Mid-Week Post

Your focal point of the work-week ...



Trudeau doesn't talk tough. He concedes, flees, hands over and takes selfies:

Just days ahead of a Beijing visit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet to decide on whether to launch talks on a free trade deal that China has long pressed for and could face a cool reception over his government’s decision to snub Chinese interest in Bombardier. 

To wit:

On Saturday, Mr. Trudeau was asked about the perception that he gave up more than he gained on his first trip to China as Prime Minister. He did not directly answer.

"This whole trip has been about relaunching a strong, stable relationship with an extremely important country in the world," he said.

But Canada, like other nations, has not always been successful in making its relationship a balanced one. In applying to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, for example, Canada provided China a valuable vote of confidence and international prestige. In return, it secured a Band-Aid solution to a dispute over canola exports and seven new visa processing centres in China, but made no visible progress on the release of detained missionary Kevin Garratt.

Western leaders have for years demanded China open its markets to their products, in the same way theirs are open to Chinese goods. It hasn't been a fair fight. China's low-cost labour gave it such a powerful advantage that huge trade imbalances resulted. The U.S. imports four times more goods from China than it exports; in Canada, it's only a 3.3-fold difference.

But Mr. Trudeau's visit has highlighted the modern complexion to an old problem, as wealthy Chinese firms now seek foreign access not for the things they make, but their cash – even as their government still bars outside companies from many parts of its economy.

** 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to defend hisparty's fundraising methods in the House of Commons Tuesday after media reportsemerged revealing he attended a fundraiser with Chinese businessmen who went onto donate $1 million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

 

Talk tough?

Never to his bosses.

The Liberals would defend a fellow Liberal caught stabbing someone fifty times and then loudly proclaiming that he was glad he did so in front of a crowd of lucid witnesses:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called a press conference before question period to demand Justin Trudeau fire Bill Morneau over his refusal to answer questions on the sale of shares in his family firm, Morneau Shepell, just days before he introduced tax changes that coincided with a drop in the company’s share price.

That set the tone for a rambunctious question period during which Scheer and his front bench accused Morneau of refusing to divulge whether he sold 680,000 shares just days before he announced tax changes that encouraged many investors to sell their own shares by the end of 2015, in order to avoid paying a higher rate in the new calendar year.

“How can the prime minister blindly trust someone who has demonstrated such ethical lapses,” asked Scheer.

Trudeau has taken to answering all opposition questions in the House on Wednesdays but on this occasion, he declared his confidence in Morneau, called the whole affair a “smear campaign” and allowed the finance minister to defend himself.

“We’ve reached a new low in the House,” said Morneau, revealing his own political naiveté — behaviour has been infinitely more odious in years past. ...

With Trudeau’s public declaration of confidence, it seems that Morneau is not going away anytime soon, which on balance is probably as it should be.

Uh, no, it isn't. Morneau was caught lying to everyone. If that doesn't make him a political liability, then I don't know what will.



Creepy:

Conservative MP Harold Albrecht said Trudeau strayed too far past apologizing for historical wrongs when he expressed his support for children discovering their sexual orientation or gender identity at a young age.

"It went beyond an apology," Albrecht said Wednesday when asked why he was among a handful of Conservatives who did not rise to their feet with the rest of the witnesses to the keenly anticipated expression of regret in the House of Commons Tuesday.

"When you start talking about six-year-olds, in that context, I'm not there," he said.

But that's Liberals for you.



Why aren't Europeans worried about North Korea? Because people who think that bollards and cement barriers will protect them from stabbings or suicide bombings also believe that the US will handle North Korea. That's why:

European leaders may have doubled down on their condemnations after the latest missile test, but these largely echoed previous, more cautious remarks, compared to Trump vowing, somewhat ominously, to “take care of it.” The comparative calmness with which Europe is responding may of course be due to the lack of direct threats. So far, North Korea has focused on its arch-enemy, the United States, even though European politicians have acknowledged that an escalation of the conflict could easily draw Europe into the dispute.

But their more cautious responses also reflect the role European leaders believe they have in this conflict. Occupied with other foreign policy and security dilemmas, Europe has so far mainly attempted to prevent a further escalation of the tensions between the United States and North Korea. “Nuclear armed North Korea is clearly a potential threat to Europe, but it’s far from a top priority. Europe is dealing with a resurgent Russia, irregular migration and a host of other issues before North Korea comes up,” said Marcel Dirsus, a German military expert.

“Even if Europe wanted to influence events on the ground, it couldn’t. Europe has no real political, economic or military leverage over Pyongyang. The real players are China, Russia and the United States. When it comes to North Korea, Europe has neither the will nor the capability to effect meaningful change. The North Korean crisis illustrates the limits of European power,” said Dirsus.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to defend his party's fundraising methods in the House of Commons Tuesday after media reports emerged revealing he attended a fundraiser with Chinese businessmen who went on to donate $1 million to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.Source: http://ca.pressfrom.com/news/canada/-1765-trudeau-defends-fundraiser-with-chinese-businessmen-who-later-donated-1m-to-fathers-foundation/

Oh, I'll bet they didn't:

Housekeepers working in President Bill Clinton’s White House were “afraid to bend over in his presence,” a former staffer has claimed.  

Linda Tripp, the White House employee who helped expose the relationship between her colleague Monica Lewinsky and Mr. Clinton, said housekeepers were constantly concerned about the President. ...

Ms. Tripp said White House employees who cleaned the offices learned to avoid Mr. Clinton amid rumours about his “libidinous impulses.” 

In addition to observing the housekeepers’ behaviour, Ms. Tripp said she witnessed the aftermath of an alleged assault against former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey in November 1993.

Ms. Tripp said that seeing Ms. Willey after the alleged incident made her suspect Mr. Clinton was a “predator by pattern.”

 
When Bill Clinton was in the White House, his grotesque exploits were laughed at and brushed over by his supporters, even celebrated. Of course. He occupied the highest office in the land. Now, after years of floundering around in his wife's shadow, a two-time failed presidential candidate, people are tired of him and other financial losers and are feeling free to turn on him when they should have been revolted from the start.

Liberals are opportunistic and have a mental disorder, is my point.



This is interesting:

The tomb in which Jesus Christ may have been buried dates back nearly 1,700 years, scientists have discovered.

Tests carried out on the remains of a limestone cave in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, date it back to around 345 CE, National Geographic reported.

Previous evidence had only dated the tomb back 1,000 years, to the Crusader period.

Although it’s impossible to definitively say whether the tomb is the burial site of a Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is largely accepted as the site of Christ's burial.

First of all, it's a cave. Of course it is going to be older than Christ Himself. As there were no other people buried in it before or after, it is consistent with the Gospels:

Joseph took him down, and wrapped him in a winding-sheet which he had bought, and laid him in a tomb cut out of the rock, rolling a stone against the door of the tomb.

So there's that.

But that is not the "interesting" part.

This is:

Although it’s impossible to definitively say whether the tomb is the burial site of a Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is largely accepted as the site of Christ's burial.

What? Where there other Jews walking around saying that they were the sons of Joseph and Mary, employed as carpenters and performing miracles?

According to these guys, no.

I don't remember Mohammad being described as just some guy who claimed he was a prophet and wrote a book six hundred years after the death and resurrection of a man even the Talmud mentions.

I suppose it's just one of those things.



But ... but ... global warming!

The summits of famed Hawaii volcanoes Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are getting an early coat of snow this season -- with up to eight inches in the forecast.

What would Elvis think?

A Post

North Korea wouldn't be firing these missiles if China wasn't backing them. Just saying:

North Korea fired what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed close to Japan, officials said, Pyongyang’s first test launch since mid-September with some scientists cautioning that Washington, D.C., could now technically be within reach.  

North Korea fired the missile a week after U.S. President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a U.S list of countries that Washington says support terrorism. The designation allows the United States to impose more sanctions, although some experts said it risked inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

These sorts of things aren't too uncommon:

The bodies had been drifting in the Sea of Japan for so long that only bones remained.

But investigators in face masks and coveralls found clues inside the battered wooden craft that pointed to a possible origin: an empty cigarette pack of a brand popular in North Korea and unused life jackets with Korean lettering.

It’s unclear how long those who were aboard the latest “ghost ship” to wash up on the coast of Japan had been there or when they died. Ocean currents off the coast of Japan shift and the waters get choppy in winter months, routinely washing ships ashore. More than 40 boats full of dead people have washed up this year, according to Sky News. In 2016, the number was 66.

The 23-foot boat was found in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, according to Kyodo News, after a 68-year-old woman notified authorities about a dilapidated, drifting vessel.

“I was surprised to see the boat in such a bad condition,” she told the news organization.

Later, she said, she watched as authorities used stretchers to carry bodies off the boat.

It was not clear whether the people on the boat were fishermen who got into trouble at sea or people trying to defect from North Korea.

Uh, no, Canada isn't on the right track involving Trudeau's Uncle Raul in diffusing the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. I don't know why anyone would that think that was a good idea. First of all, both are communist crapholes where people go hungry and are arrested for dissent. So there's that. Furthermore, Cuba covered for North Korea when a vessel with North Korean designation was caught with weapons in violation of UN sanctions (not that the UN means anything). Why would anyone expect a collaborator to quell Kim's nuclear ambitions? And finally, the unserious and incompetent Trudeau, whose sympathies clearly lie with China, North Korea's backer, and Cuba, is merely dipping his oar into yet another situation he doesn't understand so as to appear a leader of some gravitas. Nope: 

It’s an odd notion: Canada works with Cuba to get them to work with North Korea to get them, in turn, to work with the United States on cooling their nuclear ambitions.

But it’s a worthwhile approach and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have quietly positioned Canada to a play role in this global fiasco proportionate to what we can reasonably hope to accomplish.

 
Finance Minister Bill Morneau is accused of selling $10 million in shares of his family's company before a new tax plan would have devalued them:

The finance minister faced another thrashing in question period on Monday, accused by the opposition of selling $10 million in shares one week before the government tabled tax measures that negatively affected their value.

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre grilled Finance Minister Bill Morneau over the timing of the sale that happened nearly two years ago.

"The Liberal platform would have us believe that revenue from this tax change would only start to be realized at the beginning of the fiscal year," Poilievre said of the motion announced back on Dec. 7, 2015 to raise income taxes on high-income earners. 

The announcement caused stock markets to drop.

"He indicated it would take effect at the beginning of the calendar year. That news moved markets, but not before someone was able to sell their shares and save half a million dollars. Was that person the minister of finance?"

(Sidebar: I'm just going to leave this right here.) 

Bill Morneau, stunned that he was caught at the accusations, threatens action against his critics:

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is threatening to sue the Conservatives for suggesting he used his inside knowledge of a pending tax change announcement in 2015 to sell off stocks before their value dropped.

A known liar in the Trudeau government is still stalling:

Federal Minister Maryam Monsef is back in the news this week, over the same scandal that dogged her in 2016. According to news reports, Monsef still hasn’t resolved the issues with her citizenship and has yet to receive a new, updated passport. 

It's only money:

The government agency responsible for fostering scientific excellence nearly bankrupted a Canadian company pioneering a breakthrough inexpensive pneumonia vaccine for children because the business was behind on its rent.

PnuVax, a Montreal biotech company, is the single largest Canadian recipient of funding from the Gates Foundation, arguably the world’s most prestigious charity. Yet the cost of developing a low-cost vaccine to combat a disease that is the world’s largest killer of children under 5 years old caused it to fall behind on its land-lease payments to the National Research Council.

In May, PnuVax was given 30 days’ written notice to either pay the outstanding amount, around $1 million, or demolish its manufacturing facility in Montreal and vacate the premises.

Well, I could have told you that:

Police reports recently obtained through a freedom of information request show the Ontario Liberal government’s claim that pro-lifers had to be outlawed outside abortion facilities because they were increasingly “intimidating” women is completely baseless.

Pro-life blogger Patricia Maloney discovered police attendance at the Ottawa Morgentaler abortion center dropped 33.6 percent in the period between 2014 to 2017 from the period between 2010 and 2013.

Ottawa police reported 113 incidents in the 48 months between 2010 and 2013, or an average of 2.35 per month, Maloney wrote in her blog Run With Life.

But that fell to 64 reported incidents in 41 months, or 1.56 per month between 2014 and 2017.

Moreover, there were no reported injuries and no charges laid from 2010 to 2017, she wrote.

The Liberals claimed that criminalizing pro-life speech and expression outside the province’s eight abortion facilities was necessary because of escalating incidents of pro-life “intimidation.”

Indeed, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi mentioned during his October 4 press conference announcing Bill 163 that “as we saw in my hometown in Ottawa, a woman was spat on, which is assault.”

He referred to this again during questions from reporters, appearing to become emotional.

“As soon as I learned, in my own community that a woman was spat on for just simply going to get healthcare service,” Naqvi said, then stopped, apparently needing to regain his composure.

“Action was needed. And we worked as hard as we could to get this legislation here … ”

(Sidebar: this Yasir Naqvi.)




No, they aren't hypocritical because: (1) they are a private institution and can do what they like and (2) if one badly needs to hear some unscientific eugenicist garbage, there are plenty of pro-abortion opinions out there with which to waste one's time:

Amid controversy over the cancellation of a film screening at an Ottawa Catholic university, the federal Liberals are attacking the Conservatives for being selective about the ideas they’re choosing to defend in campus battles over free speech.

Science Minister Kirsty Duncan demanded Monday that the Tories react to news that Saint Paul University last week cancelled a film festival event featuring a documentary about abortion. The Conservatives, who have publicly defended free speech in other cases, hadn’t immediately commented on the cancellation. But a spokesman said Monday the party believes in the free exchange of ideas in academic settings, including on issues such as abortion.

(Sidebar: this Kirsty Duncan.)




Pope Francis did not mention the Rohingya during his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi:

To the relief of some and the dismay of others, the pope refrained from using the term during an inter-faith meeting and in a subsequent speech on Tuesday which he gave following a meeting with Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The civilian Burmese leader has come under criticism for allegedly ignoring human rights violations in the country.

The pope did use his speech to urge respect for minority rights.

For A Monday

A lot going on ...




Someone who sits behind a desk believes that "terrorist travellers" can be rehabilitated:

A leading researcher on terrorist travellers says returnees to Canada can be rehabilitated, since those who come back to their home countries are often disillusioned or traumatized.

Others feel they have done their duty to defend Muslim lands and want to lead a more normal life, says Lorne Dawson, a sociology professor at the University of Waterloo and project director for the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society. ...

Dawson's network receives money for research on foreign fighters through a fund administered by the federal Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, established by the federal Liberals.

(Sidebar: these Liberals.)

Professor Dawson wrote a paper based on the interviews of only twenty interviewees all of whom were fighting in Iraq and Syria for ISIS, the ideologies of which come directly from the Koran.

He has yet to provide any evidence that these people who set fire to a Jordanian pilot, crucified teen-agers, raped Yazidi girls and women and beheaded countless numbers of people - all finding roots in Islamism - will cease their murderous ways or not radicalise others.

Has Professor Dawson explained why convicted terrorist Omar Khadr has never denounced Islamism or how Islamist sexual deviancy recidivism is different from other recidivism? 

I guess he did not have time to speculate on that from the comfort of his office.

Also:

Over sips of mint tea, she spoke admiringly of her militant husband and the comrades she met in the Islamic State’s all-female brigade. Calling herself Zarah – she declined to give her family name because she had traveled to Syria in secret – she vowed that her children would someday reclaim the Islamist paradise she believes was stolen from her family.

“We will bring up strong sons and daughters and tell them about the life in the caliphate,” she said, fingering her teacup through black gloves. “Even if we hadn’t been able to keep it, our children will one day get it back.”

I'm sure stuff like this won't come back to haunt Professor Dawson.



And:

Mr. Al-Dhamadi is one of thousands of Yemeni-Canadians who have watched with terror as their country devolves into a humanitarian disaster. Nearly three years of war have caused tens of thousands to flee the country. Those who stay behind face relentless bombing from Saudi forces and a cholera epidemic preying on people weakened by hunger and the ravages of war. ...

While permanent residency applications for Yemeni families were left unanswered, Canada welcomed more than 40,000 Syrian refugees. In 2016, Canada accepted a total of nearly 47,000 refugees from around the world. That same year, 344 Yemenis filed refugee claims for resettlement in Canada. Only five were accepted. 

Yemenis applying for permanent residency in Canada face wait times of more than two years. Given this reality, the Yemeni-Canadian community has a simple question for the Canadian government: "Why the Syrians, but not us?"

Because you didn't get enough press. That's why. 

Justin Trudeau, who openly admires the "basic dictatorship of China" where women undergo forced abortions, female infanticide and child abandonment are common, where North Korean women are used as sex slaves and who refused to call honour killings barbaric or prioritise Yazidi girls and woman as refugees so as to protect them from rape and abuse and who elbowed a woman in the chest and whose government made mediocre but expensive gestures to ignore how aboriginal women are more likely to be abused by aboriginal men than strangers, calls for men to stop abuse of women (but not from cultures who vote Liberal):

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says men must do more to put an end to gender-based violence against women and girls.

What an @$$hole.




From the most "transparent" government in the country:

Hydro One customers will be able to opt in or out of a proposed program to “pre-pay” electric bills, Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault insists. ...

And in fact, on page 2,038 of a 2,076-page application, under the title of “Collection Enhancements,” Hydro One specifically cites the rising number of customers in default as justification for pre-paid meters.

“The cost of electricity in Ontario has been steadily increasing,” Hydro One points out. “This has resulted in a number of customers having difficulty in paying their bills on time.”

**

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s trade mission to China has so far secured more than $1 billion in agreements between Ontario and Chinese companies.

(Sidebar: why stop there? Why not just hand the entire country to the currency-fixers?)


**

Skyrocketing hydro rates are forcing many Ontario manufacturers to close, lay off employees or move south of the border. 

Hydro rates have increased so dramatically under Ontario’s Liberal government, that the province’s once-cheap electricity prices are now the highest in the country. As a consequence, officials from American states are wooing Ontario businesses.

And it’s working.

**

The federal government could eventually rake in up to $6 billion annually in new revenue as a result of a proposed change in the tax rules for incorporated small businesses, Parliament’s budget watchdog estimated Thursday.

A parliamentary budget office report concluded changes to passive investment rules would add up to $1 billion to federal coffers in the first couple of years, rising to as much as $4 billion in 10 years and as much as $6 billion in 20 years.

**

Apart from the addition of yet another right to the swelling list of things Canadians are told are theirs by birth, the premiers are worried about more practical matters. The plan’s ambitious budget presumes they will happily kick in billions of dollars to make the program come true. Much of the federal share consists of previously-announced programs, while the “new” money only gets spent if the provinces agree to share at least $12 billion worth of costs.

People actually voted for this.




A former NDP MP has-been accuses the Canadian armed forces of  war crimes in Afghanistan:

Craig Scott, an Osgoode Hall law professor who was defeated in the 2015 election, will hand deliver a 90-page brief to the court in the Hague, arguing that successive federal governments "abdicated" their responsibility to investigate reports of torture.   

He is urging Fatou Bensouda, who has been the ICC's chief prosecutor since 2012, to make key Canadian politicians and military officers "central to any investigation."

The filing, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News, says the current Liberal government and the former Conservative administration had many opportunities to investigate claims that suspected Taliban militants, captured by Canadians but handed over to Afghanistan's notorious intelligence agency, had been tortured.

"Canada cannot now be trusted with second chances," Scott wrote.

(Sidebar: “It is from the Canadians that we learned how to treat prisoners of war,” he said. “All of our foot soldiers now know this. The Canadians taught us how to behave according to democratic principles.” . So there's that. I suppose it is the Canadian armed forces' fault that terrorists soiled themselves after being arrested by people who regularly abused children?)

Will he implicate terrorist lottery winners, as well?




South Korea's foreign minister completely disregards Chinese media's calls to restrict the THAAD deployment:

 Kang Kyung-wha also reiterated that Seoul has just reaffirmed to Beijing its existing stance against three issues -- deploying additional Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, joining the U.S.-led global missile defense program and developing a security alliance with the United States and Japan -- rather than making any official consent for them.

   "Our government is not mulling any restriction on the operation of the THAAD system," Kang told a parliamentary session. "The issue of its operations is based upon a decision by the (South Korea-U.S.) alliance."

Also:

No foreign government should has the right to demand access another country's defenses. This is a violation of its sovereign right. Yet the government was only too keen to agree to China's demands. Beijing's behavior clearly shows the high price Seoul will have to pay for the decision. Now China is demanding that Moon and Kang deal with the THAAD issue "in stages." A high-ranking government official said, "China used the phrase 'at the current state' to refer to the need for the issue to be put to rest." But that makes no sense, and really suggests that the issue is at some sort of interim stage of development instead of being over, and China intends to keep telling Korea what to do. 

China has no history of dealing with foreign countries on an equal basis. It historically only understands vassal states and enemies, nothing else. That means that when a country deals with China, it needs to stick to its principles. But there are no principles visible in the way the government here is kowtowing to the bullies. Seoul does not have to do this. It is a mystery why the government is taking this approach.

  Pope Francis met with the head of Burma's military on the first day of his papal visit:

A few hours after his arrival in Myanmar (Burma) on November 27, 2017, Pope Francis received a “courtesy visit” from the head of the Burmese Army, General Min Aung Hlaing at the Archbishopric of Yangon. ...

It was Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, who suggested this interview when he met with Pope Francis last November 18. The end is “not to promote what [the General] has done, but to have a dialogue with him…Perhaps it can soften his heart and this might be, perhaps, the first step towards peace,” he explained.

Pope Francis has been asked not to mention the Rohingya in order not to inflame an already difficult situation.




See, militant atheists, this is why people don't like you:

According to a piece on NJ.com, an atheist group has filed suit to stop the Catholic blessing of animals at a county-run shelter, claiming the blessings violate the First and Fourth amendments.

(Merci beaucoup)

Sunday Post

 
The death toll of a bombing in Egypt stands at three hundred and five people dead:

Gunmen who attacked a mosque on Friday in Egypt's North Sinai brandished an Islamic State flag as they opened fire through doorways and windows, killing more than 300 worshippers, including two dozen children, officials said on Saturday.

The usual suspects are gearing up for Christmas. The usual cowards are thusly prepared.




Burmese cardinals would rather Pope Francis not mention the people who put Hindus in mass graves:

A crackdown by the Myanmar military has driven hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh, in what the U.S. described on Wednesday as “ethnic cleansing”—a finding Myanmar said was made “without any proven facts.” Bishops in Myanmar are urging Pope Francis to refrain from expressing support for the group during his visit.

Pope Francis “has to be very careful so that we can still communicate with the new government, with the military, as well as with the people in general,” said Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, the country’s most senior Catholic cleric.

Somewhat related:

Myanmar's military elite need to have their wings clipped by targeted United Nations travel sanctions in order to discourage the continued ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, says former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy.

"We're talking about targeting specific people, particularly in the military," said Axworthy, the chair of the Canadian-based World Refugee Council, which is working with the UN to reform the global refugee system.

"A lot of these guys like to fly off to Bangkok and get a new suit or something. I'm not being facetious," Axworthy said in an interview. "A restricted-travel sanction would be very effective for a lot of the elites in Myanmar."

A lot of squatters left Canada for Syria so that they could rape and murder Yazidi children and women, very much like the ones found in a mass grave near Mount Sinjar (no parkas, however) and the Liberal government truly thinks it can re-integrate these rapists and murders into voting society.




From the most "transparent" government in the country's history:

This past week the issue garnered renewed attention after multiple back and forth exchanges in the House of Commons over whether we should be treating our own jihadists, freshly returned from the battlefields, with kid gloves via unproven reintegration programs or try our hardest to charge and convict them of serious Criminal Code offences.

Amidst all of this, a new talking point is emerging from the Liberals: It’s all Stephen Harper’s fault.

Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited a Toronto-area mall and was surrounded mostly by adoring selfie-seekers. Mostly. One woman was far from happy with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s statement in the House of Commons on Monday that there are around 60 returned jihadists roaming about in Canada.

In a video posted to social media, the woman shouts her concerns at Trudeau. The PM rather surprisingly turns away from his fans and, without breaking a smile and bordering on a wink, tells her: “They came under Harper.”

Is this true? Yes, when it comes to the 60 count. But as I wrote in a recent column, Goodale in his very statement referenced CSIS testimony that he admitted was many months old – over two years old in fact. Goodale’s office insists the numbers remain the same but a 2017 public threat report expected in the coming weeks will be the true test.

That original 60 number comes from the December 2015 year-end numbers. While a handful of these 60 may have possibly come in after November 4 – when Trudeau became PM – most of them surely came in under Harper’s watch. ...

The Conservatives were the government that in 2013, as Rempel reminded Blair, introduced the very legislation that now allows for charging Canadians who go abroad for terror purposes. The Liberal caucus voted for this law back then, so they should strive to make good use of it now. (Although newly minted leader Trudeau was, in fact, absent for the vote that day)

Besides, while no one was charged under those provisions during the Harper years only two have been charged under Trudeau – and one of those is the alleged Canadian Tire attacker whose case, far from being the result of a savvy police investigation, just fell into the lap of the police and prosecution. ...

More importantly, there’s nothing stopping Trudeau from providing security services with the beefed up resources to now go and build a case against these guys, if that indeed is what they think partly explains the holdup – as Blair’s remarks suggest.

**

Locally, such businesses set up under the "100 per cent ownership stream" in the provincial nominee program are known simply as "PNP companies."

It's a system the provincial Liberal government says is diversifying the Island's population and economy, but its critics say has evolved into a side-door route to larger Canadian cities, while filling the province's coffers with forfeited deposits from failed or abandoned ventures.

** 

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the U.S. is doing a better job of informing Canada of immigration changes that may prompt people living in the U.S. on special immigration status to try to cross the border into Canada illegally. 

"The United States needs to be cognizant of the fact that when they take certain steps within their jurisdiction, those steps have consequences elsewhere," Goodale told reporters Thursday. "It would appear from the most recent announcements from Homeland Security that they are factoring that into the decision making." 

(Sidebar: yes, Ralph, let the Americans do the heavy lifting for you, you fat oaf.)

**

Would-be Canadians need more than just a desire for a better economic future if they expect to be granted refugee status in this country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Trudeau, speaking at an event in Charlottetown, pointed to the case of 6,300 Haitians who have crossed illegally into Canada from the U.S. in recent months to request asylum. Statistics released this week show that of the 298 Haitian cases that had been heard by the end of October, only 29 were granted protection.

"Refugee status means that you have nowhere to go, you can not be protected by your home state," the prime minister said. "It's not just a question of, 'I'm looking for an economic future, so I want to come to Canada.'"

(Sidebar: ... says the pansy who rolled out a welcome mat for Haitians fleeing from expired visas and who thinks that ISIS rapists and murderers can be reformed before 2019.)

Former head of the FCC advises Canada to protect the Internet:

The former head of the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. has a strong warning for Canada: do what you can to protect the internet.

Yes, about that:

Canadian government departments have quietly blocked nearly 22,000 Facebook and Twitter users, with Global Affairs Canada accounting for nearly 20,000 of the blocked accounts, CBC News has learned.

Moreover, nearly 1,500 posts — a combination of official messages and comments from readers — have been deleted from various government social media accounts since January 2016.

Vaguely related - a publicly funded library shouldn't play favourites:

The screening of an anti-Islam film at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library has been cancelled after an e-mail campaign by residents who argued it would violate the library's own policies around hate speech.

 
Interesting:

Two Islamic preachers accused of giving anti-Semitic sermons in 2014 won't face charges, a spokesman for Quebec's Crown prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Some people are strangely silent on things like this.




Perhaps people are tired of miniature fascists who squeal whenever their feelings are hurt and leave university with nothing more than a profound hatred of Jews and little else:

In July, a Pew Research Center study found that 58 per cent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believe colleges and universities have a negative effect “on the way things are going in the country,” up from 37 per cent two years ago. Among Democrats, by contrast, 72 per cent said they have a positive impact.

A Gallup poll in August found that only about a third of Republicans had confidence in universities, which they viewed as too liberal or political. Other studies show that overwhelming numbers of white working-class men do not believe a college degree is worth the cost.

On the Korean Peninsula:


Oh, yes, I would say a gap exists:

 Despite the much-publicized deal to patch up ties, there still seems to be a “gap in understanding” between South Korea and China over the issue of a US advanced missile defense system deployed here, a Seoul’s senior foreign ministry official said on Friday.

The official, who was present at a Wednesday meeting between South Korea’s Foreign Ministry Kang Kyung-hwa and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, said Beijing officials seemed to feel that they “gave up too much” to settle the dispute over Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.  

(Sidebar: this Wang Yi.)

Is a country that arrests Falun Gong members the right one to drive political wedges in South Korea?

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The North Korean defector, whose hospitals bills (one assumes) would be covered by the South Korean government, is having his story told via loudspeaker:

The South Korean military has carried out a loudspeaker campaign to send a message to North Korea about the recent defection of one of its soldiers.

The military used loudspeakers installed near the heavily armed border to provide details about the defector’s condition and highlight violations of the armistice agreement by the North Korean soldiers who chased the defector and fired shots at him.

Also:

The South Korean government must take on a firmer stance on North Korea, according to Ahn Cheol-soo, the chairman of the minor opposition People’s Party.

Ahn, who ran against President Moon Jae-in in the presidential election in May, also criticizes the Moon administration of “inaction” with regards to North Korea’s recent violation of the armistice agreement of the Korean War.

In an interview with The Korea Herald on Thursday, the party leader said the government should lodge an official complaint to North Korea over the incident.

“The government should make an objection to the North and bring out some kind of a statement from the rogue state,” he said. 

Did you see who was elected, Mr. Ahn?




A loyal party member is now North Korea's new security chief:

North Korea has appointed a senior communist party official as its new state security chief as part of leader Kim Jong-un's reign of terror aimed at preventing potential challenges to his power, a news report said Saturday.

Kim picked Jong Kyong-thaek, a member of the central military committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, to be the minister of state security, according to the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. It cited multiple sources with information on North Korea.

A graying country probably shouldn't be keen on eliminating its offspring:

South Korea's government on Sunday promised to give more active consideration to growing public demand to permit artificial abortion.

The presidential office released its position toward a petition, posted on its homepage, whose signatories exceeded 200,000 in late October.