After riots erupted in Dublin, Ireland last week when an Algerian-born man went on a stabbing rampage injuring 3 Irish school children, Ireland PM Leo Varadkar responded by committing to strengthen online hate speech laws in the country. Despite Ireland being in the midst of a migrant surge, the Irish government is seeking to crack down on anyone voicing dissent over irreversible changes happening in their country. Those that do speak up – like UFC superstar Conor McGregor – end up being investigated for spreading hate speech.
If all of this sounds concerning to you, that’s because. In Canada, Justin Trudeau is seeking to do the exact same thing. The yet to be reintroduced Bill C-36 would criminalize any online speech that is perceived to incite hatred against a protected class in the Canadian Human Rights Act. Even worse, Canadians can be subject to harsh penalties before even committing any crime at all so long as a judge has reason to believe that you may commit hate speech violations in the future. Pre-crime punishment is coming to Canada.
Tune into the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!
Out of six major Muslim organizations in Canada contacted, only one bothered to reply and condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the terrorist organization itself.
True North contacted half a dozen Muslim groups with a presence in Canada to ask them what their stance on Hamas and its incursion into Israeli territory is.
The only organization to respond to True North’s requests was the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow.
Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow president Raheel Raza told True North that her organization has not shied from calling Hamas a terror group, unlike others.
“October 7 brought about with it multi-dimensional tragedies against innocent civilians in Israel including murder, rape and destruction that is unimaginable,” Raza told True North.
“All the work that we do in order to build bridges and try to educate Muslim youth was completely sabotaged by heavy false propaganda coming from The Muslim Brotherhood and its proxies.”
As a member of the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism, the group also strongly condemned the “murderous attack on Israel and its civilian population by the terrorist organization Hamas backed by Iran.”
Raza is also a policy fellow with the True North Centre for Public Policy, True North’s parent organization.
True North also contacted the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW), the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) to ask whether they would condemn Hamas and its actions on Oct. 7 but did not receive a response from any of them.
Despite not responding, the NCCM has published several statements on its website about the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. The NCCM has lobbied across Canada to demand a ceasefire.
“The Israeli government appears to be committed to an unrelenting siege and unlawful blockade of the Gaza strip. There is no end in sight. Their threats of violence are only escalating,” wrote the NCCM.
In its latest post, the NCCM launched a campaign to “condemn the horrifying statements from Israel’s leaders.”
The NCCM’s advocacy portal states that conflating support for Palestinians with “support for Hamas” was “racist, demeaning and Isalmophobic.” In 2015, the NCCM also launched a lawsuit against former prime minister Stephen Harper after the PMO’s communications directors alleged that the organization had ties to Hamas.
“We have consistently and unequivocally spoken out against terrorism – regardless of who perpetrates it, including naming groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Al-Shabab,” wrote the NCCM.
As for the CCMW, it has put out several statements on the ongoing conflict, saying that it condemns “all acts of violence that harm innocent lives in Gaza and Israel” while also accusing the Israeli government of being an “apartheid regime.”
A search of the CCMW website did not turn up any denouncements of the terrorist organization Hamas. The organization has said in the past that Muslims and Islam should not be conflated with “terrorism, fundamentalism and other negative name calling.”
MAC has also lobbied for a ceasefire in the region and said it was “deeply concerned about the acts of hate against the Jewish community in Montreal” following targeted attacks.
“These acts of anti-Semitism are part of a wider, troubling rise in hatred that targets both the Jewish and Muslim communities, and we stand firmly against all forms of such bigotry. The increasing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in our country is unacceptable,” wrote MAC in a recent X post.
In response to a recent report by the French-language outlet La Presse which claimed that the CRA believed that MAC was associated with Islamist extremists and allegedly provided support to Hamas, the organization called the allegations a “deliberate attempt to tarnish” its reputation.
“It is categorically untrue and defamatory to claim that the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) has ever provided support to Hamas, either directly or indirectly,” wrote MAC.
“The CRA’s allegations of links between MAC and Hamas-affiliated groups within Canada were highlighted by an Ontario Superior Court judge as preliminary, unproven, and can only be considered in the context of MAC’s response.”
Meanwhile, ISNA’s latest statement condemned Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack while also calling for hostages held by Hamas to be freed.
“The Biden administration should call for a humanitarian ceasefire, immediately suspend all military support for Israel, and continue its efforts to free all hostages held by Hamas,” wrote ISNA on Nov. 20.
ISNA has also said that it “rejects all acts of terrorism, including those perpetrated by Hamas, Hizbullah and any other group that claims Islam as their inspiration.”
As for the MSA, it recently participated in a walk out alongside other student groups like the Palestinian Youth Movement, which has been linked to recent protests that praised Hamas’ actions. Organizations like the Terrorism Awareness Project have called on MSA chapters to be defunded due to allegedly participating in “hate campaigns.”
The commander of the Royal Canadian Navy is warning that serious challenges threaten to derail its readiness commitments in 2024 and beyond.
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) commander blamed severe personnel shortages and aging equipment in a YouTube video on Monday
“The RCN faces some very serious challenges right now that could mean we fail to meet our force posture and readiness commitments in 2024 and beyond,” said Topshee.
The navy is grappling with significant staffing shortages, which Topshee said puts the RCN in a critical state. Many occupations are experiencing staffing shortages at 20% and higher.
The root of these challenges lies in a decade-long recruitment crisis.
“Despite their very best efforts, CFRG [Canadian Forces Recruiting Group] has not delivered the required intake for the RCN for over ten years,” Topshee explained.
True North previously reported on the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) recruitment shortage. A briefing note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter showed that the government’s plan was to boost recruitment by lowering standards and promoting diversity over merit.
Communications between the Department of National Defence and the CAF revealed a preoccupation with concepts like equity, critical race theory, and gender ideology. Despite woke ideology policy changes like gender-neutral uniforms and drag queen bingo, the recruitment numbers have continued to falter.
This shortfall has severely impacted the West Coast fleet, which the commander revealed to have a shortage of qualified technicians, constraining the navy’s ability to maintain and operate its ships.
Another pressing issue is aging ships. The 1990s-era Halifax-class frigates, already at their 30-year life expectancy, are expected to remain the navy’s primary surface combatant for at least another 15 years.
“We must therefore find a way to keep the Halifax class going until at least 2040,” Topshee asserted, highlighting the urgency of extending the vessels’ service life.
Given that all 12 are required to meet Canada’s commitments to NATO and the Indo-Pacific strategy, Topshee said this is a considerable challenge.
This shortage is not limited to the navy but extends to the air force and army, compounding the armed forces’ overall readiness issues. The RCN alone needs to enroll 1,200 new people each year to address its personnel problem, a target that seems increasingly elusive.
“The situation is serious, but our problems are not unique; I know that the air force and army are facing similar challenges,” Topshee said.
The YouTube video’s release follows closely on the heels of a Department of Defence Results Report, released a few weeks prior. The report casts a similarly bleak outlook over the entire Canadian Armed Forces.
The report said the military’s readiness has decreased over the last year, “aggravated by decreasing number of personnel and issues with equipment and vehicles.”
Only 51.2% of the maritime fleet was listed as “serviceable to meet training and readiness requirements.” Two years ago, this number was 94.1%.
The RCAF faces even more dire circumstances, with only 43.9% of its aircraft meeting serviceability requirements.
This decline in operational readiness has already led to missed opportunities in high-profile international engagements.
The report suggests that the military is stretched so thin that it may soon be unable to manage basic domestic disaster responses effectively.
“The growing demands for CAF responses challenged the already unstable foundation of operational readiness given personnel shortfalls, equipment deficiencies, and insufficient sustainment, including critical stores of ammunition,” reads the report.
The federal government has finalized a deal with Google regarding Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, that will have the tech company pay $100 million per year to news publishers in order to allow Canadian news content on its platform.
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge called it a “historic development” while discussing the implementation of Bill C-18.
“For more than a decade, news organizations have been disrupted by the arrival of large digital platforms like Google. In Canada, nearly 500 media outlets have closed their doors… All over the world, governments have set up systems to try to establish a more level playing field between tech giants and news organizations, which are essential in our democracies,” said St-Onge on Wednesday at the House of Commons.
“We have found a path forward to answer Google’s questions about their process and the Act. Google wanted certainty about the amount of compensation it would have to pay to Canadian news outlets,” said St-Onge.
“Many doubted that we would be successful, but I was confident that we would find a way to address Google’s concerns and make sure that Canadians would have access to news in Canada on their platform,” she added, saying that the Trudeau government made “absolutely no concessions” in the deal.
The financial support provided by Google will be indexed to inflation, and paid out to “a wide range of news businesses across the country, including independent news businesses and those from Indigenous and official-language minority communities.”
Few details have been released regarding what regulatory changes will be made by the Trudeau government, with Canadian Heritage saying that it cannot release details about the final regulations until after they have been approved by the Treasury Board, which will need to happen before the Act comes into effect.
St-Onge did say however, that they will be reserving the right to reopen the regulations should they create better agreements with other countries.
For the time being however, the agreement alleges to “establish a fairer commercial relationship between digital platforms and in journalism and Canada.”
“Following extensive discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold,” said Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs at Google and Alphabet in a statement.
“While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers,” said Walker.
Bill C-18 passed in June, which requires tech giants like Google and Meta to financially compensate Canadian news outlets for news content that is posted and shared on their platforms. When it initially passed, both Google and Meta threatened to remove news links and content from their platforms rather than pay the media organizations for the content.
Meta has blocked content from Canadian news publishers thus far, removing links, content and the ability to share news from their platforms like Facebook and Instagram, whereas Google said they would begin to do so as of December 19.
“Unfortunately, Meta continues to completely abdicate any responsibility towards democratic institutions and even stability, but we’re going to continue to work positively in those areas,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday.
Meta responded to news of the Trudeau government’s deal with Google by saying that the regulatory process for Bill C-18 was “not equipped” for their business model, calling it “unworkable.”
“Unlike search engines, we do not proactively pull news from the internet to place in our users’ feeds and we have long been clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is by ending news availability for people in Canada,” said a Meta spokesperson in an email to CTV News.
Prior to striking their deal on Wednesday, Google said that they had “serious structural issues with C-18 that regrettably were not dealt with during the legislative process,” calling the bill a “link tax” that “breaks the way the web and search engines have worked for more than 30 years.”
Google also expressed that the Online News Act could expose them to “uncapped financial liability.”
University of Ottawa law professor Micheal Giest said that the deal wasn’t exactly the slam dunk win the government is claiming it to be, writing “The government once claimed it would not negotiate directly with Google or any platform. Rather, it said it was creating a framework to allow the media companies to do so with the CRTC in the role of arbiter to determine if the various deals met the government’s policy objectives.”
“Instead, it ended up negotiating with Google on a single payment rather than the individual deals promised by the bill, creating what amounts to a fund model that Google supported from the outset.”
This is a near complete reversal of Bill C-18 and provides confirmation that the law was unworkable,” wrote Geist.
She’s back! True North founder and editor-in-chief Candice Malcolm has returned from maternity leave, relaunching The Candice Malcolm Show and gearing up for some big plans for True North. In this edition of the Andrew Lawton Show, Candice and Andrew talk about the decline of legacy media, the rise of independent media and what the future likely holds for both.
An Ottawa event featuring right-wing German politician Christine Anderson and Dutch political commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek went ahead despite multiple cancellation attempts from left-wing activists – and a last-minute venue change.
Hundreds showed up to the event, part of Anderson’s “Make It our Business” tour, organized by Canadian organization Trinity Productions.
The event was initially supposed to take place at the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre, but the venue cancelled at the last minute amid pressure from left-wing activists – who deemed the speakers “hateful.”
“Today, it has been brought to our attention that your event features two speakers, Christine Anderson and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, commonly associated with hate speech and beliefs that are antithetical and completely unwelcome to (the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre), its management, employees and others who use our Conference and Event Centre,” reads a Nov. 28 email sent by catering director Claudio Dinardo.
While left-wing activists initially celebrated the event’s cancellation on social media, the organizers quickly found another venue.
“Unfortunately for them, it did not work, their plans were foiled.” said tour organizer Bethan Nodwell in an interview with True North. “It was literally within an hour or two that we had locked down a second venue.”
I spoke to @BethanNodwell, one of the organizers of the Christine Anderson & Eva Vlaardingerbroek tour, about the multiple cancellation attempts they faced from left-wing Ottawa activists. What does she have to say to critics of the tour & its speakers? Watch 👇 pic.twitter.com/xHeqJJIo8n
Left wing activists attempted to get the second venue, the Preston Event Centre, to also cancel – but were unsuccessful in doing so.
“They did send all their henchmen to call, harass, badger, intimidate (the second) venue,” said Nodwell. “(But) the owners from this venue said, ‘we will not bend the knee to the woke,’ and that was just amazing.”
Anderson also gave a shout-out to the venue’s owner in her speech, which was followed by the crowd giving him a standing ovation.
Another one of the tour’s organizers, Stacey Kauder, said the cancel culture attempts resulted in a last-minute increase in ticket sales.
“We sold more tickets in the last 24 hours than we did in the weeks leading up to the tour,” she said.
“The freedom movement can’t be beaten, for raising money and rallying around people when they need a rally,” Nodwell added.
Anderson, who has visited Canada three times this year, is famous for giving a speech in 2022 in which she told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “please spare us your presence” during his visit to the European Parliament. She has however also become controversial for, among other things, her views on Islam.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre denounced Anderson’s views as “vile” after she met with three Conservative MPs as part of a previous tour in February.
Statement from Conservative Leader @PierrePoilievre on the three Conservative MPs who met with European MEP Christine Anderson earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/57vCMTYTqV
True North's @elie_mcn caught up with European politician Christine Anderson to ask her about the controversy surrounding her recent meeting with several Conservative MPs and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's denouncement of that meeting: pic.twitter.com/7diSsbitIj
Vlaardingerbroek became known for speaking up for Dutch farmers when the previous Mark Rutte government tried to expropriate 3,000 farms to meet climate goals. She has appeared on several television shows internationally, including Tucker Carlson’s and Mark Steyn’s.
In addition to Anderson and Vlaardingerbroek, the Ottawa event featured speeches from Alymer, Ont. pastor Henry Hildebrandt, former university professor Denis Rancourt, columnist David Krayden, Pickering, Ont. councillor Lisa Robinson, veteran Eddie Cornell, commentators Maggie Hope Braun and Natasha Graham, student activist Josh Alexander, and comedian John Stetch, appearing as Justin Trudeau.
Despite credit cards, e-transfers and online banking having already made money go pretty much digital, the Bank of Canada is busily working on a much bigger transformation. Canada is one of about 100 countries that – in uncanny synchronicity – several years ago joined the race toward retail central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Touted as the digital equivalent of cash, CBDC risks eroding the established banking system and, among many other problems, is likely to be vulnerable to hackers’ attacks which, should a foreign government use this as a tactic in “hybrid” warfare, might prove capable of destabilizing a target country’s economy.
Considering such acute risks, it would be reasonable to expect that the explosion of worldwide interest in CBDC is justified by its special qualities that address obvious pressing needs of the citizenry. The purported consumer and other needs for CBDC, however, seem to be entirely fabricated, while the qualities that actually differentiate CBDC from the money we use now are hushed and obscured by virtue-signalling.
In a new essay for C2C Journal, Gleb Lisikh explores the risks and challenges associated with adopting central bank digital currency. He joined Andrew Lawton to discuss. pic.twitter.com/B14wIIISod
CBDC’s main advertised feature is equivalency to cash. It is everywhere marketed as a means to advance “financial inclusion” – a convenient way for the “unbanked” to access financial services – both a stand-in and replacement for cash, which it is claimed is about to disappear from use.
The Bank of Canada admits, however, that CBDC cannot actually replace cash or make an “unbanked” person “banked.” That’s because CBDC does nothing to address the two key reasons people still use cash: the need for privacy and independence from technology. CBDC does the opposite. First, CBDC has a built-in lack of privacy as it’s designed to always leave a digital trail. Second, it requires the use of an internet-connected device – meaning it is not only technology-dependent but interruptible.
While some research suggests only two per cent of Canadians still rely heavily on cash, a Bank of Canada survey found that 46 percent of us would find the elimination of cash anywhere from inconvenient to disastrous. What might happen if governments forcibly removed cash from circulation? We don’t need to guess, for we have a large-scale case-study available.
In Nigeria, about half of adults had no bank account when, in October 2021, the government introduced eNaira, the world’s first serious CBDC implementation. Making 100 million “unbanked” Nigerians happy was no doubt intended not only as a national but as a global endorsement for CBDC. Yet it did the opposite, eventually rocking the country to its core.
A piddly 0.8 per cent of already “banked” Nigerians downloaded eNaira wallets in the first year after the launch, of whom most did not engage in any transactions. Not dissuaded by such overwhelming indifference, the government doubled-down with an all-out attack on cash, demonetizing banknotes and forcing Nigerians to exchange their cash holdings for eNaira.
The nation’s 100 million poorest people were left with paper money they could not use to buy food or other necessities. This triggered violent riots as desperate hungry people took to the streets, demanding reinstatement of cash. The situation persisted for more than three months until cash was re-enabled. Today, Nigeria’s government is trying to boost eNaira use through artificial cash shortages.
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) consultants heavily pushed the “financial inclusion” narrative in Nigeria, fully endorsing it as “a key policy objective that central banks, especially those in emerging and low-income countries, are considering for retail (CBDC).”
Yet bizarrely, the same IMF document notes: “The impact of CBDC for improving financial inclusion is currently speculative, where further evidence and experience are needed to fully understand benefits and limitations.”
How can the main reason for a large financial overhaul that will be life-altering for hundreds of millions of people and carries many risks be… speculative? As if dodging this question, the Bank of Canada turns the conversation on its head: instead of looking for a justifiable use case that warrants “wide adoption, acceptance and use of CBDC,” it goes into talk of “overcoming the barriers.”
The central bank seems to have made its commitment to building CBDC capacity before finding a genuine need. And that leaves us with the only sensible conclusion: that the advertised justifications are just an awkward façade, hiding the real and not-so-welcome reasons.
The two major features making CBDC different from traditional money are that CBDC is centrally traceable and programmable. This makes CBDC almost infinitely dangerous. It will be only one step from monitoring your every financial move to telling you how and when to spend your money.
Those utterly undemocratic purposes should outrage any Westerner, but they fit China’s social credit system like a glove. They could be further enhanced by other privacy-intrusive measures like digital ID, surveillance and elimination of cash or alternative monetary systems such as cryptocurrency.
Canadians have expressed no desire, understanding or even, for the most part, awareness of the publicly-funded CBDC development and the reasons behind it. As in Nigeria, the nation’s central bank does not listen but simply insists on and proceeds with this affair, claiming it’s to benefit Canadians but failing or not even trying to articulate how.
Gleb Lisikh is a researcher and IT management professional, and a father of three children. He lives in Vaughan, Ontario and grew up in various parts of the Soviet Union.
One day before the event was set to happen, the Ottawa Conference and Event Centre cancelled a booking for a November 29 speaking tour stop featuring German Member of European Parliament Christine Anderson and Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek.
Plus, the NHL’s selective theme policy has left fans and commentators shaking their heads.
And the vast majority of Canadians believe that the housing crisis and Canada’s crumbling health care system are being fuelled by high levels of immigration.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Lindsay Shepherd and Isaac Lamoureux!
A man convicted of manslaughter has been granted full parole after serving almost three years of a five year sentence for his role in the death of a Calgary police officer.
On Dec. 31, 2020, Sgt. Andrew Harnett, 37, died after being dragged by an SUV before being thrown into the path of oncoming traffic.
Amir Abdulrahman, co-accused and a passenger in the vehicle, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2021 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
In May, Abdulrahman was granted day parole and last week a Parole Board of Canada panel decided that he can now be released with conditions.
“The board is satisfied that you have continued to make positive progress, while on day parole, and that your risk can be managed on a broader form of release,” reads the decision.
“The board grants full parole at the expiry of the current period of day parole. It is the board’s opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society, if released on full parole, and that your release will contribute to the protection of society, by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.”
Abdulrahman has been residing in Calgary in a halfway house, according to CTV News.
The panel said that Abdulrahman accepted full responsibility for his offence and had consistently expressed remorse and regret for the damage he caused. It also said that Abdulrahman has addressed his risk factors through the completion of programs and started working after he was granted day parole.
He is considered to be a low-to-moderate risk to reoffend, according to the board.
“There is no indication that you have returned to any substance use since your release, and you do appear to have continued to distance yourself from the negative peer group and lifestyle you were involved in, at the time of the offence,” reads the decision.
“You are spending time with family and pro-social friends.”
Abdulrahman will have numerous conditions imposed upon him following his release, including no contact with anyone involved in the illicit drug trade, no consumption of drugs and he must abide by his designated treatment plans.
Additionally, he is prohibited from having any contact with the victim’s family or the Calgary police station where Harnett had previously served as an officer.
“The board has also read and considered the letters submitted by the victim’s wife … describing the heart-wrenching impact the offence and loss of the victim has caused her, his family, community, and tragically the child he never got to meet,” said the board.
“Your actions contributed to the death of the victim and tore a hole in the lives of the many people who lost their loved one due to your offence.”
According to the trial, Harnett stopped the SUV after he became aware that its licence plate didn’t match the vehicle’s registration.
The driver of the vehicle, who was only days away from turning 18 at the time of the accident, was charged as a youth with first-degree murder.
During the trial, the driver testified that Harnett put his hand on his gun while approaching the SUV with another officer, which scared him.
When the driver attempted to flee the scene, Harnett grabbed onto the wheel, attempting to get the driver to stop. Neither the driver nor Abdulrahman attempted to help the officer after he was severely injured.
In September, the driver was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to an adult sentence of 12 years in prison by a Calgary judge.
The Ontario Court of Appeal has deemed that a math proficiency test for new teachers in Ontario is not unconstitutional despite a prior ruling suggesting the practice discriminated based on race.
This latest ruling overturned the 2021 Divisional Court decision, which found that the mandatory tests violated section 15 Charter right to equal protection under the law because preliminary data showed a disparity in outcomes between different racial groups.
The unanimous decision, released on Tuesday, countered the previous court’s view that the test disproportionately affected racialized educators.
The three-person panel, led by Justice Patrick Monahan, ruled that a divisional court was provided incomplete data initially used to assess the math proficiency tests introduced in Ontario in 2021. Monahan found that the Divisional Court erred when it decided the test for establishing discrimination had been met.
Candidates who failed the test were able to rewrite it an unlimited amount of times with no fee.
The court highlighted that over 90% of teacher candidates, including those from racialized groups, successfully passed the test, which assesses knowledge expected of high school graduates.
“Ontario’s Grade 9 math standard was introduced to assure parents that those responsible for educating students have the fundamental math skills they need to help students graduate,” said Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
To pass the test, candidates needed to score 70%. The test covered curriculum from elementary and secondary math classes, among other planning and assessment practices.
The original opposition to the proficiency test, led by the Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council, raised concerns about racial disparities in pass rates.
Spokesperson Bella Lewkowicz voiced disappointment in the decision, arguing that the test was “unfair to racialized candidates, who have to write the test more than once to be equal to their non-racialized colleagues.”
However, the Court of Appeal noted that the disparity in pass rates had significantly decreased by the end of 2021. The court found no evidence suggesting that racialized candidates who wrote the test multiple times were at a disadvantage in entering the teaching profession.
Of the 8,349 candidates who wrote the test in 2021, 83.2% were successful on their first attempt. Of the 1,110 who retook the test, 88% were successful on a subsequent attempt. Therefore, 94.8% of people who wrote the test were successful, wrote the court in its decision. Racialized candidates had a success rate of 93.3%.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF), which intervened in the case, said in its press release that it was pleased with the court’s decision.
“We are pleased that the court has clarified that it is not racist to require teachers to be competent in basic math,” said Christine Van Geyn, CCF’s Litigation Director.
Ontario’s teacher unions have expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of a high-stakes math test for educators. They argue that the government’s efforts would be better directed toward enhancing the curriculum and offering more support to teachers rather than blaming them as a strategy for improving math outcomes.
The government does not intend to reinstate the test immediately, acknowledging that the appeal period has not passed.
