The majority of Canadians are concerned about losing access to news after the Trudeau government’s Online News Act became law last month.
Plus, Windsor parents, students and allies gathered in front of NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky’s office to protest against the local public school board’s controversial gender policy.
And Ontario wants wind and solar to make up a larger share of its power grid despite many warnings about the reliability of wind and solar power.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd!
Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person is growing at its slowest rate since the Great Depression, a new report from the Fraser Institute said.
GDP per person refers to the total monetary or market value of all finished goods and services produced individually.
The report,What is Behind Canada’s Growth Crisis?, demonstrates that the country’s per-person GDP grew by 0.8% (after adjusting for inflation) between 2013 and 2022.
“Canada’s in a full-blown economic growth crisis, which is homegrown and due largely to poor government policy,” said the report’s author Philip Cross, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
The painstakingly slow growth is a stark contrast to the United States where, the report noted, per-person GDP growth (adjusted for inflation) between 2016 and 2022 was 11.7%, while Canada’s was just 2.8% during those six years.
The report points out that business investment in Canada has declined and that growth is relatively flat in the country’s exports sector—both of which the report identified as being imperative for the Canadian economy.
Business investment during the fourth quarter of last year was $189.8 billion, however, after adjusting for inflation, it’s 17.6% below where it was during the same quarter in 2014. The report added that the value of exports had flatlined during that period.
Feelings of financial hardship are becoming rampant across the country. The 2023 Financial Stress Index, a survey of 2,000 Canadians conducted by Leger Marketing on FP Canada’s behalf, revealed money was the leading source of stress among 40% of Canadians this year, up from 38% in last year’s survey.
According to the survey, anxiety, depression and mental health challenges are also the leading consequences of financial stress for 36% of Canadians, while 48% reported difficulty sleeping, up from 43% in 2022.
Money topped personal health (23%), relationships (17%) and work (16%) for a sixth straight year.
Thirty-five percent of respondents are struggling to save enough money for retirement, while 32% are having trouble with major purchases, and 50% of Canadians aged 18-34 are worried about saving for major purchases.
“Canadians continue to struggle with their financial picture, and financial stress can have a significant impact not only on financial wellbeing, but also on mental health,” said Tashia Batstone, president and CEO of FP Canada.
The suspect accused of attempted murder in a vicious knife attack on Toronto’s train system was released onto the streets shortly after failing to show up to multiple bail hearings for numerous robbery-related charges.
On July 6th, a video captured by a TTC passenger went viral, allegedly depicting Moses Lewin and another passenger engaged in a dispute before Lewin stabbed and chased his victim with a knife before fleeing the scene at Eglinton Station.
However, this incident is far from Lewin’s first run-in with the law, as records show that his criminal activity has ramped up in severity over the past year and a half. Lewin has been charged multiple times for stealing motor vehicles, breaking and entering, and failing to show up for bail hearings on multiple occasions.
According to documents obtained by CTV News, Lewin was charged in April 2022 for stealing a motor vehicle, possessing break-in instruments, and possessing 10 licence plates.
Lewin was released on bail for $500 but failed to appear at his scheduled court appearance, provoking the court to issue a bench warrant on April 26, 2022.
A few months later in June 2022, Lewin was charged in Milton, ON again for theft of a motor vehicle, breaking and entering, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, flight from a police officer, and failure to comply with a release order.
Despite Lewin having an outstanding bench warrant out for his arrest, the Milton court decided to hold Lewin for bail at $200, prompting his quick release from prison.
In November, Lewin was caught offending again, being charged with damaging windows at the Scarborough Town Centre, possessing break-in instruments, and carrying an eight-inch fishing knife as a weapon.
Lewin was released yet again, failing to show up for his January 11, 2023 court appearance.
On the day of Lewin’s alleged murder attempt on the TTC, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest by the Milton courthouse for his June 2022 break-in.
Critics claim that criminals like Lewin being released on bail to reoffend has become the norm in Canada, not the exception.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to deny bail to repeat violent offenders if elected Prime Minister to mitigate the crime issue in Canada’s big cities.
“If someone has committed seven or eight repeat violent offences and then is newly arrested on a new violent charge, then it’s clear that they are a danger to society and should be kept behind bars until the trial is over and their sentences complete,” said Poilievre in a press conference in May.
Some of Canada’s most high-profile criminal cases, like the Saskatchewan mass murder in September 2022 were committed by someone who was known to the criminal justice system for past violence.
Windsor parents, students and allies gathered in front of NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky’s office to protest against the local public school board’s controversial gender policy and its recent decision to ban parents from meetings.
The Greater Essex County District School Board’s (GECDSB) currently allows children to change their gender or pronouns at school without the knowledge or consent of their parents. It also opted to temporarily ban the public from board of trustees meetings in June amid outrage over the policy which is informed by gender ideology.
Monday’s protest was organized by the group Parents for Parent’s Rights. It was attended by about 150 people. They held signs that read “no secrets,” “leave our kids alone” and “let kids be kids.”
Another set of protests are taking place in front of MPP Lisa Gretzky’s office. One protest is 2SLGBTQIA+ Windsorites and allies to show support for the school board. The other is individuals against the Boards decision to limit people at the meetings. pic.twitter.com/sTzH4gTN2p
— Meagan Delaurier (she/her) (@DelaurierMeagan) July 10, 2023
The group’s co-founder Elton Robinson says he decided to hold a protest in front of Gretzky’s office amid her ignoring a request to discuss his concerns.
“She is my MPP,” Robinson told the Windsor Star. “There is a centre to all of this, but if you don’t talk with people, you’re never going to find that centre.”
Parents for Parents’ Rights describes itself on its website as a group which “believes that the parents and guardians are the most important educators and first role models of their children.”
“We promote the importance of respecting family values and beliefs – emphasizing communication, mutual support and transparency between parents and schools. This partnership will encourage a positive environment for their child’s education.”
They oppose gender ideology, pornographic books in school libraries and schools hiding information about gender identity from parents.
Also present at Gretzky’s office were trans activist counter protesters. They claim that schools can be a safe place for gender dysphoric kids.
“I think it’s important that we make a visible stand that isn’t just shouting the same things back and forth,” pro-trans counter-protester Bonnie Stewart told the Star. “Rather, we’re talking to the general public, most of whom recognize that we have been fighting the same stereotypes and harmful stuff about queer people for 30 years.”
However, Robinson says he and his group are not opposed to LGBTQ people.
“I don’t like the idea of another adult telling my child it’s okay to keep a secret,” he previously told the Star .
“I believe in full human rights. I know people want to call us homophobes — that’s not what it’s about,” he added. “If a parent wants their kid to change their gender or change their pronouns, that’s fine. The issue is the parents should be aware of that happening.”
Robinson would like Ontario to adopt a policy like New Brunswick’s revised Policy 713 – which requires parental consent for children under the age of 16 to officially change their gender or pronouns at school.
In response to the protest at her office, Gretzky boasted about the Ontario NDP’s queer and trans activism in a statement to the Star.
“I’m proud to be part of an official opposition that is working to protect and advance queer and trans rights in Ontario,” she said.
Gretzky also said she encourages the GECDSB to have “constructive, respectful conversations” about how to make schools safe places for all students and on “how to reopen school board meetings to the public in a safe and mutually respectful way.”
“Schools should be safe, welcoming places where every student can be themselves and focus on learning. Hate and discrimination is not acceptable in any form, in any place, whether in the community or in schools.”
Gretzky’s office was locked during the protest.
GECDSB trustees have voiced support for the gender policy amid critics saying it keeps secrets from parents. One trustee also claimed in a CBC interview only a “vocal minority” of parents oppose its gender identity policy. However, polling suggests otherwise.
A Leger poll commissioned by SecondStreet.org found that 56% of Ontarians believe parents should be notified if their child wants to change their gender or pronouns at school. Just 19% said the school should not let parents know.
Nationally, opposition to parental gatekeeping was higher among parents than among non-parents.
Today on the Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel, Rachel discusses Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s troubled visit to the Calgary Stampede. First, Premier Danielle Smith rejected his net zero electricity grid by 2035 target, and then Trudeau decided to try cooking for the first time. A Liberal rally also went awry when protesters showed up.
Finally, Rachel has an announcement to share and she addresses some of your comments from last week.
A Toronto landlord has launched a lawsuit against her former tenant and the tenant’s boyfriend, as well as the City of Toronto and Airbnb because her downtown condo was rented out on a short-term basis with neither her knowledge nor consent.
According to Allison Rasquinha’s statement of claim, which was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last month, Michelle Nicole Carter and Jose Cornejo Kelly registered her condo to become a short-term rental with the city.
However, the condo corporation expressly forbade short-term rentals.
The statement of claim also accuses Airbnb and the City of Toronto for neglecting their responsibilities to verify whether or not the tenants were even legally permitted to rent out the condo unit.
Rasquinha is seeking $1.6 million in damages.
“The property listing has over 30 reviews and, as such, it is evident that it has been rented at least 30 times during the duration of the listing,” the lawsuit said.
Bob Aaron, a real estate lawyer with Aaron & Aaron, told True North the defendants are up to their ears.
However, Aaron is especially critical of the City of Toronto for granting a licence in the first place without undertaking basic verification processes, especially since it amended short-term rentals rules a couple of years ago.
“It would help if the city enforced the rules by verifying who they’re giving permits to. How could they give a permit to someone who’s not the owner?” Aaron said.
“For the city to give an Airbnb licence to someone whose name is not the same as on the tax rolls—it’s just a matter of a few clicks to see who gets the tax bill for any property in the city, and at the same time they issue an Airbnb licence to someone who’s the owner—I don’t understand it.”
As for Airbnb, Aaron believes the company should have a database of buildings in which short-term rentals are prohibited.
“It’s the wild west out there,” he said.
Although the condo board hasn’t been named in the lawsuit, Aaron finds it curious all these short-term rental users were able to enter the building so effortlessly when condos typically have concierges or require key fobs for entry.
The City of Toronto declined True North’s request for comment since the case is before the courts, but sent a list of its registration verification process:
a valid government-issued identification (ID) to show evidence of principal residence, only Ontario Driver’s Licence or Ontario Photo Card are accepted
contact information and address
name and address on the registration must match government-issued ID
details of the short-term rental, including description of the type of building the rental is located in and which parts of the home will be short-term rented
name and telephone number of an alternate (emergency) contact who will be available 24 hours a day during rental periods.
An Italian Member of European Parliament (MEP) is blaming cheap wheat exports from Canada and other competitors for the country’s unfolding pasta crisis.
A question submitted to the European Commissioner by MEP Paola Ghidoni names Canada as a culprit among nations engaged in “cut-throat competition” to undercut local industries.
Ghidoni cites a petition launched by farmers across Italy to establish trade boycotts against foreign wheat product imports to protect the Italian market.
According to Ghidoni, “six times as much” wheat has been imported from Canada into Italy earlier this year when compared to the same period in 2022.
“This cut-throat competition from outside Europe jeopardizes both the survival of the Italian supply chain and food safety, since foreign output does not meet the same production standards as European produce,” writes Ghidoni.
The question before the Commission also claims speculation is to blame and calls for the European Union to take “urgent measures” to support local producers.
True North reached out to Global Affairs Canada for a response to Ghidoni’s accusations but did not receive a response by the deadline given.
Italy’s pasta crisis forced the country’s government to recently call an emergency meeting in May as prices for the product rose by 17.5% year-over-year despite wheat prices dropping.
Relations between Italy’s first woman Prime Minister Girogia Meloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have been off to a rocky start since she was elected last year.
While meeting with Meloni and others for the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Trudeau took the opportunity to lecture her government over her vocal opposition to gender ideology.
“Obviously, Canada is concerned about some of the (positions) that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights,” said Trudeau.
“But I look forward to talking with you about that.”
Canadians are being told to get yet another Covid-19 booster this coming fall by federal public health authorities.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued new guidance on Covid-19 vaccination on Tuesday.
According to NACI, people are being advised to receive a booster shot of a Covid-19 vaccine in the next few months, with guidance specifying a six month period since their second vaccination or their last infection.
“Booster doses in the fall will be formulations updated to target more recent, immune-evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants,” claimed NACI.
“Individuals vaccinated with the updated formulation are expected to benefit from a better immune response against these variants compared to current vaccines.”
The recommended mRNA vaccines are the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots.
NACI also urged everyone aged five and above who remain unvaccinated to get two doses of an approved mRNA vaccine as soon as possible.
For kids over the age of six months and below the age of five, NACI gave a “discretionary recommendation” for parents to get them a full vaccination series as well.
NACI said that getting vaccinated in the fall is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting infected or having severe outcomes from Covid-19. This includes people from Indigenous or racialized communities, according to the panel.
For those who are not willing or able to get an mRNA vaccine, NACI said that they can be offered Novavax’s Nuvaxovid instead.
Sixty-three percent of Canadians are concerned about losing access to news on Facebook and Google after the Trudeau government’s Bill C-18 became law last month, which would force Big Tech platforms to compensate Canadian media outlets.
Sixty-one percent of Canadians agree that while tech companies should pay for Canadian news on their platforms, 49% say that it is impractical and that the government should back down, according to a survey conducted by The Angus Reid Institute.
Only 26% of Canadians believe that the government should stand firm on its position against tech companies.
Fourty-two percent of those surveyed believe that Google and Meta should pay an annual fee to the government for sharing Canadian news content, while 20% said the platforms should pay for every click on Canadian news links.
On Monday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez conceded on aspects of the law in order to appeal to the tech companies. Among the proposed regulations includes implementing a cap on how much the platforms will have to pay to show news content.
Other proposals include considering “existing agreements that digital platforms have reached with news businesses” and clarifying what news outlets would be affected by the bill.
The effects of Bill C-18 are expected to come into full effect by the end of the year, according to the government’s report titled “The Online News Act: Next Steps.”
Meta and Google both announced last month that they will remove Canadian news from its platforms before the government’s law comes into effect.
“We are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect,” wrote a spokesperson for Meta in a statement.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada.”
Rodriguez told Canadians last week that the government will suspend all its advertising on the platforms in response to Meta and Google’s reluctance to work with the new law.
“Facebook has decided to be unreasonable and irresponsible,” said Rodriguez. “We’re counting on both platforms to stay at the table and work through the regulatory process with us.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announces that the Government of Canada will suspend all government advertising on Facebook and Instagram after failing to reach a deal with Meta after the passing of Bill C-18. pic.twitter.com/fAOeHttcJr
“Meta has left no doubt that it will not pay for links and that news has limited value on its platform,” writes University of Ottawa Research Chair on Internet Law Michael Geist. “With the government suspending its advertising on the platform, it is hard to see a road back for Meta.”
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Canada’s largest and most influential indigenous advocacy group, elected its very first female national chief, RoseAnne Archibald, on July 8, 2021.
Another first occurred on June 28, 2023 with Archibald’s removal as national chief of this 41-year-old organization.
That was when the chiefs-in-assembly, for a second time, addressed Archibald’s fate based on complaints of workplace harassment and a breach of both its whistle-blower policies and code of conduct and ethics, charges supported by the powerful 10-member group of AFN regional chiefs.
Understanding why this happened requires consideration. Archibald won the July 2021 national chief election on a platform that included a pledge to clean up the organization.
Her dismissal also seems rooted in rumours of workplace disarray that surfaced towards the end of 2021, eventually leading to bullying allegations against Archibald from four of her staff members.
A fifth complaint by the AFN’s former CEO followed sometime later.
In a statement issued June 16, 2022, the AFN confirmed it received the complaints the month before against Archibald and determined the findings supported further inquiry by an independent external investigator.
In her defence statement released the same day, Archibald claimed she welcomed the investigation but called for a forensic audit and independent inquiry into the last eight years of AFN operations.
The 10-member AFN executive committee, together with its board of directors, nevertheless voted to temporarily suspend her the very next day, pending the outcome of the external study.
But Archibald quickly was reinstated on July 5, 2022 at an AFN General Assembly when the Indian Chiefs-in-Assembly representing the 634 registered Indian Bands, the organization’s grassroots ruling body, roundly rejected a resolution calling for her suspension with only 44 voting in support, 252 voting against and 26 abstentions.
Archibald was less successful the second time around. The June 28 non-confidence motion secured 71%, or 163 of the 231 votes cast, calling for her dismissal following a supposed damning report by the external investigator that has never been released to band chiefs.
This partly accounts for why Archibald’s many supporters were outraged that she was dismissed in haste by only 26% of the 634 eligible associations voters.
According to the CBC, Archibald’s battle with the entrenched AFN, mainly male elites, began even before she assumed office.
In December 2020, Archibald backed a resolution calling for an investigation into gender-based discrimination at the AFN; it escalated in February 2021 when the Chiefs of Ontario umbrella group she headed passed a resolution calling for an independent financial review at the AFN.
Her term as national chief has been marked by repeated calls to investigate AFN financial and other corruption including incompetent administration, worker apathy and poor job performance, inflated salaries, wasteful spending, political patronage, exorbitant payout demands, unaccountability and a lack of transparency, untendered contracts, and related issues.
Even Indigenous Services Canada secretly intensified its monitoring of cash flow at the AFN shortly after Archibald was elected national chief, unclassified internal memos have shown.
But even before that, departmental officials had “long raised concerns” about the AFN re-allocating programme money to make up for deficits in operational funding, which the department’s deals with the AFN wouldn’t allow — and which the AFN denies has ever happened — according to a memo dated Nov. 5, 2020.
But this is not the end of the story because, if nothing else, Archibald is a tenacious political warrior. In 1990, aged 23, she was the first woman and youngest chief ever elected by her band in. She was the first woman and youngest Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief in 1991, and the first woman and youngest Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Council in 1994. And she became the first woman elected as Ontario Regional Chief in 2018.
In the fractious world of indigenous politics, Archibald has proven to be a survivor. So, it should come as no surprise that since her ouster, she has launched a frantic campaign to regain AFN leadership.
In a short video on July 3, Archibald appealed to her supporters to contact their respective chiefs and councils to demand her reinstatement as national chief and to advocate for a forensic audit of AFN finances under her predecessors, something she had called for on several previous occasions.
Her latest charge in a second video is the need for an independent investigation into potential government interference in AFN affairs, an organization federal officials have always claimed is independent of any government interference.
“The AFN has become a tool for the government,” Archibald said during a Facebook Live video on the evening of July 6.
She alluded to interference in the video, including allegations that there were connections between assembly staff, chiefs, former national chiefs and the federal Liberal government.
One of the 10 regional chiefs, a fierce enemy of Archibald, who make up the AFN regional chief executive became the interim leader of the national lobby group on July 9 as per the June 28 resolution.
The AFN began its 44th Annual General Assembly in Halifax on Tuesday, July 11, and it’s an open question whether it will focus exclusively on its agenda or if the group’s chaotic leadership dispute will dominate a gathering of hundreds of chiefs and other leaders.
Archibald vowed in a statement issued late Monday night to attend Day 1 of the meeting online, and potentially still travel to Halifax later this week. According to the CBC, she said the election of New Brunswick Regional Chief Joanna Bernard as interim national chief on July 10 was “marred by conflict of interest and a laterally violent coup against me as the first duly elected female National Chief.”
Archibald urged sympathetic chiefs to head for Halifax and reverse the decision while calling for a probe into government meddling in assembly affairs.
Joe Alphonse, chief of the Tl’etinqox-t’in Government and chair of the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, seconded the June 28 resolution in support of Archibald. He said he was disgusted by the way the AFN executive handled Archibald’s impeachment.
“Hire a legal team. Challenge them,” he said. “I’ll bet on RoseAnne. She’s an honourable person. Pack rats like to run with pack rats.”
Cara Currie Hall, chief of staff for former National Chief Matthew Coon Come, argued that:
“The entire validity of the organization is in question now by way of the actions of the regional chiefs,” she told APTN News.
Thaioronióhte Dan David, an award-winning journalist and former news director at APTN, says what’s happened to Archibald “is a coup.”
AFN Regional Chief Paul Prosper told APTN that the executive hasn’t found the money to conduct the forensic audit that chiefs in assembly voted for in 2022, a difficult assertion to accept given that the AFN received $39.2 million in federal cash in 2021-22.
Meanwhile, Archibald has alleged the AFN executive spent roughly $2 million since February 2021 on investigations and legal fees to oust her.
According to long-time critic and former candidate for AFN national chief, Pam Palmater, if there was some workplace policy that was violated, as the independent investigation determined, that could have been dealt with through progressive discipline rather than outright dismissal. She also said she will be looking for band chiefs to take their power back from the executive and regional chiefs in Halifax, otherwise, “this is the death knell where they don’t represent anyone, anymore and its really embarrassing.”
Stay tuned. This battle for the control, even survival, of the AFN is far from over.
