Sunday, November 13, 2022

Accountability is For Suckers

Just like morals:

Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay is pushing back on calls for him to resign following scrutiny over a departmental employee discussing medical assistance in dying with a veteran.

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is investigating the issue, MacAulay said, and “at this time” has only found “one, isolated case” of such a conversation occurring.

However, even that one incident is “totally and completely unacceptable,” MacAulay told The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson in an interview, aired Sunday.



The average salary of most Cambodians is 29,366,661 KHR ($7,001 USD or $9,412.72 CND). In 2019, 17.8% lived below the poverty line. Twenty-six children out of a thousand will die before their fifth birthday:

Inside the time pieces are a complex assortment of gears – which Hun Sen highlighted in a likely demonstration of his nation's manufacturing prowess.

The Cambodian leader is consider a luxury watch aficionado, and has been pictured wearing one valued at an estimated $1 million. 

Each of the watches comes in a special box, which Hun Sen featured in his post.

Among those who will receive them is Biden, who arrives early Saturday after a stopover in Egypt. 

Biden himself wears a high-end steel Rolex Datejust. But under U.S. law, presidents who receive valuable gifts must hand them over to the State Department. If he wants to keep it, he will have to pay out of his own pocket – a process that ultimately will reveal the value of the gift. 

Hun Sen faced public scrutiny in recent years after being photographed wearing luxury watches, including by Patek Philippe and Richard Mille, that cost more than $1 million each, while much of the country struggles with poverty.

**

Where are you getting the money, Justin?:

"I am announcing concrete investments that are part of our commitment to this relationship," he said, before listing $333 million in new funding.

He was speaking at an event commemorating Canada's 45 years of relations with ASEAN, which comes as the group negotiates a free-trade agreement with Canada.

The bloc of 10 countries includes some of the world's fastest-growing economies, and the Liberals say they want to shift trade away from China over concerns that span human rights to intellectual property.


This China:

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has defended his close relationship with China, pointing to Beijing's large injections of financial support to his small nation.

China is Cambodia's key political patron and largest source of development assistance, having helped funnel billions of dollars for infrastructure projects. This has fueled criticism that Phnom Penh has become over-reliant on, and a proxy for, Beijing.

**

The “objective” of campaigns of foreign interference — as well as other forms of pressure, such as the arbitrary detention of two Canadians last year — is to “reduce our autonomy,” said David Mulroney, former Canadian ambassador to China, in an interview with The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson, aired Sunday.

China wants “to make us much more likely to look over our shoulders, to check in with China, to exempt China from things that should apply to China.”

“The peril for Canada is significant and I don’t think the government has picked up on that and I don’t think it’s inclined to act,” Mulroney said.

**



No comments: