1/ A🧵on the antivaxx "film festival" touring Vancouver Island. What's Up, Doc? will be in Nanaimo on Feb 1 & Victoria on Feb 4. Wash that F🍁ck Trudeau shirt & put on your nicest MAGA hat because we're about to play fast and loose with the definitions of "science" and "fact."
2/ First film: Uninformed Consent, produced by Ted Kuntz (Vaccine Choice Canada) & Odessa Orlewicz (Librti). VCC is a long-standing vaccine & political disinformation org. Librti is a platform for people that were kicked off Facebook for posting memes about hanging Trudeau.
3/ Uninformed Consent synopsis: "An in depth look into the Covid 19 narrative, who’s controlling it and how it’s being used to inject an untested, new technology into almost every person on the planet." So hysterical vaccine, health & political disinformation.
4/ In the "documentary," Lytton doctor Charles Hoffe implies that the unvaccinated are treated like Jewish people in Nazi Germany. This is a very common sentiment in far-right spaces.
5/ Second film: Anecdotals. It's an American "doc" that portrays all post-2020 health problems as "vaccine injuries" in order to push fear and distrust of vaccines, medical professionals & governments. Vaccine injuries are real but also rare--this "doc" is pure exploitation.
6/ The festival schedule also mentions I Am Not Misinformation, a "documentary" from Courtenay filmmaker Dan Peruzzo. It's just more of the same Convoy-flavoured far-right and disinformation nonsense.
7/ The What's Up, Doc? panel includes Stephen Malthouse, who is also featured in Uninformed Consent. He's currently suspended by the CPSBC for signing fake vaccine and mask exemptions and potentially endangering patients. (cbc.ca/news/canada/br…; cpsbc.ca/files/public-n…)
8/ Stephen is extremely popular among the far-right antivaxx crowd & participates in Christofascist organizer Kari Simpson's Justice for the Vaccinated tour, a fiesta of vaccine fear porn. He also toured with it's predecessor Doctors on Tour. See:
9/ Stephen visited all the worst corners of the internet to promote Uninformed Consent. A highlight was his appearance on Gareth Icke's show. Gareth Icke is the antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ2S+, antivaxx conspiracy theorist son of famously antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke.
10/ What's Up, Doc? panelist Daniel Nagase is another regular on BC's far-right circuit. He gave up his ability to practice medicine to shill absurd fake news and ivermectin to fascists. (His fun CPSBC citation: cpsbc.ca/news/citation-….)
11/ On Dec 9, 2021, Daniel gave a speech at a rally in Victoria. The rally was organized by Common Ground to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials. BC's far right is obsessed with Nuremberg because they want a reason to very literally kill people they dislike.
12/ Daniel Nagase spoke in front of hanging effigies of John Horgan, Adrian Dix, and Mike Farnworth. See: globalnews.ca/news/8442208/p….
13/ Common Ground immediately went on the defensive & claimed that the effigies weren't welcome, but they also didn't remove said effigies from the event. This denouncement angered some in the movement, who are actually pretty cool with hanging BC politicians.
14/ Framing health mandates as violations of the Nuremberg Code which now require punishment--public execution is a common choice--is standard in BC's far right. It's the foundation of both the current campaign to recall David Eby & CSASPP's ongoing attempt to sue Dr. Henry.
15/ Let's take a look at the rest of the What Up, Doc? panelists! Lisa Bernard appears to be a newcomer to the grift-y scene, but the others have been working hard to wake up the sheeple.
16/ York Hsiang: retired vascular surgeon & professor at UBC. He's now involved with the Canadian Society for Science & Ethics in Medicine, a group of 47 BC doctors who like billboards & claim to be fired for being unvaccinated. (You might note that York retired & was not fired.)
17/ Anna Kindy: physician from Campbell River who somehow went from 'I haven't seen harm from vaccines but addictions are worsening during the pandemic' to the usual COVID disinformation and eugenics ('COVID only hurts the elderly so let 'er rip').
18/ She speaks at We Unify Canada and Stand United events, supports people like Stephen Malthouse and Daniel Nagase, and still practices medicine.
19/ Michelle Riddle: occupational therapist from Powell River & a team lead for Stephan Malthouse's organization Canadian Health Alliance. CHA is a home for the usual disinformation & lies. They hold candlelight vigils for people that had to wear a mask at Costco that one time.
20/ Michelle has her own organization called Global Alliance for Our Children's Future. Their website doesn't exist any more but according to Facebook they are quite concerned about electromagnetic fields, another very common conspiracy running through far-right circles.
21/ The only truth in What's Up, Doc? is that you'll pay $40 to watch videos available on the internet for free, listen to people who would rather pander to the far right than engage in critical thinking, & navigate a dozen organizers all begging you to fund their other grifts.
1/ A short roundup on Diagolon over the last few days.
Diagolon was in Vancouver on Friday--or more specifically, Langley. They sent ticketholders to the parking lot of The Grove Church, then directed them down the street to the Langley Lions Society West Langley Hall.
2/ As the name suggests, the West Langley Hall is owned by the Langley @lionsclubs. If you aren't familiar, the Lions Club is an international service organization.
The hall is also managed in partnership with the municipality: the Township of Langley (@LangleyTownship).
3/ I would really like to know how @LangleyTownship--a BC municipality--feels about managing a venue that hosted neo-Nazis.
1/ A conference featuring a white nationalist that inspired terrorist attacks in New Zealand starts on June 21 in Victoria at the @CityOfVictoria Victoria Conference Centre.
BC Conservative leader John Rustad was a keynote speaker at the 2023 conference. From his presentation ⬇️
2/ Rustad says he felt inspired by the Freedom Convoy & thought it was just like the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, bringing Canadians together.
This is the sort of discourse that was taking place in Freedom Convoy channels in early February 2022. Sounds super warm and fuzzy, right?
3/ Rustad makes comments about ideologies driving division in this province. The far-right anti-2SLGBTQ+/anti-SOGI123 movement harming people in BC is apparently excluded, even though he literally just tried to dictate who can participate in sports. globalnews.ca/news/10460886/…
1/ SD 57's (Prince George) Board of Education dealt with significant upheaval when Chair Rachael Weber failed to shut down transphobic statements at a meeting, then just didn't talk to media. For months.
Look who's running for the notably anti-2SLGBTQ+ Conservative Party of BC.
2/ The CPBC promotes the re-emerging Parental Rights movement, which now focuses almost exclusively on sexual orientation & gender identity (SOGI) policies & resources at schools. The movement seeks to restrict diversity & inclusion at schools (though cis & hetero lessons fine).
3/ There have been a lot of hints that Weber likely aligned with at least some far-right causes through LinkedIn posts supporting JK Rowling, Rebel News & the Freedom Convoy.
2/ According to @homelesshub, an estimated 25-40% of unhoused youth identify as 2SLGBTQ+. This is likely underestimated because many young people don't feel safe disclosing gender identity or sexual orientation--if they're asked at all. cbc.ca/news/canada/no…
3/ Trans & nonbinary youth face the greatest barriers to using shelter systems when their needs are not taken into account, such as segregating sleeping spaces by sex or simply not accepting trans or nb youth. the519.org/education-trai…
1/ Wildfire safety is somehow now in the realm antifascist resistance. There were horrible far-right conspiracy theories when Lytton burned down in 2021. The conspiracies have grown exponentially this fire season, starting with the AB fires last month.
1🧵What happens when Board of Education trustees don’t act on anti-2SLGBTQ+ speech in a meeting? The Prince George District Teachers' Association (@PGTeachers) has been at an impasse with the SD57 Board of Education for over three months with no resolution in sight.
2/ In Dec 2022, Josh Silva spoke at a Board meeting, stating that children “confused about their gender” are on the rise in schools while complaining about “woke agendas.” Silva ran for trustee in the Oct 2022 elections & was part of the notably anti-2SLGBTQ+ PG Freedom group.
3/ At that meeting, Board Chair Rachael Weber thanked Silva, stating “It takes great courage to come to the mic and say what you did tonight, you were heard. Thank you for taking time from your life to come tonight to make sure that we listened.”