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Monday, September 29, 2025

Majority of Canadians unhappy with government response to crime and drug crisis

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

A new Leger poll commissioned by Postmedia reveals that Canadians at large are dissatisfied with the current approach of their governments to address the rising issues of crime and addiction. 

The poll, which surveyed 1,500 Canadians in the first week of June 2023, found that most Canadians want more aggressive measures to deal with violent offenders, drug traffickers and addicts.

According to the poll, 79% of Canadians agree that there are too many repeat violent offenders being offered bail, and 78% agree that the justice system is too lenient on those who commit violent crimes. 

“I think policymakers and decision makers need to realize that there are some very strong sentiments being expressed on these issues,” Leger’s Executive VP Andrew Enns told the National Post. 

“We’re seeing large percentages of people saying things are getting worse.”

Moreover, 91% of Canadians agree that repeat violent offenders should have their access to bail severely restricted or revoked, while 73% agree with the same even if it could lead to challenges on the interpretation of the Charter of Rights.

Most Canadians (86%) want more efforts to identify and prosecute those involved in bringing drugs into the community, and over 70% want more policing on drugs.

“I think there was a perception, correct or not, that safe injection sites would lead to a solution, and those problems are instead amplified probably ten-fold from where they were,” said Enns.

“So there’s this frustration of ‘what else can we do. This isn’t working.’”

Additionally, Canadians want violent crime, such as murder and assault, to be the top priority for government decision makers to tackle when it comes to crime in Canada, followed by illegal firearm possession and drug and substance abuse.

On the issue of involuntary treatment programs, which has been recently promoted by Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith, 71% of Canadians agree with involuntary treatment programs where seriously addicted individuals are required to attend addiction programs.

The results of the poll indicate that Canadians are largely dissatisfied with the status quo on how their governments are responding to spiking rates of crime and addiction, and that they want more decisive action to restore order and safety to their cities.

Meta disputes Smith’s claims that she was blocked from Facebook

By
Rachel Parker
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The company that runs Facebook, Meta, is disputing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s claims that she was blocked from posting on Facebook.

In a post to Twitter on Wednesday, Smith wrote that Facebook had temporarily banned her from posting to the social media site, writing, “Big tech and government censorship is becoming a danger to free speech around the world.”

But Meta says Smith’s account was never locked and instead that one administrator on her account faced restrictions. 

“There were no restrictions placed on the Premier’s Page,” David Troya-Alvarez, a Meta spokesperson, said in a statement to Postmedia.

“One of the Page’s administrators faced restrictions, but that did not impact the underlying Page’s ability to post content.” 

Shortly after reporters posted screenshots of Meta’s response, Smith announced that she had once again gained access to her Facebook account. 

“Happy to report, my page is able to post on Facebook again,” she wrote. “This was the error that appeared on my page. I hope this is the last time it happens.”

The post included a screenshot from Facebook that reads, “Sorry, you can’t post to Facebook from this account. For security reasons, your account has limited access to the site for a few days.” 

The Premier’s Office did not respond to a request for clarification from True North about whether her account was at any time blocked. 

Many speculated that Smith was being censored following the passage of Bill C-11, federal legislation that gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commissio (CRTC) powers to regulate social media platforms, which some content creators warn will heighten censorship. 

While she temporarily was unable to access her Facebook page, Smith said all Canadians must stand against censorship. She tagged Twitter owner Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg in the post. 

“As the Premier of a province of 4.6 million Albertans- if they can prevent me from communicating with you, imagine what they can do to any one of us.” 

The Rupa Subramanya Show | Here’s what really happened at the Ottawa gender ideology protest

By
Rupa Subramanya
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Last week, a protest against gender ideology in Canada’s schools took place in the nation’s capital. The protest was met with counter-protesters from leftist organizations like Horizon Ottawa and even the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Like the Freedom Convoy, the left and even some in the legacy media claimed the protest was orchestrated by the “far-right” and “white supremacists.” However, the reality is a diverse group of Canadians of different religions and backgrounds joined the protest and vehemently opposed gender ideology.

True North’s Rupa Subramanya was on the ground in Ottawa and gives you an inside look of what really happened at the protest.

Tune into The Rupa Subramanya Show!

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Feds “naive” for not pulling out of China-led bank sooner

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Following Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s announcement that Canada would halt payments to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) pending a review, experts are wondering why the Canadian government didn’t pull out of the China-led project sooner. 

According to Munk Senior Fellow of Economics at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former Chief Economic Analyst with Statistics Canada, Philip Cross, the bank has always been a tool to advance the Communist Chinese Party’s (CCP) political and economic goals. 

“Do I think that Canada’s withdrawal is going to have much of an impact? No, I don’t think I don’t think Canada got many contracts. I’d never heard of Canada benefiting. Canada was always a minor part of this. We should have been aware of that right from the start,” Cross told True North. 

“Frankly, right off the bat you wonder why was Canada supporting an attempt by the Chinese to wrestle some control or leadership of the global economy from the Americans?” 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first signed onto the bank in 2018 and has had Freeland sit as a Governor on the Board of Directors. According to a statement released by Freeland on Wednesday, the decision to launch a review was prompted by the resignation of former AIIB Global Communications Chief Bob Pickard, who accused the bank of being dominated by the CCP. 

According to Pickard, the bank has been completely taken over by CCP officials and some Board of Directors have been used as “useful idiots” by the Chinese government. 

“There hasn’t been reciprocity or openness. And they haven’t followed the rules of that either. I mean, China has used these international institutions strictly to pursue their own interest and not to obey rules right from the get go. Wake up, guys. My only question is, why did it take you this long to figure it out?,” Cross told True North. 

According to Cross, Canadians can expect that the review of the China-led bank will be internal and likely not make it into public committees. A halt of activity would mean that Canada stops it’s $40 million annual payments to the bank. 

“So I think this is very much a review that, you know, it’ll be, you know, internal to the government, the Department of Finance, Global Affairs, obviously, would be involved, maybe Industry Canada, I think there’ll be meetings at these types of officials,” said Cross. 

“How could you be surprised by this? How could you be this naive, but anyways, I guess better late than never learning these lessons. But we should have known with the treatment of the two Michaels that these people weren’t obeying the rules of the international order.”

Following Pickard’s resignation, the AIIB announced an ad-hoc group to launch an “internal management review” into the claims. The bank has also claimed that it welcomes the Canadian government’s review into what it calls “baseless allegations.” 

“We welcome this review and will be cooperating fully. Transparency is essential to the trust of our 106 Members, our multilateral peers, our development partners, our community of civil society organizations, and the citizens we serve,” said AIIB Vice President and Corporate Secretary Ludger Schuknecht. 

Kitchener school cancels grad ceremony for equity & inclusion reasons

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
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Kitchener families are upset over their local public school opting not to hold a traditional graduation ceremony for Grade 8 students for equity and inclusion reasons.

This comes amid the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) embracing woke “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” (EDI) ideology – with the aim of fostering “an anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and inclusive culture.”

Sahib Khakh, a Grade 8 student at Groh Public School, told CTV News that he and his peers “were all put into this one classroom and told that we’re not going to have a proper graduation.”

The school’s principal then told Sahib’s father, Surjit Khakh, that holding a formal ceremony would not be equitable for those who cannot afford nice clothes. 

The WRDSB told CTV News it is aiming “to adopt an equitable approach to these celebrations, ensuring accessibility for all students.” 

“In an effort to ensure inclusivity and to honour our student’s accomplishments in an equitable manner, Groh PS will hold a Celebration Week.” Activities for the “Celebration Week” include a pancake breakfast, a staff and student basketball game and a presentation of class t-shirts.

“This celebration will take place during the final week of school and will feature a series of events that have been chosen by the students and staff. Staff and students have worked extremely hard to ensure all students feel celebrated and included.”

The school’s decision is however not sitting well with students and their parents.

“I was very disappointed as that was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to this year. Just like a proper ceremony,” said Sahib, who watched his older sister graduate four years ago.

“I just wanted to walk across that stage,” he added. 

Sahib’s father added that graduation is “a memory and I think we’re taking that away from these children.”

Another parent named Damandeep Singh told CTV News “We love the school, but this is really pissing us off.” 

“I moved to Canada in 2004 from India with some hopes of a better future,” added Singh. “I think Canada is the best country to have traditions and we need to continue that.”

It should be noted that this is just the latest controversy involving the WRDSB – whose education director Jeewan Chanicka “spells his name with lower-case letters because he identifies with his Polynesian Indigenous spirituality and says that he doesn’t give more importance to himself than his surroundings, including animals, bodies of water and trees.”

In Dec. 2022, True North’s Sue-Ann Levy reported that the board had quietly administered an intrusive survey asking students as young as nine years old whether they’re “gender fluid, intersex, non-binary, trans or two-spirit.” 

The board also has a history of censoring and labeling those who object to its woke agenda.

Food bank demand surges as housing crisis worsens

By
Neil Sharma
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Canada’s housing crisis is exacerbating struggles with the cost of living in major cities like Toronto.

“We continue to experience high demand for food bank services in Toronto. We’re seeing about 12,000 new individuals coming to the food bank each month, which is quite high,” Talia Bronstein, VP of research and advocacy at the Daily Bread Food Bank, told True North.

“Our highest number of visits we saw was close to 270,000 visits in March alone and that’s part of a long-term trend we’ve been seeing.”

Bronstein added that the majority of the food bank’s clients spend more than half their monthly income on rent before spending the rest on other expenses, including food.

“So the more unaffordable their rent is, the harder it is for them to have any money at the end of the month for food,” she said.

A report from Urbanation revealed the average rents in GTA purpose-built rental buildings hit a record $3,002 during the first quarter of the year, while condominium rents averaged $2,741.

Compared to the first quarter of 2022, they increased by 13.8% and 13.6%, respectively.

The Trudeau government’s immigration policy has played an outsized role in surging rents. According to market research firm, Bullpen Research & Consulting, 1.05 million people entered the country last year, far and away above the 360,000 average since 1995.

“Because you’re bringing in so many people and not adding to the supply, the majority of people coming to Canada come to Vancouver and Toronto, mostly the latter,” said Isaac Quan, managing broker at Living Realty Downtown.

“Downtown rentals lease out in a day. A one-bedroom at Yonge and Bloor goes for $2,400-2,700, and that’s caused by a lack of supply, and with immigrants moving in that lack of supply creates more competition for the same units.”

Buildings registered in Toronto before Nov. 15, 2018 are rent controlled, but should a tenant get evicted they will almost certainly have to pay market rents wherever they move. It’s also no secret among realtors that landlords are looking for ways out of signed leases to capitalize on surging rental prices.

“It causes a lot of anxiety among renters and younger people I meet because they’re never secure,” Quan said. “If you own your home, there’s no fear of getting kicked out, but if your landlord wants to sell your rental, where are you going to go that you can afford?”

Richard Dias, co-host of The Loonie Hour, a podcast exploring the macroeconomic impact domestic and international events have on Canada, describes the situation as a “malaise,” and expressed frustration the Liberals haven’t acknowledged how detrimental their policy is, much less reversed course.

He added the decision to substantially increase immigration would make more sense if the government made a concerted effort to increase the country’s housing stock, but it hasn’t.

Instead, the government is stoking a wealth chasm that pits wealthy immigrants and older, asset-rich Canadians against poorer young people.

“You have a landed gentry, whether in Toronto or Vancouver, who are already old and already rich, and they’re having their assets inflated via this reckless policy,” Dias said.

“You’re basically transferring wealth from young people to old people—old, rich people don’t need the money from young, poor people, and to me that’s the real horror of it. It’s driving a wedge in our country, because if you can design a policy in this country for the people who least need the benefit, that’s what they have done.”

LEVY: School board cares more about woke ideology than protecting students

By
Sue-Ann Levy
-

Ottawa’s woke public school trustees proved yet again at a meeting this week that they’d rather stick to their ideology than protect students.

Faced with a motion by Donna Blackburn — one of the few rational trustees on the Ottawa Region District School Board — to reexamine the presence of police in schools, they twisted themselves into pretzels to avoid even discussing the idea.

Blackburn’s motion — seemingly carefully crafted to avoid political backlash — recommended that the board’s education director start discussions with the Ottawa Police Service to establish practice standards to allow for police support in schools where they could assist with the safety and security of students and staff. 

Media reports cite increasing violence and bullying in the board’s schools and describe administrators who attempt to bury the incidents under the rug.

It was Blackburn’s second attempt to raise the idea of re-examining police involvement in schools after the board opted in June 2021 to end the well-respected School Resource Officer (SRO) program in its schools.

But led by trustee Amanda Presley, a previous shop steward for Teamsters Local 91 and a self-described environmental and social justice advocate, the woke trustees ensured the motion wasn’t even discussed.

Sounding very much as if the strategy to cancel Blackburn’s motion was crafted prior to the meeting, Presley listed a series of bylaws and policies she claimed showed the motion “contravened previous decisions.”

Using that logic, that would suggest with this woke crowd; nothing can be reversed or rescinded unless they approve.

Presley quickly raised the real reason they were putting a stop to any discussion.

“I believe the motion will cause harm to the communities we are entrusted to protect,” she said, not elaborating which communities she meant.

One can assume she was referring to racialized students and not anyone else.

Meeting chair, Justine Bell, who works as a senior advisor on global poverty education with the federal government, appeared only too happy to put a stop to any debate or consideration of the motion.

Blackburn was not permitted to speak, only to challenge the chair’s decision, which lost.

Board chairman Lyra Evans and controversial trustee Nili Kaplan-Myrth – who was difficult to understand from behind her mask – were uncharacteristically silent on the issue. That suggested a plan to bury the motion in procedural wrangling had been already determined as their strategy.

Their tactics were given oxygen at the outset of the meeting by a series of activists who claimed police in schools have a “traumatic effect” on the well-being of racialized students and that police continue to “harm” black students.

One activist, Mae Mason, who did not appear on camera, claimed police impact on the ability of queer, Indigenous and racialized students to learn. 

There is no logic to the claims of the activists and the trustees.

All they do with their rhetoric is further enable a culture of permissiveness for groups they consider oppressed and ignore the safety concerns of the vast majority of students. 

I suggest that those who claim to feel ”harm” by any police presence may have good reason to be intimidated. Perhaps they are perpetuating violence or engaging in bullying.

Reached after the meeting, Blackburn said she was “very disappointed” that her colleagues did not want to discuss the issue of police in schools.

“The cancellation of the SRO program has had some negative impacts in regards to student and staff safety,” she said. “I would have thought the board would want to talk about that.”

She vowed to continue to monitor the issue and to repeatedly bring it up under new business.

“Whether trustees like it or not the police are in our schools everyday,” she said. “We had an opportunity as a board to recognize the important relationship and we didn’t take it.”

The Daily Brief | Why didn’t the feds stop Paul Bernardo’s transfer?

By
Rachel Parker
-

Marco Mendicino’s office allegedly knew about the transfer of convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a medium-security prison nearly three months before it happened. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office claims Trudeau learned about the prison transfer the day it happened. Why didn’t they do anything to stop it?

Plus, a new Abacus Data poll shows that only 20% of Canadians say that Trudeau’s Liberals deserve to be re-elected while 80% want a change of government.

And the so-called feminist Liberal government voted down a Conservative bill that aimed to strengthen protections for vulnerable pregnant women.

These stories and more on The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd!

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BONOKOSKI: Canada continues to turn a blind eye to contraband cigarettes

By
Mark Bonokoski
-

A major advocacy group has accused Health Canada of driving smokers to contraband cigarettes by ignoring the illicit trade and treating it as if it didn’t exist.

“The government of Canada’s tobacco strategy will remain ineffective if illegal cigarettes continue to ignore all tobacco control measures,” said Rick Barnum, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT).

“If Health Canada believes that these health warnings will reduce smoking rates, they cannot ignore the illegal market across Canada, which is estimated to be 30% of the total market”.

Thirty percent would be a conservative number.

Spinoff studies in some northern Ontario towns and parts of Canada puts the number at closer to 50%.

No one has argued this.

Barnum knows of what he speaks.

Before taking on the job with NCACT, he was deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP,) and commander of the organized crime unit.

One of his last major busts was a doozy.

In the Ontario city of Barrie, in April 2019, OPP ended a 15-month probe with the seizure of 55 kilograms of pure cocaine hidden in a transport truck from California worth a street value of $5.5 million, said Barnum.

During the investigation, police also seized $800,000 in cash, a pick-up truck, a tractor trailer and three off-road vehicles, including two “high-end” side-by-sides and a snowmobile — all worth a combined $260,000. 

The RCMP estimates there are some 175 criminal gangs in Canada that trade or sell contraband tobacco, often to obtain harder drugs and guns or fund human trafficking and money-laundering schemes.

“Basically, it’s a stable money-maker for those groups,” said Barnum. “You would rarely find an organized crime investigation where the group or individual weren’t involved in tobacco as well.”

Contraband tobacco refers to cigarettes and related products that are not taxed and are, therefore, significantly cheaper on the black market than cigarettes sold by licensed retailers.

For example, a pack of cigarettes can cost upwards of $20 in stores, while the same pack can be had for as little as $4 on the black market.

As stated, research commissioned by the coalition found as many as one in three cigarettes sold in Ontario are illegal, with most contraband smokes produced on Indigenous reserves and distributed nationwide.

By law in Ontario, First Nations members can buy tax-free cigarettes on a reserve for their personal use through what’s known as the “allocation system.”

Non-Indigenous smokers cannot legally buy untaxed allocation cigarettes, but in practice, smoke shacks and other on-reserve retailers see a brisk traffic in non-Indigenous smokers taking advantage of the discount.

Unlike plain packaging, Native-made cigarettes often carry no health warning—and certainly not on individual cigarettes—have colourful packaging, blatant brand advertising and raffles with cartons of cigarettes as the prize.

Just sit and watch, nothing is covert.

“We have warned the government on multiple occasions that it will be impossible for them to reach less than 5% tobacco use by 2035,” warned Barnum. “Without concerted effort against organize crime groups trafficking illegal cigarettes, any and all tobacco control measures will continue to be ignored and will continue to push smokers to the illegal market.”

Contraband tobacco accounts for over $2 billion in lost tax revenue across Canada. In Ontario, the epicentre of contraband tobacco, the government estimates that it loses over $750 million annually.

 Due to high revenue potential, the illicit trade is also growing exponentially in British Columbia and Alberta, two provinces which Barnum has red-flagged.

The NCACT has been advocating for years for Ontario to take similar actions taken in Quebec, where they have seen an over 50% decline in contraband tobacco due to concerted law enforcement action.

 The Government of Quebec reports that they have increased their tobacco revenue taxes by over $200 million due to specific action against illegal tobacco.

Ontario, meanwhile, has done nothing,

Calgary BLM head charged with hate crime

By
Rachel Parker
-

The head of Calgary’s Black Lives Matter movement in Calgary has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly blocking access to a Catholic school.

On June 2, Adora Nwofor was charged with mischief in connection with a May 26 incident for allegedly “wilfully obstructing and interfering” with the use of a property “primarily used for religious worship and educational purposes.”

Court records allege she interfered with people’s use of St. Thomas Aquinas School on 26 Avenue SW “for reasons of bias, prejudice, or hate based on race or ethnic origin.”

Nwofor, 47, is president of Black Lives Matter YYC.

Two months ahead of her charges, Nwofor tweeted she “will never stop being bitter about my Black girl experience in Calgary…I don’t see Black people and if I do they don’t feel safe to do Blackness.”

“Systemic oppression ain’t stopped winning. I won’t stop interrupting it! Immaculéea (sic) Threat,” she wrote. 

Nwofor appeared before a justice of the peace on June 2 over video and was released on a non-cash bail with conditions she have no contact with staff and faculty from St. Thomas Aquinas. She is also barred from going within 100 metres of the school.

Nwofor’s case is back in court on Friday.

Last year, public tax information revealed that BLM spent $12 million on mansions in Los Angeles and Toronto. 

The Canadian arm of BLM bought a 10,000-square-foot mansion in downtown Toronto for $6.3 million. The site, formerly owned by the Canadian communist party, was rebranded as the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism. 

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