It’s not sexy. It’s not a hot button issue that’s going to win an election.
But there needs to be an extensive discussion on Canada’s emergency management system.
The spread of the coronavirus and the recent scare at the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant are just the most recent examples of our public safety at serious risk.
True North’s Anthony Furey discusses.
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This week Vancouver Police released details of its new street check policy.
This comes in the wake of the Toronto Police ending their “carding “policy and the New York Police Department (NYPD) ending their “stop and frisk” practice.
The reality is all police departments have some form of street check or field interview practice. The problem is that politically correct politicians inject themselves into police policies and practices.
There is a gang war going on in Vancouver. Equally, in Toronto gang shootings are at a historical high. Much the same is going on in New York.
The reality is when politicians, who frankly don’t know the square root of bugger all about the realities of the street, inject themselves into how policing should be conducted, the public suffers as crime rises for no other reason than for politicians to appease the squeaky wheels in the minority communities.
The complaints are that First Nations are checked more often than other communities in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. Or that black males are/were checked more often in areas of Toronto or in parts of Brooklyn by the NYPD.
Okay, if we can get our heads out of our butts, let’s look at reality.
The cross-section of the population demographic in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver is Native Indian. That’s reality. So, when Vancouver Police Department (VPD) members being proactive patrolling the mean streets of what we used to call the “Skids” when I walked that beat, check an inordinate number of aboriginals there’s a reason for that. And it has everything to do with numbers and demographics and nothing to do with racism despite what the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) would have you believe.
Likewise, in Toronto which had three times the number of shootings in 2019 as the so-called “Year of the Gun” in 2005, the oh-so-politically-correct mayor John Tory ordered the police to cease their practice of ‘carding. Well guess what happens?
He bent to members of the black community who said that Toronto Police were “carding” more black males than members of other communities. First off, that’s nonsense.
Gang activity in the Jane — Finch area of Toronto is very much an issue. The community is primarily black. You could shoot a cannon off at nine o’clock and not have any danger of hitting a white person. Does that make police racist because they are simply dealing with the demographics of that neighbourhood?
Equally, members of the Peel Regional Police Force who look after Mississauga conduct street checks on Muslim folks primarily of Pakistani origin. Why? Because that’s the demographic of that neighbourhood.
The disappointment to me is weak-kneed police chiefs acquiescing to politicians who frankly couldn’t find their butts with a map.
Street checks, call them what you will, are not race-based no matter where they occur. Police officers trying to be proactive in patrolling their areas spot someone who looks up to no good will get checked and asked what they are up to. How is that racist?
I understand why VPD is doing what it is doing and I will resist the urge to criticize their media public statements released this week on what has changed. Chief Adam Palmer has to tread a fine line between the political left-wing loons on council and what his front line officers want in terms of support.
The danger he faces is if the line officers feel like they have lost that support, it triggers what is called in policing the FIDO syndrome — “F**k it, drive on.” And that is bad for any city.
A presentation created by the Canadian military’s Counter-Intelligence Unit lists pro-life activists as examples of “right wing extremists.”
The presentation, titled “Right Wing Extremism and the DND/CFA,” describes the behaviour of certain purported far-right extremist groups and how they relate to the Canadian Armed Forces
Obtained by Rebel News, the presentation puts pro-lifers in the same category as anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists on a “RWE Landscape and Ideologies” page. Also on the page are groups like the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists.
The presentation also claims opposition to immigration is a form of right wing extremism, though fails to distinguish between groups espousing racist rhetoric and Canadians critical of specific immigration policies.
“RWE activists are generally fueled by conspiracy theories and feel threatened by the government, other religions, leftists or immigrants,” the document says.
With very few examples, the presentation claims that the Canadian Armed Forces has a long history of right wing extremism, claiming extremists are “attracted” to the armed forces.
“RWE have generally been supportive of the military due to perceived shared values such as loyalty, patriotism and brotherhood,” it says.
The only evidence of alleged “attraction” armed forces members have to right wing extremism was one post from an online forum in 2015 where anonymous individual calls the army “fun.”
Less than 10 armed forces members per year are found to be associated with right wing extremism with normally little connection between the individuals in question.
A Department of National Defense spokesperson confirmed to True North that the military considers “pro-life extremism” to be a type of right-wing extremism.
“In the brief, abortion is listed as an example of a single-issue on the spectrum of Right Wing Extremism Landscape and Ideologies, intended as a reference to pro-life extremism,” the spokesperson said in an email. “This has, on occasion, been identified as violent acts against abortion clinics, their staff and clients.”
There has not been any form of “anti-abortion” violence recorded in Canada in nearly 20 years, and pro-life organizations across Canada condemn violence against abortion providers.
Every year dozens of pro-life groups hold rallies and marches, including the March for Life rally on Parliament Hill held annually. None of these events are associated with any recognized far right organization.
Contrary to the CAF report linking pro-lifers to violent far right groups, in Canada it has been observed that pro-lifers are the victims of violence and harassment, rather than abortion-providers.
Because of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Canada is no longer amongst the top 10 least corrupt countries in the world.
According to the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International, Canada now ranks 12th amongst the least corrupt countries.
In 2018, Canada held the index’s ninth spot, while in 2010 Canada was in sixth place.
The SNC-Lavalin scandal came to a head when it was revealed by former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould that she was pressured by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his office to interfere in the company’s corruption trial.
Despite Trudeau’s initial claim that the allegations were false, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded that the Prime Minister had in fact broken ethics laws when directing his office to pressure Wilson-Raybould to change her mind.
“The authority of the Prime Minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and attempt to discredit the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. Wilson‑Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer,” wrote Commissioner Dion in his report.
Recently, a division of SNC-Lavalin was found guilty of fraud over $5,000 with regard to the company’s operations in Libya while it was ruled by former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
SNC-Lavalin Construction Inc. was ordered to pay $280 million in fines over a five-year period and be under monitoring and probation for three years.
A Quebec court also found former SNC-Lavalin vice-president Sami Bebawi guilty of five charges including corruption of foreign officials, fraud, and laundering proceeds of a crime.
Devin Drover is a grassroots political activist, and the Atlantic Spokesperson for the Canada Strong and Proud network.
With the upcoming Conservative Party leadership race, political consultants and self-declared pundits are racing off to the nearest mainstream media outlet to discuss the future of the Party, and propagate on which compromises are needed to defeat Justin Trudeau.
The narrative from these talking-heads goes something like this: to win, Conservatives must abandon their values, cede social policy to the left, and become a party which is indistinguishable from the Trudeau Liberals on anything besides a commitment to maintain slightly smaller deficits.
The Conservatives, they preach, must be “socially progressive and fiscally conservative.”
Some politicians, activists and young conservatives have already crumbled under media pressure and adopted this label. Older elected officials, in an attempt to stay relevant with younger voters, have also begun clinging to this description – unaware that it makes them seem like the real-life equivalent of a popular Steve Buschemi 30 Rock gag. Some other activists adopt this identity to avoid feeling embarrassed at dinner parties filled with liberal snobs and champagne socialists. And young conservatives embrace this label because they want to avoid further ostracization on university campuses, where administrators, professors and their student colleagues can be unapologetically left-wing.
However, Conservative members and politicians must ignore the advice of these pundits, reject this labeling and stay true to offering a conservative vision for the country – both socially and economically – that is distinguishable from what is offered from their left-wing opponents. This is important for three major reasons.
First, history has proven that right-wing parties win when they stay true to conservative values. The recent electoral successes of Premiers Doug Ford and Jason Kenney, who campaigned on both fiscally and socially conservative platforms, demonstrates this point. Meanwhile, the downfall of Conservatives often come when they stray from their principles – as seen with the defeat of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives in 2015. History shows that if voters are faced with the choice of voting for a left-wing party or a left-leaning “Conservative” party, they will just choose the real left-wing alternative every time.
Secondly, social conservatives make up an important part of the Conservative base which is both reliable and active. They are extremely organized at the grassroots level, eager to knock on doors and open their wallets for causes they believe in. Further, as the Liberal Party under Trudeau has gone from tolerating pro-life members and other social conservatives to punishing MPs for supporting grants for Christian summer camps and soup kitchens, the Conservative Party remains the only major party open to them. Refusing to accept social conservatives in the Conservative tent would therefore be a potentially misguided, electoral disaster.
Thirdly, “social progressivism” has just become a buzzword for the left and their media friends meant to juxtapose social policies adopted by Conservatives. It does not refer to any specific bundle of policies, but is marked by consistently shifting goal-posts. Today, being “socially progressive” does not simply mean you support same-sex marraige or abortion, it means you believe biologocial sex is a social construct and that words amount to violence. When conservatives cede ground to the left on a social issue, the left does not take this compromise in good faith, but instead moves the goal posts to a further extreme to ensure they can still criticize conservative parties.
Ultimately, Conservatives must continue to be open and accepting of social conservatives. This does not mean that they should not be considerate of which social issues they champion for the sake of party-unity or electoral viability; for example, the Party membership has repeatedly voted at policy conventions to keep abortion and same-sex marriage off their legislative agenda. But Conservatives must be open to supporting other socially conservative policies, like those targeting unregulated internet pornography, supporting public education reform, and protecting religious freedom and conscious rights for physicians.
Instead of listening to pundits, I have better advice for Conservative leadership candidates: talk to your neighbours, family, friends, and members of your local church or community organization. They will teach you a lot more about what Canadians really want for their country.
Public health officials have announced Canada’s first presumptive case of the coronavirus at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital.
The case was confirmed by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams at a last-minute press conference Saturday at Queen’s Park.
While still presumptive until tests are completed at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Dr. Williams said his team is “95% sure” this is will be Canada’s first confirmed case of the virus.
Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe said that the infected is a male in his 50s who recently travelled to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak first began.
The man became “quite ill” within a day of arriving in Toronto Jan. 22. The man’s family is also in isolation.
Yaffe would not identify what flight or carrier the patient traveled to Toronto on, though she said he connected through Guangzhou in China. The only airline running a direct flight from Guangzhou to Toronto that day was China Southern Airlines.
Because only those who have been in close contact with someone who is infected are at risk, Dr. Williams stressed that there is no cause for alarm at this time.
“The risk to Ontarians is still low.”
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot said healthcare workers took all appropriate precautions.
“The patient was detected and immediately put in isolation. Lab tests were conducted, and at the earliest signs of a presumptive positive case Toronto Public Health launched extensive case and contact management to prevent and control further spread of the infection,” Elliot said.
“The system is working.”
While this is first confirmed presumptive positive case, on Friday health officials said they were monitoring six people across the country who may have come into contact with the virus.
The first cases of coronavirus were found in the Chinese city of Wuhan Dec. 31, with at least 59 people being diagnosed in the first week.
Since first being detected, the virus has infected over 1,400 people and has killed at least 42.
On Saturday, Hong Kong declared a state of emergency due to the spread of the virus, restricting movement between the territory and China. Over 33 million people in China have found themselves trapped in quarantine zones as the country tries to stop the spread of the virus any further.
This week, American health officials confirmed the first two cases of coronavirus in the United States. Cases have also been found in Australia, Malaysia, and France.
China’s shadow looms over so much in Canadian society – from public health to the rule of law to domestic politics, as these recent stories highlight, to real estate, national security, espionage and more, as the past couple of years have made clear.
Yet you wouldn’t know it from the way the Liberal government talks about China.
Thankfully, Parliamentarians led by a motion from Conservative MP Erin O’Toole have forced the issue and this overdue conversation is finally getting underway with the creation of a special House of Commons committee looking into the Canada-China relationship.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have hit a record high in per-person spending for a government, surpassing even the spending of prime ministers during times of war or recession.
A Fraser Institute study found that in 2019 the federal government spent $9,066 per Canadian, beating the prior record of $8,811 set by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009, following the 2008 financial crisis.
Trudeau not only set the bar for spending but did it consecutively for three years, surpassing Harper’s previous record in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“Wars and recessions clearly affect government finances, but high levels of spending without those same external pressures raises legitimate questions about fiscal discipline in Ottawa,” said Fraser Institute’s executive vice-president Jason Clemens.
During World War II, Canada’s per-person spending hit a then-record high of $7,582 in 1943 but then it sharply declined to $1,766 by 1948 when adjusted for inflation.
Trudeau’s federal spending has raised eyebrows from critics and economists.
At the end of 2019, Finance Minister Bill Morneau revealed the deficit would be billions higher than expected. The Liberal government is expecting a $26.6 billion deficit for 2019, with a further $28.1 billion in 2020, according to the latest fiscal update.
Conservative critics have warned that the Liberals are potentially setting the country up for a “made-in Canada” recession.
“The Liberals’ disastrous fiscal policies have already added tens of billions in new national debt. The latest update reveals it’s even worse than previously thought,” wrote a Conservative Party statement.
Both Canadians and economists have expressed fears of an oncoming recession in the recent past.
According to a poll by Bloomberg News, 56% of Canadians believed that an impending recession in 2020 is either “likely” or “somewhat likely.”
Oxford University economists have also predicted that for 2020 Canada has a 40% chance of a recession, whereas the US has only a 25-30% chance.
The day after Ontario teachers began six days of rotating strikes, Toronto and Peel school boards announced they are refusing to provide report cards for school year’s first term.
According to Toronto District School Board director John Malloy, teachers will not be “entering marks, learning skills and/or comments electronically” for students in grades one to eight.
Teachers in Toronto and Peel have since been joined by teachers in Niagara and Halton school boards as part of their job action.
“I want you to know that this difficult decision was made after careful consideration and a thorough review of all options. However, it is not possible to produce accurate report cards for the TDSB’s approximately 174,000 elementary students given the significant resources and time required to do so,” Malloy wrote.
On Monday the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) began rotating strikes across Ontario after months of negotiations between the union and government of Ontario failed to reach an agreement.
Ontario public sector teachers have not had a collective bargaining agreement since the previous agreement expired in August. Many schools in Ontario have been operating on a work-to-rule basis since November.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said that teachers’ union’s demands would cost the taxpayers $7 billion over the next three years.
At a time when high school students are preparing for their exams, the Ontario government has argued teachers refusing to work for more than a week will negatively affect many students.
Ontario high school teachers earn an average of $92,000 a year, among the highest in the entire world.
Due to ongoing strikes, some school boards will have to postpone the Grade 9 standardized math tests. The teachers’ unions oppose standardized testing.
“Without proper support for the test, students could be unprepared and feel nervous and uncertain about their ability to do well on this test,” Lecce said.
