During the Covid pandemic, Canada's Liberal government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build Covid-vaccine factories that failed to produce or deliver any vaccines.
March 30, 2023 - "A $200 million venture to build a COVID-19 vaccine factory failed in Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos Quebec City riding. The cabinet is refusing to disclose the total loss of taxpayers money.... 'The financial details and information pertaining to the relationship between Canada and the supplier are considered confidential,' the cabinet wrote in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons. There was no explanation.
"Cabinet in 2020 awarded millions in subsidies to Medicago Incorporated, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group, to produce vaccines in Duclos riding. It also awarded the company an Advance Purchase Agreement to buy up to 76 million doses of pandemic vaccine. None were delivered.
"Mitsubishi Chemical announced on February 3 that it was winding up its Québec operations with the loss of 600 jobs, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“'Total authorized support for this project was $200 million against which $101 million was disbursed in 2021 and $59 million was disbursed in 2022,' said the Inquiry. 'The agreement with Medicago has legally binding provisions to protect the taxpayer in the event of a default, sale, or other event.' Cabinet in February put its total spending on Medicago at $173 million. Medicago said it had already spent the money.
"'We are working to wind up operations,' Medicago CEO Toshifumi Toda testified at a March 23 Commons Public Accounts committee hearing. 'Some of our tangible assets, including facilities and equipment, or importantly intangible assets such as our intellectual property rights, may be sold.'
"'We appreciate all the support from the Government of Canada,' said Toda.... 'We spent all those monies,' said Toda. He made no mention of any repayment.
"'Who owns the intellectual property?' asked Conservative MP Stephen Ellis (Cumberland-Colchester, NS). 'Medicago owns it,' replied Toda.... 'No doses and $173 million and Medicago owns the intellectual property and still owns the physical building and manufacturing capability here in Canada?' asked Ellis. 'Yes,' replied Toda....
"Cabinet in its Inquiry tabling did not explain how much it expected to lose on the Medicago agreement."
March 28, 2023 - "Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has abandoned the Liberal government’s pledge to return the federal budget to balance, instead committing to years of further deficits as she made bigger spending plans to transform the economy to use less carbon. Freeland unveiled the 2023 budget Tuesday afternoon. Last fall, she predicted that after years of sky-high, pandemic-driven deficits, the government would finally return to balance, gradually reducing deficits until moving into a $4.5 billion surplus in 2027. That previous projection has been dropped and replaced with a $14-billion deficit.
"Across all of the next five years, the deficits are also larger than previously estimated, with the government ending this coming year $43 billion in the red compared to an estimated $36.4 billion just a few months ago. In total, Canada’s debt will climb by over $50 billion in the years ahead. Freeland also dropped previous Liberal promises to keep the debt-to-GDP ratio declining as a 'fiscal anchor,' as it rises this year to 43 per cent..... "
"Over the next five years, the government will spend an additional $22 billion on health care as part of a deal with the provinces announced last month. They’re also adding roughly $7 billion in that time to pay for an expanded dental care program, part of the confidence and supply agreement with the NDP. The government is also providing an extra GST credit for low-income Canadians, at a cost of $2.5 billion, to help with the rising cost of groceries, as inflation continues to surge....
"Beyond the new spending, the government is offering major tax credits to companies promising lower-carbon technologies. A senior government official estimated the value of the credits at roughly $80 billion over the next decade, with $25 billion going toward clean electricity generation alone.... The tax credits are Canada’s answer to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, a legislative suite of proposals that the government had feared would suck in almost all new investment in green projects for initiatives like nuclear and hydrogen....
"Freeland said even with that additional spending, Canada still has a lower debt-to-GDP ratio than any other G7 nation....
"The budget also promises to cut back on federal government travel and on contracting for outside consultants. It also asks departments for an across-the-board three per cent reduction in spending. If implemented, those reductions are estimated to save $15 billion. Freeland said the spending reductions won’t come with any layoffs or hiring freezes.
"NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh swiftly confirmed his party will support the budget, ending any speculation about whether the minority Liberals will fall. He said his party is pleased to have pushed for and created the new dental care program....
"Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to denounce the budget he said the Liberals are simply adding to the burden Canadian families face.... He said the Liberals have essentially caved to the NDP and it is driving up costs to the government."
After receiving criticism for continuing in her predecessors' high-spending ways, Canada's Governor General Mary Simon turned off all her social media accounts.
March 27, 2023 - "When Mary Simon was sworn in as governor general 18 months ago, there were hopes she would show respect to struggling Canadians and exercise ... fiscal responsibility.... Former governor-general Julie Payette resigned in disgrace, leaving a tarnished legacy. Abuse to staff. Entitlement. Snobbery. Horrific wasteful spending. For Canadians, the door at Rideau Gate didn’t slam behind Payette fast enough.... Simon had to know Canadians were disgusted with Payette for wantonly blowing their money while accomplishing little more than billing $139,000 for the design of a never-built private staircase so she could avoid people. And driving staff to tears. Yet, Simon went on spending sprees gobbling up great chunks of the $35 million budgeted for her office....
"Payette wanted to hide from people. Simon did.... In February, Simon’s office turned off social media accounts claiming there was a rise of 'violent threats.' If so, that’s unacceptable. So, deal with the alleged threats. But you don’t get to shut out Canadians — your employers — who want to know why you spent $600 on lemon and lime garnishes for in-flight meals on one junket....
"The latest revelation is that taxpayers footed $90,615 for Simon to visit her home in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Que for one day last May. Infuriating, but peanuts compared to the $1.15 million spent on a 2021 Dubai military junket with an entourage of about 45 (reported numbers differ.) Or the $800,000 spent to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany earlier that year. Of course, nothing less than five-star hotels with feather quilts and pillows would do for the 32 guests on that four-day trip.
"Simon has blown an opportunity to show some class and respect for Canadians economically beaten down by COVID’s ravages and inflation and struggling to put food on the table. Did she really earn that $40,000 pay raise she got during the pandemic that hiked her salary to $324,100? Simon could have brought integrity back to her important role that Canadians increasingly resent supporting because of wasteful spending that dogs it. Payette spent $3 million on travel. The tab would have been higher had COVID-19 not, mercifully, shut her in lockdown. Former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson blew $5 million on one Arctic nations tour. Unfortunately, like them, Simon embraced the same misguided notion of entitlement. It was her turn to sidle up to the public trough, and time and again her office has gone on a feeding frenzy. Literally.
"Simon spent $93,118 on in-flight airline food on a junket to Expo 2020 in Dubai last March. Each meal — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — for the gang cost taxpayers $218 apiece ... — while you shopped for canned soup on sale. The entourage tagging along was royally coddled — while many Canadians wondered if the food in the fridge would last until pay day.... Was it necessary for Simon to be ferried in a military aircraft 3,000 kilometres back and forth between Ottawa and Halifax to put in six minutes of work at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 2022? Why did she pass on a three-hour car ride from Ottawa to Peterborough in favour of blowing $8,300 to fly to a Royal Canadian Air Force event to make a speech?...
"As Commander-in-Chief one of the governor general’s responsibilities is to represent the military in Canada and abroad. Simon squeezed $349.69 out of the Germany junket’s $800,000 budget to lay to lay a wreath at the Neue Wache in Berlin to commemorate 'victims of war and tyranny.' That was a tad more than the $230 spent on flower arrangements to make their $103,000 in-flight catering meals prettier. The Department of National Defence spent $272,277.53 just on the trip. But there isn’t enough money for training exercises....
"When Payette’s wasteful spending was outed, opposition MPs were outraged. When Simon’s wasteful spending was outed, opposition MPs were outraged.... Nothing changes. Governors general who squander taxpayer money enjoy an annual $150,000 pension plus another $200,000 or so every year for expenses. But while in office, these entitled dames carry on spending lavishly, foolishly — because they can."
March 24, 2023 - "Michigan on Friday became the first state to repeal a right-to-work law in over 60 years. That's unfortunate not just for the workers who have lost their choice about whether to associate with a union, but also for the state economy. Michigan will be a less prosperous state without right-to-work, and its workers will be less free....
"At its core, right-to-work is about choice. For private sector workers, the National Labor Relations Act establishes rules for what happens when union membership is mandatory. Once a union is recognized, it speaks for all employees within the bargaining unit. An employer must bargain with that union, and only with that union, to set the terms and conditions that will govern the workplace. Employees who do not wish to associate with the union have no choice but to accept its representation and terms of the contract it negotiates. They cannot negotiate for themselves.
"Right-to-work restores some voice to dissenting workers by allowing them to keep their jobs without being forced to pay a union 'agency fees.' Agency fees are a portion of dues, which workers must pay to a union.... Typically, these fees are 70 percent to 80 percent of the dues payment. In states without right-to-work protections, workers who do not want the union to speak for them can be forced to pay these fees. Right-to-work gives these workers a voice by allowing them to at least not have to pay for their legally mandated silence when it comes to their compensation and working conditions....
"The economic impacts of right-to-works have been positive both in Michigan and across the country.... A 2002 study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (where I am director of labor policy) found gross state product, statewide employment, manufacturing employment, construction employment, and per-capita disposable income all grew faster in right-to-work states from 1970–2002, compared to states without right-to-work. That same study showed lower average annual unemployment, poverty rates, income inequality, and labor costs in right-to-work states. A 2007 Mackinac Center study reached similar findings, as did a later review. These findings have remained more or less consistent in the years since.
"Right-to-work states also are more likely to create job opportunities. From 2020 to 2021, 867,104 people moved to a right-to-work state away from a state that wasn't. One reason for this might be that job opportunities are more prevalent in right-to-work states. Companies looking for new locations often consider right-to-work as one key factor.... In October 2022, the unemployment rate in right-to-work states was 3.4 percent, compared to 3.9 percent in states without the law. Since the pandemic, right-to-work states have added 1.6 million jobs, while other states have lost 809,000 jobs....
"A 2021 Harvard study found that the share of manufacturing employment in the economy was 28 percent higher in right-to-work states, compared to neighboring states without right-to-work. The study also showed that average wages and labor compensation weren't negatively affected by the passage of the law. A similar study conducted by the Mackinac Center in 2022 shows similar results.
"Michigan's economic conditions in the 10 years before right-to-work and the 10 years that followed offer an excellent case study on the positive impact of right-to-work. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the 10 years before right-to-work, Michigan's unemployment rate averaged 8.5 percent. In the following decade, it was 6 percent. Michigan's labor force lost 350,657 people from 2002–12, but it gained 90,648 people from 2012–2020. Inflation-adjusted income growth went from 0.06 percent to 21.9 percent. In nearly every measurable way, Michigan has been better off....
"The 60,000 private sector workers in Michigan who have opted out of union membership are not the only ones who will be hurt by the repeal of right-to-work. Union members are also likely to find they are worse off.... In a right-to-work state, a union's financial stability requires it to please its members. If the union fails to deliver services that justify the price of dues, workers may opt out, denying the union revenue. This incentive is gone once right-to-work is repealed. A union is guaranteed that nonmembers will pay agency fees that are the vast majority of union dues.
"Repealing right-to-work gives unions a guaranteed income stream, which removes the incentive for them to provide the best services possible to the employees they represent. Repealing right-to-work, then, harms both those who would voluntarily pay the union and those who would not."
March 24, 2023 - "Government officials aren't wiser than the rest of us, so when they tried to deal with a serious public health problem, they did so in a forceful, ineloquent, and unreasonable manner.... In [a] column last year summarizing lessons from COVID-19, I concluded that it left us as a 'nation of rulers, not laws.' American governors — and California Gov. Gavin Newsom in particular — quickly and eagerly used their broad emergency powers to begin issuing edicts. Given the extent of the public-health threat, some of the more modest and temporary ones were understandable, but they bypassed the normal legislative process in cynical and expansive ways.
"One Republican lawmaker published a 138-page document detailing the 400 laws that Newsom unilaterally imposed or changed — many of them that only tangentially had anything to do with protecting public health. In particular, officials used the crisis to impose policies they already supported but couldn't get through the normal legislative process.
"The worst example involved anti-eviction orders that have literally destroyed our property rights. Virtually all mom-and-pop landlords depend on the rental income. With one fell swoop, governors (and the federal Centers for Disease Control) declared that tenants no longer had to pay their full rent if they faced a pandemic-related hardship. Sure, landlords could potentially collect rent in the future in civil court, but good luck with that.
"In making it virtually impossible to evict non-paying tenants, policymakers imposed the full cost of their public-health plans on individual property owners, who could no longer count on getting a return on their investment. Often, property owners have mortgages — and they always have tax and insurance bills. When a heating system or roof leaks, they're still required (ethically and legally) to make repairs. But they no longer could count on receiving rent....
"I thought that most people—even renters who have had less-than-stellar rental experiences—might understand that if the government deprives owners of their supposed state constitutional right to a fair return on their investment, fewer people will go into the business and even fewer will upgrade their properties. That helps no one. The result is obvious: fewer available rentals and fewer rentals in tip-top condition. Investing in rental property has always been a prime means for middle-class people to build wealth. My grandfather was an immigrant paperhanger (remember wallpaper?) who invested in Philadelphia row houses decades ago. Now, I talk to many people who won't dare buy a rental house out of the legitimate fear that the government can suspend rent payments at will.
"Tenants often outnumber owners, especially in larger cities such as Los Angeles.... Certainly, many cities (San Francisco, Santa Monica, New York) embraced strict rent control long before the pandemic was a thing. They largely destroyed their housing markets of course, as renters stayed put in under-market units while investors high-tailed it elsewhere. But COVID added a new level of uncertainty. Look at how Los Angeles continually extended its anti-eviction provisions.
"Any time I hear of a bad flu season or other health scare, I fully expect Newsom and others to return to their COVID-19 anti-eviction playbook.... [W]e no longer have property rights when officials can eliminate them by executive order, legislation, or regulatory fiat. That is COVID's lasting legacy — and the lasting result will not be pretty."
March 23, 2023 - "An epic disaster like the COVID response, one might suppose, should inspire some humility and rethinking on how public health could have gone so wrong. They had their run at it but created a global disaster for the ages.... The next step might be to see if there are any places where matters went rather well, and Sweden comes first to mind. The educational losses were non-existent because they didn’t close schools. In general life went on as normal and with very good results.
"One might suppose the Swedish way would be vindicated. Sadly, our leaders care nothing for evidence, apparently. Their concern is for power and money at any cost. As a result, we are witnessing a concerted effort not only to double down on errors the next time but make them even worse.
"Gates deploys his privileged place at the New York Times to agitate once again for a Global Health Emergency Corps, ensconced at the World Health Organization [WHO] and managed by the same people who created the pandemic response this time around. In other words, it would be the core of the global government pushing more lockdowns for the world — lockdowns to wait for another round of vaccines.
"If you can believe it, he has learned nothing from the last mess that he created. Indeed, he is completely shameless about it. In his view, the only problem is that we didn’t lock down fast enough, get vaccines out fast enough, and conduct enough research ahead of time to craft the perfect vaccine. And yes, this necessarily requires gain-of-function research. In other words, in Gates’s view, we need to have research continue to fiddle around in labs with tricks that anticipate pathogens of the future, thus again raising the risk of lab leaks that then necessitate fixes that can only be produced and distributed by the pharmaceutical companies in which he has such heavy investments.
"As a result, we have this hellish loop in play: gain-of-function research to anticipate the next pathogen by creating it and thus risking a lab leak that releases the pathogen that then has to be fixed by the vaccines themselves but the world has to lock down until they can be put into billions of arms. And keep in mind that Gates isn’t just another bloke writing an op-ed. He is the de facto owner of the World Health Organization himself, so his push for a permanent pandemic bureaucracy carries a lot of weight. His dream bureaucracy would override national sovereignty to make sure that never again would there be another Sweden.
"'It’s difficult for any one country to stop a disease from spreading on its own,' he writes 'Many of the most meaningful actions require coordination from the highest levels of government.'
"The model is always the same and it is taken from the world of computer science. There is a clean hard drive ... but then an exogenous threat comes along in the form of malware. In order to defeat it, we need software that is updated. You clearly should not turn on your computer until you can get the hard drive cleaned up. I’m serious here: Gates’s understanding of viruses is no more sophisticated than that.... In reality, this has nothing to do with biological viruses, which we evolved to manage through the immune system, a concept that is entirely lost on him. He finds it inconceivable that the best strategy for healthy people is to meet the virus and train the immune system. Indeed, he is appalled by that idea, favoring only more injectable substances designed to fight diseases.
"Also lost on him is the way in which viruses — whether from labs or nature — all must obey the natural epidemiological dynamics of pathogenic spread. The more deadly they are, the less likely they are to spread. And the reverse is also true: the more prevalent they are, like COVID, the less severe they are. The reason is simple: a pathogen needs a living host. Yes, there are other variables such as latency, which is how long the virus lives in the host before debilitating symptoms appear. Other than that, a lab cannot create anything that games its ways out of this matrix.
"If you can understand that paragraph, I can promise you this. You now know far more about viruses than Bill Gates. And yet it is he who has the decisive influence over pandemic policy the world over. The reason is extremely crude: it’s his money. It certainly isn’t his intelligence. In fact, it is rather shocking how his money alone has managed to buy the silence of scientists the world over, who have shown themselves to be appallingly obsequious and deferential to the crankism that Gates has been peddling for decades."
Canadian MP Han Dong has left the Liberal caucus after allegations that he advised the Chinese government to delay the release of two Canadians being held on spying charges.
Mar. 23, 2023 - "A Canadian member of parliament has stepped down from his party's caucus over allegations he was involved in Chinese political interference. Han Dong has been accused of lobbying a Chinese diplomat to keep two Canadians imprisoned in China. On Wednesday, Mr Dong said that he will leave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's governing Liberal Party to sit as an independent. Mr Dong has denied the allegations against him.
"'To all my colleagues in the parliament, media reports today quoting unverified and anonymous sources have attacked my reputation and called into question my loyalty to Canada,' Mr Dong, who was elected to parliament in 2019, said in an emotional evening address to Canada's House of Commons. 'Let me be clear, what has been reported is false. And I will defend myself against these absolutely untrue claims,' he said.
"In an unconfirmed report published by Canadian media outlet Global News citing anonymous national security sources, Mr Dong was accused of suggesting to China's consul-general in Toronto, Han Tao, that the release of two imprisoned Canadians should be delayed. The two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were imprisoned in China for more than 1,000 days on spying charges. The pair became known worldwide as the 'Two Michaels'. Their detention was widely viewed as retaliation for the 2018 arrest of Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada at the request of the US....
"Mr Dong allegedly suggested to the diplomat in February 2021 that a release of the two Canadians would benefit the federal Conservative Party of Canada, which is seen as unfriendly to Beijing.
"Mr Kovrig and Mr Spavor were eventually released on 24 September, 2021 [four days after the 2021 federal election - gd].. The following day, Ms Meng was released from detention in Canada and returned to China following a deal with US prosecutors.
"The allegations against Mr Dong come as Canada grapples with wider accusations that China attempted to interfere in the last two federal elections and a mayoral election in Vancouver. A series of reports published in recent months by broadcaster Global News and newspaper The Globe and Mail, based on anonymous national security sources and leaked classified documents, indicated concerns that Beijing interfered by putting pressure on its consulates in Canada to support certain candidates. The alleged interference is not believed to have altered the outcome of either federal elections."
"Mr Trudeau has faced growing political pressure to launch a public inquiry and this month appointed an independent special rapporteur to look into the reports and determine whether such an inquiry is needed. A majority of MPs in the House of Commons on Thursday passed a non-binding motion calling for a public inquiry, with most Liberals voting against it. Mr Dong cast his vote in favour."
A Dutch party formed just four years ago, in opposition to government plans to close farms and cut livestock levels to fight climate change, has won the largest number of seats in the Netherlands Senate.
March 16, 2023 - "A farmers' party has stunned Dutch politics, and is set to be the biggest party in the upper house of parliament after provincial elections. The Farmer-citizen movement (BBB) was only set up in 2019 in the wake of widespread farmers' protests. But with most votes counted they are due to win 15 of the Senate's seats with almost 20% of the vote.... The BBB aims to fight government plans to slash nitrogen emissions harmful to biodiversity by dramatically reducing livestock numbers and buying out thousands of farms. But its appeal has spread rapidly beyond its rural heartland, on a populist platform that represents traditional, conservative Dutch social and moral values....
"A left-wing Green-Labour alliance is also on course to win 15 Senate seats, while Prime Minister Mark Rutte's four-party coalition is poised to fall back to 24 - down eight seats." Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64967513
March 16, 2023 - "With the highest turnout in 30 years, Dutch voters gave an extraordinary signal to their four-party Government on Wednesday: the Farmer Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB) is set to come first in regional elections, which decide the make-up of the Dutch Senate. In a long voting day, with locations from repurposed drive-through testing centres to ancient churches, an estimated 61% of Dutch people turned out. The result was astonishing, even though the party has been creeping up the polls, feeding on anti-establishment feeling after unpopular Covid lockdowns.
"Some analysts saw the election as a fight between two ‘moods’ in the Netherlands: a mood of (Right-wing) discontent, echoed also across other countries, versus the traditional consensus-driven Dutch mood. With 18 parties in parliament, politicians have typically found a way to muddle along, but this election was different thanks to the thorny issue of nitrogen compound pollution, which is tying the country in knots before a bill has even passed through parliament.
"EU rules, Dutch laws, and court verdicts mean the country must reduce emissions of ammonia, nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide from farming, transport and building machines. The question is who takes the hit — and whether 30% of productive farms should be shut, forcibly if necessary. The Netherlands, which feeds the world with its intensive farming and livestock-heavy agriculture, is at the sharp end of the international climate debate.
"According to initial results, the BBB, headed by sole MP Caroline van der Plas, will be the largest party in the Senate — polling at more than 30% in some regions. Meanwhile, support for the Government has been slashed. The result is a direct challenge to Dutch PM Mark Rutte, who has been embroiled in a number of scandals, such as gas mining in Groningen at the expense of citizen safety, punishing innocent (often dual-national) citizens for childcare benefit fraud and ongoing Dutch farmer protests about nitrogen emissions. Small wonder, then, that 46% of voters said they were specifically voting against the current national administration.
"The strength of green feeling here, both for and against, is a bellwether for the struggle to come in other countries and farming economies. But BBB should not be dismissed as ‘anti-green’; rather farmers are more of a lime green versus the dark green of the eco activists, both of whom claim they want to protect the land.
"The reality of climate change mitigation or adaptation is playing out in the Netherlands right now, where these new provincial assemblies will need to come up with detailed plans to reduce nitrogen pollution by July. Meanwhile, there is a national housing crisis and this is one of the top personal issues for people in the Netherlands. Nitrogen rules are getting in the way. Still, the success of the BBB serves as a warning shot to Mark Rutte and his government.“This is a landslide we haven’t seen for years,” said CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra, a Government party whose traditional farmer support has evaporated. “It is an extraordinarily bitter pill.” Read more: https://unherd.com/thepost/dutch-farmers-party-secures-landslide-victory/
"Dutch farmes shock the world! Bad news for Trudeau," True North, March 19, 2023:
China's communist government has been interfering in Canadian politics for years, but the 2021 election marked an escalation, with some Canadian federal campaigns colluding in illegal activity.
March 2, 2023 - " On February 17, the Globe and Mail published evidence that China had deployed a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2021 Canadian federal election with the apparent aim of securing a minority Liberal victory. Drawing from classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service [CSIS] documents, the Globe’s reporting revealed a multipronged Chinese interference strategy, which included disinformation campaigns, undeclared cash donations, and mobilization of international Chinese students in a bid to defeat (mostly Conservative) politicians deemed hostile to Beijing’s interests.... The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs was already investigating allegations that China had supported eleven candidates —nine Liberal and two Conservative—in the Greater Toronto Area in 2019....
"For years, China has maintained an espionage network comprising spies, party propagandists, and secret police in Canada and elsewhere. According to veteran foreign affairs journalist Jonathan Manthorpe’s 2019 book Claws of the Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada, the methods employed by CCP agents in Canada include “cyberattacks, harassing phone calls, the distribution of hate propaganda, following and monitoring of individuals by CCP agents, harassment at anti-CCP demonstrations, detention and bullying of Canadians visiting China, [and] intimidation of relatives in China'.... So widespread are these rights violations that Amnesty International Canada published a 2020 report documenting a 'systematic campaign of harassment and intimidation that is often clearly linked to or backed by Chinese state authorities.'
"Among the arms of CCP influence said to be operating in Canada are the Confucius Institutes [CIs] — language and cultural centres which began appearing here in 2006. The Confucius Institute of Toronto currently lists thirteen Canadian CIs affiliated with various universities (Carleton, the University of Waterloo, St. Mary’s) and school boards (Edmonton and, for a while, the Toronto District School Board).... Manthorpe describes these institutes as 'espionage outstations for Chinese embassies and consulates through which they control Chinese students, gather information on perceived enemies, and intimidate dissidents'....
"[T]he CCP’s 2021 Canadian election interference feels like an escalation. The leaked CSIS documents reveal the extensive role played by Chinese diplomats and consulate staff. Diplomats spread disinformation about Conservative intentions to impose a Trump-style ban on Chinese university students. They facilitated undeclared cash donations to—mostly Liberal—candidates favoured by the CCP. (While the precise amount of these transfers is unknown, Global News reported that a CCP proxy group allegedly funnelled approximately $250,000 through an Ontario MPP and federal campaign staffer in the 2019 election.) They helped businesses hire international Chinese students and then enlist them as paid, full-time “volunteers” on chosen campaigns.
"But it gets worse for Liberals, especially given the material advantages that Chinese meddlingappears to have conferred on the party. According to the December 20, 2021, CSIS report quoted by the Globe, CCP agents encouraged donors to contribute to Beijing-approved candidates, for which they received tax credits from the federal government. Those campaigns themselves then illegally returned 'the difference between the original donation and the government’s refund' to the donors. In other words, ... Canadian campaigns were willing participants in illegal activity. Conservative MP Michael Cooper, who sits on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, said in an interview that these details from the CSIS documents ... suggest 'collusion' between 2021 federal candidates and 'the CCP interference network.' All of this, needless to say, is in obvious violation of the Canada Elections Act, and the RCMP should open an investigation if it hasn’t already.....
"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately downplayed the issue.... On February 28, the government issued a report indicating that national security agencies believed the attempts at foreign interference had not 'met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity'.... The report, penned by Morris Rosenberg, a former deputy minister of foreign affairs and former CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, adds that the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol 'is somewhat confusing as to what is required in order for the threshold to be met' but that the threshold is being construed as 'requiring an incident or incidents that threaten the integrity of the entire election'.... But even if the Chinese did not tilt the overall election result, that still means a foreign power may have rendered the votes of tens of thousands of Canadians moot....
"CSIS has advised the prime minister that public transparency is crucial in cases involving foreign interference in Canada’s democratic processes. Liberals themselves used to campaign on transparency and accountability. In this case, the prime minister kept Canadians in the dark, sitting on highly sensitive evidence of foreign election meddling for seventeen months, until enterprising reporters and CSIS whistleblowers took matters into their own hands. In the interest of rebuilding public trust, the government should listen to its own national security advisers and come clean. That begins with releasing the names of the eleven GTA federal candidates in whose campaigns China is alleged to have interfered in 2019, then providing Canadians with a full account of what actually happened in 2021.... A serious response from the government would include the creation of a foreign agents registry, already on the books in Australia and the United States, which would require the public disclosure of those working for foreign interests....
"One final revelation from the CSIS documents should give Canadians pause: an unnamed Chinese diplomat quoted as saying Beijing 'likes it when the parties in Parliament are fighting with each other.' In other words, China’s interference campaign may have been about more than swinging ridings or influencing the election as a whole and also about exacerbating the political polarization in this country. Each and every partisan outburst resulting from this affair is another minor gesture appreciated by Beijing."
March 20, 2023 - "When cornered, some politicians grudgingly admit COVID-19 restrictions went too far and made little sense. But that still leaves us wondering as to their thinking when they locked playgrounds, mandated masks, restricted travel, shuttered businesses, closed schools, confined people to their homes, sent cops after paddle-boarders floating on the lonely sea, ignored their own rules, and otherwise inflicted harms worse than a virus could ever manage.
"Now an important disclosure of communications among British officials reveals just how government officials' minds work when exercising extraordinary power.... The Telegraph this month published The Lockdown Files drawn from 100,000 messages exchanged among government officials. They reveal powerful people warn[ing] that restrictive policies would cause more harm than the disease, decisions made for public relations reasons, media enlisted to suppress dissent, and officials gloating over inconveniences to the public....
'WhatsApp conversations contained in The Telegraph's Lockdown Files show that those running the country privately acknowledged the 'terrible' price of lockdowns and twice reimposed the national shutdowns, even as they discussed the damage they were causing to physical and mental health, children's prospects and mental health,' the newspaper's team noted. Among the consequences of which they were directly warned were interrupted medical treatments and ill effects on children.... In addition, officials were 'worried about the Government being sued by the families of those who had died because of the backlog on cancer care and elective treatments.'
"When the British public became resistant to damaging restrictions on business, gatherings, and movement, Hancock openly embraced plans to 'deploy' news of COVID-19 variants to 'frighten the pants off everyone' to encourage compliance with lockdown rules. The idea was sufficiently well accepted that officials referred to their efforts as 'Project Fear.'" Fomenting panic was in keeping with the seat-of-the-pants decision-making driving much pandemic policy.
"Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson boasted of making decisions based on 'science,' but was more driven by polling — and sometimes by what he himself feared was bad data that overstated risks. Johnson 'appeared to express a desire to lift the country out of lockdown earlier than planned, but said his media advisers – Lee Cain and James Slack – warned him that such a move was "too far ahead of public opinion",' reports The Telegraph. 'When Mr Johnson broached the subject of opening schools before the summer, his health secretary argued against doing so, saying that "everyone's accepted there won't be more on schools until September"' 'The exchanges call into question the prime minister's insistence that lockdown decisions were made on the basis of the best scientific evidence,' adds The Telegraph. 'They also raise the prospect that Britain spent many weeks living under restrictions that could have been avoided'....
"[A]t least a few officials gained pleasure from the pain they imposed on others.... 'Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said it was "hilarious' that 149 people had been told to stay in government-approved hotels on their return from Red List countries in 2021,' the newspaper summarized. 'He also joked about passengers being "locked up" in "shoe box" rooms'.... For his part, Hancock 'was an advocate of using the police to crack down on anyone deemed to have broken quarantine or lockdown rules, even though the regulations were often open to interpretation'....
"'What was most alarming was the alacrity with which the broadcast news media fell into line – with boundless enthusiasm – as they were given a key role in the day to day dissemination of government authority,' observed The Telegraph's Janet Daly. 'As the medium through which the official information was conveyed – with, as we now know, often misleading modelling projections and outdated death figures – they went from being public service news media to what the BBC notably has always insisted it is not: state broadcasters. From disinterested journalism to Pravda in a single bound'....
"The correspondence in the 'Lockdown Files' was leaked to The Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was collaborating with Matt Hancock on his memoir and was disturbed by what she saw. 'We were all let down by the response to the pandemic and repeated unnecessary lockdowns,' she commented earlier this month. 'Children, in particular, paid a terrible price. Anyone who questioned an approach we now know was fatally flawed was utterly vilified; including highly respected and eminent public health experts, doctors and scientists.' \
"We may never know exactly what members of America's own pandemic-exploiting political class were thinking when they turned the screws on people's liberties. But thanks to the Lockdown Files, we can make a good guess."
March 17, 2023 - "Nicholas Chappelle spent almost a year in an Oregon prison after he was wrongfully convicted of driving with a suspended license. The reason for his incarceration? A shoddy DMV database. And the worst part is he's not alone.
"While it's unclear just how many Oregonians have been wrongfully arrested or convicted due to errors in the database, at least 3,000 licenses have been mislabeled [and at] least five wrongful arrests or convictions have been identified.
"According to The Oregonian, the issue stems from an error-prone practice in the database of suspended licenses at the state's department of Driver & Motor Vehicles Services [DMV]. In Oregon, license suspensions don't take effect until a person has completed their prison or jail sentence. In the meantime, their licenses are listed as essentially permanently suspended, recorded in the database as suspended until "12/31/9999" or "00/00/0000." According to The Oregonian, around 3000 licenses are currently being affected.
"Once a suspended license holder is released from prison or jail, the state requires them to notify the DMV that they have been released in order to start counting time toward their actual suspension. However, according to The Oregonian, prison and jail officials haven't even been giving out the necessary forms to released inmates because they don't know who is facing license suspensions. When these former inmates get pulled over, they are likely to be arrested for driving with a suspended license, even if the actual tenure of their suspension is over.....
"For individuals like Chappelle, this error can be life-altering. Chappelle was imprisoned for 11 months after he pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license. He was innocent, but he pleaded guilty to the felony anyway. The Oregonian reports that during his imprisonment in a medium-security facility far from home, Chappelle lost his job as a union ironworker and missed the birth of his son. The wrongful conviction wasn't noticed until prosecutors in the Multnomah County District Attorney's Justice Integrity Unit found his case — and at least five other wrongful arrests and convictions.
"The Oregonian reports, 'The DMV has no idea how many people have been charged and prosecuted because of the erroneous records, but DMV administrator Amy Joyce acknowledges the problem has gone unaddressed for years.' According to one DMV administrator, the DMV did become aware of the issue at some unspecified point in the past, but it 'wasn't at a high enough level to understand the urgency' to try to fix the issue....
"'The state inhales tax dollars to oversee an accurate database,' wrote TechDirt's Tim Cushing. 'Those being taxed should not be expected to correct the state's errors. The state is being paid to do this job'.... DMV officials say they're working to fix the issue. However, the process appears to be moving slowly, requiring the collaboration of both the DMV and the Oregon Department of Corrections [DoC]. 'We're still hashing out with DOC how this is going to work exactly,' the DMV administrator told The Oregonian."
The government of China has shrugged off and moved on from the failures of its Covid policies, but those may have left permanent scars on its ability to govern.
February 16, 2023 - "In late November, after years of large-scale lockdowns, closures, quarantines, and almost constant mass testing, Chinese citizens took to the streets and, for the first time, called into question the leadership of President Xi Jinping. Soon after, in response to the simmering discontent and other pressures, the government ended, virtually overnight, the 'zero COVID' measures it had staked its public reputation on for nearly three years.... [W]hat followed was a public health emergency in which the virus spread across some 80 percent of China’s highly vulnerable population. Hospitals and morgues overflowed, and more than one million people may have died. On top of all this, by the end of 2022, economic growth ... had fallen to its lowest level in years.
"Yet instead of going into crisis mode, Beijing has largely shrugged off these setbacks. It offered no official explanation for its abrupt reversal of zero COVID, and it weathered the high death rates that followed mainly by suppressing official data and not talking about COVID fatalities.... And ... state censors even launched a campaign aimed at 'preventing the exaggeration of gloomy emotions.' To the outside world, meanwhile, China announced that it is open for business and that its economy is back.
"For now, the strategy appears to have worked. Unlike the zero-COVID measures, the chaos and death that followed reopening produced little domestic backlash against the government. Many ordinary Chinese seem to have concluded that the health crisis was not a big deal; in rural areas, where the health system is weak and the virus ran rampant, many people who experienced symptoms or even died were unaware that they had been infected. In the go-go atmosphere of Beijing’s reopening, COVID-19 seemed to be quickly forgotten....
"In fact, Beijing’s response to the pandemic — both before and after zero COVID — could have significant implications for the one-party state over the long term. For one thing, as the years wore on, the zero-COVID strategy, sustained at enormous social and economic cost, seemed to have more to do with tightening the government’s grip on society than with effective pandemic mitigation, as the protests in November made clear. And the strategy was ultimately unable to prevent a devastating viral wave.... Moreover, the high death toll that followed the sudden reopening — and the lack of active government engagement — raised new doubts about the ability of the regime to keep the population healthy.... [T]he government’s handling of the virus has also made clear that it is willing to sacrifice effective governance and even science in the interest of extending its power and control. In the long run, by breaking down the trust between Chinese society and the state, this power grab will create new challenges for Xi when the next crisis comes....
"The combined human toll of Beijing’s prolonged zero-COVID measures and its abrupt policy U-turn is by no means small. A growing body of evidence shows that during the three years that China maintained zero COVID, the very low rates of infection and mortality from the virus were achieved at significant cost to public health in other areas. For example, according to data from the National Health Commission, in 2020–21, deaths caused by cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases in urban areas increased by 700,000 over 2019 levels.... This very likely was the result of anti-COVID measures preventing timely access to health care....
"The rampant spread of infection and death that followed the abandonment of zero COVID on December 7 was in some ways even more traumatic.... According to Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), by January 21, more than 80 percent of the population, or 1.13 billion people, had been infected with COVID-19. If we use his own case fatality ratio for the winter, which he put at between 0.09 percent and 0.16 percent, the reopening would have been associated with at least one million COVID deaths. Wu’s data is supported by other models, including the Economist’s projection of 1.0 to 1.5 million deaths, based on assumptions about the unencumbered spread of COVID-19 after the reopening; the British-based Airfinity’s estimate of 1.3 million COVID deaths between December 1 and February 6; and a New York Times analysis, published on February 15, also estimating between 1.0 and 1.5 million deaths since the reopening..... Of course, the viral wave was playing out over a far larger population, but it is very likely that there were more COVID-19 deaths in China in two months than there were in the United States over the span of three years....
"[T]he estimated deaths the Chinese government claims to have avoided — 950,000 during 2020–21, according to Wu himself — have very likely been canceled out by the deaths associated with the messy and chaotic policy reopening. In other words, China spent billions of dollars maintaining an economically disruptive and ultimately socially damaging zero-COVID program for years only to suffer the same, if not worse, health consequences in the end....
"Despite the multiple ways they have undermined the government’s credibility, Xi’s COVID blunders do not pose an existential threat to his regime. The government has continued to show it can cope with even deep challenges to its rule.... Still, Xi’s extreme COVID strategies have left lasting scars on the Chinese state and its ability to govern....[I]t will be difficult for the hundreds of millions of Chinese who were affected by Beijing’s power overreach over the past three years to forgive and forget. In addition to eroding public trust in the government, the COVID crisis has made clear that a political system that has been tailored to a single superordinate figure is highly susceptible to disruption, shocks, and arbitrary decision-making. For now, like their government, ordinary Chinese may be glad to return to business as usual. But barring fundamental changes in the highly centralized and personalized rule under Xi, there is no guarantee that similar catastrophes will not be repeated with even greater consequences in the future."
The longer the Chinese election interference story drags on, writes Terry Glavin in the National Post, "the more Canadians will notice that something rotten has spread through this country’s corporate sector, the universities, and the political class."
March 15, 2023 - "With all their filibustering and obstructionist 'rapporteur' manoeuvres to draw attention away from the interference operations Beijing ran on their behalf during the 2019 and 2021 elections, the Trudeau Liberals might think they’re being clever. But they’re being too clever by half. The longer this drags out, the more light gets shed on the squalid and intimate relationship between the Liberals’ political base in this country’s wealthy and well-connected Mandarin-bloc hierarchy and the Ferrari-driving consiglieri of Beijing’s strong-arming and influence-peddling network in Canada. It’s the same circle of power....
"Canadians are beginning to understand what so many brave Chinese-Canadians have been warning about all these years. Slowly and steadily, the public is waking up to the alarms rung by Chinese political exiles, Hongkongers, Tibetans and Uyghur refugees, and by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. But it is a dispiriting education. It’s the brazenness of it that’s so galling, the flaunting of impunity in a thriving social scene of dodgy casino high-rollers and senators, Chinese diplomats and targets of RCMP money-laundering probes, MPs and mayors at banquets and ribbon-cuttings, weekend barbecues and campaign fundraising parties.
"The drawn-out focus on Beijing’s long reach into Canada’s political life doesn’t just cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Elections Act in keeping dirty foreign money out of local constituency associations, nomination races and federal campaign contests. It could cause even the most reasonable person to wonder whether the political connections that radiate outward from Beijing’s compradors in Canada might explain why this country’s anti-corruption laws seem to be dead letters.
"Only two weeks ago, in what B.C. Premier David Eby called a shocking example of the uselessness of Canada’s money-laundering laws, a special prosecutor was forced to fold up a multi-year investigation that tracked millions of dollars through Chinese bank accounts and B.C. casinos.... From May 2019 until last June, B.C.’s Cullen Commission took testimony that included security-camera footage of duffle bags full of cash — up to $800,000 in each transaction — carried into casinos to be converted into chips, with the chips then cashed in for 'clean' money. The inquiry concluded that billions of dollars every year was being laundered into B.C. real estate and luxury goods, mostly from Chinese accounts....
"[A] shadowy figure who kept popping up in the Lottery Corporation investigations that led to the Cullen Commission was Rong Xiang 'Tiger' Yuan, a former People’s Liberation Army officer famous in the Fraser Valley for his opulent five-acre compound where he keeps his fleet of McLarens, Lamborghinis, and allegedly one of the largest private gun collections in Canada. Only two months ago, Yuan was a celebrity guest at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, B.C., for a Lunar New Year banquet along with the notoriously Beijing-friendly Senator Yuen Pau Woo, China’s Vancouver consul-general Yang Shu, Liberal MPs Parm Bains and Wilson Miao, one current and one former provincial NDP cabinet minister, and an additional NDP MLA.
"Yuan and two of his associates also show up in a peculiar injection of money from Metro Vancouver Chinese donors to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Papineau riding association in 2016 totalling more than $60,000 over two days, as reported recently in Le Devoir and Le Journal de Montréal.
"It’s enough to make even the most level-headed observer get a bit paranoid, but you don’t need to construct any elaborate conspiracy theories about what’s been going on here. What’s been going on is a rapid population shift that has changed the ethnic and demographic makeup of Canada’s Chinese communities, and the Liberals’ alliance with the money-men in that new demographic niche.... Only two years ago the dominant non-official language in Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto Area shifted from Cantonese to Mandarin, reflecting the influx of wealthy Chinese from the People’s Republic, many of whom are closely aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.
"The influence of Beijing’s loyalists in the new 'princeling' caste took off after the Trudeau Liberals came to power in 2015, with their overweening focus on ramping up political, economic and 'people to people' ties with China. The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department — the superstructure devoted to enforcing compliance with the Politburo’s policies among overseas Chinese — closely aligned itself with Trudeau’s 'win-win' approach to Beijing.
"The United Front is deeply embedded in the Mandarin-bloc hierarchy, and that hierarchy is fabulously wealthy. There’s a lot of money sloshing around in Canadian politics — not just in Liberal coffers — and the United Front’s exertions run in everything from school board elections to municipal politics to provincial and federal politics....
"[A]s long as the Trudeau Liberals keeping dragging things out in hopes of keeping the skeletons well hidden in their closets, the more Canadians will notice that something rotten has spread through this country’s corporate sector, the universities, and the political class. And no Trudeau-appointed 'rapporteur' is going to root it out, because that’s not what the rapporteur is for."
March 16, 2023 - "Bill 88, known as the Saskatchewan First Act (SFA), passed Thursday after the third and final reading, as indigenous leaders and supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the legislation. During the vote, indigenous, First Nation, and Metis leaders stood along with the NDP MLAs voting against the SFA. The SFA passed easily, with 40 Sask Party MLAs voting to pass it.
"The SFA protects 'Saskatchewan’s autonomy and exclusive jurisdiction over its natural resources' and created a panel to review the economic impact of Justin Trudeau’s policies. Justice Minister and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre said the SFA is 'historic legislation' which will stop 'intrusive federal policies' impeding the economic growth of the province.
"Premier Scott Moe spoke with the media following the vote and defended the SFA as it protects all Saskatchewanians, including indigenous people. 'This is very indicative of the ongoing conversation that has to happen around Bill 88 protecting our ability to provide that growth,' said Moe. 'This bill is not a division between that relationship and protecting treaty rights. This is a bill that's protecting our opportunity in this province from federal infringement.'
"The Western Standard asked Moe why there's a disconnect between what the government says the SFA does, and how indigenous peoples perceive it. 'There needs to be ongoing dialogue on that and as government's committed to doing that, committed to working through what Bill 88 is,” said Moe....
"Eyre said under section 35 of the Canadian Constitution the SFA does not infringe on any treaty rights and an amendment to the legislation added section 35 into the SFA. 'We have never shut out voices. We have had meetings, listening sessions, and dialogue sessions with communities ongoingly,' said Eyre....
"On Wednesday, NDP Justice and Attorney General Critic Nicole Sarauer attempted to have First Nations and Metis leaders testify in the SFA committee meeting. Still, the Sask Party blocked them from testifying.... FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron told the media 'Premier Scott Moe and his government have repeatedly used the treaties as a reason to exclude First Nations from some provincial revenue programs and natural resource revenue sharing'....
"'The province of Saskatchewan does not have the jurisdiction to claim exclusive ownership of natural resources,' said Cameron. 'The province was created after the signing of treaties. First Nations through treaties, maintain our rights to make decisions about their lands, resources, waters, and Nations. Treaties guarantee that First Nations would share in the revenue and resources derived from our homeland.'"
"MNS Vice-President Michelle LeClair is disappointed with the SFA. 'The Metis Nation Saskatchewan has been very direct and vocal in our opposition to the Saskatchewan First Act,' said LeClair.... 'This bill’s passage is a failure of the provincial government to recognize the Metis Nation as a partner in Saskatchewan, and it dismisses our citizens’ inherent rights.'"
In response to protests over Calgary Alberta's drag queen story hour program, the city council has banned protests within 100 meters of a library or recreational facility.
March 15, 2023 - "Calgary city council has updated a bylaw and brought in another to address escalating protests at drag events.... The new law, called the Safe and Inclusive Access Bylaw, will immediately prohibit protests within 100 metres of an entrance to a recreation facility or library....
"Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters.... 'There's no banning of protests. It is simply removing [them] from the entrance so that people can have a safe experience inside those buildings.' Several councillors questioned the speed of the bylaw changes and wanted more time to consider the matter, but council ultimately voted 10-5 in favour of the new bylaw [which] will come back to council for a review in a month."
March 16, 2023 - "The bylaw was rushed through Council, debated in one session, not subjected to the customary committee review, with city staff even admitting that the bylaw is the first of its kind in Canada.... Further scrutiny and study would have revealed that not only is Calgary’s bylaw a solution in search of a problem, but that it is one of the more egregious and unconstitutional exercises of authority in a major Canadian municipality in recent memory, and will actually prevent most, if not all, public demonstrations – even those that Councillors might endorse.
"There are already laws to address actual 'physical harm' caused to community members. Assault, uttering threats, and mischief are all offences under the Criminal Code. Hate-motivated offences can attract additional criminal penalties. Alberta already has trespass laws that prevent demonstrators from entering certain private spaces. Councillors presumably know this, which is why they needed to extend their authority to prevent the 'psychological harm' they feel occurs when protestors raise uncomfortable issues. Unfortunately for these Councillors, however, the Charter protects the freedoms of expression and assembly, and any infringement of these rights must be justified as a reasonable limit....
"The bylaw as enacted bans peaceful, silent protests on sidewalks and public areas outside designated municipal buildings.... A single person holding a sign related to any of these causes would be charged under the bylaw. Of course, any counter-protest related to any of these causes would also be banned. And given that some political protests are restricted, but not others, the law will likely be applied in a discretionary manner, open for abuse and misuse by city authorities and the targeting of certain groups over others based solely on their ideology, religion, or otherwise. Banning virtually all demonstrations on certain public property during daytime hours, which do not impede the public and may not even create noise ... will surely fail to be justified under the Charter and will be struck down....
"It is an unfortunate symptom of our political culture that speech a politician doesn’t like is now classified as a 'harm' impacting 'safety', as if words are fists and a placard is a weapon. Instead of responding to protestors and political opponents with respect, kindness, and better arguments, Calgary City Council has chosen to use the hammer of the law to avoid any heavy persuasive lifting. In doing so, rather than have the best political argument win, Calgary City Council has decided to unconstitutionally shut down most political protests – even ones with which they agree."
International trade minister Mary Ng won't comment on her public endorsement of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations, considered a Chinese Communist Party front.
March 13, 2023 - "According to the Blacklock's Reporter, Federal Trade Minister Mary Ng refuses to comment on her public endorsement of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO), which is considered a Communist Party of China (CCP) front. Ng has attended CTCCO events and records show three other Toronto-area Liberal MPs publicly endorsed the Confederation’s work - Shaun Chen (Scarborough North, ON), Han Dong (Don Valley North, ON) and Majid Jowhari (Richmond Hill, ON).
"'This is but the tip of the iceberg,' said witness Cheuk Kwan at the Commons Ethics committee. 'China’s interference in Canada has been soft, intangible, and gradual. As a result, this build-up over the years remains invisible to many Canadians.' Kwan is a co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China and a filmmaker based in Toronto.
“'Urged on and supported by Chinese consulates, organizations were set up by individuals sympathetic to the regime,' said Kwan. 'Chief among them are the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, NCCC, and its successor, the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations'....
"These and many other proxy organizations practice the art of astroturfing, echoing the party line to defend China’s foreign and domestic policies,' said Kwan. 'In addition to engaging friendly academics and business people to advocate on its behalf, China also spreads its tentacles to cultivate elected officials and infiltrate political institutions at all levels of Canadian society.'
"Kwan testified that innocuous-sounding community groups manipulated by CCP agents 'harass and intimidate Canadians who are critical of China' including activists, dissidents, and human rights advocates. 'You get a phone call in the middle day asking, "So, how are your parents doing back in Sichuan, China?"'... 'Then you get the message,' said Kwan. 'If you don’t behave, your parent's phone numbers, address, or even their physical well-being is under threat. It’s a very subtle threat. They have used this on many, many Chinese Canadians.'
"'How commonly known was this?' asked Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, AB). 'Very commonly known,' replied Kwan. 'We’ve seen a lot of this on the ground. Many of these have not been reported, or if they were reported to local police or the RCMP, they would not be handled.'
"Kwan urged Parliament to enact a Foreign Agents Registration Act mandating disclosure of paid China agents. 'The Chinese-Canadian community and other people welcome this registry,' said Kwan. \This line that setting up a registry is an attack on the Chinese-Canadian community I will not buy. This is a standard line given by the Chinese Communist Party'....
"On Friday, Ng said the cabinet should use caution in enacting a registry of foreign agents. 'We have a great responsibility to ensure that we are not unfairly or unintentionally creating a cloud that hovers over an entire community that is feeling incredibly uncertain and who have felt the discomfort of unconscious bias,' Ng told the media."
When the CEOs of Canada's major grocery chains testified at the parliamentary committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food last week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh sat in o try, but fail, to flame high grocery profits for inflation.
March 10, 2023 - "Galen Weston Jr. ... is one of Canada’s wealthiest people ... he’s charging us far more than we’d like with food inflation at 10 per cent, and his gargantuan company, Loblaw, parent company of outlets such as No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart, makes enormous profits, with $556 million profit in the third quarter alone, up 29 per cent from last year.
"The NDP pushed to get Weston before a parliamentary committee to answer questions. But I reckon that when the two faced off in Ottawa on Wednesday, Singh got far more than he bargained for in the one-two punch of Weston and fellow grocery store executive Michael Medline of Empire/Sobeys.
"Medline pointed out food inflation is happening around the world and is driven by factors such as soaring energy costs. In the last three years, all input costs in food production and distribution have gone up, Medline said, including butter (up 59 per cent), corn oil (140 per cent), wheat (109 per cent) and four (63 per cent for baked goods, and tin (53 per cent) and pulp (45 per cent)....
"When a customer buys $25 in groceries, his company’s profit is just $1, Weston said of Loblaw. 'That means even if the industry had zero profits, a $25 dollar grocery basket would still cost $24. So the claim that Canadian grocers can correct food price inflation is simply wrong.' Other products such as financial services, clothing and, most importantly, pharmaceutical sales make up more than half of Loblaw’s business, Weston said, and they drove its higher profits....
"Singh asked Weston the same pointed question repeatedly. 'We have families that are struggling to buy food for their kids in a G7 country and they look at you and they see you making record profits. How can you justify that?' Singh accused Loblaw of making 'excess profit' of $1 million per day. Loblaw is a big company so the numbers are large, Weston said. 'Reasonable profitability is an important part of operating a successful business. I think a dollar (profit) out of $25 of sales is reasonable.'
"To test the credibility of Singh and Weston’s claims, I went to Prof. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University, who testified previously on food inflation.... It now costs more to ship food, Charlebois said, with unstable energy costs, unstable geo-politics and drought all playing a role. 'It’s a bit bizarre to see people pointing fingers at either a company or a man. Is Galen Weston responsible for Germany’s 20 per cent food inflation rate? I don’t think so.… When I see a guy like Jagmeet Singh attacking the grocers, I just don’t know where he’s coming from.' Canadian grocers have margins of 4.5 to 6.0 per cent on food sales, Charlebois said....
"John Barlow, a Conservative MP from rural Alberta, referenced the expert testimony that inflationary government spending and an uncompetitive tax regime, including the carbon tax, are drivers of food inflation.... Barlow might also have mentioned Singh’s steadfast support of policies that have made energy scarce and expensive, such as the NDP’s dogged opposition to nuclear power and oil and gas production.... This is a root cause of food inflation on a global scale, given how critical our previous low fuel prices were in pushing down input costs. If Singh is in need of a scapegoat for families not being able to feed their kids, he would do well to first look in the mirror."
The debate over the origins of COVID19 distracts from the more important debate, over whether pandemics can or should be "used by the political, expert and medical classes as a pretext for taking our #freedom," argues author John Tamny.
March 10, 2023 - "As seemingly everyone who’s been following the political tragedy that was and is the coronavirus well knows, the Department of Energy now confirms with a low level of confidence that the virus was inadvertently leaked from a lab in China [see video below - gd]. Unsurprisingly, and perhaps understandably, this conclusion has many gloating.... At the same time, this focus on the origins of the virus is a total distraction that politicians, scientists and doctors (including Fauci) have to be loving....
""[T]he virus’s origins really don’t matter. Lest the crowd that has long been properly anti-lockdown forgets, pathogens are as old as mankind is. Since they are, the accenting of where they come from is to completely miss the point. Instead, the always and everywhere expressed view should be that [this] reality should not be used by the political, expert and medical classes as a pretext for taking our freedom. Freedom is precious, and authoritarians can’t have it regardless of a pathogen’s origin or its presumed lethality.
"Indeed, while even the New York Times reported with great consistency in 2020 that the virus in a death sense was most associated with very sick, very old people in nursing homes, the accent on the previous truth by the anti-lockdown crowd similarly missed the point. And it missed the point dangerously. That is so because a focus on statistics or anecdote as a reason for not locking us down is to suggest that if the coronavirus or some future pathogen were truly lethal, politicians would have the right to lock us down.
"No thanks, which is once again why this focus on what the New York Times acknowledged way back when, what the CDC routinely acknowledged about those dying with the virus (remember 'comorbidities'?) since 2020, and what the DoE softly concludes right now is such a mistaken way to fight the battle. It is because it puts such a low price tag on freedom. Almost as bad, it hands the argument to those who have a need to trample on the rights of others. Think about it. As I argued in my 2021 book When Politicians Panicked, the more lethal any virus is the more that political action is wholly superfluous. If a virus is killing indiscriminately who among us seriously needs to be forced to be careful?
"Ok, but what if we don’t know the lethality of a spreading virus? Freedom is the answer once again. It’s precisely when fear is greatest and knowledge is least evident that freedom becomes most crucial. Indeed, free people do more than produce the economic resources that scientists and doctors require to come up with cures for what might be harmful or lethal. Equally important, free people produce information. By making different choices amid a spreading virus, free people teach us what behavior is most associated with sickness, death, or neither. In other words, lockdowns don’t protect us; rather they threaten our health by concealing essential information.
"Please think about this with what happened in 2020 top of mind. By locking us down, politicians and experts didn’t just wreck businesses, jobs, and living as we knew it up until then; they also blinded us to how to best deal with a spreading virus that they claimed was a huge threat to us. In that case, thank goodness the virus wasn’t remotely lethal for the vast majority of us.
"Still, the lockdowns were tragic. That they correlated with increased depression, alcoholism, job loss, business failure, and reduced classroom learning is a known and horrid quantity. Worse, and as logic would dictate, all this force logically didn’t improve our well-being or save lives. The taking of freedom never does.
"In which case, let’s not compound the errors of the past by focusing on the origin of the virus leak. Once again, viruses are a part of life, thus making origin irrelevant. Much worse, this focus on what’s irrelevant is exactly what the politicians and experts want us to do. If we waste time worrying about the where, we forget what the political and expert class did to us not too long ago.
"In short, the lockdowns were the true tragedy of 2020 and beyond, not something that is old as mankind. Let’s please not change the subject from what really mattered then, and matters now."
February 28, 2018 - "Back in the summer of 2006, Pierre Trudeau’s youngest son, Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau wrote a fawning happy 80th birthday column in the Toronto Star in praise of then Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.... Castro, Trudeau claimed, was 'an expert on genetics, on automobile combustion engines, on stock markets, on everything'. Alexandre pressed upon his readers ... to think of Cubans as children and Castro their father. Trudeau then fondly recalled his late brother, Michel, who when they were young kids complained to their mother that he had fewer friends than his brothers. Margaret Trudeau replied that unlike his brothers, Michel 'had the greatest friend of all: he had Fidel.'
"I thought of Alexandre Trudeau’s fawning 2006 tribute recently given it was 10 years ago this month that Fidel Castro resigned.... But the anniversary also brings to mind Alexandre Trudeau’s brother — the prime minister, and his weird, fantasy belief that another autocracy, China, is somehow efficient on economic and environmental matters.... Having a soft spot for tyrants prompts multiple blind spots, whether on democracy, the economy or, more recently, on the environment. All have been on display in the Trudeau family’s ongoing infatuation with tyrannies and autocracies.... [I]n the comments from Alexandre, Margaret and Justin Trudeau ... [w]e see evidence of the Trudeau family’s long love affair with the world’s autocrats and tyrants. But the problem started with Pierre.
"Bob Plamondon, author of a 2013 biography of Pierre Trudeau recounts how Trudeau the Elder visited the Soviet Union in 1952 to discuss economics, this accompanied by four Canadian communists. 'It was there that he remarked to the wife of U.S. chargé d’affaires that he was a communist and a Catholic and was in Moscow to criticize the U.S. and praise the Soviet Union,” Plamondon writes....
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau meets Mao Zedong in Beijing, 1973. Credit: Government of Canada.
"Similarly, in 1960, Trudeau accepted an invitation from the Chinese government to visit along with Jacques Hébert, a friend whom Trudeau would appoint to the Senate. They travelled around China for six weeks on a state-sponsored tour.
"And they did so smack dab in the middle of a wrenching state-imposed famine courtesy of Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward 'reforms', which began in 1958 and would last until 1962 ... [and] would take the lives of 'somewhere between 20 million and 42 million people' as French authors Jean-Louis Margolin and Pierre Rigoulot recounted in the Black Book of Communism.....
"[T]he father and son Trudeau approach to China then and now is revealing.... Canadians, then as now, are treated to an over-eager approach which mirrors Justin’s father’s mindset and reveal his enduring influence on his son.... As an example, from economics and the environment, recall Justin Trudeau’s unguarded comments made in 2013, where he expressed 'a level of admiration I actually have for China' with his reasoning that 'their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say "we need to go green fastest, we need to start investing in solar"'....
"These comments reveal a modern Trudeau fascination with autocracies; in particular, the notion that China’s severely polluted environment can be helped by central, top-down planning from Beijing. Beijing can announce all the windmills and solar panels it wants. But recall the politically-centralized model in existence since Mao which forestalls the political consequences of issues (pollution in China today as a severe example), which would explode in a liberal democracy.
"The very Chinese model of governance, which represses dissent, was not only unsuited to economic growth before the 1979 reforms by Deng Xiaoping, it has been deadly to Chinese health. That’s because public pressure cannot swap sub-par politicians out for accountable ones. In an economy of state-owned companies, no one is responsible for pollution, or to enforce pollution laws in the private sector.... In China, public pressure at the ballot box and even by consumers is either nonexistent or feeble. And Chinese government statistics are unreliable, a fact which additionally complicates environmental reform. Anyone, including the prime minister, who thinks China has an effective or enlightened policy on the environment is unaware or blithely ignoring just how corrupt, ineffective and inefficient autocracies are....
"The father-son reunion on China is not mysterious. Nor are their basic flawed assumptions about how political power can solve all problems if only the rulers somehow have enough control. The Trudeau family’s dewy-eyed approach to tyrants has always been unfortunate. Their family-tyrant friends were economically illiterate and, just as often, deadly to their own populations. Central planning was of no use and was of much harm to Russians, Chinese and Cubans.
"The elder Trudeau’s acolytes always thought of him as a 'philosopher king' — that he knew better than markets and ordinary mortals and business owners how to manage the economy efficiently from the top down. His son has imbibed the same conceit. Justin has continued in that tradition in his own political life, with his fawning Castro comments and his weird China-worship on environmental matters."
