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Saturday, August 23, 2025

Ontario Liberal leader wants bars, restaurants and gyms to close

By
True North
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Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca wants the Ford government to shut down bars, restaurants and gyms in Toronto, Peel and Ottawa as coronavirus cases trend upwards.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Del Duca blasted Premier Ford, claiming the government has not done enough to control the second wave of coronavirus.

“Doug Ford has lost control. Ontario is now in a full-fledged Wave II and still this premier and his cabinet refuse to invest in the safety of Ontarians, even as they sit on billions of dollars in unspent federal funding,” Del Duca said.

“Immediately suspend indoor dining at restaurants and bars and close gyms for 28 days in COVID-19 hotspots and … provide immediate support to businesses affected by the closures.”

On Friday, the Ford government announced a series of new restrictions in the province, with face masks now required in public spaces where social distancing is not possible.

Premier Ford also announced that any new business openings must be postponed for 28 days.

According to Del Duca, Ford should follow the advice of health officials such as Toronto’s Dr. Eileen de Villa who recently recommended more extreme restrictions.

On Tuesday, Ontario reported 548 new cases of coronavirus, with the majority of new cases being people under 40 years old.

While public health officials are recommending a return to extreme restrictions, other medical professionals are arguing for a more restrained approach.

On Friday, University of Toronto Public Health Professor Vivek Goel recently told True North’s Anthony Furey that Canada is well prepared for a second wave already without extreme restrictions.

In addition, 20 physicians and academics in the field of medicine penned an open letter to Premier Ford asking him to avoid full lockdowns. The letter says that slowing the spread of coronavirus is not worth the damage lockdowns cause society.

“Lockdowns have been shown not to eliminate the virus. While they slow the spread of the virus, this only lasts as long as the lockdown lasts,” read the letter. 

“This creates a situation where there is no way to end the lockdown, and society cannot move forward in vitally important ways including in the health sector, the economy and other critically important instrumental goods including education, recreation and healthy human social interactions.”

Kenney calls union-led boycott of businesses “unAlbertan” and a “bully campaign”

By
True North Wire
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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney slammed the union-led boycott of struggling businesses that have donated to the United Conservative Party. 

On Tuesday during a press conference following an announcement on the province’s natural gas strategy, Kenney blamed the NDP for politicizing businesses who already have to deal with the financial hardships of the coronavirus pandemic.  

“To Rachel Notley, stop the bully tactics because right now businesses in this province need an expression of confidence, they don’t need to be attacked,” Kenney told reporters. 

The “Boycott UCP Donors” campaign was initiated by 25 different NDP interest groups including the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL). The campaign calls on supporters to send the local businesses “a message with your wallet by boycotting their services.”

Dozens of Albertan businesses are listed on the campaign’s database with publicly identifiable information.

AFL President and former federal NDP candidate Gil McGowan supported the call for the boycott by accusing the businesses of not supporting Albertans. 

“These are the businesses that have been bankrolling the UCP agenda — an agenda that is kicking Albertans when they’re down,” said McGowan.

“By bankrolling the UCP’s destruction agenda, these businesses have made it clear that they don’t support ordinary Albertans, so why should ordinary Albertans support them?”

Meanwhile, Kenney lashed back at McGowan for the campaign’s unfair targeting of Albertans. 

“You don’t hear anybody on the free enterprise side of our democracy seeking to boycott groups or individuals they disagree with. Where does this end?” said Kenney. 

“To say that supporting that position should put you in the crosshairs of a smear campaign, a bully campaign using intimidation tactics to try to hurt those businesses is I think unAlbertan.”

FUREY: Does Doug Ford love lockdowns?

By
True North
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Public Health officials are urging Ontario Premier Ford to impose more restrictions in order to curb the spread of COVID-19. Toronto’s chief health advisor even went as far as to recommend another lockdown.

For a while there, it seemed like Ford loved lockdowns and willingly listened to any advice provided by public health officials.

As True North’s Anthony Furey explains – it looks like Premier Ford has finally put his foot down and is pushing back, demanding to see evidence and data before he imposes additional restrictions.

NDP save the Liberals from another WE Charity investigation

By
True North Wire
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Liberal and NDP committee members voted to shut down further investigation into the WE Charity scandal on Tuesday. 

A Conservative motion in the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) put forward by Conservative House leader Karen Vecchio was called “premature” by Liberal committee chair Ruby Sahota. 

“In this instance, because the government has not yet tabled in the House a report outlining the reason for prorogation, the committee is not in a position to have a base of reference from which to begin the study nor would it be appropriate to pre-suppose the outcome of the report,” said Sahota. 

According to parliamentary procedure, the Liberals are expected to release a report on their reasoning for this summer’s prorogation within 20 days of returning to parliament. When completed, the report will be reviewed by PROC.

Conservatives have accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of using prorogation to avoid further scrutiny over his involvement in the scandal. At the height of the scandal, Trudeau denied involvement in the decision to award oversight of a $900 million federal student service grant to WE Charity despite financial and personal ties with his family. 

However, thousands of pages worth of redacted disclosures later hinted that the Prime Minister’s Office may have guided the public service to choose the charity as the sole contractor for the bid. 

“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.

Liberal PROC member Mark Gerretsen had some biting words on Tuesday for the Conservatives’ attempt to revive an investigation into the affair.

“It is nothing more than a fishing expedition from a desperate group of people who cannot see past their own narrow partisan self interest,” said Garretsen. 

“What we are seeing here is overtly divisive partisanship that simply looks to score political points.” 

This is not the first instance where the NDP have aided the Liberals in shutting down further investigations into their conduct. 

In July, Liberal and NDP MPs in the House of Commons Ethics Committee voted to shut down a motion calling for federal cabinet members to disclose whether they were aware of ties between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and WE before signing off on the deal.

Disgraced Canadian ambassador to China retweets Trump death joke

By
True North Wire
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Disgraced Canadian ambassador to China John McCalllum retweeted a comment poking fun at the possibility of US President Donald Trump’s death after he was diagnosed with the coronavirus. 

“If you’re in the Trump Administration, may I recommend viewing The Death Of Stalin?” wrote the tweet by author Rick Wilson. 

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 comedy film which satirizes the ensuing power struggle following Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. 

President Trump has since recovered and returned to the White House. 

This is not the first time that McCallum has sparked controversy.

In 2019, McCallum was sacked from his job as Canada’s ambassador to China after in favour of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. 

Leading up to his dismissal, McCallum said it would be “great” if Canada drops charges against Meng. 

“I think she has quite good arguments on her side,” McCallum told Chinese media at the time. 

Since his departure from the diplomatic post, McCallum worked as a paid immigration consultant for a Chinese firm. 

While employed by the Wailian Group, McCallum engaged in several speaking engagements with clients of the company. When asked to disclose how much he was paid for the work, McCallum refused. 

The Conservatives have urged the Ethics Commissioner to investigate McCallum’s activities for a possible breach of Section 33 of the Conflict of Interest Act. The Act holds that “No former public office holder shall act in such a manner as to take improper advantage of his or her previous public office.”

“Canadians expect that the upcoming election will be conducted in a free and fair manner and that any and all incidents of foreign interference will be fully investigated, with action taken to prevent said interference,” wrote a letter to Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion co-signed by former Conservative MP Lisa Raitt and Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus.

“We believe Mr McCallum’s actions, as confirmed by his own public statements, deserve the utmost scrutiny of your agency.”

Prior to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to prorogue parliament at the tail end of summer, McCallum was invited to testify before the Special Committee on Canada-China Relations. McCallum had refused several prior invitations to appear without offering an explanation. 

The Vancouver Overpopulation Billboard Controversy

By
Lindsay Shepherd
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On September 21st 2020, a US nonprofit organization called World Population Balance launched a billboard campaign in Vancouver that urged people to stop overpopulation and limit their family size in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

The campaign has received a heated response – the organization has pulled some of its ads and removed staff information from its website after receiving threats.

True North’s Lindsay Shepherd interviews Dave Gardner, Executive Director of World Population Balance, about the controversial campaign.

Political ‘designers’ are trying to tell you how to live

By
Andrew Lawton
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Author and scholar Brian Lee Crowley’s new book reframes the Canadian political debate around what Crowley calls “Gardeners vs. Designers” – the battle between those who recognize Canada’s greatness and those who want to “fix” the country by revising history to justify progressive courses of action. Crowley joined True North’s The Andrew Lawton Show for a wide-ranging chat about these themes in his the book, Gardeners vs. Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line in Canadian Politics.

Watch the full episode of the show here.

Suncor Energy to lay off 2,000 employees in the face of pandemic and failing oil prices

By
True North Wire
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One of Calgary’s biggest oil and gas companies will be laying off up to 15%  of its workforce over the next year and a half. 

According to Suncor Energy, approximately 2,000 positions could be lost due to the decision. 

“The unprecedented drop in oil prices, the continued impact of the global pandemic and economic slowdown, as well as continued market volatility, have accelerated those plans,” said Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal. 

“These would be permanent structural workforce reductions. We’re looking at how we can operate more efficiently.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called the announcement an “economic emergency” for the province. 

“The government of Canada would be moving heaven and earth if we saw layoffs of this scale in the central Canadian manufacturing industry,” said Kenney.  

“This truly is a jobs crisis and an economic emergency and it deserves to be responded to here in Alberta the same way it would be in Ontario or Quebec.”

Even before the pandemic began, Calgary’s oil and energy industry has struggled to weather the storm.

For an in-depth treatment of the struggles of Calgarians, watch True North’s own documentary Calgary in Crisis.  

Meanwhile, federal politicians like former Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet celebrated the crushing decline of the sector. 

Earlier this year, May optimistically stated that “oil is dead” and that the sector should not be assisted out of the current downturn. Around the same time, Blanchet said that Alberta’s economy was “condemned” and that there was no path to recovery for the sector. 

In response to the comments, Kenney accused the federal leaders of not showing leadership. 

“I just think it’s deeply regrettable that we would see national political leaders piling on Albertans and energy workers at a time of great trial for us,” said Kenney. 

According to a report by the Conference Board of Canada, Alberta’s GDP is estimated to fall by 11.3% this year. 

Inconsistency and Incoherence

By
Andrew Lawton
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Canadians are receiving more inconsistent and contradictory advice courtesy of the country’s rule by “experts.” Toronto’s chief health advisor wants another lockdown, the Ontario government says we shouldn’t travel even within the province, and Dr. Theresa Tam says Thanksgiving dinners should be virtual, all the while the federal government is funding an ad campaign telling people to bring grandma on a Niagara Falls vacation. True North’s Andrew Lawton tries to make sense of it all.

Also, author Brian Lee Crowley joins the show to talk about his newest book, Gardeners vs. Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line in Canadian Politics.

Far-left BC party pulls candidates after interim leader canned for pro-JK Rowling post

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A fringe far-left British Columbia party hoping to field candidates in the upcoming provincial election has pulled all of its candidates after its interim leader was accused of “transphobia.” 

As revealed by True North in March, the BC Ecosocialists describe themselves as “further left than the NDP, greener than the Greens.” The party’s policy promotes radical socialist reforms like wealth seizures, removing mention of “pro-capitalist” teachings from schools and a major land redistribution program.

The BC Ecosocialists announced on Sunday that they would no longer be running any candidates in the 2020 provincial election. 

“Since interim leader Stuart Parker stepped down after a screenshot of an alleged transphobic comment went viral on social media, we have faced demands to denounce him and apologize for his personal views,” wrote executive director Ashwini Manohar in a statement on the matter. 

“This week a former director called for the entire provincial council to step down as the failure of the party to condemn Parker is being read as endorsement of his position. On advice of counsel, we have chosen not to issue personal denouncements and expose ourselves to liability for ascribing beliefs to Parker he vehemently denies having.” 

Parker, who denies the accusation, is under fire for a comment on controversial Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who has spoken out in support of women’s sex-based rights. 

In a week old Facebook post, Parker is allegedly seen saying that “Rowling has never opposed trans people exercising their civil rights or advocated that any adult be prohibited from transitioning. 

“Labelling everyone who questions any detail of the orthodoxy as a transphobe and a hate-monger is a major tactical error trans rights advocates are commiting right now. People like Rowling were your supporters a decade ago and remain advocates for trans equality despite the blizzard of rape threats and efforts to remove them from their jobs,” Parker continued. 


His comment was part of a larger conversation with BC Greens council member Nicola Spurling, who explained her unfriending of a former homelessness advocate Judy Graves. Graves supported a “I [heart] JK Rowling” billboard in Vancouver. 

“The idea is that this proves that I’m transphobic, because I don’t think a long-term feminist leader [Graves] in my city should be fired for saying it’s wrong to rape J.K. Rowling,” Parker said.

“Rowling disagrees with a detail of the current agenda of the trans-rights movement. And I pointed that out as well. I was trying to give Nicola and her friends a sense of context as to why this struck me as an overreaction.”

Prior to his role as the fledgling party’s interim leader, Parker was the BC Green Party leader from 1992 until his departure in 2000. 

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