CRTC BROKE DISCLOSURE RULES

Canada’s Information Commissioner has ruled the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) broke disclosure laws when dealing with information requests from TekSavvy.

The internet service provider filed three requests in June 2021, looking into meetings the CRTC Chair Ian Scott took with lobbyists and executives from Bell, Shaw and Telus.

Organizations, including TekSavvy and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada, have stated Scott should remove himself from decisions surrounding internet decisions because the meeting exhibited personal bias. The CRTC denied the recusal request.

MENDICINO'S PANTS ON FIRE

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino repeated disproven claims about the Freedom Convoy to justify the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to crack down on the peaceful protest in Ottawa.

Mendicino and Attorney General David Lametti appeared before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency on Tuesday to defend the government’s use of the never-before-used act.

While answering a question about why the government decided to resort to such extreme measures, Mendicino falsely claimed convoy protesters posed a threat to Ottawa residents and were connected to the highly-publicized arson attempt in a downtown apartment building.

NOT PROTECTED BY CABINET CONFIDENTIALITY

 Alberta’s chief medical officer of health can’t claim cabinet confidentiality to prevent divulging some of her closed-door recommendations on COVID-19 restrictions, a judge has ruled.

That ruling came amid a court proceeding whose plaintiffs are arguing Alberta’s pandemic public health orders overseen by Dr. Deena Hinshaw violated constitutional rights.

In a decision handed down Tuesday, the answers to three questions posed by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Barbara Romaine regarding Hinshaw’s discussions with government leaders must be made public, contrary to the defence’s argument they’re protected by cabinet immunity.

TIME FOR A TAX REVOLT

With revenues pouring into federal and provincial coffers, it’s time for Canadians to tell their governments they’ve had enough with high taxes. With so much meddling in the economy, inefficient governments can’t even deliver good service with the money they have on hand. Medical wait times are longer than ever. Math and literacy scores are falling. Protected businesses are subsidized rather than pushed by competition to innovate. Even (Dis-)Service Canada can’t provide passports on time for travelling Canadians.

 Lower taxes and less reliance on inefficient government are a good place to start. Based on recent federal and provincial budgets, the April IMF Fiscal Monitor forecasts that Canadian governments will collect 41.2 per cent of GDP in taxes and non-tax revenues in 2022. If governments were just a tad smaller at 38.5 per cent of GDP (where they were in 2015), we could be paying $70 billion less in taxes. That is $2000 per person or, for a family of four, $8000. That could be a reasonable objective.

CANADA'S ECONOMY STRUGGLING

 Small businesses are Canada’s job creation engine, accounting for more than 80% of new jobs in this country. Collectively, they are responsible for roughly half of our GDP growth. When they are healthy and strong, the country is growing, and when they catch cold, Canada is laid up.

What’s less understood is what happens when small businesses catch something more serious. While there has been much conversation about the personal and economic effects of “long COVID” on the health of Canadians, it is time to discuss the massive impact financial long COVID has had on Canadian businesses. It’s an ailment that could have serious long-term implications for Canada’s economic recovery.

AN UNSURPRIZING OUTCOME OF THE INQUIRY

 The Liberals have heeded the age-old advice that governments should never set up public inquiries unless they know in advance what the findings will be.

In the case of the inquiry into the proclamation of the Emergencies Act in February, the government has mandated Ontario appeals court judge Justice Paul Rouleau to focus on the actions of the Freedom Convoy protesters, rather than on holding the government accountable. The judge’s schedule is hectic — he has to report by next February. As such, he is likely to be so beset probing social media disinformation and cryptocurrency crowdsourcing that it will be a major surprise if he finds time to question the government’s role in all this.

Liberal efforts to control the scope of the inquiry have arraigned an unholy alliance of opposition, including civil liberties groups and the opposition parties.

LIBERALS' LOW CARBON ECONOMY A USELESS SHAM

 Ottawa’s promised “just transition” to a new, low-carbon economy is now revealed as a useless sham.

Coal miners in Alberta and Saskatchewan have faced transition for several years now. But the feds have done nothing to help them, and have no working plan to start despite many promises.

That’s the conclusion of the federal auditor general’s office, which finds that bureaucrats sat on their fat portfolios even as coal workers were losing their jobs.

CANADA'S AGING WORK FORCE

Canada's working-age population is older than it has ever been, according to new census figures released Wednesday.

More than one in five working adults is now nearing retirement, says Statistics Canada — a demographic shift that will create significant challenges for the Canadian workforce in the coming decade.

The Canadian population now has a larger share of people aged 55 to 64 than it does of those aged 15 to 24, the age at which people enter the workforce.

TAMARA LICH GIVEN GEORGE JONAS FREEDOM AWARD

An organizer of Canada's Freedom Convoy is being given an award after she "inspired Canadians to exercise their Charter rights and freedoms," according to the organization giving out the accolade.

Tamara Lich, from Medicine Hat, is being given the George Jonas Freedom Award by the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. The annual award recognizes an individual who has "contributed significantly to advancing and preserving freedom in Canada."

According to the organization, Lich "suffered for the cause of freedom" by spending 18 days "unjustly jailed."

BILINGUALISM FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE

 In April 2021, Legault announced he would extend the Charter of the French Language, Bill 101. If passed, the reforms would see francophones and allophones lose the right to attend English Cegeps. Adult Quebecers, men and women of legal age, in a free nation, would be forbidden from attending the higher education institute of their choice due to their cultural and linguistic identity. You know who else was historically forbidden from attending the higher education institute of their choice in Quebec? Jews.

Legault has explained his reasoning, calmly, reassuringly: “I understand that some francophones would like to learn English by going to colleges, but I understand also … that French is fragile.”

You see, young adult francophones, Pere Legault knows best. He cannot allow his citizens their trivial, selfish pursuits, like acquiring the basic qualifications for any career in commerce, science, or technology — the future of the Quebec nation is at stake! Give up this childish dream of speaking more than one language. It is a noble sacrifice! Take one for the team! Of course, Legault himself needed to become bilingual to run Air Transat, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Pere Legault, as he always has, protects us from our own bad choices.

LIBERALS PROPOSE CHANGING RULES OF PARLIAMENT

In a move typically not seen until closer to the end of the spring sitting, the Liberals have given notice for a motion looking to revive late-night House sittings, while also proposing to give ministers the temporary power to table ‘without notice’ a motion to adjourn the Commons until the fall.

Though, Conservative House Leader John Brassard isn’t convinced.

What they're proposing with respect to this motion is, is absurd,” he told CTVNews.ca, equating the power to giving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the power to “shut down Parliament,” while taking away tools opposition parties have to hold the government to account.

TOO MANY SECRET SQUIRRELS

 Information-sharing between intelligence officers and police needs an overhaul — and it could start with informing police of the reasons behind national security arrests — says a newly obtained internal report looking at the often fraught relationship between Canada's spy agency and the RCMP.

In one instance, officers in one of the RCMP's national security units quit their jobs after being asked to carry out an arrest without being told the reasons, says the redacted report, which was released through an access to information request.

The document is the end result of a behind-the-scenes review of how the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the national police force share information — or don't.

BLAMING RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT WORKERS FOR VIOLENCE

OTTAWA — A private email shows a Conservative MP from Alberta calling an NDP-initiated study into the relationship between resource development and increased violence against Indigenous women and girls "disgraceful."

Stephanie Kusie made the comments in an exchange that happened ahead of a Tuesday meeting by a House of Commons committee set to study the issue, which was flagged as a concern by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The final report detailed how the inquiry heard from witnesses and received other evidence about the risk of transient, largely male workforces tied to big resource projects committing acts of physical or sexual violence against Indigenous women.

THE BLEATING OF FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES

There has been one salutary effect of the weeks-long efforts of Elon Musk to gain control of Twitter, and the debate over the freedom of speech that ensued: now the Left’s foremost individuals and institutions are out in the open about their hatred for the freedom of speech. The authoritarian heart of the Left has been exposed, as has their war against the foundational principle of any free society: the right to express oneself even if one’s opinions don’t coincide with those of the powerful and/or moneyed elites. Barack and Hillary hate the freedom of speech and want you to think it’s a dangerous toy, too dangerous for you to play with. And now three pillars of the unctuous and hypocritical Leftist “human rights” establishment, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have come out against it as well.

LIBERAL CONE OF SILENCE

OTTAWA — Justice Minister David Lametti repeatedly invoked cabinet confidentiality in his appearance before a special committee tasked with investigating the government’s use of the Emergencies Act.

Lametti was asked pointed questions Tuesday evening about federal consultations with provinces and others before declaring an emergency, and when the government received advice to revoke the declaration. On multiple occasions, he responded that he “would not betray cabinet confidence.”

That has been a central concern for the Conservatives since Monday's launch of a separate public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act. Both the committee and the inquiry are required under the act.

RUSSIA CUTS OFF GAS TO POLAND, BULGARIA

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russia opened a new front in its war in Ukraine on Wednesday, cutting two European Union nations that staunchly back Kyiv off from its gas, a dramatic escalation in the conflict that is increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.

One day after the United States and other Western allies vowed to speed more and better military supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin upped the ante, using its most essential export as leverage. European gas prices shot up on the news, which European leaders denounced as “blackmail.”

n a memo, state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom said it was cutting Poland and Bulgaria off from its natural gas because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded. The company said it had not received any such payment since the beginning of the month.

IMPUDENT QUESTIONING OF ELITE WISDOM

 The immediate trigger for this latest spat over the elite’s eliteness is the admission of Richard Tiffany (Tiff) Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada with a blue-chip bio, including a spell as dean of the Rotman School of Management after he was passed over for governor in 2014 (we should all have such snits), that he and his fellow sages had been wrong about inflation.

It’s not a state secret, or shouldn’t be. Way back in 2020, the governor predicted inflation would “remain less than two per cent.” A mere two weeks ago, the BoC’s “Monetary Policy Report” said it would top out at 5.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2022. It’s now 6.7 per cent and rising

REPLICA POLICE CAR WENT UNREPORTED

 HALIFAX — A public inquiry heard Monday that many people knew about a replica patrol car owned by the gunman in Nova Scotia’s mass shooting, but they didn’t tell police about his suspicious activities.

Commission lawyer Amanda Byrd presented a summary Monday of how the killer acquired four decommissioned Ford Taurus police vehicles in 2019 from the federal government’s online auction site, known as GCSurplus.

She also told the inquiry that there’s no indication anyone who saw the fully marked car or photographs of it before the rampage reported it to the police.

ANTI-SEMITISM ON DISPLAY IN TORONTO

 Anti-Semitism was on full display on Sunday in Toronto, when protesters called for Israel to be wiped off the map and cheered rockets being fired at civilians.

They walked straight up Yonge St. — hundreds of people on a sunny Sunday afternoon carrying Palestinian flags, Black Lives Matter flags, the Every Child Matters banner raised by Indigenous communities, and a massive banner calling for Israel to be boycotted by the world.

The flags and banners are one thing, but the cheering of civilians being fired upon with chants of “Allahu Akbar!” and the calls for Israel to be destroyed are nothing but pure hatred that has no place in our society.

TRUDEAU'S THOROUGHLY LAUGHABLE EV PLAN

 But the Trudeau government’s goal of having 60 per cent of new vehicles sold in Canada be electric by 2030 is laughable.

And the Liberals’ plan to outlaw new internal combustion engine vehicles altogether by 2035, is nothing more than pompous, unrealistic, virtue signalling.

Let’s start with some basic, practical considerations, like where are all these new EVs going to come from?

XI JINPING'S ENEMIES SHARPEN THEIR KNIVES

Since taking power in 2012, Xi Jinping has fundamentally changed the political order of China. Crushing opponents under the guise of “anti-corruption” campaigns, terrorizing the people of Xinjiang and Hong Kong, declaring himself president-for-life, and presiding over the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan in late 2019, Mr. Xi’s rule has been controversial.

Not since Mao Zedong ruled China has a Chinese Communist Party leader held so much power in his hands. But responsibility is a double-edged sword. When times are good, a leader like Mr. Xi can take all the credit. When things go wrong, though, exclusive blame is laid upon that same leader. And in a country like China, where leaders are historically removed by force (until recently), Mr. Xi must know that the daggers are being sharpened by those all around him.

REJECTING DIGITAL ID PROGRAMS

 Saskatchewan announced a few weeks ago that they were nixing the planned rollout of their digital ID program due to privacy concerns and are happy to instead watch as other provinces act as guinea pigs.

Could this be the start of a backlash, or at least a slowdown, that brings greater scrutiny of an endeavour that up until now has gone ahead largely out of the public eye?

A lot of Canadians aren’t even aware of the digital ID programs that are now in various phases of rollout in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

LIBERALS CAVE TO BIG PHARMA DRUG PRICES

After putting off changes to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board regulations four times in the past, the Liberal government has effectively caved-in to the pharmaceutical industry and its allies when it comes to making prescriptions more affordable for Canadians. The excuse from Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was “unspecified changes to the pharmaceutical landscape brought on by the pandemic” and the need for “a strong pharmaceutical industry”.

This is the same pharmaceutical industry that has gone from investing 12.5% of sales into Canadian research and development in 1995 to 3.5% in 2020.

Changes in the way that Canada regulates drug prices are sorely necessary; on a per capita basis Canada pays the third highest amount in the world for drugs and when it comes to individual drugs only the United States, Switzerland and Germany have higher prices.

TRUDEAU'S KIND OF JUDGE

   Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has appointed another Liberal Party donor to be a judge, naming Edmonton lawyer Bob Aloneissi to the Court of Queen’s Bench yesterday.
   According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Department of Justice made no mention of Aloneissi’s history with the ruling party.
   Last year, Liberals in the Commons justice committee shut down a Conservative motion to look into how lawyers who have a history with the party were being appointed to be judges.

WHEN THE PRESS ATTEMPTS TO COLOUR-CODE POLITICS

   Rex Murphy:  This is about the crowds showing up at Pierre Poilievre’s rallies, and it is not about the crowds showing up at his rallies. Of their size and enthusiasm both I and others have written. The crowds, in the numbers, showing up for his events in all parts of the country — even in the heart of downtown Toronto, at an apologetic venue mere yards from the headquarters of the CBC, the Canadian temple of current wokeness and identity/race fascination — have to be alarming for the bunch who have signed up to run against him.
   Poilievre’s reception seems not to accord with the Ottawa press gallery’s professional assessment of him. And I must note as a needed caution, that whenever there is a rupture between established press opinion and the public, it is always the public that is astray. The gallery itself will confirm this view.
   An aspect I’d like to touch on however is not what the crowds and enthusiasm mean for Poilievre’s leadership bid, but a curious — curious to me, anyway — and somewhat too frequent response to those crowds. There has been frequent comment on their “whiteness.”

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.

  Community Solidarity Ottawa, a coalition of local labour unions, community organizations and residents, says the Rolling Thunder Ottawa motorcycle ride that is expected to roar into town on Friday and Saturday is not the bike rally in support of veterans that it claims to be, but rather little more than an extension of the “Freedom Convoy” that tied up the city’s downtown core in February.
   “’Rolling Thunder’ is a direct threat to our community, and the far-right politics it brings with it are a broader threat to our safety and democracy,” the group said in a media release Saturday.
   Up to 1,000 motorcycles and other vehicles are expected to arrive on Parliament Hill for a rally at about 6 p.m. on Friday, April 29, with Saturday’s program featuring a parade of bikes escorted by Ottawa police from the St. Laurent Shopping Centre to the National War Memorial.

   According to CSO’s release, other convoy groups are also planning events in Ottawa throughout the weekend.

ALARMING CANCER RATES AMONG THE JABBED

   Dr. Ryan Cole has been raising awareness on the alarming cancer rates amongst people who have had the COVID-19 injections.
   He joins us to discuss the developments in this area, and any possible treatments identified for people suffering as a result of the injections, as well as the dangers of the WHO Pandemic Treaty.

TRIPLE JABBED HAVE HIGHEST COVID DEATH RATE

 If you look at data from around the world, you find that in many highly vaccinated populations the proportion of cases, hospitalisations, and deaths are rising in a similar manner to affect the vaccinated. There are two possible explanations for this being discussed::

• The virus has mutated to prefer to infect the vaccinated.

• The immune system of the vaccinated is being compromised by repeated injections.

Both are probably happening.

TECH CO's & TELECOMS SLAM LIBERALS' ONLINE HARMS BILL

Responses to the Liberal government’s proposed online harms bill from companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Canadian telecoms are among the hundreds of submissions Canadian Heritage refused to release.

 Previously withheld feedback includes a document from Twitter that warned the proposed framework involving proactive monitoring of content “sacrifices freedom of expression to the creation of a government run system of surveillance of anyone who uses Twitter.”

The submissions said the bill could be used for censorship, as a “tactic” by political parties, and a joint response by the telecoms warned of government overreach in asking for subscribers’ private information without judicial authorization.

CRITIZING LIBERALS' ONLINE HATE BILL

OTTAWA — Members of the LGBTQ community, Indigenous people and racialized groups fear a proposed law tackling online harm could disproportionately curtail their online freedoms and even make them police targets, responses to a government consultation have warned.

The documents, revealed through an access to information request, contain warnings that federal plans to curb online hate speech could lead to marginalized groups, including sex workers, being unfairly monitored and targeted by the police.

PBO REPORT ON FEDERAL BUDGET CASTS DOUBT ON LIBERAL CLAIMS

Since March 2020, the federal Liberal government has spent or planned to spend $576 billion in new measures — but more than a third, $204.5 billion, of this spending has nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic according to an analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).

In its most recent report released Friday, the PBO took a detailed look at the federal budget and came to the conclusion that Finance officials are painting a rather rosy picture of Canada’s fiscal outlook. It also casts doubt on the government’s capacity to generate additional revenue or reduce government spending to pay for promises going forward.

IMPLICATIONS OF EUROPEAN BAN ON RUSSIAN OIL

Russia is the world’s second largest petroleum exporter. About 5mb/d of crude oil and petroleum products are exported to Europe. A European ban on Russian petroleum imports would have an immediate effect on >1mb/d of pipeline imports. Moreover, 4mb/d of crude and products that currently go to Europe via tankers would have to find a new home, which would create massive problems for the global refinery system. Depending on the speed of the phase-out, we could see the loss of >3mb/d of Russian production near term. Over the long run, Russian production will likely decline due to the lack of western technology transfer.

A PUBLIC ALERT ABOUT NS MASS KILLER WOULD HAVE AGGRAVATED THE SITUATION

Sending out a public alert about a killer driving a replica police car and wearing a Mountie uniform would have overwhelmed the dispatch system when people started calling 911 and caused officers to miss more key information in their hunt for Gabriel Wortman, says an RCMP dispatch expert from Prince Edward Island.

The RCMP’s failure to employ the Alert Ready system that can send warnings to mobile phones has been a bone of contention since the murder of 22 people two years ago, with many believing it might have offered a lifesaving warning to nine souls killed on the second day of the April 18-19, 2020, shootings. Mounties learned the details about what the killer was driving and wearing early on in the mass shootings, but only shared them on Twitter shortly before the Dartmouth denturist was killed by a Mountie dog handler at the Enfield Big Stop.

“To throw into that mix a broadcast alert that is going to make everybody aware of a situation, as general as somebody described as a police officer in a police car, wow. You know, the expectation there is great. And I know there’s a lot of pressure from the families and I feel for them, but I … think we would have missed more key information coming to us had that gone (on) there, to be honest with you, because I think the (operational communications centre) would have been completely overwhelmed, not just us, but the 9-1-1 system,” Darryl Macdonald, the RCMP’s operational communications centre commander in Prince Edward Island, said in an interview with the Mass Casualty Commission released this week.

QUEEN ELIZABETH CELEBRATES 96TH BIRTHDAY

 LONDON — Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 96th birthday at her Sandringham estate on Thursday as gun salutes rang out across London and Windsor and military bands played “Happy Birthday.”

Britain’s longest serving monarch, who celebrates a historic platinum jubilee this year, was pictured with two white ponies in a photo released for the occasion.

Government ministers joined members of the royal family in sending their best wishes to the queen, who has stepped back from most public duties this year over concerns about her health.

ROXHAM ROAD BACK IN BUSINESS

It hasn’t gotten much attention outside Quebec, but Roxham Road seems to be well and truly back in business. RCMP patrolling the border in Quebec recorded more than 4,500 “asylum claims and interceptions” in the first two months of this year, CBC Montreal reported recently, which is more more than in any previously recorded two months. As of the end of December, according to Immigration and Refugee Board statistics, even after two years of very few new arrivals, there was a backlog of more than 11,500 refugee claims solely among those who crossed the border “irregularly” — the vast majority of whom came across that well-worn path from New York State.

LIBERAL OVERREACH

 Responses to the Liberal government’s proposed online harms bill from companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Canadian telecoms are among the hundreds of submissions Canadian Heritage refused to release.

Previously withheld feedback includes a document from Twitter that warned the proposed framework involving proactive monitoring of content “sacrifices freedom of expression to the creation of a government run system of surveillance of anyone who uses Twitter.”

The submissions said the bill could be used for censorship, as a “tactic” by political parties, and a joint response by the telecoms warned of government overreach in asking for subscribers’ private information without judicial authorization.

GUILBEAULT'S RECORD OF ATTACKING FREE SPEECH

   No matter what portfolio Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault holds, his track record shows a repeated strategy of disqualifying his critics from voicing their positions.
   Prior to being appointed to head Environment Canada in 2021, Guilbeault was Minister of Canadian Heritage. Under his watch, the Trudeau government crafted its multi-pronged approach to regulating the internet and expanding sweeping hate speech laws into the online realm. At the time, Bill C-10 passed through the House of Commons and was sent to the Senate before that year’s election stopped the anti-free-expression law in its tracks. Since then, the bill has been revived in the form of C-11.
   While still on the Canadian Heritage file, Guilbeault repeatedly attacked freedom of expression and dismissed any criticism of his government’s plan to encroach on free speech as radical.

UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS AT GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE

   An Ottawa conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms saw a law professor lecture the government for not understanding “the very notion of freedom,” as well as an independent media journalist chastise a panel member for calling Freedom Convoy protesters “human slime.”
    The government conference saw representatives from various human rights organizations speak to reporters both on Parliament Hill and virtually. Panellists included University of Ottawa law professor John Packer and Canadians United against Hate founder Fareed Khan.

    A half-hour into the conference, Blacklock’s Reporter’s Tom Korski asked why no one had discussed the government’s implementation of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14. “That seems an odd omission for this panel,” Korski said. “And I wondered why, Mr. Khan – I looked up your social media accounts – you described Freedom Convoy protesters as ‘human slime,’ – I’m quoting. You said that plaintiffs awaiting bail hearings charged with mischief ‘deserve to spend years in jail.’”

BC SPENDING $MILLIONS ON FOREIGN NURSES, AFTER FIRING ITS OWN

After firing thousands of healthcare workers over vaccinate mandates, the British Columbia government has announced it will spend $12 million to fast-track the registration and licensing process for foreign-trained nurses to address critical staffing shortages.

The funding includes $9 million in bursaries to help around 1600 foreign-trained nurses with the costs of assessment fees.

“Our government is committed to addressing the province’s demand for nurses,” said B.C. health minister Adrian Dix on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re launching this comprehensive suite of supports for internationally educated nurses to help them put their skills to use here in B.C.”

DEL DUCA FIRES BLANKS

    Though the campaign hasn’t officially begun,  Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca made what he touted as a “historic” announcement on Tuesday. In a province facing continued pressure on its hospitals due to COVID, sky-high housing costs, infrastructure woes, a broken long-term-care system and now inflation, Del Duca announced … a ban on handguns.
   It’s a fairly routine ploy by the Liberals, who exploit the public’s ignorance of Canada’s gun-control system to pretend that what they’re proposing would be in any way effective. It wouldn’t be, as most handguns used to commit crimes in Canada are smuggled in from the United States, and any loss of domestic supply would be offset by more smuggled guns. Disarming law-abiding citizens will not stop criminals from using illegal firearms, but the Liberals sure like acting like it would.
   It’s normally a good political move for them, especially in their urban fortresses, even though it’s bad policy. This time, though, it’s not even clear it’s good politics. Doug Ford isn’t Erin O’Toole, who stumbled badly over gun issues in the last federal election. The circumstances are different in this election. So are the issues.
   That the Liberals would essentially kick off their campaign with an issue that is not front-and-centre for most Ontarians makes them seem wildly out of touch, and certainly seems like a missed opportunity.

DELAYING TAX RETURNS OF FARMERS & TEACHERS

 The two credits were then included in Bill C-8, which implements various parts of the Liberals’ 2021 FES. Once the bill passed, the credit would be enabled, barring any major amendments by opposition parties.

But despite the bill being tabled in Parliament last December and the tax credits being added to tax preparation software for the 2021 tax season, the Liberals still have not managed to get the bill through Parliament.

That means the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can’t process any 2021 income filing claiming either of those tax credits until C-8 receives Royal Assent (or dies).

In other words, teachers and farmers who hoped to increase their refund from CRA thanks to either of the two tax credit are now stuck waiting weeks or even months to receive any refund at all because CRA needs to see what happens with C-8.

RCMP INABILITY TO TRACK OFFICERS DURING SHOOTING RAMPAGE

   The topic has arisen repeatedly in the inquiry's first two months, and a senior RCMP manager is acknowledging the absence of global positioning systems on police radios as officers responded to the 2020 rampage in Nova Scotia was unacceptable.
    Darryl Macdonald, the commander of the RCMP's operational communication centre in Prince Edward Island, said in a Feb. 8 interview with the inquiry that the need for a GPS tracking system should have been addressed before 2020.
   Macdonald — who has also worked as a computer-aided dispatch system co-ordinator in Nova Scotia — said the 2014 police shootings in Moncton, N.B., clarified that "when members dismount from their units (patrol cars), there is no GPS tracking of the member."
   "There is a capability within the radio system that was rolled in (during) 2016 to get GPS co-ordinates from the radios, but it has not been implemented yet, as I sit here," he said in the interview, a transcript of which was made public by the inquiry Tuesday.

SHAMELESS VOTE-BUYING

   There was a time when vote-buying was done with a modest degree of nuance. The government of the day might pledge a tax cut or a baby bonus or a subsidy you could get if you filled in the right form. No longer: now they just stick a cheque in the mail and fire it off to the population at large. Vote for us and you get money! No questions asked.
   Justin Trudeau sent out $300-$500 to 6.7 million seniors — tax free and no need to apply — while preparing his bid for a majority government. Quebec is sending $500 to every Quebecer earning less than $100,000 as Premier François Legault heads to an October election. Ontarians have lately been receiving government cheques for hundreds of dollars just weeks before Premier Doug Ford’s government goes to the polls.
   Shame must be a diminishing quality in political circles, not that it ever existed in much abundance. Or perhaps electees figured voters have become so inured to the usual levels of flimflam they had to step it up a notch.

THE WORLD NEEDS CANADIAN RESOURCES

   Diane Francis:  The great resource reset is underway, as punitive sanctions against Russia strand its natural resource and agricultural production and offer opportunities to resource-rich countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.

Russia is being isolated by financial restrictions and the noose looks to be tightening as the European Union mulls even tougher restrictions on imports of Russian coal, oil and natural gas. Just as significant are the sanctions that prohibit Russia’s access to U.S. dollar transactions, as well as to the companies, capital, technology and expertise that have built its resource industries.

Geologically, Canada is a mirror image of Russia and the two are among the world’s biggest producers of oil and gas, uranium, nickel, potash and wheat. Countries are now competing to secure Canadian supplies of these and other commodities. Two weeks after the February invasion of Ukraine, Brazil’s agricultural minister flew up to Canada to secure supplies of potash for its gigantic agricultural sector.

$400K TO PROFESSOR WHO USED WRONG PRONOUN

Shawnee State University professor who was disciplined for using the wrong pronouns when addressing a transgender student is being awarded $400,000 after a lawsuit against the university.

Nick Meriwether, a philosophy professor at the Ohio school, declined to use she/her pronouns to refer to a transgender woman, according to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization that focuses on religious freedom and free speech cases and represented Meriwether.

Meriwether responded to the student during classes by saying, "Yes, sir." The student asked him after class to use she/her pronouns when addressing her, but Meriwether said no. The student filed a complaint and the university launched an investigation, according to a press release from the alliance.

$200 AWAY FROM INSOLVENCY

As the cost of living becomes more expensive, half of Canadians indicate that they are only $200 away from being unable to pay their bills.

According to an Ipsos survey conducted for the professional service firm MNP, 49% of Canadians surveyed are within $200 of insolvency. Further, 31% of respondents said they are unable to cover their bills because they don’t earn enough income.

Two thousand Canadian adults were surveyed by Ipsos from March 9-15 – a week prior to the Bank of Canada’s (BOC) decision to raise its central rate for the first time since 2018.

CURIOUSLY INCURIOUS PRESS GROUP

The Chair of the National News Media Council is refusing to investigate claims that a left-wing journalist misrepresented her arrest by RCMP officers during an anti-pipeline protest in subsequent reporting. 

The Narwhal’s Amber Bracken was recently accused of spreading misinformation after claiming that RCMP officers violated her rights during a raid on anti-pipeline blockaders in northern British Columbia.

On Nov. 25, a journalist released a video showing the arrests. However the video does not show what occurred preceding RCMP members’ breach of the structures,” the department stated in a memo.

“RCMP officers read the injunction at each structure and made several calls over the course of more than an hour for occupants to exit the structure. The only response from inside the structures were derogatory in nature and refusals. It was not until RCMP officers entered the structures and arrested the individuals that they identified themselves as journalists.”

CHALLENGING THE LEFT'S WOKE WORLDVIEW

   Now it’s the left that’s freaking out over a bid by Elon Musk — the son of a Saskatchewan-born dietitian who did a brief stint at Queen’s University before moving to the United States and becoming the world’s richest man — to buy Twitter for US$43 billion ($54 billion) and take it private.
   Musk is a self-described “free speech absolutist” who thinks Twitter has the “potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” and believes “free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”
   Liberals who love tweeting about how morally superior they are for driving a Tesla hate the idea that anyone could amass a US$260-billion fortune from selling them, and think it’s dangerous to allow people to challenge their woke worldview.

WOKE GOVERNOR OF KANSAS VETOES BILL

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) vetoed a GOP-led bill on Friday that would have prevented males identifying as females from infiltrating and dominating girls’ sports.

“We all want a fair and safe place for our kids to play and compete,” Kelly wrote. “However, this bill … came from politicians trying to score political points.”

Republicans, however, vowed to continue the fight and override the governor’s veto.

SNOWFLAKE POLITICIANS FEARFUL OF ORDINARY CANADIANS

  Lorne Gunter:   Emperors have always feared uncouth peasants. Kings have always worried about the destabilizing effects of sharing power with ambitious barons. And social snobs keep changing fashion, food trends and popular recreations so they can distinguish themselves from the riffraff.
   So there’s nothing new about the Canadian political establishment slinging around the term “populist” in an attempt to discredit Conservative party leadership frontrunner Pierre Poilievre.
   What is new is how hysterically fearful, how over-the-top our political elites have become. They seem genuinely to believe that millions of ordinary Canadians are one beer away from trying to tear apart our national institutions.
   It’s that mentality that led to the Trudeau Liberals thinking it was necessary to impose the Emergencies Act to clear out the Freedom Convoy from downtown Ottawa.

A PRIMER ON INFLATION

While dramatic increases in housing prices across Canada over the past two years have arguably received the lion’s share of media attention to economic issues, rising prices for food, automobiles, and gasoline have also captured public attention and raised awareness among Canadians of the broad-based nature of recent price increases. In response to the recent and persistent rise in inflation, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate in March 2022 by 25 basis points or a quarter of one percent. It also announced other measures to tighten domestic credit conditions as steps toward restoring relative price stability. A large percentage of Canadians have not faced a prolonged period of rising interest rates, including mortgage rates, which reached double-digit levels in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The possibility that economic conditions might repeat those of the 1970s and 1980s is a cause for genuine concern as current inflation conditions prove to be much worse than monetary authorities and private sector economists foresaw at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic.

WORST CHARTER RIGHTS VIOLATORS AMONG PROVINCES

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) is recognizing the fortieth anniversary of the Charter of Rights of Freedoms by ranking the provinces that violated it worst during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“April 17, 2022, marks 40 years since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms became a part of Canada’s Constitution,” said JCCF president John Carpay. “But this date has been marred by the long list of serious Charter infringements perpetrated against Canadians by the federal and provincial governments over the last two years.”

Its new report, titled “Who had the worst bunk in Canada’s locked down barracks?,” gives Quebec bottom honours as the worst trespasser on Charter rights, with Prairie province Saskatchewan – the first to drop restrictions – coming in as the “least worst.”

NAZI FLAG BEARER AT FREEDOM RALLY CHARGED

 On April 14th, 2022, Ottawa Police Service Hate Crime Unit charged a man with Inciting Hatred in a public place, pertaining to events that took place on March 12th, 2022 in the 100 block of Wellington Street.

NEW LANGUAGE LEGISLATION IN QUEBEC

  With Bill 96, Quebec’s political leaders are shepherding the general public and small businesses to the brink of an economic and linguistic precipice. Surviving COVID, lockdowns, curfews, family fragmentation and inflationary pricing, and now, bearing witness to a horrifying war in Ukraine, have clearly not created enough angst for beleaguered Quebecers. With its extraordinary and heavy-handed language legislation, our own provincial government seems set on making life as difficult as possible for citizens and small businesses.
   Soon we shall be living in a province where language inspectors will be authorized to enter, inspect and, in effect, harass any business with more than 24 employees. Many more students will not be able to attend the CEGEP of their choice. Heated language arguments at work, at home and during family reunions will again become part of our daily lives. All this despite having an evolved, peaceable and accepted framework already in place that maintains a high degree of protection for the French language.
   For businesses that fail to comply with the language law, whose reach is now being extended to cover those with 25 employees or more, the fines are severe: up to $30,000 for a first offence, doubling and tripling thereafter. The bill goes further: “If an offence under this Act continues for more than one day, it constitutes a separate offence for each day it continues.” The unmistakable message: You will comply, because to resist will invite massive financial damage.

I'M THE VICTIM, SHE'S A THIEF

A Windsorite has been forced to take his dog-sitter to court, to get his Newfoundland named Lemmy returned to him.

“Three and a half years later I still don't have him,” Greg Marentette tells CTV News in a recent interview. “She just fell in love with my dog and wanted my dog.”

Marentette, 53, is referring to Samantha Roberts, 26, who he hired in 2016 to dog-sit Lemmy.

TRUDEAU'S POSTURING ON REAL-ESTATE INVESTORS

   The headlines made the federal Liberals look aggressive, and even a bit patriotic, in their apparent determination to combat offshore speculation in Canadian housing.
   But the government’s legislative moves were as vacuous as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s trendy-sounding rhetoric this week, when she said the inability of young Canadians to afford a home today is an “intergenerational injustice.” That’s before she reverted to industry platitudes about building more supply.
   When it comes to the other side of the housing equation, reducing demand, there are so many holes in Liberal plans, especially the two-year ban on foreign buyers (an idea blatantly stolen from the Conservatives) that skeptics have astutely suggested the bill is actually being designed to signal how to stick-handle around it.

MORE CLIMATE HYPOCRISY FROM JET-SETTING LIBERALS

 The Sun’s political columnists Brian Lilley, Lorrie Goldstein and Lorne Gunter take a look at Justin Trudeau’s recent flight plan that criss-crosses Canada and wonder how that fits into the PM’s fight against carbon emissions.

THE RIGHT TO DEFINE OR CONTROL THE PRESS

   Rex Murphy: Outside of news organizations and reporters, I’d guess that most people do not know that the Canadian government has established what it likes to call an “independent advisory board” to decide on the question of what is or what is not a “qualified Canadian journalism organization” (QCJO).
   Before getting into what being designated a QCJO means, for news outlets and subscribers to them, I’d like to pause on the phrase itself, and the power to apply or deny it. My interest in doing so arises from the recent decision from the Independent Advisory Board on the Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures on the status of Rebel News, which gave out a curiously precise evaluation of that doughty organization:
   “A review found that less than one per cent of the content meets the criteria for original news content as required by the act.”
  So the first thing to ask is obvious: is it not strange that in a democratic political system, authority has been granted to a government department to define what it will treat as journalism?

GUILBEAULT'S PANTS ON FIRE

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault called the column “disinformation” and “fearmongering” on Twitter and said the fee on trucks doesn’t exist.

Here’s why I think you should still keep an eye on this issue. This is exactly the sort of tax Guilbeault supported in the past and governments don’t include advice they don’t like or agree with in reports that they publish.

They included this recommendation exactly because the minister does agree with it and even submitted it as a budget proposal before he entered politics. In 2017 the environmental group Equiterre, which Minister Guilbeault was still employed by and was still the chief spokesman for at the time, called for the green levy to be expanded in much the same way this new report does.

UNDERSTANDING FREEDOM

 After the “freedom convoy” picked up steam in Canada, the CBC ran two articles critiquing the word “freedom.”

One article suggested the word has become common among “far-right groups.” In another, they included comments from an academic suggesting it’s used to “defend the interests of privileged elites.”

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the CBC would condemn “freedom” – the government’s news agency faces an obvious conflict with any movement pushing for less government in our lives.

NO CRYSTAL BALL NEEDED

 Two females at New Jersey’s only all-women’s prison have been impregnated after having sex with a transgender inmate.

The women were not identified, but are housed at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, in Clinton, which New Jersey Governor announced plans to close last year, according to the Daily Mail.

The sex was consensual, but it isn’t known if they both had sex with the same transgender inmate, or with two different inmates. Edna Mahan houses 27 transgender prisoners, and over 800 women, according to the report.

LIBERALS STYMIE LOWERING WIRELESS COSTS

   The Liberal government is upholding a key ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that critics say doesn’t do enough to increase competition – or lower prices—in Canada’s wireless market.
   In a Thursday afternoon decision, the government said it wouldn’t overturn the CRTC’s ruling on mobile virtual network operators from last April.
  That decision requires Canada’s Big Three wireless providers — Bell, Rogers and Telus — as well as SaskTel, to sell wholesale access to regional wireless carriers for seven years.

WHEN NOVA SCOTIA SHOOTER BECAME 10-7

The gunman who shot and killed 22 people in a barbaric 13-hour rampage raised an RCMP-issued pistol toward his head before being killed by a hail of gunfire from two RCMP members.

“Benny, it’s him,” Const. Craig Hubley shouted to his then partner, Const. Ben MacLeod, seconds after the pair got out of their unmarked tan-coloured Chevy Suburban at the Enfield Big Stop gas pumps in the late morning of April 19, 2020.

“Him” was Gabriel Wortman, the Dartmouth denturist responsible for the worst mass shooting in Canada’s history, who had seconds earlier pulled up on the opposite side of the same gas pump.

OTTAWA SCHOOL BOARD REINSTATES MASKS

   Despite warnings from their education director that it was unworkable at this stage, trustees with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) have voted 8-1 to reinstate a mask mandate for students and staff.
  After nearly two hours of procedural wrangling, in-camera questions and twisted logic, the motion on Tuesday to mandate mask use in all OCDSB buildings was approved with absolutely no deadline given for it to be lifted.
   Only trustee Donna Blackburn voted against the edict, which impacts all 70,000 students and OCDSB staff. Blackburn said she wouldn’t support the motion because she refuses to give people a “false sense of security.
“We have no way to enforce a mask mandate,” she said. “It’s highly irresponsible to give people the idea schools will be safer.”

TRUDEAU PLANNING A TAX ON TRUCKS

 The Trudeau government is planning to hit Canadians with a big new tax on their trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The proposed tax would cost an extra $1,000 on a Ford F-150, and a Ram 3500 heavy-duty pickup truck would get hit with a $4,000 tax.

For most people, this new tax will come as a surprise, as neither Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault held a big press conference to announce their latest war on working folks. The recommendation to whack trucks with a big tax is buried deep in a new 271-page report from the Ministry of the Environment that was posted on the Government of Canada website March 31, 2022.

HAUNTING HONKING

  Rex Murphy: I know that with such fast-flowing events as the Conservative leadership race, the Liberal budget, and of course Joe Biden’s matchless press conferences — there will someday be a book called Profiles in Incoherence — that the dark hours of the truckers protest are receding from memory. The Emergencies Act has — I think — been lifted, and people are slowly repairing their spirits from that trying episode. Still, we are not completely out from under its shadow. To borrow a phrase, famous from another context, “it haunts us still.”
   It was, I know, historic in the full sense, this unprecedented attempt by gangs of wild truckers to “overthrow the government” of Canada. I cannot recall a time of equal national tensions and anxiety, when all Canadians listening to their radios, or checking in with friends and neighbours, awaited the dreaded possibility that their government might fall to the honking hordes of the Bouncy Castle Revolution.
   Everywhere people clustered in their kitchens, in coffee shops, at Walmart, exchanging the latest news from the front, astonished and alarmed that a country so tranquil, so composed and temperate throughout almost all its history, was now facing a desperate challenge to its very existence.

SELF-IMPORTANT MASK-MARTYRS

   For most people, playing the guitar, baking, or painting is a defining aspect of their personality. For others it is wearing a mask and continuing to pray at the altar of lockdowns, and they make sure everybody knows it.
  Canada is largely returning to normal, and some are struggling to adapt, and react with revulsion and derision to the end of mask-mandates and other signs the pre-COVID world is re-emerging.
   In Victoria, for example, this has manifested itself with shrieks of horror at the return of tourists. Many of the city’s longest tenured businesses have closed shop in the last two years, with at-least one closure resulting from the absence of Alaska-bound tourists stopping in the city. Consequently, it was a big deal when a half-full cruise ship full of Americans docked this week, and offloaded its human cargo for the day.
  Many of Victoria’s prominent citizens, such as radio hosts and local politicians celebrated the return of foreign sightseers to the city. A paranoid, but loud, few, however, reacted as if a dreadful host of Lord Sauron’s Orcs had swum into the city to storm the Empress Hotel and pillage the high tea room.

TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP

Rebel News founder Ezra Levant speaks out to Tucker after government denies newly-created journalism 'license'.

"PROTESTS SHOULD ALWAYS BE LEGAL" SAYS PM

  At a press conference in Victoria, British Columbia on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the right of Canadians to protest, saying he encourages people to express their disagreements with the government.
  Trudeau’s comments were in stark contrast to how he treated Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa this February.
  In response to demonstrations against COVID-19 mandates by truckers, the Liberal government declared the protests illegal. Soon after, Trudeau invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act to empower a militarized police response against the demonstrators and to have banks freeze their assets for attending the protest.

LIBERAL DECISION ON UNJABBED EMPLOYEES IS LATE

 The Liberal government is now a week late on updating its vaccine mandate policy for federal public servants, according to unions, leaving the 1,828 unvaccinated individuals on unpaid leave waiting to find out if they can go back to work.   That number included employees who attested they were unvaccinated, who didn’t provide an attestation about their vaccine status, and employees who submitted an accommodation request that “was not applicable.”

“If you’re on administrative leave without pay right now, every day that goes by, you’re left wondering what’s going on here,” said Dany Richard, president of the Association of Canadian Financial Officers, which represents financial professionals working in the federal public service.

“We were told we’d have that decision by April 6.”

MUSLIM ASSOCIATION SEEKS TO SHUT DOWN FEDERAL AUDIT

Canada's largest grassroots Muslim organization is asking a court to halt a federal audit of its activities as a registered charity, alleging the probe is discriminatory and violates its charter rights.

The Muslim Association of Canada is filing a notice of application in Ontario Superior Court in a bid to shut down the Canada Revenue Agency process initiated seven years ago.

The association claims in the court filing that since the revenue agency audit began in 2015, it has been "tainted throughout by systemic bias and Islamophobia."

$20MILLION GONE TO COVID FRAUD

The federal government pre-paid $20 million for COVID-19 tests from Ottawa-based Spartan Bioscience that it never received because they never worked as promised, according to new documents.

Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada says it is writing off the amount as a loss pending the company’s liquidation, according to information recently tabled in the House of Commons and in the 2021 federal public accounts.

“The company went through insolvency proceedings and is now being liquidated. By law, once a person or a company is in the insolvency process, no one can sue or attempt any other form of recovery. No litigation is allowed and all procedures go through the Trustee and is a public process,” reads the document.

STRINGS ATTACHED TO PROVINCIAL HEALTH CARE FUNDS

 OTTAWA — The federal government is prepared to put more money into health care, but the no-strings attached approach premiers have been demanding is off the table, as the Liberals are prepared to tie their dollars to results, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Beyond the new dental care program, which the NDP, not provinces, demanded, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland didn’t announce any new major health spending in her budget. Even Liberal campaign commitments such as more cash to attract family doctors and a new mental health care transfer were absent.

Speaking on background because they were not authorized to speak publicly, a senior government official said they want to have a clear understanding of where any federal money will go and how it will improve the health care system.

LAWRENCE GREENSPON TO DEFEND TAMARA LICH. HONK! HONK!

   Accused “Freedom Convoy” organizer Tamara Lich has retained the services of Lawrence Greenspon, the high-powered — and high-priced — Ottawa criminal defence lawyer known for taking on some of the city’s highest-profile cases.
    “I look forward to defending Ms. Lich,” Greenspon said in a phone interview following the hearing.
   “It will be a pleasant change to represent somebody who has no criminal record and there’s no weapons or violence, or anything of that nature involved in this case, so I look forward to defending Ms. Lich on these charges.“

CHINA'S TACIT APPROVAL FOR RUSSIA'S INVASION

Much of the world’s media was filled this week with grim images and witness testimony pointing to Russia routinely killing non-combatants in Ukraine, evidence of war crimes that brought Moscow a chorus of condemnation.

The message from China, however, was rather different.

People’s Daily, the leading Communist Party organ, cautioned Thursday against jumping to conclusions about the atrocities, while running an editorial accusing the U.S. of turning “the bloody suffering” of the war’s victims into “golden opportunities for profits.”

MASSIVE GOVERNMENT DEBT AND DAMAGE FROM COVID MEASURES

 Neil Oliver: During Covid more has been taken from children than might ever be measured.

IN 1 YEAR, 769 ATHLETES COLLAPSED WHILE COMPETING

Over the past year-plus, athletes across the world have been dropping like flies as they compete in games. If they aren’t passed out cold, they are seen gripping their chests in agony, unable to breathe due to sudden cardiac events that hit in the heat of the competition.

This wave of heart issues is unprecedented, to say the least. Never before have we seen young, healthy, world-class athletes experiencing heart issues en masse like this. It has never happened, ever. Furthermore, the timing of this sweeping phenomenon could not be more relevant, coinciding perfectly with the rollout of the experimental Covid-19 vaccines.

GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS IN THE BANK ACCOUNTS OF THE NATION

   Conrad Black:  The imposition of sanctions on Russia is being cited as an excuse for another massive assault on the remaining tatters of the privacy of the people of the entire politically organized world. Officially, we are all urged to acquiesce to public revelations of every conceivable connection we may have to assets of any kind that may be connected to Russian oligarchs, but this is the pretext for a thickening of the gigantic cloud of self-righteous officious smugness that has turned routine banking into the financial equivalent of compulsively frequent colonoscopies. In fact, the Russians have little to do with the insatiable ambition of all governments to intrude into our personal lives in ways that governments have no right to do. No reputable authority can contend that what a bank is required to learn about our financial transactions is required for governments to discharge their basic duties to assure a well-running civil society.

RCMP BREACHED SAFETY LAWS DURING NS MASS SHOOTING

   MacMillan cited a number of concerns about how RCMP H division in Dartmouth responded to Canada’s largest mass shooting, from failing to pass on 911 info to front-line officers to talking on open radio channels that Wortman could have picked up with a phone app or electronics store scanner.
   The breaches of the Canada Labour Code show that police were poorly led because supervisors weren’t trained and they were kept in the dark, literally, because they didn’t have night vision goggles. Since then, some have bought them on their own.
   The RCMP has been ordered to investigate why critical information received from 911 callers was not being broadcast over the radio by dispatchers. The communication breakdown meant that officers on the ground were hampered trying to track down the killer and also to identify one another. “General Duty members reverted to primitive means to self-identify, including flashing lights while driving,” stated the investigator.
   Radio communications being broadcast over unencrypted channels meant that on the morning of April 19, 2020, officers were put in danger. Anyone with a scanner, including possibly the gunman, “could hear, track and counter police actions during the unfolding critical event.”

NOVA SCOTIA INQUIRY: WHEN RCMP OPENED FIRE ON INNOCENT BYSTANDER

RCMP officers shot five rifle blasts at the Onslow fire hall on the morning of April 19, 2020, in a case of mistaken identity during the pursuit of Canada’s worst mass murderer.

Constables Terry Brown and Dean Melanson, approached the fire hall at about 10:17 a.m. that morning in an unmarked Nissan Altima.

They were pursuing the gunman who had already killed 19 people in Portapique, Debert and the Wentworth area earlier that morning and the previous evening.

COVID RESPONSE CREATES HUGE RIFT IN ALBERTA COUNTY

 Public health measures to try to curb the spread of COVID-19 have sown a stark divide in Mackenzie County, the least vaccinated region in Alberta.

Residents and local leaders say friendships have ended, arguments have erupted in shops, and government projects have been unable to move forward amid disagreements over masking, vaccines and other pandemic responses.

The animosity between the town of High Level and the county peaked in February when the county’s council passed a motion to stop working with subcontractors and businesses that had a vaccination policy for employees. A letter stated that those businesses would not be permitted to enter county premises.

LEGACY MEDIA CALL TRUDEAU'S BUDGET PRUDENT & RESPONSIBLE

Despite the legacy media’s campaign to portray the 2022 Liberal budget as modest, comparisons show that it eclipses even Trudeau’s past spending.

The Liberals have projected that they will spend $452.3 billion this year, vastly exceeding pre-pandemic spending in 2019 by $89.4 billion.

In 2018, the Liberals also projected total spending worth $338 billion – $114 billion less than what they’ve budgeted to spend in 2022.

Despite these facts, economic pundits and journalists with legacy outlets including the National Post, the Toronto Star and the CBC would have Canadians believe that the Liberals had put forward a fiscally conservative spending plan on Thursday.

CHOOSE YOUR DICTATOR

   Replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar power means replacing reliance on one dictator with another — Chinese president Xi Jinping — because China dominates the global renewable energy market.
   It supplies 85% of the components for wind turbines, builds half of them and manufactures 70% of solar panels.
   It also mines 90% of lithium-ion and 85% of rare earth elements used in wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries.
   Using its low labour costs and economies of scale, China — notorious for its long record of industrial espionage, intellectual property theft and spying on political opponents — has been driving its international competitors in green energy out of business, as well as investing in wind and solar power companies abroad.

INSUFFERABLE WOKENESS IN THE CLASSROOM

   Barbara Kay:  In Jan. 2018, some children in NB’s Grade 1 class began teasing a female classmate, X, because X favoured a non-stereotypically short haircut, dressed boyishly and enjoyed stereotypically boyish activities. X was apparently what we used to call a “tomboy.” Not at all gender confused, X would correct people who misgendered her. Apprised of the teasing, X’s mother expressly requested that any group discussion focus on generic messages of kindness and respect rather than gender.

 The teacher, Mme B, instead chose to leverage the teasing into “teachable moments” about gender expression and identity. There were several “moments”: a book about a boy who liked dressing as a girl, prompting one pupil to tell the class that you can go to a doctor to change your body, which the teacher affirmed. She told the students, “there’s no such thing as boys and girls,” that you can be one thing on the outside and feel another way in your heart. Mme B also used a whiteboard lesson, with a horizontal line running from “girl” on one side to “boy” on the other and asked students to “place themselves.” Students, according to the complaint, were then told that “girls are not real, and boys are not real.” NB told her parents she wrote her name next to the word “girl.” At the hearing, Mme B confirmed that she did not use this opportunity to explain that there are two sexes, male and female, or to describe differences in body parts.

WAITING FOR THE APOLOGY TO TRUCKERS

  Rex Murphy: This week, we found out that the attempt to burn down an apartment building in Ottawa, which was so widely and wildly heralded during the Freedom Convoy protest, had nothing to do with the truckers.

 Well, now that the central act, the biggest scare of the whole ordeal, has been established as having nothing to do with the maligned truckers, will there be apologies from all those concerned? Will there be statements of regret about hastily maligning a largely peaceful protest?

One other key point: does this kind of wild accusation, made without proof, fall under the government’s newfound concern for misinformation? Will the government work to prevent such malignant mistruths from being spread among its own ranks with the same vigour with which it will surely go after its foes? Let me use an old and possibly faded expression: not in a month of Sundays.

NOVA SCOTIA MASS SHOOTING INQUIRY A HOT MESS

  The judicial inquiry into deranged denturist Gabriel Wortman’s murder of 22 Nova Scotians in April 2020 is turning into a hot mess.
  In the aftermath of Wortman’s murderous rampage, neither the federal nor provincial governments were keen to establish a full-bore judicial inquiry — especially not one that could subject the RCMP to the searching scrutiny afforded by sworn testimony and aggressive cross-examination.
   The feds wanted to avoid a public spectacle that might pressure them to carry out top-to-bottom reform of Canada’s dysfunctional national police force. Then-Premier Stephen McNeil came from a family steeped in police work. His mother was high sheriff of Annapolis County, and five of his siblings serve as police officers. His minister of justice was a retired RCMP officer.
   In recent weeks, a rising tide of criticism has engulfed the commission’s work. Premier Tim Houston complained about repeated delays in getting hearings underway, and the commission’s unresponsive treatment of victims’ family members. A white-shoe Halifax law firm, Patterson Law, took the unusual step of issuing a public rebuke of the commission over its vague and unconventional procedures.