CSIS officials confirmed during the foreign interference commission that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received briefings on foreign election meddling before the 2019 election.
Plus, insults, offensive remarks, and off-colour jokes won’t get Canadians in trouble with the Liberal government’s controversial online hate speech bill, according to Justice Minister Arif Virani.
And Trudeau unveiled an updated defence policy, committing to an extra $73 billion for military expenditure over 20 years, with a focus on addressing climate change effects.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
The Bank of Canada announced is maintaining its overnight interest rate at 5%, with the bank rate at 5.25% and the deposit rate at 5%.
The Wednesday announcement marks the sixth consecutive decision to keep the rate steady at 5% since July 2023 as the central bank continues its policy of quantitative tightening.
“The bank expects the global economy to continue growing at a rate of about 3%, with inflation in most advanced economies easing gradually,” read the central bank’s news release.
The Bank of Canada noted that once again, the U.S. economy proved stronger than anticipated and it’s predicting that the eurozone will gradually recover from its current state of weak growth.
“Global oil prices have moved up, averaging about $5 higher than assumed in the January Monetary PolicyReport. Since January, bond yields have increased but, with narrower corporate credit spreads and sharply higher equity markets, overall financial conditions have eased,” the release said.
“The bank has revised up its forecast for global GDP growth to 2.75% in 2024 and about 3% in 2025 and 2026. Inflation continues to slow across most advanced economies, although progress will likely be bumpy. Inflation rates are projected to reach central bank targets in 2025.”
Economic growth stalled in Canada during the second half of last year, which moved the economy into excess supply.
According to the central bank, a “broad range of indicators suggest that labour market conditions continue to ease” however, employment has been slower to grow and remains outpaced by the working-age population.
Unemployment has continued to increase gradually, reaching 6.1% last month but some signs are indicating that wage pressures are moderating.
The Bank of Canada is forecasting a boost in economic growth this year as well as some recovery in household spending.
“Residential investment is strengthening, responding to continued robust demand for housing. The contribution to growth from spending by governments has also increased,” read the announcement. “Business investment is projected to recover gradually after considerable weakness in the second half of last year. The bank expects exports to continue to grow solidly through 2024.”
The bank is predicting a GDP growth of 1.5% this year and 2.2% next year, saying that the “strengthening economy will gradually absorb excess supply through 2025 and into 2026.”
Inflation slowed to 2.8% in February, according to the Consumer Price Index, with pressure on prices easing across goods and services.
However, shelter price inflation continues to remain very high, as Canada’s population continues to grow dramatically and rent and mortgage costs have increased.
“Core measures of inflation, which had been running around 3.5%, slowed to just over 3% in February, and 3-month annualized rates are suggesting downward momentum,” reads the release. “The bank expects CPI inflation to be close to 3% during the first half of this year, move below 2.5% in the second half, and reach the 2% inflation target in 2025.
Based on these factors the governing council of the Bank of Canada decided to maintain its policy rate at 5%. While inflation is still too high and remains a risk for economic stability, the CPI and core inflation have eased over the past several months.
GC Strategies partner Kristian Firth will be admonished before the House of Commons, a rare measure used just five times since the early 1900s and only once for a private citizen in the last century.
The House of Commons has taken the extraordinary step of finding Firth, a contractor for the controversial ArriveCan app, in contempt of Parliament. This rare move mandates Firth’s appearance at the bar of the House for a public censure scheduled for Apr. 17.
The bar in the House of Commons, a brass rod symbolizing the divide between MPs and non-members, is where individuals, in rare instances, can be publicly admonished.
Should an individual be found in contempt of Parliament, they are subject to being called for a public reprimand delivered by the speaker on behalf of the House of Commons.
Additionally, the motion requires that Firth be subjected to questions by members of Parliament.
True North previously reported that the Auditor General’s report revealed that Canadian taxpayers paid an estimated $59.5 million for the ArriveCan application. The costs were outsourced to 32 different contractors. GC Strategies had the biggest price tag of the contractors at $19.1 million.
Firth appeared before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates in March.
“During this witness testimony, the committee was unable to ascertain certain facts from Mr. Firth, who repeatedly refused to answer questions, citing a potential investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Policy as a justification for his refusal to respond,” said the committee’s report.
“Additionally, some of the witness testimony provided by Mr. Firth was called into question as being misleading or false.”
Firth told the committee that the app only cost approximately $11 million to build. He added that the AG report valuation analyzed billing up until May 2023. He said that the application build finished in July 2022, which could have included billing not towards ArriveCan.
“We submitted 1,500 approved invoices per month for the last three years to get to whichever amount you want to listen to: $19.1 million or $11 million,” he said.
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer presented a motion to “find Firth in contempt for his refusal to answer certain questions and for prevaricating in his answers to other questions, and, accordingly, order him to attend at the Bar of this house, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.”
BREAKING!
Top ArriveScam contractor GC Strategies found in contempt of Parliament for withholding information.
Now the witness will be hauled before the House and forced to answer questions; something that hasn’t happened in over 100 years.
The motion demanded that Firth be admonished and respond to questions from the committee’s report and any supplementary questions. The motion passed unanimously.
The last instance of a non-MP being summoned to the bar of the House dates back to 2021, when Iain Stewart, the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada, refused to hand over documents while censured before the House of Commons.
Historic Corruption
Trudeau’s favourite ArriveScam contractor GCStrategies found in contempt & ordered to appear before the House of Commons
After the Conservatives sought access to the documents for three years, they were finally released in February.
Before Stewart, the last non-MP summoned to the House of Commons was R.C. Miller in 1913, a witness before the public accounts committee who refused to answer questions. He was subsequently summoned to appear before the Bar and answer questions. The House proceeded to adopt a motion that he was in contempt of the House and should be imprisoned. He was imprisoned for approximately four months, until the end of the session.
GC Strategies deactivated its website in late February, and both of its partners, Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony, seemingly disabled their email addresses.
Doctors are crying foul about a law that gives the Nova Scotia government access to its citizens’ medical records.
Passed last week after receiving royal assent, Nova Scotia’s Bill 419 granted the government sweeping access to private medical records, sparking a wave of concern among healthcare professionals and MLAs.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia initially warned about the province’s recent bill, raising specific concerns about the clause granting government access to citizens’ private medical data.
“This new law will require all physicians to enable access to their medical records for the minister. For physicians, this creates a new professional legal duty. And for patients, it means the entirety of their medical records will be accessible to government,” Dr. Gus Grant, CEO of the Nova Scotia medical college, told a legislative committee. “I see it as the responsibility of the college to speak on behalf of the public, which I would expect is largely unaware of this seemingly innocuous amendment and its potential consequences.”
According to the bill’s official summary, clause 110 allows the government to “make regulations requiring personal health information to be disclosed for the purpose of planning and management of the health system, resource allocation and creating or maintain(ing) electronic health record programs and services.”
Grant said that this amendment would fundamentally change the nature of the patient-doctor relationship and the professional duties of physicians.
When Bill 419 was debated in the legislature, numerous MLAs sounded alarms about clause 110 of the bill, pointing to the college’s previous concerns.
“There are bad actors everywhere. The government needs to ensure that Nova Scotians have the confidence that their personal information will not be leaked out somewhere. As it is, we are left with: Oh, just trust us. Quite frankly, seeing some of the shenanigans that I have seen of late, how can we trust? It boggles the mind,” said Liberal MLA Kelly Regan.
NDP MLA Claudia Chender echoed Regan’s concerns.
“The provision is quite clear. The minister or her designate may have access to all medical records of patients — all records. Let that sink in. A conversation about fertility, about substance abuse, about gender reassignment, about anything, visible directly to the minister,” said Chender.
Despite the objections, the government rejected efforts to amend the bill and reconsider the contentious clause.
After the bill’s passage, Grant changed his tune, saying he was assured through conversations with the premier and deputy minister that the authority would not be abused.
“When I appeared before the Law Amendments Committee, I advanced the position that the Minister’s access to personal health information should be restricted to only aggregate, de-identified data,” he said.
“The government disagreed with our proposed language, but did so only after genuine, earnest consideration. I believe the college was fully heard and our submissions were thoroughly considered.”
Grant said that the government had committed to addressing his concerns by ensuring patient confidentiality and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship would be preserved through alternative measures.
“Specifically, the government committed to putting together a Standing Committee to inform regulations and data governance, particularly as they pertain to access and use of personal health information. The college has been invited to sit at that table,” said Grant.
In response to a request for comment from True North, a college representative said Grant was on vacation until later this month.
Canadians are getting gouged on their taxes in relation to Americans, a new study finds.
A report from the Fraser Institute comparing Canadian provinces with American states and Washington, D.C. found that the provinces occupy the top nine jurisdictions for tax rates, with the highest combined marginal income tax rates.
A marginal tax rate is the percent you pay on your highest dollar income. The more income you make the more you are taxed.
Fraser Institute’s director of fiscal studies and co-author of the study, Jake Fuss, spoke to True North over the phone about his findings.
“Canadians are currently paying significantly higher tax rates than their American counterparts at all income levels,” Fuss said. “At a time when the national economy is stagnating. And there’s a need to improve our economic prospects. One policy option that could be targeted is reducing Canada’s personal income tax rates.”
According to the report Canadian provinces are uncompetitive with US jurisdictions when comparing personal income tax rates in Canadian dollars at the $300,000, $150,000, $75,000, and $50,000 income thresholds.
The study found Canada’s top combined income tax rate ranks the fifth highest out of 38 OECD countries.
“We do know from economic research that high income tax rates can deter professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners from working and investing in Canada, which is bad for the Canadian economy, and therefore Canadians as well,” Fuss said.
He said just as businesses compete to hire the best workers, jurisdictions also compete to attract and retain highly skilled individuals such as doctors and entrepreneurs who “contribute significantly” to the economy.
“Jurisdictions with relatively lower taxes generally enjoy a competitive edge and attract these highly productive individuals,” he said. “So you’re at a significant disadvantage when you have higher tax rates than other jurisdictions.”
The empirical research cited in the study demonstrates that highly skilled workers such as high-level inventors or national team-playing soccer players are “significantly influenced” by the effective top marginal tax rate when considering international migration. “Ultimately, these highly skilled workers are going to locate themselves in other jurisdictions with lower tax rates,” Fuss said. “Those jurisdictions are now getting the tax revenues from those highly skilled workers. They’re also getting the benefits in their economy from having those entrepreneurs, professionals, business owners, doctors, and engineers.”
The report showed between 2009 and 2023, the federal and provincial governments in Canada increased personal income taxes on upper-income earners by raising the top marginal income tax rate.
Newfoundland and Labrador had the largest combined tax increase in the country having its combined top marginal income tax increased by 10.3%. Taking the province from one of the lowest combined top rates in the country in 2019 to the highest rate in 2023.
At the same time, Ontario’s combined top income tax rate increased by 7.1% and Quebec by 5.1%.
On this episode of The Faulkner Show, Harrison Faulkner is joined by journalist and commentator Riley Donovan of the Dominion Review to discuss the Canada’s dangerous mass immigration crisis.
Last week, after subjecting Canadians to years of uncontrolled mass immigration, Justin Trudeau finally admitted that Canada is taking in too many temporary immigrants for the country to handle. But why the sudden concession? Public polling reveals that a majority of Canadians support reducing immigration levels. Despite this, Trudeau seems adament on staying the course with his immigration approach and Pierre Poilievre seems afraid to approach the subject all together.
Culturally sensitive food, venting sessions about toxic masculinity, and a magazine about intersectionality are among the many DEI initiatives taxpayers are funding at British Columbia’s wokest prison.
Prisoners at William Head Institute in Metchosin, B.C., have the opportunity to create mandalas, vent about how they’re victims of intergenerational trauma, and join the “Ethnocultural Book Club” – all in the name of “restorative justice.”
“The Correctional Service of Canada is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in its operations,” the department’s media relations spokesperson Lucinda Fraser told True North.
“At William Head Institution, there are a number of initiatives, which include partnerships with community partners, which work to support these efforts, including an Ethnocultural Book Club, an ethnocultural day of celebration, a Mandala Workshop, as well as a Food Box Program.”
The Correctional Service of Canada confirmed to True North that it spent approximately $57,000 on a series of group discussion sessions for federal prisoners to talk about racism, sexism, ableism and microaggressions, among other topics, “to promote safer communities by providing inmates with a greater understanding of important issues and further preparing them for potential release into the community when it is safe to do so.”
Inmates at the William Head Institution are also publishing an annual magazine focused on the topic of intersectionality – a social theory invented by black feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw.
The minimum security prison is located about 25 kilometres away from Victoria. Nearly 50% of the inmates serving time there serve life sentences, including for murder.
A core component of the DEI programming was the INTERSECTIONS magazine, which the prison runs in partnership with the Nanaimo African Heritage Society. Prisoners from other federal institutions also took part in contributing to the publication.
Psychologist Lisa Gunderson, who heads the magazine, wrote that it shields inmates “from the raindrops of inequities and the perpetuation of systemic mental, spiritual, emotional and physical violence.”
“It further motivates us to engage in the fight to promote social and racial injustice,” wrote Gunderson.
One inmate, who goes by the pseudonym “Tamrat,” wrote of the prison’s educational bulletins on slavery showed “how fortunate we are to be residing in such a progressive correctional institution: in an institution where diversity is actively promoted; in an institution that fosters a living environment conducive to minority well-being; and in an institution that walks the talks of inclusivity by candidly acknowledging even the not-so-glamorous truth in our history.”
Tamrat called William Head a “mecca for diversity and inclusion.”
Another inmate known as “T.D.T” from the medium security Springhill Institution in Atlantic Canada wrote an article about how he was the “victim of intergenerational trauma.”
“Intergenerational trauma is systemic. I myself am a victim of intergenerational trauma. The truth is, most people think Blacks living in the ghettos and natives living on reserves are shitty parents. Fact is, we’re not being given what’s ours,” wrote T.D.T.
The magazine also explained how inmates are treated to “reasonable accommodations” of ethnocultural food items including samosas and Eritrean dishes such as injera, a fermented flatbread.
“Samosa is one of the items that has recently been added to the institutional canteen in order to meet the needs of ethnocultural residents at William Head Institution,” the magazine reported. “Samosa is a South Asian snack consisting of a thin pastry case filled with spiced vegetables or meat and then deep-fried.”
In the 2023 issue, Tamrat lauded the prison grocery store for meeting “the needs of diverse ethnocultural residents very well” with an “amazingly well-assorted grocery items and spices.”
“Thanks to the genuine and assiduous ethnocultural advocates, staff and management of William Head Institution, the right ingredients for preparing injera bread are now available at the institutional canteen,” wrote Tamrat. “Experiencing the taste of authentic injera bread for the first time after more than a dozen years was incredibly emotional for me.”
Inmates were also provided with “cultural food boxes” as an accommodation. “Included in every box will be self-cook recipes complete with authentic ingredients as well as additional recipes and country fact sheets,” wrote the William Head Institute.
Furthermore, convicts were allowed to take part in a mandala-making project with Haitian artist Mayouba Divi.
“Through the creation of art on hangers individually, we had an opportunity to express our unique life stories of adversity, hardship and triumph,” wrote the prisoners.
The publication is rife with poems, essays and musings on woke themes such as colonialism, anti-hate activism, gender identity and Black Lives Matter.
William Head inmate Michael wrote an essay on the gender binary.
“Inform yourselves. Talk with an open mind to anyone who is gender non-conforming. We are all unique, each with different trains,” he wrote. “The LGBTQ2S+ community has a Pride Movement. You should take pride in being a person who has conquered your own prejudices and phobias.”
William Head Institution has even installed a “Progressive Pride Sidewalk” out front to “represent our diversity.”
“Our goal with the Progressive Pride Sidewalk was to help everyone to feel valued for your individual diversity and create meaningful conversation where we can all share and learn from each other,” wrote WIlliam Head Institute. Inmates also took part in two pilot programs over the past few years called the “Makin’ It Real Group” and the “Keepin’ It Real Group.”
Both programs were composed of 10-sessions including sessions on “racism, sexism ableism” and “bullyism.” Inmates also got an opportunity to discuss “power and privilege” and “disrupting micro-aggressions.”
An outspoken Ontario doctor is in court this week so a judge can review the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s “cautions” against her COVID-19 commentary.
Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill’s judicial review is slated for Wednesday before the Ontario Superior Court.
Her legal costs have been largely supported by Elon Musk’s X Corp.. Gill is fighting to quash three cautions ordered against her by the college for her commentary on what was then Twitter at the height of COVID panic. “The (college) issued guidance that doctors’ opinions during COVID-19 had to align with the government, and took steps to censure ethical physicians who raised alarm bells about public health policies,” said Gill’s lawyer, Lisa Bildy of Libertas Law. “But the stifling of scientific debate, especially on novel measures being imposed on a massive scale, is not reasonable, in our submission, nor is it in the public interest.”
Gill is a specialized physician practicing in Brampton, Ont. with postgraduate training in pediatrics, allergies, and clinical immunology.
Her training includes scientific research in microbiology, virology and vaccinology at the Public Health Agency of Canada’s highest security level-4 biosafety laboratory in Canada, the National Microbiology Laboratory.
Gill shared scientific studies and opinions questioning the scientific and ethical justifications for the lockdowns and other public health measures in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her advocacy attracted the ire of the Ontario medical college beginning Aug. 2020 after seven complaints were made and a separate registrar’s investigation was launched against her.
The college’s complaints committee dismissed five of the eight complaints against her, finding them to be based on reasonable scientific and medical evidence available at the time.
The committee ordered three separate cautions be placed on Gill’s record based on two separate tweets made on Aug. 4, 2020. One asserted there was “absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful and illogical lockdown.”
There is absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful and illogical lockdown. #FactsNotFear
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had been made aware of foreign election interference via briefings in the lead-up to the 2019 election, CSIS officials testified during the foreign interference commission.
A witness testified on Monday that as of “late September/early October 2019,” Trudeau was aware of allegations relating to election interference in the Don Valley North riding in Toronto, won by former Liberal MP Han Dong.
The 2019 federal election took place on Oct. 21. CSIS’s testimony called into question some of Trudeau’s past statements about how much prior knowledge he had of the foreign interference scheme targeting Canada’s elections.
According to Global News, CSIS intelligence officials knew Chinese international students were being bussed from a private secondary school to the Don Valley North riding to vote in Dong’s nomination contest.
Witnesses testifying before the commission “were referred to a document that lists briefings the PM received in relation to allegations of FI [foreign interference] in the Don Valley North riding during the nomination campaign,” reads the document.
However, the Privy Council’s records appear to be incomplete and the briefings were “not reflected in the PCO IR (Privy Council Institutional Report).”
CSIS did not allege that Dong himself was aware of China’s alleged efforts to interfere in his nomination but in a separate interview summary, they said that he was made aware of “irregularities” in the Don Valley North riding.
Trudeau’s current national security and intelligence adviser Nathalie Drouin, testified that students being bussed did corroborate with the knowledge they had in 2019 but didn’t meet the threshold for informing the public.
“All the other elements were not corroborated,” said Drouin.
In both interview summaries which involved discussions not disclosed to the public, as well as top-secret information, Dong is not mentioned by name.
Trudeau will testify at the inquiry on Wednesday.
The prime minister was asked whether or not he’d been briefed on the possible interference in Dong’s riding during a news conference in February 2023 but he evaded the question, instead pivoting reporter’s concerns towards anti-Asian racism.
“Once again, one of the things we’ve seen unfortunately over the past years is a rise in anti-Asian racism linked to the pandemic and concerns around people’s loyalties,” said Trudeau at the time.
“I want to make everyone understand fully, Han Dong is an outstanding member of our team, and suggestions that he is not loyal to Canada should not be entertained.”
Trudeau continued to skirt questions regarding whether his views on Dong had changed since the inquiry last week, nor would he confirm if Dong would be allowed back into the Liberal Caucus as Dong has expressed his desire for a return.
He resigned from the Liberal caucus in 2023 and became an Independent.
During his testimony last week, Dong said that he was “reminded” by his wife of students being bussed into the Don Valley North riding however he hadn’t previously told the commission of having that knowledge in his initial interview.
However, a CSIS intelligence summary presented to the inquiry suggested that these students, who likely did not live in Don Valley North, had been provided with fake identification, and were coerced into voting.
“Some intelligence reporting also indicated that the students were provided with falsified documents to allow them to vote, despite not being residents of DVN (Don Valley North). The documents were provided by individuals associated with a known proxy agent,” reads the summary.
“Intelligence reported after the election indicated that veiled threats were issued by the PRC Consulate to the Chinese international students, implying their visas would be in jeopardy and that there could be consequences for their families back in the PRC if they did not support Han Dong.”
Dong’s defence was that while he was aware of the bus of students, he was under the impression that the trip had been organized by the secondary school itself and not by any foreign actors.
“I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because… I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” said Dong, who also denied having any knowledge that the students had falsified documents.
“I would be the first one condemning it. I think it’s an insult to our democratic system,” he said.
Source: YouTube (Justin Trudeau – Prime Minister of Canada)
A report from the “sustainable economy” firm Corporate Knights says Justin Trudeau’s government pledged to spend $48.6 billion on climate change over the last nine years but has ‘only’ spent $34.3 billion, calling for the government to “follow through” on its commitments. True North’s Andrew Lawton says encouraging the government to throw more money at the weather isn’t going to change anything.
Also, the firearms industry group that contracted with the federal government to work with firearms stores on the so-called gun buyback now says the government is in over its head. Wes Winkel, president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, joins the show to discuss.
Plus, a study from the Aristotle Foundation finds that while Jewish groups condemn attacks on Muslims, Muslim groups in Canada don’t tend to reciprocate. Study author Rahim Mohamed explains his findings.
