Brampton Centre MP Ramesh Sangha has been removed from the Liberal caucus after he allegedly made “baseless and dangerous” accusations against fellow Liberal MPs.
In a statement, Chief Government Whip Mark Holland says Sangha was removed from caucus Monday afternoon, shortly after the accusations were made.
“As soon as the Chief Government Whip was made aware of these accusations, he consulted with the Prime Minister, and the necessary steps were taken,” the statement says.
“As of this afternoon, Mr. Sangha has been removed from the Liberal caucus.”
Liberals turf MP Ramesh Sangha from caucus for making "baseless threats" against colleagues. pic.twitter.com/fCInXUOLxw
The statement does not state who Sangha accused or what the accusations were, but Holland claims the Sangha was peddling “conspiracy theories.”
“As we have made clear time and time again, we will not tolerate conspiracy theories, or dangerous and unfounded rhetoric about Parliamentarians or other Canadians,” he wrote.
“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for many Canadians to experience suspicions because of their background; we all know where this can lead.”
A couple of days earlier, Sangha reportedly accused outgoing Industry Minister Navdeep Bains of supporting the Khalistani movement.
Khalistanis are members of the Sikh community that wish to see an ethnostate for Sikhs carved out of Indian territory. Multiple terrorist acts have been attributed to the extremist group.
In an interview with a Punjabi media outlet, Sangha allegedly said Bains had identified with the Khalistan movement and claimed Bains was not fit to be a minister. Bains had announced he was retiring from politics earlier in the month.
In September 2019, Sangha accused Liberal MPs of pandering to Khalistani extremists. While he did not name specific individuals, he said there were members of cabinet who were sympathetic to the Khalistan movement.
In an announcement Monday, Montreal police said they have issued 773 tickets relating to COVID-19 restrictions within the last week. Of those, 396 were a consequence of breaking the 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
In combination with the 531 tickets issued by the provincial police force Sûreté du Québec, (SQ) the number of fines for the last week totals 1,304. Of the total number of fines, 732 were issued for breaking curfew.
The SQ said that 80 of the tickets were issued on highways within the greater Montreal area. The fines can be up to $6,000 and first-time offenders can be ticketed $1,500 for being outside their home past 8 p.m.
During the week of January 11, 583 tickets were handed out by Montreal police, with 353 curfew violations making up most of the offences.
Premier Francois Legault implemented the curfew for four weeks and it is set to expire on February 8. Premier Legault said the curfew was necessary in order to limit the chances of “illegal” social gatherings.
Quebec is not alone in its strict enforcement of COVID rules. In December, Manitoba issued 100 tickets, totalling $181,574. In Ontario, the government has ramped up workplace inspections across the province to catch potential violators.
A new digital privacy report published on Monday found that a majority of people did not share their coronavirus related health data or did not use a government contact-tracing app.
According to the Ernst & Young (EY) Global Consumer Privacy Survey 2020, 64% of global consumers refused to share their health data related to the coronavirus.
When broken down by age groups, Generation Z (49%) and Millennials (45%) were the most willing to depart with their health data, followed by Generation X (32%) and Baby Boomers (21%).
The report was commissioned by EY and conducted by the Financial Times company Longitude through July and August 2020.
“The survey of 1,901 consumers in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA), and the Americas investigated attitudes and approaches to data privacy and data sharing, expectations of how organizations will use personal data, and how data privacy is adapting in the post-pandemic world,” wrote the report’s authors.
When it comes to the use of government-created contact-tracing applications like Canada’s own coronavirus alert system, willingness to use the software was down sharply over the past six months.
The report found that only 29% of Generation Z and 26% of Millennials said that they used a government contact-tracing application, while only 23% of Generation X and 19% of Baby Boomers reported the same.
According to Ontario’s former information and privacy commissioner and the Executive Director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre Ann Cavoukian, the lack of consumer trust detailed by the report was unsurprising.
“People are very very concerned about sharing their data, especially their Covid data. They don’t know what people are doing with this information and they’re at a complete loss of where it’s going to go so in terms of contact-tracing they have no interest in that,” Cavoukian told True North.
“That’s why the COVID Alert, which is the exposure notification app developed in Ontario then adopted across Canada which was based on the Apple-Google framework, that’s the ideal one that should be used because it’s completely privacy protected. It doesn’t collect any personal information, it doesn’t reveal any information, everything is in the hands of the user. That’s the one we need to apply.”
Cavoukian suggested that one of the reasons behind the reluctance to adopt contact-tracing applications could be due to the early flaws detected in other software like the applications rolled out in Alberta and the UK.
“It’s possible because you see there’s already a lot of distrust. There’s a steadily growing mass of distrust in the population so if you add to that with evidence that originally they weren’t going to collect some information and then they moved it in Alberta and elsewhere. So people don’t know what to think, there’s so much distrust they would think “why bother?” Cavoukian said.
“You have to tread very carefully when dealing with people’s health information, especially at a time of such distrust. It’s utter folly to expect that you’re going to have a high response rate.”
A June 2020 survey conducted by Statistics Canada on the Canadian coronavirus alert application found a significantly higher number of Canadians were willing to use the application, while a significant number of people cited privacy concerns regarding the software.
According to the results, 25% of Canadians were very likely to use a contact tracing app if recommended to do so by public health officials, while 31% of respondents said they would somewhat likely use the application.
However, the same survey found that a concern over privacy was the number one reason reported by people who were unlikely to use the application.
Research done by the Public Health Agency found that less than half of Canadians will go get vaccinated as soon as the coronavirus vaccine is available to them.
According to surveys obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, only 41% of Canadians agree with the statement: “I would get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it became available to me.”
Among the groups most likely to avoid the vaccine are young people, low-income people, Indigenous people and working women.
Researchers found that people who follow mainstream media and have high levels of trust in government are much more likely to want to get vaccinated.
“Canadians who follow recommended health behaviours, use traditional media sources, trust government and traditional media, worry about their personal and community health and safety and DO NOT feel COVID-19 is overblown are more likely to agree they would be vaccinated. The converse is true for Canadians who are less likely to agree.”
A poll in August found that 61% of Canadians were worried about potential side effects of coronavirus vaccines. Despite this, 80% said they would still get vaccinated eventually.
“Canadians who use social information sources – social media, friends and family – are less likely to agree they should be vaccinated, indicating that social media and word of mouth strategies will be very important for designing an effective communications campaign.”
Of those surveyed by the Public Health Agency, 45% said they “would get a Covid-19 vaccine but would want to wait a bit.”
By an 8-2 vote margin, Saskatoon’s governance and priorities committee sent a report to city council on a bylaw banning businesses from providing conversion therapy as a “business activity.”
City councillors Randy Donauer and David Kirton voted against the motion both expressing opposition to the practice of attempting to have someone’s sexual orientation changed.
Donauer and Kirton believe the provincial and federal governments are the primary bodies to regulate the issue, arguing conversion therapy involves health care and criminal law which are provincial and federal juridictions.
“I feel that our city is jumping ahead of the proper jurisdiction that should be doing this, and that’s the federal government”, Kirton stated.
Donauer commented, “I hear those who have suffered and have concerns about abuse and I believe there needs to be a solution for that, but I don’t think the city is the solution for everybody’s issues.”
The two city councillors weren’t alone in their opposition of the motion.
Concerns arose surrounding the constitutionality of such a law to ban Saskatoon businesses from providing conversion therapy.
Saskatoon resident Mary Riendeu presented to city council saying, “In passing this bylaw, city council would be breaching their duty of neutrality under Sec. 2 (a), by showing preference for certain sexual values and morals over others…Imposing sexual values is not the role of city council.”
Bill C-6 “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy)” has passed its second reading.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) says Bill C-6 will violate Canadian’s Charter Freedoms.
“Given Bill C-6’s far-reaching impacts on Canadians’ fundamental rights, and its interference in their voluntary choices concerning their own sexuality and gender, such a law cannot be justified in Canada’s free and democratic society,” stated JCCF staff lawyer Marty Moore.
“Bill C-6 is an overbroad, arbitrary and discriminatory violation of Canadians’ human rights and constitutional rights and freedoms.”
Those in favour of the motion argued that they couldn’t wait for the federal government to act. However, it is unknown if any Saskatoon business actually provides conversion therapy.
“Right now, there’s nothing to stop this from happening to youth in the city of Saskatoon; this is the only thing until the federal government gets their law in place, and I can’t wait until that happens,” Councillor Darren Hill said.
The draft bylaw notes that violations could result in a three month licence suspension, a $10,000 fine per day for individuals and up to $25,000 per day for corporations.
If the report is approved by council, the bylaw will be drafted and council will vote on it sometime in February.
Police in Montreal broke up three religious gatherings among the city’s Jewish community over the weekend.
Three separate gatherings of Orthodox Jews were shut down as part of coronavirus lockdown enforcement in the boroughs of Outremont and Plateau-Mont-Royal.
In early January, Quebec banned religious gatherings in an effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Recently, restrictions were changed to allow for just ten people.
Police confirmed to Global News that one person was arrested. At one location, attendees chose to flee the scene en masse rather than speak to police.
“Unfortunately, a majority of these offenders decided to leave the premises by physically running into police officers,” police spokesperson Julien Lévesque said, adding that nobody was injured.
Police attempted to record the names of the attendees and fines may be issued in the future.
In a statement, the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec apologized for the incidents, but argued that police are misinterpreting the meaning of their most recent directive.
According to the council, current restrictions “allow the opening of several prayer rooms in the same building as long as this same building has separate entrances on the street.”
“This ignorance of the regulations put in place by the police authorities adds to the confusion.”
In at least one synagogue, the members went to separate rooms in groups of less than ten, which they argue is acceptable under current directives.
When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, Justin Trudeau had one job – deliver the provinces with the vaccine. Unfortunately, it looks like he’s failing at this one job.
How could he possibly do this? It turns out Trudeau signed a deal to develop a vaccine with the Chinese firm CanSino in May and didn’t start signing deals with other vaccine candidates until August.
Anthony Furey discusses Trudeau’s latest failure and the realities of the vaccine and the virus.
An anti-police group with anarchist links took credit for organizing a protest against government curfews in Montreal over the weekend.
The group called Pas de solution policière à la crise sanitaire planned the January 16th march on Facebook and a number of anarchist websites known for promoting violent and criminal content also promoted the event.
“Thank you all for your presence at yesterday’s protest. We were a hundred people to take to the streets to denounce the imposition of a curfew and to call for solidarity measures to respond to the pandemic,” wrote the group.
One post shared by the organization linked to the website Montreal Counter-Information. As revealed by True North, Montreal Counter-Information has a long history of instructing anarchists in violent tactics and even once publicly called for attacks on members of law enforcement.
“It’s legitimate to attack the police, an institution designed and dedicated to violently suppressing Black people’s freedom, enforcing the theft of native land, and defending those who get rich by exploiting us,” wrote an anonymous author on the website.
“It’s legitimate to loot stores, because everyone should have nice things, and a world that values commercial property over Black lives continues to put people like George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet in grave danger of premature death.”
Reports of the protest by the mainstream media failed to mention the group’s extremist political ties despite quoting directly from their Facebook posts.
To date, most anti-lockdown protests have been characterized by the media as being attended by religious fundamentalists and conspiracy theorists.
On the day of the protest, the Facebook page for the group also took to sharing content by the Quebec antifa group Montréal Antifasciste. Similarly, the anarchist website Contrepoints recently exposed for publishing instructions on how to sabotage Canadian infrastructure, shared a call to action for the group.
“The radical left must not leave this fight in the hands of the right and its anti-scientific and individualistic discourse. In times of health crisis, we don’t have the luxury of blindly agreeing to repressive and counterproductive measures while contenting ourselves with preventive half measures,” claimed the post.
“In all neighbourhoods, by all means, our voices must be heard. No police solution to the pandemic should be accepted. Let’s resist the authoritarianism in place and to come, and let’s fight against curfew!”
A Nigerian priest who was kidnapped last week has been found dead.
Earlier in the week, the Catholic Church’s Agenzia Fides news agency confirmed that Fr. John Gbakaan was found mutilated and tied to a tree along a road in Niger State.
Fr. Gbakaan and his brother had been travelling through an area of the country where Islamist violence had been accelerating in the past year. Gbakaan’s brother has not been found.
Days earlier, the unidentified kidnappers tried to ransom the two men to the local Catholic Church for US$80,000.
Rev. John Hayab of the Christian Association of Nigeria told media that Christian teachers accross the Muslim-majority north of the country no longer feel safe to work.
“We received the news of the kidnapped and killing of our dear Rev. Fr John with great shock and pains,” he said.
“Today in Northern Nigeria many people are living in fear and many young people are afraid to become pastors because pastors’ lives are in great danger.
In the past year, Islamist violence has spread throughout much of Nigeria, including the area where Fr. Gbakaan was travelling. Loosely-organized gangs and groups associated with ISIS have been targetting Christians in rural areas for murder and kidnapping.
Activists say that the Nigerian government is failing to protect its Christian population as attacks increase and strict gun control prevents Christians from protecting themselves.
Rev. Hayab also believes that the Nigerian government is not doing enough to fight violence against Christians, adding that citizens are only speaking out because the levels of violence cannot be justified.
“Sadly, those in power are wanting us to be singing their praises while our loved ones are being killed. No responsible citizen will enjoy criticising his leaders for fun or because he hates them. Citizens criticise leaders so that they will sit up and do what is right,” said Hayab.
