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Friday, July 11, 2025

Publishing house staff triggered by new Jordan Peterson book: report

Staff with Penguin Random House Canada allegedly cried and complained about the company’s decision to publish famous Canadian intellectual Dr. Jordan Peterson’s latest book.  

The book in question, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, was announced by Peterson on his social media accounts earlier this week and is set for a March 2021 release date. 

The new report by Vice News details how a handful of employees raised their opposition to the book’s publication during a company town hall meeting on Monday. 

One witness to the spectacle said that “people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives.” 

“The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and them publishing Peterson’s book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,” they said. 

Another employee took the time to accuse the Toronto professor and psychologist of being an icon of white supremacy.

“He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he’s an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I’m not proud to work for a company that publishes him,” one anonymous employee told Vice News. 

According to Penguin Random House Canada, staff with the company are welcomed to air their concerns regarding the book and that the company appreciates the feedback. 

“We announced yesterday that we will publish Jordan Peterson’s new book Beyond Order this coming March. Immediately following the announcement, we held a forum and provided a space for our employees to express their views and offer feedback. Our employees have started an anonymous feedback channel, which we fully support. We are open to hearing our employees’ feedback and answering all of their questions. We remain committed to publishing a range of voices and viewpoints,” said a company statement on the matter. 

Another unnamed employee accused Peterson of being directly responsible for radicalizing people to the extreme right. 

“She was trying to kind of spin it as a positive to be publishing this book,” the employee said about Penguin Random House Canada CEO Kristin Cochrane. 

“He’s the one who’s responsible for radicalizing and causing this surge of alt-right groups, especially on university campuses.”

Jordan Peterson’s new book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

Manitoba municipalities call on federal and provincial governments to combat rural crime

A group within the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) is calling on the federal and provincial government to step up to the plate and put an end to rural crime in the region. 

During the 2020 AMM 22nd Annual Convention, municipalities within the Western Caucus put forward a resolution for “the AMM [to] lobby the Province of Manitoba and Government of Canada to implement more robust and effective strategies to reduce rural crime and to enact timely, meaningful and stiffer penalties against those who commit crimes or profit from them.” 

“FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED THAT any proceeds from the solution of such crimes are reimbursed to victim organizations or into provincial programs to increase funding for such Rural Crime Prevention programs,” the resolution goes on to say. 

The sponsors of the resolution include the Rural Municipality of Argyle, the Rural Municipality of Prairie Lakes, the Municipality of Two Borders and the Glenboro-South Cypress Municipality. 

Judy Swanson, who Co-Chairs the Western Caucus told PortageOnline that the resolution was first drafted during a time when rural crime incidents were particularly high. 

“We wrote that resolution when there was a rash of break, enter and thefts in the rural areas and it seemed like a group of people that were targeting rural areas because we seemed more susceptible because we don’t have the huge police presence that other areas do. You know when it comes to rural crime it comes and it goes,” said Swanson. 

According to Swanson, a new task force has been initiated since the resolution was first written which assists local police in solving break-ins or related rural crimes. 

“They work above and beyond our local police officers so if there’s a rash of break-ins in our area this crime task force group will work with the local police to solve the crimes and it seems to be working much better,” said Swanson. 

According to Statistics Canada, the prairies and Western provinces are disproportionately impacted by high rural crime rates. 

“Rural crime rates were especially higher than urban crime rates in the Prairies. The rural crime rate was 42% higher in Manitoba, 38% higher in Alberta and 36% higher in Saskatchewan than the urban crime rate in each of these provinces,” writes Statistics Canada.

Defiant Toronto business owner opens doors despite lockdown

A Toronto BBQ restaurant owner opened his doors to indoor dining despite the new coronavirus lockdown measures imposed on the province by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. 

Adam Skelly, who owns and operates Adamson Barbecue at 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. in Etobicoke, announced that he would be opening his business to the public beginning on Tuesday morning.

“For anybody who’s a fan of freedom and sovereignty, the right to choose what you wear, where to go, who to have over at your house, what businesses you can go to, I would love to meet you,” said Skelly in a video posted to Instagram on Monday.

A video from Tuesday purportedly shows Skelly slamming the mainstream media for painting the situation in an unfair light. 

“It’s completely biased journalism that don’t show both sides of the story, they try to vilify anybody who’s not talking the mainstream narrative, I don’t want them here. I want people who are going to show both sides of the story, full disclosure reporting,” Skelly is seen as saying. 

Police and bylaw officers arrived on site of the restaurant shortly after the restaurant opened its doors but did not confirm whether fines were issued for breaking provincial health orders. 

“By the sheer number of people that are here right now, we don’t have the ability to go and physically remove everyone at this point and it would be unsafe to do so,” said Toronto police Insp. Tim Crone.

“We understand the level of frustration (about another lockdown), however, the overriding consideration always has to be public safety.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the City of Toronto issued a statement indicating that Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health is ordering Adamson Barbeque to close and is also investigating the restaurant for other alleged violations.

Last week, the Toronto and Peel regions were plunged into a lockdown by Ford over a concerning spike in coronavirus case numbers. 

The new measures banned indoor and outdoor dining and to only serve customers via take-out, drive-through or delivery. Indoor social gatherings are also prohibited except for members of the same household. Outdoor public social gatherings have now also been limited to a maximum of 10 people at one time.

“They have to follow the rules. There can’t be rules for one group and not the other … If we let everyone open we’re going to be in worse shape,” said Ford about Adamson Barbacue. 

“I can’t get angry at any businessperson right now, they’re hurting.”

Montreal paramedics were instructed to not give CPR to dying patients due to coronavirus

Montreal paramedics were instructed to not perform life-saving CPR on dying patients due to the risk of contracting the coronavirus. 

According to the Urgences-Santé paramedic service’s director of care Pierre-Patrick Dupont, paramedics weren’t performing the procedure for a period of five months in the spring and summer. 

“During the summer and spring we just modified our protocol to protect the paramedic, to protect the health system, to protect the people—all people—because we didn’t know… how to protect ourselves, how contagious it was,” Dupont told CTV News. 

Even those suffering from serious cardiac arrest were prevented from being administered CPR or defibrillators while enroute to the hospital. 

“We [would] go see the people in cardiac arrest, we [would] just start the protocol, and when we see the flatline, that’s where we stop the protocol,” said Dupont. 

Authorities with Quebec’s health ministry and the province’s college of physicians signed off on approving the order after concluding that only a small percentage of people would recover from cardiac arrest. 

Urgences-Santé paramedic services have since returned to former protocols and are once again performing CPR on patients.

“Right now we know more about this disease, we know more how to protect [against it] and we always have all the protection we need, but it’s not the same thing in the second wave as the first wave,” said Dupont. 

As it stands, it is not clear how many people were impacted by the original order. 

Coronavirus measures imposed by provincial governments have also decimated access to life-saving treatments and operations.

According to figures released by Ontario’s Ministry of Health from March 15 to September 29 treatments for breast cancer have gone down 29% and prostate cancer treatments declined by 25% when compared to the same period in 2019.

BC’s decision to close churches while bars stay open “baffling”: Archbishop

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver is both upset and confused by British Columbia’s decision to close churches while non-essential services like bars are allowed to operate.

On Sunday, Archbishop J. Michael Miller took to Twitter to express his disappointment that churches were not exempt from the new stay-at-home orders announced last week.

“The reason why gathering for worship in limited numbers where all safety precautions are met is not allowed, while bars and restaurants and gyms can remain open with measures that are no more safe, is simply baffling,” he said.

“To limit the religious freedom of believers to worship is a very serious matter, since such freedom is specifically protected in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” 

Last week, Archbishop Miller was forced to stop all regular mass services in British Columbia in order to follow the province’s new public health orders.

Funerals, weddings and baptisms are allowed to proceed under the new orders with a maximum of ten attendees including the officiant.

Under the new orders, restaurants, bars, liquor stores and shopping malls are all allowed to open with mask requirements.

Archbishop Miller noted the double-standard that people of faith cannot fulfill their sacraments yet anyone can sit in a bar freely.

“I fully understand that this is a difficult measure to have to take, especially on such short notice, and I am aware of the strain this will put on pastors and parishioners alike.” 

“From today’s order it seems that religious institutions are not being treated with the same consideration regarding the number present at religious gatherings compared to that at secular indoor gatherings.” 

The new health orders in British Columbia are valid until December 7, with officials saying there may be an extension.

The Globe and Mail received $132,046 to publish Chinese state media propaganda

Several North American news agencies have been receiving large cheques in exchange for publishing Chinese state media propaganda.

According to a disclosure filed with the US Justice Department, Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper received $132,046 for a number of advertising campaigns that featured flattering coverage of China. 

The Globe and Mail first printed a two-page “China Watch” spread in September 2020. Disclaimers at the bottom of the advertisement announced that the content was “produced by the China Daily and distributed in the Globe and Mail.”

The China Daily is an English-language media outlet owned by the publicity department of the Chinese Communist Party. 

In October 2020, the China Daily once again placed advertisements in the Globe and Mail.

The “China Watch” advertorials omit the negative aspects of Beijing’s authoritarian system of governance and instead feature feel-good items such as a Chinese festival dedicated to inclusiveness and a foreign business that sees greater potential in China.

Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China has been accused of genociding their Uyghur Muslim population and has two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, held captive on trumped-up charges of espionage.

The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are among the other North American media outlets that have taken ad money from the Chinese regime.

A recent Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times included an 8-page insert with the familiar headline “China Watch.”According to a 2020 report, the Chinese Communist Party has spent $20 million over the last decade on bringing Chinese state rhetoric to the Western media. 

City of Toronto tells carpenter to stop building shelters for homeless people

A Scarborough carpenter that makes modular shelters for homeless people has been told to stop by the City of Toronto.

Khaleel Seivwright, who produces the structures under the name Toronto Tiny Homes, was told by the city that he must stop building immediately because they were being used on city property.

“At first, I was pretty upset about it,” Seivwright told CBC.

“Then I was collecting myself and realizing that OK, we still have to build these things. There’s still going to be people that need them, regardless of what the city is saying about them. We just find a way to work around this now.”

Toronto Tiny Homes are mobile, insulated and cost around $1,000 for Seivwright to produce. He is currently arranging for the units to be placed on private property.

In a letter, Parks General Manager Jamie Romoff threatened Seivwright to stop producing the units or else he will be charged with the cost of removing ten which are currently being used on city property. 

“The city has not issued permits or in any way consented to the placing of these structures on its property,” Romoff said in the letter.

“The City of Toronto therefore demands that you immediately cease the production, distribution, supply and installation of such shelters for the purposes of placement and use on city property. Should you fail to do so, the city may, among other remedies, hold you responsible for the costs of removal of such structures.”

It has been estimated that there are over 10,000 homeless people in Toronto, with advocates claiming there are not nearly enough spaces in shelters. The average occupancy rate in Toronto Homeless Shelters is 98%.

Just days after taking action against Seivwright, Toronto Mayor John Tory proclaimed “National Housing Day” in support of “access to affordable and adequate housing.” 

FUREY: The provinces are moving backwards

As Ontario and Manitoba enforce stricter lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, public officials seemed to have forgotten everything we learned about the virus.

Public officials have completely disregarded the secondary harms of the lockdowns, such as the mental health ramifications and an increase in drug overdoses.

Anthony Furey says this is a very troubling trend.

“Not everyone is on the same playing field,” locked down business owner speaks out

After businesses in Ontario invested thousands in PPE and implemented various public health measures, businesses deemed “non-essential” by the government have been ordered to close.

On Monday, Toronto and Peel entered a 28-day lockdown — a move that some are calling unfair and arbitrary.

The President of Long and McQuade, a Canadian music store chain, spoke with True North on the challenges his business is facing.

“This has been totally disruptive. This is the busiest five weeks of the year for us, obviously this is not a great time for this to happen.” said Steve Long. 

While small businesses like Long and McQuade have been forced to close their doors, big box stores are still able to operate according to Ontario’s lockdown measures.

“Unlike Walmart, Costco, and Canadian Tire, which can be open, as a specialty store we don’t have a large number of people in the store at one time and they are often more spread out,” said Long.

“The big flaw is that not everyone is on the same playing field. It makes sense to be able to shop in grocery stores, but not all businesses are restricted to curbside pickup.”

Prior to the second lockdown, Long and McQuade have reduced the number of cash registers open, installed plexiglass shields and complied with all new regulations for operating during the pandemic. Despite their compliance, they too are looking at 28 days of lockdown.

“I am more bothered by the fact that there’s one set of rules for one type of store and another set of rules for others.” said Long.

Even operating with curbside pickup options, they have seen a reduction in business by 30%. Long noted that curbside sales are much less efficient because staff aren’t able to connect with their customers to demonstrate products and explain the extra needed components. They have seen more work and less revenue.

Long pointed out that Ontario’s COVID measures fail to consider that small business and speciality stores don’t see the kind of foot traffic that major retailers do.

“I don’t think, for our business, this is going to stop one case of the virus. The environment we are in, I don’t think is particularly risky. The science doesn’t seem to say that it is spreading through retail. The sources seem to come from old age homes or parties. Not ten-thousand square foot stores with air exchange.” said Long.

Businesses deemed non-essential will remain closed until December 21.

NDP, Green MPs to speak at “Free Meng Wanzhou” event

NDP MP Niki Ashton and Green MP Paul Manly are among the featured speakers at an event arguing for the release of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

The event page, posted on Action Network, claims that Meng has been “unjustly incarcerated by the Trudeau government at the request of the Trump Administration.”

“You’ll learn more from Canadian experts about her legal case,deteriorating relations with China, and the rise of sinophobia in Canada — plus what you can do about it,” organizers wrote.

Meng was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on an American warrant. Authorities accuse Meng of “conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions” and using her position to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Meng is currently in court fighting extradition to the United States.

Since the arrest of Meng, China has taken an increasingly belligerent stance on Canada. Along with an increase in threats and trade restrictions, the arrests of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China is widely seen as revenge on Canada.

Ashton recently sponsored a House of Commons petition demanding Meng’s release. The petition claims that Meng was framed by U.S. President Donald Trump and that both Meng and Iran never did anything wrong.

“Her arrest was politically motivated because President Trump declared he might release Meng if he secured a favourable trade deal with China,” the petition reads.

“The US is illegally trying to exercise extraterritoriality in prosecuting Meng to enforce its unilateral and illegal sanctions against Iran.”

In July, the Green Party called for Canada to release Meng, with Manly also claiming that the Trump administration only arrested her for political reasons.

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