The bank said this single mother couldn’t afford her Toronto condo. She now pays nearly double in rent

In 2015, Emily Wheedon bought a home: a modern, 1.5-bedroom condo in a midrise building in downtown Toronto. It wasn’t perfect — she gave her teen daughter the main bedroom and installed sliding glass doors to enclose her own room — but it was near her daughter’s school, and it was theirs.

Until, it wasn’t.

Share

Transgender runner to complete ‘big six’ marathons as three different genders

A transgender charity runner from Daventry will attempt to complete the full set of six marathon ‘majors’ in Boston on Monday after competing in the events in three gender categories.

Glenique Frank, who apologised after last year’s London Marathon following criticism for running in the female category, is calling on race organisers to now introduce a specific category for transgender athletes.

“I want to campaign to get a category in world sport and charity events, anything, for transgender athletes,” she told the BBC.

Share

Declassified Memo Shows Trudeau Was Warned in 2017 About Chinese Police Investigations in Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser sent him a briefing in 2017, warning about unwarranted investigations by Chinese police in Canada, according to a declassified document.

The warning came at a time when Ottawa was pursuing closer relations with the communist regime, including a potential free trade agreement. A year earlier, as part of preliminary talks toward a free trade agreement, Canada had also agreed to negotiate a possible extradition treaty with Beijing.

Share

Canada must sanction Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet … say usual Star types

The murder earlier this month by the Israeli military of Jacob Flickinger, a Canadian volunteer serving with the World Central Kitchen, the Canadian nationals trapped and at risk of being killed every day in Gaza, and families of Canadians approved for temporary resident visas but barred by Israel from exiting Gaza, all paint a stark reality of how close the unfolding genocide in Gaza is to Canadians.

The consequences extend to aid workers affiliated with Canadian charities — many of whom have been killed — as life-saving humanitarian aid, funded by Canadians, languishes at border crossings, denied entry by Israeli authorities.

Share

Media Mislead Yet Again about a High-Profile Police Encounter

All a casual consumer of news would know about the death of Dexter Reed is that Chicago police shot a black man. But that’s hardly a complete picture.

If one didn’t know better, one might think that certain journalists are intentionally stoking racial tensions, burying critical information in their coverage of certain officer-involved shootings.

And just in time for a presidential election.

Video can be watched on YouTube only

Share

New York Times Writer Doesn’t See Race— When The Alleged Criminal Is Black

Ginia Bellafonte just five years ago was beside herself at how Caucasian the line-up of Rockettes dancers was, calling the performance she attended during the Christmas season “an eerie celebration of whiteness.” (‘Tis the season!)

But in a painfully obtuse article this week, the New York Times columnist found nothing remarkable about the obvious racial pattern among a raft of women randomly sucker-punched by men on the streets of her own city. Namely, that the assailants are all black.

Share

The Prophets: Eric Hoffer

For more than 70 years, a slender volume written by a dockworker who died in 1983 has been handed around by presidents, would-be presidents, journalists, students, and more as a guide—decade after decade—to epochal and baffling events.

Published in 1951 in the shadow of World War II and the rise of the Soviet Union, Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements became one of President Dwight Eisenhower’s favorite books. As the former Supreme Allied Commander of European forces during World War II, Eisenhower saw firsthand the rise of mass movements and how they turn destructive. During one of the nation’s first televised presidential press conferences, Ike cited the book, turning it into a bestseller.

Share

A Turkish source says Biden green-lit Iran’s attack on Israel

Yesterday, Iran launched a ferocious onslaught against Israel. It was only because Israel has spent decades investing in infrastructure and training to defend herself that she didn’t suffer mass casualties and major damage to Jerusalem and her military installations. Biden immediately announced that Israel’s defense constituted a victory and told her he wouldn’t support a counterattack. Now, in a bizarre twist, the Jerusalem Post reports that, according to a Turkish report, Biden actually gave Iran the green light to attack Israel!


More … HOLY CRAP: Joe Biden Approved Iran’s Assault on Israel ‘Within Certain Limits’

h.t XC

Share

Will Netanyahu go rogue on Israel’s Iran response?

A small but disconcerting piece of history was made last night. In the early hours of Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a mass strike on Israel. According to the Israelis, this consisted of 170 explosive drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistics — significant indeed. Israel and its allies together shot most of these down, often before they reached Israeli airspace. The damage was limited. Casualties are minimal.

Share

America’s next civil war has already started – this is how it will end

When Stephen Marche began writing a book that imagined a future civil war in the United States of America, he repeatedly found himself having to throw out large chunks of text because the very things he conjured on the page suddenly started happening in real life: sheriffs across the country refusing to obey federal law; white power groups getting their hands on nuclear material. Marche soon realised that the civil war he was predicting had, in a way, already begun.

There is something in the air, in the streets, and now on our screens in the form of Alex Garland’s new film Civil War, which imagines a dystopian future – the American presidency has become a dictatorship and rebels descend on the White House.

Share

How to catch a Russian submarine

When a torpedo starts coming straight at you, there’s only one thing a submarine crew can do – snap into “full evasion” mode. Captain Ryan Ramsey issues swift orders. His crew responds immediately, twisting the Royal Navy’s Trafalgar-class submarine to manoeuvre the boat beneath the waves in an effort to shake off the weapon bearing down fast on their position.

It would, though, take a miracle for a submarine of nearly 6,000 tons to outrun a torpedo. And that miracle never comes. The torpedo smashes into the fin, the large central structure on the submarine sometimes called the conning tower. As it hits the boat, a loud bang reverberates hard through the hull, a high-strength steel alloy designed to withstand the extreme pressure experienced at the submarine’s maximum – and classified – diving depth.

Share

Revealed: the picture sneaked by employee into a German gallery

The first picture that greeted visitors to the first-floor exhibition space in Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne gallery on 23 February may not have immediately grabbed their attention.

The 60cm by 120cm artwork was a retro-looking photograph of a family of four, with the background and parts of the faces and bodies roughly painted over in white. It was unassuming compared with the video- and photo-based artworks in the adjacent rooms, but only on closer inspection might visitors have wondered why there was no label giving the artist or the work’s title.

I give him props for nerve.

Share

Former undercover agent recalls infiltrating the Hells Angels: ‘A dangerous game to play’

Jay Dobyns lived a double life for two years, and it nearly cost him his life.

Now retired, Dobyns worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which enforces the nation’s gun laws. From 2001 to 2003, he went undercover as he infiltrated the Hells Angels in Arizona.

He is now sharing his account in a new A&E series, “Secrets of The Hells Angels,” which examines the history of the notorious biker club. It features new interviews with former chapter presidents, as well as law enforcement officials, undercover agents and victims.

Share

Israel calls on Canada to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist group

Too late. Justin has already committed.

Israel’s ambassador to Canada is calling on Ottawa to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, as the world grapples with the fallout of Iran’s aerial attack on Israel on Saturday.

In an interview Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, Iddo Moed said there was no further evidence needed to justify the designation and that the move should be the first in a broader international response.

“The first initial step would be to designate the [IRGC] as a terrorist organization. That needs to happen now, it has to happen today,” Moed told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

Share