Ontario’s fiscal watchdog says the province lost more than 355,000 jobs last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Financial Accountability Officer says in a new report Thursday that the job losses represent the single largest annual decline on record.
The report says that in addition to job losses, more than 765,000 Ontario residents worked fewer hours because of the pandemic.
With the worst of the Texas power crisis now behind us, the blame and fingerpointing begins, and while the jury is still out whose actions (or lack thereof) may have led to the deadly and widespread blackouts that shocked Texas this week, Cascend Strategy writes that “in case there was any doubt why the Texas grid collapsed, the data is clear”
With former US President Donald J. Trump no longer able to dictate US policy on Afghanistan, the Taliban are exploiting the opportunity to increase their efforts to seize control of the country in spite of the peace accord they signed with the Trump administration last year.
Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country’s long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.
Yet, to judge by recent events in Afghanistan, the Taliban are showing little inclination to abide by the terms of the deal.
Lawmakers in Montana are in discussions regarding a bill that would classify the anarcho-communist group Antifa as a domestic terror organization.
Antifa networks and ideologically affiliated groups have conducted violent street protests and riots in a number of cities over the past several years, including in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Olympia, and elsewhere.
“From March 15 to Nov. 30, 2020, the estimated cost of `Other Leave with Pay (699)’ is approximately $819 million, based on the average daily pay rate of roughly $300 for federal public service employees entitled to leave,” says the Treasury Board document, dated Feb. 19.
A number of former Daesh* brides currently stuck in internment camps in Syria are now suing Sweden in the European Court of Justice for “failure” to bring them “home”, which they consider a “serious violation” of their human rights.
“We believe that Sweden’s failure to bring Swedish women and children from the camps in northeastern Syria violates their human rights. As representatives of a number of women and children in the Roj camp, we therefore complain to the European Court of Justice and claim that Sweden has a human rights obligation to bring them home to Sweden”, the head of their legal team, Percy Bratt, wrote in an opinion piece in the legal newspaper Dagens Juridik, calling their situation “life-threatening”.
Jay Hill is an unlikely separatist. The 68-year-old former cabinet minister was a committed federalist in the Harper government.
But he said he has become so disillusioned with the political status quo under Liberal and Conservative governments that he has reluctantly come around to the idea of Western independence.
A Pakistan Highcourt judge on Monday denied bail to two Ahmadi brothers accused of marrying Muslim women.
Justice Syed Arshad Ali rejected the bail applications of Zaid, Zahid, and their father Sajid, accused of marrying Muslim women while being non-Muslim. The brothers who adhere to the minority Ahmadiyya faith were detained with their father in September last year.
LONDON, ONT. — The owner of a bar in downtown London, Ont. is standing by a sign that has caused outrage as some have deemed its messages racist.
“Mr. Ford History will show lockdowns caused more damage 2 the public then the China virus,” is what the sign outside the Ale House on Dundas Street read earlier this week.
Backlash began to spread online and the sign was changed, but for many the change was no better.
Brought to you by the same “anti-racists” who claim having white skin makes you a racist I bet.
h/t David
Ontario is reporting 1,228 cases of #COVID19 and nearly 57,200 tests completed. Locally, there are 331 new cases in Toronto, 228 in Peel and 132 in York Region.
As of 8:00 p.m. yesterday, 540,129 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 20, 2021
MPs pass motion requiring Liberal government to let them see COVID vaccine contracts
Opposition party MPs have succeeded in passing a motion requiring the Liberal government to give them access to contracts with seven COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers.
But whether the documents will actually be released to the health committee, and in what form, remains unclear. When asked whether the government will comply with the motion and make the agreements available, a spokesperson for Procurement Minister Anita Anand didn’t respond by deadline.
We’ll find out the Kielburgers are making vaccines at their Kenya resort.
Dinesh D’Souza did a podcast pointing out Nancy Pelosi’s peculiar behavior regarding events at the Capitol in the days leading up to January 6. In the five weeks since then, Pelosi has turned Washington, D.C. into an armed, walled city and is working with the White House to crack down on dissenting views — meaning any views that run counter to the Democrat party narrative. There’s something weirdly un-American about what we’re seeing now.
A killing in Lebanon is a symbol of a growing regional backlash against sectarian politics.
Lokman Slim, a political analyst, activist, filmmaker, and prominent critic of Hezbollah, was killed in cold blood by unknown assailants on the night of Feb. 3. His bullet-ridden body, shot multiple times in the head and the neck, was found in his car in Hezbollah-dominated South Lebanon.
“The truth, I know the truth of who killed him in my heart,” Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer told Foreign Policy. Her implication was clear: It was Hezbollah. Slim had been receiving threats for a while, and he had warned in a letter he wrote last year that the Iran-backed Hezbollah should be blamed for any attempt on his life.
In a recent article, “A Fraught Balancing Act,” Inside Higher Ed reported that “Some college leaders quickly cracked down on students and faculty voicing support for rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Others walked a fine line between protecting free speech rights and tamping down incendiary language.” Note well that what was cracked down upon was “support.”
The Supreme Court has dismissed Uber’s appeal against an employment tribunal ruling that its drivers must be classed as workers rather than self-employed contractors. The verdict has been a long time coming and means Uber drivers are entitled by law to a minimum wage and annual leave.
The Nation of Islam may be the largest racist religion in America. It is certainly the most influential with Louis Farrakhan’s original Million Man March drawing some 400,000 racists and allies of the hate group, including a young Barack Obama, who would later be photographed as a senator with the black supremacist leader at a Congressional Black Caucus event.
