Mid-Week Post

Your middle-of-the-week counterpoint ....

Harjit Sajjan proves what a disgusting piece of human trash he is:

Directors of a charitable foundation that struck a deal with Ottawa to sponsor the immigration of Afghan Sikhs to Canada made political donations to then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan’s Vancouver South Liberal riding association around the same time as Canadian special forces soldiers were instructed to rescue and airlift the group from Kabul.

Elections Canada records show that between them, these directors made thousands of dollars of personal donations to the Liberal Vancouver South Liberal riding association in August 2021. Canada was in the midst of a general election campaign that had begun August 16 and Mr. Sajjan was seeking re-election in the Vancouver South riding.

These records raise more questions about the connection between Mr. Sajjan and the non-profit charity that had pressed Mr. Sajjan and the government to try to rescue a group of 225 Afghan Sikhs during final evacuation flights from Kabul as the Taliban cemented its control over Afghanistan.

As the Globe and Mail reported last week, Mr. Sajjan instructed Canadian special forces to rescue about 225 Afghan Sikhs after the Taliban takeover in August, 2021, in an operation that three military sources say took resources away from getting Canadian citizens and Afghans linked to Canada on final evacuation flights.

Elections Canada records show that Tarjinder Bhullar, a director of the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Charitable Foundation, made a $510 donation to the riding association. Her donation was received Aug. 19, 2021. The contributor address and the postal code are the same as that of the address used by the foundation in the federal corporate registry.

Two other donations – each totalling $1,000 – were recorded with the same postal code and contributor address as Ms. Bhullar’s came from Baljinder Bhullar and Apharnarayan Bhullar. These names match two other directors of the foundation according to the federal corporate registry. Their donations were received Aug. 22, 2021.

Finally, a donation of $1,650 from Namrita Rattan was received August 27, 2021, according to Elections Canada. This name matches that of a fourth foundation director who was also the wife of Manmeet Bhullar. Mr. Bhullar, a former provincial cabinet minister in Alberta, died in 2015. This donation was received Aug. 27, 2021.

Canada’s airlift efforts ended on August 27, the day after the rescue mission failed when the Sikhs became nervous and left the rendezvous within a half hour of Canadian troops arriving. The group later managed to get to India.

Mr. Sajjan’s office was not immediately available to provide comment to questions from The Globe about the donations and the actions carried out by the minister to help them.

The question is whether Justin will defend Sajjan's indefensible behaviour or throw Sajjan under the bus to protect himself?

What is the "correct" thinking, you fascist?:

 

Government spokespeople must “correct” Canadians’ thinking, says a report by Treasury Board President Anita Anand’s department. The Board yesterday did not comment on its claim 4,600 federal spokespeople were defenders of “the heart of our democracy.”

Diplomat Barbie stonewalls everyone: 

 

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s department will not tell MPs which consultant it hired to run security at Canadian embassies abroad. It followed protests by the Commons government operations committee after managers hired a state-controlled Chinese contractor: “The name of the supplier ultimately selected cannot be provided.”

 

 

Speaking of stonewalling: 

A British Columbia lobby yesterday would not release a complete recording of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks to a “private town hall” with home equity tax advocates. Reporters and the public were barred from attending the hour-long meeting June 25, according to the University of B.C. host Generation Squeeze: “Wrong idea at the wrong time in the wrong country. Maybe try Denmark.”

Debts and taxes don't pay themselves off:

 

Workers in Greece are going to have to work a little bit longer starting this week, with the country introducing a six-day work week for some.

As part of new labour laws passed last year, some Greek workers began a 48-hour work week starting Monday, a move that union representatives from across industries have termed “barbaric.”

The pro-business government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the changes are “growth-oriented” and are necessary given the country’s shrinking population and lack of skilled labour — a crisis Mitsotakis has described as a “ticking time bomb.”

However, the move is not finding many takers here in Canada.

“We do have an urgent need to fix Canada’s declining productivity. However, the solution is not necessarily to adopt longer working hours but rather work in a smarter way,” said Diana Palmerin-Velasco, senior director on the future of work at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“To increase productivity, we need to enable an innovative economy through regulatory modernization, technological investment and adoption, digital transformation of SMEs, and better skilling and training of our workforce,” Palmerin-Velasco said.

 

What you need is the government to get out of the way so that business can flourish. 

But I guess you know what you are doing.

 

Doug Ford ejects Goldie Ghamari from the party.

What a coward he is:

My official statement on my removal from the Ontario PC Caucus: pic.twitter.com/MbTy9od4TE

— Goldie Ghamari, MPP | گلسا قمری (@gghamari) July 2, 2024

One need not worry about this incident being memory-holed because the bribed press has done its utmost to not report on it much.

It's not hard to see why. 

On the totem pole of tribalism, for whom does one root - the diverse mass everyone insists is as sweet and charming as a basketful of kittens or sexual alphabet mass the former mass has a habit of launching off of roofs? 

The latter delighted in shoving its proclivities in everyone's faces, making everyone bake the cakes, and even voting for the masses now pummeling them to be allowed in the country without hesitation.

How did that work out?

 

Whenever two shitlib pet issues clash with each other there is always this commentary like "oooh wonder which one will win" as though the shitlib will experience a cognitive dissonance and become confused about which to support first.

But they won’t. the methodology for… https://t.co/KKTQE2fvEh

— pagliacci the hated 🌝 (@Slatzism) July 2, 2024

Also - let them fight:

The parade came to a dramatic halt when the Coalition Against Pinkwashing – a group of queer and trans activists from Palestinian solidarity groups, according to the Toronto Star, interrupted and staged a sit-in on Yonge Street at around 6:00 p.m on June 30.

Hamas can never be evil enough for some people:

The Palestinian Authority and other Arab governments have been reminded in recent days of the reasons why entering the Gaza Strip after the war would be risky, if not impossible...

 According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has murdered a number of Palestinians who it believed had indicated willingness to be part of a new government that would replace the terrorist group after the war.

 Hamas, apparently, does not want food or medication to reach the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, particularly not via Israeli border crossings. This situation is most likely caused by Hamas's desire to prolong and aggravate the suffering of the Palestinians and create a "famine" so it can place the blame on Israel.

 "Why is the media ignoring what is going on in central and southern Gaza? Hamas is assassinating Gazans, particularly tribe leaders, in order to deter anyone other than Hamas from delivering humanitarian relief and participating in Gaza." — Hamza Howidy, Palestinian social media influencer from the Gaza Strip, x.com, June 26, 2024.

 Until the international community – and particularly the Biden administration – fully support Israel's efforts to destroy Hamas, unfortunately there can be no real discussion of "the day after" in the Gaza Strip.

 Israel... will not be the only party to benefit from Hamas's demise. A large number of Arabs and Muslims who oppose Hamas and other Iran-backed Islamist groups will also benefit, even though it is "politically incorrect" and immensely dangerous to say so.

 In reality, those advocating for a "ceasefire" are asking for Hamas to be allowed to continue ruling the Gaza Strip, rearming, and gearing up to attack Israel -- in their words, "again and again."

A ceasefire will only ignite an immediate increase in terrorist attacks against Israel. Worse, Islamists worldwide will be incentivized to launch attacks not only against Israel but also against Europe. Islamists have already attacked US troops in the Middle East more than 150 times in the region since Oct 7.

 By exposing the crimes of Hamas against its own people and raising awareness of these threats -- instead of helping the terrorists cover them up -- the international media can actually help to protect their own countries against steadily increasing terrorism. At the moment, terrorists over the world can only see their efforts as victorious, glorified and rewarded.

Also:

 

Canadian employers won’t hire outspoken Muslim advocates of “Palestinian human rights,” says cabinet’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia. Alleged hiring bans followed Hamas’ October 7 killing and kidnapping of Jews in Israel including eight Canadians, said the report to Parliament: ‘An anti-Arab backlash has led to loss of income.’

 

And:

Israeli forces carried out new strikes in the southern city of Rafah amid fierce fighting with Palestinian militants overnight, residents said. At least 12 people were killed in new strikes in central and northern Gaza, health officials said.

 

Tensions also rose between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after the latest in frequent exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war.

 

Two security sources in Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike had killed a senior Hezbollah field commander, and Israel's defence minister said Israeli forces would be ready to take any action necessary against the Iran-aligned group.

 

"We are striking Hezbollah very hard every day and we will also reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength. We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us we will know how to fight," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.

 

 

 

Sickening:

 

Prosecutors investigating Jeffrey Epstein in Florida “sabotaged their own case” and missed an opportunity to stop America’s most prolific sex offender a decade earlier, lawyers for his victims told The Times.

Transcripts from preliminary proceedings in the 2006 criminal case against Epstein — which have now been made public — showed attorneys for Florida making “atrocious” attempts to excuse his behaviour.

Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer for dozens of Epstein’s victims, said the state put together a “sham” jury hearing against Epstein and failed to properly interrogate serious allegations of abuse out of fear of the influential billionaire.

 

The dire situation in Sudan:

Trapped in a Catholic mission sheltering dozens of women and children from the war raging on the streets of Khartoum, Father Jacob Thelekkadan punched new holes in his belt as the supplies of food dwindled and he grew thinner.

 

Around 80 people are taking refuge inside the Dar Mariam mission, a Catholic church and school compound in Khartoum's al-Shajara district, caught in the crossfire between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to accounts by the priest and seven other people at the mission.

 

The roof of the main building has been damaged by shells, and parts of the nuns' quarters have been set ablaze. Holes caused by stray bullets mark the mission's walls.

 

As food has grown scarce, the nuns have boiled tree leaves for the children to eat and many of the adults have skipped meals.

 

A Red Cross effort to rescue them in December ended with two dead and seven others wounded, including three of charity's staff, after gunmen opened fire on the convoy, forcing it to turn back before it could reach the mission. The warring sides traded blame for the attack.

 

Thelekkadan said he and the nuns had refused offers from the army to ferry them out across the river permanently, leaving the families behind.

 

"When the road is safe, we will be the first to leave, but with the people," said Thelekkadan, a 69-year-old Indian national.

 

Many of the inhabitants of Sudan's capital fled after the conflict erupted in April last year, enveloping Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman along the Nile, and quickly spreading to other parts of the country.

 

At the start of the war, the RSF occupied strategic sites and residential neighbourhoods in Khartoum, positioning snipers on high-rise buildings. The army, lacking effective ground forces, responded with heavy artillery and air strikes.

 

The Dar Mariam mission became a safe haven for those lacking the money to flee or without anywhere to go.

 

 

 

Oh?:

 

Russia is ready to continue gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine after the current transit agreement expires at the end of 2024, Russian state news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Future gas transit depends on whether Ukraine wants to continue the arrangement or not, he was quoted as saying.

A five-year deal on Russian gas transit via Ukraine to Europe, the only remaining trade and political agreement between warring Moscow and Kyiv, expires after Dec. 31 2024.

Russian gas supplies to Europe, once a key source of revenue for Moscow, have plummeted following the Kremlin's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 2022.

"Transit through its territory depends on Ukraine. They have their own established rules. It depends on their desire. Russia is ready to supply," Novak was quoted as saying by the RIA state news agency.

Ukraine has said it does not plan to prolong the five-year deal with Russian pipeline gas exporting monopoly Gazprom or to sign another one.

 

Someone must be certain that Putin's war will wrap up soon. 

When Mother Teresa was in India, she helped the poor:

Police in Chhattisgarh, India, have as of Monday done little to respond to the brutal killing of a Christian woman by relatives who reportedly tried to stop her from farming her own land due to her conversion, the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) denounced.

 

 

 

Has Europe Had Enough?

I hope so:

A German woman reacting to the vicious gang rape of a 15-year-old by ten predominately migrant men is set to spend a weekend behind bars for alleged “hate postings” made over WhatsApp to one of the attackers.

The gang rape was perpetrated in September 2020 in a prominent public park in Hamburg, with the ten men, ranging from 16 to 20 years old, taking advantage of the teen’s inebriated state and the lack of witnesses due to ongoing lockdown measures. 

The nature of the gang rape, as well as the fact it was organized over a group chat, attracted particular horror in the courtroom and the popular press.

German press reports that five of the ten men were non-German nationals, including from Afghanistan and Syria, with all of the attackers of non-German extraction. Only one of the men found guilty at the trial was given a prison sentence—of two years and nine months. The rest of the attackers were given mild community service and suspended sentences.

A juvenile court in Hamburg received intense online criticism for the judicial decision to give nine out of the ten men non-custodial sentences. In the wake of the sentences, one of the rapists was identified by name online, and his cell phone number circulated on the Snapchat app.  

A 20-year-old woman, with no connection to either the victim or the perpetrators, admitted to police to sending threatening Whatsapp messages to one of the rapists. Among other things, she referred to him as a “dishonourable rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak,” asking him if he wasn’t ashamed when he looked in the mirror, and saying he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere “without getting a punch in the face.”

The public prosecutor described the woman’s messages as “a torrent of insults.” The 20-year-old expressed remorse and said she had vented her anger “without thinking twice” because she thought the rapist deserved it, but that she realised her actions didn’t “make anyone better.”

German authorities have announced that they are investigating 140 other individuals for ‘hate speech’ relating to the trial. 

District judge Anne Meier-Göring, responsible for handing out the lenient sentences for the rapists, found herself praised in left-leaning German publications for her ruling, with one in particular referring to the judge’s ruling as a sign she was not to be “pressured by public opinion-making” and calling her “brave and smart.”

 

(Sidebar: who wouldn't want this kind of cultural enrichment?)

 **

Isn't France the country that dealt with its absolutists?:

Opponents of France’s National Rally (RN) stepped up their bid to block the far-right party from power on Tuesday as more candidates agreed to pull out of this weekend’s run-off election to avoid splitting the anti-RN vote.

More than 200 candidates have confirmed they will not stand in Sunday’s second-round for France’s 577-seat national parliament, according to local media estimates. Others have until 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) to make their choice.

Marine Le Pen’s RN came out well ahead in Sunday’s first-round vote after President Emmanuel Macron’s gamble on a snap election backfired, leaving his centrist camp in a lowly third place behind the RN and a hastily formed left-wing alliance.

But even before the maneuvering of the last 24 hours to create a “republican front” to block the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic party, it was far from clear the RN could win the 289 seats needed for a majority.

 

 

Oh, America ...

What a mess: 

Comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla put Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom in his place after Thursday night’s debacle of a debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.  

Gavin traveled to Atlanta, Georgia where the debate was held to act as a surrogate for Biden. 

In a post-debate interview, the Democrat governor thought he would be asked his thoughts about Biden’s disappointing performance, instead, Carolla used the opportunity to criticize him for his COVID-19 draconian measures. 

“Governor, why did you shut the beaches in California during COVID?” Carolla asked. 

With Newsom speechless, Carolla continued to grill him over his COVID tyranny. The governor attempted to defend his policies but only seemed to dig himself into a deeper hole. 

“We tried to keep people alive,” Newsom began, but Carolla pointed out that sunshine and exercise would have kept people healthy. 

The political commentator also bashed Newsom for arresting someone paddle boarding in the middle of the ocean—who technically was abiding by the ridiculous six-foot social distancing rule. 

Newsom then tried to pivot the interview by addressing the debate after Carolla grilled him on why he shut down restaurants. 

Earlier this week, Carolla called Newsom a “buffoon,” saying he has had enough of the governor’s “sociopathic” policies. 

Carolla announced that he was packing his bags and leaving California, adding that the state’s problems are "self-imposed" and "super avoidable.” 

“I say to a lot of people like, when's it end? When do we change course? And the number one answer is, 'We haven't bottomed out yet. We're getting near it. We haven't totally bottomed out.' And then I say, ‘Why is it necessary to bottom out?’” He said. “It's like saying, you know, I was looking for some stuff in my son's room and I found some syringes and a baggie of heroin. But he hasn't flatlined yet, okay? I have not walked in and seen foam coming out of his mouth or him convulsing. And you go, 'Yeah, I know, but why don't you get him in some treatment now?' And you go 'Because his heart hasn't stopped yet.' And it's like, ‘Yeah, I know, but why do we have to bottom out?’ We know where we're going. Let's reverse course. California and Los Angeles can't do it.”

After Biden once again made a fool of himself in front of the nation, rumors claiming that Newsom would replace the 81-year-old president in the 2024 race seemed more realistic. 

However, according to a March Rasmussen Reports survey, 51 percent of respondents said they would vote for former President Donald Trump over Newsom in a head-to-head matchup, while only 34 percent favored the California governor.

The COVID debacle is just ONE thing to hang on Newsom.

 

No senile chair-moistener is in any position to tell anyone what's what, especially if the issue is hyped beyond reason:

The Biden administration told emergency room doctors they must perform emergency abortions when necessary to save a pregnant woman’s health, following last week’s Supreme Court ruling that failed to settle a legal dispute over whether state abortion bans override a federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment.

In a letter being sent Tuesday to doctor and hospital associations, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure reminded hospitals of their legal duty to offer stabilizing treatment, which could include abortions. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

“No pregnant woman or her family should have to even begin to worry that she could be denied the treatment she needs to stabilize her emergency medical condition in the emergency room,” the letter said.

 

Oh, go and get your @$$ kicked again by Trump, you fraud!

Epstein Certainly Didn't Kill Himself

Discuss:

Florida prosecutors heard testimony that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein raped teenage girls, but cut a plea deal with him in 2008 anyway, according to newly released court transcripts. 

The 150-page transcript of the 2006 grand jury investigation reveals that the court heard testimony about Epstein sexually assaulting girls as young as 14 inside his Palm Beach mansion. 

The victims also testified and told detectives that they were paid to find Epstein more girls to assault in a harrowing case that ended with the pedophile sentenced to less than two years in prison after taking a plea deal.  

 

B@$#@rds.

Transcripts here.

We Don't Have to Trade With China

There is no purpose, really:

The House has passed a bill with the goal of forcing an end to the Chinese regime’s long-running campaign of persecution against the spiritual group Falun Gong.

The bipartisan Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R. 4132), introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) with 18 co-sponsors, passed by a voice vote on June 25. It is the first U.S. legislative bill addressing Beijing’s brutal suppression of the faith to advance through the chamber.

Falun Gong, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, has been the subject of a relentless campaign in communist China designed to eradicate the faith.

For the past 25 years, adherents of the practice—numbering up to 100 million in 1999 according to estimates at the time—have faced lengthy imprisonment, torture, forced labor, and forced organ harvesting.

The Falun Gong Protection Act, which still needs Senate approval, calls for “an immediate end” to the persecution. If signed into law, it will require the United States to shun any cooperation with China in the organ transplantation field and to deploy targeted sanctions and visa restrictions to address the persecution of Falun Gong on the international stage.

**

Independent MP Han Dong (Don Valley North, Ont.) has stepped down as co-chair of a Canada-China Legislative Association, records show. Dong as co-chair admitted to at least a dozen phone calls with Chinese Communist Party diplomats under security surveillance: “These conversations were recognized methods of diplomatic communications.”

** 

Don't worry - he'll get his pension:

The head of the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg says he is stepping down to continue his medical work and take a position at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, CBC News has learned. 

Since 2020, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin has overseen Canada's only Level 4 virology facility, which is equipped to deal with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases. 

Poliquin announced his resignation to staff in an internal email on Tuesday. 

"This decision did not come easily, and followed a lot of introspection," Poliquin wrote.

"It has been a wild ride. Truly, it has been the greatest honour of my career to be asked to do this work during the pandemic and I hope I availed myself of the task with some modicum of success, recognizing there is always more work to be done and improvements to be made."

 

Thanks to your lab, you idiot, Chinese scientists smuggled out deadly viruses and handed them to their government.

What a "wild ride" it will be when those get out! 

**

When the Chinese government wanted Canada to extradite an allegedly corrupt businessman in 2011, it turned to a Toronto lawyer and erstwhile friend for advice. ...

Ping-Teng Tan suggested a strategy for “repatriating” Lai Changxing that Beijing followed. “I helped the Chinese government solve a very difficult problem,” he boasted to the state-run Phoenix TV network in a 2015 interview on how China could get other such fugitives out of Canada.

But almost 10 years later, Tan is now battling allegations of financial irregularities himself.

The Law Society of Ontario recently suspended his licence to practise as it investigates allegations that he misappropriated more than $500,000 from a client, money intended as a retirement nest egg.

“We have endured mental anguish for an extended period and would like to promptly recover our funds for the sake of our retirement life,” the client said in his complaint.

 

He could always retire in prison. 

**

I didn't ask for my money to be used in this way:

Canada’s national pension fund has invested roughly $600 million in China’s electric vehicle (EV) sector, amid accusations from cabinet of unfair trade practices. The government is now mulling potential tariffs on related imports.

Stock bought with Canada Pension premiums included $287 million in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a major EV battery manufacturer in Fujian Province. The pension board also owns $12 million in stock from Great Wall Motor Co., known for its Ora-brand electric cars.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said last week that Chinese EV manufacturers are “quite intentionally generating a global oversupply,” undermining EV producers in Canada and worldwide. She said the public consultation, set to begin on July 2, aims to receive potential policy responses in order to protect 550,000 Canadian jobs related to the sector.

The Epoch Times contacted the pension board for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.

However ...

Not all is lost:

Hundreds of people filled the downtown streets in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city on Monday to pay their respects to a soldier from the First World War who died on the battlefields of France and has finally returned home.

The unknown Newfoundland soldier was lowered into a black granite tomb at around 11 a.m. local time at the National War Memorial in St. John’s. N.L. The morning was grey and wet, but the rain stopped for the soldier’s reinterment, which was proceeded by a powerful performance of the “Ode to Newfoundland.”

As members of the Royal Canadian Armed Forces gently lay a temporary cover over the soldier’s final resting place, more than 100 years after he was killed, the skies opened up again.

**

Thank-you to everyone who came out!#July1TakeBackCanada was a huge success!

We turned out great numbers in several locations while a few others had some last-minute complications which we will learn from going forward.

We aspired to be a movement for ALL Canadians regardless… pic.twitter.com/lZ9RwZ86ob

— Take Back Canada (@TakeBackCanadaX) July 2, 2024

 

 

Your Apres-Canada Day Post

Oh, God ... Canada ... :

A new poll suggests the vast majority of Canadians are proud of their home and native land, but our sense of national pride is lower than it was a few years ago.

Polling firm Leger surveyed 1,607 people last weekend, asking how they're feeling about being Canadian ahead of Canada Day. The firm posed similar questions to a group of 1,003 Americans ahead of the Fourth of July.

The results suggest the vast majority of us — 76 per cent — would call ourselves proud Canadians.

But 45 per cent of people who did the survey said they were feeling less proud than they did five years ago in 2019. Leger said that's up 16 percentage points from 2021, when they posed the same question.

Respondents were asked to choose from a list of things that make them most proud to be Canadian. The country's natural beauty topped the list, followed by universal health care, freedom and equality, a peaceful and safe society and multiculturalism.

Just one in five said their fellow Canadians made them feel proud.

 

The answers given are the stock ones usually found on tourist pamphlets. 

Our healthcare system is not universal. We don't have the freedoms nor the equality oft-repeated (look no further than property rights, self-defense, free speech, access to information, the ability to remove our government, the right to refuse taxation ... ). Crime in Canada is growing and ethnic and sectarian violence that used to be banes elsewhere are what we now call Tuesday.

What is there to be proud of?

A limp-wristed, cowardly son of a former prime minister who fails to inspire the people he clearly despises?  Is it his unwillingness or his lackeys' to accept that even formerly politically safe seats are no longer secure? 

What about his refusal to adhere to even basic protocol and etiquette and listen to his own cabinet and party?:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing calls from two Chrétien-era Liberal cabinet ministers to step down as party leader, with the former MPs pointing to this week’s midtown Toronto by-election defeat as further evidence of a strong desire for change among Canadian voters.

** 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office declined to comment Sunday on a letter signed by several MPs calling for an immediate in-person national caucus meeting to discuss the party’s surprising by-election loss in Toronto-St. Paul’s.

A small group of MPs sent the letter to Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan on Friday requesting the immediate meeting to discuss what they call the “extremely concerning” by-election results.

“This was a race the Liberal Party of Canada should not have lost. Our government has a strong legacy of achievement since 2015. The Liberal brand and our values resonate with Canadians,” states the letter penned by Calgary MP George Chahal, who did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

The letter said many Canadians who have backed the Liberal Party are no longer supportive and have tuned out. It also said the voters in the Toronto by-election sent a clear message.

“If we claim to be listening, then our public responses are disconnected from reality,” it said.

**

“If we’re not trying to address it, it will fester,” Guilbeault mused into his wireless headphones, loudly enough for me to hear without moving a muscle. “So this conversation will need to happen whether we want (it) to or not.”

The conversation, as he phrased it on a subsequent call in French, is the same one every political pundit in Canada is having this week: Should Justin Trudeau stay or should he go?

Over the course of three phone calls, it became clear Guilbeault was feeling around for who might be most likely to call for Trudeau’s departure. “I’ve been asked by PMO (the Prime Minister’s Office) to make some calls and talk to people and report back,” he said on one of those calls.

To date, a ragtag crew of mostly-retired politicians — ex-MPs Wayne Easter and John Manley, former B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark, as well as the environment minister’s predecessor Catherine McKenna — have all urged Trudeau to go. No sitting MP has yet made such a demand.

That may change.

From his meetings, Guilbeault gleaned, “people are in shock. It’s not just in the 416, or in Ontario, it’s across the country.” Some are “tanné,” he said — a particularly Quebecois word, a mix of tired and annoyed — whereas others are just “stressed.”

**

Let me get this straight. Liberal Minister was unknowingly sitting next to a columnist on a train - was talking trash about Justin Trudeau needing to go and now he’s like “it was taken out of context”

These people will literally sink with the ship. https://t.co/GzX5asGbdK

— Jennifer Elle (@jenniferelle_) June 28, 2024

 

Oh! I know!

It's the partisan and sectarian politicians who care only about their own tribes:

Then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan instructed Canadian special forces to rescue about 225 Afghan Sikhs after the Taliban takeover in August, 2021, in an operation that three military sources say took resources away from getting Canadian citizens and Afghans linked to Canada on final evacuation flights out of Kabul.

Mr. Sajjan also relayed location information and other details about the Sikhs to the military as special operation forces worked to meet up with the group. The information was passed to him from a Canadian Sikh group that was in contact with these Afghan Sikhs.

Military sources who were in Ottawa and on the ground in Kabul painted a picture of the final chaotic, dangerous and desperate hours as evacuation flights were ending and Canada and other Western countries scrambled to get their citizens safely out of Afghanistan by the U.S. withdrawal deadline at the end of August.

The sources said Afghan Sikhs were not considered an operational priority for the Canadian military as they had no link to Canada. Mr. Sajjan’s intervention, the sources say, impacted the rescue of Canadians and other Afghans on Canada’s priority list. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the three sources because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

**

Just four out of 10 Canadians think the deal between the Liberals and the NDP to keep the Trudeau government in power has been a good thing, with even 40 per cent of New Democrats unconvinced of the value of the agreement, a new poll suggests.

Nothing says "proud to be Canadian" like ethnic division:

Auditors rate a federal program to promote hiring of Black employees as a failure. It was launched following 2020 Black Lives Matter protests that saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau join demonstrators in kneeling outside Parliament: ‘There is little evidence of increased career opportunities for equity seeking groups.’

** 

The Canadian government has launched a new interactive online map pinpointing the location of residential schools, and experts say it will help in the search for unmarked or forgotten graves of children forced to go to the institutions.

 

(Sidebar: yes, but where are the bodies? Does history say?)

Is our source of pride in that we cast off our veterans when they no longer defend us so ably? What of others?

Where the Neanderthals succeeded, we decidedly failed?

Wait - I have it!

It's how we letter our political "betters" waste our money:

A New Democrat member of Parliament has paid back a portion of the thousands of dollars she spent on a Christmastime trip for herself and her family that was paid for with public money.

The federal New Democrats said Manitoba MP Niki Ashton reimbursed the House of Commons administration for $2,900, part of the more than $17,000 in costs she incurred during a Christmas Day trip to Quebec City followed by a visit to Montreal.

Public expenses show Ashton, her husband and two children flew from her northern Manitoba riding to Ottawa on Dec. 21, 2022.

This pride we are meant to have is rooted in utter fictions, not on achievements or in the verifiable ideals of a nation-state.

We are a cardboard cut-out of an actual country, one that won't rest on laurels of our past because that would mean we would be reminded of what we did right and how we all let it go wrong.