Juno News - October 02, 2025Oshawa demands feds prosecute drug crimes
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Summary
A city council in the GTA passed a motion nearly unanimously making it clear that the community wants federal prosecutors to start prosecuting drug offenses in the city. The PEI Government revealed its plans to rename Savage Harbour after it was deemed offensive by a community group. Tik Tok s Rachel Gilmour has received a new wave of criticism after she downplayed anti-Christian vandalism and arson in a clip from her podcast.
Transcript
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a city council in the GTA passed a motion nearly unanimously making it clear that the community
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wants federal prosecutors to start prosecuting drug offenses in the city. The PEI government
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revealed its plans to rename Savage Harbor after it was deemed offensive by a community group.
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TikToker Rachel Gilmour has received a new wave of criticism after she downplayed anti-Christian
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vandalism and arson in a clip from her podcast. Hello Canada it's Thursday October 2nd and this
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is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Clayton Domain and I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all
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the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives
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Oshawa City Councilors nearly unanimously voted for a motion signaling to other levels of
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government that flagrant drug use and drug dealers in their city impede public safety and the
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city's approach to addressing drug addiction. The motion put forward by Councillor Rosemary
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McConkie and seconded by Councillor John Neill on Monday titled quote controlled substances within
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the city of Oshawa voices many concerns of Oshawa residents that come with open air drug use
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particularly in the downtown core. McConkie nicknamed the motion quote seize the drugs to save our city.
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The motion passed in a 10 to 1 vote. The motion notes that the flagrant use and availability of drugs in
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Oshawa are quote reducing the quality of life for law abiding residents impeding the recovery
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efforts of those using services to get off drugs and attracting drug dealers.
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The motion argues that drug dealers freely selling in the community attracts greater crimes including
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both physical and property violence and fosters an overall unsafe environment for children.
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A similar motion was killed before it went to a vote in June after Councillor Derek Guyverson raised a
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procedural issue with the motion. The previous motion attempted to ask federal prosecutors and noted that
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police may arrest and prosecute drug related offenses due to many of the same concerns.
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The Public Prosecution Service of Canada desk board says prosecutions for possession of controlled substances
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quote will generally be reserved for quote extreme cases or in accordance with a community's efforts to address
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consumption of illicit substances. The quote seize the drugs to save our city motion notes that the PPSC desk book
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states that quote simple possession in areas in the vicinity of places frequented by children or young persons
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and quote that poses a heightened risk to a community's efforts constitutes a quote serious manifestation of the
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offense and could lead to prosecution. The federal prosecutors did not respond to True North's request to comment on whether they
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would now commit to prosecuting drug offenses in light of the motion. So Jeff this motion effectively nullifies any
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excuse for the federal prosecutors not to prosecute drug offenses in Oshawa but why didn't the previous
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iteration of the motion pass? Well yeah Clayton the previous iteration of the motion didn't pass because like you were
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mentioning Councillor Derek Guyverson raised a procedural issue that killed it before it could go to a vote in June.
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Guyverson who's not a lawyer later admitted there was no actual procedural problem and his opinion was based on Canadian
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case law which is a bit wild considering again he's not legally trained. Guyverson pushed for an amendment to the new
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motion which passed asking provincial ministers to coordinate funding for supportive housing to help
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those struggling with addiction but despite that he was the only one to vote against the final motion
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seize the drugs to save our city which passed 10 to 1 on Monday. Marty Gobin a downtown Oshawa lawyer
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commented on Facebook that Guyverson's move was a quote classic case of delaying tactics to protect a status quo
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that's failing our community. This suggests Guyverson's actions were more about maintaining the current
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approach rather than addressing the urgent need for change. The new motion effectively removes excuses
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for federal prosecutors not to act given the PPSC desk book's criteria for prosecuting simple possession
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in high-risk areas but Guyverson's earlier intervention shows how internal politics can stall progress
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Prince Edward Island's government plans to rename Savage Harbour as part of an initiative to remove
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derogatory place names. Residents are being invited to suggest new names. The government's press release
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said quote the government of Prince Edward Island launched the geographic naming and renaming program
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in response to a national call by the Geographical Names Board of Canada to review and revise place names
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deemed offensive or harmful. The Geographical Naming Advisory Committee made up of PEI residents and
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community representatives will lead the process. Three in-person engagement sessions will be held for
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community members from next month through December before voting on the final new name for the
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community in bay. After the community votes on a new name the province's Geographical Naming Advisory
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Committee will present it to the province for approval. The Abegwet First Nation asked the PEI
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government last year to rename Savage Harbour's Wharf which is now called Crowbush Cove Wharf Small
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Craft Harbour. The PEI Geographical Naming Advisory Committee was created in response to a national call
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by the Geographical Names Board of Canada to review and change place names deemed offensive or harmful.
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So Clayton you know we've got Dundas Square becoming Sankofa Square and we've got this whole wave of
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historically named streets schools and other places renamed in a crusade against Canada's
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supposedly shameful history in the last few years. So what are some of the other recent instances of
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this happening? Yeah Jeff so there's been several renamings of streets, buildings, and institutions in
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recent years due to those activists complaining about the names being connected to movements or
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policies that they deem to be offensive. One example as you mentioned is the world famous
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young in Dundas Square in Toronto which was renamed to Sankofa Square by Toronto City Council and Dancing
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Mayor Olivia Chow due to Henry Dundas's alleged connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Dundas
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was himself an abolitionist against slavery but at the time scholars pointed out that the term Sankofa comes
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from the Akan people of Ghana who played a massive role in capturing and selling people in Africa in
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exchange for gold during the transatlantic slave trade. Ghana even apologized to the descendants of
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slaves in 2006 for its role in slavery. Other places specifically in BC have renamed streets such as
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Trutch Street in Vancouver because of quote anti-indigenous views Joseph Trutch held in the 1800s and they
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switched it to words in languages that only a handful of people living today can actually speak or
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pronounce. Of course Ryerson University was also renamed to the Toronto Metropolitan University for
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similar reasons and the name change was widely disputed by many small c conservatives at the time.
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Bagot Street in Oshawa was also supposed to be renamed to Dewebon Mekon or Truth Road last year in
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September due to Bagot's supposed role in the creation of the residential school program. Tom
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Flanagan a former political science professor at the University of Calgary and a co-editor of the True
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North published book Grave Error spoke with True North about it at the time and he said Bagot's connection
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to the residential school program was quote extremely marginal. Before his death Bagot created a commission
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which ended up making a recommendation to create residential schools but the recommendation itself
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wasn't acted upon and Bagot died before the commission made any conclusions.
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A progressive TikTok personality is drawing backlash after laughing and sipping wine during a now-deleted
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live stream where she dismissed warnings of rising anti-Christian hate in Canada as quote
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exaggerated and complicated. The video of the live stream which circulated on social media this week
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featured activist Rachel Gilmour reacting to conservative leader Pierre Polyab's recent comments
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about the wave of arsons and vandalism targeting Christian churches across the country. Polyab during
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a press conference on Monday said a hundred churches have been attacked since 2021 and vowed to crack down on
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hate motivated crimes targeting Christian Canadians. During her live stream Gilmour challenged the figure
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and questioned the motives behind the concern. And I'm aware churches has been have been burned um but I
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think that that's pretty complex especially when you put it into context with the um you know I mean I
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don't know why all of those churches were burned and it's also not happening at the rate that people are
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saying like Polyab said today it was more than a hundred 24 confirmed instances over three years
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and that's with something like I think Pam Palmiter said there's about 12 000 churches in the country
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and also like we have seen situations where uh certain folks will say that like a church was burned but it
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was like being converted it was like deconsec I remember there was one instance where it had been
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already deconsecrated um because it was being sold for like condos and there was like some issue with the
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insurance so you know like it's complicated like not every single instance of a fire in a church
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is something you can link back to those feelings of grief and rage. The dismissive tone of the video
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including sips of wine followed by casual laughter sparked criticism online. Gilmour has since deleted
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the live stream. So Jeff we've been following uh all of these vandalisms and arsons and desecrations of
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over 100 christian churches um for some years now have there been any updates to those numbers and
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figures? Yeah Clayton the situation with those christian churches that have been burned vandalized
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or desecrated since 2021 it's pretty serious to say the least. True North has been keeping track and
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our incident map shows at least 125 cases which is a lot. The most recent update came from the Belis
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Alberta arson on September 21st where the All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church was destroyed and RCMP
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arrested two suspects with a third still at large. That's part of a broader trend where only nine
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arsons have led to charges. The McDonald Laurier Institute's April 24th report Scorched Earth found
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that arsons targeting religious institutions nearly doubled from 0.38 to 0.73 percent of all arsons between
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2011 to 2014 and 2021 to 2023. There hasn't been a federal inquiry which is a big part of
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why Polyev's been so vocal about it. The lack of action from Ottawa is definitely fueling the outrage
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especially with incidents like the recent one in Belis showing how these attacks keep happening
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without much consequence. This likely is leaving many christians feeling unprotected by their government.
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That's it for today folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every week by
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