Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lectured members of Calgary’s Muslim community concerned about gender ideology in schools, saying “there is an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation” fuelled by “the American right wing.”
Plus, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mandated several key ministers to bolster the province’s energy and fertilizer industries.
And An Ontario NDP MPP from Hamilton attended a far-left No Pride in Policing Coalition march – and the Hamilton Police Association are not happy.
These stories and more on The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Elie Cantin-Nantel!
Bank of Canada (BoC) officials earned $20 million in bonuses while hiking interest rates on Canadians and failing their 2% inflation mandate.
According to records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) through access to information requests, as inflation reached a 40-year high, 80% of the central bank’s workforce received at least one bonus.
BoC bureaucrats received an average of $11,200 in bonuses.
“Bonuses are for people who do a god job, not people who fail at their one and only job,” Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF, said on the organization’s website.
“Most organizations don’t shower employees with bonuses when they have their worst year in four decades.”
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the BoC has spent $72 million on staff bonuses and pay raises. Despite authoritative lockdowns which forced many Canadians out of work, there were no pay cuts between 2020 and 2022 at the central bank.
In late 2020, BoC Governor Tiff Macklem assured the federal finance committee that the inflation rate would be below 2% through 2023. However, it reached a 40-year high of 6.8% in 2022.
Despite Macklem claiming to keep the overnight lending rate at its “effective lower bound [of 0.25%] into 2023,” he announced seven rate hikes last year, and three this year.
Macklem has admitted to some consequential mistakes for which he said central bankers should be held accountable, but Terrazzano isn’t convinced.
“Handing out big bonus cheques is an odd way to hold your organization accountable,” Terrazzano said. “Central bankers shouldn’t get bonuses when Canadians can’t afford groceries, gasoline or homes.
A separate access to information request filed by the CTF revealed that since Justin Trudeau became prime minister eight years ago, 487 BoC bureaucrats – or 30% of its workforce – earned at least $100,000. By the end of 2022, 1,095 staff members comprising 49% of its total workforce were earning six-figure salaries.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre appeared on the Canadian Taxpayers podcast and said he would disallow bonuses for bureaucrats who fail at their duties.
“I don’t think we should reward failure,” Poilievre said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article previously mistakenly stated that BoC officials received $20 billion in bonuses. This has been updated.
The smash box office hit movie ‘Sound of Freedom’ which tells the story of a US Homeland Security Agent quitting his job to rescue children around the world from child trafficking rings has sent the legacy media into another collective fit of outrage.
Notably, a CBC “pop culture columnist” went on a rant attributing the success of the hit film to being a “dog whistle for xenophobic pro-Trump, pro-life types” and being a “Qanon” themed movie. None of this should be surprising to Canadians given the state broadcaster’s track record of defending and normalizing drag shows for kids and other highly-questionable content.
Legacy media outlets like The Guardian, Washington Post and Rolling Stone have also trashed this film repeating the “Qanon” line.
The legacy media has proven that their influence on culture has whittled away as ‘Sound of Freedom’ takes over theatres.
Watch the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!
The Hamilton Police Association (HPA) is condemning Hamilton-Centre NDP MPP Sarah Jama for attending a far-left No Pride In Policing Coalition march focused on abolishing law enforcement.
In a statement to True North, HPA spokesperson Jaimi Bannon said, “every Ontario family deserves to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. They have made it loud and clear that they support and want more investment in police and public safety.”
NEW: The Hamilton Police Association denounces Hamilton Centre NDP MPP Sarah Jama's participation in a pro-police abolition march in a statement to @truenorthcentre. "We have come to expect no better from MPP Sara Jama and her dangerous rhetoric." #ONPolihttps://t.co/COXPY2E8ampic.twitter.com/QUTgczCwm5
The union says, “talk of abolishing police is both irresponsible and dangerous.”
“Who wants to live in a world where the police have been abolished? We have come to expect no better from MPP Sara Jama and her dangerous rhetoric.”
POV: Riding in the accessibility van at the anti fascist, abolitionist pride march led by the No Pride in Policing Coalition because I forgot to charge my chair again @NoPolicing 💗💗 pic.twitter.com/6yeMNPHzfo
As previously reported by True North, the far-left “abolitionist and antifascist pride” march held on June 25 in Toronto was not only demanding the abolishment of police and prisons, but also several other radical policies.
The organizer’s 25 demands included the legalization of prostitution, allowing drug users to be able to donate blood, supporting safe supply and drug injection sites, protecting drag shows for kids, a $20 per hour minimum wage and making Toronto “a real Sanctuary City.”
The demands also called for the reintroduction of mask mandates. Posters for the rally noted that masks were mandatory, despite the march taking place outdoors.
Further, the group called for marchers to support “the Palestinian Struggle Against Israeli Apartheid and Settler Colonialism,” and “the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.”
“Defend Palestine defenders from attacks by pro-Israel lobby groups, universities, and school boards.”
Jama’s decision to attend the anti-police and anti-Israel rally was also condemned by Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, with its CEO Michael Mostyn accusing Jama of being a radical in an email to The Hamilton Independent.
Following revelations that Ontario NDP MPP Sarah Jama attended an abolish the police rally in Toronto, B’nai Brith Canada CEO @MichaelMostyn tells the Hamilton Independent that Jama is a “radical who continues to take positions that are contrary to the aims of her party, the…
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) July 11, 2023
“Sarah Jama is a radical who continues to take positions that are contrary to the aims of her party, the legislature as a whole, and the sanctity and security of her constituents. She continues to unnecessarily conflate domestic issues with those of Israel/Palestine,” said Mostyn.
Ontario’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner also criticized Jama. He told The Hamilton Independent that her attendance at the rally is an example of the Ontario NDP showing their “true colours.”
Kerzner said the Ford PCs “condemn in the strongest terms the NDP’s calls to defund and abolish the police, and their continued embrace of rampant antisemitism.”
“Marit Stiles must be clear: Is the Ontario NDP’s official policy to abolish the police? How much more antisemitism will she continue to tolerate within her party?”
The No Pride In Policing Coalition describes itself as “a group of queer and trans people formed to support BLM-TO and now focused on defunding and abolishing the police.”
The group says their “abolitionist and antifascist pride” march seeks to bring attention to “continuing racist and colonialist police violence and the right-wing and fascists attacking drag queens, trans, queer, Black and Indigenous people.”
Neither Jama’s office nor Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles responded to True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
Winnipeggers are being warned to be extra vigilant as a high-risk sex offender who has preyed on children, especially girls, is being released back out into the public after completing a short prison term.
Leslie Wayne Oliver Mercredi, 32, also known as Leslie Wayne Brightnose or Leslie Mecredi, was released by Correctional Services Canada from the Headingley Correctional Centre on July 12, 2023, despite the risk he poses to children.
He had been serving a sentence of 6.5 months for breaching the conditions of his recognizance order.
Community Notification: MERCREDI was released from the Headingley Correctional Centre, on Jul 12/23,He has a history of violent and sexual offences. MERCREDI is still considered high risk to re-offend in a sexual manner. All children are at risk, particularly females. @MBGovpic.twitter.com/qVf86MesDZ
In a statement provided to True North, Winnipeg Police Services Cst. Dani McKinnon said that he will continue to be monitored by authorities.
“We have a dedicated high-risk sex offender unit called the Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit (MIHRSOU), this unit monitors such offenders and enforces court orders,” said Cst. McKinnon.
“Corrections Canada monitors parole, sentencing and releases back to the community along with the Province’s CNAC committee.”
The WPS press release also notes that Mercredi has a criminal record that includes sexual assault, sexual interference, assault, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
He has used threats, drugs, or other inducements to lure his underage victims.
Mercredi is bound by three court orders that limit his contact with children under 16, his employment and volunteer opportunities, his access to alcohol and drugs, and his possession of weapons.
He also has to abide by a daily curfew and be in regular contact with his probation officer.
MIHRSOU, a joint forces unit of the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP, issued a community notification on Thursday to alert the public of his release and the risk he poses.
The unit also said that while Mercredi participated in some treatment programs while in custody, he is still considered high risk to re-offend in a sexual manner.
Police are urging the public to exercise caution and immediately report any suspicious activity involving him to authorities.
The Trudeau government’s immigration policy is undermining Bank of Canada’s (BoC) attempts to wrest runaway inflation.
The central bank 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.
Housing remains chronically undersupplied as Canada grows at a record pace—1.05 million people entered the country in 2022, far and away above the 360,000 average since 1995—and it’s pushing mortgage rates, which factor prominently in inflation calculations, higher.
Chris Karram, managing partner at SafeBridge Private Wealth, echoed the central bank’s concerns saying that while immigration is crucial to the health of the Canadian economy, current policy is mismanaged.
Karram says runaway housing prices and rising mortgage rates may remove potential homebuyers from the market, but there are countless others with well-lined pockets ready to take their place.
“So the more people we let in without being strategic about how we let them in, how we build houses and provide the possibility of housing for purchase—or even just to rent, frankly—it causes a massive impact,” Karram said.
Sixty percent of newcomers under current immigration policy are skilled workers, meaning that many can afford housing prices upon arrival.
The impact that population growth-induced demand is having on supply isn’t limited to housing. It is affecting commodities like food and energy, too.
“If there are more people coming in and only so many number of houses, that means there are more people than there are houses,” Karram said. “It’s the same thing for any of the other goods and services we have. Not everything can be mass produced at the level they need to be in order to keep up with the influx of new people.”
“Immigration is a huge policy that needs to be revisited and done effectively and responsibly,” Karram said, adding the number of newcomers needs to align with the availability of resources.
“Right now, housing is out of whack and, unfortunately, there are a lot of people hurting because of these massive [interest rate] hikes that are attacking middle-market Canadians.”
There were 7,481 home sales in the Greater Toronto Area last month, a 16.5% increase over June 2022, bringing the average price of a home in the region to $1,182,120.
Home sales in Vancouver surged by 21.1% year-over-year in June, bringing the average price of a home to $1,203,000.
Wednesday’s BoC rate hike was its 10th since March 2022.
Google has expanded the availability of its artificial-intelligence-based chatbot Bard to most countries in the world, except for Canada and totalitarian regimes like North Korea.
The company cited “regulatory uncertainty” as the reason for excluding Canada from the launch of Bard, which is similar to ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Bing AI.
“We’re committed to being good partners as we work through regulatory uncertainty in Canada, and we’re enthusiastic about bringing Bard’s generative AI potential to Canadians soon,” a Google spokesperson told the National Post.
Other countries not included in the rollout are Russia, China and Afghanistan.
Bard is a chatbot that can generate conversational responses based on user input while tapping into Google’s search engine as a knowledge base.
However, Canadian users will not be able to access Bard anytime soon, as Google spars with Ottawa in response to the Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18.
The legislation requires Google and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, to pay Canadian news publishers for displaying their content on their platforms – a practice which critics have branded a “tax on links.”
Google and Meta have opposed the bill, saying it is unworkable and unfair.
They have moved to block Canadian news from their platforms, which would exempt them from the requirements of the bill.
Meta has said it will go ahead with its plan to remove news from Facebook and Instagram later this year.
While Google has been willing to negotiate with the government, it too has said it will ban Canadian news links from its search engine.
Bill C-18 received royal assent in June, but details about how the regulation will be implemented are still being developed.
In a recent move, the Canadian government signalled a compromise with social media giants by capping compensation, however, many concerns related to the legislation remain unaddressed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lectured members of Calgary’s Muslim community concerned about gender ideology in schools, saying “there is an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation” fuelled by “the American right wing.”
Trudeau’s comments come as Muslim communities across the country have joined the fight against progressive gender ideology teachings in Canada’s publicly funded schools.
The Prime Minister was asked about the controversial teachings while attending a Calgary Stampede event at Calgary’s Baitun-Nur Mosque last week. The exchange was caught on video and posted to social media.
“First of all, there is an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation out there,” said Trudeau. “People on social media, particularly fuelled by the American right wing, are spreading a lot of untruths about what’s actually in the provincial curriculum.”
“If you look at the various curriculums, You’ll see that there is not what is being said out there about aggressive teaching or conversion of kids to being LGBT,” claimed Trudeau. According to him, narratives are “being weaponized by people who are not doing it because of their interest in supporting the Muslim community.”
“These are people in the far right who have consistently stood against Muslim rights and the Muslim community, but they’re weaponizing the issue of LGBT, which is something that, yes, Islam has strong opinions on, the same way that the religious right in Canada, the Christian right, has strong opinions against as well.”
The Prime Minister explained that while he understands concerns regarding parental rights, the federal government does not have jurisdiction over education systems. He also said Liberals are “unequivocal about standing up for everyone’s rights.”
Trudeau also suggested that older Muslims are more opposed to the LGBTQ community than younger generations.
“I know your parents’ generation might have a little more uncertainty… and that’s where this generation and your kids’ generation can show that ‘look… the responsibility that comes with being in a free country that stands up for everyone’s rights is that we will stand up for everyone’s rights, including people from the LGBT community.’”
Trudeau also said Muslims should unite with the LGBTQ community because both are facing “increasing levels of violence and hatred.”
“The world is going in the wrong direction, and one thing we don’t need right now is for communities that are facing hatred to start turning on each other, rather than figure out how to support each other, how to listen, how to understand each other and work together.”
The Prime Minister also touched on the case of the Edmonton public school teacher who berated Muslim students for skipping pride activities. Trudeau denounced the teacher’s actions.
A teacher at Londonderry Junior High School in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, tells Muslim pupils off for skipping school to avoid LGBTQ Pride events.pic.twitter.com/j1OID1sCGK
“That is not something that is acceptable,” said Trudeau. “It does not represent my position or the federal government’s position, that people need to be chastised for their religious beliefs. People are free to have their religious beliefs.”
Trudeau also took a jab at the Conservatives over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s policies related to the Niqab and barbaric religious practices. “The Islamophobia pushed by the previous Conservative government in a whole bunch of different ways was something that we all stood against.”
The individual who uploaded the video to TikTok criticized Trudeau’s response to the Muslim community’s concerns.
“We are Muslim parents, and he is careless about us or our feelings as of now. He wants our next generation, he wants to protect the LGBTQ Muslim kids, he wants to protect our kids from us parents.”
“(The) prime minister delivered many soft threats, and he showed his fear of us Canadian groups building bridges with each other because this move will make him lose power and control.”
The Muslim community member also called out Trudeau’s hypocrisy on the issue of provincial jurisdiction.
“(The) prime minister is the same one who got involved in New Brunswick, and now he is saying it is provincial matters.”
Trudeau previously criticized the New Brunswick government’s revised education policy 713, which requires parental consent for a child under the age of 16 to change their name or pronouns at school.
Since the start of June, which is dubbed pride month, Muslim communities across Canada have participated in and led protests against the teaching of gender ideology in schools. Notable protests include ones held in Ottawa and Calgary.
Common chants used by anti-gender ideology protesters include “leave our kids alone” and “let kids be kids.”
Muslims joined with other immigrants in #Calgary, Canada for a protest against LGBTQIA2S+ ideology. A #trans group called for a counter-direct action, labeling their opponents fascists. Video by @therealkeean: pic.twitter.com/GfRvHsgk9k
The Bank of Canada raises its key interest rate to 5% – the tenth hike since March 2022 and the highest it’s been since 2001.
Plus, in a recent interview on CBC Radio, pop culture columnist Radheyan Simonpillai described the success of the new hit film “Sound of Freedom” can be attributed to “Xenophobic, Pro-Trump, Pro-Life types.”
And a new report revealed the government’s unprecedented spending spree during the Covid-19 pandemic has jeopardized Canada’s finances.
Tune into The Daily Brief with new host Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Elie Cantin-Nantel!
With memories of another eyebrow-raising inaugural ceremony of 13 years back long forgotten, the city’s socialists gathered at Toronto City Hall to dance, sing, chant loudly and beat drums in honour of new NDP mayor Olivia Chow.
The same leftists, who got themselves into a lather for days after former colourful commentator (and pink jacketed) Don Cherry called out the city’s “pinkos” at the inaugural of Rob Ford, sat through an over-the-top often cringeworthy ceremony befitting a mayor who has already decidedly made virtue signalling a priority over actually tackling the decrepit city’s many issues.
The MC of the hour-long event CBC actress Jean Yoon – who recently swooned over PM Justin Trudeau on her Instagram page – kept tripping over her prepared script sounding completely unprepared.
When it was time for Chow’s official swearing-in, Yoon claimed she’d been waiting her whole life for “Olivia Chow to become mayor of Toronto.”
One has to wonder if she was paid the going ACTRA [Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists] rate for her services.
Chow was led into the Council chamber by a series of loud Indigenous drummers.
Meanwhile at Olivia Chow's swearing-in ceremony as the new mayor of Toronto.
— Harrison Faulkner (@Harry__Faulkner) July 12, 2023
Those viewing the spectacle were also forced to sit through three land acknowledgements and an Indigenous water ceremony.
I’m not sure what that has to do with running the city of Toronto, but I guess we’re all in for three years of near-obsessive efforts to drum into our heads that the lands we live on really don’t belong to us.
An Indigenous welcome came from the Elder of the Urban Indigenous Centre of the Toronto District School board – Dr. Duke Redbird – who said Chow has been a friend of the Indigenous community since 1985 when she became trustee.
He talked about Chow’s mastery of canoeing – together with that of her late husband NDP leader Jack Layton – noting that politics is like a journey by canoe where one can find challenges like waterfalls and other obstacles.
“I’m confident the same skill that Olivia has demonstrated on the lakes and waters of Canada will serve her well as mayor of Toronto,” he sermonized. “Olivia Chow has honed her skills and demonstrated her ability to trek the most difficult of terrain.”
Sandra Whiting from the African Ancestral Acknowledgement Center – a woman who proudly proclaimed her Jamaican ancestry – offered her own land acknowledgement in conjunction with the Indigenous people of Turtle Island, indicating this too was an effort towards “decolonization.”
Poet laureate and professor of creative writing at OCAD University Lillian Allen performed her latest offering, “My Toronto-Poetic Justice” in which she repeated the word “Toronto” eight times at the outset and used the words social justice and injustice several times.
She got a standing ovation.
“We can come together and watch out for each other.”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow cites social workers, 911 wait times and after school programs when addressing the recent violent crime spike during her swearing-in ceremony. pic.twitter.com/ci2Ncx9DFQ
The new mayor claimed Torontonians voted loudly and clearly for change. Like her platform, she gave us thin gruel as to the changes she envisions.
With a delivery more resembling an Oscar acceptance speech, Chow kept repeating that we all need to “work together” (on what we’re not sure) and build a city together.
“People need to feel safe,” she added, not elaborating how she intends to make people feel safer except for adding more social workers and improving 911 wait times.
“Let’s build a Toronto that is affordable and safe and where everyone belongs,” she said.
Her speech was long on hollow hopey changey buzz words so loved by socialists and remarkably short on details.
But the crowd didn’t care.
Toronto’s champagne socialists and their union/activist/drug and poverty industry hangers-on are back in charge.
Singer Lorraine Segato entered stage right at this point, looking like she came straight from the gym in her stretchy black capris, as she sang Rise Up in honour of the new mayor and supposed change to come.
It didn’t escape my attention that Rise Up first debuted in 1983. But I guess everything old is new again.
Still, I couldn’t believe my eyes when the entire council chamber of socialists and assorted hangers-on stood up and started clapping, singing and shrieking like they were at a rock concert.
For someone who covered City Hall for 20 years and many inaugural — and who has seen everything — it was indeed over-the-top, bizarre and cringeworthy.
Yet I guarantee not one socialist in that council chamber Wednesday had any idea how foolish and unprofessional they looked.
Yes, indeed change is in the wind. But that change I’m predicting will have nothing to do with solving Toronto’s many woes.
At this point, I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of it all.
