What Can You Believe Anymore? Not So Much Apparently

In my persistent quest for the truth, I have been persuaded that

almost nothing is ever as it seems anymore.

In today's news from Dubai comes a report of a man from Kerala, India, who applied on a mechanical engineering job in the Gulf State. The email he received from his prospective employer was astonishing for its candidness. It has since gone viral:

Gulf News - Shaheen Bagh is the epicentre of ongoing mass demonstrations against India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

The act makes it more difficult for Muslims to become citizens of India:

The Shaheen Bagh protest is an ongoing 24/7 sit-in peaceful protest, led by women, that began with the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in both houses of Parliament on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment. Mainly Muslim women, the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 15 December 2019, have blocked a major highway[a] in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 43 days now as of 26 January 2020. It has now become the longest ongoing continuous protest against CAA-NRC-NPR. -Wikipedia

Abdulla S.S., 23, who had applied for a mechanical engineer’s position in Dubai said he is still reeling from the shock of the email he got from UAE-based Indian expat Jayant Gokhale in response to his job application last week.

Rs 1000 is about $14 USD; free food and tea, sweets, are a pretty tempting offer especially for an unemployed Indian. 

The question is: 'is this going on elsewhere, or is it a one-off event?'  

This week in Vancouver, the extradition trial of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Hauwei, and the daughter of the founder of the spectacularly successful Chinese telecom company, got underway with a couple dozen protesters at the courts to support Meng. 

It turns out that they were hired to be there and, at least some, didn't know why they were even there until the last minute. 

Some of the participants have since alleged they were paid to take part in the protest.

Ken Bonson told the Star a friend recruited her and later deposited $150 into her account. At the courthouse, a woman she had never met before named “Joey” supplied them with posters, Bonson said. After learning more about Meng and the allegations against her, Bonson said she wished she had never taken part and felt “ashamed and embarrassed.” The Star has since spoken to the friend, who denies being paid or paying anyone to take part in the protest. The man refused to go on record for an interview. He said he did not know anyone named “Joey.”

Julia Hackstaff, an actor, wrote on Facebook that she was the victim of a “filthy cheap scam.” She said someone had contacted her Sunday evening asking if she wanted to be a background performer in a production for $100. When she arrived, she said, she received ambiguous instructions to hold a sign. When reporters approached the group and started asking questions, she thought it was all part of the production but quickly realized “everything was ‘too real.’

“I left after 5 minutes of being there.” - The Star

Another reason to suspect protests.

There is no reason to suspect the greatest protest of the 21st century - the Yellow Vest protest in France that has been going on for almost a year and a half, but, it might be worth investigating anyway.

But, perhaps the most disturbing example of paid protesting has to do with indigenous people of British Columbia and Alberta being used as pawns by American environmentalists, some of whom are sponsored by David Rockefeller (The Rockefellers were founders and owners of Standard Oil), to isolate Alberta oil and gas and keep it from reaching tidewater. This ensures Americans can buy it at ultra cheap prices, and they can't take markets that might otherwise be open to American oil and gas.

A left-wing lobby group in San Francisco wired $55,000 to the bank account of an Indian chief in Northern Alberta, paying him to oppose the oilsands.

The same IRS disclosure shows Tides Foundation (started by philanthropist Drummond Pike) made 25 different payments to Canadian anti-oilsands activists in a single year, totaling well over a million dollars. And that’s just one U.S. lobby group. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund out of New York, spends $7 million a year in Canada, with an explicit campaign strategy of fomenting Aboriginal unrest, through protests and lawsuits. - Toronto Sun    Alberta's Oil Not the Only Thing That's Dirty

The Rockefellers are known as great philanthropists, and they were. However, one has to wonder how much of their philanthropy was self-serving. 

Drummond Pike, started Tides Foundation, then Tides Center, then Tides Canada. Much of Pike's work was involved in supporting progressive politicians in both Canada and the  USA:

Pike along with George Soros and other Democracy Alliance members John R. Hunting; Paul Rudd (co-founder of Adaptive Analytics); Pat Stryker; Nicholas Hanauer; ex-Clinton administration official Rob Stein; Gail Furman; real estate developer Robert Bowditch; Pioneer Hybrid International-heir and congressional candidate Scott Wallace; Susie Tompkins Buell; real estate developer Albert Dwoskin; and Taco Bell-heir Rob McKay, funded the Secretary of State Project, an American non-profit, 527 political action committee focused on electing reform-minded progressive Secretaries of State in battleground states, who typically oversee the election process. The Alliance was critical in getting California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie re-elected. - Wikipedia

See also:

Talk About ‘Collusion’: How Foreign-Backed Anti-Oil Activists Infiltrated Canada’s Government   Or, how wealthy American environmentalists bought the Canadian government and destroyed Alberta's Oil Sands industry

How America is Strangling the Canadian Oil Industry, and We're Helping Them

Anti-pipeline campaign was planned, intended, and foreign-funded: Vivian Krause

This First Nations Woman Refuses to Let Ottawa Help Hide Her Band's Finances

Charmaine Stick won her court case to force Onion Lake Cree Nation to make public the finances of the chief and band council

Charmaine Stick of the Onion Lake Cree Nation.Screen grab

Special to Financial Post
By Todd MacKay

It’s a bit odd for a happy dance to break out after a court ruling about financial reporting, but when Charmaine Stick got the decision from her lawyer, she held hands with her kids and did a little jig.

“This is a victory for all First Nations people out there who’ve been fighting for transparency and accountability,” said Charmaine. “In our culture, you know transparency and accountability is first and foremost, especially when you’re in leadership.”

Onion Lake Cree Nation was given 30 days to publish financial disclosures online as required by The First Nations Financial Transparency Act, according to a Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench ruling released on June 15. The band’s lawyers are appealing, but Charmaine is confident that the decision will stand. She will then find out how much her chief and council are paid and what’s happening with her community’s finances. The ruling came after Charmaine partnered with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation to launch the court application last fall.

The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is simple: It requires First Nations to publish salaries and expenses for chief and council as well as basic financial documents online — the kind of information the rest of us can get with a Google search. The overwhelming majority of First Nations follow the law, but Onion Lake is one of six bands that have never complied. The previous Conservative government withheld non-essential funding from those bands, but the new Liberal government suspended all enforcement. 

Charmaine’s victory enforces the legislation and for her it’s a very personal victory. The stay-at-home mom went on a 13-day hunger strike to demand accountability from her leaders during the summer of 2014. They told her she’d never get anywhere. She now has judicial validation.

The most fascinating parts of this ruling are the arguments Onion Lake left out. Rather than contesting matters of fact, Onion Lake asked the court to stay Charmaine’s application until other court proceedings conclude. Justice B.A. Barrington-Foote rejected the stay application.

The minister can leave grassroots citizens like Charmaine to ask courts to enforce the law, while the government does nothing, or she can help

“There is no evidence before me as to the political or economic reasons why Onion Lake has refused to provide and post the specified information,” he wrote.

Opponents of The First Nations Financial Transparency Act often raise vague concerns that transparency causes economic harm, but hundreds of First Nations communities have disclosed that information and it’s obvious those fears are unfounded.

Another omission was even more conspicuous by its absence.

“Curiously, Onion Lake did not defend this application on the basis of the constitutional issues,” wrote Barrington-Foote.

In earlier legal battles, Onion Lake argued The First Nations Financial Transparency Act is unconstitutional. However, it failed to raise those arguments in relation to Charmaine’s application. In fact, those arguments have been on hold.

“Despite the passage of almost two and a half years since the action was commenced (by Onion Lake to challenge the constitutionality of the act), discoveries have not yet been scheduled,” wrote Justice Barrington-Foote.

It seems Onion Lake raised constitutional arguments as stalling tactics.

Charmaine’s victory puts pressure on Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett. The minister can leave grassroots citizens to ask the courts to enforce the legislation while the government does nothing. She can weaken the legislation to darken this newfound transparency. Or she can enforce the legislation and strengthen it with new protections such as an auditor general for First Nations communities.

But for Charmaine, future legal and political struggles can wait, because right now she’s celebrating, along with grassroots First Nations people across Canada.

Way to go Charmaine. You're a hero.