It looks like Justin picked a bad week to quit smoking drinking sniffing glue antagonise an entire nation:
Within hours of one another on Tuesday, Saskatchewan, P.E.I. and Alberta announced an imminent end to pandemic strictures, marking the first dominos to fall in what is poised to be a nationwide lifting of COVID-19 mandates.
As the Omicron wave subsides, most Canadians now live in a province whose health authorities are actively questioning the utility of vaccine passports and other pandemic measures.
Even in Quebec, authorities have dropped controversial plans for a tax on the unvaccinated, and are now announcing an end to “almost all” coronavirus restrictions by March 14 — although they will be hanging onto vaccine passports.
“We’re taking a calculated risk to learn to live with the virus,” Quebec Premier François Legault announced Tuesday.
Starting on Valentine’s Day, Saskatchewan is dropping all proof-of-vaccination requirements. In a statement, Premier Scott Moe said vaccine passports were an “effective policy, but its effectiveness has run its course.” He added, “The benefits no longer outweigh the costs.”
Prince Edward Island outlined plans to end most restrictions early in April, with Premier Dennis King cautioning that the loosening is not a declaration of victory. “COVID is still with us, and it will be with us,” he said.
Ontario has no definitive plans to end vaccine passports, but Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore said last week the province should “reassess the value” of the measure.
Manitoba is marking a light drawdown of COVID restrictions this week, such as the expansion of private gatherings. But authorities have hinted that if current trends continue, the province would be completely stricture-free by the spring.
“Later this spring we hope to be in a position of relaxing nearly all restrictions and moving to recommendations,” said Premier Heather Stefanson.
(Sidebar: one can't expect a complete and immediate walk-back. The premiers would look like bigger idiots.)
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“The threat of COVID-19 to public health no longer outweighs the hugely damaging impact of health restrictions on our society,” Kenney said, adding the vaccine passports were successful at boosting vaccine uptake and protecting the healthcare system, but have outlived their usefulness.
However, the Alberta government will still be providing the QR codes to fully vaccinated Albertans, a move Kenney defended as necessary for Albertans travelling to other provinces with vaccine passports in place, or boarding a plane while the federal government still maintains a vaccine requirement for air travel.
“As long as there is a federal requirement for provincially issued proof of vaccination, we have to offer that as a service,” Kenney said.
Forget about sounding moderate. You've burned your bridges.
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Cabinet’s vaccination campaign is needlessly divisive and political, the ex-chair of the Québec Liberal caucus yesterday told reporters. “Where the hell are we heading here in Canada?” said MP Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert, Que.): “A decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize. I fear this politicization of the pandemic.”
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An Ottawa Police Staff Sgt walked away from his position today. For those who know, if you lose your senior NCOs, you are in trouble.#FreedomConvoyCanada2022 #TruckersForFreedom2022 pic.twitter.com/VfdCS2dGHF
— UNACCEPTABLE Tom Quiggin (@TomTSEC) February 8, 2022
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Cabinet has no role in forcing an end to growing Freedom Convoy blockades, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said yesterday. Seventy trade groups petitioned cabinet to force an end to border blockades at Windsor and Coutts, Alta.: “I hope the blockaders or occupiers or protesters stop their protesting.”
(Sidebar: ... says the wiener who wanted to pull truckers' licenses.)
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**Parliament by 173-155 vote orders regulators to suspend data scoop on millions of cellphone users.
— Holly Doan (@hollyanndoan) February 9, 2022
“There was no consent given by users to allow the telecom companies to collect this data.” https://t.co/q6NTMtNZet @JohnBrassardCPC @vankayak @PatKelly_MP #cdnpoli @GovCanHealth pic.twitter.com/hMhIbYiX0o
The trust index suggests general trust in governments, business, media and advocacy groups was already falling before the pandemic. The 2018 poll said 45 per cent trust those groups to be competent and effective. By 2020, that had fallen to 38 per cent, and this year it has fallen to 34 per cent.
That is driven largely by cratering trust in governments, with only 22 per cent saying they trust governments or politicians, compared with 40 per cent in the early days of the pandemic in May 2020.
And the protesters and others simply do not care what Justin or anyone thinks:
The police claimed to be baffled by this ingenious move of walking right by them with jerry cans.
We are dealing with the DB Cooper/Thomas Crown class of criminal here of which the police are woefully unable to tackle.
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**MASSIVE: Alberta Towing Companies Reject Requests To Supply Trucks To Canadian Police https://t.co/7USoLWhqn2
— Truckistan Amb. Poso 🏁 (@JackPosobiec) February 8, 2022
The Ontario Provincial Police say part of westbound Highway 402 in southern Ontario has been closed due to convoy demonstrations against COVID-19 measures.
Police said the westbound lanes of the highway at Nauvoo Road have been shut down due to “high traffic volumes” from “freedom convoy” demonstrators.
Drivers in the area are being asked to follow emergency detour route signage.
Justin refuses to take this insolence hiding under his bed. His dad didn't expect him to take this job for nothing!
He is putting on his big-boy pants and being proactive:
Trudeau walked out of QP during my question today.
— John Barlow (@JohnBarlowMP) February 8, 2022
Canadians are standing up right now, grabbing this moment in our history, because they know there is something fundamentally wrong when a Prime Minister refuses to listen. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/ymzApUr4ri
(Sidebar: nothing inspires confidence like running away. Or backtracking on so-called vaccines.)
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Reading from a prepared statement, Justin Trudeau’s Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino stated the Canadian government intends to target any American who may have donated to the Freedom Convoy protest effort. Apparently, the Canadian government wants to scare Americans away from donating to support the Freedom Protest in Ottawa. ...
Yes, about that:
The numbering and timing of these payments indicates that they have been made systematically. For example, between August 2 and September 29, Tides made 27 consecutively numbered payments for a total of $1.9-million. In all cases, the donor is listed as “an existing fund.” Generally, the existing fund is not identified.
The recipients are clearly identified. From the Great Bear Rainforest Initiative and the First Nations at Fort Chipewayan to the groups pushing for the EU Fuel Quality Directive in Europe, virtually every organization that campaigns against the Alberta oil industry is funded by Tides USA, these letters reveal.
Among the initiatives that Tides USA funds are LeadNow, Idle No More, the Indigenous Tar Sands campaign, the Tanker Free Coast campaign, Pipe Up, the Tar Sands Reality Check, the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, PowerShift and Save the Salish Sea. The gist of these initiatives is to foment opposition to pipeline and export infrastructure that is essential for getting Canadian energy to global markets.
Seven payments mention building relationships with First Nations, “indigenous solidarity,” resistance and opposition along pipeline routes. For example, through the Tides Canada Foundation Exchange Fund, Tides USA paid $35,000 for re-granting to West Coast Environmental Law “to provide legal strategies and communication support to First Nations to constrain tar sands development.”
Through the Tides Canada Foundation Exchange Fund, Tides USA also paid $15,000 to the Sierra Club of BC for a project called, “Our Coast, Our Call: Mobilizing and Strengthening Opposition to Tanker Expansion on the B.C. Coast.”
Even before the recommendations of the Joint Panel Review of the Northern Gateway pipeline are in, Tides USA has paid First Nations in B.C. to respond to the panel and to media. On August 9, 2013, Tides USA paid $67,500 to the Great Bear Initiative Society “for work with Coastal First Nations on the Central and North Coasts to prepare for the federal consultations; respond to media; and raise awareness of the costs of an oil spill and respond to Joint Review Panel (JRP) recommendations.” Tides USA paid $25,000 to the same group “to enforce the oil tanker ban for the Great Bear Rainforest through communications outreach, to maintain opposition to oil tankers, and to increase public support against the Northern Gateway pipeline.” Both of the letters regarding these payments were sent to the attention of Mr. Art Sterritt.
Tides funds the Dogwood Initiative “to cultivate widespread public opposition to tar sands oil tankers and pipeline proposals in British Columbia.” Note that Dogwood isn’t paid to oppose all tankers, only “tar sands oil tankers” — in other words, only tankers exporting Canadian oil.
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If Tides funded activists to act as honest brokers, that would be fair. But that’s not what Tides does. Tides funds The Tar Sands Campaign, an international effort that aims to embarrass Canada, deter investment and stigmatize Alberta oil as the poster child of dirty fuel. The goal of this campaign is nothing short of stopping the export of Alberta oil by pipeline, rail and tanker.
Tides launched The Tar Sands Campaign back in 2008 with funds from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and other U.S. donors. At first, the main intermediary funder was Tides but in 2012 that changed as some U.S. donors shifted to the New Venture Fund, based in Washington, D.C.
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The Tar Sands Campaign has been running for more than a decade with financial help from the US$870-million Rockefeller family philanthropic foundation. The goal of the campaign, as CBC reported in January, is to sabotage all pipeline projects that would export crude oil from Western Canada to lucrative overseas markets.
Northern Gateway, Energy East, Keystone XL, Trans Mountain and Line 3 have all been targeted. Most of the talk about this campaign has focused on how this activism chokes the oil industry, but tax documents indicate it also takes aim at natural gas.
One would think, whatever Justin's feelings on Alberta and the oil sector, he would at least prevent foreign interests from deciding their respective courses.
But no.
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In addition to lobbyists, foreign donors have also been giving more to the foundation in recent years. Chinese national Bin Zhang, who made a $200,000 gift to the charity following a cash-for-access Liberal fundraiser with prime minister Justin Trudeau, has been the focus of heated debate in the House of Commons. The gift, which was first reported by the Globe and Mail, counted as a domestic donation, since it was made by a company registered in Canada.
Under Elections Canada rules, only Canadian citizens and permanent residents can make federal political donations, but foreigners with an interest in Canadian public policy are free to donate to the Trudeau Foundation. Foreign donations to the foundation have increased significantly in recent years.
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And about those pesky truckers:
More:
Minister Mendicino identified the Ottawa protest group as a “violent”, “hate” group. The Ottawa truck drivers were described as an “angry, loud, intolerant and violent crowd,” who “threaten the national security of Canada.”
Monster!
What are the police to do?
There is talk:
Ottawa wants six buses on Thursday. What could they possibly have in mind? pic.twitter.com/E3kIO061gm
— CanadianCryptonaire - Same as Getter (@CCryptonaire) February 9, 2022
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Oh, it's for the children, is it?:
Ottawa police are raising concerns about the safety of children living in “Freedom Convoy” trucks and say their presence “complicates” efforts to end the demonstration.
More than 100 of the trucks remaining as part of the nearly two-week-long protest in downtown Ottawa are estimated to have kids living in them, OPS Deputy Chief Steve Bell told media in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
“Almost 25 per cent of the 418 trucks have children living in them — children who could be at risk during a police operation,” Bell said.
I'll be sure to remember that when children are exposed to myocarditis or when the legal establishment clearly doesn't give a crap about genuine crimes and their infantilised perpetrators.
In other news:
A group of thirteen senators last night vowed it will not rubber stamp any more cabinet bills. Senator Scott Tannas (Alta.), leader of the Canadian Senators Group, said he was weary of political horse-trading that has seen bills rushed into law without proper scrutiny: “It is a gun to your head if you are an individual senator.”
Remember, Lithuania - YOU are the honey badger:
The foreign ministers of Australia and Lithuania agreed Wednesday to step up cooperation on strategic challenges, in particular pressures from China.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne met Wednesday at Parliament House.
Australian exporters have lost tens of billions of dollars to official and unofficial Chinese trade barriers covering coal, wine, beef, crayfish and barley that have coincided with deteriorating relations with Beijing.
Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million in the Baltic region, more recently drew Beijing's ire after breaking with diplomatic custom by agreeing that Taiwan's office in its capital Vilnius would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, a term used by other countries to avoid offending Beijing.
“For quite a while, Australia was probably one of the main examples where China is using economy and trade as a political instrument or, one might say, even as a political weapon,” Landsbergis said.
“Now Lithuania joins this exclusive club . . . but it is apparent that we’re definitely not the last ones,” he added.
Speaking of Taiwan:
Somaliland has "huge" investment potential in untapped oil and gas reserves, the foreign minister of Somalia's breakaway region told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday, pitching investment opportunities on a high-profile visit.
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The United States has approved a possible $100 million sale of equipment and services to Taiwan to "sustain, maintain, and improve" its Patriot missile defense system, the Pentagon said on Monday, drawing an angry threat of retaliation from Beijing.
A weakened US made this happen:
North Korea said it had a missile that can reach the US mainland and "shake the world."
Since the start of the year, Pyongyang has conducted a flurry of missile tests, including seven in January, a feat the foreign ministry on Tuesday said were "remarkable achievements."
North Korea said it tested the Hwasong-12, one of its most advanced intermediate-range missiles made in 2017, on January 30 — its first test since its creation. The country also said it had a long-range missile named the Hwasong-15, which it said can reach the US mainland. The Hwasong-15 has not been tested since it was made in 2017.
In a Tuesday statement, the foreign ministry said the larger missile can strike the US with ease.
And now for something completely different:
In a world first, Swiss researchers have enabled three paraplegic patients to stand and walk again, using a nerve-stimulating device that’s controlled by touchscreen tablet.
The device, revealed this week, uses electronic implants and artificial intelligence software to help paraplegic patients gain back their autonomy — and researchers have found it works well on those with even complete paralysis.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that this particular electrode system works faster than other previous attempts at electrical stimulation of the spinal cord. Improvement was seen within just one day of treatment and continued in the days and months to follow.
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