Mid-Week Post

The focal point of the work-week ...
 



You can run to India and then run away from work but you can't run away from the truth:

In response to a query regarding invitation to Jaspal Atwal, the Official Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said:

"We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India.

Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.”

Does Justin think Indians are as stupid as the pot-heads who voted for him?

Yes, he does:

In question period on Monday and Tuesday, Conservative critics demanded to know who the source was and why they had spoken to the media on the matter.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called those remarks a “conspiracy theory.”
Trudeau, however, backed the official.

“Our professional non-partisan service does high-quality work, and when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it’s because they know it to be true,” he said.

Would this be the "high-quality work" that Justin blamed for the Joshua Boyle affair?


Is there anyone Justin won't throw under the bus?

Nope:

The Liberal MP who invited a man convicted of attempted murder to dine with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his trip to India has apologized and resigned as chair of his party's Pacific Caucus.
  
Backbencher Randeep Sarai, the member for Surrey Centre, had claimed responsibility last week for inviting Jaspal Atwal to a pair of high-level receptions on the trip that ended last weekend.

(Sidebar: I really hope that Justin threw in a solid-gold jet for you to fall on your sword, Randeep, or it's just not worth it.)


There is no way that known terrorists or their sympathisers get past any security agency - domestic or international - unless Justin wills it.




Is Justin done making a jack@$$ out of himself yet? His next fiasco is set for Argentina and Brazil and he seems to be sending only a lackey, thereby missing a chance to don a tutti-frutti hat:

Canada will launch trade negotiations with South American trade bloc Mercosur next Friday, with an eye to accessing free trade with “prize” markets Brazil and Argentina.

A first round of talks is being scheduled for Ottawa the third week of March, according to a spokesman for Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne. 

Champagne will travel to Asuncion, Paraguay to make the announcement alongside his counterparts from Mercosur countries Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, Joseph Pickerill told the National Post. The decision comes after a round of exploratory talks that began this summer.

Never send trustifarians to do an economist's job:

Modern statespeoplekind, swelled with majestic aspiration, do not deign to discuss tawdry tax and spending. Hence the crucial “Summary Statement of Transactions” was buried on p. 319 of 367 as essentially an afterthought. As Andrew Coyne notes, these documents aren’t really budgets at all any more, or even the long tortured econometric rationalizations we used to get in a vain effort to reassure us the government’s deficit projections were not voodoo. Now it’s about “equality.” Well, “That, and pandering to every conceivable Liberal client group and policy cult.” ...

Too cynical, you say? Alas, it is. If Baghwan Justin and Bill Morneau were doing it on purpose they would, at least, have some lurking sense of the precariousness of their position. Instead this budget reeks of blithe arrogance, taking on ever-more ambitious and glorious goals because government is omniscient, omnipotent and all-merciful. Why, the Finance Minister declared “We are, in this budget, taking measures to ensure women can be successful.”

Leaving aside the patronizing patriarchal image of two rich powerful straight white knights in shining armour riding to the rescue of frail women unable to succeed otherwise, the word “ensure” rather than, say, “assist” is revealing. They have no doubt they can avoid fiscal storms, generate prosperity, strengthen the middle class and bring in gender equity. What could go wrong?

Gee. Where do I start? I know. This a government, and I mean a government not just a ministry, cannot pay its own employees properly because its Phoenix computerized pay system is an expensive disaster. Which the Liberals inherited but have been quite unable to fix. The public service has been on it from the beginning, with a direct personal motive for sorting it out, and also can’t fix despite ever more money and IT personnel being hurled at it. 

When high taxation and inflation hits, how many times will the money-grubbing Morneau and Trudeau say "gender" to ward off the jobless masses who threaten to vote Tory (oh, yes, it WILL come to that).

**

Speaking at the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa to kick off a post-budget sales job, Morneau said many Canadians are without coverage, including people who are self-employed. Some parts of the system are working well, but others are not, he said.

"We need a strategy to deal with the fact not everyone has access, and we need to do it in a way that's responsible, that deals with the gaps, but doesn't throw out the system that we currently have," he said.

 Eric Hoskins, Ontario's former Liberal health minister, will chair a council that will consult with stakeholders and make recommendations to government on how to proceed with a national plan.

Morneau said the committee will need time to carefully study the issue because the workforce and cost of pharmaceuticals have changed dramatically in the last two decades. 

That sounds like a waste of time and money.

Morneau could simply let waitresses and the like keep their money and pretend that drug plans are not free but that would be sensible. 

**

And yet Morneau’s budget Tuesday plots no such course. New spending on indigenous peoples, military veterans, scientific research and gender equity have eaten up windfalls. Even with new tax revenues from marijuana, tobacco and private corporations, Morneau wasn’t able to accelerate the deficit-reduction path, totaling $98 billion (US$77 billion) over six years.

It's just money.

Oh, dear:

The separatist party that has fought for Quebec independence from Canada was in disarray on Wednesday after seven of its 10 legislators quit the party, opening the door for possible electoral gains by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2019. 

Yes, about that:

With Quebec's provincial election still many months away, polls suggest that François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec is in the driver's seat. If an election were held today, the party probably would win a majority and oust Liberal Philippe Couillard from the premier's office.

But the election is set for Oct. 1. Will the CAQ be able to maintain its momentum over the last sitting of the National Assembly and through to an election campaign that kicks off more than six months from now?

Two recent polls indicate that the CAQ begins this election year in a strong position. The surveys, conducted by Léger for Le Devoir at the end of January and by Ipsos for La Presse between Feb. 2-4, pegged the CAQ's support at between 34 and 39 per cent. The Liberals trailed in second place, with between 28 and 30 per cent support — numbers that historically represent the party's floor.

There will always be a "Quebec-first-and-screw-everyone-else" party, whether it is the Bloc Quebecois or Coalition Avenir Quebec. The Liberals, it seems, are the Plan C.

What would cinch an "anybody but Justin" vote is if Justin decides to hammer away at the hugely popular Bill 62 as he once threatened to do. All he needs to do is remove the foot from his mouth.

No, Canada is not an "honest broker" and hasn't been since October 2015:

On Dec. 6, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump fulfilled a bi-partisan commitment by Congress, first articulated in 1995, and announced that the United States not only recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but further pledged to move the American embassy there from its current home in Tel Aviv.

Less than 24 hours later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, unequivocally, that Canada would not move its embassy (such unequivocal, decisive stances on foreign policy matters are remarkable for this Prime Minister). Shortly thereafter, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland expressed agreement, noting “the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only as part of a general settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute.”

Well, here’s the thing. Recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel does nothing to prejudice the outcome of the “conflict” or any related negotiations. Minister Freeland’s somnambulistic repetition of a rather shopworn position — a favourite of the Department of Global Affairs — reflects either a profound disinterest or a lack of understanding of the complexity, and yet also simplicity, of the issue. ...

I expect that for an eternity, Russia and Ukraine will dispute Crimean sovereignty. Yet, it is impossible to imagine that Minister Freeland — an outspoken advocate for Ukraine — would dismiss that country’s genuine concerns with nearly the ease that the Canadian government seems set on dismissing Israel’s. The Ukrainian claim to Crimea, historically, is far less strong (certainly in terms of millennia — a key metric regarding legitimacy) than is Israel’s to Jerusalem. And, then, there’s the small matter of the last 70 years or so of Arab rejectionism, punctuated by successive wars which they started, and lost, and in which they bragged they would destroy Israel. (Their rhetoric, not mine.)

In this more honest historical context, I’d like to address a simple question to Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Freeland, who are fond of describing their position on Israel as being one of an “Honest broker.” I ask: “Honest broker? In what universe?”

Trump, or Scheer, for that matter, could declare that Haifa is the capital of Israel and the Palestinians, who have never adhered to any peace agreement, would still have a problem with it. Justin's knee-jerk declaration is not only contrarian to Trump but sympathetic to a group that will only be satisfied once all Israelis are gone.




In case one was under the impression that the government and its organs were meant to help:

Ranchers in the foothills are standing behind an Okotoks man charged after shots were fired when two intruders came onto his property over the weekend.

Police said Edouard Maurice, who faces charges of aggravated assault, pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm, had a confrontation with two alleged trespassers early Saturday morning. 

Shots were fired and Ryan Watson, now facing trespassing and possession charges, was transported to hospital with a gunshot to his arm.

The incident has some locals fired up, saying rural break-ins are becoming far more common.

People thought that kind of thing would work for Zimbabwe, too:

Grant Singer and his family considered their cottage at Crooked Lake their quiet refuge for years. Now it's up for sale — although he says he has little hope anyone would be foolish enough to buy it.

"If somebody really wanted it, they can have the headache."

In 2007, the Regina man signed a $757-a-year lease for an undeveloped lakefront lot on Crooked Lake, 140 kilometres east of Regina. He moved an old farmhouse onto the property.

He said all told, he spent about $45,000 moving the home, running electricity and putting in a basement and septic system.

In 2009, his landlord, the Sakimay First Nation, jacked up his rent to $4,500 a year. The rates were also increased for more than 300 other cottagers leasing land from Sakimay. Some rates went up by 700 per cent.

"We were shocked. Absolutely shocked," Singer told CBC's iTeam.

He said the cottagers are aware inflation happens, but it has to be within reason.

"For us it wasn't worth that. It just wasn't reasonable for us."




And people thought that the winter Olympics would bring about an era of understanding:

North Korea sent items used in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs to Syria along with missile technicians in violation of U.N. sanctions – and banned ballistic missiles systems to Myanmar, U.N. experts said.

The panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea said its investigations into Pyongyang’s transfer of prohibited ballistic missile, conventional arms and dual-use goods found more than 40 previously unreported shipments to Syria between 2012 and 2017.

That's something Kim and Moon can talk about.





And now, a baited camera in Nunavut catches footage of the rare and elusive Greenland shark:

(Merci beaucoup)

Yet Even More Things to Talk About

The world is not a dull place ...




In case no one heard them the first time, the Liberals repeated the word "gender" (a grammatical term, by the way) in the disastrous budget three hundred and fifty-eight times.

Signalling virtue in a country where women have had the right to vote since 1918 and where 36% of the country's self-employed entrepreneurs are women is essentially wasting breath (high corporate, carbon and capital gains taxes are making it hard for any entrepreneur to make a go of his or her business in Canada but why let facts get in the way?) but it sounds good to people who aren't paying attention.


And it is not the only smoke:

$18.1 billion — projected deficit for 2018-19
30.1 per cent — projected debt to GDP ratio for 2018-19
$323.4 billion — projected revenue for 2018-19

(Sidebar: Justin promised only $26.1 billion in deficits. He promised deficits and people still voted for him.  The current debt stands at $650,960,155,276.25.)


Oh, it gets better and by better, I mean worse:

$172 million over five years and $42.5 million a year afterward for the Canada Media Fund to foster the growth of Canadian-produced content.
— $50 million over five years to support “local journalism in underserved communities,” and plans to explore new models that would allow private and philanthropic support for “non-profit” journalism, including allowing Canadian newspapers to receive charitable status.

(Sidebar: ahem.)

— $75 million over five years, with $11.8 million a year afterward, to bolster Canada’s trade ties with China and Asia.

(Sidebar: again, ahem.)

— $191 million over five years to support jobs in the softwood lumber industry, including litigation under the World Trade Organization and NAFTA’s dispute resolution mechanism.

(Sidebar: this.)

— $90.6 million over five years to track down tax evaders and avoiders, plus $41.9 million over five years and $9.3 million a year thereafter to help Canada’s courts deal with the additional caseload.

(Sidebar: yes, about that.)

— Changes to income sprinkling, passive investment income and the small business tax rate that are expected to save the government $925 million a year by 2022-23.

That's a lot of smoke.




In other news ...




Justin appointed Omar Khadr's lawyer to the federal court:

The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointments under the new judicial application process announced on October 20, 2016. The new process emphasizes transparency, merit, and diversity, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity. ...

John Norris, a sole practitioner based in Toronto, is appointed a judge of the Federal Court. He fills a new position created under An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Federal Courts Act (S.C. 2010, c. 8).

Why would a government knowingly appoint the lawyer for an unrepentant convicted terrorist?


For the same reason that it would deflect blame for inviting a Sikh extremist to a state dinner:

Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested factions within the Indian government were involved in sabotaging the prime minister's visit to India last week.

During his first question period since arriving back in Canada, opposition MPs grilled the prime minister Tuesday about invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal – a B.C. Sikh convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 – to attend two events with the prime minister in India.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India.

About that: 

It is too easy to assume that the RCMP and CSIS were simply incompetent (as Justin has made clear before). If the guest list was checked by Indian security, why would it not be checked Canadian security? For that, one would have to start at the top. As prime minister, the buck always stops with Justin. 


Also:

Bill C-371, The Prevention of Radicalization through Foreign Funding Act, introduced by Conservative MP Tony Clement, was premised on a simple proposition: Canadians would be better shielded from radicalization if their cultural, educational, and religious institutions were not subject to the pernicious influence of foreign states and individuals that advance extremist ideologies. 

Conversely, so long as the patrons of extremist ideologies have an unfettered ability to invest billions of dollars in institutions in Canada, the threat of extremism and radicalization will only grow.

The legislation would have prohibited Canadian schools, cultural centres, and places of worship from accepting funding from foreign states designated by Ottawa as promoting extremism and radicalization.

Saudi Arabia and Iran would have been two likely candidates for such a designation. They respectively work to radicalize Sunni and Shia communities across the globe by funding textbooks, mosques, and cultural centres that teach and promote their ideological worldviews, in which hatred, intolerance, and the legitimization of violence are common themes.

Bill C-371 would have been an important tool to help insulate Canadians from foreign actors seeking to propagate such ideologies, which are known catalysts for radicalization and terrorist violence. The legislation’s creative and targeted approach for pre-empting radicalization, rather than just coping with its aftermath, minimally deserved to be explored further in committee hearings, where experts could have testified and provisions carefully examined.  

In scuttling this initiative before the bill even reached committee stage, it appears that Ottawa has chosen to ignore the experience of its European allies, who have belatedly acknowledged the devastating impact of foreign-funded extremism on their societies. It is a decision that may yet return to haunt the prime minister and his team.

These patrons:

Trudeau, regardless of the fact he's been a longtime friend of the Aga Khan, is the leader of Canada—a country which has given the Aga Khan Foundation Canada $310 million since 2004. That alone is a reason to not take a vacation on the privately-owned island of a billionaire whose organization lobbies your workplace for cash.

 
Making this ... :

The Minister of Democratic Institutions, who is new in her role, had the opportunity to table a bill on electoral financing reform. She could have tabled anything she wanted. She could have tabled something that could materially impact Canadian democracy, allow under-represented groups to enter, or further level the playing field, but she completely failed.

The reason I will not support this bill is that it does not address what I think is the biggest concern in political financing in Canada, and that is the major loophole that allows wealthy individuals, corporations, unions, and foreign influences to influence the outcome of our elections. The minister has done nothing to stop that.

... also a going concern.

Where are the checks and balances to stop the peddling and purchasing of influence not just in private quarters but in the highest offices of the land?


(Merci beaucoup to all)




A judge in Quebec loses her appeal to stop an investigation into her decision not to hear a woman's testimony if she did not remove her hijab:

The Quebec Court judge who refused to hear the case of a woman unless she removed her hijab in the courtroom has lost her latest bid to try to quash a disciplinary investigation into her conduct.

That means more than three years after Judge Eliana Marengo told Rania El-Alloul to remove her hijab, an investigation by a special committee of the Quebec Council of the Magistrature can begin at last.

Marengo tried to block that investigation in court, arguing the council didn't have proper jurisdiction to investigate.

Unappointed judges have no right to stop any investigation into their judicial affairs.

That being said, this wasn't done because the judge erred legally. 

Today in Big Aboriginal:

Of the many funding initiatives outlined in the B.C. NDP budget speech, spending for Indigenous communities is the one that most excites Dustin Rivers, also known by his Skwomesh name, Khelsilem.

Khelsilem is a councillor with the Squamish First Nation and a lecturer in Indigenous Languages at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.

He is also the man behind a language immersion program offered by SFU that teaches Sk̲wx̱wú7mesh sníchim (the 7 represents a glottal stop or a slight pause) — or in English, the Skwomesh language.

"This kind of funding is a real tangible example of reconciliation in my opinion," said Khelsilem during CBC's On the Coast.

I'm not seeing how forcing the taxpayer to fund one's obscure language studies equals "reconciliation" but, then again, I am a stranger to graft. 

**

What is a law school for? According to the University of Windsor, revolution. Earlier this month, Windsor’s law school released a statement on the jury verdict that acquitted Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley of the second-degree murder of Coulton Boushie. According to the statement, the Canadian legal system is oppressive. “Canada has used law to perpetuate violence against Indigenous Peoples,” it states, “a reinvention of our legal system is necessary.”

The statement reveals how legal education has lost its way. One could be forgiven for thinking that the purpose of law schools was to train lawyers to understand legal principles and to think logically and critically. Instead, some law schools portray themselves as political actors working for a cause.

That reminds one:

The law is not a "light" for you or any man to see by; the law is not an instrument of any kind. The law is a causeway upon which, so long as he keeps to it, a citizen may walk safely.

There is a reason why these "officers" aren't liked:

A London woman who survived breast cancer isn’t faring so well against city bylaw officers who fined her $2,260 for providing a service to patients that medical staff say is invaluable.

For more than three years, the woman has been a regular at an outpatient clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital, providing rides to and from the clinic to patients who aren’t allowed to drive after being sedated for procedures such as endoscopies and colonoscopies.

She refused tips, at first charged only $10 round trip, an amount to cover the costs of gas and maintenance, her work so appreciated by medical staff that many consider her a critical volunteer. 

She offers to get patients safely situated at home, rather than drop them off at the curb.

But years of good deeds may have come to an end after bylaw officers arranged a sting operation Feb. 15: An enforcement officer called her for a ride, saying he was a patient getting a colonoscopy; she even providing words of reassurance on the ride to the hospital. But after he paid her, another enforcement officer ran over and issued her two tickets for owning and operating a vehicle for hire without a licence.

“I’m devastated,” she said. “I had cancer and I just wanted to give back to the community.”

How can this go wrong?

The military is currently wrestling with the implications of marijuana legalization, Canada's top general says — including time restrictions on using the drug before going on duty.

"We're going to try to be smart about it," chief of defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said on Monday. "But in the end, this is dangerous duty, this is serious duty for the country, and we don't want people doing it stoned."

NATO warns Canada of the Red Electoral Menace:

A leading NATO researcher says Canada should assume Russia will attempt to interfere in the 2019 federal election because that would serve the Kremlin's purpose of helping destabilize the military alliance.

HA!


Also - I was surprised to see the words "Russia" and "humanitarian" appear in the same sentence:

A brief, Russia-ordered “humanitarian pause” went into effect on Tuesday as Syrian and Russian forces set up a corridor to allow civilians to leave a rebel-held enclave near Damascus, but by the end of the five-hour pause, no civilians had crossed over from the embattled territory.

The lull gave a brief respite to the estimated 400,000 residents of besieged eastern Ghouta, which has been under intense attack by the Syrian government for weeks.

The United Nations and aid workers criticized the unilateral arrangement, saying the situation was not such that convoys can go in or people in need of medical evacuations can come out of the enclave.

Kim Jong-Nam feared that his half-brother would kill him:

Kim Jong Nam, the poisoned half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, told a friend in Malaysia his life was in danger six months before he was killed, a police official told a court on Tuesday.

Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, have been charged with murdering Kim by smearing his face with VX, a banned chemical poison, at Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13 last year.

Four North Korean fugitives have also been charged with murder.

The Kim dynasty used Brazilian passports to apply for Western visas:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters. 

While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before. 

“They used these Brazilian passports, which clearly show the photographs of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il, to attempt to obtain visas from foreign embassies,” one senior Western security source said on condition of anonymity. 

“This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family’s attempts to build a possible escape route,” the security source said.

 

An escape route to this place:

In a rare public expression of dissent in China, a well-known political commentator and a prominent businesswoman have penned open letters urging lawmakers to reject a plan that would allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.

Their impassioned statements on a popular messaging app were circulated widely after the ruling Communist Party announced a proposal Sunday to scrap term limits on the president and vice president.

In a Monday statement on WeChat to Beijing’s members of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run China Youth Daily, wrote that lifting term limits would “sow the seeds of chaos.”

The problem with state-controlled media is that the party knows who said what and where to find one.


Also:

The government is considering a fresh deployment to Okinawa’s main island of a surface-to-ship missile unit as part of a bid to beef up defenses in response to Chinese maritime assertiveness, sources said Tuesday.

Tokyo has been proceeding with a plan to install a surface-to-ship missile unit on Okinawa Prefecture’s Miyako Island to bolster its defenses against threats to remote islands in the southwest.

But it believes the main island should also have a unit as Chinese naval ships have frequently passed between the two islands — an area known as the Miyako Strait — in the East China Sea.

**

China flew a military aircraft into South Korea's air defense identification zone (KADIZ) for over four hours Tuesday without giving prior notification, defense authorities here said.

The plane came close to South Korean territory, prompting the Air Force to scramble fighter jets to monitor its activity, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). More than 10 planes, including F-15ks and KF-16s, were dispatched.

The Chinese jet entered the KADIZ at around 9:34 a.m. and approached some 30 nautical miles, or 55.5 kilometers, northwest of Ulleung Island in the East Sea before flying out of the zone at around 2:01 p.m. at the military's warning message, the JCS added.

It described the flight route as "unusual," given China's previous dispatch of warplanes just into the KADIZ south of the peninsula. 

It's not like Moon is going to do anything about this.

For A Monday

What a day it's been!




Beleaguered former leader of the provincial Tories, Patrick Brown, has finally salvaged what tattered dignity he has and dropped out of the race to replace himself:

Patrick Brown is giving up his quest to reclaim the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

He confirmed the news on Twitter Monday with a lengthy statement saying he was leaving the race to protect family and friends from "attacks," to avoid being a distraction, and to focus on holding CTV News "accountable" for the story that first caused him to resign as PC leader.

Also leaving, Eric Hoskins:

Ontario's Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced Monday he is resigning his post and won't be running in the June provincial election.  

"In leaving Queen's Park, I am determined to continue building better healthcare for all Canadians," said Hoskins in a statement. "That path and journey will become clearer in the days ahead."

Two sources close to the announcement tell CBC News that Hoskins is resigning to become the head of a federal commission to investigate options for a national Pharmacare program.  

Hoskins is a doctor and an officer of the Order of Canada. He was first elected an MPP in 2009 in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's. He ran for the Ontario Liberal Party leadership in 2013. Premier Kathleen Wynne appointed him economic development minister in her first cabinet, then made him her health minister after the 2014 election. 

His departure will be a blow to Wynne's cabinet, as he is the fourth senior minister to announce he will not run in the election.

 
A politician at the end of his run or a rat fleeing a sinking ship? Discuss.




The proposed gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville that were then cancelled cost the Ontario taxpayer $950 million. The following deletion of e-mails and cover-up of those deleted e-mails exhibited a shocking display of corruption on the part of the Ontario Liberals.

Let that sink in for a moment:

The sentencing hearing for a former top Ontario political aide caught up in the province’s gas plants scandal heard glowing accounts of his character on Monday, with supporters describing him as a man of integrity and moral fibre.

About 60 people appeared in Ontario court or wrote letters to show their support for David Livingston, who was being sentenced on one count of illegal use of a computer.

The conviction — a second guilty finding was stayed Monday — was for Livingston’s illegal destruction of documents related to the Liberal government’s costly decision to cancel two gas plants before the 2011 provincial election.

Among relatives, business and political associates offering support for the former chief of staff to ex-premier Dalton McGuinty were Livingston’s wife and daughter.

All praised his honesty and selfless dedication to the numerous public and private enterprises with which he has been associated over the decades. ...

Judge Timothy Lipson found Livingston guilty last month of two counts: illegal use of a computer and attempted mischief to data.

However, Monday’s proceedings began with Lipson staying the guilty finding on the attempted mischief charge at the defence’s request and with the agreement of the prosecution. The reason, defence lawyer Brian Gover explained, is that all the essential elements of the offence are included in the illegal use of a computer count.

The upshot is that Livingston will be convicted of one of the three charges police laid in 2013 against him and his deputy Laura Miller, who was acquitted last month.

I am reminded of the Italian poet, Dante:

With flames as manifold resplendent all
Was the eighth Bolgia, as I grew aware
As soon as I was where the depth appeared.
And such as he who with the bears avenged him
Beheld Elijah's chariot at departing,
What time the steeds to heaven erect uprose,
For with his eye he could not follow it
So as to see aught else than flame alone,
Even as a little cloud ascending upward,
Thus each along the gorge of the intrenchment
Was moving; for not one reveals the theft,
And every flame a sinner steals away.

Oh, dear:

While the Progressive Conservatives appear stuck in endless mayhem, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government has been laying low and presumably enjoying the spectacle despite the PCs soaring even higher in the polls.

But a recently leaked third-party report of dysfunctionality in Yasir Naqvi’s Ministry of the Attorney General is a good reminder of the rotting turmoil in Wynne’s government.

(Sidebar: this Yasir Naqvi.)

Naqvi’s carefully nurtured and cultivated public image is one of selfless devotion to the public interest. All of which is rounded out by ear-to-ear smiles and endless Naqvi photo ops. He’s the kind of politician who’d call a press conference for opening an envelope.

You’d think given his lust for media coverage, he’d be out there bravely facing the report’s findings. Not a chance. The report’s been kept secret and Naqvi’s issued a platitudinous boiler plate statement that “Everyone has a right to feel safe and respected in their workplace…all employees are respected.”

He was last seen hiding under his desk.

According to a report concluded in the summer of 2017 called “Turning the Ship Around,” Naqvi’s ministry is a bloody mess. It doesn’t surprise me that the AG’s office is in such a disarray. Over the last few years, I’ve had many Crowns approach me about how bad things had become. Some grin and bear it. Others have taken early retirement.

Tories in the House of Commons did not receive enough for support for an emergency meeting on one of the more embarrassing aspects of Justin's family vacation to India:

A Conservative bid for an emergency meeting on the Jaspal Atwal affair has fizzled, but political fireworks erupted anew Monday in Parliament over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s much-maligned trip to India.

The party’s public safety critic, Pierre Paul-Hus, had wanted the House of Commons committee on national security to meet urgently about the Privy Council Office’s screening practices after Atwal — a B.C. man convicted of attempted murder — wound up at a prime ministerial event in India.

Committee chairman John McKay said in an interview that Paul-Hus did not receive the required notices of support from at least four MPs to initiate an emergency meeting.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to kill Indian cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986. He was also charged, but not convicted, in connection with a 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, a staunch opponent of the Sikh separatist movement, who later became B.C. premier and a federal Liberal cabinet minister.

It was just as well seeing as Justin didn't bother showing up for work today.

The lazy @$$hole spent the day hiding.




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

The Trudeau Liberals are getting serious about their plans to regulate companies like Facebook and appear to be in the early stages of an action plan.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly brought up the issue recently in person to Facebook Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg, the actual work would fall to Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould.

“Minister Gould has repeatedly stated that while social media companies are taking initial steps to ensure that their platforms are not being used as tools for foreign disinformation campaigns to undermine Canada’s democratic institutions, there still remains a great deal of work to be done,” wrote Nicky Cayer, spokesperson for Gould, in an email to the Sun. “This is a challenge that is being faced by democracies around the world. We are studying other countries’ approaches to see what works and what does not, what would be appropriate in a Canadian context and what — like censoring Canadians’ speech — would be unacceptable.”

Read: anything considered to be criticism by a private individual of Justin's government could be considered "fake news" and deleted accordingly.

There is a reason why M-103 exists and why Section 13 might be resurrected.




Speaking of censorship:

Acadia University has launched a formal investigation into complaints against a professor over controversial comments he made on social media and in the classroom.

Heather Hemming, vice-president academic at the Wolfville, N.S., school, said in a letter to professor Rick Mehta that the university has received complaints from students, faculty and others with concerns about his views. ...

Mehta has been outspoken both on campus and on social media about a range of contentious issues including decolonization, immigration, and gender politics, garnering both supporters and opposition.

He has come under fire for saying multiculturalism is a scam, there’s no wage gap between men and women, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has created a victim narrative to prompt “endless apologies and compensation.”

Mehta bills himself as a free-speech advocate trying to build bridges across political divides, but critics say he perpetuates harmful stereotypes and is simply seeking attention.

“He’s just sort of parroting the much more popular Jordan Peterson. He’s very clearly just trying to piggyback on that to gain a certain notoriety,” said Matthew Sears, associate professor of classics and ancient history at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

Spoken like a true vendor of sour grapes.

Whether Professor Mehta's opinions are popular or not is irrelevant. Either the alleged adults who attend and run Acadia University can deal with or even hear different opinions or they need to be relegated to brightly coloured rooms with plush toys and soft music.

I believe that is kindergarten.




Promises always look good on paper:

In December, the government delivered a report to the United Nations outlining its progress on reaching targets agreed to in the Paris Accord to fight climate change. Canada has promised to reduce those emissions to the equivalent of 517 megatonnes of carbon dioxide.

In 2016, Ottawa made a similar report to the UN acknowledging that both its current and planned policies would likely leave the country 44 megatonnes short of its target.

But in the recent report, Canada notes the gap between its commitments and the likely result of its policies has grown to 66 megatonnes — a 50% increase in only 18 months.

Because there is an election in 2019:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says if his party forms government in 2019, it will follow Donald Trump’s lead and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Scheer’s declaration comes in the form of a pledge posted to the Conservative party website designed to gather signatures from members of the public.

“Canada’s Conservatives led by Andrew Scheer will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when we form government in 2019,” the pledge says, describing the party as “a strong voice for Israel and the Canadian Jewish community.”

It marks Scheer’s first definitive statement on the issue since it became a renewed matter of public debate late last year.

Some may hold you to that promise, Andy.




Good:

An Iraqi criminal court on Sunday sentenced 15 Turkish women to death by hanging after finding them guilty of belonging to the Islamic State or Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a judicial official said. Aged between 20 and 50, the women said they had entered Iraq illegally to join their husbands who were heading to fight for the self-proclaimed "caliphate" straddling vast areas of Iraq and Syria, the official added.

Four of the women, all of whom were dressed in black, were accompanied by young children in the courtroom, he said.

Another Turkish woman accused of joining the jihadist group was given a life sentence, the official said, adding they had all acknowledged the charges against them. One of them told the judge she had taken part in fighting against Iraqi forces alongside the jihadists, he said.

To wit:

Yet radicalized women in France are increasingly willing to give their lives for the cause, says Matthieu Suc, author of Femmes de Djihadistes—or Wives of Jihadis. “In different jihadist records, you can see, you can hear, women—often young—regretting not to be able to commit terrorist attacks,” he says. “Theoretically, women want—just like men—to take part in the jihad. That’s the way it goes. That’s the order of things.”

**

In a recent interview conducted by text message, Umm Haritha said she moved to Canada as a child and lived there for 14 years before deciding to move to Syria. She was a university student and said her upbringing was “normal” and “middle class.”

While she wouldn’t disclose where in Canada she lived, she said her decision to join the jihad in Syria was motivated by a desire to “live a life of honour” under Islamic law rather than the laws of the “kuffar,” or unbelievers.

It's communism, a return to Maoism. No one should be surprised:

Almost exactly five years ago, a newly anointed President Xi Jinping met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and declared they shared similar “personalities.”

The comments, reported by the Kremlin news service but not by Chinese state media, went largely unnoticed at the time. But on Sunday, the parallels between the two leaders were too stark to ignore.

China’s Communist Party is to abolish a two-term limit on the presidency, state media announced, potentially opening the door for Xi to rule for life.

In that simple step, the Communist Party showed that it has forgotten one of the main lessons of the despotic rule of Mao Zedong, wrote Chinese legal expert and New York University professor Jerome Cohen in a blog post.

The two-term limit was inserted into the constitution after the brutal and chaotic Cultural Revolution to prevent a return of one-man dictatorship. “Its abolition signals the likelihood of another long period of severe repression,” Cohen wrote.

But that has been China since 1949, so ...

Sunday Post

 

On a quiet Sunday evening ...



What did Justin's embarrassing, Indian-phobic family vacation accomplish?

This:

Sikh Canadian pro-separatist figures are hailing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to India as a success, and slamming the Indian government for its supposedly frosty treatment of Trudeau during much of his visit.

Trudeau, who arrived back in Ottawa Sunday morning, spent much of his time in India dodging and scrambling to address allegations that his government has helped nurture Sikh extremists, unwittingly or otherwise.

The issue garnered Trudeau criticism in both Canada and India, with the biggest controversy during the trip being the invitation of convicted attempted murderer Jaspal Atwal to a dinner reception hosted by Canada’s high commissioner — and the Prime Minister’s Office’s subsequent attempt to shift the blame for the fiasco onto India.

But Trudeau’s trip, and the reception afforded to him by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are being perceived differently by those Sikh Canadians who support the creation of a Sikh ethnostate called Khalistan in India’s Punjab state.

Watch as this entire episode explodes into conflict that shouldn't even exist in this country.



Also:

The official Opposition is calling for an emergency committee meeting about how a man convicted of attempted murder wound up at a prime ministerial event in India.

Conservative public safety critic Pierre Paul-Hus wants the House of Commons committee on national security to review the Privy Council Office’s screening practices following Jaspal Atwal’s attendance at a reception this week.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to kill Indian cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986.

(Sidebar: Atwal was allowed in. THAT is how he ended up at a prime ministerial event.)


(Merci)




No one sees fit to remove the welcome from Justin's sissy hands:

Ottawa has reached a last-minute deal with Israel to suspend the deportation of asylum-seekers who currently are waiting for resettlement to Canada.

Israel is set to begin deporting some 37,000 asylum-seekers, the majority of them Sudanese and Eritreans, in April after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government issued them expulsion notices.

The asylum-seekers, most of them deemed by Israel to be economic migrants rather than refugees in need of protection, can either leave voluntarily for a “safe” African country and receive $3,500 and a plane ticket, or face imprisonment. 

The Canadian government is under the gun to resettle 1,845 of the African refugees whose sponsorship applications are currently in process, some for years.

“Canada does not support policies of mass deportations of asylum-seekers. The rights of asylum-seekers and refugees are laid out in the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, of which Israel is a signatory,” said Adam Austen, press secretary for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

“As the country that resettles the highest number of African asylum-seekers from Israel, we are in direct contact with the Government of Israel to convey Canada’s concerns about the situation.”

A spokesperson for Immigration Canada confirmed it has reached an agreement with Israeli authorities to allow the Canada-bound asylum-seekers to remain in the country and not be jailed until their sponsorships are finalized.

It's just money:

According to the report, “A key driver of the larger and persistent federal deficits over the course of the government’s current fiscal plan is rapid growth in program spending. Since coming into office, the Trudeau government increased program spending from $253.9 billion (2014/15) to $304.9 billion (projected for 2017/18). This $51-billion increase in spending equals growth of 20.1% in just three years.”

There is no need for another taxpayer-funded waste of time. The conclusion is simple and I shall provide gratis -  two men were tried in a court of law and were found not guilty by people deemed competent enough to weigh evidence. Both verdicts are reviled by people who already get a free ride in the crime department.

That's it, really:

First Nations leaders in Saskatchewan say a royal commission is “urgently needed” to examine the inequalities Indigenous people face in the justice system.

Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) told reporters Friday in Saskatoon that the not-guilty verdicts in the trial of Gerald Stanley in Battleford and Raymond Cormier in Winnipeg — each of whom was accused of murdering young Indigenous people — raise serious questions about the roles of the police, justice and child welfare systems.

The focus of a royal commission needs to be on decisions that were made within those systems in the handling of the deaths of Colten Boushie, 22, and Tina Fontaine, 15, and the non-Indigenous men accused of killing them — rather than on the Indigenous people, as if the problems laid with them, Cameron said.

Teaching children to hate themselves is terribly Khmer Rouge of one:

Using song, dance, and paint, 40 children worked together Saturday to create an ABC picture book tackling concepts like slavery and colonialism. 

"I really believe that when we listen to the voices of children, that things can change," said Denise Gillard, the project director for the Book in a Day program. The program was developed by the Nova Scotia chapter of the Global Afrikan Congress (GAC).

The organization works to combat racism and promote the idea of reparations, which it defines as restitution for political, social and economic damage caused to African people by the Atlantic slave trade, slavery, and colonialism.

"It's the idea that European and Western nations need to acknowledge, first of all, the damage that's been done, apologize for this crime against humanity inflicted upon people of African descent, on African people," Gillard said. 

Yes, about that:

The formal apology for slavery and Jim Crow issued by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 was unprecedented, even after decades of lawmakers trying to push the government to finally apologize ...

 

**

In a statement marking the anniversary of the British act abolishing the slave trade, the PM said it was among history's most "shameful enterprises".

He added the same dedication that led to abolition was needed to tackle the "many forms" of modern day slavery.

I believe someone has beaten Big Apology to the punch.

What kind of person takes a pound of flesh from children anyway?

Moon helped North Korea add insult to injury:

South Korea said it approved the Winter Olympic visit by a sanctioned North Korean official, blamed for the deadly 2010 sinking of a South Korean Navy ship, in the pursuit of peace and asked for public understanding.

 

 

You're a real b@$#@rd, Moon:

North Korean on Thursday said it plans to send a high-level delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang led by none other than Kim Yong-chol, the mastermind behind the torpedoing of the Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010. The Unification Ministry said it intends to allow Kim's visit "from a broad perspective" because it will "help improve inter-Korean relations and denuclearization, thereby leading to peace to the Korean Peninsula." ...

 

Kim was promoted from lieutenant general to general in February of 2012, just before North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's birthday anniversary. That was a direct reward for the Cheonan attack.

Yet the Americans are considered the pig-headed ones:

The White House said any talks with North Korea must lead to an end to its nuclear program after senior officials from Pyongyang visiting South Korea said on Sunday their government was open to talks with the United States.

The North Korean delegation, in Pyeongchang for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, met at an undisclosed location with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and expressed a willingness to meet with the United States, Moon’s office said in a statement.  ...

On Sunday, North Korean state media accused the United States of provoking confrontation on the Korean peninsula with the sanctions. 

The White House said its sanctions would continue. 

These sanctions:

The sanctions have left the North short of hard currency just as a degree of marketization was starting to improve the lives of some ordinary North Koreans. Kim's slush funds are being rapidly depleted, which means that regular handouts to the elite to buy their loyalty are also drying up, and even some in the ruling class are turning to open-air markets for their basic needs.

It's better to put sanction on North Korea's backer, China, the very same that doesn't know the meaning of the word democracy:

China's ruling Communist Party has proposed scrapping the ten-year term limit for the President, in a move almost certain to be written into the country's constitution in March.

The precedent-breaking change would allow the 64-year-old to continue as both the head of state and the more senior title of Communist Party General Secretary beyond 2023.

He is also the Chairman of China's Central Military Commission — a title, like that of Communist Party chief, that does not have a term limit.

According to China's state media, the Communist Party's main leadership group — the Central Committee — proposed the amendment, along with writing Mr Xi's ideology into the country's constitution.

Given that the Communist Party allows no opposition parties and suppresses dissenting political voices, the proposal is expected to be passed by China's rubber-stamp Parliament in early March.

White liberals sure do find other cultures "quaint":

“Some couples held weddings as part of their honeymoon, just as some Japanese hold weddings abroad,” an official at the shrine said, adding that many of the ceremonies are small in scale.

Some foreigners who married in Kyoto cited their good impressions of the city during previous visits, while others lived in Japan in their early childhood, the official said. Many of them believe Kyoto symbolizes Japanese culture, the official added.

Last month, an Australian gay couple, 31-year-old teacher Richard Delange and 33-year-old Matt Molony who works at a human resource company, held a wedding at Shunkoin, a Buddhist temple affiliated with Myoshinji Temple, in the city’s Ukyo Ward. For the ceremony they wore formal Japanese attire of montsuki kimono bearing family crests and hakama pleated skirts.

“In Australia, wedding ceremonies are big and expensive,” Delange said. “We always have to think about family.”

The couple decided to hold a small and relaxed wedding in Kyoto. They had visited the city before.

The wedding was “totally special,” Delange said, adding that he wants to recommend the “great experience” to his friends.

No word on whether a refusal to prepare wedding mochi was met with a lawsuit.

And now, researchers claim to have found the prophet Isaiah's "signature":

A piece of the 2,700-year-old seal impression is missing, and it’s not clear what it actually says. 

However, “the obvious initial translation, as surprising as it might seem, suggests that this belonged to the prophet Isaiah,” author and archaeologist Eilat Mazar writes in the journal Biblical Archaeology Review.

If the stamped clay seal is, indeed, Isaiah’s — experts said it would be the first “extra-biblical” reference to the 8^th century B.C. Jewish prophet, who foretold the birth of Jesus some 700 years in advance, and for whom the Book of Isaiah is named.