Canada 150 Week: Canada Day Eve

 

"If I had influence over the minds of the people of Canada, any power over their intellect, I would leave them this legacy: ‘Whatever you do, adhere to the Union. We are a great country, and shall become one of the greatest in the universe if we preserve it; we shall sink into insignificance and adversity if we suffer it to be broken."                              - Sir John A. Macdonald

 
A former doctor in New York opened fire at the hospital where he once worked before killing himself:

The gunman who opened fire on a Bronx hospital, fatally shooting one person and injuring six others before apparently killing himself, was a doctor who once worked there, authorities said.

The shooter has been identified as Dr. Henry Bello, a former family physician at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center. The circumstances under which his employment ended were not immediately clear. Belle reportedly arrived at the hospital wearing a white lab coat that concealed a rifle.

  
Watch the train wreck:

The NDP will form a minority government in British Columbia after the Liberals were defeated Thursday in a non-confidence vote in the legislature, sending them to the Opposition benches for the first time in 16 years. 

Good times, good times.




People voted for this:

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business’ monthly “Business Barometer” – a random survey of the organization’s members – shows a 10-point drop measuring the mood of small businesses since the Liberals’ announcement in late May. CFIB vice-president and chief economist Ted Mallett said that not since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which started the 2008 recession, has there been such a large drop.

“We’ve never seen a reaction this large to a policy announcement,” he said. “It blindsided businesses significantly. So, this is the initial reaction. There’s no way that they would have been able to fully form how they were going to be able to respond to this kind of change.”

Ontario’s survey results stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the country. The June survey shows that Ontario dragged down the survey by five points overall – from 66 to 60.9 reporting optimism. 

Ontario’s index dropped from 68 points in May to 58 in June.

In late May, Premier Kathleen Wynne promised sweeping changes to labour laws that would benefit millions of workers, including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019, ensuring equal pay for part-time employees and increasing vacation entitlements.

The minimum wage increase will be phased-in gradually. It will rise with inflation, as scheduled, from $11.40 currently to $11.60 in October. Then, the government plans to bump it up to $14 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018 and $15 the following year.

Mallett said while the random survey of its members rarely moves so dramatically, this policy has clearly struck a nerve with small business owners.

“It does fundamentally change the cost structure of many businesses,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of thinking to do over the next couple of months to work out how this goes.”

And this:

Ontario wasted $1 billion worth of clean electricity in 2016, according to the province’s professional engineers.

The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, a non-partisan body, which represents the province’s engineers, says it has crunched government hydro numbers from 2016 and they show that 7.6 terawatt-hours of clean hydro went down the drain that year. That’s equal to the amount required to power 760,000 homes – or $1 billion worth of electricity – said the group’s past president Paul Acchione.

“This represents a 58% increase in the amount of clean electricity that Ontario wasted in 2015 which was 4.8 terawatt hours,” he said. “All while the province continues to export more than two-million homes’ worth of electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions for a price less than it costs to produce.”

Acchione said the province is wasting the power through a practice called “curtailment.” It means that when the province’s hydro generators produce power consumers don’t need, and it can’t be exported, they have to dump it.

God, he's a wiener:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he delivered a message of respect and reconciliation Friday to indigenous activists who have set up a demonstration teepee on Parliament Hill ahead of Canada Day celebrations.

What a sanctimonious, virtue-signalling twit.


Also:

But sources suggest that the new governor-general will not be indigenous after all — because a candidate emerged who was “too spectacular to say no to.”

I'm sure.




The problem with "diversity":

There is no doubt that diversity is a good thing, but it doesn’t operate as a definitional virtue of our country. Furthermore, the current highlighting of diversity also carries with it rather too easily a self-congratulatory ambiance, being in fact the very kind of “patriotic” boasting that we proudly boast we do not boast of. “No flag-wavers we, like those Americans … but are we ever tolerant!”

Nor is diversity singularly a Canadian social virtue. Other countries are diverse too, their citizens just as virtuously open to others as we are. Neither being Canadian born, nor by virtue of acquired Canadian citizenship, does some peculiar alchemy invest us with an inherently superior tolerance to that of, say, Chinese, American or African heritage or citizenship.

It may be a pleasurable paradox that all we have in common is our differences, but it cannot survive any translation into reality. No country, no nation, is founded on the differences it contains. And so it is with Canada 150, years after its birth in Confederation. Celebrating our differences doesn’t really mean very much, aside, again, from the facile moral uplift the slogan offers, unless it proceeds from a common, shared and unified understanding of ourselves as a nation.

It is easy to utter shallow, unimportant inanities to pad one's ego but it is far more difficult to reflect on one's self to know what is true. Any country can be diverse but what country can claim shared ideas and values that are truly believed? Canadians may think themselves "multicultural" but, in fact, are no more delighting in "diversity" than their next bowl of pho. How many of them adhere to things that cause them to think, speak and act as they do for the social and cultural benefit of an entire country?




I don't know why anyone would think that Trudeau cares about a Canadian imprisoned in Chinese-backed North Korea:

Since the family called out for more help from Trudeau a week ago, the only thing they have heard is silence.

“We think the only person who can help get a message to North Korea is Prime Minister Trudeau,” said Noh.

It would be great if Trudeau would say something about this case – perhaps at Canada Day 150 on Parliament Hill Saturday.

Maybe even Bono and The Edge could lend their celebrity.

Something is needed, because for far too long, there has been nothing.

Also:

President Donald Trump on Friday denounced the “reckless and brutal” regime in North Korea and demanded that Pyongyang choose “a better path” to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula over its nuclear weapons program.

That must have really chapped Moon.





But not enduring as, let's say, Christians in Iraq who have been crucified:

When about a hundred Arab Christians recently attended the small church at Ein Qiniye in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, it was a turnout not often seen there.

Few Christians remain on the Israeli-held part of the strategic plateau northeast of the Sea of Galilee, where Christians believe Jesus walked on water.

Only two isolated Christian families still live there, according to the families themselves and a researcher on the Golan Heights.

Yes, about that:

As the Islamic persecution of Palestinian Christians has increased, their percentage of the Palestinian population has dwindled from 10% in 1940 to 1.4% in 2000.

Way to spin the news there, Agence France-Press. 

 
And now, Canada in 1867:

In 1867, 79% of the people living in Canada were born in Canada. These 2,616,063 people were called “Natives of British America.” As for the rest of the population, nearly 1 million Canadians were of French origin, while the remainder were of English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and “Foreign” origins. 

Canada 150 Week: Centennial

Design in the late Sixties left much to be desired.

Well, we made this far.

By 1967, Canada had ten provinces and two territories. Montreal held International and Universal Exposition which gave Canada a more cosmopolitan and global feel to it. Though the world was splitting at its seams, Canadians could breathe a sigh of relief that Confederation was a grand idea that worked.

It all went downhill from there.

Canada 150 Week: Dieppe

 

The failed raid on the seaport of Dieppe on August 19th, 1942 was a poorly devised plan to invade Europe borne of Soviet threats to make peace with the Nazis and the failure to learn from the previous errors at Dunkirk. As a result, Canadians (who made up a bulk of the invasion force, along with members of the American, British, French and free Polish forces) would suffer the greatest losses: nine hundred and sixteen dead, three thousand-three hundred and fifty wounded and one thousand-nine hundred and fifty captured.

The errors would not be repeated two years later on D-Day.

Canada 150 Week: Vimy Ridge

 

On Easter Monday, April 9th, 1917, Canadian divisions launched an assault on the well-fortified Vimy Ridge. The battle lasted three days, at the cost of 10,500 killed or wounded. Though many see the battle as a moment of great national maturity for Canada, it was largely inconsequential in the entirety of the campaign.

Canada 150 Week: Canadian Pacific Railway

 

 

By the time Donald Smith drove in the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Craigellachie, British Columbia (which joined the Dominion on the condition that a railway be built) on November 7th, 1885, 4,600 kilometers of single track had been laid by thousands of workers (15, 000 of whom were poorly paid and treated Chinese labourers) through rock, bogs and forests, Canada underwent two changes of government (due to a scandal that threatened to - ahem - derail the project) and added two more provinces to the Dominion.

Where Confederation united a country politically, the railway joined the country physically.

Canada 150 Week: Red River Rebellion

 

The Red River Rebellion marked not only Manitoba's entry into Canada but the fight against Ottawa for individual and provincial rights.  Both Catholics and Metis farmers feared the loss of their rights and the ability to control their daily lives because of Ottawa's encroachment. The rebellion forced the hand of Sir John A. Macdonald in guaranteeing individual and land rights when Manitoba was admitted, both of which were either ignored, mismanaged or otherwise forgotten, proving once again that the government could not and cannot be trusted.

Canada 150 Week: Confederation

Years after the War of 1812, the rebellion of 1837 and experimenting with responsible government, Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec respectively), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia formally joined together as an official dominion. It was no longer a series of disjointed regions with competing interests. Compelled by the expanding land mass and force of the US and driven by economic expansion, the first four provinces paved the way for a much larger Dominion. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Canada consisted of seven provinces and two territories.

Canada 150 Week: the Eve of Canada Day Eve

The day approaches ...





The advising mission in Iraq has been extended by two years:

The federal government has ordered the military to stay in Iraq for at least two more years, as the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant prepares to enter a new phase.

This would be unnecessary had the Right Honourable Coward kept up air strikes.





Teepees aren't that sturdy. Just kick it down:
 

What should have been seen coming from the proverbial mile away arrived at Parliament Hill overnight Thursday as First Nations protesters erected a teepee within security barricades to give the middle finger to Canada's 150th birthday celebration.

Surprise, surprise.

Amid cries of "shame," a dozen or so indigenous protesters found themselves temporarily in handcuffs as the RCMP attempted in vain to quell the demonstration, only to eventually release them all on the promise they steer clear of Parliament Hill for six months.

As if that's going to happen.

 

That's what some call "desperation":

Francois-Philippe Champagne is in Cincinnati for a meeting-packed June day as part of a concerted Canadian outreach campaign ahead of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump describes the 1994 pact as a disaster and has threatened to walk away from it.

Concerned that any moves to abandon NAFTA or curb trade could cost thousands of jobs, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to remind Americans how important bilateral trade is while seeking allies to press the Canadian cause if threats emerge. ...

"We have to hammer, hammer, hammer away at this and when we're exhausted, hammer again," said one person involved in the Canadian effort.

Champagne's message is simple: "We are your largest client."

That's nice, but no one is in this to be neighbourly.





Professor Jordan Peterson continues being right:

Outspoken University of Toronto Prof. Jordan Peterson says his latest mission is to try to “stop (university) indoctrination in its tracks” by advising freshman students to avoid certain disciplines “like the plague.”

Those university disciplines which have been “corrupted” by what he calls the Post-Modernist (neo-Marxist) academics include Women’s Studies, Racial Studies, Sociology, Anthropology and English Literature — with the very “worst offenders” based in the faculties of education.

“(The neo-Marxist) professors are playing these insane bordering on murderous intellectual games (with their students), he told a crowd of nearly 700 at the first free speech summit in downtown Toronto Wednesday evening.

“It’s a cult and a war of ideas and freshmen coming in from high school should be encouraged to stay away from them (these disciplines).”

What Professor Peterson is describing is a finishing process. It begins at home where indulgent parent (s) refuse to nurture children academically or prepare them in any way for life. The process' next phase is elementary and secondary schools (or puppy mills) where heavily compensated Liberal voting teachers pass on their opinions as fact all while doing the bare minimum from a pedagogical standpoint. Bereft of critical thinking skills and inundated with ego-massaging flattery since birth, these students are ripe for the political plucking. If university students are asked to rate potential speakers according to their offense level, one can clearly see that academic institutions are anything places of learning.





This:

Either way, it won’t be easy since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position on this very thing is abundantly clear, as he outlined during the last election campaign.

“I’ll give you the quote so that you guys can jot it down and put it in an attack ad somewhere that the Liberal Party believes that terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship,” he said. “Because I do. And I’m willing to take on anyone who disagrees with that.”

Trudeau’s premise is “as soon as you make citizenship for some Canadians conditional on good behaviour, you devalue citizenship for everyone” and that he finds it “very, very scary” to see an immigrant’s citizenship revoked because of violations of law.

And this:

A few days ago, a sniper with Canada's special forces broke the world record for longest confirmed kill, picking off a Soldier of Allah at 3,450 meters - which is over two miles. That's phenomenal and unprecedented, and the JTF2 guy who did it deserves all the honours the Canadian state can confer on him. On this 150th birthday I only hope we can continue to produce more men like that.

But what's the point if, for every ISIS barbarian you pick off at 3,450 meters, back on the home front you're importing hundreds and thousands of loons who support him and share his world view, day in, day out. There are more "British Muslims" fighting for al-Baghdadi than for the Queen. Thousands more: they feel their allegiance to the Caliphate in a way that they do not for Britain. Likewise with Rehab Dughmosh: she feels her allegiance to ISIS, and not for Canada. Never did. Pace the socks symbol Trudeau, making citizenship conditional on "good behaviour" - ie, non-treason - does not "devalue citizenship for everyone". Tolerating ISIS fighters holding UK and Canadian and Belgian citizenship is what "devalues citizenship for everyone". Rehab Dughmosh's Canadian citizenship devalues that JTF2 sniper's Canadian citizenship.

When citizenship is no longer about allegiance to a country that has given one succour, what is the point? The Liberals have flooded this country with convenient voters blocks.

They won't remain loyal forever.





South Korean President Moon Jae-In is in Washington:

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday embarked on a five-day visit to the U.S., where he will meet his counterpart Donald Trump. 

On arrival in Washington, Moon started his itinerary with a visit to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. He laid a wreath at a memorial there commemorating the Battle of Jangjin (Chosin) Reservoir, one of the fiercest in the 1950-53 Korean War that left 10,400 American soldiers dead or injured. ...

Moon will then attend a business round table and dinner hosted by the Korean and American chambers of commerce. ...

Moon wraps up his official itinerary by having lunch with Pence. On Friday evening, he will give a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about the South Korean government's diplomatic and security policies.

 

I'm sure people would like to hear all about Sunshine Policy Redux.

 

 

 

 

 

It took an assassination for Malaysia to stop importing slave labour:

Malaysia has decided to stop issuing work permits for North Korean laborers in the wake of the apparent assassination of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, according to Malaysian government sources.

Considering that the previous curricula were terribly anti-Semitic, this may be an improvement:

Young Palestinian Faris Abu-Mayyaleh will soon find out how he did in his final high school exams, in which he answered questions about Israel's founding fathers and the history of Zionism.

Faris, 18, chose to study the Israeli curriculum instead of the Palestinian equivalent in the hope that it will open more doors at colleges in Israel and help him get work there.

"I know it's the 'Occupation'. But Palestine, Israel -- I don't care. I just want to go to university," said Abu-Mayyaleh, who lives and studies in East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel hopes many other Palestinians will share his attitude after offering additional funding to Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem if they agree to teach the Israeli curriculum.

The aim, it says, is to help young Palestinians gain the qualifications they need to find work in Israel more easily. It also offers Israel a chance to steer some Palestinians away from a curriculum it says is rife with anti-Semitism and incitement.

 

Also:

“From 1939-1945, Jews were being murdered during the Holocaust,” said Maman, “despite the fact that everyone around knew it was going on. It was three years into the genocide [of Christians and Yazidis] yet nobody acted. That is why I did what I did. I didn’t trust anyone else to do it.” In November 2014, Maman founded the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq (CYCI) to free hostages from ISIS territory.

Good man.





Iraqi government troops have captured a mosque in Mosul:

After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops on Thursday captured the ruined mosque at the heart of Islamic State's de facto capital Mosul, and the prime minister declared the group's self-styled caliphate at an end.

Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining Islamic State fighters are bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City.

The seizure of the nearly 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque -- from where Islamic State proclaimed the caliphate nearly three years ago to the day -- is a huge symbolic victory.

Santa Claus came to town:

They have come to pray for the health of loved ones. They have come to ask for help to pass a tough exam, or to just get by in hard times. But mostly, they have come to be part of a once-in-a-millennium spiritual event: Saint Nicholas has come to town.

Since relics of Russia’s most beloved saint were brought to Moscow on May 21, more than a million people have waited in lines lasting as long as 10 hours to spend just an instant at the gilded ark that holds one of his ribs.

 

A pregnant woman has been charged for assault after injecting herself with heroin, causing harm to her unborn baby:

A Pennsylvania woman who overdosed on heroin while pregnant and had to undergo a cesarean section is being charged with assault on her unborn child, authorities said.

From sea to sea:

Travelling across the immensity of Canada is a reminder of how relatively little of it belongs under man’s dominion. Leave aside the cities which only dot the map; even agriculture has only touched a portion of the land. As impressive as the railway was, and the TransCanada Highway is, they remain the narrowest of ribbons etched into the landscape.

I will be in Ottawa for Dominion Day. It is possible that I will be less than moved by the self-congratulatory uplift, coupled with faux contrition for historic wrongs, that will mark the day.

It ought to be an occasion of gratitude. So my modest Canada 150 project was to pray Psalm 72, first at Cape Spear and then here on the beaches of Tofino, that indeed the Lord would have dominion from sea to sea, and that across this gracious land, He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor… (that) in His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.”

Canada 150 Week: the War of 1812

 

"It is absurd to suppose we will not succeed. We have Canada as much under our command as Great Britain has the ocean ... The conquest of Canada is in your power. I trust I shall not be considered presumptuous when I state what I verily believe: that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at the feet of Congress."    - Henry Clay

One could imagine that Mr. Clay's confidence had dwindled after the Americans' failed attempts to bring Ontario (Upper Canada) and Quebec to heel. The costly battles at Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane helped finally decide a Canadian victory. Though it was not the first time the Americans had attempted to invade Canada (they attempted to take over Quebec during the Revolutionary War), this time around proved not only Britain's willingness to keep Canada but Canadians' ability to defend their homes.

The American invasion of Canada had failed.

A good thing, too.

Canada 150 Week: Mid-Week Post

The plateau of the work-week ...




Yeah, good luck with that:

While heavy rain is expected to dampen Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations Saturday on Parliament Hill, high-level security experts in both police and intelligence agencies are hoping the only explosions heard will be emanating from the thunder clouds overhead.

A national security memo, obtained by CTV News, has the ISIS terror group again “explicitly” naming Canada as a target, with its text warning Muslims to avoid markets and large gatherings as it threatens to use “explosives, vehicles and beheadings to kill crusaders.”

(Sidebar: what? Trudeau has no faith in "diversity"? Pourquoi?)

Consider that Trudeau refused to call things like honour killings "barbaric", has been seen in mosques with ties to al Qaeda, considered killing terrorists as a win for them, withdrew from the fight against ISIS, supported the censorious Motion 103, repealed a bill that would strip those guilty of terrorist offenses of their citizenship, and regarded unrestricted immigration as a net gain for Canada, it seems peculiar that any measure should be taken against being run down, stabbed, blown up or otherwise killed.

Unless the above things clearly have no effect on Islamist terrorism.

I guess appeasing one's enemies doesn't work.

Perhaps Canadians, like the Europeans, should consider terrorism the "new normal".

Strange - the bombing of Pearl Harbour wasn't considered the "new normal" after 1945.


Also:

A self-proclaimed follower of Islamic State pledged her allegiance to the terrorist army in a Toronto courtroom Monday.

It was the second time Rehab Dughmosh told a Canadian courtroom she’s loyal to ISIS, not Canada.

She’s charged with seven offences related to assault, weapons and uttering a death threat, but not with any terrorism crimes.

The 32-year-old woman, believed to be from Syria, was charged by police after witnesses said she attacked people at a Canadian Tire with a golf club and then a long knife.

In court, Dughmosh covered her face with a niqab and spoke in Arabic.

She said she “meant to harm those people” (one employee was hurt but no one was killed) and if released would do it “again and again.”

Dughmosh says she doesn’t recognize or accept Canadian law.

“I reject all counsel here,” Dughmosh said, according to Global TV.

“I only believe in Islamic Sharia law. I would like to revoke my Canadian citizenship that I received. I don’t want to have any allegiance to you,” she told the court through an interpreter.

So not only does this self-described ISIS supporter want to live under Sharia law in Canada, she doesn’t want to be a Canadian citizen.

In fact, it’s unclear if she’s a citizen of Canada to begin with.

There was a time when becoming a citizen - working, learning the official language (s), obeying laws and customs and actually referring to one's self as a Canadian without hesitation or hyphenation - meant that one was willing to put behind one's former life and become a part of a fraternity where bloodlines and castes were meaningless. Now, people look for a place to crash where they can still keep backward customs and values, not communicate in the common language and ultimately not be a part of the community as a whole.

That isn't a country. That's an airport.


And:

Where applicants are the subject of a deportation order because they have committed a crime, or where they are suspected of entering into marriages of convenience simply to sneak a spouse into the country or when they have filled out fraudulent application forms, it is very risky to pencil-whip their approval to stay in Canada. A trained immigration judge should first look them in the eye while he or she hears the details of their cases and asks pertinent questions.

But I suppose if your top priority for our immigration system is to let in as many people as possible, regardless of their qualifications or possible terror ties, and your second priority is to cram the judges’ chambers with dutiful Liberals who will rubberstamp the party line, then whether or not the IAD provides an adequate filter is irrelevant to you.

That is because Liberals (principally Trudeau) are douchebags:

Considering that Saturday will be Canada’s 150th birthday, isn’t it time the Liberal Party of Canada grew up?

In that context, allow me to make a modest proposal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government about how to properly change the words to “O Canada” so they’re gender neutral, since that’s apparently still a thing with them.

First, stop blaming Conservative senators and MPs for “heartlessly” refusing to grant the dying wish of the late Liberal MP, Mauril Belanger, as if changing our national anthem should be treated like a never-ending sub-plot in a third-rate soap opera.

As most Canadians know, it was Belanger’s dying wish (he passed away last year) to change the second line of O Canada from, “True patriot love in all thy sons command” to “True patriot love in all of us command” through his private member’s bill.

If Trudeau and the Liberals are sincere about wanting this change -- as opposed to just bashing the Conservatives for disagreeing with them -- they can do it openly, transparently and properly, by introducing it as a Liberal government bill.

That would mean holding public hearings to obtain the views of Canadians.

Then, if Trudeau and the Liberals still want to make the change after that process is complete, they can use their majority in the House of Commons to pass it into law and accept the political consequences, whatever they may be.

Making this a Liberal government initiative, instead of trying to do it through the back door as a private member’s bill from a now-deceased Liberal MP, will streamline the process considerably, and give the government the ultimate ability to make the change in its current term of office, Conservative objections notwithstanding.

As it is, the Liberals’ continuing efforts to smear Conservative senators and MPs opposed to the change -- and, by implication, all Canadians who disagree with them -- as heartless, has been a disgrace.

Also:

The final days of Parliament also saw the Trudeau government steamroll over the Clerk of the House of Commons, a man who literally wrote the book on Commons procedure, replacing him out of the blue with a less qualified candidate they appeared to favour. Observers criticized the move and suggested that such political interference had not been seen for more than 40 years.

But this wasn’t the first time for Trudeau. Just months after his famous announcement of a gender parity cabinet, Trudeau replaced the Clerk of the Privy Council Office, who happened to be only the second woman to occupy this senior civil service post. She was very highly regarded and her sudden replacement was stunning. I can say without hesitation that if the Conservatives had made any of these moves within the professional ranks of the civil service the howls of outrage would have been deafening.

This highly partisan approach to governing has not just been restricted to senior Ottawa insiders. The gap between sunny Liberal election promises and the cold-hearted reality of their record shows this government was willing to say anything to get elected.

That will hurt:

Escalating a trade dispute with Canada, the U.S. Commerce Department on Monday slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber of up to 7.72 percent, but decided to exclude three Atlantic provinces from such punitive tariffs.

When combined with preliminary anti-subsidy duties issued in April, the new measures will bring total duties on Canadian lumber to between 17.41 percent and 30.88 percent, the Commerce Department.

 Burn the jungle:

Civilians trapped by ISIL-affiliated groups in the besieged southern Philippine city of Marawi are being forced to fight, loot and become sex slaves to militants, the Philippine army claimed Tuesday.

North Korea has promised to murder former South Korean president, Park Geun-Hye, but, then again, it has promised to murder a lot of people, so ... :

North Korea on Wednesday vowed to execute South Korea’s former president and her spy director, accusing them of planning to assassinate its supreme leadership.

The official Korean Central News Agency said North Korea will impose a “death penalty” on ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye and former spy chief Lee Byoung Ho, and they could receive a “miserable dog’s death any time, at any place and by whatever methods from this moment.”

The NHS had decided, in its infinite wisdom, that Charlie Gard doesn't need American medical assistance:

The parents of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard are 'utterly distraught' and facing fresh heartbreak after losing their final appeal in the European Court of Human Rights.

Chris Gard, 32, and Connie Yates, 31, wanted to take their 10-month-old son - who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage - to the US to undergo a therapy trial.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where Charlie is being cared for, said they wanted him to be able to 'die with dignity'. 

But the couple, from Bedfont, west London, raised almost £1.4million so they could take their son to America but a series of courts ruled in favour of the British doctors.

 



And now, Mr. Michael Bond:

Michael Bond, the British creator of Paddington Bear, a marmalade sandwich-loving refugee from Peru who entertained generations of children with his exploits in London, died on Tuesday aged 91 after a short illness.

Canada 150 Week: The Plains of Abraham

The crucible of the nation.

Had General James Wolfe not defeated Maquis de Montcalm, there would be no Canada as one recognises it today.

Wolfe's victory marked the transfer of power from the French who initially colonised Canada to the British who would consider it a colony until the twentieth century.

Canada 150 Week: On a Tuesday

Much to discuss ...


 
Why does anyone care what a has-been thinks?

It’s been a year since U.S. President Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet to Justin Trudeau in his speech to the House of Commons, repeating the slogan that “the world needs more Canada.”

The Brexit vote was only a few days old. And the RNC convention, confirming Donald Trump as the nominee, was still to come. But Obama clearly knew the world was changing.

The outgoing president used his visit to Ottawa to pass the torch to Trudeau, telling him he would bear great responsibilities after Obama left office, becoming the world’s new progressive-in-chief.

How has Trudeau so far lived up to the call for more Canada? Downright frivolously, if judged by recent headlines.

Both national and international media have spread the word that Trudeau wore Ramadan socks to Toronto’s Pride parade over the weekend, and even sported them at a Christian church service kicking off Pride.

Then there’s that over-the-top hug-fest he got into with CBC rainbow puppet Gary the Unicorn, which will provide ammo in the online meme wars for years to come. “Oh boy, I’m going to do what I want to do all the time when I meet people – give them the biggest, squeeziest hug I can,” Trudeau said.

Now, everyone needs a bit of levity in their day and one reason Trudeau was so popular with the electorate in 2015 is that his lighter mood contrasted with Stephen Harper’s.

The bigger problem is the serious policy approach he’s projected to the world isn’t all that weightier.

He’s clearly chosen gender equality as his signature issue, having recently unveiled a new feminist development policy that reallocated $150 million in funding.

And shortly after Canada Day, before a G20 conference, he’ll participate in a concert in Hamburg called “Global Citizen,” alongside Coldplay and Shakira.

"The issues we face globally — climate change, poverty, and disease — disproportionately affect women and girls," Trudeau says, as reported by the Canadian Press. "This is the message I'll bring with me to Hamburg."

This would have been brave decades ago. But a Canadian male telling a gathering of Germans, who have elected a woman to lead their country since 2005, that women’s issues are important is the lightest of foreign policy fare.

The problem is, Trudeau doesn’t seem to have much else up his sleeve.

No doubt Obama was furious that term limits prevented further efforts to dismantle the American economy. Not content with sitting on the sidelines or retiring as other presidents have, Obama continued talking to anyone who would listen and turned his attention to a government that mimicked the one he just left: one where a dilettante defended a Chinese takeover of a Canadian company, repeated the demonstrably false election lies of supporting the middle-class and procuring investment (from a dictatorship he openly admitted to admiring), blaming the previous government for deficits he raised (can't blame everyone else enough), catering to businesses instead of Canadians who have lost files to spammers, and walking back on promises of electoral reform when he realised that no one would stand for it.

Yes, Obama certainly found a soul-mate in the snowboard instructor.

It's like dealing with Al Gore's relentless attention-seeking:

 
But ... but ... Couillard is right!

The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) has responded with outrage to an Islamophobic comment made by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard on June 22. He said, “(We cannot) disconnect these types of events — terrorism — from Islam in general.” 

Couillard’s remark came in response to the stabbing of a Flint, Mich. security officer by Montrealer Amor Ftouhi, who reportedly yelled “Allahu akbar!” just before the attack.

“Is it really necessary to remind everyone that not all terrorists are Muslim and the vast majority of terrorists are not Muslim?” wrote the FFQ in a press release. They ask that Couillard apologize for and correct his statement as soon as possible, so as to not contribute to a racist and Islamophobic atmosphere. 

I would regard it necessary to remind these bints that: (a) Islam is NOT a race  (b) that when people shout "Allah Akbar!" before stabbing or running someone down, chances are this is completely unrelated to Lutheranism  (c) that denying the totally obvious will not erase previous incidents of terrorism nor will they prevent future ones  (d) that if Muslims are truly appalled by these terrorists acts, it is incumbent on them to reform their culture.

Islam was created long after Judaism and Christianity were in existence. Indeed, what Sharia law prescribes is completely unlike what was written and currently practised as modern Judaism and Christianity.  Forcing Couillard (or anyone) to apologise for what has been demonstrated time and time again serves only to mute the truth.


Also:

For Canada to truly be “back,” as our government is so fond of claiming, we need to ensure that our citizens are secure with effective laws at homes. It means standing up for our beliefs abroad, supporting our allies when asked, and not leaving others to fight while we step back to train those who do the heavy lifting. It means making sure our military, intelligence and law enforcement personnel have the tools and training to do their jobs. We cannot “punch above our weight”—to use that oft-repeated phrase—if we never throw a punch, or always have one hand tied behind our back. The world is a safer place when Canadians are forward deployed, and it is a moral imperative that we confront evil wherever it’s found. We also have the advanced skills to play a meaningful part.

The American government urges China to let a Nobel laureate choose his own physicians while being treated for cancer:

The United States on Tuesday urged China to grant Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife "freedom of movement" and let him choose his own doctors after the cancer-stricken activist was taken from prison to a hospital.

Liu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while serving an 11-year sentence for subversion, was released on medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last month, his lawyer said Monday.

Prison authorities in the northeastern province of Liaoning confirmed the democracy activist had been taken to a hospital in Shenyang city where he was being treated by a team of "eight renowned Chinese oncologists".

His wife Liu Xia has been held under house arrest in Beijing since 2010.

 
Noble words but that won't happen.

How long has it taken China to complete freeze (for now) its coal imports to North Korea?




Now Moon's done it:

With liberal President Moon Jae-in in power, South Korea’s education policy is set to shift away from elitism toward equality. And the nation’s most coveted schools are first to take a hit.

Elite private high schools, which in their heydays were gateways to prestigious universities here and abroad, are facing an existential crisis, as education chiefs in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province have vowed to rescind their autonomy in school curriculum and admissions. 

Seoul and Gyeonggi Province are home to nearly half of the nation’s 51 million population, and 23 of the nation’s 46 “autonomous” high schools as well as many other elite private schools.

Seoul’s liberal education chief Cho Hee-yeon has long campaigned for a removal of those schools, emphasizing equal opportunities for students and negative side effects such as excessive competition.

Superintendent Lee Jae-jung of Gyeonggi Province recently went a step further, stating that elite schools in his province would “lose their special status starting from 2020.”

The two regional chiefs’ egalitarian vision is likely to receive a major boost from the Education Ministry, which holds the final say on the fate of the elite institutions, as President Moon has nominated Kim Sang-kon, a champion for liberal educational ideals. 

It is not uncommon for parents to work two or more jobs to put their kids through school. Unlike in Canada, education is a culture, not lip service, in South Korea. Where it would make sense to offer generous tax benefits to lower income families, encourage competition or punish school managers who run scam institutions, Moon has elected to be Marxist about this.

Not in the southern half of Korea, 친구.

And now, is there a better way to eat watermelon?

Canada 150 Week: For a Monday

Lots going on ...


 
The US Supreme Court upholds much of Trump's travel ban:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Donald Trump by reviving parts of a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries that he said is needed for national security but that opponents decry as discriminatory.

The justices narrowed the scope of lower court rulings that had completely blocked key parts of a March 6 executive order that Trump had said was needed to prevent terrorism in the United States, allowing his temporary ban to go into effect for people with no strong ties such as family or business to the United States.

The court issued its order on the last day of its current term and agreed to hear oral arguments during its next term starting in October so it can decide finally whether the ban is lawful in a major test of presidential powers.

In a statement, Trump called the high court's action "a clear victory for our national security," saying the justices allowed the travel suspension to become largely effective.

"As president, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm. I want people who can love the United States and all of its citizens, and who will be hardworking and productive," Trump added.

Trump's March 6 order called for a blanket 90-day ban on people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and a 120-day ban on all refugees while the government implemented stronger vetting procedures. The court allowed a limited version of the refugee ban, which had also been blocked by courts, to go into effect.

Trump issued the order amid rising international concern about attacks carried out by Islamist militants like those in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin and other cities. 

What the ban's detractors fail to mention is that there is no Muslim ban, only that most of the countries on the list, though predominantly Muslim, are either on the terrorism sponsorship list or have no adequate agencies that can verify information on a migrant.


Also:

Thousands of people who fled to Canada to escape President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal migrants have become trapped in legal limbo because of an overburdened refugee system, struggling to find work, permanent housing or enroll their children in schools.

Refugee claims are taking longer to be completed than at any time in the past five years, according to previously unpublished Immigration and Refugee Board data provided to Reuters. Those wait times are set to grow longer after the IRB in April allocated “up to half” of its 127 tribunal members to focus on old cases. The number of delayed hearings more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 and is on track to increase again this year.

Hearings are crucial to establishing a claimant’s legal status in Canada. Without that status, they struggle to convince employers to hire them or landlords to rent to them. Claimants cannot access loans or student financial aid, or update academic or professional credentials to meet Canadian standards.

Canada's refugee system was struggling to process thousands of applications even before 3,500 asylum seekers began crossing the U.S. border on foot in January. It lacks the manpower to complete security screenings for claimants and hear cases in a timely manner. Often there are not enough tribunal members to decide cases or interpreters to attend hearings, the IRB said.

More than 4,500 hearings scheduled in the first four months of 2017 were canceled, according to the IRB data.

The government is now focused on clearing a backlog of about 24,000 claimants, including people who filed claims in 2012 or earlier. That means more than 15,000 people who have filed claims so far this year, including the new arrivals from the United States, will have to wait even longer for their cases to be heard.

Yes, about that:

Those interviewed typically fit into three categories: some had pending U.S. asylum cases but feared being detained anyway, others had been denied asylum but still had work visas, while a third group flew into the United States on visitor visas and immediately crossed the border into Canada illegally.
Three had failed asylum claims and criminal records that virtually guaranteed their removal under U.S. law. 

Few of those Reuters spoke to were undocumented workers, who are the main focus of Trump's stepped-up efforts.

**

A tangle of factors is fueling the surge: brisker traffic along an immigrant smuggling route out of East Africa, stepped-up deportations under the Obama administration and the lure of Canada’s gentler welcome. Advocates expect the Trump administration’s harder line on immigration will spur even more illegal crossings into Canada, where some nonprofits serving asylum seekers are already overwhelmed. Now Canadians worry smugglers are making fresh profits from asylum seekers and migrants take more risks to make the crossing.

Voters blocks at any cost!


 

Had she claimed they were mercy killings, she would not be going to prison:

One after another, family and friends of a serial killer's victims described overwhelming guilt, anger and profound sadness when they learned their loved ones had been murdered by an Ontario nurse who was supposed to care for them.

And many spoke about their loss of faith in the province's long-term care system, where Elizabeth Wettlaufer was allowed to cast her "shadow of death" over vulnerable seniors for nearly a decade.

Wettlaufer was sentenced Monday in a Woodstock, Ont., court to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years after she pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

The 50-year-old nurse used insulin trying — and in most cases succeeding  — to kill vulnerable victims in her care at three Ontario long-term care facilities and a private home. Her crimes began in 2007 and didn't stop until she confessed to the killings at a psychiatric hospital in Toronto last fall.

 

Trump decided not ring out the end of Ramadan with a White House dinner:

Breaking with tradition, the White House under President Donald Trump did not host an iftar dinner, the meal Muslims eat to break their daily fast during Ramadan.

The dinner, which has been often attended by prominent members of the U.S. Muslim community, began in 1996 during former President Bill Clinton’s White House tenure and continued through the subsequent Bush and Obama administrations.

But Trump and first lady Melania simply issued a brief statement Saturday that offered “warm greetings” to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the close of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month of fasting.

And the world goes on.




But ... but ... wages!

When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they’d hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.

The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They’ve cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.

The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.

On the whole, the study estimates, the average low-wage worker in the city lost $125 a month because of the hike in the minimum. It raises questions for Ontario and Alberta as the provinces look to raise their minimum wages to $15 over the next couple years.

 

Oh, I'm sure that the Chinese will honour it:

China has signed an agreement saying it will stop conducting state-sponsored cyberattacks aimed at stealing Canadian private-sector trade secrets and proprietary technology.

This industrial espionage accord was worked out this past Friday during high-level talks in Ottawa between senior Communist Party official Wang Yongqing and Daniel Jean, the national security and intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“The two sides agreed that neither country’s government would conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors,” an official communiqué drawn up between China and Canada says.

(Merci)





Leftists may not mind Russians' historical picks but conservatives who admire Putin for not being Obama will have some mental gymnastics to do:

Without prompting, 38 percent named Stalin, followed by Putin at 34 percent, in a tie with Alexander Pushkin, the renowned 19th-century poet often referred to as “the Shakespeare of Russia.”…

Murderer of millions, most admired man.




And now, panicky dogs: