Friday Post

Just before the week-end...




When your failed election promise doesn't pan out, why not blame someone else? It's better than admitting defeat, incompetence, arrogance or lack of persuasiveness:

Ramping up his rhetoric after axing his campaign promise to change Canada’s voting system, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attacked the very idea of proportional representation Thursday.
 
At an event in Iqaluit, a member of the public asked Trudeau a question about electoral reform. He suggested parties with ideas such as Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch’s — an apparent reference to her proposal to test immigrants for “Canadian values” — could be encouraged under a proportional representation system, which would align vote counts to seat counts, thus giving smaller parties an opportunity to have more say in parliament.

Those “fringe voices,” he said, would “end up holding the balance of power.” The current system works well, he added, because people “learn to get along” and don’t “amplify small voices.” 

“Do you think that Kellie Leitch should have her own party?” Trudeau said. “Proportional representation in any form would be bad for Canada.”

(Sidebar: funny. That's not what he said before. Kellie Leitch, by the way, was an orthopaedic pediatric surgeon, which beats snowboard instructor any day, and is only saying what most Canadians think - that culture matters.)

Let walking back on one's failed election promise be the default position, just like calling people crazy or xenophobic. It's a great distraction from the real issues.




What could possibly go wrong?

A schizophrenic man who was found not criminally responsible for beheading and cannibalizing a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus was granted an absolute discharge Friday.

That means he will no longer be subject to any conditions or monitoring to ensure he takes his medication.

Manitoba's Criminal Code Review Board granted a request from Will Baker's lawyer to give Baker his full freedom, nine years after the brutal stabbing that horrified passengers.

The board "is of the opinion that the weight of evidence does not substantiate that Mr. Baker poses a significant threat to the safety of the public," the written decision read in part.

Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, was initially kept in a secure wing of a psychiatric hospital.

 He was granted more freedom and privileges every year at his review board hearings, starting with escorted walks on the hospital grounds.

His doctors described him as a model patient who had not been treated for schizophrenia at the time of his attack. After his arrest and placement at the hospital, he responded well to medication and understood that he must continue to take it to keep his illness at bay, they said.

Baker started living on his own in a Winnipeg apartment last November but was still subject to rules and nightly monitoring to ensure he took his medication. His lawyer has asked the review board Monday to strip away the remaining conditions and give Baker complete freedom.

The victim's mother, Carol de Delley, has been outspoken against granting Baker freedom, arguing there would be no way to ensure he continued to take his medication.

She declined comment Friday in a Facebook post.

"I have no words," she wrote.

Also: for some reason, most Canadians (with the exception of the ever-deflective popular press) are disgusted by perverts:

Reports that a man accused of sexual assaults on six Edmonton teenage girls was a Syrian refugee have ignited a firestorm of reaction, from anti-immigration diatribes to criticism about how the media dealt with the story.

When a much-vaunted identity group that the current government needs as a voters block establishes a pattern of abuse and crime, it doesn't help that the popular press runs interference.




French Prime Minister told French people to get used to terrorist attacks:

French anti-terrorism forces arrested four people on Friday, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other base ingredients for fabricating a bomb, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

China has been aiding Iran in its missile program:

The Trump administration recently imposed sanctions on Iran for its missile test, and the sanctions reveal that Tehran’s missile program is backed by covert assistance from China.

Which makes this a bad idea:

President Trump just backed down from what could have been a serious fight with China.

On Thursday evening in Washington, he appeared to back away from confrontation with Beijing by agreeing to honour the one-China policy, during a lengthy telephone call with China’s President Xi Jinping.

Thanks for screwing over Taiwan, Donald. China knows it can play you now.




And now, Victorian Valentine card burns: