Tony Gosgnach
The Interim
Global conspiracy theories received an added boost recently when a meeting of the secretive Bilderberger group was held in King City, Ontario.
The attendance list of 120 at the June 1-2 meeting read like a who’s who of current and former powerbrokers and shakers in world affairs—Henry Kissinger was there, as were US defense secretary William Perry, use presidential adviser Gorge Stephanopoulos and Senator Sam Nunn.
From Europe cam French Socialist party first secretary Lionel Jospin ad the queens of Spain and the Netherlands. Canada was well represented, with Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Ontario Premier Mike Harris attending.
As usual, no reporters were allowed at the Group’s 4th meeting, which was hosted by newspaper magnate Conrad Black. “No resolutions are proposed, no votes taken and no policy statements issued,” said the Group’s news release.
According to organizer James Hyslop, the Secrecy was attended to give attendees the opportunity to escape public attention for a while and bounce ideas off each other in a realized atmosphere. “It eliminates the fear of being misquoted,” he said.
But the meeting served as a flashpoint for conspiracy discussions on the Internet computer network, with some claiming it was part of a plan toward a one-world, totalitarian, socialist government and economic system.
However, John Carson, a professor at the University of Toronto, downplayed that theory and suggested those who hold to it have watched too many episodes of the X-Files, a television program about the paranormal.
Campaign Life Coalition present Jim Hughes said the meeting was a gathering of “The world’s muckety-mucks making economic decisions which have tremendous impact on tour social policies.” He lumped the Bilderbergers in with other global groups such as the Club of Rome and the Council of Foreign Relations.
“The information on them is sketchy,” he said. “None of these groups, in my opinion, are friends of the family at all. They are people who do not have the family foremost in their thought, and, as such, are not people who can be supported.”
Hughes expressed disappointment that Ontario Premier Harris attended. “It’s terribly frustrating,” he said. “But then, Harris doesn’t come out with a strong pro-family position, so why be surprised. You keep hoping you’re going to get somebody new who actually takes a stand. So far, I haven’t seen that person emerge.”
Choose Life Canada executive director Gloria Lawrenson has long been a student of global affairs and received firsthand experience when she attended the United Nations conference on women last year in China.
“My impression is (the Bilderbergers) are the economic side of the one-world government,” she said. “They’re the bankers and the economists.”
She noted that despite association with a socialistic scheme, the Group defies easy categorization as a left-wing or right-wing entry.
“Last year, Albertans paid for Primer Ralph Klein to fly to Switzerland for the meeting,” she said. “What confuses people is that figures like Ralph Klein, Conrad Black and Mike Harris are there. They’re normally associated with the right wing and that throws us off track…(but) weather the elitists come from the left or the right, they’re equally dangerous.”
According to former US government official Gary Kah, the Bilderberger Group is named after the Netherlands hotel in which it first met in 1954 with the goal of regionalizing Europe. It consists of the power elites from North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries.
Kah says the Group is funded by major institutions including the Ford and Rockefeller foundations (both Ford Motor Co. chair Alex Trotman and David Rockefeller attended the King City meeting) and served as the seedbed for the union of the European Economic community.
He claims the Bilderberger’s overriding purpose is to help establish a world government.
