From the Brownstone Institute

By  Rebekah Barnett

There is nothing like aggressively wresting human and civil rights away from a population to forcibly impose rules that fly in the face of available evidence, whilst censoring those who try to point this out, and refusing to reveal information on which your rules are based, to bottom out trust in the population at large.

In a report handed down Tuesday, Australia’s federal Covid Inquiry found that extreme public health restrictions, coupled with a lack of transparency about the evidence informing these decisions, has led to a major slide in public trust.

Apparently we need experts and a federal inquiry to tell us the bleeding obvious.

This, by the way, is not a Covid inquiry “like a royal commission,” as was promised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prior to his election, but is the toothless ‘royal commission lite’ alternative put forward by Albanese after he got into power.

From the Australian,

“The long-awaited report into Australia’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has lashed state premiers for fuelling distrust and confusion, and for adopting draconian border closures that lacked consistency and compassion…

“In the report, the panel argued the need for transparency in future pandemic responses after “economic, social and mental health and human rights impacts were not always understood or considered” in 2020.”

That’s putting it lightly.

Economic, social and mental health, and human rights impacts weren’t considered at all.

That’s why the Queensland Supreme Court ruled that Covid vaccine mandates enforced by the Police Commissioner were unlawful. Justice Glenn Martin held that the Police Commissioner “did not consider the human rights ramifications” before issuing the Covid workplace vaccination directive within the Queensland Police Service (QPS).

When asked about potential human rights abuses caused by his government’s heavy-handed Covid response, former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews retorted, “Seriously? One more comment about human rights – honestly.”

In one egregious case, the Ombudsman determined that the Andrews Government had “breached human rights” by confining over 3,000 Melburnians to nine tower blocks, under police guard, for up to two weeks.

Back to the Australian,

“[The report] lashed “control measures” instituted by state and federal authorities without sufficient explanation.

“This fed the perception that the government did not trust the public to understand or interpret the information correctly and contributed to the decrease in trust,” the summary reads.

“It was the mandating of public health restrictions, especially vaccination, that had the biggest negative impact on trust. The combination of mandatory measures and the perception people had that they were unable to criticize or question government decisions and policies has contributed to non‑mandated vaccination rates falling to dangerously low levels.”

This is absolutely the case. The hashtag I used the most on social media during Australia’s Covid response was, ‘make it make sense.’

There is nothing like aggressively wresting human and civil rights away from a population to forcibly impose rules that fly in the face of available evidence, whilst censoring those who try to point this out, and refusing to reveal information on which your rules are based, to bottom out trust in the population at large.

The biggest failure by far was the silver bullet vaccines that authorities mandated in order to prevent infection and transmission, when they were not tested for such endpoints, and observational data showed they waned in effectiveness after a month or two at best.

Safety surveillance databases exploded with adverse event reporting rates never seen before, yet authorities still insist these are definitely the best, most safe and effective products ever deployed on the population.

It’s small wonder then that fewer than 4% of Australians under the age of 65 have bothered to get a booster in the past six months.

But the nonsensical Covid response wasn’t just limited to the failure of the vaccines to deliver as promised. A few other rules that made no sense:

You need to be protected by a mask standing up, but if sitting at a table you are safe.

Mandatory vaccines are voluntary.

Rapid antigen tests are illegal – wait, now they’re mandatory.

Footballers can cross the border safely but children wishing to visit a dying parent cannot.

And so on, and so on, and so on.

To this day, federal, state, and territory governments have blocked all attempts to access the health advice on which their extremist policies were based.

In an address on Tuesday, Health Minister Mark Butler admitted that “heavy-handed” policies implemented during the pandemic eroded trust, and that “many of the measures taken during Covid-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again.”

But don’t think for one second that means they won’t try it again.

Just as the Queensland Government took its Supreme Court loss as a signal that it needs to add a ‘considering human rights’ box-ticking exercise next time it breaches human rights to bring in a mandate, the federal Covid Inquiry report recommends ways to do the whole shebang next time, but better.

That includes more spending, fast-tracking the new Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC, which the government  has invested $251.7 million to establish), and better global coordination, particularly with the World Health Organization’s One Health policy.

The report recommends transparent, evidence-based decision-making next time around, but in light of my recent interactions with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), forgive me for considering this a pipe dream under the political status quo.

Butler said that the report was not about laying blame for individual decisions, but was rather about learning lessons. In other words, there will be no accountability.

Instead, Covid premiers and leaders have been awarded medals and cushy jobs. Most recently, Andrews was appointed to the lucrative role of chairman of Orygen, a youth mental health not-for-profit, to collective outrage.

A good thing that has come out of the report is that government overreach on vaccination mandates has been squarely blamed for a drop in vaccination rates in Australia more generally (not just for Covid vaccines).

“The erosion of trust is not only constraining our ability to respond to a pandemic when it next occurs, but it’s already, we know, bled into the performance of our vaccination programs, including our childhood vaccination programs,” said Butler.

“Since the beginning of Covid…we’ve seen a reduction of seven or eight percentage points in participation in the whooping cough vaccination program for under fives and measles vaccination program for under fives, which means we are well below herd immunity levels for those two really important diseases.”

Nice to see a politician finally admit the role of government in driving this trend, which is too often blamed on the boogeyman of ‘misinformation.’

Read the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report.

Read the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report Summary.

For further commentary, check out Alison Bevege’s response to the report on her Substack, Letters from Australia. 

Republished from the author’s Substack

By Garry Clement

Former Senior Mountie Argues Geopolitics of Ottawa’s Relations with Beijing Loom Behind Trump Threats

The threat of a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada, announced by President-elect Donald Trump, highlights a harsh reality: Canada’s vulnerability to fentanyl is deeply intertwined with its close ties to China.

Chris George, a government relations advisor and writer, has highlighted the Liberal Party’s connections with Chinese leadership. He notes that the party’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party is significantly influenced by Power Corporation, the Desmarais clan’s flagship enterprise.

The ties between the Liberal Party and Power Corp have allegedly become so entrenched they are virtually indistinguishable:

• André Desmarais, son-in-law of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, serving as President and co-CEO of Power Corp.
• Former Prime Ministers Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien, and Pierre Trudeau holding positions within Power Corp.
• Jean Chrétien acting as a Power Corp. lobbyist in China.
• John Rae, brother of former Liberal leader Bob Rae, being a long-serving senior manager.
• Senator Peter Harder, a key advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on China, previously serving on the board of Power Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of Power Corp.

Peter Harder also served as President of the Canada-China Business Council, a business advocacy group founded in 1978 with significant support from Paul Desmarais and Power Corporation. He left the council upon his Senate appointment by Prime Minister Trudeau. The Council is now chaired by Olivier Desmarais, grandson of Paul Desmarais and Jean Chrétien. These connections are also explored in my book, Undercover: In the Shady World of Organized Crime and the RCMP.

Recent reports reveal strong ties between Chinese leaders, the People’s Republic of China, and the Premier of British Columbia. Chinese companies have been acquiring Canadian logging operations and vast tracts of farmland. In Prince Edward Island, properties are being purchased under the guise of a monastic group called Bliss and Wisdom.

Evidence suggests that China’s leadership is complicit in producing fentanyl precursors, fully aware of their shipment to Mexico—and now Canada. It is widely suspected that fentanyl money laundering is facilitated through the “black market peso exchange,” a method funneling illicit proceeds into North America. Wealthy Chinese buyers then use fentanyl profits to purchase property, while the manufacturers of precursors are paid in Chinese renminbi.

Traditional media outlets, across the political spectrum, seem to have fallen under the same spell as the Liberal Party, failing to report on these pressing issues with any legitimate objectivity.

The tariffs proposed by President-elect Trump will undoubtedly impact us all. But perhaps, by remaining silent for so long, Canada is now facing the consequences it deserves. It is time for the silent majority to hold this failing government accountable. Canada needs greater transparency, accountability, and a complete re-evaluation of its foreign and domestic policies—especially those concerning China.

Garry Clement consults with corporations on anti-money laundering, contributed to the Canadian academic text Dirty Money, and wrote Undercover, In the Shady World of Organized Crime and the RCMP