From the Most Corrupt and Inept Government Ever Re-Elected

Canadians get the governments they vote for:

The Department of Public Works yesterday would not say if it has taken any promised rush deliveries from a Québec company awarded an exclusive ten-year contract to supply pandemic masks. Public Works Minister Anita Anand had justified the sole-sourced contract on a promise Canadian-made masks would be on their way to doctors and nurses “toward the end of July”.

Why isn't this Quebec company rushing to produce ostensibly Canadian-made masks that are sorely needed and were sorely needed when the Liberal government shut down an entire country in March of this year?

**

The Commons finance committee meeting behind closed doors has voted to grant immunity to witnesses at We Charity hearings. MPs adopted a New Democrat motion to ensure “there will be no consequences or retribution” for whistleblowers: “There have been a number of We Charity employees who have indicated they want to testify.”

I suspect some Liberal back-benchers may be in the group.

**

(Sidebar: the article below was translated with an online translator. As of this writing, the contents therein have not appeared in English-language publications or news agencies.)

Having no presence in Quebec, the charitable group WE Charity had entrusted the national public relations firm with the mandate to implement the famous Canadian scholarship for student volunteering (BCBE) in the Belle Province before the storm policy provoked by the close ties between the federal Liberals and the organization in question aborted the project.

According to information obtained by La Presse , the National firm also had the mandate to implement the controversial program, which had an envelope of up to $ 900 million, in Francophone communities in the rest of the country, WE Charity (UNIS in French) being an essentially unilingual Anglophone organization. UNIS gave National this mandate on May 29 - just one week after the federal cabinet decided to award it a non-competitive contract to manage the scholarship program.

Almost a month later, on June 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government was handing over the management of the program to WE Charity. But the charity decided to abandon the project on July 3 amid revelations that members of the Prime Minister's family had received nearly $ 350,000 in fees from WE Charity for speeches. during events organized by the organization. At the same time, it was also revealed that the daughter of Finance Minister Bill Morneau worked for the organization.

These revelations undermine one of the main arguments put forward by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some of his ministers and officials from the Department of Finance, namely that WE Charity was the only national organization with the size and competence to lead. a national program of nearly $ 1 billion, say the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois.

“This confirms all the apprehensions we had about this organization. When the Prime Minister tells us that it was the only body capable of doing the job, well, it was not. He could not even serve francophones. He had to go through a public relations firm, ”declared the political lieutenant of the Conservative Party in Quebec, MP Alain Rayes.

(Paws up)

**

(Sidebar: this public sector.)

**

But it's alright when the government does it:

 

Conservatives are asking the Privacy Commissioner to investigate if the online platform used by WE Charity to process applications to the Canada Student Grant Program violated federal privacy laws by potentially storing their data abroad.

No one asked me if I wanted my money to go to people who were warned about this explosive material and did  nothing about it for years:

Canada will provide $5 million to Lebanon following a pair of explosions on Tuesday that destroyed a large portion of Beirut and left at least 100 dead, the country’s foreign affairs minster says.

In a tweet Wednesday evening, Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada is “providing an initial $5 million in humanitarian assist for the people of Lebanon.”

Did you get that mortgage sorted out, Franky?

Let one wager on McNeil's new position. Chinese company?:

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil is leaving politics, saying he stayed on longer than he'd planned in order to lead the province through the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Liberal premier said Thursday that after 17 years in provincial politics, he decided it's time for a change, and he's ready for a rest.

"I'm not leaving because I don't like the job. I love the job as a matter of fact, and I've had tremendous support," he said during a news conference.

"Many people are surprised today that I work with, and I'm sure many Nova Scotians are surprised." He said he concluded that a change in leadership is "the right thing for the province."

Mid-Week Post

Your patch of blue sky for the week ...

Oh, dear:

Lebanese rescue workers dug through the mangled wreckage of buildings on Wednesday looking for survivors after a massive warehouse explosion sent a devastating blast wave across Beirut, killing at least 135 people and injuring nearly 4,000.

Officials said the toll was expected to rise after Tuesday’s blast at port warehouses that stored highly explosive material. ...

It sent a mushroom cloud into the sky and rattled windows on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures. He called it “unacceptable.”

An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on negligence. Ordinary Lebanese blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance that has plunged Lebanon into financial crisis.

It's just an economy:

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is giving $250,000 to Generation Squeeze, an advocacy organization for young Canadians, to research ways to improve housing affordability. The group stated it will focus on “wealth generated by rising home values,” which incited fears the government is considering a home equity tax on the capital gains generated when Canadians sell their homes.

(Sidebar: bullsh--. They are discouraging private home ownership.)

But more taxes won’t increase affordability. If the government really wants to know why housing is unaffordable, it could have saved the $250,000 and looked in the mirror. Governments at all levels drive up the cost of housing in two ways: by restricting the housing supply and by increasing housing costs through taxes and fees.

**

The federal government is moving ahead with plans to make it easier for provinces and territories to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure projects to address the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna says $3.3 billion out of the $33 billion that Ottawa has previously promised in matching funds for provincial and territorial projects will be available for projects related to the pandemic.

Yes, about that:

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna was cited by the Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday for "missing details" on thousands of public work projects, which have likely caused headaches for the Trudeau minister since a June 2 report from the PBO found that roughly 20,000 taxpayer-funded projects were lacking sufficient evidence to prove they had started.

“This is not a fully exhaustive list,” the Budget Office wrote on Wednesday. McKenna in a March 10 report to Parliament said “over 52,000 projects have been announced government-wide with contributions of approximately $57.5 billion. Almost all of these projects are either started or completed.”

The same people who could (read: would not) not keep China's coronavirus out of the country, who shut down an economy for four months and who hand taxpayer money to friends and relatives are now promising money that they often misplace to keep everyone happy or the masses will force an election (which I don't think will happen).

Wow ...

**

The Canadian economy continues to struggle because of the coronavirus lockdown, despite growth in May and June according to Statistics Canada.

On Friday, the agency wrote that while the economy is slowly recovering from the lockdown, Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 15% since February.

**

Staff in a secret 2018 memo to the Prime Minister warned of “negative media coverage” of federal advertising of carbon tax rebates. The $1,253,011 ad blitz timed before the 2019 election found few Canadians understood the rebate program: “There are risks.”

Mismanaged by these guys:

A Québec company was awarded $113,486,868 in sole-sourced federal orders for pandemic masks though it didn’t have a factory in Canada. MPs have demanded to see terms of the contract with AMD Medicom Inc., the only Canadian vendor to win a ten-year federal contract: “Is the federal government picking winners and losers?”

**

Controversy has arisen after the CAF dedicated a team to inform the public about the effects of civil disobedience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Insiders told the Ottawa Citizen that the CAF instituted a propaganda campaign during the pandemic without a well-established overview.

The programs main purpose included manipulation and projection of certain media that was made to convince the public to conform to current pandemic related legislation, and if needed, maintain order in case of mass rejection of these laws.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s press secretary, Floriane Bonneville, told reporters that the propaganda campaign was a "mistake" and mentioned that outgoing Gen. Vance, the Chief of Defence Staff, will assemble a "team of legal, communications and policy staff, to investigate what happened."

(Sidebar: rather, one was caught and is now embarrassed and will hide this as soon as possible.)

**

The federal government has purchased early access to two of the leading candidates for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The government announced Wednesday it had placed orders with Pfizer and Moderna, two companies with candidates in the third and final stage of trials for vaccines for the virus, which could be ready by the end of the year.

What? The same people who wouldn't stockpile masks is going for name-brand vaccines and not Chinese military complex ones? Or are they still made in China?

Canadians statistically contribute less to charities than their American counterparts.

The Liberal WE gong-show will only result in fewer donations and less trust in genuine charities:

Already concerned about the pandemic’s effect on donations, the sector faces a new concern: that controversy around the WE organization and its since-aborted deal with the Liberal government will erode trust in charities and the use of social enterprises many rely on to fund services.

This WE gong-show:

A Halifax-based charity is expressing confusion and frustration as it looks likely to have to foot the bill for nine students that it says were hired through the federal volunteer program at the centre of the WE affair.

That is because the Liberal government contends no students actually started their placements before WE Charity backed out of running the Canada Student Services Grant amid controversy about its ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family.

**

WE’s biggest corporate donor has long been U.S. insurance giant Allstate, and the U.S. filings shine light on just how lucrative that relationship has been for the charity. Allstate has donated just over US$92-million to WE’s U.S. arm since 2011, according to the filings. The insurer’s chief executive, Tom Wilson, has also contributed US$400,000. Allstate hasn’t commented on whether it plans to continue its partnership with WE.

Your money to waste, guys.

Who forced you to attend a university with such rules?:

The school says the policy is part of the Reformed Christian tradition and does not discriminate.

Druif's sentiments were also echoed in the Rainbow Report, an internal document submitted to the school last year with LGBTQ alumni reflections of their time on campus and what they described as an unwelcoming climate for LGBTQ students.

How many universities force students to pay for anti-semitic student unions? Isn't that unsafe?

Also - I thought that the Liberals cared:

According to the Calgary Police, there have been multiple recent apparent hate crime against same-sex couples in the city.

The time to pontificate is now!

Justin doesn't care about the Arctic. He wants China to have it. He's not greedy:

The construction of a new military refuelling station in the Arctic is facing yet another delay more than 13 years after it was first promised by the federal government.

Stephen Harper first announced plans to build the Nanisivik deep-water port in Nunavut along with up to eight armed Arctic patrol vessels in 2007.

The long-standing expectation was that the port located on Baffin Island about 20 kilometes from Arctic Bay would be ready when the first of those ships was finally delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy.

Yet while the first Arctic patrol vessel was handed over to the navy on Friday after numerous delays and cost overruns, the Department of National Defence says the Nanisivik facility won’t be ready until 2022.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande blamed travel difficulties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic for the latest delay, which follows numerous environmental and structural problems over the years.

The port was originally supposed to include an airstrip and staffed year-round, but both plans were dropped after the project’s $116-million budget was found to have more than doubled to $258 million in 2013.

North Korea is a bottle rocket about to go off:

The number of people fleeing from North Korea is increasing again and homeless children begging for money are seen even near Pyongyang amid protracted sanctions and the coronavirus lockdown.

According to a source on Monday, North Koreans are gripped by fears of a severer famine than in the 1990s.

The source, who has been to Pyongyang recently, said many homeless children can be seen at Kalli railway station, a gateway to the capital. "Their presence is becoming a problem as they move around in groups begging and stealing."

Homeless people are sporadically rounded up and forced into labor at a makeshift facility nearby, and when homeless children are discharged from the facility they hang out near the station.

"Many people are traveling in groups to scavenge food despite travel restrictions amid the lockdown," the source added. Some college students from provinces are reportedly making a living through prostitution near Pyongyang.

Interesting:

Russian scientists are poring over the stunningly well-preserved bones of an adult woolly mammoth that roamed the earth at least 10,000 years ago, after local inhabitants discovered its remains in the shallows of a north Siberian lake.

Part of its skull, several ribs and foreleg bones, some with soft tissue still attached to them, were retrieved from Russia’s remote Yamal peninsula above the Arctic circle on July 23. Scientists are still searching the site for other bones.

**

Singapore researchers have developed “electronic skin” capable of recreating a sense of touch, an innovation they hope will allow people with prosthetic limbs to detect objects, as well as feel texture, or even temperature and pain.

The device, dubbed ACES, or Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin, is made up of 100 small sensors and is about 1 square cm (0.16 square inch) in size.

The researchers at the National University of Singapore say it can process information faster than the human nervous system, is able to recognize 20 to 30 different textures and can read Braille letters with more than 90 percent accuracy.

“So humans need to slide to feel texture, but in this case the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness,” said research team leader Benjamin Tee, adding that AI algorithms let the device learn quickly.

A demonstration showed the device could detect that a squishy stress ball was soft, and determine that a solid plastic ball was hard.

A Post ... For Now

Oh, dear:

A powerful blast in port warehouses near central Beirut storing highly explosive material killed 78 people, injured nearly 4,000 and sent seismic shockwaves that shattered windows, smashed masonry and shook the ground across the Lebanese capital.

Officials said they expected the death toll to rise further after Tuesday’s blast as emergency workers dug through rubble to rescue people and remove the dead. It was the most powerful explosion in years in Beirut, which is already reeling from an economic crisis and a surge in coronavirus infections.

**

Damage and casualties continued to rise Tuesay, as a heavy downpour that started over the weekend extended to a fourth day.

By 4 p.m. Tuesday, the torrential rains in capital Seoul and provinces Gyeonggi, North Chungcheong, South Chungcheong and Gangwon had left 14 dead, 12 missing, and seven injured, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

Also:

North Korea did not notify South Korea before discharging water from a border dam earlier this week in violation of an inter-Korean agreement, a unification ministry official said Tuesday.

On Monday, the North partially opened the floodgates of Hwanggang Dam on the western inter-Korean border and sent water into the Imjin River, a move that put authorities here on alert against the potential rise in water levels in the South.

"North Korea has opened the gates of the dam three times from July to Aug. 3. The North has not notified us in advance as it opened the gates of the dam," the ministry official said.

"The water level in Pilseung Bridge as of 7 a.m. Tuesday was 2.99 meters, and it has not reached a level of concern," he said. "The government is cooperating closely with several institutions, maintaining communication and strictly following the response system."

Under an agreement signed between the two Koreas in October 2009, the North agreed to notify the South in advance of its plans to open the floodgates, following a deadly accident that killed six South Koreans after the North discharged water from Hwanggang Dam without notice.

"The government maintains the stance that (the two Koreas) must abide by inter-Korean agreements," he said.

From the least transparent and competent government ever to find itself back in the nation's saddle:

The alleged attempts to hide the documents, requested from the defence department and Canadian Forces under the Access to Information law, was revealed in December 2018 pre-trial proceedings in the case of Vice Adm. Norman.

That bombshell further fuelled concerns among Norman’s supporters who alleged the Liberal government and senior military officers were trying to railroad the vice admiral, who was once the second in command of the Canadian Forces. Norman had been charged by the RCMP with one count of breach of trust for allegedly revealing information about Liberal government plans to derail a supply ship project. But the case against Norman collapsed in May 2019, with the vice admiral exonerated and a large financial settlement paid by the federal government to the naval officer.

During pre-trial proceedings in the Norman case, a military officer testified that his boss, a brigadier general, bragged that Norman’s name was deliberately not used in internal military and Department of National Defence files — meaning any search for records under the Access to Information law about Norman would come up empty.

The testimony was enough to prompt Caroline Maynard, the federal government’s information watchdog, to begin an investigation into the Canadian Forces and DND’s handling of access requests in the Norman case. She revealed two weeks ago that the results of her initial investigation into the matter showed evidence of the possible commission of an offence under the access law and she had referred the issue to the Attorney General of Canada back in February 2019 for further investigation.

In response to Maynard’s statement from two weeks ago, officials with the federal government as well as the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which prosecuted Norman, claimed the concerns raised by the information watchdog were referred first to the RCMP and then from there to the Ontario Provincial Police.

But an investigation by this newspaper has found those claims were false. The OPP confirmed they had never been contacted to investigate the allegations that documents were hidden in the Norman case.

The RCMP was indeed contacted by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions on March 19, 2019 about the concerns raised by Maynard. The RCMP, however, determined it was in a conflict of interest due to its investigation of Norman and it had planned to refer the case to the OPP.

**

Imagine this scene in an Ottawa courtroom. Arthur, the plaintiff in a lawsuit, claims millions of dollars in damages from the defendants, Justin and Bill. As the trial opens it emerges that the presiding judge, Madam Justice Portia, has recently enjoyed a luxurious family vacation in Africa, paid for by Arthur. Moreover, Portia’s daughter is employed by Arthur, while Portia’s mother and brother have received hundreds of thousands of dollars for giving inspirational talks to Arthur’s clients.

The lawyer representing Justin and Bill rises to his feet demanding that, in light of her past financial relationships with Arthur, Portia must recuse herself. Madam Justice Portia indignantly rejects the demand to step aside, insisting that her judgment will be influenced neither by her personal ties to the plaintiff nor by the financial benefits she and her family have received. “I am an independently wealthy woman,” she insists. “I can’t be bought for a few hundred thousand dollars. I am, moreover, a person of great integrity whose judgment will not in any way be influenced by my relationship to the plaintiff.”

Neither Justin, nor Bill, nor any other reasonable person is going to be satisfied with this reassurance. Even if they accept Portia’s declaration that she is a person of integrity, they are going to worry that when she weighs the evidence her judgment will be biased by the benefits she and her family have received from Arthur – if not consciously, then perhaps subconsciously. She’s a wealthy person but she cannot help but be grateful to Arthur. Portia may well feel a need to reciprocate for the favours he’s done for her. Reciprocity is a deep human need we all experience (psychopaths excepted).

Some important lessons can be learned from the above scenario. First, potential conflicts of interest arise when an official is required to exercise discretion and is obligated to do so without bias. Public officials, whether judges or cabinet ministers, are ethically required to be “disinterested” with respect to the decisions they make. That doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the issues. It means that they have no vested (or personal) interest that might bias their judgment.

Conflict of interest does not require that bias actually occur, only that there is reason to fear that bias may be present. The risk of bias, not the exercise of bias, is what makes both our imaginary scenario and the WE Charity imbroglio real conflicts of interest.

Even if Portia ultimately rules against Arthur and in favour of Justin and Bill, this would not show that she is innocent of conflict of interest. Nor would it matter if, in her heart of hearts, she was unaffected by Arthur’s beneficence. It was ethically impermissible for Portia to hear the case because the benefits she had received from Arthur were a risk factor for bias. Cabinet ministers, like judges, are required by law, as well as ethics, to avoid such situations.

Thus, even if an independent inquiry establishes the truth of Prime Minister Trudeau’s claim that “WE Charity received no preferential treatment, not from me, not from anyone else,” it will still be the case that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Morneau were guilty of conflict of interest. It’s time that cabinet members and those who advise them figured this out.

**

A company in Quebec has been awarded $133,486,868 in sole-sourced federal orders to manufacture PPE even though it didn’t have a factory in Canada.

AMD Medicom Inc. was given the ten-year contract and some MPs are now demanding to see the terms of the contract, according to a report by Blacklock’s Reporter on Tuesday.

“As small and medium-sized businesses we want to know, does everybody have the same opportunity to produce personal protective equipment and sell it, or is the federal government picking winners and losers” Jocelyn Bamford, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, earlier told the Commons government operations committee.

You asked for it, Canada:

Restrictions on non-essential travel across the Canada-U.S. border have been in place since March 21 due to COVID-19.

Businesses in upper New York State are also feeling the loss of Canadians from Quebec and Ontario who cross the border to shop and vacation.

“We depend on our friends and neighbours to the north a lot,” said Billy Jones, member of the New York State Assembly for the area that includes Plattsburgh, N.Y.

“I’ve talked to some campground owners that are at 10 per cent capacity. Close to 90 per cent would be Canadians who come down here,” Jones said. “A lot of people from Canada have second homes here, and camps along our lakes.”

Jones said there are many businesses in his area that have yet to reopen, but those that have are feeling the absence of Canadians.

It goes both ways. Things will really hurt when the Americans cut you off.

What is that we need China for anyway?:

China vowed on Tuesday to retaliate if the United States persisted with “hostile action” against Chinese journalists who may be forced to leave in coming days if their U.S. visas are not extended.

 

**

But Canada doesn't need China or its military complex to produce a Canadian-made vaccine for Canadians. Why would we need China's help? If they could poison their own children, what could they do to us?:

Canada’s first big push for a COVID-19 vaccine may be falling victim to sour relations with Beijing, as Chinese officials continue to hold up a shipment of the drug needed to carry out promised human trials here.

CanSino Biologics of Tianjin, China signed an accord with the federal government in May to have its vaccine tested in Canada, a heavily promoted deal the government said could give Canadians early access to the serum.

But more two-and-a-half months later, the Canadian trials have yet to start, because scientists have nothing to study.

Samples of the vaccine candidate – already one of the world’s most advanced in terms of the trial process – have not been approved for shipment to Canada by Chinese customs, one of the researchers confirmed Tuesday.

David Mulroney, Canada’s ambassador to China from 2009 to 2012, said it’s hard to know why the delivery has been stalled, but he has his suspicions.

“It’s likely that the shipment is being delayed as part of China’s retaliation against Canada over the Meng (Wanzhou) arrest,” he said, referring to the Huawei Technologies CFO held in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition request.

Again, why would we trust these douchebags?

Moon's term has run too long:

North Korea has expressed its desire for “complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula and is not seeking conditions such as U.S. troops withdrawing from the South first, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday.

Yes, about that:

North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it has “probably developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles,” according to a confidential U.N. report.

The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring U.N. sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea’s past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturized nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017.

Also - why isn't she saying this in Seoul, Jakarta, Beijing, Manila or anywhere else in Asia?:

The National Research Council of Canada was heavily involved in the Manhattan Project and in the research by British scientists to develop the atom bomb. In April of 1944, King’s Cabinet War Committee approved expenditures for the National Research Council to design and operate nuclear reactors in Montreal and at Chalk River, Ont., whose discoveries about the production of plutonium would be shared with those involved in the Manhattan Project.

Yet Canada’s extensive role in the Manhattan Project and the development of the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been completely wiped from the collective Canadian consciousness and memory.

The Canadian government has never publicly acknowledged its participation in the Manhattan Project after gloating about it when the bombs were first dropped in 1945. There is little published about Canada’s contribution in the creation of atomic weapons and the subject is not taught in schools. Canadians of all ages believe Canada had nothing to do with the American atom bomb.

In my appeal to Mr. Trudeau, I asked that the government acknowledge Canada’s participation in the Manhattan Project and that the Prime Minister issue a statement of regret for the deaths and immense suffering inflicted on the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Well, people clearly do know about this involvement and crying about to PM Blackface Mc-People Experience Things Differently won't change the fact that the Japanese military was the ISIS of its day, committing atrocities and dragging its country into a war it could not win.

For perspective, I'll just leave this right here:

It was not the atomic bomb that gouged this huge hole in the Urakami basin. We dug it ourselves to the rhythm of military marches.

(Servant of God Dr. Takashi Nagai, survivor of the atomic bomb that levelled much of Nagasaki)

And the Rest of It

What is it that we need China for anyway?:

Former Canadian ambassador and cabinet minister John McCallum’s work for a Chinese immigration company should be investigated by the federal Ethics Commissioner, opposition MPs and a watchdog group say.

As The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week, Mr. McCallum has been working as a speaker for Wailian Group, a Shanghai-based immigration agency that helps people immigrate to Canada, among other countries.

Mr. McCallum served in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet as immigration minister before he was appointed Canada’s ambassador to China in 2017. He was fired in 2019 after repeatedly speaking in support of the release of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive accused of fraud in the U.S. and arrested in Canada, where she is in the midst of extradition hearings.

Last fall, Wailian paid to have Mr. McCallum speak to clients in five Chinese cities, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the person because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

In July, Mr. McCallum delivered remarks to another event organized by Wailian, this one online, in which he pitched Canada as a worthwhile destination for people from China, and cited his friends in the current cabinet.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said he thinks Mr. McCallum should be investigated for a possible breach of Section 33 of the Conflict of Interest Act, where the law says: “No former public office holder shall act in such a manner as to take improper advantage of his or her previous public office.”

Added Mr. Conacher: “Being paid by the Wailian Group to speak to their clients in China who may want to immigrate to Canada and would be dealing with Canadian government institutions through that process is, in my opinion, unsuitable and wrongful because it essentially amounts to McCallum cashing in on his public service as the former Canadian government ambassador to China and former immigration minister.”

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said anyone using “incredible insider access” gained during public office to “set up a shingle and sell themselves” would merit investigation.

The Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner declined to answer whether it’s already looking into Mr. McCallum’s work for Wailian, citing confidentiality rules. It also declined to say whether the ex-envoy consulted with the office before taking on this work.

Mr. Angus said he thinks the government shouldn’t be appointing politicians or people with major political party ties to ambassadorial posts but should instead limit the pool of candidates to career diplomats.

In June, The Globe reported that the Ethics Commissioner is investigating whether David MacNaughton, former Canadian ambassador to the United States, broke conflict-of-interest rules in his subsequent work for American data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. As a past co-chair of the Liberal Party of Canada’s 2015 federal election campaign, Mr. MacNaughton has extensive ties to the governing party.

Conservative immigration critic Peter Kent said he is concerned that Mr. McCallum’s work with Wailian “does not pass the smell test.” He said “it would seem to be a legitimate cause for the Ethics Commissioner to at least investigate the information that is publicly available now and perhaps to consider a [formal] investigation.”

Mr. Kent said there should also be a review of the conflict-of-interest rules for political appointees to ambassadorial posts.

Less than six months after he left his ambassador’s job in 2019, Mr. McCallum became a senior strategic adviser for McMillan LLP, a Canadian law firm.

The Globe reached out to Mr. McCallum Friday for comment by e-mail, by telephone and through an assistant at McMillan, but he did not immediately respond.

Mr. McCallum first made public appearances for Wailian last October and November, when he went to China to deliver remarks and pose for photographs. Over two weeks, he appeared at Wailian events in Qingdao, Beijing, Suzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

In each city, he spoke to a room with dozens – in some cases more than 100 – prospective clients for Wailian. The company paid for his attendance through an agreement with McMillan, according to the person familiar with the events.

Mr. McCallum’s July presentation, he told listeners at the Wailian event last month, was based in part on a conversation with Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino. The minister’s office later said that Mr. Mendicino himself reached out to Mr. McCallum in June to discuss immigration and refugee issues and that Mr. McCallum never mentioned Wailian.

**

Documents from lawyers for Canada’s attorney general say a series of witnesses will prove Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou lied to HSBC bank about the company’s relationship’s with Skycom in Iran.

The documents released Friday are the government’s arguments to be used during a hearing next April and they say there’s enough to prove fraud in support of Meng’s extradition to the United States.

(Sidebar: why are we waiting until next April to send this b!#ch to the US?)

We don't need American special-interest groups telling us what to do with our resources:

For many years, millions of dollars from the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation have poured into Canada. The Tides Foundation’s website claims, “Since 1976, Tides has scaled more than 1,400 social ventures, fueled social change in 120+ countries, and mobilized over $3B for impact.”1 Some of these have been in Canada.

What can go wrong?:

Hussein Sobhe Borhot must post $30,000 in bail, wear an ankle monitor and remain in Alberta. He is not permitted to apply for a passport or posses firearms or explosives.

The 34-year-old was charged July 22 with four counts of terrorism over his alleged role in ISIS, which he is accused of joining in 2013 until returning to Canada in 2014.

He faces a possible life sentence if convicted on all counts, but the Alberta court ruled he could be released to await his trial. A bail hearing was held in Calgary on Friday.

**

On Jan. 21, 2019, a 16-year-old Kingston resident disclosed to a contact that he secretly supported the so-called Islamic State.

He also hinted he was about to take action, saying he “may carry out a solo operation in the next few days.”

Three days later, police arrested him for terrorism, but while they had been investigating him for two months, even they were likely surprised by what they found in his bedroom.

Detonators, containers filled with white powders that turned out to be explosives, and diagrams of improvised explosive devices were among the 95 exhibits they seized. It was a bomb lab.

His cellphone listed “churches, night club, public places, sports courts, gardens and parks, crowded places filled with crucifix believers” as possible targets.

The youth, who is originally from Syria and cannot be named because he is a minor, pleaded guilty to four counts of terrorism on Tuesday.

A redacted version of the 37-page statement of facts the accused admitted to was released on Friday, providing a detailed account of the youth’s involvement in ISIS terrorism in the months leading to his arrest.

Also - this douchebag:

A federal appeals court Friday threw out Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases.

I must admit that I am biased against people who blow off legs.

I believe what you are suggesting is communism:

The growing wealth gap between homeowners and renters is an issue that the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) is striving to solve, especially with the economic impacts from COVID-19 widening the divide. For the organization, that means tackling the country’s obsession with homeownership and promoting alternatives.

Even before the pandemic, Canada’s compulsion towards homeownership worsened housing affordability for young renters and kept values high for owners.

“The problem is promoting home ownership for its own sake, is just inflationary to pricing,” Evan Siddall, the CEO of the CMHC told Yahoo Finance Canada. “We spend a lot of time as a group trying to figure out with our legislation how we could reconcile these things and that was the core idea behind CMHC.”

(Sidebar: please see here and here.)

It's Just Money

Who tracks that?:

A $10.5 million federal program paid climate change researchers for studies that were never written, and other reports that were little read. “The program faces many challenges,” wrote auditors with the Department of Fisheries.

**

The federal carbon tax was intended to be a “powerful incentive” for Canadians to use less heat in the winter, says a 2018 Access To Information memo by the Department of Natural Resources. Officials subsequently blamed winter heating in part for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions: ‘Canadians should not be punished every time they turn up the thermostat.’

The proles and their heating!

The Other Scandal

The We scandal is a silver lining for the Liberals.

Consider these:

The Liberals failed to shut the borders to travel from China early on, allowing thousands of possibly infected travellers from the Wuhan region to enter our country.

Canada’s first CCP Virus cases all came from China, thus seeding further outbreaks. ...

The government claimed screening was taking place at airports, but that was revealed as a lie, and provincial governments had to send their own screeners to make up for the federal absence – even though it’s an area of provincial jurisdiction.

For weeks – and even months – the Liberals and the political class attacked the idea of border shutdowns, called people racist for wanting travel shut down, and obsessed over ‘prejudice’ and political-correctness. ...

Turns out, Canada had a strong Pandemic Early Warning System, that had worked well on Avian Flu, Ebola, H1N1, and MERS.

Then, about a year ago, the Liberals gutted the program.

Now, the Auditor General is investigating.

According to a report by the Globe & Mail, “Canada’s Auditor-General is planning to investigate what went wrong with the country’s once-vaunted early warning system for pandemics after the unit curtailed its surveillance work and ceased issuing alerts more than a year ago, raising questions about whether it failed when it was needed most.

Sources close to the matter said the Auditor-General is planning to probe the government’s handling of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, or GPHIN, which was a central part of the country’s advance surveillance, early detection and risk-assessment capacity for outbreaks.”

**

The Public Health Agency in a January 29 briefing note advised Canadians traveling in pandemic quarantine zones in China not to wear a mask despite local mandatory mask orders. Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, for weeks told the public masks were pointless and risky: “You have to be careful you’re not putting your finger in your eye.”

(Sidebar: thanks for the contempt, Quack.)

**

Toronto may be getting a handle on community-transmitted cases of COVID-19, or so the data suggests, but that doesn't mean that the virus is anywhere close to under our control.

New confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to enter Canada, or enter Ontario from other provinces by plane nearly every day.

A non-exhaustive database of "locations where you may have been exposed to COVID-19" is currently being maintained by the federal government based on information from provincial, territorial and international health authorities.

As of July 30, it shows that 34 international flights have landed in Canada with cases of the virus aboard since July 15.

Another six flights from within the country — two from Vancouver and four from Montreal — have landed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport over the past two weeks (which is as far back as the records are ever displayed.)

**

Considering the many hundreds of billions that have been spent in Canada dealing with the CCP Virus Pandemic, $35 million for a potentially Canadian-made vaccine is basically nothing at all.

Nowhere in the frantic bleatings for THE CHILDREN (TM) do these things come up or even Patty's many, many trips while everyone else was forbidden to get their hair cut.

Also:

North Korea’s nominal head of state inspected the locked down border town Kaesong after a defector suspected of having the coronavirus returned from South Korea, said state media, signaling serious concerns about cross-border contamination.

The isolated country has claimed it has no domestic virus cases and has imposed strict quarantine measures and screening in Kaesong, just north of the border with the South, where the suspected coronavirus infection was reported.