Invoices show that Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions, a Carney-adjacent facilities management giant, billed taxpayers $1,550 plus HST just to raise a Pride flag on August 14. Then take it down for a Truth & Reconciliation flag on September 27. Then take it down again on October 16 — complete with new anchors and eyebolts for next year.

The revolving door of symbolic flag choreography, all at the taxpayers' expense, was becoming clear.

Even more striking was Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s choice of “science outreach.” During federal service Pride Week, the agencies quietly hired a group called Science is a Drag™ — yes, that is a real trademark. According to invoices, the troupe cost taxpayers over $2,500. Their pitch? To use drag performances to promote ‘science literacy and public health.’

Health Canada’s justification reads like a government committee’s fever dream: drag “aligns with the mandates of Health Canada and PHAC by using performance as an innovative, culturally relevant way to promote science literacy.” In practice, this meant federal employees were invited to a glitter-powered show discussing mental health, STI prevention, and vaccination — delivered by cross-dressing performers in sequins and six-inch heels.

Health Canada claims the performances “build trust in evidence-based information,” but it can be said that it does the opposite, turning serious public-health issues into entertainment props.

Framed under “Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Action Plan” and the government’s Gender-Based Analysis Plus commitments, this kind of expenditure becomes immune to scrutiny, with criticism easily dismissed as intolerant or bigoted. It’s the kind of language that insulates questionable spending from accountability.

Meanwhile, Canadians face real crises: soaring living costs, collapsing mental-health services, addiction surges, and long wait times for care. Yet federal dollars are flowing into choreographed flag ceremonies and drag performances rather than frontline public health initiatives.

At a moment when public trust in science is low, perhaps the ‘experts’ are unaware that burlesque performances don’t replace competence. Credibility and trustworthiness aren’t restored with glitter, scripted routines, or revolving flag displays — it’s rebuilt with honest priorities, real results, and a commitment to evidence-based public health.

Until federal agencies recognize that science should be science — not a performance — Canadians will continue footing the bill for spectacles they never asked for, while the real work gets pushed to the wayside.

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