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Thursday, July 24, 2025

New travel restrictions include enforced quarantine and mandatory testing

By
True North Wire
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The Canadian government’s sweeping new measures targeting international travellers include aggressive quarantine enforcement, mandatory arrival testing and supervised hotel stays.

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced travellers entering Canada will face mandatory COVID-19 testing. While waiting for their test results, travellers will be forced to quarantine at a hotel at their own expense — a cost expected to be upwards of $2,000.

Following Trudeau’s announcement, the chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam announced “security contractors” will enforce quarantine rules in 35 Canadian cities. 

“Starting today, there will be increased security contractors that will go and do more door-knocking to check on people who are in quarantine,” said Dr. Tam. 

Further, Canada is set to suspend travel from popular sun-destinations on Sunday. Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat flights from all Caribbean destinations and Mexico will be suspended. Service will not resume until April 30.

Provided test results come back negative, travellers will be able to isolate for the remaining time of the two-week mandatory period at home. Those who return with positive tests will be moved to isolation at designated government facilities.

“We appreciate the work that Canadian airlines and their frontline workers have done to make air travel safer,” said Trudeau. 

“With the challenges we currently face with COVID-19 both here at home and abroad, we all agree, now is just not the time to be flying.” 

The new travel restrictions have many Canadians scratching their heads. 

“If the move is to focus on quarantine and aggressively enforce it, the hotel mini-quarantines and tests on arrival aren’t needed. They need to pick a path, not just keep heaping on more and more restrictions to effectively ban travel by making it so logistically difficult,” True North fellow Andrew Lawton tweeted.

Starting next week, international flights will only be allowed to land at the airports in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal.

Travellers will also have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test at land entry points along the U.S. border. Mandatory testing has already been called for by Premiers Francois Legault and Doug Ford.

Canada recently lifted a ban on flights from the United Kingdom after they reported outbreaks of the new variant.

Iran, Biden and Canada – Why the Middle East matters

By
Sam Eskenasi
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Events in the Middle East often seem remote and disconnected from what happens in Canada, but with Joe Biden threatening American energy independence and inheriting a unique Middle Eastern situation, there may be a few surprises in store for Canadians.

Sam Eskenasi explains why he thinks we need to be paying closer attention to the Middle East right now.

Heritage minister and Facebook officials face questioning over government ties

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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On Friday, Liberal Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault and senior officials at Facebook Canada faced questioning over incoming online hate speech legislation and the company’s ties with the federal government. 

During the Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting, questions arose over Facebook’s moderation of hate speech and Canadian media content on its platform, to which Facebook Canada Global Director Kevin Chan said that the company welcomes any clear regulation from the government and would work to comply once the legislation is put into place. 

“There are some things we can remove very quickly — terrorist content, child nudity, child exploitation. I can tell you that proactively [our] systems find and remove over 99% of that kind of content that people try to put on Facebook. But the second door, which is the door we’re talking about here, is where context and nuance is important,” said Chan.

“Where context is important, we do have humans look at it, we don’t want to have an automated system just remove something and deny someone’s speech just because without understanding the context. There we do rely on humans and there I do agree with you that it does take some time but we generally are pretty fast at it.” 

Earlier this month, a document from the Department of Canadian Heritage revealed that the government was planning to introduce new rules to scrub Facebook and Twitter of content it deems offensive. 

“We intend a comprehensive approach with the tabling of a bill in early 2021 that will apply to the various platforms,” staff wrote in a briefing note.

“We are working to introduce regulations to reduce the spread of illegal content, including hate speech, in order to promote a safer and more inclusive online environment. We want to protect Canadians online.”

Opposition MPs also grilled Guilbeault over a 2020 email chain in which Chan asked a senior public sector employee in the heritage department to circulate a job posting among employees. 

In response to questions by NDP MP and committee member Heather McPherson, Guilbeault denied that the email chain violated any ethics codes.

“Does it violate any code of ethics or code of conduct? The answer is no. How many times did it happen in the last year? Once, that particular instance. I take issue with the fact that we would question the ethical value of our civil service in Canada based on something that’s simply not there,” said Guilbeault. 

Testifying alongside the minister were Deputy Minister Hélène Laurendeau and Senior Assistant Deputy Minister Jean-Stéphen Piché.

“I reviewed the facts associated with that email as a first step and I can assure the committee that we came to the conclusion that sharing publicly available information is not a reprehensible act,” said Laurendeau. 

“This does not look good if you don’t mind me saying. It smells, when Facebook, who you will have major implementation with in the coming months is doing personal emails to your staff,” said Conservative MP Kevin Waugh. 

Later on in the committee meeting, Chan along with Facebook Canada’s Head of Media Partnerships Marc Dinsdale and the company’s Policy Manager Rachel Curran also addressed questions regarding the job postings. 

“We have business and professional relationships with all organizations that have a presence on Facebook,” said Chan.

“This job description was shared broadly with various and many different organizations across the public, private and non-private sectors. And there are programs within the government itself, in the public service of Canada that facilitates this.”

Feds award SNC-Lavalin $150 million contract for COVID-19 response

By
True North Wire
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The federal government has given SNC-Lavalin a contract worth $150 million, despite the Quebec-based firm’s history of corruption, which includes bid-rigging, fraud, bribery and illegal campaign contributions.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the public works department admitted it hired SNC-Lavalin weeks after the pandemic outbreak in Canada, as part of the government’s COVID-19 response. The engineering firm received $150 million to design and deliver mobile health units.

NDP MP Charlie Angus called the government’s relationship with SNC-Lavalin “highly questionable,” asking why the company has not been blacklisted as a federal contractor.

“Is it that when a company gets to be a certain size the rules don’t apply to them anymore?” Angus asked.

“I put it to the government: Are they going to send a message to corporations that corruption will not be tolerated, or is it dismissed with a wink?”

In fact, SNC-Lavalin is the only company to be given a waiver from the 2015 Government Wide Integrity Regime, a system that would blacklist federal contractors found to have engaged in criminal acts.

“They are guilty of staggering abuses,” said Angus. “There is a policy in place. They should be banned.”

Numerous people in Justin Trudeau’s government, including former principal secretary Gerald Butts and former Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick attempted to coerce former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould into granting SNC-Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement.

Three former SNC-Lavalin executives pleaded guilty on separate occasions to breaching the Elections Act for $109,616 worth of illegal campaign contributions to Liberal Party organizers.

The company pleaded guilty to fraud in 2019 and were placed on a probation period for three years for their bribery of Libyan government officials to win construction contracts.

Federal support of SNC-Lavalin has proven to be unwavering. Even awarding the engineering firm $6.8 million in contracts the same day they pleaded guilty to fraud.

SNC-Lavalin was fined $1.9 million under the Competition Act for bid-rigging in Quebec and has faced conviction in the Quebec superior court for bribery, fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Two mobile health units are to be deployed to Ontario as early as possible and will be available to the province until May 2021 to assist hospitals with high ICU admissions. 

Canada Post suspends workers who refused to deliver Epoch Times

By
True North Wire
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Two Canada Post carriers have been temporarily suspended after they refused to deliver the Epoch Times newspaper to the intended addresses.

A representative from the local postal worker’s union said the Regina-based mail carriers were suspended without pay for three days. 

The carriers Ramiro Sepulveda and Linying Su had both told CBC that they felt the newspaper’s negative coverage of China encouraged hatred towards Asians. 

The newspaper recently sent out a large number of free sample editions through Canada Post.

The Epoch Times is an international newspaper founded by Chinese Americans who oppose the Communist Party of China. Its owners are practitioners of Falun Gong, a religious movement that is heavily persecuted in China.

The newspaper has been the target of mainstream media attacks, particularly the CBC which have called the Epoch Times “racist” and accused them of peddling coronavirus conspiracy theories.

Epoch Times Canadian Editions publisher Cindy Gu says that CBC sent her a series of leading questions about sample editions. Gu wrote in an open letter that CBC appeared to be supporting the Canada Post workers for refusing to deliver her newspaper.

“It is also surprising that you question Canada Post’s delivery of our paper. If the delivery of mail is up to the individual carrier to decide based on his/her impression of ‘hatred’, no one can trust the post office any more,” she wrote.

“We are a media started by Asian immigrants. There is no way we would publish content that is anti-Asian. Please read our content more carefully. To a media that’s leaning left, we may seem on the right. We believe we are neutral and independent. We disagree with your label.”

Questions remain over sacking of Liberal MP critical of Khalistani extremism

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Following the removal of former Liberal MP Ramesh Sangha from the party caucus over allegedly “baseless accusations” against his colleagues, some critics have questioned whether the swift actions were justified. 

As originally reported last week, Sangha was kicked out of the party following an interview with a Punjabi-Canadian media outlet in which he said that the Liberal party contains supporters of the Khalistani extremist movement at its highest levels. 

Sangha also reportedly accused outgoing Industry Minister Navdeep Bains of supporting the Khalistani movement.

True North spoke to Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute Shuvaloy Majumdar to discuss the MP’s firing and its ramifications for the Liberal government. 

“This government appears to, as Mr. Lilley reported, be comfortable kicking out someone for being opposed to extremism, rather than actually being an extremist. And this government has no issue changing the language of professional national security documents for overtly political reasons,” said Majumdar. 

In the 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada, former public safety minister Ralph Goodale had the term “Sikh extremism” removed from the document. References to “Shia” and “Sunni” Islamist extremism were also erased. 

Following the Trudeau government’s decision to alter the language around terrorism, a Sikh-Indian politician and the Punjab region’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh accused Canada’s government of attempting to pander for votes. 

“It is obvious that Trudeau had played safe in view of the upcoming elections in Canada, giving in to pressure within his country,” said Singh. 

“The world cannot afford to fan extremism in any form, which is what the Trudeau government was effectively doing with such ill-thought moves.”

Majumdar claims that politicians risk the temptation of turning to single issue voters like extremist groups to mobilize vote banks. 

“The facts are clear: This government appears to be self satisfied with disrupting a relationship with a key geopolitical and economic democracy, very much central to the Indo-Pacific order, for no reason except to placate this constituency,” Majumdar told True North. 

Ever since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s disastrous 2018 trip to India, the Liberal government has been reeling from a broken relationship with the former close ally. 

Most recently, the two nations’ governments butt heads once again after Trudeau commented on ongoing farmer protests in India.

“The protests in Delhi on India’s Republic Day weren’t peaceful, as Khalistani extremists in Canada purported. They were designed to instigate violence by becoming violent. The fact is not a single bullet was fired despite police coming under violent attack, that the Indian authorities deserve great credit for acting as a democracy should,” said Majumdar. 

FUREY: Canadians needs to keep questioning the lockdown

By
True North Wire
-

We’re living in unprecedented times – the government has full control of where we’re allowed to go, when we’re allowed to go and what we’re allowed to do.

Sadly, many Canadians have forgotten just how extreme these lockdown measures are and have accepted it as a way of life.

Anthony Furey says Canadians need to keep the conversation going and never be afraid to ask questions.

Patty Hajdu’s Davos discussion on travel and borders took place behind closed doors

By
Andrew Lawton
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Health Minister Patty Hajdu was a panelist at the Davos Agenda on “restoring cross-border mobility,” except a large part of her panel discussion actually took place behind closed doors, inaccessible to the media and the public.

Hajdu’s press secretary declined to tell True North what Hajdu spoke about. At the very least, this is a blow against the transparency the Justin Trudeau government said it would embrace, True North’s Andrew Lawton said. At worst, issues that will affect Canadians are being discussed in venues without accountability, and without democratic oversight.

CTV broke ethics code in biased report on former president Trump

By
True North Wire
-

A recent ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) found that a CTV National News program from last year violated the code of ethics for Canadian broadcasters. 

At issue was a Sept. 9, 2020 panel on which CTV reporter Joy Malbon stated former US president Donald Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax.” 

A viewer complained that CTV misrepresented the former president as that he had never claimed that the virus itself was a hoax but rather that the Democrats’ politicization of the pandemic was.

“Ms. Malbon has lied to the audience about what was said and what the ‘hoax’ was referring to as said by President Trump. This needs to be corrected if CTV National News has any integrity. It is obvious by the stories, tone and words used by the anchor of CTV National News and the reporters on this show that they have complete disdain for President Trump,” wrote the complainant. 

In response to the complaint, the CBSC found that the news outlet had indeed breached both the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ and Radio Television Digital News Association of Canada’s Codes of Ethics.

“A statement by Donald Trump was misrepresented in a report about his approach to the pandemic. The report breached the clauses relating to accuracy and correction of errors,” the CBSC decision said. 

As a result of the investigation, CTV admitted wrongdoing for the misrepresentation but disagreed with the complaint’s insinuation that CTV reporters had “complete disdain” for the former president.

“We acknowledge that the statement in question in our report was used out of context and should not have been included in the report. You are absolutely correct in pointing out that the President used the word hoax in the context of suggesting the Democrats would and were politicizing his actions relating to the virus,” wrote the CTV in response to the complainant. 

“We regret and apologize for this inadvertent error and can assure you that there was no intent to ‘spin’ the news as you suggest. We also respectfully disagree with your suggestion that CTV News staff have disdain for the President.”

However, as reported on exclusively by True North during the inauguration of President Joe Biden, CTV pundits and reporters both praised the incoming president and ridiculed outgoing Trump. 

“I know it’s irrational. But I can’t shake the fear that Trump is going to burst onto the podium, all orange and raging, ‘RIGGED!! It’s all rigged!!’ The PTSD will take some time to fade,” tweeted CTV correspondent Scott Reid. 

Meanwhile, CTV panelist Lucas Meyer shared a photograph of his daughter saluting incoming VP Kamala Harris on their television set during the inauguration. 

Report proposes new government body to punish offensive internet content

By
True North Wire
-

A new report from a government-funded think tank recommends that parliament create new laws to police the internet and punish Canadians for “harmful communications.”

The report, Harms Reduction: A Six-Step Program To Protect Democratic Expression Online, recommends extensive new laters to protect against the “social harms” offensive internet speech brings.

The creator of the report was the Public Policy Forum, an Ottawa think tank that has received $2,848,329 in federal funding since 2019 according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Ultimately it is the role of governments to protect against social harms, stand up for the targeted and assert the greater public interest through the appropriate governance of platforms, search engines and other intentional or incidental purveyors of this material,” said the report.

The report recommends parliament pass a “Duty To Act Responsibly Law” which would create a federal tribunal to order offensive content be censored and issue fines.

“A process will be created to allow those feeling targeted by harms to be able to notify the creators of the disputed content of their complaints.” 

The Trudeau government had made internet censorship a priority going into 2021. Last year the government promised legislation to combat “online hate” and was looking into “legal remedies” to combat offensive content.

The measures in the report are controversial, even for members of the commission that wrote it. Professor Jameel Jaffer of New York’s Columbia University law faculty wrote that the laws proposed by the report are subject to abuse from the government.

“I find it difficult to endorse the proposed Duty To Act Responsibly when the content of that duty is left almost entirely to Parliament,” wrote Jaffer.

“Defining the duty will require trade-offs, not only between free speech and other values – for example privacy, equality and due process – but also between different conceptions of free speech,” 

These concerns were echoed by True North fellow Andrew Lawton.

“It’s easy to say you want fewer ‘harms’ online, it will always come down to how such a thing is defined, and more importantly, who defines it,” Lawton said. “Part of free speech is speech that offends, or potentially harms, so making ‘social harm,’ whatever that means, the standard, really just allows governments to further limit free speech.”

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