Your middle-of-the-week reminders ...
By the beginning of June, the government was ready to act again. On the night of June 3–4, tanks and heavily armed troops advanced toward Tiananmen Square, opening fire on or crushing those who again tried to block their way. Once the soldiers reached the square, a number of the few thousand remaining demonstrators there chose to leave rather than face a continuation of the confrontation. By morning the area had been cleared of protesters, though sporadic shootings occurred throughout the day. The military also forcibly moved in against protesters in several other Chinese cities, including Chengdu, but in Shanghai the mayor, Zhu Rongji (later to become the premier of China), was able to negotiate a peaceful settlement. By June 5 the military had secured complete control, though during the day there was a notable, widely reported incident involving a lone protester—who was subsequently dubbed “Tank Man”—facing down a column of tanks as it advanced on him near the square.
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The world will never forget China's 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, Taiwan's president and the top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday on the 36th anniversary of an event Beijing treats as taboo and allows no public remembrance for.
The events on and around the central Beijing square on June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire to end the student-led pro-democracy protests, are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.
Public commemorations take place in overseas cities including Taipei, where senior Taiwan government leaders often use the anniversary to criticize China and urge it to face up to what it did.
The world emboldened China by letting it get away with literal murder.
Also:
The FBI arrested Jian in connection with allegations related to Jian’s and Liu’s smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.
According to the complaint, Jian received Chinese government funding for her work on this pathogen in China. The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America—through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport—so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked.
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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.
Conservative MP Matt Strauss told the the Commons on Monday that COVID mandates were “full communism,” according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
Strauss, an emergency care doctor, said in his maiden speech to fellow MPs that “the zenith of all this top-down control came during the pandemic. The members opposite went full communism.
“They locked Canadians down in their homes, ruined weddings, funerals, Easters, proms and Christmases, closed the borders, kept mothers from children and brothers from sisters, deprived the House of its ancient rights, spent $600 billion of taxpayer money with no budget and doubled our national debt to pay healthy 16-year-olds to sit in their basement,” said the MP for Kitchener South-Hespeler.
When the pandemic started, Strauss was an assistant professor at Queen’s University’s medical faculty.
After he was dismissed, he filed a $600,000 claim against the university, alleging he was fired because he was critical of COVID mandates.
“At Queen’s University where I taught, Jane Philpott herself, one of the only two cabinet ministers to speak truth to Justin Trudeau’s power, informed me in her dean’s office that ‘the reason the administration had to harass me was that I criticized the government,’” he told the Commons. “That is a direct quote.”
It was never about a virus.
Yesterday it was the feast day of Saint Charles Lwanga, an African Christian who refused to bake the cake and was martyred for it.
But, because this was about an African Christian, the West ignored it.
Happy Pride Month, everybody!
But ... our elbows ... :
A surge in Canadian pride when Canada’s sovereignty and dignity were under assault from U.S. President Donald Trump has slumped back to normal levels after the federal election, according to a public opinion poll.
Last year — in May and again in November — 80 per cent of Canadians said they were proud to be Canadian in opinion polls, but patriotism surged this spring, climbing to 86 per cent in early March, during the lead-up to April’s federal election call.
In the month following the election of Mark Carney and the Liberal Party to a minority government, however, Canadian patriotic fervour has slipped back to its pre-election level, according to a new poll.
The national opinion survey, conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies and provided to Postmedia, also reveals significant regional differences in expressing Canadian patriotism.
“The boost in pride in being Canadian arising from the U.S. threat of annexation appears to have worn off, and the level of pride has returned to its pre-campaign levels,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies.
“The most important swings in pride were in Quebec and Alberta, where election spikes in pride have returned to lower levels post-election, and that is especially the case in Alberta,” he said.
What?
Canadians are easily distracted and lured into anti-Trumpism by a carpet-bagging interloper who can't get his government together?
I'm shocked.
But not at all.
Everything about Canada is surface.
It wasn't always that way, though.
It must be something that the rotten government said and did:
Systemic discrimination is legal in Canada. It’s just not the systemic discrimination most people talk about.
The entirely legal forms of systemic discrimination are the so-called “ameliorative programs” meant to help those whom the Charter calls “disadvantaged groups.”
The case that’s always been made for this kind of “affirmative action” — the friendly word for “progressive” discrimination — is that it’s meant to fix a historic and ongoing problem. Certain groups have suffered discrimination and this has led to a whole host of negative outcomes, everything from under-representation in certain jobs among the well-to-do and over-representation in less pleasant outcomes in regards to criminal justice, poverty and educational failure.
All of this was made legal in the Section 15(2) of the Charter back when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the premiers negotiated it in 1981 and then the same dispensation was written into various provincial human rights legislation. It makes Canada quite distinct from the United States where these programs have a much more dubious legal basis.
**
Police would gain new powers to intercept mail in transit under a bill introduced yesterday by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree. The bill repeals privacy protections at the post office that date from Confederation: “Are you concerned at all about the civil liberties of Canadians?”
(Sidebar: the proposed window-dressing that is Bill C-2 is merely to quiet Trump. All crimes in Canada are political. Don't think for a moment this bill will be used against the Mexican cartels running drugs operations in Canada, or for information-sharing which should have been a thing since always, or stopping filth being available to children, as it is in Albertan schools, or even limiting the number of bogus asylum claims. It is always about keeping the government's thumb on the gullible Canadian voter.)
**
Liberal appointee Senator Kris Wells (Alta.) yesterday said a group of “interested senators” would like to see a third attempt at regulating the internet. The Prime Minister has favoured censorship of what he called “pollution that’s online.”
**
A majority of MPs in the House of Commons have asked the government to table a budget or economic update this spring, in a first vote of significance lost by the minority Liberals.
The vote took place on June 2, with 166 in favour and 164 opposed. Budgets are typically released in the spring, but the new government said it would be delayed until the fall.
The result of the vote is non-binding, a fact highlighted by cabinet ministers who commented on the matter. The vote was on amending the House of Commons’ reply to King Charles III and his speech from the throne delivered on May 27, which outlined the government’s agenda for the parliamentary session.
The vote came about with the Conservatives proposing an amendment to the address in reply, requesting the government provide a “firm commitment” to present an economic update or budget prior to Parliament’s summer adjournment.
**
You mad, broh?:
Mark Miller VISIBLY ANGRY About Carney SNUBBING Him - Champagne GASLIGHT... https://t.co/ahg5TZDgFg via @YouTube
— L. Wayne Mathison (@WayneMathison) May 30, 2025
**
Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the federal duty to consult and engage Indigenous people on major nation-building projects does not amount to granting those communities a veto.After the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) warned Prime Minister Mark Carney he must secure Indigenous Peoples’ consent to his plans to expedite massive infrastructure projects, citing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, Fraser said the legal duty under that declaration is viewed by international experts and the current government as limited.“In most circumstances, I think it demands a very deep level of, of engagement and understanding of the rights that may be impacted. And to the extent that those rights can be accommodated, we should make every effort to. The explicit nature of a veto — so from my understanding — is it stops short of a complete veto,” Fraser said in response to the Star’s questions Tuesday.“But it certainly, in my view, heightens the demands upon government to engage fully to both understand the nature of the rights that could be impacted by decisions taken by the government, but also the heightened duty to accommodate those rights that are baked into our treaties and protected by our Constitution.”The first ministers meeting in Saskatoon ended Monday with Carney promising Indigenous leaders would be deeply involved in the development of “nation-building” projects that all premiers are keen to accelerate, and which Carney intends to fast-track with new legislation, tighter timelines for approvals, and possibly federal infrastructure money as he squares off against President Donald Trump’s tariff war.
Don't take sides.
Stand back and watch.
Also:
The RCMP and Crown prosecutors would enforce First Nations bylaws under private bills introduced yesterday in the Senate. It follows a Department of Justice report that noted “First Nations justice systems are distinct from one nation to another.”
Remember - all crimes in Canada are political:
Canadian citizens who have recently served in Israel’s army are being quietly investigated for war crimes, according to the Toronto Star.
Canadian media reported on Tuesday that individuals involved in combating Iranian-backed terror in the war triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack are now facing criminal investigations. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are reportedly questioning Canadian citizens – both active-duty and reservist members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – regarding allegations of committing crimes against humanity during their service.
However, there has been no official announcement to that effect, and it was the Toronto Star that first broke the news on Tuesday. The war crimes inquiry, labelled “structural investigations,” could potentially lead to indictments. The investigation was opened last year, and is being exposed only now.
We can’t stop the flood of stolen vehicles leaving Canadian ports, close down Chinese police stations throughout our country, or find the leaker of classified CSIS reports but we’re going to run an international investigation in an active war zone? Consider me skeptical. https://t.co/moWWcMGIML
— Andrew Kirsch (@AS_Kirsch) June 3, 2025
Speaking of laws:
The wife and children of Egyptian illegal alien Mohamad Soliman, the terrorist who firebombed Americans peacefully walking on the street in downtown Boulder Sunday, have been taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and will be deported soon.
Meanwhile, back in Canada:
Police said Monday that officers issued a warrant for Husnain Javed, 21, of Toronto, who’s wanted on charges of failing to comply with a release order and mischief under $5000.
Back in 2024, Javed was charged with two counts of possession of property obtained by crime following two carjackings months apart in North York. He was charged after police alleged they recovered stolen vehicles on two occasions — on Sept. 22, 2023 and Jan. 5, 2024.
Javed was released from custody with conditions. Police alleged that Javed removed his GPS ankle bracelet.
**
The fact that Aman Aman and Digvijay Digvijay — both of Delta, B.C. — were captured out west and flown back to the GTA where Peel Regional Police officers charged them Sunday was already a major development in the May 16 slaying of 51-year-old Harjeet Dhadda.
But public sector sources told The Toronto Sun that each of these men — from the northern Indian province of Haryana — were in Canada on education visas and have been so for two years. It’s not known why they travelled to the GTA and were allegedly here when this shocking murder occurred near Pearson International Airport.
**
The identity of the woman who was fatally stabbed in Pickering, Ontario, by a 14-year-old suspect was revealed by the police on Tuesday evening.
Durham Regional Police Service identified the victim as 83-year-old Eleanor Doney. The victim is reported to be a retired kindergarten teacher who lived at home near Lynn Heights Drive and Fairport Road with her husband.
After watching video footage of the area, police said the woman was outside of her house when a suspect approached her. The 14-year-old allegedly walked toward Doney and began stabbing her multiple times in broad daylight. Police have so far found no connection between the suspect and the victim. There was a brief encounter and then the woman was attacked. She was stabbed “multiple times,” police said.
Where are those doctors and engineers we were promised?:
By overseeing one of the most dramatic immigration surges of modern times, Canada has cratered housing affordability, kneecapped productivity and concealed the true state of its economic growth, according to a new profile by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). ...
Canada’s most recent survey — published just last week — focuses in particular on the issues of housing affordability and worker productivity, two areas in which Canada now ranks among the worst in the developed world.
And in both instances, the OECD fingers record-high immigration as having made the problems worse.
“Rapid population growth has exacerbated previous housing affordability challenges,” reads the report, adding the blunt recommendation that “housing supply should keep pace with immigration targets.”
Also:
Cabinet yesterday denied it lost track of millions of illegal immigrants but would not divulge its own figures. The comments followed one MP’s request for a comprehensive deportation plan: “How is the government to ensure they will leave?”
And:
The National Citizens Coalition is calling on Canadian employers to prioritize hiring domestic workers as youth unemployment reaches its highest level in two decades and immigration levels continue to surge.
Alexander Brown, communications director for the coalition, said federal inaction on immigration reform has worsened employment prospects for young Canadians, who are now facing the worst summer job market in a generation.
"Canadians under 34 are losing hope, with 89% believing homeownership is now only for the rich," said Brown, citing an Ipsos poll. "Now they face a job market flooded by temporary foreign workers in retail and restaurants—sectors that used to employ youth starting out."
Government data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, over 817,000 newcomers entered Canada across permanent and temporary categories. The coalition argues this influx is straining housing, wages, and job availability.
Despite promises to reduce immigration, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program continues to grow. The number of TFWs in restaurants has risen 634% since 2016, while retail has seen a 456% increase. Brown said these changes have effectively sidelined young Canadians.
“The government’s failure to act is locking out a generation,” he said. “Businesses must step up and hire Canadian youth rather than relying on imported labour.”
This year's forest fires are, so far, so bad that the smoke is drifting even into Europe:
Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated “very unhealthy” Tuesday.
The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe.
The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday.
Biden has a lot to answer for:
The Biden-era FBI concealed the extent of its anti-Catholic operation, which then-FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress was limited to a single 2023 memo, newly revealed bureau documents show.
The FBI files were obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and shared first with The Washington Times.
The files show that the agency was engaging in a bureauwide investigation of “Radical Traditionalist Catholics,” but Mr. Wray and other top FBI officials characterized it as a one-off memo.
South Korea has elected a liberal president.
The chances are that he will be pro-North Korea.
New South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office Wednesday with a vow to end the “politics of division” and carry out a “pragmatic” approach to governing after riding a wave of anxiety about the economy and political instability to victory in an election that will have broad ramifications for Seoul’s relations with Tokyo, Washington and Pyongyang.
In an inauguration speech before lawmakers and officials from his ruling Democratic Party and the opposition at the National Assembly, Lee, 61, pledged “to make hope bloom on deep and great wounds and to ... create a completely new country,” adding that he would be “a president for everyone.”
Lee, who was the front-runner for the entire 60-day presidential campaign, won 49% of the vote, besting his conservative rival, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party (PPP), by 8 percentage points in Tuesday’s snap election, which was held exactly six months after then-President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law only to rescind it hours later.
Speaking of graying countries:
Japan's fertility rate declined in 2024 for the ninth consecutive year, reaching another historical low that underscores the immense challenge facing the government as it attempts to reverse the trend in one of the world’s most aged societies.
The total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is likely to have over her childbearing years — fell to 1.15, down from 1.2 the previous year, and marking the lowest rate in records going back to 1947, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday. The trend was particularly notable in Tokyo, where the rate was below 1 for the second year in a row.
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000. Deaths totaled around 1.61 million, leading to a net population decline of roughly 919,000 and extending the run of annual drops in the country’s population to 18 years. The data exclude migration.
The data underscore the urgency of the government’s recent push to boost fertility. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has rolled out a range of policies aimed at easing the financial burden on families, including expanded child-related subsidies and tuition-free high school education. The government has also guaranteed full wage compensation for some couples who both take parental leave and improved working conditions for childcare and nursing staff.
These measures build on the initiatives by Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, who pledged to raise per-child government support to levels comparable to Sweden, where 3.4% of GDP is devoted to family benefits. At the time, Kishida warned that Japan could "lose its capacity to function as a society” unless bold action was taken.
The crisis of rapidly declining birth rates remains unresolved, a health ministry spokesperson said, citing the shrinking population of young women and the trend toward later marriage and childbirth among key contributing factors.
The continued decline in births is renewing concern over the future of Japan’s social security system. The nation’s public pension program is under increasing strain, with fewer contributors and a growing number of recipients. Over the past two decades, the number of people paying into the system has fallen by around 3 million, while beneficiaries have increased by nearly 40%, according to a separate ministry report.
Japan’s soaring social security costs are placing even greater pressure on public finances, where the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at the highest among advanced economies. For fiscal year 2025, social welfare spending totaled ¥38.3 trillion ($266.3 billion), accounting for one-third of the national budget.
The labor market is also expected to remain under pressure. If current trends continue, Japan could face a shortage of 6.3 million workers in 2030, according to an estimate by Persol Research and Consulting.
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