Tom Mulcair: Pierre Poilievre willing to scrap environmental assessment to please Legault

Clientelism, in politics, is the art of convincing people to buy your schemes, then having them pay for the purchase with their votes. Pierre Poilièvre is revealing himself to be a skilled practitioner.

Forget about principles. They’re for gatekeepers and the “Laurentian Elite”.

Over the weekend, Poilièvre promised that if elected, Quebec would never again have to worry about a federal environmental assessment troubling one of its major projects — even those under national jurisdiction. That includes large dams on navigable and floatable waterways and First Nations lands, as set out by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Sure Tom because tying projects up in endless environmental assessments has worked so well to date.

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Trudeau accused Ford of ‘hiding from his responsibility’ during Freedom Convoy

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Ontario Premier Doug Ford of hiding from his responsibilities during the Freedom Convoy protests, according to a readout of a private call with Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson.

The readout of the February 8 call between Watson and Trudeau is not an exact transcript, but was presented at the ongoing Emergencies Act Inquiry as Watson testified on the protests that overwhelmed Ottawa in February.

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Critics call Loblaw price freeze a PR move as grocers face accusations of profiteering

Loblaw announced Monday that it would be freezing prices for 1,500 products sold under its No Name private label. But experts say the move is largely a PR tactic as Canadians and politicians accuse grocery giants of profiteering.

Retail expert Doug Stephens said he doubts the move was done out of altruism and notes that the profit margins on private label brands already tend to be “quite a bit higher” than national brands.

… The Loblaw No Name price freeze will be in effect until Jan. 31. Barry Millman, CEO of the Denbar Food Group in Cobourg, Ont., notes that the price freeze coincides with the “blackout period” between October and January, when suppliers like his company are prohibited from increasing the prices they charge to grocery stores.

A new low in cynicism! You can learn a lot from a billionaire who literally stole bread from the mouths of Babes.

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Tam commands Canadians get their bivalent booster shots

Canada’s chief public health officer said Tuesday that Canadians should get their dose of a recently authorized bivalent vaccine to stave off a fall resurgence of COVID-19 — a development that could prompt the return of some pandemic-related restrictions.

At an appearance before MPs on the Commons health committee, Tam said the decision to restore COVID measures — such as mandatory masking and school closures — will fall largely to the provinces and territories.

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Los Angeles will never be multicultural heaven

As the Nury Martinez tape shows, many aren’t seeking a post-racial mecca

A secret hour-long recording of an October 2021 meeting of Los Angeles city politicos surfaced last week, as California’s midterm election ballots arrived in the mail. Taking the city and nation by storm, the leaked audio exposed the cutthroat racial politics and deceit of elected officials who pretend to be tribunes of diversity.

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Elnaz Rekabi: Iranian climber ‘says hijab fell off accidentally’ at competition

A female Iranian climber who competed with her hair uncovered did so because her hijab fell off “inadvertently”, a post on her Instagram account says.

Elnaz Rekabi, 33, was praised by those protesting against Iran’s dress code after video showed her violating it at the Asian Championships in South Korea.

BBC Persian reported on Monday that friends had been unable to contact her.

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Arabs: Biden Emboldening Iran, Harming US Interests

The Saudis and other Arabs who were once considered America’s major allies in the Middle East have resumed their criticism of the Biden administration, accusing it of harming US interests and alienating Washington’s friends.

The criticism came after US President Joe Biden threatened that “there will be consequences” for US relations with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ announced that it would cut its oil production target. It also came after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said a policy review of US-Saudi relations would be conducted in response to the OOEC+ announcement.

The Saudis did not take the statements emanating from Washington lightly.

This seems Obama 2.0 stuff. The State Dept. wants a strong Iran to act as a counter to Israel to make their withdrawal from the ME easier.

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Siemens Canada tells MPs it never lobbied Ottawa for sanctions waiver on Russian turbine

A top official with Siemens Canada defended the energy company’s handling of sanctions involving repair work on turbines belonging to the Russian Nord Stream 1 pipeline before a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Arne Wohlschlegel, Siemens Canada’s managing director, testified that the moment Canada imposed sanctions on Gazprom, the Russian natural gas provider, it immediately halted work on the multi-million-dollar turbine compressor, stored the unit at its Montreal facility and informed the RCMP.

Justin sucking and blowing at the same time.

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Gavin Newsom’s wife emailed Harvey Weinstein asking for help dealing with California Gov’s cheating scandal two years AFTER movie magnate ‘raped and sexually assaulted her’, court hears

Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer wrote to Harvey Weinstein asking for his help in dealing with a sex scandal involving her husband, two years after she says the movie mogul raped her.

The email will be presented to the jury at Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial as apparent proof that their encounter was consensual. It was first raised last night in a filing from Weinstein’s legal team.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom says Weinstein raped her in 2005 after ‘luring’ her to a hotel room. At the time, she was an actress and had not yet started dating Newsom. In 2007, a year after she met Newsom and started dating him, he became embroiled in an embarrassing sex scandal.

Why can’t we just Nuke California?

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Experts: More transvestites needed

Heritage Foundation ranks US military as ‘weak’ for first time

The U.S. military has grown increasingly weaker over the years and is considered at risk of not being able to respond to threats to the country’s national interests, according to new rankings of the military’s strength.

The Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength found that the military is “weak” and “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests” — marking the first time in the index’s nine-year history that the country has been rated so low.

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John Robson: Ignore the Distractions, Emergencies Act Inquiry Is Only About Whether Use of the Act Was Called For

There’s such a din in Ottawa you’d think the truckers were back. And in a sense they are, because hearings are finally under way into the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, and the ratio of noise to sense threatens to be worse than in the original go-round. Which is a pity because what is really called for, here and in public discussion generally, is truth and clarity, not screeching.

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Algerians Arrested for Brutal Rape and Murder of 12-Year-Old Girl in Paris

Two Algerian migrants have been indicted for the rape, torture and murder of a 12-year-old girl named Lola who was discovered dead on Friday in the courtyard of the building where she lived.

The body of 12-year-old Lola Daviet was found at around 11:20 pm on Friday after her parents had reported her missing to the police in the afternoon when Lola had not returned from school to her home in the 19th arrondissement (district) of Paris.

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