For a Monday

Well, this must hurt Justin's feelings:

The Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled that the federal carbon tax is not constitutional.

In a 4-1 decision, the court says the legislation that brought in the tax erodes provincial jurisdiction.

The Alberta government had argued in its challenge of the tax that climate change isn't a national issue requiring overriding federal intervention.

The federal government countered by saying climate change is a national and global concern that can't be left to each of the provinces to take on alone.

The majority of the Appeal Court judges sided with the province. 

"The act is a constitutional Trojan horse," said the portion of the decision written by three of the four majority justices.

The court rejected federal arguments that reducing greenhouse gases met the legal test of being a national concern.

"Almost every aspect of the provinces' development and management of their natural resources ... would be subject to federal regulation."

Which is why: Kenney must either separate Alberta from the rest of Canada or start its own programs funded by repayments from Quebec and every other province needs to get on board and assert its provincial rights. 

PM Blackface, meanwhile, hasn't paused no giving a sh-- about the country's tanking economy:

Teck Resources has officially withdrawn its application to build the $20-billion Frontier oilsands mine, just days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to issue a ruling on the contentious project.

(Sidebar: this Teck Resources.)

**

Shares in Teck Resources Ltd. are trading down almost five per cent after the company said it had withdrawn its application for a massive oilsands mining project citing uncertainty over climate change policies.

**

“The timing of the decision is not a coincidence. This was an economically viable project, as the company confirmed this week, for which the company was advocating earlier this week, so something clearly changed very recently.”

Earlier Sunday, Environment Minister Jason Nixon was proudly announcing crucial new agreements with Mikisew Cree First Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

Technically, they related to dealings between the province and the First Nations, but they had a bearing on Teck and thus made the agreement of 14 Indigenous groups complete.

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The Fort McKay Metis was one of the 14 Indigenous groups that had signed benefits agreements with Vancouver-based Teck for Frontier, a proposed 260,000 barrels per day oilsands mine that would have required 7,000 people to build it. 

Quintal said Teck leadership had been in meetings for four consecutive days and came to the decision Sunday afternoon. The cancellation of the project has come as a “shock” to his community.

**

The cancellation follows the West Coast tanker ban, the stalled Trans Mountain and the Coastal GasLink pipelines, the rejection of Energy East and the dense thicket of always swelling regulations, assessments, protests and court cases. Teck is the last of a dark chain of projects that have been scrapped or strangled, which has resulted in billions of dollars being chased away from the country and tens of thousands of jobs aborted, while the Trudeau government danced and chattered away with its useless crusade against carbon-dioxide emissions. Rarely, if ever, has folly been granted such total rein, and incompetence a wider playground.

Meanwhile:

The Alberta government has struck deals with two northern Alberta First Nations over a proposed open-pit oilsands mine that’s awaiting Ottawa’s approval.

The Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations had previously reached deals with Teck Resources Ltd. for the Frontier mine, but were still negotiating with the province over environmental and cultural concerns.

But ... but ... they don't want to be in the oil business!

Except for Quebec because Quebec is special:

“Our government is proud to partner with the Government of Quebec on this historic legislation to establish joint management of offshore petroleum resources. The Accord will create jobs and economic growth and prosperity for Quebecers while ensuring the safe and environmentally responsible development of petroleum resources in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” Greg Rickford Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources said.

I think I know why all of this is happening:

Anti-pipeline lobbyist, Tides Canada, paid $220k to Wet’suwet’en. Sarah Goodman, former VP Tides, is now Trudeau's top climate guru. Even Heritage Minster, Guilbeault, got $100k from Tides for his foundation. Wonder why illegal blockades still up? Retweet. https://t.co/rpDGdQjzLP pic.twitter.com/Zif5sdFgyB

— Canadian Yoda (@Labrie8) February 21, 2020

 

Because priorities:

The Trudeau government has introduced legislation aimed at making it easier for intolerably ill Canadians to get medical help to end their lives.

The bill would scrap a provision in the law that allows only those already near death to receive medical assistance in dying — as ordered by a Quebec court last fall.

However, the bill would also create a two-track approach to eligibility for assisted dying, based on whether a person’s natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

For those deemed to be near death, the government is proposing to drop the requirement that a person must wait 10 days after being approved for an assisted death before receiving the procedure.

As well, it is proposing to drop the requirement that a person must be able to give consent a second time immediately prior to receiving the procedure.

(Sidebar: oh, that won't snowball into anything.)


The government drags its feet on arresting American-paid malcontents and rejuvenating the economy it clearly hates but when old people have to day, it's out of the way!




Because the government:

Money laundering has distorted British Columbia’s economy, fuelled the opioid crisis and overheated the real estate market, the province argued at the start of an inquiry into the criminal activity on Monday.

We don't have to trade with China:

Sharp-eyed readers will note that Huawei’s use of “A9” as its code for North Korea was first unearthed by the Washington Post‘s Ellen Nakashima, who reminds us that journalists who write about North Korea sanctions don’t have to be lazy or ignorant of the subject. Consequently, Nakashima did first-rate reporting as a matter of both law and fact. When she found evidence of the North Korean investments, she asked me what sanctions this conduct might have violated. I wish I could have given her a more satisfying answer. Given the years when the transactions occurred, and uncertainty about the specific dates, it wasn’t clear to me that Huawei had violated any North Korea sanctions regulations at all. The prosecutors in EDNY were obviously uncertain, too, and so they charged fraud instead–specifically, bank fraud and wire fraud. Their theory is that Huawei’s American bankers asked it if it did any business in Iran or North Korea, and Huawei lied to fraudulently obtain financial services and access to the U.S. financial system.

Anti-anti-North Korean academics and pro-North Korean apologists are fond of arguing that “years” or “decades” of tough sanctions, alternatively, had no effect on the North Korean regime, or had barbarous effects on the North Korean people (they switch between these arguments with shameless fluidity). Both arguments can’t be true, and as I’ve pointed out ad nauseam, neither argument is true.

In fact, between 2008 and 2016, almost the entire period when EDNY accuses Huawei of investing in North Korea, our North Korea sanctions were probably too weak to support criminal charges, unless the investor was particularly unlucky (hold that thought). In 2010, President Obama had signed Executive Order 13551, which authorized him to freeze the assets of persons involved in North Korean proliferation, arms trafficking, and money laundering. In 2011, he signed Executive Order 13570, which authorized him to freeze the assets of persons who imported goods, services, and technology from North Korea. In 2015, he signed Executive Order 13687, which theoretically allowed him to freeze the assets almost any North Korean person (which he didn’t). But the President hardly used these authorities to designate anyone during the duration of his presidency. By 2014, he had designated just 43 entities for sanctions violations involving North Korea. (Anthony Ruggiero arrived at slightly different figures at different times, but supported my broader contention in his testimony to several committees of Congress.)

Read  the whole thing.




Wow.

People totally have a handle on this coronavirus thing:

Iran’s government said Monday that 12 people had died nationwide from the new coronavirus, rejecting claims of a much higher death toll by a lawmaker from the city of Qom that has been at the epicenter of the virus in the country.

(Sidebar: twelve, my @$$.)

**

South Korea reported another large jump in new virus cases Monday a day after the the president called for “unprecedented, powerful” steps to combat the outbreak that is increasingly confounding attempts to stop the spread.

The 161 new cases bring South Korea’s total to 763 cases, and two more deaths raise its toll to seven.

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News emerged Saturday that a Japanese woman who was allowed to leave the cruise ship last week was confirmed to have been infected after returning to her home in Tochigi Prefecture despite an initial negative test result, according to local officials.

The central government is separately under fire for failing to test 23 passengers — 19 Japanese and four foreign nationals — during the two-week quarantine period.

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A preschooler in Saitama and two brothers in Hokkaido have been confirmed infected with the new coronavirus, prefectural officials announced Friday.

The preschooler was confirmed to have the virus Friday by the Saitama Prefectural Government. The boy returned with his father from Wuhan, China, on a Japan-chartered flight on Jan. 30. His infection is said to be light and not life-threatening. His dad tested positive on Feb. 10.

The two in Hokkaido are students at an elementary school in the town of Nakafurano, according to prefectural officials. One is under 10 years old.

It is the first time someone under 10 has caught COVID-19 in Japan.

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The coronavirus death toll climbed to seven in Italy on Monday and several Middle East countries were dealing with their first infections, sending markets into a tailspin over fears of a global pandemic even as China eased curbs with no new cases reported in Beijing and other cities. 

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The total number of cases in Canada is now 11, with Ontario announcing its fourth case on Sunday. A Toronto woman in her 20s contracted a mild case while travelling in China. The woman had travelled to Wuhan — the centre of the outbreak — before it was quarantined, then went elsewhere in the country before returning to Canada on Feb. 21. Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, said given the limited contact with others and the woman’s mild illness, she likely presents a low risk.

WHO executive director Dr. Michael J. Ryan said it’s impossible to tell if COVID-19 will eventually be contained, develop into a full-blown global pandemic, or settle down into a seasonal pattern of transmission, much like the flu. But now is the time for countries to prepare for the worst.

“We believe that all countries are vulnerable,” Ryan said. “It is time to do everything you would do in preparing for a pandemic.”

Nothing at all to worry about, I see.