Freedom Wins July 2026

The Crown has withdrawn a $28,872.50 ticket issued to Nova Scotia veteran Jeffrey Evely for violating the province’s controversial 2025 “woods ban,” after the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ruled the blanket restriction unconstitutional. The Court found the government failed to properly consider Canadians’ Charter rights—including mobility rights—before prohibiting access to most wooded areas in the province.  A federal jury awarded nearly $12.7 million to Lisa Domski after finding that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unlawfully discriminated against her by denying her religious exemption request to its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and firing her after more than three decades with the company. The verdict sends a strong reminder that employers must seriously consider sincerely held religious beliefs and cannot simply dismiss them when enforcing workplace policies. A parliamentary committee has recommended that Ottawa not expand MAiD to people whose sole condition is mental illness. The planned expansion is currently delayed until March 2027, but the committee says Canada should keep the exclusion in place indefinitely. The trespassing case against Dr. Frances Widdowson has been stayed, ending the prosecution that followed her 2025 arrest at the University of Victoria. Widdowson was arrested (and briefly jailed) after attempting to hold a public discussion on campus about disputed claims surrounding unmarked graves at former residential schools. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which supported her legal defence, called the outcome an important victory for freedom of expression and open inquiry, since criminalizing peaceful discussion has no place at a taxpayer-funded university. US President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate research, regulatory review, and allow patient access to investigational psychedelic therapies—including ibogaine compounds—for serious mental illness. It’s a stunning blow to the pharmaceutical industry, especially as growing research suggests that a single dose of certain natural psychedelics may help relieve symptoms of PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and other serious neurological conditions for months at a time. Five years after headlines around the world declared that the remains of 215 children had been found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, The Globe and Mail’s editorial board has acknowledged that no such discovery has ever been proven. The paper admitted that the media—including itself—reported the claim as fact without demanding evidence, calling it a “failure of journalism” and reaffirming that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.  A proposed amendment to Bill C-9 that would have made “residential school denialism” a criminal offence under Canada’s hate laws has been successfully rejected by the Senate. Whatever one’s views on the subject, Canadians are better served when historical claims are challenged through evidence and debate—not prosecuted under the Criminal Code. Recent surveys suggest the wave of students identifying as nonbinary is reversing. The percentage of Brown University and Phillips Academy Andover students identifying as nonbinary is now half of what it was a couple of years ago, while a nationwide FIRE survey of more than 50,000 students found nonbinary identification nearly halved—from 6.8% to 3.6%—as the percentage identifying as heterosexual rose from 68% to 77%. Pride Toronto faced a $700,000 funding shortfall going into this year’s parade, with organizers warning future events may be scaled back if sponsorships continue to decline. Cleveland Clinic has agreed to stop providing pediatric gender-transition procedures for 20 years and commit up to $2 million toward care for eligible patients seeking to “detransition” after treatments they received as minors. The DOJ resolution also includes a $308,000 payment over alleged false billings. After years of parents, whistleblowers, and detransitioners being dismissed for raising alarms, one of America’s largest hospital systems is now being forced to put money behind the very patients the system once insisted did not exist. More Canadian parents are saying no to the newborn vitamin K shot. Alberta put the refusal rate at just 0.3% in 2012, while a 2026 review says Canada is now seeing rates of 1% to 3%. While the refusal rate is still low, it means parents are questioning whether this “standard” injection is necessary for their baby’s health. A new CDC report shows that, in America, only 17% of adults received the 2025─26 COVID-19 vaccine. Merck & Co has agreed to pay $50 million to settle more than 200 lawsuits brought against the drug giant by patients suffering with autoimmune disorders after receiving the Gardasil vaccine. According to Merck, this settlement resolves all but one of the pending lawsuits filed against its HPV vaccine. Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has launched the Task Force to End Liberal Racism, a parliamentary initiative aimed at exposing how DEI policies are being applied across federal programs and public institutions. Jivani says these policies have drifted far beyond preventing discrimination—and now openly encourage hiring, promotions, funding, and opportunity based partly on race, sex, ancestry, or other identity categories. Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa, has launched a civil lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution and negligent investigation against Ottawa police, Ontario officials, and others involved in her case. After years of arrests, bail conditions, court battles, and national scrutiny, Lich says the lawsuit is not just about her—it is about forcing transparency and accountability so no Canadian engaging in peaceful political dissent is ever treated in this manner again.