Blackmail and Bribery

That's the Canadian way!:

The federal cabinet has approved an agreement that will see Canada pay nearly $240 million in compensation to the Mohawks of Akwesasne to settle a land claim.

(Sidebar: the cabinet.)

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A blockade on the railway tracks in Kahnawake — which protesters from the Mohawk community set up nearly a month ago — has come to a peaceful end on Thursday.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake confirmed the move in the afternoon and praised the dedication of the protesters, who took to the streets after the barricade fell.

After moving from the camp, they briefly stopped highway traffic before setting up a new location close to Highway 138, near the Mercier Bridge leading to Montreal.

“We demand the government of Canada to restore its relationships with the First Peoples of this country and uphold Indigenous rights,” said Roxann Whitebean.

Try this in Russia.

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Who are these hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nations who are stopping the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia? And who gave these chiefs the right to high-handedly override the desires of the native Canadians over whom they claim dominion? Like the paternalistic rulers of Western nations of old who claimed to rule by divine right — France’s Louis XVI and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II were their countries’ last specimens — the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nations are unaccountable anachronisms divorced from the needs of their people.

Yes, just like in the rest of Canada.


Meanwhile, those who work for a living are returning to jobs that may once more be under threat of Big Aboriginal blackmail:

Via Rail Canada says most of the 1,000 employees affected by the suspension of service last month due to blockades will be called back to work as most normal service resumes on Saturday.

The Crown corporation says all services between Toronto and Montreal, along with Toronto and Ottawa will be offered, with the exception of trains 45 and 655, which will resume on Sunday.

Mark my words - no new pipeline or addition to an existing one will be built as long as the Chinese let Justin sit in the prime minister's office:

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project has cleared another legal hurdle.

The Supreme Court of Canada has decided not to hear five challenges from environment and Indigenous groups from British Columbia.

Take a pay-cut. For the children:

From the start, Ontario teachers, who are already the highest paid in the country, have insisted that this is about maintaining the quality of education for Ontario students, not lining their bank accounts. Yet every time the government makes concessions on other issues, the unions stubbornly refuse to play ball.

Last year, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government announced it would be increasing high school class sizes to 28 from 22 and requiring students to take four mandatory online courses. The unions balked at this suggestion, so Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he would cap class sizes at 25 and only require two online courses. The result? The unions ramped up their job actions, still insisting that this dispute was not simply about money.

On Tuesday, Lecce called their bluff, saying that high school class sizes would be capped at 23, which is essentially unchanged from this year’s average of 22.9, and that parents would have the ability to opt out of the two online courses. In return, Lecce asked the unions to call off their planned strikes and return to the bargaining table. As of press time, that has not happened.