Alberta premier Danielle Smith, defiant and unrepentant, continues to slough off criticism of the report on Alberta’s COVID-19 response produced by her government’s a handpicked panel of vaccine skeptical and conspiracy-theory-influenced contributors.
“This is the kind of approach you should always expect from me,” she told a reporter at a news conference yesterday on another topic. “I will always seek out contrarian voices just to make sure I make the best decisions.”
Never mind the reactions of the Alberta and Canadian medical associations the day before yesterday, or the critical letter yesterday about the COVID “task force’s” inaccurate and misleading findings from a group of 67 researchers and academic physicians with expertise in such topics as infectious diseases, pediatrics, virology, vaccinology, immunology, respirology, public health, and epidemiology.
That letter, signed by the long list of experts that began with the name of Timothy Caulfield of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, urged Premier Smith, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange and the members of the Alberta Legislature to immediately reject the report’s recommendations.
“The report appears to be influenced by a limited perspective that emphasizes concerns over vaccines and favours treatments like ivermectin, a stance that does not reflect the broader scientific knowledge required for a comprehensive provincial health report,” it read in part. Ivermectin, of course, is the notorious veterinary de-worming paste beloved of enthusiasts of quack COVID cures like Premier Smith in her talk-radio era.
“While ongoing research continues to refine and enhance available options, improve benefit-to-risk ratios, and boost health outcomes, it is essential that policies are founded on ongoing robust and well-established scientific data, rather than misrepresented data,” the letter continued.
Arguably, it’s one thing to handpick a panel of experts in the social sciences to cook up an agreeable policy report, as former UCP premier Jason Kenney did with his “blue ribbon” finance panel that recommended cutting public sector salaries in 2019, but quite another thing to try the same stunt with the hard sciences.
But Premier Smith has now gone so deep into the MAGA netherworld that scientific expertise is presumably all the more reason to blow off the letter-writers’ urgent request that so-called “task force” report “be officially dismissed for use as a source of information for both public and provincial policy, as it inaccurately reflects the body of scientific evidence.”
The premier could have been channelling RFK Jr. during her news conference remarks: “Well, anyone who doesn’t think that science is a process of point-counterpoint, and then being able to synthesize information, is somebody who doesn’t believe in science, so I know there’s been a narrative, and the narrative has been enforced by shouting down contrarian voices, and that’s not what we’re going to do.
“We’re gonna listen to every voice and we’re gonna make our best assessment based on what we’re seeing with the evidence. And the evidence, um, has changed.”
“We’re gonna take a look at that, and obviously we’ll make some decisions,” she said.
So brace yourself, Alberta! What do you want to bet that the “contrarian voices” Ms. Smith ends up listening to are those of the panelists picked by Red Deer Emergency Room physician and former UCP nomination candidate Gary Davidson, who chose the contributors to the UCP report, the work of which seems largely to have been conducted in secret.
Among the recommendations included in the final version of the Davidson report were that COVID-19 vaccines be denied to healthy children, mask mandates be forbidden, and that COVID vaccines no longer be given to anyone without “full disclosure” of potential risks – a move seemingly designed to discourage adults from being immunized against the disease.
As reported here earlier this week, almost every one of the dozen members of the Davidson panel holds vaccine skeptical or related views common in the anti-vaxx online subculture. A 13th member listed in the first “final” version of the report, John Conly, late of the University of Calgary’s medical faculty, told The Globe and Mail he was not a member of the panel, didn’t endorse its conclusions, and had demanded his name be removed from the report.
Dr. Davidson, meanwhile, is scheduled to appear at a March 3 “Injection of Truth” town hall meeting in Calgary organized by Calgary-Lougheed United Conservative Party MLA Eric Bouchard, a leading light in the party’s influential if informal anti-vaxx caucus.
Dr. Davidson will be accompanied to the event two of the contributors to the report, David Speicher and Byram Bridle, a website for the event says.
Soon after the Davidson report was quietly posted by the government last week without a formal announcement, Mr. Bouchard called for immediate adoption of its recommendations, including a ban on COVID vaccines for young people.
Premier promises future nest egg, appoints Lougheed offspring to run it
Now, about that news conference, it was called to announce the government’s claim it is “taking action to grow the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund to $250 billion by 2050.”
The news release on the purported plan began with a tribute to Progressive Conservative premier Peter Lougheed’s establishment of the Heritage fund in 1976 and ended with the announcement the government has appointed Mr. Lougheed’s son, Joe, to head something called the Heritage Fund Opportunities Corp.
Why a new Crown corporation to manage the putative new Heritage fund is required was not immediately clear, but running it should give the younger Mr. Lougheed, a Calgary lawyer, something to do beyond lending his storied name to an enterprise that is unlikely to deliver on Ms. Smith’s promises of a huge future nest egg.
It will provide the government with a wonderful excuse not to fund needed public services in the name of balanced budgets, and it will also give the impression the UCP is not just pissing away money on tendentious $2-million COVID reports and the like.
According to the news release, the new Crown corporation will operate at arm’s length from the government. According to the UCP, the Alberta Investment Management Corp. also operates at arm’s length, although as noted in the last post on this topic, there is now reason to doubt that claim in AIMCo’s case.
In November 2012, the CBC reported Mr. Lougheed had billed the Alberta College of Art and Design more than $5,000 a month for government relations services. In May 2013, Alberta’s lobbyist registrar found he had not breached the Lobbyists Act when he performed the work between 2009 and 2011.
The public institution is now known as the Alberta University of the Arts.
Supposedly the 2 billion that was supposed to go into the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund but is being diverted into the HFOC will be invested in areas such as technology, energy or infrastructure. Will this mean new Alberta coal mines, AI data centres, pipelines, bitumen, oil and gas producers or refiners? Sounds like more opportunities for UCP grift. How long until they’re investigating public $ in cryptocurrency? I’m not holding my breath for 9% returns…
This stuff makes me cringe. But I guess that’s better than not knowing.
Hurtin’ Ab: It might mean putting money into all those dead ends, but it gets worse. On the Jan. 30/25 CBC Eyeopener program Minister Horner speculated about addressing fresh water wants in the US Midwest. So, apparently selling water is on his mind. He is ignorant of the fact almost the whole history of the middle east is 2,000 years of murder and war over scarce water. Alberta is already a dry area and looks to be getting more so. Meanwhile, Premier Smith and her Energy and Environment Ministers are busy enabling coal companies to contaminate what little fresh water we have with toxic waste from coal mines.
Their game plan seems to be to pollute the water, damage the ability of the eastern slopes of the Rockies water shed to capture more, and then sell the water to the Yanks. Downstream Alberta ranches, farms, towns, and cities can deal with the shortages and contamination. Talk about sucking and blowing at the same time.
Kang: When they grab our precious water, that’s going to push things over the limit. Danielle Smith is trying to get chummy with Donald Trump, and he will want the water from Canada. He has alluded to that.
Now we know why the UCP is so fond of trips to Las Vegas: they love gambling.
There goes the Heritage Savings Trust Fund down a silo. Presumably this one will be just as transparent as Jason Kenney’s War Room. Higher returns involve higher risk. With financial geniuses Danielle Smith and Nate Horner at the helm, what could go wrong? We know that university endowment funds were forced to pursue higher returns as government funding was cut back. Some of their investments have been controversial on ethical grounds, leading to student protests. Can we expect investments in things like spy tech surveillance similar to what is bring used in Greece on refugees? What about arms, and I’m not talking about octopi? Add in some bitcoin mines, maybe buy up all of the oil and gas produced in Alberta and sell it below market value? We might as well kiss the Heritage Savings Trust Fund good-bye right now. Let’s hope FINTRAC can figure it out.
And does this mean Danielle Smith is sticking around until 2050? Orange god help us all!
Given that Harper is president of Awz Ventures we can definitely expect investment in Israel and AI spy tech.
And banning vaccines is along the same lines of the AB govt interfering in doctor-patient confidentiality, once again deciding what is best for Albertans rather than letting us decide for ourselves. Another authoritarian move from the UCP – even conservative voters should be alarmed given how they like govt to keep out of their personal lives and individual freedoms.
Hello DJC,
Glad you are providing a voice of reason in this insanity. I wonder if there is any legal mechanism to sue the provincial government to force it to make vaccine available to the public. This report was a sad waste of government money. I skimmed the first 2 sections and it seemed to me to be “bunk”.
Christina: I have been asking myself the same question about legal mechanisms to force the Government of Alberta to provide vaccines. My guess is the way they would like to go with this is to force us to pay for vaccines if we want them, which would also act as a shoe in the door for even more privatization. DJC
The UCP conduct “Public Engagementl efforts in which they telegraph their intentions. Their budget survey made clear how this current version of a Heritage fund was their desire.
Unfortunately they don’t survey the public on specifying to which crony to funnel public money.
Looking at the “Under Review” from https://www.alberta.ca/search-public-engagements we can see publically insensitive, ideologically driven government plans upcoming for
– Professional Association regulation (allowing them to interfere with teachers, doctors etc),
– Civil Forfeiture (allowing them to seize assists from ‘criminals’ ), and
– Water Usage (another way to squeeze ‘leftie’ cities and pander to industry by reallocating public water usage – I predict farmers will complain)
The mention of the Kenny blue ribbon panel brought to mind an interesting coincidence I stumbled onto but could not get any mainstream reporters interested in. The panel recommendations resulted in the further privatization of hospital laundry services. One member of the panel also happened to be a board member of K-Bro Linen Systems that was awarded the contract.
It will be interesting to watch in coming months how the Covid task force members are further rewarded for their participation.
Speaking for myself, I can’t think of one instance where Danielle Smith “…make sure I make the best decisions” actually managed this assertion.
The Confederacy of Dunces that Smith used to stack her anti science, anti vax Covid panel is meant to normalize her idiotic views of the world. You tell a lie enough times, it becomes the truth. The funny thing is how many voters in this province believe this hokum. With views like this, imagine what the school curriculums will look like after TBA takes over the School Boards.
You know Smith is in deep trouble when she starts speaking the truth. Such as when she says this is what you can expect from her and seeking contrary opinions. Of course she is trying to spin unrepentant defiance as somehow noble and contrary opinions as somehow being balanced, when her panel was unfair and unbalanced. However, if candor was her goal she should have just said she remains a stubborn kook and left it at that.
Of course, she realizes sane people may not buy this, so she reaches for the next weapon in her political bag of tricks – changing the topic. How about that Heritage Fund? But if she thinks setting up a new entity will get a 9% rate of return, which is considerably better than Alberta and other pensions, then I have some magic beans to sell to the gullible that are guaranteed to grow over 20%.
You would think being so called out once might cause Smith to cut short her extended holiday from reality, but no instead she just chooses another imaginary destination.
…another one of Smith”s info sources was the Chiropractor that said until Stage 4, cancer can be treated with at home without a Doctor.
Where do people apply to be consultants for the Smith and the UCP, I have a Ouija board. It provide high quality predictions.
When all is done and said
All Albertans can feel is dread.
Because what Danielle listens to
Are not facts or anything true
But but the batshit crazy voices in her head.
Please don’t malign Bats. They have enough problems, especially in Alberta!
Just think of all the money AHS can save by not using those ineffective and freedom restricting face masks during surgery. Who needs those gloves either?
Exactly, and now imagine how much money they could save on soap by not washing of hands before surgery and routine patient care? It’s only a matter of time, until Batshit comes up with that brilliant idea.
Seriously- this right here is what boggles my mind about “face masks don’t work.” How about those folks in body shops painting cars with their mouth diapers on? Babies.
Not that I read the “report”, but I venture to guess that there was no mention of Mr. Patel’s “cure” that he has conjured from something which will reverse the effect of the mRNA vaccines used for the past several years to help suppress COVid 19 and variants. This is the Mr. Patel of Donnie the Sociopath’s choice for FBI head. Make American Grift Accelerate.
Meanwhile, apparently, Smith has requested that Alberta’s border with the US be closed.
Trump is such a bad boyfriend, to a woman so scorned.
What the hell was Queen Danielle thinking?
This is another disaster waiting to happen. The UCP doesn’t listen to the experts, or the proper medical authorities, or the science. In no way is this a surprise.
Danielle Smith is nothing if not consistent. She’s been contrary to point of ornery, mulishly stubborn stupidity since she was elected to a public school board trusteeship. No wonder she backs a Covid denier as lead author of this so-called study.
Gary Davidson, one of the many vaccine-denying authors of the report, was quoted recently as saying:
“There’s no such thing as consensus in science. That makes no sense,” [Davidson] said [on a podcast]. “Science is about questioning everything, experimenting and proving whether it’s true or not. That’s science. Consensus is a religion idea and I don’t think it belongs in this field, personally.”
(Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/covid-19-alberta-vaccine-task-force-1.7442816. Note that the podcaster was Chris Scott of Whistle Stop Café and anti-vax, anti-public-health infamy.)
Davidson’s final sentence is telling. The idea that “consensus” is religious, and therefore “unscientific,” is projecting a bullshit misunderstanding of how good science works. Real, original research is checked by your boss(es) before it’s published. Then you submit it to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. If the reviewers (who are recognized experts in whatever field you’re working in) approve, your work becomes available for anyone to read, to comment, and—most important—to duplicate and expand. That’s how good science is supposed to work.
Davidson seems to reject this time-tested framework. In fairness, he may be influenced by the erosion of the review process by time and budgetary pressures. Scientists gotta publish if they’re to compete for limited funding. That’s created a gaggle of “pre-publication” web sites that publish stuff that ranges from good science to hasty, ill-conceived notes to outright garbage. That latter includes the “papers” claiming ivermectin cures Covid-19. Here’s what actually happened when a properly conducted trial tested the claim:
https://www.kumc.edu/about/news/news-archive/jama-ivermectin-study.html
But science also is about accepting what’s been proven correct, while rejecting what’s not correct. That’s where the “consensus” comes into play.
Davidson apparently refuses to believe the proven facts that Covid-19 is still dangerous; that public-health measures work; that advice changed as we learned how Covid infects and kills people; and—the least forgivable of his mistakes—that mRNA vaccines are safe and effective. Those conclusions are the result of real-world experience. That’s what we’ve learned in five years of trying to keep people alive while Covid-19 ricocheted around the world, mutating as it went. That’s the “religious” consensus Davidson claims is “not science.”
Sounds to me like Davidson rejects the consensus because the consensus proves that he’s been wrong these five years past. And so, of course, Danielle Smith will agree with him, evidence be damned.
Mike J Danysh: If another pandemic happens, it’s going to get really bad in Alberta.
Exactly! Making good decisions – scientific or otherwise – is not rooted in automatically trusting contrarian perspectives simply because they challenge authority. But Smith and her ilk equate anything scientific with disinformation. The alt-right has amplified anti-intellectualism to the degree that many Albertans – prope, actually – don’t trust anything actually peer reviewed or researched and prefer anecdotes and conspiracy theories to truth. As a result, Smith thinks her immature, “You can’t tell me what to do! I mean… what’s true!” approach to public health is both wise and commendable. What’s disturbing is how many people fall prey to these tactics paired with rampant information manipulation.
Albert Einstein once said, of a book published early in the rise of the Nazis in Germany entitled “100 German Scientists Against Relativity”, that if he were wrong, 1 would have been enough.
As for Daniellezebub, will the next “contrarian” notion she’ll push be a flat Earth?
“This is the kind of approach you should always expect from me,” she told a reporter at a news conference yesterday on another topic. “I will always seek out contrarian voices just to make sure I make the best decisions.”
Ah yes, the student as aspiring Master speaks and the hypnotized dupes marvel at the calculated dissembling and disingenuous nonsense. Is it paltering, or is it the Big Lie? Perhaps it is an arcane combination and permutation of both methods common to professional, political bullshit artists: “A more subtle type of bullshit is practised when leaders facilitate or give credibility to rumours or patent lies. This is often used to de-legitimise political opposition.”
A hero and mentor of the talk radio personality/politician/lobbyist was described in the following way: “I’ve never seen the leader of a Conservative party, certainly not Bob Stanfield, certainly not Joe Clark, lie — I choose the word deliberately — the way Mr. Harper has.” Apparently, the student wishes to surpass the true Master in every way, as lying and post truth politics are now the accepted norm (as Imperial Power politics demonstrates), or de rigueur.
Now, it is worthwhile to carefully note that, “”Populism is like a wildcat — or a rogue oil or gas well — where there’s so much pressure from the bottom, it blows the platform, it blows oil all over the place. It could catch fire, it could be a very dangerous type of thing,” Manning told Rosemary Barton, host of CBC News Network’s Power & Politics. Manning said the best way to deal with a rogue well is to drill a relief line, which has to be deep enough to release pressure but not so deep that it blows up itself. “I think that’s the challenge for, particularly, the Conservative Party. Can they tap into that unrest in such a way that it reduces pressure but not to get blown away by it?””
The political stage show conducted by the disciple and all of accompanying political theater/PR bullshit is simply the practical application of Daddy Manning’s template for achieving and holding political power. Nothing more, nothing less.
I am so grateful for your insightful analysis and your undying efforts to present the facts -however distressing. Your cadre of commentators are equally of sound mind. Thanks X2
TENET: I do make an effort to attract quality commentators, and to weed the readership of noxious contributors from time to time. DJC
We all know that when Dani opens her mouth she lies. The hostility in the picture tells everyone the truth.
So if you suspect you have covid, go to your vet for your meds.
This will take some pressure off medical doctors.
I remember when contrarian scientific views were more correctly characterized as the quackery they were.
With the seemingly never ending supply of buffalo cookies coming from Marlain-a-lago, this one has me absolutely twitching……
Alberta Premier wants Canada to appoint a border czar….
DJC— if you will allow…
To Danielle Smith;
This is Canada!
This is neither the USA, nor is it Russia. You wanting to appoint a border “Czar ” ,is disgusting, despicable and IMHO totally disloyal, and a betrayal of your so-called Ukrainian ancestry.
Just a name, is as inconceivable as ‘ just a hand gesture ‘. And again you make a mockery of your professed care for Albertans and all Ukrainian Canadians.
I would think that if you are so gung ho on copying your heroes lead, you should either resign and move yourself across the border, the American Cherokee roots might qualify you to apply for a position down there, or as my dido would tell you “yede do packla” .
People came to Canada & the US to escape the tyranny of the Czars: and yet you want to recreate them. Like WTF??? What’s next? Overseers?
POGO: Knock 3 times, by special request— released in 2000, but somehow totally appropriate for today….Treble Charger
W.A.B… ( ?? Ahead of their time)
Well I prefer The Odds so I’ll give you a twofer.. my fave Treble Charger and my fave Odds. https://youtu.be/7fcg6KeQjNI?t=2 https://youtu.be/eimpocAKIv0 PS the Odds not only supported kids in the hall but predate WAB by over a decade.
Consensus is how we have organized society for hundreds of years, and it is in fact its evolution and flexibility that makes it so valuable. Consensus can change when new information is presented, but it must be information that reliably challenges the consensus, you must present significant evidence as you are not only advancing a new idea, but challenging the commonly held consensus that conventional wisdom w/r/t said topic has been based on.
When the “good” doctor says something like this; I would question not only his credentials but his grasp of the English language.
To quote:
“Science is about questioning everything, experimenting and proving whether it’s true or not. That’s science. Consensus is a religion idea and I don’t think it belongs in this field, personally.”
This is literally how we build consensus. People being people are imperfect, they make mistakes in logic and reason, and in things like basic calculations. This is what peer review is FOR.
What the good doctor is talking about is the strength of his convictions. What HE believes to be happening despite not having enough evidence to convince others and form a consensus. Ironically, he would be the one exhibiting religious like behaviour. He is saying that HIS convictions are the correct ones, despite all evidence, because of some sort of enlightenment, divine or otherwise, and we better listen to him, because he’s a high priest of medicine and we are all just peasants.
If I have uploaded this info before, my apologies. It just seems we’re at an inflection point and need some clarification.
The author, Harry G. Frankfurt, is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University. His book is titled “On Bullshit” (Princeton U. Press).
A must read, everyone. Well-read is well armed!
And thank you again, David, for all your work.
“I will always seek out contrarian voices just to make sure I make the best decisions.” – Sounds good until you consider that Smith has no discernible scientific or medical background to do so. Which is precisely why you leave decisions in these areas to QUALIFIED people. What a sorry state of leadership in this province.