MONTREAL — If personal affinity shaped the geopolitical world emerging from the pandemic, Canada and the European Union would be bosom buddie.
But it is more likely the two will be rivals in a beggar thy neighbour regional subsidy war that is brewing between North America and Europe.
Trouble for Justin Trudeau’s government has often landed in the early weeks of a new year — Donald Trump, an unfortunate trip to India, a fateful cabinet shuffle, ministerial resignations and of course, three years ago, a global pandemic.
The first few weeks of 2023 finds the Trudeau government not in a crisis, but a definite slide, according to new polling from Abacus Data, which will be providing exclusive numbers to the Star starting this week.
Vae/vem/vemself pronouns. “Hopefully that’s not too confusing” pic.twitter.com/zIhxfjSVu2
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 31, 2023
Alec Baldwin has officially been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust,” officials announced Tuesday.
A damning document filed by New Mexico prosecutors claimed Baldwin had not been properly trained with firearms ahead of the movie, that he pulled the trigger of the gun and shortly after even told officers he had fired the weapon.
The Santa Fe County district attorney called his actions during the fatal shooting a “reckless deviation from known standards and practice.”
Germany has decided to supply battle tanks to Ukraine. International law experts are now debating whether this makes Germany a party to the conflict with Russia.
After German Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine last week following a long hesitation, the response from the Russian government was swift.
“Everything the alliance and the capitals of Europe and the United States do is perceived in Moscow as direct involvement in the conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to a report by the Russian news agency Interfax.
That’s exactly what Scholz has been trying to avoid: triggering an accusation from Moscow that Germany is now also a direct party to the war in Ukraine. Speaking with public broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday, he rejected any interpretation that Germany is directly involved in a war with Russia. “No, absolutely not!” he said. “There must be no war between Russia and NATO.”
Ambitious renewables mandates by local governments are eroding the electric grid’s reliability, with alarming consequences.
Vermont is one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly states. But two years ago, the backers of a local wind-energy farm shelved the project after intense public opposition. An initiative supporter noted how the controversy reflected rising hostility to wind power. Whereas a decade ago, ambitious developers had planned a dozen renewable-energy projects in Vermont, by 2020, most had either folded or failed to win regulatory approval. “This is truly a sad state of affairs for Vermont,” the CEO of a green-energy firm said, while pointing out that the state has mandated that 75 percent of its power should come from renewable energy within a decade.
Canada’s province of British Columbia is starting a first-in-the-nation trial decriminalising small amounts of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
From Tuesday, adults can possess up to 2.5g of such drugs, as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine.
Canada’s federal government granted the request by the west coast province to try out the three-year experiment.
It follows a similar policy in the nearby US state of Oregon, which decriminalised hard drugs in 2020.
And … 2,272 British Columbians died from toxic illicit drugs in 2022: coroner
Watch: BC officially legalizes 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA for personal use and those in possession will no longer be arrested, charged or have their drugs seized. pic.twitter.com/vG0LN6wAAl
— The Canadian Independent (@canindependent) January 31, 2023
h/t XC
Iran is now selling surface-to-surface missiles to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine — on the cusp of a reported “major Ukrainian offensive” — in addition to the drones it has already been delivering, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters.
According to anonymous US and allied officials quoted by the Washington Post, Iran has secretly agreed to send “what some officials described as the first Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles intended for use against Ukrainian cities and troop positions.”
Did American taxpayers, via a pandemic-era economic relief program, help prop up the great crypto gold rush of 2020-21?
A group of researchers at Washington University in Saint Louis make a compelling case that they did in a new study suggesting that a not-insignificant amount of the pandemic relief money doled out in 2020 as part of the Paycheck Protection Program was used by recipients to speculate on cryptocurrencies.
Canada’s financial intelligence agency is stepping up the fight against the illicit wildlife trade by taking aim at the criminals who reap big profits from the global racket.
The alert says Canadian bears are poached for their bile, claws and paws, which reap large sums on the traditional medicine market at home and abroad.
Global management consulting giant McKinsey and Company says its contracts with the federal government make up as much as 10 per cent of its gross revenue in Canada.
The Canadian revenue figures for McKinsey’s Canadian operations, contained in a U.S. court filing, show how integral federal government contracts are to the New York-based firm, which has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.
Ex-McKinsey Chief Dominic Barton has had an insidious influence on Canada’s immigration policy which now serves corporate greed exclusively.
Freeland lets us in on her and Junior’s cozy relationship with Barton.
UNEARTHED: @cafreeland talks about the deep personal relationship between herself, Dominic Barton, and @JustinTrudeau.
Barton was the managing partner at McKinsey. McKinsey got over $100 million in government contracts since Liberals took power. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/cPMbaaBERg
— Garnett Genuis (@GarnettGenuis) January 30, 2023
A decade of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister was more “perhaps more hurtful” than 9/11, a federal inclusion advisor suggested in a 2015 newspaper column. Amira Elghawaby, in other commentaries, complained middle-class Canadians never experienced inequity and advocated for Muslim prayer in public schools since “parents of these children pay taxes.”
The dodo, a Mauritian bird last seen in the 17th century, will be brought back to at least a semblance of life if attempts by a gene editing company are successful.
Gene editing techniques now exist that allow scientists to mine the dodo genome for key traits that they believe they can then effectively reassemble within the body of a living relative.
Dodos are most closely related to pigeons, according to sequencing of the proverbially dead bird’s genome.
Well the genie is out of that bottle.
At a press conference late last week, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) CEO Rick Leary avoided justifying a memo sent to staff in January of 2021 ordering that arrest be the action of last resort with those displaying unlawful acts on the transit system.
His response, however, confirms the “hug-a-thug, anti-enforcement” attitude he demanded from his safety constables over the past few years.
h/t NeoCon
An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of more than 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran’s main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists have said.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiance, Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, were arrested in early November after a video went viral showing them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower.
Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, in defiance of Iran’s strict rules. Women are also not allowed to dance in public, let alone with a man.
A court in #Iran sentenced a couple to 10.5 years in prison for dancing in the street, the Al Arabiya newspaper reported.
They were accused of conspiring to undermine national security and engaging in anti-regime propaganda. pic.twitter.com/EWrsSgohQs
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 31, 2023
