BRAMPTON, Ont. — Ontario Premier Doug Ford says neither he nor his Progressive Conservative caucus members will be endorsing anyone for the leadership of the federal Conservative party.
When asked about it Tuesday at an unrelated announcement in Brampton, Ont., Ford said both he and the people in his caucus have their hands full supporting the people of Ontario.
Transport Canada is looking into a chartered flight that brought supporters of the so-called Freedom Convoy from Western Canada to Ottawa last month, to ensure passengers were properly screened for COVID-19 vaccination.
According to one of the passengers on the flight, some of those aboard were not vaccinated, an apparent violation of the federal government mandate requiring most air and rail passengers to produce proof of vaccination before travel.
After three weeks of brutal fighting, Ukraine has acknowledged that joining NATO is off the table.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that he “realized” his country would not become a member of the defensive alliance.
“Ukraine realized that it would not become a member of NATO,” Zelensky said, according to an English translation from Ukrainian news outlet Trukha. “We understand this. We are adequate people. For years, we’ve heard the opposite — open doors. However, it is not.”
Black Lives Matter co-founder and “trained Marxist” Patrisse Cullors — who resigned from BLM amid controversy about her personal wealth — says she has visited hate crime hoaxer and disgraced actor Jussie Smollett in jail, where she found that he has been “sleeping on a restraint bed,” which she called “unacceptable.” Cullors is now urging the public to call the jail and demand that Smollett be freed.
Have Western environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), movements and parties been possible, even unwitting, collaborators with the Russian government for the last ten years?
This question arises from a recent report by the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol) in Paris. Fondapol’s director, Dominique Reynié, said in a recent interview:
“We have found Gazprom funding in particular environmental NGOs, which furnished certain European countries with ministers — Belgium for example — who then evidently embarked on a sort of return of favor by defending an exit from nuclear power.”
From the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it was clear that China would not condemn Russia’s invasion. On February 25, Beijing abstained from a vote on a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning the attack. China also abstained from a condemnation of the war by 141 countries in the UN General Assembly.
And Beijing’s implicit support of Russia continues despite Moscow’s continued escalation of the war.
Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China’s friendship with Russia was “solid as a rock,” and constituted the “most important bilateral relationship” in the world contributing to “peace, stability and development.”
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Defence Minister Anita Anand are among multiple Canadians who have been banned from Russia.
They were included in a list of banned foreigners on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.
Days after a Muslim family was killed on June 6, digital forensic investigators with London police sought access to a laptop, cellphones, USB devices and an external hard drive belonging to the alleged attacker, Nathaniel Veltman.
In newly-unsealed court documents, police said they were seeking to search the devices for internet browsing data, communications, documents, videos, and pictures in a bid to learn more about the motivations of the alleged attacker and evidence of advanced planning.
… “This is hitting the community really hard,” said Bashir Garad Dahir, who later described the meeting. “We need crystal clear answers from the government. At some point we will come out and demand it because we’re concerned about the way the FBI is conducting its investigation. It is terrorizing the community.”
The FBI is investigating an alleged broad scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture of tens of millions of dollars in child nutrition spending. Instead of feeding children, court documents allege an array of entities used the money to buy real estate, cars and other luxury items. According to FBI documents unsealed so far, many of the subcontractors under investigation are from the Somali community.
A Russian journalist who burst on to a live TV news programme to protest against the war in Ukraine has been reported missing overnight.
Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at state-controlled Channel 1, was detained after she ran on to the set on Monday holding an anti-war sign.
The sign, clearly visible for a few seconds, read: “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.”
Her whereabouts are now unknown.
Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy likely to ask for more than Canada or NATO can give
OTTAWA – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address parliamentarians in Ottawa on Tuesday, but his major request is likely more than Canada or other Western nations can give.
… Zelenskyy is set to speak to MPs through a videoconference link at 11:15 Tuesday morning. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the opposition leaders are expected to speak as well.
Ontario confirms 16 more COVID-19 deaths, 220 in ICU
Ontario confirmed 16 more COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday as ICU occupancy continued to decline.
The Ministry of Health says 13 of the deaths occurred in the past month and three happened more than a month ago.
220 people are in ICU with #COVID19. 77% of patients admitted to the ICU were admitted for COVID-19 and 23% were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 1,076 new cases of COVID-19.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) March 15, 2022
Canadians sharply and evenly divided over Trudeau’s pandemic performance, poll suggests
A new poll says public opinion on the political response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is deeply divided, with those polled split evenly on the question of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handled the emergency.
The poll, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with CBC, found that 48 per cent of Canadians say Trudeau has done a “good” or “very good” job during the pandemic so far.
Another 48 per cent said Trudeau has done a “bad” or “very bad” job.
More than a year after President Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL project, support for the pipeline has surged in the U.S. in the wake of the country’s ban on the import of Russian oil, a new poll shows.
The exclusive poll of Americans conducted by Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia found that 71 per cent of Americans think Biden should give an executive order to “green light the restart of the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands region through the Midwest to refineries in Texas.”
Anybody want to take bets that Joe Biden will know what to do when the next crisis hits? His presidency is one crisis after another, and his record, well…
The next crisis is bound to be a doozy.
Based on Russia’s horrible war against Ukraine, grain and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing and shortages are on the way. Ukraine’s and Russia’s customers already are hoarding supplies. Based on the little-discussed stories out there, this crisis is bound to be felt in all countries, and looks certain to happen. Joe, of course, is nowhere to be found on this, as we shall shortly see.
The public esteems the Marines for their discipline and toughness. Like their bulldog mascot, Marines latch onto an enemy and don’t let go. They stand ready to fight in any clime or place — until recently.
A few years ago, policy-makers advocated a “pivot” to the Pacific, concerned that China was building forts on atolls in the South China Sea. The commandant of the Marine Corps immediately proclaimed a counter. Small groups of Marines would move into unoccupied islands in the South China Sea, after receiving permission from the host nations. From those islands, they could then fire missiles to sink Chinese warships. Congress joined the press and policy-makers in praising this dramatic initiative, launched in haste and with scant consultation.
