For a Sunday

Winter is coming:

While cold weather hasn’t locked in yet, much of Canada is in for a harsh winter.

That must be great news for these parts of Canada:

The CN Rail workers strike is steering Ontario’s propane supply in the same direction as Quebec’s, industry experts say.

More than 3,000 conductors, yard workers and trainpersons walked off the job Tuesday after the union and railway failed to reach an agreement on a new contract.

(Sidebar: trainpersons?)

**

Some 85 per cent of the propane used in Quebec is supplied by rail. So when the rail workers go on strike, the propane isn’t moving. Which means Quebec’s reserves are dwindling, even a few days into the strike. On Thursday, Premier François Legault called it an “emergency” for the province. He said Quebec keeps 12 million litres of propane in reserve, and uses about six million litres per day. Which means two days of propane, in theory. But rationing has begun, media reports said, bringing daily usage down to 2.5 million litres per day.

Perhaps Quebec should spend the money Alberta sends it on pipelines.




Liberal drunk fools Alberta energy minister:

Alberta’s energy minister said she has an optimistic outlook on the future after meeting with Canada’s newly-appointed natural resources minister in Calgary.

“He listened, he heard he understood. I was very encouraged with the tone and the direction and the relationship ahead,” Sonya Savage said after her Friday morning meeting with Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan.

(Sidebar: this Seamus O'Regan.)




Chrystia Freeland promises to cry in front of Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe:

A spokesperson for the deputy prime minister confirmed to Global News that Chrystia Freeland will meet with the Saskatchewan premier on Tuesday.

Premier Scott Moe‘s office, in a statement, said “the Premier has had a positive working relationship with Minister Freeland, and he looks forward to discussing issues that are facing our province.”

In a previous meeting between Moe and the prime minister, Scott Moe said he told Justin Trudeau he was tired of hearing “more of the same,” and that he asked Trudeau to cancel the carbon tax, commit to renegotiating equalization and work on more efficiently getting Saskatchewan products to market.

I'll just leave this right here:

People labour under the mistaken impression that anything like democracy will go on existing in this country (as it barely has):

Numbers from Angus Reid polls show that in January 2016, 53 per cent of Canadians supported electoral reform. This November, 68 per cent of Canadians felt the same way.

Shachi Kurl, the executive director of Angus Reid, told Global News the increase in support was most pronounced with those who align with the Conservative party.

I'm sure this is nothing at all to be concerned about:

Insolvencies have risen amid a slowing economy and the lagging effect of higher interest rates that make it more difficult for borrowers to keep up with payments.

‘”There is a strong correlation between interest rate changes and consumer filings but we see a two to three year lag between rate increases and a growth in the number of insolvencies,” stated Andre Bolduc, an association board member. 

“Sustained increases in living costs and debt servicing costs have created an environment in which more people are struggling to stick to their repayment terms.”

What is Canada's new foreign minister going to do about China?

Whatever he is told:

China’s new ambassador to Canada said the Trudeau government should avoid weighing in on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

This China:

Donald Trump’s national security adviser has issued a dire warning to Canada about Chinese telecom giant Huawei, saying Ottawa should reject the company’s plan to deploy its 5G network because the technology would be used as a “Trojan horse” to undermine national security.

**

The U.S. national security adviser urged Canada on Saturday not to use Huawei 5G technology, saying that doing so would put in jeopardy intelligence sharing with the United States and expose Canadians to being profiled by the Chinese government.

**

A Chinese spy has risked his life to defect to Australia and is now offering a trove of unprecedented inside intelligence on how China conducts its interference operations abroad.

Wang “William” Liqiang is the first Chinese operative to ever blow his cover. He has revealed the identities of China’s senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong, as well as providing details of how they fund and conduct political interference operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.

Mr Wang has taken his material to Australia's counter-espionage agency, ASIO, and is seeking political asylum – potentially opening another front in Australia’s challenging bilateral relationship with China.

A sworn statement Mr Wang provided ASIO in October states: “I have personally been involved and participated in a series of espionage activities”. He faces certain detention and possible execution if he returns to China.

And this Hong Kong:

An uneasy calm settled over Hong Kong on Saturday as the city prepared to go to the polls for local elections seen as a referendum on months of anti-government protests, after weeks of especially violent clashes between police and demonstrators. ...

Both Chinese and Hong Kong leaders have repeatedly said that Hong Kong police can handle the situation but Beijing has more than doubled the number of troops in the city since late August, with up to 12,000 on bases scattered across the territory.

Now, any leader worth his salt would tell this crony to cram it with walnuts but Justin adores his Chinese masters and their money so much that he doesn't need the Bronfmanns anymore.

Certainly not them.




Why didn't he fire himself?:

Federal Conservative party Leader Andrew Scheer dismissed two of his top aides on Saturday as he and his party grapple with the fallout of what many see as a disappointing performance in last month’s election.

Scheer announced the changes in a morning letter to caucus, saying chief of staff Marc-Andre Leclerc and communications director Brock Harrison have been relieved of their duties effective immediately.

Martin Belanger and Simon Jefferies will fill the respective posts on an interim basis until full-time replacements can be found.

Scheer did not spell out reasons for the dismissals in his letter, saying only that personnel changes were being made as the party prepares to assume an active role in the liberal-led minority parliament.

You lost the election. Not them, Andy.




There is simply no reason for any of these fees as people scarcely use them and the rest goes to anti-Israel idiots who are drunk with power:

An Ontario Divisional Court ruling Thursday struck down a directive making some post-secondary student fees optional, saying it is inconsistent with the schools’ autonomy. The government has said the goal of the Student Choice Initiative was to give students more control over how they spend their money. But the Canadian Federation of Students has called it an attempt to silence voices that hold the government accountable, such as student unions and campus media. Kayla Weiler, the federation’s Ontario representative, says she is unsure if the fee schedule and full funding for those groups can resume for next semester or next year. A spokeswoman for the attorney general says the government is reviewing the court ruling.

That's a brilliant idea. With an increasing and an increasingly older and sicker population with no doctors or engineers wandering in to speak of (read: at all) and very few training to be medical professionals, putting the kibosh on those training to be medical professionals entirely for political reasons makes as much sense as not vaccinating your kids and using Chinese metal to build bridges.

Really:

A bioethicist is calling for medical schools to eliminate applicants who would oppose providing medical services over objections to them based on their personal beliefs.

The call from Udo Schuklenk, a Queen’s University professor and the Ontario Research Chair in Bioethics, comes as the Alberta government grappled with a controversial bill that would have allowed health-care providers to refuse to provide medical care if they object to it on religious or moral grounds.

I have yet to hear how many of these conscientious objectors have refused legitimate medical care or how euthanasia is an emergency procedure but I guess this Ivory Tower moron knows what he is talking about.




Once again - you can never, ever trust a communist:

The United States will be held responsible if the opportunity for diplomacy over the Korean peninsula issue is lost, North Korea's vice foreign minister was quoted as saying by the South's Yonhap news agency on Friday.

The comments by Vice Minister Choe Son Hui, who is a close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a one of the North's key nuclear negotiators, were the latest effort by Pyongyang to press Washington for a change in attitude amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

"The United States would have to take full responsibility if the opportunity for diplomacy disappears in Korean peninsula for (the U.S.) not taking corresponding measures," Choe told reporters in Moscow after meeting Russian officials, according to the Yonhap report.

She did not elaborate on the corresponding measures she referred to were.

Also - who helped North Korea go nuclear? Why, Jeffrey Epstein's friend did:

In this case the power gap between the “strong” United States and “weak” North Korea was immense. The U.S. economy was roughly 100 times the size of North Korea’s, and the U.S. also boasted the world’s most capable conventional military forces plus a nuclear arsenal that could have incinerated every North Korean city. Yet this comparatively small country managed, despite the superpower’s awareness and opposition, to acquire a capability that made itself exponentially more potentially dangerous to the superpower.

This article overlooks the fact that Bill Clinton was also instrumental in putting North Korea in the position it is in today.




Pope Francis could have emphasised the enduring faith of the kakure kirishitan but elected not to do so:

In a long-awaited speech in Nagasaki, Pope Francis on Sunday strongly criticized the concept of nuclear deterrence and warned of arms races while calling on world leaders to instead use money and resources to cope with environmental issues and poverty that affect millions of people worldwide who are “living in inhumane conditions.”

Compare that to this:

The 82-year-old pontiff is set to start a four-day tour Saturday, visiting Nagasaki and Hiroshima on Sunday, followed by Mass at Tokyo Dome on Monday. He will be the first pontiff to visit in 38 years, following St. John Paul II in 1981.

Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was 21 when he contracted pneumonia. He was in critical condition for three days, barely surviving surgery to remove part of his right lung.

This painful experience apparently deepened his faith in God. The disease, however, also forced him to give up on his aspiration as a young Jesuit in Argentina to be dispatched as a missionary to Japan.

Bergoglio’s request was rejected because of health concerns caused by his considerable loss of lung function after the operation. ...

Christianity was introduced to Japan in 1549 by missionary Francis Xavier, one of the society’s seven founding members. His achievements are widely taught in Japanese history classes. Pope Francis is the first non-European pope in about 1,600 years and the first Jesuit ever given the role.

Baptisms began rising drastically after Xavier’s arrival, and Japan had an estimated 300,000 Christians by the early 17th century.

At first, the Tokugawa shogunate allowed the Jesuit missionaries to continue trading with the Portuguese merchants who frequented its ports. But in 1614 it banned Christianity and began a massive persecution of Christians throughout Japan.

Many survivors, especially in Kyushu, hid their religious beliefs but secretly continued practicing their faith until the late 19th century, when Japan finally ended more than 210 years of seclusion. ...

Nagasaki, one of the main bases for missionaries in the 17th century, was also the place where a group of Japanese “hidden Christians” revealed themselves to a French priest in 1865. Their “rediscovery” over 250 years later is widely considered a miracle by Catholics worldwide.

Objections to nuclear weapons mean nothing if North Korea gets around to delivering Japan its third nuclear payload.

But enduring faith over the centuries means so much.

Servant of God Nagai Takashi and Saint Francis Xavier,  pray for us.

And now, a nice deed before Christmas:

As the holiday season approaches, the Canadian Armed Forces are asking residents to write personnel who are going to be away from family in the coming weeks.

The friendly request was shared on the Canadian Armed Forces in the United States Twitter account earlier this week.

“Many of us will spend the holidays with our families. Many of us will not,” the message said before sharing the Canadian Armed Forces mailing address.

“It would mean a lot if you did.”

Friday Post

Just in time for the week-end ...




I believe the word that I am looking for this is - "Suckers!":

As Quebec’s premier says his province is just days away from running out of propane due to the ongoing strike at Canadian National Railway, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says there is a simple solution: pipelines.

On Thursday, Quebec Premier François Legault said his province only had four days before its propane supply would run out, creating an “emergency” situation for hospitals, farms and nursing homes.

Legault urged Ottawa to “accelerate negotiations” between CN Railway and the union representing its 3,200 conductors, train and yard workers, and to pass back-to-work legislation if necessary. 

Around 85 per cent of Quebec’s propane reserve is supplied by rail.

“Here’s my message for Premier Legault: We have technology that could guarantee you constant, stable access to propane and other fuels,” Kenney said Thursday from Texas during a Facebook Live chat.

“They’re called pipelines.”

Don't help them. Kenney. Let the b@$#@rds freeze.

Winter is coming ...


Also:

The premier of Alberta, Canada's top oil-producing province, said Wednesday that the end of a government-imposed curtailment on oil production could come earlier than its December 2020 sunset date.

"We hope it will end by this time next year at the latest," Premier Jason Kenney told Reuters during an interview in Houston, where he met with executives from Chevron Corp, Phillips 66, other oil pipeline and private equity firms.

Alberta introduced mandatory oil production curbs on Jan. 1, 2019, to reduce a crude glut that depressed regional prices. It has relaxed some limits to allow for more output and to try and stimulate more drilling and investment.

When the curtailment was begun, Western Canadian Select (WCS) crude oil was selling at a $50-a-barrel discount to U.S. crude oil. The limits have improved selling prices, with the discount to U.S. crude on Wednesday at $21.25-a-barrel for December delivery.

Growth in demand for Canadian crude should increase because of new projects like Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline replacement which could carry more than 300,000 bpd from Alberta to Chicago in 2021, said Kenney.

Conventional crude accounts for 16% of the province's oil production, with the vast majority coming from oil sands, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator. Oil sands involve an environmentally hazardous oil-extraction that can involve open-pit mining and require lots of energy.

Earlier this month, Kenney agreed to allow companies to produce additional oil if they move it by rail, which would reduce transport bottlenecks. Alberta could use oil jobs and revenue from new investment, having projected a 2019-20 fiscal year deficit of up to C$8.7 billion ($6.5 billion).

Curtailment was introduced by the previous government in Alberta, and continued by Kenney, who leads the province's United Conservative Party.

"My citizens - they own that oil," he said. "I cannot in good conscience allow it to be given away."

And:

The Liberal government will not accept major tweaks to its contentious environmental review legislation, despite public comments in recent days suggesting Bill C-69 could still be on the table, an official familiar with the matter says.

Jim Carr, the Liberal’s special representative to the Prairies, said on Thursday there is an “openness to look at the legislation” on the part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, prompting questions over whether Ottawa would be accepting new amendments to Bill C-69, which expands the environmental review process for major projects like sea ports and nuclear facilities.

His comments came days after a meeting between Trudeau and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, in which the prime minister said he would be open to “suggestions for improvements” to the implementation of the bill.

From the most "transparent" government ever re-elected:

Federal Attorney General David Lametti has issued a secrecy certificate overruling a judge’s decision to release documents in the case of an Ontario man accused of attempting to spy for China.

Lametti signed the document — a first in Canada’s history — to prevent the disclosure of information related to a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) surveillance operation on the Chinese embassy in Ottawa.

“This certificate, issued personally by me, prohibits the disclosure of some of the information disclosed by a designated judge of the Federal Court,” reads the document signed by Lametti. The certificate was first reported on by the Globe and Mail.

The certificate was issued in the ongoing criminal case of Qing “Quentin” Huang, who was arrested in 2013 in Burlington, Ont., following an RCMP-led investigation called Project Seascape.

“The certificate is issued in connection with a criminal proceeding [R v. Qing] for the purpose of protecting information obtained in confidence from, or in relation to, a foreign entity or for the purpose of protecting national security or national defence,” the document reads. The information is sealed for 10 years and could be renewed after that time.

 

Huang was an employee with a subcontracting company to Irving Shipbuilding Inc. and was charged under the Security of Information Act with attempting to leak secrets to a foreign power.

Read into it what you will.


Also - yes, China does expect Justin and his re-hashed band of incompetent bootlickers to pay the piper:

Lawyers for Huawei Technologies Co Ltd asked a Canadian court to immediately stay proceedings seeking to extradite the company’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou to the United States, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

Huawei spokesman Benjamin Howes said in an email that the company believes the extradition fails to meet the Canadian standard of double criminality.

You know it's bad when the fossil that let Zehra Kazemi's murderers get away with their crimes has to step up to bat for you:

Former prime minister Jean Chretien is advising Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to remember that he is “prime minister for all Canadians” in the face of western Canadian alienation.

You're not fooling anyone, Ad-Scam.


Meanwhile Justin is pretending to do work with Ford ... or something.




Not an Onion article:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tapped a point person for his party’s goal of growing the middle class.

Mona Fortier was named Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Finance Minister on Wednesday.

Because his four years of razing raising the middle-class just needed a special ministry.

Canadians are going to get the government they voted for good and hard.

The middle-class will be as extinct as any dinosaur.




What could go wrong?:

The government agency set up to investigate claims of human rights abuses by Canadian companies abroad wants expanded powers, the head of the watchdog said, setting up a clash with the mining industry which has fought to limit its reach.

The bloated government we have now has failed to put Justin in prison.




Professor Peterson, the inhabitants of this country are so emotionally retarded that they believe conscience rights equals dead gay kids. "Diversity" is a word they cannot spell let alone define:

“Diversity” is a word that, on the face of it, masquerades as something positive — because it is positive, in some of its manifestations. It’s obviously not helpful to set up an organization where everyone thinks alike, or solely in the approved manner. It is necessary, for example, for healthy organizations to ally the conservative tendency to preserve with the more liberal tendency to transform. But that begs the question: where is diversity to be found? Among the ideologues — pushing the “progressive” doctrine that it’s part of, most frequently including “inclusivity, equity and intersectionality” — it is to be found in a set of immutable characteristics that typify different groups, including race, sex, gender (because that is distinguished by those same ideologues from sex) and sexual proclivity, above all.

There are real problems with this agenda, however. The first is that it’s dangerous, in exactly the manner it is hypothetically designed to fight. The argument made by those who are truly prejudiced has always been that the differences between groups are so large that discrimination, isolation, segregation and even open conflict, including war and genocide, are necessary, for the safety of whatever group they are part of and are hypothetically protecting. Why is it any less risky for the argument to be made in the reverse manner? The claim that group-based differences are so important that they must take substantive priority during hiring and promotion merely risks validating the opposite claim.

There’s a second problem, too — and it’s particularly interesting, because it has been made by the same ideologically-oriented groups on the left that are pushing the diversity agenda: considering race, say, and gender when making diversity decisions is not sufficient. Diversity that focuses on females is insufficient, because black, Asian or Hispanic women, for example, face more egregious prejudice that white women.

This brings us to the last word of the progressive set—“intersectionality.” For the ideologues of intersectionality, true diversity cannot be limited to the features we have already considered — race and the like — because many people are alienated or, in the jargon, “marginalized,” from the broader culture by more than one oppressed minority feature. In consequence, the “intersection” between the groups must be considered for any real justice to make its appearance as a consequence of policy.

But there appears to be no limits, practically or philosophically, to the number of group memberships that have to be taken into account for true diversity to establish itself. It doesn’t take much thought — just a little arithmetic — to determine the nature of the problem: There are just too many potential intersectional categories.

How is this for "diversity"?:

York University has launched a review of how it handles free expression on campus over the Middle East conflict, after a Jewish student group’s event featuring former Israeli soldiers was disrupted by a massive protest Wednesday night.

“I want to emphasize in the strongest possible terms that acts of violence are not tolerated on our campuses and York University has zero tolerance for hate. There is simply no place for it in our community,” said York’s president Rhonda Lenton in a statement. She said she was “deeply disappointed” by the “verbal and physical confrontations.”

Oh, shut up! Everyone knows that York University is synonymous with Jew-hatred now.

Just like the Canadian government.




Without freedom of speech and expression, one would never know what an utter prat this repellent troll is:

One of the founders of Extinction Rebellion was facing possible expulsion from the movement yesterday (Wednesday) over remarks in which he allegedly questioned the significance of the Holocaust.

Roger Hallam, a former organic farmer in south Wales who co-founded the global activist movement, described the Holocaust as “just another f–ery in human history”, according to Zeit, a leading German newspaper.

Thanks for sinking yourself, douche.




I wouldn't rule it out, no:

The bubonic plague is the most common and people can get it because of an infected flea’s bite or from handling an infected, dead animal. The bacteria, Yersinia pestis, causes painful swelling in the lymph nodes. If it gets worse, the inflamed lymph nodes can turn into open sores and fill with pus.

If the bubonic plague spreads to a person’s lungs, it then turns into the more severe pneumonic plague. It’s the most virulent form of the infectious disease and symptoms can begin in 24 hours.

Symptoms for both include fever, chills, head and body aches, vomiting, weakness and nausea.

Oh, South Korea ... :

South Korea suggested Tuesday it may break off talks with Japan at the World Trade Organization aimed at settling their dispute over Tokyo’s export restrictions.

“We will not have talks for the sake of talks,” South Korean chief negotiator Chung Hae-kwan told reporters after holding a second round of negotiations with Japan at the Geneva-based organization following Seoul’s filing of a complaint with the body in September.

The meeting of more than six hours took place as part of dispute-settlement procedures under WTO rules. Chung said South Korea will conduct a review of what steps to take next, “including requesting the establishment of a panel.”

South Korea can request the establishment of a dispute-settlement panel at any time if it sees no prospect of reaching a deal bilaterally with Japan.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Mann:

Mid-Week Post

Your mid-week moment of fun ...




On October 21st, 2019, Canadians re-elected a known racist and Jew-hater.

Behold:

Canada has reversed course and voted in favour of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel for its “occupation” of Palestinian Territories, prompting a backlash of anger from Jewish groups.

The move marks a further departure between the U.S. and Canada on their posture toward Israel and a potential reversal of long-standing Canadian foreign policy.

(Sidebar: because Harper and Trump.)

The Trudeau government on Tuesday supported a resolution put forward by “the state of Palestine”, North Korea, Zimbabwe and others that calls for a “just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement” ...

(Sidebar: this North Korea.)

 
... to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and explicitly refers to contested lands between the two countries as “Occupied Palestinian Territories.” It also cites a 2004 International Court of Justice decision that said Israel’s construction of a protective wall in the West Bank “severely impedes the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”

Now that Justin is getting Chinese money, he doesn't need the Bronfmanns anymore.


Also - Jew-hating is a proud Canadian tradition in China's North American vassal state:

The University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union has apologized to the Jewish student group Hillel and agreed to consider its proposal for accessible kosher food on campus after questions over the issue led to accusations of anti-Semitism, calls for boycotts and international headlines.

The dispute began when one of Hillel’s members submitted a motion on Nov. 11 for the graduate students’ union to officially support the Kosher Forward Campaign, while having the union’s executive committee present it at an upcoming board of directors meeting.

But on Nov. 14, a member of the graduate students’ union, the external commissioner, emailed Hillel saying the group “might be reluctant to bring the motion as a result of Hillel being ‘pro-Israel’.”

The dispute caused alarm in the Jewish community, both in Canada and in Israel.

Universities should be places of learning, not of partisanship.

But don't tell that to the boycott Israel crowd.




All it takes is one:

In what is believed to be a first of its kind in North America, a Canadian court has ordered internet providers to block access to a website, raising concerns among consumer advocates that the country has entered a new era of web censorship.

The Federal Court late last week granted a request from a group of telecoms to block access to GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz, a website accused of illegally offering access to copyrighted TV programming.

Although website blocking orders have become common in some countries, such as Australia, Russia and the U.K., this is believed to be the first time that a court anywhere in North America has made such a ruling.

The lawsuit was brought by three telecoms: Bell, Rogers and Quebec’s TVA. Most other major telecoms were named as “third party respondents” as the ruling affects them. Of those internet providers, only Ontario-based TekSavvy opposed the ruling.

The identities of GoldTV’s owners are unknown, and they are referred to as “John Doe” in Court records.

TekSavvy argued that the order to block GoldTV would be the beginning of a new web censorship regime in Canada. 

“A blocking order is a grave violation of network neutrality and a fundamental change to what we do as internet service providers,” said Andy Kaplan-Myrth, vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs at TekSavvy, in an email to HuffPost Canada.

“The principles of common carriage and network neutrality mean that ISPs operate dumb pipes that carry bits. All ISPs should defend the basic principle that we are not liable for or responsible for the content of the traffic on our networks.”

However, the Federal Court disagreed, citing a British precedent that asserted courts can force ISPs to block websites if not doing so could result in public harm. 

That's right. "Public harm".

Justin's brother wrote propaganda for Iran:

First, unlike 2017, Trudeau ought to speak forcefully about what is happening in Iran. Certain members of his party, like the formidable Michael Levitt, are clear-eyed about the brutal nature of the Iranian regime. Trudeau should similarly not mince words and explicitly put Canada on the side of the protesters.

That will not happen.




Chrystia Freeland has just been Jodied:

 Chrystia Freeland will no longer serve as foreign affairs minister, as the job will instead go to Saint-Maurice—Champlain MP Francois-Philippe Champagne.

I won't shed tears for this troll but will note that it follows a precedent.




Bleed the east:

A Fraser Institute study earlier this year found that Alberta workers represented 16.5 per cent of the total contributions to the CPP in 2017, while Alberta retirees consumed 10.6 per cent of CPP expenditures. Further, over the past decade, Albertans made a cumulative net contribution of $27.9 billion to the CPP, over and above what was required to pay Alberta seniors.

The study also shows that should Alberta opt out, the CPP contribution rate would have to increase to 10.6 per cent from 9.9 per cent for the other provinces. But Alberta’s standalone contribution rate could be as low as 5.85 per cent. The calculations are based on the CPP pre-expansion and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institution’s definition of sustainability.

**

Thankfully, torrents of oil pour into Quebec to power those trucks and to keep the Quebec economy moving. Much of that oil comes from countries where you’ll be severely punished for saying the wrong thing, kind of like on Sportsnet. Much of it comes up the St. Lawrence in tankers, the same kind of tankers that are banned from taking Alberta oil off the north coast of British Columbia. Quebec’s biggest source of oil is the Alberta oilsands. It travels to refineries in Montreal via a long tube known as a pipeline.

That oil is then turned into gasoline and it’s a good thing, too. Quebec’s gasoline consumption is second only to Ontario’s and is growing. In 2013 Quebec drivers consumed 25,000 cubic meters of gasoline every single day. By 2018 that was up to 26,300. Remember, 70 to 80 per cent of GHGs in the fossil fuel transportation value chain are created by vehicle combustion. The remainder you can pin on producing and transporting the oil. It turns out that in this world of hard facts, in almost every respect, Quebec is itself an oil state, even if Quebecers let other jurisdictions produce the oil that they then burn in their trucks and SUVs.

**

The Higgs government's latest legal assault on the federal carbon tax is being labelled "strange" and "poorly done" by one of the lawyers on the other side of the battle.

The province recently filed its arguments in a constitutional challenge to the tax launched by the Alberta government.

In that court filing, New Brunswick complains that it was not able to fully respond to Ottawa's legal position because it didn't have enough time. 

That prompted law professor Amir Attaran, who is representing an Alberta First Nation in the case, to contact CBC News to say the province's complaint was unorthodox. 

(Sidebar: this Amir Attaran.)

"All of us have had the same amount of time, and nobody, except for New Brunswick, has complained that they weren't given time enough to think through and answer intelligently what the court needs to hear," he said.

PM Blackface doesn't have to care about the economy, western separation or anything else because he doesn't have the regions that put this hand-puppet back into power whining at him:

How many times do Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have to display their open contempt for Alberta before they’re criticized for dividing the country, as opposed to the Liberal/liberal media narrative it’s all Premier Jason Kenney’s fault?

During the federal election, Trudeau, campaigning in Montreal, urged Quebecers “to stand up and fight against” Alberta’s premier, whom Trudeau condemned (along with Ontario Premier Doug Ford) as not simply wrong on issues like climate change, gun control and addressing poverty, but unCanadian.

By contrast, Trudeau said: “We’ve demonstrated that we, as a team of Quebecers, are always there to stand up for Quebec values and indeed Canadian values,” a shocking way of playing off one part of the country against another.

**

Less than a month since the federal election, the latest projections from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) already suggest Canadians can expect larger federal deficits than previously estimated. The result: Canadian taxpayers will face more federal debt.

Initial projections had Ottawa running a $19.8-billion deficit this current fiscal year.

The PBO now projects the federal deficit will jump $1.3 billion to reach $21.1 billion in 2019/20.

 And according to the PBO, deficit growth will continue for years to come.

In fact, compared to earlier projections, the federal deficit will be $1.6 billion higher annually (on average) for the next five years. By 2024/25, federal debt is expected to hit a staggering $787.4 billion.

In more bad news, last week the PBO also downgraded expectations for growth in the Canadian economy, citing increasing trade protectionism worldwide and waning Canadian exports.

Suckers.

You get the government you vote for.




Where are all of those doctors and engineers we were promised?:

Internal government documents show that federal economic class immigrants were a net benefit of $5,431 in 2016 while provincial economic class immigrants were a net benefit to the tune of $5,307. 

The net benefit is the tax paid after accounting for any services or government transfers received.

On the other end of the spectrum, we find the results of the Syrian refugee resettlement.

On that file, it really is a tale of two cities. On the one hand, we have the privately-sponsored refugees who have adapted to Canada much quicker and with more ease than — on the other hand — government-sponsored refugees. They have not fared as well.

A report by the immigration department released earlier this year found that 93% of government-sponsored refugees ended up claiming social assistance during their first year in Canada compared to just 2% of Syrian refugees brought in through private sponsorships.

** 

New Canadians have no time for illegal immigration according to a new comprehensive study conducted by Ipsos-Reid for the federal government.

The annual report, commissioned by the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and uncovered by the investigative news outlet Blacklock’s Reporter, showed the clear frustration newcomers have watching others break Canada’s immigration laws.

Indeed. Laws for thee but not for me? 

I wish the government would stop pretending that it cared about stopping terrorism. We all know better by now:

The Crown is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to review an appeal court's decision to order a new trial for two men convicted of plotting to crash a Via Rail train.

In a written submission to the high court, federal lawyers say the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the convictions on the basis of a "highly technical error" in the jury selection process that did not interfere with the fair-trial rights of either man.

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on terror-related charges arising from an al-Qaida-inspired plot to derail a passenger train travelling between the United States and Canada. Both were sentenced to life in prison.

In August, the appeal court ordered a fresh trial for the men on grounds the jury that convicted them was improperly chosen.

Following the decision, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said it would proceed with a new trial, but noted it had 60 days to decide whether to seek permission to appeal from the Supreme Court.

In the submission, the federal lawyers note Jaser and Esseghaier were convicted of the most serious terrorism offences in Canadian law after nearly nine months of pre-trial motions and a three-month jury trial.

"Overturning these convictions on the basis of a technical error that had no appreciable effect on the conduct of the trial is a triumph of form over substance," the submission says.

**

An Ontario man has been arrested on a terrorism peace bond after returning from Turkey, and has been released on a long list of conditions including that he not espouse extremism, Global News has learned.

(Sidebar: oh, I'm sure he will.)

Ikar Mao, 22, was arrested at his home in Guelph on Nov. 10 over fears that he would participate in the activities of a terrorist group, according to documents filed at the Brampton courthouse.

**

A U.S. military court is still refusing to hear Omar Khadr's challenge of his convictions in Guantanamo Bay.

The United States Court of Military Commission Review, known as the CMCR, issued an order Monday denying a motion to lift a stay in proceedings in Khadr's appeal.

His Edmonton lawyer, Nate Whitling, said that could mean years of additional delay for Khadr in his attempt to clear his name.

"This has been hanging over his head for years and he obviously wants to get it resolved," Whitling said.

Oh, shut ! You'll still get your money.




It's a legal system, not a justice one:

Low said she was kidnapped and violently raped by two men after she suspects her drink was spiked at a Darmouth, N.S., bar. She reported it to police almost immediately, but said officers took 10 days to pick up her clothes, did not visit the scene of the crime and failed to process her toxicology paperwork for months.

**

A Federal Court judge has sided with Environment Minister Catherine McKenna in a decision she made to reduce the number of polar bears that Nunavik Inuit can hunt, despite claims that she failed to consider traditional knowledge about the health of the bear population.

What could go wrong?:

Saskatchewan’s health minister says the government will consider whether to help fund what would be the province’s first supervised drug consumption site.

 

The sooner older Canadians die and leave their CPPs for the government to pluck, the better:

Even before he swears in his new cabinet, Justin Trudeau is being urged to ask his new justice minister to move swiftly to make Canada’s assisted-dying law less restrictive.

Conscience alert! Conscience alert!:

The Belleville, Ont., chapter of the Knights of Columbus erected the black gravestone almost a week earlier in St. James Roman Catholic Cemetery in southwest Belleville.

Images of the Catholic fraternity’s monument posted on Facebook on Nov. 2 and Nov. 8 spread on the social media site, polarizing people across Canada.

The three images without captions gained almost 1,800 comments and more than 3,410 reactions. Sixty-six per cent of people reacted to the images with a “Haha” or “Love” while about 20 per cent responded with an “Angry” reaction.

“We’re not engaging in any sort of debate about it,” David Cameron, grand knight of the Belleville chapter, said in a phone interview.

“This is our belief and we don’t feel we’ve done anything wrong … it speaks for itself.”

Indeed.

As is oft-said, the matter is settled. If one is convinced that one's little sonogram is not at all human and deserves to be extinguished at taxpayers' expense, who cares if a handful of private citizens quietly pays for a monument?


Also - a woman has every right to change her mind - as long as it is for abortion:

In late October, Dr. George Delgado addressed an annual gathering of doctors at a west-end Ottawa hotel. The 150 members of Canadian Physicians for Life in attendance greeted the San Diego doctor’s presentation on his “Abortion Pill Reversal Protocol,” with great enthusiasm.

According to Delgado, a medical abortion can be rewound once started, should a woman change her mind halfway through the process.

The “reversal” involves injecting or prescribing large doses of progesterone to women who have taken the first of two abortion medications, but not yet the second.

And:

The Trump administration on Thursday joined a handful of other governments at a U.N. population conference, reiterating that there is no “right” to abortion, and rejecting an outcome document which they said had not been sufficiently negotiated among governments or been the result of a consensus process.

If one has money to sue the government, then perhaps teachers are too well-compensated:

A union federation representing 45,000 teachers in Quebec is suing the Canadian province over its ban on the wearing of religious symbols by many public employees.

**

Three of Ontario's four major teachers' unions are taking steps toward potential strikes as they negotiate with the government for new contracts. They all said Monday that they were open to mediation, with the union representing elementary teachers saying that a conciliation officer in their talks was already acting in the role of a mediator. The English Catholic teachers' union lamented that Lecce made the offer through a news conference, and not at the table.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation announced Monday that high school teachers voted 95.5 per cent in favour of a strike. The OSSTF is already in a legal strike position, though it's also required to give five days' notice before a strike and has not yet done so.

**

A Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee is under fire over comments he made at a marathon board meeting this month where he connected debate over LGBTQ issues with bestiality, pedophilia, cannibalism and more.

TCDSB Vice-Chair Michael Del Grande made the comments toward the end of a six-hour meeting on Nov. 7 where trustees eventually voted to amend the board's code of conduct to include broader protections for LGBTQ students.

Why would someone think that? 

Epstein didn't kill himself:

.@SenJohnKennedy:

"Christmas ornaments, drywall and Jeffrey Epstein - name three things that don’t hang themselves. That’s what the American people think...and they deserve some answers."pic.twitter.com/UTjaxNaohK

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 19, 2019

**

Prince Andrew’s attempt to explain away his friendship with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein in a high-profile TV interview degenerated into a farce that threatens to be the British royal family’s biggest public relations disaster since its handling of the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

I'll just leave this right here:

 

My   heart   goes   out   to   you,   Mr. &   Mrs. [REDACTED],   and   to   you [REDACTED]'s    siblings:    [REDACTED],    to    Grandma    [REDACTED], to[REDCATED]'s many aunts & uncles & cousins. It is with great difficulty that I stand before you knowing the pain and anguish you are going through. But I am aware, as well, that I am only a humble, unworthy mouthpiece. I ask God to use my words to bring the light, comfort and healing you need. 

Is  there  any  hope  to  offer  in  this  moment?  Must  we only speak  of  our profound grief, our indescribable sorrow, even our anger and confusion at how such a thing could have happened? Is there any word from God that might break into our darkness like a ray of light? 

Yes, yes, a thousand times. If we Christians are right in believing that salvation belongs to Jesus Christ, that it does not come from us--and that our hand cannot stop what God allows for us, then yes, there is hope in eternity even for those who take their own lives. 

Having said that, I think that we must not call what is bad good, what is wrong right. Because we are Christians, we must say what we know is the truth –that taking your  own  life  is  against  God  who  made  us  and  against  everyone  who  loves  us. Our lives are not our own. They are not ours to do with as we please. God gave us life, and we are to be good stewards of that gift for as long as God permits. 

The finality of suicide makes this all the worse. You cannot make things right again. Neither can [REDACTED].  And this is much of the pain of it all. Things are left unresolved, even if it felt to [REDACTED]like this was the only way to resolve things. You want to turn the clock back and say, "Please don't give up. We can work 

through  this  pain  together. " But  now  you  will  have  to  work  through  this  pain by yourselves, or with those close to you now who will need to lean on you even as you lean on them. 

On most people's mind, however, especially of us who call ourselves Christians, on our minds as we sit in this place is: Can God forgive and heal this? Yes, God CAN forgive even the taking of one's own life. In fact, God awaits us with his mercy, with ever open arms. Sacred Scripture says clearly: God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God's abiding mercy is what sets us to ask for it. Although God doesn't dangle his mercy like a carrot, waiting for us to ask for it in order to receive it, we do have to believe in our hearts, express with our words, and show in our actions –that it is always there. God wants nothing but our salvation but he will never force himself on us, he will not save us without us. That's how much he loves us. Because of the  all-embracing sacrifice of Christ on the cross God can have mercy on any sin. Yes, because of his mercy, God can forgive suicide and heal what has been broken. 

Because  God  is  merciful  he  makes  allowance  for  the  spiritual,  mental,  and emotional despair that leads to suicide. God is able to read the heart, to know the whole truth of a person's life, and thereby to pass sentence with mercy. God knows something we must discipline ourselves to do in these moments –he knows not to judge a person's entire life on the basis of the worst and last choice the person made. God can look at the totality of a human being's life and celebrate all the good that came from it, even while taking seriously the tragic choice that ended everything. And then he shows his mercy and love in ways beyond our limited understanding.

 Nothing can separate us from the love of God, the great St. Paul assures us(in that Reading we just listened to). Nothing –including suicide.

Who will bring any charge against God's chosen ones? St. Paul asks. It is God who acquits us. Who  will condemn? Christ Jesus sits at the right hand of God even now, interceding for this one who could not stand before God on his/her own. Truly, none of us can stand before God on our own. We all need Christ to intercede for us, to plead our case. And here's the good news: Christ has never lost a case! 

What will separate us from the love of Christ? St. Paul answers that question with a display of words that cover everything he can think of in so little space. Not death or life, not angels or principalities, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth or any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

What did St. Paul leave out of that list? Nothing. He did not list suicide, but he did not list murder or gossip or greed either. He covered all of those things in the final flurry of words that includes anything else in all creation. No deed is too evil to be beyond the forgiveness of Christ. No tragedy is too great to separate us from the love of God. 

If that is so, if the Scriptures can be believed, if God can be trusted even in this, then it gives us hope and guidance for how to manage our sorrow and anger and loss. We give it all to God. We hope...we can only hope. We do not carry it ourselves. We try to give thanks for the blessings of life we knew and shared with [REDACTED], with this child of God. And we remind ourselves that he is not lost to God who seeks to save all of his children. 

And so, we take great comfort and consolation in all this. Nothing-not even suicide-can separate us from the unconditional love of God. It is to this all-merciful love that we, through our prayers, entrust and continue to entrust the soul of [REDACTED]. Let us not deny him now of the help he needs most-our love expressed through our trusting prayers.

My dear friends, today, and in the difficult days to come, when darkness threatens to envelop and darken our hearts, let us raise high the bright light of our Redeemer and proclaim his saving mercy: Praised be Jesus Christ, now and for ever!

It's easier to paint a priest as a heartless monster without that ever-important homily. Anti-clericalism doesn't work if facts get in the way.