With a system so rigged, only a revolution can save us now:
MPs must not call senators “lazy,” “arrogant” or “dismal,” the Commons ruled yesterday. The order came after one MP denounced senators with numerous adjectives including “unreasonable, undemocratic and unwise.”
But they are!
Is it commensurate with what the Chinese paid to infiltrate this country?:
Cabinet yesterday budgeted more than $11 million for its judicial inquiry into election meddling by Chinese agents. Fifty-three lawyers are attending the Commission on Foreign Interference: “I will make every effort to get to the bottom of things.”
But these provinces are Voldemort!:
New Brunswick is projecting a budget surplus for the current fiscal year of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, six times higher than originally planned and despite surging health-care expenses, new figures show.
In a third-quarter fiscal update delivered Thursday, New Brunswick Finance Minister Ernie Steeves said a torrent of unexpected sales tax revenue is helping to absorb significant cost overruns in several government departments, especially in the Department of Health, with enough left over to produce the province's fourth significant budget surplus in a row.
Steeves acknowledged an expected surplus of $247.4 million by the end of the current fiscal year on March 31 is well beyond the $40.3 million he budgeted for.
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Alberta’s more favourable tax environment and lower housing prices are attracting a significant number of Canadians, particularly from provinces like Ontario and B.C., according to a new report.
Re/Max Canada’s 2024 Tax Report examined key markets in six Canadian provinces, including Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.
It found that tax rate increases, along with record-high housing values and mortgage rates, have led to a post-pandemic exodus from the country’s most expensive markets, with a significant uptick in interprovincial migration to Alberta and Atlantic Canada.
It's the new Ad-Scam, ect:
Federal departments have suspended all work with an Ontario contractor implicated in ArriveCan irregularities, the Government Leader in the Senate said yesterday. Senator Marc Gold (Que.) disclosed the action as MPs questioned whether crimes had occurred: “None of this was necessary, none of this was normal.”
Despite assurances by Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos that all contracts with the company primarily responsible for ArriveCan’s development have been suspended, his department says some contracts are still ongoing.“By prudence, since November 2023 the contracts with GC Strategies were put on hold, particularly so that within [Canada Border Services Agency] there can be a review of the quality of the contracts,” Mr. Duclos told reporters on Feb. 14.Later that day, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) told The Epoch Times in a statement it issued a stop-work order on the sixth contract between GC Strategies and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), at the latter’s request. Some contracts with other federal entities are still ongoing and PSPC says it contacted the departments to express concerns.
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The Commons government operations committee has ordered a ten-year audit of all federal payments to a contractor implicated in ArriveCan irregularities. Investigators found GC Strategies Inc. of Woodlawn, Ont. won millions without having to bid: “If there is something crooked – if, if, because we are not a court of law – but if something is not right, we have to identify it.”
Media need more “public funding mechanisms” to cover the news, says the Canadian Media Guild. The submission to the Commons heritage committee was contradicted by one MP who warned Canadians have lost all trust in subsidized media: “I don’t know if it will ever come back.”
Also:
CBC’s failed lawsuit against the Conservative party during the 2019 election cost nearly $400,000 — but that information was kept from Parliament for nearly three years.
Now, Don Plett, the Conservative leader in the Senate, is raising concerns about transparency in the federal government after his office was forced to file an access-to-information request to obtain an answer to his questions on the cost of the lawsuit submitted in the upper chamber in 2021.“The Trudeau government has just given up on its promise of openness and accountability,” Plett told the National Post. “In this specific situation, we had to go around roadblocks that were set by the government to get an answer to my questions three years ago.”“Somebody needs to be held accountable for this because we have the right to have these answers,” he added.
Incompetence or sabotage?:
The Royal Canadian Navy is trying to fix a series of problems on its new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships including anchors that aren’t effective, a refueling system that’s too heavy to use, and areas on the vessels that are leaking.
In addition, the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) can’t perform emergency towing as was required in the original contract and some cranes on the vessels are inoperable, National Defence confirmed to this newspaper.
Structural issues are also hindering the operation of Cyclone helicopters from the ships and the supplier of satellite communications systems on the vessels no longer has the security clearance to provide the navy with parts.
The problems are on top of previous issues with mechanical breakdowns and safety concerns about drinking water on the ships because of lead.
National Defence says repairs and various fixes for the issues are in the works or are being examined.
Taxpayers are spending almost $5 billion on the six ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. The vessels are being constructed by Irving Shipbuilding and a number have already been delivered.
The ships only come with a one-year warranty, National Defence confirmed. That means taxpayers will be on the hook to repair a number of the deficiencies.
“As the repairs are ongoing, we do not yet have a full estimated cost,” National Defence noted in its email to this newspaper. “The Government of Canada and the shipbuilder agreed that certain deficiencies could be corrected after delivery,” the department added.
Irving Shipbuilding noted in a statement to this newspaper that, “through the process of designing, constructing, commissioning, and operating new ships, stakeholders work together to identify and resolve a range of issues. This is a normal but essential element of shipbuilding.”
Two federal ministries are investigating potential violations of privacy laws after government officials shared details about a Postmedia news story and the journalist pursuing it, with representatives of Irving Shipbuilding.
Following a tip, Postmedia submitted questions on March 6 to two departments, National Defence and Public Services and Procurement Canada, about possible problems with some of the welding on HMCS Harry DeWolf, the first of the six new Arctic patrol ships Irving is building for the Royal Canadian Navy as part of a project that will cost taxpayers $3.5 billion.
However, just 90 minutes after submitting questions — and before receiving a response from either government department — an Irving representative emailed Postmedia to say the company had been made aware of the inquiry and wanted to discuss it. Irving Shipbuilding President Kevin McCoy then telephoned and after a brief discussion, threatened legal action against the news organization. Irving’s lawyers would be “making sure you understand that if you write something false about our reputation we will pursue it,” he said.
How are we meant to protect ourselves and our interests?:
If Canada is not equipped to face the challenges of the unstable and unpredictable world ahead, he says, then the ultimate sacrifice will be made by the soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel required to do the fighting.Thibault, who retired as a lieutenant-general in 2016 after 38 years in the Canadian military, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004 as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Looking back at the first few years in Afghanistan, Canada was not well adapted to the fight, he said.“As a consequence of that, we have 158 dead in Afghanistan,” said the former vice chief of the defence staff. “And the question is, how many of them could have been saved if we had had different kinds of capabilities in place? The armour protection, better dealing with the improvised explosive devices, better surveillance, better air transport, etc.“The inevitable consequence of our government’s decisions is that it’s going to be borne by the men and women who we send into harm’s way that may not have all the right tools that affect the mission and the tasks we ask of them.”
Why would anyone want to train with such people?:
"When you are doing anything internationally, you have to also be aware of the image of the country, it's not just a local matter. And so there's an extra duty," said Aurel Braun, who's also an associate with the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.
"I don't know what motivated participation here, whether it was negligence — gross negligence — utter stupidity, or what," he said. Braun said there is "no reasonable justification" for it, even if little taxpayer money was spent on it.
At the start of the war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to occupy Kyiv’s government quarters and assassinate the Ukrainian president, Ukrainian intelligence and security officials allege.
When Mr. Putin needed more soldiers on fast-crumbling front lines, the warlord rounded up thousands of men, sometimes forcibly, and sent them in, according to Chechen residents.
Now, following successive Russian retreats, Mr. Kadyrov’s men are disciplining dejected Russian troops at the front and rooting out alleged spies in occupied Ukrainian territories—sometimes resorting to torture, Ukrainian officials and human-rights organizations say.
Since the start of the invasion, Mr. Putin has relied on ranks of military officers, businessmen and rogue actors to deliver what the Kremlin needs most to sustain its prolonged offensive: money, training and manpower.
One of the most loyal figures in the president’s war effort has been Mr. Kadyrov, who has publicly called himself Mr. Putin’s foot soldier.
It's as bad as training the Chinese.
Also - this isn't a free exchange of ideas; it's aiding the enemy:
Canadian academics have been collaborating with Iranian universities on drone technology and other research that could benefit Tehran’s armed forces and that country’s allies.
Moscow’s war on Ukraine has led to unprecedented levels of Russian-Iranian co-operation in the military, economic and political spheres, according to the European Council on Foreign Relation think tank.
Russia has come to rely on Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian soldiers, civilians and infrastructure, including the Shahed 136 precision-attack models, also called kamikaze or suicide drones because they are destroyed when they deliver their explosive payload.
A 2023 research paper on drone propulsion technology includes three researchers from the University of Tehran, one from Iran’s Persian Gulf University and one academic from the University of Windsor.
A 2022 paper on improving obstacle detection for microaerial vehicles (MAVs) included a Chinese researcher, an Iranian from K.N. Toosi University of Technology and an academic from Waterloo.
A 2020 research paper on enhancing flight performance for “aerial robots,” a type of drone, included a researcher at York University as well as an academic with the department of aerospace engineering at Iran’s top-rated Sharif University of Technology. One 2016 research paper on improving tracking control over drones included academics from the University of Calgary and the University of Regina as well as one from Sharif University.
Neil Bisson, a former senior intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Western academics often fail to understand that hostile countries like Iran will use university collaboration as a means to give them military advantage.
These countries try to disguise the scientific research as benign when it is in fact dual use, he said.
“A lot of counties, including Iran, will use academia as a cover to try to get individuals who have access to types of information and research and bring it back to their own country and provide it to their own governments,” said Mr. Bisson, president of the Global Intelligence Knowledge Network.
In January, Ottawa announced strict new national-security rules to protect cutting-edge science and advanced technology from ending up in the hands of China, Russia and Iran, including research in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Bull. Sh--.
It was never about a virus:
A group of Canadian mask and respirator manufacturers is suing the federal government for over $5.4 billion, claiming it misled them by promising to purchase their equipment during the pandemic before turning its back on them.
In a statement of claim filed last week and obtained by the National Post, the Canadian Association of PPE Manufacturers (CAPPEM) says the government is guilty of “negligent misrepresentation” that has cost 15 of its small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) members billions in both foregone revenue and investment losses.
The Liberal government has missed a deadline to respond to the findings and recommendations of Justice Paul Rouleau, who headed a federal inquiry into the government's first and only use of the Emergencies Act in 2022.
One year ago, Rouleau issued his final report on the government's decision to declare a public order emergency during the self-styled "Freedom Convoy" protests, which gridlocked the streets around Parliament and blocked international border crossings.
Rouleau found the government was justified in invoking the act on Feb. 14, 2022, but made 56 recommendations for the future, including several suggested amendments to the law itself.
He ordered the government to respond to those recommendations within 12 months, to say which of them will be implemented and provide a timeline.
Rouleau didn't impose any penalties for missing the deadline, and it wasn't legally binding.
Then what was the point, Uncle Rouleau?
Children, who were supposed to have their classes via Zoom and Skype and ended up paying the academic price for it, couldn't leave their homes, but MPs could travel the world:
Spending on sponsored travel reached new heights last year, with MPs tallying $840,000 worth of trips funded by aid organizations, think tanks and human rights groups.
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Sponsored travel is another of those exemptions: MPs can’t accept gifts, but can accept travel, accommodations and meals sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars. MPs must disclose the travel to the ethics commissioner who posts information about the trips online.
Because they realised how soon their city would be a gong show:
The Liberal housing plan got its first rejection last month, when the city of Windsor turned down tens of millions of dollars because it refused to change zoning rules to get the cash.
Windsor applied for $70 million in funding from the government’s housing accelerator fund, but city councillors voted against proposed changes to zoning rules. Housing Minister Sean Fraser has pushed all cities who wanted money from the fund to allow four storeys and four units on any residential unit on an “as of right” basis, meaning they wouldn’t have to apply or go through public hearings.
Canada is third on the list of Christian-persecuting Western nations under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s leadership.
According to a report published on January 31 by Family Research Council’s (FRC) Center for Religious Liberty, Canada ranks third among Western countries that persecute Christians for their faith.
“These stories are alarming and show the diverse ways Western governments – which ought to be the standard bearers for upholding freedom of religion and expression – are undermining the fundamental human right to religious freedom,” Arielle Del Turco, author of the report and director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty, said in a press release.
“This report serves as a warning about how basic freedoms can erode even in Western democracies,” she continued. “Religious freedom must be protected at home so that we may also defend religious freedom across the globe and stand up for the persecuted.”
The report, titled, “Free to Believe? The Intensifying Intolerance Toward Christians in the West,” documented 168 incidents of persecution or unfair discrimination against Christians across 16 countries between 2019 and 2023.
Euthanasia isn't healthcare; it is relieving the healthcare rolls of the sick and making everyone complicit in this act:
Advocates say that euthanasia ends suffering. What it does, in fact, is end a person. Euthanasia, properly understood, is not — as the law terms it — “medical assistance in dying.” It is lethal conduct.Euthanasia accordingly never should have been placed within the practice of medicine, or cast as “health care,” “therapy” or “treatment.” I worry that the medical profession’s true purposes — curing illness, managing pain and comforting the dying — have been distorted by the provision of death.The reality is that some institutions and individuals within our health-care system find it “ethically inconceivable” to kill patients. What should the Supreme Court of Canada do if it hears the case of St. Paul’s? What should the court do in related cases, such as the recently announced constitutional challenge to legislation in Quebec that forces palliative-care hospices to offer euthanasia?To start, the court should recognize that in the case that opened the door to euthanasia in Canada, the Carter ruling of 2015, the core question was whether Canada’s former law criminalizing euthanasia in all circumstances is unconstitutional. The court answered this question affirmatively, based on its interpretation of the law’s purpose, and Parliament responded in 2016 by amending the Criminal Code to decriminalize euthanasia in certain scenarios.Those scenarios have since been expanded through legislation and litigation. But concluding that providing euthanasia in certain circumstances should not be criminalized is not the same as concluding that it should be compelled, or must be provided throughout the health-care system.
Sue the nurses, as well, the ones who bleat about the deaths not allowing drug use will cause:
The two named plaintiffs — a nearby resident and business — claim the defendants failed to “adhere to or enforce the conditions imposed by” Toronto City Council in the 2016 implementation guide it adopted for the city’s first three supervised drug consumption sites, which included the one at South Riverdale.As a result, the lawsuit states, the surrounding neighbourhood in the heart of the east Toronto community of Leslieville experienced several public and private nuisances, including disorderly conduct, human waste, discarded needles, “the sale and use of illicit drugs, assault, theft, vandalism, property damage and trespass” — all of which caused it to suffer “harm, loss, damage” and an array of expenses. The fatal shooting of Karolina Huebner-Makurat on July 7, 2023, just meters from the supervised injection site, is included in the criminal activity cited in the lawsuit.
I'll just leave this right here:
I fought as best I could to keep drug dealers away from the supervised injection site I worked at, but it was a battle that came with a price. The threats could be terrifying.
One dealer I had kicked out of the facility came up to me outside and tried to pull my COVID mask off. He said he wanted to take a picture of me on his phone so his boss could come and wait for me after work.
This is one of many disturbing memories that ran through my mind on July 7 as I watched the news on TV. I felt numb seeing footage of that familiar stretch of Queen Street East in Leslieville, a neighbourhood just east of downtown Toronto, now blocked off by police cars and yellow crime-scene tape. Three suspected drug dealers had exchanged gunfire after a dispute outside of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, killing an innocent passerby, a woman named Karolina Huebner-Makurat, who had two young children.
She died on the sidewalk across the street from the health centre, where I had worked for six years. South Riverdale still felt like home to me, even though I’d stopped working there a year earlier.
I had met with senior management several times during my years there, begging them to help us with the drug dealers operating around the centre – and often selling drugs inside the supervised injection site as well. But nothing ever changed. The drug dealers were as emboldened as ever.
If I’d still been working at South Riverdale that day, that could have been me who died on the sidewalk.
The reality, though, is that no one needed to die, if only management had listened.
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