Saturday Post

Lots to talk about...


After his capture in Belgium, Salah Abdeslam, the key suspect in last year's attacks in Paris, intends on fighting his extradition to France:

Key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam will fight his extradition to France from Belgium where he was formally charged Saturday with "terrorist murder" after his dramatic capture in central Brussels.

French President Francois Hollande said shortly after Abdeslam's arrest Friday that he wanted to see him transferred to France as quickly as possible to face prosecution for the deadly attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

"I can already tell you that we will oppose his extradition," Abdeslam's lawyer Sven Mary told reporters at federal police headquarters in Brussels.

Legal experts said this could delay but not prevent his handover to the French authorities on a European Arrest Warrant which the European Union introduced specifically to speed up extradition cases.

 
Why am I not surprised?




Muslim police officers refuse to protect synagogues:

A leaked confidential memo from the Department of Public Security, published by Le Parisien, details 17 cases of police officers radicalized between 2012 and 2015. Particularly noted were the police officers who listen to and broadcast Muslim chants while on patrol.

Some of these police officers have openly refused to protect synagogues or to observe a minute of silence to commemorate the deaths of victims of terrorist attacks.

 
Overlooking the obvious: why do synagogues have to be protected at all?

Oh, yes. The "restive" population.




What is Canada doing to stop the genocide of Christians in the Middle East?

Nothing.

Trudeau called prioritising Christians "disgusting". They had their chance to get free parkas.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is hell-bent on exterminating ancient Christian communities across the Middle East.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry finally confirmed this Thursday when he declared ISIL was guilty of genocide against Christians and other minority groups in Iraq and Syria. This follows a similar declaration by the European Union last month.

(Sidebar: after Trump repeatedly pointed the fact while campaigning. There is nothing like humiliation to get things going in Washington.)

ISIL’s outrages against Christians in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen had created a political firestorm on Capitol Hill the Obama administration clearly felt compelled to respond to.

Regrettably the violent persecution of Christians across the Islamic world never seems to cause a sustained stir in Canada. The lack of interest in actively defending Christians and other minorities in Iraq from harm was underscored by the Trudeau’s government decision last month to withdraw Canadian warplanes from combat operations against ISIL. It presumably explains why Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has been non-committal about whether to close the Office for Religious Freedom or appoint another ambassador to oversee it when its mandate and funding run out in two weeks. ...

In one of the most heinous acts, ISIL overran a compound last month in Yemen where sisters from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity cared for the elderly. Four nuns and 12 others were bound and shot in the head, then a priest was kidnapped. As many as 28 Ethiopian Christians were shot or beheaded by ISIL last year in Libya. ...
 
Such ghastly abominations are a reality of Christian life in the Middle East. It is perverse that other than occasional bland platitudes few Canadians appear to be moved by such horrors.

A softened Westerner seldom cares about real problems when he can't get his Instagram to work.

And who cares about Christians, anyway? They only built Western civilisation.




Or just don't let them in:

Migrants have been given a 24-hour deadline to reach Europe as leaders announced that anyone landing in Greece after midnight tonight (Saturday) would be swiftly deported.

Heaven forbid a pipeline should be built:

A rail company is getting ready to launch a feasibility study this spring into its plan to send trains full of oilsands bitumen from Fort McMurray, Alta., to Alaska.

From Delta Junction, in the Alaska interior, the oil would move in an existing pipeline — currently running well below its capacity — to the port of Valdez, where it would be loaded onto tankers and shipped to Asia. The railway would run about 2,400 kilometres.

Under the proposal from G Seven Generations Ltd., First Nations would hold a 50 per cent equity ownership stake in the project.

When at first you don't succeed, try, try again:

TransCanada has inked a $13-billion US deal that would help expand its already vast natural gas pipeline footprint.

The deal with Columbia Pipeline Group would create one of the largest regulated natural gas transmission businesses in North America, the Calgary-based energy giant said Thursday.

Columbia operates a 24,000-kilometre pipeline network that stretches from New York to the Gulf of Mexico.

The deal — which includes the assumption of $2.8 billion US in debt — represents a rare opportunity to snap up assets in the Marcellus and Utica shale gas regions of the northeastern U.S., said TransCanada CEO Russ Girling.

A communist visits a communist country:

Barack Obama on Sunday will become the first sitting U.S. president since 1928 to visit Cuba. 

Speaking of communists...

North Korea defied U.N. resolutions by firing a medium-range ballistic missile into the sea on Friday, Seoul and Washington officials said, days after its leader Kim Jong Un ordered weapons tests linked to its pursuit of a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

If the Liberals don't pay up, they might not be as cooperative next election:

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is facing increased pressure from aboriginal advocates to move beyond symbolism in his maiden budget and spell out how the federal government intends to reform its fiscal relationship with First Nations — an overhaul that could cost billions.

And now, that's not a gun. THIS is a gun!