Justin Trudeau’s government keeps moving the pandemic goalposts on Canadians, most recently saying that even people who are vaccinated will not be exempt from the continually-expanding travel restrictions. True North’s Andrew Lawton says it’s never been more important to push back against the ‘new normal.’
Also, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault admits his plan to regulate online content will be based on a Supreme Court decision that focuses on “harm” rather than protecting free speech. Plus Modern Miracle Network executive director Michael Binnion joins to discuss the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project, and the anti-oil movement’s war on facts.
The Chinese Embassy in Canada issued a statement on Tuesday condemning Canadian media coverage of China’s authoritarian takeover of Hong Kong.
In the statement, an embassy spokesperson called on Canadian media outlets to tow the Chinese Communist Party line when it comes to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“We urge Canadian media to uphold the correct position on issues concerning China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and other major core interests, abide by the one-China principle, and not to provide a platform for the activities of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces so as not to send wrong signal,” claimed the Embassy.
The statement was written in response to a January article published in the Hill Times in which the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada slams Chinese intervention in Hong Kong.
“The recent large-scale crackdown in Hong Kong serves as a test of our collective ability to defend democracy globally; if we fail this test, the next one will certainly be much more challenging,” wrote Ambassador Winston Wen-yi Chen.
In response, the Chinese embassy claims Taiwan is intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.
“Foreign interfering forces and ‘Taiwan independence’ forces have blatantly ramped up intervention in Hong Kong affairs, which severely undermines Hong Kong’s public security and seriously challenges the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” wrote the embassy.
This is not the first instance where the Chinese government has sought to influence Canadian media coverage of its affairs.
Last fall, Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu accused unnamed Canadian media outlets of spreading disinformation about China.
“Some Canadian media out of the motive to seek attention distort the truth about China which has misled the Canadian public,” said Cong during a speech to the Canada-China Friendship Society.
Earlier this year, the Embassy also released a statement accusing Canadian media of “smearing” the Chinese Communist Party and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Some Canadian media have taken the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to smear and attack China’s political system, style of diplomacy and anti-pandemic response. The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this,” they wrote.
“Smearing and pointing fingers will not help fight against the pandemic. We urge relevant media to respect the fact and stop irresponsible reports and attacking and smearing China.”
Recently the federal government announced new immigration measures meant to help Hong Kongers immigrate to Canada.
Rebel News is bringing a constitutional challenge against the Saskatchewan government in an effort to host an in-person event the province’s COVID-19 restrictions won’t allow.
Rebel News has had to repeatedly postpone a large event in Regina featuring Patrick Moore, an acclaimed climate change skeptic and a co-founder of Greenpeace Canada.
“We have had to reschedule this event a couple times now because the Government of Saskatchewan’s health measures prohibited our venue from opening to the public as well as limits on gatherings,” Rebel News wrote in a statement.
“At first, we complied because the situation surrounding the virus was unknown, but as months passed it became evident that it wasn’t as bad as everyone thought. Currently, there are only 33 people in the entire province of Saskatchewan who are in intensive care from the virus.”
Saskatchewan Public Health Orders only allow for in-person gatherings of up to ten people, with physical distancing between households required.
Moore was originally going to speak last year in May at a conference hosted by the City of Regina. The city caved to pressure from environmentalists and removed him from the speakers list, with Mayor Michael Fougere claiming Moore’s views were “problematic.”
Rebel News later stepped in and agreed to host Moore at a rival event, which has had to be postponed on several occasions as the province continues to extend its emergency orders.
The lawsuit claims to challenge the constitutionality of Saskatchewan’s Public Health Orders, stating that freedom of association and freedom of assembly must still be maintained during a lockdown.
“The Charter of Rights requires governments to balance all other objectives — including public health orders — with our fundamental freedoms,” Rebel wrote.
“Any infringements have to be minimal, directly connected to the alleged problem the government’s trying to solve and they have to be proportionate.”
Rebel News plans to host Moore on March 30 in Regina.
The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics met on Monday to hear from witnesses on the protection of privacy and reputation on digital platforms. The focus of the committee was the Canadian company MindGeek — the parent company and host for Pornhub, which is the most accessed pornography website globally.
According to witnesses, in MindGeek’s pursuit of being number one in the search engine optimization arms race, they completely disregarded privacy, consent and age laws.
The committee first heard from Serena Fleites, a victim of the website’s negligence. At age thirteen, Fleites alleges she had an explicit video of her circulating amongst her peers. An experience she recalls as traumatizing and lead to destructive behaviours like drug use and suicide attempts.
Fleites tried disconnecting from her community, seeking to escape from the widespread harassment the circulation of the video imposed on her. However, the situation dramatically worsened when the video was uploaded to Pornhub.
“I took myself off social media, I stopped going to school and I got very depressed. I thought once I stopped being in the public and stopped going to school people would stop re-uploading it, but that didn’t happen,” said Fleites.
“It had already been downloaded by people all across the world. It would always be uploaded over and over again, no matter how many times I got it taken down.”
Fleites recounted her story to the committee and alleges that the company’s lack of regard for the laws regarding child pornography and the gaslighting she experienced when contacting the site to have her images removed.
According to Fleites, MindGeek had her continuously verify that she was in fact the girl in the video. Every time she sought to have it removed, Fleites claims the company would be more concerned about verifying who she was, and not the fact they were knowingly hosting “obvious” child pornography.
“There was instances of the video having 2.7 million views, despite hundreds of comments of people saying this is obviously child pornography. And yet Pornhub still wouldn’t take it down,” said Fleites.
“Even when I messaged them multiple times, it would take forever. When I did get a response, they would hassle me for all these other details.”
Fleites alleges that even when she complied with the company, she said the verification process took weeks. All the while, the video continued to accumulate hundreds of thousands of views and downloads.
Michael Bowe, a lawyer from the Manhattan law firm Brown Rudnick, also spoke as a witness to the committee. Bowe stated in their investigation of MindGeek, Pornhub and their other affiliated websites over the last year, they found “overwhelming” evidence of negligence in respecting consent and age laws.
“This is about rape, not porn. It is about trafficking, not consensual adult performance, or entertainment. This is not about policing consensual adult activity, it’s not about religion,” said Bowe.
“I think even in these days, everybody can agree that no industry should be commercializing and monetizing in rape, child abuse and trafficking content.”
Bowe asserts that the standards imposed on pornography production in the past have been completely curtailed by the digital era. Before sites like Pornhub became popular on the internet, there were many steps to assure the participants were of age and consensual. Any broadcasted pornography included a disclaimer that confirmed these steps had been taken.
“At the center of this is an algorithm. You need to know exactly what it is on your site for an algorithm to be able to send you to more of the same content. According to MindGeek’s public statements and pronouncements, it reviews all content on its site. Which is to say it is an admission that all child pornography on its site, they reviewed,” said Bowe.
“They knew, and they decided not to do anything about it.”
The committee, which included MPs from all federal parties, will be using the witness testimonies as a foundation as they seek to rewrite laws concerning privacy and reputation to better reflect the digital age.
MindGeek is slated to appear before the same committee on February 5.
Climate change, diversity and online hate were on the agenda for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first call with Vice President Kamala Harris less than two weeks after the Biden-Harris administration scrapped the Keystone XL pipeline project.
In the official readouts of the conversation, neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the White House indicates a discussion of Keystone.
The readout from Trudeau’s office makes a vague reference to “North American energy security,” after mentioning Harris “historic election” and that she “recalled fondly her years spent in Montreal.”
“The Prime Minister and the Vice President discussed a wide range of issues, from promoting diversity and inclusion to the importance of mental health, as well as the need to address online hate, firearm trafficking, and gender-based violence,” the readout said, in addition to talk about access to vaccines, pandemic response, and Canada-U.S. supply chains.
The press release from Harris’ office does not reference energy policy at all, focusing mainly on climate change and the Canada-U.S. economic partnership.
In his first day in office, President Joe Biden used an executive order to retroactively cancel Keystone XL. The pipeline was valued at US$8 billion and would have created approximately 15,000 jobs in both countries.
Construction had been ongoing since July, with the province of Alberta investing $1.5 billion to get the project started. The cross-border section of the pipeline is already in the ground.
Trudeau had previously given a tepid response to the cancellation, expressing disappointment yet applauding Biden’s action from an environmental standpoint.
“While we welcome the President’s commitment to fight climate change, we are disappointed but acknowledge the President’s decision to fulfil his election campaign promise on Keystone XL,” Trudeau said in January..
Trudeau reportedly told Harris he is looking forward to tightening economic bonds while avoiding any negative impacts of the Biden Administration’s “Buy American” program.
The Buy American program will ensure U.S. firms will be prioritized when bidding on government contracts, a move opposition in Canada says will harm many Canadian firms.
The New Blue Party of Ontario has been officially registered as Ontario’s newest political party.
Elections Ontario has approved the party, founded by former Progressive Conservative (PC) MPP Belinda Karahalios and her husband, former Conservative leadership candidate Jim Karahalios, to run candidates in the next provincial election.
Speaking to Queen’s Park Today, Jim said there’s been “heavy interest” in the new party, particularly in Belinda’s riding of Cambridge.
“There’s a lot of frustrated blue voters that are just done with the Ontario PC party,” he went on to say.
In October, the Karahalioses announced the establishment of New Blue Party as an alternative to Ontario’s governing PC party. The party opposes the Doug Ford government’s lockdown measures and promises to advocate for small business and freedom of worship.
“We’ve heard from people across Ontario who are very disillusioned with the established parties, feel that Doug Ford betrayed them,” Jim said.
“We’ve been asked for a solution, and we can tell you that help is on the way.”
In July, Belinda was ousted from the PC caucus after she voted against Bill 195, a bill which allowed the Ford government to unilaterally issue emergency orders for the next two years, effectively allowing for perpetual lockdowns without votes in the legislature.
Jim, a grassroots activist who led a successful campaign against Ontario’s carbon tax, was disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race after his campaign sent out a letter criticizing Walied Soliman, the chair of O’Toole’s campaign.
In October, the couple stated the party’s primary goal was to re-elect Belinda Karahalios as a New Blue MPP in Cambridge.
Jim says that it is unlikely the New Blue Party will run candidates in all 124 ridings, instead opting to run candidates in areas with the most grassroots supporters.
On Tuesday, Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow will be calling on the city to introduce new enforcement measures on mask-wearing in multi-residential buildings.
The City of Toronto has to date received over 2,000 complaints from apartment building and condo residents who are unhappy with their neighbours not wearing masks in their buildings’ common areas.
“Over 2,000 complaints of neighbours not wearing masks have been filed through 311 to the City. That is in addition to the many complaints Councillors have received directly,” wrote Matlow in his motion which was seconded by City Councillor Joe Cressey.
“That’s why this Motion requests City Staff to develop a strategy to promote, and possibly enforce, individual responsibility for wearing a mask to protect their neighbours.”
According to a Campaign Research poll on support for coronavirus enforcement, research shows that Liberal voters were the most likely to support drastic measures like police entering homes without warrants, jailing those who spread disinformation and breaking up families in the name of public health.
True North reached out to Councillor Matlow for comment on what the proposed enforcement might look like but had not heard back in time for publication.
“From August 5, 2020 to January 28, 2021, the City received 2757 residential complaints about mask wearing in condos and apartments,” City of Toronto spokesperson Jasmine Patrick told True North.
“We are not providing addresses for the buildings at this time.”
Last week, Toronto Mayor John Tory dispatched city staff to 12 residential buildings in the city due to the high volume of complaints.
“Each and every one of us has a responsibility to protect our own communities. Wearing masks or face coverings in all indoor public spaces in Toronto and in common areas in apartments and condominiums is one way of keeping everyone safe.” said Tory in a statement on the matter.
“These efforts will make sure landlords of buildings where we are receiving multiple mask complaints have the necessary tools to come into compliance with public health and safety measures.”
Tory himself has admitted to breaking coronavirus health measures after he was photographed mingling with a Toronto crowd while improperly wearing his mask.
“I want to apologize for my personal behaviour yesterday,” he said on the May 2020 incident.
“I fully intended to properly physically distance, but it was very difficult to do. I wore a mask into the park, but I failed to use it properly, another thing I’m disappointed about. These were mistakes that I made and as a leader in this city, I know that I must set a better example going forward.”
Canadians who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 must still abide by the Liberal government’s travel restrictions.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra revealed this during Question Period in the House of Commons on Monday in response to a question from Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner.
“Canada is two million doses short of vaccines this week. Will those who are vaccinated be exempt from the Liberals’ too-late travel restrictions?” Rempel Garner asked.
“We still don’t have information about the effect of the vaccine on transmissibility therefore all Canadians will be subject to these measures,” Alghabra replied.
In a follow-up question, Rempel Garner said there’s “no clear end in sight” for Canadians, even assuming vaccines will be available for those who want them.
“So now the Liberals are saying that even being vaccinated doesn’t guarantee an end to restrictions,” she said. “Canadians have stayed at home, they’ve washed their hands, they’ve worn masks and they’ve sacrificed a lot. With rapid tests and vaccinations available to the world but not to us, Canadians shouldn’t have to accept more restrictions without a clear end in sight and without that type of a word salad from the minister.”
Under the restrictions announced Friday, all people entering Canada by air must quarantine in a government-approved hotel at their own expense pending a negative test result, in addition to the negative test result one must show to board a plane to Canada. Entry testing has also been extended to Canadians returning to the country via land borders.
The government also reached an agreement with Canadian airlines to suspend flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until at least Apr. 30.
Early on in the pandemic, the Liberal government was resistant to travel restrictions and border measures.
On January 29, 2020, Canada’s Chief Public Health Office Dr. Theresa Tam advised Canada to follow the World Health Organization’s lead and not implement travel bans following then-US president Donald Trump’s sweeping restrictions at the time.
Meanwhile on March 13, 2020 Health Minister Patty Hajdu called travel restrictions “highly ineffective,” just a few days before her government closed its border with the United States.
During the holidays, several Liberal MPs were forced to resign from their governmental positions after it was revealed that they had travelled abroad while their government insisted that Canadians remain at home.
One Liberal MP, Kamal Khera, admitted to travelling to Seattle before resigning from her role as a parliamentary secretary.
It was also revealed that Minister Hajdu herself repeatedly flew back and forth between her home in Thunder Bay and Ottawa while she told Canadians to shelter in place.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared in a panel conversation with Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean and hockey legend Willie O’Ree to speak about social justice and racism on Monday afternoon.
During the event, Trudeau gave an opening statement and condemned the issue of discrimination within the sport.
“Hockey brings Canadians together and there’s no place for racism or discrimination of any kind in Canada’s game,” said Trudeau during his opening statement.
“We need everyone, educators, coaches, parents, students and allies to play an active role to ensure that our game and our country are more inclusive.”
The event, titled “Social Justice & Racism Lessons From Willie O’Ree: A Conversation with Canadians”, was moderated by Ron MacLean and was organized in response to a recent documentary on the legendary black hockey player.
During a panel discussion this morning, Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean gushes over @JustinTrudeau in a homage to his father, the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
“You gave the most beautiful homage to [Pierre Trudeau], and what really strikes me is that’s 2000 and within eight years you’re a Member of Parliament and within a decade and a half you are the prime minister of this country. So you are cut from the same cloth,” said MacLean in his introduction to Trudeau.
Recently, it was also revealed that MacLean took part in a Liberal Party fundraiser in December which cost $400 per person for tickets. The fundraiser was titled “A Conversation on Sport and Politics in Canada” and it was first announced by Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden.
In 2019, MacLean’s Sportsnet co-host Don Cherry was fired from his long-time position at Coach’s Corner over allegedly racist remarks.
Cherry was terminated from the show on Remembrance Day after he called out people who do not wear poppies to honour Canadian men and women who served in the military.
“I live in Mississauga, nobody wears them… very few people wear poppies. Downtown Toronto, forget it! Downtown Toronto nobody wears a poppy, and I’m not going to waste [my time],” Cherry said.
“You people love — they come here, whatever it is, they love our way of life. You love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that.”
Cherry has since stood by his statement and has said that his words were taken out of context and misrepresented.
Following Cherry’s departure, MacLean publicly apologized for his former co-hosts remarks and then went on to lecture Canadians on “white privilege” and systemic racism during a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.
