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Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Canadians mount Freedom Convoy-styled protests against carbon tax

By
Rachel Parker, True North Wire
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Source: Rachel Emmanuel

Thousands of Canadians from across the country are gathering along highways, provincial borders, and Liberals MPs’ offices in a Freedom Convoy-styled protest against the federal carbon tax. 

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.

Event organizers at various locations told True North that demonstrators 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.

The demonstration saw around 400 attendees by Monday morning, with more arriving each minute. Protesters used traffic pylons to block one way of traffic on Highway 1 heading west towards Banff. Vehicles slowed down and many honked in support, while some protesters tried to hinder legacy media. 

“A week, two, three — whatever it takes,” organizer Miranda Courts told True North at the protest in Loydminister along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Around 500 attendees showed up there to protest the tax. That demonstration featured a pancake breakfast, coffee, and a warming shack.

Demonstrators at the Nova Scotia–New Brunswick border succeeded in slowing traffic to a near standstill, according to the RCMP. 

Hundreds of cars and trucks lined both sides of the highway, with the RCMP eventually closing the road and diverting traffic to a detour. 

Another 30 protesters picketed Ontario Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell’s office.

One attendee told True North that the tax is difficult for the common person and those on fixed incomes.

“All these MPs, they have high incomes so it does not affect them,” she said. 

Another several hundred demonstrators arrived in Ottawa and chanted “freedom” in French and English. The demonstration took place on Parliament Hill and included speeches. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told supporters last month that he wanted them to organize protests at the officers of Liberal and New Democrat members of Parliament to pressure them into stopping the carbon tax hike that went into effect Monday.

The Conservatives introduced a non-confidence motion in the government over the tax, but it was blocked by all of the other parties in the House of Commons.

Poilievre is set to host his own “spike the hike” rally in Nanaimo, B.C. Monday evening.

 The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is also criticizing the federal government’s tax hike, which comes as MPs get a pay hike. 

All members of Parliament received a raise Monday, ranging between $8,500 and $17,000, depending on their role. A backbench MP’s salary is now $203,100. A minister’s salary is $299,900, and the prime minister’s salary is $406,200.

 “MPs are taking more money out of Canadians’ pockets and stuffing more money into their own and that’s wrong,” said the taxpayer advocacy group’s federal director, Franco Terrazzano. “MPs should be providing tax relief, not hiking taxes and their own pay.”

Live coverage of anti-carbon tax protests underway across Canada

By
True North Wire
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Source: Isaac Lamoureux

The federal carbon tax has increased by 23% effective Apr. 1. Thousands of Canadians have taken to streets, government buildings, members of Parliament’s offices, and other public spaces to protest the increase. True North Wire journalists are on the ground reporting live across the country.

LAWTON: Trudeau’s April fools joke will be on Canadians

By
Andrew Lawton
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Source: Facebook

The carbon tax is set to increase on April 1, along with a pay raise for Members of Parliament and a hike in the alcohol tax. Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to explain what Canadians can expect and offer his insight on these developments.

Canada reported highest population growth in over 66 years

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: Cohen.Canada

Canada’s population has seen its most rapid growth in over six decades, with new data from Statistics Canada revealing an unprecedented surge largely driven by temporary immigration. 

As of January 1, 2024, the nation’s population reached a staggering 40,769,890, marking a 3.2% increase from the previous year, the highest annual growth reported since 1957. Canada’s real-time population clock shows that the country’s population has now broken 41 million, just months after breaking the 40 million threshold.

Population growth in the fourth quarter of 2023 was the highest seen in the fourth quarter since 1956. Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people between October 1 and December 31, 2023.

“In 2023, the vast majority (97.6%) of Canada’s population growth came from international migration (both permanent and temporary immigration), and the remaining portion (2.4%) came from natural increase,” reads Statistics Canada’s report published Wednesday. 

The influx of 471,771 permanent immigrants in 2023 aligns with the targets set by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, yet it is the temporary immigration that has primarily fueled the population increase. A record 804,901 non-permanent residents, including temporary workers and international students, were added to Canada’s demographic tally.

According to a recent report by True North’s Candice Malcolm, the number of illegal migrants has exploded tenfold since Stephen Harper was Prime Minister. She said that the total number of newcomers in Canada is approximately 2.2 million people annually.

Amidst this rapid growth, interprovincial migration has also seen notable shifts, with Alberta recording a significant net gain, the largest seen since comparable data became available in 1972. 

Ontario saw the flipside of things, losing 36,197 people to other provinces. This followed a loss of 38,816 people the year prior. The only time a province lost more than 35,000 people to interprovincial migration was Quebec in 1977 and 1978, losing 38,498 and 36,955 people, respectively.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller previously admitted that the current level of temporary foreign workers and international students resulted in a system that was “out of control.”

He recently announced a new target to be introduced in September, bringing temporary residents from 6.2 to 5% of the total population within three years.

Senior economist at BMO, Robert Kavcic, said this reduction could bring Canada’s population growth from over 3% to closer to 1%.

“The 400,000-500,000 range is just about the sweet spot for net immigration that provides needed long-run labour supply, while also being absorbable,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has repeatedly highlighted the growth of Canada’s economy based on its growth in GDP.

A professor of economics at Waterloo University, Mikal Skuterud, highlighted the difference between GDP and GDP per capita growth in the country, in a post to X.

“Canada’s GDP grew by 1.1% between the 4th quarter of 2022 and 2023, while its population grew by 3.2%. That means GDP per capita is now falling at 2% annually (roughly the difference). Zero economic growth in more than 6 years,” he wrote.

As pointed out by Malcolm, after evaluating this stark difference, the economy may be technically growing, but only due to mass immigration. Canadians are much poorer under this system, on average.

OP-ED: MAID for people with autism? This is the end of Canada as we knew it

By
Rita Smith
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Source: Pexels

I was writing speeches for Canada’s health minister in 2006 when my desk phone rang.

The woman calling was named Michelle Dawson: she was an advocate for people with autism. Actually, she explained, she was a person with autism, and was dedicated to researching the neurological condition.

“Please,” she asked plaintively. “Please stop including the words, ‘We will find a cure for autism’ or ‘We will put an end to autism’ in the minister’s speeches.

“We do not need to be cured. We certainly don’t want to be ended. Every time the minister uses those words, he is saying to those of us with autism that Canada needs a cure for us, or we need to be ended. We don’t feel that way.”

Dawson blew my mind. For starters, not a lot of human beings would think to track down a minister’s speechwriter to provide feedback. She must be a very smart and persistent person, I thought.

Second, having been provided that particular key message to include in the minister’s speeches, I never really questioned it; I just reiterated it. I hadn’t tested the message by running it by a room full of people with autism. Nobody had, obviously.

The positive outcome of this story is that I stopped writing those words into Minister Tony Clement’s speeches. I also briefed him on why he had to stop using those words. He concurred completely.

Further, he was able to invite Dawson to speak at a symposium on autism, which was probably one the best and fastest examples of “stakeholder involvement” I’ve ever witnessed in politics.

Reading this week’s headlines about an Alberta court’s decision that a 27-year-old woman with autism can access Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), I can’t help wondering what Dawson is thinking now.

The young Alberta woman, referred to as M.V., wants the Canadian government to help her commit suicide. Her father, W.V., does not want this to happen. Justice Colin Feasby stated in a decision issued this week that her “dignity and right to self-determination outweighs the important matters raised by (the father) and the harm that he will suffer in losing (his daughter).”

I cannot even try to imagine the thoughts that are going through the minds of M.V., W.V., or even Feasby.

However, I worry a lot about the thoughts whirling through the minds of millions of people with autism – people like Dawson, who are brilliant and articulate and dedicated to their fields, working endlessly to improve life for other people.

What is the key message the court is sending to those people – people with autism who don’t need to be cured and certainly don’t want to be gone?

To date, M.V. has provided no medical reason for choosing MAID; Feasby, one might presume, is okay with this.

Father W.V. is not okay with this. People with autism and the loved ones of people with autism are probably horrified at the implications of this.

Will autism now be, in and of itself, without extenuating medical conditions, a reason to allow the government to assist a person’s suicide? How could this possibly be acceptable to Canadians? And, even more distressing to consider, what comes next?

I asked Autism Canada for its view of this case.

“We have no position on this matter at the moment,” came the shocking reply.

A Hindu friend – himself supporting one adult son with Down syndrome and another with schizophrenia – called me to confirm that the news story he’d read about M.V. and government-aided suicide was real. Sadly, I told him it was true.

“My God, what is going on in Canada? It’s full-blown Kali Yuga,” he said, referring to the period of chaos, calamity and evil his faith believes will lead to the end of humanity as we know it.

“I would not have thought of that,” I sighed ruefully, recalling Dawson’s spirit of pure optimism in calling up the Canadian health minister’s office nearly twenty years ago.

In 2024, would Canada refer her to MAID?  

If it’s not Kali Yuga, it’s at least Cana-Yuga: the end of Canada as we know it.

Bank of Canada warns low productivity will lead to further inflation

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

The Bank of Canada is warning that the country is at risk of facing even higher inflation if the economy continues to see low productivity.  

“An economy with low productivity can grow only so quickly before inflation sets in. But an economy with strong productivity can have faster growth, more jobs and higher wages with less risk of inflation,” said Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor for the central bank during a speech in Halifax on Wednesday. 

Rogers added that other catalysts of inflation include Canada’s rapidly changing demographics, global tensions and the impacts of climate change. 

Canada’s productivity has steadily been in decline since the 1980’s when compared to the United States. 

In 1984, Canada produced 88% of the value generated by its US counterpart per hour, however in 2022, it only generated 71%. 

While Canada has consistently faced problems of weak investment over the past 50 years, the gap between the level of capital spending per worker by Canadian firms compared to US firms has only widened in recent decades. 

“While U.S. spending continues to increase, Canadian investment levels are lower than they were a decade ago,” said Rogers.

Canada has now fallen behind most of its G7 peers, only beating out Italy in terms of a larger productivity decline relative to the US.

“You’ve seen those signs that say: In emergency, break glass — Well, it’s time to break the glass,” she said.

Rogers proposed increasing competition as one of many solutions required, urging policymakers to emphasize companies and sectors which provide great value to the economy. She added that by making them a priority, it would set the stage for increased investment, especially in areas like technology that will improve efficiency in productivity. 

“When a company increases productivity, that means more revenue, which allows the company to pay higher wages to its workers without having to raise prices,” said Rogers. 

“The bottom line is that the benefits from raising productivity are there no matter what your role is: for workers, for businesses and, yes, for central bankers, too.”

Additionally, Rogers would like to see policymakers focusing on labour composition, including training and “reskilling” existing workers to improve Canada’s productivity.

She also said now is the time for Canada to be taking advantage of immigration.  

“Too often, new Canadians are working in jobs that don’t take advantage of the skills they already possess. And too often these people wind up stuck in low-wage, low-productivity jobs,” she said. “Doing better at matching jobs and workers is crucial to the future of Canada’s economy.”

However above all, was the need for competition, particularly in sectors where Canada doesn’t currently face competition from firms in other provinces, new entrants or foreign rivals, noted Rogers. 

“Of course, every country has certain sectors that it champions, and there can be valid reasons to protect local businesses,” she said. “However, too much protection can lead to problems. It can also help to explain Canada’s weak record in business investment.”

She urged policymakers to create additional regulatory certainty to speed up processes that would allow businesses to make the kinds of investments that improve productivity with confidence.

“Increasing productivity is a way to protect our economy from future bouts of inflation without having to rely so much on the cure of higher interest rates,” said Rogers.

Housing starts in Canada fail to meet demand as costs and demand soar: report

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

While Canada’s largest cities saw historic apartment construction, their overall housing starts decreased, according to new data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The housing agency’s latest supply report examined Canada’s six largest cities – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.

Total housing starts in the six municipalities dropped by 0.5% between 2022 and 2023 due to a decline in building single-detached, semi-detached, and row homes, despite a 7% rise in apartment builds to a record 98,774 units.

“Single-detached starts registered the most significant decline of 20%,” read the report.

Apartment construction, including condominiums and purpose-built rentals, reached record levels in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Ottawa, with Ottawa seeing its highest level since the 1970s. However, apartment construction fell to an eight-year low in Montreal, decreasing by 34.9% between 2022 and 2023. Edmonton’s apartment builds decreased by 10.1% over the two years.

Apartments were the only housing type to see increased housing starts, last year.

Record condo starts were largely due to favourable borrowing rates secured before 2023. Apartment building starts are expected to moderate in 2024, reflecting current demand conditions and financial challenges, according to the report. 

Despite the increase in apartments being built, 2023 saw unprecedented rental demand, amplified by low vacancy rates, which decreased from 1.4% to 0.6% for rental apartments, and increased costs of rent, which rose 8.8% for two-bedroom apartments. 

“Ongoing challenges on the supply side suggest that demand will continue to outpace supply,” read the report.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s chief economist, Aled ab Iorwerth, said the supply gap could not be addressed without ramping up housing construction.

“We need to fill that supply gap that we have, in order to get back to affordability,” he said.

The report said ground-oriented homes, specifically single-detached properties, have become “increasingly unaffordable for homebuyers.” 

Despite reaching a record low, the expectation is that it will not improve in the near term.

Long construction timelines for each dwelling type also amplified the supply shortage. In 2023, all six municipalities averaged to build single-detached and semi-detached homes in 10.7 months, row properties in 12.8 months and apartments in 22.7 months.

The report analyzed the housing starts per 1,000 people in the six cities in the last ten years. Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal all saw decreases, while Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa saw increases in housing starts per 1,000 people when comparing 2014 to 2023. 

Purpose-built rentals as a share of apartments built have increased in all six jurisdictions. None of the six municipalities saw a larger increase in rentals’ share of apartment starts than Montreal, when comparing 2014 to 2023, which saw an increase of 45%. Calgary followed at 44%, then Edmonton at 32%, Ottawa at 21%, Toronto at 14%, and Vancouver at 13%. 

“Supply barriers stemming from rising costs, growing project sizes, and labour shortages have resulted in extended construction timelines,” the report said.

The report highlighted that various levels of government have implemented programs to stimulate the supply of rental housing. The federal government’s National Housing Strategy, introduced in 2016, has committed $14.77 billion for 41,105 units.

The feds have earmarked $15 billion for new loans starting next year to build rental apartments more quickly. They also cut the GST from new rental housing construction last fall.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation concluded that Canada would require an additional 3.5 million units by 2030, on top of what is already projected to be built, to restore affordability to levels seen around 2004.

“Under our high-population growth scenario, which assumes current immigration trends continue until 2030, the need for additional housing units would increase to four million,” read the report.

The United States, which has a population of almost 300 million more people than Canada, only builds 1.521 million homes annually. If Canada can match the rates of a country with almost tenfold its population, it can build enough homes to meet demand.

Jordan Peterson’s COVID-19 debate with leftist livestreamer Destiny goes viral 

By
Noah Jarvis, True North Wire
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Source: Instagram

Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson fiercely defended the position that the COVID-19 vaccines were not adequately tested before their rollout, and that vaccine mandates later implemented by governments were unjust in a viral debate with the leftist livestreamer Destiny.

In a conversation with the influencer, Peterson was challenged to defend the positions that many conservatives had taken over the course of the pandemic relating to vaccines and lockdowns.

The debate between the two has since garnered over two million views and has been clipped widely on various social media channels. Other livestreamers have also provided commentary on the debate since its release.

Peterson pushed back, arguing that the COVID-19 vaccines likely have something to do with higher-than-expected excess mortality statistics in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, specifically in Europe. 

Peterson offered a couple of alternative explanations as to why excess mortalities were up but circled back to the vaccines as being a possible cause for this phenomenon. 

“One relatively straightforward hypothesis is that it’s (excess mortalities) a consequence of the disruption of the healthcare system, the staving off of cancer treatment, et cetera. The increase in depression, anxiety, suicidality, and alcoholism that was a consequence of the lockdowns, the economic disruption,” said Peterson.

“But the other obviously glaring possibility is that injecting billions of people with a vaccine that was not tested by any stretch of the imagination with the thoroughness that it should of before it was forced upon people, also might be a contributing factor.”

The conversation developed into a discussion about claims that the vaccine would prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and the measures that governments put into place to prevent unvaccinated individuals from interacting with the vaccinated.

After Destiny attempted to make the argument that US President Joe Biden was the only public official to claim the COVID-19 vaccine would completely stop the transmission of the virus, Peterson shot back with his experience in Canada.

“Do you know that our Prime Minister in Canada deprived Canadians of the right to travel for some six months because the unvaccinated were going to transmit COVID with more likelihood than the vaccinated? So this wasn’t one bloody statement, this was a thorough government policy in my country,” said Peterson.

Destiny and Peterson went on to debate the legitimacy of governments using force to enforce public uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Peterson complained that governments and corporations used force to get their citizens to take the vaccines, but Destiny argued that this policy was not unfamiliar to Canadians and Americans.

“How long have vaccine mandates been a thing in Canada, the United States, and the entire world?” said Destiny.

“We absolutely use force, we’ve enforced vaccines for a long time, it’s an important part of public health.”

Peterson countered by saying that how vaccines were pushed onto citizens was different in nature to the mandates for conventional vaccines.

“Yes, fair enough. We did it on a scale and at a rate during the COVID pandemic, so-called pandemic, that was unparalleled. And the consequence of that was that we injected billions of people with an experimental – it wasn’t a bloody vaccine,” said Peterson.

The two then debated whether or not calling the mRNA vaccine a vaccine is an accurate way to describe the remedy. 

After Destiny and Peterson debated the matter, Peterson conceded that the mRNA vaccine is a novel form of vaccine different in kind to other vaccines but argued that administering a new technology to billions of people without adequate testing was irresponsible.

“Well okay, it’s a radically transformed form of vaccine, I don’t give a damn. That still makes it something so new that the potential danger of its mass administration was highly probable to be at least or more dangerous than the thing that it was supposed to protect against. And we are seeing that in the excess deaths,” said Peterson.

LAWTON: Trudeau advisor calls concerns over Online Harms bill “rage farming”

By
Andrew Lawton
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Source: Facebook

A recent column in the Toronto Star, written by a senior advisor to Justin Trudeau, claims that critics are attempting to misconstrue the Online Harms Act as an assault on online freedom of expression. Canadian Constitution Foundation litigation director Christine Van Geyn joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to refute the claim, and explain why the Online Harms Act should concern all Canadians.

80% of Canadians oppose upcoming pay hike for MPs: poll

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
-
Source: Facebook

Four in five Canadians oppose the upcoming pay raise for members of Parliament, according to a new poll.

While the poll showed that 80% of Canadians oppose the hike, only 13% support it, with 7% unsure.

The federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Franco Terrazzano, said the findings of the Leger poll are decisive.

“The poll results are crystal clear: Canadians don’t think MPs deserve another pay raise,” he said. “It looks like the only Canadians who strongly support an MP pay raise are probably the politicians themselves.”

Of the 80% against the hike, just over three-quarters strongly oppose it, with the rest somewhat opposed.

The results reflect a consistent trend, mirroring the two previous years, where 80% and 79% of respondents opposed MPs getting pay raises.

MPs are granted yearly salary adjustments that mirror the average wage growth in union contracts with large corporations employing 500 staff or more.

Statistics Canada’s most recent data shows that the average wage increase in the private sector has increased by 4.2%. Utilizing these data, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimates that backbench MPs will see a pay increase of $8,100, ministers will see a pay raise of $11,900 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pay raise will amount to $16,200.

The hikes will result in backbench MPs getting a salary of $202,700, ministers making $299,300. Trudeau is projected to receive $405,400, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The pay increase for MPs aligns with the scheduled carbon tax increase of April 1. A previous poll by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found that 69% of Canadians opposed the upcoming carbon tax hike.

The carbon tax is set to rise by 23%, which has led to protests being planned across Canada.

Terrazzano said that not one MP has tried to stop the raise.

“On the very same day politicians take more money out of Canadians’ wallets with tax hikes, they’ll be stuffing more money into their own, and that’s wrong,” he said. 

Between 2010 and 2013, in response to the recession of 2008-2009, the federal government led by Stephen Harper halted automatic pay raises for MPs.

“All MPs should speak out against the tax hikes and politicians’ pay raise,” said Terrazzano.

80% of Canadians opposing the hike mirrors the 79% against MPs taking their third pay raise during the pandemic on April 1, 2022.

During COVID-19, 31 jurisdictions took pay cuts.

New Zealand was one of the jurisdictions, and the government took a pay cut of 20% over six months to mirror the pain felt by its citizens.

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