Mid-Week Post

The first mid-week post of the year ...

The new normal in Canada:

A Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto has become the victim of an apparent antisemitic arson attack, in what local officials are saying is further evidence of a ramp-up in “lawlessness” targeting the Jewish community.

Around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Toronto Fire responded to smoke issuing from the rear doors of International Deli Foods, a Jewish-owned grocery store located near the campus of York University.

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Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze quickly and without injury, but news photos from the scene showed that the fire had broken out near graffiti reading “Free Palestine.” An inspection of the building also revealed smashed windows.

Toronto police say the fire is being investigated as a suspected hate-motivated crime, while a string of Toronto officials denounced the blaze Wednesday as an attack against the city’s Jewish community.

Aside from carrying a few Israeli-made items, the store does not overtly deal in Jewish products or kosher foods. International Deli Foods brands itself as one of Toronto’s “first European delicatessen grocery stores,” and has been known to publish flyers in Russian.

But the store’s front entrance carries the initials “IDF,” the same as those used for the Israel Defense Forces. And after the fire, municipal representatives reported that the store is owned by a Jewish family of Russian origin.

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“This is a hate motivated attack on a Jewish owned business,” read a social media post by James Pasternak, city councillor for Ward 6. “This escalation of lawlessness in Toronto must come to an end.”

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For nearly a week, anti-Israel demonstrators in Toronto have consolidated their efforts on blockading a single overpass overlooking the city’s Highway 401. ...

And since at least New Year’s Eve, the Toronto police have assisted in overseeing daily closures of the bridge, reportedly to preserve the safety of “demonstrators” and “counter-demonstrators.”

“Due to public safety concerns, the Avenue Road Bridge will be closed,” read the Toronto Police’s most recent update, issued early Wednesday morning. ...

Toronto is the acknowledged centre of the Canadian Jewish community, and this section of the city is its nucleus. The overpass, in short, is located within one of the world’s most Jewish neighbourhoods outside of Israel itself.

Michael Levitt, who heads up the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, is the former Liberal MP for the surrounding riding of York Centre.

“The targeting of the Avenue Road overpass in north Toronto by the anti-Israel mob is far from random,” Levitt wrote on Dec. 31, just as the bridge became a focal point for the city’s anti-Israel demonstrations. Levitt called it an “attempt to intimidate the local Jewish community.”

As punishment for being anti-Israel, droves of Hamas supporters will end up in Canada.

Now everyday can be October 7th!

I believe that Israel was saying that very thing:

U.S. spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and another Palestinian terrorist group used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally” proves the modus operandi of Hamas, “which systematically operates from hospitals.”

The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7 at Shifa, the IDF said.

Nevertheless, critics continued to claim that the IDF had little evidence Hamas used the hospital as a command post.

“In the weeks since the operation, news organizations have continued to raise questions about Hamas’s presence at the hospital. And health and humanitarian organizations have criticized the Israeli operation. A humanitarian team led by the World Health Organization, which visited Al-Shifa immediately after Israeli forces stormed the hospital, called it a ‘death zone,'” the Times reported.

But a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the American government was convinced that Hamas used the hospital complex to direct terrorist forces, store weapons and hold “at least a few hostages.”

The official also said U.S. spy agencies had information that Hamas destroyed evidence before the IDF operation at the hospital got underway.

A U.S. official expressed confidence in the intelligence assessment as it was based on information gathered independently by both Israel and American agencies.

Enjoy the decline:

Citing data from the Fraser Institute, the report notes that the average Canadian family pays 46.1 per cent of its budget in taxes after adding up income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and all other taxes.

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You voted for a moron who said that budgets balance themselves:

Close to seven in 10 people believe Canada is in a recession or about to enter one, yet 60 per cent think they’re secure enough financially to weather an economic downturn, according to a recent survey from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Another 64 per cent think their money situation would hold up in the event of an unforeseen shock.

Still, 70 per cent admit economic uncertainty has made it more difficult to plan ahead, while fears over job losses plague 42 per cent of those employed.

After a year of navigating rising prices for food and goods along with increased costs brought on by higher interest rates, many also harbour fears their wallets will face even more pressure ahead. Inflation remains the top money concern for 61 per cent, CIBC said, while 28 per cent are fretting about additional rate hikes.

Those fears are leading some to resolve to get their finances in better shape in 2024. Clearing debt, increasing savings and paying bills on time are the top three financial goals of those surveyed.

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There's always money for the finance minister:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland billed thousands for limousines and taxis in Toronto despite claims she relied on her climate-friendly bicycle and public transit, Access To Information records show. Canadians expected cabinet to “ask ourselves what we did today to fight climate change,” said Freeland: “I can live that way.”

A cold compress for Justin behind curtain three:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a setback for his climate-change action plan in conservative-leaning Saskatchewan, as provincial opposition mounts against the federal carbon tax.

On Monday, the western Canadian province stopped collecting the tax applied to homes heated by natural gas and electricity, after Trudeau's Liberal government exempted home heating oil from the tax in a move that favoured Atlantic Canada residents.

Many premiers criticized the federal exemption.

"The reason why we're doing this is to give that same carbon tax fairness for families here in Saskatchewan," Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan's minister responsible for government-owned natural gas distributor SaskEnergy, said in an interview.

Trudeau, whose popularity has plummeted after eight years in office, already faces opposition from Alberta over plans to cut emissions from the oil and gas and electricity sectors.

Saskatchewan will not break federal law if it remits to Ottawa carbon tax revenue as scheduled in February. The province has not yet decided whether to withhold that payment from Ottawa as it could fund it with general revenues instead of consumer utility payments, Duncan said.

Why not give Justin the thief absolutely nothing?

We don't have to trade with China:

Canada continues to pay millions in foreign aid to China, records show. Opposition MPs four years ago proposed an immediate end to all foreign aid to a “Communist dictatorial government that abuses human rights.”

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Canada’s spy agency is proposing that it be given the legal authority to disclose intelligence to entities such as universities, provinces and municipalities to help combat foreign interference.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service recently released a consultation paper seeking input on a number of proposed changes to the CSIS Act, one of which would allow it to discuss sensitive intelligence with parties beyond the federal government.

A public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada by the Chinese government and other hostile states is under way with hearings set to begin Jan. 29. At the same time, Ottawa is considering changes to national-security laws.

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During a 2015 visit to China, MP Han Dong was photographed wearing a red scarf, which is a symbol of the Young Pioneers, a youth organization under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The photo, released by the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, also featured former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Both were photographed wearing the scarves alongside children at a Shanghai public school as part of an Ontario business delegation. At the time, Mr. Dong was a member of provincial parliament in Ms. Wynne's Liberal government.

Due to widely publicized allegations of improper ties to Beijing, Mr. Dong resigned from the federal Liberal caucus in March to sit as an Independent. He has denied allegations of wrongdoing.

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A federal inquiry into foreign interference has been granted a nearly two-month extension to deliver its first report after Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue requested more time to conduct her work.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc granted Hogue's wish to have the report due by May 3 instead of the end of February as was previously required.

LeBlanc says in a statement that opposition parties were also notified of Hogue's request.

The commissioner requested the extra time last week saying it will give "meaning and purpose" to preliminary hearings, and allow more time to maximize transparency.

She added that ensuring classified information is put into a form that can be released to the public is a long and complicated process.

The commission will begin holding public hearings late next month, looking at attempted meddling by China, Russia and other foreign states, as well as non-state actors, in recent Canadian elections.

Hogue's job is to make this Chinese business disappear.

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Communism did this:

Chinese women are increasingly resisting Beijing's push for more children, put off by government harassment and the burdens of child-rearing, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This defiance poses a crisis for the Communist Party, as the nation faces a demographic collapse with fewer than 10 million babies born in 2022, compared to 16 million in 2012, the report said.

The seismic demographic shift means that by 2040, China is expected to have 400 million people above the age of 60 — a higher number than the entire US population.

Amid a declining birth rate and an aging population, China's leader Xi Jinping has urged action, highlighting the urgency to prevent a further decline in China's population.

He told the Communist Party-linked All-China Women's Federation in October that women must help establish a "new trend of family."

China killed baby girls for decades and it still does.

It just needs to stop with these mental pretzels.

An example of someone who just isn't going to make it:

An unnamed school district in British Columbia has been ordered by the province’s human rights tribunal to pay $5,000 to a student for failing to accommodate her anxiety disorder.

Tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau says in a decision released last month that the school district “failed to take reasonable steps to investigate and address the female student’s anxiety over her transition from elementary school to high school.”

Here is a prime example of the left skirting the ethics to which all should be bound. Had a student plagiarised an assignment, he would have been expelled.

But not the well-funded now-former president of Harvard University whose cries of unfairness do not include accepting responsibility for her academic and moral failures:

American higher education has long viewed plagiarism as a cardinal sin. Accusations of academic dishonesty have ruined the careers of faculty and undergraduates alike.

The latest target is Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned Tuesday. In her case, the outrage came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who put her career under intense scrutiny.

Protecting this woman should bite someone on the end and, hopefully, will.

We need this:

Do you support this? pic.twitter.com/To2BnfpM3f

— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) January 2, 2024

Surely wearing ribbons for Ukraine was enough?:

A $400-million air defence system promised almost a year ago by Canada to Ukraine has yet to be delivered as plans are still being developed.

The Liberal government announced with great fanfare on Jan. 10, 2023 that it was acquiring the advanced air defence system and associated munitions for Ukraine at a cost of $406 million.

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But the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS, hasn’t been delivered, and plans are still being worked out, National Defence confirmed to this newspaper.

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“A National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System has been purchased from the United States, through a Foreign Military Sales case,” department spokesperson Andrew McKelvey said. “Details on plans, including delivery timelines, are still under development with the United States.”

National Defence did not provide an estimate on when the air defence system would arrive in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s government has repeatedly stated that it’s in dire need of air defence systems as Russia increases attacks on its cities and military positions.

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With U.S. and European aid to Ukraine now in serious jeopardy, the Biden administration and European officials are quietly shifting their focus from supporting Ukraine’s goal of total victory over Russia to improving its position in an eventual negotiation to end the war, according to a Biden administration official and a European diplomat based in Washington. Such a negotiation would likely mean giving up parts of Ukraine to Russia.

The West gradually sold out Ukraine to Putin.

But someone made a profit out of it.

Vaguely related:

“Stalin centres” are popping up across Russia as Vladimir Putin tries to rehabilitate the reputation of the Soviet dictator.

The centres are being built in Russia’s biggest cities to reposition Joseph Stalin as “a great man of history” and boost support for Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In mid-December, at the opening of Russia’s second Stalin Centre in the city of Barnaul in Altai, Sergei Matasov, the regional Communist Party leader, credited Stalin with modernising the world during his 1924-53 rule over the Soviet Union.

“Stalin’s economy, Stalin’s politics, Stalin’s culture gave the whole world an impetus forward. Such a sharp, qualitative leap,” he said.

The Communist Party, an opposition party that works within parameters set by the Kremlin, opened its first Stalin Centre in 2023, near Nizhny Novgorod. Like the Barnaul project, it aims to inspire visitors with its collection of Stalin photos, speeches, busts and other trinkets.

The Kremlin is welcoming the renewed praise of Stalin.

Oh, dear:

Authorities said on Wednesday that a passenger jet that collided with a coast guard turboprop at Haneda Airport was given permission to land, but the smaller plane was not cleared for takeoff, based on transcripts of conversations with the control tower.

All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 had a miraculous escape after it erupted in flames following Tuesday's crash with a De Havilland Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop shortly after landing at Haneda Airport.

But five died among the six Coast Guard crew who were due to depart on a flight responding to a major earthquake on the west coast, while the captain, who escaped the wreckage, was badly injured.