Saturday Night Special

I wonder if the Tories want to fail:

It began with a maverick MP throwing a hand grenade into the party he once tried to lead and ended with contentious debates on abortion.

(Sidebar: this maverick MP. Grenade? Really?)

But with Maxime Bernier now recruiting members to his own party, while some "grassroots" Tories continue to push divisive issues into the limelight, concerns have emerged about rifts developing within the Conservative Party of Canada.

Party leader Andrew Scheer says he is not worried.

People who supported Bernier did so because of the ideas he promoted, Scheer says — ideas that are largely the ideology and policies of the Conservative party.

(Sidebar: these ideas.)

 

"When you're talking about free enterprise, when you're talking about unleashing the power of the private sector, getting government less involved in managing the economy and leaving that more and more to free enterprise — those are things our party stands for," he said.

(Sidebar: free enterprise shouldn't include supporting supply management, Andy.)

This is who they are up against:

The Trudeau government is currently fighting Canadian Veterans in court, and we all remember that Justin Trudeau said injured Veterans were asking for “more than we can afford to give.”

By fighting Veterans in court, Justin Trudeau is breaking the promise he made in 2015 to stop doing exactly that, and the Trudeau government is arguing that the government has no inherent covenant or obligation to Veterans.

Yet, when Justin Trudeau talks about illegal border crossers, he all of a sudden starts talking about “obligations.”

Remember what he said when he arrogantly lectured Doug Ford when they met for the first time since the election?

As I wrote in July 2018, “But instead of acknowledging his own role or taking responsibility for his mistakes, Trudeau arrogantly and condescendingly tried to one-up Ford, acting as if he was still a part-time drama teacher explaining something to a student. Trudeau even started talking about “International obligations” and “UN Conventions,” ignoring the fact that protecting the integrity of Canada’s laws and Canada’s borders always takes precedence over what elitist international groups want.”

Also:

A slim majority of Conservative convention delegates voted Saturday against a resolution backed by anti-abortion campaigners while at the same time affirming the party's opposition to using Canadian foreign aid to fund abortion services abroad — a mixed bag result for social conservatives.

This:

766 babies were born alive after late-term abortions in Canada between 2013 and 2018 and presumably left to die. 

F--- you, Tories.


And:

Records show Ohio’s government watchdog declined to investigate allegations of collusion and political manipulation involving the governor and attorney general.

At issue was an investigation Attorney General Mike DeWine launched in 2015 after secretly taped video appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees engaged in potentially illegal fetal tissue sales.

A 2016 anonymous complaint alleged DeWine may have allowed anti-abortion groups to influence the probe. It also suggested findings were “released to coincide” with fellow Republican Gov. John Kasich’s (KAY’-siks) run for president. DeWine and Kasich called the complaint baseless.

The AP reported in May that a Cincinnati anti-abortion activist was in regular contact with DeWine’s office during his investigation and some of her input was shared with state investigators.

Inspector General Randall Meyer never investigated, citing a lack of authority.

In other news ...




What?:

The number of people seeking asylum in Canada is rising “far beyond” what the existing system can handle, according to a recent letter from Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen obtained by the National Post.

“Without changes to improve efficiency and productivity of the asylum process, wait times and backlogs will only continue to grow,” Hussen writes in the Aug. 14 letter, addressed to the Canadian Bar Association. “This situation is not sustainable, nor is it fair to the people who need Canada’s protection.”

The language is unusually strong for Hussen, who speaks often about Canada’s “strict and efficient immigration and border-control system,” including in an op-ed for the Toronto Star last month.

His recent correspondence with Barbara Jo Caruso, chair of the immigration law section of the Canadian Bar Association, highlights a sense of urgency as Hussen considers how to reform the backlogged asylum system. But it gives little insight into what changes the Trudeau government is considering ...

Why, this makes Ahmed look like a total liar, which he is.




Canada is WAAAAAY back:

Both U.S. and Mexican officials have said they are close to reaching a deal on North American Free Trade Agreement, possibly within the next few days, a prospect that NAFTA's third partner, Canada, has only been able to observe from the sidelines.

**

From August 26th to 30th, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will be heading to Europe. She’s visiting Ukraine, France, and Germany.

What makes this especially concerning is that a few days ago, Mexican negotiator Jesus Seade “put a new question mark Wednesday over Canada’s participation in NAFTA talks, suggesting this country will not necessarily join in next week if the U.S. and its southern neighbour finish their own, two-way deal. And Jesus Seade seemed to indicate that any bilateral agreement with the U.S. could cover major trilateral issues — issues of pressing importance to Canadian officials.”

“I don’t see any reason why they have to come after we finish. It’s up to (U.S. Trade Representative Robert) Lighthizer to organize his time,” said Seade.

**

Canada's resource minister said on Wednesday that construction on the Trans Mountain project had faced a delay, but he did not provide an update on when the expansion of the oil pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia's coast would be complete.

The Canadian government agreed in May to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd for C$4.5 billion ($3.5 billion), in an effort to ensure its expansion went ahead. It is currently scheduled to be in service by December 2020.

"Yes, there's a delay because of - the construction was stopped for a couple of months, but this is a project that is moving forward and will continue to move forward until it's done," Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters outside a Cabinet meeting in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

But ... but ... sports-shooters!:

Toronto's spate of gun violence continued on Wednesday with two people fatally shot in less than 24 hours.

The incidents came one month to the day after a deadly shooting rampage that shattered the peace of the city's bustling Greektown neighbourhood and turned up the volume on conversations about a perceived firearm problem on city streets.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said the latest shootings highlighted the need for a ban on handguns in the city, something local politicians have been calling for since last month's shooting spree.

That's nothing to be proud of, @$$hole:

A local musician has come forward and claimed responsibility for defacing Victoria Park’s statue of John A. Macdonald not only this week but once before.

Patrick Johnson contacted the Leader-Post on Wednesday and insisted it was he who, one day earlier, sprayed red paint on the statue’s hands  — symbolizing blood on the hands of the controversial father of Confederation, and also considered the architect of Indian residential schools. A pool of red also dripped onto the pedestal. All traces of the paint have since been removed by city workers.

Also:

Police say they’re investigating the theft of a Virgin Mary statue from a Hamilton school.

Investigators say the statue was taken from Annunciation of our Lord Catholic Elementary School earlier this week.

It had been on display in a garden area that was surrounded by fencing and a locked gate.

Every single parent should on teachers like white on rice. If they are not, they clearly have never heard of Ben Levin:

Teachers who use a now-repealed sex-education curriculum when students return to school next month will face consequences, Ontario Premier Doug Ford warned on Wednesday as he invited parents to anonymously report their concerns about education to his government using a website critics dubbed a "snitch line."

If using a sex ed program devised by a convicted child pornographer, especially to fry the new premier, is all that teachers care about, having national referenda on abolishing teachers' unions must happen.




It's called manners:

The mother of a 10-year-old boy in North Carolina is outraged that her son was recently punished for calling his fifth grade teacher "ma’am.”

“I was in disbelief,” Teretha Wilson, the boy’s mother, told Fox News on Saturday.

I keep saying that we should abolish teachers' unions.




Why whatever remains of ISIS should be vapourised:

At least 16 children are among nearly 30 civilians kidnapped by Islamic State militants in southern Syria a month ago and are being used as a “bargaining chip” in negotiations with the Syrian government and its ally Russia, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

When the South Koreans send someone to jail, they don't mess around:

Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s impeached and ousted president, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison, as an appeals court convicted her of collecting more bribes than previously believed from Samsung, the country’s largest business conglomerate.

 But ... but ... Trump went to Singapore and everything!:

Trump wrote, "I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Additionally, because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were."

This North Korea:

One stood out for me. There’s a photograph of a South Korean, a 99-year-old mother pounding on the window of the bus as it takes her from her children. The Daily Mail wrote the caption: “Han Shin-ja moved her lips to say ‘don’t cry’ as her children, both in their 70s, sobbed and chased the moving vehicle before being stopped by North Korean officials.” This was Lear carrying Cordelia for our time: that terrible scene which overwhelmed the great Samuel Johnson every time he came upon it.

It is the last time mother and daughters will ever meet. These limited reunions, which have sporadically, and with much more restricted publicity, been occurring since 2000, have one implacable feature: No one has a second chance to see their relatives. Should one wish a recipe for torment and joy in a single moment, here it is.