Canadian Convulsions > Is Canada turning into the wild, wild west? This weekend voted 'yes'

 

— Colby Cosh

NP Platformed

The Opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, newly restored to the House of Commons by the voters of Battle River—Crowfoot, Alberta, made some public remarks defending the use of force against burglars by homeowners. The Justice Minister Sean Fraser, sensing an opportunity but perhaps failing to read the proverbial room, replied indignantly on social media:  

 

“This isn’t the Wild West..."

His quip was followed by a weekend of appalling crimes across the country, some of them in fact having a disturbing Wild West flavour, darn the luck. 

In Vaughan, Ont., a homeowner died from “trauma to his body” (?) after armed burglars broke into his house and threatened his child. This incident is not to be confused with the four armed and masked men storming a house in Markham, Ont. And in Welland, Ont., an enterprising solo practitioner broke into a home and allegedly sexually assaulted a toddler. (A neighbour told the National Post that the accused had previously been convicted of a similar sex offence against her son, had received an 18-month prison sentence and had been turned loose in 12. Real solutions!) 

 

In London, Ont., which isn’t the Wild West, there was nonetheless a gunfight downtown that involved at least 11 rounds being fired. Guelph, Ont., which also isn’t the Wild West, got off easy, although the 80-year-old woman beaten unconscious in broad daylight didn’t. Renfrew, Ont., isn’t the Wild West, but two people allegedly broke into a hotel room to bear-spray the occupants and steal stuff. In west-but-not-wild Abbotsford, B.C., a house was riddled with bullets while its occupants slept. There have been a few apparent arsons, possibly involving homicidal intent — Richmond Hill, Ont.; Windsor, Ont.; and a fatal one in Edmonton in which a shouting match may have been ended, unanswerably, with a Molotov cocktail. Of course, I don’t know whether you could really say Edmonton isn’t the Wild West. A woman here was shot to death in her SUV over the weekend on the city’s historic main drag, Jasper Avenue. 

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Canadian Convulsions > 100+ Names on ballot contesting Pierre Poilievre - a new Canadian record and disgrace

 

If this was happening to a Liberal candidate, it would be front-page news every day. But Canada's far-left media speaks not a word as democracy is disgraced again.

More Than 100 Candidates Now Running Against Poilievre, Breaking a Canadian Record

Chandra Philip

7/19/2025|Updated: 7/19/2025

The list of candidates running against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in an upcoming Alberta byelection has now grown to more than 100, setting a Canadian record.

There are currently 108 other candidates listed for the Battle River-Crowfoot riding as of July 19. The vast majority of the candidates are running as independents as part of a protest movement about Canada’s electoral system.

Or, at least, that's the excuse. More than likely they are being supported by any one of several people or groups who don't want the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament where he is so effective.

The byelection was called after MP Damien Kurek stepped down to allow Poilievre to run and win a seat. Poilievre lost his riding of Carleton in the recent federal election, which was similarly targeted by the protest movement with 90 candidates.

The Longest Ballot Committee (LBC) said it wants to organize about 200 candidates for the Alberta riding. The LBC was created to protest Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system. In the Carleton riding, ballots were almost a metre long, and had to be folded several times to fit in the ballot box.

The group also organized for 77 candidates to run in the Toronto-St. Paul’s byelection in June 2024. The move resulted in voting delays.

The movement originated with the satirical Rhinoceros Party of Canada, founded in 1963. Some of its policies include making “sorry” the official motto of Canada, and naming “illiteracy” as the third official language of the country. The party has also said it would open “tax havens” in all provinces, and allow advertising in the House of Commons and Senate.

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Poilievre Takes Aim at Longest Ballot Protest Ahead of Byelection, Calls for Rules Change

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Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault has previously said he has concerns about the protest movement creating a challenge for those with language or accessibility barriers to vote.

Last year, he recommended amendments to Bill C-65, which would change the Elections Canada Act, to prohibit voters from signing nomination papers for more than one candidate. The bill was terminated after Parliament was prorogued in January 2025.

Candidates not associated with the LBC have criticized the movement, including Poilievre, who called it “unjust” and “unfair” during a recent town hall meeting in Stettler, Alberta.

He said that Elections Canada could stop the LBC tactic by implementing new rules, including requiring every candidate on the ballot to have 1,000 unique signatures from community members. He also said that nobody should be permitted to sign a petition more than once.

“[This would] would make it impossible for 200 people to go out and have their names piled onto the list,” he said, noting that only candidates who are truly running for office should be listed on the ballot.

Libertarian candidate for the Battle River-Crowfoot riding Michael Harris said the movement was “a coordinated mockery of the democratic process” and that it drowned out “real debate.”

Elections Alberta said nominations for candidates in Battle River-Crowfoot close on July 29, with a full list of candidates to be released on July 30.

Canadian Convulsions > 142,000 patients left B.C. ERs untreated last year

 

Nearly 142,000 patients walked out of B.C. ERs

untreated last year

B.C. Conservative Freedom of Information request uncovers troubling 6-year trend showing numbers up 86% from 2018 to 2025

Mark Page
a day ago

More people than ever are leaving B.C.'s emergency rooms without receiving care, according to documents. (File photo/Black Press Media)

The number of people entering a B.C. emergency room and leaving without being seen by a doctor rose 86 per cent from 2018 to 2025, according to documents obtained by a freedom of information request filed by the B.C. Conservatives.

"And the numbers don't seem to be plateauing at all," said Brennan Day, the Conservatives' critic for Rural Health and Seniors' Health.

In the 2018/19 fiscal year, 76,157 patients left without being seen. By 2024/25, that number had risen to 141,962. During that timeframe, the total number of patients seen in emergency rooms did rise, but by only about 13 per cent, increasing to 2,595,219 in 2024/25.

The worst performers were Island Health, where the number of patients leaving without care more than doubled, and Fraser Health, where the number nearly doubled. 

Waits of more than eight hours are not unheard of in B.C., and the median time spent in the province's ERs last year was four hours and 13 minutes, according to a recent study by MEI, a think tank.

Day pointed out that while some people may leave because their sickness has subsided, that does not mean they don't need treatment.

"Everybody's had a random pain that, if you wait eight hours, it goes away," Day said. "It's not to say that the underlying cause of that pain is not serious. So, it's pushing people away from the health care system."

Health Ministry says people will not be turned away

The Ministry of Health blamed an increasing number of people seeking care and an uptick in sicker patients. A statement from the ministry also said that people who are the least sick are the most likely to leave, and nobody will be turned away if they want care.

"When patients first arrive at the ED [emergency department], they are triaged and seen based on acuity," an emailed statement from the ministry said. "The sickest patients are always seen first. Patients are never turned away from the ED."

The statement added that certain patients, such as those experiencing chest pains, are encouraged not to leave before being seen.

The ministry is working to hire more doctors and nurses — including a highly publicized campaign to attract workers from the U.S. — and increased the number of acute care beds by 7.9 per cent in 2023. Some health authorities have also made average wait times available online this year to "help patients and their families make informed decisions about accessing care."

Doctors of BC, the advocacy organization representing the province's physicians, provided a statement to Black Press Media saying that it has been calling for an emergency department stabilization plan for some time to address broader dysfunction within hospitals.

"Emergency department overcrowding and long wait times can be symptoms of problems in other areas of the hospital, and solutions often require that these issues be addressed as well," the statement said. 

The organization contends that while the province's recent efforts to recruit U.S. doctors and fund a new medical school at Simon Fraser University are helpful, more needs to be done.

Day wants the province to pressure the federal government to speed up visa processing for international doctors. He also wants the government to do a better job of listening to its front-line workers, calling the current system in the health authorities a "bureaucratic quagmire."

"The bureaucrats are too self-absorbed in protecting their own positions to listen to the front-line doctors and nurses," he said.

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Increasing Violence in Canada > 'Dangerous Offender who brutally kicked 5 y/o free in Toronto; 4 men including 2 military men arrested for forming anti-gov't militia in Quebec City

 

Warning about ‘dangerous offender’ who attacked 5-year-old issued by Toronto police

Toronto police have released a warning about a high-risk offender they say poses a risk to the community and children who has been released from prison earlier this month.

On March 14, Simon Gares, 43 was released from prison to reside in a community-based residential facility in Toronto on statutory release.

In 2019, police say Gares was convicted of assault causing bodily harm and found to be a Dangerous Offender.

Court documents show Gares’ victim was a five-year-old child who, in 2016, was assaulted while entering a bakery with his mother and brother.

Multiple witnesses reported seeing Gares kick the child with great force, the documents show.

Court documents show the young child was rendered temporarily unconscious and taken to hospital.

Police say Gares is subject to a long-term supervision order and a lifetime weapons prohibition order.

In 2024, police say Gares was convicted of breaching his long-term supervision order and was incarcerated until earlier this month.

Court documents also show in 2013, Gares “threatened to kill elementary school aged children” when he was angered by the Children’s Aid Society’s refusal to allow him access to his own children.

Records show his lawyer felt these threats to be “sufficiently serious to necessitate informing the police.”

• 3 people targeted in ‘serious assault’ at Calgary Stampede, police say
• RCMP charge multiple men in ‘anti-government militia’ plot in Quebec


• Robert Pickton was fatally stabbed with broken broom handle, investigation reveals

He was convicted on two charges of threatening death, theft, assault with intent to resist arrest and for failing to comply with probation.

Upon his release in 2015, police issued a public warning to about two dozen public schools in his former neighborhood, sending home letters to parents about his “threat to public safety.”

While on statutory release, Gares has numerous conditions, including not entering drinking establishments, not consuming alcohol, not consuming drugs, and following a treatment plan.

The Toronto Police Service says it is notifying the public about Gares because of his demonstrated risk to the community and children.

Anyone with information about Gares asked by police to call them or Crime Stoppers.

Canada arrests four accused of forming

anti-gov't militia

By Darryl Coote

 

Canadian authorities seized dozens of firearms during a January 2024 search in Quebec City, which was part of an investigation that led to the arrests of four men on Tuesday. Photo courtesy RCMP/Release

July 9 (UPI) -- Canadian authorities have arrested four men, including active military members, on accusations of forming an anti-government militia that sought to seize land in Quebec City.

No information about motive or ideology was released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police when it announced the arrests in a statement Tuesday.

Three of the suspects -- Marc-Aurele Chabot, 24, Simon Angers-Audet, 24, and Raphael Lagace -- are accused of taking "concrete actions to facilitate terrorist activity," a charge punishable with up to 14 years in prison.

According to the RCMP, Chabot, Angers-Audet and Lagace have been accused of planning to create an anti-government militia, for which they participated in military-style training, including shooting, ambush, survival and navigation exercises, involving firearms, some of which are banned.

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A fourth suspect, Matthew Forbes, 33, faces a slew of charges, including possession of firearms, prohibited devices and explosives and related offenses.

All four men are from the province of Quebec.

The arrests follow searches conducted in Quebec City in January 2024 that uncovered 16 explosive devices, 11,000 rounds of ammunition, nearly 130 magazines and 83 firearms and accessories. Four pairs of night vision goggles and other military equipment were also seized.

Images released by the RCMP include a screenshot of an Instagram account that Canadian authorities said one of the suspect's alleged(sic) used to recruit new members. Other released photos included several displaying the large cache of firearms seized and one of the men in tactical gear appearing to be undergoing training.

The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that two active military members were among the four arrested and charged.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Camille Habel told CBC News that their investigation into the men dates back to the spring of 2023, but that the militant group dates back to at least 2021.

Without going into specifics concerning what the group's intention was with the Quebec City land they intended to seize, Habel said, "in that ideology in general, quite often we would see a desire to create a new society, a desire to live by different values and wanting to change or create some kind of chaos so that they could take over society to created(sic) it and live it the way that they want."

She added that they know more than just the four people arrested are interested in this unspecified ideology, which, she said, "is an issue in Canada right now."

"It is not a case that will fix the problem," she said. "It is really a societal problem."

Can you be more specific SSgt Habel? What is the real cause of the rise of the far-right? It's just too politically incorrect to talk about.