Quebec Premier Francois Legault is facing criticism after claiming higher housing prices are necessary – as he does not want Quebec to “stay poor” in order for homes in the province to be cheaper than in Ontario and British Columbia.
“At some point you have to understand that if the average wage goes up, house prices will go up,” said Legault. “It’s a consequence of supply and demand. I don’t want Quebec to remain poor so that we can keep house prices lower than in Toronto or Vancouver.”
“It’s one of the negative consequences of economic well-being, but people on average have more money to buy a house,” he added.
Legault also said “we have to make sure we help those who haven’t benefited from these salary increases” find housing, noting that his government aims to “develop as much affordable housing as possible”.
Legault’s comments are, however, being criticized.
“We can’t just target rising prices to say that things are fine if our people, our young families, our young people coming out of university aren’t able to live in the cities because it’s not affordable,” said Quebec City mayor Bruno Marchand when asked about Legault’s remarks.
“The government and the cities, we can’t just be satisfied with rising prices. We have to be better.”
Meanwhile, Quebec City councillor Claude Villeneuve described Legault’s claim as “nonsense.”
“It’s not true that wages and property prices are rising at the same rate. […] It’s nonsense to say something like that. It’s not a discourse that’s connected to reality.”
Legault was also criticized by Conservative Party of Quebec leader Eric Duhaime, who noted that politicians in Quebec recently voted to give themselves a generous raise.
“To paraphrase [Legault.], there’s nothing in a $400 or $500 a month rent increase when you vote yourself a $30,000 salary increase,” said Duhaime.
The current average house price in Quebec is $451,313, below the national average of $781,300. Ontario’s average house costs $928,897 while British Columbia’s sits at $1, 019, 145.
Quebec’s average household income before taxes is $77,306. Ontario’s is $97,856 and British Columbia’s is $90,354.
Legault’s office did not return True North’s request for additional comment in time for publication.
For most of the last 16 months, Freedom Convoy fundraiser and spokesperson Tamara Lich has been silenced by bail conditions preventing her from speaking about the protest for which she faces criminal charges. Now, for the first time, she and True North’s Andrew Lawton sit down on camera to talk about this pivotal moment in Canadian history and the fight against vaccine mandates.
Lich tells all in a new book called Hold the Line: My Story from the Heart of the Freedom Convoy.
In this lengthy interview, Lich and Lawton talk about the origins of the Freedom Convoy, the tensions between several of its key figures, Lich’s incarceration and ongoing legal battle, and more.
Over 60 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members attended a disciplinary hearing at Petawawa on Tuesday while the military was conducting a sweeping search and rescue mission for those involved in the CH-147 Chinook helicopter crash in the nearby Ottawa River.
Rescue efforts, which included over 110 CAF members as well as an Ontario Provincial Police amphibian unit and local firefighters ended on Wednesday with the Department of National Defence (DND) confirming the death of two members.
Two other members of the crew were treated for minor injuries.
DND Public Affairs Officer Lt. James Shrubb told True North that a hearing summary was convened on June 20, 2023 in Petawawa, Ontario involving 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment Lt. George Brar.
The Acting Commanding Officer of the battalion ordered the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery to conduct the summary hearing at the same time.
“Yes, the Officer Conducting the Summary Hearing ordered the attendance of Lt Brar, their assisting member, two members of 2 RCHA to assist with the conduct of the proceedings, and 10 witnesses,” Lt. Shrubb told True North in an emailed statement.
“As the hearing was open to CAF members, approximately 50 additional CAF members attended the summary hearing voluntarily.”
Brar faced four service infractions of the Queen’s Regulations and Orders (QR&O) which govern CAF member’s conduct. The charges included failure to perform duties, two counts of undermining discipline, efficiency or morale and unauthorized use of property.
A source familiar with the incident told True North that Brar was being disciplined for driving a military vehicle without the proper license.
Brar was found guilty of all four charges and faces a series of penalties including suspension of pay.
“The Officer Conducting the Summary Hearing found Lt Brar committed all four service infractions and imposed the following sanctions on Lt Brar: reprimand, deprivation of pay for 18 days, and withholding annual leave, accumulated leave, special and short leave for 30 days,” Lt. Shrubb told True North.
The families of the two deceased crew members as a result of yesterday’s crash have chosen not to release the identities of the victims.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Defence Minister Anita Anand extended her sympathies to those involved.
“This incident is a painful reminder that members of the Canadian Armed Forces undertake great risks to defend Canada, whether in combat or in training,” said Anand.
The Alberta government says it will hire outside arson investigators because it requires additional support due to the unusually early and aggressive wildfire season.
Earlier this month, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced she would hire arson investigators from outside the province due to 175 wildfires having no known causes.
Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen’s office says Alberta investigates every wildfire to determine origin and cause.
“While we do have investigators in Alberta who are qualified, given the high number of active wildfires so early this season we required additional support,” press secretary Pam Davidson told True North.
Investigators will determine if the fire was caused by humans. Determining whether the fire was deliberately set, or arson, is the role of the RCMP or law enforcement. The Alberta RCMP’s Forestry Crimes Unit handles all arson related investigations.
The RCMP announced last week that while the vast majority of Alberta’s fires have been attributed to naturally occurring sources like lightning, the Forestry Crimes Unit is currently investigating 12 suspicious wildfires from this year where human activity is believed to be a factor.
In 2022, 21 suspicious wildfires were investigated. A total of 40 were investigated in 2021.
Fires in Alberta reached a crisis point in early May, just days into the provincial election campaign, and during a time when the provincial firefighters typically undergo firefighting training exercises.
As fires burned across the province’s north, some reports of arson emerged. A May 3 post from the Parkland County Twitter account said its department had responded to four suspicious fires in the preceding five days on Highway 16, less than a 40-minute drive from the provincial capital of Edmonton.
“We are asking residents to report any suspicious behaviour to RCMP by calling 9-1-1,” the county wrote on Twitter.
Davidson said the investigations allow the government to track main causes, emerging trends and ensure “our prevention methods are up to date.”
The government is specifically requesting additional resources, including wildfire investigators, through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg. The province has already brought in two arson investigators from New Brunswick and two from BC.
Smith also said the government must do a better job of building fire guards so forest fires can’t jump into residential areas and cities. She said the province did a good job of working with local communities and accelerating fire guard prevention.
“We’re going to have forest fires, it’s the nature of what we have in Alberta,” she said. “And it’s our job as government to make sure that we mitigate, that we manage, and that we have the resources available when they do erupt.”
The June 26 mayoral election is, according to polls, Olivia Chow’s to lose.
Like her late husband and long-time federal NDP leader Jack Layton, Chow is campaigning on left-of-centre policies like affordable housing and homelessness, while also addressing Toronto’s rising crime.
However, Chow’s fiscal policy is unclear, and where her campaign platform has included dollar figures, critics have pounced.
For example, she’s pledged to build 25,000 rent-controlled homes on city-owned land over eight years—but the lion’s share of the city’s rentals are in buildings registered before Nov. 15, 2018, meaning they’re already rent controlled, and yet average rent in the city surges to new records every month.
Through increasing the building fund by 0.33%, Chow intends to earmark an estimated $404 million for these rent-controlled units, which works out to $16,160 per unit, raising eyebrows about the plan’s feasibility.
Moreover, relative to population growth, 25,000 units over eight years is a band-aid, not a viable solution.
Chow’s campaign is also built on tenant advocacy. She has pledged to prevent ‘renovictions’—a loophole landlords often use to evict tenants—through the so-called Affordable Homes Fund.
The plan would also prohibit renovictions even if a property is sold, as well as help not-for-profit, community, and Indigenous land trusts acquire apartment buildings. Additionally, it will allocate $100 million towards 667 rental units designated for “community” ownership, “guaranteeing affordability.”
To partially fund her programs, Chow will triple the vacant homes tax to 3% and implement a levy on luxury homes.
She has also vowed never to use Toronto’s new ‘strong mayor’ powers, keep the Ontario Science Centre in its current Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe location, keep libraries open every day of the week, and create more bike lanes.
As of June 15, Chow held a steady lead in the polls with 26% among all voters, and 30% among those who’ve already chosen their candidate of choice, CTV reported.
Chow is a career politician, first elected as a school board trustee in 1985, then as a Toronto city councillor six years later. She made a name for herself when she convinced city council to declare homelessness a national disaster, voted against rave parties, and fought Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport’s expansion.
Chow served on the Toronto Police Services Board until she was forced to resign in 2000 after attending a violent riot by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty during which she reportedly interfered with police.
Chow ran as a federal NDP candidate for Trinity-Spadina three times, losing the first two general elections in 1997 and 2004 before winning the downtown Toronto seat in 2006.
Her first Toronto mayoral bid was in 2014 but, despite leading in polls for months, she finished a distant third behind Doug Ford and John Tory, whose resignation earlier this year sparked the June 26 election.
Between losing her seat as an MP in the 2015 federal election and entering the mayoral race in April, Chow had been working the private sector, advocating progressive causes.
Chow has also courted controversy along the way.
She allegedly met with multiple Toronto-area groups that have connections to the People’s Republic of China (PPC), specifically accepting a gifted porcelain vase from the Council of Newcomer Organizations, a pro-state government organization that maligned Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019.
It also denounced the House of Commons’ condemnation of China’s genocide against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang region.Chow was also accused of meeting with the Fu Qing Business Association, a Markham-based Chinese police station that’s allegedly run by the CCP.
The University of Ottawa’s NDP campus club held a “Leftist Lit” event to honour LGBTQ pride month which featured literature discussing furries, kinks as well as gender ideology and police abolitionism, True North has learned.
The readings also criticized advocating for gay marriage, and said families are a “way to advance capitalism.”
“We will be having a Pride themed Leftist Lit in honour of June being Pride Month,” notes the description for the June 12 event. “We will be reading three short chapters from ‘Against Equality: Queer Revolution Not Mere Inclusion’, a collection of letters and essays edited by Ryan Conrad.”
The three chapters read were titled “Open Letter to LGBT Leaders Who Are Pushing Marriage Equality”, “Against Equality, Against Marriage: An Introduction” and “Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer.”
The first reading, “Open Letter to LGBT Leaders Who Are Pushing Marriage Equality” notes that “Looking into the community of people who base their lives on sexuality and gender, there’s a lot of door-opening to do.”
“Beyond L, G, B and T, there’s also Q for queer and Q for questioning. There’s an S for sadomasochists, an I for intersex, an F for feminists, and another F for furries,” reads the literature. “Our community is additionally composed of sex educators, sex workers, adult entertainers, pornographers, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women, and asexuals who have sex in whatever manner they define their asexuality.”
“You want to create some real change? Make room for genderqueers, polyamorists, radical faeries, butches, femmes, drag queens, drag king, and other dragf**k royalty too fabulous to describe in this short letter.”
The literature also claims that “marriage equality is an incorrect priority for the LGBTQetc communities,” noting that “when lesbian and gay community leaders whip up the community to fight for the right to marry, it’s a further expression of America’s institutionalized greed in that it benefits only its demographic constituency.”
“Marriage is a privileging institution. It has privileged, and continues to privilege people along lines of not only religion, sexuality and gender, but also along the oppressive vectors of race, class, age, looks, ability, citizenship, family status, and language,” the literature claims.
“Lesbian and gay leaders must cease being self-obssessed and take into account the very real damage that’s perpetrated on people who are more than simply lesbian women and/or gay men, more than bisexual or transgender even.”
The second reading, titled “Against Equality, Against Marriage: An Introduction” also criticizes marriage.
“(Marriage) remains the neoliberal state’s most efficient way to corral the family as a source of revenue, and to place upon it the ultimate responsibility for guaranteeing basic benefits,” claims the literature.
“In short, the family is the best way to advance capitalism, as the base unit through which capitalism distributes benifits our reliance on the marital family structure, emphasized and valorized by the push for gay marriage, we allow the state to mandate that only some relationships and some forms of social networks count.”
The third reading called “Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer” offers an abolitionist critique of prosecuting hate crimes.
“We are told by gay and lesbian rights organizations that passing (hate crime) legislation is the best way to respond to the ongoing violence we face that we need to make the state and the public care about our victimization and show they care by increasing surveillance of and punishment for homophobic and transphobic attacks,” says the reading.
“Hate crime laws are part of the larger promise of criminal punishment systems to keep us safe and resolve our conflicts.”
“This is an appealing promise in a society wracked by gun violence and sexual violence. In a heavily armed, militaristic, misogynist, and racist society, people are justifiably scared of violence, and that fear is cultivated by a constant feed of television shows portraying horrifying violence and brave police and prosecutors who put serial rapists and murderers in prison.”
The literature also claims that “jails and prisons are not full of dangerous people, they are full of people of color, poor people, and people with disabilities,” and that “the most dangerous people, the people who violently destroy and end the most lives, are still on the outside – they are the people running banks, governments, and courtrooms, and they are the people wearing military and police uniforms.”
The NDP club touched on the concept of “homonationalism,” defined as “the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights.”
The uOttawa NDP club says its mission is “to educate and organize students and young people into a community of progressives in order to promote the election of New Democratic governments across Canada.”
“Our goal is to transform our state, society, and economy along democratic socialist and social democratic lines and promote progressive politics across Canada.”
True North reached out to the campus club to ask how far-left literature on furries and kinks contributes to fulfilling their mission, but they did not respond in time for publication.
Despite an explosive claim in a government report that shovel-wielding “denialists” attempted to dig up alleged remains on the grounds of a former residential school, the RCMP says it has received no reports of such.
Illegal drugs are now the leading cause of death in British Columbia, killing more people than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural causes combined.
And a research report found that anti-woke Ottawa school board trustees received the greatest proportion of abusive tweets during the previous municipal election campaign.
Tune into the 150th episode of The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Cosmin Dzsurdzsa!
Four ridings held by-elections yesterday, in which the Conservatives and Liberals each held onto their two seats. Even so, the Conservatives had a tougher fight than usual to win the southwestern Ontario riding of Oxford, while the People’s Party of Canada and its leader Maxime Bernier failed to live up to their 2021 performance in Portage–Lisgar in rural Manitoba. True North’s Andrew Lawton breaks down the results and what they mean for the Conservatives and the PPC moving forward.
Also, Canada is reassessing its relationship with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank after a Canadian staffer from the bank resigned citing rampant Chinese Communist Party influence. Former finance minister Joe Oliver joins to discuss why Canada should have stayed out of the AIIB in the first place.
Illegal drug toxicity is now the leading cause of death in British Columbia, killing more people between the ages of 10 and 59 than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined.
The province also saw over 1000 drug-related deaths in the first five months of 2023, despite the possession of small amounts of hard drugs having been decriminalized in the province as a “harm-reduction” effort endorsed by the federal government.
Data from the B.C. Coroners Service states that 1,018 people have died from drug use since the start of the year – with 227 dying in January, 193 dying in February, 204 dying in March, 218 dying in April and 176 dying in May.
If trends continue – the number of B.C. drug deaths in 2023 will surpass 2022’s record number.
SCREENSHOT: Rates of illegal drug deaths in B.C. continue to increase. B.C. Coroners Service
Of the drug deaths reported so far this year, 85% were linked to fentanyl. Other drugs responsible for large amounts of deaths include methamphetamine and cocaine.
British Columbia was the first place in North America to open a supervised drug injection site back in 2003. There are now many more in the province today, but while they are branded as a “harm-reduction” measure, drug deaths have skyrocketed since their introduction 20 years ago.
The provincial and federal governments have, however, opted to double down on their “harm-reduction” agenda, by giving addicts a “safer-supply” of drugs and decriminalizing hard drugs in the province.
Multiple experts have spoken out on the safe supply agenda, noting that both British Columbia and Canada are on the wrong track.
Drug overdoses have killed 12,264 people in B.C. since April 2016, while nationally over 32,000 people have died from overdoses since 2016. Health Canada says fentanyl was involved in 76% of these drug deaths.
The European Union says Canada’s deal to dole out $13 billion in federal subsidies to secure a Volkswagen EV plant is a challenge to its battery industry, along with America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Earlier this year, the federal government announced it would ply Volkswagen with federal funds in return for a battery plant to employ 2,500 people in southwestern Ontario.
An EU report says this deal, along with tax incentives granted for similar initiatives under the IRA, present a challenge to the value of Europe’s battery industry.
“There is now the potential knock-on effect that several net-zero tech manufacturing investment decisions which were originally targeting the EU are being jeopardised because of the IRA or other net-zero industry support policies around the globe, representing a challenge to EU’s industry,” the report reads.
The report is a working document from EU commission staff about establishing a framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem, also known as the Net Zero Industry Act.
The Volkswagen plant will cost $5 billion to build, and the subsidies will flow over the next decade in return for the German vehicle manufacturer’s first overseas battery manufacturing plant.
The report also says the $13 billion going to Volkswagen matches what the company would have received in America under the IRA, another challenge to Europe’s industry.
The IRA, America’s climate legislation, became law in August 2022 as a means to incentivize businesses to accelerate transition to a clean energy economy.
EU analysts claimed that US manufacturing facilities are estimated to benefit largely from the IRA, and receive the highest influx of investments at the expense of Europe’s battery industry and its value chain.
The report notes that US electric vehicle maker Tesla recently announced that its German plant will continue to produce some parts of electric cars, but priority will be given to the US due to the “attractiveness” of the IRA.
“In particular, although Tesla began assembling battery systems and prepares to produce battery cell components such as electrodes at its plant in Germany, it announced that it will focus instead on battery cell production in the United States in light of tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act,” the report reads.
It further expresses concern that important supply chains and green investments will locate from the EU to the US over the medium term because of the legislation’s local content and production requirements
“Some EU-based businesses have expressed their possible intentions of diverting previously planned investments from the EU to the US.”
Ottawa has pledged to remain competitive with the US and convince electric vehicle battery producers to build plants in the north.
“This is game-changer for our nation,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said of the Volkswagen plant in April.
“When you see a transformation in history like that, you have to seize the moment. You lose that, what’s going to happen to the auto sector? What’s the cost of inaction?”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano argues the money given to Volkswagen would’ve been better suited for Canadians during tough economic times.
“Taxpayers don’t have $13 billion to give to a multinational corporation,” Terrazzano said when the deal was announced.
“For $13 billion, Canada could build 15 hospitals based on the construction costs of the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital.’
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was also critical of the deal, arguing that taxpayers’ money does not belong to foreign companies.
“This money belongs to Canadians, not to a foreign corporation,” he said when the factory was first announced.
