For A Monday

A lot going on ...



Without giving concrete proof that she can pay for these whacky promises, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne attempts once more to bribe Ontario voters before screwing them over again:

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is one step closer to its goal of an on-site integrated treatment centre after a $105-million announcement Thursday from the provincial government.

Premier Kathleen Wynne revealed the funding at CHEO Thursday morning in front of a group of parents and health professionals.

She was flanked by Ottawa Liberal MPPs Yasir Naqvi, John Fraser, Marie-France Lalonde and Nathalie Des Rosiers.

(Sidebar: these guys.)

"We know that families in our province need more support right now," Wynne said. "This is indicative of our understanding, from you, of what we need to be doing."

CHEO has been planning and campaigning for a new six-storey building that would house a variety of services, including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, assistive technology and mental health services.

The building is set to be an autism diagnostic hub.

(Sidebar: these autistic kids.)

**

The final budget before a looming provincial election will offer measures to cut hospital wait times, lower child-care costs and expand mental-health services while reducing the overall deficit, the Ontario government said Monday. ...

The government also announced plans to expand the OHIP Plus program that currently offers free pharmacare to residents under the age of 25, saying it wants to make the program available to a larger swath of the population.

“Your government’s plan for care and opportunity is the right way forward for Ontario’s people, and Ontario’s economy, because the well-being of both are intrinsically linked,” Dowdswell told the legislature.

The speech also hinted at measures to address the cost of child care, which it identified as a “stumbling block” for many families.

It also contained promises for later in the child’s life cycle, saying it would expand the program that currently offers free tuition to thousands of people.

With spring soon coming, the magical money-growing trees are set to bloom and voila! instant cash!


Also:

Premier Kathleen Wynne is “the most dangerous woman in Canada,” University of Toronto professor and author Jordan B. Peterson says.

“I’m not a fan of hers, at all … I think that she’s a reprehensible ideologue,” he said. “I think she’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing as well because she’s not a Liberal by any stretch of the imagination.”

Under Wynne’s leadership, the Ontario Liberals have moved to the left of previous NDP governments, he said. ...

“I think Kathleen Wynne is an utter disaster,” Peterson said. “I think she’s the most dangerous woman in Canada.”

Ah, the glorious burn of Wynne by Peterson.

It's like walking through an orchard of plum blossoms, not unlike these plum blossoms, and chancing upon Jordan Peterson roasting Wynne on a open spit.

Yeah ...




Only a Liberal would claim that a rise in the minimum wage and the cancellation of funding for summer programs due to ideological reasons is better than employment and being exempt from paying income tax:

A proposal from Ontario's new Tory leader to eliminate income tax for cash-strapped workers in the province is coming under fire from critics and the governing Liberals, who say raising the minimum wage provides more relief for those struggling to make ends meet.

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn took aim at Doug Ford's plan in a news conference Thursday morning, saying the latest move by the Progressive Conservative leader and his party shows they "just don't care about workers."

"I think Doug Ford's beginning to emerge as a person that's very, very interested in helping a group of people, but I think it's the wealthy elites," Flynn said. "I think it's those people who are doing very well in today's economy and what he's doing is he's really ignoring those people that really need the help the most."

Ford, who was selected to lead the Opposition last weekend, has said that if the Tories form government after the spring election, he would freeze the minimum wage at $14 rather than bumping it to $15 next year as the Liberals plan.

The former Toronto city councillor has told media outlets he instead wants to eliminate income tax for those making less than $30,000. As premier, he would only have jurisdiction over the provincial income tax.

**

Federal officials have rejected requests from more than 1,500 organizations for funding through the government’s premier summer jobs program, a 12-fold increase since the Liberals added new criteria for funding that have drawn the ire of faith-based groups.

Wow.




Speaking of complete wastes of time and money:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office is again sharing few details about his vacation this week, though questions about how the prime minister spends his private time have caused problems for the Liberal government in the recent past. On Thursday, officials in the prime minister’s office would say only that Trudeau is “spending private time with his family in Florida,” but would not elaborate on what he’s doing or with whom.

That sounds familiar.

**

Like father, like son, the old adage goes. It’s rarely been truer than in the case of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his son. Pierre was once asked for his views on democracy and communism, and stated that a one-party state would be the ideal government under certain conditions. That might sound familiar.

Added Pierre: “I wouldn’t be prepared to think I would be successful in arguing that (communism) for Canada at the present time. But such times might come, who knows?” Five decades later, here’s his son, Justin Trudeau: “You know, there’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.”

Of course, the reason for that direct economic power is China’s command-and-control economy, wherein the government owns or controls the vast majority of businesses. For Trudeau the elder and Trudeau the younger, admiration of communism is seen in actions that diminish private-sector investment in favour of public spending, along with social policies that discourage or prohibit ways of thinking not aligned with their “progressive” beliefs.

During the 15 years that Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, federal spending rose from 30 to 53 per cent of GDP. Huge public spending overheated the economy, resulting in runaway inflation. By 1981, Canada’s prime lending rate had reached an incredible 22 per cent. The inability to meet skyrocketing interest payments caused widespread corporate and personal bankruptcies. ...

Five decades later, son Justin has Canada on a similar path. After inheriting the Stephen Harper government’s zero-deficit balance sheet a little over two years ago, Trudeau’s budgeted 2017–18 deficit has rocketed to $18 billion, with continuing deficits forecast to add $117 billion to the national debt by 2023. That’s reason enough to worry, but the picture is certain to get much worse. Why? For the same reason that Pierre Trudeau’s deficits spiralled out of control: the imposition of ideologically socialist government policies on a capitalist free-market economy.

**

Angus Reid is the latest polling company to find Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s popularity in precipitous decline in the wake of his widely criticized trip to India.

Trudeau’s net approval rating of -16 is well below Stephen Harper’s rating of -1 at a similar point in his tenure. Fifty-six per cent of respondents say they disapprove of Trudeau at his government’s 29-month mark, while 40 per cent say they approve. At Harper’s 28-month mark, 47 per cent disapproved while 46 per cent approved.

An accompanying report from Angus Reid points to the India trip, where the government was criticized for the presence of a convicted attempted murderer at a prime ministerial event, and a recent report from the ethics commissioner on Trudeau’s trip to the Aga Khan’s private island, as likely sources of the decline.

Angus Reid had to go back to Brian Mulroney in 1988 to find a prime minister with approval numbers as low as Trudeau’s at this point in their first term. Sixty-two per cent disapproved and 27 per cent approved of Mulroney at the 30-month mark of his first term.

No wonder Justin is on yet another holiday. He can escape the bad news.




Canada already has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. What more could the government do to curtail the rights of law-abiding gun-owners while not tackling violence due to illegal guns? :

The Liberal government is planning to introduce long-promised legislation as early as Tuesday to strengthen controls on the sale, licensing and tracing of guns.

The Liberals are bracing for political pushback from the Conservatives, as the bill would repeal some measures passed by the previous government.

The bill is expected to fulfill Liberal election platform promises to enhance background checks for anyone buying a handgun or other restricted firearm, as well as require purchasers to present a valid licence.

It's just national security:

Three former directors of Canada’s key national security agencies are urging the federal government to heed the warnings of U.S. intelligence services and cut Canadian ties with Huawei, the giant Chinese smartphone and telecom equipment maker.

Ward Elcock, John Adams and Richard Fadden are weighing in on the matter after the heads of the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency recently told the U.S. Senate intelligence committee that Huawei poses a cybersecurity threat to American customers. U.S. spymasters say Huawei’s smartphones and networking equipment could be used to conduct undetected espionage, especially the next, advanced generation of 5G technology.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told The Globe and Mail in a statement on Friday that Huawei is being monitored and does not pose a risk to Canada’s cybersecurity.

Whatever you say, Mr. Sixty-ISIS-Terrorists-in-Canada. 

Also:

John Letts, the father of a young British-Canadian man accused of belonging to ISIS and being held in a Kurdish jail in Syria, is hoping to lobby the Canadian government in person next week for help securing his son's transfer to Canada.

And:

A woman found guilty of murdering her three daughters in a so-called honour killing was stripped of her permanent residency Thursday and ordered deported from the country.

But the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada's expulsion order for Tooba Yahya will be executed only when she is released from a Quebec prison, her lawyer, Stephane Handfield, said in an interview.

Yahya, husband Mohammad Shafia and their son, Hamed, were each found guilty in 2012 on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The bodies of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, and Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Mohammad Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage, were found in June 2009 in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ont.

The Crown argued at trial the women were murdered because they refused to abide by the family's rules.

And:

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has condemned all those involved in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, considered the mastermind of the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.

His comments in an interview with the Post Thursday mark a change since Singh was elected leader last October, when he told the CBC’s Terry Milewski he didn’t know who was responsible for the bombing — and they come amid controversy over Singh’s speaking appearances in recent years at events that focused on Sikh separatism, including a panel discussion in the U.K. at which another speaker endorsed the use of violence to achieve the creation of an independent Sikh state.

On Thursday, Singh stood by his attendance at such events, saying it’s important for him to use his voice to “channel that pain (in the Sikh community) toward something positive.”

But he told the Post he accepts the findings of the Air India inquiry, which pointed to Parmar as the architect of the 1985 attack that killed 329 people — though he noted that only the person who made the bomb was convicted.

So why did you attend parades feting Parmar and why did you stand in solidarity with Sikh extremists, Jagmeet?




It's just personal data:

Politicians in the United States and Britain are threatening to haul Facebook executives, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, before legislative committees in the coming months, amid revelations about the private data of tens of millions of users being misused – beginning years ago – to fuel deeply polarizing political campaigns.

The political outcry erupted this weekend after a 28-year-old Canadian political consultant emerged as a whistle-blower. In media reports, Chris Wylie described working with former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon to mine data, after first finessing a massive dataset from Facebook, drawing upon the personal data of 50 million users.

Facebook shares were being hammered on the news. The stock fell as much as 6.8 per cent Monday in New York, wiping out all of the year’s gains so far. It was the biggest intraday drop since Jan. 12.

When virtue-signalling goes wrong:

In sum, Trudeau’s government has dithered for two years before agreeing to send Canadian Forces into the most dangerous UN combat mission in the world.

If it goes badly, blandishments about “the international rules-based order” will get less purchase than allegations about “Trudeau’s selfish political ambition.”

**

The Canadian military's upcoming foray into Mali is expected to include a marked female presence as the Trudeau government looks to have Canada lead by example in the push to have more women on peacekeeping missions.

Yes, about that:

Any future peace and ceasefire deals in conflicts like Syria and Mali must include sexual violence prevention, Bangura said. Bangura, a former health minister of Sierra Leone, said she plans to visit Syria, Mali and South Sudan as soon as possible. 

What could go wrong?




The "noble savage" is a myth:

The trials involving the killing of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine have put the Canadian justice system under scrutiny, with critics saying the system is failing Indigenous communities.

So is there a better way?

That's the question asked at a panel held in Winnipeg Sunday that looked at whether traditional Indigenous healing practices could be a viable alternative to the current Canadian system.

Yes, about that: 

Apart from a few mid-western farming tribes and Pacific and Great Lakes inhabitants of log dwellings, the First Nations did not have permanent buildings or agriculture, metal tools, or knitted fabrics. They were nomads, clothed in hides and skins, living in tents, surviving on fish and game, and usually at war, which included the torture to gruesome death of prisoners from other tribes and nations, including women and children.

Would this mean that Gerald Stanley gets the crime hugged out of him by the Boushie family? 

Also - scumbags:

For six days, the three “cowardly” thugs who were caught on video beating a helpless autistic man at Square One have been at large and unidentified. ...

“Very good progress has been made and investigators now have credible information that the persons responsible are originally from British Columbia — specifically the lower mainland area,” said Peel Insp. Norm English, who added they believe the trio “recently travelled to the GTA.”

Putin gets to be tsar for another six years and the Ukrainian pilot accused of shooting down an airplane suddenly kills himself:

Reports say Voloshyn shot himself at home in Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea.

Ukraine described him as a war hero.

He had flown 33 combat missions in a low-flying Su-25 ground attack jet against Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. 

Recently the 29-year-old had been in charge of the Mykolaiv airport. The southern city near Odessa is called Nikolayev by Russian speakers.

Family members quoted by Ukrainian media said he had been feeling depressed. They were in the flat when he shot himself on Sunday. 

An ambulance was called but he died in hospital.

Russian officials not only alleged that Voloshyn's plane had shot down MH17. According to another Russian theory, it was a Ukrainian military Buk - no longer in service in Russia - that downed the airliner.

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Independent experts - besides the Dutch team - rejected the Russian claims, saying the evidence pointed to a Buk fired by pro-Russian rebels or a Russian military unit.

The unpopular Shinzo Abe (in South Korea, actually) is warned by a newly bolstered North Korea to stop pressuring it:

North Korea has threatened Japan over Tokyo’s policy of heaping pressure on its nuclear-armed neighbor, saying it “may not get a ticket for Pyongyang” if it continues, remarks that come just days after Japanese government sources said the country is exploring the possibility of a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“Now is a high time that Japan meditated over its policy toward the DPRK, facing up to the trend of the times for itself,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary late Saturday, using the country’s formal name.

“We have already warned that the Japanese reactionaries may not get a ticket for Pyongyang if they go ill-natured without discretion. It would be wise for them to stop useless struggling and follow the trend of the times, before it is too late,” it added.

And now, LEGO may actually boost one's chances of getting into university:

According to a study released by Lego Japan last week, Legos are quietly preparing our children for life as elite scholars. The study asked 100 graduates from each of six of Japan’s most elite universities (the University of Tokyo and Waseda, Keio, Hosei, Meiji, and Rikkyo Universities) about their childhood habits and how they think it affected their development. Apparently, more than 60 percent of the graduates from each of the universities claimed to have played with Legos as children, and more than 92 percent of those that did play with Legos said they didn’t use instructions, and instead built things from scratch.

Awesome.