Wednesday, July 03, 2024

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week counterpoint ....




Directors of a charitable foundation that struck a deal with Ottawa to sponsor the immigration of Afghan Sikhs to Canada made political donations to then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan’s Vancouver South Liberal riding association around the same time as Canadian special forces soldiers were instructed to rescue and airlift the group from Kabul.
Elections Canada records show that between them, these directors made thousands of dollars of personal donations to the Liberal Vancouver South Liberal riding association in August 2021. Canada was in the midst of a general election campaign that had begun August 16 and Mr. Sajjan was seeking re-election in the Vancouver South riding.
These records raise more questions about the connection between Mr. Sajjan and the non-profit charity that had pressed Mr. Sajjan and the government to try to rescue a group of 225 Afghan Sikhs during final evacuation flights from Kabul as the Taliban cemented its control over Afghanistan.
As the Globe and Mail reported last week, Mr. Sajjan instructed Canadian special forces to rescue about 225 Afghan Sikhs after the Taliban takeover in August, 2021, in an operation that three military sources say took resources away from getting Canadian citizens and Afghans linked to Canada on final evacuation flights.
Elections Canada records show that Tarjinder Bhullar, a director of the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Charitable Foundation, made a $510 donation to the riding association. Her donation was received Aug. 19, 2021. The contributor address and the postal code are the same as that of the address used by the foundation in the federal corporate registry.
Two other donations – each totalling $1,000 – were recorded with the same postal code and contributor address as Ms. Bhullar’s came from Baljinder Bhullar and Apharnarayan Bhullar. These names match two other directors of the foundation according to the federal corporate registry. Their donations were received Aug. 22, 2021.
Finally, a donation of $1,650 from Namrita Rattan was received August 27, 2021, according to Elections Canada. This name matches that of a fourth foundation director who was also the wife of Manmeet Bhullar. Mr. Bhullar, a former provincial cabinet minister in Alberta, died in 2015. This donation was received Aug. 27, 2021.
Canada’s airlift efforts ended on August 27, the day after the rescue mission failed when the Sikhs became nervous and left the rendezvous within a half hour of Canadian troops arriving. The group later managed to get to India.
Mr. Sajjan’s office was not immediately available to provide comment to questions from The Globe about the donations and the actions carried out by the minister to help them.

The question is whether Justin will defend Sajjan's indefensible behaviour or throw Sajjan under the bus to protect himself?





 
Government spokespeople must “correct” Canadians’ thinking, says a report by Treasury Board President Anita Anand’s department. The Board yesterday did not comment on its claim 4,600 federal spokespeople were defenders of “the heart of our democracy.”




 
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s department will not tell MPs which consultant it hired to run security at Canadian embassies abroad. It followed protests by the Commons government operations committee after managers hired a state-controlled Chinese contractor: “The name of the supplier ultimately selected cannot be provided.”
 
 

A British Columbia lobby yesterday would not release a complete recording of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks to a “private town hall” with home equity tax advocates. Reporters and the public were barred from attending the hour-long meeting June 25, according to the University of B.C. host Generation Squeeze: “Wrong idea at the wrong time in the wrong country. Maybe try Denmark.”




 

Workers in Greece are going to have to work a little bit longer starting this week, with the country introducing a six-day work week for some.

As part of new labour laws passed last year, some Greek workers began a 48-hour work week starting Monday, a move that union representatives from across industries have termed “barbaric.”

The pro-business government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the changes are “growth-oriented” and are necessary given the country’s shrinking population and lack of skilled labour — a crisis Mitsotakis has described as a “ticking time bomb.”

However, the move is not finding many takers here in Canada.

“We do have an urgent need to fix Canada’s declining productivity. However, the solution is not necessarily to adopt longer working hours but rather work in a smarter way,” said Diana Palmerin-Velasco, senior director on the future of work at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“To increase productivity, we need to enable an innovative economy through regulatory modernization, technological investment and adoption, digital transformation of SMEs, and better skilling and training of our workforce,” Palmerin-Velasco said.

 

What you need is the government to get out of the way so that business can flourish. 

But I guess you know what you are doing.

 



Doug Ford ejects Goldie Ghamari from the party.

What a coward he is:




One need not worry about this incident being memory-holed because the bribed press has done its utmost to not report on it much.

It's not hard to see why. 

On the totem pole of tribalism, for whom does one root - the diverse mass everyone insists is as sweet and charming as a basketful of kittens or sexual alphabet mass the former mass has a habit of launching off of roofs? 

The latter delighted in shoving its proclivities in everyone's faces, making everyone bake the cakes, and even voting for the masses now pummeling them to be allowed in the country without hesitation.

How did that work out?

 



The parade came to a dramatic halt when the Coalition Against Pinkwashing – a group of queer and trans activists from Palestinian solidarity groups, according to the Toronto Star, interrupted and staged a sit-in on Yonge Street at around 6:00 p.m on June 30.





The Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments have been reminded in recent days of the reasons why entering the Gaza Strip after the war would be risky, if not impossible...

 According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war.

 Hamas, apparently, does not want food or medication to reach the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, particularly not via Israeli border crossings. This situation is most likely caused by Hamas's desire to prolong and aggravate the suffering of the Palestinians and create a "famine" so it can place the blame on Israel.

 "Why is the media ignoring what is going on in central and southern Gaza? Hamas is assassinating Gazans, particularly tribe leaders, in order to deter anyone other than Hamas from delivering humanitarian relief and participating in Gaza." — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian social media influencer from the Gaza Strip, x.com, June 26, 2024.

 Until the international community – and particularly the Biden administration – fully support Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas, unfortunately there can be no real discussion of "the day after" in the Gaza Strip.

 Israel... will not be the only party to benefit from Hamas's demise. A large number of Arabs and Muslims who oppose Hamas and other Iran-backed Islamist groups will also benefit, even though it is "politically incorrect" and immensely dangerous to say so.

 In reality, those advocating for a "ceasefire" are asking for Hamas to be allowed to continue ruling the Gaza Strip, rearming, and gearing up to attack Israel -- in their words, "again and again."

A ceasefire will only ignite an immediate increase in terrorist attacks against Israel. Worse, Islamists worldwide will be incentivized to launch attacks not only against Israel but also against Europe. Islamists have already attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 150 times in the region since Oct 7.

 By exposing the crimes of Hamas against its own people and raising awareness of these threats -- instead of helping the terrorists cover them up -- the international media can actually help to protect their own countries against steadily increasing terrorism. At the moment, terrorists over the world can only see their efforts as victorious, glorified and rewarded.



 
Canadian employers won’t hire outspoken Muslim advocates of “Palestinian human rights,” says cabinet’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia. Alleged hiring bans followed Hamas’ October 7 killing and kidnapping of Jews in Israel including eight Canadians, said the report to Parliament: ‘An anti-Arab backlash has led to loss of income.’
 


Israeli forces carried out new strikes in the southern city of Rafah amid fierce fighting with Palestinian militants overnight, residents said. At least 12 people were killed in new strikes in central and northern Gaza, health officials said.
 
Tensions also rose between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after the latest in frequent exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war.
 
Two security sources in Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike had killed a senior Hezbollah field commander, and Israel's defence minister said Israeli forces would be ready to take any action necessary against the Iran-aligned group.
 
"We are striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength. We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.
 
 
 
Sickening:
 

Prosecutors investigating Jeffrey Epstein in Florida “sabotaged their own case” and missed an opportunity to stop America’s most prolific sex offender a decade earlier, lawyers for his victims told The Times.

Transcripts from preliminary proceedings in the 2006 criminal case against Epstein — which have now been made public — showed attorneys for Florida making “atrocious” attempts to excuse his behaviour.

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer for dozens of Epstein’s victims, said the state put together a “sham” jury hearing against Epstein and failed to properly interrogate serious allegations of abuse out of fear of the influential billionaire.

 




Trapped in a Catholic mission sheltering dozens of women and children from the war raging on the streets of Khartoum, Father Jacob Thelekkadan punched new holes in his belt as the supplies of food dwindled and he grew thinner.
 
Around 80 people are taking refuge inside the Dar Mariam mission, a Catholic church and school compound in Khartoum's al-Shajara district, caught in the crossfire between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to accounts by the priest and seven other people at the mission.
 
The roof of the main building has been damaged by shells, and parts of the nuns' quarters have been set ablaze. Holes caused by stray bullets mark the mission's walls.
 
As food has grown scarce, the nuns have boiled tree leaves for the children to eat and many of the adults have skipped meals.
 
A Red Cross effort to rescue them in December ended with two dead and seven others wounded, including three of charity's staff, after gunmen opened fire on the convoy, forcing it to turn back before it could reach the mission. The warring sides traded blame for the attack.
 
Thelekkadan said he and the nuns had refused offers from the army to ferry them out across the river permanently, leaving the families behind.
 
"When the road is safe, we will be the first to leave, but with the people," said Thelekkadan, a 69-year-old Indian national.
 
Many of the inhabitants of Sudan's capital fled after the conflict erupted in April last year, enveloping Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman along the Nile, and quickly spreading to other parts of the country.
 
At the start of the war, the RSF occupied strategic sites and residential neighbourhoods in Khartoum, positioning snipers on high-rise buildings. The army, lacking effective ground forces, responded with heavy artillery and air strikes.
 
The Dar Mariam mission became a safe haven for those lacking the money to flee or without anywhere to go.
 
 
 
Oh?:
 
Russia is ready to continue gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine after the current transit agreement expires at the end of 2024, Russian state news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Future gas transit depends on whether Ukraine wants to continue the arrangement or not, he was quoted as saying.

A five-year deal on Russian gas transit via Ukraine to Europe, the only remaining trade and political agreement between warring Moscow and Kyiv, expires after Dec. 31 2024.

Russian gas supplies to Europe, once a key source of revenue for Moscow, have plummeted following the Kremlin's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 2022.

"Transit through its territory depends on Ukraine. They have their own established rules. It depends on their desire. Russia is ready to supply," Novak was quoted as saying by the RIA state news agency.

Ukraine has said it does not plan to prolong the five-year deal with Russian pipeline gas exporting monopoly Gazprom or to sign another one.

 

Someone must be certain that Putin's war will wrap up soon. 



When Mother Teresa was in India, she helped the poor:

Police in Chhattisgarh, India, have as of Monday done little to respond to the brutal killing of a Christian woman by relatives who reportedly tried to stop her from farming her own land due to her conversion, the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) denounced.

 
 
 

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