For a Monday

A lot going on ...




But ... but ... New Zealand!:

• At least 290 people are dead and nearly 500 more wounded after eight explosions at churches, hotels and one residence in the capital, Colombo, and other locations in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. The overwhelming majority of victims are Sri Lankan, but local authorities say 39 foreign tourists are among the dead. None are Canadian.
• Nearly all at once, seven suicide bombers attacked three churches and three luxury hotels, according to a Sri Lankan government forensic analysis. Hours later, two more bombings took place. The bombers were all Sri Lankan nationals, but officials suspected the involvement of international terrorist groups. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded,” a spokesperson for Cabinet said. So far, police have made 24 arrests of Sri Lankan nationals.
• As of midnight Monday, the government said it had invoked emergency powers that give police and military broad abilities to detain and interrogate suspects. Meanwhile, the country’s Health Minister is accusing officials of ignoring warnings in the weeks before the blasts. Rajitha Senaratne said international intelligence agencies warned of the attacks several times starting April 4. On April 9, the defence ministry wrote to the police chief with intelligence that included the name of the militant group National Thowfeek Jamaath, he said. On April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division, Mr. Senaratne added.

**

An explosion went off on Monday in a van near a church in Sri Lanka where scores were killed the previous day, when bomb squad officials were trying to defuse it.

**

There was no claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attacks but suspicion was focusing on Islamist militants in the Buddhist-majority country.

(Sidebar: terrorists, not militants. Do not give these monsters an ounce of credibility by elevating them to combatants fighting for a reasonable cause. Cowards blow up children in churches.)

Investigators said seven suicide bombers took part in the attacks while a government spokesman said an international network was involved.

Police had received a tip-off of a possible attack on churches by a little-known domestic Islamist group this month, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The intelligence report, dated April 11, said a foreign intelligence agency had warned authorities of possible attacks on churches by the National Thawheed Jama’ut. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response to the tip-off.

(Sidebar: good of you to let everyone know ahead of time, Sri Lankan authorities.)

International anti-terrorism experts said even if a local group had carried out the attacks, it was likely that al Qaeda or Islamic State were involved, given the level of sophistication.

(Sidebar: up until this point, the popular press was reluctant to point out that this ghastly attack was the result of Islamists or that Christians were their chief targets because everyone knows that Buddhists celebrate Easter. There is a significance in not mention or properly labeling who and what is involved and it is illogically political and ultimately immoral.)

Also -  because "somebody did something" (why does that sound familiar?), a Danish billionaire lost three of his four children:

It has emerged that three of the four children of Danish business tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, said to be the Nordic country’s richest man, died in the Sri Lanka terror attacks.

Everyone who applauded is going to hell:

In his first major interview since an Alberta judge ruled his war crimes sentence has expired, a composed Omar Khadr appeared Sunday night on the ferociously popular Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle.

Walking out to greet the Montreal studio audience in a blue-grey suit jacket, Khadr got a standing ovation, then settled in for a 14-minute chat during which he faced plenty of tough questions from host Guy A. Lepage.

This is why Khadr should have been shot dead in Afghanistan, why the CBC should have been de-funded and why we should let Quebec stew in swampy water right now.




Because it's an election year and the East Indians who vote are not happy:

At least three Sikh-Canadian activists have been added to the Canadian no-fly list in recent months, more evidence the federal government may have changed its approach to advocates of Punjabi independence after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial India trip.

Under the Secure Air Travel Act, the three have been told there are reasonable grounds to suspect they might “threaten transportation security,” or travel by air to commit terrorist acts. Two of the three have filed court challenges to the decisions, saying the system for barring people from air travel is unfair and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To wit -  “Why are we still fighting against certain veterans’ groups in court? Because they’re asking for more than we are able to give right now,” Trudeau responded, prompting boos from some members of the audience." :

Newly revealed figures show the number of veterans from the war in Afghanistan receiving federal support for mental-health conditions nearly doubled between March 2014 and March 2018.

But Omar Khadr got $10.5 million and was made into a celebrity.




A district will delay its participation in the provincial election in Prince Edward Island  due to the tragic death of a candidate and his son:

Although most Prince Edward Islanders head to the polls on Tuesday, one district will have to wait to cast their ballots after one of the candidates and his son died over the long weekend.

Josh Underhay, the Green Party candidate in District 9 (Charlottetown–Hillsborough Park), and his young son died in a canoeing accident on Friday afternoon.

As a result, Elections PEI said it will put into force a section of the Election Act that requires a delay in voting of no more than three months in the event a candidate on the ballot dies prior to an election. A date for the new election has yet to be determined.

It's just an economy:

An Ipsos survey for MNP shows a further increase in the number of Canadians on the edge of bankruptcy.

According to the survey, 48% of Canadians say they are $200 or less away from going bankrupt on a monthly basis.

That’s up from 46% who said that earlier in the year.

(Sidebar: to be fair, these are the same people who believe that the government has this magical money-growing orchard somewhere and that budgets balance themselves. They did, after all, vote for it.)




The scandal that just won't die:

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, both women of immense talent and merit before entering “public life,” were crushed and spat out for the crime of not understanding what they were a part of.

They are simply the latest, and highest profile, victims of the dirty little secret that governs Canada. 

The country’s federal government, civil service, regulated industries, Crown corporations and its surrounding infrastructure of law firms, public and government relations outfits, are populated with people who went to the same schools and grew up in Quebec, Ottawa, or Rosedale.

Canada, in other words, is run by an elite who crush and spit out whoever breaks ranks or their code of omerta, or silence.

This is nothing new, nor is the building backlash. Every so often the Liberals are defeated in elections, but they leave behind unscathed unelected Liberals in crony appointments. These people move in and out as advisers, consultants, deputy ministers, Senators, Crown corporations, directors, bank bigshots, or CEOs of government agencies as well as regulated corporations, dependent on Ottawa.

Scum:

Largely untended for decades, the toppled and faded tombstones sit amid long, yellowed grass at All Saints cemetery overlooking Newfoundland’s spectacular Conception Bay.

But the historic graveyard has suddenly become the subject of much attention, after a bizarre crime that has shocked the easternmost province.

Shortly after midnight on April 6, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said they were called to Conception Bay South, after “quite old” skeletal remains were discovered on a nearby recreational trail.

They were traced back to this Anglican cemetery in the town of about 26,000 people about 20 minutes from St. John’s.

Police officers and staff from the medical examiner’s office were on site last weekend with heavy equipment, investigating the scene.

The province’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Nash Denic, said it is the first alleged grave robbery he’s seen in Newfoundland.

“Cases like this, this is the first time that I know of and I was involved in in Newfoundland,” Denic said in an interview.

A 20-year-old Conception Bay South man, Lucas Dawe, has been charged in connection with the case.

Look at it this way - politicians are already buffoons. At least this guy is good at it having done it for a living:

Unlike in most of the elections in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history, Zelenskiy appears to have won both in Ukraine’s west and east, areas that have been traditionally polarized. One of the campaign slogans of the popular television comedian who has no previous political experience was to unify Ukraine, which has been torn by bitter debates over its identity as well as the separatist conflict in the east that is fueled by neighbouring Russia.