Canadians caught up in latest US Russiagate case

Canadians Lauren Chen and Lauren Southern are among the social media influencers alleged to have been paid by Russian agents to spread pro-Trump propaganda to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

What we know about the two Canadian influencers accused of Russian propaganda | National Post | Stewart Lewis: 

September 6, 2024 - "The U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment against two Russian nationals on Wednesday, accusing them of disseminating pro-Kremlin propaganda through a 'pro-Trump supergroup'.... Details within the charges referred to Tenet Media, which was founded in 2023 by a Canadian influencer known as Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donavan. Last year they hired Chen’s long-time friend and occasional collaborator Lauren Southern, another Canadian influencer with a large social media following, the CBC says.

"Since the indictment was revealed, several Tenet Media collaborators have publicly stated they were not aware how the company was funded.... Southern and Chen haven’t spoken publicly since the indictment was announced. Neither has posted anything since the Justice Department’s accusations were made public.

"Criminal charges have not been brought against Chen, Donavan or Southern and they are not named in the indictment. But the allegations have damaged their reputations. Chen has been fired from another website, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. Her YouTube channel, which had more than 572,000 subscribers, was terminated on Thursday. Her bio page on the website for Turning Points USA, a pro-Trump campus activist group, has been deleted....

"Born in Quebec and raised in Hong Kong, Chen gained prominence as a YouTuber using the name “Roaming Millennial”. She was a strong supporter of Trump in the 2016 election.... Chen appears to be referred to as Founder-1 in the indictment and to have begun working in the spring of 2021 for the parent company of RT — a Russian state-run news outlet. RT was forced to stop operating in Canada and the U.S. as part of government sanctions that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

"U.S. officials say in the indictment that while being paid by RT operatives, Founder-1 began recruiting conservative personalities with lucrative offers in 2023 for a new media outlet. Details in the indictment suggest Chen was allegedly billing RT partially through Roaming Millennial Inc., which was a registered company in the Montreal area, where her mother lived. Tenet Media was eventually registered in Tennessee as a subsidiary of Chen’s Canadian company....

"Southern grew up in British Columbia and became a right-wing luminary, known for videos featuring her confronting progressive activists.... 

[Southern was a candidate for the Libertarian Party of Canada in the 2015 federal election. Her candidacy was suspended by then-leader Tim Moen that July after multiple complaints about some of her videos, but she was reinstated a week later after meeting and talking with Moen. - gd] 

"Southern has also produced several videos for Tenet Media focusing on Canadian issues. One was titled 'Canada Is Becoming A COMMUNIST HELLHOLE'. It compares Canada to the U.S.S.R.. Another, called 'Mean Tweets = Life in PRISON in Canada?!' criticizes the proposed Online Harms Act."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/canadian-influencers-accused-of-russian-propaganda 

Canadian influencers tied to alleged Russian interference campaign | CTV News | September 7, 2024:

Federal civil servants fight 3-days-in-office policy

The Canadian government's new policy to have federal civil servants work three days a week in the office takes effect Monday. But government unions vow to keep resisting the policy change. 

Ottawa hoping to convince reluctant civil servants of the benefits of working from the office | CBC News | Daniel Leblanc: 

August 26, 2024 - "The federal government is preparing to welcome a frustrated workforce back to its offices on Sept. 9. Under a new policy announced in May, federal civil servants will have to spend at least three days per week in the office, while executives will have to spend at least four. Currently, civil servants are required to be in their offices only two days per week.

"Federal employees' unions say most civil servants oppose the planned reduction in telework and report struggles with transportation and work-family balance. Many also say they're more productive when they work from home....

"Christiane Fox, deputy clerk of the Privy Council Office, told Radio-Canada the new policy will improve the overall performance of the federal public service and help individual civil servants advance their careers.... The government may also be hoping that bringing civil servants back to their offices can improve the public service's reputation — which has been damaged by a perception in some quarters that employees are taking it easy when they work from home. 'Of course, we can't ignore the perceptions and the comments that are made about the public service,' said Fox, adding that is not the rationale for the decision....

"Many bureaucrats are reluctant to ​​spend more time at the office and accuse the federal government of failing to properly explain its decision. Some argue the policy is meant to revitalize the downtown cores of Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., where businesses and restaurants are still caught in the post-pandemic doldrums.

"Civil servant Audrey Groleau said she mostly works online with colleagues elsewhere in the country, whether she is at home or in the office. Going to the office limits her ability to manage her family life effectively, she said.... Laurence Dufour, another civil servant who works in Gatineau, said she does not see any major benefits to working three days a week in the office — but anticipates the return of many inconveniences. 'It's going to cost us more in parking, in food, in transportation,' she said.

"Access to remote work exploded during the pandemic and quickly became popular among public servants....

"[F]ederal unions have vowed to keep up the resistance and are promising ongoing protests in the lead-up to Sept. 9. Civil servants failed to mobilize in large numbers against the new policy over the summer, but unions are promising a long-term fight.

"'We've filed unfair labour practice complaints, we've filed grievances, so that's going to continue. And if this isn't solved and if we don't see a willingness to modernize and adapt on the part of this employer, this is going to be an issue in our next round of bargaining, which we're now preparing for in 2025,' said Alex Silas, national vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

"A senior Liberal official has said that civil servants should avoid making waves about the new office policy because it could give a political edge to the Conservative Party in the next election. Silas quickly rejected that argument. 'The Liberal government should have a higher standard than just saying, "Well, at least we're not as terrible as the Conservatives." Do better, Liberals," said Silas.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/public-service-telework-pandemic-1.7303267

Canadian public servants fight back-to-office order | CBC News: The National | September 2, 2024:

NDP cancels confidence agreement with Liberals

New Democratic Party of Canada leader Jagmeet Singh has "ripped up" his supply and confidence agreement with the governing Liberal Party.

Jagmeet Singh ends coalition agreement with Trudeau Liberals | True North | Clayton DeMaine:

September 4, 2024 - "NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced an end to his NDP-backed coalition government with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party. On Wednesday afternoon, Singh posted a video on X announcing an end to the NDP-Liberal agreement signed in 2022. The agreement kept the Liberal government in power in exchange for NDP priorities.

"'The fact is, the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people. They cannot be the change. They cannot restore the hope. They cannot stop the Conservatives. But we can,' Singh said in the video. 'In the next federal election, Canadians will choose between Pierre Poilievre, callous cuts, or hope, hope that when we stand united, we win'.... 

"According to poll aggregator 388 Canada, the Conservatives are projected to win a majority government with 210 seats if an election were held today. The same poll shows the NDP would score only 16 seats and the Quebec separatist Bloc Quebecois would win more than double the seat count.

“'Justin Trudeau has proven again and again that he will always cave in to corporate greed. The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance,' Singh said. 'There is an even bigger battle ahead, the threat of Pierre Polievre and Conservative cuts from workers, retirees, young people, patients, and from families. He will cut in order to give more to big corporations and wealthy CEOs'....

"In a letter to the NDP caucus that was leaked to the media and posted by Columnist Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun on X, Singh said that when parliament resumes in the Fall, the NDP will vote on items based on their conscience rather than in support of the NDP-Liberal coalition.... 'We will approach every vote on its own merit, we will push for measures that help Canadians, we will not shy away from vigorously holding this government to account, and we will fight Pierre Poilievre’s cuts,' the letter said. 'If this means triggering an election, we will be ready.'"
Read more: https://tnc.news/2024/09/04/singh-ends-coalition-agreement-with-trudeau-liberals/

Jagmeet Singh has finally left behind Justin Trudeau! | Toronto Sun | Brian Lilley:

LILLEY: Singh breaks up with Trudeau, ends coalition deal | Toronto Sun | Brian Lilley:

September 4, 2024 - "In an email sent to the NDP caucus, with warnings not to share with media outlets, the party tried to claim the coalition was incredibly good and incredibly bad for Canadians at the same time. 'No fourth party has ever set the agenda as we have. Millions of Canadians have benefitted as a consequence,' the email states, claiming victory before denouncing the coalition. 

"There you have it, working with the Liberals was consequential: It delivered for Canadians, it left everyone frustrated and disappointed. If the NDP can’t figure out if their coalition was good, how should the rest of of us evaluate their partnership?

"The news, by the way, was broken not by the NDP themselves, but by yours truly on X, before the Trudeau’s PMO was even informed....

"Singh was due to face his own NDP caucus next week at a retreat in Montreal. There have been grumblings about the damage propping up the Liberals has done to the party. While publicly New Democrats will herald policy moves like the federal dental care and pharmacare, privately they will admit these programs are not what was promised and the bare minimum the Liberals could have done. Pressure within the NDP to leave the deal grew stronger after the Trudeau Liberals imposed binding arbitration to end rail work stoppages. Even though Singh called that act a line in the sand that couldn’t be crossed, no one believed he would leave because he’d made the threat so often..... 

"The NDP now wants to pivot from being Justin Trudeau’s junior partner to being the giant slayers, ready to take on Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives.'Justin Trudeau has proven again and again he will always cave to corporate greed. The Liberals have let people down, they don’t deserve a second chance,” Singh said in a campaign-style ad released on social media. 'There is an even bigger battle ahead, the threat of Pierre Poilievre and Conservative cuts.' Singh will have a hard time convincing voters that he’s the attack dog to take on Poilievre when he’s been a lapdog for Trudeau during the last couple of years.

"The end of the agreement doesn’t mean the coalition will fall apart and Canadians will head to the polls.... Singh and the NDP will make decisions on a vote-by-vote basis, which could very well see the current government last until October 2025, or perhaps fall when the budget comes forward next spring."
Read more: https://torontosun.com/news/lilley-unleashed-jagmeet-singh-has-finally-left-behind-justin-trudeau

Lich-Barber trial all over but the verdict

The trial of of Chris Barber and Tamara Lich is over except for the verdict, which could take up to six months.

Trial for Freedom Convoy leaders Lich, Barber moves through closing arguments | CBC News | David Fraser:

August 14, 2024 - "Nearly one year after its start, the trial for two leaders of the Freedom Convoy entered closing arguments on Tuesday. Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are facing charges of mischief, intimidation, obstruction and other charges for their roles in the 2022 protests. The closely watched trial began Sept. 5 but has experienced a series of stops and starts. Crown prosecutors called 16 witnesses over 37 days of trial and presented hours of video evidence and reams of social media posts in an effort to prove their case.... 

"During closing arguments Tuesday, Crown prosecutors ...  said the two were leaders of the protest and helped to finance, fuel and organize the mass of trucks that came into Ottawa's downtown core to protest against COVID-19 mandates.... Crown prosecutors said no other protesters who came to Ottawa during the three-week event had the same infrastructure as Lich and Barber. Barber, 48, and Lich, 50, ... were key voices in a group that had organized millions of dollars, a public relations operation, security, logistics and a formal corporation for the Freedom Convoy protest.... Both had large social media followings, and prosecutors say they used their influence online to turn the protest from a legal one to a criminal act....

"Backed by The Democracy Fund (TDF) and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JFFC), Lich and Barber have enjoyed the support of right-wing and civil liberty organizations throughout their trial. The defence argues the two were acting within their rights and that the Crown has not met the bar to convict them.... 

"The judge overseeing the matter will have up to six months to deliver a verdict after closing submissions are concluded."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/trial-for-freedom-convoy-leaders-lich-barber-moves-through-closing-arguments-1.7293406

A "waste of time" says lawyer Ari Goldkind on Tamara Lich & Chris Barber trial | Bridge City News | August 22, 2024:

On the Train Back from the Convoy Trial | Trish Wood is Critical, Substack | Trish Wood:

August 15, 2024 - "What I saw in Courtroom Five in Ottawa this morning, before I hopped this train was overwhelmingly positive. Chris Barber’s lawyer Diane Magas did a great job of batting away the Crown’s case by showing how much he and Tamara had cooperated with police to keep roads clear and trucks moved, especially when asked by police to do so. Numerous texts showed a cordial, respectful and even friendly relationship and went far to impugn the Crown’s narrative yesterday that suggested the pair were conspiring to cripple the city.... Magas highlighted exculpatory evidence that I would personally vouch for as indicative of how Tamara and Chris were operating based on conversations I had with them. Her remarks involved mens rea - or lack of evidence for a guilty mindset and the texts were compelling.

"The Crown’s case which wrapped yesterday just seemed like endless tail chasing and in my humble opinion reflects badly on the entire system. But I haven’t been here for the whole trial and there are better people than me to opine. But right now, it feels like the old throwing spaghetti gambit to see what sticks.... Yesterday the Crown mentioned Zexi Li’s complaints about how her ability to work from home was badly affected by noise from the convoy. I am biased — but given what was at stake for the country, this feels oddly self-centred.... I’m sure it was difficult to live in Ottawa during the Convoy but I might argue that if the protestors hadn’t been mostly blue collar workers, residents’ views might have been friendlier and their tolerance higher. Li is part of a civil suit that will will continue the legal campaign regardless of this trial’s outcome....

"Judge Perkins-McVey is smart, brooks no nonsense and with humour and grace, sees right through some of the Crown’s downward dog-type cognitive stretching. And she is also tough on the defence, demanding clarifications and citations for her upcoming weeks or months of review before she makes a decision. As she should. Magas argued the tough requirement for meeting a mischief conviction, saying that the Supreme Court has found that the standard is formidable. Inference from circumstantial evidence must not be made.

"I spent a few minutes with Tamara and Chris and I can report they are worn down. Forty days of what was supposed to have been a ten day trial. Thirty thousand miles travelled by each from their homes out West to Ottawa. Massive legal costs and serious life disruptions for both families. Much worse than the litigious Ottawa residents endured. The sad irony here is that the fears that drove the protestors on — of vaccine mandates and harms, lockdown dangers and a fully divided country were all well-founded. In part of Canada they will always be heroes. What is scary is that the state and some Ottawa citizens will never see them that way."

Read more: https://trishwood.substack.com/p/on-the-train-back-from-the-convoy

CCP harassing Chinese diaspora in Canada

A new report from Second Street outlines how the Chinese Communist Party is harassing Chinese-Canadians with unacceptable political views and their families.

CCP harassing Chinese diaspora in Canada, report finds | True North | Noah Jarvis:

September 1, 2024 - "The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is systematically targeting Chinese-Canadians and their families who are opposed to the Chinese government. The finding comes from a study conducted by the think tank Second Street, interviewing 26 Chinese-Canadians who say that they have been targeted by the CCP through a variety of means.

"Respondents reported that Chinese-Canadians are liable to face harassment if they hold religious convictions not accepted by the CCP like being a Christian [or] Falun Gong, or for holding pro-democracy and pro-Hong Kong views. The CCP has been persecuting religious minorities for holding views that may subvert the CCP’s authority, especially the Falun Gong – a ... group that is ardently anti-communist and supportive of conservative causes in the West.

"One respondent claims that because they are a practitioner of Falun Gong, they received anonymous calls in which automated message machines played hate propaganda or songs praising the CCP.... [D]uring a 2002 trip to Geneva to raise awareness of the persecution of the Falun Gong to the United Nations, they received a call from a man speaking Mandarin saying he knew about the trip to Geneva and threatened to sexually harass them.

"Several of the people interviewed complained that they had their vehicles scratched and their tires slashed due to their practice of Falun Gong. One Falun Gong practitioner said that around the year 2002, they had come home to find a large branch severed from a house plant placed on their kitchen counter with a knife laid right beside it. Chinese-Canadians also face harassment on the Chinese social media app WeChat when attempting to promote pro-democracy, pro-Hong Kong causes, as well as candidates in Canadian elections that hold anti-CCP views.

"Family members of Chinese-Canadians still living in China also faced risk of having their property expropriated, having their pensions taken away, along with threats of violence. Eight of the 26 respondents indicated that their families back in China had been threatened. 

"Dom Lucyk, the report’s author, recommends the federal government introduce a foreign agent registry similar to the registries in the United States and in Australia. Before Parliament’s summer recess, the House of Commons and Senate passed the Countering Foreign Interference Act that would introduce a voluntary foreign agent registry. Lucyk argues that foreign agents with ties to the CCP seeking to harass Canadians may not be enthusiastic about placing themselves on such a registry, possibly making the measure ineffective.... 

"Lucyk also calls on CSIS and other law enforcement agencies to be more transparent when foreign interference and transnational repression do not rise to the level of criminal prosecution to serve as a deterrent for agents of the CCP and help those being targeted know who are responsible for their harassment."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2024/09/01/ccp-harassing-chinese-diaspora-in-canada/

Read report: https://secondstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Policy-Brief-CCP-Govt-Harassment-Final.pdf

Supreme Court won't hear travel mandate cases

Canada's Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals in two cases that challenged the 2021-22 federal Covid-vax travel mandate, one brought by a political party leader who was essentially stopped from campaigning.

Supreme Court declines to hear Covid vaccine travel mandate cases | Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (news release):

August 29, 2024 - ""The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is disappointed to announce that the Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear the appeals in two cases that challenged the federal Covid vaccine travel mandate. The cases are Peckford et al. v. Canada and Hon. Maxime Bernier v. Canada. The Justice Centre supported Applicants in both cases. The Applications for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada were filed separately.

"The Hon. Brian Peckford, former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, was an applicant in one case, along with five others. Mr. Peckford is the last living signer of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The other case was brought by the Hon. Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada.

"In both cases, the Federal Court held the issues were moot because the vaccine travel mandate had been rescinded after the cases had been filed and cross-examination had occurred, but prior to the court hearings. Dismissing a case as moot means that the court has found that its decision will not have a practical effect.... [H]owever, at the time the federal government rescinded the vaccine travel mandate, the Minister of Transport had threatened to bring back the mandate without hesitation. 

"The Applicants argued that the doctrine of mootness ought to be reconsidered by the Supreme Court because emergency orders by their nature are evasive of review, resulting in no oversight by courts or elected legislators. Hearing these cases would have allowed the Supreme Court to determine whether it is appropriate to allow governments to evade judicial scrutiny of their decisions made through emergency orders. Unlike legislation passed by Parliament, emergency orders are made through Cabinet orders and are protected by Cabinet privilege, meaning Canadians cannot learn the reasoning behind the decisions....

"On August 13, 2021, the federal government announced its intention of implementing a vaccine requirement for travelling on planes, trains or ships. The government, led by Prime Minister Justine Trudeau, did this two days before announcing a federal election, essentially making it an election promise. After winning a minority in Parliament, the Minister of Transport implemented the mandate on November 30, 2021.

"Both the Peckford and Bernier cases asked the Federal Court to strike down the mandate as a breach of Charter sections 2, 6, 7, 8 and 15. The most significant breach was to Charter section 6, mobility rights. All applicants were essentially barred from travelling across Canada in any practical manner and could not leave the country. In Mr. Bernier’s case, this meant he was essentially barred from campaigning.

"Of note, on cross examination a government bureaucrat admitted she did not receive any medical advice to implement such a mandate. It was done solely on the direction from the Minister of Transport and the federal Cabinet.

"Just a few days after cross examinations concluded, the government ended the mandate on June 20, 2022. Both cases were dismissed by the Federal Court as moot in October 2022. The subsequent Appeals were dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal."

Read more: https://www.jccf.ca/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-covid-vaccine-travel-mandate-cases/

Supreme Court refuses to hear COVID vaccine travel cases | Rebel News | August 30, 2024:

Kamala Harris promises price controls

Kamala Wants Price Controls | Reason | Liz Wolfe:

August 14, 2024 - "For a while, politics watchers were wondering when in her campaign for president Kamala Harris would unveil an actual policy platform. Now, she's unveiled some of it, and maybe it was actually better when we knew less. In a statement released last night, Harris' campaign said it would enact the 'the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,' with enforcement power given to the Federal Trade Commission. You heard that right: price controls.

"It's not clear how an 'excessive' profit would be defined, nor why policing that would be in the purview of the federal government, nor why food prices in particular ought to qualify. It's not clear what types of behavior that are currently legal would be outlawed.

"Price controls have been disastrous whenever they've been implemented. Prices are signals, ways of communicating how much of a good is needed by consumers and how much ought to be produced. Interfering with these signals will create terrible shortages. Giving the government the power to meddle in the economy in this way will not drive prices down, it will force some firms to go out of business and some consumers to experience shortages of goods they would have otherwise been able to purchase. The scale at which this devastation happens is contingent on the scale at which the government chooses to meddle....

"Expect more of the same strategy: blaming big corporations for the fact that Americans' grocery bills are substantially more expensive now than before the pandemic. But this wholly ignores the main driver of this spike in costs: inflation, which was driven in large part by pandemic-era government spending, including stimulus checks. Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden share blame for this profligate government spending, and both parties manage to obfuscate, trying to convince voters that some other force (greed?) is at work. But make no mistake: It was government recklessness that got us into this mess, and it won't be government price controls that get us out."

Read more: https://reason.com/2024/08/15/kamala-wants-price-controls/

Kamala Harris is wrong about price controls | ReasonTV | August 27, 2024: