(Insert Title Here)

(Insert inspiring quote here)




Toronto mayor swears to impotently fight against Ontario Premier Doug Ford's drastic but necessary cuts to Toronto's city council:

Toronto city council voted Monday to express its opposition to a controversial bill that would cut the council nearly in half to the Ontario government.

Council also voted to request that the provincial government conduct a referendum on the number of wards and their boundaries before proceeding with legislation that would cut the number of councillors to 25 from 47.

"Today, city council sent a strong message to Queen's Park that it opposes the process around the change to Toronto's ward boundaries," Mayor John Tory said in a release.

"City council approved my call for the province to hold a binding referendum before proceeding with any changes to the Toronto ward boundaries," Tory said.

Yes, about that:

The federal government will be deep, deep under an avalanche before they let Ford do something sane:

The federal government says it will do whatever it can to protect Torontonians from the "vindictive and destructive" actions taken by the new Ford government.

Adam Vaughan, a Toronto Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary for urban affairs, says Ontario Premier Doug Ford is plunging Toronto into chaos at a time when it needs stability the most.

Ford announced Friday morning that his government will introduce legislation to cut the number of Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25, aligning city wards with federal ridings.

Ford says having fewer city councillors will improve the decision-making process at Toronto's city hall, and save taxpayers $25 million over four years.

Vaughan says the proposal is "reckless, irresponsible" and tosses Toronto into a political storm when it needs leadership on critical files such as asylum seekers, gangs and shootings on the city streets, transit and housing.

(Sidebar: oh, the issues forty-seven people weren't dealing with anyway, including the "aggressive" pace at which the Toronto police force is trying to sweep away the fact that a known Islamist was not apprehended before he shot fifteen people? THOSE issues? Are those the issues that you are worried about, Adam?)

I believe that is called communism.

  
Also - sure. You know what you're doing:

Jennifer Keesmaat – Toronto’s former Chief City Planner – is calling for the City of Toronto to SECEDE from Ontario.

The rest of the country will see you off.




Justin tries to make the deaths of two people at the hands of an Islamist about him after he finally shows up at a Liberal supporter's funeral:

On Monday, Trudeau attended the funeral in Toronto for Reese Fallon, the 18-year-old killed in last week's attack. The service for 10-year-old Julianna Kozis took place in nearby Markham, Ont. ...

The prime minister said he was glad to be a part of a show of resilience and community. He noted that it was 20 years ago that his family said goodbye to his "little brother" Michel, who was killed in a B.C. avalanche in 1998 at the age of 23.

The young people at Fallon's funeral reminded him so much of his brother's friends, he said.

"I just wanted to tell them that they were going to be remembering and celebrating Reese throughout their lives," he said.

Also:

Justin Trudeau’s has finally shown up in Toronto, and was fairly reasonable and respectful in how he handled himself at the somber memorial. There was some booing – which will likely be ignored by almost all the establishment media.

Yet, the fact that Trudeau finally showed up won’t make the criticism over his seemingly-endless vacation days go away.

It won’t change the fact that there is a huge difference between how Trudeau responded to other crises, particularly the fake crisis of the ‘hijab hoax,’ and how he decided to prioritize his vacation over visiting Toronto after the shooting attack.

Not only did Trudeau refuse to go to Toronto for some time, but he also didn’t even make an on-camera statement. He tweeted once, a press release was issued, and then that was it.


He then spent a bunch of personal days in BC, even as vigils were held that were attended by the top elected officials at other levels, including the Ontario Premier and the Toronto Mayor.

Trudeau simply disappeared.

One could attribute this to a lack of leadership, empathy, ability to relate to any happening in an adult fashion, articulate appropriate emotion or offer any solid action.

Take one's pick.


And - Justin is wallowing in adolescence and effeminacy and the doting press finds it adorable.


Also - is this is gay Paris?:

His top aides were grilled on live television and the opposition shut down parliament. And to cap it all he was forced to issue a bizarre denial that he was having a homosexual affair with the bodyguard who sparked a political scandal after being filmed beating up May Day protesters.

Seeking to dispel rumours on the internet, Emmanuel Macron joked: “Alexandre Benalla has never had the nuclear codes … Alexandre Benalla is not my lover.” His MPs laughed but the joke did not go down well with the public. His popularity ratings, already down, fell to a record low.

Justin's fight against Trump appears to back-firing on him big-time:

American officials have taken the “highly unusual” step of rejecting Canada’s bid to take part in senior-level NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Mexico later this week, sources familiar with the trade negotiations said Monday.

One person said attempts by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to get a seat at the table in Washington Thursday were either ignored, or spurned outright by the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Yes, Canada is certainly back:

Because of agreement the Liberals signed with the UnitedNations in 2003, Canada could end paying 7% of the profits from the Bay du Nord project to the UN.

** 

While earning him points with the Davos circuit, Mr. Trudeau’s attitude toward the concept of citizenship may prove a great political liability with established immigrants. Having shed years of blood, sweat and tears to earn their Canadian passports, many immigrant voters likely didn’t take kindly to their Prime Minister issuing, via Twitter, an open invitation to the rest of the world to collect theirs at the door.

We could, and should, have an honest debate about the consequences of the PM’s grandstanding in encouraging migrants to cross over in the first place, and his seeming reluctance to defend the integrity of Canada’s borders publicly. What is irrefutable is that his words betrayed a lack of seriousness about the value of Canadian citizenship.

The pettiness of both the RCMP and the Canadian Border Services Agency is under-scored only their incompetence:

The RCMP tried a few years ago to wrestle away control of organized crime investigations being pursued by the Canada Border Services Agency, newly released records show.

The proposal did not sit well with the border agency and never went ahead. But even as both agencies insist they have since struck a collaborative relationship, security experts say the failed proposal illustrates ongoing tensions between the two agencies, which share the responsibility of ensuring the border’s integrity.

“This reflects an ongoing tug of war of who’s actually in charge when it comes to investigations,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University who specializes in security and defence matters.

Not enough money for veterans right now, ect:

Some Canadian soldiers will no longer have to buy their own boots as the military agreed Friday to give them cash for combat footwear.

Well, that's generous of them.




Yes, I believe that is what got Obama into a spot of bother:

President Trump on Monday expressed his willingness to meet with the leaders of Iran with “no preconditions.” Trump made the comments during a joint press conference alongside Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Does South Korea know what it is doing?:

South Korea's defense ministry said Tuesday that it is pushing for a plan to withdraw forces and their equipment from border guard posts "on a trial basis" in line with the April inter-Korean summit agreement to halt all hostile acts and reduce tensions.

In a policy briefing to the National Assembly's defense committee, the ministry also said that it would consider the "full-scale pullout" in sync with a cross-border survey of historical remains and ecological features within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

How could that go wrong?




For some reason, people believe that China and North Korea are truly interested in peace:

North Korea currently operates more than 160 propaganda websites, including news and tourism websites as well as online communities. Regardless of what these sites do, they share one goal: To promote North Korea and its ideology and turn as many people as they can into North Korean sympathizers.

With recent signs of North Korea opening itself up to the international community, some might assume that Pyongyang would have less need of these propaganda activities. On the contrary, North Korea has only escalated its efforts.

According to a Seoul-based think tank, the Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy, North Korea had about 7,000 agents engaged in this propaganda work as of the end of 2017, and it is adding more.

(Kamsahamnida and paws up)

For A Friday

 

 

In response to Premier Doug Ford's trimming Toronto city council's seats from forty-seven to twenty-five (SEE: fat, trimming, election promise), Toronto mayor John Tory reduces himself to several kilograms of crying baby:

“What we don’t need is change being rammed down our throats without a single second of public consultation and on top of that done in the middle of an election period. You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game, it is not right, it is not fair.”

Also:

Students at York University will head back to class this fall after Ontario's government passed legislation Wednesday ending a nearly five-month-long strike.

An omnibus bill dubbed the Urgent Priorities Act contained key priorities for the newly-elected Progressive Conservatives, who called back the legislature for a rare summer sitting to deal with the issues. The bill contained back-to-work legislation to end the York strike, and was supported by the Tories but voted against by the NDP and Liberals.

The labour dispute at the Toronto university saw 3,000 contract faculty and graduate teaching and research assistants walk off the job on March 5 over issues of wages and job security.

 
The government of Ontario formally requests $200 million from the federal government that started the illegal migrant crisis in the first place:

The Ontario government has formally requested $200-million from the federal government to pay for the cost of asylum seekers who entered Canada from the United States and who are living in Ontario.

Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister for children, community and social services, wrote a letter Thursday expressing concern over the government’s efforts in managing the issue of “illegal border crossing” and demanding financial compensation.

In the letter, MacLeod, who is also responsible for immigration, writes that for over a year, Ontario has been straining to support “illegal border crossers” and that the Liberal government’s approach is “now testing the patience and generosity of Ontarians.”

(Sidebar: there is a reason for that, Miss MacLeod, as you shall see in 2019.)




Two in three Canadians believe that provinces, not Ottawa, should have the final say on whether to institute a carbon tax or not:

While a federal carbon pricing plan is poised to come into effect next January and be applied to provinces that are not deemed by the Trudeau government to have a sufficient plan in place, two-in-three Canadians (64%) say it should be individual provinces, not Ottawa, that determine the appropriate path to reduce carbon emissions. The rest, (36%) say the federal government should have the power to implement its own plan if necessary.

The specific decisions made by Moe and Ford are perceived differently, however.

Seven-in-ten Canadians (72%), including nearly 88 per cent of those in Saskatchewan say Moe is right to challenge the Trudeau plan in court, arguing that his province has its own plan in place. By contrast, half of Canadians (51%), and about the same number in Ontario (55%) say that Ford’s recent decision to end Ontario’s cap and trade program was the right one.

Oh, my.

Climate Barbie will not be glad to hear this.


Also - when the government removes something the public wants, the key is not more government:

As Greyhound prepares to end service across Western Canada, a national survey suggests most Canadians are willing to support a government-funded rural bus service.

A slim majority of Canadians, 56 per cent, agreed the service is vital and would support a federally-funded or provincially-funded service, an Angus Reid poll released Friday suggests.

However, 44 per cent said they believe private business will eventually fill the void if demand exists and governments should stay out of it.

And:

Air Canada experienced a 31 per cent increase in the price of jet fuel compared with last year's second quarter and will offset some of the impact with higher fares and other initiatives, Air Canada chief executive Calin Rovinescu said Friday.

Because it is the government, not a body of competent individuals who value the traditional family or fiscal responsibility:

But when we discuss “child-care policy” in Canada right now, it often boils down to an appeal for the most expensive and ineffective option on the list: Quebec-style daycare. (Hilariously, even with shortages and wait lists in the province, the system is still widely touted as “universal.”) The simple fact that there is so often a push for this particular form of child-care policy reveals yet another non-child-related reason to enact child-care policy: to grow government, particularly the education ministries that would benefit, at a time when more and more parents are opting out of the public school system.

One could ban Professor Jordan Peterson all one wants. He is still right:

Controversial and outspoken academic Dr. Jordan Peterson will speak at Calgary’s Arts Commons this week, despite a petition calling for the event to be cancelled. ...

Peterson is scheduled to speak Friday at the Arts Commons’ Jack Singer Concert Hall, but an online petition calling for the performance to be cancelled has received hundreds of signatures. ...

But Arts Commons says it will not cancel the talk.

In a statement, Arts Commons said it supports free speech and “is a place for all.”
 

What a bunch of pansies.




It's been five says since an Islamist terrorist shot fifteen people and Justin is still on vacation:

Justin Trudeau has been taking “personal” (AKA Vacation) days since July 21st.

This is now his seventh consecutive vacation day.

You would think that the horrific Toronto mass shooting would have brought him back to work, addressing the obvious need for increased security in our cities, speaking to the nation, and making his presence felt as the country mourns.

Nope.

Instead, following the Toronto shooting, he issued a tweet, the PMO put out a press release, and that’s it. Here’s his itinerary for today:

(SEE: Trudeau, Justin, douchebag)


Also:

Ontario’s SIU is called in when a police officer shoots a civilian. In the greater part of such episodes — bank robberies, gang arrests etc. — this is entirely a good thing. Was the fired shot necessary? Did the police overreact?

In the far more abnormal circumstances of the mass shooting on the Danforth, the insistence on this protocol took on preposterous dimensions. The SIU role was prioritized over the investigation itself for the first two or three days. The chief of police held back on even minimal explanation or reports to the public until the SIU completed its review — all of this in an event that everyone described as “shaking the entire city” — leaving the public in a deep valley of officially enforced ignorance, the chief a sideline spokesman during the most horrific episode of its kind that Toronto has perhaps ever seen.

What, of this outrage, was there for the SIU to investigate? If police had arrived at the scene of a man, armed and carrying enough ammunition to make a full night of mayhem and murder, already having shot 14 people, killing two of those — one aged 18, one 10 years old — and then did NOT shoot him, absolutely as soon as they could, there would infallibly be a need for an investigation.

On the actual night however, the shooter was shot dead (as it turns out, he was felled by his own gun, the CBC has reported, quoting a police source). Either way, there was no possible “fault” to be determined. ...

As a response, therefore, to the multiple “regular” shootings, and especially to the exceptional violence that night on the Danforth, what is the possible logic to now screaming for a ban on all handguns in the city? ...

The only real contribution this talk of a total handgun ban — and I’m not being sarcastic — will make to Toronto’s gang violence problem, is giving politicians something to sound strong about, and the gangs who use guns already illegal something to laugh at.

If one wanted to escape the mutilation of girls, one would certainly not come to Canada:

To save her little girl from being tortured, Adetutu Olawore left behind everything she owned and fled from her family in the middle of the night.

With her in-laws in Nigeria demanding her 10-year-old daughter be circumcised — a barbaric procedure also known as female genital mutilation — Olawore saw no choice but to run.

After an odyssey that took her from Nigeria to Houston, to New York and Montreal, Olawore and her three children arrived in Windsor three months ago with dreams of finding a new home and living in peace.

But like many hopeful refugee claimants drawn to Windsor with stories of easy-to-get and affordable housing, Olawore spent months having rental applications denied and doors slammed in her face.

How could this go wrong?: 

In 2016, Ayanle Hassan Ali tried killing three Canadian soldiers at the Yonge St. recruiting office in Toronto.

He punched a soldier in the head, then tried stabbing that soldier, then tried stabbing another soldier, before slashing at another.

As noted by the Toronto Sun, “During his attack, Ali shouted words to the effect of, “Allah akbar.” He told a paramedic that “Allah” had sent him “to kill people.” Both forensic psychiatrists who examined Ali testified that he believed soldiers were a “legitimate target” due to Canada’s military action in Muslim countries and he wanted to be a martyr.”

Ali had also said in a diary, “I have a licence to kill, I have a green light to kill. One soldier is all it takes, just one.”

But shockingly, a judge acquitted him of terrorism charges, and he was found ‘not criminally responsible’ due to ‘schizophrenia.’

And now, he’s going to be set free into the community:

As the Sun points out, Ali “has already been cleared to leave the secure unit of his Hamilton hospital this year on passes into the community, including forays that aren’t even directly supervised.”

Additionally, in 2019, Ali could be permitted to enter “southern Ontario,” while accompanied by a staff member of the hospital at which he is detained. And worse, he could be allowed to go into the “community of Hamilton,” within 2 kilometres of the hospital – under “indirect supervision” (AKA unsupervised).

Oh, look - North Korea is stalling again:

Washington's reluctance to declare an end to the Korean War until after North Korea abandons its nuclear arsenal may put it at odds not only with Pyongyang, but also with allies in South Korea. ...

Kim has broadly committed to the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" if the United States and its allies drop their "hostile" policies and the North has made clear it sees an official end to the state of war as crucial to lowering tensions.

Many experts and officials in Washington, however, fear signing a peace deal first could erode the international pressure they believe led Kim to negotiate. It could also endanger the decades-long U.S. military alliance with South Korea, and may undermine the justification for the U.S. troops based on the peninsula.

Does anyone remember when some people were worried that the legalisation of euthanasia would soon end up as a slippery slope and those fears were dismissed by people who insisted that there were strict protocols in place?

Yeah:

A doctor is under criminal investigation over a potential breach of Dutch euthanasia laws after slipping a sleeping drug into a woman’s coffee before asking family members to hold her down to allow the insertion of a drip through which a fatal dose could be administered.

(Merci beaucoup)

Mid-Week Post

 

 
Your middle-of-the-week camino ...




The prick everyone feels sorry for killed himself instead of shooting it out with the cops:

During the attack, police located Faisal Hussain, 29, near Danforth and Bowden avenues. It's there that Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), says the exchange took place.

Hussain was found dead some 100 metres away, on Danforth Avenue. 

The revelation comes one day after a post-mortem examination on Hussain. The SIU declined to comment on the results of the exam, citing the ongoing investigation.

The source also said police located a high-capacity magazine, and a large quantity of ammunition, for an assault-style rifle while searching   at the Hussain's apartment in the Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood.

Well, that didn't end well:
 

Jesse Mooney, the man arrested on Parliament Hill after a “security incident” during the Changing of the Guard ceremony, made an appearance in court.

It didn’t go well.

According to reports, Mooney yelled at the judge, and “demanded his lawyer be fired.”

Mooney was in court for an alleged incident that took place the day before the Parliament Hill incident.

As for what happened on Parliament Hill, witnesses said Mooney ran across a safety barrier during the ceremony. Police arrested him. Nobody was hurt.

A small pocket-knife was later found close to where Mooney had been arrested.

He faces charges of assault and breaching his probation.

The wife of Justin's friend, Joshua Boyle, took the opportunity to flee back to the US:

Former Taliban hostage Caitlan Coleman returned to the United States with her three children on Monday, almost six years after she was abducted while backpacking across Afghanistan with her husband, ABC News has learned. 

Coleman is petitioning an Ottawa family court to grant her full legal custody of the children she shares with Joshua Boyle, who is facing multiple allegations of physical and sexual assault stemming from incidents since his return to Canada. 

On Monday, a judge ruled that Coleman, a U.S. citizen, could relocate pending a resolution of her case, so she decided to leave both Canada and Boyle behind, crossing the U.S.-Canada border with her three children that same night.

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Tammy Wynette:

Meanwhile, the useless clod, Ralph Goodale, tells another bald-faced lie to the public:

The Liberal government has made it clear that simply entering Canada is not a “free ticket” for newcomers to stay in the country, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told MPs studying the ongoing influx of asylum seekers from the United States.

(Sidebar: because there is no crisis, right, Ralph?)

But no matter how a person arrives in Canada, the individual must be given a fair hearing to determine whether they require protection, Goodale said during a House of Commons immigration committee meeting Tuesday.

Yes, about that, Ralph:

Given the grand gestures, you would be forgiven for believing the federal Liberals and the department responsible for refugees would be tracking the fate of the tens of the thousands of struggling Syrians that Canada has recently taken in.

But, after more than two weeks of inquiries by Postmedia, a media relations officer acknowledged the department has not produced any report in almost two years on the about 50,000 Syrian refugees now in Canada.

Canada’s auditor general is among the unamused. The Liberals had a plan to monitor whether the mostly Arabic-speaking refugees were learning English or French, working, receiving social assistance and going to school, but the government has failed to follow through, said auditor general Michael Ferguson. It is Ottawa’s responsibility, he said, to make sure Syrians refugees “integrate into Canadian society.”

**

If an asylum seeker’s refugee claim is rejected, there’s a possibility they could still stay in Canada temporarily.

** 

Migrants know that even if their claims are found to be bogus, they still get a few years in Canada — enough time to take advantage of free healthcare, education and welfare payments to make it all worthwhile.

Also:

The Trudeau government’s new “Border Security Minister” appears to be a fake job.

It seems that nobody reports to the “border security minister” Bill Blair, and he has no authority over any part of the government.

The responsibilities of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale remain the same.

And remember, the Trudeau government spent weeks trying to demonize any Canadian who said there was a problem with illegal border crossers at the border, before creating the new ministerial position.

And: 

Lisa MacLeod, Ontario's minister responsible for immigration, says the province is asking the federal government for $200 million to cover the cost of asylum seekers from the United States.

Speaking to reporters after testifying at a House of Commons immigration committee meeting Tuesday, MacLeod said while the Liberal government has committed $11 million to Ontario, that money has "yet to flow."

MacLeod said her department is monitoring the costs of dealing with border crossers and predicts they will escalate. She expected to make a formal request for the $200 million later Tuesday. ...

MacLeod said the $200 million figure breaks down as follows: $74 million for shelter costs for the City of Toronto, $12 million for shelter costs for the City of Ottawa, $90 million for social assistance costs her ministry is footing and $20 million for education.

There are also expenses associated with legal aid and that Ontario has invested $3 million in the Red Cross, she said.

Just shoot her in the knee cap:

When Elin Ersson learned that an Afghan man was scheduled to be deported from Sweden on Monday, she bought a ticket for the same flight. Once she boarded the plane at Gothenburg airport, Ersson refused to take her seat, standing in the aisle, until the 52-year-old deportee was released.

Her dramatic act of civil disobedience, which she live-streamed on Facebook in English, forced the flight to be delayed by two hours, according to Swedavia, the company that operates the airport. 

Ultimately, her efforts succeeded – at least for the time being. The Afghan deportee was escorted off the plane before it took off.

All her stupid stunt accomplished (aside from making other passengers late, setting a bad precedent for removing unruly trespassers and merely delaying the inevitable deportation of a thug who would otherwise rape her) was making everyone hate her.

Bravo, idiot.




Legislation for the end of cap-and-trade in Ontario has finally been tabled:

Ontario's new Progressive Conservative government expects to spend up to $5 million to compensate companies that bought into the province's cap-and-trade system, the provincial environment minister said Wednesday before moving to repeal the carbon pricing program.

Rod Phillips introduced a bill that, if passed, will lay out the legal framework to wind down cap and trade, as well as the criteria for companies seeking to be reimbursed for costs incurred through the program.

While the program's 272 participants bought close to $3 billion in allowances, Phillips said only those that purchased more than they used while the program was still active, and were not able to recover those costs from consumers, will be eligible for compensation.

The proposed legislation would also protect the province from any potential litigation over the decision, the government said.

Not dealt with - the free drugs for junkies: 

The fate of Ontario's safe injection and overdose prevention sites is in limbo as the province's new Progressive Conservative government weighs whether to continue funding the facilities authorized by its Liberal predecessors.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said Tuesday the government is reviewing evidence on the sites to see if they "have merit" and are worth continuing.

"We need to take a look at the evidence and understand what the experts are saying, so I want to hear that. The premier wants to hear that. He wants to know that continuing with the sites is going to be of benefit to the people of Ontario," she said.

As long as Justin remains the chief puppet of external interests, no pipeline will be built or expanded:

Energy East is shovel-ready. Much of the route exists and it would quickly create thousands of jobs. (Don’t we have an infrastructure bank looking for big projects like this one?) It could safely move 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Saint John, N.B., every day, where raw product can be refined by Irving oil in their facility adding value and more jobs. Removing more volatile material from the rail lines reduces the chance of another Lac-Mégantic disaster. It would boost our energy independence and allow us to export to new markets, and at the same time use our own energy, instead of shipping it in from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Venezuela (while complaining and hectoring our suppliers about human-rights abuses).

Justin cares not for people who get up in his grill:

A protester who angrily confronted the prime minister in Montreal during Quebec's Fete nationale holiday weekend appeared in court Monday and pleaded not guilty to one count of obstructing a peace officer in the execution of his duty.

The Crown refused to remove a bail condition forbidding Matthieu Brien, 31, from engaging in political activity or being in the presence of a politician, said his lawyer Marc Michaud.

Michaud said if the case isn't settled by the Oct. 1 provincial election, Brien — who is a member of a political party — won't be able to vote.

"It takes a way all the political rights of my client," Michaud said in an interview.

Brien confronted Justin Trudeau on June 23 as the prime minister was greeting citizens in a park located in his riding and said the Canadian leader "came to bother us at home."

"You came to speak English to us?" Brien asked Trudeau in French. "Isn't your party next week?" he said, referring to Canada Day.

Trudeau replied: "I am home."

Michaud said the charge of obstruction is tied to what happened after Brien made the remarks, but wouldn't go into details.

Michaud said he will file a motion in Superior Court this week seeking to annul the bail condition preventing his client from participating in political activity.

Brien is a member of a sovereigntist political party, Michaud said, but wouldn't say which one.

While Justin stymies everyone else who puts him on the spot, former prime minister Stephen Harper engages a perhaps more willing electorate:

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper will be doorknocking for the upcoming Alberta election in the Calgary constituency held by a bitter foe of United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney.

"I live in (NDP cabinet minister) Sandra Jansen's riding," Harper's wife, Laureen, said Tuesday night in a speech at the launch of SheLeads, a non-profit group aimed at encouraging and mentoring women to run for conservative parties.

Harper said she and her husband are not getting involved in the United Conservative candidate nomination race in their Calgary-West constituency but, to cheers and applause, added "My husband said 'I'm doorknocking for the winner. I'm doorknocking.'"

Trump seeks a tariff-free Europe:

President Donald Trump says he'll propose to European officials on Wednesday that both sides drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies.

Trump has floated the idea in the past, but he tweeted Tuesday night that he doubts the Europeans will go for the idea.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reluctant to give a timeline on North Korean denuclearisation:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says a great deal of work remains ahead of the complete denuclearization of North Korea, but he's dodging requests to identify a specific denuclearization timeline.

Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday "there is an awful long way to go" in North Korea's denuclearization, but he pledged negotiations would not "drag out to no end."

More than a month after President Donald Trump's historic summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, the two sides appear to still be at odds on what exactly denuclearization means and how it might be verified.

After Pompeo's most recent trip to the North Korean capital earlier this month, he described his discussions as productive, but Kim accused the envoy of making "gangster-like" demands.

 
In all fairness, Kim didn't give a timeline, either, but he has a habit of that sort of thing.




China is once again helping North Korea to skirt around sanctions:

Gasoline prices in North Korea have nearly halved since late March, market data analyzed by Reuters shows, adding weight to suspicions that fuel is finding its way into the isolated economy from China and elsewhere despite U.N. sanctions.

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in December to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

But as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has moved to improve relations with the United States, China and South Korea, concerns have grown that the policy of "maximum pressure" through sanctions and isolation, is losing steam.

This South Korea: 

The South Korean government failed to take appropriate action for four months against illegal shipments of North Korean coal that arrived here disguised as Russian product. 

The government was warned that two ships from a third country had unloaded 9,156 tons of North Korean coal in the South, the Foreign Ministry admitted, telling Bareun Future Party lawmaker Choung Byoung-gug, that the suspicions were "reported swiftly" to the government.

The Panamanian cargo ship Sky Angel arrived at Incheon port with 4,156 tons of coal and the Sierra Leone-registered Rich Glory at Pohang with 5,000 tons after carrying them from the Russian port of Kholmsk in October last year.

The coal was marked as Russian in origin and was imported by a South Korean company, but the ministry suspected that the cargo originated from North Korea and reported it to Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. 

The ships entered South Korean ports some 30 times since unloading the suspicious cargo, but the government did not search them until February this year. 

The U.S. and the international community have criticized South Korea for being too lax in enforcing sanctions against the North amid a sudden thaw. The U.S. State Department warned that South Korea was potentially violating international regulations. 

 

 

 

So if Trump found Otto Warmbier's condition to be so pitiable that he would fetch him almost immediately, why did he not mention human rights in Singapore?:

Upon learning that Otto was apparently unconscious, President Trump had directed an American team to fly into North Korea, and now progress of the mission was being monitored at the highest level of the government. No assurances had been made that the young man would actually be released, and so the officials were on tenterhooks as well. According to an official, at 8:35 A.M., Secretary of State Rex Tillerson telephoned the president to announce that Otto was airborne. The president reportedly signed off by saying, “Take care of Otto.” Then Rob Portman, the Ohio senator who helped oversee efforts to repatriate Otto, called to inform the Warmbiers that the air ambulance had just entered Japanese airspace: Otto would be home that night.

 

 

The Usual Suspects

The police released the age of Faisal Hussain before they released his name. This allowed for ample time to spin the perpetrator of the ugly turkey shoot along the Danforth (and not the last - let one be candid) from an unknown culprit to a weak figure of pity.


To wit:

The quiet sibling from a family often visited by tragedy. A shy young man with few close friends. A mass shooter who does not appear to have been on the radar of either federal national security agencies or provincial law enforcement.

Faisal Hussain, the 29-year-old gunman in Sunday’s fatal rampage on the Danforth, had a complicated past replete with family misfortune — including his older brother’s drug overdose, which put him in a vegetative state — and mental health challenges including psychosis, his family said. 

Yes, about all of that ...


Hussain was known to the authorities and had been watched since 2010:

The 29-year-old man who gunned down 15 people on the Danforth Sunday night had previously been investigated by Toronto police under the Mental Health Act, CP24 has learned.

**

The man behind a deadly shooting spree in the heart of Toronto's Greektown came from a supportive family beleaguered with troubles and showed no outward signs of the mental illness believed to have plagued him for years, neighbours said Tuesday.

**

Sources say police in Toronto and CSIS officials in Ottawa, as well as the RCMP, are looking into his past, which sources say include his residence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hussain apparently had been spoken to by authorities about his online activities. Sources say Toronto Police, the OPP and the RCMP have all had an interest in the now-deceased shooter.

What law enforcement is saying is that the attack was planned, and Hussain was “well known to Toronto Police” for investigations into past crimes “involving weapons and violence.”

**

"At this stage, based on the state of the investigation, which is led by the Toronto police service, there is no connection between that individual and national security," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.

But a law enforcement source told CBS News that Faisal Hussain visited Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group. They were looking into whether Hussain may have lived at one time in Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, the source said.

So, how is it that an allegedly mentally ill man who expressed support for one of the many Islamist terrorist groups in operation today and was known to authorities was not only able to calmly shoot mostly women in a country where openly carrying weapons is virtually illegal but to be covered and then excused?


A co-ordinated effort on the part of the authorities, the popular press and a gullible public would complete the ring of this ghastly circus.


Faisal Hussain was not named initially by the police, who knew about him, or the press, particularly in Canada. A professional activist quickly delivered a prepared statement excusing Hussain of his actions:

The man who has presented himself as the point of contact for the family of Faisal Hussain is a professional activist who has reportedly committed himself to “framing a new narrative of Muslims in Canada” and creating a “national political movement.”

Shortly after the Ontario Special Investigations Unit revealed the identity of the Danforth shooter as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, a news release was sent out to select media attributed to the “Hussain Family”.

The polished statement began with the family’s “deepest condolences to the families who are now suffering on account of our son’s horrific actions.” It then went on to explain that “our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life.”

It was provided by Mohammed Hashim, a full-time organizer for the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. Social media accounts belonging to Hashim show him heavily involved in supporting NDP candidates both federally and provincially in Ontario. He’s also described as a driving force behind the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

“His groundbreaking political advocacy, public relations and media work has been widely credited by insiders as framing a new narrative for Muslims in Canada,” says a bio of Hashim connected to an appearance he made at CanRoots 2016, a left-wing activist conference.

The bio continues: “His workshop ‘Progressive organizing in the Muslim communities’ will demonstrate how the GTA Muslim community mobilized in the previous federal election, and laid the groundwork to start building a national political movement.”

That's quite some instant political fire power from a poor, beleaguered family.


The second act comes in the form of more gun control in a city where gangs have operated with illegal guns for years.

An unarmed citizenry is no match for gangs or even Islamist shooters but why let facts get in the way?:

There is a talking point in heavy use by the Trudeau government, police forces and gun control activists. It claims that 50% of guns used in crime in Canada are stolen from law abiding Canadian gun owners.

This false factoid has shown up in media reports for quite some time now and showed  up again this week in the wake of the Danforth shooting.

Toronto Mayor John Tory even made the claim in an op-ed for the Toronto Sun back in March.

What is the source of this fact that gets repeated over and over again?

Dennis Young, the veteran researcher and former Parliament Hill staffer says there is no source, well other than a highly taken out of context footnote from an RCMP document dating back to 2016.

The final act is the city itself. Emotionally retarded responses of teddy bears, candles and defiant yet grammatically incorrect scribbles on walls do not prevent future occurrences of tragedy. Hussain would not have fired at people had he known that someone would have shot back in defense or that well-crafted pleas of mental illness would have been disbelieved or that scrutiny of Islam or allegiance to Islamist groups (irrelevant given that "inspiration" to the cause is sufficient enough to carry out centuries'-old mandates) would have been steady and furious and inescapable. He may have made no effort at all or would have been stopped before he could hurt more people.


So there are the usual suspects working in concert to create another blood-soaked tragedy. Until people are tired of lies, deliberate inaction or aversion to sensible indignation, this will be the new normal.