Tag: canada

Inside Ottawa’s mansion spending spree

On Tuesday’s episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra sat down with Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to dig into what Terrazzano calls the “dumbest piece of prevailing wisdom in Ottawa”: the idea that politicians are too cheap to renovate their own mansions.

According to Terrazzano, the National Capital Commission spent $135 million over 16 years maintaining and renovating official residences, or roughly $8.5 million annually. Despite this, the agency has requested an additional $175 million over 10 years, plus $26 million every year ongoing, to restore all six properties.

Terrazzano pointed to a string of expenditures he described as wasteful, including $8 million for a barn at Rideau Hall, $140,000 spent designing a staircase that was never built, and more than $700,000 renovating a kitchen at Harrington Lake.

The conversation also touched on the ongoing Centre Block renovation on Parliament Hill, which the NCC now estimates will cost between $4.5 billion and $5 billion.

Ezra and Terrazzano discussed how some journalists appear to advocate for lavish spending on behalf of the prime minister, from private jet upgrades to the multi-million dollar renovation of 24 Sussex Drive, while taxpayers are left footing the bill.

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Time To Shed Light on Canadian Military Mission to Congo

Canadian media and politicians have all but ignored Congo’s recent World Court case against Rwanda. It’s unsurprising since Canada has enabled three decades of aggression, including by leading a bizarre, little known, UN mission to the region on behalf of Washington.

On Friday the Democratic Republic of Congo filed a case to the International Court of Justice against Rwanda for repeated invasions and support for armed groups on its territory since 1996. Congolese Justice Minister Guillaume Andali said his country is seeking redress for Rwanda’s breaches of conventions covering genocide prevention, racial discrimination, women’s rights and torture.

In 1996 Rwandan forces marched 1,500 km to topple the regime in Kinshasa and then re-invaded after the Congolese government it installed expelled Rwandan troops. This led to an eight-country war between 1998 and 2003, which left millions dead. Since that time Rwanda and its proxies have repeatedly invaded eastern Congo and continue to occupy the east of the country. Some six million remain displaced.

The Rwanda government in Kigali justified its 1996 intervention into the Congo as an effort to protect the Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) living in eastern Congo from the Hutus who fled the country when the RPF took power after the 1994 genocide.

The US military increased its assistance to Rwanda in the months leading up to its fall 1996 invasion of Zaire. In The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996-2006 Filip Reyntjens explains: “The United States was aware of the intentions of Kagame to attack the refugee camps and probably assisted him in doing so. In addition, they deliberately lied about the number and fate of the refugees remaining in Zaire, in order to avoid the deployment of an international humanitarian force, which could have saved tens of thousands of human lives, but which was resented by Kigali and AFDL [a Rwandan backed rebel force led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila].”

In the just released Rwanda’s 30-Year Assault on Congo: The Crimes, the Criminals, and the Cover-Up (Baraka Books) Judi Rever documents Washington’s central role in a war to topple aging kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko, who lost his use after the end of the Cold War. According to a review, Rever documents how “the US provided satellite tracking data to locate Hutu refugees in the jungle. It deployed AC-130 gunships, P-3 Orion surveillance planes, and a national intelligence support team drawing on the CIA, the NSA, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. It sent Special Forces from Fort Bragg to train Rwandan troops in counter-insurgency.”

Ottawa played an important, if somewhat bizarre, part in this sordid affair. In late 1996, Canada led a short-lived UN force into eastern Zaire, meant to bring food and protection to Hutu refugees. The official story is that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien organized a humanitarian mission into eastern Zaire after his wife saw images of exiled Rwandan refugees on CNN. In fact, Washington proposed that Ottawa, with many French speakers at its disposal, lead the UN mission. The US didn’t want pro-Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko France to gain control of the UN force.

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UNHINGED VIDEO: Transgender Former Prostitute Running for Mayor in Canada Uses Sock Puppet During Campaign Speech

A transgender biological male former prostitute is running for mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, and if that wasn’t crazy enough, recent campaign footage shows him giving his speeches using a sock puppet with googly eyes.

“Scarlett Gillespie,” who previously went by the name “Jelena Vermilion,” currently serves as the executive director of the Sex Workers’ Action Program (SWAP) Hamilton and has long advocated for sex workers’ rights, housing issues, and trans-related causes.

Gillespie received the YWCA Hamilton Women of Distinction Award in 2024 for his work.

He announced his candidacy for mayor earlier this year and is registered for the municipal election scheduled for October 26.

Gillespie’s campaign platform focuses on affordable housing, tenant protections, climate justice, greater transparency at City Hall, community-led safety initiatives, and strengthening the local arts sector, according to his website.

The candidate has described himself as a “community organizer” and “activist with lived experience” working directly with “marginalized groups.”

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Minister strips parental access to children’s health records

Newfoundland parents just got the memo: Once your kid turns 12, the government says you’re no longer automatically entitled to know what’s in their medical records.

A June 19 letter from NL Health Services quietly ended automatic parental access to children’s health information. From age 12 to 15, parents now need the child’s permission to see the records. At 16, the teenager takes full control.

Sarah James Furlong, a concerned parent, took to social media in a bid to raise awareness of the apparent government assault on parental rights. Furlong is calling on parents to contact the Minister of Health, Lela Evans, to reverse the decision.

“I respect children’s rights and understand the importance of privacy,” Furlong said in a Facebook post. “However, I believe parents have a fundamental responsibility to protect, support, and advocate for their children—and that responsibility doesn’t end when a child turns 12.”

The move fits a pattern. Newfoundland and Labrador already lets students in Grade 7 and up change their names and pronouns at school without parental consent. Now the same province is extending that logic into medical records.

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Government’s latest attempt to censor online discourse is grave threat to free speech

The government’s latest censorship Bill C-34 is framed as legislation necessary to protect children. However, it incorporates some of the worst elements of Bill C-63 – the government’s previous “Online Harms Act” that failed to pass – and adds new censorship powers.

The bill proposes regulating social media, online services, and AI chatbots through the creation of a Digital Safety Commission. The Commission will have broad discretionary power to force compliance from online services and compel the removal of any harmful or “hateful” material.

Controversially, the bill weakens the legal definition of hatred presently used by the courts, reducing the requirement from both vilification and detestation to only one of either vilification OR detestation. The result will be increased censorship and a substantial chill on controversial speech.

Importantly, existing laws capture almost all of the conduct outlined in the bill. This includes cyberbullying and non-consensual distribution of intimate images, terroristic or violent threats, hate speech under the Criminal Code, counselling self-harm (Criminal Code s.241), and possession and distribution of CSAM material.

The bill requires online service providers to create an age verification system. Though the bill doesn’t specify age verification methods, it will undoubtedly require service providers to collect biometric and/or behavioural information from both adults and children, engaging privacy rights and raising fears of security breaches. The effect will be to create a database of personal identifying information and to destroy online anonymity 

Digital services that fail to comply with directives of the Digital Safety Commission will face substantial fines based on a percentage of global revenue.

“Laws protecting children from online harm and abuse are vital. However, for the most part, they already exist. All digital services like YouTube, X, Facebook, and TikTok have reporting and takedown policies and mechanisms for illegal or egregiously harmful material. Criminal charges for hateful or threatening posts are already commonplace. Of course, laws should be enacted to address any gaps, but online age verification for children will require age verification for everyone. So while the government frames the bill as a law to protect children, its effect will be to control digital access, comprehensively surveil and punish adults for online dissent. Together with Bill C-22, it establishes an online surveillance architecture that will negatively impact every Canadian’s right to free expression. Parliament should pursue targeted child-protection measures without undermining privacy, anonymity, and freedom of expression.”

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Liberals’ 10% tariff on canned vegetables will hurt low-income Canadians: Kris Sims

On this week’s episode of The Gunn Show, Kris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation discussed the Liberal government’s recent imposition of a 10% tariff on certain imported canned vegetables.

Sims slammed the move as another tax on food that will hit low-income families the hardest, noting canned vegetables are a pantry staple for many Canadians trying to stretch their budgets, especially as grocery prices continue to climb.

The tariff, announced June 19 and effective immediately, applies to imports from most countries but conveniently exempts the United States, Mexico, and several others.

“Canned tomatoes, a big chunk of them come from Italy, because those folks are really good at working with tomatoes,” Sims explained.

“And what’s super upsetting about this is that anyone whose ever pinched a penny knows that canned tomatoes are you’re go-to staple in your pantry if you’re trying to stretch your dollar, if you’re making chili, you’re making spaghetti sauce, food banks just really count on stuff like this,” she continued.

“And [the government] is making it more expensive on purpose,” Sims added.

The tariff was described by the federal government as a provisional safeguard measure that can last up to 200 days while the Canadian International Trade Tribunal completes its inquiry into surging imports. Imports of canned vegetables have risen sharply in recent years, with notable increases from countries like Thailand, Turkey, and Peru.

The government says the tariff is needed to protect Canadian processors facing “immediate challenges,” but critics point out it comes from the same Liberals who repeatedly promised to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

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Politicians Never Spend Their Own Money

The Canadian government has quietly expanded the clothing allowances available to the Governor General, and the timing could not be more tone-deaf. While Canadians struggle with inflation, housing costs, and rising taxes, Ottawa has decided that the person already living in Rideau Hall requires even more taxpayer-funded support for wardrobes and official appearances. The Governor General currently earns a salary of roughly C$378,000 per year, lives in an official residence maintained at public expense, travels at taxpayer expense, receives staff support, security, transportation, and a lengthy list of other publicly funded benefits. Yet somehow that was not enough.

According to the revised guidelines, the annual clothing allowance for the Governor General has increased from C$100,000 to C$130,000. The maximum amount that can be spent on ceremonial attire has also increased substantially, while clothing purchased with public funds remains government property. Think about that for a moment. The average Canadian household is trying to figure out how to pay for groceries, rent, mortgages, insurance, and utility bills while government officials are debating whether C$100,000 a year is enough for clothing. The political class truly lives in a different universe.

What makes this even more absurd is that the Governor General’s office already receives millions of dollars annually to operate. Rideau Hall employs dozens of staff members, maintains extensive grounds, hosts official events, and receives funding for travel and hospitality.

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Mark Carney Seeks “New World Order” That Excludes The US

It’s rare to hear the phrase “new world order” spoken publicly in the post-pandemic world where globalists ultimately failed to implement their spectacular covid coup.  In 2020, they were everywhere in the media bragging about the takeover; reveling in the vast geopolitical and economic changes that would come with their “4th Industrial Revolution”.  Today, there’s barely a whisper of these concepts beyond closed doors. 

High-level globalist and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, however, didn’t get the memo.  His policy initiatives in the great white north are perhaps even more authoritarian than Justin Trudeau’s and more insidious.  Canada is on the fast track to becoming a woke Orwellian nightmare state, and this is putting the country in the direct path of conflict with the US. 

Carney has continued his efforts to pivot away from the United States and align with Europe.  In statements made over the past two weeks, Carney argued that middle-power countries shouldn’t compete for favor with America.

Carney asserts that Canada and the European Union have a combined population that is more than twice that of the United States, a similarly sized economy and a collective defense budget that is twice that of China’s.  He also said smaller nations can multiply their strength by partnering with “like-minded allies” (i.e. far-left globalist governments).  

The Prime Minister claims that Canada and Europe as a “force for good” that upholds values like human rights, dignity, and pluralism.  As opposed to the US?  Carney has been explicit in his antagonism for US meritocracy, nationalism and conservative ideals.  It’s the primary reason why the Trump Administration has targeted Canada with tariffs.  Canada’s woke authoritarianism is becoming a serious problem for greater North America.  

Why give economic advantage to a foreign government that wants to destroy everything you stand for?  

In response, Carney is seeking to join forces with the European Union with a vision for a “new world order” that excludes the US entirely.  

“The new world order will be built starting with Europe…Canada is the most European of non-European countries. We are transforming our cooperation with Europe.”

This rhetoric helps to explain why Canadian representatives have been oddly absent from recent trade negotiations and why Canada is no the only nation in the G7 that is experiencing a recession.  Some Canadians are beginning to wonder if Carney is deliberately trying to sabotage any potential agreement that would end trade disputes with the US?  The answer seems to be “yes”, he is undermining negotiations by simply not showing up.

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CFIA still restricting ostrich farmers seven months after destroying healthy flock

Just days after supporters gathered at Universal Ostrich Farms to help clean up the aftermath of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s controversial $7-million ostrich cull, the family says it is once again facing government overreach.

Despite the agency’s controversial destruction of the avian flu-recovered flock in November 2025, the family says it is still being prevented from effectively cleaning up the former kill-pen site. The scene of the cull left behind by the state includes large piles of hay, including some blood-soaked bales and ammunition that the family says can pose a combustion risk to the community.

“They left us with no income. They left us with no means to be able to do anything… We decided we can’t wait anymore, and we decided to take this on our own,” farm co-owner Karen Espersen told Rebel News when I interviewed her about this latest challenge.

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The truth about land acknowledgments — and why it’s time to end them

Land acknowledgments have become one of the most common political rituals in Canada.

They’re recited in government offices, universities, legislative chambers, police press conferences, and even before the national anthem during children’s school performances.

We’re told they’re harmless. We’re told they’re simply about teaching Indigenous history. 

But as I explore in this report, many Canadians see them very differently.

For starters, the history behind many modern land acknowledgments is often oversimplified. Long before European settlement, Indigenous nations fought wars, displaced rivals, expanded territories, controlled trade routes, and, in some cases, even practiced slavery.

The Iroquois Confederacy displaced rival nations during the Beaver Wars. The Tlingit expanded their influence through warfare. The Haida famously took captives from neighbouring peoples as slaves.

Yet no reasonable person would argue that modern Indigenous Canadians should be burdened with inherited guilt, or that their connection to Canada is weakened because of what their ancestors did centuries ago.

And yet non-Indigenous Canadians are increasingly expected to sit through, repeat, or affirm statements suggesting they occupy “stolen” land and possess a lesser claim to the country they call home. Some are even being punished for speaking out against such compulsion.

Lara Yates, a B.C. mother of four, was banned from her child’s school after speaking out against a land acknowledgment before a school performance. Catherine Kronas, an Ontario parent council member, was suspended from her duties for refusing to participate in one. And four UBC professors have gone so far as to take legal action against the publicly funded university’s sweeping use of land acknowledgments, arguing that the rituals force faculty and students to conform to the institution’s political views.

The concerns don’t end there. Some Canadians oppose land acknowledgments because they believe they promote a form of racism, one that assigns moral guilt, victimhood, legitimacy, or authority based not on individual character, but on ancestry. And with elected officials such as BC NDP MLA Rohini Aroura, using legislature time to label the majority of her constituents “settlers” and “colonizers,” it’s no surprise that many Canadians feel that land acknowledgments have become about racial division rather than reconciliation.

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