Canadian Forces ‘information operations’ pandemic campaign squashed after details revealed to top general

From the Ottawa Citizen

The Canadian Forces planned what some military insiders described as a propaganda campaign aimed at heading off civil disobedience by the public during the coronavirus pandemic.

But the initiative was shut down by the country’s top soldier who questioned whether it went too far in the methods military officers wanted to use.

The campaign called for “shaping” and “exploiting” information, allowing the Canadian Forces to be able to strengthen trust in official sources of information, said a military planning document reviewed by this newspaper. One of the desired results was that civil order be maintained during the pandemic. “Canadian public is deterred from participating in Civil Disobedience,” according to the objectives of the plan. “Canadian public compliance with suppression measures is reinforced.”

When Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance was briefed about the information operations campaign, he ordered it stopped. Some senior military staff raised concerns the plan could be open to abuse in using propaganda or deception to manipulate the Canadian public.

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H/T PePi.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

5 Replies to “Canadian Forces ‘information operations’ pandemic campaign squashed after details revealed to top general”

  1. This is actually frightening me a little. The “pandemic” is obviously just another hoax or they’d be interested in fighting it instead of always ignoring and bad-mouthing the cures that exist and urging further lock-downs and quarantines. What if those nasty people who get all mad if you’re not wearing a mask were hunting you over climate change? Imagine being thrown in jail for mowing your lawn on the wrong day or burning a log in your fireplace. Can’t you just imagine all the fun little hoops they could make you jump through over climate change and can’t you just see the asshole public servants thoroughly enjoying bullying you with their new-found power. Maybe they’ll order us to paint our asses blue and then walk around with no pants on just to get a laugh at our resemblance to sheep and our nickname will become “Blue Asses”. Ha, ha, ha…very funny! And what about freedom of speech? In an emergency – and it will always be an “emergency” – spreading “false information” (read things the gov doesn’t like) could become a crime and freedom of speech could be jettisoned in the name of “safety”. Just a few $10,000 fines along with a few 3-year internet bans would certainly cool out my jets in a big hurry. And then what’s to keep them from “finding” 3,000 kiddy-porn pictures on your computer placed expertly by government hackers, and putting you away for good. Like shooting fish in a barrel…

    I hate to sound paranoid but if the ethics of the American Democrats are any example of reality then all dirty tricks are on the table and absolutely anything is possible, up to and including murder.

  2. What I find most frightening about this story is that those in the military who had initiated it did not think is necessary to inform their higher ups – both military and civilian oversight – of the fact that they were running this operation.

    THAT is the frightening bit…what else do they not know about?