Friday Post

Aaahhh, the week-end ...



Scraping the bottom of the moral barrel:

The oldest are probably just toddlers, innocents born into one of the most reviled terrorist movements in the world.

And very soon, they could be the responsibility of the federal government.

The children of Canadian members of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant form part of a potentially explosive dilemma confronting federal officials. As ISIL teeters on the brink of military defeat, what should the government do when and if Canadian members of ISIL are captured?

Some experts say Ottawa has no choice but to try to repatriate and prosecute in Canada any detained members, ensuring they aren’t tortured or otherwise mistreated by local forces. As for those ISIL children, if they have one Canadian parent, they would be citizens and, lawyers say, deserve help.

(Sidebar: because Canada has had stellar success trying other terrorists.)


This is who Canada will reward by releasing back into society:

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Islamists recently handed out pamphlets in Mosul, Iraq, entitled, “Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves,” explaining in a clear question- and-answer format the official positions of Islamic State concerning female slavery, according to CNN.

“Can all unbelieving women be taken captive?” reads one question, taken from the translation done by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The answer: “There is no dispute among the scholars that it is permissible to capture unbelieving women [i.e. any non-Muslim woman].”

The next question: “Can one have intercourse with a female captive?” Answer: “It is permissible to have sexual intercourse with the female captive. Allah the almighty said: ‘[Successful are the believers] who guard their chastity, except from their wives or [the captives and slaves] that their right hands possess, for then they are free from blame [Koran 23:5-6].’” Once laying the groundwork for the legality of female sex slaves, the booklet expounds upon what kind of sex.

“If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately,” explains the pamphlet. “However, if she isn’t, her uterus must be purified [first]... ” How to purify a uterus is not explained in the pamphlet.

What about child sex slavery? Islamic State has an answer for that as well.

Q: “Is it permissible to have intercourse with a female slave who has not reached puberty?” A: “It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse; however if she is not fit for intercourse, then it is enough to enjoy her without intercourse.”

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On Friday, Women for Women International founder Zainab Salbi interviewed two women on ISIS’ abuse of those who identify as Yazidi, a minority religion primarily located in northern Iraq. Both Shireen Ibrahim, a Yazidi once enslaved by ISIS, and Feryal Pirali, a Yazidi activist, spoke at the Women in the World Summit held in New York City.

In the middle of their discussion, Pirali revealed her inspiration to become an activist for her people: the cruelty her friend endured at the hand of ISIS.

“She was my friend, we were basically in high school together,” stressed Pirali, who hails from Sinjar, Iraq. But, unlike her friend, Pirali left Iraq in 2010.

Staying behind, the friend married and became pregnant with a baby girl. But things took a savage twist in 2014 when ISIS captured their hometown.

“When they were trying to run away,” Pirali said of the Yazidis, her friend “couldn’t run a lot” because “she was heavy, she was pregnant.”

To ensure they escaped ISIS, her friend urged her relatives to go ahead without her. “Just save yourself. Go,” the friend told her family.

“And she was going to walk slowly until she gets to where they are,” Pirali added. “But unfortunately, she didn’t make it.”

Because she lagged behind, ISIS found her and tortured her in unimaginable ways.

“And what they did to her, opened up her stomach,” Pirali gestured with her hands, from one side of her stomach to the other. “Like from here to here, they opened her up, and they got her baby girl out, they raped the baby, and they also raped her.”

While her baby perished, the friend survived.

The Trudeau government has no compunction of rewarding convicted terrorists and has repealed a prior law stating that dual citizens can lose their Canadian citizenship if they take part in terrorist activities. It is unlikely that any returning ISIS member will even be tried for crimes committed abroad.


The Trudeau government doesn't like being reminded of its convictions:

(Sidebar: Abacus Data still runs interference, though.)

Conservative foreign affairs critic Peter Kent penned a scathing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal he says in order to educate the American public about the Omar Khadr case, while also blasting the federal government’s decision to issue an apology and a reported $10.5-million settlement to the former child soldier and Guantanamo Bay detainee. 

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Some senior Liberals, including the prime minister's principal secretary, have taken to social media to accuse the Conservatives of fanning anti-Trudeau sentiment in the United States just as Canada is preparing for the Aug. 16 launch of talks to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement.

However, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was unrepentant Thursday, arguing that if there's any American backlash over the Khadr payment, Trudeau has only himself to blame. He dismissed any linkage to the NAFTA talks as a desperate Liberal tactic.

"It's no surprise that they're desperately trying to latch onto another angle of the story to deflect attention from the core of the matter which is that this (Khadr payment) was a personal decision by Justin Trudeau to go above and beyond what any court order ever indicated was the responsibility of the government," Scheer told a news conference. ...

On Thursday, Trudeau did not directly link the two issues when asked if the Conservative campaign in the U.S. is hurting Canada's position as it prepares to enter NAFTA negotiations.

The trade talks are "too important to fall into partisanship for most people," he said during a news conference in Barrie, Ont.

"Canadians expect their representatives, whatever party they be part of, to be standing up for Canadian interests and making sure that we are creating the right deal for Canada as we move forward on modernizing NAFTA."

However, Trudeau's principal secretary, Gerald Butts, has engaged in a Twitter war with several Conservative MPs over the past few days in which he has directly linked the two issues.

"Conservatives mount aggressive anti-PM campaign in the US on the eve of NAFTA renegotiation," he tweeted at one point.

(Sidebar: Machiavelli Butts has spoken.)


Why shouldn't the Americans operate with the full knowledge that not only did the Trudeau government weasel its way through the Khadr affair but also plans on repatriating ISIS thugs whose grand achievements include murder and child rape?


To be fair, the Trudeau government isn't the only one to play favourites:

NDP leadership candidate Charlie Angus is working to shore up support from Muslim community leaders, including some who have expressed views that run decidedly counter to party orthodoxy.

Angus is headed to Brampton and Mississauga, Ont., this weekend — rival Jagmeet Singh’s home base — to speak at a local Islamic centre and to meet with the Iranian Canadian Congress and the Canadian Arab Federation.

Also:

Illegal border crossings in Quebec hit their highest level of the year in June, according to new data released by the federal government on Friday afternoon.

During that month, the RCMP intercepted 781 individuals attempting to cross into the province from the United States between official ports of entry and claim asylum. That number greatly exceeds the month of May’s tally of 576, and even the previous monthly high for the province, which was 672 crossings in April.

Meanwhile, Canada’s other illegal crossing hotspot, Manitoba, actually saw a considerable decline — almost cut in half from 106 illegal border crossings in May to 63 in June.

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted #WelcometoCanada on social media in January and made other inviting remarks in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel and refugee ban, many media outlets around the world and voices on social media interpreted this as a sign that Canada had a system resembling open borders.

And people ask why Trump wants to build walls.




Oops:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a “deep and extensive” vetting process showed no issues that should prevent Julie Payette from being Governor General — but he still refuses to say whether he’d discussed with Payette her past legal issues.

Pressed Thursday by reporters over whether he’d talked to Payette about two police matters from 2011 that have come to light via media reports, Trudeau was vague. “The conversations I had with Mme. Payette centred around the extraordinary service, her vision of the country, her vision of the role that she would fulfill as Governor General, and demonstrated to me her extraordinary strength in being one of our great Governor Generals,” he said.

“The vetting process is deep and extensive, and raised absolutely no issues that would prevent her from being Governor General.”

More troops are sent to deal with wildfires in BC:

The Canadian government said on Friday it will send another 225 troops to help fight wildfires in the western province of British Columbia, as hot, dry weather conditions resumed following a day of much-needed rain. 

In total, there are now 375 Canadian soldiers along with 3,600 firefighters and emergency responders tackling the flames, which have forced around 45,000 people to evacuate their homes over the past two weeks. 

Around 150 wildfires are blazing across the heavily forested province, affecting 405,000 hectares and prompting the provincial government to declare a state of emergency.

 
But I thought that "green energy" was the way to go:

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government is back in black - meaning the coal business.

Specifically, the use of coal to generate electricity, a practice it outlawed in Ontario on Nov. 23, 2015, after shutting down the last of the province’s coal-fired power plants in 2014.

As the Wynne Liberals proudly proclaimed back then:

“Ontario passed legislation today to permanently ban coal-fired electricity generation in the province - a first in North America and a significant step in the fight against climate change.

“The Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act prevents new and existing facilities from burning coal for the sole purpose of generating electricity. It sets maximum fines for anyone who violates the ban and enshrines the health and environmental benefits of making coal-fired electricity illegal in law ...

“Closing coal-fired power plants represents one of the largest greenhouse gas reduction initiatives in North America ... Climate change is not a distant threat - it is already costing the people of Ontario. It has devastated communities, damaged homes, businesses and crops and increased insurance rates.

“The cost of inaction is far too high. Closing coal-fired electricity generation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is part of the government’s plan to build Ontario up.”

But that was then, before Wynne sold a majority stake in Hydro One to the private sector (the province maintains a minority ownership) to raise funds for her cash-strapped government.

And this is now, Hydro One announcing Wednesday a $6.7 billion cash deal to buy U.S. energy company Avista Corp., to be finalized next year.

 
To be filed under - "How could this go wrong?":

 Hunting seals with a shotgun in Rigolet, Labrador

I'm not a hunter but is this too much?



  
We should withdraw from the UN today:

With unabated controversy over the defection of 12 North Korean restaurant workers, a UN rights envoy on Friday said the two Koreas should not “politicize” the issue and focus on fulfilling the needs of the women and their families.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said he has confirmed the 12 women were living freely here, though there were “inconsistencies” in accounts on their escape.

Pyongyang claims that they were abducted by South Korean operatives in China and has demanded their return as a precondition for a new round of reunions of separated families. 

“Whereas I am pleased to learn that these women are safe and not held in detention, I see inconsistencies in the narrative concerning their cases, and will be following up with the concerned governments,” he said at a news conference in Seoul.

“Here let me urge the two Koreas to avoid politicizing the situation of these women and strictly focus on their interests, protection needs and the needs of their families.”

Quintana was here on his second, five-day mission to gather information on the communist state’s human rights situation through field trips and meetings with government officials, lawmakers, private experts and defectors here.

The Argentine lawyer, who previously served as the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, took up the post in March 2016. He is scheduled to submit a report on North Korea to the General Assembly in October.

If this man was in any way honest, he would know the situation is entirely political and can be resolved with a change of leadership in North Korea, something the UN has proved unwilling to do.


This is the same UN that lets China and Russia sit permanently on its security council:

Chinese President Xi Jinping set off on a visit to Russia on Monday stressing the grave threat a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea poses to both Chinese and Russian interests.

China has repeatedly stated its opposition to the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system and has called for its deployment to stopped, and the missiles already installed to be removed.

China says the system's powerful radar can probe deep into its territory, undermining its security and a regional balance while doing nothing to stop North Korea in its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

"The U.S. deployment of an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea gravely harms the strategic security interests of China, Russia and other countries in the region," China's state Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying.

The United States and South Korea say the THAAD is solely aimed at defending the South from North Korea.

China and Russia have maintained close communication and coordination on the issue and held very similar views on it, Xi said in an interview with Russian media.

"Beijing and Moscow are steadfastly opposed to the THAAD deployment and seriously suggest that relevant countries stop and cancel the installation," Xinhua cited xi as saying.

Is anyone, aside from the UN, willing to trust South Korea to China?


Also:

South Korea is investigating the case of a North Korean defector who became a celebrity refugee in Seoul, but recently appeared on Pyongyang television to claim she had returned home from the "hell" of the capitalist South.

Lim Ji-Hyun, a female defector in her 20s, arrived in Seoul in 2014 and soon became a public figure after starring in several South Korean TV shows featuring escapees from the North.

But on Sunday Lim abruptly appeared in a video on the North's propaganda network, describing how her "fantasy" about the wealthy South had been shattered.

In the video, posted on the North's Uriminzokkiri website, Lim says she had "returned home" last month and was now living with her family in the western city of Anju.

It is unclear whether Lim returned voluntarily, with South Korean media speculating that she might have been kidnapped at the Chinese border with the North while trying to reunite with her family.

Seoul police sources who probed Lim's home and financial accounts in Seoul told the South's JoongAng Ilbo daily there was little sign of her trying to wrap up her life in the country and move elsewhere.

And:

The U.S. government will ban Americans from traveling to North Korea due to "the serious risk of arrest" after an American student was jailed while on a tour and later died, the State Department said on Friday. 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a "Geographical Travel Restriction" on all Americans' use of a passport to the country, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. 

"Once in effect, U.S. passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea, and individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea," Nauert said. 

The move was due to "mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea's system of law enforcement," she added.

The proverbial Juice is loose:

O.J. Simpson was granted parole Thursday after more than eight years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel-room heist, successfully making his case for freedom in a nationally televised hearing that reflected America's enduring fascination with the former football star.

If the Crown grants the Gards the right to treat their son as they see fit, that would loosen its control:

The sovereignty of loved ones must be the overriding principle that guides all such decisions. We have no other way. The irreducible truth is that these conundrums have no definitive answer. We thus necessarily fall back on family, or to put it more sentimentally, on love.

What is best for the child? The best guide is a loving parent. A parent’s motive is the most pure.