Tag: canada

Montreal woman suffers concussion after anarchists attack wrong home in ‘war on AI’

A Montreal woman suffered a concussion after far-left activists allegedly attacked her Rosemont home while apparently believing they were targeting the residence of an artificial intelligence entrepreneur.

According to La Presse, the incident occurred during the night of July 29, when an individual armed with a hammer smashed the glass of the home’s front door and damaged a window.

There was one rather significant problem with the alleged political attack: they had the wrong resident.

The AI entrepreneur apparently being targeted had moved out of the property roughly a year earlier.

The attack was claimed in a statement signed by a group calling itself the “Revolutionary Anarchist Liberation Front,” which purported to “declare war on AI.” A video accompanying the statement reportedly showed an individual smashing the glass of the front door with a hammer.

Instead, the current resident was left dealing with the consequences.

According to La Presse, the woman came downstairs after hearing the commotion and was struck in the head when a rock was thrown through a window. She was later diagnosed with a concussion.

The intended target was reportedly the founder of a Montreal artificial intelligence startup who had previously lived at the address.

Montreal police are investigating the incident, while La Presse reported the file has been transferred to the SPVM’s hate crimes and incidents unit.

The case appears to be a politically motivated attack aimed at the technology industry that managed to injure someone who had nothing to do with the intended target.

The self-described revolutionaries may have declared war on artificial intelligence. Their intelligence on the address, however, was apparently about a year out of date.

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Canadian families now spend more on taxes than food, housing and clothing combined: Fraser Institute

The average Canadian family is now handing over nearly 42% of its income in taxes, more than it spends on food, housing and clothing combined, according to a new Fraser Institute study.

The think tank’s 2026 edition of its Canadian Consumer Tax Index, released Thursday, estimates the average Canadian family earned $121,111 in 2025 and paid $50,721 in total taxes, equivalent to 41.9% of its income.

By comparison, food, shelter and clothing combined consumed 36% of the average family’s income.

The study includes more than just income taxes in its calculation. It measures the total tax burden imposed on Canadian families, including income, payroll, sales, property, fuel, carbon, alcohol and other taxes paid directly or indirectly.

The Fraser Institute says the tax burden has grown substantially faster than the cost of basic necessities over the past six decades.

Since 1961, the average family’s total tax bill has increased 2,928%, compared with a 2,349% increase in shelter costs, a 952% increase in food costs and a 526% increase in clothing costs.

Taxes have also increased more than three times as quickly as the Consumer Price Index, which rose 946% over the same period.

The contrast with 1961 is particularly stark.

That year, the average Canadian family earned $5,000 and paid $1,675, or 33.5% of its income, in taxes. Basic necessities consumed 56.5% of family income.

Today, those proportions have effectively reversed, with taxes consuming a substantially larger share of family budgets while necessities take a smaller share.

The report comes as Canadian households continue to struggle with affordability, housing costs and debt.

The Fraser Institute’s findings also follow new federal insolvency figures showing 150,505 Canadians and businesses filed for insolvency during the 12 months ending in June 2026, putting filings near levels last experienced around the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

The study was authored by Fraser Institute analysts Grady Munro and Jake Fuss.

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Tumbler Ridge shooter appeared in 12 police files dating back to age 10 as records reveal firearms found unsecured at home

Court documents released following a legal effort by CBC and other media organizations reveal that OpenAI conducted an internal review of a ChatGPT account belonging to 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, roughly eight months before the Feb. 10, 2026 shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School.

According to the RCMP records, the review was triggered after a conversation on the account “discussed matters that could be related to the school shooting.”

OpenAI subsequently banned the account but did not notify police, the documents state.

RCMP were only notified by the FBI on Feb. 15, five days after the massacre, that OpenAI had identified two ChatGPT accounts believed to have been used by Van Rootselaar.

The newly released documents also reveal Van Rootselaar had appeared in 12 files contained in B.C.’s Police Records Information Management Environment, or PRIME, dating back to April 2018, when Van Rootselaar was approximately 10 years old. Details surrounding those police interactions remain redacted.

Records further state that an RCMP inspector described the shooter as being “obsessed with guns.”

Police searching Van Rootselaar’s residence after the massacre reported finding an unloaded shotgun, a pellet gun and “insecure firearms,” while investigators subsequently attempted to trace four firearms seized from the school and another location.

Much of the evidence remains hidden from public view. Nearly seven pages dealing with Van Rootselaar’s social-media activity are completely redacted, as are details concerning the ChatGPT conversations and several crucial timestamps documenting the RCMP response.

The Feb. 10 attack left six victims dead inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Van Rootselaar was later found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The shooting is now the subject of a coroner’s inquest examining, among other issues, mental health, access to firearms and the role of artificial intelligence.

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Ontario’s free-spending politicians are nowhere to be found

The Doug Ford Progressive Conservatives are currently mired in an expense scandal. And that stench isn’t going away any time soon…

Here’s the skinny: several MPPs who live within a short driving distance from Queen’s Park were staying at ritzy downtown Toronto hotels rather than bothering to commute home. Hey, we get it: nothing beats room service and maid service.

But the thing is, all these MPPs charged these hotel stays to the ever-beleaguered Ontario taxpayer and/or party donors.

One of the worst offenders is Stan Cho, MPP for Willowdale. Cho’s north Toronto residence is just a handful of subway stops away from the legislature, about 12 km in total. And yet even he had the audacity to stay at swank hotels! Why?

Predictably, there has been much blowback. And so it was that Doug Ford – whose polling numbers are currently plummeting – rightfully punished these big spenders.

In the case of Cho, he lost his cabinet position. And he’s been ordered to pay back the more than $13,000 he squandered on hotels.

But Ford himself is certainly not leading by example. The province’s chief cherry cheesecake connoisseur was scrummed on this matter late last month. A journalist asked him if he plans to pay back the $200,000 his aborted private plane purchase cost the Ontario taxpayer. Ford’s answer? When he’s on the road, he eats at McDonald’s. We’re not making this up…

In any event, we paid a visit to Cho’s constituency office as well as a couple of other MPP big spenders – Paul Calandra in Markham and Hardeep Grewal in Brampton. And a trend emerged: all of the constituency offices were in lockdown mode, as if we were still living in the dark days of Covid-19. Either that or nobody would answer the door (it was impossible to see inside these offices, so we had no idea if anybody was home.) The question arises: what is the purpose of maintaining an office in the first place if MPPs and their staffers are not going to be accountable to the people they allegedly serve?

We then visited Mel Lastman Square in Cho’s riding to see what constituents had to say about the various spending sprees on the taxpayer dime. Predictably, they were not amused.

It is all so perversely ironic given that once upon a time Ford ran on the election slogan, “Respect for Taxpayers.”

To quote the late, great Fred Willard: “Hey! Wha’ happened?!”

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Over 1,000 Canadians seek to testify over alleged COVID vaccine injuries

More than 1,000 Canadians have applied online to testify about serious health problems they say they experienced following COVID-19 vaccination, according to organizers of an upcoming inquiry led by Conservative MP Dean Allison.

The Allison Inquiry is a non-partisan preliminary inquiry intended to give Canadians who report being injured by COVID-19 vaccines an opportunity to share their experiences.

The hearings are scheduled to take place on Parliament Hill from September 8 to 11, with approximately 50 Canadians expected to testify.

Allison, the MP for Niagara West, provided an update on the inquiry during a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, saying the response from Canadians has been far greater than organizers anticipated.

“More than 1,000 people have now applied online asking for the opportunity to have their voices heard,” Allison said.

Allison said many applicants have spent years struggling with their health, looking for answers and attempting to navigate a medical system they believe has failed to address their concerns.

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Canadian Military Celebrates Occupation of Haiti

Sunday was National Peacekeepers’ Day and the Canadian Forces had the temerity to celebrate the UN occupation of Haiti. Through UN missions Ottawa has contributed to major US imperial crimes.

On its Facebook page the military noted, “On this day, we honour the courage, dedication, and commitment of all Canadians who have served – and continue to serve – in peacekeeping operations around the globe. Since 1948, more than 125,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, over 4,500 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and hundreds of Canadian civilians have served in international peace support missions to more than 35 countries.”

The photo that accompanied the post was of two white soldiers looking at a young Black boy in Port-au-Prince as part of Operation Hamlet, which was the name for the Canadian Forces’ participation in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) from 2004 to 2017.

After consolidating a US, France and Canada military coup against Haiti’s elected government the UN mission was responsible for countless abuses. The foreign soldiers had sex with minors, sodomized boys, raped young girls and left many single mothers to struggle with stigma and poverty after departing the country. Beyond sexual abuse, the UN’s disregard for Haitian life caused a major cholera outbreak, which left over 10,000 dead and a million ill.

500 Canadian troops were part of the UN mission that backed up the coup government’s (2004-2006) violent crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. For years Canada led the policing component of a UN force that also killed dozens of civilians directly in pacifying Cité Soleil, a bastion of support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

It’s not just Haiti. Canada played a significant role in the UN peacekeeping force that contributed to one of the worst post-independence imperial crimes in Africa. In 1960 the UN launched a peacekeeping force that delivered a major blow to Congolese independence aspirations by undermining elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. As detailed in Canada, the Congo Crisis, and UN Peacekeeping, 1960-64, Canadian soldiers played a significant role in the Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) force that enabled Lumumba’s assassination. Canadian troops dominated intelligence-gathering positions within the UN mission, and they worked to undermine Lumumba. After the PM escaped house arrest and fled Leopoldville for his power base in the Eastern Orientale province, Canadian Colonel Jean Berthiaume assisted Lumumba’s political enemies by helping recapture him. Kept in place by Ottawa, the UN Chief of Staff tracked the deposed prime minister and Berthiaume informed the head of the military, Joseph Mobutu, of Lumumba’s whereabouts. The elected prime minister was killed soon after.

Through UN missions in Haiti (2004), Congo (1960) and Korea (1950) Ottawa contributed directly to major US imperial crimes. Canada’s sizable contribution to UN missions in Egypt and Cyprus were largely designed to reduce tensions within NATO. In Egypt (1956) the US opposed the British/French invasion while in Cyprus (1964) NATO members Turkey and Greece were on opposite sides.

As far as I can tell, major Canadian peacekeeping missions have always received support from Washington. Still, many liberal/Left commentators ignore the power politics driving UN missions.

In recent days Rideau Institute president Peggy Mason and Royal Military College professor Walter Dorn have been quoted in major outlets complaining about the Liberals abandoning UN peacekeeping. In the CBC Dorn explicitly linked participating in peacekeeping to Great power competition with China, noting “we’re ceding more rights and more territory for China to take over leadership.”

Dorn is correct to (indirectly) highlight the geopolitical motivations driving UN missions.

It’s correct to say that Canada’s participation in UN missions has generally been less damaging than its involvement in US/NATO wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. But, that’s not an argument for blanketly promoting peacekeeping.

The stark reality is that Ottawa has never deployed large number of troops abroad principally to promote international law or justice.

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Wildfires Reveal the Risks of a Net Zero Electricity Grid as Climate Activists and Politicians Exploit Wildfire Tragedies says Friends of Science Society

Canada plans to spend $1 trillion on building out an east-west ‘clean energy’ power grid as part of its net zero climate plan, but Friends of Science Society says, while additional power generation is needed, net zero should not be the rationale, in this new video “Change Climate Change: Stop Net Zero Nonsense.” 

Canadian physicist, William van Wijngaarden, in a presentation for the International Climate Science Coalition shows there is no human-made climate crisis, thus no need for net zero targets. Wijngaarden says net zero goals will cause serious damage to society.

Part of that damage is the convoluted effort to “electrify everything” using so-called “clean energy.”

Footage of evacuees trying to navigate downed power lines in British Columbia show why “electrify now” and “electrify everything” to reach Net Zero climate targets is a bad idea, says Friends of Science Society. As reported by CBC on July 30, 2026, dozens of power poles, transmission lines, lines and transformers are down; large sections of British Columbia lost electrical power, as is happening in other wildfire locations. Without conventional ICE vehicles, people in a net zero EV world would be stranded.

As tragic wildfires rip through British Columbia, Ontario, Spokane, Oregon, and Europe, climate activist journos like some at Associated Press and Grist, and politicians like former Washington governor, Jay Inslee, wrongly exploit these tragedies, by conflating wildfire and human-caused climate change, says Friends of Science Society. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as explained in plain language by Roger Pielke, Jr., “The IPCC has not detected or attributed fire occurrence or area burned to human-caused climate change.”

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Justice Watch: Justice Timothy Keene gives community sentence to immigration fraudster who charged migrants up to $40K

A Saskatchewan man who charged foreign nationals as much as $40,000 for immigration sponsorship while using fake businesses and forged documents to obtain work and residency permits will serve his sentence in the community.

Balvir Singh, 58, pleaded guilty in April to counselling misrepresentation under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Last month, Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench Justice Timothy Keene sentenced him to a conditional sentence of two years less a day and imposed a $10,000 fine.

The conditional sentence allows Singh to avoid serving his custodial sentence behind bars. He must instead live at an approved residence, obey a curfew and cannot leave Saskatchewan without permission.

According to the sentencing decision, Singh submitted false documents to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, including forged corporate tax documents and payroll records connected to businesses that did not actually exist.

The SINP allows eligible Saskatchewan employers to nominate foreign nationals for jobs where workers are needed, potentially providing those workers with a pathway to permanent residency.

The Canada Border Services Agency began investigating Singh in 2018 after authorities noticed an unusually large number of immigration applications connected to entities associated with him. Search warrants were executed at Singh’s home and a Saskatoon restaurant in June 2021.

Investigators determined Singh was charging foreign nationals up to $40,000 for immigration sponsorship.

One victim identified in the court decision met Singh through a gurdwara and was offered employment. After Singh provided him with a work permit, Singh demanded $10,000, forcing the worker to borrow the money.

Singh later told the man he would have to pay more to obtain permanent residency. The worker paid another $16,000, followed by additional payments that ultimately brought the total to approximately $40,000.

“[The victim] was a vulnerable person victimized both financially and emotionally by the actions of the accused,” the court found, noting the victim was also required to perform unpaid work.

The decision further stated that anyone who worked for, or had a permanent residency application connected to, one of Singh’s companies had paid him money.

The victim worked at two restaurants Singh actually operated, Taste of Indian and Broadway Pizza. Although both operated from the same kitchen, they were represented as separate businesses for SINP purposes.

The worker also helped Singh erect a sign advertising a purported construction company so Singh could photograph it.

“The sign was only up to take the photos, then it came down. Balvir made the company up for SINP,” the sentencing decision states.

Singh’s defence sought either a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence, but Keene rejected those options.

The judge said a custodial sentence was required to meet the objectives of “denunciation and deterrence,” finding those goals would not be “satisfied by probation.”

However, Keene allowed that custodial sentence to be served in the community, concluding Singh “does not pose a risk and can be managed by the terms of a conditional sentence order.”

A pre-sentence report found Singh had no previous criminal convictions, had a stable home and employment history and presented a “medium” risk of reoffending.

The report also found Singh minimized his responsibility, suggesting his primary failing was not paying enough attention to how others were operating businesses he owned.

Keene agreed with that assessment and wrote that Singh appeared to retain “a degree of resentment” toward immigration authorities.

Singh came to Canada in 1993 and has four children.

The case follows a CBSA investigation that began roughly eight years before Singh was ultimately sentenced.

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Online News Act left rural Canadians without credible information during wildfires: report

The report, first detailed by Blacklock’s Reporter, examined the consequences of Meta’s decision to block Canadian news from Facebook and Instagram following Parliament’s passage of Bill C-18.

The legislation was designed to compel large digital platforms to compensate Canadian publishers for news content. Meta responded by blocking news content from its platforms in Canada.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia said the consequences were particularly serious in rural communities, where Facebook had become a major source of local information during emergencies.

“Rural B.C. communities lost access to credible journalism at the precise moment they needed it most,” researchers wrote, citing consequences for public safety, trust and compliance with emergency instructions.

The study, “When Good Intentions Cause Harm: The Online News Act, Meta’s News Ban And Public Safety During Wildfire Emergencies,” examined wildfire coverage in several B.C. communities.

Researchers said removing journalism from Facebook did not eliminate information about the fires. Instead, personal accounts and emotionally charged material remained and were amplified on the platform, contributing to community outrage and conspiracy theories.

The report blamed the problem on a combination of declining institutional trust, social media algorithms and the disappearance of credible journalism from Facebook.

Researchers also criticized mainstream news coverage, saying the absence of local reporters with established community relationships made newsrooms increasingly dependent on governments and other “official voices.”

“Media were producing a version of wildfire events in which affected communities were compliance problems rather than people in crisis,” the report said.

The researchers noted an irony at the centre of the controversy: declining local journalism was partly caused by the advertising-market changes Bill C-18 was supposed to address, but the legislation ultimately contributed to credible journalism disappearing from one of the platforms rural Canadians relied upon most.

Blacklock’s was among the independent Canadian outlets that opposed the Online News Act, arguing it amounted to federal interference in the news marketplace. The outlet says it neither sought nor accepted payments available under the legislation.

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Ontario family says 83-year-old grandmother received MAID without final verbal consent

An Ontario family is raising serious questions about Canada’s rapidly expanding medical assistance in dying system after alleging their 83-year-old grandmother was euthanized despite previously rejecting MAID and failing to give a final verbal confirmation before the procedure.

Brigitte Stegemann died by lethal injection on July 10 at The Pearl, formerly E.J. McQuigge Lodge, a long-term care facility in Belleville, Ontario, according to an account first reported by LifeNews.

Stegemann had been diagnosed with Stage IV stomach cancer approximately five months before her death.

According to her family, Stegemann had been asked about medical assistance in dying roughly two months before her death and “clearly stated that she did not wish to pursue it.”

A devout Christian, Stegemann reportedly said MAID conflicted with her religious beliefs and that she wanted to die naturally.

Her granddaughter, also named Brigitte, held power of attorney and had acted as Stegemann’s primary caregiver and advocate for more than 12 years. The family says staff routinely contacted her regarding medications, treatment and other care decisions.

However, while the granddaughter was away on a 10-day vacation, the family alleges facility staff held private discussions with Stegemann about MAID without informing her family or advocate.

The family says this was particularly concerning because Stegemann had severe hearing impairment and periods of lethargy and unresponsiveness.

During a capacity assessment on July 6 and 7, Stegemann reportedly gave incorrect answers to basic questions about her own life. When asked whether she had siblings, she allegedly said she had none, despite being the second-youngest of 14 children. She also reportedly said none of her siblings remained alive, although some were still living and she had recently spoken with one.

According to the family, Stegemann became confused and began crying during the assessment, at one point saying, “I forgot about the grandkids.”

Her family says they corrected many of her answers and directly challenged how she could be considered capable of providing informed consent to her own death.

The physician nevertheless determined Stegemann was capable of making the decision, according to the family’s account.

The procedure was scheduled for July 10.

The family also alleges the date was selected before official MAID application paperwork had been completed and that facility staff subsequently completed and witnessed the paperwork without informing Stegemann’s power of attorney.

The family’s most serious allegation concerns what happened immediately before Stegemann’s death.

According to Life News, they say they had been specifically assured Stegemann would be required to give a final, explicit verbal confirmation on the day of the procedure that she still wanted to proceed.

On July 10, however, the family says Stegemann remained silent when the physician arrived, with her hands held in a prayer position.

“Tragically, we were left alarmed and horrified when the clinical team completely ignored her silence and carried the procedure forward regardless,” the family said in its public statement.

Stegemann died shortly afterward.

The family characterized what happened as “a systemic failure driven by clinical arrogance, a total lack of transparency, and a blatant disregard for the safeguards meant to protect vulnerable patients.”

The allegations have not been tested in court, and the account does not include responses from the physician or long-term care facility.

The case comes as the number of Canadians dying through MAID continues to grow significantly.

Canada legalized medical assistance in dying in 2016. According to Health Canada’s latest annual report, 16,499 people received MAID in 2024, accounting for 5.1 percent of all deaths in the country.

That was up from 15,343 MAID deaths in 2023 and 13,241 in 2022.

The growth since legalization has been substantial. Health Canada recorded 1,018 assisted deaths in 2016, followed by 2,838 in 2017, 4,478 in 2018, 5,660 in 2019 and 7,595 in 2020. The annual total surpassed 10,000 for the first time in 2021.

By the end of 2024, more than 76,000 Canadians had died through MAID since legalization.

Health Canada has not yet published complete national annual-report figures for 2025 or 2026, meaning claims that Canada’s cumulative MAID total has now surpassed 100,000 are not yet confirmed by the latest comprehensive federal data.

The Stegemann family is calling for greater transparency, mandatory involvement of family advocates in cases involving cognitively vulnerable patients and stricter accountability surrounding MAID safeguards.

Roughly one in every 20 deaths in Canada is now occurring through MAID.

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