Maxime Bernier decries 'woke ideology' at campaign stop in Dartmouth
People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier made a campaign stop Monday in Dartmouth, N.S., where he condemned "woke ideology" and said Canada is on the precipice of going "down the drain."
The former Conservative cabinet minister held a news conference on the Dartmouth waterfront on Day 9 of the federal election campaign. He highlighted one of the pillars of the PPC platform: ending what he calls "woke" policies.
Specifically, he said he would end policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion in the military.
"[Justin] Trudeau did everything he could to destroy our proud Canadian Forces by imposing his insane woke ideology on the military," said Bernier.
He criticized vaccination requirements that resulted in nearly 300 service members being released, and "diversity hiring quotas."
PPC Leader Maxime Bernier, centre, stands on the waterfront of Dartmouth, N.S., flanked by PPC candidates Ryan Slaney and Michelle Lindsay. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)
The Canadian military and Department of National Defence have, according to the military ombudsman, adopted many initiatives over the last two decades to address long-standing barriers to the recruitment and retention of women, visible minorities and Indigenous people.
Yet the military is still largely made up of white males, and the ombudsman said in 2022 there has been little progress in increasing diversity.
Bernier was flanked by two PPC candidates who are running in the Halifax area. The party has nominated candidates in 10 of 11 Nova Scotia ridings.
The leader said his party will have a full slate in time for the April 28 election.
This will be Bernier's third general election running as a PPC candidate in Beauce, the Quebec riding he used to represent as a Conservative MP. Bernier split from the Conservatives after he lost the 2018 leadership race to Andrew Scheer.
As of Monday, CBC's poll tracker has the PPC in a distant sixth place with about two per cent of the projected vote share.
Bernier's central campaign promises are pausing immigration, ending "woke" policies, boosting the economy by cutting spending and implementing policies related to national security.
He said Monday that if the PPC platform isn't enacted in the coming months, Canada is heading "down the drain."
"We are so different than the Liberals and the Conservatives on the most important issues for the future of this country. If you believe in this country, if you want to have a prosperous country, you need to support our candidates here in Nova Scotia and all across the country," he said.
Bernier has been accused of courting far-right, conspiratorial racists, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and appeared on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones's podcast as recently as March 22.
The PPC has denied that people with "extreme views" are welcome in the party.
It received five per cent of the national vote during the 2021 federal election and has never won a seat.
MORE TOP STORIES
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
School choice continues to expand, even in blue and purple states
Press reports tend to draw a hard line between the 17 states which enacted universal school choice programs when both their legislatures and governors were Republican and the 33 others which have not. But it would be more accurate to say that choice is expanding everywhere, just with different structures. Even in states where at least one branch of government remains opposed to funding non-public education, the rapid growth of three inexpensive K-12 schooling options is making choice a reality for more students. The most popular of these low-cost alternatives is the so-called 'microschool,' a small educational venue which typically serves 16 pupils or less. Spontaneously formed by neighboring families during COVID-19, when the public schools were closed and open private schools were filled to capacity, these small-scale programs have continued to multiply, offering a more personalized learning experience in blue states as well as red. Today, according to National Microschooling Center CEO Dan Soifer, there are around 95,000 microschools across the U.S. serving over 1.5 million K-12 students. Another economical non-public option which has spread to states without legalized school choice is the 'church learning center.' As the name implies, this is a school which operates within a house of worship, typically during weekdays and at other times when its facilities are not used for religious services. Depending on the size of the church, its learning center can be as small as a microschool or serve hundreds of students. An accurate count of these church learning centers is harder to make, in part because there is no national organization representing all of them and also because the larger ones are reluctant to publicize themselves in ways that might invite regulation as a conventional private school. But a clear indicator of their popularity is the growing number of regional and denominational organizations dedicated to helping churches organize their own programs. In Kansas, for example, homeschool mom of six Delana Wallace runs the Heartland Education Reformation Organization, a nonprofit that advocates for 15 parish-sited schools and connects local clergy with educators interested in starting new ones. And in Boston, the city's Family Institute has successfully guided more than 20 religious groups in establishing their own Christian learning centers. At the other end of the country, in California, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has encouraged the formation of five such schools. The third and final low-cost teaching venue is the 'hybrid school,' a term which refers less to a school's size, location, or curriculum than to how its students divide their time: two or three days a week online at home, and the other days in a more organized group setting. The provider of the structured portion can be a microschool or church learning center, but also a college, business, foundation or public charter school. One of the newer hybrid options is the traditional private or parochial school which runs a separate part-time academy. For example, the Canterbury Christian School in Los Altos, Calif., offers local homeschooled children a two day per week package of more conventional classroom instruction. 'If you're trying to support a family in a place like Silicon Valley, where ordinary homes cost $3-to-$4 million,' says the school's headmaster, Rev. Steve Macias, 'it's not easy to pay [our full-time tuition] with after-tax dollars.' What clearly helps all three kinds of low-cost schools to control their expenses is family involvement in program administration. Students' mothers and fathers work as classroom aids, break and lunchroom monitors, carpooling drivers, sports coaches and even teachers. Church learning centers have the added benefit of being able to draw on volunteer labor from their congregations. The second factor which controls expenses for these schools is that their typical student is registered as a homeschooler, which exempts them from a considerable regulatory burden. From the government's point of view, it is not the microschool, church learning center, or hybrid facility where the child is being educated, but the family home. The school itself is viewed as something more like a tutoring company, although the most accurate descriptor for the vast majority of them would be 'collaborative homeschool.' The final factor which has enabled microschools, church learning centers and hybrid schools to be seen as affordable options, even in the absence of government funding, is that all three of them have become increasingly reliant on the so-called 'classical curriculum.' That is to say, a curriculum which emphasizes logical reasoning over the memorization of facts, and the reading of the great books of Western civilization, especially those which inspired America's Founders. And while this educational methodology is not necessarily any less expensive than others, the evidence for its efficacy has convinced growing numbers of parents that they are getting an exceptional academic return for their investment. As the American Enterprise Institute's director of Education Policy Studies, Frederick M. Hess, has documented, classically educated students get exceptionally high scores on standardized achievement tests. As a result, they also have unusually high college acceptance rates. They even outperform on the SAT — an exam that the classical curriculum does not even attempt to 'teach to.' As for the actual cost of a microschool, church learning center or hybrid school, the answer depends on such factors as the ratio of paid staff to volunteers, the rent required to obtain a venue, and the extracurricular activities provided. On the low end is the Cornerstone Church in Uxbridge, Mass., which has long hosted a parent-run school called DELTIC Prep, short for 'Doing Education in Life Together in Christ.' It annually educates 70 to 90 students across multiple grades for just $15 to $75 each per year. There are programs which cost as much as $5,000 to $10,000, but still less than a conventional private or parochial school in their areas. Given the continuing reluctance of blue and purple state politicians to fund non-public education, school choice is indeed coming to their communities in a different way than in more conservative jurisdictions. But it is coming. Lewis M. Andrews is chair of the Kids' Scholarship Fund.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Canadian politician rips Trump as ‘gangster president' ahead of G7 visit
Canadian politician Charlie Angus scolded President Trump for sending soldiers to protests in Los Angeles amid outrage over removals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 'We're not talking about creeping fascism here. This is full on police state tyranny from the gangster President Donald Trump,' Angus, a member of Canada's New Democrat Party, said during a Thursday press conference in Ottawa. 'And this is the man who will soon be crossing our border to attend the G7 meetings in Canada,' he added. The White House on Thursday defended its decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines in California, citing what it called an outbreak in violence and chaos. 'Violent rioters in Los Angeles, enabled by failed Democrat leaders Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, have attacked American law enforcement, set cars on fire, and fueled lawless chaos,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Hill. 'President Trump rightfully stepped in to protect federal law enforcement officers when Newsom refused,' she added. Local leaders have urged Trump to remove federal forces while international politicians remain stunned by the move that sparked corresponding protests across the country. Amid angst, Trump attended the opening night of the musical 'Les Misérables' at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday night, just days before he's set to attend the G7 in Alberta. Trump is expected to meet privately with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the June 15-17 summit to discuss a potential economic and security agreement after their friendly spat in early May. Carney rebuked comments about Canada becoming the '51st state' while pushing to draw down Trump's latest round of tariffs on the Great White North during the May meeting. 'I've received hundreds of messages of concern and outrage from Canadians that a convicted felon, sexual predator, and a man who threatened our nation's sovereignty, is being allowed into our country,' Angus said during his 20-minute speech largely focused on Trump's policies. 'I understand the Prime Minister Carney's reluctance to escalate the situation with the MAGA president. But we have to stop kidding ourselves, and we have to be very honest about what we are being asked to engage with.' 'Donald Trump poses a clear threat to American democracy, to Canadian sovereignty, and to the international rule of law,' he added. The Canadian politician railed against Trump on Thursday, alleging he's launched more than 100 attacks on Canada since last year amid reports about officials pushing to remove Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence group and signs of the president's ties to Russia, citing the country's exemption from tariffs and a lack of sanctions on the Kremlin as it strikes Ukraine. 'Canada can no longer view the United States as an ally,' Angus said. 'We know that Donald Trump doesn't believe in liberal democracy.' 'He doesn't believe in the rule of law. Canada is an open and inclusive society. Little wonder that Donald Trump has denounced our nation as one of the nastiest countries he's ever had to deal with,' he continued. In the midst of his speech, Angus urged Carney not to trust Trump and to push back on attempts to erode the country's sovereignty. 'We can't kid ourselves about the threat that's being posed by Donald Trump. Prime Minister Mark Carney is not inviting our nearest neighbor and friendly ally to join us in the G7. Prime Minister Carney is not inviting the leader of the free world to Canada. He is welcoming in Vladimir Putin's sock puppet, who will have the best seat in the key negotiations with the G6,' he said. 'Donald Trump will be there as we attempt to negotiate a deal in a dark new world,' he continued. 'And we know that Donald Trump is there to undermine us at every step of the way. Canada must be focused on containing this clear and present danger to our nation and the rule of law.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
As ICE Protests Ramp Up, Organizers and Thinkers Share Lessons from the 2020 Uprising for Black Lives
Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images This summer marks five years since the 2020 uprising for Black lives — an anniversary that feels even more resonant right now, as protesters in cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota, where George Floyd was murdered by police, stand up against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the Trump administration's deportation spree. For days now, protesters in Los Angeles, California have fought back against the mass deportation efforts while Trump sent in the National Guard (just like he did in 2020) and 700 Marines. The fight, and the backlash, have spread to cities across America: footage of a protester with cops kneeling on their neck in Philly; arrests in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta; and thousands upon thousands taking to the streets. ICE is reportedly sending tactical agents to five Democratic-run cities. As we noted in our running series launched last year, United States of Suppression, the mass protests of 2020 also marked the start of an era of increasing criminalization of protesters. Throughout 2024, as police swarmed college campuses and deployed tear gas against students demonstrating against the war in Gaza, I thought of 2020. Yet amid the darkness of that pivotal summer, there were so many things I saw for the first time, made possible because so many people were unified by the structural abandonment of marginalized communities under COVID. People were outside in masks, setting up tents, painting buildings and hosting concerts and handing out supplies. There were tuition strikes to get cops off campuses. Protesters brought down statues of Confederate generals. What officials always told us was demanding too much — was 'impossible' — suddenly became demands they couldn't ignore. It was born of painful necessity, but the possibilities for solidarity that it created seems in part a byproduct of, as author and activist Arundhati Roy put it, the pandemic as portal. How the Backlash to the George Floyd Protests Set the Stage for Another Trump Administration *This op-ed argues that our collective actions are a part of an ongoing struggle and resistance, not a final resting place.* Contributor Olayemi Olurin recently memorialized that time, and the ensuing backlash that brought us to our current moment, for Teen Vogue, writing, 'It's important to reflect, not just on our collective actions, but the state's violent response to them — the consequences and the backlash that always follow.' For this piece, we wanted to remember the lessons of that time that seemed so unprecedented, to practice what Olurin called for: To remember our history, and that we've been here before — so we can learn from the past and keep building towards a different future. So we asked organizers, thinkers, activists, and writers: What lessons do you hold from the 2020 uprising? And how can we learn from it now to make it through the current crisis wrought by the Trump administration? I often think of the title of the first novel by Sarah Thankam Mathews, a founding organizer behind the mutual aid group Bed-Stuy Strong, formed in 2020: All This Could Be Different. The suffering caused by police brutality, white supremacy, transphobia, and infinite losses – Breonna Taylor, Oluwatoyin Salau, Dominique 'Rem'mie' Fells, Tony McDade, and so many others — is a stain on this nation forever. How can we think of ways to make a different world together? I've come away with a renewed sense of appreciation for long term strategic thinking, and for the kinds of organizations that can pursue long term strategies. Among the reasons that even large scale, attention-grabbing protests can fail to move the needle in the protestors' direction is that the powers that be can wait them out — not only for people to leave the streets, but for ongoing news cycles and the regular business of life to move attention away from where the protestors have briefly been able to concentrate it. There's really no substitute for being able to mount a long term political struggle and that means there's no substitute for the kind of organizations that can do this. Alongside that long term thinking is not just the ability to continue to advocate or express political discontent over the long haul — philanthropies and non-profits can manage that just by not rocking the funding boat, after all. But opportunity comes when we pair that with the kinds of organizations that can speak to the powerful on terms they understand: organizations that can withhold labor, rent, utility payments, or any other kind of cooperation the powerful need to get their way. When these kinds of organizations make long term plans, they aren't only planning messaging campaigns — they're planning the full scale of political contest and conflict. One to mention in particular is the resistance from the Service Employees International Union. SEIU California President David Huerta was just attacked and detained by ICE while participating as a community observer as ICE attacked immigrant workers, and plenty of other Angelenos were lined up against ICE on the streets. From the mass layoffs of federal workers, to the dismantling of the National Labor Relations Board, to the attacks on higher education and the regulation of food and water, I think it's fairly clear that the present administration poses a threat to the 99% that we can't combat with awareness. They won't stop unless and until we stop them, and we will need to support the kind of organizing that can do that. Supporting SEIU, federal workers, and other organized centers of popular power is a step in the right direction. When we look at the state of the country and the world right now, it can seem pretty grim. Authoritarianism is rising and making it more dangerous and difficult to protest and resist. Yet when you understand that the 2020 unrest did not exist in a bubble, that it wasn't just an anomaly but instead a continuation of the fight for Black liberation and anti-capitalism in the face of police violence, we realize there can be hope that another mass movement can happen again. The importance of looking back is to be honest about where there can be growth. For hope to be more than just foolish optimism we must learn the lessons from the waves that came before us: resistance will be followed with harsh repression; and opportunistic interests will try to co-opt the movement and energy. Specifically discussing the former, there were many prosecutions of protesters and rioters whose stories were mostly ignored, as well as anti-protest laws passed in state legislatures that remain understudied. And when it comes to co-optation, the usurping of energy by the Democratic Party, the non-profit industrial complex, corporations and the media turned out to be devastating. All of this was predictable for me, because I experienced and witnessed it happening in previous waves. This is why it's important for people to learn about the Green Scare, Occupy Wall Street, Standing Rock, and Ferguson and other anti-police protests that led up to 2020, as state tactics being used now were built upon by the repression of these movements. Trump's presidency is in part a response to the year 2020, both the protest and the pandemic. There was a naivete that riots had resulted in a cultural revolution, but what we see now is the changes of that moment were fleeting. This is why movement gains must go beyond individual benefits under capitalism like diversity initiatives, which have come and gone since the protests. There needs to be an understanding when these spontaneous uprisings happen that the sense of power that people feel will not last forever. Once the riots began to settle later in summer 2020 and people were still engaged, it would have been a great opportunity to build assemblies either based on locality and/or affinity. This would have created entry points for newcomers and opportunities to build power outside the current political system and away from the Democratic Party. This model would allow broader segments of our communities to be building actual political opposition against Trump and the oligarchy that enables him. When I look back at 2020, some of the most urgent lessons for this moment are about protecting and defending one another. I think about how the Chicago Freedom School sheltered young protesters who had been brutalized and gassed by police, and protected those young people when cops showed up to raid the building. I think about the safety teams led by young Black activists in Chicago, distributing masks, treating wounds, and doing everything they could to keep people safe in the streets. I think about the connection between a mass uprising and a mass mobilization of mutual aid, and what that tells us about what it takes to sustain collective action. There was a time in 2020 when people were deeply invested in one another's well-being. There was so much mutual concern, care work, a growing interest in the lessons of disability justice, and a storm of empathy that cracked something open in us, and in the world around us. The same impulses that led to an explosion of mutual aid propelled a lot of people into the streets. In many ways, we've drifted from that level of connection. But we'll need to find our way back to it. Empathy is essential in any fight against fascist, dehumanizing politics. This moment is about holding onto our humanity, and to do that, we need to reach for and hold onto each other. We need to anchor ourselves to each other. That means remembering how to care, commit, and throw down together, even when we don't like each other. We need to recover the sense of solidarity that a lot of people felt in the early days of the pandemic. There was a lot of fear and panic in that moment, but also a lot of potential. We still have that potential, but we are going to have to bring it back to the surface. I think the lessons are many. One lesson is that cultural work is irresistible — the art, music, dancing and bombastic energy of those uprisings still thrum through my system. Another lesson is that when we let ourselves feel into our hurt and anger, we can harness those righteous emotions into powerful action, even when we have to adapt to conditions like a global pandemic. Our task as movement workers is to support organic moments of popular unrest and uprising, recognizing we can shape these moments but we are not meant to control them. And we have to remember that we are not the beginning or the end of this fight, and we are not always the center of focus — a lot of people showed up in solidarity with us, and I see so many of us showing up in solidarity with other communities. There are way more people than we expect who are frustrated and angry about the brutality and greed of the current systems, who will join in bold, even risky collective action when they see others in the streets. After 2020, the militancy of our movements increased — more people willing to take risks and break rules to stop business as usual. This is visible in the student uprising against genocide in Palestine, and the disruptions of weapons manufacturers, as well as in mobilizations against ecocide [or the destruction of the environment by dangerous human activity]. We need this kind of rule-breaking, bold militancy more than ever now. 2020 saw the mainstreaming of the idea of police abolition — suddenly the concept of defunding the police was being discussed across the country and many city councils made big promises about cutting police budgets that had been steadily rising for decades. However, we weren't able to hold them to it. The dedicated work that people did to keep the pressure on ended up showing us that our city governments really are owned by cops and Chambers of Commerce, and elected officials backpedal to keep their jobs, or they get replaced. This is an important lesson — that their systems don't work for dismantling what they are designed to build, expand and preserve. This is important, too, because we saw that trying to direct and focus the upsurge into electoral and government-centered reform projects not only doesn't work, but it reifies the widespread liberal misunderstanding that resistance should focus on changing the hearts and minds of elected officials, which is, ultimately, a dead end. Under this administration, this is particularly clear — that direct action and mutual aid are what is needed, not more efforts to convince elites to stop wars, policing, ecocide. It's not about convincing them, it's about stopping them. [Trump's] desires and plans for the current moment are terrifying, but we defeated the Alt-Right and Trump in the streets once and we can do it again. From the Airport Shutdowns to OccupyICE to #MeToo, from the successful no-platforming campaigns, mass marches and education to punching [white supremacist] Richard Spencer (twice!) to vigilantly combating them wherever they appeared, we successfully stymied their ambitions and shattered their movement. Our many anti-fascist victories, which came at great cost, culminated in the historic defeat of Trump at the ballot box in 2020: Biden was the only presidential campaign since the '60s to outnumber the traditional most popular option among eligible voters — abstention. The US working class has gone through over a decade of intense radicalization, organization, street movement and political awakening since 2010, and the state has offered us little more than table scraps. Contra those who see this as evidence that our movements have lost, that we've been unsuccessful, it seems just as likely that the failure to buy us off means that earlier period, dramatic though it was, was merely the prelude to a social and political revolution that utterly transforms this continent and the world. It is up to us to change everything. But, against the doomers, I believe in this moment we may be uniquely poised to do so. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue More great activism coverage from Teen Vogue: 'Young Activist' Label Can Be a Burden for Youth Organizers Economic Disobedience: What Is It and How Does It Work? The Jewish Teens Who Fought Back Against Hitler The 13 Best Protest Songs Of All Time
