If Justin Trudeau doesn’t get rid of the carbon tax, Canadians will get rid of him. That was the message from Ontario Premier Doug Ford on the heels of a hike to the beleaguered tax.
Plus, Queen’s University introduced a lottery system for medical school admissions to enhance diversity, in an effort to fast-track admissions for black and Indigenous students.
And pro-Palestinian protests in Toronto led to clashes with police and multiple arrests after demonstrators made inflammatory statements and the event turned unruly.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
Three NDP MPs have announced they are stepping back from politics.
Charlie Angus, Rachel Blaney, and Carol Hughes said Thursday they were not be seeking re-election.
Angus said he’s “passing the baton” and won’t be seeking re-election.
In a statement to the Globe and Mail, Angus said he will continue representing his Timmins—James Bay riding until the next federal election.
Angus said there is a “need for new energy” in politics.
“One political era is ending, and another begins,” Angus said. “As part of this renewal, I have decided not to run for re-election.”
Angus sought the NDP leadership against Jagmeet Singh in 2017. He received 19.4% of the vote. He is currently the party’s critic for natural resources and deputy critic for ethics and Crown-Indigenous relations.
News of Angus’ departure from politics comes as Conservatives are slightly leading the polls in the Timmins—James Bay riding, according to 388Canada. However, the boundaries will change in the federal election.
In the 2021 election, Angus carried the riding with 35% of the vote, besting Conservative candidate Morgan Ellerton, who received 27%.
Despite polls showing a tight race if the riding remained unchanged, Angus is optimistic the new riding will remain NDP.
Angus has won seven elections since his 20 years of political service and is the longest-serving MP in Timmins’ history.
In the next election, the riding he’s represented since 2004 will be renamed Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk with a new boundary adding 20,000 square kilometres of territory.
Singh released a statement on Thursday in response to the MPs stepping away from politics.
“On behalf of all New Democrats, I want to thank Rachel, Charlie, and Carol for their years of advocacy and dedication to serving working people,” said Singh.
“They’ve all accomplished so much for Canadians and worked tirelessly to make our country a fairer, better place. They’ve added so much to our party and, while we’ll miss their contributions around the caucus table, I want to wish my friends the very best when each of them begins their next chapter.”
Investigators who are part of a multi-jurisdictional investigation into Canada’s auto theft crisis announced the recovery of 598 stolen vehicles since the investigation began last December.
“In Canada, a vehicle is stolen every five minutes,” said Bryan Gast, vice president of investigative services for Équité Association. “Auto theft has reached crisis levels in Canada.”
Auto theft claims have skyrocketed since 2020, up 319% nationally, which prompted the Ontario Provincial Police’s Auto Theft and Towing team to partner up with the Canada Border Service Agency to recover vehicles and intercept them before they’re illegally exported out of the country.
The ongoing investigation, which has been billed “Project Vector,” is being carried out in collaboration with the Sûreté du Quèbec, Montreal Police, and the Équité Association.
Representatives from each agency were present at a press conference in Montreal on Wednesday to give the public an update as auto thefts spiral out of control.
A vehicle stolen every five minutes means that about 135,360 vehicles have been stolen in Canada since the beginning of 2024.
“The majority of vehicles that organized crime groups are targeting to steal in Ontario and Quebec are newer and of greater value than in other provinces,” said Gast.
The CBSA, working alongside SQ, confirmed that after searching 390 suspicious sea containers in the Port of Montreal, 75% of the vehicles recovered had originally been stolen in Ontario.
“Project Vector has disrupted the criminal networks that take advantage of the Canadian export market to sell stolen vehicles,” explained OPP Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns at the conference.
“These vehicles were destined to be exported overseas to markets in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America.”
While the efforts of Project Vector may have made a disruption, there is still a long way to go, with Canada’s auto theft claims costs reaching $1.2 billion in 2022.
Ontario alone accounts for $700 million of that figure for a myriad of reasons.
In part, it’s the province’s dense population, with its high volume of targeted vehicles and its proximity to the Port of Montreal via the 400 series highway.
Unfortunately, bearing the brunt of the country’s thefts resulted in Ontario seeing over $1 billion in auto theft claims last year.
Of the 598 vehicles recovered under Project Vector, 483 were from Ontario and the remaining 115 were stolen within Quebec.
Still, those working on Project Vector feel that thus far, the investigation has been a success.
“We look at it from the aspect of taking $34.5 million dollars out of the pockets of organized crime. We are sending a message that we are here, we are active,” said Kearns. “And we’re not done. We anticipate arrests and charges in the near future.”
Legislative changes made in 2006 regarding engine immobilizers, noted Kearns, helped create a dramatic drop in stolen vehicles, however, the technology changed so quickly, and criminals were also quick to adapt.
True North Wire asked Gast if vehicles continue to be pursued by authorities after being successfully exported.
“Repatriation is another big component,” responded Gast. “Even though the vehicle makes it out of the country to its destination, it doesn’t mean it ends there. There’s extreme efforts to repatriate those vehicles, bring them back, working with the RCMP liaison officers, working with INTERPOL, working with police jurisdictions in an effort to cause that disruption.”
“It does not end if it leaves the country,” he reiterated. “There’s continued efforts to get every vehicle that has been stolen back.”
True North Wire followed up with Deputy Kearns on the likelihood of recovery past the point of the port.
“What’s the dropoff in recovery after that point, I imagine it’s pretty significant,” pressed True North Wire.
“It is,” replied Kearns. “But in mid-February the RCMP was successful in integrating the CPIC (Canadian Police Information Centre) system into INTERPOL. What that meant was as of February 13, all of the stolen vehicles that were entered into CPIC from all of the police jurisdictions were rolled into INTERPOL and they have access now to them.”
“So thousands of stolen vehicles [exported] from Montreal are then uploaded, which then alerts our foreign ports that the vehicle is stolen and gives them more tools to pick and seize the vehicles.”
True North Wire asked Kearns whether there was a line of communication with ports in Africa and the Middle East.
“RCMP liaisons are located in each of those countries and ports and yes we’re in contact with all of them,” said Kearns.
Project Volcano, a similar cross-province police investigation targeting auto thefts led to the arrest of 34 people last week.
All of the arrests were of people who’d previously been charged by Ontario police and released with a court date.
Auto thefts in Toronto have gotten so bad that residents in some higher-income areas in the GTA have started hiring private security to patrol their neighbourhoods.
The crisis levels authorities speak of have also led to a dramatic spike in auto insurance premiums.
“It’s important to note these dramatic losses have fallen squarely on the shoulders of Canada’s insurers,” said the Insurance Bureau of Canada in a recent statement. “At the end of the day, premiums follow claims costs.”
Premiums on commonly stolen models have increased anywhere from 25% to 50% since 2022, according to data from Rates.ca, a website that aggregates insurance pricing.
Certain models now come with a $500 high-theft vehicle surcharge.
A British Columbia city council meeting erupted in chaos as debates over a controversial book on residential schools led to heated exchanges and calls for the mayor’s resignation.
The book at the centre of the controversy, “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” sparked a widespread backlash from some in the B.C. city of Quesnel, particularly among council members and Indigenous groups. True North is the publisher of the collection of essays.
The controversy began when Pat Morton, the wife of Mayor Ron Paull, distributed 10 copies of the book, which has stirred controversy over its critical analysis of certain claims about residential schools in Canada, specifically those regarding purported unmarked grave discoveries.
The distribution led to a packed council meeting, where supporters and opponents of the book voiced their concerns.
During the meeting, some attendees, many wearing traditional Indigenous attire, jeered at speakers defending the book, including Morton and Prof. Frances Widdowson, one of the Grave Error’s several contributors.
Morton expressed regret over the division the book’s distribution had caused, stating, “I’m sorry you’re here due to the actions of this council. I’m sorry if my actions sharing the book have upset you.”
Morton asked the audience to listen to her as she had listened to other speakers.
“I’d like you to listen to me. I listened to you, so please listen to me,” said Morton.
Widdowson faced significant opposition when she questioned the council’s stance on misinformation, specifically regarding claims of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School which were spread by the media but have never been verified.
When it was Widdowson’s turn to speak, members of the gallery jeered the professor and author.
“Does the council concern itself with misinformation? Is it opposed to misinformation being spread and entered into the record? If so, does it agree that this is misinformation because there is no evidence of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School?” asked Widdowson.
In response, councillors Laurey-Anne Roodenburg and Scott Elliott said Widdowson’s queries and opinions were unwelcome because she didn’t have lived experience as an Indigenous person.
“Her opinion in this chamber does not count. She’s asking us to comment on something that comes from qualified individuals that dealt with this that lived through this. Ma’am, you are not welcome here,” said Elliott.
Earlier in the meeting, Elliott criticized the book as “denialist literature,” despite the fact that the book does not deny the facts surrounding abuses that took place at the historic schools.
Elliot then asked for Paull’s resignation as mayor. Elliott was also joined by a group of First Nations chiefs who called on the mayor to resign.
The meeting, attended by over 300 people, followed a larger gathering of more than 500 at the Nazko office, with many participants marching to city hall in protest. The Lhtako Dene Nation has accused the book of downplaying the harms inflicted by residential schools, a sentiment echoed by the city council in a unanimous motion to denounce the book as harmful, passed on March 19.
In defense, the book’s editors, C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan, issued a press release arguing that the council’s condemnation was unfounded, asserting that “Grave Error” does not question the existence of Indian residential schools. Widdowson added that the book aims to correct false claims regarding clandestine burials at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, questioning the council’s familiarity with the book’s content.
The Conservatives lost the last federal election by being on the “wrong side of public opinion on the vaccine mandate issue,” former leader Erin O’Toole says.
In an appearance before the Public Inquiry Into Foreign Interference, O’Toole, who led the Conservatives in the 2021 election, attributed his loss to the mandate debate.
O’Toole told the commission that Justin Trudeau called the election because the Conservatives’ position on mandates was unpopular.
The Conservative position in August 2021, when the last election was called, was that the COVID-19 vaccines should not be mandated for public transportation. Instead, unvaccinated people should’ve been required to show a “recent negative test result” or pass a rapid test to be able to board a bus, train, plane or ship.
O’Toole encouraged vaccination while also accusing the Liberals of politicizing the issue.
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says the vaccine mandate issue was "largely" why the Conservatives went from being the projected winners of the 2021 election to losing.
Some former Conservative supporters switched their vote to the People’s Party of Canada, which received nearly 5% of the vote in 2021—the highest percentage since the party’s founding.
“When you consider it was a pandemic election, we were largely on the wrong side of public opinion on the vaccine mandate issue,” O’Toole said.
He said his team saw the vote changing largely due to that single issue. At the time of the election, O’Toole also faced criticism from within the party for flip-flopping on key issues, including the carbon tax, gun bans and defunding the CBC.
O’Toole’s 2021 campaign manager did not respond to a request for comment from True North.
Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, told True North he disagrees with O’Toole’s explanation.
“He didn’t win because he was not a conservative. He was a liberal light,” Bernier said. “He supported a carbon tax like the Liberals. He supported mass immigration like the Liberals. He supported all the COVID hysteria and vaccine passport, like the Liberals.”
He said O’Toole was too close to Trudeau supporting policies Bernier calls “draconian.”
“O’Toole was like Trudeau, promoting the vaccine, promoting the mandates, promoting the draconian measures, telling people to stay at home, shutting down the economy,” he said.
O’Toole told the commission that in the campaign’s last few days, the party went from winning the projected seat count a week before the election with a “small modest minority” to losing the seat count on election day but winning the popular vote.
The Conservative party won 119 seats in the last election, with 34% of the popular vote, compared to the Liberal party’s 160 seats and 33% of the vote overall.
In the commission, he testified that he thought five to nine seats were possibly changed because of foreign interference, but election interference wasn’t what ultimately cost him the election.
A national protest to scrap the federal carbon tax began on Monday as the Trudeau government increased the tax once again. As thousands of Canadians across the country took part in the protest earlier this week, Albertans took it to another level. Event organizers across various Alberta locations told True North that protesters are prepared to stay for weeks and even managed to slow down traffic considerably.
However, protesters are increasingly frustrated with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who said on Tuesday that she doesn’t support carbon tax protesters stopping the flow of traffic.
Should Smith be more supportive of the carbon tax protesters and even attend one of the demonstrations? What do you think?
Tune into The Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel!
Queen’s University has unveiled a lottery system for its medical school admissions process, claiming that the new process will help address equity issues on a broad scale.
The new admissions process builds on an existing pathway that supported recruiting black and Indigenous high school students on an accelerated track.
In a press release issued Tuesday, the university claimed that inflated thresholds intended to manage applicant volume and emphasize extracurricular or volunteer activities “disadvantage certain groups, either due to inherent biases with the required tests, or by favouring the privilege required to build one’s application package.”
Dr. Jane Philpott, Dean of Health Sciences, said that the thousands of applicants who would make excellent doctors will be given an equal opportunity to be selected for the interview stage.
“This will help level the playing field for prospective students,” she said.
However, Dr. Chris Milburn offered a different viewpoint in an exclusive interview with True North, a point he said led to him being fired from Dalhousie University’s medical school admissions committee.
Instead of lowering standards, he suggested reaching out to communities not generally meeting standards and figuring out how to assist them.
Queen’s University’s new MD Program admissions process will still set admissions thresholds for grade points average, Medical College Admissions Test scores, and a situational judgment test score “at levels that align with the potential for predicting success in medical school.”
All applicants who meet these thresholds will be entered into a lottery to determine who will be invited to interviews.
Milburn said similar processes are occurring in medical schools across Canada, though some are happening more quietly.
He said that Dalhousie University, for example, wanted to give black and Indigenous students with a certain GPA and MCAT automatic interviews. In contrast, white applicants would have to overcome more hurdles to receive interviews.
The University of Manitoba implemented a similar “adversity score,” where someone who could claim they faced more adversity in life, such as having a single mother or a poor family, would be bumped up on the interview list, said Milburn.
There are several reasons that the public should be concerned, according to Milburn. Firstly, he said that no person has ever been in a life-or-death situation or surgery and wished their doctor was more diverse, just that they are a hard worker, were at the top of their class, and are conscientious.
This is even more relevant at a family doctor level than a specialist doctor, such as a neuroscientist.
“You want a good family doctor almost more than you want a good specialist because the specialist’s role is very technical. The family doctor figures out what’s wrong with you, what you need, and they send you to a specialist to do it right,” said Milburn.
“There is no such thing as a part of medicine where it doesn’t matter if you’re really smart. It’s all people’s lives we’re dealing with, wherever we are,” he added.
Dr. Eugenia Piliotis, Associate Dean at Queen’s University, said that increased diversity in Queen’s’ medical school will lead to more diversity in the health workforce.
“To support health equity, all communities need to see themselves reflected in their care providers,” she said.
Dr. Shawn Whatley echoed Milburn’s concerns.
“It seems wise to train students that reflect the cultural diversity present in Canada. Patients appreciate when their physician can speak their first language, especially for new Canadians. Having said that, patients care first and foremost that their physicians are smart, well-trained, and eager to learn. Cultural relevance, although important, is nowhere near as important as clinical ability,” said Whatley.
The second reason that the public, as well as doctors, should be worried, according to Milburn, is that trust in medicine will decline in the future if processes not solely based on meritocracy are implemented.
“If you end up at a doctor in ten years, and that doctor is a young black guy who just graduated, your first thought, quite rightly, would be: wait a minute, is this guy really qualified, or did he get in because it was easy for him to get in?”
Milburn said that many of his minority friends who work in medicine have brought up their concerns to him, saying that processes such as this will cause the public to respect them less and wonder if they’re qualified or not.
“It’s a bit denigrating to minorities to say you guys can’t possibly meet the high standards, so we’re going to lower the standard a bit to get more of you in,” said Milburn.
He said getting into medical school in Canada has always been extremely challenging. He added that shifting away from meritocracy could not only be concerning for the public but also discourage many students from trying their best to succeed in a hyper-competitive field.
The new medical student admissions process will launch at Queen’s University in the fall for 2025 admissions.
How governments across Canada procure goods and services is not serving the interests of Canadians and is falling behind other countries in terms of efficiency.
These were the conclusions made by a new report authored by the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit led by more than 150 CEOs of Canada’s biggest companies. The report, Buying Ideas: Procuring Public Sector Innovation in Canada, was released on Wednesday.
Research revealed that procurement, the process of sourcing, acquiring, and paying for goods and services, accounted for 14.6% of Canada’s GDP in 2021, amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars.
“The fact is that the current culture of government procurement — both federally and provincially — is not serving the Canadian economy, and it is not serving the government’s own purposes,” wrote analysts.
The failure of government procurement was amplified in technology services, revealed the report. Approximately one-third of 1,480 “mission-critical” government digital applications—critical to Canadians’ health, safety, security, and economic well-being—are considered to be in “poor health,” according to a recent Auditor General report.
On top of that, the Auditor General found that nearly two-thirds of applications used by departments and agencies “were reported as being in poor health and in critical need of modernization.” The Auditor General noted it was a conservative estimate given that departments and agencies were not providing accurate, timely, or complete information about the health of their systems.
The Auditor General’s report mentioned high-profile procurement scandals like the Phoenix payroll system and military procurement contracts. However, the report made no mention of ArriveCan — the Liberals’ most recent large procurement scandal that the RCMP is currently investigating.
The Council of Canadian Innovators claimed that the government’s procurement failures fall into several categories.
Right from the outset of the procurement process, the council says that there was an overspecification and lack of ongoing dialogue with vendors. The process is “long and cumbersome,” discouraging innovators from committing their time to an outcome which is uncertain and may take years to execute.
The council said that capacity and expertise are lacklustre among public servants to “meaningfully engage with vendors.” Lastly, a “risk-averse culture” was a result of institutional culture and career incentives which led government buyers to pursue the “safe choice.”
Benjamin Bergen, President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, said that Canada’s innovation economy has been undermined by the governments’ inability to buy innovative technologies successfully.
“When the government disproportionately relies on large foreign technology service providers to offer sub-par solutions, that impacts Canadian companies’ ability to compete and succeed globally,” he said.
Canada can take notes from various countries, according to the report. The Small Business Innovation Research program has been successful for a long time in the United States. The Forward Commitment Procurement model implemented in the United Kingdom in the 2000s has been adopted worldwide. A network of agencies from Finland has also created an ecosystem for government procurement that leads the European Union.
“While no one can simply snap their fingers and fix Canadian procurement with a single agency or policy change, we can learn lessons from all of these countries. We can imagine policies which bend the curve, score tangible wins for government innovation procurement, and create a culture of success that we can build on,” read the report.
Canada’s federal government IT procurement spending has increased from $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion between 2018 and 2022, the report notes. Canada ranked sixth in the UN’s E-Government Development Index in 2003, sliding down to 32nd in 2022 — the only G7 country to rank lower than Canada was Italy in 37th place.
The Council of Canadian Innovators offered six recommendations to Canadian government leaders as a first step to tackling the issue.
The council recommends setting a target for small and medium enterprise procurement. It suggests that a framework for forward commitment procurement is created. An “innovation procurement standard” should be developed and recognized. Commercialization should be prioritized in procurement programming. The Industrial Research Assistance Program should be empowered to drive innovation procurement. Lastly, the council recommends that the government create a federal procurement concierge.
“The stakes are high. Public procurement of innovation is an important lever on Canada’s innovation performance and contributes to correcting our historic innovation underperformance,” read the report.
The report concludes that governments use more than one dollar of every four they spend buying from the private sector and almost one dollar in every six spent in the entire economy.
“We should want that spending to create real value for the public,” concluded the report.
If Justin Trudeau doesn’t get rid of the carbon tax, Canadians will get rid of him. That was the message from Ontario Premier Doug Ford on the heels of a hike to the beleaguered tax.
Ford had harsh words for Trudeau at a press conference Tuesday, one day after the Liberals raised the carbon tax by 23%, “against the urging of premiers of every political stripe,” costing Canadians 17.06 cents more per litre of gas.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford: "Let's cut to the chase. This carbon tax has to go or in a year and half the Prime Minister is going. It's simple as that. He will be going. I guarantee you, he will not be there." pic.twitter.com/I2EpkP6rbU
“This carbon tax has to go, or in a year and a half, the prime minister’s going. It’s as simple as that. He will be going, I’ll guarantee you,” Ford said. “He will not be there if he doesn’t start looking after the people and the businesses of Ontario.”
At his own press conference Monday, Trudeau defended his carbon tax hike. He said the carbon tax may be rising, but so is the rebate. Ford said that doesn’t cut it.
“This isn’t the first time they’ve raised the carbon tax, but it couldn’t come at a worse time,” Ford said. “At a time when the cost of living has never been higher.”
The premier said his government has been fighting against the federal carbon tax for years, having taken the Trudeau government to court over the policy. The Supreme Court of Canada ultimately upheld it.
“Our government will never stop fighting the federal government on the terrible carbon tax,” Ford said.
Ford used his press conference to take shots at Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie calling her “The Queen of the Carbon Tax” despite her recent statements saying she would not impose a provincial carbon tax if elected.
“As a Liberal MP, she was one of the first people in Canada to support the carbon tax,” Ford said. “Just last week, when given the opportunity to vote against the carbon tax, every single one of Bonnie Crombie’s Liberal MPs sat on their hands and did absolutely nothing.”
Crombie served as a Liberal MP before entering municipal politics in Mississauga and later becoming leader of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Ford said fuel and energy costs account for 30% of inflation, and this tax hike will raise the price of everything from packaging to travel.
Ford focused not just on the carbon tax but on the cost of living and business in general.
“I call out the Bank of Canada. We have to start lowering these interest rates. You’re going to end up killing people over the next year or two years when they renew their mortgages, and you’re just gouging these people.”
The Bank of Canada’s key interest rate has been held steady at 5%. The next interest rate announcement is scheduled for April 10.
People upset with the federal carbon tax should feel free to protest – but don’t block traffic.
That was the message from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who said she doesn’t support carbon tax protesters stopping the flow of traffic or the movement of goods.
Her comments come as demonstrators outside Calgary have been protesting the federal government’s carbon tax — which increased again Monday — for two days.
Smith asked protesters to comply with the provincial Critical Infrastructure Act, which seeks to protect essential infrastructure from interference caused by blockades or protests.
WATCH: Here’s a look at the scene of the carbon tax protest outside Calgary on Highway 1 towards Banff. Police have pushed protesters off the highway, which has fully reopened, and have formed a line. #CarbonTaxProtestpic.twitter.com/xFO5pGX6Uu
“I don’t support it when Extinction Rebellion glues themselves to the street and stops traffic, and I don’t support anyone stopping traffic as well,” Smith said at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday.
“You can protest — do it at the side of the road. Don’t interfere with the movement of goods, don’t interfere with the movement of your neighbors.”
Protesters on Highway 1 heading west from Calgary to Banff used traffic pylons to block one lane and slow traffic on Monday. By Tuesday morning, a large police presence arrived and prevented protesters from crossing a police line near the highway.
Event organizers at various locations told True North that people are prepared to stay for weeks in hopes of swaying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to remove his costly tax.
“We’re going to be camping out. There’s no departure date, let’s put it that way,” organizer Elliot McDavid told True North at the Calgary protest on Monday.
The tax rose to 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas on Monday, Apr. 1.
Smith has long asked the federal government to scrap the carbon tax and she reiterated those calls on Tuesday, saying the tax is “punishing people.”
“The carbon tax has been tried,” she said. “It failed. It’s punitive. People don’t like it, especially in the middle of an affordability crisis. It’s gotta go.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is asked whether she is willing to use the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act against the anti-carbon tax protests. pic.twitter.com/Hhyr7lXRha
