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Monday, July 21, 2025

750 massacred at Ethiopian Church said to hold Ark of the Covenant

By
True North Wire
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Around 750 people are believed to have been killed at a church which some believe holds the Ark of the Covenant.

According to the Belgium-based Europe External Programme with Africa, the Ethiopian army massacred hundreds at the Maryam Tsiyon Church (Church of St. Mary of Zion) in Aksum as the government fights a brutal internal conflict.

The dead were all ethnic Tigrays fleeing the violence in another area. Observers estimate the massacres occurred just before Christmas.

“Hundreds of people hiding in the Maryam Tsiyon Church were brought out and shot on the square in front. The number of people killed is reported as 750,” the report claims.

Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe the church contains the Ark of the Covenant, an artifact of the ancient Israelites sacred to both Christians and Jews.

Since November, the Ethiopian government has been fighting a war against the Tigray regional government, which rejected the legitimacy of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Locals believed that government forces wanted to take the Ark out of Tigray territory to Ethiopia’s capital. It’s unclear if this was attempted.

Sources on the ground say that the church did not sustain significant damage. The church was first built in the fourth century by ancient Ethiopia’s first Christian ruler, with multiple buildings since.

The Defenestration Nation

By
Andrew Lawton
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Former Conservative leadership candidate Derek Sloan is being ousted from his party’s caucus after his campaign unknowingly received a small donation from a white supremacist, and Ontario MPP Roman Baber was kicked out of the PC caucus for criticizing Ontario’s lockdown.

True North’s Andrew Lawton takes a look at these political defenestrations, plus a new bureaucracy Justin Trudeau may create to control online content.

Also, Montreal Economic Institute economist Maria Lily Shaw joins the show to discuss how more free speech would actually put more money in Canadians’ pockets.

Canada’s economic production won’t recover until 2023: report

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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The Canadian branch of an international accounting firm released a report on Tuesday which predicted that Canada’s full production capacity will not recover until 2023. 

In the report, titled “The Real Economy: Canada Edition,” RSM outlines how the recovery of Canada’s economy is contingent on coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts. 

“Canada’s economy has been decelerating since the end of 2017 and in outright decline for the whole of 2020. Prospects for recovery and expansion in 2021 are directly linked to an equitable distribution of a safe and effective vaccine,” claimed the report. 

“Once that vaccine is in place, we are confident that the reopening of the domestic economy coupled with a reduction in trade frictions in North America will combine for robust growth over the next two years. For this reason, Canadian output is likely to expand by roughly 4 per cent in 2021 and 2022. While this is solid, the Canadian economy is not likely to reach its full capacity to produce until 2023.” 

So far, the Liberal government has been slow to ship an adequate vaccine supply to the provinces despite acquiring a high number of commitments from international distributors. 

Recently, Pfizer announced that it would be temporarily halting Canada’s vaccine shipments while several provinces have indicated that their initial supply is already dwindling. 

Both Alberta’s and Ontario’s premiers have already raised the warning bell about the state of the rollout in their respective provinces. 

“All of Ontario will be out of Pfizer vaccines by the end of next week, my friends, we are all hopeful that the federal government will get us more vaccines,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford. 

According to the RSM report, Canada’s economic outlook will also be dependent on whether the United States recalibrates its attitude towards trade. 

“If early reports are, in fact, true and the United States re-enters the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP,) it could give the boost that Canada needs over the medium to long term to help the economy grow and shrink the deficit,” claimed the report. 

“Indeed, the end of the trade war, along with the re-entry of the United States into the TPP, could go a long way to helping pay for this additional spending.” 

US President-elect Joe Biden is due to be inaugurated this week on Wednesday, however, Biden has already indicated that one of the first executive decisions he will be making is to scrap the Keystone XL pipeline agreement with Canada. 

Critics have noted that scrapping such a deal would substantially harm economic prospects for both nations.

“This is ridiculous,” Derek Sloan refuses to leave CPC without a fight

By
True North Wire
-

Conservative MP Derek Sloan says he will fight efforts by Erin O’Toole to kick him out of caucus.

“If I am guilty of something, they are guilty of something. This is ridiculous,” Sloan said in a Facebook video on Monday.

“I’m not going to go down without a fight.”

On Monday, O’Toole said he has begun the process of removing Sloan from caucus after it was revealed that Sloan’s leadership campaign received a donation from known white supremacist Paul Fromm. 

“Racism is a disease of the soul, repugnant to our core values. It has no place in our country. It has no place in the Conservative Party of Canada. I won’t tolerate it,” O’Toole said in his statement.

However, the MP for Hastings – Lennox and Addington is accusing the party of hypocrisy. 

According to Sloan, Fromm was a party member and voted in the party’s recent leadership contest — something that would have been known to all leadership candidates, including O’Toole, and party headquarters as well. 

In a statement on Twitter, Sloan says he was unaware of this donation and that nobody made any effort to contact him.

“His donation was processed without either my campaign or the CPC realizing who had made the donation,” said Sloan.

“The Party must check each donor to ensure they have not exceeded the maximum, I did not hear from them, ever, on this matter.”

Sloan said it’s absurd to expect that any politician to be familiar with the names of every single one of their donors. Fromm’s donation of $131 was one of 13,000 donations to Sloan’s leadership campaign. 

Leadership campaign donations are processed by both the campaign staff and the Party. 

Under the Reform Act, O’Toole can initiate a vote within the party to remove a member of caucus should they lose the confidence of the party.

Homeless man dies in front of shelter closed due to lockdowns

By
True North Wire
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A homeless man in Montreal has been found dead just metres from a homeless shelter which could not house him because of the coronavirus lockdowns.

Montreal police say that Raphaël André, a 51 year-old Innu man, was found dead Sunday morning at the corner of Milton Street and Parc Avenue. Foul play is not suspected.

André’s body was found steps from The Open Door, a Montreal drop-in centre where he was a frequent visitor. He was at the centre the night before.

Executive Director Mélodie Racine told CBC that current lockdown rules meant that they had to close their doors at 9:30 p.m. and they were legally required to ask him to leave. 

“He didn’t die for one reason. There are a lot of factors in place. But what I know is that if he was not asked to leave, he would have probably stayed inside,” she said.

“It’s ridiculous. I have a space that is empty at night while there are people sleeping outside.”

On Jan. 8, the province of Quebec entered a four-week lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus. There is a curfew across the province from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and nearly all public and private gatherings are banned.

Many Quebecers have faced serious penalties for disobeying lockdowns, one family was fined $3,100 when they were caught driving home past curfew.

In just the first few days of the curfew, over 750 people were fined.

Erin O’Toole kicks Derek Sloan from CPC caucus over donation from white supremacist

By
True North Wire
-

Derek Sloan will be removed from the Conservative caucus and barred from running as the Conservative candidate in the next election, party leader Erin O’Toole said in a statement Monday evening.

The ousting comes hours after a Press Progress report that Sloan’s leadership campaign received a $131 donation from notorious Canadian white supremacist Paul Fromm.

The donation, one of 13,000 made to Sloan’s leadership campaign, was made under the name “Frederick P. Fromm.”

“Derek Sloan’s acceptance of a donation from a well-known white supremacist is far worse than a gross error of judgement or failure of due diligence,” wrote O’Toole. “Racism is a disease of the soul, repugnant to our core values. It has no place in our country. It has no place in the Conservative Party of Canada. I won’t tolerate it.”

O’Toole said he’s initiated the process to remove a member of parliament from his party’s caucus, which he said will “be done as quickly as possible.”

“Moreover, as Leader of Canada’s Conservatives, I will not allow Mr. Sloan to run as a candidate for our party,” he added.

Sloan has since denied that he had knowledge of the donation, citing the fact that his campaign raised well over $1.3 million. 

“Paul Fromm is a notorious name to some, but not to everyone, and clearly this name, mixed as it was in the midst of thousands of other donations, did not ring any bells to my team,” Sloan said, noting he was not aware of the donation until the Press Progress article Monday afternoon.

“On any given day we had upwards of hundreds of different donations, and my team, which was run in many cases by volunteers, processed cheques and other things. At no time was I ever aware of this donation.” 

According to Sloan, he has since contacted the Conservative party’s executive director to return the donation.

Twitter users vent about Liberal hypocrisy on race issues

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

On Saturday, Twitter users took to the trending #IStandWithTrudeau hashtag to vent about the Liberal prime minister’s hypocrisy when it comes to racism and other issues. 

The hashtag started trending on the social media website shortly after Trudeau accused Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet of inciting hatred and intolerance after Blanchet criticized a Liberal cabinet minister’s connections to Islamic groups. 

Last week, Blanchet took aim at the minister saying that he had questions regarding his prior role heading the Canadian Arab Federation. 

“The Bloc leader refuses to accuse anyone, but questions are raised about the proximity of the new transport minister, Omar Alghabra, to the political Islamic movement that he was a leader of for many years,” said a Bloc Québécois press release.

While many of the tweets employing the hashtag were supportive of the prime minister, a significant portion of them attacked Trudeau for his own record on race.

Among those who joined in on the Trudeau pile-on was NDP MP Matthew Green, who criticized Liberals for rallying around the prime minister instead of the implicated MP Omar Alghabra. 

Another popular tweet posted by the user RodneyTori, accused the prime minister of past racist and Islamophobic actions.

Meanwhile, several accounts pointed out Trudeau’s past penchant for donning blackface.

Other users took the prime minister to task for his lack of action on indigenous rights and climate change.

This is not the first time that Trudeau’s actions seemed to backfire on social media. 

In June 2020, a True North exclusive report found that out of 3,000 replies to a video of Trudeau kneeling at an Ottawa Black Lives Matter rally, 69% of comments were negative reactions.

“Serious economic and strategic error,” Kenney reacts to Keystone XL cancellation

By
True North Wire
-

In response to reports indicating that US President-elect Joe Biden is likely to kill the Keystone XL extension on his first day in office, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was deeply concerned. 

“That would be, in our view, a serious economic and strategic error that would set back Canada-US relations with the United States’ most important trading partner and strategic ally,” said Kenney during a Monday news conference.

“Here’s the very simple choice. Either the United States has access to environmentally responsible energy produced in a close democratic ally, or it becomes more dependent on foreign oil imports from Venezuela and other OPEC dictatorships in the future,” said Kenney.

Kenney said at the very least, the US government should have a discussion with Canada about the vital project. 

Should the project be cancelled, Kenney believes Alberta has strong arguments for legal recourse for damages incurred.

“We know that the same political forces trying to disrupt and stop the construction of Keystone XL are involved in trying to stop the expansion of Line 3, as well as Line 5 to the upper mid-west, and many other vital projects that are the backbone of continental energy independence,” said Kenney.

“If this precedent is allowed to go forward, I believe those same political forces will then seek to get a Presidential Order retroactively to remove the provision for border crossing of other critical energy infrastructure.”

Kenney is not alone in his disappointment. The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), Canada’s largest trade and industry association, also voiced their opposition to the US decision on Monday.

President and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) Dennis Darby said he believes it is important for the upcoming Biden administration to shift their focus to buying North American.

“Excluding each other from our perspective government procurement markets could seriously hurt our precarious economic recovery,” said Darby.

“If we are not successful in convincing President-elect Biden of the merits of an open government procurement market in North America, the Canadian government must be prepared to retaliate in kind by limiting access to American firms to our procurement opportunities.”

Canada is currently the largest supplier of oil to the U.S, exporting two million barrels per day. Less than 1% of Canadian oil exports were delivered to other countries in 2019.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation debt clock needs replacing after running out of digits

By
True North Wire
-

The federal government has racked up so much federal debt that a taxpayer advocacy group is being forced to replace its infamous digital debt clock after it ran out of digits. 

A video posted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) shows the federal debt counter reach and pass the $1 trillion mark. Due to the fact that the counter was only built to display 12 digits, the CTF is currently in the process of replacing the clock so that it can continue to display the full amount of debt, which continues to rise.

“Yes, the CTF is indeed replacing our debt clock,” CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick told True North. 

“It’s quite ironic that when we got the current clock built nobody even thought we’d need 13 digits. It was simply not conceivable the debt would grow that large. It is rising by almost a billion dollars a day now.”

According to Wudrick, the first version of the clock was built by the CTF in the early 1990s. 

“We retired it after the Chretien/Martin Liberals balanced the budget in the mid 1990s. We built a new one after the Harper government plunged the country back into deficits in 2009 and we have been using that one until this past December. We hope to have a new clock ready sometime later this year.”

Despite the country’s growing debt and deficit, the Liberals have yet to table a budget detailing their spending plans since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

“It’s a huge burden being placed on the backs of our children and grandchildren and the government does not appear to have any plan to either slow down spending or figure out a way to balance the budget,” said Wudrick. 

As it stands, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is expected to post a $381 billion deficit in 2021. 

Recent data also show that international investors have been buying up Canada’s national debt and securities. 

According to Statistics Canada, foreign investors spent up to $11.8 billion buying up Canada’s federal debt in November alone.

Canada Post courier refuses to deliver Epoch Times newspaper

By
True North Wire
-

A Canada Post courier in Regina is refusing to deliver the Epoch Times because it contains views he deems offensive.

Ramiro Sepulveda told CTV that the newspaper’s negative coverage of China and previous support for Donald Trump may increase hatred of Asians.

“There’s already been violence and hatred towards Asian communities in North American. Since [President Donald] Trump got into office and since COVID started exploding, everything’s been anti-China,” he said. 

“That can rub people the wrong way with certain people, especially people that don’t know how to filter information.”

The Epoch Times is a U.S.-based 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 Epoch Times is available in print across Canada and publishes a diverse range of news and commentary.

Canada Post wrote in a statement that they are obligated to deliver all mail to the right customers, regardless of its content.

“Canada Post is obligated to deliver any mail that is properly prepared and paid for, unless it is considered non-mailable matter,” the statement reads.

“The Courts have told Canada Post that its role is not to act as the censor of mail or to determine the extent of freedom of expression in Canada. Any views we may have about the content do not change our obligation to deliver.”

Sepulveda told CTV that Canada Post should create a body to decide what content should be delivered.

The Epoch Times is often the target of criticism by the mainstream media in both the U.S. and Canada. In May, CBC was forced to issue a correction after claiming the Epoch Times was “racist” and promoted a conspiracy theory about the coronavirus.

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