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Saturday, June 28, 2025

Family removed from WestJet flight because toddler didn’t wear mask

By
True North Wire
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A family of four was kicked off a WestJet plane in Calgary because their 19-month-old did not wear a mask.

According to Safwan Choudhry, his family were heading home to Toronto on Tuesday when WestJet staff confronted them in their seats. Staff demanded his two daughters, ages three and 19 months, put on masks immediately.

“My older daughter was eating a snack so we asked if she could finish and they said no, she needs to put it on now, otherwise the plane won’t take off and we said no problem,” he said. 

“My wife got the mask (on the three-year-old) with a little bit of hesitation and then they turned to my 19-month-old and said she also needs to wear a mask.”

Choudhry said his daughter became hysterical once the mask had been put on as the toddler had never worn one before.

Choudhry said WestJet staff became aggressive when his wife asked for time to calm their daughter.

“She said, ‘I’m asking you for the last time because the next time it will be police that will come here and they will arrest you and you will leave with your child,’” he said.

Shortly after the Choudhry family was ordered to leave, even as Safwan was holding the mask to his toddler’s face. 

“Multiple police officers boarded the flight and said ‘we need to evacuate you off the place because you are not complying,’ and I said ‘not complying with what?’ They said, ‘well, we don’t have the exact details we were just told that there were passengers who are not complying and our policy is we have to take you off.’” 

Calgary police later told Global that they were called to the plane but no arrests were made.

According to Transport Canada, children under the age of two are exempt from wearing masks on flights. Choudhry said police were very helpful once they learned his child’s age.

WestJet cancelled the flight abruptly after the incident. Choudhry said police questioned WestJet staff.

In a statement, a WestJet spokeswoman said that staff were following the law the entire time, claiming that staff were more concerned about the Choudhry’s three year old daughter.

“I can confirm that Flight 652 from Calgary to Toronto was cancelled last night after guests travelling on employee travel passes chose not to comply with the Transport Canada order related to the wearing of masks on-board the aircraft for all guests two years and older,” she said. 

“Our flight crew have access to the guest manifest, which specifically states which guests are under two (booked as infants) and are enforcing the policy as per the Transport Canada regulation for guests two and older.”

Liberal heritage minister pushes for more regulations on social media companies

By
True North Wire
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Liberal Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault wants to force social media companies to become licenced with the federal government if they wish to continue linking to Canadian news content. 

“We’re going to put some fairness into the Canadian regulatory system, because right now there is no fairness. We have Canadian companies that have regulatory obligations and we have international web giants that have none. And that’s unsustainable,” Guilbeault said on The West Block. 

This is not the first time that Guilbeault has mentioned licensing as a means to regulate the media in Canada.

In February, Guilbeault backtracked on comments he made during another TV appearance on CTV’s Question Period. 

“If you’re a distributor of content in Canada and obviously if you’re a very small media organization the requirement probably wouldn’t be the same if you’re Facebook, or Google. There would have to be some proportionality embedded into this,” Guilbeault said.

“We would ask that they have a licence, yes.” 

After pushback from Canadians, Guilbeault retracted his comments one day later. 

“Let me be clear, our government has no intention to impose licensing requirements on news organizations nor will we regulate news content,” Guilbeault said at the time.

“We are committed to free and independent media which is essential to democracy.”

Guilbeault’s latest push for regulating Canadian news came after he announced his support for similar measures being implemented in Australia.

“We remain committed towards ensuring a comprehensive, more equitable digital regulatory framework here in Canada. That includes making sure that Canadian news organizations continue to inform and empower our communities,” tweeted Guilbeault last Wednesday. 

“As for Facebook’s action, the Canadian government stands with our Australian partners and denounces any form of threats.”

The proposed Australian law would require Facebook and Google to pay royalties for Australian news that’s shared on their platforms. 

Facebook responded to the legislation by suggesting that it would put a total ban on news sharing within the country if the law gets implemented. 

FUREY: Provinces begin to rollback reopening

By
True North
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After a surge in cases of the coronavirus, British Columbia is beginning to rollback their reopening by closing down banquet halls and night clubs. Many provinces are expected to follow suit.

Many Canadians are beginning to wonder if we’re heading back to a lockdown.

True North’s Anthony Furey says this shouldn’t be a cause for concern. In fact, it was expected that there would be more cases as a result of more people gathering together.

BC’s carbon tax failed to reduce emissions: Department of Environment report

By
True North Wire
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A report by the Department of Environment admitted that British Columbia’s carbon tax did not succeed in cutting emissions within the province. 

The tax, which was praised by the federal government as the model for the National Gas Pollution Pricing Act of 2018, actually led to an increase in emissions according to Blacklock’s Reporter. 

The National Inventory Report which was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change revealed that greenhouse gas emissions in BC increased by 10% or 65.6 million tonnes from 2015 to 2018. 

Emissions from transportation vehicles also went up to 10 million tonnes from 8.9 million tonnes over this period. 

BC’s carbon tax was implemented in 2008 at an initial cost of $10 per tonne. In 2020 that has increased to $40 a tonne. 

The Trudeau government cited the province’s carbon tax on numerous occasions as a success story to justify implementing its own federal carbon tax on provinces which did not have a carbon pricing scheme. 

“Economists show it. The province of British Columbia shows it,” said former environment minister Catherine McKenna. 

“We can have a direct price on pollution like B.C. does. Pricing pollution works.”

According to government data, emissions grew even after the federal government imposed their carbon pricing scheme.

The Department of Environment reported in their National Inventory Report 1990-2018 that in 2018, emissions grew by 15 million tonnes and attributed the growth to “colder winter weather.”

“Between 2014 and 2019 the Government of Canada invested $60 billion to drive down greenhouse gas emissions, generate clean technologies, help Canadians and communities adapt to a changing climate and protect the environment,” claimed the report.

CBC covered Trudeau’s socks and hair more than disgraced Liberal MPs

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Data shows that the CBC loves to talk about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hair and socks. 

In fact, the state broadcaster has dedicated 76 articles which mention either Trudeau’s hair, his beard or his hosiery. 

Out of 98 mentions in these articles, Trudeau’s hair makes a total of 50 appearances, his socks are mentioned 43 times and his beard is referenced 5 times. 

In comparison, the CBC spent more time reporting on the prime minister’s physical appearance than they did on the recent arrest of Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara over assault and other serious charges. Tabbara’s name only nets 60 results on the CBC website. 

A number of former Liberal MPs who faced sexual harassment allegations were also relatively ignored including Darshan Kang who got 81 mentions and Massimo Pacetti who only received 73 hits.

Coverage of alleged RCMP spy Cameron Ortis was also overshadowed by Trudeau’s socks and hair, producing only 41 mentions by the CBC. 

To achieve this count, True North relied on articles or posts from search results provided by the CBC’s official website. All mentions within the body text, descriptions or other parts of articles were included in the final total. Any reference on television or on CBC’s radio programming were not included in these figures unless a transcript was provided on the website. 

The CBC wrote about Trudeau’s locks with glowing adjectives such as “best hair”, “legendary hair”, or “mop of curly hair.” 

“Asked to choose a comic book hero at a news conference, the man widely acknowledged to have the best hair in this year’s election race said he’s such a geek that he shouldn’t be answering the question,” wrote CBC’s Laura Payton on August 22, 2015.

Notably, a portion of the CBC’s coverage of the prime minister’s mane includes various articles complaining about the infamous 2015 Conservative election attack ad which brands Trudeau as an inexperienced candidate with “nice hair, though.”  

“Stephen Harper asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, kicking off an 11-week long campaign that actually started when that horrible actor told us Justin Trudeau had ‘nice hair though,’” wrote Mark Kritch on August 2, 2015. 

Despite the criticisms, the CBC has its own penchant for pointing out Trudeau’s physical appearance to a nauseating degree. 

“Justin Trudeau didn’t just turn 48 over the holidays. He also grew a beard,” claimed an article titled Hair Apparent: How Justin Trudeau’s beard makes him look like Dad.

Meanwhile, articles featuring the prime minister’s socks went into great detail about their appearance. 

The wide assortment of Trudeau’s sock designs are described as “fancy socks”, “Star Wars themed socks”, “rainbow socks”, “Chewbacca socks” or “flashy socks”, among a dozen other variations.  

“Fifty years later, we bask in the reflected glow of a prime minister’s socks,” writes CBC’s Aaron Wherry. 

O’Toole commits to Paris climate agreement targets

By
True North Wire
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Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole said that under his leadership, Canada would adhere to the Paris climate agreement targets. 

“Yes, that would be our intention,” O’Toole told CBC Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos when asked whether a Conservative government would stick to the agreement.

“I’m committed to that… committed to that through partnering with provinces, not an ‘Ottawa knows best approach’ as we’ve seen with the carbon tax.” 

O’Toole was elected as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in August after campaigning under a “true blue leadership” banner. O’Tooles predecessor, Andrew Scheer, also pledged that a conservative government would meet the Paris targets. 

As part of his platform, O’Toole vowed to eliminate the federally imposed carbon tax which was introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in 2018. 

“I will respect the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories by scrapping Trudeau’s carbon tax. If provinces want to use market mechanisms, other forms of carbon pricing, or regulatory measures, that is up to them. The federal government will be there to support them,” claimed O’Toole platform. 

Canada signed onto the Paris Agreement on December 12, 2015. Under the agreement Canada is required to reduce carbon emissions with the goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius. 

Despite being an original signatory to the agreement, the United States pulled out of the United Nations’ agreement on June 1, 2017.

“Not only does this deal subject our citizens to harsh economic restrictions, it fails to live up to our environmental ideals,” said Trump in a statement on the decision. 

“As someone who cares deeply about the environment, which I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States — which is what it does -– the world’s leader in environmental protection, while imposing no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters.”

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer also committed to the Paris Climate agreement.

ESKENASI: Using the coronavirus as a political tool

By
Sam Eskenasi
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UPDATE – In this video Sam erroneously forgot to give appropriate credit to Dilbert Creator Scott Adams for some of his inspiration. As Sam’s videos are filmed in one take, and numerous takes are often made he had mistakenly sent in the wrong version without crediting him. He sends his most sincere apologies to Scott and to our viewers for this unfortunate error.

People who compare countries’ responses to the coronavirus seem to only be interested in political points or attacking government leaders.

There are just so many factors to consider when determining why a certain country reacted the way they did. There is no one size fits all solution when dealing with a deadly virus.

True North’s Sam Eskenasi gives three reasons why anyone who does this has no idea what they’re talking about.

Calgary reports highest unemployment in Canada for a second month in a row

By
True North Wire
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Calgary suffered from the highest unemployment rate in the country in August for a second consecutive month. 

Statistic Canada’s August 2020 Labour Force Survey shows that unemployment in the city was a startling 14.4% in August due to the crushing effect the coronavirus pandemic has had on Alberta’s economy. 

While slightly lower than July’s 15.5%, Calgary’s rate remained the worst out of 34 different cities in Canada. 

The numbers stress the importance of a jobs-focused recovery, Alberta Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer said to Global News.

“With those numbers that we see today, it just drives home the urgency as to why we created this new Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Innovation and why we’ve put the responsibility of the recovery plan into this new beefed-up ministry that has additional responsibility,” Schweitzer said.

“If you’ve been dealt a tough card with respect to the oil crash, as well as with this pandemic… we’re going to come back faster than any other jurisdiction in the country. The one thing that Albertans do better than anyone else is move quickly.”

Earlier this year, True North released an investigative documentary titled Calgary in Crisis to highlight the struggles Calgarians have had to deal with financially and socially. 

The documentary contains exclusive interviews by True North founder Candice Malcolm with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, and Dragon’s Den star Brett Wilson, among others. 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=938047766612338&extid=wti0pfzmbUf2rNhk

Court of appeal shuts down Liberal bill for unlawful interference in justice system

By
True North Wire
-

Attorney General David Lametti was cited by the Federal Court of Appeal for meddling in legal proceedings for his own government’s advantage. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the pandemic relief Bill C-17 was struck down by Justice Marc Noël for being “intolerable” and unlawful in its interference in Canada’s justice system. 

The court claimed that the law would “invade a core judicial function” and “harm” those seeking justice. 

Bill C-17 was introduced by the Liberals on June 10 as an omnibus bill and it included a law called Time Limits And Other Periods Act.

The bill would effectively suspend deadlines for civil cases at a number of federal courts for a period of six months. This would overwhelming favour the federal government, the court found.

“The Attorney General’s position calls into question orders, directions, judgments and other actions made by this Court in specific files involving the Department of Justice,” said Noël.

“For example, orders requiring that a proceeding to be prosecuted urgently on shortened time limits to further the public interest and to avert some harm or prejudice would be invalidated with retroactive effect.”

Lametti replaced former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould in 2019 shortly after she revealed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attempted to interfere in criminal proceedings against SNC-Lavalin. 

Wilson-Raybould was kicked out of the Liberal caucus for refusing to go along with Trudeau’s plans.

After an investigation by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, Trudeau was found to be guilty of breaking ethics rules for his involvement in the SNC-Lavalin affair. 

“The authority of the Prime Minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and attempt to discredit the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson‑Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer,” wrote the Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion in his report.

ESKENASI: Diversity is our weakness?

By
Sam Eskenasi
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Diversity is our strength. At least, that’s what Justin Trudeau keeps telling us. 

As a political slogan it works well. It’s brevity projects the feeling that Canada is a welcoming, and multicultural nation. A country where people from all over the world come to build a better life, where all are valued and where their different points of view benefit society at large. 

That’s saying a lot for only four words. When combined with the Prime Minister’s constant virtue signaling it’s easy to see how this type of trite political messaging has been used so effectively.

Contrast that with Erin O’Toole’s leadership slogan “Take Canada Back.” As a message, it lacks positive or hopeful connotations and begs the following questions: take Canada back to what? Take it back from whom precisely? Neither question is beneficial to the Conservatives.

The first implies a return to some supposed golden age that may have either never existed or was not “golden” for all Canadians. Going “backwards” is almost always viewed negatively and is the direct opposite of the Liberal’s 2015 and working 2020 slogans “Choose Forward” and “Build Back Better.” When compared to Donald Trump’s “Make American Great Again” — which shares the Conservative’s idea of returning back to something — only Trump’s projects easily understood positive messaging: America will be great again. 

The second, when held up against Trudeau —  a Prime Minister who describes himself as a staunch feminist and multiculturalist —  could easily be understood to imply taking it back to a time before feminism, multiculturalism and diversity. 

When looked at alongside the aforementioned “backward focus” it’s not hard to see why it feels out of touch if not intolerant —  perhaps even racist to some. 

So why have the Conservatives missed the mark when it comes to their political messaging? Because in so many arenas they’ve fallen into the trap of simply being the “Anti-Left.”

One of the areas this can most easily be seen is the party’s difficulty reaching out to minority groups. Their fear of being accused of virtue signaling or tokenism has created a blindspot in their thinking. Andrew Scheer’s 2017 leadership team was touted as “diverse.” The only problem was that diversity has a meaning in today’s political landscape, and it doesn’t mean “white men from different areas of Canada, with the occasional woman thrown in for good measure.”

This is not to say that the party should abandon any form of meritocracy or that it should engage in tokenism or virtue signaling simply because the Prime Minister does both of those things regularly. In fact, real diversity — that of experience, opinion and thought — can be a Conservative strength. 

The party is made up of Canadians — men and women — from many different religious, ethnic, racial and other groups who bring with them a wealth of knowledge. Yet there are vast numbers of Canadians who do not believe they have a home in the party simply because it has been unable to articulate to them why they are valued.

The Conservative desire to not play identity politics has resulted in their only identity being “not the Liberals.” Simply opposing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals does not make a party platform and the party must decide which policies it actually stands for so it can start playing offence, rather than just defence. 

These should include fiscal policies which explain what a Conservative government would do differently to help reduce red tape and provide support for businesses which have suffered during the pandemic. A well thought out immigration plan which addresses not only total numbers of immigrants but deals with the issue of open borders — something many new Canadians are unhappy about. 

Outreach to different groups can no longer be seen through the one-dimensional lens of photo-ops, but instead as connecting with voters from all walks of life with unique perspectives about how to move the country forward.

Canada IS a country of diversity, with more than 1 out of every 5 Canadians born elsewhere. How can a party which hopes to lead this country fail to take into account 20% of its voters? With the number of foreign-born Canadians upwards of 50% in the GTA, it’s no wonder the Conservatives struggle to win a seat in these ridings.

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