Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Good

A paralysed government can't do much harm:

Treasury Board President Anita Anand is warning that if the House of Commons doesn’t get back to regular business, some government departments might be in financial trouble.

On Monday, Anand tabled a supplementary estimates request for $21.6 billion to fund programs including housing, dental care and the national school food program.

One of the biggest-ticket items is $970.8 million for compensation adjustments for civil servants as a result of collective bargaining agreements.

But some of the money requested by the government is to repay departments for what they’ve already spent, and it must be voted on by Dec. 10 in line with House procedures.

The civil servant compensation adjustments, for instance, included one-time lump sum payments issued between April 1 and July 31 of this year.

“The smaller departments would be impacted disproportionately earlier on,” Anand told reporters Tuesday.

“We are OK for the next three to four weeks, but we need to make sure that money flows to those smaller departments and then ultimately the larger departments, which also fuel so much of the government’s and the country’s business.”

 

Waste your own money, Anand.

 

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

And yet ... :

Hong Kong's High Court on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city's once feisty democracy movement and drawn international condemnation.

A total of 47 pro-democracy activists were arrested and charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law and had faced sentences of up to life in prison.

Benny Tai, a former legal scholar identified as an "organizer" of the activists, was sentenced to 10 years in jail, the longest sentence so far under the 2020 national security law.

**

Japanese passport holders may soon be able to travel to China without a visa, for the first time in more than four years, as the two countries work toward mending fences after a period of tension and in the face of rising protectionist threats.

According to two Japanese press reports, travel agencies in China have been informed that policy might be adjusted to once again allow for 15-day visa-free visits by Japanese nationals as early as the end of this month.

The privilege has been suspended since March 2020.

China and Japan have been working toward a thaw in relations and signaling the possibility of a resumption of the visa waiver program.

Former Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai pressed Beijing on this issue when he visited China in August. Keizai Doyukai Chairman Takeshi Niinami, who is also the CEO of Suntory, urged Chinese Vice President Han Zheng to reinstate the policy during a meeting between the two earlier this month in Beijing.

During the first meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese President Xi Jinping, held on Friday, Xi told Ishiba that the two countries should “deepen and expand people-to-people exchange”a statement that was missing from his meeting last year with Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry readouts.

“We have repeatedly urged the Chinese side at various levels to promptly resume the visa exemption measures and will continue to call for their early resumption moving forward,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Monday, although he declined to confirm whether Ishiba had pressed Xi on this issue during their meeting.

In a white paper issued this year, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China called the current visa requirement “an obstacle to the smooth traffic and business promotion” between the two countries. It strongly supported the reinstatement of the visa-waiver program as soon as possible.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that it will “intensively look into” requests for visa-free travel to be resumed, and that it hopes Japan can work “in the same direction” to make travel between the two countries easier.

 

They want Japan to play ball.

**

From the most "transparent" government in the country's history:

The judge overseeing Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission of Inquiry has decided two people can give evidence in secret about how the People’s Republic of China “co-opts and leverages some Chinese Canadian community associations and politicians of Chinese origin.”

Justice Marie-Josee Hogue made the decision in a written ruling dated Wednesday now posted on the commission’s website.

Her ruling, obtained by Global News, grants two witnesses — “Person B and Person C” — the right to testify by secret affidavits that will not be disclosed to the public or inquiry participants.

Hogue also issued a simultaneous order to seal their affidavits from the public for 99 years, after commission materials are deposited at the National Archives of Canada when the inquiry ends.

 **

The Conservative Party yesterday in its final submission to the China inquiry questioned why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau twice approved a Liberal nomination for MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) despite learning he was under security surveillance. Political aides vetoed Dong’s appointment to a committee on China relations but permitted him to attend four years’ worth of secret Liberal caucus meetings: “Liberals knew.”
**

Sucking up to Trump will get you nowhere:

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland thinks China could be the tie that binds the new Trump White House and the Liberal government.

 

No one in his Cabinet likes you.

**

But there are no guns, right?:

Dozens of people have been killed in China in the past three months in a series of mass attacks. The latest on Tuesday saw primary school students injured by a car as they arrived for classes.
The attacks take one of two forms — either drivers mowing down people on foot or knife-wielding assailants stabbing multiple victims. Guns are strictly restricted in China and gun attacks are rare.
Article content
The attackers appear to be taking out their anger and frustration over a personal issue, according to police reports. The victims are often unknown to them.
Such attacks are not new in China and have targeted kindergartens and other schools in the past. The recent surge has gotten the attention of authorities and the public. Here is a look at some of the recent events. ...
A small white SUV struck students arriving for class at Yong’an Elementary School in Changde, an inland city in China’s Hunan province. Several adults also were injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
Security guards and parents subdued the driver, Xinhua said. Authorities later issued a a brief statement saying the 39-year-old driver had been detained. Few details have been confirmed yet about the incident. ...
Eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a knife attack at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Yixing city, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Shanghai in eastern China.
Police detained a 21-year old student. They said he had failed his examinations and could not graduate and was dissatisfied with his pay at an internship. He decided to vent his frustrations via the attack, a police statement said. ...
A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in Zhuhai city in southern China, killing 35 and injuring 43 others.
Police detained the 62-year-old man, who they said was in his car attempting to stab himself with a knife. He later fell unconscious from neck and other wounds. They said the man was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce.



The Law Is An @$$

We have an unaccountable and entirely unfair legal system.

We need to elect our judges, return to the Bill of Rights, and rid the system of bleeding-hearts who have no compunction of coddling monsters:

The lawyer representing the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy — tortured and killed in two of the most heinous crimes in modern Canadian history — says the justice system has let them down again by denying the victims' mothers the opportunity to deliver their victim impact statements in person at Paul Bernardo's upcoming parole hearing.

In a letter sent to the head of the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) on Tuesday, lawyer Tim Danson argues his clients have a right to confront their daughters' killer in person.

"It was nothing short of gut-wrenching to experience the painful and heartbreaking reaction of Debbie Mahaffy and Donna French when they learned that the PBC was prohibiting them from representing their daughters (and themselves), and denying them the right to confront Paul Bernardo, in person, through the reading of their Victim Impact Statements," Danson wrote in his letter, which was shared with CBC News.

"This was truly a shock to their system. It was bone chilling — an insult so deep and hurtful that, (figuratively speaking), it set victims' rights back to the stone age."

** 

A federal court judge has tossed a lawsuit filed by 330 current and former Canadian Armed Forces members each seeking more than $1.3 million in damages for having their Charter rights allegedly violated by a 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Now, they’ll collectively pay $5,040 to Canada in court costs.

Ruling in favour of the government’s motion to strike the case, Associate Judge Catherine Coughlan repeatedly discounted the plaintiffs’ claims under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms because their pleadings were devoid of “material facts” or “evidence” to support the allegations and prove a reasonable cause of action.

 

Is that so? 

Is that why the Trudeau government has given minuscule pay-outs to those injured by the jab?

Interesting.

**

Un-damn-believable:

The federal government issued a new passport to an admitted human smuggler after he was ordered to surrender the travel document as part of court-imposed release conditions, CBC News has learned.

The new passport was discovered in June 2023 by RCMP investigators executing a search warrant at the Montreal home of Thesingarasan Rasiah during a probe targeting an international human smuggling network that Rasiah allegedly headed, according to court records obtained by CBC News.

At the time, Rasiah was living at home with an electronic ankle bracelet on strict conditions while awaiting sentencing on a February 2023 guilty plea to one count of breaching the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for his role in the smuggling of a Sri Lankan national from the U.S. into Canada in 2021.

Rasiah had been forced to surrender his passport to the RCMP in 2021 as part of his release conditions related to the human smuggling attempt that was intercepted by police in Cornwall, Ont., located about 120 kilometres west of Montreal along the Canada-U.S. border.

Rasiah was also forbidden from applying for any new travel documents.

**

Judges apparently don't know what they are doing:

A Nova Scotia man’s history of regular violence and threats against his common-law spouse has material bearing on charges that he trafficked her for sex, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled, overturning his acquittal and ordering a new trial.
The accused, identified only as T.J.F. in a recent ruling from the country’s top court, was in a relationship with J.D. from 2004 until 2012. He was acquitted at trial, a decision affirmed by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
Article content
“The trial judge committed an error of law when he held that the evidence of regular violence and threats of violence by the accused against the complainant was past discreditable conduct evidence,” Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin wrote for the majority.
“Even though the trial judge admitted the evidence, this mischaracterization meant he did not assess it properly. That evidence could have been relevant to the essential elements of the offence. It could have formed the basis of a finding that the accused controlled, directed, or influenced the movements of the complainant during the time period specified in the indictment, and a contributing cause of the complainant’s engagement in sexual services. The trial judge’s incorrect assessment of this critical evidence seriously undermined his credibility assessment of the complainant, which he used as the rationale for acquittal.”
The trial judge’s mischaracterization “hindered his overall assessment of the evidence and considerably diminished the evidentiary foundation relevant to the essential elements of the trafficking in persons offence,” said O’Bonsawin.



Your Idiot Government and You

There is just so much stupidity:

A former deputy industry minister yesterday denied any responsibility for rampant conflicts at the disgraced federal agency Sustainable Development Technology Canada. Retiree John Knubley, testifying by videoconference at the Commons public accounts committee, appeared agitated as MPs accused him of a coverup: “I am not a lawyer.”


It's just money:

Taxpayers should expect a loss in any sale of the Trans Mountain Pipeline despite cabinet assurances, Budget Officer Yves Giroux said yesterday. Giroux recommended MPs audit billions’ worth of cost overruns: “That is a very interesting question.”



The Liberals have gutted our military, demeaned and diminished Canadian citizenship and identity and have allowed the country to be weak in the face of a more dangerous world:

Canadians want this, too. Public attitudes toward national defence are shifting as more and more Canadians recognize the growing need for military preparedness and global assertiveness. Over the past decade, those prioritizing military readiness rose from 12 per cent to 29 per cent, and 53 per cent of Canadians now back increasing defence spending to NATO’s 2 per cent of GDP target. With economic challenges ahead, achieving this target will require aligning defence with prosperity goals.


The numbers tell an important story. Canadians are not complacent to the shifting global landscape and the rising threats from authoritarian states. They see what is happening worldwide and support the idea that Canada must keep its military and defence capabilities strong. Yet in practice, as the only country among the 31-member alliance that has not met either of NATO’s investment pledges, Canada remains an outlier in meeting its defence commitments. This underinvestment paints Canada as a “free rider” and helps explain its exclusion from military alliances like AUKUS.


Despite repeated warnings from allies, successive Canadian governments have failed to take concrete steps to build necessary defence capabilities. Canada’s 2024 Defence Policy Update remains only vaguely committal and devoid of a clear plan of action. A recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer asserts that to meet NATO’s 2-per-cent target, defence spending would need to almost double from current levels.


General Wayne Eyre, the former chief of defence staff, warned last year that the world is “more chaotic and dangerous than at any time since the end of the Cold War” and argued that rising threats from authoritarian states could bring the world to “peak threat” by the end of this decade. His successor, General Jennie Carignan, has echoed this sentiment, emphasizing this summer that Canada and its allies may have as little as five years to prepare for emerging threats, including advanced missile technology from countries like China and Russia.

(Sidebar: perhaps even closer.)


Threats to Canada’s defence go beyond the traditional battlefield. In the era of hybrid warfare, cyberattacks and psychological operations are as dangerous as military force. Canadians recognize these risks; 84 per cent are worried about the impact of disinformation. Canada’s diverse but fragmented society, which has been exploited by foreign actors to create division and increase polarization makes us more vulnerable. Foreign interference is intensifying, highlighted by recent high-profile cases in both the Canada and the United States.


Canada must adopt a multifaceted approach to these challenges. Beyond boosting military spending, it needs to invest in strategic communications, community resilience and countering information warfare. Many European defence ministries retain the lead on strategic communications to support more cohesive responses to growing threats. Building cohesion around this function in Canada could involve setting up dedicated centres to analyze information environments and foreign networks so as to counter foreign influence and guide policy. Supporting AI-based start-ups and community programs that resist disinformation is essential for protecting Canada’s democracy and strengthening its economic infrastructure.


The goal should not simply be to match our allies in terms of defence spending, but to lead by example in building a resilient society that is capable of withstanding both conventional and unconventional threats. Beyond tanks and missiles, the required capability should encompass everything from cybersecurity infrastructure to public awareness campaigns. Such efforts would help strengthen a renewed Canadian identity and social fabric, which has been eroding quickly over recent years.

 

(Sidebar: and what is that fabric, exactly? We are killing off the sick to save someone on the Sunshine List from hunting for a real job.)


It is time for Canada to step up. With the world growing more dangerous, Canadians are beginning to understand the need for a strong military – not as a tool of aggression, but as a means of safeguarding our values and place in the world.




From the most "transparent" government in the country's history and from a government who applauded a Ukrainian Nazi.

There is no decency here but cover-ups:

Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs have blocked a motion seeking the disclosure of a secret list of Nazi collaborators who were admitted to Canada after 1945.

Blacklock's Reporter says by a 6-5 vote, members of the Commons heritage committee rejected the proposal to compel cabinet to release the names by January 27, 2025.

Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan (Chateauguay-Lacolle, Que.) expressed discomfort with the motion. “I am not comfortable proceeding further with this,” she said during the committee meeting.

The motion, introduced by New Democrat MP Niki Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, Man.), aimed to have Library and Archives Canada publish the names of individuals identified in the 1985 Deschênes Commission on War Crimes.

The commission had revealed that Nazi collaborators were admitted to Canada after the Second World War with minimal scrutiny.

Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux (Drummond, Que.) opposed the motion, citing concerns about the impact on the families of those named, even though most individuals on the list are likely deceased.

“This is an extremely delicate situation,” said Champoux. “Were these people Nazis? Not necessarily. Investigation showed the majority of these people were not suspected of anything and were cleared right away.”

“These are people who were investigated,” he added. “It was thought there was no need to go further.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress also opposed releasing the names, with its president, Alexandra Chyczij, stating in a submission to the Commons public safety committee that disclosure would violate the privacy of descendants.

Despite opposition, Ashton defended the motion, emphasizing the need for historical transparency. “Canadians deserve to know how, according to the Deschênes Commission, Nazis were welcomed into this country,” she said.

“Many Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian organizations have been clear. The names need to be released,” Ashton added.

The motion received support only from Conservative MPs.



Was It Something He Said and Did?

 (ugh)

 **

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used his time on the taxpayers’ dime to promote the killing of the unborn to an auditorium full of high school students, saying that women should have full, unrestricted access to abortion.

 

High school students.

Kids who can't vote but will, in the near future, know what it's like to room with six other unemployed students shacked up in a one room apartment in hopes that rent can be paid.

Don't tell me that this isn't grooming.

What a creep.


Oh, there's more:

After imploring the singer last year to not make it a “cruel summer” and come to Canada, Justin Trudeau commended Taylor Swift for her “good choice wrapping the Eras Tour” in this country.
Before the 34-year-old megastar took the stage at the Rogers Centre, Toronto, Trudeau wrote on X Thursday, “We’re ready for you, @taylorswift13. Good choice wrapping the Eras Tour in Canada.”
Article content
“Has this always been your endgame?” the 52-year-old prime minister added.
A fifty-two year old aging frat-boy is slobbering over a mediocre talent pre-teens gush over.
The creep level has intensified. 

 

 And nothing is his fault, either:

Don’t blame Justin Trudeau for any of the issues facing his government or the country — it’s not his fault and he’s happy to tell you that. From our catch-and-release bail system, to immigration, to the carbon tax, it’s all someone else’s fault and has nothing to do with his disastrous policies. ...

On immigration, Trudeau released a video this past weekend explaining what is happening on the immigration front including changes his government is bringing in to reduce immigration numbers.

What was the problem with immigration?

“Increasingly, bad actors like fake colleges and big chain corporations have been exploiting our immigration system for their own interests,” Trudeau said.

Interesting, because last I checked colleges and big chain corporations don’t run Canada’s immigration system. Sure, colleges and universities can ask for more foreign students, companies can apply to bring in foreign workers but it was still the federal government that decided whether to approve or deny those visas. ...

Take his claim on the carbon tax.

“We’re facing a level of attacks of misinformation and disinformation,” Trudeau said at a conference in Brazil as he was discussing the carbon tax.

He portrays everyone against the carbon tax as wanting to do nothing on climate change and a carbon tax as necessary to fight climate change. The United States doesn’t have a carbon tax and their emissions are coming down, Canada has one and ours are going up.

Also, Trudeau refuses to admit what the Parliamentary Budget Officer has shown, when the total economic impact is considered, most Canadians pay more than they get back in rebates. In fact, a Trudeau minister called that claim by the PBO “disinformation” during Question Period on Monday.

The way Trudeau sees it, his carbon tax isn’t unpopular because it makes life more expensive, it’s unpopular because other people are lying about it.

In Trudeau’s world, nothing is his fault, even when the problem staring him in the face is the direct result of his policies.

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government could have acted faster on reining in immigration programs, after blaming “bad actors” for gaming the system.
Trudeau released a nearly seven-minute video on YouTube Sunday talking about the recent reduction in permanent residents being admitted to Canada and changes to the temporary foreign worker program.
Over the next two years, the permanent residency stream is being reduced by about 20 per cent to 365,000 in 2027.
In the video, Trudeau talks about the need to increase immigration after pandemic lockdowns ended in order to boost the labour market, saying the move helped avoid a full-blown recession.
 
So, there aren't any Canadians looking for jobs, or none looking for jobs that require a living wage?
A filthy liar and overseer.
**

While the Trudeau government has tripled the amount of money it spends on Indigenous issues from $11 billion annually in 2015 to more than $32 billion earmarked for 2025, it doesn’t appear to be improving the lives of on-reserve Indigenous people, according to a new study by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.

 

(Sidebar: does Randy the pretendarian know about this? Can the scam keep going?) 

**

This has been the mission of Justin Trudeau’s political career: finishing the political objectives of his father by transforming Canada into a postmodern, multicultural, Communist state. 

 

And he is nearly there.


Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week chips and dip ...

 

Never send a "journalist" to do an economist's job:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office yesterday had no comment on what, if any, contingencies it has to deal with a seven-week filibuster that has gridlocked the Commons. Freeland was counting on quick passage of an $18 billion hike in capital gains taxes by Christmas: “It’s an important moment.”

 

... to rip off the taxpayer.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Also, it's communism:

The main problem is that wealthy countries — responsible for most emissions leading to climate change — want to cut emissions while poorer countries mainly want to eradicate poverty through growth that remains largely reliant on fossil fuels. To get poorer countries to act against their own interest, the West started offering cash two decades ago.

In 2009, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised “new and additional” funds of US$100 billion (C$1,394,418,140) annually by 2020 if developing countries agreed to future carbon cuts. The rich world didn’t deliver, and most funding was simply repackaged and often mislabeled development aid.

This fiasco notwithstanding, developing countries now want more money. In 2021 India stated that it alone would need US$100 billion annually for its own transition. This year, China, India, Brazil and South Africa agreed rich nations should increase their financing “from billions of US dollars per year to trillions of US dollars.” All this was predicted back in 2010 by UN Climate Panel economist Ottmar Edenhofer: “One must free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy.” Instead, “we are de facto distributing world wealth through climate policy.”

But it is hard to squeeze billions, much less trillions out of a rich world that has its own problems. Cleverly, campaigners and many developing countries have rebranded the reason for these transfers by blaming weather damage costs on rich world emissions and requesting compensation for “loss and damages”.

Factually, this is an ill-considered claim because weather damages from hurricanes, floods, droughts, and other weather calamities have actually declined as a percentage of global GDP since 1990, both for rich and poor countries. Deaths from these catastrophes have plummeted.

But this rebranding is a great way to increase the ask. At last year’s climate jamboree, politicians agreed to create a “loss and damages” fund, which has just been set up. The UN’s climate change body estimates it will generate a flow to poorer countries in the region of US$5.8-$5.9 trillion between now and 2030. Others are making even larger estimates such as US$100-238 trillion by 2050. Some campaigners suggest the West should raise US$2.5 trillion annually to get reparations started.

This will be prohibitively expensive for the West: the demand means a cost of US$1,000 or more from every person in the rich world, every year for the foreseeable future. This is on top of the cost of rich world carbon emission reduction policies that will be even more expensive.

A recent American survey shows that an overwhelming majority would reject such large transfers, and majorities across the West would likely reach similar conclusions.

Moreover, poor people across the world struggle with poverty, disease, malnutrition, and bad education, which could be alleviated at low cost. It is wrongheaded and immoral to mostly ignore those afflictions and instead spend trillions on climate projects. To add insult to injury, the added spending will likely squeeze aid spending further. Even if the money could be mustered, it is highly doubtful the trillions will go to the poor instead of pompous vanity projects or Swiss bank accounts. Finally, the transfers will not negate the fact that poorer countries still need first to get out of poverty by driving development with enormous amounts of energy, much of which will still be fossil fuels.

 


The Liberals are trying to hamstring anyone who isn't them:

Liberal MPs say Conservative MP Arnold Viersen is being “silenced” as a House of Commons committee is attempting to study his bill to stop online sexual exploitation while child protection groups are calling on MPs to put aside their differences and move the bill forward with or without him. ...

Liberal MPs believe Conservatives want to prevent Viersen from speaking in a public forum after he discussed his socially conservative views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage — which he said he would vote against — on a Liberal MP’s podcast earlier this year. ...

Earlier this year, the federal government tabled its long-awaited Online Harms Act which seeks to force online platforms to monitor and remove harmful content, including non-consensual intimate images and content that victimizes children such as sexual abuse.

However, the bill also proposes a wide expansion of hate speech laws, including some that would allow penalties up to life imprisonment, which has caused the opposition and critics to raise concerns about its impact on freedom of expression online.

Given the political landscape and the likelihood of elections being called in the short term, Penny Rankin of the National Council of Women of Canada is urging MPs to put in place any legislative measure that could help better protect children online.

“Canada is so far behind. We are so far behind in addressing legislation to protect our kids online, and they are vulnerable,” she said.

And while C-270 does not “tick all the boxes” in her view, Rankin said it is a good bill.

“We need something in place. We have nothing, really.”

 

The real goal for the Liberals is censorship, not protection.

They will tack onto anyone or anything to get the Online Harms Act passed.



We need to withdraw from the UN:

Federal funding for a United Nations Agency that employed anti-Jewish terrorists totals nearly $286 million since 2016, new figures show. The costs were tabled at the request of an MP who complained taxpayers were subsidizing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency while fellow Canadians scrounged for food: “We will immediately stop funding UNRWA.”


Also - these people know exactly what they are doing - puffing up their new bosses:

During the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Ottawa’s Robert Borden High School, the Arabic language protest song “Haza Salam” was included. Performed by Mahim Ahmed in 2023, it’s a pro-Palestinian composition that’s been closely associated with the Gaza conflict. ...

Speaking of which, Aaron Hobbs, principal of Robert Borden, apologized on behalf of his high school for playing a protest song that “caused significant distress to some members of our school community.” This was also included in his putrid letter to school families: “Our intention during the ceremony was to foster a message of peace and remembrance, reflecting on the importance of unity and reconciliation. However, we recognize that the song chosen — while intended to highlight themes of peace — also inadvertently caused offence and discomfort to some students, and for that, we regret our choice.”

 

(Sidebar: oh, that wasn't the only slight.)

You regret nothing, you @$$hole, and if we lived in a free and democratic country, you would never again work in a school.

**

Regina will hold a Palestine flag-raising ceremony, making it the first Canadian city to host such an event.

The Palestinian flag-raising ceremony takes place on Friday, marking a significant moment for local Palestinian terrorist supporters. 

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Regina City Hall courtyard.

 

 

To be fair, political multiculturalism is an untenable and immoral farce put out only to divide and never to unite.

It also helps unaccomplished Canadians smugify in front of the Americans because the Sixties or something:

In what has now become a common theme in the streets of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s post-national Canada, chaos and extremist violence marred an otherwise joyous occasion for the Canadian-Indian community celebrating Diwali and Bandi Chhor Diwas — festivals that symbolize the spiritual victory of good over evil and fighting injustice and oppression. ...

(Sidebar: if you are hyphenating yourself, you've got a problem right there.) 

For the Trudeau government, these developments are par for the course. Under its watch, anarchy and extremism have become the new normal on Canadian streets, and domestic vote banks dictate foreign policy, undermining Canada’s global standing.

In India’s case, it appears Trudeau has opted to continue pandering to Khalistani extremists to boost his government’s waning electoral prospects. His long-running disdain for New Delhi’s concerns about the Khalistan movement is reflected in his bizarre decision to engage with Pannun, an India-designated terrorist, rather than listen to the sage counsel of former B.C. premier and federal cabinet minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, who was once brutally assaulted by Khalistanis.

For someone who claims to advocate for an independent Khalistan state peacefully, Pannun’s rhetoric does not qualify his assertions. He warned Sikhs against taking Air India flights, issued threats to New Delhi citing the October 7 Hamas massacre analogy, told Hindus to leave Canada, and invited a foreign power to invade India. Needless to say, Pannun’s antics have irritated the Modi government.

The Liberals have consistently exhibited a serious lack of judgment, understanding of Khalistani extremism, and recognition of India’s regional security priorities when dealing with New Delhi. Whether it was Trudeau’s calamitous “Bollywood adventure” India trip in 2018, or the handling of the Nijjar assassination case, the Liberals have been way out of their depth when it comes to deploying a charm offensive to woo the Modi government.

A sensible and competent statesman would have resorted to backroom diplomacy to convince India to join the RCMP investigation into the Nijjar assassination case to ensure that the bilateral ties between Canada and India remained intact. Instead, the eternal showman that he is, Trudeau opted for an image-based communications strategy and partisan mudslinging. Consequentially, Canada’s relationship with a natural ally is in tatters, and a foreign conflict that has nothing to do with Canadians has spilled onto the streets.

 


We call this flooding the market:

The Department of Immigration in a “Welcome To Canada” guide advised foreigners to be prepared to book Airbnb rentals or resort to homeless shelters on arrival here. “Search online,” said the guide published in Arabic, Dari, Haitian Creole and Spanish: “Housing costs in Canada are high.”

 

Why is that, I wonder. 

Oh:

Canada is already completely overwhelmed with asylum-seekers. In Ottawa, for example, over half of available shelter space is occupied by refugees; some have been forced to live in makeshift shelters. And while irregular border crossings have slowed considerably following the renegotiation of the STCA, asylum requests at airports have ballooned (more than 36,000 from January to September this year, compared to just 3,870 in 2017). We can also expect more inland claims as international students and temporary workers opt to file claims rather than return home following the government’s recent about-face on immigration targets.


Asylum claims now take 44 months to be processed, according to Roula Eatrides of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, and the department currently has a backlog of 250,000 claims. The Trump presidency will significantly compound Canada’s existing crisis, especially if he scraps the renegotiated STCA.




But she's not their kind of immigrant:

Choi Minkyeong escaped five times from North Korea, was caught by Chinese authorities and deported back to the brutally repressive nation four times, and finally made it to freedom in South Korea 12 years ago.

Getting into Canada has proven to be another daunting challenge.

The defector was effectively prevented from entering this country Friday for a visit to raise awareness about North Korean human-rights abuses, after attending a United Nations forum in Geneva.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had failed to grant her the required electronic travel authorization (eTA) she had applied for on Nov. 4, saying she first had to provide police records surrounding her forced repatriation from China to North Korea.

Choi, who runs a human-rights organization in the south, explained in a letter that obtaining such records would be impossible given North Korea’s totalitarian system and her “unique circumstances.”

As a Liberal MP’s office lobbied IRCC Thursday and Friday, the department said it would review her case, but she had to cancel her flight to Toronto from Paris on Friday, returning to Seoul instead. She finally received the permit on Monday.

“I understand that this ridiculous happening occurred due to the oversight and indiscretion of the frontline officials of the (IRCC),” Choi said in a letter to Immigration Minister Marc Miller. “But if I may say so, I felt terribly embarrassed and deeply, deeply disappointed  when I was denied boarding the scheduled airplane … I was regarded, in effect, as a person with a criminal record.”

 

Trust me, Miss Choi, Marc will never get back to you. 



It's called a scam:

Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault says his shifting claims from being “non-status adoptive Cree” to recently stating his adoptive mother is “status Métis” are a “reflection of his family exploring their own history” and not him claiming Indigenous status.



No country for anyone:



Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Who Did You Vote For?

Indeed:

Worries over the price of food have also fallen from 39 percent in 2023 to 33 percent this year.

In 2023, 19 percent of survey participants said they were concerned about crime and violence. This year that number jumped to 25 percent.

Canadians are also less worried about their personal finances (27 percent) than they were last year (31 percent) or in 2022 when 33 percent said they had a negative view of their finances.

Twenty-three percent reported being “extremely concerned” about having enough money to cover basic needs. That number is down from 25 percent in 2023.

However, the number of Canadians turning to food banks for help has gone up, with 58 percent saying they visited a food bank for the first time in 2024. Fifty-four percent said they use it one to three times per month with 16 percent saying they visit a food bank at least once a week.

 **

Data also indicated that 4 in 5 of the new users are people who have called Canada home for five years or less and usage by refugee claimants also doubled to 12 per cent over the previous year, both of which, the report notes, align with permanent and temporary international migration fuelling 97.6 per cent of Canada’s population growth in 2023.

Last month, Food Banks Canada’s latest Hunger Count revealed that 32 per cent of clients to food banks across the country are people who’ve been in the country for less than 10 years.

**

Thanks for nothing, veterans:

Instead, in 2024, we are now a nation that recognizes the individual citizen, whose believe their own personal struggles are equally as valid as anyone else’s regardless of what they have done. This means for us younger veterans, going to the other side of the planet to fight wars is undervalued. It doesn’t seem to matter to other Canadians any more, especially if we come back injured and ask for help.
**

Why even report crime?:

Quint's case is one of a growing number of criminal cases for which the merits of the charge are never tested at trial. Statistics Canada data reviewed by CBC Toronto shows a dramatic shift in criminal outcomes in Ontario over the last decade.

The majority of criminal cases in the province have ended with charges being withdrawn, stayed, dismissed or discharged before a decision at trial since 2020. In 2022-23, the latest fiscal year of data available, 56 per cent of criminal cases ended that way — a 14 per cent increase since 2013-14 when guilty decisions still made up most outcomes.

Justice system stakeholders say many factors go into decisions to stay, withdraw, or discharge criminal charges, including whether there's a reasonable prospect of conviction. But when it comes to stays or withdrawals for Jordan delay reasons, they told CBC Toronto a perfect storm of pandemic backlogs, increases in digital evidence, and a court system-wide shortage of resources are to blame.