One of the growing members of the resistance of provincial premiers opposed to Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax believes the tax will hurt the Liberals in the next election.
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs predicts the Trudeau government will be hit hard at the polls come October, as he believes New Brunswickers will be feeling the pain of the carbon tax.
“We believe the federal government’s carbon tax unfairly targets New Brunswick businesses and is too heavy a financial burden for ordinary residents who need to heat their homes in the winter and drive their cars to where they need to go,” Higgs said on Feb.10.
“We don’t need more tax.”
Higgs joined Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer for a town hall on Monday where Scheer slammed Trudeau’s plan for what it is — a tax that will only make life more expensive for ordinary Canadians while doing nothing for the environment.
Scheer, who is hoping for big gains in Atlantic Canada, told a packed room in Fredericton that “for Conservatives, job number one will be to repeal the carbon tax.”
New Brunswick has launched its own challenge to the federal carbon tax in court and is joining the suit launched by Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Higgs says New Brunswick will follow its own climate change plan, which he says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Progressive Conservative government in New Brunswick says it will be able to follow its climate change plan while balancing the budget.
The federal Liberals won all 32 seats in Atlantic Canada in the 2015 election, including 10 in New Brunswick.
Higgs believes Atlantic Canadians have received very little from their slate of Liberal MPs.
“There’s a real sense that although the Liberals went 32 for 32 in the last election, that the people of Atlantic Canada have gone zero for 32 since then,” he said.
It’s not often one gets to write this, but here goes: The Canadian justice system has sent a firm message that joining ISIS is a serious crime that will not be taken lightly.
On Thursday, Rehab Dughmosh was sentenced to 7 years in prison after being found guilty of four terrorism-related offences. These relate to when the 34-year-old mother attacked employees at a Toronto Canadian Tire location in June 2017 and when, a year earlier, she attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
It’s interesting to note that the court heard that Dughmosh suffered from a serious mental illness, perhaps schizophrenia. However, that didn’t at all work as a full excuse.
As a CBC story explains it: “Dughmosh refused treatment while in custody until a little more than a year ago, the court heard. She was in partial remission a few months later and has been compliant and improving since.
“Yet she still endorses pro-Islamic State sentiments, although less intense and without violent ideation, the court heard.”
The judge in her ruling said that the seven years was a reduced sentenced that factored in the mental illness.
It’s been frustrating to know that for the past several years, dozens of Canadians who have gone abroad to wage jihad or attempt to join a terror group have been able to come home and walk about freely without consequence. Even though these are serious Criminal Code violations.
The excuse usually given is that it’s hard to prosecute these people because law enforcement in countries like Syria and Iraq is barely existent and their record-keeping is poor, meaning Canadian prosecutors wouldn’t have much to work with when it comes to the evidence proving those charged actually were abroad and getting up to no good.
Thanks to this defeatist attitude, returning terrorists have surely become emboldened. They must be taking note of this stuff, paying attention to the lack of resolve on the part of the current federal government. One such young man even freely talked about his exploits on a podcast with The New York Times, that’s how untouchable he felt. It’s like they’re laughing at us.
Let’s hope a chill comes over them as they read about Dughmosh. Because here’s the thing: The crimes of the dozens of returnees are much more serious than hers.
Dughmosh did two things: She tried and failed to join up with ISIS in Syria. And she swung a golf club around a Canadian Tire, without seriously wounding anyone. Yet she was still sentenced to seven years. And that’s with a reduced sentence because of her unspecified mental illness.
That should hopefully tell us that if and when we get someone in our courts who actually did make it over there and did engage in ISIS atrocities and does not have a serious mental illness as a partial excuse that they’ll be looking at some very serious time behind bars.
Until now, we’ve been sending a message to people that you can sign up to join ISIS with impunity. It became a trend, a worrisome one, as hundreds of Canadians over the last few years chose to do just that and left the country to join up with terror groups.
The Dughmosh case is hopefully not a one-off, but the start of a much better trend – one that sends the signal that no terror activity will be treated lightly.
This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun.
Any questions about whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sincere in his supposed feminism were thrown under the bus alongside former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould this week.
Trudeau talks a good game when it comes to his feminism.
He basks in the adulation of declaring himself a male feminist to crowds of adoring elites at international conferences and the UN.
He appointed women to half the positions in his cabinet. Not because of merit or fair representation — women comprised 28% of elected MPs in last election — but because, as Trudeau put it, “it’s 2015.”
Equity feminism, which emphasizes equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity, was all the rage in 2015, so apparently, no further explanation was required.
But for all the intersectional points Trudeau scored for this stunt, his ongoing behaviour reveals that his feminism is as sincere as his apology to the reporter he groped at a music festival in 2000.
Oh wait. He didn’t apologize. He said she “experienced it differently” than he did, and then questioned her mental state. “Who knows where her mind was,” said a defensive Trudeau of the young woman he groped.
Trudeau’s fake feminism was on display once again this week in his pejorative treatment towards Wilson-Raybould.
Trudeau is nose deep in the worst corruption accusations to rock Ottawa since the sponsorship scandal. But this scandal is different, and if the accusations unleashed in the bombshell Globe and Mail report are true, it’s far worse.
Regardless of whether Trudeau’s office pressured Wilson-Raybould to interfere in the public prosecution of corrupt Liberal-connected engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, Trudeau’s integrity has already taken a massive hit.
First things first, Trudeau won’t let Wilson-Raybould speak. Instead, he’s repeatedly spoken for her, while refusing to waive solicitor-client privileges and thereby preventing her from speaking publicly and telling her side of the story. He’s muzzling a whistleblower.
Trudeau supports women, so long as they remain quiet and do exactly what he says.
Next, Trudeau’s office started a whisper campaign to discredit Wilson-Raybould, based on misogynistic tropes of women in the workforce being “difficult” and “untrustworthy.”
A recent Canadian Press article repeated the PMO’s gossip, stating that “some insiders say (Wilson-Raybould) was difficult to get along with, known to berate fellow cabinet ministers openly at the table, and who others felt they had trouble trusting.”
In other words, she is confident, opinionated and outspoken — all qualities that make for a successful cabinet minister. Unless you’re a woman in Trudeau’s government, that is, then it’s grounds for dismissal.
Finally, during a news conference on Tuesday, a visibly angry Trudeau not only called Wilson-Raybould a liar, he also dismissively called her by her first name — Jody — while referring to his male colleagues by their titles and surnames.
Trudeau is learning the consequences of playing with identity politics. You can’t simultaneously take credit for having a diversity of women and ethnic minorities around the table, while also demanding that they keep quiet, conform to party lines — no matter how corrupt — and do exactly what they’re told.
Three years ago, Trudeau paraded Wilson-Raybould out as the first female Indigenous attorney general in Canadian history. He took all the credit and accepted all the praise for her very presence in Ottawa.
Now, she’s showing Trudeau what Canadian women are really made of — she’s no shrinking violet, and she may have to take down the prime minister to prove it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is keeping Canadians in the dark about whether he or his office tried to interfere in the SNC-Lavalin proseuction. A look into Justin Trudeau’s old tweets shows how much of a hypocrite he really is.
Alberta Senator Doug Black believes the Canadian government wants Bill C-69 to pass to stop development in the oilsands.
Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, inserts divisive identity politics into the pipeline approval process and will make it all but impossible to approve future energy projects.
“There will be no new development in the oilsands. Many would argue that’s the very intent of the legislation,” Black said. “I believe there are parts of the government that believe that would be a desirable outcome.
If passed, the bill, which is currently working its way through the Senate, will radically change the process by which projects like pipelines are approved.
Among other things, the “intersection between sex and gender” will have to be considered in the pipeline approval process, and special interest groups will have the ability to delay projects indefinitely in the consultation stage.
Black isn’t the only one feeling resentment towards the current government over its energy policies.
Many Canadians in the west have also voiced their concerns and fear the government is intentionally working against the energy sector, a driving force of the Canadian economy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once told a crowd that Canada needs to “phase out” the oilsands.
Trudeau’s principal secretary, Gerald Butts, has long desired to see the end of the Canadian energy sector.
“We don’t think there should be a carbon-based energy industry by the middle of this century,” he said in 2012.
Speaking about the Northern Gateway pipeline, Butts said “the real alternative is not an alternative route. It’s an alternative economy.”
Senator Black attributes this bill to the federal government not knowing what’s happening in Alberta, adding the committee reviewing the bill should speak to Albertans on the ground.
“You don’t hear it here in Ottawa. You don’t see it, you don’t feel it in Ottawa, so this is very important,” he said.“Of course, there’s a cost (to travel), but the cost of the Canadian economy of not getting this right is literally trillions of dollars.
Revelations that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the former Attorney General to intervene in the prosecution of SNC Lavelin should not really surprise anyone. What was surprising was the Minister, after being demoted to Veterans Affairs, resigned from Executive Council refusing to become finger-tamed.
Jody Wilson-Raybould’s resignation as the Minister of Veterans Affairs was a broadside at the Prime Minister himself. The matter has been taken up by the Ethics Commissioner for investigation, but given the previous convictions of the Prime Minister by that body, one wonders what this investigation might yield.
After 10 years of a Harper government, many have forgotten the inherent nature of corruption in the Liberal Party of Canada. They see themselves as the natural governing party, and often display a complete disregard for the rules or maintaining ethical standards expected of elected officials.
Remember the scandals of the last Liberal government?
There were many.
I would argue the government of Jean Chrétien was one of the most corrupt our country has ever seen.
“Shawinigate”
It reached the Prime Minister himself with what was later called Shawinigate which involved a property initially owned by the Prime Minister, the Auberge Grand Mere which got sold to a friend of his, Yvon Duhaime on a back of a napkin deal.
Then it turned out Chretien lobbied Francois Beaubien, then the president of the Business Development Bank to give a loan of $615,000 to the Auberge Grand Mere.
To add to the intrigue brothers Robert and Gordon Fu of Imperial Consultants met in the PMO with Chrétien ten days before $1.75 million was invested in the Auberge Grand Mere by an investment group which included the Fu brothers who around the same time were charged with trying to bribe immigration officials.
It was all stunning stuff that Chrétien just shrugged off saying he did what he could to help constituents who asked.
“The Billion Dollar Boondoggle”
Around the same time, the HRDC scandal was coming to light. It became the “Billion Dollar Boondoggle” although the money involved was actually over $3 billion. It involved funneling tax dollars to a variety of organizations ostensibly to create jobs. Funnily enough, the money went to Liberal insiders, donors and Liberal ridings.
The Minister, Jane Stewart, was attacked mercilessly in the House but Chrétien stood by her. She was eventually moved to the backbench after Chrétien’s successor Paul Martin took office in late 2003.
It would be bad enough if that was it. But it wasn’t and not by a long shot.
Adscam
There was Charles (Chuck) Guité a bureaucrat who played fast and loose with contracts involving the Quebec advertising company Groupaction. It was well-known in Parliamentary circles that Guité had a wine cellar worth well north of $100,000. Not bad on a bureaucrat’s salary.
Guité was ultimately charged and convicted on five counts of defrauding the federal government and was sentenced to 42 months in jail.
Groupaction was at the centre of what became known as Adscam and the focus of the Gomery Inquiry which laid bare the corruption of the Liberal Party and ultimately cost Paul Martin the Prime Minister’s Office.
Sponsorship Scandal
Then there was Alfonso Gagliano. Another Quebec politician, he was ultimately found to be at the centre of the sponsorship scandal as determined by the Gomery Inquiry.
Gagliano, an accountant by trade, was linked to mobster Augostino Cuntrera of the Caruana-Cuntrera mob family. Cuntrera was the cousin of Alfonso Caruana who was ultimately convicted of the slaying of Paolo Violi.
Gagliano was from Siculiana in Sicily as were the Caruana-Cuntreras. He, along with Cuntrera, was a founding member of the Siculiana Cattolica Eraclea Society in Montreal. In 2004 an article in the New York Daily News alleged that Gagliano was a made member of the Bonnano crime family citing former capo turned informant Frank Lino.
Project Sidewinder
Then there was the granddaddy of them all, the PMO’s suspected involvement in the cancellation of the investigation into Project Sidewinder.
Sidewinder was a joint RCMP/CSIS report into corruption of the highest levels of government by aspects of the People’s Republic of China and elements of Asian Organized Crime.
The report analyzed the connections and recommended a full-blown investigation. The project got killed by the PMO and a sanitized version was ultimately released and the corruption was allowed to continue.
The Liberal Party of Canada doing favours for donors, friends, political allies is nothing new.
They only stopped when they were thrown out of office. But with the revelations about the PMO interference in the prosecution of SNC Lavelin it seems they picked up right where they left off.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to make student union fees optional is both reasonable and generous for students.
In a PC fundraising email sent out in in the premier’s name, Ford said the ideological bent of student unions justifies his decision to give students the option to opt-in.
“I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to. So, we fixed that. Student union fees are now opt-in,” said the email.
For years, students in Ontario were forced into paying fees for services they might never use.
These fees were enforced by student unions who were “elected” by a very small percentage of students.
For example, in 2017 14.6 per cent of students participated in the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa election (SFUO).
To put that into perspective, the University of Ottawa has a voter turnout that’s lower than Egypt’s 28 per cent.
While claiming to represent a wide and diverse student population, a number of student unions in Ontario have engaged in selective and ideologically biased behavior.
In another case, this time in British Columbia, a registered philosophy student, Franz-Edward Kurtzke, was banned from student society property for a period of time by the UBC Alma Mater Society for handing out pamphlets that protested toxic masculinity.
In some cases, student unions have also irresponsibly managed the finances of their fellow students.
In one case, the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa spent $10,000 on fireworks it was never able to use.
Ontario students now have the choice to decide for themselves whether they want to contribute towards their student unions, though the policy keeps fees mandatory for essential services like counselling and career help.
Discontent in the Western provinces continues to rise, with secession from Canada becoming more seriously considered in Alberta, according to a new poll.
The poll, released Feb. 5 5 by Angus Reid, shows that 86% of Albertans believe that their province is becoming more infuriated with the federal government.
Half of the respondents said that separation from Canada was a real possibility.
The poll also suggests that if a “Western Canada Party” were to form, it would be the most popular political party in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.
The federal government’s inability to get new pipelines built have only made feelings of resentment stronger.
United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney said much of the disenfranchisement can be chalked up to the current federal government.
“I would not be surprised if a significant and growing minority of Albertans are entertaining (separatism),” he said.
Since being elected, Justin Trudeau’s government has continuously taken positions perceived by westerners to negatively impact Western Canada, particularly Alberta.
Such as when Trudeau said of the oilsands, “We need to phase them out.”
In December, he took aim at blue-collar workers, the driving force of Canada’s energy sector, calling out “social impacts (on women in rural areas) because they’re mostly male construction workers.”
The Trudeau government introduced Bill C-69, which inserts divisive identity politics into the pipeline approval process and will make it all but impossible to approve future energy projects.
The Canadian government’s policies have led to the cancellation and delay of new pipelines which are vital to not only Alberta’s economy but Canada’s as well.
No wonder 63% of all Canadians think that the West gets treated poorly by the federal government.
Unless the federal government can provide a solution to troubles in the energy sector, resentment in the West is only expected to increase.
The Montreal construction and engineering giant is involved in the biggest political scandal to hit the Trudeau government since coming into office in 2015.
According to a Globe and Mail report, members from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) met with SNC-Lavalin lobbyists on over 50 occasions while the company was facing fraud and bribery charges. The report also alleges that the PMO attempted to pressure former Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the case on the corporation’s behalf.
The Prime Minister has since denied the allegations, claiming that his office never “directed” the former Justice Minister to make any decision on the matter and has since insisted that she never came to him with any concerns about potential interference.
“It was her responsibility to let me know about that, of course she said nothing of that to me last Fall,” said Trudeau earlier today in Winnipeg.
Lametti was appointed to the role of Justice Minister in a cabinet shuffle that occurred earlier this year. In the shuffle, Lametti replaced Wilson-Raybould, who was demoted to the position of the Minister of Veterans Affairs. She has since left the Liberal cabinet over the ongoing SNC-Lavalin political interference scandal.
According to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, Lametti had a private meeting with SNC-Lavalin representatives on May 30th, 2017.
The entry in the monthly communication report lists “government procurement, immigration, industry and infrastructure” as the subject matter of the meeting.
This meeting occurred well before Lametti was appointed to be the Justice Minister on January 14th. During the time Lametti was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).
Among the things spoken about in the meeting with SNC-Lavalin, one of the things discussed was “The introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) legislation/regulation/program or policies.”
DPA’s allow corporations accused of white collar crimes to avoid criminal prosecution by coming to an agreement with prosecutors that would see the company pay fines and make recommended internal changes to avoid future crimes from taking place.
Shortly after the SNC-Lavalin scandal broke, Lametti claimed that he might still intervene on behalf of the ailing company.
“As a final step, I could issue a directive, but the Public Prosecution Service is an independent service,” said Lametti on the possibility of a future settlement agreement.
