Remembrance Week: For a Saturday

A lot going on ...




Give him what he wants or Justin will give him a $10.5 million cheque:

Newly released footage of a hostage-taking at an Edmonton border services office shows a man holding a knife to a three-year-old boy’s throat after talking about accessing his “UN lawyer.”

Edmonton police have charged a man in relation to the incident, though have not named him.

Oh, really? Why not?




Proof that the Canadian government abhors self-defense:

Alberta is making changes to prevent homeowners from being sued if they injure people committing crimes on their property.

Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer says the government will be introducing the amendments to existing legislation and making them retroactive to the start of 2018.

No one who walked into Canada uninvited and unhindered is a refugee.

So there's that:

The Canadian government on Friday denied that the rights of any refugees are threatened by a U.S.-Canada agreement that compels asylum seekers trying to cross the border into Canada to first apply for sanctuary in the United States.

Under the Safe Third Country Agreement between the two neighbours, asylum seekers at a formal border crossing traveling in either direction are turned back and told to apply for asylum in the country they first arrived in.

Lawyers for unnamed refugees who had been turned away at the Canadian border are challenging the agreement, saying the United States does not qualify as a “safe” country under U.S. President Donald Trump.

This is what happens when one awards law degrees to emotionally retarded people.




We have a legal system, not a justice system:

A former Manitoba Deputy Attorney General says the reason for a second-degree murder charge in the horrific stabbing death of three-year-old Hunter Haze Straight Smith is likely due to a very narrow definition of what constitutes first-degree murder.

Local lawyer Bruce MacFarlane told 680 CJOB that there are only a limited number of circumstances that can support a first-degree charge, citing the killing of a police officer and killing in the midst of a kidnapping or sexual assault.

A judge revokes bail for Cameron Ortis:

A judge has revoked bail for a senior RCMP official awaiting trial on charges of breaking Canada’s secrets law.

Under the terms of bail set last month, Cameron Ortis was living with his parents in Abbotsford, B.C., had to report to the RCMP once a week and was forbidden from using any device that connects to the internet.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Marc Labrosse said Friday that Ortis would be returned to custody as a result of a review requested by the Crown.

The reasons for Labrosse’s decision and details of the Crown’s review application, heard last week, are covered by a publication ban.

I'm sure they are.




People surrendered their security to people like these:

Canada has long been a nation with a lot of guns. In fact, gun ownership rates in Canada are relatively high compared to much of the rest of the world. It’s only the immense amount of guns in the United States that makes Canada’s gun ownership rate appear low.

Canada also has (or generally had) a low rate of gun violence. Many countries that have far fewer guns per capita have much higher levels of gun crime than we do.

All of this shows that the issue isn’t actually the amount of guns, it’s who has those guns, and how those guns are used.

Guns in the hands of law-abiding Canadian firearms owners, hunters, sport shooters, and gun enthusiasts are NOT the source of gun crime.


Guns in the hands of Gangs are the source of gun crime.

**

Winnipeg Police are reorganizing their deployment of officers, removing officers from projects with the RCMP, closing some police stations, reducing school-education programs, and cutting back on the drunk-driving checkstop program, in order to reassign those officers to patrols in cars and patrols on foot.

Alberta could squeeze out of this by simply abolishing the carbon tax that is based on junk science anyway:

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is currently reviewing a proposal by Alberta to adjust its so-called “Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction,” or TIER, a carbon tax applied solely to heavy emitters. Alberta posted the proposed changes late October.

If Ottawa determines that the proposal falls short of its environmental thresholds it could enforce its own regulatory regime in the province, similar to the highly controversial consumption-based carbon tax that will come into force there in January 2020.

Such a move would further inflame tensions between Ottawa and the West, where resentment toward the federal government has been running high since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a narrow minority government and failed to win a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan. Observers said it is unlikely Ottawa would do so in the current political climate, despite criticism that the proposed changes will provide more cushion to the most emissions-intensive facilities in the province.

Start bleeding the east.




It's just an economy:

The Canadian job market stagnated unexpectedly in October, losing 1,800 net positions, while the unemployment rate remained at 5.5%, Statistics Canada said on Friday, as employment declined in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Oh, this should be fun to watch:

Green Party interim leader Jo-Ann Roberts has started to outline ideas for the party's post-Elizabeth May future — and she's mulling over the idea of former Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould taking the helm.

"I'd like to have a conversation with her [to] see what her vision is, what does she see going forward," Roberts told host Chris Hall in an interview on CBC Radio's The House airing Saturday.

When asked whether Wilson-Raybould, now an Independent MP, might be willing to replace May as party leader, Roberts said it's "possible."

"Elizabeth asked her once before, and I think because they'll be working together quite closely in the House, I'd be very surprised if Elizabeth is not doing the recruiting," Roberts told Hall.

May announced Monday that she would be stepping down as leader of the Greens after more than 13 years on the job.

Roberts — who was appointed as interim leader earlier this week — said the Greens have yet to approach Wilson-Raybould about running for the leadership, but added there are other potential candidates to whom she's already reached out.

"I've spoken to a few other people in the country who aren't currently on the radar and I'm going to let them stay that way for a short period of time," she said. "I may pull back that curtain soon."

The same province that can get away with values tests, an independent pension plan and even denying permission to immigrate to a continental French woman has had to do an about-face:

Emilie Dubois says she is relieved after receiving the news late Friday from an Immigration Department official.

Dubois, a native of France whose mother tongue is French, had been denied a Quebec selection certificate after bureaucrats ruled her level of French wasn’t adequate under the Quebec experience program.

Read that sentence a few times.




Taking a page out of China's ghastly playbook:

A bill that could bring presumed consent for organ donation to Alberta is intended to save the lives of Albertans who die while waiting for an organ donation.

“This isn’t some daylight savings time issue. This is literally people living or dying, or living not very well,” said Calgary-South East UCP MLA Matt Jones, who introduced the private member’s bill, Friday.

The bill proposes a presumed consent or “opt-out” organ donation system to replace the existing opt-in system. Alberta would be the second province in Canada after Nova Scotia to adopt the opt-out system.

A total of 223 patients across the country died while waiting for an organ transplant in 2018, according to the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Of them, 23 died in Alberta. ...

The bill has a two-year delay in effect, giving government service providers a runway to educate the public and set up other systems and processes that will help to increase organ donation, Jones said.

Or get used to the idea of killing off relatives to get fresh organs.




My dear Dr. Park, Kim Jong-Un simply does not care for medical necessities when he can string along the American president with lies about disarmament:

As a doctor, my responsibility is to treat patients regardless of nationality, race, ideology or circumstance. This obligation stems from a belief in the value of human life superior to any other judgment. And as a Korean American, I have felt a particular sense of duty to help people on the Korean Peninsula — specifically in North Korea — where circumstances have created some of the most pressing humanitarian conditions in the world.

As one of the few American physicians who has worked to deliver humanitarian aid and improve health care in North Korea, I have seen how the North Korean doctors have adapted to scarcity. For example, they reuse intravenous catheters, scalpels, gauze and gloves by meticulously cleaning and resterilizing them — until they become unusable. The current sanctions are making matters worse. Critical parts for vital medical equipment are no longer able to be quickly and effectively imported.

During my most recent trip, an intra-operative X-ray machine, a piece of equipment which I depended upon for spine fracture repairs during my more than 20 visits to North Korea, was broken, making the operation much more treacherous. I fear the worsening of access to basic medicines and medical equipment in this isolated country will lead to increased deaths and disabilities.

Pope Francis will be in Japan on November 23rd. This will be the second visit of a pontiff to Japan and four hundred and seventy years after Saint Francis Xavier (the original X-man) arrived in Japan.

Also - as has been said over the centuries (public resurgence of the Jack Chick/leftist phobia of "papistry" and possible cooties it brings with it notwithstanding. More on that later.):

A sweeping theory published Thursday in the journal “Science” posits a new explanation for the divergent course of Western civilization from the rest of the world: The early Catholic Church reshaped family structures, and by doing so, changed human psychology forever after. 

The researchers claim that they can trace all sorts of modern-day differences between cultures – from donating blood to strangers to paying your parking tickets – to the influence of medieval Catholicism.

“The longer the duration under the church will predict greater individualism, less conformity and obedience, and more cooperation and trust with strangers. Our findings have big implications,” said Joseph Henrich, one of the researchers. ...

That story begins with kinship networks – the tribes and clans of densely connected, insular groups of relatives who formed most human societies before medieval times. Catholic Church teachings disrupted those networks, in large part by vehemently prohibiting marriage between relatives (which had been de rigeur), and eventually provoked a wholesale transformation of communities, changing the norm from large clans into small, monogamous nuclear families.

That cultural overhaul, the researchers argue, prompted tremendous changes to human psychology.

The team analyzed Vatican records to document the extent of a country or region’s exposure to Catholicism before the year 1500, and found that longer exposure to Catholicism correlated with low measures of kinship intensity in the modern era, including low rates of cousins marrying each other. 

Both measures correlated with psychology, the researchers found by looking at 24 different psychological traits of people in different cultures: Countries exposed to Catholicism early have citizens today who exhibit qualities such as being more individualistic and independent, and being more trusting of strangers.

The only people who are making a huge issue out of the Catholic faith Andrew Scheer refused to defend are people too unimaginative to veer from the old-stock Canadian WASP paranoia of Catholicism leading to dancing and its smelly hippy book-end, leftism's hatred of the de facto face of Christianity and its aversion to immorality and idiocy.

But don't take my word for it:

To be clear, even the dogs in the street, the very mutts of the alleyways, knew and know that Andrew Scheer was not running for PM to establish a new Catholic Dominion, that he was not some version of a Christian ayatollah plotting to bring Margaret Atwood’s grim fantasy upon Canadian politics.

So why bait him with that faux-concerned question? For good or ill we have for a long time now left the religion of our politicians out of their public performance. We question them on their ethics and integrity without reference to their moments in the Confessional or their private meditations and prayers.

When Justin Trudeau was rightly being tested by the press on his conduct during the SNC-Lavalin affair, did any in the press gallery ask: Mr. Trudeau, as a Catholic do you think your interference with the Justice Department is a sin? As a Catholic do you think your treatment of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman violates the commandment about “bearing false witness?” Even more to the point — As a Catholic how do you justify barring all MPs who oppose abortion (which in your faith really is a sin) from your caucus?

Well, if we’re going to have religious questions put to one leader, let’s put them to them all. What are Mr. Singhs’ private religious views on homosexuality and abortion? This latter is highly unlikely though. For as unspeakable as it may be to mention the obvious here, to question the religion of a person who is not Christian is, under the current progressive ethos, beyond the courage or depravity (take your pick) of any journalist who wishes to remain a journalist.

Is it both, Mr. Murphy?


 

What has the Treaty of Versailles taught subsequent generations? How not to stop a war:

By the time Germany stopped paying reparations, after its economy collapsed and the Allied powers agreed to a suspension in the summer of 1932, Germany was well on the road to Nazi fascism. Adolf Hitler would be chancellor a few months later.

To remind one:

A recently released survey reveals nearly half of Canadian respondents can’t name a single concentration camp from the Holocaust.

(Merci beaucoup and kamsahamnida)

Remembrance Week: Once More Unto the Breach

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger ...

(William Shakespeare, Henry V)




Bribed press, do you believe that lying for a known woman-abusing racist is a sin?:

Instead, it’s the sort of prepared talking-point answer that politicians turn to all the time when a topic comes up that may be difficult or controversial. In this case, Scheer fell back on a variation of the same answer he gives whenever he is asked about Pride parades, same-sex marriage, etc. This was his “gay answer.”

And it’s an answer, it must be said, that all other federal leaders would endorse. All of them would, of course, defend the rights of all Canadians, regardless of their sexual orientation.

It's called ingratiation and it is never attractive.
 
If Canadians are happy to frightened by social non-election issues, then enjoy the poverty that is certainly coming your way.

Whatever will you do when the government can't afford your abortions anymore?




Not at all shocked:

Laptops and cellphones bought with Canadian government aid dollars have fallen into the hands of a Syrian terrorist faction, according to documents obtained by Global News.

Gunmen raided an office in northwest Syria and walked off with almost two dozen electronic devices that were part of Canada’s humanitarian contribution to the region, the declassified documents show.

“Our information at this time suggests that the armed men were HTS militants, though we are not able to confirm that definitively,” reads a report released under the Access to Information Act.

HTS is the acronym of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed Islamist group that grew out of the regional Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusrah and is fighting for “the creation of an Islamic state,” the government says.

The group is on the government’s list of terrorist entities, meaning Canadians face up to 10 years imprisonment for knowingly providing it with property.

Yeah, sure, and Omar Khadr will hand back the $10.5 million cheque Justin gave him.




Are you going to pay your fair share, PM Blackface?:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending NATO after France’s president suggested a lack of U.S. leadership is causing the 70-year-old military alliance’s “brain death.”

Whatever.

You're not a leader and you're not going to put any money into defense, so shut up.


Also - again, how did Scheer not wipe the floor with these cowards?:

According to a new report by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Privy Council Office was apparently worried that the United We Roll protest would try to ‘overthrow’ or ‘arrest’ Trudeau by storming his office.

Of course, nothing even close to that happened.

I'll just leave this right here:

1.5 million Canadians are severely obese and have health complications ranging from high blood pressure to diabetes to heart disease. ...

One in three Canadian children are either overweight or obese and less than 10% of all Canadian children aged between 5 and 17 years old is getting the recommended daily physical activity of 60 minutes.

 
And this right here:

Food insecurity is defined as inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraint, according to lead author Valerie Tarasuk, a professor of nutritional sciences at U of T.

What they found was that the number of households experiencing “severe food insecurity” — meaning that they weren’t eating as much as they should because of income constraints — was reduced by about a third after the program was introduced, Tarasuk said.

 

Experts + made-up terms = bloated public sector/ ≠ more fit Canadians

It's just an economy:

Encana Corp. says its new head office will be in Denver following a reorganization that will include changing its name to Ovintiv.

The Calgary-based company didn’t say which city would be its home base when it announced last week it would establish a “corporate domicile” in the United States to replace its longstanding home in Calgary.

For the same reason no one calls out the Irving$:

McNeil said Thursday he expects the issue of the Canadian detainees will be raised when he meets with Ma Xingrui, governor of China’s Guangdong province, but he didn’t elaborate.

He said the two countries’ national governments are working toward resolving tensions, and his government will do whatever it can to support those efforts.

“We need to continue to build the relationship so as we move past solving those issues we continue to still build a vibrant economy for both of our countries,” McNeil said.

We are in Year Zero:

Cambodia‘s most prominent opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, was stopped from boarding a flight in Paris on Thursday in his attempt to return home to challenge his country’s longtime autocratic leader, but he assured his followers he will go ahead with his plan.

He and fellow leaders of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party had vowed to enter Cambodia from Thailand on Saturday to spark a popular movement to oust Prime Minister Hun Sen from power.

When Sam Rainsy tried to take a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok from Paris, where he lives in exile, Thailand’s flag carrier told him “they had received from very high up the instruction to not allow me to board,” he said.

This is what happens when you don't hunt down all of the Khmer Rouge.




A validation of home-schooling:

Maria Skłodowska was the fifth and youngest child of two Polish educators. Her parents placed a high value on learning and insisted that all their children—including their daughters—receive a quality education at home and at school. Maria received extra science training from her father, and when she graduated from high school at age 15, she was first in her class.

And now, a beach littered with Blitz rubble:

If things were dumped on Crosby Beach before England went to war in 1939, they’ve long since been buried under tons of wreckage from the bloodiest conflict in human history. Besides London, Liverpool was one of the cities hardest hit by the German Luftwaffe.

Remembrance Week: Mid-Week Post

Your mid-week moment of reflection ... 




Death by a thousand cuts:

For several days now, Kenney and the UCP government have been dropping hints like clanging manhole covers.

And public interest appears to be very high in the prospect of Pexit.

Herald contributor Rob Breakenridge fostered much of the curiosity Tuesday with a thoughtful column on why an Alberta Pension Plan is worth considering.

On Oct. 29, Kenney talked frankly about leaving the Canada Pension Plan and forming an Alberta equivalent, in a Facebook video question and answer session. (The subject starts at 40:45 of the recording.)

“I can certainly tell you that will be one of the issues studied by the panel that I will be appointing to consult with Albertans on fighting for a fair deal in Canada,” Kenney says in the video.

“I believe that a compelling case can be made for such a shift. We want to listen to Albertans on this first, but let me just say that with the youngest population in Canada, we are by far the largest net contributors to the CPP.

“The federal government, against our government’s wishes, is imposing higher CPP payroll taxes which will decrease economic growth and kill jobs, even though with this young Alberta population we do not need and cannot justify our premiums.”

He didn’t note — at least, not this time — that if Alberta quits the national plan, payments from other Canadians would apparently have to rise about 10 per cent to protect benefits.

That number will catch Ottawa’s attention.

 
It's time to bleed the east.


(Merci)


Also - Wexit will derail that valuable gravy train that somehow causes "food insecurity" (apparently, that's a thing):

Treaty 8 First Nations chiefs issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for cooler heads to prevail amid indications the desire to separate from Canada is growing among people in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“As chiefs, with our united voices and on behalf of our 22 member nations — with clear conscience — declare we are strongly opposed to the idea of separation from Canada,” the chiefs said in a news release.

The statement came as new Ipsos polling data suggests a growing support for secession in the Prairies’ two westernmost provinces and as a group calling itself Wexit Canada is in the process of applying to Elections Canada to become a federal political party.

It's just an economy:

Houston Oil & Gas, a Calgary-based Alberta oil & gas company, has shut down.

The company has fully stopped operating, and has no employees.

The company had operated 1,264 wells and 251 pipelines.

**

Democrats are not looking to reopen the CUSMA trade deal and believe they are “very close” to being able to ratify it, says top Democrat Richard Neal.

(Sidebar: this deal.)

**

(Gracias)




If he had any scruples, he would resign. Now, the Tories, as quick as any to ingratiate themselves to Canada's hundreds of tribes, won't let him:

Andrew Scheer emerged from a marathon caucus meeting Wednesday, declaring that Conservative MPs are united behind his leadership after they declined to give themselves the power to boot the leader out.

Scheer’s leadership will still, however, face a test of confidence among party members at their biannual convention in April in Toronto. He said he believed that’s where the power to potentially oust him should lie.

Yes, Canada. Do as you're told:

China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged Canada’s re-elected Liberal Party government to immediately release detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

This China:

According to BNN Bloomberg, “Chinese state-owned entities are in talks about investing a combined US$5 billion to US$10 billion in Aramco’s initial public offering, as Saudi Arabia seeks commitments from friendly governments to shore up the record share sale, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Beijing-based Silk Road Fund is among parties that have been in discussions to buy stock in the offering, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Some other Chinese funds or state-owned enterprises may also join, the people said.

Canada has no justice system. Only a legal one:

Uxbridge mother Susanne Brito, 48, was critically injured in a boating accident on Lake Joseph on Saturday, August 24, 2019, and later died in hospital on Monday, August 26, 2019 as a result of her injuries.

They are seeking damages for wrongful death and the civil suit includes a claim for punitive, exemplary and aggravated damages against the Defendants. The Statement of Claim consists of various allegations which will allow the family to pursue civil justice, continue their investigation, and bring accountability to those responsible for the crash.

Congratulations! It's a thing!:

The Manitoba government has been ordered to start offering non-binary sex designations on its birth certificates.

A human rights adjudicator has also ordered the province to pay $50,000 to a transgender individual who wanted the sex designation on their birth certificate replaced with an "X" and was denied.

The complainant, who is identified as T.A. because of a publication ban, filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission after the request was turned down in 2014.

Manitoba's Vital Statistics Agency said all birth certificates have two options — male or female — under provincial law and no other option is allowed.

The independent adjudicator who heard the case ruled that the government's position is discriminatory and there is nothing under the law that would prevent a third designation from being offered.

Scratch a leftist and find a bigot. Every. Single. Time:

In a newly released clip taken during the protests outside of Saturday’s GIDYVR debate featuring Jon Kay, Meghan Murphy, and myself, professional anti-bigotry activist Amanda Jabbour is seen racially abusing an interracial couple.

And now, a music selection from a country often late to the party but whose contributions are still worth while:

Remembrance Week: Jeffrey Epstein Didn't Kill Himself

But one already knew that:

In the footage, Robach talks about how they had a woman ready to come forward three years ago, but alleges the “Palace” (British royal family) found out they had allegations against Prince Andrew “and threatened us a million different ways.”

“We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will that we, that also quashed the story,” said Robach, alluding to how the network didn’t want to lose access to the Royals.

“First I was told, who is Jeffrey Epstein? No one knows who that is. This is a stupid story,” Robach also says in the footage, talking about her story on Epstein that wasn’t able to air.

The woman who came forward to ABC is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims he allegedly had in his sex trafficking ring.

“She was in hiding for 12 years, we convinced her to come out,” said Robach.

“Brad Edwards [Giuffre’s lawyer], the attorney, three years ago saying like, like we, there will come a day when we realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known,” Robach also says in the explosive footage. “[Giuffre] had pictures, she had everything.”

From the most corrupt, duplicitous, lazy and censorial government in the country's history:

A key witness in Sami Bebawi’s fraud and corruption trial says he was once offered $10 million in exchange for more favourable testimony that could protect the former SNC-Lavalin executive vice-president.

Former executive Riadh Ben Aissa told jurors Tuesday he received the offer from Bebawi’s counsel while detained in Switzerland. He had been arrested in 2012 for his own role in the company’s Libyan dealings.

Ben Aissa said he was offered the money to make his eventual testimony match a version of events Bebawi had previously given Swiss authorities.

**

But there is one “firewall” idea that Alberta should consider. In fact, were we to adopt this idea, it would definitely get Ottawa’s attention and it would serve as a helpful reminder to the rest of the country of Alberta’s immense value to Confederation. Not only that, but it would be totally up to Alberta. We wouldn’t need to try to force the feds to the negotiating table. If anything, they might be the ones asking us.

So, instead of a pointless vote on equalization, why not ask Albertans if they are in favour of opting out of the Canada Pension Plan and establishing our own provincial plan?

This is a program that Alberta contributes disproportionately to and Alberta would be well-positioned to set up its own plan. Moreover, Alberta leaving the CPP would ultimately have to mean higher contribution rates in other provinces. ...

It may well be that the case for leaving CPP is so strong that we should do it and not use it as a bargaining chip. Either way, though, a referendum would be a logical step before making a decision of this magnitude. And that referendum would definitely get noticed outside Alberta.

(Sidebar: Quebec has its own plan and the government is fine with it.)

**

Canada’s premiers are looking to meet before the end of the year to deal with national unity issues and that meeting could be held in Toronto, seen by some as neutral grounds.

It’s interesting that the premiers are looking to deal with this pressing question while our PM is in Tofino for a vacation and some surfing.

**

The RCMP has launched an internal review to make sure it's obeying the law in the way it monitors Canadians' social media accounts, according to documents obtained by CBC News.

The national police force says it keeps an eye on social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, among others) in two ways: reactively, after a crime has been committed, and proactively, to detect and prevent crimes.

During the recent election campaign, the RCMP even compiled daily threat reports on online expressions of hate targeting federal political leaders.

Now, the RCMP is auditing those techniques to make sure they agree with the law.

You are being watched by the Canadian government.

Canada is getting the government it voted for good and hard.

Cases in point:

Tougher U.S. sanctions on Cuba squeezed Sherritt International in the third quarter, disrupting the supply of diesel to its nickel mine on the island and casting doubt over the timing of key payments in foreign currency.

The Toronto based firm, which operates the Moa mine as a joint venture with the Cuban government, was forced to adopt conservation measures including running fewer mining trucks as U.S. sanctions on oil shipments worsened an acute fuel shortage.

(Sidebar: that should read uses cheap labour from Cuba in a country that forces its citizens to regularly go without.)

**

Canada’s trade deficit stayed close to $1 billion in September, defying expectations that it would be much smaller.

Economists had predicted a trade deficit of $650 million for the month, but the deficit turned out to be $987 million.

Canada’s exports dropped 1.3% in September, with some of the biggest drops happening in the energy sector. Exports of refined gold also fell.

The value of imports also fell, down 1.7%.


In terms of volume changes (rather than price value), exports dropped a full 2.1%, while imports fell 1.6%.

The numbers for August were even worse, with the trade deficit being revised from $955 million to $1.2 billion.


In total, exports are down in the quarter by 2.3%.

**

“According to new findings from Equifax Canada, 55 per cent of Canadians say they will spend less this year on holiday gifts. The report comes a week after an MNP LTD survey revealed 48 per cent of Canadians had less than $200 at the end of the month after living expenses and debt obligations, suggesting the anxiety is building around the amount of debt households already have. Taking on more debt at a time when there are so many economic uncertainties suggests it isn’t worth the unease and sleepless nights.”

Justin and his trust-fund don't have to cut costs.




China is pleased that Canada is bending to its will:

China will resume imports of Canadian beef and pork, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, some four months after Beijing blocked shipments amid an escalating diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Also:

Only 29% percent of Canadians view China favourably and more than half worry about possible Chinese cyber attacks, according to a poll released on Monday at a time when the two nations remain locked in a diplomatic dispute.

The University of British Columbia survey also found half of Canadians did not want Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to play a major role supplying next-generation 5G network equipment.

Relations between Beijing and Ottawa have been frozen since Canadian police detained Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou last December on a U.S. arrest warrant.

North Koreans, Iraqi Christians and Yazidis are the true face of refugees.

Not that anyone who defends Justin's welcome mat gives a sh--:

This week the Federal Court begins hearing a constitutional challenge to the STCA in which several witnesses will put a human face to the absurdity. One is a Burundian woman recently interviewed by the Toronto Star: Unaware of the STCA, she was turned back at the border and allegedly held for 51 days in an upstate New York jail, including 10 days in solitary confinement.

Once released, fearing her asylum claim would be rejected, she discovered Roxham Road and crossed into Canada along with so many others. But unlike most of the crossers, thanks to a Liberal policy implemented earlier this year, she cannot claim asylum or work because Canada had already denied her admission — that is, when Canada refused to consider her asylum when she inquired at a proper border crossing.

In theory that policy actually bars her from even entering the country. But in practice nobody is barred from entering Canada who can get herself to Plattsburgh, N.Y., and afford cab fare to the border. And we can’t deport her, because we don’t deport people to Burundi. It’s a perfect mess that makes perfect sense as part of a case against the STCA.

Didn't we steal Greta Thunberg's childhood?:

The polar bear population is increasing according to federal affidavits submitted by Inuit groups, Blacklock’s Reporter reports.

“Inuit have not noticed a significant decline in the health of the polar bears,” the director of wildlife management for the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board wrote in a court affidavit.

“In fact Nunavik Inuit report that it is rare to see a skinny bear and most bears are observed to be healthy,” the affidavit read.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have used the polar bear population as evidence of the effect of climate change.

However, the affidavit claimed Nunavut residents have seen an “increase in the polar bear population and a particularly notable increase since the 1980s.” The affidavits were submitted in response to hunting quota cuts made by Environment Canada.

Also - it's not like Paris Accord did anything concrete:

The Trump administration said on Monday it filed paperwork to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the first formal step in a one-year process to exit the global pact to fight climate change.

John Legend, like his prostitute wife, is a no-talent know-nothing.

But one already knew that:

Last week, it was revealed that John Legend had written his own version of the controversial 1944 song Baby It’s Cold Outside for the upcoming reissue of his 2018 holiday album, A Legendary Christmas.

As a result, Deana Martin — famed singer, actress and daughter of Dean Martin — criticized the All of Me singer for changing the lyrics of the “classic and perfect song.”

“He’s stealing the thunder from Frank Loesser’s song and from my dad,” the younger Martin said during an interview with Good Morning Britain. “He should write his own song if he doesn’t like this one. Don’t change the lyrics.”

And now, "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda":

Remembrance Week: For a Monday

(source)

Whenever falsehoods are allowed to fester, this kind of bullsh--  poisons the environment:

Lawyers for a group challenging a refugee agreement between Canada and the United States called the idea that the U.S is a safe country for refugees an “increasingly obvious fiction” Monday, the first day of a landmark hearing that could topple a core pillar of Canadian asylum law.

(Sidebar: which is precisely why people attempt to sneak into the US illegally.)

The lawyers, for Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches, are asking the Federal Court of Canada to strike down the Canada/U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, arguing that the pact violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Every day women, men and children … come knocking at Canada’s door seeking safe haven,” Andrew Brouwer one of the lawyers for the applicants told the court. And every day “we push them back to the U.S.”

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

The advocacy groups, along with three individual applicants, first sued the federal government in 2017. The hearing this week is scheduled for five days in downtown Toronto, before Justice Ann Marie McDonald of the federal court.

Advocacy groups that conveniently forgot these things:

On Monday, the Federal Court in Toronto will begin hearing weeklong arguments in a constitutional challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States.

Those challenging the deal include the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, Amnesty International and several would-be refugees — including a woman who says she was raped by an MS-13 gang member in El Salvador.

**

Two teenage boys were allegedly treated as “subhuman” by their stepmom and father.

It’s alleged by the Crown that they were abused in unspeakable ways, burned with “hot knives,” almost starved, deprived of sleep and had their genitals clasped by pliers.

The new immigrants, sponsored by their stepmom in 2016 to come to Canada, were isolated from all family members.

According to allegations, the victims were hung upside down by their ankles for hours with nylon rope, multiple times over years. They were beaten with cables, barbecue tongs and hammers and one teen had his feet submerged in scalding hot water, causing the skin to peel off once he removed them from the bucket.

Perhaps Canada and the US are not safe from people like these.


Also - another failure of political multiculturalism and the refusal to make immigrants assimilate especially when doing so will aid them enormously:

Interpreters trained in medical terminology are more often provided for patients in Canada's larger centres, but a researcher from the University of Toronto said lack of access to interpretation could potentially result in unsafe health care through missed diagnoses and medical errors, suggesting language services should be a priority.

Dr. Shail Rawal, lead author of a study that includes data from Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals, said patients with a chronic disease and limited English are more likely to return to the emergency room or be readmitted to hospital because of poorer understanding of discharge instructions and not taking medication as required compared with those who are proficient in the language and were discharged with similar health concerns.

It's just an economy:

Saskatchewan has gotten the green light to intervene on the side of the federal government and defend the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from another attempt to block it in court. 
 
Six Indigenous groups and nations are set to go before the Federal Court of Appeal to seek a judicial review of the federal cabinet’s second approval of the project, which will triple the capacity of an existing pipeline that sends Alberta oil to the west coast. 

They allege that Ottawa did not adequately consult them in a meaningful two-way dialogue, as required by a 2018 court ruling that struck down cabinet’s previous approval of the project for precisely that reason. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeated his commitment to build the expansion after an election result that saw his party wiped out in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The federal government owns the pipeline after spending $4.5 billion to buy it, and the expansion has been a symbol of his pledge to combine environmental stewardship with continued support for the resource economy. 

The Saskatchewan government confirmed Monday that it will be at Ottawa’s side as it challenges the judicial review, saying in a news release that the province had been granted leave to intervene in support of the project. 

“Saskatchewan will make submissions to the Federal Court of Appeal on the need to fairly balance the duty to consult with other matters of public interest, such as transportation infrastructure,” Justice Minister and Attorney General Don Morgan said in the release.

(Sidebar: it won't get built.)

**

The formation of a new Senate bloc could further complicate efforts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pass legislation this winter, adding a new layer of unpredictability to the upper chamber.

A group of 11 senators on Monday announced they would be forming the Canadian Senators Group (CSG), part of an effort to ensure that various “regional interests” are properly represented in the Senate.

 **

Well, actually, if your province is getting equalization it’s because its tax base is lower than the national average tax base (albeit with both “national” and “average” defined in ways specific to whatever the latest version of the equalization formula is). But “having a lower tax base” is just another way of saying “poorer.” Some Quebec politicians understand this and say their aim is to get Quebec’s economy to a point where it no longer receives equalization. In the meantime, though, while they go about that, they don’t volunteer to give up the payments. ...

If Alberta does crash, so long as it doesn’t crash all the way down to the economic level of PEI, say, that reduces equalization. When provincial incomes are all closer to each other, the formula generates less equalization, as it should. If provinces all have pretty much the same tax capacity, it doesn’t take much federal spending to equalize their tax capacities.

So, yes, everybody should be aware of how worse times in high-income Alberta will reduce equalization. But I suspect most pipeline-blockers would say even if killing pipelines kills equalization, it’s a price we’re willing to pay.

Don't get in the way of stupidity. Let it shoot its infected morons in the feet.




Good. Go. Don't let the door hit you on the way out:

Elizabeth May, the head of Canada's minority Greens, said on Monday she was quitting to spend more time with her family just two weeks after an election in which the party won fewer seats than it had targeted.

From the most "transparent" government ever re-elected:

Though few Canadians seem to be aware of this, the recent federal election campaign was fought under a new law that imposes severe penalties for publishing misleading statements on the internet during the writ period.

The new, amended Section 91 of the Canada Elections Act, which came into effect on September 11, threatens prison terms of up to five years and fines up to $50,000 for disseminating false information about "a candidate, a prospective candidate, the leader of a political party or a public figure associated with a political party."

Though an earlier version of the law required that the person charged be aware that the statement is false, the final version removed the word "knowingly" — and allows a charge to be laid even in a case of someone sharing a statement they believe to be true.

Even a cursory search of Twitter quickly turns up countless examples of Canadians who have posted statements that appear to violate the law.

Moreover, one of Canada's most mainstream political advocacy groups says it has pulled back some of the messaging it normally sends out every election cycle — out of a fear of potential punishment.

In English, we call that censorship. 

Why didn't she tell the government that she needs to throw some abortion on her breast cancer and she would have been flown to the US for treatment?:

Lokash is one of about 400 people in Newfoundland and Labrador who takes Tamoxifen, a pill that treats and prevents a certain type of breast cancer. 

In October, Eastern Health notified patients of a shortage. Health Canada is working with companies to increase production by January.

Lokash, who had a double mastectomy in 2018 and has been taking Tamoxifen since, finally found a five-month supply of the drug. Her mother lives in Toronto and managed to find a pharmacy there that had it in stock. 

"I'm feeling somewhat reassured for myself for the next few months, anyway, but I can't say that I'm feeling confident this is resolved."

Lokash spoke to CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show in hopes of providing support to other people in the same situation, she said. 

Since securing her own prescription, she's continued to call drugstores in Newfoundland so she can pass on any useful information to others. She said she's been told by Costco staff that Tamoxifen is available there.

Last month, Eastern Health said officials are working on developing a contingency plan. Patients who can't find Tamoxifen can call the Cancer Care Centre at 1-844-923-1336.

Didn't we steal Greta Thunberg's childhood?:

In New Delhi, 40 million people are choking on the worst smog in years.

Air pollution is so bad in India's capital that the Washington Post's India correspondent Niha Masih compared the "dystopian" site to Mordor, the fictional volcanic waste-land in "The Lord of the Rings."

Taiwan is right to be cautious:

China unveiled measures on Monday to further open its markets to firms from self-ruled Taiwan, including capital raising, as Taiwan warned its people not to be taken in by moves at "enticement" ahead of a January presidential election.

Jesus - who was Jewish, by the way - died for the sins of all. You, sir, are not Him:

On the 40th anniversary of the start of the 1979 siege of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, one of the leaders of the takeover, a former hardline student named Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, says he’s sorry for his actions and would take those days back if he could.

“Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders,” Asgharzadeh told the Associated Press. “Our plan was one of students, unprofessional and temporary.”

A Holocaust survivor is reunited with a baby he saved decades ago:

They had lived together for perhaps six months in the woods when they heard the gunshots and commotion of a mass execution happening nearby. Emerging later from their bunker into the silent woods, they found seven dead bodies in the snow, fresh blood all around. Then, in a memory that forms the dramatic heart of the documentary, Smart recalled seeing movement from the other side of a river. There was another body, someone for the boys to help.

Yanek was reluctant to get wet. Already weak from malnutrition, a midwinter soaking in a river could be fatal. But Maxwell urged him, grabbed his hand, and took him along through the water.

There they found a woman who had been shot in the back, and still wriggling in her arms was a baby girl, uninjured and warm.

They took the child to their bunker, but knew they could not care for it. A Christian farmer who had been secretly helping them said he could not take a baby, but told them there was another group of Jews in hiding several kilometres away through the woods. So leaving the baby with Yanek, Maxwell ran for it.

By some astonishing fortune, the group he met included the baby’s aunt, who reclaimed the child. They returned to their own hiding place, telling Maxwell they would return for him, but never did. Yanek, meanwhile, had started shivering with an infection he could not kick.

Smart’s guilt enters the story at this moment, because although he convinced the Christian farmer to go find some medicine, Smart left Yanek in their bunker as he accepted a few days shelter at the farm, helping with the animals and sleeping in a warm barn. By the time he returned to the bunker with a package of food, it was empty. Yanek was dead on the ground a few metres away. He and the farmer entombed him in the bunker, as the ground was too hard to dig a grave. ...

With just the details of Smart’s story, an Israeli Holocaust researcher, Natasza Niedzielska, found the memoirs of a woman whose story matched up. This woman had written a book of her time hiding in the woods near a riverbank outside Buchach. It recalled her escaping across a river from the posse that killed her mother, who stayed in the river with her baby sister in her arms.

Presented on camera with the news that the baby girl is alive, Smart flushed red as tears came.

“If this baby is alive, it would just clear my conscience that (Yanek) didn’t die for nothing,” Smart said.

Soon after, in Haifa, he reunited with Tova Barkai, the baby girl, who is now elderly and non-communicative because of a disability, but has grown children of her own.

Looking her in the eye, and holding her hand, Smart said: “I feel better, and I don’t feel as guilty. It’s true. Yanek died. He’s a hero. He saved you and you have children.”

Friday Post

For the first of November ...




It's called "plausible deniability" and it can be used for anything ranging from incompetence to outright corruption:

A Wilfrid Laurier professor who created a controversial guide for Muslim voters using federal funds did so without the knowledge of her funder, a spokesman for the federal agency says.

Andrea Matyas told the Toronto Sun that the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)  — the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports postsecondary-based research — had no prior knowledge of the Canadian Muslim Voters Guide being created and was “not consulted” in the development of the document.

Matyas said SSHRC provided Zine a $24,923 Partnership Engagement grant for a “Mapping the Canadian Islamophobia Industry” project, not for the Voter’s Guide. ...

The Toronto Sun revealed a week ago that the guide — released three days before the Oct. 21 election — was put together by Jasmine Zine — a professor of sociology and Muslim studies — and graduate students Patima Chakroun and Shifa Abbas.

The guide’s cover stated at the time that it was supported by a SSHRC grant — the $24,923 Partnership Engagement grant she got last September.

Zine, who also received an $80,339 SSHRC grant in 2009 to research Canadian Muslim youth post 9/11, gave Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer a series of failing grades in her 34-page guide for allegedly associating with far-right Islamophobic figures, for opposing the M-103 motion and the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and for proposing immigration policies that “compromise asylum seekers.”

Her guide claims that re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been subject to “Islamophobic hate campaigns” and suggests his blackface antics are OK because of his public stance against Islamophobia.

So the government's excuse for this clearly extremist drivel isn't malice but stupidity.

Okay then.




Why shouldn't the RCMP honour an extradition treaty with a friendly neighbouring country and why shouldn't it share details pertinent to a criminal investigation with another law enforcement agency?:

Lawyers for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou maintain there is an “air of reality” to allegations the RCMP shared details of her electronic devices with the Federal Bureau of Investigation despite new affidavits from Mounties denying the claim.

The allegation is a key part of the defence’s argument that the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency and FBI conspired to conduct a “covert criminal investigation” at Vancouver’s airport on Dec. 1, 2018, illegally detaining and questioning Meng and seizing her devices before she was formally arrested.

The Crown denied that Mounties shared details of Meng’s phones, laptop and tablet with the FBI at a British Columbia Supreme Court hearing in early October, prompting a judge to order several officers to produce affidavits on the topic.

 
One can see that this is leading to freeing Meng Wanzhou because that is what China wants.


Also - just get Justin to testify on their behalf. What could go wrong?:

Paying bribes to obtain lucrative Libyan construction contracts was once the business model for a division of SNC-Lavalin, prosecutors said Thursday as the fraud and corruption trial of a former employee of the engineering giant got underway.

Sami Bebawi, 73, faces eight charges including fraud, corruption, laundering proceeds of crime, possession of stolen goods and bribery of foreign officials. The case involves contracts tied to the Libyan dictatorship of Moammar Gadhafi.

Bebawi was charged in 2014 and has pleaded not guilty.

Is this fossil still around?:

Many times the Liberal had little support in our part of the country, long before what Chretien says is “the so-called crisis on energy.”

(Sidebar: this Chretien.)

In fact, it’s kind of normal. That’s it.

Hang on to your seats. Chretien is just warming up in the bullpen. He meanders and the dots don’t always connect.

The former Liberal PM says people exaggerate. At $100 oil all is well, at $50 oil “it was not your fault but it’s certainly not the fault of Trudeau either.”

Then Chretien says those two words. He says oil is a problem because of the “tar sands.”

Chretien says he’s very proud of the “tar sands” but the problem of oil and pipelines has nothing to do with Justin Trudeau.

As was astutely pointed out in the comments section, tar is synthetic but oil is not.

So there's that.




Abolish teachers' unions:

Public elementary teachers in Ontario have voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike should it become necessary.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is calling the result of the vote an “overwhelming” mandate from its 83,000 members.

The union filed for conciliation last month, saying bargaining with Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government had reached a virtual standstill.

High school teachers and teachers in the English Catholic system are also holding strike votes, with results expected in the next couple of weeks.

Well, then, South Korea, boycott them and start arming yourselves big-time:

Leading Chinese travel agencies still do not sell any package tours to Korea since an unofficial Chinese boycott of Korean service and goods that started in late 2016. The boycott was triggered by Korea allowing the U.S. to station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery here whose powerful radar Beijing fears.

China International Travel Service, one of the country's largest tour agencies, offers no tours to Korea, and neither does Ctrip, China's biggest mobile travel app. One travel industry insider said, "Large Chinese travel agencies are being prevented from selling package tours to Korea. Individual travel is allowed, but group tours are prohibited by tourism authorities."

To stop the boycott, the Korean government agreed on Oct. 31, 2017 not to join in the U.S.-led missile defense shield, prevent more THAAD batteries from being stationed here, and refrain from forging a closer trilateral defense alliance with the U.S. and Tokyo. China in turn signaled it would lift the boycott. 

At the time, the Korean government said the THAAD dispute had been resolved, but Chinese retaliation continues today. 

(Sidebar: this China.)

Power through vindictiveness.


Also - very Mao!:

(source)

How is that Singapore thing working out?:

North Korea launched two projectiles into the East Sea from South Pyongan Province on Thursday afternoon, the regime's 12th missile test this year. 

"We detected two unidentified short-range projectiles the North fired towards the East Sea from Sunchon, South Pyongan Province" at around 4:30 p.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said. 

Sunchon is on the west coast, and they flew about 370 km at an altitude of some 90 km. The JCS said they were probably a North Korean version of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) or rounds from a super-large multiple rocket launcher.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said they "appeared to be ballistic missiles."

Also - now this is useful:

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to offer up to $25 million in reward for reporting violations of its sanctions, including those imposed against North Korea, according to the Voice of America on Friday.

The bill amends existing laws to expand the State Department’s reward program, which is limited to reporting on terror-related activities, to information on breach of sanctions by the US and the UN.

Oh, you just realised that welfare doesn't work?:

Welfare spending will increase 35.4 percent in next year's fiscal budget. During the three years of the Moon Jae-in administration it has grown by W52 trillion, which is the same as during the previous two administrations' combined. Due to the failure of Moon’s “income-led” growth policy, the actual amount of money the bottom bracket of wage earners make has declined, so the number of households that receive welfare payments has grown 24 percent over the last three years to 10.27 million. The government has made people poorer and is now having to pay them public money to make up for it. That is how Latin American and South European countries have gone bankrupt, and the same could happen to Korea.