Everyone agrees what happened to George Floyd was unjust, and that he was wrongly killed.
But instead of joining together to mourn the senseless death, and taking measures to ensure that no innocent person is killed at the hands of an overzealous cop, the movement was hijacked.
Violent activists and anarchists began organizing and instigating riots. They advocate tearing down the entire society and every aspect of our system, including free markets, private property, the rule of law and the legal system. They’re tainted with the ideological furor of the radical far-left.
True North’s Candice Malcolm discusses in her latest video.
After shutting down the House of Commons, some Liberal MPs are using their newfound free time to kayak.
Over the weekend, five cabinet ministers enjoyed a day of “social distanced kayaking” at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa. Health Minister Patty Hadju, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, Justice Minister David Lametti, Middle Class Prosperity Minister Mona Fortier, and Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna posed for a photo on the dock.
From the people who brought you: “We don’t need Parliament. We can do important work without it.” https://t.co/D4yTShOLOE
On May 26, the Liberals, with the support of the NDP, voted to shut down parliament until September 21, claiming that the coronavirus pandemic makes opening the House of Commons unsafe.
The kayaking trip was heavily criticized on social media, with many saying it is hypocritical that the cabinet ministers were kayaking and posing for photos instead of fulfilling their parliamentary duties.
Under the agreement crafted by the Liberals and NDP, parliament will reconvene for just four hours on June 17 to approve $150 billion in coronavirus-related spending.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also used the crisis as an excuse to limit his media appearances. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Trudeau has been giving scripted daily addresses followed by a handful of questions from mainstream journalists.
Research done by True North found that CBC journalists dominate Trudeau’s press conferences. Independent and freelance journalists were given few opportunities to question the prime minister.
Many also took offence to the fact that cabinet ministers were kayaking while many Canadians still do not have access to outdoor activities.
It wasn’t until Monday that Ontario Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves reopened, though many restrictions remain in place.
Provincial Parks are currently limiting paddling, hiking, and biking areas until further notice.
Bell has announced it will be partnering with the Scandinavian telecommunications company Ericsson to develop its 5G network.
Shortly after Bell’s announcement, Telus also came out in partnership with Ericsson and Nokia.
On Tuesday, BCE Inc. published a press release announcing the rollout.
“Bell’s 5G strategy supports our goal to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, and Ericsson’s innovative 5G network products and experience on the global stage will be key to our rollout of this game-changing mobile technology across Canada,” said President Mirko Bibic.
Bell and Telus have now joined Rogers in partnering with the European hardware companies.
In February, Telus Corp. announced it would continue rolling out its 5G network using Huawei equipment despite the government’s stalling on whether or not it will ban the Chinese company’s presence on the network.
It is unclear what prompted Telus’ reversal on its plans to use Huawei tech.
“Our team is committed to rolling out superior network technology from urban to rural communities, fueling our economy and driving innovation as we power Canadians into the 5G era through an unparalleled network experience. Our 5G deployment will support economic growth and diversity that will be essential for the virtualization of health, education, teleworking, and stimulating the economic growth and recovery given the impact of COVID-19,” said Telus President Darren Entwistle.
Canadians overwhelmingly oppose giving Huawei access to their network. A recent poll by Research Co. found that 75% of Canadians want the federal government to reject Huawei’s bid for access to the network.
The opposition to Huawei is growing: in February 2019, 57% of Canadians were opposed to the company gaining 5G access.
Huawei has deflected security and privacy concerns regarding its relationship with the Chinese government. The company claims that its technology is secure and free of interference.
In China, corporations and businesses are required by law to assist in intelligence gathering and national security operations.
Canada’s chief public health officer has given the green light for Canadians to attend protests that have spilled into the country from the US.
Several Canadian cities have seen massive crowds of people gather to protest the death of George Floyd. To date, protests have emerged in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
Dr Tam: Go to protests, but don’t yell. Yelling can increase the risk of spreading the virus. pic.twitter.com/VuubhRnaqX
— ROBERTO WAKERELL-CRUZ ✝️ (@Robertopedia) June 1, 2020
In Toronto, an estimated 3,500 people gathered in the city’s streets to protest police brutality.
In her comments, Dr. Theresa Tam advised protesters to wear masks and not shout if they wish to attend the events.
“Of course, wearing a mask is important, but shouting and making really loud projections can potentially increase the risk.”
“One might want to choose other means of showing or messaging, whether its to be signage or making noise using other instruments for example. Just to consider that shouting and that type of behaviour can potentially project more droplets,” said Tam.
George Floyd died on May 25 after videos emerged of a police officer pinning him to the ground and allegedly suffocating him.
Since his death, violent riots have ransacked several American cities including Washington, D.C.
Protests in Montreal took a violent turn over the weekend when rioters smashed and looted businesses in the city’s core.
Throughout the protest, gangs of masked looters set fire to Montreal’s streets and broke into businesses.
Police eventually arrived on the scene and confronted the rioters who threw rocks and projectiles at the men and women in uniform.
After the protest was over, 11 people were arrested due to the night’s events.
A Conservative motion to try and stop Chinese state-owned firms from buying vulnerable Canadian business has been passed by a parliamentary committee.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the House of Commons industry committee voted 6-4 on Monday to review the 1985 Investment Canada Act to determine if the government can stop China from buying Canadian firms.
“We’re running out of time,” said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, the sponsor of the motion.
“How many companies could be affected by this issue, and in what industries?”
Rempel Garner and the Conservatives are afraid that firms that have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic may be an easy way for Chinese firms to buy strategic assets in Canada.
The Chinese government has approximately $3 trillion in foreign currency reserves.
The motion was supported by the Conservatives, NDP and the Bloc, with only Liberal MPs of the committee voting against it.
The motion says that the government will “determine the extent to which companies within strategic Canadian industries have been devalued as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and the extent to which foreign buyouts may occur; determine whether the current Act valuation thresholds are adequate to trigger a net benefit review given the potential extreme devaluation of companies within strategic Canadian industries; and determine whether Canada should place a temporary moratorium on acquisitions from state-owned enterprises of authoritarian countries.”
“We can bang this out fairly quickly,” said MP Rempel Garner.
“The goal would be expediency, given that I would think these transactions are being looked at right now.”
Several Chinese state-owned firms have been given access to Canada’s markets in recent years. In December a Chinese state-owned firm was given permission to explore for oil off the coast of Newfoundland. In May another state-owned firm bought a gold mining company in Nunavut.
A recent Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report warned that allowing firms owned by foreign countries to invest in Canada poses a major security threat.
“Corporate acquisitions by these entities pose potential risks related to vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, control over strategic sectors, espionage and foreign influenced activities, and illegal transfer of technology and expertise,” the report reads.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to limit the liability protections enjoyed by social media companies – a move heralded by the right as a blow to Big Tech censorship, and derided by the left as being an attack on free speech.
True North’s Andrew Lawton says a lot of people on the right take a hypocritical approach to government regulation when it comes to social media companies. Author and Reason.com senior editor Robby Soave joins the show to discuss.
While Twitter has been unfairly targeting US President Donald Trump’s tweets, it has continued to allow dangerous international actors to remain on the platform free of any harassment.
Various reports show that Twitter has been slow to remove anti-Semitic individuals and Islamist entities from its platform.
This weak-kneed approach has allowed hate directed towards the Jewish community and other minority groups to fester online.
Only until recently did Twitter remove the propaganda accounts of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The company only did so after a bipartisan group of U.S representatives slammed the country for allowing them to continue to operate.
However, several actors that pose a threat to international stability continue to have a presence where they can continue to spread their hatred and recruit those willing to listen.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has overseen the oppression and subjugation of the Iranian people under an evil Islamist doctrine.
While in power, Amnesty International accused his regime of committing crimes against humanity for hiding the fate of thousands of political dissidents secretly executed in Iranian prisons.
On his Twitter account, Khamenei has referred to Israel as a “malignant and cancerous tumor” that must be “eradicated.”
Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. #Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen. 7/31/91#GreatReturnMarch
Khameini’s regime has continued to imprison human rights activists and to crack down on protests. His regime has also been responsible for destabilizing international relations and the middle east.
Most recently, Iran admitted to shooting down a Ukrainian airliner carrying dozens of Canadian citizens and continues to hide the truth from the world by hampering an investigation into the incident.
Despite Khameini’s horrid abuses, Twitter continues to allow the theocratic dictator a presence on its platform.
Louis Farrakhan
Twitter has allowed hate preacher Louis Farrakhan to hold onto his Twitter account despite using his platform to spread vile anti-Semitic statements.
In a disgusting 2018 tweet, Farrakhan who heads the black nationalist “Nation of Islam” church, he compared Jewish people to “termites.”
Despite the clear anti-Semitic nature of the tweet, it took Twitter nearly a year to erase the tweet after continuously claiming that it did not break the company’s guidelines.
Only in 2019 did Twitter remove the tweet after updating its guidelines to include “language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion.”
Although the one tweet was removed, Farrakhan continues to have access to his Twitter account where he continues to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to over 337,000 followers.
In one tweet from Mar 7, 2018, Farrakhan spread the conspiracy that “Jews have control over” US government agencies like the FBI.
The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement. The Jews have control over those agencies of government. #Farrakhanpic.twitter.com/DXKCRr1zpo
— THE HONORABLE MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN (@LouisFarrakhan) March 7, 2018
President of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov
Islamist Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov has leveraged social media accounts to spread a cult of personality.
After being banned from Instagram, he has utilized Twitter to spread his propaganda.
Under his reign, journalists and civil rights activists are being killed. His regime has also committed horrid abuses against homosexuals and the LGBT community including having them imprisoned and tortured.
Kadyrov has also made anti-Semitic statements in the past including calling Jewish people “the main enemies of Islam.”
Despite being sanctioned internationally and being kicked off Instagram and Facebook, Twitter has yet to remove the dictator from its platform.
Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif
Alongside Khamenei, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif has continued to operate on the Islamist regime’s behalf.
Zarif has shrugged off Iran’s human rights abuses. When he was asked about the detention of Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian who was convicted of false espionage charges in a closed-door trial in 2015, he falsely claimed that Iran did not imprison people for having the wrong opinions.
Iran’s foreign minister had also met with the terrorist leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah in 2019 who praised Zarif for fighting against “Zionist aggression.”
White Supremacist David Duke
Notorious white supremacist and anti-Semite David Duke has amassed a considerable following on Twitter while spreading conspiracy theories and hate.
Duke’s tweets have targeted the Jewish community in various ways, including spreading the anti-Semitic trope that Jews control the US government.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer numerous American cities have been besieged by riots and looting, and in some cases set ablaze. At the same time, dozens of cities have played home to peaceful protests. True North’s Andrew Lawton talks about this from all angles, and asks what’s next.
Also, the federal government is polling on whether getting a coronavirus vaccine is one’s “civic duty,” and Reason senior editor Robby Soave joins to discuss big tech censorship and why government regulation is not the answer.
Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld, who has previously caused a stir for speaking out against the SOGI 123 sex ed curriculum in BC, is back in the news. After he wrote a Facebook post criticizing the World Health Organization and Dr. Theresa Tam, his colleagues moved to censure him and try to get him to resign, just as they did a couple years ago.
But Barry Neufeld is a democratically elected school trustee – why are bureaucratic officials trying to undo democracy just because they didn’t like his Facebook post?
Construction work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project began in BC earlier today.
According to the project website, workers began installing a 7km section in Kamloops on Monday morning.
“The start of pipeline construction in Kamloops, British Columbia is another key milestone for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project – it is good news for workers in the region and an important step forward on the path to building this critical piece of infrastructure,” said Trans Mountain CEO and President Ian Anderson.
Up to 50 people will be working on the project in the early phases. In the later phases of construction, it is expected to employ 600 people in the region.
Trans Mountain says that workers will be screened for coronavirus symptoms before entering the work site.
“Construction spending in the Kamloops area is expected to be more than $450 million over the next two years with additional workforce spending of more than $40 million for goods and services at local businesses. After expansion, Trans Mountain’s annual contribution to the City of Kamloops in taxes will increase by $1.2 million to $2.8 million,” stated a news release.
The pipeline expansion project, which was approved by the Trudeau government last year, required agreements with indigenous peoples in the region.
The local Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc are expected to benefit through “significant” employment and business opportunities, according to Trans Mountain.
In March, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed five challenges from various BC groups against the pipeline.
The challenges, which were brought on by the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, B.C. Nature, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and a group of young climate activists, were turned down by the Federal Court of Appeal in 2019.
