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Friday, July 11, 2025

LEVY: Controversial DEI trainer got more than $315,000 from Toronto, Peel school boards

By
Sue-Ann Levy
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A controversial Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) trainer raked in more than $315,000 in fees during the pandemic for her sessions with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Peel District School Board (PDSB).

The invoices for Kike Ojo-Thompson from the KOJO Institute – obtained by True North through two separate freedom of information requests requests – covered primarily the years 2020 and 2021 for anti-racism sessions and advice.

The person signing off on the majority of them is current TDSB education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins, who hired Ojo-Thompson while she was still at the TDSB as associate director of equity, well Being, early years and school improvement, and then repeatedly while she was interim director at the PDSB for one year between August 2020 and August 2021.

One of the TDSB invoices from July of 2020 sent to Russell-Rawlins is for $45,765 for “comprehensive leadership training on equity” – training that was repeated many times in the invoices.

I cannot say how often Russell-Rawlins hired her once she returned to the TDSB in August of 2021, since I was forced to appeal my request to get even one year’s worth of invoices from that school board.

Ojo-Thompson came under intense fire in July after celebrated principal Richard Bilkzsto took his own life after being humiliated by the DEI trainer in two sessions in April and May of 2021 and being subsequently canceled from temporary assignments by woke TDSB senior executives.

This was despite a favourable WSIB ruling in June of 2021 that stated Ojo-Thompson’s conduct was “abusive, egregious and vexatious” and could be considered “workplace harassment and bullying.”

Bilkzsto filed a $750,000 lawsuit against the board just before he took his own life. His lawyer Lisa Bildy recently told me the lawsuit is on hold while estate and other issues are settled. 

A review by the King International Group of what led to Bilkzsto’s suicide, announced by Russell-Rawlins in late July, has yet to be completed four months later. TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird said it is “ongoing” and he has “no further information at this time.”

Ditto for an education ministry review launched at the same time by minister Stephen Lecce.

The FOI invoices consistently show how little accountability was required of Ojo-Thompson. 

None of them contain the number of hours worked or any details on what services she provided. 

She does insist, however, on being paid within 30 days, sometimes within 10 days. 

It would appear that the sessions in which Ojo-Thompson is reported to have behaved abusively towards Bilkzsto were invoiced in April of 2021 at $22,882.50 for what she calls “Comprehensive Leadership Training on Equity.”

The invoices were billed to the interim education director Karen Falconer; however she did not sign off on them.

Let’s remember the sessions were all conducted on Zoom.

In addition, the Comprehensive Leadership Training on Equity template was being offered at the same time by Ojo-Thompson at the Peel school board.

Russell-Rawlins was named interim education director in Peel after allegations of anti-black racism resulted in a ministry takeover of the board. 

While Russell-Rawlins was at the Peel board, Ojo-Thompson appeared to be involved with helping to facilitate the board’s We Rise Together action plan – one that was to identify, minimize and eliminate the marginalization of black students in the board’s schools.

In March of 2021, Ojo-Thompson issued a $11,149.71 invoice (with HST) to the Peel Secondary School Vice Principals’ Association for something called the We Rise Advisory Committee.

In that same timeframe, she charged $3,000 for a three-hour conference with the same association. Her invoice provides no details as to what she did.

She also charged the PDSB $20,340 for the first two installments of “Comprehensive Leadership Training on Equity with a focus on anti-racism and anti-black racism” in January and February of 2021.

She provided no details on hours or content or what group is being trained, except to say there were four modules. Russell-Rawlins signed off on the invoice.

A $6,780 invoice for the third installment was dated in early July of 2021 and signed off on by Russell-Rawlins the very date it was received.

Another invoice for $13,560 for the first installment of the same “Comprehensive Leadership Training on anti-racism and anti-black racism for principals, vice-principals and managers was dated Feb. 8, 2021 and signed off on, yet again, by Russell-Rawlins.

It is interesting to note that another invoice from Ojo-Thompson for work related to the We Rise Advisory Committee – Installments 1-3 – was dated August of 2021. 

The $22,299.42 had no signature of approval. But even after Russell-Rawlins departed for Toronto, the KOJO Institute continued to benefit from the largesse of the Peel board.

These include $2,260 for a Joint meeting on We Rise billed in Nov. 2021. With whom she met she doesn’t say.

There was also more than $108,480 paid for cohort training at the end of 2021 and early 2022. She didn’t  indicate what cohort or cohorts she was training.

By far the craziest invoice was for $10,000 for a June 11 event in 2022. She was hired by Romana Siddiqui of the Parent Involvement Committee, who ran as a labour-endorsed candidate for trustee (and lost) later that year.

At the TDSB Ojo-Thompson made $115,113 over 18 months from mid 2020 to end of 2021 for her equity training – the only period over which I was able to obtain invoices.

She did not respond to repeated efforts to obtain comment on what she provided during these sessions and how the Comprehensive Equity Training package differed between the two boards.

I suspect it was a boilerplate template.

Bird insisted the invoices cover all preparation including meetings with staff and the workshop presentations.

Rachel Notley accuses Preston Manning Covid report of supporting “conspiracy theories”

By
Isaac Lamoureux
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Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley is blasting a report into Alberta’s handling of the Covid pandemic as an “invitation to reject science and normalize pseudo-science and conspiracy theories.”

The Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel, led by former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, released over 90 recommendations to refine Alberta’s future public health emergencies response, as previously reported by True North.

At a press conference, Notley said she was skeptical of the report. She repeatedly criticized the consideration of providing what she referred to as “horse tranquilizers” to Alberta patients as a means for caring for Covid.

“If you read between the lines in chapter three of this report, that’s exactly what they are calling for,” she said.

Chapter three of the report made no mention of horse tranquilizers. Nor did it mention ivermectin, which may have been what Notley was referring to. Ivermectin, which was approved for human use in 1987, was controversially recommended by some physicians for off-label use as a treatment for Covid, though public health officials advised against this.

The report said the government should be “open to considering and investigating alternative scientific narratives and hypotheses, even at the risk of acknowledging some uncertainty as to which scientific narratives are most relevant to the emergency at hand.” 

During her press conference, Notley also defended the vaccine passport. 

“The prohibition on so-called coercion would likely be used to negate ideas like the vaccine passport system,” she said. 

She added that the rewrite is about putting the rights of individuals over community wellbeing. 

Referring to a hypothetical situation, Notley said that Premier Danielle Smith and Manning would argue that if your house starts on fire, you should have the right to let it keep burning, even though it’s catching on to your neighbour’s house. 

Notley also condemned Smith’s decision to appoint Lyle Oberg, a doctor and former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, to run the Alberta Health Services board. 

Oberg was the co-author of a 1993 report that supported fee-based non-essential healthcare services.

“[Oberg] tried to start Canada’s first for-profit private hospital, which ended in a maze of lawsuits before they could break ground,” Notley said, highlighting another of her concerns.

Notley also touted a bill from an NDP member of the legislative assembly, Bill 201. Following addressing her critiques and concerns, Notley said that Gurinder Brar, a Calgary NDP member, introduced Bill 201 in legislature earlier this month. 

Notley said the Alberta Health Care Insurance (Access Fees) Amendment Act would protect Albertans’ rights to access health care without ever having to worry about whether they can afford it and would strengthen accountability measures and clearly outline the penalties for any provider that tries to violate the act.

“Danielle Smith and Lyle Oberg are not allies of public health care,” Notley alleged.

Alberta’s minister of health, Adriana LaGrange, has refuted this.

“There is no privatization of healthcare. It is publicly funded public healthcare we’re talking about,” LaGrange said. 

“The UCP can vote in favour of it on Monday, or conversely, they can come clean with Albertans about their plans to privatize our health care,” Notley added. 

Taxpayer-funded Stellantis EV project using temporary foreign workers

By
Quinn Patrick
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The new Stellantis electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Windsor received a number of temporary workers from South Korea recently and news of their arrival is leaving some in disbelief over whether or not the new plant, which received billions in taxpayer subsidies, will end up creating jobs for Canadians.

The joint project between LG Energy Solutions and Stellantis received $15 billion in subsidies from both the federal and provincial governments to manufacture hundreds of thousands of batteries over the next decade. 

The subsidies were designed to maintain thousands of jobs in the auto sector and to compete with the United State’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“I think this is a historic deal, it’s a great agreement and it protects the thousands of jobs quite frankly that were at stake,” said Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli, referring to the 2,500 people that Stellantis promised to employ.

Once temporary foreign workers from South Korea began arriving in Windsor however, many began to question the validity of that promise. 

On Thursday, South Korean Ambassador Lim Woong Son and the Windsor Police Service held a meeting to celebrate the “South Korean workforce coming to our community.” 

Photos of the meeting were posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“With the new LG Energy Solutions battery plant being built, we expect approximately 1,600 South Koreans traveling to work and live in our community in 2024,” posted the Windsor Police Force on X. 

A government official said that LG Energy Solutions filed an application with the federal government’s Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to show that it required international labour, due to insufficient domestic availability.

A spokesperson for Fedeli said that the blame for this decision lies with the federal government, not the provincial one.

“We are aware of reports of international workers linked to the NextStar project under the federal work permitting system,” said the spokesperson in a statement to Global News. 

“Ontario has one of the most skilled workforces in the world and thousands of talented men and women who are more than capable of performing these jobs.”

In response, a spokesperson for the Federal Minister of Employment said that the new Stellantis project would in fact create “sustainable jobs for Canadians,” insisting that the overall number of international positions wouldn’t be that many.

“LMIAs are only granted when Canadians or permanent residents are unable or unavailable to do a job. One LMIA for one position has been approved for this project,” said the spokesperson for Labour Minister Randy Bissonnault.

“We will continue to monitor this project to ensure that it delivers on its commitment to create good paying and stable jobs for Canadians in the Windsor region.”

The Conservative party has demanded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “come clean and release the contracts” his government made with Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions.

“[Trudeau] must guarantee that Canadian tax dollars won’t fund jobs unless they are for Canadian workers,” said Conservative shadow minister for Innovation, Science and Industry Rick Perkins.

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.

Ratio’d | Freedom wins in Argentina! Is Canada next?

By
Harrison Faulkner
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After decades of out of control socialism resulting in hyperinflation and skyrocketing poverty rates, Argentina has shocked the world and elected libertarian Javier Milei as the country’s next president. Milei, an economist by trade and a self described anarcho-capitalist plans to slash public spending and abolish the country’s central bank among other major reforms.

Argentina’s shock political upset is the latest in a string of results across the Western world in which citizens are rejecting oppressive, far-left socialism in favour of conservative alternatives. With Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party looking set to face an historic defeat at the ballot box, is Canada next?

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

B.C. Premier David Eby vows continuing carbon tax even if federal levy falls

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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British Columbia Premier David Eby pledged that his government would be the last one standing to uphold a carbon tax even in the face of a potential rollback for the federal government levy.

While speaking at the B.C. NDP party convention in Victoria on Saturday, Eby rebuked calls to do away with the provincial carbon tax, which has been in place for nearly 15 years. 

“Let me be clear, we will not back down. God forbid, if the rest of the country abandons the fight against climate, B.C. will stand strong,” said Eby. 

The province announced its carbon tax in 2008 – the first Canadian province to begin the practice. The federal levy was in part modeled after B.C.’s tax. 

Eby accused opponents of abandoning their responsibilities to future generations. 

“Right now, we have to be a leader on this issue, because we are also a leader in feeling the effects of climate change in British Columbia,” said Eby. 

“All the other parties that seem to me, in an effort to win votes, are willing to sell their children’s future. I think it’s unacceptable, we won’t do it and we’ll support strong climate action.”

Ever since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended an exemption to the federal levy on home heating oil – a move which largely benefits Atlantic Canadians – opposition to the federal carbon tax has grown, as more people seek ways to increase affordability. 

Support for the carbon tax continues to plunge nationally. 

Even in British Columbia, the carbon tax is beginning to wear thin with voters. According to a new poll by the Innovative Research Group, 49% of British Columbians surveyed said that they oppose the provincial levy.  

Although Eby has not abandoned his government’s commitment to a carbon tax, he joined with his provincial counterparts earlier this month to demand more fairness from the federal government in the way that it applied its exemption. 

“For us, the (provincial) carbon tax has been an effective mechanism to reduce carbon pollution since 2017, and our emissions have gone down despite a dramatic increase in population,” said Eby.

But he added that his discussion with Canada’s other premiers were grounded in “shared concerns around affordability and fairness.” 

Guilbeault pledges fight with federal court over plastic ban ruling

By
Isaac Lamoureux
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Two top Liberal ministers announced their intention to challenge the Federal Court’s decision regarding Ottawa’s ban on single-use plastics. 

Environment and Justice Ministers, Steven Guilbeault and Arif Virani’s joint statement, released on Monday, refused to concede defeat in the face of the Federal Court’s ruling last week. 

The Federal Court found that the Liberal government’s ban on single-use plastics was an “unreasonable and unconstitutional” policy. The ruling determined that the government exceeded its jurisdictional powers and that the categorization of plastics as toxic substances in Schedule 1 under environmental legislation was too broad of a classification, as previously reported by True North.

“Our government intends to appeal the Federal Court’s decision and we are exploring all options to continue leading the fight against plastic pollution,” wrote Guilbeault and Virani. 

Guilbeault and Virani claimed in their joint statement that the previous plastics ban has already led to significant reductions in plastic pollution. 

“We introduced a ban on six harmful single-use plastic items,” read the statement. 

The aim was to fully ban their sale and export by the end of 2025.

Guilbeault has also refused to accept defeat in the wake of another ruling by the Supreme Court. 

In October, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith criticized Guilbeault for the federal government’s misplaced victory lap following its loss in the Supreme Court which found that a large part of the ‘no more pipelines act’ was unconstitutional, as previously reported by True North.

“Guilbeault does not seem to acknowledge how badly he lost,” said Smith in a press conference following the Impact Assessment Act ruling. 

Guilbeault, while consistent in refusing to claim defeat, has this time instead shifted blame to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. 

“Pierre Poilievre is once again spreading misinformation, saying our government wants to ‘ban all plastics’ and that all plastics are perfectly safe. But he is dead wrong and shows he prefers to side with big plastic companies rather than with Canadians,” read Guilbeault and Virani’s statement. 

With the statement only just being released, Poilievre has yet to respond. 

Former Ontario medical officer Matt Strauss wins Conservative nomination

By
Quinn Patrick
-

Former Ontario medical officer Matt Strauss will be the next Conservative candidate for Kitchener–South Hespeler.

Strauss confirmed his nomination on X, writing, “Thank you to the Conservatives from my hometown, Kitchener South—Hespeler for making me their candidate in the next election!”

Strauss came under fire during the Covid-19 pandemic for his opposition to lockdowns and vaccine mandates, a controversy he addressed in the same post.

“I think for many of us, there were dark times during the pandemic where it felt like we were speaking up for freedom and common sense alone. Not anymore! We are united! In the riding and across the country, we are standing up for freedom and common sense together now,” reads the post on X.  

Strauss, a physician, had served as Haldimand-Norfolk’s acting medical officer of health throughout the majority of the pandemic. He criticized the broad nature of restrictive public health measures during that time and advocated for a more “individualized” approach.

“I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. I am pro-public health and anti-lockdown,” wrote Strauss in February 2022, at a time when the unvaccinated remained banned from air travel, trains, restaurants and many other public places. 

“I don’t think ivermectin works, but I don’t mind if you want to talk about it. This is called liberalism and it was the dominant political philosophy in Canada until March 2020.”

When Strauss was appointed as acting medical officer of health in 2021, he was met with harsh criticisms over his views on lockdowns and other mandates, with some even calling for his appointment to be rescinded.

Strauss responded by writing, “I welcome conversation and fair criticism of these science-based views,” he wrote at the time. “Such discourse is part of the scientific process. The politicization of my appointment and ad hominem attacks against me, conversely, are not. In fact, such attempts are themselves anti-scientific. Science is not a popularity contest, nor is it an agglomeration of credentialed opinions.”

He also served on the medical faculty of Queen’s University before they allegedly pushed him out of his position through a number of “malicious, aggressive, condescending and defamatory statements.” Strauss has since filed a lawsuit against the university. “I’m going to do my very best to personally thank each of the hundreds of Conservatives in KSH who came to cast ballots yesterday. I never want to let any one of you down,” posted Strauss to X, following his nomination.

24% of Trudeau’s time in office has been devoted to “personal days”: report

By
Quinn Patrick
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Source: SurferToday.com

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken 680 “personal days” since he was elected in 2015, according to his public itineraries and a data analysis by the National Post.

Excluding election campaigns, Trudeau has spent 24% of his time in office, the equivalent of almost two years, taking personal days. 

True North did the first published analysis of Trudeau’s personal days in 2020, and found he had taken 48 personal days by August of that year and 91 the year prior.

This includes vacations he took with his family, the holiday seasons, out-of-town weekend getaways and summer breaks. 

However, the PMO rejects the notion that the prime minister is not working on days listed as personal, telling the National Post such a notion “false and absurd.”

“The Prime Minister routinely and regularly works on days listed ‘personal’ in the itinerary,” wrote the PMO in an emailed statement.

“This can include calls with staff, calls with stakeholders, or briefings with officials.”

Among the 680 days, 31 were spent in Costa Rica, 9 in Jamaica, eight in the Bahamas, where Trudeau made a trip to the Aga Khan’s private island, which would later be found to violate the conflict-of-interest rules by the federal ethics commissioner. 

Trudeau also often vacations in British Columbia, where he spent a total of 88 personal days in Tofino, Whistler, Revelstoke and elsewhere in the province. 

Trudeau has spent more vacation time in B.C. than he has in Alberta on official business, despite the fact that he also took time to vacation in Lake Louise in 2017. 

According to the itineraries, he has also taken several vacations south of the border, spending time in New York, Vermont and Florida. 

His longest stretch of consecutive personal days was 17, during the holiday season in 2016 and the majority of his personal days, 68%, were taken on weekends and spent in the Ottawa region.

Trudeau’s personal day rate of 24% is still below how much time the average Canadian worker takes off annually, which is about 34%, including two weeks paid vacation and statutory holidays. 

The PMO said that Trudeau was engaged for every day of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and is so for the current Israel-Hamas conflict.

In a 2015 interview with CBC, Trudeau spoke about the need to properly balance his work and personal life, saying that he planned to spend as much time with his family as his job would allow. 

“I need to be really ruthless to ensure I have time with family, time with Sophie and time to decompress,” he said, referring to his wife at the time, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau. The pair legally separated in August. 

While on a trip to Japan for a G7 leaders summit in 2016, Trudeau took another personal day to celebrate his 11th wedding anniversary with Grégoire Trudeau, however there is no note of it in his official itinerary. 

“This is the kind of work-life balance that I’ve often talked about as being essential in order to be able to be in service of the country with all one’s very best,” said Trudeau in 2106.

Additionally, he took personal time for his anniversary in 2022 and 2023.

The analysis of Trudeau’s time off was compiled by Glen McGregor for the National Post from 2,900 itineraries published on the prime minister’s website. 

This does not include days where Trudeau was campaigning for re-election in 2019 and 2021. 

Trudeau’s itineraries are made public “in the spirit of openness and transparency,” wrote the PMO. “Canada is one of the few countries in the world to provide this level of daily transparency with the leader’s schedule,” the statement said.

SHEPHERD: Conservatives won’t offer alternative immigration targets

By
Lindsay Shepherd
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It’s been over two weeks since federal immigration minister Marc Miller revealed the Liberals’ new mass immigration targets, and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre still hasn’t offered up his own potential figures to Canadians.

As announced earlier this month, the Trudeau government will be accepting 485,000 permanent residents in 2024, 500,000 in 2025, and another 500,000 in 2026. 

But don’t be misled: Canada also admits hundreds of thousands of non-permanent residents every year, such as temporary foreign workers and international students, so our population actually grew by 1.05 million in 2022 even though we have a below-replacement fertility rate of 1.40 births per Canadian woman.

True North asked Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office for his reaction to the 2024-2026 figures.

His spokesperson responded by pointing to something Poilievre said in a previous radio interview.

“Justin Trudeau has totally delinked the numbers from available housing, healthcare, and jobs. When I’m prime minister, I will bring in a common sense formula that links the number of immigrants to the number of homes, jobs and healthcare services that are available,” Poilievre had said.

When asked if the formula could theoretically lead to a reduction from current immigration targets, Poilievre’s office didn’t respond.

From the way Poilievre’s statement is worded, it sounds like he may prefer to scale up homebuilding and healthcare worker hiring to keep up Trudeau’s immigration levels (or perhaps even increase them). Since we haven’t been afforded an answer, we can only speculate. 

According to a poll commissioned by Bloomberg News, 68% of Canadians believe Trudeau’s immigration targets negatively impact the housing market, but it seems that the party now  leading in the polls – the Conservatives – aren’t eager to talk about immigration targets.

“Conservatism has gone off the rails in both Canada and the UK on very important key issues,” Bill Tufts, author of Pension Ponzi and founder of Fair Pensions for All, told True North.

“I hear from my conservative friends that Pierre can’t discuss issues like immigration because he would lose votes, and once the election comes he will change things dramatically.”

“The Conservatives in the UK made these promises and then failed miserably. In Canada, those promises are not even being made, ones that are important to the survival of our country.”

Last week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she wrote an op-ed calling out the double standard in how pro-Palestine demonstrations are treated by police because they are “politically-connected minority groups who are favoured by the left.”

In an open letter after her firing, Braverman stated Sunak had “manifestly and repeatedly failed” on key policy priorities such as reducing legal immigration and reforming human rights legislation to “stop the boats” and deport asylum-seekers. 

As of 2021, nearly one-quarter of the Canadian population is or has been a landed immigrant or permanent resident – the largest proportion since Confederation, and the highest among G7 nations. (This does not include the hundreds of thousands or millions of temporary residents also living in Canada)

Statistics Canada projects that with current immigration levels, immigrants will make up about one-third of the population in less than 20 years. 

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