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A known Sikh extremist convicted of attempted murder of a Punjabi cabinet minister does not care for the negative press he's received and claims to not only have denounced terrorism but that he was invited to attend a state dinner with Justin, contradicting previous claims that his invitation was the work of shadowy men attempting to drive a wedge between Canada and India:

Jaspal Atwal says since he was convicted of trying to kill an Indian cabinet minister in 1986, he has tried to contribute to Canadian society, which includes meeting politicians from various parties.

Before he recently left for a trip to India, he says he contacted Liberal MP Randeep Sarai to see if there was a chance for him to attend a reception with Trudeau.

Atwal went to the reception in Mumbai and was photographed with Trudeau’s wife, causing a political and diplomatic uproar.

An invitation Atwal received to a later reception in New Delhi was rescinded as soon as news broke that he was on the guest list.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister’s Office, Trudeau’s national security adviser suggested 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.

An official spokesman for the Indian ministry has repudiated that theory.

One would think that they would all get together and get their stories straight.

Nope.

It's the Fabrication Gong Show Hour.




The Trudeau Family Vacation Redux:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip -- which his family accompanied him on -- was heavily criticized internationally, including for the traditional Indian wardrobes the Trudeaus wore for much of the visit.

"It’s always surprising when you hear the negative on something that went so well," she said of the trip and wardrobe backlash. "I focus on the important, I think that’s also a life lesson. I have three kids, I’m an active person, and we keep things real, and you’ve got to focus on the positive."

Gregoire Trudeau said her intent was to showcase Canadian designers but also said she listened to "officials" in making wardrobe choices.

"On official trips you listen to officials who guide you and also clothing choices, because there are certain places where you have to have your head covered for example, or whatever it is, and I listen to the professionals," she said.

 
Silly creature.

One knows things are really bad when they have Sophie  attempt damage control and it still comes off as throwing people under the bus.




Trump played chicken and won:

Canada can breathe easier, for now: It’s getting relief from U.S. tariffs for an undetermined period, as one of only two countries receiving a provisional exemption from the steel and aluminum penalties set to clobber the rest of the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed proclamations Thursday slapping tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, and they snap into effect for the rest of the world in 15 days.

After months of frantic lobbying, diplomatic arm-twisting, and heated debates within his own administration, Trump is signing the proclamations at the White House, surrounded by steelworkers.

“For now, Canada and Mexico will be excluded from the tariffs,” said a senior White House official.

“But it’s not open-ended.”

Trump has given Canada and Mexico brief breathing space. Because a former substitute drama teacher is at the helm and not an economist that could have waived the tariffs, Canada will either stay on course with its absurd stipulations and lose NAFTA or blink again and have NAFTA totally on American terms.




Opposition leader Andrew Scheer pits India and the US against China:

“I don’t believe that now is the time for a free trade deal with China. Because it’s a completely different relationship. When we talk about free trade with the United States, with the countries in the TPP, with the United Kingdom, with India, we’re dealing for the most part with free market economies where the state-owned enterprises aren’t that much of a factor,” said Scheer.

He listed off reasons that China would be difficult to deal with. “A very large number of government interventions in the economy, far more aggressive with things like currency, using currency as a trading tool, and, you know, completely different securities regulations, everything from transparency and things like that.” 

Scheer suggested the government would be better off pulling trade officials out of China and redoubling their efforts on finding allies in the U.S.

He also said he would be “open” to pursuing a free trade negotiation with India. ...

“I don’t believe that the role of the prime minister of Canada is ceremonial,” said Scheer. “I think that it’s a serious one, and that Canadians want to see someone take the job seriously.”

Well-played, Andy.


Also:

Pax Americana has underwritten an explosion in wealth not matched in the world since the industrial revolution. Since the 1950s, Japan, and then South Korea, Taiwan and China, have been able to put bitter political and historical enmities aside to pursue economic growth. At the same time, the U.S. presence in east Asia has papered over serial diplomatic failures. All of the frozen-in-the-1950s conflicts buried during the decades of high-speed economic growth are starting to resurface. China, in particular, has a whiff of the Balkans, where many young people have a way of vividly remembering wars they never actually experienced. A sense of revenge, of unfinished business, lingers in the system.

It may not require a war, of course, to deliver the last rites for Pax Americana. Washington could simply turn its back on the world under an isolationist president, a president, in other words, who simply did what Donald Trump promised to do on the campaign trail. America could also slip into unruly decline, with a weaker economy resulting in bits of empire, no longer financially sustainable, dropping off here and there.

Alternatively, of course, Pax Americana in Asia could survive, with a resilient U.S. economy and refreshed alliances robust enough to hold off an indebted and internally focused China. Indeed, it is unlikely that the United States will leave the region quietly. As Michael Green, a former U.S. government official, notes, over more than a century in the Asia-Pacific, Washington has seen off quests for regional dominance “from the European powers, Imperial Japan and Soviet Communism.”

The US not only provided political and military stability, it allowed former hermit kingdoms to grow in ways they may not have before (look no further than the recently signed TPP agreement without the US). Ask a South Korean sipping a soft drink at a KFC in Seoul whether or not he trusts the Japanese or the Chinese more and he will give you his grandfather's answer. Then ask him what his chances of surviving a Chinese-backed North Korean shelling without America's help. He becomes less candid.




Speaking of which ... :

South Korean envoys briefed American officials on Thursday on their unprecedented meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while the U.S. secretary of state said that though “talks about talks” might be possible with Pyongyang, denuclearization negotiations were likely a long way off.  

Good luck with that, guys.

I look forward to seeing you back at the drawing board once a newly-refunded North Korea is threatening Guam again.




Back at home ...




Of course Canadians can be bought. Just look at past elections:

It’s unscrupulous and dishonest, but such have long been core features of the Liberal regime, so should come as no surprise. It is also deeply cynical, indicating Wynne believes Ontarians can once more be bought with their own money. To say it is highly risky is an understatement: interest rates are rising, the NAFTA agreement that underpins so much of Ontario’s prosperity is under threat, and the sharp cut in U.S. corporate tax rates means firms will have strong reasons to choose it over Ontario for future investment.

But the Liberal focus extends to June and not beyond. That was the real message Sousa delivered Wednesday. The rest of it was just smoke and mirrors, which have worked so well for his Liberals in the past.

Western white feminists are deluded creatures who believe that they are entitled to things that no sane person with any shame would admit to wanting. They are also hypocrites so far removed from reality that the mere act of wearing a head covering, mandatory in Islamist countries where brown women are cruelly treated, is a delightfully edgy thumb-in-the-eye to everyone trying to ignore their screeching:

Submission to the requirements of one brand of Islam has convinced some women to support the heinous practice of female genital mutilation. Their understanding of religion has brainwashed them into considering this beneficial. Such a procedure subjects them or their daughters to pain and poor health. Are they more liberated because they have defined their femininity in these terms?

Clothing matters less than mutilation. The niqab and hijab may be “mere” pieces of cloth, but the expectation that women will wear them remains an important issue. The requirement is rooted in patriarchy, and it is hard to accept that any woman who “chooses” to wear these garments has somehow defined her womanhood in a liberated way.

The new feminists have regressed if they do not call out such practices with the fervour of #MeToo. Their silence endorses a way of thinking which keeps countless women in permanent submission.

Iran doesn't care about your outrage, Chrystia:

Canada’s foreign affairs minister says she is “outraged” that the wife of an Iranian-Canadian professor who died in prison in Tehran has been prevented from leaving Iran.

Chrystia Freeland tweeted Wednesday evening that she is demanding that Maryam Mombeini “be given the freedom to return home” to Canada.

Kavous Seyed-Emami was a 63-year-old sociology professor who died at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison earlier this year.

Iranian authorities have said Seyed-Emami’s death was a suicide, but both his son Ramin and the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran described the government’s claim as suspicious, following other detainee deaths.

If it's not Jordan Peterson, it will be someone else. That anyone stands up to people who are clearly mentally deranged annoys and angers the fascists no end.

One can no longer ignore this kind of behaviour. One has seen its bloody results in China and Cambodia. That it exists in academic arenas in Canada is worry to say the least:

In the category of the deeply satisfying/highly amusing, there surely can be nothing better than watching a group of students, many of them white, furiously chanting “F–k white supremacy! F–k white supremacy!”

Presumably, they not only checked their privilege but also, flushed with settler guilt, paid extra at the counter to do it.

This was part of the infantile exercise a motley crew of protesters indulged in Monday night at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., where the University of Toronto psychology professor and now best-selling author Dr. Jordan Peterson was giving a lecture.

While Peterson spoke to a near-capacity crowd (an estimated 820 people, according to the university) inside the storied old Grant Hall, a group a fifth the size (an estimated 150) outside it banged on garbage bins, screamed, spun noisemaker whirligigs, blew whistles and chanted obscenities.

Also:

“Do you want life to be easy?” Peterson asked. “Don’t you want it to be a struggle?”

That excellence in certain spheres of life requires struggle is widely accepted. Such advice in absolutely routine from coaches in sports, or instructors in music or drama. But for life as a whole? That it is somehow good that life is a struggle, because striving perfects our character? That is rather less commonly heard. In this regard Peterson is really a public heretic, dissenting vigorously from the dominant religious teacher of our times, Oprah Winfrey.

So although Peterson is not a religious believer in the conventional sense, and not a confessing Christian, the discussion on Monday was more than familiar to a chaplain who has worked with students for 15 years. I was not surprised to learn that young men are Peterson’s most enthused followers. ...

“Man was created for greatness — for God himself; he was created to be filled by God,” wrote Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. “But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched.”

To stretch. To struggle. To strive for that which is beyond our grasp. It’s not an exclusively theological insight. As the poet Robert Browning put it: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”

For a crowd that has never fought or struggled as previous generations have to eat, work, live or believe, the idea of this struggle is a frightening prospect.

But why?

Do we not appreciate things more if we strive for them? Do we not change through that process?

We are a generation that has forgotten and subsequently not appreciated this.