Throughout the pandemic, some Canadians have taken public health restrictions very seriously.
From mandatory masks no matter what to some strict business practices, there are some Canadians who will have a very difficult time readjusting to normal life.
Anthony Furey discusses in his latest video.
The RCMP are refusing to say whether they know the whereabouts of two scientists who collaborated with China while working at one of Canada’s top secret microbiology laboratories.
According to the Globe and Mail, the couple Dr. Ciangguo Qiu and Dr. Keding Cheng no longer live in Winnipeg where the laboratory is located and it is not clear whether the two are even in Canada anymore.
“As this is an ongoing investigation, we will not be providing any additional information,” RCMP Manitoba division Corporal Julie Courchaine told the Globe and Mail.
Both scientists were booted from working at the lab in 2021 over what the Public Health Agency of Canada has called a “policy breach” and “possible breaches of security protocols.”
In the House of Commons, the Conservatives have pushed the federal government to disclose records on what exactly led to Qiu’s and Cheng’s departure.
A recent report has revealed that Qiu and Cheng were among seven scientists who collaborated with a research institution that has ties with communist China’s People’s Liberation Army.
All seven of the scientists involved were known to be working with deadly pathogens at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.
Last month, when confronted about his government’s approach to protecting Canadian research institutions from Chinese interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chose to lash out by lecturing the Conservatives on anti-Asian racism.
“I would recommend to members of the Conservative Party in their zeal to make personal attacks, not start to push too far into intolerance towards Canadians of diverse origins. We will continue to stand up to defend Canadians interests, Canadians security, we will continue to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep Canadians safe while participating in the global research community and stand up for tolerance and diversity,” said Trudeau.
As noted by experts, accusations of racism used to deflect criticism against the Chinese government is an active tactic used by the Chinese Communist Party to delegitimize criticism.
The Conservatives tabled a motion in the House of Commons on Friday which they hope will require Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quarantine in a federally designated hotel after returning from the upcoming G7 meeting in the United Kingdom.
The motion which was announced by Conservative MP and Health Critic Michelle Rempel Garner calls on Trudeau and his delegation to not use taxpayer funds to accommodate themselves upon returning to Ottawa.
“That, in the opinion of the House, upon return from the G7 meetings in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister and his delegation should quarantine at one of the designated hotel quarantine sites that every other Canadian has been subjected to and not require taxpayers to fund a special quarantine hotel in Ottawa, or listen to the government’s own COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel and immediately scrap the mandatory hotel quarantine program,” the motion reads.
According to recent reports, the Liberal government confirmed that a hotel was currently being specially prepared for Trudeau and his staff so that they can quarantine upon arriving in Canada.
In a press conference following the tabling of the motion, Rempel pointed out the hypocrisy of forcing Canadians to pay for and use the federal quarantine hotels while the prime minister gets his own private accommodations.
“Today we learned that the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau intends to travel internationally and then avoid the quarantine hotel program that every other Canadian has been subjected to,” said Rempel.
“This is a slap in the face for every Canadian who has struggled with this program over the last several months. This program is unsafe – it should have been scrapped a long time ago.”
During the early stages of the program, reports of sexual assault in the federal quarantine hotels were revealed.
In response to questions about why such incidents were allowed to take place, Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu stated that the hotels were put into place in order to “protect Canadians.”
First Nations Chief Rosanne Casimir told reporters on Friday that the remains claimed to have been discovered at a former residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia were “not a mass grave” according to preliminary findings.
Casimir, who is the Chief of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations government, made the comments during what was described as a “trauma-informed press conference” where the media were asked to focus on the grieving of Indigenous peoples across Canada.
“This is not a mass grave. These are preliminary findings. We will be sharing the written report in the middle of the month,” said Casimir.
Early reports by mainstream media outlets like the Toronto Star referred to the burial sites as “mass graves” despite the discovery still undergoing a preliminary investigation.
Other outlets including BBC News, the New York Times and Washington Post also repeated the unverified claim that it was a “mass grave.”
Additionally, Casimir said she supports keeping the residential school buildings standing as a way to learn from the ugly truths contained in Canadian history. Casimir’s comments come at a time when many activists are calling for historical sites and statues to be renamed or removed over historically racist ties.
“We know that some residential schools are torn down, we want ours to remain to stand, it is a huge piece of history that we do not want to be forgotten but that can be learned from — the history of the ugly truths…for all the future generations,” she said.
Since the discovery of the site near the Kamloops Indian Residential School was announced, there has been a public outcry demanding an investigation into the matter.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the findings on Friday and urged the Catholic Church – which was involved in operating the Kamloops school until 1969 – to disclose records and formally apologize for its involvement.
Numerous US states have passed laws banning transgender athletes from competing in high school and college sports as their self-identified gender rather than biological sex, after a wave of cases in which female athletes have been displaced in rankings because of biologically male, transgender female competitors. Athletics Alberta president Linda Blade and columnist Barbara Kay have written a new book taking aim at this rising threat to women’s sports. Blade and Kay join True North’s Andrew Lawton for an in-depth discussion about “Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport.”
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Liberal Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault is hoping to cut short debate on his government’s internet regulation bill, C-10.
The minister presented a notice of a motion on Thursday, which would effectively force the committee to abide by a strict time window to pass Bill C-10 “as quickly as possible.”
“It will finally put an end to six weeks of systematic obstruction of the bill by the Conservative Party,” said Guilbeault.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, during a House of Commons heritage committee meeting, Guilbeault expressed frustration about not getting the legislation passed in time before parliament’s summer recess starts on June 24.
“I have another bill that’s been stuck in committee for weeks where there is absolutely no progress whatsoever that’s being made because of one party deciding they don’t want this to happen,” said Guilbeault.
“We are a minority government. It is more challenging to move legislation through the House of Commons in this context.”
According to defenders of the bill, C-10 would force large platforms like Facebook and Google to pay for Canadian cultural and news content while also updating the Canadian Broadcasting Act to better meet current digital realities.
However, an earlier decision by Liberal members of the heritage committee to strip the law of a provision protecting user-generated content from CRTC regulation sparked weeks of public outcry centred around free speech concerns.
Several experts including a former CRTC vice-chair have publicly decried the law as at odds with open internet and freedom of expression.
Instead of addressing concerns around free speech, Guilbeault has opted to name-call opponents of the law and accused those who are critical of the legislation of belonging to an “extremist element” of the Conservative Party.
As of Thursday afternoon, #TrudeauDictatorship was trending on Twitter as Canadians continued to voice their concerns about Bill C-10 online.
Canada lost 68,000 jobs as lockdowns continue to wreak havoc on the economy, meanwhile unemployment in the United States decreased as states continue to lift public health measures.
In their monthly Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada said the employment rate fell 0.4%, mainly in provinces that have introduced new public health restrictions. By comparison, the United States gained 559,000 jobs in May.
“Following the April reference week, tighter public health restrictions continued or were introduced in several provinces,” StatsCan wrote.
“Ontario and Nova Scotia accounted for most of the overall employment decline in May. Employment increased in Saskatchewan, while there was little change in all other provinces.”
A staggering 36,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing, marking the first time in over a year that employment in the goods-producing sector shrunk. Retail and services also saw declines.
May is the second consecutive month of abysmal job losses. In April, Canada lost a staggering 207,000 jobs as Ontario issued a stay-at-home order and other provinces chose to increase restrictions as well.
Speaking on Friday, Conservative jobs and industry critic Pierre Poilievre slammed the government’s handling of the economy, noting that despite massive deficits the Canadian economy is still performing worse than most developed nations.
“Last month, half a million Americans got new jobs as the US unemployment rate fell to just 5.8%. Here in Canada, we lost 68,000 jobs, as our unemployment rate rose above 8%,” he said.
“Trudeau said these monstrous deficits he ran would stimulate the economy, he ran the biggest deficit in the G20 by far. He claimed this would stimulate growth and jobs. Well, the opposite has happened, there are half a million more people unemployed people today than when the pandemic began.”
Poilievre says that a Conservative reopening would focus on ensuring Canadian businesses can operate and hire. Poilievre noted that Canadians cannot survive off of government assistance forever.
“We need to change our economy from a credit card economy to a paycheque economy,” Poilievre explained.
“It is not enough to simply send people $2,000 cheques. Nobody can live off of $2,000 a month of CERB and the government certainly cannot pay it forever.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland was caught hurryingly putting on a mask during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.
According to The Post Millennial, a clip circulating online appears to show Freeland maskless at the conference for a brief period.
In the CPAC video, Freeland is seen putting on a generic medical mask for less than a minute before taking it off again.
Freeland has accused Conservatives in the past of playing into “conspiracy theories” and not following the science around COVID-19.
“Mr. Speaker, we have all seen that the Conservatives have in recent days been descending into some dark and, indeed, dystopian conspiracy theories, and I think I understand why. The problem is the Conservatives themselves cannot figure out what they stand for. Do they believe in science or do they believe in anti-vaxxers?” said Freeland in December.
True North reached out to Freeland to ask why she felt the need to don a mask momentarily during a virtual press conference but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.
Freeland’s slip up follows a recent trend of politicians being called out for hypocrisy and theatrics when it comes to mask wearing and other COVID-19 public health orders.
Recently, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh apologized after a video surfaced of him hugging a friend while unmasked contrary to public health orders.
“Like most Canadians, I’ve done my best to follow public health advice. Coming back from this event, I did not do enough to follow that advice and I’m sorry,” said Singh in a statement to Global News.
“I will do better to keep my family, our community and all Canadians safe. We cannot let our guard down if we want to beat this virus, and I’m committed to continue to do my best until we’re on the other side of this.”
Federal employees will be given a paid holiday to consider the legacy of residential schools and reconciliation with Indigenous people.
First reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, on Thursday Bill C-5 received Royal Assent and officially passed into law. The bill designated September 30 as a federal holiday called the “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.”
The holiday only applies to federal employees and workers in federally regulated workplaces such as banks and railways. According to the Department of Labour, the holiday will cost approximately $223 million a year in lost productivity.
Bill C-5 was proposed by Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault. Parliament decided to fast-track the bill after the apparent discovery of 215 human remains buried at a former residential school in Kamloops, BC.
“Addressing the consequences of colonial violence needs to go beyond words. Bill C-5 is an important step in the path towards reconciliation, which won’t be achieved in the blink of an eye,” Guilbeault said.
While Guilbeault claims a paid holiday for federal bureaucrats will help achieve reconciliation, opposition members have questioned why the government won’t promote legislation that actually improves Indigenous communities.
“What we have is continued virtue signalling seemingly as a substitute for any substantive delivery,” said Conservative Senate leader Donald Plett.
“It’s easier to give bureaucrats the day off here than it is to work on the more pressing but difficult issues that are facing Indigenous communities every day of the week.”
Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson noted that with the pay given to federal employees not to work for a day would go far in addressing some of the systemic issues Indigenous communities deal with all year.
“What could long-term, dedicated and stable funding mean for food security, for closing the infrastructure gap which is huge, for finally ending boiled water advisories, for dealing with acute housing shortfalls in Indigenous communities?” said Patterson.
Iran is holding its presidential election on June 18, but there’s a slight catch – all of the candidates have been preselected by a council appointed by Iran’s ayatollah. Any reform-minded candidates were disqualified, all but charactering the election of a regime loyalist. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group, is calling on Iranians to boycott the election. NCRI spokesperson Ali Safavi joined The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss.
Watch the latest episode of The Andrew Lawton Show.
