Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week snack break ...


Why, it's like they're hiding something:

Liberal MPs once again spent hours Tuesday filibustering a parliamentary committee meeting to prevent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, from testifying about allegations of Beijing’s interference in past elections.


Twenty-two hours, in fact.


There is no reason why this cow is immune.

Drag her in front of a judge, make it required testimony and live-stream the event.

Make it happen.


The plot thickens with interference sauce.

Loads of it:

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is calling out significant donations from persons of Chinese origin given to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s riding association in 2016, which came when the Liberal government was authorizing a new charter bank called Wealth One catering to Chinese Canadians. 

This comes amid the Liberals being under increased pressure to call an independent inquiry into election interference from China. 

“In just two days, the Prime Minister’s riding received $70,000 from donors of Chinese origin, and at the same time, the government authorized the establishment of a Chinese bank in Canada,” said Blanchet.

According to Le Journal De Montreal, 83% of donations to the Papineau Liberal EDA in 2016 came from outside of Quebec. Two thirds came from around fifty donors of Chinese origin, and were given in the spawn of 48 hours.

The Vancouver and Toronto-based donors gave donations ranging from $1382.41 to $1500 between Jul. 6 and Jul. 7 2016, for a total of $67,080. Wealth One was given the authorization to operate in Canada in July of that year.

**

“We’re currently at 15 serious tips received in relation to the presumed Chinese police stations in Montreal and Brossard,” RCMP Sergeant Charles Poirier said in a March 13 French statement.
**
Foreign Minister MĂ©lanie Joly yesterday said she was aware of at least one Chinese Communist Party agent who attempted to enter Canada on a diplomatic visa. “I have instructed my department to never shy away from denying a visa if it is for a political operative linked to the Communist Party of China,” Joly told the House affairs committee.
**
But Michael Chan, a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister and current deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., used an open letter the same day to level a blistering attack on CSIS itself, accusing the agency of persecuting him for 13 years, among other ills.

**

Gloria Fung, co-ordinator of the Canadian Coalition for a Foreign Influence Registry, said she has already witnessed in recent days what she considers to be a “very well-orchestrated and co-ordinated effort” to stoke fears that the federal government’s intent to investigate foreign agents will contribute to anti-Asian racism.

“This is not random,” said Fung in a phone interview.

She mentioned Michael Chan calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to launch an “urgent full public inquiry” into the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which Chan said  is “rife with unacceptable and longstanding systemic racism.” CSIS agents have been leaking information to the media alleging that China has been interfering in Canadian elections. Chan went public with his complaint against CSIS on the same day Trudeau said he would name a “special rapporteur” to look into interference claims.

But she also pointed out Senator Yuen Pau Woo, who wondered publicly on Twitter how Canada could prevent the foreign agent registry from becoming a “modern form of Chinese exclusion,” referring to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the entry of all Chinese immigrants 100 years ago. “Time to speak out,” he commented in reaction to the start of the consultations.

**

Trade Minister Mary Ng will not comment on her association with a Toronto group that the House ethics committee has heard has a record of echoing the Chinese communist regime’s Party line.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Ng’s office declined to comment on her association with the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO) after a witness warned about the CTCCO at the March 10 meeting of the committee which is examining reports of China’s alleged foreign interference and meddling in Canada’s federal elections.
Ng has openly shared on social media about her attendance at a February 2019 CTCCO event. According to the group’s website documenting its “major events,” Ng attended a number of other CTCCO events between 2018 and 2020.
Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, named CTCCO when speaking on how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to exert its soft power on Canadian society through efforts such as having individuals sympathetic to the regime establish organizations within Canada.

**

Of the 688 accounts identified to be regularly engaging on the topic of election interference, 19.1% or 132 accounts showed classic indicators of being bots. Both the Twitter API and the Google API were employed for the purposes of this research. 

The accounts in question sought to delegitimize media and intelligence reports which indicate that China has campaigned to interfere in Canada’s recent elections. Efforts included parroting Chinese state propaganda, directly attacking the credibility of the claims or downplaying their significance. 

This snapshot of data raises concerns about how China continues to manipulate social media discourse to influence opinions among the Chinese diaspora abroad. 

One of the more prolific accounts named “1banshengfu” has tweeted up to 160 times in one day while the account was only created on January 6, 2023. Its sole purpose seems to be to spread Chinese government talking points.



The Chinese don't have a "white fragility" problem:

Canada’s military must embrace “critical self-reflection” on racism, privilege and “white fragility,” says the Department of National Defence. Commanders in an Anti-Racism Toolkit detailed steps that soldiers, sailors and air crew must take to examine “ways that whiteness and white superiority become embedded in policies and processes.”



Your idiot government and you:

**

The Canadian government contracted with a U.S.-based military supplier to buy 76 armoured Toyota Land Cruisers for its diplomatic missions around the world in 2018. Five years later, only 33 have been received and it appears that the government has paid millions of dollars up-front for vehicles that have not yet been delivered.

**



This guy was proffered as a possible replacement for the Installed One:

The Bank of England announced that it will cut funding for climate change initiatives first championed by Canadian economist and central banker Mark Carney.

While serving as the Bank’s governor from 2013 to 2020, Carney led several sustainability efforts including climate change insurance risks, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores and more. 

According to Bloomberg, inflation and current fiscal challenges means that those projects will no longer get the same priority as the Bank of England dedicates more resources to traditional economic concerns. 

The group Net Zero Watch welcomed the shift, saying that it’s long overdue. 

“Its obsession with climate change, promoted and pushed through by its former governor, Mark Carney, in tandem with government ministers, has for years distracted it from its main responsibilities. Instead, it has been enforcing ESG disclosure guidelines, carbon-testing balance sheets and promoting Net Zero policies,” said a press release. 

“During his time as Governor, Net Zero Watch criticised Mr. Carney repeatedly, warning that his climate activism and his intimidation of financial institutions and pension funds into costly Net Zero targets would eventually lead to policy failure and a distressed correction. This correction appears to have now begun.”



Because of course he was:

The Ontario Superior Court has dropped two criminal charges against former Liberal MP Raj Grewal, after his lawyers requested a directed verdict to acquit the ex-politician of breach of trust.
Justice Sylvia Corthorn delivered her decision at the Ottawa courthouse on Friday, and she immediately hinted at her decision at the beginning of the hearing by saying she wanted to bring the case to a close.
In a brief ruling, Justice Corthorn determined that the Crown had not presented evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The charges “can neither reasonably nor logically be drawn,” she said.
“I find Mr. Grewal not guilty.”
Mr. Grewal’s lawyer, Nader Hasan, argued before the court in February that the Crown has not presented enough evidence to prove its case, and asked the court to dismiss the charges before the defence even presented its case.
He said the Crown had failed to establish essential elements required for a breach of trust finding.
The Crown had sought to prove that Mr. Grewal used his political office for personal gain, offering access to events with the Prime Minister and help with immigration files in exchange for large loans that went toward his gambling debt.
In written arguments filed in Ontario Superior Court, the defence said Mr. Grewal’s conduct fell squarely within the non-criminal category.
The RCMP charged Mr. Grewal with four counts of breach of trust and one count of fraud in September, 2020. However the Crown had already dropped three charges since then.



Who did you vote for, Canada?:

Canadians are now paying 45 per cent more interest than they were a year ago, the fastest increase in records going back to 1990,  Statistics Canada said on March 13.

Interest payments totalling $33.2 billion rose 14.1 per cent from the quarter before, surpassing the record increase set in the third quarter.

Nor is there any relief on the horizon. With interest rates likely to remain higher for longer, debt servicing costs are expect to continue rising and not peak until the second half of 2024, said TD economist Ksenia Bushmeneva.

**

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland must “close the growing income gap” with new taxes in her March 28 budget, says a Commons finance committee report. The income gap is not in fact growing, according to Bank of Canada figures: ‘It has been relatively stable over the last 25 years.’

**

Sixty-two percent of Canadians, down from 65 percent last month, believe they have money in reserve for unexpected costs or needs, according to the March 7 Canadian Maru Household Index (MHOI).
The last time results were this low was in October 2022.
“This ties in with the lowest level found among Canadians for this metric since tracking began in July 2020 and has occurred three previous times dating back to December 2020. The highest level recorded for this measure was in April 2022 (68%),” said the report.
Of those surveyed, 48 percent of Albertans reported not having two months’ worth of savings, while 46 percent of individuals in Manitoba or Saskatchewan said the same.
Young people aged 18–34 (at 47 percent), middle-aged people (at 45 percent), those with income below $50,000 (at 50 percent), and women (at 38 percent) were the most likely to respond to the poll stating they did not have two-plus months of savings.
The MHOI tracks Canadian consumers and randomly polls 1,531 adults on their 60-day outlook on the economy and personal state of finances.
Despite less money saved in the bank, fewer Canadians expect to lose their job or suffer a layoff because of lack of work, with one in ten survey respondents believing this could occur in the next 60 days. This is an improvement over the highest level of potential job insecurity Canadians reported in November 2020, when 15 percent of Canadians anticipated a job loss in two months or less.
In general, those who are most insecure about their jobs live in British Columbia (17 percent), are in the 18–34 age bracket (28 percent), have income under $50,000 (15 percent), or are women (12 percent).



I wonder why this is:

Ontario and QuĂ©bec have the worst water in Canada, say Department of Environment data. The quality of rivers, lakes and streams showed no improvement in the past two decades due in part to dumping of raw sewage: “Water quality has deteriorated at 24 sites.”


Oh, yes:

Canada's old-fashioned city sewer systems dumped nearly 900 billion litres of raw sewage into this country's waterways over five years, enough to fill up an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than 355,000 times.

The amount of raw sewage being vented is increasing every year, with 2018's overflow amounts up 44 per cent over 2013.



It was never about a virus:

A federal labour board has dismissed another complaint over unions’ acceptance of vaccine mandates. The latest grievance was rejected on a technicality though arbitrators have ruled unions acted in good faith in accepting mandates: “The complaint is clearly untimely.”

**

Twenty-five percent of children and adolescents reported that they have experienced significant depression. The incidence and hospitalization rates for new onset eating disorders increased by 60 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Precipitants of mental illness have also increased dramatically for children and adolescents in the pandemic. Screen time increased by 50 per cent, physical activity decreased by 20 per cent, loneliness increased, family violence increased, and parent depression and anxiety doubled.

Many of the experiences and opportunities that help children and teens build identity, friendships, supports and personal growth were also stripped away during the pandemic.



Is it Year Zero or were we always at war with Eastasia?:

Museums are too “colonial” and must educate Canadians on “climate change, equity, diversity and inclusion,” says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. Traditional exhibits are too mainstream and fail to “take into consideration important societal shifts,” it said: “For many years museums have decided what to acquire, what to exhibit and whose stories to tell.”


Speaking of erasing history, culture, language and reason ... :

Because of the deliberate lack of intellectual stimulation that these kids get at home, they’re amazingly ignorant and incurious. “These children often know absolutely nothing,” Wiesinger writes. Most of them “can scarcely speak German, have no real interest in learning anything at all, and have hardly any hobbies or interests.” Over the years, they increasingly “refuse to challenge sharia” and are quick to become “aggressive and threatening as soon as they come in contact with anything that seems to be in conflict with Islam.”

**

My teaching load in the Abbotsford School District was a dog’s breakfast, as is typical for newcomers to a school. Within a month of teaching at WJ Mouat Secondary, mostly in French Immersion, I had a Letter of Expectation put in my file after a mother complained about my teaching. She was upset by her daughter’s mark on an assignment and by jokes I had made, including one about the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) being the University of No Better Choice. She claimed the joke triggered her whole family because that’s where a member of the family had graduated. When I told her I had also praised UNBC at length because my son had graduated from there and loved it, she brought up other sophomoric “Dad jokes” I had made and said I had once used the word “brown” in reference to the school’s large Sikh population and had said, in explaining the limits of free speech, that teachers could not draw, for example, a swastika on the board, the implication being that I was a racist who would wish to do so. Of note, teachers are supposed to warn students when they are about to say something that might “trigger” them, in case a student or two wanted to remove themselves from the classroom. I felt it was only a matter of time before someone would object to the word “trigger” itself, and its association with gun violence. ...

(Sidebar: the snowflakes get worse.)

I considered the discussion to be like any other, with some students engaged and others on their phone or quietly doing equations, until a second student, flush with anger and indignation, reacted to my comment that children who died tragically while enrolled in residential schools did so mostly from disease. She said the Christian teachers in Kamloops (Oblate priests and brothers as well as nuns from the Catholic order The Sisters of St. Ann) were “murderers who tortured students to death by leaving them out in the snow to die.” I didn’t say anything more, for I feared an argument, and directed students to return to their Calculus work. The class was given a break a few minutes later, and unbeknownst to me the girl complained to a counsellor, who told the principal, who told the district, and before class was over that day, I had a visit from two male administrators who commanded me in front of my students to gather my things and leave the building. While being frog-marched through the corridor I repeatedly asked what I had done wrong, but they wouldn’t answer. When I was close to the front door I turned to them and said I wouldn’t be leaving without hearing from the principal what I had done. This request was granted, but all the principal would say to me was that it was something I said.  

**

It is troubling to see a university student so inept at reference checking, but the president of Victoria University (University of Toronto), Dr. William Robins, was just as inaccurate in 2021 in calling for the renaming of Victoria University’s Ryerson residence and Ryerson scholarships. Robins had Ryerson proposing “residential schools,” a term he never used, “to “train students to become agricultural labourers.” Yet Ryerson’s proposal was for “industrial schools” to teach Indigenous youth who wanted to learn farming. He looked to their becoming “overseers of some of the largest farms in Canada,” or “industrious and prosperous farmers on their own account.” He also set out an academic program far beyond what “agricultural labourers” would require: English, arithmetic, elementary geometry, geography, general history, natural history, agricultural chemistry, writing, drawing, vocal music, religion, morals and book-keeping (for farm accounts). The summer program would have more reading and vocal music, with the natural history of the plants, vegetables, trees, birds and animals of the country, with its geography and history.



I will ask again, why does a certain cultural subset need children to watch it?:

A social justice lawyer says they're concerned about a proposed Calgary bylaw — introduced for debate this week after months of protests and threats of violence targeting LGBTQ events in the city. 

On Tuesday, city council will consider a bylaw which create a 100-metre protester-free zone around libraries and recreation centres. 

Enforcement of the bylaw, if implemented, could mean up to one year jail time and/or a maximum fine of $10,000. 

It follows the recent arrest of a Calgary man charged with hate-motivated crimes after disrupting a storytime event at the Seton public library — and months of protests targeting LGBTQ events in Calgary and across the country. 


Also:

A chaotic scene unfolded at an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) meeting Tuesday when a father attempting to raise concerns about trans-identified male students using female washrooms was shut down just one minute into his four-minute speech.

After raising the issue of male students being allowed to use the same bathroom as his 12-year-old daughter, and pointing out how "sexually driven" adolescent males can be, the concerned father was interrupted by trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, who asked him to end his delegation on the grounds that it created "an unsafe environment for people who identify as gender diverse."

 


Canada the cruel:

Last month I tabled in Parliament Bill C-314, the Mental Health Protection Act, which would reverse the federal government’s attempt to extend Canada’s assisted death regime to the mentally ill. When Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) was first introduced in Canada, it was limited to those who were suffering from an intolerable, incurable illness where natural death was foreseeable. My bill would not repeal that policy.

 

And that's where you're wrong.

Not only do you wage war on the sick instead of alleviating their suffering, you open the door to killing every other person seen as a drain on society.

But don't take my word for it:

The senator who pushed for Canada’s assisted dying regime to include people whose only condition is a mental disorder says the debate about that policy is now over.

“The issue of expansion has already been decided upon,” said Stan Kutcher, who sits with the Independent Senators Group.

As far as Kutcher is concerned, the what was determined two years ago, when his arguments in the Senate convinced the Liberal government to move forward with an expansion of eligibility.

It’s just the when that recently came into question.

Last week, Parliament hastily passed a Liberal bill that has further delayed the expansion of assisted dying eligibility to people whose sole condition is a mental disorder.

In an interview, Kutcher said he supported the delay until March 2024 because it will allow proper training and practice standards to be made available to provincial regulatory bodies and practitioners.

 

Rather, you get people used to the idea.

 


Soon enough, Korean activists will be smuggling in flashdrives of the latest Netflix fare:

Canadians would no longer be able to access news on Facebook or Instagram if the federal government’s proposed Online News Act passes in its current form, the parent company behind the two popular social media platforms said.

**

Through this piece of legislation, the government is about to give itself the authority to control what you watch. Instead of giving you more of what you want, YouTube will be instructed to give you more of what the government wants you to watch.

The government claims this bill is about “supporting Canadian culture” and “leveling the playing field,” but that’s just not true. Let me explain.

Bill C-11 amends the Broadcasting Act by bringing the internet under its provisions. In the early 20th Century, this Act was put in place to regulate TV and radio to ensure Canada’s two official languages were both given airtime and cultural diversity was upheld. This was necessary because the number of TV and radio stations was limited, and these finite resources needed to be shared.



B@$#@rd:

Provincial police Sgt. Claude Doiron says the 38-year-old driver will appear in court later today.

Doiron said the police investigation suggests the driver swerved from one side of the road to the other over a “certain distance” to hit victims who were chosen at random and who range in age from less than one year to 77.

Gerald Charest, 65, and Jean Lafreniere, 73, were killed during the alleged attack.

The injured include two children — one who is less than one year old and another who is about three  who were both seriously hurt but whose lives are not in danger.

The suspect turned himself into police shortly after the Monday afternoon collisions and is being investigated by police for hit-and-run and murder.


Also - when will they freeze the bank accounts of human traffickers?:

The 700 suspected illicit massage parlours identified by TRSS – their list includes both licensed and unlicensed businesses – were found in every province except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Although many establishments were located in major metropolises such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, others were pinpointed in smaller cities – places like Chilliwack, B.C., St. Thomas, Ont., and Dieppe, N.B.

Additionally, TRSS identified 41 individuals – or possible owners – associated with those businesses.

Sex traffickers who register their businesses do so to create the illusion of commercial legitimacy as they sell sex.

Moreover, some proprietors own more than one establishment.

“These are not just stand-alone strip mall entities,” said Derek Benner, managing director of federal law enforcement and commercial programs at TRSS. “These are globally-connected enterprises like a cartel.”


 

Disgusting:

A Muslim man recently splashed acid onto the face of a teenage Christian girl, disfiguring her permanently. Her crime? Refusing to convert and turning him down.

On February 1, 2023, in Karachi, Pakistan, according to the report, when Sunita Munawar, aged 19, stepped off the bus on her way to work:

"While at the bus stop she noticed that Kamran Allah Baksh a local neighbour who had been stalking and harassing her for several years, was already waiting at the bus stop. Despite a sense of foreboding, Miss Munawar bravely exited the bus and headed towards her workplace.

"As she passed by Mr Baksh without warning he threw something on Miss Munawar's face. She could feel intense pain in her eyes and on the skin of her face, arms, torso and legs and knew immediately, that something was seriously wrong. She screamed and tried to wipe away the acid but found that the pain would not stop, a pain so severe that at some point Miss Munawar fainted and collapsed to the ground."

Munawar was taken a nearby hospital, where it was confirmed that she had suffered 20 percent acid burns. From her hospital bed she said of her assailant:

"He wanted me to be his girlfriend but I refused his advances. I can't believe what he has done to me, I did nothing to deserve this. It feels like he has destroyed my life. I have bright scars everywhere he sprayed the acid on me, it's so hard to take."

Munawar's uncle added:

"He would try to force her to renounce her Christian faith, assuring her that he would marry her once she became a Muslim, but she refused to surrender to his illegitimate demands.... Sunita had informed her siblings about Kamran's harassment, and they had repeatedly complained to his parents, urging them to stop him, but that did not work."

After being apprehended, Kamran Allah Baksh confessed to his crime. "In his statement," authorities reported, "Kamran claimed that he had fallen in love with Sunita and had attacked her with acid in retaliation after she rejected his marriage proposal."

Whatever punishment — if any — might be meted out to Baksh, the damage is irrevocable, the girl's uncle said:

"Sunita is just 19, but now her whole life has been physically and mentally scarred by Kamran. Even if he is convicted for his crime, will Sunita be able to live a normal life again? We all know how our society treats acid attack survivors...."

Munawar's case is, unfortunately, not isolated. In April 2018, also in Pakistan, a Muslim man poured acid over a Christian woman and set her on fire. She, too, had refused to convert to Islam and marry him. Asma Yaqoob, 25, with burns covering nearly 90 percent of her body, died five days later. Soon after Yaqoob had answered the door, her father said, "we heard her screaming in pain." They "rushed outside to see what had happened" and saw Rizwan Gujjar, 30, a onetime family friend, fleeing "while Asma was engulfed in flames." Three months earlier, Gujjar had begun pressuring her to marry him. She, "not wanting to recant her Christian faith," had politely declined and tried to avoid him.

Acid attacks against women — especially minority women, mainly Christians — are a common form of "retribution" for Muslim men who feel scorned.

In the last few months, just in Karachi, where Munawar was disfigured, there have been at least a dozen acid attacks.

In Pakistan, between 2007 and 2018, according to the "NGO the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), there were 1,485 reported cases of acid attacks. Nearly a third of victims were children splashed with acid when family members were attacked."


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