Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 8, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A2 TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM VOL 151 NO 116 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2022 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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INSIDE Arts and Life C1 Business B5 Classifieds D7 Comics C5 Diversions C6-7 Horoscope C4 Jumble C6 Miss Lonelyhearts C4 Obituaries D6 Opinion A6-7 Sports D1 Television C4 Weather B8 COLUMNISTS: Deveryn Ross A7 Jen Zoratti C1 READER SERVICE ● GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 CIRCULATION INQUIRIES MISSING OR INCOMPLETE PAPER? Call or email before 10 a.m. weekdays or 11 a.m. Saturday City: 204-697-7001 Outside Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 press 1 6:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday-Friday.; 7 a.m. - noon Saturday; Closed Sunday TO SUBSCRIBE: 204-697-7001 Out of Winnipeg: 1-800-542-8900 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada PHARMACIST ● FROM A1 SANCTIONS ● FROM A1 STEFANSON ● FROM A1 W HAT do they mean by “true conservative?”Sown into the narrative of the September Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership campaign is yet another a debate about who or what is truly conservative. Or, to be completely accurate in the context of the current leadership race, “truly Conservative.” Leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre has become the latest advocate of the true Conservative movement. Fluently bilingual, born in Calgary, and now hold- ing a seat in the greater Ottawa area, Poilievre is a fiscal and social conserva- tive with strong libertarian sensibilities, a skepticism about climate change and a refined grasp of retail politics. Poilievre is considered the front-run- ner in the race to replace former leader Erin O’Toole, although he’s also the only declared candidate right now. But even without a formal opponent to battle, he’s clearly concerned about reports suggesting that former Quebec premier and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada leader Jean Charest is considering a run. Perhaps to discourage him from entering the race, Poilievre’s forces are letting the party members know that Charest is not a “true Conservative.” The rhetoric is becoming danger- ously unstable. Recently, Tory MP Shannon Stubbs, who is from Alber- ta, tweeted a meme of Charest and Trudeau together with the message that “our leader must share our values and respect our policies.” Statements like this start to sound dangerously sectarian. It doesn’t mat- ter whether you’re talking about race, religion or political ideology, anyone touting the “one true way” is really just trying to bludgeon dissent and debate within an institution. How do Poilievre and his supporters come to this conclusion about Charest? Once a leader of the now-defunct fed- eral PCs, Charest left federal politics and went on to become the premier of Quebec and leader (gasp!) of the Que- bec Liberal party. Western conserva- tives may gag at Charest’s career path but informed sources know the Quebec Liberal party has very little in common with the federal Liberal party. Moreover, Quebec political pundits understand many federal Conserva- tives park their provincial votes with the Liberals. Disparaging Charest’s time as a provincial Liberal may help Poilievre win support in Western Canada, but it won’t help his party’s flagging fortunes in Quebec. None of that stopped MPs, Senators and strategists supporting Poilievre from assailing Charest as having ques- tionable Conservative credentials. Poilievre supporters have accused Charest of unforgivable sins of supporting gun control, advocating for carbon pricing to combat climate change and otherwise embracing “an- ti-energy” policies that would devas- tate Canada’s oil and gas industry. It’s almost as if the entire party failed to embrace the painful lessons dealt to them in the last federal election. In a bid to defuse the Liberal party’s tenuous hold on power, O’Toole tried to muzzle ugly socially conservative notions, moderate his party’s posi- tion on climate change and pandemic management and avoid getting drawn into the quagmire of debates on things such as gun control. When he lost, he was labelled a turncoat by many of the people who are now lining up behind Poilievre. Those people simply will not accept that O’Toole’s failure in last fall’s election was not due to his refusal to adopt far-right values; his defeat was sown by a party that refuses to give up values and policies that only appeal to a small, angry constituency. The biggest problem for the CPC now is there appears to be little chance of going back and making the party more moderate, and thus more competitive. The evolution of the CPC — from Progressive Conservative through the Canadian Alliance party — has shown an increasing appetite to lurch the party to the right. Former leader and prime minister Stephen Harper tried soft-selling true Conservatism to voters until, in 2015, he let the country see just how far right of centre he really was. To borrow heavily from Monty Python’s infamous Dead Parrot skit, the progressive conservative move- ment that married the ideas of socially progressive and fiscally conservative has simply “expired.” It’s metabolic processes are now history. It’s kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible. This is an ex-movement. And what will replace it? It looks increasingly likely the CPC is headed to the far-right fringes of the political wilderness. Under Poilievre, it’s easy to see the party attempt a raid on the ranks of the People’s Party of Canada to create a new and potent right-wing movement, a la Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” juggernaut. The problem is that to achieve true power as a true Conservative in Can- ada, he needs to win more seats than any other party. If Trump had to win seats, as opposed to votes in a popular- ity contest, he would not have become president. Poilievre seems destined to follow a political strategy that simply does not work in a Canadian context. Perhaps Charest, or another viable moderate, will run against Poilievre and make the CPC a truly national political party. More likely is a scenario where he wins the leadership, alienates conser- vative voters outside of Western Cana- da, and allows the Liberals to continue governing on the slimmest of electoral margins. Apparently, this is the fate that awaits the true Conservatives. dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca Far-right trajectory dooms Tories to political wilderness DAN LETT OPINION ● MORE TORY LEADERSHIP / B4 Thorkelson “had no direct in- volvement in these events,” Suche said. “They appear to have been relayed to him as they unfolded by the pharmaceutical manager of River East.” The U.K. regulator found no evi- dence of misconduct by River East or CareMed. Both Health Canada and the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba completed investigations in 2012, but took no action. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an indictment against Thorkelson, CanadaDrugs, River East, two other corporations in the business group and several employ- ees, on smuggling, money launder- ing, and conspiracy charges. In a deal with U.S. justice author- ities, Thorkelson agreed in 2018 to plead guilty in a Montana court to one charge of misprision, a U.S. offence in which a guilty person has knowledge of an offence, did not no- tify authorities as soon as possible, and took steps to conceal it. The basis for the charge rested on a March 2012 email Thorkelson sent to CanadaDrugs.com employees claiming CanadaDrugs had “abso- lutely no connection to selling and offering Avastin given that Cana- daDrugs.com has never offered that product for sale.” CanadaDrugs, River East, and a third company in the business group, Rockley Ventures, pleaded guilty to introducing and delivering misbranded pharmaceuticals and selling and dispensing counterfeit drugs in exchange for all other charges being dropped. Thorkelson was sentenced to five years probation, including six months house arrest, and agreed to pay a fine of $250,000 and $30,000 in restitution. Thorkelson has no prior disci- plinary history and has been pun- ished for his actions, including the shuttering of CanadaDrugs.com, Suche said. Cancelling a professional licence is an “extreme penalty” to be con- sidered in the light of the conduct underlying the offence, Suche said. “While (Thorkelson) did not take steps to notify (the U.K. regula- tor), he was told River East and CareMed agreed that CareMed would do so” and was told that the FDA was also notified of the situa- tion, Suche said. “Thus, while he failed in a legal obligation to notify an authority that the Avastin was defective, it seems fair to say that he believed that both the U.K. and American authorities were notified, and in fact they both were notified,” she said. A call to Thorkelson’s lawyer for comment was not returned by dead- line Monday. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca As health minister, Stefanson should have been aware the pressure building in Manitoba’s intensive-care units was too great to handle locally, based on the multiple briefings she had with health-care executives, Kinew said. “It was very clear that the premier knew when she made these comments to the public that everything was fine, she knew better than that,” he said. At the time, Stefanson said health- care leaders were focused on increas- ing staffing to meet critical-care demand. “As the ICU numbers continue to grow, as we expect them to, over the course of the next couple of weeks… we will continue to ensure that we are staffing to be able to handle that capac- ity,” Stefanson told reporters on May 18. “If we have to redeploy staff, we’ll redeploy staff to ensure we handle the capacity.” The day prior, then-chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa told reporters sending patients to Thunder Bay was an option Shared Health was exploring if capacity in Manitoba was exceed- ed, and cautioned local capacity was dependent on staffing. According to the province, up to 173 critical-care spaces could be functional if staff were available and assigned. “I have not had any discussions with Ontario or Saskatchewan on helping us out but I think any possibility could be available to us if we would want to explore, if we needed to,” Siragusa said at the time. However, front-line health-care providers were already raising alarms over intensive-care unit capacity, add- ing there wouldn’t be enough trained staff to care for patients as COVID-19 cases rose, regardless of how many beds and ventilators were available, the Free Press reported. In a statement Monday, a spokesper- son for Shared Health said as part of contingency planning “to prepare for any and all circumstances,” conversa- tions began with jurisdictions across Canada regarding critical-care capaci- ty in May 2021. Documents show Stefanson met with Topp the evening of May 18. The fol- lowing day, Stefanson said the decision to send critically ill Manitobans out of jurisdiction was made by health-care professionals following a surge in demand for beds. Between May 13 and 17, there were 34 COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU beds in Manitoba, representing nearly half of the pre-pandemic capacity. “We all knew the ICUs were on the verge of being overrun, and so did the government,” Kinew said. “That’s what these documents show. The govern- ment was making plans because they knew that the ICUs were about to run out of space.” Over the course of the third wave, a total of 57 COVID-19 patients were transferred out of Manitoba and 12 died while being treated in facilities elsewhere. danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca The Russian bombardment in Ukraine entered its 12th day Monday, with more than 360 civilian casualties thus far. Trudeau also had an audience with the Queen at Windsor Castle Monday. This was the Queen’s first in-person audience with a leader since she tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 20. Trudeau said she was very insightful as they discussed the current global situation. “I’ve had the particular privilege of having known Her Majesty 45 years,” said Trudeau, who first met the Queen as a child with his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. The current prime minister said she was “very interested in what’s going on” and that he found their conversation “really useful.” Trudeau is now in Latvia, where tomorrow he will meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. He will also visit the Latvian military base where hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel are contributing to Canada’s leadership in that country of NATO’s long-standing deterrence mission to bolster its eastern European flank against Russia. Later this week he will have meet- ings in Warsaw, Poland, and Berlin. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Free- land will join him in Germany. — The Canadian Press MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Heather Stefanson enters the legislative chamber on Wednesday, where she faced accusations she misled Manitobans about provincial ICU capacity as health minister in May 2021. A_02_Mar-08-22_FP_01.indd 2 2022-03-07 9:24 PM ;