BBC ‘misrepresented’ Covid risk to boost lockdown support, says top scientist

Corporation accused of reporting rare deaths as the norm during pandemic

The BBC was allowed to “misrepresent” the risk posed by Covid to most people to boost public support for lockdown, the UK Covid Inquiry has heard.

Prof Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and government adviser, lambasted the corporation for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”.

He said this created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers at the start of the pandemic that “we are all at risk” and “the virus does not discriminate”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease", BBC, WTF?

Canada’s health system gave me a choice: years of disability, or $22k for private surgery

My hip pain started around 2015, when I was in my mid-30s. It began as stiffness, then a pinch or tweak. My wife Barbara and I live on an acreage in Sturgeon County, Alberta, with our three kids, where we raise a handful of cows and some chickens. So our lives are very active, and I’m also a park maintenance supervisor at a nearby provincial park. That’s a physical job too, maintaining buildings, outhouses and campsites. I wasn’t exactly used to sitting still, and at first I pushed through the pain—I figured it was something minor, and I just did some extra stretching.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

Ontario civil servants win almost 10% pay hike in Bill 124 battle

Civil servants in Ontario have won a pay increase worth almost 10 per cent for the three years their wages were frozen by Bill 124.

The pay increase for non-political staffers who work in the provincial government comes after mediation and arbitration between the union and the Ford government.

It comes as the union continues to win backpay deals from the province over its wage restraint law, Bill 124.

h/t DS

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Public Service Union Predator Class

Tucker Carlson brought controversy to Danielle Smith’s Calgary — then took her somewhere dicier

Back at work in Alberta after two weeks of vacation, Premier Danielle Smith chose as her first public appearance in 2024 a conversation on stage with Tucker Carlson, the U.S. commentator whose views and remarks became too much for his Fox News bosses to tolerate.

On Tuesday night, they enjoyed a private dinner together in Calgary, these two former mainstream broadcasters, one now a government leader and one who’s fielded speculation about becoming Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate.

“And had the best time, thank you,” Carlson told Smith at the start of their 17 minutes together at his sold-out speaking event. “Thank you for letting me, a rank foreigner, ask you questions.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Tucker Carlson", Canada, WTF?

UK: A third of young people say Israel is acting like the Nazis, survey finds

Anti-Semitism campaigners say rhetoric in wake of Oct 7 attack is radicalising ‘generation hate’

A third of young people say that Israel is acting like the Nazis, research for an anti-Semitism charity shows.

In polling conducted in December, 34 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds agreed with the statement “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews”. The result among all adults was 30 per cent.

The figure marks a record high in the annual survey. In 2022, 23 per cent of Britons agreed with the statement, along with 31 per cent of young people.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

Trudeau’s Canada: Baby born in Hamilton homeless encampment shows extent of ‘desperate’ housing crisis

A Hamilton councillor’s recent experience witnessing a baby born in an encampment in the city demonstrates the “unacceptable” housing crisis residents face and “eye opening” situations paramedics and police officers are currently responding to, he says.

Coun. Matt Francis (Ward 5) told CBC Hamilton he was doing a ride along with police on a cold morning in late November when they were called to a medical emergency at an encampment tucked away in an industrial area in the east end.

Canadians never imagined that a man so criminally stupid, so self righteously indifferent to the genuine suffering of citizens as Justin Trudeau could ever be elected PM.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", Canada's Corporate Welfare Class, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class

Japan allows 40 women to take part in ‘naked man’ festival alongside 10,000 males for the first time in its 1,250-year history

Women will be allowed to participate in Japan’s ‘naked man’ festival next month for the first time in its 1,250-year history.

A group of 40 local women in Inazawa, in the country’s Aichi prefecture, will join the annual Hadaka Matsuri at the Konomiya shrine after petitioning organisers.

The event sees thousands of men strip down to loincloths and clash in a huge scrum as they fight to touch a completely naked man who is designated the shin-otoko or ‘god man’, in the hope that it will bring them good fortune for the new year.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Islamic group calling for Shariah law cancels Canadian event after U.K. declares it a terrorist entity

The day after an Islamic organization was declared a terrorist group in Britain, the group’s Canadian branch cancelled a conference it was hosting this weekend that was calling for the resurrection of the Muslim caliphate and the imposition of Shariah law.

Hizb ut Tahrir Canada was convening its conference on Saturday in Mississauga, just outside Toronto, called the Khilafah Conference 2024. Khilafah is the Arabic word for caliphate, referring to a Muslim community governed under Islamic law.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Canada, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Iran is now a ‘legitimate target’ for Israeli missile strikes, senior minister says

Iran is now a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile strikes, one of the country’s most senior ministers has told the Telegraph, raising the prospect of an all out war with Tehran.

In a wide-ranging interview, Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister, also said Palestinians from the West Bank would never be allowed to work in the country again and will be replaced by more than a quarter of a million imported foreign workers.

He also complained that the war in Gaza had not been fought aggressively enough.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

Trudeau, Singh are suddenly very worried about Trump. What’s driving the fear?

Following another decisive victory in New Hampshire, Donald Trump is one step closer to facing U.S. President Joe Biden in a general election rematch in November.

As that possibility crystallizes, Trump’s name has become the talk of the town north of the border. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that a second Trump presidency “won’t be easy.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inTrump Derangement Syndrome

A verdict on Trudeau’s biggest call, and a millstone around his neck

It didn’t take long for Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to troop out to say the federal government will appeal. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals know what Tuesday’s court decision is: A millstone around their necks.

Invoking the Emergencies Act to shut down convoy protests in February, 2022, had been a popular decision at the time, and one of the biggest calls Mr. Trudeau ever made. Now the Federal Court of Canada has ruled it was illegal. Justice Richard Mosley concluded there was no national emergency, as defined by the law.

In 2024, now that Mr. Trudeau is much less popular, it’s a stiff blow to his credibility, and a kick at a government’s that’s already down.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

California Bill Would Require New Cars to Come Equipped with Speed-Limiting Device

California Car Engine Govenor

A California Democrat introduced a bill this week that would require automakers in the state to equip new vehicles with speed governors — devices that restrict how fast people can drive.

The technology, if passed under the legislation, would prevent California drivers from going 10 mph or more over the posted speed limit in any given area. The bill would mandate that cars and trucks of the 2027 model year or later that are manufactured or sold in California be installed with speed governors.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Net-Zero Tyranny"

How ‘anti-racism’ made antisemitism fashionable

“The New York Times” presents IfNotNow activists as liberal idealists. But beneath the surface of their rhetoric is contempt for Jews and indifference to Jewish genocide.

With each passing week since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogroms in Israeli communities in southern Israel, the magnitude of the sea change in attitudes towards antisemitism becomes more and more apparent. But as the 110-day mark since the terrorist assault approaches, the straight line that runs between what fashionable liberal American opinion likes to call “anti-racism” and hatred for Jews has become not just obvious but undeniable.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"