National
Trudeau must prove he won’t tax our homes
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/tvrd-ctf-home-housing-image-2024-07-21.jpg)
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Franco Terrazzano
Actions speak louder the words. That’s especially true when those words come from a politician with a track record of breaking promises and hiking taxes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he won’t send the taxman after Canadians’ homes. But if Trudeau wants Canadians to believe he won’t impose a home equity tax, there’s one thing he must do: end the CRA’s home reporting requirement.
In 2016, the Trudeau government made it mandatory for Canadians to report the sale of their primary residence even though it’s tax-exempt. If you sell your home, the CRA wants to know how much money you received from that sale. But if the taxman isn’t taxing it, why is the taxman asking that question? Is the CRA just curious?
Official Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation he would remove this reporting requirement if he forms government.
Trudeau must do the same. Otherwise, Canadians should worry a home equity tax is right around the corner. As Toronto Sun Columnist Brian Lilley recently wrote, “For Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party, taxing your primary residence is a bad idea they just can’t quit.”
On June 25, Trudeau attended “a private town hall about generational fairness,” hosted by Generation Squeeze, a group advocating for home taxes.
What do you notice about the theme of that town hall? The government recently used the cloak of generational fairness to impose its capital gains tax hike.
The Trudeau government also spent hundreds of thousands funding and promoting a report from Generation Squeeze that complained of the “housing wealth windfalls gained by many home owners while they sleep and watch TV.”
The report recommended charging a tax on the value of homes above $1 million. The tax would cost Canadians up to $5.8 billion every year, and it would hit many normal Canadians. In British Columbia and Toronto, the typical home price is above $1 million.
Trying to improve affordability with tax hikes is like trying to boil water with your freezer. Higher taxes won’t make homes affordable. Consider this insight 50 pages into the report.
“Owners of homes valued over $1 million that include informal rental suites may try to recover the surtax by passing some of its cost on to renters,” reads the report.
It turns out higher taxes can make things cost more.
The head of Generation Squeeze was invited to a cabinet ministers’ retreat in Charlottetown last summer.
Documents uncovered by the CTF show staff in the prime minister’s office met twice with the head of Generation Squeeze, which included “a briefing about the tax policy recommendation.”
Trudeau has an appetite for taxing people’s homes. His recent capital gains tax hike will impact Canadians who sell secondary residences and cottages. He imposed a so-called anti-flipping home tax. And Trudeau taxes homes the government deems “underused.”
With Trudeau scrounging through the couch cushions looking for more money to paper over his deficits, Canadians should worry a home equity tax is next.
A home equity tax would come with a big bill for a young couple looking to upgrade to a family home or for grandparents who rely on the equity in their home to fund their golden years.
As an example, Canadians that bought their Toronto home for $250,000 in 1980 and sold it for $1.2 million today would pay between $50,000 and $190,000, depending on the type of home equity tax.
The Trudeau government has repeatedly flirted with home equity taxes. The only way for Trudeau to put Canadians’ minds at ease is to act and remove the requirement for taxpayers to report the sale of their home to the CRA.
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
UBCIC Chiefs Commit A Grave Error In Labelling Authors As Racist Deniers
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/tvrd-fcpp-aboriginal-protests-image-2024-09-06.jpg)
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Rodney A. Clifton
UBCIC Chiefs attempt to suppress open debate on residential schools.
Is anyone surprised that the Union of BC Indian Chiefs on Aug. 12 wrote to many provincial municipalities (Powell River, Kamloops, and Quesnel, for example) demanding they reject “Residential School Denialism”?
Their demand is in response to a book edited by C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan, Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools). The authors of the 18 chapters include several well-known Canadian anthropologists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and lawyers, many of whom have published extensively on Indigenous/non-Indigenous issues.
Even so, the organization of Chiefs call this book an “ardent dissemination of racist misinformation.”
Their letter to municipal leaders concludes with the following:
“The UBIC Chiefs Council stand with survivors and intergenerational survivors of Residential Schools and their families, as well as the children who never made it home and those who are harmed by the actions of those involved with the production and distribution of the book … and the deeply troubling trend of Residential School racist denialism and any unwillingness to accept facts and the work of experts.”
“We look forward to your response.”
As an author of a chapter in Grave Error, as co-author of two other chapters, and as a co-editor with Mark DeWolf of From Truth Comes Reconciliation: An Assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, I am pleased to respond to the Chiefs.
My recommendation to municipal leaders, and other concerned Canadians, is that before you respond to the Chiefs, you should read Grave Error and make up your up your own minds.
On Amazon, Grave Error has over 800 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5. In fact, this book is ranked first on three Amazon lists, and it has been a best seller for many months.
One of the top Amazon reviews begins, “A well-researched, non-partisan and balanced approach to the hysterical outpourings of recent years.” Another review says, “There is not one whiff of racism or hatred in this book.”
As a contributing author to Grave Error, I will add a little of my history.
I lived for four months during the Summer of 1966 in the teachers’ wing of Old Sun, the Anglican Residential School on the Siksika (Blackfoot) First Nation in Southern Alberta. At the time, students were still in residence, and I was a 21-year-old university student intern working at the Band Office, where about half the employees were Siksika members. Also, most of the employed in Old Sun, where I lived, were Siksika.
In the fall of 1966, I became the Senior Boys’ Supervisor in Stringer Hall, the Anglican residence in Inuvik, NWT, where I looked after 85 mostly Indigenous boys in three dorms. About half of the employees in this residence were Indigenous.
I returned to the University of Alberta for the 1967-68 academic year, and in the summer of 1968, I was employed as the Beach Supervisor and Swimming Instructor in Uranium City, Northern Saskatchewan, where I taught swimming to many Indigenous children in a local lake.
Finally, in September 1968, Elaine Ayoungman, a young Siksika woman I met in 1966, and I were married in the Anglican Church in Strathmore, Alberta. Elaine had been a student in Old Sun for 10 years, and this September, we will celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary. We are still married, and, no doubt, surprisingly to the BC Chiefs, we are still in love.
By now, readers will realize that I strongly reject the UBCI Chiefs’ claim that I, or any of the other authors with chapters in Grave Error, are “racist deniers” of the reality of Indian Residential Schools.
In short, my message to the BC municipal leaders is to resist echoing the opinion of the UBCIC, me, or the opinions of over 80 percent of the reviews on Amazon who awarded the book a 4 or 5. My message is simple: Read Grave Error and make up your own mind. Likewise, my message to Canadians who want to know more about Indian Residential Schools is to listen to the survivors and Chiefs but also read the Truth and Reconciliation Report and then read both Grave Error and From Truth Comes Reconciliation.
Rodney A. Clifton is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. His most recent book, with Mark DeWolf, is From Truth Comes Reconciliation: An Assessment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report (Sutherland House Press, 2024). The book can be preordered from the publisher.
International
ISIS supporter used Canada in terror plot to massacre New York City Jews, motivated by October 7th Hamas attack on Israel: FBI
![](https://www.todayville.com/edmonton/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/tvrd-bureau-islamic-state-image-2024-09-07.jpg)
News release from The Bureau
United States investigators disrupted the anti-Semitic terror plot of a 20-year-old Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, who was preparing to cross the U.S.-Canada border to carry out a mass shooting at Jewish religious centers in New York City. His aim was to unleash bloodshed on October 7, 2024, marking the anniversary of Hamas’ deadly incursion from Gaza into Israel.
According to an FBI complaint on September 4, 2024, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, an ISIS supporter, was en route to the border, having told undercover agents he had secured funding for the operation—even texting a photo showing stacks of Canadian currency—and bragging he was “locked and loaded” for the attack.
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Undercover officers and informants had infiltrated the suspect’s network in Canada, intercepting online and encrypted communications, gathering months of evidence that detailed his plans to target Jewish civilians and religious institutions in Brooklyn. Khan believed the city’s large Jewish population made it the perfect site to inflict maximum casualties.
“Brothers, hear me out, why not we do an attack in New York,” Khan texted to FBI agents. “[The] population of Jews in New York City is 1 million,” he continued, explaining he had scanned Google Earth maps of various New York neighborhoods and could see “tons of Jews walking around,” and “we could rack up easily a lot of Jews.”
Khan’s murderous intentions weren’t limited to a single attack in New York City. The FBI’s complaint alleges he sought to form an “offline cell” of ISIS supporters in the U.S., coordinating multiple assaults on Jewish targets.
And demonstrating his intent and some level of sophistication in terror financing and money laundering, Khan discussed plans to fund and arm ISIS operators in the United States with AR-style rifles through cross-border cryptocurrency accounts.
This disrupted ISIS-related plot comes amid broader fears in the U.S. about the risks posed by Canada’s immigration policies. Recently, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio expressed concern over Canada’s acceptance of Palestinian refugees from Gaza. In a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Rubio warned that the refugee program could increase the risk of individuals with ties to terror groups gaining easier access to the U.S., complicating efforts to secure the border.
The FBI’s investigation also highlights the resurgence of ISIS-linked terrorism in North America.
The group and its affiliates have claimed responsibility for major attacks worldwide, including the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people, the 2016 Brussels bombings that left 32 dead, and the Nice truck attack, which killed over 80. More recently, ISIS-linked groups carried out bombings in Kerman, Iran, in 2024, killing 94 people, and a deadly assault on a concert hall in Moscow that same year, which claimed at least 60 lives.
The FBI’s case against Khan, filed three days ago in the Southern District of New York, alleges that he began discussing his plan in July 2024 with undercover agents he believed to be fellow ISIS supporters.
He initially considered targeting “City-1,” but dismissed it as insufficient, stating, “City-1 is nothing compared to NYC” because it had “only 175k Jews.”
On July 31, 2024, Khan elaborated on his vision of a coordinated attack, telling the undercover agents he envisioned six attackers splitting into three teams to “launch three attacks simultaneously on different locations, maximizing the casualty count.”
Khan continued to communicate with the undercover agents throughout August, referencing a failed ISIS attack in Toronto as evidence of law enforcement vigilance and urging heightened caution. He emphasized that their “cell should be small and well-armed” and that they should avoid social media to stay under the radar.
To enter the U.S., Khan arranged for a human smuggler to help him cross the border from Canada, planning to travel to New York City and then by bus to his attack location.
By early September, Canadian authorities began tracking Khan’s movements. On the morning of September 4, 2024, RCMP officers observed Khan entering a vehicle in Toronto, traveling toward Napanee, Ontario. After transferring to a second vehicle with a new driver, Khan continued eastbound toward Montreal, intending to cross the U.S.-Canada border from Quebec.
His plans became more detailed as he neared his attack date. He identified Jewish religious centers in Brooklyn, sending the undercover agents a photograph of a specific area inside one center where he intended to carry out the attack. He also urged the agents to acquire firearms, ammunition, and tactical gear, instructing them to purchase “some good hunting [knives] so we can slit their throats.”
Khan intended to time his assault with Jewish religious events, ensuring maximum casualties, and planned to record a video pledging allegiance to ISIS and send it to the group’s media outlet, Amaq, to claim responsibility.
The evidence also provides chilling insight into the psychology and beliefs that drive ISIS supporters. On August 18, Khan sent the undercover agents a document urging them to read it, explaining that “a martyr bypasses all this questioning of the grave etc.”
U.S. and Canadian authorities continue to investigate the case and assess whether Khan had any additional accomplices or links to other extremist networks.
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