Opinion
British Columbia city defends allowing grown man to change in front of girls

From LifeSiteNews
The City of Vernon, British Columbia, is defending a pool manager’s decision to allow a grown man to change in the presence of teenage girls under the pretense that prohibiting such behavior is a violation of federal law.
An average news day in Canada, circa 2024, in Vernon, British Columbia:
Two teenage girls going through the lifeguarding program at the Vernon Aquatic Centre were shocked to be changing beside a person they soon found out had a penis. It was the last Saturday in January and the girls wasted no time in telling their families what they had just experienced.
‘My niece had a 50-year-old man come into the change room, strip naked in front of her and her friend, she’s 14, and put on a woman’s bathing suit and go out.’
The pool manager was contacted. “He basically said the kids have no rights and that the transgender person’s rights take precedence, this is something I think parents should know,” said the girls’ uncle, who asked to be quoted only by his first name, Kevin, for privacy purposes. According to management, to forbid a middle-aged trans-identified man from stripping naked next to young teenage girls would be a violation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Bill C-16, which forbids discrimination on the basis of “gender identity and gender expression.”
Carolyn Baldridge, a spokeswoman for the City of Vernon, told the press that this was in line with the law. “It is against the law for Vernon Recreation staff to dictate what washroom/change room that a customer can use based on their appearance,” she said. “Staff cannot ask someone to leave for changing in the change room of their choice.” Since the passage of Bill C-16, the Vernon Aquatic Centre changed its “Family Change room” sign to “Universal change room,” meaning that the nude guy was well within his rights to do what he did.
“Under Canadian law, users are free to change in the room that they best identify with,” Baldridge added, noting that “inclusive recreation” is an “evolving discussion across Canada” and that “Vernon’s Recreation Services will continue to take steps to ensure the inclusion of gender diverse Canadians in their programs and facilities.”
According to Kevin: “I was told by the pool manager that there was nothing he could do unless the person was ‘leering or making overt sexual gestures toward the girls’ but this guy was naked in front of teenage girls and that’s just not right.” Kevin is right; the law is wrong; the privacy of young girls is collateral damage, although the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP stated that if anything inappropriate—besides the full-frontal nudity in front of young teen girls, that is—occurred, that they would be willing to investigate.
There are plenty of LGBT activists who get upset at those of us who point out how disgusting this state of affairs is, insisting that we are fearmongering or smearing people. But it needs to be said: a man who is willing to expose himself in front of teenage girls, regardless of whether or not he truly believes himself to be a woman, should not be trusted, full stop. There are private stalls available that he could have used. Unless he is unfathomably stupid, he knew that doing what he was doing could make the girls scared, uncomfortable, or insecure—and he chose to do it anyway.
The sincerity of his gender dysphoria is really besides the point here. These men are willing to make young girls fearful in order to live their preferred identities in public because they simply do not care—and many, it seems, take a perverse pleasure in forcing everyone to play along. There is a vindictiveness about this that should be pointed out. Any man, deluded or not, who is unwilling to consider how his behavior might make more vulnerable people feel is simply not worthy of respect.
Author
2025 Federal Election
Highly touted policies the Liberal government didn’t actually implement

From The Audit
State capacity is the measure of a government’s ability to get stuff done that benefits its population. There are many ways to quantify state capacity, including GDP per capita spent on health, education, and infrastructure versus outcomes; the tax-to-GDP ratio; judicial independence; enforcement of contracts; and crime rates.
But a government’s ability to actually implement its own policies has got to rank pretty high here, too. All the best intentions are worthless if, as I wrote in the context of the Liberal’s 2023 national action plan to end gender-based violence, your legislation just won’t work in the real world.
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So I thought I’d take a look at some examples of federal legislation from the past ten years that passed through Parliament but, for one reason or another, failed to do its job. We may agree or disagree with goals driving the various initiatives, but government’s failure to get the work done over and over again speaks to a striking lack of state capacity.
The 2018 Cannabis Act (Bill C-45). C-45 legalized recreational cannabis in Canada, with a larger goal of regulating production, distribution, and consumption while reducing illegal markets and protecting public health. However, research has shown that illegal sales persisted post-legalization due to high legal prices and taxation. Studies have also shown continued use among children despite regulations. And there are troubling indicators about the overall impact on public health.
The 2021 Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act (Bill C-12). The legislation aimed to ensure Canada achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by setting five-year targets and requiring emissions reduction plans. However, critics argue it lacks enforceable mechanisms to guarantee results. A much-delayed progress report highlighted a lack of action and actual emissions reductions lagging far behind projections.
The First Nations Clean Water Act (Bill C-61) was introduced in late 2024 but, as of the recent dissolution of Parliament, not yet passed. This should be seen in the context of the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act (2013), which was repealed in 2021 after failing to deliver promised improvements in water quality due to inadequate funding and enforcement. The new bill aimed to address these shortcomings, but a decade and a half of inaction speaks to a special level of public impotence.
The 2019 Impact Assessment Act (Bill C-69). Passed in 2019, this legislation reformed environmental assessment processes for major projects. Many argue it failed to achieve its dual goals of streamlining approvals while enhancing environmental protection. Industry groups claim it created regulatory uncertainty (to put it mildly), while environmental groups argue it hasn’t adequately protected ecosystems. No one seems happy with this one.
The 2019 Firearms Act (Bill C-71). Parts of this firearms legislation were delayed in implementation, particularly the point-of-sale record keeping requirements for non-restricted firearms. Some provisions weren’t fully implemented until years after passage.
The 2013 First Nations Financial Transparency Act. – This legislation, while technically implemented, was not fully enforced after 2015 when the Liberal government stopped penalizing First Nations that didn’t comply with its financial disclosure requirements.
The 2019 National Housing Strategy Act. From the historical perspective of six years of hindsight, the law has manifestly failed to meaningfully address Canada’s housing affordability crisis. Housing prices and homelessness have continued their rise in major urban centers.
The 2019 Indigenous Languages Act (Bill C-91). Many Indigenous advocates have argued the funding and mechanisms have been insufficient to achieve its goal of revitalizing endangered Indigenous languages.
The 2007 Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act (PSDPA). Designed to protect whistleblowers within the federal public service, the PSDPA has been criticized for its ineffectiveness. During its first three years, the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner (OPSIC) astonishingly reported no findings of wrongdoing or reprisal, despite numerous submissions. A 2017 review by the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates recommended significant reforms, but there’s been no visible progress.
There were, of course, many bills from the past ten years that were fully implemented.¹ But the failure rate is high enough that I’d argue it should be taken into account when measuring our state capacity.
Still, as a friend once noted, there’s a silver lining to all this: the one thing more frightening than an inefficient and ineffective government is an efficient and effective government. So there’s that.
The fact that we’re still living through the tail end of a massive bout of inflation provides clear testimony that Bill C-13 (COVID-19 Emergency Response Act) had an impact.
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Courageous Discourse
Europe Had 127,350 Cases of Measles in 2024

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
US Mainstream Media Maintains Myopic Focus on Less than 1000 Cases
As the measles story in the US continues to unfold with reporting of a few cases here and there come in through mainstream media, I wondered about measles in Europe.
The WHO casually reported that the Europe Region had 127,350 cases in 2024.
According to an analysis by WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 127 350 measles cases were reported in the European Region for 2024, double the number of cases reported for 2023 and the highest number since 1997.
Children under 5 accounted for more than 40% of reported cases in the Region – comprising 53 countries in Europe and central Asia. More than half of the reported cases required hospitalization. A total of 38 deaths have been reported, based on preliminary data received as of 6 March 2025.
Measles cases in the Region have generally been declining since 1997, when some 216 000 were reported, reaching a low of 4440 cases in 2016. However, a resurgence was seen in 2018 and 2019 – with 89 000 and 106 000 cases reported for the 2 years respectively. Following a backsliding in immunization coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, cases rose significantly again in 2023 and 2024. Vaccination rates in many countries are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, increasing the risk of outbreaks.
Many regions in Europe have lower rates of measles vaccination than the goal of 95%.
Less than 80% of eligible children in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania were vaccinated with MCV1 in 2023 – far below the 95% coverage rate required to retain herd immunity. In both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro the coverage rate for MCV1 has remained below 70% and 50% respectively for the past 5 or more years. Romania reported the highest number of cases in the Region for 2024, with 30 692 cases, followed by Kazakhstan with 28 147 cases.
The WHO Report does not mention adjudication of hospitalizations or deaths. Presumably hospitalization of healthy kids is routine for contagion control. So if measles is so common and presumably well-handled by Europe, why is it such a big deal in the United States? Don’t look for Sanjay Gupta or Anderson Cooper to tell you that a similar size region and population handles >100K cases per year without much fanfare.
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
President, McCullough Foundation
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