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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Senior Republican leader calls for re-opening of Canada-US border

By
True North Wire
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New York Congresswoman and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik has called for the Canada-US border to begin reopening by June 21.

In a letter penned to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Stefanik wrote that Canada’s border restrictions have been largely unfair to Americans, noting that the US allows Canadians much more freedom.

“We should be under no illusion that the current restrictions are either fully synchronized or equitable for U.S. citizens. Canadians have been permitted to fly into the U.S. throughout the pandemic, while Americans remain unable to fly into Canada for non-essential travel,” she wrote.

“Canadians have been able to receive a vaccine when in the U.S., while fully vaccinated Americans are unable even to quarantine on their own properties in Canada, many of which have gone unattended for well over a year.”

As chair of the House Republican Conference, Stefanik is the third highest-ranking Republican in Congress. Her congressional district also covers most of New York’s border with Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau originally closed the border to non-essential travel on March 16, 2020 and has extended the closure each month since. The current border closure order expires on June 21.

Stefanik went on to ask the Biden Administration to work with Canada to begin reopening the border. If an agreement isn’t reached by June 21, Stefanik argues the US should unilaterally reduce restrictions on their side.

Stefanik is the latest American politician to argue for the Canada-US border to reopen. Elected officials from both parties have noted how damaging Canada’s protracted ban on travel has been for both sides.

Last month, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued the Canada-US border should open soon as residents of both countries have suffered from the closure for too long.

Other members of congress and governors of border states have also argued that both countries need to allow for non-essential purposes like meeting with loved ones.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the Trudeau government is preparing to ease Canada’s border restrictions for travellers who have been fully vaccinated.

Trudeau laments how Catholic Church doesn’t line up with his progressive views

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented the fact that the Catholic Church’s positions don’t align with his and other Catholics’ progressive views. 

Trudeau made the comments during the Ryerson Democracy Forum in response to a question by event moderator and journalist Martin Regg Cohn. Cohn who asked the prime minister to recount his 2017 encounter with Pope Francis regarding residential schools.

“I have to say as a Catholic, who, you know, is ever hopeful that the Catholic Church will come to terms with how for many Catholics our faith is really important to us but the distance we feel with the Church on many of its positions that don’t necessarily align with where we think we should be as a society, where we need to move forward,” said Trudeau. 

“There’s always been a bit of a confliction for me as a person of faith with the Church but I continue to call myself a Catholic.” 

True North reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office to seek clarification on which of the Catholic Church’s particular positions the prime minister feels a disconnect with but did not receive a response by the deadline.

Since the discovery of remains claimed to have been discovered at a former residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia, renewed interest has been paid to the Catholic Church’s historical involvement in the system. A preliminary report is expected to be delivered on the findings in mid-June. 

Trudeau has made several claims about the Church’s responsibility since the First Nations government of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc first reported the find. 

“As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the decision that the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years,” Trudeau told reporters on Friday in a separate interview.

In response to Trudeau’s statement, Cardinal and Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto Thomas Collins called the prime minister’s statement “unfair.” 

“I think it’s much more helpful, as we’re all working on this long journey of reconciliation to work together, and not to be making these kinds of unfair attacks upon those who are trying their best to bring about and to work with all the Indigenous people for reconciliation” Archbishop Collins said. 

True North also reached out to the Archdiocese of Toronto for a response to Trudeau’s characterization that the Church’s positions don’t line up with his and “many Catholics'” views but did not receive a response by the time this article was published. 

Pandemic could lead to more immigration fraud, human smuggling: CBSA report

By
True North Wire
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A new Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) report is warning that the country could see an uptick in immigration fraud and human smuggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The report warns that “all immigration streams” could be targeted by fraudsters hoping to cash in on the increased turbulence the pandemic has caused worldwide. 

“With more people looking to immigrate, there is likely to be an increase in fraud in all immigration streams via the use of fraudulent supporting documentation to bolster visa or permanent resident applications, fraudulently acquired travel documents to be able to board flights to Canada and misrepresentation,” the June 2020 report claims. 

“It is also likely that we may see more downstream immigration fraud once individuals are in Canada, such as an increase in workers without authorization, marriages of convenience, or the use of unscrupulous agents to assist individuals in regularizing their temporary status into permanent residence.”

According to CBSA spokesperson Judith Gadbois-St. Cyr, the study is the agency’s most recent assessment of Canada’s immigration system, however, currently asylum numbers are lower than they were before the pandemic began. 

“At this time, asylum numbers remain lower than those experienced before COVID-19. The CBSA continues to assess these trends and the broader impacts of COVID-19 as it plans for a post pandemic environment,” Gadbois-St. Cyr told CBC News. 

Global trends also indicate that migrants will “Increasingly use the services of smuggling networks and more dangerous pathways” to find their way into Canada.

“Migrants who have the means will likely engage the services of smuggling networks, likely resulting in the use of more fraudulent and counterfeit travel documents, increased targeting of visa-exempt travel documents, and the use of new transit points and clandestine routes to facilitate the movement of people to Canada,” the report claims. 

A recent ruling by Canada’s Federal Court shone some light on a long-standing dispute over Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. 

For some time, activists have been trying to overturn the agreement on the basis that the United States was not a safe country for migrants and refugees and therefore they should be allowed to claim asylum in Canada despite the agreement’s terms. 

However, a panel of judges unanimously ruled that those asylum claimants who first arrive in the United States must claim refugee status in the country they arrived in. 

Freeland caught putting on mask for photoshoot with world leaders

By
True North Wire
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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was caught putting on a mask moments before an official photograph for the G7 finance ministers meeting was taken.

Of the twelve people in the official photo, Freeland was the only one wearing a mask. However, photos taken moments earlier show Freeland putting the mask on.

The photo was taken outdoors with distance between participants. Most, if not all, of the ministers had already been vaccinated for COVID-19.

True North reached out to Freeland for comment but did not receive a response by the time this article was published. 

Just days earlier, Freeland was caught hastily putting on a mask during a virtual news conference.

In the video from CPAC, Freeland is seen putting on a generic medical mask for less than a minute before taking it off again to begin the press conference.

Freeland’s mask theatrics were mocked on Twitter.

Some users accused Freeland of ignoring the accepted science on COVID-19 for wearing a mask in an outdoor, socially-distanced environment. Other users accused Freeland of trying to deceive the public.

Freeland has accused Conservatives in the past of believing “conspiracy theories” and not following the science around COVID-19.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will go to the United Kingdom for the G7 summit later this week.

Conservative MP slams “absentee” Bill Blair’s failure to address rural crime

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Conservative MP Damien Kurek slammed the Liberal government’s failure to address rural crime in an op-ed on Thursday, accusing Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair of being an “absentee” on the issue. 

In the op-ed titled “Fighting Rural Crime” which was published to the Hanna Herald, Kurek outlines Conservative efforts to curb rural crime including fellow Conservative MP Blaine Calkins’ Private Member’s Bill C-289. 

“My Conservative colleagues and I have been working tirelessly to ensure greater resources for law enforcement to do their jobs, tougher laws to deter those would-be criminals, and reduce the number of recidivists on our streets. This contrasts with the Liberals’ approach to public safety,” claims Kurek. 

According to Kurek, Liberal bills like the gun buyback program, Bill C-21 and the backdoor gun registry, Bill C-71, were “poorly crafted and misguided” attempts to address rural crime.

“Over the last number of years, we have seen a troubling increase in rural crime. The police-reported crime rate and the crime severity index have increased every year between 2015 and 2019 (the most recent year that data is available. Police-reported crime increases in 2019),” writes Kurek. 

“This is evidence of a failed approach to rural crime and an absentee Public Safety Minister who refuses to admit there is a problem, even when given the opportunity to do so.” 

In April, Calkins introduced Bill C-289 with the hope of altering the Canadian Criminal Code so that offenders targeting rural residents can be held more accountable in a court of law. 

The law seeks to add as aggravating circumstance evidence that a crime was directed at somebody who was “vulnerable because of their remoteness from emergency services.” Additionally, it would take into consideration whether a weapon or an imitation of a weapon was used when the crime was committed. 

“For many rural communities across Canada, crime has reached a crisis point. Rural Canadians too often do not feel safe in their own homes, many are victimized, often they have given up reporting property crime altogether and they cannot get affordable insurance, if they can get any insurance at all. My constituents are tired of being victims,” said Calkins when first introducing the bill. 

True North reached out to the office of the Minister of Public Safety but did not hear back in time for publication of this article. 

Statue of Egerton Ryerson toppled by protesters, won’t be replaced by university

By
True North Wire
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A statue of Ryerson University namesake Egerton Ryerson was toppled by protesters over the weekend.

Video posted to social media shows the moments after the statue was torn down, with a small group of protesters surrounding it. The statue of Ryerson and the area around it were defaced.

University President Mohamed Lachemi said the incident occurred shortly after a large protest in front of the statue on Sunday. Lachemi says the university will not replace the statue.

“A truck arrived on Gould Street and proceeded to pull down the statue of Egerton Ryerson. We are relieved that no one was injured in the process,” he said.

“The statue will not be restored or replaced.”

Police are currently investigating the incident.

Ryerson is one of several historical figures that have been targeted in recent days after the apparent discovery of remains at a former residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia. 

Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist minister and educator who was instrumental in the development of the education system in Ontario. In 1847, Ryerson founded the Toronto Normal School on the site where Ryerson University now stands.

Ryerson is largely responsible for the development of Upper Canada’s education system, having supported free education for children, school boards and standardized textbooks. 

Despite his successes, Ryerson is often considered to be a key figure of the residential school system as he wrote in favour of the concept decades before it was implemented.

Ryerson’s legacy has been targeted more than once. In 2020, Black Lives Matter and other activists in Toronto tried to get Ryerson University to topple the statue and take it away from campus grounds. 

Ryerson University’s School of Journalism recently decided to change the names of its two publications to remove references to Egerton Ryerson.

Similar attacks have also been made in recent weeks against historical figures like Sir John A. Macdonald, Hector-Louis Langevin and Queen Victoria.

MALCOLM: The full facts are needed on the Kamloops discovery

By
Candice Malcolm
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The country has been shaken by the apparent gruesome discovery of the remains of 215 children found buried at a former British Columbia residential school.

There is nothing more devastating than the death of a child, and nothing more painful for Canadians than reconciling some of the past horrors of the country’s residential school system and treatment of First Nations more broadly.

The idea that Canada’s official policy was once to remove children from their homes, sometimes forcibly, and send them to government schools is unfathomable and reprehensible.

As a mother and someone who leans libertarian on most issues – particularly when it comes to a parent’s right to raise and educate their own children – this chapter of our history is deeply upsetting.

Canadians almost universally agree that First Nations people were mistreated in the past and deserve reconciliation, and that much work is left to be done to achieve greater levels of freedom and opportunity for those in First Nations communities.

For that to happen though, we must make sure we pay attention to the full picture and full report of what has been found at Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, also known as the Kamloops Indian Band.

We currently have people in the media invoking the holocaust, saying the discovery equates to genocide, and treating these residential schools as if they were all some kind of a death camp.

But before we accept the very worst accusations against our country, let’s be sure to first look at all the facts.

This tragic story was first made public through a news release from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.

According to the band and its release, “this past weekend, with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist, the stark truth of the preliminary findings came to light – the confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”

The release goes on to say that the band “will continue to work with the ground penetrating radar specialist to complete the survey of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds,” and that the band “expect(s) to complete preliminary findings by mid-June.”

In other words, the survey of the land is not complete – the full report has yet to be released.

An initial CBC report on the story also noted that “the release did not specify the company or individual involved, or how the work was completed.”

In her first public appearance since her bombshell news release, Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Kamloops First Nation confirmed that “this is not a mass grave. These are preliminary findings. We will be sharing the written report in the middle of the month.”

The National Post interviewed anthropology professor Kisha Supernant, from the University of Alberta, who is also the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archeology, about the ground penetrating radar technology that was used.

“It doesn’t actually see bodies. It’s not like an X-ray,” explained Supernant. “What it actually does is it looks for the shaft.”

This suggests there are still more questions left to be answered. This also doesn’t tell us anything about the cause of death of those buried. Many people are saying this was murder, but it seems more evidence is required.

This school was in operation from 1890 to 1969 and at the beginning of that period the infant mortality rate in Canada was 27%. Nearly one in three children died before their fifth birthday because of communicable diseases, namely tuberculosis and influenza.

None of this is to say that the treatment of many aboriginal children in many schools in that time was not abhorrent. It was, and there are rightfully legitimate concerns and valid feelings of anger and regret over these latest findings.

But before politicians jump to enacting policy conclusions, we should wait for the official report to be released.

Ontario Public Service apologizes for “racism” and “white supremacy” within civil service

By
Jonathan Bradley
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The leadership of Ontario’s Public Service (OPS) believes the province’s civil service is “racist” and built on “white supremacy.”

According to Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley, an email was sent to all government staff apologizing for the work culture on Thursday. The email was signed by deputy ministers across the Ontario public service and a third-party report was included.

The head of the OPS Steven Davidson wrote in the email that he was sorry for “racism” within the public service. 

“The society we live in – its history, its culture and its institutions – has been shaped by colonialism, slavery, racism and xenophobia,” wrote Davidson. 

Davidson claims that the Ontario public service has privileged white people while restricting opportunities for racialized people. 

The third-party report went even further and claimed the OPS was an unwelcoming environment for racialized people. 

“Many employees in discussion groups felt that the OPS was a fundamentally racist organization,” said the report. “One employee stated, with the agreement from discussion group participants, that ‘the OPS is a white supremacist organization and those at the top have no real desire to see anything change because it will mean diminished power and control for them.’”

While both the report and Davidson’s email made no mention of the demographics within Ontario’s public service, a recent socio-demographic profile from 2019 suggests the province’s civil service is in fact a diverse body, including at the executive level. 

Women make up 48.3% of the total workforce in Ontario, 58.8% of the public service and 51.1% of the top executive positions. 

LGBTQ+ individuals make up 2.7% of the province’s workforce, 11.8% of the public service and 12.5% at the executive level.

Meanwhile, racialized Canadians represent 28.3% of Ontario’s labour force, 23.2% of the civil service and 16.2% of top executive positions.

The City of Halifax recently initiated a report as “part of the ongoing efforts to achieve better balance in relation to gender parity” and to “determine if there were barriers inherent in our pay structures that would interfere with our ability to attract and retain female employees.”

The report concluded that no gender pay gap exists in the city’s pay systems.

Jason Kenney stands up for John A Macdonald

By
Andrew Lawton
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As it more becomes trendy to deface or tear down statues and malign historic figures, Alberta premier Jason Kenney took a stand for Sir John A Macdonald and against cancel culture.

True North’s Andrew Lawton says those seeking to cancel John A Macdonald simply don’t know their history.

Watch the full episode of The Andrew Lawton Show.

Nigerian pastor, toddler son killed by Islamist gang

By
True North Wire
-

A Nigerian pastor and his 3-year-old son were murdered in their home by an Islamist gang in the latest attack on clergy in the country.

According to local media reports, Pastor Leviticus Makpa and his family were targeted by radicalized locals for their Christain beliefs. In late May, the gang surrounded and attacked the family in their home, killing the pastor and his son while his wife and daughter escaped.

“Our missionary brother, Pastor Leviticus Makpa, was shot dead with his son by Fulani bandits,” local Deborah Omeiza told the media.

Pastor Makpa was living in the remote village of Kamberi where he established a Christian mission and a school.

The assailants were nomads from Nigeria’s Fulani ethnicity. Fulani gangs and militias have been inspired by other larger Islamist groups active in the country such as ISIS, primarily attacking Christian farmers.

According to Samuel Solomon, a colleague of Pastor Makpa, the pastor had been targeted by the group before but managed to evade them.

“Fulani bandits came against them, they hid in the cave to save their lives, and after they left, he went back to the field with his family; how many of us can do this?” he said.

“He eventually lost his life and that of his son; the wife and daughter escaped. He knew his life was at stake, but burden for souls won’t let him run away from the field.”

In recent years, Islamist attacks on Christians in Nigeria and the rest of Africa have worsened as African extremist groups are aided by extremists fleeing the collapse of the ISIS caliphate in the Middle East.

According to one Nigerian civil rights group, at least 1,470 Nigerian Christians have been killed because of their faith so far this year, with up to 2,200 more being kidnapped.

Clergy such as Pastor Makpa have become targets for extremist attacks. In recent months many clergy have been kidnapped and killed on account of their faith.

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