Sarah Brown and her husband decided to have a date night last Friday. Their three-year-old was at the grandparent’s for the night, so the couple planned to go out for dinner and take their 8-week-old to the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto for a photo with Santa.
The police did nothing.
The “war on Christmas” debate is an oldie but a goodie. It’s become something of an annual tradition to ask whether such a war is in fact going on or not. It’s usually reignited by a news story about a school replacing their Christmas concert with a “holiday concert” or a town that decides to stop putting up a Christmas tree.
This year though, the Israel-Gaza war has brought a troubling twist to the war on Christmas. Pro-Palestine protesters have decided to target malls in Canada during this busiest shopping season of the year.
Any pro-Palestine demonstrators attending the promised “shut down” of Christmas planned for this weekend have been warned taking it inside shopping malls could be met with police enforcement.
… “We respect people’s charter rights, and we are always present to facilitate demonstrations that are lawful,” Pogue said at a news conference Friday morning on the eve of a Dec. 23 protest that is calling for a “shut down” and a Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, plan to have thousands of people on highway overpasses and sidewalks.
Not sure we’ll see much enthusiasm from the TPS.
@TPSOperations Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue says police are expecting a series of large protests today and Saturday from pro Palestinian supporters and they are ready to respond if any laws are violated pic.twitter.com/BURhW1zeHU
— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) December 22, 2023
Canada’s homicide rate is at the highest level in 30 years, as police-reported crime continues to rise in the country, data shows.
For the fourth year in a row, the national homicide rate went up in 2022, according to Statistics Canada data released Wednesday.
The homicide rate, which is considered a key indicator of the state of violence in society, increased by nearly eight percent to 2.25 homicides per 100,000 population.
Just ahead of the 2015 election, the Liberal Party of Canada released a series of ads featuring its leader, Justin Trudeau, that seemed to seal the deal with much of the electorate and help Trudeau and the Liberals push out a tired and increasingly unpopular Conservative government.
Fast forward eight years, and the Conservative Party of Canada has run a series of ads featuring its leader, Pierre Poilievre, that appear to have had the same effect and may help seal the deal with an electorate that appears — at least right now — ready to sweep out a tired and increasingly unpopular government
Ottawa’s $5,000 EV consumer incentive is fuelling the import of Chinese-made Teslas to Canada and lining the pockets of a firm with no manufacturing presence in the country at the expense of companies that invest domestically, says a proponent of Canada’s automotive industry.
“The federal government is about to launch an EV market scheme that grants companies making cars in China and Vietnam with millions of dollars in credits,” said Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association president Flavio Volpe in a social media post.
OTTAWA – In a world of uncertainty, there is one critical mission the North American Aerospace Defence Command can count on every year: tracking Santa Claus.
On Sunday, millions of people will log onto the specialized website and social media channels that depict the jolly old elf’s magical journey as he and his reindeer visit children around the world.
More than 60 years after it began, the Santa tracker is a beloved holiday tradition and a powerful public-relations opportunity for the binational agency dedicated to defending North American airspace.
A controversial intelligence-gathering program run by Canada’s foreign affairs ministry operates in a “distinctly grey zone”, puts its officers at risk and breaches global diplomatic conventions, says a damning watchdog report.
Canada’s global security reporting program (GSRP), a critical part of the foreign ministry’s security and intelligence footprint overseas, places officers in countries with “poor human rights records” including Ethiopia, India, Egypt, Turkey, Israel and China.
A Winnipeg man who was misdiagnosed with a fatal disease by two different doctors says anybody believed to have a life-threatening condition should be sent to a specialist in the field for final determination.
A neurologist at Sunnybrook Hospital agrees.
Fredrik Bergstrom, 51, went to see his family physician in March after developing a limp and numbness in one foot for no apparent reason.
h/t Sweetpea who notes the patient was offered “MAID”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he’s worried that Israel’s tactics in the war against Hamas could put its long-term security and diplomatic support at risk.
In a year-end interview with CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, the prime minister suggested that some of Israel’s other allies share that concern.
“The voices from Israel’s strongest friends, like Canada, like Australia, especially like the United States … are becoming increasingly concerned that … the short-term actions being taken by Israel are actually putting at risk the long-term safety and even support for a Jewish state into the future,” Trudeau told Barton.
I doubt Israel gives a shit about Junior’s opinion.
Justin Trudeau is worried Canada is vulnerable to the spread of the far right in the United States, and says no one should be smugly assuming that this country is immune to its influence.
In a candid and personal interview with his old friend Terry DiMonte, Trudeau talked at length about the angry climate in Canada and the U.S., and what he sees as near “nihilism” infecting political discourse.
“There is something that is changing right now,” Trudeau said. “Donald Trump was a symptom of that, not a cause … There is a level of anger and ‘burn down the institutions’ and almost nihilism that’s creeping in, in all of our countries.”
In a private briefing in May 2020, Senator Yuen Pau Woo promised to shield members of Beijing’s “United Front” from critical scrutiny in Canada for taking pro-China stances on controversial issues such as the treatment of Uyghurs.
Woo’s pledges of support for United Front organizations are captured in recordings of his meeting with Canada Committee 100 Society, a Vancouver group with ties to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Special Investigation- please devote some reading time, this is consequential to Canada’s future and contains new intelligence and primary source evidence relevant to FIC https://t.co/v5dXAxw6fW pic.twitter.com/4KYcofe8wO
— Sam Cooper (@scoopercooper) December 20, 2023
With 2023 ending, a new poll suggests Canadian parents are growing more fearful about what lies ahead, as life becomes less affordable.
Their main sources of anxiety revolve around the housing crisis and trying to put food on the table, the results suggest.
Canada has a national crisis of child care.
Beware whenever the government says it will intervene in some area of the economy to increase affordability or ensure quality. It means the government is about to destroy a market. Health care, rent control, labor relations, or anything else — the story is always the same. Canadians are now suffering the destruction of yet another market through the federal government’s takeover of child-care services. In 2021, the federal Liberal government committed $30 billion over five years, then $9.2 billion annually after that, to establish national $10-per-day child care. Researchers with the think tank Cardus estimate provincial governments will need to kick in at least another $4.2 billion (and possibly much more than that on top) to help achieve the Liberals’ child-care ambitions. Two years in, it’s already shaping up to be a massive disaster.
Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy thanked Canadian truckers for their “civil disobedience” during the Freedom Convoy protests of 2022.
Ramaswamy made the comments while announcing a campaign stop in a video posted on his official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Truckers aren’t just haulers of goods, they're guardians of our way of life & guardians of freedom on our highways. Last year, the Canadian Freedom Convoy taught the world a valuable lesson about the power of civil protest against an out-of-control totalitarian government. On… pic.twitter.com/ZPYkMbVjjg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 18, 2023
H/T DS & Mauser
