Mid-Week Post

A merry Thanksgiving to the Americans.

This is unbelievable:

The footage starts with a jeep speeding through a checkpoint toward the Military Demarcation Line, as the CCTV timeline reads "2017-11-13 15:11." The vehicle then made a quick right turn near a Kim Il-sung monument at the northern part of the JSA.

After its wheel apparently came loose, the soldier, clad in a Korean People's Army uniform, exited it and dashed toward the South.

Four North Korean guards, armed with pistols and rifles, immediately pursued him several meters behind, opening fire.

The defector was shot five times, with some of the gunshots flying over the MDL. A North Korean guard also crossed the MDL for a few seconds then returned to the North's side.

The UNC stressed that the North Korean troops' acts were in breach of the Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War.

"The key findings of the special investigation team are that the KPA violated the Armistice Agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily," US Army Col. Chad Carroll, UNC's public affairs chief, said at a briefing.

Separate footage from a thermal observation device showed three members of South Korea's JSA security battalion forces -- a deputy commander and two noncommissioned officers -- crawling on their stomachs to recover the wounded defector lying against a wall.

"I think it's important to note that that point in this area of the JSA is exposed to a KPA checkpoint from where they are," Carroll said.   

And the South Koreans never shot back once.


This defection and frequent purges are signs that the dynasty is on its last legs and cannot survive without China's help.


The soldier - identified by his family name, Oh - is expected to live and mentioned being interested in a South Korean pop group. This indicates that a program to funnel information and entertainment on flashsticks to the North Koreans is working:

The North Korean soldier, who was shot multiple times while defecting to South Korea last week, has fully regained consciousness, and his wounds are no longer life-threatening, his doctor said Wednesday.

Surgeon Lee Cook-jong at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul, said that the 24-year-old soldier, identified only by his surname Oh, could leave the intensive care unit to a general ward as early as this weekend.

"The patient is not going to die," Lee said during a press briefing.

But the doctor said it would take about a month for Oh to recover enough to answer questions on his dramatic defection. ...

Oh was shot five or six times by North Korean border guards as he raced across the border and through the truce village of Panmunjom on Nov. 13. He was taken to the hospital and underwent the first surgery, which lasted about five hours, later that day.

He received a second surgery on Nov. 15 and began breathing on his own three days later.

During the surgeries, dozens of fully grown parasitic worms were found in his ruptured small intestine, some as long as 27 centimeters (10.6 inches). That shows how bad the hygiene conditions are in the impoverished communist nation.

Examinations also showed he has tuberculosis and hepatitis B.

Doctors are treating the parasitic infection and plan to begin treatment of the hepatitis. But the tuberculosis is believed to be inactive and doesn't require urgent treatment, officials said.

Lee said that Oh has recovered enough to talk about pop music and movies.

"We played him three versions of Girls' Generation's 'Gee' -- the original version, the rock version and the indie band version -- and he said he likes the original version the best and that he loves girl groups," the doctor said. "We showed him a cable TV movie channel, and he said he likes the American drama 'CSI' and American films."

Lee said the hospital played him those songs for the sake of his emotional stability, denying some media reports that the solider first asked to listen to South Korean music.

Lee also said that while watching the US film "The Transporter," Oh told him that he also used to drive.

"We usually tell him he has to do this or that in South Korea, but we don't ask about his time in North Korea," the doctor said. "That's because it's bad for the patient to think about it."

Lee said the solider also told him that the reason he risked his life to defect is because of the positive images of South Korea.

Also:

Daily routines for men and women were roughly the same. Women tended to have slightly shorter physical training regimes - but they were also required to perform daily chores such as cleaning, and cooking that male soldiers were exempted from.

"North Korea is a traditional male-dominated society and traditional gender roles remain," says Juliette Morillot, author of North Korea in 100 questions, published in French. "Women are still seen ttukong unjeongsu, which literally translates as 'cooking pot lid drivers', and means that they should 'stay in the kitchen where they belong'."

 
According to apologists, communism was super-great for women as long as one didn't pay attention to the facts.


And:

North Korea on Monday issued veiled threat of a nuclear strike on Japan, vowing to make the country “disappear at once” if Tokyo continues with what Pyongyang termed “war hysteria.”

I'm sure that the North Koreans would be stunned to find out who gives them aid.


Also:

The Korean Catholic Church began taking action against a move to decriminalize abortion as over 200,000 people signed an online petition to lift the ban on abortion.

About that:

South Korea again saw a steep slide in the number of newborn babies in September as the country is expected to experience record low childbirths in 2017, government data showed Wednesday.

About 30,100 babies were born in the month, down 12.5 percent, or 4,300, from 34,400 tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The monthly childbirths have decreased every single month since December 2015 with a double-digit decline continuing for 10 straight months.

The Church in South Korea is looking pretty sensible about now.




Moving on ...




What will a wage hike mean in Ontario? Fewer jobs and taxing the excess:

Ontario's minimum wage workers are set to get a bump in their paycheques after the province voted in favour of raising the standard to $15 an hour over the next two years. 

Currently at $11.60 an hour, the minimum wage will rise under the legislation to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, with the increase to $15 coming in 2019.

The push to raise the minimum wage is also gaining traction in Alberta and British Columbia.

But the validity of raising wages depends on who you ask.

Many businesses are crying foul — pointing to research that suggests mass layoffs and other detrimental effects could be part of the fallout.

Some economists, meanwhile, believe those concerns are overstated because more money in the pockets of the nation's lowest earners means more consumer spending, boosting the economy.

Fifty-three economists signed an open letter supporting Ontario's proposed hike, saying such increases can "lead to little or no job loss."

However, Ontario's financial watchdog has said that the province's wage increase could result in more than 50,000 job losses because the tight timeline will provide incentive for businesses to aggressively reduce costs. It added that the new policy will increase the number of minimum wage workers in Ontario from just over 500,000 to 1.6 million in 2019.

No low-skills job is worth more than fifteen dollars an hour. It is guaranteed that employers will trim jobs, hours and new hires. Furthermore, the more one earns, the more one pays in taxes. To further complicate matters, prices for goods and services will go up to offset the costs.

People who aren't good at math shouldn't set public policy.

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

How is it that Justin Trudeau is still as starry-eyed about China as so much of the global jet set is about Trudeau? What does he think about China’s misconduct abroad and at home, its economic fragility, repression and ham-fisted aggression? Does he think about it at all?

Nope.

** 

Canada is committed to ditching a policy that rejects immigrants because they're sick or disabled and could be a drag on the health system, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says.

Calling it an "important and sensitive" issue, Hussen said the government will look at all options to revamp the 40-year-old policy, which bars entry to applicants when they could be costly to public health or social service systems.

**

The majority of asylum seekers who have crossed illegally into Canada so far this year were Haitian and so far, only 10 per cent of their claims have been accepted, newly released data showed Wednesday.

Since February, the Immigration and Refugee Board has received 14,467 claims in total from what they call irregular border crossers, and the overall acceptance rate sits at 60 per cent.

Why sixty percent? They left the US, a First World nation with the rule of law, one in which expired visas are not tolerated for anyone for any reason.

**

Harrison Thunderchild says he really didn’t want to have to take the Thunderchild First Nation, of which he is a member, to court.

After all, his nephew is the band chief. And he has other relatives on the council.

But as questions in the community swirled about the way the First Nation, located about an hour north of Battleford, Sask., was handling its finances, and band leaders allegedly refused to disclose basic financial records, Thunderchild says he was left with no choice.

Yes, about that ...

**

On Monday, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel accused PM Justin Trudeau of hiding the number of fighters who have returned, asking for an exact count. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale stood up to offer the response: “in the order of 60.”

That was the number that hit the headlines and got Canadians talking. But it’s far from accurate. The first clue comes from reading Goodale’s full remark: “As the director of CSIS indicated before a parliamentary committee some months ago, the number of returns known to the Government of Canada is in the order of 60, and they are under very careful investigation.”

Some months ago? Try more than a year and a half ago. Goodale appears to be referring to CSIS director Michel Coulombe’s March, 2016, testimony before the standing Senate committee on national security and defence. It was there that Coulombe offered the 60 count.

However, when Postmedia asked Goodale’s office where it got that number from, it cited a government report compiled as of year-end 2015. This tells us two things: 1) That Coulombe offered Senators a figure that was four months stale; 2) That Goodale answered Rempel’s question with a figure that’s a full two years old.

Are there parkas enough to cover this?




Jerk or patriot? YOU decide: 

Catherine McKenna Receives Barbie In The Mail From Some Jerk

 

But ... but ... diversity ... or something!:

The organization’s 2017 audited financial statements — on the agenda of Wednesday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) — show Pride Toronto likely took a major financial hit this year over the controversial decision to ban cops from marching in the June 25 parade.

(Merci)

And now, the Butterball hotline is hilarious AND constructive:

Among the more questionable calls the turkey experts have received: “Can I brine my turkey in the washing machine?” and “The family dog is inside the turkey and can’t get out.” (It was a Chihuahua, in case you’re wondering, and the Butterball expert did manage to help the owners get the dog out safely.)