It’s Fake News Friday on the Candice Malcolm Show!
Today, Candice walks us through the latest faux outrage fake news narrative that the legacy media has directed at the Leader of the Opposition.
Last week, Liberal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said that the CBC would indeed be entitled to a significant portion of the $100M the Trudeau government managed to squeeze out of Google to pay out to the dying legacy media in Canada.
This, of course, would be in addition to the approximately $1.3B CBC gets from taxpayers each and every year.
It was a little odd, then, that CBC this week announced that it would be laying off between 600 and 700 employees.
Merry Christmas! Not so much at the state broadcaster.
To add insult to injury, CBC’s hopeless CEO Catherine Tate was interviewed on her own network and couldn’t seem to answer the basic question of whether executives would be receiving Christmas bonuses this year. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that CBC paid out some $16M last year in executive bonuses alone.
Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre noticed this, and posted about it on social media.
Well, apparently, according to our brilliant legacy media, this makes Poilievre the real villain of the story.
See their silly reactions and watch Candice break down the facts and explain how Twitter contributed to the total breakdown of trust in the Canadian media.
In a move to align with the Liberal government’s commitment to “inclusivity,” Canadian military bases are required to provide menstrual products, including tampons and pads, in men’s washrooms by December 15.
This directive, issued by Employment and Social Development Canada, extends to all federally regulated workplaces and military installations.
True North has independently verified the implementation of this policy in at least one Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) military base, where menstruation kits are now available in men’s washrooms.
Now available in men's washrooms across all Canadian Forces Bases.
Major Soomin Kim of the Department of National Defence confirmed that this decision aligns with federal government directives, emphasizing compliance with the Canada Labour Code.
“Starting December 15, 2023, as per the Canada Labour Code, all federally managed washrooms will be required to provide menstrual products to all employees,” Major Kim told True North.
The federal directive underscores its commitment to “better protect menstruating employees” by mandating the presence of menstrual products in all toilet rooms, irrespective of their designated genders.
According to a recent federal briefing note, the CAF is facing a recruitment crisis as it struggles to find willing Canadians to fill the military’s thinning ranks.
The directive also outlines specific requirements for employers, including the provision of covered containers for the disposal of menstrual products.
“The regulations specify that menstrual products must be in all toilet rooms, regardless of their marked genders. This means that every female-identified, male-identified and all-gender toilet rooms will need to have menstrual products. Unrestricted access to menstrual products better protects menstruating employees and makes sure that they feel safe to use the toilet room that best reflects their gender,” writes the directive.
“Employers must also make sure a covered container for disposal of menstrual products is provided. A disposal container must be placed in each toilet room that has one toilet. In rooms with multiple toilets, a disposal container must be in each toilet stall.”
The directive defines menstrual products as tampons “inserted into the vagina when menstruating, with or without an applicator” and pads which “absorb menstrual fluids by affixing to underwear during menstruation.”
Across Canada, other government entities are making strides to expand access to taxpayer-funded menstrual products in all washrooms.
The District of Saanich, for example, has announced plans to provide free menstrual products in all public washrooms, including men’s rooms.
Councillors supporting this initiative argue that it will benefit “people who menstruate” and those facing financial constraints.
Canadian taxpayers will have to dish out $200 million extra in hidden administration fees for the carbon tax as of its inception in 2019.
The costs were revealed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) after obtaining government records based on an article by Blacklock’s Reporter on the issue.
The Trudeau government assigned 465 full-time employees to administer the carbon tax rebate scheme, costing Canadian taxpayers $82.6 million last year alone.
“The carbon tax is a double whammy for taxpayers,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “First, it makes our gas, heating and groceries more expensive. And then we’re forced to pay higher taxes to fund Trudeau’s battalion of carbon tax bureaucrats.”
Conservative MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, Chris Warkentin, requested order paper questions to release the details of what the cost was regarding the administration of federal carbon tax.
In 2022, carbon tax administration costs came to $82.6 million and totalled $116.5 million between 2019 and 2021.
There were 223 bureaucrats “assigned to work on the collection of the fuel charge” last year, while 242 were charged with administering the rebate scheme, according to the documents.
In 2022, the yearly costs for the rebate scheme peaked as the government changed the structure of the rebate “from a refundable credit claimed annually on personal income tax returns, to [a] quarterly tax-free payment made through the benefit system.”
“It should be obvious to everyone that the feds can’t raise taxes, skim hundreds-of-millions off the top and hire hundreds of new bureaucrats, then somehow make everyone better off with rebates,” said Terrazzano.
In 2019, 256 bureaucrats cost taxpayers $33,219,471.
In 2020, 316 bureaucrats were hired, costing $40,541,290.
The following year, 333 bureaucrats were hired, costing $42,766,636 and that number jumped up to $82,628,993 in 2022, after 465 bureaucrats were hired.
According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the average family will spend up to $710 on the carbon tax this year, even after they have received their rebates.
Currently, the carbon tax costs 14 cents per litre extra for gasoline and 12 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.
That price is expected to increase to 37 cents per litre of gasoline and 32 cents per cubic metre of natural gas by 2030.
“Canadians pay higher taxes so federal paper-pushers can increase our fuel prices and make our lives more expensive,” said Terrazzano. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can immediately make life more affordable by scrapping his carbon tax and taking some of the air out of his ballooning bureaucracy.”
Several premiers have begun to push back on Trudeau’s carbon tax, with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe vowing to stop collecting the federal carbon pricing on home electric heating as of Jan. 1 2014.
The carbon tax isn’t just affecting individual Canadians, but it’s putting financial stress on emergency services as well, who are struggling to afford the cost of heating their fire halls and filling up their fire trucks.
Alberta NDP is proposing a temporary cap on rent increases for what they claim will protect tenants from soaring housing costs, but critics are warning the policy could have disastrous consequences.
The Alberta NDP’s introduction of Bill 205, The Alberta Housing Security Amendment Act, seeks to cap rent increases altogether.
NDP housing critic Janis Irwin told reporters that this bill is an emergency measure to provide immediate relief amid concerns from renters, including some facing up to 50% rent increases.
“This is forcing families to stretch their household budgets to the breaking point,” said Irwin. The bill proposes capping rent increases at 2% for two years and then tying them to the Consumer Price Index for a maximum of 5% for the following two years.
Neil Sharma, a reporter who has covered the housing market for over a decade, said that a rental cap could only do so much given the immense housing demand driven by immigration.
Sharma, who lives in Toronto, not Alberta, said that renters in Ontario are also spending over 50% of their monthly income on rent..
Sharma said that unless immigration is addressed, the demand for housing and basic necessities will continue going up.
Jen Lamoureux, a mortgage broker and landlord for over 11 years, listed some concerns for renters as a result of the proposed policy.
The two most common leases in Alberta are fixed-term agreements—one with a specific start and end date—and periodic agreements—one with no end date, generally paid month-to-month.
Lamoureux said that all of her nine properties are on fixed-term agreements. She explained that this bill would cause tenants to move more often, as landlords would never renew leases if the market did not support them.
For example, if the rent agreed upon at the start of the lease was $1500/month, but the market supported rents of $1750/month at the end, a rent cap of 2% would not allow for this much of an increase. Therefore, landlords would find a new tenant and increase the lease to whatever the market allows them to charge.
She said that the provincial government does not have the time to audit every landlord in the province.
“The only way that an increase greater than 2% is going to get reported is if you were staying with your current tenant and tried to jack their rent,” she said.
Relief for Albertans’ housing costs should come through an increased supply, said Lamoureux and her husband, Trevor Adams, who is a landlord himself. This bill would do the opposite, they claimed.
A 2% cost increase cap would not even keep up with the increase in costs on mortgages, electrical, natural gas, property taxes, and more — all of which are not capped.
They said this bill would do the opposite and decrease supply, causing some in the rental market to sell their properties instead of dealing with the hassle or operating at a loss.
Adams’ sister had a rental in Comox, British Columbia, which they sold because a rental cap was introduced. The government gave the tenant all of the control. The owner was not able to raise rent to offset costs and decided to sell the home because it became too expensive.
“More people will become homeless because there will be no incentive to rent places,” said Adams.
Alberta’s Seniors, Community, and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon agreed that a province already short on housing and implementing rent caps would lead to more homeless people.
“Every jurisdiction that went down the road of rent control has been a disaster. There’s not a major economist anywhere in this country calling for rent control because it does not work,” said Nixon.
The couple believe that this bill will not pass in the legislature. They believe it is an election tactic for the NDP so that at the next election, the party can say they tried to help renters, and the UCP voted against it, even if the bill would realistically do more harm than good.
The UCP has committed to investing over $1 billion in the upcoming three years to enhance affordable housing options. As outlined in February’s budget, this plan includes allocating close to $235 million within the same period for programs assisting with rent.
Speaking on behalf of Nixon, Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams emphasized this commitment at the legislature on Tuesday. He highlighted the province’s concentration on constructing additional housing, aiming to introduce 25,000 new units by 2031.
A free market is the best system for rental properties in Alberta, say Lamoureux and Adams.
“When it has to go down, it goes down. It goes up when it can — when there’s an allowance for it. The market only bears what it can bear, only absorbs what it can absorb,” said Lamoureux.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek will skip the city’s annual menorah lighting ceremony, asserting that she can’t attend because the event politically supports Israel.
Plus, “white supremacy” and “colonialism” stand in the way of achieving net-zero climate targets claimed a COP28 panel of climate activists from Canada and abroad.
And Greg Fergus signalled he will stay on as the House of Commons Speaker although the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois have called on him to resign.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dszurdzsa and William McBeath!
This week on the Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel, Rachel discusses Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to invoke the Sovereignty Act citing a lack of progress with the Trudeau government. Plus, Smith is slamming the feds for their emissions cap on the oil and gas sector.
Also on the show, a lockdown advocate and Alberta NDP supporter is back in the news — this time for blaming Canada’s poor climate performance on Smith. Rachel has some news about the COP28 conference in Dubai.
Finally, she responds to some of your comments from last week.
These stories and more on the Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel. Tune in now!
Two representatives from Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), the firm that owns Pornhub, Youporn and many other pornographic websites, testified in front of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on December 7.
The private equity firm acquired Aylo (formerly known as Mindgeek) in March 2023.
Mindgeek, the parent company of Pornhub and the like, rebranded to Aylo amid a series of lawsuits from individuals alleging the company’s former owners profited off of revenge porn, rape, and child sex trafficking uploaded to the site without checks and balances.
Lawyer and rabbi Solomon Friedman, as well as law student and pornographer Kate Sinclaire, argued to the commission on behalf of Ethical Capital Partners that internet pornography platforms should be exempt from promoting and funding Canadian Content (CanCon) under the Online Streaming Act.
Sinclaire said she has worked as a producer and director in the adult industry in Canada for approximately 15 years.
“I have, in short, to put it in a straightforward way, been making adult CanCon for a fair portion of my life,” she said.
Friedman and Sinclaire argued that if adult sites are subject to regulation, then pornographers should be able to access government funding.
“If the adult industry is regulated and required to make contributions, it must be able to access the benefits,” said Friedman.
Under the Online Streaming Act, major streaming platforms will have an obligation to fund Canadian content and they will be required to promote government-approved Canadian content creators via algorithm adjustments.
Friedman and Sinclaire spent much of their testimony complaining that people working in the pornography industry allegedly have a hard time finding a bank that will work with them, as well as whitewashing the sex trade and arguing that decriminalizing the sex trade is more important than broadcasting regulations.
“Sex work is work,” Friedman said.
“Sex work is not an inherently unsafe industry,” Sinclaire stated.
The two representatives from ECP often evoked the language of diversity and inclusion when arguing for the widespread availability of unregulated internet pornography.
“Recent anti-LGBT movements make us more concerned about being able to represent sexuality authentically,” said Sinclaire.
Sinclaire alluded to a sexual community that has “practices that some people would find objectionable” but that are central to their “queer identities.”
“Right now in this world of basically targeting queer speech… it’s a difficult time right now for queer communities and it’s incredibly important to not continue that into [the pornography] space.”
Sinclaire argued that government broadcasting regulations would impose “cisheteronormative tropes” upon individuals from queer kink “communities.”
“I’m very disturbed by the fact that ECP concentrated only on the wellbeing of content producers of pornography and did not mention once the harms millions of children are experiencing by being exposed to hardcore, often violent pornography because porn platforms owned by ECP and others are not doing age verification of customers,” Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne told True North.
Earlier this year, Senator Miville-Dechêne tried introducing an amendment to the Online Streaming Act that would require pornography sites to implement age verification measures, but her amendment was rejected by then-heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez.
One Canadian study found that the average age of first exposure to online pornography was around 12 years, and one-third were exposed as young as age 10.
A recent undercover investigation revealed an Aylo producer talking candidly about how it is “helpful” for 12-year olds to view online pornography to figure out what sexuality they are, and said that more pornography featuring trans people can hopefully “convert” straight men.
So far, the CRTC has said “It would not be appropriate, for the time being, to exclude online undertakings that provide adult content from the application of the conditions of service.”
The federal government announced that the number of future study permits being issued will be “significantly” limited in the wake of massive fraud in Canada’s international student program.
“Enough is enough,” said Immigration Minister Marc Miller during a press conference on Thursday.
Miller announced that the government would increase the financial commitment required of incoming international students as well as restrict their number of permissible work hours each week.
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, applicants will have to pay $20,635 for their cost-of-living study permit, up from the initial $10,000 financial requirement. That fee does not include their tuition or travel costs.
The raised cost-of-living permit is designed to ensure better housing for international students once they arrive in Canada and will be adjusted yearly.
Miller claims that the new measures will dial back the current business model of post-secondary education institutions, which he likened to “puppy mills.”
“The fraud and abuse needs to end,” said Miller.
Since 2013, the number of study permit holders has tripled, from 300,000 to 900,000.
International students contribute $22 billion to the Canadian economy via tuition fees and personal spending, they also account for 200,000 jobs.
The international student program has been the subject of much controversy in recent months over the education sector’s use of unregulated foreign agents, who apply aggressive recruitment campaigns to get students in as well as the uncovering of thousands of fraudulent acceptance letters.
Canadian post-secondary schools have found a lucrative cash cow in foreign students and employers have also become accustomed to utilizing international students for low-wage jobs in fast-food, retail, warehouses and the gig economy.
The surge in international students in combination with Canada’s current housing crisis has left many study permit holders without proper shelter or employment, with some turning to food banks to save money.
Both the public and private sectors of colleges are primarily to blame for the exponential growth in international students as universities are less able to offer degrees that come fast and cheap.
Colleges can also offer international students the opportunity to stay and work in Canada as well, and in certain cases, qualify for permanent residence.
The Immigration Department lifted the 20-hour weekly work hours granted to international students during the pandemic to ease their financial strains, however, Miller said the 20-hour limit will return to effect as of May 1, as the winter semester comes to a close.
According to the Toronto Star, Miller said the new pilot programs will be implemented to encourage post-secondary institutions to alter their recruitment process and to retain students from countries that are currently underrepresented.
Somehow political leaders and unelected bureaucrats across the country have managed to escape any form of accountability despite leading the worst assault on Canadian freedoms since WW2. As Western countries begin the process of holding formal inquiries into what exactly happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, nobody at the political level in Canada seems interested in doing the same. What are they so afraid of?
A group of patriotic citizens took it upon themselves to hold our officials accountable for what they did to us and launched the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI), a monumental citizen-led effort. Not a single public health official or politician responded to invitations to testify in front of the NCI. That should scare Canadians.
Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner.
A surge of extortion letters, aimed at South Asian businesses in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, has the local community fearing for their lives as tensions rise between conflicting ethnic groups.
The letters, purportedly originating from a group identifying as “an Indian gang,” insist on large sum payments from the recipients, accompanied by threats of death in case of non-compliance or if the matter is reported to law enforcement.
Letters shared online alleged that two residences had already been targeted with gunfire due to the owner’s failure to meet the financial demands outlined in the extortion threats.
The letter further asserts that those seeking to engage in business activities in Abbotsford must provide a share of their earnings, or they will encounter severe repercussions.
“We want your share from your business like protection money,” the letter reads.
“We are asking only two million. We have links all over. Do not ignore us. It will affect you real bad.”
BC Conservative leader John Rustad said that based on a recent meeting with local business owners in Abbotsford, a gang task force must be assigned to the case immediately.
“They would like to see the gang task force focused on going after these people,” Rustad told the Vancouver Sun.
“(They) are not seeing the action that needs to be taken.”
While authorities in Abbotsford and Surrey have cautioned the public about the extortion campaign, they have yet to establish any verifiable connections between the letters and the reported shootings.
Former B.C. solicitor general Kash Heed noted that such extortion attempts were prevalent in the early 2000s, predominantly affecting ethnic communities in British Columbia and seem to be returning.
“Most of the people paid a sum of money, a sum of, if you want to call it, protection money,” said Heed.
“Certainly not to the extent of millions and millions of dollars. But this is a level we seem to be going to now, where people are making these outrageous demands and threats.”
Expressing concern over the impact of these threats on the South Asian community, particularly business owners, Surrey Centre MP Randeep Sarai emphasized the need for vigilance.
Both the provincial government and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) B.C. have acknowledged their awareness of ongoing investigations and affirmed their commitment to providing support.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth recently urged recipients of extortion letters to promptly notify law enforcement, assuring them of the government’s concerted efforts to combat organized crime.
“Violence and intimidation are not acceptable and have no place in British Columbia,” said Farnworth.
“There’s lots of innuendo of who is behind this … no matter where it’s coming from the enforcement officials need to take this seriously and address it in a coordinate nature.”
