B.C. premier John Horgan all insults toward Victoria protests

Harley Sims
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B.C. premier John Horgan all insults toward Victoria protests

A major convoy protest planned for Victoria failed to materialize on Monday, but not without NDP Premier John Horgan letting British Columbians know what he thought of people protesting his government’s ongoing COVID restrictions.

“If people want to drive around and honk their horns, then fill your boots,” said Horgan on Friday. “And at $2.00 a litre (for gas) that’s not only bad judgment, that’s stupidity.”

“Turn on your television and look at what’s happening in Ukraine right now, go on the internet and do some research on the profound impacts of inequality in our societies around the world and then maybe you have something to get excited about.”

Last week, B.C. became the last province to announce it would relax pandemic restrictions, including dropping masks on Friday and vaccine passports by April 8, the latter going ahead “assuming conditions continue to improve.” Before this, the provisional deadline for the passports had been June 30.

Even so, Dr. Bonnie Henry hinted restrictions were likely to return in the fall.

B.C. also continues to terminate government workers who were forced onto unpaid leave last fall after refusing to comply with vaccine mandates, even as other provinces including Alberta and Nova Scotia are welcoming unvaccinated workers back.

The lawn of B.C.’s legislature has hosted protests against pandemic restrictions for weekends on end, including one on Jan. 29 that saw former Newfoundland premier and Charter of Rights signatory Brian Peckford speak out against vaccine mandates and travel bans.

Word began to circulate two weeks ago that another large-scale convoy protest – dubbed Bearhug B.C. – was headed for Victoria after Canada Unity organizer James Bauder posted a video calling on the freedom convoy’s western fleet to converge on B.C.’s capital.

“Canada, we really do have to support B.C. right now,” Bauder had said on Mar. 3. “It’s one of the hardest-hit provinces.”

Bauder had called on western truckers and other protesters to return from Ontario, passing through a number of cities before arriving in Victoria on Mar. 14. Envisioning several hundred trucks performing multiple “rolling convoys” over two to three months, Bauder nonetheless insisted that “everything that we’re going to do is going to be 100% legal.”

“We will not be doing any blockades,” he said. “We will not be doing any occupying movements or anything like that.”

B.C. government, Victoria police and other officials had nonetheless prepared for major demonstrations on Monday, including reported discussions involving B.C. Ferries to potentially prevent demonstrators from crossing to Vancouver Island.  

Speaking to media before the weekend, Premier Horgan said that if people wanted to come to Victoria to protest health measures by honking their horns, “then I feel really sad for you.”

Horgan said that demonstrators got more attention than they deserved, adding that 94% of adults in B.C. were vaccinated (in Jan. 2021, Henry had announced that a target vaccination threshold for COVID-19 herd immunity was around 70%).

He confirmed he would continue to wear his own mask in public, being immunocompromised and having recently undergone the last of 35 radiation sessions following surgery for throat cancer.

Speaking to Global News on Monday about the anticipated Victoria convoy, NDP MP and former Victoria city councillor Laurel Collins said that demonstrations in Ottawa had been neither legal nor acceptable.

“You know, there was attempted arson,” she said. “Citizens in Ottawa were subjected to noise at all hours of the night. People were harassed on the streets. This was not a peaceful demonstration. It was an occupation. And, you know, the organizers, many who had connections to far right extremism, were very clear in the lead-up that they actually wanted to overthrow the government.”

Despite Collins’s claims, the “attempted arson” was blamed on the truckers without any evidence, while at least one resident reported “(t)here is no honking at night” (nor at all after the Feb. 8 injunction).

Collins maintained that the way to get out of the pandemic was to “continue to follow public health advice” adding that developing countries’ low access to vaccines was “why we continue to see variants arise.”

Victoria was relatively quiet on Monday afternoon, with Lower Mainland media reporting that Bearhug B.C. had possibly redirected its efforts in the wake of the province’s loosened restrictions.

Liberals want Canada to be a leader in “lab meat” production

Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Liberals want Canada to be a leader in “lab meat” production

During a Commons industry committee meeting, Liberal MPs lamented the fact that Canada was not a leader in producing alternative sources of protein like “lab meat” or insects.

On Mar. 4, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne was testifying before parliamentarians on his mandate letter when the discussion turned toward climate change and the purported threat to global temperatures caused by the agricultural sector.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith referred to a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), asking whether the federal government would invest in the technology.

“Lab or ‘clean meat’ is one potential contributor to the human demand for protein in the future. That’s obviously a high-risk, high-reward initiative. It’s one that the U.S., Singapore and Israel are all pursuing. Canada is not, unfortunately, at the moment. Entrepreneurs are leaving the space in Canada, unfortunately. I wonder if you would turn your mind to high-risk, high-reward research via the net-zero accelerator?” said Erskine-Smith.

“Totally, and I appreciate the question. I’d like to be invited back to the committee to discuss that more. I’m seeing people nodding, so it may happen,” replied Champagne. “I agree with you. We should be a leader in forestry tech, biotech, clean tech, fin tech, and ag tech. I totally agree with you and your colleague that we need to do more.”

On Feb. 28, the IPCC released its sixth assessment report, titled Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. One chapter of the report addresses “alternative sources of protein for food and feed.”

“Laboratory or “clean meat” is one potential contributor to the human demand for protein in the future,” wrote the IPCC. “Livestock feeds can make use of other protein sources: insects are generally rich in protein and can be a significant source of vitamins and minerals. Black soldier fly, yellow mealworm and the common housefly have been identified for potential use in feed products in the EU.”

Hardline environmentalists have been advocating to replace meat with alternatives such as artificial products, insects and algae for some time now as a way to reduce carbon emissions produced by the agricultural sector.

In 2013, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization released a report saying that the world should drop their prejudices and get ready to start consuming bugs.

“Common prejudice against eating insects is not justified from a nutritional point of view. Insects are not inferior to other protein sources such as fish, chicken and beef,” the report’s authors wrote.

This article’s headline and opening paragraph were corrected on Mar. 15. An earlier version suggested that “lab meat” was derived from insect-based protein. The two are separate products.

LEVY: With masking, it’s time to leave those kids alone

Sue-Ann Levy
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Even after two years of lockdowns, social distancing, masking, border closures, travel restrictions and other draconian measures, there are still some activist teachers, doctors and healthcare professionals who are not prepared to let COVID go. 

Nothing has been more absurd than their reaction to the lifting of the mask mandates as of March 21 in Ontario. For the activists, letting go of their mask appears to be akin to giving up the pacifier or security blanket many had as a child.

You’d think they would have had enough of being forced to wear a cloth face-diaper that has been shown to have minimal efficacy when it comes to protecting the wearer from COVID. One wonders if their curious obsession with masks is rooted in fear, or after two years, they’ve simply become addicted to being told what to do.

In the case of activist doctors, I suspect they see their power and control slipping away as we put COVID behind us. Now that the pandemic is essentially over, they might actually have to go back to ministering to the sick rather than telling us all how to live our lives.

The same goes for some Ontario school boards, who have openly vowed to keep masks in place despite the Ford government dropping them.

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustees – forever driven by their loyalty to teachers unions – spent six (yes, six!) hours debating the mask mandate last Thursday evening before determining that maskless faces would tentatively be accepted when children return to school after March break…unless, they added, the Chief Medical Officer of Health gives them additional time.

No doubt they put in that caveat in a desperate attempt to appease the activist teachers and lefty parents who flooded social media just before March break last week, all of whom clutched their pearls in horror over the impending end to the diapering of all faces.

Lefty TDSB teacher Peter Hasek – who appears on Twitter with purple hair and the pronouns he, they – is under review by the TDSB for actually threatening to segregate unmasked students.

Others fans of the mask mandate sounded petulant.

You have to wonder how many of these shrieking teachers have jetted off for March break to some sunny clime where masks are non-existent.

Meanwhile, the woke trustees at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board voted last week to defy the provincial edict and to keep the mask mandate in their schools until Apr. 15. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will hold a special meeting Monday night to discuss extending  their mask mandate as well.

It will be interesting to see what happens the first few days back at school in Ontario.

Make no mistake. It is anyone’s right to continue to wear masks after Mar. 21, just as it’s their right to shed those face diapers altogether. No one is making them take them off.

I fully recognize that the immunocompromised may still want protection, as will those in long-term care and retirement settings where so many COVID deaths occurred. But forcing young students to continue to wear masks after two long years is indicative of the political self-interest of activist teachers, teachers unions and other woke educators.

It should come as no surprise either that the activist teachers aren’t doing this for their students.

They only care about themselves.

Jean Charest says he can unite Conservatives and win a national majority

Andrew Lawton
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Jean Charest says he can unite Conservatives and win a national majority

Former federal Progressive Conservative leader and Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest is seeking the Conservative Party of Canada leadership. Charest says the Conservative party is where he belongs, touting a record of cutting taxes and defending federalism. In this interview with True North’s Andrew Lawton, Charest addresses his work with Huawei, carbon taxes, firearms ownership, and what a winning electoral strategy for the Conservatives looks like.

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Taxpayer group debuts new debt clock after old one runs out of digits

Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Taxpayer group debuts new debt clock after old one runs out of digits

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has launched a nationwide tour of its new debt clock to raise awareness about Canada’s ballooning $1.1 trillion national debt.

The CTF’s debt clock has been making its way across Canada since the 1990s. Last year, however, the organization had to retire the original clock when it ran out of digits, which topped out at $999,999,999,999.99.

Beginning on Monday, a new truck will be travelling from coast to coast carrying a digitized clock that shows how quickly the trillion-dollar debt is rising in real time. 

“It’s hard for most of us to imagine a trillion-dollar debt, but we know what it’s like to watch a bill going up in real-time and that’s exactly what the Debt Clock shows Canadians,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano. “Canada’s national debt is already more than $1 trillion in debt, and it’s going up by almost $400 million every day.”

According to Terrazzano, if a Canadian were to make a two-minute YouTube video, the national debt would have already gone up by nearly $500,000. 

The first stop was in Victoria, where CTF British Columbia Director Kris Sims blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government for burdening the country with ponderous amounts of new debt. 

“It’s time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rein in his massive borrowing and give taxpayers a plan to balance the budget,” said Sims. “A balanced budget means less debt for Canadian kids and grandkids to pay back, less money wasted on interest charges and fewer tax hikes.”

In Jan. 2021, each Canadian’s share of the federal debt surpassed $24,000 for the first time ever. As of Monday, the CTF’s debt clock put “your share” of the debt at close to $31,000.

The federal Conservatives have blasted Trudeau for his handling of the Canadian economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During an exclusive interview with True North fellow Andrew Lawton, Conservative MP and leadership contestant Pierre Poilievre stated that government overspending was behind the rising cost of living crisis.

“The cost of government is driving up the cost of living. When governments overspend then they have to overtax, and that drives up the cost of everything,” said Poilievre. 

According to data published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the federal government isn’t projected to balance its budget until 2070. 

Even before the arrival of the pandemic in early 2020, federal spending under the Trudeau government was at an all-time high.

Modern leftist feminism is making everyone miserable

Candice Malcolm
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Modern leftist feminism is making everyone miserable

Modern leftist feminism is one of the most perverse and harmful forces in our society. It tells men that they are “toxic” and need to be more like women, meanwhile, it tells women to be liberated and act more like men.

The result? Both men and women – but especially women – are self-reportedly more miserable and less fulfilled than at any previous time, according to comprehensive meta data studies.

On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by one of Canada’s leading public intellectuals, retired professor Janice Fiamengo. They discuss the many, many problems with modern leftist feminism and discuss alternative advice and guidance for young people.

They also talk about the strange phenomenon of women’s college swimming superstar Lia Thomas, who has shattered pool records this year. Lia, as you may know, has the distinct advantages of being a biological male. Dr. Fiamengo clearly explains how we got to this bizarre place in our society.

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Taxpayers footing hotel bills for illegal Roxham Road crossers

Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Taxpayers footing hotel bills for illegal Roxham Road crossers

Canadians are now literally paying the price for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s open border policy, with taxpayers being forced to cover the hotel quarantine stays of unvaccinated border crossers who enter Canada illegally via Roxham Road.

According to Deputy Minister of Citizenship and immigration Catrina Tapley, migrants and asylum claimants who are unvaccinated and have no quarantine plan will be housed free of charge by the government in designated rooms.

Tapley revealed the Liberal government’s policy during a Commons immigration committee meeting on Mar. 3, 2022.

“First of all, those who are vaccinated or who have a clear plan for quarantine are processed and are on their way. For those who are not vaccinated and do not have a quarantine plan, we have rooms in hotels, where we place them until their quarantine period is complete and they are able to move into other social housing systems,” said Tapley. “No, we don’t charge people for the time in the hotel.”

“To clarify, because I’m also out of time, the Government of Canada is paying for hotel rooms for pending asylum claimants who are unvaccinated?” asked Conservative MP Garnett Genuis.

“You are correct,” responded Tapley.

The quarantine period for unvaccinated travellers authorized to enter Canada is currently 14 days.

As exclusively reported by True North in December, the Canadian Border Services Agency confirmed that unvaccinated illegal border crossers were being allowed through the unauthorized border crossing after Trudeau reopened Roxham Road on Nov. 22, 2021.

Although unvaccinated migrants can cross into Canada freely, Canadian citizens who are unvaccinated cannot board a plane or train to travel domestically or internationally.

In Dec. 2021, 2,800 illegal border crossers entered the country via the controversial border crossing. In comparison, Roxham Road only saw 96 people cross illegally in Oct. 2021, before Trudeau made the announcement that the border was open again.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet has also blasted the Trudeau government for failing to lift visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees while allowing illegal border crossers to enter Canada without a visa.

“The government must recognize that Ukrainians seeking security do not have months to lose. It is urgent to take action,” Blanchet told the House of Commons on Feb. 28.

Canadian satellite company helping Ukraine fight Russia

Jonathan Bradley
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Canadian satellite builder MDA is providing Ukraine with near real-time satellite imagery to monitor Russian troop movements. 

“We can deliver intelligence reports and people can make determinations of what’s going on the ground, or on the sea, from our radar imagery,” MDA CEO Mike Greenley told Reuters on Tuesday. “It’s all about… doing the right thing and giving Ukraine the support that they need.”

Greenley said that in the SAR images, “you can see groups of vehicles, you can see changes to buildings, you can see changes to bridges, you can see ships at sea through all weather conditions day and night.”

The intelligence is communicated to Ukraine through western-based commercial agencies or governments, according to Greenley. He added that MDA received approval from the Canadian government to share these images with Ukraine on March 4. 

Asked whether he feared Russian retaliation, Greenley said that MDA had adopted a “slightly heightened security posture.”  

Ukraine digital transformation minister Mykhailo Fedorov had made an appeal to the international community on Twitter two weeks ago, asking for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data. 

“We badly need the opportunity to watch the movement of Russian troops, especially at night when our technologies are blind,” said Fedorov in a tweet on March 1. 

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine “a special operation,” claiming it is not designed to occupy territory. 

The move by MDA is the latest in a series of actions taken by Canada and Canadian companies against Russia. These actions range from bans on Russian banking, closure of Canadian airspace to Russian aircraft and the removal of Russian alcohol from the shelves of government-run liquor stores.

Most notably, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on crude oil imports from Russia on Feb. 28. 

“This industry accounts for more than a third of Russia’s federal budget revenues,” said Trudeau. “And while Canada has imported very little amounts in recent years, this measure sends a powerful message.”

Jordan Peterson gives stark warning against critical race theory bill for Ontario

Jonathan Bradley
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Jordan Peterson gives stark warning against critical race theory bill for Ontario

Prominent Canadian psychologist and author Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has voiced total opposition to Bill 67, which would enshrine “racial equity” in Ontario’s education system. 

“A warning to citizens of Ontario and Canada: Bill 67, which purports to be nothing but an ‘anti-racist’ bill, is in fact the most pernicious and dangerous piece of legislation that any Canadian government has attempted to put forward,” said Peterson in a video posted to YouTube on Friday. 

Peterson said that Bill 67 would mandate “the subversion of the entire education system in Ontario K-12 as well as colleges and universities to the radically leftist doctrines known as critical theory.” He described critical race theory as a harmful ideology premised on the belief that all institutions are racist, sexist and discriminatory. 

Peterson said that the bill would lead to “boards of inquisition” in every educational institution, where anyone who violates the tenets of critical theory would be punished. 

The bill was put forward by NDP MPP Laura Mae Lindo, who used to work as the “director of equity and diversity” at Wilfrid Laurier University. 

Lindo was on personal leave when the Lindsay Shepherd affair thrust Laurier into the national spotlight. The university’s diversity and equity office never apologized to Shepherd for the incident, and Lindo claims she never listened to the recording of the incident. 

Peterson said the fact that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives have allowed the bill to move forward “is a woeful indication of both the perniciousness and deviance of the ideas that the legislation contains and evidence of their own stunning and continual inability to see the danger such doctrines present.” 

He called for the PCs to stand up against authoritarian ideologues by voting against the bill. 

“This bill threatens the integrity of all the systems that will educate all the young people in Ontario for decades to come,” he said. “The fact that it is already through second reading is inexcusable.”

Bill 67 passed through second reading on March 3, with New Blue MPP Belinda Karahalios the sole vote against it. 

Ontario Party MPP Rick Nicholls voted for the bill, but he said he regretted it after learning more about critical race theory. 

Nicholls said that the bill’s language “purports to say one thing but means something completely different.”

“The bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it slipped by because people, including myself, are not understanding its true content and intent,” he wrote in an op-ed for True North on Wednesday. 

Study finds Quebec’s harsh COVID restrictions unnecessarily punishing

Elie Cantin-Nantel
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Study finds Quebec’s harsh COVID restrictions unnecessarily punishing

A new study has found that Quebec’s pandemic response, which included some of the harshest restrictions in the Western world, handed out tens of thousands of fines with no discernible effect on COVID transmission rates.

La Presse reported Friday the findings of four researchers from the University of Montreal’s Profiling Observatory (l’Observatoire des profilages), who concluded that “Quebec chose to turn the public health crisis into a public safety crisis.”

The researchers analyzed infractions related to COVID-19 restrictions, including gathering limits, the curfew, mask mandates and vaccine passports.

Quebec authorities gave out 46,563 infractions related to COVID-19 restrictions between Sept. 20, 2020 and Oct. 3, 2021, which averages about 123 per day. 

The number of infractions was highest in the spring and winter months of 2021, when the province’s first police-enforced curfew was in effect.

There was an average of 1,093 weekly infractions in January, February and March 2021, and 2,232 in April and May. The curfew was in effect during most of this time.

In contrast, the province averaged 206 COVID-19 infractions per week in the fall, when a curfew was not in effect.

The researchers found that the number of infractions and cases of COVID-19 do not correlate. 

The province’s second wave peaked the week of Dec. 28, 2020, when the number of infractions remained low, while the number of infractions began increasing in Jan, after the province imposed its first curfew on Jan. 9, 2021.

The researchers did, however, caution against drawing conclusions. Stating that “presumably, the rationale for issuing citations is to punish and deter those who do not comply with public health rules, in order to reduce contacts and possibly the number of COVID-19 cases.”

They added that their data does not allow them “to measure the effect, or lack of effect, of the issuance of tickets on the number of cases of COVID-19, nor the dissuasive effect of the imposition of criminal sanctions on behaviour.” 

The researchers did have some strong criticism of Quebec premier Francois Legault’s pandemic approach, which they say relied on police suppression and criminal law to enforce public health measures.

They used data from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Pandemic Mapping Project to show that Quebec gave out huge numbers of infractions related to pandemic enforcement.

Between Apr. 1 and Jun. 15 2020, Quebec gave out 66% of the approximately 10,000 COVID-19 infractions in Canada. 

Quebec’s rate of infractions was also one of the highest in the country, at 0.51 per 1000 people between Oct. 2020 and Feb. 2021. That is more than half of Ontario’s rate, which was 0.22 per 1000 people. 

The researchers also said they believed the Quebec government’s approach was political, writing “this is a political choice, not an unavoidable obligation to ‘flatten the curve’.”

On top of being political, researchers said the pandemic response was also divisive because of “the punitive approach and the repressive discourse pitting the ‘minority’ of people who are recalcitrant to the measures against the ‘majority’ of people who comply with them.”

The researchers’ comments align with a recent Angus Reid Poll, which found that 82% of Canadians believe that “the pandemic has pulled people apart.”

The Profiling Observatory’s study is only the latest blow to the Quebec government’s credibility when it comes to COVID-19 restrictions.

True North previously reported that Quebec’s former top doctor Horacio Arruda wasn’t able to justify recommending a second curfew hours before it was announced. 

An access to information request also found the province’s national institute of public health (INSPQ) did not have any documents related to studies showing the effectiveness of curfews or vaccine passports. 

Furthermore, it was revealed at a committee meeting in Dec. 2020 that Quebec’s public health had recommended restaurants remain open in the red zones of Quebec’s COVID-19 framework. However, Legault opted to shut them down.

With COVID-19 cases now dropping and a provincial election looming in the fall, the Quebec government has begun removing restrictions. All measures except for the mask mandate were lifted on Saturday. 

The province has said it plans to do away with masking in most settings by mid-April.

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