00:00:00.000Canadian Jewish groups are urging governments to adopt stricter anti-terrorism laws after a
00:00:10.540pro-Palestine activist attack in Washington, D.C. killed two Israeli embassy employees.
00:00:17.400Prime Minister Mark Carney's mandate letter pledges to make housing more affordable,
00:00:22.060but in reality, the Liberals continue to offer only subsidized rentals for those priced out
00:00:27.940of the market with no real path to home ownership. A University of Western Ontario student is suing
00:00:34.540the institution after alleging they were interrogated for questioning the university's
00:00:39.720commitment to DEI principles. Hello, Canada. It's Friday, May 23rd, and this is the True North Daily
00:00:45.780Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton Demain. We've got you covered with all the news you need
00:00:50.940to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere
00:00:56.400else. The killing of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C. by a far-left activist shouting,
00:01:06.520quote, Free Palestine, has sparked calls for stricter laws against the glorification of terrorism
00:01:12.380by Canada's Jewish advocacy groups. A young couple set to be married, Yaron Lechinsky and Sarah Lynn
00:01:19.120Milgram, were shot and killed Wednesday night while working for the Israeli embassy outside of a Jewish
00:01:25.060museum in the U.S. Capitol. The alleged shooter, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, shouted, quote,
00:01:31.640Free, free Palestine while being arrested after allegedly taking credit for the incident in the
00:01:37.340moments preceding the attack. The incident took place at the American Jewish Committee's event,
00:01:42.820which Canadian Jewish rights groups say was an event focused on extending humanitarian aid into Gaza
00:01:49.300as Israel continues its war to rid the region of Hamas control. Canadian Jewish advocates are calling
00:01:56.100the murders a, quote, wake-up call and are demanding legislative bodies take direct action to
00:02:01.760strengthen Canada's laws against the glorification of terrorism. The Center for Israel and Jewish
00:02:07.440Affairs Interim President Noah Shaq released a statement condemning the attack and mourning for the
00:02:13.060families of the victims. Shaq wrote, quote, as we await further details about this horrific crime,
00:02:18.820reports that the assailant shouted, Free Palestine, speak to the danger of the intensifying rhetoric
00:02:24.780targeting our community. What happened in Washington is the result of the predictable pattern of growing
00:02:30.540hate and incitement targeting Jews in North America. Prime Minister Mark Carney shared his condolences
00:02:36.080for the Jewish community and pledged to, quote, act to keep Jewish Canadians safe. Meanwhile,
00:02:41.060conservative leader Pierre Polyev similarly posted a message of support for the Jewish community
00:02:46.400following the attack asserting Canada needs to do, quote, everything it can to stop this evil.
00:02:52.280Canada has a few laws that I'm aware of that deal with this sort of thing, particularly incitement
00:03:00.040of genocide. But Clayton, could you enlighten us on what current laws are on the books right now in
00:03:07.160Canada regarding the glorification of terrorism? And have there been any incidents in the recent past
00:03:14.300where we've seen activists openly praising terrorist groups?
00:03:19.080Yeah, I mean, absolutely. So the question of whether there are laws that prevent the glorification of
00:03:25.960terrorism is somewhat in dispute, which could indicate that the laws could use some clarification.
00:03:33.620Some civil rights organizations, such as the Canadian Constitution Foundation, for example,
00:03:38.900has suggested that the incitement and hate speech laws could be used against those who openly fly
00:03:45.740things such as terrorist flags, though the Crown would have to prove that they wielded such a flag with
00:03:51.740the intent to cite violence or hatred. It's against the law to glorify terrorism in a way that risks
00:03:57.780incitement. But that is a threshold that would have to be proven. It's also against the law to participate
00:04:03.380in, contribute to or facilitate any activity of a terrorist group. With the current rules, perhaps
00:04:09.300it could be argued that by disseminating propaganda and acting like a cheerleader for terrorists,
00:04:15.700one is participating in or facilitating their activities in Canada. The CCF, by the way, told True North
00:04:21.940in one article that regardless of the criminality of these acts, they may be good targets for
00:04:27.460investigation by Canadian intelligence. True North wrote an article in August of last year about
00:04:32.820Jewish advocates demanding anti-glorification laws like they are right now. The Center of Israel and
00:04:38.660Jewish Affairs told True North that the current legislation prohibits anyone from participating in
00:04:44.660a terrorist group, but falls short of explicitly criminalizing the glorification of terrorism.
00:04:49.540But if our audience remembers Sami Doohan, which was eventually found to be a terrorist group,
00:04:54.420but for years it disseminated terrorist propaganda. And there are other groups like the Palestinian
00:04:59.060youth movement who celebrate that they publish terrorist literature. You also just have to look
00:05:03.620at the streets. Almost every protest you see that's an anti-Israel protest, you hear things like
00:05:09.620from the river to the sea, Palestine should be free, which is often looked at as a call to eradicate
00:05:15.780Israel from the map. Long live the resistance. Who are the resistance in that region? It's Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.
00:05:27.700Prime Minister Mark Carney released a mandate letter to Cabinet yesterday prioritizing housing
00:05:33.300affordability. Just days after Housing Minister Gregor Robertson shut down any talk of lowering the
00:05:39.780cost of homes. In reality, the Liberals continue to subsidized rentals as a poor substitute for home
00:05:47.220ownership and are planning to have the government play an even larger role in housing. Robertson,
00:05:52.580in his first public remarks on May 14th, explicitly shut down the idea of lowering the cost of homes
00:05:58.740by saying, quote, No, I think that we need to deliver more supply. Make sure the market is stable. It's a huge part of our economy.
00:06:06.980Five days later in Rome, Carney dodged the question in a similar noncommittal way,
00:06:12.900suggesting the answer, quote, Depends on the timeframe and the specific type of housing. But how can the government
00:06:19.540both make housing more affordable while maintaining the status of home ownership as a lucrative investment?
00:06:25.860Their responses don't reflect leaders serious about making home ownership widely accessible, but rather seem more
00:06:32.820inclined towards protecting existing asset values. High home prices and affordable housing can only
00:06:39.140coexist through a government subsidized rental market, which disadvantages home buyers in waiting.
00:06:45.380This model offers affordable housing in the form of rentals while preserving investment returns for
00:06:51.380homeowners. A major drop in housing prices could seriously impact the financial system. As Robertson pointed out,
00:06:58.660the real estate sector constitutes a substantial portion of our economy, up to 20% of Canada's GDP, according to 2023 numbers.
00:07:07.620Any attempt to lower home prices could potentially unsettle homeowners and the growing number of investors alike,
00:07:15.060a risk this government appears unwilling to take. Instead, the proposed liberal solution centers on Minister Robertson's likely first order of business,
00:07:25.300as laid out in Carney's 2025 election platform. A major push for government-run housing projects, including a new crown corporation called Build Canada Homes, as outlined in Carney's federal election platform.
00:07:38.340The organization aims to inject $25 billion into prefabricated home builders and provide an additional $10 billion in low-cost financing for affordable housing.
00:07:48.980These proposed solutions stand in contrast to the deeply ingrained Canadian dream of owning a single-family home,
00:07:55.620a desire still held by 61% of respondents in a Wahee survey from this year.
00:08:02.340So, Cosman, you're the one who wrote this analysis of the housing plan. How does immigration play into this?
00:08:09.300Has the Carney government offered a credible plan to tackle the demand side of the housing crisis?
00:08:14.020So, no, absolutely not. Where they're most lacking is addressing the demand side of things.
00:08:21.060While there have been some proposed solutions in providing more supply of housing, it generally trends towards prefabricated homes, etc.
00:08:31.860There's no real plan to develop those single-detached homes, the single-family housing that most people wanting to buy a home in the next five or so years are looking for.
00:08:42.820But with regard to immigration, you just have to look at the numbers to realize that the math and the current rate of housing starts doesn't really make sense or add up to the immigrants who have already arrived
00:08:56.980over the last few years under the aggressive immigration targets introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when he was still in office.
00:09:05.620So, going back to 2019, this may have been before the pandemic, but they included some projections.
00:09:14.660There was a Royal LePage survey that found newcomers represented 21% of all homebuyers.
00:09:23.300And at the current migration levels at the time, which were lower than what they eventually became,
00:09:30.340they were projected then to purchase 680,000 homes over five years.
00:09:36.500Now, let's assume that's a very conservative estimate because they ramped up immigration quite aggressively after that.
00:09:43.460But even with that 680,000 estimate of homes purchased by newcomers,
00:09:50.180if you compare it to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation data over the past four years from 2020 to 2024,
00:10:00.180the available data that shows that only 1.24 million housing starts were achieved over that four year period.
00:10:10.500Yet with the ongoing immigration activity, that means with the 680,000 homes purchased by newcomers target,
00:10:18.980that's over 50% of the new housing starts would be going to newcomers if they're purchasing new homes.
00:10:26.740Now, obviously, they may be purchasing homes that are already on the market, haven't just been built,
00:10:32.100but it just goes to show how inadequate the housing starts are at meeting the demand side of things.
00:10:40.980And previous measures introduced both by Trudeau and pledged to carry on by Prime Minister Mark Carney
00:10:48.820to limit temporary residents, which include things like caps on study permits
00:10:54.020and stricter work permit rules for temporary foreign workers,
00:10:58.340have not curbed asylum filings or people overstaying their temporary visa.
00:11:05.060And when you look at the number of international students, by the way,
00:11:10.820who, when they come to Canada, require rental housing,
00:11:15.140they filed a record 20,245 asylum claims just last year.
00:11:21.780And the trends by quarter continues to go up.
00:11:27.300I think projections are like over 20% year over year jump
00:11:31.700for requests for asylum claims from international students.
00:11:36.660And there's no plan, despite the rhetoric from Carney to return to some sort of sustainable immigration
00:11:45.860levels, there's no plan to address this loophole. The fact that you can come to Canada on a temporary
00:11:54.340visa and then apply for asylum or refugee status, which will keep you here guaranteed for several years
00:12:02.740with the current backlog. Now, the simple solution to that would be to prevent and bar people here on
00:12:10.980a temporary visa from filing asylum claims. If they arrived here to work and go to school,
00:12:19.060that is the sole reason they should be in this country and not to claim asylum after the fact.
00:12:25.780A University of Western Ontario student is taking the post-secondary school to court after being
00:12:34.500interrogated for daring to question the school's adherence to DEI ideology. Margaret Munn is a 63-year-old
00:12:42.500educator from Scotland who spent approximately 30 years teaching English in Japan and four years
00:12:48.580teaching adult learners in the Thames Valley District School Board. She returned to her alma mater,
00:12:55.060Western University in London, Ontario, to access better job opportunities. But on her return,
00:13:00.660she encountered the school's newfound commitment to decolonization and other woke principles.
00:13:07.620Believing freedom of expression was still permitted at the school, she challenged her instructor's
00:13:12.900dogmatic beliefs, including in an Indigenous education towards a decolonizing pedagogy class. Munn asked what
00:13:21.460the definition of decolonization was and questioned some of the quote highly politicized claims made in
00:13:27.940the class, such as how the concept could be practically employed in a high school chemistry lab or mathematics
00:13:34.500exam. The professor allegedly told her that the definition would reveal itself gradually over the
00:13:40.660semester, but only for students engaged in quote self-reflection informed by anti-colonial precepts.
00:13:47.940Her pushback led to continuous back-and-forth emails with educators, several disciplinary
00:13:53.300interrogations with the associate dean and educators, a constant threat that she could be expelled,
00:13:59.460and barriers to completing the program's required field placement classes. Munn's lawsuit details a series
00:14:06.340of administrative barriers and harassment she faced for expressing opinions in the classroom, such as that
00:14:12.740education should remain apolitical, criticism of preventing cultural appropriation via Halloween costumes,
00:14:20.100and referring to a male student with large prosthetic breasts by the wrong pronoun. The stress caused by
00:14:26.660the continuous gauntlet of administrative hurdles led Munn to obtain multiple doctor's notes for assignment
00:14:34.180extensions, yet she was still made to undergo alleged struggle sessions and meetings with program
00:14:41.380administrators. Clayton, this appears to be a prevailing theme through most universities in Canada,
00:14:49.140especially university programs in the education or humanities fields. Were there any other issues
00:14:56.020of interest brought up by Munn's lawsuit against Western University? Yeah, I mean, it was like a 20-page
00:15:03.140lawsuit, so there was plenty of stuff, and honestly, it's worth the read for anyone who's interested.
00:15:11.620But yeah, I mean, she details several different instances of her saying just essentially challenging the
00:15:20.580narratives that are being put forward. She was even made to retake extra courses because they didn't
00:15:28.980believe that she fully internalized the indigenous course material enough, so they made her take online
00:15:36.660courses, and allegedly those courses had technical problems. As a recent student, I know what it's like
00:15:43.460when an online program doesn't work, so that added to some stress. When she brought this up to, in one of her
00:15:51.540multiple interrogations and meetings with faculty and administrators, they told her to watch a CBC
00:15:58.820podcast on Roman Catholic-run residential school and said that there's a lot of abuse in it, so it could
00:16:04.500be triggering, and then asked her if she was Catholic. There's also instances where they allegedly told
00:16:12.660her that she only questions the narratives of the decolonization class because she's an immigrant, and
00:16:19.380she hasn't internalized the need to achieve reconciliation with indigenous peoples. So something that we didn't
00:16:27.300get to add in the article, a qualification of the program is to get field placement. She was even
00:16:34.180allegedly told by one of her professors that they would be a reference for her, and the lawsuit alleges
00:16:40.820that they gave a poor review of her in the reference. Another professor refused to even give a reference,
00:16:48.180so she had a very hard time allegedly getting into one of these programs in order to graduate. It's honestly
00:16:55.540a shock that this woman was able to graduate from this program with all these administrative hurdles.
00:17:02.100She also had to get a doctor's note for multiple times because of the stress that all of this was
00:17:09.540was putting her under. Meanwhile, all the other students are just focusing on their studies. She has to
00:17:15.060jump through these hurdles in order to even graduate or to not be expelled.
00:17:19.460That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday
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