Farmers continue to protest in huge numbers across Europe against excessive climate policies and regulations, which threaten their livelihoods. Farmers descended on Brussels today to send a message to EU leaders who were meeting in the Belgian capital for a leaders’ summit.
What began with Dutch farmers last year and with German farmers last month has now taken over the continent as farmers in Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Scotland and Greece have also joined in to voice their opposition to the globalist climate agenda that specifically targets farmers.
These policies, which have brought so much hardship to European farmers, appear to be the envy of the Canadian government. As True North exclusive reporting uncovered in 2022, Canada sought to replicate the EU’s climtae policies on Canadian farmers.
Canada has joined a global group to cut fertilizer emissions.
Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay declared Canada as a “founding member” of the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, an initiative spearheaded by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research. Canada joins a group of 11 other nations, including the United States and United Kingdom.
In his announcement, MacAulay pledged approximately $1.3 million over four years to support the public-private partnership aimed at funding research to curtail fertilizer emissions globally.
“By joining the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, we’re helping ensure that our farmers and producers are well-equipped to make informed decisions that are good for the environment and their bottom line,” said MacAulay.
“International collaboration is vitally important to addressing global food security and putting healthy and affordable food on tables right across Canada.”
Canada set a target in 2020 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with fertilizer use by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. However, questions have arisen regarding the feasibility of this target.
While the Canadian government insists the target is voluntary and doesn’t mandate farmers to reduce fertilizer use altogether, some researchers argue otherwise.
The University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy released a report criticizing the voluntary nature of the targets, pointing out that they fail to consider regional conditions and may jeopardize the economic viability of Canadian farmers.
According to the report, achieving the 30% reduction target would necessitate drastic cuts in nitrogen fertilizer use.
Adding to the controversy, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada recently issued an apology for an error in a departmental results report.
As exclusively reported by True North, the report incorrectly claimed that the ministry was working towards a “30% reduction of fertilizer use” in Canada. The ministry later admitted to the discrepancy and stated that the report would be revised to accurately reflect the government’s emission goals.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also sought to dispel what he called “misinformation” regarding the government’s intentions. At a recent town hall, Trudeau reassured the public that there was no plan to mandate a 30% reduction in fertilizer use, contrary to previous statements by Agriculture Canada representatives.
This incident is not the first time Agriculture Canada has confused its goals.
Exclusive documents obtained by True North and reported in the Fertilizer Files indicate concerns raised by Fertilizer Canada representatives about a deputy minister suggesting a desire to “reduce fertilizer use” altogether.
Internal AAFC documents also hint at the government contemplating a carbon tax-like “regulatory backstop” to enforce compliance with the emission reduction target.
A scholarship launched to honour the memory of Toronto educator Richard Bilkszto is now up and running.
Established by friends and family of the principal who took his own life last year, the Richard Bilkszto Award and Scholarship is currently open for applications and seeks to honour exceptional educators and support aspiring teachers.
It offers $500 to teachers who demonstrate qualities exemplified by Bilkszto, including dedication to excellence in education, a commitment to equality of opportunity, and devotion to students’ well-being.
In tandem, the Richard Bilkszto Scholarship, valued at $1,000, will be awarded to an undergraduate accepted at an Ontario teachers’ college, with an emphasis on upholding principles such as freedom of expression, equality of opportunity and excellence.
“With these awards, we hope to recognize achievement and inspire future leaders in the education profession, both of which were very important causes for Richard,” said Natasha Mansouri, chair of the Friends of Richard Bilkszto board.
The announcement is accompanied by ongoing controversy about the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate suicide of the Toronto District School Board principal.
Controversy arose following Bilkszto’s death, stemming from a court claim filed in April against the Toronto school board.
Bilkszto alleged abusive treatment, bullying, and harassment by diversity, equity and inclusion trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson, reportedly hired by TDSB education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins and her supporters.
Audio recordings from April and May 2021 sessions have surfaced supporting Bilkszto’s claims. During these sessions, Ojo-Thompson repeatedly labelled Bilkszto’s criticisms as upholding “white supremacy.”
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) later classified the treatment as “egregious” and abusive.
Despite the official condemnation, concerns arose as contracts with Bilkszto were terminated, and he was not considered for other positions within the TDSB.
Lisa Bildy, a lawyer representing Bilkszto’s family, has emphasized the role of stress and ongoing harassment from the TDSB in contributing to the late principal’s decision to take his own life.
Journalists’ loaded language about Israel’s war with Hamas is obscuring the legal and political realities on the ground.
That was the message of experts assembled for a Tuesday webinar hosted by Honest Reporting Canada, which touts itself as “an independent grass-roots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel and the Middle East.”
The panel, titled War Crimes: Blowing Up Media Distortion, was moderated by Honest Reporting Canada chairman Jonas Prince and featured 40-year Israel Defence Forces veteran and former chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi and international law expert Natasha Hausdorff.
“Since October 7, most journalists have bestowed upon themselves an honorary legal degree,” said Prince. “They are speaking authoritatively on the topic of war crimes. While the laws themselves may not be unduly complex, the application of those laws to the current war on Gaza has been grossly distorted.”
Prince said took aim at loaded terms that have become commonplace in media coverage of Israel’s actions.
“The words of war crimes, genocide, proportionality, siege, humanitarian crisis, have been weaponized by the media, as well as Israel’s enemies,” he said. “The Iron Dome defense against these verbal missiles is knowledge.”
Another issue raised by the panel was the media’s reporting of raw casualty figures in the conflict.
The media shows the lopsided numbers killed “as a sports score,” said Prince. “It has this misleading notion that too few Israelis are getting killed. But all the laws recognize civilians will die in war. It goes without saying, and it’s tragic. But the laws recognize that.”
Hausdorff added the comparisons are “utterly repugnant equivalence,” as the media fails to point out the Palestinian numbers are provided by a terror organization, do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, or indicate how they were killed. The latter, she said, could include misfired Hamas rockets, or the terror group shooting on its own people.
“So those numbers are untrustworthy,” she said, “and nonetheless, they are being reported, parroted, by the media without the proper qualifications. And that’s extremely problematic.”
Even given Hamas’ suspect numbers, Israel kills 1.8 civilians to every one combatant, Hausdorff said, much lower than the global average from the United Nations, in the context of urban warfare, a nine to one ratio. Moreover, during the Iraq war, the ratio was three to one, and in Afghanistan, five to one, she added.
Kohavi added that Israel has spent “a fortune” on defense systems, like the Iron Dome, and wide-ranging shelters, for Israelis, thereby minimizing casualties on their side.
“I do not expect Hamas to build an Iron Dome, but they could have built shelters; instead, they’ve built tunnels for their perpetrators, not civilians,” he said.
“So make no mistake, a big part of those numbers, or one of the main reasons for this asymmetry of numbers, is because we are doing our utmost in order to protect our citizens.”
Hausdorff pointed out that the IDF takes “unparalleled” measures to reduce civilian casualties from text messages and phone calls to dropping leaflets and providing safe passage for civilians through humanitarian corridors.
The panel also weighed in on South Africa’s charge at the International Court of Justice that Israel is perpetrating “genocide” against Palestinians.
Hausdorff referenced Article Two of the United Nation’s Genocide Convention, that in short, makes it clear that to qualify as a genocide, there has to be “acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national ethnical, racial or religious group.”
“But the critical element of that definition is, of course, the intention, which comes even before the actions themselves are listed.” There was ultimately nothing substantive found in South Africa’s case, she said, “because there is no evidence that Israel is engaged in genocide. Quite the contrary.”
The charge of genocide took on a life of its own, further propelled by the case, that has “already done a world of harm,” Hausdorff said. The term “is now being deployed with such frequency, especially in the media against Israel, which means that South Africa has essentially succeeded in its attempt to shift the narrative, to put forward pseudo-legal terminology, and to advance this blood libel against Israel.”
Hausdorff accused the International Court of Justice of “essentially doing the bidding of a terrorist organization” – Hamas.
In summation, Prince noted that the war that Hamas started on Oct. 7 is unlike any conflict seen before in modern warfare.
“The IDF may be facing the most complex and difficult circumstances in military history, by being in this asymmetric war with a small dense population controlled by non-state terrorists, using a local population as human shields,” he said. “Their infrastructure has over 600 kilometers of underground tunnels, embedded in a world of social media, and at a time where international antisemitism has exploded.”
The federal government has tabled legislation delaying the expansion of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program, to people with mental illness by three years.
Health Minister Mark Holland and Justice Minister Arif Virani said that the delay to 2027 was introduced to allow time for a parliamentary review to take place.
A review to assess its state of readiness will take place in two years, they said.
The delay is in response to MPs and Senators on a special committee stating that Canada is not prepared to proceed with the expansion of the MAID program, following an examination of it.
“We agree with the conclusion that the committee has come to that the system is, at this time, not ready and more time is required,” Holland told reporters.
Minister of Health Mark Holland announces another pause in doctor-assisted suicide eligibility expansion for mental illness. pic.twitter.com/rG6o6er6B6
Holland responded to the committee by promising new legislation from the Trudeau government to address those concerns, calling for an indefinite delay of MAID for mental illness.
“The legislative time frame is tight. We recognize that. This has to be done in advance of (March 17),” he added. “I don’t see the timeline being a barrier but we do need to move expeditiously.”
Holland responded to the committee by promising new legislation from the Trudeau government to address those concerns, calling for an indefinite delay of MAID for mental illness.
The Conservatives are supportive of the delay but think the eligibility expansion should be scrapped altogether.
MAID is currently scheduled to allow patients with mental illness to qualify as of March 17.
The federal government said it would be suspending financial aid to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA last week, however, Global Affairs Canada confirmed that the controversial agency had already received $48.15 million before the announced pause.
Opposition MPs have been demanding to know how much money was given to the organization ever since Parliament returned from the Christmas holidays.
“It’s not political to want to ensure Canadian tax dollars are not being used to fund terrorism,” said independent MP Kevin Vuong, while speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “It’s the government’s moral and legal duty.”
Vuong went on to describe the organization as being one “full of hate” that has indoctrinated Palestinian youth to hate Jews for generations.
“This funding includes a $20 million contribution to meet the urgent needs stemming from the crisis in Gaza as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict, $1.25 million to the flash appeal for West Bank and Gaza, as well as $25 million in line with the disbursement schedule under Canada’s multi-year funding commitment to the UNRWA programs across West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon,” Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Pierre Cuguen told the National Post.
“Canada will not retroactively revoke funds that have already been disbursed to address urgent humanitarian needs,” said Cuguen.
He said that the remaining $1.9 million was given to Lebanon and Syria to help with their response to the Gaza crisis.
Those figures don’t include an additional $25 million of what was to be a total $100 million funding boost promised by the Trudeau government last summer.
While Ottawa did announce a pause on funding to UNRWA, they committed to giving another $40 million in Gaza funding to other UN agencies, without ties to UNRWA.
“Since the very beginning of the crisis, our position has always been, and continues to be, centered on the firm belief that more assistance is needed, not less. In line with this commitment, we are stepping up with additional emergency funding so that our trusted and experienced humanitarian partners can continue to ensure this funding reaches the most vulnerable in their time of need,” said Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen.
Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen says Canada will be sending $40-million in aid to Gaza and praises UNRWA for providing “humanitarian aid.” The Government of Canada put a pause on funding of UNRWA due to alleged links to Hamas. pic.twitter.com/2Q8B0dk7Lz
Critics of UNRWA allege that the agency has been controlled by Hamas for decades and that its donations only help to fund attacks on Israel by the terrorist group.
Furthermore, critics claim that students of schools that are funded by UNRWA have been known to be indoctrinated into holding antisemitic views and a hatred towards Israel.
The Israeli government has claimed that as many as 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and two Gaza employees have been accused of kidnapping Israeli hostages.
News of their involvement led to the U.S. suspending funding to the agency, a decision that was later followed by the UN and 17 other countries.
According to the New York Times, a dossier published by the Israeli government on Sunday suggested that as many as 10% of UNRWA’s 12,00 Gaza employees are involved in terrorist organizations, with 10 of the 12 staff mentioned in the document being full-patch Hamas members.
Canada had initially cut funding to UNRWA over these same concerns back in 2010 under Harper’s administration but funding was restored in its full capacity by the Trudeau government in 2016.
The Liberal government has tabled legislation delaying the implementation of assisted suicide for people suffering from mental illnesses to 2027. The Liberals say they aren’t ready to make the change now, but are still committed to doing so down the road. True North’s Andrew Lawton, a survivor of suicide and mental illness, says this is a disastrous move reflective of a culture of death in Canada. He discusses with Conservative MP Michael Cooper. (Note: This episode was recorded shortly before Holland tabled the bill, when the specific timeline was not known).
Also, in today’s edition of Unjust Transition, Andrew speaks to Chance Oil and Gas president Richard Wyman about the facts of Canada’s energy sector that the federal government just doesn’t get.
In a long-awaited announcement on Wednesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith unveiled a comprehensive set of policies addressing gender ideology.
Plus, rental vacancy has plummeted to 1.5% in 2023 according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
And an Ontario doctor who opposed the Covid-19 mass vaccination campaign has seen misconduct charges dropped by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
The German pastor, theologian, and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer reportedly said that “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
From the middle of the 1930s, Bonhoeffer was trying to wake the German Lutheran Church to the impending crisis that eventually resulted in the Holocaust. In fact, he spent his last couple of years trying to bring the German church to oppose the genocide. Bonhoeffer was hung by the Nazis about a month before the war ended.
Is Bonhoeffer’s warning relevant to Canada?
Many Canadians seem to believe that employees of the churches that managed most of the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) engaged in genocide against Indigenous children.
The Chief Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Justice Murray Sinclair, told host Matt Galloway on the CBC radio program The Current that between 15,000 and 25,000 Indigenous children are missing from these schools. In Justice Sinclair’s mind, a genocide had taken place.
Even more damning, the House of Commons, including members of all political parties, passed a motion by NDP MP Leah Gazan that claimed that the IRS system was a genocide against Indigenous children.
No evidence was presented, but the motion passed unanimously without debate.
To date, there has been no forensic evidence that Indigenous children were murdered and their bodies unceremoniously buried in unmarked graves in schoolyards.
There are no references to genocide in the TRC Report, and there are no verified reports of parents asking about their children who went to school and never returned home. Also, there are no reports of missing children from school inspectors, optometrists, medical doctors, dentists, social workers, Indian agents, chiefs, or band councillors, all of whom regularly visited residential schools.
Surprisingly, the churches that managed residential schools — Roman Catholic, Anglican, United Church, Mennonite, and Baptist — have remained silent, neither responding to these accusations nor defending their employees.
What should the churches do besides repent?
First, they should acknowledge that they have not supported their non-Indigenous and Indigenous employees, many of whom dedicated their lives to working in residential schools.
Second, the churches should say that they will no longer remain silent when they hear unsubstantiated claims accusing their employees of murdering and burying Indigenous children in unmarked graves.
Third, the churches should remind Canadians that our justice system assumes people are innocent until proven guilty. Without providing reliable evidence, it is unjust for government officials, Indigenous leaders, TRC Commissioners, and Members of Parliament to claim that church employees murdered Indigenous children and buried their bodies in schoolyards.
Fourth, the churches should invite IRS employees — the few who are still alive — to tell their stories for both their parishioners and other Canadians. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, in fact, recommends that the churches that manage these schools educate their parishioners about their work in residential schools (see Call to Action 59).
Finally, the churches should call for fair and rigorous forensic investigations of all the sites where Indigenous children are reported to have been buried. An independent agency with the requisite technical expertise must do this work. A reliable investigation cannot be done by either the churches or the Indigenous bands because they have a partisan stake in the findings. As well, the churches must ensure that the evidence is published for all Canadians to know.
Indeed, the time is overdue for Canadian churches to carry out what the German Lutheran church in Bonhoeffer’s time did not do – speak out against the injustice that is being directed at them and their parishioners.
The truth will set both the churches and Canadian society free.
Rodney A. Clifton is a professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He lived for four months in Old Sun, the Anglican Residential School on the Blackfoot (Siksika) First Nation, and was the Senior Boys’ Supervisor in Stringer Hall, the Anglican residence in Inuvik. He and Mark DeWolf are the editors of From Truth Comes Reconciliation: An Assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (Frontier Centre for Public Policy, 2021). A second and expanded edition of this book will be published by Southerland House Press later this year.
Ontario’s medical regulator has dropped its misconduct prosecution of a doctor it previously claimed made “misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures for COVID-19.”
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has withdrawn its allegations against Dr. Jean Marc Benoit. He was accused of failing to meet the “standard of practice of the profession,” failing to respond in a timely manner to a written inquiry from the college, and engaging in an act or omission that “could reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional.”
The hearing was scheduled to begin Monday and last more than five days, but it concluded shortly into the first day when Benoit pleaded “no contest” to failing to respond to CPSO communication. The college formally withdrew the rest of the allegations.
According to the Democracy Fund, a civil liberties charity that funded Benoit’s legal representation, Benoit criticized the prevailing belief in 2021 that everyone had to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of factors like natural immunity, personal risk profiles, and “the fact that the shots did not stop the transmission of infection.”
Benoit’s lawyer, Lisa Bildy of Libertas Law, lauded Benoit’s courage for speaking up.
“While many physicians had concerns about novel and potentially harmful public health measures, few were willing to risk the severe financial and professional consequences of speaking up, which led to an illusion of consensus,” said Bildy.
During his career as a family and emergency physician, Benoit has been the acting chief of staff and president of the Medical Staff Association at Brantford General Hospital and has written peer-reviewed medical literature.
He had never been disciplined in his profession before. The investigation followed two unnamed physicians reporting him to the college for his comments online in the spring of 2021.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Benoit kept up to date on COVID-19 data and developments. He advocated for hospitals through the government to “employ best practices in pandemic management.”
“He later moved his commentary to X, primarily posting about inadequate data, lockdown harms, conflicts of interest, treatment alternatives, and VAERS data (vaccine injuries). Ultimately, his posts became critical of the public health response and its adverse impacts on patients and the general public,” the Democracy Fund said.
Benoit said he respected the college’s responsibility to respond to concerns about physicians’ behaviour in a clinical setting but hopes they will take a “smoother” approach in the future that respects individual physicians’ rights and responsibilities to the public and their patients.
“During COVID, they went further by curtailing criticism of public health measures, perhaps to contain panic. This approach may have had unintended effects on public trust,” Benoit said.
He warned that in future emergency situations, “where facts and implications are not fully known, they should not be assumed.”
