The trial for the two remaining members of the Coutts Four facing charges is underway in Lethbridge. Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert, charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the 2022 Coutts, Alberta, border blockade, are standing trial in Lethbridge, Alta.
Opening testimony began on Thursday and was heard by a jury. The trial was delayed out of the gate by matters covered by a publication ban.
The charges against Olienick and Carbert stem from their participation in the protest against COVID-19 mandates at the Coutts border blockade. Initially, four men were charged with conspiring to kill RCMP officers.
Two of the four members, Chris Lysak and Jerry Morin, accepted a plea deal on lesser charges in February. The conspiracy to commit murder charges were dropped, and the two men were released.
Olienick and Carbert remain in custody on allegations that they conspired to murder RCMP members who were policing the border protests at the Coutts international crossing into Montana. The RCMP discovered a cache of weapons, body armour, and ammunition in trailers, leading to the allegations and subsequent arrests.
Olienick and Carbert have pleaded not guilty to all charges, which also include mischief and possession of weapons for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces an additional charge of possessing a pipe bomb.
About fifty supporters of the two men were present in the courtroom when the trial began.
Outside, chalk messages reading “Free the Coutts Boys” and “Justice for Tony + Chris. Free Them Now” were scrawled on the sidewalk.
Independent journalist Mocha Bezirgan interviewed a retired federal correctional officer outside of the courthouse who said she had been “responsible for the incarceration of some of Canada’s most notorious criminals” and likened the Coutts Four’s ordeal to “torture.”
Olienick and Carbert have now spent over 840 days in remand awaiting trial.
“I still don’t believe people should be tortured in our country. And I really believe that what the men are experiencing in remand for two and a half years is torture. Torturous,” she said.
A Green Party Vancouver city councillor moved a motion that would require Mayor Ken Sim to acknowledge his family’s colonial and settler roots.
Except there’s one catch – Sim is a second-generation immigrant born to parents from Hong Kong.
According to the “anti-racism and decolonization education” motion before the Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities, Councillor Pete Fry wants to mandate anti-racism education for the city’s leadership.
Fry is the son of Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry.
“The City of Vancouver is open with its commitment to anti-racism, decolonization, reconciliation and dismantling white supremacy,” reads the motion.
According to Fry, the motion was presented by him in his role as the liaison for the Cultural Equity Advisory Committee.
“In my own opinion, reconciliation is the recognition and repair of harms to indigenous people as a result of colonization and oppression,” Fry told True North.
“Decolonization is a larger framework that recognizes harms resulting from colonization. So while Ken Sim’s is a settler family (ie non-indigenous) his family also suffered legacies of colonialism and historic white supremacy.”
The councillor also stated that he doesn’t believe the motion was about “assigning blame or guilt.”
“It’s about learning and understanding historic inequities,” said Fry.
Fry requests that anti-racism training be introduced for the mayor and City Council that addresses the “distinctions between decolonization and reconciliation.”
Furthermore, Fry is demanding that the mayor and councillors acknowledge “their settler land acknowledgement/colonial stories on how they came to this land dating back to the first settler from their family history.”
Funding for the proposed education sessions would come from the mayor’s and councillors’ travel and training expense budgets.
According to Sim, his parents immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1967 following a period of upheaval.
Three of Sim’s older siblings were also born in Hong Kong, while Sim was born in Vancouver in 1970.
True North reached out to Sim to ask if he would support the motion but did not receive a response.
Justin Trudeau says “populist right-wing forces” are taking hold in democratic countries around the world, insisting that he chooses to respond to anger by offering “understanding” and “solution.” True North’s Andrew Lawton says it seems like Trudeau is willing to blame his polling unpopularity on anyone and anything other than himself and his record.
A former safe supply advocate, Dr. Sharon Koivu, has now been outspoken about the harms of distributing drugs to those suffering from addiction as a harm reduction tool. In her own city of London, Ont., she has seen patient deaths increase while prescriptions continue to be diverted to the streets. She joins The Andrew Lawton Show to explain how it went so wrong.
While the federal government insists there is no business case for Canadian LNG, foreign heads of state continue to say they’d like to buy LNG and a new export terminal is nearing completion in British Columbia. So what’s the real story? Andrew discusses with Macdonald-Laurier Institute senior fellow Philip Cross.
A follower of mine on X recently commented that it has never been a better time to be gay in Canada.
That is so on point considering I am openly gay – married for 15 years this month – and able to move through our circles here in Toronto and Florida feeling perfectly comfortable calling my partner, “my wife.”
I lived in the closet until age 48.
The word that made me so afraid in my 30s and 40s — lesbian — is just one of the many ways I now identify myself, without a second thought.
But it is not the only way.
It has never been and is not now my cause celebre.
In fact, I have spent far more time since the atrocities of Oct. 7 standing up for my Jewish heritage and exposing the horrific rise in antisemitism in Toronto and throughout Canada.
Not so for the radical left, who have turned what were hard-fought wins of 20 and 30 years ago into an absolute farce.
The activists and what we have come to call the alphabet mafia have taken over what was once a beautiful celebration of same-sex rights.
This post expresses very aptly how I and many others feel.
I came out 26 years ago – when I was 16 years old – in the 90’s.
Back when there weren’t Pride flags everywhere, there weren’t Pride stickers in the window of every bank, store and restaurant, and they were no Pride crosswalks.
When I came out at 48, there were no Pride crossings or boardwalks on Toronto Island painted in the Pride flag colours.
There were no schools holding Pride forums or teachers dressing up in class like they’re ready to march in some drag queen event.
There were no teachers or unions ramming their sexuality down the throats of innocent young students.
I didn’t refer to myself as she/her, they/them, or zie/zah.
I don’t remember banks, shops and businesses having Pride displays in their front windows, on their websites and in their front entrances — as if they’ll be included in the Homophobic Hall of Shame if they don’t do it.
This weekend, after I finished the Run for Women, I headed past three huge Pride displays in the lobby of Women’s College Hospital — telling me how much they love me.
Near the start of Pride month, I got emails from beauty companies and large clothing stores letting me know they have the ultimate in gay fashion and makeup. I kid you not.
Initially I found it cute but now I want to tell these people, “Enough already!” We get it.
As usual, it is not those of us who simply want to live their lives that have driven this change.
It’s the loud, over-the-top activists who feel they have to constantly remind us how gay they are as if that’s the only way they identify themselves.
They now refer to themselves as “queer” — once a pejorative term to describe those who were not heterosexual. It is now used like a badge of honour by the radical left.
I hate that term.
The acronym to describe someone who is not straight or homosexual — LGBTQQIP2SAA+ — has become so convoluted, it’s laughable.
We can’t just be gay, straight, bisexual or trans. We must also include those who are two-spirited, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirited, asexual and androgynous.
We now have three different Pride flags — the traditional rainbow flag, the Progress Pride flag and now the intersex-inclusive progress flag with a purple circle on a yellow background to signify intersex types.
Throughout the year, schools in Ontario’s woke boards foist same-sex and gender identity indoctrination down their students’ throats.
But it’s on steroids during Pride month.
We see elementary teachers proudly posting on social media how they’re “teaching” kids as young as kindergarten about gender identity and same-sex relationships.
It is not appropriate in the slightest.
On the left, a book about a girl on a “transgender identity journey” who decides to come out as “a boy.”
On the right, a book about a kid who tries to figure out what pronouns to choose, finally settling on “they/them” at the end of the book.
— Kindergarten Ken, M.Ed. 🏳️🌈 (@kindergartenken) June 7, 2024
Grade 1-2 teacher at the @LimestoneDSB announces she will read a pride-themed book every day this month, starting with this one about a crayon “whose label may say he’s red” but his “real colour” is blue. “A story about being true to your inner self.” pic.twitter.com/mQFPpHwVHm
I personally started to see the switch in 2016 when I was informed I didn’t deserve a seat at the Pride table for fighting back against the Toronto Pride parade’s efforts to deny the shooter in the Orlando nightclub mass killing was a self-loathing Muslim extremist. (Funny how things come full circle.)
But that was just the start.
Desperate to find a cause to replace the fight for gay rights, the radical activists turned to gender identity and trans rights.
Suddenly all those who fancied themselves woke started using preferred pronouns in their correspondence. It was absurd.
We’ve seen the rise of what I and others consider a terrible time in our history.
Radical activists are indoctrinating young children — who aren’t old enough to vote, to drive or drink — to change their sex.
Those of us who have fought the idea of giving children puberty blockers or pushing them to transition at puberty have been labelled by the radical activists (some of them who dress like women but are still biologically men) TERFs — which basically means we’re transphobic.
Never mind that this kind of indoctrination borders on child abuse.
Needless to say this has created a terrible divide in the gay community.
There are those who take for granted the hard-fought battles to gain acceptance and are indoctrinated to believe they’re all in the wrong bodies and need to find the right pronouns.
I however fall in the other camp.
I eschew pronouns, finding them absolutely inane.
And I’m simply proud that I am able to be myself after so many years in the closet.
While we’re at it, perhaps banks, hospitals and shops might stop trying so hard to be gay.
A historic Toronto church containing Group of Seven artwork burnt down on Sunday evening.
Plus, a Syrian refugee who murdered and raped a Burnaby teen is handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
And the Liberals will support a motion to have the foreign interference commissioner investigate former and current politicians suspected of collaborating with foreign nations like China and India.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
The majority of Canadians support federal public servants being required to work a minimum of three days in-office, according to a new poll.
Nanos Research asked Canadians if they supported or somewhat supported an in-office policy for federal employees amid an ongoing conflict between the federal government and public-sector unions.
The two sides are arguing about increasing the two-day in-office work week to three days. The unions are fighting against it, despite the public support.
The poll found that 51% of respondents supported the change, while another 24% somewhat supported it.
Only 9% of respondents didn’t support the idea of a three work days in-office.
Additionally, the poll found that 46% of respondents preferred that federal public servants were given the option of working from home some of the time, marking a slight decrease from 50%, when the same poll was conducted in 2022.
However, 39% said they believed public servants should be required to work in-office full time, an increase from 31% in 2022.
Outside of federal public servants, the poll found that 50% of employed Canadians have a work arrangement which mandates that they work in the office full time: 37% have a hybrid work arrangement and 16% work from home full-time.
The poll found an increase in Canadians believing that federal public servants would be more productive if they worked in-office full time, when compared to the same poll from 2022.
“By a margin of two to one, people think those that work in the office in general terms are more likely to be productive, to one extent or another, compared to those that work from home,” chief data scientist of Nanos Research Nik Nanos told the Globe and Mail.
Overall, the public appears to be in favour of the government’s position.
“With three of four Canadians supporting or somewhat supporting the government’s announcement of a minimum three days in the office, there is general support across all demographics and regions for this move,” said Nanos.
“The only possible political calculus for the federal Liberal government on the initiative is the potential fallout among ridings in the National Capital Region, which are critical to the political fortunes of the Liberals.”
Around 155,000 Public Service Alliance of Canada members walked off the job last year to maintain the twice-a-week hybrid model.
“Now, you will be protected from arbitrary decisions about remote work by the government,” wrote the PSAC in a statement last June.
The union called the situation a “watershed moment” for workers’ rights at the time. Now, along with the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, they say they have been blindsided by the federal government.
However, the federal government announced its three-day in-office plan, which is slated to begin in September.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland wants Canadians to be grateful for the capital gains tax which she says will help the federal government pay for its extra spending in the latest budget. Freeland pointed out that the alternative to a tax hike was the government going further into debt.
Freeland introduced her plan to increase Canada’s capital gains inclusion rate on Monday.
She submitted her “Notice of Ways and Means Motion” outlining the details of the tax hike. MPs are expected to vote on the motion this week.
The capital gains tax hike will take effect on June 25 and will force Canadians who make more than $250,000 in capital gains in a year to pay two-thirds of that profit to the state instead of half.
Canadians who are selling their primary residence won’t be affected by the capital gains tax hike, however.
“We know now is the time to invest in Canada and in Canadians, and we know that the fair way, the responsible way, to pay for those investments is to ask those at the top to contribute a little bit more,” Freeland said to reporters. “Canada could finance these critical investments by taking on more debt. But that would place an unfair burden on younger generations. Fiscal Responsibility matters.”
She said there will be a lifetime capital gains exemption for people who sell their small business or farm by up to $1.25 million and the government is introducing similar “incentives” for entrepreneurs.
According to Freeland, the capital gains tax hikes will only affect 0.13% of Canadians, but critics have warned that tax hikes that punish the excessively productive and shrewd investors might cause them to divest from and leave Canada altogether, which would hurt the economy.
Another critic warned that the claim that only 0.13% of Canadians would be affected by the tax hike is inaccurate as it doesn’t include beneficiaries of trusts and corporations.
Freeland said all of the spending in their budget was “important” so it’s only fair to “ask” the highest earners in Canada to pay up.
“We believe in fairness for every generation. And that means we recognize we need to make some really important investments right now in Canada,” she said.
Freeland said the money is required to pay for the Liberal’s commitments to build four million homes, fund dental care, the National School Food Program, early learning and childcare, $5 billion dollars to research investments into universities, and handouts for the AI industry, $200 billion into healthcare and more.
The federal government also needs tax revenue to invest in humanitarian aid for other countries, foreign wars, corporate welfare, and the nation’s ever-growing bureaucracy.
“We know we need to make these investments in a fiscally responsible way based on fiscally responsible foundation. And so the fair way to finance them is with tax fairness,” Freeland said.
On top of not affecting most Canadians, she said the tax hike would not affect Canada’s tax competitiveness in the global market.
“Even after this change in the capital gains inclusion rate, capital gains remain taxed in Canada at a lower level than in jurisdictions like California, or New York City, and the rate remains lower than it was throughout the 1990s a period I might add of strong economic growth in Canada,” she said.
Telling Canadians that the economy is in good hands, Freeland lauded the Bank of Canada’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time since 2020, making Canada the first G7 country to do so.
“Interest rates are coming down because inflation is falling. Inflation fell to 2.7% in April, down from 2.9% in March,” she said.
The rate at which the Canadian dollar is being devalued has been reduced, yet it’s still inflating.
“That’s four months in a row that inflation has been within the Bank of Canada’s target range. That is good news. In fact, inflation has fallen to its lowest level in three years,” Freeland said.
As the Edmonton Oilers drop the first game in their best-of-seven series to hoist the Stanley Cup, the odds are about as high as they can be.
Despite the pressure reaching its climax, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has added fuel to the Oilers’ flame by betting against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Smith tagged DeSantis in a post to X, saying that if the Oilers won, he would have to send some of Florida’s finest rum to Alberta for her to celebrate with. In the unlikely scenario that the Oilers lost, she promised to send some Alberta-made whiskey to Florida.
DeSantis not only accepted Smith’s wager, but was so confident that his team would win, that he threw in a cherry on top – or a key lime.
“I feel good about how the cup is going to proceed. So if somehow the Oilers win, (I’ll) not only send the rum, I’ll also throw in a key lime pie to boot,” said DeSantis.
Alberta’s premier is currently undefeated in her sports bets for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Despite the Oilers defeating the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Smith made no wager with the Governor of the State of California, Gavin Newsom, where the city of Los Angeles is located.
After Smith and the Oilers got the first-round jitters out of the way, the betting began.
On May 3, Smith challenged British Columbia Premier David Eby to a bet. The loser would be forced to deliver a statement in the Legislature written by the winner while wearing the other team’s jersey.
Eby accepted, and the Vancouver Canucks lost in Game 7.
Hunter and I are ready for game 2 this Friday night!
British Columbia’s premier was a man of his word and accepted his punishment with grace. He urged local fans to begin cheering for the Oilers, to bring the Cup home to Canada.
“There are few certainties in this life: death, taxes, Alberta leading Canada in economic growth. But as it pertains to our beloved national sport, we do have many certainties we can rely on. For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs will lose in the first round and the Ottawa Senators will be rebuilding each and every year. The hockey Gods will continue to bless Northern Alberta with the greatest players to ever play the game. And of course, when the Edmonton Oilers face the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs, the Oilers will win every single time,” said Eby as part of his lengthy speech.
He was further forced to say that Alberta’s record versus British Columbia in the playoffs was six to nothing. However, he added a fun fact: that the Vancouver Millionaires won in 1915 and the Victoria Cougars won in 1925.
Following her bet with Eby, Smith decided to ride the hot streak.
Two days before the third series began, Smith placed a wager against Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Dallas Stars. If the Stars lost, Abbott would be forced to eat an Alberta rib steak on video and offer commentary. Abbott agreed to the bet, countering that if the Oilers lost, Smith would be forced to do the same with the “world’s best ribeye — which is only found in Texas,” he said.
The Oilers won that series even faster, finishing the Stars in only six games.
Like Eby before him, Abbott was a man of his word. He ate what Smith deemed to be the finest Alberta beef from Burgardt’s Butcher Shop in High River, Alberta.
“It is definitely the best steak I’ve ever had from Canada; must be from a cow raised in Texas,” said Abbott while eating his gift received from losing the bet.
Former President Barack Obama previously lost a bet to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He was forced to pay in cases of beer after Canada beat the United States in an Olympic gold medal match in 2010. They repeated the bet, and Obama lost again in 2014, delivering beer to Harper once more.
The NHL has not participated in the Winter Olympics since 2014.
Canada has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993, the same year the Florida Panthers were founded.
Will Smith’s hot streak continue? Could this finally be the year?
Canada’s top research universities are calling on the House of Commons to reconsider legislation that would force those representing a foreign government’s interests to register with the federal government.
U15 Canada, a group representing some of Canada’s largest research-focused institutions, submitted a brief to the House of Commons public safety and national security committee calling on it to amend the government’s foreign interference protection Bill C-70.
U15 Canada says that it is concerned with how the legislation would affect its relationships with research partners across the globe and how requirements could negatively impact academic freedom.
“While we applaud the Government of Canada’s efforts through Bill C-70 to further strengthen measures to protect against foreign interference…the current criteria for determining the obligation to register activities on the Foreign Interference Transparency Registry poses significant concerns for the research activities of our universities and for the Canadian academic community,” reads the brief.
It is well-documented that the People’s Republic of China has been exploiting research partnerships with universities in Western countries, includingCanada, to steal research for its own benefit.
A 2018 study from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that Canada ranks as the third highest ranking country in peer-reviewed research papers published in collaboration with China’s People’s Liberation Army – the Chinese military – behind just the United States and the United Kingdom.
Three of the top ten universities around the globe who have collaborated with the PLA the most are Canadian: the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, and McGill University. All three are U15 Canada universities.
U15 Canada raised three points of concern when it comes to the foreign influence registry.
Firstly, U15 Canada says that large research universities are unable to track the contributions that foreign principals make to individual research projects and report on them within the government’s specified 14 day grace period.
The brief also raises concerns that a foreign influence registry would create disincentive for foreign research agencies to fund Canadian projects and would create a chilling effect on legitimate international research partnerships.
“The risk of a chilling effect on international research partnerships as an unintended consequence of the registry’s reporting requirements could significantly harm relationships with international peers.”
Finally, U15 Canada is worried that restrictions on communicating information on behalf of a foreign government would restrict the ability of researchers to present their research findings in academic journals, conferences, or forums without registering the communication with the government.
“The potential scope of this application could significantly infringe on the academic freedom of, and importance for, researchers to disclose their findings to the academic community and wider public,” reads the brief. “Such infringement would limit the pursuit of open science and free exchange of ideas.”
The Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act states that if a person communicates with the public or a public office holder on the direction of a “foreign principal,” that they are engaged in an unlawful arrangement.
Bill C-70 passed its second reading in the HoC and is currently being examined at the committee stage.
Conservative MP Michael Chong said his party will support Bill C-70 and will work with the governing Liberals to implement the legislation before the next general election.
The Conservatives hope to dispel doubts that the “other Randy” isn’t Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault by filing a motion to request his presence before a parliamentary committee.
Members of the committee may vote on the motion as early as Tuesday.
The “other Randy” scandal began after Boissonnault became embroiled in a conflict of interest investigation regarding text messages of alleged business dealings done while holding public office.
Boissonault claims that the “Randy” being referred to in the text messages wasn’t him and his appearance before the House ethics committee, scheduled for June 18, will either confirm these claims or reveal his defence to be false.
The text messages in question referred to someone named “Randy” receiving a wire transfer of around $500,000 to secure personal protective equipment from Global Health Imports in 2022.
Little is known about the identity of the “other Randy” so far, other than he was allegedly employed by Boissonault at the medical supply company he co-founded in 2020.
Boissonnault is now under investigation about his alleged continued involvement with the company since becoming a cabinet minister, if true, he would violate the Conflict of Interest Act.
Ethics Commissioner Konrad W. von Finckenstein announced that he would be investigating Boissonnault during a parliamentary ethics committee meeting last week.
“Clearly we will look into this,” said von Finckenstein. “If our looking into it shows there is substance to it, that there may be contravention of the (Conflict of Interest Act), then of course, we have the capacity to self-initiate an inquiry.”
However, Boissonnault claims that he hasn’t had any involvement with the company since taking office in 2021. A spokesperson for his office said that the “Randy” being referred to in the messages was the company’s “head of logistics” but declined to make his full name public.
“That person is not me,” Boissonault told the ethics committee on Tuesday, before claiming that he didn’t know the last name of the other Randy.
Boissonault has also claimed the alibi of being at a cabinet retreat in Vancouver at the time of the text exchange, saying that he had no access to electronic devices while at the retreat.
However, Conservatives are not convinced and have been grilling the Liberals about the scandal since last week.
“Canadians want to know, ‘Who’s Randy?’ The mysterious Randy is in control of a fraudulent company called Global Health Imports and his business partner Steven Anderson says he’s a public official,” said Conservative MP Dane LloydLloyd on Friday.
“And by pure coincidence, the minister of employment by the same name founded Global Health Imports and is a 50% shareholder. Now we just heard the minister say that he’s not involved, but isn’t he at all curious about who this Randy fellow is that’s committing fraud at a company he owns 50% at? Why won’t he tell us who this Randy is?”
According to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner webpage, Boissonault “holds a significant interest in Global Health Imports Corporation.” Any assets owned by cabinet ministers which could increase or decrease in value due to decisions made by the federal government are required by law to be kept in blind trusts.
Under The Conflict of Interest Act cabinet ministers are barred from having “any power of management or control” over those assets while in office.
Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett told CBC News that the possibility that there would be another Randy working at GHI under Boissonnault, whose name remains unknown to him “stretches reason and belief.”
“It’s preposterous,” said Barrett “So we’ve made this request. It provides an opportunity for there to be a demonstration by Randy Boissonnault’s business partner that he was being forthright.”
