It's policy time! UCP members are now voting on 30 policy resolutions to become part of the party's official policy. First up: "Defend Alberta's economy and autonomy by opposing all attempts by the Federal government to impose net zero by 2035."

Resolution passes pretty nearly unanimously. (Chair saw "two or three" no votes).

THREAD: The Conservatives and the PPC are having it out about the World Economic Forum right now, so some fact checking (and context) is important. Portage–Lisgar Conservative candidate Branden Leslie is chirping PPC leader Maxime Bernier for having attended Davos.

https://twitter.com/BrandenCPC/status/1666549878686720000

BREAKING: "Eminent Canadian" and Trudeau family friend David Johnston advises against public inquiry into Chinese interference in Canadian elections. Johnston's report has five conclusions:

- Foreign governments are interfering in Canadian elections
- "In full context," leaked materials were "misconstrued in some media reporting"
- There are "serious shortcomings" in how intelligence is communicated and processed

BREAKING: Public Order Emergency Commission finds the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act was appropriate. Commissioner Paul Rouleau writes that he reached this conclusion "with reluctance." He further says that some of the federal government's emergency measures were not appropriate.

First up on this morning’s agenda in Davos: a press conference about the metaverse and the World Economic Forum’s Global Collaboration Village with Klaus Schwab, Microsoft’s Brad Smith, and Accenture’s Julie Sweet. Microsoft’s Smith says the vision is a “village without borders.” Schwab says the Global Collaboration Village is a “true global village in a virtual space.”

This year, business leaders reportedly had to pay $250,000 to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. Per the WEF, politicians get in for free. In many countries, cash-for-access events are illegal. Yet that seems to be the entire premise of this meeting. The World Economic Forum says its mandate is bring the private and public sectors together to "shape global, regional and industry agendas." It's not an intergovernmental organization, though world leaders arguably treat it as one.

You can be against the Freedom Convoy and also be against the Emergencies Act. The debate is not about whether the convoy was good or bad, but whether it constituted a threat to the security of Canada rising to the level of a national emergency, as defined by the law. There are several key sections of the Emergencies Act and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act that people need to read before they sound off on whether Justin Trudeau was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Back at the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings today. First up on the witness list today is Chris Barber, who is the first of anyone affiliated with the convoy to testify. Here he is with Tom Marazzo, Tamara Lich, and lawyer Eva Chipiuk. We're in session!

In this text conversation, Mary-Liz Power of Justin Trudeau's office says there might be an opportunity for Marco Mendicino to "get in on this growing narrative" of the convoy truckers being "extreme." Power references the Liberal Research Bureau doing research into the convoy's backers. This is the partisan operations wing under the auspices of the Liberal party, not the federal government.

Tamara Lich just walked over to former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly and shook his hand. Public Order Emergency Commission is now in session. Today, former chief Sloly will be cross-examined.

BREAKING: The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed the challenge of Western University’s booster vaccine mandate. Justice Kelly Tranquilli found that Western is “expressly permitted to govern its affairs,” defending its right to impost a mandate even in the absence of a provincial mandate.

The legal challenge against the Trudeau government's vaccine mandate for air travel is in Federal Court today. The case at bar is not the challenge of the mandate, but rather the federal government's motion to strike the challenge as "moot." The federal government's position, being laid out right now by the Attorney General's lawyer, is that because the air travel vaccine mandate was suspended in June, the case is only "hypothetical and abstract" because the unvaccinated have been able to travel freely since June.

Here's the manipulative ad pushing vaccination on children that the City of Toronto published then deleted today. This video isn't a one-off. It's part of a multi-part campaign. In this video, the City of Toronto suggests you should keep family members from your infant unless the infant is vaccinated.

I'm in Zoom court right now as lawyer @LDBildy challenges, along with @TDF_Can, Western's vaccine mandate on behalf of several students. Some housekeeping taking place now, but there are 3.5 hours allotted for oral submissions, beginning with Bildy. @LDBildy @TDF_Can Some key context here: this is not a constitutional challenge at this stage. The mandate is being challenged on a narrow ground based on privacy law, which the application asserts the vaccine mandate violates. tnc.news/2022/08/30/wes…

BREAKING: A judge has granted Tamara Lich bail: she will be released from custody immediately. Judge says Lich's alleged breach of bail conditions is "tenuous," if it happened at all. He says Lich has demonstrated strict adherence with her conditions, as evidenced in part by her seeking to change the conditions in courts, and discussions between Lich and her surety.

BREAKING: Justice of the Peace Paul Harris has denied Tamara Lich's request for bail on her charge of breaching bail conditions. Lich will remain in jail until a trial on the breach charge. Justice of the Peace Paul Harris says the continuation of freedom protests in Ottawa and elsewhere means Tamara Lich, as a convoy organizer, poses a risk to the public.

Every time Justin Trudeau speaks about the unvaccinated, he sounds more callous. It's not a "choice" if the state is denying you the right to travel and work. Consent under duress is not consent. And state-imposed penalties are not natural "consequences." cbc.ca/news/politics/… Trudeau also stands by his "fringe minority" nonsense. He's claiming he was only talking about those using hateful language, but he was actually talking about all those "on their way to Ottawa."

Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich presented with George Jonas Freedom Award by @JCCFCanada. “From wolf to Chihuahua, from free to dependent on a master we go — from inventors, explorers, creative geniuses to a global mass of mediocrity.” - Tamara Lich

I'm on my way home after spending the week in Davos covering the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. I'll release some more of my coverage in the next couple of days, and will do full recap show tomorrow. But some closing thoughts in the thread below. People have been talking more about WEF in the last few months than I can ever recall. I wanted to focus on the people and the policies, to neutralize against the tired attack that any criticisms of WEF are "conspiracy theories."

Klaus Schwab is formally opening this year's World Economic Forum annual meeting. Schwab asks all Ukrainian delegates to stand so others can applaud them.

"We didn't want to use the Emergencies Act," Justin Trudeau says. "Invoking the Emergencies Act has been necessary," he adds.