$1.75 Million in Government Funding is Not 'Independent'
Group funded by Health Canada puts Health Canada at the top of its list of trusted sources.
When former journalist Rodney Palmer told the National Citizens Inquiry about a law professor being awarded $180k to fight misinformation a mere three weeks after the pandemic was declared, he was just getting started.
He then drew our attention to the $64 million that Canada’s Health Ministry distributed to 103 entities to promote COVID vaccines. Turns out $1.75 million of that money gave birth to a brand new organization called ScienceUpFirst.
Guess who’s in charge? The same law professor, Timothy Caulfield.
ScienceUpFirst claims to be a collection of ‘independent scientists.’ But any group that owes its very existence to a Health Canada fund whose purpose is to increase vaccine confidence and vaccine uptake is the opposite of independent. The mission, the bias, the absurd conflict-of-interest are all out in the open for anyone with eyes to see.
This means that a group that claims to be fighting misinformation is brazenly misleading the public about who and what it actually is.
These oh-so-independent scientists urge us, on their website, to seek out credible sources of scientific information. Guess who tops their list of credible sources? What a coincidence! It’s Health Canada. In other words, Justin Trudeau’s government spent $1.75 million setting up a disguised arm of government to tell us to trust the government.
Second on the credible sources list: the World Health Organization. That undemocratic, wholly unaccountable body has spread misinformation globally since the earliest days of this virus (see here and here).
Third on the list: the CDC, an entity so politicized that US physician Vinay Prasad eviscerated it in an essay 15 months ago, titled: How the CDC Abandoned Science.
Yeah, that’s why we need input from independent scientists. What keen intellectual insight. What stupendous original thinking. Trust the government, the WHO, and the CDC. Never heard that before.
Rodney Palmer says Canada’s national broadcaster doesn’t mention the $180k or the $1.75 million when it interviews Professor Caulfield. It just tells us he’s a misinformation expert. A more accurate term would be narrative enforcer. In Rodney’s words, “Whatever the government wanted to say, that’s what [Professor Caulfield] was saying.” He has consistently pushed “the government COVID response agenda.”
During appearances on CBC news programs, Professor Caulfield disparaged COVID early treatment options such as Hydroxychloroquin and Ivermectin. In one instance he told members of the public, many of whom increased their intake of Vitamins D and C during the pandemic, “Don’t think you can boost your immune system in any way.”
On the CBC’s The National, he declared that “Immune boosting is kind of a myth. Because it’s not a muscle.” This is where we’re at, folks. A law professor with no medical training insisting healthy living is pointless.
News anchor Adrienne Arsenault should have told us about his immense conflict-of-interest. Instead, she gushed that he’s a “wise man.”
The bottom line:
ScienceUpFirst is not independent. It is a propaganda arm of the federal government.
Professor Caulfield has received massive government grants since the earliest weeks of the pandemic.
The CBC doesn’t think any of this is worth mentioning.
Can it get any more ridiculous?? I guess Timothy Caulfield is a pretty wealthy guy today! I wonder if he can sleep nights? Excellent information. Thank you Donna!