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A lot going on ...



From a government that beclowns itself on a regular basis:

The Trudeau government's politically bruised promise to ensure "tax fairness" for the middle class took another beating Monday amid unfolding revelations about the widespread and perfectly legal practice among ultra-wealthy Canadians of harbouring cash in offshore tax havens.

Included among the 13.4 million leaked documents, dubbed the "Paradise Papers," were the names of former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien and top party fundraiser Stephen Bronfman — the mere mention of whom gave fresh ammunition for the opposition to accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of leading an ethically challenged government.

(Sidebar: this is the same dolt who would and/or could not tell the electorate who qualified as middle-class.) 

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With two rate hikes behind him, Poloz said the central bank had a good understanding of what is driving inflation and would be comfortable with missing its 2 percent inflation target on the upside as well as the downside, as long as it was temporary. 

(Sidebar: inflation, eh? It sounds familiar.) 

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Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says she hadn't planned to confront a reporter from the Rebel during a news conference last week, but when the right-wing website posed the first question at a news conference in Vancouver, her pent-up frustrations at the outlet's "climate Barbie" tag just came out. ...

"I'm quite pleased I did it and I'm pleased because hopefully it makes ... it more possible for other women and girls to step up and do the same," McKenna said in an interview Tuesday with The Canadian Press.

The ensuing feedback since the incident has been overwhelmingly positive, said McKenna, adding she wants the Rebel and anyone else to stop using sexist names for all women, not just her.

"There's a group of people who continually attack me because of the colour of my hair or supposedly the tone of my voice or all sorts of reasons," McKenna said.

(Sidebar: no one calls you Climate Barbie because of your hair colour, Climate Barbie. They do so because you are unbelievably stupid. Then you compounded your problem by whining that people are calling you names. You've won nothing.)

Also:

Until it blew up in their faces, Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau spent weeks portraying small business owners across Canada as corporate fatcats, whom they accused of unfairly taking advantage of tax laws to avoid paying their fair share of the income taxes decent, hard-working, middle-class Canadians pay.

And yet, through all their ranting, everyone knew that compared to offshore tax havens used by the super-rich to avoid paying taxes in Canada, Trudeau’s small business tax reforms — now downsized in the face of national outrage — were going after, relatively speaking, chump change.

So why weren’t Trudeau and Co. campaigning against the big fish.

The penny may have dropped over the weekend when the Toronto Star and CBC, citing a massive leak of tax documents from two major offshore tax firms dubbed the Paradise Papers, revealed two prominent federal Liberal fundraisers were linked in a complex offshore tax haven that put $60 million “beyond the reach of tax collectors in Canada, Israel and the U.S.” 

The first was Stephen Bronfman of Canada’s iconic Bronfman family, who, aside from being a close friend of Trudeau, was also his chief fundraiser for the 2015 election.

The second was Leo Kolber, a senior fundraiser for Trudeau’s father, Pierre, when he was prime minister, a powerful former Liberal senator, Stephen Bronfman’s godfather and a close friend of the Bronfman family. ...

But even assuming all these transactions were legal — and the leaked documents reveal 3,300 individual Canadians, politicians, businesses, trusts and foundations using offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes — doesn’t end the controversy for Trudeau.

 That’s because there was nothing illegal about the “tax loopholes” Trudeau said he wanted to close to prevent small businesses from taking unfair advantage of the tax system.

Rather, Trudeau’s argument was that the tax laws needed to be changed to protect the integrity and fairness of the system for middle-class Canadians, by ensuring all Canadians paid their fair share.

Surely, a similar argument can be made about offshore tax havens.

Perhaps that will be Trudeau’s next big, public tax reform crusade.

But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

And:

For the past few months, we’ve watched Trudeau and his Finance Minister Bill Morneau tour the country to justify wringing more taxes from the hides of the middle-class (by eliminating tax credits) and small businesses (through new tax changes), all in the name of “fairness.”

Farmers, doctors and others rebelled. What had they been doing wrong, they asked? Why did the rules need to change?

Neither Trudeau nor Morneau ever clarified what was wrong with the status quo and from our perspective it looked and smelled like a cash grab masquerading as “fairness”.

Meanwhile, news broke the Canada Revenue Agency was considering taxing low-income workers for the discounts they receive at work on store products like clothing or food.

And then there was Morneau’s failure to place his wealth in a blind trust and a $200 fine under the Conflict of Interest Act for failing to disclose his interest in his French villa.

Now this news about Bronfman.

The trouble with all this is the distasteful double standard.

Liberals pay lip service to middle class woes, but play by a different set of rules themselves.

As it always has been.


Vaguely related:

One should not visit the sins of the father upon the son, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now off to Vietnam, flying there in the slipstream of U.S. President Donald Trump’s own trip.

This means Trudeau will not be at the War Memorial in Ottawa on Saturday, or placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, when our world stops for a few brief moments on Remembrance Day to honour the sacrifices made by past and present generations to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today. ...

A recent poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Historica Canada has found that 37% of millennials plan to personally attend a ceremony this year to honour our fallen.

This is the demographic that Justin Trudeau wrapped up in his pursuit to become prime minister, yet he will not be among them on Saturday when the bugles blow at cenotaphs across the country.

 
Because one who has not bled or sweated for the country cannot care for it as those who have.




It seems no one is keen on having droves of unvetted illegal migrants occupy the country before the election in 2019:

A newly available internal government survey suggests Canadian attitudes towards immigration could be hardening.

The federal Immigration Department conducts a public poll every year prior to putting together its annual immigration plan.

The results were posted following last week's release of the plan, which calls for 310,000 people to be admitted in 2018, up from 300,000 this year.

But the 2017 survey, which collected input from 2,503 people, shows a modest increase in the number who think the country is letting in too many immigrants.

This year's study also showed a slight decline in the number of people who believe they, their province or the country benefits from immigration.

Yes, about that: 

Not only are Canadians not fully satisfied with the handling of the situation thus far, but also with the prospects for a solution. Six in ten (58%) ‘disagree’ (23% strongly/35% somewhat) that ‘the Trudeau government is doing enough to find a permanent solution to the issue of asylum seekers coming into Canada from the United States’, while four in ten (42%) ‘agree’ (8% strongly/34% somewhat) that enough is being done to find a solution.

Also - when all else fails, play this card:

The federal government is imposing stricter limits, but no all-out ban, on the detention of minors in immigration holding centres.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale issued the new directive today designed to keep families together and kids out of detention "as much as humanly possible."

The ministerial direction strengthens language to say the best interests of the child must be given "primary consideration," rather than just being a factor in any decision. It also ensures the welfare of the child is considered before any decision is made on the parents' detention.

Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!

If there is a lottery for terrorists, this guy might join Omar Khadr as a lucky winner:

Jack Letts, a teenage convert to Islam from Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, travelled to Syria in 2014, ended up in the de-facto ISIL capital of Raqqa and was accused of joining the extremist group.

In the meantime, his parents were subjected to a unique criminal prosecution, charged with aiding a terrorist organization for sending their son £1,723 they hoped would help him escape.

Now it is possible Letts – who actually came to vehemently oppose the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to his parents – could end up in the hands of Canadian authorities.

If one really cared about aboriginals, one would scrap the Indian Act as of now:

As it tries to stave off a legislative crisis, the Trudeau government is caving in to Senate demands that an Indian Act update do more to eliminate sex-based discrimination in status registration.

Let the train wreck begin:

A coalition of Muslim and human rights groups have launched a court challenge of the Quebec law that bans face-coverings from public services, arguing it goes against both the Quebec and Canadian Charters of Rights and Freedoms. 

Filed on behalf of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), the application for judicial review of Bill 62 — the so-called burka ban — also names as a plaintiff Marie-Michelle Lacoste, a Quebec woman who converted to Islam in 2003 and now goes by the name Warda Naili. ...

Premier Philippe Couillard indicated the government is not surprised.

“Did anyone not expect a challenge?” Couillard said, before a meeting of the Liberal caucus.

But Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée said the government firmly believes the law respects freedoms and will defend it in court.

“It’s a law that is justified in a free and democratic society like Quebec,” Vallée said. 

Vallée was asked repeatedly whether the government would make use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to override rights in the event the law is struck down. ...

“Now the real question is: will the Canadian government intervene in favour or not?” said Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée. “Will the Canadian government use its weight to say they are against the will of the National Assembly to legislate on this?”

Please fight this, Justin. Fight this and lose Quebec.


Go for the throw-down , Quebec. How angry can an unassimilated growing minority be?

Also:

A majority of Canadians support (68%) legislation similar to Quebec’s Bill 62 in their own province ...

Imagine if students were invited to join a Bible study group without their parents' knowledge or consent:

United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney says his MLAs will oppose Bill 24, proposed legislation that would make it illegal for publicly funded schools to inform parents if their children join gay-straight alliances.

It wouldn't be the first time that special-interest groups stuck it to the taxpayer.




And now, news about real countries that get their acts together (more or less):


North Korea will always make it difficult for Japanese families to be reunited (if possible) with their kidnapped family members. The only solution is take out Kim Jong-Un:

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having endorsed U.S. President Donald Trump’s determination to take military action against North Korea if necessary, Japan faces new difficulties in resolving the issue of abductions of its nationals by Pyongyang.

Abe has said rescuing citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s is a “top priority” for his Cabinet, but if the military option is taken in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat, it would inevitably jeopardize the abductees’ lives.

The families of the abductees have opposed the use of force against Pyongyang, and while defense officials are preparing for contingencies, Tokyo is holding out hope that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions can be tackled without Washington resorting to military action.

Japan should also not depend on the Americans to solve the problems posed by North Korea:

The United States has welcomed Japan’s planned introduction of a land-based variant of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, but there are growing calls in Washington for Tokyo to acquire strike capability to further boost deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.

Trump, it seems, has backed off from the bluster that didn't help lower the already-existing tensions. If he does as his predecessors have done and return to the status quo of insignificant sanctions, he will only prolong the inevitable.



Japan and South Korea should nuclearise but for that latter, that seems unlikely:

The man who is most responsible for blocking Moon’s “engagement” of Kim Jong-un is … Kim Jong-un. It isn’t just that his nuclear and missile tests have denied Moon political space to appease him. Kim has repeatedly rejected Moon’s overtures toward conditional or co-equal engagement and instead demanded what would be tantamount to South Korea’s surrender.

What must the South Koreans be thinking about a man who wished to return to Roh Moo-Hyun's failed policies? They are watching those policies fail again.


The Kim dynasty was all about staying in power. It was naive to think that a man who murdered his half-brother would be amenable to peace.



(Kamsahamnida)


(Paws up)