Juno News - The Top Canadian Stories of 2020

00:00:00.000 Hi, everyone. Well, we've made it to the end of the year, which means it is time for True North's

00:00:09.320 top 10 stories that defined 2020, in a more or less chronological order. So let's jump right in.

00:00:16.920 At number 10, we have Ukraine International Airlines flight shot down by Iran. On January

00:00:22.500 8th, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, an airliner leaving from Tehran, Iran to

00:00:29.660 Kiev, Ukraine, was shot down by Iranian surface-to-air missiles minutes after takeoff.

00:00:35.640 Of the 176 passengers and crew members on board, 138 had ties to Canada. The Islamic Republic of

00:00:43.200 Iran initially tried to cover up their wrongdoing by blaming the explosion on engine troubles and

00:00:48.280 mechanical failure, but eventually they had to admit to firing the missiles. Though Iran has shut

00:00:53.960 Canada out of the official investigation into this tragedy, the Canadian government is still looking

00:00:58.640 into the full series of events. About one month after the deadly plane crash occurred, Justin Trudeau

00:01:04.840 was criticized for amicably shaking hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

00:01:11.040 At number 9, blockades and protests break out in the name of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

00:01:16.980 From January to March, climate protesters were occupying ports and railways nationwide to signal

00:01:22.800 opposition to the Coastal GasLink LNG pipeline in Northern BC. These protesters claimed they wanted

00:01:28.920 to shut down Canada. They halted hundreds of trains and delayed the transport of cargo nationwide.

00:01:35.480 Dozens of arrests were made. The protesters were apparently acting in support of a handful of

00:01:40.400 Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who disputed the construction of the pipeline on their territory.

00:01:45.460 But the elected Wet'suwet'en chiefs and the other hereditary chiefs approved of the project,

00:01:50.460 so it was only a handful of hereditary chiefs who didn't approve. In May, the Trudeau government

00:01:55.240 quietly made a deal with the hereditary chiefs to the exclusion of the elected ones. The agreement

00:02:01.840 gives the hereditary chiefs sweeping powers over natural resource development. Construction work

00:02:07.940 on the LNG pipeline continues, but the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs applied to have Coastal GasLink's

00:02:13.180 Environmental Assessment Certificate terminated, and a judicial review decision is pending from the BC

00:02:18.900 Supreme Court. At number eight, COVID-19 is declared a pandemic. This year, social distancing

00:02:25.400 became part of our daily vocabulary. Our provincial and federal public health officers became household

00:02:31.320 names, and if you didn't have a Zoom account before, you probably have one now. That's because

00:02:36.480 on March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the outbreak of the coronavirus

00:02:41.760 was officially a pandemic. This threat to our health, along with the ensuing government-mandated

00:02:47.660 lockdowns and mandatory mask policies, have defined the year 2020 more than anything else.

00:02:53.740 Small businesses have been permanently shutting down as a result of the lockdowns, there have been

00:02:58.300 mass job losses and layoffs, and mental health is at an all-time low. Children and youth have had

00:03:03.820 educational and extracurricular opportunities taken from them, domestic abuse rates and alcoholism are

00:03:09.660 increasing, and thousands of elective surgeries were cancelled or postponed in the name of

00:03:14.380 keeping hospitals open for COVID-19 patients that, for the most part, didn't come. For the first three

00:03:20.680 weeks of the pandemic, Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, was advising against wearing

00:03:26.300 masks, but she flip-flopped in April, and in the coming months, masks actually became mandatory across 0.97

00:03:32.160 Canada. In addition, Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu claimed in the early weeks of the pandemic that border

00:03:38.660 closures would be ineffective at slowing the spread of the virus. But days later after saying that, the

00:03:45.300 Liberal government announced that it was restricting international flights, and on March 17th, Canada

00:03:50.900 and the U.S. reached a mutual agreement to close their land borders to non-essential travel, and the border

00:03:57.480 has remained closed ever since. At number seven, another Trudeau government ethics scandal. In April, the Trudeau

00:04:05.120 Liberals announced a new $912 million Canada Student Service Grant program that would reimburse youth for

00:04:12.720 volunteer work performed during the pandemic. WE Charity, an organization founded by Mark and Craig Kielberger,

00:04:20.000 was announced as the recipient of the no-bid contract to administer the program. Serious concerns of cronyism were

00:04:28.320 raised when the public realized Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the PM's wife, hosts a podcast with WE,

00:04:34.960 and Justin Trudeau's mother Margaret and his brother Alexandre have received thousands of dollars in

00:04:40.720 speaking fees and expenses from WE. In addition, Finance Minister Bill Morneau had received a complimentary

00:04:47.600 family trip from WE, and two of his daughters are tied with the organization. In light of this information,

00:04:53.440 the WE contract was cancelled and the organization has fallen from grace, Morneau resigned as finance

00:04:59.120 minister, and Trudeau is currently under investigation by the ethics commissioner in what is his third

00:05:05.200 ethics investigation. Or at least I think it's the third. I've kind of lost count. Number six,

00:05:11.120 separatist sentiment is on the rise in the West. In the months after the October 2019 federal election,

00:05:18.000 separatist sentiment began brewing in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as many in these two western

00:05:23.600 provinces became fed up with the undercutting of the oil and gas industry by the Trudeau Liberals.

00:05:29.120 Alberta is the epicenter of Canadian industry, but because of the equalization payment system,

00:05:34.240 the fruits of Albertan labor are sent off eastward, as Alberta itself slips into economic distress and a

00:05:40.720 hostile job market. As the federal government makes vague claims of transitioning to a green economy and

00:05:46.800 moving towards clean energy, Albertans and Saskatchewanians are left wondering what will become of them.

00:05:52.880 The WEGZIT movement has more support than you might think. Former Conservative MP Jay Hill founded

00:05:58.240 political party WEGZIT Canada, now known as the Maverick Party, in January 2020, and a February 2020 poll

00:06:05.920 found that 78% of Alberta and Saskatchewan residents believe Ottawa has lost touch with average people from

00:06:12.720 the two provinces. In addition, according to a survey conducted by the Western Standard in May,

00:06:18.320 41% of Albertans stated they would either definitely or probably vote to secede if presented

00:06:24.480 with a referendum. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced that in October 2021, the province will

00:06:30.240 be holding a referendum to scrap equalization from the constitution. Number five, Black Lives Matter

00:06:36.800 protests take place across Canada. On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis man George Floyd tragically died during

00:06:44.000 a confrontation with a police officer. After Floyd allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby

00:06:50.320 convenience store, he was arrested by Officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd's neck to restrain him.

00:06:57.760 Floyd's heart stopped due to the neck compression and the fentanyl in his system, and his death was ruled a homicide.

00:07:04.320 Because Floyd was a black man and Chauvin is white, Black Lives Matter protests consisting of hundreds

00:07:10.560 and often thousands of people broke out internationally in the following months, and calls to defund the police

00:07:16.960 became almost mainstream. While protests in the US frequently involved violence, looting, and assault,

00:07:23.520 protests in Canada were mostly peaceful with the exception of some assault and looting in Montreal.

00:07:28.960 At a June Black Lives Matter demonstration in Ottawa, Justin Trudeau kneeled in solidarity

00:07:34.240 with the estimated 4,000 protesters in attendance, even though pandemic-related social gathering measures

00:07:40.480 were in place. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr Theresa Tam, said that the protests were fine,

00:07:46.880 so long as no one yells.

00:07:48.960 One thing that people may want to consider is that, of course, wearing a mask is important, but shouting and

00:07:56.240 making really loud projections can potentially increase the risk.

00:08:03.040 At number four, Erin O'Toole elected new leader of the Conservatives.

00:08:07.600 At approximately one o'clock in the morning on August 24th, 2020, after voting machine glitches

00:08:13.280 delayed the Conservative Party leadership race ballot count by several hours, Durham MP Erin O'Toole was

00:08:19.120 elected leader of the official opposition. O'Toole, who replaced former CPC leader Andrew Scheer,

00:08:25.360 ran a true blue campaign and ran against rivals Peter McKay, Leslyn Lewis, and Derek Sloan.

00:08:31.200 Since the race, former MP Peter McKay has re-exited the political scene,

00:08:35.440 lawyer Leslyn Lewis announced she will be running to be MP for Haldeman Norfolk,

00:08:40.240 and Derek Sloan continues to serve as MP for Hastings, Lennox, and Addington.

00:08:45.280 Number three, the opioid crisis worsened. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Canada's opioid crisis.

00:08:52.400 From April to June 2020, there were 1,628 opioid-related deaths nationwide. This represents

00:08:59.600 the highest quarterly count since 2016, which is the year data collection began on this issue.

00:09:05.360 77% of opioid toxicity victims are male. In British Columbia, there were over 100 overdose deaths

00:09:12.240 each month from March to August 2020. And as for Alberta, 2020 will be the worst year on record

00:09:18.880 for opioid overdoses. Between January and October, the province recorded 904 overdose deaths. And on

00:09:26.080 December 23rd, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Alberta was 890.

00:09:31.760 2. Canada-China relations remain baffling. In December, Rebel News broke the story that the

00:09:37.680 Canadian military was providing training to China's People's Liberation Army in 2019. Even as China was

00:09:44.720 holding, and continues to hold, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spav were captive on trumped-up

00:09:50.960 charges of espionage. In addition, Chinese generals attended special programming at Canadian Forces

00:09:57.200 College in Toronto, and People's Liberation Army soldiers observed cold-weather training exercises at the

00:10:03.920 Canadian Forces base in Petawawa in 2018. The two Michaels have now been detained in China for over

00:10:10.000 two years. The communist regime in China is also currently suppressing the rights of its Uyghur Muslim

00:10:15.280 population through forced sterilization, re-education camps, and internment centers.

00:10:21.520 And at number one, the COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Canada. As we approach the end of the year,

00:10:27.920 everyone is talking about the COVID-19 vaccine, of which the first batch arrived in Canada in December.

00:10:33.280 The vaccines, which are being developed by pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna,

00:10:38.000 are controversial because they were produced so quickly, and there are concerns that getting

00:10:42.320 inoculated may become mandatory if you want to take commercial flights, enroll your children in

00:10:48.080 certain educational or extracurricular programs, or enter some private businesses. While many are

00:10:53.360 excited to get the shot and think it'll make life normal again, others wonder why we need mass

00:10:58.800 vaccination for a virus with such a high recovery rate. Well, that was the year 2020 in Canadian news.

00:11:06.000 I'm Lindsay Shepard with TrueNorth, and I'm excited to see what 2021 has in store for us.

00:11:10.720 And here at TrueNorth, we will keep bringing you top-notch commentary and coverage. So with that, happy new year.

Juno News - December 30, 2020

The Top Canadian Stories of 2020

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