Pass on your personal data so that we don’t eat insects

Photo: Annik MH de Carufel Archives Le Devoir Le Parti conservateur du Canada cible les internautes déjà méfiants à l’idée d’être forcés à avaler des grillons.

Feeding Canadians insects: this is the Liberal government’s sneaky plan, warns Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre online. Three experts see this Conservative campaign instead as a cynical attempt to collect the personal data of angry and misinformed Internet users.

“Justin Trudeau is trying to impose a global woke agenda on Canadians,” reads a Conservative Party of Canada webpage illustrated with plump crickets and titled “We WILL NOT EAT insects.”

In mid-November, Pierre Poilievre invited his million subscribers on the social network X to “sign” this digital pamphlet, internally called “the insect petition.” The text is inspired by an article on the financial difficulties of a cricket protein factory mainly intended for animal feed located in London, Ontario, which has already received federal subsidies.

It also alleges that the Prime Minister is promoting a mandatory digital ID card, while assuring that, under the Conservatives, “no international organization will have the right to impose its policies on our country.” Below the short text, Internet users are invited to add their name, email address, postal code and telephone number.

Photo: Screenshot Screenshot of the Conservative Party of Canada campaign nicknamed “the insect petition,” on the CPC website

Exploiting a malaise

“There is a purely technical side, the party wants to update its email database in preparation for a campaign,” explains Alexandre Coutant, professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at UQAM.

But to do this, the Conservative Party of Canada has adopted a method of “recovering from the angry” on the Web, he says. “We take a subject that makes absolutely no sense if we treat it rationally, but which reflects on the other hand a feeling that things are not going well in society.”

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The strategy of the aspiring Prime Minister of Canada reminds him of the improbable allegation made by candidate Donald Trump during the American presidential debate that Haitian immigrants eat the dogs and cats of the inhabitants of Springfield, Ohio.

“It's the same. It's not a debate, ultimately, on the substance — should we eat insects or not — but an illustration of the extent to which progressive, Western, liberal, etc. thinking no longer makes sense.”

Reading this page on the website of the party that carries the legacy of John A. Macdonald, disinformation expert Marie-Ève ​​Carignan immediately recognized several conspiracy theories that abound on the Web.

“It's surprising, the way the slogan is formulated. I know that among people who adhere to theories according to which global elites want to control us, there are many things in there that will resonate,” analyzes the professor at the University of Sherbrooke and director of the media division of the UNESCO Chair in the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism.

Falsehoods Forgiven

University of Alberta professor and conservative movement expert Frédéric Boily says he is “not at all surprised” to read this new variation of a denunciation of “wokeism.” The operation also serves to identify voters with a conservative leaning and keep them mobilized, he believes.

Several Canadian politicians have adopted this approach in recent years, notably during the United Conservative Party leadership race in Alberta that sealed Premier Danielle Smith’s victory in 2022.

“There are almost no more sanctions for speeches that go too far,” says Frédéric Boily. “Exaggerations, now, the regional electorate doesn’t let that get to them too much. It’s not a factor when it comes time to vote. The urban electorate, in any case, doesn’t vote Conservative.”

Researcher Marie-Ève ​​Carignan adds that younger people also don’t hold it against those who make false or misleading speeches. A study of CEGEP voters found that “for them, there was a kind of notion of ‘ultra-tolerance.’” That is to say, every opinion was valid, whether good or bad, supported by facts or not, in the name of freedom of expression.”

Le Devoirrevealed in 2020 that Pierre Poilievre, then a backbencher, had collected at least 80,000 names of constituents under a petition opposing a planned “great reset” to get us out of the COVID-19 pandemic and heralding a “takeover” by “global elites.” The initiative was not supported by then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. Poilievre took his place in 2022.

Identifying your voters

This time, it’s impossible to see how many Internet users subscribed to the consensus idea that we shouldn’t impose a diet of crickets. The document is not an official petition from the House of Commons. The Conservative Party of Canada refused to reveal to Devoir how it intends to use the personal data collected.

“The Liberals gave $9 million in tax-funded aid to an edible insect factory. A common-sense Conservative government will put an end to this weird woke waste,” the party’s communications director, Sarah Fischer, simply responded in an email.

One of the main goals of today’s big political machines is to identify potential voters and, when the day comes, remind them to go to the polls. The recent by-election in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun showed the critical importance of having the most complete list of voters possible, a weakness of the Liberal campaign. Their party bit the dust in this stronghold despite a flawless get-out-the-vote operation, reported Le Devoir.

On the merits of the case, the federal government produces Canada’s Food Guide, which does not contain any specific recommendations for eating insects. “No, the Government of Canada will not force Canadians to eat insects,” Samantha Seary, senior communications advisor at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, confirmed to Devoir.

She added that Aspire Food Group, an Ontario company that manufactures low-impact cricket protein, is required to repay all funding provided by the Government of Canada in 2022.