Foreign Interference in a Post-National State

Calling Justin Trudeau et al traitors would imply that at one point they were loyal to Canada.

Nothing could be further from the truth:

Former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s chief of staff categorically denied delaying the approval of a CSIS electronic and entry warrant application allegedly targeting an influential Liberal powerbroker in 2021 during public testimony Wednesday.

Speaking at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference (PIFI) on Wednesday evening, former senior Liberal aide Zita Astravas repeatedly said claims she “slow walked” the warrant authorization for political reasons were “categorically false.”

But during her testimony, Astravas never clearly explained why 54 days went by between the moment she received the CSIS warrant authorization request in March 2021 and the moment the document was put to Minister Blair to sign on May 11.

**

Defence Minister Bill Blair says he cannot explain why his office waited nearly two months to approve a security warrant placing Liberal Party organizers under surveillance over suspicious contacts with members of the Chinese Communist Party. “I agree I was at all times responsible,” Blair testified at the Commission on Foreign Interference: “Was this a politically sensitive warrant?”

Consider that, other than admitting outright treason, the reason why the elected officials in this country aren't doing their jobs is because they can't and Canadians accept this.

Wow ...

Also:

About 100 Canadians are being held in Chinese prisons, says the Department of Foreign Affairs. The latest figures follow an appeal from the Chinese Embassy that Canadian visitors should not fear arbitrary arrest: “If you walk on the Chinese streets, it’s quite safe.”

 

No country for anyone:

The families of two Canadian-Israeli women killed in the October 7 attack on Israel are suing a wide range of organizations, arguing they’re liable for $350 million for the death of their family members.

**

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is already a Canadian listed terror group. It’s been involved in deadly hijackings, suicide bombings and mass shootings all the way back to the 1970s, and its members participated in the Hamas-led October 7 massacres.

Samidoun was founded by Khaled Barakat, an active member of the PFLP. And Samidoun is extraordinarily open about its ties to the Gazan terror group. Samidoun social media accounts are used to circulate PFLP press statements. The group coordinates speaking engagements for PFLP members. They celebrate PFLP birthdays and anniversaries. They even apparently use many of the same graphics and web design as the PFLP.

Barakat, in fact, is currently in Lebanon to coordinate in tandem with the terrorist group Hezbollah. He laid it all out in a lengthy blog post circulated by Samidoun. “Today and always, we stand wholeheartedly with the people of Lebanon and their heroic resistance, led by Hezbollah,” said Barakat in a dispatch from Beirut.

Three days after Barakat sent it, the PFLP confirmed that three of their members, including two military commanders, had been killed in a targeted Israeli strike on a Beirut apartment building. ...

Canada’s various anti-Israel groups have never attempted to conceal their jubilation at Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’s official name for their operation to massacre Israeli civilians throughout the Gaza envelope. But Samidoun has been consistent in praising the terrorist attacks by name.

**

After Samidoun was roundly condemned for chanting “death to Canada” at a Vancouver rally celebrating the one-year anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attacks, the anti-Israel group has doubled down on the slogan, saying it’s an accurate representation of what it intends to do.

**

Samidoun, a Vancouver-based anti-Israel organization, has been designated as a terror group in both Canada and the United States.

 

Also:

The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to U.S. weapons funding.

 

 What he said:

Pierre Poilievre on Iran: "If Israel were to stop that genocidal, theocratic, unstable government from acquiring nuclear weapons, it would be a gift by the Jewish state to humanity." pic.twitter.com/YJ7q953JW9

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 8, 2024

 

Then there is the India business, first ignited in 1985 with the death of 332 people at the hands of Sikh extremists and now this current bungled mess:

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Oct. 14 that it is expelling Acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler and five other diplomats. They have been asked to leave the country by Oct. 19.

“The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the [Hardeep Singh] Nijjar case,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in a statement. Joly didn’t disclose the name of the expelled diplomats.

**

New Delhi has vehemently rejected Ottawa’s claims Indiandiplomats were linked to homicides, extortion and other violent criminal activity in Canada, describing them as “preposterous imputations” driven by the political agenda of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In a flurry of statements late Monday, India accused Mr. Trudeau of “smearing India for political gains” and ordered six Canadian diplomats, including acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, to leave the country. This tit-for-tat response followed Canada’s own expulsion of Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five of his colleagues, who have been linked to the June 2023 killing of Surrey, B.C.-based Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the accusations against its diplomats – which follow a year-long investigation by the RCMP in which at least 30 people have been charged – as “assertions without facts.”

“The Canadian Government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side,” it said in a statement.

A senior Canadian official said texts and messages from Indian officials about intelligence gathering and attacks on Sikhs in Canada were shared with senior Indian officials, while Mr. Trudeau said he also raised the issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a brief aside last week at a summit in Laos.

Even before the latest revelations, however, suspicion of Mr. Trudeau was such that he was unlikely to get a receptive audience, said Harsh Pant, vice-president of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank.

“I don’t think there’s any confidence in Delhi that with him at the helm there will be an honest attempt to resolve these issues,” Prof. Pant told The Globe and Mail. “Mr. Trudeau’s past has come back to haunt India and Canada’s present.”

 

**

Oh, how convenient:

On the surface, they provide a great distraction from the weekend’s attempted internal coup on the prime minister. The story of a revolt among Liberal MPs, thirty of which apparently signed a letter asking the PM to quit, hit the news cycle on Saturday. Then, presto: on Monday, the RCMP dropped its bombshell, allowing the PM to take to the airwaves and sound all grave and solemn and prime-minister like, defending Canadian sovereignty.

Hmm. But that would be too obvious. So let’s look at what else is going on in Ottawa, namely the Hogue Commission on Foreign interference. On Friday, the Commission heard from Public Safety Minister Bill Blair that his office sat for 54 days on a warrant to investigate Ontario Liberal MPP Michael Chan, accused of doing China’s bidding in Canada. Blair offered “no explanation” for the delay, and neither did his chief of staff.

Three days later, boom: India stands accused of being the major agent of transnational repression in Canada. China, who? And the focus switches from the Liberal government’s failings to the murderous machinations of New Delhi. And here’s the kicker: who is responsible for ensuring that the RCMP is “effective, accountable and addresses the government’s priorities?” You guessed it: Bill Blair, the minister of public safety.

 

A Tall Glass of "I Told You So"

Behold!:

Stephen Harper captured at a private event speaking about the big job ahead for Pierre Poilievre and the conservatives. pic.twitter.com/xY2F95cnnG

— Glenda M 🇨🇦 🍎 (@McfarlaneGlenda) October 3, 2024

 

 

Your Craven, Greedy, Useless and Deceptive Government and You

There is no need for this:

Trudeau Green Slush Fund whistleblower confident the RCMP will confirm the 'criminal activities' that took place.

Parliament is paralyzed by Liberals covering up the release of the documents.

400 million dollars went to Liberal insiders.

Enough with the corruption. Enough with… pic.twitter.com/6QRdAx2bAc

— Larry Brock (@LarryBrockMP) October 9, 2024

 **

Meaning that NO ONE would know what goes on behind closed doors, especially the deals to hide this corruption:

During question period on Wednesday, Liberal House leader Karina Gould said the quagmire — triggered by a Conservative privilege motion over the government’s refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the now-defunct Sustainable Development Technology Canada’s billion-dollar “green slush fund” scandal — should be resolved in the committee room, not the House.

 

They will not turn on Justin even to save their own skins:

When their plane landed in Hawaii for a refuelling stop, Ng said she turned on her phone and saw multiple media reports about efforts by some of her Liberal colleagues in media outlets such as CBC News and The Toronto Star.

“I would say that I’m disappointed because Canadians expect us to be focusing on Canadians,” Ng said.

“I’m a Liberal MP and I have full confidence in Justin Trudeau as my leader.”

 

This Mary Ng: 

Ng's office had awarded a contract to the public relations firm Pomp and Circumstance in the spring of 2020. While it was only worth just under $17,000, Bezan raised concerns over a potential breach of conflict-of-interest rules, given the existence of a friendship between Ng and the firm's co-founder Amanda Alvaro.

She is defending this twerp:

“At this time of backlash against progressive policies of inclusion and diversity, you know, are we going to double down on making sure that everyone gets to participate or play?” Trudeau said in an interview with Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith on his podcast program “Uncommons” released on Oct. 1.

 

As the weather gets colder and people are wondering how to heat their homes this coming winter, the aging frat-boy falls on his old stand-bys of "diversity" and "inclusion". 

Let's not forget that morons voted for this incorrigible excrement.

Also:

Canadian businesses have become "addicted" to temporary foreign workers, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Senate, acknowledging concerns over the country's growing reliance on migrant labour.

It's a shell-game:

Giroux found the Liberals’ claim that most Canadians receive more in rebates than they pay in carbon taxes is accurate. Only people in the highest income brackets in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will pay more in taxes than they receive in rebates.

But Giroux also went further, examining the economic impact of the carbon tax, which his analysis found slightly reduces Canada’s overall GDP and adds other costs to the economy. He found in that case, taking in both the direct and indirect cost of the carbon tax, most households are worse off.

“When we use the government’s own numbers and isolate the fuel charge itself, we still find that the average household is worse off, including the economic impact,” he said.

Giroux’s new numbers show that an Ontario family in the bottom 20 per cent of incomes would get $642 more per year back in rebates than they pay in carbon taxes in 2030, when the carbon tax is set to be $170 per tonne. A family in the highest 20 per cent of incomes would clear $28 after paying carbon taxes and collecting rebates.

However, when the economic impacts of the carbon tax are added in the numbers shift. The same Ontario family in the bottom 20 per cent of incomes ends the year $540 ahead, but a family in the top 20 per cent of incomes has a net loss of $3,467. On average, an Ontario family comes out $903 worse per year.

 

 

Because "transparency" and "freedom" and so on:

A Liberal-appointed senator yesterday apologized for censoring a newspaper commentary written by a Conservative opponent. Senator Lucie Moncion (Ont.) invoked her authority as chair of the Senate’s committee on internal economy in rewriting an opinion piece she deemed “incorrect.”

 

I'll just leave this here:

 

**

In August, Nunavut’s Information and Privacy Commissioner warned against using platforms like WhatsApp for government business. Such practices, the commissioner said, erode transparency frameworks by making critical records stored on non-government servers inaccessible “if the employee dies, resigns, goes on leave, or for any other reason is unwilling or unable to cooperate. They are not available to successors. They are not archived and stored.”

But, of course, that is often precisely the point. It is worth reflecting on federal government employees’ use of disappearing messaging apps on their government-issued devices to evade transparency.

While the government has banned TikTok, WeChat, and Kaspersky on these devices, there remains a glaring oversight. When I recently inquired about the use of messaging apps, the government admitted it “does not monitor or track individual apps” on its devices except for these three, allowing officials to download any other apps they want – and potentially conduct official business through third-party apps that bypass government servers and watchdogs’ scrutiny.

Government officials utilizing third-party apps (such as Signal, Confide, Wire or Dust, which feature encrypted and disappearing messages) does not seem to raise any concerns. Additionally, the use of Russian platforms such as Telegram, VKontakte, and Mail.ru appears acceptable. Discord, the platform used by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira to leak Pentagon records, also seems to pose no issues.

Despite the Trudeau government’s posturing against Meta in recent years, including suspending government (but not Liberal Party) advertising on Facebook and Instagram, government officials also remain free to use Meta’s digital communication technologies, such as WhatsApp, to conduct government business on their taxpayer-provided phones.

As the federal government’s Policy on Service and Digital states, government officials are permitted to use their devices to “discuss professional issues … via online forums or social networking sites” and even “visit social networking sites to connect with family and friends.”

This lax approach speaks volumes about the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability, as well as its stance on “privacy and security” – two values highlighted during last year’s rushed ban of TikTok on government-issued devices. That decision was always about marketing, not merit; a truly transparency-enhancing move would see the government ban all social-media and messaging apps on all government-issued devices – unless there is a business justification otherwise – and redirect their messages back through government applications and servers.

This would also address concerns about “the use of social media platforms for data harvesting and unethical or illicit sharing of personal information with foreign entities” – the focus of a parliamentary hearing I was asked to attend last year, which selectively focused on TikTok.

Like so.

Your Apres-Thanksgiving Post

 

That's because people can't do basic math.

The government counts on that:

In yet another high-stakes maneuver in the current session of Parliament, the Bloc Québécois recently tabled a motion urging the Trudeau government to support Bill C-319, which would increase Old Age Security (OAS) payments for seniors aged 65 to 74 by 10 per cent. The bill, which passed the House of Commons (though with only five Liberal votes in favour), proposes to spend money so it still requires a “royal recommendation” from the government. And the Bloc is threatening to trigger an election if the government doesn’t sign on by Oct. 29.

According to a new poll, 79 per cent of Canadians “support or somewhat support” the OAS increase. But the poll provided no information to respondents about the costs of expanding OAS, even though Canadians should understand the costs before they pledge support for any government program.

Benefits without costs are often popular. According to past polling, more than two-thirds of Canadians expressed support for the Trudeau government’s three new social programs: national dental care, $10-a-day daycare and pharmacare. Yet once respondents were made aware of potential tax increases (specifically, increases to the GST) to finance these programs, support plummeted to less than 50 per cent for all three.

Clearly, support for government programs can change dramatically once Canadians understand how much they’re going to have to pay for them. So, that being said, what are the costs of a 10 per cent increase in OAS payments for seniors aged 65 to 74? According to Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, more than $3 billion a year, with a five-year price tag of $16.1 billion, which is in his words a “significant chunk of change.”

Based on its latest budget, the Trudeau government expects to run deficits of at least $20 billion for the next five years and rack up more than $400 billion in new debt by fiscal year 2028-29. If it borrows more money to pay for increased OAS benefits, those deficit and debt numbers will grow even larger.

And again: Canadians will ultimately bear the costs of an expanded OAS through higher future taxes because of increased interest on the government’s debt. This fiscal year (2024-25) federal interest costs are expected to reach $54.1 billion — which is equal to all the money the GST raises. These are taxpayer dollars that won’t go towards any services or programs for Canadians. And interest costs will continue to grow as the government adds more and more debt.

In addition to being costly, the Bloc plan is poorly targeted. While some programs — most notably, the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) — provide additional income support to low-income seniors, OAS also goes to many upper middle-income seniors. Based on current thresholds, individual seniors earning up to $148,451 per year are eligible to receive it (though seniors earning more than $90,997 of income don’t receive the full amount). If Bill C-319 becomes law, a senior couple with a combined household income of nearly $300,000 will receive an increase in OAS payments.

 **

Blacklock's Reporter says the Department of Social Development report, dated April 29, estimates that increasing OAS benefits by 10% for pensioners aged 65 to 74 — the key provision of the Bloc bill — would add $19.76 billion to federal spending over the first six years. This increase mirrors a 2022 decision by the government to raise benefits for those over 75.

“In total, Bill C-319 amendments would increase Old Age Security program costs by $19.76 billion over the first six years,” said the report. “These costs would increase significantly over time with aging demographics.”

Currently, 7.1 million Canadians receive OAS benefits, which cost $69.4 billion in 2023. The bill is expected to directly affect 4.1 million pensioners aged 65 to 74, with the first year of implementation costing $3.24 billion.

Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet has issued a clear warning to the government: “If the government does not accede to our terms, we will embark on negotiations... with the end purpose being clear,” he told the Commons on October 2, signaling a potential coalition with other opposition parties to bring down the government if the bill isn't passed.

Bill C-319, which was introduced in 2023, is awaiting its third reading in the House of Commons before heading to the Senate. Blanchet’s ultimatum to pass it by Halloween raises the stakes for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority government.

The Briefing Binder also highlights the financial struggles many seniors face, noting that poverty rates among seniors have doubled since the pandemic. The poverty rate, which had dropped to 3.1% in 2020, rebounded to 6% by 2022, leaving 36,000 more seniors living in poverty than in 2015. Additionally, 11.7% of seniors experienced food insecurity last year, further underscoring the importance of boosting benefits.

 

"Food insecurity", you say:

The Competition Bureau concluded that Canada’s grocery industry is highly concentrated and needs more competition. It recommended that it be granted more funding and “more power to act,” particularly if it is to maintain “heightened vigilance and scrutiny” in the grocery sector.

A final factor contributing to food inflation — overlooked by both the Commons committee and the Competition Bureau — is the role of the Bank of Canada in drastically expanding the money supply.

The economic principle is simple: When the amount of money in an economy is increased, and there are more dollars chasing the same quantity of goods and services, price levels must rise. ...

The causes and culprits of food inflation are thus clearly explained by well-known economic principles and government decisions: supply chain disruptions, trade tariffs and expansionary monetary policy. There was no sudden increase of greed among grocers, nor any sudden decrease in competitive forces to keep that greed in check.

Perhaps these causes are not as provocative an explanation as greedflation, but they do a much better job of fitting both the observed facts and the scientific theory.

 

Also:

Grow your own fruit and veg – and destroy the planet. Allotment produce, much prized by proud food-growing citizens the world over, has six times the ‘carbon’ footprint of conventional agriculture, according to a recent paper published by Nature. “Steps must be taken to ensure that urban agriculture supports, and does not undermine, urban decarbonisation efforts,” demand the authors. What have these people been smoking? Surely not some of the puff circulating at the recent Psychedelic Climate Week in New York. Highlights included a discussion on funding ketamine-assisted therapy and a panel on ‘Balancing Investing and Impact with Climate and Psychedelic Capital’.

 

It's just money:

If the median Canadian family spent and borrowed like the federal government, they would already be $427,759 in debt, and continuing to borrow. This is not a hypothetical scenario, but a stark reality that should urgently raise serious concerns about our financial future.

The $39.8 billion deficit expected by Ottawa in 2024-2025 represents consecutive annual federal deficits since 2015. These continued deficits are not just numbers on a balance sheet, but a clear indication of the higher taxes that Canadians will inevitably face. The Trudeau Liberal administration has never balanced a budget, and the consequences are becoming increasingly clear. ...

Continuous annual borrowing by Ottawa to finance increased spending has driven federal total debt from 53% of the economy in 2014-15, up to an expected 69.8% in 2024-25. This significant increase in the level of federal debt is not just a number. It comes with a hurtful cost and will result in higher taxes on Canadians. The required interest payments that borrowing brings will start to crowd out the money needed to sustain our valued social programs, a future that is becoming increasingly uncertain.

 

I'm sure this will right itself with more money.

Mid-Week Post

 

The countdown to Thanksgiving Day is now ...

 

Former prime minister Stephen Harper emerges from his steam bath of complete and utter rightness to say that he told us all so:

A purported video is circulating showing Stephen Harper telling a partisan crowd that all his warnings about Justin Trudeau had come true.

“Unfortunately, literally everything I said would happen in 2015 has now come to pass,” says the former prime minister at what appears to be a gathering in Windsor, Ont.

The 90-second video was posted to TikTok by Anil Thapa, a Windsor restaurant owner, broadcaster and Conservative nomination candidate.

 

Is that so?

Idiot Canadians replaced an adult with an aging, blackface-wearing frat-boy who runs away at the first sight of strong-willed women and irate taxpayers.

 

 

Canada is poor:

A new report from the Fraser Institute, a Canadian free-market think tank, looks at income instead of output, and its findings are even worse for Canada. In a ranking of the 50 U.S. states and ten Canadian provinces by median earnings per person, all ten provinces line up at the bottom, occupying spots 51–60. Every U.S. state has higher median earnings per person than Alberta, the richest Canadian province.

The report tracks the changes in median earnings per person for each state and province in real, constant Canadian dollars between 2010 and 2022. “This twelve-year period allows for the analysis of a full business cycle following the 2008 recession through to 2022 when the economic effects of the global COVID pandemic began to subside,” the report notes.

Every state and province except Alberta saw increases in real median earnings between 2010 and 2022. But most U.S. states saw faster growth than their Canadian counterparts. British Columbia is the only Canadian province in the top half of the 60 total jurisdictions in earnings growth. Real earnings growth in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, was slower than in every U.S. state.

The report also zooms in on specific comparisons. It finds that relatively poor U.S. states have improved more than relatively poor Canadian provinces. In the ranking of all 60 jurisdictions by median earnings between 2010 and 2022, Utah improved from 47th to 28th, Michigan improved from 44th to 27th, and Arkansas improved from 45th to 31st. “Conversely, none of the lower-ranking Canadian provinces improved their relative positions by more than one position over the period from 2010 to 2022,” the report found.

 

 

Quebec is special:

A make-or-break Bloc Québécois bill to raise Old Age Security would cost almost $20 billion over six years, the highest estimate to date, says a federal Briefing Binder. Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet has warned the bill must pass into law by Halloween or his caucus will “bring down the government.”

 

Squeezing money out of the taxpayer in any way one can:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday said cabinet would like to adopt an Irish-style three percent annual federal tax on vacant lots. The Department of Finance opened consultations on the proposal: “Ireland has an example of a measure like this.”

 

Companies require the indentured servitude the Temporary Foreign Workers Plan provides:

Canadian employers have become addicted to migrant labour, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Senate last evening. Miller in November is expected to table a new Immigration Levels Plan that cuts the number of temporary foreign workers let into the country: “All of them ask for more and more.”

Also:

Several U.S. legislators recently wrote a letter to trade minister Mary Ng raising concerns that Canada needed tougher rules and better enforcement. The letter specifically cited goods that U.S. officials rejected over forced labour concerns being rerouted through Canada.

McKay said beyond the moral imperative there is a real trade risk to Canada if the issue isn’t addressed.

“If Americans come to the fixed position that Canada’s nothing other than sieve for slave products and other stuff that’s inadmissible to the United States, this will be to be really serious.”

We don't have to trade with China:

Legislators targeted by Chinese Communist Party agents should have been warned in person, the Department of Public Safety said yesterday. Canadian MPs were among 400 parliamentarians worldwide who were targeted by Chinese hackers in 2021: “Is the current system adequate? No.”

** 

He usually is:

Evidence at the China inquiry yesterday depicted Defence Minister Bill Blair, 70, as distracted and ineffectual. Witnesses testified Blair liked to work from home and had employees explain what security memos meant rather than reading the documents himself: “We were aware when drivers went to his house.”

Also - oh, burn, China!:

Former Prime Minister Taro Aso has once again found himself at the center of controversy over Taiwan on Wednesday, after delivering remarks a day earlier that referred to the island as an important “country” for Japan — despite Tokyo's lack of formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.

In his remarks at an event in Tokyo celebrating Taiwan’s National Day, which Taipei was set to mark Thursday, Aso called the democratic island a “close country” and stressed that it is “extremely important” to maintain friendly relations even in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Instability in the Taiwan Strait would be “an existential crisis situation” for Japan, local media quoted him as saying, adding that he hoped “that the people of Taiwan will be prepared to protect and defend (the island).”

Tokyo has assiduously avoided describing the self-ruled island as a sovereign nation for fear of angering Beijing. China views Taiwan as its “core of core issues” and regards the island as a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

China opposes any official contact between Taiwan and other governments, but its reaction to Aso's latest comments on the island were relatively muted.

No country for anyone:

Now that protesters have burned the Canadian flag and shouted “Death to Canada” on the steps of the old Vancouver courthouse, might the prime minister be prompted to action?

Not in his usual way, with a solemn, “This is not who we are” pronouncement, but with something more concrete, something that might alleviate, even stop, the hate on our streets?

Lest anyone has been asleep for the past year, all is not well in Canadian society. We have entered a dark time, a very dark time.

 **

Such hateful rhetoric is unacceptable. This has no place in Canada. All options must be considered. This is not who we are. We are treating this with the utmost urgency.

And so forth. And so on.

For more than four years, this is what we have been hearing from the Liberal government about the bloodcurdling incitements that are the stock in trade of the Vancouver-headquartered Samidoun Network, the overseas agitation and propaganda wing of the terrorist-listed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

It’s what Canadians have been hearing from federal, provincial and city politicians over the course of a year’s worth of skyrocketing hate crimes targeting Jews in the ugliest convulsions of antisemitism in living memory.

It’s what we heard again this week in Ottawa, where Samidoun’s unencumbered mobilizations and lurid sloganeering came up several times in Parliament after Samidoun hosted an anniversary celebration in Vancouver Monday commemorating the Hamas-led surprise attack on Southern Israel last October 7.

Samidoun has been at the vanguard of the most outwardly pro-terror street rallies and campus demonstrations that have erupted across Canada since last October 7. Roughly 1,200 people were killed in that attack, including several Canadians, and 251 people were kidnapped. To Samidoun, this is all to the good. The October 7 pogrom also triggered the war in Gaza that has left roughly 41,000 people dead, civilians and terrorists alike.

At the Monday Samidoun event in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, a masked woman shouted into a megaphone: “We are Hezbollah, and we are Hamas.” A Canadian flag was set on fire, and hundreds of revellers joined the masked woman in a chant: “Death to Canada, death to the United States, and death to Israel.”

 

This is just obscene:

Just over 100 new prescriptions for hormone-related drugs were filled last year for Albertans between the ages of 11 and 15, according to data from the province’s Pharmaceutical Information Network.

There were a total of 107 “first pharmacy dispenses” of estrogen, testosterone and puberty blocker leuprolide in 2023. This was down from 139 first dispenses in 2022 and 124 in 2021, marking a three-year low.

That's the Canadian legal system for you:

The woman who helped kill a young Inuit student from Labrador a decade ago in Halifax and dumped her body in a hockey bag beside the highway has been granted 30 days of unescorted leave to take “personal development” courses at a halfway house.

Victoria Lea Henneberry is serving a life sentence for the second-degree murder of Loretta Saunders in February 2014.

“The board remains seriously concerned about your low level of insight and limited responsibility for the index offence,” said her most recent parole decision.

“Although you have completed required and voluntary interventions to mitigate your risk, you remain assessed at a low-moderate risk level, and it is essential that you complete further treatment and programming to mitigate your risk of re-offending. Notwithstanding the board’s concerns, the board concludes that your risk is manageable in the context of the (unescorted temporary absence) with the proposed plan and focus on further rehabilitation.”

Henneberry, now 39, and her boyfriend, Blake Leggette, were subletting a room in Saunders’ Cowie Hill Road apartment when the couple killed the Saint Mary’s University student, who was pregnant, after she came to collect their rent.

Saunders was 26 when she died. Leggette attacked her from behind when she entered the apartment.

“Your boyfriend choked the victim, tried to suffocate her with several plastic bags, and hit her head off the floor twice,” said Henneberry’s parole decision, dated Sept. 25.

 ** 

At a press conference on June 3, Chief Justice Wagner was asked to comment on an ongoing controversy over whether the Supreme Court should provide official French-language translations of its judgments prior to 1970, before the Official Languages Act was enacted. Attempting to justify the court’s refusal to do so, he made a series of bizarre claims that sought to diminish the importance of his own court’s prior decisions.

According to Wagner, “apart from considering these decisions as part of our legal cultural heritage, no one today will refer to a decision from 1892 to support his claim,” later adding that “sometimes a decision from five years ago is an old decision, in commercial and civil matters.” He then concluded that “the legal value of these historical decisions is quite minimal.”

Coming from Canada’s top judge, these cavalier statements reflect a breathtaking dismissal of the role and significance of legal precedent. As any practicing lawyer will readily attest, at all levels of court across Canada, litigants routinely cite and rely upon judgments of the Supreme Court dating back much further than the 1970s. This is most apparent in the Canadian provinces and territories other than Quebec, where basic areas of law — the law of contracts, torts and property, for instance — are founded upon the common law, which emerges from legal precedents and landmark decisions that date back centuries. It is also true across the country where fundamental issues of constitutional law are concerned, including in matters relating to the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments. Here, precedents dating back to 1892 and beyond continue to be authoritative.

What is even more troubling about the chief justice’s remarks, however, is that they confirm the now widespread impression of an undisciplined approach to judicial responsibility at the Supreme Court of Canada. Regrettably, the judicial decisions that appear to exemplify this attitude are legion. Rather than attempting to resolve disputes within settled legal frameworks and principles, recent appeals before the court are explicitly framed as invitations to overturn established doctrine. This was notably the case in Canada v. Bedford (2013) and Canada v. Carter (2015), two Charter challenges that targeted the criminal prohibitions on prostitution-related activities and assisted suicide, respectively. In ultimately deciding to strike down these laws, the Supreme Court went so far as to approve the effacement of its prior work.

**

Brothers convicted in the United States of helping Iran evade sanctions were allowed to legally adopt new identities in Ontario, records released to Global News show.

Amin and Arash Yousefijam were sentenced in Michigan in the fall of 2021 for using shell companies to illegally export sensitive manufacturing equipment to Iran, where they were born.

They then returned to Ontario, where they had lived prior to their arrests, and applied to change their names to Ameen and Aurash Cohen. The province granted their requests in April 2022.

At the time they altered their identities, they were still serving out part of their sentences — a one-year period of supervised release, a form of parole, government records show.

Using his new name, Arash Yousefijam, 36, became a registered dentist and went to work in Ottawa as Dr. Aurash Cohen. The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario said it was looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, his brother, 37, took a job as a compliance officer at an international company in Richmond Hill, Ont. Property records show an Ameen Cohen bought a home in the city in 2022.

But no one is going to dig up Kamloops.

Interesting:

Three years after a devastating wildfire nearly wiped out the picturesque B.C. hamlet of Lytton, residents say it may never be reborn because of costly, government-mandated archeological excavations.

Village Mayor Denise O’Connor — whose own house was destroyed in the June 2021 wildfire — said homeowners are getting individual quotes for archeological work that range from $26,000 to $48,000 to much higher, making the work prohibitive.

 

The Banana Republic Without the Actual Bananas

Look who has replaced the NDP as the Liberals' corruption buddies:

Interesting timing..🤔 pic.twitter.com/FaK72EhtzD

— Cheryl - Democratic socialism is an oxymor🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@cheryl1492) October 4, 2024

 

Also:

Two months after telling MPs that the RCMP had not found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing surrounding the so-called “green slush fund,” RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme now says there are “ongoing investigations” into the embattled fund.

Duheme made the comment to reporters Thursday after the National Post asked if the RCMP had concerns about receiving documents on the government fund, officially known as Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), through an order from the House of Commons.

“The investigation is ongoing, so I’ll limit my comments to that… There are investigations ongoing,” Duheme said, noting that he and deputy commissioner Mike Flynn had previously confirmed that to a Parliamentary committee.

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

Let them fix their own elections:

A majority of Canadians believe illegal foreign money is influencing federal elections, according to in-house research by Elections Canada. 

 

**

British Columbia Premier David Eby asked the Prime Minister’s Office for security checks on provincial candidates including members of his own New Democratic Party, records show. An internal memo yesterday disclosed at the Commission on Foreign Interference said Eby worried about “covert ties to foreign states or significant organized crime links.”

 

Oh, he damn well knew:

A 2021 analysis of China’s foreign interference operations intended to spark discussion among senior government figures did not make it to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or cabinet ministers, the Hogue commission heard Monday.

The report, produced by the Privy Council Office (PCO) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and delivered in January 2022, was stalled for months in the office of Trudeau’s then-national security adviser, Jody Thomas.

The foreign interference inquiry, overseen by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, has heard repeatedly about the challenges of ensuring that vital intelligence reaches senior decision-makers.

As the nerve centre of government, PCO has a division called the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat, tasked with supporting the prime minister and their national security adviser digest intel from a variety of sources.

The 2021 analysis attempted to combine what CSIS knew about China’s operations in Canada, gleaned from roughly 100 separate intelligence reports, with trends observed in Beijing’s interventions overseas.

National security sources told Global News that the report made it to Trudeau and select cabinet ministers, allegations which the government broadly denied.

Martin Green, a former senior intelligence official with PCO, recommended to Thomas that the report be shared widely — to select senior bureaucrats and cabinet ministers, as well as within the security and intelligence community.

That does not appear to have happened. Green testified Monday that he delivered the report to Thomas in January 2022, and raised the issue repeatedly over several months, but the report does not appear to have received final approval or made it to the prime minister’s desk.

 

I realise that Justin's underlings are trying to run interference for him but either he knows full well the extent of Chinese communist incursion into this country or he is too stupid to do his job.

Either way, he must go. 

Why not warn them now?

Or is one dragging one's feet for a reason?:

The federal government plans to convene a meeting of foreign ambassadors next month to warn them not to interfere in the next election.

Testifying before the inquiry into foreign interference in Canada, David Morrison, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, said his department is preparing for the next federal election and wants to make sure that diplomats from other countries know where Canada draws the line between attempts to influence and attempts to interfere.

"I think we should, and will be, crystal clear with foreign missions here in town and their consulates throughout the country as to what we consider to be acceptable diplomatic activity and exactly where we draw the line," Morrison told the inquiry.