Chrystia Freeland set to speak at “invitation-only” Aga Khan event 

Premier Doug Ford announced on Thursday that new scholarships would be provided in honour of the 57 Canadians who lost their lives on Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752. Ford called the leadership in Iran a “ruthless, evil regime.”

“Innocent lives got shot down by a ruthless, careless Iranian regime,” said Ford in a report by the Toronto Sun. “I want to send a message—and it may not get over there—I support the (anti-government) protesters that are out there. We believe in democracy here in Canada and we’d like to see nothing less than democracy in Iran.”

Some of the families that Ford met with expressed that they put the blame for the incident on the Iranian regime and are looking for justice. 

Ford noted, “Nothing, nothing at all was more emotional than sitting down with five families and listening to their stories.” 

“One gentleman told me how he lost his daughter and his granddaughter; another person lost their husband; another person lost their brother, sister and a wife and child,” he said. “It was absolutely heartbreaking.” 

Ford expressed that he was happy with the way the Canadian government was able to respond to the families of the victims. 

He also revealed that there will be 57 post-secondary scholarships created in Ontario to honour Canada’s victims. 

The tragedy cost the lives of students in more than a dozen post-secondary schools in Ontario. 

The new scholarships will be for the 2021-22 school year and the government will be distributing $10,000 for each. 

The scholarships will be distributed with financial need and academic merit in mind. The schools will be working with the families of the victims to determine scholarship recipients. 

Ford said, “They were smart, gifted people who had a bright future ahead of them,” and added, “In fact, 34 out of the 57 Canadians were studying — they were PhD candidates, professors, researchers, doctors.”

He also mentioned that a victim of the crash had been working on a new breast cancer drug therapy. 

“We will honour their memories through these scholarships to recognize their incredible contributions to our communities,” said Ford. 

The province will be distributing the scholarships to the schools that the victims were employed at or attending. 

In the weeks to come, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities will be working with government, communities and schools in order to continue to develop the scholarships.

A man is facing charges after allegedly attacking young children in a kindergarten class with a curtain rod during the school’s recess.

York Police say the incident happened around 1 pm on Wednesday, when they were called to Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Elementary School after reports of an assault.

The man, who witnesses say was wearing a helmet on his head, was walking around the perimeter of the school with a woman before the school’s recess took place.

The attack took place after two of three kindergarten classes had already gone inside.

According to eye witness reports, the man jumped the fence and began swinging the curtain rod at teachers and students.

“School staff and a good Samaritan were able to remove the weapon from the suspect and get the students back into the school,” said Const. Laura Nicolle to CTV News Toronto.

A five-year-old boy suffered “serious injuries” after being struck by the rod, police say.

The school was placed into lockdown during the incident, as police and ambulances made their way to the premises.

The suspect is a 30-year-old man who police believe has a cognitive impairment. The man was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, weapons dangerous and common nuisance endangering life.

Investigators believe the assault was random. He is pending a bail hearing.

A bullish United States crude oil market is rippling north as the number of rigs drilling for oil and gas in Canada more than doubled to 203 last week.

This new exploration activity comes on the back of American crude futures that jumped to almost $66-per-barrel on January 8; a nearly 30 percent increase since the end of last year, and an eight-month high overall.

While the 118 new rigs that came on line at the beginning of 2020 in Alberta and Saskatchewan makes this period the most active exploration spate in Canada since March of 2019, the boom comes with encumbrances.

“There is a huge, growing liability being left for Albertans and the big growing question is, who’s going to pay for the cleanup and when is the cleanup going to be done?” said political economist Gordon Laxer, University of Alberta professor emeritus and founding director of The Parkland Institute.

Laxer is also part of a citizens group known as Alberta Liabilities and Disclosure Project which tracks the number of orphaned wells in the province–approximately 3400–and the growing cleanup burden.

According to Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the current liability for abandoned and disused wells for provincial taxpayers is $260 billion while just $1.5 billion is held in securities to cover remediation costs.

“That’s less than one percent covering it,” Laxer said.

And Laxer’s liabilities and disclosure group is not alone with their concerns.

In a December letter to AER from the Orphan Well Association–an industry-funded watchdog under AER’s mandate–the association criticized Shell Canada’s proposal to offload nearly 300 wells and 82 pipelines to a virtual penny stock company.

Lars De Pauw, executive director of the association declined to speak about the matter, “as the transfer (of the facilities) is still in the regulatory process.”

Alberta’s Energy minister Sonya Savage also declined an interview for this story but in a statement to The Post Millennial, said her government is “following through on our commitment to address orphan and inactive wells in Alberta.”

“We will be bringing forward a suite of policies, covering the entire lifecycle of wells, which deal with well licences and liabilities,” said Savage in an email.

“These policies will ensure the clean-up of inactive wells is addressed by producers–not on the backs of taxpayers–while still ensuring an environment for industry to be successful.”

Yet another woke record store has decided to ban British pop icon Morrissey from its shelves. This time, the Glasgow Evening Times reports that Glasgow’s “Monorail Music said it would continue to sell records by the Smiths but ‘like many of our colleagues’ would not be selling the singer’s 13th studio album, ‘I am not a dog on a chain.’” 

This follows last year’s indie music store ban on Morrissey’s last album, “California Son.” Cardiff’s Spillers, which calls itself “the oldest record shop in the world,” declined to carry the record in retaliation for Morrissey’s political views. These views include support for Brexit, saying that the word “racist” is meaningless because it’s used so liberally, and that crime in London cannot be properly dealt with if the perpetrators are viewed as victims.

Morrissey responded to the last round of smears and bans by saying, “I straighten up, and my position is one of hope. The march backwards is over, and life has begun again. With voice extended to breaking point, I call for the prosperity of free speech; the eradication of totalitarian control; I call for diversity of opinion; I call for the total abolition of the abattoir; I call for peace, above all; I call for civil society; I call for a so-far unknowable end to brutalities; ‘No’ to Soviet Britain.”

Of course, the bans and smears don’t work. These kinds of actions will not stop Morrissey’s fans from buying the new album. The Guardian has consistently tried to smear Morrissey, and in response, Morrissey wore a t-shirt reading “Fuck The Guardian.” Fans know that Morrissey’s being able to speak his mind means that they are free to speak theirs, to hold opposing views, and to still listen to the new tracks Morrissey releases with consistent quality year after year.

Bookshops and record stores are not required to carry anything that they don’t wish to, obviously, but there is something sinister in the refusal to carry selections by such a popular, long-standing pop star, whose music on last year’s “California Son” was not political, and who lifts other artists through collaboration, simply because he’s not afraid to speak his mind.

Writer Fiona Dodwell responded to the ridiculous ban by tweeting: “How about businesses stock and store products and let customers choose what they want? This achieves nothing, Morrissey will still sell albums – with or without your company “banning” his records. People simply go elsewhere (and learn where NOT to shop next time!)”

How many pop stars have heterodox views but don’t say them out of fear of retaliation? Probably plenty, they just don’t say it, because they don’t want their work to suffer the same fate of being banned by distributors. 

Morrissey has made his entire career out of being an iconoclast who “will not change and will not be nice.” So much the better for his fans, who strive to lead lives according to their own value systems, and not those imposed by a hypocritical society hell-bent on squashing free thought and individuality while claiming to uphold those very qualities they persistently deride.

When the new album drops on March 20, it will be interesting to see which other shops signal their virtue by refusing to carry it, and which ones instead cater to consumers and offer it for sale. Not carrying “I am not a dog on a chain” has more to do with the owner’s false sense of righteousness than punishing Morrissey. Time and time again, Morrissey has shown that he can’t be shelved and forgotten. His work is too essential and beautiful for that.