After Justin Trudeau’s dreadful online censorship bills thankfully died because Trudeau called an election in the Fall of 2021, they’re back and they’re worse than before. The Trudeau government has reintroduced its latest online censorship legislation – Bills C-11 and C-18.
Under Trudeau’s new censorship regime, big tech platforms will be forced to promote government-defined Canadian content and to pay news outlets for articles that are shared on online platforms.
On today’s episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Rebel News boss Ezra Levant joins Candice to discuss what Trudeau’s online censorship legislation means for Canadians and why Trudeau is determined to censor the internet.
The Trudeau government invested $20 million dollars of taxpayers’ money in a COVID-19 testing system that didn’t work and was never delivered to Canadians.
Since discovering that the company went bankrupt and is being liquidated, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has written off the amount as a loss.
“The company went through insolvency proceedings and is now being liquidated,” wrote PHAC. “By law, once a person or a company is in the insolvency process, no one can sue or attempt any other form of recovery. No litigation is allowed and all procedures go through the Trustee and is a public process.”
In 2020, the Trudeau government jumped to invest millions in Spartan Bioscience, which promised an Ontario-made portable COVID-19 testing cube that allegedly could detect the virus in less than an hour.
Company CEO Dr. Paul Lem was praised by the media and promised the federal government that he could produce 200,000 cubes priced at $8,000 each, plus the $70 cost for each test.
Prior to testing the invention, Health Canada signed a contract in March 2020 with Lem’s company.
However, testing found that the cube failed to catch nearly half of COVID-19 positive cases. Although Health Canada re-approved the product in January 2021, a few months later Spartan Biotech halted production citing technical issues before ultimately declaring bankruptcy.
“The Spartan COVID-19 system encountered numerous performance-related issues since the initial contract was signed in March 2020,” Health Canada spokeswoman Anna Maddison said in a statement. “The company was unable to fulfil the terms of the contract and did not deliver Health Canada-approved COVID-19 tests to the Government of Canada. The total loss is still $20 million.”
Conservative MP and health critic Michael Barrett blasted the investment, accusing the Liberal government of making a panicked purchase using taxpayers’ money.
“Instead of being proactive from the start and using every second available to prepare the best defence against COVID, the Liberal government made a panicked last-minute dash to secure rapid tests, putting millions of taxpayer dollars at risk as a result of their failure to perform proper due diligence,” said Barrett.
“The cost of the Liberal government’s failure is always paid by Canadians, and this is one more example of how Canadians can’t afford more of the same from this NDP-Liberal coalition government.”
Last week it was also revealed that in total, Ottawa lost $106 million on faulty personal protective equipment over the course of the pandemic.
“The Agency is reporting a loss of $105 million due to advanced payments made to suppliers for orders that will not be fulfilled. These cases relate to goods purchased as part of the Agency’s Covid-19 response,” government officials wrote in the House of Commons.
Despite Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership candidate Jean Charest’s allegation that his opponent and perceived frontrunner Pierre Poilievre supported border blockades during the Freedom Convoy, a review of Poilievre’s statements shows no such position.
“I have a competitor by the name of Mr. Poilievre who supported, as you know, the blockade,” Charest told CTV News on Friday. “And if you want to be a leader in this country and a legislator, you can’t make laws and break laws.”
Charest also continued his attack in a recent Global News interview where he stated “everyone knows that Pierre Poilievre supported the blockades.”
Jean Charest has again accused Pierre Poilievre of supporting blockades. Global's Evan Solomon retorts: "He supports the truckers."
"You sound like you drank the kool aid. Everyone knows that Pierre Poilievre supported the blockades. I don't care how much spin you put into it." pic.twitter.com/cEn82JGomt
To assess Charest’s claims, True North reviewed all of Poilievre’s statements and tweets throughout the length of the Freedom Convoy protests. We have found no record of the Ontario MP supporting border blockades or other illegal acts.
Poilievre made his position clear in the House of Commons when he stated that those engaging in blockades should be held personally responsible for their conduct.
“From the very beginning I stated that every single person who acts inappropriately, makes racist comments or engages in unlawfulness or blockades should be personally responsible for their conduct. That is something I would uphold as leader and as prime minister,” Poilievre said on Feb. 20
That same day, when he was asked by a Liberal MP whether he was concerned about the harmful impacts blockades would have, Poilievre answered in the affirmative.
“Am I concerned about the people who have been harmed by blockades? Absolutely. That is why I am so disappointed the Prime Minister caused these blockades in the first place,” said Poilevre.
Poilievre has been extensively quoted by the media disavowing unsavoury and illegal aspects of the protests, saying that he disagrees with anyone engaging in breaking the law.
A few days after the convoy began pouring into Ottawa, Poilievre blasted the legacy media for painting peaceful protesters as extremists by cherry picking the most distasteful elements.
“Whenever you have five or ten thousand people who are part of any group, you’re bound to have a number who have or say unacceptable things and they should be individually responsible for the things they say and do,” Poilievre said on Jan. 27.
“But that doesn’t mean we disparage the thousands of hardworking, law-abiding and peaceful truckers who quite frankly have kept all of you alive for the last two years by filling your grocery shelves with the food that you eat and filling your homes with the products that you rely upon.”
Not long after that interview, Poilievre took to Twitter to further denounce those who engaged in “reprehensible acts,” including “people flying evil confederate or Nazi flags.”
People flying evil confederate or Nazi flags or disrespecting monuments are individually responsible for reprehensible acts.
They do not represent the thousands of lawful truckers who are actually part of the protest and are peacefully championing their livelihoods & freedoms. https://t.co/Km0bQwvg8a
Throughout his supportive comments, Poilievre exclusively singled out the “truckers” or alternatively “peaceful Canadians,” and not those involved in blockades.
“I’m proud of the truckers, and I stand with them. They have reached a breaking point after two years of massive government overreach of a prime minister who insults and degrades anyone who disagrees with his heavy-handed approach,” Poilievre was quoted by the National Post on Feb. 11.
Even as early as Jan. 26, Poilievre told CBC News that his support for the convoy was limited to “peaceful protest by legitimate truckers who simply want to protect their livelihood.”
“We can simultaneously do that while denouncing anyone who promotes extremism,” said Poilievre.
In addition, news reports and social media posts of Poilievre meeting with protesters do not show him attending any blockades, but instead depict the MP standing in front of semi-trucks, handing refreshments to truckers in their cabs and taking selfies with Ottawa residents.
Just talked with hundreds of cheerful, peaceful, salt-of-the-earth, give-you-the-shirt-off-their-back Canadians at the trucker protest.
Former Liberal Party of Canada leader and history professor Michael Ignatieff told a radical climate change conference on Tuesday that Greta Thunberg was a moral bully and that Canadian oil and gas is the key to balancing democracy with environmental concerns.
Ignatieff took the positions during his keynote presentation at a University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) online symposium titled “A Wicked Problem: Individual Freedoms and Climate Change.” On the heels of the latest COVID lockdowns and destructive weather in B.C., the event weighed whether personal freedoms should be restricted for the good of the earth’s climate.
Saying that radical environmentalists including Thunberg see democratic deliberation as an obstacle to their goals, Ignatieff argued that Canadian oil and gas could serve to prevent authoritarianism and economic depression while still providing a responsible path to cleaner energy.
“The only way through in my opinion until the green transition is complete, is to import more oil and gas from democratic providers,” Ignatieff said. “Now, let me bring this home. There are substantial unrealized deposits of natural gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for example. The Quebec government has so far refused to allow these to be developed…some experts have told me that Quebec could supply as much as 20% of Germany’s natural gas requirements within five years”.
“So, what’s Quebec to do? These are political choices, and environmentalists for understandable reasons are opposed. They prefer to see the environmental challenge as trumping any other issue, including support for democracy and Ukraine.”
Ignatieff addressed the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) online symposium titled “A Wicked Problem: Individual Freedoms and Climate Change.”
According to the Kelowna event’s organizer, UBCO economics professor John Janmaat, the talk comes amidst concerns that countries haven’t done enough to stop climate change.
“On April 4, 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the third component of its latest assessment, pointing out that the nations of the world have done far less than promised to reduce climate change,” he stated. “Why? Are the people of the world simply not willing to sacrifice their own freedoms now to reduce the chance of a less livable future?”
Two major weather events in B.C. last year – including both a heat wave (“heat dome”) in June and flooding (“atmospheric rivers”) in November – together led to hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
For many climate activists, the responsibility of climate change for these events is indisputable, with alternate reasons – including lack of proactive infrastructure planning – evidence of “climate denialism.” Despite the fact that catastrophic wildfires and flooding of the Fraser Valley have occurred throughout B.C.’s history, coverage of the events has overwhelmingly leveraged government carbon initiatives.
In December, Global News published a story on the flooding with the headline “1.3 million farm animals dead due to climate change: What can B.C. do to stop the next catastrophe?’” Last week, Liberal environment minister Steven Guilbeault used the heat wave as a reason to oppose Ontario and Alberta cutting taxes on fuel, saying, “climate change is killing people in Canada.”
Environment minister Steven Guilbeault says global crises like the pandemic and the war in Ukraine will eventually go away but “climate change is killing people in Canada.”
He also says he opposes the province’s attempts to cut taxes to reduce the cost of fuel. pic.twitter.com/aJdmUETDNc
One of the UBCO event’s first speakers, author Ed Dolan, had set the stage with a quote by American economist Murray Rothbard, that “air pollution that injures others is aggression pure and simple.” With such an issue, Dolan continued, a cost-benefit analysis has no ethical place, saying it was like considering whether abolishing slavery would affect the price of cotton.
Another speaker, retired UBC professor William Rees, stated there must be “(f)ormal recognition of the end of material growth,” including the “end of consumer lifestyles” and acceptance of population planning. Other necessities included getting rid of private vehicles – “including electronic vehicles” – and downsizing housing.
In the end, Ross argued, we must redefine what it means to have personal freedoms and to accept that “some problems may not be solvable in politically acceptable ways.”
Former B.C. Green Party leader and University of Victoria science professor Andrew Weaver also presented.
“So why should we care about global warming, while assuming we care about intergenerational equity?” he said. “The two big issues that we must be grappling with is – one – widespread species extinction on a scale that’s unparalleled in Earth history…and the second big reason is geopolitical instability.”
Speaking earlier in the day, Ignatieff had offered warnings against those who would use the expedience of emergency to delegitimize democratic opposition, saying “I’m not sure anyone in Canada is certain that emergency powers were necessary to dislodge the truckers up on Parliament Hill.”
“These radical environmentalists all insist that the climate emergency creates a situation analogous to wartime or a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, requiring the use of emergency powers and the suspension of democratic accountability,” he said.
“I think the ‘wicked problem’ is this – the utter impasse that has arisen between those who continue to believe in democratic deliberation with all its infuriating slowness (and in liberal gradualism with all its cautious incrementalism) and those who believe the end is nigh and that those who fail to see it are willfully blind.”
Despite B.C. having the highest carbon taxes in Canada, emissions in the province have climbed 10% since 2015, and have gone up in five of the last seven years.
Trustees with the Waterloo Regional District School Board (WRDSB) have voted down a motion to review whether books on sexuality in K-6 libraries are age-appropriate.
The motion floated by trustee Cindy Watson was rooted in concerns raised by parents that books at local libraries did not meet curriculum guidelines.
“Parents and community members are concerned that the provincial curriculum guidelines may not apply in school libraries and would like more information and reassurance that sexual health curriculum guidelines also apply in school libraries,” said Watson. “I’m hoping that trustees can support this motion to help build understanding and provide clarity for parents and community members that have concerns.”
According to Watson, multiple parents had reached out to her over the phone and by email on this issue.
The motion goes on to note that “there is an appearance of an age discrepancy between the Ministry of Education Curriculum guidelines, Human Development and Sexual Health education, and K-6 guidelines library resources that would further support K-6 students.”
The motion called for the WRDSB to staff to “present a detailed written report to the board of trustees by the end of March 2022, concerning the age discrepancy between the Ministry of Education Curriculum guidelines, Human Development and Sexual Health, and the library resources that would further support K-6 students in WRDSB school libraries and strategies that would ensure that we are in compliance with Ministry curriculum guideline expectations.”
Trustees refused to support the motion, with three voting for it and six voting against. In her opposition, trustee Karen Meissner called the motion “quite harmful.”
“(Age appropriateness is) often used to question the identity of two-spirit or LGBTQ+ people. It’s actually quite harmful, because it suggests that folks that identify as two-spirit or LGBTQ+ themselves are not age-appropriate. This is actually a phase used to undermine the humanity of those folks,” claimed Meissner.
Meanwhile, trustee Mike Ramsay said that his colleagues were painting the concerns as “not valid,” however he voted in favour of the motion.
“What I’m hearing from some of my colleagues is that those concerns aren’t valid. Regardless of how we feel, we have to look at that shared public duty to all of our students,” said Ramsay.
In response to criticisms, Watson assured her fellow trustees that the motion was not meant to target any specific student or group.
I want to assure trustees this has nothing to do with any particular group or any particular child. I can say that with all sincerity,” said Watson.
While visiting Edmonton to promote the 2022 budget on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a shot at Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s decision to curb drug consumption sites in the province due to high crime levels and questions about their effectiveness in reducing drug deaths.
“We as a government have continued to push for safe consumption sites,” Trudeau said. “It’s unfortunate to see Alberta seems to be going in the opposite direction away from a science-based and harm reduction approach.”
“We know that municipal leaders like here in Edmonton are serious about supporting people through this terrible tragedy and backing those decisions on science and data because that’s how we get through this crisis.”
Trudeau also said that he would welcome the city’s application to seek an exemption from federal laws surrounding the possession of hard drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.
Edmonton mayor and former Liberal MP Amarjeet Sohi launched the application process for that exemption on Monday, citing the ongoing opioid epidemic.
“We will welcome their application when it comes into the federal government through the processes. I can highlight that we’re already working with the government of British Columbia on their application on a similar issue, and we’re going to make sure we’re grounded in science, grounded in supporting people,” said Trudeau.
As of 2020, Kenney has moved to close and relocate some supervised drug consumption. He said his decision was based on reports by an independent panel tasked with investigating the issue.
“It underscores the concerns that we have had about the negative impact on people and on communities as a result of at least some of the drug injection sites,” Kenney said of the report in Jan. 2020.
“They’re now more than injections … they’re just illegal drug sites. I think we see pretty much everywhere a marked increase in crime in the area of those sites and social disorder and negative human consequences.”
2021 was the deadliest year in drug deaths for Alberta since the province began to track the issue in 2016. The province saw 1,758 die as a result of drug overdoses.
Edmonton isn’t the only city that has sought an exemption from federal drug possession laws. In 2020, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart applied for a similar exemption.
The city even went so far as to approve of a drug buyers group that distributed free high-grade heroin and cocaine to drug users in front of the Vancouver Police Department.
Buying a house in Canada is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly in major cities. Governments of all levels are throwing money at the problem, but will that actually help Canadians buy a home?
On this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Chris Spoke. Chris is a contributor to the Hub, the founder and CEO of August and the founder of Housing Matters – an advocacy group which aims to advance the cause of land use liberalization in order to solve the urban housing problem.
Candice and Chris discuss the federal budget and the government’s attempt to address the housing situation in Canada, the YIMBY and NIMBY movements and the role of cryptocurrency in the Canadian economy.
Less than two months after invoking the Emergencies Act to end the peaceful trucker convoy protest in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau says he has always supported the right to protest.
Meanwhile, Ontario is threatening to reimpose a mask mandate in the winter, and some politicians are trying to re-mask kids in school. True North’s Andrew Lawton talks about this and more in another live edition of The Andrew Lawton Show.
Also, Conservative leadership candidate Joseph Bourgault joins the show to explain why he wants to be Canada’s next prime minister.
A new federal intelligence report has revealed that criminal gangs have infiltrated municipal governments and are using public-sector benefits to fund their crimes.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) found 31 gangs and other organized crime groups including motorcycle and street gangs had associates working at the city level.
“Thirty-one assessed organized crime groups have access via employment within Canadian public sector agencies or departments,” read a Public Report On Organized Crime In Canada. “Of these 26 percent are mafia groups, ten percent are outlaw motorcycle gangs and six percent are street gangs.”
CISC said it has reason to believe that taxpayer-funded public sector benefits are being funneled into domestic and international criminal activity such as drug and firearm trafficking.
“While infiltration of the public sector seems to occur mostly at the local or regional level organized crime groups may be using the benefits for interprovincial or international criminal activities,” wrote the CISC. “Familial or romantic relationships and monetary benefits appear to be the principal factors motivating corruption and infiltration in the public sector in Canada.”
Additionally, police tallied 71 gangs that have heavily targeted construction companies to be able to “obtain government contracts.” This is on top of 25 other organized crime groups that “are linked to professional, scientific and technical services businesses which could be used for obtaining contracts with the public sector or acquiring sensitive information.”
“Very few organized crime groups are reported to be involved in, or have attempted, some degree of public sector infiltration,” read the report. “This represents a significant intelligence gap and the actual proportion is likely higher as the involvement of almost two thirds of the assessed organized crime groups in this sector is unknown. Of those who are, some have ties with municipalities through associates or personal relations within major Canadian cities.”
Citing growing rates of gun violence, the Trudeau government banned over 1,500 different guns from being owned by law-abiding Canadians in 2020.
Critics including Canadian Coalition of Firearm Rights CEO Rod Giltaca have accused Ottawa of doing nothing to fight gun crime while targeting legal firearm owners.
“Of course, the government’s ban has had no effect on this kind of criminal activity. No serious person would claim it would. Criminals like this aren’t even aware of the government’s ban. In fact, this is the same government that provided reduced sentencing options including repealing mandatory minimums for these types of crimes in bill C22. Fortunately, this bill was not passed because of the 2021 election,” Giltaca told True North.
The RCMP billed taxpayers nearly a quarter-million dollars for buffets at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier while officers cracked down on Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa this February.
An Access to Information and Privacy request obtained by True North reveals that the total costs for breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets in the luxury hotel’s Canadian Room was $234,995.79.
“The enclosed invoice for the lodgement of RCMP officers, other police services and staff at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier totals $234,995.79 and consists of costs pertaining to meals provided in conference rooms used as shelter/down rooms from February 11th to 25th,” the RCMPs National Division of Financial Management told True North. ”At no time did RCMP members stay in accommodations at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier between January 20, 2022 and March 3, 2022.”
Since officers did not use accommodations at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the total bill for their stay in Ottawa is likely much higher.
Lodgement was billed under “events” on the invoice, and dinner buffet services cost up to $12,240. Lunch buffets cost up to $11,340 while the hot breakfast buffet was priced at $9,312.
Records indicate that the RCMP’s use of the luxury hotel began over a week before police moved in on protesters on Feb. 18. Fairmont Chateau Laurier invoices note the RCMP’s arrival as Feb. 10, with a planned departure date of Feb. 27.
Look at them laugh about their plans for violence. Who is this Andrew Nixon of the RCMP? Who is Robin Thibault? Why are they laughing about violence? Are they the ones who committed violence today? pic.twitter.com/QqrAWfKOVx
On Feb. 11, Ontario premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to US President Joe Biden about ending border blockades. Around the same time, a new Integrated Command Centre was created to allow better coordination of law enforcement.
Three days later, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever to quash the Freedom Convoy demonstrations. By Feb. 18, a joint force of federal, provincial and municipal police had established a red zone in Ottawa’s downtown core and had begun to arrest protesters.
Reports from the time show that police began to move out from their headquarters at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier early in the morning, pushing protesters back from the hotel toward Wellington street.
The amount billed to the RCMP for buffets suddenly spiked on Feb. 19 and continued at a higher price until the last available invoice on Feb. 23, suggesting a larger number of diners.
Buffet costs spiked from an average of $4,000 to over $10,000 for the remainder of the stay.
