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Friday, July 18, 2025

BREAKING: Jason Kenney announces lockdowns, restrictions and vaccine passport

By
Harrison Faulkner
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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has reversed his long-standing objection to vaccine passports, announcing a proof-of-vaccination system for businesses while declaring a “state of public health emergency.”

At a Wednesday evening press conference, Kenney said a range of restrictions would be going into place after midnight, just a few hours later.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro said indoor social gatherings for unvaccinated Albertans are prohibited, while vaccinated households can gather with members of just one other household or two individuals who live alone.

A social distancing mandate will also go into effect, joining the province-wide mask mandate Alberta imposed last week. Employers will also be required to have all staff work from home, unless their in-person attendance is operationally essential.

As of Sept. 20, a ban on indoor dining will go into place, unless individual restaurants agree to adopt a vaccine passport program and allow only those who are vaccinated to be admitted.

Other restrictions include capacity limits on retail and entertainment venues. 

The government is calling the vaccine program a “restrictions exemptions program,” in an attempt to present it as a choice available for businesses rather than a mandate.

The new restrictions impacting businesses will only be enforced if businesses refuse to adopt the province’s vaccine passport. 

On July 12, Kenney told reporters at the Calgary Stampede that Alberta will not be implementing a vaccine passport system citing the fact that such a program would likely contravene several laws that protect medical freedom and the protection of private information in the province. 

“We’ve been very clear from the beginning that we will not facilitate or accept vaccine passports,” he said in July. “These folks who are concerned about mandatory vaccines have nothing to be concerned about, and there will be no vaccine passports in Alberta.”

In his remarks Wednesday, Kenney apologized for insisting on remaining opening as COVID-19  cases in Alberta rose.

“It is now clear that we were wrong, and for that I apologize,” he said. 

Kenney went on to defend his flip-flop by saying that he was only ever against vaccine passports because of privacy concerns. 

Jason Kenney had previously been one of the only provincial leaders in Canada to stand firmly against vaccine passports. He promised Albertans that he would not cooperate with the federal government on a vaccine passport program and that Alberta would not recognize any attempt by the federal government to mandate one. 

Vaccine passports have been announced and in some cases are already in use in most other provinces.

Mainstream media is starting to regret ignoring the People’s Party

By
Andrew Lawton
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After spending a few days on the road covering the Conservative campaign, last weekend True North’s Andrew Lawton became the first and only journalist in the election so far to follow the People’s Party of Canada campaign tour. Andrew followed PPC leader Maxime Bernier on a swing through Alberta, reporting on the PPC’s message and events, as well as the unique coalition of supporters behind the upstart party that’s been polling in the double digits – significantly above its 2019 vote share.

In this episode, Andrew unpacks what’s behind the PPC’s rise and sits down with PPC leader Maxime Bernier as well as Banff–Airdrie PPC candidate Nadine Wellwood.

Next episode, we’ll spotlight the western-focused Maverick Party.

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Durham Region requiring Canadians to collect contact information of house guests

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Durham Region’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Kyle has instituted a new health order requiring Canadians to collect the contact information of any house guests if they host a gathering with more than two people. 

“(Hosts are required to) maintain a list of full names and contact information (including phone numbers) for all attendees at the social gathering, regardless of age, in a private dwelling and/or commercial premises and, upon request, shall provide Durham Region Health Department (DRHD) with this information within 24 hours of the request, or other time specified,” the health order writes. 

Additionally, residents will be required to keep records of the gathering for at least a month. 

Those individuals found to have violated the order could face fines up to $5,000 per day, with corporations facing a fine of up to $25,000 a day. 

The order came into effect at midnight on September 11, 2021. 

“Individuals identified in the class order may challenge the order by appealing to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board,” Durham Region Health Department notes.

The order is an additional measure on top of Ontario’s sweeping vaccine pass system which would bar unvaccinated Canadians from non-essential services such as restaurants or sporting events which will come into effect on September 22, 2021. 

To date, there are currently 162 active cases of COVID-19 in Durham Region as of Wednesday with six people currently hospitalized and only one person in the ICU. 

Inflation spiked 4.1% in August, reaching nearly 20 year high: Statistics Canada

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A Statistics Canada snapshot of the economy in August reveals that inflation levels in Canada have not been this high since 2003. 

According to government data, the consumer price index – which is a standard way to track inflation by economists – rose by 4.1% last month. 

The spike follows a surge in July of 3.7% and signifies the largest year-over-year increase in inflation levels since March 2003. 

Goods impacted by the rise include furniture prices which rose by 8.7%. Additionally, gasoline prices have gone up year-over-year by 32.5% last month.

The price of groceries and particularly meat products have also been heavily impacted by rising inflation with fresh and frozen chicken going up 8.4% in August, while pork prices grew by 9.3% year-over-year last month. 

“In addition, prices for services have accelerated for the fifth consecutive month, rising at a faster pace in August (+2.7%) compared with July (+2.6%) amid easing of COVID-19 restrictions,” wrote Statistics Canada. 

Inflation levels have surpassed targets by the Bank of Canada which expected inflation to be steady between 1% to 3%. 

With days until the 2021 election, inflation is becoming a central issue on the campaign trail.

Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole took shots at his opponents NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau on Wednesday for having costly election platforms which wouldn’t address Canada’s financial problems. 

“We are thinking outside the box to give people a little bit more of their own money. That’s never going to happen with Justin Trudeau or Mr. Singh. They want to increase taxes. They are the reason why there is inflation,” said O’Toole. 

According to recent polls, Canadians view O’Toole as the most equipped to handle Canada’s economy over other federal leaders. An August poll by the Angus Reid Institute found that 41% of Canadians chose O’Toole as their first choice for post-pandemic financial recovery. 

Could the rise of Maxime Bernier and the PPC be the deciding factor in the election?

By
Candice Malcolm
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In the final week of the campaign, the polls show the Liberals and Conservatives neck and neck.

It’s too close to call, and the election will almost certainly boil down to a few hundred votes in a few dozen ridings across Canada.

That means that votes going to the protest parties, including and especially the PPC, will very likely be the deciding factor in this campaign.

So despite the media and political elite’s disdain for the populist protesters and PPC leader Maxime Bernier, this movement will very much determine the outcome of the election – and not necessarily in a way that hurts Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole.

Candice Malcolm is joined by True North pollster Hamish Marshall who breaks down the numbers in the key regions of the country and discusses how Bernier could play the spoiler in this election.

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NDP candidates resign after making alleged anti-Semitic tweets

By
Jonathan Bradley
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The New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for Cumberland-Colchester Dan Osborne and the NDP candidate for Toronto-St. Paul’s Sidney Coles stepped down on Wednesday after it was discovered that they made alleged anti-Semitic comments on Twitter. 

The spokesperson for the NDP George Soule confirmed Osborne and Coles have ended their campaigns, and they “agreed to educate themselves further about anti-Semitism.” 

“New Democrats stand united against discrimination of all kinds,” said Soule. “We are committed to taking lasting and meaningful steps toward ending prejudice and hatred in all its forms.” 

Osborne made a comment in 2019 that appeared to trivialize the Holocaust. 

“@Oprah was Auschwitz a real place?” said Osborne in a tweet from a since-deleted Twitter account. 

Auschwitz is recognized as the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps. More than 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz. 

The Liberal candidate for York Centre Ya’ara Saks revealed Osborne’s tweet by publishing a screenshot of it on Sunday. 

“@theJagmeetSingh said we need to confront antisemitism and give it no space to grow,” said Saks in a tweet. “So Mr. Singh, how will you confront it now from your NDP candidate in Cumberland-Colchester?” 

Osborne has been an active member of the Young New Democrats, and he served on the executive of the Cumberland-Colchester NDP. He would have been the youngest MP in Canadian history at 18 years old if he was elected. 

Coles came under fire after appearing to spread a conspiracy theory about Israel and missing COVID-19 vaccines in the USA in January. 

“Uhh I think Israel might be able to help you solve that mystery,” said Coles in a tweet from a since-deleted Twitter account. 

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), a Jewish human rights organization, exposed her tweets by publishing screenshots of them on Sunday. 

“We are disturbed by @SidneyCole8’s outrageous tweets in which she repeatedly accused #Israel of misappropriating US supplies of the coronavirus vaccine,” said FSWC in a tweet. “A retraction and apology for these false & offensive remarks, which have hurt members of the Jewish community, are in order.” 

Coles works as the manager of Key Partnerships at Windmill Microlending, a non-profit providing microloans to immigrants and refugees. She has promoted and defended human rights and gender equity by assisting with volunteer organizations such as Doctors Without Borders. 

Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada claimed in July that the NDP was not doing enough about violence against Jews. At the time, B’nai Brith Canada said it was concerned about how NDP MP Charlie Angus praised Khalida Jarrar, a senior political leader of the terrorist entity Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Past NDP candidates have been dropped for actions that were deemed anti-Semitic. 

In 2019, the NDP candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Rana Zaman was removed after tweets resurfaced where she accused Israel of committing genocide, acting like Nazis and using money to influence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

In 2015,  the NDP candidate for Kings-Hants Morgan Wheeldon resigned after a Facebook post was found where he said Israel intended to “ethnically cleanse the region.” 

LEVY: Adam Vaughan’s bizarre battle with Toronto Island Airport

By
Sue-Ann Levy
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After 18 months of being grounded during the COVID pandemic, Porter Airlines once again took to the skies last week.

But it seems if outgoing Liberal MP Adam Vaughan has his way, the Toronto Island airport’s main passenger service would “fall apart.”

Perhaps disappointed the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t put the airline out of business — and with the Conservatives leading in some election polls — Vaughan has been campaigning with his would-be successor, Liberal Spadina-Fort York candidate Kevin Vuong, claiming that a Conservative government has plans to expand the airport.

In a recent email obtained by True North, an anti-Island airport supporter wrote to a list of Islanders that Adam and Kevin stopped by her home, saying: “(Erin) O’Toole would expand the airport and bring in jets…Scary stuff.”

But it appears the last time O’Toole spoke about the airport was five years ago on March 8, 2016. He rose in the House to support an opposition day motion pushing for the airport’s expansion to help prop up Bombardier’s fiscal fortunes.

“We have a situation where the government likes to talk a lot about evidence-based decision-making and yet issued its decision (not to expand the) Billy Bishop Airport with a tweet limited to 140 characters, to say that thousands of jobs and an airline’s expansion would be at risk, and the travel options for millions of people in the GTA would be limited,” O’Toole said that day.

Still vitriolic opposition to the Billy Bishop Airport is nothing new for the outgoing Spadina-Fort York MP who did everything to fight it before and after Porter Airlines took off in October of 2006. He is doing his best to scaremonger during the election campaign with a group that has never accepted the airport.

He appears to have made his opposition to the airport and the fixed link to the passenger terminal a very personal fight — in particular this past summer during a Zoom meeting with Toronto Islanders vociferously against the airport.

During a more than one hour discussion essentially on how to get rid of Porter Airlines and create a park on airport lands (the same narrative the Islanders have pushed for years), Vaughan described the situation at the airport as a “mess” and that Porter is on “life support.”

He claimed to the captive Islanders that the air travel is not going to return to justify sustaining the Island airport and that it’s “going to die by itself.”

“I believe the airport should be returned to the people of Toronto to fulfill the vision of a clean, green waterfront for all,” he said.

Vaughan added that if there’s a “moment to strike and blow the airport up,” he’d support it.

“Look I can be a spiteful bastard,” he told those on the Zoom call. “It’s as much defeating Bob Deluce (executive chairman of Porter Airlines)  and Lisa Raitt (former Conservative MP and CEO of the Port Authority) and that crowd, as putting a park there at this point.”

Brad Cicero, spokesman for Porter, responded that they’re not aware of “any plans” to expand the airport.

“We are committed to Billy Bishop and confident in our future here, with operations restarting (this week).” Cicero said last week..

“We have confidence in our business plan and we’re prepared to operate in this dynamic environment for the time being.”

He added that while parkland is important, transportation infrastructure is also crucial and Billy Bishop is probably the best urban airport in the world.

“Changing the airport’s use is something largely promoted by those with a goal of closing the airport, but it is valued by the vast majority of the city,” Cicero said.

Reached last week, Vaughan insisted the airport is “losing money” and Porter is expanding to Pearson.

He claimed the Conservative position has been “consistent” — namely that they support jets and airport expansion.

He said every Conservative candidate he’s run against has also supported jets and expansion.

“(Robert) Deluce is free to grow his business at YYZ,” he said.

But Vaughan told the Islanders during the Zoom call of earlier this summer that he has spoken to Pearson officials and they have “no interest” in Porter’s business or moving operations.

Theresa Tam admits there is no evidence vaccine passports work

By
Caitlin Rose Morgante
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Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam admits that there is no evidence vaccine passports work. 

As reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, Tam told reporters that The Public Health Agency of Canada has not studied the impact of vaccine passports on vaccination rates, but that they are “watching carefully.” 

“We don’t have good evaluation or statistics except that provinces individually have said, I think in the media, that they saw an increase in uptake,” said Tam.

At present, five provinces, including Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, have issued vaccine mandates. To access non-essential services such as restaurants and sports arenas, residents in these areas must show proof of vaccination.

On average, 69% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated in the four provinces with vaccine passports, according to public health data. Vaccination rates in provinces without mandates average a mere 3% less.

Tam said her team plans to study the “full range of approaches” and that part of the way to quash vaccine hesitancy is through “trust-building” and getting social media influencers to promote the vaccine.

The Liberal Party’s campaign platform includes a pledge to “ensure every business and organization that decides to require proof of vaccination from employees and customers can do so without fear of a legal challenge.” Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien says that the vaccination mandates would violate the privacy act. 

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has cited concerns over the logistics of vaccine passports. In a September 1 press release, the CFIB posed questions on how enforcement of the passports world work, how a business would recognize out-of-province and out-of-county vaccinations and who would be held responsible in the case of fraud.

In recent weeks, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has demonized Canadians who oppose mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports. On a number of occasions, Trudeau has accused Canadians of being “hateful” and “misogynistic.” 

Low knowledge of gun laws among gun ban advocates, government poll shows

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A poll commissioned by Public Safety Canada before the election shows that a vast majority of Canadians who support the Liberal government’s gun bans have very little knowledge of Canada’s firearms regulations. 

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the poll was published in a report titled Firearms Public Awareness Research. 

“Thinking each of these types of firearms should be illegal is lowest among those who indicate they are very familiar with firearms regulations in Canada, and highest among those not very or at all familiar,” the poll claimed. 

When Canadians were asked whether they were aware of the Liberal government’s decision to ban over 1,500 rifles and other bills, a whopping 89% said they knew absolutely nothing about the legislation. 

“The objective of this research was to set benchmarks of Canadians’ knowledge of the potential risks they face, their perception of the issue, their current level of understanding as well as their willingness to participate in new government programs,” wrote Environics, the company contracted to complete the survey. 

“Issues relating to the regulation of firearms have been very controversial in Canada for the past forty or so years. Many Canadians possess firearms for perfectly legitimate purposes, i.e. sport and hunting, and this is particularly the case in rural areas.”

Environics received $223,528 in taxpayer funds for the contract. 

Additionally, the poll found that 39% of respondents wanted rifles and shotguns to be illegal altogether, while 63% supported a handgun ban. 

As explored in the exclusive True North documentary series Assaulted, Liberal government policies have impacted legal gun owners disproportionally while doing little to curb violent gun crime. 

In fact, crime rates under the Trudeau government have surged nationally with shootings in Toronto doubling under the Liberals’ watch. 

The CBC is the media arm of the Liberal Party of Canada

By
Candice Malcolm
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Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau joined the CBC for a town hall with undecided voters on Tuesday night. This provided the perfect contrast to show how differently the CBC and host Rosemary Barton treat Trudeau, versus how they treated Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole one night earlier.

The questions Trudeau faced were absurdly soft, some of the “undecided voters” were openly Liberal and Barton didn’t push back nearly as hard as she did against the Conservative Leader.

It’s no wonder why. This is the third straight election where Justin Trudeau has pledged more money to the CBC, promising them a bigger budget, higher salaries, more taxpayer money in exchange for this kind of coverage.

The CBC is the media arm of the Liberal Party of Canada, their television personalities pretend to be journalists, but they’re not, they are Trudeau allies helping their man get re-elected.

Watch Candice break it all down on this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show.

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