Mid-Week Post

Your intermission of the work-week ...



No doubt warned to keep his fool mouth shut about the embarrassing Paradise Papers leaks, Trudeau does what he often does and refuses to answer a tough question:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's satisfied with the explanation top Liberal fundraiser Stephen Bronfman gave after coming under fire for his ties to an offshore trust in the Cayman Islands exposed in the Paradise Papers.

Bronfman insisted Monday that he "has never funded nor used offshore trusts."

His statement made no mention of his Montreal-based investment company Claridge Inc., which documents show had close business ties with the Cayman Islands-based Kolber Trust.

In his response to the leak of tax haven records, Bronfman said he had no "direct or indirect involvement" with the trust other than an arm's length loan made "over a quarter century ago" that was repaid five months later.

Speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Wednesday, Trudeau said he accepts Bronfman's public assurances that he has followed all the rules.

"We have received assurances that all rules were followed, indeed the same assurances made in the public statement released by the family, and we are satisfied with those assurances," Trudeau told reporters during a news conference inside Vietnam's presidential palace.

"We have done much in regards to tax avoidance and tax evasion, including working with international partners, but we also recognize there is much more to do and you can rest assured that Canada Revenue Agency will take very seriously its responsibility to go after everyone and anyone involved in tax avoidance and tax evasion."

Yes, about that: 

While numerous countries, including the U.S. and U.K. report that info publicly, Canadians are being deprived of the info.

As noted in the Toronto Star, “Last year, the CRA published a report about GST tax losses, concluding that about 5.6 per cent in potential revenues went uncollected every year from 2000 to 2014. Earlier this year, the agency released a report saying Canada forfeited $8.7 billion in 2014 domestic taxes as a result of unreported underground economy income and unpaid taxes. But those reports ignored the white elephant in the room: uncollected offshore taxes fuelled by the billions flowing out of the country and often into foreign tax havens.”

So, the key source of the tax gap isn’t being reported by the government.

If Trudeau's handlers don't fix this problem,  Trudeau may run out of excuses as to why he can't talk about it.




Oh, Climate Barbie!

Catherine McKenna is blaming a staffer after praise for Syria came from her department's official Twitter account.

A tweet from the official federal environment and climate change minister account — @ec_minister —lauded Nicaragua and Syria Tuesday for signing onto the Paris Climate Agreement.

"Canada salutes Nicaragua and Syria for joining on to the Paris Agreement! Global #ClimateAction. #COP23," the now-deleted tweet read.

Other politicians and staffers slammed her for praising a regime widely suspected of war crimes under Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, such as the use of chemical weapons.

Visas run out and applications are sometimes rejected. That happens. Pretending that this is the result of a cruel and short-sighted government is disingenuous to say the least and will probably not work in the long run:

Liberal MPs are headed back to the U.S. to fend off a new surge of asylum seekers at the Canada-U.S. border following the latest move by the U.S. to tighten its immigration policy.

But I thought that Canada had a welcome mat laid out.

At least until the election in 2019.




The number of homeless vets is rising:

According to a CTV report, “The number of homeless veterans that Veterans Affairs Canada is aware of in Canada has grown every year since 2015. On Jan. 1, 2015 the department reported a total of 475 on the government’s radar; as of Jan. 1, 2016 that number had grown to 578; and as of Jan. 1, 2017 there were 687 homeless veterans in Canada. That number grew to 770 by September 2017.”

The true numbers are likely higher, as the 770 figure is made up of those who have identified themselves as homeless and sought to receive services from Veterans Affairs. This means many more homeless Veterans could be out there.

Concerningly, Debbie Lowther of VETS Canada – an organization that helps homeless Canadian Veterans – says “There’s been a lot of delays lately in receiving services from veterans affairs.”

Only a few Yazidis the Liberals grudgingly let into Canada seek government-funded help:

Fewer than five Yazidi survivors of rape, torture and sexual slavery at the hands of ISIS have accessed one-on-one trauma counselling through federal assistance, according to immigration officials.

MPs on the immigration committee are receiving briefings this week on Canada's special program to bring 1,200 Yazidis and other survivors of ISIS by the end of the year. Officials confirmed the government is on track to meet its target, and that 81 per cent of the 807 people resettled so far are Yazidi.

But under questioning from MPs today, officials outlined challenges with the complex resettlement process, ranging from translation and interpretation services, to medical treatment to specialized trauma and mental health care.

While health services are normally covered by the provinces and territories, the federal government provides funding for refugees through an interim federal health care program.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel let out an audible gasp when an immigration department official revealed that fewer than five resettled Yazidis have accessed individualized counselling.

 
Also:

To deal with the emotions, a team of six elders stand by. Mental-health workers, identified by purple shirts, sit in the audience to offer support to anyone needing it.

Witnesses are given a small bundle of tobacco at the end of their testimony. Many choose to take it to a sacred fired tended by an elder and burn it while offering prayers, Casella said.

Why not just smoke it? Doesn't it have the same effect?


And:

The federal government has decided to change course on its proposed legislation to end sex-based discrimination in the Indian Act.

The government's point man in the Senate, Sen. Peter Harder, told the upper chamber Tuesday that the government is offering to make a change that would restore full legal status to First Nations women and their descendants born prior to 1985 — a measure that moved Indigenous Sen. Lillian Dyck to tears.

John Diefenbaker gave aboriginals universal suffrage. The Indian Act - already an act of apartheid - deprived women of their status if they married white men, something that would have been a non-issue had the Indian Act been relegated to the dustbin of history in the first place. The graft further continues by characterising the same white man who, while often hostile and discriminatory, gradually led the deliberately isolated aboriginals into the current century.

(Sidebar: it is not for the government to grant natural rights but to preserve them. But I digress ...)


Will there ever be an end to this gong show?




A couple has been denied a chance to adopt a child due to their views on homosexuality:

An evangelical Christian couple have filed a court application alleging the province discriminated against them based on their religious beliefs by rejecting their application to adopt a child. 

The Edmonton couple — whose are identified only by initials in court documents — allege an initial recommendation they be allowed to adopt was revoked after “interference” by the Ministry of Children’s Services, and that they were told their religious beliefs related to gender and sexuality were contrary to the “official position of the Alberta government.”

“If we did not change our religious beliefs regarding sexuality, to conform to the beliefs of Child and Family Services, we would not be approved for adoption,” said the woman in an affidavit filed Nov. 1 with Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton.

Ahem:

Khadr had moved to Turkey around the time her younger brother Omar was transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Canada in September 2012. She reportedly remarried and had two young children.

She and her mother, Maha Elsamnah, came under strong criticism in Canada for remarks they made for a March 2004 CBC documentary titled Al Qaeda Family.

They were living in Pakistan at the time and criticized what they considered to be Canada’s liberal laws. Elsamnah said she would rather raise her children to fight than live in Canada, where they could become homosexuals or addicted to drugs, earning her family the title of “Canadians of convenience.”

 
Just saying.



The trouble with being mad at dad and embracing the things one thinks will cheese him off is that quite often one will step in it big time:

Is that a fact, Mr. Montgomery?

A starving North Korean child: too damn white for his own good.

Mr. Montgomery tried walking back from his knee-jerk tweet but, really, it's just tracking filth all over the place.


Also:

Trudeau Tweet Emphasizes Meeting With “Communist Party” Leader In Vietnam

What an @$$hole.




Trump is all over the place with North Korea. At first blustery, he is perhaps realising that he dove in head-first and, seeing that he can't take back his tough talk, maintains it but in a softer voice:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned against the threats posed by “a country ruled by a cult” in North Korea in a hard line speech aimed at rallying international pressure on Pyongyang over its escalating nuclear weapons program.

Trump said dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime seeks to “sow conflict abroad to distract from total failure they suffer at home” in his address to the South Korean national assembly.

“Do not underestimate us,” Trump said, addressing North Korea. “And do not try us. We will defend our common spirit, our shared prosperity and our sacred liberty.”

He emphasized the United States is not seeking conflict, but he added that: “We will never run from it. History is filled with discarded regimes that have foolishly tested America’s resolve.”

“We will not be intimidated,” Trump said.

The remarks came a day after Trump had asserted that his administration is making “a lot of progress” in the peninsula and urging dictator Kim Jong Un to “make a deal” at the negotiating table on the rogue nation’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

“I believe it makes sense for North Korea to do the right thing, not only for North Korea but for humanity all over the world,” Trump said during a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after a bilateral meeting at the Blue House.

“I do see certain movement, yes, but we’ll see what happens,” he added, without offering any details.

Does he have a contingency plan if North Korea collapses? Because if the Chinese do, he is in for it.




Trump is appalled at the forced abortions and infanticides in North Korea and says so:

President Trump blasted the forced abortions and infanticide that are regularly committed in North Korea, asking why China would “feel an obligation” to help a country that kills Chinese babies for being “inferior.”

“North Korean women are forced to abort babies that are considered ethnically inferior,” Trump told South Korea’s National Assembly. “And if these babies are born, the newborns are murdered.”

“One woman's baby born to a Chinese father was taken away in a bucket,” Trump recalled. “The guard said it did not deserve to live because it was impure.”

“So why would China feel an obligation to help North Korea?” he asked.

 
Squealing white, pudgy pro-abortion feminists in five, four ...


Also:

We exited to the hall, and a Belgian and German woman were waiting. They started to make fun of the Korean translator, and to snap pictures in her face. And she said “You can’t do this. This is my country. I will call the police.” And they actually grabbed at her, and then one of the Korean reporters put a huge camera in the Belgian woman’s face and started taking photos of her. A fist fight almost ensured between the women, but another of the Koreans stepped in and kept any contact from happening. And all of this was on camera. And then our Korean hosts ushered us down the hall, and down the elevator, along with the reporters and camera crew, and we resumed the interview in the commons area downstairs by the trash cans and the bathroom. We were able to complete the entire interview, and instead of our audience being a few women doctors from the conference, we now have an audience of probably a few thousand.

Apparently, the South Koreans didn't know what they were doing when they invited guest speakers and needed fat white loud-mouths to tell them so.




There is a joke in here somewhere and I am struggling to find it:

Of the roughly 1.1 billion sheep on Earth, roughly 1.1 billion have no idea who Barack Obama is. But there are at least eight sheep who can recognize the former president by his face. After a few days of training at the University of Cambridge in England, the animals learned to select the former president’s portrait out of a collection of photos.