A descendent of Henry Dundas is standing up for her ancestor’s name as the City of Toronto scrubs it from subway stations and a major square.
In an interview with True North’s Harrison Faulkner, Jennifer Dundas, a former crown prosecutor and CBC journalist, called the legacy media’s reporting on Henry’s legacy inaccurate and ignorant of the facts.
Dundas said that she had presented several media outlets with a more balanced perspective on Henry’s legacy, but was ignored by these outlets.
“It just shocked me to see what people will do with the information that we were presenting. They would either ignore it or they would take a quote that would be out of context and would not really convey what it was that we were saying,” said Dundas.
Jennifer Dundas (@jldundas), a former journalist and relative of Henry Dundas, explains how legacy media journalists became activists and instead of reporting the truth, promoted false narratives that erase Canadian history.
“It was so difficult that I actually went to the ombudsman of a couple of major news outlets in Toronto to complain that, look, we’re providing all this information that shows that what you’re printing is inaccurate and that nobody will pay attention to it so could you please do something about this? And in both cases we just got a brush off.”
Dundas, a former journalist for over 20 years, said that the media’s reporting on Henry Dundas’ legacy was more akin to the work of activists and not of journalists whose job is to present the facts and both sides of an argument.
“What shocked me is that they [the legacy media] were putting themselves in the role of activists in a way and not journalists and were not being fair and balanced.”
Henry Dundas was an influential Scottish politician serving in the British parliament in the late 18th century to early 19th century, holding several key cabinet positions in Prime Minister William Pitt’s government.
Dundas was an abolitionist who fought for the end of slavery and the slave trade. He sought a gradual ending of the slave trade so that the resolution had the chance of passing the Parliament, and so that the slave trade wouldn’t be driven underground or into the hands of foreign nations. Toronto City Council had recently approved the scrubbing of Dundas’ name from Yonge-Dundas Square, renaming it Sankofa Square.
Sheila Gunn Reid has become a star independent journalist in Canada, but a decade ago she wasn’t all that political and never would have imagined a job in media. Now the editor-in-chief of Rebel News, Gunn Reid got her start by making trouble for Liberal candidates on Twitter, and soon found she had a knack for journalism the legacy media wasn’t doing. She joins True North’s Andrew Lawton to talk about how she got her start in media as a mom and farmer in rural Alberta. Gunn Reid and Lawton also talk about media bias, independent journalism, and, erm, pickles.
The terrorist group Hamas thanked Canada after the Trudeau government voted in favour of a UN resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War.
Plus, a national debate has been sparked after the Amber Trails School Choir sang the Canadian national anthem in Punjabi at a Winnipeg Jets game.
And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith slams the federal government’s new mandate for zero emission vehicles as destructive and unachievable.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Lindsay Shepherd and Isaac Lamoureux!
A recent survey found that the majority of Canadians don’t think that the government should prioritize pharmacare, but instead focus on issues like long surgical wait times and building more long-term care homes when it comes to healthcare.
This survey comes as the Liberals and the NDP struggle to negotiate what a potential national drug plan might look like, following an announcement that they would extend their deadline to come up with a plan to March 1, 2024.
The pharmacare plan is a crucial part of their supply-and-confidence pact, with the NDP promising to support the Liberals in the House of Commons in exchange for creating a national pharmacare plan.
Legislation on the pharmacare plan was initially supposed to be tabled this year, however the two parties could not agree on the details.
The Leger survey asked Canadians what the top two health-care priorities should be and of the respondents, only 18% mentioned creating a new, universal single-payer drug plan.
Whereas 36% of respondents said that surgical wait times and expanding mental-health services should be the top priority.
The survey also revealed that 53% of respondents were unaware of a potential pharmacare plan in the first place.
“All of that comes before having a universal single-payer drug plan,” Christian Bourque, Leger’s executive vice-president told CTV News.
“It’s not at the top of Canadians’ priority list.”
The NDP are adamant to create a universal, single-payer system but Liberal Minister of Health Marc Holland has repeatedly said that the government must be more financially prudent about it.
The Parliamentary Budget Office estimated that implementing such a plan would cost billions annually.
”We estimate the incremental cost to the public sector (that is federal and provincial governments combined) to be $11.2 billion in 2024-25, increasing to $13.4 billion in 2027-28,” said the PBO.
Only a minority of respondents, 22%, said that a new drug plan should replace basic drug coverage that they receive through their employers.
About 44% of respondents supported a plan that would offer coverage to those who didn’t already have it through their work, seniors and people who earn less than $90,000 annually.
“That’s probably due, to some extent, to the fact that two out of three Canadians do have private health-care coverage, either themselves or through their spouse,” said Bourque.
He also noted that while the majority of respondents didn’t support the idea, there weren’t too many who completely opposed it either, even amongst Conservative voters.
“Once you look inside the actual Conservative voter base, only 23% of them say ‘I don’t want (any) part of pharmacare,”’ said Bourque. “So, if there was a form of pharmacare, I think it would be good news for a majority of Canadians.”
However, if the Liberals and the NDP do manage to come to some agreement around a pharmacare bill, there still isn’t any guarantee as to when it would be implemented and it’s unlikely that it could happen in the immediate term.
The survey was conducted online from Friday to Sunday with 1,622 Canadians participating. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples of population.
The cost of living crisis is turning soldiers away from Nova Scotia, provincial politicians were told.
The Nova Scotia legislature’s veterans affairs committee heard from veterans and military families at a meeting this week dedicated to the rising cost of living. “People are turning down postings to Halifax,” said Erica Fleck, the director of emergency management for Halifax Regional Municipality. Fleck said she has “worn a green uniform for 38 years” and her husband and youngest son serve in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The committee of provincial members of the Nova Scotia legislature heard from representatives of non-profit organizations and various branches of municipal and provincial government.
Witnesses from the Department of Community Services, Department of Intergovernmental Affairs, Emergency Management Office, Halifax & Region Military Family Resource Centre, and the Royal Canadian Legion-NS/NU Command spoke at the hearing.
Fleck, whose last position in the military was in recruitment and retention, said soldiers are being released from service because of high housing prices and the lack of availability of family doctors and other medical services.
Last April, the Department of National Defence reported the Canadian Armed Forces were facing a shortage of 16,000 members.
“We have active serving regular force members who are still couch surfing that were posted here in the summer,” she said. “They are regularly going to food banks.”
Fleck said she had sent more people to social services like Op Dasher, a program run by the resource centre for Halifax military families than she has in 38 years.
“People are trying their best because they have no choice but to show up for work,” she said.
Many have to live outside the Halifax and HRM area to find affordable housing and make it work.
“Young soldiers are coming to work hungry, and leaders are trying to feed them the best they can using their money.”
According to Fleck, There are 40 veterans completely without a home in Halifax and hundreds of veterans are precariously housed.
Fleck advocates for preferential treatment for veterans and current service members seeking affordable housing. She thinks if veterans are treated as a priority in government housing programs, it will help alleviate the issue.
“It’s heartbreaking these are the people whose primary job it is to defend our country, and they can’t afford to live here,” she said.
Nova Scotia legion executive director Craig Hood, who recently retired from the military after more than 33 years of service, said “new and creative ways” to support soldiers and veterans are needed.
The Royal Canadian Legion often responds to the needs of veterans and their families through “benevolence.”
Benevolent funds are tax deductible for donors and are distributed by the organization itself.
“Over the last couple of years, we have seen a rise in the use of our benevolent funds to a point where I’m starting to look at creative ways to obtain more funds to support those veterans,” Hood said.
When Hood was appointed to speak at the committee, he did a “deep dive” on this topic and came across what he said was “some startling information.”
He found active duty members of Canadian Armed Forces posted in Halifax “living rough” in tents, out of their vehicles, couch surfing, and sometimes engaging in interpersonal relationships for the purposes of securing housing, “which often at times makes them victims of domestic violence.”
It wasn’t always like this when Fleck first joined the military, and biggest support was having military housing.
“When you got to a new place, that military housing was available,” she said. “Not only is there something there that you know you can rely on, but you also have that built-in sense of community.”
This is no longer the case, she said.
“There are a few housing locations left in Shearwater and a few in Halifax.”
According to Hood, when the Canadian Forces Housing Agency took on the housing for the military 25 years ago, the treasury board mandated that the quantity of housing be cut in half at least.
“At that time, it made sense because the housing market was very good. It was very robust, and more military members were living on the economy than in (designated military housing),” he said.
After the pandemic, this is no longer the case, and more soldiers are seeking military housing.
“The wait list that we’re seeing is approximately 65 (families) for the Halifax Shearwater area, and 20 for Greenwood area, and those are the two primary areas,” Hood said. “That’s overall 85 families that are waiting for accommodations.”
He said the primary function of any military force should be operational capability, the ability to pack up, move and fight wherever they are needed at a moment’s notice.
“A military cannot be worried about where their families are going to be living and what they are going to be doing when they leave,” he said. “When there’s more questions than answers people will go elsewhere.”
New Brunswick parental rights advocate and TV personality Faytene Grasseschi has secured the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination in the riding of Hampton-Fundy-St. Martin.
Grasseschi will be representing the PCs in her riding in next year’s election after being acclaimed.
New Brunswick Premier and PC Leader Blaine Higgs congratulated and praised Grasseschi on X (formerly Twitter), saying “with her beliefs in fiscal responsibility, entrepreneurialism, developing natural resources, and the role of parents in their children’s lives – I think our priorities are well aligned.”
He added that “her wealth of experience will add considerable value to our team and she will be a strong representative.”
I am very pleased to announce @Faytene Grasseschi as our candidate for Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins.
With her beliefs in fiscal responsibility, entrepreneurialism, developing natural resources, and the role of parents in their children’s lives – I think our priorities are well… pic.twitter.com/DxCU9yjgCn
Grasseschi, the founder of the Don’t Delete Parents campaign, announced in late November that she was running for provincial office after “much deep thought and many late-night conversations with my husband and trusted friends.”
Grasseschi had also told True North, “I am getting involved with (the Progressive Conservative Party) because I appreciate the work it has been doing, and the values it has been standing for.”
“I am humbled by the support of hundreds who signed up to vote over the past weeks and the many who came tonight to show support,” said Grasseschi in a Facebook post after her acclamation.
Grasesschi, who has been active in Canada’s Christian conservative circles for years through her ministry and advocacy work, as well as her television program, made headlines this summer for her campaign in support of Higgs’ changes to education policy 713, which mandates schools to require parental consent before children under the age of 16 can change their name or pronouns.
Her campaign in support of the policy, “Don’t Delete Patents,” contained a petition supporting the policy change which received thousands of signatures.
“When I saw Premier Higgs take a stand for parents, when he was actually representing the majority of Newbrunswickers… and when I saw the heat that he was taking I thought ‘you know what, this is a leader that has a pedigree, and a stature… and is from a pedigree that is so rare in our nation,’” Grasseschi said.
The riding Grasseschi will be running in as a Progressive Conservative, Hampton-Fundy-St. Martin, is currently represented by retiring Progressive Conservative Environment Minister Gary Crossman.
The New Brunswick provincial election is set to take place on or before Oct. 21, 2024
Former Red Deer, Alta, trustee Monique LaGrange is seeking reinstatement to the Catholic school board after she was expelled from the board last month over a controversial picture she had posted to social media.
LaGrange, who is being represented by the Democracy Fund and lawyer James Kitchen, issued two applications for judicial review to an Alberta court seeking an order quashing the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools decision and an unconditional reinstatement to the board.
LaGrange was originally reprimanded for a meme that she had uploaded to Instagram of an archival photo of German children waving the Nazi flag juxtaposed with a picture of current-day children waving the Pride Progress flag in a school classroom with the caption “brainwashing is brainwashing.”
In September, the school board censured LaGrange, prohibiting her from attending committee meetings, mandating sensitivity training about the Holocaust and LGBTQ issues, and prohibiting her from representing the board in an official capacity to the public and the media.
She was also asked to apologize publicly for uploading the picture, something her lawyer, Kitchen, said would be impossible for her to do without violating her conscience.
Last month LaGrange’s fellow trustees voted 3-1 to expel her from the board for allegedly violating the sanctions they had placed on her in September.
LaGrange’s court applications state that the original sanction against her was unwarranted because, she argues, she did not violate the board’s code of conduct. Even if LaGrange had violated the code of conduct, the application argues that disqualification as punishment was excessive.
Further, her application argues that Alberta’s Education Act and the supporting common law do not allow democratically elected trustees to be disqualified in this manner.
The allegations have not been proven in court. The Red Deer school board did not respond to a request for comment from True North.
A senior Hamas leader has thanked Canada for calling for a ceasefire as Israel continues its ongoing operations against the Islamist terror group.
Dr. Ghazi Hamad said in a statement that he appreciated the “positive stance” of the Canadian government and its allies, Australia and New Zealand, who urged both sides to resume the ceasefire that was briefly achieved last week.
In the statement, which was published on Wednesday by the Palestine Info Center and translated into English, Hamad said that he was delighted to see the “growing cause by several Western governments” for a ceasefire.
“In addition to the other calls worldwide demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza strip, the last of which was a statement by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand backing sustainable ceasefire in Gaza,” said Hamad.
“We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally and ending the longest ever occupation in our modern time.”
Hamas’ deadly October 7 massacre killed more than 1,200 people and injured thousands more, including civilians.
The attack, which involved rockets, drones, and a ground assault, was the worst terrorist act against Israel in its history and sparked a fierce retaliation from the Israeli military.
Despite the United States’ opposition to Hamas, the terror group acknowledged the growing support from several Western governments urging an end to the aggression in Gaza, including from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement last week, saying that they wanted to see the pause in hostilities resumed and supported urgent international efforts towards a “sustainable ceasefire.”
“The recent pause in hostilities allowed for the release of more than 100 hostages and supported an increase in humanitarian access to affected civilians,” the statement said.
“We want to see this pause resumed and support urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire.”
This marked the first time the Canadian government officially used the term “ceasefire” in relation to the conflict. Additionally, Canada voted in favour of a United Nations’ non-binding motion which singled out Israel and called for a ceasefire at the General Assembly last week.
During a recent session at the United Nations, the Israeli government presented evidence of atrocities committed by Hamas militants during the October 7 attack, including rape and mutilation.
It took a mere hour Tuesday night for Ottawa public trustees to decide that controversial and often volatile trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth breached the board’s Code of Conduct.
Although integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig’s 188-page report carefully and thoroughly set out the reasons for the infamous trustee’s breach, I suspect all 11 trustees who voted to sanction her were simply tired of her perennial antics and the shadow she casts on the board.
It took somewhat longer for the trustees to decide on sanctions – which were eventually whittled down to a three-month ban from sitting on five committees (it was originally going to be six) to three months plus a ban from attending the January 2024 board meeting.
Board vice-chair Cathryne Milburne – in moving the motion to sanction Kaplan-Mryth – said the level of respect at the board is not what it should be.
“That means treating the world with dignity … we collectively can do better,” she said.
Kaplan-Mryth did not attend the meeting in person, claiming on X that it was not “physically safe” to do so.
Most trustees appeared to no longer buy her claims – not even her once closest ally, trans trustee Lyra Evans. The exception was trustee Justine Bell, who argued the board should go soft on her punishment because she’s “been living with incredible events and traumatic experiences for months.”
After the meeting, Kaplan-Myrth tweeted a variety of messages, contending, as she has for months, that she’s being punished for speaking up about toxicity at the board and for being a victim of antisemitism – proving yet again that she is not cowed by this very public slap on the wrist and does not get it.
She has also repeatedly indicated that she has received antisemitic messages and threats for her outspokenness.
As someone who has fought antisemitism for 14 years and been the subject of a variety of antisemitic messages and attacks, I doubt it’s as bad as she makes it out to be. In fact, I resent that she’s using this to excuse her bad behaviour.
According to Craig’s report, the code breach stems from Kaplan-Myrth’s conduct during and after another special Sept. 11 board meeting – at which another complaint against her was being considered.
She was let off from that one (in my view, that only emboldened her to continue her toxic behaviour).
According to Craig’s report, at the Sept. 11 meeting she shouted out at her colleague, Donna Blackburn, “You have had it out for me since Day One.”
Kaplan-Myrth also took exception that she was called a “white woman attacking a black woman (trustee)” – noting she was a Jewish woman “who has received daily antisemitic death threats for standing up for health and safety.”
As Craig contends, there are “approved meeting procedures” a trustee can use when they are offended or believe themselves to be victimized, belittled and the subject of discrimination.
“The way forward is not to shout, post on social media or personally attack others,” she wrote.
The integrity report pointed out that Kaplan-Myrth also violated the code by behaving badly (my words) in interactions with the media following the Sept. 11 meeting.
The report said she ignored the security plan put in place by the board staff to ensure her safety before, during and after the special meeting.
She went to a room not designated as a “safe space” for her, blocked the door and, “with a raised voice,” demanded that Trustee (Donna) Blackburn and all members of the media leave the room, except for those journalists with whom she wanted to speak.
“It was unclear why Trustee Kaplan-Myrth felt her media interviews should take precedence over those of other trustees,” Craig wrote. “If her concern was for her safety, she had been provided a dedicated safe space.”
The integrity commissioner said the trustee essentially dismissed the “professional expertise” of those who set out to ensure the safety of board facilities and those within them.
Craig also took exception to Kaplan-Myrth’s social media posts following the meeting which she said “contributed to conflict rather than resolution of issues with her trustee colleagues.
“Trustee Kaplan-Myrth’s actions show that she is not willing to consider a path towards reconciliation… she engages in threats and intimidation rather than listening and attempting to understand an alternate viewpoint,” the integrity commissioner wrote.
In her report Craig quotes extensively from a Sept. 13 article by my True North colleague Elie Cantin-Nantel on the events of the special meeting in which he interviewed trustee Donna Dickson about her complaint.
Dickson said in that article that the administration, the director and the chairman at the time, Lyra Evans, chose “not to follow through” on her concerns even though it was clear that a “strong majority of the board” agreed that Kaplan-Myrth’s actions were “unbecoming of a school trustee.”
Kaplan-Myrth has only been in the job for one year but the rabid masker has created so much dissension with her bad behaviour – taking away from the mission to deliver quality services to its 78,000 students.
One could say the board emboldened her by allowing it to continue on for so long.
However, I doubt very much this will stop her toxic behaviour.
Saturday’s Winnipeg Jets’ game against the Colorado Avalanche sparked a national debate after the Amber Trails School Choir sang the Canadian national anthem in Punjabi.
A part of the team’s South Asian Heritage Night featured the national anthem being sung in Punjabi and English for the first time in NHL history.
According to Statistics Canada, Punjabi is Canada’s fourth most spoken language at home, with 520,000 speakers, just behind Mandarin, which is in third place at 531,000 speakers.
The original post on X had 2.1M views by Wednesday morning. The post had 847 comments, filled with mixed reviews.
“I am of Punjabi background and can’t understand the need for this. Wokeism has no end,” wrote one user.
I am of Punjabi background and can’t understand the need for this. Wokeism has no end.
“They have translated English words into Punjabi, embracing diversity and showing inclusivity. Respect,” wrote another.
A few hours after Sportsnet had shared the initial video and the game had just finished, True North’s own Harrison Faulkner made his own post about the video, which had 1.5M views and 1.8K comments by Wednesday morning.
O Canada sung in Punjabi at a Winnipeg Jets hockey game.
“What is the point of this?” Faulkner asked in his post.
This question ignited a fiery debate. Many people in the comments supported the anthem being sung in Punjabi, while others disagreed.
Rebel News’ Ezra Levant wrote a lengthy reply about why he supported the anthem despite being in favour of reduced immigration and for assimilation and integration, not multiculturalism.
“Don’t you agree that these earnest girls are more patriotic than Trudeau or his atrocious government, which took Sir John A. Macdonald off our $10 bill, tears down statues, renames streets, apologizes for our history, and calls Canada a ‘genocidal’ regime? Trudeau actually rewrote the anthem. Aren’t these girls more patriotic than he is?”
True North’s founder Candice Malcolm said Levant raised some good points but ultimately agreed with Faulker.
Ezra makes some very good points (i.e. this IS what successful immigrants/integration looks like), but I ultimately agree with Harrison.
Language is one of the most important components of a national identity. Canada has two official languages, and if you want to truly embrace… https://t.co/sLqJXF2piv
“Seeing anyone degrade [the national anthem] by changing the lyrics or singing it differently (whether it be the Canadian tenors, that ‘Vince Carter is amazing’ lady or this latest example) is wrong. I could maybe forgive a line or two in a foreign language as a gimic, but taking the whole second half of the song and re-writing it was wrong. I had a visceral reaction,” said Malcolm.
The francophone community had similar mixed reactions.
The Société de la francophonie manitobaine (SFM) believes that the event did not erase the French language but would like to see it more present in the activities of the NHL.
“The NHL could do more to enhance the French language on all its teams. Not only is Canada a bilingual country, but a large proportion of its players and coaching staff are French-speaking, not to mention the fans,” said the SFM.
French fans were outspoken on X about their concerns. The dialogue among French-Canadian fans was more one-sided — predominantly negative.
“Anything to avoid doing O Canada in French, which is, let’s not forget, the original language in which it was written: sung for the first time on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in 1880, it was originally a French-Canadian national song,” said one user.
Tout pour ne pas faire le Ô Canada en français, qui est, rappelons le, la langue d'origine, dans laquelle il fut écrit : chanté pour la première fois à la Saint-Jean-Baptiste de 1880, c'est initialement un chant national canadien-français. https://t.co/UHfYYUkioA
“In English Canada, making them sing O Canada in French is practically considered a crime against humanity, almost torture. But in Punjabi, it’s wonderful…,” said another.
The SFM calls for “a league-wide directive on the use of the bilingual national anthem.”
Emmanuelle Le Pichon-Vortsman, Director of the Centre de recherches en éducation franco-ontarienne, said, “accepting languages doesn’t mean replacing French with another. What I don’t like about this incident is that English was never questioned. It’s the French they questioned.”
