Christmas Week: Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week countdown to Christmas ... 




History, it does repeat itself:

Justin Trudeau wants to grow Canada’s middle class, but he can’t define it.

(August 25, 2015)

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief response Tuesday when asked to define who he considers “middle class” in Canada.

“Canadians know who’s in the middle class and know what their families are facing and we focus more on the actual issues,” the prime minister said during an interview with Breakfast Television in Toronto.

Trudeau’s unelaborated answer comes weeks after naming a new federal minister of middle class prosperity. Since coming to power in 2015, Trudeau has repeatedly said his government is focused on the middle class and “those working hard to join it.”

(December 17, 2019)

It's just an economy:

For the second month in a row, Canadian manufacturing sales have dropped.

October sales were down 0.7%, with sales dropping in 11 of 21 industries.

The biggest drop was in fabricated metals, where sales were down 8.2%

Motor vehicle manufacturing is down 4.7%, while motor vehicle parts manufacturing fell 4.6%.


On a year-over-year basis, manufacturing sales in Canada are down a full 2.1%.

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Numerous experts have said the risk of a recession is growing, the government has repeatedly downgraded their growth forecasts, and the majority of Canadians are concerned that a recession is looming.

Yet, the reporter stunningly claimed that only the Conservatives are talking about a recession, which is absolutely absurd.

Yes, about that:

Canadian underlying inflation hit the highest in a decade in November, reinforcing a decision by policy makers this month to refrain from cutting interest rates despite concerns around slowing growth.

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A new survey suggests that 87 per cent of Canadians feel that food prices are rising at a faster rate than their household income.

But Justin and his stooge deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, aren't worried. They'll still get their pensions.

Also - I'm sure these are nothing to be concerned about:

Many investors in the western provinces don’t know it but they are paying provincial HST on their management fees charged by mutual and other investment funds even though their own provinces do not assess the tax. It makes no sense. Why should investors pay a tax that their own government does not levy?

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New Brunswick has officially assumed the title of Canada's poorest province and will begin receiving the most funding per capita from the federal government's equalization support program, starting in April.

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The Manitoba government’s battle to cut the deficit is getting another round of help from federal transfer payments.

Money grows on trees. 

Carbon taxes are good to line coffers when nothing else helps and when children need to be frightened into eating their vegetables:

A Toronto mother says a confusing school presentation involving teen activist Greta Thunberg and a ticking clock left her young daughter fearing Earth’s imminent demise, and schools should be more careful about what they’re teaching seven-year-olds.

At least one child yelled “I don’t wanna die” during a presentation on climate change delivered to a Grade 2/3 class on Oct. 4. A group of seven- and eight-year-olds had gathered in the library of Elmbank Junior Middle Academy in Etobicoke to watch a video of a speech Greta delivered at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23.

Stacking the electoral deck isn't "doing things right":

Mendicino, who was named minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship on Nov. 20, said Canada is sharing its "depth of experience" in the private sponsorship program, which has successfully brought 320,000 newcomers to the country who were fleeing conflict, disaster or persecution.

But what about the Yazidis, Mr. "Everybody Loves Because I Am So Great"? 

But ... but ... jobs!:

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has settled criminal charges related to work the company did in Libya Wednesday, with its construction division pleading guilty to a single count of fraud and bringing the company a step closer to closing a long-standing scandal that tarnished its reputation and ensnared the highest office of the Canadian government.

Under the deal, it pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000, will pay a $280-million penalty and will be subject to a three-year probation order.

Because this clearly doesn't warrant any jail time, just buying one's way out of trouble.




The daughter of Bruce Anderson, the chairman of Abacus Data, is leaving Justin for Microsoft:

 Kate Purchase, the chief spokeswoman for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said on Tuesday she was leaving her job to work at a senior role in Microsoft.

Purchase is the latest top adviser this year to announce she was leaving Trudeau’s office.

Her work of destroying Canada is finished.




Cyber-security? Who needs it?!:

Chinese social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday that it will fix a “translation bug” on its chat app WeChat that sends out distinct non-sequitors when country flags are inputted via text message.

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Lab-test provider LifeLabs says the personal information — possibly including health card numbers — of an unknown number of the company’s 15 million Canadian customers was stolen in a data breach in late October.

The test results from 85,000 Ontarians were also stolen. The company says it took measures to secure the data, including “retrieving the data by making a payment.”

Hey, Macron  - do you remember when you and Trudeau were gossiping about Trump because you were, like, better than him and stuff?:

French union activists cut electricity to nearly 100,000 homes or offices. Eiffel Tower staff walked off the job. Even Paris opera workers joined in Tuesday's nationwide protests across France, singing an aria of anger as workers rallied against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64.

How is that Singapore thing working out?:

A proposal by China and Russia to ease U.N. sanctions on North Korea increases pressure on the United States and signals what is the likely end of unified efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its growing nuclear and missile arsenal.

Child slavery is "woke", apparently: 

Five of the world’s largest tech companies have been accused of being complicit in the death of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) forced to mine cobalt, a metal used to make telephones and computers, in a landmark lawsuit. 

The legal complaint on behalf of 14 families from Congo was filed on Sunday by International Rights Advocates, a U.S.-based human rights non-profit, against Tesla Inc, Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Dell Technologies Inc..

 

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

A historical feminist icon, one of the first women of science, a famed physician from ancient Egypt, didn’t actually exist, says new research, and the belief that she did can be traced back to a 1938 account from a Canadian feminist.

It’s a story that illustrates the conflict between popular history and academic history and, indeed, shows how difficult it is to trace historical knowledge back thousands upon thousands of years.

Today in science:

A new study shows the lowest point on continental Earth has been discovered in Eastern Antarctica,  tucked away under the Denman Glacier.

The deepest land canyon on Earth plunges 3.5 km below sea level and is roughly 20 km wide. And although there is no water at the bottom, the canyon is filled with ice stretching toward the ocean.

Previously, the lowest recorded point on dry land was the shore of the Dead Sea at 413 metres below sea level, but the bottom of the newly revealed canyon is eight times deeper.

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A Newfoundland First Nation has announced a study of genetic links between its members and ancient Indigenous inhabitants of the island, including the Beothuk people.