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Friday, September 26, 2025

OP-ED: The perfect storm of Ottawa transit and the public service’s return to the office

By
Rita Smith
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Ottawa is in the throes of a perfect storm of events and incompetence which could only be achieved by all levels of government working in tandem.

Thousands of workers who once took public transit to work have abandoned it in frustration. According to the Ottawa federal public servant who shared this incredible narrative with me, they have ironically reverted to driving their carbon-spewing cars to get to their desks, where they then cannot do their jobs. 

Before then-Mayor Jim Watson launched the LRT in 2019, Ottawa City planners had over a century’s worth of successful transit projects to use as their model. Montreal’s Métro; Toronto’s TTC; New York’s subway; or London’s “Tube” could all have served as studies in how to deliver effective urban rapid transit in a northern climate. 

Instead, they intentionally designed a system which goes virtually nowhere, on oval wheels, and forces passengers to wait outside in the brutal Ottawa winter. 

Anyone familiar with transit in the Greater Toronto Area can see that Ottawa built its train network backwards. Instead of running a line west to busy Kanata and east to established Orleans, Ottawa sent its first train south, to the sparsely populated but politically trendy campus of Carleton University. 

(Imagine if Ontario had first sent GO Trains to Barrie, instead of to the populous Durham and Mississauga Regions.)

Initially, commuters were able to avoid dealing with the triple-threat of bad geography, poor design and Ottawa weather because the LRT commenced “service” during the COVID-19 lockdowns. 

During the winters of 2021 and 2022, numerous LRT slowdowns and breakdowns had minimal impact on the hundreds of thousands of civil servants and others who would have usually been working in the capital’s core. 

When these employees were sent home during the COVID lockdowns, they just fired up computers on their home internet and kept working. Very few even noticed at that time that OC Transpo had adjusted more than 100 bus routes, taking thousands of bus trips out of the downtown core.

Meanwhile, the City chose the middle of the pandemic to rip up major streets for repair, and those repairs are not yet done. In addition to the 1,000 licensed Taxis traditionally working, Ottawa legalized 10,000 rideshare vehicles to clog capital streets.

Most recently, Canada’s federal government decreed that all workers must abandon their home offices and return to their desks in government buildings. 

Painfully, workers are now struggling to get to the office by driving their own cars rather than taking transit: imagine thousands of drivers attempting to get downtown in a city with very little capacity for private vehicles and even less parking. 

The next brutal irony is what happens when they finally crawl into the office in a government building: there is not sufficient internet for them to do their job. 

Just a few years ago, most office workers hadn’t used or heard of Microsoft Teams. With COVID, though, Teams became a staple in daily work. Now, Ottawa’s prolific use of Teams to conduct business means that most office infrastructure needs faster internet to cope with the added internet usage. 

And so the piece de resistance of this whole, sad saga is that some workers have found they actually have to return home, in their own cars, in congested traffic, in order to get their work done. 

Which is why the ten most frightening words in the English language may still be, “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you.” 

Rita Smith is the publisher of Road Warrior News/Taxi News. 

‘Gender pay gap reports’ mandatory in future of B.C business

By
Connor McDowell
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The British Columbia government will soon mandate businesses to create and release public “gender pay gap reports.”

The government announced on Tuesday a growing list of businesses will be required to publicly report staff wages, emphasizing in the report the relationship between gender and wage.

“[This] brings us one step closer to reducing the gender pay gap,” said B.C. labour minister Harry Baines.

The mandate will expand once a year, on the first day of November. It’s scheduled to start with businesses that employ more than 1,000 staff.

The B.C. government said it will compile the reports each year, releasing a provincial update to show changes in the gender-pay-gap.

“The legislation will address systemic discrimination in the workplace that holds women back from achieving their true potential,” said Queenie Choo, CEO of a Vancouver non-profit social service group called the United Chineses Community Enrichment Services Society.

The government announcement noted that British Columbia men had higher average hourly wages ($35.50) than women ($29.53).

The program is scheduled to end in 2026, lastly including businesses that employ 50 staff.

Advocates have said the legislation is not enough to close equity gaps in B.C., and are pushing the government to enshrine pay-equity in law.

Others say the gender pay gap is a false idea to begin with.

Canadian public figure Jordan Peterson wrote on social media the idea is a politically-motivated lie.

Twitter users HappyCamper and Lana Durand wrote to BC Premier John Horgan, claiming the gender pay gap is not significant when closely inspected.

The Daily Brief | Trudeau is working against the interests of Canada, Poilievre says

By
Anthony Furey
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In response to the prime minister’s refusal to launch an independent inquiry into allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says Trudeau is working against the interests of Canada.

And as cities across Ontario and Quebec struggle to deal with the influx of asylum seekers from Roxham Road, Alberta and British Columbia say they currently have no plans to take in any of these border crossers.

Plus Conservative MP Ed Fast plans to table legislation that would repeal a Trudeau government law that allows the mentally ill to access doctor-assisted suicide.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Anthony Furey and Andrew Lawton!

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Bank of Canada holds interest rate, predicts decline in inflation

By
Connor McDowell
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The Bank of Canada held Canada’s interest rate at 4.5%.

The announcement came after the Bank hiked interest rates eight times in a span of roughly a year.

In a Wednesday statement, the Bank says it is responding to a cool-off in inflation, which partly informs the interest policy.

In January, the bank wrote that the string of interest rate hikes would help bring down consumer prices.

While the Bank’s statement said it still expects consumer inflation to fall 2.7% by the middle of this year, Statistics Canada in February reported a record rise in grocery prices.

Conservative MP tabling bill set to stop looming MAiD expansion

By
Angelica Vecchiato
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Conservative MP Ed Fast announced he will be tabling a private member’s bill that will reverse the forecasted expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) legislation to include those whose sole condition is a mental illness.

In light of recently renewed talk about assisted suicide laws in Canada, Fast announced the soon-to-be-introduced Bill C-314– the Mental Health Protection Act – on Parliament Hill, flanked by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“My fear is that the most vulnerable Canadians, those with mental illnesses, will be placed at risk through Canada’s current MAiD regime,” said Fast, MP of Abbotsford in B.C., in an interview with True North. “I am hoping that Bill C-314 will cause Canadians to wake up and raise the alarm bell to the fact that our current liberal government is moving way too forward and way too fast with assisted suicide legislation.”

Recently, there has been considerable political momentum to permit MAiD for those whose sole condition is a mental illness, though its expansion has been delayed until at least March 17, 2024 with the federal government’s introduction of Bill C-39 in early February. The bill, sponsored by Justice Minister David Lametti, is currently awaiting Senate approval.

“Our trajectory is scary. Canada has some of the most liberal MAiD legislation in the world. Many of the experts, many of the professionals, made clear that they were not properly consulted. There has not been a debate amongst Canadians at large about whether our legislation should be expanded to include more vulnerable people,” said Fast.

Under current legislation, Canadians are eligible for MAiD if they satisfy certain criteria including being over the age of 18, having “a serious and incurable illness” and enduring “intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated.”

In the news conference, Poilievre highlighted government responsibility “to treat mental health problems rather than ending people’s lives.” The Conservative leader noted that MAiD should never be offered as a solution for those experiencing mental illness because suffering in the moment might only be transient in the end.

“Experts tell us that depression and mental illness can come and go, that people can be suffering and desperate today, but a few months later be thankful that they still have their lives and their families,” he said.

Given that there is limited public backing for expanding access to MAiD, Fast said resources should instead be expended to support those undergoing difficult situations.

“It is very clear, poll after poll, that there is no consensus across Canada to expand MAiD to the mentally ill. In fact, the consensus is against this. Instead of pushing the idea of “dying with dignity,” we should focus our attention on allowing Canadians to live with dignity. We have called upon the government to provide mental health and palliative supports to help those who are most vulnerable.”

Although Fast believes that it’s “difficult to tell whether the bill will pass or not,” he said that members of other parties are now reconsidering whether expanding MAiD is the best way to move forward.

Gen Z mental health hurt by climate change, says report

By
Connor McDowell
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Source: Flickr

Most young Canadians say their mental health is upset by the threat of climate change, according to a new report.

In a report from Lakehead University, eight-in-ten Canadians aged 16 to 25 said climate change impacts their overall mental health.

“Evidence increasingly illustrates that young people are particularly vulnerable to climate distress and anxiety,” wrote the authors and researchers Lindsay Galway and Ellen Field.

Among the most common emotions young Canadians reported was fear (66%) and powerlessness (56%), and among the least common emotions reported was optimism (21%).

The authors said these emotions have consequences.

“Our data illustrate that the climate crisis is impacting the overall […] daily functioning of young Canadians.”

Four-in-ten respondents said their daily life is negatively impacted by feelings about climate change, and that climate change makes them hesitant about having children.

Canadian culture has shifted to address these worries in youth, including by adding mental health support to universities.

In February, Simon Fraser University hosted climate-anxiety seminars. Students were taught about mental health caretaking, such as by increasing exercise, reducing caffeine intake, and increasing meditative breathing exercises.

The Lakehead University online survey was conducted with 1,000 Canadians aged 16 to 25.

MP & media’s Poilievre accusations rebuked by The Tragically Hip

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A spurious claim that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre misused music by The Tragically Hip at a weekend political rally has been debunked by the band but it hasn’t stopped a social media flame war in its tracks. 

It all began when an anonymous anti-conservative Twitter account tagged the famous Canadian rock group in a tweet asking if they were aware that Poilievre was using their music at a Hamilton event. 

Soon after the tweet, band guitarist Paul Langlois chimed in: “We certainly did not know this – highly offensive if true (we’ll wait to make sure and potentially confirm this) and if so, this will be stopped.” 

Yet on Monday, the band officially put out a statement saying that the venue which hosted the event was, in fact, licensed to play its music. 

“When we began to see posts and tweets from the event this weekend, the specifics were unclear. It has now been confirmed that Saturday’s event took place in a venue licensed by SOCAN, which means the venue pays a fee to ensure artists and musicians are compensated appropriately when music is played on site. As such, specific permissions were not required in this case,” the band wrote. 

“We did not have the full details in our earlier posts — and now consider this matter resolved.”

Still, prominent Twitter accounts, including Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen insinuated that Poilievre’s rally had misused the band’s music. Gerretsen has yet to delete his tweet.

Chiming into politics seems to not have paid off for the band, as many Canadians on Twitter expressed disappointment in the decision. 

“Highly offensive? What makes it ‘highly offensive’ that your music is being played by a party that represents a huge slice of Canadians? Please do elaborate,” wrote user Michael Thomlinson.

“What’s highly offensive is standing beside the people destroying the common folk. Awful,” wrote user Ann Rolle. 

“I see the Tragically Hip are having a Rage Against the Machine moment where the band’s politics don’t necessarily line up with some of the fan base’s politics,” wrote user Tim Querengesser. 

Poilievre accuses Trudeau of acting in the interests of China

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre levelled serious charges against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claiming that Trudeau was working against the interests of Canada. 

Poilievre made the claims while responding to the prime minister’s refusal to launch an independent inquiry into allegations that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned the government of Chinese election interference in 2019 and 2019.

“(CSIS) must be very worried about how the prime minister is working against the interests of his own country and his own people,” said Poilievre. 

“They’ve been warning him for years about this. And what has he done? He’s covered it up, even encouraged it to continue.” 

“And so they are so concerned about how the prime minister is acting against Canada’s interest and in favour of a foreign dictatorship’s interests, that they are actually releasing this information publicly,” he continued. 

On Monday, Trudeau announced new steps to investigate claims that the Beijing Communist regime influenced Canada’s elections unfairly – but stopped short of committing to a public inquiry into the matter.

Trudeau said he would ask the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, along with the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency to look into the claims of foreign interference. 

The special rapporteur, who has yet to be named, will look into the concerns and give recommendations on how to address the problem, according to Trudeau.

At the core of the claims are allegations which include indirect contributions by China to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and bussing supporters to a Liberal MP’s nomination meeting. 

As per a report by the Globe and Mail in early February, intelligence sources indicate China has been engaging in a covert campaign to influence 11 largely Liberal candidates in the 2021 election. 

The campaign’s intended goal was ensuring a minority Liberal government while also undermining the chances of certain Conservative candidates who China viewed as opposed to its interests.

Global News also reported that Liberal MP Han Dong was assisted by China during his nomination to be the Liberal candidate in the 2019 election. 

At question is a $1 million donation by Chinese billionaire Zhang Bin to the Trudeau Foundation at the behest of China. 

Trudeau has cast shade over such claims, calling them “partisan accusations.” 

“It is upon all of us, as leaders, to ensure that even as we are strengthening our capacity as democracies and as institutions to respond to that, that we’re not falling into the trap of actually weakening Canadians’ confidence in those institutions by leaning in heavily into partisan accusations,” said Trudeau on Tuesday. 

LEVY: Some teachers now adding gender neutral pronouns to all report cards

By
Sue-Ann Levy
-

One of the wokest school boards in Ontario outdid itself recently at report card time.  A select number of Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) report cards were sent out with comments removing the he/she pronouns and replacing those pronouns with they/their/them.

Some of the teachers who chose to do it actually had to cut and paste to doctor their remarks with the woke pronouns.

One used “her” well-being in part of the description and later switched to “their.” Another started with “she” and switched to “their.”

Yet another appeared to white out the student’s real pronoun to use “them.”

The three report cards seen by True North were from the elementary and secondary panels. The teachers who opted for the genderless pronouns, did it for all students, whether trans or not.

The board’s policy on accommodating students who are transgender in its report cards is (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous. In fact on page 6, the policy says there may be times when the trans child’s legal name will be used such as on “report cards”.

But on page 7, the policy states that “intentionally addressing a student who identifies as transgender by the incorrect name or pronoun will be considered a form of discrimination and harassment.” 

The latter has no doubt put a chill into some teachers.

Waterloo parent and former trustee candidate Cristina Bairos Fernandes says an inclusivity workshop was recently held within the board encouraging teachers to use genderless pronouns so as not to misgender students and to keep things neutral.

When Bairos Fernandes posted about the practice on Twitter, she received many responses, several of them agreeing that this was lunacy and confuses and dehumanizes kids. 

It’s akin, in my view, to dumbing down the curriculum to ensure that every student gets a victory ribbon.

Some of the respondents, many of them woke teachers, provided comments bordering on abusive.

Bairos Fernandes says she can’t believe the tone of some of the respondents. She says it’s as if they were toddlers having a temper tantrum.

“When challenged with common sense, the tone changes to ‘stop making an issue about a non-issue’,” she says.  “It’s only a report card…it’s only pronouns.”

Bairos Fernandes says while some might see “genderless” pronouns as a means of including individuals whose gender identity falls outside of the traditional binary categories of male and female, there is a “growing valid criticism of this trend.”

Not only does it disregard most people’s identity, it’s being sold as “politically correct” and how education officials “do better.”

“When faced with opposition that is too rational to deny, some proponents of ‘identity-less’ pronouns resort to gaslighting, insisting that those who oppose the trend are simply overreacting or promoting a farm-fear-far-right-Christian-nationalism agenda,” she said.

“Being forced to use genderless pronouns is dismissive, erasing and frankly, dehumanizing.”

Once again this is woke ideology gone wild. It’s yet another step down a very slippery slope.

Yet again parents are shut out until the report card ends up in their laps.

BC Conservative MLA wants ban on EV subsidies due to slave labour concerns

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

A BC Conservative motion to end subsidies for electric vehicles due to the use of the slave labour involved in acquiring the cobalt necessary to produce their batteries caused a stir in the province’s legislature on Monday. 

BC Conservative MLA John Rustad was set to introduce a private member’s motion for debate on the issue but it was summarily blocked by his former party, the BC Liberals. 

Rustad’s motion called on the government “to end the policy of subsidizing electric vehicles, electric bikes and the practice of providing privilege to electric vehicle owners to utilize high occupancy vehicle lanes.”

The Nechako Lakes MLA, who announced his membership in the BC Conservative Party in February, has called such subsidies unethical.

“There are thousands of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who are working like slaves, digging with their bare hands to mine cobalt being used in our electric vehicles. We should not be using BC taxpayers’ money to financially reward companies that cannot trace their supply chains to safeguard against child labour,” said Rustad. 

After discovering that the NDP government had allowed Rustad’s motion to be debated first, ahead of four motions by the BC Liberals, his former party refused to give the motion assent. 

“I was trying to move a motion forward this morning in the legislature and the BC Liberals blocked it. For whatever reason, for their petty politics, they decided to do the same sort of tactic they used against the NDP when they denied them official party status,” said Rustad in a video posted to his social media. 

“We should stand for principles in BC. It’s not right that we should be trying to improve our environment by destroying (the Congo).”

In Aug. 2022, Rustad was ousted by BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon after a series of controversial tweets denying the influence of CO2 on climate change. 

“Let me be clear, climate change is one of the critical threats facing our future. The BC Liberals are strongly committed to substantive climate action & restoring BC’s place as a world leader in climate policy. John Rustad does not speak on behalf of caucus on this issue,” Falcon said at the time. 

“Following a pattern of behaviour that was not supportive of our caucus team and the principles of mutual respect and trust, I have removed MLA John Rustad from the BC Liberal Caucus effective immediately.”

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