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Sunday, July 6, 2025

Trudeau tells Canadians to “hunker down” as provinces enter COVID lockdowns

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is telling Canadians to “hunker down” over the Christmas holidays as provincial governments order people to stay in their homes and cancel events due to the Omicron variant.

Trudeau made the comments on Wednesday during a video statement to Canadians aired on CPAC. 

“I know nobody wants to be in this situation right now but Canadians have shown that we’re there for our neighbours, we’re there for our most vulnerable, we’re there for our frontline workers,” said Trudeau. 

“We stick up for each other, we make those tough choices to keep each other safe and we know that as long and dark that winter can be, spring is coming and spring will be better if we hunker down in the coming weeks.” 

On Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced a new spate of lockdown measures which included 50% capacity limits for restaurants, gyms, retailers and other indoor spaces. 

The province also limited social gatherings to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors. Bars and other venues will be required to close their doors by 11 p.m. with the option of continuing takeout and delivery past that time. 

Alcohol sales will also be shut down at 10 p.m. province-wide. 

Quebec has also implemented new measures to curb the spread of the virus and is expected to introduce even more stringent restrictions soon. 

As of last week, all bars, casinos, theatres, spas and gyms were ordered to shutter their doors. Quebec also closed elementary and high schools, with in-person learning expected to return on Jan. 10. 

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is expected to announce more measures on Wednesday evening. Some reports have speculated that these will include a curfew and a two-week shutdown on non-essential businesses and restaurants. 

In British Columbia earlier this week, provincial health officer Bonnie Henry announced a total ban on gatherings including weddings, receptions, Christmas parties and other indoor events. 

Bars, gyms and nightclubs have also been ordered to shut down, while indoor venues have had their capacity reduced to 50%. 

Meanwhile in Alberta, the provincial government also reduced capacity by 50% for large venues and businesses as well as introducing vaccine booster shots for all adults. Restaurants and bars are being ordered to limit table capacity, and dancing is prohibited. 

In the Prairies, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have also curbed capacity limits. Manitoba health minister Audrey Gordon announced a limit to indoor gatherings with vaccinated people to include members of the household plus ten guests. Meanwhile, unvaccinated households are being limited to five guests at a time. 

Gyms, movie theaters and restaurants have also been ordered to reduce their capacities to 50%. 

As for Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, his government has stated that it won’t restrict indoor gatherings but instead asked Canadians to be conscientious of pandemic rules when gathering. 

“We will increase measures if it is necessary, but they shouldn’t be your first point to go when it comes to finding your way through any potential COVID wave,” said Moe. 

Atlantic Canada has also seen an increase in restrictions. In Nova Scotia, gatherings have been limited to 10 people for both indoor and outdoor settings. Events such as festivals and sporting events are prohibited. Businesses and restaurants are being ordered to maintain a 50% capacity limit. 

The PEI government announced similar measures including ordering all bars and restaurants to close at 11 p.m. and requiring out-of-province travellers to isolate for four days. Newfoundland and Labrador has announced similar travel restrictions. 

In New Brunswick, Premier Blaine Higgs has said that he will announce new restrictions following Christmas. 

As for the territories, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have added inter-provincial travel advisories. 

Nunavut has also ordered venues to reduce their capacity to 50%. Outdoor gatherings have been restricted to 50 people while indoor gatherings are limited to 10. Capacity limits have also been placed on gyms, places of worship and restaurants. 

Why do Christians get criticized and denigrated, ignored and erased?

By
Candice Malcolm
-

We’re living in post-modern, post-nationalist times. The secular value of the separation of church and state has been taken to an extreme in Canada — and has led to the complete removal of religious symbols, concepts and festivities in the public square. 

Why do Christians get criticized and denigrated, ignored and erased? 

Can we completely erase Christianity from our modern society? Can we divorce our values, our norms, our morality from their Judeo-Christian roots? Should we? The political left enthusiastically says ‘yes,’ but there is also a growing appetite for learning more about the traditions, norms, values and attitudes that help build our modern day society. 

For a special Christmas week edition to The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Ray Pennings of Cardus to discuss the importance of Christmas and the value of Christianity in modern times. 

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Calgary mayor and majority of councillors refuse to consider pay freeze for themselves

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

An attempt by a group of Calgary city councillors to freeze council’s salaries failed on Monday after Mayor Jyoti Gondek and a majority of council members rejected adding the motion to the agenda. 

The proposal, which would implement a fourth consecutive wage freeze for city council, was put forward as an urgent motion by Calgary city councillor Dan McLean. This proposal was signed by fellow councillors Sonya Sharp, Andre Chabot, Sean Chu and Jennifer Wyness. 

“Do you think the Mayor and City Council deserve a raise while so many Calgarians are struggling in this current economic climate?” said McLean in a tweet. “I do not, so I’ve put forth a motion to freeze our wages at Monday’s Combined Meeting of Council.” 

Gondek ruled against adding the proposal to the meeting’s agenda, arguing it had been “sprung” on council at the last minute, according to the Calgary Herald. 

“I didn’t know it was coming,” said Gondek. “In my opinion, there’s a more fulsome discussion to be had around this one and that’s why I’m not accepting it as urgent.”

City council had voted to freeze salaries since 2018. Base pay for city councillors is set at $113,326 per year, and the mayor makes $200,586. 

Gondek said supporters of a wage freeze should consult with the independent committee that was ordered to review salaries of members of Calgary City Council. 

The committee, which was struck in 2020, suggested adjustments to council salaries should come from a formula based on Alberta’s average weekly earnings. 

McLean and his supporters said the formula will lead to a pay increase in 2022, and they are opposed to it because of Calgary’s economy. 

Some councillors expressed frustration that the proposal for a pay freeze was rejected from the agenda and yet an urgent motion on a response to Quebec’s Bill 21 was added.

Supporters of the wage freeze tried to challenge Gondek’s decision, but they lost the vote 9-6. 

“I was very disappointed that it was blocked by the mayor and some of her followers,” McLean told the Calgary Herald. “I would’ve liked to have seen a healthy debate but it was blocked before it was brought forward.”

Calgary City Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra said council should not be involved in setting salaries. 

“Previous councils have spent quite a bit of time setting up a situation where how we’re compensated is reviewed by independent citizen boards, benchmarked to well-established performance (indicators) of our economy,” said Carra. “Why anyone would want to try to open that black box and get involved is deeply problematic.”

Conservatives and Liberals strike last-minute deal on leave for bereaved parents

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Conservative and Liberal MPs banded together just before Christmas break to extend bereavement leave for parents who have lost a young or disabled child.

The effort was spearheaded by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec who lost his daughter Lucy-Rose when she was 39 days old in 2018. Kmiec has been fighting to give grieving parents longer leave for some time now. 

Kmiec says he was inspired to pursue the law due to his and his wife’s struggles. 

“I experienced it first hand, and read so many stories of people who were so deep in their grief they could not work,” said Kmiec. 

“There were intense negotiations. They made an offer that if they accept to put in bereavement leave, that we would expedite the bill.” 

Kmiec’s private members bill was up for debate prior to the 2021 election, but the dropping of the writ brought it all to a halt.

Kmiec’s bill received bipartisan support this week after labour minister Seamus O’Regan struck a deal with his counterpart, Conservative MP and labour critic Scott Atchison. 

“It became evident to me that because of Mr. Kmiec’s personal tragedy that the entire Commons felt very strongly about it,” O’Regan said. 

“I know they were coming to me with something that meant a lot and was born from a very personal tragedy.”

The law change received royal assent last week and will now allow grieving parents in the public sector or federally-regulated industries to take eight weeks of unpaid leave. 

Prior to the change, bereaved parents could take only ten days of leave total – five paid and five unpaid. 

The extended leave is available to parents who lose a child under the age of 18 as well as those who have a stillborn baby following 20 weeks gestation. The parents of a disabled child who passes away are also eligible.  

A Christmas wish list for taxpayers

By
Andrew Lawton
-

It’s been an expensive year for taxpayers with an increase in the carbon tax, an unnecessary federal election, and a hike in alcohol taxes among other expenditures. Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation put together a wish list for taxpayers with a dozen items ranging from ending the gas tax-on-tax to ending automatic pay increases for members of parliament. He joined The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss his list, and also the stories he’ll be watching out for in 2022.

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Trudeau appoints Liberal donor to Alberta superior court

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed another long-time Liberal party donor to a Canadian court of law. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Attorney General David Lametti made the announcement on Monday. The judge in question, Michel Bourque, was appointed justice of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench. 

Bourque’s appointment was announced one day after Parliament went on Christmas recess. 

“I wish Justice Bourque every success as he takes on his new role. I am confident he will serve the people of Alberta well,” said Lametti. 

Bourque has donated extensively to the Liberal party over the past four years. His contributions total $14,497 spread out over 95 different donations. 

Additionally, Bourque has contributed a total of $8,388 to the Alberta New Democratic Party.

Conservatives have accused the Liberals of stacking judicial benches in their favour from a pool of ardent party supporters. 

This summer, Conservative MP Michael Cooper put forward a motion in the Commons justice committee to review court appointments which he characterized as “a list of Liberal Party members, supporters, volunteers and donors.” 

“This raises questions about whether certain candidates for appointments were given preferential treatment,” said Cooper of his motion. 

“There have been allegations substantiated about political interference directed by the Prime Minister’s Office with respect to the appointment of judges.” 

Cooper’s motion was rejected by the Liberals who claimed the suggestion that they were stacking the courts was offensive. 

“There are many lawyers who are practicing in the courts in every jurisdiction in Canada who are active politically,”  said Liberal MP James Maloney. “Should that, does that disqualify them from being appointed to the bench? No, of course not. It’s outrageous to suggest that.”

Maloney went on to claim that he found the motion troubling, disturbing and offensive. 

“Let me also add our justice minister is one of the most ethical, decent, honest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” he said. “This motion suggests that might be in question. That alone is incredibly offensive.”

COVID news reports often look more like propaganda than journalism

By
Candice Malcolm
-

When it comes to reporting on COVID in Canada, the legacy media are failing Canadians. 

Journalists don’t report the facts, they only push a narrative – even if it means burying important facts. The result is that journalists sound like government propagandists and their reports look like vaccine infomercials. 

Today on The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Toronto Sun comment editor and columnist Anthony Furey to discuss the media groupthink when it comes to COVID. 

Throughout the pandemic, Furey has been willing to go against the grain, report inconvenient facts and push back against media nonsense – and as a result, some legacy journalists have attacked him for it.

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Health Minister complains of hate mail over allowing grocery stores to allow vaccine passports

By
Harley Sims
-

Days after reversing a decision that allowed grocery stores to ban unvaccinated Canadians, New Brunswick health minister Dorothy Shephard is saying some of the mail she received over the policy “crossed the line.”

In an interview with the Times & Transcript, Shephard describes receiving a “huge onslaught” of the material, including hundreds of emails.

“I think I have a thick skin,” Shephard says. “It doesn’t change the fact that some of these emails have crossed the line.”

The Department of Health confirmed that particularly threatening examples have been sent to the Department of Justice and Public Safety for assessment. The RCMP would not confirm whether it was investigating.

One of the emails accuses Shephard of “literally causing people to starve to death this winter,” while another advises her to “sleep with one eye open.”

“People like you always get what’s coming to you,” another states. The writer goes on to wish Shephard “a slow and painful death.”

Shephard did not mention the number of emails she had received in total, nor the proportion of the pushback she deemed legitimate. True North reached out to Shephard’s office but received no response.

Lawyer Andre Memauri with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms told True North that the minister shouldn’t be surprised with the reaction, given what the policy had authorized.

“Authorizing the potential denial of access to food is a reprehensible misuse of governmental authority,” Memauri says. “The Justice Centre publicly denounced the Government’s Order of December 4, 2021 because it is unconstitutional and should it have remained in place, it would have necessitated legal proceedings,” Memauri said.

“While the Justice Centre never condones threats or acts of violence against any person, it ought to be no surprise to the Honourable Minister that authorizing the denial of grocery shopping to tens of thousands of people might elicit a strong emotional response from the community.”

People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier also has some strong words for Shephard’s complaints. Having originally called banning unvaccinated Canadians from grocery stores a “red line,” he takes issue with any personal distress the minister claims over the pushback.  

“It’s too bad the minister needed a huge public backlash to realize the stupidity of her decision and to reverse it,” Bernier says. “Anyone with a brain and with a minimum of compassion would not have adopted such an abhorrent policy in the first place.”

“As for the hate content of any letter she received, I am not responsible for what individual Canadians write when they react to a policy debate and contact a minister. That’s her problem. Instead of complaining about letters, she might want to reflect on the anguish she caused among New Brunswickers and all Canadians when she escalated the level of discrimination and segregation that millions of them have had to endure because of authoritarian government policies during this pandemic.”

Focusing on extreme or illegal fringe elements has long been a way for politicians and mainstream media to delegitimize protests against lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

Earlier this month in Victoria B.C., officials and legacy media reporters condemned an anti-vaccine-mandate protest for including politicians being hanged in effigy even though organizers said they hadn’t invited the ones who staged the hangings.

“We tried to remove them, but they were not willing to move,” organizer Joseph Robert told Global News. “…It had nothing to do with the essence and what the organization had in this event.”

Despite being reversed due to backlash, the New Brunswick policy on vaccine passports for grocery stores was deemed fake news by several online outlets and fact-checkers.

Taxpayer watchdog demands Ontario government stop giving money to political parties

By
Jonathan Bradley
-

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called on the Ontario government to fulfil its promise to scrap the province’s political party funding on Monday. 

“Despite promising to end sleazy handouts to political parties when he ran for office, Ford has failed to scrap the system,” said CTF Ontario director Jay Goldberg. “He isn’t alone: All four of Ontario’s major political parties have helped themselves to millions of dollars from taxpayers’ wallets.”

Goldberg said all four of the province’s main political parties will take a record $14 million in subsidies by the end of 2021. 

These per-vote subsidies amount to political welfare, according to Goldberg. He said taxpayers’ money is being spent on lawn signs, attack ads and junk mail. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford committed to scrapping per-vote subsidies in 2018 but changed his mind in February. 

Ontario plans on keeping per-vote subsidies in place until 2024. 

Goldberg said it is wrong for Ontario to have them at all. 

“The Ford government used the pandemic as an excuse to keep the party with taxpayers’ money going, but the government extended the per-vote subsidy all the way until the end of 2024,” he said. “The premier needs to keep his promise and scrap political welfare.”

Former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne created the per-vote subsidies system in 2014. Under Wynne’s plan, political parties received an annual 55 cent payment for every vote they garnered in the most recent provincial election. 

Ford promised to end these subsidies, but instead attorney general Doug Downey announced the province would be increasing them by eight cents a vote. 

Downey claimed the raise was necessary because political parties needed help during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“COVID came along, and we want to make sure that we have good, vigorous debate here in Ontario,” said Downey. 

Canada and allies concerned about “erosion of democratic elements” in Hong Kong

By
Harrison Faulkner
-
Source: PIxaby

Following a pro-Beijing sweep in Hong Kong’s legislative council election on Sunday which saw a record low voter turnout of only 30.2%, Canada and its allies have expressed “grave concern” about the undemocratic nature of the election.

According to Global News, foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement with the United States’ secretary of state on Monday in response to the election. 

“We … express our grave concern over the erosion of democratic elements of the Special Administrative Region’s electoral system. Actions that undermine Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy are threatening our shared wish to see Hong Kong succeed,” the statement reads.

“The overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system introduced earlier this year reduced the number of directly elected seats and established a new vetting process to severely restrict the choice of candidates on the ballot paper. These changes eliminated any meaningful political opposition.”

Canada and its allies urged China to respect the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. 

Sunday’s election saw the lowest voter turnout since 1997 – when the British handed Hong Kong over to China. 

According to the BBC, activists were arrested if they urged people to boycott the election or to leave their ballots blank in protest. 

In March, Beijing passed a “patriots governing Hong Kong” resolution, which significantly altered Hong Kong’s legislative council.

Under Hong Kong’s new laws, only 20 of the 90 seats are elected by the public. Most of the lawmakers were appointed by pro-Beijing bodies to ensure a majority in the legislature. Further, all candidates must be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee prior to being nominated. 

Sunday’s election was the first election since China introduced its national security law, which targeted pro-democracy protesters and gave the government unprecedented powers to oversee the media, internet, schools and social organizations. 

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