The Conservative Party wants to see the House of Commons create a new anti-corruption committee to combine multiple investigations into the WE scandal.
In a statement on Monday, Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Michael Barrett said the lack of progress on ongoing investigations requires a new body specifically for the task.
“We need an anti-corruption committee to get the truth in the WE scandal,” Poilievre.
“Trudeau shutdown Parliament and is now trying to paralyze committees, preventing Canadians from getting to the truth on his half-billion-dollar payment to a group that paid over half-a-million dollars to this family”
In July, it was revealed the members of the Trudeau family had been paid by WE for speaking events. These payments were not publicly known when cabinet gave WE a $912 million contract.
The Conservatives allege that Liberal MPs have been intentionally disrupting committees to prevent opposition MPs from probing into the WE deal.
Last week, the Liberal chair of the Finance Committee allegedly muted and ended a Zoom meeting just as Poilievre motioned to remove redactions from a document disclosure on WE Charity documents.
.@PierrePoilievre moved a point of privilege to remove the blackout of documents in the WE scandal.
The chair of the committee Wayne Easter abruptly ended the meeting.
Poilievre later said that the recording of the committee meeting disappeared from the Parliamentary telescreen.
Earlier in October the Liberals and NDP joined forces to shut down a motion to open another WE scandal investigation in the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC).
Poilievre and Barrett say they will hold marathon sessions of their respective committees to overcome Liberal stalling.
“We will not stop,” Barrett said.
“The complete disregard the Liberals have demonstrated towards the essential work of Parliament and the Prime Minister’s habitual ethic violations is deeply alarming. Conservatives will not stop until the entire truth is exposed.”
We need a reality check when it comes to the so-called “second wave” of COVID-19.
Our public health experts are giving confusing, constantly changing and often contradictory advice, whether it’s about the effectiveness of masks, the risks of travel, or, more recently, on airborne transmission and the usefulness of rapid testing.
Our media, meanwhile, are busy sensationalizing the data and misleading Canadians about which numbers matter. News headlines emphasize the growth in new case numbers, while ignoring the fact that we’re testing eight times as many people per day as we were during the height of the pandemic in April and May.
Back in March, tests were heavily restricted and reserved for people who had recently travelled to China. I know because I tried to get one, and was told repeatedly by health officials that despite having symptoms, I did not qualify to be tested.
It wasn’t until mid-April that the government of Ontario began tracking how many tests were taken per day. Throughout April and May, Ontario was testing fewer than 10,000 people per day and as few as 5,800.
Fast forward to Friday, when the province announced that it had set a new record for the number of tests performed in a single day: 48,500.
This context matters. Without providing corresponding information about the growth in testing, the number of cases is more or less irrelevant.
The media blare out the fact that new cases are up 25% from the height of the pandemic, but ignore the fact that testing is up 800%. This is a lie by omission. It’s alarmism. And it should be ignored.
Instead of the hysteria focusing on new case numbers, we should aim our focus on what really matters: number of new cases in vulnerable populations (especially those over the age of 70), number of hospitalizations, number of people in intensive care units (ICUs) and number of deaths.
When we look at these numbers, the situation looks a lot less scary.
In early May, Ontario was seeing more than 1,000 new patients admitted to the hospital each and every day. On Oct. 9, there were 225.
At its height in early April, there were 264 patients in ICUs across Ontario; on Oct. 9, there were 47.
In other words, we accomplished what we set out to do. We successfully flattened the curve.
We should be proud of that fact, and moving towards rebuilding our economy while also taking precautions like social distancing, mass testing and protecting vulnerable populations.
Instead, leaders in politics, the media and public health are promoting panic over a “second wave” of COVID-19 and advocating for more economic lockdown measures, like those announced Friday afternoon by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
Ford announced that all gyms and fitness centres, bars and indoor restaurants, casinos and cinemas must close in major Ontario cities. He also banned social gatherings and events, including weddings.
These measures take aim at working-aged Canadians and ignore the truth about COVID-19 fatalities — namely that the average age of COVID-19 deaths in Canada is 84.8 years old. Compare that to the life expectancy in Canada: 82 years.
COVID-19 is incredibly deadly for those in their 80s and 90s; 81% of all deaths in Canada occurred in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Meanwhile, for people under the age of 60, it isn’t clear that COVID-19 is deadlier than the seasonal flu.
And yet, Ford’s new economic lockdown measures aren’t designed to protect elderly Canadians or improve conditions at senior centres or long-term care homes. Ford said himself on Friday that there were no “early signs of further spread in LTC homes.”
They take aim at working Canadians trying to move on with their lives. These measures will destroy businesses, kill jobs and plunge countless people into misery and despair, all while claiming to “save lives.”
Almost a year after the last federal election, Elections Canada is still unsure if thousands of ballots were casted by non-citizens.
According to CBC, Elections Canada is aware of at least 3,500 people who may not have been Canadian citizens when they voted for the Oct. 21, 2019 federal election.
In a statement, Elections Canada said they are still examining each suspicious voter. According to their own analysis, Elections Canada claims that potentially fraudulent votes would not have changed the result in any riding.
“No outcome in any riding would have been affected by possible instances of non-citizen voting,” Elections Canada said.
“We have no evidence that suggests any organized or large-scale effort to disrupt the electoral process.”
While Elections Canada is confident in the integrity of the 2019 election, concerns surrounding non-citizens voting have persisted for years.
In May of 2019, Elections Canada removed over 103,000 non-citizens on the national voters’ registry. Anyone on the official list of eligible voters could have received a voter identification card, which is a legal form of voter identification in order to cast a ballot.
At least 40,000 non-citizens had been on the registry since 1997.
In October 2019, a British citizen living in Alberta received a voter registration card despite not being Canadian. Peter Gabriel later learned that another non-citizen he works with also received a registration card.
“I didn’t think very much of it. I thought, ‘this is just a mistake,’” said Gabriel in a viral video.
“I’ve been here 19 years and I’ve never had one yet.”
In 2018, True North Founder Candice Malcolm reported that an asylum seeker received a letter from Elections Canada to inform her that she is “not currently registered to vote in federal elections.”
The letter urged her to register to vote, stating that “registering in advance will ensure you’re on the voters list and will save you time at the polls.”
At the time of the report, the woman was still taking English-language classes and her husband’s refugee application was still pending.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Liljan denied Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had been arbitrarily detained in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Zhao says the People’s Republic of China “firmly opposes the erroneous statements made by Canada” and added the two Canadians were “suspected of engaging in activities that endanger China’s national security.”
“The Chinese judicial organs handle the case independently according to law. So the label of arbitrary detention cannot be pinned to the Chinese side,” Zhao told reporters.
“What Canada did in the case of Meng Wanzhou was arbitrary detention.”
Over the weekend, China finally granted consular access to Spavor and Kovrig – the first time since January.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump discussed the arrest of the two Canadians in a phone call. Trudeau thanked the US for its support in the matter.
According to Zhao, Canada’s attempts to enlist support from other countries to pressure China are “completely futile and will only backfire.”
Spavor and Kovrig have spent close to two years in Chinese prisons since being arrested in December 2018.
The two Canadians are being charged by the Chinese regime with various espionage crimes. Their arrests are widely believed to be retaliation for the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant in 2018. Meng is now facing extradition to the U.S.
In May, the BC Supreme Court ruled that the charges brought against Meng by American authorities could be considered crimes in Canada, meaning her extradition trial can proceed.
In June, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang warned Canada about the “consequences” of helping the United States in their proceedings against telecommunications giant Huawei.
“We hope that the Canadian side can have a clear understanding of the consequences of endangering itself for the gains of the U.S. and take immediate actions to correct its mistakes so as to spare itself the suffering from growing damage,” Geng said.
A recent poll suggests most Canadians want the government to take a more aggressive stance on China to ensure the release of the two Canadians.
Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would need concrete evidence and data before implementing more restrictions. By the end of the week, Ford shut down restaurants, bars, gyms and much more.
What happened?
True North’s Anthony Furey says there’s no evidence or data to justify the government’s latest restrictions.
In response to the billboard campaign in Vancouver that urged people to limit their family size in order to reduce their carbon footprint, Conservative Member of Parliament Garnett Genuis plans on starting his own campaign.
Genuis’ ad will feature a quote from Mother Teresa – “How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.”
Genuis says parents who make the sacrifice of raising a large family should be celebrated, not stigmatized.
A House of Commons finance committee motion where MPs were set to vote on a motion on the WE Charity scandal has disappeared.
According to Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, a recording of Thursday’s meeting vanished from the Parliamentary telescreen along with the motion as well.
UPDATE: The WE scandal meeting at Finance Committee that 11 MPs attended last night NEVER HAPPENED.
Look at the Parliamentary telescreen, where video of the meeting just vanished. Repeat in unison: “It is no more and never was.” pic.twitter.com/XugG6egWX0
On Thursday, Liberal MP and chair Wayne Easter allegedly muted and ended a Zoom meeting just as Poilievre had put forward a motion to remove redactions from a document disclosure on WE Charity documents.
.@PierrePoilievre moved a point of privilege to remove the blackout of documents in the WE scandal.
The chair of the committee Wayne Easter abruptly ended the meeting.
Prior to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to prorogue parliament in August, the Liberal government disclosed several thousands of pages of documents related to their conduct. Many of the documents were heavily redacted.
“This is a cover-up. The prime minister personally intervened to give half a billion-dollar grant to a group that had paid his family half a million dollars. He is covering it up by blacking it out, and shutting down our investigations,” said Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre shortly after Trudeau announced he was proroguing parliament.
Prorogation brought all committee investigations into the WE Charity scandal to an abrupt end.
However, contained within that disclosure were several indications that the Prime Minister’s Office played a key role in handpicking WE to oversee a $900 million federal student service grant.
The evidence seemingly contradicted Trudeau’s earlier testimony that he played no part in the decision.
“There was never any direction by or attempt to influence from me or my staff that the public service recommend WE Charity,” said Trudeau during his testimony before the Standing Committee on Finance.
One email by the assistant deputy minister of finance Michelle Kovacevic notes that the Prime Minister’s Office was “weighing in” on the grant and that there was “positive communication with WE.”
Earlier this week, Liberal and NDP members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs voted against a Conservative motion to revive the investigation into the matter.
Conservatives have accused the prime minister of playing favourites when it decided to pick WE for the contract, pointing to the fact that several members of his family have close financial and personal relationships with the charity.
Despite past opposition by Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives to corporate bailout schemes, Premier Doug Ford announced a half billion dollar subsidy in partnership with the federal government on Thursday.
The money will be given to Ford Canada to mass produce electric vehicles at their Oakville plant.
Critics of the decision to fund the auto company include Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Aaron Wudrick.
“When they were in opposition, they were very, very critical of this sort of subsidy to big business — and rightly so — so they seem to have done a complete 180 on that,” said Wudrick.
Wudrick pointed to General Motors which was bailed out 10 years earlier as an example of when government subsidies don’t go as planned.
“Ford (Canada) has options — they can build wherever they want — and they need a sweetener to do it in Ontario,” Wudrick said.
According to Wudrick, Ford Canada has the resources to fund the project itself and Canadians should not be on the hook for a potentially bad investment.
The investment is part of an almost $2-billion strategy by Ford Canada. The Ontario government plans to invest $295 million in funding, to be matched by an additional $295 million from the federal government.
“We’re blazing a new trail with this announcement,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“Rather than bickering and arguing with each other, when we’re all pulling in the same direction, this is the result we get.”
Ford made the announcement on Thursday morning alongside Unifor president Jerry Dias and Ford Canada CEO Dean Stoneley.
According to Ford and Trudeau, the investment will go toward repurposing the plant to produce the electric vehicles and batteries.
“Today’s announcement is a testament to Canada’s attractiveness as a destination for clean technology, talent, and infrastructure in the automotive industry,” said Prime Minister Trudeau.
“Companies like Ford are helping accelerate our transition to a low-carbon, clean-growth economy, which will help protect our environment, drive innovation, and create many good middle-class jobs.”
It’s troubling that after over six months of this, and after funnelling more money and resources into the healthcare system, the highly-paid public health officials don’t have a smarter or more nuanced game plan to offer aside from a potentially endless series of rolling lockdowns of activities that may or may not be causing the spread of the virus.
It’s also troubling that politicians like Doug Ford now seem all too happy to go along with this vicious circle.
