Go Ad Free

On Tuesday's live stream, Lise Merle and Alexa Lavoie discussed reporting showing that leaders within the Canadian Armed Forces viewed the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on Canadian citizens.

According to the CBC, a newly released internal military report shows that "military members without training and enough oversight gathered intelligence without even knowing it constituted intelligence."

This occurred during 'Operation Laser', which was the military's response to COVID-19 and was used to collect information about public opinion during the pandemic.

Lise condemned the military leaders for spying on Canadians as they were forced to remain in their homes due to strict government mandates and edicts.

"Our military used the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic to make some liberal choices with their intelligence gathering of everyday Canadians," she said.

"It was a nonsensical operation from the very beginning. This was the Canadian Armed Forces, who took it amongst themselves on their personal computers and networks at home to spy on regular Canadians' thoughts and ideas while while those Canadians were having their lives destroyed by government actions," she continued.

Rather than focusing solely on supporting long-term care homes and northern communities as Operation Laser was intended, senior officers appeared to see the crisis as a convenient laboratory to experiment with influence techniques borrowed from overseas missions, eroding the trust Canadians place in their armed forces.

This domestic overreach highlights how emergency powers too often tempt institutions to treat law-abiding citizens as subjects to be managed rather than free people deserving of transparency and respect.