Today on Rachel and the Republic, Rachel is joined by True North columnist Sue-Ann Levy to discuss Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ efforts to hide from the press following a botched interview.
Parker and Levy also discuss what to expect next week when Harris debates Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
And finally, has U.S. President Joe Biden given up on the job entirely?
Tune into Rachel and the Republic now!
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced an end to his NDP-backed coalition government with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party.
On Wednesday afternoon, Singh posted a video on X announcing an end to the NDP-Liberal agreement signed in 2022. The agreement kept the Liberal government in power in exchange for NDP priorities.
“The fact is, the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people. They cannot be the change. They cannot restore the hope. They cannot stop the Conservatives. But we can,” Singh said in the video. “In the next federal election, Canadians will choose between Pierre Poilievre, callous cuts, or hope, hope that when we stand united, we win.”
On X, Poilievre noted that the announcement lacked any commitment to call an election early.
“In today’s media stunt, Sellout Singh refuses to state whether the NDP will vote with non-confidence to cause a carbon tax election at the first chance,” Poilievre said on X.
According to poll aggregator 388 Canada, the Conservatives are projected to win a majority government with 210 seats if an election were held today. The same poll shows the NDP would score only 16 seats and the Quebec separatist Bloc Quebecois would win more than double the seat count.
“Justin Trudeau has proven again and again that he will always cave into corporate greed. The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance,” Singh said. “There is an even bigger battle ahead, the threat of Pierre Polievre and Conservative cuts from workers, retirees, young people, patients, and from families. He will cut in order to give more to big corporations and wealthy CEOs.”
Poilievre said the policies the NDP voted on during the coalition agreement, such as supporting the government’s carbon tax, will drive Canadians to food banks and “grind our economy to a halt.”
“Canadians need a carbon tax election NOW to decide between the Costly Coalition of NDP-Liberals who tax your food, punish your work, take your money, double your housing costs and unleash crime and drugs in your communities OR common sense Conservatives who will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime,” Poilievre said.
In a letter to the NDP caucus that was leaked to the media and posted by Columnist Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun on X, Singh said that when parliament resumes in the Fall, the NDP will vote on items based on their conscience rather than in support of the NDP-Liberal coalition.
“When Parliament resumes in the Fall, we will do what New Democrats always do — we will put Canadians first. We will approach every vote on its own merit, we will push for measures that help Canadians, we will not shy away from vigorously holding this government to account, and we will fight Pierre Poilievre’s cuts,” the letter said. “If this means triggering an election, we will be ready.”
At a press conference in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland on Wednesday afternoon, Trudeau said that he hopes the NDP will continue to work with the Liberals instead of voting against them for political reasons.
“As a government, we’re going to stay focused on delivering for Canadians at a time where people need that,” Trudeau said. “I’m focused on Canadians, and I will let other parties focus on politics.”
Trudeau focused on the Conservative party as the greatest threat to his party as well.
“We’re going to deliver for Canadians, in contrast, the Conservative leader wants to cut dental care, cut the school food program, cut insulin…cut the programs that Canadians are relying on to help them through this difficult time,” he said.“I certainly hope that the NDP will stay true to its fundamental values, which is making sure that Canadians get the support they need, and keeping away the austerity, the cuts and the damage that will be done by Conservatives if they get the chance.”
As footage of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau getting into a heated exchange with a unionized steelworker garnered thousands of views, the Conservative Party of Canada released a new ad aimed at expanding its effort to connect with working-class Canadians.
Plus, five emergency rooms in British Columbia had to shut down after not having enough doctors available over the long weekend.
And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith decried Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent appointment of two senators as undemocratic and opposed to the province’s best interests.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Lindsay Shepherd and Noah Jarvis!
BC Conservative leader John Rustad joined Dr. Jordan Peterson on his self-titled podcast to discuss his plan to stop the “socialist trainwreck in British Columbia,” ahead of the looming provincial election.
Peterson and Rustad talked about how a BC Conservative government could reform British Columbia’s education, exploit its natural resources, and upgrade the province’s energy grid.
In a podcast episode recorded in mid-August in the small town of Fairview, AB, Peterson talked with Rustad about the left-wing’s environmental agenda and how it hurts the interests of everyday Canadians.
The two talked about the plan by governments around the world, including the Trudeau government, to limit the use of nitrogen-based fertilizer and how moving away from such farming practices would cut food production and increase costs.
“There seems to be this bent by populations around the world, by governments around the world that they want to stop the use of nitrogen-based fertilizer,” said Rustad, as Peterson an exasperated Peterson grumbles in the background.
“40% of the world’s food supply comes from nitrogen-based fertilizer. So if you’re gonna stop using that…you’re talking about a significant amount of shortage of food. People starving. And sorry, I’m not up for that.”
Peterson and Rustad also talked about energy generation and British Columbia’s need to expand its energy generation capacity without raising the cost of energy.
Rustad explained that uranium is a far denser and efficient source of energy than coal, oil, or natural gas, and that uranium’s density makes nuclear an efficient and environmentally friendly source of energy.
“Whether it’s small modular reactors or other types of nuclear energy, we’re going to need that power in British Columbia,” said Rustad.
“It’s something that I think as a government we need to go out and have an honest conversation with people about. Like let’s talk about what it means and what the cost is for people and what that means for your quality of life and what the options are and lets just be straight up with people and let them decide where they’d like to go.”
Rustad emphasized the need to drive energy costs down, promising to scrap the province’s carbon tax that has been in place since 2008.
Rustad also complained about British Columbia’s struggle to trade energy and other products with fellow Canadian provinces. He says that as premier, he would work with other premiers to develop a free trade framework across the provinces.
“Should we have that opportunity to form government, I actually want to try to create a Canada-wide free trade agreement,” said Rustad.
“It makes no sense to me that I can trade easier with the United States and Mexico than I can with other provinces. We have no sense of who we are as a country. We need to be able to create that sense as a country. So let’s start talking about how we actually build trade across this country and have a sense of who we are.”
Rustad promised greater transparency from the government if the BC Conservatives form government in October by reforming the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to automatically make public all information that cannot be made private.
“I’m gonna make all the information that can be made public, public,” said Rustad.
“The job of the freedom of information officer should be what can’t be made public. Give the people the facts. Give them the information. And then it’s no longer politicians that are giving spin, but politicians that are responding to the facts.”
On the education file, Rustad said that he would transition the education system away from teaching students what to think, and instead teach them how to think in a politically neutral manner.
“What is needed to start with is we need to do a full review of all material that’s being made available for teachers and look at it from a perspective of being neutral,” said Rustad.
Peterson challenged Rustad on this point, contending that the education system should not merely be neutral, but should promote anti-communism, Western civilization, and free markets.
“It seems to me that one of the errors that conservatives and classic liberals have made consistently across time is a kind of apologetic neutrality,” said Peterson.
Rustad responded by saying the province would not shy away from teaching about communism or the holocaust but would do so from a fact-based perspective, allowing students to draw their own conclusions.
“It’s not that we won’t teach about communism, that we won’t teach about the holocaust because we will. We need to show that from a perspective of this is the facts that happened, this is the evil that happened, this is the damage that was done with it, not from an ideological perspective but from a facts-based [perspective].”
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday, bringing it to 4.25% and marking the central bank’s third consecutive decision to do so over the past year.
“The global economy expanded by about 2½% in the second quarter, consistent with projections in the Bank’s July Monetary Policy Report,” reads a statement from the Bank of Canada.
The Canadian economy grew by 2.1% in the second quarter, driven by government spending and business investment. However, the labour market continues to slow, a trend now seen for months.
Wage growth remained elevated, however, in relation to productivity.
“Global financial conditions have eased further since July, with declines in bond yields. The Canadian dollar has appreciated modestly, largely reflecting a lower US dollar. Oil prices are lower than assumed in the July MPR,” reads the statement.
“As expected, inflation slowed further to 2.5% in July. The Bank’s preferred measures of core inflation averaged around 2 ½% and the share of components of the consumer price index growing above 3% is roughly at its historical norm.”
The biggest contributor to total inflation continues to be high shelter prices, however, it’s starting to slow. Inflation remains elevated in some other services.
“With continued easing in broad inflationary pressures, Governing Council decided to reduce the policy interest rate by a further 25 basis points,” it said.
According to the central bank, “monetary policy decisions will be guided by incoming information and our assessment of their implications for the inflation outlook. The Bank remains resolute in its commitment to restoring price stability for Canadians.”
The Bank of Canada’s governor Tiff Macklem said that future rate cuts can be expected as long as the trend of easing inflation continues.
“If inflation continues to ease broadly in line with our July forecast, it is reasonable to expect further cuts in our policy rate,” said Macklem. “We will continue to assess the opposing forces on inflation, and take our monetary policy decisions one at a time.
Macklem was asked if the Bank of Canada had considered cutting rates by half a percentage point instead of a quarter, and he said that while the central bank didn’t this time, steeper cuts may be a possibility in the future.
“We did discuss some different scenarios. Scenarios where it might be appropriate to slow the decline in interest rates… and where it might be appropriate to cut by 50 basis points,” he said.
There were no sounds of kids playing and no signs of parents on a beautiful Sunday of the summer’s last long weekend in a park in a secluded corner of west Parkdale.
Three city workers sat idle beside an unused splash pad in Albert Crosland Park.
The playground beside it was also completely empty.
There was the requisite port-a-potty to make the squatters feel right at home.
It was clear that like other parks with encampments, the tents in this one had driven the families away.
One homeless man sat on a bench shirtless and another woman wandered around the park with a collection of shopping bags.
A young man who appeared to be a dealer sat in the corner of the park busy on his Smartphone, his expensive e-bike parked beside him.
The park is located at the end of a dead-end street called Saunders Ave. where many of the semi-detached homes — in what is called Parkdale meets Roncesvalles North — appear to be newly renovated.
One four-bedroom home just sold for $ 1.6 million.
I travelled down by e-bike after getting a tip that this off-the-beaten-track park had been infiltrated with tents and the tent dwellers had harassed the residents of this dead-end street.
Police had not been able to remove them because of the ideology adopted by Mayor Olivia Chow and her cabal of leftists back in May.
The Interdivisional Protocol for Encampments in Toronto uses a “human rights approach” that endeavours to understand the needs of those living in encampments.
Enforcement has taken a back seat to hugging and stroking the squatters.
One of the protocol’s principles, according to the 17-page city document, is to “treat people living in encampments with the same dignity, respect, kindness and compassion” as all city residents.
Enforcement is determined by a phalanx of city bureaucrats in the recently created Encampment Office, who decide when it is time to clear out the squatters based on a long list of criteria.
Why do I get the feeling they don’t want to clear them out?
Let’s be frank here.
By allowing these squatters to take over a neighbourhood park, the Chow regime is actually treating them with more respect and dignity than tax-paying parents and their children in this inner city neighbourhood, and so many others in Toronto.
The encampment is not huge but neither is the park.
I’m willing to bet that as soon as neighbouring families saw the tents and the drug dealer they crossed that park off their list.
I saw it for myself.
A few blocks north on Lansdowne Ave. McGregor Playground was full of kids. The difference was that it had no tents.
It’s not just the fact that this leftist ideology is giving squatters and addicts full rein, or that council really couldn’t give a damn about law-abiding families.
But it’s yet another step in the steady decline of the quality of life in our once-quiet neighbourhoods.
Drug dealers infiltrate wherever they smell opportunity.
Safety, or lack thereof, becomes an issue. Crime increases, as it already has in this pocket of the city.
And decent families who fear the fallout, vote with their feet, selling their homes and moving elsewhere, often out of Toronto.
Our politicians never consider the impact of their misguided ideologies.
I suspect they just don’t care.
Opioid deaths in Alberta have reached their lowest level since before the pandemic, according to the province’s most recently released data on opioid-related fatalities in May.
In May, 18.4 Albertans per 100,000 people lost their lives to opioid use across the province. A lower rate was not seen since Feb. 2020, when 11.4 Albertans per 100,000 died from opioid poisoning. The World Health Organization declared the pandemic on Mar. 11, 2020.
In total, 72 Albertans died from opioid use in May 2024. Feb. 2020 saw 42 Albertans die from opioid use, spiking to 71 in Mar. 2020, 80 in Apr. 2020, and 128 in May 2020. The number of total deaths in the province did not fall below 100 in any month between May 2020 and Mar. 2024.
A spokesperson for Alberta’s Minister of Mental Health and Addiction said that Alberta has taken steps to engage with communities to assess the impact of drug consumption sites throughout the province.
“This is what led Alberta to be the first jurisdiction in Canada to establish recovery-oriented standards for drug consumption sites, making them much more accountable to government and community. There is ongoing work to ensure that wherever these services are, the community is protected,” said the spokesperson.
While the number of deaths fell below 100 in Apr. 2024 for the first time in four years, it dropped by nearly 22% from 92 to 72 between Apr. and May 2024. The most recent data shows a 55% decrease from the year prior in May 2023 and a 61% decrease from the peak number of 185 deaths in Apr. 2023.
Between Jan. and May 2024, 531 Albertans lost their lives to opioids, a 32.6% decrease compared to the same period in 2023 and a number lower than the same period in 2022 and 2021 as well.
Additionally, opioid-related EMS responses decreased by 53% between May 2023 and May 2024.
Alberta’s Minister for Mental Health and Addiction, Dan Williams, told True North that he is cautiously optimistic that the downward trend of opioid deaths will continue.
“Our government believes that for anyone suffering from the disease of addiction, recovery is possible. We are turning words into action and giving people an opportunity to pursue recovery,” said Williams. “While other jurisdictions continue with experimental policies, Alberta is focused on expanding access to the treatment and recovery services we know save lives.”
Williams said Alberta has opened three recovery communities, with eight more to come.
July’s previously released data showed that Edmonton was the Albertan municipality with the most opioid-related deaths despite showing an improvement. Edmonton remained the province’s municipality with the most opioid-related deaths in May but saw a 16% decrease from 37 to 31 deaths between Apr. and May 2024.
Calgary, the municipality with the most comparable population, saw opioid-related deaths fall 10% from 19 to 17.
The percentage of total drug deaths attributed to opioids was just over 88% between Jan. and May 2024, a slight decrease from 90% in 2023.
“My prayers are with the families and communities grieving the loss of a loved one to the disease of addiction,” said Williams.
Alberta has prioritized a recovery-based approach over so-called “safe supply,” which Alberta Premier Danielle Smith acknowledged led to safe supply drugs entering the illegal market.
Federal and provincial NDP politicians as well as the Liberal-appointed Islamophobia representative are unhappy with McMaster University for allegedly blacklisting several students who participated in anti-Israel encampments.
Ontario MPP Sarah Jama and MP Matthew Green, who both represent Hamilton ridings, have joined calls for McMaster to reverse a ban on three students who hold leadership roles in the public worker union CUPE 3906.
The university has reportedly declared the students “persona non grata,” though True North was unable to confirm the reasons for the designation with McMaster University. The school’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities states that individuals designated as “persona non grata” are “denied the privilege” of entering specific areas in the university.
“If PNG individuals are found or seen in the area they are denied, then they will be subject to a charge by Security Services under the Trespass to Property Act,” the policy states.
In a joint letter shared on X by Jama, the two NDP representatives for Hamilton accused the university of breaking agreements with protesters to not retaliate against them for their activism.
“This arbitrary banning of these CUPE members and students, after the University negotiated in good faith with the students to try and get the encampment to shut down, is counter to the spirit of the negotiated settlement that took place between the parties,” the letter said. “As alumni of McMaster University, we stand in support of those who have received “persona non grata” statuses and will not be accepting invitations from the University to return back to the campus until they have this status withdrawn.”
Jama and Green attended the protest encampment in May. In the letter, they restated their pride in attending the anti-Israel encampment.
“Recently, we both proudly attended the student encampment at McMaster in solidarity protesting the ongoing genocide being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the call from students to end the University’s indirect complicity in it,” the letter said.
During Jama and Greens’ visit to the protest encampment at McMaster University, Jama called to “globalize the intifada.” In the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the last intifada was known as the second intifada and was characterized by suicide bombings, stone throwing and rocket attacks in civilian areas in Israel from 2000-2005.
Canada’s special representative on combatting Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, also wrote a letter to the university emphasizing a need to act sensitively as many students are deeply affected by the Israel-Hamas war unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank.
Elghawaby said the university administrators have “struggled to respond” to the needs of students, staff and faculty as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
“There is also little doubt in our minds that in the midst of these challenging moments, many universities did not get it right when it came to protecting the fundamental right of peaceful protest on campus,” Elghawaby said in a letter
Elghawaby accused the university of not respecting the protester’s right to freedom of expression.
“Throughout various meetings and roundtables held across Canada with Canadian Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students, staff, and faculty, it has become abundantly clear that far too many of them have faced negative consequences for their advocacy,” she said.
She said Arab and Muslim Canadians have faced undue and “deliberate” silencing, harassment, threats and violence on campuses across the country due to their anti-Israel advocacy.
“College and university campuses must remain spaces where dialogue is encouraged; where everyone feels safe to express their views on important issues and global events,” she said in the letter. “No one should be personally targeted because of their opinions, their faith or their origin. No one should be subject to verbal attack or prevented from freely moving about their campus.”
While acknowledging hate, violence and other “unacceptable forms of speech or action” as an exception, she said freedom of expression on university campuses must be protected.
Elghawaby said all proposed disciplinary actions must be fully open and transparent to the public in light of the public interest around the protests. She also called for an increase in representation of Muslim, Palestinian and Arab faculty members and an increase in resources dedicated to fighting “anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.”
McMaster University did not respond to True North’s requests for comment.
Confidence in Canada’s public institutions like government, courts, media and the police appears to dwindle the more time one spends in Canada, according to a recent study. However, of all public institutions, immigrants across generations were least confident in the media.
Statistics Canada surveyed Canadians’ levels of confidence in public institutions through a variety of lenses like age, race and generational status as a Canadian and found that the newer a person was to Canada, the more likely they would be to have a rosy notion of them.
According to Statistics Canada, while levels of confidence in public institutions vary across generations and racialized groups, “their perceptions of public institutions become less favourable with longer residence in Canada and much less favourable from the first to the second generation or more.”
The study found that on average, recent immigrants, being in Canada for 10 years or less, held the country’s public institutions with the most confidence.
Whereas, “racialized Canadian-born people, who are mostly second-generation Canadians, confidence in the police was far lower than among non-racialized Canadian-born people,” reads the study.
The study found that first-generation immigrants reported 46.9% confidence in the media, while the second-generation had 38.3% confidence and by the third confidence was at 41.7%. For every generation, the Canadian media had the lowest level of reported confidence when compared to the police, justice system and federal Parliament.
A similar pattern can be found when it comes to Canada’s justice system and courts, with declining confidence by generation.
“Canadian immigrants also appear to perceive public institutions through the lens of their pre-migration experiences,” reads the study, which went on to say that those who’ve come from countries that have authoritarian regimes have more favourable perceptions of public institutions.
However, while they may initially hold a higher level of confidence in institutions compared to Canadian-born people, “immigrants from full democracies have perceptions that are similar to those of Canadian-born people.”
“Immigrants who arrived in adolescence and adulthood have memories of their source-country institutions to use as a frame of reference, but immigrants who arrived in childhood will have no or few memories of these institutions,” reads the study.
Race played a role in people’s confidence as well, with four-fifths of Latin, south-eastern Asian and Arab immigrants having higher levels of confidence, while that number dropped to two-thirds among White, Black and Chinese immigrants.
That figure dropped to one-half of all Canadians who were third generation or more.
“Among immigrants who came to Canada from ages 0 to 14, only Chinese people had higher levels of confidence in the justice system and courts than Canadians of the third generation or more,” reads the study.
“Among first-generation Canadians, there was a broad difference between immigrants who came to Canada in childhood and those who arrived in adolescence and adulthood.”
Statistics Canada concluded that “immigrants who arrived as adults had the highest level of confidence, and this favourable perception of Canadian institutions weakened with younger age at arrival.”
The government agency noted that the age-at-arrival pattern was “largely consistent across immigrants from different racialized groups” and that second-generation Canadians had lower levels of confidence in the police, the justice system and courts, and the Canadian media, followed by those third-generation.
Anti-Israel and anti-war protesters attempted to shut down Toronto’s annual Canadian International Air Show over the weekend. However, they only succeeded in accosting families who were trying to enjoy the show.
The Canadian International Air Show has been hosted by the Canadian National Exhibition every Labour Day weekend for the last 75 years, but this year, protestors tried to prevent the air show from happening, saying it promotes militarism and war.
Anti-Israel protestors and groups such as World Beyond War organized an attempt to shut down this year’s show, saying the event glorifies war, helps companies such as Lockheed Martin sanitize their image to promote weapons sales, wastes public resources and harms the environment.
Some protesters dropped fliers advocating against the airshow over the weekend. The pamphlets outlined protesters’ issues with the Canadian airshow while directing readers to an anti-war website.
“The Canadian International Air Show is hosted by the CNE every Labour Day weekend. It is used as a platform by the Canadian, US, and British air forces to promote militarism and recruit their troops,” the pamphlet read.
One of the groups’ grievances was that Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, used the airshow to sell its weapons to the Canadian military. Another key problem the protesters have with the airshow is its apparent glorification of war.
“From Israel’s incessant airstrikes on Gaza, to the ongoing attacks on Ukraine, in the past year we have seen hospitals shelled, homes reduced to rubble, and the bodies of thousands of children killed in bombings,” World Beyond War said on its website. “We have been witnessing exactly what the warplanes being celebrated at the Toronto Air Show are designed to do.”
The group also wants the colourful and skillful display of military jets to stop because they claim it “re-traumatizes the victims of war.”
“This inescapable noise is a frightening reminder of war to the thousands of Toronto residents who have fled warzones, many of whom were bombed by CF-18s and F-22s like the ones slated to fly during this year’s air show,” it said. “Those living and working in Toronto during the air show are a captive and often unwilling audience as the noise reverberates through our homes, streets, and workplaces.”
Finally, the group said the show must be cancelled after its 75-year run because it contributes too much carbon emissions, given the summer wildfires in Canada.
One video, posted by a user named Leviathon on X, showed protesters shouting in the face of police as they were prevented from proceeding to the airshow. One officer can be heard telling protestors that no flags are allowed on the premises of the CNE, while a protester recording the incident claims that police were not allowing them to proceed for “no reason.”
Toronto police did not respond to True North’s request for comment and information before the deadline provided.
In another video posted by the same user, protesters accosted a family trying to enjoy the annual show.
“Do you have anything to say? You had something to say when there was no camera. I’m just wondering, like right now, when there’s a camera and people watching live, if you have anything to say, Brother?” a protester said to a family sitting on a blanket in a Toronto Park.
The man being accosted said he had nothing to say. However, the protesters continued claiming the man had “flipped them off.”
One woman protester accused the family, one of the members of which was a small child, of supporting the war by being in attendance. The man whose family was being yelled at by the protestors said his family didn’t even buy tickets to the event and they were just watching the show.
“The thing is, you’re flipping us off, and you’re telling us to stop. You’re obviously not happy with us being here, ruining your show, your pleasure watching killing machines,” the male protester said. “Shame on you. And you bring your family here too. Shame on you.
The woman protester added that she doesn’t care about Canada in a seemingly Canadian accent.
“You make us refugees. You bomb our country so that we have to come here we don’t give a f*&k,” she said. “We don’t want to be here.”
