Saturday Post

 

 
That someone has to plead or force a government to be revolted by the murder of an eight year old means that the battle has already been lost:

Rodney Stafford has a message for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: "God bless and I pray for you to do the right thing, which is to ensure this justice is reversed and a child killer is returned to prison to finish her sentence behind bars!"

(Sidebar: silly man! Justin doesn't believe in God!)

**

After hammering the government for days, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer plans to force a vote next week on a motion condemning the transfer of convicted murderer Terri-Lynne McClintic to an Aboriginal healing lodge, and demanding the decision be reversed.

(Sidebar: one could argue for an independent judiciary and against race-based sentencing and spas for killers but I digress ...)


Also:

Aboriginal healing lodges are a response to the disproportionate number of Indigenous people behind bars and an attempt to address concerns that “mainstream prison programs do not work for Aboriginal offenders,” according to information from CSC’s website. They use a “holistic and spiritual” approach, including “guidance and support from Elders and Aboriginal communities.”

But research into their effectiveness has shown mixed results. A 2013 government backgrounder claims that the recidivism rate for offenders who’d completed programs at three Aboriginal healing lodges was six per cent, less than the national rate of 11 per cent. But a 2001 government analysis reported a 19 per cent rate of recidivism for healing lodge residents, compared to 13 per cent for Indigenous offenders released from minimum-security facilities.

And:

Justin Trudeau thinks convicted terrorists deserve to keep Canadian citizenship.


His government refuses to fight against the transfer of child-killer Terri-Lynne McClintic to minimum-security ‘healing lodge.’

Trudeau has called returning ISIS terrorists a “powerful voice for change,” while his government lets them return.



Every chance they get, the Trudeau government sides with criminals, and goes against the vast majority of law-abiding Canadians – even demonizing law-abiding Canadian gun owners who haven’t broken any laws.

 
Why complain that an ice-woman murdered elderly patients and then allow euthanasia? Why bother?:

A lawyer for one of the families impacted told of a frail man fighting Wettlaufer off as she administered lethal injections. It’s an obscene image, but the underlying obscenity is far more grave: That we accept that this, when it comes to care, is the best we can offer.

But isn't a citizen always a citizen?:

The House of Commons passed a unanimous motion Thursday to revoke honorary citizenship from Aung San Suu Kyi over her unwillingness to condemn the genocide Myanmar’s military is carrying out against that country’s Muslim minority.

Also - sorry, dear, but you are simply not Justin's sort of immigrant:

El Shafie wants the Canadian government to take in more Yazidi refugees.

The federal government pledged to resettle 1,200 ISIS survivors in Canada by the end of 2017, with an emphasis on Yazidi families.

It missed that target, bringing in only 981 ISIS survivors last year. Eighty-one per cent were Yazidi.

"I would like, first of all, for [the Canadian government] to keep their promises," El Shafie said.

"Secondly, I would like to see them increasing this number to 4,000."

There is a reason why splitting the vote can be disastrous.

Cases in point:

New Brunswick's right-leaning People's Alliance has agreed to prop up a Tory minority government, but the Liberal premier is urging skeptical Progressive Conservative legislators to rebel against "the deal" — and keep his party in power.

One can make many sound arguments why the Tories do not represent the interests of many voters just as one can make many sound arguments that eventually these parties evolve into the things they wished to avoid. Nevertheless, united fronts win elections.

So there's that.

**

Six years and two elections later, the CAQ and the Liberal Party, which has held power for all but 18 months of the last 15 years, are in a virtual tie in the polls. Legault’s likelihood of victory on Oct. 1 lies in his party’s ability to harvest the collective goodwill of Quebec’s Francophones outside Montreal and its immediate suburbs. Until the advent of the CAQ, this great swath of territory was, with a few exceptions, relatively fertile ground for the separatist Parti Québécois.

The silver lining of this insufferable parochialism is that a loss for the Liberals this October may mean a loss for the Liberals next October.



 It's just money:

The Liberal government's 2016 tax hike on Canada's top one per cent not only failed to yield the promised billions, but resulted in a net revenue loss for government coffers, according to a new report released by the C.D. Howe Institute.

**

At some point in the next 20 to 30 years, on current trends, one or more of the provinces is likely to default on its debts. That is the inescapable message in the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest annual “Fiscal Sustainability” report.

Priorities:

This week, Trudeau is in New York for the annual love-in of the world’s despots, dictators, and a handful of Western liberal democratically-elected leaders — also known as the United Nations General Assembly.

Trudeau has his heart set on further roping Canada into this world of wasteful make-believe, where we all pretend that the UN has real legitimacy or exists beyond the purpose of stroking the egos of the madmen who run the world’s most regressive regimes.

(Sidebar: regimes like this.)


This UN:

India’s foreign minister accused neighbouring Pakistan of harbouring terrorists in an angry speech Saturday before the U.N. General Assembly, and rejected the notion that India is sabotaging peace talks with Pakistan, calling it “a complete lie.”

**

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong ho told the United Nations on Saturday that continued sanctions on Pyongyang were deepening its mistrust in the United States.

This United States:

In the latest twist in Donald Trump’s shifting strategy on North Korea, the U.S. president on Wednesday backed off a set timetable for Pyongyang to denuclearize, ahead of a planned visit next month to the North Korean capital by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Why are are we still funding this?

Mid-Week Post

Your intermission of the work-week ....




Was it something he said?:

U.S. President Donald Trump says he rejected a request for a one-on-one NAFTA meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week because Canada's tariffs are too high and the country's trade negotiators have refused to budge.

Trump made the comments late Wednesday as part of a free-wheeling news conference at the end of the United Nations General Assembly.

"Yeah, I did," Trump said when asked whether he rejected a meeting with Trudeau on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"His tariffs are too high and he doesn't seem to want to move. And I've told him, forget about it."

The U.S. president and Canadian prime minister attended the same luncheon at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, but it was hardly a warm encounter. The two mingled near each other but didn’t speak before Trump sat down for lunch. Trudeau then approached Trump, standing behind him without the president appearing to acknowledge him. Trudeau tapped him on the shoulder and the men shook hands in a brief exchange. Trump didn’t stand up.

HA!

Canada is certainly way back.

There is no reason for Trump even to acknowledge Justin. Justin has never commanded respect or  pretended that he was in any way a competent leader of note. Even turning to look at him is a waste of time.


Also:

The news for Canada on renegotiation of the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been bleak, but there is one aspect that bodes well for future and potentially more difficult, trade negotiations: the quiet death of the Trudeau government’s so-called progressive trade strategy.

At the start of the NAFTA renegotiation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted that the inclusion of progressive elements such as new chapters on Indigenous and gender issues was essential to the agreement, going so far as to say that it was not a frill but a practical necessity.

Yet, in the closing act of the NAFTA negotiations, reality has overtaken rhetoric. The progressive agenda has disappeared from the negotiations as well as the public debate around it — with, it appears, no discernible impact on Canadians’ feelings toward the pact or negotiations. Practical dollars-and-cents, saving-or-losing-jobs issues have crowded out non-critical issues. Progressive trade obviously has not made that cut.

But ... but ... principles!

Knowing full well that a dead NAFTA deal would kill crucial votes, Justin - or at least his handlers - probably thought that the window-dressing that was "gender" could go quietly. Justin can pretend that he fought like a lion later on.

HA! Fought ...


And:

You might not think the Trudeau government’s desperate efforts to win Canada a seat on the United Nations security council, the current stall in NAFTA negotiations and Trans Mountain pipeline construction, our I-hate-my-job governor general and a proposed handgun ban were all related. But they are.

They are all (along with many, many other issues) examples of the Trudeau Liberals’ obsession with symbolism over substance.

The current federal government not only favours platitudes over policy, it can’t tell the difference between the two. It confuses articulation with achievement. By simply expressing its outrage/empathy/understanding, this government believes it is offering solutions.

Because idiots like the Liberals were voted in by equally unserious people who will eventually learn that things like oil are very serious matters indeed.




If one would recall:

“He said, ’Get the bleep out of the way,”’ Ramsey said in the House. An NDP source who spoke to Ramsey afterwards confirmed the MP had heard Trudeau say “get the f— out of my way.”

Brosseau said she was shocked by the encounter.

“I was standing in the centre talking to some colleagues,” Brosseau told the House after calm was restored. “I was elbowed in the chest by the prime minister and then I had to leave.

This:

As grisly details of the rape and death of eight-year-old Tori Stafford were being recounted by a Conservative MP during question period Wednesday, some MPs reacted with gasps of revulsion.

But it wasn't the specifics of the crime that upset members of Parliament. Rather it was the fact these details were being shared in the House of Commons that made politicians and others watching the debate recoil.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted by pleading with the Opposition Conservatives for more decorum.

"I would ask them, please do not continue to increase the level of graphic detail read into the official record here," he said.

"This is not the way this house should be engaging."

But that IS how the House of Commons should be debating.

Just as abortion is a canned hunt that pulls of limbs and collapses skulls and that Yazidi rape victims are being ignored when they identify their ISIS rapists, everyone in the House of Commons should be reminded of how Terri-Lynne McClintock lured eight year old Victoria Stafford from her school from where she was driven to a field, raped and beaten to death with a claw hammer. These are important details in considering how utterly morally decrepit and delusional the legal system in Canada is. Why would a Stone Age culture build spas for women who lure children into fields and watch as they are brutalised and killed? What allegedly progressive system would allow a multi-tiered legal system based on race and allow such a woman to be freed in this way?

Justin, as usual, doesn't want to talk about the big issues.

Pansy ...




Seamus O'Regan is a despicable person:

On Tuesday the minister released a statement that will change how his department deals with cases in the future but he will not revoke Garnier’s benefits.

“Going forward, treatment benefits will not be provided to a veteran’s family member who is incarcerated in a provincial or federal facility,” O’Regan said.

The key phrase here, “going forward.”

It is such a perfect political phrase, one devoid of meaning for most of us but so useful for the politician.

He won’t fix the problem now but will in the future.

“I have reviewed the department’s findings on this issue, and I am directing them to ensure the services received by a family member of a veteran are related to the veteran’s service and where they are not, that the case be reviewed by a senior official,” O’Regan said.

Yes, pass that buck, Seamus.




Sobriety? Nope:

Uncertainty over the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is be enough to drive any politician to drink, but Alberta’s politicians are hoping for a bit of sobriety in a planned federal overhaul of resource project reviews.

Headed to the Senate this fall, the federal Liberals’ Bill C-69 has been a subject of endless scorn in Alberta politics — especially amid the controversy surrounding Trans Mountain — over fears it will sink future energy projects.

On Tuesday, both NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Jason Kenney, leader of the opposition United Conservatives, pointed to the potential for reform via the red chamber. Given the Senate’s tendency not to adhere blindly to the Liberal government’s agenda, they hope it will provide a way for Alberta politicians to lobby for the changes they want.

Jacking up the minimum wage while also jacking up costs and taxes was a surefire way to keep youth unemployment high and the existence of stable small businesses low:

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government said it will halt a planned increase to minimum wage that was scheduled to kick in next year, following up on a promise made during the spring election campaign.

Labour Minister Laurie Scott said Wednesday the minimum wage will remain at $14 an hour rather than rising to $15 as planned by the previous Liberal government.

The minister would not say whether the minimum wage would eventually go up, saying only that the government was conducting consultations on the issue.

Ontario’s minimum wage increased from $11.60 to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, drawing complaints from businesses and prompting some to raise prices and cut staff hours and employee benefits.

“The increase of 20 per cent this year was a lot for businesses to absorb so we’re putting a pause on the minimum wage,” Scott said.

It's like people want to go extinct:

Canada has one of the lowest child vaccination rates in the developed world. With about one tenth of Canadian children now going unvaccinated, this means that up to 750,000 young Canadians have no immunity whatsoever against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles.

What the South Koreans don't know won't hurt them ... yet:

Even before they came to power, Moon and his allies used defamation suits to suppress debate about their history of anti-anti-North Korean, pro-North Korean, and anti-American views. Now, although North Korea is as totalitarian as ever, the South’s freedoms of speech and press are under an accelerating attack of censorship to silence the ruling party’s political opponents, North Korean defectors, and critics of Pyongyang’s human rights abuses.

This North Korea:

There are two operating reactors at Yongbyon, a 2 MW research reactor that the North received from the Soviet Union in 1965 and a 5 MW graphite reactor that began operations in 1986. 

The 5 MW graphite reactor is reportedly capable of producing 5 to 7 kg of plutonium per year. The regime started building a 50 MWe graphite reactor capable of producing 55 kg of plutonium per year, but stopped construction in 1994.

Afterwards, it built a 100 MWt light-water research reactor, which is expected to start running soon. The new reactor is believed to be capable of producing 10 to 15 kg of plutonium annually.

A radiochemical laboratory that opened in 1989 extracts plutonium by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from the 5 MWe reactor. It can reprocess 500 kg of spent nuclear fuel per day. 

A nuclear fuel processing plant that began operating in 1987 is supposed to produce nuclear fuel for the 5 MWe reactor, using natural uranium. The plant is presumed to be superannuated now.

The regime has continued running these nuclear facilities at Yongbyon despite a flurry of diplomatic activities this year and vague promises to the U.S. and South Korea to denuclearize.

(Merci beaucoup and kamsahamnida)

For a Tuesday

In short order, the Liberals did not win last night's election:

Voters in New Brunswick have turned have their backs on the province's entrenched two-party system for the first time in a generation, electing enough third party candidates to leave the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives in a virtual dead heat in a minority legislature.

Four hours after the polls closed Monday, the Tories had won 22 seats, the incumbent Liberals had 21, the right-of-centre People's Alliance had three and the Greens three. The NDP was shut out of the race.

A total of 25 seats is needed for a majority in the 49-seat house, which means the third parties were poised to play a key role in deciding who governs the province: incumbent Liberal Brian Gallant, who is seeking a second term in office, or Progressive Conservative Blaine Higgs.

Nevertheless, the Liberals will rule until a no-confidence motion brings them down because elections are ridiculous in Canada.




Members of Parliament wouldn't have to cross the floor if a clueless frat boy wasn't handed his dad's job:

Whatever an MP owes his party, it is difficult to see why he should be so utterly subservient to his leader. Again, the reasoning is circular: elections, it is true, do turn on perceptions of the leader, beside whom individual MPs do indeed appear insignificant. But nothing says they must be so insignificant. They appear so because we have allowed their role to shrink so far, relative to the leader’s. Expand their role — for example, by removing the leader’s power to expel them — and the logic is reversed.

Justin behaved as his father did - as an arrogant narcissist who demanded unrealistic things from his inner circle.

Why these floor-crossings (whatever the motive) did not happen sooner beggars the imagination.




She wasn't brought on because she looked forward to performing any state function, rather like the frat boy running his dad's party:

Payette called senior officials within the government, sources said, upset over the expectation she rearrange her schedule to accommodate the ceremony and questioning whether she actually had to be there. Could a Supreme Court justice preside instead? Ultimately, sources told the Post, it took conversations with officials all the way up to Canada’s top civil servant, Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, to convince Payette to carry out one of her single biggest responsibilities. After considerable uncertainty, Payette signed Bill C-45 into law on the morning of June 21.

The panic over June’s royal assent ceremony is just one example of what sources have described as a year of extraordinary tension between the federal government, Rideau Hall and the organizations that work closely with it. ...

Many members of the tight-knit community that operates in and around Rideau Hall told the Post they have grown frustrated with a governor general who constantly challenges tradition and has substantially reduced the workload of her office. However, most believe the blame lies with the Prime Minister’s Office, for abandoning the advice of vice-regal experts and choosing a star candidate without ensuring she would be a good fit for the job.

(Sidebar: why does that sound familiar?)




It's just money:

If Canadian companies don't start investing more in the developing world, Chinese state-backed firms will see their influence grow, Canada's UN ambassador said ahead of speech by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the UN General Assembly on Monday. 

(Sidebar: this speech. It puts the "laughter" at Trump in perspective. You're not getting that seat, Justin.)

**

So now we know, conclusively, that the 15-year Liberal government in Ontario, led by Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty, didn’t have a revenue problem.

It had a spending problem.

This was clearly explained in a report by auditors EY Canada, released by Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy on Tuesday, fulfilling Premier Doug Ford’s election promise to conduct a line-by-line audit of Liberal spending.

The audit’s key finding, explaining why Ontario after 15 years of Liberal rule “has the highest subnational debt of any jurisdiction in the world”, as the Progressive Conservatives described it, is this:

“Expressed in today’s dollars, total operating expenditures have risen 55% or $46.4 billion, at a compound annual rate of 3.0% … and over the 15 years examined, outpaced Ontario population growth by 1.9%.

“Had expenditures increased in line with population growth, 2017-18 expenditures would have been $31.9 billion less, and in total, would have been $331 billion lower over 15 years.

“Provincial debt over that same period almost doubled, increasing 87% or $158 billion (in today’s dollars) to $338 billion, and annual interest on debt charges grew $2.4 billion (in today’s dollars) to $12.6 billion per annum in 2017-18.  Interest on debt is Ontario’s 4th largest expenditure.”

Also:

China's state-run media outlets sounded a confident tone in Monday editorials and warned that U.S. trade pressure against the country would not only strain bilateral relations between the two nations but could negatively affect the American economy and wider global markets. ...

"China is doing what it should. China is honest and principled and a major trade power with intensive strengths. No one can take us down," it said.

Except ...

Speaking of India:

Alberta’s NDP caucus has asked the ethics commissioner to look into opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s trip last week to India.

During the trip, Kenney, his energy critic Prasad Panda, and trade critic Devin Dreeshen toured the massive Jamnagar oil refinery on India’s west coast.

Kenney has since talked about the refinery, owned by Reliance Industries, and the owner company’s interest in doing business with Canada.

 
Good. It will still be less than what Justin spent and would prove more productive.




Well, duh:

A veteran NDP MP used the most unparliamentary language to blast the Liberal government's push to complete the Trans Mountain expansion project despite concerns from many Indigenous groups.

"Why doesn't the prime minister just say the truth and tell Indigenous Peoples that he doesn't give a fuck about their rights?" Romeo Saganash asked in question period Tuesday, stunning the House of Commons.

** 

The Trudeau government has said more than once it's committed to respecting First Nations' interests in the push to get the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion built — but that doesn't mean saying yes to every request from Indigenous communities, says Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

Isn't this Justin's job?:

Ralph Goodale toured the Ontario community of Dunrobin, west of Ottawa, where locals are still reeling after a powerful tornado ripped through the town. He said some of the modern homes hit hardest in the area looked like they had gone "through a grinder."

Environment Canada says six tornadoes swept across the Ottawa area and through the neighbouring Quebec region on Friday — levelling homes and knocking out power grids along their way.

Conrad Sauve, the president of the Canadian Red Cross, said Tuesday that more than 1,500 people in Quebec and Ontario had registered with the organization. He said the Red Cross had provided shelter to over 600 residents, primarily in the Quebec city of Gatineau.

Goodale said the federal government has not provided financial assistance because the first portion of response and recovery costs are covered by the provinces. But Ottawa will step up if the price tag reaches a certain level, he said.

You can say that again:

After a massive backlash, the Trudeau government announced that they would no longer allow Veterans Affairs to cover the medical treatments of Veteran’s family members who never served if those individuals are in prison.

And yet, that decision outrageously won’t apply to the the case of Christopher Garnier, who killed a police officer, never served in the military – and got his PTSD treatment covered by Veterans Affairs.

On Twitter, Michelle Rempel ripped the government for refusing to rescind the payments to Garnier:

“You’ve known about this for weeks, Seamus. What you should have done is immediately ask your officials to revoke his benefits, and change the policy (which is in your purview as Minister) so that this never happens again. There, was that so hard? Give your head a shake.”

Virtue-signalling doesn't need proof:

As economist E. Frank Stephenson writes in a book chapter published this year by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, plastic bags consume far less energy, generate far less solid waste, and produce much less atmospheric emissions than paper grocery bags, a likely alternative.

Banning disposable plastic bags would also mean more people buying the thicker, heavier plastic garbage bags, which are worse for the environment because they use more plastic. Cloth bags and reusable plastic tote sacks must be used many times before they are more carbon efficient than the plastic grocery bags.

Also - but ... but ... the environment!:

Nets like his are widely considered a magic bullet against malaria — one of the cheapest and most effective ways to stop a disease that kills at least half a million Africans each year. But Mr. Ndefi and countless others are not using their mosquito nets as global health experts have intended.

Nobody in his hut, including his seven children, sleeps under a net at night. Instead, Mr. Ndefi has taken his family’s supply of anti-malaria nets and sewn them together into a gigantic sieve that he uses to drag the bottom of the swamp ponds, sweeping up all sorts of life: baby catfish, banded tilapia, tiny mouthbrooders, orange fish eggs, water bugs and the occasional green frog.

(SEE ALSO: virtue-signalling, proof)

 
Well, that solves a few problems:

Confusion over the number of irregular migrants that have been removed from Canada led to an apology Monday from Border Security Minister Bill Blair — and attracted fresh calls from Opposition MPs for more action to address ongoing border woes.

Over the weekend, Blair created a hornet's nest of criticism when he told Global News in an interview that the "overwhelming majority" of asylum seekers who have crossed irregularly into Canada over the last 21 months have left the country.

But the government's own numbers tell a different story.

Newly released figures show Canadian officials have removed only a handful of the hundreds of irregular migrants who arrived in Canada while they were already facing deportation orders from the United States.

The numbers, tabled recently in the House of Commons, show nearly 900 irregular migrants intercepted by the Mounties in Canada since April 2017 were already under removal orders issued by American authorities.

As of late June, only six of these people had been removed from Canada.

Remember - Justin and his Liberal friends refused to call what was happening to the Yazidis genocide:

A Rohingya refugee living in an overcrowded camp in Bangladesh is heaping "heartfelt thanks" on Canada for declaring the Myanmar military's actions against his people a genocide.

That's the Canadian legal system for you:

A horrifying refresher — fair warning — for those who need it: April 8, 2009, was the first day eight-year-old Tori Stafford was allowed to walk home by herself from Oliver Stephens School in Woodstock, Ont. She never made it. McClintic, then 18, struck up a conversation as school let out, then lured her into her 28-year-old boyfriend Michael Rafferty’s car with the promise of seeing a puppy.

There was no puppy, needless to say. McClintic tried to keep Tori calm while the couple bought drugs, then garbage bags and a claw hammer. “I said I’d make sure she got home, that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her,” McClintic said at Rafferty’s trial in 2012.

Instead she stood by in a field while Rafferty raped Tori, guarding her during a break in the horror while she relieved herself — McClintic told the court she saw “blood in the snow.” Then she beat, kicked and claw-hammered Tori to death. Tori’s body wasn’t found for more than two months.

McClintic pleaded guilty to first degree murder in 2010, making her ineligible for parole for 25 years. 

Rafferty was found guilty two years later and sentenced to the same.

In the eight years since, McClintic has earned no rewards for good behaviour. In 2012 she pleaded guilty to assaulting fellow inmate Aimee McIntyre, with whom she had requested to work in a peer-support program.

“Trying to get some shots through her arms, finally I brought my foot up tried stompin’ on her face a couple times,” McClintic wrote to a friend, describing the assault. (She affixed a smiley face to the aforementioned sentence.) “Point made, statement just not as loud as I would have liked it to be.” McClintic lamented she could have done more damage to McIntyre in a larger room.

“The focal point (of Okimaw Ohci) is the spiritual lodge where teachings, ceremonies and workshops with elders take place,” the Correctional Service Canada website reads. “The women learn how to live independently by cooking, doing laundry, cleaning and doing outdoor maintenance chores.”

Aboriginal people, how would you feel if some heartless b!#ch murdered your children and was then placed in a resort who philosophy is entirely based on fiction?




The terminally clueless have no quarter to give:

More than two dozen Queen's University students and their supporters gathered Monday evening to protest against a professor they say has been inviting speakers who promote discriminatory views.

The rally took place outside the Queen's Law building to draw attention to Lindsay Shepherd, a graduate student and former teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University, who was speaking at an event inside the building with Queen's law professor Bruce Pardy.

Shepherd made headlines last year when she was reprimanded by Laurier faculty members after playing video clips of Jordan Peterson, that showed a debate over gender pronouns in class.

Shepherd recorded her conversation with Laurier officials, and that recording was made public. The incident ignited a debate around freedom of speech and whether university educators should be limited in what controversial subject material they introduce into their classrooms. ...

In response to the protesters at Queen's, Shepherd told Global News she was confused about the subject of the protest, since she was invited to Queen's to talk about other subjects.

"This was about free speech, and the Laurier situation, no white supremacy was involved in that," said Shepherd. "I guess they're talking about how I'm white. I kind of looked at it just like a comedic event."

I'll say.

Lindsay Shepherd could stroll on Queen's grounds for a cinnamon roll at the cafeteria and the perpetually clueless about why they're angry would still have a sign ready.

They are caricatures of themselves.





A deal with the Devil only benefits him:

The Vatican announced Saturday it had reached an historic accord with China on the appointment of bishops in the Communist country which has so far named its own officials to a sole Beijing-recognised Catholic church.

On the tail-end of Chuseok, the Cambodian festival of the dead:

Cambodians threw rice on the ground on Tuesday to mark the 'Festival of the Dead' or Pchum Ben and feed the spirits of the dead.

Cambodians visit pagodas across the country during the 15-day festival that takes place annually to offer prayers and food to the spirits of their deceased relatives, who they believe only emerge to eat the food during this period.

At Tuol Tumpoung pagoda in the capital Phnom Penh, hundreds of people crowded the temple complex to offer food and money to Buddhist monks to the backdrop of chanting.

Friday Post

Aaahhh, the week-end ...




Of course, he was. Of course:

The man who went on a deadly shooting rampage before killing himself in Toronto's Greektown this summer was an emotionally disturbed loner and did not appear to act out of any particular ideological motivation, police documents released on Thursday indicate.

Yes, about that:

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. There is no indication that Hussain was directed by ISIS to carry out the attack.

It's strange how the police missed that (may have?), just as they missed his brother's enormous gun and drugs collection.




Perhaps Justin's handlers should remind him that as a public servant, he doesn't have the right to refuse to answer a question regarding a criminal's receiving benefits:

In Question Period, he was asked about the outrageous situation in which a man convicted of murder – and who never served in the Canadian military in any capacity whatsoever – is having his PTSD treatment paid for by Veterans Affairs Canada.

As a Conservative MP pointed out in his question, if a Canadian soldier had been convicted of the same crime and had been discharged from the military, they wouldn’t have any of their treatment paid for by VAC.

Canadians want answers on this outrage, but when he was asked, Justin Trudeau outright refused to answer the question ...

That's dad's arrogance for you.

Also - more arrogance - and weakness:

In a revelation that is outrageous, yet not surprising, it turns out that Canada Summer Jobs applications are much more likely to be rejected in Conservative ridings than in ridings held by the Liberals.

Conservative MP Karen Vecchio had pushed for the information to be made public, and the results are undeniable.

In Conservative ridings, there was an average of 6.5 Canada Summer Jobs application rejections.

In Liberal ridings, there were 4.1 rejections on average.

That is far too large of a gap for it to be random chance.

According to the data, four out of the top 5 ridings with the most rejected applications are represented by Conservatives. Provencher, Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembrooke, Langley-Aldergrove, and Niagara West.

**

In a clear example of weakness, the Trudeau government has made the first move to try and ‘repair’ Canada-Saudi ties, asking the Saudis for a meeting at the United Nations.

It's just money:

Ontario’s finance minister said the province will have to make sacrifices as it grapples with a newly revised $15-billion deficit, a message critics predicted would pave the way for significant cuts to government services.

In a speech to the Economic Club in Toronto on Friday, Vic Fedeli said the province had chosen to adopt the accounting practices used by the auditor general in reviewing the recently defeated Liberal government’s budget and projections.

As a result of the adjustment, an independent commission concluded the Liberals ran a $3.7 billion deficit in the last fiscal year rather than balancing the books as claimed, Fedeli said.

The commission also found the Liberals had overestimated their revenues for this fiscal year, reduced a reserve fund by $300 million and claimed $1.4 billion in cost-cutting measures that weren’t spelled out.

But ... but ... budgets balance themselves!:

The tax on high income earners did not produce the $3 billion promised. Instead that tax category, the much-abused one per cent (most of whom got there by hard work and constructive astuteness, and not as most politicians endlessly imply, by being sociophobic exploiters, greedy speculator, and tax cheats), generated $4.6 billion less in federal taxes in 2016 than in 2015 and about 90 per cent of the decline is claimed by finance ministry sources to come from Alberta. In 2016, more than 30,000 fewer Canadians were in the earlier highest tax bracket, which began at $140,000. It always seems to come as a merciless surprise to politicians on the left, even the soft left, that most people consider that they have earned their incomes, that it is theirs as much as their private property is, and that governments do not have an unlimited, unchallengeable or unaccountable right to gouge an individual’s earned income.

**

“Using energy-consumption data from Statistics Canada, and imputing prices from average household expenditure on transportation fuels and provincial gasoline prices, Winter calculated the impact of the carbon tax on a typical Canadian household across different provinces. Far from being painless as advertised, the costs to households will be significant.”

The cost in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia will be $1,111, $1,032, and 1,120 respectively for the average household.

In New Brunswick, Newfoundland, PEI and Ontario, the cost will be $963, $859, $788, and $707.

The lowest costs will still hit families with a huge tax increase, $683 in Manitoba, $662 in Quebec, and $603 in BC.”

Also:

It is an amazing thing how often politicians elected to serve a particular jurisdiction — could be municipal or provincial — set themselves these grand glorious and green global agendas. “Sorry. Can’t fix the potholes, clear the drains before a storm, unlock the traffic snarling every street and expressway or get the streetcars here on time — but, hey, we’re banning plastic straws and grocery bags and we’re going solar on the billboards.” If you can’t run the city, leave the planet saving for another day. If you’ve got to send out government money to private citizens to allow them to pay their power bills because your policies are the very ones that drove power bills to a level they cannot pay, then reconsider the delusion that global warming is what you were elected to fix.

Ontario’s Green Energy Act was a horror for business, a gross invasion of municipal authority, and sent successive auditors general to whatever is the chartered accountants version of a hospice centre. It had some glorious moments. Following the politically motivated billion-dollar cancellation of the Oakville gas plant — a plant necessitated by the Green Energy fiat that shut down all coal power — and the destruction by Liberal staffers of the very emails in the premier’s office that might have illuminated this billion-dollar waste, Mr. McGuinty, at one hearing offered this immortal rationalization: “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

It would be incredibly funny if the CAQ sweeps the October 1st election:

As high-intensity trade talks ended in Washington Thursday without a breakthrough, speculation mounted that Canada will wait until after Quebec’s Oct. 1 election to strike a deal, hoping to lessen the political fallout from potential concessions around the dairy industry.

Not that the CAQ is willing to shoot its cash-cow (no pun intended) but it's not as co-operative with Justin or Chrystia as the flagging Liberals are.




Alright, little numbskulls, when your math scores plummet again, walk out for that, too:

Students at more than a hundred schools across Ontario pledged to walk out of class on Friday to show the provincial government they disagree with its decision to repeal a modernized version of the sex-ed curriculum.

The walkouts — called “We the students do not consent” — are set to take place in schools from Niagara Falls to Ottawa. The protests also aim to voice opposition to the cancellation of curriculum writing sessions designed to fulfil findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

You can't ever make a deal with the devil:

Also:

Can it be just a coincidence that governments that fetter their economies in the name of social justice generally end up with more corruption and a class of elites enriching themselves on political connections while all others are left to fend for themselves? In this light, is it not a tragedy that a pope whose heart belongs to the poor reserves all his moral outrage for the one economic system that has already lifted billions of desperate people out of poverty? 

Might not some papal outrage be directed at governments and leaders who, in the name of workers and justice, intervene in the economy in ways that make everyday life more costly, crush opportunity and cheat the have-nots of a future of hope and dignity?

 

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week jolt ...




That sound you hear is the gravy train grinding to a halt:

The legal victory for the Progressive Conservative government means city staff can immediately focus on planning for an election using 25 wards and abandon the 47-ward model that was revived by the lower court’s decision.

It also means the government won’t have to immediately move forward with reintroduced council-cutting legislation that invoked a constitutional provision known as the notwithstanding clause to override the lower court ruling.

I'll just leave this here:

The three-member panel, led by Associate Chief Justice Alexandra Hoy, said Belobaba’s interpretation “appears to stretch both the wording and purpose” of the free speech section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and “blurs the demarcation” between it and the section which separately guarantees the democratic rights of citizens to vote and stand for office.

 
Also - realising that he is paid to represent Ontario and its citizens' interests, Premier Doug Ford heads to Washington to potentially fix what Justin won't:

As Ontario Premier Doug Ford heads to Washington, he is warning the federal government not to give ground on measures protecting the agriculture sector during talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.  

Ford is due to meet Canada's NAFTA negotiators in the U.S. capital on Wednesday to be briefed on the status of the talks. It's his first trip to Washington since becoming premier in June. 

Ford is making the trip to meet federal officials and "make the case that any NAFTA deal must protect Ontario jobs in both auto and agriculture sectors," he said in a speech to hundreds of farmers on Tuesday.

It would be hilarious if Doug Ford and other premier succeeded in finalising workable trade deals with the US, thus making Justin look like a bigger jackanapes than when he went to India.




Speaking of which:

Documents tabled in the House of Commons Monday reveal that the nine-day trip cost Canadian taxpayers $1.66 million — roughly 10 per cent higher than the $1.5 million the government reported in June.

Take this out of his pension. Why not? Especially for this:

According to a recent report, “Canadian veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are out of luck if they expect the government to help them find a service dog anytime soon. 

That’s because the Department of Veteran Affairs (VAC) continues to deny veterans and their families funding for service dogs despite growing evidence showing their effectiveness in treating PTSD and its related symptoms.”

I have written about this before, having spoken with Canadian Veteran Medric Cousineau who has been “treated like roadkill.”

Cousineau has been pushing for the government to fund service dogs – like his service dog Thai who he credits with saving his life. Yet, the government continues refusing.

Now, Cousineau told Global News that “The difference [between having a dog and not having a dog] can best be described as night and day.”

And even government data shows the service dogs are helpful, as “VAC’s continued denial of funding for service dogs comes on the heels of a government-commissioned report obtained exclusively by Global News that shows “significant” reductions in PTSD symptoms and an overall improvement in the quality of life for veterans matched with service dogs.”

The government has had that report for 8 weeks, yet the funding is still being refused, and Trudeau’s Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan says he hasn’t even read it.

What a piece of crap.


And:

Are Indo-Canadians, like federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, disadvantaged? Was he ever disadvantaged? Or is he the son of privilege?

Those questions, which touch upon the remarkable experience of Indo-Canadians in Canada, were raised last week in the context of an internal NDP squabble about Singh’s fumbling leadership. It came to a head when dozens of current and former New Democrat MPs and MLAs in Saskatchewan objected to Singh’s decision to throw MP Erin Weir out of caucus for harassment allegations which they found dubious at best.

“I am not going to change my decision because people of a position of privilege want to intimidate me to change that,” Singh said. “My decision is final and I am not changing that.”

My colleague Colby Cosh demonstrated in his column last week that Singh, the son of a rich man who ostentatiously displays his wealth — GQ cover shoots, bespoke suits, two Rolex watches — is far more privileged than farmers and teachers and city workers in Saskatchewan who oppose him.

What Singh meant of course was that his critics are white, hence privileged, while he is not. What else could he have meant? Not that they are powerful and he is not. After all he is the leader, and their objection is precisely that he is abusing his power, which they are powerless to stop.

But leave aside Singh, who is quick to resort to racial politics against his opponents. His complaint, transparently false as Cosh demonstrated, draws attention to the astonishing phenomenon of extraordinarily successful Indian immigrants to Canada.

Singh was born in 1979 in Canada to parents who emigrated from India. His father was a psychiatrist, who earned well enough to send his son Jagmeet to a private American high school where current annual tuition runs to more than U.S.$30,000. He went on to Osgoode Hall law school and practiced as a criminal lawyer with his brother before running for office. ...

I too was born in Canada, like Singh, to parents who were immigrants, originally from India (Goa) but through Kenya in my family’s case. My father was a not a medical doctor but had a doctorate in engineering. We were not as rich as the Singh family, and all four children went to Canadian public (Catholic) schools, but we were comfortable. The noted Indian emphasis on education bore fruit. The four of us have a dozen degrees among us. My parents are financially successful, and their children are also affluent, though none of us go in for bespoke tailoring. ...

So Singh and myself belong to the very successful story of Indian immigrants to Canada, found not only in Brampton but across the country. Among my students at Queen’s University are many like us, high achievers who come from families who, though not as rich as the Singhs, achieved economic success. More important, those Indian immigrant families have been highly successful in passing on the values and principles that have shaped the character of their children to be exemplary citizens.

Who then is privileged? There are millions of white Canadian families, some in this country for more than a century, who have a far tougher time of it than I did, or Singh did. Yes, it is possible that someone made fun of his turban at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan. But very few Canadians are schooled in Beverly Hills where, one might note, there will be next month a “Gemologist Rich Day” for parents and students to buy gems for their class projects.

Singh has proven with his deflective slurs that it is easier to cry "uncle" than it is to be a model citizen of Canada.




Is the wife of Raif Badawi a "stupid person on Twitter", Paul Wells?:

Host Vassy Kapelos is one of Canada’s finest current affairs host. She is a delight to watch as she goes head to head with the toughest and meanest, but on that evening, she let her guard down and the mockery continued.

The worst moment came when Wells denigrated Bernier’s followers. “Basically his [Bernier’s] voter base right now is the stupidest people on Twitter,” he said with a haughty arrogant laugh as others giggled while host Kapelos revealed her seeming approval of the insult, with a “No comment.”

The next morning,  Haider went public with her support of Bernier, tweeting, “Finally, a new party is born in Canadian political life, @PeoplesPCa. Remember that name well.”

Bernier responded immediately, welcoming the world-renowned human rights activist in the fold of his party. He tweeted: “Very happy to get the support of Ensaf Haidar, wife of Raif Badawi and a courageous defender of free speech in the world.”

For a politician being attacked for his supposed anti-immigrant bias, an endorsement by Badawi’s wife as well as from a group called ‘Muslims For Max’, left the so-called Power Panel gurus scratching their heads. Perhaps it’s because it’s likely, not one of them has ever run for office, campaigned for a candidate or toiled for a political party, yet they are the experts and we are the “stupidest people on Twitter.”

I asked Haider what made her join the PPC. She told me she was particularly attracted to the People’s Party’s commitment not to permit the weakening of Canada’s secular liberal foundation built over 400 years and based on the Anglo-French nature of the country’s heritage. She quoted the following section of the PPC’s declaration:

“Our immigration policy should not aim to forcibly change the cultural character and social fabric of Canada, as radical proponents of multiculturalism want. The vast majority of Canadians rightly expect immigrants to learn about our history and culture, master one of our official languages and adopt widely shared Canadian values such as equality of men and woman, tolerance for diversity and respect for Canadian law.”

Haider told me: “I was born under Sharia and forced to wear the niqab and that stole my humanity. Now under the burka of diversity, Islamists are making Muslim Canadian women to be their flag bearers and mark territory, literally showing their middle finger to the rest of Canada.”

“Immigrants escaping from the hell of Islamic countries should fuse with the culture and manners of Western societies, otherwise they are not qualified for living in Canada,” she concluded.

Now who is ‘stupid’, Paul Wells? It is certainly not Haider, who deserves an apology.

Culture matters:

According to statistics from Vietnam's labour ministry, there are currently 20,000 Vietnamese workers in the kingdom, with nearly 7,000 working as domestic staff for Saudi families.

In 2014, the two countries signed a five-year labour pact that paved the way for more Vietnamese citizens to work in the Gulf country.

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest importers of domestic workers.

The number of Vietnamese labourers is relatively small compared with Filipinos, Indonesians and Sri Lankans, but the community reports mistreatment.

Some who escaped have recounted slave-like working and living conditions.

"I understand that as [domestic] workers we need to get used to difficult working conditions," said Dao, who is vocal on social media about her experience. "We didn't ask for much, just no starvation, no beatings, and three meals per day. If we had that, we would not have begged for rescue."

Kim Jong-Un must think that everyone is stupid except him:

Kim promised to accept international inspectors to monitor the closing of a key missile test site and launch pad and to visit Seoul soon, and both leaders vowed to work together to try to host the Summer Olympics in 2032.

But while containing several tantalizing offers, their joint statement appeared to fall short of the major steps many in Washington have been looking for — such as a commitment by Kim to provide a list of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, a solid step-by-step timeline for closing them down, or an agreement to allow international inspectors to assess progress or discover violations.

It also was unclear what “corresponding steps” North Korea wants from the U.S. to dismantle its nuclear site.

 

What a maroon: 

Recently, a Liberal MP in the House of Commons started talking about fishing.

He then said “Fishermen,” which is the term everybody uses.

But then, he got scared, realizing that he might have ‘offended’ the pathetic social justice warrior snowflakes (like Mr. “Peoplekind” Justin Trudeau), by saying anything with ‘men’ in it.


So he tried saying “fisherfolks,” but kept slipping up every time – since political correctness isn’t a natural thing.

(Paws up)