Juno News - Oshawa demands feds prosecute drug crimes

00:00:00.000 a city council in the GTA passed a motion nearly unanimously making it clear that the community

00:00:11.940 wants federal prosecutors to start prosecuting drug offenses in the city. The PEI government

00:00:18.140 revealed its plans to rename Savage Harbor after it was deemed offensive by a community group.

00:00:24.000 TikToker Rachel Gilmour has received a new wave of criticism after she downplayed anti-Christian

00:00:30.780 vandalism and arson in a clip from her podcast. Hello Canada it's Thursday October 2nd and this

00:00:38.260 is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Clayton Domain and I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all

00:00:44.120 the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives

00:00:49.880 you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:54.000 Oshawa City Councilors nearly unanimously voted for a motion signaling to other levels of

00:01:00.380 government that flagrant drug use and drug dealers in their city impede public safety and the

00:01:07.340 city's approach to addressing drug addiction. The motion put forward by Councillor Rosemary

00:01:12.380 McConkie and seconded by Councillor John Neill on Monday titled quote controlled substances within

00:01:20.120 the city of Oshawa voices many concerns of Oshawa residents that come with open air drug use

00:01:26.500 particularly in the downtown core. McConkie nicknamed the motion quote seize the drugs to save our city.

00:01:34.360 The motion passed in a 10 to 1 vote. The motion notes that the flagrant use and availability of drugs in

00:01:40.780 Oshawa are quote reducing the quality of life for law abiding residents impeding the recovery

00:01:47.160 efforts of those using services to get off drugs and attracting drug dealers.

00:01:53.540 The motion argues that drug dealers freely selling in the community attracts greater crimes including

00:01:59.920 both physical and property violence and fosters an overall unsafe environment for children.

00:02:05.920 A similar motion was killed before it went to a vote in June after Councillor Derek Guyverson raised a

00:02:13.800 procedural issue with the motion. The previous motion attempted to ask federal prosecutors and noted that

00:02:19.900 police may arrest and prosecute drug related offenses due to many of the same concerns.

00:02:26.300 The Public Prosecution Service of Canada desk board says prosecutions for possession of controlled substances

00:02:34.680 quote will generally be reserved for quote extreme cases or in accordance with a community's efforts to address

00:02:43.220 consumption of illicit substances. The quote seize the drugs to save our city motion notes that the PPSC desk book

00:02:51.760 states that quote simple possession in areas in the vicinity of places frequented by children or young persons

00:02:59.840 and quote that poses a heightened risk to a community's efforts constitutes a quote serious manifestation of the

00:03:08.420 offense and could lead to prosecution. The federal prosecutors did not respond to True North's request to comment on whether they

00:03:16.320 would now commit to prosecuting drug offenses in light of the motion. So Jeff this motion effectively nullifies any

00:03:23.660 excuse for the federal prosecutors not to prosecute drug offenses in Oshawa but why didn't the previous

00:03:30.500 iteration of the motion pass? Well yeah Clayton the previous iteration of the motion didn't pass because like you were

00:03:36.400 mentioning Councillor Derek Guyverson raised a procedural issue that killed it before it could go to a vote in June.

00:03:42.880 Guyverson who's not a lawyer later admitted there was no actual procedural problem and his opinion was based on Canadian

00:03:49.340 case law which is a bit wild considering again he's not legally trained. Guyverson pushed for an amendment to the new

00:03:55.440 motion which passed asking provincial ministers to coordinate funding for supportive housing to help

00:04:00.660 those struggling with addiction but despite that he was the only one to vote against the final motion

00:04:05.380 seize the drugs to save our city which passed 10 to 1 on Monday. Marty Gobin a downtown Oshawa lawyer

00:04:12.080 commented on Facebook that Guyverson's move was a quote classic case of delaying tactics to protect a status quo

00:04:18.560 that's failing our community. This suggests Guyverson's actions were more about maintaining the current

00:04:23.180 approach rather than addressing the urgent need for change. The new motion effectively removes excuses

00:04:28.280 for federal prosecutors not to act given the PPSC desk book's criteria for prosecuting simple possession

00:04:34.880 in high-risk areas but Guyverson's earlier intervention shows how internal politics can stall progress

00:04:41.020 even when the community's safety is at stake.

00:04:43.460 Prince Edward Island's government plans to rename Savage Harbour as part of an initiative to remove

00:04:52.080 derogatory place names. Residents are being invited to suggest new names. The government's press release

00:04:57.420 said quote the government of Prince Edward Island launched the geographic naming and renaming program

00:05:02.060 in response to a national call by the Geographical Names Board of Canada to review and revise place names

00:05:08.140 deemed offensive or harmful. The Geographical Naming Advisory Committee made up of PEI residents and

00:05:13.800 community representatives will lead the process. Three in-person engagement sessions will be held for

00:05:19.480 community members from next month through December before voting on the final new name for the

00:05:24.140 community in bay. After the community votes on a new name the province's Geographical Naming Advisory

00:05:29.920 Committee will present it to the province for approval. The Abegwet First Nation asked the PEI

00:05:35.140 government last year to rename Savage Harbour's Wharf which is now called Crowbush Cove Wharf Small

00:05:41.020 Craft Harbour. The PEI Geographical Naming Advisory Committee was created in response to a national call

00:05:47.080 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada to review and change place names deemed offensive or harmful.

00:05:52.680 So Clayton you know we've got Dundas Square becoming Sankofa Square and we've got this whole wave of

00:05:58.180 historically named streets schools and other places renamed in a crusade against Canada's

00:06:02.680 supposedly shameful history in the last few years. So what are some of the other recent instances of

00:06:08.120 this happening? Yeah Jeff so there's been several renamings of streets, buildings, and institutions in

00:06:14.500 recent years due to those activists complaining about the names being connected to movements or

00:06:20.300 policies that they deem to be offensive. One example as you mentioned is the world famous

00:06:25.640 young in Dundas Square in Toronto which was renamed to Sankofa Square by Toronto City Council and Dancing

00:06:34.120 Mayor Olivia Chow due to Henry Dundas's alleged connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Dundas

00:06:41.320 was himself an abolitionist against slavery but at the time scholars pointed out that the term Sankofa comes

00:06:48.200 from the Akan people of Ghana who played a massive role in capturing and selling people in Africa in 1.00

00:06:55.080 exchange for gold during the transatlantic slave trade. Ghana even apologized to the descendants of

00:07:00.840 slaves in 2006 for its role in slavery. Other places specifically in BC have renamed streets such as

00:07:09.160 Trutch Street in Vancouver because of quote anti-indigenous views Joseph Trutch held in the 1800s and they

00:07:17.400 switched it to words in languages that only a handful of people living today can actually speak or

00:07:24.040 pronounce. Of course Ryerson University was also renamed to the Toronto Metropolitan University for

00:07:30.520 similar reasons and the name change was widely disputed by many small c conservatives at the time.

00:07:36.920 Bagot Street in Oshawa was also supposed to be renamed to Dewebon Mekon or Truth Road last year in

00:07:43.880 September due to Bagot's supposed role in the creation of the residential school program. Tom

00:07:50.360 Flanagan a former political science professor at the University of Calgary and a co-editor of the True

00:07:57.160 North published book Grave Error spoke with True North about it at the time and he said Bagot's connection

00:08:03.880 to the residential school program was quote extremely marginal. Before his death Bagot created a commission

00:08:11.880 which ended up making a recommendation to create residential schools but the recommendation itself

00:08:17.320 wasn't acted upon and Bagot died before the commission made any conclusions.

00:08:26.600 A progressive TikTok personality is drawing backlash after laughing and sipping wine during a now-deleted

00:08:33.320 live stream where she dismissed warnings of rising anti-Christian hate in Canada as quote

00:08:39.880 exaggerated and complicated. The video of the live stream which circulated on social media this week

00:08:46.040 featured activist Rachel Gilmour reacting to conservative leader Pierre Polyab's recent comments

00:08:51.720 about the wave of arsons and vandalism targeting Christian churches across the country. Polyab during 0.95

00:08:57.480 a press conference on Monday said a hundred churches have been attacked since 2021 and vowed to crack down on

00:09:04.600 hate motivated crimes targeting Christian Canadians. During her live stream Gilmour challenged the figure

00:09:11.640 and questioned the motives behind the concern. And I'm aware churches has been have been burned um but I

00:09:17.800 think that that's pretty complex especially when you put it into context with the um you know I mean I

00:09:25.800 don't know why all of those churches were burned and it's also not happening at the rate that people are

00:09:29.720 saying like Polyab said today it was more than a hundred 24 confirmed instances over three years

00:09:35.720 and that's with something like I think Pam Palmiter said there's about 12 000 churches in the country

00:09:41.720 and also like we have seen situations where uh certain folks will say that like a church was burned but it

00:09:48.360 was like being converted it was like deconsec I remember there was one instance where it had been

00:09:53.240 already deconsecrated um because it was being sold for like condos and there was like some issue with the

00:09:58.520 insurance so you know like it's complicated like not every single instance of a fire in a church

00:10:04.920 is something you can link back to those feelings of grief and rage. The dismissive tone of the video

00:10:11.160 including sips of wine followed by casual laughter sparked criticism online. Gilmour has since deleted

00:10:17.480 the live stream. So Jeff we've been following uh all of these vandalisms and arsons and desecrations of

00:10:25.160 over 100 christian churches um for some years now have there been any updates to those numbers and

00:10:32.360 figures? Yeah Clayton the situation with those christian churches that have been burned vandalized

00:10:37.400 or desecrated since 2021 it's pretty serious to say the least. True North has been keeping track and

00:10:43.640 our incident map shows at least 125 cases which is a lot. The most recent update came from the Belis

00:10:50.440 Alberta arson on September 21st where the All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church was destroyed and RCMP

00:10:56.920 arrested two suspects with a third still at large. That's part of a broader trend where only nine

00:11:02.040 arsons have led to charges. The McDonald Laurier Institute's April 24th report Scorched Earth found

00:11:07.640 that arsons targeting religious institutions nearly doubled from 0.38 to 0.73 percent of all arsons between

00:11:15.720 2011 to 2014 and 2021 to 2023. There hasn't been a federal inquiry which is a big part of

00:11:21.880 why Polyev's been so vocal about it. The lack of action from Ottawa is definitely fueling the outrage

00:11:26.920 especially with incidents like the recent one in Belis showing how these attacks keep happening

00:11:31.080 without much consequence. This likely is leaving many christians feeling unprotected by their government.

00:11:39.240 That's it for today folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every week by

00:11:45.000 subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at it make sure to hit us with

00:11:51.720 a five-star rating and please leave a review

Juno News - October 02, 2025

Oshawa demands feds prosecute drug crimes

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript