(Insert Title Here)

Lots to talk about....



Don't weigh options. Do it:

President Trump's administration is weighing sanctions against North Korea in an effort to curb Pyongyang's nuclear program, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The report says the sanctions would be aimed at placing diplomatic and economic pressure, specifically focused on Chinese banks conducting business with North Korea.

The latter seems a better approach. China, as North Korea's backer, is an integral part of the problem.




Yes, because if thinking individuals saw what they were up, they would try to stop them:

Opposition parties slammed the Liberal government on Tuesday for trying to “ram through” major changes to how the House of Commons does its business. 

With little notice, the Liberals moved Tuesday to have the Procedure and House Affairs committee study major changes to standing orders put forward by Liberal House leader Bardish Chagger, giving a tight June deadline and offering no indication that they wouldn’t use a majority to impose changes to House rules without opposition consent. 

The long list of items for study includes: halting House sittings on Fridays; only requiring the prime minister to be in question period one day a week; introducing electronic voting and restricting opposition parties’ ability to filibuster bills in committee. 

Liberals are trying to “ram through whatever the f— they want,” Conservative MP Scott Reid said in a rare outburst. He called maneuvers “despicable,” a “tissue of lies,” and a “contemptible abuse of our system,” calling the prime minister an “arrogant, selfish, rude individual” for trying to steamroll all opposition. 

His colleague Blake Richards said the Liberals’ attempt to use the committee to push changes through is “disgusting and pathetic.” 

In an unusual move Tuesday, Liberals repeatedly blocked opposition attempts to delay the motion, including extending the committee meeting — which was otherwise supposed to be hearing from Elections Canada officials, who were dismissed — well beyond its scheduled time. The committee was still sitting by the time question period began Wednesday.

Also:

It’s doubtful that Rand would be all that enthusiastic about Ottawa’s plan to boost middle-class fortunes by showering billions in federal money on thousands of upper-class business and political rent seekers. As a champion of the middle class, maybe Morneau could take up Rand as a policy guide rather than the redistributionists and panderers he now consults.

Because this is the most transparent government in 2017.

Or something:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's controversial family vacation to a private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan cost Canadian taxpayers more than $127,000, including thousands of dollars in per diems for government employees who also made the trip.

According to documents tabled in the House of Commons, overtime and shift differentials alone for the RCMP officers who accompanied him cost $18,735. The force paid another $53,253 in travel, accommodation and per diem costs.

Trudeau's flight to the Bahamas aboard a CC-144 Challenger cost the Department of National Defence $32,000, plus another $1,720 for food, beverages and associated fees.

Trudeau has come under fire in the House of Commons for taking the trip over the Christmas holidays and for his office's initial refusal to disclose where he was vacationing. Billionaire Aga Khan is the spiritual leader of the world's Ismaili Muslims.

Trudeau was accompanied on the trip by MP Seamus O'Regan and his husband, as well as Liberal Party president Anna Gainey and her husband, Tom Pitfield, a key member of Trudeau's election campaign team.

Trudeau has defended the trip, arguing that the Aga Khan is a longtime family friend. He has reimbursed taxpayers $4,895 for the trip — the cost of commercial plane tickets for him and his family.

Government security rules require that the prime minister not travel on commercial aircraft — even for personal vacations with their families.

For the refreshing honesty of it all, I wish that Chrystia Freeland would just admit that she has no damn idea what she will do about this:

Canada's government, under pressure from domestic steel firms, is expressing concern to U.S. officials about a proposed Buy America policy that could cause heavy Canadian job losses, people familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who wants firms to "Buy American and hire American," pledged in January to require new pipelines to use U.S.-made steel.

Canadian steel firms fear Trump's plan could badly hurt a highly-integrated North American industry, and are pressing Ottawa to take action, the people added.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland raised the issue with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in their first conversation on March 9 and underscored worries about potential job losses, said a source familiar with the matter.

A statement issued after the meeting merely said that Freeland had highlighted "the mutual benefits of the integrated Canada-U.S. steel industry" but made no mention of the conversation about job losses.

In Washington, a Commerce Department official said Freeland had raised the Buy American issue during the call and that Ross noted her concerns. The official did not give further details.

Freeland spokesman Alex Lawrence said the minister would "continue to defend our steel workers" but gave no details.

 


Because it's the CBC:

Harper should have defunded this rubbish network when he had the chance.

 
(Merci)




Oh, this must burn:

More than five years after the trial ended, the lawyer for one of the people convicted in the 2009 killing of four women in Kingston is suing his client’s husband for unpaid legal fees.

On the first day of a civil trial at the Frontenac County Court House, David Crowe, who defended Tooba Mohammad Yahya between mid-2009 and early 2012 on four counts of murder, said he is owed more than $100,000.

In late January 2012, Yahya, her husband, Mohammad Shafia, and their son Hamed were convicted of killing Yahya and Mohammad’s three teenage daughters — Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13 — and Mohammad’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, to preserve their family honour.

In the early hours of June 30, 2009, as the family members were returning from a vacation in Niagara Falls, they stopped at Kingston Mills, where the women were killed, possibly predrowned there, and their bodies put back in the car and dumped into the Rideau Canal near Kingston Mills.

Crowe testified that he was retained to represent Yahya, but from the outset of the case it was made clear to him that Shafia would be paying the defence costs.

Crowe said he initially charged $450 an hour for Yahya’s defence.

In October 2010, Shafia asked for Crowe to lower his fee, and a new rate of $365 was negotiated, Crowe said.

In December 2011, as his fees for services began to outpace the money the family was putting forward and the outstanding amounts started to add up, Crowe said he offered to again lower his rate to $350 if Shafia paid the overdue amounts promptly, he said.

In March 2012, after the trial had wrapped up, Crowe offered to reduce the outstanding amount to just less than $67,000 in an effort to compel Shafia to pay his bill. There was no response to that offer, Crowe said.

Crowe said he discussed his fee with Shafia during meetings in a room in the basement of the Frontenac County Court House. The meetings included all three family members on trial, their attorneys and an interpreter, he said.

While Yahya was present, Crowe said she did not participate in the discussions about Crowe’s fees.

Gee, who would have thought that killing one's family would be so expensive?




Vain people often post questionable photos or videos of their alleged weight loss, stretch marks, or failure of skateboards to clear immovable objects because they want their trite lives brightened by the attention.

How many will understand the gravity of a Saudi couple renouncing their religion?

That is brave.



If a minority cannot respect the rule of law, why should it remain?

Police and security experts say increasing police diversity in communities like the largely Muslim borough of Molenbeek, where a key suspect in the Paris attacks lived and then hid, is crucial for improving intelligence and spotting radicalization. 

While Belgian officials want more tip-offs to prevent the kind of militant attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015 and 32 people in the Brussels metro and airport on March 22, they have struggled to open the police to the country's Muslim minority.

On the eve of the anniversary of the Brussels attacks, Prime Minister Charles Michel told Reuters Belgium was "very determined" to recruit a force that would better mirror the diversity of the population.

Let's see how that works out. If people will not obey the law now, they won't obey it with token Muslims in uniform.
 



And now, South Korean shops in sketch form: