fbpx
Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Sir John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal not to be replaced after being vandalized

By
Quinn Patrick
-

The statue of Sir John A. Macdonald that had been located at Place du Canada in downtown Montreal for the past 120 years will not be reinstalled after it was beheaded and toppled during an anti-racism protest several years ago.

The announcement was made by Montreal city councilor Alia Hassan-Cournol, who said that an independent group of experts spoke before the city’s executive committee, recommending that the statue not be replaced, according to National News.

“We’re keeping the base at Place du Canada. We’re keeping the canopy because we want to remember that it was there, whatever the history. It’s important because it’s part of our collective history. And we have to remember that,” said Hassan-Cournol.

A plaque will also be placed at the pedestal, according to Montreal city council. 

The statue had previously been vandalized several times, which many credit to the role Canada’s first prime minister played in overseeing the Indian Act and the creation of residential schools. 

“We’re going to fund a call for proposals for a multi-disciplinary artwork. It can be digital, visual, any mixed arts by Montreal artists, particularly by Indigenous artists,” said Hassan-Cournol. 

There are many people upset by the decision not to reinstall the more than a century old statue. Among them is official opposition leader Chantal Rossy of Ensemble Montreal, who, “believes that the city should establish clear guidelines to determine which statues should be preserved, turned into places of remembrance, sent to a museum or disappear in the event of further vandalism,” said Rossy.

Carleton University professor Omeasoo Wahpasiw, who teaches Indigenous studies, said that she loves the idea of reimagining history through the use of Indigenous art. 

“When I think about history in that way, the history is going to be okay, Canadian history is not going anywhere. I just did my Google search of John A. Macdonald and his greatness arose from the depth of the internet. It’s not disappearing. It’s not ever going to disappear,” said Wahpasiw. 

Currently, the statue is being stored in an undisclosed location until the City of Montreal decides what to do with it. 

Ontario man crosses U.S. border to read Canadian news on social media

By
Quinn Patrick
-

An Ontario man drove across the border to the U.S. in an attempt to view Canadian news that is no longer available ever since the Online News Act passed.

Youtuber and TikToker Joseph DeBenedictis posted a video to LinkedIn in which he drove across the Peace Bridge to Buffalo, N.Y. to see if he could access Canadian news content no longer available on social media north of the border, thanks to Meta’s and Google’s response to Bill C-18.

Once across, DeBendictis pulled over onto a residential street and pulled out his phone. He refreshed his Instagram feed and with a look of shock on his face, saw his feed once again filled with Canadian news content. 

“Oh my god, there it is. Look at that,” said DeBenedictis in the video. “Oh, I’ve missed all the Canadian news.”

The Online News Act or Bill C-18, was brought in by the Trudeau government for the purpose of allegedly saving small news outlets from going out of business by forcing tech giants like Meta and Google to compensate them for content users post and share on their platforms. 

Meta instead removed all news links from their platforms in response.

“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18 … content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” wrote Meta in a statement to the media. 

Meta began removing all news content and links from their users’ feeds for those located in Canada on Aug. 1, 2023. The company said news will remain absent from their platforms until the bill is reversed. 

LAWTON: The Conservatives are more optimistic than ever (ft. Andrew Scheer)

By
Andrew Lawton
-

With Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party surging in the polls and gaining traction across all regions and among all demographics, Conservative Party members are more optimistic than ever that their party will be able to form government in the next election. This optimism was apparent during its national convention in Quebec City, which took place earlier this month.

True North’s Andrew Lawton caught up with former leader of the Conservative Party and current House Leader, Andrew Scheer, at the convention. They discuss why Conservatives are so optimistic, the impact of the Freedom Convoy on the party, and much more.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE ANDREW LAWTON SHOW

CANTIN-NANTEL: Conservative members push party brass to stand up against gender ideology

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-

At the Conservative Party of Canada’s 2023 Convention in Quebec City, delegates voted to adopt two anti-gender ideology resolutions – one opposing gender transitions for children and one supporting the protection of single sex spaces and categories.

While the resolutions are non-binding, meaning the party is not obligated to include them in their platform next election, it’s clear party members want the party brass to stand up against gender ideology.

True North’s Elie Cantin-Nantel caught up with Conservative members in Quebec City to get their thoughts.

Tamara Lich trial could last weeks longer, defence warns

By
Andrew Lawton
-
Tamara Lich trial

A glacial pace from the Crown, hundreds of pages of documents, and the addition of new witnesses in the ongoing criminal trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber will likely push the trial well beyond its scheduled 16 days, Lich’s lawyer says.

“The Crown said that they would have their evidence in in 10 days, and there’s no way in the world that’s going to happen, so the judge is looking at finding an additional two weeks,” defense lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told Rebel News Thursday.

“The way this trial’s going, I don’t think two weeks is even going to be enough. At some point, we have to sit down – and I assume that’s going to happen Monday – and realistically see…how long it’s going to take for the Crown to get its evidence in.”

By Thursday, the Crown had only concluded with two of its witnesses, with nearly two dozen expected to be called and efforts underway to add more.

Greenspon noted that part of the slog has been from the Crown’s introduction of 212 pages of posts from the Freedom Convoy’s Facebook page.

When the trial dates were set last year, lawyers for both sides agreed that 16 days would be “sufficient to try a mischief and other related charges,” Greenspon said.

Lich and Barber face charges of mischief, intimidation, and obstructing police.

The Crown’s evidence has included footage of Freedom Convoy press conferences along with other videos taken throughout the three-week protest in Ottawa.

The defence intends to argue that much of this evidence is unconnected to the charges against Lich and Barber.

The Crown has argued that “hold the line,” a frequent catchphrase used by Convoy protesters, was a criminal incitement, though the defence plans to dispute this, Barber’s lawyer Diane Magas told reporters.

Quebec education minister shuts down gender-neutral bathrooms in schools

By
Quinn Patrick
-
Bernard Drainville

Quebec schools are not adopting gender-neutral bathrooms any time soon, the province’s education minister says.

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville said “no” to mixed-gender bathrooms in response to news that a secondary school in Rouy-Noranda has plans to install gender-neutral bathrooms for their students for the following school year.

Officials of the school said that the stalls in the bathroom would run the length of the ceiling to the floor and that only the sink area would be shared. 

“We don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said. “The school needs to rectify the situation.”

Drainville cited privacy as the basis for his decision, and worried about the possibility of boys teasing girls who were going through puberty. 

“A young girl 12, 13, 14 years old who is starting to have her period, for example, and who leaves a stall, and there are 13-, 14-year-old boys looking at her. Insults, sarcasm, humiliation. A scenario we don’t want, so I think we have to draw a line and the line, we’re drawing it now.

Drainville said he would not be opposed to the installation of an individual gender-neutral bathroom, according to the Toronto Star.

His statements on the issue were also prompted by the recent request from Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon for a parliamentary commission to take place on a number of issues, including gender-neutral washrooms. 

The Daily Brief | Montreal Gazette reporters boycott Facebook for one whole day

By
Andrew Lawton
-

Despite complaining about financial challenges during the pandemic, new records show that the CBC has 144 corporate directors who make salaries of over six-figures annually.

And in response to Meta’s decision to remove Canadian news content, the Montreal Gazette announced that its reporters will boycott the tech giant for one whole day. Meta must be shaking in their boots!

Plus, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has been ordered by a Federal Court judge to unblock the founder of Rebel New, Ezra Levant, on X (formerly Twitter).

Tune into The Daily Brief with Andrew Lawton and William McBeath!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY BRIEF

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs announces he’ll seek re-election

By
Andrew Lawton
-

Premier Blaine Higgs intends to stay on as leader of the New Brunswick Progressive Conservatives and lead the party into the next election.

Higgs announced his intention on social media Friday morning.

“I recognize that all New Brunswickers rightly expect a government to be unified and focussed on achieving better outcomes for the province,” Higgs wrote. “It is extremely important that we continue to build on this momentum while at the same time addressing the many challenges that we continue to face.”

Higgs touted his government’s track record in bringing the province from “crippling debt to being an economic and employment leader.”

In recent months, Higgs and his government have taken up the parental rights cause with the adoption of a policy requiring parental consent for students under 16 to change their name and gender in school.

Two cabinet ministers resigned and several party activists mounted a campaign to challenge Higgs’ leadership, though they fell short of the threshold to hold a leadership review.

Higgs’ education policy has proved popular with New Brunswickers and with a majority of Canadians nationally.

Higgs referenced the “internal dissent” in his statement, claiming it made it all the more important for him to announce his plans.

The next New Brunswick election must take place on or before October 21, 2024.

Medical college drops case against doctor who spoke out against lockdowns

By
Quinn Patrick
-
Source: Pixaby

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has scrapped its disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill and her online advocacy against the government response to Covid-19. 

Gill was scheduled for a 15-day hearing in early 2024, however the proceedings have since been withdrawn, according to the Democracy Fund, a civil liberties charity that took up her case.

Gill practices in the Greater Toronto Area and has postgraduate training in pediatrics and allergy and clinical immunology. She also conducts scientific research in microbiology, virology and vaccinology.

Throughout the pandemic, shared her criticism of several government policies regarding lockdowns and mandates on X, where she has amassed a large following. She would also post scientific studies that supported her concerns.

From August 2020, the CPSO routinely investigated Gill and she was in the crosshairs of numerous complaints from members of the media and general public, although no complaints were ever filed by any of Gill’s patients. 

On February 3 2022, the complaints were reviewed by a CPSO committee, which “cautioned” Gill about her posts.

The CPSO then launched a second investigation last summer regarding her online commentary. 

Despite the fact that Gill provided a number of legal submissions and medical literature to support any comments she made on social media, including an expert report by the former chief medical officer for Ontario, Dr. Richard Schabas, the matter was brought before a disciplinary tribunal in October of 2022. 

The CPSO’s hearing notice accused Gill of engaging in “disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct and/or failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession and/or is incompetent in relation to her communications, including but not limited to communications on social media / online / digital platforms regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues. This includes but is not limited to making misleading, false or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures for COVID-19.”

The CPSO investigation report against Gill cannot be publicly disclosed as a result of it being part of their disclosure, though the regulator said her comments “would have had the effect of undermining public confidence in measures taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and would have had the effect of deterring the public from complying with public health measures. The communications are unprofessional, unbalanced and uniformly opposed to public health measures.”

Gill and her lawyer, Lisa Bildy, rejected the CPSO’s characterization of her commentary and were planning to mount a defense that included expert testimony at the hearing.

The CPSO abruptly withdrew its Notice of Hearing for September 12, however, dropping its case and disciplinary hearing against Gill. 

“While we are pleased that some of the burden has now been lifted from Dr. Gill’s shoulders and she has been vindicated, it is concerning that it went this far,” said Bildy. 

“The top-down imposition of a singular unquestionable narrative, on pain of disciplinary proceedings, has been damaging not only to the doctors who advocated for evidence-based medicine and robust scientific debate about novel public health measures and their consequences, but it has also been damaging to the credibility of the institutions which imposed them.” 

Gill’s judicial review of the cautions which referred to tweets from 2020, where she opposed harmful lockdowns, will remain. Gill will appear in a Divisional Court to see whether or not the actions of the ICRC and the HPARB to censure a physician about her concerns was reasonable.

WestJet union must apologize for trying to ‘silence freedom of speech’: Poilievre

By
Quinn Patrick
-
WestJet union must apologize

Pierre Poilievre thinks the union representing WestJet flight staff should apologize for attempting to suppress freedom of speech after it demanded an apology from him for speaking into a PA system on a plane.

Cupe 4070, the local representing WestJet cabin crew members, was upset by informal remarks Poilievre made over the airplane PA system on a flight from Quebec City to Calgary following the Conservative convention.

WestJet added the flight to specifically accommodate travellers from the Convention, so Poilievre was speaking to a friendly crowd.

“This is your captain’s warning, a little bit of turbulence but it will only last about two years,” he said.

The union demanded an apology from both WestJet and Poilievre, though Poilievre didn’t capitulate.

“I think that the union should apologize for trying to silence freedom of speech,” Poilievre said Thursday to reporters.

“The crew invited me to give a speech, they did that multiple times,” continued Poilievre. “I think it was because people who work on airplanes, people who work in restaurants, people who work building things, love my message. Bringing home powerful paycheques that buy affordable food, gas and homes in safe neighbourhoods.”

“I have to say, people on the plane were just delighted with my common sense remarks to ax the carbon tax, bring affordable homes and restore the common sense Canada that we know and love,” he said. 

1...463464465...1,460Page 464 of 1,460

Related stories

© 2025 True North | Privacy Policy