INSULTS FLY BETWEEN TRUMP & BIDEN

 Interrupted repeatedly by President Donald Trump in their presidential debate on Tuesday, an exasperated Joe Biden resorted to insults and name-calling against an opponent who built his political career by coining belittling nicknames for his rivals.

“You’re the worst president America has ever had,” Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said during a back-and-forth on taxes.

The insults featured heavily during a chaotic encounter in which Trump often talked over Biden and moderator Chris Wallace. Biden’s frustrations were frequently apparent.

“Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential,” Biden said to Trump during a segment on the Supreme Court.

TRUDEAU's RACE-BASED PREFERENTIAL PROGRAM

 The Liberal government has announced plans for a Black Entrepreneurship Program that will work with banks and other lending agencies to provide loans and other support for Black businesspeople. The program is supposed to address serious obstacles encountered by Black entrepreneurs in attempting to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, grow their businesses and start new ones. These obstacles include lack of access to capital, networks and mentoring. The reason Black entrepreneurs face these challenges more so than other businesspeople is supposed to be due to “systemic racism.” The government’s proposed solution: a special program targeting these entrepreneurs alone. As a Black businessman I should probably be thrilled by this. However, I am not. In fact, I oppose this and any other race-based preferential systems to address the challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs.

DETERIORATION OF CANADA'S PUBLIC FINANCES

 Baby boomers have spent a lifetime electing governments that borrowed heavily to finance generous programs to make life easier, creating a legacy of debt that future generations will have to deal with. Why stop now?

To be fair, it’s an attitude that gives every appearance of being widespread. Canadians have for years indicated they want a country they can’t afford. Borrowing soared for a quarter century after the 1960s. The few short years of surplus budgets following the debt crisis of the mid-90s crumbled under the stresses of the 2008 recession. Once better times returned, there was an opportunity to get back to balance. Instead, voters elected Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015 on a promise to ramp up spending even further. He had already far exceeded his promised deficit figures when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced those elevated borrowings to be pushed yet higher, to levels few could have imagined. Now the Liberals are promising to leave those frightening figures in their wake as they pledge a package of proposals for daycare, pharmacare, seniors care and other spending programs, with no indication of how they’d be paid for. One global credit agency has already issued a warning about “the deterioration of Canada’s public finances,” but Liberals appear determined to forge ahead anyway, and have secured the support of the New Democrats, who never oppose new spending or bad economics.

RICIN WRITER LOADED FOR BEAR

 Deadly ricin was on a mortar and pestle found in the Quebec apartment of a Canadian woman arrested for allegedly sending a threatening, poison-laced letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, a New York court was told Monday.

Pascale Ferrier was also carrying a loaded semi-automatic handgun, a knife and a backpack stuffed with 294 rounds of ammunition, a stun gun, pepper spray, a collapsible baton and false U.S. identification when she was arrested on Sept. 20 crossing into the United States from Canada, U.S. prosecutors allege.

NAFTA 2 AFFECTS CHINESE PLANT IN ONTARIO

 Less than three weeks after talks concluded on the revised North American free trade agreement, executives from a Chinese infant formula manufacturer that had invested $332 million to build a new plant in Kingston, Ont. asked for a sudden meeting with Canadian officials.

Zhiwen Yang, the general manager of Canada Royal Milk — the Canadian subsidiary of China Feihe Limited — wrote to then-Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and the Liberal MP for Kingston and the Islands, Mark Gerretsen, describing how Canada's concessions in the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) put his business plans in jeopardy by limiting how much cow's milk formula it can export and dismantling the dairy ingredient pricing system.

Yang asked the federal government to "mitigate the risks to the project." His three-page letters, dated Oct. 16, 2018, were released to CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

CASH FOR BALLOTS SCHEME EXPOSED IN OMAR'S DISTRICT

   A scheme run by a so-called 'ballot harvesters' in Rep. Ilhan Omar's Minneapolis district was uncovered in a shocking exposé by Project Veritas. In one segment, alleged ballot harvester Liban Mohamed - the brother of Minneapolis city council member Jamal Osman, can be seen sifting through piles of ballots in his car in videos posted to his own snapchat channel under the name "KingLiban1."
    "Just today we got 300 for Jamal Osman," said Mohamed. "As you can see my car is full. All these are absentees' ballots. Can't you see?"
   The ballot harvesters scheme was uncovered by Omar Jamal, chairman of the Somali Watchdog Group. Jamal works with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department and is a political insider who is active within the city's Somali community.
   Jamal said he was motivated to reach out to Project Veritas, because he wants to eliminate the corruption that weakens his community, such as the ballot harvesting practiced by Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in which Ilhan Omar has emerged as a rising power broker.
   “It's an open secret,” he said. “she [Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected and she has hundreds of people on the streets doing that.”

CYBER ATTACKS & RANSOMWARE SCOURGE

 TORONTO — A shadowy group of cyber criminals that attacked a prominent nursing organization and Canadian Tire store has successfully targeted other companies with clients in governments, health care, insurance and other sectors.

Posts on their NetWalker “blog” indicate the recent infiltration of cloud-services company Accreon and document company Xpertdoc, although only the College of Nurses of Ontario has publicly acknowledged being victimized.

Experts say NetWalker surfaced about a year ago but its attacks took off in March as the criminals exploited fears of COVID and people working remotely. The ransomware, like similar malware, often infiltrates computer networks via phishing emails. Such messages masquerade as genuine, prompting users to provide log-in information or inadvertently download malware.

EXAMINING WE's OVERSEAS FOOTPRINT

 The controversy around WE Charity in Canada is opening the door to a public discussion about whether WE — and groups like it — actually help the African communities where they operate.

Firoze Manji, the former Africa program director for Amnesty International, said one of the big problems with groups such as WE is that they aren't accountable to the people they claim to serve.

"They are accountable to self-appointed boards," said Manji, who is originally from Kenya and is now a professor at Carleton University's Institute of African Studies. "The mythology is that they are going to fight poverty. The problem with that proposition, although it sounds very good, is that they don't deal with the causes of impoverishment."

TRUDEAU DOUBLES DOWN ON FAILURE

In supposedly fighting human-induced climate change, four different Canadian governments headed by four different prime ministers have set eight major national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the last 32 years.

They failed to achieve any of them, or were so far behind when they left office, or are so far behind today, that none can be taken seriously.

In keeping with tradition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ninth and tenth unattainable target in last week’s throne speech, boldly declaring: “The Government will immediately bring forward a plan to exceed Canada’s 2030 climate goal. The Government will also legislate Canada’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.”

Except Trudeau is about to miss his 2020 target.

WIND TURBINES CREATE MOUNTAINS OF WASTE

The volume of wind turbine waste is projected to soar in years to come, with mining and manufacturing waste, service waste, and end-of-life waste the major sources. It is estimate there will be 43 million metric tons just of blade waste worldwide by 2050. China is projected to be responsible for generating 40% of the waste, followed by Europe (25%) and the USA (19%).

London-based Principia Scientific International calls turbine blades “a toxic amalgam of unique composites, fiberglass, epoxy, polyvinyl chloride foam, polyethylene terephthalate foam, balsa wood, and polyurethane coatings. Basically, there is just too much plastic-composite-epoxy crapola that isn’t worth recycling.” Until better methods are found, about landfills are one of the few options.

LEFTIES RANTING RE JUDGE BARRETT

On Saturday, as many expected, President Trump announced that Judge Amy Coney Barrett was his nomination to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court. On the grounds of her intellect and abilities, Barrett is a superb choice. All who have worked with her, regardless of their political leanings, admire her, both professionally and personally. Barrett’s also an excellent choice because the Democrats are incapable of refraining from attacking her on grounds that make the Democrats look awful. Trump must have known that the leftists’ compulsions would be their Achilles’ heels.

   But Democrats are not sane. They cannot stop themselves from the type of personal destruction tried to use against Justice Kavanaugh. Because Barrett is a model of rectitude, rape claims are out. Instead, they are alleging that she is a racist, a bad mother, and a religious fanatic. This post is a compilation of some of the Democrats’ most insane rants.

MIGRANT MADNESS THAT'S OFF THE RADAR

 The Mail has charted the French Navy’s interventions in the Channel over five months. We have discovered migrant boats routinely being shepherded towards Britain, and even into our waters near the White Cliffs of Dover. 

There they are passed like parcels to our Border Force vessels, British coastguard cutters, and crews of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, to bring into port.

It is impossible to say exactly how many times this has happened because, shockingly, according to a maritime route-checking agency, French Navy vessels in the Channel often turn off tracking devices to hide their ‘operation purposes’ and ‘keep their route information secret’.

AUSSIE PM's REASONABLE REQUEST

  The world’s nations must do all they can to understand the origins of COVID-19, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday, comments that could worsen tensions with China.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Morrison said an inquiry into the roots of the virus would minimize the threat of another global pandemic.

“This virus has inflicted a calamity on our world and its peoples. We must do all we can to understand what happened for no other purpose than to prevent it from happening again,” Morrison said via a teleconference video link.

TRUMP'S CHOICE FOR SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENT

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Saturday plans to name conservative appellate judge Amy Coney Barrett as his third U.S. Supreme Court appointment, setting off a scramble in the Republican-led Senate to confirm her before Election Day in 5-1/2 weeks.

Barrett, 48, was appointed by Trump to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 and is a favorite of religious conservatives, a key Trump voter bloc. Her confirmation to replace liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at age 87 on Sept. 18, would make Barrett the fifth woman ever to serve on the top U.S. judicial body and push its conservative majority to a commanding 6-3.

THE SPEECH THAT CHANGED NOTHING

   Rex Murphy: Was this week’s most heralded speech from the throne a success? Well, as I see it, if clichés, bad grammar, vapid assertions and a grade school level of eloquence can lift a nation’s spirits, the throne speech was the elevator we were all waiting for. By any other measure, it was a maudlin bore, of a banality so painful it may have induced shock in the few who willingly endured the whole of it.

   To be blunt, this speech was not worth waiting all summer for; certainly not worth shutting down Parliament to “prepare” for. And it was, not incidentally, fairly strong proof that the only real reason Parliament was suspended was to, temporarily at any rate, push the WE Charity mess out of the news.

 For all the buildup we had to the return of Parliament, nothing really changed this week. People are as anxious now as they were last week. Businesses continue to close at staggering rates. People are still confused over the various injunctions they have received from their political leaders and public health experts during the pandemic. The deficit and debt are still monstrous. The likelihood that both will swell even more gigantically is still there. The energy industry is still under siege.

CA BANS GAS CARS BY 2035

California will phase out sales of new, gasoline-powered cars by 2035 as part of its fight against climate change, Governor Gavin Newsom announced September 23 — the first state to set an expiration date for the traditional automobile.

The move comes as California battles historic wildfires that Newsom has blamed squarely on global warming, with more than 3.6 million acres burned so far this year.

OTTAWA'S JURISDICTIONAL OVERREACH

 OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney criticized Thursday a recent decision by the federal government to launch environmental reviews of a pair of mining projects, saying it was yet another sign of jurisdictional overreach by Ottawa.

As part of a heated rebuke of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s throne speech on Wednesday, Kenney warned that the Liberal move to subject two coal mines to federal environment assessments was a “canary in the coal mine” that threatens to hamper investments in future natural resource projects.

The premier’s comments after years of frustration among some Western leaders over the Liberal government’s Impact Assessment Act, which was introduced under Bill C-69. The new law, which came into force last summer, effectively expanded the review process for major projects like oil pipelines, ports and hydro dams.

KEEPING THE FEDS OUT OF PROVINCIAL JURISDICTIONS

  Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was clear: If the Trudeau government tries to force a national pharmacare program across the country, his government would opt out and take cash from the feds rather than participate.

“We don’t need politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa micromanaging what our health-care priorities are across the federation,” Kenney said.

TIME TO REIN IN THE CBC

Lilley:  CBC has decided to launch a new commercial division; one that is well outside of their mandate.

CRA FILING YOUR TAXES FOR YOU

OTTAWA – The federal government wants the Canada Revenue Agency to start filing taxes for some Canadians, particularly those who are missing out on potentially crucial benefits.

It was a short line in Wednesday’s throne speech that took all of eight seconds for Governor General Julie Payette to read, but the potential impact for some Canadians — particularly those who depend on certain benefits to make ends meet — was significant.

" The Government will also work to introduce free, automatic tax filing for simple returns to ensure citizens receive the benefits they need,” the speech read.

In other words, the Trudeau government promised to reverse how taxes are filed for Canadians with “simple” returns.

CASTING YOUR BALLOT INTO A DITCH

Police in the swing-state of Wisconsin are investigating how three trays of mail which included absentee ballots ended up in a ditch, after the mail was found at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning near a highway before it was immediately turned over to the US Postal Service.

The incident comes a mere five weeks before the presidential election, which has been steeped in partisan bickering over the system of mail-in and absentee ballots and wavering trust in the alternate system.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the FBI and the office of the United States Attorney found nine discarded mail-in ballots from members of the military, all cast for President Trump.

THE DRAMA TEACHER'S POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING

So what does Justin Trudeau do when his demand for 15 minutes of unedited access to the airwaves was granted under the assumption it NOT be political?

In that weird breathlessness he saves for his most dramatic conversations, Trudeau warned Canadians their Thanksgiving turkey is likely cooked by the coronavirus and they might as well cancel the family feast now. Then he dangled the faint hope of Christmas salvation IF we wear masks, download the government COVID-19 tracking app and get a flu shot.

And then Trudeau dived into an overtly-partisan listing of government actions already taken and those to come, provided the throne speech gets passed by Parliament.

It was political grandstanding masked as a public service message, a transparent and shallow attempt to paste Trudeau’s face over the throne speech highlight reel instead of leaving all the television clips to a disinterested reading by scandal-tainted Gov. Gen. Julie Payette.

THE GREAT CONSERVATIVE MIGRATION IN USA

The signs really began to become visible at the end of January, 2020; there was an exodus of people brewing, and it was galvanizing fears on both sides of the political spectrum. The pandemic situation is cited by the mainstream media as the primary cause, but in reality the migration had started at least 3 years earlier. Americans were leaving certain states and cities behind by the tens of thousands, and these places were predominantly leftist in their policies and population. California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc.; all of these progressive states were bleeding residents since 2017, the pandemic just accelerated the situation.

A THRONE SPEECH, ANOTHER WORD SALAD

 The main question raised by Wednesday’s throne speech is why we — or WE, as it is sometimes styled — needed to have one at all. We were told that extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures, a sharp change in direction, debate in Parliament and a new mandate. “Canada is at a crossroads,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intoned in August. “This is our moment to change the future for the better.”

“Our realities have changed,” Gov. Gen. Julie Payette read in the Senate on Wednesday, “and so must our approach.” Nearly 7,000 words later, however, the ship of state hardly seems to have changed course at all.

To be fair, early on in the interregnum, some Liberals clearly had genuine ambitions. Notably we heard much talk that the speech would unveil a plan to transform the Canadian economy into a green colossus. The speech proposes nothing of the sort, for good reason: Many Canadians were unlikely to appreciate the Trudeau gang leveraging 9,000 deaths and two million lost jobs to take a giant big-government gamble.

RUMBLING AT PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY

Lilley:  Something is happening at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Not only did the president of the organization leading the pandemic response resign last week, but a vice-president left the week before.

 Under their leadership, PHAC took their eye off the ball, stopped caring about why the organization was set up in the first place and started to look at other more pressing needs than ensuring Canada was ready for a pandemic.

A $500,000 grant for climate-change storytelling while not renewing the PPE stockpile is one example. Having experts in spotting pandemics study vaping is another.

NAVALNY DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL

   Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been discharged from the hospital in Berlin where he has been treated after falling ill on a domestic flight in Siberia last month and then being airlifted to Berlin while still in a coma.

   “Based on the patient’s progress and current condition, the treating physicians believe that complete recovery is possible. However, it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning,” it added.

   Berlin says tests in Germany, France and Sweden have determined Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and the West has demanded an explanation from Russia.

DION SAYS NO TO INVESTIGATION OF TELFORD & HUSBAND

 OTTAWA — The federal ethics watchdog has dismissed Conservative allegations of conflict of interest involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, and her husband.

Ethics commissioner Mario Dion says the allegations are "speculative" and do not provide "a factual basis to support the belief that a contravention" of the Conflict of Interest Act may have occurred.

Consequently, Dion says he's informed Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre and Michael Barrett that their request for an investigation does not meet the requirements of the act.

75 YEARS TOWARDS A STATE OF USELESSNESS

 UNITED NATIONS — World leaders came together, virtually, on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, as the deadly coronavirus pandemic and tensions between the United States and China challenge the effectiveness and solidarity of the 193-member body.

Long-simmering tensions between the United States and China hit the boiling point over the pandemic, spotlighting Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional leadership.

In an apparent swipe at the United States, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said on Monday: “No country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others, or keep advantages in development all to itself. Even less should one be allowed to do whatever it likes and be the hegemon, bully or boss of the world. Unilateralism is a dead end.”

NS SHOOTER's HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

HALIFAX — Court documents released today describe the violence a Nova Scotia mass killer inflicted on his father years before his rampage as well as the gunman’s growing paranoia before the outburst of killings.

 In documents that a media consortium, including The Canadian Press, went before a provincial court judge to obtain, Wortman’s spouse and cousin both describe how in 2016 he smashed his father’s head against the pool during a family vacation in the Caribbean.

The May 5 police application for a search warrant quotes a cousin, who was a retired RCMP officer, telling investigators that the killer was “a strange little guy” when they were growing up, and he’d come to believe Wortman was a career criminal capable of killing others.

RICIN MAILER SENT 9 TOXIC LETTERS

 A Canadian woman arrested by U.S. authorities for allegedly sending envelopes of poisonous ricin to U.S. President Donald Trump has been telling the FBI where else she mailed toxic letters — nine in all — police say.

As authorities in the United States worked to track down all of the letters the woman allegedly sent, RCMP officers donned hazmat suits to search an apartment near Montreal Monday linked to the woman arrested crossing from Canada into the United States on Sunday.  The woman has been independently identified as Pascale Cécile Véronique Ferrier, 53, of Saint Hubert, Que..

After her arrest, she has been cooperative — possibly one reason why her court appearance was pushed back from Monday until late Tuesday afternoon — and allegedly revealed a series of other toxic letters, including several to two law enforcement agencies in Texas where she was arrested last year, National Post was told.

CALLING XI JINPING A CLOWN

   Ren Zhiqiang, the property tycoon nicknamed “Big Cannon,” was notorious for his blunt criticisms of the Communist Party, and yet his wealth and political connections long seemed to shield him from severe punishment. Until now.
   A court in Beijing sentenced Mr. Ren to 18 years in prison on Tuesday. The court said he was guilty of graft, taking bribes, misusing public funds and abusing his power during and after his time as an executive at a property development company.
   Mr. Ren’s supporters and sympathizers said that his real crime was criticizing the Communist Party and calling the country’s hard-line leader, Xi Jinping, a “clown.”

AUSTRALIA'S COPS HAVE LOST THE PLOT

"Victoria Police have lost all commonsense," one Australian eyewitness quipped upon posting a video showing police telling a 38-week pregnant woman she can't sit down due to coronavirus and social distancing enforcement measures.

It's one of many recent viral videos to come out of Australia's southeast state of Victoria, home to Melbourne, showing absurd "crackdowns" by police for alleged coronavirus policy violators. "As a pregnant woman I can't sit in the park?" the incredulous woman whose story was covered widely in local media asked the couple of officers who harassed her.

Apparently not... because COVID. “You can only be out of your house for one of four reasons,” the officer responded. “One of those would be exercise. Sitting in a park is not one of the four reasons.”

ANAL SPHINCTER CLENCH OF EPSTEIN'S FRIENDS

    Logs for every flight made by Jeffrey Epstein’s aircraft over 21 years have been subpoenaed, “sparking panic” among his rich and famous pals.
   The Attorney General for the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home, has demanded logs for his four helicopters and three planes, from 1998 to his suicide last year.
   Denise George has filed a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate, alleging 22 counts, including aggravated rape, child abuse and neglect, human trafficking, forced labour and prostitution.
   As well as the passenger lists, Ms George is seeking any “complaints or reports of potentially suspicious conduct” and any personal notes the pilots made.

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN RICIN LETTER INVESTIGATION

 A person who was trying to enter the U.S. from Canada has been arrested in connection with an investigation into a ricin-laced envelope addressed to the White House.

Several sources tell Global News that the final determination is still being made on her citizenship as the arrested woman was classified as a U.S. person — someone who has either had American immigration status now or in the past or is an American citizen.

The sources previously told Global News Sunday evening that senior officials believed she was a American citizen, and confirmed that she was carrying a gun when she was arrested.

OTTAWA VS PROVINCES CARBON TAX BATTLE

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax is going on trial Tuesday.

The Supreme Court of Canada is set to hear appeals in three separate cases to determine if the federal carbon-tax legislation is constitutional or if it encroaches unacceptably on areas of provincial jurisdiction.

Appeals courts in Saskatchewan and Ontario upheld the law, while the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled it unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court case could be a make-or-break decision for one of the central pillars of the Liberal climate agenda. It accounts for as much as 40 per cent of the cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions needed to meet Canada's obligations under the Paris climate change agreement.

TAXPAYERS FUNDING ELECTRIC VEHICLE PLANT IN ONTARIO

The federal government has indicated that it’s willing to put up to half a billion dollars into financing electric vehicle production in Oakville, with some money coming from the provincial government — an offer that could allow the Ford plant to stay open for years to come, the Star has learned.

Ford Motor Co. and its main union are in the midst of labour negotiations ahead of a deadline midnight Monday night, and a push for a retooling of the plant for mass production of EVs and their high-tech batteries is central to the talks.

After months of discussion and pressure from environmentalists and labour, Ottawa has told the company it is willing to do what it takes to bring electric vehicle production to Ontario and expects its funding to be part of an eventual $2-billion investment for a new mandate at the Oakville Assembly Complex.

SHOOTER KILLED MONEY LAUNDERER IN BC

 Alleged money launderer Jian Jun Zhu was shot to death and his associate Paul King Jin was wounded Friday night in a targeted shooting at a Richmond restaurant.

Zhu was suspected of being a key player in B.C.’s biggest money laundering investigation, where as much as $200 million was allegedly laundered a year.

Scott McGregor, an expert on transnational organized crime who is familiar with the Jin and Zhu network, said Saturday: “This is not a simple gang-level shooting. The significance of this attempt will have impacts that potentially touch on national security.”

PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY PRESIDENT RESIGNS

   The president of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is stepping down only 18 months into the job, leaving the federal agency tasked with coordinating the country's COVID-19 response without a seasoned leader.
   On Namiesniowski's watch, some scientists working for the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) complained that their early warnings about the threat of COVID-19 were ignored or inadequately addressed by senior staff at PHAC.
   The network, a federal government-run monitoring and analysis unit, alerts senior officials to health risks around the globe by compiling media reports and other intelligence about outbreaks.
   CBC News reported in April on concerns about the network's alerts not being as widely disseminated as they had been during past health crises.

RICIN ON LETTER TO WHITE HOUSE

   The RCMP says an envelope addressed to the White House that tested positive for the toxin ricin may have been sent from Canada.
   The national police force confirmed Saturday it has received a request for assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection with what it called a “suspicious letter.”
   “Initial information from the investigation suggests that the letter originated in Canada,” an RCMP spokesperson said in a statement.

NEITHER TREE NOR TWIG

   Rex Murphy:  Just two weeks ago the alarum went out that COVID-19 was an “opportunity” for something like an entire reorienting of government to go full green. How the response to a world plague invites the construction of windmills and solar panels, more gasoline taxes, and of course strict new regulations on every motorized operation was a question early posed. How does a green binge relate to viral infection?

The prime minister was talking big then, of a new Canada, and this new Canada was all for global-warming commitments. He was quite abuzz with the reforging of Confederation: “This is our chance to build a more resilient Canada, a Canada that is healthier and safer, greener and more competitive, a Canada that is more welcoming and more fair.”

 They didn’t talk that ambitiously even in 1867 when the canvas was empty. Chrystia Freeland, first mate of the SS Trudeau, was even more febrile. She insisted the recovery had to be green, equitable and inclusive, as opposed to, I presume, some other colour, inequitable and exclusive. All Canadians, she insisted, “know” the recovery has to be green

CAR JACKER GETS CLOBBERED AFTER CRASH

 Worst. Carjacker. Ever.

Police in York region got their man Wednesday after a would-be car thief crashed a stolen Mercedes and his numerous failures to carjack passing motorists was captured by their eye in the sky.

SUING CNN

I love the First Amendment, I support the First Amendment, I have litigated cases defending the First Amendment. I have written and taught about the First Amendment. And I was a law clerk for the Supreme Court when it rendered its landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, which "protects media even when they print false statements about public figures, as long as the media did not act with 'actual malice.'"

But I also understand the limitations of the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is designed to promote the marketplace of ideas. It is not a license for giant media companies to deliberately and maliciously defame citizens, even public figures. So when CNN made a decision to doctor a recording so as to deceive its viewers into believing that I said exactly the opposite of what I actually said, that action was not protected by the First Amendment. Here is what CNN did.

CBC SUES CPC FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

 Remember how the CBC brought a copyright infringement suit against the Conservative party with about 10 days left to go in the 2019 federal election campaign? We were so young then! The proceeding has not received much attention lately, but it is still underway, and I noticed this week that it has taken some turns while we have been cowering in our dens from a virus.

The CBC claimed back in October that Conservative campaign ads had made improper use of short clips from panel shows and from a party leader’s debate. The allegedly questionable ads were just like any other repulsive political ad of the last 50 years, and the “fair dealing” principle in copyright obviously ought to have the broadest possible latitude in such a situation. But the CBC had the chutzpah to argue that the campaign ads might lead people to think that the corporation was biased in favour of the Conservatives.

SLEEPING TESLA DRIVER

 A 20-year-old British Columbia man faces several charges after Alberta Mounties received complaints about a self-driving Telsa speeding while the occupants were taking a nap.

Ponoka RCMP said in a Thursday news release police received a call about a 2019 Tesla Model S travelling at more than 140 km/h south on Highway 2 near the town around 4 p.m. on July 9. Police said the car appeared to be self-driving with both front seats reclined all the way back and the driver and passenger were asleep.

ANOTHER ETHICALLY CHALLENGED LIBERAL

 Dion announced he was investigating David MacNaughton, the former ambassador and Liberal adviser, back in June after NDP MP Charlie Angus asked the commissioner's office to take a closer look at the former ambassador's conversations with government officials.

"Here we see a senior Trudeau Liberal nailed for breaking conflict of interest laws, while working for a dark and controversial surveillance giant," said Angus in a statement on Wednesday.

"Trudeau's former U.S. ambassador should have known better, but it seems that Mr. MacNaughton didn't think the rules applied to him as he used his former status to pitch his new employers. Hasn't anyone in Trudeau's team read the law?"

GREWEL'S LIST OF CHARGES

OTTAWA -- Former Liberal MP Raj Grewal allegedly received $6 million in funds that he did not disclose to the ethics commissioner while he served as a member of Parliament, according to new court documents obtained by CTV News.

He is also alleged to have defrauded "an individual employed at his parliamentary constituency office of a sum of money exceeding $5,000 in value" the documents say.

The documents also claim Grewal "did solicit funds by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means, in connection with his duties of office as a member of Parliament," and that he "did solicit funds for his own personal benefit in connection with the use of his public offices."

BUTTS BENDING TRUDEAU'S EAR WITH GREEN DREAMS

Lilley: A group that includes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former top aide, and bestie since their days at McGill, has laid out a roadmap for spending billions to make Canada’s COVID recovery a green one. The self-appointed Resilient Recovery Task Force is calling for $55.4 billion over the next five years on everything from green buildings to subsidies for electric cars.

Since the economy shut down in March, there have been no shortage of people looking to capitalize on the crisis to remake the Canadian economy. This group actually has an ally in Justin Trudeau.

RIOTERS USING HIGH POWERED LASER

A Portland man has been indicted by a grand jury for an attack on a police officer using a high powered laser during protests last month.

36-year old Bryan Kelley allegedly pointed a laser into an officer's eyes that so powerful it can cause permanent blindness, and possibly strong enough to burn through clothing and protective equipment.

SUPPORTING CAMPUS CRIMINALS

The president of Lancaster’s Franklin & Marshall College, Barbara Altmann, promoted a GoFundMe to raise money for a student and sorority girl who was one of 13 arrested as a result of the riots in Lancaster Sunday night into Monday morning.

Authorities arrested thirteen individuals, including one juvenile, as a result of the riots in Lancaster that occurred Sunday night into early Monday morning — riots that were spurred by the fatal police-involved shooting of 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz, who wielded a knife as he chased an officer. Kathryn Patterson, 20, was among the arrestees. She faces charges of arson, institutional vandalism, riot, failure to disperse, obstructing highways and other public passages, disorderly conduct, and defiant trespass, according to the Lancaster Bureau of Police. She is being held on $1,000,000 bail.

THE MOST COSTLY RIOTS IN USA HISTORY

   The domestic terrorists in Antifa and Black Lives Matter have accomplished one thing: the most costly riots in the history of our country, reports the far-left Axios.
   Property Claim Services, a company that tracks insurance claims filed due to riots and the like, found that the left-wing riots that occurred between May 26 and June 8 of this year could reach $2 billion in insurance claims.

   Obviously, because the left’s domestic terrorism extended well beyond June 8 and is still ongoing, the company acknowledges “this is still happening, so the losses could be significantly more.”

FLAMING PROPAGANDA RE CA WILDFIRES

California governor Gavin Newsom wants to blame the wildfires on record-breaking temperatures in LA County. So does Joe Biden; so too does the LA Times which claims that this ‘sizzling summer’ was the ‘Hottest August on Record’ in California. The not-so-subtle implication, of course, is that this is another case of ‘man-made global warming’ putting lives, property and the natural landscape at risk.

But this is pure green propaganda which bears no relation to the actual facts.

TRUDEAU'S LACK OF FISCAL CREDIBILITY

 Trudeau’s fiscal credibility was tied to memories of what his party did when it was last in power. In 2015, he said his plan to run deficits would end before the next election. Once in government, his spending commitment evolved into a promise to keep the debt-to-GDP ratio on a downward track, a wobbly anchor since governments have little influence over the denominator in that equation.

The Liberals added a fiscal commitment in the 2019 campaign, saying they would ensure that Canada retained a top rating from all the main bond rating agencies. But they didn’t talk about that pledge much after election day, and they surely would like to forget about it now that Fitch Ratings has downgraded Canada’s status to AA+ from AAA.

The message for Trudeau from the Fitch downgrade and the universal anxiety of Finance veterans is clear: his credibility as a fiscal manager is shot. If he wants to restore it, he’ll have to start over with a spending restraint that is easy for people to understand.

HAMAS: UAE & BAHRAIN HAVE BETRAYED THE CAUSE

The Israeli military struck Hamas militant sites in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday in response to rocket fire toward Israel the previous night that coincided with the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and two Arab countries at the White House.

The barrage against Israel began Tuesday night just as the ceremony in Washington was getting underway to formalize the new agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Two Israelis were lightly wounded.

 The Palestinians are opposed to the agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, viewing them as a betrayal of their cause by the Arab countries, which agreed to recognize Israel without securing territorial concessions. They vow that the agreements, and any others that may follow, will not undermine their cause.

BOEING PUT PROFITS BEFORE PEOPLE

18 months after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plummeted out of the sky just minutes after takeoff last March, Congressional investigators have finally released a comprehensive report outlining the many mistakes made both by Boeing and the FAA during the certification process.

In the months that have passed, investigators have kept the pressure on Boeing (and its share price) with a steady stream of leaks. We've already seen emails showing Boeing engineers criticizing the 737 MAX 8 design time in some of the harshest terms imaginable (at one point, one irate engineer complained that "the plane was designed by clowns, who were supervised by monkeys".

WHO SIDES WITH CHINA ON USA TARIFFS

In a long-anticipated ruling, the World Trade Organization has just ruled that President Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports violate established trade rules, suggesting that the international body, which was established by the West in the 1990s following the trade wars of the 1980s, has joined China and the EU in turning against the US.

However, though the ruling likely grabbed investors' attention, the decision is effectively toothless, since the US can lodge an appeal any time during the next 60 days. According to Bloomberg, thanks to changes to the appeals process made by the US, doing so would effectively stymie any further action.

SUSPENDED FOR HONOURING 9/11 POLICE & FIREFIGHTERS

Two high school football players were suspended indefinitely after they carried flags onto the field honoring police officers and firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11.

    The pair was suspended indefinitely by the school’s superintendent after disobeying an order not to carry the flags.

We can’t have students who decide to do something anyway after they’ve been told that they shouldn’t be doing it,” said Gregory Power, who claimed the flags were expressing a “political perspective” that other families may not agree with.

SILENCING VIROLOGIST DR. LI-MENG YAN

On Sunday afternoon we asked how long before the twitter account of the "rogue" Chinese virologist, Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who yesterday "shocked" the world of establishment scientists and other China sycophants, by publishing a "smoking gun" scientific paper demonstrating that the Covid-19 virus was manmade, is "silenced."

We now have the answer: less than two days. A cursory check of Dr Yan's twitter page reveals that the account has been suspended as of this moment.

t was not immediately clear what justification Twitter had to suspend the scientist who, to the best of our knowledge, had just 4 tweets as of Tuesday morning none of which violated any stated Twitter policies, with the only relevant tweet being a link to her scientific paper co-written with three other Chinese scientists titled "Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route" which laid out why the Wuhan Institute of Virology had created the covid-19 virus.

ALLEGATIONS OF FRAUD BY ELECTRIC TRUCK MAKER

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining Nikola to assess the merits of a short-seller’s allegations that the electric-truck maker deceived investors about its business prospects, according to people familiar with the matter.

In a September 10 report, Hindenburg Research called Nikola an “intricate fraud” that, among other allegations, overstated the capabilities of its earliest test trucks.

Among Hindenburg’s accusations is that a 2018 promotional video was misleading because it gave the impression that a prototype was capable of being driven when the truck had in fact been rolled down a hill.

Nikola said Monday it never claimed the truck was driving under its own propulsion — though it had described the vehicle as “in motion” in social media posts and other communications.

PEARSON AIRPORT HAS MOST COVID-19 INFECTED FLIGHTS

 Of the four Canadian airports permitted to accept international flights, Toronto is still seeing the most arrivals with cases of COVID-19.

According to Health Canada’s transportation case tracking database, 21 flights from a variety of international destinations that landed at Pearson International Airport since Aug. 31 have had passengers who tested positive for coronavirus.

Anyone entering Canada is required to quarantine for 14 days. Essential workers such as airline pilots, flight crews and transport truck drivers are exempt from the mandatory quarantine rules.

While those in violation are subject to fines up to $750,000 and six months in jail, data from Health Canada reports no arrests in the 87,338 people investigated for potentially disregarding quarantine.

PAYING FOR THE SOCIALISTS' UTOPIA

 In response to the pandemic, many people welcomed the establishment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of a temporary socialist state. Programs such as Canada Emergency Response Benefit provide a bridge over troubled waters for those dispossessed by COVID-19.

Now the PM is indicating he wants to make socialism a permanent thing; that he wants to take this country in a very “different” direction.

The problem is, he doesn’t have a mandate to make sweeping changes to the social and economic underpinnings of this country. He has only a minority government — although he’s demonstrating breathtaking arrogance in governing as if he actually won the last election.

HAJDU STILL CHEERLEADING FOR CHINA

Health Minister Patty Hajdu continues to defend the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying all countries have difficulties calculating the extent of the virus spread.

 Hajdu was asked about her comments earlier in the year when she dismissed as a conspiracy theory a question about whether China had underreported their cases and the severity of the new, highly contagious disease.

 “Look, very early on China alerted the World Health Organization to the emergence of a novel coronavirus and also shared the sequencing of the gene which allowed countries to be able to rapidly produce tests to be able to detect it in their own countries,” Hajdu said.

CHINESE FIRM AMASSING DATA FOR MILITARY CONTRACTORS

   The ambitions of the company, Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. Ltd. extend far beyond its small real-estate footprint. It is building tools to process the world’s open-source information about influential people — culled from Twitter, criminal records, LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos and more — into information that can be analyzed and used by universities, companies, government actors and the Chinese military. “Our client base is a bit special,” the woman said. It also claims to have built tools to manipulate content on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other platforms. Facebook now says it has banned the company from its platform.
   But The Globe and a consortium of international journalists have accessed an early copy of the company’s Overseas Key Information Database, which shows the type of information Zhenhua is collecting for use in China, including records of small-town mayors in western Canada, where Chinese diplomats have sought to curry favour. The company, led by a former IBM data centre management expert, has also described its work online in job postings, LinkedIn records, blog articles and software patents. One employee described work “mining the business needs of military customers for overseas data.” Zhenhua’s website listed a series of partners that include important military contractors. In total, it claims to have collected information on more than 2.4 million people, 650,000 organizations from over two billion articles of social media.

DIGGING IN THE GRAVEYARD

 Groundhogs have long been a common sight around the city, where their scurrying presence may delight wildlife-watchers but constitutes a nuisance for gardeners tired of filling in burrow-holes.

But in the vast cemetery on the slopes of Mount Royal, the hole-digging behaviour has taken on a grimmer aspect as the rodents dig up old graves and occasionally leave bones scattered on the surface.

THE VISION OF THE ANOINTED

 If media leaks from his government are accurate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to unleash in his Sept. 23 Throne Speech what the great conservative philosopher Thomas Sowell describes as “the vision of the anointed”.

With Trudeau poised to abandon traditional fiscal anchors on borrowed money, such as the inconvenient need to pay it back eventually, the PM and his brain trust are apparently considering everything from a guaranteed basic income to a slew of new and/or massively enhanced social programs.

Unfortunately, Sowell writes, the vision of the anointed is unaffected by the fact that their ideas and programs rarely achieve what is promised and often make things worse because of unintended consequences.

VIROLOGIST CLAIMS PROOF CHINA CREATED COVID 19 VIRUS

 Since the Wuhan virus first made itself known to the world in January 2020, there have been stories about its origin. Initially, China blamed bats sold at its famous Wuhan wet market. However, it soon became apparent that the virus did not originate with local bats. By February, Sen. Tom Cotton was suggesting that the virus originated in a lab. The current operating hypothesis is that the Chinese government was researching a bat virus at its lab, only to have a careless accident release it into the general public. This hypothesis may change when Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Hong Kong virologist who is hiding from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), releases what she claims is irrefutable proof that the Chinese manufactured the virus.

CHINA'S WORK OF FICTION

 China’s “Position Paper of the People’s Republic of China On the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations” lists China’s goals as world peace, nuclear disarmament, climate action, and for people to stop banning Chinese tech.

The nation’s position emerged yesterday spelling out China’s 14-point vision for international trade and cooperation.

Among the points raised are observance of World Trade Organization rules, following the World Health Organization’s lead on COVID-19 management and fully implementing the Paris Agreement and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. China wants nuclear disarmament, gender equality, respect for intellectual property, settlement for refugees, more assistance to developing nations, ongoing action against combat terrorism and supports UN reform.

…

BLATANT VOTE-BUYING OF TRUDEAU'S LIBERALS

 OTTAWA — A guaranteed basic income for all Canadians has emerged as the top policy choice of Liberal MPs, just as the Trudeau government is crafting its plan to help people weather the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild the ravaged economy.

The Liberal caucus is calling on the government to adopt the idea in a priority policy resolution for consideration at the party's upcoming national convention.

And MPs consider it so important that they've designated it their top resolution, guaranteeing that it will go directly to the Nov. 12-15 convention for debate and a vote.

MISJUDGING CHINA

 BEIJING — China’s Defence Ministry on Sunday blasted a critical U.S. report on the country’s military ambitions, saying it is the U.S. instead that poses the biggest threat to the international order and world peace.

The statement follows the Sept. 2 release of the annual Defence Department report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said would have “serious implications for U.S. national interests and the security of the international rules-based order.”

Defence Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian called the report a “wanton distortion” of China’s aims and the relationship between the People’s Liberation Army and China’s 1.4 billion people.

WE CHARITY TO LIQUIDATE ASSETS

When WE Charity abruptly announced Wednesday that it would shut down in Canada and sell its assets, it did not say what would happen to the millions of dollars worth of real estate held by affiliated companies.

WE Charity has paid $26.1 million for Toronto real estate, according to Ontario land registry documents. The six properties, storefronts clustered around the charity’s headquarters at Queen St. E and Parliament St, were bought between 2015 and 2018 and intended to one day become a “campus for good.”

Immediately adjacent to the WE properties is an additional $13.1 million in property owned by Me to We Asset Holdings, Me to We Foundation and a numbered company registered to a staff member of WE Charity.

SUING ONTARIO LTC HOME FOR $25M

Injury law firm Thomson Rogers has filed a $25 million class-action lawsuit for the families of residents at Camilla Care community long-term care home where at least 68 patients died from COVID-19.

The suit claims Camilla Care failed to implement screening measures or social distancing practices, or separate infected and non-infected residents, following Ontario’s declaration of a State of Emergency on March 17.

The class action also alleges the home was understaffed and there was a lack of PPE.

LIBERALS CLOSED EARLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR HEALTH PROBLEMS

Brian Lilley:   We now know the Trudeau government took actions in the lead-up to COVID-19 that seriously weakened Canada’s pandemic preparedness. As I’ve reported on extensively, the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile — the backstop for provincial health systems for items such as anti-viral drugs and personal protective equipment — was allowed to wither and rot.

Now we have learned that an early warning system for detecting pandemics was silenced in 2019, just months before COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

The Global Public Health Intelligence Network was started in 1998 to give the Canadian government and, through it, the World Health Organization a heads up when new viruses, outbreaks or other potential health problems arose. The team of doctors and epidemiologists would scour news sources around the world, often in small local news outlets, looking for patterns.

REPLACING THE RCMP IN ALBERTA

 EDMONTON — The Alberta government is looking to hire a contractor to study the benefits and costs of a proposed provincial police force that could replace the RCMP.

Online job postings show the province wants the contractor to do a feasibility review of a possible transition from the RCMP to an Alberta Provincial Police Service.

The provincial government's Fair Deal Panel recommended in June the creation of a provincial police force, saying the RCMP has become too bureaucratically inflexible and smaller communities aren't getting enough front-line officers.

FORMER LIBERAL CHARGED BY RCMP

   The RCMP has charged former Liberal MP Raj Grewal with four counts of breach of trust and one count of fraud over $5,000.
    "It is alleged that Mr. Grewal failed to report his receipt of millions in personal loans to the Ethics Commissioner, in circumstances that constitute a criminal breach of trust," the RCMP said in a news release.
   "It is further alleged that Mr. Grewal solicited loans for his own personal benefit in connection with the use of his public office, and that he administered his government-funded constituency office budget for his own personal benefit, under circumstances which constituted a criminal fraud or breach of trust."

LUDICROUS ONTARIO LAW

 TORONTO — A wealthy businessman will have to pay more than $50,000 a month in spousal support for 10 years to a woman with whom he had a long-term romantic relationship even though they kept separate homes and had no children together, Ontario’s top court has ruled.

Under Ontario law, an unmarried couple are considered common-law spouses if they have cohabited — lived together in a conjugal relationship — continuously for at least three years. But that doesn’t necessarily mean living in the same home, the court found.

“Lack of a shared residence is not determinative of the issue of cohabitation,” the Appeal Court said. “There are many cases in which courts have found cohabitation where the parties stayed together only intermittently.”

MASSIVE BACKLOG OF SURGERIES IN ONTARIO

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating serious existing cracks in Ontario’s health-care system, according to new information released by the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF). And it’s going to take innovative thinking about health-care delivery to mend this broken system.

Documents obtained through freedom of information legislation show that the pandemic has created a massive backlog of surgeries, which could potentially take years to clear. The documents from the Ministry of Health show that the number of surgeries and diagnostic procedures performed between March 18 and July 27 dropped dramatically compared to the same time period in 2019.

QUEBEC'S CORONAVIRUS DETENTION CENTRE

Authorities in Quebec City, Canada have announced they will isolate “uncooperative” citizens in a coronavirus facility, the location of which remains a secret.

During a press conference, Dr. Jacques Girard, who heads the Quebec City public health authority, drew attention to a case where patrons at a bar were ordered to wait until their COVID-19 tests came back, but disregarded the command and left the premises before the results came back positive.

This led to them being deemed “uncooperative” and forcibly interned in a quarantine facility.

COVERING FOR BIDEN IN TRAIN WRECK INTERVIEW

 Joe Biden's National Press Secretary, TJ Ducklo, just gave a trainwreck of an interview on Fox News - where he shifted between anti-Trump talking points and backpedaling defensively over simple questions, such as Biden's reliance on teleprompters and what the former VP would have done better than Trump in terms of the national response to COVID-19.

ALIENATING FOOTBALL FANS

Who would have thought that sports fans just want to watch... sports?

Thursday night's return of the NFL which saw the Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans began with an “End Racism” message of unity (words which were also emblazoned at the end of the field).

As Mediaite details, things went downhill despite the special display: "The Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Houston Texans Thursday evening for the NFL’s opening game of the 2020 season, and intended to provide a show of unity by locking arms with their teammates and opponents before the game — but the solemnity of the moment was ruined by fans booing in the stands."

Yes it's confirmed, not just in this latest booing incident, but Gallup polling shows the Great Awokening of professional sports is alienating many, perhaps most

ECO WARRIORS THREATENED BY INQUIRY

 The commissioner of Alberta’s inquiry into alleged foreign-funded campaigns against the oil industry is contesting a legal challenge to pause his work, saying an environmental law charity can’t prove it will be harmed by the inquiry’s report.

The inquiry, launched in July 2019, has less than eight weeks to submit its final report to the government, and must release a public report by January 2021.

The legal brief comes in response to Ecojustice’s July application for an injunction stopping the inquiry, which argues that allowing the inquiry to continue and potentially publish its final report before the court rules on whether it’s legal could damage the reputation of environmental groups.

CHINA's BULLY BOYS

   Canadian MPs on the House of Commons foreign-affairs committee were told during a fact-finding visit to Hong Kong in late 2017 that Chinese authorities did not want them meeting with leading figures from the pro-democracy movement in the former British colony.
   And in early 2019, according to Linda Duncan, who was an NDP MP for Edmonton-Strathcona at the time, her office was contacted by the Chinese embassy in Canada advising her not to proceed with plans to meet with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual leader of the Tibetan people has lived in exile since fleeing his homeland in 1959 during an uprising against China’s rule.
   Members of Parliament bridled at the attempted interference. Ms. Duncan said Tuesday that “it was completely inappropriate and none of their bloody business.”

   The Chinese embassy in Ottawa, however, now says it believes that contact with the the Dalai Lama, who lives in India, constitutes  an intrusion in China’s affairs. The same goes for communicating with Hong Kong pro-democracy figures, it said.

WE's CANADIAN OPERATIONS SHUTTERED

 NDP MP Charlie Angus says WE's announcement Wednesday that it is shuttering its Canadian operations only underscores the lack of due diligence done by the government before handing administration of the program over to an organization that was evidently in financial distress.

WE said Wednesday it plans to lay off 115 Canadian staff and sell all its property in Canada in the coming months, including its landmark $15-million Global Learning Centre in downtown Toronto, which opened in 2017.

It follows news last month that WE would be laying off dozens of employees in Canada and the United Kingdom.

The net profits will be put in an endowment fund that will be overseen by a new board of governors and used to complete several projects in communities in Latin America, Asia and Africa that were started by WE but remain unfinished.

WEST BLOCKING LIBERALS' GREEN RECOVERY

 Ottawa’s proposed post-pandemic “green recovery” would strike a death knell for Western Canada’s economy and must be blocked by Prairie MPs and senators, the Buffalo Project lobby group said Tuesday.

In a pair of open letters addressed to lawmakers, the group pushing for what it calls a better economic deal for the region says the Sept. 23 federal throne speech that’s to include a focus on environmental sustainability is a threat to western prosperity.

It’s calling on the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Jason Kenney and Scott Moe, to join MPs and senators to push back against the “green recovery” proposal while advocating for private investment incentives and the retroactive release of withheld national transfer payments to both provinces.

TRUDEAU'S GUN BAN FAIL

 “Enough is enough. Banning these firearms will save Canadian lives,” Trudeau’s public safety minister Bill Blair stated emphatically.

Too bad it isn’t working.

Between May 1 and Sept. 6, shootings were up in Canada’s biggest city. So were the number of people killed by guns.

In total, between when Trudeau announced his ban and the Labour Day weekend, Toronto saw 208 shootings with 92 people injured and 14 people killed. In that same time period for 2019, there were 185 shootings, 92 injured and 12 people killed.