Canadians likely won’t be laughing this April Fools’ after they hear that two major taxes are going up while at the same time MPs are getting a scheduled pay hike.
MPs will be getting a taxpayer-funded pay raise ranging from $5,100 for back bench MPs and $10,200 for the prime minister.
As for Canadians, they will have to pay more in carbon taxes and one of the largest alcohol escalator tax hikes in decades.
“The joke is on taxpayers as MPs take more money out of Canadians’ pockets the same day they take higher pay,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano in a press release.
Although MPs successfully voted in March calling on the federal government to cancel the alcohol tax on beer, wine and spirits, the government has decided to barrel ahead with the legislation anyway.
The carbon tax will also go up 14 cents per litre for gasoline and 12 cents per cubic metre for natural gas on April Foolds.
Canadians could pay up to $710 extra in carbon taxes this year.
“Canadians are struggling to afford gas and groceries, so the least MPs could do is cancel this cruel April Fools’ joke by stopping their pay increase and scrapping the tax hikes,” said Terrazzano.
Canadians took to Twitter on Friday to express their disapproval of the Canadian military after an official account posted a transgender flag and dove into a woke lecture on the importance of inclusivity.
The tweet was part of the “International Transgender Day of Visibility” observed annually by some since 2014.
Today, on the International Transgender Day of Visibility we reaffirm our commitment to providing an open and inclusive working environment that allows Canadians to serve their country with pride and foster a culture where everyone is free to be their authentic selves. pic.twitter.com/WzVpFXFtgl
After being flooded with negative replies, the official Canadian Army Twitter account went into a tirade about acceptance, saying it would censor comments there were “derogatory or hateful.”
“Every member of the One Army Team is entitled to work in an environment where they feel safe and respected. Comments that are derogatory or hateful in nature will be removed,” tweeted the Canadian Army.
“For those who are unwilling to accept all people into the One Army Team, including Indigenous people, women, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ2+ communities, or our support for them, we suggest you no longer follow this page.”
At the time of this articles writing, the tweet had received nearly 1,000 replies and only 203 likes.
The most liked reply was by user Andrea Myknahlea, who tweeted a photo of the Canadian flag saying “we have one and only (flag) and it’s all inclusive already.”
I struggle to see how this helps with the mission of the military. In polite terms – to wage and win wars when necessary and to be ready to do so at all times https://t.co/ZhK31MqZtx
Some like CdnFreedomGirl took offence to the military’s tweet saying it harms the rights of women.
I’d like to be my authentic self, which is a woman, without men taking my place and taking my space.
— OG Horses Kisses 🇨🇦❄️⛄️🌨 (@CdnFreedomGirl) March 31, 2023
Other users blasted the military over its policies towards the unvaccinated during the Covid-19 pandemic which included ejecting them from their duties and reprimanding them over personal health choices.
Interesting. What about everyone who was thrown out or fired for wanting bodily autonomy?
Didn’t you cut personnel because of their moral, religious and/or medical objections to the vaccine @CanadianArmy? Why, yes, yes, you did. Very inclusive and tolerant of you, you shameless virtue-signalling hypocrites! https://t.co/hvYIvaGKuupic.twitter.com/tS90RMqkvs
This isn’t the first time the Canadian Armed Forces has attempted to be more inclusive. Last year, the armed forces revised its uniform policy last year to allow members to wear fake nails, dye their hair and don tattoos.
The Mass Casualty Commission has finally released its report on a Nova Scotia denturist’s 2020 killing spree that claimed 22 lives. Among its many recommendations, the report calls on government declare gender-based violence an “epidemic,” to “promote healthy masculinities,” to ban virtually all semi-automatic firearms, and to limit the amount of ammunition a person can own.
True North’s Andrew Lawton discusses some of the biggest red flags in the report.
Plus, an interview with Conservative leader Candice Bergen, dolphin news out of Dildo, Newfoundland, and a new format for Fake News Friday.
Chinese Canadians are more likely to believe that the Communist Chinese regime actively interfered in Canada’s elections than to doubt the allegations, according to a new poll.
In the Leger poll released on Thursday, 34% of Chinese Canadians said they believe Chinese state representatives pressured their community into promoting Chinese government objectives, whereas 27% doubted the allegations.
Belief was tied to the amount of time respondents spent living outside China, the report noted.
“Chinese Canadians who have immigrated to Canada less than ten years ago are almost twice as likely to agree [with] the allegations,” it said.
The group agreed as a majority (57%), while those who immigrated more than 10 years ago had less confidence (32%). Chinese Canadians born in Canada were least likely to think the foreign government was pressuring Canadians (30%).
Just more than 1-in-20 said they had personally experienced pressure from the Chinese government.
The survey comes after multiple national security officials reportedly leaked intelligence documents to the media, including reports that China interfered in multiple Canadian elections.
Earlier this month, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officials reportedly told the Globe and Mail that Chinese state actors made concerted efforts to interfere in Vancouver’s 2022 mayoral election.
CSIS officials also reportedly told Global News that Chinese Canadians were coerced into voting for MP Han Dong – allegedly Beijing’s preferred candidate – during a candidacy race in the Don Valley North riding of Ontario.
Dong resigned from the Liberal caucus in March. The now independent MP has since threatened to take legal action against Global News.
The British Columbia Conservative Party has named MLA John Rustad party leader seven months after he was ejected from the province’s main opposition party, the BC Liberals.
Rustad was acclaimed to the party’s top post Friday within a month of the party announcing a leadership race. Rustad replaced interim leader Trevor Bolin who led the BC Conservatives since 2019.
“I want to thank the thousands of members of the Conservative Party of British Columbia. I appreciate the trust you’re putting in my leadership, and I promise you this — no one will outwork me,” said Rustad.
Rustad is the only MLA sitting in the BC Legislature for the BC Conservatives, representing the riding of Nechako-Lakes.
In February, he first renounced his status as an independent, joining the Conservatives and becoming the party’s first sitting MLA in over a decade. Prior to his switch, he had served as the Minister of Aboriginal Relations under former premier Christy Clark.
“I believe in a more self-sufficient BC,” he told True North at the time, “ripe with economic opportunity, compassion for those in need and a protection for our most personal freedoms.
“Only one party offers this vision – the Conservative Party of BC.”
Rustad’s announcement that he’d join the Conservatives came six months after being ousted from the BC Liberals.
BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon in August removed Rustad, saying a recent string of the MLA’s behaviour was not compatible with the Liberal party’s views.
At the time, Rustad was criticizing the link between CO2 emissions and climate change.
“I do not plan to stay silent on the many issues that are just wrong,” he said at the time. “I plan to be vocal about them.
“It doesn’t serve the environment movement well, it doesn’t serve us as a province well.”
Rustad hopes that the BC Conservatives can provide a fresh direction for the province’s political system as a “genuine grassroots movement.”
“The Conservative Party is going to bring people together in every single region of British Columbia, and we are going to continue to build a genuine grassroots movement for positive change. Every single British Columbian voter will have the opportunity to tick a box that says ‘Conservative’ when they cast their vote in the next election,” said Rustad.
The Liberal government struck down debate in the House of Commons on the internet censorship law, Bill C-11, to ram the legislation through parliament. The bill was passed in the House of Commons on Thursday evening and will now head back to the Senate for debate.
Plus, the Carousel Theatre for Young People in Vancouver is advertising a “Junior Drag Camp” for kids aged 7-11 and a “Teen Drag Camp” for ages 12-17 this summer.
And former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has announced he will not seek re-election in the next federal election.
These stories and more on The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Andrew Lawton!
The City of Toronto has released its sweeping plan to decriminalize all hard drugs, including fentanyl and crack cocaine for any age.
Toronto’s request is even more lenient than the decriminalization order granted to the entire province of British Columbia by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this year.
The City is asking that the federal government grant a Health Canada exemption for all drugs extending even to children.
In British Columbia’s case, the granted exemption only applies to adults. The report claims that decriminalization should be offered for “all people in Toronto, including youth.”
“Criminalization does not effectively deter youth substance use. The data show that youth in Toronto between the ages of 12 and 17 use unregulated drugs and are vulnerable to the same harms associated with criminalization as adults,” claimed the report.
Toronto’s “city-wide” exemption does not apply to child care facilities, airports or schools.
“The exclusion of child care facilities and schools is intended to maintain alignment with provincial legislation intended to prevent alcohol, cannabis, and unregulated drug use in these settings. Airports are excluded because they fall under federal laws,” wrote city officials.
As part of its plan, it does not specifically limit what quantity of drugs can be possessed for personal use but claims that individuals will still be investigated for drug trafficking and other violations.
“Drugs in possession for personal use can vary considerably depending on the type of drugs being used, or an individual’s tolerance to a substance. For the anticipated benefits of decriminalization to be available to all Torontonians, the model should apply to all drugs in possession if they are for personal use,” wrote city officials.
“However, individuals will still be investigated for and charged with trafficking and/or possession for the purpose of trafficking, exporting, or producing a controlled substance where there are reasonable grounds for any such charge.”
In British Columbia, drug possession under 2.5 grams is legal as of Jan. 31.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been a vocal opponent of the decriminalization approach.
“Flooding our streets with decriminalized and taxpayer subsidized drugs has led to a massive overdose crisis right across the country,” said Poilievre on Wednesday while commenting on recent random attacks across the country.
At the same time Toronto has moved to introduce a pilot program to allow drinking in public parks.
All parent Nick Morabito wanted to do when he appeared before the Ottawa Carleton District School board was to express concern about teen boys who identify as female sharing an unsupervised non-gendered washroom with adolescent girls.
It took him two tries before he could get his message out at a board meeting this past week.
In the interim, he became the target of relentless bullying on social media by radical activists and even the board’s own trustees.
His message made perfect sense.
He told trustees the current policy — which allows students who self-identify as female to use unsupervised bathrooms and change rooms — could lead to abuse.
He’s concerned that the “added risk” could leave students concerned for their safety and feeling violated in their personal space.
He added that this is layered on top of the already considerable issues of safety, which have been ignored by board administrators. Teachers have told him that drug deals, underage sex, violence, intimidation and vaping is occurring in these washrooms.
Removing the officers in schools program may have “amplified” such safety concerns, he said.
He said rights to washrooms and change rooms are not being applied fairly across all students — that choosing one group’s rights over others as the policy does, is actually against the Human Rights Code.
“I’m coming to you from a place of sincerity and empathy not from transphobia, hostility, bigotry or any of the labels that have been hurled my way,” he said.
This common sense four-minute message could not be delivered without adhering to a set of rules provided by board chairman, Lyra Evans, a transgendered trustee.
She walked out of Morabito’s first attempt at delivering a deputation on March 7, shortly before rabid masker and trustee Nili Kaplan-Mryth cut him off 35 seconds into his talk.
Kaplan-Myrth claimed at the time his deputation created “an unsafe environment for people who identify as gender diverse.”
There was considerable uproar in the days and weeks following his original deputation and the activists seized on it to invent an issue and to dismiss him as transphobic.
“My wife and I are so Liberal minded…all I had were some issues with the policy and how easily abused it can be,” he told me this week.
“I refuse to believe this is representative of the trans community.”
After Morabito wrote both Evans and Kaplan-Myrth a very respectful e-mail on March 22 about wanting to speak at a subsequent board meeting, the rabid masker responded that because he tagged Rebel News in one of his social media posts, “that was all we need to know” about his “intentions going forward.”
Kaplan-Myrth claimed that she did not call recess to the March 7 meeting on her own but “with the support of senior staff and colleagues.”
She added in her highly confrontational e-mail to him, dated March 23, that there were people present in the room who took videos to share with “anti-trans organizers and hate-fuelled media outlets” – proof of his intention to speak of “transphobia.”
Despite her angry and outrageous assumptions, he wrote a very professional and respectful e-mail back to her.
Evans also wrote him on March 23, setting out rules for what he could and could not say when he turned to the board on March 28.
Using the word “delegate” repeatedly in the wrong way in the e-mail, the often highly unprofessional chairman told him he was not permitted to use any “derogatory or derisive comments” – for example, likening trans to “groomers” – or ask the school board to “violate human rights laws.”
The latter Evans suggested would be asking trans students to be treated differently than non-trans students.
The great irony in that statement is that Evans wanted non-trans students to be treated differently and unfairly.
Morabito was also told he could not name any individual or make remarks about them – an attempt no doubt to protect the out-of-control vitriolic Kaplan-Myrth.
To add to Evans’ attempts to control the narrative, hundreds of activists turned up at the meeting Tuesday night.
They were professional protesters in search of a cause, in my view.
Despite having his own free speech resoundingly attacked, Morabito said he felt sorry for the “misguided people” who spewed pure hatred and B.S. about him, not even knowing what he intended to say or what he was about.
What he found even more “embarrassing” was that this put a spotlight on an already dysfunctional board and that no trustees stood up to stop Kaplan-Myrth’s out-of-control behaviour.
He’s 100% right.
I’d also ask where the hell is Education Minister Stephen Lecce and our Premier Doug Ford?
Are they content to continue to let these boards spiral out of control, become an international embarrassment nd destroy public education?
I just shake my head and think, it seems they are.
A Manitoba family launched a lawsuit against public health authorities, a previous employer and a pharmaceutical company, claiming a Covid-19 vaccine caused their 23-year-old son to suffer a stroke and brain bleeding days after vaccination.
Jackson Reimer, Marina Reimer and Perry Reimer this month launched legal action claiming Jackson suffered a stroke and loss of vision, and required skull surgery to stop bleeding in his brain because of either an AstraZeneca vaccine or COVISHIELD.
The lawsuit claims Jackson received an AstraZeneca or COVISHIELD vaccine on Mar. 17, 2021 following recommendation from his employer, Vail Resorts, and experienced loss of vision, dizziness and severe headaches six days later.
Around Mar. 23, according to the claim, Jackson was taken to Vancouver General Hospital and given a medical scan of the brain. The scan showed Jackson was bleeding into his brain tissue, and health care staff found he had critically low blood platelets, the claim reads.
After being transferred to the neurological intensive care unit and receiving two transfusions, the claim says, Jackson could not see. He reportedly became unresponsive, and doctors performed a “Craniotomy,” removing part of his skull to stop bleeding in his brain.
According to the claim, Jackson’s lasting symptoms, including brain seizures, excessive weight gain, and the compulsion to repeat speech are expected to last indefinitely.
The lawsuit alleges that Health Canada neglected to act on important information, leading Jackson to lifelong damage.
“At the time Jackson received the vaccine for COVID-19, the Defendant, Health Canada knew that many credible foreign authorities had suspended their respective authorizations of the AstraZeneca Vaccine,” the lawsuit reads.
The Reimer family lawsuit named AstraZeneca Canada, Verity Pharmaceuticals, Vail Resorts, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and the Attorney General of Canada.
AstraZeneca released a statement to CTV News addressing the claim.
“From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, Vaxzevia has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects,” the statement read.
Health Canada is reportedly reviewing the claim, and The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Vail Resorts reportedly had no comment.
On Thursday, the Liberal government struck down debate in the House of Commons on Bill C-11 to ram the legislation through parliament.
Liberal MPs voted to support closing debate on amendments introduced by the Senate which would protect content posted online by individuals from government regulation.
“What we just heard from the government is that they’ve moved closure on Bill C-11 and our discussion on amendments that came back from the Senate. Closure means that they’re shutting down debate,” said Conservative MP Rachel Thomas.
“I find this rather interesting because really Bill C-11 is a censorship bill. We have a government that has moved a censorship bill and now they’re moving censorship on that censorship bill. Talk about a government very committed to censorship.”
The Liberals are shutting down debate on Bill C11! This is a bill that gives the govn’t authority to control what we can see, hear and post online. Talk about censorship!
Senators Julie Miville-Dechene and Paula Simons put forward amendments that could potentially exempt user-generated content on social media platforms from being subject to regulatory scrutiny by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Those amendments were rejected by the Liberals earlier this month.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre also commented on the move to close debate earlier in the day, calling it a legislative emergency.
“As you know they’ve been trying to censor the internet, in what Canadian artist Margaret Atwood has called creeping totalitarianism to give Trudeau’s woke bureaucrats at the CRTC the power to control what you see and say on the internet,” said Poilievre.
“They’re bringing in what’s called closure which shuts down debate and rams the bill through in record time.”
URGENT BREAKING:
Trudeau's team moments ago moved to shut down debate and ram through his online censorship bill.
This isn’t the first time that the Liberals have sought to close debate on bills aimed to regular the internet. The Liberals also attempted to push Bill C-11’s predecessor Bill C-10 without further debate in 2021.
