Corruption is Everywhere > Even in Trudeau's Ottawa, or is it, 'especially' in Trudeau's Ottawa

 

House of Commons grinds to halt over

 allegations of Liberal ‘corruption’

By Laura Osman and Alessia Passafiume  The Canadian Press

Posted October 3, 2024 4:11 pm

 Updated October 4, 2024 9:33 am

 5 min read

The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that’s the result of Liberal “corruption.”

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said the governing party would rather see the House bogged down in debate than produce documents related to misspent government dollars in a program his party has dubbed the “green slush fund.”

House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government “clearly did not fully comply” with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.

The House has been seized with a debate on the issue ever since and Scheer said it will stay that way until the government agrees to hand over the documents to police.

“They’re willing to have Parliament ground to a halt rather than hand over this information to the RCMP for a potential criminal investigation,” Scheer said in an interview Thursday.

The RCMP told MPs this summer they likely would not be able to use the documents as part of an investigation, but Scheer said they should have access to all the information before they decide.

1:54

Liberals reject Bloc’s old age security motion to increase payments to seniors

The Liberals claimed that ordering the production of documents to be handed over to the RCMP blurs the lines between Parliament and the judiciary, and blame Conservatives for the dysfunction in the House.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould called the request for the documents an abuse of Parliament’s power that tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians.

“Let’s be very clear, this is the Conservatives trying to muck up Parliament,” Gould said Thursday.

“Conservative members of Parliament are here for their own political, personal objectives and they don’t care what they do to Canadians in the meantime, and that is something that should be extremely alarming to all of us.”

Scheer said the Charter exists “to protect the people from the government. It is not there to protect the government from accountability by the people.”

A similar dispute over government documents played out when the Conservatives were on the governing side of the aisle during a minority government dispute more than a decade ago.

In 2009, the House ordered the government to disclose unredacted documents related to Canada’s role in the torture of Afghan detainees.

A few weeks after opposition parties passed a motion demanding the documents be produced, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for several months, preventing the House committee from pursuing the issue.

3:09

Liberals, Conservatives trade allegations of corruption: ‘Lining her own pockets’

In this case, the Liberal government abolished Sustainable Development Technology Canada after the auditor general released a scathing report about the organization’s management last spring.

Of the projects she looked at, one in every six that received funding were ineligible. The auditor’s report also found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest polices were violated.

A month later, the ethics commissioner concluded that the former chair of the foundation failed to recuse herself from decisions that benefited organizations to which she had ties.

'Banging on the desk'

The House has been in a state of almost constant turmoil since the MPs returned to Ottawa in mid-September.

The Conservatives have made two attempts to topple the minority government with non-confidence motions. Though both attempts failed to win the support of other opposition parties, the Conservatives promise there will be more such votes to come.

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet decried a “lack of respect for democracy” in the chamber during an unrelated press conference on Thursday in Chicoutimi, Que.

Blanchet claimed Bloc MPs are among the few in Parliament asking thoughtful questions instead of “spouting slogans and banging on the desk,” like other parties in the House.

“They are proud to have repeated the same thing that they’ve repeated 60 times in the last 60 days,” he said in French.

“Refusing to answer questions, when there are real ones, is no more respectful of voters.”

1:15

Liberals say they’ll co-operate with ArriveCan investigation as Conservatives probe for answers

Among the few votes that have gone ahead this week was a Bloc Québécois motion to push the government to support its pension bill for seniors under the age of 75, a change that would cost more than $3 billion a year.

Though the Conservatives have criticized what they call politically motivated inflationary spending, they threw their support behind the bill.

Scheer did not respond to a question about why the party supported the motion.

The Conservative critic for seniors, Anna Roberts, said in a statement that the government’s inflationary spending has “increased the cost of groceries and gas and put added strain on Canadian families and seniors on fixed incomes.”

Ethics questions for Carney appointment

The Conservatives have also asked Canada’s lobbying commissioner to investigate whether it violates ethics rules for the prime minister to make Mark Carney a Liberal adviser.

The Liberals announced at their recent caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., that Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, had been appointed chair of a task force on economic growth.

They said Carney will help shape the party’s policies for the next election, and will report to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal platform committee.

2:33

Conservatives say Freeland being ‘shoved aside’ by Liberals for Mark Carney

Tory ethics critic Michael Barrett said in a letter to the commissioner that Carney is not registered to lobby federally, but his corporate positions put him in several potential conflicts of interest.

“How could any ministerial staff member, member of Parliament or cabinet minister not feel a sense of obligation to Mr. Carney because of his close affiliation with the prime minister and minister of finance?” Barrett asked in his letter Thursday.

Carney is also the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions.

When asked about Carney’s potential conflict of interest in the House, Health Minister Mark Holland accused the Conservatives of trying to “smear” a Canadian who is renowned around the world.

Canadian Convulsions > Inquiry into Trudeau's invoking Emergencies Act against Truckers - Have you ever heard so much BS?

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This report is from CBC which is Justin Trudeau's biggest fan. Despite criminal behaviour on a few occasions, embarrassing behaviour on a few other occasions, and very questionable decisions (like refusing to name the 11 MPs who were financed by China in the last elections), the CBC has never found any cause to criticize Trudeau. In fact, they very rarely even ask him real questions. I have a few questions which you will find in the report below.

Trudeau's national security adviser felt convoy protest posed

'a threat to democracy:' documents

This is CBC's headline and it is obvious that they are trying to justify Trudeau's use of the Emergencies Act which his father, Pierre Trudeau, also used in 1970. "'How far will you go', Trudeau the senior was asked".  "Just watch me," he replied.

Catharine Tunney · 

CBC News · 

Posted: Nov 15, 2022 10:52 AM ET | 

Inquiry into use of Emergencies Act underway in Ottawa

The history-making Public Order Emergency Commission, which is reviewing the federal government's use of emergency powers last winter, is hearing testimony in Ottawa. The inquiry is expected to last six weeks.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national security and intelligence adviser believed that the convey protesters posed a "threat to democracy," according to a document tabled at the Emergencies Act inquiry.

The comments offer a glimpse of the advice cabinet was receiving as it invoked the Emergencies Act for the very first time in the legislation's history to end the convoy protests that blocked two trade corridors and gridlocked downtown Ottawa last winter.

In an email presented at the Public Order Emergency Commission Tuesday, Jody Thomas, Trudeau's national security intelligence adviser, writes that she's looking for a threat assessment.

No-one has actually heard of Jody Thomas before today. What are her credentials?

The email was sent just before noon on Feb. 14 - the day the government announced it was invoking the Emergencies Act and around the time the prime minister was briefing premiers.

The timing here is critical, and so is the content of what Trudeau was briefing the premiers. CBC didn't ask those questions. Was Trudeau looking for advice, or had he already made up his mind and was looking for justification?

"The characters involved. The weapons. The motivation. Clearly this isn't just COVID and is a threat to democracy and rule of law," wrote Thomas, whose title is often shortened to 'NSIA'.

"Could I get an assessment please … It's a very short fuse."

Workers use heavy equipment to remove temporary fencing and supplies from the Parliament Hill area

in Ottawa, Feb. 23, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

A few minutes later, Thomas wrote an email to senior government officials warning that "this is about a national threat to national interest and institutions.

"By people who do not care about or understand democracy. Who are preparing to be violent. Who are motivated by anti-government sentiment."

These are astonishing assumptions Thomas made in 'a few minutes.' How did she know what level of democratic literacy the truckers and their supporters possessed? Is her assumption based on the fact that the caravan started in Alberta? Are all Albertans incapable of understanding government?

How did she know that they were preparing to be violent? In the weeks-long protest, there were hardly any incidents of violence. No one challenged the police at any time.

She may be correct that the motivation was largely anti-government, but, on the other hand, the truckers went to Ottawa to talk to the government, not to overthrow them. No one from the government ever actually talked to the truckers except the Ottawa Police who had worked out an agreement with the truckers. That agreement was replaced by the Emergencies Act. The Ottawa Police Chief, Peter Sloly, resigned the very next day.

The motivation was to change some of the remarkably stupid policies that the government had enacted. 

CSIS didn't feel convoy protests constituted a national security threat under the law: documents

Proposed meeting between federal representatives, protesters was unlikely to work, public servant says

The request for a threat assessment made its way to the RCMP's Adriana Poloz, executive director of intelligence and international policing.

Her assessment said that ideologically motivated violent extremism "adherents" had been linked to the convoy. She pointed to a Three Percenters flag spotted on a truck taking part in the Ottawa protest and said that Diagolon members also attended that protest.

The Three Percenters are members of a listed terrorist entity in Canada. While members of the Diagolon online community claim the organization is satirical, the RCMP's assessment said prominent members have "espoused increasingly violent rhetoric opposing vaccine mandates."

The report also noted that the majority of protesters had been peaceful.

I don't know anyone who has ever heard of The Three Percenters or Diagolon, and I have my ear pretty close to the ground on things like this. But one flag, seen once, on one truck, does not a rebellion make.

RCMP questioned on chain of command

Commission lawyer Gordon Cameron raised the emails Tuesday as part of his questions to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Deputy Commissioner Michael Duheme.

"How does it happen that when the NSIA wants a security threat [analysis], it doesn't go through one of you, but goes directly to somebody in an intelligence directorate that frankly none of us had seen before we saw this email?" he asked.

For the significance of this, let me relate a story that preceeded the Iraq war. Looking for a reason to invade Iraq, Dick Cheney called a CIA agent who was writing a report on Iraq. Cheney told her to include Weapons of Mass Destruction in her report. Credit the agent - she told Cheney that it was illegal for him to call her directly and told him to call her boss.

The report, God bless her, did not include any mention of WMDs, however, Cheney had the report rerouted directly to himself where he modified the report to include WMDs which then justified Americas attack on Iraq. 150,000 civilians were killed in that war. 

This was the work of Deep State, and it kept weapons inventories moving for 8 years. 

It's a well-known philosophy in the government that 'It's a lot easier to get forgiveness than permission'. I confess I have used that myself in my Public Service career.

Duheme said that while it isn't ideal, sometimes people in government reach out for information directly if they have a relationship with the person providing it.

Another astonishing statement! It hints very loudly, that Thomas had some relationship with Poloz. Does that mean that she knew Poloz would say exactly what Thomas wanted her to say? Remember the timing here - it took only a few minutes for Thomas to make up her mind, which would suggest that Poloz responded almost instantly.

Cameron pointed out that the NSIA was advising government on whether to use extraordinary emergency powers 

"This was a very time-pressured situation. It might be understandable that corners were cut or direct contact was used," said Cameron.

"Were you alert to the fact this was a threat assessment going from your people to the Privy Council Office in connection with the invocation of the Emergencies Act?"

Duheme said he wasn't sure if he was briefed beforehand and said it's possible Poloz's response to Thomas relied on assessments the RCMP had written already.

Answers that lack a great deal of confidence.

Brendan Miller, a lawyer for some convoy organizers, asked Rob Stewart, the deputy minister of the federal Public Safety department during the protests, about the advice the federal cabinet was getting about the convoy at the time.

Miller showed Stewart a document that showed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) didn't believe the self-styled Freedom Convoy constituted a threat to national security, according to the definition in its enabling law.

CSIS didn't see convoy as a threat: docs

The document, a summary of an interview CSIS Director David Vigneault gave the commission, showed the intelligence agency had concerns about invoking the Emergencies Act.

"[Vigneault] felt an obligation to clearly convey the service's position that there did not exist a threat to the security of Canada as defined by the service's legal mandate," said the document.

Stewart said the government would have a broader interpretation of what constitutes a national security threat.

And yet, did the government's broader definition actually fall within CSIS's more narrow definition?

Jody Thomas, national security and intelligence advisor to the prime minister, arrives at the west block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

"The cabinet is making that decision and their interpretation of the law is what governs here," said Stewart.

"And their decision was, evidently, the threshold was met."

"You have the RCMP, you have CSIS, you have the entire intelligence apparatus in the federal government and none of them said that this threshold was met, did they?" Miller asked Stewart.

"They weren't asked," Stewart said.

OMG!  You can't be serious! The RCMP, CSIS, Ottawa Police, were not asked, but the advice of one obscure woman who appears to have talked very briefly to a friend as accepted carte blanche. That, in itself, should be enough to dump Trudeau.

The Public Order Emergency Commission is assessing whether the federal government met the legal threshold to invoke the Emergencies Act to clear Ottawa of protesters last winter.

Under the Emergencies Act, a public order emergency "arises from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national emergency." 

The act refers to CSIS's definition of threats, including serious violence against persons or property, espionage, foreign interference or an intent to overthrow the government by violence.

Unlike the 1970 October 'crisis', there were no murders, no kidnappings, no bombs exploding and no government was ever in danger of being overthrown.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme looks on as Commissioner Brenda Lucki responds to a question as they appear as witnesses at the Public Order Emergency Commission, Tuesday, November 15, 2022 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited issues with police enforcement when he announced his decision.

"It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law," he told a news conference. 

Ottawa Police Chief Sloly said the situation was under control. 

Under the Emergencies Act, a national emergency is "an urgent, temporary and critical situation that seriously endangers the health and safety of Canadians that cannot be effectively dealt with by the provinces or territories."

"It must be a situation that cannot be effectively dealt with by any other law of Canada."

Lucki and Duheme said they quickly became worried that the Ottawa police did not have a plan to end the convoy protest that occupied the capital last winter.

The pair also sat for an interview with commission lawyers in September. A summary of that conversation was entered into evidence Tuesday. 

During that interview, Lucki said the RCMP became concerned during the week of Jan. 31 —  the week after the first weekend of protest — that the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) did not have an overall operational plan to end the occupation of Ottawa.

But they did have a plan to manage the occupation, a plan that was trashed by the Emergencies Act.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki details concerns with Ottawa Police Service resources during the convoy protests as she testifies at the Emergencies Act Inquiry.

Both Mounties said they needed to see a plan before committing more resources to Ottawa as similar anti-COVID-19 restrictions protests began to sprout in Western Canada and at the Windsor, Ont., border crossing. 

Duheme told the commission lawyers that he joined a call with Ottawa officers on Jan. 31, where OPS indicated it wanted to launch an aggressive enforcement operation from Feb. 3-6.

"Duheme said he felt that OPS lacked the resources to conduct these operations and had neither the resources nor the plans to sustain them over the long term," said the interview summary.

"Lucki became concerned that OPS lacked a plan to use the RCMP and OPP resources that were then assisting OPS."

Lucki and Duheme said they never saw an overall operational plan prepared by the Ottawa police.

"It was not clear to them whether OPS lacked such a plan or was unwilling to share it with the RCMP," said their interview summary.

Wouldn''t you think they should know the answer to that?

Lucki also said it would have been inappropriate for her to interfere in Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly's planning and intelligence assessment processes.

It has been my contention right from the time Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act that his response was like that of a frightened little boy. This happens when a control freak loses control.

Climate Change > The Private Jet Hypocrisy - Pelosi & Kerry; The insanity of electrifying Ottawa's transportation

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Nancy Pelosi has spent nearly $500,000 on PRIVATE JETS

since 2020 despite claiming climate change is an

'existential threat' we have a 'moral obligation to protect

By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

PUBLISHED:  13:33 EST, 7 February 2022

Nancy Pelosi spent nearly $500,000 on private jet travel since 2020 despite its notoriously bad environmental impact and her insistence that the U.S. has a 'moral' obligation to address climate change.

Campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission show Pelosi's campaign paid the Virginia-based Advanced Aviation Team $423,707 between October 2020 and December 2021. Her campaign paid another $65,457 to California-based private jet provider Clay Lacy Aviation in January 2021.

The House Speaker has described climate change as an 'existential' threat and has even suggested, to the criticism of others, that the issue is more important than China's human rights abuses.

'Climate is an overriding issue, and China is a leading emitter in the world,' Pelosi said in September.

The Democratic National Committee has also voiced commitment to addressing climate change while spending hundreds of thousands to Advanced Aviation Team in recent years.

Pelosi led a 21-member congressional delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November where she said her commitment to addressing climate change comes down to her beliefs as a devout Catholic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's campaign spent $489,164 on private jets from October 2020-December 2021

despite claiming climate change is an 'existential' threat and jet use being notoriously bad for the environment

'For me, it's a religious thing,' the California Democrat said just three months after spending $67,604.93 on private air travel.

'I believe this is God's creation, and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards,' she told the crowd at the conference.

Private jets produce a significantly higher amount of emissions per passenger than commercial flights, leading environmentalists to criticize its continued use.

Pelosi is also facing controversy for opposing rules that prevent lawmakers and their families from trading in the stock market after it was revealed her husband, Paul, traded millions just days after her comments.

Biden's climate czar John Kerry has also come under fire for his use of private air travel after the administration vowed to make climate change a key priority.

She has also been called out of touch after flaunting her freezer full of high-end ice cream during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when families were relying on government relief checks amid lockdowns and layoffs. 

Kerry ironically took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership.

He said in an interview at the time that his mode of transportation is 'the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.'

Fox News calculated in August 2021 that Kerry's family jet emitted around 30 times more carbon in seven months than the average vehicle does in a full year.

Biden's 2020 presidential campaign spent more than $15 million on private air travel. 

The feeling of power and privilege that comes from flying in your own jet, whether owned or rented, must be overwhelming for the ego. 

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A Canadian city’s economic suicide to (not) avoid climate change

By Tom Harris, Dr. Jay Lehr |

February 14th, 2022|

The Rideau Canal, Ottawa

When we began this series of articles about the insanity of the Ottawa government’s efforts to attempt to save the world from global warming, many of our readers might have had difficulty locating Canada’s capital city on a map. Now everybody knows a lot about Ottawa as its tyrannical government lead by the ultimate Marxist Justin Trudeau has been in your daily news as a result of thousands of courageous truckers demonstrating over their loss of many of their freedoms. Hopefully, these demonstrations will set back the government in their plan to destroy their city’s economy on the way to replacing all the use of fossil fuels with hundreds of wind turbines throughout this relatively small area city of one million residents.

As you read more about the city government’s plan described in part below you will wonder, as we have, how politicians can be so idiotically harmful to the people they represent.

Electrifying Transportation

A major part of the City of Ottawa’s net-zero by 2050 plans involves electrifying its entire transportation system, both public and private.

On the public side, the City will spend $1 billion to roll out 450 new 40-foot battery-powered buses over 5 years (by 2027) and transition to a “fully zero emission bus fleet by 2036.” This will present huge problems for riders. Electric buses, which cost twice as much as diesel-powered buses, have a record of higher breakdowns and reduced range in winter weather. Therefore, the City would have to establish recharging depots throughout Ottawa, at great cost.

Most electric buses are powered by a lithium-ion battery. In addition to the large production and transport costs for the batteries is a sensitivity to temperature that makes using electric buses in cold weather challenging. For example, a change from about 10 degrees Celsius to about minus 6 degrees Celsius decreases electric bus range up to 38%. During this past winter, in Berlin, Germany, 23 electric buses broke down in the cold due to the batteries giving out. They had to be quickly replaced with other buses, often internal combustion engine-driven buses. At –10 degrees Celsius, Berlin’s electric buses were supposed to have a range of 130 km, but the batteries ran out halfway through their journeys. And Ottawa is much colder than Berlin.

Consequently, our (our senior author is a resident of Ottawa) transition to electric buses will jeopardize reliability, stranding commuters in our coldest weather. Moreover, bus batteries take two and a half to six hours to fully charge, with each charge only taking the bus about 200 km under optimal conditions. Steep hills, heavy loads and rough surfaces make them even more inefficient. On December 3, 2021, the City of Ottawa’s Auditor General committed to conducting an audit of the electric bus plans to be reported on in 2022. She has plenty to consider.

The City also intends to oversee complete electrification of personal vehicles in the City. Electric vehicles represent only about 1% of the vehicle stock in Ottawa today. There are good reasons for this.

The most obvious is that they are far less convenient and less useful than cars powered by internal combustion engines. ICSC-Canada board member New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland explained why:

“When the Model T came out, it was a dramatic improvement on the horse and carriage. The electric car is a step backwards into the equivalence of an ordinary car with a tiny petrol tank that takes half an hour to fill. It offers nothing in convenience.“

Leyland also describes why installing electric car charging stations in the city is impractical:

“If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes. If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say its 30 minutes. So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six. Where are you going to find the place to put them?”

Like the buses, electric cars are also costly. On April 13, 2021, the Canadian House of Commons environment committee published “The Road Ahead: Encouraging The Production And Purchase Of Zero Emission Vehicles In Canada,” a report in which they concluded that replacing gas vehicles with electric cars would be too expensive for most Canadians. “Higher battery costs were the main cause of the higher price for consumers” the committee said.

And besides the fact that electric cars have poor low temperature performance, there are also serious safety issues. The Bolt, an electric vehicle sold in North America by General Motors, has been tied to at least nine fires since early 2020, and Hyundai’s electric vehicles have been tied to at least 15 fires. We are also starting to occasionally see Teslas burst into flames, one as recent as November 2021 when the fire spread to the nearby garage of the owner’s home.

The cause of the electric vehicle fires is their lithium-ion batteries. These batteries burn fiercely, and in addition to the fire and heat danger, are extreme toxic fluoride gas emissions. These fumes are especially dangerous in confined environments. Since lithium-ion fires are a chemical reaction, they can only be cooled rather than extinguished and can end up burning for several days.

According to the Austin, Texas Fire Department Division Chief Thayer Smith, it takes 200 to 1,000 gallons of water to put out a typical gasoline fire while this can increase to 30,000 – 40,000 gallons of water for an EV fire. After severe damage to a parking structure in Germany, all lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery based electric vehicles have been banned from parking underground. Will the City of Ottawa have to close all underground parking garages if they go to all electric vehicles?

Concerns are also being raised around the world that widespread use of EVs will result in serious electricity shortages in the rest of society. Put simply, the grid and infrastructure just aren’t there to support the electrification of the private car fleet. For example, Toyota president Akio Toyoda warned on December 16th that Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. Robert Wimmer, Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research testified before the U.S. Senate in March 2021 and said, “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”

Of course, the reason the City wants to electrify its transportation system is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and protect the environment. But California engineer Ron Stein, co-author of the newly released book, Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping citizens understand the environmental and humanity abuses that support ‘clean’ energy, explains that, when one counts the emissions produced when generating the electricity to power the vehicles as well as the mining, material processing, manufacturing and transportation involved in making the vehicles, especially their very energy intensive batteries, there really is no significant emissions saving.

Stein and co-author Todd Royal also explain that lithium-based electric vehicle batteries rely on a mix of rare earth metals and cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite that require massive amounts of energy to mine, transport, process and refine, far greater than the extraction and transport of oil and natural gas. Mining and mineral processing also require large volumes of water and can pose contamination risks from mine drainage and wastewater discharge.

When mining rare earth metals, about 90% of what is pulled up from the ground contains uranium, thorium and other radioactive nuclides. This radioactive waste can pose serious risks if it is not properly disposed of. In China, for example, champion of rare metals, in Heilongjiang province, a carpet of toxic dust covers agricultural regions. And, of course, China controls most of the lithium and cobalt, which are often produced with child labor and near-slave labor, with practically no health, safety or environmental safeguards. Even the CBC reports that “there have been mass fish kills related to lithium mining in Tibet.”

ICSC-Canada Economics/Policy Advisor Robert Lyman explained:

“A recent United Nations report warned that the raw materials used in EV batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental, labor and safety regulations are weak or non-existent. ‘Artisanal’ cobalt production [cobalt is crucially important for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries] in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral. Many of the mines employ child labor in extremely dangerous tasks. Up to 40,000 children [some as young as 4-years old] are estimated to be working in extremely dangerous conditions, with inadequate safety equipment, for very little money in the mines in Southern Katanga. The children are exposed to multiple physical risks and psychological violations and abuse, only to earn a meager income to support their families.”

Why would Canada’s national capital or any other city want to deploy a transportation system that is costly, unreliable and based on minerals and metals which are mostly limited to environmentally negligent human rights abusers such as China, Russia, the Congo and the lithium triangle in South America?

No other word but INSANITY can describe this plan for we fear will be a once great city brought to its knees by Marxist ideologues with no idea of the fraud they are supporting that carbon dioxide emissions are of any danger to society.

Authors

Tom Harris is executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition

Dr. Jay Lehr

CFACT Senior Science Analyst Jay Lehr has authored more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 36 books. Jay’s new book A Hitchhikers Journey Through Climate Change written with Teri Ciccone is now available on Kindle and Amazon.

Canadian Convulsions > Trudeau is unable to handle people who disagree with him; RCMP sound worse than truckers

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Trudeau’s party takes hit in poll

Conservative Party of Canada overtakes Liberals, gains 10 percentage points,

in latest polling

FILE PHOTO © Dave Chan / AFP

New polling figures show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has been overtaken by the Conservatives amid waning support among Canadians for Covid-19 vaccine and mask mandates, and against the backdrop of a major crackdown on the trucker-led protests.

The poll, conducted by Mainstreet Research, showed that voter support for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) has increased by 10 percentage points in the past month. The CPC would be the leading vote-getter if an election were held today, garnering 36% of ballots, compared with 28% for the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), the survey found.

And the CPC doesn't have a leader right now!

The polling was conducted last week, starting two days after Trudeau invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act. That move suspended civil liberties to quash the Freedom Convoy protests and take such actions as freezing the bank accounts of demonstrators without court orders, increasing police powers, and subjecting fundraising platforms to laws normally applied to money launderers and terrorist financiers. The survey was completed before footage from Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, showed protesters apparently being trampled by police-mounted horses, dispersed with tear gas, and pummeled with rifle butts.

Just 36% of Canadians still support Covid-19 restrictions, compared with 55% who favor ending all government pandemic measures, the Mainstreet poll showed. As recently as two months ago, 56% of Canadians said they would support another round of Covid-19 lockdowns. About 39% of respondents to the latest survey said they strongly oppose Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, while 38% strongly support the move.

A Maru Public Opinion poll released earlier this month showed that just 16% of Canadians would vote for Trudeau based on his actions during the first two weeks of the Freedom Convoy trucker protests. Nearly half of respondents said they believed he was “not up to the job of being prime minister.”

In my humble opinion, his reaction to the trucker convoy was like that of a frightened little boy. His complete inability to communicate with people who don't maintain his far-left ideals is beginning to catch up with him. However, there are still too many people who think he is Mr. Wonderful, even while he tears Canada apart and puts us into a debt from which we can never emerge.

On a separate topic, the Mainstreet survey showed relatively strong support, especially among LPC voters, for sending Canadian troops to Ukraine if Russia invades the country. More than 48% of respondents, including 58% of Liberal voters, said they favor sending Canadian forces to fight Russian invaders, while 38% said they oppose such a military deployment.

Madness! Thanks to our far-left national media in Canada.

An Economist/YouGov poll released earlier this month showed that only 13% of Americans believe it would be a “good idea” to send US troops to tangle with Russian forces in Ukraine.

============================================================================================

Police probe leaked messages where officers reportedly celebrated brutality

Purportedly leaked messages show Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers describe trampling of demonstrators as “awesome”

A tactical police officer stands on the base of a street advertisement as police move in to clear downtown Ottawa, Canada, February 19, 2022 © Getty Images / Justin Tang

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on Sunday that it is “looking into” leaked messages apparently from an officers’ chat group, in which members appear to cheer on the trampling of Freedom Convoy demonstrators in Ottawa, and declared it “time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground.” 

“The RCMP is aware of the material circulating on social media pertaining to a chat group that includes some of its members, and we can confirm that we are looking into the matter,” read a statement from the force. “This material is not representative of those who have committed themselves to serving Canadians with integrity and professionalism.”

A federal police force, the RCMP were brought in to assist Ottawa Police officers in clearing the Freedom Convoy protest that had occupied much of downtown Ottawa for the past three weeks. The crackdown was a brutal one, and as city and federal officers arrested nearly 200 people since Friday and seized 76 vehicles, video footage emerged showing baton beatings, attacks with projectile weapons, and a mounted cavalry charge into a crowd of demonstrators.

According to screenshots posted online on Saturday, RCMP officers cheered on this crackdown. The screenshots, purportedly taken from the force’s ‘Musical Ride’ group chat, showed a member named ‘Marca’ saying “just watched the horse video – that is awesome” and adding “we should practice that manoeuvre.”

Another member named ‘Andrew Nixon’ posted a picture of himself holding a pint of beer, telling his fellow officers “Don't kick all of them out until next week’s group gets our turn,” and saying that it was “time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground.” 

The screenshots were posted on Twitter, and heavily publicized by Canada’s Rebel News, a right-wing outlet whose reporter said she was earlier shot with a non-lethal weapon at close range by an officer.

These attitudes and actions are much more like the descriptions Trudeau spoke of when describing the truckers and their supporters. But these are OK with Trudeau because they work for him, The Hypocrite and Chief!

The police crackdown came after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act last week. As well as empowering police to clear the streets, the act permits the government to freeze bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets belonging to protest participants and donors. 

Interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell declared the protest “over” on Saturday. However, Bell warned on Friday that his department would continue to hunt down those who had been involved in the protests and punish them financially. “If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges,” he threatened. 

While a number of Canadian provinces have relaxed their Covid-19 restrictions since the protest began, Trudeau’s nationwide vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers – the rule that sparked the demonstration in the first place – remains in force.

Canada: Three Muslim Stabbings Within 30-hours in Ottawa

Man sent to hospital after Slater Street stabbing

Surprise - one suspect is named Mohammed, another Ali

by Evelyn Harford, Ottawa Citizen
Shaamini Yogaretnam, Ottawa Citizen


Ottawa Police

Ottawa police are investigating an early Monday morning stabbing on Slater Street that sent one man to hospital.

Officers said they were called to a bar on Slater Street between Bank and O’Connor streets at 2:45 a.m.

A man was found by police with stab wounds in his stomach.

Paramedics took the victim to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and police said he is currently at home resting with “minor injuries.”

Police said no suspects have been arrested.



This was the third stabbing the city had seen in less than 30 hours. Six people were injured in two separate stabbings in the ByWard Market over the weekend.

Police were alerted to the second set of stabbings after a fight broke out at McDonald’s on George Street.

Investigators discovered a protracted dispute that spanned the ByWard Market, beginning with a verbal argument between two groups of people near Tequila Jacks on Clarence Street. A man was hit in the face before the groups went their separate ways.

They ultimately met again near William and York streets where police believe a knife fight took place. One man was stabbed and collapsed with a knife wound to the stomach. Another collapsed near the BeaverTails’ stand on the corner of William and George streets. The most seriously injured man also collapsed a short distance away. All of the victims knew each other but did not know their alleged attackers until things became heated between the two groups of partygoers.

All of these incidents occurred within a couple blocks of Parliament Hill, seat of the Canadian Government.

Police have charged both Mohamed Hamed Mohamed, 26, and Ali Abbari, 21, in connection to those stabbings. They face charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and failure to comply. Both are from Ottawa.

A third suspect, a female, was released without charges.