The Liberal government is poised to adopt the view that you can never be “fully vaccinated” against Covid, but have to get boosted every nine months to keep your vaccination “up to date.” This is what Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said, though he stopped short of announcing any policy changes (for now). True North’s Andrew Lawton discusses the latest moving goalposts of public health and explains why Canadians should be nervous about a full-throttled return of restrictions and mandates in the fall.
Also, journalist Ann McElhinney joins to discuss her new true crime podcast about the murderous abortion Dr. Kermit Gosnell, “Serial Killer: A True Crime Podcast.” Ann’s podcast is available at https://serialkillerpod.com
Despite the Trudeau government’s task force to solve the chaos at Canada’s airports, Canadian travellers experienced some of the worst delays over the long weekend in the world, according to the aviation tracking service FlightAware.
On Saturday and Sunday, Air Canada ranked first in excessive waits as 717 of its flights were delayed – more than 14 percentage points above carriers tied for second place.
Jazz Aviation and Air Canada Rouge, both Air Canada affiliates, saw 53% of their flights delayed, placing both airlines in second — tied with Greek budget carrier Olympic Air.
On Saturday, WestJet and Swoop placed third and fourth with 55% of their flights delayed.
Canada’s airports also topped FlightAware’s figures as Toronto’s Pearson International Airport claimed the second spot on Sunday after 53% of departures were delayed. Guangzhou’s main airport in China was placed first.
Meanwhile, Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport placed sixth on Sunday with 43% of departing flights delayed.
Critics have argued that the Trudeau government’s ongoing travel restrictions are the root cause of the delays at Canada’s airports.
Despite the massive delays, the feds recently announced that all existing border restrictions to enter Canada will remain in place until at least Sept. 30. Foreign travellers entering Canada still need to provide proof of vaccination and unvaccinated Canadians or permanent residents still need to provide a Covid-19 test taken prior to entering Canada.
The government is still requiring travellers to use the frequently broken ArriveCan app, which forces individuals to upload their vaccine information and travel documents prior to entering Canada.
In June, the Trudeau government announced a “new task force to improve government services for Canadians,” in an attempt to address the ongoing chaos at Canada’s airports and passport offices.
Despite the newly-created task force, Air Canada announced last week that it would be cutting thousands of flights from its schedule in hopes of better accommodating travellers.
The airline will have to reduce its normal schedule of around 1,000 flights per day by an average of 154 flights per day for July and August so fewer travellers will have their flights delayed or cancelled because of airport conditions.
NDP MP Rachel Blaney let her employees have an extra-long Canada Day weekend after giving them time off in support of abortion rights.
Blaney announced on Twitter that her office would be closed “in solidarity with women” in the US after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“I have instructed my staff to close offices on July 4, in solidarity with women in the USA & the world in support of reproductive freedoms & in protest to the lack of access to abortion services. Healthcare must include right to choose – people who are pregnant need to be safe,” tweeted Blaney.
I have instructed my staff to close offices on July 4, in solidarity with women in the USA & the world in support of reproductive freedoms & in protest to the lack of access to abortion services. Healthcare must include right to choose – people who are pregnant need to be safe.
— Rachel Blaney (She/Her) (@RABlaney) July 3, 2022
The tweet immediately received backlash after critics accused Blaney of using the event as an excuse to take time off work while continuing to collect taxpayer dollars. Blaney is an MP for North Island – Powell River.
“Big government always gives themselves a day off to virtue signal for others. Same as Reconciliation Day, where federal employees honour the historically oppressed by giving themselves another paid day off. Wild,” replied Canadian Coalition of Firearm Rights activist Tracey Wilson.
Rebel News’ Ezra Levant accused Blaney of a “free vacation,” in response to her tweet.
“Friday was a day off because it’s Canada Day. So it was already a long weekend. But this luxurious MP — part of Trudeau’s coalition with the NDP — just decided to make it a four-day weekend. But it’s not a free vacation. Absolutely not. It’s a sign of sacrifice & solidarity,” tweeted Levant.
Friday was a day off because it's Canada Day. So it was already a long weekend.
But this luxurious MP — part of Trudeau's coalition with the NDP — just decided to make it a four-day weekend.
But it's not a free vacation. Absolutely not. It's a sign of sacrifice & solidarity. https://t.co/9gL98LDkHq
Several prominent Canadian politicians have reacted to the overturning of Roe v. Wade including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau has used the Supreme Court decision to announce further abortion support for women in Canada and beyond.
“The news coming out of the United States is horrific. My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion. I can’t imagine the fear and anger you are feeling right now,” said Trudeau.
“No government, politician, or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body. I want women in Canada to know that we will always stand up for your right to choose.”
The Trudeau government has approved a plan requested by Quebec to ship asylum claimants who illegally cross into Canada via Roxham Road into Ontario cities such as Niagara Falls and Ottawa.
Quebec authorities have pleaded with Ottawa in recent months to alleviate the stress the influx of migrants has caused for the province.
The controversial illegal crossing point is an unauthorized entry point into the province from the United States. Tens of thousands of migrants have crossed into Canada illegally at the location since the Canada-US border was reopened in November.
Until now, most crossers have been processed within Quebec after claiming asylum or refugee status Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) offices.
The IRCC recently said that a small “number of (claimants who) do not intend to stay in Quebec” are being transferred into Ontario as of Jun. 30.
“IRCC is working with the City of Ottawa and the Municipality of Niagara Falls to help refugee claimants find alternative housing and access the community supports available to them,” said IRCC spokesperson Julie Lafortune.
Soon after the illegal border crossings began in 2017, the federal government devoted half a billion dollars to help Quebec house asylum claimants.
The government of Quebec is now requesting more help, claiming that the province does not have the services or capacity readily available to take in such a large quantity of migrants.
In the first five months of this year, between January and May a record number of 13,000 illegal border crossings took place.
Quebec MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe recently grilled Liberal minister of immigration Sean Fraser to ask why a quarter of RCMP officers are acting as chaperones for illegal border crossings.
“We have been told that a quarter of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, officers deployed in Quebec are managing the Roxham Road instead of dealing with gun trafficking at the border,” said Brunelle-Duceppe. “Minister, when will you ensure that the safe third country agreement is suspended?”
“It’s essential, when we look at our domestic and international legal obligations, that we don’t ignore the responsibility we have to enforce those laws. I expect what you’re getting to is the engagement of the RCMP who may be involved with processing people who have crossed the border and claimed asylum,” said Fraser.
A Markham, Ontario banner cited “intersectionality” and other far-left woke terminology during the city’s official Canada Day celebrations.
A photo of the banner was shared on social media by Quilette editor and commentator Jonathan Kay, asking users to give their opinion about the messaging.
The banner features a flurry of buzzwords wrapped around a tree: “Cohesion, allyship, harmony, intersectionality. “
“Intersectionality” refers to a concept that emerged out of radical feminist critical theory which argues that people are discriminated against based on different aspects of a person’s identity.
“Intersectionality is the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and we must consider everything and anything that can marginalise people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc,” writes the organization Womankind Worldwide.
In March, Markham city’s general committee introduced its updated diversity and anti-black racism action plan.
“In Markham, we acknowledge that all forms of racism and discrimination exist, and this particular acknowledgement also supports the acknowledgement of the historical and ongoing disparities faced by Markham’s Black population,” read the report.
“We chose the symbolism of a tree to represent this process, because much like a tree, our success in creating equitable outcomes for our community require the right conditions for growth: the ability to adapt to an ever changing climate, strong roots and constant growth.”
Municipalities and school boards throughout Canada have increasingly adopted stances heavily steeped in woke ideology.
In 2020, the York Region District School Board renamed Vaughan Secondary School citing anti-racism. The city of Vaughan received its name from British parliamentarian Benjamin Vaughan.
“The name of Vaughan being attached to a school perpetuates these harmful effects against Black students, families and the community,” wrote the motion.
Earlier this week, I cycled by a TD Bank in downtown Toronto which had a huge Progress Pride flag in its window together with the words, “Forever Progressing.”
TD Bank has been a sponsor of Pride month for 18 years and it’s no surprise that the financial institution would want to display its support in its branches.
Sadly, seeing the Progress Pride flag replace the traditional rainbow flag in TD Bank windows was not a huge stretch either considering that over the years when I wrote about the hijacking of the Pride parade by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the decision to ban police from marching (as BLM demanded), the bank did not choose to weigh in at all.
Developed in 2018 by Daniel Quasar, a non-binary American artist (Quasar uses xe/xyr pronouns), the Progress Pride flag takes the traditional rainbow flag and adds black and brown stripes to symbolize marginalized LGBTQ+ visible minority communities as well as pink, light blue and white from the Transgender flag.
On Church St. today there was not a traditional rainbow flag to be seen. Instead the Progress Pride flag which represents the intersectional woke crowd was everywhere — more proof, sadly, that those with radical trans/anti-black racism agendas have hijacked this celebration. pic.twitter.com/IYQZrtVJrv
The Progress Pride flag flew all over Church St. – Toronto’s gay neighbourhood – when I went down to take in Pride weekend activities.
There were few, if any, rainbow flags.
Vietnam war veteran and drag performer Gilbert Baker created the rainbow flag after being commissioned to do so for the San Francisco Pride parade by gay icon Harvey Milk.
From 1978, the rainbow flag became the symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movements.
The variety of colours was meant to mark the diversity of the LGBT community.
The absence of the rainbow flag in Toronto’s Gay village on Pride weekend and the push by corporate Canada – the TD Bank included – to embrace the Progress Pride flag is a disturbing trend.
If the rainbow flag is meant to embrace the diversity of the LGBT community, why the need for a so-called new, improved flag that has at its core the suggestion that some gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people are more marginalized than others?
Contrary to what TD Bank wants us to believe – that as a corporate entity they are forever progressing – that’s not what I call progress.
I call it divisiveness.
I also call it pandering to a fringe minority of radical activists who have hijacked Pride.
It’s hard to believe that corporations like my own bank – TD – think that some lesbians and gays are suffering more because they are black and brown.
Corporations have merely jumped on the bandwagon for fear they’ll be cancelled by this very vocal and often hateful group of activists.
In Toronto, this divisiveness started building when Pride Toronto and our fearful politicians capitulated to BLM, whose screaming activists held the parade hostage in 2016.
BLM and its “defund the police” activists demanded that the police be banned from the parade in 2017 and 2018 – and subsequently insisted they not return in 2019.
Many gay men I interviewed at the time were horrified that the rights they fought so hard for and the relations they built up with the police subsequent to famous Bathouse Raids in 1981, were so quickly and decisively forgotten.
I’m willing to bet the gays and lesbians I saw on Church St. on Pride weekend have no interest and perhaps no clue the battles LGBT individuals went through in the 1980s and 1990s to come out.
Those flying the Progress Pride, so desperate to be woke, take for granted the obstacles and the fear those before them endured to win our precious rights.
It’s not to say homophobia still doesn’t exist (I’ve experienced it recently myself and there are still countries that strictly ban homosexuality).
Yet in Canada in 2022, it’s really no big deal, for the most part, to be gay.
But the pendulum has swung too far the other way.
Once respected gay rights organizations, desperately in search of a purpose, have turned to trying to indoctrinate young schoolkids with trans and gender identity workshops.
Besides the Progress Pride flag, our woke school boards and institutions have added so many initials, the average person can’t keep track.
It’s no longer LGBT but an alphabet soup of LGBTQQIP2SAA rights – many of them only related to LGBT rights because they involve some sort of sexual or non-sexual identity.
The latter stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous and asexual.
It’s not surprising that in our culture of trying to assign everyone to a particular identity group that this should become part of Pride.
As one gay friend remarked this week, the lesbian and gay community have been cast aside – forced to take a back seat to a series of unrelated special interest groups.
It’s not the least bit progressive.
It’s divisive and it has completely diluted the meaning of gay Pride.
Freedom Convoy fundraiser Tamara Lich has been arrested in Medicine Hat, Alberta. for allegedly breaching her bail conditions. Lich is presently on bail after being charged with mischief, counselling mischief, and other charges related to the convoy protests in Ottawa in January and February of this year.
True North’s Elie Cantin-Nantel asked Canadians who attended the Canada Day freedom celebrations in Ottawa their thoughts on Lich’s arrest.
Renowned Canadian author and psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is refusing to back down after being temporarily suspended on Twitter for tweeting about transgender actor Elliot Page.
On June 28, Twitter claimed the University of Toronto professor violated the site’s “hateful conduct” policy after Peterson referred to Page’s former name prior to transition (Ellen Page) and suggested that a “criminal physician” removed the actor’s breasts. Peterson was responding to an article by the New York Post in which Page was boasting about introducing a trans character on Netflix’s Umbrella Academy.
“I penned an irritated tweet in response to one of the latest happenings on the increasingly heated culture war front,” Peterson told the National Post.
Although the ban on Twitter is temporary, Peterson says he may as well be permanently banned on the platform.
Peterson could gain full access back to his Twitter account 12 hours after he deletes the tweet in question, but the Canadian author says he would “rather die” than delete the tweet.
“There are no rules on Twitter except don’t do what we don’t like today,” he said.
“They are always applied post hoc by algorithms and idiots bent on maintaining their woke superiority.”
According to screenshots posted by Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila Peterson, Twitter claims Peterson’s account violated the platform’s rules on “hateful conduct.”
Users may not “promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,” according to Twitter’s “hateful conduct policy.”
“Twitters a rat-hole, in the final analysis, I have probably contributed to that, while trying to use, understand and master that horrible, toxic platform,” Peterson said.
“If I can’t be let back on because I won’t apologize, I could care less.”
A temporary suspension means Peterson only has access to limited features on Twitter. He can still browse the site and send direct messages to his followers, but he cannot tweet, retweet, follow or like.
675,000 Conservative Party members will be eligible to vote for the new leader in September – more than twice the number of voters in the last leadership election in 2020.
On Thursday, the Conservative Party of Canada released its preliminary list of members. The list will be shared with the candidates to review, and they’ll have until Monday to request members be removed or added to the list.
The preliminary list also gives campaigns the opportunity to reach out to members to try to win their support and change their vote.
“What we have here is really an extraordinary and historic growth of the membership list,” the chair of the party’s Leadership Election Organizing Committee Ian Brodie told CBC News.
“Campaigns have had an extraordinary reach across this country into the lives of Canadians to engage them in this race.”
According to the party, approximately 613,000 members signed up between February and June. In comparison, 269,469 members were eligible to vote in the 2020 leadership race.
The party will not release details on how many members were signed up through individual campaigns, though they say most members signed up online.
According to a True North online survey released in June, 78.5% of Conservative members rank Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre as their first choice for leader.
In total, 6,394 people responded to the web survey which was open at www.tnc.news for two weeks from Jun. 8 to Jun. 22.
Results show that among those who identified as active members, Poilievre had the overwhelming lead on the first ballot with 78.5% of the vote. Poilievre was followed by fellow MP Leslyn Lewis who scored in at 11.8% and then Roman Baber who received 8.7%
0.7% picked Jean Charest on their first ballot, 0.2% picked Scott Aitchison and 0.1% picked Patrick Brown.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown recently told CBC News that he would consider running for re-election in Brampton if it looks like he’s going to lose to Poilievre in September.
“If it looks like Pierre is going to win, I would prefer to continue to serve municipally, rather than being a part of what will be an electoral train wreck of the Conservative Party,” Brown said.
In recent weeks, Brown lost his campaign co-chair Michelle Rempel Garner and his campaign manager Sean Schnell. Further, two of the four Conservative MPs who endorsed Brown switched their support to Poilievre’s campaign.
The Department of Health blamed Canadians’ lack of trust in government on the failure of the Covid Alert app rollout.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, department staff wrote in a report that a majority of Canadians didn’t trust Ottawa to not collect their private information.
“Trust in government is clearly an issue. When asked if they believe the government does not collect their personal information and that it does not allow the Government of Canada to determine their location more than half of survey respondents, 52%, did not believe the government,” the report read.
“In another study Canadians who indicated they had not downloaded the app cited ‘not trusting the privacy of the app or the government’ (34%) and not wanting government to access location data (29%) among the top three reasons for not downloading the app.”
Earlier this month, the federal government announced it would be shutting down its Covid Alert apppermanently two years after it was launched.
While the app was active, only 21% of mobile phone users downloaded the software despite prime minister Justin Trudeau’s marketing efforts.
“Health experts say if enough people sign up this app can help prevent future outbreaks of Covid-19 in Canada,” Trudeau claimed during its launch in Jun. 2020.
“If we can talk about a 50% uptake for example, or more, then it becomes extraordinarily useful.”
Despite the lack of pick up, the federal government faced calls to expand the program in May 2021 after an advisory council suggested that the tracking app could be used for other purposes.
“The Government of Canada has begun to broadly consider how the Covid Alert app could potentially extend beyond a government service to Canadians and the public health systems towards a tool that will also support Canadians and businesses in our economic, social and mental health recovery and restoration,” the advisory council claimed.
Earlier this month, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam admitted to reporters that the app wasn’t being utilized enough and had to be shut down.
“Although the app strictly adhered to privacy principles and was seen by many internal and external key informants as one of its key strengths, Canadians’ privacy concerns and distrust of the government potentially collecting personal or location information through the app was also seen as one of its biggest challenges,” the Department of Health report wrote.
