Like many Chinese government officials have done in the past, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lectured his critics about “anti-Asian racism.”
The reality is many people, including those of Asian descent, are sounding the alarm on the Chinese government’s belligerence and human rights abuses.
Anthony Furey discusses in his latest video.
Conservative MPs slammed the Liberal government for carelessness after Liberal MP William Amos admitted to urinating while in a House of Commons Zoom meeting on Wednesday.
“This is the second time Mr. Amos has been caught exposing himself to his colleagues in the House, and the House of Commons, virtual or otherwise, must be free of this type of unacceptable behaviour,” said Conservative MP and Deputy House Leader Karen Vecchio in a statement.
“It’s now clear that Trudeau’s Liberals failed in their duty to ensure a safe work environment following the first incident. We can’t have more of this from Liberal members of Parliament and Conservatives will explore all potential options to ensure this never happens again.”
On Thursday, Amos posted a statement on his personal Twitter account claiming that he had accidentally “urinated without realizing (he) was on camera” the night before.
“It is important to have a safe workplace environment for everyone on Parliament Hill and we take these matters extremely seriously,” Liberal government whip Mark Holland told CBC News.
“Mr. Amos has stepped aside from his role as Parliamentary Secretary and from his committee duties.”
The incident was the second of its kind after Amos was photographed naked during a separate Zoom call in April.
Amos later admitted to the incident and said that it was an “unfortunate mistake.” According to Amos, he was in the middle of changing after he had gone out for a jog when the Zoom meeting was in progress.
Eventually Bloc Québécois MP Sebastien Lemire apologized for taking a screenshot of the moment.
A group of Ontario pastors is taking worship to the streets.
Four outspoken pastors, Jacob Reaume, Aaron Rock, Nate Wright, and Michael Thiessen, are planning to host a Worship in the Square in Waterloo, Ont.’s Town Square Sunday afternoon.
The event is advertised as an open-air church service, with all four men offering to minister to attendees.
Three of the four have faced huge fines for presiding over church services throughout Ontario’s lockdown, with the provincial government succeeding in getting a court order to lock one of them out, Trinity Bible Chapel, of their building.
“We decided on this because we have been prohibited from leading services in our church buildings and we desire to maintain a public witness to the glory of Christ. We also believe that people will be blessed by singing together, by praying together, and by exchanging warm greetings with one another in that context,” Trinity’s pastor, Reaume, told True North.
In Ontario, indoor and outdoor religious services have a gathering limit of 10 people.
According to the government, if the rules for gatherings are not followed, organizers may be fined $10,000 and each attendee may receive a $750 ticket. The government has also given enforcement personnel the right to break up the gathering and temporarily close the premises.
The pastors have been all critical of Ontario’s restrictions on religious services, with the men and their congregations making national headlines for defying public health orders.
“It is certainly an act of protest,” Reaume added.
“The emphasis of the time will be on Jesus Christ, His supremacy, and the free grace He offers to all peoples. “
In early May, a judge ruled that Trinity Bible Chapel should be locked indefinitely, until public health orders allow it to operate.
Speaking on The Andrew Lawton Show, Reaume said his church collectively received approximately $50 million worth of fines.
In December, Rock, of Harvest Windsor, was charged for holding an in-person service that allegedly violated the Reopening Ontario Act (ROA).
In January, Thiessen of Grace Alliston was also charged under the ROA for holding an unrestricted service as a protest against public health orders.
Thiessen also organized and led a campaign to encourage churches to open for worship on Good Friday and Easter Sunday regardless of provincial restrictions. In total, 79 churches in nine provinces joined in his campaign.
Waterloo Town Square has been the site of regular demonstrations against public health orders. A previous anti-lockdown rally hosted by Pastor Reaume and Independent MPP Randy Hillier drew hundreds of attendees.
On Thursday, Conservative MPs Nelly Shin and Kenny Chiu lashed back against accusations of anti-Asian racism levelled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against the official opposition earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Trudeau lectured Conservatives about “anti-Asian racism” and “tolerance” in response to being grilled on what he’s doing to protect Canadian research institutions from Chinese interference.
Recent reports have revealed that at least seven scientists employed at Winnipeg’s National Microbiology Laboratory were collaborating with an organization affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation Army on classified infectious disease research while in Canada.
“As members know, the official opposition has been questioning the Prime Minister on the topic of security at Canada’s top microbiology lab and the partnership of scientists with ties to the Chinese military. Instead of addressing this important issue, the Prime Minister made accusations of racism against those members asking these vital questions of national interest,” said Shin during a point of order in the House of Commons.
“In addition to the Prime Minister casting aspersions upon members of this House who are only trying to do their job, I find it offensive that the Prime Minister is diminishing the significance of the anti-Asian crisis in Canada by using it to deflect attention away from an unrelated political issue of national security.”
Shin ended her comments by calling on the prime minister to apologize for his “divisive and destructive” remarks.
Additionally, Chiu accused the prime minister of hiding behind anti-Asian racism as a way to avoid being accountable for his handling of Canadian research security.
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister suggested that asking questions about the threat from China’s government is anti-Asian racism. I am an Asian-Canadian and I am deeply offended by this. How dare the wearer of blackface and brownface use the painful experience of racism to shield this government’s callous dereliction to protect Canada from hostile foreign regimes?” said Chiu.
“Pointing that out is not racism. Suggesting otherwise plays into the propaganda effort of our opponent. That is something of great concern in my home of Richmond. To see our national leadership downplay these concerns is simply shameful. Many critics of the CPP are of Asian descent themselves, either born as equal partners in Canada or having joined the equal partnership as immigrants.”
The Trudeau government internet’s regulation bill has caused a major uproar in Canada. Canadians from across the political spectrum are sounding the alarm and calling Bill C-10 an attack on free speech.
But what exactly does Bill C-10 aim to accomplish? Is the government attempting to regulate the internet? Why is it so controversial?
True North’s Candice Malcolm explains what Bill C-10 is and how it will affect Canadians.
A manager in the office of Employment and Social Development Canada has been fired after she twice helped her daughter get a job in the department without disclosing their relationship.
First reported by the Ottawa Citizen, the federal labour relations and employment board recently rejected Christine Petit’s appeal of her 2017 termination. Petit was her daughter’s direct supervisor for nine months before the relationship was revealed.
In 2016, Petit recommended her daughter for a three-month position in Employment and Social Development Canada, with the hiring committee accepting her because of the recommendation.
Before the position expired, Petit again recommended her daughter, this time for a one-year position. Petit signed declarations that stated she was not related to the candidate.
In her decision, adjudicator Nathalie Daigle ruled that management was justified in firing Petit.
“Even though she explained that she failed to disclose (the relationship) to ensure that she would obtain assistance quickly given the scale of the tasks she had to complete, nevertheless, she granted preferential treatment to a family member,” Daigle wrote.
“The grievor’s conduct went contrary to basic principles about the integrity of employees and of the federal public sector as a whole.”
In her defense, Petit stated that the department was desperate to fill the position and her daughter was the only qualified candidate she knew. As financial manager, Petit was dealing with the fallout of the Phoenix pay system disaster.
While Petit claimed she did not personally benefit from her daughter’s employment, Daigle noted that a manager having their child work under them has obvious benefits.
“Although the grievor made the point that she did not benefit personally from her alleged behaviour, my view is that I cannot accept it as a mitigating factor,” Daigle wrote.
“In my view, the evidence demonstrated that hiring her daughter was a quick and practical solution for her, so she certainly did benefit personally from it. In addition, she also provided a financial and professional benefit to her daughter.”
Employees with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) were given a 2.8% raise for 2018, an additional 2.2% increase for 2019 and a 1.35% raise for last year.
Liberal MP and President of the Treasury Board Jean-Yves Duclos said that Canadians are capable of bearing the cost of the salary increase for public sector employees.
The Liberals are standing by their hotel quarantine program after a federal COVID-19 advisory panel recommended the government scrap it.
The recommendations came in the COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel’s fourth report, which deals with land and air border measures.
“The current requirement for all air travellers to quarantine in government-authorized accommodations should be discontinued,” wrote the panel.
“However, travellers subject to quarantine must provide a suitable quarantine plan for approval and then adhere to this plan. If the traveller does not have a suitable quarantine plan, they should be required to adhere to an alternative one (for example, in designated quarantine facilities).”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first implemented the mandatory hotel-quarantine requirement for travellers landing in Canada on February 22. Since then, the program has been riddled with issues including several cases of sexual assault, inadequate food quality and reports of poor security measures.
In a statement released soon after the report’s publication, Health Minister Patty Hajdu wrote that current requirements including hotel quarantines “are working.”
“The Government of Canada will continue to monitor and review all available data and scientific evidence to inform future border and travel measures, and will be prudent in its approach, keeping the health and safety of Canadians top of mind. The Government of Canada will also consider the Panel’s recommendations to determine how testing and quarantine strategies should evolve to address vaccination status,” wrote Hajdu.
As reported by True North in March, Hajdu admitted that the Liberal government had insufficient data to justify the use of mandatory hotel quarantines when compared to at-home quarantines.
Additionally, the panel also recommended a plan to safely lift border restrictions as Canada moves out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, the US-Canada border closure has been extended until at least June 21, 2021, however, both the US and Canada have indicated that they are in talks to discuss a reopening plan as vaccinations continue to proceed in both countries.
Despite the fact that Taiwan appears on a map as its own country, has its own flag and even a president, the Chinese regime continues to refute the fact that Taiwan is a country.
While it should come as no surprise China’s foreign policy is out of whack, this week, American wrestler and actor John Cena caved to China and apologized for saying Taiwan is a country.
Anthony Furey discusses in his latest video.
The lab origin theory of COVID-19 is receiving renewed interest and credibility among scientists – but it wasn’t too long ago that outlets like CBC News, the Toronto Star and Canada’s National Observer published articles dismissing the lab leak theory outright without waiting for a scientific consensus on the matter.
From the outset of the pandemic, True North has covered all of the competing theories regarding COVID-19, including the potential lab origin of the virus.
Soon after the world became aware of the existence of COVID-19, True North founder Candice Malcolm asked on her show why nobody in the mainstream media was questioning whether the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.�
For the crime of simply investigating unanswered questions, Malcolm faced repeated attacks by freelance reporter Justin Ling who followed China’s lead and claimed the theory was baseless.
In an article published by Foreign Policy, Ling attacked the lab leak theory as “nonsense” and a conspiracy theory.
Ling continued his claims into 2021, saying there had been no evidence whatsoever to support the idea that COVID-19 came from a lab and that the theory was “dangerous misinformation.”
Even Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC News, published a report that called the lab leak hypothesis a “conspiracy theory” and “disinformation.”
“One of the most persistent and widespread pieces of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the conspiracy theory that the novel coronavirus that causes the disease was created in a lab — and was let loose either by accident or on purpose by some nefarious actor,” wrote CBC journalist Andrea Bellemare on March 24, 2020.
“The theory not only lives on social media and internet message boards pushing conspiracy theories but has been publicly floated by politicians.”
Bellemare continued to dismiss the theory on social media implying that the theory was debunked, as if the science was settled.
Outlets like the Toronto Star joined in on spreading the baseless claim that the COVID-19 lab theory was an instance of misinformation.
The National Observer’s “disinformation researcher” Caroline Orr claimed that the lab theory was part of a number of “shared hoaxes and rumours” about the virus.
Despite these false claims by Canadian mainstream media outlets and journalists, more experts around the world are increasingly skeptical of China’s dismissal of the lab origin theory and consider it to be a possibility among other competing theories.
Recently, a group of highly qualified experts advocated in Science Magazine for the world to take the lab origin theory seriously as a possible source for COVID-19 while also criticizing the World Health Organization for being too dismissive of the theory.
“Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable. Knowing how COVID-19 emerged is critical for informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks,” the researchers wrote.
Additionally, a US public health researcher admitted this week that political attitudes towards former US President Donald Trump were behind the reason scientists initially dismissed the COVID-19 lab hypothesis.
According to the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Global Health Policy Center J Stephen Morrison, the lab hypothesis “got jumbled up together with some of the more crazy aspects of Trump, and scientists recoiled against that and went in favor of the theory that COVID-19 had emerged out of a natural process versus a lab escape.”
A former scholarship student with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is suing the organization after claiming that she was sexually harassed by former premier of the Northwest Territories Stephen Kakfwi while he was her mentor there.
According to Nlaxa’pamux Nation member Cherry Smiley, the Trudeau Foundation attempted to cover up the matter by having her sign a non-disclosure agreement and told her that the alleged sexual harassment was a matter of “cultural misunderstanding.”
“They told her that it would be ‘bad for her’ if ‘this got out’ and that ‘Kakfwi could sue her’ and that the Foundation ‘could be accused of racism by Mr. Kakfwi,’” the lawsuit says.
“They attempted to minimize the sexual harassment, telling her that it was just a ‘cultural misunderstanding.’
Smiley first joined the foundation’s “Summer Institute” in 2016 as a second-year PhD student from Montreal. Only the foundation is named in the lawsuit and not Kakfwi himself or any other senior employees.
The Trudeau Foundation has yet to file a statement of defence to the allegations which have not been proven in court.
“The Foundation has a different interpretation of several facts alleged in the article published by Radio-Canada,” said the Trudeau Foundation’s Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors Dyane Adams in a statement on the original report.
According to the lawsuit, Smiley and Kakfwi had dinner together at a restaurant while Kakfwi was acting as her mentor.
“The dinner was unusual in that Mr. Kakfwi spent the entire evening talking about himself and did not ask the Plaintiff about her research or her areas of academic interest,” court documents allege.
The lawsuit continues to allege that the two took a cab to Sheraton Hotel where “Kakfwi suddenly moved his body extremely close to the Plaintiff and grabbed her upper arm, close to her breast, and squeezed it. He proceeded to hold onto her upper arm for an extended period, rubbing and massaging it.”
“The Plaintiff panicked and eventually pulled her body away from him,” it continues.
Another incident alleged in the lawsuit involves a gala at the Summer Institute where Smiley alleges Kakfwi grabbed her again and told her she could stay “in his spare bedroom.”
“She was especially frightened and intimidated given that she required a reference letter from Mr. Kakfwi in order to receive the subsequent year of her scholarship funding from the Trudeau Foundation,” the lawsuit claims.
After reporting the incidents, it is alleged that the foundation’s former CEO Morris Rosenberg phoned Smiley to discuss the allegations and accuse her of “blowing things out of proportion.”
“The Plaintiff was extremely uncomfortable and distressed during this offensive conversation. She felt disbelieved and under attack,” court documents claim.
As of August 2018, Kakfwi was removed from the program as a mentor, however, Smiley alleges she was then pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement on the matter.
Smiley dropped out of the program as a result of the incidents. Smiley is seeking $500,000 in damages from the foundation for allegedly breaching its contractual duty and an additional $500,000 for breaching confidence. Smiley is also asking for $250,000 in punitive damages.
While the foundation is named after his father, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is currently not involved with the charitable organization. The Prime Minister’s brother Alexandre Trudeau is currently a member representing the Pierre Trudeau Estate.