British Columbia motorists might have to tangle with electric skateboards, unicycles and mopeds in bike lanes if a pair of Victoria councillors get their way.
Councillors Jeremy Caradonna and Dave Thompson want Victoria City Council to demand that Premier David Eby amend the Motor Vehicle Act to include “diverse forms of transportation” including electric unicycles, mopeds and skateboards.
This isn’t the first time that Victoria has made such a request. A similar demand was presented in 2021, however, the government’s plan to update traffic laws was curtailed by the pandemic.
A motion before Victoria City Council calls on British Columbia to “permit the use of electric wheelchairs and mobility devices on local streets and in the bike and roll lane network via the Motor Vehicle Act and associated regulations.”
The councillors also want to “include new micro-mobility devices, including electric skateboards and mopeds and other difficult-to-categorize devices” in the legislation.
“It is essential that our bike and roll lanes welcome people of all ages and abilities, and that the
use of the lanes be safe and regulated,” the motion reads.
“One example is electric skateboards. Another is electric mopeds, which use both pedals and an electrified pedal assist. Electric unicycles are another example of a hard-to-categorize mobility type.”
As it stands, electric unicycles are not permitted on roads. Some models of portable devices can travel at a speed of up to 50 km/h.
Last year the BC NDP government tabled Bill 23, the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act. Bill 23 is currently in its third reading before the BC legislature.
Among the changes proposed in the update are a minimum safe-passing distance and minimum following distance for pedestrians and cyclists.
Additionally, the government wants heavy-duty commercial vehicles to be required to have speed-limiting equipment installed.
The NDP is calling on the Canadian government to recognize Palestine as a state.
The call comes in an opposition motion the socialist party plans to introduce when the House of Commons returns next week.
Also included in the motion is a call for Canada’s continued recognition of Israel’s right to exist, as well as for Canada to “advocate for an end to the decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories and work toward a two-state solution.”.
“Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Canadians have reported an increase in hate-motivated attacks and racism since October,” reads the motion. “Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to live in peace, with full enjoyment of their human rights and democratic freedoms.”
The motion also calls on Canada to “ban extremist settlers from Canada” and sanction Israeli officials who “incite genocide,” while preserving sanctions against leaders of Hamas.
Settlers refers to Israelis who live on land in the West Bank. Critics of Israel maintain that settlements are illegal.
The opposition motion calls on the government to demand an “immediate ceasefire” and for all hostages to be released. It also calls for a halt on all military and technological trade with Israel while increasing efforts to stop illegal arms trading, including with Hamas.
The motion is not binding on the government if it passes.
The NDP also wants the Canadian government to commit to long-term funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, whose federal funding the Liberals announced last week they’d be reinstating, despite evidence that some UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather has said he will “forcefully oppose” the NDP’s motion.
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that I will strongly and forcefully oppose the NDP opposition day motion on March 18 that would reverse 50 years of Canadian foreign policy & unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state thus rewarding Hamas for its pogrom of Oct. 7,” he wrote.
Housefather’s comments were condemned by Mona Abuamara, the Palestinian Authority’s representative in Canada, who called Israel a “ruthless occupier” and said Palestinian self-determination is “an inalienable, non-negotiable, indivisible right.”
“Just let it be known that this is how the Palestinian representative in Canada refers to the state of Israel and her refusal to recognize that Jews are also indigenous to this land,” he wrote.
Housefather was not the only MP in opposition to the NDP motion. Independent MP Kevin Vuong, who’s eyeing a new home with the Conservatives, called for Hamas to release the hostages to find peace.
“The NDP’s attempt to reward terrorist group #Hamas for the horrors of Oct. 7th with unilateral recognition must & will fail,” wrote Vuong on X.
The NDP motion calls to facilitate the safe return of Canadians trapped in Gaza by moving the limit of 1,000 temporary resident visa applications.
In the wake of controversy stemming from Selina Robinson’s allegations of antisemitism within the NDP caucus, British Columbia Premier David Eby convened with Jewish community leaders, committing to addressing and combat antisemitism across the province.
The premier has pledged to protect the province’s Jewish community from antisemitism when dealing with provincial employees and asks those with complaints to come forward.
Eby met with various Jewish groups in the province on Friday and said afterwards that antisemitism “exists in schools, in civil society, in private employers, and I believe that people have had antisemitism experiences within the government of B.C. public service,” according to the Globe and Mail.
With a background as a human rights lawyer, Eby said that while none of the issues brought to him by the Jewish groups he met with were reported to the province, he knows that people may be “incredibly scared” to come forward.
“If you have had experiences like this, bring forward your concerns,” said Eby. “It will be investigated, and they will be addressed, and we will root out these issues.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, and the Pacific Region Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs thanked Eby for meeting with them to hear their concerns about systemic antisemitism in his government and across the province, specifically in the public service and B.C’s healthcare, education, and post-secondary institutions.
“History has repeatedly shown us that hatred targeting the Jewish community does not remain directed at Jews, but spreads across society like a virus,” said the organizations in their letter.
The premier’s commitment follows controversy that included calls for Eby’s resignation from the B.C. Conservative Party, following allegations of antisemitism within the NDP party. Jewish MLA Selina Robinson left the NDP caucus last week, citing antisemitism among her colleagues.
Robinson wrote in her resignation letter that her colleagues failed to show her and the Jewish community support and solidarity during their troubling times.
Her letter highlighted the indifference and absence of support for B.C.’s Jewish community among her NDP colleagues, as well as accusations of antisemitism against some members.
After writing an email to more than 35 MLAs, calling on them to join her in speaking at a vigil just days after the Oct. 7 attack, Robinson said she received little response and was embarrassed at the turnout of her colleagues.
Two of her colleagues, instead of addressing her email, called on the government to make a public statement about the plight of Palestinians.
“But it wasn’t their antisemitism that broke my heart. It was your silence to their antisemitism that hurt the most. Not a single one of you responded to their insensitive, disrespectful, and inappropriate email. No one. Your silence broke my heart that day. You abandoned me and my community that day,” she said.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, and the Pacific Region Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs added in their letter that events to this point “have sent a chilling message that antisemitism is tolerated in B.C.”
“This is dangerous and contributes to the vulnerability already experienced by our community after the October 7 terrorist attacks committed by Hamas,” reads the letter.
The Jewish tradition teaches that there are clear steps to take to repair relationships, reads the letter. The first step is “to understand the harm one has caused, both by action and by inaction.”
The organizations acknowledged that Eby has taken the first step.
“Now he must make amends for the harms he has caused and address the alarming increase of antisemitism in B.C. with concrete action,” reads the letter.
The three organizations said that they look forward to working with Eby as he takes steps to repair his government’s and his own relationship with the Jewish community and show that antisemitism will not be accepted anywhere in B.C., which the organizations said is critical for all residents of British Columbia.
The premier gave numerous accounts of students facing antisemitism in the province.
In one example, an elementary school teacher asked a student to disclose if they were Jewish and then instructed them to explain “what Israel was doing in Gaza to the entire class.”
Eby said that in another instance, a student was sent to sit in the hallway for “creating a disturbance” after they challenged a teacher’s views on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“These are devastating incidents for parents that expect, when their kid goes to school, the kid is going to be safe there and supported,” said the premier.
He has committed to B.C.’s Jewish community that those who have experienced antisemitism will be protected and urges anyone with complaints to come forward.
Farmers in Quebec have taken to the streets in protest against rising fuel costs and unrelenting regulations that are punishing farmers. Quebec farmers are set to lose close to 90% of their net income since 2022 as climate policies like carbon taxes and fertilizer emissions reduction targets cripple their margins.
The Trudeau government takes inspiration from failed European Union climate measures that have triggered massive farmer protests across Europe and have been implementing similar policies in Canada. Under the watch of globalists like Trudeau, farmers are the ones to bear the brunt of reducing emissions to reach non-realistic climate goals.
The rallying cry from Europe to Quebec remains the same; No farmers = no food.
Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!
The Alberta government is making regulatory changes to how generators provide energy to the province to reduce Albertans’ soaring electricity bills.
Electricity in the province has skyrocketed for consumers since July 2021, driven by a lack of competition.
Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf told attendees at Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta’s annual conference in Banff, Alta. Monday morning that the province remains committed to an energy-only market — where generators are paid just for the electricity that they produce.
“Our unique deregulated electricity market is one of the key reasons that Alberta continues to be a destination of choice for investment,” he said.
“However, the recent series of grid alerts and high electricity prices have highlighted that the market of today needs to evolve to include reliability and increased stability of pricing.”
Neudorf announced that the province will limit the offer price of natural gas-generating units owned by large generators when net revenues cross a predefined threshold. The province hasn’t yet clarified the threshold.
Alberta will also require natural gas-generating assets to be made available in extreme weather and peak demand as directed by the Alberta Electric System Operator, which manages and operates the provincial power grid on behalf of the Alberta government.
The province compensates generators for the volume of power they produce. To drive competition, the lowest priced electricity is bought and used first.
Generators sometimes offer their electricity at very high prices to recoup their production costs causing economic withholding. When done by large generators, it can result in higher prices for Albertans.
Neudorf said that Alberta’s electricity generators have been operating within the rules, but the rules themselves are outdated.
“Those rules were designed 25 years ago and are not the best fit for today’s system,” he added.
“These interim solutions are part of our long term effort to modernize Alberta’s grid as we work to build an affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity system for generations to come.”
The minister also said he heard a lot of complaints from Albertans about their electricity bills during the election last spring, and it’s still the most common issue he hears today.
The province gave out monthly electricity bill rebates of up to $75 from July 2022 to April 2023, but costs for many consumers have spiked since then — especially for those not locked in on fixed-rate power contracts.
The regulated rate option was reliably less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour in the past, but spiked in July 2021 and has stayed high since.
“I want to reiterate that my vision for Alberta’s electricity future is based on one simple goal and ensuring that Alberta’s electricity system is affordable, reliable, and sustainable for generations to come,” he said.
“This means having an energy only market that puts Albertans first and provides certainty and returns for investors and developers.”
A business group is highlighting the fact that the Liberal government owes small businesses over $2.5 billion in unpaid carbon tax rebates.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses is demanding that the Liberals distribute the funds owed equally to all small-and-medium-sized enterprises immediately, as it has already done with the consumer rebate.
In addition to the delayed rebate payments, the association has several issues with the carbon tax, particularly changes that have been made to it in the aftermath of its implementation.
For example, the CFIB said that if Bill C-234 passes as it was originally proposed, then it would include exemptions for natural gas and propane used for on-farm activities like drying grain and heating farm buildings.
The carbon tax is scheduled to increase an additional 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas in April, however, the CFIB is calling for an immediate freeze on further increases.
Ontario’s share of that figure is $1.3 billion, which if paid out all at once, would give each Ontario small and middle-sized business a one-time payment of $2,367.
“It’s deeply unfair that five years into the program, Ottawa is still sitting on $1.3 billion it owes to small firms,” said Ryan Mallough, CFIB’s Ontario vice president. “Small businesses can’t wait. The federal government must pay this debt now and return the promised carbon tax revenues to all Ontario small businesses.”
Recently, the Trudeau government announced that it would be decreasing the amount of carbon tax rebates for small businesses from 9% to 5% in 2024.
“Ottawa is already taking future funds out of small business owners’ pockets,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB’s Ontario director of provincial affairs. “They cut the program in half before returning the promised $1.3 billion to Ontario businesses. Meanwhile, the carbon tax keeps increasing.”
Now, the CFIB is calling on the Liberals to immediately pay out the $2.5 billion owed since 2019.
Additionally, the CFIB would like to see the government scrap the possibility of returning to a previous policy of having only “emissions-intensive, trade exposed” businesses be eligible for rebates.
“The federal government must immediately fix the broken carbon tax rebate system,” said Kwiecinski. “Small businesses deserve to be treated fairly.”
The CFIB also wants to see the SME rebate increase to 40% of carbon tax revenue and an exemption on all heating fuels.
A poll done by Leger for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found that the majority of Canadians, 69%, were opposed to the hike, while the remaining 31% were in support of it.
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi announced that he will be running to become the leader of the Alberta NDP.
Nenshi announced his campaign to succeed former premier Rachel Notley on Monday afternoon.
Nenshi didn’t kick off his campaign with a press conference as he did his three successful Calgary mayoral campaigns, opting instead to launch online and do an interview with CBC. He also changed his X bio to “Running to lead Alberta’s NDP” and published a new website.
In the interview, Nenshi said the current UCP government is “not only incompetent, but they’re actually immoral and they’re dangerous.”
“I want to bring back an era of optimism, a sense that the NDP stands for a better Alberta, an Alberta for all of us, which is my campaign line,” said Nenshi.
On his website, Nenshi vowed to “continue the legacy of Rachel Notley.”
The former mayor joins five other candidates who have already announced their intention to run for leadership.
Calgary MLA and energy critic Kathleen Ganley was the first candidate to throw her hat in the ring. She was followed by Sarah Hoffman, Rakhi Pancholi, and Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse, who announced their candidacies last month. Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan announced his leadership bid in early March.
Edmonton MLA David Shepherd also announced his leadership bid but withdrew shortly after due to ongoing health issues.
Pancholi and Hoffman made their announcements saying that they would oppose the carbon tax.
Political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Lori Williams, said that Nenshi’s moderate positions could give him an advantage in the Alberta NDP leadership, according to Global News.
Williams said that the former Calgary mayor should have support in Calgary. Still, for Nenshi to beat his former university classmate, Danielle Smith, he will need support from rural Alberta, which helped Smith win Alberta’s last election.
Nenshi was elected as the 36th mayor of Calgary in Oct. 2010 with 39% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2013 with 74% of the vote and again re-elected in 2017 with 51% of the vote. He did not seek re-election in 2021 and was succeeded by current Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Any other candidates hoping to throw their hat in the ring must register by Friday.
The voting process will begin on May 22, and a new leader is expected to be announced on June 22.
Members of the NDP can vote for their preferred leader online, by mail, or on the phone.
NDP members wishing to vote in the leadership race must have an active membership by April 22.
The Liberal government had initially created a proposal to raise Canada’s annual immigration rate to one million people per year, according to newly obtained internal documents.
The current rate of 400,000 permanent residents per year had originally been part of a three-option plan drafted by a deputy minister about how many permanent residents to accept annually. One of those options was a target of one million newcomers each year.
According to the documents obtained by the Toronto Star, the Liberals rejected the option of having one million permanent residents for 2023.
The memorandum was drafted for cabinet’s consideration in 2020.
Ultimately, the Trudeau government settled on accepting a ratio of about 1% of Canada’s population, being 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,00 in 2023.
However, CIBC Capital Markets Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal told federal cabinet ministers last year that they were undercounting the amount of non-permanent residents and foreign students by around 1 million people, due to how Statistics Canada tallies its data.
“This proposal puts forward options that reflect the Government’s ambition and priorities for immigration,” reads the document. “All options signal future growth and reflect the continuing importance of immigration, with broad ranges for flexibility amidst uncertainty.”
The proposal was part of a 112-page evidence filing to the Federal Court in a legal challenge against the federal government’s family reunification policy.
The immigration target of 341,000 people for 2020 fell short due to the Covid-19 lockdowns and some believed that Canada’s economy would suffer as a result.
“The proposed immigration levels plan aims to protect and enhance Canada’s immigration advantage, leverage it to welcome a growing number of newcomers who will contribute to short-term recovery and long-term growth, and seize the opportunity to help shape and support a future vision for our country,” reads the plan.
The proposal aimed to boost francophone communities outside of Quebec and alleviate regional labour shortages by bringing in higher levels of international students and foreign workers to become permanent residents.
According to several consultations, provinces differed on their support for the plan, with Alberta and British Columbia seeking to put a pause on immigration growth, while Ontario and other provinces wished to see population growth that was “modest, incremental, stable and managed.”
Citing public confidence in Canada’s “long history of managed migration,” the proposal suggested that the country was ready for growth at a time when countries like the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand were all showing support for reduced immigration levels.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada was clearly foolish to think that one million was a number that would maintain public support for immigration,” University of Ottawa law and public health professor Amir Attaran told the Toronto Star.
“Obviously, we’ve never been close to a million and IRCC wanted cabinet to consider doing something clearly out of precedent. It wasn’t gradualism. It was extremism.”
The documents did acknowledge the sort of problems that would accompany an increase of that kind, like the need to increase the Canada Border Services Agency’s funding by $2 billion and the added strain it would place on housing and healthcare infrastructure.
“We are at a unique juncture in Canadian history. We are facing the challenge of our generation, and we will meet our moment,” then-Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters in October 2020, after he tabled the federal government’s 2021-23 immigration plan in Parliament.
“Before the pandemic, our government’s goal to drive the economy forward through immigration was ambitious. Now, it is simply vital.”
However, public opinion on immigration has taken a dramatic shift in Canada, with more and more Canadians wanting to see a pause on targets or a reduction in levels altogether, partly due to the housing crisis, high-interest rates and inflation over the past several years.
When most Canadians talk about the country’s immigration system and the number of people coming here, we are told that Canada welcomes roughly half a million people each year.
Most people, according to polls, believe that number is too high. Somewhere between half and three-quarters of all Canadians tell pollsters they would like the number to be lower.
But the “half a million” figure that is often thrown around is wildly misleading.
Canada welcomes 500,000 newcomers each year as permanent residents– the equivalence of U.S. green card holders.
On top of that, we also admit another approximately 660,000 as temporary foreign workers, 900,000 international students and, in 2023, Canada saw an explosion of illegal immigration, with 143,870 people illegally entering the country and requesting political asylum.
For context, during the Stephen Harper years, Canada dealt with 10,000 to 25,000 illegal migrants each year. Under Trudeau, that number has exploded tenfold.
When you add these immigration streams together, the total number of annual newcomers arriving in Canada balloons to about 2.2 million people per year.
No wonder our infrastructure is crumbling. No wonder housing shortages are so acute. No wonder there are viral videos showing dozens, if not hundreds, of migrants lining up for minimum wage job fairs in the service industry.
Canada’s immigration system is being overrun and mismanaged.
It’s hard to overstate how drastically out of step this is with Canada’s traditional approach to immigration.
Statistics Canada tracks the number of immigrants who have come here since the 1850s, before Confederation.
Curiously, StatsCan archived this website and stopped showing the new annual figures in 2015.
Under the current Trudeau government, Canada’s range for “landed immigrants” (permanent residents) was 226,000 as a low during COVID, with an average of just under 500,000 since 2021 and plans to hit 500,000 in 2025. This is double the sustained averages of the past two decades and unprecedented in Canadian history – especially considering that the combined streams, as mentioned, means the true number of newcomers is upwards of two million.
This graph is interesting because it shows peaks and valleys. Canada has always had years where we welcome a huge influx of newcomers: for instance, in 1910-11, and again in the post-WWII years. These peaks in immigration levels are then historically followed by valleys – years when Canada significantly decreased its immigration intake.
The valleys are as important as the peaks. These were the years when newcomers would acclimate to their new surroundings, integrate into the Canadian community and economy, and adopt a Canadian identity.
These years ensured the continued success of our immigration system.
Starting in the 1990s, however, Canada abandoned this key component of our immigration system. Successive governments, both Liberal and Conservative, realized that they could combat demographic realities – declining birth rates and increased costs of social entitlements including healthcare, pensions, and Old Age Security (OAS) payments – by simply importing more working-aged people to pay the bills.
The current Trudeau government has taken this hack to an extreme by attempting to cover up ruinous economic policies like the carbon tax and excessive runway deficit spending by simply and drastically increasing the number of people in the country.
More people means a higher cumulative economic output (measured as GDP). With a straight face, government officials can say that Canada’s economy is growing and our GDP continues to rise.
But the reality is much more bleak. As was recently pointed out by Waterloo economics professor Mikal Skuterlud: “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).”
*NEW* 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. pic.twitter.com/SrGGKPZjNx
So while politicians will tell you that our economy is growing, that’s only technically true because of mass immigration. The average Canadian is much poorer under this system.
(And the GDP figures are even more distorted when you consider that these figures include all government spendingas part of their calculation. So a government can “increase” GDP by simply taxing and spending more of your money – as has been the case in recent years.)
Immigration only works when it is well-managed and has the approval of the vast majority of Canadians. Our current system is the opposite of that: it is being overrun and managed poorly. This is harmful to the economy and harmful to Canadians who are struggling with the rising costs of living.
Ontario’s Queen’s University says it’s investigating a break and enter incident after a Palestinian flag was raised on the flagpole atop of its clock tower last week.
The Kingston postsecondary school, however, backtracked on using the word “hate-motivated” in a statement it issued on the matter.
Happening right now in #Canada at one of the "so called" most respected universities in the country. @queensu QUEENS UNIVERSITY folks. What say thee? pic.twitter.com/giwnzBICsn
“On Friday, March 8, a Palestinian flag was hung on the flagpole of the Grant Hall clocktower on university campus,” said Queen’s. “Campus Security and Emergency Services attended the scene and immediately removed the flag.”
The university added that “this incident was the result of a break and enter” and that “Campus Security alongside Kingston Police are investigating the incident.”
The statement initially also said that “campus community members who experience or witness a hate-motivated act or have concerns for their physical safety should contact Campus Security or local police immediately.”
The term “hate-motivated” was later replaced by “unlawful” amid backlash from anti-Israel activists.
In a statement to True North, Yos Tarshish, the president of the Queen’s Jewish Hillel group, acknowledged the university’s “swift action” in addressing the flag.
“We believe it is essential for the responsible parties to be appropriately sanctioned by the university,” he said.
This is not the only anti-Israel controversy that has rocked the reputed Kingston institution in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
Last fall, police were called to an off campus Halloween party after three Queen’s students reportedly showed up dressed as Hamas terrorists and made threats to the Jewish community. One of the individuals was allegedly armed with a knife.
Police and Queen’s University conducted an investigation, but no charges were laid.
Queen’s gender studies department, in the weeks following Oct. 7, issued a statement of solidarity with Palestine that attempted to contextualize the attacks. The statement denounced Israel as a “settler colonial state.”
The department, however, refused to subsequently denounce Palestine’s brutal treatment of LGBT people, despite multiple queries from True North on the matter.
Queen’s has also been subjected to anti-Israel protests on its campus.
Amidst this, Jewish students and alumni launched a $15 million against the university, accusing it of having failed to provide a safe campus environment for them amid not adequately addressing antisemitism.
“It’s time (the university) listen to Jewish students,” said Darryl Singer, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, in an interview with Queen’s student paper. “I think the university administration needs to actually have the balls to stand up and look at the reality and listen to what Jewish students are saying.”
