Mid-Week Post

 

On this eve of Halloween ...

Haven't we heard this sort of thing before?:

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet yesterday pledged his 33-member caucus will join 119 Conservatives in supporting the next Commons non-confidence motion. The Bloc is “absolutely ready to go into an election tomorrow morning” after cabinet failed to meet his ultimatum to pass two bills into law, he said: “I am ready.”

 

If true (yeah, I know), this would pave the way for huge Tory gains.

Neither the Bloc nor the NDP can afford that.

Better the idiot devil you know than an adult in the room.

From the most "transparent" government in the country's history:

MPs on the Commons government operations committee yesterday agreed to pursue the destruction of federal emails with ArriveCan contractors. One Canada Border Services Agency executive destroyed records sought under Access To Information, a jailing offence if proven deliberate: “Something happened here.”

 

In Justin's Canada:

Canadians in federal focus groups now consider annual vacations a privilege of the wealthy, says in-house Privy Council research. Canadians also identified “dining in restaurants” and buying private medical treatment as desirable luxuries: “Asked how much money they felt one had to earn annually to be considered wealthy, participant responses ranged from approximately $100,000.”

Squirrel!:

The Canadian government alleged on Tuesday that Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was behind the plots to target Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.

The Indian government did not immediately respond but has dismissed Canada's prior accusations as baseless, denying any involvement.

 

 

We don't have to trade with China:

In 2019 Air Canada was flying up to 35 times a week to China - including from Toronto - while Chinese carriers operated 76 direct round-trip flights, Cirium flight schedule data shows.

 

China later all but shut its borders to travellers due to a zero COVID policy and suspended many inbound flights.

 

Canada in February 2022 said Chinese carriers could fly only six round trips a week into Canada, and there could be no direct flights between Canada and Beijing.

 

These restrictions were lifted on Friday, a Canadian Transportation Agency order said.

 

"We value Canada's initiative and hope Canada will continue to create good conditions for normal personnel exchanges between both countries," Lin Jian, spokesperson at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a regular news conference on Wednesday.

 

More electoral interference!

 

 

In other news:

Moldova's pro-Western President Maia Sandu faces an uphill struggle to win a second term in an election runoff on Sunday in which her defeat could allow Moscow to gain more influence in a diplomatic battleground between Russia and the European Union.

Sandu, a 52-year-old former World Bank adviser popular in the West, has accelerated the southeastern European nation's push to leave Moscow's orbit, and in June began the long process of EU accession talks as the war in Ukraine raged to the east.

 

The vote comes after Saturday's parliamentary election in Georgia, another ex-Soviet country trying to join the EU, where a ruling party seen by many in the West as increasingly pro-Russian claimed victory.

 

"It will be an uphill struggle (for Sandu) with internal grievances, but also external pressure and meddling," said Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia programme.

 

She faces Aleksandr Stoianoglo, an ex-prosecutor general backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party, who says that, as president, he would back EU integration as well as develop ties with Russia in the national interest.

 

In last Sunday's presidential debate, Sandu, whose term has seen a sharp deterioration of ties with Moscow, said Stoianoglo was a "Trojan Horse" candidate for outside interests bent on seizing control of Moldova.

**

Oh, this isn't good:

Social Democrats won 52 seats in the 141-member parliament, defeating the centre-right Homeland Union party in an election dominated by frustration with the cost of living and worries over potential threats from neighbouring Russia.

 

The Social Democrats are now in talks with several smaller parties to form a majority governing coalition.

 

The left-leaning party has pledged to maintain Lithuania's hefty defence spending which, at about 3% of GDP this year, is the sixth biggest per capita in the NATO alliance.

 

British (used in the loosest sense of the word) teen facing charges of terrorism:

A teen charged with killing three girls and wounding ten other people in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England refused to speak when he appeared in court Wednesday.

He faced new charges of possessing a deadly poison and a terror charge linked to possessing an al-Qaida manual.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court by video link from Belmarsh prison in south London, pulled the top of his gray sweatsuit over his nose and wouldn’t confirm his name or respond to other questions.

Also - Canada supports its fronts for murder:

As Israel cuts all ties with UNRWA amid charges that it is irreparably tied up with terrorism, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has doubled down on her support for the agency, which Canada continues to fund to the tune of $25 million per year.

I'll just leave this right here:

Canada is suspending funding to a controversial UN agency in Gaza after allegations this week that its employees participated in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel. ...

Canada had suspended funding to UNRWA under the previous Harper government due to long-standing allegations that the agency promoted antisemitism and was linked to terror groups, such as Hamas. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinstated Canada’s $25 million in funding in 2016.