Politics

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro is calling on the federal government to fire RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, saying her continued tenure is damaging to the national police force. (CBC)

Anyone remember the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Not so long ago, the Charter — as the shorthand for it goes — was looked upon as Canada’s most important, close to sacred, document — something like how the British think of the Magna Carta, or the Americans of their Declaration of Independence. (National Post)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his entourage of cabinet ministers and photographers have returned from their week-long European vacation and photo-op tour.  What was accomplished? Well, nothing discernible. He certainly isn’t leading in these troubled times. And neither, for that matter, is the President of the United States, Joe Biden. The war in Ukraine rages on and the west is being implored by Ukrainian President Zalensky to establish a “no fly” zone over the Ukraine. They have also asked for planes (Mig 29s) from Poland, a member nation of NATO which has the planes Ukranian fighter pilots are familiar with. Thus far NATO has not responded as a group, but the message from the White House is that the west doesn’t want to do anything that might escalate into World War III. According to President Biden, a a couple of dozen fighters from Poland would be seen as “escalatory.” Although the U.S., Canada and a dozen other countries are supplying the Ukraine with weapons of war including Stinger anti-air missiles and Javelin anti-tank missiles. What the difference is between land-launched weapons of war and air-launched weapons of war is not clear to this observer.  There are so many things going on in the world that potentially impacts the national security of the west in general, but Canada and the U.S. in particular.  Yet, last week Biden held a national security video conference between major NATO members which included the U.K., France and Germany. Canada? Um, not so much. Trudeau was not invited. Even...

Whatever else we may have learned from the truckers’ convoy protests in Ottawa is that Justin Trudeau is an incredibly weak leader. Not that much of a surprise I know, but he managed to remind us and to underline it in the starkest of terms.  In the first instance, the Prime Minister said when he triggered the Emergencies Act that after three weeks the government had run out of options and therefore he had no choice but to take that action. The Emergencies Act is a mid-80’s replacement for the War Measures Act used by his father in October of 1970 to fight against the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ).  For three weeks the truckers blocked Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill. The protest was marked by horn honking, singing and things like bouncy castles and BBQs. It was more like a block or tailgate party that lasted three weeks. Families were drawn to the area and no significant incidents occurred at all.  Contrast this to October of 1970 when there were dozens of bombings across the Island of Montreal and its suburbs. The bombings occurred over a period of weeks in mailboxes frightening Montrealers half to death. The FLQ then kidnapped the British High Commissioner (Ambassador) James Cross and then the provincial Finance Minister Pierre Laporte.  Laporte’s dead body was found in the trunk of a car at the airport in St. Hubert on the South Shore. With no sign of Cross and one dead cabinet minister, then Prime Minister...

By Bob Cooper It's Day 6 of the protest in Ottawa where truckers have blocked streets around Parliament Hill with their rigs and effectively paralyzed the downtown area. They are protesting the federal mandate requiring truckers (and pretty much anyone else) to be vaccinated before crossing the border. Apart from some bad behavior on the weekend, the protest has been peaceful and I mean really peaceful as opposed to the "mostly peaceful" phrase that CNN & MSNBC anchors used to characterize the riots that rocked American cities for months in the summer of 2020. Despite there not having been one act of violence, the Chief Constable of Ottawa, Peter Sloly, went on TV today and suggested the Army might be called in to clear the blockade, an idea so stupid that even Justin Trudeau recognized it and jumped in front of the cameras to say it just wasn't happening. The only intelligent thing he's done. Like ever. This isn’t about vaccines per se or whether or not it’s a good idea to get vax’d. I weighed all of the pros and cons and made the choice to get double-vax’d along with the booster. A few of my close friends chose not to get vax’d and I respect their decisions as they respect mine. The issue here is choice and whether the government should have the power to force its’ citizens to be injected with medication. If you believe the polls, only about a third of Canadians support the truckers and most people in...

Some folks I know have a place in Scottsdale, Arizona, a getaway they have used for many years to get refuge from the rain, damp and chilliness prevalent in winters on the West Coast.  With the exception of last year with the COVID travel restrictions, they have gone down to the desert every winter for the last twenty years or so. This year they bought their air travel tickets to go down there.  They have been dutiful in getting their two vaccine shots and registered for the B.C. government’s digital proof of vaccination. When they booked their tickets they were told they needed to provide proof of vaccination. No problem, they thought, they have followed all the rules thus far. Then they were told they also need a negative COVID test just before flying. At a cost of $200 each.  Wait. What? They have been vaccinated and could prove it to the standards set by the government. So, what gives? Why a negative test in addition to their provable vaccination  status? This whole COVID situation has now truly gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.  It started out with the government telling us about the onset of the virus and saying we just needed two weeks to “flatten the curve.” The idea was to ensure we did not overwhelm our healthcare system with COVID cases until they could prepare for it.  Okay, we were prepared to accept that situation. But that two weeks has become 19 months and the restrictions are beyond onerous.  We endured months...

Unless you are a voracious consumer of the news, you have likely not heard of one of the biggest national security failures to have ever occurred in Canada. The RCMP are investigating, but they won’t say much about any of what it is they are doing or the dramatic exposure to Canada.  In July 2019, Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng were removed from Canada’s only Level 4 microbiology lab in Winnipeg for what was described as a policy breach. In January of 2020 they were officially terminated from the lab and their security clearance, the highest available in Canada, was removed.  A level 4 biomedical virology lab is equipped to deal with and research the most serious and deadly diseases to affect humans and animals.  What we do know is precious little considering the implications. Dr. Xiangguo Qiu sent several specimens of viruses including the frightening ebola virus to the microbiology lab in Wuhan, China.  We know that Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband are Chinese nationals and are believed to be back in China, beyond the reach of Canadian justice. The national security implications are enormous yet the RCMP while admitting their investigation, isn’t telling the country what the exposure is, not only to Canada, but to the world.  Iain Stewart, President of the Public Health Agency of Canada which runs the lab in Winnipeg, appeared before the Parliamentary Special Committee on Canada/China relations in March. Let’s say he was less than forthcoming with answers to the committee. He was given until April 20,...

The legacy media have really outdone themselves for their unwillingness to do their jobs with the situation with the unmarked graves found outside former residential schools. Headlines screamed “Mass graves!” And “genocide” prematurely finding fault long before sufficient information came to light.  The “mass graves” were just cemeteries placed on the property of the residential schools and often they represented the only cemetery in or near the small villages nearby. The local native bands knew of the location of the cemeteries. As to whether the graves were unmarked, it is more than likely they were marked with white wooden crosses as was the custom in those days. Wooden crosses don’t stand up well to the ravages of Canadian winters. So in 2021 the subject became totally misrepresented by the media as unmarked graves. They have no idea if the graves in those cemeteries were initially marked and their markings degraded with the passage of time.  As far as the ludicrous claim by the legacy media that it was some sort of genocide fails to note that the vast majority of deaths that occurred in residential schools were from tuberculosis, as it also was in cities and towns across the country in the days before a vaccine was developed. The second largest cause of death was small pox for exactly the same reason. But genocide it was not.  Let’s also not forget that the residential school system was formed in 1883 with an agreement between the federal government and the Catholic Church with a...

Last week, Canadians witnessed the arrest of Adam Skelly – a restaurant owner in Toronto who dared to disobey John Tory’s draconian edicts. Dozens of Toronto police officers surrounded the restaurant and police put up barricades around the perimeter to prevent any customer from going in to get a BBQ sandwich. (True North)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -  Hunter Biden’s ex-business associate Tony Bobulinski accused Democratic nominee Joe Biden of lying about his involvement in his family’s overseas dealings in a stunning appearance just 90 minutes before Thursday evening’s presidential debate. (New York Post)