The Winnipeg Police Service shut down calls by Winnipeg City Councillor Sherri Rollins to legislate a municipal handgun ban on legal firearm owners after a recent shooting.

According to police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver, Rollins’ suggestion to ban legal handguns might make people feel good but it won’t do anything to curb gun violence citing the fact that “almost 100%” of handguns seized are either stolen or illegal.

“I guess it might make people feel good but it will not change the threat level one iota,” said Carver.

One person died and two were injured in a shooting over the weekend at Winnipeg’s downtown Windsor Hotel. In response, Rollins called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to create a national handgun ban.

“Handguns should not be in the city, unless they’re on the hip of a police officer, “ said Rollins.

Winnipeg police’s stance on proposed handgun bans echo sentiments from other police departments across Canada.

Toronto Mayor John Tory was also shut down by the president of the Toronto Police Association Mike McCormack who said that a municipal ban wouldn’t have any impact on gun violence.

“There’s no way in my world or any world I know that this [a handgun ban] would have an impact on somebody who’s going to go out and buy an illegal gun and use it to kill another person or shoot another person,” said McCormack.

Despite unanimity among policing experts that such a ban wouldn’t work, the Liberals have promised to give municipalities powers to implement a gun ban in their own cities.

When tasked with surveying public sentiment for a ban, Public Safety Canada found that a majority of Canadians oppose a handgun ban with 80% of urban residents against such an idea, and 85% of rural residents also in opposition. 

During his campaign ahead of the 2019 election, Trudeau promised that his government would legislate powers to “further restrict” or ban legal ownership of handguns and “assault-style” rifles. 

B.C.’s first Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender tweeted that Canada should ignore its own laws and obey a United Nations directive to end three resource development projects including the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“In my lifetime, there has never been a more important time for Canada to demonstrate support for institutions of democracy,” wrote Govender in a statement.

“I join CERD [Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination] in urging Canada to immediately cease the forced eviction of Wet’suwet’en and Secwepemc peoples, to prohibit the use of lethal weapons, and to guarantee no force will be used against them. This is a matter of fundamental human rights.”

Govender’s statements are in direct opposition to a ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court which ordered the LNG pipeline project to continue. The project also has the support of B.C.’s NDP government, led by Premier John Horgan, and elected First Nations groups along the pipeline route.

According to official records, Govender earns an approximate annual salary of $300,000 for her role.

In the court ruling, Justice Marguerite Church stated that the project has suffered “irreparable harm” from protests led by hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs seeking to sabotage the pipeline. Justice Church also stated that the tribe’s indigenous laws are not recognized as part of Canadian law. 

“There has been no process by which Wet’suwet’en customary laws have been recognized in this manner. While Wet’suwet’en customary laws clearly exist on their own independent footing, they are not recognized as being an effectual part of Canadian law,” wrote Justice Church in her injunction to proceed with construction.

Wet’suwet’en chiefs have since ignored the court order and continue their effort to limit access to the work site.

18 members from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination responded to the project’s construction by ordering Canada to halt construction on the project along with two other resource developments.

Tensions have flared over the LNG pipeline project prompting the RCMP to investigate various dangerous traps found near the construction site.

According to the RCMP they discovered “bags full of fuel-soaked rags” and jerrycans of gasoline near the road.

“These concerning items have been brought to the attention of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. They have also been advised that the RCMP has entered into a criminal investigation under Section 247 of the Criminal Code for Traps Likely to Cause Bodily Harm,” said the RCMP. 

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne says that Canada will be investigating claims that the Iranian government is harassing families trying to retrieve the remains of family members from the Ukrainian airliner crash site. 

On Twitter, Champagne replied to a video posted by an Iranian journalist of a grieving mother calling on Canada to help her retrieve the body of her Canadian son. According to Masih Alinejad, who posted the video, the woman’s family was warned to not speak to journalists by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. 

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. These allegations are disturbing and we will look into them,” replied Champagne on Twitter. 

The Iranian dictatorship admitted on Saturday that they were responsible for shooting down the passenger jet and killing 176 people, including 57 Canadians. 

Since the admission, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the brutal regime and its actions. 

The protests have carried on for three days and resulted in a violent crackdown from regime authorities with riot police firing live ammunition at Iranian citizens. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for the crash stating that had it not been for his recent “escalations” in the region, the 57 dead Canadians would still be alive. 

“If there were no tensions, if there was no escalation recently in the region, those Canadians would be right now home with their families,” said Trudeau.

U.S. representative and Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy has denied Trudeau’s insinuations saying that the blame lies squarely with Iran. 

“There’s no blame here for America. America stood up once again for freedom. Iran went past a red line they had not gone past before killing a US citizen — Iran shot down a commercial airliner there’s no doubt where the blame lies,” said McCarthy. 

The federal government is looking for public input as they prepare to put new assisted suicide regulations into place.

 “On September 11, 2019, the Superior Court of Québec found (Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada) that it was unconstitutional to limit access to [assisted suicide] to people nearing the end of life,” the Department of Justice said.

“The Court’s ruling will come into effect on March 11, 2020, unless an extension is granted by the Court.”

As a result of this ruling, which only applies in Quebec, the Canadian government has said they will work with other provinces to redesign the rules around assisted suicide.

To receive assisted suicide, which the government calls “medical assistance in dying,” Canadians need to pass several eligibility criteria and pass certain safeguards which the system uses to avoid abuse.

In order to consult with Canadians, the government has created a survey to ask the public how they feel about current assisted suicide safeguards.

The survey asked Canadians about current requirements like psychological evaluation and the 10-day reflection period prior to assisted death.

The survey also asks for one’s opinion on a hypothetical situation where a person is unable to give final consent immediately before the procedure, but had given consent at a previous date.

Assisted suicide laws in Canada are relatively new, with the practice only becoming legal in 2016 after the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition on assisted suicide violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The legitimacy of the ruling that legalized assisted suicide was put into question in November 2019, when it was alleged that the judge who decided the case at the provincial level was connected to one of plaintiffs in the case.

It was also alleged that then-chief justice Beverley McLachlin had a personal bias in favour of legalizing assisted suicide.

When activist Roger Foley filed these allegations with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court they were dismissed without a reason given. None of these allegations have been tested in court to date.

The Department of Justice says that since the legalization of assisted suicide 6,700 Canadians have committed suicide with the help of a doctor or nurse practitioner.

The consultation survey closes on Monday, January 27.

The CBC reported another abysmal year in viewership and profitability in 2019 according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

The national broadcaster’s annual report shows that ad revenues for their English language TV programs fell by 37% over the previous year. In 2018, the CBC reported a total of $178 million in ad revenues, whereas in 2019 they only generated $112.5 million. 

CBC’s share of the market also fell to a meager 5% down from 8% in 2018. The total audience tuning into local evening CBC TV newscasts was only 319,000 Canadians across the country, or approximately 0.8% of Canada’s population. 

The recent findings follow a trend of decline for the taxpayer-funded broadcaster despite receiving $1.2 billion from the federal government each year. Over the past five years the amount of ad revenue the company has managed to pull in has shrunk by 53%. 

“Our objective is not to make money but to provide a service and fulfil our mandate. We reinvent ourselves every year to try and find new ways to do things because we have to offer more, but with a smaller budget. So that requires visionary talent,” said Radio-Canada Executive Vice President Michel Bissonnette.

In November the CBC announced that it would be downsizing and cutting 35 jobs with a majority of the cuts taking place at their Toronto headquarters.

Canada’s Heritage and Multiculturalism Minister Steven Guilbeault announced even more funding for the CBC late last year. According to Guilbeault, the broadcaster would be eligible for an increased amount of funding to expand local news coverage. The government has yet to announce any further details on how much additional funding the CBC can expect to receive.

The increased funding is in tune with Guilbeault’s directive from Prime Minister Trudeau to “strengthen the regional mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada.”

When testifying before a parliamentary committee in May 30, CBC’s CEO Catherine Tait told members that the broadcaster’s role was to “protect the truth” and “dispel misinformation.” 

“How do we protect and defend our citizenry from this unbelievable tsunami of disinformation? In a sense we become a beacon for truth. We need the public to feel safe, that we are a beacon for that truth,” said Tait.

However, several recent incidents show that the CBC has failed to meet its own standards. 

As reported on by True North investigative journalism fellow Lindsay Shepherd, the CBC failed to fully translate a hateful and anti-democratic Chinese letter posted on a student’s locker in Richmond, B.C. Instead of publishing the full pro-China letter, the CBC opted to only refer to a few select words in their report. 

In another instance covered by True North the CBC overstated a study’s findings on how many Canadians experience racism. The original report claimed that only 8% of Canadians reported experiencing racial discrimination, but instead the CBC article on the issue falsely claimed that 40% of Canadians did so. 

The RCMP has opened a criminal investigation after fuel-soaked rags and various traps were discovered near the site of a pipeline project in British Columbia.

The RCMP says stacks of tires hidden under tarps along with jugs of gasoline and “bags full of fuel-soaked rags” were found on the road leading to the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline.

In a press release, RCMP say they informed protesters blocking the site that an investigation is underway.  The hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation are leading the protest.

“These concerning items have been brought to the attention of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. They have also been advised that the RCMP has entered into a criminal investigation under Section 247 of the Criminal Code for Traps Likely to Cause Bodily Harm,” RCMP say.

Coastal GasLink is the cornerstone of a $40 billion liquified natural gas (LNG) project. Natural gas extracted from northern BC would be transported via Coastal Gaslink to a proposed LNG plant in Kitimat.

Coastal GasLink’s owner TC Energy of Calgary signed agreements with all First Nations along the pipeline’s proposed path. Despite the elected chiefs signing an agreement, the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en say the project is in violation of their traditional laws. A B.C. court ruled that Wet’suwet’en law has no influence over Canadian domestic law.

On December 31 the BC Supreme Court issued an injunction ordering protestors to stop blocking access to the Coastal Gaslink construction site. Shortly after the RCMP arrested 14 protesters.

Just three days later Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs issued an “eviction notice” to Coastal Gaslink employees telling them to leave the construction site.

Along with “traps,” RCMP have found trees cut and ready to fall near the road.

“Coastal GasLink respects the rights of individuals to peacefully and lawfully protest so long as their activities do not jeopardize the safety of the public, our employees, our contractors, or the RCMP,” Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer said in a statement.

Despite the injunction, Wet’suwet’en protesters and their supporters continue to block the construction site, with Coastal GasLink workers only allowed in over the weekend to winterize the site.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there are “lots of discussions” to be had about taxpayers potentially footing the bill of Prince Harry and Meghan’s security bills should they reside permanently in Canada.

“I think most Canadians are very supportive of having royals be here, but how that looks and what kind of costs are involved, there are still lots of discussions to have,” said Trudeau. 

“We are obviously supportive of their reflections but have responsibilities in that as well. We’re not entirely sure what the final decisions will be.”

The statement comes after a report by the U.K. outlet the Evening Standard claimed that Trudeau offered to pay for the couple and their child’s security. The annual round-the-clock security bill could cost Canadians up to $1.7 million CAD.

According to Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be splitting their time between Canada and the U.K. 

The couple officially announced on their Instagram account their decision to become more “financially independent” and carve out a more “progressive” role in the royal family.

“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” said a statement by the couple. 

When questioned by reporters, Finance Minister Bill Morneau stated that he had “not had any discussions on that subject” with Prime Minister Trudeau.

Currently, the couple are provided security services while travelling abroad by the Scotland Yard.