Your middle-of-the-week chips and dip ...
Never send a "journalist" to do an economist's job:
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office yesterday had no comment on what, if any, contingencies it has to deal with a seven-week filibuster that has gridlocked the Commons. Freeland was counting on quick passage of an $18 billion hike in capital gains taxes by Christmas: “It’s an important moment.”
... to rip off the taxpayer.
Merry Christmas!
The main problem is that wealthy countries — responsible for most emissions leading to climate change — want to cut emissions while poorer countries mainly want to eradicate poverty through growth that remains largely reliant on fossil fuels. To get poorer countries to act against their own interest, the West started offering cash two decades ago.
In 2009, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised “new and additional” funds of US$100 billion (C$1,394,418,140) annually by 2020 if developing countries agreed to future carbon cuts. The rich world didn’t deliver, and most funding was simply repackaged and often mislabeled development aid.
This fiasco notwithstanding, developing countries now want more money. In 2021 India stated that it alone would need US$100 billion annually for its own transition. This year, China, India, Brazil and South Africa agreed rich nations should increase their financing “from billions of US dollars per year to trillions of US dollars.” All this was predicted back in 2010 by UN Climate Panel economist Ottmar Edenhofer: “One must free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy.” Instead, “we are de facto distributing world wealth through climate policy.”
But it is hard to squeeze billions, much less trillions out of a rich world that has its own problems. Cleverly, campaigners and many developing countries have rebranded the reason for these transfers by blaming weather damage costs on rich world emissions and requesting compensation for “loss and damages”.
Factually, this is an ill-considered claim because weather damages from hurricanes, floods, droughts, and other weather calamities have actually declined as a percentage of global GDP since 1990, both for rich and poor countries. Deaths from these catastrophes have plummeted.
But this rebranding is a great way to increase the ask. At last year’s climate jamboree, politicians agreed to create a “loss and damages” fund, which has just been set up. The UN’s climate change body estimates it will generate a flow to poorer countries in the region of US$5.8-$5.9 trillion between now and 2030. Others are making even larger estimates such as US$100-238 trillion by 2050. Some campaigners suggest the West should raise US$2.5 trillion annually to get reparations started.
This will be prohibitively expensive for the West: the demand means a cost of US$1,000 or more from every person in the rich world, every year for the foreseeable future. This is on top of the cost of rich world carbon emission reduction policies that will be even more expensive.
A recent American survey shows that an overwhelming majority would reject such large transfers, and majorities across the West would likely reach similar conclusions.
Moreover, poor people across the world struggle with poverty, disease, malnutrition, and bad education, which could be alleviated at low cost. It is wrongheaded and immoral to mostly ignore those afflictions and instead spend trillions on climate projects. To add insult to injury, the added spending will likely squeeze aid spending further. Even if the money could be mustered, it is highly doubtful the trillions will go to the poor instead of pompous vanity projects or Swiss bank accounts. Finally, the transfers will not negate the fact that poorer countries still need first to get out of poverty by driving development with enormous amounts of energy, much of which will still be fossil fuels.
The Liberals are trying to hamstring anyone who isn't them:
Liberal MPs say Conservative MP Arnold Viersen is being “silenced” as a House of Commons committee is attempting to study his bill to stop online sexual exploitation while child protection groups are calling on MPs to put aside their differences and move the bill forward with or without him. ...
Liberal MPs believe Conservatives want to prevent Viersen from speaking in a public forum after he discussed his socially conservative views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage — which he said he would vote against — on a Liberal MP’s podcast earlier this year. ...
Earlier this year, the federal government tabled its long-awaited Online Harms Act which seeks to force online platforms to monitor and remove harmful content, including non-consensual intimate images and content that victimizes children such as sexual abuse.
However, the bill also proposes a wide expansion of hate speech laws, including some that would allow penalties up to life imprisonment, which has caused the opposition and critics to raise concerns about its impact on freedom of expression online.
Given the political landscape and the likelihood of elections being called in the short term, Penny Rankin of the National Council of Women of Canada is urging MPs to put in place any legislative measure that could help better protect children online.
“Canada is so far behind. We are so far behind in addressing legislation to protect our kids online, and they are vulnerable,” she said.
And while C-270 does not “tick all the boxes” in her view, Rankin said it is a good bill.
“We need something in place. We have nothing, really.”
The real goal for the Liberals is censorship, not protection.
They will tack onto anyone or anything to get the Online Harms Act passed.
We need to withdraw from the UN:
Federal funding for a United Nations Agency that employed anti-Jewish terrorists totals nearly $286 million since 2016, new figures show. The costs were tabled at the request of an MP who complained taxpayers were subsidizing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency while fellow Canadians scrounged for food: “We will immediately stop funding UNRWA.”
Also - these people know exactly what they are doing - puffing up their new bosses:
During the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Ottawa’s Robert Borden High School, the Arabic language protest song “Haza Salam” was included. Performed by Mahim Ahmed in 2023, it’s a pro-Palestinian composition that’s been closely associated with the Gaza conflict. ...
Speaking of which, Aaron Hobbs, principal of Robert Borden, apologized on behalf of his high school for playing a protest song that “caused significant distress to some members of our school community.” This was also included in his putrid letter to school families: “Our intention during the ceremony was to foster a message of peace and remembrance, reflecting on the importance of unity and reconciliation. However, we recognize that the song chosen — while intended to highlight themes of peace — also inadvertently caused offence and discomfort to some students, and for that, we regret our choice.”
(Sidebar: oh, that wasn't the only slight.)
You regret nothing, you @$$hole, and if we lived in a free and democratic country, you would never again work in a school.
**
Regina will hold a Palestine flag-raising ceremony, making it the first Canadian city to host such an event.
The Palestinian flag-raising ceremony takes place on Friday, marking a significant moment for local Palestinian terrorist supporters.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Regina City Hall courtyard.
To be fair, political multiculturalism is an untenable and immoral farce put out only to divide and never to unite.
It also helps unaccomplished Canadians smugify in front of the Americans because the Sixties or something:
In what has now become a common theme in the streets of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s post-national Canada, chaos and extremist violence marred an otherwise joyous occasion for the Canadian-Indian community celebrating Diwali and Bandi Chhor Diwas — festivals that symbolize the spiritual victory of good over evil and fighting injustice and oppression. ...
(Sidebar: if you are hyphenating yourself, you've got a problem right there.)
For the Trudeau government, these developments are par for the course. Under its watch, anarchy and extremism have become the new normal on Canadian streets, and domestic vote banks dictate foreign policy, undermining Canada’s global standing.
In India’s case, it appears Trudeau has opted to continue pandering to Khalistani extremists to boost his government’s waning electoral prospects. His long-running disdain for New Delhi’s concerns about the Khalistan movement is reflected in his bizarre decision to engage with Pannun, an India-designated terrorist, rather than listen to the sage counsel of former B.C. premier and federal cabinet minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, who was once brutally assaulted by Khalistanis.
For someone who claims to advocate for an independent Khalistan state peacefully, Pannun’s rhetoric does not qualify his assertions. He warned Sikhs against taking Air India flights, issued threats to New Delhi citing the October 7 Hamas massacre analogy, told Hindus to leave Canada, and invited a foreign power to invade India. Needless to say, Pannun’s antics have irritated the Modi government.
The Liberals have consistently exhibited a serious lack of judgment, understanding of Khalistani extremism, and recognition of India’s regional security priorities when dealing with New Delhi. Whether it was Trudeau’s calamitous “Bollywood adventure” India trip in 2018, or the handling of the Nijjar assassination case, the Liberals have been way out of their depth when it comes to deploying a charm offensive to woo the Modi government.
A sensible and competent statesman would have resorted to backroom diplomacy to convince India to join the RCMP investigation into the Nijjar assassination case to ensure that the bilateral ties between Canada and India remained intact. Instead, the eternal showman that he is, Trudeau opted for an image-based communications strategy and partisan mudslinging. Consequentially, Canada’s relationship with a natural ally is in tatters, and a foreign conflict that has nothing to do with Canadians has spilled onto the streets.
We call this flooding the market:
The Department of Immigration in a “Welcome To Canada” guide advised foreigners to be prepared to book Airbnb rentals or resort to homeless shelters on arrival here. “Search online,” said the guide published in Arabic, Dari, Haitian Creole and Spanish: “Housing costs in Canada are high.”
Why is that, I wonder.
Oh:
Canada is already completely overwhelmed with asylum-seekers. In Ottawa, for example, over half of available shelter space is occupied by refugees; some have been forced to live in makeshift shelters. And while irregular border crossings have slowed considerably following the renegotiation of the STCA, asylum requests at airports have ballooned (more than 36,000 from January to September this year, compared to just 3,870 in 2017). We can also expect more inland claims as international students and temporary workers opt to file claims rather than return home following the government’s recent about-face on immigration targets.
Asylum claims now take 44 months to be processed, according to Roula Eatrides of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and the department currently has a backlog of 250,000 claims. The Trump presidency will significantly compound Canada’s existing crisis, especially if he scraps the renegotiated STCA.
But she's not their kind of immigrant:
Choi Minkyeong escaped five times from North Korea, was caught by Chinese authorities and deported back to the brutally repressive nation four times, and finally made it to freedom in South Korea 12 years ago.
Getting into Canada has proven to be another daunting challenge.
The defector was effectively prevented from entering this country Friday for a visit to raise awareness about North Korean human-rights abuses, after attending a United Nations forum in Geneva.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had failed to grant her the required electronic travel authorization (eTA) she had applied for on Nov. 4, saying she first had to provide police records surrounding her forced repatriation from China to North Korea.
Choi, who runs a human-rights organization in the south, explained in a letter that obtaining such records would be impossible given North Korea’s totalitarian system and her “unique circumstances.”
As a Liberal MP’s office lobbied IRCC Thursday and Friday, the department said it would review her case, but she had to cancel her flight to Toronto from Paris on Friday, returning to Seoul instead. She finally received the permit on Monday.
“I understand that this ridiculous happening occurred due to the oversight and indiscretion of the frontline officials of the (IRCC),” Choi said in a letter to Immigration Minister Marc Miller. “But if I may say so, I felt terribly embarrassed and deeply, deeply disappointed when I was denied boarding the scheduled airplane … I was regarded, in effect, as a person with a criminal record.”
Trust me, Miss Choi, Marc will never get back to you.
Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault says his shifting claims from being “non-status adoptive Cree” to recently stating his adoptive mother is “status Métis” are a “reflection of his family exploring their own history” and not him claiming Indigenous status.
No country for anyone:
The @UofR underground tunnel system has been vandalized with "wanted" posters of Jewish faculty members, including Hillel leaders, targeting them with threats.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 12, 2024
These posters insinuate a call for violence. Yet, these same students accuse Hillel leaders of falsely labeling… pic.twitter.com/rbUUJCyM5J
