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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Trudeau announces ban on Russian crude oil imports

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

In response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a ban on all crude oil imports from Russia. 

Trudeau made the announcement on Monday. The move is the latest in a series of actions meant to punish the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine last week. 

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

Trudeau’s decision comes after Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called for a ban on Russian oil the day after the conflict began. 

“We need to see the entire democratic world take a hard ‘no’ on future Russia energy imports and pipelines shipping Alberta oil and gas is the single most powerful thing that Canada could do,” Kenney said Friday. 

Canada has already levelled numerous sanctions against key Russian officials and organizations while also providing material aid to the Ukrainians. 

On Monday, finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland announced sweeping new financial sanctions against Russia, including a prohibition on Canadian banks dealing with the Russian Central Bank.

Conservative opposition interim leader Candice Bergen had called for the Trudeau government to do more to help Ukraine over the weekend. 

“The Liberal government has failed to recognize that Canadian oil and gas is vital to Canadian and European security. We need to get new pipelines built to tidewater to displace Russian natural gas,” wrote Bergen. 

Russia is the third largest producer of oil behind the United States and Saudi Arabia. Its production composes 11% of the entire world’s output. 

In 2019, Canada imported 18,000 barrels of oil from Russia according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. 

Majority of Canadians “can’t keep up with the cost of living”

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

A majority of Canadians are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living, a new Angus Reid survey has found, with seven in 10 saying they worry about money regularly. 

According to the Cost of Living Index, 53% of Canadians agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I can’t keep up with the cost of living.” 

The index polled 1,622 Canadians online between Feb. 11-13 on various issues including grocery affordability, rent or mortgage and the cost of child care. 

“As prices rise, more Canadians have been changing what they buy to keep money for the essentials. Nearly half (46%) said they are switching to cheaper, lower quality brands at the grocery store as food prices rise and three-in-five (62%) said they aren’t going to restaurants as often, even as restrictions ease across the country,” researchers wrote. 

Additionally, 51% of respondents said they would be unable to deal with an unexpected expense totalling $1,000. 

When broken down by region, Saskatchewaners appeared the most resilient among provinces, with only 27% reporting they could not manage an unexpected expense.

With regard to stressing over finances, 70% of Canadians said they experience money worries regularly. 

Those polled were also worried about losing their jobs, with 36% fearing somebody in their household could be out of work. 

“The concern is not equal across the country. At least two-in-five in each of the country’s four westernmost provinces say they worry about job losses affecting their household. Fewer people in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada say the same,” researchers wrote. 

The findings are in line with other polls that indicate a population increasingly anxious about the state of the economy and how it will affect their personal finances. 

Last month, the MNP Consumer Debt Index reported that 43% of Canadians were struggling to pay off their debts. 

“It is getting harder for Canadians to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said MNP LTD president Grant Bazian on Jan. 17.

“Unexpected expenses are one of the biggest contributors to household financial turmoil, and many are starting the new year being dealt another round of unexpected business closures, reduced working hours or job loss, and COVID-related health concerns.”

Canada closes airspace to Russian airplanes due to invasion of Ukraine

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

The Canadian government has closed its airspace to all Russian aircrafts after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as introduced a series of sweeping financial sanctions targeting the aggressor nation. 

“All of Canada is united in its outrage of President Putin’s aggression against Ukraine,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in a press release on Sunday. “In response, we have closed Canadian airspace to Russian-owned or operated aircraft.”

The press release said that the flyover ban would include the airspace above Canada’s territorial waters, effective immediately and until further notice. 

Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot has multiple flights per day through Canadian airspace en route to the USA and elsewhere. 

Aero Consulting Experts CEO Ross Aimer told The Canadian Press the Canadian airspace is a critical route for Aeroflot and that Russia would retaliate to flyover bans. 

“It’s also a very symbolic message,” said Aimer. “When they close it, it’s devastating, because you’re basically telling your friends and neighbors, ‘You’re no longer welcome in my home.'”

Western carriers often fly over Russia en route to Asia and the Middle East, but commercial airplanes have been steering clear of Ukraine and parts of Belarus and western Russia.

The United Kingdom suspended Aeroflot’s foreign carrier permit, with Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic following suit. Russia retaliated by banning commercial flights from these countries. 

Finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland also announced a series of financial sanctions against Russia on Monday. These include barring Canadian banks from doing business with the Russian Central Bank as well as an asset freeze of Russian “sovereign wealth funds.”

“Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure. This has never been done before at this scale – today we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russia’s central bank,” said Freeland.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, drawing criticism from Canadian politicians of all parties.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the invasion, saying, “we will continue to take decisive action to support the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine and by extension, democratic principles, freedom and human rights around the world.”

Trudeau announced that he would be imposing restrictions on 58 Russian individuals and entities, including banks, financial elites and their families. Members of the Russian Security Council will be sanctioned, he said. 

Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen called on Trudeau to take further action. 

“This unprovoked attack, coming on the heels of a joint pact between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, is the most serious threat to the rules-based international order since 1945 – and because of that, a serious threat to global peace and security,” said Bergen in a statement. 

Bergen said that Canada should expel Russian ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov, while Russia needs to be removed from organizations such as the G20 and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 

True North is following this developing story.

Trudeau’s international reputation will never be the same

By
Candice Malcolm
-

A major part of Justin Trudeau’s appeal to progressive voters in Canada is his international reputation as a liberal golden boy.

But Trudeau’s use of war-time measures to crack down a peaceful working class protest has shattered that image. It made him look weak, hypocritical, petty and mean.

How can Trudeau lecture serial human-rights-abuses in countries like China and Iran when he used force and froze the bank accounts of political dissidents at home? Those countries are already mocking him and pointing out the double standard.

On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by lawyer and human rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz to discuss just how badly this damaged Trudeau’s reputation – abroad and at home.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CANDICE MALCOLM SHOW

Antifa site praises axe attack on Coastal GasLink site in northern B.C.

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

An Antifa-affiliated website has praised the recent attack on a Coastal GasLink drill site in northern British Columbia that saw 20 people wielding axes attack workers, destroy equipment and injure an RCMP officer.

On Feb. 17 a gang of criminals descended on the worker camp near Houston, B.C. with weapons and flares. RCMP Chief Superintendent. Warren Brown called the incident a “calculated and organized violent attack that left its victims shaken and a multimillion-dollar path of destruction.”

With no arrests made during the incident or since, the RCMP released a series of videos on Feb. 22 asking for the public’s help in identifying the assailants.

An anonymous submission to the far-left extremist website Montreal Counter-Information nonetheless called for others to launch similar assaults against the pipeline and its workers. 

“As anarchist individuals living in the North who are supportive of struggles in defence of the land and against ongoing colonization by Canada and its corporate interests we declare our support for this action and encourage others to do so,” the post read. 

“May others continue this fight, take action against (Coastal GasLink), Canada and on-going colonization where they stand and draw inspiration and courage from this action as we do.”

Montreal Counter-Information is an extremist publication for anarchists that regularly publishes reports on criminal activity and even instructs users on how to create incendiary devices such as molotov cocktails. 

This was not the first time that opponents of Coastal GasLink have attacked the work site. The beleaguered development has had to face numerous sabotage attempts and blockades as it nears completion. 

Although the attack on critical infrastructure in B.C. took place while the Emergencies Act was still in effect, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not apply it to track down the suspects involved or to freeze their assets like he did with the Ottawa trucker convoy demonstrators. 

As exclusively reported by True North, the CBC has partnered with radical anarchist activist and filmmaker Franklin Lopez to produce a documentary on the protests targeting Coastal GasLink. Lopez’ work has frequently appeared on Montreal Counter-Information and other affiliated extremist websites. 

Most recently, the Alberta government’s Canadian Energy Centre launched a complaint against the public broadcaster for the decision to partner with Lopez. 

Justice Centre takes legal action for unvaxxed inmate denied release

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of an inmate eligible for day parole who was denied release due to the vaccine policy of his intended halfway house. 

The JCCF announced Friday that they have partnered with criminal and constitutional lawyer Chip O’Connor to take legal action against the Attorney General of Canada and St. Leonard’s Society of Hamilton (SLSH) over their COVID-19 vaccine mandates that keep unvaccinated inmates in jail whom the courts have approved for day parole. 

According to a JCCF press release, the parolee – N.M. – was granted day parole by an Ontario court on Feb. 10 but was returned to custody when the operator of his intended halfway house, SLSH, rescinded its offer upon learning of his vaccination status. 

“Being forced to choose between freedom and bodily autonomy is not a choice,” said JCCF lawyer Sayeh Hassan. “This is coercion and has no place in a free and democratic society.”

According to the JCCF, N.M. has chosen not to be vaccinated due to a lack of long-term safety data and concerns over serious side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. He is a 33-year-old man who is serving a sentence of two years, five months and 25 days. 

Although the JCCF did not disclose his criminal charges, N.M. was supported in his bid for day parole by his parole officer and the Correctional Service of Canada.

Hassan has called the vaccine mandates an “unfair detainment in prejudice to an individual’s right to make medical decisions for themselves.”

“To coerce these individuals to be injected with a vaccine that has no long-term safety data and that has proven serious side effects including myocarditis, as a condition of enjoying their freedom, goes against principles of natural justice.”

As it stands, the Canadian government does not require inmates to be vaccinated even though federal prison facilities demand vaccine passports from visitors, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. 

The Correctional Service of Canada also required its employees to be vaccinated as of Oct. 29 2021, though inmates in federal prisons can choose to remain unvaccinated.

“Inmates are not required to get the COVID-19 vaccine and must consent to being vaccinated,” said Correctional Service spokesperson Marie-Pier Lécuyer. “We continue to emphasize the importance of getting vaccinated.”

SLSH could not be reached for comment in time for publication. 

Trump says Canadian truckers “being hunted down like enemies of their own government”

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

Former U.S. president Donald Trump spoke before thousands of US conservatives on Sunday, saying, “you’re either with the peaceful truckers, or you’re with the left-wing fascists.”

Trump made the comment at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Conroe, Texas in support of the Canadian trucker convoy, saying “a line has been crossed” when the Trudeau government cracked down on the peaceful demonstrations.

Declaring the truckers’ protests to have been “violently put down,” Trump said that the tyranny seen in Canada in recent weeks should shock people around the world.

Trump reminded the American attendees about the truckers’ assets being frozen, the media slandering them as Nazis and organizers being charged with “phony crimes.” He said that he saw plenty of Canadian flags and that the demonstrators had been “falsely accused of loyalty to foreign powers.”

Trump said that the truckers are being “hunted down like enemies of their own government and treated worse than drug-dealers and murderers or rapists.” 

“We stand with the truckers, and we stand with the Canadian people in their noble quest to reclaim their freedom,” he said. 

Trump praised the truckers not only for fighting against government mandates in Canada but also for defending American freedom.

“It’s true, the Canadian truckers – you’ve been reading about it – who are resisting bravely these lawless mandates and are doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders by far, and we want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way,” he said. 

He added that the truckers have “really shown something.” 

Trump has spoken in support of the Freedom Convoy on a number of occasions. The movement was also praised by former U.S. first son Donald Trump Jr. when it was still on the road to Ottawa.

“When we push back against the insanity, we can win, and that’s how this all ends,” said Trump Jr. “This is a genius idea.” 

James Topp is marching to Ottawa to protest the government’s COVID measures

By
Harley Sims
-

Canadian Armed Forces veteran James Topp is marching from Vancouver to Ottawa to protest the government’s overbearing pandemic response. True North’s Harley Sims asked Topp on Sunday about the support he’s received and what he’s been hearing from fellow Canadians.

Chaos and anarchy in Kiev: source says armed bandits are looting and murdering 

By
Candice Malcolm
-

The situation in Kiev is “not as black and white as the media is portraying it,” a source on the ground in Kiev who spoke to True North through a translator said on Sunday.

“People are more scared of the armed citizens than the Russian military,” said the source.

The source, a senior who lives in the city center, said he and his wife are “more scared of looters with guns right now.”  

The man has his old military rifle out, just in case, the translator noted. 

The source sent photos of several dead bodies piled on the side of the street in Kiev, noting that it depicts “a family that got killed when they were mistaken for a military vehicle.”

WARNING: GRAPHIC

The source also sent two videos, which are circulating on the messaging app Telegram, showing what was described as “armed citizens now just questioning and in one case shooting people they deem suspicious. It’s scary.”

WARNING: GRAPHIC

WARNING: GRAPHIC

On February 23, in the face of an impending attack from the much larger Russian army, the Ukrainian Parliament declared a state of emergency and passed a law allowing citizens to carry weapons in public. 

As a sign of support to Ukranians defending their homes, many western countries, including the UK, Germany and Belgium, began sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s standing army is relatively small, with only 40,000 deployed personnel and 245,000 active members. Ukraine’s active military budget is around $6 billion. 

Compare this with Russia, who has over one million deployed military personnel and another million in reserve. Russia, who has the world’s fifth largest military, spends approximately $62 billion annually on military spending.

To make up for this incredible gap in spending and man-power, citizens have been filling in the gap. But according to the source in Kiev, it’s turned into anarchy, including looting, robbing and gruesome murders.  

Much of the Western coverage in the media are failing to show this side of the story.

“The propaganda in western media is extreme – even by the standards they are used to,” the translator told True North. 

As Russian forces have approached Kiev, the city has been placed under a curfew until Monday morning – with residents ordered to stay indoors. Those outside may be considered and treated as Russian infiltrators. 

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, alleges that Russian infiltrators and saboteur teams have entered Kiev with the goal of collecting intelligence and attacking targets within the city.

Ordinary Ukranians have been mistaken for Russian agents and killed by armed civilians.

Exit Committee finds “Canada’s pandemic is effectively over”

By
Noah Jarvis
-

The Canada Science & Policy Committee to Exit the Pandemic has declared we’re at a point to move on.

Taking its own advice, the committee, assembled by a think tank outside of government, has published a comprehensive strategy for Canada to leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind, including recommendations to immediately repeal many of its most intrusive restrictions.

The detailed spreadsheet identifies eight major systems that have been affected by the pandemic and outlines measures these systems can take to recover and return to normal across a four-month period. 

Some of the immediate measures include lifting vaccine passports, removing mask mandates, scrapping testing measures and lifting all provincial and international travel restrictions.

The Exit Committee – created by the Institute for 21st Century Questions – includes experts in medicine, education, economics, politics and more.

In an interview with True North’s Andrew Lawton, co-chair of the Exit Committee Irvin Studin spoke about the group’s goals and methodology.

“It is a policy lead, the science informs that,” he said. “And we’re at a point both through vaccination… the passage of the virus through mutations…where we’re ready to exit quite easily across the systems.” 

Studin noted Canada has been relatively slow to drop pandemic measures and that the committee’s declaration of the pandemic being effectively over is more in line with countries including Singapore, Israel, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and others. 

“They’re no less smart than we are,” Studin said.

Studin also talked about taking leadership in the absence of government action, saying “they’re [the government] just unable to say what is obvious to a policy community that is observing this nationally and internationally.”

Among its recommendations, the Exit Committee stressed the importance of reintegrating ‘third bucket’ children who have not been attending in-person or online classes as a result of COVID-era school policies. 

Around 100,000 children in Ontario alone have been displaced, and the Exit Committee recommends the launching of a door-to-door campaign to get these children back to school as quickly as possible. 

While provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan have led with the dropping of pandemic restrictions and mandates, other provinces including Ontario, British Columbia, and the federal government have been slower in taking action to drop COVID measures.

As of Friday, British Columbia remained the only province that had not committed to dropping its vaccine passport. 

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