Vyshyvanka Day

Today is Vyshyvanka Day, a time to celebrate Ukraine’s special embroidered shirt and rich culture.

Residents concerned about new homeless shelter in their neighbourhood

I’ve talked to constituents in my riding concerned with the creation of a new homeless shelter at the former Northlands Spectrum.

These constituents raised serious concerns about a lack of consultation in the City’s plan.

They’re also concerned there aren’t enough resources in place to ensure public safety. 

I sent a letter to the mayor demanding their concerns are listened to and resources are provided. 

See my letter to the mayor below.

Erin O’Toole says his government will repeal Bill C-10, should it pass

By TRUE NORTH WIRE

If Bill C-10 becomes law, Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole says he will repeal the controversial internet regulation bill if he is elected Prime Minister.

According to O’Toole, the Liberals are “radically” altering how Canadians are expected to use the internet and could open the door for “massive abuse of power.” 

“Canada’s Conservatives support creating a level playing field between large foreign streaming services and Canadian broadcasters, and championing Canadian arts and culture. A Conservative government would do so without compromising Canadians’ fundamental rights and freedoms,” said O’Toole in a statement released on Thursday.

“We are calling on Justin Trudeau to withdraw Bill C-10 today. If this is not done, a Conservative government will stand up for Canadians and repeal this deeply flawed legislation. While the NDP and the Bloc may look the other way on the freedom of expression, Canada’s Conservatives will not.”

(Find the full article by True North News at the link below.)

Amarjeet Sohi is running for mayor

Those on the political left have their dream candidate with defeated Liberal MP Amarjeet Sohi announcing he wants to continue in Don Iveson’s footsteps.

Feds spent millions making sure staff were comfy while working from home

I requested this information on Liberal government spending and received this data via a type of access-to-information request.

There was some outrageous spending in the more than 1,800 pages of documents. 

Are you concerned about the Liberals plan to censor the internet?

If so please sign my online petition. I’ll be writing to the prime minister and the minister of Canadian heritage demanding they shutter this bill on your behalf.

Have your say

Happy Falun Dafa Day

Best wishes to everyone celebrating Falun Dafa Day.
The Falun Dafa community is an important part of our Canadian mosaic.
The pursuits of its founding principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance are universal virtues that help make Canada a better place.
As the Member of Parliament from Edmonton Griesbach, I’ll always stand in support of the human rights of the Falun Dafa community.
To the millions of Falun Dafa followers around the world have a joyous day.

Celebrating National Nursing Week

We all owe nurses and support staff a debt of gratitude. In celebration of National Nursing Week, we visited some local nurses to hear their stories. Thank you to the staff at Lifestyle Options Schonsee for their hard work. Enjoy this video produced by our constituency office assistant Josh Hui.

The Liberals’ “censorship” act, Bill C-10 is quickly unravelling

In a Sunday (May 9) interview with Evan Solomon of CTV, the Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault repeatedly said that Bill C-10 would allow the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to regulate individuals’ social media posts.

Yet, within 24 hours there was a change of tune.

Now the minister is saying the legislation didn’t do what he clearly said it did the day before.

If the minister in charge of the file can’t understand his own legislation there is a serious problem.

We’ve seen time and again the Liberals push through legislation saying one thing and meaning another. This is just the latest example.

Canadians simply can’t trust the Liberals to regulate their online content.

Free and open debate is an essential principle in a democratic society.

So why exactly are the Liberals threatening to shut it down?

Are you concerned about the Liberals plan to censor your internet posts? please sign my online petition and share it on social media.

May is MS Awareness Month

May is MS Awareness Month.

I was pleased to read a statement in the virtual House of Commons about this. 

More than 90,000 Canadians live with MS.

We have one of the highest rates of MS in the world.

Together, let’s raise awareness in support of people living with MS.

Trudeau targeting cities to ban handguns is misguided

By JON DZIADYK
Edmonton City Councillor
(Guest Column) 

Much of Edmonton Griesbach overlaps with Ward 3 and your Member of Parliament, Kerry Diotte, graciously allowed me to chime in to bring some light to where municipal and federal issues overlap.

Justin Trudeau has allowed cities the power to ban law-abiding citizens from owning or purchasing handguns in a ham-fisted and misguided attempt to reduce crime. As your City Councillor, I can’t stress enough how ridiculous that sounds. I believe his hope is that big city mayors will do something that he could not otherwise achieve, and this is another reason why paying attention to municipal politics is important.

Let’s look at some stats. According to a presentation by Statistics Canada to the Senate, 21% of violent crimes are committed with a weapon, and of that 21%, only three percent are with a gun. A smaller percentage of that is handguns. Are these violent crimes being committed by law-abiding citizens? The report goes on to say that 87% of gang-related homicides were committed with a firearm.

In the U.S.A. less than 15% of gun related crimes were committed with a legally purchased gun. It would be handy to point to a statistic like this for Canada, except we don’t track this information. So where is the federal government getting their data to show that a handgun ban would be  effective at reducing crime? That is a great question.

What is known is that the vast majority of all weapons used in crime are smuggled and obtained from the underground, so making a law that targets law-abiding gun owners is naive and ineffective and punishes upstanding citizens.

To reduce gun crime it would be more effective to give our police officers the funding they need to do their difficult jobs. We also need more funding for our men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us. We need the funding more than ever after City Council gave in to calls to defund the police, something I adamantly opposed. What we need to do is fund the police adequately so that crime goes down, not spend money going after law abiding citizens.

I’m also currently a member of the military and I train on safe use of firearms once a year. Many people I know have licensed handguns for sport shooting or hunting. 

A ban on handguns would be short-sighted and not something I would support if it came before council. 

Here’s to hoping that no other councillor decides to pursue this scheme from Justin Trudeau.

Jon Dziadyk is a north-side Edmonton city councillor who can be reached at [email protected]

I spoke with Russian dissident opposed to Putin’s dictatorship 

I was glad to have the opportunity to question the top aide to imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny at our Foreign Affairs committee. Canada must always do as much as we can to support democracy worldwide.

Thanks for signing our Bring Back Bachman petition

As promised to all of you who’ve signed the petition. I’ve sent the following letter to CBC on your behalf: 

May 10, 2021

Dear Catherine Tait:

I’m writing to you on behalf of scores of Canadians who are concerned with your recent step to cancel Randy Bachman’s radio show, Vinyl Tap.

I created a petition because so many people were upset by CBC’s decision. 

As such I’ve told petitioners I would raise the issue with you on their behalf. 

Part of the CBC’s mandate is to promote Canadian culture.

Bachman is a Canadian musical icon and a core part of our cultural landscape.

As the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach I’m requesting you revisit this decision and renew Bachman’s show.

Sincerely,

Kerry Diotte 
Member of Parliament 
Edmonton Griesbach

I spoke with Russian dissident opposed to Putin’s dictatorship 

Have your say

May is MS Awareness Month

More than 90,000 Canadians live with MS. We have one of the highest rates of MS in the world. Together, let’s raise awareness in support of people living with MS. Join me and take action by joining the virtual carnation pinning.

Click on the link below:

www.takeactionforms.ca

Folks are worried about internet censorship

Over the last two weeks I’ve heard from scores of people concerned about, Bill C-10 — An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act.

Despite its name, this Liberal bill is nothing short of an assault on free expression.

The bill would allow the government to regulate and restrict “broadcasts.”

What will they define as “broadcasts” you ask? 

“It’s your Facebook post. It’s your tweet. It’s your cat videos. It’s your pictures of your children and grandchildren and that sort of stuff,” said Peter Menzies, former CRTC vice-chair.

Canada is a free society and in a free society people need to have the freedom to access the internet.

This bill is completely out of line. 

If you agree please sign my petition against the Liberal government’s plan to censor free speech on the internet.

Instagram censored my comments on Trudeau’s vaccine failure

Watch my interview with CityNews Edmonton above. 

Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we are in 2021. Sometimes it feels like we’re in 1984. 

Last week, I shared a graphic noting the global scrutiny Justin Trudeau’s failure to procure vaccines has come under.

This is a well documented issue and multiple international and Canadian news agencies have commented on it, including CNN, BBC, etc.

Yet, despite the factualness of the post, Instagram censored it.

This is extremely alarming.

The idea that web giants are silencing Canadians when they criticize our government is an outrage. 

There’s serious problems with the Liberals COVID-19 policies. Every Canadian needs to be free to voice their concerns and push for better outcomes. After all, that’s what democracy is all about.

If you are looking for up-to-date information on the COVID-19 virus and public health announcements please check with Alberta Health Services or the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Must see video: Liberals ridiculous defence of online censorship

Liberal Minister Steven Guilbeault offers his confused rationale for taking out “user-generated” content from Bill C-10. Watch the video and judge for yourself. 

We Conservatives remain the only federal party opposed to the Liberals online censorship bill. 

The Liberals have failed on vaccines 

Dozens of countries around the world have fully vaccinated more people against COVID than Canada. Liberals have failed Canadians.

May is MS Awareness Month

Great to talk with the good folks of the MS Society. Let’s all do our part and support everyone living with MS.

I had a great chat with the leaders of the Africa Centre

I’m always glad to meet with our friends at the Africa Centre to help support the good work they do in the community.