Saturday Post

 French police are still hunting for the culprit whose home-made bomb injured thirteen people:

French police were on Saturday hunting a suspect believed to have deposited a paper bag containing an explosive device that went off, wounding 13 people in a busy pedestrian street in the city of Lyon the previous day.

France's counter-terrorism prosecutor, Remy Heitz, said an investigation has been opened for "attempted murderer in relation with a terrorist undertaking" and "criminal terrorist association."

He said no group has claimed responsibility for the explosion yet.

Regional authorities said 13 people suffered mostly minor injuries, including 11 who were still in the hospital on Saturday morning. ...

The man was seen arriving on foot, pushing his bike, in the pedestrian Victor Hugo street. He was seen leaving a paper bag on a concrete block in the middle of the street near a bakery, Heitz said.

The suspect immediately returned to his bike and left by the same path. One minute later, the explosion shattered the glass of a cooler in the bakery, Heitz said.

Investigators on the scene have found screws, metallic balls, a triggering device that can be used remotely and plastic pieces that may come from the explosive device.

 China warns its North American vassal state that things have hit "rock-bottom":

China’s ambassador to Canada says the bilateral relationship is now at “rock bottom” compared to any time since diplomatic ties were first established decades ago.

In prepared text for a speech Thursday, Lu Shaye said he’s saddened Canada-China relations are at what he called a “freezing point.” ...

“For clear reasons, the current China-Canada relations are facing serious difficulties and are situated at the rock bottom since the two countries have established diplomatic relations,” said a copy of Lu’s speech, which was posted on the Chinese Embassy’s website.

“It saddens us that the current China-Canada relations are ‘at a freezing point’ and face huge difficulties. The knots shall be untied by those who got them tied.”

He continued by urging Canada to view China’s development in a “fair and objective” manner and to respect its concerns. Lu also warned Canada to “stop the moves that undermine the interests of China.”

Yeah, Justin! Do as you're told!




Who could have foreseen this?:

Hundreds of criminals connected to the illegal drug trade are freely plying their trades as importers, go-betweens and hitmen in Canada — according to Quebec news outlet TVA Nouvelles — largely because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government dropped the visa requirement for Mexican travelers.

TVA investigative journalist Felix Seguin spoke to several in-the-know sources who revealed there are 400 criminals who have recently entered Canada to traffic drugs — half of them living in Quebec while the other half are presumed to be mainly operating in the Toronto area.

At least several of the estimated 400 who recently infiltrated the Canadian border are believed to have used fake Mexican passports.

Mexican asylum claims skyrocketed once Trudeau waived the visa, going up from 260 in 2016 to over 3,300 in 2018. The visa requirement was originally put in place by the Harper government in 2009 to curb a spike of asylum claims from Mexico. The policy largely worked, with claims dropping down to double digits in 2013.

General Jonathan Vance does what he is told and then some:

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance issued a long, written apology on Friday and accepted full responsibility for the decision to exclude relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan from a closed-door dedication ceremony for the cenotaph.

**

Vice Adm. Mark Norman has met with defence chief Gen. Jon Vance for what is being described by the Defence department as a “cordial discussion” between the two officers.

Norman has yet to return to National Defence headquarters in Ottawa and has declined to go into details about what his future plans are.

Vance has stabbed in the back people he served with and people who served under him.

If the Canadian military uniform meant anything (and it doesn't according the government and the people who voted for it), Vance would be a disgrace to it.




Ousted Liberal cabinet members Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott are planning on joining forces with anyone but the Liberals.

More to come.




Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has called an election for September:

Manitobans are set to trudge to the polls twice this fall, as Premier Brian Pallister dropped the heaviest hint yet that he will call an election in September.

Elected in spring 2016 with a record majority, Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives still enjoy a healthy lead in the polls, spurring the former federal MP to go early. Manitoba has fixed election date rules — the vote is scheduled for Oct. 6, 2020. But Pallister has said he wants to avoid clashing with Manitoba’s 150th birthday celebrations next year.

In an interview in his spacious office in the Manitoba legislature, Pallister said he has been frank that the election should be held this year.

“I recognize our political opponents probably want it deferred and delayed because they may not be ready. But I absolutely don’t fear going to the people of Manitoba and asking them because we are going to be well over 90 per cent done on our mandate,” he said.

The last time Scheer was appalled by child abuse, Justin called him "ambulance-chasing":

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer pledged Thursday to get tough on crime with mandatory minimum sentences of five years for anyone convicted of abusing children.

Scheer, who made an announcement in the Montreal suburb of Delson, Que., said he will ensure sentences for sexual crimes against children take into account the length and severity of abuse.

Wounds from sexual abuse last a lifetime, Scheer said, adding the penalty should "fit the crime" and that survivors need to be assured the federal government will ensure offenders are appropriately punished.

"Under my leadership, a Conservative government will always put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals," Scheer said in a statement. "We will ensure that anyone who harms or sexually exploits a child will be behind bars, where they belong, for a very long time."

The Conservatives say that additional federal action is required because sentences for horrific crimes involving children are "woefully inadequate."

The Criminal Code has provisions on sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation that carry maximum and minimum penalties, depending on whether a charge is pursued as an indictable offence or a summary conviction. Those can range from 90 days to 14 years behind bars.

It turns out that British Columbia can't just regulate a pipeline flow:

A British Columbia court ruled on Friday that the provincial government cannot regulate increased flows of heavy crude through the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline, removing a potential hurdle to the long-delayed project.

It's just money: 

Starting in August, Nova Scotia undergraduate students who are staying to study in the province will not have to pay back provincial student loans, according to the Coast. And while some acknowledge it as a “step in the right direction,” they’ve been clear that it won’t help the out-of-province students who make up nearly half of Nova Scotia’s student population.

Schools are puppy mills and baby-minding centres that do not reward excellence nor do they rebuff failure or mediocrity. Anyone can pass and move onto post-secondary education even if they do not have the skills to be there.

So there's that. 

Secondly, students often go for degrees that do not help them in the workplace.

Thirdly, there is a sense of entitlement and little understand of how the economy shifts and changes and may ultimately not have a place for someone with a gender studies degree.

Forgiving student loans is encouraging irresponsibility and a sense of apathy for those whose tax dollars are wasted. 


Also: 

Indigenous courses will not be a mandatory part of the high school curriculum in Ontario — a decision that has angered First Nations members.

The Progressive Conservative government's decision reverses a commitment from the former Liberals to make the courses mandatory, stemming from a recommendation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler.

He is disappointed the courses will only be offered as electives.

"Learning about the colonial history of this country should not be optional," Fiddler said. "As long as we make these courses as electives, I think the system will continue to fail our students...Imagine training the next generation of leaders, whether they're in politics or judges or lawyers or teachers, without this critical piece. It's very troublesome."

We could talk about how the Iroquois nearly wiped out the Huron.

That is a subject rich in depth and nuance. 

Remember - "climate change" is based on "science":

So, what happened was that I noticed a tweet in the endless stream from one of the sharpest minds I’ve encountered on the web, a fearless jouster known as DawnTJ90. She (I assume, who knows) posted a link to a story about how climate change is making sharks right handed. I marvelled in a quick comment that these parody sites are getting very creative and funny. Then I followed the link, read the story, and realized that it was serious – yet another group of grant-harvesters was “studying” this climate-change consequence and had actually published research on it, with a straight face. I therefore hastily deleted my tweet; can you imagine being such a social media loser as to be unable to tell the difference between a parody site and the real thing? I have no interest in following Howard Dean’s career down the toilet, and luckily there were no further humiliating consequences.

Shortly after, much wiser now, I stumbled across another article entitled “Situation Worsens In Venezuela, Bolivia, U.S., Japan, Mexico, Iraq, Spain” which inflicted some eye-rolling at yet another “countries that are warming faster than others” climate-change catalog of horrors. Even the most sober and solemn new sites are full of such goose-stepping analyses nowadays. I read through it to see what the catastrophe was this time.

But damn it I got it wrong again. That headline, as it turns out, emanated from The Onion, self-billed (with tongue firmly in cheek) as “America’s Finest New Source”.  You can judge that for yourself (I tend to agree) by pondering a few of their other recent headlines: “New MLB Rules Limit Number of Mound Conjugal Visits”; “Panicked Man completely out of things to talk about 5 minutes into marriage“; “Proud Business Owner tapes first Customer to Wall“; “Doctor Alarmed by How Little Time Family Needed to Decide to Pull Plug on Grandfather” and so on and so forth. The article I read was cut from similar cloth, listing unnamed ailments from virtually every country on earth as some sort of pointed commentary on how dumb those types of articles have become.

So, where does this leave us? Well, the movement to save the world has extrapolated from a simple “a warming planet may imply gradually shifting local climate characteristics”, which is reasonable and science-y enough, to teeth-rattling bombast about how any theoretical scenario imaginable that is bad is coming straight down the pipe. It’s true that we don’t really know if right-handed sharks are going to create problems, other than that they may be more analytical and less artistic, but through the lens of climate change, all that matters is that this is bad.

(Merci)

 



  
Let's hear it for the Holy spirit!:

In a press release Wednesday, the monks announced that they have received a permit to construct a microbrewery within the abbey, in which they will brew their iconic beer from recipes dating back to the 12th century.

During a launch event on Tuesday, Father Karel Stautemas, the abbey subprior, explained that the initiative is the product of four years of research into medieval books shelved in the abbey’s library, which contain information on how the monks brewed beer in the past.

“We had the books with the old recipes, but nobody could read them,” Stautemas told the National Post in a telephone interview Wednesday. “It was all in old Latin and old Dutch.

“So we brought in volunteers. We’ve spent hours leafing through the books and have discovered ingredient lists for beers brewed in previous centuries, the hops used, the types of barrels and bottles, and even a list of the actual beers produced centuries ago.”

The medieval troves were thought to be lost after the monastery near Brussels was ransacked and burned during the French Revolution in 1789.

However, a group of abbey monks are said to have saved close to 300 books from an otherwise guaranteed destruction by secretly knocking a hole in the library wall and removing them to safety.

“Beer has always been part of our life in the abbey,” said Stautemas in a release.