Thousands of Canadian gun owners and advocates marched on Parliament Hill on Saturday as part of the Integrity March, an event organized by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights. True North’s Andrew Lawton, a licensed gun owner, travelled to Ottawa to cover the march.
In this special edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, Andrew recaps the march, debunks the gun control activists’ false claims, and speaks to Rod Giltaca and Tracey Wilson of the CCFR about their demand for integrity and their efforts to normalize gun owners.
Also on the show: Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, wilderness guide and podcast host DJ “Yukon Strong” Sumanik, and other gun owners from all over Canada.
The Trudeau government has already drafted legislation aimed at regulating online content but refuses to make it public, according to a Blacklock’s Reporter story.
“The department has prepared a discussion paper to advance policy development,” said spokesman Daniel Savoie in the Blacklock’s report.
“The Canadian Heritage discussion paper in question is an internal government document. It has not been shared publicly, including to any advocacy groups.”
Savoie added that anyone who wanted to see the document would have to file an Access To Information request.
The Trudeau government has promised to combat offensive content and misinformation online since first being elected in 2015. No legislation has yet been introduced.
In January, a Legislative Review Panel recommended that all internet media be licensed through the federal government and forced to obey codes of conduct in order to continue operations.
Last week, it was revealed that Heritage Canada was asking advocacy groups for input on possible ways to combat “hate speech” online. In a consultation paper sent to various groups, the government said they are looking for “legal remedies” to fight offensive content.
Which groups the government consulted has not been made public.
Heritage Canada has been strongly condemned by the opposition Conservatives, with Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner saying that regulating the internet would be an unnecessary infringement of Canadians’ rights.
“The role of the state is not to interfere in people’s right to free speech or freedom of the press. “There’s an underlying assumption there that Canadians don’t have the capacity to think for themselves,” she said.
“When the minister says, ‘Well, we might not license here, but we might license in this space’, why do we need to license anything at all? We think Canadians have the capacity to do this, and this is where we fundamentally reject the recommendations of the report.”
Longtime talk radio host Charles Adler has deleted a tweet comparing the 2017 Las Vegas shooting with a Donald Trump rally after significant backlash on social media.
“Oct/2017, in the same state, Nevada, an assassin shot 412 on the Vegas strip, killing 59 before ending his own life,” said Adler.
Adler’s non-sequitur accompanied a retweet of American actress Mia Farrow which referred to a weekend campaign stop near Las Vegas as “mass homicide” and accused Trump of “knowingly killing people.”
“To @POTUS and all who enable him, these rallies- people without masks, crowded together indoors – there is only one way to view this- it is mass homicide. He is knowingly killing people and all of you are complicit,” Farrow wrote.
This is the second time in as many weeks that Adler has connected Trump with a mass casualty incident.
On Sept. 11, the Global News Radio host linked Trump to the 9/11 terror attacks while the US was mourning its anniversary.
“This is September 11th. I can tell you now what I chose not to speak into a microphone 19 years ago today. Felt in my bones that the worst elements of human nature were being unleashed. Will always believe Trumpism emerged from the darkest ashes of America’s darkest day,” Adler tweeted.
That tweet has since been removed as well. Adler later clarified that he deleted the tweet so as to “not to conflate 9/11 with today’s politics.”
On Saturday, Adler also accused popular author J.K. Rowling of having an “unrelenting stream of phobic fiction” after she insisted that sex is determined by biology and that men can’t be women.
The accusation was related to a decision to tear down a billboard in support of the Harry Potter series creator after a Vancouver City Councillor accused the billboard’s message of “stoking hate, exclusion & division.”
The Ontario Provincial Police investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice by two members of the RCMP into senior management of the RCMP is progressing apace.
In the last few days, the two member complainants who were involved in the fatal interaction with Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski at YVR in October of 2007, were contacted by OPP Detective Inspector Nadeau. Nadeau introduced his team for the investigation dubbed Project Eastbourne.
Corporal Monty Robinson (Ret’d) and Constable Gerry Rundel were told that the investigators would be out in B.C. in October and until that point in time they will be seeking Production Orders, judicially authorized, to serve upon the RCMP for the production of all relevant documents.
Thus far they have been provided with approximately 70 pages worth of documents from the RCMP but there are actually thousands of documents.
The RCMP are typically very stingy, to say the least, with producing information to any third party agency. The last thing they want to do is to allow sunlight to be shone upon their actions. That’s just their nature.
The complainants themselves have been tenaciously prying information and documents from the RCMP since 2013 about their case.
Rundel and Robinson were part of the response team to YVR for a disturbance complaint about Dziekanski. After the use of a Taser which ultimately contributed to Dziekanski’s death, a public inquiry was initiated (Braidwood) the appointment of a Special Prosecutor (Richard Peck) and the perjury trials of all four members on what can only be described as faulty suppositions and inferences.
Two of the four were convicted of perjury by two judges who drew inferences without actual evidence. Those two were sentenced to jail just for doing their jobs.
Rundel was acquitted and Robinson was convicted and jailed. Since then, they have been fighting to clear their names over the course of the last seven years. Unfortunately, they have run up against the information brick wall put up by the RCMP bureaucratic machinery several times. There have been seven findings of failing to comply with the law against the RCMP by the Access To Information Commissioner (ATIP) since their battle began.
There are multiple internal reports of the RCMP that say none of the four members involved at YVR did anything wrong or deviated from their training. The problem is that senior management of the RCMP decided not to say that publicly and left the YVR four to dangle and twist in the onslaught of the media.
Yet, we know from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) investigation into the death of Dziekanski, from a subsequent review by Inspector Keith Robinson in 2009, a follow up memo by Superintendent Wayne Rideout in 2010, a review by respected independent Vancouver lawyer Len Doust, and a 10-year follow up review done in 2017 that the four members did nothing wrong and acted according to their RCMP training.
The RCMP even had the OPP review the IHIT investigation of the YVR incident. But, Robinson and Rundel have tried to get that review report and were told, essentially, the RCMP were claiming privilege and denying them a review report about their own actions. I’m not even sure how that is possible. The OPP said they were commissioned to do the review by the RCMP and thus it was their property, but why won’t the RCMP give up that document?
Likely because it supports the allegations of obstruction of justice by neglecting to speak out publicly to back up their members in the face of the media onslaught and the Special Prosecutor investigation and prosecutions.
Robinson’s and Rundel’s battle notwithstanding, there is a larger principle at stake here.
One of the people Robinson and Rundel allege have committed obstruction of justice against is the Commissioner of the RCMP, Brenda Lucki. Canadians need to know that the leader of their national police force is being open and transparent with them. At this point, we cannot say that.
I wish D/Insp. Nadeau much luck in trying to take a can opener to the RCMP’s lid on what can only be described as their cover-up of information about the 2007 incident at YVR.
The members involved did nothing wrong and acted according to their training.
Someone in the upper echelons of the RCMP made the decision not to support their members and that becomes an obstruction of justice in not providing the public inquiry and the courts trying the members with that information.
The members involved and the Canadian public deserve better from their national police force. This isn’t a matter of national security, it’s a matter of public confidence.
A former chief justice of Canada is now a 2020 Mentor at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
Beverley McLachlin was a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from the year 2000 until December 15, 2017.
McLachlin’s appointment received little to no media coverage when it was first announced in April of this year. The articles that do mention her position only do so in passing.
According to the foundation’s official website, McLachlin is listed as a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s COVID-19 Impact Committee.
“Members of the committee will contribute to public debate on the pandemic and its consequences through thought leadership in mainstream media and digital events,” writes the committee’s description.
“The Committee will work to develop a Declaration on ethical considerations and social implications of COVID-19, which will serve as a global response to the pandemic from the perspective of the Social Sciences and Humanities.”
McLachlin, who had a hand in the landmark Supreme Court decision to legalize assisted suicide was accused in a court motion of being biased and having conflicts of interest influence her ruling.
According to an exclusive report by True North fellow Andrew Lawton, a 162-page application filed by an Ontario man battling cancer was dismissed by McLachlin without any reason.
In his application, Roger Foley also alleged that fellow Justice Lynn Smith had connections with one of the plaintiffs, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
Smith also served as a Trudeau Foundation mentor.
“There is a reasonable apprehension of bias that Chief Justice McLachlin’s decision was fixed, staged and predetermined, and infected with bias,” wrote Foley.
In a memoir published by McLachlin, the author reveals a longstanding attachment to assisted suicide that could have imunged on her ability to be impartial in the case.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has added more to the federal debt this year than any other prime minister in Canadian history.
And, if Trudeau’s friends and surrogates in the media are correct, he will announce another $50-100 billion in new borrowing in his upcoming throne speech on September 23.
This next round of reckless spending, we’re being told, will be sold as something of a Green New Deal.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the plan is to “decarbonize” the economy, and Trudeau touted it as an “ambitious green agenda.”
But before Canadians give the PM another blank cheque, we should remember our own experiences with disastrous green energy projects and failed green energy schemes. Even Canadians who worry about climate change and want to prioritize a clean natural environment should not fall for the empty promises of a so-called green recovery.
For those in Ontario, we’ve seen this movie before — and it doesn’t end well.
In 2009, the Ontario Liberal government introduced the Ontario Green Energy Act, a utopian strategy that was supposed to make Ontario a green pioneer and world leader in sustainable development.
Instead, it drove countless Ontario households into bankruptcy, forced businesses and manufacturers to shut their doors or flee the province, landed an unlucky Liberal staffer in jail, and meanwhile, well-connected insiders built personal fortunes through green corporate handouts and special backroom deals.
Under this scheme, the Ontario government shut down the province’s coal energy plants and attempted to replace them with highly subsidized wind and solar energy sources. These sources turned out to be highly unreliable, failing to meet the energy needs of the province.
Ontario found itself in the precarious position where it was importing expensive energy during peak hours and forced to sell excess energy produced at night at a substantial loss.
Energy prices spiked by 110% in Ontario, and the government was left scrambling and ultimately decided to build gas-power electricity plants to make up the difference.
But environmentalists had spent years demonizing fossil fuels as a source of electricity, and therefore, these gas plants became increasingly unpopular. During the 2012 Ontario provincial election, then-Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty reversed his decision and announced he would cancel the gas plants being built in Liberal ridings.
This partisan decision made in the middle of an election – which helped the Liberals win that election – left taxpayers with a $2-billion tab.
That’s not $2 billion to build the gas plants, it was $2 billion not to build them — that is, in sunk costs, cancelled contracts and other liabilities.
And that’s not all. The Ontario Liberals tried to cover it up by misleading the public and quietly destroying the evidence.
McGuinty’s chief of staff David Livingston was eventually found guilty of destroying public documents and went to jail. The judge presiding over the case said the Liberal government’s “conduct was an affront to and an attack upon democratic institutions and values.”
Ontario is far from the only jurisdiction to go down this wayward path.
California’s recent energy blackouts are just the latest example of solar and wind failing to live up to their ideological promise, and pushing one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world into energy poverty.
Even British Columbia — whose carbon tax was lauded as the model for Trudeau’s own iteration of the carbon tax — has proven to be nothing short of a total embarrassment.
B.C.’s Department of Environment revealed this week that carbon emissions in the province increased by 10% between 2015 and 2018; meanwhile, their carbon tax rate has grown by 300%, from $10 per tonne all the way up to $40.
Trudeau may pretend to be a visionary selling a green new future, but anyone who has lived through the nightmare of destructive green energy policies knows a snake oil salesman when they see one.
At 6:30am on Friday morning, a billboard reading “I ‘heart’ JK Rowling” was unveiled on Hastings Street in Vancouver.
Later that night, the billboard was vandalized and covered with splattered paint, and by Saturday afternoon, it was gone.
The sign is a replica of the “I ‘heart’ JK Rowling” poster put up in a rail station in Edinburgh, Scotland this summer by women’s rights advocate Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. The message references legendary Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s support of women’s sex-based rights.
“So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe,” Rowling wrote in a June 2020 blog post. “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.”
According to Metro Vancouver resident Amy Hamm, she and her friend Chris Elston bought the billboard space on Hastings Street to “show solidarity with J.K. Rowling for being such a brave role model for women and girls,” and “to engage Canadians in a conversation about gender identity ideology and the impact it has on women’s sex based rights.”
Although they paid to have the billboard up for “one to three months,” a work crew was onsite to remove the signage as of 3:00pm on Saturday. Pattison Outdoor Advertising told Hamm and Elston they had received one formal complaint about the billboard.
Among those advocating for and celebrating the sign’s removal were Vancouver city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung, former BC Teachers’ Federation president Glen Hansman, former BC Green Party candidate Nicola Spurling and former BC NDP candidate Morgane Oger.
Pattison Outdoor Advertising also faced a billboard controversy last summer, when there was outcry over signage in Calgary featuring People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier with the message, “Say No to Mass Immigration.” After initially stating the ads did not violate any advertising guidelines, Pattison Outdoor Advertising President Randy Otto eventually released a statement saying the posters would be removed.
As for the J.K. Rowling billboard, Pattison Outdoor has not released any statement and did not immediately reply to True North’s request for comment.
The PM has been pretty blatant in admitting that he sees crisis in opportunity and thinks now, when the economy is set to restructure in still to be determined ways, is the time to transform Canada into a nation more in line with his ideology.
Let’s pause before we answer this question. Because Trudeau’s a little hasty in even pushing this conversation. The whole thing is more of a post-pandemic question, isn’t it? Or at least one that you have once you’ve gotten your more immediate and pressing pandemic matters out of the way. And have we? Have the feds actually done their job on the COVID-19 file?
Attorney General David Lametti is looking for “legal remedies” to fight offensive and unregulated speech online, according to Blacklocks’s Reporter.
The Department of Justice recently sent a letter titled Consultation Paper: Online Hate to various advocacy groups, asking each of them to provide ideas to combat “hate speech” online.
“As Canadians spent more time online than ever, we must grapple with the double-edged nature of the internet and social media platforms,” the Department of Justice wrote.
“On one hand they bring tremendous opportunities for connection, expression and empowerment, but on the other hand…the spreading of hate has never been easier. We want to canvass your views in order to develop options for legal remedies.”
The department never made the letter public or listed which groups received the letter. Two groups who received the letter did make their views known.
Ontario Civil Liberties Association said it opposed any online regulations which “attack individuals’ freedom of expression,” meanwhile B’nai Brith Canada said it supports government intervention in the internet to fight “hateful speech.”
Earlier this week Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault said he wants to force social media companies to become licenced with the federal government in order to share Canadian news.
Guilbeault’s statement comes after he previously praised Australia for considering a law which would force social media companies to prioritize mainstream media outlets and pay the outlets for their content.
In January, a government commission recommended that media outlets become registered with the government and be subject to their “codes of conduct.”
The commission also recommended increasing funding to the CBC, noting their importance in the fight against misinformation.
