INDIGENOUS IDENTITY UNDER SCRUTINY

 A prominent Saskatchewan academic accused of fabricating her Indigenous background says she has not lied about her identity but is trying to close “gaps” in her genealogical history.

Bourassa is the scientific director for the Canadian Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health, giving her influence over millions of dollars in federal research funds . She is also the research lead of Morning Star Lodge , an Indigenous health research centre, and a member of the federal COVID-19 immunity task force.

She has claimed Métis and Anishinaabe identity with Tlingit heritage. Bourassa does not have documentation proving those ties, but said she approached genealogists about two years ago, hoping to trace her family history. That work is ongoing, but has identified family members born in “Slavic countries” as well as two family lines in the United States, she said. She declined to name the genealogists and said findings were preliminary.

FORCING CARRIERS TO MOVE CONTAINERS

Halloween is going to be an extra scary day for the logistics world. A total of 60,000 containers have been marked as beyond the dwell time and need to be moved out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by the carriers or the penalties will start racking up. A total of 33,000 containers need to be rolled out of the Port of Los Angeles and 27,000 loaded containers for the Port of Long Beach — a whopping $2,633,940,000 value in trade.

Carriers were put on notice this week when the ports announced that, starting next Monday, a daily surcharge of $100 per container will be levied. Did this light a fire and a surge of containers being moved? No.

MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SPEAK OUT

All through Europe, governments have gone to great length to get people vaccinated. We were promised the vaccinations will be a “game changer”, and it will restore our freedom…turns out none of that was true. It does not render you immune, you can still contract the virus and you can still be infectious.

The only thing this vaccine did for sure was to spill billions and billions of dollars in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies.

I voted against the digital green certificate back in April, unfortunately it was adopted nonetheless, and this just goes to show there is only a minority of MEPs who truly stand for European values. The majority of MEPs, for whatever reasons unbeknown to me, obviously support oppression of the people while claiming – shamelessly – to do it for the people’s own good.

PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY FROM THE SURVEILLANCE STATE

Vincent Gircys is a retired OPP officer who, as the Canadian rep for the international organization PoliceForFreedom, is in touch with thousands of officers across Canada and is working tirelessly to educate them on the illegality of enforcing our government’s Covid mandates. He is also an expert on the surveillance state and how to protect your privacy.

“The number of officers in [PoliceForFreedom] that I’m directly in contact with is a core group of the national representatives. We meet on a regular basis and exchange information of what’s actually going on, boots on the ground, in any country at any given time. So we act within ourselves as a news reporting agency – reporting what’s really happening at any given time.”

In regards to the police state…

“What kind of a country revokes religious freedoms from an individual, what kind of a country revokes bodily autonomy from an individual, puts travel restrictions on the rights the constitution says you should have…in this country our government has revoked just about every single right that we have.”

CHRETIEN'S SELECTIVE MEMORY

“This problem was never mentioned when I was minister. Never.”

 This was Jean Chrétien’s response on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle Sunday night when asked about the abuse of Indigenous children at residential schools when he was minister of Indian Affairs from 1968 to 1974. It might even be true: Maybe none of his underlings bothered telling him. Alas, that can’t save 87-year-old Teflon Jean this time. If he didn’t know it, he bloody well should have.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission report records that in 1970, Jacques Serre, a child-care worker at the Anglican residential school in La Tuque, Que., advised Chrétien’s Indian Affairs ministry in writing that another employee had “taken liberties (with a student) in the presence of a third party.” The ministry asked its Quebec director to look into it, but no one even bothered tracking down the alleged victim, who had left the school.

CHILLING EVENTS FROM CANADIAN HISTORY

Most Halloween stories involve ghosts, monsters or other unprovable phenomena. This may be fine for other countries, but Canada is a giant expanse of fog, snow, isolation and madness: We generally don’t need tall tales to get creeped out.

Below are 10 tales pulled directly from Canadian history that aren’t just bone-chilling, but entirely true.

HIT LIST REVEALED DURING MURDER TRIAL

 The motive for why two brothers from Montreal were killed on a rural farm five years ago involves a conflict that dates back even further, after Mob boss Vito Rizzuto was extradited to the United States and convicted of racketeering.

After Rizzuto pleaded guilty in 2007 and was incarcerated in the U.S., the organization he controlled for decades was suddenly left without a leader, and the group came under attack in 2010 and 2011. When he was released and returned to Montreal in November 2012, he appeared to regain control of the Montreal Mafia until he died of cancer a year later.

For years, the Montreal Mafia was led by men of Sicilian origin. The informant said the Scoppa brothers were of Calabrian origin and, throughout 2016, sought to eliminate as many people on the Sicilian side of the Montreal Mafia as possible. While testifying, he carefully recalled who was on a hit list the Scoppa brothers kept on encrypted Blackberry devices.

RANDY HILLIER WILL NOT BE SILENCED

 The Ontario legislature unanimously called Thursday on an Independent member who has been publicly opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic-related lockdowns to apologize for “a string of disreputable conduct.”

Randy Hillier, who represents the eastern Ontario riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston recently  posted an array of photos of people who had died, suggesting without evidence that they had died due to COVID-19 vaccination.  Family members of some of those people told various media outlets that they were angered by Hillier’s post, and denied his allegations.

Hillier, who was kicked out of the Progressive Conservative caucus before the pandemic, has called on police to investigate the deaths.

POLICING ALBERTA

EDMONTON — It would cost Alberta hundreds of millions of dollars more to set up and run a provincial police force, but it ultimately could provide more cost-effective law enforcement, says a report.

Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu said Friday he’s confident the government could find the money to fund it and would not raise taxes or seek more money from municipalities.

A survey done for the report suggested that two-thirds of Albertans do not wish to abandon the RCMP.

The panel said it heard the opposite from many in rural areas and was told the national force has become too bureaucratically inflexible and that smaller communities are not getting enough front-line officers.

MIGRANTS RIOT IN FRENCH TOWN

 In May last year, migrants in Paris staged unrest for multiple nights, attacking police and setting fire to vehicles in protest against the accidental death of a motorcyclist.

Some areas are so out of control that during the first COVID-19 lockdown, a top government official said restrictions shouldn’t be imposed on migrant-heavy areas due to the threat of riots.

Unrest in France’s notorious high crime banlieues is commonplace and a clear sign that multiculturalism has failed, although the media has repeatedly tried to frame the very existence of no-go zones as a conspiracy theory.

END DATE FOR VAX PASSPORTS

 Whatever your views on vaccine passports, there’s no denying that they have caused a considerable amount of societal turmoil.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said so much himself. Before he introduced one to his province, he was firmly against them because he said he didn’t want to create a “split society.”

Looks like he was right. All across Canada, we see the division being caused by domestic vaccine passports.

People are losing their jobs, parents aren’t allowed to lace up their kids’ skates in arenas and people have turned upon each other thanks to this most divisive of policies. It’s ugly.

POLAND CLAWS BACK SOVEREIGNTY FROM EU

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that Polish law takes precedence over European Union law. The landmark ruling, which seeks to reassert national sovereignty over certain judicial matters, has called into question the legitimacy of the EU’s supranational legal and political order.

The power struggle has angered European federalists, who are seeking to turn the 27-member EU into a European superstate — a United States of Europe — and who do not take kindly to those who challenge their authority.

The EU, which Poland joined in 2004, has vowed to retaliate, including with potential financial penalties. Poland, which threw off the yoke of Soviet domination in 1989, replied that EU institutions are unlawfully overstepping their powers.

AMERICA GONE MAD

After three weeks in Europe and extensive discussions with dozens of well-informed and highly placed individuals from most of the principal Western European countries, including leading members of the British government, I have the unpleasant duty of reporting complete incomprehension and incredulity at what Joe Biden and his collaborators encapsulate in the peppy but misleading phrase, “We’re back.”

As one eminent elected British government official put it, “They are not back in any conventional sense of that word. We have worked closely with the Americans for many decades and we have never seen such a shambles of incompetent administration, diplomatic incoherence, and complete military ineptitude as we have seen in these nine months. We were startled by Trump, but he clearly knew what he was doing, whatever we or anyone else thought about it. This is just a disintegration of the authority of a great nation for no apparent reason.”

OUR ENERGY SELF-DELUSION CONTINUES

 According to a recent report from Queen’s University’s Institute for Sustainable Finance, Canada will need to spend over $200 billion to fulfill the federal government’s latest pledge to reduce GHG emissions by 40-45 per cent below 2020 levels this decade. That does not include the immense opportunity cost of not developing and exporting oil and gas overseas. Furthermore, the proposed transition could jeopardize 800,000 direct and indirect jobs, including many held by Indigenous people, who account for 7.4 per cent of oil and gas sector employment. Even more bracing, RBC Economics concluded that Canada will need to spend $2 trillion to achieve net-zero emissions in 30 years.

VAXPORTS CREATE DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF SURVEILLANCE

Vaccine passports mandated by governments will create a highly intrusive surveillance system that not only forces Canadians to reveal their health information but can also track their whereabouts, Ontario’s former privacy commissioner says.

The personal information linked to each individual’s vaccine passport reveals substantial data that introduces serious privacy concerns, says Dr. Ann Cavoukian, who now serves as executive director of the Global Privacy and Security by Design Centre.

“Wherever you have to give your vaccine passport, it’s not just the QR code. They’re asking you for identification—your driver’s licence, your phone number—there’s personal information linked to it,” said Cavoukian, who is also a senior fellow at the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre at Ryerson University.

WEIGHING IN ON CPP CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

Investigative journalist Sam Cooper’s revelations of money laundering and communist China’s involvement in transnational criminal activities on Canadian soil was the topic of a panel discussion on Oct. 21, with one expert saying that Ottawa should do a better job of keeping the public informed.

Cooper’s book, “Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West,” details his investigation of suspicious money-laundering activities in Vancouver’s casinos. Following the money trail, he uncovers the intricate connections between drug trafficking organizations in Canada, Hong Kong triads, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The book reveals how these criminal activities fuelled the opioid crisis in Canada while driving real estate prices so high as to become unaffordable for many, and how the hands of law enforcement officials were oftentimes tied due to pressure from politicians.

WHEN POLITICIANS SIDE WITH CRIMINALS

 Municipal, provincial and federal politicians know what’s happened but all of them are frightened of even talking about it, terrified they will be accused of racism by people who hate the police no matter what they do.

While fighting gun crime is complex, politicians know there is something that does help to reduce it — police street checks, also known as carding.

With carding, police question and record information from people on the street who are not charged with crimes, whom police believe may have information about criminal activity.

A RESPECTED MENTAL-HEALTH ISSUES ADVOCATE

OTTAWA -- An organization that received $5.8 million from the federal government to help job seekers from under-represented communities is refusing to say if it paid the prime minister’s mother, Margaret Trudeau, to speak at an event it held this month.

She appeared in Elevate.ca’s Think2030 series, on October 14, to speak about mental health and the effects of the pandemic.

Speaker’s Spotlight, the agency that books professional speakers, describes Margaret Trudeau as an “respected mental-health issues advocate” and lists her among those with fees in the $15,000 to $20,000 per event range.

GREENPEACE DINK NOW ENVIRONMENT MINISTER

It is absurd that at a time when Canada’s energy exports look set to top their all-time peak, Justin Trudeau has appointed as environment minister a man who opposes fossil fuel development in this country. How dangerous could Steven Guilbeault’s appointment be to Canada’s economic and political future? We are about to find out.

Guilbeault, the co-founder of Quebec environmental group Equiterre, has called himself “a radical pragmatist” but his background, including scaling the CN Tower when working for Greenpeace, hints more at the former than the latter.

He has long argued that Alberta crude should be land-locked to help the fight against climate change. He has opposed every pipeline proposed in this country in recent years, including the expansion of the Trans-Mountain pipeline, which his government owns. He told Trudeau when he first ran for office in 2019 that he couldn’t defend the project, to which the prime minister apparently responded: “Fine, I don’t have any problem with that.”

DOCTORS' LAWSUIT AGAINST MANDATORY COVID VACCINE

Four Alberta doctors are suing the provincial health authority and its president over its mandatory workplace COVID-19 vaccination policy.

The physicians filed a statement of claim last Friday in the Calgary Courts Centre.

The doctors — two rural family physicians, a Calgary anesthesiologist and a Calgary pediatric neurologist — allege that, by requiring them to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Alberta Health Services (AHS) is engaging in a conspiracy to commit assault.

WE'RE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR GOVERNMENT

   I watch world leaders speaking on TV, and I listen to and read the news, and I wonder how stupid they all think we are.
    Take our own prime minister Boris Johnson. He was on Sky News this week and acknowledged that while the vaccine, offers a level of "protection against illness and death" it "doesn’t protect you against catching the disease and it doesn’t protect you against passing it on“
   Surely that sentence right there means vaccine passports would be meaningless and pointless.

GOVERNMENT OVERREACH ABOUT POWER, NOT THE PANDEMIC

 For nearly six months, Dr. Bonnie Henry simply abolished religious liberty in British Columbia. Her edict permitted people to meet for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the church basement, but that same number of people could not meet in the much larger church to pray. It wasn’t about regulating meetings, but banning worship.

When the matter was brought before the courts, the judge shrugged his shoulders. Yes, the order violated all of the fundamental freedoms listed in the Charter of Rights, but in an emergency the public health officials could do whatever they wanted, independent of changing circumstances or variance between regions.

A few weeks ago in Ontario, the government announced that thousands of cheering fans could sit cheek-by-largely-unmasked-jowl at a Maple Leafs game, but a 10-person diner in Kapuskasing could serve only half that number. What was the point of that, which had no basis in public health?

Could it be that the government, by strangling the diners and cafés of Ontario for a few extra weeks, wished to remind the tens of thousands of restaurateurs in the province that their livelihood was in the power of the state to grant or withhold?

EVACUATING CREW MEMBERS FROM BURNING SHIP

The Canadian Coast Guard and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in B.C. have evacuated crew members from a container ship anchored off Victoria after a fire began spreading on board Saturday.

The coast guard said it received a report around 11 a.m. PT of a fire on two damaged containers on the MV Zim Kingston, which had been bound for Vancouver. The ship, which is about eight kilometres from shore, had 10 burning containers as of 10:50 p.m.

The fire "appears to have been contained," the company that manages the ship said Sunday.

The ship first ran into trouble Friday, when it lost 40 of its shipping containers in rough waters, 70 kilometres west of the Juan de Fuca Strait, which separates Washington state and Vancouver Island.

THROWING NIH UNDER THE BUS

The question over whether the NIH funded risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China was officially 'answered' last week, after the agency claimed that one of their partners - EcoHealth Alliance, failed to report that they had 'accidentally' created a chimeric coronavirus that was able to infect humanized mice.

To review, in a Wednesday letter addressed to Rep. James Comer (R-KY), NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak admits to funding a "limited experiment" to determine whether "spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model."

The letter claims that EcoHealth CEO Peter Daszak failed to report this finding, and gave Daszak five days to submit "any and all unpublished data from the experiments and work conducted" under the NIH grant.

CANADA'S INFLATION WOES

 September marked the sixth consecutive month that headline inflation has clocked in above the Bank of Canada’s target range of between 1% and 3%, something that hasn’t happened since a six-month stretch that ended in March 2003.

Among economic experts, there is much discussion about whether this inflationary bout is temporary — “transitory” — or has some staying power.

LIBERALS' TOTALLY USELESS GUN BUYBACK SCHEME

The federal government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on its gun buyback scheme without actually buying any guns.

As of May 2021, the estimated cost of the scheme has risen to over $1.5 million due to several contracts.

“We’re already seeing costs go higher and the government hasn’t bought back a single gun,” said Federal Director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation  Franco Terrazzano in a press release.

Not only has the program been wasteful, the head of the RCMP’s National Police Federation (NPF) has stated that the initiative fails to address the issue of gun crime altogether.

NYPD OFFICER ALYSSA VOGEL

 Four-year-old Skye Martinez was shot on May 8 while waiting in line with her family at Line Friends in Times Square, the New York Post reports. A gunman had been arguing with individuals when a stray bullet hit the young child. New York City Police Officer Alyssa Vogel rushed the young child to an ambulance after the shooting, helping to save her life.

Though Skye is still on the mend from her injuries, she and her family visited Officer Vogel at the officer’s Midtown Precinct on October 22, the New York Post reports. Vogel provided the young girl’s family with a check for $3,000 that she raised on a fundraising website for first responders called Fund the First. 

REFUSING TO BE THE VACCINE POLICE

 As destiny would have it, America's grand champion in the fight against vaccine mandates emerged recently from an unexpected place: In-N-Out Burger.  Not only is In-N-Out Burger empirically a good meal at a great price, but the restaurant appears more than willing to put its beliefs into action.  Perhaps those Bible verses on the bottom of its cups and fry wrappers were not in vain; maybe they represent faith in a power higher than the San Francisco Department of Public Health.  Indeed, in one of the bluest areas of the bluest of states, one brave In-N-Out Burger refused to be the "vaccine police" and was shut down for its convictions (note: it has since re-opened).  That single In-N-Out Burger stands firm against an overwhelming force of vaccine mandates, munching confidently on a Double-Double, come what may.

TRUDEAU MUST HEED EQUALIZATION REFERENDUM

   The Alberta referendum on equalization payments is a wake-up call which cannot be ignored. Albertans pay billions into the federal kitty every year, and more than half the distribution of equalization ends up in Quebec so Albertans want, and deserve, to get out from under Ottawa’s unjust system.

   If the Trudeau government simply ignores this mandate the next vote in Alberta could be for secession. And that outcome could also lead to a referendum in Saskatchewan.

   Canada, as currently constituted, simply isn’t working for them and for many others. The re-election of Justin Trudeau with only 32.6 per cent of the popular vote not only underscores the country’s structural fault lines, but leaves Canadians with a leader whose priority is to propel Canada toward becoming Scandinavia on steroids.

DYSFUNCTIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPOSED IN BC

 The money-laundering inquiry commissioner has much to ponder as he prepares his final report after two years of hearings that failed to provide hard data or evidence of malfeasance.

Those who attended Austin Cullen’s first public meetings wanted comeuppance for former cabinet minister Rich Coleman and those they considered his Liberal cronies.

Undoubtedly, Cullen will be critical of politicians, but he won’t be sticking heads on pikes.

Some people will be embarrassed, but I think the key take-aways will be about the dysfunction of law enforcement especially when dealing with economic crime and the lack of accountability within government.

FOREIGN DONORS TARGETING ALBERTA'S OIL & GAS

 EDMONTON — The inquiry launched by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s government into the scale of foreign funds aimed at damaging the province’s oil and gas industry has issued its long-awaited report, finding that foreign donors provided nearly $1.3 billion in funds for Canadian environmental campaigns between 2003 and 2019.

However, compiled over two years by Calgary accountant Steve Allan, the report was only able to directly link far smaller amounts of money to anti-Alberta energy activities, with few conclusions drawn about what activities the money was actually used for.

The report fulfils a major election promise by Kenney’s United Conservative Party and lays out the extensive network of environmental organizations, and some of their funding sources, that have sought to limit the growth — or shut down entirely — Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

LIBERALS TO SPEND $7.48B ON NEW COVID BENEFITS

The federal government has announced a suite of changes to the popular income and business support programs put in place during the pandemic and set to expire on Saturday.

The changes come with a price tag of $7.4 billion.

The Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) will be replaced by the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit for those whose work is directly impacted by government-imposed lockdowns.

Freeland also announced the implementation of two new programs to help hard-hit sectors, replacing the wage and rent subsidies.

AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES BECOME BAG HOLDERS

 Over in the penal colony of Australia, the local government of New South Wales (NSW) just brought in a law that employers mandating the jab are now accountable for any adverse reactions suffered and will have to pay compensation to that person for the rest of their lives, even if that person is no longer working for them.

So for example, if company X mandates the jab and Shane or Sheila get the jab, subsequently leave the firm, and in 3 years’ time grow another head or, as is more likely (according to many experts, at least), suffer from some problem such as autoimmune disease, then company X will be liable to pay for Shane or Sheila… forever.

OTTAWA'S NON-FUNCTIONING LRT GETS SUPERVISORY UPLIFT

 On the 31st consecutive full day without Light Rail Transit (LRT)  service, Ottawa’s transit commission heard that supervision of the maintenance regime could use an “uplift,” two years after the Confederation Line launched.

Commissioners and councillors wanted to know why the maintenance regime was so inadequate, only to hear from RTM that the LRT maintenance program will improve.

Train builder and maintainer Alstom will “uplift competencies of the leadership and supervision teams” in Ottawa, according to city staff.

Alstom will also “improve process and tools” for maintenance and “strive to regain a professional and productive work environment by injecting fresh, qualified resources,” transit operations director Troy Charter told commissioners.

TRUDEAU AVOIDING PARLIAMENTARY SCRUTINY

 Canada’s Parliament resumes Nov. 22, a full two months after the recent federal election. That’s a long wait, especially for a Liberal government that bears a striking resemblance to the one that just left office. The cabinet won’t even be announced until Oct. 26. While three ministers lost their seats, you would think that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would have already prepared a cheat sheet of potential ministers. Of course, there was that break in Tofino — but still, on behalf of a public that isn’t taking many holidays of late, it’s reasonable to ask: how much time are our politicians actually spending on the job?

VAXED COUNTRIES HAD HIGHEST # OF NEW COVID CASES

 A study published Sept. 30, in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Epidemiology Vaccines found “no discernible relationship” between the percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID cases.

In fact, the study found the most fully vaccinated nations had the highest number of new COVID cases, based on the researchers’ analysis of emerging data during a seven-day period in September.

The authors said the sole reliance on vaccination as a primary strategy to mitigate COVID-19 and its adverse consequences “needs to be re-examined,” especially considering the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant and the likelihood of future variants.

ANNUAL INFLATION RATE HITS 4.4%

 The cost to put food on the table and gasoline in the car pushed up the cost of living in September, lifting the annual pace of price increases to a near two-decade high with no clear end in sight to the elevated readings.

Overall, headline inflation last month was 4.4 per cent — the fastest annual pace since February 2003. Statistics Canada said the annual inflation rate would have been 3.5 per cent had it excluded gasoline prices from its calculation.

Economists warned Wednesday that inflation readings could hover around four per cent until the end of the year.

FORD'S COMMENT FAR FROM RACIST

 Apparently, the biggest crisis at Queen’s Park these days is that Premier Doug Ford said the province needs more immigrants, and he wants them to work hard — not collect the dole.

Based on the reaction of some, you’d think the premier had donned a white hood and set a cross on fire or made the comments while wearing blackface.

Ford’s comments may have been clumsy and less than eloquent, but they’re far from racist, bigoted, or even anti-immigrant. Yet at the legislature on Tuesday, we were told otherwise.

NOT WAITING BY THE PHONE

 Canada has reached a vaccination rate of 71 per cent of the population now fully vaccinated, shows the latest health data, thanks to vax vans, mobile clinics and pop-up shots in community centres, arenas and churches.

But millions of Canadians remain who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19, due to barriers to access or because they are hesitant or resistant.

In Ontario, that number is nearly two million people, according to the latest population figures, and based on a vaccination rate of 83 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.

Now, the unvaccinated in the province can expect a call from the health department.

INCREASING PUBLIC SKEPTICISM

 “The 14-year-old (in) the article is my brother. He died from stage 4 brain cancer, not COVID. This is fake news. He was diagnosed in January 2021, and hospitalized in August. Two days before his death he was tested for COVID and it turned out positive,” wrote Simone Spitzer on her personal Facebook page.

LIBERAL MOVES TO STYMIE DISCLOSURE OF DETAILS

The recent departure of the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada could stymie opposition efforts to uncover details surrounding a high-security microbiology lab in Winnipeg, where two scientists were fired earlier this year for undisclosed reasons.

In a rare parliamentary move, Stewart was forced to appear before the Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2021 for a public admonishment, where he was reprimanded for declining to supply the hundreds of pages of un-redacted documents to a special committee. Weeks later the federal government took House Speaker Anthony Rota, a Liberal member, to court, to determine whether it had legal authority to withhold the documents. It dropped the court proceeding shortly after the election call earlier this year.

 Observers say Stewart’s return to the NRC is likely to slow any efforts by opposition parties to secure those records in the next parliamentary session, removing a key figure with first-hand knowledge of the issue.

PANDEMIC EMERGENCY SPENDING SHOULD BE ENDED

 Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is set to announce what comes next, after CEWS, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, the Canada Recovery Benefit, the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit are wound down on October 23. Last week, she told the CBC that significant uncertainties remain, indicating some benefits will be extended. At a press conference earlier this month, she cited tourism as one sector that has been particularly hard hit, while the Liberal election platform committed to helping the sector through the winter with wage and rent support of up to 75 per cent of their expenses.

Few people begrudge temporary, targeted relief to fellow citizens in need. But, according to a new examination of CEWS, the wage subsidy program was as profligate as it was scattergun and would likely not pass the most desultory cost-benefit analysis.

GREEN POLICIES RETURN THE WORLD TO COAL

  There’s scarcely a place in the modern world that will not be feeling the high cost and discomfort of a shortage of energy supplies and their increasingly soaring prices. Lebanon already is. Due to a shortage of oil, the two power plants that supply 40% of that country’s electricity shut down. There is no electricity in Lebanon and will not be any for some days.

It’s an extreme case, but even the United Kingdom, the EU, the U.S., and China are running up against diminishing ability to obtain the necessary energy supplies to keep things running smoothly. Some of the shortages are due to accidents, like the cutting of an undersea cable to the UK, but most are due to green policies and stupid political choices, ironically shutting down oil and gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel exploitation and transport at the demand of the greens, who grossly overestimate both global warming and the ability of air, sun and water to take their place. Ironically, this means coal -- the dirtiest possible fuel -- is back in huge demand,

ONTARIO'S COERCIVE & DISRUPTIVE VACCINE POLICIES

 Now my colleagues at Cardus, in the form of an open letter to Premier Ford , have provided a detailed analysis of the vaccine passport policy, with concrete proposals for alternatives that are effective, practical and not punitive. “We’ve Got Better Options” is not government-hating, conspiracy-spotting, anti-scientific raving. It is sober analysis.

The letter’s message to the premier is blunt: “Ontario is not in an emergency, and this province’s circumstances do not justify the coercive and disruptive vaccine policies that your government has imposed.”

WITNESSES CORROBORATE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

 The woman at the centre of the sexual misconduct allegation against Adm. Art McDonald says that there were “several” eyewitnesses that corroborated her story, including at least one senior Navy officer that Global News was able to verify.

The revelation comes just days after McDonald, who is the Canadian Armed Forces’ Chief of the Defense Staff, sent a letter to senior military officers on Thursday claiming his exoneration from the allegation. The letter also argued for his “immediate” return to the top military post.

NEBRASKA AG's DEVASTATING CRITIQUE

Legal opinions usually aren't terribly fun to read, but if you've been an ivermectin and/or hydroxychloroquine advocate for use against Wuhan Plague, this one definitely will bring you much joy.

It's a rather lengthy and full spectrum opinion issued by Doug Peterson, Nebraska's Attorney General, in response to a query from the state's Department of Health and Human Services as to whether physicians can be persecuted and tormented for prescribing ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to patients sick with the China Flu. What the AG's response amounts to is a full and complete takedown of the conspiracy to suppress cheap and effective early Covid-19 treatments.

LOOK TO EUROPE FOR CONSEQUENCES OF NG PHASE OUT

For years, Ontario generated so much electrical power that it had to sell it, often at a loss, to neighbouring states and provinces. Now, the province’s ability to produce an adequate supply of reliable power is threatened by an increasing enthusiasm for eliminating natural gas plants that are critical to Ontario’s future.

An environmental group called the Ontario Clean Air Alliance is demanding that natural gas power generation be phased out by 2030. It’s a predictable stance for an environmental group, but the worrying thing is that the alliance’s wobbly plan to replace natural gas has been endorsed by 32 municipalities, representing about 60 per cent of Ontario’s population.

 Before they get too keen on phasing out gas plants, Ontario politicians might want to consider the situation in Europe. Countries there enthusiastically embraced wind and solar but then made the mistake of shutting down nuclear plants and not replacing coal power with sufficient natural gas. Now they find themselves short of power and the price is increasing sharply.

NO VAXPORTS FOR 30,000 COP26 CLIMATE CRUSADERS

    Rex Murphy:  Ah, the Glasgow Times. My second favourite newspaper (the ultimate must remain unnamed). Getting close to the hive gathering known as COP26, the Glasgow Times passed on glad tidings that the 30,000 attending from all over God’s plague-pocked world (the number has jumped from 25,000) “will not need to use the Scottish government’s vaccine passport system to enter the conference.”

“And why should they?” the whole woke world, maybe even Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (see below), responds in chorus. The Scottish government is very like the Canadian government(s) in these moments of high choice and fraught decisions. It will lock down the corner store, demand passports to go to the coffee shop, bring ruin to local restaurants, but wave a welcome hand and drop all the rules for 30,000 strangers coming to town.

UNVACCINATED LOOKING SMARTER EVERY WEEK

 There is a massive propaganda push against those choosing not to vaccinate against COVID-19 with the experimental mRNA vaccines. Mainstream media, the big tech corporations, and our government have combined efforts to reward compliance and to shame and marginalize non-compliance. Their mantra says that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Persons who choose not to vaccinate are characterized as unintelligent, selfish, paranoid people who don’t read much and live in a trailer park in Florida (or Alabama, or Texas, or name your state). Never has there been such an effort to cajole, manipulate through fear, and penalize people to take an experimental medical treatment.

However, as time has passed with this pandemic and more data accumulates about the virus and the vaccine, the unvaccinated are looking smarter and smarter with each passing week.

IS IT A JOB REQUIREMENT?

 A general brought in to replace another senior officer accused of sexual assault is now himself under police investigation for sexual misconduct.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service received an allegation of sexual misconduct against Lt.-Gen. Steven Whelan, the Canadian Forces confirmed Friday night. “The investigation is ongoing and no further information can be released,” it added in a statement.

ATTENTION!, SHEEPLE OF ONTARIO

 Ontario began issuing scannable COVID-19 vaccine passports Friday, which residents can download to their phones or print out to prove they’re fully vaccinated.

Premier Doug Ford said the “temporary measure” will allow businesses to operate comfortably and Ontarians to get back to more routine activities.

“They mean we have the best chance to avoid being forced back into lockdowns that nobody wants,” Ford said Friday.

TRUDEAU'S POINTLESS VACCINE MANDATE

Beyond increasing the uptake of the vaccines, the public-health case for the mandates is weak and contradictory. Trudeau has said his vaccine mandate is meant to protect those who have ‘done the right thing’ by getting vaccinated, stating they ‘deserve the freedom to be safe from Covid’. But it is the vaccine itself that will ensure individuals are safe from Covid, not the upcoming mandate. The vaccinated do not need additional protection. For the prime minister to claim that they do will only sow doubt about the efficacy of the vaccines among the vaccine hesitant, and it could promote unnecessary fears among the vaccinated.

Vaccine mandates might make more sense as a public-health tool if the vaccines could be shown to significantly slow the spread of Covid. But while it is true that vaccination greatly reduces an individual’s risk of hospitalisation if they get infected, it does not prevent infections full stop. Breakthrough infections can happen and vaccinated people can still spread the virus. It is always a bad idea to trade liberty off against safety, but it’s not even clear how much additional safety is being gained here, especially for the fully vaccinated, whom the government claims its policy will protect.

ENERGY CRISIS 30 YEARS IN THE MAKING

   Rex Murphy: The inevitable collision between 30 years of global warming hyper activism — the howling demonization of available, proven energy resources — and reality, is upon us. There is an atmosphere of semi-panic as many of the countries most committed to “getting off” oil and gas and turning their economies over to wind and sun find winter approaching and they, environmentally virtuous as they are, are wondering if they have enough oil and gas and even coal to get through it.

  Depending on your view of such things, it couldn’t happen at a better time. The 26th gathering of doomsday professionals known as COP26 is close at hand, this time in Glasgow, for another massively over-subscribed conference bent on rejecting the great gifts of nature and providence — oil and gas. COP26 will coincide with the very crisis that the previous 25 conferences, with their wild projections of the Earth collapsing if their prescriptions were not taken up, were in large part responsible for.

EUROPE DEPENDANT ON ENERGY FROM HOSTILE REGIMES

 One of the more bizarre developments in Europe in recent years has been the twin policy paths whereby fossil fuels have been discouraged in favour of wind and solar, but deals have been struck with autocracies, including Russia, to import more fossil fuel via pipelines.

The net effect of the first policy, obvious in the last few weeks, has been to force European consumers and businesses to pay much more to heat and power their homes and run their businesses. That results from the intermittent nature of wind and solar: when the wind doesn ’ t blow and the sun doesn ’ t shine, the electricity grid needs backup. That comes from natural gas or coal, though coal, along with nuclear power, is increasingly being phased out. Needing backup means Europeans pay twice for power.

THE STAMPEDE TO STUPID

Steyn: I try to ignore the drearier provocations. So, when I heard that Superman is now homosexual and fighting for truth, justice and the American gay, my initial reaction was merely surprise that he hadn't gone gay already; surely by now he should be trans or Muslim or both.

Likewise, when informed that Playboy's successor to Marilyn Monroe and Barbi Benton is its first "openly gay" male cover star wearing a bunny costume that he, alas, can't quite fill, I felt only a mild pang of admiration for the thoroughness of the totalitarian left: the last three heterosexual men in America are to be denied even the consolations of girlie mags with girlies.

INCOMING ARMY COMMANDER UNDER INVESTIGATION

 Lt.-Gen. Trevor Cadieu, who was to take command of the Canadian Army, is now under police investigation after allegations were raised about sexual misconduct, this newspaper has confirmed.

Cadieu has denied any wrongdoing.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service has taken a statement from one former military member, a woman, about the allegations against Cadieu, and other statements are in the process of being collected. It is unclear when the investigation will be finished.

FAILED DEAL WITH CHINA EXPOSES GOV'T STUPIDITY

 The federal government's failed collaboration with a vaccine manufacturing company in China early in the pandemic has led to a delay of nearly two years in efforts to create a made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine.

Government documents obtained by The Fifth Estate show that Canadian officials wasted months waiting for a proposed vaccine to arrive from China for further testing and spent millions upgrading a production facility that never made a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine. 

IT'S TIME TO SEND GRETA TO BEIJING

China is making a mockery of climate targets as it announced plans to build more coal-fired power plants and increase oil and gas exploration, just weeks ahead of the COP26 summit where world leaders were expected to agree to ambitious emission cuts.

Beijing's National Energy Commission said late Tuesday it is important 'to build advanced coal-fired power plants' and intensify domestic oil and gas exploration after the country was hit by blackouts last week and that China would rethink emissions targets.

Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, speaking after a meeting of the commission also hinted that a pledge to cap carbon emissions by 2030 - which already lags behind commitments made by other major economies - could be torn up.

AUSTRALIA POLICE FORCE USED AS COVID STORM TROOPERS

 Victoria, Australia holds the record of being the most locked down totalitarian state in the world. The Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, has used the 18,000 member police force as the enforcement storm troopers for his heavy-handed unilateral rules and dictates.  The Victorian Police Commissioner, Shane Patton, has aligned himself with the political needs of Daniel Andrews.  The results are massive conflicts between the police and formerly free citizens now under the boot of the state.

Recently, Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell, a sworn member of the Victoria Police in Australia, has announced she can no longer take part inside an organization that has lost its connection to the community it is supposed to serve.

ONTARIO WANTS MORE CHILDCARE MONEY

 According to the source, who was not allowed to speak publicly on the matter, the Trudeau government is ready to offer around $10 billion over five years to Canada's most populous province, so that it can create $10-a-day child-care spaces by 2026.

In its last budget, the Trudeau government promised a total of $30 billion over five years to establish a Canada-wide daycare program. If Ontario receives roughly $10 billion from Ottawa, it would amount to a third of the national envelope.

"It's not enough," said the senior Ontario Progressive Conservative official. "We represent close to 40 per cent of the Canadian population. We need close to 40 per cent of the amount."

JUDGE STRIKES DOWN FORTIN'S REQUEST FOR REINSTATEMENT

 A Federal Court judge has struck down Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin’s request for reinstatement as the head of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution campaign after he was abruptly removed from the high-profile position in May.

In rendering her decision, Justice Ann Marie McDonald sided with the government’s view that if Fortin was unhappy with the decision, he should have filed a formal complaint through the military’s grievance system before resorting to the courts.

“In sum, Maj.-Gen. Fortin has not demonstrated that the decision to remove him from his (Public Health Agency of Canada) position cannot be redressed through the CAF grievance process,” McDonald wrote in the decision released Tuesday.

GOV'T JOBS INCREASE; PRIVATE SECTOR DECLINES

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded to recent Statistics Canada employment numbers by noting that while government jobs continue to grow, the private sector is falling behind.

“There’s been a tale of two pandemics in Canada: one full of private sector pain, the other full of politician and bureaucrat financial gain,” said Federal Director with the CTF Franco Terrazzano in a press release.


Statistics Canada data shows that 257,400 jobs were added to the economy since the beginning of the pandemic, which includes an additional 107,000 “public administration” jobs.

Despite the growth, the private sector and those who were self-employed saw a loss of 256,500 jobs since before the pandemic.

PERFECT STORM OF STAFF SHORTAGES COMING

 Hundreds of Ontario workers in hospitals and long-term care could be off the job in the coming weeks because they did not get vaccinated against COVID-19, further complicating what advocates call a “perfect storm” of staff shortages.

The president of a union representing workers in long-term care, hospitals and retirement homes said the staffing problem, driven by low wages, lack of full-time jobs and poor work conditions, predates the pandemic, and vaccine mandates will likely add to it.

“It’ll have an impact on staffing levels that are already at a critical point,” Sharleen Stewart of SEIU Healthcare said in an interview. “It’s kind of stirred up the perfect storm now.”

TRUDEAU'S MANDATORY VACCINE AMOUNTS TO NOTHING

 Back on Sept. 28, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said all federal workers would be compelled to get fully vaccinated. “We are going to ensure the federal public service is vaccinated,” he said. “There is a clear requirement for vaccination for anyone who works for the federal government.”

Except that when Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the vax policy on Wednesday, there were gaps in it you could drive a semi through. Several semis.

The Treasury Board claims that Ottawa employs the equivalent of 300,540 full-time civil servants. About 212,000 of them will be exempt from getting vaccines.

In case you’re curious, that’s nearly 70% of the federal workforce that won’t be covered by the mandatory vaccine policy.

CANADA'S WIRELESS COSTS AMONG WORLD'S HIGHEST

The report tracked more than 40 countries to find the minimum cost needed to acquire a 4G cellphone plan with at least 100 gigabytes of mobile data per month.

Canada was by far the most expensive at around $144. The next most-expensive country was South Africa, at around $127. (Prices have been adjusted to Canadian dollars.)

 On the other side of the spectrum was Israel. There, a 4G cellphone plan with unlimited minutes and 100 gigabytes of monthly data costs only about C$10 per month. Rewheel also noted that owning a Canadian cellphone is roughly 13 times more expensive than owning a French one.

KEEPING HEALTHY AFTER YOUR COVID JAB

 What is this guide?

The World Council for Health recognizes that some people become unwell after the Covid-19 vaccination. This guide describes the types of illnesses associated with injection and how doctors are managing them.

As the type of technology being used in these injections has never been used before, some of the conditions arising are new. Therefore, this clinical guidance on keeping healthy after receiving a Covid-19 injection will be updated regularly as new evidence emerges.

EXEMPT FROM MANDATORY VACCINATIONS

The mandatory vaccination plan of 300,000 federal workers actually exempts two-thirds of the civil service, says Blacklock’s Reporter.

The vaccination program will also work on the honour system and doesn’t require vaccination papers.

Exempted employees include call centre operators, federal judges, meat inspectors, park wardens, postal workers, tax auditors, Commons and Senate staff, soldiers, sailors and air crew and members of the public entering federal buildings.

SOARING ENERGY PRICES AROUND THE GLOBE

 Soaring energy prices caused alarm among European leaders and sent shivers through global markets on Wednesday, raising concerns of a winter fuel crisis that could play into the hands of gas-rich Russia.

U.S. oil prices briefly touched their highest in almost seven years and natural gas prices were at record levels as China and other big consumers struggle to cope with demand that has bounced back more quickly than expected from the COVID-19 downturn.

In Europe, natural gas prices have rocketed almost 600% this year on worries that current low storage levels will be insufficient for the winter. While in the United States, natural gas futures recently hit 12-year-highs.

MOCKING TRUDEAU

2SLGBTQQIA+

 It refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit and is used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe their sexual identity.

However, Trudeau's inclusion of the acronym sparked controversy on Twitter with many people mocking the prime minister, joking that it was a typo. 

British rapper Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue, known by his stage name ZUBY, wrote: 'Headbutting a keyboard is now a sexuality'.  

Other people got in on the joke with conservative commentator Matt Walsh tweeting: 'Is that the actual acronym now or did his cat walk across the keyboard?'

FORD GOV'T RULES OUT SPENDING CUTS

 It’s odd to use a throne speech to outline the government’s lack of vision, but that’s exactly what Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government did on Monday.

While the throne speech predictably focused on COVID-19, the only major non-pandemic promise was a pledge to balance the budget relying solely on economic growth, with no spending cuts or tax increases. In other words: the Ontario government has no plan to save money and it’s counting on rosy economic projections to deal with massive deficits at some undetermined point in the future.

Ruling out a tax hike is certainly a good thing because Ontarians can’t afford to pay even more, but the government’s approach to the looming debt crisis is dead wrong. Ruling out spending cuts does a major disservice to Ontario taxpayers, as there are far too many examples of government waste.

VACCINE MANDATE IN FORCE TARGETS LAST HOLDOUTS

 OTTAWA — Unvaccinated travellers have until the end of the month to get vaccinated or they won’t be able to take-off, and public servants who don’t get the jab could soon be suspended or even fired, under new vaccine mandates introduced Wednesday.

The sweeping mandate, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the campaign, require all air travellers, rail passengers and people travelling on cruise ships to be vaccinated as of Oct. 30.

Trudeau insisted this is a necessary step to reach the holdouts who have not been vaccinated and allow Canadians to return to a more normal life.

TRUDEAU DOES NOT LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKES

 Trudeau is 50 on Christmas Day, a landmark in the maturation of any man or woman. Maturity is earned by being better than you used to be, making better decisions. But there are few signs that the prime minister has learned from his mistakes.

Quite apart from the numerous occasions when he has expressed contrition for historical grievances, often for political gain, how many times has he begged forgiveness for transgressions that would probably have seen him fired in the private sector?

A random selection of his greatest mis-hits support the suggestion of former colleague Andrew Coyne that Trudeau’s is a “cluttered and undisciplined mind”.

TRIBUNAL FOR CORONA FRAUD SCANDAL

Should the technocrats who pushed governments to lockdown their citizens be tried for crimes against humanity?

One prominent German lawyer, who is also licensed to practice law in America, thinks they should. And he is organizing a team of thousands of participating lawyers who want to prosecute a “second Nuremberg tribunal” against a cadre of international elites responsible for what he calls the “corona fraud scandal.”

Targeting the Davos, Switzerland-based World Economic Forum and its devotees among global political leaders, attorney Reiner Fuellmich says they are guilty of crimes against humanity for their perpetration of COVID-response policies that led to forced shutdowns, destroyed businesses, impoverished families, broken lives and a spike in suicide rates.

CANADA HAS AN EVERGRAND ECONOMY

 The idea behind China’s Evergrande real estate empire was that no amount of borrowing was too great, as long as you poured it into investments that produced a return sufficient to cover the borrowing costs.

If that philosophy sounds vaguely familiar, it should: it’s the same one Canada’s government follows in managing the national finances. As Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has made clear, Canada’s government believes it “can’t afford not to” push the country deeper into debt in pursuit of the ambitious goals the Liberals hold for increased benefits and services. Pharmacare, daycare, eldercare … they’re all expensive “investments,” as Ottawa likes to term them, and a country that is already more than $1 trillion in debt doesn’t have the resources to pony up for them from available cash. So, keep up the borrowing, and hope enough money rolls in from increased productivity to cover the costs.

PUNISHED FOR TREATING COVID PATIENTS WITH IVERMECTIN

A Canadian emergency room physician has been banned from practicing medicine in Alberta after he defied the province’s COVID treatment protocols by prescribing Ivermectin to three patients.

In a powerful speech last week, Dr. Daniel Nagase vented about the shoddy way COVID patients were being treated in a rural hospital in Alberta, and concluded that “something malicious is going on.”

In his speech Friday, the doctor shared what happened when he tried to treat three patients in a small rural hospital with Ivermectin during the weekend of September 11. He blasted doctors and surgeons “who are standing in the way of life-saving medicine.”

Nagase said that he gave his elderly patients one dose of Ivermectin, along with antibiotics, vitamins, and inhalers—which set two out of the three on a quick road to recovery. But when health authorities caught wind of what he was doing, all the medications, including the inhalers were taken away, and Nagase was relieved of his duties.

LATEST MILITARY MISCONDUCT COCK-UP

Experts are questioning the Canadian Armed Forces‘ (CAF) willingness to tackle sexual misconduct within its ranks after Maj. Gen. Peter Dawe, who wrote a positive reference letter for a sex offender, returned to work and was tasked with working on a number of reviews related to sexual misconduct within the forces.

“I’m honestly at a loss for words. It’s so hard to understand why this individual would be put in this position,” said Megan MacKenzie, who studies military sexual misconduct at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University.

“We have had a minister of defense who’s been absent on this file, who keeps deferring back to the institution. And we have clear signals that this is an institution that can’t handle this problem,” Mackenzie said.

“And so for me, the responsibility lies at the foot of the minister, who has been absolutely unaccountable on this file and has had zero leadership. I think the government on the civilian side needs to say this is a problem that is not being handled well internally.”

THE REACTION FROM THE INVERTEBRATE LIBERALS

  Canada is giving China the cold shoulder over its interest in joining an 11-country Pacific Rim trading bloc that is viewed as an important gateway to diversifying Canadian trade with other Asian countries.

A spokesman for International Trade Minister Mary Ng says Canada is aware of China's desire to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership but has yet to have any discussion with the People's Republic about that. 

Trade analysts say Canada should vocally oppose China's entry to the trade pact that also includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

EXPLAINING FORD'S ABOUT-FACE ON VACCINE PASSPORTS

 This summer Premier Doug Ford announced that he was against vaccine passports.  A few weeks later he changed his mind and implemented a mandatory vaccine passport, stripping many basic freedoms from over 1 million Ontarians. Why? The answer: Follow the money.

Doug’s Campaign Manager is Kory Teneycke. Kory is the CEO and Co-founder of Rubicon Strategies, a lobbying firm that represents AstraZeneca, Pfizer (a member of Innovative Medicines Canada), and over 100 other bio-tech and big tech corporations. Kory took a “leave of absence” in May to run the Ontario PC Party’s re-election campaign. However, he is still the Director, CEO, and Co-founder of Rubicon. Kory’s company is profiting from PC Party decisions like vaccine passports. Is it right for Kory to be intimately involved with PC Party decision-making while his company profits and Ontarians suffer?

FINED $60,000 FOR FEEDING BEARS IN WHISTLER, BC

A woman from Whistler, B.C., has been fined the highest penalty under B.C.'s Wildlife Act for repeatedly feeding black bears.

Zuzana Stevikova was sentenced in North Vancouver Provincial Court earlier this week and has been penalized $60,000 in the precedent-setting case.

According to the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, Stevikova had been purchasing up to 10 cases of apples, 50 pounds of carrots, and 15 dozen eggs on a weekly basis to feed black bears during the summer of 2018.

  Conservation officers were forced to put down three bears that had been frequenting the area and had become so habituated to human food and presence that they showed no fear of people.

THE CONSERVATIVES' LEADERSHIP PROBLEM

 Tory MPs should be wary of their first post-election meeting on Tuesday; to judge from an uncommonly self-serving email sent to supporters by Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, they are being swarmed and hustled to confirm O’Toole as leader 15 days after he blew the election. Under Conservative MP Michael Chong’s Reform Act of 2014, when recognized parties where the chairperson of the caucus receives a request signed by at least 20 per cent of the party’s caucus asking for a leadership review, the caucus chair shall order that a secret ballot be taken promptly among all of that party’s MPs. If a majority vote to replace the leader, an interim leader is appointed until a formal leadership election is held.

I never blame anyone for trying to hang onto their job, and I never blame a leader of an organization, particularly a political party, for stuffing the upper echelons of the organization with loyalists to try to repel challengers. In this case, O’Toole has sent out a very peppy letter that incites the inference that there should be no consideration of whether he continues in his position and that the election was some sort of victory for his party and himself because when it was called, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his collaborators thought they would win a majority. Instead, they made significant gains, the Conservatives lost what were considered safe seats and hundreds of thousands of votes compared to 2019, and although the government was extremely vulnerable on a wide range of issues, O’Toole gave Trudeau a free pass on every substantive point and pitched his party’s campaign on the theory that he is a more substantial individual than the prime minister.

TRUCK DRIVER TRAINING EXPOSES FATAL FLAWS

TORONTO -- If you’re 18 years old, have a little wanderlust to see this country and make a good salary, it won’t cost much time or money to become a transport truck driver – in some cases less than two weeks and $2,000; you don’t even need a high-school diploma. Not bad to bring in over $70,000 a year.

Sounds great, but for the millions of drivers on the road, it’s scary. The highways across this country are full of transport truck drivers with inconsistent training and inexperience and with a shortage of over 20,000 jobs to haul goods from province to province, many carriers are desperate to hire.

LEAKED PAPERS EXPOSE HIDDEN $BILLIONS

 A massive trove of private financial records shared with The Washington Post exposes vast reaches of the secretive offshore system used to hide billions of dollars from tax authorities, creditors, criminal investigators and — in 14 cases involving current country leaders — citizens around the world.

The revelations include more than $100 million spent by King Abdullah II of Jordan on luxury homes in Malibu, Calif., and other locations; millions of dollars in property and cash secretly owned by the leaders of the Czech Republic, Kenya, Ecuador and other countries; and a waterfront home in Monaco acquired by a Russian woman who gained considerable wealth after she reportedly had a child with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Other disclosures hit closer to home for U.S. officials and other Western leaders who frequently condemn smaller countries whose permissive banking systems have been exploited for decades by looters of assets and launderers of dirty money.