The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) received criticism on social media after it wished students, staff and families a “happy long weekend holiday” rather than a happy Thanksgiving.
We hope all of our #WRDSB students, staff and families can find some time to rest and be grateful this holiday long weekend. You deserve it! 🍂
Media personality and parental rights advocate Tanya Granic Allen also commented, tweeting out “well if you’re going to go woke, might as well go full-bore!”
The school board did eventually post a “Thanksgiving” greeting on Sunday for “all those who are celebrating.”
Happy Thanksgiving to all those who are celebrating! It’s a time when family and friends come together at the same table to share all that they are grateful for. pic.twitter.com/5tVftGODkD
WRDSB’s social media post came amid some activists saying Thanksgiving should be reimagined due to its “colonial roots.”
Canada first observed Thanksgiving in 1859, eight years before Confederation. The holiday was intended to be dedicated to the “public and solemn” recognition of the mercies of God.
However, in a 2021 interview with CBC, historian and liberal arts professor Peter Stevens said Indigenous peoples were excluded from what was seen as “greatness”, adding sermons from the era did not mention the Indigenous.
“The very absence of any reference to Indigenous people actually says a lot about the mindset at the time, because in a way, what’s happened is that the Indigenous people have been completely erased from the story,” Stevens said.
“At the time, (it) was very much about understanding that Canada was this white country, a British country, a Christian country, and that was the agenda at the time.”
Stevens believes that Thanksgiving can be redefined, especially given its proximity to Truth and Reconciliation day.
“Having those two holidays juxtaposed like that, I would hope gets Canadians to pause and think, ‘OK, we’ve got a lot to be thankful for, but what was the cost? What systems were in place that enabled us to enjoy all this prosperity?'” Stevens told CBC.
Indigenous radio host Kim Wheeler, who called on Canadians to “decolonize” their thanksgiving celebrations, told CBC some of her friends now refer to the holiday as a “harvest festival” or “fall feast.”
“They’ve made a conscious decision to do that, and I think that’s great because there’s definitely room for many different kinds of celebrations,” she said.
In response to a query from True North, WRDSB communication officer Estefania Brandenstein said, “we know the WRDSB community is diverse and celebrates and acknowledges holidays, long weekends, and special events, in many different ways.”
“On Friday, we wished everyone a happy long weekend, as we had different celebrations over the weekend. For Sunday, we had scheduled two posts, one for Sukkot and one for Thanksgiving.”
She added that this gave the board the opportunity to acknowledge the holidays closer to their date.
Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect comment from the WRDSB received post-publication.
The Alberta Parents’ Union is fighting the Calgary Board of Education’s proposal to close a building which houses the Louise Dean Centre, a school program for pregnant teens and young mothers.
If adopted, the proposal would close the Kensington building and relocate the program to Jack James High School in Forest Lawn, located in southeast Calgary.
Alberta Parents’ Union executive director Jeff Park says Forest Lawn has some of the highest crime rates in Calgary and isn’t safe for young, pregnant women.
“The entire idea of this program is that these ladies get bullied and harassed and too often subjected to violence in regular schools,” Park told True North.
“We need an innovative separate way of providing these educational services to (these women) because they shouldn’t have to choose between their child and their education.”
According to Data Enthusiast, the residential area of Forest Lawn had 2,875 counts of crime from January 2017 to July 2022. That includes 657 counts of non-domestic assault, 208 counts of non-domestic violence and 118 counts of street crime.
In Calgary’s all-crime category, Forest Lawn was surpassed only by Beltline and the Downtown Commercial Core.The Kensington building is located in northwest Calgary and offers on-site child care, life skills programs and other critical supports to help pregnant teenagers and young mothers graduate.
The site currently has 47 students. In a statement to True North, the Calgary Board of Education said Kensington was constructed in 1947 and requires an investment of approximately $17 million in maintenance and facility infrastructure. The problems are mechanical systems and the “building envelope that have exceeded their designed life expectancy.”
“Any work required on these major systems would require temporary relocation of the school during work, thereby increasing costs and displacing the students and their children.”
Modification designs proposed for Jack James High School total a one time investment of $5.6 million, the spokesperson said. The money would fund dedicated learning spaces for the program, additional child-minding space to accommodate the students’ children and partner office space. The Calgary Board of Education also claims students would benefit from increased access to education and co-parenting of expectant and parenting fathers.
Alberta Parents’ Union is a fiscally conservative organization which believes taxpayers’ money must be respected so that “when truly dire compassionate circumstances like this come up, so that you can afford to make the right decision,” Park said.
He also said the board is arguing that declining enrollment has caused Kensington to fall below the provincial standard of 85% utilization. Meanwhile, 46 other schools in the district are below 70% utilization, he said.
“They’ve started this process with about 20 of those 46 schools, but the priorities here are so out of whack,” he said.
As part of the Board of Trustees’ Closure of Schools Procedure process, the board is accepting questions and written submissions until Tuesday, Nov. 22.It’s also holding a virtual meeting on November 1 to hear public input.
Thanksgiving dinner will look very different for many Canadian families this year as inflation and record high food prices are causing shoppers to think twice before grabbing holiday favourites.
The cost of a traditional turkey dinner is expected to cost over $200 for a family of four as compared to $181.75 just last year due to inflation figures from Statistics Canada.
Food inflation went up to 10.8% in August and is rising at the fastest levels since 1981 (11.9%).
A poll by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab in partnership with Angus Reid found 22% responded that they would need to alter their Thanksgiving meals due to rising food costs.
Turkey has increased by an average of 15% as compared to last year and 22% since March 2020. The price of potatoes has also risen 22% since last year and 26% since March 2020. Bread increased by 21% and turnips are up a whopping 26% during the same period.
Bacon prices have risen 25% since the spring of 2020 and cranberries are 14% more expensive than in 2020. Butter has gone up 25% since 2020.
Fresh vegetables are up 9.3%. Fruit is up 13.2%. Flour prices have increased 23.5%. The cost of milk has increased nearly 8% and eggs are up 10.9% since last year.
“Things are really rough out there,” said Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada in an interview with CBC. “There are more people turning to food banks than ever before in our history.”
As food banks experience higher demands this year, Beardsley says that those who donated in the past may not be able to give as much this year.
“Food banks have seen quite a significant decline in food donations over the pandemic,” she said. “We’re heading into Thanksgiving and the holiday season in need of more community support.”
According to the Daily Bread Food Bank, a Toronto-based food charity, nearly triple the number of people visited a food bank in June 2022 (171,631) compared to June 2019 (65,000).
With prices for most goods rising, the vast majority of Canadians have admitted to needing to cut back on their expenses, with a quarter of Canadians admitting to going into debt to keep up with everyday expenses.
One of the highest-ranking politicians in Taiwan is urging the Canadian government to announce support for the island nation in case of an attack by communist China.
Democratic Progressive Party chief secretary Lo Chih-Cheng wants a public declaration of support from the Canadian government as a way to deter Chinese aggression.
According to the Globe and Mail, Lo said the statement doesn’t have to be specific but it could go a long way in showing solidarity with Taiwan.
“When we talk about assistance provided by democracies to a democracy under attack, there could be all kinds of help. So don’t restrict yourselves to military co-operation,” said Lo.
“But you could say, ‘We could not allow a democracy to come under attack,’ and democracies should work together and we are hoping we can maintain the peace and stability of the region,” he explained.
“I am for strategic clarity but tactical ambiguity.”
Lo made the statements as he prepares to meet with Canadian MPs in Taiwan this Sunday. A small delegation of 5 MPs will be travelling to the island following a series of aggressive maneuvers by China earlier this year.
China considers the island of Taiwan to be its own territory and has urged the international community to not interfere in its relations with its neighbour.
“(Taiwan) stands in the way of China becoming a true maritime power,” said Lo. “The status quo is not static. China is changing it every day.”
On Wendesday the country’s Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-Cheng announced that any aircraft flown into Taiwanese airspace will be considered a “first strike”.”
“If you send your military aircraft and fly into our airspace, even if you don’t shoot, we will consider it a first strike,” said Lo.
Earlier this month, Taiwanese foreign affairs minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu also called on Canada to increase its military and economic ties.
“We hope the Canadian government can continue to do that, to show it is taking actions to make sure the emphasis on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is backed up by action,” said Wu.
Premier-designate Danielle Smith said she might take a closer look at some of the funding announcements Jason Kenney made in his final days in the province’s top job.
Kenney pledged over $160 million in his final week as premier, including $73 million for a partnership with the aviation sector and Westjet.
In an interview with True North on Friday, Smith said her staff flagged some items that require closer examination.
“My chief of staff did flag that some of them might be ones that we would have to consider, but most of them are fairly straightforward, ” she said.
“As long as those are consistent with what our member pass policy has said, which is campaign platform and with the commitments that he’s made, I would think he’s just wrapping up some of those events.”
Kenney’s government has pledged more than $167,000,000 in his final week in office.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) said Alberta is still more than $132 billion in debt and now is not the time “to throw a kegger and start spending.”
“The next premier needs to tap the breaks on spending, because if we don’t, we will never be able to hold up the ‘Paid In Full’ sign again,” Kris Sims, Alberta Director for the CTF told True North hours ahead of the leadership vote which elected Danielle Smith.
Here’s a look at all the funding announcements Kenney made in his final days in office.
On Sunday, the Alberta government committed $20.8 million in new funds over the next four years to step up the fight against human trafficking. The funding follows five recommendations from the Alberta Human Trafficking Task Force to “better protect and assist vulnerable Albertans and stop their exploitation at the hands of traffickers.”
The government on Monday pledged an additional $11 million this year for an action plan to reduce wait times for CT and MRI scans. That’s on top of a $33 million increase from last year.
Also on Monday, another investment of $1.5 million was announced for Alberta’s International Education Strategy. Of the funding, $1 million will establish a new not-for-profit organization called the Alberta Bureau for International Education.
On Tuesday, ministers awarded $2.06 million from the rural stream of the Investment and Growth Fund to Southland Trailer Corp. The “family-run business” will double its production and create 250 jobs as the first recipient of the rural funding stream, the government says.
The following day, another $17.5 million in funding for WinSport’s Frank King Day Lodge was announced. The facility was converted to a day lodge following the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
Another $10 million was announced for frontline humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, bringing Alberta’s total contributions to Ukraine relief to more than $23 million.
That same day, the province promised an investment of $15 million over the next three years to fund 12 new and existing community partnerships to strengthen support for apprenticeship and Alberta’s skilled trades.
And $1 million will be invested to launch a made-in-Alberta forensic evidence collection training program.
“This project will increase the number of health-care providers in rural areas that are trained in providing sexual assault evidence kits,” says a government release.
On Wednesday, Alberta’s government announced investments of $260,000 in “Period Promise” which they say will improve menstrual care and provide period products to “youth” in need.
Meanwhile, an investment of $6 million over the next three years will support up to 1,200 more work-integrated learning participants. The government says the funding will allow additional industry associations to deliver the Work-integrated Learning Industry Voucher Expansion program, which helps fund paid work placements in Alberta’s key priority sectors.
The province also promised almost $5 million to targeted employment support and services for employers and Albertans with disabilities. Another $7 million will go to employment initiatives and expand the Career and Employment Information Services.
That same day, $6 million was promised to 41 successful Civil Society Fund applicants to support the “social recovery and economic participation of vulnerable Albertans.”
The government also committed around $73 million over a number of years toward the aviation and tourism industries in Alberta.
Of the commitment, $16 million was promised for annual and direct investments for WestJet and other players in the aviation sector. WestJet will double its capacity in Calgary in the next several years and designate Calgary its exclusive global connecting hub through the partnership.
Mount Royal University’s pilot training program will receive $7.1 million in capital. A total of $1.06 million in operating funding will add an additional 40 seats to its aviation diploma program.
As part of the announcement, another $5-million investment annually over three years will flow to offset training costs in the aviation sector to support training for new jobs. The province is committing to a 737 simulator for its aviation training centre, which costs about $25 million in capital investment.
The province will also increase funding for Travel Alberta by $10 million annually over five years, up from $6.5 million.
And on Thursday, Kenney’s final day as premier, the Alberta government announced $4 million to school authorities across the province to create new dual credit opportunities or enhance existing dual credit courses for the 2022-23 school year.
Meanwhile, the province’s Advanced Education department is spending $3.5 million in 2022-23 to begin expanding educational opportunities for internationally educated nurses.
In a press conference to announce the funding, Kenney said the government lost nearly two weeks following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and they’ve had to move quickly in the days following. The government observed a ten day mourning period following the royal’s death in which they could not conduct non-essential business.
“We’re having to make up for that period of time,” Kenney said. “But also, this announcement was just finalized in the last few days.”
The government will fund relocation of the Wanda School to the proposed Jeanne Lougheed Historic Park in Forestburg with a $275,000 grant.
After winning the UCP leadership contest on Thursday, Danielle Smith becomes Alberta’s next Premier. Smith emerged victorious on Thursday after clinching the necessary votes on the sixth and final ballot with 53.8% of the final votes. Travis Toews came in second place with 46.23% of the vote and longtime Jason Kenney rival Brian Jean came in third with 14.8% of the vote.
Also on the show, Rachel discusses the recent revelation from federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino that the feds need provincial help to carry out their gun buyback scheme.Rachel also discusses all the Canadians moving to Alberta, the City of Edmonton passing a single-use plastics ban, and Edmonton’s $170 million bike lanes proposal.
Tune in to Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel now.
Facing questions about a $54 million price tag for the federal government’s ArriveCan app, a Liberal member of parliament said won’t apologize for an app that “saved the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians.”
The figure was offered by Mount Royal member of parliament Anthony Housefather, who serves as the parliamentary secretary to Public Services and Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek.
Housefather was responding to a question from Conservative MP and health critic Michael Barrett. Barrett cited a Globe and Mail report about how tech experts were “confounded” by ArriveCan’s $54 million price tag, 36 times the $1.5 million they estimated a similar project in the private sector would cost.
“What Canadians need is an about face from the Liberal government on its wasting of Canadian tax dollars, like it did on the $54-million ArriveCan app that tech experts are confounded by it costing more than a low seven figures at worst,” said Barrett. “If Canadian tech experts do not know why it spent this much money, what we want to know, what Canadians want to know, is which Liberal insiders got rich on these contracts?”
Answering on behalf of the Trudeau government, Housefather was unrepentant.
“I will make no apology for an app that saved the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians. This was part of a global health strategy in order to protect Canadians,” Housefather said. “Where the honourable member insinuated the price was entirely related to developing the app, that price related to development, accessibility, support, maintenance and multiple different contracts. It was not related just to the development of the app.”
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says ArriveCan saved "tens of thousands" of lives. I asked him to elaborate and he told me he was referring to Canada's Covid measures in general, of which ArriveCan was a part. pic.twitter.com/64cPIluW47
Asked by True North to provide a source for the claim that ArriveCan saved “tens of thousands” of lives, Housefather said he was referring to Canada’s Covid measures in general, and not the app specifically.
“What I meant was that the health measures taken by the Government of Canada and provincial governments saved thousands of lives and ArriveCan was part of these measures,” Housefather said.
Housefather also directed True North to a subsequent answer he gave in French.
“The app was put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect the health of Canadians,” Housefather said, according to the English Hansard translation. “Thousands of lives were saved as a result of actions taken by the government to protect the health of Canadians.”
ArriveCan was launched in April 2020 and until Oct. 1 was mandatory for anyone entering Canada, including citizens. The app required users to upload their personal information, including a photo of their passport and proof of vaccination, and answer Covid screening questions, before reaching a port of entry.
The federal government has indicated it will continue using ArriveCan in the future for general border screening, though the app is no longer mandatory.
Danielle Smith says she never got her hopes up about winning the United Conservative Party leadership.
She kept a skeptical view of the campaign despite polling throughout the race placing her well ahead of runner up Travis Toews.
“I’ve been disappointed before,” Smith told True North in a phone interview Friday afternoon, just one day after she was elected leader of the UCP and premier-designate of Alberta.
“Elections are funny things. You never know how they’re gonna go.”
Smith is no stranger to political losses. As leader of the Wildrose party, she lost the 2012 election to Alison Redford’s PCs. In October 2014, she lost four byelections which left the Wildrose bankrupt, in part spurring Smith’s desire to merge with Jim Prentice’s PCs as he threatened an election.
And after crossing the floor to join Prentice, she lost the PC nomination in her riding. Swaths of Albertans blamed the floor crossing for the PCs losing the 2015 election to the NDP.
Reflecting on all this, Smith says she “didn’t really want to think” what the day after the leadership announcement might look like.
Like new federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Smith’s campaign targeted those disillusioned by government overreach during the Covid-19 pandemic. And like Poilievre, Smith promised supporters to make her jurisdiction the most free and prosperous place on earth.
But Smith’s win wasn’t as decisive as the federal Tory leader who won on the first ballot with 68% of the vote. She pulled past the 50% plus one mark required for victory in the preferred ballot system on the sixth ballot with 53.8%, beating Toews by just a couple points.
In those tense hours, Smith fell back on her already “very low” expectations to eke out a win.
She wasn’t sure of the victory till she reached 47% on the fourth ballot after Leela Aheer, Rajan Sawhney, Todd Lowen and then Rebecca Schulz fell off.
At that moment, Smith was worried about gaffing on her victory speech. She says she didn’t prepare much because she didn’t want to take her victory for granted and overpractice.
Thursday night’s victory could be the first in Smith’s road to one of the greatest comebacks in Canada’s political history.
“I think everybody looks for redemption story,” she says.
“I think everybody has had moments in their life where they’ve done things that they’ve regretted and hurt others and you always hope that you can make amends.”
First, Smith needs a seat in the legislature. She was the only of the seven UCP leadership candidates not currently an MLA.
She will run in a Brooks-Medicine Hat byelection after UCP MLA Michaela Frey resigned on Friday morning and encouraged Smith to take her spot. If the byelection is called next week, Smith says she could be in the Alberta legislature as early as November 29.
After that, Smith has limited time to make good on her promises to deliver an Alberta Sovereignty Act ahead of a spring general election. She’s already said she won’t call the election early.
And Smith thinks Kenney’s decision to wade into the leadership race — he called Smith’s Sovereignty Act a “laughing stock” — means there’s some “repair work” for the UCP brand.
“I’m prepared to work on that and demonstrate to people that there’s nothing to fear (from the) UCP government and that we are going to make sure that we put the interests of Albertans first, take care of our most vulnerable and also stand up in a strong way to Ottawa,” she said.
“So I think people will have to watch and see what we implement in the fall and in the spring.”
The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) wants to have access to the province’s legislature after winning 13% of the vote on Monday without securing a single seat.
Notre premier combat à la suite de l’élection, est de nous assurer que le Parti conservateur du Québec puisse entrer à l’Assemblée nationale.
“Never in the political history of Quebec has a party obtained 13% of the votes without being represented in the Blue Room,” said PCQ leader Eric Duhaime on social media.
The PCQ is asking for the ability to hold press conferences at the legislature, in addition to having an office and a research or communications budget.
Duhaime says ensuring his party can access the National Assembly is their first post-election fight, adding, “I am very happy to see this morning that people who are not Conservatives are contacting me to show their support.”
“All Quebec democrats are welcome to ensure that 530,000 votes are not wasted.”
The PCQ is also demanding a recount in the riding of Beauce-Nord, where it came the closest to a breakthrough.
PCQ candidate Olivier Dumais lost to incumbent CAQ MNA Luc Provencal by just 202 votes, making it the 2022 election’s tightest result.
In addition to a demand for access and a judicial recount, Duhaime sees another way his party could enter the province’s legislature..
The PCQ previously obtained a presence in the Blue Room after former Iberville CAQ member Claire Samson joined the party.
Speaking with the Journal de Quebec, Duhaime said he hopes to find a new disenfranchised CAQ member to cross the floor and join his party.
“There may be (CAQ) MNAs who expect to get a phone call, who already see themselves as ministers and who will be very disappointed in a few days,” said Duhaime.
“We must always look for dissatisfied people. It’s not the satisfied ones who leave.”
The Conservative Party of Quebec placed fifth in the popular vote count, earning 530, 786 votes but no seats. Meanwhile, the Quebec Liberal Party placed fourth with 591, 077 votes but won 21 seats – becoming the official opposition.
Source: Elections Quebec
Both Quebec Solidaire (QS) and the Parti Quebecois (PQ) received over 600,000 votes, but QS won 11 seats, and the PQ won 3.
The results have led to calls for electoral reform, something Legault had promised in 2018 – but later abandoned.
Following his super majority win, Legault indicated he will not reform the province’s voting system.
“I don’t think the voting system we have is bad. During the election campaign, I promised not to open this debate and I will respect all my commitments,” said Legault Tuesday.
When asked by True North about electoral reform, Duhaime’s press secretary Cedric Lapointe said “there is a problem with the current voting system, it is unthinkable that 13% of Quebecers do not have a voice in the National Assembly.”
True North also reached out to the National Assembly with questions regarding the PCQ’s requests but did not receive answers in time for publication.
In response to questions about the PCQ’s requests, National Assembly spokesperson Beatrice Zacharie told True North “political parties that do not have elected members cannot obtain the benefits of parliamentary groups or hold press conferences in the National Assembly.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated following it’s publication to include comment from the National Assembly.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s growing support in the opinion polls is giving Liberals the heebie-jeebies, with many panicking to the point of demanding the Liberals’ negative-ad campaign be launched now.
“The Liberals need to get off their asses,” a former Liberal insider told the weekly Hill Times on the proviso of anonymity.
And then he went on a roll. “You’ve got to provide Canadians a compelling narrative, fresh policy, especially around issues of affordability right now. They have to get back to the fundamentals: organization, making sure that you’re recruiting good candidates. You have to make sure your local constituency organizations are working, and also building an organization because that’s what the Conservatives are going to be doing for the next couple of years: raising money, finding candidates, and getting organized.”
Since winning the Tory leadership, Poilievre has been enjoying a lead over the Liberals of between three- and seven per cent.
This has the party rank and file feeling very, very vulnerable.
A poll released by Angus Reid last week, conducted between Aug. 19-22, put the Conservative support at 37%, the Liberals at 30%, the NDP at 20%, the Bloc at seven per cent, and the Greens at three per cent. The poll of 5,014 Canadians had a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
And an Ekos Research poll, conducted between Sept. 13-16, suggested that the Tories had the support of 33.7% of Canadians, the Liberals 31.7%, the NDP 20.1% and the Greens five per cent. The poll of 1,005 Canadians had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
For old politicos like Liberal MP Judy Sgro, however, Poilievre’s seven-point bump in the polls is just a blip to be expected when a new leader hits the stage, and that it is both premature and needless to panic.
Nonetheless, there are Liberals already pulling out their hair, who wonder why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t heard the “wake-up call” and why he hasn’t launched an ad campaign which will apparently define and paint Poilievre with a very nasty brush.
“A seven-point lead within two weeks is a lot,” said one Liberal Parliament Hill staffer. “Every Liberal in the country is wondering, ‘Why are you not doing anything about this?’”
The former senior Liberal, meanwhile, said that the party must remember that it has a minority government and an election could happen at any time. Although the Liberals have a confidence-and-supply agreement with the NDP, this Liberal said it does not necessarily mean that the next election will not happen before its scheduled 2025 date because the deal could break at any time if either of the parties decides to pull out.
Back in June, the concern among Conservatives was that the leadership campaign was so divisive and nasty that the party would come out hurt beyond repair instead of united.
“The rift is getting bigger and bigger,” Bert Chen, a former Ontario national councillor, said back then.“It’ll be a testament to how capable the new leader is. It’s one thing to be a good speaker and talk about things, but another component of leadership is all about management.”
