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Frontier Centre for Public Policy

How the new National Chief can restore the legitimacy of the AFN

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Newly elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Cindy Woodhouse

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Joseph Quesnel

At times, we lose sight of the fact that not discovering bodies would be a profoundly positive outcome for First Nations and for Canada. This could help reconciliation efforts and bring peace to First Nation communities, particularly for Indigenous individuals of Christian faith.

Cindy Woodhouse, the newly elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), has a lot of work to do as she sets out to unify the fractured organization and rebuild its legitimacy in the eyes of First Nations across Canada.

To begin, the new national chief should forge her own independent path. Instead of immediately prioritizing internal reforms, she could facilitate reconciliation within First Nation communities by showing leadership in addressing ongoing, challenging conversations that remain unresolved in First Nation communities right now.

Although engaging in these discussions will subject her to criticism, leading from the top on difficult topics will often do that.

The first topic of conversation is the matter of unmarked graves near residential schools.

In 2021, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Indigenous community in British Columbia made headlines by announcing the discovery of 215 unmarked graves, believed to belong to children, through ground-penetrating radar. The allegation sent shockwaves across Canada and around the world. Mainstream media extensively covered these allegations, creating impressions of mass murder of children and human rights atrocities.

In reaction to these allegations, churches, especially Roman Catholic ones, became targets of vandalism and arson. Some individuals on reserves expressed their anger by targeting churches within their communities. Records indicate that there were over 60 incidents involving churches in 2021 alone.

Regrettably, churches affiliated with First Nation communities are still reporting attacks on their properties. At last count, some alternative media outlets are reporting a total of 100 incidents of arson and vandalism on churches. Just recently, video footage revealed an attempted arson on a Roman Catholic church in Regina, which only conservative outlets seemed to cover.

The CBC – three years late to the issue – ran an investigative story on the incidents that only seemed to serve as a platform for anti-Christian bigotry and to provide justification for the indefensible actions.

At the time, National Chief Perry Bellegarde – to his credit – condemned these acts and called for an end to them. Other prominent Indigenous voices also spoke up.

However, it’s crucial to admit that these claims of unmarked graves remain unverified and lack concrete evidence. Without excavation or exhumed bodies, it’s impossible to conclusively determine whether these are indeed human remains.

Indigenous communities in Canada must openly express this sentiment, and the national chief of the AFN is a prominent voice to convey this message.

No one denies that children died at these institutions. Tuberculosis took the lives of thousands of indigenous children who attended residential schools, day schools, or no school at all. It was a major killer of Indigenous people at the time.

However, this issue is an open and festering wound, particularly for many Indigenous communities. It is also a stain on Canadians and our collective history. Even today, Christian places of worship within Indigenous communities are subjected to reprehensible attacks.

Woodhouse must lead the AFN in addressing this difficult discussion by stating the truth. There is no evidence to substantiate the allegations of widespread child murder, and it’s time for Indigenous communities to acknowledge this and focus on healing their communities.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has stated that Parliament should launch a comprehensive investigation into the allegations of unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Woodhouse should support his initiative and ensure the co-operation of all political parties. This would provide closure to many Indigenous families.

At times, we lose sight of the fact that not discovering bodies would be a profoundly positive outcome for First Nations and for Canada. This could help reconciliation efforts and bring peace to First Nation communities, particularly for Indigenous individuals of Christian faith.

No First Nation leader should want this festering wound to remain exposed.

Thankfully, the next conversation Woodhouse must address is not as difficult as the first.

As the debate rages over the carbon tax across Canada, it’s often overlooked that these taxes deeply impact First Nations. The federal government’s centralized energy policies are harming Indigenous communities. Imposing ‘clean energy’ mandates on many First Nations people who rely heavily on diesel and lack alternative options is simply not feasible for many communities. Woodhouse has said she will support a review of the impacts of the carbon tax on First Nations, but she must do more and vehemently oppose the government’s whole green agenda.

She must lead the AFN in rejecting all unnecessary and arbitrary Net Zero and clean energy targets. The government’s ‘Just Transition’ strategy – leaving resources untapped – is a direct threat to energy-producing First Nations. First Nations should have the opportunity to thrive in the energy sector just like any other community.

Both these conversations will be divisive and polarizing, but the AFN must lead them because the lack of resolution is harming Indigenous communities.

Joseph Quesnel, is a Senior Research Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Economy

One Solution to Canada’s Housing Crisis: Move. Toronto loses nearly half million people to more affordable locations

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Wendell Cox

The largest CMA, Toronto, had by far the most significant net internal migration loss at 402,600, Montreal lost 162,700, and Vancouver lost 49,700.

Canadians are fleeing overpriced cities to find more affordable housing. And restrictive urban planning policies are to blame.

Canadians may be solving the housing crisis on their own by moving away from more expensive areas to areas where housing is much more affordable. This trend is highlighted in the latest internal migration data from Statistics Canada.

The data covers 167 areas comprising the entire nation, including Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), which have populations from 100,000 to seven million. It also includes the smaller Census Agglomerations (CAs), which have a core population of at least 10,000, as well as areas outside CMAs and CAs in each province and territory, which are referred to as “largely rural areas.”

Long-standing migration trends have been virtually reversed. Larger cities (CMAs) now see the highest loss of net internal migrants, while smaller cities (CAs) are experiencing solid gains. Between 2019 and 2023, Canada’s CMAs lost 273,800 net internal migrants to smaller areas, including CAs and largely rural areas. This contrasts sharply with the previous five-year period (2014 to 2018) when CMAs saw only a 1,000-person loss.

So, where did these people go? A significant portion – 108,100 – moved to CAs, which captured 39 per cent of the CMA losses. This is triple that of the previous five years (2014 through 2018).

However, the most notable shift occurred in largely rural areas, which gained 165,700 net internal migrants, representing 61 per cent of CMA losses. This is a dramatic increase compared to the 33,700 net loss in the previous five years.

Among the 167 areas, the migration data is stunning.

The areas experiencing the greatest net internal migration are outside CMAs and CAs. The largely rural area of Ontario saw the biggest gain, with a net increase of 78,300 people – nearly 40 times the number from the previous five years. Meanwhile, rural Quebec placed second, with a net gain of 76,200 people, more than 10 times the increase in the prior five years. The Calgary CMA ranked third (and first among CMAs) at 42,600, followed by the Ottawa Gatineau CMA (Ontario and Quebec) at 36,700 and the Oshawa CMA at 34,900.

The largest CMA, Toronto, had by far the most significant net internal migration loss at 402,600, Montreal lost 162,700, and Vancouver lost 49,700. Outside these CMAs, nearly all areas posted net gains.

People have also started moving to the Maritimes. The Halifax CMA tripled its previous gain (21,300). In New Brunswick, Moncton nearly quadrupled its gain (7,000). Modest gains were also made in Fredericton and Saint John as well as in Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island.

Meanwhile, housing affordability in Canada’s largest CMAs has become grim. Toronto’s median house price to median household income has doubled in less than two decades. Vancouver’s prices have tripled relative to incomes in five decades. Montreal’s house prices nearly doubled relative to incomes over two decades.

These CMAs (and others) have housing policies typical of the international planning orthodoxy, which seeks to make cities denser. In effect, they have declared war against “urban sprawl,” trying to stop any material expansion of urbanization. These urban containment policies, which include greenbelts, agricultural reserves, urban growth boundaries and compact city strategies, are associated with the worst housing affordability. Land prices are skewed upward throughout the market. Demand continues to increase ahead of incomes, but the supply of low-cost suburban land, so crucial to controlling costs, is frozen.

Regrettably, some areas where people have fled are also subject to urban containment and housing affordability has deteriorated rapidly. Between 2015 and 2022, prices in Ontario CMAs London, Guelph, Brantford and St. Catharines have about doubled. BC’s Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island have seen similar increases. Those moving to these areas are ahead financially, but the rapidly rising house prices are closing opportunities.

There are proposals to restore housing affordability, though none tackle the urban containment policies associated with the price increases. Indeed, we have not found a single metropolitan area where housing affordability has been restored with the market distortions of the intensity that have developed in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal (not in our Demographia International Housing Affordability report or elsewhere). Such markets have become unsustainable for most new entrant households because they cannot afford to live there.

Housing is not a commodity. Households have varying preferences, from ground-oriented housing (detached and townhomes) to high-rise condos. Indeed, a growing body of literature associates detached housing with higher total fertility rates. According to Statistics Canada, Canadians have favoured lower densities for decades, a trend that continued through the 2021 Census, a trend that continued through the 2021 Census, according to Statistics Canada.

With governments (virtually around the world) failing to maintain stable and affordable housing markets, it’s not surprising people are taking matters into their own hands. Until fundamental reforms can be implemented in the most expensive markets, those seeking a better quality of life will have no choice but to leave.

First published in the Financial Post.

Wendell Cox is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the author of Demographia International Housing Affordability.

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Frontier Centre for Public Policy

The Destructive Legacy of Gender Theory’s Popular Pioneer

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Lee Harding

The idea that gender is disconnected from sex was popularized by psychologist John Money. Perverted minds produce perverted ideas. Unfortunately, Money’s legacy of destruction continues.

The idea that sex drives come out of nowhere and have nothing to do with biology should be dismissed out of hand, given the countless generations of procreated human and even animal species. Yet, in 1961, Money claimed that “erotic outlook and orientation is an autonomous psychological phenomenon independent of genes and hormones.”

Money later said that “like hermaphrodites, all the human race follow the same pattern, namely, of psychological undifferentiation at birth.”

In other words, no one is born heterosexual, and there are no biology-based differences in how men and women act. By 1973, even Money had to acknowledge a wide body of research that showed “fetal gonadal hormones . . . have an influence on neural pathways in the brain.” Still, he emphasized nurture over nature.

Money had a chance to test his theories after the birth of Winnipeg twin brothers Bruce and Ron Reimer, born in 1965. A botched circumcision left Bruce’s penis almost severed, seemingly damaged beyond function. Their parents saw Money on TV in 1967 and went to his gender clinic at Johns Hopkins University.

The clinic was the first of its kind and specialized in cross-sex surgeries. Money convinced the parents to have Bruce’s penis and testes removed, rename him Brenda, and raise him as a girl. Both twins visited Money annually, and Money used their example on a lecture circuit to insist that gender roles were instilled and not innate.

This was complete fiction, but the truth didn’t come out until it was exposed by psychologist H. Keith Sigmundson and biologist Milton Diamond in a medical journal in 1997.

The twins’ mother Janet recalled how Brenda hated dresses, sewing, and dolls. Instead, the child preferred to play soldier, dress in men’s clothes, tinker with tools and gadgets, and even stand up to pee. When Brenda told doctors “she” felt she wasn’t a girl, they discounted it.

It turns out Money made the twins inspect each other’s genitals. His therapy involved forcing the twins into a simulation of sexual positions and motions, something Money justified as healthy childhood sexual exploration. Money photographed this while as many as six colleagues looked in person. If either child resisted orders, the doctor responded with anger and verbal abuse.

This disturbing account is not entirely surprising. Money participated in nudism and group sex as part of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. He advocated open marriages and even compiled a pornographic presentation for students at Johns Hopkins Medical School called “Pornography in the Home.”

In his 1975 book Sexual Signatures, Money wrote, “[E]xplicit sexual pictures can and should be used as part of a child’s sex education…. [to] reinforce his or her own gender identity/role,” Money explained.

By the age of 13, Brenda so dreaded the annual visit to Money that she threatened suicide. Her parents sent her anyway. Consultants at the Baltimore clinic recruited male-to-female transsexuals to convince Reimer it was better to be female and have a vagina. This so disturbed Reimer, that she ran away from the hospital and hid on the roof of a nearby building.

In 1980, Reimer begged her father to know the truth and he finally admitted her birth as a male. The family moved and the child took the name David. Next, endocrinologists, psychologists, and surgeons did their best to reconstruct Reimer’s manliness. Money stopped talking about the twins on the lecture circuit but did not confess how woefully wrong he was.

In 1979, Dr. Paul McHugh, chief psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, investigated whether their sex reassignment surgeries helped the psycho-social problems of patients. The answer was so clearly “no” that the clinic stopped doing them.

In 2004, McHugh recalled that those operated on “had much the same problems with relationships, work, and emotions as before.” He added, “I concluded that Hopkins was fundamentally cooperating with a mental illness. We psychiatrists, I thought, would do better to concentrate on trying to fix their minds and not their genitalia.”

When the gender clinic was shut down in 1980, Money started another clinic at Johns Hopkins for gender “paraphilias,” a polite term for deviancies. That year, he told Time magazine, “A childhood sexual experience, such as being the partner of a relative or of an older person, need not necessarily affect the child adversely.”

In 1991, Money told Paidika, a pro-pedophilia journal in the Netherlands that a mutually acceptable sexual relationship between a ten-year-old boy and a man in his 30s was not “pathological in any way.” He said efforts to keep children from sexual activity, including sexual consent laws, was “really a diabolically clever ploy to establish anti-sexualism on a big scale.”

David Reimer killed himself in 2004, while Money died in 2006. Too bad the psychologist’s warped ideas didn’t die with him. In practice, they lead to futility and failure.

Lee Harding is a Research Fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

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