A group dedicated to western separation has taken the first step towards fielding election Candidates. Wexit Alberta has applied to be an official political party with Elections Canada.
Wexit Alberta’s leader, Peter Downing, said early Monday that the group is in the process of becoming a sanctioned federal party.
“We’re sending in over 500 signatures, over double the required 250 signatures,” Downing told CTV.
“We’re going to do for Western Canada what the Bloc Quebecois does for Quebec.”
Wexit, which stands for “Western exit,” is a burgeoning movement that wishes to see the western provinces leave confederation.
The group saw an immediate spike in interest after the federal election, in which the governing Liberals failed to win a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan. The Liberals also lost seats in British Columbia and Manitoba.
Wexit Alberta received a good reception at its first rally in Edmonton. Rallies in Calgary and Red Deer are scheduled for later this month.
The group desires to see Alberta separate from Canada and create an independent federal republic.
“We will ensure that Alberta remains sovereign, and no way subordinate to the Government of Canada, British Crown, or the United Nations,” the group’s platform reads.
Downing said that the current dynamic between the west and Ottawa is not fair, especially with regards to equalization payments.
“From our perspective, it’s a very unfair equalization program. We went through a horrible downturn and are still going through that right now,” said Downing.
“For a number of reasons right now Western Canadians, and Alberta, in particular, are looking into the situation and we really do think that we are going to be better off separate from the ruling authorities in Ottawa.”
After the election, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding action on Alberta issues such as equalization fairness and pipelines, none of which have been addressed as of yet.
Kenney remains firmly against the idea of Alberta secession.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, unions and environmental groups want the federal government to increase the carbon tax by nearly double its current rate.
Labour unions and environmental lobbyists including Unifor and the David Suzuki Foundation make up the Climate Action Network, who wish to see the tax on Canadians increased by 10 dollars a year above its $50 a tonne cap.
“We think the carbon price should continue to ramp up ten dollars a year, year over year, in the coming years. If we see the carbon tax continue to go up ten dollars a year, year over year, we’ll see it at fifty dollars a year in 2022, 2023 it will be $60 – you can do the math,” said executive director of the Climate Action Network, Catherine Abreu.
Currently, Canadian households spend between $200 to $400 a year on the carbon tax depending on their province of residence.
During the election, Unifor came out against the Conservative Party and its leader Andrew Scheer, who sought to repeal the carbon tax if elected. The official Twitter account of the union posted images of union heads declaring themselves to be “Andrew Scheer’s worst nightmare”.
According to the 2018 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, the carbon tax is set to reach its maximum cap by 2022, however, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) stated in a report that this rate would not meet the Paris Agreement targets. According to the PBO, the tax would have to be a whopping $102 a tonne to meet these targets.
Prior to the election, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna stated that if re-elected the Liberals would review the 2022 emissions cap in light of the PBO report. She did not clarify whether or not the Trudeau government would raise the price of the carbon tax.
Such an increase could raise the carbon tax on gasoline over the current cap of 12 cents a litre to over 23 cents a litre.
After Justin Trudeau’s re-election in October, Ontario Premier Doug Ford pledged that he will continue to challenge the federal carbon tax all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada. Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have all mounted or joined in on a constitutional challenge to the levy.
Saskatchewan’s challenge is set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in December. In July, Quebec Premier François Legault announced that his province will intervene on behalf of Saskatchewan in order to “protect provincial jurisdiction.”
“I have been clear with the premiers of other provinces who are opposed for other reasons to this encroachment. We want to protect provincial jurisdiction to fight climate change,” said Legault on the decision.
Most recently, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pause the carbon tax until 2020 so the province can look at different ways to meet emission targets without taxing ordinary Canadians.
Prior to the request, Premier Moe sent a letter to the prime minister asking for a “new deal” on equalization, pipelines and the carbon tax, pointing to frustration among Canadians in the Prairies. The re-election of Justin Trudeau to a minority Liberal government has led to a rise in separatist sentiments in the western provinces. A recent rally in Edmonton organized by Wexit Alberta saw several hundred attendees join to discuss the topic of separation.
“There is frustration here in the Prairie provinces. There is a fire burning in the Prairie provinces,” said Moe.
The federal government has denied playing any role in the drafting in the publication of a controversial Muslim voting guide by researchers at Laurier University. While the anti-Islamophobia researchers did receive a $25,000 grant, this money was not tied to the voting guide, but rather their general Islamophobia research.
My belief in the importance of Canadian-headquartered companies goes back to the early 1970s when, as a young engineer, I joined the Canadian subsidiary of a Nebraska-based oil and gas company. While I was treated well and given substantial responsibility, I yearned to work for a company where the decisions were made in Calgary, not Omaha.
That opportunity came with a new startup called the Alberta Energy Company. I joined AEC to head the building of the oil and gas division. The company grew quickly. But five years later, the entire oil and gas industry was struck a huge blow by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program that capped oil prices below world levels and slapped a confiscatory tax on the gross revenues of energy companies.
Canadian-headquartered companies were supposed to benefit from cash grants, provided we shifted our drilling to federally owned lands. But most of those lands were in the Arctic where drilling costs were prohibitive and access to pipelines non-existent. After the Mulroney Conservatives killed the Trudeau policies in 1985, AEC got back to the job of company building.
Not long after I became the company’s CEO in 1994, American takeovers of Canadian oil and gas companies began accelerating. Having grown AEC into one of the two Canadian energy companies with the largest market value, rivaled only by PanCanadian Petroleum (a member the venerable Canadian Pacific group), we had managed to avoid that fate. But market intelligence revealed we were on the radar screen of the big global multinational majors, the only players with the capacity to take us out.
We knew that the best defence was to become an even larger, nationally-important energy company. On Jan. 28, 2002, Alberta Energy and PanCanadian announced a $27 billion “merger of equals” that would create the world’s largest publicly traded independent oil and gas producer. Given my career-long belief in the importance of Canadian-controlled companies, it was important that the name of our new company symbolize its status as Canada’s flagship energy company. Hence the name Encana — from the words “Energy Canada.”
Employees of the two companies united in our mission of “energy for people.” When I retired four years later, Encana was our country’s largest energy company and also the largest of all Canadian companies by stock market value. My dream of building a Canada-headquartered energy company, invulnerable to takeover, had become a reality. I could never have imagined that, seventeen years later, the company would decide to export itself.
Encana had already shifted most of its multi-billon-dollar capital program to the United States when the $6 billion acquisition of U.S. producer Newfield Exploration was announced last May. That meant that Encana’s largest production region would now be the United States, not in Canada. That was followed the move of CEO Doug Suttles from Calgary to Denver. With half its board of directors, 60 per cent of its production and the vast majority of its capital program south of the border, it was clear that Canada’s flagship energy company had become Americanized.
That lamentable process was completed with last week’s announcement that the head office was moving to the U.S.. CEO Suttles stated that the primary reason was to attract a higher stock market valuation. Why would that be true? The answer is that the Trudeau government’s toxic policies towards what has long been Canada’s most economically important industry have transformed Canada’s oil and gas business climate from positive to pariah.
For me and the once proud current and former Canadian employees, the Americanization of the company is distressing enough, but the loss of the Encana name is particularly heart-wrenching. Apparently, the company’s board concluded even keeping a name that implies Canadian roots repels investors. That is a stark reminder of how far down our country has plummeted in the eyes of investors, a tragedy that should concern all Canadians. In the days since the announcement, I’ve been asked if I thought the federal election outcome promulgated the change in domicile. Given the re-election of national government ideologically opposed to the oil and gas industry’s very existence, it’s clear to me that its re-election struck the final blow to Encana as a Canadian headquartered company.
Elizabeth May has announced that she will be stepping down as the leader of the Green Party of Canada but will stay on as parliamentary leader for the caucus.
Jo-Ann Roberts has been named the interim leader of the party until October 2020 when the party’s next leadership vote will take place.
During the 2019 federal election, the Greens were able to secure three seats in the House of Commons.
Elizabeth May has been the leader of the party for over a decade since 2006. While she is abandoning her leadership spot, she will stay on as the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands.
“I want to make sure that when I leave as Green Party of Canada we’ve got momentum, we’ve got growth, we’ve got exciting leadership and I know we will have all of these. As of today I am no longer leader of the Green Party of Canada,” said May.
Several people have been eyeing the position in light of rumours regarding May’s resignation. The leader of the Green Party of Quebec, Alex Tyrrell stated that he has been considering taking on the role.
A number of refugee advocates, including a victim of sexual assault at the hands of MS-13, are taking the government to court over the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).
The 2004 law disallows asylum seekers from making claims at official border crossings in Canada because the U.S. is deemed a safe country.
Since 2017, approximately 45,517 illegal border crossers have taken advantage of a loophole in the law and walked into Canada in between official border crossings.
The group will argue that the border agreement is unconstitutional because failed asylum claimants may face “detention and mistreatment” in the U.S. They are seeking to have the law suspended.
Several refugee claimants along with the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International and the Canadian Council of Churches are involved in the constitutional challenge.
Despite the claims brought forward by the challenge, the U.S. is considered a safe country for refugees by international standards. The Canadian government has also re-iterated that it will not amend its neighbour’s status as a safe country.
“The United States remains a country governed by the rule of law, and by the branches of the executive, legislative and judiciary, while also subscribing to international conventions on refugees and on torture,” said Marie-Emmanuel, the press secretary for the Minister of Border Security Bill Blair.
A 2017 review of the status by immigration officials determined that the U.S. continues to meet all international obligations with regards to refugees and asylum seekers.
The Conservatives have called on the government to re-negotiate the agreement in order to close the loophole allowing illegal entry into the country. Currently, the Canadian government and its U.S. counterparts are involved in ongoing talks with regards to amending the law.
Illegal border crossers who enter into Canada are detained upon entry and undergo preliminary security screenings, some of which take as little as two hours. The influx of illegal migrants has led the Auditor General of Canada to project that wait times for asylum hearings could take up to five years by 2024 with a growing backlog in the tens of thousands.
The high amount of asylum claimants funneled into metropolitan areas like Toronto and Montreal has led to a growing strain on the cities’ finances and shelter systems. In Toronto, as reported exclusively by True North, a number of hotels have been repurposed as shelters for the claimants.
“They provide everything. It’s good. Compared to U.S., it’s five star,” said one Syrian man about his stay at the Studio 6 hotel in downtown Toronto.
Canadians have re-elected Justin Trudeau and given his Liberal Party a minority government, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Trudeau government is plagued with several scandals, including numerous ethics violations.
Prime Minister Trudeau was the first Prime Minister in Canadian history to have broken ethics laws. Not once, but twice.
Trudeau is not alone. A number of Liberal MPs and even Cabinet Ministers have violated ethics laws.
Here are four MPs who were re-elected in October, including the prime minister himself, who were found to have violated ethics laws.
Justin Trudeau: accepting gifts from the Aga Khan
In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found to have violated conflict of interest laws for accepting gifts and a vacation from the Aga Khan. Investigations by the ethics commissioner found that Trudeau broke four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act.
A year earlier, the prime minister accepted a family vacation from the Aga Khan, whose foundation has received upwards of $330 million from the Canadian government for his foundation. While on vacation, Trudeau travelled to the Aga Khan’s private island on a private aircraft and helicopter. While on the private island, he also participated in conversations that could have furthered the private interests of the Aga Khan.
“I found that these gifts could reasonably be seen to have been given to influence Mr. Trudeau in the exercise of an official power, duty or function,” wrote Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion.
Further, Trudeau’s family vacation to the private island cost taxpayers over $215,000, a number which wasn’t fully disclosed to the House of Commons.
Justin Trudeau: Politically interfering in the justice system
Former Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould accused the Trudeau government of inappropriately pressuring her to politically interfere in the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin.
The ethics commissioner sided with Wilson-Raybould and found that Justin Trudeau once again broke the Conflict of Interest Act.
When the Globe and Mail originally reported this story, Trudeau called the allegations “false.” However, in August, Ethics Commissioner declared that the prime minister did, in fact, break section 9 of the Act.
Despite repeated indications from Wilson-Raybould that she felt she was being pressured to give SNC-Lavalin a break, the prime minister and members of his office continued to try and interfere politically.
“For these reasons, I found that Mr. Trudeau used his position of authority over Ms. Wilson‑Raybould to seek to influence, both directly and indirectly, her decision on whether she should overrule the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision not to invite SNC-Lavalin to enter into negotiations towards a remediation agreement,” wrote Dion in his judgement.
During the 2019 election, Trudeau was re-elected to his seat in Papineau with 51.18% of the vote.
Dominic Leblanc: gave lucrative fishing licence to wife’s cousin’s employer
Former Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Dominic LeBlanc was found to have violated ethics laws by awarding his wife’s cousin with a lucrative Arctic surf clam fishing license.
Leblanc knowingly used his position and official powers to award the Five Nations Clam Company which employed his wife’s cousin Gilles Thériault. Thériault, who stood to benefit from the decision, was to be appointed to the position of General Manager by the company.
“As Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Mr. LeBlanc was exercising an official power, duty or function when he made the decision to pursue the proposal from the Five Nations Clam Company for the Arctic surf clam licence. His decision provided an opportunity to further the private interest of Mr. Thériault, whose compensation by the company depended on it being granted the licence,” wrote the commissioner’s ruling.
In October, LeBlanc was re-elected in Beauséjour, New Brunswick with 46.47% of the vote.
Anita Vandenbeld: trying to get her husband elected as councilor
Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld was found to have been guilty of contravening the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons when she used her position to try and get her husband elected as a member of Ottawa’s Bay Ward city council.
In 2018, when her husband Don Dransfield ran for the spot on the council, Vandenbeld sent out campaign material and robocalls which identified her as a Member of Parliament and asked electors to vote for her husband as her “municipal counterpart.”
“I found that when Ms. Vandenbeld used her position as a Member of the House of Commons, she sought to influence those voters and that her actions could further the private interests of a family member,” wrote Commissioner Dion.
While Vandenbeld was found guilty of breaking the law, Dion ruled that it was a result of an “error in judgement made in good faith.”
Vandenbeld held onto the Ottawa West – Nepean seat this last election and was able to secure 45.6% of the votes in the riding.
Judy Sgro: fast-tracking stripper’s visa after volunteering on her campaign
In 2004, under the government of Paul Martin, current Liberal MP and then-Immigration Minister Judy Sgro was found to have been in a conflict of interest when she fast-tracked the residence permit of a Romanian stripper who volunteered on her re-election campaign. Several days before that year’s election, Sgro awarded 25-year-old Alina Balaican the permit which allowed her to remain in Canada for another two years and eventually apply for permanent resident status.
While the ethics commissioner found that Sgro herself was not aware of Balaican’s role as a campaign volunteer, her staff did and they placed the minister in a conflict of interest when she approved the application.
“There was no serious attempt to screen volunteers so as to eliminate those seeking the Minister’s active intervention for their own benefit,” wrote Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro.
Judy Sgro was re-elected to her Humber River – Black Creek seat in the 2019 federal election with 61.1% of the vote.
It’s been two weeks since the federal election and the Prime Minister has been conspicuous with his absence.
While Encana, one of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies, announced it will be relocating to the United States, our Prime Minister was catching some gnarly waves in Tofino, BC.
According to government estimates, approximately 180 people are believed to have travelled from Canada to fight for the Islamist extremist group ISIS. Of the total, 60 terrorists have been allowed to freely enter back into the country, while the remaining are detained or still abroad fighting with terrorist groups.
Currently, the Canadian government is allegedly keeping a list of these terrorists and tracking their whereabouts. Very few charges, however, have been laid despite one man having admitted to carrying out executions and others having been involved in heinous crimes.
The Liberal government has been silent on how they intend to deal with returning extremist fighters. Former Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale stated that only four charges have been laid, two of which are still before the courts. The Conservative opposition has pushed for the government to take more action in prosecuting these terrorists.
Despite the fact that dozens of ISIS members are currently roaming freely within our country, very few of them have been publicly identified or named.
One report by Barbara Kay for the National Post explained how a Yazidi woman who was subjected to sexual slavery in Syria identified her unnamed ISIS captor on public transit in London, Ontario. The woman approached government officials, but they dismissed her claims and even told her to not tell others about the encounter.
The following is a list of individuals who have been identified publicly for having left to fight for ISIS abroad.
ISIS members who have returned to Canada:
Abu Huzaifa Al Kanadi is the pseudonym of a man currently living freely in Toronto. Huzaifa admitted on the New York Times podcast Caliphate that he tortured one man and executed and murdered two others. Despite repeatedly lying to Canadian authorities, no charges have been brought against the man who is now attending a Canadian university without any consequences.
Pamir Hakimzadah travelled to Turkey in 2014 in an effort to join ISIS. He travelled around Istanbul alone for four days later until a taxi driver turned him over to the police after he suspected Hakimzadah of trying to join ISIS.
Hakimzadah was banned from Turkey for one year and, in mid-November of 2014, Turkish authorities deported him to Canada.
But that didn’t stop this wannabe ISIS fighter. Nor did it raise any red flags for Canadian officials.
Once he was back in Toronto, Hakimzadah told his family he would try to go back to Syria. According to allegations presented in his bail hearing, he is quoted saying he would be “fulfilling the wishes of God to kill non-Muslims.”
As he boarded a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul on June 27, 2016, he was arrested.
The RCMP initially charged him with assault, but later charged him with leaving Canada to participate in terrorism.
He was admitted to a maximum-security prison in Penetanguishene, ON, in April 2019 but was released back into the public just two months later. Hakimzadah is now on probation and required to undergo “de-radicalization counselling.”
ISIS members who are being held abroad:
Mohammad Ali, otherwise known as “Abu Turaab,” is a 28-year-old former Mississauga resident who is currently being detained in Syria for being an ISIS fighter and propagandist. Ali, who was a student at Ryerson University, travelled to Syria in 2014 where he used social media to encourage others to join the terrorist group and encouraged sympathizers to commit terror attacks in the West.
In his posts, Ali spoke about how he played soccer with severed heads and claimed that homosexuals and non-Muslims “should be killed.” He also posted several masked photographs of himself with weapons and other ISIS fighters holding severed heads while serving as a fighter for the group.
Jack Letts, otherwise known as “Jihadi Jack,” is a 24-year-old U.K. resident who is also a Canadian citizen through his father. He is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2014 where he joined ISIS. Letts’ parents have also been found guilty of funding terrorism for sending him money when they were aware that he was a member of the terror group.
In 2015 Letts posted a picture of himself doing the one-finger salute, a common signal used by ISIS members. Letts was captured by Kurdish forces in the Battle of Raqqa while seeking to escape. In 2019, the U.K. government stripped Letts of his citizenship. Jack and his parents have since been trying to convince the Canadian government to allow him into the country.
Mohammad Khalifa, also known as “Mohammad Abdullah Mohammed,” is a former Toronto resident and Seneca College student who commanded several fighters for ISIS. He was born in Saudi Arabia and immigrated to Canada in 1983. Khalifa allegedly joined ISIS in 2013 where he eventually oversaw 17 fighters for the terror group. He was eventually captured earlier this year while still armed with an AK-47 and a pistol.
Khalifa has also admitted to narrating ISIS propaganda videos including mass executions. Currently there are no charges being brought against Khalifa despite his participating in terrorism. He has also said in interviews that suicide bombings are “acceptable” and that he sees “an obligation to keep fighting.”
Defeated MPs will get up to $15,000 from Canadian taxpayers to aid their transition into the workforce, among other benefits.
The 48 MPs who were defeated in the October 21 federal election will be getting $15,000 in allowances to pay for a career transition program or other career-related expenses like tuition for further education and office supplies.
Defeated MPs are also entitled to four return trip flights anywhere in Canada for job interviews or other career-related reasons.
This compensation is significantly more generous than what ordinary Canadians receive when they are fired.
The compensation is even more generous for MPs who chose not to seek another term.
MPs who decided not to run again received severance pay from the taxpayer amounting to around $1,619,000, or an average of $89,944 per MP.
Furthermore, the 18 MPs who had not served a minimum six years, which is required to get a pension, will instead receive half their annual salary as severance.
In 2018, MPs earned an annual salary of $153,900, and cabinet ministers earned $264,400.
They will also get their sizeable pension contributions back with interest.
For context, the severance pay required by law in Ontario for someone in that pay-grade who worked for four years would be entitled to less than $14,000.
MPs who have served the required six years in the House will be able to receive one of the most generous pensions in Canada once they turn 65.
The contribution rate of MPs in 2019 at the maximum contribution stood at 20.64%, meanwhile ordinary public sector employees received only 8.68%.
Combined with near-annual pay raises, being an MP is a highly lucrative profession, regardless if they got re-elected in October.
