Xinhua News Agency, the propaganda arm of China’s Communist Party, is out of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery after 57 years. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not comment: “There is no perfect democracy, only democracy that fits best.”
Politics
Canadians Get the Government They Deserve
Support for the federal Liberals looks to be on the rise as new shipments of the highly coveted COVID-19 vaccine arrive, according to a new poll.
Ipsos polling done exclusively for Global News found that should an federal election be held, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s Liberals would receive 35 per cent of the popular vote — up two percentage points from last month — while the Conservatives would receive 28 per cent, down from 30 per cent.
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Canada has had a miserable time coping with COVID-19, according to new research that seeks to take the broadest possible measure of the country’s pandemic response, accounting for everything from mortality rates to economic malaise.
Ethics Committee to Summon Kielburger Brothers to Testify
This should be under oath with penalties for perjury:
Members of the House of Commons ethics committee have unanimously voted to summon WE Charity co-founders Craig and Marc Kielburger to testify.
Last week, they declined requests to do so, a fact that MPs from all parties expressed concerns about on Monday.
A summons from a Commons committee has legal force, and the motion gives the brothers until Friday to appear.
The Commons ethics committee wants to hear from the Kielburger brothers as part of ongoing scrutiny of a federal agreement to have WE manage a now-cancelled student services grant program.
But the charity had noted that New Democrat MP Charlie Angus has requested that the RCMP and the Canada Revenue Agency investigate WE’s operations.
The charity said it would be unfair to subject it to what it called a partisan committee investigation at the same time.
It’s Just Money
Cases in point:
A federal climate bureau spent more than $600 million last year, says an internal audit. Spending did not include $800,000 in annual staff time to manage newly-detailed carbon offset regulations: “Doing nothing is not an option.”
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The $675 million Public Health Agency “lacked everything” despite assuring legislators it was prepared for the pandemic, a Liberal-appointed lawmaker told the Senate national finance committee. “I was told twice, not just once but twice, you had enough resources on hand to deal with the pandemic,” said Senator Éric Forest (Que.): ‘There was a huge gap between the perception and the reality.’
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The Liberal government will not release a budget in March as it takes more time to assess the impact of the pandemic, meaning that more than two years will have passed since the last federal budget was released.
From the Most Opaque Government Ever Re-Elected
There was apparently nothing wrong with how the Trudeau government handled the pandemic according to e-mails that the Liberals wanted no one to see:
The Department of Public Works in self-congratulatory internal emails said it was “very proud” of doing a great job on pandemic management, “a great story for us.” The messages were exchanged as Covid deaths nationwide approached 9,000: “We’re everybody’s government!”
What Could Go Wrong?
It’s like giving the keys of a jet to a drunk monkey:
Cabinet will consider subsidizing any green project, “anything really” that appears feasible, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. His remarks followed federal auditors’ complaints of difficulty in tracking actual costs and benefits of green subsidies: “We’re willing to look at anything really, you know, if it seems like it’s a good idea.”
Article: “Here’s what can happen if the Kielburger brothers refuse to testify before parliament “
The ethics and the procedure and House affairs committees have both requested that Craig and Marc Kielburger come forward and testify. They declined. In a March 3 statement, WE Charity referenced Feb. 28 comments by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who said he wrote to the Canada Revenue Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police requesting an investigation into the charity.
“Accordingly, WE Charity and its leadership are declining the additional requests to testify from the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and also the Procedure and House Affairs Committee,” said a WE Charity press statement.
The statement said the charity has already testified at various “highly partisan” committee meetings, and that it would continue to work with Dion’s investigation.
At this point, the committees could issue a summons, compelling the Kielburgers to attend. If they continue to refuse, according to the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, the committee can report it to the House of Commons, and the House “then may order the witness to appear” and they will be “called to the Bar” — a literal brass bar across the House of Commons — to explain themselves.
The House has the power, similar to a court, to compel someone’s presence.
“If the witness disobeys the order, the witness may be declared guilty of contempt,” the House manual says.
Mark Zuckerberg Interested In The Reduction Of Political News From The Feed
Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook is working on new ways so that the political news is less visible to the people and the company is soon going to make changes in users’ news feed to make all this happen.
Trudeau Is An Ugly Liar
Trudeau was asked why Canadians could travel out of the country to tropical all-inclusive vacations, while children are being fined for playing hockey on an outdoor rink.
“There are rules in different part of the country that apply differently, and different jurisdictions will set up the rules they think are best based on the best advice from public health officials,” said Trudeau.
“We have strongly discouraged non-essential international travel, including by imposing mandatory quarantine to anyone returning to Canada, and now mandatory testing before they get on a plane to come back to Canada,” said the prime minister. …
On Wednesday, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois Blanchet questioned newly-appointed Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s ties with what he called “the political Islamic movement.”
Blanchet said that “questions arise” due to Alghabra’s role as the former head of the Canadian Arab Federation.
“I was absolutely floored,” said Trudeau. “Carefully coded questions, particularly this week when we just lived through last week, what happens when leaders don’t take care of the words they do, and play these dangerous words around intolerance and hate.”
“That kind of political pandering to the worst elements and to fears and anxieties has no place in Canada,” said Trudeau.
In order for the F@g to be a traitor, he would have had some allegiance to Canada in the first place. As usual, he is divisive and petty like a teen-aged high-school queen.
Canada Needs Politics Based On Ideas, Not Rule-By-Fear Personality Cults
As it stands today, Canada’s political parties operate in many ways as authoritarian institutions. It’s no surprise those attitudes are spreading out into our society.
Oh, My …
Twitter Inc. is leading social-media stocks lower Monday as investors digest a new reality for the services after Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump from its platform and Facebook Inc. said it would restrict him at least until the end of his term.
The announcement from Twitter TWTR, -5.91%, which came late Friday, followed a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters midweek. Twitter charged that Trump’s tweets after the riot served to glorify violence and went against the company’s terms of service. Facebook FB, -3.54% had announced Thursday that Trump would be barred from its platform at least until the inauguration.
Twitter shares are off 6.6% in Monday morning trading, while Facebook shares are down 3%. Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -2.25% and Alphabet Inc. GOOG, -2.18% GOOGL, -2.14%, both of which pulled right-wing social-media app Parler from their app stores citing lax moderation policies, are off 2.2% and 1.7%, respectively. Shares of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.94%, which booted Parler from its AWS web-hosting platform, are down 1.4%.
“While the week will certainly be remembered for far more shocking events, it’s not lost on us that we may be at the precipice of a change to long-standing internet rules of engagement,” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote. “Perhaps the limited time left in Trump’s presidency eased social media worries of a presidential retaliation, while a more cynical view we’ve heard suggests that these platforms took actions precisely because of the Democrats’ recent Senate win.”
Cynical? Really?
Wow …
(Courtesy: SDA)
Conrad Black: “The Trump haters cackle too soon”
They may evict Trump from the White House, though the Texas lawsuit against evident election irregularities in four states under cover of dubious COVID-related executive orders and questionable legislation, is a good deal more serious than the Trump-hating media admit. The Democrats are now a hodgepodge of miscellaneous Trump-haters and far leftists who played footsie all summer with well-organized and heavily armed rioters masquerading as civil-rights crusaders. Their platform is far too socialistic for the American public, they are unlikely to win the Senate, almost certain to lose the House of Representatives in two years, and Biden is a spavined old milk-wagon horse who couldn’t lead America across the Brooklyn Bridge. His running mate, Kamala Harris, is an authentic leftist, but she’s no world-beater either, though she may well finish Biden’s term. The presumptive Democratic administration is already shaking; half of Biden’s cabinet nominees will not be confirmed by a Republican Senate and most are tainted by the failures of Obama. The criminal investigations of Biden’s family are already very serious and were banned from the media and social media during the campaign and dismissed as Russian disinformation. The revelation that one of the chief congressional hyenas of Trump impeachment, Rep. Eric Swalwell, had an intimate relationship with a Chinese spy is a piquant expose of his sanctimonious hypocrisy.
The Biden administration, if it takes office at all, will be a clangorous “Gong Show.” Either Trump, or a Republican approved by him and continuing his policies, will be the Republican candidate in four years. Then we will have the final round in this battle for the political soul of America. What we are hearing now is the Trump-hating goose cackling too loudly and too soon.
Deal for A “Hybrid” Parliament Runs Out
House of Commons business looks set to grind to a halt until at least late January after Liberals and Conservatives failed to agree on measures to keep open a virtual parliament.
New hybrid rules that combined video-conferencing and in-person sittings were agreed to in September but expired Friday, when the Commons rose for a Christmas break.