Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week spot of clarity ...




Unbelievable:

A plot to delete documents about the Ontario government's pre-election cancellation of two gas plants struck at the heart of the democratic process, a judge said Wednesday as he sentenced a former top political aide to four months in jail.

The crime committed by David Livingston, chief of staff to former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, was extremely serious and demands proper denunciation, Ontario court Judge Timothy Lipson said.

"His conduct was an affront to, and an attack upon, democratic institutions and values," Lipson said. 

"An attempt to tamper with the democratic process requires a strong denunciatory response."

Lipson also sentenced Livingston, 65, a first-time offender with an otherwise exemplary record of private and public service, to 12 months probation, including 100 hours of community service. 

Livingston was led from court in handcuffs.

Defence lawyer Brian Gover said outside court that his client would appeal both conviction and sentence, and denounced the punishment meted out to Livingston, a married father and grandfather.

"That is a harsh and excessive sentence in the circumstances of this case where there was no proof of actual harm," Gover said. "You can imagine how upsetting this is for all of them."

Oh, shut up!

 
Oh, look - another vacation for Justin:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be looking to turn the page on his widely criticized trips to China and India — and land some new trade partners for Canada — when he embarks Thursday on a major 10-day foreign tour, including two major international summits with leaders from around the globe.

The stakes will be high, starting with Trudeau's first stop in Peru for the 8th Summit of the Americas, which plays host every four years to more than 30 countries across the Western Hemisphere. There had been speculation that Canada, the U.S. and Mexico would announce some form of an agreement in principle on a new North American Free Trade Agreement. But while high-level talks are still expected to take place, the absence of U.S. President Donald Trump — he's staying home, ostensibly to oversee the possible American response to a chemical attack in Syria — has dampened talk of ceremonial surprises.

Instead, the meeting is likely to be dominated by the political crisis in Venezuela, where president Nicolas Maduro, who will also not take part, has abandoned all pretence of democratic rule, cracking down on dissent in the face of spiralling economic calamity.

Canada has been an outspoken critic of Maduro and will no doubt join the chorus of condemnation in Peru while pushing for a tougher stand against corruption throughout the Americas.

Also:

The federal ethics commissioner may investigate Liberal cabinet minister Seamus O’Regan for failing to disclose a vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island.

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found to have violated federal conflict-of-interest and ethics rules by accepting an all-expenses-paid vacation to a Bell Cay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan, two winters ago.

O’Regan and his husband were guests of the Trudeau family during the December 2016 trip, first revealed by the National Post, which was organized by Trudeau’s wife Sophie and the Aga Khan’s daughter. But the now-Veterans Affairs Minister didn’t disclose the gift to the ethics commissioner and was never scrutinized by the commissioner’s office for potential conflicts-of-interest. 

“I have received a request for information from the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner regarding a preliminary review and I will continue to cooperate fully with any requests from his office,” O’Regan said in a statement to the Post on Wednesday. 

Calgarians are mad as hell and want the Trans Mountain pipeline:

Hundreds of Calgarians rallied Tuesday afternoon to call for action on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The “Rally4Resources” outside the McDougall Centre included many people from Alberta’s energy industry, who are frustrated with the B.C. government’s opposition and delays to the project.

“When these projects get the official approval, which they have, I think they should be built and not hitting roadblocks like they are,” said Richard Legallais. “It got regulatory approval, I think it’s for the best interest of the country and I’d like to see it built.”

Also - no, "provocative"  is screwing the Canadian economy:

Premier John Horgan says he's concerned and surprised that Alberta's latest move in an escalating pipeline feud is legislation that could drive up British Columbia's already sky-high gas prices.

Alberta's New Democrat government served notice Tuesday of plans to introduce legislation that Premier Rachel Notley has said will give the province the power to reduce oil flows and likely prompt a spike in gas prices in B.C.

Motorists in Metro Vancouver currently pay more than $1.50 a litre for gas.

The pipeline dispute between B.C., Alberta and the federal government heated up last weekend when Kinder Morgan Canada announced it was suspending work on the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion because of opposition and delays in B.C. 

The project, which would triple capacity between Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., received Ottawa's approval in 2016, but court challenges and permit delays in B.C. have held up construction.

The B.C. government announced in February that it will ask the court to decide if it has the right to restrict diluted bitumen in the Trans Mountain pipeline. The decision to refer the matter to the courts prompted Alberta to suspend a ban on wine imports from B.C.

Horgan said Tuesday that he's concerned about any new legislation in Alberta that may have adverse consequences in his province, including increased gas prices.

"I'm always concerned when a jurisdiction to our east decides that they are going to take provocative action because of our attempt to talk to British Columbians about how we protect our environment," he said.

And - yes, Justin Trudeau Jagmeet Singh, letting unelected and Liberal-friendly judges in Ontario decide what is best for western Canada is a really smart idea:

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wants the Supreme Court of Canada to settle a jurisdictional dispute over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, arguing that it would “provide much-needed clarity to all involved.”

On Wednesday, Singh said Ottawa should work with the B.C. government to submit a reference question to the Supreme Court. But he would not answer questions about whether such a move would effectively kill the project, given that Kinder Morgan has threatened to pull the plug on the pipeline expansion in about six weeks, while it would almost certainly take months for the court to issue an opinion. 

“There is a jurisdictional dispute in communities such as Burnaby and in various First Nations communities in British Columbia,” Singh told reporters in Ottawa. “This dispute must be resolved.”

What makes this dolt think that foreign-funded activists would care even if the judicial activists in the Supreme Court did rule in favour of the pipeline?




Big Aboriginal and Bay Street lawyers - hand-in-glove:

It’s a staggering amount for a contract that only lasts 8 months, the law firm McCarthy Tetrault is being paid $5,320,766.60 in a sole sourced contract. A contract worth almost 10% of the inquiry’s $54 million budget.

What is the work for?

Well at this point, that is unknown. Despite phone calls and multiple emails, my three simple questions to the inquiry have gone unanswered. Given all the coverage of problems at the inquiry, a contract like this should raise questions and those questions should be answered.

The official notice of the contract, which began on September 6, 2017 and ends on May 15, 2018, states that the contract work is for, “Other business services not elsewhere specified.”

That doesn’t tell you much and neither does the reason given for not putting this contract out for a full and open competition, “Consulting Services Regarding Matters of a Confidential Nature.”

Is that sufficient for a contract so large?

Consider that $5.3 million fee is for a contract that lasts just 251 days. That works out to $21,198.27 for each day of the contract. If we assumed a 10 hour work day that would mean McCarthy’s is billing out at $2,119 per hour.

I doubt the folks at McCarthy’s are working 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. We don’t even know how many people are working on this contract.

We have no clue what this money for. We have no clue why a single Bay Street law firm is getting 10% of the inquiry’s budget and without any of that knowledge, no one can determine how or if this large payment is doing anything to help the families the inquiry is supposed to be there for.

Crown-sanctioned ambulance-chasing.

 
(Merci)




What? Justin's most admired dictatorship does not care about Little Potato's "progressive agenda"? :

China’s ambassador says his country firmly rejects Canada’s attempts to entrench labour standards in a free trade pact.

Envoy Lu Shaye says Canada’s so-called progressive trade agenda has no place in a free trade agreement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was unable to persuade China’s leaders to formally entrench labour, gender, environment and governance issues in the negotiating framework of free trade talks.

Trudeau spent four days in China in December but left without a formal commitment to moving the free trade talks past the exploratory phase into formal negotiations.

 
Considering that Justin and his dad openly admired communist dictators who exploited their people (and worse), is one convinced that Justin meant to rectify labour abuses?


Also:

CHINA was forced to deny Tuesday that it wants to establish a military base on the tiny Pacific island of Vanuatu, after reports raised concern about Beijing’s increasing influence in the region.

The facility, which would be China’s second overseas base, would not only signal a new stage in Beijing’s growing military ambition, but also alter the balance of power in the South Pacific.

South Korean president Moon Jae-In does not give the Japanese government any clear indication that it will raise the issue of Japanese abductees during the upcoming summit:

Foreign Minister Taro Kono asked South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday to raise the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to be put on the agenda at an upcoming inter-Korea summit.

“We agreed that Japan and South Korea will continue to cooperate on the abduction issue,” Kono told reporters after his meeting with Moon in Seoul. But he refrained from revealing the president’s response to his request to raise the issue with Kim at the April 27 summit.

Moon appeared to frame the abduction issue as a bilateral matter between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

According to Moon’s office, the president suggested to Kono that Japan and South Korea “continue to cooperate for a resolution to the outstanding issues between Japan and North Korea, including the abduction issue, and for the improvement of Japan-North Korea relations.”

The request also appeared to bounce off South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, whom Kono met earlier in the day. South Korean government officials said she avoided giving him a clear answer, telling him that she does not know which topics will be on the table between Moon and Kim.

So much for those stronger ties, Moon.


Also - a rather long but interesting post on North Korean arms deals with African nations. Do read.



 
He owns Facebook but does not know how it tracks users' information?  Really? :

Some questions about Facebook are too tricky for its chief executive to answer.

In an extraordinary exchange during Tuesday’s testimony before Congress, Mark Zuckerberg hedged on whether the company tracked its users across devices, even when they may not be logged into the social media platform.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., asked Facebook’s founder and CEO whether the company collected “user data through cross-device tracking.”

“Senator, I believe we do link people’s accounts between devices, in order to make sure that their Facebook, Instagram and other experiences can be synced between devices.” Zuckerberg said.

Blunt followed up, asking if that included “offline data, data tracking that’s not necessarily linked to Facebook.”

“Senator, I want to make sure that we get this right, so I’m going to have my team follow up with you on this afterwards,” Zuckerberg responded.

“That doesn’t seem that complicated to me,” Blunt responded. “Now you understand this better than I do, but maybe you can explain to me why that’s that complicated. Do you track devices that an individual who uses Facebook has, that is connected to the device that they use for their Facebook connection but not necessarily connected to Facebook?”

“I’m not sure of the answer to that question,” Zuckerberg said.

Wow.

And now, the sound science behind having a good laugh:

In 2011 researchers presented results of a three-month-long study at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions. Researchers exposed 79 participants to either a music or laughter therapy. Laughter was stimulated through "playful eye contact" and breathing exercises. Immediately after sessions, the blood pressure readings from the laughers lowered by 7 mmHg—(millimeters of mercury, how the blood pressure readings on a sphygmomanometer are abbreviated). In comparison, music therapy only brought blood pressure down by 6 mmHg.

After three months, the blood pressure readings significantly decreased overall by 5 mmHg among the laughers. People in the comparison group showed no change in blood pressure readings.