Saturday Post

A merry Year of the Dog to all y'all.

Justin's jet-set to India is clouded by accusations that some in his party are sympathetic to terrorists.

Well, duh.

Meetings are scheduled with a number of Indian CEOs and business leaders, with visits to some of India’s biggest tourist sites, including the famed Taj Mahal in Agra, Jama Mosque, and Sabarmati Ashram, one of the former homes of Mahatma Gandhi.

Trudeau will not, however, be meeting the Indian politician who has publicly accused members of his cabinet of having links to the Sikh separatist movement. ...

The issue is a cloud hanging over Trudeau’s first state visit to India. While Indian government sources insist he will be received warmly, they also note the government has only set aside part of a single day for official bilateral meetings during the seven-day trip.

But Justin doesn't like being bothered by allegations such as these while on vacation. He's had to endure endless questions about corruption and callousness. The man-child can only take so much.




The bottom of the economy is about to fall:

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is being told there is little additional fiscal space for new measures as he meets private-sector economists Friday to discuss the state of the Canadian economy ahead of the Feb. 27 budget.

The finance department’s latest survey of economists shows projections for national income — the best indicator for revenue —that are almost exactly what they were in Morneau’s last fiscal update in October. Overall, they are anticipating growth to slow down to the historically sluggish levels the economy has averaged in the post-recession era, after an unexpected pick up in 2017.

That effectively gives Morneau no room to ramp up spending without running higher deficits or raising tax levels, and likely means any new initiatives will probably need to be financed by reallocating spending within the existing framework or possibly tapping into existing buffers built into the fiscal plan.

If Justin won't define what constitutes the middle-class, he won't define "fake news", either:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants social media companies to crack down on what he considers “fake news.”

According to a recent media report, Trudeau met with top executives at Facebook and told them to fix their algorithms to prevent the spread of so-called fake news.

He didn’t simply ask Facebook to investigate the supposed problem, he threatened action – including stricter regulations from Ottawa – if the social media giant failed to comply with his demands.

Those are fighting words. But Trudeau and his Liberal colleagues have been anything but clear when it comes what they mean by ‘fake news.’

It's another form of censorship by the country's most "transparent" government.




There is a saying: "Dead but won't lie down".


That is Patrick Brown:

The former leader of Ontario’s official opposition party, who resigned last month after accusations of sexual misconduct, said on Friday that he will contest an election in March that was scheduled to pick his replacement.  

Patrick Brown stepped down as head of the center-right Progressive Conservatives after broadcaster CTV News reported that two women had accused him of sexual misconduct. He denies the allegations, which Reuters has not verified. 

Whoever leads the Progressive Conservatives will spearhead their efforts to defeat Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her left-leaning Liberal party in a provincial election in June. The Progressive Conservatives have been leading in opinion polls. 

Brown has said he will sue CTV over the story about the women’s allegations. CTV says it stands by its reporting. 

“I think my name has been cleared and now it’s about getting Ontario back on track,” Brown told reporters on Friday, adding that he has filed papers to run in the Progressive Conservatives’ leadership election. 

He is a selfish, pig-headed, arrogant man attempting to torpedo the party's chances in the next election. This act is petty and he knows it.

Also:

The emergence of a Tory leadership candidate committed to repealing Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum may yet see the Progressive Conservative party, which was pushed to the centre under former leader Patrick Brown, shifting to the right — at least until the spring election campaign gets underway.

While observers say it’s unlikely that Tanya Granic Allen will end up as party leader, social conservatives who feel betrayed by Brown are delighted with their new-found voice.

This is why no one misses Patrick Brown. He was an opportunistic weasel who betrayed people he promised to help.

As for Miss Granic's single-issue campaign, perhaps people should consider that these social issues do not exist in a vacuum and should be properly dealt with during regular sitting sessions (who wants a sex ed program penned by an incest enthusiast, anyway?). Also, people vote for single issues all the time. Ask a voter what matters to him or her and see who worries about healthcare, taxes or education. Is a country reduced only to those few things? Besides, many people vote for the most superficial reasons. If they didn't, Trudeau would still be a substitute drama teacher.




A money-laundering scheme in British Columbia reveals how entrenched such networks of crime are:

A Globe and Mail investigation has discovered that the Zhangs and other local residents associated with drug-related crime are effectively parking their riches in Vancouver-area real estate, where it is rendered clean and secure, without actually owning any of the properties.

Just hours after The Globe's investigation was published, B.C.'s attorney-general responded by calling it "very serious and deeply troubling."

"This story confirms our government's commitment to taking action to crack down on money laundering and criminal activity in B.C.," David Eby said.

If that were so, then perhaps Mr. Eby could explain how easily these things can happen? How do un-acclimatised non-citizens get to swallow up huge parcels of choice property and launder money?

Speaking of crime:

A former political staffer is alleging she was sexually assaulted by a Liberal member of Ontario’s legislature when she was working for him more than a decade ago, the woman’s lawyer said Friday.

John Nunziata, who represents the woman, said he is not willing to release the name of the accused, but identified him as a Liberal politician who once held a cabinet portfolio.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said no sexual misconduct allegations have ever been raised against cabinet members who served under her or her predecessor Dalton McGuinty.

Nunziata said his client, who once worked for the Liberal politician as an executive assistant, alleges the sexual misconduct took place around 2006 and 2007.

And: 

A Toronto woman serving a life sentence for the murder of her seven-year-old stepson will be allowed to leave prison for a supervised visit with her recently widowed father, a Parole Board of Canada panel ruled Friday.

Marcia Dooley and her husband Edward (Tony) Dooley were convicted of second-degree murder in 2002 for the death of Tony’s son, Randal.

The boy endured months of brutal physical abuse — most of it at the hands of Marcia Dooley — after he and his brother moved from Jamaica to Toronto to live with their father and stepmother in 1997, court records show.

This creature should spend the rest of her life in prison or, at the very least, a squalid, rat-infested hole.

  
"Inflamed attitudes"? Like virtually demanding that the government overturn a verdict? That kind of inflaming? :

In the letter McCallum equates her 11-year experience in residential schools with "spiritual genocide" and being imprisoned, and suggests the Ontario senator's apologetic stance on the system has "inflamed attitudes against Indigenous citizens."

She also writes of the importance of letting Indigenous survivors lead the discussion on residential schools.

"There are those that give themselves the liberty and privilege to act as our voice, opening our wounds at will. Possibly they see us as less than; unable to be our own representatives. These very people then deny or discount our own deep personal stories," the letter reads.

I believe that is what you have been doing for decades: moaning on and on, all the while padding your wallets and never encouraging people to move and be productive members of society.

One day, Big Aboriginal will have a lot to answer for.