RCMP staffing shortages put public safety at risk. It’s not just front line policing – national security and organized crime investigations are affected, too.
True North’s Leo Knight discusses.
LAWTON: Justin Trudeau’s assault on Canadian gun owners
The Liberal-appointed “independent” senators voted to pass Bill C-71, sweeping gun reform legislation that targets only law-abiding gun owners. As if that isn’t enough, Bill Blair is still not taking a cabinet-directed firearms ban off the table as the election nears.
True North’s Andrew Lawton explains what these developments mean for gun owners in Canada.
KNIGHT: RCMP staffing shortages highlight government’s failures
Since last week’s opinion piece was published where I discussed the staffing shortages in the RCMP and how it was relative to crime concerns of folks who live in rural parts of the country, I have received a number of messages from people providing anecdotal snippets about service issues they are having or have had with the RCMP.
This raises the question about public safety and the government’s role in that.
But not all of the concerns expressed came from folks living in areas serviced by rural RCMP detachments. Indeed, a couple came from the largest RCMP detachment in the country, Surrey, B.C.
I heard stories about a lack of police patrols in communities in the south Okanagan, in northern Saskatchewan, to RCMP refusing to investigate criminal events when reported in Surrey.
But none of this is new, it just seems the RCMP has been remarkably unsuccessful in solving problems that have been identified for several years.
In years past, RCMP members complained that they were forced to attend any little thing a citizen called in about. They had an expression, “No call too small, no snivel too little.”
But all of that has changed it would seem.
One of the stories shared with me was of a Vancouver Police officer who had just bought a new car. His wife took it to her place of work in Surrey. While parked it sustained thousands of dollars damage in a hit and run incident. The incident was captured on security cameras and a suspect vehicle with identifiable licence plate was recorded.
The RCMP were called and the complainant was told the police would not investigate as it was “an ICBC” matter. The last time I checked Failure to Stop at the Scene of an Accident was still an offence in the Criminal Code of Canada and it is certainly the responsibility of the RCMP under the terms of their contract with the Province of British Columbia to investigate crimes reported to them.
My guess in this is it is the result of Regional and Detachment commanders having to get creative to deal with their manpower shortages affecting all areas of the RCMP.
In February of 2018, the President of the RCMP Veteran’s Association, Al Rivard, wrote a letter to the Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale about the problem. In it, using 2017 numbers, he said that of the 20,214 funded positions in the RCMP, there were 1,339 vacancies or a vacancy rate of 6.6%. When he factored in sick leave and parental, leave the number reached a shocking 12.1%.
But it isn’t just the uniform service where the problem manifests itself.
In his letter, Rivard says, “These staff shortages are being felt across the country by the citizens in communities policed by the RCMP, but by the other agencies collaborating with the RCMP in national security and public safety investigations.”
But in some rural detachments, the number is as high as 50%. Hence the issue with residents in those areas who get charged criminally for using a firearm to try and protect themselves, their families and their property.
The Liberal government has just passed Bill C71 to further limit legal gun owners’ ability to get firearms. It does nothing to stem the rise of illegal gun gang violence which is the real problem in our cities. Nor has the government done anything to address the staffing shortages of the national police force.
The government’s primary responsibility is the protection of its citizens. Using any measure, this Liberal government is failing and failing miserably.
FUREY: Conservatives need to govern like Conservatives
We’re in a conservative moment right now in Canada, with Conservative premiers being elected and potentially a Conservative federal government being elected this October. This is a great opportunity for Canadians who want to see fiscal conservative policies to be implemented.
However, we’ve seen some pledges recently from Conservative politicians that sound like they’re actually Liberals.
True North’s Anthony Furey explains.
Turkey would help Canada bring former ISIS fighters home, official says
Turkey would be willing to help the Canadian government bring dozens of ISIS fighters with Canadian citizenship out of the middle east, a Turkish official has said.
The anonymous official said that the Turkish government would be very open to help retrieve ISIS fighters from Syria and bring them to Canada.
“I think we would be positive to that,” he said. “With some imagination, I suppose a way could be found.”
These ISIS fighters are being held in Syria by the YPG, a Kurdish rebel group with controls most Syrian territory along the Turkish border.
There are around 190 alleged ISIS fighters with links to Canada abroad, many held by the YPG in Syria. This excludes the 60 that the government estimates have already returned to Canada.
It was recently revealed that the Liberal government has been exploring options to bring Canadian ISIS fighters home.
With the proposition of Turkish aid, nearly all Canadian ISIS fighters may be back on Canadian soil within a relatively short time.
As Turkey associates the YPG with Kurdish terrorists in their own country, however, Turkey would not directly communicate with the YPG.
“We wouldn’t deal directly with the YPG. I don’t see that possibility,” the Turkish official said. “We don’t deal with terrorists.”
The official said that if Canadian officials could go to Syria and transport the ISIS fighters to the Turkish border, Turkish authorities would be willing to take in the terrorists and transport them to Canada.
If they were to return to Canada it is unlikely that most of them would ever get prosecuted.
“We may not be in a position, as each and every one of them comes back to Canada, that we’re at that stage where we can arrest them,” RCMP Deputy Commissioner Denis Michaud has said.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has downplayed the need to repatriate Canadian ISIS fighters, saying that Canada is “not going to put our diplomatic officers or our consular officials at risk” by putting them to work in the Middle East.
But according to a recently released report, the government has “evaluated a number of possible options/transfer scenarios.” It is unclear how far this government will go to bring terrorists back to Canada.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation travelling Canada to raise the alarm about $6.2B in lost oil revenue
A taxpayer advocacy group is going from coast to coast to inform Canadians on how much money has been lost due to lack of pipeline development and the low price of oil.
The non-profit Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is travelling the country to draw attention to an economic loss it pegs at $6.2 billion. This number, gleaned from an analysis conducted from 2013 to 2018, is based on Canadian oil being sold under its full value. CTF contends the number is growing daily by $3.6 million.
“Canadian taxpayers are losing out on billions of dollars because we can’t get pipelines built and we aren’t receiving full value for our oil,” said Franco Terrazzano, the Alberta director for the group.
The full report also indicates that the lost revenue from 2019 to 2023 will be $6.6 billion. The analysis was conducted using statistics acquired through the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Currently, pipeline development in Canada is at a standstill. The federal government has indicated there’s no guarantee that a decision on the Trans Mountain Expansion will happen before the 2019 election, despite paying $4.5 billion in taxpayer money for the contract.
However, a recent majority ruling in the British Columbia Court of Appeal has ruled that the BC provincial government does not have the constitutional right to restrict oil shipments from Alberta, paving the way for potential future development.
Since being sworn in as Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney has promised to do everything within his power to pressure the federal government to make progress on the Trans Mountain pipeline.
According to the CTF, the cost of the pipeline also has wide-reaching implications for infrastructure and development within the country. Among the losses, the funds could have been used to build a new hospital in every single province in Canada or fully fund nearly 25,000 teaching positions throughout the country.
“You would think they would be aggressively supporting these projects, rather than drafting legislation that actually makes it harder for pipelines to get built,” said Aaron Wudrick, CTF’s federal director.
The CTF hopes to travel to every province in Canada during its tour.
LAWTON: Get government out of beer sales!
In 2019, there’s no excuse for government to be controlling who can sell beer.
Doug Ford’s Ontario government is tearing up a contract giving multi-national beer companies a near monopoly on beer sales in Ontario. It’s long overdue, True North’s Andrew Lawton says, arguing we need much more alcohol liberalization in Canada.
Jihadi Jack “would happily kill” British soldiers
Last week, a British courtroom heard that Jack Letts, a man the Canadian government has been trying to get out of a Syrian prison, wanted to “perform a martyrdom” on British soldiers.
Letts, also known as “Jihadi Jack,” is being held by Kurdish rebels in Syria for being part of ISIS. His parents, John and Sally Letts, are on trial for funding terrorism for sending him money.
The courtroom heard that in 2015 after Letts had converted to Islam and moved to Syria, he had made comments and sent messages acknowledging his ISIS sympathies — his parents stand accused of sending him money anyway.
When an old friend made a post on Facebook celebrating the completion of a Commando Artillery Course in the British Army, Letts allegedly commented: “I would love to perform a martyrdom operation in this scene.”
When Sally Letts confronted Jack about comment over Facebook, he messaged her saying “I admit it was wrong if I seemed like I was joking. I genuinely believe attacking the British Army is a very praiseworthy action when the intention is correct. I would happily kill each and every one of [his friends’] Unit personally.”
“This message for you, Mum and [younger brother] Tyler, I honestly want to cut Linus’ head off. I hope he finds himself lost in Beji or Fallujah one day and sees me whilst I’m armed and I put six bullets in his head.”
Letts left his home town of Oxford for Syria in 2014 after converting to Islam. It was reported that Letts joined ISIS, a charge both his parents adamantly deny.
The Canadian government made contact with Letts in January and provided help in dealing with his situation.
A British member of parliament alleged that the Canadian government had a plan to smuggle Letts from Syria to Canada, but was stopped by a third party. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale denied this report.
He may not have stepped foot in Canada before, but he has dual-citizenship through his father.
Despite the fact that the British government has decided to leave him with Kurdish authorities, the Canadian government has devoted time and resources to finding him a way to Canada.
After Conservative leader Andrew Scheer asked the government about their reasoning for investing so much into seeing an accused ISIS fighter come to Canada, his parents responded.
“Mr. Scheer confidently claimed that Jack is ‘a known jihadi fighter’ — a blatant lie that he knows is untrue. Simply repeating a lie four times does not make it true.”
As Letts’ case continues to develop, the Canadian government estimates that “approximately 60” ISIS fighters have already returned to Canada.
Union on “independent” media bailout panel continues attacks against Andrew Scheer
Unifor, the union invited to participate on a federal committee to determine which organizations are eligible as “Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations (QCJO)”, has continued its assault on Andrew Scheer and the Conservative party.
Last year, Unifor explicitly pledged to work against Scheer with a tweet which indicated that the union was planning to campaign against the Conservatives.
In the most recent development of the dispute, Unifor has claimed Scheer is “unfit to lead” the country after he had brought up the union’s former comments.
The Liberal-appointed panel responsible for the distribution of a $595 million bailout package for media companies that meet the government’s qualifications was included in the 2019 budget announcement.
Since then, the federal government has selected several groups to nominate candidates for the committee, to determine which media companies are approved for funding. The government named the following groups:
- News Media Canada
- Association de la presse francophone
- Quebec Community Newspaper Association
- National Ethnic Press
- Media Council of Canada
- Canadian Association of Journalists
- Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec
- Unifor
- Fédération nationale des communications
Since Scheer pointed out the partisan nature of the group on social media, Unifor has concentrated its attacks against the leader of the opposition bringing the federal QCJO panel’s “independent” nature to doubt.
According to the federal website, a QCJO must meet several conditions before being hand-picked to receive funding. Among those conditions are that the organization regularly produces “original news content”, it employs two or more journalists at “arms length”, and it does not promote the interests of a specific group, among other things.
Nearing the 2019 election, the federal government has implemented several measures which guarantee the government’s further involvement in the media. Since then, Trudeau has also announced a commission which is charged with organizing the federal leaders’ debates for the election and another committee intended on regulating independent media for “fake news.”
LAWTON: Another Trudeau tax? Liberals want to tax your pop
The Liberals don’t think there’s a problem in Canada that can’t be solved by another tax.
Toronto-area Liberal MPs are leading the charge to put a tax on sweetened beverages in the Liberal platform for the next election.
True North’s Andrew Lawton why this is not only bad politics, but also bad policy.
