Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Mid-Week Post

 


 

Your mid-week quick read ...

 

When we accept that the government is here only to screw us, what they do is easier to understand:

Few green energy projects are viable without subsidies, says an internal report at the Department of Natural Resources. Auditors called it a market failure: “Analysis of the financial information was revealing.”

**

Cabinet yesterday defended attempts by the Department of Health to promote its pandemic image through paid tweets. The department was doing the best it can, said Senator Marc Gold (Que.), Government Representative in the Senate: ‘They are providing information to Canadians to the best of their ability.’

** 

COVID won’t be Canada’s problem; we are officially in a pandemic. There is no evidence of asymptomatic spread; asymptomatic spread is real. Masks are not helpful; everybody wear masks please. Canada will have adequate vaccines; dear U.S. President Joe Biden, please send us vaccines. Vaccines shouldn’t be spaced more than three weeks apart; vaccines can be spaced four months apart. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not safe for seniors; the AstraZeneca vaccine shouldn’t be given to people under 55.

And so on. It’s enough to make you sick — literally.

It’s true that COVID-19 is a new disease and the science is continually evolving. But as Auditor General Karen Hogan chronicled in a scathing report released last week, Canada’s public health officials still made a shocking number of mistakes, the top of the list being the failure of our early warning system coupled with inaccurate risk assessments.

The result was the needless deaths of thousands of seniors in care homes and congregate living centres. Shamefully, Canada has the worst record for COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes among wealthy countries. ...

 

(Sidebar: I'll just leave this right here.) 

Through all this, the federal government has relied on advice from its health experts. The most famous face is that of Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam.

Her most egregious flip-flop was declaring that, “Putting a mask on an asymptomatic person is not beneficial, obviously, if you’re not infected.” Two months passed before she took back those words. In the wake of the auditor general report, some are calling for her to resign or be fired. ...

 

I'll just leave this right here: 

According to Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, “NACI’s committees are basically made up of volunteers, many with heavy daily responsibilities during the pandemic.” Its recommendations on spacing out vaccine doses are the longest in the world and have come under fire from other scientists at home and abroad.

But the responsibility for these actions sits higher, with the federal government, the cabinet and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself. His government failed to heed the warnings from other countries. He failed to put in border controls that could have slowed the import of the virus.

He failed to procure enough vaccines in time to prevent the third wave from taking hold, betting on a (now collapsed) partnership with China when our country had already been on the outs with Beijing for almost a year over the detention of Meng Wanzhou and the two Michaels. He has kept Tam in place despite her bungling. And he continues to rely on NACI, a group that may not be up to the challenge, when dealing with a once-in-a-century event.

**

A new study from researchers in B.C. estimates that Canada will lose $11.9 billion because of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

The paper from a team at Simon Fraser University's School of Resource and Environmental Management argues there is no likely scenario in which the project would lead to a net benefit.

"The $11.9 billion loss to Canada is primarily due to a more than doubling of the Trans Mountain construction costs from the original $5.4 billion to $12.6 billion, combined with new climate policies just confirmed by the Supreme Court that will reduce the demand for oil," lead author and SFU professor Thomas Gunton said in a press release.

The researchers suggest the government would be better off shelving the project entirely and using the funds to invest in alternative energy projects.

 

Yes, about that

Trans Mountain says that to date, the project and its contractors have hired more than 6,590 people, more than 600 of whom are Indigenous.

As of July 31, 2020, there were approximately 5,600 people working on the project. Approximately 440 direct jobs are expected to support operations each year over the first 20 years.

Including direct, indirect and induced jobs, Trans Mountain expects that during construction the total workforce will reach the equivalent of 15,000 jobs per year, followed by the equivalent of a further 37,000 jobs per year of operations. ...

By expanding the capacity to export Canadian crude from the West Coast, the key benefit provided by TMX is more customer options for Canadian oil producers. The CER found this will help shippers manage risk and will likely reduce the discount that Canadian crude prices receive relative to similar heavy crudes that are globally traded — effectively, ensuring producers and governments obtain the highest value for their petroleum resources.

According to the CER report, the primary markets for crude oil shipped on the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline are the Burnaby/Puget Sound area in B.C./Washington State and Northeast Asia, with secondary markets in California and Hawaii.

The existing Trans Mountain system has been overbooked on a regular basis for the last decade. The expansion project has binding 15 to 20 year commercial agreements in place with shippers that remain committed to utilizing the space.

 

So, the jobs this pipeline expansion created and could create, the markets that could be opened and the lower costs of fuel are a negative sum game?

Right ... 



Self-defense is a wicked, heathenish and American concept and you proles had better learn that:

Appearing on Zoom from inside one of his two lawyers’ Toronto homes, Cameron Gardiner listened closely as Madam Justice Michelle Fuerst told the 59-year-old Collingwood man that after re-assessing the case against Gardiner and the reasonable prospect of conviction, both charges on the indictment were being withdrawn at the request of the Crown.

A minute later, the father of two emerged from the house and declared his freedom, wiping away tears and hugging his lawyers.

“I have the greatest lawyers. They worked hard for me and the outcome is, I’m free. I’m relieved. It was a long road,” said Gardiner. ...

Fuerst told the court, “The two men who lost their lives were both sons and fathers themselves. Their tragic deaths are devastating to those who loved them. Nevertheless, there is no reasonable prospect for conviction. Both charges are withdrawn at the request of the Crown.” ...

Gardiner, who spent six months in jail awaiting bail, said he’s telling his story so that he can start living life again in the town of Collingwood where everyone had already made up their mind about what happened that night

 

The process is the punishment. 



Getting the lowered standard of living Canadians gladly voted for:

The Suez Canal issue is just a small part of the bigger story,” says Diane Brisebois, CEO of the Retail Council of Canada.

In North America, COVID-19 protocols are slowing down the process of offloading ships, while consumer demand for goods has soared, says Shawn DuBravac, chief economist at IPC, an electronics manufacturing trade association. While consumers stuck at home have been dialing down spending on services like restaurants and entertainment, they’ve increased their spending on products like items for the home, he adds.

“Demand for goods is actually higher now than it was prior to the pandemic,” DuBravac says.

** 

Kimberly-Clark Corp said on Wednesday it would raise prices on many of its products including Scott toilet paper, tissues and diapers in the United States and Canada to offset rising commodity costs.

 

Apparently, Canada doesn't have the natural resources to provide for a twenty-first century lifestyle.

No trees or oil or metals ...

Oh, wait! 

I do believe that after the riots for supposedly dwindling supplies of toilet paper, there will be riots over beer.

Because priorities.

 

 

What could go wrong?:

An Ontario woman facing terror-related charges with her husband after they allegedly tried to cross the Turkish border to Syria two years ago has been granted bail.

Haleema Mustafa, 23, appeared Wednesday morning via Zoom in Ontario Superior Court in Brampton from the Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Milton.

Her bail hearing was held last Friday, but the details are protected by a publication ban. 

The Markham, Ont., woman and her husband, Ikar Mao, are charged with leaving Canada to participate in the activities of a terrorist group and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

 

 

Abolish teachers' unions

Maybe schools will be forced to close for in-person learning under the weight of the third wave regardless, but if there is even a possibility that cancelling spring break could allow schools to stay open, this should be the priority. Especially since previous closures lasted much longer than originally planned, adding a whole new set of uncertainties for families.

But this doesn’t seem to enter into the teachers unions’ calculations. “Any suggestion of postponing the much-needed break for students, teachers, education workers and families is an offence to all those who are working hard to keep the education system going,” said Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.

But it’s hard to feel sorry for people who get three months a year off work, while the rest of us have to make due with a meagre two or three weeks. And the provincial government’s recently released 2020 sunshine list should put an end to the myth that teachers are underpaid.



We don't have to trade with China:

Employees at the Canada Royal Milk plant in Kingston, Ont., say management treated them like "minions" by denying them safety gear that fit, harassing employees by accusing them of being "overpaid" and less industrious than workers in China and — in one instance — making physical contact with a worker during a heated dispute.

Efforts to organize and certify a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers have been tied up in arbitration for the past year, while employee turnover at the plant in its early months of operations was constant.

"What I would see every day? The production guys being treated like dirt, especially by the one manager, every day," said one person employed in a different role in the plant. He said he felt compelled to speak out on behalf of more vulnerable workers.

 

(Sidebar: keep in mind that Canadians expect all kinds of perks while still trading with a country where simply being paid a slave labour wage is a perk, so ...) 

**

British Broadcasting Corp.’s China correspondent John Sudworth has left Beijing after intense criticism from the Chinese government and citizens of the outlet’s recent coverage.

“John’s work has exposed truths the Chinese authorities did not want the world to know,” according to a statement on Twitter by the BBC News Press Team. “The BBC is proud of John’s award-winning reporting during his time in Beijing and he remains our China correspondent.” ...

"Sudworth left after months of personal attacks and disinformation targeting him and his BBC colleagues, disseminated by both Chinese state media and Chinese government officials,” the statement said. “Abuse of Sudworth and his colleagues at the BBC form part of a larger pattern of harassment and intimidation that obstructs the work of foreign correspondents in China and exposes their Chinese news assistants to growing pressure.”

** 

This moral posturing could have been done in, say, 1949 or after the Tienanmen Square massacre or when it was revealed that organs from executed political dissidents were being trafficked or ...

The Senate last night gave Second Reading to a bill threatening $250,000 fines and directors’ liability for companies that import slave-made goods. The bill would require annual reporting by large importers: “Ethics cost money.”

** 

Hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the South China Sea have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately.

The Philippines has described the presence of the boats inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef as "swarming and threatening", while Canada, Australia, the United States, Japan and others have voiced concern about China's intentions, prompting rebukes by Beijing.

Chinese diplomats have said the boats were sheltering from rough seas and no militia were aboard.

 

Oh, I'm sure.

** 

Taiwan has decided to buy an upgraded version of Lockheed Martin Corp's Patriot surface-to-air missile, the air force said on Wednesday, as the island bolsters its forces to guard against a rising threat from China.

Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained of repeated incursions by China's air force in recent months into the island's air defence identification zone, as Beijing seeks to pressure Taipei into accepting its sovereignty.

Taiwan's Air Force told Reuters it had decided to buy the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) missiles, with deliveries to start in 2025 and deployment the following year.

The Air Force did not disclose how many missiles Taiwan was planning to buy, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

 

 

Good luck with that

President Joe Biden will unveil a $2.25 trillion U.S. infrastructure plan Wednesday — paid for by steep tax hikes on businesses– that his administration said will prove the most sweeping since investments in the 1960s space program.

 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

The World Is Taking Crazy Pills

In some parts of the world, that kind of child abuse would be followed by removing one's kid from that school and a lawsuit:

A mother at a Victorian school has opened up about her disgust after male students as young as 12 were directed to “stand up and apologise” to their female peers.

It comes as sexual harassment in Australian schools is widely discussed, with the state government making sexual consent classes mandatory across Victorian schools as of next month.

Parent at Brauer College in Warrnambool, Danielle Shepherd, told NCA NewsWire her son had been left “confused and upset” by the incident at an all-school assembly on Wednesday.

“They watched a video to do with sexual consent and at the end of it they were made to stand up and apologise to the opposite gender on behalf of their own gender,” she said.

“He wasn’t sure why, he just knows that he was told to get up and apologise for things he hadn’t done.

“He’s upset by it – he now has this misconception that everybody looks at him and males as predators or somebody wishing to do harm to someone in a sexualised manner – seriously, he’s 12.”

 


Why is everyone so silent on this sort of crime? Not trendy enough?:

 

(Sidebar: note how the guards only close the door and not intervene or even inquire if the woman was alright. The world is filled with @$$holes.)


More:

One of the men, who was undoing packages, watched the entire incident unfold, the footage shows. Two other witnesses — who appear to be building security — walked over to the door as the attack ended, but did not chase after the suspect.

In fact, one of those men appears to shut the building door as the attacker takes off and the victim lies helplessly, according to the video.

The suspect was still being sought early Tuesday morning.

 

The Government Is Not There to Help You

Seriously:

Liberal MPs on the Commons environment committee last evening slowed consideration of a private Conservative bill to outlaw exports of plastic garbage. Cabinet has said it would disrupt cross-border trading in waste: “It’s just a piece of paper, and what’s the point?”

 

Quite:

When asked about his own family’s plastic usage, Trudeau fumbled his way through an incoherent response.

“What do you and your family do to cut back on plastics?” asked a reporter.

“We have recently switched to drinking water bottles out of… water out of… when we have water bottles out of plastic. Sorry! Away from plastic towards paper like drink-box water bottles sort of things,” replied the Prime Minister.

** 

Get rid of the CRTC and remove the monopolies:

Rogers Communications yesterday assured MPs its proposed $26 billion buyout of Alberta-based Shaw Communications will not lessen competition. Members of the Commons industry committee disputed the claim: “The reason why this acquisition is happening is not because you’re really hurting.”

**

So, not so bad, then?:

The number of company insolvencies fell by almost a third last year but only because of pandemic closures at bankruptcy courts. Superintendent of Bankruptcy Elisabeth Lang has warned rates will rise: “We are keeping a close eye on insolvency rates.”

 

South of the border:

  • Illegal migrants said they’re coming to the U.S. because of President Joe Biden, natural disasters and violence in their home countries.
  • A landowner where migrants frequently cross on their way to a processing facility said they tell him they’re here because Biden invited them.
  • Some of the migrants said they did not want to leave their countries but had to because of corruption and a lack of opportunity.

 

They Said That It Would Never Happen

Indeed:

A so-called “secret” Liberal plan to hike taxes on home sales “just isn’t true,” said Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan, who was the target of a Conservative attack on Twitter this week.

 

Well, about that

In the wake of the story being published on Jul. 17, 2020, both the CMHC’s communications department and then-CEO Evan Siddall issued multiple statements about the story being false.

Siddall directly attacked the reporting and Blacklock’s in multiple statements.

On Jul. 18, 2020, he wrote on Twitter: “The suggestion that the CMHC funding a study on any tax measure is inaccurate and misleading reporting. We are co-funding a Solution Lab on housing wealth and inequality. We do not control the agenda nor the research base, which is a minor component of the protocol.”

Then on Jul. 20, 2020, he replied to Blacklock’s on Twitter saying: “Don’t let facts get in the way of your poorly researched story. Instead, continue to promote your fabricated story so that people who serve the public have to distract themselves from doing things to improve our country.”

However, CMHC’s own records include the project’s charter, which was signed by Generation Squeeze and CMHC in March of 2020. The charter directly references an examination of tax policy.  

“One key source of this intergenerational inequality is tax policy that privileges home ownership, and shelters housing wealth, especially in principal residences, from taxation by comparison with other assets,” read the charter’s “problem statement.”

The charter stated the study would “examine tax and other public finance policy opportunities” to level the intergenerational playing field.

“If they’re explicitly studying the possibility of changing taxation on homes, it’s awfully hard to claim that you’re not looking at the possibility of a home equity tax,” said Wudrick.

 

 

(Merci


"F--- You!", They Explained

The entitled to their entitlement crowd truly believe that rules should never apply to them:

Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez yesterday said MPs have no claim to cross-examine political aides over cabinet dealings with We Charity. MPs have ordered testimony from staff in the Prime Minister’s Office on negotiation of a failed $43.5 million grant: “This is preventing Canadians from getting answers.”

** 

While many Canadians struggle with unprecedented unemployment and sky-rocketing debt as a result of government-enforced lockdowns, members of parliament are set to receive a raise on Thursday.

On April 1, MPs will receive an automatic raise of around 1.8% which is based on similar average raises negotiated with major corporate unions. Currently, MPs receive a base salary of $182,000 annually, while cabinet ministers receive $269,800.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will receive an estimated raise of $6,400 added to his current salary of $365,200.

 

This douchebag right here

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government’s record in barring imports of goods from China made with forced labour even though online retailers are still selling Canadians goods from the Asian country’s western Xinjiang region that critics say are almost certainly produced under coercion.

 

No wonder his Chinese bosses are mad at him

And he takes it like a coward.


I Ask Myself the Same Question

 In a normal country, she would have been removed from her position ages ago:

The unwritten conclusion of that scathing auditor general's report into how the Public Health Agency botched early pandemic detection is obvious: Replace Dr. Theresa Tam.

That might sound harsh for the high-profile face who has been calmly cajoling Canadians to stay home, wash their hands and, after her change of mind last April, wear a face mask in public.

But there’s no sugar-coating blame for the abysmally slow early detection and erroneous risk assessment of COVID-19 in Canada, as extensively documented in a report last week by the auditor general. ...

Incredibly, Tam is largely unapologetic for insisting there was a low risk of COVID-19 spreading throughout Canada until five days after the global pandemic was declared last March 11.

She heel-digs in her position that there was nothing wrong with focusing on Canada’s 24-hour virus picture last spring, while ignoring the possible implications of that rapid rate of infection in other countries spreading here.

That, snapped highly-respected report researcher Wesley Wark in the Globe and Mail, is "defending the indefensible."

After all, this was no mere hiccup in a senior official’s performance of duties.

Tam is Canada’s designated canary in the COVID coal mine -- and she barely peeped at governments to act until the virus had already danced through the doorstep into long-term care centres and beyond.

 

I would say that she added to it:

Auditor-General Karen Hogan said in her report Thursday that Public Health’s tool for determining the risk COVID-19 posed to Canada was not appropriate, because it did not involve forecasts of pandemic spread, or forward-looking projections of danger. It only looked at whether the virus was present in Canada, or how many domestic cases there were, when the risk assessments were made.

That meant as the spread of the virus began to accelerate globally, with case numbers exploding in other countries, hospitals filling up and deaths mounting, Ottawa’s risk assessments focused on Canada at that moment in time. They didn’t take into account the worsening international picture and uncontrolled spread of the virus. As a result, throughout January, February and into March, the government repeatedly told Canadians that the virus posed only a low risk to the public.

“Bottom line is that [Public Health’s] risk assessments were an utter failure and cannot and should not be defended,” said Mr. Wark, who served on the advisory committee to the Office of the Auditor-General in its preparation of the report.

 

Indeed:

Canada has the worst record for COVID-19 deaths in long-term care homes compared with other wealthy countries, according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

The study found that the proportion of deaths in nursing homes represented 69 per cent of Canada's overall COVID-19 deaths, which is significantly higher than the international average of 41 per cent.

In Canada, between March 2020 and February 2021, more than 80,000 residents and staff members of long-term care homes were infected with the coronavirus. Outbreaks occurred in 2,500 care homes, resulting in the deaths of 14,000 residents, according to the report.

"COVID-19 has exacted a heavy price on Canada's long-term care and retirement homes, resulting in a disproportionate number of outbreaks and deaths," the report's introduction says.

The study, which primarily focused on the first six months of the pandemic, found that across the country, nursing home residents received less medical care. They had fewer visits from doctors, and there were also fewer hospital transfers when compared with other years.

 

A blast from the not-too-distant past:

First-time member of Parliament and candidate for the Conservative leadership Derek Sloan is under fire after posting a video suggesting Canada’s top doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam, works for China and is putting Canadians’ lives at risk amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Does she work for Canada or for China?” Sloan, the MP for Hastings–Lennox and Addington, asks in a video posted to his social media accounts on Tuesday.

“Dr. Tam must go! Canada must remain sovereign over decisions,” the video caption read.

 

 #FreeDerekSloan 


Also:

A preliminary report before the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) found that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of students meeting Grade 1 reading level expectations fell by approximately 10% when compared to the 2018-2019 school year. 

“There is nearly a ten percentage point difference in the proportions of students meeting grade level reading expectations in virtual schools in January 2021 (45%) when compared to pre-pandemic percentages (54%) in January of 2019,” the preliminary findings read. 

“Overall, in considering the percentage point shifts and differences, the pandemic seems to have disrupted literacy learning for many early elementary students to large degrees. Given the importance that literacy capacity has on future academic success throughout elementary and secondary schooling, these data are concerning.”

 

Now, it is not solely the teachers' job to read to children and reinforce skills learned at school and elsewhere.

That said, it doesn't help when well-compensated "educators" don't do that which they are compensated for. 

**


Well, you know, facts ...


And the Rest of It

Quite a bit going on ...



This goes back all the way to Confederation, long before Pierre Trudeau's worthless Charter:

Rowe agreed with that analysis, and also said the federal government is wrongly using the “national concern” doctrine to justify exercising jurisdictional power not explicitly granted to it in the constitution. Rowe said that doctrine is only meant to be “a residual and circumscribed power of last resort that preserves the exhaustiveness of the division of powers,” and shouldn’t apply to this law.

Essentially, there is a central government, not individual provinces, that are imposing a tax without a rationale. Even with a rationale, the ruling infringes the sovereignty of provinces.


Also:

The number of rejected Canada Summer Jobs program applications fell 72 percent after Christian charities sued, records show. Cabinet had required applicants to swear they were pro-choice when seeking hire-a-student grants: “The most sinister threat to free speech is compelled speech.”

**

The Edmonton-area pastor, released last week after spending a month behind bars for preaching in violation of COVID-19 regulations, once again appeared at a packed church service on Sunday.

The case of Pastor James Coates has become one of the highest profile and most controversial cases of freedom of religion versus COVID-19 health restrictions in the country. GraceLife, Coates’s church in Parkland county just outside of Edmonton, has for months consistently violated Alberta pandemic rules.



Had this been a gay night club ... well, people would still be trying to sweep it under the rug:

Two attackers blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday Mass on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, wounding at least 20 people, police said.

Rev. Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the church, said he had just finished celebrating Palm Sunday Mass when a loud bang shocked his congregation. He said the blast went off at about 10:30 a.m. as a first batch of churchgoers was walking out of the church and another group was coming in.

He said security guards at the church were suspicious of two men on a motorcycle who wanted to enter the building and when they went to confront them, one of the men detonated his explosives.

Police later said both attackers were killed instantly and evidence collected at the scene indicated one of the two was a woman. The wounded included four guards and several churchgoers, police said.

The attack a week before Easter in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation came as the country was on high alert following December’s arrest of the leader of the Southeast Asian militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been designated a terror group by many nations.


Also:

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Yannick Bandaogo is in police custody after undergoing surgery for self-inflicted wounds.

Police have not named the woman who died, but said she was in her 20s.

Six others were injured in the attack at the Lynn Valley Public Library.

Police said their injuries vary in severity and all six are expected to survive.

The attack occurred on Saturday. The accused's name was released only today.



Before I post this, read this:

I’m just going to come out and say it — as much as we love and honour the Snowbirds as a Canadian icon, the tour always seemed to me to be a distraction from the incompetence of this government; a self-serving exercise in feel-good Liberal branding as they spend us into bankrutpcy. Today’s crash stands as a terrible metaphor, a smoldering exclamation point on the shit show that is Justin Trudeau. What a damned waste.


And now:

The Royal Canadian Air Force released its final report Monday into last year’s fatal Snowbirds crash in British Columbia, noting that the cause of the crash appears to have been an engine stall following a bird strike.

“Evidence suggests that the damage caused by the bird ingestion was insufficient for it to cause a catastrophic engine failure but rather the engine most likely continued running, albeit in a stalled condition,” the report said.



From the Philly Cheese tribe:

Second, Black claims the Indigenous had a Stone Age civilization.

It’s difficult to make much sense of this statement, as the Stone Age spans about 3.4 million years of human evolution and ended around the time of the Neolithic Revolution 10,000 years ago. Civilization is generally taken to mean that which comes after the Stone Age — i.e. complex societies, agriculture, division of labour etc.

If it helps, at the time of Confederation, Canada had a population of 3,295,706, 2,616,063  of whom were native-born.

Does that apply Mr. Noakes assertions?

He hopes not.



Can one pronounce the unmistakably "white names" of Cernovich, Ã“ Baoighill or Achterkamp or is Global News desperate to create a mountain out of non-existent molehills?:

Workers push for inclusivity by rejecting acceptance of mispronounced, ‘whitened’ names

When Janani Shanmuganathan was in law school, she remembers hearing some misguided professional advice.

“You should take your husband’s name,” Shanmuganathan recalls someone telling her, because her own name was hard to pronounce. Her colleague speculated it would make it harder to get clients.

Shanmuganathan says she remembers being angered by the comment, not only because she was proud of her name, but because it is spelled phonetically — and she doesn’t mind helping people who ask her how it’s pronounced. Plus, she says, she wants up-and-coming lawyers to see Tamil women represented in the law community.

I won't argue that it was not unbearably rude for Miss Shanmuganathan's colleagues to suggest that she change her name but this no more a charge for basic human rights than it is an attempt to swirl the political flavours of the moment.



Monday, March 29, 2021

Why, That Doesn't Look Like Anyone Has Anything to Hide At All!

 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he was told by a Biden administration staffer that he could not record a video at a Border Patrol facility along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Please give dignity to the people. Please give dignity to the people. … Please respect the people, the rules,” the so-called staffer told Cruz while blocking the camera with her face, according to a video he showed Fox News.

“So you work for the commissioner, you’re a senior adviser, you were hired two weeks ago and you’re instructed to ask us to not have any pictures taken here because the political leadership at DHS does not want the American people to know it,” Cruz said in response to the official. She did not disclose her identity, and The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment.

The staffer then told him: “Please don’t treat the people as such,” to which Cruz responded that “your policies are unfortunately trying to hide them.”

“I understand that you were instructed,” Cruz said. “I respect them, and I want to fix this situation, and the administration that you work for is responsible for these conditions.”

Cruz and more than a dozen Republican senators went to the border last week, with many describing overcrowded and severe conditions in facilities used to hold unaccompanied minors—children who unlawfully enter the country without an adult.


Imagine Government Censorship Stamping On a Human Face Forever

Surely one can:

The CRTC will regulate “all programming” including internet video under a cabinet bill, says the CEO of the Commission. Ian Scott told the Commons heritage committee a longstanding hands-off treatment of the internet “has changed.”

**

Facebook’s Canadian head of public policy defended the company’s decision to cut off news and public health agencies in Australia, and didn’t rule out taking a similar measure here.

The company prevented users in Australia from sharing news articles on Facebook in February, after the country passed new legislation requiring web giants like Facebook and Google to compensate publishers for those links.

Kevin Chan, Facebook’s head of public policy in Canada, said Australia’s model was simply unworkable.

“Unfortunately, the proposed legislation did not acknowledge basic facts about the internet, did not recognize the value that platforms provide to news publishers, stood to benefit only large media conglomerates and not independent media outlets,” he told MPs at the House of Commons Heritage Committee.

The Australian ban lasted for only a few days before the company reached an agreement with the government. It has since signed several deals with news publishers in the country.

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Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin questioned the company’s tactics in the Australian dispute, noting the change came during a crisis when reliable public information is essential.

“Do you think it’s an appropriate negotiation strategy with a government to cut access to the news, including public health news, during what is a pandemic?” she asked.

...

Chan said the company didn’t want to take such a step, but also didn’t rule out similar measures if Canada adopts similar laws.

“It is never going to be something that we would ever want to do, unless we really have no choice,” he said.

Liberal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has yet to unveil new legislation targeting Facebook and other web giants, but has insisted a bill is coming soon that would force companies to pay news publishers for their content. He has said he is looking at Australia’s approach as well as France’s effort, which forced the internet giants to sit down with publishers and reach agreements.



To Be Filed Under: WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

These:

Green Party MP and former Leader Elizabeth May took to the floor of the House of Commons on Wednesday to call for the voting age in Canada to be lowered to 16.

**

Cabinet proposes to allow immigrants with chronic health problems into the country so long as their medicare costs don’t exceed $106,000 over five years. Regulations had prohibited immigrants with heart disease, HIV and other illnesses as a burden to medicare: ‘It screens out too many people.’



From the Least Transparent and Most Corrupt Government Ever to Ruin This Country

People actually voted for this:

The conditions for a brawl appear to be set after Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez announced that he will testify at a parliamentary committee about the now-dead WE deal on Monday, rather than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or members of his staff.


Yes, idiot, fall on your sword for a snowboard instructor.

What a way to end a career!

**

Extraordinary borrowing” by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will cost $635,000,000,000 this year, nearly triple what Parliament spent to fight the Second World War. Freeland in a debt report to Parliament urged Canadians to reflect on the pandemic’s impact: “Take stock of what really matters.”


Your resignation would matter a hell of a lot.



A step in the right direction:

A Conservative senator is moving to block governors general such as Julie Payette from receiving their generous government pension and benefits if they resign before the end of their mandate.

Should Payette, the first ever governor general to resign in the wake of a damning workplace review after three and a half years on the job, be eligible to receive a nearly $150,000 annual pension plus a lifetime expense program of up to $206,000 per year?

Not according to Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, who will table a private member’s bill in the Senate on Tuesday that would financially cut off any future governor general who leaves the job for non-medical reasons before the end of their five-year mandate, National Post has learned.

“I was shocked and I was angry, like many Canadians, because there is no way to justify earning that amount of pension when you held your job for such a short amount of time. The annual expense budget she has is nearly equivalent to that of the average MP’s office,” Carignan said in an interview Monday.



If It Quacks Like a Duck ...

 ... it must be a quack:

An expert who worked on the Auditor-General’s report that criticized Canada’s lack of preparation for COVID-19 says the government’s risk assessments were “an utter failure” and cannot be defended.

Wesley Wark, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa who analyzed the risk assessments during the onset of the outbreak, said Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam’s remarks last week that sought to justify those assessments are “defending the indefensible.”

At a news conference on Friday, Dr. Tam asserted that Public Health’s determination early last year that COVID-19 posed only a low risk to Canada was accurate in that moment, even though the Auditor-General found the methodology used to reach that conclusion was flawed.

“It was not wrong,” Dr. Tam said. “The domestic risk at that moment in time for the cases in Canada was relatively low.”

However, Mr. Wark, who specializes in security and intelligence, said the comments from Dr. Tam are misleading because they don’t encapsulate how off-target Ottawa’s risk assessments were, according to the evidence.

**

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam and deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo held a press conference to reveal the most recent COVID-19 modelling, with Canada's top docs relaying grim news for those ready to move on from the pandemic.


(Sidebar: because we all know how spot-on her models are.)


Show one where Theresa Tam was ever right.

I'll wait.


Rotten Potato

Justin's "admiration for China's basic dictatorship" is not reciprocated:

A Chinese diplomat called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “boy” in a sneering attack via Twitter over the weekend, the latest example of a shift to confrontational diplomacy that, for Beijing, has shown signs of success.

“Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the U.S.,” Li Yang, China’s consul-general to Rio de Janeiro, wrote in a tweet accompanying a photo of Mr. Trudeau.

“Running dog” is a phrase typically associated with Maoist China, an insult hurled against imperialists that is meant to evoke the image of a dog running after its master for scraps. It is similar in meaning to “lickspittle” or “toady.”

Its use by a Chinese diplomat against a foreign leader is unusual, even by Beijing’s standards.


Where can one start with this?

Justin's inbred love for global tyrannies?

His foolishness in thinking that he could replace the US with China?

His inborn weakness and fatuousness?

HIs inability to address real issues?

His inability to act decisively?

Pick one.


Friday, March 26, 2021

And the Rest of It

A bit going on ...

 

Quelle surprise:

A withered Public Health Agency of Canada dithered on pandemic preparedness, the federal auditor general has concluded, leaving officials no choice but to scramble to respond to COVID-19.


Also:

 

And:

Dr. Elena Hernandez-Kucey says it’s a something dentists across North America have been talking about: a noticeable increase in stress-related dental issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are seeing more joint problems, people arriving (in clinics) saying: ‘I’m not sleeping well, I’m waking up, my face hurts,'” Hernandez-Kucey told Global News.

The Edmonton dentist explains tension and anxiety, whether a patient is aware of it or not, can cause teeth grinding and clenching.



If he remembered where he was, that might be embarrassing:

New photos reveal several cheat sheets used by President Biden during his Thursday press conference — including one with the headshots and names of reporters he planned to call on.

The president also used notes to assist with facts about US infrastructure, a policy area Biden is focusing on during his first months in the White House.

 

 

Why, it's like the electorate can see right through you:

It turns out calling an election in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been the inadvertent nail in the political coffin for Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, according to a new poll.

The poll surveyed 5,267 Canadians between March 2 and  11 on their attitudes toward their premiers (with a national margin of error of 1.4 per cent).


Because Rex Murphy:

A word on causes and campus activism: if you wake up on campus some morning with an inexorable urge to join a protest to Save the Arctic Hare — resist it with all your might. Your time will be better spent mastering a problem in calculus or catching the subtleties of a poem by John Donne. Reading him will sharpen your mind. Chasing the hare is a waste of your time. The Arctic rabbit will get along just fine without you and a knot of radical vegans strutting about on some downtown street with Save the Hare placards.

By all that is holy, stay away from antifa. They are more fa than anti.

 


Imagine a kill-switch stamping on a human face forever:

A first-ever federal proposal to block websites in the name of public safety is a “slippery slope” to curbing free speech, says a national internet manager. The CRTC seeks network-wide blocking of websites to limit botnets: “Technical measures to make the internet safer must not allow for a slippery slope towards blocking content or free speech.”

 

 

They don't make them like they used to:

Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment before the Atlanta and Boulder shootings, Heston’s son admits that his father’s big-screen legacy — as well as his progressivism on racial issues during the Civil Rights era — was complicated by his off-screen association with the NRA. “I think he did pay a cancel culture price for that political choice, though they hadn’t coined that term yet. From a purely career standpoint, it hurt him and today it would be seen by the Hollywood elite as anathema. But he felt strongly that he was supporting the Constitution: not only the Second Amendment, but also the First, Fourth and Fourteenth and so on. He was so proud that he took part in the March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and they all linked hands, and he led the arts contingent up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That meant a lot to him.”

Fraser says his father would still support the NRA today, even with the organization’s well-documented internal troubles. “But he wasn't an extremist,” he says pointedly. “He wasn't a gun collector, and he wasn't a gun nut. It was a point of principle for him, and it was something that he certainly never regretted. He felt very strongly that the Constitution was what made America free, and if you erode any part of it, the rest of it starts to go. Obviously, there's an awful lot of people that feel that that's happening, and I think he would be appalled at some of the attacks on the Constitution that are happening nowadays.”

 

Take a good look at the pontificating pretty-faces in the endless series of reboots and note what causes they will walk back from a few minutes or even years from now.

If principles are that easy to embrace and discard, how important can they be?

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

We don't:

The Chinese regime is taking on foreign apparel and footwear brands amid global fallout over its genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region. Undeterred by growing international condemnation over its human rights abuses, Beijing is pressing the companies to reverse their position on Xinjiang by way of boycotts.

The regime has dredged up past statements made by companies—some up to two years old—to distance themselves from sourcing materials from the northwestern Chinese region over potential forced labor abuses. It hopes to stoke nationalist fervor and encourage a nationwide boycott.

The outrage from Beijing followed days after the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the UK issued joint sanctions on Chinese officials for their role in persecuting Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Already, about a dozen brands are feeling Beijing’s wrath. Nike, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Converse, Puma, and Calvin Klein have lost their brand ambassadors as Chinese celebrities—faced with naming and shaming by Chinese internet trolls—moved quickly to cut ties.

Major Chinese e-commerce sites such as Alibaba-owned Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JingDong Mall have dropped H&M products, while some Chinese internet influencers eagerly endorsed domestic brands. One post circulating on Chinese social media listed more than 30 foreign brands that it suggests boycotting.

“The spotless white cotton from Xinjiang brooks no smearing from any forces,” said Gao Feng, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce, at a March 25 press conference.

 

Indeed:

Like Li Chun Mei, Zhou Shien Pin came from a remote corner of the Sichuan province.

 He got a job in a paint factory and was hoping to save enough to build his family a house. But then he touched a high-voltage wire.

 The accident has scarred his face and chest and his toes have melted away like wax, leaving just his ankles and heels.

 "My mother cried for two months after it happened", he told me. The boss paid £2,500 ($4,000) compensation, but that money was quickly used up in medical fees and by relatives who had to travel down south to look after him.

**

Chinese textile firms are increasingly using North Korean factories to take advantage of cheaper labor across the border, traders and businesses in the border city of Dandong told Reuters.

 

Smearing what now?

** 

Twenty Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Friday, in the largest incursion yet reported by the island's defence ministry and marking a dramatic escalation of tension across the Taiwan Strait.

The island's defence ministry said the air force deployed missiles to "monitor" the incursion into the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone. It also said its planes warned the Chinese aircraft, including by radio.

It marked the largest incursion to date by the Chinese air force since Taiwan's defence ministry began disclosing almost daily Chinese military flights over the waters between the southern part of Taiwan and the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea last year.

** 

The professor’s multi-pronged strategy involves a range of malign actions to subvert the United States while strengthening the Chinese regime. They include: interfering in U.S. elections, controlling the American market, cultivating global enemies to challenge the United States, stealing American technology, expanding Chinese territory, and influencing international organizations.

The plan was explained in detail by Jin Canrong, a professor and associate dean of the School of International Studies at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, in a July 2016 speech on “Sino-U.S. Strategic Philosophy” given over two full days at Southern Club Hotel Business Class in south China’s Guangzhou City.

“We want to be the world leader,” Jin said, explaining Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s desire for a “national rejuvenation” of the country.

Dubbed “teacher of the state” by Chinese netizens, Jin is a prominent scholar known for his fiery anti-U.S. rhetoric. He is an advisor to two powerful bodies of the CCP, the Organization Department, and the United Front Work Department, though it is unclear how close he is to Xi.