Tag: canada

B.C. Supreme Court recognizes Aboriginal title over most of Richmond

The British Columbia Supreme Court quietly issued its long-awaited decision in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada on Thursday.

In a decision that is sure to ruffle feathers, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young declared the Cowichan Tribes have established Aboriginal title to roughly 800 acres in Richmond.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has recognized the Cowichan Nation’s Aboriginal title to parts of Lulu Island and the Fraser River’s south arm, concluding a five-year, 513-day trial — described as the longest in Canadian history.

The plaintiffs, including five tribes and several individuals, sought declarations of Aboriginal title over approximately 1,846 acres on Lulu Island, which now forms part of Richmond, home to B.C.’s largest airport.

“I agree that Aboriginal title is a prior and senior right to land,” Young writes in the ruling.

“The question of what remains of Aboriginal title after the granting of fee simple title to the same lands should be reversed. The proper question is: what remains of fee simple title after Aboriginal title is recognized in the same lands?”

Six defendants opposed the claim: the federal and provincial governments, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the City of Richmond, and two other First Nations groups.

The 863-page judgment will have wide-reaching legal implications.

The court confirmed the Cowichan Nation has legal ownership, known as Aboriginal title, over specific lands on Lulu Island and parts of the Fraser River’s south arm.

The court found that when the government issued private land ownership (fee simple) and transferred certain highway lands in Cowichan territory, it wrongly interfered with the Cowichan Nation’s Aboriginal title.

Subsequently, except for lands tied to the Vancouver Airport Fuel Delivery Project, the court ruled that land titles held by Canada and the City of Richmond in Cowichan territory are legally flawed and invalid.

It instructs the federal government to negotiate a fair agreement with the Cowichan Nation that respects their Aboriginal title.

The provincial government must also negotiate “in good faith” with the Cowichan Nation to resolve conflicts over private land titles and highway lands in their territory, ensuring the process honours the Crown’s duty to act fairly.

The judgment is likely to be appealed given its potentially broad implications, but the immediate effect is the legal recognition of Cowichan title over specific lands.

Keep reading

Canada’s Contribution to Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Eighty years ago today the US Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima resulting in 140,000 deaths. Three days later they dropped a different type of nuclear weapon on another Japanese city. 40,000 were killed immediately in Nagasaki and tens of thousands more died in the aftermath.

Those who justify the bombings claim it saved US lives by quickly ending the war. But, Tokyo had already been devastated and had delivered multiple pleas for a surrender agreement. The bombings were largely a warning to the Soviet Union about US military capabilities amidst post-war negotiations.

Canada was not an innocent bystander in the nuclear bombing. Uranium from Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories was used in the bombs and Canada spent millions of dollars (tens of millions in today’s money) to help research the bombs’ development. Immediately after successfully developing the technology, the US submitted its proposal to drop the bomb on Japan to the tri-state World War II Combined Policy Committee meeting, which included powerful Canadian minister C.D. Howe and a British official. Apparently, Howe supported the US proposal. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Howe immediately praised the military action. “It is a distinct pleasure for me to announce that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way with this great scientific development,” he told the press. (Reflecting the racism in Canadian governing circles, in his (uncensored) diary King wrote: “It is fortunate that the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe.”)

Only a few years after the first atomic bomb was built Ottawa allowed the US to station nuclear weapons in Canada. According to John Clearwater in Canadian Nuclear Weapons: The Untold Story of Canada’s Cold War Arsenal, the first “nuclear weapons came to Canada as early as September 1950, when the USAF [US Air Force] temporarily stationed eleven ‘Fat Man’- style atomic bombs at Goose Bay Newfoundland.”

Canadian territory has also been used to test US nuclear weapons. Beginning in 1952 Ottawa agreed to let the US Strategic Air Command use Canadian air space for training flights of nuclear-armed aircraft. At the same time, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission conducted military tests in Canada to circumvent oversight by American “watchdog committees.” As part of the agreement Ottawa committed to prevent any investigation into the military aspects of nuclear research in Canada.

Canadian Forces also carried nukes on foreign-stationed aircraft. At the height of Canadian nuclear deployments in the late 1960s the government had between 250 and 450 atomic bombs at its disposal in Europe. Based in Germany, the CF-104 Starfighter, for instance, operated without a gun and carried nothing but a thermal nuclear weapon.

During the past 80 years Canada has often been the world’s largest producer of uranium. Ottawa has sold dozens of nuclear reactors to foreign countries, which have often been financed with aid dollars.

Keep reading

Creepy ‘fetish’ photo of Canada’s new PM just turned them into a global laughingstock…

The left has spent years trying to normalize and mainstream creepy fringe, fetish behavior—and it’s one of the many reasons they’ve alienated themselves from normal society. They always start the same way: appealing to people’s basic kindness and decency. Remember when they told us the LGBT movement was just about holding hands in public and getting a few tax breaks?

Then came the ol’ bait-and-switch. Next thing you know, we’ve got grown men dressed as women sharing public bathrooms with young girls and bearded men in bikinis competing in women’s sports, shattering records, and destroying the dreams of hardworking young women. This is what happens when you give the left an inch… they take a thousand miles.

And now, they’re moving on to the next freakish frontier: “pup play.”

Have you heard of this?

Pup play is a creepy sexual fetish where grown adults dress in leather dog masks, collars, and harnesses, often crawling around on all fours, while pretending to be puppies for sexy gratification.

It’s not cute; it’s mentally ill.

It’s not harmless; we fear what is happening to innocent dogs.

And it sure as hell isn’t something any respectable public official should be promoting.

Yet here we are…

Keep reading

Number of Measles Cases In Canada Almost Triple That Of US

The number of measles cases in Canada this year is nearly triple that of the United States, according to a July 28 weekly monitoring report from the Canadian government.

As of July 19, confirmed measles cases reported in Canada had reached 3,878, according to the report. This is 2.9 times the 1,333 confirmed cases reported in the United States as of July 29, according to a July 30 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Canada, measles infections, both confirmed and probable, have been reported from 10 jurisdictions—Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.

Ontario has the highest number of cases, with 2,301 confirmed and probable infections. Alberta has had 1,450 cases, Manitoba 167, and British Columbia 140.

The current measles outbreak in Canada began in New Brunswick in October last year and has since continued to spread across several provinces, the government report said.

“Measles has been eliminated in Canada since 1998, and therefore endemic transmission no longer takes place in the country. However, cases continue to occur sporadically, usually due to importation from regions where measles is circulating,” it said.

According to World Health Organization data published in July, Canada ranked ninth in the list of nations that reported measles cases over the previous six months.

Ahead of Canada were Yemen, Pakistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Romania, and Nigeria.

Some of these nations—Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Nigeria—ranked among the top 10 new immigrant nationalities that arrived in Canada last year, according to data from Statista.

The 3,878 confirmed measles infections in Canada are a very high number compared to past years.

“From 1998 to 2024, there were an average of 91 measles cases reported in Canada annually, with between 0 and 752 cases reported each year,” according to the report.

Keep reading

Extremist influencers ‘weaponizing femininity,’ warns Canadian intelligence report

Women’s workout routines that devolve into anti-government rhetoric. Makeup tutorials with anti-feminist commentary. Personal finance videos that blame immigrants for stealing jobs.

According to a Canadian government intelligence report obtained by Global News, extremist movements are “weaponizing femininity” on social media to attract more women into their ranks.

Prepared by Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC), the report warns that female “extremist influencers” are using popular online platforms to radicalize and recruit women.

Their strategy: embed hardline messages within “benign narratives” like motherhood and parenting, allowing them to draw in women who weren’t intentionally seeking out extremist content online.

“A body of open-source research shows that women in extremist communities are taking on an active role by creating content specifically on image-based platforms with live streaming capabilities,” it said.

Keep reading

Royal Bank of Canada closes Freedom Convoy lawyer’s accounts over ‘risk concerns’

The Royal Bank of Canada is shutting down a Freedom Convoy lawyer’s accounts over “risk concerns.”

In a July 23 post on X, Freedom Convoy layer Eva Chipiuk revealed that the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) terminated its banking relationship with her, citing “risk-related concerns” due to “recent activity” being outside their “client risk appetite.”

“As a federally regulated financial institution, RBC is required by law to comply with applicable legislation,” the letter, posted on X, read. “These laws require that we implement certain processes and procedures which directly support the formulation of RBC’s positions with respect to risk.”

“After careful consideration, we regretfully advise you that the recent activity in your accounts is outside of RBC’s client risk appetite, and consequently we are no longer in a position to continue our banking relationship with you,” it continued.

The decision followed a flagged Bitcoin transaction, after which RBC froze her account and asked her questions about her crypto activities, which she described to the Western Standard as “strange and demeaning.”

The bank gave her until August 18, 2025, to find a new financial institution, cryptically referencing compliance with federal regulations but providing no specific law or detailed explanation.

Chipiuk, who has been vocal about her criticism of Canadian institutions, suggested the debanking might be linked to her involvement in the Freedom Convoy or her public stance.

Keep reading

Canada’s top research agency sidelines Canadians in a secret hiring practice

An internal audit of the National Research Council (NRC) has uncovered troubling hiring practices that circumvent fairness and transparency, sidelining top Canadian talent.

Over two years, the NRC made at least a dozen “sweetheart appointments” of so-called “top-ranked talent” without posting job vacancies, favouring non-competitive hires in the name of “speed and agility,” as reported by Blacklock’s.

The Audit of Recruitment and Staffing acknowledges the need to attract the “best and brightest” in a competitive global market but warns that bypassing open competition risks undermining trust.

“Circumventing the competitive hiring process should only be considered when candidate availability is extremely limited,” auditors wrote. Yet, the NRC leaned on this tactic 12 times, citing “unique operational requirements” or “urgent needs” without clear justification.

More concerning, the NRC openly prioritized foreign hires, claiming it’s “often not possible to find qualified Canadians” for research roles. In 2021, they even hired consultants to scout international talent, after boasting that Canada had 19 Nobel Laureates, top-tier universities, and $14 billion in annual R&D spending.

Why the rush to look abroad when world-class talent is being cultivated at home?

Keep reading

Federal government halting funding for asylum seekers’ hotel rooms starting in September

On Monday’s live stream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Alexa Lavoie discussed the implications of the federal government halting the funding of hotel rooms for asylum seekers.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced last week that federal funding for asylum seekers to stay in hotel rooms will end on September 30. The taxpayer-funded hotel rooms have reportedly cost Canadians over $1 billion since 2020.

The federal government has reportedly been funding hotel rooms for asylum seekers across Canada since 2018 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Sheila explained that despite the announcement sounding positive for conservatives, the negative impact on taxpayers caused by asylum seekers will still be present.

“That doesn’t mean that the asylum seekers are going to go home. What does that mean? It means they’re going to be dumped up to the provinces to take care of, and the municipalities,” she said.

Sheila went on: “They’ll be in your homeless shelters, they’ll be taking up your subsidized housing meant for low-income or upwardly mobile low-income Canadians who need to just stop on their way to something better in subsidized housing.”

“This is going to cause an even worse homelessness and poverty problem in this country because these people who should not be in our country, who are here illegally, are no longer housed by the federal government,” she added.

Keep reading

Vancouver BANS gun-shaped novelty lighters during crime wave

Vancouver’s City Council, led by Mayor Ken Sim, is enacting a “gun grab” not on actual firearms, but on gun-shaped novelty lighters. 

While Vancouver grapples with rising violent crime, tent cities, repeat offenders, and stranger attacks, the council’s focus is on these lighters, which carry a $1,000 fine for possession. This initiative, referred to as “silly novelty barbecuators,” is presented as a solution to violent crime.

This mirrors a past Toronto initiative called “gunplay no way,” a toy gun buy-back amnesty that offered politically correct toys in exchange for toy guns. 

Critics argue that such policies are mere “feel-good optics” and do nothing to address the root causes of illegal firearm problems. 

Politicians, often elected through popularity contests rather than expertise, are accused of lacking topic knowledge and ignoring experts, instead focusing on “silly novelty things that have no credible impact on public safety.”

One panelist, who was shot by a real gun, deemed the Vancouver initiative “madness.” They highlighted the irony of focusing on lighters while illegal border crossings potentially smuggle real guns and drugs into the country. It’s argued that “illegal guns that are the issue and the criminals who are handling that.”

Another panelist living in Vancouver questioned the priorities of the Mayor and Council, especially given that Vancouver is considered the “fentanyl capital of the world.” 

The mayor himself has faced serious threats, including bomb threats and family intimidation from anti-Israel protesters. 

The effectiveness of this Vancouver bylaw was questioned, with doubts about whether it will lead to even “one charge against somebody in Vancouver for having a lighter in the shape of a gun” in a year’s time. 

Keep reading

Federal surveillance of Jews, Trudeau critics was part of larger plot to censor the internet

Federal surveillance of pro-Israel social media accounts was part of a larger Canadian Heritage project to find “promising regulatory avenues to curb online content,” according to Access To Information records. The specific accounts monitored were not disclosed, as reported by Blacklock’s.

In 2023, the Liberal government, led by Justin Trudeau, explored international internet censorship practices, backed by groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and the NCCM.

“We’ve seen great progress,” said former Justice Minister Arif Virani in December 2023, who provided no examples of legal content they would censor when asked by reporters.

Since 2021, Cabinet has introduced two bills, C-36 and C-63, to censor legal internet content. Both failed due to opposition from Conservative MPs, academia, and free speech advocates.

Despite professing support for free speech, Trudeau repeatedly stated that legal internet content requires regulation, as he testified at the Emergencies Act inquiry in September 2022.

The now-former prime minister believes social media, a “petri dish” for “anger” and “hate,” is “destabilizing our democracy” in an unprecedented and challenging way.

On April 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly stated his intent to address “online pollution” through censorship. As of now, no new legislation has been introduced.

However, a federal consultant’s memo detailed a project to engage policymakers and law enforcement on digital regulation, drawing from European models, to curb online content threatening Canadian communities.

Keep reading