The Chinese regime was spending millions of dollars on PCR tests in Wuhan as early as May 2019, seven months before China announced the “first” instance of what would later be called COVID-19. True North’s Andrew Lawton says China has not earned the benefit of the doubt, yet Justin Trudeau and Patty Hajdu were running interference for the Chinese regime throughout the pandemic, and have been silent on these latest findings.
Also, universities are forcing students to choose between their values and their education with vaccine mandates, plus Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins to discuss Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s credibility problem.
CBC/Radio-Canada was responsible for fact-checking three articles as part of Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program over the 2021 election period.
According to information obtained by True North, the state broadcaster’s French-language program Décrypteurs made it onto Facebook for the three fact checks which took place between September 2, 2021 and September 6, 2021.
All of the fact checks were related to videos and social media posts said to contain COVID-19 misinformation.
The following headlines for the fact-checks have been translated from their original French:
“Both the Facebook program and Décrypteurs’ participation in it are unrelated to Canadian election campaigns,” CBC Director of Media Relations and Issues Management Leon Mar told True North in an emailed statement.
“Finally, I would underline that Décrypteurs does not fact-check ‘for’ Facebook. All editorial decisions are the purview of the Décrypteurs team, including the choice of what content to fact-check.”
According to details of the Facebook program which runs in partnership with international media organizations designated as so-called “fact-checkers,” the social media company demotes any content which is flagged by the journalists involved.
“When a fact checker rates a piece of content as false we significantly reduce its distribution so that fewer people can see it,” wrote Facebook.
“We notify people who try to share the content or previously shared it that the information is false, and we apply a warning label that links to the fact checkers’ article disproving the claim.”
In the past, CBC News has had to make several corrections and redactions after publishing fake news including issuing an apology in 2019 for smearing the Covington Catholic School students at the DC March for Life that year.
Recently, the public broadcaster which receives $1.2 billion in funding from taxpayers, had to also apologize to Conservative MP Rachael Harder after it had besmirched her in a one-sided article that called her “callous and ignorant.
“Let me reiterate that I regret we did not live up to our, and our audience’s, expectations of CBC News,” CBC Calgary director Helen Henderson said of the article.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole avoided questions on an early leadership review during a brief press conference held shortly following the party’s first post-election caucus meeting.
During the press conference, O’Toole announced former MP James Cumming would be chairing the election campaign review, which O’Toole said would be concluded by the “end of this year.
Cumming was the Conservative MP in Edmonton Centre, but lost to former Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault in the Sept. 20 election.
“I’m resolutely committed to reviewing every element of the campaign, and my family and I are resolutely committed to the next chapter in our party’s fight for this great country,” said O’Toole.
During the caucus meeting, the incoming group of Conservative MPs chose to adopt all of their available powers under the Reform Act, meaning caucus now has power to elect a chair, boot an MP or oust O’Toole as leader and appoint an interim leader.
O’Toole said Tuesday he supported caucus voting in favour of these measures, but noted he and his colleagues are “united.”
When asked whether he would fast track a leadership review by grassroots Conservative members, which is currently slated for 2023, O’Toole skirted the question.
“Will you ask the party to hold a vote among membership on your leadership within six months?” asked a reporter.
“We had a discussion with the caucus today. It was a very important discussion as a team, as a family. In fact, it was the first time I was ever able to gather with my entire team in one room because of the pandemic. We are all disappointed with the result of the election, no one more so than me. Which is why today, we announced Mr. Cumming will be conducting the review,” said O’Toole.
A growing contingent within the party has been calling for the removal of O’Toole as leader since he was unable to materialize any gains for the Conservatives this election despite taking the party towards the centre in order to attract Liberal and progressive voters.
One petition by party National Council member Bert Chen calling for O’Toole to be recalled has nearly 5,000 signatures as of Tuesday. On the other hand, a petition in support of O’Toole has yet to surpass 2,500 signatures.
In response to Chen’s petition, Conservative Party of Canada president Rob Batherson has threatened to drop Chen from the council.
Former Liberal cabinet minister Bernadette Jordan has been fined under the Conflict of Interest Act for failing to report her personal finances.
Jordan, who held the position of fisheries minister, lost her seat during the 2021 election.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Jordan was fined after failing to file financial disclosures involving her Scotia Bank car loan and a Bank of Montreal mortgage.
The former minister was eventually required to pay a fine of $250 which was received by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion.
During the election campaign, Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole promised in his platform that he would increase the maximum fine for ethics violations to $50,000 “with the fine to be proportionate to the severity of the offence and the offender’s history and personal net worth.”
Jordan is not the only Liberal to have their record marred by an ethics violation.
Repeat-offender Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced three investigations by the ethics commissioner, two of which resulted in fines and violations.
Most recently, Trudeau was investigated over his involvement in the WE Charity scandal which Dion ruled did not break ethics laws but did appear to have the makings of a conflict of interest. Additionally, former Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau was found to have violated ethics laws by giving “unfettered access” to his office to the organization.
Prior to that investigation, Trudeau was already fined for both the Aga Khan vacation where he failed to recuse himself from conversations in which there was a conflict of interest and for his involvement in the SNC-Lavalin controversy.
In August 2019, Trudeau was found guilty of attempting to politically interfere in former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.
“I found that Mr. Trudeau used his position of authority over Ms. Wilson‑Raybould to seek to influence, both directly and indirectly, her decision on whether she should overrule the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision not to invite SNC-Lavalin to enter into negotiations towards a remediation agreement,” wrote Dion in his judgement.
Today is the first Conservative party caucus meeting since the disappointing election result, and we’ll soon find out if O’Toole will stay on as leader of the party.
On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice breaks down the various rumours and media leaks leading up to the big meeting. She dispels some as fake news and discusses the validity of other theories.
Plus, Candice deconstructs the Red Tory case for O’Toole to stay.
Canadian taxpayers coughed up $42,000 to pay for former Liberal MP Catherine McKenna’s “climate change” farewell tour that saw her jet set 22,600 kilometres across Canada.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, McKenna’s plane guzzled tens of thousands of litres of aviation fuel as she was telling Canadians to change their habits to combat climate change.
“We need to reduce air pollution. Consider that the transportation sector represents a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions,” McKenna lectured Canadians in Edmonton on July 27.
Between July 24 and August 4, McKenna and her staffers got to fly from Ottawa to Toronto and Vancouver, even reaching Iqaluit and Pangnirtung.
When breaking down the costs, taxpayers dished $24,665 in air fares alone while McKenna and her staffers got to enjoy $9,876 worth of hotel stays and a $5,473 meal bill.
Among those accompanying McKenna on her tour were Assistant Deputy Minister Gerard Peets, parliamentary secretary Andy Fillmore, press secretary Emelyana Titarenko, communications director Michelle Johnston, policy director Louis Jarda, policy advisors Nathan Bessner and Daniel Turner, Twitter advisor Murielle Pierre and special assistant Joshua Swift.
“There is nothing more important. We will get out of the COVID-19 pandemic, thank God, but then we will have the climate crisis, and we need to move forward together,” said McKenna.
“Climate policy is actually tricky because it’s not just transit, it’s across all sectors, but it’s also being really diligent at looking at what are your emissions so you can actually tackle them.”
A report by the auditor general found that McKenna’s department, Infrastructure Canada, was continuously failing to meet its goals.
Over her tenure in the cabinet position, the Canada Infrastructure Bank which was founded by the Liberal government four years ago, has failed to produce the completion of a single project.
Hamilton City Councillor Brad Clark has introduced a motion to implement policies that aim to reduce violent criminal activity among youth in the city.
The proposal will be put to the Emergency and Community Services Committee of Hamilton City Council on Thursday.
The motion states it is being brought forward because Hamilton has experienced several incidents of gun violence, and many of them involve youth.
If passed, staff from the City of Hamilton’s Healthy and Safe Communities Department will review select community safety projects designed to deter youth from joining gangs and holding guns.
Staff will be directed to reach out to youth to address issues that are motivating their age group to become involved in gangs and possess guns.
The Ontario Solicitor General, Hamilton police, youth workers, clergy, criminal justice practitioners and other experts will be invited to identify solutions to create a city-wide action plan to deal with guns and gangs in the city.
Despite the increase in gun crimes in Hamilton, there have been active voices to defund the city’s police.
Defund the Police Hamilton Coalition, a social justice organization, rallied outside city hall in November, demanding the police budget be cut by 50% and reallocate the funds to “free” public housing.
Caving to the demands of the activists, Hamilton’s police services board agreed to look at a potential 20% cut to the police budget in 2020. The motion ultimately failed.
Further, Councillor Nrinder Nann brought forward a motion in February to reallocate year-end surpluses from the police’s operating budget into community and social services. Hamilton City Council rejected the motion.
Two university organizations dedicated to internet law are calling on the federal government to ditch its plan to regulate online content.
Both the University of Ottawa’s Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab asked in submissions to Heritage Canada for the government to halt their plans entirely.
During the election, the Trudeau Liberals pledged to introduce online harms legislation if they were re-elected, in addition to bringing back controversial Bill C-10 and legislation which would force tech giants to compensate news outlets for their content.
The government’s online harms bill would require platforms to remove illegal content within 24 hours of it being flagged and create a new regulator called the Digital Safety Commissioner of Canada.
“(The proposal) will jeopardize Canada’s claim to being a leader in advancing free expression, a free and open internet, and the human rights upon which our democratic society has been built,” the CIPPIC wrote in its submission.
The CIPPIC argues that the government’s plans to target the tech giants pose a serious threat to the privacy of people’s behaviour online.
“Such a requirement has no place in Canadian legislation, especially in tandem with mandatory reporting to law enforcement,” the CIPPIC continued.
“Simply put, Canada’s proposed 24-hour blocking requirement will lead to over-removal and censorship of legitimate expression.”
According to Citizen Lab, the Liberal proposal was “nothing short of a positive legal obligation to monitor users and moderate their content.”. The organization believes “this approach will inevitably result in disproportionate levels of user censorship.”
Currently, the Liberal government is consulting stakeholders on a proposed plan to target online harms like terrorist content, content that incites violence, hate speech, non-consensual intimate images and child sexual exploitation.
The submissions add to the growing chorus of leading voices which have come out against the Liberal government’s plan to regulate the internet.
In September, the Independent Press Gallery of Canada (IPG) submitted its own arguments calling on the government to scrap the proposal.
“The IPG opposes the proposal and expresses a serious concern to the harmful effects on freedom of expression and principles of law that will ensue if the government moves forward with the proposal. We expect that the government will take our criticisms into account and will cease its pursuit of the proposal in its current form,” IPG president Candice Malcolm, who is also the founder of True North, wrote.
The Department of National Defence has expressed concerns about anti-satellite weapon tests in light of China’s growing territorial aggression and recent military threats made towards Canada’s allies.
“Canada is concerned about anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) tests. All ASAT tests – whether launched from the ground or space – are destabilizing. They pose a serious risk for the space environment by risking a collision and could lead to misunderstanding and miscalculation,” a Department spokesperson told True North in response to questions on China.
“Canada is strengthening our international relationships, and working with many allies and partners to support responsible behaviours in space. We are actively participating in ongoing discussion at the UN on the Prevention of an Arms Race in outer Space (PAROS) and to develop responsible behaviours for both civilian and military use.”
In April, the Canadian government wrote in a submission to the UN on reducing space threats that it supports hatling the development, testing or use of such weapons internationally.
“Canada views responsible behaviour as committing not to undertake development, testing or use of anti-satellite capabilities that can cause widespread debris,” wrote Canadian diplomats to the UN.
Although Canada does not develop anti-satellite weaponry itself, the US has dedicated an extensive amount of research and funding to the technology. Similarly, China has also sought to expand its outer space capabilities.
According to Pentagon Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, the US military has been put on guard after it was revealed that China was heavily investing in weapons with capabilities that range from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — all that, they’re on the march.”
In a shocking recent display of escalation, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu sounded the alarm over China after a record number of Chinese military jets flew into Taiwan’s air defence zone. Since the incident, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has called for help from the international community.
Additionally, a top commander with the People’s Liberation Army’s air force threatened last Wednesday to meet the US “in the sky” in response to comments by a US official who said that American policy should “scare China.”
“Recently a counterpart of mine who is from a major country claims that he wants to scare China,” said deputy air force commander Wang Wei last week in reference.
“The Chinese navy is capable and confident to ensure national security and defend integrity, as well as make a contribution to world peace. I can only say, if they are not scared, let us meet in the sky.”
Critics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have called on his newly elected government to take a stronger approach with regard to China now that Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been freed. In the past, Trudeau has waffled and been non-committal on the question of Taiwan, most recently refusing to support Taiwan’s admission into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
There are two big events this week that will determine the future of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). The first is a private luncheon in Toronto with conservative insiders and his top campaign advisors to do a “debrief” on what went right and what went wrong.
The second is a meeting of all CPC MPs in Ottawa — the first bit meeting since the election — to air their grievances about all the mistakes on the campaign.
On today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice discusses the importance of these two events and breaks down the various camps fighting for the heart and soul of the Conservative party.
Even if O’Toole survives the first caucus meeting, he still has a long way to go to make it up to the base for abandoning conservative principles and ideals during the campaign.
