We’re still unsure how hard the coronavirus will hit Canada, but one thing is for sure – there are going to be profound changes to the economy and geopolitics.
Activists and opportunists know that now, during times of uncertainty, is the ideal time to push their ideology. Will it work? Only time will tell.
True North’s Anthony Furey explains in his latest video.
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Canada reaches an agreement with the US to send back those who cross the border illegally to seek asylum. Should Canadians be skeptical? Why did it take so long for the Trudeau government to do this?
Does Canada have enough medical supplies to deal with COVID-19?Why is it so hard to get tested for this deadly disease?
Tune into the True North Update with Candice Malcolm and Andrew Lawton for the latest news on COVID-19!
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Canada has reached an agreement with the United States to send back those who cross the border illegally to seek asylum.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday morning, hours before the Canada-United States border is slated to close for non-essential travel.
“Today, Canada and the United States are announcing a reciprocal arrangement where we will now be returning irregular migrants who attempt to cross anywhere at the Canada-US border,” Trudeau told reporters.
The directive is in effect only for those entering Canada illegally from this point forward. Those who came in prior to the announcement will be processed as normal, though they are supposed to be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
This is a “temporary measure” that will be in effect as Canada grapples with COVID-19, Trudeau said.
On Wednesday Canada and the United States agreed to close their mutual border to non-essential travel effective Friday night. The decision will affect those crossing for tourism and pleasure.
The original announcement failed to place restrictions on illegal border crossers.
Earlier in the week, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair indicated illegal border crossers would continue to be accepted as they had been prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, though with added medical screening and mandatory quarantine.
As of Thursday, these quarantine measures were not yet in place, the government said.
The Customs and Immigration Union president said around 80 people illegally crossed into Canada at Roxham Rd. each day over the past week, up from 50 to 60 two weeks earlier.
What a bizarre week in Canadian politics.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in self-imposed quarantine because his wife Sophie was being symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19. She was in London last week attending a conference and got infected.
Yet, Trudeau finally awoke from his slumber and declared in a press conference from his home at Rideau Cottage that Canada was closed to all except Canadians and permanent residents. He said that order did not include Americans.
The following day, that all changed when Trudeau and President Trump declared that the border between our two nations would be closed to all but essential travel, which includes cross-border trade. Evidently, President Trump had some different thoughts about keeping his nation safe in the face of a global pandemic.
The following day, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair held a press conference in which he misled the assembled media who were asking about the illegal border crossing used by over 50,000 refugee claimants at Roxham Road and whether that would finally be closed as a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement.
Blair said it would not, but that persons crossing into Canada from the U.S. were screened and if they showed any symptoms of COVID-19 they were quarantined for two weeks before entering the refugee claim program.
Well, that was too much for the head of the union for Canadian Border Services Agency personnel, Jean-Pierre (JP) Fortin was quoted in the Montreal Gazette saying this was not the case.
It was left to the Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to try and clean up the mess at yet another press conference when she said that they were not yet being quarantined but officials were looking for a quarantine solution.
Freeland said that starting Friday, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino would begin searching for a location to quarantine the asylum claimants for at least 14 days.
Translation: as soon as a location is found in close proximity to the “temporary” facility built to house RCMP and CBSA screeners who act as Walmart greeters to migrants ignoring our law and crossing the border illegally and then claiming refugee status, several more million taxpayer dollars will be spent to construct something. And then several million more to staff it.
The Liberals are trying to change the English language and not call the migrants illegal immigrants but rather “irregular” immigrants.
Technically, it is illegal for anyone to enter this country at any location other than a designated Point of Entry (POE). It is an offence under the Customs Act. But, even if the RCMP say they are under arrest, as soon as they utter the words claiming refugee status, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act kicks in and they are not subject to any prosecution for the original transgression of entering the country illegally.
Seriously.
What is lost in all of this is that by tweeting out an open invitation to the world’s migrants, Trudeau created a new avenue for organized crime to traffic in people from third world countries and bring them to Canada. And then our generous system kicks in and we provide them with accommodation, welfare and free healthcare.
A good deal if you can get it I suppose.
I am told the cost to the Canadian taxpayer is at least $50,000 per year, per refugee.
And why are we doing all of this?
According to the government’s response to the 2019 Auditor General’s report critical of the government’s handling of the refugee situation, “We are also tackling the root causes of international irregular migration. Canada has led the way on the Global Compact on Migration, which will allow the international community to collaborate in helping resolve some of the underlying issues that force people to leave their home.”
Ah yes, because we must do what the United Nations says.
What a bunch of bureaucratic pablum. But it seems this whole week has been full of all of that and a whole lot of untruths by the Prime Minister and several ministers of the Crown.
This whole situation is shameful really, but it won’t change anytime soon despite the claim by the Prime Minister that he is closing our borders to non-Canadians. To also close the illegal crossing at Roxham Road would be easy, but Trudeau would have to admit that he has been wrong all along.
Update — This morning, the Prime Minister announced people crossing the border illegally would be returned where they came from.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said publicly that Quebec couldn’t handle any more illegal border crossers and the federal government would have to assume the responsibility for the quarantining of anyone illegally crossing the border at Roxham Road from upstate New York into Quebec.
It seems the one thing that can convince the Prime Minister to move off his foolish nonsense is pushback from Quebec.
Remarkable.
China will stop at nothing to shirk responsibility for unleashing a deadly pandemic upon the world.
As part of their latest propaganda campaign, a senior Chinese diplomat tweeted an article from a Canadian conspiracy theory website that falsely accuses the US of creating COVID-19.
On March 12, the spokesperson and Deputy Director General of China’s Information Department and Foreign Ministry Lijan Zhao shared an article posted on the website Global Research titled “COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.”
The Montreal-based website Global Research was once investigated by NATO for spreading conspiracy theories, misinformation and pro-Russian propaganda.
According to a 2017 report by the Globe and Mail, NATO’s information warfare arm StratCom investigated the website for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda with the intention of whittling away the credibility of Western democratic institutions.
While NATO did not have proof that Global Research was in any way connected to a foreign government, they concluded that the website did contribute to legitimizing pro-Russia and pro-Bashar Al-Assad messaging following the Syrian chemical weapons attack in 2017.
The website has also published content suggesting that the 9/11 terror attacks were orchestrated by the CIA.
Global Research is published and edited by University of Ottawa Professor Emeritus of Economics Michel Chossudovsky.
The article shared by Lijan dubiously claims that the COVID-19 virus did not originate in Wuhan, China, but escaped a US military bio-lab located in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
“Not only did the virus not originate at the seafood market, it did not originate in Wuhan at all, and it has now been proven that it did not originate in China but was brought to China from another country,” claims the piece authored by Larry Romanoff.
Despite claims in the article, health experts from around the world agree that COVID-19 likely originated in a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan.
“Early on, many of the patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had some link to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread,” writes the CDC.
According to his biography, Romanoff, who is a frequent contributor to the website, is a Chinese resident and a “visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University.”
Articles written by Romanoff date back to September 24, 2019 with his first piece on the website defending communist China’s actions during the brutal Tiananmen Square massacre.
“When police or military are attacked in this way, they will surely use force to defend themselves and cannot be faulted for that. If you or I were the military commander on the scene, watching our men being attacked and burned to death, we would have done the same. From everything I know, I can find no fault here,” wrote Romanoff.
More recent articles by Romanoff continuously imply that the US is to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic. One article from February 24 linked to a Japanese TV broadcast making such allegations.
True North reached out to both Romanoff and Chossudovsky for comment but did not receive a response.
US President Donald Trump has hit back at the baseless claims tracing the virus back to the US by emphasizing its Chinese origin.
“China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave this to them. That was false. And rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China. So, I think it’s a very accurate term,” said Trump.
I’m baffled and disappointed that I even need to write this column, frankly.
If Canada were in the midst of a federal election right now, I have no doubt the campaigns would be suspended given the global public health crisis that COVID-19 is causing.
But for the Conservative Party of Canada, things are supposed to be business as usual.
The eight people seeking the Conservative leadership have until March 25 to pony up $300,000 and 3,000 signatures of active members to the party to secure a spot on the ballot. So far only four – Peter MacKay, Erin O’Toole, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan – have done so. (A fifth, Jim Karahalios, says he has done so but the Conservative party’s official registry doesn’t yet reflect this).
The others were plugging away raising funds and collecting signatures at events across the country but have suspended these activities while public officials recommend – or in some cases order – social distancing.
Retail politics is all about face-to-face interactions, which are, at this point, verboten in Canada. It isn’t just about logistics. People are hurting, and to shift priorities from survival to partisanship is just wrong.
The Conservative’s leadership election organizing committee is unmoved by this.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Canada sent out a fundraising email this week derided by the party’s own supporters as tone-deaf and ill-timed.
Going dark is easy for the candidates who have already guaranteed their spots on the ballot. For the others, human decency may be rewarded with elimination from the race.
Leadership candidate Rick Peterson halted fundraising but made phone and social media appeals for nomination signatures. Most campaigns shifted into virtual mode, while some were suspended altogether.
“I still fundamentally believe now is not the time to campaign, virtually or by other means,” said leadership candidate Rudy Husny in a statement Thursday.
“If the Conservative Party of Canada wants to disqualify me on March 25th for being true to my values and refusing to campaign during this public health emergency, I will leave this race with no regrets as I believe it is the right thing to do and what real leadership is all about.”
Sarnia––Lambton member of parliament and leadership candidate Marilyn Gladu expressed a similar sentiment.
“If the Conservative Party chooses to disqualify me on March 25th because I refuse to impose upon Canadians working to ensure the health and safety of their loved ones, I will accept their decision with resignation and disappointment,” she said.
The Conservative party’s leadership committee deliberately set a high bar for entering the race. Whether the remaining four candidates would have cleared it without COVID-19 throwing a wrench into things is unknown.
Even so, those who would have merely squeaked by have been handicapped by rules that no longer reflect the circumstances of the country.
While there are those who say the lesser-known candidates aren’t relevant in a so-called two-horse race, in a contest decided by ranked ballots a bigger field can have a monumental impact.
We don’t know how long COVID-19 and its quarantines and public gathering limitations will last. It may be that the Conservatives’ planned leadership convention in June will have to be cancelled. It’s possible to crown a leader without a convention given ballots are being mailed to Conservative members. It’s possible to retain the race’s overall timeline while merely extending the ballot deadline by a few weeks.
Alternatively, the party could cancel the June convention and instead combine it with November’s scheduled policy convention. Whatever the solution might be, don’t believe anyone who says there aren’t options.
All of them are better than encouraging candidates to shake loose change out of the pockets of Canadians grappling with the coronavirus’s economic realities.
The party is out of alignment with its members here. As part of True North’s Conservative Leadership Series, I sat down with four of the candidates last week, before the country went into de facto lockdown.
While our audience is seeking COVID-19 coverage, I admit it felt weird to publish these interviews as we’ve been doing since they were recorded.
I would have loved to keep them banked until the worst of this crisis was behind us, though with the party maintaining its Mar. 25 cutoff, it would be unfair to the candidates to deny them access to our audience, even if the country’s attention is elsewhere.
Some things matter more than politics. Everyone except for the Conservative Party of Canada realizes COVID-19 is one of these things.
This column was edited to reflect a change in Derek Sloan’s status in the leadership race, which was announced after publication.
China Virus, Kung Flu or COVID-19, what should we call it?
China’s evil acts, Trudeau’s missteps, the gamble to shut down the global economy and authoritarian elites cracking down on freedom.
True North’s Candice Malcolm hosts The Candice Malcolm Show from self-quarantine. Tune in now!
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The federal government has yet to find a place to quarantine illegal border crossers despite assurances from Public Safety Minister Bill Blair that they would be screened for COVID-19 and held in isolation.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday that starting tomorrow, Canada’s Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino will begin searching for a location to quarantine the asylum claimants for a period of 14 days.
“We have decided and specifically Minister Mendocino has taken on the responsibility beginning tomorrow of finding places where the irregular border crossers who cross the border at Roxham Rd. and who like everyone else who comes into Canada need to self-isolate for 14 days, we are going to provide a place where that can happen,” said Freeland.
Freeland’s announcement contradicts Blair’s earlier claims that “special arrangements” were already underway.
“The measures that are currently in place is that those individuals are immediately taken into custody by the RCMP, they are screened thoroughly by our border officers. This process takes about 24 hours and they are now also being screened for any evidence of symptoms and question about where they have been,” said Blair on Tuesday.
“Because of the need for the 14-day isolation, we are now making separate arrangements for those individuals to be placed in appropriate shelters in order to accommodate the requirement for the period of isolation.
This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced travel restrictions that would prohibit non-citizens from entering the country, with the exception of US citizens and relatives of Canadians or permanent residents.
In mutual agreement with the US, Canada shut its southern border to non-essential travel, although the government announced that it would permit illegal crossings to continue.
According to Customs and Immigration Union president Jean-Pierre Fortin, the asylum claimants were not being subjected to the mandatory quarantine procedures announced by the government as of Wednesday.
It remains unclear where the illegal border crossers have been held since the government announced the new measures.
As reported exclusively by True North, Canadians were only informed that the border would remain open to the asylum claimants after the RCMP notified a pro-asylum activist group about the decision.
Prime Minister Trudeau announced this morning that the Canada-U.S. border will likely shut by this weekend, but there’s so many questions that the government hasn’t answered yet.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland confirms that illegal border crossers are not being quarantined.
When can Canadians expect to see their share of the COVID-19 $82 billion aid program? Will this program even work?
Tune in to the True North Update with Candice Malcolm and Andrew Lawton for the latest news on COVID-19!
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The COVID-19 pandemic could have been significantly reduced had China acted against the virus sooner, according to a report by researchers out of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
Researchers used population mapping to determine that had China begun quarantine measures three weeks earlier, the COVID-19 outbreak would have been reduced by 95%.
Dr. Shengjie Lai said that the study proves that quick action by China would have made the global outbreak much more manageable.
“Our study demonstrates how important it is for countries which are facing an imminent outbreak to proactively plan a coordinated response which swiftly tackles the spread of the disease on a number of fronts,” he wrote.
“We also show that China’s comprehensive response, in a relatively short period, greatly reduced the potential health impact of the outbreak.”
Given how fast COVID-19 spreads, the report found that if quarantine efforts began even one week earlier the pandemic would have been reduced by 66%.
As of Thursday, there are over 230,000 cases of COVID-19 around the world and nearly 10,000 deaths.
In Canada, there have been 733 cases with 9 deaths so far.
After China downplayed the seriousness of the new virus for several weeks, COVID-19 became a global concern following a rapid rise in cases outside of China, particularly Iran and Italy.
Last week it was revealed that the first known case of COVID-19 has been traced back to November 17, 2019, two weeks earlier than China originally claimed.
As late as January 11, health authorities in Wuhan were claiming there were only 41 confirmed cases, despite the real number being in the hundreds. Shortly after, China began large-scale quarantines in affected areas, forcing over 11 million people to stay in their homes.
Even after COVID-19 was found in Canada, the Canadian government shipped 16 tons of medical equipment to China, potentially causing a shortage of key medical goods at home.
The Chinese ambassador to Canada would later say that Canada’s assistance would not help Canada mend its strained relationship with the communist regime.
On Thursday China reported no new cases of COVID-19 in that country for the first time since the pandemic began, meanwhile, new cases in Canada continue to grow by double-digits daily.