For a Monday

For your late spring needs ...




In a move that is not really surprising, ousted Liberal cabinet members, Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott announced that they will run as independents in the upcoming election:

Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott plan to run in the upcoming federal election.

The two former Liberal cabinet ministers, who resigned on principle because of Justin Trudeau’s actions in the SNC-Lavalin PMO Scandal, and were then booted from the Liberal Party by Trudeau, announced their decision in nearly-simulataneous events.

Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott talked about ‘doing politics differently,’ working across party lines, and reducing partisanship.

They also both noted that they were courted by the Green Party, and offered praise for Elizabeth May, while declining to join her party.

Also - whoa! That is way too much transparency from the country's most "transparent" government:

In an odd video in which she’s yelling in a bar for some reason, McKenna explained how she spreads her lies:

If you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that’s your talking point, people will totally believe it!”

(Sidebar: I'm sure they will, Climate Change Barbie.)


And:

The Liberal government will consider amendments to two contentious environmental bills working their way through the Senate.

But they will only do so if those amendments don’t seek to defeat the purpose of the bills, and one Liberal says senators considering whether to kill the legislation should keep in mind that they are not elected.

Wait - what?:

Green party Leader Elizabeth May says saving the world from climate change requires Canada to get off oil before the middle of the century.

In the meantime, she wants Canada off foreign oil as soon as possible.



The promise to make Canada energy independent is – perhaps unexpectedly – in line with the economic and climate strategy of Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

Scheer’s plan calls for Canada to import no foreign oil by 2030, partly by planning an energy corridor across Canada that could simplify the construction of pipelines able to move Alberta oil to any coast. 

He sees it as a way to find additional domestic markets for Canada’s oilsands, in a bid to increase their production.

May’s plan, to “turn off the taps to oil imports” is only a stop-gap measure to keep foreign oil out until Canada can break its oil habit altogether.

I confess that I did not see that coming.


Also - who is it again who would impoverish aboriginals who see oil as a way to advance themselves while ignoring the activists who take American money to sink the Canadian oil industry?:

In March, Liberal Minister of Natural Resources, Amarjeet Sohi claimed that Canadians who want to develop pipelines have no regard for the environment or indigenous communities while speaking at a conference on energy.

Sohi spoke at CERAWeek, a conference hosted by the Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Huston, Texas. In attendance were counterparts from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, among others. 

“I would say building pipelines is very challenging,” said Sohi pointing to the polarization around the issue on natural resource development. 

“You have the other sector of the population who wants resource development without any regard for the environment and any regard for the indigenous communities’ involvement.”

The new NAFTA deal didn't only cause Justin to make a choice between angering the Americans or the Chinese (he angered the latter), it also isn't the complete victory he is making it out to be:

Until the United States and Mexico also ratify the new NAFTA agreement, the existing terms remain in effect for businesses.

These terms:

The agreement is what trade watchers call a "snap back" deal. Yes, the tariffs were removed. But the U.S. reserved the right to slap them back on — specifically, "in the event that imports of aluminum or steel products surge meaningfully beyond historic volumes of trade over a period of time."

Then there is the Chinese:

As Lu sees it, “Western countries’ psychological imbalance towards China’s economic and technological development comes down to the West-egotism.” We’re all a bunch of self-important ego-maniacs, too ignorant to understand the greatness of China’s past. On Friday he professed that Westerners “always believe that they are superior to any other nations.” Sure, the West has had a few good centuries, but lately it’s in over its head. The end of the Cold War, he charged, ushered in a period in which democracy-lovers “arrogantly believed that the Western system reached the peak of perfection and it was the best system in the world.”

What Lu would like would be for Canada and some of its fellow travellers to wise up and see things from China’s enlightened viewpoint.

“Chinese people are in the best position to judge China’s development,” he lectured. “We are confident about our own path, theory, system and culture. We will never change our own development path because of the different viewpoints of Western countries and several discredited articles in the West. We will stick to the path that we choose. For Western countries, the problem is how to get along with China.”

Well, Mr. Lu, perhaps it is you who doesn't understand how Western civilisation works and how even your own people would rather live in it than in a country where students get gunned down for demanding democracy.

Is that being too "superior"?




What is something he said?:

“Tout le Monde en Parle” the French-language CBC program which hosted convicted-terrorist Omar Khadr on their Easter Sunday program this year has been suspended from Twitter.

According to the official Radio-Canada website a disgruntled user took credit for the account suspension claiming the program was “glorifying terrorism” and that it was a “terror apologist”.

Khadr, who was convicted of being responsible for the death of U.S. Army Sergeant Christopher Speer, entered the program’s studio to general applause before being interviewed by the TV show’s host Guy A. Lepage. 

The segment which was called “Omar Khadr: dreaming of an ordinary life”, included an interview discussing his relationship with his father, the former Al-Qaeda financier Ahmed Khadr.

“No, I don’t resent him. I don’t think my dad knew the extent of what I was doing,” claimed Khadr regarding the period he worked as a translator and Al-Qaeda member.

He who lives by the tweet shall die by the tweet.




The Ontario government is planning on ending the ten year contract it has with the Beer Store:

The Progressive Conservative government has tabled legislation that would terminate a contract with The Beer Store.

The previous Liberal government signed a 10-year deal with the brewers that permitted an expansion of beer and wine sales to hundreds of grocery stores.

Premier Doug Ford has indicated he plans to put beer and wine in corner stores, but he has to break that agreement to do so and the industry has warned that could trigger steep financial penalties.

While tabling today's bill, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said the current system is a monopoly that is a bad deal for consumers and businesses.

The legislation comes after the province's special adviser on alcohol delivered a report Friday to Fedeli on ways to improve consumer choice and convenience.

Also - not only can people not agree on what makes a culture vibrant and worthwhile, a culture should be self-sustaining. That is why funding any culture is a waste:

Ontario has eliminated a fund supporting Indigenous culture as the government cuts tens of millions of dollars in arts funding — a decision that is being slammed as short-sighted.

The Progressive Conservatives are attempting to trim an $11.7-billion deficit and are cutting spending in a number of areas. That includes lower spending on tourism, arts and culture, according to recently released expenditure estimates for this fiscal year.

Culture programs are budgeted at $235 million this year, down from nearly $295 million last year, including cutting “arts sector support” from $18.5 million to $6.5 million.

Additionally, the Ontario Arts Council, which awards grants, is receiving $10 million less from the government this year — with $5 million of that cut the result of axing the Indigenous Culture Fund that was only established last year.

The Aboriginal Arts Collective of Canada received $25,000 from the fund and president Dawn Setford said she used the money to hold a long-planned conference to teach about 200 Indigenous women various artistic and cultural practices such as porcupine quilling and basketry.

A suspect is arrested in connection with the Lyons bombings:

French police have arrested a 24-year old man suspected of being behind last week’s bomb blast in the central city of Lyon that injured 13 people.

No name.

Hhmmm ... 




Trump is all over the map when it comes to the North Korean crisis. He cannot promise to help in any way he can to return Japanese abductees while ignoring Kim Jong-Un's belligerence and deception: 

In an apparent contradiction of his national security adviser, President Donald Trump on Sunday downplayed recent North Korean missile tests, tweeting from Tokyo that they’re not a concern for him — even though they are for Japan.

He may convince some of the American people but not the Japanese people.  




The efforts to get Normandy beach made into a heritage site: 

Serge Durflinger is one of those who firmly believes the D-Day invasion beaches are “incontestably important” to the world and meet the very high standards for the UN designation.

The University of Ottawa history professor was part of a team of international experts that included archeologists, geologists and all manner of other specialists who were brought together by the French government to help with the D-Day application.

“The Normandy campaign and the D-Day invasion involved people from dozens of countries, all engaged in a united purpose, all brought to this small coastal region in France for the beginning of what would become the end of Nazi Germany,” Durflinger said.

“And they’re all combining efforts on a global scale in this titanic effort, which was also one of the single greatest, momentous military operations ever mounted that we know about. And that it has scientific achievement, and its remnants are very real.”