MP Leslyn Lewis issues warnings on UN and smart cities

A Conservative MP who has twice contended for the party leadership is backing a petition for Canada to withdraw from the UN and warning that smart cities threaten privacy and autonomy.

“Over 60,000 Canadians have now signed a petition calling on Canada to protect our national sovereignty by withdrawing from the UN and its subsidiary organizations,” tweeted Lewis.

“The petition remains open for signature until February 7th.”

Petition e-4623 was initiated by Doug Porter of Burnaby, BC on October 10 2023 and sponsored by Lewis. It says Canada's membership in the UN and subsidiaries such as the World Health Organization “imposes negative consequences on the people of Canada, far outweighing any benefits.”

“Agenda 2030 and its operational ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG), Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), UN Judicial Review, International Health Regulations (IHR), One Health and similar programs are being rapidly implemented, absent the awareness and consent of the People or their elected representatives;” the petition states.

“SDGs have negative impacts on potentially every aspect of life, including religious and cultural values, familial relations, education, nutrition, child development, property rights, economic and agricultural productivity, transportation, travel, health, informed consent, privacy and physical autonomy.”

The petition complains that “normalization of sexual values and activities with regard to children” and “intrusive universal surveillance” were potential consequences of the preceding and served the interest of global organizations more than Canadians.

More than 66,000 Canadians have signed the petition, led by more than 22,000 Ontarians and 15,000 Albertans.

In a post to Twitter ("X") made Wednesday afternoon, the Liberal Party called on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to denounce the idea.

“In these challenging times, we need to be focused on working with our global partners, but one of Pierre Poilievre’s MPs thinks we should withdraw from the United Nations,” the post read.

“Pierre Poilievre needs to denounce this reckless idea immediately.”

The post included a picture of a November 7 headline from PressProgress that read, “Far-Right Conspiracy Groups Boost Conservative MP’s Petition to Remove Canada From The United Nations.”

Lewis also expressed concerns with smart cities in the past week. On December 30, she released a 17-minute video on Substack to outline the issue.

“In this video, I dig into the concerns around privacy and autonomy and where all of this could lead. We must understand the implications of these technologies before we are so far down the road that we’re unable to turn back.”

The video included a graphic the City of Edmonton submitted to Infrastructure Canada in response to the Smart Cities Challenge.

It said, “The privacy and security of our residents is top of mind and data is securely managed between partners.” It also recalled the Sidewalks Lab project Justin Trudeau announced for Toronto in 2017 in partnership with Google, which was abandoned during the pandemic.

“The greatest concern is the potential for increased tracking, surveillance, and data collection capabilities, whether it is tracking real time location, personal preferences or behavioural patterns. This technology inherently raises a host of privacy risks and concerns,” Lewis explained.

“The bigger the city project, the bigger the data pool needs to be. The more data collected, the greater the risk to personal privacy.”

Lewis said the smart city threat to autonomy would be to limit personal energy use, which would constrain freedom. A smart meter may constrain air conditioner use in a heat wave or heaters during a cold snap in winter. Data from smart fridge monitoring could discourage use of carbon-intensive products.

“They [smart cities technologies] are brought in with the promise of added convenience and making the planet healthier, but they can easily be used by those in power to enforce limits and restrict use to coerce changes in behaviours and choices that will lead to a net-zero carbon neutral economy,” Lewis warned.

A CSIS report in March said that smart cities could be hacked by foreign powers to harvest sensitive data and interfere in elections.