Studies show children are less likely to get the coronavirus and there’s little evidence to suggest children can spread it to adults.
In Canada, there has only been one COVID-19 death under the age of 20.
True North’s Anthony Furey says we really shouldn’t be afraid of kids and the return to school.
U.S. President Donald Trump has reimposed a 10% tariff on aluminium from Canada. The tariff had been initially imposed in 2017 and was removed in May of 2018.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland held a press conference on Friday saying Canada was going to fight fire with fire and match their tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
You would think Trudeau and Freeland would surround themselves with advisors who would help them do the right thing. Not so much with this lot.
The issue of aluminium is somewhat complicated. There are those that claim that since the U.S. lifted tariffs on Canadian aluminium in 2018, other countries like China, have been dumping their aluminium into Canada to avoid tariffs when it eventually goes to the States.
Bear in mind that 76% of all aluminium produced in Canada is exported to the U.S.. It is also helpful to bear in mind that 90% of Canada’s aluminium production comes from Quebec.
The Americans claim there is a glut of Canadian aluminium currently in the U.S. and there is no sign of it slowing down. This is true for the most part.
The Quebec producers didn’t want layoffs so they kept producing generic primary aluminium known as P1020. This they shipped to the only storage facilities that are cost effective, which are in the U.S. where the bulk of the product would end up eventually.
This “surge” of Canadian product caught the U.S. producers’ eyes and the matter was raised up the food chain ultimately to the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who then raised the matter with the President and then re-imposed the tariff.
As with so many things and especially with complicated trade deals and perceptions, it depends on whose ox is being gored as to who is right in any of these things.
But, what is not helpful are positions such as those taken by Freeland or Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“I just have to say how disappointed I am with President Trump right now. In times like this, who tries to go after your closest ally, your closest trading partner, your number one customer in the entire world? Who would do this? Well, President Trump did this,” Ford said.
Not helpful.
What would be a lot more helpful is if someone in the Canadian government acted like an adult and picked up a phone and called Lighthizer and organized some talks to settle the matter.
You know, like grown ups do.
A tit-for-tat trade war with our largest trading partner and closest ally is counterproductive. In the first place, the U.S. economy is ten times the size of Canada’s. They could literally squash Canada, so why pick the fight?
A little diplomacy would go a long way in this. Trump is, after all, a deal maker. Find out what he needs to see to make the deal and negotiate.
A mutually agreeable solution should be able to be reached if only the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister would get out of the sand box and live up to their responsibilities to the country as a whole.
Pick up the phone and make a deal.
The Trudeau government spent a total of $1,253,011 in an advertising campaign to educate Canadians about the alleged benefits of the carbon tax.
According to documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Trudeau government was worried that using taxpayer dollars to promote the keystone Liberal policy may provoke a backlash.
“There are risks the increased budget for advertising by the Canada Revenue Agency will prompt negative media attention, particularly considering the government’s commitment to reduce advertising spending,” one government memo says.
“Canada Revenue Agency operations have been the focus of recent Auditor General reporting and this campaign promoting one tax measure in a few provinces may result in additional negative media coverage.”
In 2016, the Trudeau government promised to cut federal advertising. However, spending ahead of the 2019 federal election increased 49% to $58.6 million.
Environment Canada also spent $700,000 on ads informing Canadians about “pollution pricing” prior to the federal election.
The ad campaign centered around promoting carbon tax rebates to residents of Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick, the four provinces which had the federal carbon tax forced on them in April of 2019.
While the federal government increased spending to promote the carbon tax, Elections Canada seemed more concerned that provinces may campaign against federal policies.
In an interview last summer, Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said his office would be carefully monitoring provincial advertising as several provinces were in court fighting the federal carbon tax.
Studies have shown that even right before the 2019 election most Canadians opposed the carbon tax.
One study in September found strong opposition to the carbon tax in all regions of Canada. In a separate study, a focus group conducted by the federal government found that Canadians did not trust the claim that rebates would eliminate the financial burden of the carbon tax.
Canada is currently weighing whether or not to make a COVID-19 vaccine in some way mandatory, according to Navdeep Bains, the Liberal government’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
Good luck getting everyone on board with that one. As if the various measures imposed upon Canadians hasn’t been contentious enough, imposing mandatory vaccines could easily prove to be the most controversial yet.
In the last few years, government officials have spent endless taxpayer dollars on renovations to their offices, private aircrafts and many more frivolous things.
The latest example is coming out of Rideau Hall – the office and residence of Governor General Julie Payette. Payette spent $250,000 for upgrades to Rideau Hall to enhance her demands for privacy.
True North’s Leo Knight says the Trudeau government doesn’t seem to realize that the taxpayer is limited – the taxpayer is not a bottomless money pit.
With the NBA, MLB and NHL all running televised games concurrently, it’s a great time to be a sports fan — unless you prefer your sports teams playing without virtue signalling and “woke” social justice advocacy.
Based on the ratings, which have seen some pretty dramatic drops in the NBA especially, it’s clear that most people actually prefer professional athletes to focus on their game, rather than their politics.
Someone should tell this to NBA players, including the Toronto Raptors and their opponents like the Los Angeles Lakers, who chose to kneel in protest during “O Canada” — mimicking the trend started by (now former) NFL player Colin Kaepernick who controversially began kneeling during the American anthem in support of Black Lives Matter.
Regardless of whether you feel that kneeling during our national anthem is a legitimate form of protest, or just insulting to our veterans, it is very ironic to see American athletes kneeling during the Canadian anthem as if they are in a position to judge. Canada, after all, has a deep history of combating anti-Black racism and helping Black American flee slavery.
It is even more ironic when you consider these are also the same players who ignore slavery and organized genocide occuring in China.
Similarly, someone should tell NHL executives and players that there is nothing wrong with supporting police officers. A recent report indicated that the Boston Bruins went ahead to photoshop the Boston Police Department logo off player Charlie Coyle’s shirt before posting it to social media to avoid “unfair criticism.”
There should be nothing embarrassing about supporting police officers, and it should not be a sports teams job to hide a players support for them at a time when radical slogans like “defund the police” are trending across North America.
In fact, a recent poll shows that 81% of Black Americans want police funding to retain or increase — not be defunded.
Not all athletes and executives, however, are buying into the hype of jumping on social justice causes.
Take San Francisco Giants reliever Sam Coonrood, who refused to join his teammates in kneeling for Black Lives Matter movement — stating that not only his faith require him to kneel before anything besides God, but that he doesn’t agree with parts of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I’m a Christian, like I said, and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter. How they lean towards Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family.” said Coonrood in an interview with NBC.
Similarly, Black NBA player Jonathan Isaac became the only Orlando Magic player who didn’t wear a Black Lives Matter shirt and kneel during the American national anthem. Isaac cited that wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt doesn’t go hand in hand with supporting black lives, and instead cites his commitment to his religious values.
Co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia), also did not mince words when she doubled down on her stance against the Black Lives Matter movement — suggesting it is trying to “destroy” America. Loeffler specifically called them anti-Semitic, and standed firm against their Marxist roots and their opposition to the nuclear family.
It’ll be interesting to see which direction these leagues go moving forward, including whether they continue to move towards supporting social justice, or focus on what they do best: play ball.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has warned universities and researchers that the Chinese government is using research programs to lure Canadian academics and scientists to China with the hope of gaining an economic and military advantage.
According to the Globe and Mail, CSIS claims that the Thousand Talents Plan, which was introduced by China in 2008, is one of the several programs used to gain access to cutting edge Canadian research by Chinese authorities.
“Academic talent plans are one way to incentivize academics to participate in such activities. While the Thousand Talents Plan is one example, academic talent plans are used by multiple hostile states by other names,” CSIS’ media relations head John Townsend told the Globe and Mail.
The program has already raised red flags south of the border, after it was revealed that the program lured thousands of US academics to aid China in its military and technology development efforts.
“Launched in 2008, the Thousand Talents Plan incentivizes individuals engaged in research and development in the United States to transmit the knowledge and research they gain here to China in exchange for monetary payments… China unfairly uses the American research and expertise it obtains for its own economic and military gain,” claimed a US Senate report from 2019.
According to Townsend, Canada’s intelligence agency has notified a number of institutions about China’s foreign recruitment programs.
“These corrosive tactics, which are done to advance the economic and strategic objectives of hostile states, come at the expense of Canada’s national interest, including lost jobs, revenue for public services and a diminished competitive global advantage,” Townsend said.
Research collaboration programs are not the only way China has tried to exploit and target Canadian research.
Earlier this year, the Communications Security Establishment’s Cyber Centre (CSE) warned the House of Commons industry, science and technology committee that Canada has been targeted by “malicious” foreign cyber attacks, specifically targeting research organizations.
“We’ve seen some compromises in research organizations that we’ve been helping to mitigate and we’re still continuing to look through what’s the root cause of those,” the head of the CSE Scott Jones told the committee.
“Yes, we’ve seen activity coming from organizations where they’ve seen malicious activity, or at least suspicious [activity], and we’re working with them to determine whether or not it was malicious, where it came from and who, and was a success or not.”
China has sentenced another Canadian to death over drug charges only one day after passing the same sentence to another Canadian citizen.
On Friday, a Chinese court sentenced Canadian national Ye Jianhui to suffer capital punishment. Ye is the fourth Canadian currently facing the death sentence in China since Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada in 2018.
Chinese authorities arrested Ye after discovering 218 kilograms of MDMA in a residence used by Ye and others.
Ye was convicted alongside five other Chinese nationals, who received sentences ranging from seven years to life imprisonment. Ye was the only suspect to receive the death sentence.
Yesterday, Canadian national Xu Weihong was handed a death sentence by the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court for manufacturing ketamine.
Global Affairs Canada responded to the ruling by saying they were “profoundly concerned” with the Chinese court’s decision.
“Canada opposes the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere,” spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada John Babcock on Thursday.
“Canada has consistently raised our firm opposition to the death penalty with China and will continue to do so.”
The Canadian government has said that consular services have been provided to the individual and they are seeking clemency from the Chinese courts.
“Canada requests clemency for all Canadian citizens who have been sentenced to death, and calls on China to grant clemency to Mr. Xu.” said a spokesman for the Canadian foreign ministry John Babcock.
Several people have been arrested after Ontario Provincial Police broke up an illegal protest on a construction site.
On Wednesday, Police converged on the future site of a 219-lot housing development in Caledonia, Ont. to enforce an injunction ordered by a judge on July 31.
The protesters, who are calling themselves “land defenders” and claiming to be acting on behalf of the Six Nations of the Grand River, refused to leave.
Several police vehicles were attacked with fire and projectiles during the conflict. A number of people were taken into custody.
After the protesters were cleared from the site, they occupied a piece of Highway 6 as well as a rail line. At least one train was forced to reverse away from the blockade.
OPP said in a statement that they “engaged in significant collaborative and respectful dialogue aimed at bringing about a peaceful resolution while ensuring everyone’s safety and preserving their respective rights guaranteed by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
While protesters claimed to be supporting the Six Nations of the Grand River and its ancestral claims to the area, the band had actually agreed to the project.
In 2016, the development company reached an agreement with the Six Nations of the Grand River which recognized their claims over the site. The company paid the band $352,000 and 42.3 acres of property in a different location.
Losani Homes, the developers of the site, say they had been given the full support of the band, and were surprised when protesters forced construction to stop on July 21.
“The project has proceeded for several years through a lengthy and exhaustive public process at the municipal level without complaint or objection and, accordingly, has received all requisite approvals to proceed,” a company representative said.
In February, protesters occupied two nearby parts of Highway 6 in Caledonia and Hagersville, with protesters claiming to have acted in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protesters.
It’s no surprise that so many Canadians are refusing to download the government’s COVID-19 tracing app.
True North’s Anthony Furey says kudos to the 96% of Canadians who clearly have some common sense.
