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Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Quebec school district spent $1,600 on drag queen conference

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-

A Quebec school district spent over $1600 on a drag queen conference with infamous children’s drag performer Barbada de Barbades.

Barbada is the drag personification of elementary school teacher Sebastien Potvin. He has been doing story hours for children as young as three years old since 2016, as previously reported by True North. 

According to Rebel News, the Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale, which is responsible for Quebec City schools, paid the drag artist $1400 for a one hour and 35 minute drag conference. $209.65 in provincial and federal sales taxes was applied to the amount, making the total $1609.65.

The amount is seen in an invoice from Potvin’s agency, Iel.

Rebel News attempted to find out further information about the conference but was unsuccessful amid the school district not replying to requests for comment. True North also reached out for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.

Drag shows for kids have been controversial in Quebec, as the province has been less keen on embracing woke ideology.

A Leger poll commissioned by the Conservative Party of Quebec earlier this year found that Quebecers are divided when it comes to funding drag shows for kids using taxpayer dollars. 

46% of those surveyed say they are fine with public dollars going towards drag shows for kids, while 42% said they are opposed to it. 

When asked by True North about the expense, Conservative Party of Quebec leader Eric Duhaime said “do you realize that a drag queen is being paid more than a teacher or even a school principal to talk about a highly controversial ideological gender theory?”

“These activities have no business in schools, where instruction and the transmission of knowledge must be the mission.”

A petition against drag shows being held in public libraries, schools and daycares started by Duhaime received over 40,000 signatures, while several prominent Quebec media figures came out against drag queen story hours, with some calling drag queens sexual, and others implying that they are caricatures of women.

In an exclusive interview with True North last year, Potvin defended doing drag shows for young children.

“It’s important (for children) to see and understand and know… any type of art, any type of job… especially in a world where they will be living with so many different people from so many different views.” 

“I think it’s important for them to discover as much as they can… I wouldn’t say earliest as possible, but yeah, definitely at an early age,” he added.

BONOKOSKI: Higgs likely to survive leadership review thanks to grassroots orgs

By
Mark Bonokoski
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It would seem that New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, under fire over student gender recognition, may dodge the bullet for a leadership review and a possible non-confidence election, thanks to the support of grassroots organizations.

There’s nothing trivial about it.

“A lot of times it’s hundreds or even dozens of people that can make a difference in some of these elections,” Don’t Delete Parents campaign founder Faytene Grasseschi said.

Grasseschi revealed to the CBC that as of Wednesday, she had collected almost 9,000 names from across Canada, including 2,000 from New Brunswick, who could sign up as provincial PC members.

In a statement, Higgs said he has also received support ‘from a wide cross section of individuals’ who come from ‘different backgrounds, different cultures, and different religions.’

Higgs got in the sights of progressives through changes to Policy 713, which now makes it mandatory for a student to get parental consent before a teacher can use a child’s chosen name and pronoun even informally in class.

If it is not possible to obtain parental consent, students seeking to have their names or pronouns changed will be directed to a school psychologist, or guidance counsellor to develop a plan to speak with their parents “if and when they are ready to do so.” 

The backlash was almost instantaneous. The entire review process has been criticized by many, including the child and youth advocate, the New Brunswick Association of School Psychologists and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Higgs’ reaction?

As he spoke in the legislature mid-June, it is his conviction that gender dysphoria had become “trendy,” and that increased acceptance of it was hurting kids and excluding parents.

It was that moment cabinet minister Dorothy Shephard got up and left the chamber, only to return to vote with five of her colleagues for an opposition motion against Higgs’ position.

Then she took her nameplate off of her desk, put it in her purse and handed the premier a hand-written, two-sentence letter of resignation as social development minister.

Shephard said the premier’s rhetoric about the review of the education policy meant to protect LGBTQ students — an issue she described as “mismanaged” — may have been the last straw for her, but she said it came after years of trying to work under Higgs’ “difficult” leadership.

Pro-life advocacy group RightNow has more than 1,200 signatures. Co-founder Alissa Golob revealed to the CBC that she estimates more than 90% are New Brunswickers who are eligible to become provincial party members.

“We’ll be ready if it does come to a leadership review or if it comes down to an election,” said Golob, who describes her organization as non-religious.

55% of Calgarians disapprove of Mayor Jyoti Gondek

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Things are looking bleak for Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek and City Council, according to a new poll by ThinkHQ. 

Gondek’s performance ratings have not changed since November, clocking in at 36%. 

When asked to rate her performance, a majority of Calgarians (55%) said they disapprove of Gondek’s leadership. Of those, 40% said they strongly opposed the mayor.

Meanwhile, only 10% of Calgarians expressed a favourable opinion of Gondek. 

The poll also found that councillors had a slightly higher approval rating of 42% up three points from November. 

According to Marc Henry, president of ThinkHQ, Gondek’s handling of housing, her climate emergency declaration and various scandals have contributed to the mayor’s unpopularity. 

“This a not a report card you would put on the fridge,” Henry told Postmedia. 

“We’re nearing the mid-point of this council’s term, and their numbers remain chronically weak.” 

Henry said that a second term for Gondek is not looking like a sure bet with the way things are currently headed.

“She does need to focus on connecting with voters better,” said Henry.

“And then that means getting some wins on the issues that matter most to them.”

In April, Gondek walked away from questions concerning her past endorsement of the Defund the Police movement as Calgary struggled to deal with a surge of violent crime. 

While still the Ward 3 Councillor in 2021, Gondek and eight other councillors voted to defund the Calgary Police Service by $20 million. 

LNG industry leaders urge Canada to seize global demand or risk being left behind

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Source: Flickr

As liquified natural gas (LNG) industry leaders from around the world gather in Vancouver for the LNG 2023 conference to discuss the future of the global market, Canada is being urged to take a leading role in supplying the world with the essential energy source.

Facing a gas deficit for the next decade in Europe as a result of disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts are pointing to the growing long-term demand being signalled by Asian economies. 

According to Petronas CEO Muhammad Taufik, the “high-quality” LNG being produced in Canada is highly sought after and Canada only needs to step up to the plate. 

“[The Asian economies] will want this high-quality LNG. I can tell you already that my marketing and trading team are already delivering — or have already delivered — carbon-neutral LNG, and there have been customers who are specifically asking for carbon-abated cargoes,” said Taufik. 

However, according to the multinational executive, the window of opportunity could close should the Canadian government not rise to the occasion. 

“A call-out to our Canadian friends: You do have probably one of the most unique opportunities to be part of the global solution,” said Taufik. 

“You are just naturally positioned to cater to these markets, and I think it would be a huge opportunity lost if we do not pivot to actually respond to those needs.”

In March, the International Energy Agency reported that the global LNG market doubled to $450 billion as Europe rushed to offset reliance on Russia. 

The United States was the largest beneficiary of the shake up, while at the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turned down a possible deal with Germany, claiming that it lacked a “business case.” 

At the time, Senior Fellow and Director of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment at the Macdonald Laurier Institute told True North that Canada’s political environment was to blame. 

“The political environment is a deterrent. There is no confidence from the investment community that projects in Canada could be approved, or if approved could be developed in a timely manner,” said Exner-Pirot. 

“Europe needs gas now, and Canada is demonstrably slow in developing these kinds of major projects, with regulatory hurdles and social acceptance being major hurdles. Also with high interest rates capital is very expensive right now, and long development times add a lot of cost. There is a window of opportunity and it is being closed.”

OP-ED: Making a Pandemic: A Simple Meat & Potato Recipe

By
Gleb Lisikh
-

If a new global viral outbreak is declared – and judging by some credible warnings, this is not too far off – its official status as “pandemic” will be determined through metrics and tools very similar to those used for Covid-19. Now that we have sufficient data available, especially data from 2020 uncluttered by the effects of vaccines, we should evaluate those metrics and tools to see how well they served us and whether they should be reused, adjusted or possibly abandoned. This is of obvious importance since the declaration of a pandemic and global emergency is, in addition to the actual disease effects, costly on all levels and disrupts virtually every aspect of modern life.

While many things elevated the Covid-19 pandemic from mere disease into world-altering narrative – statistics and models, media hype, the visuals of masking and social distancing, lockdowns, hospital utilization, peculiar treatments – the narrative largely rested on two basic metrics. These were cases, determining the scale of the outbreak, and deaths, driving public understanding of its severity. These in turn were measured predominantly by two tools: PCR testing and death certificates, respectively.

Those are the “Meat & Potato” of the Covid-19 pandemic. They are the two essential ingredients and their use (or misuse) provides a base recipe for moving a future viral outbreak into the category of pandemic. Accordingly, they are prime subjects of a post-mortem analysis.

“In Ontario, we use PCR as the gold standard of testing for Covid-19 because it is able to successfully detect tiny amounts of the virus (sensitivity) with a low chance for error (accuracy) compared to other types of lab tests.” So said Jonathan Gubbay, a medical microbiologist with Public Health Ontario (PHO), in an online explainer the ministry published in February 2021. This was a typical expression of how public health organizations around the world explained the polymerize chain reaction (PCR) test to the public. And the public had no reason to disbelieve its accuracy and reliability.

Gubbay did not give the PCR technology quite enough credit, however. It can detect not only tiny amounts of virus but tiny amounts of virus parts, right down to molecules. PCR was an amazing invention, for which Kary Mullis, the eccentric American biochemist and writer who developed the process while working at a private company, was recognized through the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. PCR revolutionized the field of molecular biology and genomics by enabling efficient DNA/RNA amplification. It became fundamental to many procedures used in genetic testing and biomedical research, including analysis of ancient DNA samples, criminal forensics, tissue typing (vital for organ transplants) and many others.

It would be fascinating to hear Mullis’ opinion on the “gold standard” in the context of today’s PCR application. Sadly, he died in 2019 just before the Covid-19 disaster was announced. Mullis had previously sounded a cautionary note, however, saying that, “With PCR, if you do it well, you can find almost anything in anybody.” In particular, he warned, “It does not tell you that you are sick.” While he was speaking in the context of HIV, his observation casts doubt on (or at least raises the possible limitations of) PCR-based diagnosis for any virus, including SARS-CoV-2.

But why would there be even a slight controversy for such an amazing technology, without which such achievements as the Human Genome Project would be hardly possible? Addressing this requires understanding the issue of what it means to diagnose someone as “sick” with Covid-19.

Read the full op-ed at www.c2cjournal.ca.

Governor General spent $71,000 on limousine services during Iceland trip

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-
Source: Wikipedia

Governor General Mary Simon spent $71,000 on limousine services during a four-day October 2022 trip to Iceland.

This case of   exuberant spending is just the latest example of Simon billing taxpayers for her expensive and lavish trips abroad.

The financial information about Simon’s Iceland trip was obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) through a series of access-to-information requests.

Receipts show $71,000 in limousine services from Icelimo Luxury Travel, a company that specializes in “genuine luxury travel life experiences … crafted with flair and finesse entirely around your dreams.” Photos posted online by the company show a fleet of Mercedes Benz and Cadillac cars. 

The Governor General was in Iceland from Oct. 12 to 15 2022, for a total of 69.5 hours according to her official itinerary. The cost of the limousine services make out to be over $1000 per hour of the trip.

Simon went to Iceland to attend and speak at the Arctic Circle Assembly, a conference that aims to “facilitate dialogue and build relationships to address rapid changes in the Arctic.” 

The event took place at Harpa Conference Hall in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík, which was 700 metres or a less than 10-minute walk from the luxury Hotel Borg where Simon and her entourage stayed. 

Simon also attended functions held at the University of Iceland (1.6 kilometre away from the hotel), Fossvogur cemetery (around 5 kilometres from the hotel), and Reykjavik city library (which was just a two minute, 350 metre drive away from the hotel).

Receipts show $115,000 was spent on hotel bookings and hotel refreshments, while another $10,000 was spent on throwing a “Friends of Canada Reception.” 

The CTF says the cost of the trip to Canadian taxpayers is at least $298,000. 

The figure above includes an $18,600 “pre-visit” by an unknown number of staff between Aug. 28 to Sept. 1, 2022. They spent $6,400 on Icelimo’s services. 

As for aircraft meals, an invoice shows beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes and Icelandic skyr mousse with strawberry sauce were catered. The total cost of the two items was $840 USD (1,110.58 CAD)

Nine passengers were on board the Challenger VIP aircraft. Simon was accompanied by her husband, her secretary, her director of communications, her manager of strategic communications, two “aide-de-camp” and her official photographer.

Reacting to the expenses, CTF federal director Franco Terrezano noted that “the governor general spent more on fancy rides in four days than the average Canadian makes in a whole year.”

“We’re not saying the governor general should be hitchhiking, but surely she could have gotten around a small island for less than the price of a brand-new BMW. It seems like Simon and her bureaucrats go out of their way to find the most expensive options.”

This is not the first time that Simon’s travels have cost taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money.

Simon’s week-long trip to the Middle East in March 2022 cost taxpayers about $1.3 million. Catering for 28 people on the RCAF’s CC-150 Polaris (a converted Airbus A310 aircraft) cost almost $100,000. 

Food served on board the plane included beef wellington, pork tenderloin and beef carpaccio. In addition, almost $1000 was spent on boxed water, $500 on lemons and limes and $100 on apple juice.

Simon had said she found the way the media portrayed the catering costs to be “unfair,” claiming in a CBC interview that the meals served on the government plane were “pretty much like airline meals.”

Meanwhile, a four-day Oct. 2021 trip to Germany for Simon to attend the Frankfurt book fair cost $700,000. The latter included $103,000 in in-flight catering.

Governor General Simon and her predecessor Julie Payette also billed taxpayers for $88,000 worth of clothes. The Governor General’s office did not return True North’s request for comment in time for publication.

Despite high immigration, Canada’s standard of living is lagging: TD report

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

A report by TD Economics ranks Canada’s standard of living, measured by real GDP per capita, far behind other developed nations due to low economic productivity. 

The report, authored by TD Bank economist Marc Ercolao, examined the factors behind Canada’s economic performance and prosperity in recent years.

Ercolao found that while Canada’s economy has benefited from strong population growth, driven by high immigration levels, it has not translated into higher living standards for Canadians.

“There may be a tendency to pin the blame for Canada’s sagging per-capita showing on the country’s rapidly-growing population base given that it has inflated the denominator of the calculation,” Ercolao told BNN Bloomberg.

“However, at the crux of the problem is insufficient growth in the numerator, which in turn is tied to longstanding productivity issues.”

Ercolao identified several areas where Canada needs to improve its productivity, such as increasing research and development (R&D) spending, fostering innovation, enhancing human capital, and diversifying its export markets. 

He argued that Canada’s R&D spending has been falling for two decades, creating an “innovation gap” that hinders its competitiveness and potential growth. 

“This country’s lagging standing in per-capita GDP is not new, but it has been worsening since the pandemic,” said Ercolao.

“At the core of the issue is a sagging productivity showing that has been plaguing the Canadian economy for many years despite the well-intentioned moves of this countries’ policymakers to try and address it,” he continued.

“As of 2021, Canadian R&D spending accounted for roughly 1.7 per cent of GDP, half of the current U.S. share and lower than most other countries.”

Last year, a report by the C.D. Howe Institute warned of a similar problem. Canada was lagging behind it’s fellow Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations when it came to attracting investment. 

“Business investment is so weak that capital per member of the labour force is falling, and the implications for incomes and competitiveness are ominous,” wrote researchers.

Canada’s harmful “safe supply” agenda (feat. Adam Zivo)

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-

Governments across Canada have embraced a “harm reduction” and “safe supply” agenda in response to the drug crisis, which has killed more than 30,000 people since 2016.

Their approach consists of giving so-called “safe drugs” to addicts and having “safe” injection sites available for people to consume drugs. Hard drugs have even been decriminalized in B.C.

While this “harm reduction” approach is backed by leftist politicians and activists, several experts and former addicts believe Canada’s “harm reduction” and “safe supply” agenda is a disaster. 

True North’s Elie Cantin-Nantel spoke about the matter with National Post columnist Adam Zivo. He has written several pieces about the harms of Canada’s “safe supply” agenda. Zivo is also known for his coverage of the war in Ukraine and various LGBTQ issues.

Average price of rentals in Canada reached record high in June

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

National rental prices have hit another record high, according to the Rentals.ca July 2023 Rent Report. 

The average price of a rental unit reached $2,042 last month, beating out the Nov. 2022 price of $2,024. 

“The 1.4% increase in rents from May represented the fastest month-over-month increase so far this year, causing the annual rate of rent inflation to accelerate to 7.5% from the 6.5% annual rate recorded in May,” the report reads. 

“Over the past two years, average asking rents in Canada have increased by 20%, or by an average of $341.”

One of the reasons cited behind the high spike in rent was the record growth of population due to the Trudeau government’s immigration policy. 

“Annual rent inflation in June remained below the double-digit growth experienced during most of 2022 and early 2023. However, additional upward pressure on rents occurred as the population expanded at a record pace, the unemployment rate remained near a record low, and homebuyers became more cautious with more interest rate increases,” claimed the report. 

The fastest growth in rent prices impacted Alberta where prices rose for two consecutive months. 

Year over year the price of condominium apartments rose by 18.3% to an average of $1,552. 

In June, British Columbia remained the most expensive province for renters with the average price of a condominium being $2,550. Ontario was close behind, reporting an average rent of $2,415 last month. 

“Vancouver and Toronto, representing the country’s most expensive rental markets with average asking rents of $3,301 and $2,813, respectively, recorded annual rent growth of 15.7% and 15.4% in June,” claimed the report. 

“Ottawa, the third most expensive of Canada’s largest markets with an average asking rent of $2,146 in June, saw similar annual rent growth of 15.3%.”

The Bank of Canada (BoC) hiked its overnight rate to a 22-year high on Wednesday as it continues to try to meet its 2% inflation mandate by curtailing consumer spending. 

While the BoC credits the surge of newcomers to help with labour shortages across the country, it states immigrants are adding to the demand for housing.

“Strong population growth from immigration is adding both demand and supply to the economy: newcomers are helping to ease the shortage of workers while also boosting consumer spending and adding to demand for housing,” wrote the central bank in a news release on Wednesday.

BONOKOSKI: There’s no end in sight to Canada’s inflation crisis

By
Mark Bonokoski
-
Source: CPAC

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said that while there may still be more rate hikes ahead, there’s little chance of interest rate cuts.

That’s more bad news for those with fluctuating mortgages already at the tipping point, or with maxed-out retail credit cards, as the bank raised its key interest rate a quarter-point to 5%, the highest in 22 years.

“We’re trying to balance the risks of under- and over-tightening,” Macklem said in answer to a reporter’s question at Wednesday’s news conference in Ottawa. “If we do more than we need now, it’s going to be unnecessarily painful.”

According to the CBC, when asked repeatedly by reporters why a string of 10 interest rate hikes had not had a stronger impact on inflation, including food and house prices, Macklem and senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers cited a number of effects, including a housing shortage, a strong labour market and the post-pandemic surge in immigration that recently sent Canada’s population to 40 million.

Macklem, in fact, addressed those food prices, telling Blacklock’s Reporter that the high interest rates will continue into 2024.

But he said he has “been surprised” by persistently high prices for groceries:

“Meat’s up 6%, bread’s up 13%, coffee’s up 8%, and baby food’s up 9%,” he noted.

This, of course, is hardly news to the hard-pressed families wrestling with the high grocery prices of today.

But not everything is a downer, says the Bank of Canada’s senior deputy director.

“There are two things that are helping buffer many households from both inflation and interest rates, and that is the savings they accumulated over the course of the pandemic,” said Rogers.

“You can see three-quarters of households have accumulated quite a bit more savings than they had prior to the pandemic,”  she said, citing the Monetary Policy Report.

“The other thing we think is supporting confidence and buffering Canadians from some of the impacts is the strong labour market,” she said, adding, strangely, that people are not afraid of losing their jobs.

Over at the Financial Post, Compass Rose Group managing director Theo Argitis said the Bank of Canada “not only needs to calibrate demand in the economy, but also needs to signal that it’s tough and serious on inflation.

“This may mean having to keep rates higher than what simple models of economic slack would suggest.”

“Indebted Canadians should continue to brace themselves.”

Argitis writes that central bankers see inflation control as  an exercise in “expectations management.”

“After failing to identify the inflation crisis early on, the Bank of Canada has put together a determined hiking cycle to bring those inflation expectations back down,” he says.

Significant was the Bank of Canada’s acknowledgement that inflation will take longer than expected to return to 2%.

With inflation at 3.4% today, the bank’s latest forecast is that it will not reach its goal of 2% inflation until the middle of 2025.

So the hurting will continue.

“That means almost four years of above-target inflation,” notes Argitis. “Which is a worryingly long time.”

The Canadian economy has been stronger than expected, with more momentum in demand, the BoC noted in its policy statement. “The governing council remains concerned that progress towards 2% inflation target could stall, jeopardizing return to price stability.” 

According to FXSTREET, Macklem said, “with three-month rates of core inflation running around 3.5-4% since September, underlying price pressures appear to be more persistent than expected.”

“We will be evaluating whether evolution of excess demand, inflation expectations, wage growth and corporate pricing behavior are consistent with achieving 2% inflation target, says Macklem.

 BoC expects economic growth to slow, averaging around 1% through 2023 and 2024.

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