Bilderberg Conference

For anyone who doesn't know what the annual Bilderberg Conference is (and I had no idea until quite recently), I would recommend checking out this link to the Wikipedia entry. Since 1954, the very powerful of the world have been meeting roughly annually at this event (The first one was held in Holland in a hotel called the Bilderberg, hence the name).

Heads of state, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, CEO's of major world corporations and banks, EU commissioners have been among the guests at this event, which is ultra-secret and the goings on are never discussed.

The secrecy surrounding the event and the demographic in attendance have led many to believe that these are meetings of the world's "power brokers" that are spelling out our fate behind closed doors in a completely undemocratic fashion with absolutely no accountability to the public.

I obviously have no real idea on what goes on here, but I have to say I find the idea a bit creepy.

This year, our own new PM, Stephen Harper is going to be hosting the annual conference in Ottawa. Seems rather appropriate considering how much secrecy has surrounded the first few months of his term. I sure hope that someone will have the courage to ask what implications this conference has for Canada and what sort of message he's sending.

Story on Last Year's Conference from the Asia Times.

Canwest Story on this Year's Event in Ottawa.

BBC Story Providing Further Details on the Bilderberg Group.