It’s Fake News Friday! This week, True North’s Harrison Faulkner hosts the show and is joined by Rupa Subramanya!
This week, instead of reporting on news that matters to Canadians, so-called journalists in the legacy media made themselves the centre of attention. The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) released a list a of demands to the police after allegedly receiving online threats.
Threats are of course unacceptable, but where was the outrage from the CAJ when independent journalists were being assaulted by police during the Freedom Convoy? Why isn’t the CAJ up in arms about the fact that two-sitting elected officials attacked Rupa for uncovering the government’s political vaccine mandates?
Plus, the legacy media’s fear mongering about Pierre Poilievre continues – this time, a Toronto Star columnist claims Poilievre is fuelling “Christian nationalism.” Give us a break…
Tune into Fake News Friday with Harrison Faulkner and Rupa Subramanya!
BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon has kicked veteran MLA John Rustad from caucus for retweeting Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore’s controversial views around climate change.
The tweet in question shared by Rustad argued against the claim that CO2 drives global temperature changes.
“No net warming in Australia for the past 10 years. And the Great Barrier Reef has more coral cover this year than ever recorded. The case for CO2 being the control knob of global temperature gets weaker every day,” Moore wrote.
Following a pattern of behaviour that was not supportive of our caucus team and the principles of mutual respect and trust, I have removed MLA John Rustad from the BC Liberal Caucus effective immediately. #BCpoli
Falcon responded to Rustad by saying that he did “not speak on behalf of caucus” with his views.
“Let me be clear, climate change is one of the critical threats facing our future. The BC Liberals are strongly committed to substantive climate action & restoring BC’s place as a world leader in climate policy. John Rustad does not speak on behalf of caucus on this issue,” tweeted Falcon.
In a subsequent statement published online on Aug. 18, Falcon explained his reasoning behind removing Rustad from caucus.
“Like any team, our caucus operates on a foundation of mutual respect and trust. While a diversity of perspectives are encouraged and a source of strength, they cannot exist without that important foundation in place,” wrote Falcon.
“Following a pattern of behaviour that was not supportive of our caucus team and the principles of mutual respect and trust, I have removed MLA John Rustad from the BC Liberal Caucus effective immediately.”
MLA Todd Stone will be taking over Rustad’s role as the forestry critic.
In an interview, Rustad stood by his views saying that the causes of climate change “should be open to debate.”
“We came to an irreconcilable difference,” said Rustad.
Moore also addressed the firing of Rustad on his own Twitter calling the BC Liberals “intolerant fools” for removing Rustad.
So-called “Liberals” in my province of British Columbia are calling one of their own members of the legislature a “climate denier” because he says that CO2 is not a “pollutant” but is rather “essential for life”. He is right, they are intolerant fools .https://t.co/sOYak3uu69pic.twitter.com/aMMkHgcddX
U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has joined a long list of prominent people calling on the Trudeau government to scrap its controversial ArriveCAN app at the border.
The Republican representative for New York’s 21st District made the demand in a letter to Canada’s ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman.
Stefanik’s letter states that the app has been disruptive and harmful to cross-border tourism and commerce.
✏️📃I’m calling on the Canadian government to end the required use of the ArriveCAN app.
Canada’s mandated use of this app has disrupted Northern Border travel and damaged cross-border tourism and commerce.
“The U.S and Canada’s unique partnership is critical to the success of the communities on both sides of our border and dependent on valuing and maximizing the people-to-people relationship,” wrote Stefanik.
“We should be working to further develop our partnership, not inhibit its success with misguided burdens such as the Canadian government’s mandated use of the ArriveCAN app.”
Stefanik says mandating ArriveCAN “disincentivizes travel, harms the flow of commerce, and burdens travellers with the submission of private health information.”
The congresswoman also pointed out that ArriveCAN has been the subject of glitches, which accidentally forced vaccinated travellers into quarantine.
Stefanik claims many travellers are not familiar with the ArriveCAN requirement and are left to fill out the app last minute, creating significant backlogs at customs.
Many prominent individuals have called on Canada to scrap the ArriveCan app. Canadian MPs, border mayors, as well as Canadian Chambers of Commerce are also making the demand.
In July, the Trudeau government quietly allowed travellers at land borders a one-time exemption to the ArriveCAN requirement. Fully vaccinated travellers are granted an exemption if they unknowingly fail to submit their health documents through the app.
The government says non-compliance with the ArriveCAN requirement can result in fines, enforcement action and a quarantine order.
The Trudeau government has so far doubled down on mandating ArriveCAN, and also made changes to the app to allow people to submit their customs and immigration declarations before arrival.
Rebecca Schulz is a leadership candidate for the United Conservative Party. Schulz is currently the MLA for Calgary-Shaw and was most recently the Minister of Children’s Services.
I’ve heard from conservatives all across our province. Albertans want a leader and a government that will defend our constitutional rights. We want to be treated fairly in confederation, and we want to be recognized for our significant contributions to our country.
I want the same, which is why I am firmly committed to defending Alberta and driving strong economic growth so we can continue to be a leader in Canada and continue to be the best place to live, work, and raise a family.
Writing letters, empty threats, chaos, and catchy headlines haven’t worked.
This won’t be my approach.
I worked for Premier Brad Wall in Saskatchewan when he simply said “no” to the federal government — a Conservative federal government — when BHP Billiton was looking to take over PotashCorp.
He said “no” because he understood that resources belonged to the people of his province. The same applies right here in Alberta and we as Albertans know this.
It’s easy politics for a candidate to say they’ll create a silver bullet piece of legislation that will simply fix all of our problems. Danielle Smith has pitched the Alberta Sovereignty Act as a means to bar any federal legislation deemed harmful to our province. But it’s not realistic. It’s just one more example of a politician overpromising on something they can’t deliver to win your vote. Even worse, it puts a target on our back for Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley.
So what can we do?
There are of course things we can negotiate, like child care and housing. I went toe-to-toe with the feds on child care and got an agreement that worked for Alberta — one that respects private operators and parent choice. We need the same in housing. Municipalities are facing very real struggles and they need the help of their provincial and federal governments.
But we can say “no” to Ottawa when they infringe on our jurisdictional rights. If we look east to our neighbours, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has done an effective job saying “no” to the federal government on fertilizer emissions caps. He also led the charge with other like-minded provinces.
We can better position ourselves by taking over our pension and tax systems, and of course, giving Albertans the facts before we do this.
We can be a leader in this country by standing up to Ottawa and working with our provincial counterparts to gain more leverage and push for change.
That is how we win these fights.
So here is my commitment to you:
Within 10 days, a Schulz government will have a dedicated team in place with a Deputy Premier to prioritize pushing back on Ottawa.
Within 50 days, the Deputy Premier will present a Provincial Rights Framework, with the mandate to identify every legal and constitutional measure at our disposal to stand up against Ottawa’s attacks on our province.
Finally, within 100 days, we will present a new Market Access Plan to create political and economic incentives for federal and provincial governments to negotiate with Alberta in good faith for improved trade and market access. This includes looking at criteria for “Turning off the Taps” through the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act.
No more over-promising and under-delivering. No more unkept promises.
But to do this, we need a leader who can keep our party united and beat the NDP in 2023.
Someone who will lead with hard work, humility, and common sense.
I will lead a team and a party that Alberta conservatives can be proud of.
I encourage you to visit my website at www.rebeccaforleader.ca to learn more about my vision for Alberta.
If we want to improve our position within this country, it’s important that we get this right.
A group of Canadian MPs are planning a trip to Taiwan amid escalating tensions between the communist regime and western allies, following multiple Taiwanese trips by U.S. lawmakers.
Liberal MP and chair of the Canada-Taiwan Friendship group Judy Sgro views the trip as an opportunity to show solidarity with similar trips made by U.S. politicians while sending a message to China.
“I’m trying to be diplomatic in my comments, but clearly I’m proud that Canada is standing up to China as well. And I think that pushback is very important,” said Sgro.
In early August, US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan made her the highest ranking member of the U.S. government to visit the island nation since Newt Gingrich visited in 1997.
The visit provoked the Chinese regime, as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a series of military exercises around Taiwan, launching missiles over the island and sending warplanes to buzz Taiwanese airspace.
Two weeks after Pelosi’s visit, a group of senators and congressmen visited Taiwan on a similar trip. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reacted in a similar fashion to how they reacted to Pelosi’s visit, deploying a series of aircraft and marine vessels to conduct military exercise around the Taiwanese island.
The Canada-Taiwan Friendship group is an unofficial parliamentary coalition recognized by the Taiwanese government that is dedicated to furthering unofficial diplomatic ties with the democratic country.
The group cannot operate in an official capacity because Canada officially recognizes the One-China Policy, and any official diplomatic ties with Taiwan would upset the Chinese regime.
Because Canada wishes to maintain diplomatic and trade relations with China, the trip is being branded as discussions to further Canada-Taiwan trade.
“The trade committee is very anxious to go and to visit Taiwan and see what opportunities there are for deeper trade relations between our two countries,” said Sgro.
Canada-China relations have soured in recent years as a result of China’s unjust arrest of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on trumped-up charges, as well as their increased military hostility.
Earlier this summer, Chinese warplanes were reported harassing Canadian planes conducting a UN mission to monitor North Korea. The PLA planes flew dangerously close to Canadian aircraft, and one PLA fighter was reported as throwing up the middle finger at Canadian pilots.
Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange will hold the United Conservative Party (UCP) nomination in Red Deer-North.
LaGrange won the contest with 290 votes — 78 votes more than her sole opponent, freedom activist Andrew Clews.
LaGrange told supporters following the nomination that she was “very grateful and thankful for the support,” and that her victory was “democracy in action.”
In an interview with True North just ahead of the polls closing, LaGrange said she’s feeling “cautiously optimistic.”
“I’m very grateful for all the people that came out and supported me and I can look forward to continuing to do the good work that I’m doing as an MLA and as Minister of Education,” she said. “Whatever happens in this vote will happen…this is democracy in action.”
Voting closed at 8 p.m. on Thursday night. The results were announced shortly after.
Clews co-founded Hold The Line, a group which supported Albertans impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and helped them resist vaccine coercion.
He previously told True North he was motivated to run because LaGrange did not support the freedom movement.
“Even to date, I have not heard (LaGrange) voice any type of support for the rights and freedoms that we once had as Albertans,” he said earlier this month.
“I’m not impressed with how our government has handled the pandemic, how they have so casually given rights and taken rights away from Albertans…we need to elect leaders to go to the Alberta legislature and stand for freedom.”
LaGrange was elected to represent Red Deer – North in April 2019. Premier Jason Kenney handed her the education portfolio later that month.
In this role, she implemented a new K-6 curriculum to improve literacy and numeracy. Critics said the curriculum lacked consultation and included portions lifted from Wikipedia. It will begin rolling out in schools this fall.
At the Alberta Teachers’ Association Annual Representative Assembly in May 2021, a motion of non-confidence in LaGrange was passed with 99% of delegates voting in favour.
No sitting UCP MLAs have lost their nominations so far. In July, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Devin Dreeshen hung onto his UCP nomination by just eight votes.
Eckville-area farmer Tim Hoven said in March he was unjustly disqualified from running because he is alleged to have used a social media platform also used by white supremacists. He sought to run in Finance Minister Jason Nixon’s riding of Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.
UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith has said she would reopen riding nomination contests if elected premier of Alberta this fall.
“I will pledge to you as well, if any of the local ridings wants some of those ridings reopened because they don’t believe that they’ve been fair or they believe the candidates have been disqualified inappropriately, we will address that when I’m elected,” Smith said at a rally in July.
United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidates Travis Toews and Brian Jean are questioning Danielle Smith’s ability to unite the party if she doesn’t have a seat in the legislature ahead of the scheduled 2023 provincial election.
The comments come after True North reported earlier this week that Smith won’t seek to represent the riding of Calgary-Elbow should there be a byelection this fall once Doug Schweitzer resigns.
Smith said she will run for the nomination in her home riding of Livingstone-Macleod, but should she win, sitting MLA Roger Reid is entitled to his seat until the scheduled spring 2023 election.
Toews said if elected, he would be focused on uniting conservatives ahead of the provincial election against the NDP.
“I’m not going to want to waste precious time fighting fellow conservatives,” he told True North. “Roger Reid is a valued member of our caucus.”
Jean said Albertans deserve to know who will be facing off with Rachel Notley if Smith wins the Premiership but doesn’t have a seat in the legislature. He wondered if one of the two ministers who recently endorsed Smith — Nate Glubish or Kaycee Madu — would be sparring with the NDP in the chamber.
“We don’t know what promises have been made,” Jean said. “We should know who’s going to be facing off.”
The Smith campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Former Alberta Premier Jim Prentice did not have a seat in the legislature when he was sworn in as Premier in September 2014, but he won a seat in a byelection the following month.
Don Getty also did not hold a seat in the legislature when he became Premier in November 1985. But he returned to the legislature just over a month later, winning a by-election in his old riding of Edmonton-Whitemud.
Jean said there’s never been a more important time in Alberta’s political history than over the next eight months “and how we set up against Rachel Notley because that’s really what it’s all about.”
“I think the next eight months are extremely important and how we build a team and who we have lead that team and how they lead it and where they lead it from,” he said. “I think those are all very important issues.”
A recent Leger poll put Smith in the lead among UCP supporters (22%), followed by Jean (20%) and Toews (15%) for the best party leader.
UCP leaders will elect a new leader and Premier on October 6.
A Statistics Canada report on the aviation sector says that government travel vaccine mandates and restrictions had “more of an impact” than other factors in handicapping the industry’s recovery.
Department policy analyst and economist Valeriya Mordvinova explains how “travel restrictions and other measures imposed by governments to combat the pandemic” impacted the aviation sector in an Aug. 11 report titled Canadian aviation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Part 3. International.
“In the first half of 2021, restrictions in Canada were some of the strictest, and its aviation’s recovery the slowest. Russia had the least strict restrictions among these countries for many months, and the recovery of aviation there was among the strongest. The United States had a gradual relaxation of restrictions and a steady increase in air passengers,” wrote Mordvinova.
The report explores domestic and international travel patterns of various countries including Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, Russia and the United States. When it comes to domestic travel, Canada “did not experience” as strong of a recovery as other countries.
“Canada did not experience this to the same extent, as the number of passengers in the domestic sector remained well below 2019 levels in 2021. In 2020, the share of the domestic sector (56%) in Canada was slightly above that of 2019 (52%) before increasing to 70% in 2021,” wrote Mordvinova.
In a statement emailed to True North, Alberta Institute President Peter McCaffrey said that the government’s devotion to restrictions has done “incalculable harm” to Canada.
“We’ll likely see more and more of these types of reports released in the coming years, as we finally start to calculate some of the impacts of the restrictions, though we will never know the full extent of the costs,” said McCaffrey.
“Travel in general, and ArriveCAN specifically, are a clear example of how the federal government’s policies failed, and they also clearly demonstrate that the harms were not limited just to the economy, but also to Canadian’s civil liberties.”
Although other factors including vaccination rates or economic health also contributed, Statistic Canada writes restrictions were “likely to have had” played a more significant role.
“Restrictions on travel and other activities are likely to have had more of an impact, but other pandemic-related factors, such as for example vaccination rates and general economic conditions, also played a role,” the report explained.
To measure government restrictions, Statistics Canada relied on Oxford’s Covid-19 Government Response Tracker stringency index.
As exclusively reported by True North, in May 2021 the index showed that Canada’s policies were as strict as those in communist China or Cuba.
At the time Canada had a stringency score of 75.46, only a few points behind China’s score of 78.24.
Industry groups across Canada have called on the federal government to lift remaining restrictions so that the travel industry can fully recover. Recently, the Chambers of Commerce of several communities that border the US demanded that the federal government suspend the controversial ArriveCAN application.
According to McCaffrey, the compulsory nature of ArriveCAN is also harmful particularly due to the federal government’s habit of using such technology to spy on Canadians.
“This particular app is harmful because it’s compulsory, and because it’s the expansion of an app that was designed and used to spy on Canadians during an emergency, to track where they were going, and follow up with them to make sure they did as they were told,” said McCaffrey.
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has a special knack for triggering the left – especially on TikTok. On this episode of Ratio’d, Harrison Faulkner reacts to two of the most ridiculous anti-Poilievre takes we could find on the app. One video tries to make the case that Poilievre is a racist with racist policies – even though no policies were addressed in the video. The other video wants you to know that Poilievre supporters are “fringe voters, incels, untraditional, right-wing kooks”. Does that sound like you?
Also on the show, CTV News made themselves the news this week when it was reported that they had unceremoniously fired Lisa LaFlamme. Every single blue checkmark legacy media journalist bashed Bell Media for making this decision, without realizing that they themselves might be next.
And the Bank of Canada wants you to know that inflation is actually just in your head and the more you think it’s there, the more it will rise. For that ridiculous take on Twitter, they are this week’s winners of the Ratio of the Week award.
NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo deleted a tweet questioning the necessity of indoor ice rinks given their impact on climate change, amid public ridicule over her comments.
On Wednesday, the Port Moody—Coquitlam representative asked “is indoor skating ice even a necessity anymore? Can every ice sport be done without ice and different equipment?…just pondering the climate impact of human-made indoor ice.”
NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo deleted her tweet where she questioned the necessity of indoor ice rinks due to “climate impact.” Thankfully, I took a screenshot. #cdnpolipic.twitter.com/gufGfvGTdq
Zarrillo also shared links to an NHL news release about the league’s focus on “environmental sustainability” and an Inhabitat article about “Ice rink alternatives and their environmental impact”.
“Ice rinks are an important fixture of winter sports, whether for ice hockey, speed skating, curling, ice dancing or figure skating. But with growing concerns about global warming, water scarcity and our planet’s climate crisis, even the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the National Hockey League have been considering the environmental issues related to coordinating ice sports events and ensuring energy consumption and rink-operating costs are feasible. As a result, there is now a movement towards utilizing synthetic ice on ice rinks,” reads the release.
It states that the modern ice-making equipment and the maintenance measures used by indoor ice rinks consume a large amount of energy while producing pollution that harms the environment.
The article goes on to share a view that synthetic ice rinks “are cleaner and do not require big noisy generators and best of all, they do not emit CO2 into the atmosphere.”
“Traditional ice rinks have noise, energy waste and pollution costs. And their alternative, the synthetic ice rink, while resolving those issues, still generates other environmental concerns surrounding microplastic and plastic detriments,” writes the author.
Before deleting her tweet, Zarrillo received backlash from several prominent people on Twitter.
National Post contributor Ben Woodfiden stated that banning hockey over climate change would be a perfect recipe for a full blown Canadian revolt.
If you ever wanted to cause a full blown revolt in Canada telling people they can't play ice hockey anymore because of climate change would be a great way to start it https://t.co/4XjhytfEer
Conservative strategist Michael Diamond pointed out that taking away people’s access to physical activity would have both physical and mental health consequences. He called Zarrillo’s take a bad one.
Let's ponder the physical and mental health consequences of removing access to enjoyable physical activities. What a bad take from an Liberal-NDP coalition MP https://t.co/MZ1QnyLiB1
Meanwhile, Toronto businessman Matt Spoke said Zarrillo’s rhetoric was “totally normal” and joked that a ban on indoor heating should also be considered.
Nothing to see here. Totally normal rhetoric from a federal politician in Canada.
We should probably consider banning indoor heating in the winters too. https://t.co/19GeDAAntB
