Author: James Westgate Snell

Decades ago, Pierre Trudeau said, “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”

The comment, originating from the Globe and Mail, pertained to his Omnibus Bill, which changed the Criminal Code of Canada to legalize sex acts performed by two consenting adults in private. Trudeau’s declaration vindicated many gay Canadians. Along with his pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth in 1977, it symbolized an end to the union of church and state in Canada.

But, a new church and state were rejoined in 2015 when his son Justin became prime minister. Pierre Trudeau rolled over in his grave.

Until the next federal election, when another Pierre may become prime minister, Trudeau’s ghost, burdened by the chains of irreverence, is relegated to pacing the hall outside his son’s Parliament Hill office.

Many people still haven’t noticed, but a growing megachurch has grafted itself into all levels of Canadian government — including indigenous governments. Originally called political correctness, the new movement incubated and hatched by intellectual laziness and apathy, is rebranded under the name ‘Woke-ism.’

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Winnipeg’s homeless problem is out of control, says the executive director of a prominent outreach organization — while the mayor says taxpayers aren’t getting value for their money when it comes to managing the crisis.

There are currently between 1,500 to 2,000 encampment residents in Winnipeg, said Marion Willis of St. Boniface Street Links. She estimates there are less than 5,000 people experiencing various kinds of homelessness across the city.

There were around 1,256 people in various homeless situations in Winnipeg during the month of May 2022, according to End Homelessness Winnipeg (EHW) survey. The current estimate is 3,038 people.

“We are dealing with a level of social distress unlike anything I have seen in my 40-year career, and we don’t have the resources to address these things,” said Willis, who thinks the City and province are running low on funds to cover social programs.

“We are now living through this post-pandemic period, as though the pandemic ended and we are all just getting back to life as it was. There is no life as it was.”

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As Manitoba plans its first supervised drug consumption site in Winnipeg, Alberta’s minister responsible for addictions says residents are being deceived about the effectiveness of the sites that operate across Canada under a harm reduction model for managing addictions.

“Canadians have been lied to for the past 25 years, and it’s a failure of activist academics and ideologues, and they lied to us and told us that we had to choose between being compassionate to those in addiction or having safe communities,” said Dan Williams, Alberta’s minister of mental health and addiction. “That’s not the case.”

 

 

 

According to the Government of Canada, supervised consumption sites save lives and help communities. They provide a safe, clean area for users to bring their own drugs to use, in the presence of staff.

“This prevents accidental overdoses,” says a government website. “Supervised consumption sites may offer a range of evidence-based harm reduction services, such as drug checking. The sites also provide access to important health and social services, including substance use treatment for those who are ready.”

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A member of Manitoba’s trucking industry is calling out the alleged “human trafficking” of foreign truckers, some of whom are earning few, if any, wages in the province.In several cases, trucking companies set up corporations, bought houses, then moved in foreign workers, many from South Asia, an anonymous industry executive told the Winnipeg Sun, noting the problem is Canada-wide and years old.

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“Canada is like an old cow. The west feeds it, Ontario and Quebec milk it and we can well imagine what it is doing in the Maritimes,” Tommy Douglas, the father of Medicare and former Saskatchewan premier once said of our economy.

Canadians elected a new livestock manager in 2015, Justin Trudeau, who didn’t know the difference between a teat and a tail. Like a city cousin showing up at the family farm, Trudeau donned jeans, a cowboy hat and spurs and began wreaking havoc. Canadians stood and watched as he leapt onto the cow’s back, shouted “sunny ways” and drove the economy straight through the nearest fence. Continue reading “SNELL: Trudeau, Singh and the great Canadian cow”

There’s a good reason Chief Clifford White, a First Nations LNG Alliance board member and hereditary leader of the Gitxaala Nation near Prince Rupert, B.C., walks a fine line when it comes to resource development on or near his territory.  

There’s a lot happening near the remote island village of Lax Klan (Kitkatla) – the $14.5 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline terminus, the $18 billion first phase of LNG Canada, and the proposed $3 billion Cedar LNG facility, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation – all at the Port of Kitimat 120 kilometres east. To the north, the Nisga’a Nation and its partners have proposed the $10 billion Ksi Lisims LNG terminal on Pearse Island.  

Once operating, the projects will deliver LNG by ship to Asian markets. A 2022 study by Wood Mackenzie found that Canadian LNG exports could reduce net emissions in Asia by 188 million tonnes per year through 2050 by providing a cleaner alternative to coal. 

Continue reading “LNG ‘watchmen’: merging economic opportunity and environmental protection key for remote B.C. First Nation”