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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Biased legacy media broadcasts used to justify Emergencies Act

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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It’s becoming clearer that the Liberal government relied on biased legacy media reporting on the Freedom Convoy to justify its overreach to quash demonstrations.

The deputy minister of justice told the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency that television news broadcasts helped lead to invoking the Emergencies Act. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, while testifying before the committee, deputy minister Francois Daigle said what he saw “by watching TV” made it clear that the government had to adopt emergency powers. 

“What I saw by watching TV is that police in Ottawa, for example, because I live in that area and I followed that closely, they had trouble enforcing even municipal bylaws or provincial laws,” said Daigle. 

“Which ones?” asked Senator Claude Carignan. 

“For example the Highway Traffic Act,” said Daigle. 

“And you know that because you saw it on TV?” replied Carignan. 

Daigle did not cite which particular laws the police had trouble enforcing during his entire testimony.

This is not the first instance where faulty and biased legacy media reporting influenced the conduct of the Liberal government towards the convoy. According to an explanatory document tabled in the House of Commons in February, Ottawa cited a misleading CBC News analysis as the rationale behind freezing the bank account of convoy supporters.

The Liberals referenced “the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s February 14, 2022 analysis of the data” of hacked GiveSendGo donors which falsely claimed that most of the donations to the convoy came from the US. Testimonies by other donation platforms and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada officials have disputed this claim showing that a majority of funds donated to the cause originated in Canada.

Ottawa police chiefs and the RCMP commissioner have also all rebuked the Liberal government’s claim that law enforcement requested for the Act to be invoked. 

The most recent was former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly – who was in charge during the Freedom Convoy protests before stepping down.

During a committee hearing in May, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley asked the former police chief if he or anyone else in the police force requested the government to invoke the never-before-used act.

“I did not make that request, and I’m not aware of anybody else in the Ottawa Police Service who did,” replied Sloly.

During the Tuesday committee meeting, Mendicino’s deputy minister Rob Stewart told members that the minister was “misunderstood” when he said the police asked him to invoke emergency powers. 

“The advice we received was to invoke the Emergencies Act,” claimed Mendicino in April. 

Both Mendicino and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated the claim that law enforcement called for the Act on several occasions.

Trust in legacy media plummetted over course of pandemic: survey

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Canadians rank journalists among the least-trusted professions according to a new index published by the public relations firm Edelman.

The 2022 Trust Barometer shows that 61% of people polled said that journalists are “purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” The figure grew by 12% when compared to last year. 

Other groups Canadians felt were trying to mislead them include business leaders (60%) and the government (58%). 

Meanwhile, 71% of Canadians said that they were concerned with “fake news being used as a weapon.” 

Trust in the legacy media has also severely declined over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, 57% of Canadians said they trusted traditional media, down from 71% in 2019. 

A majority of Canadians totalling in at 59% also reported that “people in this country lack the ability to have constructive and civil debates about issues they disagree on.” 

Overall trust in journalists and reporters sat at 50% while only 43% said they trusted government leaders and a meagre 36% had any trust for CEOs.

More people also saw the government and media as a dividing force than a unifying force. 45% said that the government did more to divide society while only 32% said that it was working to unite people. 

As for the media, 44% of people said that the media was working to divide people while only 32% saw it as a unifying force. 

“The second year of the global pandemic has put institutions to the test in unprecedented ways. We have seen an increase in the expectations Canadians have for CEOs to lead on societal issues; persistent societal fears which has led to a lack of economic optimism; and the battle for truth, alongside the rise of disinformation,” wrote Edelman. 

“Rebuilding trust is the key to societal stability, and to restoring the ability for the four institutions to function well and address societal challenges. Business must recognize that its societal role is here to stay. Canadians want more business leadership, not less.”

Trudeau and Singh should be shaking in their boots over Conservative membership numbers

By
Candice Malcolm
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The membership cutoff for the Conservative leadership race came and went last Friday, and the numbers are staggering.

The party has announced that over 600,000 Canadians are now members of the party and eligible to vote in the upcoming leadership race in September. Front-runner Pierre Poilievre’s campaign claims that over half of those – 311,958 – were purchased on his campaign website.

These numbers are unprecedented in Canadian history.

For comparison, 174,404 Canadians voted in the 2020 CPC leadership race.

In the 2017 CPC leadership race, 141,000 Canadians voted.

And, the last time the Liberals held a leadership race – in 2013 when they selected Justin Trudeau – 104,552 Canadians voted. At the time, the media were celebrating Trudeau’s ability to recruit members and giddily invoking “Trudeau-mania.”

On today’s episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by pollster Hamish Marshall to break down the numbers, cut through the media spin and talk about how this is very, very bad news for the Liberal-NDP coalition government.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CANDICE MALCOLM SHOW

Deputy minister claims Mendicino was “misunderstood” about police asking for Emergencies Act

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
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Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s deputy minister says Mendicino was “misunderstood” when he repeatedly said law enforcement requested the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to clamp down on the Freedom Convoy.

“The advice we received was to invoke the Emergencies Act,” Mendicino told the  special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency back in April.

Numerous policing leaders, from the Ottawa police chief to the RCMP commissioner, have denied this.

Public safety deputy minister Rob Stewart told the special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency, the parliamentary committee digging into Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act, that he believed what Mendicino “was trying to express was that law enforcement asked for the tools that were contained in the Emergencies Act.” ” 

Mendicino referenced supposed law enforcement requests for the Emergencies Act in several statements to the media and in the House of Commons going back to February.

Blacklock’s Reporter publisher Holly Doan identified 11 occasions on which Mendicino claimed cabinet was acting on police advice.

“We saw borders shut, we saw Canadians laid off, and we saw our communities and our neighbourhoods in danger. That is the reason why we had to invoke the Emergencies Act, and we did so on the basis of non-partisan, professional advice from law enforcement,” said Mendicino in February.

Mendicino also stated in April that the Emergencies Act was “put forward after police officials told us they needed this special power.”

In May, Mendicino said that “at the recommendation of police, we invoked the Emergencies Act to protect Canadians because keeping Canadians safe will always be this government’s priority.”

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told the special joint committee that while law enforcement had been consulted by the government about invoking the Act, the RCMP did not request it.

“There was never a question of requesting the Emergencies Act,” said Lucki, adding that she was unaware of any police authority that had made the request for the Act.

Ottawa’s interim Police Chief Steve Bell told a parliamentary committee that his department had not made a direct request to the Trudeau government for the Emergencies Act to be invoked. 

“We were involved in conversations with our partners and with the political ministries,” said Bell, adding, “we didn’t make a direct request for the Emergencies Act.”

Former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly also stated that he never requested the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

The special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency was formed on Mar. 3 to investigate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 to crack down on weeks-long Freedom Convoy demonstrations against government COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. 

Mendicino’s office did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

Budget watchdog discredits Liberal plan to cut deficits

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Parliament’s fiscal watchdog says Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s plan to reduce deficits lacks credibility. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Parliamentary Budget Office says Freeland’s prediction that the budget deficit will fall from $113.8 billion to $8.4 billion is not credible. 

“I personally don’t believe it’s credible that there will be that level of spending restraint in the period from 2024 to 2027 given all the expenditures that remain to be implemented by the government over that period of time,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. 

According to Giroux, reducing the ballooning deficit so significantly would require an “austerity plan” even more severe than the response to the 2008 financial crisis. 

“It is a level of growth we have not seen in a long, long time. The reductions would require an austerity plan eclipsing budget cuts that followed the 2008 financial panic,” said Giroux. 

“That would probably be fiscal tightening or expenditure restraint more severe than what we had seen under the Conservative years in the early 2000s, 2010. That’s one point. Also that is not taking into account government priorities announced in the electoral platform last year.”

Giroux also said that the Liberals’ 2021 campaign promises could also cost billions of dollars.

“There is a tremendous amount of spending pressures the government is faced with,” he said. “The demands on the public purse are numerous and they account for significant amounts of money which are not factored into the budget that was tabled in April.”

Giroux’s comments come only a week after he slammed Freeland’s luxury tax pitched in the 2022 budget as being a job killer and costing Canadians $604 million. 

“It is difficult to determine the extent of job losses but it is quite clear that with such a reduction in sales there would certainly be job losses,” said Giroux of the proposed tax on luxury vehicles, boats and jets. 

“Because of the reduction in sales there will undoubtedly be a reduction in sales taxes collected, the extent to which is difficult to estimate because it is a niche market obviously.”


In April, the Liberals unveiled $56 billion in new spending which included $8 billion on defence, a $10 billion housing plan and more.

Airport chaos is Ottawa’s mess says former Air Canada executive

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-
Source: Wikimedia

Air Canada’s former chief operating officer Duncan Dee has placed the blame for Canada’s airport turmoil squarely on the government’s shoulders. 

In a Twitter thread on the chaotic delays plaguing Canadian airports, Dee said airports are not equipped to deal with the Liberal government’s “poor planning.” 

“Airlines are not configured to deal w/ 3-4 hr security & customs delays. That crew that was scheduled to operate your (flight)? They’re out of duty time because the (flight) they operated this morning was held off gate for 2 hrs,” wrote Dee. 

“The Gov may want to minimize the fallout from its poor planning but airlines are not configured to handle 65+ days of delays. There are simply not enough crews, staff, aircraft or empty seats to fix the Gov’s mess.” 

Travellers across Canada have had to deal with cancelled flights, delays, long security lines and airport staff shortages as a result of lingering COVID-19 restrictions.

A viral video by former Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Ryan Whitney highlighted the issues at Toronto Pearson International Airport. 

“I need to get out of this country, out of this airport. This is the worst airport on Earth. I’m telling you, there’s no other airport like this,” said Whitney. “I’m so shocked at this place, it is the biggest disgrace known to man.”

Whitney’s experience prompted a response from Toronto Mayor John Tory who called the situation “unacceptable” on Tuesday.

“The situation at the airport is not acceptable as it presently is. It’s just not acceptable,” said Tory. “This is not just a Toronto problem. (Pearson) is the gateway to all of Canada.”

Numerous air travel organizations have called on the federal government to lift all remaining pandemic related restrictions but to date the Liberals have refused to do so. 

The Canadian Airports Council was the latest organization calling for the government to end the mandates. 

“The aviation community has been a supportive partner of the federal government in facilitating the vaccine mandate for travel since October 2021,” wrote the council. “However, today, all Canadian provinces have removed vaccine restrictions, so there is now a different standard for aviation employees and transportation than for other Canadians.

Patrick Brown loses two Conservative MP endorsements to Pierre Poilievre

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
-

Two Conservative members of parliament have switched their endorsements from Patrick Brown to Pierre Poilievre in the party’s ongoing leadership race.

Dufferin—Caledon MP Kyle Seeback and Flamborough—Glanbrook MP Dan Muys – two of the four MPs who initially endorsed Brown’s campaign, announced Tuesday they are throwing their support behind Poilievre instead.

Seeback was the first to make the switch, tweeting that the party should “unite around Pierre.

“I believe there’s one candidate – one my constituents support – who can unite conservatives & Canadians to become our next PM,” Seeback tweeted.

In a statement to True North, Seeback, who was serving as Brown’s caucus chair, said that “the divisive nature of this campaign is not good for conservatives and it’s time for conservatives to unite.”

Just hours after Seeback’s announcement, Muys, who had been serving as Brown’s Ontario campaign co-chair, announced he would also be changing his endorsement to Poilievre, saying he is “increasingly concerned about the divisiveness.”

In response to the two MPs endorsing Poilievre, Brown campaign spokesperson Chisholm Pothier told True North “(a)n endorsement from anyone and two bucks gets you a cup of coffee and one vote. We just lost two votes, we’ll make them up somewhere else.”

Days after launching his campaign, Brown attacked Poilievre for his support of 2015 Conservative Party promises to restrict the Niqab and establish a hotline for Canadians to report barbaric cultural practices.

This led to a heated exchange between the candidates, with Brown earning criticism from prominent conservatives for attacking the policies of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Brown has also accused Poilieve of supporting Pat King, who he claims was a leader of the Freedom Convoy. Brown also said in a CBC interview that there is a video of Poilievre meeting with King. 

Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte MP Doug Shipley and Calgary Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel Garner remain supporters of Brown’s leadership bid.

Brown, who currently serves as mayor of Brampton, had served as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party from 2015 to 2018. 

As PC leader, Brown changed his position on the carbon tax and the issue of liberal sex-ed. There had also been allegations of rigged nominations, voter fraud and ballot stuffing under his leadership.

An investigation also found that Brown had breached ethics laws.

Conservatives are set to pick a new leader on Sept 10. Following the Jun. 3 membership cutoff, the Brown campaign claimed it sold over 150,000 memberships, while the Poilievre campaign claimed it sold almost 312,000 memberships. 

Baber, Bernier among politicians joining James Topp on Freedom March

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Conservative leadership candidate Roman Baber and PPC leader Maxime Bernier have confirmed that they will be joining Canadian Armed Forces veteran James Topp on his nationwide march to Ottawa in protest of Covid-19 mandates. 

Baber tweeted on Monday that he would be meeting Topp on Jun. 15 before he reaches the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

On Tuesday, Bernier also said that he would be meeting Topp and walking with him on Jun. 30 for the last leg of his journey to Ottawa.

Topp’s 4,293 km march began at the tail end of February in Vancouver around the time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to quash peaceful Freedom Convoy protestors in Ottawa. 

“Everywhere I meet people, I hear their stories and the stories are amounting to an overwhelming amount of individuals suffering due to government overreach,” Topp told True North in March. “I am marching to carry these stories to Ottawa. I want to thank every person who has entrusted me with their story. It increases my resolve more and more each day.”

Legacy media outlets have refused to cover Topp’s historic journey and the CAF veteran has called the blackout a sign of how divisive the industry has become.  

“What we’re finding is pretty much a total corporate media blackout on this endeavour,” he said. “To that end, I would say, you know, folks who want to go out there and start banging the drum and shaming the CBC or CTV, because this is an amazing story of – 100 days in – a group of people who had never met each other before February 20.”

Before beginning the march, Topp was a civilian RCMP employee and a CAF member who lost both jobs because of the federal vaccine mandate. 

Topp has stated that he has spoken to at least 10 MPs from different parties and he hopes to secure a venue to hold a discussion about ending restrictions. Topp’s three priorities are repealing, reinstatement and restitution plus repair. 

The global elites’ attempt to subvert our democracy is in plain view

By
Rupa Subramanya
-

There has been a lot of discussion about global organizations like the World Economic Forum (WEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) recently. It’s clear that both organizations have had an impact on Canadians – whether it’s how our governments handled the pandemic by taking the advice of the Chinese-influenced WHO or the latest radical climate schemes being promoted in Davos which are now forced upon Canadians.

While there are legitimate concerns about these organizations and their impact on Canadian society, these concerns are often dismissed as “conspiracy theories” by the legacy media and ruling elites.

On the premiere episode of the Rupa Subramanya Show, Rupa takes an in-depth look at the WEF and WHO with the Founder and President of the Brownstone Institute, Jeffrey A. Tucker. Rupa believes that the global elites’ attempt to subvert Canadian democracy is fully on and in plain view, but it’s up to our elected leaders to work in Canada’s interests.

BC man becomes one of the first Canadians to receive compensation for Covid-19 vaccine injury

By
Andrew Kozak
-

Ross Wightman from B.C. is one of the first Canadians to receive compensation from the federal government for sustaining injuries after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine shot.

Wightman received the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021 and was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) shortly after. The condition left him partially paralyzed.

Wightman alleges that his symptoms started with severe back pain just 10 days after his first and only shot, and went to the emergency room multiple times. He was admitted when he reported facial tingling.

“I had full facial paralysis. I could blink but I couldn’t smile or show my teeth at all, and had paralysis from the waist down as well: Wightman told the National Post a few days after being admitted.

GBS is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the peripheral nerves. This can lead to weakness, pain, numbness or even partial paralysis.

After spending more than two months in the hospital, Wightman is now recovering at home.

On May 20, 2022, Wightman received a letter from the Canada Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) and posted it on social media. The letter said that the VISP had concluded that his injuries were likely a result from the vaccine and that he was eligible for compensation.

“First and foremost, we would like to offer you our deepest sympathies for your ongoing health struggles. We wish you the strength and support to sustain you during this difficult time and wish to thank you for submitting a claim with the VISP,” the letter reads.

“Following an assessment of your case, it has been determined by our Medical Review Board that there is a probable causal association between the injury(ies) sustained an the vaccination. As such your claim has been approved for compensation.” 

According to Wightman, the process to receive compensation from the government was long but receiving the letter linking his injuries and the vaccine was vindicating.

Four hundred people have filed claims with the VISP between June 1 2021 and November 30 2021. According to the VISP website, Wightman is one of less than five people who have been approved for compensation for injuries sustained from the vaccine. The next public report will be released soon.

The maximum sum a person can receive through the VISP is $284 000. Wightman did not disclose the specific amount he was given, but said he did not qualify for the maximum amount. He told CTV News that he is eligible for income replacement of up to $90 000 per year.  

Wightman says his recovery process has not been linear. “When I was discharged I could walk, assisted, 30, 40 feet and I would be gassed.”

Now he says he “can now go for a slow 40-minute walk,” but as a typically active person, “it’s a far cry from where I was before.”

Canadians have been urged to get vaccinated by public officials throughout the pandemic, as governments across the country issued vaccine passport regimes in order for Canadians to access basic goods and services.

Further, in September 2021, an interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resurfaced where he referred to Canadians who refuse the Covid vaccine as “extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists.”

While some restrictions have been lifted in Canada, many mandates continue to exist. Right now, only those who have been fully vaccinated with a Health Canada-approved vaccine may board a plane or train. The federal government’s travel restrictions have resulted in long delays at Canada’s airports. Despite pressure by business organizations and opposition MPs to lift all remaining restrictions, the government recently extended its travel restrictions until at least June 30.

Exemptions for vaccines are extremely rare and are issued on a case-by-case basis by the airline under certain circumstances such as sincere religious belief or medical inability to get vaccinated.

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