Canada
Global Affairs expert floats “Russia anti-vaxxer troll farm” scare story to justify Trudeau regime internet censorship – media dutifully laps it up
Russian troll farms aiming disinformation war at Canadian anti-vaxxers: Global Affairs expert
Russian-sponsored disinformation is trying to exploit one of Canada’s most divisive issues to shape opinions here about its invasion of Ukraine, says a top Global Affairs Canada expert on the topic.
Using troll farms that post on Facebook and other social media sites, the campaigns often target the minority of Canadians opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates, and others deeply distrustful of government, said Philippe-André Rodriguez, deputy director of the department’s Centre for International Digital Policy.
Here’s the kicker… Rodriguez also said Russian disinformation is being amplified by social media sites’ algorithms, which may require some kind of government intervention to counter.
This is the same government that had its CBC propaganda mouthpiece lie about “foreign” donations to the Trucker Convoy to justify seizing their donated funds.
Black Canadians twice as likely to trust the government — but less likely to trust police: survey
… For example, it found that 41 per cent of Black people surveyed said they trusted the government, compared to 22 per cent within the general population. The same proportion said they trusted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, compared with 33 per cent surveyed in the general population. The higher approval rating comes despite photos of Trudeau wearing blackface and brownface surfacing in 2019, something he has apologized for because of its racist history.
In Ukraine’s moment of desperation, Canada hesitates on heavy weapons
Canada has a stockpile of light armoured vehicles that could be deployed, says former Chief of the Defence Staff, Rick Hillier. ‘It would make a serious difference’.
Ukraine war: Russia bombards cities as eastern offensive begins
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia has launched an assault to seize the eastern Donbas region.
Moscow bombarded cities with rocket and artillery fire on Monday and in a video address Mr Zelensky said that the battle “for the Donbas has begun”.
Ukraine’s top security official, Oleksiy Danilov, said that Russia tried to break through Ukrainian front lines in the region.
The offensive has been long-expected after Russia failed to seize Kyiv.
31% of Canadians don’t earn enough to pay their bills: Survey
Thirty-one per cent of respondents to an Ipsos survey conducted for MNP said they don’t earn enough to cover bills and debt payments, and almost half of all respondents (49 per cent) said they are within $200 of insolvency.
Press group won’t investigate fake news by left-wing journalist
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.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Chair John Fraser claimed that the matter was outside of the organization’s mandate – despite that mandate involving investigating breaches of journalistic standards among members.
Kelly McParland: Canadian vote-buying is becoming increasingly shameless
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.
Ryan Alford: The charter pits Canadians’ civil liberties against social justice overreach
After 40 years, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has become a firm fixture of Canada’s constitutional architecture. More importantly, it has been embraced by Canadians across the political spectrum and has become one of the most popular emblems of our polity. Due to the prestige and importance of an instrument that has increasingly come to represent our national identity, it is not surprising that is has become a battleground, contested by those who hold fast to the idea that a constitution serves to limit the powers of government, and those who see it as a means of empowering the government to achieve their vision of a just society. Before the charter turns 50, Canada will have chosen between these two incompatible visions of our constitutional order.
Stuck inside, rationing food: Canadians in Shanghai detail life in COVID-19 lockdown
Racelle Luo and her family are confined to their apartment in Shanghai round the clock — except when it comes to essentials like picking up deliveries and dumping trash.
The 35-year-old, who is originally from the Toronto area, her husband and their three children, as well as millions of others in China’s most populous city, are in another lockdown as the government tries to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Ontario quietly revises its plan for hitting climate change targets
Premier Doug Ford’s government has quietly revised its plan to meet Ontario’s 2030 targets for cutting carbon emissions.
The new forecast for the province’s greenhouse gas emissions posted to a government website shows some significant departures from the reductions earmarked in the “Made in Ontario Plan for the Environment” in 2018.
The new plan does not include any reductions from greater uptake of electric vehicles, which accounted for nearly 15 per cent of the projected cuts to CO2 emissions in the government’s 2018 plan.
Majority of Canadians seeing inflation outpace wage growth
New analysis shows that a majority of Canadians are seeing diminishing incomes due to inflation levels that are higher than their wage gains.
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), wages rose by only 2.7% over the past two years, while inflation grew by 3.4% annually.
GUNTER: Our political elites have become hysterically fearful of regular Canadians
For as long as there have been elites, those elites have worried about the potentially disruptive influence of populism.
The first Neanderthal clan leader probably warned his mate about the rumblings he been hearing from the cave dwellers further down the mountain. “Their demand that we all have a say in where we hunt sabretooths is a threat to our social order!”
Trudeau’s crackdown on real-estate investors won’t work. Here’s why.
Justin Trudeau’s government snagged the headlines it wanted last week when it was widely reported the budget would impose a temporary ban on foreign investors snapping up more of Canada’s over-priced real-estate.
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.
What right does the government have to judge Rebel News?
I am awaiting the tempest of outrage and rebuttal from every newspaper, television and radio station, the Canadian Association of Journalists, Journalists for Free Expression, every journalism school and journalism professor about this gross assault on the free press.
I am waiting for them to take a concerted stand in support of their journalistic colleagues at Rebel News, under the long understood principle that an attack on any member of the press is an attack on all. In particular, I await the unanimous support of the Ottawa press gallery, the most prestigious guardian of press independence.
Our Institutions Must Earn Their Credibility, Not Demand It
It’s not ‘undermining confidence’ to point out when institutions like the Bank of Canada make serious errors, it’s an essential part of the accountability that must exist in a democracy.