Jalisco, Mexico, https://archive.is/Rkazl
2017: Geneva, Switzerland, https://archive.is/mtw6w
2018: Paris, France, https://archive.is/zEsjK
2019: Berlin, Germany, https://archive.is/KGwzo

3. Important Issues Global IGF Discusses

What Key Issues are discussed at the IGF?
As an example, key issues discussed at the 12th meeting of the IGF in 2017 include:
.
– The impact of modern technologies on industry, society, and the economy;
– Multistakeholderism and Multilateralism and the setting of global norms;
– The new digital economy & sustainable development — providing opportunities or deepening divides?
– The role of government in policy making in the digital age;
– The emergence of a global, Internet society;
– Cybersecurity and cyber-threats;
– Artificial intelligence (AI);
– Critical Internet resources;
– Blockchains and bitcoins;
– Fake news;
– Access, inclusion and diversity;
– The pressing need for security in the Internet of Things;
– Digital divides;

https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/about-igf-faqs

Advocates of strong free speech laws will notice (in particular) the topics of the role of government, and fake news. Makes one wonder if various Heads of State will decide what is real news and what is fake.

4. Who Funds Global IGF?

How is the global Internet Governance Forum funded?
.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat – based in Geneva, is sustained financially through the extra-budgetary Trust Fund Account managed by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The nature of the IGF Trust Fund is such that it is voluntary and multi-donor driven, with varying contributions from Governments and non-governmental organisations from the technical community, the private sector and the civil society. The IGF Trust Fund covers the administrative and operational costs of the IGF Secretariat including personnel, fellowships, and meeting costs (venues, interpretation, logistical costs, etc.); and funds the travel costs of MAG Members from developing countries. More details about the list of donors and funds received are available online. The Trust Fund also provides support to various intersessional activities, inter alia Best Practice Forums, major policy initiatives such as Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s), etc.

Each year, the organizational and conference cost of the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum is provided for by the Government of the host country, administered through a Host Country Agreement signed between the Government and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/about-igf-faqs

Donors to the Trust Fund (highest to lowest)

  • Government of Finland
  • Government of Germany
  • European Commission
  • Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
  • The Internet Society (ISOC)
  • Number Resource Organization (NRO)
  • Government of the Netherlands
  • Government of Switzerland
  • Government of the United States
  • Government of the United Kingdom
  • Government of Japan
  • Nominet UK
  • Tides Foundation
  • Verizon
  • IGFSA
  • Brazilian Internet Steering Committee
  • AT&T
  • China Energy Fund Committee
  • Verisign
  • Afilias Global Registry Services
  • Facebook
  • Government of Portugal – Fundacao Para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia
  • Microsoft Corporation
  • Siemens Aktiengesellschaft – Communications / Nokia Siemens Networks
  • Google
  • Government of Norway
  • Government of Sweden
  • Amazon
  • UNINETT Norid
  • The Swiss Education & Research Network (SWITCH)
  • The Walt Disney Company
  • European Registry for Internet domains
  • CISCO
  • auDA Australia’s Domain Name Administrator
  • International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS)
  • Coordination Center for TLD
  • Danish Internet Forum
  • Politecnico di Torino
  • Community DNS
  • Government of the Republic of Korea
  • European Telecommunication Network Operators’ Association
  • MCADE, LLC
  • NIC-MEXICO
  • Nic.at The Austrian Registry
  • Summit Strategies International
  • NIKKEI DigitalCORE
  • Ribose Inc.

In addition to the funding of various governments, the following names should be familiar to almost everyone: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Disney, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, and the Soros-funded Tides Foundation.

5. IGF And UNSG Panel On Digital Cooperation

>> FABRIZIO HOCHSCHILD: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and colleagues. We’re having this conversation under unusual circumstances at a pivotal moment in history.

In a world already fundamentally transformed by digital technologies, the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing have propelled the adoption of information and communications technologies and transformed the bedrock of humanity’s means of survival and prosperity: communication. To cooperate, we must communicate, and to communicate nowadays, we must use digital means. This is an important time for Internet governance.

COVID-19 has raised the stakes for global digital cooperation. Over the last few months, my office, in partnership with the international telecommunications unit, organized a series of webinars on digital cooperation in times of COVID-19 and beyond. These discussions considered challenges when urgent cooperation is required, such as with regard to the ongoing deficit in connectivity, with regard to human rights challenges and trust and security issues.

.
Health systems today don’t just have to treat the sick. They also have to deal with cyber attacks and the spread of dangerous, life-threatening misinformation.

In follow-up to the Secretary-General’s call for a global cease far, I also called for a digital cease fire. Global cooperation is necessary if we wish to overcome the pandemic without drastically compromising values like privacy and freedom of speech.

A few days ago, the Secretary-General presented his roadmap for digital cooperation which sets forth his vision for how the international community should engage on these and other key digital issues outlined in the report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. The roadmap describes a range of actions for all stakeholders from the United Nations system to member states, the private sector, civil society organizations, and the technical community. The United Nations, including the IGF, the Internet Governance Forum, can truly serve as a platform for informed discussion and evidence-based decisions and practices.

The High-level Panel had noted, and I quote, “a great deal of dissatisfaction with existing digital cooperation arrangements, a desire for more tangible outcomes, more active and diverse participation by governments and the private sector, and more inclusive processes and better follow-up,” end of quote.

The IGF should be retooled to become more responsive and relevant to current digital issues. We must ensure that the IGF is a forum that governments value and want to attend while preserving the important space it represents for other stakeholder engagement.

The IGF’s coordinating and strategic role needs to be further strengthened. The roadmap includes a series of suggestions to further enhance the IGF, such as by improving fundraising, inclusion, and outcomes. I hope you will all be engaged in the follow-up of the action areas highlighted in the Secretary-General’s roadmap, and I hope you will all share your views specifically on how the IGF can be made even more responsive to the evolving challenges of digital cooperation.

Thank you for your engagement and support of the IGF and digital cooperation. We welcome and we need your ideas, your proposals, and your continued enthusiasm and support.
Thank you.

Don’t worry. It’s not like this will lead to a global body deciding what can or can’t be talked about or shared on the internet. This will absolutely never be abused.

6. Global Digital Cooperation Frameworks

The Global Internet Governance Forum goes on to propose several different ways that “digital cooperation” could be implemented on a world-wide scale. But don’t worry. It’s all just discussion, and nothing that gets suggested will ever become legally binding.

7. Canadian Internet Governance Forum

Save the date: The virtual Canadian IGF will be Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, 2020.
The Canadian Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is Canada’s leading multi-stakeholder forum on digital and internet policy issues.
.
The inaugural event took place last year in Toronto and brought together over 200 representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector to tackle pressing public policy issues facing the internet.
.
The Canadian IGF is a national initiative of the global United-Nations-convened Internet Governance Forum, which holds annual meetings at different locations around the world. The Canadian IGF will produce a report detailing the unique, regional priorities facing Canadian stakeholders in attendance. This report will then be fed into the global IGF.

2019.canadian.internet.governance.forum

This isn’t just some abstract UN group far off. There exists a Canadian branch of the Internet Governance Forum, and its agenda is pretty much what one would expect.

Throughout the discussions, several common themes emerged across subject areas. These
included trends towards increased regulation; the necessity for plain language content; and,
the need for education and digital literacy. For stakeholders engaging in Internet governance
domestically and abroad, priorities going forward include the need for:
• A transnational, multistakeholder approach to internet governance.
• Awareness of/education on the issues, and how users can participate in discussions
related to internet governance.
• Solutions developed by any stakeholder group that are thoughtful, evidence-based, and
proportionate.
• Transparency from both governments and businesses in order to promote public trust
and build the capacity of users.

These priorities are elaborated in the conclusion of this report.

That is from page 5 on the report. They explicitly state that they view internet regulation as a global concept.

Key Issues
• Fake news and misinformation.
• Hateful online speech.
• Global and domestic threats.
• Data security

Discussion Overview
The panel’s discussion surrounded three main topics: 1) While foreign actors are a threat, domestic actors are an equal or higher risk when it comes to the dissemination of fake news and the proliferation of hateful speech online. Social media platforms also have to balance discouraging fake news, while ensuring they are not censoring a legitimate group; 2) Political actors are increasingly using social media platforms as a tool to get messages out; and 3) In the aftermath of Cambridge Analytica, academics have seen social media platforms reduce their access to datasets to study the fake news problem.

A recent report on Canadians’ use of social media shows that 94% of internet users here in this country have at least one social media account. The exposure to potential misinformation and disinformation campaigns is enormous.

Both technological and policy-based solutions are needed to confront the fake news problem. Facebook, for instance, has a three-pronged strategy focusing on people, technology and, increasingly, partnerships. Facebook has gone from 10,000 to 30,000 people dedicated to working on this challenge. In Q2 and Q3 of last year, Facebook removed approximately 1.5 billion fake accounts. The development of digital literacy skills is required to help users discern between real and fake news. The need for civility among users was also stressed. Canada must decide on its approach to fake news and newer technology, generally. Do we want to follow the lead of the United States or Europe?

A void has been created in the news world because traditional journalism is fading quickly. Social media platforms have become a new distribution channel for news. Panelists disagreed on whether the problem can be solved through technology or if it is more deeply rooted in human causes for which technology has no response

2019.canadian.internet.governance.forum

From pages 18/19 in the report: it seems that outlets like Facebook have taken it upon themselves to determine what accounts are fake, and what counts as fake news.

The authors of this report, (and of IGF more broadly), keep referring to “international stakeholders”. It seems to imply that other parties should have some say over free speech on the internet, instead of Canadians themselves.

8. Canada Gov’t Bought Off Media (2018)

It’s interesting that the report talks about the decline of traditional media (which is true), but omits the tax-payer funded bailout that the Canadian Government gave. In effect, old-stock media in Canada is now subsidized even more so. Even without the IGF, the media is already pretty corrupt.

9. UNESCO Campaign Against Mis-Information

This was covered a few months ago, but UNESCO has been embarking on a serious campaign against what it calls “misinformation”. UNESCO reminds people to only trust official sources for information on coronavirus.

10. UN Wants Internet Ruled By International Law

Tremendous progress has been made internationally in accepting that international law and the UN Charter apply in cyberspace. He urged the private sector to be involved in countering the number of malevolent tools being deployed in cyberspace, especially in developing more secure software.

Combating Fake News and Dangerous Content in the Digital Age
.
The consensus from the session on Fake News was that part of the complexity to tackle disinformation was the challenge to define it. From election interference to stoking up hate or increase religious hatred, there are also other multilayered levels such as spam, and misleading types of content like opinion pieces masking as objective journalism.

Irene Poetrant, Senior Researcher for Citizen Lab of University of Toronto agreed, saying definitions matter and in order to maintain an open and democratic system, it is important for government, private sector, civil society and institutions to work together, and that fake news is not just a problem of the west but a global problem.

“Misinformation is the antithesis of Google’s mission”, said Jake Lucchi, Head of Online Safety and Social Impact. Partnering with journalists, governments, and third parties, they try to find product solutions to identify misinformation and find ways to surface authoritative content. “Young people need to have critical thinking and skills to be able to navigate the internet and check our sources.” Improved algorithms and having policies in place to prohibit hate speech are also key – providers have to ensure misinformation are not allowed on their platforms.

That page is from the November 2018 meeting is Paris. While it sounds benevolent on the surface, who exactly will be the arbitrator of what is “fake news”? Remember, UNESCO (as an example), repeatedly says that only official sources can be trusted. This comes in spite of a wealth of information that CONTRADICTS those narratives. This raises the question of can valid media be shut down if factual reporting is tagged as “misinformation”?

11. Digital Charter Long In The Making

Think that the “Digital Charter” was an idea suddenly concocted? It wasn’t. The UN Digital Cooperation Panel was launched in the Summer of 2018. When the New Zealand shooting happened in March 2019, the stage had already been set.

In a similar vein, the mass shooting in Nova Scotia appears to be a pretext for the Federal Government imposing a mass gun grab.

12. Calls To Expand Digital Cooperation

11 June 2020 – New York
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres presented today a set of recommended actions for the international community to help ensure all people are connected, respected, and protected in the digital age. The Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation is the result of a multi-year, multi-stakeholder, global effort to address a range of issues related to the Internet, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies.

The Roadmap for Digital Cooperation comes at a critical inflection point for digital issues, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating digitization and magnifying both opportunities and challenges of digital technology.

digital.cooperation.roadmap.expand

But don’t worry. These resolutions and agreements won’t ever become legally binding, or anything like that. These are just ideas being thrown around.