Mid-Week Post

 

Your mid-week splash in the pool ...




It's just an economy:

As debt continues to surge, Canada has lost our AAA credit rating.

The rating has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings to AA+.

According to Fitch, Canada’s debt is projected to rise from 88.3% of GDP to 115.1% of GDP.

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The Canadian government could be edging toward a revived trade spat with the U.S., after America’s top trade advisor accused Canada of “shading” its dairy obligations and breaking agreements over aluminum exports.

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The recession could knock an average $100,000 off home prices in the largest Western cities, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation warned yesterday. Average prices in Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal will rebound sooner, said analysts: “There is a lot of uncertainty out there.”

Not bloody likely:

A group of senators is calling on the Liberal government to impose sanctions on Chinese officials over China’s treatment of its Muslim minority, its increasing restriction of freedoms in Hong Kong, and its arrests of two Canadians.

Also - what he meant to say is that after having been caught, he will try white-washing his arguably treasonous actions:

(Sidebar: yes, treasonous.)

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says he has repaid two mortgages with a Chinese state bank and refinanced them with a Canadian financial institution.

Champagne disclosed the development during testimony Tuesday before the House of Commons health committee, saying he decided to refinance the mortgages to avoid a distraction.

Justin remained hidden in a taxpayer-funded cottage while Doug showed up for work. Why wasn't that mentioned in this article?:

Do people not think politicians are actually in charge? Do they think COVID-19 is an entirely unknowable enemy, picking its target jurisdictions at random? (The news has been full of stories about countries that got it right, and neighbouring countries that got it wrong.) No non-partisan believes this disaster is down solely to the government of the day: It takes much longer than Ford or Legault have been in office for a long-term care home system to become as decrepit and vulnerable as Ontario’s and Quebec’s demonstrably were. But a halfway curious health minister would have known that early on. The National Post’s Richard Warnica reported on Tuesday that some of Public Health Ontario’s top minds in very important positions had recently left the organization, and had not been replaced in a cost-cutting environment. Voters have fired first ministers for so much less, and refused to reward them for far better performances.

 Because little people:

“Rules are for little people.” Alex Pierson’s irritated Tuesday tweet about Elections Canada not investigating a Trudeau minister’s fundraiser came right before I read that SNC-Lavalin is “the only Canadian company to be exempt from a 2015 Government-Wide Integrity Regime, which says to refrain from using corrupt federal contractors.” Did someone replace the maple leaf on our flag with a banana?

When a Liberal MP was arrested for stalking, nobody told anybody. Or if they did, nobody listened. You or me: front page mug shot, disgrace, punishment. But not Trudeau’s buddies.

People voted for this.

There is comfort in knowing that someone, even an incompetent frat-boy, appears to be sending cheques. That's all that matters in this country.

Panem et circenses.





No one is vetted and there are unemployed people in this country:

Public health officials have failed to ensure all migrant workers are tested for COVID-19, the mayor of Windsor, Ont., said Tuesday, calling on farmers to step in so the region can soon join the rest of the province in Stage 2 of reopening.

Drew Dilkens said the high number of COVID-19 cases on farms in Essex County was holding back the entire region and the local economy could not face another week of delay.

“While the local health unit has thus far refused to test the full temporary foreign worker population, this next week presents an opportunity for our local agricultural community to step in where public health officials have failed,” he said in a statement.

Windsor-Essex is the only area of the province which remains in the first stage of reopening in the province as it continues to grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks on area farms.

Hundreds of migrant workers in the region have tested positive for the virus and three have died.

 
Learn to code. No, really:

Starting this September, students in Ontario public schools will begin learning mathematics with more emphasis on a “back to basics” approach, with certain concepts introduced in earlier grades and other concepts pushed into higher ones.

Throughout grades one to eight, children will learn concepts related to coding for the first time.

They will also learn about personal finance in each grade, and they will learn about measurements of data storage, such as a byte, kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte, alongside the other units of measurement they learned previously.

Ministry of Education officials said teachers will be given professional development time through the summer as well as during the new school year to adapt lesson plans to the changes.

“This is the first new elementary school math curriculum in 15 years – it’s clear that has a lot has changed since 2005, and our math schooling needs to change with it,” Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.

At this point, I would not believe a single thing the RCMP said:

The RCMP did not rely on any information from confidential informants when seeking judicial approval to search properties owned by the Nova Scotia mass shooter, court was told.

A prosecutor representing the RCMP made the declaration when defending the heavy censorship of information about the investigation into the worst mass killing in Canada’s history.

Because some people are "special":

A northern Alberta First Nation says charges have been dropped against its chief, who was the subject of a violent arrest earlier this year.

The case of Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation was in front of a Fort McMurray provincial court judge Wednesday and court records showed charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer were to be withdrawn by the Crown. 

The First Nation confirmed that is what happened in the hearing Wednesday morning. The Crown's office did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The move comes after the RCMP dash-cam footage of Adam's arrest was made public earlier this month as part of a court application to stay the charges.

The Soviets believed in "science", too:

Twitter seems to exist primarily for the purpose of generating mobs — composed primarily of individuals who are hungry for blood and desiring to bask in the joys of reasonably risk-free reputation destruction, revenge and self-righteousness. Furthermore, as far as Twitter mobs go, those who complained about the Angewandte Chemie publication were by no means numerous, constituting perhaps less than a dozen.

No matter: once the complaints emerged, the editor of the journal in charge of Hudlicky’s work — Dr. Neville Compton — removed the paper from the journal’s website, and offered an abject apology for daring to have published it. Furthermore, he reported the “suspension” of two of the journal’s editors and cast aspersions on Hudlicky’s ethics, stating that his essay did not properly reflect fairness, trustworthiness and social awareness, while implying that the now-pilloried author and his peer reviewers and editors were discriminatory, unjust and inequitable in practice.

What were Hudlicky’s sins? His 12-page document (about 4,000 words) dealt with issues affecting organic synthesis research and communication, covering topics such as the range of research options available, integrity and trustworthiness of the relevant literature, transference of skills from mentor to trainee, impact of information technology, the corporatization of the university environment, the effect of new technology, the diversity of the available work force, and the competition for resources among researchers. However, Hudlicky voiced a smattering of opinions deemed unacceptable by that small number of people who both read his submission and were somewhat active on Twitter.

Why does this sound familiar?:

Death doulas differ from palliative care in that they’re not medical. They help patients on a more human level, like how they would like to leave their legacy, or if they have a choice in the matter, how they want to die. It’s about having someone to make sure your wishes are respected. Sometimes, it’s simply about having companionship in your final days.

(Sidebar: isn't that what families are for?)


Ah, yes:

It was a large room bright with sunshine and yellow paint, and con-taining twenty beds, all occupied. Linda was dying in company–in company and with all the modern conveniences. The air was continuously alive with gay synthetic melodies. At the foot of every bed, con-fronting its moribund occupant, was a television box. Television was left on, a running tap, from morning till night. Every quarter of an hour the prevailing perfume of the room was automatically changed. "We try," explained the nurse, who had taken charge of the Savage at the door, "we try to create a thoroughly pleasant atmosphere here–some-thing between a first-class hotel and a feely-palace, if you take my meaning. ...

The Savage's voice was trembling with indignation. "What are these filthy little brats doing here at all? It's disgraceful!" 

"Disgraceful? But what do you mean? They're being death-conditioned.