Mid-Week Post

 

Your middle of the week dietary selection ...

The process is the punishment:

The Justice Centre is pleased to announce that the Crown has dropped charges against former MPP Randy Hiller, former MP Derek Sloan, Pastor Heinrich Hildebrandt, and private citizen, Dan Stasko. The four men were allegedly involved in peaceful rallies against Covid measures in June 2021 and were charged with violating public health orders under the Reopening Ontario Act. After negotiations with

After negotiations with Bally Hundal, a lawyer retained by the Justice Centre, the Crown dropped all charges, stating that prosecution was no longer in the public interest.

Ontario has implemented lockdowns since the beginning of the pandemic and placed significant restrictions on the right to peaceful protest. In June 2021, the four men were charged for participating in a peaceful demonstration in Norfolk, Ontario. There were approximately 200-300 people at this outdoor demonstration against the Covid measures implemented by the Ontario government.

Mr. Hillier, Mr. Sloan, Pastor Hildebrandt and Mr. Stasko were concerned with the Covid restrictions – health orders which significantly curtailed the right to peaceful protest. For exercising their Charter rights to assemble peacefully and protest the government measures, they were charged with offences carrying potential fines of $100,000 to each individual as well as up to one year in prison.

“Peaceful demonstration is an essential pillar of a democratic society,” says Justice Centre lawyer Henna Parmar. “Citizens have the right to make their opinions known. We are pleased in this case to hear that the Crown will not proceed with prosecuting citizens who spoke out against harsh government lockdowns.”

It's probably because the app was an expensive, ineffective political tool imagined by tyrants in pressed suits:

According to a document tabled in the House of Commons last week, between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, a total of 1,651,900 travellers had “presented themselves at the border for entry into Canada without having submitted their public health information through ArriveCAN prior to arrival.” That number accounts for about 4.3 per cent of the 38.5 million individuals who entered Canada via air or land from the start of the year to Sept. 11.

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In January of 2022, 126,674 people failed to use the app before they arrived. That number then dropped to 50,176 in February before increasing again, to a total of 401,176 in July and 386,445 in August.

A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency wasn’t able to, by deadline, provide updated information about how many of those travellers would have benefitted from the one-time exemption the government quietly introduced over the summer. The agency also doesn’t keep track of how many people fill out the app after they arrive at the border.

Also - no, you followed the "basic dictatorship" of your favourite country:

Cabinet followed the science in repealing the last travel-related mask and vaccine mandates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday. The remark came as one federal scientist warned hospitalization rates remained high with “continued growth” of infections this fall: “The pandemic is not over, you know.”

He is simply the worst prime minister this country has ever had.

And:

More than 33,000 travelers have had smartphones, laptops and tablets searched by the Canada Border Services Agency, documents show. Searches peaked just prior to a successful legal challenge that struck random searches as unconstitutional: “How many searches involving the viewing of contents on individuals’ electronic devices has the Border Services Agency conducted?”

**

The RCMP yesterday confirmed it emailed a blacklist of Freedom Convoy sympathizers to lobbyists like the Mutual Fund Dealers Association for distribution to members. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland had claimed the blacklisting was “really targeted.”

**

Constitutional lawyers have filed a legal challenge on behalf of a municipal councillor censured for attending the Freedom Convoy protest. Harold Jonker, an Ontario trucking company manager, said he was proud to be among the first truckers to join the January 28 protest outside Parliament Hill: “In Canada we must tolerate strong differences of political opinion.”

Your awful government and you:

Ian Shugart, a longtime bureaucrat and the country’s top civil servant during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been tapped for a seat in the Senate. 

This Ian Shugart:

Privy Council clerk Ian Shugart told the House of Commons finance committee Tuesday that only about one per cent of the documents were redacted to protect cabinet confidences.

**

The House of Commons information, ethics and privacy committee plans to look at Canada’s much-maligned access-to-information regime — the latest in a long line of studies of a system intended to make government more transparent.

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Conservative MP Pat Kelly, the committee chairman, says the system is plagued by excessive delays and a culture of secrecy that has been “baking in for decades.”

**

Nearly 90 per cent of federal public sector executives, as well as thousands of other federal bureaucrats, went home with $190 million in total bonuses in 2021-2022.

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The bonuses represent an 11 per cent jump from the previous year ($171 million), which coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

**

Media subsidies have provoked historic mistrust of reporters, the Commons heritage committee was told yesterday. The best-known federal subsidy, a $595 million payroll rebate and tax credit scheme for cabinet-approved publishers, expires in 2024: “People who today think media are toadying up to the Liberal government will at some point in the future believe they are toadying up to someone else. It doesn’t really matter whether they are or they aren’t. What matters is people won’t believe them.”

 

Oh, but the well-funded popular press IS Justin's best friend.

Can someone that stupid and annoying escape scrutiny only in Canada and nowhere else?

 

 

She is so in touch with the finances of the nation that she (allegedly) had to hear about this from the news:

Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier says she was never told of allegations of corrupt practices involving Canada Revenue Agency corporate tax settlements. Lebouthillier said she first learned of one case through media: “The Minister became aware of the issue when it entered the public sphere.”

A reminder:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s World Economic Forum-linked finance minister told Canadians on Tuesday that record-high fuel prices are a “reminder of why climate action is so important and why as a country we need to work even harder and move even faster towards a green economy.”

“It’s an insurance policy against higher energy prices,” Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a press conference.

The journalist will, no doubt, eat well this Thanksgiving, unlike Canadians who need to be cushioned with higher prices and taxes.

 

Consider:

Rising interest rates will see a doubling of federal debt charges within four years, Budget Officer Yves Giroux last night warned the Senate banking committee. New figures indicate interest on the federal debt will eclipse the military budget next year and keep on rising: “That is something that will have a major impact on public finances.”

 

It's not Justin's dad's money that is being wasted.

The entirety of China is run by communist slave-holders who abuse their own people.

Why not stop trading with China?

Oh, but greed!:

Legislation expected to pass Parliament would name and shame Canadian corporations that import slave-made goods, the Commons foreign affairs committee was told yesterday. Suspicious products include China-made cotton apparel, solar panels and tomato paste, according to human rights activists: “Surely in the 21st century it should be clear we cannot base our prosperity on forced labour.”

Was it something he said and did?:

The Saskatchewan NDP has cancelled plans to invite federal leader Jagmeet Singh to its convention following what some sources described as a heated debate over whether the federal party is hurting the provincial party’s electoral success. 

Also - no, idiots, prices go up because of costs, taxes and inflation:

The federal New Democrats want the government to look into Canada’s major grocery chains to find out whether corporations have been taking advantage of inflation to turn a profit amid rising food prices.

#Mathishard

 

 

It's all about dignity ... or something:

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. has signed an agreement with 23 First Nation and Metis communities to sell an 11.57 per cent interest in seven pipelines located in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta for $1.12 billion.

The deal is the largest energy-related Indigenous economic partnership transaction in North America to date, the pipeline company said Wednesday.

 

Let's remember how government-run healthcare works in this country:

My neighbour gave birth late last January. She refused the vax. Her ob/gyn announced because she refused the vax he would not deliver her baby. She literally had no doctor who would see her for the last trimester of her pregnancy. She did find a midwife one week before she gave birth but when she went into labour the midwife was with another woman and so they called an ambulance. The ambulance took her to the hospital but when they arrived in the ambulance bay not one staff member would come down to attend her and they refused to let her into the hospital because she was unvaxxed. She gave birth in the ambulance attended by the paramedics while it was sitting in the ambulance bay of the hospital while her husband was sitting outside in his car listening to her give birth via the cell phone. After the baby was born, staff in full PPE gear finally showed up but only to take the baby away and put him in the NICU in isolation for 14 days because he had been exposed to an unvaxxed. The husband went into the ambulance bay and helped his wife and new baby into their car and they went home to threats of having social services after them. The health nurse that was supposed to do home visits refused to come because they were unvaxxed. Social services never showed up.

The couple complained about how she was treated but they covered for each other saying the birth was precipitous and the couple left AMA. She was in that ambulance bay for 30 minutes before she gave birth.

"Screw you, Justin!" Alberta said:

In a bid for assistance with the firearm confiscation program, federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino issued a direct request for support from the Kenney government in Alberta.

“I am writing to seek your support in implementing the buyback program,” Mendicino pleaded in a secret letter to Alberta’s government. He added that his office would be working directly with policing authorities to successfully implement the “buyback program.”

To make a long story short, the Alberta government declined.

Alberta’s Minister of Justice, Tyler Shandro announced today in a press conference that he will obstruct the gun grab by any means necessary. His office, in a coordinated response to Trudeau, issued orders to the K-Division expressly directing them to ignore federal orders on the matter.

I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned with:

A series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany triggered concerns about sabotage Tuesday, overshadowing the inauguration of a long-awaited pipeline that will bring Norwegian gas to Poland to bolster Europe’s energy independence from Moscow.

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Seismic stations Sweden, Norway and Finland registered two explosions Monday near the leaks.

**

U.S. military officials said Monday that a Chinese missile cruiser, two other Chinese navy ships, and four Russian naval vessels were spotted near the coast of Alaska.

The Chinese missile cruiser was seen about 85 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island on Sept. 19, according to the U.S. Coast Guard in a statement.

This isn't Canada, Russia. You can't just hold a Japanese citizen ad infinitum and rough him up until the Americans come for him:

Japan’s government on Tuesday demanded an apology from Russian authorities for “coercively” detaining a Japanese consulate official, who was accused of espionage and ordered to leave Russia.

And the Rest of It

Beggars can't be choosers, Germany:

Poland will only help supply oil to Germany's PCK Schwedt refinery if Russia's Rosneft is completely removed as a shareholder, Poland's climate ministry said, raising pressure on Germany to completely nationalise the refiner.

Germany took control of the Schwedt refinery, which was majority owned by Rosneft Deutschland, last Friday as Berlin strives to shore up energy supplies. It put Rosneft Deutschland under a trusteeship of the German industry regulator but Rosneft still holds 54% of the company's shares.

The German economy ministry is in talks with potential buyers, including a Polish company, two government sources in Berlin said. Reuters reported last week that Poland's top refiner PKN Orlen is interested in buying a controlling stake in Schwedt, which supplies 90% of Berlin's fuel.

Berlin is aiming to meet its European Union commitment to eliminate Russian oil imports by the end of the year, a move triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Schwedt refinery previously received most of its crude from Russia and Berlin is now looking to other countries to supply Schwedt.

"In Polish-German technical talks on additional oil supplies for Germany that are underway, the Polish side is declaring that potential help is possible under condition that Rosneft Deutschland is removed from the list of shareholders of PCK Schwedt," Polish climate ministry said in response to Reuters questions.

 

A rigged game:

Russia launched referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognize their results.

Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the four-day vote was over, armed groups were going into homes, and employees were threatened with the sack if they did not participate.

 

 

It was never about a virus:

As Canada ordered huge quantities of a new anti-COVID drug last December and struck a deal to have it made in Ontario, plenty of evidence was out there on a key point — whether molnupiravir actually worked.

Along with a highly publicized study by manufacturer Merck, companies in India had more quietly carried out 12 separate trials of the pill on a much larger group of patients — almost 14,000 people who received either the drug or a placebo.

But a year after most of those Indian studies were completed, just a tiny portion of the results have been divulged publicly and none published in a peer-reviewed journal, says a new British paper on the Indian research.

The limited information released on four trials paints at best a mixed picture of the anti-viral, suggests the report by British academics. The rest is just unknown.

**

Israeli researchers found some side effects that occurred after COVID-19 vaccination were caused by Pfizer’s vaccine, according to a leaked video.

 

Speaking of Israel:

The Christian community is well integrated into Israeli society and is spread throughout the country. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2020, 70 per cent of Christian men and 64 per cent of women were in the labour force, and 71 per cent of Christian Arabs had successfully completed a matriculation certificate, which is necessary to enter higher education and certain professions, compared to 45 per cent of Muslims.

There’s no doubt that Jerusalem’s Old City has been a source of friction between the world’s three major religions. Yet King Abdullah’s comments suggest that Israel (and therefore the Jewish nation) is assaulting the Christian community. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our relationship and friendship with our Christian brothers and sisters is stronger than ever, particularly following the Nostra aetate declaration of the Second Vatican Council, which was designed to improve relations between Christians and Jews.

The hypocritical duplicity of King Abdullah’s remarks at the UN also contradict the facts on the ground in all the Arab nations that surround Israel. Including Jordan itself, where the International Fellowship of Christian and Jews reports that Christians face oppression and lack employment opportunities due to laws that prevent many refugees from working.

In Egypt, Christians are said to face unprecedented levels of persecution. According to a report produced by Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, in 2017, 128 Christians were killed in Egypt because of their faith.

In 2015, ISIL executed 21 Christian men on a beach in Libya. In Syria during the civil war, ISIL reportedly turned a bakery into a death chamber, killing 250 Christians by kneading children to death in a bread machine and baking men in an oven.

A report commissioned by then-British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2019 found that, while Christians comprised 20 per cent of the population of the Middle East and north Africa a century ago, their numbers have fallen to less than four per cent. “In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities has reached an alarming stage,” according to the report.

And we know that the Palestinian Authority’s behaviour has motivated many Christians to leave.

 

 

Schools have become so rotten over the past few decades that even a few electoral victories won't be enough to fix them:

Fernandes says she believes that the public school system has stepped too far out of line with sex and gender education, and that changing the situation requires that trustees and school administration members be more transparent with their constituents and work to democratically carry out their constituents’ wishes.

In the end, a trustee’s role is to truly advocate for their constituents and, most importantly, for the students, she said.

“Because really, it starts with the kids, when we look at our society.”

 

 

God gave us dogs and the people who train them:

Students at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are visited twice a week by Gia, an 8-month-old Bernedoodle, and a group of Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

Gia is a therapy dog who visits classrooms and interacts with the children. Although she is still in training, her warmheartedness and gentle spirit has become the perfect match for the children who attend this Catholic school.

Sister Mary Rosario Vega, who recently celebrated her 50th anniversary of entering the convent, is one of the nuns who trains Gia and takes her to the school each week. In an interview with CNA, she said, “She [Gia] adores children, she’s very loyal, very intelligent, very easy to train.”

Gia spends the majority of her days in the convent with the sisters. Sister Vega explained that the dog sits outside as the sisters attend Mass in the chapel and will even attend adoration with each of the sisters. They are now working on training her to be able to attend Mass with the children.

“In general, she’s very good, very quiet. She comes to adoration — each of us have an hour of adoration with the Blessed Sacrament — that’s her best hour,” she said.

However, it’s her time with the children that makes Gia the happiest, Sister Vega said. And the response from the students, teachers, and parents has made it even more worthwhile.

“It’s just so beautiful to see the children, how they change when they see the dog just wagging her tail,” Sister Vega expressed. “She’s so good with the children. When [the teachers] see them crying or having a bad day or anything, they either bring her to the classroom or take the child to her and they calm down.”

 

On the Korean Peninsula

 I'm sure by now Yoon has realised that Justin is completely without substance (just as he has realised that Biden is also a moron):

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says Canada is a natural match for boosting the production of electric vehicles, as both countries try to contain the risk of a more aggressive China.

 

Not bloody likely, mate. 

Japan realises that China is dangerous. Justin simply does not care.

Also:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday agreed to deepen cooperation on critical minerals used in electric vehicles (EVs) batteries as both countries seek to cut emissions to fight climate change.

Nope.

And that's before bringing up what expensive and polluting things EVs are.

Freight train traffic open between China and North Korea:

North Korea and China resumed freight train service Monday following a five-month hiatus, South Korean officials said, as the North struggles to revive an economy battered by the pandemic, U.N. sanctions and other factors.

The reopening came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month made a dubious claim to have overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and ordered an easing of the restrictions guarding against the spread of the coronavirus.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said it assessed the North Korea-China freight railway service restarted Monday, though neither Beijing nor Pyongyang has confirmed so. Spokesperson Cho Joonghoon said how long the train service would last and what goods would be transferred would remain to be seen.

Earlier Monday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said it has seen a freight train with more than 10 cars leaving the Chinese border city of Dandong and crossing a railway bridge into North Korea’s Sinuiju city.

Defund Police Pensions

If they are going to be the government's personal jackboots, they can do it for nothing:

The RCMP‘s response to the 2020 shooting rampage that left 22 Nova Scotians dead was far from perfect, but police did their best, the federal Justice Department said Friday.

During the final day of public proceedings at the federal-provincial inquiry into the mass shooting, Lori Ward, general counsel for Department of Justice Canada, said there’s always room for improvement for all policing agencies.

“No response to a critical incident of this magnitude could be perfect, but when this crisis hit, the RCMP showed up, did their best and acted with courage, determination and dedication,” Ward said.

 

To wit:

 Nova Scotia's police watchdog says two RCMP officers opened fire at a Lower Onslow, N.S., fire hall while a gunman was rampaging through the province Sunday — but the suspect was not in the area at the time.

**

A police blacklist of bank account holders named as Freedom Convoy sympathizers was emailed to lobbyists, records disclose. The RCMP distributed names, birth dates, phone numbers and other personal information by unencrypted email, contradicting public claims by cabinet: “Haphazard would be an understatement.”

It's A Cult

Prove me wrong:

Glenn... This is scientifically and medically incorrect. 100%.

Ultrasound can't detect electrical activity. Who told you otherwise? https://t.co/PxxPViEV70

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) September 22, 2022

 

One could go on and on about the myriad of ways in which this is complete pig crap but I will refrain in lieu of this question: if there is no heartbeat, why didn't pro-abortionists bring that up before?

I won't wait for an answer. 

Also - no heartbeat but an intense dislike of kale?:

In what’s being described as the first direct evidence that fetuses respond to flavours in the womb, fetuses exposed to kale flavours were more likely to show “cry-face” reactions than fetuses exposed to sweeter-tasting carrots.

In the British-led study, researchers performed ultrasounds on a group of mothers from northeast England at 32 and 36 weeks’ gestation to look for fetal facial reactions to kale and carrot flavours.

The women were given one capsule containing organic kale or carrot powder, or no flavour, 20 minutes before each scan, and fetal facial movements were measured, frame by frame.

Fetuses exposed to carrot showed “lip-corner puller” and “laughter-face gestalt” more frequently, while fetuses exposed to kale showed more “upper-lip raiser,” “lower-lip depression,” “lip stretch,” “lip presser” and “cry-face gestalt” compared with the carrot group or fetuses not exposed to any flavours.

“We also found that facial responses to flavours became more complex as fetuses mature,” the authors wrote in the journal, Psychological Science.

The findings “have important implications for understanding the earliest evidence for fetal abilities to sense and discriminate different flavours,” they said.

**

The elderly lady was canvassing in a neighborhood in Lake Odessa when “she was shot in the back/shoulder while leaving a residence during a heated conversation, and that the man who shot her was not a part of her conversation.”

“The victim does not know the identity or motive of her shooter. The victim is still recovering from her gunshot wound and wishes to remain anonymous while the criminal investigation proceeds,” a statement from RLM explained.

 **

Let's talk about the healthcare you can't deliver, moron:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is willing to help ensure women in the United States who want an abortion can get one. 

Who Did You Vote For, Canada?

One must ask:

Poilievre followed up with reports that rent is so high in Toronto that students are living in homeless shelters and that groceries have become unaffordable to the point that food banks are facing their highest demand in history.

He attacked the Liberals for the government’s plan to raise the rate of worker contributions to the Employment Insurance (EI) and  Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which he described as tax hikes.

“It’s the worst time to raise costs for Canadians,” he said.

**

In April next year, the Liberals’ carbon tax will rise as well, adding $15 per tonne to a new total of $65 per tonne in the provinces where the federal program applies. Those increases are slated to continue until the tax reaches $130 per tonne in 2030.

The CPP increases are part of the government’s broader plan to increase benefits to retirees. The maximum benefit a retired Canadian can receive today from CPP is about $15,000, but under a deal worked out with provincial governments, including some Conservatives premiers, the contributions and benefits will be around $20,000 per year in a few years time.

To pay for those increased benefits, contributions are rising as well from 5.7 per cent of earnings this year to 5.95 per cent starting on Jan. 1. For a person with the maximum amount of pensionable earnings the contribution would rise by about $300 next year.

**

The average Canadian family spent over 40 percent of its income on taxes in 2021—more than food, housing, and clothing combined—according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.

Published on Sept. 21, the study [pdf] found that while the average Canadian family earned an income of $99,030 in 2021, a total of $42,547 was used to pay taxes.

In total, families spent 43 percent of their income on taxes compared to 35.7 percent on basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing.

The study, titled “Taxes versus the Necessities of Life: The Canadian Consumer Tax Index 2022 Edition” also tracked the increase in taxes paid by the average Canadian family over the past 60 years.

The authors noted that taxes “have grown much more rapidly than any other single expenditure.” In 1961, families spent 35.5 percent of their income on taxes and 56.5 percent on basic necessities.

“Taxes remain the largest household expense for families in Canada,” said co-author Jake Fuss, associate director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, in a Sept. 21 news release.

Adding various types of taxes, the authors calculated that the tax bill of the average family grew by 2,440 percent between 1961 and 2021, compared to increases in annual housing costs (1,751 percent), clothing (643 percent), and food (790 percent).

Taxes included in the calculation cover those paid to federal, provincial, and local governments such as income taxes, payroll taxes, health taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, carbon taxes, vehicle taxes, import taxes, alcohol taxes, tobacco taxes, and more.

In addition, the authors said the increase in tax bills has “greatly outpaced” the increase in Consumer Price Index (802 percent), which measures the average price change in food, shelter, clothing, transportation, healthcare, and education, among others in the last six decades.

Noting that governments at the federal and provincial levels have returned to deficits to finance their spending in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors also argued that the deficits should be considered as deferred taxation.

“Of course these deficits must one day be paid for by taxes,” they wrote. “Once deferred taxes are included, the tax bill of the average Canadian family has increased by 2,845 [percent] since 1961.”

 

We Can Do Better Than Melanie Joly

Only in Canada can someone that dim fail upwards.

Talk about this, you unaccomplished chair-moistener:

“Terrifying reports from female defectors depict undergoing forced abortions after they fled to what they thought was freedom in China, only to be repatriated back to North Korea by authorities in China," said Olivia Enos, Senior Policy Analyst for Asian Studies at The Heritage Foundation. "Other women from North Korea recount having aborted babies born alive or giving birth in ordinary prison camps only to have border guards smother or drown their babies before their very eyes."

**

After crawling into her cell, Lee Young-joo was ordered to sit cross-legged with her hands on her knees.

She was not allowed to move for up to 12 hours a day.

A slight shuffle or a hushed whisper to her cell mates would be harshly punished.

She had limited access to water and was given only a few ground corn husks to eat.

"I felt like an animal, not a human," she said.

She told the BBC she spent hours being interrogated for doing something many of us take for granted - leaving her country. She was trying to escape North Korea in 2007 and was caught in China and sent back.

She spent three months at the Onsong Detention Centre in North Korea near the Chinese border, waiting to be sentenced.

As she sat in her cell she listened for the "clack clack clack" of the metal tips of the guard's boots as he patrolled outside. Backwards and forwards he went. As the sound went further away, Young-joo took a chance and whispered to one of her cell mates.

"We would talk about plans for another defection, plans to meet with brokers, these were secretive talks."

Prison was supposed to deter people from escaping North Korea - it clearly didn't work on Young-joo or on her cell mates. Most were waiting to be sentenced for trying to leave the country.

But Young-joo's plans had been overheard.

"The guard would ask me to come to the cell bars and put out my hands, then he started beating my hands with a key ring until it got all bloated and blue. I didn't want to cry out of pride. These guards consider those of us who tried to leave North Korea as traitors.

"You could hear others getting beaten because of the cells sharing this corridor. I was in cell three but I could hear beatings from cell 10."

** 

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley held a meeting on the human rights situation in North Korea where one defector spoke about how she was forced to have an abortion following her repatriation from China.

The woman, Ji Hyeon-A, describes a harrowing scene of prison dogs eating dead bodies at her prison camp. She pleaded for the world to act.

The event was titled “The Terrifying experience of forcibly Repatriated North Korean women,” and was sponsored by the U.S. France, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the U.K.

Ji Hyeon-A was repatriated three times to North Korea after she was caught in China. She finally escaped to South Korea and spoke of her horrifying experiences.

She described how North Korean women who got pregnant in China were forced to have abortions.

“Pregnant women were forced into harsh labor all day,” she said. “At night, we heard pregnant mothers screaming and babies died without ever being able to see their mothers.”

North Korea does not allow for mixed-race babies, she said. At one detention center, she described how inmates starved to death. Their dead bodies, she said, were given to the guard dogs for food.

The third time Ji Hyeon-A got caught and sent back to North Korea she was three months pregnant. She tearfully described how she was forced to have an abortion without medication at a local police station.

** 

Under the new policy, married couples are prohibited by the Communist government from having more than two children. For unmarried women who find themselves pregnant, the Chinese Government continues to enforce a zero-child policy, counting all unwed births as out-of-quota births unless they marry within 60 days after the child’s birth.

**

"Every woman has almost gone through a forced abortion or forced sterilization," Nanfu Wang, co-director and producer of the documentary, told PBS. "Sometimes the babies...they were born alive, and because of the policy and her job, she had to kill them after they were born alive, and she is really traumatized because of that."

Wang spoke to the midwife who delivered her, who admitted doing 50 to 60,000 abortions over her time to enact a policy that the government claims prevented 400 million births.

** 

Three Uyghurs who fled from China to Turkey have described forced abortions and torture by Chinese authorities in China’s far western Xinjiang region, ahead of giving testimony to a people’s tribunal in London that is investigating if Beijing’s actions against ethnic Uyghurs amount to genocide.

Your Wasteful, Vile, Corrupt, Idiot Government and You

The government people voted for, oddly enough:

Nova Scotia Power has confirmed there was an “issue related to ArriveCAN” that prompted concerns among U.S. crews that they “may not be able to cross the border” to help Canada amid post-tropical storm Fiona.

In a statement sent to Global News, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Power said the issue was resolved and crews were on their way to affected areas “within a few hours.”

 

But were they wearing masks?!

 

 

Still a jack-@$$:

Justin Trudeau has made serious and significant missteps on the international stage over the last several years. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when trips overseas had been a regular occurrence, there was a running joke amongst Conservative political staff that you needed to get your popcorn ready anytime the official plane was fueled up because it was only a matter of time before the Prime Minister made some error in judgment.

After all, this is the same Prime Minister who invited Jaspal Atwal, a man convicted on charges of attempted murder, to a reception during a trip to India where the Liberal government was supposed to be focused on deepening ties between the two countries. The incident made national and international news for weeks, and in addition to being a major embarrassment, brought into question serious risks that undermined Canada’s security services.

Then there were the meetings on the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Vietnam in 2017, where the heads of 11 countries were working to hammer out a revised trade pact. Media had reported that talks had stalled, and that the Prime Minister was at the centre of the drama when he failed to show up at the scheduled time to meet with other world leaders. As was reported, he chose to take a meeting with Facebook instead, and the Australian trade minister at the time accused him of trying to sabotage the talks.

These screw ups had real life consequences, and they hurt Canada’s reputation on the international stage. But Trudeau singing over a piano on a Saturday night?

 

 

Just take it out of their pensions:

MPs yesterday demanded to see actual menus for costly in-flight meals for Governor General Mary Simon. Food expenses on a junket to Dubai were the equivalent of $218 per plate for breakfast, lunch and supper servings for Simon and 45 others: “We’d like to know whether we are dealing with caviar and champagne.”

**

The federal government admitted certain items on the nearly $100,000 in-flight catering bill for the Governor General’s eight-day trip to Dubai last March were “problematic” and is working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The costs were really shocking to all of us. We had eggs! We had omelettes!” deputy secretary to the Office of the Governor General’s secretary Christine MacIntyre told MPs on the government operations and estimates committee Thursday.

 

Omelettes laced with gold.

 

 

Five will get you ten, Justin has no idea where food comes from:

Trudeau’s visit will also include work on advancing the 17 goals of the UN’s sustainable development effort, of which he is a co-chairman. Those global goals include climate action, eliminating poverty and pollution, gender equality and fostering equitable economic growth.

 

And don't think he won't starve anyone, either:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has adopted dozens of secret orders-in-council (OICs) since coming to office in 2015, including two during the Freedom Convoy protests, according to CBC News.

A small number of reasons are available to governments for keeping OICs secret, including matters of national security, military operations and foreign investments in Canadian companies.

(Sidebar: like Irving hiring foreign workers and not Canadians to build ships? Like that?)

The unpublished OICs – which are hidden from both Parliament and Canadians – are government orders drafted by Cabinet and signed by the Governor General. The number of secret OICs is evidenced by an absent number in the Privy Council’s database. 

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government adopted 28 secret OICs during his nine years in office, the Trudeau Liberals are up to 72 in less than seven years – with 21 of them in 2020 alone. 

Eleven secret OICs have already been filed in 2022.

Because priorities:

A cabinet bill to regulate legal internet content is a “power grab over human communications,” a former CRTC commissioner testified last night at Senate committee hearings. Bill C-11 would classify YouTube videos as TV broadcasts subject to mandatory regulation: “It’s a kind of reverse takeover of the internet.”

** 

The federal government announced that it would be committing up to $1.9 million in funding to “combat online terrorist and violent extremist content,” according to an announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sept. 20.

If the drug-dealers ran small businesses, it would be easier to shut them down:

Criminal law should not punish misguided drug dealers who just want to “put bread on the table,” Attorney General David Lametti said yesterday. Lametti made the comment in defending a cabinet bill to repeal mandatory minimum sentences for cocaine traffickers: “Did you talk to victims’ groups?”

 

It can keep declining:

French is a fifth or sixth language in provinces west of Québec, says new Census data.  Figures show in the largest English-speaking cities francophones are outnumbered by residents who speak Russian or Hindi: “We know French is on the decline across Canada.”

We Don't Have to Trade With China

But the idiot in charge loves China's "basic dictatorship":

Dozens of Chinese Canadian associations have echoed Beijing's positions, declaring support for Chinese "reunification" with Taiwan to be a "sacred mission of all Chinese sons and daughters at home and abroad."

"Chinese Canadians overseas will firmly support the Chinese government's political stance and fight against any external forces that try to split and undermine China's unity," read the letter, published in Dawa News, a Chinese-language outlet based in Canada.

The letter was published on Aug. 16, the same day that the Canada-Taiwan Friendship Group of Canadian parliamentarians announced their planned visit to Taiwan in the fall.

Pifeng Hu is honorary president of the Richmond, B.C.-based Peace and Development Forum of Canada, one of the 87 signatory groups to the letter. Fellow signatories include prominent umbrella groups such as the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations, chambers of commerce, as well as small bodies devoted to special interests such as wine and poetry appreciation.

 

(Sidebar: remember - people had their bank accounts frozen for opposing Justin's tyrannical mandates.)

**

Why would Xi meet with you, Your Holiness, when he has already imprisoned Cardinal Zen?:

The Vatican told China that Pope Francis was willing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping while both leaders where in the Kazakh capital but China said there was not enough time, a Vatican source said on Thursday.

The source gave no details on how or when the Vatican approached China, with which it is involved in a delicate dialogue over the status of the Roman Catholic Church in the country.

The source said the Vatican made "an expression of availability". The Chinese side said they "appreciated the gesture" but that there was no free time on Xi's schedule.

 

(Sidebar: coup?)

 

Also:

China experts and others expressed bewilderment over the Pope’s remarks. On his comment that China moves slowly and his call for patience, Benedict Rogers, the founder of Hong Kong Watch, a charity promoting human rights, freedoms and the rule of law in the China-administered territory, pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party “can move fast when it wishes to.”

“The speed and intensity of the genocide of the Uyghurs, and the crackdown in Hong Kong, show that it can act remarkably quickly when it decides on a particular course of action,” said Rogers, who was himself barred from entering the country in 2017 on account of his human rights work.

The British Catholic peer Lord David Alton interpreted the appeal for patience as “appeasement” and recalled the consequences of such an approach in the lead up to the Second World War and the post-war Vatican policy towards Soviet Communism of Ostpolitik.

“We know to what appalling consequences appeasement led,” he said. 

 

And:

The head of the Missionaries of Charity congregation remains unwilling to compromise on its blue-stripped white-cotton sari, the trademark habit of the congregation prescribed by founder St. Teresa of Calcutta, in order to open a home in China. 

“We have the green signal to open a house in China. But they are insisting that we should give up our habit. We cannot do that,” Sister Mary Joseph, superior general of the congregation, told the Register in an exclusive interview on Sept. 6 at the congregation’s motherhouse in Kolkata. 

Sister Mary, who was elected in March as the fourth superior general to head the congregation with more than 5,000 nuns worldwide serving in 139 countries, said this when discussing  Mother’s Teresa’s “dream” of entering China.

**

At least 154 Chinese scientists who worked on government-sponsored research at the U.S.’s foremost national security laboratory over the last two decades have been recruited to do scientific work in China — some of which helped advance military technology that threatens American national security — according to a new private intelligence report obtained by NBC News.

**

That China spread the virus is of no concern:

Moderna Inc Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said on Wednesday the company is "eager" to collaborate with China on supplying its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to the country.

The comments follow those of Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel, who last week in Tokyo said the company has held talks with the Chinese government about supplying vaccines but no decision has yet been made.

"We would certainly be very eager to collaborate with China if they felt that there was a need for a vaccine there," Burton told a media briefing to reporters in Asia. "Currently, there is no activity going on, but we'd be very open to it."

 

For Today

Just like the "science" changed after some truck-drivers made Justin wet his shorts, the government reminds everyone that it is not really free and that it is doing everyone a temporary favour by dropping entry requirements:

The federal government is removing all remaining COVID-19 related travel measures, ending masks on planes, vaccine mandates and the mandatory use of the ArriveCan app.

Several cabinet ministers announced the change at a news conference Monday morning. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the government had been following the science and now believes it is safe to relax these measures, starting October 1.

“Based on the data accumulated over the last few weeks and months, we are announcing that the Government of Canada will not renew the order in council that expires on September 30 and will therefore remove all COVID-19 border requirements for all travelers entering Canada,” he said.

Duclos said the government would maintain its ability to enforce the measures if needed. He strongly advised Canadians to get vaccinated and receive third or even fourth doses.

 

And there it is. 

There is simply no way that the government will surrender its all-encompassing cudgel over the people.

 

Also:

Federal agencies spent almost $20 million on the ArriveCan app for cross-border travelers, records show. Cabinet defended the program as essential in enforcing the Quarantine Act: “You want to keep it mandatory?”

 

And:

An RCMP blacklist of Freedom Convoy sympathizers was emailed to securities regulators nationwide to share with individual members. The Mounties would not comment on distribution of the email to potentially thousands of financial advisors: “Can you tell us what information was provided?”

 Canada is not a place to invest or live:

Economic advancement requires both the accumulation of productive knowledge and its use in more and more complex industries, and the calculation of economic complexity is based on the diversity of exports and on their ubiquity (the number of countries that are able to produce the same exports) and complexity. Obviously, the countries with a great diversity of advanced and complex productive know-how will come out on top as they will be able to sell highly diverse and highly valuable products that are sought after around the world. The ECI is a revealing measure of the level of economic development, and when judging the fortunes of nations and their outlook it is clearly more useful than average per capita GDP or income figures (their relatively high levels may tell us more about former accomplishments than about prospects) or HDI (heavily influenced by income).

Given the traditionally high shares of extractive exports — fossil fuels, uranium, lumber, pulp and paper, grains, live animals, meat — Canada’s ECI was never among the world’s top 10, but during the past 25 years the index has plummeted. In 2020 the average ECI of six other members of the G7 (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.) was three times the Canadian level: we simply do not belong among the advanced economies of the 21st century. One telling fact: a country of nearly 40 million people is the only G7 member not making any plate glass despite the fact that in per capita terms Canada has had the largest glassed-condominium construction boom among G7 countries during the past decade. All float glass must be imported and our annual total glass import bill (for plate, bottle, safety, mirror and insulating glass) now exceeds US$2 billion a year, more than we get for our exports of beef (all trade data are from The Observatory of Economic Complexity). At the same time, not only small Hungary and Portugal but even economically decrepit Venezuela make plate glass.

As a result, our performance has been surpassed by nations few Canadians would think of as being economically superior. In the year 1995 Canada ranked 22nd, by 2020, after a quarter century of steady decline, it was 43rd. The 2020 ECI numbers show the enormous gap that separates us from complex, modern, diverse economies: Japan leads (2.26), Germany is third (1.96), despite decades of deindustrialization the U.K. is 10th (1.54), the U.S. 12th (1.47), Mexico 20th (1.21), the Philippines 30th (0.84) and in 43rd place Canada (0.57) is sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, well below Slovakia, Romania and even Russia-allied Belarus.

This dismal economic complexity standing has many stunning demonstrations besides not making any float glass. Canada grows the world’s best durum wheat (some with more than 15 per cent protein) and it is its world’s largest exporter, with Italy and the U.S. being among its largest importers (in 2020 they bought nearly 25 per cent of our durum exports, and paid us more than $500 million). But Canada is also the world’s fifth largest importer of pasta: it cost us more than US$500 million in 2020, with most of it coming from (where else) U.S. and Italy. No wonder we are a nation of rudimentary economic complexity when we sell grain, let others process it and import pasta.

 

Also:

A half-billion in federal spending on a China-based bank resulted in contracts for a handful of Canadian companies, documents show. Cabinet said it did not know how many, if any, jobs were created for its purchase of shares in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank of Beijing: “The Canadian government cannot estimate how many jobs have been created.”

There are six hundred million reasons why the press is unpopular:

Unpopular federal subsidies have turned corporate media into targets of public scorn, the Commons heritage committee has been told. Taxpayers believe reporters are “on the take,” testified an Alberta editor: “I don’t want money from this government.”

All that virtue-signalling is polluting:

COPPER. I live near one of the largest copper mines on earth. I helped manage a smaller copper mine for 8 years. Observation: VRE-battery supporters are completely out of touch with the costs and fossil fuel / environmental impacts associated with copper mining & production. /1 pic.twitter.com/zBclcOfpOE

— B.F. Randall (@brandall9481) September 25, 2022

**

Steel to manufacture the equipment; tires; lubricating oil; grease; fuel; maintenance; batteries; wear steel; and associated transportation, mobilization, and demobilization - 100% consumptive just to pick up and move rock. /10

Then the ore is crushed. The scale of this equipment is hard to describe. The fossil fuel and other inputs that went into this single crusher in one copper mine - and associated CO2 and other impacts - much less the power to run it - are enormous. 20 year life.

 

 

Endless tragedies:

A gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia on Monday, killing 15 people and wounding 24 others before shooting himself dead, authorities said.

The shooting took place in School No. 88 in Izhevsk, a city 960 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow in the Udmurtia region.

Russia’s Investigative Committee identified the gunman as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a graduate of the same school, and said he was wearing a black t-shirt bearing “Nazi symbols.” No details about his motives have been released.

The Committee said 15 people, including 11 children, were killed in the shooting, and 24 other people, including 22 children, were wounded in the attack.

The governor of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, said the gunman, who he said was registered as a patient at a psychiatric facility, killed himself after the attack.

** 

Beaches at Plettenberg Bay, one of South Africa’s most popular beach resorts, have been closed after a second fatal shark attack in three months.

A 39-year-old woman from Cape Town died early Sunday at the town’s Central Beach after being attacked by one of the predators, the National Sea Rescue Institute said in a joint statement with the Bitou Municipality.

** 

Police in western Newfoundland have recovered the body of a woman who was swept out to sea at the height of post-tropical storm Fiona.

RCMP say the 73-year-old woman’s body was found Sunday afternoon, more than 24 hours after she was reported missing from the storm-ravaged community of Port aux Basques, N.L. ...

The cause of death of a second person on P.E.I. has yet to be determined, but the Island’s acting director of public safety told a news conference that preliminary findings pointed towards “generator use.” No further details were provided.

The deaths mark the first confirmed fatalities connected to the storm that tore through parts of Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec.