Rex Murphy: Justin Trudeau has become a punchline on the world stage — for good reason

It is a brazen thing to go to other countries like some John the Baptist for the democracies, shortly after having trampled all over the rights of those involved in a largely peaceful democratic protest.

Let me make a plain, direct statement: The trucker protest was not an attempted coup. It was not a rebellion. It was not an assault on Canada’s democracy. It was none of those things.

The convoy protest was strong and present, but it was unthreatening and largely non-violent. It was superbly Canadian. It should not be slandered.

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Richard Shimooka: Politics delayed F-35 choice by over a decade, leaving Canada worse off

Defence procurement in Canada has long been marked by failures and poor outcomes. Where the CF-18 fighter jet replacement plan is unique is that no program has been the subject of so much political interference. After 2010, at nearly every step of the way, governments made decisions based more on political perception than fundamental realities, leading to a lamentable series of events that finally concluded with Monday’s announced selection of the F-35.

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Canada must slash emissions by 40 per cent to hit new 2030 targets: minister

A new climate plan for Canada projects the oil and gas industry will need to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 42 per cent from current levels by 2030 if the country is to meet its new targets.

The emissions reduction plan tabled in the House of Commons today by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault forecasts that electricity emissions will be almost zero by the end of the decade but it will take longer to see real progress from the transportation sector.

The plan is a legislated requirement under the net-zero emissions law the government passed last year.

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Seven years after vowing not to purchase F-35 jets, the Liberals are now buying them

Seven years after vowing never to replace Canada’s aging fighter jet fleet with F-35s, the Trudeau Liberals are now planning to purchase 88 of them.

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the news early Monday afternoon, confirming the government’s intentions to sign final purchase contracts with manufacturer Lockheed-Martin later this year.

“A new fleet of state-of-the-art fighter jets is essential for Canada’s security, sovereignty and ability to defend itself,” she said.

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54% of Canadians Driving Less Due to Gas Prices: Poll

Over half of Canadians are now driving less as gas prices skyrocket across the country, a new survey says.

The Leger survey, conducted for BNN Bloomberg and insurance comparison company RATESDOTCA, found 54 percent out of roughly 1,500 Canadians surveyed say that are driving less due to mounting gas prices. Another 15 percent say they are planning to adjust their driving patterns.

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Canada’s new emissions reduction plan to be tabled in Parliament today

OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will table a new greenhouse gas emissions plan in Parliament this morning.

The plan is a legal requirement under the net-zero accountability law the Liberals passed last year.

It will model emissions projections for different sectors that are feasible and necessary to achieve Canada’s current goal to curb emissions to no more than 60 per cent of what they were in 2005 before the end of the decade.

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35% of government-sponsored refugees still on welfare after 10 years

The report comes as the Trudeau government plans to bring in record-setting numbers of immigrants and refugees in the coming years. The federal Liberals have overseen the acceptance of over 25,000 Syrian refugees, primarily government-sponsored, and plans on accepting 40,000 refugees from Afghanistan.

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Trudeau needs to halt these harmful carbon tax increases

The price of everything is rising. Canadians are feeling the pressure. For low-income Canadians, things are getting more difficult than ever. Food bank usage, to offer just one example, is sadly on the rise.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scandalously planning to making this worse. Let us explain.

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Convoy protesters were expected to leave Ottawa during 1st week, city says

A new City of Ottawa memo is shedding more light on the early days of the truck convoy protest and when officials thought participants in the disruptive occupation were going to leave town.

The so-called Freedom Convoy, which occupied large swaths of downtown Ottawa for weeks, was dispersed by police from several agencies on Feb. 19, after protesters ignored many orders to leave.

Three days earlier, the councillor for Ottawa’s Rideau-Vanier ward, Mathieu Fleury, peppered the city with questions about its response up to that date.

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GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau government lowballed cost of carbon tax

The reason Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux says most Canadians paying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax are worse off financially, as opposed to the Trudeau government which claims most are better off financially, is simple.

It’s that their calculations depend on what’s being measured, and the federal government and Giroux are measuring different things.

It’s also because Giroux’s calculations better represent the true costs of the carbon tax.

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The Democratic People’s Republic of Kaneda

The Truckers Convoy that parked for three exuberant weeks in Ottawa protesting the draconian mandate policies of the government has been cleared away and nothing much had changed at the federal level. Most of the provinces have relaxed their COVID-19 restrictions, but the federal authorities have not budged an inch. The mandatory regime remains in place, and travel is still restricted for the unvaccinated, in flagrant violation of Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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Liberal Minister Spread ‘Misinformation’ on Convoy Firearms Claims: Tory MP

A Conservative MP has accused a media outlet and a Liberal cabinet minister of spreading “misinformation” about loaded firearms being found among protestors when police dispersed the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa in February.

Conservative MP Dane Lloyd made the claim while questioning Ottawa Police Service (OPS) interim chief Steve Bell at a meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety on March 24. Lloyd made his statement in reference to an article published in the Toronto Star on March 19.

The article said: “Fears that there were weapons inside some of the trucks proved prescient: A police source said loaded shotguns were found.”

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Three key ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers pull back the curtain on the hopes, tension and infighting that marked the occupation

Brigitte Belton was never in any of the headlines, and when the “Freedom Convoy” press conferences were given, she flanked the speakers instead of taking the mic herself.

But, in what may come as just one little-known fact of many in the story of the convoy’s origins, there’s no doubt the 52-year-old from Wallaceburg, Ont., was among the first to get the headline-grabbing protest rolling — and that she helped keep it going.

She says it amazes her how the movement she started talking about to the selfie camera in the cab of her truck eventually spread to a surge of sentiment that has seemingly come to define populism in Canada today.

“I have never in my life protested ever,” Belton told the Star. “I never thought there was something so serious that I needed to risk my job. Risk my criminal record.”

HMA

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