The lockdown is making travelling abroad very difficult for many Canadians. But this might not necessarily be a bad thing.
True North’s Anthony Furey says if you’re looking for places to visit during the lockdown, look around you!
Canadians are blessed by our country’s natural beauty – you should consider visiting some of the amazing parts of Canada.
The Liberal government gave away $10.5 million taxpayer dollars to climate change researchers who never delivered on their promised studies.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a total of seven studies were funded by the federal government, but no reports were ever produced.
“In 2017 and 2018 seven projects were funded for which researchers did not provide reports. Hence, their status is unknown,” read the Evaluation of the Aquatic Climate Change Adaptation Services Program.
“Under the current funding requirements there are no consequences if funded researchers do not submit reports, or reports are delayed.”
The climate change research program is costing Canadian taxpayers $3.5 million annually for studies on aquatic life and environment.
In their report, auditors of the program noted that the resulting research of the program was “hard to find” and very few Canadians knew or even heard about its work.
“A number of challenges impede communication with a broader audience to inform decision-making in support of adaptation efforts,” wrote the auditors.
“Overall the Evaluation finds the program faces many challenges that are beyond its purview and control, since the program is not designed to respond to growing needs for aquatic climate change science.”
In February of this year, another report revealed that the Liberal paid millions to push their climate change narrative in the media.
The Canadian News Media Association received $14.4 million to peddle government messaging on climate change.
Francophone outlets also received a cut of the fund, with both the Québec Community Newspapers Association and the Association de la Presse Francophone getting $600,000 from taxpayers.
On Wednesday July 29th, 2020, the Independent Press Gallery hosted two fireside chats featuring Conservative leadership candidates Derek Sloan and Erin O’Toole.
In the first half of the event, True North fellow Andrew Lawton sat down with Derek Sloan to discuss his vision for Canada and why he’s running to become Prime Minister.
Watch the full event: https://independentpressgallery.ca/debate/
During his testimony before the Standing Committee on Finance, Prime Minister Trudeau maintained that WE Charity did not receive any preferential treatment in the government’s decision to award a sole-source contract to the organization to oversee a $912 million federal student grant.
Trudeau insisted that Canada’s civil service was responsible for 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.
The prime minister also denied having a personal friendship with WE Charity founders Marc and Craig Kielburger.
In the historic inquiry, committee members grilled the prime minister over his personal and financial ties to WE Charity.
Trudeau and his Chief of Staff Katie Telford appeared before the committee in separate meetings.
The decision to increase the length of the prime minister’s appearance was made late Wednesday evening after opposition MPs voted to extend the testimony by two hours.
Thursday’s testimonies come shortly after the Kielburgers appeared before the committee to answer questions regarding their involvement in the scandal.
During their testimony, the pair disclosed that the prime minister’s mother Margaret Trudeau had received additional reimbursement for $167,944 from the charity over several speaking engagements. The sum brings the total monetary compensation that Mrs. Trudeau received up to a shocking $479,944.
When pressed on the total amount of money the Trudeau family received from WE by Conservative MP and Committee Vice-Chair Pierre Poilievre, Trudeau failed to provide a dollar value.
“My mother and my brother are professionals in their own right who have engagements and have for many, many years, with many different organizations across the country, and I don’t have the details of their work experiences or expenses,” Trudeau said.
Among others who have been implicated in the ethics scandal is Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who accepted free trips from the organization to Kenya and Ecuador.
Morneau has since paid WE Charity $41,366 in reimbursements for the trips and has issued several public apologies for the incident.
Trudeau’s approval ratings have taken a hit since the scandal broke. According to the latest Angus Reid Institute poll, approval for the prime minister fell by six points to 44% approval.
If found guilty of breaking ethics laws, the WE Charity scandal would be Trudeau’s third ethics violation while serving as Canada’s prime minister.
In 2017, Trudeau was first found guilty of ethics violations for accepting a paid vacation to a private island owned by the Aga Khan.
Then again in 2019, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ruled that Trudeau had broken ethics laws a second time after attempting to pressure former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
As the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race reaches its final stages, many are speculating that it is Peter MacKay’s race to lose. In fact, for some, a more interesting race to watch is whether newcomer Leslyn Lewis will place second ahead of Conservative MP Erin O’Toole.
But while anything could change between now and the leadership result – not to mention the next general election – it is interesting to consider what a MacKay-led Conservative Party looks like and some of the biggest challenges he may face.
A MacKay-led Conservative Party will likely be strong organizationally, as he has run a strong campaign despite some early mess-ups. He has managed to obtain a large number of high-profile campaign endorsements, and has fundraised a significant sum of money from all regions of the country. Further, the Conservatives under his leadership will likely be more popular with moderates and swing voters, as evident in recent public polling.
Similarly, a MacKay-led Conservative government would also certainly be better for the country than the existing Trudeau government. As Deputy Leader to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he was rotated amongst a series of high-profile cabinet positions – including serving as the Minister of Justice and Minister of National Defense – and managed to implement a number of important government initiatives with ease.
However, one of the biggest challenges that MacKay may face is a peculiar one for someone at the helm of his party: support amongst the conservative grassroots.
Social conservatives, for example, remain an important part of the Conservative base which is both reliable and active. They are extremely organized, eager to knock on doors, and will make financial commitments to causes they believe in. Further, as the Liberals increasingly alienate social conservatives – like refusing to allow pro-life MPs to sit in their caucus or denying Churches and charities access to the Canada Summer Jobs program – the Conservative Party is the only political party palatable to them.
Despite this, MacKay has consistently alienated social conservatives at every turn. Prior to the start of the leadership race, he infamously called them a “stinking albatross” around the neck of the party – a comment he says he now regrets. Meanwhile, he has taken a stance on conscience voting rights that is more similar to Justin Trudeau than former Prime Minister Harper, suggesting he would whip his cabinet into voting against legislation on abortion.
Similarly, MacKay has shown disrespect for conservatives who are skeptical of the mainstream media. Not only does he refuse to support serious reform of the CBC, a position held by many if not most conservatives, he also has refused to engage with independent media outlets. For example, he has refused to answer questions from journalists like Rebel Media’s Keean Bexte, and dropped out of a recent Independent Press Gallery event just hours before it was set to begin.
If MacKay does win the leadership of the Conservative Party on August 21, he must chart a new path forward which respects all members of his party and keeps the “big blue” tent together. Failure to do so could have drastic consequences at the grassroots level, and lead to four more dreaded years of Justin Trudeau.
A Conservative MP is calling on the federal government to open an independent investigation into the forced detainment of Uyghurs by China in the Xinjiang region.
According to the Globe and Mail, Conservative MP and labour critic John Williamson pressed Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne to launch the inquiry into forced-labour in the region.
“Canadians expect their government to oppose forced labour, defend the rights of workers and principles of fair trade, and speak out against exploitative trade practices and cases of human slavery. This practice in Xinjiang certainly violates that,” said Williamson.
In response to the Globe and Mail, a spokesperson for Champagne told the publication that the federal government “remains deeply disturbed by the troubling reports on the situation in Xinjiang.”
Uyghur rights advocates have been urging governments and corporations to condemn China for its treatment of the country’s Uyghur minority and to cut supply chains with the region.
Among the companies criticized for utilizing what is essentially slave labour is Huawei.
As exclusively reported on by True North, several Uyghur rights groups called on the Canadian government to consider the company’s complicity in human rights abuses in China when deciding on whether the Chinese telecom giant will have a hand in Canada’s 5G network.
Representatives from the World Uyghur Congress, Lawyers for Uyghur Rights and the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China all expressed concern regarding Huawei technology and how it could be used to further oppress Uyghur peoples.
“Given the evidence that Huawei plays an integral part of the massive surveillance state in East Turkistan and the constant harassment the Uyghurs in Canada witness, this leaves us with legitimate concerns about Huawei’s 5G technology being used to target even more the Uyghurs in Canada,” Program & Advocacy Manager of the World Uyghur Congress Zumretay Arking told True North in May.
According to a 2019 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Huawei is cited as providing police “technical expertise, support and digital services” in the repressive Xinjiang region.
The report also cites the company as being involved in “perpetrating or enabling human rights abuses” on behalf of the Chinese government.
Leslyn Lewis’ campaign never requested or expected fellow Conservative leadership candidate Peter MacKay to withdraw from last night’s Independent Press Gallery of Canada (IPG) event, according to Lewis’ campaign manager.
Mackay, who lives in Toronto where the debate was hosted, announced on Wednesday evening that he was backing out from debating the remaining candidates in the last minute after Lewis informed organizers that health reasons prevented her from attending.
In his statement, MacKay wrote that he was withdrawing out of respect for Dr. Lewis and requested that the debate be rescheduled only hours before the event was set to begin.
“I have great respect for Dr. Lewis and the positive and constructive campaign she has run. That’s why I propose that this debate be rescheduled. To be fair to all, I will not participate in a debate where she is not present,” wrote MacKay.
In response to MacKay’s decision, Lewis’ campaign manager Steve Outhouse told True North fellow Sam Eskenasi that the campaign would have “totally understood” should the debate proceed as originally planned without her involvement.
“We certainly did not ask Mr MacKay’s campaign to bow out. We would have totally understood if he continued to go on. We have participated in debates Mr. MacKay hasn’t been in and we’ve participated in events without other candidates present, other candidates have participated in things that we haven’t been in, so that was not necessary,” said Lewis’ campaign manager Steve Outhouse.
“I understand that the written intent of it was out of respect for Dr. Lewis but certainly there was no expectation or ask on our part that he not participate tonight.”
True North reached out to Lewis’ campaign for further clarification and was told that they had never asked for the event to be rescheduled.
“Leslyn and our entire campaign team understand the immense effort and expense that goes into putting on an in-person debate. We never asked the organizers or any of the other campaigns to consider rescheduling,” Outhouse told True North.
“In our minds, Leslyn would either be well enough to attend the debate, or she would have to stay home while the other three took part. We understood that those were our two options, and unfortunately, Leslyn was required to stay home under the strong advice from her doctor.”
Despite the withdrawal of two candidates, the event carried on as two back-to-back fireside chats between moderator and True North fellow Andrew Lawton and the two remaining candidates Erin O’Toole and Derek Sloan.
The IPG was founded in 2020 by Candice Malcolm and is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to cultivating independent journalism organizations.
Conservative leadership candidates Erin O’Toole and Derek Sloan both promised to protect free speech and fight censorship if they become prime minister.
At the Independent Press Gallery’s Fireside Chat on Thursday, the two candidates both commented on the increasing attacks of freedom of expression in Canada.
“We have to do everything we can to defend [freedom of speech],” Sloan told moderator Andrew Lawton.
Sloan said that if elected he will stop the censorship of conservative content by holding social media platforms to account when they operate as publishers rather than neutral platforms.
O’Toole spoke about the threats to free speech in Canada and the importance of independent media.
“For a few years I’ve been talking about the decline of free speech rights in Canada and cancel culture,” he said.
Earlier this week it was revealed that the CBC edited out a section of an interview with O’Toole where he talked about defunding the CBC.
When asked by a reporter after the Fireside Chat, O’Toole said CBC’s editing clearly showed favouritism.
If elected, O’Toole has promised to end the mainstream media’s monopoly on Parliament Hill by allowing groups like the Independent Press Gallery to be accredited.
Of the four leadership candidates, Peter MacKay is the only one to suggest there must be increased censorship on the internet.
In a previous interview on the topic of freedom of speech, MacKay said Canadians need to be protected from the “dangerous misinformation” surrounding coronavirus.
The Independent Press Gallery’s fireside chats were originally planned as a debate between all four leadership candidates. The format was changed hours before it began after candidates Leslyn Lewis and Peter MacKay withdrew from the event.
According to debate organizers, representatives from the Sloan, O’Toole and Lewis campaigns were communicative and accommodating throughout the day, with Sloan and O’Toole agreeing to the revised fireside format.
Liberal and NDP MPs voted down a motion for federal cabinet members to disclose whether they were aware of ties between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and WE before awarding the charity a $912 million student grant program.
The motion was brought forward during Wednesday’s House of Commons Ethics Committee by the Conservatives but failed to reach the required votes needed to be implemented.
During a debate on the motion, Liberal committee members called it “poorly drafted” before shutting it down with the NDP’s support.
“I think that Canadians deserve answers. This is a simple process, a simple procedure that simply asks those that were tasked with making a decision regarding close to a billion dollars, it simply asks for the information to be given to Canadians,” said committee member and Conservative MP Damien Kurek.
The Conservatives say they have submitted new evidence for the ethics commissioner. Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion has confirmed that he is investigating both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau for their involvement in the WE Charity affair.
If found guilty, this would be the third ethics violation incurred by Trudeau since becoming Prime Minister.
Trudeau was first found guilty of breaking ethics laws after accepting a family vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island in 2017.
Last year, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion also found Trudeau guilty of breaking ethics laws after attempting to interfere in the justice system by pressuring former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The prime minister as well as his Chief of Staff Katie Telford are expected to appear before the committee on Thursday afternoon to testify regarding the matter.
