1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

Military Leaders Saw Pandemic As Unique Opportunity To Test Propaganda
On Canadians: Report

https://nationalpost.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-leaders-saw-pandemic-as-unique-opportunity-to-test-propaganda-techniques-on-canadians-forces-report-says/



A plan devised by the Canadian Joint Operations Command relied on
propaganda techniques similar to those employed during the Afghan
war...

Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to
test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public, a newly
released Canadian Forces report concludes.

The federal government never asked for the so-called information
operations campaign, nor did cabinet authorize the initiative
developed during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Canadian Joint
Operations Command, then headed by Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau.

Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau PHOTO BY ADRIAN WYLD /The Canadian Press

But military commanders believed they didn’t need to get approval from
higher authorities to develop and proceed with their plan, retired
Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gosselin, who was brought in to investigate the
scheme, concluded in his report.

The propaganda plan was developed and put in place in April 2020 even
though the Canadian Forces had already acknowledged that “information
operations and targeting policies and doctrines are aimed at
adversaries and have a limited application in a domestic concept.”

A copy of the Dec. 2, 2020, Gosselin investigation, as well as other
related documents, was obtained by this newspaper using the Access to
Information law.

The plan devised by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, also known
as CJOC, relied on propaganda techniques similar to those employed
during the Afghanistan war. The campaign called for “shaping” and
“exploiting” information. CJOC claimed the information operations
scheme was needed to head off civil disobedience by Canadians during
the coronavirus pandemic and to bolster government messages about the
pandemic.

A separate initiative, not linked to the CJOC plan, but overseen by
Canadian Forces intelligence officers, culled information from public
social media accounts in Ontario. Data was also compiled on peaceful
Black Lives Matter gatherings and BLM leaders. Senior military
officers claimed that information was needed to ensure the success of
Operation Laser, the Canadian Forces mission to help out in long-term
care homes hit by COVID-19 and to aid in the distribution of vaccines
in some northern communities.

BLM organizers have questioned why military officials gathered
information on their initiative, pointing out they followed pandemic
rules and did not hold any gatherings outside LTC homes.

Then chief of the defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance shut down the CJOC
propaganda initiative after a number of his advisers questioned the
legality and ethics behind the plan. Vance then brought in Gosselin to
examine how CJOC was able to develop and launch the propaganda
operation without approval.

Gosselin’s investigation discovered the plan wasn’t simply the idea of
“passionate” military propaganda specialists, but support for the use
of such information operations was “clearly a mindset that permeated
the thinking at many levels of CJOC.” Those in the command saw the
pandemic as a “unique opportunity” to test out such techniques on
Canadians.

The views put forth by Rear Adm. Brian Santarpia, then CJOC’s chief of
staff, summed up the command’s attitude, Gosselin noted in his report.

    “This is really a learning opportunity for all of us and a chance
to start getting information operations into our (CAF-DND) routine,”
the rear admiral stated.

The command saw the military’s pandemic response “as an opportunity to
monitor and collect public information in order to enhance awareness
for better command decision making,” Gosselin determined.

Gosselin also pointed out CJOC staff had a “palpable dismissive
attitude” toward the advice and concerns raised by other military
leaders.

The directive for the propaganda plan was issued by CJOC on April 8,
2020, but it took until May 2 of that year before Vance’s order to
shut it down took effect.

Gosselin recommended a comprehensive review of Canadian Forces
information operations policies and directives, particularly those
that may impact any activities for domestic missions.

There is an ongoing debate inside national defence headquarters in
Ottawa about the use of information operations techniques. Some public
affairs officers, intelligence specialists and senior planners want to
expand the scope of such methods in Canada to allow them to better
control and shape government information that the public receives.
Others inside headquarters worry that such operations could lead to
abuses, including having military staff intentionally mislead the
Canadian public or taking measures to target opposition MPs or those
who criticize government or military policy.

Military propaganda training and initiatives within Canada over the
last year have proved to be controversial.

The Canadian Forces had to launch an investigation after a September
2020 incident when military information operations staff forged a
letter from the Nova Scotia government warning about wolves on the
loose in a particular region of the province. The letter was
inadvertently distributed to residents, prompting panicked calls to
Nova Scotia officials who were unaware the military was behind the
deception. The investigation determined the reservists conducting the
operation lacked formal training and policies governing the use of
propaganda techniques were not well understood by the soldiers.

Yet another review centred on the Canadian Forces public affairs
branch and its activities. Last year, the branch launched a
controversial plan that would have allowed military public affairs
officers to use propaganda to change attitudes and behaviours of
Canadians as well as to collect and analyze information from public
social media accounts.

The plan would have seen staff move from traditional government
methods of communicating with the public to a more aggressive strategy
of using information warfare and influence tactics on Canadians.
Included among those tactics was the use of friendly defence analysts
and retired generals to push military PR messages and to criticize on
social media those who raised questions about military spending and
accountability.

The Canadian Forces also spent more than $1 million to train public
affairs officers on behaviour modification techniques of the same sort
used by the parent firm of Cambridge Analytica, the company implicated
in a 2016 data-mining scandal to help Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential
election campaign.

The initiative to change military public affairs strategy was abruptly
shut down in November after this newspaper revealed details about the
plan. A military investigation determined what the Canadian Forces
public affairs leadership was doing was “incompatible with Government
of Canada Communications Policy (and the) mission and principles of
Public Affairs.” None of the public affairs leadership was disciplined
for their actions.

Several months ago, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre
and DND deputy minister Jody Thomas acknowledged in an internal
document that the various propaganda initiatives had gotten out of
control. “Errors conducted during domestic operations and training,
and sometimes insular mindsets at various echelons, have eroded public
confidence in the institution,” noted a June 9, 2021, message signed
by Eyre and Thomas. “This included the conduct of IO (Information
Operations) on a domestic operation without explicit CDS/DM direction
or authority to do so, as well as the unsanctioned production of
reports that appeared to be aimed at monitoring the activities of
Canadians.”