Tag: canada

132 works vanish from Ottawa’s $14.4-million Indigenous art collection, police never called

The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations says it found no evidence of theft or “ill-intent” after 132 pieces disappeared from its $14.4-million Indigenous art collection.

Police were never called, and the department still cannot explain what happened to the paintings, jewelry, sculptures and other taxpayer-funded works, according to documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“There was no finding of theft or ill-intent,” officials wrote in a January briefing note titled The Indigenous Art Collection. No explanation was provided for that conclusion.

“Efforts are underway in an attempt to locate the remaining unaccounted-for artwork,” the department said. Another review of its regional offices is now underway.

The collection dates back to 1965 and contains 5,176 works, including individual pieces valued in the six figures. Artworks were stored in an unsecured warehouse or shipped to regional offices for decoration.

The department has contacted 32 artists or estates connected to 47 of the missing works but has refused to identify the pieces or their creators publicly, Blacklock’s reported.

“This went on for decades,” Conservative MP Jamie Schmale told the Commons heritage committee last November.

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Man charged with burning down historic New Brunswick church as social media posts raise new questions

Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: a historic New Brunswick church is burned to the ground, and a local parishioner is charged with arson. On his Facebook page, he celebrates a friend jailed for fighting a pipeline. Then, in another video of the burning church, a voice calls out that friend’s name and says, “Your wish has come true.”

Saint-Simon is a small Acadian fishing village on New Brunswick’s north shore. Until August 24 it had a 109-year-old church, built by the great-grandparents of people who still live there. The largest wooden church left in the province.

The alarm sounded around 3:30 a.m. Four fire departments responded. It was too late. The building was wood and it was gone in two hours. Only the chimney stands. The fire marshal says arson.

Claudette is co-president of the parish council. She cried when the steeple came down. Standing in the ashes, she asked why.

“He took away our church, that person. Why? Especially since he was a parishioner of our parish.”

The RCMP moved fast. Within hours they charged Gilles Mallet, 68, a local man and a parishioner of the church he is accused of burning. His bail hearing in Bathurst on Friday, Aug. 28 did not finish. It resumes Monday, Sept. 7. 

The charge is unproven. Mallet has not entered a plea. A publication ban covers the bail hearing, so Rebel News cannot report what was said in that courtroom.

Everyone in Saint-Simon offered the same explanation. One troubled man, nothing bigger. That may be right. But Mallet’s Facebook page is public, and it shows a man who spent years inside a political movement two provinces away.

His profile picture shows him beside a war canoe named Chief Dan George, on a trailer marked Takaya Tours, the tourism company of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. His shirt reads “Warrior Up! Ta’ah said.” Ta’ah is Amy George, Chief Dan George’s daughter, who coined the phrase in 2012 against the Kinder Morgan pipeline. It became the rallying cry of the B.C. anti-pipeline movement.

A reader who knew Mallet from an Indigenous community near Lillooet, B.C., where Mallet lived for years, pointed Rebel News to the page. He said he had left that community himself over what was being said there about Christians and the Church. Mallet stayed.

On March 1, 2025, Mallet posted: “In honour of my friend Stacy Gallagher who’s in jail because of his fights against the pipeline.”

Gallagher is a B.C. pipeline protester with a criminal record. On March 2, 2021, Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick sentenced him to 90 days for criminal contempt after he defied an injunction at Trans Mountain’s Burnaby terminal. He was released on bail pending appeal the next day. Rebel News cannot confirm he was in custody in 2025. That is Mallet’s description.

There is a video on Mallet’s timeline of the church burning, filmed from the road as the fire trucks arrive. Mallet did not post it. An acquaintance uploaded it around Aug. 30, while Mallet was in custody. A man behind the camera says: “Stacey Gallagher, your wish has come true.”

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Ottawa admits trans-identifying male inmates faced sex assault charges after transfers to women’s prisons

The federal government has acknowledged that trans-identifying male inmates faced sexual-assault charges following complaints from female prisoners, while defending the policy that allows inmates to be transferred to women’s institutions based on gender identity.

The admissions are contained in Ottawa’s Statement of Defence responding to a constitutional challenge filed by Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights, or CAWSBAR.

According to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is funding the challenge, the government confirmed that an inmate identified as S/M was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment in May 2020 after a female inmate complained.

Ottawa also confirmed that another inmate, identified as KF/R, was charged with two counts of sexual assault after a complaint from a female prisoner in October 2024.

Charges have not been proven in court.

The government’s defence acknowledges other complaints involving trans-identifying male inmates in women’s facilities. They include a 2018 complaint that led to a police investigation but no charges, a 2021 complaint alleging sexual and physical assault at Fraser Valley Institution and a 2019 sexual-assault report at Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge.

Despite those incidents, Ottawa “wholly denies that any alleged harm to inmates housed in women’s institutions flowed from the implementation” of Correctional Service Canada’s gender policy.

The government argues that individualized assessments and institutional safeguards provide an appropriate framework for managing risks.

CAWSBAR launched the constitutional challenge in April 2025, alleging that permitting biological male inmates to be housed in women’s prisons exposes female prisoners to physical and psychological harm and violates their Charter right to life, liberty and security of the person.

“Female inmates are being exposed to real risks and real harm,” constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury said. “This case is about protecting their safety, dignity and constitutional rights.”

Correctional Service Canada introduced its current gender-diverse-offender policy in May 2022.

In May 2026, the Federal Court rejected Ottawa’s attempt to strike the lawsuit and granted CAWSBAR public-interest standing. The federal government is now asking the court to dismiss the challenge with costs.

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NDP-turned-Liberal MP Lori Idlout broke ethics rules by billing taxpayers for purchases from family businesses

Nunavut Liberal MP Lori Idlout violated parliamentary conflict-of-interest rules after claiming taxpayer-funded reimbursements for purchases made from businesses owned by herself and her spouse, Canada’s ethics commissioner has found.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein released his findings Wednesday following an investigation under the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons.

According to the commissioner, Idlout used her parliamentary office budget to seek reimbursement for purchases made at a business she owns and another owned by her spouse.

The transactions increased or preserved the value of the couple’s assets, thereby furthering their private interests while Idlout was performing her parliamentary duties.

Section 8 of the ethics code prohibits MPs from using their public positions to advance their own private interests, those of family members or the interests of another person or organization.

Despite finding that Idlout broke the rules, von Finckenstein recommended no sanction.

The commissioner accepted Idlout’s explanation that the purchases were “errors of judgement made in good faith” and noted that she repaid the House of Commons after the violations were brought to her attention.

“She did not realize that making purchases from two businesses would further her or her spouse’s private interests,” von Finckenstein said. “She also repaid the House of Commons as soon as the errors were brought to her attention.”

Idlout was elected as a New Democrat before crossing the floor to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals in March 2026. Her defection helped move the Liberal government closer to a parliamentary majority.

The commissioner’s report was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Commons and will be tabled when Parliament next sits.

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Documents reveal why the Canadian military was asking soldiers about ‘extremist’ hats

In December 2024, Harrison Faulkner of True North broke the story: a questionnaire went out to soldiers asking if they’d ever “liked” an extremist post on social media, donated to an extremist cause, or purchased “extremism merchandise — such as a Make Canada Great Again hat.” 

Rebel News filed an access to information request the day it went viral. Twenty-one months later, the answer came back: 2,688 pages, most of it useless — the actual survey questions are blacked out entirely, withheld under the Access to Information Act’s trade-secret provisions. A hat questionnaire, apparently, is a trade secret.

When the story broke, National Defence’s approved line for reporters was: “DND/CAF is not funding this research, nor has it contracted this research.” But the consent form every soldier signed lists, at the top: “External Funder/Sponsor: Department of National Defence (DND).”

In fact, DND signed a $49,995 funding agreement with Ontario Tech University, five dollars under the disclosure threshold, and later paid $250,000 more to Dr. Barbara Perry’s “Network for Research on Hateful Conduct and Right-Wing Extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces.” She is getting rich off of calling our soldiers racist.

The whole thing traces back to General Jonathan Vance ordering the study in 2019 — not long before resigning over his own conduct scandal. DND then rewrote the survey questions, pushed it down the chain of command, and leaned on a reluctant Navy — already suffering “severe staff shortages” — to participate. The consent form warns soldiers that “incriminating” answers get reported to military police, who can in turn notify their commanding officer. Risk to a career, for a hat.

Ezra is more worried about left-wing violence in the CAF — like Gabriel Lepage, the Antifa extremist who threw incendiary devices into a crowded Montreal church while working at a Canadian Forces base, exposed by Rebel’s own Alexa Lavoie.

Internally, DND tracked the media fallout using MediaBiasFactCheck.com, grading True North as low-credibility and “part of the right ideology perspective,” while noting with relief: “We have not observed any articles from mainstream media.” When reporters pressed on the funding, staff wrote plainly: “I don’t think we touch it at this point.” They knew, and they chose not to tell you.

The study’s own vetted webpage admits the number of CAF members holding extremist beliefs is “comparable to the general population.” No epidemic. Just a headline, and a professor with a grant.

This was a loyalty test, not a research project. If you were nineteen and thinking about enlisting, and you saw this — would you?

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Let’s End Military Integration, Support for US Foreign Policy

The world is better off for Carney walking away from the Trump trade negotiations. But we must demand far more from Ottawa in terms of distancing the country from Washington’s economic and military bullying.

Mark Carney was right to walk away from economic negotiations with the Trump administration. The US’ ever-growing list of demands, including controlling Canada’s ability to sign accords with other countries, reflects Washington’s bid to dominate in service of massive corporate interests. In other words, Trump is employing a sort of ‘Donroe Doctrine’ light towards Canada.

If Carney would have given Trump an easy win it would have further emboldened the bully. The successful kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, for instance, clearly boosted Trump’s confidence to launch war on Iran.

So, the world — and Canada — benefits from Ottawa refusing to completely cower to Trump. To the extent a country can resist US pressure, it should.

Even if his words exaggerate Ottawa’s resistance, Canadians should celebrate US trade representative Jamieson Greer comparing Canada to China. A year ago, Beijing responded in kind to US economic pressure, effectively winning a trade war with Washington.

Now China is refusing to buckle to Trump’s recently declared “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY” policy towards Iran. On Monday US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced, “an economic onslaught against Iran.” At the press conference announcing, “Operation Economic Outcast” Bessent also slammed Canada and the prime minister for walking away from the economic negotiations.

While the treasury secretary targets Iran and Canada at the same press conference, Ottawa continues to support US economic attacks against that country. A week ago, Canada introduced a new round of sanctions on Iran. As part of its pushback against Trump, Ottawa should declare its opposition to the US’ illegal economic war on Iran. Ottawa should begin rescinding its many sanctions on that country.

Canada should also follow China in defying Washington’s devastating oil and economic blockade on Cuba. The Chinese have given large numbers of solar panels, as well as foodstuff, to the Caribbean nation in response to Trump ratcheting up its economic strangulation of that country.

Ottawa has done the opposite. Dovetailing with Trump’s bid to squeeze the island, Ottawa introduced a travel advisory that led to flights being cancelled and dissuaded travel to the tourist-dependent economy. The loss of Canadian tourists has cost Cuba tens of millions, probably a hundred million dollars. Ottawa has even refused to defend Canadian corporate interests ensnared by the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ in Cuba and has sanctioned vessels associated with Russia considered defying Trump’s patently illegal oil embargo.

The most obvious break from Washington Ottawa must pursue is to lessen its integration with the US war machine. In a sign of the military’s ongoing deference towards a military led by an annexationist president, Canadian Captain Daniel Hrichishen just began the International Junior Officer Leadership Development Course (IJOLD) at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. According to its site, IJOLD gives foreign soldiers “exposure to the host nation’s military culture, history, decision-making, and learning methods, fostering a multicultural exchange that enhances professional military education and better prepares them for future joint operations.”

Hrichishen is among dozens of Canadian soldiers participating in similar exchanges, which should be immediately paused. Ottawa also needs to pause military overflights, training missions and some of its hundreds of military accords with the US military.

There’s no better time for leftists and internationalists to press to lessen Canadian support for the US empire. If we can’t weaken the bonds of empire while an annexationist president wages economic and political attacks against Canada when will be able to?

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TDF alarmed at Hamilton Police overbearing response to peaceful assembly of controversial political group

Hamilton Police state on their website that “the messaging associated with DomCon is divisive and exclusionary and can negatively impact the sense of safety and belonging within our community.” Police “encourage venues to consider the impact this event and its messaging may have on the broader community when making decisions about hosting it” and ask people with information regarding a recent venue booking to contact Hamilton Police.

Police are reportedly visiting venues to “inform” people about the group.

Deploying police resources against a political organization based on that police force’s own political evaluation constitutes an improper use of law enforcement powers. The police should evaluate a group based on objectively reasonable concerns about public safety and criminal conduct. As reported by media sources, a police spokesperson confirmed that “At this time, the messaging associated with the event does not meet the threshold for criminal or unlawful activity.”

Police are required under the law to remain neutral as between competing political organizations provided these organizations do not engage in criminal activity or are not reasonably suspected of doing so. It is inappropriate for police to visit a business owner to discuss potential clients; this can reasonably be perceived as intimidation. Allowing police to apply their own political test before Canadians can engage in peaceful assembly and expression violates s. 2(b) and s.2(c) of the Charter. Groups with offensive, politically divisive, or dissenting beliefs are protected by the Charter.

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Lawyers warn ‘hundreds or thousands’ may have been wrongfully convicted over Alberta court interpreter failures

Hundreds or even thousands of people could have been wrongfully convicted or subjected to miscarriages of justice because of inadequate interpretation in Alberta courts, lawyers are warning after internal documents revealed authorities knew about longstanding problems with the system.

The issue, as reported by the Edmonton Journal’s Jonny Wakefield, has surfaced in the case of Ramjit Sandhu, who was convicted of sexual assault earlier this year following a second trial.

Sandhu’s original guilty verdict was thrown out after the Alberta Court of Appeal found the Punjabi interpretation provided during his first trial was “seriously inadequate.”

His lawyer, Kristofer Advent, subsequently obtained internal documents showing concerns about Alberta’s court interpretation system had been raised for years.

A 2021 report from a now-defunct Court Interpreters Review Committee acknowledged “the hiring of unqualified interpreters is an issue” and was not limited to isolated incidents.

The report warned the problems could lead to unnecessary adjournments, appeals and new trials.

Advent said the implications could be considerably more serious.

“Basically what they acknowledge in there is ‘inaccurate resolution of cases,’ which is nice language for wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice,” he said.

A separate 2024 review commissioned by Alberta’s Ministry of Justice found the province had no formal process for verifying interpreter credentials, no standardized training requirements, no centralized database of qualified interpreters and no formal complaints system.

The government receives approximately 5,000 requests for court interpretation services every year.

The 2024 review also reported that consultations found many interpreters were either not proficient in the languages they claimed to speak or lacked the skills necessary to provide court interpretation.

Judges interviewed for the review reported cases had resulted in mistrials or successful appeals because of poor interpretation.

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Canadian Doctors Promote Plan to Euthanize Newborn Babies

A Quebec physicians’ group is again promoting euthanasia for newborn babies, saying euthanasia can be an “appropriate treatment” for infants with severe disabilities or malformations even though Canadian law still forbids the practice and a baby cannot consent.

The Collège des médecins du Québec, or Quebec College of Physicians, told the Daily Mail it “reiterates that medical assistance in dying may be an appropriate treatment for babies suffering from extreme pain that cannot be relieved and who have severe malformations or serious polysymptomatic syndromes that destroy any prospect of survival.”

“The CMQ believes that parents should have the opportunity to obtain this care for their infant under these well-defined circumstances,” the college said.

That is a proposal, not the law. Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, legalized in 2016, applies to adults 18 and older who request it and meet eligibility rules. It does not authorize doctors to euthanize newborns. Yet.

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Canadian Broadcasting Corp Tells Staff Not to Refer to 9/11 as ‘Terrorist Attack’

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) sent a memo to its reporters and editors this week instructing them not to refer to the September 11, 2001, attack on America as a “terrorist attack.”

The memo, first reported by an astonished Warren Kinsella at the Toronto Sun, used boldface type to emphasize the directive to CBC employees.

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo said bluntly.

“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center was destroyed,” the memo continued, by way of explaining why the atrocity seen by most of the world as the textbook example of a “terrorist attack” should not be described as such.

According to Kinsella, the memo originated with Basem Boshra, the Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at CBC News.

Kinsella reached out to CBC to ask for further insights on why “hijackings” that “led to passenger jet crashes” should not be treated as terrorism.

The response, from CBC spokeswoman Kerry Kelly, was this:

CBC’s longstanding language guidance regarding the terms ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ is a preference for the use of these words with attribution, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations. Our general manager and editor in chief has written publicly in the past on the subject.

In other words, CBC claimed it was following in the footsteps of news organizations that have invented lively euphemisms for terrorists, such as “activists” or “militants.” The CBC guide also seemed to be using a dash of passive voice to whitewash the horror of 9/11, as if those passenger jet crashes were a force of nature, or an unexpected consequence of the crazy hijinks of the hijackers.

Kelly tried again when the New York Post (NYP) came calling on Thursday, and arguably dug the CBC’s hole even deeper:

Our focus is to report the facts of such atrocities with accuracy, clarity and detail; to convey the scale and scope of violent acts wherever they occur; to quote the people affected, and to convey the views of officials and experts on these events. We bear witness.

But CBC News does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism.

The NYP pointed out that even Osama bin Laden referred to the 9/11 attack as an act of “blessed terror,” which really ought to be good enough for the CBC.

By the time Kelly got around to Canada’s National Post, she was engaging in Matrix-level reality distortions by claiming it was “wholly inaccurate to state our journalists have been urged to declare that this was not a terrorist act” – even though the memo said literally, exactly that, and in boldface type to boot. The CBC spokeswoman was effectively arguing there is a difference between refusing to call 9/11 a terrorist attack, and definitively stating that it was not one.

Kelly also tried to justify the memo by pointing out that CBC refused to call the October 7, 2023, atrocities perpetrated against Israel by Hamas “terrorism,” an argument that did not exactly provide the escalator ride out of the moral basement that she was hoping for.

The October 2023 blog post Kelly referred to, written by CBC News editor in chief Brodie Fenlon, offered a version of the hoary “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” canard – written after an earlier memo ordering CBC reporters not to call the Hamas attack “terrorism” was leaked to the public.

“CBC News is independent of any and all governments, yet we and other news organizations have been regularly lobbied over the years by many opposing groups to label certain people or acts of violence as terrorism – precisely because the word is so important to them and carries so much weight,” he wrote.

Fenlon quoted the relevant passage from the CBC style guide:

Exercise extreme caution before using the words terrorist and terrorism. While the language is not seriously disputed in some cases, it’s less clear if not highly contested at other times — which can lead to virtually endless questions about consistency and impartiality in our coverage of various attacks around the world.

Terrorism generally implies attacks against unarmed civilians for political, religious or some other ideological reason. But it’s a highly controversial term that can leave journalists taking sides in a conflict.

Outrage quickly boiled over on both sides of the border. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas pronounced the CBC memo “absolutely shameful,” and accused the outlet of “choosing to redefine terrorism in a way that downplays the atrocity of 9/11.”

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