Wednesday, June 08, 2022

Mid-Week Post


 

Your middle-of-the-week double-take ...

 

Justin - arrogant? NO!:

After opening statements from each leader, students were encouraged to ask questions. When one of the high school students asked Trudeau if he would keep his promise to bring in electoral reform and a form of proportional representation, the PM got animated.

“Uh, no! I don’t believe in proportional representation. I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Trudeau said.

“I love the idea of a ranked ballot where you get to pick your first choice – you know, pick the red guy first and then orange girl second and then the green person third, and then you never get the blue person.”

There’s so much that is wrong with Trudeau’s answer, from his attitude right through to telling high school students that they should never vote Conservative. This wasn’t a Liberal Party event. This was part of an official visit from a foreign head of state in which Trudeau’s main job was to act as prime minister of all Canadians.

As Trudeau went on, he claimed that he has never supported proportional representation and has always preferred a ranked ballot. It’s worth asking why proportional representation was put forward as an option for electoral reform when he ran on the issue in 2015.

“We will convene an all-party Parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting, and online voting,” the Liberal platform promised.

A Commons committee was struck to study the idea. They crossed the country hearing from experts and average citizens about what they would like to see if the electoral system were changed.

The Special Committee on Electoral Reform spent more than 200 hours and in excess of $600,000 to compile their 333-page report recommending a form of mixed member proportional representation. The Trudeau government then ignored the report because the committee didn’t give them the preferred option of a ranked ballot.

Liberals love the idea of a ranked ballot because they believe they are everyone’s second choice, and that the system will allow them to win more seats. It’s not about imposing a fairer system or one that engages more voters and improves voter turnout; for Trudeau, it’s about finding a system that is better for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Consider that under a pure proportional representation system, Trudeau would have lost the last two elections after losing the popular vote to the Conservatives. Or, that in the 2015 election, he would have won 133 seats and had a minority government instead of his 184-seat majority.

 

He's not good at math, either. 

 

Also not good at math:

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says the Liberal government should respond to the rising inflation crisis by taxing excess corporate profits and redistributing the money directly to Canadians, with “ordinary families” receiving as much as $1,000.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Singh said: “We see clearly that corporations are making these massive profits, they’re making record-setting profits, and their record-setting profits are directly contributing to the cost of living going up.”

If companies were just increasing their prices to meet rising costs “then their profits would be similar to previous years. But they’re not,” Singh said.

 


 

Not complete repeals of unnecessary taxes. Not the revival of a gutted oil sector. Not the demand for government accountability in causing inflation and unnecessary expenditures like flying around the country. Not even realising that the idea is total horse crap in every possible respect. 

It's no wonder people in Brampton hate Singh.

 

Also not at all good with math:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s long term deficit reduction plan is not believable, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Freeland in her April 7 budget predicted the federal deficit will fall from $113.8 billion to $8.4 billion by 2027, a 93 percent decline: “I personally don’t believe it’s credible.”



Thieves:

Do you know how much money the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada makes? Well, it’s right there in the Judges Act, section 9.

Supreme Court of Canada
9 The yearly salaries of the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada are as follows:
• (a) the Chief Justice of Canada, $403,800; and
• (b) the eight puisne judges, $373,900 each.

(Puny is actually how you pronounce that word — it has a similar meaning, a judge of lower rank.)

So the chief judge in Canada makes north of 400 grand. And then there’s the expenses. And the general luxury that comes with the job.

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, makes $379,000 — $189,500 for being an MP, the same again for being the PM.

So the Supreme Court judge makes more than Trudeau.

The chief judge of the Supreme Court, the guy making $400K, is named Richard Wagner. Stephen Harper put him on the court, and Trudeau promoted him to Chief Justice. Wagner took over from the disgraced Beverley McLachlin, who held that post for seventeen years, overseeing its radical lurch to the authoritarian left. We later found out that Trudeau regarded McLachlin as a go-to judge for fixing political problems — very troubling revelations about how in the pocket she was of Trudeau and, worse, the corrupt Gerald Butts.

 

 

Planning is for chumps:

Almost a quarter of the nation’s airport security screeners were laid off as a pandemic cost savings, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority figures disclosed yesterday. The Authority said contractors were scrambling to rehire staff amid hours-long waits for travelers: “It is not a funding problem.”



The Stasi ALSO surveilled the public for political ends:

Yet, rather than take the time to fully consider what constitutes reasonable grounds for such a serious invasion of privacy, Liberals created an irresponsibly low threshold that offloads decision-making to individual border agents. “Reasonable general concern” is the sort of dangerously vague, far-reaching and easily abused standard one would expect from the Chinese Communist Party or Vladimir Putin, not a liberal democracy that purports to protect basic rights.

Allowing law enforcement bodies more or less free rein over who and what they can search has not been a historically successful strategy. It’s also one that typically results in discrimination against the minority populations Trudeau so often makes a show of protecting.

Even more concerning, Bill S-7 wouldn’t only apply to Canadian border services, it would set the standard for searches by U.S. homeland security agents who conduct pre-clearance at Canadian airports. It would allow foreign officials to access Canadians’ private data, photos and correspondence based on what essentially amounts to bad vibes.

** 

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday, using the opportunity to defend Bill C-11 with assurances that concerns about the inclusion of user content within the bill were “unfounded.” As this post unpacks, the denials of content regulation ring hollow as his defence falls apart on close examination of the bill. Numerous witnesses, including digital creators, Internet platforms, and industry associations, have all expressed concerns about the issue. Rather than respond to them, Rodriguez and the government implausibly deny that the issue exists at all. ...

The government’s continued insistence that the bill does not do what it plainly does seems like a classic case of gaslighting. But Rodriguez doesn’t stop there. He relies yet again on the claim that “platforms are in, users are out.” While this is true in the sense that users are not regulated like platforms due to an exception in the bill, the truth is the bill regulates indirectly what it cannot do directly. In other words, users may not be called before the CRTC, but their content falls under CRTC regulation with platforms tasked with the enforcement. Both Youtube and Tiktok, the two best-known user content platforms, have provided the committee with submissions that make it clear that as currently structured platforms and user content both face regulation with Bill C-11. ...

The criteria in the bill are:

  • whether the program that is uploaded to a social media service directly or indirectly generates revenue
  • if the program has been broadcast by a broadcast undertaking that is either licensed or registered with the CRTC
  • if the program has been assigned a unique identifier under an international standards system

Rodriguez sought to leave the impression that these criteria limit the scope of regulation on user content, but the TikTok submission notes that its interpretation is that any TikTok video that uses music would qualify:

On TikTok, users can include short clips – typically no more than 30 seconds long – of popular music in the background of their videos. To illustrate how broadly Section 4.2 could be interpreted, take the example of a Canadian TikTok creator who posts a dance video using Ucluelet, BC, singer Jessia’s song, I’m Not Pretty. Even though it’s only a 30- second clip of the music, that video would still meet all criteria of Section 4.2:

1. The video/song is monetized: TikTok indirectly monetizes all videos on our platform by interspersing ads in a user’s feed. This video would be further monetized by the royalties that TikTok would pay to Jessia (or the track’s rightsholder) for use of the clip.
2. The song appears on a regulated platform: I’m Not Pretty is available on streaming platforms (like Spotify or Apple Music) and on the radio.
3. The song has a unique identifier code: I’m Not Pretty has multiple codes associated with it, including an ISRC for the performance and an ISWC for the underlying work.

This same analysis would apply to uses of short clips of a TV show or movie in a TikTok video, such as a user posting a reaction video to a funny clip from an episode of Schitt’s Creek. It would also apply to users posting their own amateur cover performances of their favourite songs, as the bill doesn’t differentiate between the performance and the underlying work. To be clear, this means any video on TikTok that uses music could be subject to regulation under the Broadcasting Act.

 


"I was just lying," wailed the liar:

In April, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told the same committee that after weeks of blockades in downtown Ottawa and at several border crossings, the government was in regular consultation with law enforcement including the RCMP.

“The advice we received was to invoke the Emergencies Act,” Mendicino said at the time.

But Stewart said Mendicino didn’t mean police directly asked for the law to be used.

“I believe that the intention that he was trying to express was that law enforcement asked for the tools that were contained in the Emergencies Act,” Stewart said.

 

Yet he made the claim several times:

Police never asked cabinet to invoke the Emergencies Act, the RCMP said last night. The Mounties contradicted repeated claims by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino that cabinet was “acting on the advice of law enforcement” in taking emergency measures against the Freedom Convoy: “We’re not in the position to provide influence on the government.”

**

“No, there was never question of requesting the Emergencies Act,” replied Lucki.

White then asked, “Do you know of any other police leadership that specifically asked the government for the invocation?”

“No,” Lucki replied.

Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said repeatedly that the act was invoked after conferring with law enforcement over the extraordinary measures.

“It was only after we got advice from law enforcement that we invoked the Emergencies Act,” said Trudeau on two occasions in the House of Commons during question period on April 27.

Trudeau didn’t specify which law enforcement agency provided that advice, but the RCMP is the federal police body that would normally interact with the federal government.


Also:

Deputy Justice Minister François Daigle last night said he supported use of emergency powers against the Freedom Convoy after watching TV news coverage of the truckers’ blockade. Members of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency expressed unease with Daigle’s testimony: “I saw by watching TV.”



Some people are so special that they have to stack the deck:

Cabinet yesterday introduced a bill guaranteeing three Indigenous seats on a federal board responsible for historic designations. It follows a 2019 order that historic plaques address “colonialism, patriarchy and racism.”

 

That's not democracy. It's as bad as letting Quebec cheat.

But if Justin really wants to remove "patriarchy" from the political arena, he can end the Trudeau dynasty (clearly modelled on the Kim dynasty in North Korea) and resign for good.

**

Professor Carrie Bourassa resigned from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Wednesday over questions about her claims she's indigenous.

Bourassa claimed to be Metis, Anishinaabe, and Tlingit, but her ancestry came into question by a CBC investigation in the fall of 2021.

USask reviewed the information from the CBC and media interviews given by Bourassa about her indigenous ancestry.

“The University of Saskatchewan has carefully reviewed the information in interviews and responses from Dr. Carrie Bourassa to recent articles challenging her indigenous identity,” said the USask press release.

“The university has serious concerns with the additional information revealed in Dr. Bourassa’s responses to the media and with the harm that this information may be causing indigenous individuals and communities. An investigation will be proceeding into the statements and information shared by Dr. Bourassa.”

Bourassa's on forced vacation while investigating her ancestry.

 

Forced vacation, huh?

You set up a race-based system and are embarrassed when you find yourselves tricked.

Idiots. 

 

 

Where is Black Lives Matter on this?:

In a mere 30 minutes, Waterloo Regional District School board (WRDSB) trustees voted 6-3 Monday to sanction the board’s only black trustee Mike Ramsay over a Code of Conduct complaint that has apparently been in the works since February.

Some six of the board’s trustees – all of them left-leaning – appeared gleeful as they voted to apply the maximum number of sanctions available to them.

These include barring Ramsay from all committees of the whole and in-camera meetings until September 30, essentially the end of the current term. 

They also barred him from the next board meeting.

Ramsay, a six-term trustee and regular thorn in the side of the woke trustees for his common-sense approach, was not permitted to speak in his defense.

Sources say he was chastised very publicly for merely retweeting some of my True North stories on the WRDSB and those of other conservative writers. The complainant has alleged, apparently, that it was “disgraceful” to promote “alt-right” media.

 


Moon's response would have been quite anemic:

South Korea's tougher stance towards the North under its new conservative president will be welcomed by Tokyo as Japan seeks to boost its military capabilities amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and more broadly in the region, analysts say.

South Korea and the United States this week fired missiles and staged a joint show of air strength in response to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.

It marked the second time South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has taken such a direct response since taking office in May with a pledge to respond more forcefully if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ignores warnings about military provocations and offers of dialogue.

 

It's not like Japan has a choice. 



The Japanese gave us Ivermectin and this warning:

Dr. Yamamoto reports problems with the presentation of shingles in association with COVID-19, sometimes called “vaccine-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.” The cardiovascular surgeon reports that since the end of 2021, the teams at Okamura Memorial Hospital have encountered not only numerous cases of COVID-19 but also shingles infections that are “difficult to control.” He shared that in some more extreme cases due to vaccination, serious inflammation occurred after open-heart surgery, for example, and some deaths were even recorded.

Given the risks of infection, Dr. Yamamoto has observed, “Various medical algorithms for evaluating postoperative prognosis may have to be revised in the future.”

Moreover, the respected surgeon shared what many know to be reality, “The media have so far concealed the adverse events of vaccine administration, such as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VTT), owing to biased propaganda.” While the cause is often recognized—often in waves explains the surgeon, they aren’t responding in part due to the bias.

He notes, “Four HIT antibody-positive cases confirmed at the institute since the start of vaccination” have been “fatal cases due to VTT” secondary to the jab.

For the at-risk and vulnerable patients coming through the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, the Japanese physician shares, “As a safety measure, booster vaccination should be discontinued.”

 


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