Tuesday, November 24, 2020

There Is No Corruption and Stupidity Like Liberal Corruption and Stupidity

But don't take my word for it:

A Liberal MP says he’s sorry after tweeting a profane acronym. MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina-Fort York, Ont.), parliamentary secretary for housing, said he had to look up the meaning of “wgaf” and did not know how it was posted on his Twitter account. “It might have been spell-check,” said Vaughan.

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Former Québec Liberal MP Frank Baylis is being summoned back to Parliament Hill, this time as a witness at Commons ethics committee hearings on federal contracting. Baylis’ firm Baylis Medical Company in the past year received two federal contracts: “Is that how you guys want to play?”

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The series on Broadcasting Act Blunders continues by noting that while the “level playing field” claim is seemingly taken as a given, it is at best misleading (prior posts in the Broadcasting Act Blunder series include Day 1: Why there is no Canadian Content Crisis). It is true that conventional broadcasters and broadcast distributors face mandated payments to support Canadian content as part of their licensing requirements. Leaving aside the fact that broadcasters are currently seeking reductions in payments at the CRTC, the notion that the only regulatory burden or benefit is mandated Cancon contributions is a complete misread of the law. The reality is that broadcasters receive benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars in return for those payments as part of what amounts to a regulatory quid pro quo. None of those benefits are available to Internet streaming services, yet the “level the playing field” discussion focuses exclusively on equivalent payment requirements.

(Sidebar: this is the mental spawn of a criminal. Read the whole thing.)

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The RCMP has confirmed that the suspect did not have a Firearms Acquisition Certificate,” the memo reads, using the old term for a gun licence.

The memo goes on to detail how Wortman had a Colt Law Enforcement Carbine sourced from a gun shop in California and smuggled into Canada as well as two pistols smuggled in from Maine. He also had a Ruger Mini-14 sourced to a Canadian store, but the memo doesn’t say how Wortman obtained it since he would not have been allowed to legally buy it in Canada.

Based on information obtained from multiple sources, I knew in April that the guns Wortman used were illegal, but the RCMP refused to confirm this information on several occasions. They told the PM though and he still went ahead and used what happened to push his political agenda of tackling gun crime by going after lawful gun owners instead of focusing on criminals and those with illegal guns.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has laid out a loose framework to get Canada to “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, introducing new climate change obligations to a country that has missed all of its previous environmental commitments.

The Liberal government on Thursday tabled Bill C-12, which for the first time formalizes its plans to eliminate Canada’s net carbon output.

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The Liberal chair of the Commons natural resources committee yesterday was ordered to apologize for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Code. MP James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.) was cited for failing to promptly disclose all personal assets that include shares in SNC Lavalin Group Inc. and various oil companies: “I have always taken my ethical and disclosure obligations seriously.”

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Newly-disclosed records confirm Health Minister Patricia Hajdu used a federal jet eleven times even as her department told Canadians to avoid non-essential travel. Hajdu’s office had previously admitted to only half as many flights, and yesterday had no comment: “Think again and stay home.”

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MPs have abused free lunch privileges at taxpayers’ expense, the former chair of the Commons government operations committee said yesterday. Legislators debated the ethics of enjoying free food while constituents grapple with a recession and pandemic: “If we’re going to talk about cutting down on costs, let’s go all the way.”

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Parliament must regulate “predatory capitalism” and tax “the richest of the rich”, a Liberal-appointed Senator yesterday told the Chamber. Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.) proposed raising the corporate tax rate from fifteen to twenty-one percent and taxing “passive investments” in private companies: ‘Rich people have fled big cities and located themselves in the suburbs.’

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The Royal Canadian Legion yesterday told MPs there appears no end in sight to years-long waits facing veterans filing legitimate claims for disability benefits. Tens of thousands of claims are backlogged: “We do not see any end in sight.”

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In April 2020, the Trudeau government showered over 670 magazines and other periodicals with $85 million in taxpayer funding, government data shows. 

The funding was distributed by the Department of Canadian Heritage as part of the 2020-2021 Canada Periodical Fund. 

The two individual publications that netted the highest valued grants include Canadian Living which and TV Hebdo which both received $1.87 million each.

The two outlets are currently owned by TVA Publications INC. When added together, TVA’s various print publications received a whopping $11.34 million from the federal government. 

Meanwhile, the popular news magazine Maclean’s, which is edited by Liberal minister Catherine McKenna’s husband Scott Gilmore, received $1,565,498 from the Liberals on April 1.



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