John Ivison: Trudeau’s half-brother is an anti-vaxxer, bitcoin entrepreneur and (affectionate) critic of the PM
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Kyle Kemper believes a “global corporatocracy” has taken advantage of the COVID crisis to diminish democracy and tighten control over people’s lives.
He is not alone in holding such views. But he is alone in wanting to overturn a power structure in which his brother sits at the apex. Kemper is Justin Trudeau’s half-brother, born to Margaret Trudeau and her second husband, Fried Kemper, in 1984, when the future prime minister was 12.
Kemper agrees with Carolina Panthers offensive tackle and fellow Bitcoin believer, Russell Okung: “The real battle is not simply left or right. It is authoritarianism versus libertarianism.”
The author of the book The Unified Wallet and founder of Swiss Key, a company that aims to make cryptocurrency accessible, makes no secret of his belief that there is a totalitarian push by corporations to undermine nation states.
In a long online video summary of his world view – Kemper sees humanity at a tipping point where people will take control of their physical and digital lives or succumb to a “top down dystopic system of total control, in a society where our every move is tracked; where our ability to travel is a privilege not a right; and, where our data is used and sold without our knowledge and then weaponized against us to influence our behaviour, our beliefs and our purchasing decisions.”
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Kemper has been a devotee of cryptocurrency since 2013. Digital money’s time may soon arrive – the Chinese are running a pilot project on a digital version of the yuan and even the staid Bank of Canada is considering its options.
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But the people who were initially attracted to Bitcoin were typically hostile to central banks and political systems. In the online Declaration of Bitcoin’s Independence, tech entrepreneur Andreas Antonopoulos said Bitcoin is “inherently anti-establishment, anti-system, anti-state. Bitcoin undermines governments and disrupts institutions because Bitcoin is fundamentally humanitarian.”
In an online lecture, Antonopoulos said the Nixon-era Bank Secrecy Act turned money into a system of control, a political tool that allowed the state “complete surveillance of all financial transactions.”
Bitcoin was seen as a s
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