Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week minuet ...

 

This is how Canada loses:

Affordability, another issue that dogged the Liberals coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic as interest rates and food prices soared, has for many been replaced by concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s attitude towards Canada and his ensuing trade war — a war that Carney is pitching himself as best placed to fight, given his experience managing central banks in the U.K. and Canada.

Carney needs the election to be about Trump.

Otherwise, he would have to answer for Justin's ruinous government and for the fact that for the past five years, he has been Justin's chief advisor.

Only in Canada can someone as crooked as Carney ascend to the most powerful position in the country:

Like Trudeau, Carney is a left-leaning, climate-obsessed globalist — a Laurentian elitist who sees big government as the solution to most problems, whether real, imagined or self-imposed. He appears ambitious and narcissistic, is often casual with the truth, is compromised by conflicts of interest and seems beholden to the “basic Chinese dictatorship.” He is advised by Trudeau’s coterie of political operatives, led by Gerald Butts, and presides over a reshuffled Trudeau cabinet. The fourth Liberal term he seeks would, with one or two exceptions, pursue the same dysfunctional policies that inflicted a lost decade on our long-suffering yet credulous electorate. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me four times? Seriously?

Liberals are practiced at using the fear a crisis generates to achieve big government goals that limit personal freedom and hike costs. Mark Carney built his career exploiting such opportunities. He is guilty of stolen valour in trying to take too much credit for dealing with the 2008-09 downturn, rightfully owed to Stephen Harper and his finance minister, the late Jim Flaherty. As governor of the Bank of England, Carney was a leading figure in Project Fear, whose inaccurate hyperbole failed in the end to derail Brexit. ...

Carney is now exploiting Canadians’ fear and anger over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and taunts about a 51st state. He recently declared that Canada’s old relationship with the United States “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military co-operation, is over.” With Trump’s endgame impossible to know, such a definitive statement is way too premature, despite the current tariff chaos. Our proximity to the U.S. creates significant economic advantages for both countries. Pronouncing the relationship dead, even as we work hard to diversify our trade and build economic resilience, is wrong. And hemispheric security clearly demands co-operation. It would be utterly reckless for Canada to distance itself from the U.S. in its strategic competition with China.

Other recent comments cast a troubling light on where Carney stands on issues central to Canada’s values and national interests. His instinct was to stand by Liberal MP Paul Chiang after he suggested people could collect a bounty for delivering Conservative candidate Joe Tay to the local Chinese consulate. Carney’s apparent indifference to China’s intimidation of Canadians and interference in our democracy is indefensible.

Carney’s recent interview on Radio-Canada was both revealing and chilling. In it, he conflated three fundamentally different events: Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which has killed a million people; Trump’s talk about Canada becoming the 51st state, which, however insulting, would not entail armed force or happen contrary to Canadian wishes; and Israel’s security barrier in Gaza, designed to prevent another terrorist massacre like October 7. For short-term partisan advantage, Carney insulted the notoriously sensitive U.S. president and criticized a democratic ally desperately trying to retrieve hostages still held after two and a half years by a genocidal terrorist organization. Carney set aside moral clarity and national interest during a period of exceptional economic vulnerability and counted the votes.

Carney’s conflicts of interest flow from his former chairmanship of Brookfield Asset Management — where he retains a non-transferable carried interest potentially worth tens of millions. Placing it in a blind trust achieves nothing, so he would have to recuse himself from any involvement in certain industrial sectors. But how can a prime minister, especially a Liberal one, absent himself from discussions about industrial policy, the cornerstone of Liberal interventionism?

A Carney government would be the same old, same old. The vote on April 28 will determine whether Canadians endure another four years of decline or seize Canada’s great potential.

 

Also:

Mark Carney has torn off the mask—revealing not just cowardice, but a disgraceful betrayal of moral clarity. By siding with a heckler and endorsing the false, slanderous claim of 'genocide' in Israel, he has shown himself unworthy of leadership or respect. For any Jew who values… pic.twitter.com/4y9UZqya1w

— Mayor Jeremy Levi (@jerlevi) April 9, 2025

 

It's what the crowd wants to hear:

Conservatives would require the Canada Revenue Agency to publicly identify corporations that pay little or no federal tax, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Auditors would also be instructed to stop “harassing small businesses and charities,” a longstanding complaint documented through in-house Agency research: “You can’t avoid your taxes; global elites shouldn’t be able to either.”

 

Does this include Carney?

** 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre unveiled what may be his toughest anti-crime proposal yet on Wednesday, promising to lock up three-time offenders for at least 10 years if he becomes prime minister.

Poilievre said in a Thursday morning press conference in northern Ontario that his ‘Three Strikes, You’re Out’ law will spur the “biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history.”

“We will lock up rampant offenders and make sure they never hurt anyone again,” said Poilievre.

Under the proposed ‘three-strikes’ law, anyone convicted of three serious offenses would be sentenced to a minimum of 10-years’ incarceration, with no chance at bail, probation, parole or house arrest.

They will also be designated as dangerous offenders, meaning they cannot be released until they’ve shown they’re no longer a threat to society.

Poilievre said the law would have prevented the 2022 Saskatchewan mass stabbings, noting that perpetrator Myles Sanderson was on statutory release at the time, despite 59 prior convictions.

“This is insane … and the consequence is that 11 innocent people lost their lives.” said Poilievre.

A background document provided by the Conservative party said the law would cover primary designated offenses listed under section 752 of the Criminal Code.

Poilievre has already said that, if he becomes prime minister, he’ll bring in life sentences for aggravated human, gun and fentanyl trafficking.

 

 

It's like he wants Pierre to win:

Former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who is now running for Mark Carney’s Liberals, dismissed the size of the crowds that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is attracting and compared them to the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests.

Robertson, who is the Liberal candidate for Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, was present during Carney’s trip to the West Coast this week. He attended the Liberal rally in Richmond on Monday evening and was at Carney’s announcement in Delta on Tuesday morning.

 

Continue speaking to your dwindling masses of aging hippies and dope fiends, Gregor. 

They'll always listen.

 

 

When do we build our wall?:

Canadian border officials say there has been a steady rise in the number of people seeking asylum at a border crossing south of Montreal.

The rise in would-be refugees at the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing comes as the temporary status of hundreds of thousands of migrants in the United States is set to expire over the next weeks and months.

Data from Canada Border Services Agency shows the number of asylum claims at the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle point of entry has increased since the start of the year, with 1,356 applications in March and 557 claims as of Saturday for April.

Frantz André, spokesman for a Montreal-based group that helps undocumented migrants with asylum cases, says there has been a rise in would-be refugees coming to Canada since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in November.

U.S. Homeland Security said last month it was revoking the temporary status of 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the country at their own expense with a financial sponsor. It ends April 24.

The Trump administration has also announced an end to Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans and about 500,00 Haitians, though a federal judge temporarily put that on hold.

André says many of the claimants at the Quebec border crossing are Haitians fleeing the U.S. before their status is removed.

 

Also:

An Ontario judge has sentenced an Iraqi Uber driver to ten months in jail for sexually assaulting his passenger who was just looking for a ride home from a party.

The Ontario Court of Justice heard a woman engaged Sevan Halabi’s services as an Uber driver on Oct. 9, 2022. Halabi, who is a permanent resident of Canada, was angling for a lighter sentence to avoid deportation.

“She wanted him to drive her home from a party she’d attended. Rather than take her home, the offender drove her to an empty parking lot,” Justice Scott Pratt wrote in a recent decision out of Windsor.

The married father of two had asked the judge for a sentence of six months less a day to avoid immigration consequences.

“I am not unsympathetic to the offender’s family,” Pratt said in a decision dated April 3.

“In my view, however, a sentence of six months less a day for this conduct would be unfit. It would prioritize the offender’s personal circumstances over the need to denounce and deter his conduct and would not be in line with relevant case law. It would be an inappropriate and artificial sentence imposed only to avoid legitimate consequences created by Parliament.”

According to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, permanent residents can be deemed “inadmissible” to Canada for “serious criminality” if they’re sentenced to more than six months in jail.

 

You could always deport him and let him take his chances in Iraq. 

I'd rather see the company that started Canada Thanosed than let some arrogant interloper buy it:

Entrepreneur Weihong Liu is the board chairwoman of Central Walk, a retail investment company that owns three shopping centres in B.C.

Liu has shared a series of videos on the Chinese social media platform RedNote, saying she wants to “restore The Bay to its glory.”

“Knowing that The Bay, this national brand that carries Canada’s history, will collapse, I can’t stand by and watch, you must do your best to do something, to save it, to let the Canadian spirit continue,” Liu said in Mandarin. “Let the young generation in Canada fall in love with The Bay again.”

 

Another Chinese acquisition of a Canadian property.

Wasn't the House of Commons enough?

 

On the Korean Peninsula

With Yoon Suk-Yeol's ouster, terms limits and other constitutional reforms are being bandied about.

South Korea already has a one five-year term for its presidents.

What it has not done yet is deal with the pro-North Korea elements in its government:

The speaker of South Korea's parliament on Sunday proposed revising the constitution to curb presidential powers, citing public support for such a move after President Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted for declaring martial law.

"I would like to propose to the people that we should now quickly pursue constitutional revision," Woo Won-shik, the National Assembly speaker, told a news conference. "After going through the unconstitutional and illegal martial law and (then Yoon's) impeachment, the public consensus on the urgency of constitutional revision is greater than ever."

He proposed a national referendum on constitutional reform to coincide with the presidential election that must be held within two months of Yoon's ouster on Friday by the nation's Constitutional Court.

If South Korea were to lean north, Japan may find itself standing virtually alone in the east:

 

Japan is worried that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's removal from power will undo the improvements in bilateral relations made under his administration.

The importance of the relations between the East Asian neighbors is increasing amid drastic changes in the global situation, as marked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

The Japanese government will closely watch the South Korean presidential election to choose Yoon's successor, which will be held within the next 60 days.

 

Token Civil Servant Found Guilty of Taking Several Lots of Widely and Indiscriminately Dispersed Cash

To wit:

If you were a public servant working for the federal department responsible for CERB, you shouldn’t have applied for the $2,000-per-month pandemic benefit — seven times.

That’s a lesson that Jacqueline Byrne, a former Service Canada benefits officer at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), learned the hard way from a federal labour relations board.

In a ruling earlier this year, the Federal Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) confirmed that the government was right to revoke Byrne’s security clearance — effectively firing her — after she received $14,000 in Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments.

Byrne’s case appears to be the first ruling on a grievance filed by a bureaucrat opposing their firing for receiving CERB while working in the public service.

In a statement provided by her lawyer, Byrne said the decision was “very disappointing” and failed to consider the hectic and confusing atmosphere early in the pandemic.

“The CERB was rolled out very quickly and many people were confused about it, including myself. I was also living through a terrible time with the deaths of both of my parents during the pandemic. This was the worst time of my life and I feel like ESDC and the Board didn’t have any empathy for my situation whatsoever,” she wrote.

When the pandemic began in 2020, Byrne was working full-time for the department that was responsible for CERB. In fact, Byrne’s job as an “experienced” benefits officer was to ascertain applicants’ eligibility for Employment Insurance, the ruling says.

 

You dipped into the fund seven times.

Enough already.

 

Some People Are "Special"

The grievance industry needs a bit of theatre, especially when it is short on - how shall we say? - tangibilities:

The British Columbia First Nation that announced its discovery of 215 children’s graves sought a visit to the Kamloops Residential School site by Pope Francis, Access To Information records show. Minutes of a local meeting quoted councillors as remarking they were “the first to announce unmarked graves.”

 

And what would Pope Francis be made to there?

Be brow-beaten into an apology?

I'm sure.

 

 

Enjoy the Decline

What to expect from a Carney government in May:

Canadians should expect to become poorer over the next five years, says a Privy Council report. The forecast was drawn from interviews with “experts across the Government of Canada” who said economic outlooks for families were so stark they predicted a national mental health crisis: ‘It is crucial to anticipate potential future scenarios.’

 

But ... but ... Trump!

**

Canadian businesses and consumers alike are holding what cash they have in anticipation of a recession, the Bank of Canada said yesterday. Findings were drawn from quarterly surveys: “Is a recession imminent?”

 

No, the recession is here.

 

As It Stands Now

The installed Mark Carney may have the public coffers and the bribed press and (apparently) the Chinese Communist Party and the Laurentian elite and sparse legions of gullible people but Pierre Poilievre seems to be the more attractive candidate:

Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre rallied a crowd of about 15,000 in an industrial warehouse in Nisku. Monday evening, just south of Edmonton in the heart of oil country.

The area, near the historic Leduc No. 1 well that sparked Alberta’s 1947 oil boom, is a hub for energy service companies and drilling contractors.

The Western Standard reported thousands arriving early, with many parking a kilometre away or more to attend. Twenty minutes before the event, hundreds still lined up outside, while others waited inside the massive venue.

Supporters Sheila and Catherine from Edmonton voiced strong backing for Poilievre.

“People need to know who Pierre is and who Mark Carney is,” they said. “Carney will destroy Canada if Pierre isn’t elected. Read Carney’s book Values — that says it all.”

Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced Poilievre. As the crowd cheered, he said Poilievre earned the privilege of running for prime minister through hard work and determination.

 

Stephen Harper's introduction of Pierre Poilievre was amazing to watch. pic.twitter.com/Cgw1YlxLiM

— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) April 8, 2025

 

 (Sidebar: his name Is Harper the White and he comes to you now at the turning of the tide.)

**

Pierre Poilievre said a Conservative government would complete environmental assessments of major infrastructure projects within one year and push through approval of 10 pending major resource projects.

If the Conservatives are elected on April 28, Poilievre said Monday that the days of innumerable environmental reviews by multiple governments and endless waiting for large infrastructure projects to be approved will be over.

But Carney has a trick up his sleeve.

He promises tax havens ... for him!:

Just want to point out that I found Mark Carney’s Brookfield tax shelters in Bermuda in early 2023 - over two years ago.

Have a nice day. https://t.co/ApnLy2EXoK

— Andy Lee (@RealAndyLeeShow) March 26, 2025

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

No matter how much Mark Carney wants us to:

A month prior to Carney’s trip to China, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made him chair of the Liberals’ Task Force on Economic Growth.

A report from the Telegraph, entitled Mark Carney meets [Chinese President Xi Jinping] as China woos the West, says Carney met with the People's Bank of China deputy director in October — two weeks later Brookfield secured a $256 million loan from the Chinese state-owned bank.

Carney has repeatedly refused to disclose his holdings in Brookfield. On Monday, he said “screens” have been put up around his investments and they are now in a blind trust. 

(Sidebar: which he can see.)

**

Federal election monitors yesterday said they suspect Chinese Communist Party agents are running a media campaign describing Prime Minister Mark Carney as a “rock star.” The Liberal Party was notified Sunday but made no public comment: “Carney has an ambitious economic recovery plan."

Also - don't they normally use threats for this sort of thing?:

Federal authorities say they have detected an information operation linked to the Chinese regime that seeks to influence Chinese Canadians’ perceptions about Prime Minister and Liberal Leader Mark Carney.

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force said the information operation was “deliberately amplifying narratives in a coordinated and inauthentic way” on the Chinese social media platform WeChat.

“Specifically, various contrasting narratives were spread on WeChat about Mr. Carney – first amplifying the candidate’s stance with the United States, then targeting his experience and credentials,” authorities said in a statement.

The initial information came from an anonymous blog on WeChat called Youli-Youmian, said to be the most popular news account on the platform. WeChat’s parent company Tencent says its social media platform has 1.3 billion monthly users.

SITE said intelligence reporting has linked the Youli-Youmian account to the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. This powerful organ oversees the state security apparatus.

The SITE Task Force said it observed “large spikes” of what it believes is “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” in relation to articles posted by the WeChat account on March 10 and March 25. The campaign around the March 25 article was being boosted by 30 smaller WeChat accounts, leading to the articles reaching between 1 million to 3 million views, SITE said, which is much higher than content usually posted by Chinese state media.

 

 

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week lunch break ...

 

Well, that escalated quickly:

Liberal MP Paul Chiang (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) last night abruptly resigned while under RCMP investigation after threatening a political rival with arrest for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party. “I served with integrity,” said Chiang, a former police sergeant.

You served China with your disgusting threat.

 

Mark Carney will not be deterred!:

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday said he “will move on” after losing three former Liberal MPs in 10 days to suspected foreign interference. The trio’s ejection followed a 2024 warning from the Commission on Foreign Interference that Canadians must “shine a light on what is going on.”

 

This Mark Carney:

Two-thirds of Canadians think Liberal leader Mark Carney should proactively reveal his business interests before election day, according to a new poll.

A new Postmedia-Leger poll suggests 67 per cent of Canadians feel Carney should “voluntarily reveal his business interests” before voters go to the ballot box April 28.

Carney has so far refused to disclose the assets he says he put into a blind trust weeks ago, or his potential conflicts of interest. He’s argued he went above and beyond legal requirements by immediately setting up the blind trust and filing his disclosure to the ethics commissioner after being elected Liberal leader.

Carney also previously dismissed a reporter’s suggestion that he might have conflicts of interest after spending years working in the private sector, before later acknowledging he expects to recuse himself from his past work as chairman at Brookfield Asset Management .

 ** 

Liberal Leader Mark Carney is being dogged by questions regarding his time at Brookfield Asset Management, and the fact he co-chaired investment funds worth about $25-billion registered in Bermuda, a tax haven.

Mr. Carney says the tax strategy was designed to benefit Canadian pension plans and that there was no avoidance of tax. The former is true, but the latter is not. Booking profits in a tax haven is indeed tax avoidance.

**

Justin, too, thought that he could replace the US with China.

That isn't simply isolationism. That is empowering China:

“The old relationship we had with the United States—based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation—is over.”

Carney's electoral success depends on a worsening crisis with Trump.

Inflammatory statements help Carney but hurt Canada. pic.twitter.com/ViGxlzmTIE

— David Jacobs (@DrJacobsRad) March 28, 2025

**

Sometimes in medicine the cure is worse than the disease.

Carney's prescription is to end our US trading relationship and realign with Europe.

That means loss of 80% of our current trade, EU regulatory compliance, carbon taxes, and huge shipping costs.https://t.co/PmRIhC49X1

— David Jacobs (@DrJacobsRad) March 28, 2025

**

Mark Carney says he will not repeal the Liberals’ anti-pipeline Bill C-69. pic.twitter.com/hXRVyjrNup

— Juno News (@junonewscom) April 1, 2025

**

It shouldn’t be hard to distance yourself from someone who advocates for kidnapping a rival and handing them over to China for a bounty, but the Liberals blew this one. The resignation only came after the RCMP confirmed they were investigating Chiang’s comments which may have violated several sections of the law by counselling others to commit a crime.

**

WATCH: A few years ago, Sir Lord Mark Carney told Parliament that "it will be important that China is center stage to shape this new, global, sustainable financial system.”

I'm not making this up guys.

This man is a CHINESE-SHILL.pic.twitter.com/kkPc1Lhrt0

— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) March 31, 2025

** 

⚠️ Our MP Interactions with the CCP ⚠️ 1/3

KNOW BEFORE YOU VOTE! PLEASE SHARE 🔊

The federal election 🗳️ will take place on April 28, 2025 🗓️#cdnpoli #bcpoli #federalelection #foreigninfluence #foreigninterference #CCP #HongKonger #HongKong #canada #TransnationalRepression pic.twitter.com/ofx7HH4PPY

— Vancouver Activists of Hong Kong (@vanactivistshk) April 1, 2025

 

 

The United States will never own Canada.

That is because China owns Canada. 

 

Also:

What does it take to subvert Canadian democracy?

No grand conspiracies, misinformation bots, or foreign sleeper agents are required. All you really need are a couple of school buses.

Consider the case of MP Han Dong. In 2019, several busloads of Chinese international students suddenly arrived at the federal Liberal nomination contest for the Toronto riding of Don Valley North to support him. According to Marie-Josee Hogue, chair of the Foreign Interference Commission, “a known People’s Republic of China proxy agent” delivered those students and provided falsified documents that allowed them to vote for Dong and hand him the win.

As Hogue noted in her report, “Nomination contests may be gateways for foreign states that wish to interfere in our democratic processes.” In fact, it’s worse than that. Beyond the potential for foreign interference, the system Canadian parties currently use to select their candidates is deeply undemocratic and biased at all times. Its main features are shadowy backroom deals, constantly changing rules, and a disturbing lack of fairness. It all needs to change.

Party leaders in Canada wield an enormous amount of control over how their party’s candidates are selected. Leaders can directly appoint a preferred candidate or eliminate their competition altogether, ignoring the wishes of local riding associations.

 

Speaking of Canada ... :

It may be April Fool’s Day, but this is no joke. At a time when many Canadians are struggling to make ends meet, Canadian MPs have received a pay raise, according to the updated Members’ Allowances and Services Manual.

The April 1 increases range from $6,700 to an extra $13,400.

A backbench MP will now be making $209,800 (up from $203,100 in 2024), while the leader of the opposition, the Speaker and cabinet ministers will take home $309,700 (up from $299,900 last year). The prime minister will earn $419,600 (up from $406,200).

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The annual adjustments are legislatively mandated in the Parliament of Canada Act, says Olivier Duhaime, media relations director with the Office of the Speaker.

The remuneration packages “are adjusted each year on April 1” based on an index of average-percentage increases in wages established in major settlements negotiated in the private sector, he added in an email to the National Post. “This index is published by Employment and Social Development Canada within three months (of) the end of each calendar year.”

The updated allowances manual shows the compensation for everyone from the prime minister down through party leaders, chief and deputy whips, caucus chairs, committee chairs and backbenchers.

But Canadians are questioning this set of annual increases — as they have in recent years, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Politicians don’t deserve a raise especially when millions of Canadians are struggling,” says Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The overwhelming majority of taxpayers say MPs don’t deserve a raise, he added in an email to the National Post. “If party leaders want to prove they care about taxpayers, they should stop the MP pay raises.”

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The CTF commissioned a poll from Leger that shows almost 8 in 10 Canadians disagree with the increase.

“While 20 per cent only somewhat oppose the raise…59 per cent are strongly opposed, particularly those aged 35+, living outside Quebec, and living in rural communities,” according to the Leger polling results.

Conversely, according to Leger, men, younger Canadians (aged 18-34), Quebecers, Canadians in urban or suburban areas, and BIPOC individuals support the proposed raise in salary for MPs. “These results closely mirror those from 2024, when 80 per cent opposed and 13 per cent supported the MPs’ salary increase,” says Leger.

He pointed to the Stephen Harper government stopping the annual increases as Canadians coped with the fallout of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

“The Harper government ended the MP pay raises from 2010 to 2013 in response to the financial recession, and all party leaders should commit to ending the pay raises now.

“Over the last couple years, Canadians have struggled through a pandemic, lockdowns, a cost of living crisis and now a tariff war. If politicians want to prove that ‘we’re all in this together’ then they should put their money where their mouths are and stop the annual MP pay raises,” writes Terrazzano.

**

With Canada’s six-year national carbon tax experiment coming to an end, the early results are that program has collected about $45 billion while having few immediately perceptible impacts on carbon emissions. 

**

Cabinet to date has spent more than a quarter billion dollars on its Two Billion Trees Program with no deadline yet for completion, says a briefing note by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s department. It will take several more years to ensure “the right conditions,” wrote staff: “Tree planting at this scale takes time and careful planning.”

 

Behold, the bribery system that is Canada!:

A federally-sponsored foundation is offering cash for election coverage. The judges’ panel assigned to approve $35,000 grants is led by Margo Goodhand, a former Winnipeg Free Press editor who once urged Liberals to “stand up to the bullies” in the Conservative Party: ‘Trudeau will show us the way.’

 

What can go wrong?:

Canada must develop its own nuclear weapons program, says the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. The group yesterday released a National Policy Guide recommending Canada arm itself with nuclear warheads as protection against Russian terror and American expansionism: “The future of Canada’s freedom and the freedom of Europe depend on our ability to defend our sovereignty.”

 

Quebec is special:

Quebec’s language law reform, commonly known as Bill 96, has been included on a United States government list of trade complaints released two days before President Donald Trump is scheduled to announce new tariffs.

The annual report on trade barriers published Monday names Bill 96 as a “technical barrier to trade” because it would require generic terms and product descriptions that are part of trademarks to be translated into French.

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The wide-ranging list of trade complaints came ahead of a scheduled announcement on Wednesday, where Trump is expected to announce new tariffs that could target almost all U.S. trading partners, including Canada.

U.S. concerns about Bill 96’s impact on intellectual property owned by Americans aren’t new.

The International Trademark Association has said trademark owners could risk losing their trademarks if they comply with the law or face significant fines if they don’t when the provisions affecting trademarks come into effect in June.

During the previous administration of president Joe Biden, U.S. trade officials discussed those concerns, according to emails released under Access to Information legislation.

Those conversations, which took place between late 2022 and early 2024, included discussions about whether trade sanctions could be imposed on Canada due to the law’s impact on intellectual property.

Officials from the U.S. Trade Representative’s office also discussed their concerns in a January 2024 meeting with senior Canadian trade officials.

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The U.S. government said it also “engaged with Canada on Quebec’s Bill 96 at the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade meeting” in June 2024.

Also on the list of U.S. trade complaints about Canada are agricultural supply management — with the U.S. Trade Representative alleging that Canada is failing to meet its commitments under the renegotiated North-American free trade agreement to allow specific amounts of dairy products, eggs and poultry into the country — and Canada’s digital services tax, two issues that were also brought up during the January 2024 meeting.

 

 

But I thought that he was going to fight on the beaches and so forth:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday suggested that Canada would drop its tariffs on U.S. goods if President Donald Trump eased up on his tariffs on Canadian goods.

During an appearance with CNBC’s Ross Sorkin, he stated that the impending tariff war is “just going to hurt American jobs” and that Trump “said he was going to create jobs, create wealth, reduce inflation.”

Sorkin asked whether Ford believed it was fair that Canada has “tariffs on a whole number of products.”

Ford replied, “And we’d be willing to take those off tomorrow if he took all the tariffs off” and suggested that “China is the problem.”

The host asked why Canada wouldn’t have these negotiations before Trump imposed his tariffs.

The premier responded:

Well, we've had this conversation for over the last month. We don't want tariffs. We have another $65 billion dollars with a tariff to launch today. That's the last thing we want to do because it's just, again, it's going to hurt both countries. It's going to hurt American workers. That's the last thing I want.

Ford further explained that the Trump administration “knows that we’re willing to take these tariffs off in the next minute, if he said he’s taking their tariffs off.”

 

 

Jag has no problem with paranoid candidate:

New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh yesterday said he has “not had any circumstances” to drop candidates including one who posted anti-Semitic conspiracies on Instagram. Party headquarters declined to answer numerous questions regarding the New Democrat who claimed Jews controlled the Government of Canada: “Has the NDP had to drop any candidates so far in this race?”

 

Are we enjoying the decline yet?:

Canada should be an economic powerhouse. With the second-largest land mass in the world, a small but educated population, and an abundance of natural resources, there’s no excuse for widespread hardship in this country.

Food banks can’t keep up. Housing costs are out of reach. The middle class is being hollowed out. Small businesses are barely surviving, and young Canadians are giving up on ever owning a home or getting ahead.

This didn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of nearly a decade of government policy that actively worked against growth, against investment, and against the industries that once made Canada prosperous.

We don’t need small tweaks or a fresh slogan. We need a full course correction.

For nine years, Canada has been on the wrong track. We’ve pushed away investment through excessive regulation, long approval timelines, and an unpredictable policy environment. We’ve discouraged risk-takers and entrepreneurs. We’ve punished the industries that built our economy — energy, mining, agriculture, and manufacturing — under the banner of climate virtue and political optics.

That money could have built infrastructure, funded innovation, created jobs, and secured long-term prosperity. Instead, it’s being used to build wealth elsewhere, because other countries have learned what we’ve forgotten: Prosperity isn’t created by government programs. It’s created by unleashing the private sector and letting people do what they do best — build, grow, and create.

We’ve lost major energy projects not because we lack resources, but because we’ve created an environment where companies don’t know if they’ll ever get to build. We’ve stalled development of critical mineral projects — like the Ring of Fire in Ontario and the 29 strategic minerals under Manitoba’s soil — while other countries are moving fast to dominate global supply chains.

We talk about the climate while importing oil from countries with no environmental standards. We delay Canadian projects that could help lower global emissions, supply allies with cleaner energy, and create jobs here at home.

This isn’t serious policy. It’s ideology pretending to be progress.

**

Canada’s escalating rents and a shortage of housing have not only created challenges for young adults seeking their own homes; they are also reshaping the fundamental structure of family living arrangements, new research suggests. ...

 The study focused on single-person households, couples, couples with children, and single parents with children. The researchers analyzed these trends in connection with housing accessibility, measured through turnover rents that have been adjusted for inflation.

 Researchers discovered a strong relationship between rental prices and household formation. In urban areas where rental rates have dramatically increased, countless Canadians find themselves “stuck in place,” unable to transition into their own living spaces, the authors said.

 Increasing rental prices in Canada have led to a growing trend of young adults sharing living spaces rather than establishing independent households. While this trend can be seen across different age groups, it is especially evident among those aged 25 to 29, the report said.

  

 

The moral decline:

A United Nations committee reviewing Canada’s treatment of disabled people is calling on Ottawa to repeal medical assistance in dying for anyone without a terminal illness, a procedure referred to as the “Track 2” option for MAID.

The new report from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also recommends Canada create a federal MAID watchdog to investigate complaints, and that the country invest heavily in addressing the systemic failures that lead disabled people to apply for assisted death in the first place.

The report, released last month, says MAID is offered as state-sanctioned relief from suffering to people who are failed by governments that don’t properly fund access to health care or accessible housing. The report also points to shortcomings in the prevention of homelessness and gender-based violence, and failures to provide adequate welfare support and at-home mental-health care.

Critics of Canada’s MAID laws heralded the report as echoing their long-stated concerns that systemic hardships are forced upon disabled people while assisted death is seen as a solution to their intractable living situations. So far in the 2025 election campaign, no federal party has proposed changes to MAID.

 

 

Political multiculturalism only encourages balkanisation and disunity.

But don't take my word for it:

Immigrants and visible minorities have negative views of other groups in Canada at similar, and sometimes higher, rates as the general Canadian population, a new survey has found.

The poll by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies challenges the conventional view that prejudice in Canada follows a simple “majority vs. minority” pattern, revealing that negative sentiment is more widespread and complex. The survey, which was conducted ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, suggests that prejudice exists across multiple demographic groups and varies by factors such as age, language and immigration status.

Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies, says these results challenge how policy-makers and the public discuss discrimination.

“Too often, we assume that those who experience prejudice do not express it themselves, but the data show a more complicated reality,” he said. “If we truly want to address discrimination, we need to move beyond the idea that prejudice is always about a dominant majority versus a marginalized minority.”

The survey found that overall, Arab Canadians face the highest levels of negative sentiment, with 26 per cent of respondents reporting unfavourable views of them. Black Canadians were viewed the least negatively at 11 per cent, while 14 per cent expressed negative views of Jewish and Indigenous Canadians, and 15 per cent for Chinese Canadians.

The results also highlight that while racial and religious minorities continue to be the primary targets of prejudice, negative sentiment is not limited to one group expressing bias toward another. It is expressed across multiple ethnic and racial groups.

Twenty-two per cent of visible minorities and 20 per cent of immigrants held negative views of Jewish Canadians, compared to 11 per cent of “not visible minorities” and 12 per cent of non-immigrants.

Seventeen per cent of visible minorities and 15 per cent of immigrants expressed negative views of Indigenous people, compared to 14 per cent each for not visible minorities and non-immigrants.

For Black people, 19 per cent of visible minorities and 16 per cent of immigrants expressed negative views, compared to nine per cent of not visible minorities and 10 per cent of non-immigrants.

Chinese people were viewed negatively by 19 per cent each of visible minorities and immigrants, compared to 11 per cent of not visible minorities and 14 per cent of non-immigrants.

Arabs were the only group viewed similarly by the four categories. For immigrants and not visible minorities, 27 per cent had unfavourable views and it was one per cent lower for not immigrants and visible minorities.

Additionally, 26 per cent of South Asians held negative views of Arabs, while the same percentage of Arabs expressed negative views of South Asians.

Jedwab said these findings demonstrate that prejudice is not limited to one group targeting another, but rather exists in complex, intersecting ways across Canadian society.

 

No sugar coating.

Racism is encouraged and old hatreds are not dispensed with.

Keep your COEXIST bumper sticker.

 

 

No country for anyone: 

New research shows that Hamas has quietly dropped thousands of deaths from its Gaza war casualty figures.

Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting, said that Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update had removed thousands of people it previously listed as having been killed last year.

“Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully “identified” deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports—including 1,080 children. These “deaths” never happened. The numbers were falsified—again,” Mr Aizenberg wrote.

The casualty lists are released as PDFs by the Hamas-run Gaza ministry of health, which has been cited by international media as a source for fatality figures in the enclave since the start of the war.

A report by the Henry Jackson Society in December said that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict had probably been inflated by Hamas in order to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people.

**

Keith Siegel — an American hostage held by Hamas for more than 16 months, speaking publicly in detail for the first time — described shocking abuse in captivity, saying he lived in constant fear and personally witnessed female hostages being tortured and sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists.

In an emotional interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, the 65-year-old, originally from North Carolina — who was kidnapped by Hamas during its brutal October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and held in Gaza for 484 days — described the abuse, starvation, and psychological torment he endured in captivity.

On October 7, Siegel and his wife, Aviva, were taken from their home and dragged into Gaza in their own car, where they were held underground in Hamas-dug tunnels. 

“We were gasping for our breath,” he recalled. 

Aviva was released during a temporary ceasefire in late November 2023, but Keith remained in captivity for nearly three more months.

**

Unbelievable.

Leslie Stahl looks straight into the eyes of a Hamas hostage and ask him if Hamas really intended to starve him — or whether they just didn’t happen to have that much food. pic.twitter.com/VTUUb5IEYE

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 31, 2025