From the Most Opaque, Corrupt and Criminally Stupid Government Ever Re-Elected

People get the government they deserve:

 This rich, sophisticated, technologically advanced and altruistic country of ours is the only G7 nation raiding vaccine supplies intended for “developing countries.” As some droll Twitter feed offered, it’s as if the many-mansioned denizens of Toronto’s Forest Hill were making raids on the food banks, and soaking up all the Canadian Tire money.

This government hoards any real details about what vaccines are here, how many are “secured” on paper only, and what they have promised to pay for them, as a miser hoards gold. Every press briefing on this most important of concerns is a dance of evasion, platitude, confused projection and sometimes just pure ignorance of what is actually the case.

They are the most deliberately obfuscatory, opaque, access-of-information-allergic administration under the democratic sun.

One year into COVID our venerated House of Commons is a disembowelled, non-functioning, neglected wreck. The targeted disrespect of the absolute and central symbol and instrument of our democracy has no parallel. No “minority” government has ever operated with the smug insouciance and patented, virtue-perfumed arrogance towards the Commons as the Trudeau government. This is, when we step back, their biggest sin.

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Public Works Minister Anita Anand yesterday said she agreed to secrecy in approving $4.6 billion worth of contracts with vaccine manufacturers. MPs on the Commons industry committee questioned why Canada’s pandemic vaccination rate trails countries like Israel, Spain, Italy and Belgium: “It’s pretty clear Canada did a relatively poor job both in negotiations and in pandemic preparedness.”

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The Office of the Auditor General “directed” a sole-sourced contract to a Liberal lobbyist by narrowly skirting rules on open bidding, records show. Terms of the lump-sum contract were so peculiar one employee called it “confusing.”

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Ex-Industry Minister Navdeep Bains yesterday declined comment on whether he acted on behalf of campaign donors in “pressing” a company’s proposal to sell China-made masks to the government. The Conflict Of Interest Act forbids cabinet ministers from giving preferential treatment to acquaintances: “Ministers are in a position of power and have a responsibility to ensure this power is exercised fairly.” 

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The Commons Indigenous affairs committee yesterday voted 10 to 1 for the Constitution. MPs rejected a Bloc Québécois proposal to delete reference to the supreme law from Canada’s citizenship oath: “They tried.”

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... he said after he tanked both Canada's oil and rare mineral industry:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that he wants to deepen the trade relationship Canada has with the US, working on electric cars together and other ventures.

Trudeau noted that Canada has many resources that the US could make use of to make products like various types of batteries the world needs, according to him.

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Was it something he said?:

An image of environmentalist David Suzuki flashed on the big screen at the Saddledome — one face in a montage of "Canadian heroes" intended to inspire young people to go out in the world and do good deeds.

That picture angered one donor, say former staff of WE Charity, the organization founded by brothers Marc and Craig Kielburger to end child labour and empower children to change the world.  

"I'll never forget it," one source told the CBC's The Fifth Estate. "The man was livid, screaming [in] the halls." 

After the show, the producers were "demoralized and deflated," the source said. 

The result was that Suzuki's image was pulled from some future shows, sources say.

Is there a way that a racial supremacist and a racist groper can both lose?:

But she said she didn’t hear from most of her Liberal colleagues or the prime minister until a #hereforCelina hashtag campaign started weeks later, in response to a column that accused her of “seeing racism everywhere.” When she later confronted Trudeau about the lack of support, she said he told her, “As a strong Black woman, I didn’t think you needed help.” She said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner was more supportive to her during that period than Trudeau. ...

Caesar-Chavannes told VICE World News her experiences of being tokenized, excluded, and undervalued led her to resign from the Liberal caucus and not run again in the 2019 election. Her decision culminated in an explosive conversation with Trudeau in February 2019, during which she alleges he complained to her about being confronted about his privilege. She said he was angry that she wanted to resign on the same day then Minister of Veterans Affairs Jody Wilson-Raybould quit her cabinet role, in the midst of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the biggest crisis the governing Liberals had faced since Trudeau’s election in 2015.  

“I was met with an earful that I needed to appreciate him, that everybody talked to him about his privilege, that he’s so tired of everybody talking to him about this stuff, and that I cannot make this announcement right now,” she said. She alleges he told her “he couldn’t have two powerful women of colour leave at the same time.” 

After listening to his “rant” for a while, Caesar-Chavannes said she cussed out the prime minister. 

“I had to ask him, ‘Motherfucker, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?’” she said. “I was so angry.” 

She said she didn’t make out what Trudeau said after that, but it “sounded like he was crying.” She ended up delaying her resignation announcement until March 2019.