We’re LIVE for the United Conservative Party (UCP)’s first official leadership debate!
True North’s Andrew Lawton will be hosting tonight’s discussion, and our Alberta Correspondent Rachel Emmanuel will be on-site in Medicine Hat for the debate. Elie Cantin-Nantel and William McBeath will also be joining the show!
There’s a lot at stake in this leadership race. The next UCP leader will also become the Premier of Alberta. That’s why True North is providing in-depth coverage of everything happening in Alberta politics.
In the premiere episode of Reality Check with Jasmine Moulton, Jasmine debunks the leftist claims that “the rich don’t pay their fair share” and that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”
Politicians such as Jagmeet Singh and Chrystia Freeland have repeated this flawed argument on a number of occasions, and these misleading and simplistic claims have influenced of the federal government’s economic and fiscal policies.
Facts and logic suggest otherwise. It’s time for a reality check.
Reality Check with Jasmine Moulton is a weekly show that debunks the Canadian left’s favourite flawed arguments. Tune in every Wednesday and make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
The environmental group Greenpeace is excluding the unvaccinated from its activist training sessions in Toronto.
Greenpeace describes its upcoming “Basic Action Training” program as “a weekend-long, intensive training to learn and share non-violent direct action skills and tactics including strategy, blockades and visual arts.”
It adds that the training is “an opportunity to get together with a diverse group of people who want to tackle environmental and social injustice.”
Greenpeace’s sessions are scheduled for September 9-11. They will take place at an undisclosed Toronto location set to be a “scent-reduced environment striving to be scent free.”
The organization says it needs people with the “skills and courage” to gather and organize” amid claims of governments, financial institutions and corporations that are continuing “to uphold the systems that exploit this planet and its people.”
However, Greenpeace’s website states that those interested in the sessions will have to show proof of vaccination to attend, unless they have a valid medical exemption.
Greenpeace will also mandate masks for the indoor duration of its sessions, while stating that, “there will be opportunities during the weekend for people to spend time outdoors without masks if they can physically distance.”
“We will have filters running and plan to eat outside. We want to ensure that everyone is as comfortable as possible and those most vulnerable are protected as much as possible from COVID-19 infection,” added Greenpeace.
It should be noted that Greenpeace says its Covid protocols may be subjected to changes.
True North reached out to Greenpeace to ask if participants would have to be double vaccinated or boosted, given that federal health minister Jean Yves Duclos said that two doses “doesn’t work anymore.”
Trudeau’s health minister Jean-Yves Duclos says two-doses of the Covid vaccine “doesn’t work anymore.”
Greenpeace did not respond to True North’s questions in time for publication.
Ontario ended its vaccine passport program on March 1, and the federal government suspended its vaccine requirements for rail and air travel on June 20. Most of the western world has also stopped mandating that people take Covid shots in order to participate in discretionary activities.
In its application form for the sessions, Greenpeace offers seven different gender identity options and asks applicants their race.
Greenpeace also asks applicants if they are “willing and able to participate in actions that might risk arrest sometime in the next 6 months to a year for campaigns on financial institutions like Canada’s dirtiest fossil banks, solidarity actions, to prevent destructive fossil fuel projects, and take action on climate and biodiversity crisis.”
It should be noted that a 2011 RCMP criminal intelligence assessment obtained by The Canadian Press had taken note of Greenpeace’s radicalism.
The report said that “Greenpeace is opposed to the development of Canada’s Arctic region, as well as Canada’s offshore petroleum industry.”
“Criminal activity by Greenpeace activists typically consists of trespassing, mischief, and vandalism, and often requires a law enforcement response.”
Furthermore, the report alleged “Greenpeace actions unnecessarily risk the health and safety of the activists, the facility’s staff, and the first responders who are required to extricate the activists.”
Greenpeace denied that it was becoming more radical, telling The Canadian Press, “there is a difference between breaking the law and criminal activities.”
If the Iranian people rise up, will the rest of the world support them? According to former Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, Canada should. He joined True North’s Andrew Lawton at the Free Iran World Summit in Albania to discuss the current state of Iran, why it matters to Canadians, and why, when the time comes, Canada should support an uprising in Iran.
A group of black activists and Toronto school officials have quietly cancelled Queen Victoria.
The name of a Parkdale public school was changed near the end of June from Queen Victoria to Dr. Rita Cox-Kina MInogok public school.
The change came with little fanfare, likely considering the outrage from several at the prospect of cancelling history when the project was first announced in May of 2021.
Since its founding in 1887, the school had been dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, who ruled the British throne for 63 years.
That was until June when Toronto District School Board (TDSB) officials, in conjunction with the Queen Victoria Renaming Committee, decided to give it an arduous double-barrelled name that pays tribute to both the black and Indigenous communities.
Dr. Rita Cox was a long-time librarian in the same west Toronto neighbourhood as the school, as well as a black activist and children’s storyteller.
The Kina MInogok part of this absurdly long name is an Indigenous term that stands for “all is growing well.”
After her retirement in 1995 from the Toronto Public Library, Cox was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1997 for her work in storytelling and received honorary doctorates from Wilfred Laurier and York universities.
Although she refers to herself as Dr. Rita Cox, there is no indication in any stories or bios about her that she completed a PhD program at any university in Ontario or outside Canada.
A black and Caribbean library collection and an endowment fund are named after her, as well as a Toronto park near Lamport Stadium.
The decision to change the name of the 700-student school had its roots in 2020 when a TDSB Black Student Success Committee decided to advocate against “colonialism.”
The movement gathered steam in 2021 when parents brought up several allegations of “anti-Black racism” and “systemic discrimination” at the school.
In a May 19, 2021 report to the TDSB, the Black Student Success Committee contended that the Queen Victoria school community, withstood “devastating challenges” in the year prior – including the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario job action, “ongoing experiences of anti-Black racism” and the pandemic.
The rebranding of the school, they said, would be a “fresh start.”
The 2021 report – authored by woke bureaucrats Andrew Gold and Debbie Donsky – also suggested that a group of TDSB educators involved in “anti-racism” work be created to look at the possibility of reviewing all school names so they reflect Toronto’s diversity.
Fast forward to 2022 when some 150 new names for Queen Victoria school were shortlisted to five, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Michelle Obama.
The selected name was accompanied by a 14-page report to trustees dated June 22 about how officials are addressing “anti-Black racism and hate” in the new Dr. Rita Cox-Kina MInogok public school community.
The report was authored by nine senior bureaucrats including Gold and Donsky – who no doubt were trying to obtain a gold star from black activist board director Colleen Russell-Rawlins for tackling what they described as “dehumanizing acts of anti-Black racism.”
They provided no details in the June 22 report or the one from last year as to what exactly those “dehumanizing acts” were.
Nonetheless, the report indicates that the school’s student leadership team have conducted “specific learning about the harmful effects of colonization and the monarchy.”
They’ve also learned about “identity and oppression” (code for Critical Race Theory.)
The report says following an incident of “anti-Black racism” at nearby Parkdale Collegiate involving blackface, focus groups and student climate surveys were undertaken to improve programming.
On Oct. 29 of last year, a Grade 9 teacher came to school dressed in blackface to commemorate Hallowe’en. The teacher was sent home and fired faster than he could say Justin Trudeau dressed the same way.
Russell-Rawlins issued a lengthy statement of apology a few days after the incident.
The June 22 report also notes that school administrators at both Parkdale and the former Queen Victoria school attend “frequent” Learning Network meetings to “address, interrupt and disrupt anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism and all forms of oppression.” (Cue Critical Race Theory).
They are asked to engage in the study of books such as Me and White Supremacy and Become a Good Ancestor.
The report says that at the newly named Dr. Rita Cox-Kina MInogok school, classroom instruction has included Social Justice Week which focussed on “Black affirming pedagogy, Black joy and excellence.”
This report certainly provides an up-to-date insight into the selective treatment of black students within the TDSB by an education director who is more concerned with black activism than academic excellence.
Cancelling Queen Victoria and an important chapter in Canada’s history is bad enough.
But the idea that more schools could be re-named and that nine bureaucrats have devoted so much time and so many resources to addressing Russell-Rawlins’ skewed view of the world is downright obscene.
According to new Access to Information records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, police created a list of fundraisers linked to the Freedom Convoy. Names and credit ratings were sent to Farm Credit Canada (FCC), a federal bank.
Internal emails from the FCC show that a list was sent to them by Ottawa Police on February 18.
“FCC has received a list of names from the Ottawa Police Service in relation to a restraint order for the funds raised through the GiveSendGo crowdfunding platform for the Freedom Convoy,” said in a staff email.
“This information was originally provided directly to Farm Credit Canada from the Ottawa Police and then we subsequently received more information through our membership with the Canadian Bankers Association,” said the email.
It is unclear why the Ottawa Police sent the FCC the list of convoy fundraisers or what action the federal bank took upon receipt of the names.
In another internal document, it was revealed that the FCC was instructing its employees to record the names of customers who supported the convoy and FCC chief operating officer Sophie Perreault warned that customers would face “appropriate action” if they were deemed supportive of the convoy.
“Any individual and entities that have been verified by the authorities as participating in illegal activity under the Act will face appropriate action which will include not onboarding those found to violate the Act, freezing disbursements and assessing the need to terminate business relationships,” Perrault wrote in an email.
Organizers of the Freedom Convoy received a total of $10.1 million in donations through GoFundMe. The account was frozen on February 4.
Another $10.6 million was raised through a second platform, GiveSendGo. A Supreme Court order froze the GiveSendGo account on February 11 through the Government of Ontario.
The Trudeau cabinet claimed that “foreign extremists” were using the crowdfunding platforms to help finance the convoy. However, executives from GoFundMe and GiveSendGo refuted the government’s claim and said the convoy was funded primarily by Canadians.
“Our records show 88 percent of donated funds originated in Canada,” said Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe, who testified before the Commons public safety committee on March 3.
GiveSendGo executives testified that about 63% of those contributions were from Canada.
“Most of the donations were under a hundred dollars,” said GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells. “It’s pretty consistent across the board.”
More than 200 bank accounts worth nearly $8 million were frozen as a result of the invocation of the Emergencies Act from February 14 to 23.
For the second time in July, a group of radical climate activists have claimed responsibility for damaging a number of SUVs in the Waterloo region.
In an email to CTV News, the self-proclaimed “Tyre Extinguishers” said they flattened the tires of 45 SUVs in multiple locations in Kitchener and Waterloo.
“Last night, we flattened the tires of 45 SUVs in multiple locations across the Waterloo Region, including the Upper Beechwood and Beechwood Forest neighbourhoods,” the criminal climate group said.
Notes were left on the damaged vehicles’ windshields indicating that the vehicles were targeted because of climate change.
“Your gas guzzler kills,” one note read.
Waterloo Regional Police Service said they believe the SUV tires were all deflated overnight July 22-23. The police confirmed more than 10 reports of damaged SUVs.
This is the second instance in July. Earlier this month, the radical activists also claimed responsibility for dozens of damaged SUVs. Police reported more than 30 reports were made then.
Police say tires were deflated with a device that made them slowly leak overnight.
After the first attack, the climate activists emailed CTV News to claim responsibility.
“We’re taking this action because governments and politicians have failed to protect us from these huge vehicles. Everyone hates them, apart from the people who drive them,” the email said.
“We want to live in towns and cities with clean air and safe streets. Politely asking and protesting for these things has failed. It’s time for action.”
“The people whose tires we have deflated will be inconvenienced, but ultimately, will be able to get around by using public transit, walking, or cycling like so many other residents of the Waterloo Region do.”
In recent years, radical climate activists have targeted Canadians and workers on multiple occasions to push their radical ideology.
In BC, illegal protesters have blocked multiple highways during rush hour and attacked pipeline workers to protest the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline despite the project being supported by the province and Indigenous groups.
Anyone with information on the “Tyre Extinguishers” can call Waterloo police at 519-570-9777 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Anonymous tips can be submitted at www.waterloocrimestoppers.com.
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) is calling out the editors of the Guardian and the Narwhal for publishing an article the policy think tank says is “poorly researched and dishonest.”
Both publications ran a piece by author and climate reporter Geoff Dembicki titled “How a conservative US network undermined Indigenous energy rights in Canada.”
In his article, Dembicki writes that “a U.S.-based libertarian coalition has spent years pressuring the Canadian government to limit how much Indigenous communities can push back on energy development on their own land.”
He alleges MLI worked with American NGO Atlas Network to undermine Indigenous rights in Canada.
“Atlas and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute have for years been pushing back against attempts by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to align Canadian laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP),” wrote the author.
In response to Dembicki’s piece, MLI said that “it is regrettable that such a poorly researched and dishonest article was published by the Guardian and Narwhal.”
The policy think tank said “the central thesis of the article, namely that the interests of the Atlas Network funders shaped our work on the Aboriginal Canada and the Natural Resource Economy project, is easily rebutted by the simple fact that MLI has never solicited Atlas Network funding for this project.”
The institute also stated it does not take directions from donors or funders that relate to the nature, scope, or policies it advocates for. MLI says it made this clear to Dembicki when he reached out for comment before publishing his article.
The organization added that given that the funding it receives from Atlas Network makes up “a fraction of 1 percent” of their revenue, it is hence “unclear upon what basis the author draws” the inference that Atlas directs MLI’s work.
MLI also accused Dembicki of neglecting basic information and alleged he suppressed information they provided that went contrary to his narrative.
The think tank said it told Dembicki that “a core, guiding principle of MLI’s work is that Indigenous peoples should be empowered to chart their own courses, whether that be as proponents, partners, owners, or indeed as opponents of projects on territories over which they are rights holders.”
MLI also said the suggestion that it opposes UNDRIP outright is false.
“Our authors, much like dozens of First Nations communities throughout Canada, expressed concerns with the implementing legislation in Canada for UNDRIP, not with UNDRIP itself,” the institute wrote.
“Many versions of the implementing legislation were flawed, vague, and non-committal, and additionally, the legislation itself failed to meet the standard of free, prior, and informed consent.”
In a separate publication, MLI’s Melissa Mbarki and Chris Sankey, who are both Indigenous, accused the Guardian and Narwhal of siding with “the racists, paternalists and colonialists who have decided that they, and they alone, know what is right for Indigenous peoples,” when they chose to publish Dembicki’s article.
“We are now facing a new and disruptive strand of colonialism: eco-colonialism,” they wrote. “This is perpetrated by climate radicals who believe that their ideology justifies denying Indigenous communities the right to speak for themselves and denying them access to opportunities that the colonizers have enjoyed for centuries.”
Indigenous peoples should be empowered to chart their own course, whether that be as proponents, partners, owners, or indeed as opponents of development projects on territories over which they are rights holders.https://t.co/sAXBOZSrqC
Mbarki and Sankey said “eco-colonialists” don’t believe Indigenous communities should have the possibility of determining their own futures or control their land in a beneficial way. “Self-appointed outsiders like Mr. Dembicki are, wittingly or unwittingly, condemning our communities to poverty.”
True North reached out to Dembicki, the Guardian and Narwhal for comment, but they did not respond in time for publication.
United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership candidate Danielle Smith is taking heat for saying a healthy lifestyle and preventative measures could reduce the risk of stage four cancer and the need for serious treatment.
Smith made the comments in a live video podcast with Naturopath Dr. Christine Perkins on Thursday, where she reiterated her campaign promise to give every Albertan a $300 health spending account to spend on different physicians, like physiotherapists, chiropractors, and naturopaths.
Below is a transcript of the exchange:
“A lot of mainstream medicine is just managing diseases. They’re not actually helping remove that underlying issue that’s preventing that body from carrying itself which is what naturopathic doctors do,” Perkins said.
“What if you get cancer and you have a tumour that needs to be removed? That’s a mainstream medical thing that needs to happen. And at the same time, why did you arrive in that state? What happened to that body? What happens to that person?” Perkins questioned.
“We need to look at the underlying reasons they got there and look at prevention and treat them for that. So it doesn’t occur again,” Perkins said. “So do we need both forms of medicine? We actually do. We need both forms of medicine.”
Smith responds: “That’s a perfect example. Because absolutely once you’ve arrived and got stage four cancer, and there’s radiation and surgery and chemotherapy, that’s an incredibly expensive intervention.”
“Not just for the system, but also expensive in the toll it takes on the body. But when you think about everything that built up before you got to stage four on that diagnosis, that’s completely within your control, and there’s something that you can do about that that is different. And I want to talk a little more about that.”
Smith received swift condemnation for her comments, both from across the aisle, but also from within the Conservative camp.
Rival leadership candidate Rebecca Shulz said Smith “has a history of poor judgement.”
“And telling Albertans it’s their fault for getting Stage 4 cancer is unacceptable and quite frankly, offensive, especially when it’s about kids,” Schulz captioned her post. “These types of comments are exactly how we hand the province to the NDP.”
Competitor Travis Toews wrote, “Cancer is a devastating reality for too many Albertans and these types of statements are irresponsible and insulting.”
“The fact that we’re even debating this is an embarrassment to our party and our movement!”
Cancer is a devastating reality for too many Albertans and these types of statements are irresponsible and insulting.
The fact that we're even debating this is an embarrassment to our party and our movement! https://t.co/4KYV43KFER
NDP leader Rachel Notley also joined the conversation. In a Sunday post to social media, Notely wrote, “Attacking cancer patients is cruel and wrong no matter your politics…no matter what kind of anti-science message you’re trying to get over with your base.”
Naturopathic medicine is a system that uses natural remedies to help the body heal itself. Critics say its methods are unproven.
Attacking cancer patients is cruel and wrong no matter your politics… no matter what kind of anti-science message you’re trying to get over with your base. #ableg#abhealth
In a video posted to Facebook, Smith only acknowledged Notely’s criticism. The former Opposition Wildrose leader said she didn’t expect the New Democrats to “politicize something as serious as cancer” and use it as a “wedge issue” to attack her.
She did not apologize for her comments, but further expanded on them, saying diet, exercise, and early detection are important, and the first three stages of cancer are more controllable in terms of what care is available to a patient.
Smith’s comments about serious treatment being required at stage four were perhaps misleading — doctors can use such treatment in any stage of cancer, depending on the specific patient’s case.
But in the broader context of the podcast, Smith argued that preventative measures used by naturopaths would reduce the burden on Canada’s public healthcare system. She prefaced the episode by saying a comprehensive healthcare system would cover everything, but healthcare currently only provides a family physician and hospital healthcare.
“There are a whole variety of healthcare practitioners that are outside those two categories,” she said.
In an interview with True North at a campaign event in Lethbridge on Tuesday, Smith said the intention of her comments was to ensure people know that once you get to late stage cancer, you must have conventional treatment like radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy. She said she didn’t want anyone to think preventive measures and early dedication are a replacement for treatment, adding “I looked at it as both.”
“I think if people look at the full interview, they’ll see that the intention was to make sure that people understood that there’s a full range of options, and that we’ve got to be be talking about early detection, as well as diet, nutrition exercise, just to make sure that the people have that the best chance of staying healthy,” she said.
A recent poll from the Canadian research company Leger surveying UCP members found that Smith was the favourite to lead the party, at 22%, followed by Brian Jean at 20%, and Toews with 15%.
UCP members will elect a new leader and Premier on October 6.
A global conference dedicated to resisting the Iranian regime had to be cancelled at the last minute because of a terrorist threat. True North’s Andrew Lawton was in Albania set to cover the conference, hosted by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran/National Council of Resistance of Iran. He was still able to sit down with some of the dignitaries slated to attend and meet some of the members of the Iranian opposition group.
In this recap edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, Andrew shares some of his reflections on Iran’s place in the world, and speaks with former US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission Ken Blackwell, retired US general Chuck Wald, and former Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird.
