Monday Post

Quickly now....


Is it a good idea to raise the minimum wage in an economically depressed province that used to have some of the lowest energy costs in the country but are now too high for the manufacturing sector to remain?

Ontario's Liberal government will move quickly to retroactively raise the $10.25 an hour minimum wage, which has been frozen for four years, sources said Monday.

Government sources told The Canadian Press there would be an announcement later this week to hike the minimum wage retroactively to 2010, based on the rate of inflation since then — which ranged from 0.91 to 2.9 per cent.

Premier Kathleen Wynne joked with reporters at an Ottawa news conference Monday when they tried repeatedly to find out what the new minimum wage would be.

"What you're trying to do is come at the number from any angle, but I'm not going to take the bait," Wynne said with a chuckle.

"Really, you're not going to have to wait a long time because we have a pretty good idea of where we want to go, so very soon you will get that number."

The Ontario Convenience Stores Association said Monday it likes seeing future increases in the minimum wage tied to the inflation rate, and wasn't concerned by a retroactive hike back to 2010, saying "it looks very minimal and will protect jobs."

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce had recommended future changes in the minimum wage to be tied to the rate of inflation, but the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses was not happy with the prospect of a retroactive increase.

"Businesses can't go back to their customers and retroactively charge more fees for their products and services, so really why should government be able to do this," asked CFIB policy analyst Nicole Troster?

"I think any kind of increase, be it an increase in the hourly rate or retroactive increases, it's going to make it difficult for businesses to cope, period."

 
This is the Ontario Premier Wynne wants and so do the people who vote for her. If not, this wouldn't be a going concern.


Obama needs to go. Now:

Billionaire Obama donor Tom Steyer, who is funding and leading the environmentalist campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, will air an anti-Keystone ad on MSNBC before and after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. The minute-long ad, entitled "Sucker Punch," claims that Canada may not send its tar sand oil through the pipeline to the U.S., and implies it will send the oil to China instead. ...

Steyer has also been criticized for having made much of his fortune through investments in the oil and gas industry. Ezra Levant of Sun News wrote last year: "Steyer hasn't campaigned against OPEC oil. It's Canadian oil he's against. The same Canadian oil that helped make him rich." Steyer is also investing in a rival pipeline that would carry the oil to the Canadian province of British Columbia. He promises to donate the profits.
 
It is thought that Steyer's donations, and his ability to organize other donors in the San Francisco area, play a key role in the Obama administration's repeated decisions to delay the Keystone XL project. Steyer hosted fundraisers for Obama last year on Billionaires' Row in San Francisco at which the president famously predicted that Nancy Pelosi would recover the Speaker's gavel in the House of Representatives.

Forget about Big Oil. Worry about Big Donors.


It is believed that Kim Jong-Un has executed much of his uncle's family:

All relatives of the executed uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, including children and the country's ambassadors to Cuba and Malaysia, have also been put to death at the leader's instruction, multiple sources said Sunday.

Jang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle, was executed last month on charges of attempting to overthrow the communist regime, including contemplating a military-backed coup. All direct relatives of Jang have also been executed, the sources said.

"Extensive executions have been carried out for relatives of Jang Song-thaek," one source said on condition of anonymity. "All relatives of Jang have been put to death, including even children."

 The executed relatives include Jang's sister Jang Kye-sun, her husband and Ambassador to Cuba Jon Yong-jin, and Ambassador to Malaysia Jang Yong-chol, who is a nephew of Jang, as well as his two sons, the sources said. 

All of them were recalled to Pyongyang in early December and executed, they said. The sons, daughters and even grandchildren of Jang's two brothers were all executed, they said.

It was unclear exactly when they were killed, but they are believed to have been put to death after Jang's death on Dec. 12.

If true (and how can one know given the hermit kingdom's nature and the popular press' complete inability to do its job, instead giving softball interviews to lame-duck politicians and teeny-bopper stars?), it represents a new and dangerous kind of insanity that even the most deluded North Korean citizen may not be able to stand.

Also: is it bullsh--?

(Kamsahamnida)


Do you know who else is under attack? Christians.

Central African Republic's Muslim minority faces a rising wave of reprisal attacks and foreign governments must do more to prevent the country being torn apart, the top U.N. human rights official said on Monday.

Almost one million people, or a quarter of the population, have been displaced by fighting since the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel movement seized power in the majority Christian country last March, unleashing a wave of killing and looting.

Christian self-defense groups, known as "anti-balaka" or anti-machete, have taken up arms against them and the United Nations estimates that more than 2,000 people have been killed in the resulting bloodshed over the past 10 months.

We don't have to be a part of the UN.


If we forget one genocide, we may forget all of them.


Check out the Fur for all your news and punchy commentary needs.


Strangely enough, this kind of thing has happened before:

Thieves broke into a small church in the mountains east of Rome over the weekend and stole a reliquary with the blood of the late Pope John Paul II, a custodian said on Monday.

In 1788, Australia became a nation. Discuss.



And now, countries, together, in food. Enjoy.