The federal government has announced it will finally ban Huawei Technologies Co. from Canada’s fifth-generation wireless networks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has dragged his feet on a Huawei ban for some time now, making Canada the only Five Eyes nation not to have prohibited the Chinese company’s participation in the network.
Minister of Innovation François-Philippe Champagne appeared alongside Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino on Thursday to reveal the ban on Huawei and ZTE products and services from Canada’s telecommunications network.
The ban prohibits including products and services from both Chinese-owned companies. Should companies have any components already in use, they are being ordered to remove those products. Telecommunications companies that used these products will not be compensated by the government.
BREAKING: Canada officially bans Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE from Canada's telecommunications infrastructure pic.twitter.com/yUT6gWxHXr
According to the Liberals, the announcement comes after a security examination of Canada’s 5G infrastructure. New legislation will also be tabled to further protect critical infrastructure and strengthen Canada’s telecommunications systems.
“We are announcing our intention to prohibit the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE products and services in Canada’s telecommunications systems. This follows a full review by our security agencies and in consultation with our closest allies,” said Champagne. “We will always protect the safety and security of Canadians and we will take any actions necessary to safeguard our telecommunications infrastructure.”
Several telecommunications companies including Bell and Telus have already committed to not using Huawei hardware in their 5G infrastructure over concerns that Beijing could use the tech as a backdoor to spy on Canadians.
Numerous experts have cited concerns regarding Huawei’s relationship with the Chinese government. As a Chinese company, the corporation is bound by laws passed by Beijing requiring private entities to cooperate with the country’s intelligence operations.
Former CSIS director Ward Elcock is among those who have raised the alarm about the potential threats of allowing Huawei onto Canada’s network.
“The state in China being what it is, even though Huawei is an independent company … [the government] would have the capacity to ask and demand Huawei’s assistance in collecting intelligence,” said Elcock in 2020.
The Trudeau government has announced it worked with airlines to consider requiring “digital identity documents” and biometric data like facial recognition for pre-aircraft boarding requirements.
A May 14 statement published in the Canada Gazette on Regulations Amending the Secure Air Travel Regulations and the Designated Provisions Regulations details how the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness discussed the proposed requirements during an air travel stakeholder exercise.
“In accordance with (Public Safety’s) Forward Regulatory Plan 2021–2023, the need to update the (Secure Air Travel Regulations) to offer more options to travellers and the industry to meet pre-aircraft boarding identity verification requirements through innovation was also considered during the stakeholder consultation exercises,” said the statement.
“This includes digitized identification documents, digital identity documents and biometric travel documents.”
“Biometric travel documents” were defined by Public Safety as “electronic identification documents that use biometric identifiers (such as facial recognition)” among other things.
The government also noted that four unidentified air carriers were planning to implement the “innovative identity management solutions” soon.
“While four air carriers confirmed their intent to implement innovative identity management solutions in the short to medium term, no specific immediate change has been identified for the (Secure Air Travel Regulations),” the statement claimed.
Testing to introduce facial recognition screening into Canada’s airports has been ongoing since as early as 2016.
Last year it was revealed that the Liberal government secretly scanned the faces of millions of unsuspecting travellers at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2016. According to the Globe and Mail, 31 cameras were used to spy on travellers.
The photos were then matched with a 5,000-person data set of prior deportees to find out if anyone was travelling using fake documentation. Up to 20,000 travellers a day had their faces scanned during the exercise.
Concerns have also been raised about the federal government implementing a digital identity program. The Canadian government, Air Canada and two Canadian airlines have signed onto the World Economic Forum’s “Known Traveller Digital Identity” program.
Conservative MP and leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis has recently blasted the program, calling it “incredibly concerning.”
As exclusively reported by True North, in February a federal panel event featuring Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Francis Bilodeau discussed using digital identities to track Canadians for future vaccinations and to find people who have yet to receive their booster shot.
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba, Nina Green is an independent researcher, and Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary.
May 27, 2022 will mark the one year anniversary of a shocking event that changed the course of Canadian history. Last year on May 27th, Chief Rosanne Casimir announced that ground penetrating radar (GPR) had detected the remains of 215 children who had died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) under sinister circumstances. More shocking still, Chief Casimir claimed that children as young as six had been awakened in the middle of the night to secretly bury these children in the apple orchard.
The nation was thrown into a frenzy of self-flagellation. The Prime Minister had the flag lowered – where it stayed for six months – politicians openly wept, orange shirts were worn, monuments of small shoes appeared spontaneously all across Canada, churches were burned and vandalized, condemnations were issued by the Pope and world leaders, and lawyers immediately filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
The world was subsequently told by the media and Indigenous leaders that the human remains in Kamloops represented only a small number of thousands of such burials at former residential schools across Canada, and the federal government committed $321 million to GPR searches for unmarked graves.
Yet strangely, to date no actual proof of human remains has been found anywhere.
Over the course of the past year, hundreds of negative articles were written in which Chief Casimir’s claim that the remains of 215 children had been discovered at Kamloops were accepted as fact. Additional criminal acts were alleged. In the CBC’s Fifth Estate program in January, the school was described as a place of horror where children mysteriously went missing, bodies were seen hanging in barns, children were sexually abused, and burials took place at night.
But is any of this true, and if so, where is the evidence?
It is noteworthy that none of these hundreds of articles referred to the fact that many accomplished people who attended, or taught at, the Kamloops Indian Residential School made no reference to anything dark or evil, much less murderous.
Len Marchand, for example, the first status Indian federal cabinet minister, transferred to KIRS by his own choice in 1949. In his autobiography he explicitly refused to say anything negative about the school, his only complaint being that the potatoes were watery.
Three Indigenous teachers – Joe Stanley Michel, who graduated from KIRS, Benjamin Paul, and Mabel Caron – were on staff in 1962 when the CBC filmed a documentary at the Kamloops school, and none complained of anything untoward, either then or later.
By 1973, half the staff at KIRS was Indigenous, and none of these Indigenous staff members complained of anything untoward at the school, neither then nor later.
It is also noteworthy that none of these hundreds of articles mention any of the positive aspects of life at KIRS, including sports teams, musical and dance groups, picnics, socials, parties, Saturday night dances, and the spacious and comfortable student hostel built in 1962 – all while these alleged secret nighttime burials were taking place.
Nor do any of these articles mention the fact that at that time the school had an impressive outdoor swimming pool, as shown in the photograph at the head of this article. Kamloops was one of at least three British Columbia residential schools with swimming pools. According to an announcement in the Indian Record in June 1959, the Kamloops pool was one hundred feet long, and was thus at least as large as the Centennial Pool built for the residents of Kamloops in 1958.
Sports teams, parties, and swimming pools don’t support the narrative about residential schools that today fills print and social media spaces – namely that these schools were places of horror where children were starved, abused, murdered, and secretly buried.
That is in large part because historical documents portraying the positive side of residential school life have been largely suppressed.
The most revealing of these documents are the chronicles kept by the orders of Sisters who taught, nursed, and cared for the children, and the codices of the Oblate priests who administered the schools and were largely responsible for preserving Indigenous languages in Canada. These historical documents do not support the story of misery, abuse, neglect and murder now almost exclusively told, and for that reason have been suppressed and treated as though they do not exist, even though the National Centre for Truth and Reconiliation (NCTR) has had almost all of them in its possession for years.
Similarly, photographs of children at residential schools do not support the narrative of misery, abuse, neglect and murder. Most of these old photographs show children who look happy, healthy and well nourished, and often depict them enjoying a variety of indoor and outdoor activities.
The Sisters’ chronicles and the old photographs produce cognitive dissonance – how could such allegedly abused, neglected and malnourished children appear to be so healthy and happy?
When looking at these old photographs, and in particular the photograph of the Kamloops swimming pool, Canadians might want to reflect on the stories they have been told about the horrors of residential schools and ask themselves whether they have been told the truth.
That brings us back to the question of whether the May 27,2021 announcement by Chief Casimir that the remains of 215 children had been found at Kamloops is true.
There is a way to find out, and Chief Manny Jules promised it would be done. On the CBC’s Fifth Estate program in January Chief Manny Jules promised that the alleged burial site in the old apple orchard in Kamloops would be excavated. That promise has not been kept, and until that promise is kept, and excavation takes place, it cannot be said that the human remains of 215 children were actually found last May.
In fact, there is no evidence to support the claim that children secretly died or were killed and buried in the old apple orchard. There are no names associated with these allegedly missing children, no lists of children who had gone missing or unaccounted for, no parents or relatives who claim that their child was among the 215.
Who are the 215 children allegedly buried there? No one has the slightest idea.
Not one of the many Indian Bands who sent children to the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, including the Kamloops Band itself, has ever come forward with the name of a single child who allegedly went to the school and never returned, and for whom the Band has been looking ever since. Not one.
There is thus absolutely no evidence of any child who attended KIRS from any Band in BC actually having gone missing, much less that any child was murdered and secretly buried in the apple orchard by six year olds. That tale appears to be the figment of overactive imaginations.
There is one way to solve this perplexing issue once and for all. An excavation, as Chief Manny Jules promised. Excavation would bring clarity to the situation, it would help bring closure to First Nations people grieving and struggling with the situation, and it could help our country heal.
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge of the Provincial Court of Manitoba, Nina Green is an independent researcher, and Tom Flanagan is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary.
After receiving only a narrow majority in the United Conservative Party leadership review vote, Alberta premier and UCP leader Jason Kenney has announced he will be stepping down. Former Wildrose leaders Brian Jean and Danielle Smith have both said they intend to seek the UCP leadership. Do you think Kenney deserved to go, or was this an overcorrection to Covid frustrations? Also, Ontarians are going to the polls on June 2: Ontario Party leader Derek Sloan joins True North’s Andrew Lawton live for a conversation about his campaign to replace Doug Ford as Premier of Ontario.
As mandatory vaccination policies continue to face legal challenges and union arbitration across Canada, a recent compilation of decisions shows it’s not looking good for workers forced off the job over Covid shots.
An article published by the labour law firm Mathews Dinsdale titled “Recent COVID-19 Vaccination Policy Decisions” looked at a number of rulings through March and April – none of which came out on the side of the employees. Many also saw arbitrators ruling against rapid testing as an alternative to vaccination, questioning the tests’ effectiveness against detecting Covid rather than the vaccines’ ability to prevent its spread.
“For now, it is clear the loosening of restrictions has not swayed arbitrators’ thinking that COVID-19 is still a large enough threat to the workplace to warrant mandatory vaccination policies,” the report reads.
The decisions came from arbitration hearings in Ontario and British Columbia, and involved private companies, public authorities and both national and provincial unions.
In a Mar. 17 ruling against Unifor, local 973, an arbitrator in Ontario upheld a vaccine mandate announced by Coca-Cola at its Brampton bottling plant in October, emphasizing the indoor location and close-quarters nature of the job and ruling it reasonable that noncompliant employees be placed on unpaid leave.
While rapid testing was allowed during January for employees without two shots, the option ended on Feb. 1. The arbitrator noted that the combined testing/vaccination regime had not prevented large-scale Covid infections, but attributed the failure of safety precautions to the reliability of testing rather than the vaccines themselves.
Another Ontario decision on Mar. 22 saw an arbitrator side with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) against employees represented by CUPE, Local 4400. The vaccination policy – which required all employees with direct contact with students and staff at TDSB buildings to have two shots by Nov. 1 – was rescinded only three days before the ruling.
As with the previous decision, the arbitrator ruled that rapid testing did not provide the same level of protection as vaccines against Omicron strain of COVID and that vaccination was “a reasonable rule and appropriate condition of employment.”
In B.C. on Mar. 21, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 258 failed to defend employees forced off of work due to a vaccine mandate imposed by BC Hydro in November.
With the exception of a portion of the policy involving employee discipline, an arbitrator ruled that the vaccination policy was reasonable, especially considering some of the travel and close-quarter work involved. While recognizing Covid shots as a “significant intrusion on the interests of employees,” the arbitrator also ruled out rapid testing over their decreasing effectiveness during Omicron.
On Apr. 4., Extendicare Lynde Creek Retirement Residence in Ontario won in arbitration against employees represented by United Food & Commercial Workers, Local 175. The ruling found that the vaccination policy – including the need for any boosters recommended by Health Canada – was consistent with the collective agreement, relevant health legislation and other authorities.
The arbitrator found the policy still reasonable despite the province reducing or eliminating measures including vaccination in long-term care and other health settings. He also found it reasonable whether or not the employer decided to conduct testing in the future.
Maple Leaf Foods, which brought in a vaccination policy for all on-site employees and contractors at the end of March, was found to have done so in a way “reasonable and enforceable” by an arbitrator on April 10. As with the Coca-Cola and BC Hydro decisions, the arbitrator noted the close quarters of the work.
He also ruled that previous safety measures – including rapid testing – would not have compensated for the absence of the vaccination requirement, and that the policy remained reasonable even with the province’s declining emphasis on Covid restrictions.
Another decision in B.C. included an arbitrator on Apr. 4. upholding Fraser Health Authority’s firing of a healthcare worker represented by the BC General Employees’ Union. Although the worker was recognized to have an “unblemished disciplinary record,” the decision recognized that the health order including the vaccine mandate had no end-date, and that the grievor had said she did not intend to become vaccinated in the future.
The arbitrator ruled that termination was the only reasonable solution, saying there was “no path forward.”
The survey of decisions concludes by recognizing that “circumstances surrounding the pandemic are constantly changing, and therefore the reasonableness of measures can also change,” but also that arbitrators seem to be ruling out testing over vaccination.
Legal action nonetheless continues against the federal and provincial governments over the lawfulness of various Covid restrictions. In B.C., a lawyer is also representing over 200 union members against the unions they say failed to defend them against the vaccine mandates that forced them off the job.
Despite narrowly winning the United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership review with 51.4% of the vote, Jason Kenney has announced he will step down as leader and premier when the party selects a new leader in the coming weeks.
The UCP received thousands of ballots from members tasked with determining the premier’s political future.
Vote counting took place on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and lasted until 6 p.m. MT. The accounting firm Deloitte was hired by the party to oversee the ballot count and audit the results.
The party reported 34,298 votes cast. Kenney won the race with 17,638 (51.4%) of members voting to have him stay on. This compares to 16,660 (48.6%) of members who voted to have him removed from the top post.
After the results were announced Kenney gave a speech to supporters, saying the result was not what he hoped for or expected and that he was stepping down as UCP leader.
“While 51% of the vote passes the constitutional threshold of a majority, it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader,” Kenney said. “That is why tonight I’ve informed the president of the party of my intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party.”
“…(A) large number of our members have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election,” Kenney continued. “And I’ve recommended therefore that the provincial board schedule a leadership election in a timely fashion.”
“It’s clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province…It is my fervent hope that in the months to come we all move on past the division of Covid.”
“We continue to get the job done as a team. But clearly, a large number of our members want to clear the air with a leadership election. And I fully respect their decision. And I encourage all members to do the same. While we have our internal differences, we must remember to remember the shared values that unite us as conservatives and we must always remember the promise of Alberta – this great land of opportunity where dreams come true and anyone can achieve their God-given potential.”
Recently elected MLA and opponent of Kenney Brian Jean had called for Kenney to receive more than the required 50% plus one to maintain the confidence of the party membership.
Kenney had addressed the issue of voter percentage while in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
“People who are saying (I have) to get, say, 90 per cent or something really aren’t appreciating the different context of this,” said Kenney. “I don’t expect many of those people to stick around. They came into this vote to destabilize the government, and that cohort typically has never before been involved in a mainstream centre-right party.”
One president of a UCP constituency said prior to the vote that he would not believe the results no matter the outcome.
“We will not believe that result. We will not accept it, but we won’t even believe it, because our own polling here within our constituency is 72 percent against Premier Kenney,” said Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills president Rob Smith. “The results of tomorrow don’t matter. Our minds are made up, and I am sorry, but they don’t involve you.”
Albertans are slated to head to the polls for the 31st provincial election on May 29, 2023.
Polls have indicated that the Alberta NDP have a lead over the UCP. According to a Leger poll from Mar. 19, the Alberta NDP were leading with 44% of the vote, while the UCP sat at 35%.
Despite claims from the Trudeau government that law enforcement desperately needed the government to invoke the Emergencies Act to quash the peaceful Freedom Convoy, the RCMP and Ottawa Police Service have indicated otherwise. Both Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki confirmed that they never requested the feds to invoke the never-before-used act.
True North’s Andrew Lawton says if the police didn’t ask for the Emergencies Act, maybe it wasn’t a last resort like the government claimed. Author at C2C Journal, Peter Shawn Taylor, joins the show to discuss how Canada’s banks betrayed their customers by following the government’s directive.
Plus, Andrew discusses his upcoming trip to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week.
And Colin Craig from www.secondstreet.org joins the show to discuss their latest initiative – Survivors of Socialism.
Crown lawyers want to see Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich sent back to jail for accepting an award from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
Lich is scheduled to receive the organization’s George Jonas Freedom Award on Jun. 16, but Ottawa prosecutors are arguing that doing so is a breach of her bail conditions.
Lich was jailed after being arrested by police while helping to lead the Ottawa Freedom Convoy protest in February. She then spent 18 days in custody over charges including mischief, obstructing a peace officer and others related to her time leading the demonstrations.
Her bail was initially denied on Feb. 22, but a bail review on Mar. 7 saw a different judge overturn that decision, saying “the bail justice used subjective considerations, not an objective comparison…. This is an error in law (and it’s) not minor.”
Lich was then released under conditions involving supervision.
However, lawyers representing the federal government are now saying that the judge who granted bail made several errors of law of his own. They have filed an application to have his decision to release Lich overturned.
If the application is approved, Lich would be sent back into prison until her trial.
The lawyers are also arguing that Lich breached conditions set by the court “not to verbally, in writing, financially, or by any other means, support anything related to the Freedom Convoy.”
“Tamara Lich has continued her support of the Convoy cause with the assistance of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms,” the application claims.
Federal prosecutors also pointed to an alleged “collaborative and representative” relationship between the JCCF and Lich.
The JCCF – a legal advocacy organization and registered charity – is involved in several legal challenges to federal and provincial Covid mandates and restrictions.
A judge is set to hear the application in Ottawa on Thursday and Friday. According to bail conditions, Lich is barred from entering Ontario other than for trial appearances and must reside in Alberta.
Lich is also expected to ask the judge to alter her bail conditions related to social media use and travel.
Life in Canada is more expensive than ever – inflation is at a 31-year high, gas prices are out of control and the cost of goods and services continues to increase. As it looks more likely Canada is heading into a recession, it doesn’t seem like our politicians care as they continue to spend on frivolous and expensive programs and refuse to reduce spending or taxes.
On this episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Michael Campbell, the host of Mike’s Money Talks podcast to discuss Canada’s precarious economic situation.
Candice and Mike discuss the root causes of Canada’s sky-high prices, the fact that almost half of Canadians are $200 away from insolvency and what Canadians can do to hunker down and make smart financial decisions.
US tech giant Google has blasted the Trudeau government over a federal plan to regulate online news, calling it a sweeping attempt to impose government control over the web.
Vice President and Managing Director of Google Canada Sabrina Geremia warned in a lengthy post on Monday that Bill C-18 – also known as the Online News Act – would give the federal government “sweeping new powers” to regulate news content.
“The bill gives the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) unprecedented, sweeping new powers to regulate every aspect of the Canadian news industry,” wrote Geremia.
“The CRTC would be responsible for determining who is a journalist, what is an eligible news business, and how much money will be directed to each entity — decisions far outside its expertise as a broadcast regulator.”
Google isn’t the only company that has gone on record to slam the Trudeau government’s plans to regulate online news. Meta (formerly known as Facebook) and Twitter have also called the legislation flawed.
Bill C-18 would, for example, require platforms to pay for news links. The CRTC would enforce mandatory bargaining, oversee conduct of parties involved and penalize those who don’t comply with the rules.
Meta recently threatened to block access to news in Canada on Facebook should the government go through with its plans.
“The short answer is, we’re still evaluating that legislation,” Meta’s Public Policy Manager for Canada Rachel Curran told parliamentarians in April. “We didn’t know the scope of it until it was tabled very recently. I will say we do have some pretty serious concerns.”
“I can’t comment definitively on our future action with respect to that bill. I would say we’re still looking at all of the options based on our evaluation of the legislation.”
In response to similar laws introduced by Australia last year, Meta shut down access to news content on Facebook. The move forced the Australian government to renegotiate certain parts of its internet regulation regime. Canada has cited Australia’s legislation as a basis on which its own proposed laws were founded on.
Geremia also went on to say that the Online News Act would “break Google search,” calling the bill a “link tax” that is not grounded in the reality of how the internet works and indexes content.
“The Online News Act would change this, requiring companies like Google to pay news businesses simply so that we can help you find what you’re looking for,” writes Geremia. “Canadians expect that when they search for information, they will have access to ALL the content the internet has to offer. Requiring payment for links risks limiting Canadians’ access to the information they depend on.”
Additionally, Geremia cited how the law would “create a lower standard for journalism in Canada” and could even open up subsidizing foreign news outlets known to spread propaganda and misinformation.
