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Friday, October 3, 2025

Statistics Canada model predicts 10.2% poverty rate in 2023

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A recent Statistics Canada model projects Canada’s official poverty rate to reach 10.2% in 2023. 

In a recent research paper titled “Modelled Market Basket Measure poverty rates for 2022 and 2023,” Statistics Canada unveiled projections indicating a potential surge in Canada’s official poverty rate.

According to one of the models employed by the federal data centre, the poverty rate is expected to climb to 10.2% in 2023, marking a significant increase from the estimated 7.4% in 2021.

The model suggests a steep trajectory, with a 21.8% rise from 2021 to 2022 and an additional 13.3% increase forecasted for the subsequent year. The official poverty rates for 2022 and 2023 have yet to be officially disclosed.

Statistics Canada arrived at the projection using the latest data from the distributions of household economic accounts, the Canadian Income Survey and the most recent Consumer Price Index.

Renze Nauta, the work and economics program director at think tank Cardus, shared insights on the concerning statistics with True North. 

Nauta emphasized the importance of addressing the root causes of poverty over patchwork solutions, pointing to the think tank’s past reasearch. 

“The best way to reverse the trend of increasing poverty in Canada is to make sure that everyone who can work has the opportunity to get a good-quality job,” said Nauta. 

“We need to ensure that the working class has more opportunities to flourish in the labour market.”

Nauta specifically highlighted the need to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities, who face a higher risk of living in poverty. 

“The federal government is currently in the process of designing a new Canada Disability Benefit, which could help or detract from this opportunity. It is crucial that the Canada Disability Benefit include employment incentives to ensure that people with disabilities who can work do not face barriers in entering the labour force,” said Nauta. 

“Another thing that would help would be to reform the way governments handle gambling revenue. We know that low-income families lose a disproportionately high amount of their incomes to gambling. So, instead of putting those dollars into their general income funds, governments should return that money to those living in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty.”

Additionally, Nauta said that governments need to give people living in poverty better financing alternatives, as current options, such as payday loans, are predatory. 

“Folks who have no credit and need emergency cash to pay unexpected bills need safer options than payday loans. Capping interest rates does nothing to help low-income families if it means that they can no longer access credit markets,” said Nauta. 

Black artist sues activist for calling his puppet show racist

By
Quinn Patrick
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A black theatre performer from Montreal has filed a lawsuit against an anti-racism activist for alleging that his puppet show was racist and a form of “blackface.” 

Performer Franck Sylvestre alleges that Alain Babineau made unreasonable claims regarding a puppet in one of Sylverstre’s theatre pieces, which has since damaged his career and reputation.  

Sylvestre’s show, which is called, “L’incroyable secret de barbe noire” — French for The Incredible Secret of Blackbeard, had been advertised as a children’s show but it was cancelled over allegations of racism. 

Sylvestre filed the lawsuit against Babineau at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday.

Babineau “unreasonably associated the plaintiff and his puppet with racism, with the submission of Black people to white people and even white supremacism and the dehumanization of Black people,” reads the lawsuit. 

It goes on to say that Babinau’s criticism was an attack on Sylvestre’s reputation, which aimed “to expose him to the hatred and contempt of the public in general and the Black community in particular.”

Babineau is the racial profiling and public safety director at the activist group The Red Coalition.

While speaking at a news conference last February, he called for elements of the theatre piece to be cancelled. 

Babineau claimed that the puppet Sylvestre was using was an example of anti-Black racism, likening it to blackface minstrel shows of the past, which were performed to mock black people and their culture. 

Babineau said the play was a “drop of systemic racism” in a social media post on X at the time. 

The lawsuit alleges that among similar posts made last February by Babineau, he made comments suggesting that Sylvestre was a “sellout” in the service of white people. 

However, the puppet’s image is based on Sylvestre’s likeness and there is nothing inherently racist about it, argues Guillaume Rousseau, the lawyer representing Sylverstre in the lawsuit. 

Rousseau said that while it’s not defamatory to ascribe the label of racism to actual racist commentary, that is not the situation in this case. Instead, it’s “someone who is clearly not racist, with a show that is clearly not racist,” making Babineau’s comments defamatory.

“It’s an issue of freedom of artistic expression,” said Rousseau in an interview with the Montreal Gazette last Wednesday.

“If every representation of a Black person that doesn’t please Mr. Babineau and others becomes blackface, it becomes the subject of calls for censorship, that limits my client’s freedom of artistic expression and, potentially, that of other artists.”

Only one performance of the show was allowed to proceed in a suburb of Montreal but all other shows were cancelled and it was removed from Montreal’s Black History Month official programming. 

“That affected him a lot,” said Rousseau. “He’s proud of being a Black artist, he’s proud to talk about Martinique, about his origins and the puppet in question is a bit of a hero, so for him it’s very positive, it’s for living together, and to see it interpreted in an unreasonable manner, as if it was racist, that affected him in particular.”

The lawsuit is seeking $26,000 in damages and alleges that Sylvetre’s career as a children’s performer has been threatened, as he is now unfairly perceived as “controversial” by many, which will affect future bookings. 

The Red Coalition maintains that the appearance of the puppet is racist and therefore could offend people.

“Anti-Black imageries have historically stereotyped Black people as grotesque, dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and overly cheerful,” wrote the group in a statement on Wednesday. 

“The Red Coalition’s legal team is prepared to vigorously defend against the lawsuit, which they deem frivolous.”

Sylvester’s lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to Babineau last September, prior to filing the suit but Babineau responded by saying he would contest any legal action taken against him. 

“I will continue to fight with determination for all causes that I think are just, including the fight against anti-Black racism in Canada,” responded Babineau at the time.

Victoria queer activist group paying pro-Palestinian protesters loses grant

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
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The Victoria queer activist group, Plenty Collective, which came under fire for a scheme offering money to pro-Palestinian protesters, will no longer benefit from a local foundation’s generous grant.

In a press release, the Victoria Foundation said that Plenty Collective and the Belfry Theatre mutually agreed to return unspent money from a $28,000 grant given to them to advance “queer community building with an intersectional lens through nourishment, art and connection.”

“The organizations have decided to return the funds as the partnership is being discontinued for this grant,” reads the press release.

As previously reported by True North, Plenty Collective, a progressive organization that describes itself as “a small group of white, queer settlers,” launched a “Solidarity Fund for Palestine” for “folks living in Lekwungen Territory (aka ‘Victoria, BC’)” who are “incurring costs related to supporting or organizing actions in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian people. ”

Priority was given to non-white people, with individuals being asked to disclose their race upon application.

In addition to paying pro-Palestinian protesters, Plenty Collective played a role in successfully cancelling an Israeli-linked play and has a letter writing campaign for Palestine. The organization has also accused Israel of colonial racism, genocide and claimed Zionism is a “violent” ideology.

When it was first reported that Plenty Collective was paying protesters, the Victoria Foundation distanced itself from the group’s initiative – and said it would pursue a review to see if its funds were going towards the group. 

“The review process has been initiated in this circumstance,” said the foundation on Jan. 9.

Now with the review process complete, the groups have agreed to return the funds. However, the foundation did say that “the funds spent to date were used in alignment with the intended purpose.”

The Victoria Foundation says the returned money will go towards other gender equality grants.

News of the money being returned was welcomed by Canada’s Jewish community.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) thanked the Victoria Foundation for being responsive to its concerns. 

“CIJA welcomes the news that unspent grant money distributed by the Victoria Foundation to @BelfryTheatre and the Plenty Collective will be returned.”

Plenty Collective did not respond to True North’s request for additional comment in time for publication.

Ratio’d | Arsonists set Canada on fire. Not Climate Change.

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

Who saw this one coming?

Last week, a Quebec man pleaded guilty to intentionally setting 14 forests on fire during the Spring of 2023. A few days later, Nova Scotia police charged a man for intentionally setting off the provinces largest ever wildfire, also during the same time.

During Canada’s wildfire season, any mention that the string of devastating wildfires may have been caused by arsonists was ridiculed by the legacy media and labeled conspiracy theories. What the Liberal establishment in Canada wanted more than anything to be true was that climate change started the wildfires all across Canada – but it just simply wasn’t.

Maybe the real conspiracy theorists in this story are people, like Steven Guilbeault and Justin Trudeau, who believe that climate change set Canada’s forests ablaze.

Despite the best efforts from Liberal politicians and legacy media journalists, the public never fully bought in to the narrative they were peddling and, sure enough, the people were right and the politicians were wrong. Sound familiar?

Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!

Poilievre condemns Trudeau for not acting to prevent church burnings

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre condemned arsonists targetting churches across Canada and has pledged to allocate resources for a comprehensive investigation into the allegations of human remains at former residential school sites. 

The announcement came during a press conference in West Vancouver on Monday, where Poilievre also accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of fostering division among Canadians and contributing to a rise in animosity towards religious groups, particularly Christians.

“There is no justification for burning down a church period. Regardless of the other information or justifications that people claim to use, there is never a justification to burn down a church,” said Poilievre. 

The Conservative leader expressed his party’s support for stronger criminal sanctions against arsonists and called for increased security infrastructure around places of worship to prevent attacks on religious institutions.

Poilievre argued that after eight years of Trudeau’s leadership, the country has witnessed a surge in violence against religious communities. He attributed this rise to Trudeau’s divisive policies, accusing Trudeau of employing a “catch and release” system that has failed to curb such crimes.

“Unfortunately, these crimes against religious communities have raged out of control after eight years of Justin Trudeau,” said Poilievre. 

“We have more violence directed against religious groups, including Christians than we have ever seen in Canadian history. This is the result of Justin Trudeau he is not worth the cost, he is not worth the crime.” 

The Conservative leader’s comments were prompted by a question about the ongoing attacks against churches in Canada. As reported by True North, a total of 96 churches have been either set on fire or vandalized since 2021, with 44 incidents classified as arsons and 52 as acts of vandalism specifically targeting Christian institutions.

“We should provide the resources to allow for full investigation into the potential remains that at residential schools, Canadians deserve to know the truth,” said Poilievre. 

“And conservatives will always stand in favour of historical accuracy. None of this changes the fact that the residential schools were an appalling abuse of power by the state and by the church at the time.”

Liberals won’t meet deficit target, warn business leaders

By
Quinn Patrick
-
Source: Facebook

The federal government is unlikely to meet its proposed financial goals and reduce the deficit as planned, according to a recent report from one of the country’s largest business groups.  

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland attempted to show that the Trudeau government values fiscal restraint by making a number of monetary objectives during the government’s last financial update in November. These promises included a goal of keeping deficits below 1% of GDP as of the 2026-27 fiscal year. 

The new proposed fiscal targets were seen as “helpful” to monetary policy, according to Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, however, some economists doubt the Liberal government’s credibility.  

Previously, the Liberal government has had a bad reputation for its disregard of fiscal matters, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once sarcastically asking reporters to forgive him for not thinking about monetary policy. 

That reputation has led some economists to doubt whether or not these latest promises will amount to anything.

“To meet their proposed deficit target they’ll either need much stronger-than-expected economic growth or they have to make substantial program cuts ahead of an election,” Business Council of Canada senior vice president of policy, Robert Asselin, told the Financial Post.

He was also a former adviser to former finance minister Bill Morneau. The Council published an analysis report, co-authored by Asselin, regarding the new fiscal targets this week.

According to Asselin’s analysis, the federal deficits averaged 1.4% of Canada’s total output between 2017 and 2022, when adjusted for the economic impact of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Only twice has Canada ever managed to keep its budget shortfall below 1% of its GDP since the Second World War. 

The government’s expenditures have remained above 17% since 1945 and this year federal spending accounts for 17.3% of Canada’s GDP. 

Asselin noted in the report that previous projections have been “extremely unreliable” over the five-year forecast. 

However, with a 2025 election looming and pressure mounting for the Trudeau government to uphold its fiscal promises. 

Federal spending became linked to labour market conditions during the pandemic under Freeland as a guardrail measure, but it was done away with as the economy reopened in 2022, notes the report.  

Despite Freeland’s claims that fiscal policy decisions would be informed by a medium-term goal of reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2022, it continued to rise last year. 

“At some point people aren’t going to believe you and they’ll say your fiscal anchors aren’t credible,” said Asselin. “When you miss three targets in five years, at what point do markets say, this government isn’t doing what it said it would do?”

UFC’s Dana White shuts down Canadian reporter in fiery defence of free speech

By
Isaac Lamoureux
-

Unlike other sports leagues, UFC President Dana White refuses to control what his fighters say or think.

White defended the principle of free speech following an intense exchange with a Canadian reporter about former Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland’s past remarks denouncing gender ideology. 

In a news conference following UFC 297, Dana White confronted Toronto’s POST Wrestling journalist John Pollock. 

Pollock started his question with a qualifying statement, saying that White gives a long leash to his fighters regarding what they’re able to say. He continued by saying that this could be getting into the territory of homophobia and transphobia, referencing Strickland’s past comments, but before he could finish, his question was cut off by White.

“I don’t give anybody a leash. A leash? Free speech. Gonna control what people say? Gonna tell people what to believe? Going to tell people? I don’t fu**ing tell any other human being what to say, what to think. And there’s no leashes on any of them. What is your question?” said White.

Pollock then decided to move on.

“Yeah, probably a good idea. That’s ridiculous to say: I give somebody a leash. Free speech, brother. People can say whatever they want, and they can believe whatever they want,” said White.

Following the widespread circulation of Strickland’s initial clip, which has amassed 13.2M views as of Monday morning, this new clip of White’s post-fight news conference also went viral. 

As of Monday morning, Leading Report’s video on X had 14.5M views. 

“Woke Canadian reporter tries to bait UFC President Dana White into commenting on some of former champion Sean Strickland’s remarks, and it backfires,” wrote the Leading Report in their post.

X CEO Elon Musk also chimed in to support White’s stance.

“He’s right,” said Musk. 

Colin Rugg, an American media personality, also posted the video, which had 7.4M views on Monday morning.

“UFC’s Dana White shuts down woke Canadian journalist who starts talking about ‘homophobia’ and ‘transphobia’ after a UFC fight. These clowns are completely unhinged,” said Rugg. 

Pollock, in his post-event YouTube video, reflected on the confrontation with White. He said that he’s faced some blowback following this exchange, which he said he accepts. In hindsight, Pollock said that he wished he had used the term “latitude” instead. Regardless, he said that he got his response. 

“Is there absolutely no line that is too far?” Pollock said is what he wished he had asked. 

“Would a racist tirade be fair game?” he wondered.

Strickland had been questioned by reporter Alexander K Lee for MMAfighting.com before his fight about a past statement he had made concerning having a gay son, where Strickland said that would cause him to think he’d failed as a man. 

“You’re a weak fu**ing man,” he said. “You’re part of the fu**ing problem. You elected Justin Trudeau. When he seized the bank accounts. You’re just fu**ing pathetic, and the fact that you have no fu**ing backbone as he shut down your fu**ing country and seized bank accounts. You ask me some stupid sh** like that. Go fu** yourself. Move the fu** on, man. You fu**ing coward,” Strickland said to Lee.   

Ahead of Strickland’s fight at UFC 297 in Toronto, fans were caught chanting “F*** Trudeau.” 

On Saturday, Strickland lost a split decision to challenger Dricus Du Plessis.

Immigration minister admits current system is “out of control”

By
Quinn Patrick
-

As the debate around Canada’s immigration targets continues to be a hot topic, Canada’s federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller himself acknowledged that the current level of temporary foreign workers and international students has grown at a rate that is unsustainable, going as far as to say the system is “out of control” as he vowed to look further into it.

“It’s something we are going to look at in the first quarter, first half of this year,” said Miller during an interview on CTV’s Question Period last week.

“That volume is really disconcerting. It’s really a system that has gotten out of control.”

This was also the issue of a CBC Calgary live town hall that aired Thursday. Immigration lawyer Raj Sharma, who was one of the panelists, believes that international students have been dealt a raw deal.

“International students went from heroes to zeros,” said Sharma, who noted that a pilot program was launched by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to allow international students to work beyond the previous limit of a 20-hour work week in 2022.

“All of a sudden the international students are responsible for some sort of housing affordability and access.”

While Immigration Minister Marc Miller did acknowledge the problem, he shifted the blame away from Ottawa and onto the provincial governments.

“It’s a conversation we need to have with the provinces so that provinces not doing their jobs reign in those numbers on a pure volume basis,” said Miller.

Miller announced Monday that the feds would be capping the number of international student visa permits issued, reducing them by 35% over the next two years.

The subject has been a popular talking point for some time now, including at an Economic Club of Canada meeting earlier this month where Beata Caranci, chief economist at TD Bank, gave a rather blunt perspective on the issue.

“Frankly, I’m surprised we have screwed it up because we are so privileged in Canada. We don’t have two million people crashing our borders like they do in the United States, we don’t have to fight that battle,” said Caranci.

“We’re not dealing with this migrant flow across the border…we design our own policy, we put it in place, we implement it, and we still screwed it up.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been sounding the alarm on the problem for some time now, promising that, if elected, he would tether the number of immigrants coming in to the number of houses being built and availability of healthcare resources and job opportunities.

However, Poilievre won’t confirm whether this calculation could reduce the current immigration targets.

International students often feel like they are caught in the middle of the dispute, University of Calgary student union vice-president Mateusz Salmassi told CBC News.

“Any time immigrants are caught in the middle of a debate around whether there are enough resources in a country, it tends to spell not so good news for the immigrants,” said Salmassi. 

“We contribute $3.7 billion in tax revenue alone and we work in key industries that Canada really needs if we’re going to get out of some of the affordability crisis that we’re facing,” he added.

University of Alberta political scientist Reza Hasmath said linking the issue of immigration to affordable living has been political fodder for ages.

“If you look at other jurisdictions, this happens all the time,” said Hasmath. “It’s always easier to point to the immigrants: ‘They’re the reasons we’re not having affordability.’ Especially during political election season. It’s an easy group to target.”

However, Hasmath noted that the Trudeau government is not without culpability in this growing problem, calling its lack of action on this front a “strategic mistake.”

“They didn’t realize just how intricately linked housing and immigration is … this is a political issue they’re going to have to deal with and they’re going to do a terrible job because they don’t have the time to deal with it in an effective way.”

BC United MLA Ellis Ross to announce bid for federal Conservatives

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Former BC Liberal leadership contender and current BC United MLA Ellis Ross is set to launch a bid for the federal Conservatives.

True North has learned that Ross is expected to officially declare his intent to run for the Conservatives in the northwest B.C. riding of Skeena—Bulkley Valley on Wednesday.

This announcement follows his unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party in 2021, where he lost to Kevin Falcon, leading to the party’s rebranding as BC United.

The Conservatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Ross’ candidacy from True North, but shortly after this article was published, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted about Ross’ nomination on social media.

“Thrilled to have former Haisla Nation Chief and current MLA as our Common Sense Conservative candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley (sic),” Poilievre wrote. “(Ross) will always fight for his people’s right to develop resources, keep their hunting rifles & earn powerful paycheques that buy affordable food & homes.”

Leader Pierre Poilievre is currently campaigning in British Columbia and is scheduled to hold a rally in Prince Rupert, which is in Skeena—Bulkley Valley, Tuesday evening.

During the BC Liberal leadership race, Ross was at odds with his party over the disqualification of conservative activist Aaron Gunn from the leadership contest. Gunn was recently nominated as the federal Conservative candidate for North Island—Powell River. 

Expressing dissent, Ross penned a letter urging the Leadership Election Organizing Committee to greenlight Gunn’s candidacy, though Gunn was eventually barred from the race due to what the BC Liberals said were controversial opinions.

Ross, who entered provincial politics in 2017, quickly ascended in influence and profile. Former premier Christy Clark appointed him to the cabinet, where he assumed the roles of Minister of Natural Gas Development and Minister Responsible for Housing.

Notably, Ross, also the Chief Councillor for the Haisla Nation, played a pivotal role in securing a $50 million agreement with Kitimat LNG for the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant.

In February 2023, Ross made headlines by expressing his support for a diverse range of opinions in the legislature after fellow MLA John Rustad left BC United to join and lead the BC Conservative Party. 

Since then, Ross has witnessed a small exodus from his party, with former BC United MLA Bruce Banman also making the switch to the BC Conservatives.

“I think the more opinions we get in this house, I think the better discussion and debates we have,” remarked Ross at the time, while saying he would stay on with BC United for the time being. 

Since then, the BC Conservatives have managed to poll ahead of the Liberals. According to a poll from December, the BC Conservatives were polling at 26%, while BC United polled only at 17%. 

Skeena—Bulkley Valley has been held by the NDP since it was formed in 2004, although the Conservatives only lost the riding by 2,400 votes in the 2021 election.

The Andrew Lawton Show | Liberals are capping student visas, but is it enough?

By
Andrew Lawton
-

The Liberal government has announced a two-year cap on international student visas amid mounting frustrations with Canada’s immigration system and rampant fraud within the international student visa program. The cap will reduce by 35% the number of student visas issued, but is this enough to deal with the problems? True North’s Andrew Lawton says it’s unlikely.

Also, the salaries for members of Parliament are set to rise by $8,100 to $16,200 this year. Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta director Kris Sims joins to weigh in.

Plus, True North has returned from Davos after a week of holding the elites and their anti-energy, anti-free speech agenda to account. Andrew does a debrief of our coverage of the World Economic Forum.

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