A Post

... for now.




The scandal that will never die:

According to the CBC, the list of fake donor names — 18 former SNC brass, directors and some spouses — was sent to the federal Liberals in a confidential letter from the Commissioner of Canada Elections on Aug. 5, 2016, just weeks before SNC CEO Neil Bruce and Elections Commissioner Yves Cote signed the compliance agreement.

Compare all that to the treatment accorded David Del Mastro and his electrical/energy company, Deltro Ltd.

David is the cousin of former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, who was criminally charged in 2014 for circumventing election expense limits by using his own money to purchase voter canvassing and get-out-the-vote services, getting the supplier to send him a false invoice and participating with his official agent in filing a false election campaign return.

All of this was done during the 2008 election.

Basically, the former Peterborough, Ont., MP was convicted of improperly over-donating to his own campaign.

He was convicted of three offences, sentenced to a month in jail, four more in the community and 18 months probation. He also had to repay $10,000 to the Peterborough electoral district association.

He resigned in 2014.

David, on the other hand, was accused, also in 2014, of running an SNC-like scheme to help his cousin.

He was acquitted of all charges after the judge ruled prosecutors couldn’t use evidence improperly seized in a raid on Deltro’s offices.

But the allegations were so similar to those SNC admitted to doing.

This points to a larger problem, that being that the plutocracy can buy or influence its way out of a legal jam.

This is a hallmark of a banana republic.


Another hallmark of a banana republic:

A senior judge warned Loblaws and the federal government this morning that she would not look kindly on any further procedural delays in a $400-million battle the two sides are waging in Tax Court.

Loblaws and the government were in a Toronto courtroom in one of the biggest offshore corporate tax-avoidance cases in the country, with authorities alleging the grocery conglomerate set up a bogus foreign bank to avoid tax on hundreds of millions of dollars in investment income.

The case has been brewing since 2015 and is slated for a full trial in April — more than a year after the originally scheduled start date, due to a series of procedural squabbles.

"I do not want to have to adjourn this again," Associate Chief Justice Lucie Lamarre cautioned both sides on Wednesday. 

At stake for Loblaws is a huge potential tax bill: $404 million, including interest, penalties and provincial income tax, according to documents related to the case.

"These are all big numbers," said Peter Baek, a Toronto tax litigator and former senior CRA auditor experienced with offshore tax rules.  

Loblaws is facing scrutiny on other fronts as well, including its recent admission to a price-fixing scheme on the sale of bread in Canada, as well as revelations in the Paradise Papers exposing the company's use of offshore havens to shield profits.  

(Sidebar: this Loblaws.)




The plutocracy threatens to further cripple the Canadian economy if Alberta does not agree to Ottawa's carbon plans:

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna on Wednesday added steam-driven oilsands facilities to the list of projects that are subject to federal environmental reviews, but will exempt those same projects on the condition that Alberta keeps certain environmental policies in place.

The inclusion of so-called in-situ facilities on the project list under Bill C-69 was largely expected by industry and other observers after Ottawa released a consultation paper in June 2018 that openly considered the move. At the time, the federal government said in-situ projects could be exempt “where a jurisdiction has in place a hard cap on greenhouse gas emissions” — a condition widely seen as a way to force Alberta to keep its climate change policies intact.

Also:

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is warning that if a federal bill overhauling environmental assessments passes in its current form, it will threaten Canadian unity and there will be “an immediate constitutional challenge.”

No one needs Quebec but they do need Alberta.




Once again, Justin doesn't stand up against his most admired dictatorship:

China has suspended pork imports from two Canadian companies, according to an interview with Canada’s agricultural minister and a Chinese customs document, marking the latest irritant in a widening diplomatic dispute.

A real leader would never alienate its closest and most trusted trading partner. A real leader would not publicly praise a communist dictatorship nor would he co-own a bank or rely strongly on that dictatorship for trade. A real leader would treat threats with the contempt they deserve and find other countries that would accept high-quality products.

Justin is not that leader.




Justin's government removes all references to Islamist extremism in a new report on terrorism:

The government has again revised a report that is supposed to update Canadians on the major terrorist threats they face, removing all references to Islamist extremism.

While the report, first released in December, had initially identified attackers “inspired by violent Sunni Islamist ideology” as the main terrorist threat to Canada, that line has now been cut.

All mentions of “Sunni” and “Shia” extremism were also taken out of the annual report, along with section headings on both types of terrorism.

The so-called Islamic State, Al Qaeda and their regional affiliates use terrorism to promote their versions of Sunni Islamist extremist ideology, while Hezbollah is a Shia extremist group.

But Scott Bardsley, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s spokesperson, said the threat report had “unintentionally maligned certain communities” and the government wanted a “bias-free approach” to terminology.

“The impact of these terms may not be readily apparent to some who come from places of privilege, who seldom experience judgment based on skin colour or religion alone,” he said.

(Sidebar: we wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of people who kill children, would we?)

The government had already cut the term “Sikh extremism” from the report following complaints. A section heading on violence linked to the fight for an independent Sikh homeland is now gone.

Corpses recovered from Air India 182, now no longer allowed to be discussed.

Also - there was a Yazidi crisis that the Liberals did not care about:

A Senate motion will urge the Liberal government to meet Canada’s international treaty obligations by holding Myanmar accountable for its treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Yet veterans voted for them, anyway:

“Dear Prime Minister Trudeau. 

I find myself forced to write this letter to you, which I will also be providing copies of to the media. I am also enclosing a picture that was taken of us at our meeting while you were the leader of the opposition. You pledged to get support for service dogs for disabled veterans battling PTSD. So I think it is only fair that we discuss the results of your personal pledge to me. Since you were formally a teacher, I will make this very easy. Your grade? An “F”.  In fact if there was a grade worse then you and your regime would qualify. Not only have you failed to deliver, you and your various ministers have actually made things worse.

These men and women performed thankless tasks far away from their country for the benefit of others. Naively, they voted against the former prime minister (who should have offered them more) in favour of one who quite clearly does not and will never care about them.

I hope that the lesson is learned on their part.




(Cue little violin):

Quebec’s media elites are unfairly criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s spoken French because they see him as an outsider pretending to be a real Quebecois, an American academic argues in new research.

Journalists will forgive Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s mangled pronunciations or former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s use of Anglicisms but Trudeau is held to an unrealistic standard, according to Prof. Yulia Bosworth of Binghamton University in New York.

Oh, the standard of having at least one francophone parent and representing an ostensibly francophone province and whose job it is to communicate? That standard? Didn't he substitute drama teach for this sort of thing?

Seventeen years is not long enough:

Sentenced to an automatic life sentence for the brutal murder of his pregnant wife, Nicholas Baig will serve 15 more years before he is eligible for parole.

But there will be no sentence, of course, for killing his unborn daughter Asaara — who’s due date was just 20 days away when her mother Arianna Goberdhan was stabbed 17 times on April 7, 2017.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Jocelyn Speyer sentenced Baig to 17 years of parole ineligibility.

In prison since his arrest two years ago, he can apply in 2034 when he’ll be just 42.

“I was really disappointed,” said Goberdhan’s mother Sherry.

“I was hoping that he would have to wait at least 20 years.”

I think that the Church of Scientology owes Leah Remini an apology:

Health officials on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia have quarantined a cruise ship after discovering a case of measles on board, the country’s top doctor said Tuesday.

Authorities confirmed the case on Tuesday morning, said Dr. Merlene Fredericks James, St. Lucia’s chief medical officer. The vessel was locked down later that day, an attempt to stymie any potential spread of the highly contagious disease that’s sickening people in the United States at a record pace, fueled by anti-vaccination misinformation. ...

Health officials did not identify the cruise ship, but a sergeant with the St. Lucia Coast Guard told NBC that the vessel is “Freewinds,” the 440-foot boat owned by the Church of Scientology.

Representatives of the Church of Scientology did not respond to requests for comment.