Friday Post

For the last day of August ...

(sigh)

It's just money:

Talks between the United States and Canada aimed at reaching a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement ended on Friday with no agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

Yes, the deal that should have ended up with trans-gendered protections of Chinese steel and a bloated and outdated dairy management board has completely collapsed with no deal in sight.


But Chrystia Freeland will never admit defeat. Oh no!:

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday expressed confidence that Canada could reach agreement with the United States on a renegotiated NAFTA trade pact if there was "good will and flexibility on all sides."

How, Chrystia? The US and Mexico will sign a deal in ninety days and Canada has nothing.


Oh, it gets better for the Liberals:

The pessimists have it right, again. The Trans Mountain expansion was more meticulously threaded through all of Canada’s innumerable regulatory hoops than any project before. Kinder Morgan’s Canadian president, Ian Anderson, had taken to heart the vital importance of going over and above every minimum threshold, making it his personal mission to meet with First Nations groups all over B.C. and Alberta and listen to their concerns. Regulators under both Conservative and Liberal governments had worked to get Trans Mountain approved, and yet still failed to meet standards that judges can and do change any time they wish.

This way, Justin can pretend that such a decision was in the hands of the unelected judicial activists in the Supreme Court and no matter how much he wished it or how much American money was thrown at anti-oil activists to whom he gave funding, it was a fight he couldn't win. He'll shrug his shoulders and shuffle off to the next gay parade.


More:

The ruling wasn’t a “next step,” it was a brick wall put up in front of any further steps on the pipeline, and to say otherwise shows an intense disconnect from reality and an immense amount of dishonesty.

Another set-back for Justin:

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says a court decision striking down the approval of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is a national crisis — and she's pulling her province out of the federal climate plan until Ottawa fixes it.

Moving on ...



Don't threaten to remove funding. Do it:

Ontario colleges and universities must come up with free speech policies or face funding cuts, the Progressive Conservative government said Thursday, delivering on a promise Premier Doug Ford made during the spring election.

The schools have until Jan. 1, 2019 to develop, implement and comply with the policies, which experts said were aimed at pleasing a segment of the Tory base that was outraged when some speakers and professors came under fire for their conservative views.

 
 Court cases cost money, John:

Lawyers for arguably the greatest political rivals in Ontario right now — Premier Doug Ford and Toronto council – face each other down in court Friday over Queen’s Park’s effort to reduce the number of municipal politicians in Canada’s largest city.

Bill 5, being challenged by the City of Toronto and others, would halve the size of council to 25 members — from a planned 47 — in time for the Oct. 22 election.

According to legal documents filed on behalf of the province, the Progressive Conservative government has “pressing and substantial objectives” to ensure voter parity sooner and to improve council efficiency and effectiveness.

“No purpose would be served by directing the city to revert to a 47-ward model to vindicate any alleged legal requirement, constitutional right or principal,” the province’s legal position states. 

“Judicial restraint is appropriate in an ongoing electoral process. Where electoral arrangements are concerned ‘Parliament prefers, the courts defer.’”

Why would the police not release any reports on a man who gunned down fifteen people?:

Media lawyers will be attempt on Friday to convince a Superior Court judge to unseal police information on the investigation into Greektown rampage shooter Faisal Hussain.

Hussain killed two young women and wounded 13 other people along Danforth Ave. on July 22, a horrific event that shook Torontonians and garnered international media attention.

Hussain’s identity was widely reported after he killed himself. Toronto Police had wounded him after he opened fire on innocent people in one of the city’s popular communities along Danforth Ave.

The Information To Obtain documents — which is the justification upon which judges grant search warrants and wiretaps — have been sealed indefinitely, a media lawyer factum states. The media wants these unsealed to reveal details to the public.

I'm sure this is not that important:

Two people were stabbed at Amsterdam’s busy Central Station on Friday before the alleged attacker was shot and wounded, Dutch police said.

Japan should be building up its own defenses. An emboldened China and North Korea won't keep themselves in check forever:

The Self-Defense Force wants record spending power next year to help pay for major upgrades to the nation’s defenses, as Tokyo continues to perceive a missile threat from North Korea despite Pyongyang’s promise to abandon nuclear weapons.

The Defense Ministry budget proposal released Friday calls for defense spending to rise 2.1 percent to ¥5.3 trillion ($48 billion) for the year starting April 1.

If approved it will be the seventh straight annual increase, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reinforces the Self-Defense Forces to respond to any North Korea missile strike and counter China’s growing air and sea power in the waters around Japan.

Why, that sounds sensible:

The Justice Ministry said Friday that applications for refugee status plunged 35 percent in the first half of 2018, compared with the same period last year, after a stricter screening system was introduced in January to eliminate applicants believed to be job-seekers.

In the January-June period 5,586 people applied for refugee status, down 2,975 from the same period last year.

The new screening system also seems to be helping to identify those who are genuinely in need of protection, and discouraging those who don’t from applying. The number of people who withdrew their applications stood at 1,451 in the first half, compared with 1,612 through the whole of last year.

Mid-Week Post

 

Your mid-week tea break ...




When one sends a snowboard instructor to do an economist's job, one should not be surprised at the catastrophic results:
 

Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland rejected the idea of a bilateral trade deal with the U.S. out of “solidarity” with Mexico. That could go down as one of the dumbest moves ever.

** 

Justin Trudeau is still trying to convince people that he’s ‘encouraged’ by the U.S. & Mexico signing a deal without Canada, even though that deal represents the total destruction of any negotiating leverage we may have had left.

** 

While Trudeau was pushing issues like gender and the environment for the trade deal, the U.S. and Mexico were determining what would constitute a domestically made part for a North American made car.

Turns out the deal will move the threshold from 62.5% to 75% North American parts for a car to be a NAFTA made vehicle. Canada was absent for that.

Trump got most of what he wanted from the Mexicans, he played his usual poker diplomacy and is walking away happy. The problem for us is that he is now focused on Canada and we have nothing to counter with.

“If they’d like to negotiate fairly, we’ll do that,” Trump said of Canada on Monday. “They have tariffs of almost 300% on some of our dairy products, we can’t have that, we won’t stand for that.”

Trump then threatened to put tariffs on our automobiles if we won’t budge on dairy.

So far, Trudeau has refused to consider dropping the supply management system that produces the tariffs that have caught Trump’s eye and drive his rage.

That is bizarre when you consider that Canada’s dairy industry and our export/import ratio pale in comparison to autos.

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is signalling that Canada won't be rushed into a bad deal just to meet Donald Trump's Friday deadline for preserving the North American Free Trade Agreement.

(Sidebar: not from where most Canadians who could lose their jobs are standing, you arrogant son-of-a-b!#ch.)

 

Whether or not NAFTA should be saved is irrelevant at this point. That there is no one competent enough to re-negotiate NAFTA or construct a new deal (or deals) in its place is.

While Justin preens for the cell phones for whatever amoebic intellect still touts his political acumen, entire industries could collapse and he wouldn't give a sh--.  He has his dad's money. Everything else is just grass to him.


Also:

In June of 2018, 27% of Canadians said they were “very confident” in the government to handle the negotiations. 43% said they were “moderately confident.” 22% were “not that confident,” and 8% were “not at all confident.”

But in the last month, those numbers have changed dramatically.

Now, just 17% say they are “very confident,” 34% say they are “moderately confident.” 26% are “not that confident,” and the number of people “not at all confident” has surged to 22%.

**

Just one in four of blue-collar workers — 24% — approve of the job Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing, according to a new Harris Poll.

(Sidebar: those who complain now are getting good and hard the government they voted for. I'll bet Harper doesn't sound so bad now.)

To quote -  “Anytime I meet people who got to make the deliberate choice, whose parents chose Canada, I’m jealous,”...

(Sidebar: those immigrants came to Canada, assimilated and worked so that their descendants could be Canadian and enjoy the benefits of the country, you useless mouth-breathing hair-piece. They would not applaud your pandering.)

A government report, one originating from the prime minister’s own department, is calling for government grants to be used to incentivitize small businesses to hire immigrants.

A policy paper called “Feminist Government” calls for small and medium-sized businesses to partner with government to help immigrants get a job using what they call a “Social Impact Bond.”  The idea comes from a division of the Privy Council Office, which reports directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Unlike other job grant programs, this one seeks to have small and medium-sized businesses become social service agencies that work with government in a very complex scheme. The proposal includes using money to make sure immigrants, especially immigrant women, not only get their first job but are promoted, or as the report says, experience “job laddering.”

To quote -  “Why are we still fighting against certain veterans’ groups in court? Because they are asking for more than we are able to give right now,” Trudeau said to some shouts and boos from the crowd.

A convicted murderer is getting his PTSD treatment paid for by Veteran Affairs Canada, despite having never served.

What is it like being in the pockets of a huge monopoly, Tories?:

For decades, one of the most powerful lobby groups in Ottawa has been the Dairy Farmers of Canada. Former finance minister Joe Oliver has even compared their tactics to the famously uncompromising U.S. gun lobby. “We’ll be taking supply management from their cold, dead hands,” Oliver wrote in 2016.

Now, for the first time, a leaked Dairy Farmers of Canada briefing binder provides a unique window into those tactics.

The document, found at the Conservative Party’s national convention in Halifax, was made public over the weekend in a series of social media posts ...

Dairy lobby marketing usually focuses on portraying Canadian dairy producers as just a bunch of humble family farms trying to make a living. The binder reveals an incredibly sophisticated and well-funded political lobbying operation. The Dairy Farmers of Canada delegation included 25 people from across the country. They rented hospitality suites, they arranged sit-down meetings with senior conservatives such as Ed Fast and they hosted a major reception at Halifax’s Old Triangle Irish Alehouse (with free food and drink). The binder includes specific instructions on how dairy representatives can target and approach Conservatives at the reception. “It would be recommended to utilize the farmers present to mingle with delegates and talk about the importance of supply management,” it reads.

Also:

An Angus Reid survey shows that a clear majority of Conservatives support scrapping supply management to get a trade deal with the U.S.

The survey asked the following question: “What should be done with supply management? (If farmers are compensated for losses).”

56% of Conservatives picked “End supply management and trade related restrictions to secure a deal with the U.S.”

23% of Conservatives picked “Stand firm on supply management and trade related restrictions even if it means no deal.”

And 21% said they were “not sure” or “cant’t say” what their response would be.

Well, that's sticking it to the Saudis:

An organization representing Canadian hospitals says hundreds of Saudi Arabian resident physicians will be able to stay in the country to continue their training for now.

Saudi Arabian students had been told they had to leave because of an ongoing diplomatic spat between Canada and the Middle Eastern kingdom that erupted earlier this month.

The president of HealthCareCan says it was told by hospitals and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau that more than 1,000 Saudi Arabian medical residents and fellows received an email on Monday saying they can continue their assignments in Canada until an alternative posting can be arranged.

Emile Cloutier says the news is a relief as the looming departure of the resident physicians would have left health-care gaps in hospitals across the country.

Those "health-care gaps" should be filled by Canadians.

But, no:

These positions should be occupied by Canadian medical graduates.

Many who had to go to Australia, Ireland etc to get a degree as there are a large number of foreign born students occupying these positions.

**

IF the provincial government would allow Canadians to take these positions AND the provincial governments increased the number of positions for medical students THEN Canadians could fill the positions. Otherwise, when the Saudi trainees go home, the positions will disappear. Canada needs doctors ... it’s amazing that more people are not demanding better healthcare, particularly in Quebec.

How could it have all gone wrong?:

The Asquith-Collier Association released its report last week and presented it to the city last Wednesday during an hour-long private meeting.

They’re hoping to get action on what they say is a growing number of fentanyl and other drug use when the 30 beds at the 21 Park Rd. shelter are filled, and the overflow ventures to area parks and the ravine in the neighbourhood.

“Because it’s not a safe injection site, they are defecating, fornicating, shooting up (in public),” said Janet Lambert of the association.

There’s people passed out. There are people experiencing homelessness who are in a crisis. We’ve never seen such an increase in volume. It’s not working.”

Lambert said since the shelter opened, the situation seems to be getting worse without solutions from the city, or an end in sight.

The report indicates community members clean up the needles each week using doggie poop bags.

Pictures show a drug pipe caked in human feces, and an area at Collier St. where communal kids’ toys are kept with used needles discarded nearby. The Rabba store on Park Rd. has seen shelter clients defecating and urinating right outside the entrance.

He did say he wanted to get rid of oil:

A private spat between Alberta and the federal government is becoming a public fight focused on Ottawa's proposed clean fuel standard — a measure aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions with significant economic consequences for many industries, including the oil and gas sector. 

The Alberta government fears the new regulation could harm the province's economy, which is still recovering from a recent recession.

Most Canadians have never heard of the clean fuel standard (CFS) before, but the policy would raise prices for gasoline, diesel, natural gas and other sources of energy. These price rises would be in addition to the increase stemming from the federal carbon tax.

Do as you are damn well told:

Ontario teachers’ unions and the provincial government are at war, again. That’s something we have seen far too often over the last 20-plus years.

This time the fight is ostensibly over the elementary school sex-education curriculum. Teachers’ union leaders are outraged over the temporary reversion to a curriculum last taught in 2014. They are doubly outraged by Premier Doug Ford’s announcement that parents can complain by phone to the Ontario College of Teachers if teachers don’t follow that curriculum. ...

The union leaders seem to be missing a simple concept here. In just about any normal workplace, the boss calls the shots and the employees do the job they are directed to do. Yes, teaching is a profession, but that doesn’t give teachers the right to run the system, any more than a junior lawyer can countermand a senior partner.

When it comes to education, the provincial government sets the rules and approves the curriculum. None of that is new under Ford.

Not to say that there isn’t substance to the criticism of the old sex-ed curriculum that is being brought back while Ford consults with parents. Teachers and their unions can certainly argue that the previous curriculum requires little or no change. What they shouldn’t do is threaten to ignore the government’s directive. Ford’s outrageous and unprecedented snitch line, as the teaching unions would have it, is actually a reaction to those same unions encouraging teachers not to follow the old sex-ed curriculum. Ford’s choice was to crack down or let unions run the system.

It’s about time someone reminded teachers’ unions how the world works. If they are allowed to teach whatever they like when it comes to sex-ed, what will they do about math?

Speaking of which:

Provincial test scores have been declining in the era of discovery math.

It stands to reason that if students aren’t taught such basic mathematical skills as learning the “12 times table” by heart, they will be severely handicapped no matter what careers they pursue once their formal education is completed.

 Vaguely related - unions are Marxist pits of deceit and sloth:

A British Columbia teacher, who applied for a religious exemption from his union, saying membership and paying dues is “irreconcilable with my faith,” has lost an application for appeal of a labour relations board decision, where he argued trade unions are “a major part of the grand Marxist agenda” and that “Marxism is diametrically opposed to Christianity.”

You b@$#@rd:

ON SATURDAY, SOUTH KOREA’S RULING “DEMOCRATIC” PARTY PICKED LEE HAE-CHAN as its new Chairman. Lee, who previously served as Prime Minister under Roh Moo-hyun, promised “unwavering efforts toward … inter-Korean peace.” The Joongang Ilbo calls him “a staunch liberal.” ...

"Politically speaking, one country deeply arguing over a domestic political problem of another country or intervening in it is a diplomatic discourtesy,” Lee said on a PBC radio show. “There is a human rights issue in North Korea. It is true they have it, but it is up to North Korea to deal with it. It’s not something other countries can intervene in.”

This South North Korea:

North Korean defectors in the South feel they are being pressured not to criticise the regime in Pyongyang since the historic talks between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in April.

(Kamsahamnida)




And now, puppies:

A litter of puppies whose mother tucked them into a deep underground hideaway were recovered Monday after a two-hour dig by a team of police officers in rural Manitoba.