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.