Your first mid-week post for autumn!
I hope that you enjoy cold winters, Canada!:
The Supreme Court of Canada begins hearings today to determine whether the federal carbon tax is constitutional.
The court will hear two days of arguments in three separate cases involving Ottawa’s policy to impose a carbon tax in provinces that don’t have an equivalent system of their own.
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Indigenous leaders, special interest groups and other provinces will have their say Wednesday, in trying to convince the Supreme Court whether or not the national price on pollution is constitutional.
The second day of hearings in three appeals over the federal carbon tax will go forward in Ottawa starting this morning.
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The federal government argues that the case is about more than just climate change, but about the national capacity to meet an existential threat. At least five of the nine judges made multiple comments suggesting sympathy for that view.
“What if one province decides to do nothing because they don’t believe in climate change?” Justice Suzanne Côté asked Mitch McAdam, representing the Attorney-General of Saskatchewan, in the first in-person hearing at the court since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the winter. “It may happen.”
“That’s federalism and that’s democracy,” Mr. McAdam replied. “Where the provinces have jurisdiction, they can make decisions about how to exercise that jurisdiction. If that’s an unpopular decision, they have to go to the polls and the electorate can vote them out at the next election.”
To recap: unelected and unaccountable judicial activists who have no scientific expertise have all but declared that something they cannot prove is "an existential threat" and will consult with people who don't pay taxes to force provinces to pay what is ultimately a life tax.
Consider that New Brunswick and Ontario have already caved into this scheme in order to avoid a showdown with Ottawa and that crude oil (by rail), one of Canada's greatest natural resources and exports, fell to roughly 39,000 barrels per day, down from 42,820 barrels per day in June. This means no fuel for vehicles, no materials for everyday items and a diminished standard of living.
And we get the pleasure of paying taxes on it.
Is that how the Liberals are going to fund their whacky promises?
Winter is coming ...
Also:
Ms. Folk admits that sustainability requires proper e-waste management. Yet she laments, “Solar presents a particular problem. There is growing evidence that broken panels release toxic pollutants … [and] increasing concern regarding what happens with these materials when they are no longer viable, especially since they are difficult to recycle.”
This is the likely reason that (except in Washington state), there are no U.S. mandates for solar recycling. A recent article in Grist reports that most used solar panels are shipped to developing countries that have little electricity and weak environmental protections, to be reused or landfilled.
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I maintain that science and religion are no more at odds than any other discipline and that the idea that they are at odds is a comforting fancy for those who like the idea of believing in science but refuse to believe it when it comes in conflict with any other deeply-held yet unsubstantiated belief. Then there is the matter of a popular theory being floated around as a solid scientific law.
There are all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds who disregard science. Using this fabricated conflict as a tar brush in identity wars only serves to further divide people rather than unite or find common ground:
Groupthink cuts both ways. The author, a professor of philosophy, appears to have failed to consider the possibility that he is one who is ensnared in a large scale climate alarmist groupthink movement. The climate skepticism of faith groups may be because their degree of separation from the author’s social group gives them a level of distance and perspective which he currently does not share.
Group size is no protection against groupthink. You don’t have to look very deeply into the history of the 20th century to find plenty of frequently horrific examples of entire societies which embraced the irrational.
The only defence against groupthink is tolerance for people with different views, even if you think they are wrong. A society which tolerates non-conformity is a society in which someone can speak up and tell the emperor he is not wearing any clothes, without fear of retribution or punishment.
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The air is so filthy in Beijing that Canada now has trouble staffing its embassy, the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. China had won praise from Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna for its climate change program: “I was in China on a trade mission and saw the rapid shift toward clean energy.”
(Sidebar: this China and this Catherine McKenna. We owe her cussing detractor an enormous apology.)
From the most corrupt and disgusting government ever to assume an iron grip on a gullible population:
The federal ethics watchdog has dismissed Conservative allegations of conflict of interest involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff and her husband.
Ethics commissioner Mario Dion says the allegations are “speculative” and do not provide “a factual basis to support the belief that a contravention” of the Conflict of Interest Act may have occurred.
Consequently, Dion says he’s informed Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Michael Barrett that their request for an investigation does not meet the requirements of the act.
(Sidebar: one must realise that Pierre Poilievre will not give up.)
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CMHC is embarking on what it calls a “highly costly” program to encourage retirees to rent empty bedrooms to immigrants and students. The agency yesterday would not detail actual expenses to date: “Frankly nobody gave us a mandate.”
(Sidebar: or they can avoid high prices in Toronto.)
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The Commissioner of Lobbying is reviewing an MP’s formal complaint the Department of Finance had secret meetings, phone calls and emails with the insurance lobby on pharmacare. The undisclosed contacts appeared to breach the Lobbying Act, the Commissioner was told: “These revelations lead one to question whether the Liberal government is captive to pressure from the insurance lobby.”
(Sidebar: why even bother? If Justin's little b!#ch, Katie Telford, and her husband can skate, so can these guys.)
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Last week, Tina Namiesniowski decided to quit amid the Crisis, saying she needed “a break.”
She has been rewarded with a new role as a ‘senior official’ in the Privy Council office.
Meanwhile, guess who is replacing her at the Public Health Agency?
Iain Stewart.
Stewart was most recently the head of the National Research Council.
During his tenure, the National Research Council made the ‘brilliant’ decision to partner with the Chinese Communist Military on a vaccine for the virus that originated from China, despite China’s endless lies, threats against our nation, and kidnapping of our Citizens.
As you can imagine, that didn’t work out well.
China never shipped the vaccine to Canada for trials, and the partnership was cancelled.
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A Public Health Agency executive who admitted to putting “lives of Canadians at risk” yesterday was promoted as senior advisor to the Prime Minister. Kristina Namiesniowski, president of the Agency, was named a $238,000-a year advisor in the Privy Council Office: “Time is of the essence.”
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Frankly, given their respective roles in hampering Canada’s pandemic response, the departures should be bigger news.
Several media outlets noted that Tina Namiesniowski resigned last week, but few have noted that Sally Thorton suddenly retired in the middle of the pandemic.
Thorton was the vice-president who oversaw the depletion of the national emergency stockpile of protective equipment and the dispersal of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network. ...
Former politician Tony Clement was Ontario’s health minister during the 2003 SARS crisis and federal minister from 2006-08.
He said it’s unusual for top management to leave in the middle of a crisis.
“It’s like Churchill quitting after Normandy,” Clement said.
Clement said he speculates that either the PMO wanted change in leadership or Namiesniowski and Thorton left because they were not being listened to and became frustrated.
Given that Namiesniowski has been named a “senior official at the Privy Council Office” with a hefty salary to go with that appointment, it’s likely Trudeau just wanted her gone. ...
Another sign of things not going well in Canada’s pandemic response, a top vaccine researcher has quit the federal advisory board.
Gary Kobinger, who headed up the team that developed the Ebola vaccine, resigned from the federal task force citing problems.
If this happened in the United States — if three key players in Donald Trump’s fight against COVID-19 suddenly resigned, retired or were forced out — it would not only be big news in Washington, it would be big news here in Canada.
Yet three key players are out and it barely gets a mention beyond repeating the official statements.
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Ah, yes - not crowding the hospitals with people who pay for socialised medicine:
Administering the flu shot will reduce visits to the hospital, Ford explained, and will help ensure capacity and prevent hospital backlogs as daily virus cases continue to climb to levels not seen for months in Ontario. “Never before has the flu shots been so critical,” Ford told reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing.
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Justin's dad's former enemy, John Turner, is not getting a big state funeral because of the coronavirus ... or something.
Alberta (and Saskatchewan) will continue to exist in a friendly North American environment. Invasion from north, east, south or west is unthinkable. The ties of commerce, trade, investment, etc., that now bind most North American centres to other North American centres will continue to exist. The new political entity will be a liberal democracy with strong capitalist instincts. Thus it will not need more than a small token military with a limited expeditionary capability more to show solidarity with its Canadian and American neighbours than any other factor. Alberta is currently home to several major military bases. Cold Lake is one of two main Royal Canadian Air Force bases. Edmonton is home to an entire brigade group. Wainwright is the main automated training base for the Canadian Army. Suffield not only houses important Canadian military research facilities, but also contains within it the British Army Training Unit, Suffield, where British armoured formations train annually.
All these bases should be leased by Alberta to Canada, the United States or Great Britain with the proviso that the small Alberta military would be entitled to train at one of these facilities on a regular basis. Indeed, Alberta ought to undertake to raise and sustain a battalion-size force to operate in conjunction with the Canadian or American military.
A battalion in the Canadian armed forces is about one hundred to two hundred soldiers. That's doable but how would this system be maintained?
Also:
At the same time, the British and the Americans were writing books, plays, and films to commemorate their contribution to the war, while Canadian stories were left behind. “It’s absolutely crucial to understand why we forgot the war. If you don’t tell your own story, it will be forgotten,” Cook said.
Other than profiting off of North Korean labour, I can see no reason why the virtually military-less Canada would want to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea:
In "the fall of 2018, senior Cdn officials held clandestine meetings with their counterparts from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea which led to a 2019 plan for “enhanced diplomatic engagement” with Kim Jong-un’s regime" writes @Justin_Ling https://t.co/u4fzzOcnhV
— Marsha Lederman (@marshalederman) September 23, 2020
A Canadian woman arrested by U.S. authorities for allegedly sending envelopes of poisonous ricin to U.S. President Donald Trump has been telling the FBI where else she mailed toxic letters — nine in all — police say.
This must be embarrassing:
The report revealed that "Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow."
The report also stated that Hunter Biden made a number of payments to foreign nationals with "questionable backgrounds" consistent with "organized prostitution and/or human trafficking," according to The Federalist.
Oh, that will go down well:
The CDC is urging people to avoid some of the most beloved traditions of the spooky season, including trick-or-treating and indoor costume parties, due to the “high risk” they pose for spreading the virus.
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