Monday, February 28, 2022

The State Police

Always wait to maintain the right ... or never:

The transcripts confirm that 911 dispatchers and the Nova Scotia RCMP knew at least 12 hours before the public was informed that a well-armed gunman named Gabriel Wortman was driving a lookalike RCMP vehicle, complete with identical decals and lights. The 51-year-old denturist, who was also dressed as a police officer, would go on to kill 22 people in his rampage – the worst in Canadian history. ...

Ms. Blair, who identified the shooter as Mr. Wortman, was the first to tell a 911 operator that her neighbour was driving a fake police car, and she wasn’t the last. Her eldest son told another 911 operator about 15 minutes later that his neighbour was driving a vehicle that looked “just like … a police car.”

“The children indicated the perpetrator would blend in ‘because he has a cop car,’” the transcripts read. ...

The joint provincial-federal public inquiry, which must submit a final report in November with recommendations on how to prevent similar tragedies, is focused on what police knew and when because it’s one of the central questions of the case. The transcripts show the RCMP withheld for 12 crucial hours information that the gunman was driving a real-looking police vehicle.

When they finally informed the public the next morning, at 10:17 a.m., the RCMP used Twitter, and not the province’s emergency alert system which sends messages directly to people’s phones. Mr. Wortman killed another six people after leaving Portapique before the information about the police car was revealed.

 

The inquiry is an expensive waste of time as no action will be taken.

But it looks like someone is working, so ...

 

CDC Scientists Admit to Manipulating Data On Pregnant Women and "Vaccines"

Disgusting:

The authors claimed that the number of people to suffer a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) during the study was 104 out of 827 completed pregnancies, equating the risk of miscarriage at 12.6%; 7 – 12% lower than the risk of miscarriage in the general population. ...

However, our analysis proved that these numbers were extremely misleading due to the fact that of the 827 completed pregnancies, 700 / 86% of the women had received a dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine during the third trimester of pregnancy, meaning it was impossible for them to suffer a miscarriage due to the fact they can only occur prior to week 20 of a pregnancy.This meant that just 127 women received either the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine during the first / second trimester, with 104 of the woman sadly losing their baby. Therefore the rate of incidence of miscarriage was 82%not 12.6% as presented in the findings of the study, and the authors of the study have since admitted that they made a mistake, issuing a correction six months too late, because the study has been used to justify Covid-19 vaccination of pregnant women and new mothers around the world.


 

Don't Under-estimate the Power of Spite

 It's what drives the pants-wetting crowd:

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says he personally contacted reporters and “urged them to be very careful” in dealing with the Freedom Convoy. MPs who voted to invoke the Emergencies Act repeatedly praised coverage of the political protests against vaccine mandates: “As for journalists, trust me, I reached out to some of them.”

 

This soft, disgusting, vile, slobbering creature.

When you think of the Liberals, think of this:

The man wanted the PM to explain his views on ISIS; “how you’re going to protect future Canadians like my young daughter 10, 15 or 20 years from now, when you’re letting in people with an ideology that just does not conform to what we’re doing here.”
Trudeau then went into his rambling answer about how Canada is a welcoming country that takes in people from all over the world who are fleeing persecution and poverty. He then made reference to other groups of people who came to Canada in large numbers, specifically Greek, Italian and Portuguese immigrants.

In other words, ISIS fighters are no different than the immigrants who came to Canada in years gone by from Western European countries.

**

At one gruesome point, Nada told me through an interpreter during our hour-long interview at an educational meeting on the Yazidi situation this past Sunday, Nada and her children were forced to watch four men being beheaded. Eventually, because Nada speaks fluent Arabic and could pass as Muslim, she was able to escape with her children and contact family members in Kurdistan, who paid for smugglers to take them there.

Canada accepted Nada and her children, but not her father or sister. She has been living in London, Ont., for eight months. Recently, on a bus, she recognized X — the slave-market boss who had owned her and used her for months. They got off at the same stop. X saw her, covered his face and ran off.


 

Because he might possibly and maybe do something:

A week after the protest in downtown Ottawa was cleared by law enforcement, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) announced on Feb. 27 the arrest of a participant located one hour east of the Canadian capital.

The OPS said Steeve Charland, 48, of Grenville, Quebec, was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in the Vankleek Hill area.

Charland has been charged with mischief and counselling to commit the offence of mischief. He was due to appear in court on Feb. 27, said the OPS in a statement.

 



No one takes you seriously, Justin:

As we all embarrassedly witnessed, the prime minister’s handling of the “occupation” of Ottawa by a few hundred protesting knights of the road with big rigs—not to be confused with the real occupation of Ukraine by almost 200,000 Kremlin troops—gave the appearance of a man who arrives at the highest office in the land each morning in a convoy of clown cars. The most charitable reading suggested a man deeply out of his depth.

His rationalization for forcing on Canadians the never-before-deployed Emergencies Act, then abruptly withdrawing it with a farcical “Crisis? What crisis?” flourish 36 hours later, was patently false. It was so obviously fraudulent only certain dupes and stooges in the Canadian media could be relied on to buy it.

Even the liberal New York Times, never mind the rock-ribbed Republican Wall Street Journal, laughed up its cross-border sleeve at the gullibility of northern journalistic confreres swallowing it all. It’s easy to see why.

The PM claimed only the federal Emergencies Act afforded the necessary powers to free the parliamentary precinct and downtown Ottawa from the overwhelming force of truck-driving siege meisters. The premise was that neither municipal nor provincial laws gave sufficient authorization to pepper spray protesters in the eyes, use baton-wielding police to drive the miscreants off, seize their vehicles, and finally attack their bank accounts, chattels, mortgages, investments, etc.

Only days before, however, Ottawa’s own chief of police lost his job because, it was claimed, he failed to exercise municipal powers available to him to stop the truckers’ protest. The prime minister’s claim and the city’s claim about the police chief’s ouster could not both be true.

If the chief failed to exercise his powers, then he must have had the powers to begin with. If the powers were as non-existent as the prime minister claimed, the chief could not have lost his job for failing to exercise what he didn’t have. (Note to Ottawa ambulance chasers who take on the chief’s wrongful dismissal suit: Add Justin Trudeau to the witness list.)

Earlier minor skirmishes in Toronto and at Windsor’s Ambassador Bridge made it clear that Ontario law gave ample power for clearing operations. They were boots-on-the-ground proof that the prime minister, let us be polite, made the whole Emergencies Act thing up.

H.R. McMaster’s coinage of “strategic narcissism” helps us understand why. It explains Trudeau’s reluctance-cum-failure to simply go out on the first day of the truckers’ protest, meet with the gathering lads and lassies, and say: “Lookit guys and gals (sorry, that’s how scions of wealthy Westmount families think working class people talk), them goldurn mandates are droppin’ across our great and glorious land. We figure she’ll be done by mid-March, or ‘round abouts. Head on home to your homesteads (Westmount scions think all rural folk in Canada live on a homestead, and all truck drivers are rural folk) and we’ll get ‘er done.”


Also:

Cabinet has confidential information justifying extraordinary police powers against Freedom Convoy truckers, the Senate was told yesterday. Skeptical senators questioned why records could not be shown to legislators: “The short answer is no.”


It's Called Theft

The robber barons of the twenty-first century:

The funds donated to the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest will remain frozen pending the outcome of a proposed class-action lawsuit on behalf of Ottawa residents.

The parties in the case agreed to transfer cash and cryptocurrency to an escrow fund which would prevent the respondents in the lawsuit from dispersing the funds, court heard Monday.

That means the money, should the lawsuit succeed, could go to Ottawa residents and businesses affected by the protest.

 

Rather, the unelected judges and various chair-moisteners want to take the money (that is still with Give Send Go) without warrant or cause and collect it for themselves and all for a popular yet embarrassing movement.

See here:



You Get the Government You Vote For

Good and hard:

Many British Columbians are concerned someone in their household will suffer job loss and be unable to provide for the family.

This is most evident in the western provinces with two-in-five people expressing this concern. More than half of Canadians feel like they are being outpaced by the rising cost of living, the new poll finds.

The poll from the Angus Reid Institute has found 53 per cent of Canadians agree they can’t keep up with the rising costs, while 44 per cent say they have yet to feel that level of pressure.

 

Suckers.

 

Wait - Why Aren't We Energy-Independent Again?

Not that anyone cares what Justin thinks:

Canada will send at least 100 anti-tank weapons and 2,000 rockets to Ukraine to help bolster their defence against increasingly aggressive Russian military advances, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. ...

(Sidebar: all of which will arrive late and prove of little use.) 

The prime minister announced that Canada would also ban the import of Russian crude oil going forward, although none has entered the country since 2019. He did not say that the ban would extend to Russian refined petroleum.

 

Yes, about that:



I'll just leave these right here:

Canadians are wary of cabinet’s climate change plan to ban the sale of gas and diesel-fueled cars, pickups and SUVs in the name of “personal choice and freedom,” says in-house Privy Council Office research. Cabinet is mandating that all sales be electric by 2035: “There was anxiety with many believing costs for consumers would go up.”

**

Prior to the shakedown of the NEB, few Canadians had heard of the National Observer or its sister publication, The Vancouver Observer. Both are on-line reporting projects of the Observer Media Group. Launched in 2015 with crowd-funded seed capital, the National Observer calls itself “independent” and says that it exists “thanks to reader subscriptions and donations.”

One of those donors, according to U.S. tax returns, is The Tides Foundation in San Francisco. Tides has funded Observer Media via Earth Ways, a charitable foundation in Malibu Beach, Calif. Tides and Earth Ways have a long history and are funded by some of the same donors.

In 2015, Tides paid US$21,000 to Earth Ways for re-granting to Observer Media, US$20,000 for “media reporting” and US$1,000 “in honour of Linda Solomon.” Solomon is the founder and editor-in-chief of the National Observer and CEO of The Observer Group. She’s also the sister of Joel Solomon, a former employee and chairman of The Tides Foundation.

Linda Solomon did not reply to an email seeking further information about her publication’s connection to Tides. De Souza responded to a request for comment, but did not answer questions about funding from Tides.

Given that the National Observer is partially funded by Tides, it bears mention that Tides is by no means an impartial bystander in the campaign against Alberta oil. In fact, Tides is the funding and co-ordination juggernaut behind anti-pipeline activism. Totaling US$35 million, Tides made more than 400 payments (2009 to 2015) to nearly 100 anti-pipeline groups. Without all that Tides money, pipeline projects would not be facing well-organized opposition.

If Tides funded activists to act as honest brokers, that would be fair. But that’s not what Tides does. Tides funds The Tar Sands Campaign, an international effort that aims to embarrass Canada, deter investment and stigmatize Alberta oil as the poster child of dirty fuel. The goal of this campaign is nothing short of stopping the export of Alberta oil by pipeline, rail and tanker.

** 

One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s star Liberal candidates — prominent Quebec environmental activist Steven Guilbeault — says it’s unlikely Canada will ever build another pipeline under legislation passed by Trudeau’s government.

In acknowledging this to the National Post’s Jesse Snyder, Guilbeault — recruited to run by senior Trudeau strategist and fellow environmental activist Gerald Butts — committed a classic political gaffe.

That is, Guilbeault, who has history of engaging in civil disobedience at climate change protests, accidentally told the truth.

Trudeau’s official position is that his Bill C-69, which expands and complicates the already Byzantine process for reviewing and approving pipelines in Canada, won’t interfere with the construction of new pipelines.

At least beyond the one pipeline Trudeau bought — Trans Mountain — in a bid to get that long-delayed project, which is still stalled, moving again.
 
Guilbeault confirmed the concerns of Canada’s oil and gas industry, which dubbed Bill C-69 the “no more pipelines bill,” along with Bill C-48 banning oil tankers from docking in northern British Columbia.

 

Sunday, February 27, 2022

And the Rest of It

 This Wet’suwet’en Nation:

Canada’s multi-billion LNG Canada project is facing fresh trouble, as work on a key artery linking the export facility near Kitimat, B.C. to natural gas resources in Dawson Creek area is being halted by First Nations groups.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, representing all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, said over the weekend that they issued an eviction notice to the Coastal GasLink pipeline company, which is building the $6.6 billion project.

 

To wit:

A group of nearly 120 members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation is calling for an emergency meeting with hereditary leaders after last Thursday’s attack on workers at a construction camp for a controversial natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

(Sidebar: North Korea has a hereditary system, too. Just saying.)

“It remains very evident that the Nation is extremely divided and that militant outside influences have created a violent and confrontational dynamic onto our territories,” said the letter dated Wednesday. Its signatories include Maureen Luggi, elected chief of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, formerly known as the Broman Lake Indian Band. She and others supporting the letter say that it’s time to find ways for reunification amid divisive issues, notably the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

“One perceived solution: to make sure that the hereditary and elected leadership work together in all decision-making processes in recognition of the fact that both entities provide varying degrees and aspects of support to the Wet’suwet’en,” the letter said.

 

 

Speaking of North Korea:

South Korea on Wednesday test-fired a long-range surface-to-air missile, Yonhap news agency reported, a month after North Korea tested a record number of increasingly powerful missiles potentially capable of evading defences in the South.

An L-SAM was successfully launched from a testing site in Taean, 150 km (90 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul, Yonhap reported, citing unnamed sources. The Ministry of Defence declined to confirm the report.

International tension has been rising over a recent series of North Korean ballistic missile tests. January was a record month for such tests, with at least seven launches, including a new type of "hypersonic missile" able to manoeuvre at high speed, making it potentially difficult to intercept.

** 

Oh, what did the North Koreans ever do to you?:

The United Nations’ independent investigator on human rights in North Korea has called for the international community to provide 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the isolated authoritarian nation, which has recently showed signs of easing one of the world's most restrictive pandemic border closures.

Tomas Ojea Quintana said Wednesday the doses would be enough to inoculate North Korea’s population of more than 25 million people at least twice. He said the shots would possibly encourage Pyongyang’s leadership to open up more after the country’s self-imposed lockdown of the past two years created challenges for outside monitors, aid groups and diplomats.

The move could be “the key to opening (North) Korea's border and resuming its interaction with the international community and bringing it out of isolation,” Quintana said at a news conference on Wednesday in Seoul.

 

No, it's a way of giving them myocarditis. 



So goes Iceland ... :

Iceland will lift all public COVID-19 restrictions starting Friday, saying that herd immunity is the way out of the pandemic
 

 

When grammar takes a backseat to ideology:

Some Canadian political science professors are concerned about their students’ inability to write good essays due to poor knowledge and literacy and the ideological bent in academia.


Not At All Quiet On the Eastern Front

Europe handed Russia its business and then it handed Ukraine over to it, as well:

Ukraine’s president warned Sunday evening that the next 24 hours are crucial for the country facing a Russian invasion that is attacking from “all directions.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave the notice to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone conversation, according to a Johnson spokesperson.

Ukraine’s armed forces said Sunday that the day has been a “difficult time” for the military and Russian troops “continue shelling in almost all directions,” a description also used by the Kremlin.

As Ukraine battles, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear-armed forces to be put on high alert, escalating fears of a nuclear war despite Ukraine confirming an agreement to hold talks with Moscow.

In giving the nuclear alert directive on Sunday, Putin cited “aggressive statements” by NATO members and wide-ranging economic sanctions imposed by the Western nations against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.

 

Yes, I don't think you want to do that, Vladimir.

 

 

Quelle surprise:

Russia vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday that would have deplored Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, while China abstained from the vote - a move Western countries view as a win for showing Russia's international isolation.



Too little, too late:

Germany will provide anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Saturday.

**

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Sunday that Canada will send an additional $25 million of protective equipment to Ukraine.

 

And when will that arrive, debutante?



A Tale of Two Countries

They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people? ..."

** 

As the Truckers for Freedom Convoy closes in on Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the movement and its supporters a “small fringe minority” with “unacceptable views.” 

**

It’s a weird thing to do at this stage of the pandemic, given that many health authorities are now explicitly telling Canadians not to bother isolating if they’re asymptomatic. With Omicron spreading so widely, epidemiologists are generally working from the premise that almost everyone has been exposed to COVID-19 at some point, and to take precautions only in special circumstances. Ontario’s official public health guidelines advise people in Trudeau’s situation to continue living their lives, but to avoid “high-risk settings” such as senior’s homes. Trudeau claims he is following the guidelines of Ottawa Health, but the health authority’s public guidelines only advise a five day isolation period in the case that someone is unvaccinated. Not only is Trudeau thrice-vaccinated, but a rapid test that he took after the alleged exposure turned up negative.

** 

With the pandemic in full swing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to show support for those helping to keep food on their tables. “While many of us are working from home, there are others who aren’t able to do that — like the truck drivers who are working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked. So when you can, please #ThankATrucker for everything they’re doing and help them however you can,” he tweeted March 31, 2020.

Trudeau had a chance to thank thousands of them personally over the weekend, as the truckers who’ve assembled what they call the Freedom Convoy to protest COVID vaccine mandates and restrictions cruised into the capital. Instead, he fled — breaking isolation to do it.

**

**

Despite the risk, the 44-year-old president has taken his last stand and has been on the streets of Kyiv in defiance of the Russian troops that are invading his country. On Friday morning, in a video addressed to Ukrainians, Zelenskyy said that he has been identified by the enemy as the number one target and his family as the number two.

This came after a conference call the night before on which he reportedly told European Union leaders, “This might be the last time you see me alive.”

 **

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected an evacuation offer from the United States and is remaining in his country as Russian forces capture more ground, Ukrainian officials said on Feb. 26.

** 

As the disruptive protest in Ottawa drags into its second week, some residents of the downtown core say they've been living a nightmare, under siege and terrified to leave their homes — except to seek refuge away from the epicentre.

** 

A Ukrainian soldier reportedly blew himself up on a bridge to prevent a line of Russian tanks from crossing.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the act of bravery by Vitaly Skakun, who was part of a marine infantry battalion aiming to block the Henichesk bridge in the southern Kherson region.

As the tanks approached, Mr Skakun jumped in to carry out a mission to blow up the bridge.

“The bridge was mined, but he didn’t manage to get away from there,” the military said in a statement.

“According to his brothers in arms, Vitaly got in touch [with them] and said he was going to blow up the bridge. Immediately after an explosion rang out.”

“His heroic act significantly slowed down the push of the enemy, allowing the unit to relocate and organize defense.”

Officials said they were working on awarding Mr Skakun with posthumous honors.

** 

**


 

Canada Is (So Far) Back (That Its Ghost Cannot Find It)

This Canada:

 

(Sidebar: more here.)

**

**

Nick Strachan, a young man participating in the COVID mandate protest, became unexpectedly famous when video of him being relentlessly beaten by Canadian police was released on social media. “They were punching my face. They were kneeing me in the face. And simultaneously that’s when one of the riot officers took my nylon rainjacket…and wrapped it around my mouth and my nose and it was cutting off my breathing. I didn’t know if I was going to get another breath. The last thing I saw were fists and knees.”

**

**

An international embargo of Russian natural gas and oil exports is the nuclear option of economic sanctions Canada and other countries could impose on Russia in retaliation for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

It would reduce Russia’s revenues by 36%, but the fact it’s unlikely to happen is a lesson for Canada about the importance of being energy independent in a volatile world.

A total embargo of Russian oil and natural gas exports — called for by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney last week — is not on the table because Russia supplies 40% of Europe’s natural gas and 10% of the world’s oil.

Most of the natural gas is transported through a pipeline that runs through Ukraine, operated by Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom.

Despite economic sanctions imposed on Russia we’re told by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders are unprecedented, no one is talking about stopping the flow of natural gas from Russia to Europe.

** 

In smug Canadian fashion, the federal government announced with great fanfare that it was following suit in levelling sanctions against parts of the Russian regime, its enablers and henchmen. The problem is that Canada’s relations with Russia are already so limited, this announcement is largely performative. But if the federal government wants to get serious about effective containment, there are options at its disposal. ...

A week ago, the federal government was quick to invoke emergency measures to stem problematic financial flows. While those measures applied to resources associated with the unlawful occupation in Ottawa, it was business as usual for organized criminals. If Canada’s federal government were to adopt Australian-style foreign interference legislation and UK-style Unexplained Wealth Orders, it could actually start to go after dirty Russian money that has long sloshed around in Toronto’s real estate markets. As the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia is showing, Canada’s financial and privacy laws are world class at protecting criminals and the ultra-rich at the expense of ordinary Canadians.

The federal government could also have an honest conversation with Canadians about gas pipelines. Putin’s war chest is plenished by Canada’s European allies that are procuring natural gas from Russia. Canada has ample supply of natural gas to liquify and export. Yet, Canada lags way behind in that game because it naively has no sense for geopolitics. Make no mistake: Canadians who oppose construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, and pipeline capacity to enable liquified natural gas exports from Canada’s East Coast to Europe, are aiding, abetting, and condoning Putin’s behaviour. Those same Canadians are happy to oppose pipelines to sell Canada’s own oil across the continent and the world because they would rather fill their gas tanks with petrol derived from human-rights abusing regimes in the Middle East. Canadians’ cognitive dissonance on pipelines runs counter to our country’s geostrategic interests. This inadvertent complicity of Putin’s thuggery is the case in point.

Canada has a collective-defence obligation to its NATO member allies to ensure Russia’s tanks do not keep rolling beyond Ukraine, now or in the future. The federal government talks a good talk about deterring Russia, but it has little credibility in following through. By way of example, (thus far) Canada has no fighter jet capable of defeating Russian air defences. Canada effectively supports and contributes to European missile defence yet is pretentious in refusing to join with the United States in ballistic missile defence of North America. Canada is effectively abrogating sovereign decision-making when it is unable to defend against a bad actor’s strategic nuclear or conventional assets.

**

A $100 billion pandemic relief program originally intended to aid small business instead benefited large corporations, Statistics Canada data disclosed yesterday. Large corporations were three times as likely as small business to receive the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy: “One of the challenges the government has had is a profound misunderstanding of how small business works.”

 

The same morally corrupt, inept, weak and vile plutocracy that tramples protesters underfoot morally postures on Ukraine.

Vodka, anyone?


One more thing:

 

This China:

**

Nine Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the hours following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Taiwanese air assets were scrambled in response, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.


Imagine Waking Up In a Totalitarian State

Image

 

Oh, wait ... : 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that he is revoking the use of the Emergencies Act, saying the situation is no longer an emergency.

 **

“We need to constantly work to defend and improve our democracy at home and around the world.”

Under Sec. 62 of the Emergencies Act such reviews are mandatory and, according to the legislation, held in private.

 

Now, about that: 

Cabinet’s abrupt suspension of Emergencies Act orders yesterday came so suddenly Liberal appointees in the Senate were continuing to warn of anarchist plots to topple Parliament even as the threat was downgraded to an ordinary police matter. “We need the full power of the state,” said Senator Bev Busson (B.C.), a former RCMP Commissioner: “It is a national crisis. I am at a loss to understand how we can play politics with our democracy.”

**

The head of the RCMP says the powers given to her officers through the Emergencies Act served as "a big deterrent" in policing anti-vaccine mandate protests that occupied the streets of downtown Ottawa for nearly a month.

Commissioner Brenda Lucki's remarks before a parliamentary committee Friday afternoon come during a heated political debate over whether the Liberal government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act.

Earlier this month, the federal government invoked new powers to address anti-vaccine mandate protesters and blockades — including the authority to ban travel to protest zones and prohibit people from bringing minors to unlawful assemblies.

"We don't have anything in laws that prevent people from coming to protests and we can't turn them away. So for us, operationally, it was all about reducing that footprint in Ottawa and the only way to do that was to stop people from coming in or incentivizing them to leave," Lucki told MPs on the public safety and national security committee looking into the federal government's response to the protests.

"We used it as a big deterrent for people to come into the area. So, yes, in fact, we did use the measures that were put in the Emergencies Act, along with other authorities that we had."

Lucki and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino took questions from MPs Friday morning about whether police had sufficient authority to curb the occupation without having to trigger the never-before-used legislation.

** 

First-ever use of the Emergencies Act to quash the Freedom Convoy movement will set a federal precedent for years to come, legislators warned yesterday. Liberal and Conservative-appointed senators called it government overreach: “The country is deeply divided like I have never seen it.”

**

A federal bank, Farm Credit Canada of Regina, began blacklisting customers suspected of sympathizing with the Freedom Convoy. Critics of Emergencies Act orders targeting bank account holders yesterday called the measure punitive and unlawful: “Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”

 

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

** 

Banks have frozen nearly $8 million in accounts held by Freedom Convoy truckers, the Department of Finance disclosed yesterday. Authorities confirmed even small donations to the convoy, as little as $20, could trigger retribution if cash was contributed after cabinet declared the Freedom Convoy an illegal assembly on February 15: “It could be a savings account, a chequing account, a mortgage.”

**

Police and municipal officials are keeping an eye on rural encampments where apparent “Freedom Convoy” protesters have gathered after leaving downtown Ottawa.

On Monday, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said they were concerned about groups gathering outside city borders.

** 

"I have been in contact with a reliable source within the Canadian military, and he told me today by email that if I had any sense I would take my money out of the Canadian banks because the situation is far worse than I've been informed. That's one of many such messages I received on a daily basis."

** 

**

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) confirmed that it shut down nearly 40 businesses during its crackdown on Freedom Convoy protesters opposing COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.
**

Two Edmonton Police Service (EPS) officers who made public statements supporting the trucker protest opposing COVID-19 mandates and restrictions have been suspended without pay.

 

 

Then this happened:

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced they would use the Emergency Act declaration to target the financial support systems, banks and accounts of the people who were protesting against COVID mandates, they not only undermined the integrity of the Canadian banking system – but they also inadvertently stuck a wrench into the plans of the World Economic Forum and the collaborative use of the Canadian Bankers Association to create a digital id. ...

Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland essentially broke the financial code of Omerta, by highlighting how easy it is for government to seize your bank accounts, credit cards, retirement accounts, insurance, mortgages, loan access and cut you off from money (without due process).

The unintended consequence was an immediate and clear reference point if government did the same action with a digital ID in place.

However, this undermined confidence and faith in the banking system cannot be restored quickly.  The toothpaste cannot be put back into the tube. The horse has left the barn.

Quickly this becomes a moment for immediate damage control by the Canadian government. This explains why Justin Trudeau dropped the declaration of the Emergency Act.

It all makes sense now.  All of it.

 

Personally, I think it was because the Vichy puppet wanted to show who was boss after being publicly humiliated around the world but that's just me.



Some people just aren't buying it:

Moe said the federal government should now end all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

“It is past time for the Trudeau government to detail a return to normal for all Canadians,” Moe said Wednesday.

** 

Alberta will proceed in its request for a judicial review of the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act against trucker convoy protests, Premier Jason Kenney said Wednesday.

Rising in the legislature to address what he called "one of the most obvious overreaches of government power in my lifetime," Kenney said the fact the act was revoked earlier in the day is irrelevant.

"That does not change the profound concerns of Canadians, of Albertans and this assembly with this unnecessary, unjustified and disproportionate use of arbitrary police power in our lifetime with no good reason," Kenney said.

Kenney said there never was an emergency that justified the act's extraordinary powers.

He pointed out that the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., was cleared before the act was brought in. He said Ottawa police had plenty of laws that prevented semi-trailer rigs from being parked on the streets of downtown Ottawa.

"We had no shortage of law. What we had was a shortage of enforcement."

**

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and two civil and constitutional rights groups say they will continue to pursue legal challenges of the Canadian government’s use of the Emergencies Act even after the measure was revoked on Feb. 23.

 

And some people show their true colours:

 

This "hate-free zone":

https://blazingcatfur.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ottawa-Hate-Free-Zone-Founder.jpg



Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Mid-Week Post


 

Your mid-week moment of freedom ...

 

It's punishment for humiliating an absolutist government led by an inept and divisive coward. We can stop pretending that this over-reach is anything but:

Even a $20 donation to the Freedom Convoy after Feb. 15 could result in the donor’s bank accounts being frozen, a Commons committee heard Tuesday.

As reports of frozen accounts linked to convoy donations continue to roll in, members of the Commons finance committee spent Tuesday afternoon questioning staff from the Canada Revenue Agency and the departments of Finance and Justice about the controversial emergency measures that allow police to lock bank accounts of those suspected of funding the illegal protests without first obtaining a court order.

“Just to be clear, a financial contribution either through a crowdsourced platform or directly, could result in their bank account being frozen?” Conservative MP Philip Lawrence asked Department of Finance Assistant Deputy Minister Isabelle Jacques.

“Yes,” she replied.

“They didn’t have to actively be involved in the protest, they didn’t have to be here in Ottawa at one of the blockades?” Lawrence asked.

“No, not themselves,” she replied.

“It could be indirectly.”

 

And there one has it. 

The protesters, having been arrested, denied bail by a Liberal-friendly, unelected judge, having no financial support and vilified by the bribed press, having been removed from Parliament Hill and were certainly no danger to anyone, are in no position to rebel at the moment.

But this was never about public safety:

As life returns to a near normal in the nation’s capital, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was unable to say when the Emergencies Act powers his government gave itself to end protests will be revoked.

 

The government can, at any time, without warning and without consequence can freeze the account of a dissenter (and take that money if they wish. What will stop them?). They can increase or decrease this pressure only to prove their power. It is irrelevant for the poor sucker who finds him or herself in such a state because no bank (even one that has been downgraded - it must be all that freezing) as no bank will ever do business with him again, nor could he sell his house, get a business loan ... nothing.

That's the power of spite, the spite of a shallow nothing of a man so eager to one-up his disgusting dad.

 

Also:

Conservative MPs want their colleagues to use more restraint when sharing stories about frozen bank accounts due to the Emergencies Act.

In an email obtained exclusively by the National Post, MP Raquel Dancho and MP Dane Lloyd caution their colleagues not to share stories about constituents who have had their bank accounts frozen for supporting the trucker convoy without doing further checks.

“In this charged environment, it’s critical that we communicate in a coordinated and accurate fashion. Doing otherwise gives the Liberals a chance to distract from their power grab and attack us instead,” the MPs wrote to their caucus colleagues Tuesday night.

**

Worthless, smug b@$#@rd:


You will always be a coward, Justin, and the world knows it.



Oh, just pass it. You know you want to:

An independent Senate might prove to be a challenge for the Liberal government as it is asking the Upper Chamber to extend the Emergencies Act.

Marc Gold, the government’s representative in the Senate, faced a barrage of questions from Senators from all groups on Tuesday about whether the act was necessary now that the occupation outside Parliament and the border blockades have ended.

The House of Commons voted on Monday night to extend the emergency measures that have been in place since last week. The NDP voted with the Liberals, arguing that it was a confidence vote and now was not the time to plunge the country into an election.

But that trick likely won’t work with Senators, who are growing increasingly frustrated that they feel forced to rubber stamp government legislation.

Many of them wanted to know on what basis the government decided to invoke the Emergencies Act in the first place. That information has not been made available to Parliament, most notably ongoing investigations and intelligence information.

 

Also- you are part of the problem:

I was present during the negotiations around the federal Emergencies Act in 1987. As one of two full-time lawyers at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association at the time, I witnessed firsthand how Alan Borovoy, the CCLA’s then-general counsel, managed to shape the contours of this scheme. And I saw how the end product was a carefully calibrated piece of legislation with checks at every turn.

It’s why I believe the Emergencies Act was not a legally suitable instrument for removing unwelcome occupiers on Ottawa’s streets.

The objective of Brian Mulroney’s government in 1987 was to bring Quebec back into Canada’s constitutional fold by drawing sharp contrasts with that of his predecessor as prime minister, Pierre Trudeau. There would be two limbs to this strategy: first, having first ministers agree to a new constitutional settlement, represented by the Meech Lake Accord – a colossal failure, it turns out. The second prong was the repeal of the discredited War Measures Act and replacing it with an instrument better tuned to addressing emergencies such as the October Crisis of 1970. This turns out to have been the less troublesome prong.

It was in furtherance of replacing the War Measures Act that then-defence minister Perrin Beatty reached out to the CCLA to seek its input into draft replacement legislation. The CCLA’s principal aim was to curb what Mr. Borovoy called the “power-hoarding fallacy,” understanding that historically, Canadian governments have preferred to seize far more power than is reasonably needed in a crisis. The main thing was to avoid the blank cheque afforded to government under the War Measures Act. So in negotiations for a replacement act, the CCLA worked to restrict the government’s ability to manoeuvre in emergency situations to only what was absolutely necessary and to create safeguards to prevent the abuse of those fenced-in powers. ...

Justin Trudeau’s government has not provided compelling evidence that the convoy protest in Ottawa could not have been adequately dealt with under provincial authority, with or without federal help, as occurred at the Ambassador Bridge and at the border crossing at Coutts, Alta. Nor has it been convincingly shown that existing provincial or federal laws were not adequate to the task – enabling the co-ordination of police forces, the seizure of funds or the removal of occupiers, for example. It may be that the Ontario emergency law did not empower the province to “require” tow truck drivers to provide assistance, but that surely is a flimsy basis for declaring a national emergency.

In the case of a “public order emergency,” which was approved by a vote in Parliament on Feb. 21, there is the added requirement that the emergency must amount to a “threat to the security of Canada” as defined in the CSIS Act. The statutory definition of a “threat to the security of Canada” encompasses “acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada.” While there is no question that myriad grievances were voiced in Ottawa, there is no evidence that “acts of serious violence” were perpetrated for the purpose of achieving the protesters’ objectives.

Taken together, these two definitions impose a heavy onus on government to justify the invocation of public order emergency powers – a burden that has not been convincingly met in the case of the Ottawa protests. It seems that, despite its creators’ best intentions, the carefully crafted Emergencies Act remains vulnerable to the urges of power hoarders.

 

 

Horrible people will be horrible:

Members of a parliamentary committee set up to scrutinize the Emergencies Act will have to take an oath of secrecy, but will not be given access to highly classified material, says the government's representative in the Senate.

 

Because transparency.

It's as good as smearing or deflection.

** 

Peel Regional Police say they are investigating a “suspicious” fire that affected a Liberal MP office in Mississauga early Tuesday.

 **

Auditors have uncovered widespread irregularities in misuse of government-issue charge cards by Canadian diplomats abroad. Records at the Department of Foreign Affairs showed employees billed taxpayers for liquor, jewelry and “hospitality” expenses: “Documentation is required to verify compliance and identify misappropriation or fraud.”

**

Voters in Burnaby South have sent a clear message to Jagmeet Singh over his support of Trudeau's emergency powers, plastering posters and a large tarp on his office to condemn his decision.

"NDP Betrayal on Family Day," reads a poster. "Jagmeet is Trudeau's Lap Dog," reads another. "Burnaby South Deserves Better!" And finally, "JAGMEET: TRUDEAU'S PUPPET," a spray-painted tarp reads.


 

Oh, you are shocked by what could happen to free speech and congress in this country even though Justin declared that China was his favourite country, Goebbels wanted to ban taunts against politicians, the fat affirmative-action hire wants Canadians to snitch on one another and books were burned at an Ontario school?

Really?: 

What exactly did he mean by that usage of “protest”? It was unclear. The word’s been used vaguely and interchangeably with blockade, insurrection and siege the past few weeks by police and politicians.

And that’s a big problem. Whatever happens over the next few months (and possibly years), as the matters related to the convoy make their way through the courts, a chilling effect has now been placed on peaceful protest in Canada.

 

Also:

Proposed hate speech legislation would allow people to take others to court if they suspect that someone will post content deemed hateful online.

Bill C-36 states that "a person may, with the Attorney General's consent, lay an information before a provincial court judge if the person fears on reasonable grounds that another person will commit (a) an offence under section 318 [advocating genocide] or subsection 319" [inciting or promoting hate, promoting hatred].

 

No one will ever make fun of Justin publicly wetting his pants again! 


 

Stomp them with horses!:

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said it has launched an internal conduct investigation after members of its force appear to have donated to the so-called Freedom Convoy.

The names were apparently released in a data leak, which revealed the names of those who contributed to the anti-mandate protesters via a GiveSendGo campaign.

 


 

 

They fit in with Justin's Canada:

A spokesperson for the Toronto District School Board says the students gave “the Heil Hitler salute” as a French teacher walked into a Grade 8 class at Valley Park Middle School on Thursday.


This Valley Park Middle School:

Islam understands the reality of Commissar Hall's "social justice": You give 'em an inch, and they'll take the rest. Following a 1988 cease-and-desist court judgment against the Lord's Prayer in public school, the Ontario Education Act forbids "any person to conduct religious exercises or to provide instruction that includes religious indoctrination in a particular religion or religious belief in a school." That seems clear enough. If somebody at Valley Park stood up in the cafeteria and started in with "Our Father, which art in Heaven", the full weight of the School Board would come crashing down on them. Fortunately, Valley Park is 80-90 per cent Muslim, so there are no takers for the Lord's Prayer. And, when it comes to the prayers they do want to say, the local Islamic enforcers go ahead secure in the knowledge that the diversity pansies aren't going to do a thing about it.

Nobody would know a thing about the "mosqueteria" story were it not for the blogger Blazing Cat Fur, whom I was honoured to say a word for in Ottawa a few months back. He broke this story and then saw it get picked up without credit by the Toronto media. He does that a lot. Currently, he's featuring the thoughts of Jawed Anwar, the editor of The Muslim, a publication for Greater Toronto Area Muslims, and of Dr Bilal Philips, a "Canadian religious scholar" who was born in Jamaica but grew up in Toronto and has many prestigious degrees not only from Saudi Arabia but also from the University of Wales, where he completed a PhD in "Islamic Theology". Dr Philips is in favour of death for homosexuals and, as one Canadian to another, Mr Anwar was anxious to explain to his readers that that's nothing to get alarmed about ...


This Justin:

During World War II, Justin’s père Pierre Trudeau was a “zombie,” one of those who declined to serve though of age and in good health. After the war, as David Frum recalled in 2011, Pierre Trudeau “traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities. He wrote in praise of Mao’s murderous regime in China. Trudeau lavishly admired Fidel Castro, Julius Nyere, and other Third World dictators.” Trudeau also praised the Siberian city of Norilsk “unware or unconcerned that Norilsk had been built by slave labor.”

** 

The Canadian House of Commons erupted in shouts of condemnation Wednesday after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied to a Jewish member of Parliament by accusing members of the opposing Conservative Party of "standing with people who wave swastikas."

 

This Canada:

For the study, nearly 3,600 students in Grades 6 through 12 were surveyed both before and after a two-day virtual conference focusing on the Holocaust. Almost 80 per cent of the students were in Canada, while the rest were in U.S. classrooms. Just over six per cent identified as Jewish.

According to the study, nearly 33 per cent of the students felt the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, or they were unsure if it even took place. Social media also wasn’t their only source of information.

** 

Banks have frozen nearly $8 million in accounts held by Freedom Convoy truckers, the Department of Finance disclosed yesterday. Authorities confirmed even small donations to the convoy, as little as $20, could trigger retribution if cash was contributed after cabinet declared the Freedom Convoy an illegal assembly on February 15: “It could be a savings account, a chequing account, a mortgage.”

**

MPs on the Commons finance committee yesterday said they feared cabinet normalized financial retribution against political protesters. An Emergencies Act order allows banks to freeze personal and corporate accounts of Freedom Convoy protesters without a court order or advance notice to account holders: ‘It is like a no-fly list where someone is now asterisked for the rest of their life.’


Nazism is alive and well in a country that spent good men to fight it.

 

 

When do these get federal attention?:

But the Chinese government’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) is involved in espionage that harms Canada’s interests, a Federal Court judge has affirmed in what appears to be a precedent-setting new ruling.

Beijing critics say the judgement — upholding an immigration officer’s decision on the issue as “reasonable” — represents a rare official rebuke of the office, now a bureau of a larger Communist Party department.

Despite its apparently longstanding efforts to influence and monitor Chinese Canadians, the agency has rarely been publicly called-out by authorities here, says Charles Burton, a former diplomat in Beijing and senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

“I’m thrilled about the ruling,” he said. “I hope it sets a terrific precedent.”

** 

Video released by the RCMP shows what officers describe as a group storming the site of a violent attack at a B.C. camp for pipeline workers last week.

Mounties published three video clips Tuesday in connection with the "acts of violence and damage done" at the work camp last week.

In a news release, the RCMP said the videos show a group of people, some of whom are "armed with axes" approaching the Coastal GasLink camp on Thursday.

Police describe what's shown in the video as the group storming the property and attacking a company vehicle. An employee was inside the truck, they said.

 


There are no truckers to blame this on:

Looming interest rate hikes have Canadians increasingly worried about making ends meet, according to an Ipsos survey commissioned for insolvency firm MNP Ltd.

The Bank of Canada sent strong signals last month that the days of rock-bottom interest rates tied to the COVID-19 pandemic were over. With Canada’s annual rate of inflation hitting 5.1 per cent last month — a more than 30-year high — most economists are expecting the central bank’s key overnight rate will rise steadily over the course of the year, starting as early as its next announcement on March 2.

The outlook is worrying many Canadians, who are already grappling with surging prices at gas pumps and grocery stores, according to the MNP survey.

 

Enjoy the poverty you voted for. 


 

How interesting:

A coalition of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have introduced legislation that would end the Biden administration’s requirement that foreign truckers transporting goods be vaccinated to enter the United States.

In January, both the U.S. and Canadian federal governments instituted rules requiring that foreign truckers transporting goods over international lines be vaccinated.

Even though the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s controversial private-sector vaccine mandate as unconstitutional in mid-January, the trucker mandate has remained in effect.

Scott’s Terminating Reckless and Unnecessary Checks Known to Erode Regular Shipping (TRUCKERS) Act—which is co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—would end the truckers’ mandate.

In a press release, proponents of the bill explained, “The TRUCKERS Act would exempt non-U.S. citizen commercial truck drivers traveling from Canada or Mexico who are seeking to temporarily enter the United States for business through a land port of entry from proof of vaccination requirements.”

 

Seeing as this flu shot is ineffective, one might as well. 

It's amazing what some trucks can do.

 

 

A war that isn't really happening and that Canada can't participate in should distract the masses!:

Canada has announced new sanctions on Russia in response to the Kremlin’s deployment of forces into eastern Ukraine and its recognition of two separatist regions.

 

Say what you will about the autocrat, Putin, but at least he never ran away from truck-drivers. 


Also - this:



New Zealanders have had it with vaccine mandates:

What began as a spontaneous, hodgepodge attempt to ape the trucker protests seen in Canada has turned into something more organized as the crowd has swelled to around 1,500 people. Herb gardens have been planted, makeshift showers set up, and free hot meals are served three times a day by volunteers. There’s even a daycare tent.

The purpose of the protest has also grown, from discontent with the country’s controversial vaccine mandate into broader frustration with Jacinda Ardern’s government for bringing in some of the world’s strictest COVID measures.

“I know COVID is real and I’m not anti-vax,” said self-appointed “protest peacekeeper” Linzy Noble.

“But this new vaccine hasn’t been tested properly and that’s why my family isn’t OK with it. Lots of people here feel the same way. Does that make us bad people? Do we deserve to lose our careers and be treated like s–?”

The 57-year-old painting contractor said he and his seven children were out of work because of the vaccine mandate and that he was more worried about rising suicide rates, small businesses failing and the long-term impacts of restrictions on kids than he was about catching COVID.

“We want the mandates gone. They’re hurting innocent people and killing our businesses,” he added. “This isn’t New Zealand.”

 

Battle for Middle Earth! 


 

It's like there is an Imperial theme to this blog post:

Most visitors who leave the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., via the ramp near the northwest tower don’t realize that evil incarnate is bearing down on them. No, it’s not the devil—it’s Darth Vader.

His stone head protrudes from the edge of a gable beneath the tower’s middle pinnacle, flanked on either side by two much taller pinnacles. The Star Wars despot is quite hard to see without binoculars, and he's also not the sole sculpture on his gable: The other side hosts a raccoon.

Only sculptures that spout water are considered true gargoyles, which were originally conceived as a decorative way to drain rainwater from rooftops without sending it straight down the sides of the building. Since Darth Vader’s masked mouth has no spout, he’s technically just a grotesque, not a gargoyle.

 

Darth Vader, an unexpected churchgoer.