ALBERTA'S CREDIT RATING CUT

Alberta has been hit with another credit downgrade one day after it confirmed it remains on track for a $10.3-billion budget deficit this year.
The credit rating agency DBRS say it has downgraded Alberta's long-term debt rating to AA from AA (high) and has adjusted or maintained other ratings indicators on a negative trend.
The agency said the downgrade reflects the high operating deficits and Alberta's rapidly accumulating debt, which is pegged to surpass $42 billion by the spring.

TRUDEAU'S ETHICAL STANDARDS

The bottom line is that if Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, needs a commissioner to tell him what’s ethical, then the federal government is in big trouble and so is our country.
Trudeau’s words and actions to date tell us that he’s ethically untroubled by Morneau’s actions as finance minister — on Wednesday he accused the opposition of a smear campaign — or his own as PM.

CHALLENGING THE KUMBAYA REHAB OF ISIS FIGHTERS

The Conservatives have repeatedly hammered the government’s plan to rehabilitate ISIS fighters who return to Canada.
“This prime minister is using a broad spectrum that includes poetry and podcasts and all kinds of counselling and group hug sessions. Mr. Speaker, when will the prime minister take the security of Canadians seriously and look for ways to put these ISIS fighters in jail
The fiery exchange comes after Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told CTV’s Question Period that the chances of reintegrating ISIS fighters is “pretty remote” and that collecting evidence and prosecuting should happen “whenever you can.”

WHY CUT SPENDING WHEN YOU CAN RAISE TAXES?

By any measure, Calgary taxpayers have endured an increasingly painful pinch over the past few years, says a Canadian tax watchdog.
Colin Craig with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the power rests with 15 members of council to curb the growing burden on taxpayers by making a few tough decisions of their own.
“Our concern, especially right now, is we’re seeing property taxes continue to go up while so many businesses and families are struggling,” Craig said.
“The fundamental problem is council needs to get its spending under control.”

THE PUTRID PELOSI

Are we supposed to believe alleged victims of sexual assault, or are we not? It's hard to keep up with the leftist playbook, what with the rules changing depending on who is accused. For example, the continual coddling of Bill Clinton by supposed feminists makes for a head-scratcher. One such feminist who defends a powerful white man in the face of sexual assault accusations is House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

PROVINCES PAY FOR TRUDEAU'S PLANS

Canada’s provincial premiers must occasionally pine for the good old days of Stephen Harper, when the prime minister semi-politely ignored them, refusing to attend their group get-togethers or even occasionally to return their calls.
When the Liberals came to power, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised a warmer relationship, with mutual respect and displays of good fellowship. As with numerous other Liberal vows, it hasn’t quite worked out as anticipated. On health care, climate change, marijuana legalization and, most recently, the Liberal “national housing strategy,” the premiers have discovered that Ottawa gets the glory, and they get the costs.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG

Finance Minister Bill Morneau is refusing to say whether he sold millions of dollars worth of company stock days before introducing tax changes that may have caused share prices to drop.

ONTARIO LIBERALS' DISASTROUSLY BAD POLICY

Let’s be clear: the Fair Hydro Plan is disastrously bad policy. Minister Thibeault happily explained it would reduce the price of residential electricity by 25%. But he doesn’t mention this is done by borrowing $26 billion to artificially lower electricity rates in the run-up to the next election. He doesn’t mention his plan will set electricity rates skyrocketing again just a few months after the election when ratepayers start paying back $40 billion after interest is added.

KILLING ONTARIO BUSINESS ONE KILOWATT AT A TIME

Skyrocketing hydro rates are forcing many Ontario manufacturers to close, lay off employees or move south of the border.
Hydro rates have increased so dramatically under Ontario’s Liberal government, that the province’s once-cheap electricity prices are now the highest in the country. As a consequence, officials from American states are wooing Ontario businesses.
And it’s working.

ISLAMIC MILITARY ALLIANCE MEETING

Saudi Arabia's assertive crown prince on Sunday opened the first high-level meeting of a kingdom-led alliance of Muslim nations against terrorism, vowing that extremists will no longer "tarnish our beautiful religion."
Mohammed bin Salman's words come as the Islamic State group, which sparked the creation of the alliance, has been driven out of Iraq and lost its self-described capital in Syria.

PATRICK'S PLAN

NP:  But you can no longer accuse these Tories of just trying to ride into power off Kathleen Wynne’s soiled, tattered coattails. It might not be especially conservative vision, but it is a vision — a different vision, a mostly defensible vision, an positive and upbeat vision despite its swipes at the Liberals, and a vision the Liberals will have some trouble trying to attack without looking foolish.

WILFRID LAURIER U. GIVES ZERO VALUE APOLOGY

Rex Murphy, NP:  Forced apologies come perilously close to a contradiction in terms, the point of an apology being the willing recognition of a genuine wrong and sincere regret for having caused it. Rather than, as in Laurier’s case, a desperate hope to pacify angry donors and reel back the good will of an outraged and astonished public.

EXPOSED: LIBERALS BEHIND THE GLOBAL WARMING SCARE

This is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from a series of data leaks and Freedom of Information (FOI) revelations exposing the relationship between left wing campaigners and the great climate change scam.
These leaks show how rich liberal backers—left-wing institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation, eco hedge-fund billionaires like Tom Steyer, and the various socialistic Geek Emperors of Silicon Valley—are funneling millions of dollars into sock-puppet environmental organizations both to undermine Trump’s economic agenda and to finance his political opponents both in the Democratic Party and the GOP.

LAUGH

A millennial job interview.

UBC'S NEW METHOD FOR TESTING MEAT

Researchers at the university have developed a new technique to identify unwanted animal products in ground beef, using a laser-equipped spectrometer and statistical analysis.
DNA testing can already identify foreign species in meat products, but it can’t locate offal, such as hearts, livers, kidneys and stomachs, mixed in with meat of the same species. UBC’s new technique can do both.

QUEBEC VOTERS WILL NOT STAY BOUGHT

“An honest politician,” a notoriously corrupt 19th-century American politician named Simon Cameron is supposed to have said, “is one who, when he is bought, stays bought.”
Nobody has ever applied that standard to voters, however. And politically, that’s the trouble for the Couillard government with its billion-dollar bid to buy votes legally with public funds in this week’s budget update: history suggests that when a Quebec government gives voters a bribe with their own money, it can’t count on their gratitude at the polls in return.

UNION FIGHTS DRUG-TESTING PLAN

The union representing Suncor workers in northern Alberta said Thursday it is seeking a last-minute injunction next week to block company plans to start a controversial random drug and alcohol testing program.

REMEMBERING THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE

Between 1923 and 1933, between four and 10 million Ukrainians died of starvation as the former Soviet Union sought to collectivize farming and replace Ukrainian peasants with more compliant Soviet villagers. Families were forced to surrender their food and kept from leaving their villages in search of more.
It’s important for the world to understand the scale of the genocide, said Broda, because it’s directly related to the current conflict.

GORE'S PAST AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

It seems like every time you open the morning paper, more powerful men are being accused of groping, raping and generally treating their female colleagues in inappropriate and degrading ways.
However, one prominent name has managed to stay off our radar, and I don’t know why. I am, of course, speaking of former Vice President Al Gore.

EGYPT MOSQUE ATTACK A MILITARY ASSAULT

Some astonishing revelations from the Egyptian state prosecutor on the mosque attack in the Sinai that killed 305 people and wounded more than a hundred.

The way the prosecutor described the attack is more reminiscent of a military assault than an incident of terrorism.

INSIDE STORY OF MUGABE'S DOWNFALL

HARARE (Reuters) - Inside State House in Harare, Robert Mugabe was in the tightest spot of his 37-year rule. Tanks were on the streets and troops had occupied the state broadcaster, from where the army had announced it had taken control of Zimbabwe.

P!SSING AWAY TAXPAYERS' MONEY

The epitome of stupid and wasteful decisions was the one in Ottawa last week that would have seen $5.6 million of public money spent on a temporary hockey rink for 26 days on Parliament Hill. This had nothing in particular to do with partisan politics.
Regardless of whether the Liberals or Conservatives are in power, this was all about the absurd logic of National Capital Commission and Heritage Canada bureaucrats, who regularly compete in a real-world version of dumb and dumber, no matter which party is in power.

CANADA'S FARM ORGANIZATIONS TALKING AT CROSS-PURPOSES

Canada’s farm industries are speaking at cross-purposes when it comes to international trade agreements.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-member deal being brokered between Canada and 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, was due to be finalized last month. The deal has since been thrown into turmoil after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not show up at the meeting to sign the deal.
 For Ontario’s pork, beef, and grain industries, TPP meant access to new export markets and opportunities for growth. All three endorsed the TPP. Canada’s dairy sector did not, arguing that market access concessions promised in the original deal needed to be “recalibrated,” since the U.S. had left.

DOCTORS MISTRUST THE OMA

Ontario’s doctors were recently surveyed for their views of the Ontario Medical Association by Concerned Ontario Doctors, an independent, grass-roots organization.
Over 5,000 responded.
Seventy-six percent said they don’t trust the OMA, the doctors’ official representative body.

ENFORCING THE AUDITOR GENERAL'S DEMANDS

Two senior members of the Commons' powerful public accounts committee say they will start enforcing the auditor general's demand that government departments and agencies put taxpayers' interests first when delivering services.
Michael Ferguson expressed frustration in releasing his most recent set of audits this week that his efforts to promote a new way of measuring how well government does just isn't sinking in.
"I keep delivering the same message: that the government doesn't understand the results from the citizen's perspective," he said. "It appears that our message is not being heard at the whole-of-government level, and that concerns me."

ACKNOWLEDGING BILL CLINTON AS A SEXUAL PREDATOR

  As the reckoning over sexual abuse finally reaches Bill Clinton, with handwringing by some of his former defenders in the press and in politics, one Clinton White House veteran is following developments with particular interest—and a large measure of skepticism.
  “It’s a day late, and it’s a dollar short,” says Linda Tripp, who, 20 years ago, was thrust into the center of the sex scandal that led to Clinton’s impeachment. It was Tripp who revealed the president’s sexual relationship with a 21-year-old White House intern and, for her troubles, was painted as the villain of the sordid episode.

SOROS'S $18BILLION TAX SHELTER

Congress is still scrambling to find ways to pay for its tax cut, so perhaps it should pay closer attention to last month’s news that George Soros had transferred $18 billion of his fortune to a private charity that he controls. There it will be sheltered from the Internal Revenue Service forever. This may be the single biggest tax dodge in U.S. history, yet no one on the right or left seems to have raised an eyebrow.

ASYLUM FOR A CORRUPT VENEZUELAN JUDGE

Ralenis Tovar, the Venezuelan criminal court judge who signed the arrest warrant of Leopoldo Lopez, now wants asylum in Canada.  The man she signed the arrest warrant for was a popular dissident leader who was thrown in jail without trial in 2014 after being blamed for violent protests.  He spent three years in mostly solitary confinement as a result of her failure to speak out.  Tovar admitted she knew he was innocent.
Here's the thing: The time to have asked for asylum was when the Chavistas put the Lopez warrant in front of her and told her sign the warrant or else.  Instead of saying no and asking for political asylum then, when she would have had a valid case, she signed instead, took the bonuses, and went her merry way while Lopez rotted in prison. 

ANGELA MERKEL'S COMING DEMISE

There is much to criticize in most of her policies from her sudden decision to outlaw the nuclear industry only months after legally extending its operations, to mindlessly tying the destiny of the EU to that of the Greek bailouts (“the end of the Euro is the end of Europe”), her support for Russian pipelines, and several others. But limits of space would allow us to focus only at the two policies of which she was the main architect and proponent: energy transition (Energiewende) and the migrants disaster.

RETIREMENT AGE IN THE OECD COUNTRIES

All industrialized countries, particularly those in the OECD and including Canada, are experiencing an aging of their populations. 
   Of the 22 high-income OECD countries apart from Canada, 18 of them (over 80 percent) (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) are enacting increases in the age of eligibility for public retirement programs.

SCIENTISTS CALL DOWSING MEDIEVAL WITCHCRAFT

The news that many water companies use dowsing to locate underground water has prompted outraged demands from scientists that they desist at once from wasting time and money on “medieval witchcraft”. They are right to call this practice deluded. But it reveals how complicated the relationship is between scientific evidence and public belief.
When the science blogger Sally Le Page highlighted the issue after her parents spotted an engineer dowsing for Severn Trent Water, the company responded to her query by claiming that “we’ve found some of the older methods are just as effective than [sic] the new ones” (such as the use of drones and satellite imaging). The engineer concerned told her parents that dowsing works for him eight times in 10.

GREENIE'S DEFENCE

Emily Johnston, who admitted shutting down 5 pipelines last year with the help of four friends, has finally found a judge willing to hear her “necessity defence”.
"I shut down an oil pipeline – because climate change is a ticking bomb"

OPPRESSION INDUSTRY AT TORONTO CITY HALL

Hot on the heels of the efforts by Black Lives Matter-Toronto to bully Pride Toronto and the Toronto school board into submission, the City is planning to spend $1-million next year for a new office to counter anti-black racism.
That report — which covers the first steps to implement a five-year(!) plan to counter anti-black racism — is on the agenda of next week’s meeting of John Tory’s handpicked executive committee (of yes-people).

A FEW WORDS IN FRENCH...

....and la merde hits le fan in Quebec.

CANADA'S WINTER FORECAST

TORONTO — One of Canada’s high profile weather forecasters is warning Canadians across the country to brace for a whole lot of snow this winter. 
Chris Scott, The Weather Network’s chief meteorologist, says the message from his forecast team is “‘buckle up’ because it looks like a stormy winter.”

TAKEN TO COURT FOR LACK OF FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

Harrison Thunderchild says he really didn’t want to have to take the Thunderchild First Nation, of which he is a member, to court.
After all, his nephew is the band chief. And he has other relatives on the council.
But as questions in the community swirled about the way the First Nation, located about an hour north of Battleford, Sask., was handling its finances, and band leaders allegedly refused to disclose basic financial records, Thunderchild says he was left with no choice.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN GAS PLANTS TRIAL

TORONTO – The suggestion that two senior political staffers wiped only personal data from computers in the office of former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty doesn’t wash, a judge was told in closing arguments on Wednesday.
Instead, the prosecution argued, evidence shows that David Livingston and Laura Miller deliberately set about deleting embarrassing records about the government’s costly 2011 decision to cancel two gas plants to ensure they would never see the light of day.

PRE-PAID ELECTRICITY METERS IN ONTARIO

     Hydro One is seeking permission to install “pre-paid” meters across Ontario to force consumers – especially those struggling to cover electricity bills – to pay up front before the utility switches on the juice for heat and lights.
    Meanwhile, it ought to be painfully obvious when you waste billions on phony rate cuts, overpay for unneeded “clean” energy and mismanage energy infrastructure to a point that Ontarians enjoy the highest electricity rates in the country that paying sky-high electricity bills is a growing burden for many.

ONTARIO LIBERALS INCAPABLE OF LEARNING

  The scariest thing about Ontario’s Liberal government is not just that it regularly makes billion-dollar mistakes, but that it refuses to learn from them.
    A report by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers on Tuesday estimates the Wynne government is losing $1 billion of public money annually selling surplus clean electricity (wind, hydro-electric and nuclear power) at a loss to neighbouring jurisdictions, or dumping it without using it.

ISIS DEFEATED IN IRAQ & SYRIA

Iraqi Prime Minister Hadir Al-Abadi declared military victory over the Islamic State in Iraq on Tuesday, just hours after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iranian-backed forces had driven the terror group out of Syria.
ISIS's last Iraqi town of Rawa fell on Friday, and Abadi only awaits the clearing of a patch of desert along Iraq's border with Syria to declare final victory.

LARGEST LAND CLAIM SETTLEMENT IN CANADIAN HISTORY

The people of Ontario have, for the most part, watched the evolution of Aboriginal land claims from afar, with British Columbia snatching the lion’s share of the headlines.
But reality is about to set in as Ontario closes in on a treaty with the Algonquins of Ontario, the first modern-day treaty the province has ever signed. The treaty negotiations, which involve the federal government as well, cover 36,000 square kilometres, 86 municipalities and 1.1 million residents in Ontario.

LERNER & PAZ, THE CRYBULLIES

Former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner told a federal court last week that members of her family, including “young children,” face death threats and a real risk of physical harm if her explanation of the tea party targeting scandal becomes public.
Ms. Lerner and Holly Paz, her deputy at the IRS, filed documents in court Thursday saying tapes and transcripts of depositions they gave in a court case this year must remain sealed in perpetuity, or else they could spur an enraged public to retaliate.

NORTH KOREAN'S MAD DASH TO FREEDOM

Incredible video footage from the tense Korean Demilitarized Zone shows one North Korean soldier’s desperate dash into South Korea as his comrades let loose a barrage of bullets.

TRUDEAU LIBERALS STUCK ON HOLD

Whenever politicians circulate the text of their speeches in advance, they often include a disclaimer: “Check against delivery.”
Auditor General Michael Ferguson has just stamped that warning across Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s entire government. His latest report is a stunning blow to a party that came to power two years ago with big promises to respect public servants and introduce a new philosophy of “deliverology” to government.
Ferguson’s devastating report has described a government that can’t even pay its public servants properly or figure out how to provide results-based service to citizens on one of the most basic aspects of government: taxation. “Check against deliverology” would be a good alternative title for this latest report — especially the parts about the Phoenix payroll debacle and the Canada Revenue Agency’s dismal treatment of taxpayers.

LETTING GO OF THAT TERRORIST IDEOLOGY

Justin Trudeau batted away claims that the Liberals are soft on terror this week, as the government faces the prospect of more jihadists returning from Syria after the collapse of the Islamic State’s caliphate.
Besides, the government has launched the new Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence to help jihadists “let go of that terrorist ideology,” he said.
    So sleep easy. Nothing to see here. Hardened extremists can be relied upon to change their minds, if given the “appropriate disengagement and re-integration support.”

AUDITOR GENERAL REPORTS ON CRA

The Canada Revenue Agency's call centres blocked more than half the calls they received and gave taxpayers the wrong answers to their questions nearly one third of the time, the federal Auditor-General says.

Auditor-General Michael Ferguson's fall report, tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday, found that the CRA actively blocked calls from taxpayers so that it could say it met its service standard of keeping people waiting no more than two minutes – and reported making far fewer errors than auditors discovered.

"We found that the agency's number didn't account for the 29 million calls it blocked in a year – more than half of its total call volume [53.5 million]. Those calls either get a busy signal, a message to visit the agency's website or a message to call back later."

LOWERING THE VALUE OF A MEDAL

NP:   The Senate of Canada Sesquicentennial Medal may have been created to honour “unsung heroes,” but the senate also managed to generously award the decoration to its own.
Of 1,500 medals struck by the Royal Canadian Mint for a cost of $225,000, 47 were awarded to  current and former senators.

MACRON THE HYPOCRITE

According to The Guardian, a temporary shortage of nuclear power in France forced France to buy substantial amounts of “dirty” coal power from Britain – right at the time French President Macron was taunting President Trump, and pushing for climate trade tariffs against countries which do not share the EU’s “climate values”.

MERKEL PREFERS ELECTION TO RULING WITH MINORITY

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would prefer a new election to ruling with a minority after talks on forming a three-way coalition failed overnight, but Germany’s president told parties they owed it to voters to try to form a government.
The major obstacle to a three-way deal was immigration, according to Merkel, who was forced into negotiations after bleeding support in the September 24th election to the far-right in a backlash at her 2015 decision to let in over 1 million immigrants.

BELL'S HIGH PRESSURE SALES TACTICS

A Bell Canada employee made some disturbing allegations about the country's biggest telecom provider, saying workers are forced to sell customers products and services they don't need and failure to make those sales puts their jobs at risk.

MCKENNA'S COAL-FREE PLANS

While rebuking U.S. President Donald Trump's push to revive the coal power industry, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the federal government has no plans to shutter Canada's coal exports.   Most of Canada's coal exports is in metallurgical coal used in steel, and not the thermal coal used to generate energy.
In Canada, four provinces still depend on coal for electricity: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. McKenna said she is working with these provinces to wean them off, though there are still approximately 42,000 Canadian jobs in the coal industry.

IDIOCY & INTIMIDATION AT WILFRED LAURIER UNIVERSITY

In the meeting, Ms. Shepherd is confronted by three superiors who bully her, ignore her version of the story and attempt to intimidate her with veiled accusations. At times, she is reduced to tears. The power imbalance is extreme. The resemblance to a Maoist struggle session – where party zealots gang up on a wrong-thinker and try to force her to confess the error of her ways – is painful.
   What did Ms. Shepherd do? She played a three-minute video clip from a TV program that had been broadcast on TVO. It featured a debate over transgender pronouns. The role of Hitler was played by Jordan Peterson, the notorious University of Toronto professor who has thrown the entire academic world into conniption fits with his alleged hate thoughts.
Ms. Shepherd attempted to explain that she doesn't even agree with Prof. Peterson.

TAX REVOLT IN ONTARIO?

Ontario's fiscal update revealed that personal income tax revenues in the country’s largest province were downgraded to come in nearly $2 billion lower than forecast in the spring budget, despite an upgrade in projected economic growth.
No explanation was offered for this unusual set of circumstances — tax revenues should rise in a growing economy — but the suspicion is that high-earning Canadians are fed up seeing more than 50 cents on every dollar they earn over $200,000 taken by the taxman.

TIME TO INCREASE THE PENALTIES

The penalties imposed by the Ethics Commissioner herself are relatively minor. She can’t send anyone to jail, for instance, or force anyone out of office. What she can do is slap a public office holder with “an administrative monetary penalty not exceeding $500” for violations of the Act.

KEYSTONE PIPELINE APPROVED BY NEBRASKA

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says Nebraska's decision to allow TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline to run through that state brings North America closer to greater energy security.
Nebraska's Public Service Commission on Monday approved the pipeline's passage in a 3-2 vote, although not along the preferred route for the $10-billion project.

ADDING CANADA NOT ON EAS AGENDA

A spat between Canada and Australia is heating up as Australian officials signal they will block Canada's admission to Asia's premier security forum, the East Asia Summit, amid tensions over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
An Australian news report suggests that country's leadership has already rejected Canada's application to participate in the key forum because Australian trade officials were "gobsmacked" by Canada's behaviour on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) last week in Vietnam.

GERMANY'S POLITICAL CRISIS: COALITION TALKS FAIL

The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) withdrew from talks after more than four weeks of fruitless negotiations with Merkel’s conservative bloc and the environmentalist Greens, saying there was not enough common ground.

With German leadership seen as crucial for a European Union grappling with governance reform and Britain’s impending exit, FDP leader Christian Lindner’s announcement that he was pulling out spooked investors and sent the euro falling.

MUGABE'S DEFIANCE

President Robert Mugabe shocked Zimbabwe on Sunday night with a televised address that failed to announce his highly anticipated resignation, a dramatic twist that means the 93-year-old may face immediate impeachment hearings.
Whether the final act of defiance was planned or simply the result of reading the wrong remarks, three senior party officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Mugabe deviated from an agreed-upon-text announcing he was leaving office.

WARNINGS OF CREEPING CHINESE INFLUENCE

Critics, however, accuse Beijing of threatening the sovereignty of foreign political systems.

It was that risk Prof. Hamilton sought to document.

He tracked the rivers of money flowing into the Australian education system that "have made the universities beholden to China and extremely reluctant to do anything that might upset Beijing." He dug into work by Chinese emissaries "to turn the Chinese diaspora in Australia into a highly effective weapon for Beijing's diplomacy in this part of the world." He looked at opinion-makers espousing views favourable to China, some of whom "have been won over through financial ties to Chinese organizations." He looked at Chinese-language media in Australia, 90 per cent of which now "adopt a pro-Beijing political stance."

ONTARIO'S STUDENT HOSTAGES RELEASED

Ontario legislated college faculty back to work on Sunday, ending a five-week strike and paving the way for students to return to class on Tuesday.
Colleges are extending their semesters so students don't lose their terms, but trying to condense five missed weeks into roughly two extra ones will be very stressful, student advocates say.

COUNTRIES REFUSE TO REPATRIATE THEIR CITIZENS

More than 15,000 foreign nationals are on Canada's deportation list, but some can't be removed because their home country won't take them back.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirms some countries either delay or refuse to repatriate their citizens who are here illegally, but will not divulge which ones as it might "impact diplomatic negotiations."

QUESTIONING ETHICS COMMISSIONER'S HESITANCE

Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson was warned as far back as September that Finance Minister Bill Morneau could be in a conflict of interest over a bill he was spearheading that benefits his family firm, but the federal watchdog didn't launch a formal examination until November when controversy over the matter had dominated the House of Commons for weeks.

STUDENTS THE ONLY ADULTS IN THE ROOM

The Ontario college strike no one cared about is now big news. Suddenly.
Turns out you can't ignore the plight of up to 500,000 students for five weeks and pretend it's business as usual. Let alone politics as usual, collective bargaining as usual, or just plain brinkmanship as usual.
And so begins the blame game by rival politicians, college presidents, and union leaders. Each claiming the moral high ground, purporting to work in the best interests of students while hoping no one notices their lowest moments.

USA TO DOMINATE OIL AND GAS MARKETS

There is an ongoing power shift in the world energy market.  The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual publication, World Energy Outlook, predicts that the U.S. will dominate the global oil and gas markets for many years to come as a result of the shale boom, which is the biggest supply surge in history.
   By 2025, the growth in American oil production will equal that achieved by Saudi Arabia at the height of its expansion, and increases in natural gas will surpass those of the former Soviet Union, the agency said…. The boom will turn the U.S., still among the biggest oil importers, into a net exporter of fossil fuels.

TRUDEAU'S VIRTUE-SIGNALLING AT TPP

Canada’s Liberal government is yearning to put its virtue-signalling stamp on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was negotiated by the previous government.
The broader themes behind Canada’s stance are familiar. Canada insists on pursuing the pet themes of the Trudeau government by either enhancing chapters or introducing new chapters into the TPP on progressive values such as gender rights and environmental and labour standards. This will likely prove a fool’s errand.

COMPETING TO GET RID OF INDUSTRY

Ross said governments in Victoria and Ottawa in particular are “competing to get rid of industry” rather than competing to attract industry, like the United States aggressively does, echoing the experiences of Indigenous leaders in other regions, where environmental activism has crushed the fur trade, seal hunt and natural resource extraction and left behind poverty, isolation and resentment.

TORONTO'S UNAFFORDABLE LAND PRICES

The hottest housing market in the world is facing a reckoning.
Toronto-area land prices have gotten so high that developers are struggling to build new homes that people can afford. Buyers are no longer lining up, despite discounts and incentives.
The cost of land has nearly tripled in some areas the past five years, according to Altus Group Ltd. It now accounts for roughly half the price of a new home. In 2011, it was a little more than a third.

VEGAN MUPPETS & THE BUTCHER

"This couple of muppets were stood in their sheepskin coats and leather shoes holding flowers."
The silent duo stood outside the Devon store clutching flowers with a sign propped up against their legs which read 'in memory of the animals who didn't want to die'.
After spotting the brightly dressed pair outside his business Billy Chibouni, who runs Arthur's Butchery and Delicatessan in Topsham, Devon with his wife Alx, quickly sketched his own sign on the back of an envelope.

WHAT DEMOCRATS ARE WILLING TO DEFEND

In a way, Democrats have gotten exactly what they have deserved for accommodating the Clintons' nonsense. Their antics have cost Democrats not one but two presidential elections.
One great irony of Hillary Clinton's career is that she became a senator by elbowing another woman out of the way. If she had not become the first female senator from New York, Rep. Nita Lowey would have.

NOTLEY STANDS BY PIPELINES DESPITE OIL SPILL

Premier Rachel Notley is standing by the safety of pipelines to transport oil despite a 795,000-litre spill on the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota earlier this week.
The spill Thursday could not have come at a worst time as Nebraska is set to vote Monday on whether TransCanada Corp. can cross the state with its $8-billion Keystone XL pipeline project.

BOMBARDIER FORGETS TO THANK CANADIAN TAXPAYERS

Bombardier confirmed Friday morning it will hire about 1,000 workers over the next 18 months for its new Global 7000 business jet.

THEY'VE GUTTED THE SYSTEM

Ontario’s college faculty strike has cast a new spotlight on an old issue — the question of whether this province is adequately funding its public colleges.

SAUDI CORRUPTION PROBE WIDENS

After jailing dozens of members of the royal family, and extorting numerous prominent businessmen, Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman has widened his so called corruption probe further still.   The Wall Street Journal reports that at least two dozen military officers, including multiple commanders, recently have been rounded up in connection to the Saudi government’s sweeping corruption investigation, according to two senior advisers to the Saudi government    

LIBERAL HANDS IN YOUR POCKET

Since coming into office in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has made several major changes to the federal personal income tax system. This report examines how those tax changes affect Canadian families with children, focusing particularly on families who are in the bottom 20 percent of income earners.
Specifically, the report measures the number and percentage of families in this income group who are paying higher personal income taxes due to the federal government’s changes— and how much more they are paying.

CLIMATE TALK CRISIS: WHERE'S THE MONEY?

Looters who can’t curb their greed always run out of money. Nobody tries to save money or build their businesses when prosperity just attracts the attention of thieves.
The fake climate crisis appeared to offer a chance for greedy third world looters who have squeezed their own national economies dry to get their hooks into Western prosperity. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few greedy Western politicians were also hoping to receive a slice of the action.
Their fury at being denied is understandable. They showed up at COP23 hoping to help themselves to our cash, for what they likely thought was a done deal. Thanks largely to President Trump, it seems likely they will go home disappointed.

WHO DECIDES THE LAND IS SACRED?

Luke said he had an epiphany in 2004 — which he did not reveal to his people until 2009 ­— that the grizzly bears that inhabit a large chunk of public land in the Purcells are sacred, divine protectors.
As a result, Luke’s small tribal group entered into years of hard political negotiations with the B.C. government, which turned into a precedent-setting court case against developers of a ski resort called Jumbo Glacier.

INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT TESLA TRUCKS

Tesla has finally unveiled its much-promised big rig. And with not a little fanfare, especially considering that said semi is claimed to have a range of 500 miles (800 kilometres!) and, more importantly — at least for fleets seriously considering an all-electric 18-wheeled future — is able to recharge 400 of those miles (640 km) in just 30 minutes. So the question is, has The Elon Musk really reinvented the electric vehicle yet again?

WORK FOR CANADIAN SHIP BUILDERS

The Liberal government is under pressure to provide more work to two of the country’s main shipyards or employees at those companies may face layoffs.
Davie Shipyards could lay off hundreds of workers in Levis, Que., if the government doesn’t okay the construction of a second supply ship for the Royal Canadian Navy, company and union officials warn.
At the same time, the union representing workers at the Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver is warning that some employees it represents are facing layoffs because of downtime in the federal government’s shipbuilding program

NDP BACKS UNION; SCREW THE STUDENTS

TORONTO — Ontario’s Liberal government is moving to introduce back-to-work legislation that would end a nearly five-week strike by college faculty, though opposition from the NDP means it may not happen quickly.
Unanimous support of the legislation would have meant students could return to class on Monday morning.
But the NDP blocked a government attempt to table the bill by refusing unanimous consent to allow the Liberals to do so Thursday evening after the normally scheduled time period for introducing legislation.

HYDRO ONE SEEKS RATE HIKE

Hydro One has applied for a rate increase in order to keep the power system stable, its president and CEO said Thursday.
Speaking after delivering remarks to the Empire Club, Mayo Schmidt spoke about the application that’s currently before the Ontario Energy Board, which seeks to increase rates by 0.5 per cent this year and 4.8 per cent next year.

SAUDI ARABIA VERSUS IRAN

The Syrian Civil War killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. Its ripple effects brought terror to Europe and dragged the United States into the fighting. And it’s just the appetizer for the coming war.
The real war is the one that the Saudis and the Iranians have been maneuvering toward for years. Those maneuvers included everything from Iran’s nuke deal, the fighting in Yemen, the Syrian Civil War, the Iraqi suppression of Kurdish independence, the rise of ISIS, and the Qatari embargo.

CANADA'S EXPENSIVE INEFFECTIVE CLIMATE ACTION PLANS

An examination of Canada’s various carbon pricing programs reveals a history of flawed implementation that undermines the utility and efficiency of carbon pricing. Rather than obeying fundamental economic principles of true revenue neutrality, regulatory displacement, and allowing markets to find lower cost ways to reduce carbon, Canada’s carbon taxes are piled on top of regulations, are not revenue neutral, and subvert the functioning of energy markets by mandating particular technologies such as wind and solar power, and electric vehicles.

AN END RUN AROUND ATHIESTS

For some reason, there's nothing that gets the goat of atheists more than football coaches praying with their students. A couple of years ago, we saw the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) take on college football coaches who have dared to live out their faith to their players. That same year, the Godless Gestapo stopped a coach in Washington state from praying with his players.

The latest target of these joyless busybodies is East Coweta High School, a school located in a small town southwest of Atlanta. The FFRF has successfully lobbied the Coweta County School System to halt Coach John Small from leading — or even taking part in — pregame prayers with his players.

IDENTIFYING CANADIAN WAR CASUALTIES

Lockyer, 31, is the tiny program's co-ordinator and lone forensic anthropologist. She travels twice a year to France to study the remains of Canadians uncovered by construction workers or farmers in old battlefields increasingly invaded by modern-day development.
On the trip back, it's not unusual for her to be carrying a piece of human bone in her luggage.
Since the program started in 2007, it has become a matter of course to temporarily repatriate a sample from every newly discovered set of remains believed to be a Canadian soldier.

ZIMBABWE'S BLOODLESS COUP

Zimbabwe's military was in control of the capital and the state broadcaster on Wednesday and was holding President Robert Mugabe and his wife under house arrest in what appeared to be a coup against the 93-year-old Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state.

The military was at pains, however, to emphasize it had not staged a military takeover, but was instead starting a process to restore Zimbabwe's democracy.

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES RUNNING OUT OF TAX REVENUE

NP:  But for number-crunchers, something interesting happened. It was the day when France ran out of money. As of Nov. 7, all the money the government raises through its taxes – and this being France, there are literally dozens of them – had been spent. The rest of the year is financed completely on tick.
And yet France is far from alone. All the main European countries, the UK included, are running out of tax revenue well before the year is over.

LIBERALS DELETING EMAILS AGAIN?

Premier Kathleen Wynne says she never received the Grassy Narrows mercury report.

A visibly displeased Wynne said the report disclosed by the Star last Saturday was “new to me” and is a clarion call to further action beyond the $85 million cleanup of the Wabigoon River.

EXPLAINING CANADA'S HIGH GAS PRICES

At the moment this story goes online, gasoline in Tsawwassen, B.C. is $1.45 a litre. Drive a mere two kilometres south into Point Roberts, WA, however, and gas can be had for the equivalent of CAD$1 per litre.
What gives? Canada has more oil than everyone except Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and we remain the single largest foreign supplier of U.S. oil. So why are we paying a nearly 50 per cent premium on a product that by all rights should be flowing from our kitchen faucets
But Dan McTeague of GasBuddy.com is pretty sure that more unseemly forces are at work in maintaining the U.S.-Canadian price gap. He chalks it up to a “distinct lack of competition” among Canadian refiners, allowing artificially high wholesale prices to persist unchecked.

PROF'S GROUND RULES FOR THE SEMESTER

1.  The only “ism” I ever want to come out your mouth is a syllogism. If I catch you using an “ism” or its analogous “ist” — racist, classist, etc. — then you will not be permitted to continue speaking until you have first identified which “ism” you are guilty of at that very moment. You are not allowed to fault others for being biased or privileged until you have first identified and examined your own biases and privileges.
2.  If I catch you this semester using the words “fair,” “diversity,” or “equality,” or a variation on those terms, and you do not stop immediately to explain what you mean, you will lose your privilege to express any further opinions in class until you first demonstrate that you understand three things about the view that you are criticizing.
3.  If you ever begin a statement with the words “I feel,” before continuing you must cluck like a chicken or make some other suitable animal sound.

DATA-FIDDLERS AND LIARS

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a wing of the World Health Organization, removed numerous sections from a draft of its review on glyphosate that concluded glyphosate was not a carcinogen.
That’s according to an investigation by Reuters, published last month.
The IARC concluded in March 2015 that glyphosate probably caused cancer in humans. The organization cited “sufficient evidence,” that it caused cancer in animals and “limited evidence” that it caused cancer in humans.
The edits identified by Reuters were the removal of multiple scientists’ conclusions that studies they had conducted found no link between glyphosate and cancer.

GERMAN HOMELESS POPULATION INCREASING

According to a recent estimate published by the Federal Association for Assistance for the Homeless, the number of homeless people living on Germany’s streets has risen by 33% in a matter of just a couple of years, to 52,000.  Meanwhile, as The Local notes, the number of Germans who can't afford their own home and have been forced to rely on the generosity of family and friends for a place to sleep every night has also risen a staggering 26%, to over 400,000 people.

CURSING INFIDEL CANADIANS

Rehab Dughmosh, a Muslim woman who tried to murder people with a golf club and a knife in a Canadian Tire store last June, appeared in court Friday and was furiously defiant:

Damn your legislation, damn your nationality, go to hell. Hey you infidels, I do not worship what you worship.

BEWARE ONTARIO'S TEMPORARY TAX INCREASES

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman was fond of saying there’s “nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.”
In Ontario, we can add that there’s nothing so permanent as a temporary tax increase.

LIBERALS RUN THEIR OWN PROMISE TRACKER

The government’s launch of its own online promise tracker on Tuesday tells us that either the Liberals are incredibly naive or they think that of us. It’s hard to know which is worse.
You’ve also got to love their choice of words. The tracker doesn’t actually mention broken promises at all. Rather they label them “not being pursued”. How quaint. It’s like saying shoplifting is goods not being paid for.

DISGRACEFUL GOVERNMENT INACTION

MANILA, Philippines — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he reassured Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that Ottawa is searching for a way to dispose of thousands of tons of Canadian trash languishing in the port of Manila.
The household waste, which includes soiled diapers, has been rotting in about 100 shipping containers at the port for four years.
The stranded Canadian garbage is a well-known concern in the Philippines — it's been making headlines for years and has even been the subject of protests by environmental groups.

ZIMBABWE'S ARMY SEIZES POWER

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe’s military seized power early on Wednesday saying it was targeting “criminals” around President Robert Mugabe, the only ruler the country has known in its 37 years of independence.
   Soldiers seized the state broadcaster. Armored vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby. T    It was not clear whether the apparent military coup would bring a formal end to Mugabe’s rule; the main goal of the generals appears to be preventing Mugabe’s 52-year-old wife Grace from succeeding him

ROBOT ROVER

Boston Dynamics' SpotMini robot dog looked right at us, and it was downright creepy

AILING GENERAL ELECTRIC GETS A RESET

The moment of reckoning many analysts expected at General Electric  has finally come.The engineering conglomerate, which makes everything from jet and train engines to energy grid infrastructure and mammogram machines, will be slashing its dividend 50% as incoming CEO John Flannery works to right the company's course amid woeful performance.

LIBERALS BLOWING HOT AIR IN BONN

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to divert public attention away from the embarrassing reality Canada is far behind fulfilling his 2015 Paris climate accord commitments to reduce our industrial greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions linked to climate change.
That’s why Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna is declaring a “war on coal,” in conjunction with the U.K., at this week’s annual United Nations’ gabfest on climate change in Bonn, Germany.

MINIMUM WAGE HIKE HAS WIDE RAMIFICATIONS

I keep reading about how Ontario municipalities are just coming to realize Ontario’s minimum wage hikes will require them to raise property taxes.
Surprise, surprise.

RAILROAD P!SSING MATCH

The federal government is preparing to sue U.S.-based Omnitrax over the company’s refusal to pay for much-needed repairs to the only rail line supporting Churchill, Man.
Transport Canada says Omnitrax has failed to meet a 30-day ultimatum to begin repairs on the crucial Hudson Bay Railway line, which serves as the only land route for delivering fuel and supplies to Churchill. The remote community has been without rail service since flooding destroyed its only land link on May 23, sparking fears of a propane shortage through the winter.

COSTLY PHOENIX PHIX

The minister responsible for the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system can't guarantee that the tab to get things under control won’t hit a billion dollars.
Public Services and Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough says she can’t promise that taxpayers won’t be on the hook for a sky high bill to tame the payroll program that’s been smouldering for years.

EU EXTORTING MORE MONEY FROM UK

As we discussed (see here) when Brexit talks resumed this week, the EU is piling pressure on Theresa’s May’s weakened government to extort more money out of the UK in the divorce settlement – now termed “moment of clarification” in EU parlance. Despite rumours before the latest talks began, that Theresa May was prepared to increase the UK’s offer, if this was the case, the EU wasn’t impressed. In the post-talks press conference. the beleaguered Brexit Secretary, David Davis, stated that there is positive momentum in the negotiations…

RIGHTEOUS LIBERALS

Rex Murphy: There is no company Liberals will not keep in pursuit of climate action.

40 YEARS WAIT FOR A ROAD

TUKTOYAKTUK, N.W.T. — At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, in the arctic cold and darkness of the Mackenzie Delta, Darrel Nasogaluak will fire up his vehicle and head out on Canada’s newest and most exotic road trip.
Nasogaluak, mayor of the Northwest Territories hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, will drive down 120 kilometres of brand-new, two-lane, all-weather gravel to Inuvik. Replacing a seasonal ice road, the new highway is the country’s first permanent link to its Arctic coast.

SJW ATTENTION-SEEKERS IN MONTREAL

The John A. Macdonald monument in downtown Montreal was covered head-to-toe with what appears to be red paint early Sunday.
The vandalism took place ahead of a demonstration that saw hundreds take to the city’s streets to denounce racism and Bill 62, the province’s religious neutrality law requiring anyone receiving or providing public services to have an uncovered face.

THE PARADISE PAPERS & TICKET SCALPING

The leak of tax haven records known as the Paradise Papers reveals for the first time the vast sums of money involved in Lavallée's ticket operation, which is part of a global scalping industry that experts value at $8 billion.

N KOREA'S DESPERATION FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS

It is unlikely that the DPRK will ever return to nuclear virginity. Pyongyang has multiple reasons for retaining its nukes. For a country with an economy roughly the size of Paraguay’s, a bizarre political system that has no external appeal, and an increasingly antiquated conventional military force, a nuclear-weapons capability is the sole factor that provides prestige and a seat at the table of international affairs. There is one other crucial reason for the DPRK’s truculence, though. North Korean leaders simply do not trust the United States to honor any agreement that might be reached.

Unfortunately, there are ample reasons for such distrust.

 

THE RAPIDLY AGING WESTERN WORLD

From issues such as declining fertility rates to the ongoing complications resulting from China’s famous “One Child Policy”, there are many demographic challenges that the world must grapple with in the coming years.

However, Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes one problem of particular importance – at least in places like Europe and the Americas – is a rapidly aging population. As the population shifts grayer, potential consequences include higher dependency ratios, rising healthcare costs, and shifting economies and cities.

 

CALLING OUT CAMPUS FACISTS

I have nothing against protest. It is a time-honored form of communicating dissent. Often, the concerns students express very much deserve to be addressed. But the tactic of silencing, which has been deployed repeatedly at universities around the country, only hurts these activists’ cause. Rather than helping people who feel they have little power or voice, students who squelch speech alienate those who are most likely to be sympathetic to their message

INDUSTRY-NUMBING NATURAL GAS PRICES

Faced with a poor outlook for natural gas prices, three producers have slashed their 2018 budgets by a combined $660 million, while a fourth warns that prices sustained at current levels would “paralyze” development in western Canada.

Bonavista Energy Corp., said that natural gas prices at the AECO pricing hub in southern Alberta averaged just $1.38 per gigajoule during the third quarter.

“These industry-numbing prices, frequently fetching no bid on the day, were amongst the most volatile movements in pricing we have witnessed in our 20 years in the business,” the company said in the statement earlier this month.

 

NEW BAIL RULES ARE POLITICAL MEDDLING

Liberal Attorney General Yasir Naqvi has issued new micromanaging and politically correct orders to Ontario’s Crown Attorneys. Henceforth, Crowns will be further restricted in opposing bail in criminal cases. It’s a solution looking for a problem.
Our creative AG announced a new bail directive telling Crowns to just loosen up and let more accused of crimes out on the streets. Presto – the inmate overcrowding problem gone.

NOT SO "SUNNY WAYS"

After also being forbidden from seeking any Liberal nomination in any riding for the 2015 federal election, Christine Innes launched a defamation suit against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and David MacNaughton, co-chair of Trudeau’s Ontario campaign team.
Innes, a Liberal staffer at Queen’s Park, alleged Trudeau and MacNaughton defamed her by accusing her and her campaign team of employing “bullying and intimidation” tactics and claimed $1.5 million in damages to her reputation. Her husband, former Liberal member of Parliament and cabinet minister Tony Ianno, joined the suit soon after, claiming an additional $1.5 million in damages.

MOST PATHETIC EXCUSE EVER

International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Justin Trudeau missed a Trans-Pacific Partnership meeting due to a “scheduling issue.”

THE POLAR VORTEX RETURNS

The unseasonably cold weather is, of course, another boon for the energy market, with natural gas prices in New England soaring 700% this week as refineries braced for the uptick in demand.

MORE ONTARIO LIBERAL GOVERNMENT INTRUSION

This is an invasion of our privacy in my opinion as our doctor or doctors already has our medical records so why does the Ontario government need this info?  What will the Ontario government do with this info if people actually fill this form out?  Do you get better health care if you are white vs other races or vice versa, or if you make 100 thousand dollars or more a year do you get better health care than a person making 20 thousand dollars or less a year or vice versa? If you have a family are you getting better health care than a single person or vice versa?

NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL

From its perch atop a hill in downtown Ottawa, the memorial stands as an imposing and indelible landmark, a reminder not just of the crucial role Canada played in the First World War – but also the human cost, in service and sacrifice, borne out by generations of Canadians over a century of conflict.
It took well over a decade from the time the memorial’s concept was approved until the day King George VI arrived in Ottawa to oversee its unveiling in 1939 – just four months before the start of the Second World War. And over the ensuing decades, it has taken on a sort of dual identity: while a monument that evokes a specific, pivotal moment in Canada’s history, it has simultaneously evolved to take on new significance as our nation matures and faces new challenges.

CHALLENGING QUEBEC'S FACE-COVERING BAN

Will Ottawa take up the legal fight against Quebec’s face-covering ban?

Justin Trudeau could speed up a decision by asking the Supreme Court to rule. But challenging provincially autonomy like that would be a touchy issue in Quebec.

 

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO FELL IN BATTLE

Each November, poppies bloom on the lapels and collars of millions of Canadians.
The person who first introduced the Poppy to Canada and the Commonwealth was Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of Guelph, Ontario, a Canadian Medical Officer during the First World War. John McCrae penned the Poem “In Flanders Fields” on a scrap of paper in May, 1915 on the day following the death of a fellow soldier.

EH???

All women talked about the extensive levels of exaggerated movements and anger that they were exposed to while working with their farming partners.

This causes stress and anxiety, especially when the driver is asked to do things that are unsafe. Excessive verbal abuse and exaggerated body signals caused one gal to be so frustrated that she accidentally dumped her man out of the front-end loader. He wasn’t hurt and she cheerfully chimed in that “after 43 years of marriage, I don’t get the finger any more.” Lesson learned.

OH CANNABIS!

Anyone planning to purchase legal marijuana next year better be prepared to pay the taxman as well, to the tune of at least $1 for every gram — plus GST.

CHINA'S NEW WAY TO HIDE DEBT

Under pressure to trim borrowings, China’s companies have found a way to reduce their lofty debt burdens -- even if some of the risk remains. Sales of perpetual notes - long-dated securities that can be listed as equity rather than debt on balance sheets given that in theory they could never mature -- have soared to a record this year as Beijing zeros in on leverage and the threat it poses to the financial system. The bonds are so popular that issuance by non-bank firms has jumped to the equivalent of 433 billion yuan ($65 billion), more than seven times sales by companies in the U.S.

NO ACQUITTAL; GAS PLANT TRIAL CONTINUES

NP, BLATCHFORD:  How much life there remains in the case against David Livingston and Laura Miller is up for grabs, but for the moment, their criminal trial continues.
Ontario Court Judge Tim Lipson Thursday mostly dismissed a defence motion for directed verdicts of acquittal against the two former senior staffers for former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty.

PM TRUDEAU SABOTAGES TPP

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sabotaged a pact to salvage a multibillion-dollar, 11-nation Pacific Rim trade deal at the last minute, surprising leaders of the other nations, including Australia's Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Trudeau failed to show up at a meeting late on Friday that was set to officially revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that had been negotiated on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Vietnamese coastal city of Danang.

SAUDI ARABIA'S POLITICAL CRISIS

The Saudi Purge: The Middle-East Is On The Verge Of A New War

AMERICA'S UNSUSTAINABLE PUBLIC PENSION PONZI SCHEME

Over the past year we have provided extensive coverage of what will likely be the biggest, most politically charged, and most significant financial crisis facing the aging U.S. population: a multi-trillion pension storm.   The reason, in a nutshell, why the US public pension problem has stumped so many professionals is simple: for lack of a better word, it is an unsustainable Ponzi scheme, in which satisfying accrued pension and retirement obligations requires not only a constant inflow of new money, but also fixed income returns, typically in the 6%+ range, which are virtually unfeasible in a world where global debt/GDP is in the 300%+ range.  Which is why we, and many others, have long speculated that it is only a matter of time before the matter receives political attention, and ultimately, a taxpayer bailout.

CREE CODE TALKERS OF WWII

Alexandra Lazarowich heard the stories passed through generations of her family – the tales of Indigenous code talkers who helped win the Second World War by communicating in their ancestral languages.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG.

Nigerian asylum seekers in Canada are making so many similar claims based on sexual orientation that Legal Aid Ontario is worried some claims may be fabricated.
Jawad Kassab, who leads the refugee and immigration program at Legal Aid Ontario, said the agency has identified an "unusual" pattern in sexual orientation claims filed by Nigerian refugee seekers this year.
He said the agency has written to five lawyers who represent a "high volume" of those cases and asked if they can help explain what's behind it. He would not name the lawyers.

ONTARIO COLLEGES' PIECEWORK PROFESSORS

What started out as a justifiable strike to protect the rights of vulnerable college teachers has spiralled into an unjustifiable power struggle over who’s right.
Four weeks later, as many as 500,000 paying students are paying a disproportionate price. And learning a disappointing lesson in how far teachers and college administrators will go to prove a point — right down to the last student.

CANADA'S HOMELESS VETERANS

The number of homeless veterans on the federal government’s radar is growing year over year, with 770 homeless veterans in its database as of September.
With Remembrance Day around the corner, documents tabled in the House of Commons this week offer a sense of the scope of homelessness among Canadian veterans, and according to one veterans group, the numbers show what they’ve been seeing on the ground: that the problem is on the rise.

FEW CHANGES TO ACCESS TO INFORMATION BILL

The bill is fatally flawed and will make Canadian democracy weaker, said committee member Nathan Cullen, a New Democrat MP.
"The Liberals chose to ignore just about every piece of testimony that we were given. It just mocks the whole process and their commitment to evidence-based decision-making," Cullen said after the meeting.
"The results of this for Canadians who are trying to hold government accountable will be felt for years, that's the tragedy of what just happened."
The Conservatives considered the bill "beyond redemption" and therefore did not suggest amendments.

FIRST NATIONS HISTORY IN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Eyre said her son, who is in Grade 8, brought home a history assignment that suggested all pioneers to Canada were ill-meaning.
“He’d copied from the board the following … presented as fact: that European and European settlers were colonialists, pillagers of the land who knew only buying and selling and didn’t respect mother Earth,” she said.

CANADIANS MORE SKEPTICAL OF MASS IMMIGRATION

The Trudeau Liberals are not only willing to accept asylum seekers from terrorist hot-spots, they’ve introduced new rules to accelerate their admittance and bypass important steps in determining who can stay in Canada. 

 

SOUNDS LIKE AN UPSTANDING CITIZEN

An Ottawa-born but officially stateless man is one of seven people charged in a region-wide bust that netted assault rifles, cocaine, methamphetamine and pot, plus more than $150,000 in cash.
Deepan Budlakoti, 28, faces the most charges in the operation called Project Landslide: A total of 83 counts of gun trafficking, possessing the proceeds of crime and breaching a gun ban. The results of the investigation by the OPP’s organized crime enforcement bureau and Ottawa and Gatineau police were announced Wednesday.

RISING PRICE AT CANADIAN GAS PUMPS

All of a sudden, Canadian gas prices are reaching heights not seen since the release of Sharknado. Even in a cheap fuel haven like Alberta, prices are peaking as high as $1.26 per litre in Edmonton and $1.28 in Calgary. In B.C., the average price is an incredible $1.38 per litre, breaking $1.40 in Vancouver.
So, the National Post called up Dan McTeague with GasBuddy.com and a semi-obsessive expert on all things petroleum. Below, the surprisingly complex backstory to why your Honda just got way more expensive to run.

OOPSIE! MCKENNA HAS A BRAIN FART

Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says a tweet from her official departmental account praising Syria for joining the Paris climate agreement was "completely unacceptable" and she takes responsibility. 

"Canada Salutes Nicaragua and Syria for joining on to the Paris Agreement! Global #ClimateAction. #COP23," the tweet, since deleted, said.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SH!T UP

To combat ‘revenge porn’, Facebook is now asking users to send in their nudes, to test a new anti-revenge porn technology.

LEBANON-THE NEXT FRONT IN THE GREAT GAS WAR

I suggest, however, a powerful reason that a new war with Hezbollah may be in the offing is because Lebanon is the next link in any gas pipeline that could potentially bring Iranian Gas to Europe. That was the reason the West decided to “liberate” the Syrian people and it will be why they decide to enforce the same salvation upon the people of Lebanon. Having failed to liberate the Syrians, Saudi, the West, its Sunni Gulf allies and Israel will now see if they can succeed in blocking any Iranian gas ambitions by liberating the Lebanese from their own government.  I would not be surprised to hear quite soon from opposition groups vocally denouncing the government or at least Hezbollah. I expect spokes people from those groups to suddenly get a global platform along-side American and regional supporters such as Saudi.

CRA FIGHTING TO KEEP TAX-GAP DATA SECRET

Over the past six years, three different parliamentary budget officers — mandated to report to parliament on matters of fiscal importance — have requested federal data to calculate the difference between taxes due and those actually collected.
The records required to find the figure — called the tax gap — never came.