Palm Sunday

As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives,the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed:“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”

 

The scandal that just won't die:

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals say they are still hearing support from Indigenous people and leaders, despite concerns raised publicly about Trudeau’s expulsion of two ex-ministers who had been central to work on reconciliation.

I submit that Justin is lying about this, as he often lies about many things. Several chiefs are on record decrying Jody Wilson-Raybould's treatment at the hands of Justin.

Nevertheless, I will not take sides. Watching Justin patch things up with Big Aboriginal is entertaining.

If Justin has been a capable leader, why isn't he touting his achievements (the ones that benefit everyone. Those achievements.)?:

“White supremacy has no place in Canada,” Trudeau posted to social media the other day. We’d certainly agree with that statement. But Trudeau didn’t leave it at that.

“It’s time for all parties, including Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party, to stand together in denouncing hatred in all its forms,” Trudeau continued.

Alright.

Is it white supremacy to kick out illegal migrants that were once welcomed into Canada without hearings?

Is it white supremacy to dress in East Indian wedding costumes, mimic their dances, accuse the Indian government of lying when they point out how a "post-national" government props up the disease of political multiculturalism and ignores Sikh extremism (the Indian government now finds itself thoroughly vindicated with Justin's removal of Sikh extremism from a report on terrorism and his desperate vote-wh0ring at a Vaisaki celebration)?

(Sidebar: Mr. "No Core Identity" didn't even walk away with a decent deal.)

Or is white supremacy a boogie-man used by a total screw-up to distract everyone from that fact?




Carbon taxes - Justin's other albatross:

A few cynics, slope-browed climate deniers the bunch of them, have wondered aloud whether this startling announcement (“welfare for billionaires” was the rude summary) was meant to take attention away from the beating the Liberals were taking on the seemingly endless Lavscam scandal. Absolutely not. The press might want to think this is all about the Westons and Big Grocery, or a deliberate distraction from other matters. It just isn’t.

Think. As a consequence of this initiative, if just one polar bear earns a couple of extra days on a melting ice-pan, or just one big-bellied walrus can waddle safely down some damn high sharp rock — who, really, can be against it?

**

Interested Canadians will have a rare opportunity this week to watch Ontario’s top court sort out a federal-provincial legal battle over carbon pricing.

It will be the first time in more than a decade cameras are being allowed in the Court of Appeal to livestream an event.

“Typically cameras are not permitted in courtrooms,” said Jacob Bakan, special counsel in the office of the province’s chief justice. “The court is making an exception for the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.”

The case, beginning on Monday, pits the Ontario government and supporters against the federal government and supporters over Ottawa’s imposition of a charge on gasoline, heating fuel and other pollutants as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Ontario maintains the federal law is unconstitutional.

American interests have been thwarting the Canadian economy and the powers that be in Edmonton and Ottawa would rather everyone not discuss it:

The Tar Sands Campaign has been running for more than a decade with financial help from the US$870-million Rockefeller family philanthropic foundation. The goal of the campaign, as CBC reported in January, is to sabotage all pipeline projects that would export crude oil from Western Canada to lucrative overseas markets.

Northern Gateway, Energy East, Keystone XL, Trans Mountain and Line 3 have all been targeted. Most of the talk about this campaign has focused on how this activism chokes the oil industry, but tax documents indicate it also takes aim at natural gas.

The reason Alberta needs pipelines is so that local producers aren’t forced to sell only into the U.S. market, often at a steep discount. As it is, Alberta forfeits billions of dollars in lost royalties and revenue because there’s no infrastructure for getting large volumes of oil to overseas markets where buyers pay more. ...

Until very recently, I was convinced that Premier Rachel Notley was sincere and committed to leading Canada into the global oil market, a daunting challenge for any politician because it means breaking the U.S. monopoly that has kept Canada over a barrel while benefiting U.S. interests to the tune of billions.

But now, sad to say, it is clear to me that Notley will never do what is necessary for any Alberta pipeline project to go ahead. My opinion changed because of an email sent by Leadnow, an anti-pipeline activist, on April 1, and forwarded to me on April 3.

By way of background, it bears mention that I have been working since July 2018 with Notley’s government to provide information and assist her team in taking the necessary steps to break the pipeline gridlock.

On April 1, Leadnow forwarded an undated email sent out by Duncan Kinney, executive director of Progress Alberta, a non-profit advocacy group.

The email states: “We’re going into our fourth week of digital door knocking and text banking and it has been incredible. We can talk to a lot of voters in very little time and we’ve identified thousands of supporters that we will be getting out to the polls.”

The email also explained what Progress Alberta is doing to defeat Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party: “We’re holding texting parties every week in the lead up to the election, where we text thousands of voters across the province to make sure they don’t vote for Kenney’s UCP.”

Contacted by phone and via Twitter on April 3, Kinney did not deny that the email forwarded by Leadnow was sent by him. Leadnow’s executive director did not reply to tweets about this matter.

Both Leadnow and Progress Alberta are partially funded — US$62,843 (2016-2017) and US$162,587 (2013-2016), respectively — by the Tar Sands Campaign, U.S. tax returns show.

At the same time that Leadnow forwarded Kinney’s email to Leadnow’s supporters, Logan McIntosh, an executive director noted that Leadnow would not be directly involved in the election, but suggested, “With the election just two weeks away, will you sign up to join Progress Alberta’s campaign to stop Kenney?”

By encouraging supporters to join Progress Alberta, Leadnow effectively joined the campaign against the UCP.

Isn't anyone worried about American, rather than Russian, influence in Canadian elections?




Relying too much on the paper dragon is a recipe for economic disaster.

People haven't gotten this yet:

China halted imports of Canadian canola seed last month, an action that many observers believe is a form of retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request. Chinese-based importers of other Canadian agricultural products have also faced roadblocks that many believe are ultimately politically motivated. But that hasn’t led to an exodus of Canadian companies from the market.

“I haven’t seen anyone drop out of China,” says Allison Boulton, principal of Aslin Canada Trading, a Vancouver-based export consulting firm. She has, however, heard from at least one company that has seen sales fall off enough to scale back its activities there. Countless other entrepreneurs are simply nervous.

There’s just cause for trepidation, Ms. Boulton says. Chinese consumers often take cues from the country’s leadership about how to behave toward certain countries and their goods. In one high-profile example, parka retailer Canada Goose delayed the opening of its Beijing store last December as Chinese social-media users planned anti-Canada protests. Ms. Boulton says smaller Canadian companies doing business in China are mindful of the backlash.

In Ms. Whittle’s case, her agent and marketing partners on the ground in China reassured her that the sales slowdown would be short-lived. Sure enough, the flow of wine orders regained strength in March.

She says the experience hasn’t put her off doing business in China. It takes time to establish a product in a new country, she says; an exporter shouldn’t just cut and run at the first sign of a trade dispute. “You have to be committed to the market.”

Some business owners say they’re happy to simply tune out the noise and proceed with their China strategy as planned. “Our orders have not slowed down at all. Things are going great, and these [political issues] will work themselves out,” says Nicholas Reichenbach, founder and CEO of Flow, a company that sells spring water from Ontario’s Bruce County.

Also - people really shouldn't toy with nature:

Their brains may not be bigger than normal, but monkeys created with human brain genes are exhibiting cognitive changes that suggest they might be smarter — and the experiments have ethicists shuddering.

In the wake of the genetically modified human babies scandal, Chinese scientists are drawing fresh condemnation from philosophers and ethicists, this time over the announcement they’ve created transgenic monkeys with elements of a human brain.

A team led by scientists at the Kunming Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they generated 11 transgenic rhesus monkeys carrying human copies of a gene known as MCPH1, which they describe as an important gene for brain development and brain evolution.

The gene is involved in a process known as neoteny — the delaying or slowing of the development of an organism. As a baby’s brain develops after birth, MCPH1 is expressed in abundance, but less so in nonhuman primates.

The monkey’s brains developed along the same timeline as a human brain.

Six of the monkeys died, however the five survivors “exhibited better short-term memory and shorter reaction time” compared to their wild-type controls, the researchers report in the journal.

(Sidebar: has "The Planet of the Apes" taught you nothing?)

But this is why people brought in euthanasia:

Nearly half the population has cared for an aging, ill or disabled family member or friend at some point, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Informal caregivers contributed $26-billion in free labour to the health-care system annually, a 2009 study found. More than half of Canadian carers nursed a loved one for more than four years and many of them faced substantial out-of-pocket expenses while struggling in their careers: 43 per cent missed work, 15 per cent cut down their hours and 10 per cent passed up a promotion or new job, according to Statistics Canada. Women particularly face this challenge, since more of the daily tasks of giving care still fall to them.

Seniors are projected to make up a quarter of the population by 2036. As health advances allow those with chronic illnesses to live longer, respite care remains costly and inconsistent and more patients prefer aging at home, the burden placed on family caregivers will only grow in this country.

“Despite little to no training, they are expected to provide medical and nursing care in the home, navigate complicated health and long-term care systems, and serve as substitute decision makers,” Mount Sinai Hospital geriatrician Nathan Stall wrote in an editorial published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that called for more robust health, workplace and financial aid for family carers. “We must and can do more to acknowledge and support informal caregivers in bearing this burden.”

Why not just make it the duty to die? Tell soon-to-retire people that they must kill themselves off for the puppies or whatever has replaced children as the cornerstone of society?

It would be cheaper in the long run and isn't that what everyone wants in the end?




Just shoot her:

Shamima Begum was a member of the Isis morality police, a feared group which enforced the terror organisation’s strict interpretation of Islamic law, according to reports.

The 19-year-old British citizen, who fled her home in Bethnal Green four years ago with two other schoolgirls, has claimed that she was only a “housewife” during her time living with the group in Syria.
But according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph she played a much more active role in the organisation’s reign of terror as a member of the “hisba” – which metes out punishment to those found flouting Isis laws on how to dress and behave. ...

One activist quoted by the newspaper said Begum had been seen holding an automatic weapon and shouting at Syrian women in the city of Raqqa for wearing brightly coloured shoes.