The terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Times Square and the New York City subway system is appealing his 40-year sentence in the U.S. 

In 2016, then 17-year-old Abdulrahman El-Bahnasawy was arrested after an investigation involving the FBI and the RCMP found that he had conspired to commit terror attacks in the name of ISIS.

Lawyers are now alleging that El-Bahnasawy’s rights were violated when he was denied a choice to pick his own legal representation and that the sentence was inhumane.

El-Bahnasawy was born in Kuwait and had lived in Canada for some time after he was arrested by U.S. authorities while in New York.

As reported on by True North founder Candice Malcolm in the Toronto Sun, El-Bahnasawy was radicalized into “militant jihad” while at an Islamic school in the Toronto area. 

During his trial, El-Bahnasawy was represented by a legal team linked to the lawyer who helped convicted terrorist Omar Khadr return to Canada. During the trial, defence lawyers claimed that his mental illness and addiction issues had a role in the attack, however, El-Bahnasawy was deemed mentally fit to stand trial. 

According to investigators, El-Bahnasawy had purchased bomb-making materials, mailed it to the area and had decided on locations for the attack. He eventually pleaded guilty to seven charges of terrorism. 

 “[He] plotted with Talha Haroon, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen living in Pakistan and Russell Salic, a 38-year-old Philippines citizen and resident, to conduct bombings and shootings in heavily populated areas of New York City during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan in 2016, all in the name of ISIS,” said the U.S. Department of Justice. 

“El-Bahnasawy acquired bomb-making materials and helped secure a cabin within driving distance of New York City to use for building explosive devices and staging the NYC Attacks.”

Prior to the plot, El-Bhanasawy had an extensive history of drug use and mental-health related issues. 

According to El-Bhanasawy’s mother, the RCMP and U.S. authorities “manipulated” El-Bhanasawy during their investigation into the plot. 

“This document shows the dirty role which the RCMP played to manipulate and drag a mentally ill boy via the internet until he got arrested in the U.S.,” his mother Khadiga Metwally told Candice Malcolm.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Finance Bill Morneau have both downplayed Canada’s economic uncertainty going into the new year.

During an end-of-year interview with CTV’s Lisa Laflamme, Justin Trudeau said that he disagreed with economists who are questioning the Liberal government’s fiscal policy.

“I actually disagree with those economists,” Trudeau said.

“We’ve been very careful to keep our debt low as a share of our economy.”

In the recent fiscal update, it was revealed that the government ran a $26.6 billion deficit in 2019, nearly $7 billion higher than was estimated. The deficit in 2020 is estimated to be $28.1 billion.

Many economists fear Canada may not be prepared for a recession as economic growth appears sluggish. Earlier in December, the Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz warned global economic growth looks to be slow for the foreseeable future. 

Oxford University economists also predict Canada has a 40% chance of a recession in 2020.

Conservative Finance Critic Pierre Poilievre warned last week that the Liberal’s spending may be sending Canada towards a “made-in-Canada” recession.

On CTV’s Question Period, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said that Conservatives should avoid using “irresponsible” claims when the economy is growing.

The fiscal update estimates that the Canadian economy will grow by 1.7% in 2019 and 1.6% in 2020. By comparison, the US economy grew by about 2.4% over the first three quarters of 2019.

“I think it’s a little bit irresponsible of the Conservatives to be making people more anxious,” Morneau said.

While Morneau appears unconcerned about possible economic uncertainty, recent opinion polling suggests that the majority of Canadians believe a recession is either “likely” or “somewhat likely.”

The loss of 71,000 jobs in November and a large rise in insolvencies in late 2019 indicate that the Canadian economy may not be on stable ground.

Morneau says that while the government will be careful, they are confident the Canadian economy will be strong in 2020.

“We need to play our hand cautiously, but I see the economy as strong and I see it as growing,” he said.

During an end-of-year interview, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to explain what the new Minister of Middle Class Prosperity, Mona Fortier, actually does.

In an interview with CTV National News’ Lisa Laflamme, Laflamme asked Trudeau what the role of the government’s new minister of middle class prosperity was. Trudeau had difficulty explaining what the new position entails.

“You’ve created this new minister of middle class prosperity, what does that actually mean?” Laflamme asked.

“Basically it’s a second person at [department of] finance who’s going to be focused on ensuring that everything we do — we see it a little bit when economists talk about numbers and ratios and approaches and deficits — people often wonder: ‘Well, what does that mean for me, what does that mean for my family, my household,’ and having a second minister in finance that’s going to focus on what it does mean for Canadians.”

Trudeau added that Canadians need someone to explain to them how the state of the economy will affect them materially.

“What does it mean for the outcomes of your kids, whether its education or healthcare. These are the things that sometimes get lost in the numbers, and having someone there to focus on the human side of things, I think is really important when you’re just looking at the numbers,” he said.

Since announcing the creation of the portfolio, which also serves as an associate minister to the minister of finance, Canadians have been questioning the purpose of the role.

Minister Fortier also had trouble defining her new role shortly after being appointed to the position. Even after the mandate letter was published in mid-December, questions remain on the purpose of the new office.

While claiming the desire to assist and elevate the middle class, both Fortier and Trudeau have not been able to define who is part of the middle class.

When pressed repeatedly by a reporter, Fortier defined a middle class person as someone who can afford their lifestyle and afford to do things like let their kids play hockey.

“I define the middle class where people feel they can afford their way of life, they have quality of life and they can send their kids to play hockey or even have different activities,” she said.

When asked in an interview with Breakfast Television to define the middle class last week, Trudeau said that Canadians know who’s in the middle class.

Former leadership candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservative party, Tanya Granic Allen, has said that the PC party’s decision to do away with delegates at its upcoming convention is an attempt to ignore the democratic process.

“We had a proper, delegated, policy convention last year, where many policies were proposed and from what I understand, some on the executive and perhaps (Ontario Premier Doug) Ford himself didn’t like the outcome of that democratic process, so they are trying to ignore the process altogether,” Granic Allen told True North.  

According to a December 2, 2019 email sent out to party members, the PC Party of Ontario will not be requiring people to be elected as delegates to vote at the Feb. 21-22 policy conference in Niagara Falls. 

“This year, you are not required to be elected as a delegate by your local riding association. If you’re a member, you’re eligible to attend. It’s that simple,” wrote conference co-chair Patrick Harris.

Harris and other party officials did not respond to inquiries from True North.

During the last policy convention in November 2018, the party passed a number of socially conservative policy resolutions, including one proposed by Granic Allen to recognize gender identity theory as a “highly controversial, liberal ideology” and to remove it from provincial school curricula.

While it resolutions passed at policy conventions become official party policy, neither PC MPPs nor the government are required to introduce them as legislation.

PC members at the upcoming convention are expected to vote on whether the resolution is binding. 

Nova Scotia’s Northern Pulp is at risk of closing its doors after Premier Stephen McNeil rejected the mill’s plea for an extension to meet environmental regulations.

McNeil said in a press conference Friday that Northern Pulp has had enough time to stop pumping waste effluent into lagoons near Pictou Landing First Nation.

“I know this could not have come at a worse time for you, but the company has failed to respect the timelines given to them five years ago,” he said. 

“To those workers and their families, please don’t despair. Our government will help and support you in this transition.”

The closure of the North Pulp mill would result in the loss of 300 jobs at the mill and about 2,400 jobs in total in the forestry sector.

“It’s a pretty dark day before Christmas,” said Pictou County Chamber of Commerce chairman Blair Van Veld.

“It’s certainly not just the mill workers that are going to be impacted and, from the chamber, our thoughts are definitely with everyone in the forestry industry and the 300 people that worked at the mill.”

Nova Scotia’s government gave Northern Pulp a deadline of January 31, 2019 to come up with a new way to dispose of the waste effluent. 

To stop pumping effluent into the lagoons, Northern Pulp proposed plans to build a pipeline that would deliver the effluent into the Northumberland Strait, a plan which was widely condemned by environmentalists for its potential effect on aquatic life.

The Nova Scotia government rejected two plans submitted by Northern Pulp to build effluent pipelines, both times saying the company did not have enough information to properly assess the environmental impact.

In a statement, Northern Pulp’s parent company Paper Excellence said the government’s inflexibility will force Northern Pulp to close.

“Northern Pulp Nova Scotia will be forced to notify its workforce and suppliers that if the government of Nova Scotia does not extend the Boat Harbour Act deadline for use of the Boat Harbour effluent treatment facility, the company will take the necessary steps to shut down the facility,” CEO Brian Baarda wrote.

“Without such decision from the government of Nova Scotia, our stakeholders need to be ready for the worst-case scenario, including the termination of more than 300 employees, and the cancellation of contracts with suppliers, contractors, and woodlot operators throughout Nova Scotia, which will have an impact on more than 11,000 jobs in Nova Scotia alone.” 

The company noted that 80% of similar facilities in North America use the lagoon system Northern Pulp currently uses, the other 20% pipe effluent into the ocean as the company is proposing.

Critics of Northern Pulp’s pipeline plan compare it to the dumping of raw sewage in cities like Victoria and Montreal, most of which still goes on to this day.

The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) says Canadians are targets of foreign influence campaigns.

In a 2018 memo, the CSE indicated social media and digital technology has made it easier for foreign powers to shape perceptions. The memo was prepared to protect the 2019 federal election from foreign interference.

“Foreign states have harnessed the new online influence systems to undertake influence activities against Western democratic processes, and they use cyber capabilities to enhance their influence activities through, for example, cyber espionage,” wrote the memo. 

The government spent $7 million in taxpayer dollars to create a department called the “Critical Election Incident Public Protocol” to monitor social media for misinformation.

After the re-election of the Trudeau Liberals, the government declared that there was no evidence indicating that there were foreign-directed social media or misinformation campaigns during the 2019 election. 

During the election, there were elements of foreign entities either endorsing the Liberals or promoting their policies. 

Prior to election day, former U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for re-election.

“The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term,” wrote Obama about Trudeau on Twitter. 

In addition, Swedish climate alarmist, Greta Thunberg, also travelled throughout Canada promoting an environmental program and meeting with Trudeau in Montreal ahead of a climate march.  

“I agree with her entirely. We need to do more. And that’s why the ambitious plans we’ve laid out all week that have been criticized by some as too ambitious, are not too ambitious — are necessary,” said Trudeau about the encounter.