LEVY: Toronto School Board paid $16,000 for an anti-racism activist to attack Israel

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) paid $16,000 for four learning sessions with self-described anti-racism activist Desmond Cole during which he attacked Israel using typical anti-Semitic tropes.

Despite an apology by education director Colleen Russell-Rawlins to concerned participants – mostly board principals – Cole was permitted to continue with his talks on Sept. 23 after the board brass was made aware of his hateful rhetoric during the first two talks on Sept. 20.

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Ongoing border closure with Canada is costing US businesses $1.5 billion a month

The current travel-related restrictions between Canada and Mexico are costing U.S. businesses close to $1.5 billion a day in “travel exports,” according to the U.S. Travel Association. Travel exports are defined as spending by foreign residents while visiting the U.S.

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Senator accused of being China’s ‘mouthpiece’ worries about rise of anti-Asian racism

Senator Yuen Pau Woo, facilitator of the Independent Senators Group (ISG) speaks with the media in the foyer of the Senate in Ottawa, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Last June, 33 Canadian senators voted to defeat a motion decrying China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a genocide.

While they all faced criticism from some quarters, only one — Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, leader of the Independent Senators Group — seems to have been singled out as an alleged stooge of China’s communist regime, told to resign and “go home.”

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Two new solitudes — rural and urban — now define the Canadian political landscape

According to Elections Canada, the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — the country’s three biggest cities — account for 116 of Canada’s 338 ridings. And the results in those ridings help to tell the story of both the Liberal victory and a fundamental split in federal politics.

Of those 116 ridings, the Liberals won 86 — more than half of their national total. The Conservatives won just eight.

That Liberal strength in cities is part of an urban-rural split that now defines the electoral map in Canada. New research suggests the urban-rural divide between the Liberal and Conservative parties has never been wider.

How many in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto are government employees (at all levels, municipal, provincial and federal), and how many work for the shadow government of publicly funded NGO’s, commissions etc?

Those numbers may help explain the “divide.”

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Canada Should Work More With Five Eyes to Counter China and Russia Threats: Report

Canada should collaborate more with its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance to confront the challenges China and Russia pose to the liberal democracies in the West, a new report says.

Titled “Evolving the Five Eyes: Opportunities and Challenges in the New Strategic Landscape,” the report says the members of the Five Eyes—Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and New Zealand—could work together to expand the ability of the alliance to counter China and Russia on a wider range of fronts, particularly in the areas of technology, information, military, and economics.

Trudeau and the China class will probably cause Canada to leave “Five Eyes.”

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While Canada sent hundreds of millions in aid to Jordan, its king grew his collection of luxury homes

The King of Jordan secretly purchased 14 luxury homes in the U.K. and U.S. between 2003 and 2017.  In total, Canada sent more than $750 million to Jordan over the last decade.

As his Middle Eastern monarchy strained under the weight of regional wars, Arab Spring protests and a flood of refugees, the King of Jordan secretly stockpiled a real estate portfolio of luxury homes from California to London, an investigation by the Star and its international partners has found.

King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein acquired 14 properties abroad worth more than $106 million (U.S.) using some of his 36 shell companies based in secretive tax havens, a cache of newly leaked documents reveal. He did it at a time when Canada and other Western nations were sending billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Jordan.

And the man who orchestrated King Abdullah’s obscured offshore asset acquisitions was a former Saskatchewan government accountant.


CBC – Huge ‘Pandora Papers’ leak exposes secret offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities and billionaires

Guardian – Pandora papers: biggest ever leak of offshore data exposes financial secrets of rich and powerful

I wonder if Justin is getting kickbacks.

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‘Run everywhere’: Fledgling Maverick Party intends to up its game after poor results

The interim leader of the fledgling Maverick Party says it will be making some key changes after a disappointing result in last month’s federal election.

Formerly known as Wexit Canada, the party advocates for the independence of Western Canada or constitutional changes that would benefit the West. It ran 29 candidates in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Manitoba.

It pulled in 1.4 per cent of the vote in Saskatchewan and 1.3 per cent in Alberta, but barely raised the needle in B.C., where it picked up 0.1 per cent.

“Things could have turned out better. I’m not going to try and BS you,” said interim leader Jay Hill in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.

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Not using preferred pronouns a human rights offense, Canadian tribunal rules

“Using correct pronouns communicates that we see and respect a person for who they are,” Devyn Cousineau, a member of the tribunal, wrote in the 42-page ruling . “Especially for trans, non-binary, or other non-cisgender people, using the correct pronouns validates and affirms they are a person equally deserving of respect and dignity.”

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Ontario university will not allow unvaccinated students who normally learn in-person to take online courses

When asked for a statement, a spokesperson said the university is following the directive of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health in creating a vaccination policy for the institution.

No further explanation was provided for why students learning remotely would have to be fully vaccinated.

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“Canadian” ISIS member caught in Syria flown to U.S. to face terrorism charges

A Canadian who was allegedly “a leading figure” in the ISIS media section has been taken to the United States to face terrorism charges, the U.S. Justice Department said Saturday.

The FBI took custody of Mohamed Khalifa from Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, where he was captured in January 2019, and flew him to the eastern U.S. to stand trial.

No worries, Justin will win his freedom and give him a big fat cheque.

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Increased immigration cannot solve Canada’s aging issues because immigrants have parents, too

The fact that the phrase “immigrants have parents” even needs to be said reveals something about the framing of Canadian immigration policy: the tendency to see immigrants as production units, bits of human capital to slot into the Canadian economy and to fill Canadian skill shortages or to provide top talent.

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