Edit: The School Shooting in BC this morning highlights even more the damage done by these, frankly, selfish people misleading the stupid. Wasting resources on make belief problems affects real Canadians.
It is ridiculous that I have to do this but here is a reminder about the difference between the honesty and the truth. A brief reminder – you can’t have honest without truth. Truth without honest is as useful as lies.
Let’s examine Pierre Poliviere’s latest fascist post. Fascist? Is that hyperbole? Is it an emotional response? Isn’t it an overreaction?
Well no, if you have the patience to read through this article you’ll see why the CPC’s positions on ‘legal reform’ are as stupid as Donald Trump’s tariff plans or injecting yourself with ivermectin. We are all familiar with the phrase ‘dog whistle’ from dishonest politicians to ashamed to clearly state certain positions but wanting to court vote from those who we truly should describe as despicable. This is a dog whistle from the Conservative Party and part of a pattern of trying to create a (perceived) situation so that they can offer a solution.
Lets start with the ad/post being discussed. This appeared in my Facebook feed today:
What can we deduce or infer if we just look at this message?
We can infer that non-citizens and asylum claimants are committing crimes.
We can infer that when non-citizens and asylum claimants commit crimes they are nor forced to leave the country.
Honesty requires providing contextual accuracy so that a reasonable person wouldn’t draw a fundamentally different conclusion if they were presented with all the relevant surrounding information, qualifications, and circumstances that bear on a statement’s meaning and implications.
When one clicks on the link here is the full text of the webpage you are taken to:
Conservative.ca Stop Extortion Page Text
Lets add these fact from the Conservatives to our list:
- Extortion in Canada is up 330%
- Bill C5 allows extortionists out of prison
- Individuals charged with serious crimes are allowed to apply for refugee status
- Violent offenders are being allowed on the streets.
It ALL SOUNDS SO REASONABLE. Why wouldn’t you believe it? Before we quickly dissect this message a quick detour on how adults and responsible humans come to a position before we examine how dishonest and despicable this claim is.
I’d like to take a brief detour now to explain how Canadians should determine what is and isn’t an issue before we look at how Pierre and his ilk come to these conclusions.
The adult way to look at and assess a situation is to:
- collect data
- assess that data for accuracy
- create a realistic thesis based upon the accuracy, amount and content of the data
- create a solution for the problem
For example if I wanted to make an argument that the justice system is being underfunded leading to dangers to the public I would use information like:
- The Office of the Federal Investigator data and
- Ombudsman’s reports and
- Population Data from Stats Canada
- Operational Data from Correctional Services Canada
and more.
Now, I don’t expect a conservative to do this because conservatives are overwhelmingly anti-intellectual, anti-academic and anti-honest. Again this isn’t a matter of bias. Think of every major issue for which we have clear, uncontroversial proof and you will find the Conservatives were on the wrong side.
They said free hospitalization for Canadians wouldn’t work.
They fought the Canada Health Act.
They said tobacco was safe.
They said trickle down economics would work, it didn’t.
They said coal from sulphur plants didn’t contribute to acid rain.
They said climate change wasn’t real.
They lied or couldn’t understand the carbon impact of oil sands extraction.
They opposed wearing masks during the covid epidemic (or at least happily amplified the voices spreading misinformation).
They tried to destroy one of the most accurate and most respected censuses in the world because of ‘complaints from the public’ (it was later disclosed there were less than 10 people who complained).
They wanted to go to war with Iraq over weapons everyone knew weren’t there (again, too stupid to see the obvious or too comfortable repeating lies).
So when a conservative makes a statement I think its reasonable to ask them for some evidence to substantiate their position.1
The overall implication from this post is that immigrants are committing crimes and that immigrants who commit serious crimes are allowed to stay in Canada. For those of you who don’t like numbers and statistics hang around – because I am go to show you a specific case that has been cited in response to the very ad we are discussing and you will realize just how inhumane and, I say it again, despicable, it is.
Well lets quickly dissect implications and inferences and implications from facts.
- We can infer that non-citizens and asylum claimants are committing crimes.
- We can infer that when non-citizens and asylum claimants commit crimes they are nor forced to leave the country.
- Extortion in Canada is up 330%
- Bill C5 allows extortionists out of prison
- Individuals charged with serious crimes are allowed to apply for refugee status
- Violent offenders are being allowed on the streets.
Obviously being conservatives they offer no empirical data to back up their assertions but lets look at them one by one.
| Conservative Claims & Direct Inferences | |
| Non-citizens and asylum seekers are committing crimes OR Non-citizens and asylum seekers are committing crimes at a higher rate than the general population OR Non-citizens and asylum seekers are | There is no empirical evidence that non-citizens or asylum seekers in Canada are responsible for an increase in crime. The statistics are easily available for analysis and this is just not substantiated by study. What we do know from academic studies is that non-citizens and asylum seekers generally don’t increase crime rates and areas where non-citizens settle tend to have lower crime rates than average within a few years. |
| We can infer that when non-citizens and asylum claimants commit crimes they are not forced to leave the country. | No, as is mentioned in passing this isn’t about what the ad says – forcing people convicted of serious crimes to leave the country, we already do that. This is about scapegoating innocent people and making the rights of every Canadian a little less secure. What we are talking about is revoking the rights of people for a judicial review to seek asylum. As the website makes clear they don’t even have to be guilty. If someone is charged they shouldn’t have a right to have their case heard! I understand why the uneducated and authoritarian would like this but actual Canadians? |
| Extortion in Canada is up 330% | Up 330% in 10 years! Well, lets look at the facts. First, 60% of extortion and fraud cases in recent years have been scam calls or internet cases. If we remove these the rate of extortion would be the same or lower. And within Canada police report that the majority of extortion complaints are non-violent and not even in person. So by definition that means at least 4 out of 5 crimes in this 330% number are irrelevant. Pierre’s people don’t know basic high school math. So tying this number to exporting immigrants makes no logical sense. It’s only purpose is as a dog whistle to racists to say we’ll unfairly target immigrants. But hold on lets how much is 330%? How bad is the problem? Well, adults, not conservatives but adults, would look at the per capita crime rate, lets do that. In 2020 extortions in Canada were reported at a rate of 15 per 100,000. In 2024 (last year stats Canada has published numbers for) the rate is 32 per 100,000. So in the time we have seen cyber crime and overseas fraud increase to almost 60% of extortion cases, the increase referenced by the conservatives corresponds almost directly to. |
| Bill C5 allows extortionists out of prison. | It doesn’t. Not a single extortionist has left prison due to bill C5. Additionally bill C5 didn’t change the definition of extortion nor did it change the maximum sentence which is still life imprisonment. All bill C5 says is that if a crime (which would include extortion) is committed and a person is convicted the judge gets to decide the sentence. Like every other law in Canada. The fact: Bill C-5 removed some mandatory minimums from a mix of non-violent drug offences and certain firearm offences, some of which involve violent conduct or threats. |
| Individuals charged with serious crimes are allowed to apply for refugee status | Anyone familiar with the most basic fundamentals of Canadian Law and Rights will see the first problem with this right away. Individuals charged with crimes are presumed innocent until found guilty. That is a fundamental principle that protects all Canadians. If you don’t recognize this you are not fit to be a Canadian MP. Application for refugee status for those with serious criminal convictions are almost never approved. Again, a complete absence of empirical data. If this is a problem show me the old numbers and show me the new. And here are some numbers to show you the scope of the problem today – total number of refugee claims (by everyone), annually in Canada: 2022: ~90,000+ (significant rise) 2023: ~157,000 2024: ~171,840 (record high) 2025 (Forecast/Partial): 57,440+ in just the first six months. Early 2025 saw a 33-37% decrease in the rate of new claims compared to 2024, leading to projections of 114,000–120,000 for the full year. 2026 (Forecast): Projected to be around 55,000–58,000 due to tighter policies and reduced temporary resident volumes. |
| Violent offenders are being allowed on the streets. | Most of the people referred to in these statistics have never and will never be in Canada, those in Canada aren’t generally violent and violent offenders are deported. With due process. As it should be. |
I will categorically state that there are many problems with Canada’s legal system. Criminal lawyers I speak to acknowledge the unfairness and capriciousness of our system at times. It is slow, it requires subjective interpretations and it isn’t always transparent. Also a surprising amount of judicial weight rests on whether or not a particular justice has had lunch that day. Our criminal system has real problems. We have over crowding in jails, an inability to bring people to trial in a reasonable time, serious questions as to the fairness and application of Gladue and numerous other real issues. Emotional appeals based on manipulated data however detract from the real issues and important conversations that we need to have.
Either the Parliamentary offices of conservative MP’s are staffed by the stupidest of individuals who don’t know how to understand statistics, determine the credibility of a source, and agree with people stupid enough to tell people that, ‘Maybe vaccines don’t work,’ or the Conservative party thinks Canadians in general, and conservatives in particular, are idiots.
So to summarize – the crimes being referred to aren’t only not being committed by immigrants, most aren’t even committed in Canada. And the vast majority of the crimes referenced are non-violent. The few non-Canadian’s who do commit violent crimes overwhelmingly, do get deported – the conservatives just want to be able to curtail that individuals due process rights. And oh yeah violent extortion crimes probably haven’t increased either.
Yet everything the said gave you the opposite idea.
Conservatives think you are stupid.
Not a single statement or reference corresponds or supports the positions when one looks at them closely. The only thing here to be said is that just like in the US the Canadian conservatives have been moving away from the ideas of fair democracy and honest dialogue for decades. They have managed to bring together all the worst elements of Canada – fascists, separationists, racists, libertarian extremists, anti-science, anti-medicine, anti-education – into one party. And have reached a point where they are not even concerned with creating the impression of intellectual honesty. intellectual honesty. When 47% of your party want to surrender to the US as quickly as possible even if you are a decent person and part of the other half, you are enabling the worst in Canada.
At the beginning of this article I promised an example of a case used by a conservative defender. Rather than detract from the information here however, because I feel it is substantial and important in its own right, I’ll do a write up on that shortly and update this soon to be link. (Think about subscribing if you want a reminder).
Finally I would love honest and considered thoughts on this post so feel free to reply or write. Is there anyway that the conservative position between their post and their page can be considered ‘honest’? Shouldn’t Canadians demand more from their conservative party than them trying to imitate their friends in the south?
