For a Monday

A lot going on ...




The scandal that just won't die:

The head of the federal public service is stepping down following controversy over whether he was too partisan in his testimony about the SNC-Lavalin affair.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick said he can’t remain in the position if the opposition parties don’t trust him, and will thus retire from the public service “well before the writ of election is issued.”

“Recent events have led me to conclude that I cannot serve as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet during the upcoming election campaign,” the statement said.

“It is now apparent that there is no path for me to have a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the leaders of the Opposition parties. Furthermore, it is essential that during the writ period the Clerk be seen by all political parties as an impartial arbiter of whether serious foreign interference has occurred.”

(Sidebar: oh, the poor baby ...)

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In the days approaching former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould‘s testimony to the House of Commons’ Justice Committee on February 27, at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s behest, Karina Gould, the Minister of Democratic Institutions, reached out to social media giant Google to pressure the firm to curtail political criticism of the Trudeau government on its platform.

Gould placed a call to a senior government relations executive at Google, during which she complained about ‘hate speech’ and ‘toxic rhetoric’, referring multiple times to specific criticisms of the Trudeau government that she found objectionable. She then threatened sweeping regulations that would require unprecedented disclosures of advertising sponsors.

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The Liberals have stepped in to thwart Conservative plans to stall the federal budget in retaliation if the Liberal majority on the House of Commons justice committee blocks Jody Wilson-Raybould from testifying again. 

On Sunday, finance critic Pierre Poilievre said his party would "use every parliamentary tool in the toolkit to end the coverup and let her speak" about the ongoing SNC-Lavalin affair. 

The Conservatives were set up to potentially trigger a marathon voting session in the House of Commons on Monday that could have delayed the tabling of the budget — until the government stepped in.

Because these tactics are only allowed on set "opposition days," — where the other parties get to set the agenda and set the topic for debate — the Liberals tweaked the schedule to make Wednesday the opposition day instead of Monday. They then informed the other parties. 

(Sidebar: why, if I didn't know any better, I would say that the government is trying to stifle debate.)

In the mean time, Justin has replaced Wernick with Anne McClellan:

Speaking in question period on Monday, Trudeau announced Anne McLellan has been named to the role and will be tasked with examining the controversy and providing recommendations to him by June 30, 2019. ...

Her appointment quickly prompted jeers and laughter from the opposition benches, with Conservatives questioning her ability to provide impartial examinations and recommendations given she served with Liberal members who still sit in caucus and in cabinet, including Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

"She's a former Liberal minister that was there during the sponsorship scandal," said Chuck Strahl, Conservative whip.

"This is like a five-alarm dumpster fire," said NDP MP Charlie Angus.

They hiss legitimately.




Damn you, Scott Brison!:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has filled a cabinet vacancy with British Columbia MP Joyce Murray, who is becoming president of the Treasury Board.

The move to promote Murray comes after Ontario MP Jane Philpott quit the cabinet over the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

 
This Joyce Murray:

"Cabinet’s decision to approve the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion project is incredibly disappointing for me and for many in Vancouver Quadra and British Columbia," Joyce Murray said in a statement to constituents this evening. "I worked hard to represent your concerns in Ottawa. I also stand in support of my colleagues in government in their inclusive approach to decision making that considers more voices, a greater diversity of viewpoints and wider consultation and consideration than ever before.'

At the same time, Murray praised the Liberal cabinet for not allowing the Northern Gateway project.

"I am very pleased that my seven years of effort to protect B.C.’s north coast by legislating a ban on crude oil tanker traffic have now born fruit," she stated. "I ask you to join me in celebrating the protection of the Great Bear rainforest and our majestic north coast announced today."

I'm sure this is not related in any way:

The latest is Don Rusnak, the MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River.


Rusnak announced on Twitter that he won’t be running again:

“Thank you to everyone from Thunder Bay —Rainy River for your support over the last 3 years. It has been an honour being your MP, and I look forward to continuing to serve you all for the remainder of my mandate.”

It's just an economy:

As reported by BNN Bloomberg, “A 17 per cent drop from current levels of around 75 U.S. cents may sound like a lot but the currency has already fallen about 30 per cent from above par in 2011 when Canada’s economic stars were aligned, said the Toronto-based portfolio manager. Back then, the country was revving up from the financial crisis and oil was over US$100 a barrel. Now, the nation may already be in recession after growing at an annualized pace of just 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter and a pretty “soggy” start to the year, said Wolf, part of the asset allocation team at Fidelity Investments Canada, which manages about $136 billion.

** 

A new Angus Reid poll shows Canadians are pessimistic about the economy, with a plurality expecting it to worsen.

40% say they expect the economy to worsen in the next year, while just 24% expect it to improve. 39% say it won’t change.

And when it comes to our personal financial situations, Canadians are even more pessimistic.

55% say it will be a “bad time to make a major purchase” over the next year, while 29% say it will be a “good time.” 16% say they aren’t sure or can’t say.

It's an election year!:

A Quebec First Nation has reached an agreement to settle 29 claims with the federal government and receive $116 million.

The federal government also says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation to guide how the two sides will partner to work on issues including the recognition of rights, socio-economic development and self-determination.

Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation is located near the Quebec municipality of Maniwaki, about 130 kilometres north of Ottawa, with more than 3,400 members.

The Liberals allowed terrorists with dual citizenship keep their Canadian citizenship and did not question anything when Ralph Goodale claimed that only sixty ISIS rapists were running free in society. Did Canadians complain? Did they protest?

Nope:

An Ontario man who spent four years fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) languishes in a Syrian prison with his wife and two children and wants the Canadian government to bring them home.

“Why shouldn’t I be able to go home?” he said in an interview with CTV. “I’ve done nothing in Canada. I’ve broken no laws there at all.”

Wrong. Under Section 83.181 of the Criminal Code, anyone who leaves or tries to leave to commit an offence that is indictable in Canada is liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years.

And yet, the Liberals have failed to apply the law fully to jihadists who have returned. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told the House in 2017 that “the number of returnees is in the order of 60” and said fighters considered a threat are monitored. Further, they will be tried if there is evidence they acted outside the law.

But, they all should have been imprisoned for a decade for simply leaving to join ISIL. The Tories had it right in 2015 when they wanted to strip them of their citizenship and forbid them from returning. With thousands now in custody in the Middle East, this is exactly what some countries are doing, instead of allowing these time bombs to wander into their societies.

Here in Canada, the Liberals have done virtually nothing, which endangers everyone. In Dec. 2018, terrorism researcher Professor Amarnath Amarasingam, with the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security extremism program, said only four of the 19 Canadians he identified as having returned from Syria and Iraq had been charged. Two were found guilty and two were waiting to go on trial. Five more were given terrorism peace bonds, now expired.

Peace bonds for violent, brainwashed killers? No consequences for most of the 60? No exact numbers?

Also - because not New Zealand:

Utrecht’s police chief says the suspect in the deadly tram shooting in the Dutch city has been detained.

At the end of a news conference Monday evening in Utrecht, police chief Rob van Bree told reporters: “I just heard that the suspect we were hunting has been arrested.”

A gunman killed three people and wounded five others on a tram in Utrecht, which sparked a manhunt that saw heavily armed officers with sniffer dogs zero in on an apartment building close to the shooting.

Police originally said nine people were wounded but have not given a reason why the number changed.

Authorities immediately raised the terror alert for the area to the maximum level, and the city’s mayor said a “terror motive” was the most likely theory. Dutch military police went on extra alert at Dutch airports and at key buildings in the country as the Utrecht manhunt took place.

A few hours after the shooting, Utrecht police released a photo of a 37-year-old man born in Turkey who they said was “associated with the incident.” The photo showed a bearded man on board a tram, dressed in a dark blue hooded top.

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Two Israelis were killed and one other seriously wounded after a Palestinian assailant opened fire at two locations in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli authorities said, the latest in a spate of shootings.

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At least 120 people have been killed by alleged Fulani militant attacks since February in the Kaduna state of Nigeria with the latest attacks on Monday resulting in the deaths of over 50 and the destruction of more than 140 homes. 

The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew this week in the troubled Kajuru Local Government Area as thousands have been displaced from their homes by violence caused by militant Fulani herdsmen.

The curfew comes as there have been a string of recent attacks against communities within the predominantly Christian Adara chiefdom of southern Kaduna.

**

Two bombs minutes apart tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 20 people and wounding 111 others during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

(Sidebar: how did this slip under the radar?)




Is this for real?:

A mysterious February raid on the North Korean embassy in Madrid now looks to have been the work of Chollima Civil Defense, also known as Free Chosun, the first documented North Korean resistance organization since the immediate aftermath of the Korean War. What recently looked like a small band of plucky dissidents may soon pose a serious threat to Pyongyang’s financial and political security. How can this be so, when Chollima has no demonstrated presence inside North Korea itself? Because Chollima’s raid targeted the financial and political vulnerabilities that hide behind Pyongyang’s image of military strength. By raiding the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Chollima stands to strike body blows against both vulnerabilities.

If true, what will North Korea do about this guerilla warfare?

 

(Kamsahamnida)




Interesting:

Humans may one day have the ability to regrow limbs after scientists at Harvard University uncovered the DNA switch that controls genes for whole-body regeneration.

Some animals achieve extraordinary feats of repair. Salamanders regrow legs, and geckos can shed their tails to escape predators and form new ones in two months. Planarian worms, jellyfish and sea anemones can regenerate their entire bodies after being cut in half.

Now scientists have found that in three-banded panther worms, a section of non-coding or “junk” DNA controls the activation of a “master control gene” called early growth response (EGR). It acts like a switch, turning regeneration on or off.

“We were able to decrease the activity of this gene and we found that if you don’t have EGR, nothing happens,” said Srivastava, an assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard.

 “The animals just can’t regenerate. All those downstream genes won’t turn on, so the other switches don’t work, and the whole house goes dark, basically.”

Crucially, humans also carry EGR, and produce it when cells are stressed and need repair. Yet it does not seem to trigger large-scale regeneration.

Scientists think the master gene is wired differently in humans, and are trying to find a way to tweak its circuitry to reap its regenerative benefits.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Dick Dale.