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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

One of two Sask. stabbing suspects found dead, other still at large

By
Harrison Faulkner
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One of the two suspects wanted in a deadly stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan has been found dead, according to the RCMP.

Damien Sanderson’s body was found near a house in the James Smith Cree Nation, the Saskatchewan Indigenous community where some of the alleged murders took place. The RCMP believes his injuries were not self-inflicted. 

The other wanted suspect, Myles Sanderson, is still at large and is believed by police to be injured. 

Earlier on Monday, the RCMP charged Myles with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of break and enter.

Damien was charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of break and enter.

The hunt for the two brothers began on Sunday morning following multiple reports of stabbings. The RCMP said the victims were attacked at 13 locations around the James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon, northeast of Saskatoon.

A dangerous persons alert was also issued in Manitoba and Alberta.

“We are using every human, investigational and technological resource we have available to locate and arrest the persons responsible,” the assistant RCMP commissioner in charge of Saskatchewan Rhonda Blackmore said in a statement Monday.

“Hundreds of Saskatchewan RCMP staff are dedicated to this investigation – this includes operators taking 911 calls and tips, to front-line officers patrolling our streets to the on-scene specialized forensic and major crime unit teams.”

While some of the attacks appear to have been targeted, others may have been random. The stabbings left 10 dead and 18 injured. Among those killed in the attacks are a mother of two and a 77-year-old man.

Saskatoon police confirmed they have been searching for Myles since May when he was classified as “unlawfully at large.” 

According to CBC News, Myles had been serving a five-year federal sentence for assault, robbery, mischief and uttering threats. He was statutorily released and then disappeared.

Myles Sanderson is described as 30 years old, six-foot-one and 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

The RCMP believed the two suspects were travelling in a black Nissan Rogue with Saskatchewan licence plate 119 MPI.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe condemned the brutal attack and said the police will provide extra security to residents, including the victims being treated at hospitals. 

“Yesterday’s attacks were horrific beyond anything that any of us could ever imagine,” said Moe in a video posted on social media.

“There are no words to adequately describe the pain and loss suffered by the victims’ families – this loss caused by these evil, vicious, senseless attacks. All of Saskatchewan grieves with you.”

Trudeau says Covid is not done with Canada, urges 80-90% of Canadians to get booster shot

By
Andrew Kozak
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Even as countries around the world have moved on from Covid and have learned to live with the virus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is threatening Canadians with more restrictions and mandates if 80-90% of eligible Canadians are not “up-to-date” with their Covid vaccines.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trudeau warned Canadians that “there is a real risk of a serious wave of Covid” as the fall begins and that the best way to avoid government restrictions and mandates is to be “up-to-date” on Covid shots.

“If we are able to hit that 80%, 85%, 90% of Canadians up-to-date in their vaccinations, we’ll have a much better winter with much less need for the kind of restrictions and rules that were so problematic for everyone over the past years,” said Trudeau.

The prime minister touted the recently approved bivalent vaccines, designed to target the specific Omicron variant. 

“Everyone who has been a while since their vaccination … should look at the fact that we have new vaccines coming out this month that are tailored against Omicron that will provide better protection and everyone should get out and get vaccinated,” said Trudeau. 

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos echoed the prime minister’s comments last week, comparing vaccinations to recharging “your phone battery.”

“Vaccine protection is like a phone battery. It needs to be recharged from time to time. Recharging our protection after six months is important, otherwise, we are left without the power to protect ourselves and our loved ones,” said Duclos.

“When protection wanes, action is required just like a phone battery. Your phone battery needs to be recharged for your phone to work, to have appropriate power to operate and for your vaccination protection to be affected, so you recharge your phone battery by plugging it into the electricity.”

Currently, booster uptake has been lower than the primary series of the Covid-19 vaccine. Only 49.57% of Canadians have received a Covid booster in addition to their two primary doses. 

While the Government of Canada currently recommends Canadians get a booster “if it has been more than 6 months since your last vaccine dose,” senior advisors to the Department of Health have suggested that Canadians should be recommended a booster Covid shot every three months.

National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) officials said that quarterly boosters “may be warranted” to combat Covid-19.

Conservatives elect their new leader Sept 10. Here’s how.

By
Noah Jarvis
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The Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race is nearing its tail-end, as the party’s new leader is set to be announced on September 10. For those unfamiliar with the process, here’s how the new leader will be elected.

To vote in the Conservative leadership race, one must have been a Conservative party member in good standing by June 3. The party’s constitution requires mail-in ballots. All members were sent ballots earlier this summer. Ballots must be received by Deloitte, the company contracted by the Conservatives to oversee the ballot counting, by September 6 at 5 pm Eastern.

Each party member is associated with one of the 338 federal ridings in Canada. If a riding has 100 members or more, the riding is assigned 100 points. If a riding has fewer than 100 voters, each vote will count as one point. 

Leadership candidates earn points based on the percentage of Conservative members’ votes they win in that riding.

If in a hypothetical scenario, candidate A gets 45% of the votes in a particular riding, candidate B receives 35%, and candidate C gets 20%.

Candidate A would receive 45 points, candidate B would get 35 points, and candidate C would come in third with 20 points.

A riding with 150 Conservative members has the same 100 points as a riding with 5,000 Conservative members, which means the value of a vote differs across the country.

Unlike federal, provincial and municipal general elections, which use the first-past-the-post electoral system, the CPC leadership election uses a ranked ballot system. Instead of choosing one candidate, members rank their preference for candidates in order from most preferred to least preferred.

A candidate can win the election immediately by receiving more than 50% of the points – irrespective of the raw vote numbers.

If no candidate receives 50% of the points after the first round of vote counting, the last place candidate is eliminated. Each of that candidate’s votes will then be transferred to the second-ranked candidate on each voter’s ballot.

The process of knocking out the last-place candidate and reallocating votes continues until one of the candidates crosses the 50% mark, thereby winning the leadership race.

In 2017, it took 13 rounds of counting before Andrew Scheer was named Conservative leader.

The merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives formally created the CPC in Dec. 2003. The party’s constitution, created in 2003, delegates the responsibility of making the rules to the Leadership Election Organization Committee. 

The first CPC leadership election saw Stephen Harper win in the first round of voting with 56% of the vote.

The latest leadership race in 2020 saw Erin O’Toole edge out former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay in the third round. Many votes from Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis transferred over to Erin O’Toole after Sloan and Lewis were eliminated in the first two rounds.

The election process has been criticized for giving smaller ridings a disproportionate influence on the election outcome.

The CPC has tried to address this criticism by ensuring ridings with less than 100 voters get fewer points, but the issue persists.

Despite this issue, the one-member, one-vote system has been praised for its ability to avoid vote splitting. Since members can rank their preferred candidates and transfer votes to the next available candidate, the party can elect the most generally accepted leader and avoid vote-splitting.

The rules for the 2022 leadership election were released by the CPC on Mar. 8.

How the UCP ranked ballot works

By
Rachel Parker
-

United Conservative Party (UCP) members voting for Alberta’s next Premier will begin receiving their mail-in ballots soon and they’ll have the chance to rank all seven candidates on the preferred ballot. 

The seven candidates in the UCP leadership race are Danielle Smith, Travis Toews, Brian Jean, Todd Loewen, Leela Aheer, Rajan Sawhney and Rebecca Shulz. 

In a ranked voting system, the winner must receive over 50% plus one of the votes. If there are more than two candidates on the ballot, it’s possible no one will receive over 50%. 

In such a scenario, the contestant with the least number of votes is eliminated. The losing candidate’s votes are then redistributed among the remaining candidates, based on which contestants were ranked next.

This process continues until a candidate meets the threshold of garnering at least 50% of first choice rankings of the remaining candidates.

This is how Erin O’Toole beat Peter MacKay on the third ballot in the 2020 federal Conservative leadership race. In that contest, O’Toole received more second and third ballot support for candidates who placed Derek Sloan or Leslyn Lewis as their first choices. After Sloan, and then Lewis fell off, those voters placed O’Toole above MacKay on their ballots.

This process is the most practical way to hand count multiple ballots while ensuring the winner has at least 50% plus one support from the membership. It’s also mathematically easier to calculate a winner using this model, with multiple candidates, than other models. 

Ranked ballots can sometimes result in candidates who are less polarizing because candidates often require second ballot support from voters whose first-ballot support went to their opponent. But the ballot is sometimes criticized for electing “middle of the pack” candidates. 

A practical example

Candidate 1, Candidate 2, and Candidate 3 are splitting 100 total votes. Candidate 1 receives 40 on the first ballot, Candidate 2 gets 35, and 25 go to Candidate 3. Candidate 3’s first ballot support goes to Candidate 1 or Candidate 2 depending who voters rank second on their ballot. 

Candidate 1 or Candidate 2 would become the next Premier depending who receives more second ballot support.

The results of the contest will be announced on October 6.

Majority of Toronto’s seized guns are illegally smuggled

By
Noah Jarvis
-

A majority of the guns the Toronto Police Service (TPS) seized this year were illegally smuggled in from the U.S. 

According to the National Post, of the 116 firearms that TPS seized and posted to the Twitter page @TPSGunsSeized, 84 of the guns were prohibited – weapons that are illegal to buy, sell or be in possession of in Canada. Twenty of the firearms were restricted, and eleven of the firearms were non-restricted.

The firearms posted to @TPSGunsSeized do not represent all of the guns that TPS has seized, though inferences can be made about the types of firearms being used in gun crime across Toronto.

Looking at last year’s data, of the 138 guns TPS seized in 2021 between January and August, 98 of the firearms were prohibited. 

The volume of weapons used in crimes that are illegally brought to Canada from the U.S. calls into question the efficacy of PM Justin Trudeau’s forceful gun control measures adopted in recent years.

The Trudeau government has temporarily paused the legal importation of handguns without parliamentary approval in an effort to reduce gun crime and “cap the market” on handguns. 

Not only were the vast majority of gun crimes committed with illegally imported firearms, but many of these firearms were also equipped with illegal modifications that make the weapon more dangerous and are generally not available to the public.

The most frequently seized gun by TPS is the Glock, a semi-automatic handgun that can be equipped with a switch on the back of the gun, illegally converting the firearm into a fully-automatic machine gun. Eight of the Glocks TPS seized were equipped with these switches.

One firearm bust shows TPS seized two prohibited semi-automatic handguns along with an illegal 50-round drum magazine. 

The Trudeau Liberals are attempting to pass legislation to further restrict the Canadian firearms market with the tabled Bill C-21.

C-21 seeks to allow the police to seize a person’s firearms at the behest of someone asking a judge to issue an emergency order (red flag laws), effectively ban the sale of handguns and more.

C-21 has passed the second reading and is set for committee consideration once the House of Commons reconvenes.

Manhunt underway for two suspects after 10 dead, 15 hospitalized in mass stabbing in Saskatchewan

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

A province-wide manhunt for two suspects accused of killing 10 people and injuring at least 15 others in a series of stabbings in James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon, Saskatchewan is currently underway.

A dangerous persons alert has been issued by Melfort RCMP for two suspects identified by the RCMP as Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson.

The alert was later expanded to include Manitoba and Alberta. 


The RCMP said the two male suspects are believed to be travelling in a black Nissan Rogue with Saskatchewan licence plate 119 MPI. 

Damien Sanderson is described as 31 years old, five feet seven inches tall, weighing 155 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

Myles Sanderson is listed as being 30 years old, six feet and one inch tall and 240 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

The RCMP have yet to determine a motive for the stabbings and the police are urging all Saskatchewanians to remain vigilant. 

“At this stage in our investigation, we believe some victims have been targeted by the suspect and others have been attacked randomly.”

The Saskatchewan RCMP in an update to Twitter urges the public to take “appropriate precautions” and “consider sheltering in place.”

“There may be additional injured victims who transported themselves to various hospitals,” Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, confirmed at a press conference.

Regina Police Services and Prince Albert Police Services are assisting the Saskatchewan RCMP in the hunt for the two suspects.

The first RCMP alert was issued shortly after 7am local time and regular updates have been posted to the Saskatchewan RCMP Twitter account.

A state of emergency has been declared by the James Smith Cree Nation.

The scheduled Labour Day Classic CFL game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnnipeg Blue Bombers will go ahead as planned with an additional police presence dispatched to Mosaic Stadium in Regina. 

True North will update this story with more information as it becomes available. 

Most Canadians agreed Emergencies Act was an overreach: internal polling

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Most Canadians believe the Trudeau government overreached when invoking the Emergencies Act in February to clear peaceful Freedom Convoy protestors from Ottawa’s core. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, an internal report provided to cabinet titled Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views found that most Canadians actually supported the movement. 

“Though a small number of participants felt implementing the Emergencies Act was a necessary step given the disturbance caused by the seemingly indefinite nature of the protests, most felt this action represented significant ‘over-reach’ by the federal government as they interpreted this as limiting the right of these Canadians to peaceful protest,” wrote researchers. 

“A significant number identified with the frustration expressed by the protesters regarding ongoing public health measures even if they disagreed with some of the methods.”

Those polled also described that the protest was largely peaceful and an exercise of the right to freedom of expression. 

The protest was declared illegal by federal and provincial authorities prior to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented use of emergency powers. 

“Among participants who were supportive of the protests and their aims it was felt the protests had been mostly peaceful and that these individuals had the right to express their opinion,” the internal report claimed. 

“While some were hesitant to condone the disruption caused by the protests most of these participants felt the aim of the protest of ending Covid-19 mandates was justified and something they too supported.” 

When it comes to the steps the government took to deal with the situation, including freezing bank accounts of protestors, some Canadians “expressed anxiety” over giving police these powers. 

“Some participants were particularly unnerved by the reports of protesters and their supporters having their bank accounts frozen and expressed anxiety at law enforcement being imbued with this power,” wrote analysts. 

“A few expressed a growing lack of trust in the federal government which they felt was limiting the rights of Canadians to protest in a peaceful manner and were concerned the Emergencies Act could be used routinely going forward to limit public dissent.”

Hearings for the commission investigating Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act have been postponed to October as Commissioner Paul Rouleau tends to an undisclosed medical situation.

Six weeks of hearings were supposed to commence September 19, but will now start October 13 and conclude November 25.

LEVY: The anti-women trans activism movement

By
Sue-Ann Levy
-

Vancouver registered nurse Amy Hamm faces a disciplinary hearing later this month for speaking out – while off duty  – about radical gender theory and women’s sex-based rights.

She could lose her nursing license for the alleged crime of defending the biological differences between women and men, and standing up against the threats to women’s sex-based rights based on those differences.

She could not ignore either the potential harms this radical trans ideology can inflict on children indoctrinated to transition at a young age. 

In 2020, the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives informed her they were investigating her for her ongoing fight against a pervasive ideology that men who simply identify as women – but do not medically transition – have equal rights to women’s bathrooms, prisons, rape crisis centres and women’s sports.

Two complaints were made to the College, one by a social worker who describes himself as a passionate social justice advocate and a follower of Marxism. The other remains anonymous after he or she claimed Hamm might “retaliate” if his or her identity was revealed.

The complainants alleged that the registered nurse, mom and writer is allegedly “transphobic” and as such, she would not be able to provide “safe, non-judgemental care” to transgender patients.

As Hamm told a recent forum on Protecting Women’s Spaces in the Age of Transgenderism, hosted by the Democracy Fund, she has never had a single complaint or received any workplace discipline in her 10 years as a registered nurse.

She said she came on the College’s radar when she helped erect a billboard showing support for renowned author J.K. Rowling, who has been labelled, like Hamm, a trans exclusionary radical feminist (or TERF).

“Trans activism is an anti-social anti-women movement being disguised as a grassroots human rights movement,” she told the Democracy Fund forum.

“The trans activism movement uses female targets to make an example of and I just happened to be an easy target for them.”

Hamm is not alone.

In the past six months, I’ve written about two other women who’ve been cancelled or faced discipline for speaking up about the harms of radical gender ideology and Critical Race Theory (CRT).

One is Carolyn Burjoski, a 20-year teacher who was shut down four minutes into a January presentation to the Waterloo Region District School Board, for raising concerns about two highly sexualized books – one about a trans kid – in the board’s elementary school libraries.

The board’s chairman Scott Piatkowski subsequently conducted a series of media interviews in which he labelled her “transphobic.” This occurred while Burjoski was sent home subject to an investigation and forced to remain silent. 

The former teacher, who is now retired, has filed a $1.7-million defamation lawsuit against Piatkowski and the board, together with a judicial review of the board’s decision.

The other is Chanel Pfahl, a 29-year-old teacher, who is facing discipline by the Ontario College of Teachers for posting a comment on a private Facebook feed that students should not be indoctrinated with CRT.

That has not stopped her from posting her thoughts on Twitter and from running for trustee with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board this fall.

Journalist and author Barbara Kay told the forum that the rise of radical gender theory has created “huge divisiveness” in the feminist movement.

The idea that males can simply say they identify as a woman without life-altering surgery is misogynistic, said Kay, adding that even when women know someone is a biological male, they’re being forced to pretend they’re women.

Hamm says she refused to reach an agreement with the College because it would have given her a temporary suspension and forced her to sign a document saying she made transphobic comments.

“I’m not transphobic and there’s nothing wrong with standing up for women’s sex-based rights,” she said.

Hamm’s upcoming seven-day hearing, which commences Sept. 21, is funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Lawyer Lisa Bildy will be representing her.

The College recently dropped one of its charges against her – namely of spreading medical inaccurate information.

All that remains is the accusation that she’s made derogatory and discriminatory comments about trans people.

“In other words, I hurt people’s feelings on the Internet,” Hamm said. “I don’t care about trans activists’ feelings… I care about the safety and dignity of children and the male invasion of our spaces”

She fears that many Canadians really don’t know what’s happening right under their noses.

“Any male can decide to identify as female and have access to female spaces,” she says. “He doesn’t need a wig. He doesn’t need surgery.”

The Alberta Roundup | A $13 billion SURPLUS pays off for Albertans

By
Rachel Parker
-

This week on The Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel, Rachel discusses how the Alberta government is forecasting a $13.2 billion surplus in the upcoming budget and as a result, Alberta will bring personal income taxes in line with inflation for the 2022 tax year. Premier Jason Kenney’s move is being welcomed by many Albertans, including many United Conservative Party leadership candidates looking to replace Kenney.

Plus, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland gets yelled at by angry protesters while visiting Alberta. Does Freeland deserve your sympathy or are Canadians upset for good reason?

And Rachel discusses the latest in the UCP leadership race, including the final debate which saw Todd Loewen deliver an epic takedown of the Trudeau government’s fertilizer emissions scheme.

These stories and more on The Alberta Roundup with Rachel Emmanuel.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE ALBERTA ROUNDUP

Electric vehicle facts the establishment doesn’t want you to know

By
Noah Jarvis
-
Source: Facebook

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made it a priority for his government to promote electric vehicles (EVs) and have the Canadian population convert to “zero-emission vehicles” in the near future to reduce emissions and shrink Canada’s carbon footprint.

However, the case hasn’t been made that the transition to EVs will necessarily reduce emissions. Additionally, the rapid transition to EVs may not be practical for the average Canadian.

Electric vehicles are known for their questionable reliability, high sticker prices and shocking environmental and humanitarian impact.

True North has compiled a list of major issues with the Trudeau government’s narrative that transitioning to EVs is the way to create a more green world.

Nickel, Cobalt and Lithium

Unlike combustion engines that use lead-based batteries, EVs draw their energy from lithium-ion batteries – similar to the batteries used in smartphones. 

Three metals – nickel, cobalt, and lithium are required components to make an EV battery, and the extraction of these metals leaves significant environmental and humanitarian harm in its wake. 

In 2020, the CBC reported that nickel production results in “air pollution, water contamination and the destruction of habitats.”

Nickel mines in Indonesia’s Obi islands are polluting the nearby Kawasi sea by dumping millions of tonnes of waste into the ocean, making the waters nearly uninhabitable for fish and disrupting the livelihoods of local fishermen.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, cobalt mine workers are subject to harsh working conditions while earning very little money for their efforts. The mines are rife with child labourers, and dangerous conditions routinely take workers’ lives – sometimes dozens of lives at a time due to mining accidents.

Among other tech companies, Tesla was named in a lawsuit accusing them of aiding and abetting the death and serious injury of child labourers working in Congolese cobalt mines.

Chilean lithium mining is also a problem. There they use a technique that requires massive amounts of water to extract the metal, resulting in Chile’s already dry regions drying out further and damaging the surrounding natural ecosystem.

In Tibet, lithium mining has caused hydrochloric acid and other toxic chemicals to leak into the local water supply from the mine’s evaporation pool.

Despite EV battery production being demonstrably bad for the environment, the Trudeau Liberals have instead championed an Ontario EV battery production facility in the fight to preserve the environment, pouring billions of dollars into the plant’s production. 

Insufficient infrastructure

While the Trudeau government strongly encourages Canadian families to switch to EVs, it isn’t apparent that this is the most cost-effective and convenient decision for most people.

Regarding the vehicle’s initial price, the average EV costs $10,000 USD more than the auto industry’s average car.

Furthermore, high-quality EV battery chargers may require substantial upgrades to adapt the owner’s home to support the higher voltage and high-quality chargers needed – sometimes requiring overhauls to a neighbourhood’s entire electrical infrastructure.

Experts predict that a rapid increase in EV ownership may inadvertently lead to blackouts if millions of EVs charge simultaneously.

In California, a heat wave has state energy officials urging citizens to stop charging their electric vehicles, as the power grid faces strain and could possibly lead to a brownout or blackout.

Inconvenience

Since Canada gets very cold for multiple months of the year, Canadians have to worry about EVs battery performance potentially cratering in the chillier conditions.

General Motors is being sued for their 2017 Green Car of the Year Chevrolet Bolt battery performance substantially dropping in colder weather – failing to reach the advertised range of 383 kilometres per charge. 

According to AAA, temperatures below 20°F (-6.7°C) can cut an EV battery’s capacity by up to 41%.

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