Despite near total dominance of the narrative in the media, Canada’s NATO stenographers seem worried. Their reaction to an interview by South Africa’s envoy suggests an understanding that much of the world and many Canadians disagree with them.
In a recent Canadian Press interview South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada, Rieaz Shaik, criticized Canada’s role in the NATO proxy war. In response to “South Africa envoy urges Ukraine peace talks, says Canada stance on war ‘shocking’”, Andrew Coyne complained that CP interviewed Shaik. The prominent CBC and Globe and Mail commentator tweeted, “not at all clear why CP considers this newsworthy”, which begs the question of why Coyne bothered tweeting about something he considered unnewsworthy. More substantially, CP has published dozens of interviews with US, British, German, Latvian and Polish officials on Ukraine. Why wouldn’t South Africa’s position, especially since it diverges with Ottawa’s, be relevant to Canadians?
An even more irrational response came from the Executive Director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies Kyle Matthews. He complained: “What is shocking is that South Africa’s envoy to Canada is ignoring the UN charter and siding with Russia, the aggressor state.” Yet, the CP quotes Shaik saying, “Let me just say it categorically: South Africa is opposed to the invasion of Ukraine. The violation of the UN Charter is unacceptable to us. The territorial integrity of Ukraine must be maintained.” But for NATO stenographers any deviation from the official line is “siding with Russia.”
As part of their bid to control the narrative Canada’s proxy warriors are ramping up their scaremongering about Russian “disinformation.” Last week the University of Waterloo hosted a two-day conference on “The Weaponization of Disinformation in Canada.” One of their main speakers was self-declared ‘disinformation’ expert Marcus Kolga who recently co-published “Enemy of my Enemy: Russian Weaponization of Canada’s Far Left and Far Right to Undermine Support to Ukraine”. Kolga and his colleagues in the military- and US-funded disinformation network are worried Twitter hasn’t completely succumbed to the NATO line.
In a Kingston Whig-Standard article headlined “Russia uses Twitter to attack democracy” Geoffrey P. Johnston suggests banning Twitter. He quotes former minister, diplomat and Afghan war advocate Chris Alexander, saying “We have laws in this country about hate speech. If Twitter is propagating hate speech, they should be held accountable. We have banned RT and other propaganda channels from Canadian cable television.”
On Wednesday Alexander followed this statement up with fanatical declaration on Twitter noting: “To restore the health of democracy, we must remove Moscow’s propaganda from our airwaves, our online platforms and our minds… Genocidal Kremlin hate speech & weaponized lies have no place in democratic debate.”
The NATO stenographers want Twitter to follow Facebook, YouTube and most of the dominant media in suppressing information critical of US/Canadian war mongering. Recently Facebook began censoring Seymour Hersh’s report into the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines and throttling the accounts of those who share it. By far the most credible investigation into the geopolitically and ecologically significant bombing, Hersh explains how the US blew up the pipelines.
For its part, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is pushing to shut down opposition viewpoints, notably on campuses. As the World Socialist Website reported in “Far-right Ukrainian Canadian Congress urges Trudeau government to censor anti-war meetings and activists” the UCC has been lobbying government officials for stronger measures to combat “anti-Ukrainian hate”, which they claim is spurred by “state-sponsored” narratives and “online information that is intended to mislead.” The group has been lobbying federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino to “counter” any “disinformation.”
In the US, a federal grand jury recently charged four members of the African People’s Socialist Party with “acting as agents of the Russian government within the United States without prior notification.” They are accused of engaging in “agitprop,” notes the indictment, by “writing articles that contained Russian propaganda and disinformation.” It’s hard to imagine the case will succeed but the bid to instill fear likely will.
The NATO stenographers appear to understand their odd predicament. Despite near total media dominance, the public is ambivalent about fighting Russia. While over 70 per cent of Canadians back Ukraine in the war, most don’t support contributing to fighting Russia. A poll released on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion found only one-third of Canadians want Ottawa to provide more military equipment or personnel to train Ukrainian soldiers. And Canadian and US polling demonstrates that public support for the conflict is declining with time.
Reportedly the Biden administration in the US is concerned that if Ukraine’s much hyped Spring offensive fails that pressure will grow on Washington to accept peace negotiations. Already, international pressure for a truce and negotiations is growing as the South African High Commissioner’s media intervention highlights. One of the world’s most respected leaders, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has repeatedly criticized NATO for fueling the war while opposing negotiations. Two weeks ago Lula called on the US and other countries to “stop supplying weapons and encouraging war” in Ukraine. Days later he asked, “How can we achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine if no one is talking about peace?” (Two months ago foreign minister Melanie Joly declared, “right now, it’s not time to talk about peace, it is time to arm them”)
It is likely going to get harder to sustain Canadian policy without greater repression. Canada’s NATO stenographers appear to understand that.
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