British Columbians are reporting empty grocery shelves as recent flooding and weather events have put a strain on the province’s supply chain.
Businesses and distributors have been forced to alter their transportation routes to deal with significant highways and roads being completely cut off for motorists, including the Coquihalla Highway.
“There’s one grocer that supplies most of British Columbia from Calgary. So they won’t be having problems getting stuff to the Interior, but they’d have to send any trucks headed for Vancouver Island through Washington State,” the Retail Council of Canada’s Director of government relations Greg Wilson told the Globe and Mail.
Frenzied shoppers seeking to hoard supplies have prompted BC’s Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth to issue a condemnation stating that overstocking supplies could harm recovery efforts.
“Yes, we have routes that are challenged, but you know what? There are large areas of the province where those routes are not compromised and supplies are going to get through,” said Farnworth.
“One thing you would hope we’d have learned a lesson in the beginning of the pandemic, but I don’t think we did – panic-buying wasn’t helpful and it also wasn’t necessary. You don’t need a year’s worth of toilet paper.”
This week, heavy rains and flooding caused the city of Merritt to be evacuated by emergency crews, while places like Abbotsford have seen extensive flooding in the Sumas Prairie forcing many to abandon their homes or farms.
Provincial emergency services have begun to deliver meals and supplies to those stranded in remote areas.
“Please do not hoard items. What you need, your neighbours need as well,” said BC Premier John Horgan.
Canadians hoping to help the relief efforts can donate to a number of charities or fundraisers directly for cities and families impacted by the flooding.
Former Conservative MP Phil McColeman was the latest signatory to join over 3,700 others in signing Senator Denise Batters’ petition to hold a referendum on an early leadership review of Erin O’Toole.
McColeman, who represented the riding of Brantford–Brant from 2008 until 2021, blasted the party for delaying a leadership review until 2023.
“Conservatives of all stripes are stronger when we are unified. Delaying a leadership review until just prior to the next election will only serve to fracture our party further,” said McColeman.
“A leadership review in 2022 gives us an opportunity to unite behind O’Toole or enough time to galvanize behind his successor to win in 2023. I applaud Senator Denise Batters for putting forward this petition. I was honoured to sign it.”
Our petition, started by Senator @denisebatters, has been signed and endorsed by former @CPC_HQ MP Phil McColeman.
Conservative Leader O’Toole kicked Saskatchewan Senator Batters out of the party’s caucus earlier this week over the petition.
“Seemingly, Mr. O’Toole cannot ‘tolerate’ criticism. After the election, I raised my concerns with Mr. O’Toole directly. He did not respond and he did not act. I then asked publicly that our members have a voice. His response now is to kick me out,” said Batters.
“Several weeks ago, my fellow Conservative Senate Caucus colleague levelled similar complaints against Erin O’Toole, even going further to call for his resignation. Yet, he remains a member of National Caucus while I am expelled. Why the double standard?”
In response, O’Toole has stood by his decision, claiming that it was done for the well-being of the CPC caucus.
“It was a necessary decision to make for the well-being of our caucus, our Parliament and our country,” said O’Toole.
As exclusively reported by True North, former Conservative house leader and current Leader of the Maverick Party Jay Hill also decried the ejection of Batters, calling it an affront to western Canadians.
“The situation with Senator Batters plus the silence of her prairie MP colleagues on issues she identified… equalization, carbon tax and increases, emissions cap, etc. is disgusting for most Alberta and Saskatchewan citizens,” Hill told True North.
Canadians hoping to help British Columbians impacted by flooding and evacuations have several options at their disposal.
A number of charities and organizations are providing aid to flood-stricken areas like Abbotsford and Merritt.
The Toronto-based disaster relief organization GlobalMedic is among them. GlobalMedic is hoping to create hundreds of clean-up kits to help families when they return to their homes after the waters have abated.
“Right now we’re in an acute emergency phase with people having to leave their homes, but they will have to go back at some point,” the company’s Emergency Programs Officer Jamie Cross told CTV News.
“Our volunteers are putting together clean-up kits to help support that rebuilding phase once they move back into the area. So, the kits will contain things like disinfectant cleaners, garbage bags, gloves, and it’s all packed in a bucket that can be used to move any water out that’s still remaining.”
Additionally, GlobalMedic hopes to send food into affected areas that have reportedly been impacted by supply chain shortages due to a lack of road access into certain parts of the province.
Canadians hoping to support GlobalMedics operations can visit their website to make a donation to its emergency fund. People who wish to donate will be allowed to decide how their funds are used or can specify that they want their money to be put towards BC flood relief.
Those who want to send money directly to victims of the floods can visit GoFundMe, which has created a list of verified fundraisers for cities and even individual families themselves.
Campaigns are currently ongoing to send support for Abbotsford, Merritt and Princeton. Additionally, there are fundraisers to help save a local marketplace and animal sanctuary which has been impacted by the weather event.
A specific fund for Princeton has also been set up with the oversight of city officials and has already collected $2,000 in relief funds and will end on November 22.
“Our volunteers have stepped up and we’re all getting everything done that’s needed to be done so I’m very proud of our community,” Hope Mayor Peter Robin told Global News.
“It’s just been remarkable how quickly everyone has responded to the needs.”
Bylaw officers at the City of Port Colborne, Ont. are forcing a homeowner to take down a vulgar banner insulting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to Niagara This Week.
The banner, which reads “F*ck Trudeau” in a comic sans font, uses a maple leaf symbol to replace a single letter in the profanity. The owner of the home proudly displayed the banner on their front lawn and a small sticker on the front door also displayed the same message.
Numerous residents contacted Niagara This Week about the banner, and some have called Port Colborne’s bylaw department to make a complaint.
After an inspection from a bylaw officer, the city determined the banner violated the Property Standards Bylaw 4299/135/02. The bylaw states “exterior walls of a dwelling and their components shall be free of signs unauthorized by the Corporation of the City of Port Colborne, painted slogans, graffiti and similar defacements.”
Bylaw officers are taking action to have the banner removed.
The home is located on Main Street, and it is located near Lakeshore Catholic High School.
Niagara This Week made numerous attempts to contact the homeowner, but they were unable to connect with the individual.
Rebel News commander Ezra Levant said in a tweet it is wrong that the banner cannot be displayed.
“I would not put a sign like this on my own property,” said Levant. “But I will defend anyone’s property rights to do so, and to fight against politicians who think they have the power to go into his yard to take it down.”
After kicking Senator Denise Batters out of the Conservative caucus for calling for a referendum on his leadership, Erin O’Toole has said he’ll do the same to any MP “who’s not putting the team and the country first.” True North’s Andrew Lawton says O’Toole needs member support as well as caucus support to stay on as leader, which means he should be welcoming a review.
Also, a municipality tries to ban an anti-Trudeau banner, plus Libertarian Party of Canada leader Jacques Boudreau joins to talk about liberty, pensions, and free speech.
Former CPC house leader and current Leader of the Maverick Party Jay Hill decried the ejection of Saskatchewan Senator Denise Batters on Thursday and called it an affront to western Canadians.
Hill made the comments in an interview with True North, in which he called Batter’s treatment “disgusting.”
“The situation with Senator Batters plus the silence of her prairie MP colleagues on issues she identified… equalization, carbon tax and increases, emissions cap, etc. is disgusting for most Alberta and Saskatchewan citizens,” Hill told True North.
“Mr. O’Toole consistently chooses CPC positions that he hopes will appeal to Quebec and Toronto, and then demands the support of his western MPs or he threatens to throw them out!”
Senator Batters was ejected from caucus by Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole via voicemail earlier this week after she started a petition to hold a referendum on an early leadership review.
Batters’ petition was ruled “out of order” by CPC President Robert Batherson prior to her ejection.
Prior to his role as Maverick Party leader, Hill served as a CPC MP from 1993 to 2010 for the British Columbia riding of Prince George – Peace River.
According to Hill, he too has experienced intimidation while he was an elected MP for the Canadian Alliance in 2001. At the time, Hill was part of a breakaway group of eight MPs who called for the resignation of then-Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day.
“I’ve been there and experienced that attempt at intimidation from a leader…” Hill said.
“Eight of us had the courage to risk our MP jobs publicly on May 15, 2001. Where are the CPC MPs with the integrity to step forward out of the shadows to support Batters?”
“The western MPs know better but don’t have the guts to stand with their constituents instead of choosing blind loyalty to their leader!” he continued.
Hill who heads the federal Alberta independence-oriented Maverick Party, formerly known as Wexit Canada, has advocated for fairer treatment for western and prairie provinces from the federal government.
A chief climate advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Thursday for lobbyists not to contact her if they’re not willing to take climate action and that Canada was not “going fast enough” to address climate change.
Sarah Goodman, who is a senior advisor on climate action and sustainable economy to Trudeau, made the statement on her public Twitter account.
How I'm feeling in BC today:
Dear Lobbyists,
Don't contact me if you want to dilute or slow climate action.
Prior to working for the prime minister, Goodman has also served as a vice president and senior vice president with Tides Canada, which is now known as MakeWay.
In 2020, Tides Canada changed its name, which it adopted from the controversial US Tides Foundation, after criticism over “foreign-funded special interests” attacking Alberta’s energy sector by Premier Jason Kenney.
According to a study into anti-Alberta energy campaigns, an estimated $1.28 billion in foreign funds have been funelled to harm the province’s energy industry.
Registered Canadian charities have received nearly $15 billion in foreign funding since 2010 the report claimed.
“Total foreign funding of ‘Canadian-based’ environmental initiatives was $1.28 billion between 2003 and 2019. The commissioner states that these figures are likely significantly understated,” the report summary describes.
One section of the report was solely dedicated to Tides Canada which was estimated to have received over $140,000 in foreign funding.
“On the basis of the totality of this evidence, I find that MakeWay has engaged in opposition to the development of Alberta’s oil and gas industry in a broad and general sense, and therefore has participated in an anti-Alberta energy campaign,” wrote Commissioner J. Stephens Allan in his report.
Why are conservatives so reluctant to talk about culture? If conservatives want to win elections, they have to lay the ground to promote conservative values and ideas well beforehand.
On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice is joined by Ray Pennings, co-founding and Executive VP at Cardus. They discuss how culture, religion and civil society play a more important role in our lives than politics.
And they discuss how conservatives need to win the culture wars in order to win elections.
Canada’s inflation rate jumped yet again to a new 18-year high of 4.7%. This means everyday goods Canadians purchase are getting more expensive – this includes the cost of groceries and the price of gas.
Life is getting more expensive than ever for Canadians, but do our politicians care? Their current priorities indicate that they don’t.
On Dec. 2, officials at Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) – Canada’s largest social housing provider – will open a new $2.4-million Centre for Advancing the Interests of Black People.
TCHC is so woke, in fact, that officials hired a black agency specifically to create a special logo for the Centre – at a cost of $2,600.
Nothing is surprising anymore when it comes to attempts by politicians to out-woke each other. This quasi-government agency is the last organization that should be spending precious staff resources and taxpayers’ money on such a make-work project.
The Housing Authority has 110,000 tenants living in 60,000 units.
It was subsidized to the tune of $250-million in 2021, 30% of its $632-million operating budget. Much of the rest comes from tenant rents.
For as long as I’ve covered the housing authority, it has been plagued by bad management that has used precious funds to hire consultants and other friends; by nepotism and petty infighting; by overpriced and shoddy repairs and over budget housing projects and by an inability to deal with the criminal element – in particular drug dealers and gangbangers who have infiltrated TCHC buildings in specific Toronto neighbourhoods. That is where black-on-black crime proliferates.
Repeatedly, Toronto’s shootings have occurred on-site or near housing authority buildings.
In other words, TCHC does not have a racism or more specifically an “anti-black” racism problem.
It has an ongoing leadership problem. The Authority has also had a problem respecting all tenants, not just visible minorities.
But never let that stop officials from capitalizing on the extremism that is now dominating our culture.
In a report to the TCHC in October of 2020, officials stated that discussions about “anti-black racism” at the TCHC began following the murder of George Floyd, together with the accidental death of TCHC tenant Regis Korchinski-Paquet, both of which occurred in May 2020.
Black staff members at TCHC seized on the opportunity to hold healing circles for more than 100 employees and by September of 2020 a Confronting Anti-Black Racism strategy team was put together.
Month after month and year after year, I’ve watched TCHC officials absolutely flummoxed about how to curb the rising number of rent arrears. Yet it took mere months to put together a team to confront “anti-black” racism and to hold consultations with more than 600 tenants and 150 staff.
No less than nine reports were produced between last fall and this summer with 43 actions identified.
One of the major actions was to establish the Centre for Advancing the Interests of Black People.
That Centre is supposed to become the “central point” of conversations about race and “anti-black” racism; where strategies and solutions to confront anti-black racism and substandard interactions are put in place and where there can be “open dialogue” between tenants and staff.
According to TCHC spokesman Bruce Malloch, the Centre, once fully staffed, will have 17 employees – including a Centre Director at $192,000 per year (already hired), an executive assistant at $96,000 yearly and a business planner at $108,000.
The centre will also have four policy, planning and coaching consultants making $95,000 in addition to a $60,000 food and transportation yearly budget.
Too bad the progressives on city council, on the TCHC board and the then-mayor in waiting (John Tory) weren’t as concerned about the way they treated Gene Jones, the former CEO of TCHC, who despite his great rapport with tenants and the phenomenal work he did to turn around the rot at the housing authority was humiliated and pushed out the door in Feb. of 2014.
Jones went on to a successful stint heading up the Chicago Housing Authority and is now in Atlanta.
Having said that, as seems to be the case in government and at various schools boards, these action plans have been put in place without any indication of the percentage of black tenants and staff that are actually living in TCHC units or are employed by the social housing authority.
Yet again, the actions are not only decidedly selective but downright racist considering TCHC houses a variety of diverse populations across the system.
This appears to be nothing more than a costly exercise to take advantage of the current climate and to give work to “anti-oppression” and “anti-black” racism activists.
