Your post-prandial post ...
Oh, my:
The PCs captured
21 of the legislature’s 40 seats in the Oct. 14 election. The Liberals
finished with 15 seats, the NDP with two, and independents took the
remaining two.
In the previous vote in 2021, the Liberals secured 22 seats, the PCs 13, the NDP two, and independents three.
Say it isn't so, Newfoundland!
The price of not holding our public officials to account:
Forty-three investigations of misconduct from bullying to forgery are
confirmed by the Privy Council, Treasury Board and Department of
Finance. “We need to hold ourselves to the highest standard,” said Privy
Council Clerk Michael Sabia.
The thing about NOT teaching Canadian history is that one does not need to concern one's self with the amount of white-washing:
These myths cast Ottawa-centric governance as uniquely noble, ignoring
the fact that the Prairies were settled not by Laurentian salons but by
waves of immigrants—especially Eastern Europeans and
Scandinavians—hacking farms out of unforgiving soil. Consensus was not
gifted from Ottawa; it was hammered out in prairie municipalities,
co-operatives, and churches, far from the capital’s reach. ...
Canada survives not because of a single
consensus, but because of successive patchworks—provisional fixes
layered on top of one another. It is duct-tape politics: unglamorous,
temporary, and never quite satisfying—but it has kept the lights on.
This may not sound heroic. But perhaps that is the point. To insist on
myths of noble consensus is to invite disillusion, because the Canada of
today bears little resemblance to those fictions. To admit instead that
our strength has always been pragmatic patchworks—not sexy, but they work for now—is to tell a story that ordinary Canadians can recognize.
Humility, not hubris, should be our creed. The horse-trading, the
duct tape, the messy patchworks: that is the Canada that has endured.
And it may be the only Canada that can endure still.
Whaaaat?:
The Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association is protesting federal
restrictions on protests outside synagogues, religious schools and
community halls. The measure could lead “to politicized arrests,”
counsel wrote the Commons justice committee: “We have serious concerns.”
If Bill C-9 passes, how will Canadian Jews be terrorised?
Check the silverware drawer:
The
Canada Council for the Arts usually rents artwork to government offices
and private businesses at a cost — with rates varying from $60 to
$3,600 per year.
However,
the Council said it is “unable” to speak on behalf of government
departments or disclose contractual details on their behalf and said to
contact them directly.
National
Gallery of Canada spokeswoman Josée-Britanie Mallet said the Government
of Canada first approached the National Gallery in May 2025 and
explained “the Gallery offered several pieces to choose from to be
showcased in public and official spaces.”
“The
National Gallery of Canada offered the artwork on loan to the Prime
Minister, who accepted,” specified Pierre Cuguen, spokesman for PCO.
“The practice of loaning artworks to Prime Ministers has been a
longstanding tradition.”
Carney
is, however, known to be an art enthusiast in Ottawa circles and has a
collection of modern art at home. His purchase of an oil canvas by
Canadian artist Kim Dorland, more than a decade ago, notably led to the firing of former CBC host Evan Solomon.
Solomon is now in Carney’s cabinet as Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.
(Sidebar: Milei would have canned that fake department ages ago.)
We don't have to trade with China:
China’s officials are sweet-talking Canadians. Its
Ambassador, Wang Di, has given smiling interviews calling for the two countries
to “have a correct perception of each other.” His other catchphrases include
“mutual respect,” “win-win cooperation,” and “positive energy.” Appearing
recently on CTV’s Question Period, he assured that current trade disputes would
disappear if only Canada would drop its tariffs.
After enduring several years of China’s abusive “wolf
warrior” diplomacy, Canadians — particularly Foreign Affairs Minister Anita
Anand, who is visiting Beijing this week — may be tempted to look for comfort
in this syrupy language. But they should be wary, because while the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) and its envoys have altered their tone, their hostile
intentions and harmful policies remain unchanged. Their goals are to enhance
economic ties selectively while sowing political divisions, both among Canadians
and between Canada and its allies.
When Chinese officials talk, Canadians should listen closely
— and then decode the real implications of their words. Case in point: when
Premier Li Qiang met Prime Minister Carney in September, he reiterated
Ambassador Wang’s call for Canada to show a “correct perception of China” to
“cement the political foundation for bilateral ties.”
The key phrase “correct perception” encompasses political
demands rooted in decades of Communist Party discourse: never question the
legitimacy of its authoritarian rule; respect “core interests” like the CCP’s
entitlement to rule Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan; stop supporting
American measures to constrain Beijing’s drive to dominate East Asia and
reshape the international order; abandon the Indo-Pacific Strategy’s core
premise that China is a “disruptive power” ; and stop framing the Party-state as
a national security threat, systemic rival and violator of international
treaties.
This is the language of diplomatic gatekeeping, not
reconciliation. You want a meeting with General Secretary Xi Jinping? There’s a
price. You know what you need to do.
When Ambassador Wang complains , as he did in March, of
“smearing and attacking on China” about its treatment of Xinjiang, Tibet and
Taiwan, and “attacking and hyping up” of its political interference, espionage,
and transnational repression directed at Canadians, and goes on to protest that
this harms the foundations of friendship, and indeed “hurts the feelings of the
Chinese people” — he’s gaslighting Canadians for objecting to injustice,
bullying and massive abuses of human rights.
This is rhetorical entrapment, not friendship based on
mutual understanding. It’s an attempt to redefine the baseline of the
relationship so that criticism is betrayal and the price of cooperation is
silence and acquiescence.
I'm sure that the Liberals are aware of this double-talk, being so close to the Chinese Communist Party, but why do Canadians insist on trading with such a country?
Speaking of other people who had to wait for Americans to save them:
There
are moments in history when a government’s actions, or inactions,
reveal the truth about its values. For me, as the daughter of the only
Canadian citizen taken hostage, who was murdered and whose body was held
in Gaza as human currency for nearly two years, that moment came when
the Canadian government chose to recognize a Palestinian state in the
aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
On
that day, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and unleashed unimaginable
brutality. Over 1,200 people were slaughtered, and more than 250
innocent civilians were taken hostage. The attacks were not just an act
of war; they were an act of cruelty carefully designed to break the
human spirit. This was not resistance; it was barbarism. Among the
victims were eight Canadians, including my mother, Judih Weinstein
Haggai, 70. My father, Gadi Haggai, 72, was also murdered alongside her
while taking their peaceful early morning walk.
For nearly two years, their bodies were held in Gaza as hostages of
terror until June of this year, when the IDF, the FBI and special forces
rescued their bodies and returned them for burial.
This Hamas:
This America:
Addressing Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset on Oct. 13, Trump
said the Israel–Hamas cease-fire was a key development in a burgeoning
moment for peace throughout the Middle East.
“Israel,
with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms,“ Trump said.
”You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won. Now it’s time to translate these
victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize
of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the bodies were those of Uriel Baruch, Staff Sergeant Tamir Nimrodi, and Eitan Levy.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said
that Nimrodi was kidnapped alive and killed while in captivity at the
age of 18. Baruch and Levy were killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack,
and their bodies were taken to Gaza.
“Following the completion of
examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth
body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages,”
the IDF statement said. “Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.”
