Trudeau government’s policies exacerbating Canadians’ affordability crisis

After eight years of the Trudeau Liberal government managing the Canadian economy, Canadians are in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis. While this crisis is being felt by citizens in countries around the world, the Trudeau government’s policies are exacerbating the tight financial situation most Canadians find themselves in. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, and a host of senior ministers are championing fiscal and economic policies that are proving to be detrimental to the economic well-being of individual Canadians and of the country as a whole.

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German Truckers Join Farmer Revolt Against Green Cuts and Net Zero Taxes

Rocked by two weeks of farmers’ demonstrations against cuts in diesel subsidies, Germany now faces hundreds of disaffected hauliers protesting, as they assembled in Berlin Friday morning to oppose plans for raising road tolls and carbon taxes on their industry.

Approximately 1,500 trucks paraded along the A13 road towards Berlin in a two-kilometre long convoy before paralysing the city centre on Friday afternoon. Truckers are getting organised against recent government tax hikes and foreign, predominantly Eastern European, drivers undermining wage rates.

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Lifetime cost of military’s Cyclone choppers set to soar past $14B, government document reveals

The lifetime cost of buying, owning and operating the air force’s troubled CH-148 Cyclones is now expected to top $14.87 billion, according to a leaked internal Department of National Defence briefing document obtained by CBC News.

Most of the expense — $10 billion — is being attributed to the cost of sustaining the aircraft. The CH-148 Cyclone is unique; no other nation flies the maritime helicopter.

The estimate is contained in a spreadsheet in a submission sent to the federal Treasury Board in late 2021, when the Department of National Defence (DND) was seeking an additional $111 million to top up the program’s budget. The increase eventually was approved.

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Apartheid hummus …

Sainsbury’s has said it is “terribly sorry” after spoof pricing labels were spotted by pots of Israeli hummus accusing shoppers of “supporting genocide”.

The fake shelf labels, which were found Thursday morning at Vauxhall train station in London, said shoppers could purchase “apartheid hummus” for £19.48, a reference to the year of the establishment of the Jewish State.

It further encourages consumers to “search #BDS for more info” and notes, “Buying this product helps support genocide.”

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Olivia Chow outsmarted Toronto’s Liberal MPs — now they won’t stop whining

Toronto’s federal Liberal MPs can get mad and stomp their feet at Mayor Olivia Chow. They can shake their fists at her. They can reprimand her on talk radio as Etobicoke Centre MP Yvan Baker did earlier this week.

Heck, they can erect a billboard in the heart of soon to be “Sankofa Square” accusing the mayor of unfairly maligning the federal government as stingy. But none of it matters one bit. Because voters don’t care that politicians treat each other with professionalism and kindness in the service of getting things done. They only care that things get done.

Red on Red.

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Canada a ‘safe haven’ for ‘transnational crime networks and their dirty money’: U.S. report

OTTAWA – Canada has become a “safe haven” and international hub for notorious crime groups as illicit trade in the country is “booming,” according to a report by an American think tank.

“Canada has become a safe zone for the world’s most notorious crime groups and threat networks that are harming Canada’s national security and imperiling the security of other nations,” warns a report published in late November by the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE).

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Ukraine desperately needs new soldiers as war with Russia approaches second anniversary

In wartime Ukraine, young men anxious to stay off the front lines pay rapt attention to the weather warnings.

“From the village of Zavalivka, the road to Makariv is very cloudy. Snowballs are thrown at every car,” read the advice Wednesday morning on the anonymous Kyiv Summons channel on the Telegram messaging app, referring to two communities just west of the Ukrainian capital. In Kyiv itself, the channel warned, there was “rain” at several locations, including a popular grocery store and the subway station closest to the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and “a blizzard” at a gas station on the highway north of the city.

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Israel’s Fight

It had been years since I awoke to the wail of an air-raid siren. A born-and-bred Israeli who has lived in America since 2007, I once almost thought of myself as a world citizen—a rootless cosmopolitan, some might say. I have an American education and job, American friends, and an American accent I picked up from watching The Simpsons. But as it turns out, my roots are deeper than I ever anticipated.

I was at my parents’ Tel Aviv home on October 7. We quickly realized that the attack wasn’t what we called a “regular war.” When the initial death toll passed 100, a number none of us was familiar with, we briefly froze. Then we started moving again. What happened in the days and weeks that followed was both unreal and utterly familiar—the unthinkable happened; yet somehow, we all knew exactly what to do.

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NATO Military Chief Warns of War with Russia in Coming Decades: ‘Tectonic Plates of Power Are Shifting’

The Military Committee chairman of NATO warned of the possibility of a regional war with Russia in the coming decades in comments to military leaders during a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

“We have to realize it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [NATO] are preparing for a conflict with Russia,” Admiral Rob Bauer said. “But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role.”

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The ‘Rabbi’ and ‘Peace Activist’ Who Cheered the Hamas Oct. 7 Attack

“When I heard the initial reports of Hamas’ attacks on Israel this past Saturday… my first reaction was ‘Good for them.’”

When pro-Hamas insurrectionists stormed Capitol Hill, Brant Rosen, described as “one of the demonstrators”, was quoted as falsely accusing Jews of genocide. He was later arrested.

In Chicago, where he claims to have co-founded the “first anti-Zionist temple”, he showed up at a rally urging, “stop the violence, and then, to work toward a true and lasting and just peace.”

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Goodbye to Davos — and good riddance

The world envisioned by the WEF has collapsed

Once widely considered the gathering of the elite of a future world government, the World Economic Forum is leaving a legacy of increasing irrelevance. To be sure, the snow was good; the AI art installation and occasional forays into witchcraft may have stirred some; but the whole thing has devolved into a cocktail party for the self-important, with diminishing bearing on world politics.

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The U.S. Campaign to Oust Netanyahu

Is Israel on the cusp of political upheaval? In recent days, evidence has grown that two key actors—the Biden administration and Israel’s security establishment—are both pushing the country in that direction to advance their longstanding common goal of ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the religious-right bloc from power.

The Biden administration showed its hand on Tuesday when U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave Israel an ultimatum to support Palestinian statehood or risk demonization by the administration.

h/t Sweetpea

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Freeland tells WEF that ‘decarbonization’ is everything

Speaking to a panel at the World Economic Forum, finance minister Chrystia Freeland characterized “decarbonization” as the singular issue defining the world economy.

“I think we are living in a moment that is comparable only to the industrial revolution itself in terms of energy transition and the way we need to retool all of our manufacturing,” she said.

“We have to hustle; we think this is the moment that cement is being poured for the new economy.”

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Justice Department report finds ‘cascading failures’ and ‘no urgency’ during Uvalde, Texas, shooting

First Responders are taught is to use hand sanitizer before attempting a rescue.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Police officials who responded to the deadly Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting waited far too long to confront the gunman, acted with “no urgency” in establishing a command post and repeatedly communicated inaccurate information to grieving families, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday that identifies “cascading failures” in law enforcement’s handling of the massacre.

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