The Kingston teenager arrested in relation to a bomb plot in January 2019 is expected to plead guilty to various terror charges.
Crown lawyers are asking that the accused be tried as an adult which could land him in prison with a life sentence, however, as a youth he can expect to only serve a maximum of three years.
The youth, whose identity is being protected due to his age, is being charged with taking action to cause an explosion and possessing explosive materials.
Last year, the RCMP arrested two individuals believed to be involved in a terror plot after receiving a tip from the FBI. During a raid, police are said to have found materials meant to be used in creating a bomb.
“It suggests that somebody from Kingston had contacted somebody in the United States or potentially somebody in the United States had contacted somebody in Kingston,” said former CSIS director Ward Elcock about the arrest.
Internal RCMP documents show that the federal police force was worried that the arrest would lead to anti-immigrant sentiments among Canadians.
The arrest of a Syrian refugee may cause some negative reaction on the Syrian population and immigrant population due to current anti-immigration sentiments,” wrote an RCMP strategy document.
Despite their concerns, no hate-related incidents were reported as a result of the arrest.
20-year old Syrian refugee Hussam Eddin Alzahabi was later released without charges after further questioning.
The suspect who was charged in the incident was later released on bail in April and ordered to surrender his passport and wear an ankle monitor, among other restrictions.
Justice Stephen Hunter has stated that the case will be postponed to February 5, 2020. According to the lawyers of the accused, he will be pleading guilty to the charges against him.
No preliminary hearing is scheduled as the two sides are negotiating a plea bargain.
Journalists from Canada’s mainstream media outlets tried to pin the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines jet carrying 63 Canadians on U.S. President Donald Trump.
During a CBC broadcast and a press conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reporters repeatedly attempted to connect a recent U.S. airstrike which killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani with the subsequent downing of the Ukrainian airliner over Iranian airspace.
Trudeau spoke to media after reports emerged that several intelligence sources believe that the plane was shot down by Iranian anti-aircraft defense missiles while passing over Tehran.
During the press conference several journalists repeatedly asked Trudeau whether Trump’s actions in Iraq were the cause for the plane crash.
“If the intelligence is accurate then it seems that this is the end result of a sequence of results that was sparked by the drone strike ordered by the U.S. President. So given the information you have how much responsibility does the United States bear for this tragedy?” asked CBC reporter David Cochrane.
Similarly, during a CBC broadcast on the press conference several reporters including Katie Simpson also implied that the U.S. was to blame for the crash.
“Are 63 Canadians dead because of the unintended consequences of a decision made by the U.S. President?” asked Simpson during a live broadcast.
Donald Trump addressed the crash during a press conference denying that the U.S. played any role in the plane’s downing.
“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side … not our system. It has nothing to do with us,” said Trump.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced earlier this morning that he spoke with Iran’s foreign minister to secure access for Canadian investigators to visit the crash site.
Another idiot at the CBC suggesting the US could be equally to blame for the mullahs murdering 176 people, thereby absolving Iran of it’s evil heinous deeds. This is vile. https://t.co/Leor53INZT
The United Nations says it’s “racist” to support the energy industry in Canada.
63 Canadians are killed in a plane crash in Iran.
The media swoons over Justin Trudeau’s beard because apparently there’s nothing else going on in the world.
Tune in to the latest episode of The Candice Malcolm Show!
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the public on Thursday afternoon after reports emerged that Iranian missiles shot down the Boeing 737 which killed 176 people, including 63 Canadians.
“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile. This might well have been unintentional,” said Trudeau.
“Canada is working with its allies to ensure that a thorough and credible investigation is conducted to determine the causes of this crash.”
When asked by journalist David Cochrane how Canada would respond to the missile strike, Trudeau didn’t rule out the possibility of taking measures to pressure Iran.
“If Iran does not cooperate and there are some reports of at least minimal cooperation or questionable cooperation. What pressure can you bring to bear, would you argue for sanctions, economic repercussions, what can Canada do to pressure Iran to give you the investigation you want?” asked Cochrane.
“I think those are conversations and steps we will contemplate as we move forward if it doesn’t appear there will be a credible and complete investigation.”
According to a Newsweek report, American and Iraqi intelligence officials are alleging that the Boeing 737 passenger flight was accidentally struck down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
Trudeau addressed the plane crash on Wednesday and stated that 138 of the 176 people on board were headed for Canada.
Earlier today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne stated that he had spoken with Iran’s foreign minister and requested access for Canadian investigators to search the crash site.
“Minister Champagne stressed the need for Canadian officials to be quickly granted access to Iran to provide consular services, help with identification of the deceased and take part in the investigation of the crash,” said a statement by Global Affairs Canada.
Iranian authorities recently announced it would allow Canadian specialists to go and investigate the crash site.
The Boeing 737 that crashed in Iran killing 176 people, including 63 Canadian citizens is believed to have been shot down accidentally by an Iranian missile according to Newsweek.
Senior U.S. and Iraq intelligence officials allege that the Ukraine International Airlines Flight was struck down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile.
Authorities believe that a Russian Tor-M1 missile was responsible for the takedown.
The flight crashed shortly after Iran launched missiles directed at an air base in Iraq which housed U.S. troops as retaliation for the killing of Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the crash in a press conference on Wednesday saying that at least 138 of the passengers were headed to Canada.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne spoke with his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday night to request that Canadian investigators gain access to the crash site.
“Minister Champagne stressed the need for Canadian officials to be quickly granted access to Iran to provide consular services, help with identification of the deceased and take part in the investigation of the crash,” said a statement by Global Affairs Canada.
Iran has recently announced that Canadian investigators will be allowed to probe the crash outside of Tehran.
Ukrainian investigators are already on the ground looking at the site and searching for missile debris.
“I don’t want to say that because other people have their suspicions,” said U.S. President Donald Trump when asked about the crash.
“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side … not our system. It has nothing to do with us.”
The head of Iran’s aviation organization has stated that they will not be handing over the plane’s black box after it was discovered on Wednesday.
The UBC Free Speech Club booked American journalist Andy Ngo to give a speech on campus on January 29, 2020, but university administration unilaterally cancelled the event after they received unspecified security threats.
UBC Free Speech Club executive director Angelo Isidorou speaks to True North’s Lindsay Shepherd about free speech and open inquiry on campus, the “heckler’s veto,” and how he is challenging the university to uphold their status as a space for free discussion and the exchange of ideas.
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Twelve years ago four RCMP members at YVR airport responded to a disturbance call at the international arrivals area. What they found was Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski who, for whatever reason, was still in the baggage pick up area 12 hours after his flight landed.
Dziekanski was throwing around furniture, yelling and acting out. When the Mounties approached they tried to communicate with him, but they didn’t speak Polish and he didn’t speak English. Their attempts to establish communication didn’t work and hand signals proved ineffective.
As they attempted to get control of the big man, they deployed a Taser and ultimately got control of him. Unfortunately, Dziekanski suffered from what is called excited delirium and ultimately he went into cardiac arrest.
Tragic, yes.
Those four members did their job as they were trained to do. But Dziekanski’s death triggered a comedy of errors that pilloried the four police officers and ultimately ended with two of the four going to jail on contrived charges of perjury. The case was documented in Curt Petrovich’s excellent book Blamed and Broken.
The injustice was obvious to anyone watching. Especially when you consider the two who were convicted were minorities, one black and one aboriginal. The two white officers were acquitted.
Two of the four members, Cpl. Monty Robinson (Ret’d) and Cst. Gerry Rundel have been fighting back against the injustice of having four police officers pilloried in the Braidwood public inquiry, charged and prosecuted and two jailed just for doing their job.
Over the past five years, they have been filing ATIP (Access To Information) requests and to say the RCMP has not been cooperative would be too generous to the RCMP. The ATIP adjudicator has determined the RCMP has broken the law at least three times by not being responsive to the requests as is their lawful duty.
But documents have been coming out in dribs and drabs. Some of them relate to the RCMP’s public response, some relate to Robinson’s application to getting funding to appeal his criminal conviction. Others relate to the fabricated spin by then Commissioner Bill Elliot and latterly, his replacement Bob Paulson.
What is clear in the documentation is the RCMP knew the four members acted appropriately and according to their training. They have never said that publicly and even after the Braidwood inquiry made a number of fallacious findings of fact that were simply untrue, the RCMP remained mute and never defended their members.
Rundel and Robinson have since been pushing the RCMP to investigate their complaints saying senior members of the RCMP obstructed justice in doing so.
After several years of pushing their position, it now seems the RCMP have opened criminal complaints of obstruction against several senior officers including the Commissioner Brenda Lucki. They will be getting an outside agency to review the criminal complaints and ostensibly report to Crown Counsel to determine if criminal charges should be laid.
In an email conversation Cst. Rundel said, “The list of internal RCMP documents that continue to surface (ie were withheld) all point to the same conclusion. What the RCMP stated publicly was contrary to what they knew and were reporting internally.”
The RCMP is our national police force. The public must be able to trust what we are being told by them. In this case, they stood mute or publicly agreed with the flawed findings of Braidwood that led to four innocent men being charged criminally and two going to prison based on incorrect information the RCMP knew to be wrong.
Our system of justice was manipulated by those with a political agenda in all of this and the need to find scapegoats. That’s not justice just because those being thrown under the bus were police officers. No innocent person should be prosecuted and certainly, no innocent person in Canada should be jailed. That’s what justice demands.
Whether the behaviour of those senior officers who made the decisions they did was criminal obstruction I will leave to whichever investigating agency the RCMP appoints. But the documents clearly show the RCMP knew what was being said publicly and what was happening to the four members, was wrong and not supported by facts or independent witnesses.
Was it criminal? That will be for others to decide. But it was certainly shameful.
The former premier of Quebec and potential Conservative Party leader candidate Jean Charest has been providing consultation services for Huawei with regard to the extradition of Meng Wanzhou and the company’s access to Canada’s 5G network, according to the Globe and Mail.
A source alleges that Charest and former privy council clerk Wayne Wouters are part of a team at the McCarthy Tétrault law firm that is advising the Chinese tech giant.
Charest and Wouters are said to be providing Huawei with information about Canada’s extradition process and advising the company on its bid to gain access to the country’s 5G network.
The former Quebec premier has been critical of Trump’s extradition request on Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and has admitted to having clients in China.
“Our policy toward China has been hijacked by Donald Trump. We should not be kowtowing to another government with regard to our relationship with China,” said Charest in Toronto on Nov. 5, 2019.
Meng is currently awaiting an extradition hearing while under house arrest in her Vancouver mansion. As a response to her arrest, Chinese authorities arbitrarily detained two Canadians who have been imprisoned for over two years without access to legal representation.
Canada’s allies have repeatedly warned the government to not allow Huawei onto the country’s network due to concerns it could provide a backdoor for the Communist Chinese government to exploit.
Huawei has already been banned in several “Five Eyes” intelligence countries including the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
Former U.S. national security advisor Susan Rice warned Canada that allowing China onto the network would compromise intelligence collaboration between the partners.
“It gives the Chinese the ability, if they choose to use it, to access all kinds of information. Civilian intelligence, military, that could be very, very compromising. That will throw the Five Eyes collaboration, which serves the security interests of every Canadian and every American, into jeopardy. It just can’t be done,” said Rice.
Huawei executives have admitted that they are engaged in a “diplomatically forceful” lobbying effort to be a part of Canada’s 5G network. Specific Liberal ministers have been targeted for lobbying by the company, including Minister of Finance Bill Morneau, and Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne, among others.
“There’s always going to be naysayers that they don’t want to meet with you…[but] there are a lot of smart parliamentarians who were either re-elected or newly elected,” said Huawei Canada vice-president of government affairs, Morgan Elliott.
As reported on by True North, Huawei lobbied an official from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada six days before the 2019 federal election where they discussed the company’s inclusion in the 5G network.
“Meetings with Government in discussion of Huawei Canada current and long term investments and business objectives in Canada. Discussions of matters related to domestic and global security assurance practices,” said a briefing about the meeting.
City council in Sault Ste. Marie is considering a proposal to request $33,000 from a federal government anti-racism program to implement a municipal program that, among other things, seeks to reduce “lack of knowledge…as well as current rumours, stereotypes and prejudices” about newcomers.
The proposal doesn’t establish how the city will do this, but cites a European strategy that involves training “agents” to defuse prejudicial comments.
True North’s Andrew Lawton says wanting to combat racism is a noble strategy, but programs like this need to be examined critically given how governments, especially in Europe, tend to shoehorn anti-free speech policies under the guise of being about fighting racism.
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Alberta’s Minister of Energy Sonya Savage has reacted to a call by the UN for Canada to halt pipeline construction including the Trans Mountain Expansion.
Earlier this week, 18 members of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination told Canada to put an end to the construction of three major resource projects including the TMX pipeline over Indigenous rights concerns. Site C and the Coastal GasLink project were also mentioned by the group.
Savage replied to the call by saying that the unelected UN has no business telling Canada’s elected governments what to do and that the criticism ignores the many First Nations which support the pipeline.
“Canada’s duly elected representatives — not unaccountable international committees — are responsible for governing decisions in this country,” said Savage in a statement.
“With all the injustice in the world, it’s beyond rich that the unelected, unaccountable United Nations would seemingly single out Canada — one of the greatest champions of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”
Projects like @TransMtn and @CoastalGasLink have gained the support of First Nations in AB & BC.
These projects are essential for market access.
As long as there is a demand for oil & gas Canada should be supplying the world with our energy products. pic.twitter.com/PCOhJXvbIL
First Nations throughout Canada support pipeline development, with over 100 First Nations currently in discussion with the federal government to negotiate full indigenous ownership of the TMX pipeline.
Numerous First Nations along the TMX’s path have signed agreements in support of the project.
Polls show that Canadians are overwhelmingly in support of pipeline development throughout Canada. According to a December 2019 Nanos survey, three in five Canadians support pipeline construction with 42% in favour and 23% somewhat in favour.
“As long as there is a demand for oil & gas Canada should be supplying the world with our energy products,” tweeted Savage.
