Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week food for thought ...




After correctly pointing out that Justin has spent taxpayer money on jet-skis for the RCMP (the same ones who were supposed to investigate his vacation on Aga Khan's private island) and shoe polish to give him a deep African glow, anything but the amount he is supposed to spend on defense, US president Donald Trump finds himself the object of the wagging schoolgirl tongues in the bribed press and the cowardly mincers who haven't the intestinal fortitude to tell Trump what they think to his face:

Just like at the G7 meeting last year, Justin Trudeau was meek and obedient to Donald Trump when they were face to face. But the moment Trump left the room Trudeau bad-mouthed him. Here he is doing the same in London, mocking Canada’s greatest NATO ally.  pic.twitter.com/hGENrbnHg7

— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) December 3, 2019

**

#Breaking Prime Minister Trudeau admits he was discussing President Trump last night when he referred to "the impromptu press conference" that was caught on camera. Trudeau says surprise he referred to was that next G7 will be at Camp David #cdnpoli #CdnFP #NATO

— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) December 4, 2019

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders have been caught on camera apparently talking candidly on Tuesday night about U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hours later, the backlash materialized.

“Well, he’s two-faced,” the president said Wednesday when asked about the video. After a long pause, he added, “He’s a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy.”

(Sidebar: yeah, you said that about Kim Jong-Un, too, Donald. Tell us what you really think.)

**

“My view is that President Trump made his mind up about Justin Trudeau at [the 2018 G7 summit in] Charlevoix — ‘very dishonest and weak’ — and now has been confirmed in this impression because Trudeau was nice to Trump face to face and then catty about him with Macron later,” said Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced Studies in Washington.

 

“This is not good for their personal relationship, but the machinery of government will continue to handle most issues on the bilateral agenda for now, so there will not be an explicit price for Canada to pay now. But as we have seen with Mitt Romney and others, Trump has a long memory for slights and I expect there will be consequences down the line.”

(Sidebar: because God knows the Canadians won't stick it to him.)


Remember - Canadians voted for this. They gladly re-elected a poseur as shrinking as they.


Also - well, someone has to be the adult around here:

What received reasonable coverage this week was the meeting of the premiers, and most particularly the presence of three Conservative allies — Messrs. Doug Ford, Scott Moe and Jason Kenney — in global-warming-sleet-and-snow-wracked Toronto.

What I first observe in various press interactions with these three — it’s probably a curious word in this context — is their seriousness. They are undoubtedly pitching their provinces’ particular concerns but don’t stop there. They all display a concern for joint endeavour and common ground. They speak their various worries, without alarmism, about the current state of the country. ...

It is premiers, particularly Ford, Kenney and Moe, who are presenting a present-day agenda, who are warning that an Ottawa-fixated, “social-justice”-oriented, identity-politics-absorbed government is badly, perilously, out of touch with the real dilemmas of Confederation. They do not speak in bumper sticker sentences. They are, to coin a phrase, the adults in the room.

Read the whole thing.




Getting good and hard the government they voted for:

The average Canadian family is expected to spend an additional $487 on food in 2020, a new report says.

Food prices in Canada are expected to rise between two and four per cent in Canada in 2020, the report released Wednesday by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph indicated.

The 2020 forecast predicts that for the average family following Canada’s food guide, the total household food expenditure will increase to $12,667 annually.

One could bring up inflation, carbon taxes and food boards (which should have been abolished after the Second World War) but why muddy the waters with reason?




Alberta needs to rush the death of eastern Canada with a thousand cuts:

A panel examining Alberta’s role in Confederation kicked off its public town hall tour Tuesday, with many telling the panellists the province deserves a better deal — but through collaboration rather than confrontation.

More than 150 people spoke to the panellists at a north Edmonton community centre.

The speakers were given two minutes to make their points.

“Canada is broken,” said Al Romanchuk, who said he was wishing for a referendum on Albertan separation for Christmas.

A number of First Nations in Alberta, including the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta, have said that any move to separate would contravene their treaty rights with the federal government, and Kenney himself said separation is not a desirable option for the province.

Now one knows why Newfoundland went red:

Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier says he has ordered a review of transfers of executive-level staff as one of his cabinet ministers faces criticism over the appointment of a former Liberal staffer to a lucrative public service job.

It's called "sour grapes":

The commission that organized two leaders’ debates in the 2019 election has decided not to appeal a Federal Court injunction that forced it to give media accreditation to two right-wing online outlets, Rebel Media and the True North Centre.

Both outlets were rejected for accreditation — which allows them to cover the debate on site and put questions to the leaders in person afterward —  three days before the Oct. 7 English-language debate. A Federal Court judge granted an injunction on the afternoon of Oct. 7 allowing them accreditation.

The outlets are still seeking a full judicial review of whether the commission’s rejections were unreasonable and procedurally unfair, but the case was put on pause after the commission filed notice to appeal the injunction. With the appeal now dropped, the case proceeds again toward a full hearing, which may be many months away.

The Liberal government created the leaders’ debate commission on Oct. 30, 2018, as an independent body to organize two official election debates, and appointed former governor general David Johnston to lead it.

(Sidebar: read - it created a regulatory body to formulate a pro-Liberal opinion before the last election.)




Ontario teachers are protesting for the children ... or something:

Thousands of Ontario public high school teachers will be off the job Wednesday for a one-day strike after failing to reach a contract with the province.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation confirmed the job action, setting the stage for potentially hundreds of schools across the province to shut their doors for the day.

Harvey Bischof, president of the federation, said the Ford government did not put forward any constructive proposals through the negotiation process.

As of this writing, Mr. Bischof has not agreed to take a pay-cut ... for the children.




Disabled children aren't groomed by "professionals" and that bothers the real creeps:

A new literature review found that of 5,500 research articles on talking to youth about sexuality, only two examined the topic of communication with a focus on youth with disabilities.

I'll just leave this here:

An astonishing 17 pupils at a single British school are in the process of changing gender, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Most of the youngsters undergoing the transformation are autistic, according to a teacher there, who said vulnerable children with mental health problems were being ‘tricked’ into believing they are the wrong sex.

Also - why would the Groper care about this?:

Pakistani investigators have discovered more than 600 girls and women across the country who were sex trafficked to China in the last two years. However, chances of convicting the traffickers remain uncertain due to pressures to maintain diplomatic ties.  ...

(Sidebar: just as they do with North Korean women.)

Many of the women who spoke to investigators described undergoing forced fertility treatments, physical and sexual abuse, and sometimes forced prostitution. One investigation report, according to AP, alleges that organs were harvested from some of the women sent to China.

 

News from the "basic dictatorship":

Scientists say a Chinese researcher’s claim to have edited the DNA of the “CRISPR babies” and immunized them from HIV has been “a deliberate falsehood”.

You don't say!

**

The Trudeau government is digging for intelligence on the role Canada’s mining sector could play in providing the United States and other key trading partners with crucial minerals and metals — from cobalt to tellurium — considered building blocks of the new economy.

I'll leave this here:

Continental Gold, a Canadian mining company, won’t be Canadian much longer.

It’s being taken over by China’s Zijing Mining Group Co., one of China’s largest gold mining companies.

**

Would this be the same country that allows China to buy up resources and land?:

Questions are being raised about plans to build a $1-billion, 700-km highway from Yellowknife to a proposed port on Nunavut’s Arctic coast, paid for by Canadians but which critics say would largely serve Chinese government interests.

Last week, Transport Minister Marc Garneau pledged more than $50 million to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to study the feasibility of a highway to replace ice roads that are no longer reliable amid climate change.

While local leaders applaud the funding, critics say the largest benefit would go to a mining company, MMG, which is controlled by the Chinese government and holds several mineral deposits in the region where the highway would be built.

“It is worth flagging to people that the main beneficiary will be the Chinese government, more so than the government of Nunavut or the government of Canada,” says Michael Byers, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia who holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law. “This is for the mining projects and nothing else.”

You could always - you know - not let the Chinese own our resources.

These Chinese:

Owned directly by the Chinese government. https://t.co/4B2DFkcJzW

— Terry Glavin (@TerryGlavin) December 4, 2019

**

Only a week ago, The New York Times reported on the Xinjiang Papers, a 403-page collection of reportedly classified Chinese documents—including speeches by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other Communist Party officials—on plans to carry out the mass incarceration of the Uyghur Muslim minority population in Xinjiang, as well as government directives instructing local officials on how to coerce Uyghur students with lies and threats. We were told by the reporters that the leak of such classified documents out of China was unprecedented.

While the world was still digesting the Xinjiang Papers, two more China-related intelligence information bombs were dropped over the last weekend.

First, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported newly leaked details from the China Cables. These were classified Chinese government documents, including a manual for operating the internment camps that hold millions of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities, and intelligence briefings that uncover “how Chinese police are guided by a massive data collection and analysis system that uses artificial intelligence to select entire categories of Xinjiang residents for detention.”

These leaked documents reveal “the inner workings of the camps, the severity of conditions behind the fences, and the dehumanizing instructions regulating inmates’ mundane daily routines.” ICIJ also tweeted that more than 75 journalists and dozens of media partners are working together to report on information uncovered by the China Cable.

I’m sure we will be hearing more in the coming days. The leaked China Cables, in addition to the recently leaked Xinjiang Papers, present indisputable evidence that in the Chinese Communist Party’s own words, China is committing ethnic cleansing in Xinjiang, in the most deliberate and systematic fashion.

Then, a more shocking revelation came out of Australia. Wang “William” Liqiang, a Chinese national who currently lives in Australia with his family and is applying for political asylum, reportedly told Australia’s counterespionage agency that he had been personally involved in China’s espionage activities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas.

Some of the specifics of Wang’s self-alleged activities include personal involvement in kidnapping one of five Hong Kong booksellers in 2015, infiltrating university and college campuses on foreign soil and recruiting overseas Chinese students to collect intelligence, and meddling with Taiwan’s 2018 election by “creating more than 20 media and internet companies to launch ‘targeted attacks’ and spending roughly $200 million over an unspecified period to invest in television stations in Taiwan.” In addition, Wang gave “detailed code names of covert operations and shadowy business ventures,” which amounts to China’s covert efforts to suppress democracy and human rights activities around the world.

Wang also told Australia investigators that he conducted his espionage work from a Hong Kong-based firm called China Innovation Investment Limited, which Wang identified as a front for mainland China’s intelligence operations in Hong Kong.

And now, some good news:

Pancreatic cancer, which maintains a 95% mortality rate, is resistant to all current treatments. Patients have extremely poor chances of surviving for five years after being diagnosed—and since the disease does not show symptoms until the advanced stages, it is notoriously hard to diagnose.

However, this new Tel Aviv University study finds that a small molecule has the ability to induce the self-destruction of pancreatic cancer cells. The research was conducted with xenografts—transplantations of human pancreatic cancer into immunocompromised mice. The treatment reduced the number of cancer cells by 90% in the developed tumors a month after being administered.

The research holds great potential for the development of a new effective therapy to treat this aggressive cancer in humans.

(Merci beaucoup)

And the Rest of It

Saint Francis Xavier: the original X-man

If one is still pushing the faulty idea of equalisation payments, then one has already capitulated to failure:

After pushing the federal government to amend the formula for equalization payments — which give money to some provinces but not others — premiers upset with the formula shifted focus to changing the fiscal stabilization program on Monday.

Premiers of provinces that don’t get equalization funds argued it was one way they could get some money back amid the oil and energy sector’s economic instability.

While meeting in Mississauga, Ont. Monday, premiers tried to find consensus on key issues ahead of their meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the new year. Among the four areas of consensus was a call on the federal government to reassess fiscal stabilization, which provides financial assistance to provinces amid economic downturns.

From the most corrupt government ever re-elected:

A former SNC-Lavalin executive on trial for fraud and corruption has opted not to present a defence.

Lawyers for Sami Bebawi informed the jury of their decision on Tuesday, meaning the evidence is complete and the accused won’t testify.

Bebawi, 73, faces eight charges, including fraud, corruption, laundering proceeds of crime, possession of stolen goods and bribery of foreign officials.

“Mr. Bebawi won’t present a defence,” lawyer Annie Emond said simply.

Justice Guy Cournoyer reminded jurors of an earlier directive that it was up to the Crown to prove the charges against Bebawi beyond a reasonable doubt and that Bebawi wasn’t obliged to present a defence.

I'm calling mistrial.




A Chinese diplomat will visit South Korea for the first time in five years to discuss the American missile defense system (which I'm sure the Chinese want gone):

A high-ranking Chinese diplomat is visiting Seoul this week for the first time in five years as the two countries seek to improve ties amid a spat over a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea.

The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, is set to arrive on Wednesday for a two-day stay, during which he will meet his counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, and President Moon Jae-in, Seoul officials said.

(Sidebar: this Wang Yi.)




I believe China does similar things:

Australia’s Catholic bishops support “nationally consistent” reporting standards for the abuse of minors, but cannot support new national legal standards that would force priests to report real or suspected child abuse learned under the strict confidence of sacramental confessions, the bishops have said.

“The removal of protections at law would be ineffective, counter-productive and unjust: ineffective because abusers do not seek out confession and certainly would not seek it out if they knew that their offences would be reported,” Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement to Reuters.

“Counter-productive because the rare opportunity a priest may have to counsel abusers to turn themselves in and amend their life would be lost; and unjust because it would establish as a matter of law a situation where a priest would not be able to defend himself against an accusation made against him,” he added.

The Seal of the Confessional is demanded by God.

So there's that.

Secondly, anyone who trusts a system that railroads an innocent man under the guise of stopping abuse is full of sh--.

It is never about doing the right thing. It is always about governmental control.




I'll bet he showed up to work:

Mr Koczocik armed himself with a long stick and “charges towards the bad guy” but hits “something protective”.

"But he’s buying time and he allows others to escape to move to adjacent rooms and at that point he has about a one minute one on one straight combat,” Mr Williamson said.

“This guy Khan then works his way up Lukasz pole slashing with his knife, he takes five wounds to his left side.”

Mr Bain said that it “felt like a warzone... it felt like total chaos."

Mr Koczocik, who it was announced on Monday will be getting an honour for bravery in his native Poland, started to lose strength but two men from the conference rushed to intervene.

Because salt of the Earth:

The families of fallen soldiers were treated to a special holiday trip thanks to the Gary Sinise Foundation. And where better to bring them than the happiest place on Earth: Disney World.

Peak Stupidity

All civilisations devolve this way ...




Because you've done an enormously marvelous job before:

First Nations would need about $3.5 billion in funding over five years to effectively take over responsibility for child welfare services as they will be able to do under a new law that comes into force on Jan. 1, says Manitoba's Assembly of First Nations (AFN) regional chief.

Bill C-92, or An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families, passed earlier this year, carves out jurisdiction for Indigenous groups to take over their own child welfare systems and prioritizes placing Indigenous children taken into care with their own families and Indigenous communities.

More money stops people from abusing their kids, right?




The United States puts its money up front which is more than what one can say about Canada or France:

U.S. President Donald Trump put Justin Trudeau on the spot Tuesday over Canada’s NATO defence spending.

“What are you at? What is your number?” Trump pointedly asked, referring to how much Canada spends on NATO defence as a percentage of its GDP. The two men met on the sidelines of a major NATO military alliance meeting in London.

(Sidebar: don't ask a trust-fund baby about money. He can't count it.)

**

“Would you like some nice ISIS fighters?” Trump asked. “I could give them to you, you could take every one you want.”

“Let’s be serious,” Macron responded.

Alright.

The United States commits 3.61% of its gross domestic product on NATO defense while France pays 1.78% and Canada pays an appalling 0.99% (even countries like Greece pay more than Canada or France do).

France has repatriated its ISIS brats and Canada doesn't care how many ISIS rapists have flooded the streets provided that they vote Liberal.

How is that for serious, Emmanuel?


Also - indeed:

As my colleague David Bercuson wrote here on Friday, Canada is rapidly falling behind Russia in its ability to effectively enforce claims to sovereignty over the Arctic. If anything, Bercuson was probably too polite. To call our military capability in a vast swath of our own territory token dangerously overstates our means.

Canada was able to get away with neglecting not just the Arctic but our national defence in general for many, many years. I’m afraid for so many years that it will be an impossible habit to break. But I am not the only one who has noticed. The United States is becoming increasingly frustrated with us. This matters. ...

But we can’t be nearly as confident that either of those assumptions hold as true today. As Bercuson noted in his column, the Russian military presence in the Arctic is growing rapidly. Their Arctic region is already more developed than ours, giving them inherent advantages compared to Canada, with our sparse populated North. Those advantages, combined with their military buildup, would leave Canada completely unable to enforce its sovereignty if Russia chose to cause problems for us.

China, likewise, is developing its naval power, including Arctic capabilities. Meanwhile, we content ourselves with a few thousand lightly armed rangers, and took a bafflingly long time to even replace their rifles — the most fundamental piece of military equipment of all. Our Arctic patrol ships are not capable of year-round Arctic operations and are behind schedule anyways. Talk during the Harper years of building a proper military base in the Arctic is essentially forgotten.

Is Russia about to invade? Of course not. But it’s hard to look around the world today and feel any reassurance that long-held assumptions about our stable geopolitical order and rules-based international system still hold much water. The world is getting tougher — and we are not adapting.

Parents should decide that they have had enough and demand school vouchers:

We made significant changes to our bargaining position. What has not transpired is any change at all by the teachers unions,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at Queen’s Park during question period on Monday.

Lecce, who took over the education file in June, has cut government demands on class size increases and online courses.

While the government originally wanted to boost the average high school class size from 22 to 28, they have moved that figure down to 25. Class sizes for Kindergarten through Grade 3 have not changed at all while middle school grades increased by an average of one student.

As for online courses, the government originally wanted students to take four courses between Grades 9 and 12 and reduced that number to two courses over their high school career.

The union says it’s not good enough.

“Those are not concessions,” OSSTF President Harvey Bischof told CP24 on Monday.

Bischof went on to say that he will only accept an average class size of 22 and doesn’t want any online courses for students. Oh, and he still wants a 2% wage hike for his very well paid members.

Have I mentioned the average teacher in Ontario earns $92,000 a year, plus benefits, pensions and their three months off?

It's like the Russians value a strong and stable economy based on a commodity everyone wants:

As multiple Canadian pipeline projects linger in limbo, Russia and China have just turned on the taps on a natural gas behemoth long enough to connect Timmins, Ont., to Burnaby, B.C.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping brought the Power of Siberia pipeline, which will stretch 3,000 km from Siberia into northeast China, online Monday. The US$55 billion pipeline is expected to carry five billion cubic metres of natural gas into China in 2020, with production eventually ramping up and hitting 38 billion cubic metres by 2025.

Also - brain-drain - another consequence of a Liberal government:

There has been a brain drain from Alberta to Texas in recent years, with many saying the state is a great place to do business.

Compared to Canada, it has fewer regulations and low corporate taxes. The high U.S. dollar doesn’t hurt, either, as it translates into more money for the Canadian companies doing business stateside.

“It all comes together to create a really attractive environment,” said David McLellan, principal at Ridgeway Strategic Consulting.

Who are the racists? Political dilettantes who like the ideas of racial diversity and political multiculturalism but don't have to deal with any of its realities:

White liberals deem that any speaker’s references to personal responsibility brands the speaker as bigoted. Black people cannot afford to buy into the white liberal agenda. White liberals don’t pay the same price. They don’t live in neighborhoods where their children can get shot simply sitting on their porches. White liberals don’t go to bed with the sounds of gunshots. White liberals don’t live in neighborhoods that have become economic wastelands. Their children don’t attend violent schools where they have to enter through metal detectors. White liberals help the Democratic Party maintain political control over cities, where many black residents live in despair, such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago.

And - what could go wrong?:

On Monday, SNC-Lavalin announced that China National Nuclear Power Corporation had chosen the Québec-based engineering firm to do “pre-project work” to build a pair of 700-megawatt “advanced heavy water” CANDU reactors for Shanghai Electric Group.

Ones like these but instead of working, they create four or five Chernobyls.




Women's shelters are as useless and vain as the people who suggest them.

God forbid someone suggest that children be raised properly in married two-parent homes or that basic morality is enforced or that single motherhood is not encouraged or that beating women and children is a crime that can't be plead out or that mandatory sentences for these abuses are unnecessary or that a woman and her children remain in these places forever:

The choice of cause, for Anne Marie’s family, was deliberate. Their sister and daughter was killed in North York. The man accused of her murder allegedly targeted women specifically. Her aunt also worked at the shelter. She saw first-hand the good it does and the need it fills.

Let everyone know your virtue from space.




If you are a part of the system that ostracises Israel, then you are part of the problem:

In a statement posted to her Facebook page, Wright says she felt intimidated into refusing the trip and feels she has been the target of thinly veiled anti-Semitism. That post was shared nearly 2,000 times and Wright’s story has been picked up by the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and the Canadian Jewish News.

Wright told the Montreal Gazette that McGill is, overall, a great place to be a Jewish student, but that some recent flare-ups point to religious and cultural tensions on campus.

“There have been a number of instances in the last few years where students have been targeted for their ethnic identity or religious affiliation,” she said. “Many of these instances have been focused on Jewish students, but there have also been a variety of issues affecting Muslim and Indigenous students as well.”

Oh, do you mean like the typhoons and tsunamis that have always happened?:

A new report has found that as many as 20 million people are displaced by climate-fueled disasters every year — a figure that equates to one person being forced out of their homes every two seconds.

Every two seconds, eh?

Obligatory Pope Francis Post

It's not all crazy Pachamama stuff ...




Why do we push over people for cheap coffee makers?:

“Resist the dazzling lights of consumption, which will shine everywhere this month, and believe that prayer and charity are not lost time, but the greatest treasures,” Pope Francis said in his Advent homily Dec. 1. 

“This is the drama of today: houses full of things, but empty of children,” he said in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Damn right, Papa.

Cheap coffee makers don't tell you that they love you or that they like fudge on the same levels you do.




Protestants and militant atheists abhor Nativity scenes more than a vacuum (even a spiritual one):

“The enchanting image of the Christmas crèche, so dear to the Christian people, never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is itself a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God,” Pope Francis wrote in Admirabile signum, meaning “A wonderful sign” in Latin. 

“With this letter, I wish to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons and town squares,” he said.

Consider it done:

 

 

In Canada, we can't wait to kill off the disabled:

“A culture that considers some lives to be ‘League A’ and others ‘League B’” based on their physical or mental abilities is “a social sin!” he added.

Or a real one.




Since when was marching in pervert parades a more serious requirement for leadership than fiscal accountability?:

Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, told CBC News Monday she's more than willing to have a sit-down conversation with Scheer, who is dealing with a backlash from within his party over his election loss — and the possible role played in that loss by his beliefs about same-sex marriage and his refusal to march in Pride parades.

"Even the Pope is more inclusive about [LGBTQ] people than Andrew Scheer," Kennedy said.

Yes, about that: 

Shortly after Illinois’s Democratic governor signed homosexual “marriage” into law, Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki led prayers of exorcism in reparation, citing Pope Francis who, as an Argentinian cardinal in 2010 described gay marriage legislation as a “clear rejection of the law of God” and “a move of the Father of Lies who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

Self-centred and stupid is no way to go through life, Helen.

The Government People Vote For

When one re-elects the most incompetent, corrupt and vile government in the country's history, why should one be surprised that they carry on with the behaviour they are known for?:

The court determined the federal government's settlement offer was fair and reasonable, said a statement from the law firm representing the victims. It's one of the largest settlements in Canadian history. 

But Shewchuck, who is eligible for some of that money, says the settlement fails to take full responsibility for the harm done to victims like him and neglects concrete steps to fix the continuing culture problem in the military — action he says is necessary to make sure no other Forces member faces what he's lived with for 20 years. 

"I lost everything," he said.

"I love my country and am proud I served her for as long as I could. I've battled for her, protected her and supported her, only to have her turn her back on me."

Shewchuck took a medical retirement in 2014 after struggling with untreated PTSD.

It's his disappointment in the Canadian Armed Forces and the federal government that he says have pushed him to tell his story publicly for the first time.

"My country fed me to the wolves," he said. "We were taught to suck it up and soldier on."

**

The PM was re-elected but not in any fashion worth bragging about. He was downgraded to a minority and continues to face a number of the issues he fumbled before the campaign started.

There are the many aspects of the China file, such as the two Canadian hostages and the question of banning Huawei and the simple matter of whether Trudeau will ever stand up for Canada.

There is still the SNC-Lavalin matter, which has yet to be resolved.

There is the new NAFTA, which hasn’t been ratified yet by U.S. Congress.

These all concern our future prosperity and stability. And they’re all still left hanging.

Why would Justin care? He didn't do anything of note before the election and he sure as hell won't do anything now. He knows that he has a pension and can get away with everything from groping to treason.




Well, at least someone is pretending to do some work:

The meeting of the Council of the Federation as the premiers call themselves was called in the wake of the federal election to deal with the thorny issue of national unity.

While there are many things all the premiers can agree on, the main issue causing national unity problems is Western Canada — pipelines — and that isn’t likely to be resolved any time soon.

While Alberta’s Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe want pipelines to tidewater, British Columbia’s John Horgan and Quebec’s Francois Legault are unlikely to change their opposition to the idea.

Still, after speaking this week with four of the premiers helping to drive the agenda, a picture begins to emerge of what might be accomplished.

Ontario’s Doug Ford, who asked for and offered to host the meeting, is pushing the national unity side of things.

“We want to send a message to the entire world and give them certainty that you can invest in Canada. We have a united country,” Ford said at Queen’s Park on Thursday.

No, Doug, we don't. We have a fragmented, loose coalition of provinces and territories that Justin will sell to China.

But, thanks for playing.

It's Not Terrorism Until It Is Terrorism and Even Then It's Not Terrorism

Mental pretzels can be quite the thing.




Really, what could have gone wrong?:

Nine years before Usman Khan killed two people in a stabbing spree on London Bridge, he was overheard by British security services discussing how to use an al Qaeda manual he had memorized to build a pipe bomb.

It was a snippet of conversation, along with other intelligence about a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange, that prompted British police to arrest Khan – then 19 years old – and a group of older men on Dec. 20, 2010.

Sentenced to a minimum of eight years in prison in 2012 with a requirement that the parole board assess his danger to the public before release, he was set free in December 2018 – without a parole board assessment.

On Friday, he strapped on a fake suicide vest, armed himself with large kitchen knives and went on the rampage at a conference on prisoner rehabilitation beside London Bridge.

Confronted by bystanders, including a Polish man brandishing a narwhal tusk he had grabbed from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall, ...

(Sidebar: this Polish national who is the g-d- MAN!)

... Khan was wrestled to the ground. Three armed police officers surrounded him. They fired twice. He was dead.

How will Britain brush these two glaring and ongoing problems under the rug?




The Irish have arrested a returned ISIS thug:

An Irish citizen aligned to Islamic State deported from Turkey along with her two-year-old daughter was arrested on her return to Dublin on Sunday on suspicion of terrorist offences, Irish police said.

Ireland agreed to repatriate Lisa Smith, 38, and her two-year-old daughter after Ankara began deporting foreign citizens linked to Islamic State earlier this month.

Send her back.




Oh, I'm sure:

Police say they have not found any indications of a terrorist motive in a stabbing on a busy Dutch shopping street that injured three teens.

Police said Sunday, after questioning a 35-year-old homeless man arrested as a suspect in the stabbing, that “so far there are no indications that point to a possible terrorist motive.”

Investigations are continuing into what motivated the Friday night attack in downtown The Hague that injured two 15-year-old girls and a 13-year-old boy. All three were treated in a hospital and released late Friday.

Basic Dictatorship, Part Deux

When Justin declared his undying love for the dictatorship that starved millions of its own people to death, that abandoned (and still abandon) girls and the disabled in god-awful orphanages, that forcibly repatriates North Koreans and treats North Korean women like sex slaves, that harvests the organs of political prisoners, that denies anything wrong happened at Tienanmen Square, that oppresses its own citizens and strangles the global economy, no one batted an eyelid.

No one put any thought into Justin's poor attempts to make China, and not the US, Canada's major trading partner.

Where was everyone when Justin was b!#ch-slapped over the two Canadians still in Chinese prisons?

Who funded Justin's campaign? Why, the Chinese did!

If anyone thinks that Justin is going to stand up to his Chinese bosses for "rights", they are more than mistaken.


When Canadians still buy Chinese-made rubbish and ignore that their village idiot (whom they gladly re-elected) crawls on his knees to the paper dragon, just remember that the people of Hong Kong - who have so much to lose - have more intestinal fortitude and dignity than is possible for this country to produce.




This b!#ch would be organ fodder if she was in China. She should think about that as she sits in her mansion and complains about the gross unfairness of Western rule of law:

Meng Wanzhou, the Chinese technology executive facing possible extradition to the U.S., has been reading books, completing oil paintings and noting the kindness of Canadians as she awaits continued court proceedings from Vancouver, according to an open letter.

On the anniversary of her arrest at Vancouver International Airport, Meng reflects on her year in Canada, in a blog post titled "Your warmth is a beacon that lights my way forward" that was published on the official Huawei website. 

The post says Meng never intended to be in Canada as long as she has, and that, at times, it's been a struggle of fear, disappointment and "torment."

The tone of the piece is more positive than negative, but a contrast to the experience of two Canadians jailed in China weeks after her arrest.

"Over the past year, I have also learned to face up to and accept my situation," Meng writes. "I'm no longer afraid of the unknown."

Organ fodder, b!#ch. If the party ever got its hands you, that is exactly what you would be. Not even daddy could save you from that.

And the Rest of It

Hugs are for good dogs.

How is that Singapore thing working out?:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have signalled their affection for each other so regularly it might be easy to miss rising fears that the head-spinning diplomatic engagement of the past two years is falling apart.

Pyongyang has issued increasingly dire warnings to Washington to mind a year-end deadline to offer some new initiative to settle the nations’ decades-long nuclear standoff.

Failure could mean a return to the barrage of powerful North Korean weapons tests that marked 2017 as one of the most fraught years in a relationship that has often been defined by bloodshed, deep mistrust and regular threats.

A seldom-mentioned but important problem in India:

Like most tourists in Agra, I visited the Taj Mahal, presented to all as the world’s greatest “symbol of love,” the homage of a mourning husband for his beloved late wife. Certainly, but imperial projects of that size are rarely launched for only sentimental reasons. A Muslim emperor built a massive Islamic mausoleum, with accompanying mosque, on the banks of the Yamuna River — second in holiness to the Ganges for India’s Hindus — with unfulfilled plans for a matching onyx Taj Mahal on the other bank. Might this have been aimed at inspiring awe and fealty to an Islamic ruler in what is not a majority Muslim country?

Several centuries later, that India’s most famous monument is a magnificent example of Islamic art and architecture rankles some in the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a force for Hindu nationalism that has some rather sharp words for India’s religious minorities. At about 180 million, India’s Muslims would themselves constitute one of the larger countries in the world, but in India, they remain very much a minority, about 14 per cent of the population.

One occasionally hears sniping from the BJP about the Taj Mahal itself, with local BJP officials going so far as to remove it from some tourist guides. A sound-and-light history pageant I attended in nearby Jaipur painstakingly rehearsed a millennium of local history but somehow managed to leave out entirely the emperor of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan. Not by accident, I expect. ...

The Supreme Court released an important judgment in another case of religious violence this week. It arose from the 2008 fearsome massacre of Christians in the eastern state of Odisha. A prominent Hindu holy man had been assassinated. Though the likely culprits were Maoist terrorists, Hindu extremists whipped up an anti-Christian frenzy, which went on for weeks with minimal police intervention or even complicity. The military did not arrive for more than a month.

The scale of the anti-Christian riots was astonishing. Roughly 100 people were killed, more than 15,000 injured, 300 churches and 5,600 homes destroyed, and 50,000 people displaced, many forced to hide in nearby forests. There more people died of hunger and snakebites.

To add insult to massive injury, seven Christians were tried and convicted for the original murder. The matter was plagued by serious and repeated irregularities, and the Christian community universally believes that the men are innocent and have been wrongfully convicted. Their appeal has languished in the Odisha high court for more than five years; the men have been imprisoned for more than 10. The Supreme Court finally granted them bail, a highly charged decision as it implies that the convictions being appealed are indeed suspect.

Extraordinary:

A firefighter in southern France is winning viral acclaim for rescuing a four-month-old baby from a home surrounded by raging floodwaters.

The rescue played out on Nov. 23 in Pegomas, a community in southern France, after the nearby Siagne River overflowed its banks and washed into the streets.

The viral image shows firefighter Gilbert Baldicchi standing in a planter to avoid the churning brown floodwaters with baby Gabriel held tight in his arms. Baldicchi was one of several firefighters conducting a rescue at the home, and another member of the crew captured the photo. ...

Baldicchi downplayed his actions in an interview with news station France 3 on Thursday.

“It could have happened to anyone,” he said. “It happened to me, but dozens of men saved lives that night.”

Some rather welcome news:

It started with a simple tweet from a Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Twitter account asking for holiday greetings, but personnel say the response and support from residents across the country have been extraordinary.

“When we see the bins, we are kind of (like), ‘Oh my God,’ but every single letter that we look at, we say, ‘Yeah, that’s somebody else that thought about us,'” Cpl. Nicolas Lefrancois, who is assigned to the Canadian Forces postal unit at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton, told Global News on Thursday.

“It’s nice to see that the Canadian people have knowledge of what we do and what we are sacrificing.”

Wow:

Something’s in the Missouri water. Just in time for American Thanksgiving, a dozen families have much to be thankful for.

Setting a possible record, St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City welcomed not one, but 12 sets of twins.

Just in time for Christmas:

A fragment of wood reputed to be from the manger where Jesus was laid after his humble birth went on display in Jerusalem on Friday, ahead of its transfer to Bethlehem for the official launch of the Christmas season.

The wood piece, just a few centimetres (inches) long, was once kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. It was handed over earlier this week to the custodian of the Bethlehem church, who said it brought "great honor to believers and pilgrims in the area".

It was unveiled to the public at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, encased in a silver-colored ornamental table-top stand, and will later be taken to Bethlehem, known to Christians as the birthplace of Jesus.

Voting Only Encourages the B@$#@rds

Prove me wrong.




Andrew Scheer's (who should have resigned, one might add) new right-hand woman apologises for comparing marching in gaudy Saint Patrick's Day parades with marching in pervert parades:

Newly appointed deputy Conservative party leader Leona Alleslev is taking heat and has apologized for equating marching in Pride parades with St. Patrick's Day parades. 

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, Alleslev was asked about Conservative Leader Andrew's Scheer's struggle to quell questions about his personal beliefs on same-sex marriage during the election campaign. 

(Sidebar: issues that, though they make the average Canadian squeamish and paranoid, had nothing to do with the election.)

The Liberals had resurfaced a video from 2005, when Scheer spoke in the House of Commons against it. Scheer is also the only federal party leader who has not marched in a Pride parade. 

"I think that that's obviously his choice and we live in a country where that's his choice," Alleslev told host Chris Hall. "Have we asked anybody if they marched in a St. Patrick's Day parade?"

The backlash on social media was fierce after the interview aired, with many criticizing her choice of comparison. 

And you apologised for that?

The correct response to that sort of haranguing is: "Cram it".

But I suppose that sort of fortitude is beyond the Tories and that is why they are playing second fiddle to the village idiots.




A member of the Nazi Liberal Party calls another MLA "Hitlerish" for demanding vaccinations:

Liberal MLA Cathy Rogers took to Facebook to call New Brunswick Minister of Education Dominic Cardy “Hitler-ish” over Cardy’s support for mandatory student vaccinations.

Rogers made the disparaging remarks about the Education Minister on Monday. The post which was originally posted in September 2019 has since been deleted. 

“Sounds a bit Hitler-ish to me. Kill everyone around me. I’m the only right person. Ugggg,” Rogers wrote.

You and your party ought to know about fascism.




Would these be the "infrastructure" projects that weren't even started after 2015?:

Canada's cities say the federal Liberals are willing to find creative ways to remove political roadblocks from provinces to fund billions in municipal projects, a sign of hope that comes as they ask Ottawa for more money and new ways to fund local work.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his deputy Chrystia Freeland and other newly named cabinet ministers have given "very clear signals" about easing the flow of funds as part of their conversations with city leaders, said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.

Iveson's comments came near the end of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' conference in Ottawa this week, which included a meeting with Trudeau and Freeland on Thursday afternoon.

The federal government has options to make the money move, Iveson said, pointing to the doubling of the gas-tax funding this year, which the Liberals called a one-time arrangement to do an end-around on problematic provinces.

The Trudeau Liberals will have to lean on provinces to remove hurdles — political or otherwise — that hold up federal spending and, in turn, local construction plans for things like affordable housing, said Iveson, who chairs the federation's caucus of mayors from the largest cities in Canada.

Money is clearly no object.

It grows on trees in Shangri-La. 

Entitled to entitlements:

That’s one of the takeaways from a review of public and private sector wages and benefits conducted by the Fraser Institute. Researcher Ben Eisen, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, reviewed the wages reported to the federal government last year and found public sector employees made more money, had better benefits and pensions, took more sick days and retired earlier.

Is it any wonder that people like me get cranky when we hear public sector workers complain about how the Ford government is sticking it to them when it comes to contract talks?

I would like to see ridings where there are no members:

Days before a key deadline that will help find a “saviour” for the Ontario Liberals, the party is a husk of its former self.

The party is believed to have only 10,000 members now, down from the 44,000 on the rolls when Kathleen Wynne and Sandra Pupatello faced off for the leadership six years ago.

Let them fight:

The federal government has lost its bid to delay a deadline for compensating First Nations families torn apart by an underfunded child welfare system, as part of a Federal Court decision that looks to ensure children affected receive payments promptly.

Is that what Quebec will do every time Alberta plays hardball? Kill off old people?

Sick!:

A panel of experts is recommending the Quebec government expand access to medical aid in dying.

In recommendations made public today, the group said people should be allowed to make advance directives requesting a doctor-assisted death, which is not allowed under current law.

The panel suggests that to make such an advance request, a person should first have been diagnosed with a serious, incurable illness, including Alzheimer’s or dementia.

The person would designate a third party to authorize the assisted death when the time comes.

Also:

Quebec is running short of propane due to a strike by rail workers, and even though the strike has been settled the propane market is dangerously low.

Pembina Pipeline took the high road, sending a shipment of 105 rail cars loaded with propane in a “spirit of unity to secure a safe, reliable and long-term supply of energy from each other, rather than from foreign countries who do not share Canadian values” an FP article noted.

Pembina took the high road, but I won’t, because I’m not that kind of person, and because it is worth emphasizing (because the mainstream media will choose not to) the consequences of Quebec running out of a fossil fuel for which there is no replacement.

(Merci)




Getting good and hard the government they voted for:

Statistics Canada says the Canadian economy grew at an annualized pace of 1.3 per cent in the third quarter.

That compared with a revised annualized pace of 3.5 per cent in the second quarter. Economists had expected an annualized rate of 1.2 per cent for the most recent quarter according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

If Jason Kenney -

(Sidebar: this Jason Kenney.)

- wants to ride high for the next four years, he needs a bold move like this:

Three of Canada’s premiers will announce they’ll fight climate change by working together on small nuclear reactors, a company that’s developing the technology said Saturday.

New Brunswick-based ARC Nuclear Canada said in a news release that its president will attend a signing ceremony Sunday between the provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan to work in collaboration on the modular reactors “in an effort to mitigate the effects of climate change.”

Okay, it bears repeating that carbon is not a pollutant and "change" is what most people call seasons but I digress ...

It's hydro-electricity or carefully managed nuclear power stations.

Solar panels don't cut it in countries where the winter sunlight is four hours or less.