Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Mid-Week Post


 

Your Advent-tide variant-spotting of the week ...

 

Those two weeks you rushed through partisan or unimportant legislation must have been tiring for you. You need a break.

See you in March:

Senators have speedily passed legislation to provide federally regulated workers with 10 days of paid sick leave and to protect health-care workers from harassment and intimidation.

They have passed Bill C-3, swallowing some reservations and forgoing some planned amendments due to the urgency of having the legislation in place as the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads like wildfire across the country.

The move comes less than 24 hours after the Senate fast-tracked passage of Bill C-2, to provide new targeted pandemic aid to businesses and workers faced with new local lockdowns, as well as wage and rent subsidies to those hardest hit by previous pandemic restrictions.

Both bills have now received royal assent.

Earlier this month, royal assent was given to a bill banning the traumatic practice of conversion therapy to alter a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Has your fridge been making a weird noise, but you just can’t bring yourself to spend the money to fix it? Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has now been tasked to help you with that by introducing a new 15 per cent tax credit (for a maximum value of up to $500) to cover the cost of appliance repairs performed by technicians. The goal is to encourage Canadians to extend the life of home appliances instead of throwing out a faulty device because the cost to repair it may be prohibitive.


 

Justin doesn't care how poor you are or will be. He still gets his pension:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mandate letter to Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson is heavy on guidance to transition Canada's economy to net-zero emissions. Absent are direct references to the nation's oil and gas sector, beyond instructions to cap emissions and phase out public financing.

 

It's like he's Ben Affleck or something. 


Also - your corrupt government and you:

The Senate proposes a 5.4 percent budget increase this winter, more than the rate of inflation. The hike would see the Senate cost almost $122 million next year, a record: “Those are big numbers.” 

** 

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday postponed a threatened national ban on sales of plastic forks and other goods until 2024 at the earliest. Plastic straws blacklisted as an environmental peril may still be sold under the counter at grocery and hardware stores, said Guilbeault’s department: “It’s not a silver bullet to ban, ban, ban.”

 

Yes, it is, is, is. 



It's just an economy. I'm sure it will be fine:

A shrinking labour pool: If you think labour shortages are a problem now, just watch what happens with a surge of retirements this decade. People over 65 will account for 22 per cent of Canada’s population in 2030, up from 17 per cent in 2019. The working share of Canada’s population (those between 15 and 64 years of age) is expected to drop by almost four points to 63 per cent in 2030, which implies almost no growth in Canada’s labour force this decade (assuming population growth at one per cent). Immigration will help forestall labour shortages, but much of the rest of world is aging rapidly, too: there is not an unlimited global supply of younger workers. Unless war and economic hardship drive people from their home countries, we can expect it will cost more to hire new workers as real wages rise. ...

(Sidebar: ahem ...)

Anti-growth public spending: The latest trend in public finance is for governments to “reset” their economies by spending more on social programs paid for by taxing job creators. COVID spending in 2020 sharply increased public deficits, which were financed by printing money. But spending that raised household incomes by six per cent in Canada is now fanning inflation. Future spending won’t be so easily accommodated by continuing large deficits. Instead, big-government politicians will spend more by taxing corporations and high-income Canadians. Rising social spending will push up consumption while anti-growth tax policy will discourage supply. Even a balanced budget will force up inflation.

(Sidebar: Franky is trying to fool everyone.) 

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The rising cost of everyday items such as food and gas is a top economic concern, and two-thirds of Canadians are worried their pay will not keep up with inflation, according to a new Nanos Research survey.

 

(Sidebar: spoiler alert - you won't.)

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Right. Trudeau’s record? It was a $19 billion deficit in 2016; a $19 billion deficit in 2017; a $14 billion deficit in 2018 and in 2019, not a $1 billion surplus, but a $26.6 billion deficit.

Given that Trudeau has been re-elected twice since 2015, albeit with minority governments versus winning a majority in that election, he has clearly decided, correctly, that enough people who vote Liberal don’t care about deficits or debt. They are happy to pass on our bills to their children and grandchildren.

 

 

Even with a senile man who soils himself and doesn't realise that people hate him, you still can't (and won't) mount a defense against the American elephant:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is instructing his top economic ministers to take tough positions on trade issues amid growing disputes with the U.S., potentially signaling a more protectionist approach from Canada.

 

Sure.

Whatever. 


Also:

Enbridge Energy moved Wednesday to shift to federal court a Michigan lawsuit seeking shutdown of an oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes.

The Canadian company argued that a 2019 lawsuit filed in a state court by Attorney General Dana Nessel should be heard by U.S. District Judge Janet Neff, who last month retained jurisdiction over a separate case initiated by Enbridge to keep oil flowing through its Line 5.

"We are hopeful that the attorney general will agree that it makes sense for her case and the Enbridge case to be decided by the federal court rather than risk duplicative litigation and inconsistent results," spokesman Ryan Duffy said.

 


Did we forget Aqsa Parvez already?:

Aqsa Parvez wanted to get a part-time job and be allowed to dress and act like other teenage girls in her neighbourhood, but those desires led to a deadly conflict with her family that ended with her being strangled.

The Parvez family had moved from Pakistan to Ontario. Aqsa was 11 years old when she arrived — the youngest of eight children.

The statement of facts released in court about the December 2007 death revealed that when she entered her teen years Aqsa began rebelling against her father's strict rules.

"[S]he was experiencing conflict at home over cultural differences between living in Canada and back [in Pakistan]," the statement said.

Aqsa was in almost constant disagreement with her father and her siblings. 

She told her father she did not wish to wear the hijab any longer. She wanted to dress in Western clothes and have the same freedoms as the other girls in her high school.

The statement revealed that Aqsa "did not have a door on her bedroom, her freedom to talk on the phone with friends was restricted, she was required to come straight home from school and expected to spend her evenings and weekends at home as well."

In September 2007, Aqsa told a counsellor at Applewood Heights Secondary School in Mississauga "that she was afraid her father wanted to kill her ..."

 

Yes, we did:

Toronto city council unanimously passed a motion Thursday to provide a financial contribution in support of the legal fight against Quebec’s law restricting religious symbols.

** 

The Liberal government and Opposition Conservatives are facing calls from within to mount a more direct challenge to Quebec’s controversial secularism law after a teacher was removed from the classroom for wearing a hijab.


Good luck forcing the special province to let you interfere with its obvious attempt at anti-secularism and saving its dying culture:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he shares his late father's view that the notwithstanding clause is "not a great thing" to have in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He says the clause, agreed to by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau as the price for getting provincial agreement on the charter, amounts to a loophole that allows a majority to override the fundamental rights of minorities.

 

Like Quebec, the province you (as your father before you) place above all others, the province you allow to rob Alberta, the province you think you can brow-beat and, perhaps, use as a dangerous precedent of central Ottawa over all the provinces and territories in this country.

Until you wimp out, as you often do.



Let's surrender more of our private information:

Individual Canadians and private companies “need to do their part” in surrendering confidential information to Statistics Canada, a federal advisory panel said yesterday. StatsCan said it would respect privacy rights: ‘There is a lack of willingness by public, private and other sectors to work with Statistics Canada.’



Does anyone remember when pro-family activists warned of the dissolution of the traditional family and they were laughed at?

I do:

The Department of Justice in a report complains “polygamy remains a crime” in Canada and that family law fails to recognize other “equally valid relationship structures.” The remarks are from a newly-published federal research paper: “Biases within the justice system need to be actively uprooted.”



Wait - why are foreigners who are not citizens and have no vested interest in Canada llowed to buy property when Canadians cannot?

I$ there a rea$on?:

Municipalities should rezone broadly to allow more density and Canada should temporarily ban foreign buyers to help alleviate the housing affordability crunch faced by residents, the country's housing minister said on Tuesday.

** 

Canadians want a tax on foreign offshore real estate speculators to be expanded, says in-house research by the Privy Council Office. The current tax, first of its kind, takes effect January 1: “Both foreign-owned summer homes and properties purchased primarily for use in Airbnb should be subject to the foreign buyers’ tax.”

 

 

We don't have to trade with China:

Senators gave final congressional approval Thursday to a bill barring imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove they were produced without forced labor, overcoming initial hesitation from the White House and what supporters said was opposition from corporations.

 

No, just don't trade with China at all.

**

 

 

It would disastrous if this information got out:

The eight previous Public Health England / UK Health Security Agency ‘Vaccine Surveillance’ reports on Covid-19 cases show that double vaccinated 40-79 year olds have now lost lost 50% of their immune system capability and are consistently losing a further 4-5% every week (between 3.7% and 7.9%).

Projections also now show that 30-49 year olds will have zero Covid / viral defence at best, or a form of vaccine mediated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome at worst, by the first week in January and all double vaccinated people over 30 will have completely lost that part of their immune system which deals with Covid-19 in the next 18 weeks.

 

Also:

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Because the first three shots worked so well:

Israel will administer a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine to people over the age of 60 and medical personnel, becoming the first nation in the world to do so on such a widespread basis as the omicron variant barrels across the world.

“The citizens of Israel were the first to get the third vaccine and we are continuing to lead with the fourth vaccine,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement late Tuesday. He’s ordered authorities to prepare for a nationwide inoculation drive.

The decision was taken even though Israel doesn’t have reams of data backing up efficacy.

 

But no one does, so ...

 

 

Keeping one's head down in eastern Europe:

A Lithuanian government commission said on Tuesday an agreement signed by the state-run railway in 2018 to transport potash from sanctions-hit Belarus goes against national security interests, opening the door for the government to terminate it.

** 

You could always go back to Russia:

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had no room to retreat in a standoff with the United States over Ukraine and would be forced into a tough response unless the West dropped its "aggressive line".

**

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to the government of Lithuania in a deal valued at up to $125 million, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The sale comes as tensions are running high in Eastern Europe with Russia massing troops along its border with Ukraine. In October, the Biden administration sent Javelins to Ukraine, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv said on Twitter.

**

Poland and Lithuania joined Ukraine on Monday to call for stronger Western sanctions against Moscow amid a Russian troop buildup near the Ukrainian border that has fueled fears of an invasion.

U.S. intelligence officials say Russia has amassed 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and is preparing for a possible invasion early next year. Moscow has denied an intention to attack, but demanded that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance’s military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

 

Oh, were you waiting for a moment to be generous?:

Islamic countries pledged on Sunday to set up a humanitarian trust fund for Afghanistan as, with millions facing hunger and a harsh winter setting in, Pakistan’s prime minister warned of chaos if the worsening emergency was not urgently addressed.

 

Rather, they don't want migrants at their door. 

 

 

In Canada, this guy would have been given $10 million:

An Edmonton man who pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court Friday to conspiring with others to fund Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist activities will serve 20 years in prison, according to his plea agreement.



 From tragedy, an unexpected miracle: 

Two babies survived a tornado in Kentucky last weekend that ripped the bathtub they were sheltering in out of the ground and tossed it with them inside, their grandmother said.



Is this the final word on the most controversial topic of our day?:

Dogs: Will cuddle you in your sleep
Cats: Will cuddle you in your sleep. With a pillow. On your face. Until you die.

Dogs: Wait excitedly by the door when you are gone
Cats: Didn't realize you'd left

 

Also - we don't deserve dogs:



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