Kamloops Indian Residential School students. New York Times.
Government-appointed special interlocutor on residential schools Kimberly Murray released her final report on Tuesday, and is again calling for those who question the residential schools narrative in Canada to be fined or jailed, as well as tracked by the feds.
Plus, Canada will need to nearly double its military spending to fulfil its NATO commitment of 2% of GDP by 2032 according to the federal budget watchdog.
And Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office confirmed that he would release the identities of all MPs “deemed to have knowingly participated in foreign interference,” if elected.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Lindsay Shepherd and Isaac Lamoureux!
1492 Landback Lane - Hamilton - Nov 2023 - Source: X
There was a minor uproar in Manitoba recently when a speaker invited to discuss “settler colonialism” at a Winnipeg School Division event announced to the assembled crowd of educators that “Resistance To Colonialism Is Not Terrorism.”
School board officials quickly and dutifully apologized for such an outrageous claim. “Our focus is on and must be on, Indigenous education, reconciliation, and equity for all. There is no equity in terrorism”, Winnipeg school board superintendent Matt Henderson said later in a public statement.
Yet Henderson’s claim that the offending statement shared nothing in common with current discussions about reconciliation or native rights is not entirely accurate. Under the catch-phrase “Land Back”, many Indigenous activists today believe they have the right to resist “colonial occupation” by any means necessary.
Originating in the United States about a decade ago, Land Back was first used as a deliberate political slogan during 2018 protests demanding the transfer of control over the world-famous U.S. Presidential Memorial at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to local native groups. It quickly jumped the border and now flourishes in Canada as well, where it can be seen and heard in connection to various Indigenous demands and reconciliation discussions. Versions of Land Back can also be found in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Mexico.
Not quite a distinct political movement, Land Bank comprises a range of impulses and demands that combine mysticism, grievance, aspiration and ideology. At its most basic, it seeks a return of lands considered to have been possessed by North American Indigenous peoples before contact with Europeans.
As a militant iteration of aboriginal nationalism, the proponents of Land Back often disavow the fundamental legitimacy of Canada and the U.S. as nation-states. And like most expressions of ethnic and racial nationalism, it seeks to create autonomous sovereign territory by excluding “others” – in this case, the rest of us settler-colonialists.
With the growth of the Land Back concept as a populist movement, a group of Indigenous academics sought to provide it with a political manifesto.Land Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper was published in 2019 by the Yellowhead Institute at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). It deserves a close inspection by all Canadians for the radical and dangerous demands it contains.
The 65-page document seeks “fulsome Indigenous jurisdiction” over all of Canada. Its authors propose to dispense with the liberal-democratic norms of our country in favour of vague, supra-jurisdictional authority exercised by Indigenous communities. Such a goal might be considered “reverse assimilation”, as our non-Indigenous nation-state would be placed under the control of a native minority.
If such an outcome can’t be achieved by negotiation, Land Back adherents seem prepared to seek other means – what the manifesto calls a “more direct, type of assertion [that] revolves around physical reclamation or occupation of lands and waters.” Ronald Gamblin, an Anishinaabe Land Back activist from Manitoba, explains it this way: “Land Back is about Indigenous peoples confronting colonialism at the root. It’s about fighting for the right to our relationship with the earth. It’s about coming back to ourselves, as sovereign Indigenous Nations.”
The notion that Mother Earth has given Indigenous people her blessings as a birthright is a common belief among Indigenous peoples worldwide throughout history. This existential connection to the land is often romanticized and mythologized by other non-Indigenous societies.
Viewed unsentimentally, however, such a fixation with land can be seen as ethnocentric and exclusionary, if not explicitly racist. It isn’t all that dissimilar from the atavistic impulses expressed by Nazi Germany in its racist doctrine Blut und Boden (that is, blood and soil). Since the Nazis claimed to have come from the land, they asserted a greater right to that land than anyone who arrived from elsewhere. It is a dangerous belief if taken too far.
Equally worrisome is the sympathy some Land Back activists have shown for the Hamas terror attack last year. “Palestine is actually doing a Land Back,” U.S. Sioux activist Nick Estes said in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. “They’re actually doing what we think we want to do but we haven’t gone there yet…and for me, that was beautiful. I just want our resistance to be so strong, our fire as a people so strong that we just take back what is ours.”
Thankfully, some courageous Indigenous voices have been calling out this twisted opportunism. “What has troubled me the most has been the frequency with which my peoples’ struggle for reconciliation has been invoked to justify the bloodshed, “Chris Sankey, a businessman and former councillor of the Lax Kw Alaams Band in B.C., wrote in the National Post last year. “This is an absurd and, frankly, offensive comparison, as Indigenous-Canadians and Palestinians stand worlds apart.”
We should all take caution. Amid the pity, reverence and mythologizing shown Indigenous peoples in Canada lies a blind spot in which a ruthless and racist ideology can grow.
Michael Melanson is a writer and tradesperson living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A longer version of this story first appeared atC2CJournal.ca.
Liberal cabinet ministers are opposed to a Liberal party caucus vote via secret ballot on whether or not members support Justin Trudeau as their leader, while backbenchers say it’s the only way forward for an increasingly divided party.
On CPAC Liberal MPs were interviewed entering the House of Commons Tuesday. Some of the Liberal MPs revealed that they think a secret ballot to determine caucus support for the Prime Minister is the only way to clear the air and focus on Canadians while those closest to Trudeau said they opposed the idea.
During a press conference Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said she opposed the vote, saying it was not the caucus’s role to determine their party leader but insisted that the “vast majority” support Trudeau.
“Our party and our caucus have had many opportunities to decide our own rules for choosing a leader. Our Party decided on that, and our caucus decided on that, and in our rules, the leader is not chosen by secret ballot of caucus members,” Freeland said. “That’s just not how Liberals govern themselves. It’s not how we do things.”
Trudeau’s Health Minister Mark Holland echoed the point in an interview outside Parliament saying that he “absolutely” believes the “vast majority” of the caucus supports Trudeau but doesn’t want them to have a secret ballot to voice their opinion.
“The fact that a handful of members want something, there are lots of things I want in life that I don’t get. With all due respect, they don’t get to dictate to the rest of the caucus, nor to the party. Our party selects a leader through a process that’s approved by our convention and constitution,” Holland said. “In terms of being a caucus member, you don’t have the right to tell other caucus members what their process should be. No one individual can impose their will on the rest.”
Holland also pledged his complete loyalty to Trudeau saying he continues to believe he is the right person to lead the country.
Several MPs expressed a desire for the secret ballot vote to be held during a Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday, though they did not get their wish.
After the caucus meeting, Holland said he hadn’t heard “any conversations” about a future secret ballot vote presented.
During scrums following the meeting, Justice Minister Arif Virani, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne, and Immigration Minister Marc Miller all expressed that the vote would be a waste of time that otherwise could be used to present a unified front against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Other Liberal MPs such as Taleeb Noormohamed echoed his colleagues saying the secret ballot would be inappropriate and that the caucus needs to be united against Poilievre for the next election.
However, several Liberal MPs expressed a different view. A few said that a secret ballot would be the only way to once and for all decide the level of support for the Prime Minister within the caucus so members could put the debate behind them.
“I wish there was a mechanism for it, because I think there’s a there’s an awful lot of people who aren’t saying what they’re hearing from their constituents but are motivated by something else,” Liberal MP Sean Casey said.
He said a secret ballot vote, which he hopes happens despite the absence of a mechanism to allow it, would bring finality to the discussion.
“If there’s a secret ballot, and there’s a convincing majority that vote with the Prime Minister, then we would all be duty bound to move on,” he said. “And similarly, if it went the other way, I think he would (be duty bound to move on.)
He said it would allow members to move past their “preoccupation with internal clarity matters” at a time when the country faces “significant issues” and an election is approaching.
Casey said that, given what he has heard from his own constituents, there was nothing Trudeau could say to convince him that he is the right choice to lead the party into the next election.
Liberal MP George Cahal said he also thinks a secret ballot would be important for members to provide their input to “clear the air” around the issue so that the party could move forward unified and supportive of its leadership.
He said if there is no vote the party runs the risk that conversations around caucus support for Trudeau will continue, which will send a message of disunity to voters.
“I will accept the results of caucus members. If we go that route, I will be happy to support everybody in our caucus, like I’ve done so,” Cahal said. “But I think having that mechanism is important, and that’s what we should be looking at doing.”
Liberal MP Brendan Hanley also supports a secret ballot vote on party leadership.
“We’ve heard expressed that the vast majority of caucuses behind our leader. I think we really need to settle this once and for all,” he said. “I think that the best pathway is to have a secret ballot and really resolve the question so you can really get on with what’s important.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called on federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to promise further free speech and other rights protections at the national level as her government prepares to amend the Alberta Bill of Rights.
Smith encouraged Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights to strengthen protections that may be missing in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“I think that we should stop looking at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the full, comprehensive expression of all rights and freedoms we are endowed with,” said Smith.
The premier said she believed Poilievre could make these amendments if he’s elected prime minister without having a huge constitutional discussion.
“I think we’re entering an era now where people are demanding that their governments respect them and not treat them the way they were treated during that terrible Covid era,” said Smith.
Smith made the comments at True North Nation in Calgary on Saturday.
Counsel with the Canadian Constitution Foundation, Josh Dehaas, told True North that the Canadian Bill of Rights can be amended without going through a constitutional amendment process. However, he said that future governments could just as easily undo amendments by using the normal statute procedure: the passage of a bill in the House of Commons, the Senate, and Royal Assent.
The Canadian Bill of Rights’ main purpose is to restrict Parliament from enacting laws contrary to its provisions unless Parliament is willing to repeal the act or use the notwithstanding clause, said Dehaas.
“Expanding the Bill of Rights to include something like protection against vaccine mandates could have value in the sense that a future government would need to explicitly say in legislation that they’re going ahead with the vaccine mandate notwithstanding the fact that such a mandate may not comply with the Bill of Rights,” said Dehaas.
He added that, at the very least, the added vaccine protections in the Bill would slow them down because the government would need unanimous consent to pass the bill or go through three readings, meaning the Bill of Rights would be more useful in emergencies.
“The Bill of Rights could also be used to reinforce a culture of individual freedoms since Canadians would have a document to point to that clearly states that they hold this right, rather than trying to rely on parts of the Charter like Section 7 (Life, Liberty, and Security of the person) that don’t explicitly specify that people have a right not to be coerced into taking vaccines,” added Dehaas.
Smith’s comments come ahead of Alberta’s introduction of amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights, which she described as an effort to modernize the 1972 legislation and better reflect the needs of Albertans. The changes include enshrining the right to refuse vaccines, strengthening property rights, and affirming the right to own and use firearms legally.
“These amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights are not just legal changes. They are a reaffirmation of the values that make Alberta one of the freest jurisdictions on Earth,” said Smith.
Smith explained that the Alberta Bill of Rights amendments intend to add consequences for bureaucrats and officials who violate the rights, which she said would reduce the likelihood of them being violated.
Dehaas said the federal government could similarly amend the Canadian Bill of Rights to clarify that nobody can be coerced into taking a vaccine. Such an amendment would mean that no laws could be passed that allow for vaccine mandates in areas of federal jurisdiction like air, rail, and interprovincial ferry travel. Nor would they be able to be passed in federally regulated workplaces like banks or the public service.
True North reached out to Poilievre for comment but received no reply.
An association of Canadian veterans wants governments to remove barriers around mental health treatments that employ psychedelic substances so those suffering from mental illness due to high-stress jobs can access the help they require.
PsyCan, a non-profit trade association of psychedelic medicine and therapy companies and military veterans, called on the government to lift the red tape on psychedelic drug therapy.
The group argued that current rules prevent veterans and others in high-mental health risk occupations from accessing psychedelic-assisted therapy. To counter the barriers, PsyCan advocates an increase in research for Canada to pay the costs and model access to psychedelic therapy on the medical marijuana program.
At a conference, Liam Bedard, the executive director of PsyCan, lauded the “numerous landmark scientific studies” which demonstrate the safety and efficacy of psychedelic treatment. Drugs such as MDMA and Psilocybin, the active compound in psychedelic mushrooms, have increasingly been employed to treat mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse disorders.
As per a StatsCanada census, in 2021, Canada is home to 461,240 CAF veterans. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, more than a third, 38.7%, of CAF veterans reported mental health problems. Among those 16.4% reported severe mental health conditions and another 10% reported being diagnosed with PTSD or other health issues that accompany it.
PsyCan noted that Health Canada’s Special Access Program has allowed applications for the medical use of psilocybin and MDMA since 2022. However, VAC will not reimburse veterans for any psychedelic-assisted therapy. The SAP is designed to allow Canadians needing experimental drugs or treatments that are otherwise unavailable in the Canadian market.
PsyCan and the veterans present called on VAC to reimburse the total cost of psychotherapy and drugs obtained by Health Canada’s SAP.
Nicholas Kadysh the chair of the board of directors for PsyCan told True North that the average cost for a day of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is $400 – $500 for the drugs but up to $4000 for the therapy itself.
Kadysh said that only about 400 patients have been approved by Health Canada for the Special Access Program in the last two years. He said that 200 patients a year is a “drop in the bucket” compared to the mental health challenges facing Canadians.
“We’re calling for a psychedelics access program modelled on Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations because there should be more access than just SAP,” he said. “And as always, we’re calling for more research funding through the Canadian Institute of Health Research.”
US Veteran’s Affairs approved $20 million in spending on research into MDMA and Psilocybin for mental health treatments, and the US Department of Defense spent an additional $10 million to explore psychedelic therapies. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has only spent a “grand total” of $3 million following PsyCan’s calls to action in 2022.
CAF veteran Kelsi Sheren, an author and speaker at the conference, credits psychedelic therapy for positively changing and saving her life. She was diagnosed with PTSD, major depressive disorder, treatment-resistant depression and an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury following her military service in Afghanistan.
Sheren told True North in an interview that it’s easier for Canadians to access assisted suicide than it is to receive potentially life-affirming psychedelic therapy, an issue she has advocated for.
Sheren had to travel abroad to access the treatment and says she had to pay out of pocket to try various psychedelic treatments rather than give in to her suicidal thoughts incurred by her military service.
She said Health Canada told her she had to try electroshock therapy before she would be allowed to access psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, which she argues has resulted in positive outcomes.
“Electroshock therapy can send somebody into an epileptic fit, and it shuts down parts of their brain and kills brain cells, whereas psilocybin does the exact opposite,” Sheren said.
Both Sheren and Kadysh said that although treatment may differ for patients, psychedelic therapy could be something that is only done every six months rather than the daily and lifelong treatment plan associated with drugs such as Prozac or SSRIs, which could have severe physical and mental health effects.
“The scientific community is more or less convinced, but of course, these are controlled substances, so people are naturally very wary at the end of the day,” Kadysh said. “From our perspective, there is a pathway: people are getting approved, and if they’re getting approved, it needs to be paid for.”
Today on Rachel and the Republic, Rachel Parker explains that the establishment media is trying to get voters accustomed to waiting days or even weeks for election results.
Rachel also breaks down some of the nefarious voting activity happening in key swing states ahead of the election on Tuesday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office confirmed that he would release the identities of all MPs “deemed to have knowingly participated in foreign interference,” if elected.
During his testimony before a federal inquiry on foreign interference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed he is aware “of a number of parliamentarians, former parliamentarians and/or candidates” within the Conservative party who are “engaged, or at high risk” of foreign interference.
Trudeau said that as prime minister, he was briefed on this classified information.
However, Poilievre accused the prime minister of “lying” and demanded he release the names of said MPs in a committee report in which he called the intelligence “troubling.”
Poilievre has refused to make himself privy to the intelligence briefing because it would prevent him from releasing the information to the public.
The Conservative leader has received considerable criticism from his political rivals, including other party leaders who have received a security clearance to be briefed on the information.
However, the Conservative leader said his chief of staff receives them on his behalf.
A spokesperson for Poilievre’s office recently told the National Post that he intends to release the names should his party win the next federal election.
“For those who are deemed to have knowingly participated in foreign interference, yes,” said spokesperson Sebastian Skamski, adding that Poilievre “will of course” inform himself of the classified information once in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“(Poilievre) will be upfront and honest with Canadians and be transparent about the threats posed by foreign interference, unlike Justin Trudeau who continues to hide and obstruct the truth for political gain,” said Skamski.
“Justin Trudeau should release the names if he has nothing to hide.”
However, Gabriel Brunet, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc called Poilievre’s comments “reckless proclamations,” saying that “Poilievre should start by getting his security clearance so that he can get properly briefed on this matter.”
Brunet argued that the Trudeau government created a committee to review the findings of Canada’s intelligence agencies in a way that won’t compromise national security.
NDP public safety critic Alistar MacGregor said his party supports releasing names “so long as it’s in a way that protects national security,” saying that making the information public “shouldn’t be about political interests.”
“Pierre Poilievre is refusing to do the responsible thing, the necessary thing, even though a number of compromised Conservative MPs and candidates are named in classified documents only available to him if he obtains that clearance,” said MacGregor in a statement released on Tuesday.
However, Poilievre argues that if there were Conservative MPs named in the classified briefings, Trudeau would have already made them public.
“We know he’d release the names if he had them. This is a prime minister who releases information on foreign interference whenever it suits his political purposes,” said Poilievre in Ottawa on Monday.
“We said, ‘we’ve got nothing to hide so name the names Mr. Trudeau,’ … so that all Canadians can hold them to account,” he added.
Government-appointed special interlocutor on residential schools Kimberly Murray released her final report on Tuesday, and is again calling for those who question the residential schools narrative in Canada to be fined or jailed, as well as tracked by the feds.
Murray was appointed in 2022 by Justin Trudeau’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General at the time, David Lametti.
In her June 2023 Interim Report, Murray urged the federal government to implement “legal mechanisms to address denialism, including implementing criminal and civil sanctions.”
Her October 2024 “Final Report on the Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada” again asks the federal government to make “downplaying” or “justifying” the residential school system illegal.
“The federal government must amend the Criminal Code, making it an offence to wilfully promote hatred against Indigenous Peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying, or justifying the Indian Residential School System or by misrepresenting facts relating to it,” the report reads. “The federal government must include provisions in Bill C-63: An Act to Enact the Online Harms Act to address the harms associated with denialism about Indian Residential Schools.”
Murray also calls for the implementation of a government-run system to track dissenters. She writes that the federal government must combat Indian Residential School denialism by “tracking the dissemination of disinformation and misinformation about Indian Residential Schools, missing and disappeared children, and unmarked graves and burial sites.”
Murray writes that online social media platforms, digital companies, and search engines must be government-regulated and required to “immediately remove the dissemination of misinformation, disinformation, and falsehoods about Indian Residential Schools, missing and disappeared children, and unmarked graves and burial sites.”
In her report, Murray singles out former senator Lynn Beyak, “Grave Error” author and political scientist Tom Flanagan, and indigenous affairs expert and author Frances Widdowson as “denialists.” Murray claims the National Post newspaper is guilty of fueling residential school denialism.
Murray says that those who don’t consider the residential school system a “genocide” are denialists. Additionally, those who say they “do not know the truth about the deaths at Indian Residential Schools” are denialists, in Murray’s view.
In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps First Nation of Kamloops, B.C. announced that they had discovered the “remains” of 215 residential school students in unmarked graves. That July they downgraded their claim to 200 “targets of interest,” and in the years since then, they have stopped providing any updates at all and gone silent.
The “215” narrative caused a moral panic in Canada, with over 112 churches burned down or vandalized as revenge against Christian-operated residential schools and flags lowered for several months in 2021.
Murray’s report claims that “media institutions have failed to investigate or apologize for their complicity in settler colonialism that has perpetuated harms against Indigenous Peoples,” and calls for reparations from media, universities, and the medical profession.
From the federal government, Murray demands “penalties, effective monitoring, and enforcement mechanisms” upon those who question the mainstream narrative about residential schools and do their own research.
Canada will need to nearly double its military spending to fulfil its NATO commitment of 2% of GDP by 2032 according to the federal budget watchdog.
Additionally, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that Canada would miss the target by even more than the Liberals initially projected.
According to a PBO report released Wednesday, the Liberals’ current forecast falls short, reaching only 1.76% of GDP by 2029-30, which itself is based on flawed GDP growth forecasts.
“The 1.76% figure is based on an erroneous GDP forecast: the nominal GDP growth rates applied in this forecast for fiscal years 2025-26 through 2029-30 average around 1.7%,” reads the report. “Such low growth rates are unlikely to outpace inflation and imply a four-year economic recession, almost twice the length of the country’s longest recession in the last 40 years.”
In reality, the PBO said that military spending will only reach 1.58% of GDP by 2029-30, based on substituting the flawed GDP forecast with more accurate projections from the PBO and Department of Finance, leaving a 0.42% point gap to meet the target by 2032.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the NATO summit in July that Canada would not meet the 2% target until 2032.
“Despite this announcement, the government has yet to release figures detailing how it will further increase defence spending to reach the 2% target by 2032,” reads the report.
The report highlighted a forecast showing that military spending would need to reach $81.9 billion by 2032, almost double the $41 billion expenditure for 2024. The PBO added that Canada’s defence budget shows spending levels will reach $57.8 billion by 2029-30. To hit the 2% goal, the PBO highlighted that this value should be $73.1 billion by 2029-30.
The new defence plan released by the Liberals prioritized climate change and missed the NATO target. However, the PBO highlighted that even the latest numbers were flawed and that the goal would be missed by more than the Liberals initially claimed.
The Liberals’ original budget called for a $40.1 billion deficit, with no path toward balancing it. However, another recent report from the federal budget watchdog estimated that the deficit would reach $46.8 billion this year.
“The Trudeau government continues to mismanage our finances, and that means more money wasted on interest charges, higher taxes, and more debt that Canadians’ kids and grandkids have to pay back,” said Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Franco Terrazzano.
The call followed 23 U.S. senators penning a letter to Trudeau urging him to do the same.
Canada’s inability or unwillingness to hit the 2% GDP spending target is reflected in its military preparedness.
Conservative defence critic James Bezan highlighted that only 58% of Canada’s military is ready to deploy. He said the country is short 16,000 troops, while 10,000 more are “undertrained and undeployable.”
The party said that the country’s warships are rusting out, the fighter jets are worn out, the army is hollowed, and the air squadrons are being shut down due to a lack of personnel.
Despite the Liberals implementing a plan to boost recruitment by lowering standards and promoting diversity over merit, the Armed Forces’ numbers continue to falter.
In 2022, just 5,242 Canadians joined the military, marking a 35% drop from 8,069 in 2021. This sharp decline persisted despite the Defence Minister’s late 2022 announcement inviting permanent residents to join Canada’s military.
Between Nov. 1, 2022, and Nov. 24, 2023, 21,472 permanent residents applied to the Canadian Armed Forces, but only 77 were accepted.NATO currently has 32 member countries. Based on NATO’s data, of 31 listed countries, Canada has the fifth lowest defence expenditure as a share of GDP % in 2024, at 1.37%. The highest country is Poland, at 4.12%.
In a recent press conference, investigative journalist Sam Cooper and Independent MP Kevin Vuong accused four officials of being involved in a foreign interference scheme.
Plus, a True North exclusive reveals the planning behind a Parks Canada exhibit that smears Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A Macdonald.
And the Edmonton Police Service confirmed it was investigating an alleged sexual assault involving an Uber driver.
Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Clayton DeMaine!
