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.

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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.

Anti-Semitism > Trudeau's disgraceful behaviour in Parliament; Jewish Scientists rake Trudeau over the coals, and so do I

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‘OUTRAGE’: Canadian PM accuses Jewish lawmaker,

descendant of Holocaust survivors, of ‘standing with swastikas’

February 17, 2022

 

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (AP/Charles Krupa)

 

 

Justin (Sunny Ways) Trudeau tells descendant of Holocaust survivors she belongs to a political party that supports Nazism.

By World Israel News Staff

Lawmakers in Canada’s House of Commons lost their cool during a tense parliamentary session on Wednesday during which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a Jewish MP, who is a descendant of Holocaust survivors that she and other members of the Conservative party are guilty of “standing with people who wave swastikas.”

Trudeau’s remark was aimed at MP Melissa Lantsman, the first Jewish woman elected as a Conservative lawmaker in the country.

 

Lantsman had asked Trudeau about his remarks characterizing people participating in mass anti-vaccine mandate protests “as very often misogynistic, racist, women-haters, science-deniers, the fringe.”

By using this language, Lantsman said, Trudeau is “fanning the flames of an unjustified national emergency.” She suggested that he was out of touch with the Canadian public.

In response, Trudeau accused Lantsman’s Conservative party of supporting Nazism.

“Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas, they can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag,” Trudeau said.

He appeared to be referencing a handful out of the tens of thousands of protesters who were seen with Nazi flags.

Trudeau’s comment was immediately met with strong backlash throughout the chamber. Multiple lawmakers shouted at him to apologize.

“I’ve never seen such shameful and dishonorable remarks coming from this prime minister,” said Conservative MP Dane Lloyd. “My great-grandfather flew over 30 missions over Nazi Germany. My great-great-uncle’s body lies at the bottom of the English Channel. There are members of this Conservative caucus who are the descendants of victims of the Holocaust.

“For the prime minister to accuse any colleague in this House of standing with a swastika is shameful. I’m giving the prime minister an opportunity. I’m calling on him to unreservedly apologize for this shameful remark.”

 

Trudeau refused to apologize and left the parliamentary session early.

“I am a strong Jewish woman and a member of this House and a descendant of Holocaust survivors and … it’s never been singled out, and I’ve never been made to feel less,” Lantsman said in a Twitter statement.

“Except for today, when the prime minister accused me of standing with swastikas. I think he owes me an apology. I’d like an apology and I think he owes an apology to all members of this House.”

Jewish Scientists, Doctors Around the World

Issue Justin Trudeau Open Letter Amid Canada Protests

By Mimi Nguyen Ly 

February 19, 2022

A woman waves a flag and cheers on truckers in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa, Canada, on Jan. 30, 2022. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

A group of 23 Jewish scientists, doctors, and academics issued an open letter on Friday to Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, saying they are “deeply concerned” about how he had been describing protesters in Canada who have been demonstrating against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions since late January.

One of the authors of the letter, Stanford Professor of Biophysics Michael Levitt, who was awarded one-third the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013, shared a copy of the letter on Twitter.

“In recent weeks, we have been following the news about the Freedom Convoy 2022 protests that have taken place in Canada. … We witnessed, with mourning concern, how instead of a constructive dialog with the protesters, you adopted a smear-by-association campaign, portraying the protesters as ‘Nazi sympathizers,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘antisemitic,'” the group said in their letter.

“The last incident was your allegation on February 16 that a Jewish member of the Conservative Party was ‘standing with people who wave Swastikas,'” they added.

Trudeau made the comment in Parliament during Question Period amid debate over a blockade in Ottawa and Trudeau’s declaration of a State of Emergency on Feb. 14. Trudeau is the first prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act since it became law in 1988.

Melissa Lantsman, a Conservative member of parliament for Thornhill in the House of Commons, told the chamber that Trudeau “fans the flames of an unjustified national emergency” by having described the protesters as “‘very often misogynistic, racist,’ ‘women haters,’ ‘science deniers,’ the ‘fringe.'”

She then asked, “So, Mr. Speaker, when did the Prime Minister lose his way? When did it happen?”

This might be referring to Justin's oft-repeated motto of "sunny ways". Which he seems to have abandoned completely recently.

Trudeau responded, “Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas. They can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag.

“We will choose to stand with Canadians who deserve to be able to get to their jobs, to be able to get their lives back. These illegal protests need to stop and they will.”

He sounds, for all the world, like a frightened little boy. Is that why he fled the city while the truckers were still on their way to Ottawa? Is that why he started immediately to condemn them as being far-right extremists while they had not committed one act of violence?

Funny thing, yesterday, news came from British Columbia of millions of dollars of destruction on a pipeline construction site. The location would infer that it was probably 1st nations' people responsible. There was no word from Trudeau on the incident even though it was far more violent than any of the trucker rallies across the country. 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is extremely protective of the far-left Trudeau, makes no mention of the story today. CBC News website even has a column on indigenous affairs, but makes no mention of this one. In fact, I cannot find any national news site that carries this story:

Axe attack, violent vandalism at Coastal GasLink pipeline site

House Speaker Anthony Rota followed up, telling the chamber, ”I just want to remind the honourable members, including the Right Honourable Prime Minister, to use words that are not inflammatory in the House.” However, Trudeau did not withdraw his comment.

Lantsman, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, said on Twitter that Trudeau falsely accused her of standing with a Swastika. “What a disgraceful statement unbecoming of anyone in public office—he owes me an apology,” she wrote.

In the letter on Friday, the Jewish group of scientists, doctors, and academics expressed disapproval of Trudeau’s recent rhetoric.

“We, an apolitical group of Jewish Israeli medical scientists, physicians, researchers, and legal scholars, some of us second or third generation Holocaust survivors, are deeply concerned by your attempt to stigmatise the Freedom Convoy 2022 protesters as Nazi ideology supporters,” they wrote.

“The important fight against antisemitism should not be weaponized and directed at a legitimate civil protest which aims at restoring fundamental liberties, to what used to be, until not long ago, one of the freest countries in the world.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Trudeau’s office for comment on the letter.

Late on Friday, Trudeau wrote on Twitter, “Illegal blockades and occupations have threatened businesses, endangered jobs, and obstructed communities for three weeks now. This week, to restore public order and protect Canadians as the situation evolves, our government invoked the Emergencies Act.”

“We’ll continue to make sure municipal, provincial, and federal authorities have the resources they need, and do whatever is needed to keep people safe and get the situation under control—and we’ll make sure your rights and freedoms are protected,” he added. “That remains our top priority.”

This is as divisive and hypocritical a statement as I have ever heard. He seems to be saying that he will sacrifice the rights of thousands of truckers and tens of thousands of their supporters without even hearing what they are concerned about, in order to protect the rights of a few dozen businesses on a couple streets in Ottawa.

Protesters have expressed offense at Trudeau’s recent comments that have portrayed them as racist or hateful, The Epoch Times previously reported. Trudeau previously said the protesters are a “fringe minority’ who hold “unacceptable views” and espouse conspiracy theories.

Where did he get that theory from, considering he refused to meet with any of them?

Protesters on Parliament Hill for the most part have been carrying Canadian flags. Some images were circulating on social media that showed Nazi symbols on flags, while other videos on social media showed protesters telling those holding hateful signs to leave.

Some local reports have also stated that people opposed to vaccine mandates have likened Canada’s mandates to the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. 

That, of course, is absurd!

The protest started in late January as a show of defiance. Truckers opposed the Canadian government’s vaccine mandate that started on Jan. 15 for truckers who often cross the United States-Canada border. It has since evolved into a large movement joined by people from across Canada to oppose different COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

Vehicle convoys came to Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many have stayed in the city, with trucks and other vehicles parked by Parliament Hill. Since then, various protest convoys have been set up in different parts of Canada.

Early on in the protest, Trudeau has said he wouldn’t be meeting with the protesters—he said he wouldn’t go anywhere near demonstrations “that have expressed hateful rhetoric, violence towards fellow citizens, and a disrespect not just of science, but of the front-line health workers.”

Following the invocation of the Emergencies Act, two lead organizers of the Freedom Convoy protest, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, were arrested in Ottawa on Thursday. Ottawa’s interim police chief warned on the same day that action to remove Freedom Convoy demonstrators was “imminent.”

Ottawa's Police Chief stepped down the day before the arrests started. I would really like to hear from him exactly why he stepped down at that particular time. But, Canada's Trudeau-loving media will never ask him.

Lich, at a press conference on Feb. 14, said that protesters “will remain peaceful” despite the government’s use of the Act.

Despite the arrests, many protesters still remain in Ottawa. In early February, Lich said the protesters won’t be leaving until the government lifts the COVID-19 mandates.

“We’re not coming here to be aggressive or hateful or cause violence,” she told The Epoch Times. “We’re going to be staying in for as long as it takes. We’re not leaving until Canada is free.”

Police have arrested about 170 protesters and appear to be cleaning out the streets of Ottawa. What these people will be charged with is not apparent, although I've heard the word "Nuisance" being thrown around. 

No arrests have been made in the violent British Columbia pipeline destruction case.

I fear that this letter will turn Trudeau against Jewish people. He does not take criticism well, as you have probably already observed. 

Here is Northwood's Proverb which you will find on the sidebar of this blog. I think it is unfortunately appropriate for this occasion:

Humility and Pride

You can tell a humble man that he has a problem with pride and he will agree with you;

but if you tell a proud man that he has a problem with pride, he becomes your enemy.

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Islam - Current Day - ISIS Bride; Afghan Car Bomb; Islamic Rage; Women's Rights Activist Goes Silent

ISIS bride Shamima Begum’s UK return put on hold after British government wins right to appeal decision

Shamima Begum’s return to UK shores has been cast in doubt after the British government dramatically won a court battle allowing it the right to appeal an earlier decision. The appeal will be heard by the UK’s Supreme Court.

Begum, now 20, who was one of three east London schoolgirls who traveled to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, won a High Court appeal earlier this month, allowing her to return to the UK and challenge the withdrawal of her British citizenship.

However, on Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the case raised a point of law of public importance, meaning that Begum’s return must be paused while the UK government appeals the decision.

Begum left the UK five years ago and lived under IS rule for over three years, having married Dutch-born Islamic State fighter Yago Riedijk. She was found in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019, and was discovered to be pregnant.

Then-UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship later that year on national security grounds. Last year, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) said that Begum had not been unlawfully rendered stateless while she was living in Syria because she was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship.

Afghanistan car bomb kills 8, injures 30

By Danielle Haynes

Afghan security officers stands guard outside the emergency hospital in Kabul after a car bomb blast targeted
a crowded market in Logar province of Afghanistan, on Thursday. Photo by Jawad Jalali/EPA-EFE

July 30 (UPI) -- A car bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least eight civilians and injuring dozens more, the Interior Ministry said.

Multiple children were among the victims.

"The incident occurred at 7:40 p.m. local time in Sharwal Square of Pul-e-Alam city, capital of Logar [province]. The initial information indicated that eight civilians were martyred and 30 wounded," tweeted ministry spokesman Tariq Arian, according to a translation by Xinhua news agency.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack; the Taliban denied involvement, Tolo News reported.

The explosion comes ahead of a planned three-day cease-fire between the Afghan government and Taliban militants for the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Pol-e-Alam, AFG

Egyptian kills brother in row over Eid meat

Accused had warned his family against accepting meat being distributed to the poor

Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Gulf News

The accused told prosecutors in the Delta province of Beheira that he flew into rage on learning that his family had accepted the meat given away to the poor during the Eid of Sacrifice, private newspaper Al Masri Al Youm said.

He added that his family had ignored his earlier warnings against accepting such gifts. In a fit of rage, he flew the meat piece out of the house window, triggering a fight with his brother. Wielding a knife, the accused reportedly fatally stabbed his brother and inflicted wounds in the abdomen of his sister.

Local prosecutors ordered him to be kept in custody for four days pending further interrogation.

During Eid Al Adha, Muslims, who can afford it, sacrifice animals such as sheep, goats, camels and cows, honouring the Prophet Ebrahim’s willingness to slay his son Ismael at Allah’s command. As the Prophet Ebrahim and Ismael showed unwavering obedience to the divine order, Allah sent a ram slaughtered in the son’s stead.

Was it that he was too proud to accept meat given to the poor? Did his pride exceed all common sense and love for his brother and sister? 

Of course, the son Abraham nearly sacrificed was Isaac. Ishmael had been sent away by Abraham as an illegitimate son after Isaac, the promised son was born. The Ishmael sacrifice story was invented by Mohammed thousands of years after Isaac's story was written.

'It's psychological torture': Saudi activist's family say she hasn't been heard from in 6 weeks

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UBC graduate Loujain Alhathloul turned 31 on Friday in a Saudi jail

Michelle Ghoussoub · CBC News 

Alhathloul, a graduate of the University of British Columbia, was arrested in May 2018 along with nine other high-profile women's rights activists. (Loujain Alhathloul/Facebook)

Women's rights activist Loujain Alhathloul, currently jailed in Saudi Arabia, hasn't been heard from in six weeks — the longest time she's been silent since she was arrested over two years ago, according to her brother.

Alhathloul, a graduate of the University of British Columbia, has been detained since May 2018, when she was arrested along with nine other women's rights activists. She turned 31 in prison on Friday.

"We don't know anything about her well-being and we don't know anything about where she is exactly," said her brother Walid Alhathloul, speaking on the phone from Toronto.

He said she was previously detained in Ha'er Prison, a maximum-security prison and the country's largest, but the family now isn't sure whether she's been moved to a different location.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, her family was able to visit her weekly. But those visits were replaced by weekly phone calls when Saudi Arabia tightened restrictions on prison visits to prevent the spread of the virus.

Alhathloul says the family now hasn't heard from her since June 9. "I would say it's a way to torture us, the family. Loujain knows that we are doing fine, but we don't know if she's doing fine," he said.

"We're safe — she's not safe. It's psychological torture."

Detained since 2018

Alhathloul was first accused of attempting to destabilize the kingdom. Since then, those charges have been changed to communicating with foreign journalists and attempting to apply for a job at the United Nations.

Her trial was indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We're expecting that we're not going to get any updates from the court, or from the judge," said her brother, who said that even two years on, the family maintains hope that she will be released.

"We're holding up. We're used to that and we know that the target is us. This was difficult at the beginning, but right now it's becoming part of our DNA."

Loujain Alhathloul's birthday triggered an outpouring of support on social media, and protests

outside of the Saudi embassy in Washington DC. (Loujain Alhathloul/Facebook)

Alhathloul was a vocal activist known for her vivacity and spirit even prior to her high-profile arrest.

In 2014, following her graduation from UBC, Alhathloul was arrested for live-streaming herself breaking Saudi Arabia's female driving ban by driving across the border from the United Arab Emirates.

The stunt, which captured the world's attention, earned her 70 days of detention. She followed that up by running in Saudi Arabia's first election open to women.

After 14 months of detention, she was offered to sign a deal that would have let her walk free if she posted a video statement denying that she'd been tortured. She tore up the document.

She had previously told her family that she'd been held in solitary confinement and suffered electrocution, flogging, and sexual assault

Alhathloul's birthday triggered an outpouring of support on social media and protests outside of the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Walid Alhathloul said he believes his sister, who in February was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by United States Congress members, has become a symbol for women's rights across the world.

"People saw that when she got involved, she didn't have to, because she had all her own privilege," he said. "And despite that, she sacrificed her own privilege for the sake of greater women's rights in Saudi Arabia. She did that unconditionally."

Ozzone 1-12

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in the Canadian Prime Minister's Office

A Prime Minister's Office drunk on its own arrogance: Robyn Urback

Six months ago, Trudeau told Canadians that a report his office pressured the AG was 'false.' He lied

Robyn Urback · for CBC News Opinion 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a report that his office tried to pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould into intervening

in the SNC-Lavalin case was 'false.' It was not. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

It's hard to fathom what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was thinking on the morning of Feb. 7, when he stood before reporters and categorically declared, 

"The allegations in the Globe story are false."

The Globe and Mail was the first to report that Trudeau's office attempted to pressure his justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, into intervening in the corruption and fraud case of SNC-Lavalin.

That day, he knew that Wilson-Raybould, who he'd shuffled out of the Justice Ministry three weeks earlier, had been repeatedly approached by members of the Prime Minister's Office about her reluctance to get involved.

He was told by Wilson-Raybould herself at a meeting in September 2018 of her concerns about his staff attempting to interfere in a criminal matter (though he would later say he couldn't specifically recall the remark).

And surely he knew, or should have known, that repeatedly reminding the attorney general of the potentially cataclysmic political and economic costs of failing to secure a remediation agreement for an important Quebec company constituted inappropriate pressure. 

Nevertheless, there was clearly a concerted effort to see her reconsider her position. That much was fact, and Trudeau knew it on February 7. 

Power & Politics✔

@PnPCBC

 Trudeau:  "The allegations in the Globe story are false. Neither the current nor the previous attorney general was ever directed by me or by anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter." #cdnpoli

Yet he stood before reporters that morning and called the report "false."

Not "misleading." Not "unfair." Not "half the story." 

"False." Wrong. Fake news. 

How 4 ex-Supreme Court justices got caught up in SNC-Lavalin affair

Trudeau vs. Dion: How the PM and ethics commissioner differ on the SNC-Lavalin affair

That was, in fact, a lie. The PMO did press Wilson-Raybould to seek a remediation agreement for SNC-Lavalin, and that pressure was inappropriate and contrary to the Conflict of Interest Act, as Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded in his report on the affair, published Wednesday.

Trudeau knew that the Globe's reporting couldn't reasonably be called "false," even if perhaps he believed it somewhat skewed. But he lied and told Canadians it was wrong anyway. 

Cozy relationship

With hindsight, it seems silly to make such an unequivocal statement about something easily verified. But a belief in one's own righteousness, along with a record of previous political infallibility, can make a prime minister and his staff do some very silly things. 

To wit: For months, the prime minister insisted that actions taken by his office were always in the interest of Canadians; it wasn't about currying favour with powerful Quebec company but simply about keeping good jobs in Canada.

Dion's report, however, chronicles an awfully cozy relationship between the PMO and SNC-Lavalin in which the two seem less like government-and-lobbyist than players on the same team.

Remediation agreement SNC-Lavalin's idea

In fact, it was SNC-Lavalin that suggested, back in February 2018, that a new remediation agreement regime — one that could benefit them — be included in the upcoming budget, in the interest of expediency. The government obliged: an amendment to the Criminal Code was included in the budget implementation bill and received royal assent within months.

Is Trudeau in for another hit in the polls because of the SNC-Lavalin ethics report?

5 things we learned from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion's report on Justin Trudeau

That summer, Ben Chin, the chief of staff to the minister of finance, reportedly tried to get an update on the status of a remediation agreement on behalf of an anxious SNC-Lavalin. Chin was told by Wilson-Raybould's office that an inquiry itself could be perceived as improper interference on the independent nature of the prosecution service. 

And in December 2018, PMO senior adviser Mathieu Bouchard exchanged text messages with an SNC-Lavalin representative who wanted an update on a dinner conversation between Wilson-Raybould and then-principal secretary Gerald Butts — the one in which Wilson-Raybould said she told the PMO to stop pressuring her office about SNC-Lavalin. Bouchard reported to the rep that the door was still open to a remediation agreement (it was not). 

'Someone like' Beverley McLachlin

Dion's report also revealed that while Trudeau and Butts had been imploring Wilson-Raybould to seek an opinion from "someone like" former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin, discussions had already taken place between McLachlin, SNC-Lavalin's lawyer and the PMO (as well as another retired Supreme Court justice). 

Butts failed to mention that fact during his testimony before the justice committee back in March. Instead, he testified that, "All we ever asked the attorney general to do was consider a second opinion." Perhaps if he had more time he would have added: "And we already vetted and approved those second opinions on her behalf."

'I take responsibility,' Trudeau says in wake of damning report on SNC-Lavalin ethics violation

Timeline: SNC-Lavalin and Jody Wilson-Raybould

Trudeau welcomes ethics probe but won't cooperate

(Trudeau always says what people want to hear, and then does what he wants. He said yesterday that he accepted responsibility, but then refused to admit that he did anything wrong and refused to apologize).

On top of it all, we learned that despite the "welcome" Trudeau publicly offered Dion's probe, the ethics commissioner, in fact, encountered some trouble accessing relevant information and testimonies.

Call these lies-by-omission. Or maybe half-truths. Together, they're a chronicle of a PMO drunk on its own arrogance, so convinced of it own moral virtue that it can rationalize trading text messages with a criminally charged organization over a pressure campaign on the attorney general.

Liberals block new SNC-Lavalin ethics probe as Trudeau insists his team is 'more united than ever'

This is a leadership, as we have since learned, that will kick members out of caucus for having the audacity to speak out against the prime minister, and will lie to Canadians about the veracity of a news report that has since proven true.

And it's a prime minister who, when asked if he will apologize for it all, chooses to respond with an answer to a question no one asked: "I can't apologize for defending Canadian jobs." As if, six months later, anyone is buying those lines anymore.

A quick summary

So, SNC-Lavalin, a major engineering and construction company, a global player, got caught paying graft to the son of Muammar Qaddafi for a Libyan project. Being convicted would mean SNC could not bid on federal Canadian projects for up to 10 years, although they could still bid on provincial projects. They have already been blacklisted by the World Bank.

So, SNC lobbies the Trudeau government to pass a new law to allow SNC to pay a fine without being held criminally responsible, and therefore not losing its ability to bid on federal Canadian projects. The Liberal government thought this was a great idea and immediately implemented the new law by hiding it in the back pages of the 2018 spring budget. A law which would allow wealthy and powerful people and corporations to avoid facing justice.

All is good in SNC's world until they heard that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Reybould was not onboard with the plan. SNC was unhappy; Trudeau was unhappy - many of SNC's employees lived in his own riding in Montreal. If Trudeau was unhappy, everyone in the PMO and the Finance Minister's office was unhappy. The law they snuck through Parliament was for nothing if JWR didn't play along.

Consequently, Trudeau shuffled JWR out of the Justice portfolio. He needed a minister to retire in order to do that and his old friend, Scott Brison, took the bait. It's hard to say what Brison got out of the deal, but if the timing seems too coincidental to be coincidence, that's because it is. That resulted in the JWR shuffle. Maybe I should put that to music.

Robyn's column details the rest of the story very well.

Pride and arrogance and a typical Liberal attitude that 'the end justifies the means', should spell the end of this government. But I fear there are too many Trudeau supporters who also believe 'the end justifies the means', that he will finish, at least, in second place in the October elections. If so, he will form the next government as all parties in the House besides Conservatives are far-left and will not coalesce with a Conservative Prime Minister. The only other party that might cooperate with the Conservatives is the fledgling People's Party - a party that just might bring honesty and integrity to the House.

Berlin Head of Polish Culture Institute Fired for Promoting ‘Too Much Jewish Content’

    Polnisches Institut Berlin © wikipedia.org

The director of the Polish cultural institute in Berlin, Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska, has been fired by Poland’s Foreign Ministry because she allegedly promoted too much “unwanted content”, particularly concerning Polish-Jewish relations.

Wielga-Skolimowska was “dismissed immediately” last week, the institute’s spokesman, Marcin Zastrożny, confirmed to Germany's TAZ daily on December 2. According to Der Tagesspiegel, she was fired without any explanation or prior notice.

She was also ordered to leave the office immediately and depart her flat in Berlin at the end of December. She was not allowed to say goodbye to her subordinates in the institute, Der Tagesspiegel reported.

According to German media, it was the institute’s cultural program that led to her dismissal as it contradicted the cultural policy of the Polish government ruled by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that came to power in 2015.

The Polish ambassador to Germany, Andrzej Przylebski, sharply criticized Wielga-Skolimowska in an internal report in October, which was seen by dpa news agency. The dpa report stated that he particularly rebuked the former head of the Polish cultural institute in Berlin for “excessively covering ... topic[s] related to Polish-Jewish relations” and inviting what was called “unwanted” guests to events staged by the institute.

So, it appears Poland's new government wants to rewrite history and remove all shame from Nazi collusion during WWII. But that is not how you deal with shame - you accept your responsibility, repent, ask forgiveness, and then move on. You don't pretend it never happened or try to diminish the significance of the whole thing - you learn nothing that way; you just develop a shallow and false pride and leave yourself open to recommitting the same atrocities.

One has to wonder if growing antisemitism in Poland and the rest of Europe is contributing to this revisionism. Is another Holocaust possible in the not too distant future? As hard as it is to believe, I think it is not only possible but almost inevitable.

The issue of Polish-Jewish relations should not be promoted “especially in Germany, which should not take the role of mediator” in this field, the report, written by Przylebski said, adding that the institute should instead emphasize the importance of dialog between Poland and Ukraine or Poland and Lithuania, as reported by dpa.

“A blind imitation of nihilist and hedonist trends leads to nothing good in civilizational sense,” the report added, referring to Wielga-Skolimowska’s work.

    Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska

The ministry already expressed its discontent with Wielga-Skolimowska’s work for similar reasons. In early 2016, the Foreign Ministry negatively assessed the institute’s performance and appointed conservative Malgorzata Bochwic-Ivanovska to deputy head.

In April 2016, Poland’s Culture Minister, Piotr Glinski, called for "an end to the culture of shame” in relation to the Polish role in Holocaust and WWII. At the time, the Polish cultural institute in Berlin showed the Academy-Award winning film ‘Ida’ (2015) that tells the story of a young woman living in 1960s Poland, who found out that she was Jewish and her parents had been murdered by their Polish neighbors during WWII.

At the same time, the Polish Foreign Ministry insisted on showing another Polish film – a propaganda movie ‘Smolensk’, which suggested that the Polish presidential plane crash in Russia in 2010, which claimed the lives of all passengers aboard, was an act of terrorism orchestrated by Russia.

No German cinema agreed to show the movie, even though it was actively promoted by the institute’s deputy head, Bochwic-Ivanovska.

‘One cannot find better person to promote Polish culture’

– German artists

The decision of the Polish Foreign Ministry has caused a wave of criticism and indignation among German artists and cultural figures and even prompted them to write an open letter to Polish authorities.

The artists expressed their “embarrassment and irritation” over what they called “an unjustified and inexplicable decision” in a letter to the Polish ambassador in Berlin and Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski.

The initiative was put forward by Cilly Kugelmann, the program director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin and supported by the head of the Berliner Festspiele arts center, Thomas Oberender, the director of the Maxim-Gorki-Theater, Shermin Langhoff and the head of a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin, Thomas Koehler, who signed the letter.

“One could not possibly find a better person to promote Polish culture,” the letter said, as cited by Der Tagesspiegel. “She [Wielga-Skolimowska] has an exceptional talent for communication,” Kugelmann told Der Tagesspiegel, adding that the former Polish cultural institute’s director promoted “an image of a young intelligent country that is ready to face its history.”

“So far, Poland’s culture was presented in the best possible way at different levels [in Germany],” Marcin Piekoszewski, who works for the German-Polish book store ‘Buchbund’, told TAZ, commenting on Wielga-Skolimowska’s work.

Wielga-Skolimowska worked as the head of Berlin’s Polish cultural institute for three years from 2013. Her contract was due to expire only in summer 2017.

She established a cultural exchange program between Poland and Germany, particularly in cooperation with the German Goethe-Institute promoting German culture in foreign countries.

She also created a forum for German and Polish artists, where they could discuss the modern art, architecture, music and journalism, TAZ reported.

The former director of Berlin’s Polish cultural institute also promoted the ‘Film Polska’ film festival in Berlin.

However, she was not the only one reportedly fired due to the inconsistency of her ideas with the Polish government’s policy.

One of many

According to Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza daily, 13 out of 24 directors of Polish cultural institutes across Europe were fired this summer.

This means that it is government policy to revise history. It's probably an attempt to build Polish pride, but humility wears much better.

Many of them were also criticized for inviting “unwanted” guests to their events, such as Austrian author and journalist Martin Pollack, who criticized the PiS party, or Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish writer and recipient of the German-Polish International Bridge Prize, who was accused of “tarnishing the good name of the Polish nation.”

Rainbow-flag Clad Calgary Transit Bus has Driver Threatening to Quit

Employee says his Christian values prevent him from driving bus decorated for Calgary Pride celebrations

The Canadian Press

Calgary Transit rolled out the city's first Pride bus on Thursday to help celebrate
Calgary Pride 2015, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7

A Calgary man says he will quit his job if he's assigned to drive a bus wrapped in a rainbow flag.

The annual Calgary Pride Festival kicks off Friday and, as a show of support, a Calgary Transit bus has been wrapped in the symbol of inclusiveness.

The rainbow flag bus will operate through Sept. 7, the day of the parade.

Jesse Rau, who has worked for Calgary Transit as a driver for about a year, says he's a Christian and can't support homosexuality.

Rau hopes Calgary Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union will support drivers who don't want to drive the rainbow bus.

Doug Morgan, director of Calgary Transit, says drivers can only refuse to work based on safety issues.

"What we would do is open a dialogue with them and chat with them and ask them about their issues and making sure we're being sensitive to their beliefs, but overall the service has to go out and we would ask them to drive the bus," Morgan said.

In other words, they would give lip-service to Rau's faith, then tell him to drive the bus or else.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture where if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, 

the accusation is that you hate that person."

- Jesse Rau

Rau said he hopes he would be assigned to another bus.

"I have a family to support and I am very concerned about losing the job, it's something I'm very proud to be a part of, but when it goes against the most important things I stand for, or if I'm asked to compromise in such a big way for what I believe to be right, then I have to lose my job," Rau said.

"I'm a Christian so, as a Christian, there are things like homosexuality that I just can't condone. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, the accusation is that you hate the person."

Calgary Pride's director of government affairs, Craig Sklenar, says the bus is a symbol of progress.

'It's a sign of the change in Calgary," said Sklenar. "There's still much to do in as much as LGBTQ rights are concerned but we are excited there is such public displays of pride across the city over the next few weeks."

Oh, Calgary, how far you have fallen, and how quickly you turn on your own!

Japan Doesn't Like Its WWII History, So It's Changing It

By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News
 From the section Asia

Former comfort woman Lee Ok Seon says she was "kidnapped"

Seventy years after the end of World War Two, the voices of revisionism in Japan are growing stronger and moving into the mainstream, particularly on the issue of comfort women, who were women forced to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the war.

One of the most eloquent voices of revisionism is Toshio Tamogami.

Mr Tamogami is well-educated, knowledgeable and, when I meet him, exquisitely polite. The former chief of staff of Japan's air force believes in a version of Japanese history that is deeply at odds with much of the rest of the world.

But it is increasingly popular among young Japanese, tired of being told they must keep apologising to China and Korea.

Last year Mr Tamogami ran for governor of Tokyo. He came fourth, with 600,000 votes. Most strikingly, among young voters aged 20 to 30 he got nearly a quarter of the votes cast.

"As a defeated nation we only teach the history forced on us by the victors," he says. "To be an independent nation again we must move away from the history imposed on us. We should take back our true history that we can be proud of."

In this "true" history of the 20th Century that Mr Tamogami talks of, Japan was not the aggressor, but the liberator. Japanese soldiers fought valiantly to expel the hated white imperialists who had subjugated Asian peoples for 200 years.

It is a proud history, where Japan, alone in Asia, was capable of taking on and defeating the European oppressors. It is also a version of history that has no room for the Japanese committing atrocities against fellow Asians.

Mr Tamogami believes that Japan did not invade the Korean Peninsula, but rather "invested in Korea and also in Taiwan and Manchuria".

I ask him about the invasion of China in 1937 and the massacre of civilians in the capital Nanjing. Surely that was naked aggression?

"I can declare that there was no Nanjing Massacre," he says, claiming there were "no eyewitnesses" of Japanese soldiers slaughtering Chinese civilians. Maybe because they were all dead.

Former chief of Japan's air forces, Toshio Tamogami, says that stories of
atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre in the 1930s are "lies and fabrication"

It is when I ask him about the issue of Korean comfort women that Mr Tamogami's denials are most indignant.

He declares it "another fabrication", saying: "If this is true, how many soldiers had to be mobilised to forcibly drag those women away? And those Korean men were just watching their women taken away by force? Were Korean men all cowards?"

Although they may not say it as loudly and as bluntly as Mr Tamogami, this is a version of history that is widely believed by many of Japan's nationalists.

Earlier this year at a joint session of the US Congress in Washington DC, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed deep sorrow for the suffering caused by Japan during WW2.

Mr Abe does not deny there were Korean women serving as comfort women near the frontlines in China and South East Asia.

But he has repeatedly said there is no evidence these women were coerced or that the Japanese military was involved in their recruitment and confinement. The implication is the women were prostitutes.

This is a very murky area. Girls from poor families have been sold in to prostitution in Japan, Korea and China for centuries, and the practice was certainly still going on in the 1930s and 1940s. No kidding! It's still going on today!

But that does not absolve the Japanese military from responsibility.

'We were kidnapped'

In a quiet valley an hour's drive from Seoul there is a small care home called the House of Sharing. This is where some of the last surviving comfort women are cared for in their old age. There are only ten left here now.

Lee Ok Seon is a tiny 88-year-old with thick white curly hair and badly-fitting false teeth. She chuckles as I try to cajole her to speak to me in Chinese.

Ms Lee spent 65 years in China, and only returned to South Korea 15 years ago.

She was born in the port city of Busan on the southern tip of modern day South Korea. Her family was poor and she was sent out to work at the age of 14.

"I had to start work as a housekeeper for another family at a young age. It was at that time I was out on the street one day… that's how I got kidnapped," she says.

She said two men grabbed her and put her on a train. "By the time we arrived I realised we had crossed the border into China. I was sent to a place where there were already several comfort women.

"I wonder why they called us comfort women. We didn't go by our own accord, we were kidnapped. I was forced to have sex with many men each day."

South Korean elderly women (yellow vests), who served as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, hug the statue of a South Korean teenage girl in traditional costume called the 'peace monument' during the 1,000th weekly protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul on 14 December 2011.

Ms Lee spent three years in the brothel close to a Japanese military camp in Manchuria. I ask her why she didn't try to escape.

"Of course I tried to escape several times!" she says. "Each time I was taken back and I was beaten over and over.

The military police would ask me 'Why are you trying to escape?' I would tell them because I am cold and have no food. They would hit me again saying I talked too much."

She says that she lost part of her hearing and some of her teeth from those assaults.

Revisionists like Mr Tamogami say women like Lee Ok Seon have been coached to embellish their stories; that they are tools of a South Korean government that is intent on humiliating Japan and squeezing it for more money

It is certainly true that the comfort women issue is used by the South Korean government for its own political ends. But there is plenty of other evidence that the Japanese military organised the comfort women system, not least from the men who served in the Japanese imperial army in China.

'Ridiculous to deny'

Masayoshi Matsumoto is now 93 and lives with his daughter on the edge of Tokyo. He has a warm open face and the piercing eyes of a much younger man.

Former Japanese soldier Masayoshi
Matsumoto: "I call myself a war criminal"

As a 20-year-old he served as a medical orderly in northwest China. "There were six comfort women for our unit," he tells me. "Once a month I would check them for sexually transmitted diseases.

"The Korean women were mainly for the officers," he says. "So the ordinary soldiers attacked local villages screaming, 'Are there any good girls here?' Those soldiers robbed, raped, or killed those who did not listen to them."

Those who were captured were taken to Mr Matsumoto's unit to serve as comfort women.

After the war Mr Matsumoto became a priest to try and atone for his sins. For decades he said nothing of what he'd seen.

But then as the voices of denial grew stronger he was filled with righteous anger, and decided to speak out.

"It's ridiculous... Mr Abe speaks as if this is something he witnessed, but he didn't. I did," says Mr Matsumoto.

"Someone told me this, 'One who fails to look back and perceive the past will repeat their wrongdoing'. But Mr Abe thinks we should erase anything bad Japan had done in the past and pretend nothing happened. That is why I cannot forgive him," he adds.

Mr Matsumoto sits back in his chair and chuckles.

Hirohito

"One day the right-wingers will come and get me for saying such things," he says, drawing a finger across his throat.

That seems unlikely, but Mr Matsumoto and all the other survivors are now in their late 80s or 90s. Soon they will all be gone - while the voices of denial grow louder and stronger.

If you look at this from a spiritual viewpoint, Japan was humiliated during WWII and after because of its many atrocities, but perhaps mainly for its deification of the Emporer Hirohito, and its legendary pride. Hirohito was only recognized as less than a god when he surrendered Japan.

By revising Japan's history, their pride can return, and they think that is a good thing. It isn't! God, the real God, hates pride. He also hates lies. 

The Japanese don't recognize the inherent, sinful nature of man; if they did they would not seek after pride. God revealed that to them through their defeat in WWII. That they could easily forget that lesson within a hundred years, means God has to humiliate them again in order to get their attention.

If You are Gay and in a Gulf State, Stay in the Closet and be Quiet!

Manama: A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced an homosexual man to three years in prison and 450 lashes for using his Twitter account to promote homosexual contacts.

The man, 24, was arrested after he posted several tweets calling for homosexual relations and expressing his readiness to meet gay men, local daily Al Watan reported on Tuesday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, was alerted about the tweets and was able to apprehend the young man after it set him up using an undercover agent.

Can't imagine why they would not want these guys in the gulf states?

His mobile phone was searched and several “immoral” pictures were discovered, prompting the Commission to refer his case to the public prosecution.

During the trial, the prosecutor requested a harsh punishment and the confiscation of the mobile phone on charges of promoting debauchery.

The suspect reportedly admitted to using his account on the microblog to contact and communicate with homosexuals.

The court decided that the 450 lashes would be given over 15 sessions. How merciful!

Homosexuality is banned in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states that also comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.

Meriam, The Story Behind The Story

by Harriet Alexander

The brother of the Sudanese woman who had her death sentence for apostasy overturned by the courts has claimed that she was "kidnapped" as soon as she set foot out of prison.

Meriam Ibrahim walked free on Monday after six months in prison charged with apostasy – abandoning her Islamic faith. She maintains she was never a Muslim in the first place.

The 27-year-old was about to board a flight out of Sudan with her husband and two children on Tuesday, when she was detained once more. Her husband Daniel Wani is an American citizen, and he said they were planning to travel to Washington DC. Sudanese media claimed that the US vice consul was with the family at the airport.

"We are supposed to be there," said Mr Wani, insisting there is nothing wrong with the travel documents. He told AFP: "We are worried. That's why we want to get out of here as soon as possible."

Al Samani Al Hadi Mohamed Abdullah
Islamic Lunatic or Thief?

But now her brother, Al Samani Al Hadi Mohamed Abdullah, has claimed that Ms Ibrahim was "kidnapped" upon her release, and spirited away without her consent.

He told Sudan's Al Intibaha newspaper – founded by the uncle of President Omar Bashir – that she should have been shepherded to the family, and not her husband, when she left prison.

"They did not let us know that she was about to be freed," he said. "It was a surprise for us."

Mr Hadi said previously that she should be executed if she does not "return" to what he maintains is their family faith.

He told CNN earlier this month: "It's one of two; if she repents and returns to our Islamic faith and to the embrace of our family, then we are her family and she is ours.

"But if she refuses she should be executed."

His comments poured fuel on the flickering suspicion that the charges were a thinly-disguised family feud, and that Ms Ibrahim's relatives hoped to gain control over her successful businesses.

And he said in the interview, published on Wednesday, that the courts had failed his family by clearing her of all charges.

"Our family is not convinced by the decision of the court. The law has failed to maintain our rights, and now it is a matter of honour. Christians deface our honour, and we know how to take revenge for that." Now, you can't deface what doesn't exist, Mr Hadi, what you call honour is simply pride, a most unbecoming and dishonourable character trait.

The family's lawyer, Abdulrahem Malik, told another regime-supporting newspaper, Al Sudani, that she was "disappeared into a Western embassy" on her release. And he said they were surprised at her attempts to leave the country, because her appeal verdict was not final.

"She has no right to travel outside the country," the lawyer said. "There have been no threats of revenge against her from members of her family, and she has no right to travel by law. I guess he didn't read the above; 'She should be executed', 'it is a matter of honour', 'Christians deface our honour', 'we know how to take revenge for that'. If that's not a threat then I don't know what is.

"The appeals court decision is not final. Only if we do not appeal within 15 days is their ruling upheld."

The American authorities said on Tuesday night that they were confident the family were not in danger.

"The government has assured us of their safety," said Marie Harf, state department spokeswoman. "The embassy has and will remain highly involved in working with the family and the government."

Just make sure you keep them away from her family - who are actually her half-siblings.