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COVID-19

“Bring in the Auditors” Shadow Finance Minister says billions are unaccounted for

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3 minute read

From Conservative Party of Canada

Trudeau’s accountability equation:
Double the spending + half the audits = a quarter of the accountability.

Bring in the Auditors

Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, Pierre Poilievre, and Conservative Shadow Minister for the Treasury Board, Tim Uppal, held a press conference to call on the Trudeau Liberals to provide the Auditor General’s Office with the necessary funding to audit the government’s unprecedented spending.

As Canada’s top spending watchdog, the Auditor General is a cornerstone of our parliamentary democracy. Shamefully, the Liberal government has flagrantly disregarded this fact over the past five years. Ten years ago, the Auditor General’s Office was conducting 27 performance audits a year. At its current funding levels, the Auditor General can only complete 14 performance audits a year.

In order to underscore the necessity of funding the Auditor General, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre will move the following motion at the Standing Committee of Finance:

That the Standing Committee on Finance call on the Auditor General of Canada to audit all federal programs associated with Canada’s COVID-19 response and to complete all previously-scheduled audits and all audits requested by the House; and call on the government to provide the Office of the Auditor General all the funding it needs to carry out these audits and any other work it deems appropriate.

“Over the last ten years the size of government has doubled, and the number of audits has gone down by half. Massive Liberal spending programs lack basic accountability and transparency, such as their $180 billion infrastructure program. The government has spent billions on projects to date, yet they cannot produce a full list of projects that have received money. In fact, there are roughly 20,000 projects that are not accounted for. This complete disregard of taxpayer money is troubling. It’s time to bring in the auditors,” said MP Pierre Poilievre.

“The Liberals have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending during the pandemic but are refusing to provide an economic update or to be transparent with Canadians,” said MP Tim Uppal. “In a crisis, oversight is more important than ever. But the Auditor General doesn’t have enough funding to conduct audits of government programs. Taxpayers deserve to know how the government is spending their money.”

COVID-19

Court compels RCMP and TD Bank to hand over records related to freezing of peaceful protestor’s bank accounts

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Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice has ordered the RCMP and TD Bank to produce records relating to the freezing of Mr. Evan Blackman’s bank accounts during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest.

Mr. Blackman was arrested in downtown Ottawa on February 18, 2022, during the federal government’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act. He was charged with mischief and obstruction, but he was acquitted of these charges at trial in October 2023. 

However, the Crown appealed Mr. Blackman’s acquittal in 2024, and a new trial is scheduled to begin on August 14, 2025. 

Mr. Blackman is seeking the records concerning the freezing of his bank accounts to support an application under the Charter at his upcoming retrial.

His lawyers plan to argue that the freezing of his bank accounts was a serious violation of his rights, and are asking the court to stay the case accordingly.

“The freezing of Mr. Blackman’s bank accounts was an extreme overreach on the part of the police and the federal government,” says constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury.

“These records will hopefully reveal exactly how and why Mr. Blackman’s accounts were frozen,” he says.

Mr. Blackman agreed, saying, “I’m delighted that we will finally get records that may reveal why my bank accounts were frozen.” 

This ruling marks a significant step in what is believed to be the first criminal case in Canada involving a proposed Charter application based on the freezing of personal bank accounts under the Emergencies Act. 

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Alberta

COVID mandates protester in Canada released on bail after over 2 years in jail

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Chris Carbert (right) and Anthony Olienick, two of the Coutts Four were jailed for over two years for mischief and unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose.

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

The “Coutts Four” were painted as dangerous terrorists and their arrest was used as justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government, which allowed it to use draconian measures to end both the Coutts blockade and the much larger Freedom Convoy

COVID protestor Chris Carbert has been granted bail pending his appeal after spending over two years in prison.

On June 30, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Jo-Anne Strekaf ordered the release of Chris Carbert pending his appeal of charges of mischief and weapons offenses stemming from the Coutts border blockade, which protested COVID mandates in 2022.

“[Carbert] has demonstrated that there is no substantial likelihood that he will commit a criminal offence or interfere with the administration of justice if released from detention pending the hearing of his appeals,” Strekaf ruled.

“If the applicant and the Crown are able to agree upon a release plan and draft order to propose to the court, that is to be submitted by July 14,” she continued.

Carbert’s appeal is expected to be heard in September. So far, Carbert has spent over two years in prison, when he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the protest in Coutts, which ran parallel to but was not officially affiliated with the Freedom Convoy taking place in Ottawa.

Later, he was acquitted of the conspiracy to commit murder charge but still found guilty of the lesser charges of unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose and mischief over $5,000.

In September 2024, Chris Carbert was sentenced to six and a half years for his role in the protest. However, he is not expected to serve his full sentence, as he was issued four years of credit for time already served. Carbert is also prohibited from owning firearms for life and required to provide a DNA sample.

Carbert was arrested alongside Anthony Olienick, Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin, with the latter two pleading guilty to lesser charges to avoid trial. At the time, the “Coutts Four” were painted as dangerous terrorists and their arrest was used as justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government, which allowed it to use draconian measures to end both the Coutts blockade and the much larger Freedom Convoy occurring thousands of kilometers away in Ottawa.

Under the Emergency Act (EA), the Liberal government froze the bank accounts of Canadians who donated to the Freedom Convoy. Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23 after the protesters had been cleared out. At the time, seven of Canada’s 10 provinces opposed Trudeau’s use of the EA.

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