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)