Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore wants double-vaccinated Canadians to stay away from elderly family members who have received their third COVID-19 booster shot.
Ontario's top doctor advises against seeing your triple vaccinated grandparent if you're double vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/XzZhMrz5bh
Moore made the comments during Friday afternoon’s COVID-19 briefing alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
A reporter asked Moore, “as a twice-vaccinated person with no symptoms of COVID-19, should I feel safe or feel it’s worth the risk to see a grandparent who has had three vaccine shots over the holidays?”
“I personally would advise you to avoid social contact with anyone older even with two doses,” Moore answered. “If you are going to interact I would do it outdoors with masking and distancing in place. I hope the weather stays reasonable across Ontario to enable that.”
During the press conference, the Ontario government announced a new spate of strict COVID-19 measures.
The new lockdown-like restrictions include an indoor gathering capacity limit of 10 people, with 25 people outdoors. Restaurants, grocery stores, retailers and personal care services are being ordered to reduce their capacity limit to 50%.
Restaurants and bars are being told to shut their doors by 11 p.m. Takeout and delivery services are exempt.
Food and drink services have been suspended at sporting events, cinemas, casinos, theatres and concerts. Additionally, dancing has been prohibited except for professionals or workers.
Alcohol sales are being stopped at 10 p.m.
Moore is well-known for his severe opinions about avoiding COVID transmission. In October, as kids were preparing to get ready for Halloween, he advised them to wear masks while outside and “not to yell” while trick or treating in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“They’ll have masks on – it’s just not to yell too exuberantly, I think the purpose of that comment was not to aerosolize and it’s just a risk reduction strategy,” said Dr. Moore in response to a question from a reporter.
“Clearly you have to make your presence known when you get your treat and you have to be able to knock as well as ask for the treat. We just ask not with a high volume that can potentially aerosolize. It’s an abundance of caution.”
After sustained pressure by True North and its readers, the New Brunswick government has announced it is no longer allowing grocery stores to bar unvaccinated Canadians.
The announcement came Friday in a government news release on interim COVID measures directed at slowing the Omicron variant.
“An option allowing stores that sell groceries to ask patrons 12 and over for proof of vaccination, instead of implementing distancing requirements, is being removed from the province’s mandatory order.”
The announcement goes on to state that “the original intention was to give stores a choice, and that those choosing the proof-of-vaccination option would offer delivery or curbside pickup; it was never the intention for anyone to believe they could not access groceries.”
The reversal comes two weeks after the New Brunswick government’s ‘winter action plan’ gave grocery stores the option of demanding vaccine passports from anyone over 12.
True North had immediately contacted MPs, the New Brunswick Premier’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, Opposition leader Erin O’Toole’s office, the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick caucus and other politicians for comment.
People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier was the only politician who responded immediately, asking the government if it had gone “full fascist,” and declaring that banning people from grocery stores was “a red line.”
Bernier was followed over a week later by three New Brunswick Conservative MPs – John Williamson, Rob Moore and Richard Bragdon – who praised retailers for choosing not to ban people based on their vaccination status.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) had also written a warning letter to the New Brunswick justice minister about the policy on Dec. 7, which it claimed violated fundamental Human Rights.
The JCCF followed up with a letter to the City of Fredericton on Thursday when it learned that Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market had opted for the vaccine passports. The farmers market, which did not respond to True North’s inquiries, was met with backlash online.
The New Brunswick government has, however, stated that “(o)ther retail operations that do not sell groceries, along with salons and spas, can continue to ask for proof of vaccination or ensure distancing.”
In the last two years, pastors have been jailed, church doors have been locked, and Canadians of faith have been denied the right to worship because of pandemic restrictions. In this special edition of True North’s The Andrew Lawton Show, we explore this ongoing assault on religious freedom through a discussion with Libertas Law lawyer and founder Lisa Bildy, Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of the Church of God in Aylmer, Ontario, and Pastor Aaron Rock of Windsor’s Harvest Bible Church.
The mandate letter laying out priorities for Canada’s new foreign affairs minister makes no mention of China.
The Prime Minister’s Office published Justin Trudeau’s ministerial mandate letters Thursday, nearly three months after the federal election. His letter to Mélanie Joly, who replaced Marc Garneau as foreign minister in October, makes eight mentions of “climate” and five of “gender,” but none of “China.”
“As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you will advance Canada’s interests and values in a world facing increasingly complex threats and issues,” Trudeau writes in the letter. “Throughout your work, you will place the promotion of democracy, human rights, gender equality and the rule of law, as well as combatting climate change, at the core of Canada’s foreign policy.”
Earlier this month, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned that Chinese interference operations in Canada “have become normalized.”
In September, detainees Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were released from China on “bail” as Canada and the United States abandoned their efforts to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou after a years-long display of hostage diplomacy by China.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong called out the absence of China from Joly’s mandate letter in a statement to True North.
“Not only are the prime minister’s instructions in the mandate letter to Minister Joly months late, they fail to provide clear direction on a long-promised, but never-delivered policy on China,” Chong said.
“The word China does not appear even once in the mandate letter. Canada’s closest ally, the United States, has repeatedly said they are waiting for the Trudeau government’s policy on China. The Trudeau government’s repeated failure to deliver a new policy on China is increasingly isolating Canada on the world stage and putting at risk the safety and security of Canadians.”
Chong pointed to Canada’s exclusion from the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue as examples of the unseriousness – or absence – of Canada’s China policy on the global stage.
“Canada’s Conservatives will work closely with our democratic allies to defend Canadian values and stand up to Beijing’s communist leadership,” Chong added.
In March, Chong was among several Canadian officials sanctioned by the Chinese government over condemnation of China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang province.
The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion condemning China’s Uyghur genocide, though the Liberals skipped the vote, with only Garneau in attendance to abstain on the government’s behalf.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to spend more taxpayer dollars on the CBC while the crown corporation’s advertising revenues are on terminal decline.
The latest drop in advertising revenue was first revealed by Blacklock’s Reporter on Thursday. According to CBC’s latest Annual Report presented before Parliament, the broadcaster’s advertising revenue fell by 10% in 2020-21.
In his mandate letter to newly-appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez, Trudeau tasked the cabinet member with providing “additional funding” to the public broadcaster which is already subsidized by Canadians to the tune of $1.2 billion.
Specifically, Trudeau directed Rodriguez to provide “additional funding to make (CBC) less reliant on private advertising, with a goal of eliminating advertising during news and other public affairs shows.”
According to public financial disclosures, taxpayer funding makes up the vast majority of CBC’s revenue, accounting for nearly 71.2%.
The CBC has long struggled to find revenue sources outside of government. Both viewers and advertising dollars are tuning out, and the broadcaster consistently reports financial losses.
In the last year, the Crown corporation saw a decline from $219.9 million to $198.7 million in ad funds. This follows an 18% loss in revenue the previous year that amounted to $204.8 million.
“Revenue from television advertising decreased for both CBC and Radio-Canada by $21.2 million driven by the sustained impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on demand for Canadian TV advertising,” CBC management wrote.
During the 2021 federal election, the Liberals pledged an additional $400 million in taxpayer funds to the CBC, which would bring the total amount of public funding to a whopping $1.6 billion.
In April, Canadian Heritage had said the network was under “immense pressure” with regard to its finances.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of covering it put immense pressure on CBC’s workforce, operations, finances and systems,” said the April 20 briefing note Funding Support For The CBC.
It’s the season finale of Fake News Friday on The Candice Malcolm Show. We’ll announce the biggest fake news narrative of the year, as chosen by you, the True North viewer!
Plus, Candice is joined by long-time media critic and founder of independent media company Rebel News, Ezra Levant.
They discuss the reasons behind our biased and corrupt media landscape in Canada, dissect the broader failures of our liberal democracy during covid, and talk about how we can all fight back to preserve our civil liberties.
They discuss some of the worst news stories of the year, including a fake “fact-check” on the CBC, a pathological front cover of the Toronto Star, and racist, schizophrenic rant on the CBC.
A new Human Freedom Index report by the Fraser Institute reveals that nearly 83% of the world’s population experienced a decline in freedom between 2008 and 2019.
The study, which was released in partnership with the US-based Cato Institute, did not take into account the COVID-19 pandemic and the government restrictions that came with it.
“These data are pre-COVID so the percentage will likely increase in future reports and the country rankings will likely also see significant variance,” said report co-author and Fraser Institute resident fellow Fred McMahon in a news release.
The freedom index considered a number of variables. These included rule of law, freedom of movement, freedom of religion and assembly, economic freedom, safety and security and others.
“When people are free, they have more opportunity to prosper and pursue happier healthier lives for themselves and their families,” said McMahon.
The index covered 165 jurisdictions and involved 98.1% of the world’s population.
Overall researchers found that global freedom decreased by 0.01% and that 71 jurisdictions saw a decline in overall freedom. This is in comparison to the 67 that saw an increase in freedom.
The index means that 83% of the world’s population lived in countries where freedom was on the decline, while only 17% lived in places where freedom was improving.
The 10 most populated countries in the world all saw freedom levels decrease.
Among the top 10 freest countries were Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Canada and Finland (which were tied for sixth spot), Australia, Sweden and Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, the UK placed 14th, while the US tied for 15th with Japan.
The least free countries were Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Iran, Somalia, Burundi, Iraq and Libya.
As exclusively reported by True North, Canada’s COVID-19 measures are currently some of the strictest in the world. According to the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index, Canada had stricter measures in place than countries such as Iran, Russia and China.
Only nine countries placed higher than Canada when it came to the severity of the government’s response to COVID-19.
After reports that the federal government was considering re-introducing mandatory quarantine and other travel restrictions, Trudeau’s cabinet ultimately settled on telling Canadians they shouldn’t travel if it’s non-essential. True North’s Andrew Lawton says Canadians should do what they want and not let the merchants of doom continue to create a new normal.
Also, a Conservative MP takes a stand against vaccine mandates, plus former Manitoba PC leadership candidate Shelly Glover joins to discuss her legal challenge against her party’s leadership race.
True North estimates that 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.
This number comes from official provincial government data as well as media reports over the past few months.
Among provinces and territories, the B.C. government forced the most frontline and long term care workers out of their jobs. The province reported in November that 3,325 personnel were put on unpaid leave after its COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline expired.
When broken down by health region, Interior Health lost 1,018 workers, Fraser Health lost 587, Vancouver Island and Vancouver Coastal Health shed 480 workers each, Northern Health saw 320 health care professionals put on unpaid leave and Providence Health lost 104.
Ontario and Alberta followed B.C. with the highest number of unvaccinated health care worker losses, reporting 1,665 and 1,650 respectively.
The Alberta Health Services (AHS) revealed earlier this month that both full-time and part-time unvaccinated staff members had been removed from their positions. The AHS would not say which hospitals were impacted, citing privacy concerns.
Ontario has not implemented a mandatory vaccine requirement for health care workers. Instead, individual hospitals have introduced their own initiatives and laid off workers who do not comply.
Among the most notable cases in Ontario were Unity Health – including St. Joseph’s Health Centre and St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto – which saw 171 health care workers put on unpaid leave. Ottawa Hospital placed 318 employees on unpaid leave for failing to meet its COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Saskatchewan came in fourth place with 1,100 health care workers facing consequences for being unvaccinated, although the province has yet to finalize its plans on how to deal with those who won’t comply with vaccination requirements. True North reached out to Saskatchewan Health to find out how many health care workers were put on unpaid leave but did not receive a response.
In New Brunswick, out of the 2,000 public sector workers who were not vaccinated by the province’s mandate deadline, 734 of them were health care workers in the regional health authorities. As for Nova Scotia, the province has placed 531 health care professionals on unpaid leave.
Newfoundland and Labrador has not revealed how many unvaccinated health care workers have been terminated or suspended. Government health authorities did not respond to inquiries from True North.
As for P.E.I., Chief Communications Officer of Health Everton McLean told True North that “fewer than 5 staff members (were) affected” by provincial mandates.
In November, the Quebec government backed down on a vaccine mandate for health care workers after 14,000 were reported to not have received a first-dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. After revising its requirements and introducing testing options, 458 health care professionals were suspended for refusing to comply with the new regulations.
Similarly, 176 Manitoba health care workers were placed on unpaid leave in October after failing to comply with the province’s vaccination or testing mandate.
Among the territories, only Yukon has revealed that 14 health care workers were placed on unpaid leave. Nunavut and Northwest Territories have not reported how many health care workers have been placed on leave, and neither territory’s health department responded to inquiries from True North.
SecondStreet.org released a study on Dec. 9 showing that over 10,000 Canadians died on health care waiting lists in 2020-21.
“Canada is facing extremely large surgical backlogs right now, so when governments fire unvaccinated health care workers that means there are fewer staff to reduce waiting list backlogs,” SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig told True North. “An alternative approach might be to allow unvaccinated staff to take rapid tests before each shift.”
Nova Scotia parents are now being told they have to show proof of vaccination to enter their own children’s schools, but the policy it’s based on exempts parents explicitly.
Concerned parents sent True North an email from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education (SSRCE), one of Nova Scotia’s eight public school boards. The email informed parents that “as of Dec. 1, 2021, all visitors (non-SSRCE staff), parents and/or suppliers who come to a school, or SSRCE building, must provide full proof of vaccination (or a medical exception).”
The province reported six people in hospital with COVID as of Wednesday, with two in Intensive Care. Nova Scotia just announced that its population has surpassed 1 million.
True North looked into the vaccination policy for parents and discovered that it appears on none of the school boards’ websites or social media accounts.
The SSRCE’s notice included a link to the “provincial proof of vaccination policy,” but nothing on the government page mentions the requirement that parents be vaccinated to visit their children’s schools. Nor do the new measures put in place on Monday due to fears about the Omicron variant.
The linked government web page mentions a single situation where vaccination is required at a school by non-employees – “indoor and outdoor extracurricular school-based activities, including sports.” This requirement puts Nova Scotia on the same page as other Canadian school boards that have mandated vaccines for athletics, most recently Peel.
True North reached out to the SSRCE and was told the requirement for parents to show proof of vaccination was a provincial policy. Spokesperson Ashley Gallant also reminded True North that “as of (Monday), there have been enhanced public health restrictions introduced throughout the province and there are only essential visitors permitted in our schools now.”
These enhanced restrictions are to be reassessed in January, however. The timeline for the new proof-of-vaccination for parents is a different matter.
Lynette MacLeod with the Government of Nova Scotia confirmed to True North that “POV (proof of vaccination) is necessary.” When told that the linked government web page doesn’t include the vaccine policy for parents, she provided a link to a 19-page document titled “COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Protocol in High-Risk Settings.”
The document specifically exempts the parents of children under 19.
The government document defines schools as “high-risk settings” along with hospitals, prisons, and long-term care homes. “Schools” are mentioned twelfth on the list, and the word is buried amidst legalese involving “Education Entities.” It is also the only occurrence of “schools” in the entire document.
Caregivers who come to these facilities are required to be vaccinated, but according to the same document “’Designated Care Giver’ means a person … other than the parent or legal guardian of a minor, as defined in the Age of Majority Act.”
Teachers in Nova Scotia had to have at least one COVID shot by November 30 to keep getting paid, but it has never been announced that parents coming to schools to see their kids have needed the shots.
Nova Scotia children can also be vaccinated without their parents’ consent, according to the province’s Department of Health and Wellness. Officials confirmed the policy to True North in November.
