True North

The Liberal government tossed millions of N95 masks into the trash last May, along with other protective gear. 

According to the CBC, 2 million highly sought after N95 masks and 440,000 medical gloves were disposed of after shutting down an emergency stockpile in Regina. 

The Public Health Agency of Canada told the CBC that the masks, which were acquired in 2009, “had passed the limit of five years for their use, as recommended by the manufacturer.”

Today both provincial and federal governments have been scrounging for scarce personal protective gear while frontline healthcare workers are forced to ration due to a nation-wide shortage. 

N95 masks offer some of the highest levels of protection against contagious airborne viruses. 

The masks and gloves were part of Canada’s National Emergency Strategic Stockpile (NESS) system which acts as a last resort supply of medical equipment in the case of emergencies. 

After disposing of the equipment, the NESS warehouse was never refilled with new gear but was instead closed.

Joe Audette, a dumpster bin business owner, says he was asked by the NESS to bid on a contract to dispose of the gear with the largest containers he had. 

“That would have been the biggest order I’d ever seen. So that’s why it’s so memorable,” Audette told the CBC. 

“Such a shame. Those are literally rotting under dirt right now. I try not to think about it, because it’s crazy.”

Critics have accused the Liberal government of mismanaging and neglecting Canada’s emergency stockpile after it was revealed that Global Affairs Canada sent 16 tonnes of protective gear to China in February, months before Canada needed the very same supplies. 

Executive Director of the Public Health Association Ian Culbert called the government’s handling of the stockpile its “largest failure” when testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health earlier in April. 

“I would say the national emergency stockpile is probably the largest failure as far as our response goes to date,” said Culbert.

Trillium Health Partners (THP) has confirmed that 73 staff and physicians have tested positive for the coronavirus.

THP operates three hospitals and health centres in the Mississauga region including Queensway Health Centre, Mississauga Hospital and Credit Valley Hospital.  

True North reached out to THP to ask how many cases were at each hospital but were not provided with a breakdown. 

“I don’t have a breakdown per hospital, but to date, 73 THP staff and physicians have tested positive for COVID-19,” said THP’s Senior Communications Advisor Keeley Rogers. 

“Trillium Health Partners is one of the largest community hospitals in Canada with over 1,300 beds across our three main sites: Queensway Health Centre, Credit Valley Hospital and Mississauga Hospital. This number encompasses all our sites and off site locations.” 

According to Rogers, to date no staff have died as a result of contracting the coronavirus.

As reported exclusively by True North, hospital staff in charge of transporting COVID-19 test samples at Credit Valley were allegedly told by THP Manager of Infection Prevention and Control Jackie Nugent that they did not need extra personal protective equipment when handling the samples. 

“I don’t know how you do your laundry. But the reality is that the hospital does not need to provide specific PPE for this. For example, a nurse that is actually in direct contact with all patients. That nurse is going home and washing her uniform. There’s no change in how we are actually wearing our regular clothing but again if you are in direct contact then we wear the appropriate PPE,” Nugent told a transport employee during a March 13 conference call.

Recordings also reveal Nugent telling an employee that the coronavirus was “no different than any other virus” and required the same prevention measures as the seasonal influenza. 

“The coronavirus is not a virus by which for example we’re given any special directions. So it’s no different than any other virus you’ve actually been working with every day that you’ve been coming in since,” Nugent told the employee.  

“Where we were using enhanced precautions, we’re actually using the appropriate precautions now which is simply droplet contact precautions which is the same as what we would use for influenza.”

In another recording from the hospital taken on the same day, staff were informed during a meeting that Canada was “not in a pandemic.” 

“We’re not in a pandemic. Other countries are because they don’t have the healthcare that you do,” an unidentified employee told hospital staff.
According to the official THP website, both Credit Valley and Mississauga Hospital have multiple units that are currently experiencing a coronavirus outbreak.

Over 100 politicians, world leaders and academics have banded together to sign an open letter condemning the Communist Party of China (CCP) for covering up the coronavirus crisis in its early stages. 

The letter, published in English and Chinese, was released on April 14 by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) and included the signatures of MPs from the UK, Australia, and Estonia. 

No sitting Canadian MP signed the letter, though former Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler was included as a signatory.

The document calls the coronavirus crisis “China’s Chernobyl moment” and blasts the World Health Organization for parroting the communist party’s false claims about the virus. 

“The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organisation first downplayed the pandemic,” stated the letter.  

“Taiwanese health officials also allege that they ignored their alerts of human-to-human transmission in late December. Under pressure from the CCP, democratic Taiwan—which has coped with the pandemic in exemplary fashion—is excluded from the WHO.”

The letter goes on to accuse Xi Jinping of failing as a leader and unduly punishing Chinese citizens who risked their lives to tell the world the truth about COVID-19. 

According to the MLI, the statement was in response to a similar letter written by supporters of the Chinese regime accusing those critical of the CCP of “politicizing” the pandemic. 

“The open letter by these leading China watchers and concerned political leaders responds to another open letter released by a group of China-based establishment academics who accused critical voices of “politicizing” the COVID-19 pandemic. This narrative has also been frequently repeated by CCP government official spokespeople, and also, recently, by the head of the WHO,” wrote MLI’s Communications and Digital Media Manager Brett Byers. 

From early on in the outbreak, China downplayed the extent and nature of the virus, even going so far as claiming that there was no human-to-human transmission. 

The WHO repeated these false claims to the world in January, months before it would go on to claim that the coronavirus constituted a global pandemic. 

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was free to visit Harrington Lake over Easter weekend, police are cracking down on ordinary Canadians crossing between the Ontario-Quebec border. 

According to the Toronto Sun, West Quebec police have installed several checkpoints along the provincial border and are barring anybody from passing through without good reason. 

Over the weekend, Canadians were taken aback after photographs were published online of the Prime Minister and his family at their Harrington Lake residence in Quebec.

Prior to the trip, Trudeau was based in Ottawa, and a current Quebec ministerial order bars any access to the Outaouais region, where the cottage is located. 

Health officials have asked Canadians to spend their holidays at home and avoid visiting their cottages this spring. 

“#COVID time is NOT #cottage time – #StayHome and resist the urge to head to the #cottage or a rural setting, Don’t add further strain on communities with less capacity to manage #COVID19,” tweeted Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam. 

Even Trudeau himself published a tweet on March 21, telling people to practice social distancing and remain at home. 

When questioned about the trip, Trudeau defended the decision to ignore the advice of health officials and travel from Ontario to Quebec.

“After three weeks of my family living up at Harrington, and me living here, I went to join them for Easter,” Trudeau claimed on Tuesday.

“We continue to follow all the instructions of public health authorities.”

Shortly after, the CBC published an article condemning Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer for similarly flouting public health advice after flying to the capital on a full 9-seat flight with his wife and five children, alongside Liberal cabinet minister Carla Qualtrough and Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Both Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau violated social distancing rules enforced by Public Health.

On April 14th, Scheer was grilled by the media. The mainstream media demanded answers – how could Scheer be so reckless? How dare Scheer violate the government’s rules?

On the same day, during Trudeau’s daily coronavirus update, the media pretended like Trudeau did nothing wrong.

The mainstream media: holding the opposition to account since 2015.

Rather than wait for Health Canada to “play catchup,” Alberta will start using coronavirus treatments currently being used in other countries.

On CBC’s Power & Politics, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said that the province will seek out coronavirus treatments that have been approved in other Western countries.

“We’re not going to wait for Health Canada to play catchup with for example the European Union’s drug regulator or the Food and Drug Administration in the United States,” Kenney said.

“The direction I have given our officials is that if we see a highly credible regulator of medications in a peer jurisdiction like the European Union, Australia or the United States, that has approved a test, or a vaccine, or medication, we should pursue that.”

Kenney also criticized Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam who recently said that the government is suspicious of some of the tests and treatments approved by other countries. 

“This is the same Dr. Tam who is telling us that we shouldn’t close our borders to countries with high levels of infection and who in January was repeating talking points out of the [People’s Republic of China] about the no evidence of human-to-human transmission,” he said.

Canada’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was delayed compared to many countries, with Dr. Tam’s early advice conflicting with the reality of the virus.

In January, Dr. Tam said that Canada should follow the advice of the World Health Organization and not implement any travel bans. It wasn’t until three weeks later that the Trudeau government issued a travel ban.

Kenney added that countries that closed their borders early on such as Taiwan and Singapore have had a significantly lower rate of infections than other countries.

Alberta has seen a less serious coronavirus outbreak compared to other provinces, which Kenney attributes to the following of health orders and social distancing.

Confident in the province’s ability to cope with the coronavirus, the Alberta government pledged its excess ventilators and personal protective equipment to provinces that are facing more serious outbreaks.