Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new communications and marketing expert was radically pro-lockdown and pro-vaccine mandate during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Plus, Montreal Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm about a “frightening” rise in antisemitism after a Jewish community centre was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.
And ahead of this week’s United Nations COP28 summit in Dubai, one of the key architects behind the Paris Agreement – to which Canada is a signatory – said that breaking the law was necessary to advance climate goals.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!
Life expectancy in Canada dropped for the third consecutive year in 2022, with more people dying of Covid-19 than any other year since the outbreak began, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
The report, released Monday, revealed the average life expectancy for Canadians dropped to 81.3 years last year, a full year less than the 82.3 years that was recorded in 2019.
“Life expectancy declines when there are more deaths, when deaths occur at younger ages, or a combination of both,” the report said.
In 2022, Covid-19 was classified as the third-leading cause of death in Canada, surpassing accidents and unintentional injuries for the first time since 2020.
“This increase may in part be due to the exposure to new highly transmissible Covid-19 variants and the gradual return to normalcy,” said the report, suggesting that reduced restrictions may be a factor.
Last year, cancer and heart disease were the first and second most common causes of death respectively, accounting for 41.8% of all deaths in 2022.
Provincially, New Brunswick had the biggest drop in life expectancy, falling more than a year to 79.8 years from 80.9 years in 2021.
Life expectancy in Saskatchewan declined the most over the last three years combined, dropping a full two years from 80.5 years in 2019 to 78.5 years in 2022.
There was also an increase in deaths among young people in 2022 which was attributed partially to deaths under investigation by a coroner, which generally may include suicides, homicides and drug overdoses.
Over 19,700 Canadians died with Covid-19 in 2022, according to Statistics Canada, with seniors accounting for the majority of those deaths.
Covid-19 deaths among those 80 years and older increased by 78% last year, when compared to 2021.
Canadians aged 65 years and older accounted for 91.4% of all Covid-19 deaths last year.
In Atlantic Canada, the rate of Covid deaths was over seven times higher in 2022 when compared with 2021, the biggest increase in any region in Canada, the report said.
Liberal MP Ken Hardie’s attempt to blame Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre for a recent Winnipeg shooting has sparked backlash from many Canadians.
The shooting occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, leaving four people dead and one person severely injured in a residence on the 100 block of Langside Street.
Winnipeg Police Services cannot confirm whether or not the shooting was targeted and as of yet have not identified any suspects in the case, however, the victims in the shooting were known to local police.
“Often mass shootings are in the context of an active shooter, this was not an active shooter, in my view. But it was a homicide with multiple victims, ” said Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smith.
Beyond troubling to see another mass shooting in Canada, now in Winnipeg. And we've lost so many police officers. Might it be the anti-social 'burn everything down' far-right attitude we're seeing creeping in from the US? And the 'creep' on the Canadian side? Pierre Poilievre?
“Beyond troubling to see another mass shooting in Canada, now in Winnipeg. And we’ve lost so many police officers. Might it be the anti-social ‘burn everything down’ far-right attitude we’re seeing creeping in from the US? And the ‘creep’ on the Canadian side? Pierre Poilievre?” posted Hardie on X, who represents the Fleetwood-Port Kells riding in Surrey, B.C.
There is still no suspect in the case and with so little known about the motivation for the shooting at this time, many people reacted to Hardie’s comments as being in poor taste and politically motivated.
“Ah yes, nothing like politicizing the freshly dead with little to no details available, in an effort to score political engagement points. We have no idea yet what led to these deaths,” wrote user Adam Pound.
Ah yes, nothing like politicizing the freshly dead with little to no details available, in an effort to score political engagement points. We have no idea yet what led to these deaths.
“Maybe wait until some details come out before you start throwing blame around?” wrote another user.
Other users wasted no time responding to Hardie’s comments, with one user writing, “As a former homicide investigator I have to tell you your comments are beyond irresponsible. You should be ashamed of yourself!”
As a former homicide investigator I have to tell you your comments are beyond irresponsible. You should be ashamed of yourself!
Others pointed to the great deal of resources that are spent by the Liberal government on tracking legal gun owners, rather than going after criminals with illegal guns.
“Or might it be the misplaced and expensive waste of resources attacking legal gun owners, hunters and sport shooters rather than concentrating on gangs, criminals and illegal firearms? Your fault in other words Ken, your government, your failures.”
Or might it be the misplaced and expensive waste of resources attacking legal gun owners, hunters and sport shooters rather than concentrating on gangs, criminals and illegal firearms?
Your fault in other words Ken, your government, your failures.
“Since you are completely out of it I will tell you. This occurred in a POVERTY STRICKEN area in Winnipeg. About the furthest from “Far Right” as you can get. Poverty, drugs and hopelessness. All of which are a direct result of 8 years of @JustinTrudeau the worst PM ever,” wrote Defend Canada 2.0.
Since you are completely out of it I will tell you. This occurred in a POVERTY STRICKEN area in Winnipeg. About the furthest from "Far Right" as you can get. Poverty, drugs and hopelessness. All of which are a direct result of 8 years of @JustinTrudeau the worst PM ever.
Canadian high school sports teams are awash with white privilege and racism. At least, that’s the conclusion made by a team of academics in a paper published to the Sports Coaching Review.
Researchers from the University of Ottawa, University of Manitoba, Université du Québec, Brock University and University of New Hampshire published their findings based on a survey of 463 high school coaches who self-identified as white.
Their findings were published in a paper titled “White privilege in Canadian high school sport: investigating white coaches’ perspectives on social justice issues.”
“Sport constitutes an important setting in which to study whiteness given ongoing issues related to power, privilege, and oppression,” write the authors.
“Results showed how coaches who had a greater awareness of white privilege in society had more favourable attitudes towards social justice, higher importance attributed to climate change issues, greater awareness of prejudicial attitudes against the LGBT community, and a higher propensity to engage in antiracist behaviours.”
Based on the ideological work of “critical whiteness studies” academics like Robin DiAngelo, who believes that caucasian people suffer from “white neurosis” and advances the idea that “raising white children to be white is a form of child abuse” in her books, the authors claim that refusing to see race in coaching maintains socially unjust worldviews.
“White coaches have also been shown to disregard racial/cultural issues and adopt functionalist and normative approaches to coaching that help maintain the socially unjust status quo,” the paper argues.
“While white coaches experience many privileges, crucially, non-white coaches experience many forms of oppression,” it continues.
“Given the important role coaches play in athlete development, it is crucial to explore the implications of white privilege, whiteness and social justice in sport coaching.”
According to the authors, Canadian high school sports teams exhibit white supremacy because the term “does not exclusively refer to an extreme position of discrimination and dominance; it also refers to the foundations that allow for racial privilege and racism to permeate all aspects of society.”
The study then concludes that the right approach is to educate coaches to learn the “unearned advantages of white privilege.”
“In sport, getting white coaches with a known disregard for racial issues to become more aware of white privilege may serve as an important stepping stone in developing greater awareness of other key social issues related to gender, sexuality and the environment.”
“Results suggest that initiatives to get coaches to be more aware of white privilege are needed if the entanglement of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and environmental issues are to be legitimately addressed in sport.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invoked the Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act on Monday to defend the province from what she describes as the federal government’s disastrous program to mandate a net-zero electricity grid by 2035.
This resolution directly challenges the federal government’s proposed clean electricity regulations.
“We are left with no choice but to create a shield to protect Albertans from Ottawa’s dangerous and unconstitutional electricity regulations,” said Smith.
Smith added that the Alberta government refuses to put the stability of the province’s electricity grid at risk. The resolution introduced under the act is the first of its kind since the law was introduced by Smith and it aims to safeguard Alberta’s energy future.
We have tried to work with Ottawa to align their emissions-reduction efforts with our provincial plan to achieve a carbon-neutral power grid by 2050. Unfortunately, after months of meetings, they continue to reject this opportunity and remain committed to an absurdly unrealistic… pic.twitter.com/FpzxxhigO4
Citing the Constitution Act, the resolution argues that the Alberta Legislature has exclusive legislative jurisdiction over the development, conservation, and management of sites and facilities within the province for the generation and production of electrical energy.
The Alberta government wanted to collaborate with the federal government to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a goal that Smith and electrical companies felt was achievable. However, that collaboration was upended when the federal government decided it would enforce a much shorter deadline under threat of penalties should provinces disobey.
“[The federal government] remains committed to an absurdly unrealistic and unattainable goal of a net-zero power grid by 2035,” reads the Alberta government’s news release.
Smith said that moving forward with this plan would lead to instability. The pathway the federal government has proposed will lead to Alberta not being able to grow as a province or provincial brownouts and blackouts, explained Smith.
In a press conference, Premier Smith and Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf emphasized that the resolution is being implemented as a last resort. Neudorf said that Alberta should not have had to take this step.
“Unfortunately, Ottawa has yet to truly demonstrate that they are willing to work with us and listen to our realities,” said Neudorf.
The resolution also proposes exploring the establishment of a provincial Crown corporation to maintain grid reliability. This body would not recognize the CERs and could potentially assume responsibility for electricity generation in Alberta should federal policies deter private entities.
The Crown corporation would operate as a generator of last resort. Smith was clear that she intended to maintain as much of the private operation of the market as possible. If the CERs threaten the ability of private generators to continue producing electricity at an existing power plant after 2035, the Crown corporation could purchase that power plant to keep the lights on in the province.
“These measures are not something that we want to do. They are planning to counteract the absurd, illogical, unscientific and unconstitutional interference in Alberta’s electrical grid by a federal government that simply doesn’t care what happens to our province, so long as they have a good virtue signalling story to tell their leftist friends,” said Neudorf.
Alberta’s power grid nearly failed seven times last winter. The province had a level three alert three times over the summer. Smith said these used to be very rare, occurring only once every couple of years. The province has recently had eight within a 12 to 18-month period.
According to Smith, the near-failures are signs that the grid is under stress, and that the province needs to work to bring more baseload power on. She added that based on Alberta’s projections, the province expects to double the need for electricity between now and 2050.
Premier Smith said that Alberta wants private sector operators to build the province more baseload power. Her government also wants the private sector to come forward with natural gas and nuclear power generation plans. But if they do not, the Alberta government will need to step in.
Smith explained that the reaction of Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has been extraordinarily disappointing.
“He is acting like the Supreme Court never rendered a decision on the Impact Assessment Act, saying that it is essentially unconstitutional, especially as it related to projects in Alberta,” said Smith.
“I can’t wait for years to fight the federal government back in areas that I know the court has said are unconstitutional. They just have to start following the law.”
Smith said that if the federal government proceeds with their plan, the dispute over the regulations will end up going to court.
“We hope that the federal government backs down,” said Smith. “Why don’t we just work together on a 2050 target? It’s been my consistent position from the very moment that I spoke with Justin Trudeau and the ministers that are at the table with us. I’m hoping that they now understand that we’re serious, that we are going to preserve the integrity of our power grid in whatever way we need to.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault owes Ezra Levant $20,000 and still hasn’t paid it, the firebrand media commentator says.
A Federal Court judge signed off on an agreement stipulating Guilbeault must unblock Levant on X (formerly Twitter) in a September decision which also required Guilbeault and the federal government to pay Levant’s legal costs to the tune of $20,000.
Justice Russel Zinn ordered the payment from Guilbeault to be made within 90 days in his Sept. 11 decision. With just 12 days to go until the Dec. 10 deadline, Levant says he hasn’t yet seen a penny.
“Hey deadbeat. Yeah you. Just a few more days to pay me the $20,000 you owe me or you’ll be in contempt of court — and I’ll come seize your limousine to sell it,” Levant posted on X, sharing a post from Guilbeault about biodiversity loss in British Columbia.
Guilbeault’s press secretary did not respond to a request for comment.
Levant filed a lawsuit against Guilbeault in 2021 after being blocked by Guilbeault on X. He alleged in the suit that it violated his ability to engage in debate and effectively act as a journalist with regard to Guilbeault, a Liberal member of Parliament and federal cabinet minister.
Levant and the federal government reached an agreement that Zinn approved requiring Guilbeault to immediately unblock Levant’s account and keep it unblocked for as long as he’s a member of Parliament.
The case hinged on whether Guilbeault’s account should be treated as personal or government-run.
Because the decision was reached by mutual agreement, or a consent order, it does not necessarily set an iron-clad precedent for future cases of ministers and MPs blocking citizens and journalists on X.
Law professor Michael Geist wrote in September that it nonetheless sends a message that “government ministers should not block access to their feeds given the implications for freedom of expression.”
The Conservative Party is demanding that Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions publicly release their contract after details emerged that 1,600 South Koreans would be moving to Windsor, Ontario to work in the new taxpayer-funded factory.
This has prompted an emergency meeting to take place in Ottawa regarding hiring for the NextStar battery plant.
“Canadians have a right to know what kinds of contracts this government is signing with private corporations,” said Conservative MP Luc Berthold, while speaking before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on Monday.
Conservatives say that the government offering incentives to automakers for EV battery plants will cost Canadian households as much as $3,000.
“It would be the world’s biggest mistake if we did not look into the investment,” said Essex MP Chris Lewis. “The workers deserve the answers. The unions deserve the answers and the folks of Windsor-Essex deserve the answers.”
Ottawa officials have said that they cannot release the contract to the public because it contains proprietary information about LG Solutions and Stellantis.
On Thursday, the company confirmed that 900 South Koreans would be coming to Windsor to work in the factory, however the Windsor Police Service posted on X that they would be welcoming 1,600 South Koreans to work in the new plant.
“They have specific knowledge of the equipment, having been part of the team to build it and disassemble it for shipping, and will therefore see the installation through,” said a NextStar spokesperson.
“This is not the place to play politics with peoples’ livelihoods’,” said Liberal MP Irek Kusmiercyk, who represents Windsor-Tecumseh, speaking before the committee.
Kusmierczyk claimed that the 900 South Koreans would be building the ‘proprietary equipment,’ which is not abnormal for the industry.
“There will be 2,500 full time jobs building batteries, building 2 million batteries every year at that Stellantis plant. Those workers will be local. They will be Canadian and they will be unionized,” Kusmierczyk told the committee.
News of the temporary foreign workers arriving from South Korea comes only days after it was announced that taxpayers would have to fund an additional $5.8 billion in subsidies in EV corporate welfare.
Conservative MP Andrew Scheer compared the Canadian taxpayer to that of the corporate shareholder regarding access to business deals. Scheer said shareholders are normally provided with access and transparency when holding stakes in a company, asking why Canadians who will have to pay around $3,000 per household, couldn’t have the same access.
“Why should the Canadian taxpayer be treated like a second class shareholder,” asked Scheer before the Committee.
Trudeau won’t say how many foreign replacement workers your tax dollars are funding.
He signed a contract worth $15 billion and is now fighting to keep the details secret.
What has he got to hide? Did he fail to guarantee CDN workers fill the jobs?
An early Sunday morning shooting in Winnipeg, Man. left four people dead and one person severely injured in a residence on the 100 block of Langside Street.
Winnipeg police responded to the report of multiple injured people at approximately 4:05 a.m. according to a press release.
An adult male and an adult female were pronounced dead at the scene, and three additional victims, two males and a female, were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
One of the male victims succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival, and the second adult female died the following evening. A 55-year-old male remains in the hospital in critical condition.
The victims have been identified as Crystal Shannon Beardy (34), Stephanie Amanda Beardy (33), Melelek Leseri Lesikel (29), and Dylan Maxwell Lavallee (41). According to the Winnipeg Police Service, all of the victims were known to the police prior to the incident.
At a press conference Monday afternoon, police could not say whether the shooting was targeted, though they believe there is no continuing risk to the public.
Insp. Jennifer McCann, the divisional commander of major crimes, expressed condolences to the victims’ families and acknowledged the gravity of the situation.
“I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the Winnipeg Police Service and myself to offer our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and all who knew the victims in this time a loss,” she said during the press conference.
Chief Danny Smyth emphasized the seriousness of the incident and assured the community that the police would do everything in their power to uncover the motives and apprehend those responsible. As of yet, no suspects have been identified.
“We’re focused on identifying and apprehending the suspect responsible for the crime. That work has already commenced with significant effort, canvasses in the neighborhood that occurred yesterday,” Smyth told reporters.
According to Smyth, residents of the area can expect an increased police presence and forensic team activity.
“We also know that almost 20% of violent crimes are committed by people who are on bail or on probation. And our violent offenders unit will be working hard to apprehend offenders that have breached the conditions of the release. We don’t know the suspect in this case,” said Smyth. Smyth did not provide any details on whether the guns used were obtained legally or illegally.
The Winnipeg Police Service urged anyone with information or video surveillance footage related to the incident to contact the Homicide Unit at 204-986-6508 or Crimestoppers at 204-786-TIPS. The investigation is expected to be ongoing, with forensic examinations continuing for up to a week.
Ahead of this week’s United Nations COP28 summit in Dubai, one of the key architects behind the Paris Agreement – to which Canada is a signatory – said that breaking the law was necessary to advance climate goals.
Speaking about her past as a climate activist and lawyer, Farhana Yamin told a panel held by The Conduit that the far-left ideas of “decolonization” and “reparations” went hand in hand with the objectives behind the climate movement.
WATCH: Ahead of the COP28 summit this week, Paris Climate agreement architect Farhana Yamin says "its better to break the law" to push the climate agenda.
She then claims climate goals can't be achieved without "decolonization and reparations." pic.twitter.com/EZFDUOWSNo
“I glued myself to the Shell headquarters because I realized that at some point, there was no point in me being a lawyer and sticking to laws, it was better to break the law and show how little the law was doing,” said Yamin.
“We are benefiting from 300 years of resilience based on colonialism and based on very deep pockets which resulted from the exploitation or appropriation of other people’s resources and assets… Just trying to deal with climate change without dealing with decolonization, without dealing with reparations, you cannot do repair without reparations.”
“Decolonization” is a concept promoted in left-wing activist and academic circles advocating for the “removal or undoing of colonial elements” in society, including “Western ways of knowing and doing.”
In 2019, Yamin was arrested after charging through a police line and supergluing herself to the London, U.K. headquarters of Shell.
Yamin was instrumental in crafting the 2015 Paris Agreement and particularly bringing about the specific goal of net-zero global emissions by 2050.
Canada is expected to send delegates to this year’s summit.
Along with the European Union, the Canadian government is set to announce a “Green Alliance” aimed at promoting carbon pricing and increased renewable energy production globally.
Despite the apparent failure of Canada’s existing federal carbon tax to substantially reduce emissions, both parties are expected to advocate for carbon pricing as one of the most efficient means to lower greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate investment in low-carbon solutions.
A Brock University professor is calling out his school’s president, Lesley Rigg, over her “Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity and Decolonization” hosting an anti-Israel panel on campus with controversial figures.
Prof. John Bonnett, a historian at the St. Catharines, Ont. school, told True North he does not believe the panel should be shut down, but does want the university to disassociate itself to preserve neutrality.
SCREENSHOT: Brock University
The panel, titled “Decolonization, International Law, Gender, Media and Solidarity,” is taking place Monday night. It is hosted by the university president’s “Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity, and Decolonization” and co-sponsored by a social justice and equity studies program and the school’s Social Justice Research Institute and Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies.
“Starting with our commitment to decolonization, this panel presents experts working in a variety of areas to analyze the roots of the current crisis,” says the university.
Among the panelists is Toronto Star race and culture writer Shree Paradkar, who came under fire earlier this month for an X post questioning reports on the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 – a post she later clarified. Paradkar also shared a post describing the Jewish community’s fears amid a rise in antisemitism as “hypothetical.”
I have subscribed to @TorontoStar for as long as I can remember. I canceled my subscription today. A social justice columnist who repeatedly says “we don’t know” what Hamas did on October 7th contributes to the wave of antisemitism and can’t be supported.https://t.co/kcHOYP5Nr9pic.twitter.com/0dgAqohs09
I have never seen Shree minimize or gaslight racism towards any other ethnic group. She reserves this for Jews. Her role at the Star is a sick joke to me now. 22/x
Other panellists include University of Western Ontario law professor Michael Lynk, University of Toronto social justice professor Abigail Bakan, and Indigenous author and activist Patty Krawec.
In an interview with True North, Bonnett criticized the university for putting on the “one-sided” panel, saying “there’s no attempt here to present Israel’s side. This is an exercise in indoctrination.”
Bonnett added that he “believes deeply that universities should be neutral” and that they “shouldn’t have stated positions on pretty well anything, much less on something as fraught as the Palestinian conflict.
“I believe that institutional neutrality is at the central ground for maintenance and exercise of free speech. If we lose that, the likelihood of free speech being able to continue unhindered is undercut.”
Bonnett is not the only Brock faculty member to have concerns about the panel. He and others who are part of the university’s Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship chapter wrote to Rigg asking her to reconsider her involvement committee’s involvement in hosting the event.
A group of @BrockUniversity profs protested Brock admin’s support of a “Panel on Palestine” starring a 10/7 conspiracy nut. President Lesley Rigg says it’s about free speech. It’s not: Profs are free to hold anti-Israel hatefests. The problem is Rigg & her DEI staff backing it https://t.co/8rhCln5Niqpic.twitter.com/EL3XWA0N6a
In response, Rigg said that while she appreciated the concerns, “Brock is committed to upholding its Freedom of Expression policy and respecting the academic freedom of its faculty members.”
However, Bonnett questions that commitment, given cases of academic censorship that have taken place over the last three years
“It’s rather ironic that universities now are talking about freedom of speech, when they’re being pressed on an event that they like… but they seemed much less interested in those topics, say in 2020, when diversity, equity and inclusion issues were emerging to the fore.”
In 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter movement, Brock University took part in the cancelling of one of its professors, Tomas Hudlicky, after he criticized DEI hiring practices in a scholarly article.
“He was one of our most distinguished researchers, who had brought in more revenue than I think any other researcher had to Brock University, and all of a sudden, he became persona non grata,” said Bonnett. “His career was basically destroyed.”
Hudlicky died suddenly on May 10, 2022 while visiting the Czech Republic.
Brock University did not respond to a request for comment.
