Google cuts anti-Trudeau site from newsfeed

At Trudeau’s behest, Gould instructed Google News to limit Canadian access to foreign press – The Buffalo Chronicle:

March 16, 2019 - "In the days approaching former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould‘s testimony to the House of Commons’ Justice Committee on February 27, at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s behest, Karina Gould, the Minister of Democratic Institutions, reached out to social media giant Google to pressure the firm to curtail political criticism of the Trudeau government on its platform.

"Gould placed a call to a senior government relations executive at Google, during which she complained about ‘hate speech’ and ‘toxic rhetoric’, referring multiple times to specific criticisms of the Trudeau government that she found objectionable. She then threatened sweeping regulations that would require unprecedented disclosures of advertising sponsors....

"In the days following Wilson-Raybould’s testimony, and just two weeks after Gould told a House committee that there was 'more she was planning to do' to 'limit foreign influence' in the election, The Chronicle noticed that articles published on our digital platform relating to the ongoing SNC Lavalin scandal stopped appearing in Google News search results in Canada.  (Our coverage continues to appear in regular Google search results, and in Google News results in the United States.)

"On the same day as Wilson-Raybould’s testimony, Gould turned to iPolitics to publicly disparage a recent Chronicle report, with defamatory comments from Gould and a PMO spokesman. The author of the piece, Charlie Pinkerton, used a Twitter comment made by an obscure reporter who formerly wrote for Vice, to broadly characterize this publication as ‘fake’ news.

"iPolitics is a subsidiary of Torstar, the publishing giant managed by Frank Iacobucci (in his capacity as a current board member and former Chairman).... Iacobucci is a retired Supreme Court Justice and is at the center of the scandal that is engulfing the Trudeau government.  Iacobucci has been working as SNC Lavalin’s in-house attorney in their effort to secure a deferred prosecution agreement.  He was also appointed by Trudeau to manage the government’s consultations with indigenous people in order to secure approvals for the Trans Mountain Pipeline in British Columbia.

"Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council, was the subject of the report that Gould was quick to go to the press in an attempt to discredit.... Wernick also sits as one of five government officials who comprise the newly formed ‘election protection unit’, who have been tasked by the Cabinet to monitor and neutralize ‘critical election incidents’.

"Less than two weeks after the bum iPolitics story, Gould announced that the Trudeau government will include $7 million in this year’s federal budget to monitor and actively discredit political content on social media platforms.... At the same time, the Trudeau government plans to offer Canada’s media giants $600 million in operating subsidies, which has unnerved free speech advocates across all party affiliations."

Read more: https://buffalochronicle.com/2019/03/16/at-trudeaus-behest-gould-instructed-google-news-to-limit-canadian-access-to-foreign-press/
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Arkansas house votes to scale back civil forfeiture

Arkansas Legislature Effectively Votes To Abolish Civil Asset Forfeiture - Hit & Run : Reason.com - C.J. Ciaramella:

March 14, 2019 - "The Arkansas legislature unanimously passed a significant asset forfeiture reform bill Wednesday. The new law will require police and prosecutors to obtain a criminal conviction in most cases before they can seize someone's property.

"The bill, S.B. 308, passed the Arkansas Senate by a unanimous vote last month. On Wednesday, the bill similarly sailed through the Arkansas House by a vote of 93-0. If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas will join three states — North Carolina, New Mexico and Nebraska — that have severely curtailed or abolished asset forfeiture.

"The new law would require prosecutors to obtain a criminal conviction to forfeit property. There are a list of exceptions, however, including if the property owner is deceased, deported, flees the jurisdiction or fails to challenge the forfeiture, or if the property is abandoned....

"Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can seize property suspected of being connected to criminal activity, even if the owner is never charged or convicted of a crime. Law enforcement groups say it is a vital tool that disrupts drug trafficking and other organized crime.... However, civil liberties groups argue there are far too few procedural protections for innocent property owners, who may lose their car, their cash, and even their house....

"The proceeds of asset forfeiture are often then split between local prosecutors' offices and police departments. The federal government also partners with state and local police on forfeiture cases, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the Justice Department's asset forfeiture fund....

"Arkansas law enforcement agencies seized nearly $88 million in cash from 2010-18, about $9.7 million per year, according to data collected by Jeremy Horpedahl, assistant professor of economics at the University of Central Arkansas. That does not include the value for roughly 4,900 vehicles, at least 3,300 weapons and 1,000 other pieces of property confiscated in that span, according to numbers provided by Horpedahl....

"More than half of all U.S. states have passed some form of asset forfeiture reform over the past decade in response to bipartisan concerns."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2019/03/14/arkansas-legislature-unanimously-votes-t

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Snowden protector comes to Canada as refugee

Canada grants refugee status to some asylum-seekers who hid Edward Snowden in Hong Kong | National Post:

March 25, 2019 - "Vanessa Rodel ... a Filipino national, and her seven-year-old daughter Keana ... stepped off a 15-hour flight to Toronto Monday, granted refugee status by Canada six tense years after they themselves provided refuge to American whistleblower Edward Snowden, a contractor for a U.S. spy-agency who in 2013 became the world’s most wanted man after leaking details of U.S. mass-surveillance programs.

"Their acceptance marks the first breakthrough for a Canadian team trying to help the three asylum-seeking families who hid Snowden, and who believe they have been harassed and targeted for deportation as a result.... The others who helped Snowden — a Sri Lankan couple with two young children and another single Sri Lankan man — are still awaiting word on whether Canada will accept them as refugees....

"Supun Kellapatha, father of the two children, was hospitalized Friday due to increasingly fragile mental health; only his last-ditch court challenge now stands in the way of his being forced back to Sri Lanka.

"Montreal lawyer Marc-André Séguin, who has spearheaded the effort to bring the families to Canada, believes Ottawa is needlessly dragging its feet on the cases, and blames in part the radioactive nature of the Snowden story.

"Meanwhile, the charity the lawyers set up to aid their clients, For the Refugees, is running short of money; the organizers hope a crowd-funding campaign can replenish the coffers. The lawyers themselves have been working for free, making regular trips to Hong Kong on their own time.

"The refugees’ story first came to light in 2016 when [Toronto lawyer Rob] Tibbo revealed that three years earlier he had persuaded them to open their doors to Snowden. The former National Security Agency contract worker was able to disappear for two weeks by staying in their homes, before surfacing and taking a flight to Russia.

"Tibbo, a Montrealer who had been practising in Hong Kong for years when Snowden retained him to assist as he fled from the U.S., said he decided to expose the refugees’ role after learning the episode would be featured in a Hollywood movie. But in the wake of the news reports, Hong Kong authorities began what appeared to be a wide-ranging campaign against the migrants and their lawyer, which included suddenly reactivating their long-dormant refugee applications — then denying all of them on the same day....

"Knowing their clients could be deported at any time, the lawyers have fought to have that process expedited. But the consulate in Hong Kong has seemingly gone out of its way to avoid speeding up their cases, Séguin said, which he believes is to avoid any suggestion Ottawa is eager to assist those who helped Snowden."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-grants-refugee-status-to-some-asylum-seekers-who-hid-edward-snowden-in-hong-kong
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New cannabis book called "Reefer Madness 2.0"

Alex Berenson’s Tell Your Children is wrong on marijuana, psychosis, and violence - Vox - German Lopez, Future Perfect:

January 14, 2019 - "Alex Berenson’s Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence ... [has] gotten widespread favorable coverage in CNBC, the New Yorker, Mother Jones, and the Marshall Project, and landed op-eds from Berenson about his findings in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"His central argument is best summarized in a few brief lines later in the book: 'Marijuana causes psychosis. Psychosis causes violence. The obvious implication is that marijuana causes violence.'

"I could have found this argument persuasive.... I’ve written about how there are risks to marijuana that are worth taking seriously, even if one thinks that legalization is ultimately a better policy than prohibition.... But as I read Berenson’s book, it was impossible to escape that, while a compelling read written by an experienced journalist, it is essentially an exercise in cherry-picking data and presenting correlation as causation.....

"In one example, he cites a recent, massive review of the evidence on marijuana’s benefits and harms from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, claiming the report, on the link between marijuana and psychosis, 'declared the issue settled.' But I read the report and wrote about it for Vox when it came out.... [T]he National Academies’ report was extremely careful, cautioning that marijuana’s — and marijuana addiction’s — link to psychosis 'may be multidirectional and complex.' Marijuana may not cause psychosis; something else may cause both psychosis and pot use. Or the causation could go the other way: Psychotic disorders may lead to marijuana use, perhaps in an attempt to self-medicate....

"'In certain societies,' the report noted, 'the incidence of schizophrenia has remained stable over the past 50 years despite the introduction of cannabis into those settings'.... Berenson doesn’t mention any of this. He cites only the parts of the report that are favorable to his thesis....

"And this is representative of the book as a whole.... [T]he further I got into the book, the more it seemed like Berenson was imitating the strategy he’d meant to mock. Tell Your Children is Reefer Madness 2.0.

"There are concerns about marijuana and how legalization is playing out. As the National Academies’ report makes clear, there is still a lot about cannabis that we just don’t know, including its harms and benefits.... But Berenson’s book, with its sensationalist claims and shoddy analysis of the evidence, doesn’t genuinely address those concerns. Tell Your Children claims to inform its readers of the 'truth' about marijuana, but it instead repeatedly misleads them."

Read more: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/14/18175446/alex-berenson-tell-your-children-marijuana-psychosis-violence
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Prometheus Foundation promotes Objectivism

Prometheus Foundation for Advancing Objectivism: Founder’s Intent - The Objective Standard - Craig Biddle:

March 19, 2019 - "[T]he Prometheus Foundation (PF) [is], a nonprofit organization established by Carl Barney to provide funding for ventures that advance Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, scholarships for students who are pursuing careers that advance these ideas, and grants for proven Objectivist intellectuals to boost their productive output.

"I am honored to serve on the board of directors of PF, along with Carl Barney, Jim Brown, Lenny Esmond, David Hardy, Rony Miller, and C. Bradley Thompson.

If you think that you or anyone you know might qualify for funding, visit Prometheus Foundation’s website for details and application guidelines....

"Here’s to Ayn Rand for developing a philosophy for living on earth! And here’s to Carl Barney for funding its advancement! —Craig Biddle

"Money is a great power because ... it is a frozen form of productive energy. And, therefore, the spending of money is a grave responsibility.―Ayn Rand....

"The Prometheus Foundation (PF), in essence, is a store of 'productive energy.' It is money that the Founder/Donor accumulated during his working life and now wishes to use to help make the world a better place for people to flourish. The only substantive, enduring way to do this is by advancing rational philosophy and rational psychology. This means advancing Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and any psychology that integrates with it; such psychology would integrate with Objectivism, with Ayn Rand’s theory of emotions, and her work on epistemology and psycho-epistemology. PF exists solely for this purpose.

"Advancing Objectivism includes promoting Ayn Rand’s novels and nonfiction works, promoting Leonard Peikoff’s books and courses, creating courses on Objectivism, and creating organizations or undertaking projects that explicitly advance the philosophy.

"Every day, in many small ways, Objectivism is slowly changing the world. It is a long game. This is why, through the Objectivist Venture Fund (OVF), we want to invest in infrastructure (rather than one-off programs) that will endure. As of March 2019, examples of worthy recipients include the Ayn Rand Center in Europe, ARC Israel, the Ayn Rand Centre UK and centers in other countries, the Balkan Objectivist Center, the John Galt School, and The Objective Standard.... Carl B. Barney, Founder/Donor"

Read more: https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/2019/03/prometheus-foundation-for-advancing-objectivism-founders-intent/
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How American socialism has changed

The Two Socialisms | Liberty Unbound - Wayland Hunter:

March 11, 2019 - "When I was in college, the selling point of socialism, communism, revolutionary activism, all of that, was something called 'participatory democracy'.... The idea, endlessly reiterated, was that 'decisions must be made by the people affected by those decisions'.... The idea was that centralized 'state capitalism' was wrong, not primarily because it was inefficient, or even inequitable in its effects, but because its decisions were not 'democratic.' They had not been made by the people affected by them. If it was inequitable or “slow' (i.e., inefficient), that was why.

"Now we are witnessing an immense revival of 'socialism,' led by Democratic Party opportunists and hacks. And it is all about laws ... to increase the power of the centralized state. It is about giving professional politicians sole power over healthcare, housing, education, transportation, employment, qualifications for voting, and the possibility of self-defense — and all this without the tiniest hint that anyone except the Philosopher Kings who compose the Democratic Majority in the House of Representatives should be consulted....

"I have to be honest. I am a foe of 'participatory democracy.' I do not believe it is optimal, in any sense, to give power over the individual’s existence to whoever happens to be a coworker, a fellow student, or just a guy who happens to turn up at a meeting....

"But I think it’s worthy of notice that American 'socialism' has shifted, in our time, from a [democratic] and 'participatory' style to a rule-from-the-top dogmatism, constantly twisting in response to the whims of the politicians but always determined to enforce those whims.

"I wonder whether any of the socialists have noticed this. Perhaps they are as ignorant of their own traditions as they are of economics or sociology, or respect for anyone except themselves."

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1964
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Freedom Conservative Party formed in Alberta

Freedom Conservatives choose Malcolm Stinson for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville - FortSaskOnline.com - Zach Mueller:

March 22, 2019 - "Malcolm Stinson was recently selected as the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta candidate in Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. A member on the board of directors for the Libertarian Party of Canada, Stinson developed political connections that ultimately led to him helping form the Freedom Conservative Party in Alberta last year.

"The party is primarily made up of Wild Rose [Party] backers who weren't happy with the way the United Conservative Party merger took place in 2017, along with Libertarians and Alberta Patriots, according to Stinson....

"The Edmonton businessman currently serves on the board of directors for the Freedom Conservative Party. As such, he had a hand in creating the party's constitution and its policies.

"'We really want to get back to a small government, where the individual and the taxpayers are respected and they're not being dictated to by the leaders,' he explained, noting they will not be using a caucus whip. 'The biggest thing about not having a whip is all the caucus members will be free to vote the way they think is best for themselves and their constituents instead of what's best for the leader.'

"If elected as MLA, Stinson noted he plans to do away with red tape.... 'It really puts the brakes on the economy when red tape and beuracracy has gone far beyond what it needs to — where it's not about protecting Albertans, it's about protecting someone's turf.'

"The 2019 Alberta provincial election will be held on Apr.16."

Read more: https://www.fortsaskonline.com/local/freedom-conservatives-nominate-candidate-for-local-riding
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