It's Just Money

Print it at will:

Government-enforced restrictions across various provinces in April blew out job gains from previous months as a worsening third wave hit front-facing industries again.

Nationally, employment fell by 1.1 per cent, a loss of 207,000 jobs, while unemployment increased by 0.6 percentage points to 8.1 per cent last month, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

I'll just leave this right here:

Lockdowns have had little effect on bringing down COVID-19 deaths and could be one of Canada’s biggest policy failures in history, a professor wrote in a research paper published this month.

Douglas W. Allen, economics professor at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, reached the conclusion after examining over 80 papers on the effects of lockdowns implemented worldwide by governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy forced the closure of businesses, supply chains, various sector activities, among other activities in daily life. ...

However, Allen noted that Canadian politicians, public health officers, and media responses to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, have been one-sided and unchanged since the beginning of the pandemic, with many jurisdictions ignoring new data over the past year and repeating the same response programs from spring 2020 to 2021.

“Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been no public evidence that either the federal or provincial governments of Canada have considered both the benefit and cost sides of their policy decisions,” Allen stated.

“Furthermore, when research results contrary to the official government response were shared on social media, they were often pulled from social media platforms,” he noted.

Yep.

One can't help but think that if Canadians voted for someone who actually knew basic math, we wouldn't be in this mess:

Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says the federal stimulus plan may have been “miscalibrated” and will have less of an impact than the Liberals’ claim.

In a report released Wednesday, the nonpartisan watchdog said that a large part of the $101.4 billion in new stimulus spending announced in last month’s budget should not be considered new stimulus. 

The PBO calculates the actual new stimulus to be $69.2 billion over the next three years.

“Finance Canada’s impact assessment of the Recovery Plan overstates the economic impact of stimulus spending in Budget 2021,” the report reads.

“We maintain our judgement that stimulus spending in Budget 2021 could be miscalibrated if the focus is solely on returning to pre-pandemic benchmarks.”

Everyone expected golden parachutes and migrants to pick up the newborn and tax slack.

Oops:

Canada is ill-prepared for the rapidly increasing costs of its grey tsunami as the baby boomers head into retirement, according to a new study by the fiscally conservative Fraser Institute.

“Canada’s Aging Population and Income Support Programs” by Steven Globerman says the price tags of two major taxpayer-funded federal benefit programs for seniors will increase by 70% within 10 years, rising from $60.8 billion annually today to $103.2 billion in 2030.

No wonder the government wants to euthanise the elderly or just let them die nursing homes.

It truly is no country for old men.

That is not Freeland's only screw-up:

Access To Information records show Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office was unaware of millions in pandemic loans paid to businesses that never qualified in the first place. Staff in internal emails expressed puzzlement over payment of interest-free loans in breach of the rules: “Can I get concrete examples?”

Pretty "Brave" Talk From "Men" Who Hide From Women

Chicks better know their places, eh, Goebbels?:

Broadcast Hall of Famer Senator Pamela Wallin (Sask.) yesterday said cabinet must seek wide public input on its bill to regulate YouTube. Proposed federal controls on the internet were so far-reaching they “morphed into the possibility of censoring online content,” said Wallin: “Even musing about any such censorship is anti-democratic.”

Oh, no, my dear senator, it is censorship and no matter how they try to re-write it, it amounts to the same thing.

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yesterday dismissed criticism of first-ever federal internet regulation as the work of conspiracy theorists. “Tinfoil hats,” he said.

That's the kind of arrogance that hiding all the time can buy you.

That and $600 million.

In a video clip shared online, Justin Trudeau can be seen completely ignoring a journalist’s question when asked about foreign aid spending and UN commitments.

**

**

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under withering criticism Thursday after a sarcastic put down of a protester highlighting mercury poisoning in a First Nations community.

**

No wonder Justin and his hirsute friend want censorship.

Mid-Week Post

A merry Cinco de Mayo to all y'all.

 

 

You voted for it, Canada!: 

In essence, Section 33 allows Parliament and the provincial legislatures to declare that a law shall operate in spite of any guarantee contained in Section 2 or sections 7 to 15 of the charter, subject only to legislative renewal every five years.

The notwithstanding clause thus empowers Canadian legislatures to judicially circumvent many of the charter’s most important guarantees, including freedom of religion, freedom of expression, the right to equality before and under the law, as well as the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

The dominant narrative holds that the notwithstanding clause was a necessary compromise leading up to the enactment of the charter in 1982: fearing that courts would use this new instrument to strike down duly enacted laws, the provincial premiers insisted on a provision that would uphold parliamentary sovereignty in the face of judicial activism.

 

Also:

Legault had said that every time the government accepts an immigrant to the province making less than $56,000, it makes it harder to achieve his goal of increasing the average salary of Quebecers.

 

... says the premier of a province artificially propped up by the government.

 ** 

Canada is working with international partners to develop a standardized vaccine certification for travel and will position itself as a safe destination once the country has reached COVID-19 herd immunity, the tourism minister said on Tuesday.

 

If this was about safety, then why are vaccination records not required for most travel? 

It's damn near impossible for Canada to reach herd immunity because the federal government has ensured that the country is crawling with foreign infections and a permanent house arrest across the country.

**

There will be no election:

Legislation aimed at ensuring a federal election could be safely held during the COVID-19 pandemic is stalled in the House of Commons, even as Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are fast-approaching the average expiry date for minority governments in Canada. ...

In response, the government introduced C-19 in December. Among other things, it would allow for a three-day voting period, rather than the usual one day, and make it easier for voters to obtain and cast mail-in ballots. It would also allow Elections Canada more flexibility to conduct mobile polls in long-term care facilities.

 

Cheating the way the Americans did is simply not original, Justin. 

**

Get used to higher prices for everything:

The Commons yesterday by a 210-122 vote gave Second Reading to a bill mandating climate change targets leading to net zero emissions within a generation. There are no penalties for non-compliance: “Fascinating.”  

**

Film studios often choose to shoot in Canada because production costs are lower; and Canadians are increasingly turning to streaming services because they offer the type of content people want to watch. It’s a system that’s working well in the absence of government regulation, and one that will only be made worse if companies are forced to comply with the CRTC’s draconian and outdated rules.

** 

The un-elected cultural elites are only part of the problem. Goebbels is the larger part:

And yet today many wonderful people in the nation’s cultural community stand hand-in-hand with Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, architect of Bill C-10 which will place the internet under the control of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Its nine unelected, unaccountable commissioners will decide if your Facebook post or Youtube video is appropriate internet content. Coming up, Gulbeault has promised more legislation to establish another regulatory panel to oversee what sort of things people may say on social media. All of this constitutes an outrageous abuse of government authority and if not a boot on the neck at least a firm hand on the larynx of Canadians’ right to legal speech and expression.

** 

In fact, one of the reasons that the government finds itself committed to a dubious policy is that it did not conduct a public consultation. Guilbeault has admitted the public has not been consulted, which he has tried to justify by claiming that it can participate in the committee review or in the development of implementation guidelines once the bill becomes law. This alone should be disqualifying as no government should introduce censorship legislation that mandates website blocking, eradicates net neutrality, harms freedom of expression, and dispenses with due process without having ever consulted Canadians on the issue.

Further down the road lies part three of Guilbeault’s plan, namely making social media companies pay for news. Guilbeault has called linking to news articles without payment “immoral” even as he has bought advertising on Facebook and regularly links to news articles on his own feed. There is room for debate on whether payments are appropriate – media companies post articles themselves on the sites and benefit from referrals, while Facebook only posts brief excerpts rather than entire articles – but there is no doubt that the government intervention has stalled the possibility of negotiated solutions. Moreover, Guilbeault’s close alignment with the media sector has made some reluctant to criticize the minister, providing a paradigm example of the free speech risks that can come from government intervention in an independent press.

** 

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is simply unable to respond coherently to basic questions about his own legislation and flailing for talking points that seek to blame tech companies or opposition parties for the fact that he introduced legislation that exempted user generated content, removed the exception, and has no answer for why.  

 

(Sidebar: he also hates it when female MPs corner him. He's a lot like Justin that way. No wonder the Liberals shut down the sexual harassment inquiry.) 

**

A federally-funded advocate of a home equity tax yesterday told the Commons finance committee homeowners got rich “while sleeping and watching TV.” Professor Paul Kershaw of the University of British Columbia proposed a yearly tax on property assessments for principal residences: “Think about how do you calculate the additional minor tax we’re asking people to contribute over the years that they’re living in their home.”

 

Bleeding the east:

The Ontario government believes 4,900 jobs in Sarnia, a city of 71,500, are in jeopardy if the line is shut down next week, but Bradley said there’s a broader economic impact in his city.

“Anytime there’s uncertainty about the source of what drives a particular economy, it does have an impact when you’re trying to recruit companies and industries into the area,” he said. “When you’re in the economic development game, you’re always trying to eliminate anything that could be an impediment and the longer this goes on, the more of that anxiety is there.”

 

 

Let's all get heart inflammation: 

Health Canada is authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 15, meaning that the jab is now approved for anyone over the age of 12 in Canada.

Until now, the shot had only been approved for Canadians over the age of 16.

 

Also:

WHO experts have voiced “very low confidence” in data provided by Chinese state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm on its COVID-19 vaccine regarding the risk of serious side-effects in some patients, but overall confidence in its ability to prevent the disease, a document seen by Reuters shows.

**

When I think of all the cancer treatments and surgeries that people missed, I think that we can all breathe a sigh of relief that people were given access to federally-funded offspring-killing:

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on almost all facets of health care, and abortion access isn’t an exception.

 

Read the rest of this fluff piece if you want but it's rather trite and predictable: a land-whale whose only purpose in life is eliminate people's kids talks about how hard it is to fly around for blood-shakes when everyone else is prevented from getting life-saving care.

Poor baby. 

We don't have to trade with China:

During a Parliamentary Committee hearing on Canada-China relations, Conservative MP Garnett Genius questioned Justin Li, the head of the Confucius Institute at Carleton University after Li claimed to have no affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party.

In the clip, Li claims not to have the "expertise knowledge" to say whether or not the Chinese government killed as many as 2,500 student protestors in Tiananmen Square in 1989 after troops were ordered to open fire on protestors. When asked, Li refused to answer whether it was wrong for the Chinese government to kill the protestors but concluded that it was an "unfortunate event". 

 **

The pullback from Pangong Tso has not been followed by additional pullbacks in other contested areas, as was originally hoped. Recent reporting suggests some Indian officials may regret pulling back from a strategically important area with little to show for it.

Despite the difficult conditions in a region known as the "roof of the world," flare ups along the border are still a real possibility.

With so much heavy hardware present, future fighting in the area could be much deadlier than before.

 

 

What? People find this attention-getting, pointless exercise tiresome?:

“One thing that has helped many of us cope with the stress of the pandemic is getting some fresh air and doing some YOGA! So, in this spirit, Madame Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (a.k.a. Sophie) would like to invite you to participate in a virtual yoga class,” continues the invitation sent to hundreds of staff.

Liberal staffers who are concerned they may be too inexperienced to join the course or fear they’ll be judged needn’t worry either.

“All levels of experience are welcome and there is no judgement!,” the email adds, noting that the class will be led “entirely by Sophie,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife.

“As you may know, the week of May 3 is also Canadian Mental Health Week. Taking care of yourselves is important every day so please remember to do so!” the message concludes.

Though they appreciate the intent behind the event, many Liberal staffers contacted by National Post rolled their eyes at the invitation. They were all granted anonymity so they could speak freely.

“This is so silly,” one staffer said about the event.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a hard pass for me,” said another.

“I saw the email subject and deleted it immediately,” responded another.

 

Do the same thing to her ex-husband!

 

Imagine A Boot Stamping On a Hymnal Forever

Have one's services at Costco and Wal-Mart.

Let's see what the thugs do then:

Trinity Bible Chapel in Ontario has refused to close, despite more than $40 million in fines and harassment of its members. Months ago, the church published a statement explaining why they believe this defiance honors Christ.

This weekend, authorities forcibly locked the doors ...

**

Home invasion by Irish police of a man who filmed them disrupting Catholic mass, which went viral after it was posted on CFP last week. The police broke down his door at 3am, surrounded his bed, chased and captured his children, who have now disappeared into the infamous Irish foster system.

 This happened 2 days ago.

 

 Ahem:

According to data from Toronto Public Health, a full 68 per cent of all workplace COVID-19 outbreaks so far have taken place in offices, warehouses, construction sites and food processing plants — many of which have continued to operate throughout the pandemic — leading many to question why Premier Doug Ford keeps opening and closing restaurants and salons while doing little to stop the rampant transmission happening at workplaces outside of the public eye.

Also:

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization is coming under fire after contradicting the advice Canadians have been receiving for weeks to take the first vaccine against COVID-19 that they’re offered.

NACI said Monday that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are “preferred” and that Canadians should weigh the risks of waiting for one of them before deciding whether to take a more immediate jab of either of the other two approved for use in Canada.

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines have been linked to a new and extremely rare blood-clotting syndrome.

"Shut Up, Chicks!" They Main-splained

B!#ches better know their place, eh, Liberals?:

The Bloc Québécois plans to block a Conservative-led push to have the prime minister fire his top aide following the revelation that Katie Telford was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Gen. Jonathan Vance — but did not tell the prime minister.

In an opposition day motion, the Conservatives contend Telford was “complicit in hiding the truth from Canadians” when she didn’t notify Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the 2018 allegation against Vance, first reported by Global News.

“The House call upon the Prime Minister to dismiss his Chief of Staff for failing to notify him about a serious sexual harassment allegation at the highest ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces and for being complicit in hiding the truth from Canadians,” the motion read.

However, the motion itself isn’t binding and Trudeau is under no obligation to fire his chief of staff, even if multiple parties vote in favour of the motion.

 

(Sidebar: then it's rather pointless, isn't it?)

** 

But if Telford is forced to take the stand, she will be in the uncomfortable position of putting her loyalty to the prime minister ahead of her feminist principles. Just as he did in the SNC Lavalin scandal, Trudeau may end up throwing a strong woman under the bus to save his own skin.

 

Yeah, did you see the list of perverts in Justin's party? 

"Shut Up or Else!" They Explained

Never forget what this is really about: 

Federal internet censors should target hurtful words against politicians, says Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault. The Minister added pending regulations may include an internet kill switch to block websites deemed hurtful, but called it a “nuclear” option: “News regulations for online platforms are needed.”

 

The silencing of everything else -

(Sidebar: make no mistake - that WILL happen.) 

- is simply icing on the cake:

Yet, while Hajdu seems to be a garden variety incompetent individual in a position that simply exceeds her abilities, Guilbeault’s perceived incompetence and inability is really about being unable to admit what Bill C-10 is all about.

It is not that Guilbeault did not have any answers, its that he didn’t have any answers that could be revealed to the public.

Notice how he trips up repeatedly when asked – if the exemption for individual user posts was not important or needed as Guilbeault claimed – why was it included in the first place, and why did he even use it as a selling point originally to dispel concern?

The answer – if Guilbeault was being honest – is that he has been playing a game of bait-and-switch with the legislation in order to try and fool people.

Remember, when this was first revealed, Guilbeault and the Liberals backtracked, denied they would be using government power to regulate individual users and content outside the social networks.

The outrage died down for a while.

Then, they introduced the legislation, with many realizing that there would in fact be state-regulation and control over nearly all internet content – including individual user content.

So, they included an exemption, which of course caused the outrage to die down.

Then, they took that exemption out, leading to a new cycle of outrage.

Expect to see some sort of 'concession' or an empty gesture that makes it appears the Liberals are listening to the outrage, while still pushing forward with C-10 and giving the government massive power over the internet and our free expression on it.

What matters is not each individual move, but the direction of those moves.

** 

Only a PM and a bunch that carry the delusion they are all-wise and ever-right, that they alone and only they, should have rule and command over the thoughts and opinions of a whole nation, could have conceived Bill C-10. Could have put their lawyers to work composing it, then waltzed into Parliament to put it on the Order paper in the first place.

What 21st-century government, aware of speech and thought control in the great and cruel totalitarian governments of the past century, and their cruel brethren of the 21st — Communist China, sinister North Korea, Iran — every tyranny or dictatorship on the globe — would wish to ape and mirror the central characteristic of all such regimes?

All of them ruled and rule today by censorship, monitoring citizens’ thoughts and writing, even private conversation. Speech controls breed a nation of spies.

Bill C-10 may be a kitten-mischief compared with the hideous savageries of full-blown tyrannies. But great oaks out of little acorns grow. Beware the seedlings of thought and speech control. Which is another way of saying do not let governments even toy with the fundamentals of democratic understanding and the absolutes of democratic practice.

** 

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday lost NDP support to speed a YouTube censorship bill through the minority Parliament. New Democrats on the Commons heritage committee said they must determine if the bill violates the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: “It’s important for people to have dissent.”

 

Yes, about that precious document:

Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”) is known as the “notwithstanding clause” and the “override clause.” It allows governments to suspend the rights in section 2 and sections 7 to 15 of the Charter for consecutive five-year periods.

**

What's Canadian content?

When CBC endlessly regurgitates CNN stories about American politics, the authorities say it's "Canadian content".

But when your local community group posts about something important happening in your Canadian neighbourhood, that's not Canadian content

— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) May 4, 2021

**

FACT: If you define "Canadian content" as "any content created by any Canadian", there is 1000s of times more of it on social media than on state-licensed broadcasters.

But the gov says it is not truly "Canadian content" unless a state-sanctioned body stamps a maple leaf on it

— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) May 4, 2021

 

 

Let us suppose, therefore, that the government is entirely at one with the people, and never thinks of exerting any power of coercion unless in agreement with what it conceives to be their voice. But I deny the right of the people to exercise such coercion, either by themselves or by their government. The power itself is illegitimate. The best government has no more title to it than the worst. It is as noxious, or more noxious, when exerted in accordance with public opinion, than when in opposition to it. If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

 

(Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion, John Stuart Mill)

 

May the Fourth

 

Be with you.

Always.

Just When One Thought That Canada Couldn't Screw Up More, It Surprised Everyone

It's like a gift that keeps on giving:

Health Minister Patty Hajdu says she remains “laser focused” on stopping community transmission of COVID-19, despite calls for tougher border measures that could slow the entry of more transmissible variants.

 

Like, in India? 

Or wherever these guys came from?:

 About 1,400 Covid carriers arriving in Canada by international flights were unwittingly released from hotel quarantine, says the Public Health Agency. Cabinet last February 22 ordered passengers into three nights’ quarantine at designated hotels under a $225.6 million program: “I’m wondering how this can happen.”

 

Speaking of which:

As India faces down a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian government says it has identified medical equipment from its emergency stockpile that it is prepared to send overseas to help.

 

Since when did we have excess? 

**

Government incompetence? Quelle surprise:

Documents obtained by Global News and interviews with more than 20 health experts, including physicians and senior’s advocates, reveal how the Ford government received repeated and pointed warnings about the looming dangers lurking in long-term care homes, and how it failed to deliver what was desperately needed in a sector already devastated by a deadly first wave of COVID-19.

 

(Sidebar: where is Legault in all of this?)

** 

Labour Minister Filomena Tassi fabricated claims a “life and death” longshoreman’s strike at the Port of Montréal disrupted deliveries of pandemic medicine. The Department of Transport confirmed of thousands of shipping containers tied up at the Port not one contained vaccines: “Covid fearmongering is not a valid or compelling argument.”

**

Since when was administration of a flu shot a political and not a medical decision?:

Ontario might shorten the length of time between COVID-19 vaccine doses and is looking into mixing and matching doses as it prepares to receive increased shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The province expects to receive weekly shipments of more than 785,000 doses from Pfizer-BioNTech in May, and more than 938,000 doses per week next month.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday that the added supply might allow the province to shorten the current four-month interval between the first and second shots.

"We expect that with the much larger quantities of the Pfizer vaccines that we're receiving throughout the month of May, that we may well be able to shorten the timeline for people to receive their second doses," Elliott said.

 

Also: 

Denmark has decided not to include Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 shots in its vaccination program, several local media reported on Monday citing unnamed sources.

The Nordic country last month stopped using AstraZeneca’s vaccine altogether over a potential link to a rare but serious form of blood clot.

Excluding the J&J vaccine, which accounts for around a third of Denmark’s total contracted supplies of COVID-19 shots, could significantly delay the country’s vaccination calendar.

 

Or maybe they don't like brain bleeds.

 

The Correct Answer Is: "Oh, Hell, NO!"

Free speech means everything can be expressed.

Anything can be construed as offensive.

Even if one could police the Internet, why would one want to?

Except for Goebbels who admitted that he wants to silence critics:

NDP Critic and Deputy Critic for Canadian Heritage Alexandre Boulerice and Heather McPherson will now be voting in favour of the Conservative-led motion that would suspend Bill C-10 until it is confirmed to not violate any Charter rights.

 

The Charter is rubbish document and a lawyer's dream but let one put that aside for the moment.

At what point do these chair-moisteners call Guilbeault's insane and dictatorial plan for what it is: Hitlerian?

Did I miss something?

The other parties are not asking that monstrosity to be scrapped in its entirety and never again entertained. They are merely asking for a suspension.

This is how it all starts, kids.

Also:

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault relied on claims from a lobbyist subsidized by his own department to counter criticism of a YouTube censorship bill. Guilbeault’s department approved a $375,000 grant to the lobby group Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of Montréal prior to its endorsement of Bill C-10: “This is a huge issue.

 

American or Chinese?

I just want to know who my new overlords are.

 

** 

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is accusing the Conservative party of kowtowing to an “extremist element” in the party for criticizing Bill C-10, a Liberal government bill that will regulate online content, including user-generated content shared on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

 

The Czechs were also "extremist" when they defied Hitler and the Soviets.

**

Canada will be hard pressed to overcome the many hurdles associated with taxing foreign players like Google and Netflix, as it’s very difficult to tax revenue that you can’t measure. Determining what percentage of the revenues of companies come specifically from Canada, when they don’t have an office base here, will be spotty at best.

When it comes to taxing multinational corporations, most countries tax their home-country operations and declared profits, but not those of their foreign subsidiaries or affiliates. Therefore, this type of corporate tax on digital companies must be seen in the broader context of tracking and taxing corporate earnings, as companies increasingly look to take advantage of ever-evolving tax havens.

 

When One's Party - Indeed - Country Is Crammed to the Rafters With Soy-Boys and Serial Woman-Abusers, One Really Should Not Be Surprised

A woman is shocked - shocked! - that even the female Liberal MPs care as much for her concerns as they do for toe lint:

Melissa Lukings was in the middle of sharing her expertise in cybersecurity and her lived experience as a former sex worker during a Commons committee hearing earlier this month when the meeting suddenly devolved into a confusing melee of partisan bickering.

Instead of focusing on Lukings’s testimony and asking her questions, Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan instead used her allotted time with the witnesses to table a motion.

The motion, ironically, called for the committee to “hear from further witnesses at its next scheduled meeting for a minimum of two hours.”

“What kinds of witnesses?” Lukings asked from her seat in the virtual meeting.

But she no longer had permission to speak and said her video link was muted.

After a 40-minute adjournment, during which time Lukings said MPs were shouting at each other, the meeting abruptly ended.

“You’re sitting there in front of all these people who you know are in Parliament who can mute you, who can all of a sudden say, ‘No more talking. We have to cut off the feed … No, you don’t get to ask any questions, no, you don’t get to know why,’ ” she said in an interview.

“It was ignorant and rude and pretty offensive, honestly.”

The meeting was one of several Commons committees that have been calling witnesses — mainly women — who have been victims of sexual assault, exploitation and trauma, and inviting them to share their experiences and recommendations for change.

 

Let me explain something to you, my dear:

After weeks of discussion about the Kokanee grope, where Trudeau groped a female reporter and then apologized for being “so forward,” the PM kinda skated past the issue last July.

“I am confident that I did not act inappropriately,” Trudeau said at the time.

“I’ll be blunt about it — often a man experiences an interaction as being benign or not inappropriate, and a woman, particularly in a professional context, can experience it differently.”

Then he called the whole affair a “learning experience” for everyone in society.

Well, not everyone in society was accused of groping a reporter covering him, but Trudeau was.

** 

According to a Globe and Mail article, the MP informed Trudeau that she would not be seeking re-election around the same time as Jody Wilson-Raybould’s resignation.

She allegedly told the PM that political life had seriously harmed her family life, and in response, according to Ms. Chavannes, the Prime Minister grew hostile and yelled at her. Specifically, he allegedly claimed that the MP did not appreciate him, especially when he had provided her with so much.  

“He was yelling. He was yelling that I didn’t appreciate him, that he’d given me so much,” Caesar-Chavannes said.

 

(Sidebar: usually female Liberal MPs tow the line because b!#ches ought to know their place. Right, Chrystia and Patty?)

** 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that as leader of the Liberal Party, he is “continually informed” of internal party investigations into allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct.

The remarks came during a daily briefing with journalists in which Trudeau faced questions about whether he was aware MP Marwan Tabbara, facing criminal charges, was at the centre of an investigation by the Liberal Party into allegations of sexual harassment when the MP was approved to run for the Liberals in the 2019 federal election.

 

This Marwan Tabbara: 

Member of Parliament Marwan Tabbara — who had a court hearing today on assault and criminal harassment charges — was approved to run for the Liberals in the 2019 federal election despite a party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against him during his last mandate, CBC News has learned.

** 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Liberal MPs, including one accused of sexual harassment, took part in a closed-door workshop on creating safe workplaces at the Liberal convention in Halifax.

The session, called "From #MeToo to never again: creating safe work environments," was closed to the media so delegates can share personal stories. Liberal MP Kent Hehr, who stepped down from his cabinet post in January pending an investigation into complaints of sexual harassment against him, attended the session along with his fiancée Deanna Holt.

Leaving the hour-long session, Trudeau called it a "great ongoing part of an important conversation."

** 

PMO Director of Operations Claude-Éric Gagné

Former PMO staffer Claude-Éric Gagné was forced to resign from his position after being under investigation for inappropriate behaviour. 

The staffer involved in the accusation was not identified and the PMO refused to provide details on the incident at the time. 

Despite his resignation, Gagné denied the accusations made against him.

MP Darshan Kang

On August 31, 2017, Kang resigned from the Liberal caucus after he was the subject of several sexual harassment allegations. The allegations dated back to his term as an Alberta MLA. 

Two female staffers came forward with information about Kang’s alleged inappropriate behaviour. According to the Hill Times, Kang was under investigation by the House of Commons Chief Human Resources Officer. 

One of the accusers claimed that Kang had forced himself upon her, kissing her and grabbing her breasts without consent. Shortly after the accusations became public, Kang resigned from the Liberal caucus.  ...

MP Hunter Tootoo

Former Liberal cabinet minister and Nunavut MP Hunter Tootoo apologized publicly in 2016 after reports revealed he had been in an inappropriate relationship.

As a result of the scandal, Tootoo resigned from his cabinet position and the Liberal caucus to serve as an independent MP. 

“I made a mistake and regrettably engaged in a consensual but inappropriate relationship, and that is why I resigned,” said TooToo. 

MPs Massimo Pacetti and Scott Andrews

In 2015, shortly before Trudeau was elected Prime Minister, two Liberal MPs faced a flurry of allegations from a number of women.

Both Pacetti and Andrews were suspended from the Liberal caucus pending an investigation into sexual harassment complaints made by two female NDP MPs. 

**

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan refused to say whether he was aware of the sexual nature of the misconduct allegation against Gen. Jonathan Vance that was brought to his attention in 2018.

 

(Sidebar: I'm sure that this is nothing, too.)

** 

Conservative defence critic James Bezan said the move is an attempt to avoid debate on the motion proposing to call Telford to testify.

“After shutting down committee with a filibuster on Friday to avoid a motion calling the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford to Defence Committee, the Liberals have outright cancelled the meeting today,” he said in a statement.

“The Liberals have shown how far they will go to continue this cover-up and stop Canadians from learning the truth. It’s clear that the Liberals are more interested in protecting Katie Telford than the women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces.”

 

Are you seeing a pattern here?

I am.

It's the pattern of a weak man who exercises what little power he has over someone who either won't fight back or will not be taken seriously. It is the pattern of eunuchs who champion personal license of their favoured prey but will never empower them with things that actually involve personal liberty. It's better to embrace a cause they consider settled, even lie about it, than admit no real woman would have anything to do with them. It's the pattern of liars and crooks who would fall on their swords before letting the tribe down.

And people let them get away with it.

 

Bleeding the East

And everyone thought that they could work with the Democrats.

Nope!:

In a move applauded by environmentalists and Indigenous groups on both sides of the border, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, in November ordered the firm to shut down the nearly 70-year-old lines by May 12.

Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have appealed to their American counterparts, including President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm for help.

 

 

We Don't Have to Trade With China

Trading with it was supposed to make China a democratic country.

Does it look democratic to you?:

The Philippines will continue maritime exercises inside its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, the country's defence minister said on Sunday, despite a call by China to stop actions that it said could escalate disputes.

** 

A social media post from an account linked to the Chinese Communist Party has sparked controversy for appearing to mock India over its coronavirus crisis.

The post on Chinese site Weibo showed an image of a rocket launch in China alongside a photo of the bodies of Covid victims being cremated in India.

Text with it read: "Lighting a fire in China VS lighting a fire in India."

The post, which appeared on Saturday afternoon, has since been deleted.

 

Stay classy, melamine-eaters. 

**

If you still act as though you are from Hong Kong, then you are not Canadian:

A group of Canadian Hong Kongers are encouraging Canadians with Hong Kong heritage to identify themselves as Hongkonger in the 2021 census in an effort to strengthen the community’s diaspora.

With Canada’s 23rd census happening on May 3, a campaign called #IAmHongKonger is aiming to stand up for their own identity.

“We want to show the world that this (Hong Konger) identity exists,” said Maya Lee, a spokesperson for the #IAmHongKonger campaign. “We speak Cantonese, have our own culture and our lived experience as Hongkongers is very unique.”

 

 One cannot serve two masters.

What Could Go Wrong?

To wit:

Beginning with the results from 2004–2008, the table shows that being registered for the election is a significant predictor of Aboriginal turnout. But far and away, the two driving attitudes among Aboriginal voters are political resources and sense of civic duty. Aboriginal electors who say they are interested in politics, follow politics closely and are familiar with the party platforms are 39 percentage points more likely to vote, even when controlling for all other variables. In the case of civic duty, there is a 27 percentage-point turnout gap between those who feel strongly that voting is a duty and those who do not. The only socio-demographic factor that can compete with these two attitudes is age: older Aboriginals are much more likely to head to the polls on election day than Aboriginal youth.

Watch a dramatic uptick here:

The study, which began in 2013, found Indigenous communities liked online voting as a way to get more people to cast ballots both on and off the reserves.

The findings also suggest online voting improves governance, makes elections more accessible and would do a better job at representing the whole community.

Oh, I'm sure.

It's Just Money

It prints itself, apparently:

In the last election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals got 6,018,728 votes, or a puny 33.12 per cent of the total, and the Tories got 6,239,227. Even so, Trudeau ended up with 157 seats and the Tories only 121. I analyzed the numbers in a piece I wrote last year in The Post which revealed the need for electoral reform.

This electoral injustice was due to gerrymandering which has given the poorest part of the country — everything east of the Quebec-Ontario border — 14 more seats than it deserves, based on representation by population. So, it shouldn’t surprise that the Liberals have leveraged their illegitimate position by continuing the practice of sending money from the wealthiest provinces, through grants and equalization payments, to their Liberal strongholds. 

But the extent of this giveaway to Quebec and notably Atlantic Canada is greater than most people realize, according to a recent article in Halifax’s Chronicle Herald by David Mackinnon, a former civil servant in Nova Scotia and Ontario. He was born in P.E.I. and has been a senior fellow at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies in Halifax.

Article content

He warns Atlantic Canadians that their “bubble” is about to burst because it is unsustainable. This warning is timely considering Alberta is about to hold a referendum demanding changes in equalization transfers this fall. Confederation’s other “sugar daddy” Ontario should do the same.

Mackinnon, however, points out that equalization transfers are only a quarter of the money that the federal government has shovelled into Canada’s poorest provinces. “Regional subsidies to Atlantic Canada are much larger than is commonly assumed,” he writes.

“The scale of the problem is no longer in doubt thanks to the work of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and the Fraser Institute. Most Atlantic Canadians would be surprised to find that in recent years, the net annual transfer to each Atlantic Canadian from the pockets of other Canadians has been $6,400, or approximately $25,000 for a family of four, each and every year.”

This has resulted in over-building of infrastructure, bloated provincial bureaucracies, and excessive benefits to locals and their businesses. This giveaway has ruined Canada’s fiscal situation — the Atlantic Canada subsidy regime and subsidies to Quebec from 2007 to 2019 are major contributors to Canada’s debt problems.

“A recent Fraser Institute study notes that the federal spending deficit in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces over this period was almost three times the size of the overall federal deficit over those years. The spending deficit in Atlantic Canada alone substantially exceeds the overall federal deficit over those years,” Mackinnon wrote. “In other words, if federal revenues and expenditures in Atlantic Canada were balanced, the country would have had surpluses for many years and would have entered the present financial crisis in a much stronger position.”

**

The Trudeau government is now borrowing an astronomical $3 billion per week to stay afloat — much of it being printed by the central bank, putting off the eventual need for drastically higher revenue to find a balance.

Instead, each dollar printed by the feds — in what they call the “modern monetary theory,” which is the profoundly irresponsible “theory” that we can print money and not worry about the consequences or the realities of inflation — means that the money in your wallet and bank account will be worth less.

Trudeau plans to add a jaw-dropping $154 billion to the debt this year, skyrocketing our net debt projections up to $1.5 trillion in the next five years.

**

You mean not mention inflation?:

That’s a more complicated message than the one the public is used to hearing from the central bank. Monetary policy is complicated, but officials like to make it sound simple. Say they target inflation of two per cent. If prices jump higher, they’ll raise interest rates. If disinflation occurs, they’ll cut interest rates to get the economy back on track.

Oh?

I can hear the teeth grinding already (if true):

A brand new rumor claims that Disney is in talks to bring Gina Carano back as Cara Dune to The Mandalorian.

This rumor comes from YouTuber Overlord DVD and his Hollywood agents.

Burma Stands Alone

The UN has never cared about anyone but itself:

Protesters against military rule marched in Myanmar on Saturday three months after a coup ended a democratic transition, with several small blasts compounding a sense of crisis that a U.N. envoy warned could bring state administration to a halt.

The military has tried to end dissent and impose its authority on a people largely opposed to the return of rule by the generals after 10 years of democratic reforms that included a government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

Despite a relentless crackdown in which at least 759 protesters have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, crowds come out day after day to reject the junta.

 

 

Misogyny Is Alright when SOME People Do It

Watch as a mere suggestion goes down the memory-hole and an MP gets blacklisted for life:

Polling conducted for the National Post in 2019 shows, similarly, that 84% of Canadians believe the practice should be against the law.

With numbers like these, again we ask, how is it that this issue would not gain bi-partisan support?

Religious groups have called out this practice and have supported Cathay Wagantall's Bill C-233, but where are the feminist and gender equality groups? Where is their voice in denouncing this violence and helping to support politicians who would like to stand against it?

It is interesting to note that Parliament recognized the risk of sex selection when it passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act in 2004. This act prohibits doing “anything that would ensure or increase the probability that an embryo will be of a particular sex, or that would identify the sex of an in vitro embryo.” Clearly, it was understood that being able to gender-select your offspring would not only be discriminatory, but also skew the delicate, natural balance of males and females within the population.  

Add to this the fact that the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada issued an official statement that they do “not support termination of pregnancy on the basis of gender,” one wonder at the resistance of our leaders.

However, is it all that surprising when one considers just how much abortion has become a 'sacred cow' in our culture - a hallmark of radical feminist ideology.

 

It is so much part and parcel of leftist politics that even the idea that a line should exist is galling. 

We will be judged.

Don't Worry. Justin Will Find A Way to Knock It Down

He's done it before:

The Journey to Freedom Park at the entrance to Calgary’s International Avenue on 17th Avenue in the SE will honour the Vietnamese people who left their country in search of a better life.

For the so-called “boat people,” the desperation of fleeing their country outweighed the fear of escape. They risked their lives crammed on rickety fishing boats, endured over-crowding and danger from pirates. ...

There was a groundbreaking Friday for the Journey to Freedom Park.

“This park means a lot to community and to us and we want to thank Canada and Calgary, who helped us the first day we came here,” Truong said.

There will also be monument to honour those refugees who didn’t survive.

 

SEE: Canada, Screw-Up, Handle On

It's not just incompetence but cruelty and ulterior motive:

At 6:41 p.m. on Dec. 10, an urgent email went out to families of residents at Tendercare Living Centre.

The long-term-care home warned of an escalating COVID-19 outbreak at the 254-bed facility in the eastern Toronto suburb of Scarborough.

“Residents who have Covid-19 will be moved to the 4th floor on December 11, 2020,” read the email, signed by Francis Martis, executive director and Esther Spencer, director of care.

But residents were never moved to the fourth floor.

By Feb. 1, 2021, the novel coronavirus had infected almost every resident in the home, killing 81.

“We all were scared,” said a personal support worker, whose identity Global News is protecting for fear of workplace reprisal.

”No one was prepared for this magnitude of people dying like that.”

 

Indeed.

Had the authorities been truly concerned, those patients would have even been moved to a special facility. 

**

Lee is also a member of C19 Response Coalition, a group that has continued to aid in translating material to Vietnamese, Tagalog and Chinese dialects with the support of federal COVID-19 grants.

He says he understands allocating the grants to grassroots groups working on the ground, but when these groups are already spread thin and don’t have the resources to make the system change, it’s more of a “band-aid solution.”

“They’re giving us money, and we’re having to build a parallel system,” he says, adding that if it’s not going to be integrated at a federal level, it feels like there is no point.

 

Learning the language of the majority isn't just practical; it is a clear sign that one is vested in the country in which one has chosen to live.

 

Your Ancestors Didn't Have Rifles, Sir

Elevating one group over another and there are no animal-rights or anti-gun activists in sight:

It was never really about the 600-pound cow-elk, killed near the frosty banks of the Slocan River near Castlegar, B.C., some 35 kilometres north of the U.S. border. Richard Desautel knew that before he pulled the trigger.

“I was walking with my ancestors,” he said. ...

“Pulling the trigger was the easy part,” Desautel said.

His claim, widely supported by First Nations groups, shot fear through federal and provincial governments: What if the Supreme Court of Canada decided that Constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights extend to Indigenous people outside of Canada?

 

Unaccountable and un-elected judicial activists have made Canadian forests into American hunting grounds because someone was here first or something.

There goes our sovereignty. 

 

Happy Now?

This Calgary-based company had the audacity not to be in Quebec or in China:

The head of a homegrown company behind a promising COVID-19 vaccine says he's ready to pull his company out of Canada and take its product elsewhere after calls for more substantial federal support went unanswered.

Brad Sorenson, the CEO of Calgary-based Providence Therapeutics, told CBC News he's had enough of the "runaround" from federal and provincial governments and he's working with the company's board of directors to move its operations overseas to focus on developing a vaccine for people in the southern hemisphere.

"I'm moving on, that's where I'm at now. I've prostrated myself at the altar of government in Canada for a year and I've received nothing for it. I'm tired of begging and pleading," Sorenson said.

"I can't tell you how much this pains me. The reality is, I can do more good for the world outside of Canada than I can in."

 

The legacy of any Liberal government: brain-trust and financial depletion.

 

 

 

"Shut Up or Else!" They Explained

E-mails simply will not do:

Liberal MPs voted Friday to shut down debate on a Conservative motion to review whether an amendment to broadcasting Bill C-10 violates charter rights.

The controversial amendment would allow regulation of social media content and critics say it amounts to an attack on free speech. ...

Liberal MPs said that the committee is in the process of amending the legislation clause-by-clause, and it wouldn’t make sense to send the legislation for another review in the middle of that process.

Under the legislation, “charter statements reflect the bill at the time of introduction and are not updated,” Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said. He added that if that charter statement “were to be updated at any point, for whatever reason if that was permissible, it would only make sense to do so at the end of debate of the bill, when all the amendments had been adopted, and one knew what the legislation would look like.”

 

(Sidebar: bullsh--. What does Housefeather think shutting down the debate is?)

 

Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin proposed a motion to adjourn debate on the bill, effectively stopping the discussion. The five Liberal MPs on the committee and the sole NDP MP voted in favour of stopping the debate. The four Conservative committee members and one Bloc Québécois member voted against.

On Twitter following the Friday afternoon meeting, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault accused the Conservatives of delaying work on the bill and “putting the interests of big foreign streamers over those of Canadian creators.”

(Sidebar: the committee's names here. They should be reminded which country they really serve.) 

To wit:

But if the exclusion is removed – if 4.1 is struck down – the programming we upload to Youtube, that programming that we place on that service would be subject to regulation moving forward, but would be the responsibility of Youtube or whatever the sharing service is. The programming that is uploaded could be subject to discoverability requirements or certain obligations like that.

If the way forward to is maintain the exclusion for individual users but to strike down the exclusion for social media companies, that means that all the programming that is on those services would be subject to the Act regardless of whether it was put there by an affiliate or a mandatary of the company.

** 

During today’s hearing, Liberal MP Marci Ien inadvertently let slip that the government will be introducing a motion to regulate apps. Speaking about the wrong amendment (which is presumably forthcoming at the next meeting), Ien stated:

Yes, a new clause, Mr. Chair, because we live in a new world and it is a digital one. This clause is adding apps. Right now, the CRTC can regulate conventional channels. This would make sure that apps are regulated as well. Things like Crave and other apps. This clause is also about discoverability and for more on that I’d like to go to the department for why that’s important.

The department gently responded that Ian was talking about the wrong amendment.

However, in letting it slip that the government now wants the CRTC to regulate apps, the scope of Bill C-10 expands even further by potentially covering hundreds of thousands of apps that include audio or video that might qualify under the definition of programs. The previous assurances that video games are off the table is apparently gone with plans to have the CRTC regulate practically anything digital including user generated content and apps.

 

Yes, tyranny does not stop at a certain point.