Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has sided with the Alberta government in their opposition to the Trudeau government’s “Just Transition” proposal, which aims to move workers from the oil and gas sector to “greener” jobs. Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is following up on her meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in which she raised the province’s concerns with the feds’ controversial proposal.
Plus, as cities across the country deal with a spike in crime, a 12-week partnership between the Alberta Sheriffs and Calgary Police will begin at the end of this month to deter crime by increasing the presence of police.
And Rachel talks about her documentary, The Freedom Occupation, which premiered earlier this week. She wants to know after watching the documentary, do you feel the prime minister was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act?
These stories and more on The Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel!
One of the chief Freedom Convoy organizers has called the findings of the Public Order Emergency Commission, a “dark day” for the nation.
In an exclusive interview with True North’s Andrew Lawton, Tamara Lich expressed disappointment at Commissioner Paul Rouleau’s decision to uphold Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act.
“I really felt at that time (of my testimony) that the Commissioner was really listening to me and empathetic to our plight. I’m still a little shocked. Like I said this wasn’t a surprising decision but we were holding out hope for something a little more,” said Lich.
“This is a dark day for Canada in my opinion but we have to stick together and we have to keep working together. We cannot make change in this country if we’re all divided.”
Lich was one of several organizers called to testify before the weeks-long inquiry which wrapped up last year.
In the report tabled before Parliament on Friday afternoon, Commissioner Rouleau concluded that the federal government was justified in invoking the Act.
“I have concluded that Cabinet was reasonably concerned that the situation it was facing was worsening and at risk of becoming dangerous and unmanageable. There was credible and compelling evidence supporting both a subjective and objective reasonable belief in the existence of a public order emergency,” wrote Rouleau.
“The decision to invoke the Act was appropriate.”
Despite her disappointment, Lich said it was important to remain hopeful and united as Canadians.
“I feel that the testimonies we heard at the POEC gave a voice to Canadians and Canadians’ concerts,” Lich said.
“I guess my message has always been that we need to stay focused, we need to stay positive. I truly believe we can look at it as an opportunity…. I really hope that this doesn’t discourage Canadians…. I really hope that we can try to take this and steer it in a way that we can have a positive outcome or we can have a common goal and try to make some change.”
Lich said she would be meeting with her legal team to discuss “next steps.”
Rouleau’s decision was not without its critics. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) put out a statement on Friday saying that it was “disappointed” with the ruling and is continuing to challenge the Act’s invocation in court.
— Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (@JCCFCanada) February 17, 2023
“The Justice Centre is disappointed with Commissioner Rouleau’s conclusion that the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act was met,” wrote the JCCF.
“This conclusion does not bind the Federal Court which will, on April 3-5, 2023 in Ottawa, hear the legal and constitutional challenge … to the declaration of an emergency in response to the Freedom Convoy.”
In early 2020, a newly-landed virus took the country by storm — causing mass panic and a complete shutdown of society. Three years later, and Canadians are still feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Canada’s Covid: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic” co-author Barry Cooper joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to discuss the events which inspired the newly expanded book. Also, what can Canadians learn from the past three years, and how can we avoid making similar mistakes again?
A controversial high school teacher who wears watermelon-sized prosthetic breasts to class frequently dresses like a man outside of school, according to a neighbour.
The New York Post published an investigative story on Friday, including photos purportedly of transgender teacher Kayla Lemieux dressed in standard male attire while walking down the street with groceries.
According to a neighbour who spoke with the Post, Lemieux rarely wears the controversy-spurring prosthetic breasts outside of school.
The report comes days after a school board meeting discussing Lemieux turned to chaos.
On Wednesday, parents shouted-out a Halton District School Board meeting, demanding staff take action to prevent Lemieux from returning to school in what has been roughly four months of controversial attire.
Amid ongoing efforts to battle the addictions and homelessness epidemic plaguing the province, the Alberta government is providing more than $4 million to address overdoses in Calgary.
The funds will flow to the Calgary Drop-In Centre to create dynamic overdose response teams and establish 35 medical detox and pre-treatment beds, capable of supporting up to 1,000 Calgarians every year, the government says.
Calgary Drop-In Centre executive director Sandra Clarkson said the additional beds will be “life-saving and life-changing for countless people in the years to come.”
Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Nicholas Milliken said the government is treating mental health and addiction as health care issues by building recovery-oriented systems of care so every Albertan has the opportunity to pursue recovery.
“Whether it’s rapidly responding to an overdose, accessing medical detox or pre-treatment, the impact of this funding will be life-saving and life-changing for so many Albertans,” he said in a statement.
The partnership stems from efforts from the newly created Calgary Public Safety and Community Response Task Force. Developed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in the early days of her premiership, task forces in both Calgary and Edmonton seek to improve public safety while treating addiction and mental health as health care issues.
Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, and Calgary’s task force chair, Jeremy Nixon said more Albertans will get the help they need to overcome their challenges with more access to addiction recovery treatment.
“Our government’s focus on addiction recovery and supports for those facing homelessness is bringing positive change for Calgary,” he said.
Through the funding, the centre will add 15 medical detox beds and 20 pre-treatment beds.
“Albertans struggling with addiction will be supported to safely withdraw from drugs or alcohol under medical supervision,” says a government release.
“They will also be provided with pre-treatment support to prevent relapse and better understand treatment options as they continue their pursuit of recovery.
The centre works directly with local paramedics, first responders and community organizations to respond to overdoses both at the Drop-In Centre as well as in the community.
All publicly funded detox, treatment and recovery spaces are free for Albertans, with no user fees.
Meanwhile, the United Conservative Party government’s first major effort to allow addicts to be “unencumbered in their pursuit of a better life for themselves” will open later this month.
The Red Deer Recovery Community, the only one of its kind in Alberta, is the first of six massive recovery communities currently being built by the province.
The new facility in north Red Deer is nearly the size of a football field. It has 75 beds and the ability to treat up to 300 people per year. There are also recovery communities underway in Lethbridge, Gunn, Calgary, Edmonton and on the Blood Tribe.
Since the appointment of Amira Elghawaby as Canada’s first Special Representative on Combatting Islamaphobia kicked up a storm in the media circle, the question remains whether the position is actually necessary. Is there really a crisis of Islamophobia in Canada?
Joining Rupa on the show today is the President of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow Raheel Raza and freelance columnist Rahim Mohamed to tell us more about our new “Islamophobia Tsar.”
Raza and Mohamed challenge the idea that Canada is an Islamophobic country and the conventional narrative surrounding it.
Half of Canadians say the “Just Transition” plan is right for Canada, but think the government will botch it, according to a new poll.
In the Leger poll released on Thursday, 52% of Canadians said steering away from fossil fuels was a good idea, but 56% felt the government would fail to compensate former fossil-fuel workers, and 60% wouldn’t pay an extra tax dollar to help the plan.
The strong majority of respondents (84%) in the poll had no previous knowledge about details of Just Transition. Each respondent submitted their answers after being briefed about Just Transition’s stated goal, as defined by the Government of Canada:
“To prepare the Canadian workforce to participate in a low-carbon economy,” the brief read, “while minimizing the impact this may have on the labour market.
“There will be job losses as some sectors in the economy wind down, such as oil and gas, mining and forestry, but it will have programs to replace lost jobs with jobs in other sectors of the Canadian economy.”
Half of respondents supported the idea, but more had concerns about its implementation.
The majority (59%) said major polluting nations should have to change their systems before the responsibility falls on Canada. An equal number (56%) worried that the federal government will fail to properly re-employ fossil-fuel workers who become displaced by climate interventions.
Many respondents were not interested in financing the Just Transition.
The majority (60%) said they wouldn’t pay any additional taxes to support climate efforts, some (14%) said they would pay as high as a two-percent increase, and less (11%) said they would pay between two percent and greater than five percent bigger taxes in order to reduce carbon emissions.
More than a third (38%) said Canada was moving too slow to decarbonize the economy, and less (22%) said the plan was moving too fast.
The largest union representing journalists in Canada has put out a report on so-called harassment faced by journalists calling for stricter penalties for those who engage in verbal or physical attacks on members of the media.
On Thursday, Unifor released Breaking the News: Media Workers Under Attack, among other things the report calls for a crackdown on social media platforms, harsher penalties for attacking journalists and lays the blame for failing trust in media squarely on right-wing politicians.
The report comes on the heels of campaigns by legacy media organizations like the Canadian Association of Journalists calling on governments to counteract the harassment of media workers.
“It’s clear that the Trumpist narrative of ‘fake news’ that arose during the 2016 US election and Trump’s term in office has drifted north of the border,” claims Unifor.
“A general increase in the polarization of political discourse, driven by a rise in extreme right-wing ideologies, and coupled with the COVID crisis and its public health and economic responses, have contributed to the weaponization of harassment and abuse against journalists.”
The report makes a series of recommendations, including making it “a more serious offence to attack a journalist, verbally or physically” and investing in “technology to detect online hate against journalists.”
Unifor has been criticized in the past over its partisan positions, which included campaigning against former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer during the 2019 federal election. In 2021, the union also put out a series of attack ads against then-leader Erin O’Toole.
The report also bemoaned right-wing populist politicians who circumvented the traditional press by speaking solely to supporters on social media.
“At the same time, some politicians and public figures, especially extreme right-wing populists, have increasingly begun to circumvent the press altogether, using social media and other platforms to spread misinformation and disinformation, free from the scrutiny and accountability provided by the press,” wrote Unifor.
The union has also pledged to “lobby governments” to pass legislation to further protect media workers and hold social media companies accountable.
So, the Public Order Emergency Commission has concluded that the federal government met the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act to bring an end to the so-called Freedom Convoy protests and blockades.
“I have concluded that in this case, the very high threshold for invocation was met. I have done so with reluctance,” said Commissioner Paul Rouleau of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to declare a public order emergency, in a mammoth five-volume report released Friday.
Rouleau’s report largely exonerates Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. But the prime minister does not escape criticism.
For example, Rouleau said Trudeau’s reference on Jan. 27 to some protesters as a “fringe minority” likely inflamed the situation and hardened protesters’ resolve.
Right from the outset, it was obvious that Trudeau did not see the protest as legit, but more a core of hard-nosed rabblerousers out to make extreme points, harass the core-city populace with air horns at all hours and upset the ebb and flow of the nation’s politics.
The sudden appearance of a hot tub and a bouncy castle became almost emblematic of the protesters’ headspace and threw a wrench into the serious side of COVID-19 regulations getting any serious news space.
It was this negative image of the protest that led to Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre getting criticized for wandering into the protest and speaking with many of the participants.
Asked by the press on what his thoughts were of the “extreme elements” trying to control the truck convoy after reports that members of the protest hold “far-right” views, Poilievre said that he found it “interesting” that when there’s a left-wing protest on Parliament Hill, “we don’t see the liberal media going through every single name of the people who attend to try and find one person that they can disparage the whole group with.”
It was a good observation, because the mere presence of a Confederate flag and a couple of neo-Nazi decals unfairly painted the entire protest as a bunch of Neanderthals having a hate party.
The commission concluded that, while the prime minister met the bar for invoking wide-sweeping powers to address the anti-COVID-19 restriction and anti-government occupation and blockages at key Canada-U.S. border crossings, this move could have been avoided if it wasn’t for “a series of policing failures” and all levels of government failing to “rise above politics.”
“Some of the missteps may have been small, but others were significant, and taken together, they contributed to a situation that spun out of control. Lawful protest descended into lawlessness, culminating in a national emergency,” Rouleau writes in his 273-page executive summary.
The report states that the series of events that transpired can be seen as “a failure of federalism” as Canada’s leaders failed to anticipate or properly manage the “torrent of political protest and social unrest” that was aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Had various police forces and levels of government prepared for anticipated events of this type and acted differently in response to the situation, the emergency that Canada ultimately faced could likely have been avoided,” writes Rouleau. “Unfortunately, it was not.”
In his assessment, the commissioner said that the first-ever invocation of the Emergencies Act itself had a “deterrent effect.” And, while most of the unprecedented measures cabinet put in place to respond to the situation — from wide-sweeping police powers, to cracking down on protesters’ access to funds — were appropriate and effective, “others fell short.”
The report finds that the federal government adequately consulted ahead of the Feb. 14 invocation, and that he believes “cabinet was reasonably concerned that the situation it was facing was worsening and at risk of becoming dangerous and unmanageable.”
The Public Order Emergency Commission has found that Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to react to the Freedom Convoy was appropriate. Commissioner Paul Rouleau also defended the freezing of protesters’ bank accounts and the conscription of tow truck drivers.
In this live edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, True North’s Andrew Lawton breaks down the report and brings in guests to offer their reaction and analysis.
