New data throws a wrench in the Liberal government’s claim that Canadians are benefiting more from carbon tax rebates than they are paying out in taxes.
According to the first annual report on carbon tax revenues, Canadians paid as much as 21% more than they received in rebates in certain provinces impacted by the federal levy.
The report lays out how across several provinces, Canadians paid a total of $454.9 million more on the carbon tax than the government paid out.
In Ontario, residents paid 20% more than they received in rebates. Meanwhile, New Brunswickers paid 21% more than they got back. As for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, people paid 19% and 9% more respectively.
Shortly after introducing the federal levy on defiant provinces, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that Canadians would actually benefit from the program.
“The average citizens of those provinces will be better off with this price on pollution than they would be had there been no price on pollution,” said Trudeau.
According to the Department of Environment, the rebates will balance out the shortfalls eventually.
“As actual proceeds and the total amount of proceeds returned in a specific jurisdiction through Climate Action Incentive payments may differ from estimates, adjustments will be made,” claimed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Annual Report For 2019.
However, critics have pointed out that Canadians are likely to suffer unnecessarily from the additional tax which has yet proven to be an effective strategy for reducing carbon emissions.
In True North’s exclusive documentary Green Hypocrisy, Candice Malcolm lays out the flaws in the Liberal government’s claims about the carbon tax.
New data from Statistics Canada says that young men in Western Canada were much more likely to die in 2020.
From mid-May to mid-October, there were approximately 7,172 deaths among Canadians 44 year or younger, with 81% of those being male. StatsCan claims its number of deaths is 1,385 higher than what was estimated before the pandemic.
“This pattern was seen particularly in Alberta and British Columbia, which were the only provinces with evidence of excess mortality among this age group. Alberta accounted for 298 excess deaths for males under the age of 45, while British Columbia accounted for 260.” StatsCan wrote.
From March until October, 50 people under the age of 45 died of coronavirus.
StatsCan associates the increase in death among young men with the negative effects of coronavirus lockdowns.
“Increases in mortality could also be due to indirect consequences related to measures put in place to address the pandemic, such as missed or delayed medical interventions and other possible changes in behaviour such as increased substance use,” they wrote.
“For example, in British Columbia, the Chief Coroner’s Office has reported increases in deaths due to overdoses since the start of the pandemic.”
2020 was the worst year on record for opioid overdoses in many parts of Canada. Alberta recorded 904 overdose deaths, compared to 790 dying from coronavirus.
British Columbia averaged over 100 overdose deaths monthly from March to August.
Medical experts have concluded that young men are much more likely to overdose during the pandemic due to job loss, social isolation and a loss of services during lockdowns.
An Alberta mother and her son who suffer from medical issues were told by a Red Deer ski resort that their physician-ordered mask exemption notes could not be accepted.
True North was shown a December 28th, 2020 email correspondence with Canyon Ski Resort by the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect the identity of her son.
“What does no exceptions mean? My son and I are both mask exempt as per our physician. Does this mean we are not able to attend?” the woman inquired.
“Yes sorry that is correct. Unfortunately, we do not accept mask exemptions here,” Canyon Ski Resort replied.
According to the resort’s coronavirus procedures page, facial coverings are mandatory for all staff, volunteers and guests upon arrival.
“You are only permitted to remove your face covering while eating or drinking. No exceptions,” the Canyon Ski Resort website reads.
However, local and provincial public health rules around masks do include exemptions from mask wearing for certain individuals.
The City of Red Deer exempts “those with an underlying medical condition, mental concern or disability, which inhibits their ability to wear a face covering.”
“If individuals are concerned about whether they should be exempt from the bylaw, they are encouraged to discuss their concerns with their physician or another member of their healthcare team,” the City of Red Deer writes.
True North spoke to the mother in question and was provided with copies of the exemption notes issued by a local Red Deer family physician.
“My medical exemption is for PTSD and asthma. I served on the ambulance for many years and as a result was diagnosed with PTSD in 2011. Asthma, this year after a pulmonary function test,” said the mother.
“My son’s exemption is for facial eczema which is exacerbated by wearing a mask. He also suffers from anxiety when wearing the mask so his physician chose to exempt him.”
This is not the first instance where she or her son have been denied service or entry by a business as a result of their mask exemptions since the pandemic began. According to her, this has become a constant phenomenon in her and her family’s life.
“What has happened as a result of this is I have become a recluse. Even when I have made it into stores the stares and glares are overwhelming. I have even had people calling me selfish and inconsiderate while walking past me. Now I have strong shoulders and can take it but this has been even harder on my son. He doesn’t understand why people are so mean and why we now can’t go anywhere,” she said.
The mother also went on to say that her troubles with mandatory mask rules have caused her “pretty deep scars.”
“I’m scared to go out with my son as I don’t want him to have to view and be a part of the spectacle that is always created while I try and talk my way into every store we go to. The refusals have severely limited what we can do and what we have access to.”
“Like other kids that get to go skiing and ride the tubes, I can’t even bring it up to my son cause he knows he’s missing out on a lot of activities others can do. I notice greatly how hard this has been on my son. As well on myself.”
According to the official Alberta Human Rights Commission service providers have a “duty to accommodate” those who are exempt from wearing masks for certain disabilities or difficulties.
“People with certain disabilities may have difficulty wearing a mask if, for example, they have severe allergies, experience asthma attacks, or have other respiratory issues,” the Alberta Human Rights Commission writes.
“An inability to access or use a mask should not lead to automatic negative consequences, such as harassment, employee discipline or termination, complete denial of service, or eviction from housing.”
Attempts to contact Canyon Ski Resort for comment went unanswered by the time of publication.
A 44 year-old man in Pakistan who kidnapped, raped and forced a 13-year-old into an Islamic “marriage” has been released on bail.
According to International Christian Concern, a Pakistani court ordered Ali Azhar be released on bail, accepting the argument presented by his lawyer that his victim Arzoo Raja had attained puberty.
“There are good, bad and at times even dark days for justice,” said Jibran Nasir, the lawyer representing Arzoo Raja’s parents.
Raja had been kidnapped on October 13 in Karachi. Azhar claimed that she converted to Islam and married him according to Islamic law.
After both local police and a lower court refused to help Raja’s parents, the Sindh High Court ordered Azhar be arrested for breaking child marriage laws and rape in November.
Azhar claims he is innocent, arguing that the marriage was valid under Sharia Law and that the 13-year-old consented. If found guilty, Azhar faces the death penalty.
According to Nasir, Azhar and others in the Muslim community have psychologically and physically traumatized the girl.
“Arzoo is reluctant to live with her parents because of the consistent brainwashing done by the accused and certain community activists for ulterior motives,” he said.
Pakistan is ranked the fifth most dangerous country for Christians to practice by Open Doors USA. Attacks on Christians and discrimination is common, and courts and law enforcement often support Sharia law over official Pakistani law.
It has been estimated that around 1,000 Pakistani girls from religious-minority backgrounds are forced to marry older Muslim men annually.
I have spent the bulk of my working life in and around policing. Ordinarily, I would publicly defend the police — especially in cases of citizen journalism. I put context to what we are seeing and silence the baying hounds.
However, after viewing the video of Gatineau Police responding to a neighbour’s complaint of members of a family holding a New Year’s Eve gathering, I cannot defend it for a number of reasons.
Police attended the private residence at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night. They found a gathering of six people — all from the same family, but from three different addresses. They tried to order the gathering to break up but encountered some resistance from the mom of the family and her son who came to her defence.
The situation escalated and police called for backup. They ended up arresting two of the people — the mom and the son.
Yes, that’s correct. The police arrested two people for holding a family gathering on New Year’s Eve.
The video of the altercation, which was taken by the sister, went viral and forced Gatineau Police to issue several explanations on Twitter.
Il faut que ça devienne viral. RT en masse les amis. La lumière doit être fait sur cet événement. pic.twitter.com/nnxsGcQcOn
They claim the son will be charged with assault of an officer and obstruction. The mother has not been charged and won’t be if their public statements are to be believed.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not get suspended because of a pandemic. The police dragged two people from a private home — I can’t even imagine what they thought their authority was to do that.
This occurred on the heels of the Calgary Police arresting a man playing shinny on a frozen pond because “he wouldn’t cooperate.” Again, they were enforcing public health restrictions or so they said.
Cops arresting kids for playing hockey on outdoor skating rink in Calgary part 1 pic.twitter.com/LXHCEHECyh
This weekend, the Toronto Police issued a public notification that they will be patrolling the 54 outdoor skating rinks and tobogganing slopes in their jurisdiction. This comes even after our public health officials told us that COVID-19 much less likely to spread outdoors.
Meanwhile, politicians across the country ignored public health restrictions and went on holidays in the Caribbean and in places like Las Vegas and Hawaii.
The politicians don’t obey them anyway so why should anyone else?
We have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous with these COVID restrictions.
Any way you take it or shake it, this is nuts and a violation of our rights and freedoms.
This is nothing more than the government trying to control us with arguments that don’t stand up to scrutiny.
Canada’s most outspoken pot activist is running for office.
Marc Emery, whose crusade for legalized cannabis has put him behind bars more than three dozen times, will be seeking the People’s Party of Canada nomination in the Ontario riding of London––Fanshawe, True North has learned.
Emery has a long history of candidacies at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, but hasn’t been on a ballot since his 2008 run for mayor of Vancouver. In the coming weeks, he’ll be moving to his hometown of London, Ont, where he intends to vie for the PPC nomination while working in his brother’s soon-to-be-opened Emery Brothers cannabis store.
Though he’s known for his marijuana advocacy, Emery says he’s not a political one-trick pony.
“I’ve never just cared about cannabis,” he said on The Andrew Lawton Show. “I mean, I read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged in October 1979 – I think Oct. 17 I started it, and that’s a red letter day in my life because it changed everything. Really, what I’m concerned about is what I call the COVID dictatorship we’re under at all levels of government, where there’s no opposition – except for wonderful Randy Hillier – but essentially no opposition to the complete state control of our entire way of life.”
Business shutdowns and other infringements of liberty over the past year have helped drive Emery back into politics.
“We’ve lost every constitutional guarantee in the last year of assembly, of speech. Censorship is rampant. We can’t go visit family. We can’t even breathe legally, really, without wearing a mask,” Emery told Lawton.
Emery, a self-professed libertarian, endorsed Maxime Bernier’s run for the leadership of the Conservatives in 2017, then backed the Bernier-led People’s party in the 2019 federal election.
Despite the PPC not winning any seats in 2019, Emery said the party stands out in the current political climate, which he thinks voters will appreciate.
“The bottom line is, I think the People’s party will become much more popular because they’re a clear alternative to the Conservatives, Liberals, Greens, NDP,” Emery said. “Those four parties…have endorsed the same totalitarian authoritarian measures. They’ve all been part of the dictatorship.”
PPC spokesperson Martin Masse said Emery is a welcome addition to the field, but will have to vie for the nomination like any other prospective candidate.
“Marc has been a long-time supporter of Maxime from the time he ran for the CPC leadership. He supports our policies. He is welcome in the race,” Masse told True North. “This being said, the candidate selection process has not begun yet. We don’t know if last year’s candidate, Bela Kosoian, will decide to run again, or if there will be other people who will want to run in this riding. Like all other candidates, Marc will have to go through the vetting and nomination process.”
Emery concedes his criminal record won’t go unnoticed.
“I’ve got 40 appearances in prisons and jails,” he said. “I’ve been jailed for cannabis in every province. I did time in six states in the United States…I was arrested in the Yukon but that was dropped, so I can’t say I’ve been put in jail overnight there, but certainly every other province and multiple times in some.”
London––Fanshawe is currently held by NDP member of parliament Lindsay Mathyssen.
Emery’s interview on The Andrew Lawton Show airs Tuesday on True North.
On Sunday, Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes doubled down on defending a summer trip she took with her husband to Portugal in July on Twitter.
Mendes tweeted that she “did what [she] needed to do, when the circumstances allowed it” after receiving flak for travelling abroad to settle a deceased relative’s estate.
I did what I needed to do, when the circumstances allowed it. 2/2
Mendes made the trip abroad despite the Public Health Agency of Canada’s advice not to leave the country.
According to an official statement, Mendes claimed that it was “essential” for her and her husband to travel to the country at the time after her mother in-law’s death.
“In July, as lockdown measures began to be lifted in Quebec, Canada and Europe, and with some airlines re-establishing flights, my husband and I decided to go to Portugal,” wrote Mendes.
“Prior to my departure, I had advised the Whip and the Speaker’s office of the House of Commons.”
In response to one Twitter user claiming that Mendes did not have to be there in person to settle the business, Mendes replied by saying “Let me know how you can close down a home 5,000 km away!”
Let me know how you can close down a home 5,000 km away!
Mendes joins a large list of provincial and federal politicians who have violated their own coronavirus rules and advice.
Similarly, Saskatchewan cabinet minister Joe Hargrave admitted to flying to California in order to finalize the sale of his home on December 22, despite the existing public health orders.
A coalition of anti-racist and civil liberty groups including Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM) want the city to cut police spending by 25%.
In a new report titled “Rethinking Community Safety, a way forward for Toronto,” BLM, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the YWCA and a dozen other groups suggest that up to $340 million in funds could be diverted away from policing into community-driven solutions.
“More appropriate interventions are available—at a lower cost, with better outcomes—when we send support workers to address issues with vulnerable people instead of sending police,” claim the advocacy groups.
“The areas of activity outlined here provide an immediate opportunity to begin to move to models that better serve marginalized communities—real-locating resources to support vulnerable people, improve community safety, and produce better outcomes in the short and long term.”
The report comes at a time when Toronto Mayor has indicated his support for efforts to defund the city’s already-strained police force.
“This is a recognition of the fact that we know we must do more because systemic racism in policing threatens the equal rights and opportunity and justice and wellbeing of Indigenous, Black and marginalized communities in our city and that is not something that’s acceptable to me as mayor or to you, the people of Toronto,” said Tory in August 2020.
Over the span of the pandemic, Toronto has seen a worrying increase in violent gun crimes.
According to official police data, gun-related incidents increased by 16% in 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019.
Meanwhile, Tory has ordered the city’s police force to instead concentrate on enforcing coronavirus gathering bans.
In September, Tory directed law enforcement officials to treat coronavirus public health order enforcement as a “priority.”
During Monday’s coronavirus briefing, Tory addressed the report saying that he agreed with its direction.
“I respect the fact that these are advocates and I agree directionally with what it is they want to try to achieve, which is to find better ways in which we can address some of the needs of people like people with crises in their lives due to mental health issues,” said Tory.
A senior US national security official told world leaders that there is a “growing body of evidence” to support the theory that the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese virology lab in Wuhan, China.
According to the deputy national security adviser for President Donald Trump Matthew Pottinger, even some Chinese officials are beginning to contradict their prior claim that the virus began to be transmitted to humans in a local wet market.
“There is a growing body of evidence that the lab is likely the most credible source of the virus,” said Pottinger.
“Even establishment figures in Beijing have openly dismissed the wet market story.”
Located 11 miles from the wet market, where China alleges the virus originated, is the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In the early months of the pandemic, True North reported that the Trudeau government sent $828,046 in Canadian taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology despite concerns that it was somehow connected to the initial outbreak.
Additionally, True North founder Candice Malcolm raised questions about the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory and as a result, was attacked by Canadian journalists peddling Chinese talking points.
Officials with the World Health Organization (WHO) will soon be travelling to China to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus which was declared a global pandemic last year.
However, critics have doubts about the results of the ensuing investigation due to the WHO’s past habit of kowtowing to China’s official narrative throughout the pandemic.
Before the outbreak was declared a pandemic, the WHO peddled the false Chinese Communist Party claim that they did not detect any human-to-human transmission with the virus.
