Saturday Post

Alfie Evans, whose parents were prevented by force from leaving the hospital with his misdiagnosed body and whose priest was evicted from the grounds for reminding the slaves of the NHS what hell waits for them, has died:

Alfie Evans, a sick British toddler whose parents won support from the pope during a protracted legal battle to take him to the Vatican children's hospital for treatment, died early Saturday, five days after he was taken off life support.

As with Charlie Gard, the NHS and the British courts have made it quite clear who is in charge of British children's lives and it isn't the parents.




Being a vindictive, partisan, prissy little sh-- is alright when some people do it:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday there’s no problem with a Canada Summer Jobs grant that will fund anti-pipeline activism, arguing his government must stand up for the principle of free expression and advocacy.

(Sidebar: but not if one is a student working at a day camp for under-privileged children.)


Further:

And that returns us to the summer job grant to Dogwood — whose existence has one explicit rationale — to stop the development of Alberta’s oilsands. Why is it getting a federal subsidy to fulfill that grim, ugly, anti-jobs ambition? Especially when so many real charities — charities that practice, you know, charity, not protest — chiefly religious organizations, have been barred from those grants.

The jobs these charities offer are mostly aimed at the truly poor, homeless and displaced — real charity work — but because they wouldn’t sign on to Justin Trudeau’s one-man edict that they have to forswear “anti-abortion” beliefs, they were culled from the list.

By letting the government dictate what one may regard as right or wrong, one has freely offered the fascists in the House of Commons another victory they need in being the plutocracy they've always wanted to be.


These plutocrats:

According to a recent report, “Twenty-seven departments and agencies participated in the bulk order last month, which was valued at $21.5 million, taking into account a $6 million volume discount from Bell Mobility. Android devices, such as the Samsung S7 and S8 smartphones, made up about 80 per cent of the order. About 20 per cent was for iOS devices — Apple iPhones. Three departments — Privy Council Office, Industry and SSC — together ordered 1,800 iPhone 8 models.”

The final order cost $23 million when ‘accessories’ were included.

Also:

Manitoba's premier says the Canadian federation is in a state of "confusion" and "disarray" over the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments, citing the standoff over the Trans Mountain pipeline and interprovincial trade barriers.

"I would say obviously we are in a state of not just confusion but disarray. I would say that we're losing opportunities for growth," Brian Pallister told host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing today on CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

"I would say that the opportunities that we lose with internal barriers to trade in our country are in the billions of dollars and we need to address that."

Pallister said some estimate the cost to the Canadian economy of failing to build pipelines and rip down interprovincial trade barriers could be as high at $30 billion per year.

(Sidebar: it's just an economy and a country.) 

**

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has written an open letter to B.C.'s environment minister proposing the creation of a joint scientific panel to study oil spills and response measures.

"Such a panel would build on our science investments and results, take stock of work on the fate, behaviour and effects of various oil products in different spill conditions and under extreme Canadian climates in order to inform further scientific work under the [ocean protection plan] and spill response modelling, preparedness and response measures," McKenna said in the letter.

(Sidebar: but, Climate Barbie, John Horgan is already down in the polls. How low should he go?)

**

The federal finance department is now under investigation by the Office of the Information Commissioner for their refusal to release data about the financial costs of a carbon tax per household.

Responding to a complaint made by Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre, the office headed up by Caroline Maynard has begun investigating whether the department violated sections 21 and 18 of the Access to Information Act.

Poilievre, the MP for Carleton, had filed an access request asking for government documents that explain the projected annual costs per household of the carbon tax. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to impose a carbon tax on every province in Canada that will be $50 per tonne by 2022.

Documents shared with Postmedia show that while Poilievre received a response, the pertinent information was redacted.

**

The total cost of a carbon tax across Canada will be $35 billion per year, according to a leading expert in the field.

While a recent Parliamentary Budget Officer report stated that a $50 per tonne federal carbon — the mandated price by 2022 — will end up costing the economy $10 billion per year, that’s the eventual negative hit to the economy after certain rebates are applied.

It’s not the raw cost charged on emissions.

The federal Liberals are just keeping in style with their provincial counterparts:

Mandated by law to comment on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s pre-election budget of March 27 as we head toward the June 7 vote, Lysyk said Wednesday its financial numbers are “not reasonable.”

That’s a huge political blow for Wynne.

While Lysyk’s verdict was expected, given that she has been feuding with Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa for months about the true state of Ontario’s finances, Lysyk has now officially said the numbers can’t be trusted just six weeks before the election.

Lysyk said Wynne’s budget underestimates government deficits for the next three years by $16.6 billion, or 84 per cent, for two reasons.

First, it fails to reflect the true cost of its scheme to temporarily reduce electricity rates, known as the Fair Hydro Plan.

Second, the government improperly treated surpluses in the Ontario teacher and civil service pension plans as assets, since it can’t access that money without union permission.

“When expenses are understated, the perception is created that government has more money available than it actually does,” Lysyk wrote. 

“Therefore, more money will need to be borrowed to pay for the unrecorded expenses, even when government reports an annual surplus or a balanced budget.

The Liberals already have their poster-child for not doing drugs while pregnant. He wears stupid socks and gets easily frustrated.

Is that the information they needed? :

Bill Blair said in the House of Commons Friday that the Liberal government has "no plans" to decriminalize illicit drugs, despite overwhelming support for the idea from the party's grassroots.

Blair, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice, made the comment after Tories pressed the government to promise that it will not decriminalize crack cocaine, heroin, or any other hard drug.

Reading from notes, he said the government has "no plans to legalize or decriminalize any other drugs" besides marijuana. And despite voicing opposition to the concept, the Toronto MP said the government is still open to reviewing related studies.

Screw you, Toronto. Start billeting these illegal masses you want to much:

The City of Toronto has issued an urgent appeal to the federal and provincial governments for help dealing with the growing number of refugee claimants in its shelter system.

Mayor John Tory said Thursday that the number of refugee claimants in the city’s shelters has grown from an average of 459 per night in 2016, to an average of 2,351 per night this month. He said the latest figure represents 37.6 per cent of those in the system.

Tory said if those levels continue the city will incur $64.5 million in costs related to providing shelter and housing for refugee claimants by the end of this year.

“As is the case with the general shelter population, it would seem that Toronto ends up taking on responsibility for the entire region without the funding support that recognizes that,” Tory said.

Oh, this must be embarrassing:

While the city was reeling from its worst murder spree, the man charged with the gruesome crimes sat in the Toronto South Detention Centre not expressing one ounce of regret for the victims, according to sources.

But Alek Minassian, who faces 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder, did express regret that the Toronto Police officer hailed as a hero didn’t shoot him.

“He wanted to be shot,” said a person inside the jail who had a conversation with him.

The 25-year-old Richmond Hill man told several people that he had researched being taken out by police after committing a serious crime.

The US has Canada and China on a list of countries that do not  adequately protect intellectual property rights or border security.

This might have something to do with it:

Internet servers linked to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) have been seized in Canada as part of a multinational takedown of the terrorist group’s propaganda network, Europol said Friday.

An important note: do not regard Mao Tse Tung as a disgusting, fat pervert and a tyrant who starved his own people ever: 

China's ruling Communist Party on Friday passed a law that makes criticizing revolutionary heroes and martyrs illegal.

Under the "Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law" it is prohibited to misrepresent, defame, profane or deny the deeds and spirits of heroes and martyrs, or to praise or beautify invasions," according to the official Xinhua news agency's summary of the law.

Those who do so will be punished in accordance with the law and may be investigated for criminal responsibility, Xinhua reported.

Everyone is wetting themselves at the prospect of the Korean War possibly ending but one must be reminded:

Research by Chinese geologists suggests that the mountain above North Korea’s main nuclear test site has likely collapsed, rendering it unsafe for further testing and requiring that it be monitored for any leaking radiation.

The findings by the scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China may shed new light on North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s announcement that his country was ceasing its testing program ahead of planned summit meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump.

(Sidebar: there are always other sites.)

**

But nowhere in Kim's announcement was there any mention of nuclear dismantlement. Rather, he stressed that the North is a nuclear-armed state, saying during a Workers Party Central Committee meeting that he had achieved the "historic task of building a nuclear force" and that it was now time to "focus all efforts on building up the economy." North Korea said it will not use its nuclear weapons as long as it faces no threats, but that does not mean denuclearization. Looking at the announcement verbatim, North Korea is saying that it has completed arming itself with nuclear weapons and ICBMs and now wishes to negotiate with the U.S. on equal terms as a nuclear power, while seeking external support to develop its economy.

 

Even that is suspect.