Starting with puberty blockers at 13 and undergoing a double mastectomy at 15, Chloe Cole was pushed towards receiving life-altering transgender surgeries after experiencing symptoms of gender dysphoria. Chloe detransitioned at 16.
Chloe is now an advocate against the medical community that is pushing these surgeries on unknowing children and teenagers, recognizing the long-term impacts it may have on their lives. She is also suing Kaiser Hospitals “for pushing her into medical mutilation instead of properly treating her.”
Chloe joins Rupa on the show to share her story and give an in-depth account of her harrowing experience transitioning and her attempts to detransition.
Chloe also tells us how the effects of social media and the influence of her peers that led her down the dark path of believing she was born in the wrong body and looking for ways to alleviate the anxieties surrounding her identity.
Canada’s legacy media is losing its mind over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign launch via a Twitter space on Wednesday.
On social media, Canadian reporters disparaged supporters of DeSantis and dedicated an extraordinary amount of time talking about the technical difficulties Twitter faced after its servers were overloaded by users who wanted to listen to the announcement.
Globe and Mail’s US correspondent Adrian Morrow dedicated an entire Twitter thread to the technical issues involved with the announcement.
So Ron DeSantis's Twitter Spaces announcement keeps cutting in and out. The host, David Sacks, says they are having tech problems. "We are kind of melting the servers"
“Complete silence in Elon’s Twitter Space. DeSantis’s campaign launch announcement so far is basically a performance of 4’33. Going hard for the avant-garde classical music aficionado vote,” tweeted Morrow.
“After DeSantis gave an announcement speech, the interview has turned into an extended back and forth between Musk and Sacks about covid, tech and the media, with DeSantis remaining silent.”
TikToker and laid off Global News employee Rachel Gilmore took to Twitter to accuse American voters who would vote for DeSantis of having “brain worm” and compared them to Conservative voters in Canada.
“There are super clear accepted ideological lines in the far-right infosphere. You have to follow them closely if you want the brain worm vote, which it appears both DeSantis and Poilievre are putting their money on,” tweeted Gilmore.
There are super clear accepted ideological lines in the far-right infosphere.
You have to follow them closely if you want the brain worm vote, which it appears both DeSantis and Poilievre are putting their money on.
Toronto Star sports columnist Bruce Arthur accused DeSantis of having “strong Poilievre vibes” over his stance on central banking during the announcement.
Arthur also called the listeners of the announcement a “crew of utter freaks.”
A crew of utter freaks in there, under 300K people listening as the site barely holds up, and a bunch of time is devoted to Twitter and Teslas and stuff that isn't the Meatball, who has to rely on his unpleasant voice. Thoroughly enjoyable incompetence, good luck in the primary https://t.co/DV96f4GahA
As of Desantis’ announcement yesterday the Toronto Star published a slate of articles meant to disparage the Republican contender.
On Thursday, it released two articles with sensational headlines about DeSantis like: “Ron DeSantis’s Twitter launch of his presidential campaign botched by constant glitches, crashes” and “Thinking about visiting Ron DeSantis’s Florida? Think again.”
Another piece presented as analysis makes unsubstantiated claims about the Florida governor.
“But more than simply winning, DeSantis is drawing on his record in Florida to indicate that he is ready — eager, even — to go much further and sow more division than even Trump might have envisaged on his wildest days in the White House,” claimed the outlet.
A Conservative MP has raised the alarm about China’s influence over Nova Scotia’s lobster industry via buying and export controls at the Halifax International Airport.
According to South Shore – St. Margarets MP Rick Perkins, he’s worried about the size of China’s footprint in the lobster supply chain – a vital industry in the province.
“My concern overall is the growing influence of China and the control of our lobster industry itself and that’s throughout the supply chain,” said Perkins.
“They’re doing it through the back door what they couldn’t do through the front door, which was basically [to] own the actual fishing licences. They can’t do that, so they’re trying to control the buying and the export at the airport.”
At a parliamentary committee, Perkins said that he was “seeing China buy our buyers.”
“What’s the impact of that? I also understand they control the freight forwarder at the Halifax airport,” said Perkins.
Nova Scotia fisherman Colin Sproul responded to Perkins’ questions by saying that the government has a duty to maintain national control over supply chains, including in fishing.
“I’m really happy to hear you raise that issue. I think that’s one of the most important things that the government can do is ensure national Canadian control of our logistics chain within the country,” said Sprould.
According to Perkins, there was “foreign control of the live seafood terminal at Halifax.”
The Chinese company First Catch has spent $9 million to establish a lobster handling facility at the Halifax International Airport and is operating on a 25-year lease.
In response to the allegations, the company has accused the Conservative MP of being “kind of racist” by questioning their operations.
“I think because, recently, there’s a lot of Chinese people buying plants and then trying to get into this industry,” said First Catch president Lister Li.
“But by Chinese, I think those people are just Asian. Then maybe Canadian. Maybe they have a Canadian passport. Maybe they grew up here. It’s kind of racist.”
“It’s not a fact. We don’t control all the lobster handling in Halifax. We only do what we are shipping out,” she continued.
The Halifax International Airport Authority has also denied the claim that China controls exports of lobster.
As the by-election in Portage–Lisgar heats up, Conservative candidate Branden Leslie joined The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss his campaign, what he’s hearing at the doors and Maxime Bernier and the People’s Party of Canada.
Leslie described Bernier as an “opportunist” who’s willing to say and do anything to get votes. The Conservative candidate also tells Lawton that he is “100% pro-life,” in reaction to the PPC’s pledge to reopen the abortion debate.
Toronto’s candidates for mayor have been pitching their ideas to voters on how they’ll address and bring down soaring prices for housing acutely affecting Toronto’s housing market.
The average price of a home in Toronto has soared in the past couple of decades, rising from an average price of $198,000 in 1996 to over a million dollars in recent years. Currently, the average price of a home in Toronto is over $1.1 million as prices continue to rise in recent months.
The housing crisis has been a major point for candidates to address in their campaigns, as now more than ever, the dream of owning a home seems more remote for a great number of Toronto’s residents.
The race’s frontrunner Olivia Chow says that she plans to have the city build 25,000 new rental properties subjected to rent control over the course of eight years.
Chow’s plan would see the city act as the building developer to build thousands of homes, many of which will be listed under the property’s market value.
60% of the proposed units would be one-bedroom properties, 30% would be two-bedroom properties, and 10% would be 3-bedroom properties.
Chow says that her plan will not add to the city’s expanding debts, as the plan would be supported by income generated from the tenants living in said properties.
Surging home prices and rents have created an affordability crisis.
It’s harder than ever to find an affordable place to live in Toronto. Our city must act.
I’m prepared to take action by building 25,000 rent-controlled apartments—all on land the city already owns. pic.twitter.com/fwZTd8R9yL
Former police chief Mark Saunders says that the key to getting more homes built is to speed up the approval process to getting a building application through City Hall.
Saunders’ marquee promise on the housing issue is to cut the housing approval time down to one year. To achieve this goal, Saunders says he is open to using the new strong mayor powers granted to Toronto’s mayoralty by Premier Doug Ford.
“At the current rate of new affordable home starts, it will take another 45 years for Council to reach its 10-year goal of 40,000 units,” said Saunders.
“It’s clear City Hall is the first big barrier to getting home built quickly; so I pledge to use every tool and option at my disposal, including strong mayor powers, to tackle this issue if we don’t get moving on day one.”
Saunders would also allow condo developers build 1-2 more floors per condo building than currently allowed, waive the property tax on affordable housing units, among other tax incentives and affordability schemes.
Council has dragged their feet on rental housing. It’s time for a new approach to building more affordable, livable rental homes faster. pic.twitter.com/AomnjmmDQt
Toronto-St. Paul’s councillor Josh Matlow announced his plan to create a new municipal corporation called Public Build Toronto funded with $300 million in seed funding that would develop housing on land owned by the city.
Public Build Toronto would see the city develop housing in lieu of private housing developers to cut out the developer’s profits, a move in alignment with Matlow’s ideological opposition to landowners.
“Currently, most development on public lands is outsourced to private developers. With Public Build Toronto, by removing developer profits, the City will be able to build housing at cost on 25 million square feet of public land,” says Matlow.
Matlow’s plan would cap the number of vehicle parking spaces at 0.25 spaces per unit of housing, a policy that would force residents to seek alternative forms of transportation.
Since the City launched Housing Now, not one affordable home has been built.
That's why I'll create Public Build Toronto, a City agency that develops housing on City-owned land at cost. Faster to build, easier to afford.
Anthony Furey, who is currently on leave as True North’s VP of content and editorial, announced that he would make buying a home for newcomers entering the housing market easier by waiving the land transfer tax for first time homebuyers.
Furey says that the high price of a home in Toronto is an issue of there being a lack of supply in the housing market. He believes byreducing the government’s intrusion into the housing market, consumers would save as it’ll cost less to develop a home.
“My plan is to reduce red tape and the time it takes for projects to get improved, because time is money” said Furey in a comment to True North.
“This will increase supply and lessen costs, which always get passed on to the consumer.”
Furey went on to attack other candidates who have been making precise promises to build a certain number of units within a certain period of time, saying that making these types of promises is a failure to tell voters the truth.
“Any candidate who promises to build a certain number of units is failing to tell voters the truth. That’s just not how the housing market works.”
Former deputy mayor Ana Bailão’s housing plan consists of a plan to build homes, protecting rentors, and putting pressure on city hall to be accountable for the city’s progress on solving the housing crisis.
Bailão says that as mayor, she would create a number of projects to support Torontonians in need including the homeless and newcomers, as well as supporting renters through the creation of eviction prevention programs and by halting proposals at city hall that would demolish rental properties.
In line with the city of Toronto’s previous commitment to have built 285,000 homes by 2031, Bailão would set a target that a least 20% of these homes must be purpose-built rental homes.
Bailão would also seek to reform the city’s regulations and zoning laws that restrict the development of “missing middle” homes – single-family, multi-unit homes like multiplexes and townhouses – and create a new zoning designation exclusively for prospective rental property.
Brad Bradford also pressed the need to allow for “missing middle” mid-rise homes to be built, something he says could be done by simplifying the city’s complex zoning laws.
Bradford urges the need to eliminate red tape and governmental inefficiencies by empowering a Development and Growth division whose sole purpose would be to review and approve housing faster and streamline the pathway to project approval.
Bradford would also make it easier for vacant office spaces to be converted into housing by providing as-of-right zoning to eliminate a rezoning process and by eliminating guidelines and regulations that would slow down the conversion process.
As a former Mayor, @ScottAAitchison knows what it takes to be successful in the role.
As a federal leader on housing, he understands how important it is for Toronto’s next Mayor to have a solid plan to get homes built.
Former Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter released a five-point plan to creating more affordable housing quickly for those in need.
Hunter’s plan would see the city create the Toronto Affordable Housing Corporation, a municipal corporation that would be responsible for building rental property on city-owned lands to be listed below the market value.
Hunter’s five-point plan calls on the city to unlock public lands for new affordable housing, ending the multiplex ban, adding rental apartments on major streets and near campuses, speeding up building approval and construction, and protecting current renters.
Toronto’s voters will be able to have their voices heard during the June 26 byelection, where voters will take to the polls and pick a new mayor.
There is more than a little truth to the belief that racial profiling in countries like the United States is based on stereotypical assumptions about groups like African-Americans differentiated by race, colour and ethnicity. But it is equally true that certain stereotypes are rooted in the fact that a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by certain racial, colour and ethnic groups.
The same is true In Canada. While representing an estimated 4.9% of the Canadian population, 38% of persons accused of homicide in 2017 were identified by police as Indigenous. The rate of Indigenous people accused of homicide in 2017 was 12 times higher than the rate of non-Indigenous accused. Indigenous adults also are overrepresented in custody and the numbers are increasing.
In 2017/2018, Indigenous adults accounted for 30% of admissions to provincial/territorial custody and 29% of admissions.
What these and other figures show is that crime stereotypes about Indigenous people have a relationship to real behaviour despite the fact the most Aboriginals are peaceful, honest, and law-abiding.
Indigenous criminality, whether based on stereotypes or not, is also geographically centred. As elsewhere in Canada, shoplifting is in runaway mode in downtown Winnipeg, a metropolis with one of the largest per-capita and absolute Indigenous population levels among major Canadian cities.
Rampant inner city shoplifting of alcoholic beverages forced the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission to mandate photo identification and electronic entry at all its Winnipeg outlets two years ago. Many of the city’s supermarkets also employ armed off-duty police officers to protect against the bulk theft of meat and other expensive items.
Though most Indigenous people don’t engage in shoplifting, if those who do resemble their American counterparts, woke Indigenous activists might claim what is usually called “petty theft” is just another legacy of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools just like all other forms of Aboriginal criminality. Those committing such acts may even have been brainwashed to view them as reparations for historical injustices.
A comparison with the United States is not inappropriate. Following the heart-wrenching 2020 killing of George Floyd, riots took place across America.
Hours after a horde of people descended on the Loop in Chicago to pillage expensive handbags, jewelry, clothes and other items from mostly high-end stores, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Chicago held a solidarity rally outside the police station to support those who had been arrested. The small group of demonstrators, mostly African American and white young adults, carried a banner that said, “Our Futures Have Been Looted From Us … LOOT BACK.”
Then Ariel Atkins, a BLM Chicago organizer, spoke.
“I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store because that makes sure that person eats. That makes sure that person has clothes. That is reparations. Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.”
So does Giant Tiger in Winnipeg, but this is not a rational or moral justification for either looting or shoplifting.
A publicly available video of a shoplifting incident on the evening of Wednesday, May 17, 2023 in a Winnipeg inner-city Giant Tiger store shows what appears to me to be two aggressive female thieves of apparent Indigenous identity along with what look to me like beleaguered South Asian staff.
Though the status of these particular workers is unknown, thousands of retail staff across Canada are employed as temporary foreign workers compelled by their residence status and relative lack of education to toil for a minimum wage in what are becoming increasingly dangerous employment venues.
It needs to be asked why Canada is a magnet for tens of thousands of low-end service workers fleeing poverty, crime, and corruption in dirt-poor countries around the world while the urban and on-reserve unemployment levels among our Indigenous people — mostly able-bodied individuals supplied from cradle to grave with all manner of free public and private support and differential privileges in one of the richest countries in the world — are sky high.
My straightforward answer is that learned helplessness and other heart-breaking adversities and pathologies so prevalent among indigenous people — criminality, violence, sexual abuse, alcoholism, other drug addictions, unwed teenage pregnancy, poor school achievement, etc. — are the legacy not of colonialism, let alone the Indian Residential Schools, but of the generations of dependency and its resultant infantilization of supposedly mature adults.
The video was uploaded to Facebook on Wednesday, May 17. It shows Giant Tiger staff members struggling against two women trying to leave the store with a loaded cart. The staff can be seen pulling on one end of the cart, while the women are wrenching on the other.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. I just walked in the door and heard somebody swearing… I saw carts banging, and I decided to pull out my phone and start recording it,” said the woman who filmed the incident but asked the Winnipeg Free Press to withhold her full name.
One of the two staff members then released the cart after one of the women threw a large, framed picture at him. The women then lackadaisically left the store with their bounty.
FACEBOOK: An image from video posted online shows Giant Tiger staff members struggling against two women who are trying to leave the store with a loaded cart.
The amount of resistance shown suggests to me an entitlement to seize these goods. This may be because Aboriginals have long been indoctrinated by their leaders and other advocates to believe that all of Canada, every square inch, belongs to their people. If these women believed this to be true, they could also believe they were simply taking property that rightfully belonged to them.
My hypothesis may be dead wrong and these two unnamed women, regardless of their ethnicity, may simply have been motivated by the same urges as any other shoplifter: greed and/or economic desperation.
Still, the state of current privilege-based Indigenous ideology and behaviour in our deeply polarized nation means that as in America, racial stereotypes or not, aggressive crimes like these are only bound to increase.
Canadian targets of Chinese election interference have expressed disappointment in “special rapporteur” David Johnston’s findings which were first released on Tuesday.
Plus, police have charged two men with arson after a fire engulfed an over 120-year-old church in Grouard, Alberta. Over 70 churches in Canada have been vandalized, burned down or desecrated since the announcement of the apparent discovery of graves found near a residential school in Kamloops, BC.
And a group of Albertan voters concerned over the use of electronic tabulators in the upcoming provincial vote won’t pursue legal action.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Lindsay Shepherd!
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has just endorsed UCP leader Danielle Smith in the upcoming provincial vote.
The endorsement comes five days ahead of Monday’s election and two days into advance polling.
Poilievre says Rachel Notley’s NDP will create a weaker economy through corporate tax hikes with less money for schools and hospitals, while Smith’s UCP will support the energy sector, fight the carbon tax, “and unleash the full potential of our Alberta economy in order to grow and prosper in the future.”
“That means more money for schools and hospitals,” he said.
“In other words, vote for Alberta, vote Conservative, vote early, vote now.”
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has just endorsed UCP leader Danielle Smith.
"Conservatives will fight the carbon tax, stand up for Alberta and its energy sector, and unleash the full potential of our Alberta economy in order to grow and prosper in the future." https://t.co/gp7ozWlsva
The Conservative leader’s comments echoed a similar endorsement from former Prime Minister Stephen Harper last month in which he also told voters to “vote for Alberta.”
Harper told voters that Alberta’s economy is finally hitting its stride again and employment is booming and argued that this “could all be derailed if the Notley NDP wins the election in May.”
“It took years to recover from the last NDP government. We can’t risk going backwards again.” Harper said. “Vote for Alberta; vote Conservative.”
The UCP has just released a video of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying the NDP could derail Alberta’s economic growth.
“It took years to recover from the last NDP government. We can't risk going backwards again. Vote for Alberta; vote Conservative.” pic.twitter.com/tpEqUEqEx5
On Wednesday, Smith announced her re-elected government’s first piece of legislation would ensure that no government can increase personal taxes or taxes on job creators without a referendum.
Smith did not commit to including the carbon tax in proposed Bill 1, ensuring that the provincial government would be forced to seek approval from Albertans through a referendum before imposing such a tax, in the case that the federal government’s tax is scrapped.
She instead said her government is committed to fighting to eliminate the carbon tax.
“Rachel Notley has not stood up for Albertans on this issue,” Smith said. “And I think that goes to the credibility of Rachel Notley when she says that she cares about affordability.’
I asked Danielle Smith whether her gov would include the carbon tax in Bill 1 so that a provincial gov couldn’t impose a carbon tax without a referendum if the fed’s carbon tax is ever scrapped.
Smith does not commit to it, but says her gov is fighting against the carbon tax. pic.twitter.com/QvUJQuLOjg
Last week, the Alberta NDP released a costed economic platform which forecasts a $3.3-billion surplus over three years. It also included a nearly 40% increase to the business tax rate from 8% to 11% to increase revenue.
The proposal would result in Alberta shedding 33,700 jobs and an investment loss of $1.1 billion, according to economist Jack Mintz with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation gave the Alberta NDP’s plan to hike taxes a “failing grade,” with Alberta Director Kris Sims calling it a “reckless thing” to do in a province that’s booming and hiring thousands of people.
UCP leader Danielle Smith announced on Wednesday that if re-elected, her government’s first piece of legislation would be a bill to ensure that no government can increase personal taxes or taxes on job creators without a referendum.
The proposed Bill 1, The Taxpayer Protection Amendment Act, would expand on the act’s current protection against a provincial sales tax.
“While the United Conservative Party is running on our record of successes, Rachel Notley is running away from hers,” Smith said.
“The UCP lowered taxes, balanced the budget, and attracted billions of dollars of investment—creating tens of thousands of new jobs across a growing number of industries.”
UCP leader Danielle Smith is in Calgary today to announce that a re elected UCP government’s Bill 1 would ensure that no gov can increase personal taxes or taxes on job creators without a referendum. #abpolipic.twitter.com/qvJzFo2LiO
Smith did not, however, commit to including the carbon tax in proposed Bill 1, ensuring that the provincial government would be forced to seek approval from Albertans through a referendum before imposing such a tax, in the case that the federal government’s tax is scrapped.
Instead, she said her government is committed to fighting to eliminate the carbon tax. She also said her government has been asking Ottawa to stop increasing the carbon tax.
“Rachel Notley has not stood up for Albertans on this issue,” Smith said “And I think that goes to the credibility of Rachel Notley when she says that she cares about affordability.’
I asked Danielle Smith whether her gov would include the carbon tax in Bill 1 so that a provincial gov couldn’t impose a carbon tax without a referendum if the fed’s carbon tax is ever scrapped.
Smith does not commit to it, but says her gov is fighting against the carbon tax. pic.twitter.com/QvUJQuLOjg
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) Alberta Director Kris Sims said using the Taxpayer Protection Act as a shield against a provincial version would be a very good move.
“The carbon tax is unaffordable and it’s set to triple within the next seven years,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Some day, Trudeau’s carbon tax will be scrapped.”
Last week, the Alberta NDP released a costed economic platform which forecasts a $3.3-billion surplus over three years. It also included a nearly 40% increase to the business tax rate from 8% to 11% to increase revenue.
The proposal would result in Alberta shedding 33,700 jobs and an investment loss of $1.1 billion, according to economist Jack Mintz with the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
The CTF gave the Alberta NDP’s plan to hike taxes a “failing grade,” with Sims calling it a “reckless thing” to do in a province that’s booming and hiring thousands of people.
Canadian targets of Chinese election interference have expressed disappointment in “special rapporteur” David Johnston’s findings which were first released on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appointment and family friend published his 55-page report advising against the launch of a public inquiry into the allegations that China interfered in the past two federal elections.
Among those who found that Johnston’s investigation did not go far enough was former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu, who told CBC News that only a public inquiry would suffice in getting to the bottom of things.
“Nothing short of (that) is good enough to get to the bottom (of it),” Chiu told the outlet.
In his report, Johnston concluded that a public inquiry “would not serve a useful purpose.”
“I began with an inclination towards recommending a public inquiry. However, as I have undertaken the review process, I asked myself repeatedly what purpose a public inquiry could serve for Canadians in light of the restrictions on the material that would need to be before the commissioner,” said Johnston.
“I have concluded it would not serve a useful purpose to enhance trust.”
Chiu has claimed that Beijing meddled to have him lose his seat in the 2021 election by launching a disinformation campaign on the popular Chinese messaging application WeChat.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan also claimed that there were many “unanswered questions” from the report.
“I think there are a lot of unanswered questions that we’re still waiting for,” said Kwan.
Activists for Uyghur rights have also spoken out about Johnston’s assessment, including advocate Mehmet Tohti.
“When something comes up at this level that threatens our national security, a responsible government should take a stance and take tough measures immediately to address the situation,” Tohti told the Toronto Star.
“I’m afraid that Johnston’s decision (to turn down a public inquiry) will now be used as an excuse for the government to push the issues aside.”
Tibetan advocate Chemi Lhamo claimed that the decision was “another day in our lives of being unheard.
“For decades, we’ve been calling out the CCP’s long arm in our homes here, where Canada’s silence thus far has only emboldened their repression,” said Lhamo.
Meanwhile, Independent MP Han Dong, who stepped down from the Liberal caucus after CSIS sources claimed that China bussed supporters to his nomination campaign and that he met with the Chinese consulate to extend the detainment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, claimed that Johnston’s findings vindicated him.
“It is even more clear that Global News and [its parent company] Corus Entertainment must fully apologize and retract their defamatory reporting about me,” claimed Dong.
In his report, Johnston called the allegation “false.”
“The allegation is false. Mr. Dong discussed the ‘two Michaels’ with a PRC official but did not suggest to the official that the PRC extend their detention,” wrote Johnston.
