Last weekend, two senseless murders of innocent Canadians in Toronto and Vancouver have shaken Canada and sent a loud message to the federal government that something is clearly wrong. Catch and release policies have turned Canada’s once world-class cities into unliveable hellscapes full of violence, senseless crime, homelessness and drug abuse.
In 2018 the Trudeau government passed Bill C-75, a bill that repealed bail specifically intended to get the accused back out onto the street as soon as possible. In 2021, the Trudeau government followed that up with Bill C-5. This legislation shrank mandatory minimum penalties for most firearm-related offences. Both pieces of legislation were designed to address “systemic racism” in the justice system.
And it’s only going to get worse from here.
Tune in to the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner
The CBC recently published a six-minute video segment where two drag queens, one male (“Rose Beef”) and one female (“Barb Wire”) sat down with New Brunswick schoolchildren for “an honest conversation about drag, gender and dress-up.”
Drag queens are generally male, so the CBC presumably included a female to avoid the optics of having two adult men trying to be all cutesy with young kids at school.
Alongside public libraries and other cultural institutions, the CBC seems to have a mission to promote drag queens to young children in particular. In 2019, the state broadcaster released a documentary called “Drag Kids.”
A foray into the public Instagram pages of Barb Wire and Rose Beef shows them displaying their thonged buttocks to the camera, posing in lingerie, and flaunting giant fake breasts (à la Kerry Lemieux, the infamous Oakville Trafalgar teacher who gets off on wearing kink gear in a school learning environment).
Couldn’t the CBC find one single drag queen who doesn’t have sexually explicit pictures on their social media page? It is perhaps a futile question, as virtually any drag queen you look up on social media will have a fixation with being sexually provocative. Even former mayor John Tory has been filmed stuffing bills into a drag performer’s underwear.
If Rose Beef, Barb Wire and other adults wish to post public pictures of themselves scantily clad, then fine! But why the push to have these individuals become role models and life lesson-teachers for kids?
It’s hard not to come off as prudish or square when denouncing drag queen story hours or questioning why some feel a need to expose children to men who like to wear clownish makeup and wigs.
Admittedly, I have never watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, and I have never attended a drag show or drag queen story hour. I am simply not attracted to the gaudy aesthetic of drag queens and I am unsure how being in their presence would enhance my life.
But the CBC segment had an insidious subcurrent: these children were nervous as they eyed the drag queens up and down.
“Why are you nervous?” Barb Wire asked a boy.
“I’ve never met anyone that’s not… I can’t really explain,” he answered. The boy seemed old enough to understand the concept of self-censorship.
“Is this your first time seeing a drag queen?” Rose Beef asked a girl. “How does that make you feel?”
“Excited but a little bit nervous,” she responded, with an uncertainty coming across in her eyes.
These children understand that if they want to be nice boys and girls, they have to please the adult drag queen sitting across from them. They have to submit and nod along with what that drag queen is saying, and seek the approval of the drag queen – they have to hold back what they really think. After all, the grownups they trust (their parents and teachers) were the ones who told them to go sit face-to-face with the drag queen. The undercurrent is of course the drag queens’ sexualized nature, which the children may be able to detect – but the drag queens have plausible deniability by claiming they are just engaging in fun dress-up time. The children are taught that they should get along with, and be nice to, people who actually give them the creeps.
A Vancouver theatre that receives taxpayer funding from provincial, federal and local governments is hosting a drag queen camp for kids as young as seven where adults groom them to become drag performers.
This summer, the Carousel Theatre for Young People is advertising a “Junior Drag Camp” for ages 7 to 11 and a “Teen Drag Camp” for ages 12 to 17 this July.
“Join some of Vancouver’s most amazing drag artists and learn how drag can brighten up your life! You might be wondering, is drag for kids? Drag is for everyone!” claims Carousel Theatre.
“Parents, ask yourself, what’s the difference between what you wear at home versus what you wear at work? You’re doing drag honey, you just don’t know it!”
This summer, the Carousel Theatre for Young People is advertising a “Junior Drag Camp” for ages 7 to 11 and a “Teen Drag Camp” for ages 12 to 17 this July.
The event website states all children will be provided with a “drag makeup starter kit.”
According to Government of Canada grant data, Carousel Theatre received federal funding to the tune of $280,849 since 2018.
The theatre also lists the City of Vancouver, the Canada Council of Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, Granville Island as well as the British Columbia Arts Council as supporters.
Drag queen events featuring children have become a controversial issue in Canada and elsewhere.
Several drag queen story times where drag performers read to children in libraries have attracted both opponents and supporters.
Recently, Calgary’s City Council voted for a bylaw which limited drag queen protests around public spaces.
The bylaw prohibits “specific protests” from taking place within 100 metres of an entrance to a city operated or other designated facility such as a library.
The Trudeau government’s grand plan to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to “net-zero” by 2050 has spawned yet another set of policies that will harm Canadians.
This time, the government plans to raise the costs of government by raising the costs of what government builds or purchases—think infrastructure projects such as highways, and purchasing of supplies for vast number of government facilities.
Beginning April 1, 2023, any Government of Canada supplier wanting to fulfill government procurements equalling or exceeding $25 million must disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and set reduction targets. And government construction contractors must now report and reduce the carbon footprint of all new major government construction projects, starting with concrete.
The government will generously grant compliance status for the new standard to companies that have already embraced its supposedly voluntary “Net Zero Challenge,” in accordance with the government’s definition of voluntary—basically, if you want to keep doing business with the government, one of the biggest buyers in Canada, you must do this, this and this.
And lest you think it will end with forcing construction companies to buy “lower-carbon” concrete, think again. According to the government, “the Net-Zero Challenge will not only be for businesses, but also for cities. We are committed to expand the program to public entities and local government to ensure all parts of the economy are moving toward net-zero.”
How will this new concrete initiative translate into higher costs for infrastructure and government for Canadians?
Before we answer that, several organizations have wrongly suggested the shift to low-carbon concrete will be low cost. For example, Rocky Mountain Institute, an U.S. environmental group, suggests cost increases of as little as one per cent in the shift to low-carbon concrete.
Admittedly, one per cent doesn’t seem like much, but considering the amount government spends on concrete infrastructure, that would add up quickly. According to Statistics Canada, capital investment in infrastructure assets totalled about $108 billion in 2021, and much of that involved concrete. So, bumping that by 1 per cent would add about $1.1 billion to the roadway construction bill.
But what does real-world experience suggest? The state of Oregon conducted a pilot project, Low-Carbon Concrete in Residential Construction, and found a “5% cost premium for the concrete work in this project” and that the “concrete sub-contractor reported that he may bid future jobs with a 7-10% premium dependent on the supplier and experience of the finishers.”
Given government’s limited history of frugality, the government would likely get hit with that 10 per cent premium tacked onto the low-carbon concrete builds, which for Canada (based on that StatsCan data) in 2021 would have added a cool approximate $11 billion to Canada’s bill for transportation infrastructure. That’s infrastructure Canadians pay for with their taxes. A billion here, half a billion there, and soon you’re talking real money.
And for those wondering about benefits, it should be noted that Canadian GHG emissions from the industrial sector’s use of cement was only 4.7 metric tonnes (MT) of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, out of total Canadian GHG emissions of 738 MT in 2019 or 0.6 per cent of Canadian emissions.
If there’s an environmental benefit here, it’s vanishingly small.
The Trudeau government’s new mandate for low-carbon concrete is simply one example of how this fixation on GHG emission reductions will raise the costs of what Canadians do in even the most prosaic chores such as repaving the driveway. But writ large, as government expressly states is its intent, government’s carbon crusade will saddle Canadians with higher costs across the board, including higher costs for government and its infrastructure. Something to think about when government proclaims yet another “investment” in infrastructure.
Kenneth Green is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
It seems like every week, school boards are caught pushing radical and woke ideas on innocent students.
Joining the show today is Ari Blaff, a news writer for the National Review and his writing has appeared in a number of publications, including Quillette and Newsweek. He has sounded the alarm on the woke takeover of education in North America and is urging parents to pay close attention.
In this interview, Rupa and Ari discuss the politicization of school curriculums, if there’s hope on the horizon and much more. Tune into The Rupa Subramanya Show!
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office has hinted at a possible defamation suit against CBC News following repeated reports that her office has been in contact with Justice officials over Covid-19 and Coutts border blockade charges.
The latest report came on Wednesday, as CBC, along with dozens of other media outlets, including True North, reported on a newly-released call between Smith and controversial street pastor Artur Pawlowski. On the call, Smith says she’s been in weekly contact with “prosecutors” regarding the pastor’s criminal charges from his involvement with the Coutts border blockade.
CBC’s report argues the call reveals that Smith’s conversations “with top Alberta Justice officials about pandemic-related prosecutions were more frequent and specific than she has admitted publicly.”
Ahead of the report, Smith released a preemptive statement saying that neither she nor her staff have been in contact with the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service. She adds that she’s previously said her staff worked with Justice officials to determine how to help those charged “with non-violent, non-firearms COVID-related charges.”
“Allegations to the contrary are defamatory and will be dealt with accordingly,” she said.
Rob Anderson, the executive director of the premier’s office who is repeatedly referenced on the leaked call as the main official active on the prosecution files, also took to Twitter to describe CBC’s reporting as “defamatory.”
“These NDP hacks are a disgrace to journalism,” he wrote. “How many more defamation lawsuits will be settled using taxpayer dollars?”
More defamatory attacks from the CBC…these NDP hacks are a disgrace to journalism. How many more defamation lawsuits will be settled using taxpayer dollars? #DefundCBChttps://t.co/a772rzP5o6
CBC head of public affairs Chuck Thompson says the outlet has not been served legal notice as of yet.
“Given we have been the lead news service on this story, it’s not surprising CBC is garnering a lot of attention,” he said in an email to True North.
On the call, Pawlowski tells the premier he’s facing 10 years in prison and blames Smith for not following through on her earlier promises to seek clemency. After being elected premier, Smith said she would seek pardons for those charged for breaching pandemic restrictions, but backtracked on those promises months later upon learning she did not have the power to grant clemency.
Pawlowski faces charges of mischief for allegedly inciting protestors to continue blocking the international border crossing at Coutts, Alberta in early 2022. He is also charged under the Alberta Critical Infrastructure Defence Act with wilfully damaging or destroying essential infrastructure, and has a lengthy trail of charges stemming from breaching Covid-19 restrictions.
Smith explains to Pawlowski in the recording, “Once the process is underway, I can ask our prosecutors: ‘Is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction and is it in the public interest,’ and I assure you, I have asked them almost weekly ever since I got started here.”
She also tells Pawlowski multiple times that she is unable to intervene in the legal matter.
“There isn’t really a mechanism for me to order them to drop cases,” Smith responds. “It’s just the way our legal system works, I’m afraid.”
The story follows months of reporting from legacy media outlets about whether Smith’s communication on Covid and Coutts related cases has always remained appropriate.
The first story broke in late January, when CBC reported that Smith’s office emailed Crown prosecutors challenging their assessment on Coutts border blockades cases. The outlet relied on anonymous sources and said it had not seen the email in question.
The premier’s office continues to deny the allegations, which it called “defamatory.”
CBC did not retract the story, but doubled down on its reporting with a second story alleging that Smith inappropriately pressured Justice department officials to intervene in pandemic-related charges.
The court heard Pawlowski’s case in February, weeks after his call with Smith, and is expected to make a ruling in May.
The lawyer representing Albertans concerned with the potential use of electronic voting machines in the upcoming provincial election says voters are taking preemptive action to ensure election integrity.
On Monday, Alberta litigator Leighton Grey of Grey Wowk Spencer LLP sent a letter to Elections Alberta saying he represents many residents who don’t want electronic voting machines used.
Grey said the intention of the letter is to ensure that Elections Alberta intends to hand count the ballots and to keep all ballots for three months following election day, as stipulated under the Alberta Election Act.
“So that’s really the impetus for it, is just an expression of public concern,” he told True North.
“We want to make sure because this is really important… and we’re concerned that the result that comes out of it is accurate and correct and done according to law.”
The letter argues that the Alberta Election Act clearly intends for “witnessed hand counting of ballots.”
“Any Directive to extend electronic voting machines to the entire Alberta 2023 election would necessarily impugn the integrity and reliability of its outcome,” says the letter, which has been obtained by True North.
Grey said that Rachel Notley’s government changed regulations in 2017 to allow for electronic tabulators. He said such machines were used in the Calgary municipal election.
In his letter, Grey argued that electronic voting machines reduced confidence in the Calgary Municipal elections. He also said the results could not be appealed because the ballots were machine counted and then immediately destroyed.
The Alberta Elections Act requires ballots to be kept for three months in case a candidate requests a recount. Ballots must then be kept for another three months from the date of a recount.
“We wanted to have the Chief Electoral Officer confirm that ballots would be preserved,” Grey said.
Grey said he hasn’t yet received a response from Elections Alberta.
Elections Alberta did not respond to a media request from True North requesting clarification on whether it intends to use electronic tabulators.
After losing the 2020 US election, former President Donald Trump was relentless in his attacks against electronic voting equipment. The attacks largely centered on Dominion Voting Systems, a Canadian software company that’s widely used in the US.
Grey said ES&S and Dominion Voting Machines were used in the Calgary election.
Trump argued that Dominion tampered with millions of electronic ballots.
In recent weeks, Dominion filed defamation lawsuits against conservative media companies and Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, saying “lies and misinformation have severely damaged our company and diminished the credibility of U.S. elections.”
Alberta has a comparatively small population compared to the US. A population of 4.6 million residents, a record 68% of the eligible population, or 1.9 million people, cast a ballot in the 2019 election.
After a number of players refused to don LGBTQ pride jerseys due to their religious beliefs, reports claim that the NHL is considering doing away with the practice altogether.
In an interview with CTV News, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman called the media flurry around the events a “distraction,” citing the league’s need to also respect the personal beliefs of its players.
“This is the first time we’ve experienced that, and I think it’s something that we’re going to have to evaluate in the offseason. This is one issue where players for a variety of reasons may not feel comfortable wearing the uniform as a form of endorsement,” said Bettman.
“But I think that’s become more of a distraction now, because the substance of what our teams and we have been doing and stand for is really being pushed to the side for what is a handful of players basically have made personal decisions, and you have to respect that as well.”
Brothers Eric and Marc Staal and Buffalo Sabres player Ilya Lyubushkin were the latest to refuse to wear a pride-themed jersey, following San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer.
Earlier this year, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov also made a similar decision to opt out of pre-game warmups.
“After many thoughts, prayers and discussions we have chosen not to wear a Pride Night jersey tonight. We carry no judgement on how people choose to live their lives, and believe that all people should be welcome in all aspects of the game of hockey,” the Staal brothers said in a statement.
“Having said that, we feel that by us wearing a pride jersey it goes against our Christian beliefs. We hope you can respect this statement. We will not be speaking any further on this matter and would like to continue to focus on the game and helping the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup.”
Players who refuse to wear pride jerseys have faced vehement public backlash over their decisions.
We all thought the world’s sanctions against Russia were causing it to choke economically. The reality is, Vladimir’s probably rolling his eyeballs.
Incredibly, Russia experienced only “a small contraction in GDP in 2022,” according to France24. So for all those global efforts to financially kneecap Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian economy this year is expected to grow by 0.3%, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Some of that is the result of rising oil prices that made up for the drop in sales, the report says. But Putin also got shrewd. He compensated by shifting sales in the last twelve months to the likes of Germany (almost $26B), Turkey (almost $26B), India (about $24B) and China ($66B).
India shipped $81M per day in February, 2023, up from $3M February a year ago. China purchased a record two million barrels a day in February, up from its typical 1.5 million, China’s General Administration of Customs Data reported.
Also on the customer list are Western democracies as the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, France, Belgium and Hungary, and even Australia. Yahoo News noted that Russia still profits $315B annually from global fossil fuel exports, with nearly half from the EU (despite them reducing sales by 55%).
Other sanctioned Western goods, moreover, were reportedly shipped through third parties, such as Kyrgyzstan, Armenia or Georgia. Cunning, Vlad.
And so all the oil sanctions and price caps were utterly as useless as Western politicians’ bluster and bombast.
The price cap, says one pundit, was “invented by bureaucrats with finance degrees. None of them really understand oil markets,” said Paul Sankey, president and lead analyst at Sankey Research. “It’s been a total bomb. It has failed completely.”
Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit in the journal Foreign Policy said that foreign trade data isn’t being made public anymore, likely to spare the West from the embarrassment that the sanctions aren’t working.
In a stunning revelation, Bloomberg News recently acquired customs data on Russian crude oil buyers, with detailed invoice information from Dec. 5 to Dec. 31 2022. It showed six companies’ transactions that, all tolled, equate roughly to the oil imports of the United Kingdom – and which “catapult them into the leagues of the world’s largest commodity traders.”
Hong Kong-based Nord Axis Ltd, at just a year old, was the biggy, buying 521,000 barrels a day, from Rosneft PJSC. Tejarinaft FZCO, a Dubai company, bought 244,000 barrels a day, also from Rosneft.
Dubai-based QR Trading DMCC bought 199,000 barrels a day from Surgutneftegas. Hong Kong-based Concept Oil Services Ltd bought 152,000 barrels per day. Bellatrix Energy Ltd., a Hong Kong company owned by an Azerbaijani named Bilal Aliyev, bought 151,000 barrels a day.
And finally, decade-old Coral Energy DMCC, out of Dubai, purchased 121,000 barrels per day from Surgutneftegas PJSC. They stopped dealing with Russian oil as of January 1, 2023, according to its Chief Financial Officer Ahmed Karimov.
Bloomberg also reported the unintended consequence of sanctions: it “pushed the trade deeper into the shadows, and made it all but impossible for analysts and government officials to get hard data on who is involved in it.”
Meanwhile in Canada, Justin Trudeau’s speech on Feb. 24, 2023, the first anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, elaborated that Canada has sanctioned some 2,400 “key Russian individuals and entities,” including Russian parliamentarians, and members of their defense complex. The Liberal government said it is no longer doing trade with electronics or weapons materials, either. On Mar. 23, with President Biden, he spoke in passing of Canada’s aid to Ukraine.
He probably feels like he’s standing up to Kremlin’s madman. That’s very nice.
I’m fairly certain Vladimir didn’t so much as adjust his sleep mask.
A phone call between Premier Smith and Artur Pawlowski was released on Wednesday, in which she offers to help the controversial street preacher with his criminal charges, has the premier in hot water.
Plus, the Conservatives are criticizing the Trudeau government’s bail reforms after several recent attacks in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver – and propose a new bill to reform the Criminal Code.
And five people have been arrested at two camps in the area where the disputed Coastal GasLink pipeline is under construction in British Columbia.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Rachel Emmanuel and Cosmin Dzsurdzsa!
