Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, who rose to prominence as the student
leaders of pro-democracy street protests five years ago, were arrested
Friday, their party said in a statement, in a widening crackdown on
activists and demonstrators in Hong Kong.
**
Chinese authorities have declined to renew the press credentials of a
Beijing-based Wall Street Journal reporter, effectively expelling a
journalist who extensively covered President Xi Jinping and Communist
Party politics.
In case one was confused about the true nature of communism ... :
Communism is about love. Love for humanity, your neighbours, your community. Without love, it's impossible to be a Communist, or at least a good Communist.
That wiped out all Q1 gains, meaning business investment for the year is negative.
**
First, household consumption is almost stagnant, a sign that
Canadians are tightening up their wallets in anticipation of tougher
times. And business investment actually declined for the first time in two years.
The combo of weak household consumption and the drop in business
investment led to Canada’s domestic demand actually dropping in Q2,
which is always a disturbing economic indicator.
The Q3 growth was thus driven by an increase in exports.
Unfortunately, that is not sustainable in either the medium or
long-term, as domestic demand remains the major driver of our economy.
Exports currently account for about 1/3rd of Canada’s GDP, and the
export increase is not expected to last.
Additionally, a portion of the GDP boost – particularly in June – was
due to a retail sales jump as the Toronto Raptors went on their
championship run. But that boost is of course temporary, and represents
spending that will be deferred in later months.
Delays related to disclosure are already stalling the prosecution of
Matthew Matchett, a public servant who was charged following the same
leak investigation that captured Vice Admiral Mark Norman.
Both
Matchett and Norman were accused of leaking cabinet information about a
$700-million navy supply ship project with Davie Shipbuilding. The
Norman case collapsed in May after federal prosecutors concluded they no
longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction.
Unlike in the United States, or any other Commonwealth country,
Canada relies on a system of lay “triers” to detect potential bias.
Until 2008, the system worked one way. Two rotating “triers” were
selected from the jury pool. Every other member of the pool was then
asked, in turn, some variation on the question “would your ability to
judge the evidence in this case without bias, prejudice, or partiality
be affected by the fact that the person charged is Black (or Muslim, or
South Asian, etc.).”
The triers then conferred and, regardless of
the answer, decided, unanimously, if the first person answering was
suitable for the jury pool. If the answer was yes, and if neither the
Crown nor the defence used a challenge, that person was placed on the
jury and, crucially, also asked to try the next juror in the line for
bias. The first trier was then sent home.
That system of “rotating
triers” remains the default. However, in 2008, the criminal code was
amended to allow a system of so-called “static triers.” If, and only if,
the defence requests it, two members of the jury panel may now be
chosen to try the entire remainder of the panel for bias.
In Husbands’ case, the Ontario Superior Court judge, the now-retired
Eugene Ewaschuk, imposed static triers over the explicit objection of
the defence. The Appeal Court overturned his ruling in a scathing
judgement and sent the case back down. Husbands was retried and
convicted on lesser charges of manslaughter earlier this year.
The
judge in Jaser and Esseghaier’s case also imposed static triers, for a
different reason. Jaser’s lawyers wanted rotating triers to judge each
potential juror without the rest of the panel in the courtroom. Ontario
Superior Court Justice Michael Code ruled that he didn’t have the
authority to do that. Instead, he decided to have static triers, which,
he believed, would free him to exclude all other potential jurors from
the court.
The three-judge appeal panel ruled unanimously Tuesday
that Code got that wrong. The error, they ruled, was so grave that the
only way to fix it was to vacate the convictions against both men. If
that seems to you like an obscure and rather strange reason to upend an
entire criminal trial, you’re not alone. It’s certainly an
only-in-Canada phenomenon.
But
Trost says during the leadership race, Scheer appeared to both support
anti-abortion activists and toe the established party line on not
supporting new legislation.
Trost says that caused confusion at
the time, but it was obvious that as leader Scheer was going to have to
pick a side and align with past party practice.
Because Andy, who could simply campaign on not being Justin, just didn't want to take a stand. How brave of him.
The Canada Growth Council, a free market advocacy group, has launched
a series of billboards throughout southern Ontario aimed at convincing
voters not to vote for Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.
“Would I
hire this person that doesn’t keep any promises and has two ethics
violations?” spokesman Derek Robinson said of Trudeau.
The group is running two different billboard messages at 38 locations in the GTA as well as the Hamilton/Niagara area.
Justin Trudeau is being accused of hiding from some upcoming federal
election debates, as he refuses to commit to attending the first debate.
On September 12th, a debate sponsored by Macleans & Citytv has already confirmed Scheer, Singh, and May as attendees.
However, Trudeau has not yet committed to attending.
So far, the Liberals have only committed to attending the two official debates in October.
Another debate – centred around foreign policy – will be taking place
October 1st. Both Scheer and May have committed to attending, but
Trudeau & Singh have not.
Aside from the fact that it is his job to answer questions from the public he serves (even if he is going to be coddled by the bribed press), it's another part of a pattern for Justin - a coward who thinks that service is beneath him.
The Ontario Liberal cabinet approved
more than $450,000 in enhanced severance packages for two top staffers
in the premier’s office days after the party lost the 2018 election.
Details
about the severance paid to former premier Kathleen Wynne’s top aides,
Andrew Bevan and Mary Rowe, were released to The Globe and Mail under a
Freedom of Information request.
In a nutshell, Liberal Environment Minister
Catherine McKenna pledged in June that the carbon tax would never go
higher than $50. Because polls show that around two-thirds of voters
oppose the tax, the $50 cap was a promise she and other ministers
repeated at least three times.
But last month,
the Liberals nominated a high-profile and vocal environmentalist,
Steven Guilbeault, in a Montreal riding – a man who had earlier and
forcefully said $50 a tonne was nowhere near high enough to encourage
ordinary Canadians to change their use of fossil fuels enough to lower
our country’s emissions.
Then this past
weekend, McKenna herself failed to rule out a jump in the tax after it
reaches the $50 level in 2022, despite her earlier assurances. The
minister’s latest remarks – that the tax might have to go higher – drew
praise from Guilbeault who called it “a very good thing” and added that
the “price should reflect the cost of climate change to society.”
Ontario is taking its fight against the federal carbon tax to the country’s top court.
Environment
Minister Jeff Yurek says the province is asking the Supreme Court of
Canada to overturn a decision from Ontario’s Court of Appeal that found
the carbon pricing scheme is constitutionally sound.
The
Progressive Conservatives say the carbon charge is an illegal tax and a
violation of the Constitution because it allows the federal government
to intrude on provincial jurisdiction.
Scrap the damn thing because it is based on junk science and the greed of a reckless government.
Bill 21 is stretching that compromise right to the breaking point,
however. The idea that Quebec’s restrictions on minority rights are a
“provincial issue,” and that this explains their absence from the
federal scene, is rather belied by the fact that Trudeau is running his
campaign as much against Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his various
budget cuts as he is against Scheer. If Alberta had instituted Bill 21
— which it wouldn’t, but if it had — we would be looking at a very
different federal campaign. Liberals would hold it up as evidence of
shameful, intolerable intolerance, and they would have a point.
Can
it really be a purely “provincial issue” when a government uses Section
33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to impose
restrictions on minority rights that the prime minister considers
“unthinkable”? What’s the point of national unity if it means keeping
shtum on such a fundamental question of individual rights and freedoms?
Federal leaders utterly deplore the restrictions — fine. Voters should
ask them what exactly they intend to do about them.
If Canadians truly believed in personal liberty (as opposed to personal license), there would be a lot of different things going on. This was never about people choosing to affect a religious garb or talisman nor is it discriminatory measure. This is a stop-gap measure. Because people became lazy and refused to live and defend the culture they grew up, instead choosing to embrace the ridiculous and demonstrably false ethos of political multiculturalism, they are now being subsumed by cultures that don't care how cute urban liberals think gay cabaret is or that Western civilisation is why we have telecommunications, indoor plumbing and basic civil rights. The thumb-in-the-eye burqas (which stem from a misogynist culture - where are those feminists, by the way?) aren't just reactionary; they will be mandatory. Decades too late to the "stop this before it gets too big" party, the government, simultaneously afraid of giving offense and being overwhelmed by less timid cultures that just won't blend in, pretends that it is banning visible signs of belief to be egalitarian.
Despite the lobbying, and criticism from a former Canadian ambassador
to Beijing and the province’s Liberal opposition, Cardy’s Progressive
Conservative government announced Monday it will, in fact, end the
school system’s contract with Confucius.
The province said it
would immediately cancel the cultural lessons delivered in elementary
and middle schools. It’s allowing language courses to continue in high
schools until 2022 to comply with the contract the previous government
signed with the organization.
The minister cited reports he’s
received from several parents about the institute restricting or
distorting discussion of China, including teachers barring talk about
the Tiananmen Square massacre or insisting Taiwan was part of the
People’s Republic.
One class had a map that clearly indicated that China did, in fact, include Taiwan, he said. It reminded the minister of a past life with the National Democratic Institute,
a U.S.-based democracy-promotion agency. In the early 2000s, Cardy
witnessed up-close China’s rapidly growing sway in Nepal and Cambodia.
“I
was concerned when I saw that same playbook being operated here in
Canada, and our school system being used as a conduit for extending that
influence.”
If teachers and parents focused on students' studies instead of their feelings and the fifty genders alleged to exist (gender is a grammatical construct, by the way, but I digress ...), this wouldn't be an issue now:
Math scores continue to fall as more and
more Ontario elementary school students struggle to meet provincial
standards, according to the latest standardized test results released
Wednesday.
Education Minister
Stephen Lecce called the results “disappointing.” He said the province
will embark on a curriculum rewrite and in the meantime invest
$55-million in schools this year to train educators and expand online
tutoring for students.
Results from
the province’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) showed
that the proportion of Grade 3 students who meet provincial standards
on math tests has also dropped, to 58 per cent from 61 in the 2018-19
academic year.
The number of Grade 6
children who met provincial standards dipped to a record low in the
2018-19 academic year: fewer than half – 48 per cent – met the
provincial standard in math, a decline of one percentage point from the
previous year and two percentage points lower than three years ago. (The
provincial standard is equivalent to a B grade.)
The
EQAO said research has shown that for students in those grades, their
basic math skills are stronger than their ability to apply those skills
to a problem or think critically to find an answer.
(Sidebar: governments aren't fond of voters who think critically.)
Why does most of Africa stay poor while other parts of the world prosper?
People blame things like climate, the history of colonialism, racism, etc.
But I say Senegalese businesswoman Magatte Wade gives the right explanation: too many rules.
"Once you hire someone, good luck getting rid of them for any reason," Wade complains. Her government must approve every firing.
"Then the tax code is so complicated... worth at least two or three truckloads of paper."
Wade
started a lip balm company. Some of her ingredients are not made in
Senegal, so she imports them. To "protect" Senegalese manufacturers, the
government makes importing ingredients expensive.
"Some have a 70% import tariff on them!" she says.
President Donald Trump now threatens similar taxes on imports from China.
In Africa, people sometimes escape such taxes by paying bribes. We hear a lot about African corruption.
"People
complain about corruption as if corruption is a root problem," says
Wade. "I say no. Corruption is a natural consequence of stupid,
senseless, idiot laws."
That could very well be a chicken-or-the-egg argument (without stupid people, would the government have to step in and develop over-reaching laws?) but Miss Wade is spot-on. Corruption at every level, especially at the government level, is why there is massive poverty and unrest.
It's time for Japan and South Korea to get it together and realise where their real troubles lie:
Japan formally downgraded its trade status with South Korea on Wednesday
in a move that will put further strain on a crumbling bilateral
relationship in which everything from cultural exchange and tourism to
security cooperation is now in jeopardy.
**
First, identify the problem. While the U.S. sees mostly a convergence
of national interests between South Korea and Japan by virtue of the
growing North Korea threat, the reality is very different.
Current South
Korean leaders subscribe to an ideology of pan-Korean ethno-tribalism.
“Common bloodline comes before alliance,” as a former South Korean
president said.
The Kim Jong Un
regime views domination of the wealthier South — a magnet to the people
of the oppressive, immiserated North — as the sine qua non to its
long-term regime preservation. The North Korean Constitution defines
“the final victory of the revolution,” a not-so-subtle reference to the
North’s emergence as the sole de facto and de jure Korean state.
Many,
if not most, Koreans in the South and the North view Japan as an
unrepentant former oppressor. They resolutely believe Japan was
historically inferior to Korea in culture and material wealth until a
dramatic program of modernization in the late 19th century. Deep is
Korean condescension against Japan, exacerbated by a collective
inferiority complex as manifested in South Korean President Moon
Jae-In’s remark, “We will never again lose to Japan,” following Japan’s announcement of restrictions on exports of chemicals that are crucial to South Korea’s semiconductor industry.
Second, be positioned to predict Korean ploys — for example, the “Korean comedy of errors” that was the first summit between Moon and Kim in April 2018. This feel-good moment was designed to mislead the U.S. into believing that through summit pageantry President Trump
can induce Kim to part with his nuclear programs. Kim would win a
political cover against future provocations and more time to build the
bomb, and Moon would score a political victory by disarming the South
Korean public under the illusion of peace.
Be also aware of
Japan’s initiatives and responses that are adverse to U.S. interests.
Japan is neither a passive party nor an innocent victim vis-à-vis the
Koreas. The Japanese, too, view Koreans through the lens of
condescension as overly-emotional and stubborn. For example, Japan in
recent years has claimed that the South Korean government has been “moving the goalposts,”
reneging on agreements and demanding apologies from the Japanese
government. Seldom, if ever, is the point made that key Japanese
officials effectively have denied their predecessors’ landmark apologies
with inflammatory acts as well as obfuscatory and revisionist statements of their own.
Upon arriving in Japan in 1549 to convert the natives to
Christianity, it is not surprising that St. Francis Xavier ran into
communication difficulties. While he was positive overall about the
Japanese people, he came up with a remarkable theory about their
language. He found communication so challenging that he wrote of his
belief that the Japanese language had been planted by the Devil in order
to stymie Christian missionary work.
A country of devil-tongued
natives? I wonder what embarrassing communication mishap was preying on
his mind the day he wrote that letter?
There are plenty of candidates for the element of Japanese study
that could have driven St. Francis over the edge: kanji; the lack of a
grammatical subject; kanji; the special humble and polite forms of
address; more kanji; the lack of clear differentiation between present
and future tense; and even more kanji.
But my theory is that it
was not the structure of the Japanese language per se, but the confusing
(to outsiders) way it is used. Japanese have made an art form of white
lies and well-meaning pretences every bit as deep as the tea ceremony.
Some social interactions cannot simply be slurped down with milk and two
sugars. They must be ritually cleansed, rotated, sipped, rotated again,
sipped and appropriately admired … and ritually wiped clean.
First pictures from inside the HMS Terror, part of the doomed
Franklin Expedition, show tidy rows of crockery, neatly stowed storage
lockers — even a propeller sitting solidly in place as if ready for a
head of steam.
“Overturned armchairs, thermometers on the wall,
stacked plates, chamberpots, washbasins — often in their correct
position,” said Ryan Harris, one of a team of Parks Canada underwater
archaeologists probing the secrets of the British warship lost around
1848 while searching for the Northwest Passage.
“We were able to see an incredible array of artifacts.”
If the law, especially the law that can free convicted terrorists, is faulty, along with the judges, it's time to dispense with the lot of them and return to the Bill of Rights and hang the b@$#@rds who would blow up trains:
Ontario's
highest court has granted a new trial for two men who were found guilty
of terrorism charges after being accused of plotting to derail a Via
Rail passenger train in the Greater Toronto Area.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario ordered Tuesday that the 2015 convictions of Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier be set aside.
A
new trial was ordered. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada
confirmed in a statement that it will proceed with a new trial.
Both
men are still in custody, and will remain there unless they are
released on a successful bail application, said Megan Savard, one of
Jaser's lawyers.
The African Canadian Civic Engagement Council said Abdilahi Elmi, 34,
is being held at the Edmonton Remand Centre and was to be deported on
Monday.
The council said he arrived in Canada at the age of 10,
was granted refugee status, and was later taken into foster care in
Ontario. ... Earlier this month the agency said it decided in June that Elmi
should be deported to Kismayo, Somalia because he has committed
“extensive crimes within Canada and is considered a danger to the
public.”
His lengthy criminal record includes assault charges.
At least one camera in the hallway outside the cell where authorities
say registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself earlier this
month had footage that is unusable, although other, clearer footage was
captured in the area, according to three people briefed on the evidence
gathered earlier this month.
It was not immediately clear why
some video footage outside Epstein’s cell is too flawed for
investigators to use or what is visible in the other, usable footage.
The incident is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice
Department’s inspector general’s office, which are attempting to
determine what happened and how to assess whether any policies were
violated or crimes committed.
Officially, former Polish press photojournalist
Henryk Ross was forced to work by the Nazi regime as a bureaucratic
photographer for the Jewish Administration’s statistics department. He
took photographs for Jewish identification cards, as well as images used
as propaganda for the Lodz Ghetto. Ross, a Jew, was one of at least
160,000 people held in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, second only to the
Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Europe.
Unofficially,
at great personal danger, Ross documented the cruel truth of life under
Nazi rule. In the four-year existence of the Lodz Ghetto, a quarter of
its prisoners died of starvation. In 1942, nearly 20,000 were deported
to the death camp of Chelmno; in 1944, 70,000 were sent to Auschwitz.
Squadron leader John Hart, who has died aged 102, was the last
surviving Canadian Battle of Britain pilot. He went on to serve on
fighters in Burma and in Italy, where he won the DFC.
Hart arrived
on No. 602 Squadron on Sept. 24, 1940, when it was flying from
Westhampnett near Chichester. Although the intensity of the fighting had
eased somewhat, Hart and his colleagues were scrambled on a daily basis
to intercept raids approaching the south coast. On Oct. 12, Hart’s
Spitfire was seriously damaged during an engagement with Messerschmitt
Bf 109s in fighting over the English Channel, but he was able to return
safely.
During the afternoon he was again on patrol when his
formation of three aircraft attacked a Junkers 88 south of Beachy Head.
Their combined attacks resulted in the German bomber crashing into the
sea.
After a few days of reduced activity, the Luftwaffe mounted a
large-scale operation at midday on Oct. 29. Five Spitfire and four
Hurricane squadrons were scrambled. In the ensuing battle over Kent, 11
enemy fighters were shot down, one of them by Hart. This proved to be
the last major action of the Battle of Britain.
The
Chinese territory is grappling with its biggest crisis since its
handover to Beijing 22 years ago as many residents fret over what they
see as China’s tightening grip over the city and a relentless march
toward mainland control.
The battle for Hong Kong’s soul has
pitted protesters against the former British colony’s political masters
in Beijing, with broad swathes of the Asian financial center determined
to defend the territory’s freedoms at any cost.
Faced with a stick
and no carrot – chief executive Carrie Lam reiterated on Tuesday
protesters’ demands were unacceptable – the pro-democracy movement has
intensified despite Beijing deploying paramilitary troops near the
border in recent weeks.
“This is a now or never moment and it is
the reason why I came back,” Tse, 32, said, adding that since joining
the protests last month he had been a peaceful participant in rallies
and an activist on the Telegram social media app.
“If we don’t succeed now, our freedom of speech, our human rights, all will be gone. We need to persist.”
Hong Kong police said on Monday they arrested 36 people, the youngest aged 12, after violence during anti-government demonstrations escalated as protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at security forces who responded with water cannon and tear gas.
China
is willing to resolve its trade dispute with the United States through
“calm” negotiations and resolutely opposes the escalation of the
conflict, Vice Premier Liu He, who has been leading the talks with
Washington, said on Monday.
North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles Saturday, two
days after South Korea decided to pull out of a military
intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan.
Interpol has taken the rare step of quashing its arrest warrant for a
dissident Chinese judge living in Toronto, saying the “red notice” was
likely issued for political reasons and could undercut the
organization’s neutral stance.
China had requested the notice in
2014 after charging Xie Weidong, 62, with accepting a bribe to favour
one party in a civil dispute he adjudicated.
But the “Commission
for the control of Interpol files” ruled there is evidence to back up
Xie’s contention that the whole prosecution was instituted for political
reasons related to his outspoken criticism of the country’s legal
system.
Interpol’s governing constitution bars the law-enforcement
network from making any intervention of “political … character” and
says it should abide by the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
Canada enlisted citizens who travelled to Communist countries during
the Cold War to gather needed intelligence — a shadowy element of a
little-known government program detailed in a newly declassified
history.
Officials became sufficiently nervous about the tasking
of Canadians — and the prospect of being caught snooping overseas — that
they had John Diefenbaker, prime minister at the time, give his
blessing, reveals a study by intelligence expert Wesley Wark.
Offering a unique insight into one of the most controversial
political deals in history, Russia has displayed the original text of a
pact between Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, including
the deal’s condemned “secret protocol.”
Signed in Moscow on Aug.
23, 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was ostensibly a non-aggression
agreement between the two powers, but also contained a cunning backroom
deal to divvy up Eastern Europe as the Second World War loomed.
In
the initial secret protocol and a follow-on arrangement, it was agreed
that Poland was to be shared, and Estonia, eastern Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania, and parts of Romania were all to be ceded to Soviet
influence. Vyacheslav Molotov signed for the Soviets, Joachim von
Ribbentrop for the Nazis.
Soon after it was done, the Second World
War began in earnest; within days, Hitler sent troops into Poland. The
following year Stalin, who had followed Hitler into Poland, annexed the
Baltic states to Moscow’s west.
At one point in Canada's vaguely tumultuous history, most people regarded themselves as British subjects even though that did not apply in any real, meaningful way.
Later on, as we forged our metal in the furnace of international conflict, we knew that we weren't British subjects but Canadians, separate people who had to not only invent themselves but prove themselves, as well.
Those 330 spending commitments made from Aug. 19 to Aug. 25 total $2.85 billion.
For the week before that — Aug. 11-18 — Liberal MPs and ministers made 595 spending commitments worth a total of $4.9 billion.
**
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto,
said the edited video shared on Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale‘s Twitter likely won’t have any impact on the Oct. 21 vote. A speech Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer
delivered in opposition to same-sex marriage 14 years ago is back in
the spotlight courtesy of the Liberals, but some political observers
have questioned the strategy and whether it will resonate with voters.
Liberals, however, argue Canadians should have information about a leader’s values before casting their ballots this fall. “People
that are outraged about this are people that were intending to vote
Liberal or NDP in the first place,” Wiseman told the Bill Kelly Show.
How embarrassing for the Liberals. Now they're going to have to run on real issues instead of attacking people.
**
The Canadian political commentariat has spent the past few months
engaged in a series of conversations debating the merits of Conservative
Leader Andrew Scheer’s presumed villainy as pushed by Liberal spin
doctors.
First there were the attempts to argue that Scheer was
somehow affiliated with an alleged rise in neo-Nazi sentiment. Then
there was the bizarre episode where Scheer was randomly put on the
defensive as to whether or not he would criminalize abortion.
Then,
just last week, we were shown a 14 year-old video of Scheer voicing his
opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage, a position that
his office clarified he no longer holds (while also pointing out that a
number of currently sitting Liberal MPs also held those same views back
then).
These attacks all come together to craft a sort of Flight
93 argument for Trudeau fans, who – as Warren Kinsella has written many
times – are beginning to resemble a sort of cult. The idea is that if
anyone other than Trudeau is elected there will be total calamity, that
we’re “on a trajectory towards something very bad”.
A snowboard instructor with a love for the communist government of China and has failed at every turn of governance can't be worse than a milquetoast.
While the change in Canadians’ temperature on democracy can be
interpreted as encouraging, the poll also revealed a number of alarm
bells. For example, 44 per cent of people appear unconvinced that voting
matters when it comes to how the country is being run. A majority of
Canadians — 56 per cent — think there’s not much that can be done to
influence government, even if an effort is made. And 68 per cent of
Canadians believe that elected officials don’t really care what people
like them think.
Indeed, the government is quite reliant on its ineffectual population and is willing to weather any proletariat storm:
What if you were losing 80 per cent of your wages?
These
sorts of calculations are a real consideration for low-income families
in Canada, according to a research paper published by the C.D. Howe
Institute.
And ironically,
it’s government programs aimed at redistributing wealth from the rich to
the poor that leads to perverse incentives, where low-income parents
have little incentive to work harder and earn more money.
(Sidebar: quelle surprise.)
**
Canada risks a populist backlash if politicians fail to focus on the
most economically vulnerable people, a new report says, as rosy economic
data continues to overshadow the plight of many rural and non-educated
workers.
A report by Sean Speer of the Macdonald-Laurier
Institute, released Tuesday, argues that politicians across the
political spectrum have broadly ignored pockets of working class
Canadians who have failed to thrive in an increasingly globalized and
technological economy. Resentments among those people, if left
unchecked, could feed the same sort of reprisal that led to the election
of U.S. President Donald Trump, Speer says.
Unvetted migrants (none of whom appear to engineers or doctors) are currently sleeping on the streets but why let facts get in the way of a billboard that says it all?:
Whatever you think of the phrase used in the ad, “Say No to Mass Immigration,” shouldn’t we be able to debate the issue openly?
I
come from an immigrant family, and I don’t mean that in the “we’re all
immigrants” kind of way. Tracing my family tree in Canada consists of
calling my mother.
And fundamentally, I disagree with Bernier.
I
think we should secure our border against the illegal border crossers
that make a mockery of our system, but I’d say 150,000 new permanent
residents per year is too low to satisfy the needs of our economy.
Is 350,000 the right number?
I don’t know, but as a country we should be able to debate this issue in a real way.
Taking down those billboards based on a mob mentality isn’t real debate and Canada deserves better.
Asnoted by the Globe & Mail, “Environment
Minister Catherine McKenna has backed off a pledge to freeze the carbon
tax at $50 a tonne after 2022, saying a re-elected Liberal government
would review the levy with provinces before deciding how to proceed. In
June, Ms. McKenna said the Liberals planned not to increase the tax once
it hit $50, which equates to roughly 11 cents a litre of gasoline.”
**
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said with McKenna’s latest
flip-flop, “the cat’s out of the bag,” meaning the Liberals will keep
raising Trudeau’s carbon tax if they’re re-elected, which Conservative
Leader Andrew Scheer has pledged to scrap.
In response, McKenna
denied the Liberals have already decided to raise the carbon tax after
2022, which will be the subject of future negotiations with the
provinces. ... What’s inexplicable is why McKenna changed the government’s policy on
carbon pricing twice in two months, re-opening the prospect Canadians
could be paying far higher carbon taxes after 2022, if the Liberals win
re-election.
How can we trust anything McKenna or Trudeau say
about carbon taxes during the election campaign, given these two policy
reversals in two months?
Remember, McKenna was captured on video
in May at Christian’s Pub in St. John’s, N.L. after being “screeched
in”, enthusiastically proclaiming her belief, “that if you actually say
it louder, we’ve learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if
you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally
believe it.”
**
Heddle Marine in Ontario had said that under the requirements of the
shipyard search proposal, the only shipyard that qualified was the
Chantier Davie shipyard in Quebec.
“That ‘requirement’ refers to the
fact that the winning shipyard must either have a current contract or
recent contract building a ship that weighs over 1,000 tonnes, and must
have the ability to launch vessels that are wider than 24 metres.
No Ontario shipyard meets those specifications.
The report also notes that Justin
Trudeau has made comments that seem to favour Davie, having said “We
recognize that it’s an opportunity for Davie to apply to become that
third shipbuilding facility because there will be a tremendous amount of
work in the coming years.”
“Public Service and Procurement
Canada said in a statement Monday it had “corrected” an “inconsistency”
in the size of vessel that interested shipyards must be able to build to
qualify for consideration as the third yard.
Shipyards will now be required to
show they can build vessels that are at least 110 metres in length and
20 metres wide, smaller than the original requirements of 130 metres in
length by 24 metres wide.
The original requirement was one of
several flagged by Hamilton-based Heddle Marine in a complaint to the
Canadian International Trade Tribunal last week as not legitimate or
reasonable — and potentially biased toward Davie.”
**
A Liberal riding association says the departure of a sitting Quebec
MP who announced she would not seek a second term this week was forced
by the party and it wants to know why.
Eva Nassif announced in a
statement Thursday she would not seek a re-election in the riding of
Vimy, north of Montreal, eight days after assuring she would be
nominated as the candidate.
Riding president Giuseppe Margiotta
told The Canadian Press on Saturday that Nassif was pushed out as the
choice in the riding located in Laval, Que without any reason given and
that the entire executive in the riding was “stunned” with recent
developments.
... Thursday for young, progressive-minded voters
with 14-year-old video footage of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer
speaking out against same-sex marriage — a tactic that prompted Jagmeet
Singh to vow that New Democrats won’t prop up a minority Conservative
government.
The “disgusting prejudice” against gay, lesbian and
transgendered Canadians exhibited in the video is “exactly why, if
Canadians deliver a minority government in October, I will not prop up
Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives,” the NDP leader said in a
statement.
First of all, Andrew Scheer (whose opinions on gay "marriage" may have since changed from the time that near-ancient video was filmed) expressed an opinion that most people, including Muslim voters and some homosexual activists, have regarding the definition or re-definition thereof of traditional marriage.
It looks like (at least from various comments left at the end of these articles the bribed press has splashed everywhere) that this slur has gained no traction.
No one cares and no one is stupid enough to fall for an obvious attack.
The parents of Jack Letts, a British-Canadian man imprisoned in northern Syria, are chastising Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer for saying he wouldn’t lift a finger to help their son.
This just makes Andrew Scheer look very attractive as a candidate. If one needed further proof that the Liberals and their voters support any moral and political corruption and tyranny, look no further than this:
As speaker after speaker criticized the mass protests in Hong Kong
and defended the Chinese government at a Toronto-area rally recently, a
different kind of politicking was quietly unfolding.
Several
members of the crowd of about 200 passed around and appeared to fill in
Liberal membership forms, a striking juxtaposition between Canada’s
governing party and backers of China’s Communist regime.
There one has it.
For the good of the country, the Liberals must be uprooted as a party, their funds and assets sold off and ejected from Canada, hopefully with a trebuchet.
Questions are being raised about plans to build a $1-billion, 700-km
highway from Yellowknife to a proposed port on Nunavut’s Arctic coast,
paid for by Canadians but which critics say would largely serve Chinese
government interests. ...
“It is worth flagging to people that the main beneficiary will be the
Chinese government, more so than the government of Nunavut or the
government of Canada,” says Michael Byers, a political science professor
at the University of British Columbia who holds the Canada Research
Chair in Global Politics and International Law. “This is for the mining
projects and nothing else.”
Meng Wanzhou says her legal troubles
with the United States began as far back as 2014 during a flight into
New York when she was detained for a visa-related stop similar to the
one at Vancouver’s airport last December allegedly engineered in
partnership with the FBI.
Ms. Meng’s high-powered legal team allege in new court filings
that the search of her electronics there and the recent detentions of
other Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. higher-ups in other U.S. airports
show a pattern of the American government’s “historical abuse of customs
and immigration powers” that are similar to the alleged misconduct of
the Canadian authorities.
Ms. Meng
was arrested as she connected through Vancouver International Airport on
a warrant from the United States, which is alleging in an extradition
case set to go to trial next January that the Huawei chief financial
officer lied about the company’s activities in Iran and placed banks at
risk of violating U.S. economic sanctions.
The
globe-trotting telecom executive was detained by U.S. customs officials
in early 2014 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and
had her electronic devices temporarily seized, according to the
memorandum released Tuesday. During her two-hour detention, U.S.
officials accessed her deleted files from at least one device before
telling her the stop was visa-related and letting her enter the country,
the filing alleges.
“Evidence was preserved from at least one device as part of the ongoing investigation against Huawei,” the memorandum states.
The
U.S. government blacklisted Huawei in May, alleging the Chinese company
is involved in activities contrary to U.S. national security or
foreign-policy interests.
“If
the U.S. still dreams a pipe dream of gaining everything through
sanctions, we are left with two options, either to leave it enjoying the
dream to its heart’s content or to wake it up from the dream,” Ri said.
The European Union
will halt imports of Canadian cherries and other fresh fruits starting
Sept. 1 as it enforces new import requirements related to pests,
according to a Canadian government document sent to industry on
Thursday.
This is in line with another trend identified by Robinson,
anthropomorphism of toys in poses that imitate human behavior. “From
poses to accompanying captions, there was a clear trend of toys
appearing to experience travel [like real people]. The toys were
photographed worried about missing public transport, deciding on their
next meal and, of course, posing in front of famous tourist sites,” she
explains.
The
Liberal majority on the House of Commons ethics committee has voted
down an opposition motion to call Conflict of Interest and Ethics
Commissioner Mario Dion to testify about his report concluding
that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act
over the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Liberal
MP Steven MacKinnon said he and the other Liberal MPs sitting on the
committee today voted down the motion because, following Dion's
report and hours of testimony on the scandal over a five-week period,
there was nothing new to add to their understanding of the SNC-Lavalin
affair.
"The
opposition's claim to simply wanting the facts is contradicted by the
fact that what they seek is found in the commissioner's report,"
MacKinnon said.
Then what will be wasted by investigating further? Time? Money? Since when did that bother you, you filthy crime organisation?
The federal government has written off the balance of two
multimillion-dollar loans given to Irving-owned Atlantic Wallboard in
Saint John.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency closed the
file on the two loans in March after deciding that the full amount "has
not been and likely will never be repaid," according to a memorandum
obtained by CBC News.
The two loans, called "conditionally
repayable contribution agreements," were worth a combined $7.4 million.
They were made under ACOA's Saint John Shipyard Adjustment Initiative.
Eyre takes over as army commander from Lt.-Gen. Jean-Marc Lanthier,
who himself was installed as vice-chief of the defence staff only last
month following the surprise resignation of Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk.
Wynnyk
linked his decision to leave the Forces to an aborted attempt to
reinstate Norman as the military’s second-in-command before Norman
reached a confidential settlement with the government and announced his
plan to retire.
The federal government announced on August 9, 2019, that it will be
granting full duty remissions on illegally dumped fabricated steel from
China to supply two liquid natural gas (LNG) projects located in British
Columbia. Their recent action was announced with their assurance that
“trade barriers would not be permitted to stand in the way of these
historic private sector investments”.
This China:
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday that the
consulate worker, Simon Cheng, was being held under a 15-day
administrative detention process in the mainland city of Shenzhen. Geng
said the issue was a domestic matter and not a diplomatic dispute,
saying that Cheng, 28, is a Hong Kong citizen. Cheng was revealed to be missing Tuesday after failing to return from an
Aug. 8 meeting in Shenzhen and hasn’t contacted his family since. The
U.K.’s foreign office said Tuesday that it was “extremely concerned” and
was seeking information from authorities in Hong Kong and the southern
Chinese province of Guangdong, which includes Shenzhen.
The defence team for a Huawei executive wanted on fraud charges in the
United States is alleging Canadian officials initially planned to arrest
Meng Wanzhou when her plane landed, but instead questioned her for
nearly three hours before arresting her. ... The court documents include a solemn declaration from Acting Supt.
Sanjit Dhillon of the Canada Border Services Agency, who says that Meng
repeatedly asked why she was selected for secondary inspection after she
got off the plane.
Dhillon says in his declaration that he asked
Meng what she did for work, whether her company sold products to the
U.S. and whether it sold products in countries that it should not.
Meng
appeared confused by the question and he rephrased it, asking if the
company sold products or did business in Iran, to which he says Meng
initially replied, “I don’t know,” he says.
“I reminded the
subject that she is the CFO of a multibillion-dollar company, and that
it would be hard for me to believe that she wouldn’t know these details
about her company,” Dhillon’s declaration says. “The subject stated that
her company does have an office in Iran.”
I'm sure the Chinese have an expression for "full of sh--" but I cannot think of it right now.
The
number of non-permanent foreign workers arriving in Canada each year
has doubled in the past decade, escalating particularly after the
federal Liberal government was elected in 2015.
Partly as a result
of the increasing flow of guest workers, UBC economist David Green and
Carleton University’s Christopher Worswick say in a paper that new immigrants are doing “worse and worse” in regards to earned incomes. And it’s Canada’s low-wage workers who are suffering the most.
Even
though businesses frequently lobby politicians to allow more guest
employees, Green says the latest hikes are putting downward pressure on
wages and threatening respect for workers. They’re exacerbating the kind
of scenario, he said, that lead to the rise of Donald Trump and
Britain’s Brexit movement.
Saying it’s “truly dumb” for the
federal government to continue boosting low-skilled guest workers in the
country, Green emphasized the vast majority of Canadians don’t appear
to be aware of the labour-market shift. “It’s totally under the radar.”
While
temporary workers were initially billed as a way to rescue businesses
that needed to make up short-term skill shortages in certain sectors,
low-skill guest workers from overseas are now increasingly being brought
in to staff fast-food restaurants, fill shelves at supermarkets and
perform basic kitchen duties.
Canada could prove itself an enlightened world leader if it brought Jack
Letts here from Syria after British authorities stripped the alleged
ISIL member of his citizenship, his father told the National Post
Monday.
It would be too disastrous, even for the Liberals and their terrorist-sympathetic voters, to let Jack Letts return before October but believe me, such a plan is in the works.
It's not like we need to worry about the Russians or anything:
Religious and conscientious exemptions were available under the previous
Liberal government, though those instances were addressed on a
case-by-case basis and school boards were not required to have a
codified policy in place. Some school boards also refused to allow
exemptions for issues covered by the human rights code, such as sexual
orientation.
If you think that Rob Ford Road has a nice ring to it, then you can vote
on it. The City of Toronto is letting locals pick the names of three
new streets in Etobicoke, and the controversial late mayor made the cut.
It's an election year and it wouldn't be an election year without the Liberals and yet another scandal:
According to a report from the The Hill Times,
some Liberal MPs are increasingly concerned about the possibility of an
RCMP investigation, and are attempting to distance themselves from
Justin Trudeau:
“Some Liberals said they are already considering
dropping Mr. Trudeau’s name or image from their campaign material,
because of a significant drop in the prime minister’s personal approval
rating in public opinion polls.”
One MP told the The Hill Times, “If the RCMP comes in, we’re cooked.”
As noted by BNN Bloomberg,
the S&P Global Ratings agency has cut SNC-Lavalin to junk status.
SNC-Lavalin is now rated at BB+, one notch below ‘investment grade.’
One Liberal riding chair blamed the delay on a lack of interest from
candidates, while another said the party has been slow approving
nomination papers. Reina Sinclair, chairwoman of Regina—Qu’Appelle’s Liberal riding association, said the lost time will hinder an eventual candidate’s ability to raise money and connect with voters.
“It’s really frustrating for us too, let me tell you,” said Sinclair.
A
University of Regina political scientist said the delays could stem
from weak local organizations in long-shot ridings that are low on the
priority list for the national campaigns. He said the slow start will put fresh NDP and Liberal candidates at a “huge” disadvantage.
“You’re
almost running a sacrificial candidate,” said Jim Farney, head of the
university’s Department of Politics and International Studies.
The election is expected on Oct. 21. The campaign should begin in September.
The
neglected ridings are concentrated in rural areas, but include at least
one urban seat for each party. They may look like lost causes for the
Liberals and NDP. The Conservatives won around 70 per cent of the vote
in some rural ridings last election, and more than 50 per cent in
several others.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou
have laid out claims alleging abuse of process by the United States,
the FBI, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP in
connection with her extradition case.
They argue that the
extradition proceedings against the executive should be stayed. And U.S.
President Donald Trump’s own words are cited as evidence of that
alleged abuse.
It's not hard to sneak her over the border and let her b the Americans' problem. It isn't.
**
In order for Michael Chan to be a traitor he would have to have been loyal to Canada in the first place:
Michael Chan, Ontario’s Liberal trade minister until last year, was a
keynote speaker as scores of Chinese Canadians rallied in support of
Beijing and the largely non-democratic Hong Kong administration.
“Unity
is better than violence,” Chan proclaimed. “We support Hong Kong’s
police strictly handling unrest, Hong Kong’s government carefully
defending the rule of law, China’s government carefully observing Hong
Kong,”
Remember when Canada was back? After the cold, hard, cynical Harper
Darkness in foreign policy, we’d have human rights, joy, respect and all
good things including a shiny UN Security Council seat. Yeah. They’re
having trouble remembering in Hong Kong too.
After months of
culpable silence our government finally oozed a statement on the
struggle for democracy against the Butchers of Beijing that immediately
made you wish they’d shut up again. Instead of praising freedom it told
the protesters to pipe down and stop rocking the gravy train. ... In principle you could argue for ignoring Hong Kong. You could say
repression abroad matters but we can’t do anything, or domestic and
foreign policy are unrelated so it doesn’t threaten our security. But
you cannot decently proclaim that we are back as a beacon of human
decency then fail to stand squarely with the protesters from some ugly
combination of pre-chewed language, muddled thought, fatuous arrogance
and moral sloth.
If that’s back, we need to get front.
Mr. Robson, this is Canada. The only thing a Canadian gets in front of is a beer line.
Canada is back to being an abject moral and political failure.
In a highly unusual move, the federal government gifted a $39-million
stake in a B.C. coal terminal to two First Nations communities, perhaps
signaling the rising cost of winning Indigenous support for natural
resource projects.
Neither the governing Liberals nor the Opposition Conservatives
expressed enthusiasm Monday for trying to secure the release of the
overseas prisoner dubbed “Jihadi Jack” by the British media. ... Asked Monday if he would welcome Letts to Canada, Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau would only say it is a crime to travel internationally with the
aim of supporting terrorism. “And that is a crime that we will continue
to make all attempts to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. That
is the message we have for Canadians and for anyone involved.”
Oh, is that why you repealed C-6 and gave Omar Khadr $10.5 million?
We do know in the past that he has advocated for living according to Sharia law and while he stands accused of joining ISIS, The Guardian newspaper reported that he says he actually hates ISIS.
Don’t take that to mean he is a fan of liberal democracy, though.
“I oppose so-called Islamic State, but that doesn’t mean I am with you, the dirty non-Muslims,” Letts wrote in an online post.
Asked once if he was a terrorist and Letts said he could be considered that.
“Do
you mean by the English government’s definition, that anyone that
opposes a non-Islamic system and man-made laws? Then, of course, by that
definition, I suppose they’d say I’m a terrorist,” Letts said to Britain’s Channel 4.
