As Italy goes on a national lockdown, Air Canada has suspended flights to and from the country, effective Wednesday.
The carrier made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, noting the last flight to Italy will depart from Toronto for Rome Tuesday evening, with the final flight from Italy landing in Montreal Wednesday.
Passengers affected by the disruption will be offered other options, including full refunds.
Italy has reported over 10,000 cases of COVID-19, with the number of deaths rising to 631.
International airlines have implemented several changes to their operations in response to the threat posed by the virus’ spread.
Both WestJet and Air Canada recently announced they would be waiving flight change fees for some flights.
According to official government figures, 79 people have been infected with the virus in Canada, with the first death being reported earlier this week in British Columbia.
Even before Teck Resources’ abandonment of its multibillion-dollar mining project, companies have been second-guessing investing in the industry, a new report from the Fraser Institute says.
“For the first time in 10 years, no Canadian jurisdiction ranks in the top 10 for ‘investment attractiveness’ according to mining executives and investors,” the Fraser Institute said in a news release.
The survey took into account the public policy landscape including environmental regulation and territorial disputes to rank over 80 global mining regions.
In 2018, four Canadian provinces and territories – Quebec, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and Yukon – sat comfortably among the top 10 regions, with Saskatchewan placing number one.
Saskatchewan dropped to 3rd place last year but is now sitting at 11th. Quebec saw one of the largest drops, falling from 4th place last year to 18th this year.
The report attributes this decline to “uncertainty.”
“Policy and regulatory uncertainty is escalating across the country. This should be a serious concern for policymakers,” said senior policy analyst Ashley Stedman.
Globally, Canada dropped down to third place from first place and was replaced by Europe as the world’s top mining destination.
The five most attractive areas for mining this year were western Australia, Finland, Nevada, Alaska and Portugal.
The policy areas pointed to as barriers for investment included “the unpredictability of the Trans Mountain project” in BC and “unclear” Indigenous consultation requirements in Manitoba.
After the survey was conducted, Teck Resources pulled its $20.6-billion Frontier mining bid due to Canada’s ongoing clash between environmental regulation and resource development.
The project which could have employed 7,000 people during construction and another 2,500 during its operations was expected to generate $70 billion in tax revenue for the federal government.
The organizing committee for the 25th Pentecostal World Conference had been planning their event for over three years and were expecting over 3000 attendees in Calgary from August 27-30, 2019.
One-third of the delegates were expected to come from outside of Canada: the conference was to host pastors, youth leaders, women’s leaders, and other church officials from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Denmark, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and a handful of other nations.
However, True North has obtained documents through the Access to Information Act showing that 599 international conference invitees were denied visitor visas, while only 250 were approved. 30 applications were left pending, with no final decision made in time for the conference.
In one of the emails obtained by True North, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) manager called the Pentecostal conference a “problematic event.”
The triennial World Pentecostal Conference has been held in various locations all around the world over the past 70 years – in 2016, it was held in Brazil, and in 2022, it will be taking place in India.
The conference was designated as an official Canadian tourist event in 2019. Delegates were able to apply for visas using a special government-designated code, “Pent19,” and were given formal Letters of Invitation from the conference organizing committee.
Nevertheless, delegates were subject to mass visa refusals, with most of the refusals being doled out to individuals from two particular countries: Nigeria and Ghana.
“IRCC confirmed that the number of refusals is consistent with the current refusal rate for the countries in question (Nigeria 72% Ghana 52%),” said one email.
The Pentecostal conference’s social media pages became home to comments with messages such as “Canada embassy refused to give me visa. I did present all legal documents including invitation letter from 25 PWC,” and “Next time hold [the conference] in a country which doesnt deny people.visas unlike Canada!!!…… Many of us 3rd world delgates [sic] who had booked for the conference were denied visas for very flimsy reasons … We felt hurt after preparing & anticipating for over 3 years.”
What were the reasons for refusal?
Often, IRCC officials stated they were not convinced that the conference-goers had sufficient financial savings to support their stay in Canada.
One individual designated as a conference VIP was unable to attend after an IRCC officer deemed they were “was not satisfied there are sufficient funds for this applicant to meet his needs in Canada and secure his return transportation.”
Another oft-cited reason for visa refusal was concern that the conference-goer had family ties in Canada and might not leave the country.
“When the denial is because of their family ties in Canada…I have yet to find one person who; when given this reason as why they have been denied actually have ANY FAMILY in Canada…They feel [IRCC] is making up information,” wrote one Pentecostal conference organizer in their correspondence with IRCC.
Another applicant was not only denied a visitor visa but received a five-year ban from applying to Canada on the basis of “misrepresentation.”
Some conference invitees were refused on the basis of not paying their visa application fees, but many of those invitees had indeed paid, so their applications were in turn approved after IRCC officials realized they had erred.
“Please understand we as an organization do fully believe in protecting our boarders [sic]…but protecting our boarder [sic] does not mean we should also keep out the good people who should be allowed to come to our country” wrote a Pentecostal official to the IRCC.
Pentecostal officials told the IRCC it was “disgraceful and disrespectful” that top leaders of international churches were refused visas.
In their internal emails, IRCC staff members referenced a similar situation wherein many African delegates to the 2019 Women Deliver conference in Vancouver were denied Canadian visas.
In April 2019, a Nigerian woman named Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi took to Twitter to express her frustration at not being granted a temporary resident visa to the Women Deliver conference taking place in June.
“I am a [2019] Women Deliver fellow scheduled to be in Vancouver in June & the organizers sent all the documents required for visa application. I applied for a Canadian visa & I was denied on the account that they were not sure I’d return to my country,” Osowobi posted on Twitter. “Then, we found out that EVERY [2019] Nigerian WD young leader was denied visa by the Canadian Immigration. Our application probably was not reviewed based on merit but on nationality. Why?”
After her tweet was retweeted dozens of times, Osobowi and her colleagues were all granted visas.
Another case of visitor visa refusals made international news in December 2019, when the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) conference in Vancouver reported that 30 of their invitees were denied visas, mostly from African countries.
The conference had run into visa troubles the previous year as well: more than 100 attendees were denied visas when the conference was held in Montreal in 2018.
After the 2019 NeurIPS conference officials raised their concerns with IRCC, half of the denials were overturned.
It appears that the IRCC’s unofficial visitor visa policy is to deny as many visitor visas as possible, but backtrack and reverse some of the refusals once they are called out. And no matter whether a conference is religious, feminist, or academic in nature, Africans are having a tougher time obtaining visas to attend international conferences in Canada.
According to 2018 data, the average visitor visa approval rate for all countries is 70%, but for African nations, it is 52%.
True North reached out to the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada for comment but did not receive a response in time for this article’s publication.
True North also reached out to IRCC but did not receive a response to the questions asked.
A train derailment in a southern Alberta hamlet has forced residents to flee their homes.
The evacuation was ordered after a CN train collided with a B-Train propane truck in Swalwell, a community of little more than 100 people, 75 km northeast of Calgary.
A state of emergency was declared and the hamlet’s residents removed. Nothing from the train’s intermodal containers spilled.
“Propane vessels have been impacted as a result of the train incident. At this time we don’t know the severity of the leak, but due to the nature of the product, every precaution is being taken. Fire crews and CN Police are on scene,” Kneehill County said in a statement.
“There has been an incident involving a train within the community of Swalwell. An evacuation is in progress for residents of Swalwell. Fire Department personnel will be going door to door to ensure residents vacate.”
Residents were told to register at the Prairie Bible Institute Cafeteria in nearby Three Hills and had to stay away from their homes overnight.
By Tuesday morning Kneehill County said crews had worked through the night to remove the crashed vehicles.
“As of 3:00 a.m., the train involved in the incident was cleared from the scene. One of the impacted propane vessels has been repaired, the product has been offloaded, and is now awaiting transportation,” a spokesperson said.
“The remaining propane vessel will be uprighted this morning, and reassessed for potential risks.”
Evacuation orders remain in place until further notice.
This is the sixth train derailment in Canada in recent weeks.
On March 4, a derailment near a polyester factory in Kingston, Ont. led to the evacuation of the area when one of the train cars began leaking. Many area businesses had to close as the intersection where the derailment occurred was closed for two days.
On March 5, a train carrying propane and coal near Prince George, B.C. caused the evacuation of a nearby elementary school.
The cause of the Kingston and Prince George derailments are not yet known.
A Toronto-area Arabic language paper has published a virulently anti-Semitic article accusing Jewish people of burying people alive and stealing organs.
The article, published in the February 28 issue of al-Meshwar, was authored by Dr. Mustafa Yusuf al-Lidawi who according to B’nai Brith Canada represented Hamas in Syria and Lebanon.
“[Hamas] uses political and violent means to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel. Since 1990, Hamas has been responsible for several hundred terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets,” states Public Safety Canada.
In the article, al-Lidawi makes several false and anti-Semitic claims about Israel, including that it buries prisoners alive and steals the organs of captives.
Al-Lidawi also praised Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Muhammad al-Na’im who died trying to conduct an unsuccessful terror attack on the Israel-Gaza border.
True North reached out to al-Lidawi for comment regarding the allegations but had not heard back by the time of this article’s publication.
The publication al-Meshwar, which is edited by Nazih Khatatba, has a long history of anti-Semitism.
NDP MP Niki Ashton was forced to reject Khatatba’s endorsement in 2017 after it was revealed that he had participated in Holocaust denial and described Jewish suffering as “fairy tales.”
Khatatba also once heaped praise on terrorists involved in an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem.
Most recently, Khatatba was present at a protest which led to a violent anti-Semitic incident at York University where anti-Israel protesters forcefully prevented people from attending an event hosted by former Israeli Defense Force veterans.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer both took to social media to condemn the incident.
“On Wednesday night, violence & racist chants broke out against an event organized by the Jewish community at York University. What happened that night was shocking and absolutely unacceptable. Anti-Semitism has no place in Canada. We will always denounce it & all forms of hatred,” said Trudeau.
“I’m appalled by the intimidating scenes that occurred last night at York University. I unequivocally condemn the acts of anti-Semitism faced by the members of the Jewish community at the event,” tweeted Andrew Scheer.
B’nai Brith has confirmed that a police complaint has been filed in relation to the article.
“It is unacceptable that Canadian publications, in any language, continue to demonize Jews and glorify terrorism. These relentless and baseless attacks on our community undermine inter-communal relations and increase the risk to our safety,” said Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada Michael Mostyn.
A recent poll has found that the apocalyptic messages of climate change alarmists are having a negative effect on the dreams of British children.
A new poll by ComRes for the BBC found that 19% of British children report climate change-related nightmares, with 17% saying climate change fears have affected their sleep overall.
Out of the 2000 children ages 8-16 surveyed, 41% said they do not trust adults to address climate change.
Experts attribute much of the climate-related anxiety children face to the apocalyptic message of 17-year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Thunberg has warned that without radical action, climate change will end humanity.
Thunberg specifically targets young people with her message and has encouraged children to skip school to protest.
Children may also be affected by the messages of climate extremist groups that support Thunberg’s activism.
Over the past year, Britain, in particular, has been besieged by radical environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion. The group has blockaded railways and streets across the country.
Extinction Rebellion is often seen at Greta Thunberg rallies in the U.K. and Canada.
The U.K. government recently listed Extinction Rebellion in a guide of extremist groups that target children.
“An anti-establishment philosophy that seeks system change underlies [Extinction Rebellion’s] activism; the group attracts to its events school-age children and adults unlikely to be aware of this. While non-violent against persons, the campaign encourages other law-breaking activities,” the guide says.
In Canada, Extinction Rebellion recently attempted to kidnap BC Premier John Horgan over his support of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
In 2019, Oxford Dictionaries reported a 4,290% increase in the use of the term “eco-anxiety.”
Oxford Dictionaries says that the term “eco-anxiety” is primarily used by young people to describe how climate change fears are damaging their mental health.
Over the course of the past few weeks, elements of the political left have become aggressive with Canada’s police agencies over their use of Clearview AI’s facial recognition software.
NDP MP Charlie Angus, in high dudgeon, wrote a letter to Attorney General David Lametti demanding that “strong standards” were needed to protect Canadians’ privacy.
Leftist Canadian media outlets such as the Toronto Star and the CBC have been all over this with their criticism of the police. The CBC ran a story headlined ‘Toronto police admit using secretive facial recognition technology Clearview AI’ as if the police got caught doing something illegal or morally wrong.
The CBC report said that Toronto police said in an email response to their question, “Some members of the Toronto Police Service began using Clearview AI in October 2019 with the intent of informally testing this new and evolving technology,” said police spokesperson Meaghan Gray. She went on to say, “The Chief directed that its use be halted immediately upon his awareness, and the order to cease using the product was given on February 5, 2020.”
Shame on Chief Mark ‘Casper Milquetoast’ Saunders. He should put out a BOLF for his testicles.
News outlets across the country then went after police agencies to see if they could get them to admit using or testing the technology. To their credit, the RCMP issued a press release saying they used it in a child exploitation case that helped them rescue two children being exploited.
Evidently, it is a good tool for police. In fact, according to Clearview AI over 2,200 police agencies in North America and the UK use the software as an investigative aid. A tool, and by all accounts, a very effective one at that.
So, what’s the big deal?
Clearview AI says they use their technology to create a searchable database based on mining images with identities from off the internet, a sort of Google process for photographs. The company says its database has more than three billion images.
Angus has his knickers in a knot because he says people did not consent to have their images in this database. To him, I would say so what?
If anyone posts an image of themselves to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media platform that can be accessed by anyone with a smartphone, what expectation of privacy do they have? And why do the hand-wringers and pearl-clutchers think that somehow Clearview AI and the police who subscribe to their technology are invading anyone’s privacy?
People have a choice in the way they use social media and the internet. If they choose to share an image publicly then, in my view, Clearview AI has the right to collect that image and include it in their database. They only mine open-source material – images available to anyone with an internet connection.
I truly do not understand why the left is outraged. Facial recognition software has been around for more than a decade. It’s used by military, police, at airports to identify possible terrorists and other uses. The difference in this seems to be the manner in which Clearview AI has obtained the photos for their database.
The federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner announced last week it would be investigating along with his counterparts in B.C., Ontario and Alberta. The left is trying to cow the police into bending to their will and admit what they are doing is wrong. I say nonsense. If it helps investigators, they should use it.
The technology was used this week to identify a suspect and bring a successful conclusion in a violent sexual assault in California. I fail to see how that is a bad thing. Nor the RCMP using it to rescue two kids being exploited.
People post things to their social media sites of their own volition. Clearview AI has simply found a way to harness all of that and sell it to subscribing law enforcement agencies.
For them, it’s a valuable new tool and the left and Higher Purpose People like Charlie Angus should butt out.
While COVID-19 outbreaks are being detected in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is revealing his priorities.
As part of a $27 million federal research funding competition, the Liberal government allocated $2.63 million taxpayer dollars on combating discrimination, racism and social media misinformation.
While many of the projects funded were sound scientific and public policy research, seven of the approved studies stuck out as social justice-oriented.
One project titled “Pandemic Rapid-response Optimization To Enhance Community- resilience and Health” received a $500,000 grant to study anti-Chinese racism.
“News about emerging pandemics often bring out fear and anxiety in the public. Recent public response to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak reflected blame, fear, and racism against the Chinese communities,” claims the project summary.
Part of the research includes “online group training with live video meeting to reduce stigma/stress and promote resilience among affected groups (individuals tested positive.”
Another similar project titled “Destigmatizing Chinese Communities in the face of 2019-nCoV” dedicated $499,121 to study Sinophobia experienced by Chinese communities in Toronto and Nairobi, Kenya.
“Chinese communities around the world are facing impacts to their personal wellbeing and livelihoods by way of discrimination and Sinophobia (anti-Chinese sentiment) due to COVID-19 disease (formally 2019-nCoV),” reads the proposal.
A project led by researchers at the University of Ottawa titled “Senior public health leadership during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak” seeks to find ways to combat the effects of misinformation and discrimination on various groups.
“During an infectious disease outbreak, senior public health leaders work diligently to contain its spread, manage the medical and social impact, and try to counter misinformation and prevent discrimination,” claims the project description.
“We will also examine whether and how they identify different impacts of the virus based on sex and gender.”
Despite coronavirus fears shocking the world economy and uncertainty in Canada from weeks of ongoing rail blockades, the Liberals still prepare to release their 2020 budget on schedule.
According to Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Canada has a “strong fiscal position” despite the wide-spread turbulence caused by the virus.
“I think what people need to know is that, you know, we have a strong fiscal position, so we’re prepared in terms of the actual health risks, but we’ve a strong position fiscally so that we can actually take measures as needed as the facts come out,” said Morneau.
The Conservatives have urged the Liberal government to cut spending ahead of its budget announcement. Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievere disagreed with Morneau’s optimism, claiming the national economy is vulnerable to an upset.
In their latest fiscal update, the Liberals announced a deficit of $26.6 billion for 2019, exceeding spending predictions by several billion. According to Morneau, the government is projecting an even higher deficit for 2020, weighing in at $28.1 billion.
“Justin Trudeau is setting the stage for a made-in-Canada recession,” aid Poilievre in a statement on the update. “The debt-to-GDP ratio is rising, the deficit is $7 billion higher than Liberals promised only months ago and there is no date for a balanced budget.”
Morneau expressed similar optimism about the state of the economy after the deficit announcement, disagreeing with Poilievre’s assessment of the situation.
“I think it’s a little bit irresponsible of the Conservatives to be making people more anxious,” said Morneau.
However, a January Scotiabank report on Canada’s wholesale sector put a dent in Morneau’s claims revealing that wholesale sales for the fourth quarter of 2019 fell to -0.29%, far lower than the predicted 1.3% growth.
“Wholesale revenue for November is just the latest in the string of negative data releases that underscored the slowdown of the Canadian economy at the end of 2019. With this report, Q4-2019 is reduced to -0.29% Q/Q SAAR, far below the BoC’s somewhat stale forecast of 1.3%,” read the report.
Much like the Nasdaq and New York exchanges, the Canadian stock market has been plummeting in response to the virus. On Monday morning the TSX declined 10%, about 1,600 points, in a period of minutes, triggering automatic trading halts. The decline was the worst on record since 1987.
