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If Andrew Scheer had his wits about him, he would ask if Justin worked for the Chinese or the Americans that day and for very good reason:

Meanwhile, China’s blockade against canola, pork and beef is beginning to bite economically. Growers will have to find alternate buyers this year, and meat processors are starting to feel the pinch, industry groups say. 

With no end to the dispute in sight, there may be a political toll to pay, too. 

On Friday, Freeland said the government will continue to negotiate with China outside of the public eye, a process that exposes the government to criticism from its Conservative Party rival. 

The Trudeau family's love for tyranny is well-documented. Also well-documented is Justin's wish to supplant China for the US as a major trading partner. China has been using Canada as a punching bag since the the Meng affair (as stupidly handled as any trade deal Justin has buggered up) and Justin responded with more grovelling.

Is that the stance of a country that is - how did the Liberals put it? - back?

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That's an excellent question:

In a table-top pandemic exercise at Johns Hopkins University last year, a pathogen based on the emerging Nipah virus was released by fictional extremists, killing 150 million people.

A less apocalyptic scenario mapped out by a blue-ribbon U.S. panel envisioned Nipah being dispersed by terrorists and claiming over 6,000 American lives.

Scientists from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) have also said the highly lethal bug is a potential bio-weapon.

But this March that same lab shipped samples of the henipavirus family and of Ebola to China, which has long been suspected of running a secretive biological warfare (BW) program.

China strongly denies it makes germ weapons, and Canadian officials say the shipment was part of its efforts to support public-health research worldwide. Sharing of such samples internationally is relatively standard practice.

But some experts are raising questions about the March transfer, which appears to be at the centre of a shadowy RCMP investigation and dismissal of a top scientist at the Winnipeg-based NML.

“I would say this Canadian ‘contribution’ might likely be counterproductive,” said Dany Shoham, a biological and chemical warfare expert at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. “I think the Chinese activities … are highly suspicious, in terms of exploring (at least) those viruses as BW agents. “

James Giordano, a neurology professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow in biowarfare at the U.S. Special Operations Command, said it’s worrisome on a few fronts.

China’s growing investment in bio-science, looser ethics around gene-editing and other cutting-edge technology and integration between government and academia raise the spectre of such pathogens being weaponized, he said.

That could mean an offensive agent, or a modified germ let loose by proxies, for which only China has the treatment or vaccine, said Giordano, co-head of Georgetown’s Brain Science and Global Law and Policy Program.

While China maybe doing as Professor Giordano suggests, Justin is showing up at parades.

I can see his full attention is on important issues.




Doesn't Bernie Sanders have a gimmick for this?:

Dozens of parents and patients throughout Canada have had to face similar decisions. Proton beam therapy is an advanced technique used to deliver radiation treatment, but it is not available anywhere in Canada (except for Vancouver, which has a facility that treats only some eye cancers). Proton therapy differs from traditional, X-ray based therapy because a heavier particle (a proton) is used, which stops in a tumour, rather than partially going through the tumour and out the body.

At the same time, protons are equally effective at delivering the cancer-killing radiation dose that is needed to treat cancer, as compared to X-ray radiotherapy — it just does so in a more precise manner. For many cancers, particularly those that are located close to the surface of the body, the amount of normal body tissues that receive radiation is substantially reduced with proton therapy. This leads to fewer short- and long-term side effects from radiation therapy. The reduction in side effects is of paramount importance in children and young adults with cancer.

Although proton therapy for children is often covered under provincial health insurance after a special application to a patient’s ministry of health, I have seen countless parents struggle with the difficult decision about whether to travel for proton therapy. On one hand, parents want the best treatment for their child — one that absolutely minimizes the risk of long-term side effects. On the other hand, parents realize they may have to leave their jobs and families for up to eight weeks; travel with their child who is recovering from a difficult surgery; have to urgently apply for a passport or visa; have to wonder if they are admissible to the United States. In some provinces, air travel, accommodations and meals are not covered; children often are able to tap charitable funding to assist with some of these costs, but young adults are on their own.

 This is the healthcare system Bernie Sanders touts while campaigning:

But what will again undercut any serious debate about Canada’s financial and performance crises in health care are the two most enduring and damaging myths about Canadian health care.

First that it’s “free.” Second that’s it’s “the best health care system in the world.”

Both claims are nonsense.

But raising this issue during an election is the “third rail” of Canadian politics, because any political leader who advocates any reform other than pouring more public money into our broken system, will be vilified by their opponents as advocating “U.S.-style health care.”

(Sidebar: considered wicked and heathenish by people whose stake in the healthcare system is only as an institution, not as a means to stay alive.)

In fact the U.S., depending on what is measured, is one of the few developed countries Canada outperforms in many international surveys.
 
But what those surveys also show is that Canadians are paying top dollar for mediocre health care, compared to many developed countries.

A new study by the Fraser Institute — “The Price of Public Health Care Insurance, 2019” — calculates the average Canadian family of four, with two adults and two children, will pay $13,311 through their taxes for health care this year.

Authors Milagros Palacios and Bacchus Barua say between 1997 and 2019, the cost of public health care for the average Canadian family increased 3.2 times as fast as the cost of food, 2.1 times as fast for clothing, 1.8 times as fast for shelter, and 1.7 times as fast for income.

Put another way, between 1997 and 2019, the cost of public health care insurance rose by 184.9%, compared to a 106.2% increase in average income, 49.5% in the consumer price index, 101.5% for housing, 87.5% for clothing and 58.6% for food.

That said, the Fraser Institute report focuses only on the price Canadians pay for health care through their taxes, estimated at $163 billion annually.

It doesn’t include the additional costs Canadians pay through private insurance, or out of their own pockets.

When that’s included, the total cost of Canadian health care rises to $242 billion (as of 2017), according to The Canadian Institute for Health Information, $6,604 per person, or 11.5% of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product.

That’s one of the world’s highest spending levels among developed countries.

But for that gold-plated price, we’re getting mediocre performance.

And:

The major issue is not how much money is spent, but how it is spent. The PC government’s approach of establishing a treatment budget for each child has to change. It fundamentally contradicts a system where the experts determine and monitor need, and turns the program into an entitlement. The key question should be, did your child get the help she needs, not did someone else get more expensive treatment.

The former of which both governments decided on their own.




From the most "transparent" and by-the-book government in the country's history:

Ottawa is going around the Manitoba government in order to give $5.4 million in carbon tax revenues to the province's schools in the latest carbon-tax battle between the federal Liberals and a provincial Conservative government.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister last month refused to play ball and help the federal government distribute carbon tax revenues so schools in his province could make energy efficient upgrades.

Manitoba's share is from $60 million available this year for schools in the four provinces affected by the federal carbon price — Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.

Although all four governments are opposing the tax in court, only Manitoba wouldn't agree to work with the federal Liberals to distribute the funds to local school boards.

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The Canadian Chamber of Commerce gives the Liberal government a lukewarm grade on its efforts to cut the roughly 130,000 regulations imposed on Canadian businesses, amid worries that an endless layering of administrative rules is increasingly crimping private-sector investment.

In a review of the Trudeau government’s promise to cut red tape, published Thursday, the Chamber praised parts of the Liberal track record while also raising doubts over whether it would fully follow through on the most critical parts of its efforts. Business lobby groups and others have long said that a structural reform of the regulatory regime would be needed in order to attract new investment to Canada.

‘It’s regulatory whack-a-mole,” said Ryan Greer, senior director of transportation and infrastructure policy for the Chamber and author of the report. “If you don’t fix the underlying cause of the symptoms, you’ll never address the real problem in terms of how regulations are crafted.”

The private sector has been warning that the complicated patchwork of regulations in Canada has caused delays to major infrastructure projects such as seaports and pipelines, and also restricted the flow of foreign investment into the country.

These somewhat arcane regulations, which stipulate everything from the volume of vinegar in pickle jars to the manufacturing specs for back-up cameras in cars and trucks, are quickly growing in number. In 2015, Ottawa counted a total of 131,754 federal regulations that are imposed upon businesses in Canada, up from 129,860 the year before.

How could this go wrong?:

Just three years after stabbing three soldiers at a Toronto recruitment office with a large kitchen knife, Ayanle Hassan Ali is now eligible to visit his family this year in Toronto on two-day passes if his psychiatric hospital agrees he’s well enough, the Sun has learned.

“I have a licence to kill; I have a green light to kill,” Ali had written in his diary.

“One soldier is all it takes, just one.”

Originally facing nine charges — including three counts of attempted murder — all “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group,” Ali was acquitted in May 2018 on the terror part of the indictment after the judge found that while he was motivated by extremist beliefs linked to his mental illness, he wasn’t acting on behalf of any terror group — a decision now under appeal.

He was instead found not criminally responsible (NCR) by reason of mental disorder.

Suffering from schizophrenia, Ali has lived in the secure forensic unit at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton since his arrest in 2016 where he has annual hearings before the Ontario Review Board to monitor his progress and ensure he’s under the least onerous conditions.

This is what happens when you don't elect judges:

One of the country’s largest retailers is finally off the hook for the devastating collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh six years ago.

In a decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear a group of Bangladeshi victims and relatives who wanted to sue Loblaws over the tragedy.

The key issue in the lawsuit was whether a Canadian court had jurisdiction to consider the claim — of importance to companies that source product from abroad.

Why stay?:

Canada’s ambassador to Washington will leave his post at the end of the summer after serving during one of the most tumultuous periods in the critical cross-border relationship.

David MacNaughton announced Thursday that he will return to the private sector in Toronto.

Kirsten Hillman, MacNaughton’s deputy since 2017, will become Canada’s acting ambassador to the United States.

MacNaughton has served as top envoy to the U.S. since March 2016 — and months later found himself as point person in Washington during a turbulent time in Canada’s relationship with its next-door neighbour and largest trading partner.

A potential firestorm:

India’s Parliament has approved the Hindu nationalist-led government’s decision to revoke the special constitutional status of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state, thrusting the Himalayan region wracked by insurgency into long-term uncertainty.

Ignoring opposition by Kashmiri leaders, it also approved a bill to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its statehood, separating it into two federal territories.