CRA's SECRET OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT

The Canada Revenue Agency has once again made a secret out-of-court settlement with wealthy KPMG clients caught using what the CRA itself had alleged was a "grossly negligent" offshore "sham" set up to avoid detection by tax authorities, CBC's The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada's Enquête have learned.

This, despite the Liberal government's vow to crack down on high-net-worth taxpayers who used the now-infamous Isle of Man scheme. The scheme orchestrated by accounting giant KPMG enabled clients to dodge tens of millions of dollars in taxes in Canada by making it look as if multimillionaires had given away their fortunes to anonymous overseas shell companies and get their investment income back as tax-free gifts.

KPMG is a global network of accounting and auditing firms headquartered out of the Netherlands and is one of the top firms in Canada.

"Tax cheats can no longer hide," National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier promised in 2017.

DESPERATE PM TRYING TO SCORE POINTS

Maybe it doesn’t matter if Mike Pence is upset with Justin Trudeau for raising the abortion issue during his courtesy visit to promote the new NAFTA deal.

Still, it seemed ungracious to say the least that Trudeau would discomfit a guest who had come to make amends for past slights by the Trump Administration.

But the prime minister clearly made the calculus that, despite the bonhomie, embarrassing his guest was in his best electoral interests.

Trudeau used the visit to raise concerns over women’s access to abortion in certain U.S. states – a complaint that would appear to have little relevance to a representative of the federal government, far less one on a trade mission.

TARIFFS ON MEXICO'S GOODS 'TIL ILLEGAL MIGRANTS STOP

President Donald Trump made good on a promised immigration announcement Thursday night, proclaiming he will increase tariffs on Mexico.

“On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” President Trump wrote in a Thursday night tweet.

TRUMP IN HISTORIC BATTLE WITH DEEP STATE

"Some call this the ‘Deep State,’ and that includes the CIA, the FBI and the NSA. President Trump is the first President to stand up against this Shadow Government. They have been spying on Trump since he was a presidential candidate. So, this is huge, it’s historic and nothing like this has ever occurred in any western government...

The Shadow Government has been controlling Congress, controlling the judiciary and controlling the President of the United States. No one has stood up against them until Donald J. Trump. They did not figure on this, and he is not bound to this Shadow Government or their threats. Trump has got them quaking in their boots because they have been engaged in illegal surveillance. They have been engaged in a false counter-intelligence against the Trump campaign, literally planting spies in the Trump campaign.

JUST WHO IS AT THE HELM?

   Twice in recent months, federal officials have forwarded media question, the names of reporters and other information to Irving Shipbuilding after being asked about aspects of government contracts that had been awarded to the company.
   In both cases, the Globe and Pugliese say their questions and personal information were forwarded to Irving, which warned that it would sue if the resulting story contained false information about the company or allegations of misconduct.
   Public Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough defended federal officials approaching the company for information when reporters ask questions as necessary for ensuring accurate and up-to-date answers.

SNC-LAVALIN GOING TO COURT DESPITE LIBERAL EFFORTS

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t want SNC-Lavalin to face criminal charges. That is as close as it comes to an undeniable fact in the ongoing Lavscam saga. And it looks like the PM is not getting his way.
The PM then must have been pretty peeved to learn that on Wednesday morning a Quebec court judge ruled that there’s enough evidence against the engineering firm for it to be tried on bribery and fraud charges.
So much effort to dodge trial, both on the part of SNC-Lavalin and the PMO. And all it’s really amounted to is egg on both their faces as the public watches this spectacle in disgust. If this was done in an individual case – someone trying for years to dodge the courts only to finally be dragged in kicking and screaming – we’d call it sad and pathetic. And it is.

LIBERAL NS PREMIER REFUSES FREELAND'S REQUEST

At a time when Canada’s federal government is engaged in a full-court press to demand the release of two Canadian detainees in China, the premier of Nova Scotia appears to be prioritizing his province’s economic interests over the federal foreign minister’s pleas to raise the issue with Chinese officials.

Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil did not raise the consular cases at a meeting with Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye in Halifax on Wednesday, the premier’s spokesman told the National Post, despite Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office asking him to use the rare face time with Chinese officials to do just that.

“Global Affairs Canada and the minister’s office have spoken with and briefed elected Canadian officials visiting China, including the office of Premier McNeil, to underscore how important these cases are and the importance of raising them with the Chinese,” Freeland’s press secretary Adam Austen said.

LAST OF MOHAWK CODE TALKERS DIES

The last surviving Mohawk code talker, one of the men who transmitted messages in their Indigenous languages during the Second World War to baffle enemy code-breakers, has died.

Born in the Quebec part of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve on Jan. 23, 1925, Louis Levi Oakes registered in the U.S. army at age 18, and served as a code talker in New Guinea and the Philippines until the end of the war. But he kept his work secret for decades afterward, even from his family, only speaking openly about it in recent years after he and other code talkers began to receive national recognition on both sides of the border for their service.

Oakes received a Congressional Silver Medal in 2016. He was recognized at the Assembly of First Nations and in the House of Commons last year

BUILDING FIGHTER JETS IN CANADA

A Swedish aerospace firm that hopes to supply Canada’s new fleet of fighter jets says it could build the aircraft in this country, making maximum use of the expertise of domestic firms and creating high-tech jobs.

Saab’s pitch to build its Gripen E fighter jet in Canada further ups the ante on the $19-billion competition that will see the federal government purchase 88 new aircraft.

LIBERALS AND THEIR SECRET DEALS

The Liberal government moved to a first-come, first-served online application system this year after scrapping a controversial lottery system for reuniting immigrant families. 
The federal government offered 20,000 spots for sponsoring parents or grandparents, and confirmed that more than 100,000 had attempted to access the online form to express interest.
   The process opened at noon and closed less than nine minutes later.
Legal actions were launched in Toronto and Vancouver after the widely criticized online application process went ahead on Jan. 28 — a process which left tens of thousands of people frustrated and furious because they couldn't access the form or fill it out fast enough.

   The federal government made a secret settlement to quash two lawsuits that claimed its contentious online application process to reunite immigrant families was flawed and unfair, CBC News has learned.  To resolve the group litigation, the government awarded at least 70 coveted spots to applicants allowing them to sponsor their parents' or grandparents' immigration to Canada.

CHINA THREATENS RARE-EARTH EXPORT BAN

Once dismissed as a "nuclear option" that would only be invoked by Beijing as a last resort in the burgeoning trade war with the US, it's looking increasingly likely that the Communist Party might impose an export ban on rare-earth metals, creating serious supply-chain issues for American producers of everything from microchips, to batteries, to night-vision goggles.

After Global Times editor and Trump Twitter foil Hu Xijin warned on Tuesday that a ban was being 'seriously considered' (which followed a visit by President Xi and Vice Premier Liu He to a rare-earth mine that was widely seen as a threatening gesture), China's powerful state-planning body threatened to use rare earths as "China's counter-weapon against the US's unwarranted suppression"...while a host of state-controlled media organizations used rare threatening language intended to convey that Beijing isn't playing around.

RUSSIA'S DIRTY OIL CRISIS

Back in April, unusually high levels of the chemicals known as organic chlorides were discovered in Russian crude flowing through the giant Druzhba pipeline, built in the 1960s to carry crude from the U.S.S.R. to allied countries in Eastern Europe. The chlorides can severely damage oil refineries and on April 24 Russia’s state pipeline operator, Transneft PJSC, halted shipments. Moscow pledged to resolve the issue right away; four weeks later, the flow of Russian oil into Europe is little more than a trickle.

PIPE DREAMS OF THE GREEN PARTY

Churchill, war, fascism — that’s the evolving climate-action language. In May’s vision, virtually every element of Canadian state policy will turn on the climate change fight.

Green policy rejects any new pipeline, all fracking, a single additional oil well or increase in heavy oil production.

Canada would ban oil imports and support itself with Canadian oil during this forced march to zero emissions.

But that western oil would be shipped east by rail tanker car, not by pipeline, in ever-diminishing quantities.

After 2050, oil could not be used for fuel at all, only as feedstock for plastics and other petrochemical products. Refiners could only use solid bitumen.

MCKENNA'S CYNICISM ON DISPLAY

Looking into the camera, a boisterous McKenna, using emphatic hand gestures and raising her voice on key words for emphasis, declares: “But you know, I actually gave them some real advice. I said that if you actually say it louder, we’ve learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally believe it.”

THE USELESS UN

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N.’s main disarmament body has walked out of its current session in Geneva to protest that Venezuela has taken the chair.

Robert Wood insisted “a rogue state” was taking over, shortly after Venezuelan Ambassador Jorge Valero became president of the Conference on Disarmament.

Wood said that nothing that comes out of the current session would be legitimate. He said Tuesday that some members of the so-called Lima Group of countries from Latin America had also decided not to take part.

LOSERS EXPLAIN BREXIT PARTY SUCCESS

  Now that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has cleaned up in the EU elections, its 29-seat victory making it the joint largest party in the entire European Parliament, the message about the political mood in Britain could not be clearer: Britain MUST remain in the EU.
  At least that’s the conclusion currently being touted by the losing Remainers, who appear to be having a bit of a Downfall moment, as they attempt to move their non-existent divisions across their imaginary sand table in pursuit of the victory their loopy, deluded brains imagine is now inevitable.
   Here is our old friend Anna Soubry, caught by Sky News heroically maintaining that even though her pro-Remain ChangeUK party won precisely zero seats in the EU elections it really hadn’t been a bad night for them because they got 600,000 votes. (The Brexit Party, by the way, got over 5,000,000).

ENDING BEER SALES MONOPOLY IN ONTARIO

Ontario plans to rip up an agreement with The Beer Store in order to allow the sale of beer and wine in corner stores, but the retailer has already signalled it will fight the move in the courts.

The Progressive Conservatives tabled legislation Monday that would terminate a 10-year contract with The Beer Store that was signed by the previous Liberal government. The deal permitted an expansion of beer and wine sales to hundreds of grocery stores.

CLAIMING OWNERSHIP OF THE NORTH POLE

Canada has finally made its case that the top of the world flies the Maple Leaf.

After years of delay and political debate, Canada has submitted its scientific argument for control of a vast portion of the Arctic seabed, including the North Pole, to the UN body that will evaluate it.

Denmark and Russia have already released their own evidence that the Pole and good bits of the sea floor around it — including any resources they hold — should belong to them.

ONWARD & UPWARD NIGEL FARAGE

Full results as each of the UK’s 12 regions elect new MEPs.

 Can the Brexit party, Liberal Democrats and Greens take ground from the Conservative and Labour parties?

HORGAN'S JUST REWARDS

   The judges at the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled 5-0 against Horgan’s specious argument that the province can regulate in an area of clear federal power.
   Now Horgan has to dance on the Green string to keep his job. You could almost feel sorry for the guy, if he hadn’t directly caused so much economic pain in Alberta.
   And now his reward is Kenney, the implacable foe he helped install by making life so difficult for Notley.

OTTAWA CITY FREELOADING OFF NEIGHBOURS

The province has a principle of “seamlessness” that says the closest ambulance, no matter which jurisdiction it belongs to, must respond to the call. Most of the drama between Prescott and Russell and Ottawa comes when there’s a spike in calls around central Ottawa, bringing city paramedics closer to the core and leaving the rural areas for neighbouring municipalities’ paramedics to cover.

The City of Ottawa isn’t compelled to compensate other municipalities when their paramedics answer calls in the city.

Prescott and Russell has been particularly vocal and bitter about this. The municipality has sent invoices to Ottawa City Hall and Queen’s Park, knowing it won’t get a cheque in return, and has filed complaints to the province about the number of its ambulances dispatched to Ottawa.

RECOGNIZING HUAWEI AS MAJOR SECURITY THREAT

    Whoever controls 5G will be able to surveil and control the planet. Those in charge of the network could be omniscient and potentially omnipotent over unprotected man-made systems. To guard against China ruling this kingdom, the Trump administration has banned U.S. companies, most notably Google, from selling technology to Chinese giant Huawei.

    The urgency of the challenge was underscored by The Hill's comparison of the situation to Apollo. "We are in another innovation race right now. The race to 5G [is] a contest that could have more far-reaching effects than the race to the moon. The Trump administration deserves credit for articulating a policy that aims to see America win the race to 5G." Steve Bannon had an even more extreme formulation: “It is a massive national security issue to the West. The executive order is 10 times more important than walking away from the trade deal. It [Huawei] is a major national security threat, not just to the US but to the rest of the world. We are going to shut it down.”

FEDS SPEND $6.7 MILLION IN SELF PROMOTION

Pens costing $78 each purchased by a Crown corporation lending money to farmers, 5,274 rubber ducks procured by Canada’s cyber security agency and $66 bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar bought by Canada’s small-business bank.

Those were just some of the more interesting items federal organizations bought to promote themselves, documents recently tabled in Parliament show.

Altogether, departments, agencies and crown corporations disclosed more than $6.7 million in spending on promotional items between January 2017 and February 2019, in response to an order paper question by Conservative MP Jamie Schmale.

COURT RULES BC CAN'T LIMIT OIL SHIPMENTS

 British Columbia lost the largest tool in its toolbox to halt the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion with a court decision Friday that concluded it can't restrict oil shipments through its borders.

The unanimous ruling from the B.C. Court of Appeal represented a major win for the project, which the federal government and Alberta see as crucial to getting more oilsands crude to overseas markets.

B.C.'s minority NDP government, which took power on a promise to use every tool available to stop the expansion, swiftly announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

HE'S STILL A CREEP

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A Newfoundland man has been found not guilty of possessing child pornography after a judge determined it was not proven he knew the sex doll he ordered was child-sized.

Judge Mark Pike said he accepted expert testimony that the doll was child pornography, and said that Kenneth Harrisson’s stated reasons for ordering it did not ring true.

During the provincial court trial, Harrisson testified that he meant to order a lifelike, adult-sized sex doll for companionship to replace his son, who died in infancy decades earlier.

CHINA'S KNOWLEDGE OF FAIRNESS & OBJECTIVITY

China’s ambassador to Canada continued by urging Canada to view China’s development in a “fair and objective” manner and to respect its concerns. Lu also warned Canada to “stop the moves that undermine the interests of China.”
In recent months, Beijing’s envoy has used strong words when talking about the relationship. In January, he told Canadian journalists that Meng’s arrest was the “backstabbing” of a friend and said it was evidence of white supremacism.
Lu also warned of repercussions if the federal government bars Huawei from selling equipment to build a Canadian 5G wireless network.

PUBLIC HEALTH HAS PLENTY OF FAT TO TRIM

Lilley: Why are local public health units across the province spending scarce resources writing reports and doing studies on bike lanes, energy drinks or other issues that are widely studied elsewhere?
As Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk pointed out in her 2017 report, there is a lot of duplication of efforts and little sharing of information or best practices across Ontario’s public health units.
“For example, two-thirds of public health units reported having independently reviewed evidence and best practice on school-based programs that promote healthy weights, healthy eating or physical activity,” Lysyk’s report said.
Why do two-thirds of public health units across Ontario need to study healthy weights of school children? This is information that is widely available.

UK PM MAY FINALLY TENDERS RESIGNATION

Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation from outside 10 Downing Street Friday morning, stating she would be officially stepping down in two weeks time.

In her remarks outside the Prime Minister’s official residence, Theresa May said she had “done her best”, and “everything I can” to deliver Brexit by negotiating a deal with the European Union, but conceded “sadly I was not able to do so”.

Saying it was time for a new Prime Minister to lead Brexit, Mrs May said she would be resigning as leader of the Conservative Party on Friday 7th of June, so that a successor could be chosen.

WHEN LIBERALS CUT CHEQUES TO MEDIA ORGS.

It is difficult to know where to begin to deplore the process by which the federal government will decide which media organizations to subsidize and which not to. So let’s start with Unifor’s involvement.
“Unifor?” you may ask. “The flamboyantly anti-Conservative labour union?”
Indeed. The mega-union representing 315,000 workers across the country, including a large percentage of anglophone Canadian journalists at legacy media outlets — and also autoworkers, because that totally makes sense — will nominate one of eight people to an “independent panel of experts.” The panel will decide the criteria for divvying up tax breaks adding up to some $600 million in public funding.

CHINA'S OFFENSIVE ON CANADA IN PLAIN SIGHT

A “benefactor” member of the Canada-China Business Council, Huawei has cultivated the habit of filling senior corporate positions with veteran insiders from both the Liberal and Conservatives parties. The company has lately taken on the Canadian wing of the public-relations giant Hill+Knowlton Strategies to sell itself as a trustworthy corporate citizen. It also brought in Daniel Moulton and Chad Rogers, Ontario Liberal and Conservative party insiders, respectively, who registered earlier this year to lobby for Huawei. Morgan Elliott, a senior official from the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, is now Huawei’s vice-president for government affairs. Alykhan Velshi, formerly a senior aide to Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, was hired on as vice-president of corporate affairs. Other Huawei recruits include former journalist and Martin-Chretien era speechwriter Scott Feschuk, and Martin’s former director of communications, Scott Reid.
   It’s gotten so that Ottawa can’t bring itself to admit that Huawei should not be permitted to bid in Canada’s 2020 5G spectrum auction, even though everybody knows Huawei is a threat to Canada’s national security. Three former Canadian intelligence chiefs have said so, publicly. Six U.S. intelligence agencies have said so. Among Canada’s Five Eyes security and intelligence partners, the U.S. and Australia have said so, New Zealand has shut the 5G door on Huawei, and while British Telecom has frozen Huawei out the United Kingdom has yet to formally bar Huawei from its 5G system. But Taiwan has shut Huawei out, and so has Japan, and so has Poland. Even Vietnam won’t allow Huawei in.

KENNEY & UCP UNDOING NOTLEY'S WORK

EDMONTON — Jason Kenney’s government delivered its first throne speech on Wednesday, setting the stage for the re-working of Alberta and its economy and the fulfilment of the United Conservative Party’s campaign promises.
   While the speech was shorter than in recent years, and avoided partisan attacks, in reality the new United Conservative government plans to spend the next several weeks undoing much of the previous NDP government’s work.
  Speaking to a packed legislative chamber, and drawing on Alberta’s history — the province entered Confederation 114 years ago this September — Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell, opened with a paean to spring, “the season of renewal” that “arrives with an explosion of nature’s irrepressible energy.”
   On that theme, she outlined the UCP government’s plan to renew Alberta and restore its place within confederation. Mitchell said Albertans “voted decisively for democratic and economic renewal” in bringing Kenney to the premier’s office, less than two years after he successfully united the province’s two right-wing political parties.

IRVING SHIPBUILDING RUNNING THE SHOW

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce Wednesday that the federal government is buying two more Arctic patrol ships on the top of the six it has already ordered from Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding.

However, unlike the first six ships, which are being built for the navy at a total cost of $3.5 billion, a government source said the seventh and eighth will be built for the Canadian Coast Guard.

The second problem is the threat of layoffs, which Irving has long warned will happen unless the government fills a gap between when the last Arctic patrol ship is finished and construction on the navy's new $60-billion warship fleet, the source said.

ESSENTIALLY, THEY'RE DOING NOTHING

  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says western countries do not need to “continue to allow” Chinese global aggression.
   “Western countries and democracies around the world are pulling together to point out that this is not something we need to continue to allow.”
 “For years, Justin Trudeau has ignored the security threat the Chinese government poses to Canada and he’s allowed China to push Canada around,” Brock Harrison, director of communications for Scheer said “It’s time for him to show some leadership and finally stand up to China.”

PM REFUSING TO PROTECT OUR BORDER

   Perhaps it isn’t the policy that has failed but the fact our current prime minister, in an attempt to virtue-signal himself as a better man than Trump, invited any and all while turning border guards into valets, carrying the suitcases of the people crashing the border.
    A recent report shows nearly half of the spots taxpayers provide for homeless people in Toronto are taken by refugee and asylum claimants. Many of those are people who shouldn’t be here in the first place.
  So, the current prime minister — who will run for re-election, has paid millions to a convicted terrorist, tried to jail a high-ranking military officer for political reasons, and demoted women who dared to disagree with him — now wants you to pay for the flood of illegal aliens he plans to increase.

PROTECTING TEACHERS FROM VIOLENT STUDENTS

Educators at Ottawa’s English school boards can wear shin and forearm guards, foam-padded jackets and reinforced gloves to protect themselves from students who bite, kick, scratch and punch.

The “personal protective equipment” is employed as a last resort, say spokespeople for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

Currently, about 45 educators in the English public board use the equipment, mainly educational assistants, says spokesperson Sharlene Hunter. Educational assistants help children with special needs and behaviour problems.

THE CROWD UNDER THE BUS

  There's a time-honoured tradition in Ottawa: when things go wrong — horribly wrong — somebody gets thrown under the bus.
  The collapse of the criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman saw that custom accelerated at breakneck speed this week as the Liberal government sought to put as much distance as possible between itself and the failed prosecution.
  The most prominent person among those tossed beneath the wheels is the country's top military commander, Gen. Jonathan Vance, who — according to both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan — was the one who decided to suspend Norman in the first place.

LAMETTI PRAISES JUSTICE DEP'T RE V-A NORMAN

  Justice Minister David Lametti says he’s satisfied his department did the best job it could in finding, reviewing and disclosing thousands of government documents requested by Vice-Admiral Mark Norman’s defence team.
  Norman’s lawyers argued the documents were crucial to his ability to defend himself, and they criticized the department for the lengthy, arduous process in disclosing them — criticism that was sometimes echoed by the judge.
  Lametti also pointed to media reports that said it was evidence from members of the previous Conservative government given to the defence that appears to have swayed the prosecutors.
“I would add that if other people on the opposition side of the House had information, they should have given it to the RCMP a lot sooner,” he said. “Maybe Mr. Norman wouldn’t have had such a long ordeal. But the system worked, and there’s an ongoing responsibility on the part of a prosecutor to be open to new evidence.”

CF BRASS INSULT FALLEN AFGHANISTAN MEMBERS

The Canadian Forces confirmed Thursday evening on Facebook that it had held a dedication service at the new Afghanistan Memorial Hall at the National Defence Headquarters (Carling) in the west end of Ottawa. But that happened three days earlier on May 13. “The event was attended by senior Canadian military leadership and Department management,” according to the Facebook posting.

No press release was issued. The decision was made by officials to keep the event quiet and only to release the news via Twitter and Facebook at a later date. Families of the fallen were not invited to the dedication ceremony.

No explanation has been provided for the decision to delay the announcement or limit the publicity, other than it was an official decision.

NORTH KOREANS CAUGHT IN CHINA'S SEX INDUSTRY

   Thousands of North Korean women and girls are being forced into marriage and prostitution and subjected to sadistic abuse by trafficking gangs running a multimillion-dollar illicit sex industry in China.
   A report by the Korea Future Initiative, presented in the House of Commons today (Monday), says vulnerable women and girls as young as 12 are being tricked into fleeing North Korea only to be sold as sex slaves in China.
  Ensnared by the gangs, they face the choice of becoming sex slaves or being repatriated to the oppressive state where they face torture in prison camps and even possible execution.

BC FORESTRY IND.TARGETED BY NDP HORGAN

  The NDP government’s latest foray into regulating timber allocations and forest tenures has triggered a sharp-edged exchange of between the industry and Premier John Horgan.

The industry started it off April 12, the day after the New Democrats tabled legislation giving the forests minister a veto over transfers of tenures and cutting rights between forest companies.

Twice in the preceding week, Horgan had reached out to the industry, offering a chance to “work together” and an end to “top-down solutions” dictated from on high.

But Bill 22, the aforementioned changes to the Forests Act, was tabled without any advance consultation, leaving industry feeling blindsided.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY IS A NOTION FAR REMOVED

   Prime Minister Justin Trudeau loves apologizing.
    Our apologies prime minister has apologized at least four times since taking office in 2015. In fact, he’s apologized more than any of his predecessors. The former part-time substitute drama teacher appears to love the process. Cue a tear or two on demand and give a seemingly heartwarming speech. It’s a good chance at theatre.
   But he only apologizes for past missteps of others from another era. When it comes to himself, taking responsibility is a notion far removed.

NEW TECH FOR FLOOD CONTROL

   At the height of the Ottawa River flood, some 800 soldiers and reservists and hundreds more volunteers were helping to bag sand, transport it to flood sites and put the bags into position. Between them, they filled and placed about 1.5 million bags of sand. Now the city has to figure out a way to divert all that sand from landfill sites.
    Which raises the question: Why, if we can build skyscrapers and send probes into space, are we still holding back floodwaters with low-tech sandbags and hundreds of workers?
  There are products that hold back floodwaters with fewer workers, less time and no sand. The one drawback is that they’re more expensive — although they’re designed to be used multiple times.

A BAD DAY ON THE DOCK IN BC

A shockingly close call was caught on video and it involved a Port Moody man almost getting crushed by his own SUV while launching his runaway boat. While the man is thankfully okay, his SUV is a little worse for wear. This is the kind of thing you have to see to believe and fortunately for you, someone was there to take a video of the entire incident.

TIME TO END BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP IN CANADA

   Is birthright citizenship doomed in Canada? An omen appeared in Friday morning’s Vancouver Sun: B.C. Liberal MLA Jas Johal did some research and presented the paper with a number of examples of online advertising from Chinese websites that tout the benefits of intentionally delivering an anchor baby on Canadian soil.
   The ads suggest that brokers are offering “one-stop shopping” for pregnant women: they promise to set up housing, transportation, and perinatal care, all so that the blessed event itself can happen in a comfortable, clean, high-quality Canadian hospital. This gives your child the golden ticket of Canadian citizenship — coming as it does with access to superior Canadian education, Canadian welfare and social insurance, and widespread visa-free international travel.  

   In November, Andrew Griffith, a former senior bureaucrat in the federal Citizenship and Immigration department, did some research using hospital finance statistics from the Canadian Institution for Health Information (CIHI). Griffith found that the numbers of non-residents giving birth in Canadian hospitals was growing, that they are approaching 10 per cent of all births at a few urban hospitals, and that for one enormous outlier they are twice that. And, surprise! The outlier is the Richmond Hospital in Richmond, B.C.

CHINA'S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM

China’s already formidable police state has been upgraded using big data, machine learning, face recognition technology and artificial intelligence into a fearsome cyborg of state control. The Chinese Communist Party has given birth to the world’s first high-tech digital dictatorship.
  Welcome to life in China’s “Social Credit System,” where a low score can ruin your life in more ways than one.
  All because the government has declared you untrustworthy. Perhaps you defaulted on a loan, made the mistake of criticizing some government policy online or just spent too much time playing video games on the internet. All of these actions, and many more, can cause your score to plummet, forcing citizens onto the most dreaded rung on China’s deadbeat caste system, the laolai.

POLLSTERS BLINDSIDED AGAIN

  Australia's Labor party was supposed to have won yesterday's election handily. Their surefire formula for victory of increased taxes, heightened spending on climate change and engagement with China would bring in the votes. Then the unexpected happened: Labor lost.
    Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition government has returned to power in the 2019 federal election, despite polls consistently predicting victory for the opposition Labor Party. The most surprising result for Labor came from the state of Queensland. Now, many people are comparing the shock result to the 2016 US election and the UK's Brexit referendum, which both defied opinion polls.

WORLD LEADERS' IGNORANCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

  Dr. Tim Ball: What can you say about America, supposedly the most advanced civilization in the world, with a regular TV program about 600-pound people in prime time? Is that filling leisure intelligently? What can you conclude about western leaders listening to and, worse, heeding Swedish teenager, Greta Thuneberg about climate change who claims she can see carbon dioxide in the air? This skill may be because she is a 16-year old child who, regrettably, has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Asperger’s Syndrome. We know this because her mother, who needs for child abuse, told us so in the family book ‘Scenes from the heart. Our life for the climate.’ Historically, it was a child who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. Now the ill-informed, used and abused, children are pointing out the emperor is wearing a cloak of green.

   Leaders know virtually nothing about climate as they demonstrate every day. They don’t even know that the claim that CO2, especially from human sources is causing climate change, is completely without theoretical basis. They don’t know that water vapor is 95% of the greenhouse effect and is effectively left out of the official studies, along with natural causes. They also don’t know that the only evidence that supports the claim comes from a computer model deliberately programmed to show that a CO2 increase results in a temperature increase. If the leaders who used climate change to produce their devastating policies did even cursory research, they would know how wrong it was. They would know that every forecast made by those models was wrong. If they looked at the Third UN Climate Report, they would find this statement.

TARIFFS OFF STEEL & ALUMINUM

Canada's year-long standoff with the Trump administration over punitive U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs is finally over, removing a key hurdle in efforts to ratify the new North American trade pact.

Global Affairs Canada says the tariffs will removed within two days.

Canada has also agreed to drop all of its retaliatory measures and legal actions at the World Trade Organization.

COMMENTS EDITED FOR BREVITY & CLARITY

Last month I sat down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for an extended interview, the first since his government had been rocked by the resignations and political turmoil created by its handling of SNC-Lavalin’s criminal prosecution.

On anticipating the end of the election campaign:
               It’s going to be a fun year. Simple rule of politics: Whoever is actually having more fun, Canadians respond to better. We’re doing good things, we’re actually having fun. We went through these more difficult moments, and as a team and party we managed to stay positive.

V-A NORMAN TELLS HIS SIDE OF THE STORY

  But days after the charges were stayed defense minister Sajjan and procurement minister Carla Qualtrough were on the weekend political TV shows in an attempt to justify the government’s actions and highlight claims there was no political interference in Norman’s case.
   Qualtrough was asked about Trudeau’s comments about Norman going to trial, even before charges were laid. “I know that’s how it was perceived and I think, in hindsight, not the best framing of words, I can assure you,” Qualtrough told Global. “But at the end of the day, there wasn’t political interference here.” Asked why the Liberal government wouldn’t apologize to Norman when it had in previous years issued numerous apologies to various groups, Qualtrough had her answer ready. “We can’t be in the business of apologizing for independent organizations doing their jobs.”
   On CTV Sajjan doubled down on defending how the Norman case unfolded, fully backing Vance’s decision to suspend vice admiral based on unproven allegations by the RCMP. As for Norman, Sajjan wouldn’t apologize. In fact, he couldn’t bring himself to even say that he regretted what Norman and his family had gone through.
   Sajjan said his regret was that Norman and the Canadian Forces had to go through what they did. The minister denied the Liberal government had dragged out the process of producing documents in the hopes Norman, facing mounting legal fees, would go bankrupt and throw in the towel.

GENERAL VANCE TAKES BLAME FOR NORMAN SUSPENSION

Chief of Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance says the decision to suspend Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was his alone, made without any influence from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Vance made the comments Friday, after telling reporters in Kingston, Ont. that, while he regrets what happened to Norman, he would not answer any questions about the case at this time.

But before departing, he offered a brief remark.

"The prime minister did not pressure me to suspend him, ok? My decision, my decision alone because of the code of service discipline in the Queen's regulations and orders. Not the prime minister, not the minister, me. I own it."

HUAWEI: AN OPEN DOOR FOR CHINA'S SPYING

  There is well-founded international resistance to Huawei, based on fears it will open the door for Beijing to further its global spying activities. Huawei insists it would never stoop to stealing or sharing information on unsuspecting customers, no matter how much China’s rulers may insist on it, and has assembled a small army of consultants, lobbyists and public relations experts to plead its case. Nonetheless the case against it is straightforward: either you trust China’s Communist supremos to play by international rules and Canadian law, despite a vast and lengthy history of doing nothing of the kind, or you don’t. Unquestionably, Canada shouldn’t.

  It doesn’t take much more than a Google search to dispel the pleasant fantasy Huawei is trying to sell. Despite what Ren Zhengfei may say, there is absolutely a law in China requiring his company to do as Beijing asks. It’s called the National Intelligence law and it states that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law.” Intelligence agencies are empowered to demand such assistance. Nowhere does it say, “except for Huawei.”

THE NIGHT ALBERTA BEGAN TO WIN

The protests, the outrage, the valid cries of discrimination against Alberta — they turned the Senate of Canada around.

Overnight, one Senate committee voted to kill Bill C-48, the so-called tanker ban; and another committee accepted Bill C-69, but apparently with all the crucial amendments demanded by both industry and the Alberta government.

“A very good 12 hours for Alberta,” said Sen. Doug Black, who has worked furiously to stop these bills from literally shattering Alberta’s energy industry.

SCRAP PHOENIX PAY SYSTEM

 The cost of a new pay system for federal civil servants should pale in comparison to the cost of stabilizing the failed Phoenix system, says a new report from Parliament's spending watchdog.

Cleaning up the mess Phoenix has made will cost $2.6 billion and take another four years, the Parliamentary Budget Office told the House of Commons Thursday. Replacing it? A comparatively modest $57 million.

DESTABILIZING THE CANADIAN ECONOMY

The shift to a low-carbon economy is "underway" and sectors like oil and gas, as well as the banks that loan money to them, are exposed to risks from climate change that could spill over into destabilizing "fire sales," the Bank of Canada said Thursday.

The central bank listed climate change as one of six vulnerabilities in the Canadian financial system in a report released May 16. The report, called the Financial System Review, marks the first time the Bank of Canada has explored the issue in depth as part of its examination of risks to the nation's financial stability.

The Bank of Canada's acknowledgement of climate-related risk in Thursday's report is significant, given that it's the institution that promotes economic and financial welfare in the country, including through setting the key interest rate and influencing the money supply.'

CRA COLLECTED $0 FROM PANAMA PAPERS CHEATS

   The federal government talks tough on overseas tax evasion, saying it is a high priority and it will catch you if you cheat. But the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has a terrible track record of collecting from Canadians hiding their money overseas. It’s not catching, charging or convicting tax cheats the way other countries are able to.
   Why the federal government allows this state of affairs to continue year after year remains a mystery.
  But the CRA has a history of making false or misleading statements about its efforts, and its latest move seems designed to further block progress.

LIBERALS' LACK OF CURIOSITY RE V-A NORMAN CASE

   While acknowledging questions still linger about the Vice Admiral Norman case, Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen said the House of Commons defence committee was not the appropriate forum to investigate the factors that led to the country's second most powerful military officer being hauled into court.
   Gerretsen, however, said that asking the committee to investigate what went wrong would amount to "re-litigating" the matter. He ducked the question of whether there should be an independent investigation or review.
   Other Liberals on the committee seemed not the least bit curious about what went wrong and focused their attention on attacking opposition claims of political interference in the prosecution.

HOW TO STOP YOUR TESLA FROM COMBUSTING

For those that were alarmed by our reports over the last three weeks of Teslas in China and Hong Kong appearing to spontaneously combust, don’t worry: there’s a software update for that. At least, that is the company line that Tesla wants you to believe while it continues to investigate the cause of recent incidents of parked Tesla vehicles catching fire for apparently no reason at all.

Tesla has started putting out a software update that will change battery charge and thermal management settings in Model S sedans and Model X SUVs, according to TechCrunch.

LIBERALS CONTROL AG OFFICE WITH LACK OF FUNDING

The office of the auditor general, stretched thin by additional oversight of such new Liberal government entities as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, has had to drop some of its other audits.

“Although the 2018 federal budget provided us with some new ongoing funding, we did not get any of the new funding that we requested in the 2019 federal budget,” interim Auditor General Sylvain Ricard told a House of Commons committee. “We are continuing to explore our options to ensure that we are properly funded and accountable only to Parliament. In the near term, we have no choice but to decrease the number of performance audits that we conduct.”

Outgoing auditor general Michael Ferguson had requested $10.8 million in additional funding last year so his office could accommodate an expanding mandate. But with no new money on offer in 2019, the office had to drop five audits of the government’s performance, including on cyber crime and Arctic sovereignty.

CHIN DISPLAYS THE NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's former chief of staff Ben Chin will start a new job as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week.

Ben Chin has spent much of his political career out of the headlines — but over the winter his name came up during testimony by former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould about the SNC-Lavalin affair.

Wilson-Raybould asserted that Chin warned her staff about the political impact of potential job losses during a Quebec provincial election if the embattled Montreal-based engineering firm was unable to secure a plea-bargain-type deal with prosecutors over alleged corruption in Libya.

BILLY TIPTOES MORNEAU ON HUAWEI

  If U.S. President Donald Trump follows through on threats to ban Huawei this week, Canada is giving few indications it will consider following suit.
Instead, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the government will focus on decisions that don’t shake the economy.
  But even as China has repeatedly demonstrated aggression towards Canadian interests, the government has been mum on whether it shares U.S. concerns about having a Chinese technology company with ties to the ruling party building components of the next-generation 5G spectrum.
  Several Five Eyes and Western allies have refused to allow Huawei to bid on the critical or core components of their telecommunications networks.

LIBERALS TO LIST APPROVED MEDIA

  Federal agencies will publish an A-list of newspapers and websites deemed reliable under a multi-million dollar subsidy program, the Department of Finance yesterday told the Senate national finance committee. Subsidies to federally-approved news media invite government meddling in a free press, cautioned one senator.
  An unnamed cabinet-appointed group will decide which media qualify for subsidies. “The government will decide whether or not to change certain criteria,” said Maude Lavoie, Finance Canada director general of business tax programs.
   Senator Raynell Andreychuk (Conservative-Sask.), chair of the foreign relations committee, yesterday described the subsidy program as troubling. “I’m very concerned that Canada has been one of the countries that that has staunchly talked about freedom of the press,” said Andreychuk. “We know how many journalists have lost their lives. So, we monitor and fight back and say democracy is the free press, an independent judiciary. And here we’re going to be setting up criteria by the government to get government funds.”

SENATE SAYS NO TO OIL TANKER BAN

The Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications has recommended not to proceed with a controversial bill aimed at limiting tanker traffic along the B.C. coast, according to an Alberta senator.

Senator Doug Black tweeted Wednesday evening that the development was “a good day for Alberta and for Canada.”

The federal Liberals’ Bill C-48, otherwise known as the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, would ban tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes of crude or persistent oil from stopping or unloading along B.C.’s northern coast.

FLOODING ON THE OTTAWA RIVER

Momentum is building for a review of water management on the Ottawa River, partly because flooded residents — exhausted after battling high levels for three weeks — are now seeing astonishing photos of dry riverbeds upstream of Pembroke.

IT COULD GET WORSE

Braid:  Take a wary look at British Columbia; a shaky NDP government, supported by three Greens, fiercely hostile to the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Now, imagine the same dynamic in Ottawa after the fall federal election.

Try not to pass out.

THE RACE TO DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY

   Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went on the attack in the House of Commons on Tuesday, accusing NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh of being willing to risk thousands of jobs by appearing to withdraw support for a massive B.C. liquefied natural gas project.
   Trudeau’s comments come as both parties jockey for credibility on their environmental plans, with Parliament set to debate two competing motions this week on whether to declare a national climate emergency, both designed to expose the weaknesses of their rivals’ plans.

  Cue the drama.

THE MUD PUDDLE DEPTH OF SINGH'S CONVICTIONS

In an about-face coming a week after his party lost a Vancouver Island seat to the Green Party, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he doesn’t support fracking and has concerns about a major liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia.

Singh, who has previously voiced support for LNG Canada’s $40-billion natural gas export facility in northern B.C. and the Coastal GasLink pipeline that would feed it, told reporters in Ottawa on Monday that “the future of Canada does not include fracking.” His comments come just days after NDP candidate Svend Robinson tweeted that his party’s loss of last week’s byelection in Nanaimo—Ladysmith is a “wake up call,” and demanded a stronger stance from the federal leader “opposing fracking and all new oil and gas infrastructure.”

MISSING THE GLARINGLY OBVIOUS RE V-A NORMAN

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman not only had the blessing of the former Conservative cabinet to deal with a Quebec shipyard, he was authorized to speak with it directly in the run-up to the signing of a $668-million leasing contract, CBC News has learned.

The revelation raises further questions about the handling of the RCMP's investigation into allegations that the military's former second-in-command leaked sensitive cabinet information about the contract.

It also peels back the curtain on some of the thinking that may have gone into the Crown's decision to stay the single breach-of-trust charge against Norman, who at one time commanded the Royal Canadian Navy.

DEATH WATCH ON ALBERTA'S CARBON TAX

Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta's carbon tax has about two weeks to live.

Kenney says the Carbon Tax Repeal Act is to be introduced during next week's legislature sitting and will have a proviso to end the tax by the end of the month.

"By May 30th there will no longer be an Alberta carbon tax," Kenney said Monday at a news conference outlining some of the legislation coming from his new United Conservative government.

LILY-LIVERED LIBERALS

The federal Tories are accusing the Trudeau government of playing politics by stripping specific references to specific religious groups from its annual report on terrorism.

Conservative public-safety critic Pierre Paul-Hus suggested to the House of Commons national-security committee Monday that the Liberals bowed to "pressure tactics" simply to avoid offending anyone.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the government removed the terms "Sikh," "Sunni" and "Shia" from the report when referring to extremism to avoid conveying the impression that an entire religion or community is a threat to national security.

DIAPERMAN SMITHERMAN WRITES A BOOK

George Smitherman was never shy about speaking his mind.

Unconventional Candour, written in collaboration with former Toronto Star editor and columnist Ian Urquhart, chronicles his start as the son of a trucker in Etobicoke to a powerful provincial politician to distant second-place finisher in the last City of Toronto municipal campaign.

The book offers some startling revelations about the often controversial politician, including an admission that former Toronto mayor Rob Ford was not the only 2010 mayoral candidate who’d tried crack cocaine, and also that the former Liberal health minister does not blame himself for the eHealth and Ornge Air Ambulance scandals that rocked his government.

 

I wonder if he mentions his comments from 2008 when he was Ontario's health minister, regarding understaffing in nursing homes?

TEAM TRUDEAU MISLEADING CANADIANS

  As good little scout Canada struggles mightily to meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord, the vast majority of nations on the planet have already given up on the pact. Last year, global greenhouse gas emissions grew by an estimated 2.7 per cent. So if Canada’s economy had simply ceased to exist, our 1.6 per cent of global emissions would have been replaced in just seven months.
  These are irrefutable facts. So the decision by the Trudeau Liberals to base their election campaign on the assertion that reducing our country’s relatively tiny emissions will help fight climate change can only be explained in one of two ways. First, Trudeau and his team are breathtakingly unaware of facts anyone can learn through an afternoon of Googling. Second, they choose to mislead Canadians in a desperate bid for re-election. That would mean they choose to base their election campaign on a known lie.

CUE THE GREEN DRAMA QUEEN HORWATH

   On Monday, NDP leader Andrea Horwath will introduce a motion in the legislature “to declare a climate emergency in Ontario.”
   She says it will provide Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government with “an opportunity to reverse course and join the millions of Ontarians committed to fighting climate change and take on the biggest challenge humankind has ever faced.”
  Horwath says if the motion passes, Ontario will become the first Canadian province or territory to declare a climate emergency.

TIPS FOR SPOTTING NAZIS

The obvious signs of German soldiers that Veterans Affairs missed in their VE-Day tribute.

CRIMINALS SET UP SHOP IN BC WITH EASE

  I found it a little surprising that Richmond resident Vincent Ramos was so easily able to set up a number of companies and register them with the B.C. government in Victoria. Then he opened 30 different bank accounts, about half of them using his corporations so he could move as much as $80 million U.S.:

A Richmond man who pleaded guilty in the U.S. to aiding the Sinaloa cartel and other international organized crime groups hid his illicit cash in bank accounts of shell companies he registered with the B.C. government.

Vincent Ramos had at least 10 other companies set up on top of Phantom Secure, the B.C.-registered entity he used to sell encrypted devices to criminal organizations around the world for a decade.

The U.S. government says he laundered $80 million earned enabling high-level criminals to hide drug deals and murder plots through Blackberries he promised could be instantly wiped clean to evade police.

$7.4BILLION LAUNDERED IN BC IN 2018

   It may have taken a while, but now that housing prices are starting to crash in Vancouver, BC legislators are finally starting to get wise to the fact that the province has been a hot bed for money laundering. It was an easy problem to ignore with prices on the way up, but on the way down - not so much.
   And so an independent report released on Thursday concluded that an astounding $7.4 billion was laundered in British Columbia in 2018, out of a total of $46.7 billion laundered across Canada throughout the same period. The report was published by an expert panel led by former B.C. deputy attorney general Maureen Maloney.

A SPOT OF BOTHER FOR UK PM MAY

   Senior Tory and Labour politicians have issued frantic calls to their voters to back them in next week’s European elections after a new poll showed support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party had soared to a level higher than for the two main parties put together.
  Farage’s rise will, however, inevitably raise new doubts about how long May can survive as Tory leader, as pressure mounts on her from her own backbenchers to step down. Cabinet ministers say the party is haemorrhaging support, with Leavers flocking to Farage’s party and Tory Remainers either saying they will refuse to vote or back another party.

ATTENTION-SEEKING GREENIE LEFT RED-FACED

Dr Larch Maxey was left red faced after trying to superglue himself to the main doors of Bristol City Council to raise awareness about climate change, unaware they were automatic

RCMP DEFENDS THOROUGH INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

The RCMP is defending its investigation of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, which has come under sustained fire since the politically charged case against the military's former second-in-command collapsed earlier this week.

Much of that criticism has centred on why the Mounties did not interview members of Stephen Harper's former Conservative government during their two-year investigation into allegations Norman leaked cabinet secrets.

Former ministers Jason Kenney, Erin O'Toole and Peter MacKay, as well as some former Conservative government staff members, revealed this week that they spoke to Norman's lawyers but said the RCMP never approached them.

TRUDEAU'S PANTS ON FIRE. AGAIN.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the proceedings in Vice-Admiral Mark Norman’s breach-of-trust case unfolded independent of government, despite criticism from the senior naval officer’s defence team.

Mr. Trudeau avoided questions from reporters on Friday about whether he will call an inquiry into Vice-Adm. Norman’s case and why his government withheld documents the defence had requested.

“Canadians understand that judicial processes, police investigations and court proceedings are all entirely independent of the government of the day, certainly of the Prime Minister’s Office. That is the way it should be,” Mr. Trudeau said in Edmonton.

STENCH OF LIBERAL CORRUPTION & INEPTITUDE

  While Norman’s legal team commended the Crown for exercising its discretion to drop the case “unimpacted by any political considerations,” the redoubtable Ms. Henein made it clear that both Trudeau’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Privy Council Office (PCO) were responsible for not disclosing documents that would have resulted in charges being dropped earlier. And, she said, the PMO had counselled witnesses on what they could or could not say at trial.

Nearly as despicable as these attempts to obstruct justice was the government choosing not to pay Norman’s legal fees, even though the entire case arose directly from his employment. Within minutes of the prosecutors throwing in the towel, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan bumbled his way through a scripted statement that Norman’s legal fees would, after all, be paid by the government because “of the decision that has been made today.”

For a prime minister who regularly apologizes for wrongdoings done by others and weeps on cue, the very least a decent man would do is apologize to Vice Admiral Norman for the harm done to his career, his family and his reputation.

CHINA VOWS RETALIATION FOR FURTHER TARIFFS

The tariff hike came after brief discussions between Liu He and his U.S. counterparts in Washington made little progress on Thursday, with the mood around them downbeat, according to people familiar with the talks. The negotiations were due to resume on Friday morning Washington time.

Before the late Thursday talks, Liu told Chinese state media he was coming to Washington "under pressure but with sincerity" and warned that a move to raise tariffs by the U.S. starting Friday was not a solution and would be painful for both China and the U.S.

It was also not exactly clear how China could retaliate, as Beijing can no longer match the U.S. tariffs dollar-for-dollar because they simply don’t buy enough American goods. 

LESSONS LEARNED FROM V-A NORMAN CASE

Blatchford: They’re big on “lessons learned” in the Canadian Forces, so here then, are my top three from the recently concluded Vice-Admiral Mark Norman case:

1. The private bar will almost inevitably kick the living hell out of prosecutors.

2. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it didn’t lay a glove on the prosecutors.

3. If prosecutors were devoid of curiosity, it was the Department of Justice lawyers who were more actively recalcitrant.

NOBODY IN AMERICA SUCCEEDS ON THEIR OWN

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) would like to follow in Barack Obama’s footsteps by winning the White House in 2020 and she seems to be taking a cue from the former president’s now infamous “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that” speech in 2012.

AG LYSYK IDENTIFIED FRAUD & INCOMPETENCE IN ONTARIO

  Late last year, Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk raised a number of concerns about the province’s $10-billion-per-year welfare system. She noted that the province was owed $790 million in overpayments and wasn’t doing much to try to get them back. She also flagged that, rather than addressing fraud tips in the 30 days required by the ministry’s own rules, managers were taking nearly a year on average to investigate. Most appallingly, Lysyk highlighted that managers were sometimes failing to ask the most basic questions about eligibility. Does the recipient live in Canada? Is he or she allowed to live in Canada?
  Lysyk has made many detailed recommendations to root out fraud, including better training and more automated flagging of high-risk files. But there’s a lot more the province could do. Managers could have their compensation tied to how much fraud they catch, and the province could also enlist the general public. How about cash rewards for catching cheaters?

VETERANS AFFAIRS BUNGLES VE-DAY VIDEO

Veterans Affairs Canada quickly deleted an online video it posted — on Wednesday, to celebrate the 74th anniversary of VE-Day — upon realizing it showed images of the German Wehrmacht, the unified Nazi forces in the Second World War.

CDS VANCE OWED HIS JUST REWARDS

   The vindication of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman comes with a potential casualty. Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance comes out of this mess set up to be a fall guy.
   It was Vance, acting on the faintest shadow of suspicion, who quickly threw Norman under the proverbial LAV.
   It was Vance who publicly declared that he had lost confidence in Norman's performance, suspending his supposed friend and second in command without a hearing.

FARCICAL TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE FIGHT

We’ve descended from the simply ridiculous to the absolutely farcical in this endless battle to build an oil pipeline to the West Coast.

How daft has it got? Well, imagine for a moment you’re a constitutional lawyer representing the B.C. government and you inadvertently pick up the wrong case file rushing into court.

You start arguing against the proposal to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline with its potential cargo of Alberta crude only for a somewhat confused judge to stop you mid-plea, pointing out you’re actually the legal counsel who’s supposed to put the case as to why Alberta should be forced to keep piping its oil down the same darn route.

POUTING LIBERALS

  Norman was talking to journalists about what he would like to see happens next now that federal prosecutors have stayed the one charge of breach of trust that he faced.
  “I believe that for me and for the Canadian Armed Forces the best choice would be for me to go back into my former position,” Norman told journalists at a news conference after the court proceedings.
  But Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan shot down any return of Norman to the position of VCDS.
  “We currently have a vice-chief of defence staff and he will remain in place,” Sajjan told reporters. “I understand that Gen. Vance, as his immediate superior, will be meeting with him and discussing the next steps. Once those discussions have taken place I’ll have further advice given to me.”

A WAIT TIME OF 25 YEARS FOR CARD CANCELLATION

More than two decades after Ontario started phasing out its red-and-white health cards, the government is setting a firm end date to cancel all remaining ones. 

When the photo ID cards were first announced, the government estimated the red-and-white cards were being used for $65 million in fraudulent claims a year. At the time, Ontario’s health cards had the least amount of printed information of any province, including only a name, and no expiry date, according to a 2006 auditor general report.

There were about 300,000 more health cards in circulation than there were people in Ontario, the auditor said.

In the years before the photo ID cards were introduced, health officials warned that some cards had fallen into the hands of Americans and other non-residents, with fraudulent use the most prevalent in Ontario’s border communities.

TRUDEAU LIKE AN ONLINE DATING DISAPPOINTMENT

A Conservative MP's statement comparing the prime minister to an online dating disappointment was promptly shut down by the House of Commons Speaker Tuesday.

With an election months away, Tory MPs have been rising before question period lately to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with one-minute member's statements. The speeches typically end with MPs saying Trudeau is "not as advertised" — the tagline to a slew of new Conservative attack ads.

But Ontario MP John Brassard, who represents Barrie-Innisfil, evidently went too far for Speaker Geoff Regan's liking.

SCHEER GOV'T WILL BAN HUAWEI FROM 5G

A Conservative government under Andrew Scheer would ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei from participating in Canada’s next generation wireless networks, the Star has learned.

Scheer’s office confirmed Wednesday that the Conservatives would ban Huawei products from Canada’s 5G infrastructure if they form the government after this fall’s federal election.

 “As Mr. Scheer has said in the past, he believes Huawei poses a threat to Canada’s national security,” said Brock Harrison, Scheer’s director of communications, in a written statement.

MARGARET TRUDEAU KEEPING BUSY

Margaret Trudeau, an eye-defying 70, could be found last week in the Lincoln Park living room of her friend (and fellow Canadian) Diane Alexander, the wife of Andrew Alexander, the owner of Second City and also a longstanding theatrical producer. This weekend, Second City is hosting the first performances of Margaret Trudeau’s new one-woman show, a theatrical memoir (penned with the help of Alix Sobler and directed by Kimberly Senior) that will draw from Trudeau’s famous, Vanity Fair-friendly past; a rich life spent, not just in dull, dutiful Ottawa, but before flashbulbs as a glamorous, newly divorced, scantily clad, socialite-slash-actress in the A-list orbit of rockers like Ronnie Wood and Mick Jagger and in excessive, late-night, Gotham partying establishments like Studio 54.
Margaret Trudeau is, in person, exceptionally arresting, an active listener who fixes an intense gaze upon any partner in conversation. Her formidable intellect is immediately obvious, as are her outspokenness, eloquence, vulnerability and personal charm. Words spill rapidly. Some are quips tailored to journalistic needs (“I’m nervous. I’ve never had a director before. Only husbands”), but most of what she has to say is direct and disarming in its sincerity. She speaks with the knowledge and resolution of vast experience of fame; of years spent as a fish out of governmental waters, challenged by the confines of a life with constant security details around (‘you feel that someone is always watching”), and then flapping around the gossip columns, not necessarily by choice. In this moment, you get the sense everything and nothing could upset her; that is not entirely clear.