Two more shopping days before a banned holiday ...
China is displeased with the decision to hold off on its seizing Canadian natural resources:
Representatives of the Chinese government say Canada was “wrong” to reject the proposed takeover of an Arctic gold mine by a state-owned company, the latest jab in an already-fraught relationship between the two countries.
Canada on Tuesday rejected the proposed takeover of Toronto-based TMAC Resources Inc. by China’s Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd., citing national security concerns. Under the deal, Shandong would have paid $230 million not including debt to acquire the Canadian firm, which is developing a gold mine in Hope Bay, Nunavut.
In response to questions by the National Post on Wednesday, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Ottawa said the decision amounted to the “politicization of normal economic cooperation” between China and Canada.
Embassy officials said blocking the transaction interferes with “mutually beneficial” relations between the two countries, saying that “political interference with the excuse of national security is wrong.”
“The Canadian side should provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory market environment for enterprises from all countries, including China,” the statement said.
(Sidebar: ... says the currency-fixer and exploiter of workers.)
Also:
South Korea said it scrambled fighter jets in response to an intrusion into its air defense identification zone by 19 Russian and Chinese military aircraft on Tuesday.
Four Chinese warplanes entered the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) followed by 15 Russian aircraft, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The South Korean military dispatched air force fighters to take tactical measures.
The South Korean military said the Chinese military had informed South Korea that its planes were carrying out routine training before the Chinese aircraft entered the KADIZ.
So a big question that I have is why Canada is still accepting dozens of international flights a day? Is it because Trudeau worries about the impact on Air Canada, WestJet or SunWing?
It’s a question that should be on the mind of every Canadian as the Trudeau government ponders what to do next after putting a 72 hour pause on flights from Britain.
That pause was put into effect as news broke of a new strain of COVID that is easier to spread and is now responsible for more than 60% of cases in London.
We’ve had at least five flights from London show up at Canadian airports with COVID positive passengers since December 6.
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Jan. 29: Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer,on Twitter: “I am concerned about the growing number of reports of racism and stigmatizing comments on social media directed to people of Chinese and Asian descent related to 2019-nCoV coronavirus… Racism, discrimination and stigmatizing language are unacceptable and very hurtful… Everyone has a part to play in preventing the spread of the virus. The Chinese community and all travellers from affected areas are a key part of these efforts….Racism, discrimination and stigmatizing language are unacceptable and very hurtful. These actions create a divide of Us Vs Them. Canada is a country built on the deep-rooted values of respect, diversity and inclusion.”
Also on January 29, Tam was questioned about the possibility of calling for travellers to self-isolate:
Tam replies, defending the policy of voluntary self-isolation of only those travellers showing clear symptoms: “Right now, we have protocols in place, together with the provinces and territories, on isolating cases. Certainly, doing rigorous contact tracing and monitoring is the key to preventing any spread from a case in Canada. That, I think, is of primary importance. For other completely asymptomatic people, currently there’s no evidence that we should be quarantining them.”
Also:
Dozens of passengers on Canadian airlines have been slapped with fines or warning letters by Transport Canada in recent months for refusing to wear a mask on board a flight, with more incidents involving Alberta airports than any other province.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair refuted claims that the federal government has failed to adequately protect the border amid the pandemic, saying he has imposed some of the “strongest border restrictions” of any country in the world.
His comments came after Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday announced a new province-wide lockdown aimed at curbing a spike in new cases and said the province was at “tremendous risk” of contracting new cases of COVID-19 from international and inter-provincial travellers. Ford also decried what he described as a lack of testing and tracing by Ottawa at international airports, which he said has led to a higher case count in Ontario.
Yes, about that:
Around 1,000 people a month have been entering Canada for nearly three years between formal border crossings in order to request refugee status here, crossing over farmers’ fields or well-trod paths to get around the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. The deal doesn’t allow people to request asylum at official land border points, but people can lodge claims once inside the country.
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said Tuesday that the asylum seekers are being screened for COVID-19 symptoms, but rather than following the normal protocol of referring them to temporary shelter — most often in Montreal, as the majority are arriving in Quebec — alternative accommodation is being arranged to account for the voluntary isolation period.
Details on that were not immediately available.
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More than five million arrivals into Canada have been allowed to skip the 14-day quarantine requirement put in place when the country closed its borders to non-essential travel in late March, the Canada Border Services Agency estimates.
Wow, people totally have a handle on this coronavirus:
Early federal pandemic test programs were so haphazard the Public Health Agency proposed to check municipal sewage to track the spread of Covid-19. Internal memos show staff later dropped the idea as pointless: “Who knows how many people are getting sick?”
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Ontario says it will provide new financial assistance for residents during a provincewide lockdown that starts on Boxing Day.
The province says it will cut hydro prices for 28 days, starting Jan. 1, as Ontarians are encouraged to stay home as much as possible to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The reduction to the off-peak rate of 8.5 cents per kilowatt-hour will automatically be credited on ratepayers' bills.
The government says it will also provide $200 to families with high school students aged 13 through to Grade 12.
Printed money or borrowed?
Also - it sounds like a privacy violation strategy to me:
As authorities carefully dole out a limited supply of coronavirus vaccine, the scientists are recommending an infectious-disease version of the concept. It would use smartphone contact-tracing apps to identify potential super-spreaders of the virus, then prioritize those people to receive the precious resource first.
The strategy could achieve herd immunity with less than half as much vaccine as if it was distributed more evenly across the Canadian population, scientists from the Universities of Waterloo and Guelph, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur conclude in a new paper.
Why not ask Justin why Sophie got the coronavirus but he didn't?
The coronavirus has been a gift to governments. It has given them unprecedented ability to shut down economies, keep everyone under house arrest, get people used to the ideas of scarcity, standing in lines and missing out on social and familial activities.
Now, it aims to drive people from their houses of worship:
“The vast majority of churches have complied,” Ray Pennings, the executive vice-president of Cardus, a faith-based think tank, told the National Post. “I think what is happening as time goes on, is that people are seeing what appears to be contradiction, especially when there is no great evidence that churches have been … the place where COVID has spread.” ...
For Catholics in Ontario, Archbishop Thomas Collins said he appealed directly to Premier Doug Ford to raise the cap on Christmas mass to 30 per cent of a church’s capacity, but the request was declined. Instead, many parishes are hosting a livestreamed mass.
“This in no way is a substitute for the Eucharist, but it can be helpful spiritually to some extent, and is much to be encouraged,” wrote Collins in an online post.
The issue is not whether Canadians, who are antithetical to religion and religious believers, should or should not embrace a religion but do people have the right to congregate to worship as they would plow through Costco for toilet paper and frozen dumplings?
If Canada was ever serious about combatting terrorism, the people who blew 331 people out of the sky and at Narita Airport on June 23rd, 1985 would have been punished:
Police said they had found Karima Mehrab, 37, dead on Monday. Mehrab, widely known as Karima Baloch, had been reported missing a day earlier.
"It is currently being investigated as a non-criminal death," Toronto police said in a statement. "There are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances."
However, a close friend and fellow activist told The Canadian Press that Mehrab had recently received death threats, and he and her family were deeply suspicious about what had happened to her.
"Her husband got messages from unknown people saying they would give a Christmas gift to Karima she will never forget," Lateef Johar said in an interview.
While police offered no details about the death, Johar said officers had told her family she was found drowned in the water.
"We respect whatever the police says but we will never believe and accept that it was an accident," Johar said. "She was a brave woman."
It's just money:
A Kenyan door to door sales company that received millions in taxpayer funding operates outside Canada’s own consumer protection laws. The federal agency FinDev Canada that bought shares in the firm declined comment on evidence M-Kopa Holdings Ltd. charges interest that exceed usury rates: “You’ve got to wonder, what the hell is the Government of Canada doing?”
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Free lunches for MPs in the House of Commons lobby cost $891 a day, according to first-ever disclosed accounts. The Office of the Speaker called it a traditional courtesy for MPs attending debates: “I mean, let’s really talk about saving taxpayers’ dollars.”
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