fbpx
Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Conservatives launch Jagmeet Singh pension countdown clock

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
-
Source: selloutjagmeetsingh.ca

Canadians curious about when NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh becomes entitled to his $2.3-million taxpayer-funded pension don’t need to stress anymore – they can now visit a new website to countdown the seconds.

The Conservative Party of Canada has launched a website called “selloutsingh.ca”

with a countdown clock marking the time until NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh becomes eligible to collect the pension.

“Sellout Jagmeet Singh said that Trudeau was ‘too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,’” a Conservative news release said. “Despite claiming he had ripped up his deal with the Liberals in September, he voted to prop them up 8 times over the fall to keep Liberals in power until he gets his $2.3 million taxpayer-funded pension on February 25th.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimated that if Singh took his pension early at age 55 and lived until he was 90, his total retirement would cost taxpayers $2.3 million.

“Sellout Jagmeet Singh is now looking for any opportunity to prop up the Liberals and Carbon Tax Carney to keep them in power longer and lock in his multi-million dollar pension,” the Conservative news release said. “He simply doesn’t care about the Canadians lined up at food banks or unable to find housing. All he cares about is Jagmeet.”

Singh did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.

The Conservatives accompanied the countdown clock with an attack ad claiming that Singh locked in an agreement with the Trudeau Liberals to prop them up in a bid to delay an election and secure his pension.

“Jagmeet Singh will lock in his million-dollar pension. All it cost him was a deal with the liberals that doubled housing costs, spiked crime and quadrupled the carbon tax,” the ad said. “Jagmeet Singh, he’ll get his pension. What price will you pay next?”

“With the NDP-Liberal costly coalition, the Liberals get power, Singh gets his pension, and Canadians get the bill,” the CPC said in a statement.

The site launch comes after Singh hinted that he would vote to prop up the Liberals again, potentially going back on his promise to vote non-confidence in the Liberal government during the next parliamentary sitting “no matter who” the party leader is.

He suggested he might support a Liberal work relief program instead of voting them out of office on Tuesday.

Though Singh has not stated that an early election should be called despite parliament being prorogued, opposition parties have to wait until prorogation ends to call an election.

Prorogation kills any bills and prevents parliament from sitting and opposition parties from voting. Prorogation is set to lapse by March 24, 2025, the latest possible time the government can go without withstanding a supply vote for continued funds.

Upon announcing his resignation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his appointed governor-general, Mary Simon, granted him prorogation of parliament to give time for the Liberal leadership contest to play out.

Conservatives dubbed the NDP leader “Sell out Singh” last July when they released another pair of attack ads against him.

Those ads alleged Singh was delaying an election to qualify for the multimillion-dollar pension and for his continued “luxury lifestyle” on the taxpayer’s dime.

Photos exclusively obtained by True North found Singh entering a Maserati Levante SUV in early October. According to driving.ca the vehicle ranges from $127,000 to $213,800.

He later said that it wasn’t his vehicle. Still, the incident led to Conservatives dubbing Singh a “Maserati Marxist,” a play on the common phrase “Champagne Socialist.”

Singh has also been under fire for boasting about his hobby of collecting multiple Rolex watches, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as his wife’s expensive taste in dresses.

Man trying to enter Canada illegally by jumping off moving train sent back to U.S.

By
Alex Zoltan, True North Wire
-
Source: Facebook

Canadian police and border officials said they intercepted a “human smuggling attempt” when they apprehended a man jumping off a moving train in the Niagara region while attempting an illegal border crossing.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP revealed the attempt – which occurred in December –  was stopped as part of the newly-launched “Project Disrupt and Deter.” 

The CBSA wrote in a statement released this morning that the project is “an intelligence initiative aimed at monitoring vulnerable areas along the International Railway Bridge in the Niagara region [that] focuses on gathering intelligence related to irregular migration and disrupting organized human smuggling operations.”

According to authorities, the man leapt from a freight train as it crossed into Canada at Fort Erie, Ont. and attempted to flee.

Two other individuals involved in the smuggling attempt were located nearby and taken into custody for questioning. 

The CBSA said the jumper was subsequently arrested and sent back to the U.S. under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. No additional information was provided about the status of the two others believed to be involved in the smuggling attempt.

Michael Prosia, a Regional Director General for the CBSA said, “Through this joint CBSA and RCMP investigation, we stopped human smuggling between Niagara and Fort Erie. Together, our frontline border services officers and regional Intelligence and Enforcement Operations Division work with the RCMP to detect and remove individuals who pose threats to public safety and secure the border with the United States.”

The statement comes at a critical time, with Donald Trump threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods as early as Feb. 1 if Canada fails to improve border security. 

Most Canadians don’t think a new Liberal leader will scrap carbon tax despite claims: poll

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
-
Source: Facebook/X/Facebook

The majority of Canadians remain unconvinced that a new Liberal leader will eliminate the consumer carbon tax despite the top prospects pledging to do so.

According to a Leger poll released Wednesday, 51% of Canadians are not confident that Liberal candidates will live up to their word and eliminate the carbon tax. Only 36% believe they will.

The poll also examined voting intentions for the next election, preferred choices for the Liberal leadership, and attitudes toward Canada’s response to potential tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Conservatives remain the clear choice for Canadians in the next federal election, polling at 43%, a four-point drop since a similar poll conducted around three weeks earlier. The Liberals gained the 4% lost by the Conservatives, bringing them to 25%. 

Prior to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberals hadn’t gained in the polls in months.

Mark Carney is becoming the runaway favourite for the next party leader among Canadians and Liberal supporters. The winner of the Mar. 9 Liberal leadership election will become Canada’s next prime minister without a general election.

Carney is polling at 34% to replace Trudeau among all Canadians, whereas 57% of Liberal supporters would choose him. Chrystia Freeland is in third place at 14% among all party supporters and 17% among Liberals. Second place, surpassing Freeland, is the “I don’t know” option, which garnered 33% of all party supporters and 17% of Liberal party voters’ support.

One in four respondents said they would possibly change their vote to the Liberals after the party elects a new leader. Most of those who said they might change their vote were leaning towards otherwise supporting the NDP or Green Party.

Freeland said she would run for the Liberal party leadership on an anti-carbon tax platform, promising to replace the tax with a program developed through provincial collaboration.

So too has Carney, who Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz criticized for backtracking from the policies he’s long championed like the carbon tax, oil and gas cap, energy transition, and even Greta Thunberg’s ‘shut it all down’ movement.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre shared the section of the poll highlighting the carbon tax. He said Canadians won’t be fooled again and discussed what Carney would really do.

“Here is what he would do: 1) suspend the tax a few months before the election and promise he’d never bring it back; 2) if re-elected, he would bring in the biggest carbon tax ever — an idea he is on camera supporting countless times for many years,” said Poilievre. 

Carney has previously said that carbon prices have “been set far too low — in the single digits on average globally — well short of the estimated $80 to $100 a tonne needed by the end of this decade to keep us on the track to net-zero.”

The carbon tax reached $80 per tonne on Apr. 1, 2024. It is set to increase incrementally until it reaches $170 per tonne in 2030. 

True North previously highlighted a research report which showed that the carbon tax would need to reach over $350 per tonne to achieve net-zero 2050 targets.

Poilievre shared another post to X of an interview where he justified his slogan that Carney is “Just like Justin.”

“He’s been running the government behind the scenes for the last four years since he started advising Trudeau. He’s been pulling the strings. Nobody believes Justin Trudeau has been running this country. Trudeau is a puppet, and he’s been pulling the strings,” said Poilievre. “So it’s not surprising that he feels entitled to walk in and take over with only the support of a couple, you know, 20,000 Liberal insiders. He thinks he can rule over 41 million Canadians.”

Smith calls for federal border czar to coordinate with U.S. and avoid tariffs

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
-

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling on Ottawa to appoint a border czar to work with U.S. counterpart Tom Homan and avoid the incoming tariffs promised by the Trump administration.

Following a meeting with the country’s premiers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and other federal ministers on Wednesday, Smith revealed that she told them a border czar was the best answer to the incoming tariffs.

“The one thing that we can do this week, in just the next couple of days, to have the best chance to avoid tariffs is to show clear and unequivocal action to secure the border,” said Smith. “This should start with the appointment of a Canadian border czar to work with the new American border czar to jointly crack down hard on fentanyl and illegal migrants.”

Homan previously raised concerns about Canada’s border security shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory.

Smith admitted that this action alone would unlikely prevent the tariffs but said that after speaking with dozens of U.S. representatives, administrative officials, and Trump himself, this was the most important first step to take.

She said she also invited a team from Fox News to visit the Alberta border to showcase the work already done to prevent illegal immigration and trafficking.

Alberta previously unveiled enhanced border security measures, including a patrol team of 51 officers, ten support staff, four patrol dogs, ten surveillance drones, and four narcotics analyzers. The province’s 300-kilometre shared border with the U.S. would be monitored for drug smuggling, gun trafficking, and illegal immigration. 

While Alberta was the first province to introduce such measures, which was in the works for 18 months at the time, other provinces followed suit.

Smith also thanked the federal government for allowing Alberta to send a Black Hawk helicopter to the border today. 

The premier said she believed somebody with a high-ranking military background would be the best option to become the border czar. She said she had already recommended that her Deputy Minister Paul Wynnyk, a former Lieutenant-General who served in the army for 38 years, become the czar. The federal government is aware of her recommendation, as she said Jonathan Wilkinson was present when she made it.

“That’s the kind of person we need: someone who understands military operations, who understands deployment, who understands the seriousness with which we have to take this issue,” said Smith.

The premier reiterated her previous claims that having a consistent voice at the negotiating table with the U.S. would be important, noting that the Liberal leadership election to replace Trudeau will complicate things as well as the scheduled 2025 federal election. However, an independent border czar could provide a consistent voice during a time of political change.

The Trump administration has hinted at implementing 25% tariffs on Canadian imports on Feb. 1, with another round to come in Apr. The latter tariffs would be informed by a study requested by the president that is set to be delivered to him on Apr. 1.

Smith warned that Trump is not joking around, confirmed by the recent tariff war his country had with Columbia. He started with a 25% threat, which moved to a 50% tariff threat, and then when Trump got what he wanted from Columbia, the threat went away.

“I don’t want to talk about retaliation. I want to talk about making sure we don’t have to have that discussion because we don’t have tariffs at all,” said Smith. 

The Liberals have been considering pandemic-style payouts to businesses harmed by the tariffs.

Again, Smith wouldn’t even begin to discuss the package and her opinion of it because she said it was her goal to do everything she could to ensure that the tariffs never come to be.

Trump administration teases two-phase tariff plan at Senate hearing

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
-
Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick & President Donald Trump - Source: X

The Trump Administration hinted at implementing its proposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports in two phases that could begin within days, with another round of tariffs coming in April.

According to Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, the first phase would be implemented as an emergency action to mitigate the fentanyl crisis as early as Feb. 1.

He confirmed that the U.S. is reviewing a broad range of tariff responses based on the outcome of a study on the issue that will be delivered to Trump by April 1. 

U.S. President Donald Trump recently nominated Lutnick to lead his tariff policies who outlined what he intends to do during his Senate hearing on Wednesday. 

The proposed two-phase plan means that even if tariffs on Canadian goods are pushed down the road from the beginning of next week, Canada will still be forced to face them by the spring. 

“The (fentanyl) labs in Canada are run by Mexican cartels,” said Lutnick. “Respect America. If we are your biggest trading partner, show us the respect. Shut your border. And end fentanyl coming into this country.”

While the majority of fentanyl entering the U.S. is smuggled in through its southern border, authorities have expressed concerns regarding Canada’s escalating drug production.

U.S. law enforcement has also expressed its disappointment with its Canadian counterparts when it comes to cracking down on domestic money laundering activities carried out by international criminal organizations.

Lutnick acknowledged that both Canada and Mexico have begun responding to these issues such as Canada’s recent pledge to impose a suite of new border security measures, and U.S. tariffs are still most likely on their way. 

“I know they are acting swiftly,” said Lutnick. “And if they execute, there will be no tariff. And if they don’t, then there will be.” 

There are still many unresolved issues between Canada and the U.S. that will need to be addressed over the coming months, particularly regarding dairy and manufacturing, Lutnick noted.  

Lutnick made clear at his confirmation hearing that there will be scores to settle with Canada in the spring, specifically mentioning dairy and auto manufacturing.

 “Canada treats our dairy farmers horribly. That’s got to end,” he said Wednesday. 

Additionally, he made clear his plans to bring auto manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico. 

“The car manufacturing went to Canada, it went to Mexico. It’s important that that come back to Michigan, come back to Ohio,” said Lutnik. 

The commerce secretary nominee’s comments echoed that of Trump’s previous gripes regarding how auto trade was renegotiated during the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement in 2018, with the new rules taking effect in 2020. 

All of Ottawa’s previous negotiations with Trump’s administration to walk back the threat of tariffs have fallen on deaf ears thus far, with many officials being informed that their only chance would be for them to personally convince Trump.

The Rachel Parker Show | Liberal candidate calls for deportations + the Canadian $ could drop again

By
Rachel Parker
-
Source: Wikimedia

Today on the Rachel Parker Show, Rachel is joined by political strategist Hamish Marshall to break down the latest in the Liberal leadership race. The two discuss the impact of one candidate who is calling for the deportation of illegal migrants.

Later, economist Jack Mintz joins the show to discuss the impact of tarrifs on the Canadian economy.

Tune in now!

Sources say gov planning pandemic-style payouts to mitigate U.S. tariffs 

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
-
Source: Facebook

The Trudeau government may soon be issuing pandemic-style payouts to businesses harmed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% trade tariffs on Canadian products.

Multiple sources within the government told media outlets this week that it’s preparing a financial relief package for businesses that will be contingent on how severe the U.S. tariffs are, with additional programs to be potentially implemented later on. 

Trump announced that the tariffs may be in effect as early as Feb. 1. 

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce estimates that a 25% tariff would cost the average Canadian household $1,900 per year and decrease Canada’s GDP by 2.6%.

Economists have projected that the tariffs will result in mass layoffs in addition to hitting Canadian consumers with a massive spike in the cost of goods.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that as many as 500,000 jobs could be lost across the province as a result. He suggested the need for similar government spending to stimulate the economy earlier this month, calling it “no different than the pandemic.”

Government sources also indicated that its proposed stimulus package wouldn’t be implemented in tandem with the U.S. tariffs but after the overall economic impacts can be assessed. 

Additionally, the Liberals’ financial assistance package would first require approval from opposition parties which wouldn’t be able to take place until at least March 24 due to Trudeau’s prorogation of Parliament. 

However, the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Québécois have all vowed to topple the minority Liberal government at the earliest opportunity.

“There will be costs for Canadians if we move forward on tariffs to the United States, and that’s why we will be there to support and compensate Canadians and Canadian businesses, depending on the response we have,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters last week.

The Trudeau government paid out $82 billion in emergency funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020 with an initial installment of $55 billion for businesses via wage subsidies and tax deferrals. 

Another $27 billion was given out in direct financial relief.

However, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem later told the House of Commons finance committee in 2022 that the economy would likely be faring better if the Liberal government had clamped down on Covid-19 pandemic stimulus earlier. 

Former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau would echo Macklem’s comments that the Liberals’ pandemic spending went on for too long and contributed to Canada’s current inflationary woes in 2023. 

A study conducted by the Fraser Institute also concluded that despite spending vast amounts of taxpayer money, Canada achieved some of the worst results when compared with other developed nations. 

Ottawa has pledged to implement retaliatory tariffs on many Canadian exports, particularly energy. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly will travel to Washington this week to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

Joly said that preventing the tariffs was the government’s “number one priority.”

“We believe that diplomacy can work, and that’s why we’re having private conversations, and we won’t negotiate in front of the public,” she told reporters in Ottawa on Monday. 

U of T event hosting convicted Palestinian terrorist leader cancelled

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
-
Source: X

The University of Toronto has cancelled a speaking event featuring a convicted member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a listed terrorist entity in Canada.

The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist organization which has been linked to a multitude of anti-Israel terror attacks on civilians.

According to a since-deleted post by organizers, the event will have to move online due to the school cancelling its booking, and the convicted terrorist will no longer be speaking at the event.

The University of Toronto told True North however that the event was “never scheduled to take place at the university.”

Organizers said the event was to be hosted Thursday by the U of T Muslim Student Association in collaboration with anti-Israel activist groups such as Occupy U of T, which held protest encampments in the summer; the Watermelon Coalition; and Toronto Students for Palestine.

The controversial guest speaker was Shadi Shurafa, a convicted PFLP terrorist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2002 for his role in orchestrating a failed bus bombing using an improvised explosive device hidden in a watermelon. The attack took place during what is known as the “second intifada.”

A collection of case studies published by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, Calif., details the failed attack, naming Shurafa as a senior leader of the terrorist organization.

Under the recently-listed terrorist group Samidoun’s website, Shurafa has written articles about his stay in Israeli prisons and how the PFLP organizes while incarcerated. Samidoun advertises Shurafa as a “leader in the PFLP.”

An advertisement for the event, which was taken down from “the Watermelon Coalition’s Instagram page on Wednesday, promoted Shurafa for his relationship with terrorist groups while in prison. 

“Shadi Shurafa, a former prisoner from East Jerusalem, offers a unique perspective by having encountered notable and controversial figures of various resistance groups during his incarceration,” it said. “The event also hopes to shed light on the role of resistance and resilience within the prison system and to provide an account of being a prisoner in a settler-colonial context.”

Before the post was taken down, one person in the comments said, “Now tell us what he’s in prison for.”

The group replied only with a winky face and a watermelon emoji.

The event was cancelled following advocacy from Jewish groups, including B’nai Brith Canada.

“It is an affront to the victims of terror. It’s an affront to Canadian legislation, which lists the PFLP as a terrorist organization,” Rich Robertson, the director of advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told True North in an interview.

“It undermines global efforts to combat terror, and it’s, quite frankly, dangerous for students or community activists to be whitewashing the crimes of terrorists to facilitate or advance their own agenda.”

Neither the school’s Muslim Student Association nor the Watermelon Coalition responded to True North’s requests to comment.

Robertson was baffled by the event and how it could hold “any academic value” outside of a closely monitored clinical setting.

“This was not an interview with an individual in an academic or clinical setting. This was platforming a dangerous individual and exposing students in our greater community to his volatile rhetoric,” he said. “There’s a difference between conversations that are uncomfortable or that avant-garde…that are advancing academic inquiry, and conversations that just have no place in a free and democratic society that respects morals and values and upholds its laws.”

He said universities such as U of T need to take ownership over the actions of its student groups and ensure they are not creating environments on campus that are dangerous to members of their school community.

Alberta COVID report urges halting vaccines for youth and low-risk individuals 

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
-
Source: Unsplash

The final report on Alberta’s COVID-19 response recommends that the provincial government stop providing vaccines for healthy children and teenagers.

Halting the use of COVID-19 vaccines in healthy children and teenagers would follow what some other jurisdictions have already done, such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the U.K., according to the report, the product of months of interviews, research, and analysis. 

The report called for the cessation of the vaccine for teenagers and children because the risk of COVID-19 in the two groups is “exceptionally low.”

“The tagline ‘Safe and Effective’ was repeatedly used to assure the population and encourage vaccination against COVID-19. Based on the evidence that has emerged to date, it cannot be concluded that these COVID-19 vaccines are safe. Were they at least effective?” asks the report.

The report revealed evidence to suggest that it was not effective. For example, it highlighted that the original Pfizer vaccines did not prevent death compared to the placebo in their clinical trials in any age group. 

The report alleged that Alberta Health Services removed a dashboard after it showed higher hospitalization rates among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated.

It also said there is a lack of reliable data proving that COVID-19 vaccines protect children from severe COVID-19. The task force that published the research said COVID-19 vaccines were not designed to stop transmission.

The report also highlighted risks to taking the vaccine.

“There is reliable evidence of harm following vaccination, and the COVID-19 vaccine trials were not designed to detect rare or long-term adverse effects,” reads the report. “There is a known risk for myocarditis, especially in young males.”

The task force also referenced Pfizer’s own safety data from three months after authorization, which reported 1,223 deaths attributed to the vaccine and 42,086 injured within four days of vaccination. Almost half, 45%, of these were from individuals between the ages of 18-50, who had negligible risk from infection. 

The report claimed that “there is no long-term safety data for these novel mRNA vaccines.” 

The report called for various other conclusions and recommendations that oppose the mainstream narrative.

One recommendation was to research the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines more before widespread use in adults and children.

The task force also said that infection-acquired immunity should be explored and communicated more in a future pandemic, considering there was little to no evidence to suggest that vaccine-acquired immunity was superior to infection-acquired immunity. 

The report also called for constructing a website and/or call-in centre for the vaccine injured in Alberta. It also called for a mechanism to opt out of federal health policy when due process has not been satisfied at the provincial level. 

True North previously reported that only 6% of vaccine injury claimants had been paid.

The Alberta Medical Association issued an initial statement on the report that was getting many negative replies and was since deleted. The statement was issued again with comments turned off. The association called the report “anti-science” and “anti-evidence.”

True North asked the AMA how it deemed a 269-page report filled with data and evidence from esteemed medical professionals “anti-science” and “anti-evidence” but received no reply.

The report examined ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other treatments but noted public health authorities largely opposed them despite early research showing promising benefits.

“The restrictive approach taken by Alberta health authorities toward alternate COVID-19 therapeutics is concerning and further investigation is required into the restriction of treatment options for COVID-19,” reads the report.

The researchers recommended legislative amendments allowing medical professionals to use approved medications for off-label treatments and explore alternative therapies.

The report was commissioned by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in 2022 with a mandate to explore the province’s response to COVID-19. The task force included prominent medical professionals, including Drs. Gary Davidson, Jay Bhattacharya, and Byram Bridle.

The report recommended that media outlets disclose their financial ties to public health or pharmaceutical contracts and cite levels of supporting evidence in health-related reporting.

As of Wednesday, the final report had around 20,000 downloads. 

Alberta’s Ministry of Health told True North that the provincial government is reviewing and considering the report and its requests but that no policy decisions have been made as a result of the report yet.

TDSB renaming “colonial” John A Macdonald, Dundas, Ryerson schools

By
Noah Jarvis, True North Wire
-
The Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald - Source: ourcommons.ca

The Toronto District School Board is barreling ahead with renaming three schools dedicated to Canada’s first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald, British politician Henry Dundas, and Canadian educator Egerton Ryerson.

In 2021, the TDSB voted to create a special committee dedicated to purging school names they deemed offensive and racist. In particular, the committee zoned in on historical Canadian figures associated with Canada’s British colonial ties.

The committee has now sent a recommendation to TDSB trustees to strip three schools of their names – Dundas Junior Public School, Ryerson Community School, and the Sir John A Macdonald Collegiate Institute. 

The committee says that they are recommending the TDSB strip these schools of their names because staff and students belonging to minority groups allegedly feel offended by the legacies of these figures.

“This recommendation is based on the potential impact that these names may have on students and staff based on colonial history, anti-indigenous racism and their connection to systems of oppression,” reads the recommendation.

In 2022, the same TDSB school renaming committee recommended that the Queen Victoria Public School, founded in 1887, be renamed due to the “racist legacy” of Canada’s monarch.

Queen Victoria Public School has been renamed to Dr. Rita Cox – Kina Minagok Public School.

The committee has been directed by the board to make school renaming recommendations that align with TDSB’s human rights and equity policies. The committee is also compelled to focus on the importance of “identity, equity, anti-racism and anti-oppression, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.”

The TDSB did not respond to True North’s requests for comment. 

Macdonald was Canada’s first prime minister and primary architect of Confederation who set in motion the creation of Canada as we know it today. In recent years, Macdonald has received significant blowback from progressive activists who claim Macdonald’s legacy is irreparably tarnished by his policy towards Indigenous peoples.

However, other historians diverge from this view, pointing to the fact that residential schools became government policy in the 1830s, long before Macdonald’s premiership. Also, Macdonald is praised for his warm relationship with local Indigenous Canadians and his desire to expand voting rights to Indigenous peoples and women.

Egerton Ryerson was an early Canadian educator who was an advocate for universal, free public education and is credited for the creation of Ontario’s public education system. Ryerson’s accomplishments have similarly been distorted.  In particular his involvement in Canada’s residential school system.

In 2022, Ryerson University’s board of directors voted to change the institution’s name to Toronto Metropolitan University to better reflect the “values and aspirations” of the school.

Henry Dundas was an 18th to 19th-century British politician who served as an important minister to Prime Minister William Pitt and was involved in the abolition of slavery. Dundas has raised the ire of the left for his role in delaying the abolition of slavery in the British empire, though he did so to preserve the abolition of slavery’s political validity and avoid driving the slave trade into the hands of a rival power.

The TDSB will begin the process of choosing a new name for the three schools once the renaming recommendation has been approved.

1...141516...1,460Page 15 of 1,460

Related stories

© 2025 True North | Privacy Policy