Tag: Social Engineering

In the third and final installment of The Consultant and the Keepers series, we examine the internal collapse of the Screaming Eagles opposition group and the emotional unraveling that followed. Using the recent all-caps posts by Coreen Tourout as a lens, this piece explores how Newfoundland’s resistance movements often replicate the very dysfunctions they claim to fight. While factions implode and narratives are hijacked, the Kitchen sisters remain focused on the bigger picture—emerging governance frameworks, stakeholder influence, and the quiet restructuring of local authority. This article connects the public meltdowns to deeper systems of control and offers a warning: when chaos becomes the norm, real resistance risks being written out of the story. Read More...

Following a staged photo-op with SSHRC-backed researcher Nick Mercer, Newfoundland’s local resistance to industrial wind development fractures into infighting. This editorial unpacks how federal consultants exploit emotional divisions to construct curated opposition narratives, neutralizing dissent while capturing optics. Drawing from Van Assche’s "Local Paradox" theory, it reveals how narrative control replaces real governance in vulnerable communities. Read More...

This is a closer look at how federal consultant Nick Mercer embedded himself in a local resistance movement and used a single photo-op to manufacture the illusion of dialogue, trust, and consent. Framed in smiles and solidarity, the image was anything but neutral—it served as a calculated piece of policy theatre, transforming grassroots opposition into optics that support Newfoundland’s top-down Net Zero agenda. Read More...