Canadians are likely to see inflated food prices at their local grocery stores for several more months, according to some experts.
Senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University Sylvain Charlebois told CTV News on Sunday that food prices have risen by about 5% across the board since January.
“Now 5% may seem low, but for consumers out there looking for similar products, some products have actually gone up by 20, 25%,” said Charlebois.
Charlebois said when it comes to global food inflation, the world is likely in “the third inning of a nine inning baseball game” right now, which will mean “several months of rockiness at the grocery store, unfortunately.” However, Charlebois said he is not expecting any extra innings beyond that.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem has warned of longer-than-expected inflation affecting Canadians. The inflation rate is 4.4%, up from 4.1% in August. The inflation rate could hit 5% by the end of 2021.
The United Nations reported global food prices are the highest they have been in more than a decade.
Canadian consumers have seen first-hand how expensive it is to feed their families. Recent Statistics Canada data showed the price of some basic grocery items across Canada is surging in the double digits.
The latest monthly update by Statistics Canada indicates items like chicken, tomatoes, and fruits have been affected by inflation.
Statistics Canada reported the price of bacon reached an all-time high in August, with the average cost for a 500-gram pack hitting $8.24. This average cost is the first time bacon has surpassed the $8 mark.
Canada’s Food Price Report 2021 said the growing cost of meat, bread, and vegetables would contribute to a 3 to 5 per cent increase in food costs.
Canadians are expected to pay an extra $695 for groceries in 2021.
After leading the People’s Party Canada (PPC) through two elections, Maxime Bernier says it’s time to seek a mandate from party members to continue as leader.
The PPC said Monday in a press release that individuals who were members on election day will be able to vote on Bernier’s leadership from Nov. 12 to Dec. 3. Voting will be facilitated by Montreal-based firm SimplyVoting.
According to Bernier, the review is an attempt to get a mandate from the party’s members.
“In the past three years, the People’s Party has grown from 0% to 5% of the national vote and has overtaken the Green Party, a party thirty-five years our senior, in raw votes and national vote percentage. Our success so far has been impressive in the context of the first-past-the-post electoral system and proof that our ideas resonate with Canadians,” he said in a statement.
“Greater successes await us, and I want a mandate from our members to make them happen.”
Despite not winning a seat in the House of Commons during the last election, the PPC considerably raised its profile. During the campaign, the PPC outpolled both the Green Party of Canada and the Bloc Quebecois.
According to the 2021 election results, PPC candidates received 840,993 votes nationwide, or 4.94% of the popular vote.
Most recently, the party ran a slate of candidates in Alberta’s senate elections although they were defeated by the Conservative candidates.
As BC’s Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline surpasses 50% completion, tensions have flared protesters’ obstructions of pipeline workers.
Millions of dollars in heavy equipment have been sabotaged by protesters claiming to represent Wet’suwet’en clans, despite a court order authorizing construction to continue.
On October 27, BC RCMP arrested two protesters for illegally blockading the site in Houston, BC. The two were arrested for alleged theft, mischief and possession of stolen Coastal GasLink equipment.
“The RCMP is aware of the recent events that have included mischief and damage to equipment related to industry working on the CGL pipeline. An investigation is currently underway,” RCMP North District media relations spokesperson Cpl. Madonna Saunderson told True North at the time.
BC Liberal MLA Ellis Ross spoke out in support of the besieged pipeline workers in a video posted on Facebook a few days following the incident.
“The workers are not at fault here. They are just doing the job they were supposed to do under a contract with the company. They should not be exposed to anything, other than just doing a job that was lawful,” said Ross.
“I’m not sure what’s happening up there right now because we have a government that doesn’t actually disclose what’s happening, or they have no idea … And I used to think that the NDP were playing politics with Aboriginal issues. Now, I think it’s a combination of arrogance, ignorance and incompetence.”
Upon completion, the nearly 700-kilometre pipeline will deliver natural gas from Dawson Creek BC to an LNG Canada facility in Kitimat.
According to Ross, every democratically elected chief and council along the pipeline route has signed onto agreements with the pipeline. Protesters currently occupying the area claim to represent a small band of hereditary Wet’suwet’en.
“They’re quietly dismantling our economy … They want to dismantle it under the guise of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” said Ross.
“They [NDP government] actually opposed the idea of a democratically elected chief and council, who by the way signed on to LNG, every chief and council who are elected by their people signed on to the LNG agreements for Prince George to Kitimaat village including the Gitga’at and Gitxaala First Nations, the NDP disrespected that, they ignored it. In fact, they even went so far to say elected chief and councils were constructed by the Indian Act to annihilate the natives which was an absolutely horrible thing to say about elected leaders.”
Conservative MP Damien Kurek called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an “authoritarian leader,” in a video calling on Canadians to hold the ruling Liberals to account.
In a short clip posted to Kurek’s personal Facebook account, the MP for Battle River—Crowfoot calls on constituents in Liberal ridings to vote in favour of the Reform Act when parliament returns.
“Let’s bring some accountability and transparency and make sure that parliament actually represents the people that send MPs to Ottawa to ensure that an authoritarian leader like Justin Trudeau can actually be held to account, to make sure that he can’t simply kick out people in his caucus who disagree with him, to make sure that the chair of a caucus is elected by MPs in that caucus,” said Kurek.
The Reform Act was passed by the Conservative government in 2014 as a way to ensure party leaders can be held accountable by elected MPs.
According to the law, every official party is required to hold four votes in their first caucus meeting when parliament begins. Those votes include voting on whether caucus can expel or readmit MPs from caucus, electing a new caucus chair, launching a leadership review and electing an interim leader. Each political party has to vote in caucus whether to implement these measures.
“We all know that when one person has all the power, decisions made don’t typically benefit the common good,” said Kurek.
“That is why in 2014, Conservatives passed the Reform Act, which made amendments to how Parliament works. This Act aims to give power back to MPs, rather than giving Party leaders unlimited authority over elected MPs.”
In the video, Kurek urges Canadians to write to their MPs in order to give themselves the powers available under the law.
In October, the Conservatives had their first caucus meeting and MPs voted to adopt several Reform Act measures, including the ability to initiate a leadership review. They also gave themselves power to elect a new caucus chair and to expel an MP from caucus.
“This is not about a sword of Damocles hanging over my head. We are united as a team,” said O’Toole regarding the vote.
Serious question: Why should we listen to a word that anyone says at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland?
An estimated 30,000 officials — including a Canadian delegation of nearly 300 politicians and their press flacks, the largest of any delegation in the G7 — travelled to the Scottish city to, what, pontificate about the various ways governments can tax and punish people into submission when it comes to lowering their carbon emissions.
Thousands of gas-guzzling, CO2-emitting airplanes were needed, we’re told, to send these morally superior beings to this crucially important climate summit to glad-hand, virtue-signal and scheme.
Our planet depends on it.
A Zoom conference call was out of the question. They needed to meet in person.
For us mere mortals back home, we’re the problem. Driving our cars, heating our homes, feeding our families with (heaven-forbid!) meat — these horrendous activities are contributing to the end of our planet.
Our political betters in Scotland recognize this. Their air travel, the scores of idling SUVs outside the conference, the gas-fueled mega-cruise ship sitting in the Glasgow harbour hosting thousands of delegates, these are necessary sacrifices that will protect our planet.
But you warming up your car in the driveway before work. That’s the real crime.
The emboldened brain trust in Scotland have begun to announce their various schemes to save us from ourselves.
First out of the gate, Trudeau called for a global carbon tax. He believes that taking more money out of the hands of entrepreneurs and families and transferring it into the hands of corrupt kleptocrats in poverty-stricken developing nations is somehow the key.
Trudeau then announced a hard cap on oil and gas emissions — a step to punish our country’s energy suppliers, the very companies whose innovation is desperately needed in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.
Finally, Trudeau announced that the federal government will divest billions of dollars globally from projects and investments related to oil and gas. Why does Canada invest in oil and gas projects abroad while scapegoating and punishing this sector in Canada?
Former Head of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney was asked this very question during a Parliamentary Committee hearing earlier this year. In his private sector job, Carney’s company invests in pipelines around the world. In his political life, Carney supports Trudeau’s pipeline-killing policies in Canada.
Carney’s answer was less than inspiring. He basically conceded that Canada must be held to a higher standard when it comes to the transition to renewables — jobs be damned.
After the embarrassing exchange for Carney, Trudeau clearly took note. And now, a few months later, he’s announcing that the feds will no longer do what Carney does with his private investment firm.
But let us pause for a moment and look at the broader global economy.
Trudeau’s singular focus on climate change doesn’t negate that COVID is still wreaking havoc on the global economy, causing sustained unemployment, supply-chain issues that are going nowhere, and perhaps most concerning, an unprecedented spike in government spending and borrowing across the Western world and corresponding printing of money to pay for it.
Printing money leads to inflation, and the hyper printing of money could very likely lead to hyper-inflation.
Bankers and investors like Carney typically advise their clients to invest in hard assets during times of inflation — including natural resources and energy projects.
At a time where Canada’s public pension funds should be taking every precaution to protect retirement savings against the risks of inflation, Trudeau is doing the opposite.
He’s putting his green ideology ahead of what’s best for Canadians.
That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of climate summits like COP26. It allows self-righteous hypocrites like Trudeau to pretend he’s saving the planet, meanwhile, his hare-brained schemes are putting our jobs and our retirement savings at risk.
The Communist regime in China says it will hold those who support Taiwan independence criminally liable for life, including top officials in the Taiwan government.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a list of names of blacklisted individuals on Friday, which includes Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang, Parliament Speaker You Si-kun and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
Those named in the list will not be allowed to enter mainland China and its Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, according to PRC spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian.
Further, blacklisted individuals will not be allowed to cooperate with entities or people from the mainland, nor will their companies or entities that fund them.
“Those who forget their ancestors, betray the motherland and split the country, will never end up well, and will be spurned by the people and judged by history,” Zhu said.
In response, the Taiwan government said it is a society with a rule of law and is not ruled by Beijing.
“We do not accept intimidation and threats from an autocratic and authoritarian region,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said.
The council said it would take the “necessary countermeasures to safeguard the safety and well-being of the people.”
In recent weeks, China has conducted aerial military exercises in the region including flying nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone.
Recently Taiwanese diplomat Taipei Economic Cultural Office Director General Lihsin Angel Liu called on the Canadian government to offer “more support” for the country as it tries to find acceptance from the international community.
Critics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have accused him of being soft on China and not doing enough to make it clear that its aggression towards Taiwan is not acceptable.
“The Liberal government has been promising a new framework for relations with China for years,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis told True North earlier this month.
“It is clear that the Liberal government is missing in action when it comes to responding to the domestic and international challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”
There has been a lot of discussion about the need to make the vaccine mandatory for kids aged 5-11 in Canada, but the reality is COVID-19 is not a threat to this age group.
In fact, even Pfizer has indicated that they believe not all kids need the vaccine.
Anthony Furey says more nuance is required on this issue.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has placed 95 permanent staff on unpaid leave for failing to disclose their COVID-19 vaccine status as of Friday, according to figures provided by the school board.
Another 609 occasional staff with the TDSB failed to disclose their vaccine status and have been put on unpaid leave.
There are 1,016 staff who have attested that they are unvaccinated and risk being put on an unpaid leave as of Nov. 21.
Nov. 1 was the deadline established for the 41,485 staff with the TDSB to be fully vaccinated or face an unpaid leave or termination. But that deadline has been extended to Nov. 21 for people waiting for medical or religious exemptions to be considered.
There have been 518 creed requests and 413 medical requests made. Zero religious exemptions and five medical exemptions have been granted so far.
There are 1,704 staff on leave who are exempt until they return to work.
The vaccine compliance rate excluding staff on leave and those seeking exemptions is 95.6%. The new deadline was enacted to give the school board time to ensure staff is available to cover for those on administrative leave and to do their due diligence on vaccine exemptions.
TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird told the Toronto Sun that many of the occasional staff who have been put on an unpaid leave have not been working during the school year.
Bird said the school board does not anticipate any challenges in the daily operation of schools. There are 13 elementary school teachers and three high school teachers of the permanent staff on unpaid leave, according to Bird.
“You may see the situation where kids will have a different teacher,” he said.
Bird said it is up to occasional staff whether or not they want to pick up any shifts.
The school board’s vaccine mandate comes as the TDSB is expected to see increases in the number of students in the coming years.
The TDSB said in February that it is projecting increased enrolments in the coming years because of increases in kindergarten students from the low number enrolled in 2020 and increased newcomer enrolment after fall 2021.
TDSB Chair Alexander Brown wrote a letter to Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce in 2020 asking for more staff to combat COVID-19 as school restarted.
“As you know, the health and safety of our school communities remains our top priority as we continue to plan for the reopening of schools this September,” said Brown. “While we appreciate your recent announcement of provincewide funding to help schools boards protect their communities from COVID-19, various school-based funding gaps still remain, including those related to class sizes, facilities and nutrition programs.”
Brown said the TDSB needed more staff to reduce class sizes in elementary schools to the greatest extent possible.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) recommends staff be fully vaccinated rather than order them to be. The TCDSB requires unvaccinated staff to undergo regular rapid antigen tests or risk being suspended.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) also has a more lenient vaccine policy. Unvaccinated staff with the DPCDSB have to complete two rapid antigen tests every week.
The Canadian flag will finally return to full mast after Remembrance Day on Nov. 11, according to Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations Canada Marc Miller and Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez.
After originally refusing to raise the flag, the Trudeau government says the flag will be raised on all government buildings at sunset on Nov. 7, and then lowered again at sunrise the next day to mark Indigenous Veterans Day. They will then be raised again before being lowered on Nov. 11. The flag will then be returned to full mast following the Remembrance Day ceremony.
The flag has been at half-mast since May 30th, marking the longest period in Canadian history that the flag has been lowered.
The flag was lowered in response to the announcement of unmarked graves at a former residential school near Kamloops, BC.
In response to the government’s decision, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said, “symbolic acts are not a substitute for concrete action on reconciliation.”
“As the flag is raised, I call on all Canadians to rededicate ourselves to our collective effort towards reconciliation and remembrance,” O’Toole said.
The government says the flag will be half-masted on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation every September 30.
On Canada’s first-ever National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was invited to attend a ceremony in Kamloops, BC by Tk’emlúps Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir. Instead of attending, Trudeau opted to vacation in Tofino, BC.
Trudeau was invited by Casimir on two occasions to visit the community, which is only hours away from where he was vacationing with his family.
Trudeau eventually visited the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc Nation weeks after and apologized for his ill-advised trip.
