Monday Post

The original X-man: First Class

ARISE, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

A merry Hanukkah and Advent to all y'all.



Lots going on ...



It's just other people's money:

As over-the-top virtue-signalling statements by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau go, this latest one has it all. Early Sunday morning, the PM issued an odd social media post directed at Trevor Noah, the host of the mildly amusing The Daily Show.

Here it is in full: “Hey @Trevornoah – thanks for everything you’re doing to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s legacy at the [Global Citizen] festival. Sorry I can’t be with you – but how about Canada pledges $50M to @EduCannotWait to support education for women & girls around the world? Work for you? Let’s do it.” ...

It really has everything, doesn’t it? The contrived casual tone. The deference to a so-so American celebrity who is only liked by a rather narrow and niche progressive crowd. The shout-out to Trudeau’s obsession with gender issues, which is so excessive it’s now getting creepy. The reference to a conference that sounds like a fake conference name that someone came up with when joking with their friends about what you’d call an event that’s totally peak Trudeau. You get the idea. And Trudeau’s been roundly pilloried for it online.

On Monday morning I turned on my Twitter feed and the blowback was coming from all over. The response was non-partisan and even some typically Liberal-compliant journalists got involved. One of the most popular responses was from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who weighed in to say: “Pledging $50 million in a tweet to impress a TV personality? Taxpayers need a defender not somebody who throws their money around to be popular with celebrities. This is how deficits become massive and permanent.”

The permanent frat-boy - someone who no one would ever accuse of toxic masculinity -  never fails to roll the eyes of others so used to hearing his insufferable virtue-signalling and empty platitudes. He forgot to add how he groped a female reporter, hit a female MP in the chest and still allows ISIS rapists to taunt their victims, victims he didn't even want in the country. If people aren't going to forget his pi$$y reaction to the title of a trade agreement he screwed up or how he tanked and still tanks a national economy or how his no-rules-at-all immigration policy will swamp Canada with permanent voters blocks and lots of debt, I doubt they will forget this limp-wristed attempt at attention-seeking.


Also:

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef has announced $50 million for programs across Canada that support survivors of gender-based violence, saying more people than ever are coming forward to seek support and tell their stories.

(Sidebar: like in Afghanistan or Iran or wherever it is you are really from?)

**

One frantic email sent just 14 hours after the Quebec City mosque shooting, shows Justice Ministry bureaucrats looking for a way to use the murders to push the need for the program:

“given the shootings in Quebec, please advise as to what we have on this ASAP. We need to loop in the deputy minister’s office and cc Kathy and Francois“

**

The Department of Canadian Heritage is reviewing a proposal to monitor truth in election-year reporting and “expose” coverage considered inaccurate. The initiative follows a Liberal cabinet plan to subsidize newsrooms it deems trustworthy. Elections Canada already enforces a statutory ban on campaign falsehoods.

Department staff yesterday confirmed the Public Policy Forum, an Ottawa-based group, applied for cash grants for a so-called Digital Democracy Project. The value of the grant was not disclosed. “The application is under assessment and no decision has been made yet,” the department said in a statement."

(Sidebar: but ... but ... transparency!)

**

Liberal MP Raj Grewal has announced his intention to leave the party caucus, but will stay on as an MP for the time being amid questions surrounding his conduct and gambling addiction. 

Oh, burn:

On Twitter, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel was criticizing Justin Trudeau for his disgusting comments demonizing male construction workers:

“I doubt if he has ever worked a day of labour in his life, which makes it even more important for him to humble himself to those who do. His assumptions about how the work culture of how my province works are dangerously bourgeois.” ...

Then, somebody named Trevor tried to deflect from criticism of Trudeau by comparing Rempel to Trudeau’s lack of labour work:

“You swing a lot of hammers working at the UofC before being elected?”

Rempel seemed quite prepared for that question. Here’s how she answered it:

“So glad you asked. I was waiting for someone to ask me.”

“I mopped, cleaned toilets, cleaned grease and garbage at an ice cream store for three years between age 15-18.”

I'm pretty damn sure it wouldn't take her thirty-seven swings of a hammer to lay in one nail, unlike some certain sons of Pierre one could mention.




The buck stops with Justin because, you know, PM:

The RCMP should have alerted the Justin Trudeau’s protective detail that Jaspal Atwal — a man with a serious criminal record and a history of violence — might turn up during the prime minister’s February trip to India, says a review of the turbulent visit.

If unions are so powerful yet so needy, why are they taking time off from whatever it is they say that they do to wave signs at Doug Ford, the guy who recognises that continually bailing them out is a waste of time and money?:

Two of the country's largest unions say they will be working together in an effort to stop what they describe as Ontario Premier Doug Ford's "destructive agenda."

The heads of Unifor and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union announced their alliance in the wake of Ford's reaction to General Motors' planned plant closure in Oshawa, Ont., saying the premier's comments last week indicate his priorities do not lie with everyday workers.

Ford has said there's nothing his government can do to convince the automaker to change course, adding the company's president had told him "the ship has already left the dock."

Why isn't she in prison?:

Former premier Kathleen Wynne defended her decision to push hydro costs onto future ratepayers during an appearance at a select committee grilling her government’s accounting practices.

“Our objective was to reduce people’s electricity bills and find the best way to do that,” Wynne said in an exchange with PC MPP Lindsey Park Monday. “I recognized that I was going to be saying to my grandchildren that they were going to be paying for something that their parents couldn’t afford to pay the whole freight for right now. That’s what I recognized.”

Wynne was brought before the committee, set up by the Doug Ford government with PC and NDP MPP members, to explain why she decided to to set up her Fair Hydro Plan in a way that kept the cost off the government books but exposed hydro customers to potentially up to $4 billion more in interest costs.

Why, this sounds like a miniature revolt:

The New Brunswick government has filed a notice of intervention in Saskatchewan's court challenge of the federal government's carbon pricing plan.

Saskatchewan's government has asked its Court of Appeal to rule on whether the federal plan is constitutional.

A notice sent to the court Thursday reads: "This is to advise that the Attorney General of New Brunswick intends to intervene in the Matter of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Bill C-74, Part V, and in the Matter of a Reference by the Lieutenant Governor in Council to the Court of Appeal under The Constitutional Questions act, 2012."

The Ontario government is also challenging the plan in court and New Brunswick says it will file its notice of intervention in that court challenge in the coming weeks.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said the federal plan would boost the price of gasoline in his province by 12 cents per litre over the next four years.

Ottawa asked all provinces to put a minimum price on emissions of $20 a tonne by Jan. 1.

The tax would be imposed in April on New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Manitoba  — the provinces that have not signed on to the federal plan or come up with their own plan to curb carbon. 

Ontario announced its own plan on Thursday.

Ottawa has said if it implements a federal carbon tax in provinces without a plan, it will rebate the money to residents.

Higgs said Thursday he believes the court challenges can be successful.

"Boy when you get four or five provinces lined up, big provinces, then it improves a whole lot. And especially with the federal government going into an election year, I don't think they'll be too anxious to put more taxes on the people of Ontario. I would say that carries over to our province and so they shouldn't be too keen on putting taxes on our people either," Higgs said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe will not cut oil production even if Alberta does:

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the province isn't going to cut oil production despite being asked to by Alberta's opposition leader Jason Kenney.

On Sunday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced the province would implement a temporary 8.7 per cent production cut starting next month. The move is meant to combat steep discounts currently placed on Alberta oil.

The production cuts are an attempt to address the difference in the price of Western Canadian Select oil relative to the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI). That gap hit around $50 in late October due to a lack of pipeline capacity to get Alberta oil to market.

The cuts will affect about 25 larger bitumen and conventional producers in Alberta. Larger producers will see their first 10,000 barrels exempted each day. Companies that produce less than 10,000 barrels a day will not be affected by the daily cuts.

Kenney, leader of Alberta's opposition United Conservative Party, said Saskatchewan should also cut production.

Moe said that while he agrees there is an unacceptably high differential for Alberta oil, "a government-mandated production cut in Saskatchewan could result in a loss of jobs and economic activity in our province, but would have little impact on the price of oil because it would disproportionately impact conventional oil production, which is not the problem."

He said Alberta having to cut oil production reflects a crisis that Western Canada's energy sector and is "a clear failure of the federal government to build pipelines and ensure market access for our energy products has had a great cost on the economy and the people of Saskatchewan."

It's alright when Quebec does it:

Quebec high school history textbooks are “fundamentally flawed” and should be removed from all schools across Quebec, an expert committee formed by the province’s largest English school board has concluded.

Students in the Grade 9 and 10 Canadian and Quebec history classes are being taught a “skewed, one-sided view of the past that distorts the historical record,” according to the committee report, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Also:

Hugo Hernan Ruiz, a 42-year-old systems engineer from Colombia, has a master's degree in his field and ran the IT department of an oil company in his home country.

His French is excellent considering he arrived in Quebec in 2016 with little knowledge of the language. But like many highly educated newcomers to the province, Ruiz has struggled to find work despite being selected as a skilled immigrant by provincial authorities.

After failing to find a job, he decided to open his own consulting business to take advantage of his South American contacts. He applied for a provincial program that assists budding entrepreneurs with grants, marketing and training.

But he was rejected because the program was for people who were on welfare or who had received Employment Insurance — and he fit neither category.

It would become a common refrain, he said, as he tried unsuccessfully to navigate the Quebec bureaucracy.

"I think there needs to be a reflection," Ruiz said over coffee at a strip mall in the Montreal suburb of Laval, where he settled with his wife and two children. "What happens to immigrants who are trying to succeed and who don't come here to live off the government?"

Oh, Donald:

The United States and China called a truce in their trade war on Saturday after President Trump agreed to hold off on new tariffs and President Xi Jinping pledged to increase Chinese purchases of American products. The two also set the stage for more painstaking negotiations to resolve deeply rooted differences over trade.

No, Don, sink them.



Also - fat chance of that happening:

“We think it is very important for Canada to understand how China is operating throughout the world,” Wu told me during a meeting with our delegation in the capital Taipei. “I think the Chinese are also coming into Canada, trying to infiltrate into your domestic-political agenda. That’s the way they tried to infiltrate into Australia, New Zealand and some other countries in Western Europe, but Taiwan is the country that China has infiltrated more seriously.”

Late President George H. W. Bush, possible RCAF pilot?:

In 1997, the Canadian author and war hero Richard Rohmer met George H.W. Bush at a Toronto event organized by former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

“Mr. President, you and I are contemporaries. When you were flying in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, I was flying Mustangs in Normandy with the Royal Canadian Air Force,” Rohmer told the former commander in chief.

To this, Bush gave the retired general a surprise reply: The two of them could easily have been much closer contemporaries than Rohmer suspected.

“General, nobody knows this, but by the end of 1941, just before December 7th that year, I was planning to come to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force,” Bush told him, according to Rohmer’s 2004 memoir Generally Speaking.

With the United States neutral in the first two years of the Second World War, the easiest way for an American to fight Nazi Germany was to cross the border and enlist with the Canadians.

But with the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor — and the subsequent U.S. declaration of war against Germany and Japan — Bush could now go into battle against the Axis under the Stars and Stripes.

(source)