NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he is refusing to end his coalition with the Liberals and trigger an election until confidence is restored in the electoral system.
Plus, the City of Toronto is handing out Toronto-branded crack pipes and crystal meth pipes to homeless shelters across the city.
And a group assembled to oversee the search into potential grave sites identified near former residential schools has refused to work with a Hague-based missing persons organization. It’s been two years since the apparent discovery of unmarked graves – and yet no remains have been found.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Cosmin Dzsurdzsa!
It quickly became clear late Monday night that the York District Catholic School Board (YDCSB) had voted down the idea of flying the pride progress flag in front of their education centre judging from the cast of horrified drama queens who weighed in on social media.
At the top of the list was Paolo DeBuono – on leave from his Grade 7-8 classroom at the Toronto Catholic board. DeBuono, who has been downright obsessive about pushing gender and radical 2SLGBTQI ideology on his students and colleagues, left his teaching duties at the end of April after confronting parents protesting about the pride progress flag at the YDCSB’s last board meeting.
Police were called more than once.
In one of his tweets De Buono, who appears to have no boundaries and no recognition of who pays his salary, urged parents not to enroll their kids in the YDCSB, claiming that it is unsafe.
York Catholic (a public school board) is not a safe school board.
I encourage York Region families not to register children there (or unregister if already attending) & instead choose York Region District School Board as a safer public school board for your children.
— Paolo De Buono, 🌈 #BLM, MSc, JD, OCT (@misterdebuono) May 30, 2023
Following months of debate over the issue, Monday night’s vote against flying the pride progress flag at the YDCSB education centre next month was 6-4.
What is not mentioned in the flurry of virtue signaling and legacy media handwringing is that the flag proposed is the progress flag, rather than the traditional rainbow flag.
The progress flag, developed in 2018, is a radical queer variation which includes black and brown stripes representing marginalized black communities and pink, light blue and white stripes from the transgender flag.
This flag, which is ridiculously divisive, promotes the idea that gay and lesbians of colour, as well as trans folk, are much more oppressed than those of us who are gay or lesbian and are Caucasian. All it does is pander to woke culture.
Nevertheless the vote set off all the usual suspects with a vested interest in queer ideology.
Pflag York Region claimed in a tweet that the YCDSB is “not safe” for the LGBTQ2IA+ community, as if to suggest flying a flag would make all gay and lesbian students feel far more welcome.
Egale Canada, which has become embroiled in queer ideology and trans rights to stay relevant, claimed that the decision was all about “hate.”
Last night, @YCDSB trustees voted against flying the Pride flag – a decision that hurts 2SLGBTQI students, educators and families in York Region and across the country.
Former Liberal MP Adam Vaughan suggested taxpayers in York region switch their allegiance to the public from the Catholic board.
Radical left MP Kristyn Wong-Tam, who considers herself the arbiter of all good manners with respect to the gay community, also tweeted her horror with the decision. The very fact that she used the word “queer” in her tweet suggests to me that she has deviated tremendously far from what the average gay and lesbian person thinks.
Deeply disappointed by the decision of YCDSB to deny the queer community the visibility and support they deserve. Our schools should be safe spaces for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We must strive for progress, not regression. #onpolipic.twitter.com/4XSV8GXudE
— Kristyn Wong-Tam 🇨🇦 (@kristynwongtam) May 30, 2023
As an out lesbian, I don’t need the pride flag, and certainly not the pride progress flag, flying in front of a Catholic education centre to make me feel proud of my rights.
While I’ve always felt there should be only one publicly funded education system in Ontario, I respect the Catholic board for standing firm and not bowing to pressure from the loud activists.
For what really disturbs me is the lynch mob mentality of the queer activists and assorted allies to ram such decisions down everyone’s throats as a mark of whether they are decent, caring people or not.
I’m so tired of these woke activists insisting everyone has to do it their way, or else.
Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass has become the latest victim of cancel culture by the Canadian legacy media for daring to publicly display his Christian faith and support boycotts against Bud Light and Target. The unwritten rule in sports is that athletes aren’t allowed to hold opinions on anything unless those opinions are directly in line with the latest progressive pet cause, whether it be kneeling for the anthem or wearing a pride flag jersey. It appears to be a whole other ballgame however when you involve scripture. That’s when the Canadian media get their claws out and go for blood.
This is not the first time that Canadian legacy media journalists and personalities have attacked Christian athletes for opposing wokeness in sports. In January, Philadelphia Flyers hockey player Ivan Provorov chose not to wear the team’s pride warm-up jersey, and for that, the full force of the Canadian media descended on Provorov and demanded apologies and punishment.
Tune in to the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner.
Silver Spire United Church in St. Catherines is running a “Queer Kid Bible Camp” featuring makeup classes and arts endeavours.
Silver Spire United Church in the Niagara Region is running a “Queer Kid Bible Camp.” The church’s Student Minister says the latter runs on the motto of “sacred and holy, wonderfully and intentionally made, God delights in you.” pic.twitter.com/zEF0fAkuOY
In a video published by the Avanti Chamber Singers, Silver Spire Youth Group Leader and Student Minister Ally Phillips, who is wearing a shirt with a knife on it which reads “Protect Trans Kids,” explains that progressive bible camp runs on the motto of “sacred and holy, wonderfully and intentionally made, God delights in you.”
“At Queer Kid Bible Camp, we strive to be a community of kinship and queer joy and celebration, for Niagara’s queer kids, their allies and families,” he said.
The camp holds of bi-monthly gatherings for “queer youth” that feature makeup classes, tie-dye shirts and arts endeavours. The “Queer Kid Bible Camp” Facebook page also promotes drag queen story hours hosted by Silver Spire.
Phillips added they are hoping to soon launch a “gender-affirming closet” featuring what he calls “gender-affirming gear.”
The church will also be running an overnight camp for “queer kids” this summer, and is looking for “LGBTQIA2S+ grown up(s) passionate about camp, queer youth and planning” to help out.
The “Queer Kid Bible Camp” was launched in March 2022, and its sign up form asks kids to state their name and pronouns. The video discussing the camp shows posters on a billboard promoting multiple pseudo-pronouns, including “ze-zir”
Phillips also discussed concerns he has with “transphobic” legislation being introduced in the United States, and claimed such ideals are “creeping their way into Canada.”
“Those (ideals) are influenced by a hateful religious rhetoric.”
Phillips believes “church environments have not always been safe categorically for queer people, for trans people, for LGBTQ people at large,” and that although Silver Spire aims to be a safe space, it still “isn’t one that feels safe for everybody.”
The progressive church is also hosting a “Pride Service” this Sunday to mark the start of June, dubbed LGBTQ Pride Month. The latter will feature an affirmation and celebration of the “2SLGBTQQIA+ community” as well as a drag queen story time for children.
While churches across North America are rejecting gender ideology and wokeness, the United Church of Canada has embraced both. The protestant denomination, which showcases itself as an affirming space that believes “gender and sexuality are gifts of God,” supports gay marriage, transgenderism, “non-binary” gender identities and pride parades.
In addition to endorsing gender ideology, The United Church of Canada supports abortion, has also allowed atheists to serve as ministers and has been critical of Israel. During the pandemic, several of its congregations also voluntarily imposed vaccine passports – and kept them in place after governments lifted mandates.
On gender ideology, American associate pastor Josh Blount offered a different take from that of the United Church. Writing in the Gospel Coalition, he said that while Christians “must love and respect those confused about their gender, because they’re God’s image-bearers,” they must oppose gender ideology “because of the damage it will do to real people” – citing the words of author Sharon James.
Meanwhile, American Bible teacher and preacher Mike Mazzalongo called on Christians to reject wokeness in a sermon, noting that it “replaces God with political and cultural concepts.”
“Wokeness is a religion,” said Mazzalongo. “Unlike Christianity, which is based on and functions by the principle of grace, wokeness distinguishes itself as a religious like movement, which is completely devoid of grace, operating exclusively by the principle of law.”
Silver Spire Minister Rev. Karen Orlandi declined True North’s request for comment.
Two conservative incumbents lost their Calgary ridings by less than 31 votes in the 2023 Alberta provincial election campaign won by Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party. Another three incumbents lost their seats by less than 300 votes, with the defeats largely being handed to Kenney-era cabinet ministers.
UCP incumbent Tyler Shandro lost Calgary Acadia by seven votes to NDP MLA-elect Diana Batten. 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 by 30 votes, with NDP MLA-elect Nagwan Al-Guneid winning 12,679 votes. Issik was Kenney’s Environment and Parks Minister, but had no portfolio in Smith’s government.
The results are unofficial until Elections Alberta ratifies them on June 8. Ridings decided by less than 100 votes will automatically undergo a recount.
UCP incumbent Prasad Panda lost Calgary Edgemont by 283 votes. Panda was the Transportation minister under former premier Jason Kenney, but was not in Smith’s cabinet.
UCP incumbent Jason Luan lost Calgary Foothills by 269 votes. Luan was Kenney’s Community and Social Services minister and Smith’s Culture minister.
Banff Kananaskis incumbent Miranda Rosin lost her seat by 199 votes. Polls showed a wide lead for Rosin until the advanced polls were counted, handing a win to the NDP candidate and environmental scientist Sarah Elmeligi.
In Edmonton Southwest, UCP incumbent Kaycee Madu lost to NDP MLA elect Nathan Ip by over 3,500 votes. Madu served in three ministerial roles under Kenney — Municipal Affairs, Justice, and Labour and Immigration. He was Smith’s deputy premier.
Jason Copping, Health minister for Kenney after Shandro, a position he retained under Smith, lost Calgary Varsity by over 4,000 votes.
There were also a number of narrow wins in Calgary.
UCP incumbent Mickey Amery won Calgary Cross by 518 votes, while UCP incumbent Peter Singh won Calgary East by 701 votes.
UCP incumbent Muhammad Yaseen won Calgary North by 113 votes.
Calgary North West candidate Rajan Sawhney won by 149 votes. Sawney, a former UCP leadership candidate, represented Calgary North East before the election. NDP candidate Gurinder Brar won Calgary North East.
During her victory speech, Smith said she is looking forward to continuing her work in balancing the province’s budget, increasing funding in healthcare and education and challenging the Trudeau government’s carbon tax as premier of Alberta.
“Hopefully the prime minister and his caucus are watching tonight,” said Premier Smith during her victory speech. “If he persists, he will be hurting Canadians from coast to coast.”
“As Premier I cannot, under any circumstances, allow these contemplated federal policies to be inflicted upon Albertans.”
A group assembled to oversee the search into potential grave sites identified near former residential schools has refused to work with a Hague-based international organization dedicated to assisting governments with identifying missing persons and exhuming mass graves.
The National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials said yesterday that it could not trust the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) because it is “non-Indigenous.”
“While the (committee) is appreciative of a number of changes that have since been made to this agreement, we remain deeply concerned that such an important and sensitive process has been entrusted to a non-Indigenous organization with no prior history of working with residential school survivors,” a statement by the committee reads.
First established in 1996 at a G7 summit, the ICMP’s first mission was to investigate missing people in the wake of the Yugoslav Wars. As of 2001, the group has developed a DNA identification system for missing persons as well as a world-recognized specialized missing persons database.
Over the years, the ICMP has worked in assisting in locating missing persons and conducting exhumations in the US related to Hurricane Katrina and internationally in Iraq, Colombia and Libya.
The ICMP’s mandate is to “to secure the co-operation of governments and other authorities in locating persons missing as a result of conflicts, human rights abuses, disasters, organized violence and other causes and to assist them in doing so.”
According to a Feb. 17 press release, the ICMP wrote that it would “provide support to Residential School Survivors and Indigenous communities in Canada.”
“ICMP will conduct information sessions and a country-wide outreach campaign for Indigenous communities that wish to explore options for identifying and repatriating remains of missing loved ones from unmarked burial sites associated with former Residential Schools,” a press release states.
At the time Liberal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller claimed that the ICMP’s work was “necessary” to the process.
“The support of ICMP is necessary to rebuild our trust and relationship with Indigenous peoples, communities, and organizations, and is an important step toward reconciliation,” said Miller at the time.
A candidate who the UCP distanced themselves from over comments disparaging gender ideology in schools has won her riding of Lacombe-Ponoka by a wide margin.
Despite being denounced by Premier Danielle Smith for comparing gender ideology in schools to the presence of feces in baked goods, candidate Jennifer Johnson won 67% of the vote, beating out Alberta NDP candidate Dave Dale who only received only 23.3%.
On the campaign trail, Smith reinforced her decision to exclude Johnson from a UCP caucus as “final” should she be elected.
“She has a lot of work to do. I believe in redemption. I do believe that people have the ability to have second chances. She’s got a lot of proving to do,” said Smith.
An audio recording of Johnson surfaced earlier this month which prompted the controversy and an eventual apology from her.
“‘Enjoy (the cookies), I only put a teaspoon of poop in them, but it doesn’t matter because it’s only a teaspoon in the whole batch,” said Johnson about the presence of gender ideology in schools.
“Same idea — we can be top three per cent, but that little bit of poop is what wrecks it.”
On Monday, the UCP was declared the winner of Alberta’s 2023 provincial election.
Premier Smith will continue to lead a majority government with current counts placing the UCP at 48 seats in the legislature, with 38 for the Alberta NDP.
Should Johnson be welcomed back into caucus, the UCP would have a total of 49 seats – well ahead of the 44 required for a majority government.
In a victory speech on Monday evening, Smith told viewers that she pledged to represent the views of all Albertans – even those who did not vote for her.
“I want to speak for a moment to every Albertan who did not vote for me. My oath is to serve everyone, no matter how you voted,” said Smith.
“I know I didn’t do enough to win your support but I will work everyday to prove to you that I can be trusted to deliver on the issues you care about.”
Toronto mayoral candidate Anthony Furey revealed City of Toronto-branded crack pipes and crystal meth pipes being handed out at shelters across the city.
Furey, who is currently on leave as True North’s VP for editorial and content, held a media event at Nathan Phillips Square Tuesday, “exposing” how a City of Toronto program that has been distributing drug consumption paraphernalia to shelters, including those for families.
At the announcement, Furey displayed a crack pipe and a crystal meth pipe enclosed in Toronto Public Health branded packaging – a blue bag for a crack pipe kit, and a green bag for a crystal meth pipe kit.
Today I exposed that shelters all across Toronto — including family shelters with kids in them — are being pushed by the City to provide taxpayer-funded crack pipes and meth kits and become unofficial injection sites.
Furey said an unnamed “whistleblower” alerted him to the existence of these drug consumption kits being handed out at non-profit shelters, a program that the city is forcing on shelters with the risk of being stripped of funding if the shelter’s management refuses to comply.
“A whistleblower has provided me with City of Toronto branded crystal meth pipe kits and crack pipes. So your tax dollars, ladies and gentlemen, are going towards creating crystal meth pipes and crack pipe kits,” said Furey at the media event.
“This is not just going on at drug injection sites, though: Shelters across the city are now being told they must distribute these drug kits, and basically become injection sites.”
Furey warned that expanding drug distribution programs by the city will lead to Toronto resembling big, liberal cities rife with disorder like Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver.
“Torontonians are looking on in horror at places like Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, and they don’t want to go one step further in that direction,” said Furey.
Furey said that if elected mayor, he would phase this program out and will replace the program by opening up treatment centres.
Furey has placed a strong emphasis on reforming Toronto’s approach to treating the city’s drug addicted residents. He has advocated urging the federal government to strengthen bail laws and removing tent encampments.
UCP leader Danielle Smith finished ahead in the Alberta election with 49 seats, beating NDP leader Rachel Notley who only gained 38. In her victory speech, Smith challenged the Trudeau government’s carbon tax and climate policies.
Next, two Liberal ministers faced backlash over the weekend after sending out tweets celebrating drag entertainment as “one of Canada’s fundamental freedoms” and raising awareness about “Menstrual Hygiene Day.”
Also, the Liberal government has yet to retrieve nearly $133,000 paid to “anti-racist” consultant Laith Marouf, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd!
Another teacher has come out of the woodwork to pen concerns about the rampant violence at their school–this one, not surprisingly, teaching in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
The elementary school teacher says in her open letter, obtained by school reformer and activist Michael Teper, that their day-to-day reality at the TDSB is one of “fear, reprisal and fear of reprisal.”
She says their professionalism is regularly under attack.
She’s experienced and witnessed “reprisals” to staff who report violent incidents and try to obtain support for the “most vulnerable” (she does not define what she means by the most vulnerable.)
She says whenever a teacher pushes back and challenges the school’s mantra that they are promoting a “safe and caring learning environment,” they are targeted for engaging in professional misconduct.
If staff even advocate in e-mails or in staff meetings for “safety” and “equity” in their schools, they face suspension.
“This has resulted in a culture of fear – don’t say anything, don’t report on anything,” writes the teacher, noting superintendents have a “vested interest” in protecting their principals and seemingly sweeping concerns under the rug.
“I know of no other profession where being targeted or attacked is part of the job,” she adds.
She emphasizes that those teachers who do speak up are either disciplined or moved to another school.
In a report to the TDSB in 2008 – some 15 years ago – lawyer Julian Falconer raised the spectre of a culture of fear at the board.
He found that many employees would only speak on safety issues if their words weren’t attributed to them. He characterized it as a “culture of silence” due to fear of political or bureaucratic reprisal or both.
Of course, many promises were made to improve the culture but that didn’t happen.
In another governance review in 2015, education expert and consultant Margaret Wilson concluded that the culture of fear among TDSB employees was so pervasive they were afraid to use their board e-mail addresses for fear of being monitored.
She called the culture “deeply disturbing.”
Fast forward to 2023 and layer on that woke ideology perpetuated by activists running Ontario’s largest school boards and one has a recipe for sheer disaster.
TDSB education director Colleen Russell Rawlins, a black activist, came to the board from Peel, where she imposed her woke anti-oppression agenda– to the detriment of the board’s schools.
The impact of her agenda – which considers discipline, including suspensions and expulsions oppressive – has turned many of the board’s schools into war zones.
Despite all the evidence pointing towards the lack of consequences as the prime reason for the mounting violence, Russell Rawlins and her underlings have become the best definition of insanity – imposing the same hug-a-thug policies and expecting a different result.
Instead, it’s clear she’s turned her sights on poor teachers, who are being disciplined for expecting to teach in a classroom that is free of chaos and violence.
I can’t believe that education minister Steven Lecce has allowed this rot to escalate.
