In a bid to import what some might call American-style politics, the Liberals are labelling federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre “weird” with a new line of attack borrowed from the United States Democrats.
Nearly half of Canadians are in favour of reducing government bureaucracy, a sentiment that coincides with a more than 40 percent rise in the federal workforce since 2015, a recent survey suggests.Polling by Leger commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) found a significant portion of respondents say they are concerned about the growing size of the federal bureaucracy. Forty-seven percent favour reducing the number of federal employees, 29 percent prefer maintaining the current number, seven percent want an increase, and 17 percent are unsure, according to the results.“The poll shows taxpayers know they’re paying for too many federal paper pushers and want Ottawa to shrink the bureaucracy,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano in a press release. “Canadians can’t afford to keep bankrolling a bloated federal bureaucracy.”Data from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat shows the federal public service had roughly 283,000 employees in 2010, which decreased to around 257,000 by 2015. Since then the number has steadily increased, reaching 367,772 this year.
Right now, the country’s immigration system is digging out of a hole created by a failure to control a boom in the number of foreign students and temporary foreign workers.But it’s worth addressing the bigger, long-term question now. Canada’s immigration system needs saving.Above all, it’s time to discard the misguided notion that the purpose of immigration is to fill labour shortages and build a bigger work force. That idea has been promoted by Canada’s business associations and adopted by the Liberal government.More immigration doesn’t necessarily reduce labour shortages. A bigger labour force won’t necessarily make Canada richer. But a better labour force will.Of course, there are also non-economic goals for immigration, such as family reunification, and humanitarian protection for refugees and asylum-seekers.But roughly 60 per cent of Canada’s permanent immigrants come under the economic class. The goal should be to bring in skills, knowledge and innovation – human capital, in the lingo of economists.Using immigration to relentlessly expand the labour force and to fill all manner of perceived labour shortages – including programs for everything from estheticians to caregivers to truckers to low-wage workers – is not good for the economy.Start with this: research by Pierre Fortin, professor emeritus of economics at the Université du Québec à Montréal, found that the pre- and post-pandemic efforts to bring in more people to reduce Canada’s labour shortages didn’t actually reduce labour shortages across the economy.Immigrants do “supply” additional labour, Mr. Fortin noted in an interview. But they are also consumers, so they increase the demand for labour – possibly even increasing economy-wide shortages a little. The assumption that immigration reduces generalized labour shortages is a “dangerous fallacy.”
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says federal departments are reviewing how two men with suspected links to a terrorist group abroad were allowed into Canada.Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, 26, were arrested in Richmond Hill, Ont., last week and face nine different terrorism charges, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.The RCMP announced the charges last week and said that the two men were “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.”Most charges relate to activities allegedly occurring in Canada, but the elder Eldidi is also charged with one count of aggravated assault outside Canada.LeBlanc says the Public Safety and Immigration Departments, which work together to screen applicants looking to move to Canada, are working to establish a timeline of events regarding the accused men.“When you have a circumstance like this, the Department of Immigration and the Public Safety Department will obviously review, as I said, all of the circumstances, particularly the chronology and the timeline of when certain pieces of information may have been available,” LeBlanc said.
As a British Muslim counter-extremism expert, former advisor to Europol, numerous United Kingdom and United States governments and a current board member of Secure Canada, I am in a unique position to reflect on Canada’s evolving role in global counter-terrorism efforts. These recent events, and especially Choudary’s long career as an international extremist recruiter for terrorist organizations, serve as a poignant reminder of the transnational nature of extremism, the value of international cooperation and the urgent need to take this threat seriously.
Choudary’s conviction and life sentence, while welcome, come too late. Having locked horns with him numerous times over the years, I can attest to the fact that his toxic ideology has been poisoning minds and radicalizing vulnerable individuals for decades.
The harsh reality is that neither the U.K. nor Canada is winning the battle against extremism and terrorism, with hateful vitriol and intimidation tactics on full display in our streets, our public institutions and classrooms. Our efforts, while well-intentioned, have been marred by bureaucratic inertia, political correctness and a failure to address the root causes of radicalization.
A Quebec study has revealed that over one in ten babies aborted in the second trimester are born alive, but only 10 percent live over three hours.
In June, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published “Second-Trimester Abortion and Risk of Live Birth,” a Quebec study which found that 11.2 percent of abortions in the second trimester have resulted in live births.
“It is more common for infants to be born alive following abortions than most people recognize,” pro-life advocate Melissa Ohden wrote in her weekly newsletter. “Sadly, most people don’t even know that babies survive abortions at all, or they’re led to believe there are just a few of us.”
“The terms ‘abortion survivor’ and ‘born alive infant’ are often polarizing terms, equated as fictional stories fabricated to restrict ‘reproductive rights,'” she continued “Still, these circumstances are simply a relatively understood, underreported, and under-studied reality.”
Indeed, the Quebec study revealed that a staggering number of babies are born alive after being aborted. The study analyzed 13,777 abortions performed on babies in the second trimester, between 15-29 weeks’ gestation, at Quebec hospitals from April 1, 1989, to March 31, 2021.
“Second-trimester abortion carries a risk of live birth, especially at 20 to 24 weeks of gestation, although feticidal injection may protect against this outcome,” the study concluded.
The study found that babies aborted in Labor Induction Abortions had a 15.4 percent chance of being born alive, while those aborted in Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) Abortions had a 0.2 percent chance.
Additionally, babies in weeks 20-24 had a 21.7 percent chance of being born alive, compared to a 3.4 percent chance at 15-19 weeks and an 8.5 percent chance at 25-29 weeks.
The chance of a baby surviving an abortion also depends on the age of the mother. According to the study, babies with mothers under 25 years old had a 5.5 percent chance, while babies with mothers aged 25-30 had a 14.1 percent chance. Finally, babies with mothers 35 years or older had a 12.6 percent chance.
Perhaps most surprising is that the number of babies born alive has drastically increased since 1989 when there was only a 4.1 percent chance of live birth. The number rose to 10.2 percent in 2001-2010 before jumping to 20.8 percent between 2011 and 2021.
An Ontario judge has determined that 40 Days for Life can continue to litigate against the “digital activism” of a pro-abortion TikTok user who aimed to disturb their pro-life prayer vigils.
On August 2, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that 40 Days for Life, a Texas-based pro-life group that also operates in Canada and which organizes 12-hour prayer vigils on public streets, can continue its legal action against pro-abortion activist Brooke Dietrich who targeted their prayer vigils on TikTok.
“A free and democratic society is one that is committed to permitting everyone to speak what they understand to be the truth about the most profound questions of being and flourishing and to advocate for laws and policies that reflect this,” Justice Bradley Miller wrote.
Beginning in 2021, Dietrich, a graduate student, began posting TikTok videos encouraging pro-abortion activists to disrupt prayer vigils organized by 40 Days for Life. One of her videos drew over 300,000 views.
Dietrich’s video suggested that viewers sign up for prayer vigils and “then not show up.” 40 Days for Life relies on volunteers to sign up on their website and then pray for an end to abortion on public streets during their designated time.
She also suggested viewers file Facebook reports claiming harassment by 40 Days for Life and pretend to buy merchandise on the pro-life organization’s website.
40 Days for Life quickly sought an injunction to stop Dietrich’s targeted TikToks, at which point the woman filed her own appeal to stop the injunction.
“She claimed her digital activism was a matter of trying to ‘send a message,’” the ruling stated.
“She made negative comments about 40 Days For Life and its activities including by stating that 40 Days lied, spread ‘false health information’ and engaged in ‘fearmongering’ and harassment,” the ruling continued. “In two additional videos Ms. Dietrich posted contact information for two of 40 Days’ employees.”
“Several of her videos encouraged others to interfere with 40 Days’ activities and vigils,” Miller explained. “This is qualitatively different from counter speech. 40 Days did not take issue with Ms. Dietrich’s pro-choice expression or her stance against abortion protests at hospitals. It only raised concerns with the obstruction of its operations.”
“At root the expressions did not involve an effort to counter speech with speech,” said the Court. “Instead Ms. Dietrich is alleged to have led a campaign to prevent 40 Days from organizing and expressing its views.”
This is the second victory for pro-lifers in just two weeks. In July, the London City Council announced they have abandoned plans for a new bylaw that sought to restrict the display of certain images, including those of abortion victims, in public spaces.
While some countries allow at-home use of the pill pack, Japan restricts it to hospitals, requiring patients to stay until the abortion is fully complete. This inpatient policy was established initially as a precaution due to Japan's lack of experience with the drug.
A government research team examined approximately 36,000 abortions conducted between May and October last year at 2,096 facilities nationwide. The Mefeego pill pack was used in 435 cases, with 39 resulting in surgical abortions due to incomplete termination.
For roughly 3,500 years, the remains of an ancient Egyptian woman have preserved what may have been her final expression before death: an anguished shriek.
The mummy, known as the “Screaming Woman,” has been the subject of intense curiosity since it was first discovered in 1935. Her mouth hangs wide open with her mostly-intact top teeth bared, as if she were howling in pain. Her sunken eyes and black, leather-like skin add to her startling appearance.
While the woman’s identity has been lost to time, researchers from Egypt are trying to learn as much as possible from her remains — and they believe they’ve cracked the case of her unsettling facial expression.
Sahar Saleem, a radiology professor from Cairo University, and study co-author Samia El-Merghani, of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, performed a “virtual dissection” of the mummy using CT scans. The results of their research were published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.
They believe that the Screaming Woman’s face is contorted that way because of a rare form of rigor mortis called cadaveric spasm, which can freeze a person’s body in their final action just before death.
“It occurs after severe physical or emotional activity, leading to immediate postmortem rigor as the contracted muscles become rigid immediately following death and are unable to relax,” the study reads.
If it’s true that the woman’s expression is a result of cadaveric spasm, this indicates that she “died screaming from agony or pain,” the study says. Embalmers may have mummified the woman’s body before rigor mortis could dissipate, forever preserving her final scream.
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