Longtime Conservative member of parliament Pierre Poilievre was the first to launch a campaign to be the next Conservative Party of Canada leader. Poilievre joined True North’s Andrew Lawton for a wide-ranging chat about why he’s running, and what he seeks to do as Conservative leader and prime minister if he’s elected. Poilievre said he’s running to tackle the cost of living crisis, and says his message of freedom will not only unite conservatives, but also Canadians. He also contrasted himself with Jean Charest, whom he accused of being a high-tax Liberal.
Carleton University’s School of Journalism held a panel discussion with members of the legacy media on Tuesday to discuss their role in covering what the school called “the siege of Ottawa” by “the so-called freedom convoy.”
Before it even took place, the event received backlash online for its biased tone and the apparent exclusion of independent and right-of-centre journalists.
Given that I live in Ottawa and had spent a good amount of time covering the Freedom Convoy for True North, I thought I would attend the event, and with an open mind.
I was asked for proof of vaccination and screened for COVID when I arrived at the event even though Ontario had dropped vaccine passports on March 1.
The panel featured CBC’s Judy Trinh and Jorge Barrera, the Toronto Star’s Raisa Patel, CTV News’s Glen McGregor, left-wing investigative journalist Justin Ling and photographer Justin Tang.
Carleton journalism associate professor and CBC News anchor Adrian Harewood was the moderator for the evening.
The MC began by acknowledging that the relationship between the Canadian public and the legacy media has changed, and Harewood recognized an erosion of public trust.
National Post columnistRupa Subramanya, who had received a late invitation to join the panel, was not able to attend the event due to scheduling issues. Instead, she offered remarks in a pre-recorded video.
Subramanya called out the framing of the event, as well as the negative tone the legacy media had adopted while covering the convoy. She also touched on civil disobedience in India, including the 2020-2021 farmer protests, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had supported.
While some panellists seemed defensive following Subramanya’s remarks, others made comments later that evening that seemed to reaffirm what she had said.
Despite the overwhelming consensus in the legacy media that the Freedom Convoy protesters were hateful towards them, not all journalists at the panel seemed to have experienced something truly negative.
Photojournalist Justin Tang talked about the importance of journalists dressing to blend in, saying that he chose not to wear a mask because it would have drawn negative attention. By carrying himself in a way that was non-threatening to protesters, Tang said, he was able to do his job.
I myself observed while covering the Ottawa protests that Freedom Convoy demonstrators were very wary of the legacy media. Part of the reason for this distrust is the disconnect between rural and urban Canadians, as well as between the elite and the working class.
Panellists mentioned how journalism used to be a blue-collar profession but that today, legacy media journalists are seen as part of the social elites. The majority of these “social elites” live and work in cities, as legacy media offices are usually found in downtown cores.
The panel acknowledged that legacy media under-reports rural communities, with CBC’s Judy Trinh saying, “when was the last time we travelled outside the downtown core to west Carleton?” (a rural area outside of Ottawa)
According to Trinh, people in rural communities have been ignored by the media, similar to how the media has ignored people of colour.
Race was a prominent topic throughout the night. Near the end of the event, an attendee asked why the media was considering reaching out to white right-wingers who are occupying a city to rebuild their trust, but not to people of colour who have been oppressed for years.
To this, Trinh acknowledged that there are issues with how the legacy media has covered minority communities. Harewood, who is black, added that the media needs to be more comfortable discussing race.
There was also a question about media bias, asking if journalists believe that they can be fully objective.
CBC’s Jorge Barrera answered the question by stating that he does not think journalists should be objective, but rather impartial. He added that as a journalist, he is aware of his biases.
The panel was then asked about “citizen journalists,” who, along with independent reporters, played a crucial role in covering the historic Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.
Trinh said that she was concerned about the fact that everyone with a camera is considered to be a citizen journalist. The Star’s Raisa Patel added that certain contexts and skills are needed to do proper journalism.
Justin Ling said that citizen journalists have biases, and chose to aim their cameras intentionally at what they wanted people to see.
I thought to myself, doesn’t the legacy media also do this?
I recall during the convoy coverage that most of the clips showing demonstrators cleaning up garbage, shovelling the streets and handing out food had come from citizen journalists. Meanwhile, the legacy media seemed to focus more on the one unknown person who had brought a Nazi flag.
As the event came to an end, the MC said that the conversation the panel had was needed, and was just part of a beginning.
I couldn’t agree more.
I had just heard members of the legacy media openly admit that their industry ignores rural Canadians and has racial biases. Moreover, these journalists know they are not objective, and that trust has eroded.
What I took away from this event is that the legacy media has flaws, and that they know that. People are right to question their credibility, and I believe we should not accept everything they say as truth, but rather do our own independent research and confidently come to our own conclusions.
Just a few weeks ago, Justin Trudeau was calling trucker convoy supporters a “fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.” Now, he’s lecturing the world about the importance of respecting people with different viewpoints. True North’s Andrew Lawton says the world community is likely to see through this having watched his government’s crackdown on peaceful protesters just a few weeks ago. Also, why conservatives shouldn’t support Putin, plus National Council of Resistance of Iran spokesperson Alireza Jafarzadeh on Iran’s attempts to restore the infamous nuclear deal with Russia’s help.
For the past week Justin Trudeau and three of his senior cabinet ministers have been touring Europe, taking lots of photos and lecturing the world about “democratic values.”
In the UK, Trudeau was met with massive protests and negative press. In Latvia he was oddly grinning ear-to-ear while standing next to Canada’s military. And, in Germany, Trudeau told world leaders that in a democracy, people need to listen and have respect for those who hold “different political views.”
On this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice breaks down the unbelievable gaslighting and very worst moments of Trudeau’s European photo-op tour.
Holdout province British Columbia has finally floated a timeframe for dropping its mask mandate and vaccine passport, “at least for the spring and summer months ahead.”
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced Thursday that B.C. would be lifting its mask mandate for most settings at 12:01 AM PST on Friday, excluding high-risk health environments such as doctor’s offices and healthcare settings.
The lifting of masks extends to schools from kindergarten to grade 12 but will not come into effect until students return from spring break. For most public schools in the province, the break runs from March 13-28.
Henry added that “in many workplaces, masks will still be required. They just will no longer be mandated in those areas.”
“Masks continue to be encouraged in some of those settings where we have to get close to other people, and we can’t necessarily avoid it, and things like public transit and on B.C. Ferries, but they’re no longer, as I said, mandated under an order.”
As for the province’s vaccine passport, Henry announced that the program is set to be lifted on April 8, “assuming that our conditions continue to improve.”
Henry said she would also be repealing the order that requires post-secondary students who live in residence to be vaccinated.
“And workplaces will transition back to this requirement rather than having the broader communicable disease plans in place,” she said.
As for the vaccine mandate originally slated for private-sector healthcare professionals, Henry said she would be working with individual licensing colleges moving forward to determine how and whether it will apply.
“So yes, this is different from our original vision, which would be people not being able to practice if they were not vaccinated by March 24,” Henry admitted. “We’ve been working through the specifics with each individual college and based on the risks within each profession.”
Henry began her announcement by congratulating the province’s higher-than-90% vaccination rate for people over 12, saying she was able to consider lifting restrictions thanks to them “stepping up and doing what we needed to do.”
“Our approach has always been to only have the minimum necessary restrictions to keep people safe and to prevent the transmission, particularly to those who are more susceptible to severe illness with COVID-19,” Henry said. “It is finding that balance. I am incredibly grateful to the millions of people throughout our province for your willingness and support in adopting our COVID-19 safety measures. Your efforts combined with these high vaccination rates have saved countless lives.”
“It’s a good place for us to be and I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to continue this path at least for the spring and summer months ahead.”
Vancouver Coastal Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patricia Daly slammed vaccine mandates and lockdowns as being ineffective and doing more harm than good in a newly released letter from February.
The letter addressed to the president of the University of British Columbia cited a study by the Social Science Research Network entitled The Unintended Consequences of COVID-19 Vaccine Policy: Why Mandates, Passports, and Segregated Lockdowns May Cause more Harm than Good.
The pre-printer study – which means it was not yet peer-reviewed – was conducted by international public health and infectious disease experts who concluded that the measures employed by governments to combat COVID-19 impinged on human rights and adversely affected health.
“The authors conclude that such policies ‘may lead to detrimental long-term impacts on uptake of future public health measures, including COVID_19 vaccines themselves as well as routine immunizations. Restricting people’s access to work, education, public transport, and social life based on COVID-19 vaccination status impinges on human rights, promotes stigma and social polarization, and adversely affects health and wellbeing,” wrote Daly.
Daly also encouraged the university to drop its vaccine requirement for registering students and its rapid testing program citing the fact that “there is now evidence of the endemic nature of the virus.”
“Such measures may result in profound negative harms on (student’s) future health and wellbeing, by impacting future educational and career opportunities, and their mental health,” wrote Daly.
The university eventually complied with Daly’s advice and reversed its policies.
Daly’s letter was released one day before B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that mask mandates would be lifted shortly after midnight at 12:01 AM PST on Friday.
Henry also stated that vaccine passports would no longer be required beginning on April 8, “assuming that our conditions continue to improve.”
Other studies have concluded that lockdowns have done little to reduce COVID-19 mortality rates, and have in fact hurt individuals and society severely. Last month, researchers at Johns Hopkins University arrived at similar conclusions.
“Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” wrote researchers.
“In Edmonton, Canada, isolation and quarantine were instituted; public meetings were banned; schools, churches, colleges, theaters, and other public gathering places were closed; and business hours were restricted without obvious impact on the epidemic.”
Independent Ontario MPP Roman Baber has announced he is running to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).
“Despite the challenges, please have faith in Canadian kindness,” said Baber at his campaign launch on Wednesday. “It’s time to heal, and I invite you to turn a page and join me in uniting this country.”
Baber was introduced by Breakthrough Autism founder Nancy Marchese who said that she has met many politicians over the years, but none of them were like Baber.
“I’m here at my very first political party event because I believe in people, I believe in Canada, and I believe in Roman,” said Marchese.
Baber spoke about how he immigrated to Canada when he was 15 years old and that his family had little money when they arrived. He said that did not matter, however, because Canada gave him every opportunity to succeed.
Many Canadians are worried about Canada’s future, said Baber, and that he is not going to sit back as Canadians lose faith in government.
Lockdowns, he said, were “the greatest policy error of our generation.”
Baber added that he refused to ignore how healthy people were harmed by the measures and that he had spoken out because “people matter before politics.”
Baber was originally elected as a member of the Ontario PCs in 2018, but Premier Doug Ford removed him from caucus on Jan. 15. 2021 over his opposition to the government’s lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions.
Baber said that he will advocate against vaccine passports and vaccine mandates if he is elected as CPC leader. He promised to promote free and open discussion instead of censoring people he disagrees with.
He also said that he would promote job creation, adding that Canadians “don’t want basic income, but to earn an income.”
Baber also said that Canada’s natural resources are a blessing and that if elected leader, he would not allow oil and gas projects to be cancelled.
Baber said the CPC needs to reach out to disillusioned conservatives, young people and those living in urban centres. The Conservatives have “to articulate a reasonable and practical stance rooted in kindness,” he said.
“Change is coming. We’re going to disrupt politics and change the way politics is done, so we can reignite and unite the Conservative Party and so we can win and unite our wonderful country.”
Prior to his announcement on Wednesday, Baber had said he was running to create change.
“I am grateful to Canadians who stood with me for the last 15 months,” he said in a tweet. “You can always count on me to say what I believe & do what I believe to be right.”
So far, the candidates for the Conservative leadership race are Baber, CPC MPs Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis and former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest.
Brampton mayor Patrick Brown is also expected to enter the race, while CPC MP Scott Aitchison and former CPC MP Leona Alleslev are said to be considering.
The next Conservative leader will be elected on Sept. 10.
Canadian Armed Forces veteran James Topp completed the first tenth of his march from Vancouver to Ottawa on Thursday, reaching the town of Grand Forks, British Columbia as he looks ahead to crossing the Columbia and Rocky Mountains into Alberta.
“The support being offered is overwhelming, and I am thankful to everyone who reached out to me,” Topp told True North. “Many have opened their homes to me or offered donations. People have pulled over to wish me well and even marched with me for a while. It is the most amazing thing to be a part of.”
Topp also wanted to thank his support crew through the first portion of his journey, whom he described as “vital to the success of the mission so far.”
“They are Jeremy, Cristian, Dallas, Dan, Esther, and David, the owner of the RV who saw us through to Hope in the first phase of the march. There are other names I have not mentioned working super hard behind the scenes, and I am thankful to them all for making this mean something.”
Topp began his 4395-kilometre trek on Feb. 20, departing from the Terry Fox monument at Vancouver’s B.C. place in solidarity with the truckers and working Canadians to bring an end to overbearing government mandates.
The march began the same weekend that police cracked down on Ottawa convoy protesters under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s implementation of the Emergencies Act, an event that Topp told True North had only strengthened his resolve.
Topp said that everywhere he goes, he has heard stories from people like himself whose mental health and livelihoods have been devastated by government mandates during the pandemic.
“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 wrote on Wednesday. “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.”
Topp continues to follow Highway 3 – also called the Crowsnest Highway – which skirts along B.C.’s border with the US. The route contains a number of small but historic communities including Midway and Greenwood, which has retained its historical designation as a city despite a current population of under 1000.
“On our way, we were welcomed by Baily, a health worker who was also fired from her job of serving the elderly with care after failing to comply with the mandate. She shared her story, as so many fellow Canadians have,” Topp wrote.
“On our way out of Greenville, we met John and his wife Annie who drove all the way from Victoria to meet us. John is a longtime airline pilot who is no longer working in that capacity, also due to the unjust mandate. John decided to join us in the march for the rest of the day, quite a feat on this cold day.”
Travelling across the Okanagan plateau will give Topp some flat land before he heads into the final two stretches of B.C.’s mountains, including the Columbian Mountains that serve as the western boundary of the Kootenay region. After that, Topp and his crew face the Rockies, where they will follow the Crowsnest Pass into Alberta.
“I am being realistic about hitting the mountains,” Topp told True North. “I respect the dangers that are present in the terms of weather and terrain. I am taking precautions by keeping daily distances shorter and having a safety vehicle nearby. I have people watching my back as we lean into this part of the journey.”
Topp’s progress can be followed on his website CanadaMarches.ca, which includes live GPS of his location, a blog and links to social media, as well as information for people wishing to volunteer or offer night support.
In addition to a spate of other criticisms, the Calgary Board of Education has complained that kids are being taught too much “self-control” in the latest sex-ed curriculum proposed by the Alberta government for five to 11 year-olds.
“The idea of ‘self-control is a necessary virtue’ is a heavily faith-based concept that erodes the ability to learn about healthy sexual relationships,” wrote the board. “Faith-biased understanding continues to label processes within this proposed draft. For example, pregnancy is referred to as a natural process while birth control is categorized as artificial. Further, the specific use of abstinence is inaccurate and presented as moral/values based ideal rather than one option with specific advantages.”
A Draft Curriculum Review Briefing submitted to the Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees on March 8 is also chock- full of other woke complaints about the kindergarten-to-grade 6 curriculum. These complaints involved concerns about too much emphasis on the “great works” of literature and that counting dance steps constitutes a “colonial view” of the artform.
First proposed on Aug. 6, 2020, the Alberta government’s curriculum has faced controversy from progressivist opponents who have labeled it as too conservative and old-fashioned. As of January, the Ministry of Education has decided to move forward with an updated version after consulting with advisory groups.
In its review, the board primarily took issue with the curriculum being too centered on European culture and history. Board members also called for an “anti-racist perspective” to be included.
“The draft curriculum is Eurocentric, meaning, the focus is on Europe and Europeans, and the narrative is told from a European and European-settler perspective,” board officials wrote. “In addition to being Eurocentric and having problematic Indigenous content, the parts of the draft that attempt to address Black history in Canada are severely limited, lacking in substance and depth or an anti-racist perspective.”
Even when it came to teaching dance, analysts took pains to explain how counting steps and focusing on technique was a “colonial view” of dancing.
“The focus on counting, preplanning and technique is a colonial view of the dance artform,” bureaucrats wrote. “There is a clear Eurocentric bias when it comes to actively appreciating and engaging in Francophone, Metis, Inuit and First Nations dances.”
Additionally, educators took issue with the Alberta government’s emphasis on the “great works” of Greek and Roman literature and that the curriculum included too much Shakespeare.
“The works of literature and authors referred to as ‘great works’ are primarily focused on European culture and history (Greek, Roman, Renaissance, Shakespeare) with little connection to students’ interest and relevance to their own lived experiences,” the board wrote.
Similar gripes were voiced regarding the arts which board officials labeled as “overly Eurocentric (and) imbalance from a gender perspective.”
“The art appreciation outcomes are overly Eurocentric, colonial, and imbalanced from a gender perspective, and do not leave enough space for teachers and students to design learning about artists that meaningfully enrich other learning or exemplify local experiences and histories,”
The sciences were not immune to the woke complaints of the board either. Bureaucrats found issues with the curriculum failing to “acknowledge the existence of Indigenous science perspectives, let alone present their validity.”
The Alberta government has said that it hopes the curriculum would fully be implemented in public schools by Sept. 2023.
The fundraising platform GiveSendGo has announced that it will be refunding the remaining donations for the trucker Freedom Convoy, saying the Canadian government is “trying to seize the funds to redistribute.”
According to a statement posted on their official Twitter account, GiveSendGo said that the move was to protect donors and the intended purposes of their donations.
“The Canadian government has criminalized the receiving of funds from the Canadian trucker campaigns and now are trying to seize the funds to redistribute. In order to protect our Givers and the intended purposes of their gifts, funds not already transferred to the recipients from the ‘Freedom Trucker Convoy’ campaign will be refunded,” GiveSendGo wrote.
GiveSendGo is the target of an ongoing class-action lawsuit by Ottawa residents against fundraisers involved with the convoy.
Lawyers have already obtained a court injunction to freeze convoy funds and have attempted to apply the order to funds that have yet to be distributed by the platform.
However, co-founder of the Christian fundraising platform Jacob Wells has argued that GiveSendGo’s terms of service give the company power to return the funds to donors if it so wishes.
Despite arguments that GiveSendGo was in breach of a government order freezing the distribution of funding donations, Ontario Superior Court Justice Calum MacLeod stated that the injunction was only meant to apply to funds already in the possession of convoy organizers.
GiveSendGo was the victim of a hack last month after criminals leaked the private information of thousands of donors, some of whom were then targeted by harassment and threats.
Conservative MP James Bezan has asked the federal privacy commissioner to look into the matter, calling it a “blatant breach of privacy.”
Despite claims by the Liberal government that the convoy movement was foreign-funded, fundraising platform executives testifying before the Commons public safety committee stated that a majority of funds were from Canadian donors.
