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National

Ontario community urged to change the name of a street named after Nazi battleship captain

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From B’nai Brith Canada

B’nai Brith Canada is urging a Greater Toronto Area municipality to rename a street dedicated to a Nazi battleship captain who fought in the Second World War.

Langsdorff Drive, located in Ajax, Ontario, was named in 2007 after Hans Langsdorff, who commanded Nazi German forces at the 1939 Battle of the River Plate. The Town of Ajax is named after the HMS Ajax, a British ship that took part in the engagement.

After losing the encounter, Langsdorff scuttled his ship off the coast of Argentina, allowing its crew to escape rather than face the British fleet again. He then shot himself, leaving a suicide note in which he remarked: “I shall face my fate with firm faith in the cause and the future of the nation and of my Führer.”

B’nai Brith’s position is that there is no room for monuments or other dedications in Canada honouring Nazi combatants or their collaborators.

In July, Ajax Town Council voted to rename Graf Spee Lane, another street in the municipality named after the Admiral Graf Spee — Langsdorff’s ship at the Battle of the River Plate. It is unclear why the name of the ship was deemed inappropriate while the name of its captain was allowed to remain.

“There is no place for streets honouring Nazi combatants in Canada,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “While Hans Langsdorff was attacking Allied shipping in the South Atlantic, his comrades were murdering Jews and Poles en masse in occupied Poland. These were inseparable components of the overall Nazi war effort.”

In 2017, B’nai Brith worked with the town of Lachute, Que. to prevent a local ceremony honouring a Nazi pilot. Later that same year, B’nai Brith was asked by local residents in Puslinch, Ont. to convince the local township to rename “Swastika Trail.” Though unsuccessful at the time, residents continue to push for change in Puslinch.

Finally, on July 27 of this year, B’nai Brith joined forces with the Canadian Polish Congress to call for the removal of monuments honouring Nazi collaborators in Edmonton and Oakville, Ont.

B’nai Brith also recently published a detailed policy paper on the alarming issue of Nazi glorification in Canada.

An online petition is circulating against Langsdorff Drive in Ajax. B’nai Brith will continue to provide updates as this campaign unfolds.

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Alberta requests more control over provincial immigration system

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Alberta is requesting more control over its provincial immigration to address its skilled workforce shortage, including increasing Ukrainian evacuee participation in the job market.

Premier Danielle Smith has written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to re-evaluate his government’s decision limiting the number of allocations for Alberta’s provincial nominee program in 2024. Last week, the federal government informed the province it would only receive 9,750 such allotments – which is the same number of allocations Alberta received in 2023 and is less than the 10,140 for 2024 the federal government had originally allocated.

As of February 2024, Alberta accounts for just under 12 per cent of Canada’s population, but it leads the nation in net employment growth, with 42.8 per cent of the country’s employment gains between January and February 2024. By not providing the requested increase to Alberta’s provincial nominee allocations, the federal government is restricting the province’s ability to keep up with its growing labour market demands, especially as it relates to integrating Ukrainian evacuees into Alberta’s job market.

“Alberta is growing and that is good news. Since January 2023, more than 100,000 new jobs have been created in our province and our employment rate has led the country even longer. At the same time, we continue to experience labour shortages that could be resolved by welcoming skilled workers from around the world, including evacuees from Ukraine, many of whom have the exact skills that our job market most needs. Alberta has long been the economic engine of Canada and we are once again requesting Ottawa respect section 95 of the Constitution and let us welcome the skilled individuals we need into our province on our terms.”

Danielle Smith, Premier

With Alberta’s population growth at levels not seen in four decades, Alberta’s Provincial Nominee Program is best placed to address the province’s unique immigration and economic goals.

Part of Alberta’s population growth has resulted from Russia’s invasion in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since that time, Alberta has welcomed a significant number of Ukrainian evacuees to the province. While it is anticipated that many will return to Ukraine following the war, Alberta is also expecting a number of families to apply for permanent residency via the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. An increase in the number of allocations from the federal government would assist these new Albertans to fill positions in the province’s workforce.

“Immigration is key to Alberta’s ability to address labour shortages and to grow our economy. This limitation imposed by the federal government on our provincial nominee program will be a very difficult pill to swallow, not only for businesses that need this skilled labour but also to the many Ukrainian evacuees who have the skills we need and wish to stay permanently in Alberta.”

Muhammad Yaseen, Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism

Quick facts

  • The federal government through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada sets provincial immigration nomination limits. It also approves all permanent resident applications.
  • Alberta maximized its 9,750 nomination allocations in 2023, with a total of 10,029 nominations issued within the federal government administrative buffer.

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Great Reset

World Happiness Report ranks Canada as one of the unhappiest places in the West for young people

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

While senior Canadians seems to be mostly happy in Canada, young Canadians may be beginning to feel the negative effects of the Trudeau government’s overspending, onerous climate regulations, lax immigration policies and ‘woke’ politics.

A recent report has ranked Canada as one of the unhappiest places in the West for people in their 20s. 

According to the World Happiness Report, published March 8, Canada was listed as the 58th happiest country out of 143 for people under the age of 30, a trend that coincides with the long-reign of the Trudeau government in which the cost-of-living has exploded.

“Happiness fell significantly in the country group including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, by twice as much for the young as for the old,” the report noted. 

According to the report, Canada ranked behind many Western countries, including the United Kingdom (32nd), Italy (41st), Poland (43rd), Germany (47th), France (48th), and even South Korea (52nd), which is well known for its high suicide rate. However, the United States ranked even lower than Canada at 62nd.   

The report, published by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board, found that senior Canadians were much happier than young Canadians.  

Canadians over 60 were ranked as the 8th happiest in the world for their age group, a trend which placed Canada at 15th for the total population’s overall happiness ranking. 

While senior Canadians seems to be mostly happy in Canada, young Canadians may be beginning to reap the effects of the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which has been criticized for its overspending, onerous climate regulations, lax immigration policies, and “woke” politics.   

In fact, many have pointed out that considering the rising housing prices, most Canadians under 30 will not be able to purchase a home.   

Similarly, while Trudeau sends Canadians’ tax dollars oversees and further taxes their fuel and heating, Canadians are struggling to pay for basic necessities including food, rent, and heating. 

A September report by Statistics Canada revealed that food prices are rising faster than the headline inflation rate – the overall inflation rate in the country – as staple food items are increasing at a rate of 10 to 18 percent year-over-year.  

Additionally, a recent poll revealed that seven out of 10 Canadians believe the country is broken and that the Trudeau government does not focus on issues that matter. 

While happiness in young people is down in Canada, euthanasia in Canada has skyrocketed in recent years. The most recent reports show that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. 

However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022. When asked why MAiD was left off the list, the agency explained that it records the illnesses that led Canadians to choose to end their lives via euthanasia, not the actual cause of death, as the primary cause of death. 

According to Health Canada, in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by MAiD lethal injections. This accounts for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year ,a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.     

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