Mid-Week Post

It's the mid-weekiest!




The scandal that just won't die:

It was a little more than two months ago that Justin Trudeau’s point man in Washington, Ambassador David MacNaughton, said he was confident that tariffs on steel and aluminum would be lifted.

“I’m confident that we’re going to get there in the next few weeks,” MacNaughton said 10 weeks ago.

When he made those comments on Feb. 21, I doubt he was thinking of May.

Yet here we are and the tariffs have yet to be lifted, those close to the talks and the industry say there is no new movement on this file.

So was McNaughton crazy for saying a deal could be coming soon?

No.

Several sources have told me that around the time McNaughton made those comments, the Americans had made an offer to Canada.

So what happened?

Well quite frankly, one of the main things that happened was SNC-Lavalin.

Not only was this scandal absorbing all the government’s efforts, it took out the point man on this file.

Trudeau’s top political advisor Gerry Butts had developed a respectful working relationship with people in the Trump administration.

They liked Gerry and he was the government’s lead on the tariff file.

When Butts resigned over the SNC-Lavalin scandal, not only was PMO’s attention elsewhere as they tried to contain the scandal, there was no one left to pick up the pieces on the trade file with Washington.

In short, Canada dropped the ball.

 A refresher:

Drawing that link, the Conservatives’ deputy leader, Lisa Raitt, questioned whether the prime minister’s office had any contact with Elections Canada in 2016, when SNC-Lavalin signed a compliance agreement with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Yves Côté, thereby saving them from a criminal prosecution over elections violations.

“We have seen this before,” Raitt said, alluding to Wilson-Raybould’s testimony.

Also:

One of the great fears stalking the corridors of the Prime Minister’s Office (looking for a spine to run up) is that the measures announced last Friday will lead to mass layoffs in the steel sector, or worse, plant closures.

Canada’s ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, was in Ottawa on Tuesday and the response to the removal of many of the safeguards, and the continued U.S. steel and aluminum levy, was top of the agenda.

The safeguards that expired last week were imposed by Ottawa last October on seven steel products, to protect against dumping in the Canadian market by steel displaced by Trump’s attempts to keep out imports from countries such as China.

But after a report in early April by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal found that tariffs were only warranted in two of the seven metals, the government was forced to remove most of the safeguards.

That would be less of a problem if there was any prospect of the dispute with Trump over steel coming to a swift conclusion. But as MacNaughton put it, there is an impasse, as the White House demands a cap on Canadian exports at little more than 2017 levels, while Ottawa responds that it can’t live with a cap that doesn’t allow for any growth. “I don’t describe that as a negotiation,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

The government is under intense pressure from a united front of steel manufacturers and union bosses, all intent on wringing more protectionist support.

**

The federal government is changing a payment program for canola farmers to help those affected by China’s decision to ban the Canadian product.

The maximum loan limit through the program will be boosted to $1 million from $400,000, and the portion that will be interest-free is rising to $500,000 from $100,000, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said on Parliament Hill Wednesday morning.

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada’s canola producers and farm families across the country and we will continue to listen to their needs,” she said.

“Canada has the best canola in the world as well as a very robust inspection system.”

Bullsh--.

There is nothing wrong with Canadian canola. There is something wrong with China, Canada's new overlord.

Printing off money isn't going to fix this.




As long as Justin wastes valuable time in the office his dad once occupied, there will never be a new pipeline:

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.

Also - let them fight:

Hours after being sworn in as the 18th premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney threatened a court battle against federal legislation to ban oil tanker traffic off the British Columbia coast, calling it an attack on Alberta.

“Albertans have elected a government that will protect their interests and fight for them when things get tough. And these are tough times,” Kenney told a Senate panel in Edmonton. “We do not agree with the bill period. We do not believe it can be remediated. We believe it must be scrapped.”

Cut the b@$#@rds off, Jason.

Let BC fight this in the dark and when the temperatures climb over forty degrees Celsius.

Yeah, you tried this before, Chrystia. Don't you remember?:

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland promoted tax hikes for the rich as a way of helping a "hollowed-out" middle class Tuesday, but sidestepped questions on whether the country's top one per cent will be asked to pay more in the Liberals' upcoming platform.

Also - now who doesn't have money to give veterans what they are asking for?:

The soon-to-be former air force officer — who last week lost a court challenge of the military's refusal to pay disability benefits for a 2006 traffic accident that claimed the life of her infant son — is now confirmed as the nominated federal Conservative candidate in the Toronto-area riding of Scarborough Southwest.

She said she's jumping into the political fray to help protect other Canadian Forces members from going through what she did.

"I went to Bill Blair three years ago to ask for his help and he turned me away," Fawcett told CBC News. Blair, the Trudeau government's border security minister, represents Scarborough Southwest.

"If he is not prepared to fight for someone like me or anyone else in our riding, then I am prepared to fight him for the job."

The display here has been set in motion in 1985. Canada is a balkanised country where extremists let everyone know which gang runs which area:

A unit of soldiers from Toronto-area reserve units of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were photographed carrying weapons in “full fighting order,” their magazines in place — but unloaded — at a Khalsa Day Parade that took place in Toronto on Sunday.

The photo was posted to Twitter by controversial author and columnist Tarek Fatah, who has written extensively about extremism. ...

Soldiers with the 4 Canadian Division participate in a number of community and outreach events, “including parades such as the Khalsa Day Parade,” a CAF spokesman told Global News.

“Normally, weapons are not carried at such events,” he said.

Another moral and political failure for political multiculturalism.


Also - in order to judge whether or not Senator Beyak's posts are racist drivel or simply controversial statements, I'll post what is available here. This way people can determine if Senator Beyak's ousting is justified or not.


And - you can run to an unelected judge but you can't run away from the truth:

In a recent decision, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the father to stop publicly discussing the case after finding some of his actions, including interviews with conservative media outlets, exposed his child to significant harm and constituted “family violence.”

But the father’s lawyers say the restraining order is “draconian” and they plan to file an appeal.

“We’ll make submissions on freedom of expression, freedom of thought and opinion, and freedom of conscience, in this matter,” said Herb Dunton, one of the father’s lawyers.

A publication ban imposed by the court restricts media from identifying the child or the father by name.

The case started last year as a clash between child autonomy and parental rights. After undergoing multiple evaluations from a psychologist and staff at B.C. Children’s Hospital, the boy, with the support of his mother and health professionals, wanted to proceed with hormone therapy to help transition from a female body to a male one.

However, his father, who shares joint custody with the boy’s mother, opposed the treatment.

In short, a girl, under the direction of child abusers, is attempting to mutilate her body while her father, who does not want to see his daughter have to sue these child abusers in the next decade over irreversible damages to the human body, refuses to go along with the delusion that an unelected judge is enforcing.





 This is what happens when a province runs out of money:

Ontario has ended a $50 million fund that helped child care centres cover increasing labour costs without passing them on to parents.

Voting Liberal has its consequences, consequences one will see even after a change of government.


Also - if parents don't care, if students don't care and if the puppy-mill system doesn't care, one should not be surprised that the results are overly sensitive twits who cannot write a decent sentence:

A new study, “Academic Skill Deficiencies in four Ontario universities,” offers solid, but troubling evidence that the secondary schools feeding universities are falling well short of expectations on the skills-building front. In fact, this study, conducted at four Ontario universities — York, Western, Waterloo and Toronto, which together enrol 41 per cent of Ontario undergrads — found that “only about 44 per cent of students felt they had the generic skills needed to do well in their academic studies, 41 per cent could be classified as at risk in academic settings because of limited levels of basic skills, and 16 per cent lacked almost all the skills needed for higher learning.”

Yeah, that would mean admitting some rather uncomfortable truths:

“We’re grieving for two. My child died with her baby and somebody has to tell me why he’s not accountable for that baby’s death as well.”

The leading cause of death for pregnant women isn’t any complication from the birth — it’s murder. 

A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found the risk of dying from homicide is twice as great in pregnant women as it is for those who aren’t.

Yet a murdered mother’s unborn child isn’t considered a homicide victim under Canadian law: only if the infant dies “after becoming a human being” when it has “completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.”

Goberdhan’s family wants to change that.

The era of Reiwa begins:

Japan’s new Emperor Naruhito will perform his first ritual Wednesday hours after succeeding his father on the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Naruhito will receive the Imperial regalia of sword and jewel as proof of succession at the ceremony and later will make his first address.

His wife, Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat, and their daughter Princess Aiko, are barred from the first ceremony, where only adult male royals can participate.

Behold human achievement in all its glory:

The adaptation of a known drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis could help epilepsy patients, a new study by researchers at Tel Aviv University has revealed.

The potential breakthrough, which may help patients with epilepsy and other brain disorders who do not respond to available treatments today, is based on the discovery of a new mechanism that regulates and ensures the stability of brain activity.

While most researchers have previously looked for malfunctions in the regulation mechanism that may be perceived as a “thermostat” of neural activity, restoring the neural network to its original set point after every event that increases or diminishes activity, Tel Aviv University researchers led by Prof. Inna Slutsky now argue that the set point itself deviates from the norm among epilepsy sufferers.