Mid-Week Post

 

Your first mid-week post of the season ...




It's an election year and the smell of desperation is in the air:

 

Trudeau: Pharmacare, mental health AND access to family doctors - $6 billion over 4 years.

Eric Hoskins, who Trudeau hand picked to investigate a national pharmacare plan - $15 billion PER YEAR.

And people wonder why the Liberals won't let the PBO independently cost promises.

— G.M. Forbes (@gmforbes35) September 23, 2019

**

At first glance, it would appear Justin Trudeau's Liberals built an electoral fortress in Atlantic Canada in 2015, having won all of the region's 32 ridings.

Four years later, with the party on the defensive over the leader's blackface bombshells, the Liberal ramparts on the East Coast have been shaken, and there are clear indications the Conservatives will make significant gains on election day.

Even before the Liberal leader apologized last week for what he admitted were racist acts from his past, the party was bracing for losses in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where traditionally Tory ridings will be the ones to watch on Oct. 21.

A few seats in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador are also in contention, but Conservative and third-party gains in those provinces are expected to be minimal.

"I think there's a consensus that 2015 was one-off," said Donald Wright, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick.

"There were seats that went Liberal that had no business going Liberal. We'll probably see a return of some of those seats back to the Conservative party."

(Sidebar: cough - Scott Brison - cough)

**

For the fourth straight day of campaigning, the Liberals made bold policy announcements with about as much detail as his answers about his blackface costumes are vague.

“We’ll ban military assault rifles!” declare the Liberals.

Ok, how? The basic answer is that they will get back to us.

“We’ll cut your cellphone bill!” the Liberals announce.

I like that, but how? Well, don’t worry about the details, they don’t have any.

They’ve done the same with their promise to bring in greater mental health coverage, national pharmacare, and making Canada a country with net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

These are all grand plans, but when you ask Trudeau directly — or his Liberal handlers in the background — on how these proposals will be accomplished, they mutter things about consultations and working with the provinces.

Like I said, it’s like asking Trudeau about blackface — it’s all so vague.

As a public servant (a fact of which Justin should be sternly reminded), there should be no call to refuse to perform a public service save critical illness or injury, natural disaster or war.

Hiding from blackface questions and saying: "I don't want to" are not only insufficient reasons but signs of impudence and cowardice:

The cancellation of the Munk Debate on foreign policy due to Justin Trudeau’s refusal to participate denies voters the only real opportunity they had this election to see his foreign policy record challenged in a substantive and sustained fashion. It has also left voters with small beer when it comes to debates during the writ period. The only time they will see Trudeau debating in English is at the single “official” debate cum panel discussion featuring five moderators and six leaders. ...

(Sidebar: the panel with his groupies.)

Yes, it was Trudeau’s choice to skip the Munk Debate on foreign policy. Yes, there still will be one English language debate with him participating. But, let’s not fool ourselves. The emergence this election of a state body to organize debates is the latest sign of diminution of our once-freewheeling democracy in favour of more state control and more regulation that advantage the incumbent party and limit the political futures we can contemplate together.

Scratch an elbower, find a misogynist every time:

In the article ... Nassif says that at the height of the SNC-Lavalin Scandal, she – along with many Liberal MPs – was asked to share talking points praising Justin Trudeau as a feminist and saying he “always listened to the voices of women,” as he faced criticism for his mistreatment of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott.

She felt it would be disingenous, and refused:

“I was punished for failing to hail Justin Trudeau as a great feminist in the wake of SNC-Lavalin when I didn’t post anything. And I was happy not to post anything because I am authentic,” said Nassif.

Nassif was then told that she couldn’t run again, and was “forced” to give a statement saying she had chosen not to run again, or the party would issue a statement saying she had been “rejected.”

Nassif also says she was subject to bullying, harassment, and intimidation by three MPs.

Try answering that one at a debate, Justin.




Considering that the UN is a useless, toothless organisation that stood by while Rwandans were hacked to death with rusty machetes and rewards tyrants of all stripes and also considering that especially thanks to Pierre's son that Canada is a global laughingstock and could never ascend to a position of power even if it bribed its way to the top anyway, having a permanent seat at the UN is a crack pipe dream:

“For me, today, when the U.N. General Assembly is all together, a Canadian seat on the U.N. Security Council is more important than ever,” said Heyman, speaking at the law school of Western University in London, Ontario.

“The world’s losing its defenders of [the] liberal democratic order of things. And I believe this increases the importance of having Canada’s seat on the Security Council. But it probably makes it harder, [with] President Trump being more transactional in supporting who gets the seat. Canada, are you willing to transact?”

Although Heyman did not specifically mention “a permanent seat” for Canada on the Security Council, his tone clearly suggested that that was his proposal.

(Sidebar: one might add that this is the same country whose government promised transparency but never delivered it. Liberal democracy? Try communism.)




Yes, about that:

During a recent candidate debate on the Prime Asia program, Liberal MP Ramesh Sangha unveiled a unique tactic for trying to evade voter anger over the unpopular carbon tax:

Deny the tax exists.

Sangha outright claimed “There’s no carbon tax.”

** 

End governmental welfare, Andy, and you have yourself a vote:

Last week, before any Canadian was debating dubious prime ministerial dress-ups, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer came out with a pledge to eliminate $1.5 billion in federal corporate welfare spending.

It’s only scratching the surface: by some estimates total annual federal subsidies to business are in the range of $14 billion. But it’s also nothing to sneeze at: $1.5 billion represents the tax bills of 100,000 average-income Canadian households.

But even as a tentative first step, Scheer’s proposal represents a clear break from the comfortable status quo consensus about corporate welfare in Canada. For starters, it’s hard to think of a major party leader openly using the term “corporate welfare” in recent years — even though it has been around since 1972, when during that year’s federal election former NDP leader David Lewis went after “corporate welfare bums” living off taxpayer subsidies.

I doubt that:

Canada's Jagmeet Singh, facing a rout of his left-wing New Democrats in next month's election, may have revived his party's fortunes with his emotional response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's blackface picture. 

Singh, 40, the first minority leader of a federal Canadian political party, is also running in his first national campaign as head of the New Democrat Party (NDP). 

When the photo of Trudeau in blackface emerged last week, Singh, a practicing Sikh who often pairs bright turbans with stylish suits, won widespread praise for focusing on the potential impact on people who have experienced racism, rather than on scoring points against Trudeau.

"The kids that see this image, the people who see this image, are going to think about all the times in their life that they were made fun of, that they were hurt, that they were hit, that they were insulted, that they were made to feel less because of who they are," he said in a three-minute video posted to social media.

"I want you to know that you have value, you have worth, you are loved. And I don't want you to give up on Canada and please don't give up on yourselves."

Canada is a multicultural country, and more than 22% of the population are members of visible minorities, while another 5% are aboriginal, according to the latest census. 

"Singh was made for this issue," said Ipsos pollster Darrell Bricker. "This is his time. There's nobody else who can speak to this issue better than he can." 

Oh, I'm sure.




Wasn't she shrill enough?:

“Greta Thunberg laid down a clear line in the sand, separating those countries and leaders who are united behind the science from those who continue to place the profits of fossil fuel polluters above the safety of their citizens,” Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Sadly, most leaders from the world’s largest emitting countries failed this litmus test, dodging their responsibility to step up action as is essential to address the climate emergency we now face.”

Altogether, the top three emitters account for nearly half of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the World Resources Institute. Their national policies are what will have the biggest impact on whether the world can hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, which is the goal of the 2015 Paris agreement.

Greta Thunberg is a puppet used by her parents to prop up their flagging careers. She is not a scientist and when people tire of her, they will replace her with another moppet who will also scream out how the waters that were supposed to be over our heads by now will peak sometime in the current year.

There are more pressing environmental problems such as deforestation and water and air pollution that are ignored for the flashier non-emergency:

People are not dying, ecosystems are not collapsing, and human beings are in no danger of extinction from carbon dioxide.

Don’t believe me? Well, let’s see what an actual scientist is saying.

The secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, told a Finnish financial newspaper on Sept. 6 that climate extremists have taken over the debate and their comments in the media have provoked unjustified anxiety.

“It is not going to be the end of the world,” he said in the interview. “The world is just becoming more challenging. In parts of the globe, living conditions are becoming worse, but people have survived in harsh conditions.”

He also said: “Climate experts have been attacked by these people and they claim that we should be much more radical. They are doomsters and extremists; they make threats.”

And finally, “The IPCC reports have been read in a similar way to the Bible: you try to find certain pieces or sections from which you try to justify your extreme views. This resembles religious extremism.”

Indeed. I have seen memes of Thunberg dressed up to resemble the Virgin Mary, with “In Greta We Trust” emblazoned across them.

I do not know what this is, but it is not science.

Shame on the scientific community for allowing it to get this far. They never should have allowed the IPCC report to become a vehicle for exaggerating scientific claims. Now that they have, it is going to require the effort of all the grownups to try to deprogram these school children.

Do not make a deal with any communist:

U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to China’s trade practices on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, saying he would not accept a “bad deal” in U.S.-China trade negotiations.

If covering one's face is more important to one than voting, just don't bother with the pretense:

Afghan women’s rights activists have demanded the authorities lift a requirement that all voters be photographed at polling stations in Saturday’s presidential election, arguing that it could prevent hundreds of thousands of women from voting.

Afghanistan’s electoral authorities have decided to photograph all voters using facial recognition software as an anti-fraud measure, after elections in 2009 and 2014 ended in disputes over rampant ballot stuffing.

But the photo requirement could be particularly difficult for women, especially in conservative areas, where most adult women and older girls cover their faces outside the home and do not show themselves to men who are not their relatives.

The election commission says that women voters can have their pictures taken by female election staff. But it acknowledges that at least 1,450 of the nearly 30,000 polling stations employ no women.

Eighteen women’s rights groups have separately written to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to call for the photo requirement to be scrapped. The letters, shown to Reuters by a senior IEC official, said women in rural areas wanted to vote but believed it was against Islam or culturally inappropriate to allow themselves to be photographed by men.

Rights groups criticized the election officials for not explaining earlier how the biometric system will work, or finding a way to reassure women that it will not breach their privacy.

It's An Election Year!

Justin, whether he likes it or not, is a public servant and, as such, should be compelled to participate in debates and be asked questions on foreign policy, the economy or even why he thought he should mimic black people three times and fail to disclose that to the public:

Organizers of a foreign-policy election debate that was scheduled for next Tuesday have cancelled the event because Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau won’t participate.

Rudyard Griffiths, chair of the Munk Debates, said no one had a bigger impact on Canada’s foreign policy over the last four years than Trudeau.

“Regrettably, the prime minister’s refusal to attend our debate has denied Canadians the only real opportunity they had this election to see his foreign policy record challenged in a substantive and sustained fashion,” Griffiths wrote in a statement.

**

The pipeline’s future — or lack of it — could well come down to a Trudeau minority propped up by these ardent anti-pipeline parties.

After the Liberals gave the pipeline a second approval in February, Singh said:

“Once again, I am calling on the Trudeau government to abandon the Trans Mountain expansion, fully overhaul the NEB review process, and finally live up to its promises that its most important relationship is its relationship with Indigenous Peoples.”

And on Monday, Singh told the CBC’s Vassy Kapelos that any province objecting to any national project crossing its territory should have an absolute veto. If that happens, we might as well sell Canada for parts.

May, meanwhile, says the Greens would veto any pipeline, large or small, now and forever.
Anybody who doesn’t think the Liberals would slide away from the pipeline, even after spending $4.5 billion to buy it, fails to grasp their determination to stay in power.

Pipeline support in the Liberal caucus is uneasy enough even now. With a clutch of new MPs, it could be even weaker.

**

I’m not offering Trudeau a pass here. If our society has lost its marbles on such matters, it’s in large part because people like him have been deliberately scattering them. And certainly if the Liberals had caught Andrew Scheer in blackface they’d have howled for his resignation, possibly effectively. But when it’s Selfie McSocks, they perform the rhetorical equivalent of photoshopping him back to white. Appalling.

Therein lies one of the problems with Justin's little minstrel shows.

That this and not the SNC-Lavalin scandal should be the thing to return him permanently to the supply list shows not only his moral and intellectual shallowness but that of Canadians, as well.


Also - at least Bernier would show up:

The four main party leaders were questioned Monday on whether they would support calls for Maxime Bernier to be removed from the televised federal election debates.

In order to hide from the fact that he is a moron and a closet bigot, Justin turns to what he knows best - smearing people:

Just days after finding himself cast into the depths of political embarrassment, Justin Trudeau was back at it this week, preaching to the unwashed from his perch on the peak of Mount Privilege.

His target was Doug Ford, the demon premier. Doug Ford, who’s going to take away your health care. Doug Ford, who doesn’t care about the sick or the elderly. Doug Ford, who has no time for children or the poor. Doug Ford, who can’t be trusted, unlike … um … uh … well, he just can’t be trusted!

If you wondered how the Liberal leader would ever live down those excruciating photos from a week ago, this is it: change the debate. Give people something else to talk about. Entice the gadfly media to write about something besides his judgment, his maturity or other stuff he’d rather not discuss. And just to nail it down, if they ask any more questions about “those pictures,” insist you’ve fully explained yourself and refuse to say anything more. Harrumph. Who invited you to my mountain anyway?

So now we once again have Justin Trudeau, moral crusader. Speaking in Hamilton, Ont., where he was supposed to be unveiling a sort-of pharmacare program — minus any details, timelines or cost estimates — he spent most of his time going after Ford, who just happens to be the person in charge of Ontario’s health-care system, that being a provincial responsibility. His message appeared to be that unloading a backhoe of insults on Ford would somehow make it easier to negotiate with the guy should the Liberal pharmacare plan ever come to be.

Perhaps people are concerned about Doug Ford but at least he didn't wear blackface and bribe the press to hide it.


Also - go ahead, teachers. Test parents' patience:

High school teachers and educational workers in Ontario turned up the pressure on the Progressive Conservative government on Tuesday as cracks continued to emerge in their contentious contract talks with the province.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation took the rare step of publicly releasing its bargaining proposals, saying it hopes the move will make negotiations more transparent.

Union president Harvey Bischof said the Tory government has not been bargaining in good faith and has used procedural delays to slow negotiations.

“This government has rigged the system from the outset,” he said. “They’ve had their thumb on the scale since before negotiations began. We’re going to take a different approach. One that puts transparency at the heart of our negotiations.”

Bischof said the union’s proposals include a request to roll back class size increases announced earlier this year and to link annual teacher pay raises to the consumer price index.

The proposals also include a request to examine e-learning before moving ahead with a plan to make students take online courses in order to graduate.

It's not like people are voting for him because he makes sense:

“He will reduce taxes, yes, but for the richest, not for ordinary people,” Singh said at a campaign stop in Bathurst, N.B.

The truth, however, is that the Conservatives are promising to lower personal income taxes for everyone who pays them.

The NDP did not respond to a request for comment asking which tax cuts Singh was referring to.

Just make it up. It sounds good on paper.

Russia Is Facing A Ban From the Tokyo Olympics Due to Some Missing Drugs Tests

Yes, Russia, where did that information go?:

The World Anti-Doping Agency has given Russia three weeks to explain how a number of positive drug tests were deleted from a database sent to the world’s anti-doping regulator as it investigated one of the biggest cheating scandals in sports history.

Any punishment would almost certainly include Russia’s ban from next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, but it could extend to competitions in any sport whose governing body is a signer of WADA’s doping code, including soccer’s World Cup, track and field’s world championships and dozens of other sporting events.

The chief executive of Russia’s anti-doping agency, world , declined over the weekend to rule out the possibility that the data sent to WADA from the Moscow lab at the centre of the 2015 doping scandal had been manipulated. In a text message Monday, Ganus said he was “frustrated” with that possibility, and said the potential consequences for all Russian sports “will be more than serious.”

“I think this situation is the most critical since this doping crisis began,” he said.

Russia’s promise to deliver a database of thousands of athlete records was a key factor in WADA’s decision to lift a ban on the country’s anti-doping agency in late 2018. That determination ended a three-year suspension that had been imposed after the discovery of one of the most audacious and sophisticated cheating schemes in history, one that corrupted a number of major international sporting events, including several Olympics.

When Greedy People Use Their Children

It shows the worst of humanity:

Young Sophia Mathur is of course following the trail-blazing Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish wunderkind who has been elevated by the media to become one of the world’s leading intellectuals on various global issues, from climate change to inequality and other high-fashion ideas circulating within the green left. After addressing the World Economic Forum, the EU Parliament and other august organizations over the past year, Greta is in New York where she led a student strike on Friday and held centre stage at the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Monday.

(Sidebar: this Greta Thunberg.)

When the public is done with Greta Thunberg's fiery yet rehearsed brand of eco-evangelism, where will she end up? What will her parents do?

Yes, About That, Part Deux

Kate Purchase's dad assured everyone that Justin's latent racism was nothing that Canadians are worried about:

A new Angus Reid poll shows Trudeau’s net momentum score falling to negative 45 points following his blackface scandal.

The ‘net momentum score’ is calculated by subtracting those who say their opinion of a leader has worsened from those who say their opinion has gone up.

On Twitter, Angus Reid pointed out that Trudeau is a “major liability” for the Liberals ...

**

In the aftermath of Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau‘s blackface and brownface scandal, the Conservative Party has gained a four-point lead over the Liberals, according to a new poll.

The latest Ipsos poll, conducted exclusively for Global News between Sept. 20 and 23, shows that 36 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories if an election were held the next day and 32 per cent would vote for the Liberals — a loss of three points for the incumbent party.

(Sidebar: only three points?)



Oh, my. How embarrassing.

On the Korean Peninsula

How is that Singapore thing working out?:

North Korea is building a massive underground facility on Mayang Island off Sinpo in South Hamgyong Province to deploy a new 3,000-ton submarine capable of carrying three to four ballistic missiles, the government here said Sunday.

"We've detected recent construction of an underground facility at the submarine base," a military spokesman here said. "The project seems to improve capacity to accommodate subs and defend the base."

The shipyard in Sinpo develops and builds the subs, while Mayang Island could become the largest submarine base in the North. It seems that the North is preparing for the launch of a new sub.

Also - oh, I'm sure:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday boasted that he alone protected his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in from war with North Korea. "If I weren't president you would be in a war with North Korea right now," Trump told reporters with Moon sitting next to him.

The two presidents met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and Moon expressed hopes of another summit between the U.S. and North Korea. Trump claimed that he has "good relationship with [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un," and added, "There's been no nuclear testing at all."

Prodded about North Korea's frantic short-range missile launches in recent months, Trump reiterated that they are insignificant. "We didn't have an agreement on short-range missiles. And a lot of people and a lot of countries test short-range missiles," he said. "There's nothing spectacular about that."

Asked about the possibility of another meeting with Kim, Trump said, "Right now people like to see that happen. I want to know what is going to be coming out of it. We can know a lot before the summit takes place."

 

Perhaps this one of the reasons for Moon's unpopularity:

Meanwhile North Korea conducted 10 tests of new missiles this year alone, two of them launched near the border. Kim said they were "warnings to South Korea" and there is no doubt that he meant it. Yet the Defense Ministry, as if responsible for defending the North, claims that Pyongyang "did not violate a single agreement." A North Korean version of the Russian Iskander-type missile is difficult to intercept, making it crucial to identify them first. The assistant U.S. secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs said Wednesday that North Korea still appears to be producing nuclear weapons. And just at this crucial juncture, the government wants to scrap an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan. The basic principle of controlling defense costs is to decrease the number of offensive weapons while boosting reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities. Will the Moon Jae-in administration take the blame if its failure to observe this basic principle leads to catastrophe?

 

It will because - as has often been said - one cannot reason or deal with a communist:

Even after Moon came into office with an explicit agenda of being as nice as possible to North Korea, Pyongyang kept behaving in this deranged manner by linking the defections of some North Korean waitresses in China to the reunions, in flagrant violation of agreements with South Korea. But no, Moon says South Korea must take part of the blame. What exactly does he think Seoul has done wrong? Not bend to every insane demand from the North?

It may of course have been nothing but conciliatory blather. "Mistakes were made on both sides" is a classic negotiation opener, even when it is perfectly obvious that they were made by only one. But it seems totally misplaced here. Moon is so desperate for another photo op with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that he will say anything, even though he must know that it only encourages the North to behave badly, and that it despises him all the more for it. How much longer must we endure the monumental diplomatic incompetence of this government?

And the Rest of It

This is what happens when we don't elect our judges:

When Ezekiel Stephan fell ill, his parents treated his fever with a tincture of garlic, onion and horseradish.

David and Collet Stephan did call an ambulance, but only after he’d stopped breathing, after his body had become so stiff he couldn’t be placed in a car seat.

They were found guilty in April 2016 for failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of their son but the Supreme Court ordered a new trial two years later. In a Lethbridge, Alta., courtroom Thursday, seven years after their 19-month-old son was taken off life support in a Calgary hospital, they were acquitted.

Oh, good luck with that, Labour Party. Let's see how many upper-middle class voters buy that:

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has agreed to abolish private schools, a move for which finance policy chief John McDonnell said on Monday the party would begin drawing up proposals.

At its annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton, the Labour Party passed a motion supported by leftist groups to abolish private schools and integrate them into the state sector to help dismantle “the privilege of a tiny.”

Abolishing teachers' unions might prevent this:

A school in Washington state is facing harsh backlash for telling an 11-year-old boy with autism to work in a bathroom after his mother told teachers he works best in a “quiet place.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Aron Eisenberg:

 

It's An Election Year!

Look how much people promise without saying how they will provide it:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer promised supports for veterans Sunday, attempting to set the stage for a new relationship with former service members, after moves by both the previous Liberal and Tory governments have angered them.

Scheer said as prime minister he would clear a backlog of veterans’ benefit applications within two years and create a reliable pension system.

“To every veteran who has struggled and who has continued to struggle without the support and benefits you have earned through your service, my message is this: You have been betrayed, but you deserve better,” he said.
 

I guess it's better than suing veterans and their fake legs.

**

The Liberals tried to turn the page on Justin Trudeau‘s blackface controversy — and one-up their main rivals — with policy announcements Sunday again aimed squarely at middle-class Canadian wallets.

The Conservatives promised more robust support for Canada’s veterans, while the NDP pledged billions in funding to curb the effects of natural disasters on communities.

The Communists Also Did This

According the Canadian Charter of Rights and Human Freedoms, there is no right to private property:

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not directly protect property rights. The Charter was enacted as part of the Constitution Act, 1982, which affirmed the Constitution as the supreme law of Canada and provided that any law that is inconsistent with the Constitution is of no force or effect. The Charter guarantees certain individual rights against intrusion by the state and gives the courts the power to provide a remedy to anyone whose Charter rights are denied. For example, section 7 of the Charter reads:

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

If property rights had been included in the Charter, certain laws restricting or removing property rights would be unconstitutional, and the courts would have been able to strike them down. But property rights were deliberately excluded from the Charter (the reasons for this omission are subject to some debate that cannot be summarized adequately in this guide), and subsequent proposals to amend the Charter by adding protection for private property have not been successful.

If the Liberals get back in, it will be gone for good:

A Thursday ago, the Conservative Party of Andrew Scheer posted a tweet that probably answered why the CRA was likely digging for the information about the sale of our home, and likely the homes of millions of others.

The federal election is now only a month away, of course, so dirt digging is a big part of the game — especially this election.

And thus came the Tories’ tweet.

“@Justin Trudeau and @TOAdamVaughan have a secret plan to tax the sale of your home at 50%,” it reads. “This is Trudeau’s secret agenda: tax hikes to pay for his massive deficits. You work hard, you increase the value of your home, and the Liberals take 50%. How is that fair? #NotAsAdvertised.”

Fifty percent would be criminal, of course. Even the sketchiest credit-card provider and those devious pay-day loan outfits aren’t that greedy.

But any tax on the sale of one’s main home would also be wrong, unless there was a business link.

Yet, if the Trudeau Liberals get re-elected, any of the profits people use from the sale of their principal residence to fund their kids’ post-secondary years, or to provide a cushion for retirement, could be cut in half in some cases.

This prohibitive to owning any property. Why work for a house when the sale of it would cost you more?

No, the RCMP Didn't Do Anything Wrong in Arresting Meng Wanzhou

The Crown puts its case forward:

Canadian officials followed the law when they detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver's airport and the defence has no proof to substantiate its "conspiracy theory" that she was illegally arrested, the Crown says.

The Attorney General of Canada says in court documents released Monday that there's no evidence to suggest that the RCMP or the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States asked border agents to elicit information from Meng during the detainment.

"There is no evidence that lends an air of reality to these allegations, nor is there evidence that would suggest there is any documentation that would substantiate these allegations," it says.

Meng, whose arrest has sparked a diplomatic crisis between Canada and China, returned to British Columbia Supreme Court on Monday where her lawyers are asking for documents that they say would support their allegations.

The Huawei chief financial officer was arrested on Dec. 1, 2018, during a stopover in Vancouver on her way to Mexico. The arrest was at the request of the United States, which is seeking her extradition on fraud charges.

The U.S. alleges that Meng misrepresented facts to HSBC regarding Huawei's business dealings in Iran, which put the bank at risk of prosecution for violating sanctions against the country.

Both Meng and the Chinese tech giant have denied any wrongdoing and none of the allegations have been tested in court.

The court released hundreds of pages of documents on Monday, including the Crown's written reply to the defence's request for documents and surveillance video without sound showing Meng speaking with agents from the Canada Border Services Agency at the airport.

In its reply, the Crown says border agents followed proper procedure in examining Meng and her goods to determine her admissibility to Canada and her charter rights were not breached.

It says the border agency is empowered by law to examine a traveller's cellphones, and in this case they placed Meng's phones in evidence bags and requested her passcodes but ultimately decided against looking through the devices.

The RCMP also followed procedure by waiting to execute the provisional arrest warrant until after border officials had suspended their examination of Meng, it says, adding that the Mounties legally seized her phones at that point.

Officials and solemn declarations by the RCMP and border service officers record their encounter with Meng, the Crown adds.

"If the CBSA and RCMP together have engaged in a 'well-coordinated scheme' and 'strategically drafted' their notes to conceal misconduct, why would the RCMP ... record the contents of their meeting in detail?" the Crown asks.

Just send her to the US and let the Americans deal with her.

How Embarrassing

Mostly for us.

A link dump of Justin's errors. They are enough to not only never vote for him ever but to keep him from sharp objects:

The revelation by Time Magazine this week that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau appeared in brownface when he was 29 years old at the school where he was, perhaps appropriately, a drama teacher, and another incident in which he sang the Banana Boat song in blackface, has ricocheted around the world with predictable consternation at home and disbelief and mockery abroad.

The New York Times put the brownface story above the fold on the front page and ran it as the third-ranked story for hours Wednesday on what may be the most read news web site in the world. The BBC, which competes with the New York Times for that top news web spot, placed Trudeau’s multiple blunders at the top of its front page for most of Wednesday and then elevated it number one again Thursday morning when Global News revealed the existence of a video of the prime minister in blackface.

There have been predictions aplenty that Trudeau’s already deeply troubled goal of winning a seat on the UN Security Council is dead. After all, 54 of the 193 UN votes for that coveted Security Council position are held by African nations with another 13 votes coming from the Caribbean.

(Sidebar: but people already knew that, so ...)

**

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberals are in deep political trouble after the emergence of a photo of him in brown face, has experienced a number of scandals and missteps since taking power in November 2015.  

WATCHDOG RULES TRUDEAU TRIED TO HELP MAJOR FIRM AVOID TRIAL ...

HOLIDAY AT RESORT OWNED BY RICH FRIEND ...

COSTUMES DURING TRIP TO INDIA ...

SARCASTIC REMARK TO INDIGENOUS PROTESTOR ...

ELBOWS FEMALE LEGISLATOR IN THE BREAST IN PARLIAMENT

**

Oh, no one believes you, Chrystia:

Canada’s Foreign Minister Chyrstia Freeland said on Friday that though she was “troubled and disappointed” by images of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface, she had full confidence in his leadership of the party. 

Not bloody likely.


Also  - this must be embarrassing:

About 50,000 Indian Americans attended the “Howdy Modi!” rally in Houston, where the crowd chanted “Modi! Modi! Modi!” as he took the stage to introduce Trump as “my friend, a friend of India, a great American president.”

Modi even used Trump’s political slogan to say the president had a strong resolve to “make America great again.”

“When I met him for the first time, he said to me ‘India has a true friend in the White House,”’ Modi said. “Mr. President, this morning in Houston, you can hear the heartbeat of this great partnership in this celebration of the world’s two largest democracies.”

I'll just leave this right here:

After landing on Saturday, Mr Trudeau was received by a junior agricultural minister and only by district officials when he visited the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra a day later.

His welcome stands in stark contrast to heads of foreign governments who have been personally received at New Delhi’s airport by prime minister Narendra Modi himself, known for his warm public embraces with world leaders.

Mr Trudeau was also not afforded the usual fanfare of being greeted by the provincial chief minister of northern Uttar Pradesh state, where Agra is located.

Diplomatic sources said by "downgrading" these subtle arrangements, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was "indicating" its displeasure over Mr Trudeau attending an event organised by Sikhs in Toronto last May that featured posters and flags demanding the Sikh homeland of Khalistan.

Yes, About That ...

Abacus Data is run by Bruce Anderson, the father of Kate Purchase who is currently running the federal Liberal election campaign:

How did Canadians react to the election campaign revelations about Justin Trudeau wearing blackface and brownface? With a big meh, polls suggest.

In a new survey conducted by Abacus Data, which looked at reaction to Trudeau’s terrible week and surveyed impressions on the election as a whole, it’s clear that the scandal may not, for now, have had as big an impact as the Conservatives might have hoped.

“The photos and video released late last week was a shock that changed the focus and conversation of the election campaign,” David Coletto of Abacus said in a release accompanying the poll. “But so far, evidence that they have fundamentally changed people’s impressions or intended voting behaviour is quite limited.

This blackface:

Justin Trudeau was twice asked by journalist Lucas Meyer what exactly he was trying to dress up as when he wore blackface at a rafting party, and danced around.

Both times, Trudeau refused to answer the question directly, while simultaneously claiming that he’s being ‘open with Canadians.’

Not so much.

Trudeau’s response was so far removed from the actual question that Meyer even said “With all due respect Mr. Prime Minister, that wasn’t even close to answering the question.”

** 

During a recent press conference, Justin Trudeau was asked when he finally figured out it was wrong to wear blackface.

He refused to answer the question.

Instead, Trudeau deflected and tried placing blame on Canadians, saying people are “having conversations,” about the issue.

Of course, most Canadians didn’t wear blackface, Justin Trudeau did, and his claims of a ‘conversation’ are really an attempt to blame others for his own actions.

Like Justin, his interference teams are desperate to downplay this issue of his latent racism and refusal to take responsibility for his actions.

Nothing, apparently, is an issue. Not the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the fact that he stopped the criminal investigation into it, his racism in India, his forgiveness of ISIS rapists, the economy he tanked, his dictatorial censorship of any news on him, his treatment of women, his failure on international trade ...

Name the issue. Justin -like Peter Pan -is never responsible and nothing matters.


Also - guaranteed, Justin will offer Jagmeet Singh a power-sharing deal. Watch the scruples corrode in record time:
 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s still waiting to hear back from Justin Trudeau about whether the Liberal leader is willing to meet his condition for a discussion about the blackface scandal.

Singh reiterated his contention on Saturday that he not be used as a public relations “tool” by Trudeau to whitewash the controversy that has erupted over his past dressing in blackface.

Singh said Saturday he’s willing to talk to Trudeau but that he wants their conversation be private, and out of the media’s glare.

“I don’t want to be used as a tool to exonerate Mr. Trudeau. I don’t want to be a part of a PR process to say he checked off these boxes and, look, he made this call, and he’s all good. I don’t want to be a part of that,” Singh said while campaigning in Toronto.

“I will always say, yes. It’s important to have dialogue, but I made the condition it has to be a private conversation.”

And - this must be embarrassing:

On Wednesday, after being told that a second woman has now confirmed the story Goldy told the National Post, Liberal spokeswoman Zita Astravas repeated verbatim the comments about Scheer and Marshall, and again denied the claim. “The Prime Minister hasn’t had drinks with Faith Goldy, but if he were to talk to her he’d tell her to stop saying racist and hateful things,” she said. “We encourage Andrew Scheer to do the same.”

The second woman, who has since fallen out of touch with Goldy, told the National Post she was with her when Trudeau invited them both for several rounds of drinks over more than hour at a table in the middle of Zoe’s Lounge, the main bar of the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel, during a Liberal convention.

“The Liberals are lying about this one,” she said in an interview. Told of the party’s blanket denial, she said she was shocked.

Lying? Quelle surprise.

And the Rest of It

A bit going on ...




It's an election year!:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he would overcome legal objections to building new petroleum pipelines by fast tracking any cases right to the Supreme Court.

Scheer has long been critical of the Liberal government for spending $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline when legal challenges gave private company Kinder Morgan Canada cold feet about proceeding with the expansion.

Scheer says Ottawa has to invoke federal jurisdiction to get important projects built but he has not until now explained what that would mean in practice.

Why? Did she wear blackface?:

A candidate for the People's Party of Canada in southeastern New Brunswick who says the "threat" of Islamism "overrunning our nation" is what inspired her to seek election, is facing criticism by two newcomer organizations for comments they say are racist.

Nancy Mercier, who is running in the riding of Beauséjour, says on her campaign website that she's an interfaith pastor and naturopath, not a politician.

But she's worried about the "frailty of our freedoms" and believes Canada needs "a stronger leadership that will do politics differently, which includes, putting Canadians and Canada first."

"We don't want terrorism, basically," she told CBC News. "We want people that are going to come that have values that, you know, we're going to remain safe in our communities."

Mercier contends "radical" individuals "who don't agree with the way that we do things" and are "not afraid to tell us," are already living in New Brunswick and across Canada.

How is Islam a race and how is it not responsible for the murder of Christians and Yazidis?




Things are at a stand-still in Israel:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeing his chances of outright victory slipping as the final votes from this week’s election were counted, called Thursday for a power-sharing agreement with his chief political rival — who promptly shot him down.

Benny Gantz, head of the centre-left Blue and White party, said he was open to the idea of unity government as long he was at the top of it.

Netanyahu had rejected the idea of a unity government throughout the campaign, but he invited Gantz to “meet me today” soon after Blue and White was shown to have picked up another parliamentary seat, giving it a 33 to 31 seat edge over Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party with 97 percent of the vote recorded.

“During the elections, I called for the establishment of the right-wing government,” said Netanyahu in a statement. “Unfortunately, election results show that this is not possible. Therefore, there is no choice but to form a broad unity government that is as wide as possible.”

In televised remarks later, Gantz stopped short of agreeing to meet with Netanyahu but expressed openness to the idea of a unity government, with himself as its head.

If the UN had been defunded and China economically crippled, as should have happened by now, people in North Korea would not be starving:

North Korea’s crop production this year is expected to drop to its lowest level in five years, bringing serious shortages for 40% of the population, as a dry spell and poor irrigation hit an economy already reeling from sanctions over its weapons programs, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In its latest quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said the poor harvest of the country’s main crops, rice and maize, means 10.1 million people are in urgent need of assistance.

“Below-average rains and low irrigation availability between mid-April and mid-July, a critical period for crop development, mainly affected the main season rice and maize crops,” the FAO said. The report didn’t disclose detailed estimates of production by volume.

North Korea has long struggled with food shortages and a dysfunctional state rationing system, and state media has in recent months warned of drought and other “persisting abnormal phenomena.”

No, they struggled with communist dictators using food as a means of control.

Putting the Climate Where Their Mouths Are

When I see teen-agers walk to school or their part-time jobs, when they get rid of their cell phones, tablets and laptops, when they wear extra sweaters and socks to warm themselves during the frigid Canadian winters, then I will believe their convictions are for an apocalyptic scenario based on faulty science and not a way to get out of class:

Students at the University of British Columbia, the Toronto District School Board and Montreal’s Dawson College are among those expected to participate in mass climate demonstrations beginning today.

Some Canadian boards and administrations are supporting the global call to action and moving to allow or even encourage students to miss class for the cause.

The Toronto board has asked its schools to avoid scheduling tests and other assignments next Friday, to ensure students aren’t penalized for attending a rally outside the Ontario legislature.

UBC is advising students taking part in the walkout to discuss possible accommodations with their instructors.

The Global Climate Strike is timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York next week.

It's Just An Economy

One thing to point out, Ford had years of Liberal financial messes to clear up.

That's not excusing him, only something to consider:

Then the PCs took power and shocked the public with the news that the deficit for 2018-19 would be $15 billion, far more than the $6.7 billion the free-spending Liberals had promised. That led to allegations that the PCs had inflated the number for political purposes.

Now, we find out that last year’s provincial deficit was actually $7.4 billion. Not an inconsiderable sum, but $4.3 billion less than the PCs had estimated back in the spring. What’s going on?

For opposition politicians, who had always claimed that the PC number was full of hot air, it was superficial vindication. The actual numbers tell a different story and it’s a good one for Ontarians who are serious about bringing the province’s revenues and spending back into balance. ...

When it comes to eliminating deficits, there are two schools of thought. The PCs chose the supposedly easy path of cutting the deficit gradually over five years. That hasn’t done much to lessen complaints about austerity and cuts, even though provincial spending is at a record high. The alternative approach is to move quickly and get it over with. The goal of the exercise, it’s easy to forget, is to create budget sustainability so that revenues and expenses are in balance and Ontarians don’t need to agonize over cuts in the future. That can’t come soon enough. If the PCs surprising deficit reduction holds up this year, Ontario is well on its way to balance.

I'll believe it when I see it:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Wednesday he will start to pay for his promised $9 billion in tax cuts and program spending by finding a way to cut $1.5 billion from annual subsidies to Canadian corporations.

Justin's Blackface and Why It Matters

It's like Justin can't help himself.

He is constantly making a fool of himself and - by extension - Canada.


It was discovered that Justin - once, twice and THREE times - donned what has been vulgarly termed "skin-darkening make-up".

(Sidebar: it's blackface, people. Grow up.)

Justin then assumed a self-flagellating posture that should be a familiar one by now, given his many, many gaffes and insults, and begged for forgiveness.

The bribed press and his handlers certainly have their work cut out for them.

His desperate hangers-on will do mental and ethical gymnastics to excuse his juvenile behaviour but will everyone else (even Canadians who are quite happy to forgive his multitude of sins)?


It is strange for this to be the final nail in the coffin of Justin's career. He has proved to incompetent, tactless, misogynist, anti-Canadian and completely unsuited for the job of prime minister. Yet it is the knee-jerk culture of finding offense in everything and loudly squealing virtue but possessing none  - the one Justin as a leftist has relied on - that will determine what happens next. Lie to themselves if they must but leftists cannot convince everyone that something they themselves find appalling in others becomes a trifle when its own of their own.

Therein lies part of the problem.

A wise carpenter correctly pointed out that hypocrites received their true rewards by painting themselves (not in blackface) but as righteous citizens to crowds that did not solicit their opinions.

How prescient He was.

Justin has spent a good deal of his four years in office bleating the virtues of "diversity" and "feminism" while really not meaning a word of it:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has confessed to two incidents of such “makeup” wearing — one when he was in high school and sang The Banana Boat song, or Day O, by the great Harry Belafonte; the other of course the ghastly picture of Trudeau, in turban and brownface, that was published late Wednesday by Time Magazine.

In the picture, a dark Trudeau hand is splayed comfortably on the upper chest of whom I presume was a pretty colleague at West Point Grey Academy, the posh private school in Vancouver where Trudeau worked as a teacher.

This picture dates to 2001, when Trudeau was not a kid, but a 29-year-old.
According to Time, the photo was published in the school’s yearbook, The View, and taken at an “Arabian Nights”-themed gala.

Trudeau is the only one in the picture wearing brownface.

The magazine got the picture from a Vancouver businessman who first saw it in July and thought it should be made public.

It seems unlikely to me that Trudeau would have forgotten either the incident or the picture that was taken, especially as over the years, white people wearing blackface came to be recognized as racist and absolutely toxic to politicians.

It has taken this long to uncover things that have presented themselves as huge problems now.

Who does the vetting or is Pierre's frat-boy exempt from that?


Is "diversity" a "strength" if voters blocks leave to rape, pillage and murder in the Middle East instead of embracing the Canadian ethos? Isn't that treason even in a country with "no core identity"? Is one suitably "feminist" if he assaults women?

But as Justin informs the masses, we're the ones with the problem:

At a press conference in Winnipeg, Justin Trudeau connects his black/brown face scandal to Canada’s issues with “systemic racism.” pic.twitter.com/sx9XNambyK

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) September 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1174777921262649344https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/statushttps://twitter.co/MrAndyNgo/status/1174777921262649344/117477792126264What an @$$ but this inflammatory projection is not unfamiliar:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited his history of working on "issues around sexual assault" today in his clearest denial to date of groping allegations made against him linked to an event that happened nearly two decades ago. 

"Obviously this is a situation that has been very much on my mind over the past few weeks. It's a issue that I have been deeply engaged with, not just as a leader, but all my life, since my early 20s in university ... active on issues around sexual assault and behaviours," Trudeau told reporters in Toronto.

"I've been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago and again, I am ... I feel I am confident that I did not act inappropriately."

**

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

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

It takes a special kind of @$$hole to deny wrongdoings before turning the entire spectacle on himself and then accusing an entire nation of being mired in the social sins of which he is incredibly guilty:

“The prime minister job was not created so you could work through your issues, maybe its time that you realize you’re not the indispensable man as the leader of the liberal party?”

 
Perhaps one could be disgusted by Justin's actions - thrice committed while he was an adult and as a teacher (and, therefore, in a position to be a better role model) - but not surprised given the dancing monkey routine in India where he, at the taxpayers' expense, pranced around in wedding costumes, rubbed elbows with a convicted would-be assassin and walked away from India with a pittance of a trade deal. He and his equally ridiculous family saw absolutely nothing wrong with mimicking Indian culture and customs.

Most (if not all) leftists don't.

If a higher morality is removed from the cultural sphere, anything is possible. If there is no objective right or wrong, then what harm could be done? This idea makes everything from lack of manners and tact to even wilful murder simply a matter of personal taste.

The personal tastes of the left don the veneer of progression but don't reflect it in reality. Multiculturalism sounds groovy and who doesn't enjoy a good bowl of pho? But culture isn't the quaint affectations of reliable votes blocks (themselves means to political ends, not actual neighbours and co-workers with real ideas and feelings). It is an entire system of beliefs and practices that people rely on for their lives and expression.

In short, it's just not funny when some rich honky wears wedding clothes and dances likes an idiot because he thinks it is a riot and doesn't get why no one else does.

And the three-peat of wearing blackface and the insulting of black persons.

The mental dissonance must be baffling.


Putting aside for a moment Justin's unwillingness to act like the adult he is supposed to be by now, this is the same cretin who dug up obscure tweets and dredged absurd phobias to paint his opponents as monsters and fanatics.

Who can be persuaded of that now?

His political opponents jumped on this. It wasn't just hay in the making but hay for free.

What does it mean when Jagmeet Singh emerges as the voice of reason?:

Jagmeet Singh challenged Canadians Thursday to try to see through his eyes the implications of a shocking trio of images catching Justin Trudeau in racist acts.

This is a moment full of both political and personal resonance for the NDP leader, whose presence in the campaign as the visible-minority leader of a major party is a first for Canada.

Singh said he doesn’t know how he’ll be able to look Trudeau in the eye at all, after seeing the decades-old photos and videos of the prime minister and Liberal leader with his face darkened by makeup on three separate occasions.

“Imagine what that would feel like if you’ve gone through pain in your life, if you’ve been treated differently, if you’ve faced insults, if you’ve faced physical violence because of the way you look, if you’ve been treated differently by the police, if you’ve faced systemic barriers,” Singh said at an event in Hamilton, Ont.

“And then to see the prime minister making light of that. How would someone feel living in this country? I can tell you that it hurts.”

Okay, dial it back, but still - Justin's actions were thoughtless, crude and hurtful and the denial and ultimate excusing of it only compounds the insult.

 So where is the on this?

If the left lives by the Alinsky principles, they, too, shall die by them.

The content of Justin's character is well-known. It's time to hold him accountable by the standards he sets for others:

Despite apologizing often and talking about the need for “discussions” with Canadians, Trudeau never offered to step down and pushed back on the idea that he should resign as leader.

“I spent the morning speaking with candidates, with fellow Liberals, with allies, with leaders within racialized communities across the country and I will continue to do the work necessary to keep us moving forward in the right way,” Trudeau said.

Any other candidate would be run out of politics — Trudeau thinks he can survive this and every other controversy that comes his way.

And why shouldn’t he think that after getting a free pass on SNC-Lavalin, the Aga Khan vacation and the Kokanee Grope.

Finally, why did the Americans, as with Cameron Otis, be the ones to leak this story? Who vets and who reports?

Certainly not the people who get paid to put a whiter face on their boss.

There is no open and accountable media. Only paid mouthpieces who dash to cover their financier.

What a way to creature further division and distrust.


 (Paws up)