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A free and open press does not need to be bribed nor does it need to be accepted by the government or face banning. The press is simply a deliverer, not an arbiter, of what passes for fact and logical conclusion. Anyone who relies on the press for that role should strongly consider leaving society for good. Wander into the forest and leave the big decisions to everyone else. It's been done before so it shouldn't be difficult.


Justin may take a page from his most admired country but not even that will shield him from the fact that the average Canadian has concluded what a total idiot he is and how he has been a disaster from the start:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said social platforms were “failing their users” on Thursday, while speaking at the Viva Technology conference in Paris.

He said his government would hold companies to account for fake news, and that they had to make major improvements to their means of dealing with the issue or there would be “meaningful financial consequences.”

Rather, companies like Facebook and Twitter, who have deleted or suspended comments and accounts willy-nilly, are not playing ball and censoring material that is damaging to his government's reputation.

Was giving $565 million to news agencies in Canada "fake news"?

What about the SNC-Lavalin affair or the treatment of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman?

Is the Indian government still lying about Jaspar Atwal?

Outsourcing garbage to the Philippines?

How interesting that the most embarrassing things to the Trudeau government are "fake news".

Would anyone trust anything coming from a guy who wears Indian wedding garb and can't tell the difference between China and Japan?


Also:

The NDP is objecting to an invitation Conservative MPs have extended to psychology professor and author Jordan B. Peterson to testify before the House of Commons justice committee, calling it “irresponsible and morally reprehensible.”

In a statement released Tuesday, NDP MP Tracey Ramsey said the Conservatives are “dangerously pandering to divisive politics instead of standing up for human rights.”

Despite the outcry, Peterson was scheduled to testify Thursday morning as the committee continues its ongoing study into online hate. The committee’s work on the issue came the wake of the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand, which targeted Muslims and killed 51 people.

Late Wednesday Peterson cancelled the appearance, citing a family emergency. It’s not clear when he can be rescheduled or if there will be time because the committee’s report is due in early June.

In an interview, Conservative MP Michael Cooper, one of the committee’s vice-chairs, said the NDP has been aware of the witness list for about a month and had ample opportunity to object to Peterson’s inclusion before it was finalized.

Cooper called the NDP’s statement an obvious effort to play politics, considering that it’s “only on the eve of the committee that the NDP is expressing their outrage.”

Indeed.

Jordan Peterson is a litmus test for freedom of speech and expression and the NDP has failed that test.

Here is the money quote:

“We understand there’s a balance of free speech, but there are limits to what you can say in this country and that’s exactly why the online hate study is so important,” ...

Anything can be construed as offensive. In a society that eschews critical thinking and debate and instead encourages tribalism and censure, Jordan Peterson is a match to a pool of gasoline.

Was that triggering enough for everyone?

Either everything is on the table or this country is China's vassal state, North Korea.




Speaking of China:

In another move to restrict what its citizens see online, China has banned the wikipedia.org domain just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.

That's right - Tienanmen Square where nothing bad happened or ever will.

Except this.

The man in the photograph was alone, standing in front of a line of tanks. He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers. He was carrying a shopping bag. It was the morning of June 5, 1989, the day after Chinese troops massacred thousands of pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Pesky little images and facts like that make trading with China a trifle uncomfortable even if China promises never to spy on its rubes trading partners.

But China hasn't promised to not charge people with espionage or abuse human rights, though:

China on Thursday formally levelled grave espionage charges against two detained Canadians, raising the prospect of harsh punishment for the men caught in a spiralling three-way feud over Trump administration’s treatment of the technology company Huawei.

After holding Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in an undisclosed locations since December, China’s confirmation of the formal charges came just as the U.S. government all but banned American companies from doing business with Chinese tech giant Huawei, a move that could badly cripple a firm considered by China to be a national symbol of industrial prowess.

China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that prosecutors charged Kovrig with “gathering state secrets and intelligence for overseas forces” and Spavor with “stealing and providing state secrets to overseas forces.” The men were charged “recently,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said without giving more specific timing.

In the last six months, the timing of Chinese action against Canadian citizens has reinforced suspicions that Beijing is targeting a close American ally in retaliation for what China says is an unfair American effort to hobble Huawei and seize one of its executives — a campaign that it says is aided and abetted by the Canadian government.

“Everything in China is done in accordance with law,” Lu, the Chinese government spokesman, told reporters Thursday. “We hope Canada will not interfere with, or comment casually on, other countries’ lawful practices.”

(Sidebar: yeah, Justin. Don't upset your bosses.)

**

By some estimates, China has confined two million members of its Uyghur minority in camps where language and religion are systematically suppressed, prompting fears of a vast cultural genocide.

Beijing has also detained a Canadian diplomat and businessman in harsh conditions, and locked up numerous local dissidents in the same type of “black jail.”

That seems like exactly the kind of behaviour contemplated by Canada’s version of the Magnitsky Act, a much-heralded law that imposes sanctions on corrupt and rights-abusing foreign officials.

Yet not a single Chinese official has been listed under the legislation since it was implemented 18 months ago.

Canada could revoke visas for every single Chinese national hiding his money in this country and give everyone twenty-four hours to leave in a move as brash as banning Huawei from buying American technology but that would show fortitude and prudence and Justin simply does not do that sort of thing to his bosses.




Today in "this government makes corruption look easy" news:

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he supported the chief of defence staff’s decision to suspend Vice-Admiral Mark Norman in 2017, more than a year before he was charged with breach of trust for allegedly leaking government secrets about military procurement.

But Sajjan told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the decision was Gen. Jonathan Vance’s alone.

Way to throw your friend under the bus, Harjit.

**

Justin Trudeau’s Tanker Ban Bill C-48 – which discriminates against the Western Canadian oil industry by banning oil tankers on much of the West Coast while not banning oil tankers carrying foreign oil to the East Coast – has been blocked in a Senate Committee.

**

Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s former chief of staff Ben Chin will start a new job as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week.

Before joining Morneau’s office in fall 2017, the veteran political aide worked for former British Columbia premier Christy Clark and former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty.

**

Justin Trudeau is trying to push a climate ’emergency’ motion.

It’s obviously not a coincidence that the ’emergency’ declaration comes after the Liberals got crushed in a recent BC byelection which was won by the Green Party.

Both Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh appear to be panicking, with Singh saying Canada can’t use fossil fuels “at all,” and Trudeau bring up the ’emergency.’

In response, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has accurately pointed out that what Trudeau is really worried about is the ‘political emergency’ he’s facing.

Well, obviously, Andy, but way to call it.

**

The office of the auditor general, stretched thin by additional oversight of such new Liberal government entities as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, has had to drop some of its other audits.

“Although the 2018 federal budget provided us with some new ongoing funding, we did not get any of the new funding that we requested in the 2019 federal budget,” interim Auditor General Sylvain Ricard told a House of Commons committee. “We are continuing to explore our options to ensure that we are properly funded and accountable only to Parliament. In the near term, we have no choice but to decrease the number of performance audits that we conduct.”

Outgoing auditor general Michael Ferguson had requested $10.8 million in additional funding last year so his office could accommodate an expanding mandate. But with no new money on offer in 2019, the office had to drop five audits of the government’s performance, including on cyber crime and Arctic sovereignty.

Yes, why fund an auditor-general when one can can blow cash on organic food with no one watching?:

The Trudeau family groceries also came from a health food supermarket in Gatineau, La Boite à Grains on St. Joseph Street.

Receipts show they spent $2,324 there in January of 2017, and $1,814 the following month. By this point, after a year in office, their taste for Market Organics had fallen off some, with purchases totalling $832 in January of 2017.

Like many documents released under the Access to Information and Privacy Act, these grocery bills present some obstacles. The scanned images are blurry and often in tiny print, and different accounts and years are jumbled together.

Harder to follow is the amount of material blacked out as being private, or of national security. Many entire documents are blacked out except for the word “Invoice,” and an amount of money.

Somewhat related - it's just money:

The inflation rate rose to 2.0% in April, with a notable spike in gas prices in the provinces where Trudeau’s carbon tax has been implemented.

As noted in a CP report, “Gas prices rose month-to-month in April in all provinces. Excluding gasoline, the inflation rate rose 2.3 per cent compared to a year earlier. The report said the six provinces where carbon levies were introduced or increased in April saw a larger month-over-month rise in prices at the pump.”

Here is clear direct evidence that – as we all knew would happen – the carbon tax is making life more expensive at a time when Canada already has an affordability crisis.

And - these might explain some things:

Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring ran out of beer for his Mansion House parties and was forced to ask for reinforcements, after guests made their way through 10,500 free pints in record time.

**

Canadians do cocaine and “totally” trust their dealers more than most other countries, according to a giant new report on global drug use.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnny Cash:

Oh, for the love of crumb-cake!:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is deeply disappointed in a "backsliding on women's rights" happening in American states moving to ban abortion access.

Alabama's legislature has passed a law banning virtually all abortions in the state and other southern and midwestern states are poised to make similar moves.

Trudeau told reporters in France today he regrets these U.S. developments.

"We very much regret what is happening, particularly in the United States, where they are moving backwards in terms of defending a women's right to choose," he said.

"As a government, as Canadians, we will always be unequivocal about defending a woman's right to choose, defending women's rights in general."

Canada has no abortion law. Consider that Justin's wife-beating dad brought in abortion and it is supported by a flunky groper who elbows women in the chest and then fires them if they don't tow the party line. Justin's support for abortion goes along with the miscreants who don't regard FGM as barbaric and that selective abortions to get a male child are just super. And did one forget about the Yazidis?

Now, Justin is simply pandering for cheap support in an election year.

Worry less about Alabama and more about being on the supply list in late October, Justin.




Convicted child murderess withdraws her application to review her revoked prison transfer:

Child killer Terri-Lynne McClintic has retracted her application for compensation claiming that the government’s decision to send her back to prison from the Okimaw Ohci Healing was “unfair” and a loss of liberty.