Your mid-week reminder of what Christmas is all about ...
Today in "total pig crap" news:
Favouritism for friends should be forbidden under a Conflict Of Interest Code For MPs, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said yesterday. The current Code prohibits influence on behalf of family members but not longtime pals: “That is something I am concerned about.”
I give you the Trudeaus.
Speaking of whom, Justin is such a pusillanimous little sh--, isn't he?:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged Wednesday that Canadians may have been looking forward to getting away over the holiday, but “the reality is, we have to think about COVID.”
“Omicron means we have to be more careful,” he said. “Now is not the time to travel.”
I'll just leave these right here:
Despite repeatedly urging Canadians to stay home for Easter amid the coronavirus pandemic, even if it meant not seeing their families, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the decision to go see his.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Tofino, B.C., with his family Thursday, as Canadians marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, his office has confirmed.
(Sidebar: for the record, I didn't mark that day Justin made up because it was bullsh--.)
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is looking at the issue of decriminalizing hard drugs with the provinces and is open to further action, a departure from his previous resistance to the idea.
Have a safe injection site opened at Harrington Lake.
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Wimping out is the Trudeau way!:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that while he is "deeply" opposed to Bill 21, his government won't step into the legal challenge taking place in Quebec in order to avoid triggering a fight with the province over jurisdiction.**
The federal government has planted less than half a per cent of the two billion trees it pledged to put in the ground across Canada by 2030, The Canadian Press has learned.
Figures obtained through an access to information request show 8.5 million trees had been planted as of mid-November, representing just over 0.4 per cent of what the Liberals have repeatedly promised.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the pledge during the 2019 election campaign, and the goal was repeated during the government’s 2020 throne speech setting out policy objectives.
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The reason why MPs like Poilievre only ever get spin from the Liberals and no acknowledgment of problems caused by inflation is because of the short-term benefits inflation brings that the Liberals seem to be obsessed with.
Freeland in the above clip touts Canada’s 3rd quarter 5.4 percent rise in GDP (year-to-date) as proof the Liberal government shoveling cash into the economy is working. One could point out that a growing GDP is not a sign of an internally healthy economy, seeing as Communist China has consistently experienced large year-to-year GDP growth yet is always on the verge of economic collapse but Trudeau would probably only see comparisons to China as positive.
What the Liberals love about inflation on top of the promotion of short-term increases in spending is that they get to award themselves hollow economic achievements whenever they want. They can create new jobs overnight by printing more money and subsidizing industries they favour, or even artificially create wage growth simply by watering down the value of the Canadian dollar.
Everything the Liberals have been attempting to brag about when it comes to the economy are merely symptoms of inflation, which the long-term drawbacks of will more than offset the limited gains today. The political benefit today is that the Liberals get to make Canadians of a left-of-centre political mindset think they are at least ‘doing something,’ which may have contributed to the Liberals’ recent polling increase.
Canadians will be happy with smoke and mirrors by their political incompetents.
Because "transparency":
Auditors will not examine billions in payouts under the now-disbanded Canada Emergency Response Benefit program until 2023 at the earliest, Auditor General Karen Hogan said yesterday. MPs on the Commons finance committee challenged Hogan to “do your job” and find where the money went: “We now know some of it went to criminals, scammers, people not living in Canada.”
I'm sure that the House of Commons collectively lies awake at night wondering about this squandered cash.
Cha-ching:
Day scholars who suffered harm while attending residential schools could soon apply for compensation.
Day scholars are students who attended residential schools during the day but returned home in the evenings.
In September, the federal court approved the Gottfriedson settlement agreement for day scholars. This settlement is only meant for day scholars who were left out of the 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement and also the 2019 Federal Day Schools Settlement.
But they all went back.
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Settling claims over systemic underfunding of First Nations child welfare programs will cost taxpayers $40 billion and counting, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller yesterday told reporters. “Again, we’re not done,” said Miller: “This is 30 years of the cost of failure and that cost is high.”
Also - weren't we supposed to have answers in June?:
The Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan is starting to put names to unmarked graves discovered at a former residential school site and the federal government says it will help fund the effort.
About $703,000 over three years is being given to the community's gravesite reclamation project.
The money is to go toward research, archival and statement gathering, additional fieldwork, commemorative markers, electronic mapping of all marked and unmarked graves, and a monument.
In June, the First Nation discovered what could be as many as 751 unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899 to 1997, and was run by the Roman Catholic Church until 1968.
Chief Cadmus Delorme previously told The Canadian Press that 300 graves have been identified, and not all of those buried are believed to be children.
Delorme says the funding from Ottawa will help Cowessess reach its goal.
Run! It's the flu!:
Cabinet yesterday asked that MPs clear the House of Commons due to fear of Omicron infection despite parliamentarians’ full vaccination and mandatory masks. Omicron infections to date have resulted in mild symptoms or none at all, according to the Public Health Agency: “I wouldn’t go to any large gatherings.”
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“I’m pretty certain that everybody in the next six to 12 weeks will be infected with Omicron, unless they’re living the life of a hermit,” University of Toronto infectious disease specialist and science table member Andrew Morris told the Toronto Star .
(Sidebar: which people are.)
“This will reach every single person,” another U of T professor and science table member, Peter Juni, told both CTV News and the Star. (In his CTV interview Juni described as a “myth” the idea that Omicron might cause milder symptoms than other variants, but also, confusingly, said that ”we simply don’t know” what Omicron really has in store for us.)
As the omicron variant sweeps through South Africa, Dr. Unben Pillay is seeing dozens of sick patients a day. Yet he hasn’t had to send anyone to the hospital.
That’s one of the reasons why he, along with other doctors and medical experts, suspect that the omicron version really is causing milder COVID-19 than delta, even if it seems to be spreading faster.
“They are able to manage the disease at home," Pillay said of his patients. "Most have recovered within the 10 to 14-day isolation period.” said Pillay.
Remember - getting your hair cut will kill the grandmother who didn't die of neglect at a nursing home but people who engage in dangerous behaviours should certainly donate blood:
Canadian Blood Services has officially asked Health Canada to drop specific restrictions on blood donations from men who have sex with men, the organization confirmed Wednesday.
Currently, men are eligible to donate blood if it’s been more than three months since their last sexual contact with a man, according to their website.
BC is a NDP/Liberal province.
And now you know:
British Columbia’s finance minister says the federal government’s $5 billion contribution to flood disaster recovery efforts in the province is a historic amount of cash that reflects the extreme nature of the disaster.
In what advocates are hailing as a decision that will see sex traffickers spend more time behind bars across the country, a Manitoba court of appeal has overturned the 15-month sentence of a Winnipeg man — and instead, he will spend five years behind bars after exploiting a 16-year-old girl.
He will be out after three years.
A clue - the government never saw you as people:
When Nova Scotia's top court ruled the province discriminated against people with disabilities — by housing them in institutions like nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals — Vicky Levack felt relief and hope for the future.
Levack, 31, has cerebral palsy. She has lived in Arborstone Enhanced Care, a Halifax nursing home, for a decade.
"I thought I was going to die here and never have a life outside of these walls; never get married, never have children, and I really mourned that," Levack told The Current. "And now here's my chance."
The Oct. 6 ruling found systemic discrimination in how the provincial government placed Nova Scotians with disabilities in institutions, even though they could have lived in the community with support.
Levack believed that decision could lead to improved living conditions for people in her community — but last week, the province announced it intends to appeal.
Leave that son-of-a-b!#ch there:
Jack Letts’ message to the Canadian government official was simple: “Please get me out of this place.”
In fact, the alleged former ISIL follower and Canadian citizen said in the recorded phone conversation he’d rather be imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Siberia or a Canadian penitentiary than continue to be held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
I'll bet he would.
How much nerve agent was used?:
Kim Yong Ju, the younger brother of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung who was once regarded as the country’s No. 2 official before his nephew was anointed as the next ruler, has died, state media reported Wednesday.
Also:
North Koreans who have escaped from Kim Jong Un’s regime say public executions for offences, including watching South Korean videos, are still taking place, some in front of crowds of spectators forced to watch.
A report by a human-rights monitoring group based in South Korea cites over 400 testimonies of executions, including during Kim's decade in power. In the last 10 years executions have mainly been by firing squad, in locations including airfields and river banks, the report says.
The peer-reviewed report by the Transitional Justice Working Group — co-founded by Canadian human-rights researcher Scott Stevens — included interviews with people who have escaped from North Korea, as well as evidence from satellites.
The report, entitled "Mapping Killings under Kim Jong Un: North Korea’s Response to International Pressure," says some prisoners in North Korea have been physically abused or tortured before being shot, and their corpses publicly mutilated, including one with a flame thrower in front of his family.
The report suggests that fewer executions are being held in public view, possibly because of sensitivity to international censure. It also refers to numerous personal pardons by Kim at trial, which the report says were designed "to propagandize" the supreme leader's benevolence.
Lithuania has the intestinal fortitude to treat China with the contempt it deserves:
Lithuania said Wednesday that it has closed its embassy in Beijing and pulled its last diplomat out of the Chinese capital, a move that came amid a spat over the European Union nation allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital, Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Baltic country would carry out its diplomatic activities in China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and does not give diplomatic recognition to nations that treat the island as a separate state.
The ministry said it had recalled Lithuania's charge d’affaires — the deputy chief of mission — in Beijing for consultations.
“Discussions are ongoing on the technical aspects of the operation of Lithuania’s diplomatic representation in China and China’s representation in Lithuania pending China’s decision to renew the accreditation of Lithuanian diplomats in China,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Lithuania was “ready to continue the dialogue with China and restore the functions of the embassy to their full extent once a mutually beneficial agreement is reached," the ministry added.
Beijing previously expelled the Lithuanian ambassador and withdrew its ambassador from Lithuania after the Lithuanian government allowed self-ruled Taiwan, which has a democratic system, to open an office in Vilnius.
Stop treating China like a legitimate state.
Also:
Despite the Canadian government having awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to North American manufacturers, Parliament Hill has been giving out masks made in China to MPs, their executive assistants and other employees.**
The motion urged the gov't to get on with it, make the #Huawei decision we've been promised for three years - which our 5Eyes partners have already made - and say no to the big telecoms' compensation demands. Too saucy for the Liberals. Starts 12:37ish. https://t.co/yOd9QD6soq https://t.co/Jvp9I7Fm3s
— Terry Glavin 格立文 (@TerryGlavin) December 14, 2021
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More than a million ethnic minorities like Ilham’s father are believed to have been coerced into forced labor or interned in camps in Xinjiang, according to government and academic research. The Department of State reported that “entire communities” of Uyghurs have become ghost towns as a result of government repression in the region.
Uyghurs are often forced to work in large cotton factories which produce clothing sold by Adidas, Nike, H&M and others. But many others are placed in facilities that are central to the burgeoning global renewable energy industry.
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The majority of Canadians support boycotting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to China’s human rights record, while many are also concerned for the safety of the athletes who will be competing, according to a new poll.
Conducted by the Vancouver-based Research Co., the poll shows 56 percent of Canadians support boycotting the Olympics, scheduled to take place in Beijing from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20, 2022.
The level of support for a boycott remains the same as in a survey conducted by Research Co. in August, when Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were still imprisoned in China. The two were detained in December 2018 in what was widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the United States.
Research Co. president Mario Canseco said the results indicate that the Canadian public has not changed its negative view of the Chinese communist regime, despite the release of Kovrig and Spavor in September.
Then stop buying crap made in China.
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China would face “consequences” if it retaliates against athletes from countries who have joined a diplomatic boycott against the Beijing Olympics, Canada’s former ambassador to the country said Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that Moscow will insist on Western guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine.
A recent Russian troop buildup near Ukraine has drawn Ukrainian and Western fears of an invasion, and U.S. President Joe Biden last week warned Putin of “severe consequences” if Moscow attacks its neighbor.
Putin has denied plans of launching an attack, but prodded Western leaders to provide a legal pledge that NATO wouldn’t expand to Ukraine.
No one asked me what I thought of a coffer-lining, pointless tax:
Cabinet organized a pre-election poll on whether the Supreme Court’s carbon tax ruling was popular with voters. The unusual research commissioned by the Privy Council Office came weeks before the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament: “Several participants felt the decision set a dangerous precedent.”
These sharpshooters of low-hanging fruit should worry about how they will feed their son, who clearly does not extend his vision beyond toys made in China, than screaming at a priest whose temerity of alluding to the real Santa Claus (ie, Saint Nicholas), the symbol of generosity, has caused such convenient consternation:
Is Santa Claus real?
Well, according to a priest who spoke with a Grade 5 class in Chatham, Ont., the answer is no.
One parent, Martin Packham, said the priest was speaking with a class at École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Marie via Zoom last Wednesday when a student asked why Santa Claus comes on Jesus' birthday.
Packham said the priest, Father Terry Runstedler of the Parish of Immaculate Conception in Chatham, responded by asking the students which grade they were in.
Upon hearing that the students were in Grade 5, the priest then claimed that the students understood that Santa wasn't real and he went on to talk about St. Nicholas, according to Packham.
"For us, it's just, very upsetting because this man whom we've never met, who's never met our children before came in to an entire classroom of children and decided to steal the magic," said Packham, whose son, Bently, is in the class.
Your snowflake is in Grade Five, not actually five, so, grow up.
Who uses his own son to score points off of someone, anyway?
Also - he is not just right but super-right:
In an anti-consumerism diatribe that lasted several minutes, Bishop Antonio Staglianò railed against Old St. Nick, calling the jolly gift-giver “an imaginary character” who seemed to care less about helping poor families.
(Sidebar: diatribe? Are you going to hang the bishop for what leftists moan on about all the time? )
“The red color of his coat was chosen by Coca-Cola for advertising purposes,” explained the bishop, per The New York Times. Soda makers, he added, use “the image to depict itself as an emblem of healthy values.”
And now, something uplifting:
One morning it turns out that the Child Jesus was no longer alone in his cradle, next to him in fact, a German shepherd puppy , abandoned by the owners, had found warmth and company. Wrapped in the straw of the Nativity, he lay first lying at the feet of the Savior, then next to Him, with a serene air that has immediately transpired in the many photos that were taken.
Through a small story we can see how the words that Jesus left us, are true and find space in our hectic everyday life.
Jesus in fact made himself small for us by reminding us, every time we look at Him, that He too was a man with our same uncertainties and “dimensions”.
The puppy that finds refuge in the cradle of our Lord then shows us that for every creature of His there is a place in His heart and in His place.
That same puppy, however, who first finds himself at the feet of the Child Jesus as if to remind us of impotence before the Lord, then next to Him as a sign of brotherhood, brings to mind the important words of Jesus of Nazareth, enclosed in the Gospel of John (15.9-170):
“I no longer call you servants, but I have called you friends.”
The fright that caught the puppy when he awoke, surrounded by onlookers and cameras, then turned into the final worthy of the most beautiful Christmas stories .
That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
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