Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Israel

The most hotly contested piece of real estate in the Middle East found itself once more besieged by the usual suspects (in this case, Iranian-backed Hamas) in one some conclude is a stunning failure of intelligence and in a sadly bloody fashion.

This is lather, rinse and repeat for Islamists who see it as their Koran-given goal to murder non-Muslims (not just murder but humiliate and frighten), as they have done SO many times in France, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US - to name a few (but strangely enough not Tokyo or Warsaw ... hhhmmm ...). The Israelis, of course, are doing all that they can to mop but it is not easy. It's not only the bloodbaths on the ground but how to deal with Iran, any peace deals that are no doubt defunct and the ignorant and decadent West (of which Israel must be included - it must be said) which apologises for the utterly evil Hamas.

Below is a link dump of the events on the ground so far, the dreadful images that have to be seen so that no one forgets and the disgusting apologia for people who see it as their cosmological purpose to murder even children.

 

To wit:

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Bar Perry woke up to the sound of war. At 6am she heard the scream of rockets, followed by sirens, in her hometown of Sderot, Israel, a mile from Gaza. Very soon she was being sent messages about Palestinian gunmen walking through the town, knocking on front doors, battering them down — and taking people away.

“They shot people and entered homes, kidnapped people,” said Perry, 36, who was still trapped in a safe room with her husband and their dog on Saturday afternoon. “People shared footage from safety cameras showing it all happen. There were gunshots, screams. The amount of terror and cruelty is beyond compare. It’s like a horror movie.”

Early on Saturday, Palestinian fighters began their most daring and brutal raid on Israel in decades. Before dawn broke, the highly guarded fence between Gaza and Israel was breached. Hamas troops flooded into the country by land, sea and air.

Palestinian fighters set fire to tanks and occupied towns, with dozens of Israelis reportedly taken back to Gaza as hostages. Unverified videos on social media show them handcuffed and bloodied, paraded through the streets by Hamas terrorists carrying Kalashnikovs.

Thousands of rockets were fired from Gaza, and Israel launched airstrikes in retaliation. Just over three hours after the first rockets were fired, the Israeli government declared that the country was at war. The attack appeared to take the Israeli defence forces (IDF) by surprise, the strike happening on Shabbat and the public holiday of Simchat Torah.

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Many of the young men and women started running in the flat expanse of the western Negev desert. Faced with the spectacle of kids fleeing for their lives on a largely flat surface, the terrorists began rounding up the rest of their victims.

Others were captured and bound and kidnapped. “I saw videos with a male getting held by a group of Arab kids. Like, they’re like 16, 17,” one survivor recalled. “They’re kids, but they’re young men already, and they’re holding this guy, and he looks as his girlfriend is being mounted on a bike and driven away from him. God knows what she’s going to experience … Women have been raped at the area of the rave next to their friends bodies, dead bodies.”

Several of these rape victims appear to have been later executed. Others were taken to Gaza. In photographs released online, you can see several paraded through the city’s streets, blood gushing from between their legs.

One survivor who’d returned to the scene later in the day to look for his friends spoke, in a breaking voice, of what he’d seen. Of the bodies, mainly of young women, lying cold and mutilated. Of scantily clad corpses, many of whom appeared to have been shot at point-blank. Of cars, perforated by bullets or blown up by grenades.

Some of the lucky ones ran to a nearby wadi, seeking shelter amid the shrubbery. “I felt like they were shooting right above our heads,” one survivor recalled. “I dove into a bush … It felt like the shooting was coming from 180 degrees, all around us. I understood we’re going to be there for at least a couple of hours. And I had nothing on me. And I was like, the only thing I want is a weapon. I want something to protect us.” Eventually, he and his friends, some of them barefoot, decided to risk it and try to reach safety, walking close enough to the road to see it but not so close so that they might be seen. “I said, if we see like army or police cars, we’re going to go to the road. Otherwise, we’re going to stay away. When we saw police and army cars, we knew that it’s a safe place.”

Later, when the gruesome attack was finally over and IDF soldiers managed to subdue the attackers, they searched these trucks and found RPG launchers, high-end communications devices, assorted AK-47s and other mostly Soviet-made weapons, along with numerous copies of the Quran.

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Maya Alper was standing toward the back of the bar with teams of environmentally conscious volunteers, picking up trash and passing out free vodka shots to party-goers who reused their cups. Just after 6.a.m., as a light-blue dawn broke and the headliner D.J. took the stage, air raid sirens cut through the ethereal trap music. Rockets streaked overhead.

Alper, 25, jumped into her car and raced to the main road. But at the intersection she encountered crowds of stricken festival attendees, shouting at drivers to turn around. Then, a noise. Firecrackers? Panicked men and women staggering down the road just in front of her fell to the ground in pools of blood. Gunshots.

Saturday’s attack on the open-air Tribe of Nova music festival is believed to be the worst civilian massacre in Israeli history, with at least 260 dead and a still undetermined number taken hostage. Dozens of Hamas militants who had blown through Israel’s heavily fortified separation fence and crossed into the country from Gaza opened fire on about 3,500 young Israelis who had come together for a joyous night of electronic music to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Some attendees were drunk or high on drugs, magnifying their confusion and terror.

 

(Sidebar: well, it's probably not a good idea to do drugs then, is it?) 

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Authorities believe 260 people were massacred at the event at which between 3-4,000 people were in attendance. 
Many of those kidnapped by Hamas terrorists include women - both young and old - and children. The terrorists even shot the legs off hostages to prevent them from escaping.

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Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 40 babies as part of their Oct. 7 attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Israel Defense Forces soldiers who retook the community told i24News on Tuesday.

“Talking to some of the soldiers here, they say what they witnessed as they’ve been walking through these communities is bodies of babies with their heads cut off and families gunned down in their beds,” said the report, which was shared by the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

 

(Sidebar: had these children been beheaded before birth, well ...)

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Shiri, Yarden, Ariel and Kfir Bibas are believed to have been abducted from the kibbutz in southern Israel where they lived and where Shiri was a kindergarten teacher. Shiri was pictured holding Ariel, aged 3, and 9-month-old Kfir, surrounded by Hamas militants.

Yossi and Margit Silberman, Shiri's parents, are also missing and thought to have been captured.

Doron, Raz and Aviv Asher were taken captive while staying with relatives near the Gaza border. Husband Yoni saw a video of his wife and daughters, aged 5 and 3, being loaded onto a truck with other hostages. He also traced her mobile phone to Gaza.

Carmella and Noya Dan with Ofer, Erez and Safar Kalderon were taken prisoner in Nir Oz, a kibbutz next to Gaza where they lived. A video on social media appeared to show 12-year-old Erez being taken by gunmen into Gaza, their relative Ido Dan told the BBC, who said he also feared for the health of 80-year-old Carmella without her medication.

Ada Sagi is believed to have been abducted from her home in Nir Oz, about 400m from the border with Gaza. Her son, Noam, said Israeli soldiers found bloodstains but no sign of his mother and she was not among those killed or injured in the small community.

The parents of Sharone Lifschitz - a London-based artist, who asked for them not to be identified for fear of reprisals - are also believed to have been taken hostage from Nir Oz. Ms Lifschitz said her father speaks Arabic and spent his time in retirement driving Palestinians who needed medical treatment to hospital.

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Since the surprise attack began, graphic images and videos of innocent civilians of all ages and Israeli soldiers being kidnapped and attacked by Hamas have been circulating on social media.

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Miss Louk's mother has released a video appealing for help. Do the Germans have special forces? If not, maybe they could send in that 98-year-old SS officer who's a hero of the Canadian House of Commons.

Israel, as always, is being urged to confine itself to a "proportionate" response. Headline from my former newspaper The Irish Times:

Micheál Martin indicates Israeli response to 'appalling' Hamas attack has not been proportionate

Mr Martin is the former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste (deputy Taoiseach) and Foreign Minister. I wonder what he thinks is the "proportionate" response to that scene? The "proportionate response" to an army that, as its principal tactic, seizes your womenfolk and children, and rapes, tortures and kills them. Would raping, torturing and killing their womenfolk be "proportionate"?

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More than 1,600 people have been killed since Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel over the weekend, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war.

Speaking from the White House on Tuesday, President Biden said the number of Americans who have died in Israel since Saturday has risen to 14. He confirmed that Americans are being held hostage by Hamas.

 

 

Canadian hostages are as good as dead. No one should expect the Canadian government (even if it DID have clout, and it doesn't) to race to their aid. Justin let two Canadian nationals die in the Philippines. These hostages mean nothing to him:

At least two Canadians are dead and two more are missing after the attacks on Israel by Hamas.

Global Affairs Canada, which was aware of least one of the deaths as well as the two missing people, said there are 1,419 registered Canadians in Israel, and 492 in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but noted this registration was voluntary and likely incomplete.

 

(Sidebar: also note that the Canadian embassy was shut for the week-end and offered no assistance to anyone. It might be open now.)

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A Vancouver-area MP says a man from his riding was among those killed when Hamas militants attacked sites in Israel early Saturday.

Ben Mizrachi "was found amongst those murdered by Hamas terrorists," Taleb Noormohamed, MP for Vancouver Granville, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Tuesday.

 

(Sidebar: this Taleb Noormohamed.)

 

 

And why would Canada - which applauded a Ukrainian Nazi - condemn Hamas, which Canadian taxes fund, and would it even matter now that Canada is back ... wards?:

A joint statement issued by the White House Monday evening condemning the Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend includes signatures from five of the leaders of the G7 nations.

Absent from the list: Canada and Japan.

 

Now, surely the above (save Canada, of course) will do more than offer words.

 


Mr. Guterres, what is "humanitarian" about dragging a dead soldier out of a tank?

I'll wait. 

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The savagery is mind-numbing.

A gleeful mob of young men spitting on the half-naked body of a dead woman in the back of a truck, paraded down a Gaza side street. Heaps of bloodied Jewish corpses in bomb shelters. People pulled from their cars and riddled with bullets. The streets of Israeli towns littered with dead innocents.

What shocks the conscience at least as sharply is the depravity of celebration among the well-to-do in comfortable faculty lounges, bistros and leafy neighbourhoods far from the dreary Palestinian backstreets of Ramallah and Beit Heinoun. What can explain that?

On X, formerly known as Twitter, this was Sarah Shahid, freelancer for Now Toronto and Spring magazine: “What a glorious Saturday. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” At Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, assistant professor of social work Dr. Jessica Hutchison had this advice for conscientious Canadians: “I hope your upcoming acknowledgements will include support for Palestinians who are taking their land back from settler colonizers.”

 


Why aren't Canadians asking why their tax dollars are funding Hamas?:

Although the Trump administration stopped funding the UNPRA in August 2018, the Canadian government under Trudeau shelled out a whopping $50 million for a period of two years in the name of assisting ‘health and education efforts’ of the UN body.

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A federal charity is tax money given to a pet cause

Let's clear that up now:

A federal charity called Israel “sadistic” and “barbaric” after terrorist attacks in that country left 3,100 casualties, mostly Jews. Directors of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East include one former MP and a current Government of Canada manager: ‘Charities may not support one or another political faction or prolong violence.’ 

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Bull. Sh-- :

Canada will continue delivering humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians while preventing that aid from being diverted to Hamas, says International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen's office.

 

It's ALL going to Hamas, you vile worm.

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They have their rea$on$:

The European Union late Monday reversed an earlier announcement by an EU commissioner that the bloc was “immediately” suspending development aid for Palestinian authorities and instead said it would urgently review such assistance in the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas to make sure no money was misused.

“There will be no suspension of payments” at the moment, a terse European Commission statement said late Monday, five hours after EU Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi had said that all payments from the development program for Palestinians would be “immediately suspended. All projects put under review. All new budget proposals … postponed until further notice.”

No immediate explanation for the reversal was given. A full European Commission statement always trumps a statement from an EU commissioner, but the reversal on a 691 million-euro ($730 million) program capped an embarrassing day at the EU’s executive at a time of extreme geopolitical sensitivities.

Since Saturday, support of the 27-nation bloc for Israel had been steadfast, including that the country had now every right within international law to defend itself in the war with Hamas.

The surprise announcement by Varhelyi on development aid came just hours after EU officials stressed that no EU money whatsoever was going to Hamas in the first place and that contacts had been frozen for 16 years. The EU considers Hamas a terror group.

After hours of uncertainty over how deep the measures would reach and whether they would possibly also affect aid to those in immediate need, the European Commission said there was no suspension for now, but said it started “an urgent review of the EU's assistance for Palestine.”

 

 

Well, that explains some things:

 


Wednesday, October 04, 2023

Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week autumnal sangria ...


Canada, the dolt of nations:

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Second, the CRTC’s analysis frequently points to this decision as the thin edge of the wedge with the registration requirement being the first step toward a far broader regulatory framework. In fact, the rationale for the CRTC to include many of the services is that without such information it is not well positioned to regulate. This creates an obvious contradiction: the Commission claims that the registration requirement is de minimis requiring the disclosure of only limited information but then also argues that such information is important to future decision making on compliance with the Broadcasting Act objectives. 

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The world — especially America — has looked on in horror as the Canadian government has tried to curtail speech in the country, and looked on with ever-more horror as Canadians seem willing to go along with this. It seems to be the view of the Canadian authorities that they are capable of deciding at the merest glance who is and is not allowed to speak, what is and is not acceptable speech, what any Canadians can and cannot read and who is and who is not a “Nazi.” These being the same authorities who apparently cannot even perform the most basic Google searches on their guests.

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The CRTC’s intention to regulate the podcast universe, in response to the government’s Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11), has received negative attention from some high-profile Americans in recent days. “The Canadian government, armed with one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all ‘online streaming services that offer podcasts’ must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls,” journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on Twitter. Elon Musk concurred: “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful.”

Canadians will politely suffer many indignities, but rarely Americans being wrong about something. Many online were quick to note that only streaming services with revenues in excess of $10 million need register with the CRTC — and not content-producers whose work they distribute. Streaming services need only provide the CRTC very basic information about their operations: address, launch date, URL, language of service. (Presumably the commissioners and staff refuse to use Google on principle.)

This is important context, certainly. Unfortunately for the Liberals, “not as unreasonable as Glenn Greenwald and Elon Musk think” is really no defence at all.

The case for the CRTC’s existence rests on the reasonably perceived need to regulate a finite publicly owned commodity, namely airborne radio and television bandwidth. But as podcasting has quite spectacularly demonstrated — not that it really needed demonstrating after, say, 1999 — there is nothing finite about the online bandwidth necessary to disseminate podcasts. And the technical barriers to podcasting fame are marvellously few: One suspects it would boggle a CRTC commissioner’s mind, but two people with a laptop, a couple of USB microphones and a hook can easily make themselves a global hit.

Bandwidth not being a problem, the only argument for the CRTC to get involved in the medium — other than to justify its own superannuated existence — rests on content: It thinks we should be listening to more of something and less of something else.

The CRTC insists it’s not regulating content.

But then it says: “The CRTC is advancing its regulatory plan to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework and ensure online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content.”

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It is not about receiving other news; it is about having only ONE official governmental mouthpiece:

Draft regulations the Liberal government had been hoping would convince Google to reconsider a move to block news on its products in Canada won’t do the job, Google said Tuesday.

But the company isn’t expected to pull news from Google Search or its other products right away. A spokesperson said Google would “await the publication of final regulations” governing the implementation of the Online News Act.

The 30-day comment period on the draft regulations has now ended. The government can make changes to what it proposed and incorporate the feedback it received in the final version of regulations.

Google has previously said it would pull Canadian news from Google Search and its other products in Canada over the legislation called Bill C-18.


Remember - this is the same government that feted a Ukrainian Nazi.

Then again, the Liberals never really hid who they were.

 

Also - what is an "unsanctioned gathering"?:

Police say they've made arrests and issued summary offence tickets after an "unsanctioned student gathering" in Halifax.

City Police issued a release this afternoon asking people to stay away from Preston, Larch and Jennings streets because of the size of the crowds.

While police did not provide an estimate on the size of the crowd or say how many people have been arrested, they say officers were focusing on community safety and quality-of-life issues.

They say neighbourhood disturbances could result in charges, including criminal ones.

Last month, Dalhousie University and the Halifax Regional Municipality announced the launch of a joint task force to address unsanctioned street gatherings in the city's south end.

 


It isn't about the woeful ignorance of Canadians and the tragedy of the Holocaust or files kept secret (and STILL kept secret) or even Justin's dad finding it hilarious to mimic the Nazis the Canadian armed forces were trying to destroy. It is about the Liberals, so quick to project (and falsely, too), inviting and applauding a Nazi who had no business hiding in Canada and then trying to walk from it:

Cabinet under a 2009 international pact has an obligation to name Nazi fugitives let into Canada, a Liberal-appointed Senator said yesterday. Authorities will not release the confidential 1985 list of 20 suspected war criminals: “They knew.”



How embarrassing for Justin:

A Quebec-based anti-gun group declaring it would disinvite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from the annual commemoration of a 1989 mass shooting because it disapproved of his latest gun-control measure sent several officials within the Public Safety Ministry into damage-control mode looking for ways to respond, documents released under access-to-information show.

The emails reveal that government staffers reacted with concern to news coverage of a March 2021 letter sent to Trudeau from PolySeSouvient, an outspoken Canadian anti-gun group founded by survivors of the 1989 École Polytechnique shooting.

The letter and subsequent coverage expressed the group’s anger over Bill C-21, which the group described as “lamentable.”

In a March 18 French-language article published by Radio-Canada, PolySeSouvient accused Trudeau of “abandoning” and “betraying” victims of Canadian gun violence over the government’s announcement of a voluntary “buy back” program for certain firearms, instead of mandatory confiscation, which PolySeSouvient had demanded.

If the prime minister refused to change the policy, PolySeSouvient said Trudeau would be declared persona non grata at future commemorations of École Polytechnique victims.

 

It is not whether the buy-back program was good or bad but Justin not being seen that really hurt.



Never send a "journalist" to do an economist's job:

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s department yesterday said it does not know how many billions it is currently spending on debt interest charges. One senator expressed disbelief: “All the smart people are in the Department of Finance.”

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Department of Finance in-house research rates Minister Chrystia Freeland boastful and self-congratulatory. Canadians also concluded Freeland was disconnected from economic realities on inflation and housing, said a department report: ‘They were somewhat cynical and questioned what had been actually accomplished.’

 

 

Who did you vote for, Canada?:

If the federal government is worried about grocery prices now, wait until the global sustainability and climate-related financial disclosures of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) come to Canada.

Among other things, these standards mandate the use of intrusive, burdensome, and expensive CO2 emissions accounting across a company’s entire value chain. For grocery retailers this includes explaining and accounting for emissions in the production, transport, packaging, refrigeration, consumption and disposal of everything they sell. In other words, your grocery store will need to quantify all the emissions of that hamburger meat you bought: whether in producing it (including all steps from farm to processor), transporting it to the store, packaging and refrigerating it at the store, plus your travelling to and from the store, your refrigeration and eventually your cooking of the hamburger, and your disposal of the packaging and any waste of the food.

Needless to say, doing and documenting those calculations for every product in the store will not lower your grocery bill but instead will increase grocers’ costs and therefore their prices, too. What say do grocery retailers and other businesses have regarding the practicality, burden, and cost impacts of these standards in Canada? So far, it seems, not much. 

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More than one-third of working Canadians are financially stressed, according to new National Payroll Institute research. That's a 20 per cent jump since last year.

The annual survey, conducted through Canada's Financial Wellness Lab, reached a sample of 1,500 working Canadians between July 21 and Aug. 1. The findings put 37 per cent in the "financially stressed" category amid rising costs and dwindling pandemic-era savings.

"With interest rates, inflation, and the cost of living all continuing to rise, for many working Canadians, navigating these factors has negatively impacted their financial wellness," National Payroll Institute president Peter Tzanetakis stated in a news release on Tuesday. "The frightening reality of this storm is that the contributing factors to financial stress are becoming more challenging than ever for Canadians to overcome."



Some people are special:

Kinew has openly admitted to a conviction for impaired driving and for assaulting a cab driver in his early 20s more than a decade ago — offences for which he has received pardons.

He was given a conditional discharge in 2004 for an assault in Ontario, and was charged with assaulting his partner in 2003. The latter charge was stayed, although his former partner maintains Kinew threw her across the room.

 

It is not WHAT is done but WHO does it.

Had this been anyone else, certain parties would have used this as fodder.

And people voted for this guy.

That's says a lot about them.

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A new survey found that 48 per cent of Canadians say they won’t be taking any specific action to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

 

Maybe this is why:

The fact that Phyllis Webstad puts nuns at centre-stage on the cover and in the text and illustrations of The Orange Shirt Story contrasts rather markedly with her failure to mention nuns in her other accounts of her year at St. Joseph’s, which, to clarify, was no longer a school when she arrived there in 1973, but a student residence or hostel in which students lived while attending public schools in town in Williams Lake.

As the federal government’s policy of integrating status Indian students into provincial public schools and turning the former residential schools into student residences or hostels progressed during the 1950s and 1960s, nuns were no longer required as teachers, and many had left by the time the federal government formally took over administration of the schools from the churches on 1 April 1969. Thus, if there were still a few non-teaching nuns working alongside lay staff at St Joseph’s residence/hostel during Phyllis Webstad’s one-year stay there in 1973/4, it does seem a rather glaring omission that she never specifically mentions nuns in other accounts of her life there.

 


Perhaps we should just treat people as people?:

Among non-white Canadians, almost nobody is referring to themselves by the government-approved names for their demographic, says one finding of a sweeping new Angus Reid Institute survey on the topic of racism in Canada.
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The poll also found that while a clear majority of Canadians think the country is becoming less racist, Blacks and Asians, among others, still report regular run-ins with discrimination.
The official term for non-white people used in most Government of Canada communications is “racialized” or “BIPOC” (black, Indigenous, people of colour). “Currently the terms ‘racialized minority’ or ‘racialized groups’ or ‘people of colour’ are preferred by people labelled as visible minorities,” reads one of several “anti-racism lexicons” now maintained by federal agencies.
But a mere 12 per cent of non-white Canadians polled used either term (six per cent for racialized, six per cent for BIPOC). Most used the term “visible minority” (38 per cent), a hyphenated descriptor such as Chinese-Canadian (16 per cent) or something else entirely.



We don't have to trade with China:

A second national security adviser to the prime minister got a warning in 2021 from the nation's spy agency that Beijing was targeting MPs, a classified document obtained by The Epoch Times shows, but he didn’t brief it up. Additionally, this detail was not included in the special rapporteur's report on foreign interference.
The Epoch Times has obtained, through the access to information regime, a partly redacted Top Secret limited distribution briefing note the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) sent to a handful of government officials in May 2021, advising them it would conduct defensive briefings with the targeted MPs.
“CSIS will be conducting defensive briefings to Members of Parliament, Michael CHONG and Kenny CHIU to sensitize both on foreign interference threats posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” CSIS said in an emailed note from May 31, 2021.

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According to the Chinese consulate in the city, Adams, New York State Assemblywoman Grace Lee, and New York City Council member Christopher Marte joined a “China Day Celebration Parade Festival” in Chinatown.

Adams’ participation in the events on October 1, the anniversary of the founding of the “People’s Republic of China,” is notable given mounting reports of Adams maintaining close ties with, including reportedly receiving financial donations from, individuals believed to be affiliated with China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). “United Front Work” is a catchall term the Communist Party uses for foreign interference operations masquerading as cultural outreach, charity, or educational programs.

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(Sidebar: the new guy merely has a few ethics complaints. He's over-qualified if you ask me.)

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Keep waiting, Han:

Independent MP Han Dong said on Tuesday that he’s still waiting for word on whether or not he can return to the Liberal caucus, but he hopes it will happen as soon as possible.

The Toronto-area MP resigned from the government caucus in March following allegations related to Chinese interference published in media reports.

 

Also - then why did you let Chinese soldiers train here?:

Defence Minister Bill Blair says the government is looking at whether to bring in legislation restricting who former Canadian Forces members can train or share information with that they have learned through their service.

It comes as Canada’s top soldier and a deputy minister are warning members of the Canadian Forces against working and sharing information with militaries “whose interests diverge from our own.”


I suppose it doesn't matter seeing as the Liberals are gutting the military - again!



It's just money:

Ottawa has frozen the activities of a federal foundation that finances the development of green technologies after receiving a report that criticized its management of public funds.

Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC) is in the middle of a five-year agreement with the federal government to distribute $1 billion to small and medium businesses in the clean tech sector.

The decision to stop the organization from approving new funding was announced on Tuesday by Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

The move came after a group of whistleblowers brought a complaint against SDTC to the government earlier this year over concerns about the foundation's management of its federal funding and human resources.

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Since November 2015, Canada’s federal government has sent nearly $23.5 million to projects involving the World Economic Forum (WEF), documents obtained by The Epoch Times show.
The numbers are contained in a 127-page response tabled in the House of Commons Sept. 18 to a question posed in June by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis.
Her question asked for an accounting of all “contracts, transfer payments, memoranda of understanding, letters of intent, charters, accords, projects and associations between the government and the WEF since November 4, 2015.”

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A new Leger poll finds that a clear majority of Canadians want the carbon tax reduced or eliminated entirely — and that nearly everyone thinks that federal plans for “net zero” are unrealistic.

(Sidebar: these carbon taxes.)

Of respondents, 55 per cent wanted the carbon tax reduced (18 per cent) or abolished (37 per cent), while 27 per cent were fine to keep it as-is. A mere 18 per cent said they agreed with the current strategy of raising carbon levies each year.
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While Alberta typically charts as the most anti-carbon tax jurisdiction in Canada, this time it was Atlantic Canada, where 48 per cent of respondents favoured total abolition of carbon pricing. The region first became subject to federal carbon levies on July 1, leading to a noticeable rise in fuel prices that spawned blanket opposition from all four Atlantic Canadian provincial governments.

 

(Sidebar: yes, Alberta surely does have its reservations.)

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Bid rigging, crashing a government car while intoxicated and sexually harassing co-workers are just some of the reasons Global Affairs Canada employees were fired or resigned last year, as the department works to tackle misconduct and better protect whistleblowers.

The information is contained in the first annual report titled “Addressing Misconduct and Wrongdoing at Global Affairs Canada” that was distributed to employees Tuesday and obtained by National Post.

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A Canadian mission censured for running a fraud ring has passed a federal audit. Misconduct at the Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti prompted worldwide audits of Canadian diplomatic offices: “Numerous fraud schemes were discovered.”
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Contractors don’t have to build affordable apartments to qualify for a GST break because cabinet does “not want to be building cheap homes in a bad part of town,” Housing Minister Sean Fraser said yesterday. The tax break will cost $383 million a year by Budget Office estimate: “It is one of the most important things we could do.”