Bill Blair said police chiefs want the government to ban “military-style assault weapons,” but just last summer the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police came out against sweeping gun bans, acknowledging they’re costly and just don’t work.
Blair also won’t give any indication as to what guns will be on the chopping block because he doesn’t want law-abiding gun owners to buy up the supply.
True North’s Andrew Lawton sounds the alarm about all the problems with Blair’s approach to the firearms file.
The Chinese government is charging the two Canadians it detained last year with endangering national security.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, the allegations against Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor include “covertly gathering state secrets and intelligence for foreign forces” and “stealing and illegally providing state secrets to foreign forces.”
The pair was arrested on December 10, 2018, in retaliation to the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. Meng is currently facing extradition to the U.S. for allegedly breaking sanctions on Iran and various fraud charges.
In response, Global Affairs Canada released a statement yesterday acknowledging the one year mark since they were “arbitrarily detained,” wrote the statement.
“These two Canadians are and will remain our absolute priority. We will continue to work tirelessly to secure their immediate release and to stand up for them as a government and as Canadians,” wrote the statement.
While detained, the pair have been denied access to their families and legal representation. Chinese officials have only allowed them approximately a dozen 30-minute consular visits in the past year. Kovrig’s glasses were also allegedly confiscated earlier this year for no apparent reason and the two are subject to repeat interrogations.
The Chinese government apparently took issue with the Global Affairs statement claiming that there is no such thing as “arbitrary detainment” in China and the Minister of Foreign Affairs François-Philippe Champagne’s remarks were “irresponsible.”
“The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition, and has also made solemn representations to the Canadian side,” read a statement by the Chinese Embassy who also claimed that the pair’s rights are being respected.
While the two Canadians have been imprisoned in China, Meng has been under house arrest at one of her two Vancouver-area mansions.
In a letter released one year after her arrest, Meng complained about the “fear and pain” she has had to endure and characterized the period as “the worst days of my life.” She goes on to say that while detained she’s spent the time reading books “from cover to cover” and completing oil paintings.
Meng’s extradition hearings are expected to begin on January 20, 2020.
Unemployment among young men in Alberta is on the rise according to Statistics Canada.
By November of this year, 20% of young men in the province were unemployed. The rate is double what it was in April.
According to University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, the trend represents the largest spike in Alberta outside of a recession.
“What I think is concerning but also difficult to explain is why we’ve seen a continued deterioration of the employment rate,” said Tombe.
“So typically when the recession ends, employment rates stop falling. But for men under the age of 25, their employment rate has just kept on declining.”
Alberta has struggled to recover from a downturn in its economy, largely fuelled by crashing oil prices and a failing energy sector.
According to the Financial Post, business insolvencies in the province are up 70% from its 2015 rate.
When polled on the situation, business owners are saying that the situation is only getting worse. In Calgary, a total of 89% of businesses claimed that the economic situation in the city is deteriorating.
In February 2019, Calgary had the highest unemployment rate in all of Canada reporting an unemployment rate of 7.6%. Prior to the oil price crash, Calgary had an unemployment rate of 4.5%.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney will be meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later this afternoon to discuss the province’s situation and future.
Kenney is expected to bring a list of five demands to Trudeau which includes a plan to increase provincial revenues, changes to environmental rules and a deadline on the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Supporters of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer are pointing out the similarities between how he is being portrayed by the mainstream media today and how Stephen Harper was portrayed in 2004.
In a video posted this weekend by the group Team Scheer, headlines suggesting that Stephen Harper’s leadership would not last are compared with identical ones about Scheer.
Headlines like, “Talk grows among Tories about who’ll succeed Harper” and “Harper ponders political future: Weary leader hails ‘historic result’ despite failures in Ontario,” are similar to headlines seen in the mainstream media today.
Team Scheer argues that, like Harper, Scheer will eventually go on to become prime minister despite not winning the first time.
“Of course, only a few months after these articles were all written, Stephen Harper went on to win an election,” they wrote.
“Keep that in mind when paid political consultants come out trying to divide our party and attack our leader.”
In Stephen Harper’s first election as leader, the Conservatives won 99 seats and 29.63% of the vote. In the 2019 federal election, the Conservatives under Scheer did significantly better, winning 121 seats and 34.41% of the vote.
Unlike in 2004, Conservatives in 2019 were able to win the popular vote.
Andrew Scheer has been under pressure to resign since the federal election in October, with multiple campaigns formed arguing he should step aside.
The 2020 Conservative Party convention in April will include a leadership review. Scheer will need to get the support of over 50% of the delegates in order to stay on as leader.
Scheer and his team recently created Team Scheer to defend his record ahead of the leadership review.
Governor General Julie Payette laid out the priorities of Justin Trudeau’s re-elected government in the Speech from the Throne, affirming that the Liberals plan to ban “assault rifles” and empower municipalities to restrict handguns. Doubling down on this campaign pledge means the government is ignoring the evidence and the experts, and scapegoating law-abiding gun owners for what criminals do.
True North’s Andrew Lawton, a gun owner himself, explains.
You’re not going to hear about this in the mainstream media. Only True North will stand up for law-abiding gun owners. Support True North: http://www.tnc.news/donate/
The word “Nazi” gets thrown around so much on social media, often by leftists who use the term to describe “someone whose opinion I don’t like.” At what point does name-calling become libel and defamation, forcing someone to take legal action? Is it hypocritical to be pro-free speech, but sue for defamation?
True North’s Investigative Journalism Fellow, Lindsay Shepherd, interviews Rebel Media personality Sheila Gunn Reid on her experience being called a “neo-Nazi” by Twitter user and academic Dave Barrett, and why she decided to take legal action against him, resulting in Dave having to pay Sheila $1,200.
You’re not going to hear about this story in the mainstream media. We’ll always strive to report the truth. Support True North: http://www.tnc.news/donate/
A Canadian Pacific train carrying oil ignited into fire and smoke after it derailed about 100 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon in the early hours of Monday morning.
Emergency services closed down Highway 16 for most of the day due to a “complete lack of visibility” caused by smoke, according to the RCMP.
A video of the derailment’s aftermath shows flames blazing in the distance and smoke being carried by the wind.
Local residents were woken up by emergency crews warning they may have to evacuate their homes, although authorities later confirmed that no evacuations had taken place.
Conservative MP for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan, Tom Lukiwski, commented on the situation, stating that it highlighted the need for increased pipeline capacity and the risks associated with transporting oil by train.
“Pipelines are also the safest way to transport oil, period,” Lukiwski told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
“How many more incidents like this do we need to prove that rail is the most dangerous way to transport oil? How many more environmental disasters? How many more lives put at risk?”
Lukiwski pointed to the fatal 2013 Lac-Mégantic disaster which claimed the lives of 47 people and completely destroyed or damaged over 60 buildings after a freight train derailed in the Eastern Quebec Township.
During their last term, the Liberals implemented several pieces of legislation that hurt the development of Canadian energy.
Bill C-69, which has been termed the “no more pipelines bill,” creates additional red tape that will make approval for future pipeline projects next to impossible.
No injuries have been reported in the train derailment. Investigators are currently looking into what caused the derailment.
A Nanos poll commissioned by CTV News found that half of Canadians are either concerned or somewhat concerned about western separatism.
Among those surveyed, 20% say they were “concerned” about rising separatist sentiments in the west, while another 30% say they were “somewhat concerned.”
On the other hand, only 15% report that they were not concerned, while another 31% say they are “somewhat not concerned.”
Overall, Canadians express more worry over the prospect of western separation than separatism from Quebec. With regards to Quebec, 60% of Canadians state they are not concerned or only somewhat not concerned about separatist sentiments in the province.
Since the re-election of Justin Trudeau, western separatism has reared its head in the national debate. In November, approximately 600 people attended an event hosted by Wexit Alberta in Red Deer to discuss separation.
According to movement leader Peter Downing, the group has registered as a federal party with Elections Canada and its application is currently under review.
The group has several future events planned in the near future, including a December 15 rally in Grande Prairie and a referendum rally outside Alberta’s legislature on January 11.
Opponents of Trudeau have accused the prime minister of ignoring western concerns and threatening national unity.
During the French Leaders Debate prior to the election, Trudeau told the audience that he would stand up to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and the oil industry which supports him.
In response to the federal government’s throne speech, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer warned the government to pay attention to western alienation.
“As a proud MP from Saskatchewan, I would caution all of our colleagues from across Canada to not underestimate the deep alienation and anger of the people of my province along with our neighbours in Alberta, currently feel about their deal in confederation,” said Scheer.
Canadians were outraged after the mayor of Winnipeg boasted on social media about meeting with the Chinese Ambassador to Canada earlier this month.
Mayor Brian Bowman tweeted that he and Ambassador Cong Peiwu discussed “trade” and “protection and promotion of human rights” at a December 5th meeting.
Pleased to visit with Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu. Thank you for a productive discussion about our Sister City Chengdu, trade, and Winnipeg's goal of becoming a leader in the protection and promotion of human rights. pic.twitter.com/xe4hqpHrUI
The tweet received an overwhelmingly negative response, with over 500 replies criticizing the comment and only 41 likes. Most of the responses pointed out China’s abysmal human rights record.
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne made similar comments in a resurfaced video last week, in which he claimed that China was a “very inclusive society.”
“Canada and I would say China, stands out as a beacon of stability, predictability, a rule-based system, a very inclusive society,” Champagne told Chinese state media in May of 2017.
Currently, the Chinese government is cracking down on the country’s Muslim minority by imprisoning them in re-education camps in the Xinjiang province. Witnesses have also described Chinese officials conducting systematic torture and beatings on prisoners.
According to Human Rights Watch estimates, nearly one million people, including women and children, are being held against their will in the camps.
Tuesday marks one year since Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were detained in China on trumped-up charges.
Since their arrest Dec. 10, 2018, they faced repeated interrogations and have been denied access to family and legal representation.
The pair have only received over a dozen 30-minute consular visits with Canadian officials since being imprisoned.
Global Affairs Canada released a statement Tuesday addressing Kovrig’s and Spavor’s prolonged detainment.
“These two Canadians are and will remain our absolute priority. We will continue to work tirelessly to secure their immediate release and to stand up for them as a government and as Canadians,” wrote the statement.
Tense and unstable China-Hong Kong relations, involving months of protest, are impacting Canadians and stirring some students to publicly show support for either the Hong Kong protestors or the Chinese Communist Party establishment.
One Grade 8 student at Richmond Secondary School in Richmond, BC, was displaying pro-Hong Kong paraphernalia on his locker, and on November 25th found an anonymous pro-China letter taped to his locker.
The anonymous letter was sent to the CBC by the student’s friend. However, the CBC translated only a few words from the letter in their report on the issue, and they skipped over its pro-communism, anti-democracy messaging.
True North obtained a translation of the letter, and some of the passages include “The democracy you admire is a pile of sh*t. China doesn’t need so-called democracy. Please read more books” and “Insulting our dearest mother nation is absolutely not allowed, your protest is an evil act.”
The author accused the pro-Hong Kong student of “humiliating” the communist party.
The anonymous author, who signs off only as “a Chinese person,” writes to the pro-Hong Kong student, “You need to understand you are selling your soul [to the West]” and “Only 2 words can describe a Hong Konger: low life and chicken.”
The author also states, “without the communist party, today’s China would not exist. Without the communist party, you [Hong Kong] would still be living daily under the feet of the British” and asks, “Do you know how much love the communist party has given to you?”
Richmond News, who contacted the parties involved, claims they were told by two independent sources that the individuals wrapped up in the dispute were specifically told not to go to the media (though by that point, one of the student’s friends already had).
Perhaps the school wanted to shield this story from media attention, as this incident comes hot on the heels of many similar controversies.
In October, at Steveston-London Secondary (also in Richmond, BC), students in three Mandarin language classes were shown a trailer for the People’s Republic of China-produced film “My People, My Country,” and given an assignment based on the clip. But the assignment was pulled after the several thousand members of the “Hongkongers in Vancouver” Facebook group were called upon to complain to the school district about the film trailer. The original post bringing attention to the assignment says “Parents from Vancouver and Richmond, please complain to the local school board and the school principal, this Mandarin class course has violated the rights of other ethnic groups.”
Also in October of this year, a pro-Hong Kong student at Burnaby North Secondary was shoved and yelled at by a pro-China student, in an altercation that was captured on cell phone video. At the end of the clip, a student can be heard saying “Relax, it’s okay. It’s Canada. You can have your opinions. We can have our opinions. We’ll just leave each other alone.”
Indeed, this is Canada, where we are free to express our opinions.
The students at Richmond Secondary School, whether it was the student displaying pro-Hong Kong paraphernalia or the student who wrote the pro-China letter, were exercising their freedom of expression.
The only questionable aspect here is why, unlike other news outlets, the CBC opted to not offer a translation of the pro-China letter, and deliberately downplayed and omitted its pro-communist, pro-censorship, and anti-democracy messaging.
