Broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tacitly endorsed Pierre Poilievre on his program this week and Ottawa suffered a complete meltdown over it. Liberal MPs such as Mark Gerretsen and Adam Van Koeverdan and NDP MP Charlie Angus were outraged. Journalists also got in on the mix to “fact-check” what we already knew. Thanks journos!
Also on the show, just in case you thought the Prime Minister has checked out of his job, don’t worry! Over the weekend Justin Trudeau went bungee jumping with his son in Quebec. Why does it feel as though this Prime Minister is off doing something every other weekend that doesn’t involve actually being Prime Minister?
Tune in to the latest episode of Ratio’d with Harrison Faulkner!
A new family-first school organization hopes to make a dent in British Columbia’s upcoming municipal elections on Oct. 15.
Founded by former Conservative Party of Canada National Policy Committee member Marc Vella alongside campaign manager Fritz Radandt earlier this year, ParentsVoice BC has been able to field a slate of 28 candidates in a few short months.
In an interview with True North, Radandt said the grassroots group has parents in mind and that the top-down approach to education in the province isn’t working in their best interests.
“We don’t have a platform in the sense of ‘You know, here’s our position on this, here’s our position on that.’ What we’re saying is the system is broken,” said Radandt.
“Basically the ballot question that we’d see is: Who is primarily responsible for your kids’ education? The parents or the state?”
Although both Radandt and Vella have a background in Conservative circles, ParentsVoice BC has no ties to the federal party or big funders according to Radandt.
“We think we’ve tapped into something. People really resonate with what we’re saying and we’ve done it with very little resources,” explained Radandt. “A couple of things that make what we’re doing unique as far as we know is nobody has gone multi-jurisdictional before with local electoral organizations.”
Mother of three Tovey Demman is one of the more than two dozen candidates who have chosen to run under the ParentsVoice BC banner. Demman is running to be a school trustee for Kelowna School District 23.
“ParentsVoice BC has given candidates like myself the opportunity to have guidance during complex campaigning. The ability for all candidates to stand firm with our communities interest at heart is foreign in politics,” Demman told True North.
“Our focus in education has taken a back seat to social programs. All children deserve a safe and inclusive environment but that also cannot detract from the goal, to empower our students to be whatever they choose.”
Demman says that parental and student involvement is pivotal and the government needs to stay out of the way as much as possible when it comes to education.
“Encouraging parents, grandparents, students to have their voices heard is pivotal. Social issues should be directed by families, not the government or our education ministry. Let’s encourage empathy, build resiliency and empower our students with knowledge,” said Demman.
Other organizations promising to give more parents rights when it comes to school boards have popped up across Canada as multiple provinces undergo municipal elections this fall. One organization titled Blueprint for Canada has proposed a shared platform to educate candidates on far-left ideology being peddled in Canadian schools.
Tune into True North’s live coverage as Alberta’s United Conservative Party elects a new leader to replace outgoing premier Jason Kenney.
Tonight’s show will feature some exciting guests and commentary focused on Alberta politics. Ditch the biased legacy media for True North’s independent and accurate reporting.
Join hosts Andrew Lawton and William McBeath with Alberta correspondent Rachel Emmanuel on the ground as the results come in LIVE and the next premier of Alberta is announced.
The results of the United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership race will be delayed by about two hours, the party has announced.
The party is hosting an event at the BMO Centre in Calgary Thursday night to announce its new leader. The event broadcast was supposed to begin at 5:30 pm MT. It will now begin at 7 pm MT and results will be announced 30 minutes later.
The party said the mail-in ballot count is moving along, but there are over 80,000 ballots. There are more than 250 volunteers in the count room who are carefully counting each ballot, overseen by scrutineers from the leadership campaigns.
“We are adding more volunteers to accelerate progress,” the party said.
“We believe it is more important to ensure accuracy than to rush the program. We will share more updates as the day progresses.”
UCP members were able to vote in-person on Thursday. Mail-in ballots had to be received by Tuesday.
The party also said the five in-person locations are counting the votes cast this morning with no issues reported.
True North’s live UCP election night results show will begin at 6:30pm MT.
Over two dozen First Nations communities have signed an historic deal to acquire a $1.12 billion stake in seven Enbridge pipelines in Alberta.
The Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 communities have a 11.57% operating interest in seven different pipelines running through their territories.
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs lauded the deal for being a secure source of income to help build new infrastructure in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
“We celebrate the historic agreement between Enbridge and 23 First Nations and Metis communities. They now own 12% or over a billion dollars of pipelines in Athabasca region with long-term predictable cash flow to build schools, fix roads, meet basic needs and improve quality of life,” said Stubbs.
“Indigenous people have long been partners, contractors, workers, supporters, buyers and producers of oil and gas. They’re leaders in Canadian natural resources but the Liberals’ anti-energy agenda risks dozens of Indigenous-led and supported projects from pipelines to mines to LNG.”
Last week, all 9 indigenous communities in Lakeland overcame barriers to secure a historic economic development agreement, and are now all owners in the largest deal of its kind in North America with Enbridge, Canada’s largest pipeline operator. Watch my statement below! pic.twitter.com/cGBvtdBd3T
Estimates place the amount of expected income generated by the deal to over $10 million per year.
“This is a big deal,” said outgoing Alberta Premier Jason Kenney last week. “This is the single largest Indigenous transaction in the natural resource sector in the history of North America.”
Funding for the transaction was provided in part by the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp (AIOC), and a private placement.
“These communities may not otherwise [have] been able to access the kind of capital required to facilitate equity share ownership in projects of this size and magnitude,” explained AIOC CEO Chana Martineau.
AIOC is a provincial Crown corporation first established in 2019 to help foster First Nations involvement in natural resource developments throughout the province.
Negotiations and the final details of the agreement are expected to wrap up in October.
The tech giant Google is encouraging Canadians to learn about and oppose the Trudeau government’s Online Streaming Act, better known as Bill C-11.
Google Canada is warning Canadians that Bill C-11 will change the YouTube user experience. Google published a Twitter thread linking to a blog post as well as a petition made in collaboration with OpenMedia, pressuring the Senate to amend the bill before it is passed.
“We want to make sure that Canadians are aware of how #BillC11 could change your @YouTube experience,” reads the Twitter post, encouraging Canadians to learn more about the legislation.
Your @YouTube feed is uniquely yours. We want to keep it that way. #FixC11
Bill C-11 was passed in the House of Commons with the support of all parties except for the Conservatives and awaits the Senate’s approval of the legislation before coming into effect.
If passed, C-11 will provide the CRTC with the power to regulate online publishing, including imposing Canadian content restrictions on platforms like YouTube and Netflix, similar to the regulatory authority the CRTC currently has over Canadian radio and television broadcasts.
The CRTC is expected to skew recommended content to feature more “Canadian content.” However, the extent of their powers and what qualifies as “Canadian content” is unclear and will be determined by the CRTC after the bill’s passing.
The OpenMedia petition asserts that “the CRTC is being given breathtakingly broad authority to regulate almost ALL audiovisual content on online platforms as broadcasting content.”
“Your favourite content, and even your own uploads, could be systemically downranked in favour of content that the CRTC deems “Canadian enough,” according to their wildly outdated 1980s-era criteria.”
A blog post by YouTube’s chief product officer warns that the personalized experience YouTube curates for its users is jeopardized by the C-11, as the platform would have to alter its algorithms to comply with the government standard.
“In its current form, Bill C-11 would require YouTube to manipulate these systems, and surface content according to the CRTC’s priorities, rather than the interests of Canadian users,” reads the blog post.
“Put into practice, this means that when viewers come to the YouTube homepage, they’re served content that a Canadian Government regulator has prioritized, rather than content they are interested in.”
Google has been vocal about its opposition to the legislation, voicing its concerns throughout the legislative process about the Trudeau government’s effort to regulate user-generated content.
While the Senate can make amendments to Bill C-11, the House of Commons is not obligated to accept the amendments, and the legislation would be given Royal Assent as it is.
A Winnipeg woman who suffered from ALS said she chose to end her life because of the healthcare system, not her illness.
Sathya Kovac, 44, died Monday through Manitoba’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) program after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
As reported by the CBC, Kovac lived with ALS but struggled to find support for care at home as her condition worsened.
“Ultimately it was not a genetic disease that took me out, it was a system,” Kovac wrote in her own obituary. “There is a desperate need for change. That is the sickness that causes so much suffering. Vulnerable people need help to survive. I could have had more time if I had more help.”
According to the obituary and comments shared with friends, she became increasingly exhausted at her efforts to get more help with essentials, driving her to access a professionally assisted death.
“It’s hard because mentally she was there…. She accepted the changes in her body, but without enough support, how could anyone keep going?” said Shayla Brantnall, her support worker of over a year.
According to Janine LeGal, a friend of Kovac’s, she did not reveal that she was driven to seek MAiD because of the lack of support and care she received at home fearing her application would be denied.
”Her death was imminent in the sense that she had ALS, so she would have died from that at some point, but … she could have been around for several more years, living a good life,” said LeGal. “It’s really painful for me to think about the fact that she is gone because our society doesn’t focus on giving people what they need.”
Kovac only received 55 hours of home care support each week. LeGal said that as her condition worsened, it was not enough. She added that Kovac was not able to afford additional care beyond what the public system provided.
“There are not enough supports and services promoting quality of life and independence for those who are not healthy and able-bodied, there is desperate need for change,” said Kovac in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press published after her death. “That is the sickness that causes so much suffering. Vulnerable people need help to survive.”
“I felt like I had no choice but to end my life,” she said.
Family members of euthanized Canadians are calling on the federal government to do more to protect vulnerable people from wrongfully accessing the program. Erin Smith said she and her family lived the “horrible and traumatic experience of losing (their) father through MAiD.” While doctors had been planning for his discharge, Smith said a hospital staff member suggested to him that he would qualify for MAiD.
According to a Leger poll commissioned by Postmedia from earlier this year, 45% of Canadians supported extending doctor-assisted suicide to adults who are seriously mentally ill. When it comes to extending assisted suicide to those under the age of 18, 51% said they would support it as long as the minor displays a “certain level of maturity and decision-making ability.”
In 2021, the Canadian Senate passed Bill C-7, which expanded eligibility for MAiD to patients with non-terminal conditions and mental illness. Critics of Bill C-7 said it removed critical safeguards meant to protect people.
Beginning July 1, 2023, Edmonton restaurants will be penalized for serving food in styrofoam containers or offering customers plastic shopping bags. Councillors approved the proposal in a 11-13 vote on Tuesday.
“The will of the people has been extremely and 100% clear that they want to see environmental action from their governments across the board,” said Coun. Aaron Paquette. “And so we are fulfilling that mandate.”
The new bylaw says complaints of non-compliance would result in outreach and education, followed by warnings and enforcement.
Plastic utensils and condiment packages will be restricted under the bylaw unless a customer requests them, and restaurants must serve dine-in drinks in reusable cups. They will also be required to fill customer’s travel mugs. Single-use cups and other cardboard packaging are still allowed for takeout.
Stores must charge a $0.15 fee for paper bags and a $1 fee for reusable bags. Those rates will increase in 2024.
The citizens advocacy group Common Sense Edmonton circulated a petition to stop the proposal, saying it would hurt consumers while providing no benefit to the environment. The petition garnered nearly 2,000 signatures.
Common Sense Edmonton spokesperson Will Vishloff previously told True North the ban is more virtue-signalling price increases from the government which will hurt regular consumers already struggling from tax increases and inflation.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the bylaw’s passage is an “exciting first step.”
“We have a long way to go as we work on our commitment on the climate emergency,” he said Wednesday.
“It isn’t working. He hasn’t hit a single solitary climate target since he brought in this tax.”
Waste services branch manager Denis Jubinville said bylaws can be redrafted to be “more restrictive” in the future.
“And as our community begins to learn, grow and improve their behaviour, we’re going to hopefully get to a place where we can start to put more restrictive and binding requirements.”
The city is working to develop a grant program to help businesses and charities with transition costs, Jubinville said.
Meanwhile, the City of Calgary is also deliberating a proposed single-use plastics ban that would fine businesses $250 for “offences” like providing unsolicited plastic cutlery or providing shopping bags without charging a fee.
United Conservative Party leadership candidate Danielle Smith says she will not support another Calgary Olympic bid if she becomes Alberta’s premier.
In November 2018, 56.4% of Calgarians voted to stop the exploration of a 2026 Olympics bid.
“I think the people have spoken,” Smith said on Wednesday’s episode of the Western Standard’s Cory Morgan Show.
“It went to a referendum and Calgarians said ‘no,’” she said. “I think that people have spoken. So I think it’s a bit of a non-starter unless there’s a new way of approaching it.”
The leadership candidate also said an Olympic bid would be “massively expensive” and there’s no appetite for the province to take it on.
“Look what happened to Japan for heaven’s sake with the disruption that occurred because of COVID,” Smith told Morgan.
“I think that they ended up spending over $10 billion on that (Tokyo Games), I think we have to be realistic about it.”
Her comments come after Alberta Culture Minister Ron Orr on Tuesday said “it’s possible” the Olympics will come back to Alberta. The province has been involved in the “initial process of exploring a bid,” he said.
“There is a small group of individuals who have put together some proposals for a future opportunity and we will certainly be looking at those as they come and as it becomes appropriate to talk about details,” Orr said.
He also announced $17.5 million in provincial funding for upgrades at the Frank King Day Lodge, which was used as the media centre in Calgary’s 1988 Winter Olympic Games.
“The City of Calgary has almost all of the amenities it would need for Games at this stage,” Orr said. “And, of course, this kind of redevelopment would obviously add to that.”
Of the seven UCP leadership candidates, polling shows Smith is most likely to take over as Alberta’s premier on Thursday.
The results will be announced at an event in Calgary on Thursday night. Most party members have sent their vote via mail-in ballot, but there’s also an option to vote in-person on Thursday.
True North will be hosting a live UCP leadership results show Thursday starting at 5:00pm MT.
The Liberal government has admitted in writing that they have an ongoing $105.3 million contract with the World Economic Forum to introduce digital identities for travel to Canada.
Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis published an Inquiry of Ministry she sent to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in June.
The Inquiry focuses on the federal government’s Known Traveller Digital Identity (KTDI) program first introduced in 2018.
The gov’t finally admitted that they have a $105.3 million contract with the World Economic Forum for the Known Traveler Digital ID. Take a look at this order paper. It’s no longer a conspiracy theory – it’s a contractual fact! https://t.co/VKkn6lszdF
Lewis demanded that the government provide information on how many Canadian travellers” have opted into the program, what data was collected and how much has been spent on the pilot among other things.
According to KTDI website, the Government of Canada is listed as a pilot partner alongside the WEF, Air Canada, the Toronto Pearson International AIrport, the Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and others.
The project is described as a WEF initiative to enable governments to “access verifiable claims of a traveller’s identity” using a digital identity prototype.
In response, Alghabra’s office was scant on details. The statement “this information is not available” appeared five different times in the government’s reply.
On the question of how many travellers have opted into the program, Alghabra wrote: “This information is not available. However, the volume of participants would be decided by participating air carriers.”
When asked what specific technologies were being used, Alghabra responded by saying: “This information is not available. However, prior to the deferral of the pilot, the proposed technologies to be used included: distributed ledger technology; biometric technology; and cryptography.”
“Transport Canada has to date spent $428,671 on salaries and $220,830 on non-salaries,” Alghabra explained.
“Budget 2021 proposed $105.3 million over five years, starting in 2021-22.”
Lewis has been an outspoken critic of the WEF and the adoption of digital identity programs by governments.
“It is incredibly concerning that the same Prime Minister who is signing our country up for this digital ID experiment also ordered the freezing of bank accounts of people who bought a t-shirt to support the freedom protest,” tweeted Lewis in April.
