And the Rest of It

The grift that keeps on giving:

OPSEU, one of the province’s largest unions, is suing three former leaders — including long-time president Warren “Smokey” Thomas — for millions of dollars, alleging they withdrew $670,000 in cash from a strike fund without explanation, received “significant compensation” atop their salaries and had union-purchased vehicles transferred to themselves and their families.

The allegations against Thomas, former first vice-president/treasurer Eduardo Almeida and Maurice Gabay, former administrator of the union’s financial services division, are detailed in a statement of claim filed in Ontario’s Superior Court Monday morning and follow a forensic audit ordered by the union.

The allegations have not been proven in court. No statement of defence has been filed.

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OPSEU’s current president, JP Hornick, could not be reached for comment.

Stop sending your kids to public schools or their vaguely sectarian counterparts.

As long as the ideologues have control over students' educations (or baby-minding centres, as some parents would prefer them), no philosophy, no matter how watered-down, will slip by them:

The Canadian arm of an international textbook publishing company will discontinue some sex education books used by Catholic school boards in Ontario by March this year, following accusations they contain homophobic and transphobic content. 

Fully Alive, a series of textbooks and accompanying teachers' resources published by Pearson Canada, is aimed at teaching students in Grades 1 through 8 about sexuality, marriage and family through the lens of the Catholic faith. 

But Kyle Iannuzzi, a 2SLGBTQ advisory committee member and former student trustee at the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), told CBC Toronto Fully Alive is not inclusive of anyone who doesn't identify as heterosexual and cisgender. 

"They provide developing minds as young as Grade 1 with sexualized notions of self that adhere with the Catholic faith but are at odds with the reality of science and nature," he said.

Then why isn't there a gay gene?

I think we know.

The Khmer Rouge set a land-mine for every Cambodian in the Seventies:

Fifteen Ukrainian deminers are being trained by experts in Cambodia who are among the world's best because of experience from clearing the leftovers of nearly three decades of war.

The Ukrainian deminers are being hosted by the Cambodian Mine Action Center, a government agency that oversees the clearing of land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. The weeklong program began Monday and is supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Heng Ratana, the demining center’s director general, said the Ukrainians will be trained by Cambodian experts at the Mine Action Technical Institute in the central province of Kampong Chhnang, visit demining sites in northwestern Battambang province and tour a museum dedicated to land mines and unexploded ordnance in Siem Reap province, home to the famous Angkor temples.

He said the training will focus on mine clearing using technology including a Japanese detection device called the Advanced Landmine Imaging System.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch said last June that Russia is using land mines in Ukraine “that are causing civilian casualties and suffering, as well as disrupting food production.”

"Russia is the only party to the conflict known to have used banned antipersonnel mines, while both Russia and Ukraine have used anti-vehicle mines,“ it said.

Cambodia was littered with land mines and other unexploded ordnance after almost three decades of war ending in the late 1990s. An estimated 4 million to 6 million unexploded devices remain uncleared and continue to kill people.

Since the end of the fighting, nearly 20,000 people have been killed and about 45,000 have been injured by leftover war explosives, although the average annual death toll has dropped from several thousand to less than 100.

I don't remember any flags flying when Putin invaded Georgia:

Groovy Roasters in downtown Tbilisi is one of their hangouts. Alexey Kordovsky, the 26-year-old barista, a redhead with soulful green eyes, sits down in an open window to take in the sun. The Moscow native, who took part in several anti-Putin demonstrations, fled Russia in September. “I was afraid of dying on the front line in this meaningless war,” he says. Meanwhile his father, an ethnic Ukrainian, volunteered to fight – on the Russian side. Since then, the family is estranged.

There may be as many as 100,000 Russians in Georgia. For this tiny country of 3.5 million, it feels like an invasion. They occupy hotels and apartments alongside tens of thousands of Belarussians and Ukrainian refugees. It would be as if Canada took in a million newcomers all at once.

We did and we have nowhere to put them.

Why hasn't the CBC reported this?:

Fr. Achi was recently transferred to Madalla Parish in the state but was in Kafin-Koro, his former home parish when the incident occurred.

Bandits in the early hours of Sunday attacked St. Peters [sic] and Paul Catholic Church located along Daza Road, Kafin-Koro in the Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State and burnt the priest, Very Rev. Fr. Isaac Achi to ashes.

A source in the area told SaharaReporters that Fr. Achi’s assistant identified as Father Collins also sustained gunshot wounds and was rushed to an undisclosed hospital for treatment.

The source said Fr. Achi was recently transferred to Madalla Parish in the state but was in Kafin-Koro, his former home parish when the incident occurred.

Confirming the incident to SaharaReporters, the Niger Police Public Relations Officer DSP Wasiu Abiodun, in a statement, said the incident occurred at about 3 am on Sunday.

In a statement sent to SaharaReporters, Abiodun said, “On 15/01/2023 at about 0300hrs, armed bandits invaded the Parish residence of one Rev. Father Isaac Achi of St. Peters and Paul Catholic Church, along Daza road, Kafin-Koro, Paikoro LGA.

“Unfortunately, the bandits reportedly attempted to gain entrance into the residence, but seems difficult and set the house ablaze, while the said Rev. Father was burnt dead.

“A colleague of the Rev. Father identified as Father Collins was equally shot in the shoulder while trying to escape from the scene….

It's a cult:

Nadler on the bill to ban killing babies born alive: "The problem with this bill is that it endangers some infants [born alive] by stating that that infant must immediately be brought to the hospital." pic.twitter.com/1XysI40udv

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 11, 2023