A Post

 

For the first day of school ...




Oh, dear:

Relief officials reported scenes of utter ruin Tuesday in parts of the Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands. At least seven deaths were reported, with the full scope of the disaster still unknown.

The storm’s punishing winds and muddy brown floodwaters destroyed or severely damaged thousands of homes, crippled hospitals and trapped people in attics.

Also - you moved to a hurricane-prone part of the world to avoid a bit of snow:

Ingolf Askevold is a former biologist who lives in Tallahassee, Fl. after moving from British Columbia 29 years ago. He dealt with Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Michael last year and faces Hurricane Dorian this week.

“Where do I want to spend the rest of my life? I don’t want to spend it in a hurricane alleyway,” says Askevold, 63. “I have the option to say, ‘I’m just going to move back home.’”

Because Canada is a repository of expatriates, child-killers and terrorists of all kinds.




It's an election year!:

The Liberals have revoked the candidacy of Hassan Guillet, their former candidate in the Montreal riding of Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel.

However, people are now asking questions about why he was approved in the first place, and why it took Trudeau so long to remove him.

Here’s what people are saying:

“Now, @CIJAinfo is saying they alerted the Liberals to Guillet’s comments *in June.* Obviously, Trudeau wanted to hold on to him, despite his racist garbage, as long as possible.”

**

Consumer advocates say a rare consensus is forming among the major political parties ahead of the federal election that Canadians need protecting from gouging by the country’s big telecom companies.

It’s being called phone-bill populism, and it could be a make-or-break issue for the parties as they head toward the Oct. 21 vote.

(Sidebar: or they could get rid of the monopolies, rather like the monopoly of the press that is openly bribed.)

**

A group of protesters briefly stopped the union group from marching in the parade, forcing Trudeau to join in several blocks down the parade route. From there, he moved onto the area’s Labour Day picnic, where he was greeted by the same protesters, who among other things were calling for more action for sufferers of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows First Nation.

**

Singh, who is Sikh, tweeted that he will never respond to Islamophobia with “I am not a Muslim.”

He says that instead, he will stand with Muslims and say that hate is wrong.

Empty platitudes are all very well and good for the non-thinking electorate but if you promise to stand with those who endorse Sharia, then you do endorse Sharia yourself.

**

Justin smears. It's what he does. That's why he mentions abortion and Andrew Scheer in the same sentence. Why does the average Canadian dread even the mention of abortion limits? Is there an abortion fetish that the average Canadian has?:

“As prime minister of Canada I will always oppose measures that reopen these types of debates,” he said, making the point in both official languages.

“A vote was held, it’s settled. Canadians have moved on, I’ve moved on,” he continued. “It is completely hypocritical for the Liberals to bring this up now to divide Canadians, to use this issue for political partisan purposes.”

Media outlets friendly to the Liberals weren’t about to let the matter die, quickly shifting to questioning Scheer’s personal views rather than the policies he would follow. The CBC whipped up two columns, Vassy Kapelos noting that the Tory leader hadn’t explained “what he actually thinks — personally,” a point echoed by recent Trudeau biographer Aaron Wherry in a piece headlined: 

“Canadians can be forgiven for being puzzled about what the Conservative leader really thinks.”

Well, no the matter isn't settled.

Start crying, Canadians. You were hoodwinked by a total moron and a morally bereft hypocrite who has made it this far because of his dad's money.




Well, he has a point:

People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier has doubled down after attempting to discredit an internationally recognized teenage climate change activist by calling her “mentally unstable.”

After facing scorn on Twitter for his remarks on Greta Thunberg on Sunday, Bernier did not back down in an eight-part tweetstorm the following day.

Good because Greta Thunberg is an autistic girl being used by her parents and other eco-fanatics and it's high time someone called them out on this.

**

“Canada has a unique identity in the world. We are not a post-national country. Let’s focus on what unites us as Canadians, and not what divides us.”

Right now, Canada is a collection of tribes that survive off of a government trough.




Speaking of troughs:

The problem of spiralling student debt begs real solutions. Disappointingly, the only one we really hear of is to move the debt burden off the students’ balance sheet and onto the governments’.

The taxpayer already subsidizes about half the cost of post-secondary education through direct transfers to colleges and universities. It’s a 50-per-cent-off sale that cash-strapped provincial governments are struggling to keep on offer. Asking them to pay more isn’t an option on the table, nor should it be.

The hard-nosed reality is that if we’re ever to get our fiscal health back in order, it won’t be by chasing grand delusions.

I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about:

Recent gains in consumer confidence have been wiped out, according to the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index.

The index fell to 56.4 in August, a drop of over two points from the 58.6 rating that was recorded in July.

According to Bloomberg, “The drop reflects waning optimism about Canada’s economy, and effectively reverses the pick up in sentiment earlier this summer. It marks the first drop in the index of more than 2 points since November 2018.”

As Bloomberg noted in a graphic, “Confidence decline casts doubt on growth.”

The biggest fall in confidence took place in Ontario.



Prospects for the future of the economy are also dim.

We need to elect our judges:

As part of a series of changes in how juries are chosen, it will now be up to a judge and a judge alone to decide if someone is fit to be on a jury. Previously fellow jurors or prospective jurors would decide if someone was believable when they said they could hear a case and decide on a verdict without bias or prejudice.

Now it will be up to a judge to make the determination for each juror and many defence lawyers do not like it.

Ottawa lawyer Michael Spratt worries the change will slow the process of jury selection down because judges are required to provide reasons for their decisions and he argues that could end up being the case here. He also questions the wisdom of the judge being involved in selecting the jury.

“The judge is the referee of the trial and having the ref pick one of the teams leaves questions,” Spratt said.

He’s convinced there will be plenty of appeals once the changes take effect and convictions could be overturned.

(SEE: Charter, total rubbish)

**

Saskatchewan says the Supreme Court of Canada has denied the province’s request to delay its appeal hearing over the carbon tax.

The province says the Supreme Court recently issued an order stating the hearing remain tentatively set for Jan.14.

The government had asked for more time and expected a delay could mean a hearing next spring.

**

Lawyers for former Afghanistan hostage Joshua Boyle want a judge to toss out a charge that he misled police — one of several criminal counts he faces in Ontario court.

Boyle, 36, has pleaded not guilty to offences against estranged spouse Caitlan Coleman, including assault, sexual assault and unlawful confinement, as well as a charge of misleading Ottawa police in the hours before he was arrested.

The offences are alleged to have occurred in late 2017 after the couple returned to Canada following five years as captives of Taliban-linked extremists who seized them during a backpacking trip to Asia.

In court today, Boyle’s lawyers argued there is insufficient evidence to support the charge that Boyle misled police to believe Coleman was suicidal and missing to divert suspicion from himself the night of Dec. 30, 2017.

The Crown has agreed to modify a charge of sexual assault with a weapon, specifically ropes, to simply sexual assault.

**

This girl will face lifelong physical ailments because her stupid mother is a sucker for perversity:

A 14-year-old transgender boy at the centre of a complex B.C. appeal court case says he finally feels comfortable in his own skin after starting testosterone treatment earlier this year and can’t imagine what it’ll be like if he is forced to stop the therapy.

“I will be stranded between looking and sounding feminine and looking and sounding masculine. I would feel like a freak,” says the boy’s affidavit, which was read aloud in court by one of his lawyers on Tuesday at the start of a three-day hearing triggered by the child’s father.

The father takes the position in court filings that a lower court erred by delivering a “rush to judgment” in siding with his child’s wishes to begin hormone treatment and argues that his child is incapable of appreciating the potential consequences of a “still experimental treatment.”

**

"We don't have a word for crime," said Creighton of the Blackfoot language. "Our word is mistake."

"How do you fix that, how do you correct that, how do you reconcile … there's ways of restoring relationships, there's ways of dealing with transgressions or transgressors."

Yeah, I heard it, too.

Here's some music.

But ... but ... the Narrative!:

The report, which was widely criticized for using the term ‘ongoing genocide,’ claimed that 25% of Canadian homicide victims were Indigenous women and girls.

However, that was an error.

The real number is 6%.

That is a huge discrepancy.

 
I would not stay, either:

While she is currently in Canada, she hopes to move to an undisclosed country in Europe in the coming months.

Mrs Bibi said her wrongful conviction after she was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad in a row with fellow farmhands had devastated her life.

“My whole life suffered, my children suffered and this had a huge impact on my life,” she said in a series of voice messages sent in response to questions from The Telegraph.

Mrs Bibi thanked the supreme court for acquitting her, but said others also needed fair trials. “There are many other cases where the accused are lying in jail for years and their decision should also be done on merit. The world should listen to them.

“I request the whole world to pay attention to this issue. The way any person is alleged of blasphemy without any proper investigation, without any proper proof, that should be noticed. This blasphemy law should be reviewed and there should be proper investigation mechanisms while applying this law. 

We should not consider anyone sinful for this act without any proof.”

They do that in North Korea, too:

Rape threats, body-shaming and doctored photos: women supporting the anti-government protests in Hong Kong say they are being harassed online by suspected pro-Beijing trolls.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the financial hub's streets week after week in the biggest challenge to China's rule of the semi-autonomous city for decades.

But female protesters posting support for the pro-democracy movement said they had experienced a slew of sexist online attacks in response.