Students of the Bible—basically Christians who read their Bibles regularly—are familiar with the defeat of Israel at the ancient city of Ai. Expecting to follow up on their resounding success at Jericho, the children of Israel were utterly humiliated in their first attempt to capture Ai. They were defeated because there was “sin in the camp.” What a lesson for us all! God did not allow Israel to succeed as long as they tolerated sin.

Today, our nation is saturated with sin, from the slaughter of the innocent pre-born (over 4 million babies have been sacrificed in Canada by abortion on the altar of convenience) to the rejection of God’s design for marriage and sexuality, to the flagrant violation of His precepts surrounding economics (piling up debt and watering down the currency). God cannot be pleased with Canada today and will not bless us with victory over all the challenges we face as long as we refuse to acknowledge Him and His sovereignty over our affairs. As a nation, we tolerate sin and act as if these things are simply a part of modern society. We have gotten used to immoral behaviour and take political corruption for granted.

It should not surprise us that we have rampant crime and violence in our cities, raging inflation and growing poverty afflicting even our former middle class, the destruction of thousands of hectares of forests by wildfires and the disrespect of our founders by a disillusioned and misguided segment of our population. We—through our elected leaders, our unelected judges and our taxpayer-funded media—have continued to borrow money for ungodly causes and to train our little ones to reject God’s Word as the ultimate source of truth and wisdom. We’ve allowed Christ-haters to occupy the high places of our institutions: Parliament, the Supreme Court and institutions of “higher learning.” Until we begin to take back the reins of power and re-assert the authority God intended His people to walk in, we cannot win the social, cultural and economic battles ahead.

One of those battles has to do with modern-day AI (Artificial Intelligence). We hear talk of AI data centres springing up all around the world. There’s even talk of them being built in outer space, where cooling may be less of a problem. Meanwhile, there are specific plans and proposals being drawn up to build massive AI data centres in Canada and some very serious proposals to build several in Alberta. Meta—the over-arching corporate business that includes Facebook, Instagram and other subsidiaries—is offering to spend $13 billion to build one in Sturgeon County, Alberta. So far, that one seems to be going ahead, in spite of rising local resistance.

Residents of Olds, Alberta put enough pressure on government agencies that a proposed $10 billion AI project there has been canceled—at least for now. The project proponent—Synapse Data Centre Inc.—was prepared to build a power generating facility fuelled by Alberta natural gas to supply or offset the anticipated 1Gigawatt of electricity per day that the data centre was expected to consume. That’s about the same amount of electricity as is used by the entire city of Edmonton!

Electricity use and the need for massive amounts of cooling water are two of the main issues raised by opponents of these hyper-scale AI data centres. Local residents also speak of noise pollution and emissions of waste into the air and water. There are additional concerns about the loss of agricultural land and frequently a lack of consultation with and feedback from local citizens.

Proponents of these data centres speak glowingly about the benefits of major new non-resident revenues, high-paying jobs both in construction and operations and the importance of creating new opportunities for business. In the USA, the urgency of developing new research and innovation capabilities “ahead of China” is often touted. Some fear that if other nations build and operate bigger AI data centres, they will use that increased computational leverage to gain military and economic advantage. Those concerns cannot be entirely discounted. But must we be forced to organize our economic engines around a system that fits so well into the plans of globalists, international bankers and the planners of digital ID, digital surveillance and the nanny state?

There is no doubt that AI will be used to surveil and analyze our behaviour. Biometric data, photos and video records, financial transactions and political activities are some of the data that will flow in and out of these facilities. China’s facial recognition technology and social credit controls may easily be introduced into the mix if globalist influencers in our government have their way.

We’ve all noticed in the past year, a huge increase in “deep-fake” videos. The new tools and technologies employed by today’s content-creators have made it possible to simulate almost anything that can be imagined. We have already seen realistic video images of real people doing and saying things they have never done or said, including things that would be physically impossible in the real world in which we live. Indeed, this capacity to create false and misleading videos—which is used and misused by millions today—has made it very difficult, nearly impossible, for the average person to determine which amazing videos are real and which are fantasy.

The Bible predicts that the coming Antichrist will deceive—“if it were possible—even the elect of God.” All Canadians, and especially Christians, need to exercise our powers of discernment. Each of us has a responsibility to NOT be deceived. That responsibility extends to our political loyalties, our business ventures, our school choices, our investments, our relationships and our beliefs. In terms of government policies and questions about land use and stewardship of our resources, we are confronted with an increasingly complicated array of choices. Canadians differ in their approach to land use, technology, personal autonomy and the rightful role of government. When these issues are debated in Parliament, in legislatures and in municipal councils, we need to show kindness and respect to those who think differently than we do; we have a responsibility to listen to those with whom we disagree, to weigh their words carefully, but also to express our own point of view clearly, even if it is a minority opinion. The decisions we make today regarding AI data centres and how they will be used may have huge impacts tomorrow on the kind of country we live in and the kind of society we pass on to our children.

AI data centres are not the answer to our economic problems. They are a challenging aspect of our emerging technological reality. We need to evaluate their benefits and their potential hazards and have meaningful dialogue at the local, provincial and federal levels to ensure that major projects like AI will benefit—and not harm—the communities in which they are built. The Christian Heritage Party recognizes the potential danger that AI may be used against Canadian citizens; the following was added to our Policy Book at our Convention in 2021: REGULATION AND CONTROL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) The regulation and control of artificial intelligence (AI) must protect a person’s human rights, freedoms, security and property from AI harm or encroachment and legislate protection of every person from interference or control by AIs and similar constructs or systems.

Join us at CHP Canada and help us protect the rights and freedoms of all Canadian citizens.