A Post ... For Now

A lot going on ...



Watching Justin's useless government butt heads with the corrupt theocratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia is like watching an imminent train wreck in which two idiot engineers attempt to argue the other off of the tracks. One cannot turn away but one also cannot care who wins.

I honestly can't.

Both parties are detestable.


Justin's government has never met Islamists it didn't like:

After relations between us and the Saudis broke down, the Palestinians sided with Saudi Arabia and condemned us:

As noted in a recent report, “Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Monday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stands with Saudi Arabia in a political row with Canada, rejecting what it called Ottawa’s “blatant interference” in Riyadh’s internal affairs. He also called on the Arab countries to stand by the Kingdom to reject and condemn the Canadian intervention in its internal affairs.”

So, Justin Trudeau took $50 million away from the Canadian People, and gave it to the Palestinians, who then sided with our opponent and condemned us.

 
Contrary to what it bleats, it also doesn't stand up for human rights. One could pick any issue but the pertinent one here is the Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, and how Justin's government has dragged its feet on the criticism of his treatment at the hands of vile Wahhabi-autocrats, people no one can really bring themselves to condemn and stop trading with outright. The mere mention of Mr. Badawi's sister, Samar, seems like convenient point-making for a disingenuous government flagging for any number of reasons.


Canada could start pulling its own weight, avoid international embarrassment and drill and transport its own oil ...

 

... but Justin's advisor, Gerald Butts, would be absolutely aghast.


So Canada will continue using imported oil, even oil from its erstwhile foe, Saudi Arabia, and deal with this crap:

After years of consultations, legal wrangling and scientific monitoring, the company’s Nova Scotia-based subsidiary, Alton Natural Gas Storage LP, has said it plans to start the brining process some time later this year.

Bernard says her people are not going to let that happen.

The $130-million project has been largely on hold since 2014 when Mi’kmaq activists started a series of protests that culminated two years later in the creation of a year-round protest camp at the work site northwest of Stewiacke.

**

Kinder Morgan Canada says expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline could cost the federal government as much as $1.9 billion beyond the company's original construction estimate and take 12 months longer to finish. 

Essentially cater to every foreign-funded whim and debacle instead of instituting and enforcing a practical energy policy that cuts out players like Saudi Arabia and their equally awful comrades.


Also:

The U.S. referred to both Canada and Saudi Arabia as “close partners,” and said “We have asked the Government of Saudi Arabia for additional information on the detention of several activists.”

Additionally, the statement said “We continue to encourage the Government of Saudi Arabia to respect due process and to publicize information on the status of legal cases.”

The U.S. also wants Saudi Arabia to publicize information on the legal cases against the jailed human rights advocates.

It's just money:

In the past two years, the Trudeau government has spent $270 million of our taxpayer dollars on illegal border crossers.

**

The $11-million commitment from the federal government to help Toronto cope with an influx of asylum seekers is an "important step forward," Mayor John Tory said Friday, but cautioned that more money will soon be needed.

Eleven million dollars is hardly an eye-drop in the bottomless bucket that is illegal immigration but Tory grovels well.


Also - it's only a growing voters block:

“Recently, CBSA officers are noticing another phenomenon: claimants who have recently arrived in Canada as irregular migrants and have refugee claims in process are acting as an anchor relative for other qualifying family members. This means that these family members can present themselves at a port of entry and not be considered as irregular migrants. Also, they can’t be refused entry under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).”

And:

A search warrant from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) alleges 462 applicants to the provincial nominee program used Charlottetown homes belonging to two Chinese immigrants over the past four years as “addresses of convenience.”

If one wants to legalise drugs and create millions of hot messes everyone has to pay for, why complain about Ontario Premier Doug Ford's plan to drastically reduce beer prices in tones so Puritan?:

Of course I don’t recall any outrage when actual tax dollars were given to Steam Whistle or Beau’s to pay for the expansion of private business. But a government store profile a product on sale without charging extra for that product……unthinkable.

The real reason people are against this is that these people will oppose everything Doug Ford does. 

Plain and simple.

If they cared about corporate welfare, they would have protested the direct subsidies of two of Ontario’s most successful craft brewers.

But they didn’t.

Nor are they protesting that craft brewers, who normally charge $3 and up for a tall boy can pay a tax rate that is less than half of the big guys.

Did you know that?

Right now a big brewer like Molson or Labatt pay a basic beer tax at a rate of 88.33 cents per litre for beer sold in bottles or cans. Craft brewers pay a tax of 38.34 cents per litre.

Why are Ford’s critics silent on this? They hate buck-a-beer and call it a subsidy but say nothing of this.

Also, if you look at the chart, the tax on beer went up every year from 2010 on, the Liberals – federal and provincial – are against cheap beer.

North Korea wants the US to remove sanctions on it:

North Korea’s state media called on Monday for the United States to ditch crippling economic sanctions as a reward for Pyongyang’s show of good faith in ending its nuclear weapons testing and transferring the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War.

The calls came just days after a confidential United Nations report concluded that the pariah regime has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, and continues to conduct illegal trades of oil, coal and other commodities, reported Reuters.

This North Korea:

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it expects Pyongyang to keep its commitment made at a June leaders' summit to give up its nuclear arms and would press southeast Asian nations during meetings this week to maintain sanctions against North Korea.

Questions have arisen over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearize after U.S. spy satellite material detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States.

** 

“Heinous devils.” “Narrow-minded guys of an island nation.” “Island barbarians, the sworn enemy of the Korean nation.” “A matchless political dwarf.” “A burglar that historically inflicted wars and misfortune and pain of colonial rule upon Korea.”

As evidenced by its harsh characterizations of Japan, North Korea’s state-run news wire spews vitriol like none other. But the Korean Central News Agency has recently taken a conspicuously muted approach to the United States, and to a lesser extent South Korea, as negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs continue.

Now, it has turned its sights on a new, but predictable foil — its former colonial master, Japan.

**

A senior government official said it would be unacceptable for Japan to welcome the arrival of North Korean athletes without the abduction issue being resolved.

Abe has expressed eagerness for settling the abduction issue quickly, not only due to the aging of their waiting relatives, but also because he hopes to prevent the issue of whether North Korean athletes should be allowed in from being rekindled, a government source said.

The Year Zero:

While victory by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in Sunday’s general election was expected, the scale of the win was still shocking. The CPP claims to occupy every seat in Parliament. Democracy in that country has long been a ritual rather than a reality, but this campaign exposed the claims of representative government as empty. The people of Cambodia have no recourse other than protest, which will likely result in more pain for them.

Why would anyone trust vaccines from a country that let milk producers poison children?:

Changsheng Bio-technology Co Ltd, a vaccine maker at the center of a safety scandal in China, began falsifying production records for its rabies vaccine in April 2014, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Changsheng had mixed some batches with expired solution and did not correctly record dates or batch numbers, Xinhua said, citing the findings of an investigation team established by China's State Council.

And now, Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen's ship returns home:

The ship used by the first explorer to successfully travel to the South Pole has finally returned home, putting an end to a 100-year-old chaotic expedition. 

Named the Maud, after Norway’s then-queen, the ship was recovered in 2016 from Canadian Arctic waters where it sunk in 1930, by Norwegian artist Jan Wanggard and his team. According to the website Phys Org, it was then towed across the North Atlantic on a barge from Greenland and arrived in western Norway Monday morning.  

The website added that the ship will be exhibited in the southeastern municipality of Asker, near Oslo, where it was launched in 1917, thanks to the funding of three Norwegian brothers and entrepreneurs.

Mid-Week Post

It's a dino storm front! RUN!

Oh, my. This must be embarrassing:

As reported by Tom Blackwell in the National Post, “American officials have taken the “highly unusual” step of rejecting Canada’s bid to take part in senior-level NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Mexico later this week, sources familiar with the trade negotiations said Monday. One person said attempts by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to get a seat at the table in Washington Thursday were either ignored, or spurned outright by the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.”

“Another source said the request to be at the meeting was made in a low-key fashion “so as not to spark a diplomatic incident” and was followed by “a retreat to diplomatic silence.”’

And it gets even worse:


“Indeed, recent developments point to a steady souring of relations between Ottawa and the White House. Formal, three-way talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement have not been held since May, though had been expected to restart after the Mexican presidential election earlier this month. A third source briefed on the negotiations said the U.S. side, fuelled in part by Lighthizer’s dislike of Freeland, has decided to not even let Canada back into the process until it makes some kind of substantive concession.”

The Butts Trudeau government cannot walk back from this or pretend that a lop-sided deal with China or the EU will make up for missing American trade.

The thirty-nine percent who didn't want Stephen Harper need to pay attention because this concerns them: without trade with Canada's closest and friendliest trading partner, the economy of pho and soy lattes will collapse. One could argue this was by Butts' Trudeau's design or just plain stupidity but the sting will still hurt.

Badly.




Today in "it's just money" news:

A typical Canadian family of four will pay $12,935 for health care in 2018, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Health care in Canada isn’t free — Canadians actually pay a substantial amount for public health care through their taxes, even if they don’t pay directly for medical services,” said Bacchus Barua, associate director of health policy studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of The Price of Public Health Care Insurance, 2018.

Most Canadians are unaware of the true cost of health care because they never see a bill for medical services and may only pay a small public health insurance “premium” tax (in provinces that impose them).

And because general government revenue—not a dedicated tax—funds health care, it’s difficult for Canadians to decipher how many of their tax dollars go to our public health-care system.

Using data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the study estimates that the average Canadian family (two parents, two children) with a household income of $138,008 will pay $12,935 for public health care this year. After adjusting for inflation, that’s an increase of 68.5 per cent since 1997, the first year estimates could be calculated.

For single Canadians, health-care costs more than doubled over that same time period—from $2,115 (in 2018 dollars) to $4,640 this year.

Across the income spectrum, Canadian families pay vastly different amounts for health care. For example, the 10 per cent of Canadian families with the lowest incomes (earning $14,885 per household, on average) will pay $496 for health care in 2018, while families among the top 10 per cent of income earners (earning a household income of $291,364 on average) will pay $38,903.

(Sidebar: illegal migrants are given free - as in they pay nothing but the Canadian taxpayer does - healthcare. Carry on.)

**

The divergence between the prices of WCS and WTI can be attributed to transportation constraints, especially on Canada’s crude pipeline network, which is preventing the heavy oil being produced from reaching U.S. refining markets. This is being exacerbated by steep uptick in production among Canadian upstream oil companies, which are frantically ramping up activity to cash in on higher oil.

**

Large industrial companies in Canada will face an easier carbon limit when Justin Trudeau’s government starts putting a price on emissions next year.

Most firms that produce 50 megatons of carbon dioxide or similar levels of pollution a year won’t face any penalties until their emissions reach 80 per cent of the average within their specific industry. The previous limit was 70 per cent, according to a framework published July 27 by Canada’s environment ministry.

The limit will rise to 90 per cent in four industries facing “high” competitive risks — producers of cement, iron and steel, lime and nitrogen fertilizers. Details of the revised policy were reported earlier Wednesday by the Globe and Mail newspaper.

(Sidebar: why not repeal the carbon tax, she asked plainly but expected no reply ...)

**

As noted in a recent report, “The Liberal government is curtailing its plan to price carbon pollution after hearing concerns from Canadian industry officials about how the tax would impact competitiveness. As the Globe and Mail first reported Wednesday morning, Environment and Climate Change Canada plans to release new guidelines that lower the percentage of emissions some polluters will have to pay the carbon tax on. Back in January, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna set the benchmark at 70 per cent of an industry’s average emissions performance, meaning companies would have to pay a tax on 30 per cent of their emissions.”

Now, the tax will apply to between 10% and 20% of emissions.

**

The city applied to the federal government for a $32.6 million grant Tuesday, which will go toward funding programs intended to curb gun violence.

(Sidebar: the gun violence the useless government thinks it will stop if it bans printed guns but not the flow of illegal guns or the criminal under-current. THAT gun violence.)




There's no money for veterans, ect:

As noted by the Globe & Mail, “Mr. Parent said in a report card to be released on Tuesday – a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail – there are still long-standing issues that create significant hardships for former members of the armed forces. At the top of the list, he said, is the fact that some injured veterans are forgoing treatment in the first months after their retirement because the costs are not paid by the Veterans Affairs department until the therapy has been approved by bureaucrats. The decisions can take up to 50 weeks, he said, and the medical services are not covered retroactively.”

This has been a problem under both the previous Harper government, and the current Trudeau government. Notably however, the Trudeau government promised big improvements, but they clearly haven’t delivered:

‘“People may go a year without accessing treatment,” Mr. Parent said on Monday in a telephone interview. “Some of them may be in deteriorating health status because they don’t access treatment because they have to pay out of their own pocket.”

Basic income is just another form of welfare:

Ontario's new Progressive Conservative government announced Tuesday that it will scrap the province's basic income pilot project.

The federal Liberal government seems to have zero problem with a repugnant custom that allows girls even in their infancy to have parts of their bodies sliced away:

A draft of the new document was leaked, and it had removed the condemnation of FGM. It refused to make clear what Canada would, and wouldn’t accept in our country, and pandered to the worst.

After facing a backlash from across the political spectrum, a backlash that was led by the effective work of Conservative Immigration Critic Michelle Rempel in bringing the issue to national attention, the Trudeau government seemed to back down.


Since then, there have been repeated delays in bringing in the new guide, and it’s still nowhere to be found.

As noted by the CP, “It’s been more than two years since work began on revising the controversial study guide for Canada’s citizenship test, but the federal government says it needs more time to work on the publication and has no set timeline for release. Internal emails from the Immigration department dating back to 2016 show officials were hoping the launch of the new guide could coincide with Canada 150 celebrations and the 70th anniversary of the Citizenship Act — events that took place over a year ago. But so far, no official guide has materialized.”

Rempel shared her thoughts on what’s going on with the delay: 

“The immigration minister’s response to the issue around removing the language about female genital mutilation being a very intolerable practice from the citizenship guide, his delay and his response, I would surmise, didn’t go well within the prime minister’s office. I think probably he mishandled that so badly they’re delaying any sort of output.”

However, it’s also possible that the PM supported Hussen’s response. After all, Trudeau went crazy when the Conservatives called ‘honour killings’ and FGM “barbaric.”

The expensive eyesore, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, is removing the Aung Sang Suu Kyi references from its ill-laid-out propaganda:

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is removing reference to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi from one of its displays and dimming her picture in another, following criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's response to widespread allegations of human rights violations against Rohingya Muslims in her country.

Reference to Suu Kyi will be removed from the Winnipeg museum's timeline of human rights milestones. Her portrait in a gallery of honorary Canadians will remain, but has been dimmed.

Getting the Keystone pipeline built:

The Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project cleared a hurdle on Monday as the Trump administration said in a draft environmental assessment that an alternative route through Nebraska would not do major harm to water and wildlife.

The State Department's assessment of a plan for an alternative route through Nebraska submitted by TransCanada Corp, the company trying to complete the pipeline, said Keystone XL's cumulative effects would be "minor to moderate" on issues including water and biological resources.

It said the pipeline would have only minor impacts on cultural resources, such as Native American graves.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission approved the pipeline, but not TransCanada's preferred path. The alternative route will cost TransCanada millions of dollars more than its original route.

But ... but ... Trump went to Singapore!:

U.S. spy satellites have detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, a senior U.S. official said on Monday, in the midst of talks to compel Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms.

**

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it expects Pyongyang to keep its commitment made at a June leaders' summit to give up its nuclear arms and would press southeast Asian nations during meetings this week to maintain sanctions against North Korea.

Questions have arisen over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearize after U.S. spy satellite material detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States.

Well, that settled that issue:

Senior Iranian officials and military commanders on Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and "a dream", saying his words contradicted his action of reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

Also - Russia, Iran's arm dealer, can't influence Iran? Really?:

Russia cannot compel Iranian forces to quit Syria, Moscow's ambassador to Tel Aviv said on Monday, rebuffing Israel's long-standing demand that it should work to ensure their total withdrawal from the country.

Honour-killings are oppressive:

Supporters and opponents of a ban on garments covering the face, including Islamic veils such as the niqab or burqa, clashed verbally Wednesday as the law takes effect.

Marcus Knuth of the ruling liberal party Venstre, says the dress worn by some conservative Muslim women is “strongly oppressive.”

Sasha Andersen of the “Party Rebels” activist group, is planning a demonstration later in the day against what they called Wednesday a “discriminatory” measure against a minority group. Groups that back the ban also plan to rally.

(Sidebar: of course a "rebel" group supports the hijab. Of course it does.)




Cultural dilettantism is funny when the culture the self-absorbed and thoughtless poseurs want to mimic strikes back.

Case in point:

As one of Japan’s most sacred mountains, Mt Koya in Wakayama Prefecture is the headquarters for the Koyasan Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism and home to a large number of temples and important religious sites. It’s also becoming a popular destination for tourists looking to stay at a shukubo (temple lodging), where guests can experience what it’s like to live like a monk for a night, by dining on their shojin ryori vegetarian meals and joining them for daily prayers. ...

The screenshots above show a guest review commenting on some of the downsides of their stay, saying that the meals were “basic and vegetarian”. To this, Kimura responded with, “Just because you are a Westerner doesn’t mean you are going to (sic) treated specially”. To another reviewer who said the vegetarian dinner and breakfast were “strange”, Kimura didn’t hold back, simply saying “Yeah, it’s Japanese monastic cuisine you uneducated f#%k” (though he opted for the uncensored version of the word).

(Insert Title Here)

(Insert inspiring quote here)




Toronto mayor swears to impotently fight against Ontario Premier Doug Ford's drastic but necessary cuts to Toronto's city council:

Toronto city council voted Monday to express its opposition to a controversial bill that would cut the council nearly in half to the Ontario government.

Council also voted to request that the provincial government conduct a referendum on the number of wards and their boundaries before proceeding with legislation that would cut the number of councillors to 25 from 47.

"Today, city council sent a strong message to Queen's Park that it opposes the process around the change to Toronto's ward boundaries," Mayor John Tory said in a release.

"City council approved my call for the province to hold a binding referendum before proceeding with any changes to the Toronto ward boundaries," Tory said.

Yes, about that:

The federal government will be deep, deep under an avalanche before they let Ford do something sane:

The federal government says it will do whatever it can to protect Torontonians from the "vindictive and destructive" actions taken by the new Ford government.

Adam Vaughan, a Toronto Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary for urban affairs, says Ontario Premier Doug Ford is plunging Toronto into chaos at a time when it needs stability the most.

Ford announced Friday morning that his government will introduce legislation to cut the number of Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25, aligning city wards with federal ridings.

Ford says having fewer city councillors will improve the decision-making process at Toronto's city hall, and save taxpayers $25 million over four years.

Vaughan says the proposal is "reckless, irresponsible" and tosses Toronto into a political storm when it needs leadership on critical files such as asylum seekers, gangs and shootings on the city streets, transit and housing.

(Sidebar: oh, the issues forty-seven people weren't dealing with anyway, including the "aggressive" pace at which the Toronto police force is trying to sweep away the fact that a known Islamist was not apprehended before he shot fifteen people? THOSE issues? Are those the issues that you are worried about, Adam?)

I believe that is called communism.

  
Also - sure. You know what you're doing:

Jennifer Keesmaat – Toronto’s former Chief City Planner – is calling for the City of Toronto to SECEDE from Ontario.

The rest of the country will see you off.




Justin tries to make the deaths of two people at the hands of an Islamist about him after he finally shows up at a Liberal supporter's funeral:

On Monday, Trudeau attended the funeral in Toronto for Reese Fallon, the 18-year-old killed in last week's attack. The service for 10-year-old Julianna Kozis took place in nearby Markham, Ont. ...

The prime minister said he was glad to be a part of a show of resilience and community. He noted that it was 20 years ago that his family said goodbye to his "little brother" Michel, who was killed in a B.C. avalanche in 1998 at the age of 23.

The young people at Fallon's funeral reminded him so much of his brother's friends, he said.

"I just wanted to tell them that they were going to be remembering and celebrating Reese throughout their lives," he said.

Also:

Justin Trudeau’s has finally shown up in Toronto, and was fairly reasonable and respectful in how he handled himself at the somber memorial. There was some booing – which will likely be ignored by almost all the establishment media.

Yet, the fact that Trudeau finally showed up won’t make the criticism over his seemingly-endless vacation days go away.

It won’t change the fact that there is a huge difference between how Trudeau responded to other crises, particularly the fake crisis of the ‘hijab hoax,’ and how he decided to prioritize his vacation over visiting Toronto after the shooting attack.

Not only did Trudeau refuse to go to Toronto for some time, but he also didn’t even make an on-camera statement. He tweeted once, a press release was issued, and then that was it.


He then spent a bunch of personal days in BC, even as vigils were held that were attended by the top elected officials at other levels, including the Ontario Premier and the Toronto Mayor.

Trudeau simply disappeared.

One could attribute this to a lack of leadership, empathy, ability to relate to any happening in an adult fashion, articulate appropriate emotion or offer any solid action.

Take one's pick.


And - Justin is wallowing in adolescence and effeminacy and the doting press finds it adorable.


Also - is this is gay Paris?:

His top aides were grilled on live television and the opposition shut down parliament. And to cap it all he was forced to issue a bizarre denial that he was having a homosexual affair with the bodyguard who sparked a political scandal after being filmed beating up May Day protesters.

Seeking to dispel rumours on the internet, Emmanuel Macron joked: “Alexandre Benalla has never had the nuclear codes … Alexandre Benalla is not my lover.” His MPs laughed but the joke did not go down well with the public. His popularity ratings, already down, fell to a record low.

Justin's fight against Trump appears to back-firing on him big-time:

American officials have taken the “highly unusual” step of rejecting Canada’s bid to take part in senior-level NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Mexico later this week, sources familiar with the trade negotiations said Monday.

One person said attempts by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to get a seat at the table in Washington Thursday were either ignored, or spurned outright by the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Yes, Canada is certainly back:

Because of agreement the Liberals signed with the UnitedNations in 2003, Canada could end paying 7% of the profits from the Bay du Nord project to the UN.

** 

While earning him points with the Davos circuit, Mr. Trudeau’s attitude toward the concept of citizenship may prove a great political liability with established immigrants. Having shed years of blood, sweat and tears to earn their Canadian passports, many immigrant voters likely didn’t take kindly to their Prime Minister issuing, via Twitter, an open invitation to the rest of the world to collect theirs at the door.

We could, and should, have an honest debate about the consequences of the PM’s grandstanding in encouraging migrants to cross over in the first place, and his seeming reluctance to defend the integrity of Canada’s borders publicly. What is irrefutable is that his words betrayed a lack of seriousness about the value of Canadian citizenship.

The pettiness of both the RCMP and the Canadian Border Services Agency is under-scored only their incompetence:

The RCMP tried a few years ago to wrestle away control of organized crime investigations being pursued by the Canada Border Services Agency, newly released records show.

The proposal did not sit well with the border agency and never went ahead. But even as both agencies insist they have since struck a collaborative relationship, security experts say the failed proposal illustrates ongoing tensions between the two agencies, which share the responsibility of ensuring the border’s integrity.

“This reflects an ongoing tug of war of who’s actually in charge when it comes to investigations,” said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University who specializes in security and defence matters.

Not enough money for veterans right now, ect:

Some Canadian soldiers will no longer have to buy their own boots as the military agreed Friday to give them cash for combat footwear.

Well, that's generous of them.




Yes, I believe that is what got Obama into a spot of bother:

President Trump on Monday expressed his willingness to meet with the leaders of Iran with “no preconditions.” Trump made the comments during a joint press conference alongside Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Does South Korea know what it is doing?:

South Korea's defense ministry said Tuesday that it is pushing for a plan to withdraw forces and their equipment from border guard posts "on a trial basis" in line with the April inter-Korean summit agreement to halt all hostile acts and reduce tensions.

In a policy briefing to the National Assembly's defense committee, the ministry also said that it would consider the "full-scale pullout" in sync with a cross-border survey of historical remains and ecological features within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

How could that go wrong?




For some reason, people believe that China and North Korea are truly interested in peace:

North Korea currently operates more than 160 propaganda websites, including news and tourism websites as well as online communities. Regardless of what these sites do, they share one goal: To promote North Korea and its ideology and turn as many people as they can into North Korean sympathizers.

With recent signs of North Korea opening itself up to the international community, some might assume that Pyongyang would have less need of these propaganda activities. On the contrary, North Korea has only escalated its efforts.

According to a Seoul-based think tank, the Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy, North Korea had about 7,000 agents engaged in this propaganda work as of the end of 2017, and it is adding more.

(Kamsahamnida and paws up)

For A Friday

 

 

In response to Premier Doug Ford's trimming Toronto city council's seats from forty-seven to twenty-five (SEE: fat, trimming, election promise), Toronto mayor John Tory reduces himself to several kilograms of crying baby:

“What we don’t need is change being rammed down our throats without a single second of public consultation and on top of that done in the middle of an election period. You don’t change the rules in the middle of the game, it is not right, it is not fair.”

Also:

Students at York University will head back to class this fall after Ontario's government passed legislation Wednesday ending a nearly five-month-long strike.

An omnibus bill dubbed the Urgent Priorities Act contained key priorities for the newly-elected Progressive Conservatives, who called back the legislature for a rare summer sitting to deal with the issues. The bill contained back-to-work legislation to end the York strike, and was supported by the Tories but voted against by the NDP and Liberals.

The labour dispute at the Toronto university saw 3,000 contract faculty and graduate teaching and research assistants walk off the job on March 5 over issues of wages and job security.

 
The government of Ontario formally requests $200 million from the federal government that started the illegal migrant crisis in the first place:

The Ontario government has formally requested $200-million from the federal government to pay for the cost of asylum seekers who entered Canada from the United States and who are living in Ontario.

Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister for children, community and social services, wrote a letter Thursday expressing concern over the government’s efforts in managing the issue of “illegal border crossing” and demanding financial compensation.

In the letter, MacLeod, who is also responsible for immigration, writes that for over a year, Ontario has been straining to support “illegal border crossers” and that the Liberal government’s approach is “now testing the patience and generosity of Ontarians.”

(Sidebar: there is a reason for that, Miss MacLeod, as you shall see in 2019.)




Two in three Canadians believe that provinces, not Ottawa, should have the final say on whether to institute a carbon tax or not:

While a federal carbon pricing plan is poised to come into effect next January and be applied to provinces that are not deemed by the Trudeau government to have a sufficient plan in place, two-in-three Canadians (64%) say it should be individual provinces, not Ottawa, that determine the appropriate path to reduce carbon emissions. The rest, (36%) say the federal government should have the power to implement its own plan if necessary.

The specific decisions made by Moe and Ford are perceived differently, however.

Seven-in-ten Canadians (72%), including nearly 88 per cent of those in Saskatchewan say Moe is right to challenge the Trudeau plan in court, arguing that his province has its own plan in place. By contrast, half of Canadians (51%), and about the same number in Ontario (55%) say that Ford’s recent decision to end Ontario’s cap and trade program was the right one.

Oh, my.

Climate Barbie will not be glad to hear this.


Also - when the government removes something the public wants, the key is not more government:

As Greyhound prepares to end service across Western Canada, a national survey suggests most Canadians are willing to support a government-funded rural bus service.

A slim majority of Canadians, 56 per cent, agreed the service is vital and would support a federally-funded or provincially-funded service, an Angus Reid poll released Friday suggests.

However, 44 per cent said they believe private business will eventually fill the void if demand exists and governments should stay out of it.

And:

Air Canada experienced a 31 per cent increase in the price of jet fuel compared with last year's second quarter and will offset some of the impact with higher fares and other initiatives, Air Canada chief executive Calin Rovinescu said Friday.

Because it is the government, not a body of competent individuals who value the traditional family or fiscal responsibility:

But when we discuss “child-care policy” in Canada right now, it often boils down to an appeal for the most expensive and ineffective option on the list: Quebec-style daycare. (Hilariously, even with shortages and wait lists in the province, the system is still widely touted as “universal.”) The simple fact that there is so often a push for this particular form of child-care policy reveals yet another non-child-related reason to enact child-care policy: to grow government, particularly the education ministries that would benefit, at a time when more and more parents are opting out of the public school system.

One could ban Professor Jordan Peterson all one wants. He is still right:

Controversial and outspoken academic Dr. Jordan Peterson will speak at Calgary’s Arts Commons this week, despite a petition calling for the event to be cancelled. ...

Peterson is scheduled to speak Friday at the Arts Commons’ Jack Singer Concert Hall, but an online petition calling for the performance to be cancelled has received hundreds of signatures. ...

But Arts Commons says it will not cancel the talk.

In a statement, Arts Commons said it supports free speech and “is a place for all.”
 

What a bunch of pansies.




It's been five says since an Islamist terrorist shot fifteen people and Justin is still on vacation:

Justin Trudeau has been taking “personal” (AKA Vacation) days since July 21st.

This is now his seventh consecutive vacation day.

You would think that the horrific Toronto mass shooting would have brought him back to work, addressing the obvious need for increased security in our cities, speaking to the nation, and making his presence felt as the country mourns.

Nope.

Instead, following the Toronto shooting, he issued a tweet, the PMO put out a press release, and that’s it. Here’s his itinerary for today:

(SEE: Trudeau, Justin, douchebag)


Also:

Ontario’s SIU is called in when a police officer shoots a civilian. In the greater part of such episodes — bank robberies, gang arrests etc. — this is entirely a good thing. Was the fired shot necessary? Did the police overreact?

In the far more abnormal circumstances of the mass shooting on the Danforth, the insistence on this protocol took on preposterous dimensions. The SIU role was prioritized over the investigation itself for the first two or three days. The chief of police held back on even minimal explanation or reports to the public until the SIU completed its review — all of this in an event that everyone described as “shaking the entire city” — leaving the public in a deep valley of officially enforced ignorance, the chief a sideline spokesman during the most horrific episode of its kind that Toronto has perhaps ever seen.

What, of this outrage, was there for the SIU to investigate? If police had arrived at the scene of a man, armed and carrying enough ammunition to make a full night of mayhem and murder, already having shot 14 people, killing two of those — one aged 18, one 10 years old — and then did NOT shoot him, absolutely as soon as they could, there would infallibly be a need for an investigation.

On the actual night however, the shooter was shot dead (as it turns out, he was felled by his own gun, the CBC has reported, quoting a police source). Either way, there was no possible “fault” to be determined. ...

As a response, therefore, to the multiple “regular” shootings, and especially to the exceptional violence that night on the Danforth, what is the possible logic to now screaming for a ban on all handguns in the city? ...

The only real contribution this talk of a total handgun ban — and I’m not being sarcastic — will make to Toronto’s gang violence problem, is giving politicians something to sound strong about, and the gangs who use guns already illegal something to laugh at.

If one wanted to escape the mutilation of girls, one would certainly not come to Canada:

To save her little girl from being tortured, Adetutu Olawore left behind everything she owned and fled from her family in the middle of the night.

With her in-laws in Nigeria demanding her 10-year-old daughter be circumcised — a barbaric procedure also known as female genital mutilation — Olawore saw no choice but to run.

After an odyssey that took her from Nigeria to Houston, to New York and Montreal, Olawore and her three children arrived in Windsor three months ago with dreams of finding a new home and living in peace.

But like many hopeful refugee claimants drawn to Windsor with stories of easy-to-get and affordable housing, Olawore spent months having rental applications denied and doors slammed in her face.

How could this go wrong?: 

In 2016, Ayanle Hassan Ali tried killing three Canadian soldiers at the Yonge St. recruiting office in Toronto.

He punched a soldier in the head, then tried stabbing that soldier, then tried stabbing another soldier, before slashing at another.

As noted by the Toronto Sun, “During his attack, Ali shouted words to the effect of, “Allah akbar.” He told a paramedic that “Allah” had sent him “to kill people.” Both forensic psychiatrists who examined Ali testified that he believed soldiers were a “legitimate target” due to Canada’s military action in Muslim countries and he wanted to be a martyr.”

Ali had also said in a diary, “I have a licence to kill, I have a green light to kill. One soldier is all it takes, just one.”

But shockingly, a judge acquitted him of terrorism charges, and he was found ‘not criminally responsible’ due to ‘schizophrenia.’

And now, he’s going to be set free into the community:

As the Sun points out, Ali “has already been cleared to leave the secure unit of his Hamilton hospital this year on passes into the community, including forays that aren’t even directly supervised.”

Additionally, in 2019, Ali could be permitted to enter “southern Ontario,” while accompanied by a staff member of the hospital at which he is detained. And worse, he could be allowed to go into the “community of Hamilton,” within 2 kilometres of the hospital – under “indirect supervision” (AKA unsupervised).

Oh, look - North Korea is stalling again:

Washington's reluctance to declare an end to the Korean War until after North Korea abandons its nuclear arsenal may put it at odds not only with Pyongyang, but also with allies in South Korea. ...

Kim has broadly committed to the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" if the United States and its allies drop their "hostile" policies and the North has made clear it sees an official end to the state of war as crucial to lowering tensions.

Many experts and officials in Washington, however, fear signing a peace deal first could erode the international pressure they believe led Kim to negotiate. It could also endanger the decades-long U.S. military alliance with South Korea, and may undermine the justification for the U.S. troops based on the peninsula.

Does anyone remember when some people were worried that the legalisation of euthanasia would soon end up as a slippery slope and those fears were dismissed by people who insisted that there were strict protocols in place?

Yeah:

A doctor is under criminal investigation over a potential breach of Dutch euthanasia laws after slipping a sleeping drug into a woman’s coffee before asking family members to hold her down to allow the insertion of a drip through which a fatal dose could be administered.

(Merci beaucoup)