Canadian Politics

[itchy]

9 hours ago, WildPath said:

Not to mention the favourite to be their next leader has never had a real job, yet is the great hero of the working class. I'll never understand how people who have nothing in common with working class people and likely have disdain for them (Trump/PP) can be seen as their champion that is fighting the elites for them....

You could put Scheer in that category too.

[blue_gold_84]

10 minutes ago, itchy said:

You could put Scheer in that category too.

[HardCoreBlue]

11 hours ago, WildPath said:

Not to mention the favourite to be their next leader has never had a real job, yet is the great hero of the working class. I'll never understand how people who have nothing in common with working class people and likely have disdain for them (Trump/PP) can be seen as their champion that is fighting the elites for them....

What's more fascinating to me some of us working class people will vote for these wingnuts not because we necessarily believe and/or even like them but it's because they give the lib supporters a hard time so that's awesome.

Own the libtards even though I'm getting pooched.

Wow. 

[Wideleft]

The Plymouth Brethren Church story has a Manitoba element (and it's not new):

NEW

Manitoba Government Gave $50 Million to Companies Linked to Secretive Religious Sect

COVID-19 contracts worth tens of millions of dollars went to businesses linked to a secretive sect that operate out of the same building

 

by Emily Leedham, Prairies Reporter

June 9, 2022

 

Manitoba’s government gave nearly $50 million in emergency COVID-19 contracts to a group of businesses linked to a controversial and secretive religious sect.

Other businesses linked to the little-known sect have received significant sums of money elsewhere for similar contracts, including millions from Doug Ford’s government in Ontario and over £2 billion for PPE contracts in the United Kingdom.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, also known as the “Exclusive Brethren,” is a small and reclusive religious sect with only 50,000 members around the world, mainly in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In Canada, they are believed to have fewer than 10,000 members.

The PBCC were the subject of a recent CityNews documentary that brought to light disturbing allegations from former members detailing how they were cut off from friends and families under the PBCC’s “doctrine of separation.” The PBCC disputes these claims and denies it is a “cult.”

In a previous statement to PressProgress, the PBCC explained: “We are not secretive, but we are often misunderstood.”

Many brethren are also linked to a global network of “3,000 family businesses” affiliated with the church’s “Universal Business Team,” which provides “advisory and group buying services.”

According to public records, Manitoba’s Ministry of Central Services gave four businesses linked to PBCC members six emergency contracts totaling $49.8 million for medical equipment and supplies.

These six contracts accounted for 12.5% of Manitoba’s Ministry of Central Services initial $400 million COVID-19 emergency budget in 2020.

A number of those businesses were previously identified in a 2014 Winnipeg Free Press investigation as being linked to PBCC members.

 

ICYMI — A look inside the secretive and strict Plymouth Brethren sect in Manitoba by @BillRedekop: http://t.co/10WNMFEXka #longreads

— Winnipeg Free Press (@WinnipegNews) May 11, 2014

Central Dental Solutions, a Winnipeg-based supplier of dental equipment owned by PBCC member John Haldane, received 3 contracts totalling $37.5 million for emergency products and services from the Manitoba government.

Acure Safety & First Aid, whose President is PBCC member Leonard Cavenagh, received two emergency contracts worth $11.44 million.

Meditek, whose General Manager Chris Samuels is a PBCC member, is listed as having received one emergency contract in April for $780,000.

Cavenagh and Samuels are both listed as directors of a Winnipeg-based trust established to purchase property for the purpose of “gospel preachings.”

Central Dental, Acure Safety and Meditek are also all listed as tenants, along with a a handful of other PBCC-linked businesses, in a two-story building located next to Winnipeg’s airport.

Two additional Manitoba government contracts worth $70,759 were awarded to a BC-based oil company called Klondike Lubricants, whose founders are both PBCC members.

According to the Government of Manitoba’s records, the oil company was given a $38,400 contract in early April 2020 for medical instruments and equipment only two weeks after Manitoba declared a state of emergency and most of Canada had entered its first pandemic lockdown.

The brethren-linked oil company was awarded a second $32,359 contract in May 2020 to provide the Government of Manitoba with soap and hand sanitizer.

(more: https://pressprogress.ca/manitoba-government-gave-50-million-to-companies-linked-to-secretive-religious-sect/ )

[blue_gold_84]

This provincial ******* gov't...

[Wideleft]

Excerpts from Bill Redekop's 2014 article (not sure if it's paywalled):

*It's a long read!

The closed-door church

Inside the secretive and strict Plymouth Brethren sect in Manitoba

The Plymouth Brethren discourage interaction between their followers and outsiders, and the church encompasses all aspects of social and professional life for its members. Critics say it has gone from being a Christian sect to full-blown cult.

By: Bill Redekop

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Saturday, May. 10, 2014

 

 

STONEWALL — Quietly, and out of earshot of Winnipeg, Stonewall had its own mini "British Invasion" a decade ago.

Newcomers from England started to descend on this town just north of Winnipeg that has historically been a limestone quarry and agricultural service centre. They bought homes, started businesses, built a church — all the usual stuff.

Stonewall councillors were pleased their town was chosen by the English-speaking immigrants. Local residents were charmed, as North Americans tend to be, by how the newcomers snapped off their words with British accents.

But residents soon found there was something different about the newcomers. They didn’t want much to do with the townsfolk. They wouldn’t socialize with them, other than a few words on the street or in a store. It wasn’t long before local people started to regard them as "standoffish," as one Stonewall resident put it.

In time, the community learned the newcomers were from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC), a religious sect that practises "separateness" from the rest of society. The two-metre-high  iron fence around their church attests to that.

It’s one of the few physical barriers. Most Plymouth Brethren barriers are social. They won’t eat in the same room as non-members, including in restaurants. Brethren are not even allowed to visit the homes of non-Brethren, or "worldly people." They don’t go to the cinema, the theatre or sporting events.

Plymouth Brethren are sometimes thought of as a British version of Hutterites, without the colonies. Both are conscientious objectors to military service; neither group votes; both forbid television and radio in their homes. The Brethren forbid computers with anything other than email functions and some business software, and all their computers and programs are purchased from a Brethren-owned company.

Plymouth Brethren also maintain a dress code, but not one as rustic or obvious as that of Hutterites.

Brethren women are required to wear ankle-length skirts, long hair and some kind of head covering — it used to be a kerchief but now is often a ribbon. The attire is urban, individualized, and becoming less strict to the point where women are now seen wearing designer clothes with hem lines climbing to knee level.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

A seven-foot-high steel fence surrounds the Plymouth Brethren Meeting Hall in Stonewall.

Men dress business casual. They keep their hair short and are clean-shaven — not even sideburns are allowed. While that doesn’t sound like it would set the men apart, it does.

"They are conspicuously well-scrubbed," said a Stonewall resident who has had dealings with the Brethren.

This "new" Christian sect has actually been in Manitoba since the 1880s. The Stonewall group was only the most recent wave. Plymouth Brethren are also in Winnipeg (Charleswood) and the village of Woodlands, not far from Stonewall in the Interlake.

It’s a group that shows quite remarkable business acumen. The Plymouth Brethren bought up half of Stonewall’s industrial park upon arrival, and immediately set up a cluster of companies.

But attempts to learn more about the sect and interview its members showed how it has managed to stay under the radar.

BRETHREN’S BUSINESS IMPACT

There are a remarkable number of Brethren-owned family businesses in Manitoba for a religious sect of just 450 members.

The Free Press counted at least 25 small businesses, and there are undoubtedly more. It’s not clear why members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church are so successful in business. That companies can receive interest-free loans through Brethren might be part of the answer.

Business is a big part of being a Brethren today. Virtually all Brethren work for companies owned by Brethren families. However, PBCC doctrine stipulates that companies stay small.

Winnipeg companies owned by Brethren members include Acure Medical Equipment, Officescape, and Central Dental Supply Ltd., all owned by John Haldane; Applifast Inc.; Insign Architectural Signage; Chemwest Supply; Van Extras; FRS Group Inc.; Acure Safety; Insta-Foil Specialties; Acculift Airmax Inc; Excel Interiors; Meditek; Western Enivronmental Canada, and NP2 (an advertising agency).

In Stonewall, Brethren own at least half the industrial park off Highway 67. Like elsewhere, they do not belong to the local chamber of commerce because that is forbidden. Stonewall companies include Accent Group; Mitybilt Products Inc; Paragon Securities; Arrow Specialties; Lakeland Group and Universal Business Team.

Woodlands-area companies include Northstar Enterprises and Arrow Farmquip, and North American Rail Products Inc. is next door in Argyle.

Plymouth Brethren don’t believe in a church hierarchy. There is no formally designated church leader, such as a salaried priest or pastor, so when I called recently to request an interview, there was no official spokesperson — and no one who felt comfortable speaking for the group.

After about a week of phone calls and numerous referrals, two Brethren men finally agreed to be interviewed — then each cancelled as the interviews neared. Both said they were too busy.

Negotiations continued. Dates were submitted for interviews. I explained my mission was merely to write about a unique immigrant group outside the city, which was entirely true. Upon request, I forwarded a list of questions.

Despite all the negotiations, I was ultimately turned down. All of this took place over a period of three weeks. Ex-Plymouth Brethren members later told me I was being played; strung along until I tired and perhaps gave up on the story.

I fared little better making cold calls to businesses run by Plymouth Brethren in Stonewall. Everyone said they were too busy to talk. At the fifth business I visited, Charles Deayton, at Universal Business Team, which provides consulting and training services to businesses, said he had been expecting me. Word had traveled quickly that a Free Press reporter was making the rounds.

Deayton was candid yet considerate. He basically told me I had the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of getting an interview with a member of the Plymouth Brethren.

"We don’t want to be all over the newspaper," he said. A colleague beside him was more curt. "We’re not interested. We’ve got work to do. Thanks for coming."

All of which is not to imply the Plymouth Brethren here are bad people. They are good and productive community members, most people say. Their businesses have been major contributors to the tax base of Stonewall and provide jobs for many non-Brethren as well as Brethren.

When I googled Universal Business Team, I learned it has offices in 19 countries, mainly assisting other Brethren businesses. But I also saw Universal Business Team is the subject of criticism from a group called PEEB, People Escaping Exclusive Brethren, or "leavers," as they call themselves. (Exclusive Brethren is another name for the most isolationist branch of Plymouth Brethren, which is the one practising in Manitoba.)

A website run by the ex-Brethren also popped up: www.wikipeebia.com. It contained lengthy testimonials from leavers and it included a pull-down window listing "confirmed suicides" of former Plymouth Brethren members. That was my first red flag.

Another red flag was the Plymouth Brethren private school in Stonewall, Sterling North Academy. The grades 3-12 school employs a full complement of certified public-school teachers — but none are Plymouth Brethren. Why would a group that arrived over a hundred years ago not have at least some of its own teachers? There are dozens of Hutterites with university degrees teaching across Manitoba.

Plymouth Brethren got their name because their first assembly was in the English port town of Plymouth, more famously known as the departure point for the pilgrims who settled in the United States in the early 1600s.

The Plymouth Brethren formed in 1830 as a breakaway sect from the Anglican church. As so often happens with religious groups, the Brethren thought the main church was becoming too worldly, and set up a doctrine of separation from the world.

Another core belief among Plymouth Brethren is the "rapture." Some historians believe the concept of rapture was even started by the PBCC and later adopted by evangelical groups in the United States. The rapture is judgment day, when God will supposedly sweep up to heaven only the true believers — there are about 46,000 Plymouth Brethren worldwide — and destroy the rest of the planet’s seven billion people in a great conflagration.

Edward Pearce Langrell, the first of the Plymouth Brethren to arrive in Manitoba, settled in Woodlands in the 1880s. He was acquainted with John Nelson Darby of Ireland, the founder of the Plymouth Brethren. Langrell became the first principal at Warren Elementary School. Today, there are 15 Langrells in the Woodlands phone directory.

Plymouth Brethren are now headquartered in Australia, which has about 15,000 members. A similar number resides in Britain, and New Zealand also has a sizeable population. A year ago, six big bus coaches full of Brethren from Australia and New Zealand visited fellow Brethren in Manitoba as part of a cross-country tour.

Even though Plymouth Brethren have been in Manitoba for well over a century, primarily in Winnipeg (Charleswood) and Woodlands, they have surfaced in news stories in the Winnipeg Free Press only about 10 times. By comparison, the Free Press runs about 10 stories a year on Hutterites.

One of the stories was about a Brethren protest against having to join unions in Manitoba (1972); another was about members in Vancouver not wanting their children subjected to computers in schools (1990s).

There were also two curious wire stories out of London, England, dated 1964. The stories concerned then Brethren leader Jim Taylor Jr., who had left London ahead of schedule for the United States amid denunciation from the British Parliament, the British press and even the Methodist Church for breaking up families.

The stories described the Plymouth Brethren as a "small, very strict, secretive nonconformist sect" that abides by a strict interpretation of this Biblical text: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."

One British MP produced a list of 60 families that he claimed had been split up by the Brethren. A British woman claimed her husband left her after 31 years marriage because she bought a radio and television.

While the Brethren have always practised separation from the rest of society, they were more mainstream prior to the 1960s. Then, Taylor Jr. started to put his stamp on things. The Brethren have their own pope-like figure, called the Man of God. Taylor Jr. served in that role from 1959-70. He had a predilection for making up rules. It was Taylor Jr. who introduced the hard-line doctrine of separateness, starting with banning members from eating and socializing with non-members.

The rules included everything from banning men from wearing shorts (thy naked, spindly legs are an abomination, presumably) to who should take out the garbage (that falleth to the husband, naturally).

One decree from Taylor Jr. was that Brethren farmers could no longer live on the same property as their livestock. Since the Brethren near Woodlands were largely cattle ranchers, the edict triggered a small housing boom there. Brethren farmers to this day must commute to their farms.

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN DON’TS

Appearance

• Don’t cut your hair (female)
• Don’t have facial hair or long hair (male)
• Don’t wear shorts (female & male)
• Don’t wear trousers (female)
• Don’t wear make-up (female)
• Don’t wear any other colour of shirt than white on Sunday (male)
• Don’t smoke, chew tobacco or chew gum

At home

• Don’t use or own radios or television
• Don’t go to the movies, theatres, shows or concerts
• Don’t eat in a restaurant or go to bars or pubs
• Don’t own a computer, digital camera, mobile phone, cd player or MP3 player that is not purchased from the EB
• Don’t read books written by immoral authors, or novels unless they are approved by the EB
• Don’t own remote-controlled toys or any electronic gaming system
• Don’t listen to pre-recorded music by non-EB
• Don’t live on a farm
• Don’t have in-ground swimming pools at the home
• Don’t rent or own condos, apartments or a house that is joined at any wall
• Don’t share sewers or driveways with neighbours
• Don’t have pets
• Don’t go to the beach unless it is not crowded
• Don’t have a heart transplant
• Don’t watch firework displays

In business

• Don’t be employed by non-EB
• Don’t work in non-EB homes
• Don’t rent space or anything to non-EB
• Don’t own shares of non-EB company
• Don’t go to non-EB schools if there is an EB school in your city
• Don't belong to a professional association (nurses, lawyers, etc), union, or any other outside organization
• Don’t sell products that you cannot use (cigarettes, contraception)
• Don’t stay in a hotel or motel
• Don’t vote or run for public office
• Don’t go to university

With people

• Don’t have a cup of tea or eat with your non EB neighbours, parents, siblings or children
• Don’t have friends outside of the EB
• Don’t kiss or date before marriage
• Don’t plan to marry unless you have permission
• Don’t be gay or lesbian
• Don’t marry outside of the EB, or outside of your race
• Don’t divorce unless for fornication
• Don’t use contraception (no matter how many children you have)
• Don’t have an abortion
• Don’t be involved in competitive organized sports
• Don’t visit graves of the deceased often
• Don’t miss daily church meetings
• Don’t question EB rules

[SpeedFlex27]

On 2022-06-08 at 6:48 AM, 17to85 said:

More like they ser which way the wind is blowing and don't want any issues being people who didn't support the new leader. 

Brown is a total loser. 

[SpeedFlex27]

44 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

Excerpts from Bill Redekop's 2014 article (not sure if it's paywalled):

*It's a long read!

The closed-door church

Inside the secretive and strict Plymouth Brethren sect in Manitoba

The Plymouth Brethren discourage interaction between their followers and outsiders, and the church encompasses all aspects of social and professional life for its members. Critics say it has gone from being a Christian sect to full-blown cult.

By: Bill Redekop

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Saturday, May. 10, 2014

 

 

STONEWALL — Quietly, and out of earshot of Winnipeg, Stonewall had its own mini "British Invasion" a decade ago.

Newcomers from England started to descend on this town just north of Winnipeg that has historically been a limestone quarry and agricultural service centre. They bought homes, started businesses, built a church — all the usual stuff.

Stonewall councillors were pleased their town was chosen by the English-speaking immigrants. Local residents were charmed, as North Americans tend to be, by how the newcomers snapped off their words with British accents.

But residents soon found there was something different about the newcomers. They didn’t want much to do with the townsfolk. They wouldn’t socialize with them, other than a few words on the street or in a store. It wasn’t long before local people started to regard them as "standoffish," as one Stonewall resident put it.

In time, the community learned the newcomers were from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC), a religious sect that practises "separateness" from the rest of society. The two-metre-high  iron fence around their church attests to that.

It’s one of the few physical barriers. Most Plymouth Brethren barriers are social. They won’t eat in the same room as non-members, including in restaurants. Brethren are not even allowed to visit the homes of non-Brethren, or "worldly people." They don’t go to the cinema, the theatre or sporting events.

Plymouth Brethren are sometimes thought of as a British version of Hutterites, without the colonies. Both are conscientious objectors to military service; neither group votes; both forbid television and radio in their homes. The Brethren forbid computers with anything other than email functions and some business software, and all their computers and programs are purchased from a Brethren-owned company.

Plymouth Brethren also maintain a dress code, but not one as rustic or obvious as that of Hutterites.

Brethren women are required to wear ankle-length skirts, long hair and some kind of head covering — it used to be a kerchief but now is often a ribbon. The attire is urban, individualized, and becoming less strict to the point where women are now seen wearing designer clothes with hem lines climbing to knee level.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

A seven-foot-high steel fence surrounds the Plymouth Brethren Meeting Hall in Stonewall.

Men dress business casual. They keep their hair short and are clean-shaven — not even sideburns are allowed. While that doesn’t sound like it would set the men apart, it does.

"They are conspicuously well-scrubbed," said a Stonewall resident who has had dealings with the Brethren.

This "new" Christian sect has actually been in Manitoba since the 1880s. The Stonewall group was only the most recent wave. Plymouth Brethren are also in Winnipeg (Charleswood) and the village of Woodlands, not far from Stonewall in the Interlake.

It’s a group that shows quite remarkable business acumen. The Plymouth Brethren bought up half of Stonewall’s industrial park upon arrival, and immediately set up a cluster of companies.

But attempts to learn more about the sect and interview its members showed how it has managed to stay under the radar.

BRETHREN’S BUSINESS IMPACT

There are a remarkable number of Brethren-owned family businesses in Manitoba for a religious sect of just 450 members.

The Free Press counted at least 25 small businesses, and there are undoubtedly more. It’s not clear why members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church are so successful in business. That companies can receive interest-free loans through Brethren might be part of the answer.

Business is a big part of being a Brethren today. Virtually all Brethren work for companies owned by Brethren families. However, PBCC doctrine stipulates that companies stay small.

Winnipeg companies owned by Brethren members include Acure Medical Equipment, Officescape, and Central Dental Supply Ltd., all owned by John Haldane; Applifast Inc.; Insign Architectural Signage; Chemwest Supply; Van Extras; FRS Group Inc.; Acure Safety; Insta-Foil Specialties; Acculift Airmax Inc; Excel Interiors; Meditek; Western Enivronmental Canada, and NP2 (an advertising agency).

In Stonewall, Brethren own at least half the industrial park off Highway 67. Like elsewhere, they do not belong to the local chamber of commerce because that is forbidden. Stonewall companies include Accent Group; Mitybilt Products Inc; Paragon Securities; Arrow Specialties; Lakeland Group and Universal Business Team.

Woodlands-area companies include Northstar Enterprises and Arrow Farmquip, and North American Rail Products Inc. is next door in Argyle.

Plymouth Brethren don’t believe in a church hierarchy. There is no formally designated church leader, such as a salaried priest or pastor, so when I called recently to request an interview, there was no official spokesperson — and no one who felt comfortable speaking for the group.

After about a week of phone calls and numerous referrals, two Brethren men finally agreed to be interviewed — then each cancelled as the interviews neared. Both said they were too busy.

Negotiations continued. Dates were submitted for interviews. I explained my mission was merely to write about a unique immigrant group outside the city, which was entirely true. Upon request, I forwarded a list of questions.

Despite all the negotiations, I was ultimately turned down. All of this took place over a period of three weeks. Ex-Plymouth Brethren members later told me I was being played; strung along until I tired and perhaps gave up on the story.

I fared little better making cold calls to businesses run by Plymouth Brethren in Stonewall. Everyone said they were too busy to talk. At the fifth business I visited, Charles Deayton, at Universal Business Team, which provides consulting and training services to businesses, said he had been expecting me. Word had traveled quickly that a Free Press reporter was making the rounds.

Deayton was candid yet considerate. He basically told me I had the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of getting an interview with a member of the Plymouth Brethren.

"We don’t want to be all over the newspaper," he said. A colleague beside him was more curt. "We’re not interested. We’ve got work to do. Thanks for coming."

All of which is not to imply the Plymouth Brethren here are bad people. They are good and productive community members, most people say. Their businesses have been major contributors to the tax base of Stonewall and provide jobs for many non-Brethren as well as Brethren.

When I googled Universal Business Team, I learned it has offices in 19 countries, mainly assisting other Brethren businesses. But I also saw Universal Business Team is the subject of criticism from a group called PEEB, People Escaping Exclusive Brethren, or "leavers," as they call themselves. (Exclusive Brethren is another name for the most isolationist branch of Plymouth Brethren, which is the one practising in Manitoba.)

A website run by the ex-Brethren also popped up: www.wikipeebia.com. It contained lengthy testimonials from leavers and it included a pull-down window listing "confirmed suicides" of former Plymouth Brethren members. That was my first red flag.

Another red flag was the Plymouth Brethren private school in Stonewall, Sterling North Academy. The grades 3-12 school employs a full complement of certified public-school teachers — but none are Plymouth Brethren. Why would a group that arrived over a hundred years ago not have at least some of its own teachers? There are dozens of Hutterites with university degrees teaching across Manitoba.

Plymouth Brethren got their name because their first assembly was in the English port town of Plymouth, more famously known as the departure point for the pilgrims who settled in the United States in the early 1600s.

The Plymouth Brethren formed in 1830 as a breakaway sect from the Anglican church. As so often happens with religious groups, the Brethren thought the main church was becoming too worldly, and set up a doctrine of separation from the world.

Another core belief among Plymouth Brethren is the "rapture." Some historians believe the concept of rapture was even started by the PBCC and later adopted by evangelical groups in the United States. The rapture is judgment day, when God will supposedly sweep up to heaven only the true believers — there are about 46,000 Plymouth Brethren worldwide — and destroy the rest of the planet’s seven billion people in a great conflagration.

Edward Pearce Langrell, the first of the Plymouth Brethren to arrive in Manitoba, settled in Woodlands in the 1880s. He was acquainted with John Nelson Darby of Ireland, the founder of the Plymouth Brethren. Langrell became the first principal at Warren Elementary School. Today, there are 15 Langrells in the Woodlands phone directory.

Plymouth Brethren are now headquartered in Australia, which has about 15,000 members. A similar number resides in Britain, and New Zealand also has a sizeable population. A year ago, six big bus coaches full of Brethren from Australia and New Zealand visited fellow Brethren in Manitoba as part of a cross-country tour.

Even though Plymouth Brethren have been in Manitoba for well over a century, primarily in Winnipeg (Charleswood) and Woodlands, they have surfaced in news stories in the Winnipeg Free Press only about 10 times. By comparison, the Free Press runs about 10 stories a year on Hutterites.

One of the stories was about a Brethren protest against having to join unions in Manitoba (1972); another was about members in Vancouver not wanting their children subjected to computers in schools (1990s).

There were also two curious wire stories out of London, England, dated 1964. The stories concerned then Brethren leader Jim Taylor Jr., who had left London ahead of schedule for the United States amid denunciation from the British Parliament, the British press and even the Methodist Church for breaking up families.

The stories described the Plymouth Brethren as a "small, very strict, secretive nonconformist sect" that abides by a strict interpretation of this Biblical text: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers."

One British MP produced a list of 60 families that he claimed had been split up by the Brethren. A British woman claimed her husband left her after 31 years marriage because she bought a radio and television.

While the Brethren have always practised separation from the rest of society, they were more mainstream prior to the 1960s. Then, Taylor Jr. started to put his stamp on things. The Brethren have their own pope-like figure, called the Man of God. Taylor Jr. served in that role from 1959-70. He had a predilection for making up rules. It was Taylor Jr. who introduced the hard-line doctrine of separateness, starting with banning members from eating and socializing with non-members.

The rules included everything from banning men from wearing shorts (thy naked, spindly legs are an abomination, presumably) to who should take out the garbage (that falleth to the husband, naturally).

One decree from Taylor Jr. was that Brethren farmers could no longer live on the same property as their livestock. Since the Brethren near Woodlands were largely cattle ranchers, the edict triggered a small housing boom there. Brethren farmers to this day must commute to their farms.

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN DON’TS

Appearance

• Don’t cut your hair (female)
• Don’t have facial hair or long hair (male)
• Don’t wear shorts (female & male)
• Don’t wear trousers (female)
• Don’t wear make-up (female)
• Don’t wear any other colour of shirt than white on Sunday (male)
• Don’t smoke, chew tobacco or chew gum

At home

• Don’t use or own radios or television
• Don’t go to the movies, theatres, shows or concerts
• Don’t eat in a restaurant or go to bars or pubs
• Don’t own a computer, digital camera, mobile phone, cd player or MP3 player that is not purchased from the EB
• Don’t read books written by immoral authors, or novels unless they are approved by the EB
• Don’t own remote-controlled toys or any electronic gaming system
• Don’t listen to pre-recorded music by non-EB
• Don’t live on a farm
• Don’t have in-ground swimming pools at the home
• Don’t rent or own condos, apartments or a house that is joined at any wall
• Don’t share sewers or driveways with neighbours
• Don’t have pets
• Don’t go to the beach unless it is not crowded
• Don’t have a heart transplant
• Don’t watch firework displays

In business

• Don’t be employed by non-EB
• Don’t work in non-EB homes
• Don’t rent space or anything to non-EB
• Don’t own shares of non-EB company
• Don’t go to non-EB schools if there is an EB school in your city
• Don't belong to a professional association (nurses, lawyers, etc), union, or any other outside organization
• Don’t sell products that you cannot use (cigarettes, contraception)
• Don’t stay in a hotel or motel
• Don’t vote or run for public office
• Don’t go to university

With people

• Don’t have a cup of tea or eat with your non EB neighbours, parents, siblings or children
• Don’t have friends outside of the EB
• Don’t kiss or date before marriage
• Don’t plan to marry unless you have permission
• Don’t be gay or lesbian
• Don’t marry outside of the EB, or outside of your race
• Don’t divorce unless for fornication
• Don’t use contraception (no matter how many children you have)
• Don’t have an abortion
• Don’t be involved in competitive organized sports
• Don’t visit graves of the deceased often
• Don’t miss daily church meetings
• Don’t question EB rules

These people are welcome to live their insufferable & miserable lives & to abide by the rules of a nutbar. Suckerssssssss.

[Wideleft]

14 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

These people are welcome to live their insufferable & miserable lives & to abide by the rules of a nutbar. Suckerssssssss.

It isn't necessarily a matter of choice.

"Meeting ex-Brethren is like rummaging through a box of broken toys. Each one is missing some piece of themselves emotionally. All the ex-Brethren have children, parents or siblings within the Brethren who refuse to see them.

When you leave the Brethren — or are kicked out — you’re dead to them. Your kids won’t acknowledge you. If you should encounter them, they will glass themselves off, not even meeting your gaze. Your parents will glass themselves off from you. Your friends will glass themselves off from you. Have your grandchildren over? You never will. They will be told you are evil.

You’ll also lose your job because Brethren work for Brethren-owned companies.

I interviewed about a dozen former members who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They admit to being afraid of the Brethren. Almost every one of them had been "withdrawn from" — an innocent sounding term until you hear it so often it takes on a chilling cast.

None of the ex-members I spoke to had been withdrawn from for vice or a venal sin. They were withdrawn from for questioning the doctrine, the leadership or a leader’s words. They were withdrawn from because they associated with non-Brethren or were caught with forbidden technology."

Edited June 10, 2022 by Wideleft

[Tracker]

5 hours ago, Wideleft said:

The Plymouth Brethren Church story has a Manitoba element (and it's not new):

NEW

Manitoba Government Gave $50 Million to Companies Linked to Secretive Religious Sect

COVID-19 contracts worth tens of millions of dollars went to businesses linked to a secretive sect that operate out of the same building

 

by Emily Leedham, Prairies Reporter

June 9, 2022

 

Manitoba’s government gave nearly $50 million in emergency COVID-19 contracts to a group of businesses linked to a controversial and secretive religious sect.

Other businesses linked to the little-known sect have received significant sums of money elsewhere for similar contracts, including millions from Doug Ford’s government in Ontario and over £2 billion for PPE contracts in the United Kingdom.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, also known as the “Exclusive Brethren,” is a small and reclusive religious sect with only 50,000 members around the world, mainly in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In Canada, they are believed to have fewer than 10,000 members.

The PBCC were the subject of a recent CityNews documentary that brought to light disturbing allegations from former members detailing how they were cut off from friends and families under the PBCC’s “doctrine of separation.” The PBCC disputes these claims and denies it is a “cult.”

In a previous statement to PressProgress, the PBCC explained: “We are not secretive, but we are often misunderstood.”

Many brethren are also linked to a global network of “3,000 family businesses” affiliated with the church’s “Universal Business Team,” which provides “advisory and group buying services.”

According to public records, Manitoba’s Ministry of Central Services gave four businesses linked to PBCC members six emergency contracts totaling $49.8 million for medical equipment and supplies.

These six contracts accounted for 12.5% of Manitoba’s Ministry of Central Services initial $400 million COVID-19 emergency budget in 2020.

A number of those businesses were previously identified in a 2014 Winnipeg Free Press investigation as being linked to PBCC members.

 

ICYMI — A look inside the secretive and strict Plymouth Brethren sect in Manitoba by @BillRedekop: http://t.co/10WNMFEXka #longreads

— Winnipeg Free Press (@WinnipegNews) May 11, 2014

Central Dental Solutions, a Winnipeg-based supplier of dental equipment owned by PBCC member John Haldane, received 3 contracts totalling $37.5 million for emergency products and services from the Manitoba government.

Acure Safety & First Aid, whose President is PBCC member Leonard Cavenagh, received two emergency contracts worth $11.44 million.

Meditek, whose General Manager Chris Samuels is a PBCC member, is listed as having received one emergency contract in April for $780,000.

Cavenagh and Samuels are both listed as directors of a Winnipeg-based trust established to purchase property for the purpose of “gospel preachings.”

Central Dental, Acure Safety and Meditek are also all listed as tenants, along with a a handful of other PBCC-linked businesses, in a two-story building located next to Winnipeg’s airport.

Two additional Manitoba government contracts worth $70,759 were awarded to a BC-based oil company called Klondike Lubricants, whose founders are both PBCC members.

According to the Government of Manitoba’s records, the oil company was given a $38,400 contract in early April 2020 for medical instruments and equipment only two weeks after Manitoba declared a state of emergency and most of Canada had entered its first pandemic lockdown. The brethren-linked oil company was awarded a second $32,359 contract in May 2020 to provide the Government of Manitoba with soap and hand sanitizer.

(more: https://pressprogress.ca/manitoba-government-gave-50-million-to-companies-linked-to-secretive-religious-sect/ )

These are the same people (PBCC) who allegedly wanted to assassinate Justin Trudeau.

[Mark H.]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

These are the same people (PBCC) who allegedly wanted to assassinate Justin Trudeau.

Questionable allegation - they profess pacifist beliefs.

[Tracker]

32 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Questionable allegation - they profess pacifist beliefs.

Well, that settles it, doesn't it.

[Mark H.]

57 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Well, that settles it, doesn't it.

Beats me. Did you have further evidence? You don't hear anything from that group at all, much less assassination threats. 

[SpeedFlex27]

5 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Questionable allegation - they profess pacifist beliefs.

They're pacifists until they're not.

[blue_gold_84]

[JCon]

1 minute ago, blue_gold_84 said:

He says things the right likes to hear. Little PP for little minds. 

[blue_gold_84]

5 minutes ago, JCon said:

He says things the right likes to hear. Little PP for little minds. 

Between this and Trudeau testing positive for COVID-19 again, the useful idiots' collective meltdown is quite entertaining today. 

[WildPath]

3 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Can you imagine someone vying for leadership of our country and wanting to promote an alternative currency.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with his personal holdings of crypto. Surely just a coincidence that he promotes it to his rabid fans. Wondering if he will double down and blame Trudeau for the crypto crash and tell his followers the only way their investments can be saved is if he is PM.

How in the world can his followers criticize Trudeau for not understanding monetary policy now that PP has been caught with his pants down.

[rebusrankin]

Since when has following monetary policy from Youtubers and El Salvador steered us wrong? 🤣

[Tracker]

Apparently a yahoo is trying to raise money and bodies on Facebook for another convoy from Alberta (surprise!) to Ottawa. I expect this to fizzle out once enough money has been bled from the rubes.

[blue_gold_84]

12 hours ago, WildPath said:

Can you imagine someone vying for leadership of our country and wanting to promote an alternative currency.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with his personal holdings of crypto. Surely just a coincidence that he promotes it to his rabid fans. Wondering if he will double down and blame Trudeau for the crypto crash and tell his followers the only way their investments can be saved is if he is PM.

How in the world can his followers criticize Trudeau for not understanding monetary policy now that PP has been caught with his pants down.

Of course there's crickets from him on the crypto implosion front. Quelle surprise.

He's now more upset about a Liberal MP swearing:

But at least he never greeted, shook hands, or bought donuts for "freedom loving patriots" who waved F*ck Trudeau flags just a few months ago. He's certainly not a massive ******* hypocrite.

Oh, and meanwhile: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/misleading-email-from-poilievre-camp-may-have-led-to-tens-of-thousands-of-duplicate-memberships-opponents

Quote

This is an example of the flurry of messages sent to Conservative leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis’ team by supporters who were left confused and panicked by an email sent by perceived front-runner Pierre Poilievre’s campaign hours before the membership cut-off, on June 3.

The email, with the title “Membership status: incomplete,” allegedly caused some panicked members to buy a second membership on Poilievre’s portal so they could vote in the upcoming leadership race and opponents now say that this could have inflated Poilievre’s membership numbers.

Lewis’ campaign manager, Steve Outhouse, sent out an email to supporters on Monday, saying that the party might have to remove “tens of thousands” of duplicate memberships because of it.

Edited June 14, 2022 by blue_gold_84
content added

[FrostyWinnipeg]

https://www.chrisd.ca/2022/06/14/heather-stefanson-manitoba-premier-least-popular/

[Wideleft]

On 2022-06-10 at 7:24 PM, Mark H. said:

Questionable allegation - they profess pacifist beliefs.

Not sure if you skipped past this a page or two ago, but it bears investigation.

https://deanblundell.com/news/nathan-jacobson-plymouth-brethren-church-asked-me-to-take-out-justin-trudeau/

 

 

[Wideleft]

2 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

https://www.chrisd.ca/2022/06/14/heather-stefanson-manitoba-premier-least-popular/

Male conservative voters will generally give a pass to incompetent conservative male politicians to own the libs.

If the incompetent conservative politician is an attractive female - similar pass.

Heather's in trouble. 

[blue_gold_84]

7 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

Not sure if you skipped past this a page or two ago, but it bears investigation.

https://deanblundell.com/news/nathan-jacobson-plymouth-brethren-church-asked-me-to-take-out-justin-trudeau/

 

 

How is this **** not getting more coverage?!

https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/vwRg?cno=3464&regId=

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/lawyer-with-tory-ties-helped-in-lawsuit-against-khadr

https://globalnews.ca/news/8751192/political-fixer-former-alberta-justice-minister-hired-him-reporters-phone-logs/

Slimy, slimy, slimy.