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Friday, July 11, 2025

Ep 17 | J.J. McCullough | The Canadian Contrarian

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Regardless of what mainstream media outlet you tune into, there is a rigid and boring repetitiveness being spout from Canada’s Laurentian elites – who always more or less agree on things.

On today’s episode of the True North Speaker Series, Candice Malcolm is joined by J.J. McCullough. J.J. breaks the mould set by the mainstream media and often defiantly leads the conversation in new and interesting ways.

J.J. McCullough is a Vancouver-based political commentator, cartoonist, YouTuber and columnist with the prestigious Washington Post.

Candice and J.J. touch on an array of subjects, including the current state of Canadian politics, the media’s obsession with fringe left-wing parties, the accusation of systemic racism in Canada and much more.

J.J’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/wartmamu

J.J’s Washington Post column: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jj-mccullough/

KNIGHT: Despite what we are being told, nothing has changed in today’s RCMP

In 2006, RCMP Corporal. Catherine Galliford had finally had it with the harassment in the Old Boys club — more formally known as the RCMP. 

Galliford complained to her direct supervisor about a co-worker and was called to the supervisor’s office. The supervisor sat behind his desk and on the only other chair in the room sat the male coworker she had complained about. There was no other chair; the co-worker patted his lap smiling saying “sit here.”

While it was not the worst example of harassment she had undergone, it was the last straw for her. 

She went on stress leave and five years later when nothing was being done about her concerns, the former spokesperson and the former face of the RCMP went public with her claims. 

Others like Janet Merlo and Krista Carle quickly let their voices be heard as well. This ultimately led to a class action lawsuit against the RCMP that was ultimately joined by several hundred serving and former members. 

In the end, taxpayers have shelled out over $1.16 billion in settlements with more pending. It would seem successive Commissioners of the RCMP, despite their pleadings to the contrary, have failed to change the culture of bullying and harassment in the RCMP. It has even spawned a union, the National Police Federation (NPF), once an unthinkable concept in our national police force. 

But successive Commissioners from Giuliano Zaccardelli to Bill Elliott to Bob Paulson and now to the stunningly ineffective Brenda Lucki have failed to move the needle measuring the Old Boys Network one bit. 

For years Canadians have been listening to their empty rhetoric about the cultural changes they are making and how they were striving to bring about more change. 

Well, nothing has changed. 

You’re either part of the Old Boys network or you’re not. If you are, you’re expected to go along to get along, to shut up and do what you are told “for the good of the Force.”

In 2017, many uniform members of the RCMP engaged in what was called the “yellow stripe protest.” They declined to wear the yellow stripe on their uniform pants as part of a labour protest. They were advocating for higher pay but also for a labour organization to represent the rank and file. After a series of political machinations between competing interests, the NPF emerged and sought union certification. They got it and negotiations for a first collective agreement are underway. 

In April of 2017, then Commissioner Bob Paulson issued a force wide broadcast email saying members participating in the yellow stripe protest would not be subjected to discipline. Many senior officers were in the process of initiating Code of Conduct investigations into members participating in the yellow strip protest and Paulson said, “Participating members have said they were threatened with discipline. Either way it goes against what we are trying to build; respect for one another.”

He retired two months later but never rescinded that order. He was replaced by Lucki who appears to be nothing more than a puppet for the Trudeau government.

On the weekend, I reviewed a report written by a Corporal R.T. Letnes, dated September 15, 2020. Letnes, a professional standards investigator and management relations expert, was asked to review the case of a ten-year member in one of the RCMP’s larger Alberta detachments. 

The member had been going through some personal issues relating to an operational stress injury(OSI) and went off duty on stress leave in November of 2017. He returned to work in April of 2018 and was a participant in the yellow stripe protest. 

Shortly after he received a memo dated April 26, 2018 authored by the Officer In Charge (Oi/c) of his detachment stating, “I am ordering you to wear the approved items of kit and clothing that will properly identify you as a member of the RCMP. Refusal to follow this lawful order may result in a Code of Conduct being ordered.”

This directly defied the order of the Commissioner of the RCMP and was intended to intimidate the member involved. 

The member refused and several months later he was called to a meeting with the Oi/c. He had the foresight to initiate an audio recording of the meeting in which the Oi/c is heard clearly stating, “I called Professional Responsibilities and I asked for a Code to be investigated to find out if in fact it’s that, so, that, that’s what this is about. So yes, put your stripe back on” again clearly defying the order of the Commissioner of the RCMP. 

It would seem to me that the only person that should be the subject of the Code of Conduct investigation is the Oi/c the detachment for defying the Commissioner and attempting to bully the junior member. 

But this is the RCMP. The Inspector is a card-carrying member of the Old Boys Club. 

The junior member has ten years service and a family with two kids, one of whom is special needs. He just wants to make things better for himself, his co-workers and his community. 

The matter is ongoing and I will be watching as it progresses. But at the very least, the case illustrates that nothing has changed in today’s RCMP despite all the protestations to the contrary from successive leaders and all the taxpayer money spent settling claims. 

Parks Canada to review “colonialist” and offensive historical plaques

Parks Canada wants to review and change historical plaques it views as “colonialist” and “racist.” 

According to internal documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, plaques about three Canadians have already been marked for review. 

“All plaques will need to be reviewed by the historians and most likely go through vetting,” wrote Parks Canada employees in an email dated January 3, 2020. 

Plaques dedicated to Toronto journalist Goldwin Smith, former superintendent of Indian affairs Duncan Campbell Scott and Dr. Helen MacMurchy are all up on the historical chopping block. 

“Due to Smith’s anti-Semitism. This would have to go on our replacement list,” claimed one email referencing the journalist’s description of Jewish people as “undesirables.” 

Meanwhile, Scott was flagged for his involvement and support of Canada’s residential school system, while concerns about MacMurchy’s associations with eugenics were also raised. 

Plaques related to the 1885 North-West Rebellion in Saskatchewan have already been revised and “vetted with the First Nations.” 

One 1927 plaque formerly stated: “Here on 3rd August 1871 this treaty was made between Wemyss M. Simpson representing the Crown, and the Chippewa and Swampy Cree Indians whereby those tribes surrendered all their rights to the lands comprised within the boundaries of Manitoba as then existing. This agreement ended the restlessness of the natives and left the way clear for peaceful settlement.”

Now, it has been reworded to claim: “On August 3, 1871 the Anishinaabeg inhabitants of this territory, in an act of peace and goodwill, consented to share their lands with the Crown. This act of generosity allowed the making of Treaty No. 1.”

In 2019, the federal Liberals sent out a directive to review 2,100 plaques across the country as a means to combat “colonialism, patriarchy and racism. 

“There is a need to be cognizant of, and to confront, these legacies. This contributes to the ongoing process of truth-telling and reconciliation,” said the Framework For History and Commemoration. 

Slain journalist and Danske Bank whistleblower awarded anti-corruption Allard Prize

This year’s Allard Prize for International Integrity was awarded to slain Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and Danske Bank whistleblower Howard Wilkinson. 

The prize, founded by Canadian philanthropist Peter A. Allard, “is one of the world’s largest awards recognizing leadership and courage in protecting human rights while promoting transparency and the Rule of Law and combating corruption.” 

The $100,000 award was split between the two recipients, with Galizia’s family accepting on the late journalist’s behalf.

Galizia was assassinated in 2017 as retribution for her work exposing corruption among the highest echelons of Maltese society.

“Receiving the Allard Prize for International Integrity on behalf of our wife and mother Daphne Caruana Galizia is both humbling and encouraging,” said her family. 

“It not only recognises her work in exposing corruption and defending the public’s right to know, it also recognises that Daphne should be celebrated for everyone’s sake, because her example of courage, integrity, and humour are so badly needed today and will be for many years to come.”

In 2018, as a former employee of Danske Bank, Wilkinson revealed one of the largest money-laundering schemes in banking history. According to Wilkinson, a European bank was involved in processing $150 billion worth of laundered money.

Several individuals were criminally charged as a result of Wilkinson’s actions and Danske Bank closed down its operations in Estonia. 

“Whistleblowers play a very important role in exposing wrongdoing that is otherwise hard to detect. But all too often whistleblowers are made to suffer for what they have done,” said Wilkinson. 

“I am honoured to receive the Allard Prize. It sends an important message that whistleblowing is important and that whistleblowers should be valued in building the sort of society we all want to live in.”

EXCLUSIVE: Government of Alberta released victim’s private information to her harasser

The personal information of an Edmonton-area social worker was mishandled by the police and courts and leaked to a man incarcerated for harassing her, True North has learned.

The social worker asked that True North not reveal her identity, or the identity of her harasser, as she still fears for her safety. True North ultimately agreed to this condition after viewing supporting documentation and independently verifying her account.

The woman, in her mid-30s, had been employed by the Government of Alberta Children’s Services for seven years when she began working with a new client, an adult male. In the summer of 2013, the woman made a work-related decision that her client did not like, and from there, everything went downhill. 

The man began publishing a series of Youtube videos about the social worker, describing her in death-invoking scenarios.

“He threatened to blow up my office, he said he had access to weapons and explosives,” she recounted.

“I was going on a vacation with my family, he knew that I was going on vacation, and so he had wished or hoped that my family and I would die in a plane crash and be punished by God.”

The man wrote long, rambling social media posts, blog entries, and text messages saying that the social worker should face death and execution, and left her threatening voicemail messages.

“The guillotine – I didn’t even really know what that was before all of this, but he wanted me to have my head cut off by guillotine… he just really wanted me dead, in pretty violent ways. He wanted me to be punished, like physically punished.”

As the police stalled on taking any action, the woman started taking different routes between her home and workplace, established safety plans at her workplace and her childrens’ daycare and school, and enrolled in self-defense training.

On a Saturday morning in March 2014, the woman received a phone call from a police officer: the man harassing her was being charged for criminal harassment and uttering threats.

For the next three and a half months, the man was imprisoned at the Edmonton Remand Centre.

While in jail, rumours began circulating that the man was in jail for rape. To disprove these rumours, the man showed his jail mates his disclosure package. In doing so, he discovered that these papers displayed the full name, date of birth, home address, personal phone number, and driver’s license information of the very woman he was in jail for harassing. 

None of the information had been redacted.

“Someone screwed up big time,” said True North fellow Leo Knight, former police officer and private investigator of 40 years. “That should have never happened.”

The woman then received an email from a friend of her former client, who told her that part of the man’s disclosure package had gotten lost within the correctional facility. The friend stated that the document containing all of the woman’s personal information was likely circulating among the inmates, and the woman was now at risk for identity theft and credit card fraud.

The woman spoke to a police officer who advised her that the man should be charged for violating a no-contact order.

But that didn’t happen. In fact, Chief Crown Prosecutor Michelle Doyle stated in an email to the social worker’s manager that the man’s actions of indirectly contacting his victim while incarcerated and admitting he had files he shouldn’t have “place him in a positive light.”

“I expect that most persons in [the woman’s] position would rather be told about the situation than not be told,” wrote Michelle Doyle. “It may well be that [the man] felt this could place him in a positive light with the court. Frankly, it does place him in a positive light.”

“He has threatened to cut my head off. He wasn’t looking to do me any favours,” countered the woman. “If he wanted to do the right thing he could have handed that piece of paper, or whatever he had, he could have handed it to a guard and said, ‘I’m not supposed to have this.’”

“I felt like this was something that he used as a means of more intimidation. It was terrifying.”

Another police officer remarked to her that this case was “kind of like domestic violence, but not really.” 

The woman contested the remark: “This individual I was dealing with, this was in a professional capacity. This wasn’t my boyfriend, this wasn’t my husband, this wasn’t my friend or my family member or my neighbour. This was a client.”

The woman is now disillusioned with the police and courts, and notes that she was never provided the opportunity to write a victim impact statement. “Victims of crime really don’t have a lot of protection.”

Around the same time the man was being released from the Edmonton Remand Centre, the Government of Alberta approved the woman’s request to have her moving expenses covered.

The woman and her husband sold their house and moved within one month. “Our house sold incredibly fast, since it was beautiful, and then we found another place and took a place we could get into really fast.”

Following the man’s release from jail, he published multiple Facebook Live video streams about the woman. But for the last two years, the man has ceased making videos and social media posts about his victim.

The woman hasn’t worked since 2014 due to post-traumatic stress disorder and is now on long-term disability, even though social work has always been her dream job.

In early 2019, the woman asked her MLA’s office whether the Edmonton police or the Crown Prosecutor’s office had ever reported the privacy breach she endured to the Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (OIPC). 

She was told that nobody had ever reported the breach.

“I find it concerning, as the victim of a privacy breach, that it is my burden to report the privacy breach of a public body who disclosed my personal information to an assailant without my consent,” the woman wrote in a February 2019 complaint to the OIPC. “If the public body is not responsible for reporting the privacy breach, I’m left wondering, how often are privacy breaches occurring and going unreported by public bodies?”

In September 2020, the OIPC responded that while they acknowledge the harms the woman faced, they do not have jurisdiction over her complaint and could not address her unanswered questions or investigate her concerns any further. 

The woman has since submitted an application to the OIPC requesting they hold an inquiry. 

“It’s bad enough experiencing threats and harassment, and experiencing a privacy breach in that process, it makes a bad situation so much worse. I think this needs to be looked at, so that it does not happen to anyone else.”

“I feel really strongly about that.”

Health Minister Hajdu caught without mask in Toronto Pearson Airport

Health Minister Patty Hajdu claims she was still following public health guidelines after she was photographed without a mask at the Toronto Pearson Airport.

On Sunday, a Twitter user posted an image that appears to show Hajdu sitting down and smiling in an airport. No mask is visible anywhere in the image. 

Health Canada recommends wearing masks to slow the spread of coronavirus, particularly in crowded public settings such as public transportation. Many provinces, cities and businesses have instituted mandatory mask policies.

According to Toronto Pearson Airport, masks are mandatory for all passengers and staff in the airport at all times.

In a response on Twitter, Hajdu claimed that she was still following the public health guidelines despite going maskless.

“Following public health rules is important to me. I wear my mask at all times at Toronto Pearson, and only take it off to eat or drink, as allowed,” Hajdu wrote.

No food or beverages are visible in the image.

This isn’t the first time the health minister was caught breaking her government’s recommendations.

While Health Canada told the public to avoid unnecessary travel, Hajdu took multiple flights from Ottawa to her home in Thunder Bay. 

Hajdu told Canadians not to visit family over the Easter long weekend despite flying home that same week.

In July, then-Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was heavily criticized by the media when a similar photo of him not wearing a mask in Toronto Pearson surfaced. 

MALCOLM: Under Singh, the NDP has lost its way

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh emerged the ultimate loser from the past week’s political shenanigans in Ottawa. He was out-smarted and out-manoeuvered by the Liberals, leaving Canadians with even less confidence in a party that just five years ago served as the Official Opposition and government-in-waiting.

This week, the Conservatives introduced a motion to create an anti-corruption committee to resume the investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his involvement in the WE Scandal.

The shrewd and cunning Liberals then declared the motion a confident vote, meaning that if they lost, the government would fall and Canadians would go into another election just 12 months after the last one.

Suddenly, the NDP found itself relevant and holding the balance of power in this minority government setting.

Singh was left with the choice: hold the government accountable for its ethical lapses through a committee, but force an election, or give the Liberals a pass and allow them to avoid the scrutiny of both a committee investigation and a general election.

Singh fumbled, voted to prop up this scandal-plagued Trudeau government, and made some excuse about holding the Liberals accountable through the House of Commons.

He went even further to bloviate about not wanting to force Canadians into an election amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, even though he has been out campaigning in the Toronto Centre by-election and wholeheartedly endorsed the British Columbia NDP and its decision to plunge that province into an election.

The NDP is popular in British Columbia, unlike the federal party, which lost 15 seats in the 2019 election — including every single seat in the former stronghold of Quebec.

The reality is that Singh wasn’t acting from a place of virtue or principle in wanting to avoid an election. He, too, was acting as a shrewd political realist, given the often unspoken fact that he has run his party’s finances into the ground.

In 2015, the NDP fundraised $18.6 million under former leader Thomas Mulcair. Then, Singh took over, and fundraising plummeted to $5 million in both 2017 and 2018.

The NDP spent significantly more than it brought in during these two years, sinking the party into debt.

Annual financial returns filed with Elections Canada show that in 2017, the NDP’s liabilities outstripped assets by $3.1 million, and in 2018 that figure plunged even further — to $4.5 million in the red.

This marks the worst financial performance on record for the NDP.

It gets worse. While struggling to keep its head above water, the NDP took out a $12 million mortgage on its party headquarters — the Jack Layton Building in Ottawa.

In 2019, during an election year, the NDP managed to raise just $8 million and the party chose to borrow an additional $10 million to help fund their campaign. Fortunately for the NDP, the party also received a $9 million “rebate” from taxpayers, helping to pay off some of this debt.

But the NDP remains deep in debt, which doesn’t help its reputation of outlandish public spending proposals and little fiscal discipline.

The reality is that under Singh’s leadership, the NDP has lost its way.

The party has long been a coalition of blue collar union members and urban leftists. Under Singh, a wealthy lawyer who drives a BMW and has a Rolex collection, the party has abandoned the former and is losing the latter to the increasingly woke leftists in the Liberal Party.

Singh struggles to stay relevant in Ottawa and is often distracted by niche issues like his personal activities concerning a Sikh ethnostate in India or his rhetoric undermining confidence in Canada’s policing system.

It’s no wonder Singh recently stated he is willing to prop up the corrupt Liberals for a full four-year term. He literally can’t afford the alternative.

FUREY: Politicians continue to lockdown Canadians

If you only listened to the politicians, you would think Canada has no control of the coronavirus and that more lockdown measures are inevitable. But the reality is – things are actually going pretty well.

According to medical professionals, more and more people are leaving intensive care units and are being properly treated when diagnosed with the coronavirus.

So why are politicians implementing more lockdown measures? True North’s Anthony Furey thinks it’s government inertia –they’re stuck in a rut.

Changes to EI to cost taxpayers $13.5 billion

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is predicting that new changes to Employment Insurance (EI) will cost taxpayers $13.5 billion over the next year.

In their recent Legislative Costing Note, the PBO has determined the government’s changes to EI, introduced in September after the end of CERB, will cost $7.7 billion in this fiscal year and $5.8 billion next year.

“The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) eligibility period expired on September 26, 2020. To support those who remain unable to work, the Government has made several modifications to Employment Insurance (EI) regular, maternity and parental programs,” the report says.

Among the new changes include a decrease in the minimum number of hours to work before one qualifies for EI to 120. 

The minimum benefit has also been increased to $500 weekly, the same as CERB. The changes remain in effect until September 2021.

In August, the Trudeau government announced $37 billion in new handouts for Canadians affected by the coronavirus. Earlier this month, the PBO concluded that CERB had cost taxpayers $77 billion.

Even as the deficit climbs and the federal debt increases, the Trudeau government currently has no plans to balance the budget or reduce spending.

On separate occasions, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland have blatantly refused to say if they will limit spending.

In his most recent estimate, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that Canada’s debt has reached $1.45 trillion.

A recent survey found that 67% of Canadians think the deficit needs to be reduced. The same poll found that 51% of Canadians believe that the Trudeau government is only looking out for their own voters and not the welfare of the country.

Municipal district calls for meeting with Alberta minister to discuss rural crime

A municipal district in Alberta has requested a meeting with the province’s minister of justice to address the issue of rural crime. 

During a meeting on October 14th, the Municipal District of Willow Creek agreed to arrange a meeting with Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kaycee Madu.

Council opted for a meeting with Madu, instead of RCMP officials citing the fact that the issue lies with the courts and not with policing. 

“The RCMP are doing their job,” said councillor Darry Markle. “[They] are as frustrated as we are.” 

According to Statistics Canada, rural communities in the West face a disproportionate amount of crime when compared to urban areas. 

In Saskatchewan, the rural crime rate is twice as high as the rest of the country. In 2017, Canada had 6,210 crimes per 100,000 people in rural areas, while Saskatchewan reported 13,829 rural crimes per 100,000 people.  

Earlier this month, Madu took to Twitter to congratulate police on a gun and stolen property trafficking ring bust in rural Alberta. 

“I want to thank Alberta’s law enforcement teams for working together to disrupt this criminal enterprise and protecting our rural communities from violent crime,” tweeted Madu about the bust. 

Local police and the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) were able to apprehend five suspects and retrieve nearly $200,000 in stolen property and firearms. 

The crime ring targeted nearly a dozen rural or small-town locations including Taber, Vauxhall, Lethbridge, Stirling, Vulcan, Bow Island, Seven Persons, Coaldale and Barnwell.

“ALERT worked hand-in-hand with our policing partners to disrupt a group of individuals who were terrorizing small communities with thefts and property crime offences,” ALERT Communications Director Michael Tucker told True North.  

“Widespread theft like this, has a huge impact on community safety. Especially in rural communities – it shakes the sense of security amongst the victims. ALERT will continue to work alongside our partners to deliver a swift, robust response.”

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