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Monday, July 7, 2025

CFIB condemns Ontario government for reintroducing restrictions

By
Jonathan Bradley
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The Ontario government cannot keep bringing in lockdown measures because they are destroying small businesses, said the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) on Monday. 

“Two weeks to flatten the curve for the health care system is quickly turning into two years for small businesses affected by lockdowns and other restrictions,” said the CFIB in a statement. “Closing gyms, indoor dining and arts and recreation venues is a particularly devastating way to ring in the new year for some of the hardest-hit industries already on their knees.” 

The CFIB said that in Toronto, indoor dining has been halted for 408 days because of closures, and gyms have been shuttered for 395. 

Only 35% of Ontario’s small businesses have returned to normal revenues, according to the business group. The average COVID-19 debt for an Ontario small business is $190,000, and 18.5% – almost one in five – are thinking about declaring bankruptcy. 

There are no provincial supports for small businesses to access, and grant funding has not been available since April. 

The CFIB said Ontario’s property tax and energy rebate program and tax deferrals will provide some relief. However, this funding is “not nearly enough, not accessible today and will kick the debt further down the road.” 

The business group said the new restrictions will be “the tipping point for many small firms.” 

“It is not lost on business owners that each time the Ontario government has closed businesses, they have gone well beyond the promised lockdown period,” they said. “CFIB calls on the government to immediately reintroduce provincial grant support for all businesses affected in any way by today’s announcement and provide an immediate pathway to reopening.” 

Ontario brought back lockdown measures because of high COVID-19 case counts due to the Omicron variant. Premier Doug Ford made the announcement on Monday, calling the new restrictions “time-limited.”  

“As we continue with our provincial vaccine booster efforts, we must look at every option to slow the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant,” said Ford. “Putting these targeted and time-limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against this virus.”

These new measures will take effect on Wednesday. They include capping retail stores at 50% capacity, closing indoor meeting and event venues and shutting down indoor dining in bars and restaurants. 

New Blue Party leader Jim Karahalios called the new restrictions wrong.

“No more excuses for Doug Ford & PCs – they’re nothing but a clone of the lobbyist establishment & Liberals they pretended to replace,” said Karahalios in a tweet. “They promised everything would go back to normal with jabs.” 

LEVY: Ford’s “decisive decision” shows nothing but indecision

By
Sue-Ann Levy
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Sporting his ‘very serious’ face, Ontario premier Doug Ford told the media Monday he made a very “decisive decision” in sending the province back into near-lockdown mode à la mid-2020.

“We face a tsunami of new cases in the weeks ahead,” Ford said. “Omicron isn’t like the other variants…it’s much more transmissible.”

Ford kept repeating that hospitals will be overwhelmed by this apparent “tsunami.”

Of course what the premier didn’t mention – all the while plugging booster shots as a panacea – was that vaccinated people are still getting Omicron. Neither did we hear anything about the strain being much milder – akin to the cold or the flu –  and that it has led to far fewer deaths.

Ford said it only took him “30 seconds” to decide to lock the province back down. 

That’s 30 seconds to decide to push Ontario businesses already barely hanging on by their fingernails into a death spiral. That’s half a minute to decide to keep kids desperate for socialization and face-to-face learning out of the classroom and to force Ontario residents to hunker down yet again in their homes during a month that already brings with it an array of mental health issues.

Ontarians, like the rest of Canadians, have complied with edict after edict. They’ve gotten vaccinated and boosted, and they wear those silly masks that really only provide comfort to the lawmakers.

Look. As a politician you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

But if our weak leaders should have learned anything over the past two years – yes, two years! – it’s that lockdowns don’t work and that the only people who really get hurt are those forced into repeated isolation. Chief among them are school kids who have missed so much proper in-class learning and those who have not been able to access health care for diseases besides COVID that kill.

Before New Year’s, Ontario school kids were returning to the classroom on Jan. 5, two days late but still manageable. The rest of the province’s services would remain status quo, except for the lack of availability of PCR tests for all.

But our easily intimidated politicians went back to moving the goalposts.

Over the weekend, instead of celebrating what should have been a freer 2022, the celebrity doctors, activists, NDP politicians and whiny teachers all got on social media and applied pressure – undue and non-stop pressure. Those of us who criticized their outrageous claims were attacked or blocked.

Countless teachers who probably shopped at crowded big box stores preparing for New Year’s suddenly developed this uncontrollable panic. Of course, it’s all about protecting kids! It’s not the fact that teaching online is far more convenient and cozy in the throes of January.

The legacy media, all of whom waited with bated breath for the latest lockdown, announced the measures with apparent glee on Monday – no need to cover any other news when they can endlessly repeat the government’s COVID numbers.

In Florida, the Omicron cases are at an all-time high too. The difference is that governor Ron DeSantis has the courage of his convictions and has recognized that at some point personal responsibility must play a part. In other words, people must accept their own responsibility to get vaccinated and boosted and to decide whether to mask up.

In Ontario, the government’s overstretch has become the best definition of insanity – that is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Ontario hospitals facing staffing shortages amid Omicron variant spread

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

Ontario’s hospitals are facing severe staffing challenges as the Omicron variant spreads through the province, infecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals.

While Ontario is reporting a record number of active cases of COVID-19, fewer people entering hospitals are critically ill from the virus. However, hospital networks are reporting that many staff members have tested positive for the virus, are symptomatic or are in isolation after an exposure.

“There aren’t health care workers growing on trees, so it’s a very, very limited supply and they’re in hot demand everywhere,” Toronto’s University Health Network President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Smith told the Canadian Press.

Smith believes staff are able to manage the current volumes but worries the situation will change soon.

“I’m obviously worried that as we get people engaged in larger and larger amounts of social interaction, including in schools and other environments, there is risk of additional and significant spread,” he said.

“Our hope is that populations like those wouldn’t require hospitalization, but we have to be prepared for the fact that they will because in other countries, we’re seeing kids’ admissions going up.”

In order to prepare for a potential surge in hospitalizations, Smith is urging Health Canada to immediately approve Paxlovid, Pfizer’s antiviral COVID-19 pills, for emergency use. 

As reported by True North’s Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, nearly 10,000 unvaccinated health care workers across Canada have been placed on unpaid leave or had their jobs terminated by health authorities as of Dec. 16.

While the Ontario government has not implemented a mandatory vaccine requirement for health care workers, individual hospitals have introduced their own initiatives and laid off workers who do not comply.

Approximately 1,665 health care workers were sacked in Ontario because of their vaccine status, though some have argued that the true number may be as high as 11,000.

Hospitals across Canada are facing a severe shortage of staff. 

In Alberta, the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital’s Women’s Health Program has temporarily suspended labour and delivery services because of “staffing challenges.”

In Quebec, the government announced that health care workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 will keep working under certain conditions. 

Majority of Canadians – including the vaccinated – oppose vaccine mandates

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

A majority of Canadians oppose government efforts to stigmatize and punish individuals who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to in-house government research.

As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Privy Council research revealed that any domestic vaccination passport system was very unpopular among Canadians – including individuals who chose to be vaccinated. 

“There was not a great desire among the Canadian public to implement such a program for Canadians,” said the report titled Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views. 

The report stated that opposition “centred on the issues this would cause for those individuals who do not wish to be vaccinated” and that “some felt their personal choice in this regard should be respected.”

The Privy Council report revealed that a majority of Canadians believed it was wrong to deny unvaccinated individuals access to public services. Many believed vaccine mandates infringed on Canadians’ civil liberties. 

“The requirement to show documentation, for some, seemed overly intrusive” and “was simply unnecessary,” said the report.

“Many mentioned the impact of implementing vaccine passports on civil liberties, viewing it as an infringement on the ability of unvaccinated people to travel.”

According to the report, while some Canadians supported vaccination requirements for international travellers, most people “specified they would only support such measures for entry into Canada but not for use in daily life within the country.”

The report was published on Oct. 29 and was one of a $1.6 million series of interviews by researchers with the Strategic Counsel.

While politicians, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, originally opposed mandating vaccines and bringing in vaccine passports, both measures have been implemented across Canada in recent months. 

Unvaccinated Canadians are unable to access a number of venues and services, including restaurants, sports events and gyms. Further, individuals who have declined to get vaccinated have been demonized by politicians and the legacy media.

In August, The Toronto Star published a front page that stated, “I have no empathy left for the willfully unvaccinated. Let them die.”

On more than one occasion, Justin Trudeau has accused unvaccinated Canadians of being “racist and misogynistic extremists.”

Despite the attacks on unvaccinated individuals, COVID vaccines have been unable to protect Canadians from the Omicron variant. In Ontario, new COVID infections have been predominantly among fully vaccinated individuals. 

Professor who criticized indigenization agenda fired by university

By
Lindsay Shepherd
-

A tenured Calgary professor known for challenging the prevailing narratives and policies surrounding Indigenous peoples in Canada has been fired by her university.

Frances Widdowson was informed of her immediate termination from Mount Royal University (MRU) in a Dec. 20, 2021 letter. She had been employed at MRU since 2008.

Widdowson, a tenured associate professor in the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, was accused by MRU president Tim Rahilly of contributing to a “toxic workplace environment,” thereby “negatively impacting the mission and reputation of the University.” 

An accomplished academic and author, Widdowson has argued that Indigenous policy development over the past thirty-plus years has been manipulated by elite non-aboriginal lawyers and consultants. 

In addition to co-writing Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation (2008) with Albert Howard, Widdowson has also published Separate but Unequal: How Parallelist Ideology Conceals Indigenous Dependency (2019). 

Widdowson has pointed out that the hundreds of millions of dollars made off of the continued legal battles of Indigenous peoples never seem to address or solve the high rates of substance abuse, poverty or violence in Indigenous communities.

She has also published many pieces critiquing university indigenization initiatives, land acknowledgments, and the hyperbolic narrative that the unmarked graves and soil disturbances uncovered this past spring are indicative of “genocide.” 

Widdowson is a leading advocate for open inquiry on university campuses. She holds a board position with the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship and founded the Rational Space Network, a faculty group at MRU that promotes critical thinking and evidence-based policy development and hosts on-campus speaking events.

In Widdowson’s view, initiatives to “indigenize” university curricula dishonour the scientific method. 

Because of her views and her willingness to engage with politically incorrect perspectives, Widdowson has been targeted by ideologues for years, many of whom are relentless in trying to smear her as “racist” and “anti-Indigenous.” 

Some of Widdowson’s academic colleagues have refused to do peer reviews for publishers who accept her work. Over the summer, a student launched a petition to get Widdowson fired, and two former professors claimed in the media that they left MRU because of Widdowson’s presence. 

Despite the well-known protections surrounding tenured faculty, MRU claims they have received an “abundance” of complaints regarding Widdowson’s conduct on social media, and one of the reasons for her firing is that she shows “no remorse” for her conduct.

Because Widdowson’s union is taking the case to arbitration, neither Widdowson nor MRU would speak on the matter at time of publication.

Theresa Tam advises “pregnant people” not to drink alcohol

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Theresa Tam has recommended “pregnant people” avoid drinking alcohol to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome instead of simply referring to pregnant women.

Tam made the recommendation in a Dec. 23 tweet.

“This holiday season, help prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) by providing support for the pregnant people in your life,” wrote Tam. 

The tweet linked to another helpful piece of government advice – a memo specifying that drinking by a non-pregnant partner will not cause FASD in a pregnant one.

“A partner’s drinking will not cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorder,” read the memo. “However, it can influence the birthing parent’s consumption and the healthy development of the baby.”

The page goes on to advise that partners can support “pregnant people” by not drinking alcohol, being supportive and present and encouraging them to not drink while pregnant. It suggests there are many reasons why people consume alcohol when they are pregnant, including not knowing they are pregnant, using alcohol to cope with problems, having an addiction or being unaware of the risks of drinking. 

Tam has used woke language in the past when speaking about pregnancy. 

On Nov. 26, she urged “pregnant and breastfeeding people” to be vaccinated against COVID-19.  

“While Canada has achieved great success in vaccinating a significant proportion of our population against COVID-19, some groups lag behind in uptake,” she said. “One key group that appears to have lower uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is people who are pregnant.”

Tam added, “research shows that breastmilk of people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have antibodies.” 

On Jan. 5 2021, she advised “pregnant people” and children under five years old to take their flu shots. 

Twitter users were quick to criticize Tam for avoiding the term “pregnant women.” 

Tam’s language echoes the Liberal government’s ongoing commitment to “gender inclusivity.” 

In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau interrupted a woman during a town hall to correct her use of the word “mankind.” 

“We like to say peoplekind, not necessarily mankind, because it’s more inclusive,” said Trudeau. 

Quebec backpedals, allows dog-walking outside during curfew

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

Following public outrage, Quebec will permit people to walk their dogs between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the hours covered by the province’s latest curfew, according to the Canadian Press. 

“As currently drafted in the ministerial decree, the fact of leaving your residence to walk your dog is not one of the exceptions to go out outside of curfew hours,” said the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services in an email to the Canadian Press on Sunday. “However, it is the government’s intention to include this missing exception again as soon as possible.” 

Quebec’s current curfew came into effect Friday. Quebecers were notified via an emergency alert sent to their cellphones and televisions. The government reimposed the curfew because of high COVID-19 case counts brought on by the Omicron variant. 

Quebec’s previous curfew, which ended in May, permitted people to go outside after hours to walk their dogs if they stayed within one kilometre of their residences. 

According to the new curfew, people are permitted to stay out only if they are doing activities such as travelling to work, going to a pharmacy or heading to a medical appointment. 

Police officers have been granted the power to stop people outside of their homes during curfew hours. Fines range from $1,000 to $6,000 for those unable to justify why they are outside their homes. Youths 14 years old and up can receive a $500 fine. 

Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) spokesperson Cara Zwibel issued a statement on Friday condemning Quebec’s new curfew. 

“A curfew is particularly problematic because it purports to empower police officers to stop and question individuals simply for being outdoors at certain times of day,” said Zwibel. “The burden of these police stops is likely to fall disproportionately on racialized individuals and other marginalized groups.”

Zwibel said the CCLA is concerned about Quebec’s restrictions on private gatherings, which amount to “state intrusion into people’s homes.” The civil liberties law firm is urging Quebec to reconsider these measures and be transparent about when they will be lifted. 

Quebec is the only province in Canada to implement a curfew to stop the spread of COVID-19. The previous curfew introduced in 2021 lasted for more than five months. 

FUREY: The cost of goods will continue to get more expensive in 2022

By
Anthony Furey
-

Inflation will still be a huge issue in 2022 and Canadians will notice the cost of goods will continue to get more expensive.

Will the government curb spending and reduce taxes for Canadians? Don’t hold your breath.

Anthony Furey discusses in his latest video.

“Moronic woke judges” – Bernier slams decision to drop basic math test for new Ontario teachers

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier did not mince words after the Ontario Divisional Court ruled the province’s Math Proficiency Test for teachers unconstitutional.

“If you think courts will save us from crazy politicians, think again. Moronic woke judges in Ontario rule that a basic math test for new teachers has to go because it discriminates against ‘racialized teacher candidates,’” Bernier tweeted on Friday.


In 2019, in order to improve the dismal scores of Ontario students, the Ford government instituted a mandatory Math Proficiency Test for new teaching graduates. Aspiring teachers were required to score at least 70% – the equivalent of a low B grade, or 3.00 in the Ontario system.

“Too many students in Ontario are not succeeding in mathematics – a foundational competency that is critical to their success in life and in the labour market,” Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at the time.

Other countries have instituted similar measures, including the United Kingdom and the United States. 

However, in Dec. 2021, the Ontario Divisional Court ruled that the Math Proficiency Test “had an adverse impact on entry to the teaching profession for racialized teacher candidates.”

“Racialized teacher candidates have gone through an education system in which they have suffered discrimination and disadvantage,” the court said in its decision.

A number of Ontario teachers’ unions, including the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council, applauded the court’s decision.

Recent months have brought to light several instances of teachers’ unions and school boards pushing woke ideology and critical race theory.

In November, True North contributor Sue-Ann Levy reported on how the Ontario College of Teachers called on its members to take “urgent action” on “anti-black racism” by reflecting on how their position, power and privilege are allegedly used to “maintain systems of oppression and colonialism.”

Levy also reported on how the Hamilton-Wentworth District school board promoted a series of lesson plans to advance their woke oppression by pushing an “anti-black racism” agenda for kids as young as kindergarten age.

No more childbirths at Alberta hospital due to lack of staff

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

The Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital’s Women’s Health Program has temporarily suspended labour and delivery services because of “staffing challenges.” 

The suspension of services was announced on Dec. 31 and came into effect immediately. 

Pregnant women who planned to have their babies at Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital have been advised to speak with their midwife or family doctor. They have also been told to make alternate plans at the Sturgeon Community Hospital 35 kilometres away. 

Alberta Health Services (AHS) said the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital remains open for urgent and emergency care. They encouraged pregnant women requiring non-emergency medical care to call their midwife or family doctor. 

The hospital’s labour and delivery unit reopened in March after a three-month closure intended to provide space for COVID-19 patients. 

True North estimates that about 10,000 unvaccinated health care workers across Canada have been placed on unpaid leave or terminated as of Dec. 16. These numbers come from official provincial government data and media reports over the last few months. 

AHS reported that 1650 health care workers have been fired or suspended due to vaccine mandates in Alberta, though some have argued that the true number may be as high as 11,000.

AHS said unvaccinated health care workers were removed from their positions in December although some health authorities did not specify which hospitals were affected because of “privacy concerns.” 

Several British Columbia hospitals have seen operating room closures because of that province’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. The B.C. Children’s Hospital and the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre experienced cancelled surgeries because of the mandate. 

AHS could not be reached for further comment in time for publication. 

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