Mid-Week Post

Your median point of the work-week ...




In Thailand, all twelve boys and their coach have been rescued from the treacherous conditions of a now-flooded cave.

We don't sing enough praises for rescuers.




Trump is absolutely correct in demanding that NATO members pay the two percent of their GDP in defense, as is required of them.

Justin, the groper and slacker, feels quite differently:

Canada has no plans to double its defence budget, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted Tuesday, despite continued calls from Donald Trump for all NATO countries to meet agreed-upon targets for defence spending.

Trudeau called the military spending target — 2% of GDP, agreed to by all NATO allies at the 2014 summit in Wales — “an easy shorthand” but also a “limited tool” to measure a country’s commitment to the alliance.

(Sidebar: no, stupid, it is a requirement.)

“There are always perspectives on doing more, and that’s fine, that’s an important conversation to have,” Trudeau said Tuesday during a visit with Canadian troops at the Adazi military base outside Riga.

(Sidebar: like skipping off from the fight with ISIS and then planting a few soldiers in Iraq to give the appearance of actually doing something?)




As these illegal migrants illegally entered the country, it is quite acceptable to call them illegal instead of inventing a euphemism that will poorly disguise what they actually are:

On Monday, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen publicly rebuked Ontario’s new government for using the term “illegal border crossers” in a press release.

“I’m very concerned by Premier (Doug) Ford and (provincial) minister (Lisa) MacLeod really making statements that are difficult to understand when it comes to how they’re describing asylum seekers,” Hussen told reporters in Halifax.

The minister was referring to a statement in which Ford blamed Ontario’s housing crisis on Liberal government policies that “encouraged illegal border crossers to come into our country.”

The spat speaks to an intractable political fight in Canada: Whether the approximately 50 people per day streaming into Canada over the U.S. border are “illegal” or “irregular” migrants.

The Immigration and Refugee Board uses the term “irregular” when referring to the more than 23,000 refugee claimants who have walked into Canada since January 2017 without first passing through an official port of entry. The RCMP, meanwhile, prefers the neutral term “interceptions.”

The official CBC language guide favours “illegal border crossers,” calling it “bureaucratic jargon” to use the term “irregular” favoured by Ottawa.

“Some refugee activists have insisted that expressions such as ‘illegal’ border crossings should be banned from our journalism. The modifier ‘illegal’ in this context is accurate and clear, and it instantly helps our audience understand the story,” reads the guide.

Also:

Following his first official meeting with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained publicly with a condescending smile that his provincial counterpart does not understand Canada’s obligations under the Refugee Convention. Just prior to the meeting, Ford’s team claimed the federal government was to blame for the large number of refugee claimants who have arrived in Ontario and pushed Toronto’s housing services to their limits. While he may have felt ambushed by the new Ontario premier, Trudeau should not lecture others about the Refugee Convention. He is misrepresenting the obligations found in this historic treaty.

The Refugee Convention commits state parties to protect refugees, but the term “protect” is more ambiguous than implied by the prime minister. While in many cases it may mean that claimants can enter and benefit from due process in their claim for refugee status, the obligations are not unequivocal and they depend on several factors.

The illegal entry of this latest wave of refugee claimants has worried many Canadians and has led to a politicized debate about use of the term “illegal” (which is not the same as “criminal”). Yet this aspect is not paramount from a protection perspective because all refugee claimants can be turned back to a safe country according to the Refugee Convention. For now, the U.S. is still considered a safe country according to Canadian law, despite controversial policies adopted by the White House.

It's just money:

The Bank of Canada raised interest rates on Wednesday as expected and signaled more rate hikes to come, saying that while mounting trade tensions with the United States were a concern, their impact on growth and inflation looked modest so far.

**

The Effects on Entrepreneurship of Increasing Provincial TopPersonal Income Tax Rates in Canada, released Tuesday, looked at 30 years of Canadian data and noted a declining number of new businesses starting up over that time as a percentage of all businesses.

The study concluded that the climbing top tax rates limited rewards and thus discouraged entrepreneurship.

(Sidebar: well, obviously.)

 

**

A January poll by Abacus Data found that 53 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador residents expect the province to go bankrupt sometime in the next few years, the most likely outcome a federal bailout.

The province is facing a perfect storm of geographic, demographic, fiscal and economic problems, and as the walls close in for Newfoundland and Labrador, the fiscal choices get more and more desperate.  ...

But this isn’t just a problem for Newfoundland and Labrador. The government says it can’t raise taxes enough to pay the bills, and none of the elected leaders are willing to cut spending enough to balance the books. Instead they are banking on financial help from Ottawa, which means that Newfoundland and Labrador’s problems are Canada’s problems. And those problems are going to cost somebody billions of dollars.

**

As noted by BNN Bloomberg, “Twenty-eight per cent of respondents to a new survey, which was conducted on behalf of MNP from June 15 to June 19, said another rate increase will propel them toward bankruptcy, while 42 per cent say if rates rise much more they’d fear for their financial well-being. While both readings were down modestly from the previous quarterly survey, that’s not lessening the alarm.”

BNN Bloomberg even referred to many Canadians as being on the “brink of financial disaster.”

 



It's just a bad photo op:

A report in the Globe & Mail says Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen gave a briefing on illegal border crossings at The Suya Spot restaurant, which is allegedly tied to the Black Axe criminal syndicate.

If the inquiry was open and fair, why are its runners attempting to silence a lawyer who left it?:

Breen Ouellette, who went public last week about his decision to resign, says he received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer representing the inquiry on Friday.

“We hereby demand that you stop making any public or private comments about the inquiry. We also require a signed written statement from you acknowledging that you will not make any public or private comments about the inquiry,” the letter reads. “Otherwise, the inquiry reserves the right to seek all remedies available to it.”

In an interview, Ouellette said he believes the “self-interest of the commissioners” has led them to try and silence him.

“They don’t want to be fired and replaced with new people,” he said. “They don’t want to be saddled with the public belief that the national inquiry has failed.”

The Ford government will clean up Kathleen Wynne's expensive messes:

The Doug Ford government is standing by its decision to axe a controversial wind farm despite a warning the move could end up costing $100 million.

PC Government House Leader Todd Smith said the White Pines Wind Farm under construction in eastern Ontario was never welcomed by the local community, which he represents.

“We have a company that is in an unwilling host community,” Smith said Wednesday. “It’s not welcome in that community, never has been. The community has spoken overwhelmingly, and now the Ontario government is backing the people of Prince Edward County.”

The company, wpd Canada, was given approval to build nine wind turbines despite the local opposition.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said he finds it extraordinary that the Tories, who sat through the cancelled gas plant hearings, would repeat the mistake made by the Liberals.

“They’ve opened the people of this province up to a liability – the number that’s being bandied about is $100 million … (They’re) frankly, doing exactly what the Liberals did, doing a favour for one of their members, in this case Todd Smith,” Tabuns said. “Putting that risk for that bill on people’s plates is irresponsible.”

The previous government cancelled two contracted gas plants, slated for the 905 GTA, at a cost estimated by the auditor general of about $1 billion.

**

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has confirmed plans to replace Hydro One’s board of directors and the retirement of the company’s CEO.

Ford made the announcement at Queen’s Park on Wednesday afternoon during a scrum with reporters.

“They’re gone, they’re done. They’re done. We’re going to turn a new corner,” Ford said.

While the Ben Levin-designed sexual education program is technically scrapped, why not force this topic onto the parents as it ought to be?:

Ontario’s education minister says the sex-ed curriculum taught to children in the coming school year will be an older version, not the controversial updated program brought in by the previous government.

Lisa Thompson says ministry staff are working to inform school boards of the decision to revert to the curriculum that was in place before 2015.

Thompson says the ministry will be moving quickly to consult parents on how to update the curriculum and details on that process will be coming soon.

Premier Doug Ford promised to repeal and replace the controversial sex-ed curriculum when he ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership and repeated the pledge during the spring election.

Trump should withdraw from the UN and never look back:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday refuted the U.N.’s "unnecessary, politically biased, and factually wrong" report on poverty in the United States.

Writing at National Review, Haley hit back at the report’s conclusions by pointing out America’s charitable efforts, safety net, and growing economy. The report’s alarming claims included the contention that millions of Americans live in "Third World conditions" and that the U.S. "criminalizes" being poor, but Haley said the accusations are motivated by politics rather than facts.

"When there are many dozens of countries where poverty consumes most of the population, and where corrupt governments deliberately make the problem much worse, why would the U.N. study poverty in America?" Haley asked. "The answer is politics."

To wit:

These days about four-fifths of all extremely poor people live in the countryside, and just over half of them live in sub-Saharan Africa (see chart 2). Africa is as studded with examples of failure as Asia is filled with success stories. Look at Nigeria, says Kaushik Basu, an economist at Cornell University. In 1985 the share of Nigerians below the international poverty line was estimated to be 45%—a lower proportion than in China or Indonesia. Now Nigeria has a much higher share of poor people than either country.  

But why let facts get in the way?




North Korea is still a totalitarian Third-World hellhole still bent on extorting other countries and frightening its own nationals:

Israel turned down a North Korean offer in 1999 to halt weapons sales and missile technology transfers to the Jewish state’s enemies, including Iran, in return for $1 billion in cash, over fears the U.S. would be against the deal, a former North Korean diplomat and defector has revealed.

** 

There is "very clear evidence of humanitarian need" in North Korea, the top U.N. aid official has said during the first visit of its kind to the isolated country since 2011.

U.N. Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock arrived in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Monday.

He met Kim Yong Nam, the nominal head of state and president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, on Wednesday, the North's state media said.

Lowcock posted a video online outlining his observations after traveling to several areas in the southwest of the country.

"One of the things we've seen is very clear evidence of humanitarian need here," he said in the video, posted to his official Twitter account and the U.N. website.

"More than half the children in rural areas, including the places we've been, have no clean water, contaminated water sources."

**

 

Some North Koreans are reportedly calling family members who have defected to China, asking them to reconsider their plans to enter South Korea, according to a source in the country. The reports may indicate that the Ministry of State Security (MSS) is trying to persuade defectors to return to North Korea, citing the improved inter-Korean relationship.

** 

South Korea said on Tuesday it has decided to scrap an annual government mobilization drill this year as part of a suspended joint exercise with the United States but will carry out its own drills to maintain readiness.The ministers of safety and defense made the announcement at a media briefing on Tuesday. The drill, called the Ulchi exercises, usually takes place every August in tandem with the joint Freedom Guardian military drill with the United States.

(Kamsahamnida)





Though the school is a private one and Japan does have a history of brutalising Christians, that has never stopped ignoramuses from proving how irrational they are:

If movies have taught me anything, it's never open the black sarcophagus:

Egyptian archeologists have unearthed a massive black granite sarcophagus from an underground tomb in Alexandria — and no one knows exactly what’s inside it.

According to Ayman Ashmawy, an official at the ministry of antiquities, the sarcophagus was found in a hidden tomb five metres below the ground. Archeologists also found a large alabaster head, which may belong to the owner of the tomb.

The sarcophagus is 185 cm tall, 265 cm long and 165 cm wide, and is believed to be the largest ever found in Alexandria, a city on the northern coast of Egypt.

Beyond its size, the discovery is significant because the coffin is still sealed.

For A Monday

The story so far ...




The death toll due to floods in western Japan has risen to one hundred and twenty-six:

The death toll from torrential rains in western Japan reached 126 on Monday, and 86 people were still missing after massive flooding and landslides destroyed homes and displaced tens of thousands of people.

As of late Monday, 47 deaths were reported in Hiroshima Prefecture, followed by 36 in Okayama and 25 in Ehime.

Rescue operations by Self-Defense Forces personnel and others continued in disaster-hit areas, while the Meteorological Agency warned that landslides and flooding continue to pose a danger.

The number of casualties is expected to rise further as officials assess the damage in affected areas. 

Many people are believed to be stranded in their homes where roads have been cut off by the flooding.

Four more boys have been rescued from a cave in Thailand:

Four more of the youth soccer players trapped for over two weeks in a flooded cave in northern Thailand were brought out on Monday, an official said, bringing to eight the number extracted in the ongoing high-stakes rescue operation.

“The eighth person is out and the operation is done for today,” said Sitthichai Klangpattana, flag officer to Thailand’s Navy SEAL commander. “Four boys were brought out today.”

He didn’t comment on the health of the boys or how well the operation had gone. After Monday’s rescue effort, four boys and their coach were still inside the labyrinth cave.

Whatever one does, don't call people who sneak across the border illegally "illegal border crossers":

As noted by the CP, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen is attacking the Ontario government for calling illegal border crossings what they are: Illegal.

“Last week a spokesman for Premier Doug Ford issued a statement describing asylum seekers as “illegal border crossers,” saying the influx has resulted in a housing crisis in Toronto and “threats to services that Ontario families depend on.

Ahmed Hussen, the federal minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, told a news conference today in Halifax that he’s “very concerned” by the comments made by Ford and Lisa MacLeod, the provincial cabinet minister responsible for immigration. Hussen, himself an immigrant from Somalia, says Canada has a legal obligation under national and international law to give a fair hearing to refugee claimants.”

 
Ahmed Hussen also doesn't like it when you ask him about mutilating young girls. He hates that.





The current prime minister of Canada is an unqualified, pro-communist, divisive, incompetent liar and groper. As with the recent Ontario election when Doug Ford appeared the better option compared to Kathleen Wynne, Andrew Scheer doesn't have to wade through tired re-treads of past Tory ads. He just has to not be Justin Trudeau:

As we move into the sprint toward the 2019 general election, Liberal attacks on Conservative leader Andrew Scheer won’t be a carbon copy of the “He’s Just Not Ready” ad the Conservatives used to attack Trudeau in 2015. But it is likely the Liberals will play up the need for continuity and experience in the Age of Trump. The result may be shades of the campaigns run against Trudeau and his predecessor, Stéphane Dion, whom the Conservatives deemed “not worth the risk” in 2008.

We are set to witness a race to the centre between the Liberals and Conservatives. A mix of conviction and a desire to galvanize the political base — that is, to raise money — has seen the parties operating at opposite ends of the political spectrum. That is likely to end.

In a speech to his party’s convention in Halifax next month, Scheer is expected to portray his party as one of the “centre-right.”

Meanwhile, Trudeau is going to have to turn down the volume on his beloved identity politics, in part because the allegations levelled against him of unwanted touching spoil the wedge the Liberals had been planning on gender, which would have portrayed the prime minister as a proto-feminist in contrast to Scheer, whom they would cast as a far-right social-conservative extremist. The facts of the matter are still murky but there is enough ambiguity to make it risky for Trudeau to talk too much about gender equality and a zero-tolerance approach for sexual misbehaviour.

The smarter course will be to return focus to the aspirational middle class who elected him in the first place, and to talk about the issues that matter to them. Apologies to marginalized groups, compensation payments to terrorists and, unfortunately, reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians do not rank high among them.

(Sidebar: would this be the middle-class that Justin screwed over? THAT middle-class?)





Oh, Justin won't do a thing like that!:

A top Jewish organization is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use his trip to Latvia to push back against the glorification of Nazi collaborators in that country as well as attempts to deny the nation’s role in the Holocaust.

Premier Ford wouldn't have to make such cuts if Ontario teachers' unions didn't consistently vote Liberal:

Ontario’s new Tory government has cancelled a $100-million fund earmarked for school repairs this year, a cut that comes as a result of Doug Ford’s campaign promise to scrap the province’s cap-and-trade system.

School boards were notified on July 3 that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund would be eliminated and that only work contracted on or before that date would be covered.

Oh, this must be embarrassing to British Prime Minister Theresa May:

Prime Minister Theresa May’s foreign minister and Brexit negotiator quit on Monday in protest at her plans to keep close trade ties with the European Union after Britain leaves the bloc, stirring rebellion in her party’s ranks. 


Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the face of Brexit for many, resigned just hours after Brexit minister David Davis, emboldening some in her Conservative Party to mull a plot to unseat her less than nine months before Britain exits in March. 

Who conned who?:

Either a war or a quiet capitulation garlanded by addlebrained journalists and academics will end badly enough for us, for the 28,500 troops we have not yet extricated from Korea, and for their families. For Koreans, the Trump-Kim Pact is on course to become a historically determinative catastrophe. The sooner Trump’s cabinet convinces him that Pyongyang is reneging and making him look like a sucker and a weakling, the better off we’ll all be. Not that diplomacy itself is a bad idea, of course, but the grotesque way in which we conducted it—and larded praise on, and thus legitimized and emboldened, the most brutal despot of our time—certainly was. 

As I, too, have been saying ...


(Kamsahamnida)




Religion has survived not because its adherents reject science and reason and its detractors shout about their scientism and how dreadful they find the mere idea of God but because (well-grounded ones, anyway) religion gives its believers purpose and moral clarity that juvenile rebellion against the Almighty does not:

This is why religion has survived not only the progress of science, but also the attacks of atheists. Their arrows miss their mark, and as the dangers of religious extremism fall down the list of cultural preoccupations, so too does movement atheism.

Sunday Post

Four boys have been rescued so far from a cave in Thailand:

Rescuers in northern Thailand on Sunday extracted four members of a youth soccer team from the cave where they had been trapped for more than two weeks, part of an ongoing operation to rescue the 12 boys and their coach. The head of the operation said it was going "better than expected."

The operation to rescue the boys, ages 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach by having them dive out of the flooded cave began Sunday morning, with expert divers entering the sprawling complex for the complicated and dangerous mission.

Shortly before 8 p.m., Thai navy SEALs, who are taking part in the rescue operation, reported on their official Facebook page that four had been rescued.

Chiang Rai acting Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, who is heading the operation, said the four boys had been taken to a hospital.

"The operation went much better than expected," Narongsak said at a news conference, adding that the healthiest were taken out first. He said the next phase of the operation would start in 10-20 hours.

Oh, dear:

Searches continued Sunday night for victims of heavy rainfall that hammered southern Japan for the third straight day, as the government put the death toll at 48, with 28 others presumed dead.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the whereabouts of 92 other people were unknown, mostly in the southern area of Hiroshima prefecture. More than 100 reports of casualties had been received, such as cars being swept away, he said. Some 40 helicopters were out on rescue missions.

“Rescue efforts are a battle with time,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. “The rescue teams are doing their utmost.”

Today in history:

2000: Jo Myong Rok, a senior North Korean military leader, visited Washington to meet President Bill Clinton following positive signs in Pyongyang’s talks with South Korea. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang shortly thereafter. She met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to try and expand the Agreed Framework and prepare a potential visit by President Bill Clinton. But the talks ultimately failed.

2002: The Agreed Framework set up under Clinton broke down. President George W. Bush, who took a harder-line stance on Pyongyang than his predecessor, accused North Korea of cheating by secretly pursuing a uranium enrichment program. North Korea accused the United States of backing out of its end of the deal.

2003: Following the collapse of the Agreed Framework and North Korea’s withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, China hosted the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Russia for semiregular rounds of talks with North Korea known as the six-party talks. Throughout the talks, Pyongyang insisted it would not give up its nuclear weapons program.

2006: North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, resparking the simmering diplomatic crisis.

2009: The six-party talks collapsed following an impasse over granting international inspectors permission to visit sites in North Korea. Despite the lack of progress on that front, former President Bill Clinton visited North Korea and successfully negotiated the release of two imprisoned American journalists.

To wit:

President Trump arrived here Sunday night ahead of a potentially historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the first meeting between the leaders of two countries that have been sworn enemies for almost seven decades.  

**

President Trump on Tuesday said the people of North Korea “love” the country’s leader Kim Jong Un despite previously condemning the country’s human rights abuses.

**

New satellite photos show that Kim Jong Un is continuing to develop his nuclear weapons program, and U.S. intelligence sources say they believe North Korea has increased its production of nuclear fuel at multiple sites. This wasn’t supposed to happen after the Donald Trump-Kim summit last month in Singapore.

**

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un has appealed to China's Xi Jinping to help end sanctions against Pyongyang following his landmark summit with US President Donald Trump, a Japanese newspaper reported on Sunday, citing multiple unnamed sources in the two countries.

**

Just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departed North Korea after two days of nuclear negotiations, North Korea sharply criticized the U.S. team's attitude as “regrettable,” and accused the U.S. of making unilateral demands of denuclearization.

But Pompeo refuses to surrender:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brushed off North Korean charges that he used “gangster-like” diplomacy in negotiations in Pyongyang, saying on Sunday after meeting his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that he would continue to pursue denuclearization talks with North Korea.

As one can see, Trump is not doing anything dissimilar from previous administrations. Unless he is planning on a new tactic, one that involves sanctions and punishments that actually hurt both China and North Korea and  - more importantly - affect regime change, this is bound to drag on.


(Kamasahamnida)





As it has been established that PM Stanley Groper Justin Trudeau did, in fact, grab a female reporter and noted that had she worked for a larger publication he might not have done so (that passes for an apology these days) and then, when all attempts at denial and deflection failed, tried to make the ugly incident a "teachable" moment, the story moves onto a next phase, the one where Justin's water-carriers in the press and in the Cabinet rush to defend where they once tried to deny.

In progress:

Federal Employment Minister Patty Hajdu voiced her support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday over an 18-year-old groping allegation made against him — making her the first member of his cabinet to directly address the controversy publicly.

Hajdu said she stands by Trudeau's response to the alleged incident.

On Friday, Trudeau told CBC Radio's Metro Morning he apologized for making the woman in question feel uncomfortable, but maintained he didn't recall any "negative interactions" himself.

"I'm actually proud of a prime minister that understands that you can believe that you didn't have negative interactions with someone — I think we can think about this in all kinds of different situations — and find out later that someone perceived that interaction in a completely different way, and reflect on how our behaviour and the way that we make our way in the world impacts other people," Hajdu told CBC Radio's The House on Friday.

(Sidebar: this b!#ch right here.)

Way to fall on your sword for this pig, Patty. Did you feel that way when members of your party were accused of sexual harassment? Aren't all women supposed to be believed? When women are repulsed by being groped even by the drunken frat boy son of Pierre, is that just a matter of subjective reasoning?

Justin is not the hero here nor can he teach anyone anything other than liberals (big L or not) will gladly dispense with even their own ground rules when it suits them.




A former Green Party member is on trial in Germany for denying the Holocaust:

Monika Schaefer spent years as a warden at Jasper National Park.

She was an environmental activist, a spokesperson for the Jasper Environmental Association.

She was a musician, a violin and viola teacher who performed all over Jasper and Hinton. She was a perennial candidate for the Green party, running in federal elections in 2006, 2008 and 2011.

But this Monday, Schaefer went on trial in a Munich courtroom. She’s charged with six counts of Volksverhetzung.

The literal translation is sedition. In German law, it’s more accurately defined as incitement of hate. It’s the term German authorities use to prosecute those who deny the Holocaust.

(Sidebar: this Monika Schaefer.)


I would hate to see this woman and her vile ideology elevate her to the level of a free speech hero. There is nothing heroic or honest about her Holocaust denial.

In fact, having her freely promote her nonsense puts that issue and other issues of free expression and the unfortunate prevalence of genocide denigration into the forefront, something that might not have happened had she been silenced.

#Negative Interactions

The woman who said that Justin Trudeau groped her stands by her story:

A former newspaper reporter confirms Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized to her the day after what she says was an inappropriate encounter at a B.C. music festival almost two decades ago.

Rose Knight also confirms she is the reporter that was referred to in an editorial 18 years ago in the Creston Valley Advance that said she was groped by Trudeau while covering the event.

She says in a statement that appears to come from her email account that she did not take the matter any further at the time and doesn't plan to do so now.

"I enjoyed my career as a reporter, but it ended a long time ago. I avoided issuing a statement earlier out of concern for my and my family's privacy," she wrote Friday. "The incident referred to in the editorial did occur as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day.

"Beyond this statement, I will not be providing any further details or information. The debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement."

Knight said she has never had contact with Trudeau again.

(Sidebar: I don't blame her.)

 

Trudeau said Friday that he respects Knight's decision but remembers the encounter with her differently.

"I'm confident that I did not act inappropriately but I think the essence of this is that people can experience interactions differently," he said after an announcement in Calgary.

(Sidebar: as in she was offended and violated but he wasn't and will never apologise for that would be beneath him.)

I am sure Justin, the third-rate drama queen, will make this about himself. Narcissists do that.

Friday Post

Quite a bit happening ...




The driver of a truck believed to have caused the deaths of a local hockey team and their supporters faces twenty-nine charges:

The 29 criminal charges laid against the semi driver in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash can’t change what happened on April 6 but they are an important part of the ongoing healing process, says the father of a Broncos player who died in the collision.

On Friday, three months to the day after the Broncos bus tragedy, RCMP announced that Jaskirat Sidhu, a 29-year-old man from Calgary, has been charged with 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm. Sidhu was arrested Friday without incident at his residence in Calgary. He was remanded and is scheduled to appear next week in Saskatchewan court; the specific location has not been finalized, RCMP said.

Charges are dismissed against a man accused of molesting girls at the West Edmonton Mall:

Soleiman Hajj Soleiman was arrested in February 2017 after several teenagers reported being touched by a man in the West Edmonton Mall waterpark. All charges against him, six counts of sexual assault and six counts of sexual contact with a child, were dropped in a provincial court ruling Friday morning.

Justice Joyce Lester said that while something did happen at the pool, there was not enough reliable evidence to convict Soleiman.

(Sidebar: this Joyce Lester.)

This is what happens when judges are appointed and not elected.




No doubt still furious that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has refused to pay for the masses of unvetted migrants allowed in by the federal government, unrepentant groper prime minister Justin Trudeau takes a familiar line and repeats it:

Hours after he met with a premier who campaigned successfully on a populist platform, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told supporters he wouldn't let a worldwide trend of populism get in the way of his 2019 campaign.

(Sidebar: populism is defined as being a champion of the people as opposed to the elite. Is Justin saying that he is the latter? He certainly behaves that way.) 

At a rally in Brampton, Ont., Thursday evening, Trudeau was greeted with smiles, applause, and a lineup for selfies — a decidedly different atmosphere than his meeting earlier in the day with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

There are no selfies with Yazidi rape victims.

The two leaders met at the Ontario legislature at Queen's Park, where they clashed on issues including asylum seekers and carbon pricing.

The prime minister said after the meeting that he outlined Canada's refugee obligations to Ford, and also promised that a carbon price will be imposed on Ontario and residents of the province will receive the proceeds.

(Sidebar:  about that Justin, even the Canadian government's website claims that not having a protected status in the US is not grounds for claiming refugee status. The muzzling of CBSA agents, the fraud, the retention of citizenship for known terrorists and the gross inefficiencies aside, I suggest that you didn't and couldn't explain anything to Ford other than how you plan on extorting him with the carbon tax you know g-d- well will be scrapped in no time.)

Ford's office said Thursday that Trudeau's government is responsible for what it called a migrant "mess" by encouraging asylum seekers to cross the border into Canada.

(Sidebar: this tweet.)

In Brampton, the prime minister told supporters that the federal Conservative Party has been "emboldened" by campaigns elsewhere in the world that "divide" people against each other, but that negative campaigning coupled with nationalism and populism isn't a positive for Canada.

(Sidebar: would this be the hatred of Alberta, the denial that Canada has any core identity, rewarding an unrepentant terrorist, the baffling antipathy towards veterans and special-needs children, the comparison of Mediterranean immigrants with known ISIS rapists and the general scumminess you have exuded since being alive that isn't "positive" for Canada, the airport you ignore for China's "basic dictatorship"?)

"I'm looking forward to putting our vision of an inclusive Canada up against our opponent," said Trudeau.

(Sidebar: what opponent would that be, Justin?)

"Differences are a source of strength, never a source of weakness. That is what our advantage is as Canadians."

(Sidebar: because no other country has ethnic diversity and certainly no other party uses it as well as you do, you divisive grabby-Sam.) 

Speaking of carbon taxes:

Ontario residents, and not the newly elected Progressive Conservative government, will receive the proceeds of a carbon price imposed on the province by the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.

Trudeau made the comments moments after he met with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has already begun the process of scrapping the province's cap-and-trade system — in defiance of Ottawa's insistence that all provinces put a price on greenhouse gas emissions.

The federal government has said it will "backstop" any province that doesn't have a system in place, and has told provinces they must have submitted details of a carbon pricing plan by Sept. 1. But Ottawa has for months hinted it could return hundreds of millions in revenues it will raise directly to taxpayers, and not to governments that oppose its plan.

"Obviously, it's better if we can work collaboratively with the provinces," Trudeau said Thursday.

That's extortion, @$$hole, and it won't work.

Carbon is not a pollutant and the tax is not "revenue-neutral" nor is it equitable. It is a way to line governmental coffers with money under the guise of conserving the environment. The taxes collected by Wynne's government went to bolster its massive "green" energy programs with "smart thermostats" and "green" housing retrofits. These are no more much-needed social programs than switching to light brand cigarettes is quitting smoking.




If Trump was serious about de-fanging China's lap dog, North Korea, it would raise those tariffs a little higher:

A U.S.-China trade fight resulting in duties on $34 billion worth of each other's imports was seen dragging on for a potentially prolonged period, as Washington and Beijing flexed their muscles with no sign of negotiations to ease tensions.

Friday marked the start of the U.S. duties that were promptly met with retribution by China, as Beijing accused the United States of triggering the "largest-scale trade war."

From the same party that hates Trump's "unfair" immigration policies:

Otto Frank wrote in his 1941 letter to his friend Nathan Straus that he had filed an application at the American consulate in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam in 1938.

However, he also mentioned that “all the papers have been destroyed there,” because on May 14, 1940, while the Frank family was still on a waiting list for possible visas, the American consulate was devastated during German bombardment and all papers were lost.

Even without the loss of their visa application, it would have been difficult for the Franks to immigrate to the United States. With hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge in the U.S. each year by the time war broke out in 1939, Washington was issuing fewer than 30,000 annual visas.

(Paws up)