For a Monday

A lot going on ...



From the most "transparent" government - and its agencies - the country:

The Canada Revenue Agency made it more difficult in May of this year for diabetes patients over the age of 18 to access a key tax credit, newly released emails reveal — contradicting the federal government’s claims that the agency had not altered its approvals process.

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Canadians learned last month that their government awarded $31.25 million to three of Arar's associates who were also under RCMP and U.S. terrorism investigations – Abdullak Almalki, Abou el Maati and Muayyed Nurredin – to settle their civil lawsuit. Like Arar, the essence of their complaint was alleged misconduct or inaction by Canadian authorities after they had chosen to travel abroad and were detained and interrogated by Syrian, and in El Maati's case, Egyptian authorities. 

Also like Arar, they claimed to have been tortured, and alleged their mistreatment was aided by inappropriate information sharing by Canadian officials with their foreign counterparts. A subsequent mostly-closed door judicial inquiry found instances of their Charter rights being violated by the actions or inactions of Canadian officials.

(Sidebar: the stupid Charter has no sway outside of Canada, a country where people truly believe that the government is most generous in awarding - not upholding - rights that they should already have. But I digress ...)

In July, the Canadian government announced it settled a civil suit brought by convicted Islamist terrorist Omar Khadr. His claim appears to have been based on Canadian officials interviewing him twice in 2002 while at Guantanamo Bay after having been captured following a deadly firefight in Afghanistan. Khadr also complained that Canadian officials provided copies of his interviews to U.S. officials even though it is now clear that the U.S. had already recorded the conversations.

In all three of these cases, the Canadian government provided no clear factual rationale as to why it chose to settle the cases behind closed doors. There has also been no explanation as to whether the Canadian security officials had a factual justification for their actions. In fact, both judicial inquiries expressly chose not to examine the conduct of the terror suspects involved and whether it may explain their overseas detention and interrogation. Also, none of the individuals were subjected to cross-examination, which is not exactly the best way to achieve a properly informed outcome.

Given this, it's not surprising that more "victims" are emerging. Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian resident who was a bogus refugee claimant linked to would-be Millennium bomber Ahmad Ressam, was removed from Canada in 2000. He was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan after 9/11 and held in Guantanamo Bay, where he became friends with Omar Khadr. His complaint against Canada was that, like Khadr, he was interviewed by Canadian officials twice. By remarkable coincidence, Ameziane has filed a civil lawsuit against Canada from Algeria where he now safely resides, and he is represented by one of Omar Khadr's lawyers. I wonder if Omar got a finder's fee?

If nothing else, Canadians should be demanding not only public inquiries into these secret pay-outs and why ISIS thugs may never face prison time (at the very, very least) but accountability in the form of forced resignations. There is no reason why Omar Khadr or anyone who left Canada to rape, maim and kill innocent civilians (and possibly our armed forces) should re-enter and then receive payments. That one's government does this with impunity (and that people allow it) is the some of the worst moral and political corruption with which there should never be any comfort.


Somewhat related - why should the Canadian government coddle people who choose to enter the US and play the race card?

An Ottawa author is calling for the Canadian government to better protect its citizens from being harassed by American border guards while still on Canadian soil.

You're not pretty or special, Ugly Canadian. No one owes you anything. If you need the government to hold your hand every time you leave the country then you shouldn't leave the country. Know where you're going and what to expect.

Oh, but that would be work and the self-entitled just don't do that sort of thing.




The Chinese don't care what Trudeau thinks but they do want huge swathes of Canada:

Justin Trudeau arrived in China in the belief that his hosts had accepted the fundamentals of his “progressive trade agenda.” He fully expected to announce the launch of formal free trade talks Monday, with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the Great Hall of the People overlooking Tiananmen Square.

He left empty-handed — which is going to make this a very long week for the Prime Minister, as he’s asked to elaborate on what went wrong.

It can be suggested that the first thing that went wrong was sending a complete dolt with a virtue-signalling agenda and a penchant for running away because math is too hard to a country of currency-fixing human-right abusers.


The second mistake was letting Trudeau open his fool mouth:

China already has a $43-billion trade surplus with Canada. It would have liked to extend its influence further by pushing for more a generous investment review threshold and broader access to the Canadian market.

But it doesn’t need a deal with Canada. After the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party in October, president Xi Jinping outlined an alternative vision of globalism to rival western liberalism — one in which China sits squarely at the centre as an authoritarian, state-driven market economy.

It was always hard to see how Xi’s vision, which is illiberal in the extreme, squared with Trudeau’s ultra-liberal trade agenda.

That they were irreconcilable should have been apparent before Monday.

Xi was not moved by Trudeau's flapping gums? Colour me shocked.




By now, it should be incredibly apparent that the Liberals both federally and provincially do not care about children with autism or their parents. It should also dawn on these parents that if they vote for such governments, they are getting what they deserve - heartless governments that make parents beg for the right to keep their resources and look after their families as they see fit:

A heart-rending case involving a Halifax-area boy has triggered new calls for a national strategy to help families with children who can become violently aggressive because of severe autism. 

The case of nine-year-old Callum Sutherland illustrates what happens when families can't get crisis assistance, according to Autism Canada and the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance.

Carly Sutherland took the rare step last week of holding a news conference to plea for help with her sometimes violent son, who is due to be fully released from a confined hospital unit on Thursday.

Sutherland told reporters her son, and her family, are frightened by how they will cope.

Way to stick it to terrorists, France!

This week, the French city of Lyon announced it would cancel its world-famous Christmas market after seven years, as costs to protect the market against potential terror threats escalated to € 20,000 — a price the city could not afford.

Security around Christmas markets in Europe has increased following Tunisian Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist Anis Amri's truck attack in Berlin, Germany last year. Amri targeted the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, murdering 12.

"Unfortunately, this end of the year 2017 Place de la Croix-Rousse will not welcome its Christmas market and farm animals," reported the French newspaper Le Progrès.

"For a year, requests to secure our events have increased," Maïlys, a project manager at the Lyon Côté Croix-Rousse merchants' association, told Le Progrès. The cost of security would have reached nearly € 20,000.

"The decision to delete the 2017 edition was complicated and difficult to take, but no solution could be found, despite our discussions with the town hall," the project manager added. "Nevertheless, we are already thinking about a new version for Christmas 2018."

Oh, don't bother. 

Remember - it's all for the environment:

According to Quartz, a Chinese company has invented an emissions-free bulk cargo ship powered by 1,000 lithium batteries and launched it in Guangzhou.

The builder, Guangzhou Shipyard International Company, says the ship can travel 80 kilometres on a two-hour charge, reports the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

The 70.5 metres long vessel will ply the Pearl River in southern China — transporting up to 2,100 metric tons of coal to a power plant.

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The Liberal government has been encouraging electric vehicle sales by doling out $75 million in rebates to vehicle owners, offering various other incentives and programs, installing a network of charging stations and spending $1 million to open an electric vehicle education centre.

But that so far hasn’t translated into vast numbers of vehicles. The official data for 2017 isn’t yet available, but at the end of last year, electric vehicles represented less than one per cent of all passenger vehicle sales in Ontario.

In just two years, by 2020, the government hopes to see that number increase to five per cent.

It can’t be done, analysts say.

The US and South Korea engage in even bigger drills:

The United States and South Korea went ahead with large-scale joint aerial drills on Monday, a move North Korea had said would push the Korean peninsula to “the brink of nuclear war”, ignoring calls from Russia and China to call them off.

It's like the Red Cross wants to lose donors:

The Belgian branches of the international aid organisation received an email from the Provincial Committee of the Red Cross in Liège to remove all crucifixes. André Rouffart, president of the Red Cross in Verviers, said: “We were asked to respect the principles of the Red Cross”, and not to distinguish between race or religious belief 7sur7 reports.

Mr. Rouffart said there had been pushback from volunteers and other members on the issue but downplayed the issue, saying: “I think it’s a storm in a teacup.”

Several volunteers spoke to Belgian broadcaster RTL and expressed hostility to the move, with one saying: “Let things remain as they are. We used to say ‘Christmas holidays’, now it’s ‘winter holidays’. The Christmas market in Brussels has become the ‘Winter Pleasures’.”

“For a certain part of the population — because of the Muslims — the crosses were removed in the Red Cross houses and, more particularly, in that of Verviers,” the volunteer added.

Scratch a pro-abortionist, find a violent thug every time:

A 15-year-old pro-life student was allegedly assaulted outside a Planned Parenthood clinic while she and her group were providing support and resources about alternatives to abortion to women entering the building.