Mid-Week Post

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Kim Jong-Un walks away from the Inter-Korean Summit, surprising exactly no one:

North Korea on Wednesday threatened to scrap a historic summit next month between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it has no interest in a "one-sided" affair meant to pressure the North to abandon its nuclear weapons.

The warning by North Korea's first vice foreign minister came hours after the country abruptly cancelled a high-level meeting with South Korea to protest U.S.-South Korean military exercises that the North has long claimed are an invasion rehearsal.

The surprise moves appear to cool what had been an unusual flurry of outreach from a country that last year conducted a provocative series of weapons tests that had many fearing the region was on the edge of war. Analysts said it's unlikely that North Korea intends to scuttle all diplomacy. More likely, they said, is that it wants to gain leverage ahead of the talks between Kim and Trump, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is "still hopeful" that a planned summit with North Korea will take place.

Sanders said Wednesday that threats from the North to scrap the meeting were "something that we fully expected."

Sanders said President Donald Trump is "ready for very tough negotiations," adding that "if they want to meet, we'll be ready and if they don't that's OK." She said if there is no meeting, the U.S. would "continue with the campaign of maximum pressure" against the North.

North Korean first vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement carried by state media that "we are no longer interested in a negotiation that will be all about driving us into a corner and making a one-sided demand for us to give up our nukes and this would force us to reconsider whether we would accept the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting."

He criticized recent comments by Trump's top security adviser, John Bolton, and other U.S. officials who have said the North should follow the "Libyan model" of nuclear disarmament and provide a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement." He also took issue with U.S. views that the North should fully relinquish its biological and chemical weapons.

Some analysts say bringing up Libya, which dismantled its rudimentary nuclear program in the 2000s in exchange for sanctions relief, jeopardizes progress in negotiations with the North. Kim Jong Un took power weeks after former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's gruesome death at the hands of rebel forces amid a popular uprising in October 2011. The North has frequently used Gadhafi's death to justify its own nuclear development in the face of perceived U.S. threats.

The reference to Libya is a convenient way out for the Kim regime, always insincere about its desire to de-nuclearise. 

Further:

North Korean despot Kim Jong Un is “hot-tempered and violent” and will never give up his nukes — despite what he says ahead of his landmark summit with President Trump, a top defector said Monday.

(Sidebar: to wit.)

“In the end, North Korea will remain ‘a nuclear power packaged as a non-nuclear state,’” said Thae Yong Ho, the hermit kingdom’s former deputy ambassador to the UK, Agence France-Presse reported.

Thae — who fled with his family to South Korea in 2016 — made his explosive comments during a press conference in which he unveiled his autobiography, “The Secret Code of the 3rd Floor Room.”

“It is too early to predict (with one month left before the summit), but I think the North will move toward sufficient, verifiable, irreversible dismantling, which is to sufficiently reduce threats from nuclear weapons, rather than seek complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement (CVID),” he told reporters.

Kim cannot afford be a non-nuclear power. It is one thing to live under China's shadow. The symbiotic relationship between the two is contested only by the American presence in South Korea (which Kim wants gone). A dictator like Kim is not interested in anything that does not perpetuate his regime. It was foolish - and perhaps greedy and unconscionable - to think that Kim aspired to peace and prosperity (if the Kaesong Industrial Complex under the Kims did not work, why would American investment? What moral authority would the US have if it exploited North Korean labour under Kim Jong-Un?).




Today in "Somewhere out there is an avalanche missing an insufferable douchebag named Justin Trudeau" news:

A federal proposal that would allow prosecutors to suspend criminal charges against companies in certain cases of corporate wrongdoing has been quietly included in the Trudeau government’s 582-page budget legislation.

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The United Kingdom has taken the correct steps in this matter and has revoked the citizenships of those ISIS fighters who fled their country in order to participate in their the brutal way of life, effectively making it illegal for those fighters to return to the UK without a complete government background search first. 

Canada did not follow their steps, and instead, potentially jeopardized the lives of our citizens.

In many cases, the government is actually forced to aid these “Canadian citizens” in returning to Canada, even after the atrocities that they may have committed overseas. 

The best that the RCMP can often do is send an “intervention team” to meet with a returning ISIS fighter and their family, to hopefully turn them away from their ideology through the use of dialogue.

(Sidebar: that would totally work, right?) 

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As reported by the CP, “Trudeau also says there are some points of view that will never be valid, including those who commit female genital mutilation and those who deny that climate change is real.”

(Sidebar: Back in 2011, Trudeau condemned the Tory government for calling these practices barbaric, saying it was “pejorative,” overly “judgmental,” and that the government should make an “attempt at responsible neutrality.” ;  The Conservatives want the government to make it clear in the citizenship guide that FGM is illegal in Canada, so that female newcomers from countries where it is allowed understand their rights.

Mr. Hussen declined to comment on the draft guide or say whether the government will include references to FGM in the new version.)

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling for answers after a Canadian doctor was among hundreds shot by the Israel Defence Forces in a violent clash at the Gaza border Monday, while condemning what he calls an "excessive use of force."

(Sidebar: you already got your thanks, you douchebag.)

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A total of 1,559 organizations have been rejected for Canada Summer Jobs funding after the Trudeau government imposed a values test on applicants.

According to Global News, “Documents tabled last week in the House of Commons confirmed that Ottawa received a total of 42,708 applications for summer jobs money this year. Of those, 1,559 applications (just under 3.7 per cent) were rejected specifically because of “issues related to the attestation.” The government noted that some groups applied more than once.”

By comparison, there were just 126 rejections in 2017.

(Sidebar: it's good for Justin that most Canadians are too weak and stupid to care about this -  The Angus Reid Institute study shows a complicated response to the issue, with answers not neatly lining up with political parties or views on abortion. It also shows most Canadians haven’t been closely tuned in to the issue, with just 20 per cent saying they know a lot about it and 56 per cent saying this was the first time they’d even heard of it.)




It's just money:

The Trudeau government is promising to cover financial losses suffered by Kinder Morgan if the British Columbia government obstructs or delays the Trans Mountain project, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Wednesday.

He said Ottawa would also compensate anyone who took over the Trans Mountain expansion if Kinder Morgan, which has ceased non-essential work on the pipeline project, decides to walk away from it.

(Sidebar: it's easier to pay people to walk away than allow a pipeline, eh, Justin?)

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A study by the Fraser Institute shows the growing cost of Canada’s pipeline capacity shortage.

In 2018, the price differential between Canadian heavy crude and US crude will rise to a whopping 42%, up from the 13% differential average between 2009-2012.

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The Department of National Defence is planning a new $1.1 billion building in Ottawa’s west end, even while employees are settling into its $800-million headquarters complex at the former Nortel campus.

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The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation just noted that since taking office in 2003, the Ontario Liberals have added $14,000 per person to the provincial debt. So what exactly is the plan to cope with this mountain of fiscal obligations? ...

Specifically, in Ontario, if you’re in a family of four, add $56,000 to your liabilities and, assuming you pay just four per cent interest, $2,240 to your annual payments. That’s $186 a month.

Oh, phew, you say. You had me worried for a moment. But don’t pour a post-crisis cold one yet, because that’s just what’s been added since 2003. Total provincial debt is fast approaching $350 billion. At $25,700 per person, that’s $102,800 per family of four, and monthly payments of at least $342.

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If Ontario’s carbon pricing scheme is such a great idea, why aren’t Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, and the NDP’s Andrea Horwath, who supports it, praising it to the skies on the campaign trail?

Thanks to a new Ipsos-Global TV poll, now we know why.

It found 72% of 1,197 eligible voters surveyed from May 4-7 think carbon taxes are just a tax grab, with 68% saying they’re symbolic rather than effective.

I simply have no words:

A Syrian refugee couple who threatened their adult daughter with an honour killing for dating a Canadian man have made a plea deal with New Brunswick prosecutors that will save them from possible deportation back to their war-ravaged homeland.

Ahmad Ayoub, 52, and his wife Faten, 48, were freed this week after 72 days in jail, after pleading guilty to uttering threats as a summary conviction offence, and being sentenced to time served.

If they had been convicted of the more serious indictable offence of uttering threats, for which a trial was scheduled in the summer, they would have faced a sentence in the range of six months to a year, up to a maximum of two years.

More importantly, they would have faced the possibility of also being sent back to Syria, from which they escaped through Jordan, eventually settling in Fredericton in 2016, sponsored by the federal government.

Send. The b@$#@rds. Back.




Because China is Justin's favourite country:

Air Canada could face a boycott from Taiwanese travellers after the airline joined a growing list of air carriers that have bowed to Chinese pressure by listing the capital of Taiwan as a part of China on its booking website, the president of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce B.C. said Tuesday.

“If they treat the Taiwan people so unfriendly I think most of the people from Taiwan will choose other carriers instead of Air Canada,” said Charles Chang, president of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in BC.

Taiwan: it's a thing and that's okay, but not to China.