Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Mid-Week Post

 Your middle-of-the-week aircraft check ...


Which Justin failed to do, apparently:

The Canadian Armed Forces has sent a plane to pick up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is stranded in India after the plane he took to the G20 leaders summit was grounded due to technical issues.


Not only did he bring his kid to watch his very public failure in a string of public failures, he couldn't leave after the public spanking Modi gave him.

This one:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed strong concerns about protests in Canada against India to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, according a statement by India.

New Delhi has been long sensitive to Sikh protesters in Canada. In June, India criticized Canada for allowing a float in a parade depicting the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards, perceived to be glorification of violence by Sikh separatists.


(Sidebar: that was followed by one of the worst mass murders in Canadian history. For some reason, people still want to cater to these mad men.)


What burn!:

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(Sidebar: well, that the angry little man for you.)

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When Stephen Harper was prime minister, Canada expanded trade with India. We were providing them with not only agricultural goods but fertilizer and uranium for GHG-free nuclear power.

Under Justin Trudeau, Canada recently stopped negotiations on a new trade agreement without explanation, while Britain is expected to complete on by the end of the year. Saskatchewan accounts for between 30%-40% of all exports to India, and Premier Scott Moe’s government sent a harshly worded letter to the Trudeau government asking for an explanation.

They never got one, neither did the Modi government in India.

What we do know is that Trudeau is philosophically opposed to Modi. On the world stage, though, you’re required to deal with all kinds of leaders whose views are different from your own.

Unfortunately, Trudeau sees Modi’s domestic policies as detrimental to his own political future and not only wants to keep his distance, wants to poke him in the eye.

Canada is home to perhaps the largest Sikh community in the world outside of India. The Modi government’s policies, including his crackdown on the farmer protests starting 2020, were seen as harsh, especially within the Sikh community in India and in Canada.

Trudeau spoke out against them and in favour of the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech, just like he did on the weekend.

It’s not lost in the Indian media that Trudeau is preaching about peaceful protest and freedom of speech in India, not long after he used the Emergencies Act to dispel similar protests in Canada. Nor is it lost on them that he would be outraged if a separatist movement in Quebec were being funded and supported by groups outside of Canada.

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Sometimes we bring heartache on ourselves, Justin:

For the second time in his tenure, an official trip to India by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has become defined by a cascading series of gaffes, snubs and diplomatic embarrassments.

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“Trudeau’s India Agony,” was how India’s Hindustan Times summed up the visit. The English-language NewsX cable channel, meanwhile, ran a nine-minute segment denouncing Trudeau as an ignorant hypocrite.
“Like any good Punjabi I have family in Canada, and I promise you that the nonsense that you’re talking is emanating from sheer hubris,” said anchor Rishabh Gulati. “What do we do with this man?”


Why does that sound familiar?

Oh, yeah:

“They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people? ..."


And why is Justin such an insufferable douchebag who expects to coast after burning every bridge around him?

Let's consider dear, old mum:


Being the son of a soulless b!#ch can't be fun.



Pierre Poilievre, on the other hand, is currently mopping up the long-awaited discontent:

While the PM was stranded on the ground with a broken RCAF plane Sunday, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre was not only flying high but campaigning for votes. 
Trudeau’s government jet was grounded in New Delhi thanks to a component that needed to be replaced, forcing the PM and staff to stay an extra day abroad.
Poilievre, on the other hand, boarded a WestJet flight from Quebec City for Calgary and took full advantage of the captive audience by standing at the front of the plane and using the microphone that flight attendants use to articulate safety procedures. 
And like his speech Friday night at the Conservative Party convention, he achieved successful liftoff. 
“This is your captain warning of a little bit of turbulence,” Poilievre joked, then teasing, “It will only last about two years, at which time we will have a totally new crew and pilot in charge of the plane, will pierce through the clouds safely (and) land in our home, the country we know and love, your home, our home, let’s bring it home.” 


(Sidebar: Pierre may or may not have led the passengers in a rendition of "Sweet Caroline". No one really knows for certain.)


Some wags are not at all pleased with Pierre's electioneering and have promised to boycott Westjet.

They are welcome to sit in vomit and get their luggage lost if they like.


Speaking of Pierre's electioneering:

In the end, their arguments did not sway the room and the policy on kids’ gender transitioning was adopted by 69 per cent of delegates.

Another proposition calling on every Canadian to be entitled to “informed consent and bodily autonomy,” specifically regarding vaccines, had some delegates protesting that they did not want to go back to the divisive debates related to vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

“We want to ensure the election of a majority Conservative government,” said Dominic Bellemare, a local association president in Quebec. “This will reduce our electability.”


And there you have it.

Opportunists looking to unseat the unpopular Liberals by pretending some brand of conservatism they know that Canadians will fall for.

And they wonder why people are cynical.


Why could Canadians turn for the moment against the robber-barons who promise them free stuff?

Well ... :

A quarter of mortgage holders, 24 percent, are having difficulty keeping up with monthly debt payments, says CMHC data. And barely half said they expect the value of their home to grow over the next year: “Perceptions are at their lowest.”

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In the year to July 2023, the cost of chicken rose 13.7 per cent, far outpacing general food prices that rose 7.8 per cent. By contrast, the price of pork, which is not subject to supply management, increased by just 2.2 per cent. ...

The price of eggs, another supply-managed product, rose just 3.3 per cent in the same period, but that was after a 19-per-cent price hike over the course of 2022.

The Canadian Dairy Commission raised benchmark milk prices three times in the 12 months to February this year, by a total of 13 per cent, to cover what it said were increased production costs.

This is not surprising since the role of supply management is to constrain supply, strangle competition with tariffs and keep prices high.

What is surprising, given their preoccupation with affordability, is that all parties in the House of Commons are slavish in their devotion to preserving supply management.

The NDP was dogged in pursuit of supermarket CEOs that leader Jagmeet Singh accused of “greed-flation.” Yet supply management’s role in rising prices was ignored.

Such is their attachment to a policy that plays well in Quebec that a majority of MPs voted in favour of a private member’s bill put forward by Bloc Québécois MP Luc Thériault that would bind Canada’s trade negotiators from making any concessions on supply management in the future.

Bill C-282 seeks to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act so that the trade minister cannot increase the quota of eggs, poultry or dairy allowed into Canada tariff-free, or to lower those tariffs.

When the bill came to a vote in the House of Commons in June, it passed 262 votes to 51, with the entire Liberal party, bar two MPs, voting in favour, including Mary Ng, the trade minister, who chose to make the life of her own department all but untenable.

She is currently engaged in negotiating a trade deal with the United Kingdom that will no doubt include haggling over cheese quota. Trade deals are always about give and take, and by taking eggs, poultry and dairy off the table, Canada will have to give elsewhere, such as on beef or pork.

In that light, it is no wonder that so many western Conservative MPs voted against C-282 — a bill that benefits the East but has the potential to beggar the West.

The bill is lousy policy and sets a bad precedent, as many Liberals must have known when they voted for it.

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There will be no recession, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday assured reporters. Macklem quickly modified his remarks to caution there could be a “technical recession” but not what most Canadians “think of when they think of a recession.”

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A tax hike on the wealthiest tax filers will affect fewer than 26,000 people and raise less money that cabinet expected, the Budget Office said yesterday. The tax increase followed a Commons finance committee recommendation to “close the growing income gap.”

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Canada's economy added 39,900 jobs last month, about twice as many as expected, but also only about half as many as would be needed to keep up with population growth.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that while the economy added jobs, the country also added about 103,000 new people. So despite the mini-surge, the employment rate — the percentage of adults that have a job, compared to the working-aged population — actually declined by 0.1 percentage points, to 61.9 per cent.

By sector, the professional, scientific and technical services category was a source of strength, adding 52,000 positions. Construction added 34,000 jobs. On the flip side, the education sector lost 44,000 jobs and manufacturing shrank by 30,000.

Most of the jobs were of the self-employment variety, which expanded by 50,000 positions. The public sector grew by 13,000 jobs while the private sector actually contracted by 23,000 jobs. 



We don't have to trade with China:

Mao spent his days inventing new ways to terrorize the Chinese people into obeying the dictates of his adopted faith—ways that invariably involved the stigmatization, torture, and execution of large numbers of people. The communist killing machine that he operated cut a wide swath through the population.
The thought that two-thirds of the total victims of communism died at the hands of the criminal enterprise known as the Chinese Communist Party is horrifying enough. But 40 years of studying the Chinese regime has convinced me that the figure of 65 million given in the "Black Book" is actually an underestimate. Others agree. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, in their brilliantly researched book "Mao: The Unknown Story," give a figure of 70-plus million deaths attributable to Mao during his time in power.
But I believe the figure is even higher, not only because the killing has continued since Mao went to be with Karl Marx in 1976. Two major campaigns, each of which produced tens of millions of additional casualties, must be added to the list.
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Where is your fortitude, Mr. Chong?:

Michael Chong’s appearance before a congressional committee in Washington on the subject of Chinese foreign interference was a textbook case of a man trying not to criticize his own government while abroad, in the knowledge that he will make up for lost time when he gets home.

Yet such are the flaws in Canada’s response to China’s use of transnational repression that Chong was forced to concede that Ottawa’s response has been slow and, in many instances, found wanting.

Article content

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The Conservative foreign affairs critic was testifying before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan committee of representatives, senators and administration appointees with a legislative mandate to monitor human rights in the People’s Republic.
Chong was asked whether the Canadian government has been supportive of him since it emerged he was being targeted by Beijing’s diplomats who were gathering information on the MP and his extended family in Hong Kong.
Chong was discreet enough not to mention the fact that the Liberal government did not inform him that he was being targeted by the Chinese, even though the security agencies were aware.
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The RCMP says it is updating procurement practices after an internal review of dealings with a company that has ties to China found no serious security concerns, but some areas for improvement.

A standing offer with Sinclair Technologies to provide the RCMP with radio-frequency filtration equipment was suspended in December after media coverage focusing on national security implications.

Sinclair's parent company, Norsat International, has been owned by Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera since 2017, and the Chinese government has a 10 per cent stake in Hytera through an investment fund.

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The International Department of the Central Committee of the CCP, also known as the International Liaison Department (ILD), operates "de facto as an intelligence service of the People's Republic of China and is therefore part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus," says a "Safety Notice for Politics and Administration" in German.
"Particular care should therefore be taken," added the notice, which was published on July 28 by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), which works to prevent extremist and espionage activities by other countries on German soil.
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In-house Elections Canada research shows 13 percent of voters think federal elections are unfair due in part to suspected meddling by foreign agents. More than a quarter, 27 percent, believe voting is “prone to fraud” in Canada: “How much confidence if any do you have?”

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Well, of course! You rigged everything!:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he will "willingly" testify before the public inquiry into foreign election interference if he's asked.

"Willingly and with very much enthusiasm," Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Singapore. 

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A judicial inquiry into alleged Chinese election fraud is expected to “follow the evidence” in probing party nomination meetings, cabinet said yesterday. Documents to date have cited irregularities at a 2019 Liberal Party nomination won by MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.): “Follow the evidence.”

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Clothes made with North Korean slave labour hurt my feelings:

A draft law banning speech and dressing "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people" has sparked debate in China.

If the law comes into force, people found guilty could be fined or jailed but the proposal does not yet spell out what constitutes a violation.

Social media users and legal experts have called for more clarity to avoid excessive enforcement.

China recently released a swathe of proposed changes to its public security laws - the first reforms in decades.

The clothing law has drawn immediate reaction from the public - with many online criticising it as excessive and absurd.

The contentious clauses suggest that people who wear or force others to wear clothing and symbols that "undermine the spirit or hurt the feelings of the Chinese nation" could be detained for up to 15 days and fined up to 5,000 yuan ($680; £550).

Those who create or disseminate articles or speech that do so could also face the same punishment.



It was never about a virus:

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The Central Intelligence Agency offered to pay off analysts in order to bury their findings that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, new whistleblower testimony to Congress alleges.

A senior-level CIA officer told House committee leaders that his agency tried to pay off six analysts who found SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in a Wuhan lab if they changed their position and said the virus jumped from animals to humans, according to a letter sent Tuesday to CIA Director William Burns.

Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) requested all documents, communications and pay info from the CIA’s COVID Discovery Team by Sept. 26.

“According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the House panel chairmen wrote.

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Not all side effects or “adverse events” from Covid shots were documented by the Public Health Agency, says a federal report. The Agency said it did not expect every incident to be detailed since vaccines typically undergo “rigorous testing for safety.”

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Health Canada has approved the use of Moderna's Spikevax XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine for all Canadians over the age of six months.

Officials from Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization discussed details of the approval during a technical briefing on Tuesday.

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“Preliminary clinical data have shown promising immune responses,” Tam said of the new COVID vaccine, one she said should be considered more like an annual flu shot than as a booster.
As Tam and the other doctors participated in the news conference, it was notable that they were all masked and sitting very far apart. It looked like something straight out of late 2020 before we had vaccines, before we knew what we do now.
When asked why she was wearing a mask, Tam explained that it was due to the recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations and encouraged others to dust off their mask collection.
“It is a layer of protection,” Tam said. “We people have developed the habit to be able to use masks as needed during the respiratory virus season, not just for COVID.”
So, it’s now Canadian policy, based on the country’s chief medical officer, to use masks every year, every fall as flu season comes around?
Is she saying we should start wearing masks in the grocery store again, on the bus or subway, at the office, in schools, and maybe even in restaurants when we walk to and from our tables? (But not while sitting at them, of course.)
Tam’s recommendations are basically performance theatre. They are about making it look like something is being done.

Isn't it time for a new crisis?

 

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