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Freeland Resignation Reaction: Pierre Poilievre Speaks to Reporters in Ottawa

Published

2 months ago

8 minute read

From Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada

Transcript below:

What we’re seeing is the Government of Canada spiralling out of control right before our eyes and at the very worst time.

Today, mere hours before Trudeau’s Finance Minister was to deliver a Fall Economic Statement that was expected to smash through her already massive deficit targets, she announced she no longer has confidence in the Prime Minister. Canadians were already anxious about the reckless $40 billion deficit the government had announced last spring. But today, in mere hours, they were expected to learn that it was much higher than that, threatening our social programs and our fiscal stability, right in the middle of a potential trade war.

The Prime Minister, with the help and instigation of Carbon Tax Carney, pushed Ms. Freeland to bring on massive, unsustainable, irresponsible spending increases that blew through her self-imposed guardrail. He thought that he would simply push her through that guardrail and off the cliff so that she, and not Trudeau and Mr. Carney, would take the blame for the crisis that he and they caused. To continue the chaos, the moment the Finance Minister resigned, the government’s published order of precedent meant that Francois-Philippe Champagne instantaneously became the finance minister. But now, he tells us he doesn’t have the job and doesn’t want the job.

So it goes to the next minister who’s on the published order of precedent, and that is Randy Boissonnault, more commonly known as the ‘Two Randys; the gentleman who had to resign because he falsely claimed he was Indigenous, falsely claimed that there was more than one Randy when it was all him and all in his head. And he is now technically our Finance Minister as we speak. We don’t know for sure though if he’ll still be Finance Minister in three and a half hours when the scheduled Fall Economic Statement is expected to land.

That update, by the way, is currently covered by a black blanket underneath the table. No one is allowed to look at it, even though journalists and parliamentarians showed up to read it in briefing rooms earlier today.

So here we are. Everything is spiralling out of control. Out-of-control spending and bureaucracy has doubled housing costs, with 1,400 homeless encampments in Ontario alone. Out-of-control immigration has led to refugee camps opening in suburban Canada, and then we have 500,000 people in the country illegally, according to government estimates. Out-of-control crime overtakes our once-tranquil streets, with gun crime having doubled. Out-of-control drugs and disorder add to the chaos, with 47,000 of our people dying of overdoses since Trudeau legalized drug laws, stopped enforcing them, and allowed limitless sums of fentanyl ingredients into our country. Out-of-control inflation has followed -of-control money printing, which has sent out-of-control demand to our food banks, which are running out of food altogether. Out-of-control spending has doubled our national debt, boosted interest rates, and threatened our social programs. And it’s not just Freeland who thinks this Prime Minister is out of control. Now, housing Minister Sean Fraser has resigned in the middle of a housing crisis.

The Finance Minister is resigning in the middle of an economic crisis, and a fifth of his liberal caucus has lost confidence in him. Justin Trudeau has lost control and yet he clings to power. We cannot accept this kind of chaos, division and weakness while we’re staring down the barrel of a 25 percent tariff from our biggest trading partner and closest ally, which by the way, is headed by a newly elected president with a strong and fresh mandate; a man who can spot weakness from a mile away.

Ms. Freeland has been Mr. Trudeau’s most trusted minister now for a decade. She knows him better than anyone, and she knows that he’s out of control. She said this, “Our country today faces a grave challenge. The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of a 25 percent tariffs. We need to take that threat extremely seriously. That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can Ill afford, and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”

“I know Canadians would recognize and respect such an approach. They know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are working for ourselves. Inevitably, our time in government will come to an end.” And it is coming to an end because we simply cannot go on like this.

It is up to Jagmeet Singh now to make that realization. Mr. Trudeau is being held in office by one man, Jagmeet Singh. A fifth of Liberal MPs have written a letter for him to resign. His Deputy Prime Minister has walked out on him. His housing minister has quit, that on top of numerous other female ministers who stormed out after his appalling mistreatment and abuse and dishonesty towards them. 80 percent of Canadians have lost confidence in this Prime Minister.

So why is Jagmeet Singh making the entire country wait for him to get his pension? That is the question today. To patriotic Liberals across the country, my message is this: you supported this government in good faith because you thought it was the right thing for the country, and you are good and decent patriotic people who have been let down by the Prime Minister and his top advisor, Mr. Carney, who have betrayed Ms. Freeland and you. Carney and Trudeau, the backroom boys, have taken the Liberal Party away from anything it used to stand for.

Let’s bring home the common sense consensus of Liberals who believed in liberty and Conservatives who believed in conserving it. Fiscal responsibility, compassion for our neighbours. These are the shared common values that will bind up our nation’s wounds and bring us back together. Now is the time for a carbon tax election to turn the decision away from me or Mr. Trudeau or Mr. Singh or Mr. Carney and put it in the hands of the people. I know that they will make the right decision.

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Indigenous

Trudeau gov’t to halt funds for ‘unmarked graves’ search after millions spent, no bodies found

Published on February 21, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

According to the committee tasked with searching for ‘unmarked burials’ at residential schools, the Government of Canada has denied its request for further funding.

The Canadian federal government will be halting funding to a committee tasked with searching for “unmarked burials” near former residential schools after zero graves were discovered and millions of taxpayer dollars spent.

In a statement released last week, the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials said it was “extremely disappointed to learn that the Government of Canada has decided to discontinue funding to support their work to help Indigenous communities in their efforts to identify, locate and commemorate missing children.” 

NAC urged “the federal government to reconsider” its funding cuts to the committee, which is co-administered by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, that was struck in 2021. 

The reality of the situation is that since the NAC was struck not one body has been located on lands associated with former government-funded and mandated residential schools, many of which were run by Catholic and Anglican churches in Canada.  

In fact, Canada’s Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations had already confirmed it spent millions searching for “unmarked graves” at a now-closed residential school, but that the search has turned up no human remains. 

The initial funds budgeted in 2022 to aid in “locating burial sites linked to former Residential Schools” were already set to expire in 2025, with some $216.5 million having been spent.  

A total of $7.9 million granted for fieldwork has resulted in no human remains having been found to date.  

In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the schools.  

As a result of the claims, since the spring of 2021, 112 churches, most of them Catholic, many of them on indigenous lands that serve the local population, have been burned to the ground, vandalized, or defiled in Canada. 

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation was more or less the reason there was a large international outcry in 2021 when it claimed it had found 215 “unmarked graves” of kids at the Kamloops Residential School. The claims of remains, however, were not backed by physical evidence but were rather disturbances in the soil picked up by ground-penetrating radar.   

The First Nation now has changed its claim of 215 graves to 200 “potential burials.”   

As reported by LifeSiteNews, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau as recently as June again falsely stated that “unmarked graves” were discovered at former residential schools.  

Canadian indigenous residential schools, while run by both the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, were mandated and set up by the federal government and ran from the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996.     

While there were indeed some Catholics who committed serious abuses against native children, the unproved “mass graves” narrative has led to widespread anti-Catholic sentiment since 2021.  

While some children did die at the once-mandatory boarding schools, evidence has revealed that many of the children tragically passed away because of unsanitary conditions due to the federal government, not the Catholic Church, failing to properly fund the system.     

In October of 2024, retired Manitoba judge Brian Giesbrecht said Canadians are being “deliberately deceived by their own government” after blasting the Trudeau government for “actively pursuing” a policy that blames the Catholic Church for the unfounded “deaths and secret burials” of Indigenous children. 

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Addictions

BC overhauls safer supply program in response to widespread pharmacy scam

Published on February 21, 2025

By

By Alexandra Keeler

A B.C. pharmacy scam investigation has led the provincial government to return to a witnessed consumption model for safer supply

More than 60 pharmacies across B.C. are alleged to have participated in a kickback scheme linked to safer supply drugs, according to a provincial report released Feb. 19.

On Feb. 5, the BC Conservatives leaked a report that showed the findings of an internal investigation by the B.C. Ministry of Health. That investigation showed dozens of pharmacies were filling prescriptions patients did not require in order to overbill the government. These safer supply drugs were then diverted onto the black market.

After the report was leaked, the province committed to ending take-home safer supply models, which allow users to take hydromorphone pills home in bottles. Instead, it will require drug users to consume prescribed opioids in a witnessed program, under the oversight of a medical professional.

Gregory Sword, whose 14-year-old daughter Kamilah died in August 2022 after taking a hydromorphone pill that had been diverted from B.C.’s safer supply program, expressed outrage over the report’s findings.

“This is so frustrating to hear that [pharmacies] were making money off this program and causing more drugs [to flood] the street,” Sword told Canadian Affairs on Feb. 20.

The investigation found that pharmacies exploited B.C.’s Frequency of Dispensing policy to maximize billings. To take advantage of dispensing fees, pharmacies incentivized clients to fill prescriptions they did not require by offering them cash or rewards. Some of those clients then sold the drugs on the black market. Pharmacies earned up to $11,000 per patient a year.

“I’m positive that [the B.C. government has] known this for a long time and only made this decision when the public became aware and the scrutiny was high,” said Elenore Sturko, Conservative MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, who released the leaked report in a statement on Feb. 5.

“As much as I am really disappointed in how long it’s taken for this decision to be made, I am also happy that this has happened,” she said.

The health ministry said it is investigating the implicated pharmacies. Those that are confirmed to have been involved could have their licenses suspended, be referred to law enforcement or become ineligible to participate in PharmaCare, the provincial program that helps residents cover the costs of prescription drugs.

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Witnessed dosing

The leaked report says that “a significant portion of the opioids being freely prescribed by doctors and pharmacists are not being consumed by their intended recipients.” It also says “prescribed alternatives are trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally.”

Critics of the safer supply program say it enables addiction, while supporters say it reduces overdoses.

Sword, Kamilah’s father, is suing the provincial and federal governments, arguing B.C.’s safer supply program made it possible for youth such as his daughter to access drugs.

Madison, Kamilah’s best friend, also became addicted to opioids dispensed through safer supply programs. Madison was just 15 when she first encountered “dillies” — hydromorphone pills dispensed through safer supply, but widely available on the streets. She developed a tolerance that led her to fentanyl.

“I do know for sure that some pharmacies and doctors were aware of the diversion,” Madison’s mother Beth told Canadian Affairs on Feb. 20.

“When I first realized what my daughter was taking and how she was getting it, I phoned the pharmacy and the doctor on the label of the pill bottle to inform them that the patient was selling their hydromorphone,” Beth said.

Masha Krupp, an Ottawa mother who has a son enrolled in a safer supply program, has said the safer supply program in her city is similarly flawed. Canadian Affairs previously reported on this program, which is run by Recovery Care’s Ottawa-based harm reduction clinics.

“I read about the B.C. pharmacy scheme and wasn’t surprised,” Krupp told Canadian Affairs on Feb. 20. Krupp lost a daughter to methadone toxicity while she was in an addiction treatment program at Recovery Care.

“Three years [after starting safer supply], my son is still using fentanyl, crack cocaine and methadone, despite being with Dr. [Charles] Breau and with Recovery Care for over three years,” Krupp testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health on Oct. 22, 2024.

Krupp has been vocal about the dangers of dispensing large quantities of opioids without proper oversight, arguing many patients sell their prescriptions to buy stronger street drugs.

“You can’t give addicts 28 pills and say, ‘Oh here you go,’” she said in her testimony. “They sell for three dollars a pop on the street.”

Krupp has also advocated for witnessed consumption of safer supply medications, arguing supervised dosing would prevent diversion and ensure proper oversight of pharmacies.

“I had talked about witnessed dosing for safe supply when I appeared before the parliamentary health committee last October,” she told Canadian Affairs this week.

“I’m grateful that finally … this decision has been made to return to a witness program,” said Sturko, the B.C. MLA.

In 2020, B.C. implemented a witnessed consumption model to ensure safer supply opioids were consumed as prescribed and to reduce diversion. In 2021, the province switched to take-home models. Its stated aim was to expand access, save lives and ease pressure on health-care facilities during the pandemic.

“You’re really fighting against a group of people … working within the bureaucracy of [the B.C. NDP] government … who have been making efforts to work towards the legalization of drugs and, in doing that, have looked only for opportunities to bolster their arguments for their position, instead of examining their approach in a balanced way,” said Sturko.

“These are foreseeable outcomes when you do not put proper safeguards in place and when you completely ignore all indications of negative impacts.”

Sword also believes some drug policies fail to prioritize the safety of vulnerable individuals.

“Greed is the ultimate evil in society and this just proves it,” he said. “We don’t care about these drugs getting into the wrong hands as long as I get my money.”

This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.

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