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Friday, July 18, 2025

“While we’re paying two, other countries aren’t even paying one,” taxpayers group sounds alarm on carbon tax

By
Quinn Patrick
-

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is taking issue with the second carbon tax that was imposed on July 1 by the federal government, saying now is not the time. 

Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is calling on the Trudeau government to stop their taxation of Canadians at a time when life is becoming increasingly difficult financially. 

Terrazzano, while appearing on The Sam Laprade Show, pointed out that Canadians are being forced to pay two carbon taxes, a federal and a provincial one, at a time when the cost of living is already becoming unmanageable for many. 

“While we’re paying two, many other countries aren’t even paying one,” said Terrazzano. 

The majority of countries around the world – about 75% – don’t have a federal carbon tax and many are actually cutting gas taxes for their citizens. 

Nations like the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and New Zealand are among them. The UK and South Korea cut gas taxes by 30% to offer some relief with the high cost of living.

“We all want to help the environment but having carbon taxes that make fueling up a minivan or filling up a grocery cart more expensive, this does nothing to reduce emissions in places like China, India, Russia or the United States, where emissions are really a problem.” Terrazzano said. 

The CTF is also taking issue with the 14 cents per litre gas tax now imposed on all provinces and territories.Terrazzano also brought attention to the fact that Quebec was given a special deal on the tax at only 10 cents per litre.  

“Atlantic Canada will be getting hammered this winter as the carbon tax is applied on home heating oil at 17 cents per litre,” said Terrazzano.

The carbon tax is purported to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions but the rippling effects are causing prices of food and other goods to skyrocket. 

“When you make it more expensive for farmers out in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, to dry grain with natural gas or propane, you make food delivered to the store more expensive as well,” said Terrazzano.

In 2023, the average family in Ontario will be paying approximately $470 in carbon taxes after rebates, estimates Canada’s parliamentary budget officer. 

Nova Scotians have been affected the most by the carbon tax, which jumped from 2 cents per litre to 14 cents on July 1. 

“A family fueling up their Dodge Caravan, the carbon tax cost alone went up around ten dollars in one day,” said Terrazzano. “What’s frustrating is that Nova Scotia was actually leading the way when it comes to emission reductions. They reduced emissions from 2005 levels by about 36 per cent without the massive carbon tax hike the Trudeau government has imposed.”

The Daily Brief | Will Trudeau change his approach on immigration?

By
Andrew Lawton
-
Hamilton Citizenship Ceremony / Copyright: JOEY COLEMAN / THEPUBLICRECORD.CA

A new poll reveals the majority of Canadians believe Trudeau’s immigration targets will negatively impact housing costs – will the government change its approach? Don’t hold your breath.

Plus, the Trudeau government awarded $1.1 million to a Quebec firm to “address hateful propaganda and debunk disinformation targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities.”

And a new poll reveals the Trudeau Liberals see its lowest approval ratings since forming government.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Andrew Lawton and Lindsay Shepherd!

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Doug Ford accused of giving preferential treatment to certain developers in Greenbelt land sites

By
Quinn Patrick
-

Ontario’s auditor general has alleged that Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government have “favoured certain developers” in a Greenbelt land deal that could make some $8.28 billion. 

On Wednesday, Auditor General Bonnie Lysuk presented a 93-page report to the legislature that claims Premier Ford opened up 15 parcels of environmentally protected land, a total of more than 7,400 acres, to developers in what “cannot be described as a standard or defensible process.”

Ford’s government promised to build 1.5 million homes over the next ten years to mitigate Ontario’s housing crisis but Lysyk said that Greenbelt land is not necessary to meet their target. She met with Ontario Provincial Police to discuss the matter, however she has not called for a criminal probe into the incident but said that, “whatever happens in the future will be up to the OPP to decide.”

“We found that how the land sites were selected was not transparent, fair, objective or fully informed.” wrote Lysyk in the report. “It can also be shown that there was sufficient land for the target of 1.5 million homes to be built without the need to build on the Greenbelt.”

Housing Minister Steve Clark and his chief of staff Ryan Amato were named by Lysyk to be involved in selecting what plots of Greenbelt land would be opened up for development, something that Lysyk also found unsettling.

“Direct access to the housing minister’s chief of staff resulted in certain prominent developers receiving preferential treatment,” the report stated. Lysyk also drew attention to a dinner last fall that Amato attended with landowners, the Building Industry and Land Development Association’s (BILD) Chair’s Dinner.

“Altogether, those who had access to the chief of staff at the September BILD even ended up with land removals that accounted for 6,784 acres, or 92% of the 7,412.64 acres ultimately removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022,” wrote Lysyk.

Amato told Lysyk that at the BILD gala, “two prominent housing developers approached him and gave him packages containing information to remove two land sites from the Greenbelt.” The land sites in question were the Bathurst-King site in York Region and the Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve site in Durham Region. Both land sites were associated with two major developers, Silvio De Gasperis and Michael Rice.

“The chief of staff sat at the same dinner table as one of these two developers,” stated Lysyk.

Amato claims that upon receiving the packages that he did not immediately open them and review their contents.

“The Greenbelt exercise calls into question who, if anyone, was supervising a non-elected chief of staff. In our view, the housing minister ought to have known,” Lysyk told reporters.

Lysyk ordered both Rice and De Gasperis to be interviewed under oath and hand over any pertinent documents. The two developers went to court to block or delay the order, arguing that they were private citizens and that the auditor general had overstepped her authority. Premier Ford has shown support for their arguments. 

Ford insists that land removal from the Greenbelt does not benefit any developers with ties to his party, saying, “we have nothing to hide.” 

The Premier has said that no speculators were tipped off to any boundary amendments that were made last fall to any of the land parcels in King, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Markham, Whitchurch-Stoufville, Clarington or Hamilton. 

Lysyk’s report called for the government to “re-evaluate” their decision to amend the Greenbelt boundaries based on Ford and Clark’s questionable ignorance to how the process of land selection should be made.

“The premier and the minister of housing have communicated to us that they were unaware that the pre-selection of lands for removed from the Greenbelt was biased, controlled and directed by the housing minister’s chief of staff (a political public servant) rather than informed by environmental, agricultural and infrastructure considerations,” wrote Lysyk.

Today, Premier Ford held a press conference wherein he took full responsibility for the selection process. “The buck stops with me and I take full responsibility for the need for a better process,” he said. 

NDP Leader Marit Stiles said, “something smells fishy” and has requested probes into the dealings from two independent legislative officers. “The walls are closing in on this Conservative government,” said Stiles.

The report also noted the importance of the environmental impact this would have on the province. About 76% of the 7,400 acres being affected had been used as active farmland in 2022, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. 

“About 83 per cent of the area removed is classified as Class 1-3 prime agricultural lands, which is of the highest quality and capability for agriculture,” wrote Lysyk, “almost 1,000 acres of wetlands and woodlands” are put at risk by the amendments.

Public inquiry into foreign interference struggles to find commissioner

By
Quinn Patrick
-

Calls for a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s democracy have put the Liberal government in the tough position of finding a potential commissioner who will undertake the position following numerous rejections thus far.

Multiple sources have said that at least six current or retired judges have turned down the position to oversee a public inquiry. 

A public inquiry into Chinese interference at all levels of the Canadian government has been demanded by opposition parties for months following the resignation of former special rapporteur David Johnston in June. 

Johnston was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act as an investigator into alleged foreign interference claims. Johnston’s close ties to Trudeau, however, earned him accusations of conflict of interest and resulted in calls for him to step down. 

Following Johnston’s resignation, the Liberal government has said it’s willing to consider a public inquiry but choosing a commissioner has proven difficult. 

Over half a dozen former judges have already rejected the offer, anonymous sources told the National Post, who said they can’t speak on the matter publicly. 

For current judges, their rejection may be due to not wanting to step away from their court duties but several retired judges indicated that they didn’t want to be involved in such a contentious political inquiry. 

“We’ll hear things like, ‘I’m in my seventies, I don’t have much time left. To end up in the news every week, I don’t know, I think I’m going to pass,’” said one source. “So you start over and have to ask the next person in line, who asks for time to think about it before refusing,” 

“You can’t ask three people at the same time in case more than one says yes. It has to be one at a time,” he added.

In addition to those issues, the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois all have to come to an agreement on who the candidate should be, another tough hurdle.

Johnston had previously recommended against a public inquiry on the basis that much of what needed to be discussed had to be done without the public’s involvement due to the evidence being classified intelligence. 

Following his review of the evidence, Johnston confirmed that Trudeau, nor anyone else in the Liberal party had failed to act accordingly to allegations of foreign interference. 

Johnston had previously served as a member of the Trudeau Foundation which opposition parties argued discredited him from the role in the first place. This led to a majority of MP’s in parliament voting in favour of Johnston resigning as commissioner.

Prime Minister Trudeau then appointed Dominic LeBlanc, now minister of public safety and democratic institutions to work with opposition House leaders to come to an agreement on what to do next.

“I’m confident that my conversations with opposition counterparts will take an important step forward in strengthening Canada’s democracy and democratic institutions and we’ll have more to say about that at the right moment,” said Leblanc to the press two weeks ago, following Trudeau’s recent cabinet shuffle.

Trudeau has accused the Conservative party for the delay in choosing a public inquiry commissioner. 

“We have had very good discussions with the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP, we’re moving forward towards a consensus, but for now, Conservatives continue to block the process,” said Trudeau. “We’ve seen that Conservatives just want to destroy everything, they don’t want to have answers. So they’ll have to choose if they want to continue blocking or if they will let the process go through.”

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre disagrees with the accusation, saying that his party has been waiting for an update from Leblanc for some time now. “Justin Trudeau is lying when he accuses Conservatives of blocking consensus on a public inquiry into Beijing’s interference,” 

“Conservatives are sitting next to our phones waiting for the prime minister’s decision. Lying, delaying and blaming others won’t change that. He and only he has the power to call an inquiry. Let him do it today,” Poilievre said.

Edmonton Police release public warning after another violent sex offender is released

By
Quinn Patrick
-

Another violent sex offender has been released from prison, prompting the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to issue a warning to the public.

The EPS believes that convicted sex offender Dwayne Kequahtooway, 53, will commit another violent offence in the Edmonton community where he is now residing. 

A number of women and children have been victims of Kequahtooway’s violence. He has been known to seek out single mothers in an attempt to offend their daughters in the past. He has also lured young girls using online platforms. 

Kequahtooway has a daily curfew and is not permitted to leave the city of Edmonton. Among his list of bail conditions, he must also refrain from being within 100 metres of any place where children are expected to be and cannot consume alcohol. 

EPS believe that notifying the public will help citizens take any necessary precautions to avoid harm but don’t advocate for vigilante action. 

He also goes by the names Dwayne Anderson and Dwayne Holliger and police describe him as having hazel eyes, brown hair, standing at 5’7” and 210 lbs.

This is the second public warning issued by EPS in recent days following the release of Michael Cardinal last week.

Michael Cardinal, 49, a convicted sex offender with numerous violent assault charges against women with ages ranging from 15 to 82 was released from jail over the weekend. 

“Edmonton Police Service has reasonable grounds to believe he will commit another violent offence against someone while in the community,” wrote EPS in a release.

MP Michael Chong targeted by information operation with links to China

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The federal government has flagged a foreign interference operation targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong that is likely sourced in China.

According to Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the department’s Rapid Response Mechanism detected an information operation during the June 19 by-elections on the popular Chinese social media app WeChat.

“In June 2023, while monitoring the digital information ecosystem for the June 19, 2023 by-elections, Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism Canada detected an information operation targeting Michael Chong, Member of Parliament for Wellington-Halton Hills, which took place on the social media platform WeChat in May 2023,” wrote GAC.

Officials suspect that between May 4th and May 13th, social media activity targeting Chong spiked. This was around the time that the Canadian government expelled China’s diplomat Zhao Wei after it was revealed that he orchestrated an intelligence operation to target Chong’s family. 

According to GAC, WeChat “amplified a large volume of false or misleading narratives” concerning Chong.

On Wednesday, Chong was briefed by security officials on the situation. Chong has been a vocal critic of the Chinese communist government and has led efforts to clamp down on foreign interference in Canadian elections. 

“An analysis by the RRM to determine the possibility of state involvement revealed that, while China’s role in the information operation is highly probable, unequivocal proof that China ordered and directed the operation is not possible to determine due to the covert nature of how social media networks are leveraged in this type of information campaign,” wrote GAC. 

In May, Canada declared Zhao a “persona non grata” and gave the Chinese diplomat a deadline to leave the country. 

“I have been clear: we will not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs. Diplomats in Canada have been warned that if they engage in this type of behaviour, they will be sent home,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. 

According to a recent report by The Bureau, CSIS documents revealed China’s “takeover” of Chinese-language media in Canada and its influence on legacy media outlets. 

Documents allege that “key editors, producers and high-ranking managers” were under the influence of Vancouver’s Chinese Consulate via covert operations. 

The Andrew Lawton Show | Opposing Trudeau’s immigration target isn’t racist

By
Andrew Lawton
-

The Liberal government is planning on ramping up its target number of immigrants to Canada to 500,000 by 2025 (though the actual number will be higher when asylum seekers and other entry programs are taken into consideration.) New polling shows more than two-thirds of Canadians think this will negatively impact the cost of housing, though the federal government is refusing to budge. There are economic reasons Canadians are souring on Canada’s ambitious immigration targets, but anyone who raises challenges is accused of racism, True North’s Andrew Lawton says.

True North’s Cosmin Dzsurdzsa joins to try to make sense of the government’s handling of the immigration file.

Also, True North has been blocked on Facebook for Canadians as Meta, Facebook’s parent company, tries to comply with the Liberal government’s Bill C-18.

Plus, Canada’s newest cinephile, Justin Trudeau, brings his daughter to see Oppenheimer days after seeing Barbie with his son.

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Autism centre owner charged with human trafficking released on bail

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

An Ontario woman who operated a childcare facility for autistic children while her registered sex offender husband lived on the premises has posted bail for human trafficking and other charges. 

Amber Maloney’s parents both paid a $5,000 surety after she was arrested for fraud over $5,000, administering a noxious substance, human trafficking and other charges. 

Maloney and her husband Lauriston Maloney were both arrested in July, shortly after the Ontario Provincial Police released a rare community warning about the husband’s status as a registered sex offender related to crimes involving minors. 

The husband was living at the childcare centre, Beating the Odds, which was operated by Maloney.

“The ‘camp’ is run out of a residence. Maloney lives at the residence,” OPP Sgt. Jason Folz told True North. 

“The offender’s spouse runs that camp and is well aware of his background. The OPP investigators from the Nottawasaga Detachment regularly monitor and check in with those on the Ontario Sex Offender Registry.”

Laurison Maloney is also facing human trafficking charges and is expected to appear in court on Thursday. 

Amber Maloney was ordered to remain under house arrest and also faces other release conditions while on bail. 

The court case is currently under a publication ban, barring the reporting of evidence surrounding the hearings. 

According to Amber Maloney’s lawyer Robert Ratusny, this was the first time she has ever been arrested and she plans on fighting the charges. 

As reported by True North, some parents who showed up to protest the childcare centre alleged that Lauriston Maloney offered to drive children home from the camp despite telling the media that he had “no interaction” with the kids at the centre. 

“Yes, we share the same property address, but he does not work with these kids. He has his own job that brings him off-site and allows me to operate solely without him,” Amber Maloney claimed in a CTV interview. 

Trudeau Liberals see lowest approval rating since forming government: poll

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-

More Canadians say they disapprove of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals now than at any other time since they came into office, according to a new poll. 

These numbers come after Trudeau conducted a major cabinet shuffle and announced that he and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau would be separating. 

An Abacus Data survey provided to the Toronto Star saw 54% of Canadians say they disapprove of the Trudeau government, up 2% since the firm’s last survey released in late July. 

Abacus Data CEO David Coletto told the Star that it’s the lowest approval rating for Trudeau since he was first elected in 2015. 

The survey also gave the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre a nine point lead over the Liberals, with the CPC polling at 37% and the Liberals polling at 28%.

A previous Abacus Data survey has found that just 19% of Canadians believe the Liberals deserve to be re-elected, while 81% want to see a change in government. 

The poll also found that only 26% of Canadians believe Canada is on the right track.

The pessimistic outlook comes as Canadians face expensive cost of living, with high housing and rental costs and rising interest rates, rising violent crime and a raging opioid crisis, among other things.

According to Coletto, Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle “has had no immediate impact on Liberal support.” He added that if it does, “it will take more time and a more direct shift in the government’s approach, given that 80% want a change in government.”

Abacus Data surveyed 1,650 Canadians between Aug. 3 and 7. The poll has a margin of error of ∓ 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Trudeau gov awards $1.1M LGBTQ marketing campaign to Quebec firm

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The Quebec firm Cossette Communications was awarded a $1.1 million contract by Women and Gender Equality Canada to “address hateful propaganda and debunk disinformation targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities.” 

According to the contract tender, Cossette was awarded the contract on July 26, 2023 and it is valued at $1,124,455.50. 

“The ultimate objective of this contract is to develop and implement a marketing and awareness campaign aimed at targeted segments of people in Canada. The broad purpose of the campaign is to engage a targeted segment of people in Canada to help foster a 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive future,” the tender description explains. 

“More specifically, the campaign should enhance inclusion and break down underlying and long-standing stigma and discrimination against 2SLGBTQI+ communities through a multi-pronged approach that deconstructs stereotypes and influences positive change. The campaign should address hateful propaganda and debunk disinformation targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities.”

Government records show that for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Cossette received $157.7 million in contracts from the Government of Canada, with the average contract being valued at $852,000. 

The contract specifically mentions consulting members of “racialized” and “immigrant” communities to help address stigma against LGBTQ people. 

Recent protests have flared across Canada surrounding the issue of gender ideology in schools. Members of Canada’s Muslim communities have been particularly present at these protests. 

Last week, one of the protest organizers, Kamel El-Cheikh called on nation-wide protests to tackle the issue of gender ideology in schools. 

“I am optimistic – absolutely. You know, if [there’s] one thing that’s going to inspire Canadians from coast to coast to go down and protest it’s the kids and their innocence and it’s families,” said El-Cheikh. 

One activist also claimed that she was subject to online abuse due to her Muslim beliefs and opposition to gender ideology. 

“You cannot imagine the amount of threats, insults I am getting just because I am saying I want my children to be educated without gender ideology,” said Bahira Abdulsalam. 

“They are trying to silence me, and they are trying to scare me.”

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