For a Friday

Easing into the week-end ...




Terrible:

At least 37 people were killed and more than 100 injured when a blaze broke out at a hospital in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday, according to fire officials as of 5 p.m., just a month after 29 died in a fire in a fitness center fire elsewhere. The death toll could rise, as 18 among the injured who were taken to nearby hospitals were in critical condition, the officials said.

Urgently trying to get it together after yesterday's inconveniently-timed bomb-shell, the provincial Tories have picked an interim leader:

Vic Fedeli, 61, was selected Friday morning by the Progressive Conservative caucus, which recommended he stay on to lead the party through the general vote but the ultimate decision will be made by the party executive.

Fedeli is the party's finance critic and represents the northeastern Ontario riding of Nipissing in the provincial legislature.

Saying he was "honoured" by the interim appointment, Fedeli said he was ready to take the party through the election, suggesting a leadership race could be divisive at a time when the party needs to remain united.

Joshua Boyle (hostage claims notwithstanding) is undergoing psychiatric assessment because his chosen religion, his decision to go Afghanistan and what happened after are harder to explain if the powers-that-be can't prove that he's crazy:

Former hostage Joshua Boyle, who faces a new set of 19 charges related to alleged incidents after he returned to Canada, will undergo a 60-day psychological assessment in Brockville, Ont., before his next court appearance.

(Sidebar: these charges.)


Where have we heard this before? Oh, yes ... :

Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30, was in provincial court Friday to face charges related to a Sept. 30 attack outside a football game in Edmonton.

Const. Mike Chernyk was injured when a driver crashed through a barrier, got out of his vehicle, pulled out a large knife and began stabbing the officer.

Sharif also faces dangerous driving charges related to a speeding cube van that hit and injured four pedestrians a few hours later as it raced through the city’s downtown with police in pursuit.

His lawyer, Karanpal Aujla, said an assessment at Alberta Hospital, where his client remains, has found that Sharif is currently fit to stand trial.

“He’s fit in the sense that he understands … what’s going on. He understands the proceedings. He understands the jeopardy he’s facing and everything around the proceedings,” Aujla said outside court.

Also in criminal activity news:

A former Ontario high school principal pleaded guilty on Friday to professional misconduct after tampering with a standardized provincial literacy test.

Christine Vellinga admitted in an agreed statement of facts with the Ontario College of Teachers that she went though student booklets after the test in March 2016 to see who hadn’t completed the work.

The college heard that in total, 21 students were then called back in to complete unfinished portions of the test or an accompanying questionnaire.

“(Vellinga) recognizes the serious nature of her breach and sincerely regrets her actions and the consequences of her actions on the students staff and board,” Vellinga’s lawyer, Kim Patenaude, told the college disciplinary committee hearing the case on Friday.

“She was honest, upfront and forthcoming (throughout the investigation) admitting her actions and taking full responsibility,” Patenaude added.

(Sidebar: "honest"? Is there a plea deal in there somewhere?)

**

The numbers show that staff-on-resident abuse and neglect increased by nearly 80 per cent from 2011 to 2016 in both the Mississauga-Halton and Toronto Central Local Health Integration Networks. LHINs, as they're also known, plan, integrate and fund local health care across the province.

The rates of resident-on-resident abuse also rose during that time frame in both areas. In Mississauga-Halton it increased by 51 per cent, while in Toronto Central it increased by 129 per cent.

(Sidebar: from the same culture that sees euthanasia as a duty.)

Consider that the aboriginal population in Canada is just under five percent:

The Trudeau government has decided to support a private member’s bill, C-262, that would require the adoption of measures to make Canadian law “consistent” with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. UNDRIP is not widely known in Canada. Its intentions are pure, but it is worded in far-reaching and ambitious generalities. If adopted by Parliament, it would dismantle our courts’ carefully constructed approach to reconciliation. ...

Free, prior and informed consent is not a right of anyone in our parliamentary democracy; our representatives thrash out the necessary compromises. Making all Canadian laws consistent with UNDRIP, as C-262 demands, would not just give Aboriginal Canadians rights not enjoyed by other Canadians, it would concede to small groups of them an absolute veto on many issues of resource development. This would be carrying the Supreme Court’s rebalancing of negotiating strength too far.

The burn felt around the world:

A great climax came within the past week. Prof. Peterson, now the most prominent Canadian academic possibly in all the world, on a tour for his new book, entered another lioness’s den. This was a 30-minute interview by a left-wing feminist on Britain’s Channel Four. The interviewer was, by definition and mindset, hostile. But over its 30 achingly painful minutes, the calm professor whittled away at her every presupposition and false ascription, till by interview’s end, the host was a lost voice in a forest of tiny splinters on the studio floor.

At one point in this epic demolition, Peterson allowed himself an unwonted indulgence. He quietly uttered “Ha. Gotcha.”

It was the “Gotcha” heard round the world. That interview on Youtube has claimed millions of views worldwide, and such is its pure entertainment value, it will claim millions more.