Mid-Week Post

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Israel shouldn't seek a seat on the UN security council; it should just leave the UN:

Israel is working to rally enough votes in the 193-member General Assembly to defeat either Germany or Belgium in a three-way race for two spots on the UN’s most powerful body. ...

Israel’s run at the Security Council has been in the works for 12 years and now has a powerful ally in U.S. President Donald Trump. His ambassador, Nikki Haley, has accused UN institutions such as the Human Rights Council of “chronic anti-Israel bias,” for issuing five resolutions this year against Israel yet none against Venezuela, which is engulfed in civil unrest.

Why give credence to an organisation that hates it?




The US cares not for Canada's pouting over NAFTA:

The United States drew a hard line for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday, demanding major concessions aimed at slashing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada and boosting U.S. content for autos. ...

Lighthizer put Mexico and Canada on notice that the United States would use its clout as their biggest export customer to wring concessions, saying the United States wanted substantially tougher rules of origin, including a requirement of "substantial U.S. content" for autos. 

He also signaled a fight over NAFTA's trade dispute settlement system for changes that would allow more anti-dumping duties against Canada and Mexico, saying this provision should "respect our national sovereignty." 

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland suggested earlier this week that her country could walk away if the United States insisted on scrapping the "Chapter 19" trade dispute settlement system that requires the use of binational panels.

I would start asking to whom are favours promised:

The Liberal government will announce Thursday a $5.2-billion deal to privatize maintenance of new navy ships despite concerns the plan puts key portions of Canada’s military capability in the hands of a private firm.

A Canadian subsidiary of the French defence firm, Thales, will be awarded the contract. Jim Carr, Acting Minister of Public Services and Procurement, will make the announcement in Dartmouth. 

Parliamentary Secretary Steven MacKinnon will make the same announcement at the Thales facility in Ottawa.

The Ottawa Citizen reported in January that the firm had been selected to provide long-term maintenance for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Arctic patrol ships and its joint support vessels.

The deal would see the firm provide in-service support for an initial service period of eight years, with options to extend services up to 35 years. The company will be given significant access to Department of National Defence facilities and support equipment, as well as, in some cases, oversight of federal workers.

But unions representing federal ship maintenance employees have been warning the deal will mean lost public service jobs and will jeopardize national security.

That's the government for you:

The federal government’s proposed tax reform on private corporations unveiled in mid-summer has drawn furious reaction from doctors and other high-income professionals, but there’s another group in line for a nasty tax surprise once their busy summer season is over.

About one-quarter of all farms in Canada are family farm corporations, meaning the shares are held by family members. Their number has been growing rapidly, even as the overall number of farms has fallen: There were 43,457 family farm corporations in 2016, up from 28,854 in 2001.  

A main reason for the increase is the tax advantages of incorporating, and many banks and accounting firms have specific guides for farmers. Even the Ontario Agriculture Ministry has a guide that suggests farmers consider incorporating once their family’s income reaches $75,000.

Accountants who specialize in farming are sounding alarm bells over Ottawa’s proposed changes, which were unveiled on July 18 for 75 days of consultation. For many farmers, the timing is in the middle of their busy growing and harvest season.

“Trust me; it is time to visit your MP,” wrote Allan Sawiak, a farm tax specialist with Edmonton-based KRP, in a letter sent to clients and to agriculture groups across the country. “Your lobbying efforts up to October 2nd are critical at this stage to shape the tax issues surrounding your farm and all Canadian farms.”

The government says its reforms are aimed at tax avoidance by the wealthy, who increasingly use private corporations as tax shelters. As an example, family members can be named as shareholders to allow a high-earner to split his income and lower his tax bill.

But business groups have said the proposed new rules are too complicated and will unfairly punish small business owners.

Self-governance? Is this the same lot who demand "reparations" ad nauseum so that they may live in the middle of nowhere where educational opportunities are few to non-existent?

The federal government says it has reached a self-governance agreement with 23 Ontario First Nations, the largest such deal of its kind in Canada.

The agreement with Anishinabek Nation First Nations, the culmination of more than 20 years of negotiations, grants communities greater control over education on reserve from junior kindergarten to Grade 12.

It also allows First Nations to more administrative control of funding for post-secondary education.

Because everyone knows how fiscally conservative these bands are.

And now, is Japan running out of swordsmiths?

Although it might sound unusual for artifacts with a centuries-long history, swords are currently in vogue in Japan. Museum exhibitions of historically significant katana have been attracting large, enthusiastic crowds in recent years, but the blades’ surging popularity is yet to solve a few problems.

In 1989, the Japanese Swordsmith Association counted 300 registered swordsmiths in the country. Not 20 years later, that number has been nearly cut in half, with only 188 smiths currently registered, and their average age rapidly increasing.

Swordsmithing isn’t just an industry, it’s also part of Japan’s cultural heritage. To preserve the craft, Tetsuya Tsubouchi, one of the Japanese Swordsmith Association’s directors, says two things have to be done. First, new swordsmiths have to be trained and certified to replace the craftsmen who’re retiring or otherwise being lost to old age, but there are some major hurdles in the way.

Not just anyone start hammering away and producing swords for sale in Japan. Practitioners are required to first serve as an apprentice under a registered swordsmith for a period of five years. These apprenticeships are unpaid, meaning that blacksmithing could be considered one of Japan’s harsh “black enterprises.” Those who want to complete the training must either burn through savings they amassed working in another field (before quitting that job to start their apprenticeship) or rely on financial support from their families. But while Japanese parents are generally willing to invest in their children’s education, it’s pretty difficult to convince Mom and Dad to cover all of your living expenses for a half-decade so that you can take a shot at making it in as niche an industry as swordsmithing. As a result, Tsubouchu says that though there’s actually been a recent uptick in apprenticeship applications, very few apprentices actually make it to the end of their five-year training period.

Even if they do complete their apprenticeship, prospective smiths still have to pass a national certification test, which takes place over a period of eight days. The test is offered only once a year, so if you fail, you’ve got a long wait until you get to take another swing at it. Oh, and once that’s all done, the estimated cost to set up a swordsmithing business of your own is 10 million yen (US$91,000), an amount of seed money that’s kind of hard to scrape together when your last paycheck was five years ago.