Category: Columns

First published at True North on June 15, 2020.

A CBC children’s show is calling Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling “transphobic” and “dangerous” for saying only women menstruate.

In the June 12 episode of the CBC Kids News programme Recap, the three cohosts say they are “fired up” over a Twitter firestorm that started earlier this month when Rowling defended a biological definition of womanhood.

Rowling tweeted about an article that referred to “people who menstruate” rather than women, playfully saying there “used to be a word for those people.”

In the CBC Kids segment, Recap cohost Veena Yamano mockingly said Rowling “took issue with the word ‘people.’”

“There are lots of us who menstruate who don’t identify as women,” Yamano said.

After Yamano quoted Rowling as saying “My life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so,” cohost Sean Tran jumped in to say, “It’s 2020. Releasing these kind of statements online is not a good look.”

Tran then pointed out that Rowling has been “accused of transphobic stuff in the past,” referring to Rowling’s support of Maya Forstater, a British researcher who was fired for stating her belief that people cannot change their sex.

The hosts then shared Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s statement in defense of trans identities, saying that “seeing Daniel advocate for what he believes in is so inspiring.”

Yamano said the episode will “diminish the amount of respect that J.K. Rowling has acquired over the years,” but concedes that her writing is “exceptional.”

A web story accompanying the episode quotes a Simon Fraser University professor as saying Rowling’s view that only biological women menstruate is “dangerous” and “ignorant.”

The show Recap is targeted towards children as young as six, CBC’s website says.

“In a world of real news, fake news, clickbait and hot takes, it’s no wonder our heads are spinning from all of the information.

The show aims to “cut the clutter.”

Last year, CBC Kids published a segment glorifying child drag performers “as they prepare to slay on Montreal stage.”

CBC Kids previously came under fire for seeking a host of “any race except Caucasian.”

First published at True North on May 12, 2020.

It’s crunch time for Conservative leadership candidates, with just three days left to sign up new members to get their votes. As a result, all but one of the leadership campaigns have been eager to put their candidates before audiences of potential conservative voters.

Yes, all but one.

Despite doing several interviews with mainstream media outlets, Peter MacKay has had no time for independent media, including True North.

MacKay is the only Conservative leadership candidate to not sit down with True North. In fact, his team has ignored our interview requests.

While the invitations still stand, MacKay is, at this point, not among his opponents who have participated in my series of candid, cordial and wide-ranging conversations about their campaigns to lead the Conservative party and the country.

If the implicit goal of the series is to tell the audience who the candidates really are, perhaps MacKay’s non-response is more revealing than the interview would have been.

Candidates Leslyn Lewis, Erin O’Toole and Derek Sloan were all too happy to sit down with a conservative broadcaster, knowing it’s the Conservative membership and not the general electorate that will choose the next leader.

While it’s possible MacKay doesn’t even know we’ve been trying to get a hold of him, he must bear responsibility for his campaign team’s decision to ignore requests, just as he’s had to for previous missteps-turned-flip-flops in his social media and email messaging.

The non-response suggests a team so disorganized it can’t manage to find the “reply” button (if even to decline the request) or one that is deliberately avoiding the independent media that conservative candidates should be embracing rather than fleeing.

Handlers swiftly got between MacKay and David Menzies from Rebel News when Menzies attempted to snag an unplanned interview at a February event.

On at least one occasion, a True North reporter sent a request for comment – not even an interview request – to MacKay’s campaign team and was ignored.

Interviewing leadership candidates has been a long-time project of mine. I recorded five interviews with this year’s Conservative leadership candidates (the other two, Rudy Husny and Marilyn Gladu, did not make the final ballot). I also spoke with the candidates in 2018’s Ontario PC leadership race, as well as nearly all 14 people vying for the federal Conservative leadership in 2017.

This isn’t an exercise in vanity on my part, I assure you. It’s that conservative-minded journalists are a rarity in Canada, and the things the mainstream media wants to talk to Conservative leadership candidates about are not the things the people voting in these leadership races care about.

The mainstream media would be content to make whole interviews about social issues, when these are just one facet of the conservative movement and the Conservative base.

It’s not even like MacKay can claim his interviews with mainstream media outlets have been going all that swimmingly, notably walking out on one after fielding questions about one of the several tweets he’s backtracked on.

MacKay’s avoidance of the conservatives engaged in Canada’s cultural battles demonstrates his unwillingness to advance a genuine conservative agenda should he succeed in acquiring the Conservative leadership.

If MacKay were going to do something for conservatives, he would want to tell conservatives about it. This hasn’t happened, and if my empty inbox is any indication, it won’t happen.

First published at True North on April 22, 2020.

The denturist who killed at least 22 people in a weekend rampage in Nova Scotia did not have a firearms license, police believe.

“We have a fairly good idea, at least in Canada, that he did not have an FAC – a firearms acquisition certificate,” Nova Scotia RCMP superintendent Chris Leather said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.

Leather was referring to the possession and acquisition license (PAL) required to buy and own firearms in Canada, which replaced the firearms acquisition certificate (FAC) in 1995.

Police remain tight-lipped on the type or types of guns used in the attacks. With the knowledge Gabriel Wortman didn’t have a firearms license, it’s not clear where he obtained the firearms, or the RCMP uniform he wore and the mock police car he drove.

After pleading guilty to an assault charge in 2002, Wortman was banned from owning firearms for nine months as part of a conditional discharge agreement.

Leather’s acknowledgement came one day after RCMP and government officials declined to say whether Wortman was a licensed gun owner – information they would have been able to glean as soon as they learned Wortman’s name.

“The RCMP are in the earliest hours and days of this investigation, and it’s a complex one and I think it’s quite appropriate for them to be careful about the release of information until they’ve had the opportunity to verify it and confirm it,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Tuesday. “And, so it is, I think inappropriate and the Commissioner would, would quite naturally be very reluctant to reveal details of that investigation until it is complete.”

In the wake of the shooting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his commitment to further restricting firearms access in Canada, calling the Nova Scotia killing “a tragic reminder of the fact that we need to do more to keep Canadians safe.”

First published at True North on April 21, 2020.

The RCMP commissioner, the public safety minister and the prime minister are all unwilling to answer a simple – but important – question about the man who killed at least 22 people in Nova Scotia: did he have a firearms license?

As the investigation, which spans at least 16 crime scenes, goes on, there are understandably many details that aren’t yet known. No one expects police to have answers to all our questions right away. Whether Gabriel Wortman, the now-deceased murderer, was lawfully authorized to own guns is an easy one that could be answered in just a few keystrokes.

When police respond to a domestic violence call, they know if there’s a licensed gun owner in the home. If they pull someone over for speeding, they know if they’re a licensed gun owner. Authorities would have known the second they ran Wortman’s name in their system if he had a possession and acquisition license.

The police and government know. They are just refusing to say.

It’s possible this is an example of the police brass tendency to err on the side of silence. It’s also possible the answer to the question would prove inconvenient for the government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was fielding gun control questions the day after Wortman was killed by police. While he initially said his focus was on the victims and not politics, he gave numerous subsequent answers in which he professed his commitment to advancing further restrictions whenever an opportunity arises.

Neither he nor his public safety minister, Bill Blair, has said whether this will come in the form of a cabinet directive or a bill that would have to be debated and passed by members of parliament.

Even without knowing the details of Wortman’s killing spree, Trudeau called it “a tragic reminder of the fact that we need to do more to keep Canadians safe,” as though his forthcoming gun control plan would have prevented this.

When asked Tuesday morning about the types of guns used in the attacks, Trudeau didn’t even pretend to answer the question.

“I’m going to trust the RCMP on releasing information as they feel it is important to,” Trudeau said.

Clearly the RCMP missed the memo, as just one day prior Blair seized a reporter’s question about if Wortman had a firearms license – a question actually directed to RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki. Not that it mattered, given Blair’s obfuscation.

“The RCMP are in the earliest hours and days of this investigation, and it’s a complex one and I think it’s quite appropriate for them to be careful about the release of information until they’ve had the opportunity to verify it and confirm it,” he said. “And, so it is, I think inappropriate and the Commissioner would, would quite naturally be very reluctant to reveal details of that investigation until it is complete.”

People might say this is nitpicking over a minor detail in a horrific tragedy. I wish I didn’t have to, but lawmakers have left me no choice by sparing no time to politicize said tragedy, and cramming it into a pre-existing narrative that has nothing to do with saving lives and even less to do with the legacies of the Nova Scotia victims.

We know from the RCMP that Wortman was wearing an authentic police uniform, and for a time was driving a police car with seemingly identical markings to bona fide RCMP cruisers.

He was committed to what he did and clearly had no issues committing numerous crimes, not the least of which is murder.

If Wortman was illegally in possession of firearms, no amount of gun control would have done anything.

According to the Toronto Star, Wortman pleaded guilty to a 2001 assault charge, and was ordered “not to own, possess or carry a weapon, ammunition, or explosive substance.”

Wortman received a conditional discharge and the weapons ban was lifted nine months later, which perhaps explains a release from the RCMP Tuesday afternoon saying Wortman had no criminal record.

It’s possible to get a firearms license with a criminal record, though it is difficult – especially if the conviction was for a violent crime.

Whether Wortman had a gun license or not has no bearing on the level of evil in him and his actions, but is nonetheless important to know as the government positions itself to use these murders as political cover.

First published at True North on April 16, 2020.

As countries around the world rise to the coronavirus challenge, Iran has simply reminded us why it can never be trusted.

Any hope of avoiding the global pandemic first rested on China’s actions, then on Iran’s – the virus’s second epicentre. The Iranian regime, however, chose to show a reckless and malicious disregard for human life, even exploiting its citizens’ deaths to indulge its favourite pastime of blaming the west for all ills.

While the official figures from Iran show nearly 5,000 deaths and over 76,000 COVID-19 infections, trusting them is foolhardy. 

Even the World Health Organization and Iran’s own regime-controlled parliament have said the real death toll is significantly higher. The Iranian opposition group MEK, which publishes its own findings gleaned from sources in hospitals, cemeteries, and inside the government, said the death count was over 30,000 and rising, as of Thursday.

Thousands of these deaths were preventable if only Iran had prioritized public health above public relations. Instead, Iran launched a malignant PR campaign, one still being waged as bodies pile up across the country.

Of course, it’s America’s fault, the regime says. A government spokesperson blamed the “virus of sanctions,” which he said must be fought.

Iran says it couldn’t contain the real virus because American sanctions – the ones reinstated when President Donald Trump withdrew from the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement – blocked essential medical supplies from the country.

That would be awful were it not for the inconvenient fact that it’s a lie – as untrue as the death figures Iran peddles.

The United States has “consistently maintained broad exceptions and authorizations to support humanitarian transactions with Iran,” the Office of Foreign Assets Control confirms.

Trump says the United States will help Iran if help is requested. But it hasn’t been.

The only thing blocking American relief from getting to Iranian hospitals is the Iranian government.

Ayatollah Ali Khameini says the United States “might bring a drug into this country that will make this virus stay for a long time.” Iran is sadly doing a good enough job on its own of ensuring the virus’s longevity.

It isn’t just Americans who’ve been barred from helping. A nine-person Doctors without Borders team was expelled from Iran and barred from setting up a field hospital as the country rejected “hospital beds set up by foreign forces.”

Iran seems to want assistance only if it comes in the form of contactless delivery on the front porch as though it’s a toilet paper order from Amazon. Perhaps the regime doesn’t want foreign aid workers to see with their own eyes the evidence of Iran’s criminal negligence.

Iran would rather let its people die so the regime can keep scoring political points on the United States, rather than swallow its pride and accept the help.

This attitude goes back to the beginning of the crisis. Iran only acknowledged its first case Feb. 19, though Iran’s opposition-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, published leaked documents showing Iran was aware of the virus within its borders in January.

These three weeks of lead time are highly relevant as it was the business-as-usual outlook that let the virus spread as much as it did throughout Iran and then around the world.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians congregated to mark the Feb. 11 anniversary of the regime’s rise to power.

Iran even held its parliamentary elections on Feb. 21. While these are farcical at the best of times, this year they were downright dangerous.

Nevertheless, the western mainstream media seems to be adopting, at least in part, the Iranian propaganda machine’s view of things.

“Punishing sanctions against Iran are turning the coronavirus pandemic into a massacre,” read one headline. “Sanctions make the coronavirus more deadly,” said another.

“U.S. sanctions hinder (Iran’s) access to drugs and medical equipment,” was one in the Washington Post.

The Washington Post story buries the lede, conceding (21 paragraphs down) that the Trump administration has “technically maintained an exemption from sanctions on the sale of humanitarian items to Iran.”

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “COVID-19 was (an) opportunity for the U.S. to kick its addiction to sanctions,” which is about as brazen a politicization of the tragedy as you could come up with.

Last week, President Hassan Rouhani eased lockdown restrictions, including reopening “low-risk” businesses in areas still grappling with the pandemic, like Tehran.

Once again, Iranians are jeopardized by their government’s illusion of things being fine.

The west needs to stop buying it.