Thanks to support from True North donors, Andrew Lawton is covering the first ever Global Conference for Media Freedom from London, England. Though he hasn’t actually been able to find any examples of the host countries, Canada and the United Kingdom talking about freedom of speech within their own nations.
Lawton reports from the conference at the end of Day 1.
For some time now, True North has been calling on conservative premiers across the country to fight against Trudeau’s carbon tax. Our reporting on the truth about the tax and this petition seems to have worked.
Earlier this week, the province of Quebec announced its unexpected decision to join the constitutional challenge against Trudeau’s carbon tax.
The province’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General Sonia LeBel cited protecting the province’s cap and trade system as the reason behind its decision.
“It is important for our government to intervene in this debate to ensure that Quebec can defend its position and that it be heard before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Quebec government has shown real leadership in implementing its own carbon exchange,” said LeBel in an official government press release.
In 2012, Quebec implemented a cap-and-trade program on carbon emissions which has since been in effect in the province. Due to the plan, Quebec was able to avoid having to pay the federal tax which was intended for those provinces with no carbon pricing system in effect.
A number of provinces have challenged the federal levy including Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Although both Ontario’s and Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal have turned down the challenge, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has taken the fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The other provinces are all still waiting for a ruling on the matter.
Along with Quebec, the province of P.E.I has also joined as an intervener in the matter.
According to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the carbon tax has unproportionally targeted consumers the most, who are expected to pay for 90% of the emissions.
“Households will largely bear the cost of the pricing system through their consumption of energy used for residential and transport purposes, and carbon charges embodied in non-energy products,” claimed the report.
Only pre-approved journalists could ask questions of the Canadian and British foreign ministers at the first ever Global Conference for Media Freedom.
I didn’t make the cut.
As Canada is co-hosting the conference, it was agreed that two of the questions at the media availability capping off the conference’s first day would go to Canadian journalists.
Six Canadian outlets are covering the event: CBC, CTV, the Globe and Mail, Global News, The Rebel, and True North.
In an email thread, Freeland’s office asked the journalists (not including those from the Rebel) to decide amongst themselves who would get to ask the questions. In a cordial exchange with my colleagues from the other outlets, it was agreed that CBC’s Derek Stoffel and I would each get a question in.
Freeland’s representative was not included in this discussion, though was sent an email with the two final names, of which she accepted receipt.
Ten minutes later, however, she emailed me privately to say there would only, in fact be time for one question from a Canadian, because the British Foreign Office’s press team had already filled the other spots.
As a conservative commentator, I was of course skeptical while understanding the plausibility of a genuine tightening of the schedule given the scale of this event.
However, Hunt’s office hand-picked a second Canadian journalist to ask a question of the ministers.
At the media availability, a CBC’s Stoffel was called on to ask a question. So was CTV’s Melanie Nagy.
Hunt had joked about the importance of taking unscripted questions from the media at a media freedom conference, though it was entirely pre-determined who would get to ask them.
He read the names and outlets from a list. The reporters on the list had been placed in front row seats by aides before the start of the event (so the second question wasn’t an impromptu addition).
Hunt’s office made the decision, one of his aides confirmed. Though she assured it was a misunderstanding and not a political decision.
I was told Stoffel wasn’t present when pre-selected journalists were being seated, but Nagy was. So out of a desire for a Canadian voice, she was given question privileges, but when Stoffel arrived shortly before the event began, he was accommodated to honour the original arrangement.
This doesn’t, however, address the initial claim of there simply being no time for an additional question. I had assured Freeland’s representative earlier in the day that I had no intention of an “ambush” of Freeland. I received no reply to this, despite otherwise pleasant exchanges throughout the day.
In actuality, the British government chose a mainstream media reporter to fill a spot when the Canadian media delegation had agreed to allow an independent correspondent – me – to ask a question.
I don’t fault the CTV reporter for this; she was specifically invited to ask a question and posed a great one to both Hunt and Freeland.
It’s only the first day of this two-day conference and I’ve made a request for an interview with Freeland which may be accommodated tomorrow.
The Trudeau government has an army of left-wing propagandists at its disposal that will be unleashed on social and legacy media come election time.
It’s important Canadians know who these players are and who butters their bread.
It was only a few weeks ago that a Canadian parliamentary committee recommended legislation to regulate online speech and social media platforms. Less than a week ago, Tommy Robinson was found in contempt of court over broadcasting commentary on and coverage of now-convicted sex grooming gang members.
This week, Canada and the United Kingdom team up to promote press freedom to countries around the world.
The first ever Global Conference for Media Freedom kicks off Wednesday in London. The summit is co-hosted by Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, and her British counterpart Jeremy Hunt.
There are undoubtedly issues facing journalists working in conflict zones and fundamentally unfree countries, which will be addressed at the conference this week. But I hope the affair doesn’t manifest as Canada and the United Kingdom resting on their laurels while telling everyone else how to do better.
I’ve been in London since last week covering Robinson’s trial, though the real purpose of my visit was to cover this press freedom summit. True North has been approved to attend, though this project wouldn’t have been possible without the generous financial support of True North supporters, who crowdfunded my costs in their entirety. As I said when that campaign launched, it’s paramount to stand up for free speech when those inclined to censor keep moving the goal posts.
We saw this in last month’s report from the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which recommended the House of Commons regulate online hate speech without defining it. And we’ve seen it from the government’s continued efforts to regulate the internet and digital publishers over “fake news” while Liberals accuse media coverage they don’t like of being fake news. Just a few weeks ago, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould threatened to shut down social media companies that don’t hew to the government’s definition of misinformation, the government’s digital charter defines that, in part, as content that sows societal tensions – which any rigorous debate could.
Press freedom is free speech, for nothing should distinguish the right of a journalist to speak out on issues of importance from that of any ordinary citizen. I hope the governments involved in putting this summit together realize that.
It’s important not to mistake the need to protect media freedom with the idea of protecting market viability, however.
A look at the agenda for this week’s conference shows its organizers – the Canadian and British governments – have put considerable emphasis on “media sustainability,” with sessions like “What can governments do to increase Media Sustainability?” and “Why public media matters” listed among the scheduled events.
What I’m hoping will emerge from this conference is a dedicated commitment to free speech that can be adopted by Canada and the United Kingdom, and hopefully other countries willing to embrace such a focus in their domestic policies. Though I also want to see how the panelists, politicians and media organizations involved see solutions to the stated issues emerging, particularly if those proposed remedies involve government regulation of speech.
It will be a busy two days, but an important one. I’ll be doing daily video updates, and also tweeting about what happens at @andrewlawton, so do follow me there.
True North doesn’t rely on government funding or media industry bailouts. Our support comes from our donors. Please contribute to keep our independent journalism going. Remember that also donors receive a charitable tax receipt.
This isn’t an “on-going conversation” Canada is having with the Chinese government.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are being held as hostages by the communists.
True North’s Anthony Furey says it is incredibly frustrating watching the Trudeau government treat this situation like it’s normal.
Indigenous organizations will be bidding on the Trans Mountain pipeline, potentially offering to buy the entire project.
One organization, Project Reconciliation, says that by next week they could be ready to bid for a majority stake in the delayed pipeline project.
“We want to be proactive,” said Stephen Mason, Project Reconciliation managing director.
Project Reconciliation represents 340 indigenous communities in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Project Reconciliation has already presented a plan to buy 51 percent of the pipeline from the government.
In June the government said it welcomed the offer and said they would consider it.
“We welcome the interest from indigenous groups and are launching an engagement process that will actively seek input from indigenous groups in ways that they could benefit now that the project is moving ahead,” a government spokesman said.
“In the coming weeks, we will be announcing a panel of external experts to help lead those discussions.”
Project Reconciliation is not the only indigenous group looking to buy the project. One group, the Iron Coalition, is looking to buy the entire pipeline.
Despite the original positive response from the current owner, the federal government, it will take time before any offer is accepted.
Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi has so far failed to indicate how interested the government really is in these offers.
“We have seen from Indigenous communities that they are interested in having an equity in this project,” he said.
“It is a very important conversation to have because Indigenous communities should be benefiting from economic resource development. This will be an opportunity for us to work with them and explore that option.”
The Trans Mountain pipeline was bought by the federal government for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan. After constant delays and court challenges to the project, the government hastily got into the pipeline industry out of fears that Kinder Morgan was going to cancel the project.
The federal government said it would eventually sell the pipeline, but so far they have not produced a timeline for when that will happen.
Despite pressure from radical environmentalist activists, indigenous groups like Project Reconciliation, the Iron Coalition and Indian Resource Council eagerly want to be part of the project. These groups are also concerned that Trans Mountain might never go forward.
“The Indian Resource Council has reached out to Minister Sohi and has been ignored,” Indian Resource Council CEO Stephen Buffalo said.
“The Minister of Finance laughed at me when I said ‘we should talk about this pipeline’. He said ‘there’s no pipeline to talk about.’”
The federal government has emphasized that consultation with indigenous groups is one of their top priorities when it comes to pipelines.
There are now indigenous groups who have a legitimate interest in purchasing the pipeline. Yet the government continues to stall the much needed Trans Mountain pipeline.
True North’s Andrew Lawton spoke with Gerard Batten, the former Member of the European Parliament and leader of Ukip, about the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court’s finding of contempt at the end of Tommy Robinson’s two-day trial. Batten, who was criticized as Ukip leader by the mainstream media for appointing Robinson as a special adviser, told Andrew it’s paramount to stand up against the rising threat of radical Islam, which means reporting what may be uncomfortable truths.
True North’s reporting is made possible by your support. Join Andrew’s Heritage Club here: https://tnc.news/lawton-heritage-club/
Canada has replaced the United States as the number one country to admit the most refugees in the world.
According to the United Nations, Canada has admitted a total of 28,100 refugees in 2018 alone. Another 18,000 were also naturalized into Canadian citizens also.
“Canada admitted the largest number of resettled refugees (28,100). The United States of America was second with 22,900. Other countries that admitted large numbers of resettled refugees during the year were Australia (12,700), the United Kingdom (5,800) and France (5,600),” writes the UNHCR report.
Since the election of Donald Trump, the number of refugees admitted into the country has gone significantly down. Due to implementing a cap of 30,000 admissions, the United States has seen a 76 per cent decrease in refugee resettlement.
Liberal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has said that he would like to see Canada’s refugee admissions go up and had evensuggested admitting them into the country as economic migrants.
“My wish is that we continue to increase levels in our immigration system for refugees. I’m very open to saying that, and I will do whatever I can, in whatever position I am in, to continue to push for higher refugee numbers every single year,” said Hussen in June.
It is currently estimated that there is a total of approximately 26 million refugees seeking relocation worldwide.
Despite the Liberal government’s wishes, Canadians across the country are expressing a desire to see those admission numbers drop.
According to a poll commissioned by the CBC 57 per cent of Canadians have stated that they think Canada should not be accepting any more refugees.
An iPolitics analysis of this year’s grants found that out of the federal ridings to receive Canada Summer Job funding, Liberal ones were the most numerous.
The study found that Liberal constituencies received 24 per cent more approvals than Conservative ridings and 16 per cent more approvals than NDP ridings.
On average 110 applications were approved in a Liberal riding, while an average Conservative riding had only 89 programs being approved for funding.
Of the ridings which had the most numerous approvals the Liberals and NDP came out on top. All four of the ridings which received 300 or more approvals were represented by Liberal MPs, while seventeen of the eighteen ridings receiving more than 200 approvals were Liberal, while the outlier was NDP.
While MPs are able to recommend and review the applications from their ridings, it is ultimately up to the federal Service Canada to have the final say on who gets granted funding.
“Justin Trudeau’s government has botched the Canada Summer Jobs program since Day 1. They put in place a ‘Liberal values’ attestation, gave funding to an organization linked to terrorism, bankrolled groups that are actively protesting Canada’s critical energy infrastructure, and are now prioritizing their own Liberal ridings,” said Conservative employment critic John Barlow.
Several controversies have plagued the Liberal handling of the program, including the federal government’s decision to repeatedly give funding to an Islamic organization which has had its charity status suspended by the Canada Revenue Agency after it was discovered the group allegedly funded terrorism.
Also as exclusively reported on by True North, several other controversial Islamic organization were granted funding for 2019 despite some of the groups’ homophobic comments and alleged links to terror groups.
