For a Friday

It's going to be a long week-end ...



It's an election year!:

The RCMP's national security team has arrested and charged an Ontario youth with a terrorism-related offence, the police force said Friday after an investigation in Kingston, Ont.

Police have laid two charges against the young person — who's accused of knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and counselling another person to "deliver, place, discharge or detonate an explosive or other lethal device ... against a place of public use with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury." ...

A second individual, an adult male CBC News has identified as Hussam Eddin Alzahabi, was also arrested Thursday, but has not been charged. ...

Earlier Friday, the father of Hussam Eddin Alzahabi said his 20-year-old son was arrested in what he described as a terror-related investigation.

"They tell me they search about him about terrorists. I know my son, he didn't think about that. He like Canada. He like the safety in Canada. How could he think about that?" Amin Alzahabi, who has been in Canada since 2017, told CBC News in an interview from his home Friday morning. ...

The RCMP were supported by both Kingston police and FBI officers.

On Thursday, officers could be seen carrying bags of evidence out of the homes.

By Friday morning, the police presence was contained to just one residence.

"It's fake news about my son," Alzahabi said. "I trust my son. I know he cannot do anything against any human, humanity.

"They inspected everything from my house. They didn't find anything," he said. "I think this is not good."

The family, originally from Syria, has been living in Canada since July 2017, Alzahabi said, following time spent in Kuwait from 2008 to 2017. 

According to a bulletin posted to the website of a Kingston-area Catholic church detailing the journey of the Alzahabi family, an ecumenical group of churches helped bring them to Canada through the private sponsorship refugee program in 2016-17.

The church group established a series of committees, including a hospitality and orientation committee composed of parishioners, and raised more than $30,000 to help support the family's transition to life in Canada. ...

In a statement, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said police took action Thursday "based on credible information, to ensure public safety."

 
See! Ralph may not want to deal with the sixty however many returned ISIS terrorists and rapists in our midst but he does care about public safety. He does! Did the cameras catch that arrest? Did they? Did the popular pre$$ make a note that a church sponsored the accused's family? Was the money they wasted worth it?


Also:

Two Canadian citizens accused of arranging the murder of a Maple Ridge woman in India 18 years ago have been extradited to that country to face trial.

The Department of Justice Canada confirmed Thursday that Malkit Sidhu and Surjit Badesha were extradited to India on Jan. 23. Both Badesha and Sidhu were escorted to India by the RCMP, arriving safely around 6 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Because the courts care about public safety ... during an election year.





After performing for his Chinese overlords and even being defended by their other puppet, Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum now claims that he misspoke when he offered to help spring Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from possible American custody ... for forty minutes:

Canada’s ambassador to China says he “misspoke” when he suggested detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou had a strong case to avoid extradition to the United States.

“I regret that my comments with respect to the legal proceedings of Ms. Meng have created confusion. I misspoke,” John McCallum said in a statement Thursday.

“These comments do not accurately represent my position on this issue. As the government has consistently made clear, there has been no political involvement in this process.”

(Sidebar: bullsh--.)

McCallum’s candid comments this week about the case of Huawei’s Meng raised eyebrows and fuelled speculation they were a political ploy to end Ottawa’s deepening diplomatic crisis with China.

In a Toronto-area news conference on Tuesday with Chinese-language journalists, McCallum said he thought Meng had strong legal arguments that could help her avoid extradition. He also listed several possibilities that could help her with her case.

“As Canada’s Ambassador to China, I play no role in assessing any arguments or making any determinations in the extradition process,” McCallum said Thursday.

One cannot spell treason without M-C-C-A-L-L-U-M and T-R-U-D-E-A-U.


Also - that's nice, Andy, but you are not in charge today:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says if he was prime minister he would fire Canada's Ambassador to China John McCallum over his most recent comments on Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

"I would fire him," Scheer told Don Martin in an interview for CTV Power Play, airing Wednesday evening.

"The situation with China right now is at a very strained point. That goes without saying. We have to be very, very careful as a country and our government needs to be taking this very, very seriously."

They are taking things, seriously, Andrew. Why, Bill Morneau is fretting about this diplomatic fuss between Canada and China an what it's doing to the markets. He is willing to overlook that China is holding various Canadians in prison, including Huseyin Celil, and the nasty things the Chinese press have been saying about his country, like this:

A Christmas Eve editorial described Canada by using a traditional Chinese expression that roughly translates to “the pig looks into the mirror, but both the reflection and the pig do not look human.” Posted in the curated news section of the Chinese instant messaging giant QQ, the editorial implies that the Canadian government is facing dissent both from abroad and from its own citizens, who oppose the “stupid” actions of Ottawa. Western media will often portray the citizens of China and other authoritarian countries as being victims of a government that does not represent them. Chinese media and the Chinese government have taken this same tack, playing up any opposition as evidence that Canadians are in the thrall of a rogue regime. Global Times, a particularly nationalistic Chinese newspaper, said the Chinese embassy in Ottawa is being barraged with gifts, condolences and regretful phone calls. “We are gratified to see that many Canadian people were imbued with a sense of justice, criticizing the Canadian government for its unreasonable behaviour,” Lu Shaye, the Chinese ambassador to Canada, wrote in a December op-ed for the Globe and Mail. Naturally, this argument was helped enormously when Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum expressed support for Meng at an event where English-language media were not invited. In a Thursday tweet, former Canadian ambassador to China David Mulroney said McCallum’s comments were already being “spun” by China. Sure enough, the comments quickly featured in a China Daily article arguing that “Chinese Canadians” were hopeful Meng would be released.

... just so he can get trade with China moving again:

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said on Friday the economy and business are facing headwinds from the U.S.-China trade dispute as well as his country’s own diplomatic tensions with China. 

Morneau, speaking to Reuters TV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, said that Canada wanted to ensure that both its central bank and finance ministry have tools to deal with any economic challenges. 

 
Because priorities.


Also fretting - Ontario teachers:

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has a long-term plan for China that’s unlikely to be derailed by political tensions, its chief executive officer said.

“China’s a long game from our perspective and while there’s always skirmishes of one kind or another, in the short term, we believe that it’s absolutely necessary to be there,” Ron Mock said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The fund invests a lot in technology in China which is very different than doing so North America, he said.

It's just a national industry:

Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi says the federal government won't cut corners to speed up a full review of the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The government bought the pipeline for $4.5 billion last summer only to have the Federal Court of Appeal strike down Ottawa's approval of it.

The court said Canada failed to meaningfully consult with First Nations and that the National Energy Board failed to examine how the project would affect the ocean ecosystem.

Ottawa is now consulting with Indigenous groups and the board has been reviewing the marine effects.

The board is to have its report ready by Feb. 22.

There are 565 million reasons why this will not be seen on a national network:

To start, I asked Coleen to describe what she wanted Canadians to know about the Yellow Vests:


She said people need to know “why we’re protesting.” One of the big issues for the group is wanting to “withdraw from the UN Global compact on migration, that’s a big thing. We want Canada’s sovereignty back, not open borders. We want to be able to dictate what’s going on in our country.”

“Another thing is, we’re against the carbon tax. We are also for our pipelines and our energy production. Canada using Canadian resources providing Canadian jobs for our industry, versus shopping outside of the country.”

Coleen also made the important point – often ignored by those who claim to the love the environment – that using Canadian oil is far better for the environment than shipping oil from around the world into our country.

Read the whole thing.




Just like the illusory principles of political multiculturalism and "universal healthcare", the myth of Canadian national unity and courtesy is thin. Paper-thin:

Quebec is the least popular province in Confederation, according to new polling from the Angus Reid Institute.

The survey, part of a four-part series on western Canadian identity, found that, on average, just five per cent of Canadians outside Quebec believe that Quebec is close with or friendly towards their own province; what’s more, 53 per cent believe that la belle province takes more from Confederation than it gives. And, 21 per cent of Quebecers feel that way about their own province, too.

“The other big part of the story is the resentment of Alberta, which is also especially significant in terms of Albertans feeling not particularly close to any province other than Saskatchewan,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute. “There is a perception in the rest of Canada, outside of Quebec, that Quebecers are not close, are not interested, are not engaged, with the rest of the country.” ...

Ontarians aren’t fond of anyone; Alberta is the province most-liked by Ontarians, but only 28 per cent of them hold that affection; and 40 per cent of Ontarians don’t consider any other province to be particularly close to them.

Even where there’s some love, it’s unrequited by Ontarians. Forty-four per cent of Quebecers consider Ontario a friend, but just 12 per cent of Ontarians feel that way about Quebec. It’s even chillier in New Brunswick, where just 13 per cent return Quebec’s affection (40 per cent said they felt close with their neighbour).

Just like the barmy idea that America is crawling with neo-Nazis:

A survey released Thursday finds that nearly 5 in 10 Canadians believe the U.S. is home to a significant number of white supremacists and followers of neo-Nazi ideology.

I'll just leave this here:

Nearly half of Canadians cannot name a single concentration camp or ghetto that existed in Europe during the Holocaust, a new study found.

Released in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on Sunday, the study concluded that many Canadians do not know basic facts about the Holocaust, such as where it took place, how many Jews died, or the names of key people and places. Millennials, defined as people ages 18 to 34, were particularly uninformed.

How embarrassing ... for Canada.




And now, the first man to waltz Matilda has been found:

The remains of a noted Royal Navy explorer who led the first known circumnavigation of Australia have been found by archaeologists excavating a burial ground where a railway station is planned.

The archaeologists identified the remains of Captain Matthew Flinders by the lead plate placed on top of his coffin. He was buried at St. James’s burial ground in 1814 but the headstone was removed in the 1840s, leaving the precise location of his grave a mystery.

Flinders made a number of important journeys and was commander of HMS Investigator when he navigated the entire coast of Australia, confirming it was a continent.