Saturday Night Special

Chag Pesach Kasher Vesameach, to all y'all.

Note that this is all happening when Israel is preparing for Passover:

Israeli troops shot and wounded about 70 Palestinians among crowds demonstrating at the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, health officials said, after one of the deadliest days of unrest in the area in years.

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Gaza in funerals for the 15 people killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday, and a national day of mourning was observed in the enclave and in the occupied West Bank.

 
I said this before and I hate to say it again - as long as Premier Kathleen Wynne finds money in the fetid swamp that is the ever-growing debt in Ontario, she will get votes.

I hate to be right on this one:

The Ontario Liberals’ new spendthrift budget appears to have worked. According to a new poll from Forum Research, the party has closed the lead of the Progressive Conservatives.

The Liberals now have 29 per cent support to the Tories’ 36. According to Forum projections, if an election were held tomorrow, Doug Ford would not be able to win enough seats for a majority.

You know what you're doing, Ontario.


Also:

Many provinces and territories — like the federal government — have banned union contributions. But where labour can give, it’s given generously. Unions accounted for six of the top 10 donors in B.C. between 2005 and 2017 and seven of the top ten donors in Ontario between 2007 and 2016. They also ranked among top donors in Saskatchewan, Yukon, Nunavut and Newfoundland. Some contributions were modest. For example, about $12,000 in total from UNIFOR to the Yukon NDP. But United Steelworkers was the biggest donor, period, in both B.C. (approximately $3,172,000 in total contributions, all to the NDP) and Ontario (approximately $1,603,000 in total contributions, all to the NDP).

And:

The Trudeau Liberals have been caught trying to establish a $7 BILLION ‘slush fund,’ that would subvert the Parliamentary budget process.

As explained by Conservative Finance Critic Pierre Poilievre and Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, the fund would let the Liberals have a $7 billion stash of taxpayer dollars that they could spend without any accountability between now and the next federal election, without having to explain where that money would be spent until after the 2019 campaign.

And:

Conservatives have joined the NDP in asking the federal ethics commissioner to investigate Liberal MP Raj Grewal after revelations he helped a business affiliate gain access to senior government officials in India last month.

Hey! Does one know who would benefit from the complete re-write of the legal system to favour Big Aboriginal (scrapping the worthless Charter that only benefits criminals is just not the done thing)? This chick:

Years before Jacqueline Danielle Henderson walked into the bedroom of six-week old Nikosis Cantre and killed the baby in his sleep, she showed disturbing signs of violence.

The teen girl's identity, and the full details of her disturbing past heard during a sentencing hearing in Saskatchewan provincial court in Saskatoon can now be revealed for the first time.

At 11 years old, Henderson began torturing animals and admitted skinning and hanging them alive.

Later, while in foster care, she stole a mouse from a pet store, brought it home and squeezed it to death.

She lit fires and got into fights with other kids at the various group homes where she lived, court documents show.

 
Is there nothing a sentencing circle can't fix?
 

Also:

A large coalition of family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Indigenous leaders and others is asking the federal government to refuse a request for additional time and money that was made by the inquiry examining the root causes of the problem.

Oh, I see what you did there, Father Raymond:

Even those who paid Judas recoiled from it. When he regretted his betrayal and returned the money, they knew it was dirty and refused to keep it.

All of which comes to mind this Holy Week, not only for liturgical reasons. The story of Judas — or the incapacity to understand it — fits so well the federal government’s obstinacy on the Canada Summer Job Program, an obstinacy that appears to be prompting Canadians to rethink whether their government is truly a champion of fundamental liberties.

Am I saying that Justin Trudeau is like Judas? No. Rather it seems that the prime minister thinks that the churches of Canada just might be. And that is more offensive still.

He is an @$$hole, Father, so ...


Also @$$holes:

A coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups says a face-to-face meeting with Employment Minister Patty Hajdu in Ottawa last week ended in disappointment as they were told there will be no compromise — at least for this year — on the Canada Summer jobs attestation on abortion rights.

**

Sources within the party told the National Post the episode, which saw several MPs speak out publicly against Singh’s decision to punish Hamilton MP David Christopherson for breaking ranks during a recent vote on the government’s controversial Canada Summer Jobs changes, can be chalked up to rushed decisions by a rookie leader who still has to develop ties with his caucus and his own leadership style. Singh’s decision Tuesday to reinstate Christopherson to his role on an important committee after removing him last week was a sign that he’s willing to learn from his mistakes, they said, and not of a discipline problem within the party’s ranks.

If meat is murder, why is it so tasty?

Let us salute a hero of our times: Michael Hunter, owner-chef of Antler Kitchen and Bar, Toronto. Let me go further: Jordan Peterson, wherever you are on this twirling, politically correct, cringingly apologetic globe, come home soon and eat, defiantly (go for the deer tartar) at Antler!

Hunter, an industrious and fine gentleman, has been much pestered lately by a herd of bullying evangelist vegans drooping outside his shop window, holding miserable, hate-filled (“Murder”) signs, trying to kill his business and in the process libelling the ancient natural practice of peoplekind everywhere, that of meat-eating. He’s been haunted mercilessly by a pack of zealous plant-eaters.

It’s difficult enough when you’re on your lonesome to get the timing of the osso buco right, to get it to that exquisite equilibrium between perfectly well cooked, meat dripping from the centre bone, tenderized to perfection, but not mushy, not yet tipped over to flavourless overdone. Now imagine a posse of kale-stuffed vigilantes outside your small shop, mean from hunger and envy — though they won’t admit either — glaring zombie-eyed at you and your customers as you try to run a kitchen serving up seven or eight different dishes.

 
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe cares not for the federal government:

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Wednesday that the province will go to court over the federal government's carbon tax.

Moe told reporters that in the coming weeks, the province will file a case against the federal government with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal over carbon pricing.

"The reason we'll be doing that is a carbon tax just simply does not work," he said.

Just as with Km Jong-Un's sister, the popular press fawns over his wife, one of the few chubby women in North Korea:

Kim Jong Un’s surprise trip to China this week made headlines. The North Korean leader was accompanied by his mysterious wife, Ri Sol Ju. She is rarely seen at international diplomatic events, but her appearance this week quickly shot her to stardom in China.

The Netherlands mourn a teacher who saved hundreds of Jewish children while France relives its Vichy French days:

The silent decorum of a march to honour an 85-year-old woman who survived Nazi horrors only to be stabbed to death last week in an alleged anti-Semitic attack was shattered Wednesday, with crowds shouting “Nazi! Nazi!” and other insults at France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Mireille Knoll’s death had taken on national importance, reminding France of both historic anti-Semitism and its resurgence in recent years.

Pope Francis just can't catch a break this Holy Week. First, some smarmy jerk-off demands an apology he doesn't deserve and then this click-bait:

“What is reported by the author in today’s article is the result of his reconstruction, in which the literal words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

Scalfari, a self-proclaimed atheist, is the founder and former editor of Italian leftist newspaper La Repubblica. In an article published on the site March 29, Scalfari claims that Pope Francis told him, “hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of the souls of sinners exists.”

Scalfari’s fifth meeting with Pope Francis, it is not the first time he has misrepresented the Pope’s words following a private audience.

Pope Francis should probably stop talking to everybody. He is either misquoted or his ineloquence gets him into trouble.

Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre.

And they both ran together, and that other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in.

Mid-Week Post

Four more shopping days until Easter ...




Joshua Boyle, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif and Rehab Dughmosh all required extra psychiatric assessments:

Bissonnette originally pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges Monday morning but announced that afternoon he was changing his mind and wanted to plead guilty.

Superior Court Justice Francois Huot originally refused to accept the pleas pending a psychiatric assessment of the accused to ensure he fully understood the consequences of his decision. ...

Mohamed Labidi, a member of the Muslim community in Quebec City and a former president of the mosque, said Bissonnette's comments left him wanting a fuller explanation of why he did what he did.

"It's very abstract what he told us," Labidi said. "We still need other explanations. The small words don't convince us about all the motives of the crime.

"It's not a complete answer for me. What he said as to why he did this crime it's very very short."

(Sidebar: yes, about that ...)

Discuss.




Today in "arrogant douchebags make up the allegedly transparent government that is screwing everyone over" news:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are jousting over who most respects women.

The Conservative leader is demanding an apology to his deputy leader, Lisa Raitt, who was the target of what Scheer claims was an insulting and sexist remark from Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

But Trudeau says he doesn’t need to take any lessons on respect for women from a Tory leader who won’t commit to appointing a gender-balanced cabinet, as the Liberal leader has done, should he become prime minister.

(Sidebar: Andy hasn't elbowed a woman in the chest nor has he ignored the suffering of Yazidi girls and women, Justin.)

**

Trudeau and Scheer locked horns Tuesday on the Conservative push to have Daniel Jean answer questions before committee.

Jean, Trudeau's national security adviser​, has been outed as the senior public servant who suggested to reporters that factions in the Indian government may had a hand in inviting Atwal to a Trudeau event in India last month. Atwal is a former Sikh separatist convicted of the attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister.

India's government blasted that suggestion as "baseless."

Tories sparked 21 hours of marathon voting last week in response to the Liberal government's refusal to send Jean to committee. A similar procedural tactic could be in the works this week.

Liberals have instead offered Scheer a confidential briefing, as is his right as a member of the Privy Council, and have lambasted the Tory leader for not accepting the offer.

If Mr. Transparent-Socks has nothing to hide, then do this in public.

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is Catholic, said he was disappointed by the Pope's decision, stressing that reconciliation extends beyond the relationship between the government and Indigenous people. Trudeau visited the Vatican last year, where he personally asked the Pope to consider the gesture.

F--- off, Justin and take Big Aboriginal - which accepted Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's apology - with you. Grub for cheap votes and money elsewhere.




They don't speak French in Justin's most admired dictatorship:

The federal government's action plan on official languages will include significant investments in early childhood education and encourage Francophone immigration in a minority setting.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is pledging historic investments, without revealing a dollar amount.

The last federal budget earmarked $400 million starting next year and $88.4 million annually after that.

The reign of the francophone oligarch is coming to an end. One can't buy votes with a demographic inevitability.

As long as the budget contains money for the unions, the rest of Ontario can choke on the promises of "free stuff":

Minister Charles Sousa sent the government leaping into the unofficial campaign for Ontario’s June 7 election with a budget that promises billions more for everything from prescription drugs to apprenticeship programs and welfare recipients.

After a year of balanced finances — even the small surplus for 2017-18 — the government would run deficits of up to $6.7 billion until the middle of the next decade, he said.

In the process, the plan would further increase a provincial debt considered the largest in the world among regional governments, and position the Liberals firmly on the left of the province’s political spectrum. ...

But the budget is, of course, aspirational, its implementation dependent on the Liberals winning the election two months away.

On Wednesday Ford dismissed it as a desperate attempt at achieving that goal, and more of what has already hurt Ontario.

“The Liberals think they can buy your vote,” he told reporters. “All they do is tax, tax, tax and spend, spend, spend. People are fed up. They’ve had it, they’ve absolutely had it.”

Why not? It's been done before.




As I said before, pro-abortion:

After facing criticism from within his caucus, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has backed down on his decision to punish a veteran NDP MP for voting against the party line on a Conservative motion that condemned the Liberal government’s controversial new requirement for its Canada Summer Jobs grants. 

Hamilton MP David Christopherson will return to his role as vice-chair of the parliamentary procedure and House affairs committee, Singh confirmed in a statement on Tuesday evening.

Why even think of punishing him, Jagmeet? Aren't people free to believe what they wish?

That's pretty rich for a guy who didn't want to condemn the Air India bombing.




A Calgary police officer is recovering after getting shot:

A police constable is recovering in hospital after a gun battle Tuesday with a robbery suspect, who was later found dead in a burned out garage.

It’s the first shooting of an on-duty Calgary officer in about 25 years, except for a fatal training incident in 2001.

Postmedia has learned the injured officer is Jordan Forget, a five-year member of the Calgary Police Service.

 
And one thought that North Korea was going to be co-operative:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un secretly visited China on Monday to hold a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both North Korean and Chinese state media officially confirmed the visit after waiting until Wednesday morning when Kim returned to Pyongyang after the summit.

"It was believed that Kim traveled to Beijing aboard his personal train, met with Xi and returned to North Korea aboard the same train," a government official here said earlier on Tuesday.

The two leaders apparently wanted to lay some groundwork and steal the thunder ahead of the U.S.-North Korea summit set for May. Observers believe China is attempting to improve frayed relations with North Korea and try to influence U.S.-led efforts to get the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

I guarantee a return to North Korea's never-ending belligerence with China's help.

And now, your Easter Peeps:

For more than 20 years now, no other non-chocolate Easter candy has been able to compete with the power of Peeps. With more than 1.5 billion of them consumed each spring, Peeps have topped the list of most popular Easter treats for more than two decades.

(Insert Title Here)

Just now:

A police officer has been shot in northeast Calgary and has been taken to hospital.

Police say the man is in stable condition.

The extent of his injuries was not released.

Police say the “active situation” involving a firearm in the Abbeydale neighbourhood has concluded and the suspect has been found dead.

People in the area are now being allowed to leave their homes.

Boy, won't people feel bad when they figure that not only is carbon not a pollutant but that they have to pay tax upon a tax to bolster that lie:

First reported by Mia Rabson in the Canadian Press, it turns out that the federal government will make up to $280 million after charging GST on top of the carbon taxes in Alberta and BC. That will raise the cost of utilities, food, gas, and countless other items.

Also:

A new report has found that First Nations in British Columbia support the establishment of a liquefied natural gas sector, further discrediting the green movement’s narrative that Canada’s Indigenous communities are opposed to fossil fuel projects.

According to a joint report co-authored the B.C. government and the First Nations LNG Alliance, the nascent sector enjoys such high Indigenous support many are in fact upset many projects haven’t been built.

“There have been many positive impacts to First Nations communities related to LNG development, prior to any construction,” according to the report, made public Monday. “Much capacity has been created due to these projects. However, expectations have also been raised. Now, First Nations leaders are trying to deal with their constituents’ frustration because of the delays or cancellation of these projects.”

This must be embarrassing to certain parties political, domestic and foreign.




The India hole Justin and his lackeys have dug for themselves is just getting bigger:

Liberal MP Raj Grewal helped secure invitations for his own business affiliate to attend events in India, during the prime minister’s recent trip, apparently without clearance from the federal ethics commissioner.

This Raj Grewal:

The atmosphere at the reception at the residence of Nadir Patel, the Canadian High Commissioner to India, was more like “spring break” than a formal diplomatic party, according to one attendee, who said there was so much heavy drinking that the bar ran out of Crown Royal within the first hour.

Two eyewitnesses invited to the reception, both of whom requested their names not be used, say there was also a brouhaha at the gates of the residence, when a group of young Sikh men poured out of a couple of cars and charged past those in the lineup.

One eyewitness says greeting the party-crashers, was Brampton, Ont., MP Raj Grewal and at least one of his assistants.

The eyewitness, who was near the front of the line and knows Grewal by sight, said the MP was arguing with an RCMP officer, who grew visibly upset as Grewal apparently insisted the men be let in.

How embarrassing.




But Grewal isn't alone in the unbearable and rampant corruption and unaccountability from the "most transparent" government in the country's history:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke his silence today on the latest twist in the Aga Khan scandal, saying he received an overnight bag from the billionaire Ismaili Muslim leader during his vacation on his private island in the Bahamas.

In exchange, Trudeau gave the Aga Khan a sweater, the prime minister said during a raucous exchange with Conservatives in the House of Commons.

He refused, however, to say what happened to the gifts — whether he kept them, returned them, repaid their value or for‎feited them to the Crown.

**

The prime minister responded by saying Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has "repeatedly" refused offers from the Privy Council Office (PCO) to provide a confidential briefing about the matter "for reasons known only to him."

He accused Scheer of playing "petty politics" with the issue.

It's like Justin can't help but be an insufferable @$$hole.

But ... but ... I thought that Trump was being unreasonable:

Canadian steel producers, government officials and other stakeholders are giving the Canada Border Services Agency extra powers and have formed an urgent working group tasked with heading off a possible flood of foreign steel into Canada as a result of tariffs imposed by the United States.

Canada is among the six countries that secured exemptions from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, which came into effect Friday. But domestic producers remain concerned that the tariffs will prompt a diversion of steel from foreign producers into the Canadian market.

Also:

President Trump’s aggressive trade policies are forcing some tough customers to cut new deals, with China talking about opening its market to U.S. companies and South Korea nearing a deal to reduce steel exports and buy more American cars.

The threat of a trade war gave Wall Street the jitters when Mr. Trump rolled out big tariffs and other get-tough measures, but it also rattled Beijing, Seoul and other trading partners.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Monday that Beijing wanted trade talks and not a trade war with the U.S. He stressed his country’s willingness to remove barriers to American business and reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, which is the chief demand from Mr. Trump.

“With regard to trade imbalances, China and the United States should adopt a pragmatic and rational attitude, promote balancing through expansion of trade, and stick to negotiations to resolve differences and friction,” Mr. Li told a conference in Beijing, state radio reported.

Imagine if this had been any other body of thought:

In a letter published Monday in Le Devoir, Thomas Burelli and seven of his colleagues at the university said it was “offensive” of Quebec to attempt to favour science in a “hierarchy of knowledges.”

Burelli said in an interview Tuesday that the Feb. 6 letter from Quebec deputy minister Patrick Beauchesne reflects a “racism of intelligence. It is saying we think there is a form of intelligence that is superior, that of science. They are methods developed by the West and so they must take precedence over Indigenous knowledge.”

The same day Radio-Canada first reported on the Beauchesne letter, Quebec environment minister Isabelle Melançon and Native affairs minister Geoffrey Kelley wrote to apologize to Ghislain Picard, Quebec regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. They said they were “aware and sorry” that Beauchesne’s letter had “raised, as written, many questions among the Aboriginal population.”

The ministers stressed that “Quebec recognizes Aboriginal traditional knowledge” and invited Picard to meet to discuss collaboration on “new ways of doing things.” ...

Bill C-69, which received first reading in the House of Commons on Feb. 8, would require that before a project subject to a federal assessment is approved, “traditional knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of Canada provided with respect to the project” be taken into account — though it provides no definition of “traditional knowledge.” The bill further states that when traditional knowledge is provided in confidence, it “is confidential and must not knowingly be, or be permitted to be, disclosed without written consent.”

First of all, science is a discipline, like language arts or medicine. Each discipline examines one aspect of the physical or metaphysical world. Where one might be more appropriate in dealing with a certain object or circumstance, they are not at odds. The wedge between science and religion or philosophy is a false one constructed solely for the purpose of pitting people against one another, chiefly people who think that they like science and those who regard it as just another subject.

Having said that, public policy formed from unspecified ideas stemming from unwritten and unproved anecdotes from a greedy industry is just nutters and anyone entertaining the adoption of this so-called knowledge and policy resulting from it needs to be removed from society for his or her safety and that of others.




Two hundred and seven fascists would disagree with you, Mr. Coyne:

More to the point, the controversy has moved many of those who support the status quo to concede that people have a right to dissent from it. Even if abortion were defined in law as a right, the oddity of upholding that right by trampling others’ rights — to conscience, to speech — has been widely observed: it is not against the law to oppose a law. Indeed, the attestation requirement is almost certainly unconstitutional.

And yet, when a motion denouncing the policy came to a vote last week in the House of Commons, not only did virtually every Liberal and every New Democrat vote against it, but NDP member David Christopherson, the lone dissenter in his party, was stripped of a committee post as punishment. Not only is it impermissible to oppose abortion, it seems, but even to suggest that others should be allowed to do so.

This, among many other things, is why such believers are pro-abortion. When even dissent from such opinions is verboten, one can no longer claim anything else.




How could this go wrong? :

The federal government is taking steps to make it easier for doctors to prescribe methadone and pharmaceutical grade heroin.

Okay, Kathleen. Where are you going to get the money? :

Ontario’s Liberal government says it plans to offer free child care for thousands of preschoolers across the province starting in 2020, a promise that comes as it faces a looming spring election.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris unveiled the $2.2-billion initiative on Tuesday at a school in Toronto.

The program would fund the cost of full-day, licensed child care starting once children turn two-and-a-half. The funding would cover their care costs until they become eligible for full-day kindergarten.

“No more anxiety about costs … The freedom to choose when it’s time for mom or dad to go back to work. This is a big change,” Wynne said. “We’re playing the long game here, folks. This is the investment in the people of this province.”

The "new normal" in France:

Mireille Knoll, 85, was stabbed multiple times and set on fire in her Paris apartment on Friday, in what Jewish advocacy groups are calling anti-Semitic hate crime.

The murder took place Friday, the same day as the terrorist attack in the southeastern city of Trèbes, in which four people, including one French police officer, were killed in a hostage standoff at a local supermarket.

For now, French authorities have taken two suspects into custody, according to a judicial official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the case and would only tell The Washington Post that one of the suspects was born in 1989.

Note the obvious attempt at vagueness.


Also:

Sometime in mid-2017, Maarib Al Hishmawi’s parents told her they had found a man for her to marry.

Soon, he would pay the family $20,000, they said, according to investigators. After that, 15-year-old Maarib would move to another city and be his bride.

When Maarib balked, her parents insisted – violently. They beat her with broomsticks, Bexar (Texas) County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. They choked her “almost to the point of unconsciousness.” They threw hot oil on her.

The only way to make the violence stop was to relent – or to at least make her parents think she had.

Maarib said she would go through with the marriage. But as her wedding date neared, she was working on a plan. On Jan. 30, Maarib walked out of Taft High School in San Antonio and disappeared.

Culture matters.




And now, snow and sakura petals.



(Paws up)

For a Monday

In the closing days of Lent ...




This b!#ch is the limit:

Ontario’s Liberal government is promising to spend more than $300 million over three years to improve supports for children with special needs and hire more teachers, a pledge that comes just months ahead of the spring election.

Yes, about that:

Ontario children with autism aged five or older no longer qualify for government-funded intensive therapy, a move critics say is leaving many families in the lurch.

**

In Ontario, the debate on autism funding has heated up. Provincial money for Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) therapy will be restricted to children over five years old, as a cost-saving measure.

Premier Kathleen Wynne says this measure is ”evidence-based” even if the evidence in question – a report entitled “Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Expert Committee, An update on Clinical Practice Guidelines and Benchmarks in Ontario, January 27, 2014”  – makes no suggestion among its 10 recommendations that funding for this therapy should be cut for children over five.

Because of waiting lists due to the lack of professionals who give an autism diagnosis in parts of Ontario, most families in the province have little time left to use the subsidy before the child turns five. 

**

Ontario is restoring some funding for kids with autism age five and older who were removed from a wait list for intensive therapy.

The Liberal government had announced that as part of a new Ontario Autism Program it would stop funding Intensive Behavioural Intervention for kids over four, instead transitioning them to what officials are calling a flexible service.

The government gave parents of children removed from the wait list $8,000 to pay for therapy during the transition period to the new program, but it wasn't due to roll out until 2018 and parents said that money would only pay for, at most, a few months of therapy.

After a public outcry, the government is announcing today that those parents will be given direct funding – in successive payments of $10,000 – to pay for therapy until their child has a spot in the new program, or if they prefer, access to less intensive services funded by the government.

This b!#ch and her rancid colleagues know how to play nicely when their jobs are on the line.

For the refreshing honesty of it all, why doesn't she just tell parents of special-needs kids that they can go and screw themselves because unions are what win elections, not them?

Any parent who votes for this cow deserves the daily grind that he or she gets.

Also - slime:

The second of three men wanted in the brutal assault of an autistic man is now in custody.

Ronjot Singh Dhami, 25, was brought to Peel Regional Police’s 12 Division Monday morning.

One loony pleads not guilty and another is going for a lunatic defense:

Former hostage Joshua Boyle, who faces a set of 19 charges related to alleged incidents after he returned to Canada, will continue his psychiatric assessment for an additional two weeks, the court ordered Monday.

Why? Will it give his lawyers a chance to craft a defense strategy that claims he is mentally ill but not because of his Islamist sympathies?

Sure ...




But isn't a Canadian a Canadian a Canadian? :

A man from Bosnia who shot someone in the heart during a deadly brawl — and then covered up the killing to come to Canada and get Canadian citizenship — has had his secret past revealed.

Bozidar Vujicic’s urge to start a new life in Canada came after his conviction for manslaughter but before starting his eight-year prison sentence.

Now living in British Columbia, he faces losing his Canadian status after the Federal Court of Canada ruled he fraudulently obtained his residency by hiding his conviction for the killing when he applied to come to Canada.

The Polish government claims that Russian spies have infiltrated the EU and NATO:

Russia may have successfully placed agents within the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, the Polish government has suggested.

Pledging solidarity with Britain after the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning, a Polish minister told The Daily Telegraph Friday that officials in Europe should check the activities of Russian delegates to ensure they are not spies.

Well, that's nothing new:

Wojtyla's election as pope in 1978 armed him with an international following that, in retrospect, cowed even the Soviet empire. "Be not afraid" became his rallying cry, and following a 1979 address to the U.N. General Assembly in which he challenged the free world to defend human rights, he embarked on a courageous but dangerous nine-day public pilgrimage to "strengthen the brethren" in Poland. There he warned Communist authorities that the papacy would watch them closely, and he reminded them of their responsibility "before history and before your conscience." The people responded to John Paul II's visit with loyalty borne of years of shared suffering—banners with the Communist party slogan "The Party Is for the People" sported the daring addition, ". . . but the People are for the Pope."

**

According to the official Soviet point of view, the difficulties in Poland were caused by two main groups of reasons: subversive activities of imperialism and mistakes in domestic policy. The Polish events had a strong influence on the entire socialist community, but for the Soviet Union, the leader of the communist world, they were considered “a violation of the laws of socialist construction” and a “distortion of the principles of socialist democracy.”


At the time of the crisis, the situation in Poland was under the total control of Moscow. The Polish question was the main point of discussion at a number of meetings of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Central Committee’s Politburo.

**

... Russian influence targets several vulnerable segments of Polish society in the form of soft power, mainly through exerting influence on political discourse, and far-left, far-right fringe groups and nationalist movements.

Also - but ... but ... collusion! :

President Donald Trump is poised to take his most aggressive actions yet against Russia on Monday, expelling 60 diplomats in response to the nerve-gas attack on a former Russian spy living in the U.K.

The United States is also ordering Russia’s consulate in Seattle to close. ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada is expelling four Russian diplomats and will deny permission for three others to bolster Russian staff in Canada.

Only four, Chrystia?




The trifecta of wickedness and incompetence:

The United Nations has been criticized for sharing with Russia the coordinates of hospitals in rebel-held areas of Syria, only for one of them to be bombed days later.

The organization gave the GPS locations supplied by non-governmental organizations operating in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta to Russia and the U.S. as part of a “notification system.”

Hospitals are known hiding places of cowards and thugs. The Russians are indifferent and the UN is just an appalling mass of globalist idiots and rapists. Everyone caught in the middle had no chance.




Kim Jong-Un is said to have taken a train to talks but no one can confirm anything because he is hiding:

Japanese media reports said a special North Korean train arrived in Beijing under unusually heavy security on Monday, suggesting a senior delegation might have been aboard.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said she was not aware of the situation and had no further comment. North Korea’s state-run media had no reports of a delegation travelling to China.

Japanese television network NTV and public broadcaster NHK reported the arrival of the train and said the heavy security in the city suggested a senior official was aboard.

The reports sparked speculation that leader Kim Jong Un might have been aboard the train. Kim is expected to have a summit meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April and with U.S. President Donald Trump by May.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnny Cash.

Sunday Post

Oh, dear:

A federal Liberal Party strategist in Victoria once described himself as “the head of operations for the SCL Group,” a company associated with a consultancy now at the centre of a global controversy over the misuse of Facebook data.

Ray Larson is also an associate of Christopher Wylie, who alleged late last week that a company he spun out of the SCL Group, Cambridge Analytica, surreptitiously obtained personal information on 50 million users of the social-media giant.

Mr. Wylie has said he joined SCL Group, which involves several distinct and interrelated corporations, before helping create Cambridge Analytica.

This week, opposition MPs seized on Mr. Wylie’s ties to the federal Liberal Party after news reports that said the 28-year-old former volunteer and researcher signed a $100,000 contract in 2016 to do social-media consulting for the party.

Insiders in the federal Liberal Party in British Columbia describe Mr. Larson as an early adopter of modern-day campaigning techniques that are believed to have helped the Liberals form a majority government.

Hours and hours of getting into the Liberals' collective grill still results in their mind-boggling deflection from their obvious lies and racism (yes, racism because Justin's "jolly Bengali" act was just humiliating and then calling the Indian government liars was the very limit):

The Trudeau government is doing everything they can to distract from Justin’s disastrous trip to India.

They’ve thrown the public service under the bus, pushed the national security advisor to spread a conspiracy theory blaming India, and now they’re playing one of the most predictable cards in the Trudeau Liberal deck:

Accusing opponents of being offensive.

In the House of Commons, Liberal MP Ruby Sahota said she was “incredibly offended” to hear a Conservative MP call Justin Trudeau’s outfits during his India trip “costumes.”

Also embarrassing, these things:

According to a report by Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey, members of the Liberal Caucus are increasingly fed up with the high profile and excessive influence of Trudeau advisor Gerald Butts.

Writes Furey, “The man is Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s principal secretary. While his title may sound like he’s the chief coffee boy, make no mistake — he’s the head honcho. A former senior advisor to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, he’s referred to as PM Butts by many Liberal caucus members. This undemocratic dynamic has been known to political watchers since day one but has managed to stay as an inside baseball story. Until now. In recent months, Butts has been drawing his own attention in a way that’s bound to make him a greater liability for the PM moving forward.”

Furey notes that there is a theory that Butts was behind the idea of sending Trudeau’s national security advisor to tell the media that the Jaspal Atwal invite was a conspiracy by the government of India.

Butts also garnered attention for despicably calling critics of Trudeau’s “peoplekind” remark ‘Nazis.’

**

Justin Trudeau’s promise of “openness” and “transparency” is now nothing but a sad joke.

When asked by reporter Laura Stone why he is blocking National Security Advisor Daniel Jean from testifying on the discredited conspiracy theory blaming India for the Jaspal Atwal invite, Trudeau booked it up the stairs instead.

If the caucus is fed up with Justin and his puppeteer, they could always cross the floor. Sure, they may bow out of some lucrative money-grabbing but their party won't clog up the political toilet. How long are they willing to put up with Justin's incessant gaffes, sissy-running and emotional retardation? Are they willing to be screamed at all the time? 




Help me out, Boushie family - who travelled to Ottawa to convince Hair-Boy to tilt the law in your favour? :

Boushie’s family members have found support in each other and people across the country as they try to move forward and advocate for changes to the justice system, Tootoosis said.

When they heard that publishing companies had been contacted on Stanley’s behalf they were appalled because “the entire court process gave Gerald Stanley the full platform,” she said.

“He is alive here to be able to tell his story and he did. That was what the court process was about,” she said.

“I just can barely comprehend this individual and his motives and what he is trying to accomplish or achieve. It’s just upsetting.”

It's more upsetting that people can play the race card before and after committing a crime.




As long as certain entities profit under Wynne's waste of money, she will always find an electorate willing to put her back in the driver's seat:

Since 2003, the Liberals have doubled government spending from $71 billion to $141 billion annually, while increasing provincial debt by 125%, from $138.8 billion to $311.9 billion, making Ontario the world’s most indebted sub-sovereign borrower.

Even the Liberals concede a healthy debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio for Ontario — a key indicator of economic health — would be 27%, which is what the Liberals inherited from the previous Progressive Conservative government in 2003. 

By contrast, in their 15 years in power, they’ve increased the debt-to-GDP ratio to 37.5%, and rising, while lacking a credible plan to reduce it to 27%, according to the Legislature’s independent, non-partisan Financial Accountability Office.

And that was before Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced that in Wednesday’s budget, the Liberals will abandon the commitment they made a year ago to balance the province’s books in 2018-19 and 2019-20, after claiming they balanced them in 2017-18 following almost a decade of deficits.

But the Auditor General and Financial Accountability Office say that for the 2017-18 fiscal year, the Liberals are actually running a deficit of $4 billion to $4.5 billion, hidden by accounting tricks.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says the Wynne Liberals have improperly claimed a $12.4 billion surplus in two public sector pension plans as an asset, because they cannot access these funds without the permission of the employees’ unions.

They have also, she says, improperly kept the $39.4 billion required to fund Wynne’s Fair Hydro Plan — temporarily reducing electricity rates by 25% before sending them skyrocketing — off the province’s books, by transferring the debt to Ontario Power Generation, meaning electricity consumers will have to pay up to $4 billion extra in unnecessary interest costs. 

Even using Wynne’s numbers, the Liberals in 2018-19 will spend $12 billion of taxpayers’ money — $1 billion a month — just paying interest on the province’s  $311.9 billion debt.

Furious that someone finally penalised it, China rattles one of its many sabres at the US:

China urged the United States on Friday to “pull back from the brink” as President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs on up to US$60 billion in Chinese goods moved the world’s two largest economies closer to a trade war.

The escalating tensions sent shivers through financial markets as investors foresaw dire consequences for the global economy if trade barriers start going up.

Well, China shouldn't be a dishonest broker.

You can own this, China.


Also - what the hell, Japan? :

An information processing firm in Tokyo assigned to process the personal data of around 5 million pensioners outsourced part of the task to a Chinese company — in violation of a contract that prohibited subcontracts, according to the Japan Pension Service.

The outsourcing fell under the spotlight after it was revealed that around 1.3 million people received lower pension benefits in February than they were entitled to as income tax breaks were not adequately reflected.

The pension management body, which has seen a series of incidents of mismanagement related to pension records, has been investigating whether the involvement of the Chinese firm caused the lower payments.

And - Justin admires his financiers:

In a video produced by the Trudeau Liberals to celebrate “Canada-China Year of Tourism,” cabinet minister Bardish Chagger is seen before a white screen with rotating graphics speaking about how great Canada is to visit, how wonderful the relationship with China is and how Trudeau has made Canada’s relationship with China a priority.

That last statement comes just after a graphic appears on the screen showing a map of China coloured in red, like Red China…get it. The bad part is, the red parts of the map representing China include Taiwan and the Philippines.

But I thought that everyone was getting along:

North Korean media resumed their virulent anti-U.S. propaganda on Thursday, calling the Americans "the most vicious and cunning imperialists in the world" and "brutes in human form." 

The regime had largely refrained from florid rhetoric against the U.S. since U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The fresh denunciation came after Choe Kang-il, deputy director general for North American affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, attended a meeting with academics and officials from the two Koreas and the U.S. in Helsinki, Finland the previous day.

It appears not to have gone according to plan. 

In an editorial titled "An illusion about imperialism means death," the official Rodong Sinmun said, "The U.S.' chronic aversion and hostility to independent countries can never change, no matter how much time has passed and no matter who holds power" in Washington.

 

The sad thing is that he didn't have to die:

 

Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was shot and stabbed after he traded places with one of the captives following a shooting spree in southern France.

Flags are being flown at half-mast at gendarmerie bases across France.

His brother Cedric said Col Arnaud "didn't have a chance", adding that his actions were "beyond the call of duty". 

"He gave his life for strangers. He must have known that he didn't really have a chance. If that doesn't make him a hero, I don't know what would," Col Arnaud's brother Cedric told a French radio station on Saturday.

He gave his life to protect a victim is Islamist violence.

But why let facts get in the way?
 

But he's right:

 

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum suggested teens protesting gun violence instead prepare to help the victims of mass shootings by learning CPR and practicing active shooter drills.

“How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that,” Santorum said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

 

CPR is a useful skill and could result in the saving of a life, unlike waving around signs and pretending that doing so is somehow helpful in combatting a hot-button issue.

 

But signalling one's virtue is not about being practical.

Mid-Week Post

Aaahhh, the second day of spring ....



Justin is going to have a hard time getting consensus across the board for his patently fascist abuse of human rights and beliefs but not always from members of Parliament:

David Christopherson is pro-choice and has been an elected New Democrat for three decades. But on Monday night, he simply couldn’t bring himself to vote with the rest of his party on the Canada Summer Jobs attestation, which requires applicants to declare their core mandate respects abortion rights.

“Canadians have a right to disagree with the law, recognizing they will respect it and will honour the law,” he said. “You have the right to say anything you want about a law, and that attestation took that right away. I cannot condone that.”

The motion, put forward by the Conservatives, said groups that engage in non-political, non-activist work should be able to access the summer jobs grant regardless of whether they tick the attestation box. It was defeated 207 to 93, thanks to nearly every Liberal and NDP MP in attendance voting against it — except for Christopherson and Liberal MP Scott Simms.

“I wrestled with it, of course. You don’t vote against against your own caucus lightly,” Christopherson said. “To me, at the end of the day, that box took away Canadians’ right to disagree with the laws that they have to obey. I had a very strong, fundamental problem with that. And just abstaining wasn’t good enough.”

**

Elizabeth May says the Liberal government overreached by attaching a clause on abortion rights to summer job funding applications, even though she agrees groups that "harass" women shouldn't receive government support.

"To insist on an attestation of values was a really serious mistake and a very bad precedent," the Green Party leader told HuffPost Canada Tuesday.

May was applauded by Conservative MPs Monday after she voted in favour of an opposition motion targeting controversial Liberal changes to Canada Summer Jobs funding that angered faith-based organizations.

Liberal MP Scott Simms, NDP MP David Christopherson, and Bloc MPs Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Mario Beaulieu, and Marilène Gill also backed the motion, which was easily defeated by a vote of 207-93.

It is clear from the vote that 207 MPs enjoy dictating to their constituents what they should regard as right or wrong. If the constituents were in any way discomfited by this, they would vote the buggers out of office.

But this is Canada and Canadians simply don't do that sort of thing.

While Christopher and May's actions (assuming they are genuinely motivated) can be construed as principled, they themselves are part of the problem.

If one can consign one segment of society to death, how hard is it to squash free speech, withhold taxpayers' funds or bar teen-agers from summer employment?

Everything starts with a spark of life and follows it. Why let people speak freely and oppose their dictatorial government if they can removed from the gene pool at whim?

Also:

A Winnipeg church says the federal government is shutting out religious groups with a new rule this year for organizations seeking summer job funding, a day after the House of Commons voted down a motion to amend the change.

"I think it was very heavy-handed. I don't really understand why [the federal government] decided not to listen to the concerns of so many of their constituents across the country," said Glenn Krobel, lead pastor at Winnipeg's Centerpoint Church.

"Certainly, we've tried to be careful and articulate in a way that was respectful and thoughtful, but … they just haven't been willing to change anything."

For the better part of the past decade, Krobel says his church has applied for, and received, funding through the Canada Summer Jobs grant to pay summer students to work at its day camp. This year, their initial application was rejected. He's not sure they'll get the funding on reapplication, because of a controversial new requirement in the application.

Start asking private individuals and organisations to step up. Send a message to the fascists in Ottawa that they are not wanted or needed. 

Carbon taxes are government revenue and nothing more. An irresponsible government has to get the cash to jet-set about the globe and talk about the evils of an element it doesn't understand and it can't do that without carbon taxes:

“Carbon taxes might work on paper but they don’t work in the real world. Even if it is initially introduced as a revenue-neutral tax, you get changes in government and it becomes a cash cow for governments to spend,” he said.

He said the amount being charged in tax is insufficient to change human behaviour enough to meet emissions targets, while the carbon surcharge risks damaging Canada’s competitiveness.

Fast pointed out that the federal government’s claim that all revenues will go back to the provinces where they were raised is misleading. The government admitted this week in a written answer to a question by Conservative MP Robert Kitchen that the GST revenue collected on a carbon tax will be sent back to Ottawa, rather than rebated locally. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that carbon pricing from the four largest provinces could net the federal government more than $500 million over two years.

Also - well, duh:

The U.S.-based Tides Foundation, for example, directs funds to Canadian organizations such as Dogwood Initiative and Leadnow, both of whom featured prominently in the anti-pipeline protest on March 10th in Burnaby, and both of whom take an active role in B.C. elections, aiming to get pro-energy politicians out of office and anti-pipeline politicians elected.

Whose money is it that Tides pays out? And whose interests does it serve? What donor requests are being satisfied? This of course is the great unknown. Over the last few years Tides has granted $40 million to 100 Canadian anti-pipeline organizations who, in return, have done a fine job of constraining the Canadian economy and saving money for American buyers of Canadian oil.

The activists have two main goals. They’d like to keep Canadian oil in the ground and, alternatively, they want to keep Canadian oil landlocked. Because we can’t reach overseas markets, our landlocked oil is sold at a huge discount to customers in the U.S. Scotiabank economists estimate that the current cost to the Canadian economy is $15.6 billion a year. We may as well write a cheque today “to our friends in the U.S.” for $43 million. And do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And every day after that. What an incredible campaign. No less oil consumed, but the Canadian economy suffers massive losses.

This erasure of identity is the result of lunatics and their lunatic ideas:

Families Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is defending Service Canada’s decision to ask its employees to adopt gender-neutral language when interacting with the public.

According to documents obtained by Radio-Canada, employees of Service Canada are being asked to no longer use gender-specific words such as Mr. and Ms. in order to avoid gender bias.

Members of the opposition were quick to criticize the directive, which some MPs mocked as ridiculous and harebrained.

One could say that again.

That's nice, legal experts. You do that. You overturn a verdict put out by twelve members of polite society chosen because they weren't "... going to hang Stanley". Do it because you don't like the verdict they handed down. Just forget that the Crown found no reason to appeal the verdict. You find ways to pervert the course of justice and hand over all decisions to a small group of unelected and unaccountable oligarchs who move as the political wind moves them. How could that ever go wrong? :

Nine academics from across Canada have signed onto “Project Fact(A),” an initiative that involves studying several aspects of Stanley’s trial and writing about them in a way that’s accessible to everyone. They hope to release their first set of findings by the end of April.

“One of the difficulties in thinking about this case is that so many people are speaking about it without actually being aware of what happened, aware of what the law is,” Tanovich said.

“One of our goals is to show, had the law been properly applied, it very well could have resulted in a different outcome.”

Boko Haram, that thuggish band of ignorance and poor hygiene, has released the girls it has kidnapped (and presumably raped and instructed to detonate themselves) with a stern warning that education just isn't for the feminine masses:

Boko Haram Islamic extremists brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding school last month, dropping them off in the middle of the night Wednesday with a warning: "Don't ever put your daughters in school again."

Several of the girls interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been travelling for days before the convoy of vehicles arrived in the centre of the town of Dapchi around 2 a.m. Residents who had fled upon hearing that Boko Haram was headed their way watched from hiding as dozens of girls descended from the vehicles apparently unharmed.

"We were freed because we are Muslim girls and they didn't want us to suffer. That is why they released us," said Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls who said a Christian classmate remained captive.

(Sidebar: oh, what a surprise.)

 
A serial bomber in Austin, Texas blew himself up rather than be captured by the police:

The suspect in the deadly bombings that terrorized Austin blew himself up early Wednesday as authorities closed in on him, bringing a grisly end to a three-week manhunt. But police warned that more bombs could be out there.

The young man behind the attacks was identified as Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed 24-year-old who bought bomb-making materials at Home Depot. His motive remained a mystery, along with whether he acted alone in the five bombings in the Texas capital and suburban San Antonio that killed two people and wounded four others.

Finally:

He was the first assailant seen in a shocking security video sucker-punching a defenceless 29-year-old man with autism before his two pals joined in.

After a flurry of unprovoked punches and kicks at the bus station at Square One on March 13, the victim’s face was bloodied and his nose was broken. ...

Ronjot Singh Dhami, 25, of Surrey, B.C., is believed to be on the lam with two unidentified accomplices, who wore hoodies over their heads during the pathetic incident.

And thanks to tips from law enforcement and the public on the West Coast, investigators are confident they will soon identify two other suspects.

Let's see how tough this thug is while getting beaten up in jail.




And now, ice cream flavours both bizarre and delicious:

Reaching for a cone of dondurma may leave you empty-handed.

Turkey’s taffy-like ice cream contains salep and mastic—powdered orchid bulbs and pine resin—which render it slow-melting, elastic, and thick enough to cut with a fork and knife. The finished product is so sticky that vendors often make a show out of it, playing tricks on customers using sleights of hand and misdirection to keep the twirling cones just out of reach. Don’t be deterred: Good things come to those who wait.