Recounts for two UCP ridings that flipped to the Alberta NDP in last month’s election have solidified the New Democrats’ victory in two close ridings, though less than 100 votes still decided both ridings.
Elections Alberta released the official election for the 2023 Alberta provincial election on Thursday morning.
UCP incumbent Tyler Shandro lost Calgary Acadia by seven votes to NDP MLA-elect Diana Batten on election night. The official results following the recount reveal that Batten won by 25 votes, increasing the margin by 18 ballots.
Ridings decided by less than 100 votes automatically underwent a recount.
Shandro was the Health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, but was shuffled to the Justice minister before former premier Jason Kenney’s leadership review. He retained that file under Smith.
Another UCP incumbent, Whitney Issik, lost Calgary Glenmore to NDP MLA-elect Nagwan Al-Guneid by 30 votes on election night. That margin widened to 42 votes following the recount, an increase of 12 ballots.
Issik was Kenney’s Environment and Parks Minister, but had no portfolio in Smith’s government.
Candidates have until June 16 to make an application to the Court of King’s Bench to request a judicial recount, if desired. Under this process, the candidate will argue the specifics of each ballot before a judge. That process would take another month.
UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco said the party is working with affected candidates to review the results and decide whether or not to request a judicial recount if warranted.
The election saw 1,777,321 votes cast, for a turnout of 59.5%. Comparatively, over 1.9 million electors voted in the 2019 election, resulting in a final voter turnout of 67.5%.
While total voter turnout dropped, a record-breaking 758,640 electors chose to vote during advance voting days, with 21.9% of people using the Vote Anywhere service.
The Vote Anywhere service was new this year and allowed voters to cast a ballot in any advance poll in any riding across the province. It also delayed the results on election night, as returning offices were responsible for reporting the results of the vote anywhere counts, which Elections Alberta said is a time consuming process.
“Every location provides results for all 349 candidates. Before these counts are reported, they are generated from the tabulators, transcribed onto Statement of Votes and then input into our results site,” an Elections Alberta spokesperson told True North earlier this week.
“Every stage of this process is verified for accuracy.”
A True North exclusive revealed that taxpayers in Nova Scotia are on the hook for “gender-affirming items” such as prosthetic breasts, fake penises and chest binders for youth.
Plus, Calgary city council rejected an expert task force’s recommendations to increase affordable housing – and MPs across party lines are not happy.
And the Bank of Canada suspended its conditional pause and raised interest rates to a 22-year high on Wednesday – meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre promises to block the Trudeau government’s “inflationary budget.”
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd!
The Toronto Police Service has confirmed that the 29-year-old man who was arrested after threatening to shoot Toronto’s mayoral candidates has been released on bail.
On the morning of June 1st, Toronto police received a call reporting a man brandishing a firearm and making threatening remarks to shoot unspecified mayoral candidates.
The police arrived at the scene and arrested Junior Francois Lavagesse, a Toronto-area rapper who had been previously convicted on a number of charges, including sexual assault.
The threat against Toronto’s mayoral candidates caused some of the race’s leading contenders to temporarily suspend their campaigns and public appearances, including Brad Bradford and Olivia Chow.
However, Toronto police announced that Lavagesse has been released from his incarceration after being charged with two counts of dangerous weapons, carrying a concealed weapon, uttering threats and failure to comply with a recognizance.
Some of Toronto’s mayoral candidates are pointing to this incident as being emblematic of Canada’s weak criminal justice system needing reform.
The guy who made threats against the mayoral candidates last week is out on bail. Again.
Mark Saunders posted a video to Twitter criticizing the Canadian judicial system for allowing a dangerous criminal back onto the streets so quickly after they’ve offended.
“This speaks to bail reform and all of those issues that I’ve been trying to look after from being the chief of police, right up to now,” said Saunders.
“That’s a problem with our justice system.”
Another dangerous offender released by the courts back on our streets.
As Mayor, I will work with Toronto Police to create Bail Compliance Units across our 17 Divisions to keep tabs on them.
With less talk and more action, we can make Toronto safe and stop the bail fail 👇 pic.twitter.com/0YNcrywqTV
Bradford took to Twitter to say that Lavagesse’s release is “emblematic of a story that happens time and time again across the city.”
“Violent offenders are out on bail in our communities and there are very few checks and balances to keep folks safe.”
Bradford reiterated his campaign promise to create a bail compliance unit consisting of 68 additional police officers across the city’s 17 divisions to enforce bail conditions.
As previously reported by True North, in 2013, Mr. Lavagesse had received a $1000 microgrant from the City of Toronto through the “Arts for Children and Youth” fund, as Lavagesse became a rapper under the stage name “Jae Legit.”
“Jae Legit” received fawning media coverage from the Globe & Mail, dedicating an entire profile to Lavassage. The G&M promoted the rapper’s music on SoundCloud and his plans to make a leadership development program.
Michelle kept her two children home from their Ottawa school on the first day of Pride month to send a signal that the board’s almost obsessive focus on celebrating LGBT rights and gender ideology “was too much.”
She said she chose that route because it’s “Impossible to voice any opinion” that does not match what the administrators think and as parents they have “no voice.”
“We’re called intolerant,” she said.
“They are often secretive,” said of the school board administrators.
Michelle says she taught her son and daughter – who are in middle school and high school respectively – to be “kind and respectful” and that “nobody cares” anymore about whether friends or others are gay or straight.
But she feels school should be for “learning” and not to make “such a big deal” about anything else.
She says her kids just want to “move on” – to play their sports and do their favourite activities over and above academics
“The kids are saying ‘let us be..stop talking about it,” she said.
Michelle says, quite rightly, that the school board has “much bigger issues” – that officials need to spend more time “educating” rather than “indoctrinating.”
And Michelle isn’t alone. Other parents are also expressing concern about the school boards’ obsession with Pride season.
Waterloo mom Andrea became concerned when her son’s school showed a video called “Love has no Labels.”
According to a summary sent to her from the principal it appeared that they were advocating for love that had no age boundaries in addition to gender, disability and religious boundaries.
“No boundaries can be very confusing to kids,” she said, particularly when it comes to age (and the potential power imbalance that could result).
She’s also kept her two kids home (her daughter is in Grade 7) since the start of Pride season.
While she didn’t know of any specific activities on the first day of Pride season, she does know that her son’s K-6 school is having a Rainbow dance this week at which there will be face painting and rainbow tattoos.
All attendees are asked to give $2 which will go toward the OKTBME charity — which supports LGBT causes.
“The schools spend so much time and resources on LGBTQ stuff,” she said. “Between behaviour issues that cause them (officials) to evacuate classrooms and this,they are not getting anything done at all.”
Andrea is worried teachers and the administration are pressured to teach inclusion and diversity “all the time” instead of teaching kids “to be kind to everyone.”
“That would create less homophobia and less racism,” she said.
She added that parents are no longer permitted to have their own convictions and thoughts.
Michelle says kids want to just live their lives and reiterates that education officials should just “stop talking about it.”
“Being self-righteous makes it worse for kids,” she said. “Just let them get along on their own.”
Wind power generation dwindled to a near standstill across Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and even deep into the central United States on Wednesday morning.
According to the outlet Pipeline Online, major wind farms ranging across Alberta to Saskatchewan and down south to New Mexico and Texas fell to near-zero levels.
Data from the Southwest Power Poll (SPP) which reports power generation from grids in Canada and the US shows that for several hours, wind power reached a new low.
Wind Power generation for the SPP only contributed a meagre 1.1% to the total electricity output on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, 40.8% of the power generated in the region was a result of coal power, while natural gas took the lion’s share of 48.3%.
In Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas wind farms only produced a total of 377 megawatts of electricity.
At the same time, demand from the SPP bulged to 34,302 megawatts.
Many wind farms across the SPP reported no wind with border-town stations in Crosby, North Dakota reporting only 2 miles per hour.
In Alberta, wind power only generated 123 megawatts of electricity, totalling 3.4% of the capacity of Alberta’s 36 wind farms. Out of all of the wind farms, a majority, or 26 stations, were producing zero electricity.
This is not the first time renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy have dwindled to near-zero levels.
In early April, Alberta energy grid data showed that both solar and wind farms fell to less than 1% of their total energy capacity one early Monday morning.
“At this point, the business case behind using solar and wind power is often very weak because these two sources of power are often unreliable – the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow,” said SecondStreet.org president Colin Craig at the time.
“If the Saskatchewan government’ is looking at solar and wind power to reduce emissions, then building more ties with Manitoba might make sense as the latter has access to relatively clean hydro power.”
Toronto’s Humber College is hosting a “2SLGBTQ+” ecology event that will feature discussions on “the many ways we see queerness” in plants and animals.
The event comes amid the college boasting about “consistent efforts towards building an inclusive and diverse community.”
Toronto’s Humber College is hosting a “2SLGBTQ+” ecology event that will feature discussions on “the many ways we see queerness” in plants and animals. #CampusWatchpic.twitter.com/LF0PIOLiAg
“Did you know that some plants and animals demonstrate queer behaviour?” reads the event’s description. “Join us for a walk in the Arboretum as we talk about the many ways we see queerness in nature.”
The event is open to “2SLGBTQ+ Humber College and UofG students, staff, and faculty and community allies.” It will take place the week of June 12th.
Colleges and universities across Canada are marking the month of June with woke events and activities rooted in gender ideology and queer theory.
In addition to the “Queering Nature” event, Humber College is hosting a drag queen story hour, a gay trivia, a “queer joy literary panel” and a “post-pride” picnic to mark the end of pride month. It also invites people to participate in a trans rally and march and a “Dyke” lesbian pride rally.
It should also be noted that the concept of “queer ecology” has been present in academia.
“Queer ecology” is defined as an “interdisciplinary constellation of practices that aim, in different ways, to disrupt prevailing heterosexist discursive and institutional articulations of sexuality and nature, and also to reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics in light of queer theory.”
Humber College did not return True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
A day after it was reinstalled on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature, a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II was spray painted with the words “killer” and “colonizer” by far-left radicals.
The statue had been toppled and damaged by protesters on Canada Day in 2021, along with a statue of Queen Victoria, which has yet to be returned.
Nobody has been charged as a result of the 2021 incident.
At the time of the statue’s toppling, NDP MP NIki Ashton celebrated the vandalism as an act of “decolonization” and tweeted a heart emoji in response to a picture of protestors toppling the statue down.
“Decolonization on the grounds of our legislature on Treaty 1 Territory, the homeland of the Métis,” tweeted Ashton at the time.
Decolonization on the grounds of our legislature on Treaty 1 Territory, the homeland of the Métis.
Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 to 1901, was the monarch when Canada entered Confederation. Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, 2022.
According to restorer, Charles Brunet, the statue was badly damaged after the 2021 incident.
“The face was pushed in, the arm was scraped, and the whole base was totally crooked, too,” said Brunet.
“I’m so elated. I’m so excited. She is up, she is looking good. She’s solid, too. I won’t be called again, I hope.”
According to Brunet, the statue has been reinforced with additional rods.
“There’s a huge area for people to assemble now,” said Manitoba’s minister for government services James Teitsma when the statue was reinstalled.
“We just want to make sure that the Manitoba legislative grounds are welcoming, are beautiful, and also reflect our shared stories and our history.”
Far-left activists have targeted statues of historical figures throughout Canada, including those of Canada’s first prime minister Sir John A Macdonald.
MPs across party lines are criticizing Calgary city council’s move to reject an expert task force’s recommendations to increase affordable housing.
On Tuesday, the Housing and Affordability Task Force put forward recommendations on how to deal with the housing affordability crisis, but councillors rejected the advice.
Federal Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison said the recommendations would have made it easier to build the homes people need, but “gatekeepers” stood in the way.
“Conservatives will reward actual home building,” he said.
The former leadership contender took aim at city council for rejecting the proposal but then passing an “action plan” to receive their share of the $4 billion in federal money promised to municipalities who take action on affordable housing.
“The Liberal Housing Accelerator Fund is nothing more than a slush fund for municipalities and gatekeepers,” Aitchison said.
“Municipalities will get federal money, give it to the Department of No (Planning Department) then continue to block the local reforms that will actually add housing supply.”
Calgary City Council was presented with a series of recommendations to deliver more housing.
It would have made it easier to build the homes that people need.
The task force brought forward its six main recommendations, which included 33 actions. The main six recommendations sought to make it easier to build housing across the city and make more city land available for construction.
The 33 specific actions called on council to take action, including removing all minimum parking requirements in residential areas and to establish financial incentive programs that would drive the production of more secondary suites.
Councillors took issue with a zoning recommendation which would allow for the construction of rowhouses, townhouses, duplexes, semi-detached and cottage housing clusters in more areas.
“I think there’s absolutely no way that I could convince my communities to support that major of a change,” said Coun. Andre Chabot.
Coun. Sonya Sharp said, “It’s a leap to think we should just accept the expert recommendations with no further debate on what it all means, on whether Calgarians support those recommendations.”
“It’s not about the money and it’s not disagreeing that we should do something,” she added.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek declined a motion in which some councillors requested to call four recommendations surrounding the motion separately, which would have allowed council to receive the report without directing city administration to begin the work.
The motion failed on an 8-7 split, with councillors Chabot, Sharp, Dan McLean, Richard Pootmans, Jennifer Wyness, Terry Wong, Peter Demong and Sean Chu opposed.
The Conservative MP for Calgary Nose Hill, Michelle Rempel Garner, said she represents the same suburban constituents as councillors who voted against the proposal.
“We need to build support for more housing, not vote against it,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Courage & leadership is needed. This vote result is not that. I’m disappointed in you.”
To my colleagues on #yyccc – I'm a Conservative. I represent the same suburban constituents that you do. We need to build support for more housing, not vote against it. Courage & leadership is needed. This vote result is not that. I'm disappointed in you.https://t.co/BzxFEG2hrp
— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) June 7, 2023
Liberal MP for Calgary Skyview George Chahal said it’s “disheartening” that city council rejected the recommendations. He said it’s made worse by the fact the eight councillors voted against the proposal while voting in favour of a costly arena deal.
Chahal also called Aitchison’s criticism of the government’s housing fund “misguided partisan rhetoric.”
“The issue of affordable housing is a nationwide concern, and the federal government is willing to corroborate with municipalities through our $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund,” he wrote in a statement.
“However, we should not reward municipalities that aren’t willing to come to the table.”
After serving for 13 years as an elected member of Manitoba’s Legislative Assembly and for several years as a federal citizenship judge, I began work as chair of Manitoba’s Social Services Appeal Board (SSAB), an administrative tribunal that hears appeals, largely from folks on social assistance.
Many of these people were Indigenous. Some of my SSAB fellow board members were Indigenous.
For my six years as chair, the SSAB provided annual reports to the Manitoba Legislature. MLAs of all parties knew who I was.
On May 10, 2023, my term with the SSAB expired. With that experience, and many years of previous public service, readers might understand why I initially felt comfortable accepting my latest appointment to the King’s Bench Masters Selection Advisory Committee.
Accordingly, I was shocked when the Tory government that appointed me immediately came under fire because of my published writing on Indigenous issues in which I argued that the Indian Residential School system did not engage in physical genocide of Aboriginal children.
Of particular concern to my ideological opponents was a June 14, 2022, commentary titled “Yes, it is indeed time to move on,” an essay promoting the education of Indigenous children.
Still, I felt it was best to step aside from the voluntary role, and did so on May 25, given the concerns about this appointment. As I told the Winnipeg Free Press, “I don’t wish to be the source of any pain or bad feelings in my province.”
Readers will no doubt agree that justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done. Former NDP deputy premier Rosann Wowchuk’s niece, Christine Harapiak, was appointed a judge of the Provincial Court, in 2005, using the fair and less partisan judicial selection system I implemented when I was attorney general. Quite properly, Rosann Wowchuk took no part in the selection. Justice was done, and it was seen to be done. It should always be so. Judge Harapiak served justice with distinction for 15 years, a good judge.
During my later SSAB years – and certainly the past two since the Kamloops unmarked graves story broke – people have been aware of my writings about the Indian Residential Schools. This is why I was surprised when it was only recently raised in the Legislature.
If we aren’t going to be honest about the truth, the truth will eventually bite us. However, if we’re honest, the facts could very well set everyone free.
More and more people are having doubts about the Kamloops findings, especially when after two full years, no bodies have been recovered from the Kamloops school’s former apple orchard. This, despite Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief RoseAnne Archibald’s 2021 assertion that 1,600 children’s bodies have been “recovered” across Canada, “so far.” And “We’re going to be into the thousands upon ten thousands of children found.”
Two years later, not one has been recovered.
More people are beginning to doubt the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), given Commissioner Murray Sinclair’s 2010 false statement (never corrected or challenged) to the United Nations – on behalf of our country – that “nearly every Indigenous child in Canada” was forced to attend an Indian Residential School.
Basic research which should have been done by the TRC would easily have shown that approximately one-third of school-aged Indigenous children attended residential schools, one-third attended Indian day schools, and one-third attended no school at all (see census records, school quarterly reports, Indian agent reports, Indian Affairs records, Library and Archives Canada documents).
Another Sinclair statement, this one to the CBC’s The Current radio program in June 2021, when referring to “missing” children, claimed the number of children who died as a result of their school experience “could be in the 15-25,000 range, and maybe even more.”
This throwaway comment needs to be seriously questioned.
The sensational statements made by these highly-placed and influential leaders would be fundamental to a proper understanding of the history of the schools, if they were true. They are appallingly incorrect, yet none have been researched or challenged by politicians or the legacy media. Sinclair’s false United Nations statement laid the foundation for all his commission’s work that followed, as well as the work of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). This organization acknowledged to me in an email a year ago that its Memorial Register includes the names of Helen Betty Osborne (a name well-known to Manitobans, especially Murray Sinclair) and hundreds of other children who did not “die at or go missing from” their schools. How do we know? Because provincial death records clearly demonstrate this.
And yet “Betty” Osborne’s name remains on the list a year later. Manitobans know very well that her despicable murder had nothing at all to do with any Indian Residential School.
It offers no succour whatsoever to Indigenous families across Canada when their leaders tell them horrible things that are not true.
The telling of the history of Canada needs to be factual. Exaggeration of tragic events simply intensifies the unhappiness and bitterness of Indigenous Canadians, and magnifies the guilt felt by non-Indigenous people. It stifles reconciliation.
If and when the bodies of 200 Indigenous children allegedly buried under sinister circumstances are recovered from that former Kamloops apple orchard, and when we know who they and their families were, my position will certainly be very different.
James C. McCrae is a former attorney general of Manitoba and Canadian citizenship judge.
A group of Canadian corporations – including Desjardins and Telus – have co-authored a white paper not only endorsing digital ID, but calling it a “necessary evolution for society.” True North’s Andrew Lawton says there’s no denying it’s coming, so people have to start resisting the digitization of identity now. He talks about it further with Luke Neilson of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
Then, Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano joins to discuss today’s Bank of Canada interest rate hike and what it means for Canadians.
