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Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Top correctional official says Mendicino’s office received heads up on Bernardo transfer

By
Noah Jarvis
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The Commissioner of Correctional Services Canada (CSC) Anne Kelly insists that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office had been properly informed of Paul Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security prison, refuting the minister’s claim that he knew nothing of the matter.

Access to Information documents obtained by the Canadian Press reveals that deputy minister of public safety Shawn Tupper and associate deputy minister Tricia Geddes, were sent an email three days before Bernardo was set to be transferred, an email that Tupper acknowledged and replied to.

This comes after Mendicino’s weeks-long denial that he had any knowledge of Bernardo’s transfer to a medium-security facility before it had happened.

Mendicino’s office previously told the press that his staff had known about the transfer before it had happened, but kept the minister and the victim’s families in the dark.

Mendicino’s ministry was notified of Bernardo’s transfer three months before the planned move, then three days ahead of it actually taking place.

Emails show that CSC commissioner Kelly had directly contacted deputy minister Tupper and associate deputy minister Geddes just before Bernardo’s May 29th transfer, writing “High Profile Offender” in the subject line. 

They were also told that the Privy Council Office, Mendocino’s office, and the Prime Minister’s office had been advised and will be given “media lines” by CSC.

Just minutes after the initial email, deputy minister Tupper acknowledged Kelly’s email and thanked her. 

On June 6th, four days after news of Bernardo’s transfer broke, Kelly wrote to Tupper and Geddes to check whether or not Mendicino had been notified of the move by CSC.

“I understand from my staff that someone at (the Public Safety Department) said (the minister) had not been notified,” Kelly said in an email titled “PRIVATE — Transfer.”

“We have a notification process in place as you know and we certainly followed it.”

The move by CSC to move the notorious serial rapist and serial killer from a maximum security prison to a medium security facility without alerting the families of Bernardo’s victims has drawn the ire of Canadians and the political establishment alike.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has called on Mendicino to resign over the controversy, citing a litany of alleged lies that the minister had told Canadians over the past couple of years.

In contrast to the Conservatives, the NDP and their leader Jagmeet Singh have remained relatively quiet on the matter.

35% of CAF members report not having necessary equipment: audit

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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In a recent report published by the Department of National Defence (DND), 35% of active Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members interviewed reported not having the necessary equipment required to complete missions. 

Three unclassified audits have exposed serious gaps and weaknesses in the readiness of the Canadian military across the land, sea, air and space domains. 

Auditors found that on all fronts the military faced significant challenges in meeting the current and future needs of theCAF, as well as fulfilling Canada’s broader commitments to NATO and other allies. 

One of the programs evaluated was the Ready Land Forces, which concluded that the Canadian Army (CA) did not have the equipment necessary to fulfil its training and readiness obligations. The program also lacked reliable data to accurately measure and report the situation. 

“The CA does not have enough serviceable key land fleet to meet training and readiness levels,” wrote auditors.

“This current state of land equipment is creating concerns about the CA’s ability to prepare for and meet the land equipment requirements of the future.”

Additionally, the lack of personal equipment for individual units was cited as a chief concern by the report. 

“There may not be enough personal equipment to adequately outfit CA members, as 35% of CA members surveyed indicated they did not have the personal equipment needed to complete their assigned tasks,” the report found.  

In June, reports emerged that Canadian soldiers deployed on international missions in Latvia were forced to pay for their own equipment out of pocket.

On top of a lack of equipment, Canada’s military was found to be limited in its ability to transport and sustain the stock it has in its inventory, often having to rely on allies to meet their demands. 

“The CA’s ability to transport equipment for training and operations is limited, often resulting in the CA having to rely on allies and industry,” wrote auditors. 

The audit also evaluated Canada’s Ready Air and Space Forces program, concluding that the Royal Canadian Air Force’s ability to meet its readiness requirements was “compromised.” 

“Program data suggests the RCAF is experiencing a personnel crisis linked to both recruitment and retention. There are vacancies in a number of key occupations across the RCAF,” the report found. 

“Personnel shortages are exacerbated by decreased numbers in recruitment during the pandemic, the overburdening of existing RCAF members, an increase in domestic operations, the “missing (hollow) middle” and an increase in RCAF capabilities that will require sufficient levels of ready and trained personnel.”

When it comes to responding to international threats, auditors found that the Ready Joint and Combined Forces program was ill-equipped and struggling to meet NATO commitments. 

“Personnel shortages and a perceived lack of training have impeded the integration of joint enablers. Among survey respondents, 44% felt that space and cyber capabilities are not being fully integrated,” wrote auditors. 

“The CAF will be challenged to meet its commitments to NATO without a correction to its strained human resource levels.”

Conservatives would win if an election were tomorrow: poll

By
Neil Sharma
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The Conservatives would form Canada’s next government if there were an election tomorrow, according to the latest polling from Ipsos.

The poll—which surveyed 1,000 decided voters on June 19-20 on Global News’s behalf —revealed Tory leader Pierre Poilievre is gaining momentum just as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh have waning support.

Among decided voters, the Conservatives polled at 37%, up four points since a previous poll was administered in February, over the Liberals’ 32%—down a point from four months earlier—while the NDP slid by a couple of points to 16%.

The Bloc Quebecois’ had considerable support in Quebec, with 34% of decided voters surveyed throwing support behind the party—whose support grew by a percentage point to 8% nationally.

The Ipsos poll also revealed the Green Party dropped by a point to 3% last month, while the People’s Party of Canada—drew just 2%, falling by a point from February.

Nine percent of survey respondents were undecided about which party they’d vote for if there were a federal election tomorrow, and 6% said they would either spoil their vote or abstain altogether.

By region, the Ipsos poll reported the Conservatives enjoy strong support in Western Canada, while the Liberals garnered the lion’s share of their support among eastern provinces.

The Conservatives have stalwart support among decided voters in Alberta at 58%, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba with 43%.

Support for the Conservatives in British Columbia is at 37%, with the NDP tailing at 28%, while the Liberals and Green Party polled at 24% and 7%, respectively. In Ontario, the Tories have support from 38% of decided voters, and 35% in Atlantic Canada, but only 15% of Quebecers said they would vote for the party.

At 40%, support for the Liberals is most robust in Atlantic Canada, while they’re tied with the Conservatives in Ontario, and enjoy support among 37% of decided voters in Quebec. Although the Grits enjoy 35% of support in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and 24% in B.C., support in Alberta drops precipitously to 13%.

The NDP received most of their support in BC with 28% of backing from decided voters, followed by Alberta (21%), Ontario (18%), and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (17%).

OP-ED: RoseAnne Archibald takes up the gauntlet against the Assembly of First Nations establishment

By
Hymie Rubenstein
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Whatever her faults — and she has several, as I’ve already shown — RoseAnne Archibald still has to be admired for being such a determined fighter.

She is now taking on the sclerotic but powerful old-boys’ network at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), a generously government-funded organization that she has claimed is full of financial and other corruption since the beginning of her election as its national chief in 2021.

In a short Facebook video posted Monday evening that can be viewed here, Archibald argued that AFN chiefs “ignored our sacred ways” on June 28 when they voted to oust her as national chief.

In the video, 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 has called for on several occasions.

“I don’t want to be reinstated because of my ego. I want to be reinstated because I have a sacred responsibility that I have to fulfil,” Archibald said in the video recorded inside her vehicle in Vancouver. 

She said AFN chiefs carried out “one of the most violent acts against an Indigenous, First Nation women leader ever.” 

Archibald’s claims of “sacred responsibility” and “violent acts” are hard to take seriously given the profane way — at least from an ancient indigenous inter-group conflict resolution perspective that many indigenous activists regularly still give lip or ceremonial service to — she has attacked her ideological and political foes in such a public and vitriolic way.

She was ousted last week at a hastily convened virtual Zoom assembly attended by only 231 delegates, less than half the 634 Indian Bands eligible to vote. It saw 163 people vote to adopt a non-confidence motion, 62 opposed and six abstentions.

In short, only 26% of eligible voters supported her ouster.

The Zoom meeting was called to address the findings of an investigation into five workplace misconduct complaints filed last year, which found Archibald harassed two staffers and retaliated against all five.

This is Archibald’s second removal from office. She was first suspended as national chief on June 17, 2022 over the same charges but before an investigation of their veracity had been undertaken.

But she claimed, rightly it turned out, at that time, the suspension was part of what she called an attempted coup in retaliation for her efforts to explore alleged corruption within the AFN, a credible charge if there ever was one.

“I am relentless in my pursuit of truth. Let me assure you that the struggle for transparency, accountability and truth is an honourable and worthy cause,” Chief Archibald told the assembled delegates ahead of a vote on her suspension.

An emergency resolution calling on the chiefs to uphold the suspension was introduced by the executive at last year’s AFN General Assembly. But Chief Archibald’s supporters fiercely defended her in the debate before the vote, asserting that the members of the executive did not have the authority to suspend an elected national chief.

The end result was that the resolution was roundly rejected by the chiefs on July 5, 2022 with only 44 voting in support of it, 252 voting against and 26 abstentions.

In short, 78% voted to retain her as national chief.

Her removal last week may yet again be a temporary one because the AFN is set to hold its 44th Annual General Assembly between July 10-13 in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she and her supporters will again raise bloody hell to get her reinstated.

It needs to be noted that Archibald has made seemingly credible allegations of AFN corruption in the past.

And regardless of whether she is a loose cannon or not, if yet another reinstatement helps reveal, if not eliminate, the systemic rot in the AFN, she deserves to prevail again.

Hymie Rubenstein is editor of The REAL Indigenous Issues newsletter and a retired professor of anthropology, the University of Manitoba

BONOKOSKI: Few remember the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history

By
Mark Bonokoski
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Ottawa memorial to the victims of bombing of Air India flight AI182

In the late 1980s, while based in London, I received a tip from the Canadian consulate that a person linked to the greatest act of terrorism in Canada’s history was about to be arrested in the English city of Sheffield.

For that reason alone, I have never forgotten the tragedy of Air India Flight 182, which originated in Canada and was blown up over the Irish sea on the last week of June 1985 — killing all 329 people aboard, 280 of them Canadian citizens.

Now, 38 years later, few Canadians can remember it even happening.

A new Angus Reid poll found that nine-in-10 Canadians say they have little (61%) or no (28%) knowledge of the worst single instance of the mass killing of their fellow citizens, with three-in-five (58%) of those younger than 35 saying they have never even heard of it.

In British Columbia, where the conspiracy to commit the bombings was hatched, and Ontario, where many of the victims lived, awareness is higher, but fewer than one-in-six in each province say they know a lot about the attack.

In 2016, the bombmaker, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was getting out of jail once again and, once again, he was keeping his mouth shut, offering just enough tactical repentance to ensure his release — and no more.   

Reyat, convicted three times, is still the only man convicted at all in Canada’s worst-ever mass murder. Until Sept. 11, the bombing of Air India was the deadliest terrorist attack anywhere, ever. 

Yet few remember.  

Even when Reyat was arrested by the British constabulary in Sheffield (where he worked in an auto plant), few knew who the bearded and turbaned man in the parka who had just showed up at the Bow’s Street courthouse in London was — the Fleet St. press more interested in an alleged spy being arraigned in the next courtroom.

But soon word got out.

The 1985 Air India bombing involved extremists advocating for a separate Sikh state in Punjab. Indian extremists allegedly planted a bomb on Air India Flight 182. The bomb exploded while the plane was off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 on board. A second bomb targeting Air India Flight 301 from Tokyo to Bangkok, originating in Vancouver, detonated at the terminal in Japan’s Narita International Airport, killing two baggage handlers.

The decades since the tragedy have seen numerous trials and investigations (leading only to the conviction of Reyat in connection to the case), a public inquiry into the Canadian government handling of the incident, an official government apology 25 years after the fact, and memorials built, but yet the Air India bombings continue to be a relatively unknown piece of Canadian history.

Just one-in-ten (11%) Canadians told Angus Reid they “know a lot” about the incident. A majority (61%) say they know just the main details while three-in-10 (28%) have not heard about the Air India bombings at all. Awareness is higher in B.C., home to the conspirators in the bombings, and Ontario, where the ill-fated flight originated.

Meanwhile, more than two-in-five (46%) in Quebec say they are completely unaware of the event.

Canadians who were born after the Air India bombings are most likely to say they had not heard of the tragedy. More than half of men aged 18 to 34 (53%), and three-in-five women that age (62%), say they are not even  aware of the event.

One-quarter (23%) of men aged 55-plus say they know a lot about the incident, double the rate of any other demographic.

Yet the tragedy resonates with each passing year.

.

The Daily Brief | Canadians are not interested in EVs

By
Rachel Parker
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Source: Ivan Radic / Flickr

A Liberal MP from Atlantic Canada has publicly criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax hike and the impact of his government’s energy policies on the region’s economy.

Plus, former interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen warns the Iranian regime is influencing Canadian bureaucrats.

And Canadians are not interested in buying an electric vehicle despite the Trudeau government’s best efforts to push them.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd! 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY BRIEF

Trillions of cyber attacks aimed at Canadian government

By
Neil Sharma
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Source: Wikipedia

Canadian government institutions were targeted in cyber attacks an estimated 2.3 trillion times during the previous fiscal year—or 6.3 billion times a day, says a report from the Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

In its Annual Report, which covered April 2022 to the end of March 2023, the attacks were referred to as “malicious actions” against the government, typically in the form of ransomware, information extraction, and attempts to map government systems, all of which increased in its last fiscal year compared to previous years.

The agency’s 2020-21 Annual Report said it blocked 2-7 billion malicious actions a day, and 3-5 billion during the following fiscal year.

The CSE told True North the war in Ukraine partially explains the latest increase.

“Since Russia’s unjustified and illegal invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, we have seen a notable rise in cyber threat activity by Russian-aligned actors targeting Ukraine’s allies, including Canada,” Robyn Hawco, a CSE spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

The statement added that state-sponsored programs from hostile foreign actors are also at play.

“However, as outlined in the National Cyber Threat Assessment (NCTA) 2023-24, the state-sponsored programs of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea all pose a strategic threat to Canada. State-sponsored cyber activity is generally the most sophisticated threat to Canadians and Canadian organizations.”

Hawco declined True North’s request to elaborate attack details. But the report noted that the government agency opened 2,089 “cyber incident” cases during the 2022-23 fiscal year, more than half of which, Hawco said, affected critical infrastructure organizations.

The report defined a cyber incident as “any unauthorized attempt, whether successful or not, to gain access to, modify, destroy, delete, or render unavailable any computer network or system resource”

However, the overwhelming majority of so-called cyber incidents aren’t reported.

The Annual Report said the CSE’s foreign signals intelligence collection is determined by the country’s intelligence priorities, which Cabinet establishes.

Reports the CSE produced for the government covered such topics as espionage, sabotage, intellectual property theft, “Arctic sovereignty,” instability in Haiti, terrorism and extremism.

BONOKOSKI: Trudeau is trying to make Canada unrecognizable

By
Mark Bonokoski
-

Another Canada Day has come and gone, with the first fireworks display in Ottawa since the pandemic.

But the fireworks weren’t held on Parliament Hill, but in a roughish park of town nearby called LeBreton Flats where almost everyone wants a new Ottawa Senator hockey rink to be built.

The club has been purchased by another billionaire, this time from Toronto,  who wants a rink there as well, so let the civic battle begin for it has the buildup to be  a doozy.

This has nothing to do with Canada Day, of course, if only for the fireworks anecdote but everything to do with the general state of affairs across the political board.

“Wherever our flag flies, it’s recognized as a symbol of democracy, of freedom and of hope,” Trudeau said in a statement released on Canada Day.

He said Canada offers a promise of a life in an open and welcoming society, but also one “where we acknowledge historical wrongs and learn from the past in order to build a better future for everyone.”

Sorry, but we have a prime minister in Trudeau who is trying to make our country unrecognizable by taking all measures of wind out of its sails, beginning with the naïve condemnation of historic figures and then tearing down their statues.

No greater an insult among them, of course, is the scatter-brained reaction to Sir John A. Macdonald’s involvement in the fledgling residential schools to have him “cancelled.”

It seems odd to defend him as Canada’s first prime minister who, during his tenure, had a railway built across the nation, even cutting it through the Rockies, in order to create this very nation.

His name should forever be honoured, not tattered.

And then there is Egerton Ryerson, his statue tarred and vandalized (with its head cut) off because of his alleged involvement in the residential schools when the schools predated his era in history. Critics were so quick to condemn that Ryerson University, without a groundswell of support, got weak in the spine and changed its name to a sterile Toronto Metropolitan University.

The closure crowd was having its heyday.

What hasn’t hit yet is the behemoths of Meta and Google coming through with their intent to not share Canadian news on its streaming in protest of Trudeau’s legislation intended to make the big tech duo pay for that very news.

The irony, of course, is that Meta and Google are responsible for all but killing the newspaper game to the point that two thin papers are now needed to cover the floor of the proverbial birdcage.

And it shouldn’t be thus.

Thanks to the Trudeau Liberals and the leftists who yank its chain we now have a passport totally lacking inspiration.

As the Western Standard’s Nigel Hannaford so nicely put it, “That is, this Canada Day, as the Liberal government tries to erase national memories and symbols with new anodyne passports devoid of inspiration, renamed roads and institutions and more seriously yet, a suite of new laws that undercuts the very values which the symbols represent and always made Canada a ‘good’ country, let us indeed honour those who came before. For, they created a country that people wanted to come to, not to flee from.”

Amen to that. 

Instead, the new passport’s visa pages depict sketches of Canada throughout the seasons, such as birds at a feeder, an Indigenous kayaker, narwhals with tusks breaching the water and a man raking leaves into a wheelbarrow in front of a home.

But no Vimy Ridge. But no Terry Fox

No real Canada.

Trudeau government continues support for terror-linked UN group

By
Neil Sharma
-

The Trudeau government renewed its support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) last week, a controversial organization with deep ties to Hamas.

“This assistance includes up to $100 million over 4 years to deliver core programs that support basic education, health, social services and livelihood opportunities and protect the rights of Palestinian refugees,” a government of Canada news release reads. 

Advocates are warning that the Trudeau government’s Palestinian aid money often makes its way into the hands of terrorist groups like Hamas, making Canada an indirect state sponsor of terror.

However, advocates such as the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) are warning the government about its continued support for UNRWA. 

“CIJA supports legitimate Canadian government efforts to assist Palestinians in providing measures such as food security and healthcare,” said David Cooper, CIJA’s vice president of government relations.

“We remain, however, concerned about continued incidents of incitement by UNRWA staff, their ongoing support of terrorism, and their development and use of problematic educational materials.”

A report published in 2017 from UN Watch was critical of the Trudeau government’s support of UNRWA because teachers and other employees working for the organization engaged in anti-Israeli rhetoric, including calls for its erasure, while glorifying terrorism and even quoting Adolf Hitler.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Hillel C. Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, which was dated April 7, 2017, the prime minister was reminded of his “Commitment to exercise stringent oversight of Canada’s UNRWA funding, and to uphold universal values of tolerance and respect.”

“UN Watch is extremely troubled that Canada would fund schools that knowingly employ exponents of racism and terrorism. For its own students, Canada removes teachers of hate from the classroom, prosecuting some for promoting hatred; Palestinian children deserve no less protection,” Neuer’s letter to Trudeau said.

It has been reported that aid money collected by UNRWA intended for Palestinians has even found its way into the hands of Islamist militants like Hamas, which spends the money on weapons used to kill Israelis. The Jewish Policy Center has even said Hamas cannot be weakened without targeting UNRWA, which it also claimed provides Hamas and other extremist groups with logistical assistance.

In May, Barbara Leaf, United States assistant secretary of state for New Eastern Affairs, admitted the Palestinian National Authority, which controls part of the West Bank, runs a so-called “pay-for-slay” program in which terrorists are compensated for killing Israelis. Leaf said that while efforts are being made to stop the program, they have “not yet” succeeded.

Despite the Trudeau government’s promise to enhance due diligence, its continued support for UNRWA— committing $90 million to the organization between 2019 and this year—appears to flout any accountability by maintaining ties with an organization whose past is troubling.

Feds change tune on role of natural gas under Clean Electricity Regulations

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The Liberal government’s Clean Electricity Regulations, which aim to eliminate the use of natural gas or coal in electricity grids by 2035, might not entirely rule out natural gas-fired power generation if producers embrace costly carbon capture technology.

At least that’s what federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson claimed in an interview with Pipeline Online during his visit to Saskatchewan this week.

Wilkinson met with the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce in Regina to discuss his government’s “just transition” for the energy industry. 

The minister addressed the Province of Saskatchewan’s concerns about a discussion paper on the Clean Electricity Regulations. 

“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. There is no clean electricity regulation that’s been published to date. So, I think, I would, if I were you, I would wait to see what the regulation says,” Wilkinson told the outlet. 

“But I would suspect that the regulation will actually allow for continued use of gas, particularly in the context of where you’re actually doing carbon capture.” 

Eliminating natural gas from the energy supply would be challenging for Saskatchewan and Alberta, which rely heavily on fossil fuels for their electricity supply, especially when renewable sources such as wind and solar are not reliable.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology that seizes carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other industrial sources, then injects, and permanently stores, them underground. 

Saskatchewan has already made headway in CCS technology with its Boundary Dam coal-fired power station near Estevan. 

Wilkinson’s latest comments contrast Liberal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who threatened premiers with potential jail time for refusing to follow the federal government’s clean electricity laws. 

“We’ve regulated the ban on coal through (Canadian Environmental Protection Act), which is a criminal tool that the federal government has,” said Guilbeault. 

“So not complying with this regulation would be a violation of Canada’s Criminal Code.”

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