How Does One Re-Define a Fake Term Invented By Small-Minded, Petty People?

Father Raymond De Souza puts forth his case:

Is it Islamophobic for a Catholic priest not to stop over in Saudi Arabia? What if there were mechanical problems and we were required to leave the airport to stay overnight in a hotel? In a country where carrying a bible or a rosary can get you thrown into religious jail? Where Catholic priests have to minister incognito, like the worst days of Elizabethan England? Whoops, did I just reveal a latent Anglicanophobia? I might be a simmering cauldron of bigotry.

Of course it’s not Islamophobic. Christians are quite right to be circumspect of Wahhabi Islam as it is practiced in Saudi Arabia and exported to the world in various murderous guises.

All of which is brought to mind by the federal government’s new “anti-racism” strategy. The program grew out of a controversy some years ago over M-103, an anti-Islamophobia motion in Parliament. So the strategy includes an Islam component, perhaps not pro-Islam but at least anti-anti-Islam. It’s aimed at protecting Canadian Muslims from harassment and discrimination.

It’s tiresome to point out that Islam is not a race, despite the government’s determination to treat it like one. It would be possible to harbour prejudice against Arabs and be fiercely pro-Muslim, as the majority of Muslims live east of the Persian Gulf and in parts of Africa, outside the Arab world. But leave the confusion of race and religion for another day.

It’s a mistake to treat Islam itself as if it were a monolithic thing, an undifferentiated block approaching two billion people. Islam is a many-differentiated thing. Saudi Wahhabis and Ahmadiyya Muslims in Toronto are not the same.

That’s the problem with the definition of Islamophobia adopted by the anti-racism strategy. It includes “racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level.”

Is it anti-Muslim prejudice to say that all Muslims constitute a security threat? Yes. Is it discrimination to direct acts of hostility toward followers of Islam in general? Yes.

But the house of Islam has many rooms, and not all of them are filled with sun-dappled butterflies. The same would be true of Christianity. But it is not bigotry to consider that. For example, while Toronto is proud to host the Aga Khan Museum, it would be rather a different matter to build the Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Museum in Canada.

All religions need critical engagement. In this moment of history, that need is pressing in the world of Islam. Muslims, after all, pay the most lethal price for jihadist violence. Yet the government’s strategy takes a dim view of any critical look at Islam, which would actually put a great number of important Muslim voices offside.

Spot-on.

As with any use of the ridiculous word, "Islamophobia", legitimate concern and criticism is not addressed with reason or facts. It met with an iron clapped over the mouth, only marginally better than the abuse and murder of anyone whose crime is simply to not be Muslim.

Did everyone forget Asia Bibi?


The fact that no MP is worried about this is even more troubling.

Are Canadians fine with censorship? Is the introduction of Sharia law just not a going concern? The transformation of Canada from a country of laissez-faire to one of instance self or government-imposed censorship continues without impediment.


Also - how many ISIS thugs are there, Ralphie?:

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced the updated list on Wednesday in Regina, along with new measures to help prevent the spread of extremist content online.

The Criminal Code list of terrorism entities now includes Blood and Honour, “an international neo-Nazi network whose ideology is derived from the National Socialist doctrine of Nazi Germany,” according to Public Safety Canada’s website. “Through their armed branch, Combat 18 (C18), the group has carried out violent actions, including murders and bombings.”

Goodale said both groups have “a presence in various places across the country,” and said the government has been examining how to respond to white supremacist groups over the past couple of years.

I'll just leave this right here:

As reported by Global News, “A Toronto-area organization that was suspended by charities regulators and fined $550,000 over concerns it may have funded armed militants in Pakistan has been awarded a federal summer jobs grant. 

Although the Islamic Society of North America-Canada is serving a one-year suspension imposed by the Canada Revenue Agency, it was approved for 2019 Canada Summer Jobs funding.”

The Trudeau government is giving them $25,787.


CRA suspended the group because of concerns with money that was transferred to the Kashmir region. The result was that ISNA-Canada “may have, knowingly or unknowingly, provided the benefits of its status as a registered charity to support the efforts of a political party and its armed wing,” according to the report.

The money may have ended up in the hands of Hizbul Mujahideen, which is listed as a terrorist group by both India and the European Union.

Canada's Back!

So far that it cannot be seen with the naked eye.




Justin begs other countries to help him convince the leaders of his most admired "basic dictatorship" to talk to him again:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Osaka, Japan for the G20 leaders' summit, where he will look to raise the issue of two Canadians held in China at "every opportunity."

Trudeau has no meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit to do this but U.S. President Donald Trump committed to raising the issue during his own meeting with the prime minister in the Oval Office last Thursday.

Trudeau will also lean on like-minded allies that have already spoken out about the detentions, including France, the U.K., Germany and Spain.

Is Justin the prime minister sworn to protect his citizens and their interests or is he a pathetic little coward who relies on others, even those he insulted behind their backs, to do his fighting for him?

The latter.

Not only is his ineffectiveness bad for the economy, it paints Canadians as equally spineless and indecisive. It's embarrassing.

To remind one: Justin has made it clear that not only does he admire China, the same country his dad did, that Canada is a "post-national state" with "no core identity". Does he think that Canadian exceptionalism even exists? What kind of leader offers cheap platitudes and talking points instead of listing Canada's accomplishments and its place in the world? Someone who does not believe that Canada does have a place in the world, a place earned by hard work and fiscal responsibility.

He defended accepting Chinese money for his father's foundation and allowing American money to disrupt and derail the Canadian oil sector. Who does he work for (and can he tell them apart)?

He has ruined every trade deal he has been involved in.

When he could have simply extradited Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, he delayed and now China is letting its North American vassal state know its petulant displeasure. He straddles the American and Chinese fences instead of putting Canada's interests first. How decisive of him.

We are certainly back.

Mid-Week Post

 

Five more shopping days until Canada Day ... 




It has taken three years but the Liberal dictatorship government has finally come up with a definition for Islamophobia that isn't “a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”:

The new plan, first announced in Budget 2019, includes a definition of Islamophobia taken from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, but otherwise seldom names individual minority groups that are frequent targets of discrimination, instead referring more broadly to “racialized communities” and “religious minorities.”

It would be helpful at this point to define both “racialized communities” and “religious minorities”.

"Racialized communities" are bodies of individuals often consisting of certain racial and not cultural or religous phenotypes. For example, communities of black Americans or Canadians, or - as one might often hear in Islamic circles "abeed" meaning "slave" - are "racialized communities". Racialized communities can also be akin to the black slave Mohammad owned and traded.

"Religious minorities" refer to small communities of adherents of certain religions such as the Sri Lankan Catholics killed this year on Easter Sunday, the Iraqi Christians driven out of their homes, robbed, abused or outright killed, the Yazidis targeted for murder, Jews killed on the West Bank, or violence against Buddhists in Thailand.

One might be tempted to point these facts out or remark that this entire spectacle is a tyrannical overreach by petty, over-sensitive thugs who leach money off of dim-witted taxpayers but then that might be Islamophobic somehow, so ...




Stacking the electoral deck with people who will vote as they are told has been going on for decades and won't stop until an entire country puts its foot down:

The slow and steady ghettoization of Canada’s urban political scene is gathering pace. Ethnicity, religion and tribalism is being promoted as a tool in the upcoming October elections, instead of debating competing visions about Canada’s future.

Political multiculturalism reinforces tribal mindsets and creates the very divisions that its proponents say they want to avoid.

Isn't there a voter who asks who among their political elite is a Canadian?

Apparently not and they don't need to. They wouldn't vote for them if they were.


Also - a solid case for privatising education and abolishing teachers' unions:

The lessons continued and so did N’s distress, to the point of asking to see a doctor about her fears. The Buffones say in their claim that “they were concerned about the impact (on) N’s view of herself as a girl. Prior to (the teacher’s) discussions with the Grade One class, N had consistently identified as a girl and had not previously expressed uncertainty or discontent with her gender identity and biological sex.” The Buffones had asked the teacher to affirm N’s identity as a girl — that is, reassure her that her identity as female was “real” in order to relieve her anxiety. Nothing that the Buffones asserted was denied by the school or its officials, but their request was rebuffed out of hand, first by the teacher, who said her lessons reflected “a change within society,” then by the principal, and all the way up the ladder to the superintendent of the school board and the curriculum superintendent. They removed N to another school, where these gender theories are not taught, and where her mother told me she has recovered her wonted buoyancy.

 No, Vice-Admiral Norman, disclose the hell out of it:

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman will retire from the Canadian Forces after reaching an undisclosed settlement with the Department of National Defence.

Norman and the federal government reached a “mutually acceptable agreement, the details of which will remain confidential,” the Department of National Defence said in a statement Wednesday.

No. Don't let these b@$#@rds win.




Justin wishes to remain consistent. Alive or dead, veterans mean bloody nothing to him. That's why:

As reported by Siddak Ahuja of The Post Millennial, Justin Trudeau took a ‘personal day,’ instead of attending the return of Bombardier Patrick Labrie’s remains:

“The body of Canadian Armed Forces Bombardier Patrick Labrie, who was killed during a NATO exercise last week in Bulgaria, was returned to Ottawa on Saturday for a memorial service. However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not present to pay his respects.”

Trudeau had nothing else scheduled, as confirmed by his itinerary ...

Canada is back!:

Containers of Canadian trash that festered in the Philippines for years are set to arrive home just in time to celebrate the country's 152nd birthday.

The Anna Maersk is scheduled to dock at the Port of Vancouver, with the containers aboard, on Saturday, June 29 at 10 a.m.

The arrival will bring nearly to a close the garbage saga that led to a diplomatic dispute with the Philippines and drew attention to the growing global problem of plastic waste.

One hundred and three containers of garbage from Canada arrived in the Philippines falsely labelled as plastics for recycling in 2013 and 2014.

President Rodrigo Duterte recalled the Philippine ambassador and consuls general last month after Canada missed his deadline to take back the garbage by May 15.

Just in time for the Canada Day week-end.




If they insist on consultations, they should say who is paying them:

Three First Nations are claiming Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi and other federal officials failed to properly consult with Indigenous communities on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, possibly adding fresh complications to an already prolonged regulatory and legal process.

“I felt like I wasn’t even being respected or even listened to,” said Coldwater Indian Band chief Lee Spahan, describing his interactions with the federal government in recent months.

“In the eyes of my council and myself, it was pretty much a waste of time,” he said.

Coldwater has been among the Indigenous communities most fiercely opposed to the Trans Mountain expansion project, saying the project threatens to spoil a crucial freshwater aquifer that it has relied upon for generations.

Oh, China! The things you say!:

The home of CUPP leader Chang An-lo and the group’s headquarters in Taipei were raided by Taiwan authorities last August for suspected Chinese funding, an accusation they deny.

It is illegal in Taiwan for political groups to take money from the Chinese government. Both Chang and Lin told Reuters they were former members of Bamboo Union, which Taiwan’s National Police Agency says is a criminal gang. Chang said he was the organization’s former leader.

No one was charged in connection with the raid.

Chang, in an interview with Reuters in Taipei, said he did not take money from China. But he said it was vital for Taiwan to re-unify with the mainland.

“Our God is China,” Chang said in his office, which has a golden statue of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. “In spirit, they definitely support us, but not materially.”

(Sidebar: this Deng Xiaoping.)

He and other unification advocates said they saw an opportunity to gain influence in the wake of President Tsai Ing-wen’s pro-independence ruling party’s recent poll defeat amid frustrations over its economic and cross-strait policy.

They say they want to steer the vote away from Tsai, who they say is nudging Taiwan toward formal independence, a red line for China. Taiwan’s presidential election is in January.

**

On Tuesday evening, the news broke that China was banning meat imports from Canada. China says it detected a banned substance in Canadian pork, and discovered paperwork irregularities when it investigated.

(Sidebar: melamine in milk products should also be a banned substance but I digress ...)

 It would be a lot easier to take that oh-so-reasonable-sounding explanation seriously if China were not applying strong political pressure on Canada over the matter of Meng Wanzhou. Meng is a well-connected Chinese national and Huawei executive who was detained by Canada after we received a lawful extradition request from the United States, which has charged Meng was fraud relating to alleged efforts to skirt sanctions imposed on Iran. She is out on bail, pending a resolution of the extradition request. China is … displeased. ...

Seriously. I refer you back to the above. China is arresting our citizens and explicitly targeting our economy. Meanwhile, if your phone breaks and you mosey on into a store to replace it, you’ll be dazzled by the massive Huawei displays. There’s an opportunity here. Huawei is closely tied to the Chinese government. It’s also symbolic of China’s economic aspirations. Want to strike back at China? Target Huawei.

**

China’s embassy has asked Canada to suspend meat exports to the country over what it calls “forged” certificates, a statement said Tuesday.

In response, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has ceased issuing export certificates to China for all beef and pork products.

Whatever.

I'm sure Japan and South Korea won't be so picky. They certainly won't arrest Canadian nationals willy-nilly.

Is This What Full Woke Climate Change Emergency Carbon Taxes Looks LIke?

(source)

The world is on course for "climate apartheid", where the rich buy their way out of the worst effects of global warming while the poor bear the brunt, a U.N. human rights report said on Tuesday.

The report, submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council by its special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, said business was supposed to play a vital role in coping with climate change, but could not be relied on to look after the poor.

"An over-reliance on the private sector could lead to a climate apartheid scenario in which the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger, and conflict, while the rest of the world is left to suffer," he wrote.

He cited vulnerable New Yorkers being stranded without power or healthcare when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, while "the Goldman Sachs headquarters was protected by tens of thousands of its own sandbags and power from its generator".

Relying exclusively on the private sector to protect against extreme weather and rising seas "would almost guarantee massive human rights violations, with the wealthy catered to and the poorest left behind", he wrote.

"Even under the best-case scenario, hundreds of millions will face food insecurity, forced migration, disease, and death."

His report criticised governments for doing little more than sending officials to conferences to make "sombre speeches", even though scientists and climate activists have been ringing alarm bells since the 1970s.

Doomsday profiteers have always been angling for a way to make money and the UN has always pushed for a one-world communist government.

But this is a new level of crazy. It's like class warfare that inadvertently includes the people pushing for global warming climate change emergencies.

Do these guys know what they're doing?

Should we let them fight it out?

Ken?:

Okay.


Also:

The Supreme Court of Canada has set a tentative date to hear the Saskatchewan government’s appeal of the federal carbon tax.

The court said the appeal is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 5 in Ottawa.

After the election.

Of course.

It's Just Money

Someone else's money but just money nonetheless:

Conservative MP John Barlow highlighted in Parliament that the Liberals were taking “$18 million from taxpayers to fund a private airport at the elite Cabot Links golf resort.” 

He further added that the airport was for their “millionaire friends to park their private jets.” 

In a tweet he posted, he stressed that this decision by the Liberal government “is decimating the Allan J. MacEachen Port Hawkesbury Airport and small businesses like Celtic Air Services.”

Are Canadians tired of this @$$hole yet?

 

June 25

June 25th marks (what would have been) the one hundred and sixteenth birthday of Eric Blair, more commonly known as George Orwell whose chief works, Animal Farm and 1984, would surely find no purchase in today's climate of blinkered thinking, censorship and love for the totalitarian.

One of the interesting things about George Orwell was his ability to see beyond his current situation and even beliefs he held when the truth was apparent. His disillusionment with socialism (any form of leftism, really) and its graphic depiction in his two most well-known works is a sobering revelation from the romanticised view of communism to the reality of the face being stamped by a boot forever.

**

June 25th is also the sixty-ninth anniversary of the Korean War, one the many land wars in Asia that other countries went into without a clear mandate to win:

The legacy of Korea's division and torment:

'I had never felt happiness until I fled North Korea' – Jihyun Park writes #RefugeeWeek https://t.co/dBFAu0yLbM

— William Kim 김영권 (@NKMESSENGER) June 21, 2019

 

**

Older North Koreans who are used to state rations are reluctant to acknowledge the failure of the socialist system. But Oh Chong-song, the North Korean soldier who made a daring defection to South Korea through the border truce village of Panmunjom in 2017, said it is "impossible" to control the thoughts of the younger generation. Oh said he started watching South Korean dramas and listening to K-pop at a young age and always dreamed of escaping the North.

One of the four North Koreans who defected aboard a fishing boat last weekend asked a South Korean he ran into in the port city of Samcheok, Gangwon Province to lend him a mobile phone so he could talk to his aunt who lives in Seoul. He was carrying a piece of paper with her phone number. The National Intelligence Service said another young man was at risk of punishment for watching a South Korean movie. The latest defection symbolizes the hopelessness felt by young North Koreans. 

Only two to three percent of North Korean defectors make the harrowing journey by sea because failure means death. But the four men made the dangerous 800 km journey aboard a wooden fishing boat. While North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and 10 percent of North Korea's privileged live in Pyongyang shielded by nuclear bombs, the remaining 90 percent writhe in pain.

 

**

Thae Yong-ho is a defector in a more widely understood sense. He was North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom when he went over to the South Koreans in 2016. He is one of the highest-ranking North Korean officials ever to defect. He is something rare in the world: a messenger from a closed and isolated society, a “hermit kingdom,” as North Korea is called. ...

All North Korean diplomats, wherever they were posted, were instructed to get food aid from their host governments. Thae went to the Danish foreign ministry. They were happy to oblige. But they had questions: Why was Kim Jong-il investing millions in nuclear weapons when people were starving? Why was he spending millions on a mausoleum for Kim Il-sung (his father and predecessor) when people were starving? These were hard questions to answer.

Thae came face to face with the hypocrisy of the regime he was serving, and had been taught to revere. North Korean delegates arrived in Denmark to buy cows, for the special use of the Kim family. This would keep the Kims in dairy products and beef. Other delegates arrived to buy beer for the North Korean elites. These things were a far cry from the equality of man.

Thae began to experience “doublethink,” in Orwell’s immortal and useful coinage. Part of him held on to the true faith, the North Korean Communist faith; another part of him had plain doubts.

**

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, appears to have been promoted to a leadership role, South Korea's spy agency said Tuesday.

The status of Kim Yong-chol, who served as a chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the United States, also seems to have fallen, following the no-deal summit between the North's leader and U.S. President Donald Trump, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a closed-door briefing to lawmakers.

Kim Yo-jong, who has assumed the No. 2 post of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's propaganda and agitation department, was spotted sitting next to Kim Yong-chol to watch the country's propaganda performance last week, an event to celebrate Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the North.

"She appears to have been promoted to the leader level. Her status seems to have been raised following a role adjustment," the NIS was quoted as saying by Rep. Lee Hye-hoon.

Rumor had it that she was disciplined in the wake of the breakdown of the Kim-Trump summit in February in Vietnam as Kim disappeared for more than two months from public view.

But trumping such a speculation, she returned to the public eye in early June when attending the propaganda group gymnastics and artist performance.

The NIS said she appears to be on the same level as Choe Ryong-hae, de facto No. 2 man in the country, and Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the WPK.

(Sidebar: perhaps if there is a coup, she will lead it.)

**

South Korean President Moon Jae-in won't meet bilaterally with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Group of 20 summit this week, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Tuesday amid a drawn-out spat between the neighboring countries over their shared history.

South Korea is "always" ready for such a separate summit, but Japan doesn't seem to be, the official told reporters in a briefing on Moon's schedule for the two-day G-20 session to open in Osaka, Japan, on Friday.

(Sidebar: I suspect Moon sabotaged this and who can be surprised?)

**

Reopening a now-shuttered inter-Korean industrial complex in North Korea could encourage cross-border economic cooperation and also act as a "driver of dialogue" on the Korean Peninsula, a global think tank said Tuesday.

Yes, about that:

One issue missing from this discussion is the actual conditions under which workers are employed by foreign investors in North Korea. The picture is not very appealing. According to survey data presented below, only one in five South Korean firms investing in North Korea even knows how much its workers are paid. Entirely missing from the discussion of engagement is whether these employment practices are consistent with various international agreements and covenants to which the governments of North and South Korea have committed, and whether these or other voluntary labor standards initiatives such as the Global Sullivan Principles, which have been applied in other situations of controversy, could be used to achieve the desired transformational effects.

(Kamsahamnida)

The Tin Post

Please do read The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy. It will save one from reading anything Margaret Laurence ever excreted out.




It's an election year!:

The Canadian military will publicly rededicate a memorial to fallen soldiers in the Afghan War in August.

Global News has confirmed a report by CBC News that there will be a ceremony this summer to rededicate the cenotaph, which was brought back from the Kandahar Airfield and then placed in a restricted zone of the new military headquarters in Ottawa in May without any notice being given to families.

Letters have started going out to military families advising them of the change and inviting them to take part.

A public announcement of the change is expected in the coming days once all families have been notified ...

I'm sure these are nothing to worry about:

Canada’s economy has lost 16,000 jobs according to the ADP Canada National Employment Report.
Here are the key numbers:

Manufacturing – 1,400 jobs lost

Construction – 11,200 jobs lost

Natural Resources and Mining – 1,300 jobs lost

Trade/Transportation and Utilities – 2,300 gained

Information – 2,500 jobs gained

Financial Activities – 1,400 jobs gained

Professional and Business Services – 400 jobs gained

Education and Healthcare – 1,900 jobs lost

Leisure and Hospitality – 1,100 jobs lost

Other Services – 5,700 jobs lost

This shows a concerning loss of jobs in tangible economic activities, and contrasts with the emerging narrative being pushed by the government and the media that claims the economy is ‘strengthening.’

**

Canada’s farm labor deficit is expected to double by 2029 to 123,000 workers, or one in three jobs, as shortages continue to hit the sector’s bottom line, the Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council said on Tuesday.

From the country's most "transparent" and sleazy government:

The federal government has effectively closed the door on any prospect of notorious U.K. child-killer Jon Venables being relocated to Canada after the British press reported rumours such a move was under consideration. ...

Privacy regulations prevent the Canadian government from commenting on the specific case but a statement issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said that people who have been found to have committed a crime elsewhere may not be admissible to Canada.

(Sidebar: well, that's never stopped anyone before.)

**

A Liberal MP hired his girlfriend as a constituency assistant, then fired her at his wife’s behest and refused to provide child support to their daughter, according to allegations contained in two lawyers’ letters obtained by the National Post.

Ying (Stella) Yu — who says she gave up a lucrative career in business to work for Don Valley North MP Geng Tan — fell into deep depression after her “ignominious” dismissal, with suicide attempts, anxiety attacks and crying fits, the two letters claim.

But the MP dismissed Ying (Stella) Yu’s mental-health problems, one of the letters alleges, urging her not to get professional help.

Tan, 55, has strongly denied the allegations, saying Yu’s job in his constituency office was supposed to be temporary, and that he had only provided her a donation of sperm without agreeing to support the resulting child. There was no “misuse” of their acquaintance.

“I will strongly fight for my dignity and honour which is improperly being maligned, alleging wrong facts and concealing the real ones,” the MP said in a statement to the Post. “I have strong support and love of my family.”

(Sidebar: look what you just admitted to. You have no honour.)




North Korea takes a hit via China:

Three large Chinese banks could lose their access to the U.S. financial system, after a judge found them in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a probe into the violation of North Korean sanctions, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The three banks were not identified by the judge, but details in the court ruling align with a 2017 civil forfeiture action against Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, according to the report.

At that time, the U.S. Department of Justice accused the banks of working with a Hong Kong company, which allegedly laundered over $100 million for North Korea’s sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank, according to the paper.

A spokesman at China Merchants Bank said he was aware of the report but could not immediately comment. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Bank of Communications could not be reached immediately for comment.

The report comes as the United States and China have been engaged in a trade dispute for months on issues such as tariffs, subsidies, technology, intellectual property and cyber security, among others.

But ... but ... the Narrative!:

 

(Merci)




A nasty bit of propagandising has made it sound that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is banning Canada Day when, in fact, he is actually not hosting a poorly-attended parade but, instead, offering the first five hundred people free entrance into various sites:

Doug Ford’s government has announced the Ontario legislature will not host a Canada Day celebration this year, due to low attendance and hefty costs totalling approximately $400,000.

Instead, the government has decided to offer free admission for the first 500 people to 10 Canada Day attractions in the province, which will cost about $80,000.

"Instead of hosting a single event at Queen's Park, we are providing free admission for thousands of people to Canada Day events across the province," Ford's executive director of communications Laryssa Waler said in a statement to The Canadian Press. "Ontario families should have the ability to celebrate Canada Day with us, regardless of where in the province they live."

The free Canada Day event locations are:

• Ontario Science Centre in Toronto
• Cinesphere at Ontario Place in Toronto
• Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto
• Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay
• Huronia Historical Parks in Midland and Penetanguishene
• St. Lawrence Parks Commission in Morrisburg
• Butterfly conservatory in Niagara Falls
• Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Vaughan
• Science North in Sudbury

Last year, approximately 5,000 people attended the Queen’s Park event, which has historically included performances, a 21-gun salute, and various crafts and activities for children.

Canadians' patriotism extends no further than hating Americans and their laziness is why Ford has chosen the cheaper and possibly more practical approach.

For a Monday

A lot transpiring ...




The most "transparent" government in the country's history also is its most representative:

Several controversial Islamist organizations have been awarded with a new round of funding from the Trudeau government’s Canada Summer Job program ...

Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) ...

Islamic Information & Dawah Centre International ...

Islamic Circle of North America ...

AlMaghrib Institute  

**

Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle told Channel 4 that Jack Letts — whose father is Canadian — was to be smuggled out of Syria and brought here.

However, the federal government strongly denies the allegation.

“While we do not comment on national security operational matters, we can confirm that the claim made in the Daily Mail is categorically false,” Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office said Friday in a statement to the Toronto Sun.

Letts, 23, left his Oxford home to join the Islamic State in 2014. He eventually married an Iraqi woman and the couple had a child.

According to Channel 4, the Canadian government allegedly vowed to “do everything” to get the troubled young man out of harm’s way. The plan involved smuggling Letts into Turkey and then Canada.

But the British Foreign Office allegedly torpedoed the Canadian gambit.

**

According to a report by Press Progress, “Canadian corporations held a staggering $353 billion in 12 of the world’s biggest tax haven destinations in 2018. At the top of the list, Canadian corporations reported holding $90 billion in the tiny European nation of Luxembourg alone — that’s up $8.4 billion since 2017. Luxembourg is followed by Barbados ($65 billion), Bermuda ($47 billion) and the Cayman Islands ($40 billion), Statistics Canada’s data on Canadian direct investment abroad reveals.”

Keep in mind, when we talk about “corporations” here, we’re often talking about offshore holding companies set up by elites to stash their money and avoid taxes in Canada.

Are there any blue-collar Canadians who can afford to hide their wealth offshore?




Who runs Canada - its people or American anti-Canadian oil interests?:

Krause — the Vancouver-based researcher, who over the last 10 years has been following the money trail behind environmental activism in Canada — backs up every claim with tax filings and other documents.

She has traced $600 million that has flowed into Canada from U.S. foundations to restrict the development and export of oil and natural gas from Canada and provided the senate committee with an 80-page document that showed each of those grants that specifically refers to a tanker ban in B.C.’s waters.

As she stated in her compelling testimony on May 7 before the senate committee that spent thousands of hours studying Bill C-48, Krause found more than 50 grants that specifically mentioned a tanker ban or tanker traffic.

(Sidebar: the allegedly non-partisan Senate gave Justin the passage of Bill C-48 that disallows oil tankers from BC's northern coast.)

When Trudeau announced on Nov. 26, 2016, that he would approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion but kill Northern Gateway pipeline — which had been approved by the National Energy Board after years of gruelling regulatory hoop jumping by Enbridge and was passed by the Harper government — he also promised a tanker ban.

The reason Trudeau gave for scrapping Northern Gateway and bringing in a tanker ban was because the tanker traffic that would have carried Alberta bitumen to Asia went through an area known as the Great Bear Rainforest.

Krause says that as far back as 1999, the creation of the Great Bear Rainforest has been significantly funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation — the family that ironically founded the U.S. oil industry and made billions doing so. More recently, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation granted $267 million to Canadian environmental groups.

“The top recipient of these funds, Tides Canada, the central proponent of the Great Bear Rainforest, has received $83 million,” Krause told the Senate committee.

Originally, the proposed Kermode bear (which is a white black bear) or Great Bear protected area was just a small part of the B.C. coast. “But now,” Krause said, “environmental and First Nations groups say that along the entire B.C. coast, from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the southern border of Alaska, there can be no tankers anywhere.”

So why are these U.S. foundations doing this?

“Something is being protected here at great expense and cost, but obviously not the bear,” concluded Krause. “What is being protected is the American monopoly on access to exports of Canadian oil. The Great Bear Rainforest has become the great trade barrier, keeping our country out of global energy markets.”

To wit:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday there’s no problem with a Canada Summer Jobs grant that will fund anti-pipeline activism, arguing his government must stand up for the principle of free expression and advocacy. ...

(Sidebar: yes, he said that with a straight face.)

The summer jobs grant is normally a feel-good program that allows MPs to prioritize groups in their ridings to get funds to hire students. Dogwood spokesman Kai Nagata said the group has received summer jobs funding every year since 2010 — including when the previous Conservative government was in power, though their applications have always gone through Vancouver and Victoria ridings held by Liberal and NDP MPs.

What is Justin's answer for catering to American interests?

When he is done one of his many vacations, I'm sure he will get around to avoid that question.




Never send a Canadian to do an American's job:

A new agreement between Canada and the United States will soon allow travellers and cargo to pre-clear customs before they leave, allowing an easier movement of people and goods crossing the border.

Canadian air travellers have been able to clear customs before flying to the U.S. for decades at Canadian airports, letting them skip line-ups when they land in the United States.

The two countries have agreed to add U.S. preclearance operations at Billy Bishop airport in Toronto and Jean Lesage airport in Quebec City.

(Sidebar: I wonder who came up with that idea?) 

**

A teachers’ union representative claiming responsibility for an anti-Ford sign that flew over Ford Fest said he had to hire an American company because the Canadian one he approached refused to participate.

Lawyers for Huawai CFO Meng Wanzhou want the extradition proceedings withdrawn:

Lawyers for Huawei’s chief executive officer Meng Wanzhou, who is being detained in Canada on U.S. fraud charges, on Monday urged Canada’s Minister of Justice to reconsider whether to withdraw the extradition proceedings. 

Meng, daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver in December. She has said she is innocent. 

In a statement, Meng’s Canadian lawyers said “the extradition proceedings are without merit” and that ending them would be in Canada’s “best interests.” 

The lawyers said Meng’s extradition was sought for political purposes as opposed to legitimate law enforcement reasons.

Yes, do that in an election year and let the woman shop and work for a spy company unhindered.


Also:

Cambodian rescuers combing through the rubble of a collapsed seven-story building recovered the bodies of 17 construction workers and pulled out 24 injured, as authorities questioned four Chinese who were involved with the project.

Why waste one's time? It's not like the Chinese-backed North Korea is going to halt its nuclear program: 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday the U.S. was prepared to resume talks with North Korea “at a moment’s notice” if the North signaled it wanted discussions about denuclearization.

How could this go wrong?:

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday that 55,000 captured Islamic State fighters, including foreigners, and their families detained in Syria and Iraq should face fair trials or be freed.

States “must assume responsibility for their nationals” and should not inflict statelessness on fighters’ children who have already suffered so much, Bachelet also told the UN Human Rights Council as it opened a three-week session in Geneva.

Let's see what this cow has to say once a major donor withdraws from the UN and she is forced to live with these child rapists.




Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Robert Friend:

Robert Friend, a decorated fighter pilot who flew 142 combat missions with the fabled Tuskegee Airmen during the Second World War, then became an expert on missile systems and directed Project Blue Book, the classified Air Force investigation into unidentified flying objects, died June 21 at a hospital in Long Beach, California. He was 99.

A week from now, people will be drinking instead of reflecting on the machinations that put together a once-great dominion.

Here's some mood music: