Canada Shot Itself In the Foot

 So there's that.

 

Read - it's not good for the dwindling Canadian economy that dumped Chinese metal into the US, has this moron for a horse-trader and has been an all-around bad neighbour to a rather generous one:

Slapping a new round of tariffs on Canadian aluminum comes down to “bad economics” by the Trump administration, says Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains.

In an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, the minister in charge of what was formerly known as the industry portfolio, stressed the move announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last week will only hurt American manufacturers given the tight integration of North American supply chains.

“This is bad economics. This is not good for the Canadian economy or the American economy,” said Bains, calling the measures “counter-intuitive” to the intent behind the renegotiated NAFTA deal.

 

 

With nearly nine thousand dead from a virus that Justin's favourite country spread all over the globe and the utter viciousness of its residents, who would want to visit Canada now?:

The heads of the country’s tourism industry groups are warning their sector has been decimated by the months-long coronavirus lockdown and needs federal help to survive through “very, very dire” straits until next year.

“It is, across the board, a very, very dire situation,” said Charlotte Bell, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.

 

Is Justin still doing a great job?

 

 

Because William Shatner:

 

From the Most Corrupt Government Ever Re-Elected ...

 Had this been a normal country, its government would have resigned by now:

The federal Liberal government has handed over thousands of pages of documents related to the WE controversy to a House of Commons committee, which lawyers are now vetting for personal information and cabinet secrets.

The finance committee demanded the documents last month as it probes whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relationship with WE Charity influenced the government’s ill-fated decision to have the organization run a federal student-volunteer program.

 

How many black markers were used? 

One would think that at least one of Justin's handlers would keep her nose out of the trough.

But no!:

The Conservative Party wants to know who was responsible for outsourcing the federal government’s $84 million rent subsidy program during the novel coronavirus pandemic, which was awarded to a company where the spouse of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, holds a senior vice-president position.

I am sure there was no one else in the civil service who could skim off of the top of this who could handle this.

You b@$#@rds:

The Public Health Agency in internal memos disclosed it was so unprepared for the pandemic it shipped date-expired medical items to provinces, and relied on donations from Home Depot. The documents confirmed managers had scant supplies in a national stockpile after throwing away millions of masks in 2019: ‘Did they warn the cabinet?’

 

Those cheap, worthless b@$#@rds.

But you can waste money on  "smoother meetings", can't you?

Also - where are the masks, you cheap b@$#@rds?:

A Québec contractor named an exclusive federal supplier of Canadian-made pandemic masks has failed to ship any, says the Public Health Agency. Internal documents show AMD Medicom Inc. was awarded contracts worth $381,693,476 — three times the figure publicly disclosed — on a promise of speedy delivery weeks ago, though it didn’t have a factory in Canada: “To date the Public Health Agency has not received surgical masks from Medicom’s Canadian production facility.”

After Tam's quackery, should one even question the official line on mask-wearing?

How can this go wrong?:

The echo chamber of Canadian politics reverberated with some particularly juicy scuttlebutt last week. Mark Carney was set to announce as a Liberal candidate and become Canada’s finance minister, it was heard and said.

The utterly imaginary ascended to the level of sure thing, thanks to two events. First, well-regarded York Centre Liberal MP Michael Levitt announced his resignation to become president of the Canadian Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies. The Toronto area riding was Conservative as recently as 2015, but it has historically been as safe a Liberal seat as any personage with an international reputation to protect could wish.

Happening Right Now ...

BREAKING: Trump evacuated from White House Briefing Room, cause unknown pic.twitter.com/zBqTpP5Jvn

— BNO News (@BNONews) August 10, 2020

Sunday Post

 A bit going on in the world...

 

 

The most corrupt and inept government ever re-elected would rather people forget that spouses of chiefs of staff are awarded government programs, that the current hand-puppet of China's was so deep into the WE scandal that his grubby fingerprints are all over it and that he has yet another personal day after a long series of personal days.

Carry on ...

One thing that Canadians won't soon forget is the taxes that will have to pay on their welfare:

CERB payments claimed over the course of the program are regarded as regular income. The CRA assumes that a dollar claimed in CERB is the same as a dollar earned from regular income or self-employment. 

This means that how much you owe in taxes will depend on two factors – how much CERB you claimed and how much other income you made in 2020. Let’s take a few examples to delve deeper.  ...

Assume two applicants – Jerry and Samantha – both claimed CERB payments from the CRA this year. Jerry works at a fast food restaurant that was shut for four months, during which he claimed the maximum $8,000 in CERB payments. 

He expects to make $2,000 in the rest of the year. That means his total annual income for 2020, $10,000, was below the basic personal amount. Effectively, Jerry would pay no taxes. 

Samantha, however, owns an events management company. She expects to make no income for the rest of the year and has already claimed $8,000 in the maximum CERB payments. However, a major event she hosted in January earned her $100,000. Her marginal tax rate is 26%, which means she will owe $2,080 on her CERB payments to the CRA next year.

 

Now who doesn't want to go to work?

Also - who pays for shoes in installments?:

It’s not just that COVID-19 has retailers advertising kids’ face masks right next to T-shirts, pencils and laptops. There’s another novelty many online shoppers will notice: you can now buy something as inexpensive as a pair of shoes in installments.

“These buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services are new and quickly gaining popularity,” the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said in a press release this week. And while the idea may sound “great,” consumers should “be careful,” the bureau warned.

 

Get people used to being broke.

The first duty of the RCMP is to protect itself and we should not suffer under the illusion of anything else:

Based upon interviews with other current and former police officers, witnesses, and law enforcement, and on emergency services transcripts, it seems clear that there was a collapse of the policing function on that weekend.

At no point in the two-day rampage did the RCMP get in front of the killer, who the Examiner identifies as GW. It also seems apparent that some Mounties, many of whom were called in from distant locales, were stunningly unaware of the geography and landmarks in the general area as the RCMP tried to keep up with GW.

Sources within the RCMP say a major problem was that communications between various RCMP units was never co-ordinated. “Everyone was on their own channels,” the source said. “Nothing was synchronized. They could have gone to a single channel and brought in the municipal cops as well, but for some reason they didn’t. It was like no one was in charge.” ...

“We are taught to move past injured victims and attack the situation,” said one current RCMP member. “If the suspect is in a building, we use a T formation. If he’s outdoors, it’s a diamond. You typically need four officers, but, if need be, you can do it with fewer. The point is to neutralize the suspect as quickly as possible and prevent further injuries or deaths.”

In spite of what the RCMP has publicly stated, law enforcement sources and others have told the Examiner that the first RCMP responders did not actively intervene after arriving at the scene. After discovering a considerable number of slain victims around a property and on or near the road, the officers retreated to a point near the top of Portapique Beach Road where they congregated to wait for reinforcements.

Several RCMP and law enforcement sources say that a corporal from a nearby detachment who was the initial supervisor on the scene froze in place to the distress of other Mounties. The corporal later ran into nearby woods and turned off their flashlight and hid. That officer continues to be off work on stress leave.

Some veteran Mounties say that there were likely a number of factors which caused the first Mounties on the scene to hesitate. 

“It could have been inexperience. Maybe there was no backup. And then there’s always that Canada Labour Code thing,” said one long time Mountie.

He was referring to a $550,000 fine imposed on the RCMP in January 2018 for failing to properly arm and train its members after three Mounties were murdered and two injured in a shooting rampage in Moncton on June 4, 2014. Since the Labor Code decision, all RCMP members on patrol are trained in the use assault weapons. Every Mountie carries a Colt C8 rifle with a 30-shot magazine in their patrol cars. The high-powered gun is considered to be an upgrade to the American made AR-15.

“They were in a bad situation,” said the Mountie. ”Their duty is to save lives, but whoever the supervisor was, he or she might have been thinking that they could be criminally sanctioned and go to jail if they send officers into a life threatening situation. At the very least, it could be the end of their career. That’s how the Labour Code fine is interpreted, even if the police are supposed to be exempt from it in the performance of their duties.”

 

 

What do we need China for?:

A Chinese court said on Friday it had sentenced a Canadian to death for transporting and manufacturing drugs, the second Canadian in two days to receive a death penalty for drugs and fourth since Canada detained a top Huawei executive in 2018.

 

I would have expected Justin to cave into this extortion by now.

** 

The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, including the pro-China leader of the government, accusing them of co-operating with Beijing’s effort to undermine autonomy and crack down on freedom in the former British colony.

** 

Yes, I am sure Hong Kong will get right on that:

Canada and its Five Eyes allies — the U.K., the U.S. New Zealand and Australia — are calling on the Hong Kong government to reinstate disqualified candidates and hold its Legislative Council elections as soon as possible.

 

I'll just leave this right here.

**

China restricted flights within its borders but did not prevent anyone from going out. Something to think about:

China has sealed off an Inner Mongolian village after a resident died from the bubonic plague, according to a statement by the municipal health authorities.

 

 

The annual guilt-fest of the use of nuclear weapons should be addended with what the Japanese military did and how it was still willing to fight even after a bomb levelled much of Hiroshima and the peace and prosperity that occurred afterwards:

The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday marked its 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing, with the mayor and dwindling survivors urging world leaders including their own to do more for a nuclear weapons ban.

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 Takashi Nagai)

There is a reason why I will not call liberals/leftists "progressive":

Members of Antifa have brought more chaos to the streets of Portland this week. Wednesday night included rioters using accelerants to set fire to the front of an occupied police precinct building while intentionally blocking exits. On Thursday, two elderly women were assaulted, one being doused with white paint. 

 

Remember - this is all supposed to stop racism.

Or something.

Soma has been approved when getting rid of someone:

“With so many Canadians diagnosed with terminal illnesses each year, and many choosing MAiD (medical assistance in dying), we hope to be another option for the patients who are experiencing end-of-life distress and want to try something like psilocybin,” Hawkswell says.

Why not just warehouse people in old-age homes and let them die in their own waste?

Dead is dead, right? 

 

Also - further moral rotting of society:

Remains of a newborn were found in Pickering, Ontario on Thursday and the homicide unit has started an investigation, reports CP24.

“The citizen was walking along the shoreline of Lake Ontario here in Pickering when she noticed some remains floating in the water,” said Acting Sgt. George Tudos, of the Durham Regional Police.

 

And - we killed granny by prioritising liquor stores over protecting old age homes but whatever: 

Young people in Preston have been urged not to “kill granny” amid reports that almost half of new coronavirus cases in the city were among those aged 30 and younger.

 

A Quick Word ...

 A lot going on in the world ...

 

 

Someone other than Justin has to do some actual work around here and that work is threatening the US with as much clout as a pool noodle:

The Trudeau government will respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to again slap tariffs on Canadian aluminum by levelling $3.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs on imports of the metal from south of the border, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday.

Freeland said during a press conference that the federal government will hold consultations with consumers and businesses for 30 days on a broad list of products from the United States containing aluminum, after which Canada will impose tariffs on certain items from that list.

 

Canadians have elected a government that resembles them the most: weak, arrogant, clueless, self-important and with an undeserved sense of entitlement. It is not Trump's nor any other American's job to defend Canadian interests or even to hand it something. That's what Canadian elections are supposedly for: to elect strong and capable horse-traders who not only bargain well but don't flood their ally's markets with inferior metal from China (Canada's abusive boyfriend) nor under-cut Canadian industries and workers. Furthermore, this set of tariffs the deputy prime minister swears to impose would cost Canada more than the US.

So there's that.

Also - how much of that is seasonal work or simply people return to the jobs they nearly lost in March?:

Canada gained 419,000 jobs last month, more than economists forecast, as more parts of the economy were allowed to reopen.

The unemployment rate inched down to 10.9 per cent in July, data from Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey showed Friday. In June, the jobless rate was 12.3 per cent, and it hit a record high of 13.7 per cent in May.

**

 

 

Wow. People were totally on top of that coronavirus thing:

A Québec company that won a lucrative ten-year federal contract for pandemic masks repeatedly lobbied Industry Minister Navdeep Bains and his staff, records show. Bains’ department contacted AMD Medicom Inc. within hours of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic: ‘The government out of the blue reached to Medicom.’

**

The United States is increasingly stereotyped as a uniquely bleak and broken country — particularly by American journalists. A large amount of U.S. coronavirus commentary accordingly attributes the United States’ extremely high numbers of cases and deaths to standard tropes about American racism, inequality, political dysfunction and stupidity. Paul Krugman of the New York Times says it’s the “longstanding anti-science, anti-expertise streak in American culture” that’s made America “exceptional, in a very bad way.”

Canada, by contrast, has received mostly favorable press. A July story from CNN attributes the country’s comparatively low rates to Canadians’ calm compliance with social distancing and mask-wearing (“most see it as their duty”), and their “unwavering deference to science.” The Toronto Star praised Canada’s “national DNA” of humility, trust and compassion.

But neither of these stereotype-heavy theories provide much useful insight for understanding what’s actually going on in North America.

For one, praising Canada’s “success” at keeping covid-19 at bay only works in a binary comparison with the United States. For much of the pandemic, Canada has consistently ranked among the 20 worst-hit nations, having passed 100,000 cases and 8,000 deaths in June. Per capita, Canada has been less successful fighting the virus than Germany, South Africa or Turkey — to say nothing of South Korea, Norway and Australia, whose rock-bottom numbers are legitimately world-class. Likewise, for all the talk of the naturally obedient Canadians, Canada actually has one of the world’s “lower rates of face-mask usage”— ranking behind the United States.

Second, in terms of land area, the United States and Canada are two of the largest nations on Earth. On coronavirus, as with anything, it’s absurd to make sweeping generalizations about how either continent-sized country has “experienced” it.

Quebec has recorded more than 5,600 coronavirus-related deaths, a number higher than all but nine states in the United States. Ontario has had more than 2,700 deaths — higher than 34 American states. If you live in Canada’s two biggest provinces, in short, it’s hardly obvious that things are going swimmingly. Perhaps they have less of that “national DNA”?

Similarly, the disparities between U.S. states — both red and blue — make it difficult to correlate the U.S. experience with any broad stereotype about American political culture. The “mask ban” imposed by Georgia’s Republican governor has been held up as the quintessential example of American right-wing misrule, yet many states run by progressive, science-minded Democrats, including New York, California and New Jersey, have faced considerably higher death tolls. It’s difficult to come up with a clear theory of what talents are lacked by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) but possessed in Canada by British Columbia’s premier, John Horgan. Yet British Columbia has among the fewest per-capita coronavirus deaths in the entire world. Experts have hazy theories as to why this might be, but they often just descend into vague praise for the communication skills of provincial health officer Bonnie Henry — as though the idea of having a stern authority figure go on television and tell people to socially distance hadn’t occurred anywhere else.

 

(Sidebar: Mr. McCullough's detractors  in the comments section- the soy socialists whose familiarity with Canada can be considered as passing at best - will, no doubt, swear to leave the US after Trump squeaks by in November but - like Robert De Niro - will not. Instead, they will enjoy still wearing their pontificating masks of sanctimony in an economy that works but certainly isn't Canada.)

The Grift Dynasty:

Canada's Ethics Commissioner has had to hire new investigators so to examine the prime minister's and the finance minister's alleged ethics violations.

On Thursday, the office of the Ethics Commissioner posted a recruitment notice, saying that "a new staffing process is now posted for the position of investigations officer."

**

The Trudeau government is paying up to $84 million to a company that employs Chief of Staff Katie Telford’s husband as a senior executive to administer its COVID-19 emergency commercial rent assistance program for small businesses.

Due to the ties between Telford and her husband, Robert Silver, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) assures that their chief of staff has recused herself from any decisions that may involve MCAP, Silver’s employer.

** 

MPs on the Commons finance committee yesterday questioned the scope of a federal grant that would have paid We Charity the equivalent of two-thirds of its annual revenue. Marc and Craig Kielburger, the $125,173-a year co-founders of We Charity, had testified they would not have made any gains on the agreement: “Does that seem to be a bit odd to you?”

** 

“In the Liberals’ telling, it was all the civil service’s idea,” MacDougall wrote.

“It was a binary choice between WE or no program at all. This might sound plausible to someone with no knowledge of the federal public service, but if you know Ottawa or the public service at all, you are right now laughing through your tears. The only way the public service recommends outsourcing its work to a cult of one-eyed purple people eaters is if the political side asks it to consider only one-eyed purple people eaters.”