THE FALSE POSITIVE PSEUDO-EPIDEMIC

 In Spring 2020 a novel coronavirus swept across the world: novel, but related to other viruses. In the UK, unknown at the time, around 50% of the population were already immune. The evidence for this is unequivocal and arose due to prior infection by common cold-causing coronaviruses (of which four are endemic). This prior immunity has been confirmed around the world by top cellular immunologists. There is even a very recent paper from Public Health England on the topic of prior immunity and a wealth of other evidence from studies on memory T-cells, studies on household transmission and on antibodies.  

   Because of the extent of the prior immunity, and as a result of heterogeneity of contacts, once only a low percentage of the population, perhaps as low as 10-20% had been infected, “herd immunity” was established. This is why daily deaths, which were rising exponentially, turned abruptly and began to fall, uninterrupted by street protests, the return to work, the reopening of pubs and crowded beaches during the summer.

In Spring, however, this virus did kill or hasten the end for approximately 40,000 vulnerable people, who were mostly old (median age 83, which is longer than that cohort’s life expectancy when born) and many of whom had multiple other medical conditions. There were some rare and very unfortunate younger people who also died, but age is clearly the strongest risk factor.

But due to extraordinary errors in modelling created by unaccountable academics at Imperial College, the country was told to expect over a half a million deaths. Three Nobel prize-winning scientists wrote to that modelling team in February correcting their errors. This was done confidentially. This expert, third-party estimate was remarkably accurate – it predicted that there would be a total of 40k deaths from COVID-19. I believe this is in fact correct and is what has happened. While I have no proficiency in modelling, I can distinguish predictions that are biological plausible from those which are literally incredible. When inputs to a model are wrong or missing, their outputs cannot be trusted. The Imperial model made the extreme assumption that there was zero prior immunity in the population or social contact heterogeneity.

SUCH NONSENSE TALKED ABOUT VACCINES

While Pfizer pharmaceutical had made headlines on the release of their Coronavirus vaccine, a former Vice President and Chief Scientist of the company Dr. Michael Yeadon has said that there is no need for any vaccines to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end.

According to an article published in Lockdown Sceptics, Dr. Michael Yeadon wrote, “There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic. I’ve never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines. You do not vaccinate people who aren’t at risk from a disease. You also don’t set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn’t been extensively tested on human subjects.”

BUDGET UPDATE LACKS TARGETS & CONTROLS

 Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is scheduled to present a budget update Monday. From statements made in recent weeks by the minister and by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we know at least what will not be in this update: specific targets for deficit reduction and control of the size of the federal debt. This is a mistake that could cost Canadian taxpayers dearly.

Speaking to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce last month, Trudeau argued that it would be “premature” to state such goals while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disturb and shatter thousands of lives in this country. Freeland promised “fiscal rules and limits,” but postponed fiscal guardrails and fiscal anchors.

As Robert Asselin, a former close adviser to Bill Morneau, recently pointed out, one of the purposes of setting deficit and debt targets — “fiscal anchors” — is to “provide a measure of fiscal discipline inside government. If the Finance Minister doesn’t have one, it becomes very difficult for her to put any sorts of constraints on her colleagues in Cabinet and caucus.”

TRUDEAU'S DIFFICULTY UNDERSTANDING CHINA

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole accused the Liberal government Sunday of putting too much emphasis on partnering with a Chinese company for a COVID-19 vaccine in what turned out to be a failed deal.

O’Toole said the Trudeau government only turned its attention to pre-ordering tens of millions of vaccine doses from companies such as Pfizer and Moderna in August when its collaboration between the National Research Council and Chinese vaccine-maker CanSino finally collapsed after months of delays.

The Council had issued CanSino a licence to use a Canadian biological product as part of a COVID-19 vaccine. CanSino was supposed to provide samples of the vaccine for clinical trials at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University, but the Chinese government blocked the shipments.

SASKATCHEWAN DRILLER HITS GEOTHERMAL GUSHER

 In Canada’s nascent geothermal power industry, Deep’s “gusher” can produce steaming-hot water and brine with a temperature of 127 degrees centigrade at a rate of 100 litres per second. Marcia said those flow rates mean the well will actually be limited by the hardware, such as pump capacity, that are connected to the wellhead. She said the well, called the Border-5HZ well, is capable of producing 3 megawatts of renewable, reliable electricity, enough to power 3,000 homes.

The well will form part of a larger 20MW geothermal power project, which is expected to commence construction in 2023 in southern Saskatchewan close to the U.S. border.

The well is also a first for the global geothermal industry.

GOT THE MONEY BUT STILL NOT SATISFIED

Calgarians pushing for police reform say they are “disheartened” with council’s decision to dip into rainy-day funds instead of shifting money from the local force’s budget toward community supports.

Earlier this month, Calgary police put forward a proposal to shift $8 million from their budget for the city’s new community safety investment framework, which is a measure to tackle gaps in crisis response.

 But council decided on Thursday to pull $8 million from the fiscal stability reserve instead to fund the framework.

“The programming is what is important here, not where the money comes from,” said Davison on Saturday. “It really came down to ensuring a program is set up to be successful. Rather than dipping into base budgets of certain departments, let’s take one-time capital.”

PREYING UPON THE EMERALD ASH BORER

 PEMBROKE — The City of Pembroke, Natural Resources Canada’s Forest Service and a small wasp are teaming up to help defend ash trees here.

On Monday, Pembroke’s Operations Committee approved a request from NRCan to use a woodlot at the end of D’Youville Drive as a research site to conduct releases of a small wasp that prays upon the emerald ash borer, a highly destructive and invasive beetle that feeds under the bark of ash trees, eventually killing them.

GREEDY EU STILL WANTS CONTROL OF UK FISHING WATERS

The European Economic Community, as the European Union then was, changed its rules to give Brussels control over national fishing waters shortly before the United Kingdom joined in the 1970s, bringing the richest fishing waters in western Europe with it.

The EU currently doles out more than half of those stocks to other EU member-states — Britain left the bloc at the beginning of 2020 but remains a member in all but name through the ongoing “transition” period — and has over the years overseen massive job losses in the British fishing industry, with thousands of British fishermen either driven out of business or paid to destroy their vessels.

Survivors had looked forward to regaining their lost fisheries after the vote to Leave the European Union back in 2016 but, despite EU loyalists having repeatedly played down the economic importance of fishing, the bloc has been fighting tooth and nail to retain its current control of Britain’s waters, threatening to refuse a trade deal if they do not get it.

WHY CANADA NO LONGER MAKE VACCINES

 Wanting, however, to show they weren’t toadies to Big Pharma, the Chretien Liberals undid those protections in the last 1990s, with predictable results.

In 1996 there was $1.3 billion in drug company research done in Canada. By 2019, that had fallen to $870 million. Adjusting for inflation, current spending is less than half of what it was.

That’s why we can no longer manufacture vaccines.

KARMA FOR LIBERALS

 Proving yet again that what goes around comes around, the Trudeau Liberals, having accused the Conservatives all last week of spreading fake news about COVID-19, finished off the week on Friday by spreading fake news about the Conservatives and COVID-19.

The PMO fiasco was also just comeuppance for Health Minister Patty Hajdu, who last week attacked the Conservatives for citing my Sun Media colleague Anthony Furey’s excellent reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hajdu called it “fake and dangerous news.”

SHOW DOWN AT THE BARBECUE CORRAL

Rex Murphy: The message seems obvious: If a business is big enough, COVID-19 never visits. In a place with one owner and two staff, it’s a hazard.

It’s been something of a slogan from our leaders, municipal, provincial and federal, that “We’re all in this together.” Plainly we are not, if “together” is supposed to mean we are all feeling the same pressures, sharing the same anxieties, and open to the same hazards.

Those at the lower income level, those not with government employment, those not of the professional classes, are bearing far more strain and stress than those shielded by income, class or type of employment. All face COVID. But not all face COVID while struggling to continue a lifetime’s business; or, having already been on limited income, having no income at all now.

MPP HILLIER CHARGED

Randy Hillier, a Kingston, Ont.,-area MPP, has been charged under the Reopening Ontario Act after organizing an anti-COVID-19 lockdown rally outside Queen’s Park Thursday morning.

This is the second rally organized by Hillier in as many months to claim that the pandemic restrictions and lockdowns are unlawful and are causing more harm than good.

FEDERAL LOBBYING WATCHDOG BUSY

 OTTAWA – The federal lobbying watchdog says she has referred three files to the RCMP for criminal investigation since the beginning of the pandemic in a year that has seen a significant uptick in lobbying.

“Since April 2020, I have opened 16 preliminary assessments, and currently have five ongoing investigations. Also since April, I have referred three investigation files to the RCMP. As of today, there are 11 files with the RCMP,” Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy Bélanger revealed to members of the ethics committee Friday.

The commissioner was called to detail her office’s work as questions have swirled throughout the summer about the lobbying activities by both WE Charity and the husband of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

FORMER CIA INFORMANT FILES $75MILLION LAWSUIT

On Friday, Carter Page — the former CIA informant whom the FBI nonetheless targeted for warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — filed an explosive $75 million lawsuit against the key actors in the FISA surveillance scandal known as Spygate or Obamagate. While U.S. Attorney John Durham’s report into this matter is still forthcoming, Page appears to have decided to take matters into his own hands and pursue justice in the courts.

The lawsuit names a host of defendants, including the federal government of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, FBI agent Joe Pientka III, and more. These individuals and others have confessed to compiling and approving four FISA warrants to spy on Page despite numerous errors and omissions — warrants Comey and others said they would not have signed, knowing what they know now.

ON THE SUBJECT OF MISINFORMATION

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scolded Conservative leader Erin O’Toole over “COVID misinformation” in a telephone call on Friday afternoon, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Except the call hadn’t happened.

According to a “readout” of the “call” sent at 4.34 p.m. by the PMO, Trudeau updated O’Toole on several issues. Then, “the Prime Minister also raised concerns around COVID-19 misinformation being promoted by Conservative Members of Parliament, given Conservative MPs recently downplayed the deaths of Canadians in Alberta due to COVID-19 and compared COVID-19 to the flu.”

Shortly afterwards, Melanie Paradis, director of communications for O’Toole, tweeted, “This is awkward. The call isn’t until 5.15pm today,” adding that she was at that moment sitting with the Conservative leader.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner also posted, “I was literally just sitting with @erinotoole and can verify he was not on the phone with @JustinTrudeau.”

EXCUSE MY SKEPTICISM

The World Health Organization has unveiled the names of 10 scientists set to travel to Wuhan “as soon as possible” to trace the origins of Sars-Cov-2.

The international team, which includes England's former deputy chief medical officer, John Watson, will work with Chinese experts to investigate how Covid-19 jumped from animals to humans.

Since the virus first emerged experts have been keen to track its origins, with the WHO identifying this a “priority research area” in February and sending a preliminary “scouting mission” to China over the summer, though this team didn't visit Wuhan.

The scientists will also consider theories swirling round the Wuhan Virology Institute, a high security lab in Wuhan, in an attempt to discredit them. And they will interrogate evidence collected by Chinese experts on the ground over the last 11 months.

INDIGNANT, RIGHTEOUS LIBERALS

 Hilariously, given their own record, the Liberals are furious with Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre for suggesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a hidden agenda to re-engineer Canada into a green-energy dependent, more socialist country.

Seriously. The Liberals, who were forever accusing former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper of having a “hidden agenda” to outlaw abortions, ban gay marriage and force women back into the kitchen, are now beside themselves Poilievre has turned the tables on them.

As a result, there’s been much Liberal and media pearl clutching over Poilievre suggesting calls by Trudeau for a “Great Reset” of society post-pandemic is code for restructuring Canada to conform to his political ideas.

A CLOSER LOOK AT USA COVID-19 DEATH COUNT

Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same.

“The reason we have a higher number of reported COVID-19 deaths among older individuals than younger individuals is simply because every day in the U.S. older individuals die in higher numbers than younger individuals,” Briand said.

Briand also noted that 50,000 to 70,000 deaths are seen both before and after COVID-19, indicating that this number of deaths was normal long before COVID-19 emerged. Therefore, according to Briand, not only has COVID-19 had no effect on the percentage of deaths of older people, but it has also not increased the total number of deaths.

NO FACILITIES IN CANADA TO PRODUCE COVID VACCINE

 Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner demanded in question period to know if Canada had even negotiated for the right to make vaccines domestically.

“Did you even bother to negotiate the right for Canada to manufacture these vaccines at home? Do we have the ability to do this and when are Canadians going to get these vaccines?” she asked Trudeau.

Trudeau did not answer that question directly, but government sources speaking on background said the vaccine contracts don’t include a right to make them domestically, largely because the government would have had no place to make them. The sources indicated they were confident the manufacturers would be open to domestic production, but there are no domestic facilities in Canada.

HARASSING THE KILTED

 Asking a Scotsman what he is wearing under his kilt is often considered a light-hearted joke.

But a leading bagpiper has complained that it constitutes harassment and said women use it as an opportunity to grope and “upskirt” those who wear traditional Highland dress.

Willie Armstrong, a member of the popular Scots band the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, said women took indecent photographs of him at gigs and suggested that double standards were at play.

Taking part in a discussion on “upskirting” on BBC Radio Scotland, Armstrong, 55, said: “It’s the constant ‘are you a true Scotsman?’ They are basically asking you if you are wearing underwear or not.

“If you reversed that behaviour and I was to say to a woman, can I ask what you are wearing underneath your dress, it would be a whole different ball game. 

HUNGARY'S PM ORBAN REAMS OUT SOROS

   Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blasted billionaire disrupter George Soros Wednesday, denouncing his efforts to create a “European empire” under the banner of a global open society.
   In his written statement, Mr. Orbán replies to a November 18 article by George Soros published in Project Syndicate in which Mr. Soros attacks Hungary and Poland for vetoing the European Union’s proposed €1.15 trillion seven-year budget.
   In his article Soros instructs the leaders of the European Union “to severely punish those Member States that do not want to become part of a unifying European empire under the banner of a global ‘open society,’” Orbán writes.
   Soros is an “economic criminal” who “made his money through speculation, ruining the lives of millions of people, and even blackmailing entire national economies,” Orbán states, noting that many believe that prime ministers must not debate with economic criminals, just as governments “must not negotiate with terrorists.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP PARDONS LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN

President Donald Trump pardoned his former National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.), on Wednesday.

Many pundits on the left clung to the belief that Flynn was guilty, or that he was the beneficiary of political interference by Trump in the DOJ. On the right, however, Flynn was seen as an innocent man framed as part of the Democrats’ vendetta.

One of those who falsely accused Flynn was none other than Jake Sullivan, whom Joe Biden has named as his National Security Adviser. Having smeared Flynn with false allegations of Russia collusion, Sullivan stands ready to take his job.

Flynn’s finances were ruined by the prosecution, as well as his opportunity to serve in the Trump administration. He has, until now, been relatively silent about his opinions.

$11MILLION COVID-19 BENEFIT FRAUD

TORONTO -- Four family members who worked for the Ontario government in information technology defrauded the province of at least $11 million destined as COVID-19 relief money, a statement of claim alleges.

The unproven civil claim on behalf of the province, which also seeks $2 million in punitive damages, accuses them and others of illegally issuing and banking cheques under the Support for Families Program that aimed to defray the cost of children learning at home.

According to the lawsuit, Sanjay Madan and his family opened more than 400 accounts at the Bank of Montreal between April and May. They then deposited around 10,000 cheques made out to fictitious applicants with thousands of non-existent children under the support program.

REFORMING THE RCMP

After that terrible, exhaustive research—including 634 interviews—Bastarache describes widespread, brutal treatment of women who entered the force full of optimism and community spirit and were betrayed by colleagues who objectified, exploited, belittled, bullied and threatened them, then denied them redress until they went to court.

This traumatized the victims, left them coping with terrible psychological problems, including PTSD, depression, substance abuse and problems in interpersonal relationships. One woman took her own life during the settlement process.

The Mounties must be forced to reform: “The time has come for an in depth, external and independent review of the organization and future of the RCMP as a federal policing organization.”

BLOC BILL TO PROTECT DAIRY IN TRADE DEALS

A few weeks before the 2019 general election, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced compensation for dairy farmers to cover their anticipated losses from CETA and CPTPP, which were already both in effect at the time. That financial assistance rolled out last winter.

Help has also been pledged to compensate for the even larger concessions in the new NAFTA but nothing further has been announced. American farmers got access to a greater share of Canada's starting July 1 — and the new NAFTA also dictates how dairy ingredients can be priced and slapped strict export limits on sensitive global commodities like skim milk powder and baby formula.

Blanchet slammed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for taking so long to present her fall economic update and said her spending plan must include the NAFTA compensation farmers anxiously anticipate.

CSIS ALLEGES IRAN WIRING $MILLIONS TO CANADA

A Toronto currency exchange business helped Iran secretly wire millions of dollars into Canada in violation of sanctions, according to a classified intelligence report that calls the financial transfers a threat to national security.

The money was routed through Dubai in order to “circumvent sanctions,” CSIS wrote in its Dec. 20, 2019, report on Onghaei, the owner of ONG Currency Exchange Inc., on Toronto’s Yonge Street.

CSIS did not specify when the alleged transfers took place or what the money was used for, but wrote that its investigation was related to “foreign influenced activities … that are detrimental to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive.”

DEFICIENT MINORITY GOVERNMENT WANTS A RESET

   Rex Murphy:  And what, in any deity’s name, should we take from this phrase: this is our chance to “accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to re-imagine economic systems”? Stop right there. What were those “pre-pandemic efforts” that now must be “accelerated”?

Most importantly, why is this an “opportunity”? The answer, of course, is because, before COVID, no one wanted the Liberals’ green schemes. Because in normal times, absent some vast crisis seizing everyone’s attention, any announcement of a so-called great reset would be laughed at by every adult in the nation, and all clear-headed children.

Trudeau has no grounds, and certainly no mandate, to “re-imagine” the Canadian economy. And he should be the last person to assume he can reinvent it at will, having plunged the country into a bottomless cavern of debt and deficits. Whatever else COVID may be, it is not a passport to a minority government, of seriously deficient economic competence, to reset, restate or rearrange Canada’s industrial foundation.

USEFUL IDIOTS OF THE WORLD UNITE

The “Free Meng” event is being hosted by a group of left-wing organizations, including the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, the Canadian Peace Congress and the Hamilton Coalition to Stop War.

   John Ivison:  NDP MP Niki Ashton has not only agreed to participate in the event, she has sponsored a petition in the House of Commons that calls for Meng’s immediate release; urges the government to “protect Canadian jobs” by allowing Huawei to participate in the roll-out of 5G in Canada, and encourages a foreign policy review to develop an “independent” foreign policy on China.

On the petition’s second demand, Yves Engler, a fellow of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, defended the call to allow Huawei to be involved in Canada’s 5G network. “We have real concerns about surveillance…The Chinese government has its own repressive spying and intelligence apparatus. But it doesn’t come close to the power of the NSA (America’s National Security Agency) or the Five Eyes (the intelligence alliance comprising Canada, the U.S., U.K, Australia and New Zealand). Canadians should be more concerned about the NSA in Canada than the Chinese government,” he said. “I don’t think that China is a threat to most Canadians.”

SACRIFICE SOVEREIGNTY FOR THE GREAT RESET

 Goldstein:  Trudeau said: “This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality and climate change.”

Trudeau has made other comments consistent with the globalist perspective of the WEF, telling the New York Times after becoming PM in 2015, that Canada is the world’s “first post-national state” where “there is no core identity, no mainstream.”

There is, of course, an opposing view, which is that nations should not sacrifice their sovereignty to global bodies, as has happened with climate change with regard to Canada’s energy policy, and that capitalism, while imperfect, is superior to communism.

RCMP LABOUR UNION OPPOSES LIBERALS' MASS GUN CONFISCATION

   TheGunBlog.ca - The RCMP labour union today opposed the Canadian federal government and federal police’s attacks against hunters, sport shooters and firearm collectors, the strongest police challenge to the May 1 crackdown.
    The National Police Federation, in the first position statement by Canada’s largest police union, asked the government to help officers stop violent gangs instead of wasting money seizing guns from police-licensed firearm owners and stores.

   Pete Merrifield, a vice president of the National Police Federation union, said ,“Our concern representing 20,000 police officers is that it is not a public-safety action that correctly targets crime or criminals,” Merrifield said. “Second, it diverts valuable resources that could go into funding of a vibrant enforcement program to stop criminals and smuggling and help with issues like mental health and poverty.”

GROCERY CHAINS GOUGING FARMERS & PROCESSORS

 Rood said while the five major grocery chains are making a windfall from increased grocery sales due to the pandemic, they continue to hit farmers and processors with higher fees.

“Loblaw, Walmart and Metro want to gouge farmers and processors,” she said. “Loblaws saw record third-quarter profits of about $400 million. Metro’s fourth-quarter profits were up 11.4 per cent. However, they want farmers and processors to pay for store expansions while groceries for families from Streetsville, Pointe-au-Baril and across Canada get more expensive.”

The Commons agriculture committee has launched a study into food processing capacity into Canada. In a presentation to the MPs, Michael Graydon, President of Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada, said five retailers control more than 80 per cent of the consumer food purchases. “These retailers have adopted unfair and unethical business practices not seen or accepted in any other sector and have remained unchecked due to their power over suppliers.”

TRUDEAU DUPED BY RUSSIAN PRANKSTERS

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the latest leader to be pranked by Russian YouTubers Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, who are also known as Vovan and Lexus.

Earlier today, the prankster tandem released an animated video on Youtube of a telephone conversation they had with Trudeau last January, days after Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down in Iran, in which someone on their side of the call is impersonating Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

AUSTRALIA COMBATTING FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

Dominique Dalla-Pozza teaches at the Centre for Military and Security Law at the Australian National University in Canberra (which itself allegedly has been a target of a massive Chinese intelligence operation). She said that for the past few years, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (the ASIO — Australia's equivalent of Canada's CSIS) has been sounding the alarm about unprecedented levels of foreign intrusion.

"ASIO said there were more foreign spies and their proxies operating in Australia than at the height of the Cold War," Dalla-Pozza said.

In Canada, CSIS has been trying for years to draw Canadians' attention to foreign interference in everything from universities to municipal governments. Then-director Dick Fadden went public with such a warning in 2010. But Canada has seen no real legislative or organizational response.

In Australia, by contrast, those warnings led the Turnbull government to introduce a new Espionage and Foreign Interference Act.

WHO MOVES COVID-19 GOAL POSTS AGAIN

 There is a new movement afoot. Even though Operation Warp Speed has delivered two highly effective vaccines and several very promising therapeutics, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), wants you to know it won’t really change anything in response to COVID-19. His Twitter statement defies the management of any virus, ever. And it only works if you believe COVID-19 is some super-virus that behaves in a way fundamentally different from all other viruses, even other coronaviruses. There is no science to support that.

"THE PANDEMIC IS FUNDAMENTALLY OVER"

What likely triggered the Silicon Valley censor-mongers is the fact that a former Chief Science Officer for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says "there is no science to suggest a second wave should happen." The "Big Pharma" insider asserts that false positive results from inherently unreliable COVID tests are being used to manufacture a "second wave" based on "new cases."

As Ralph Lopez write at HubPages, Yeadon warns that half or even "almost all" of tests for COVID are false positives. Dr. Yeadon also argues that the threshold for herd immunity may be much lower than previously thought, and may have been reached in many countries already.

Even more significantly, even if all positives were to be correct, Dr. Yeadon said that given the "shape" of all important indicators in a worldwide pandemic, such as hospitalizations, ICU utilization, and deaths, "the pandemic is fundamentally over."

THE LEFT'S PLAN FOR A GREAT RESET

    The “reset” concept is the brainchild of two men: Klaus Schwab,( an engineer), and Thierry Malleret (a futurist journalist). At the World Economic Forum, they joined with some of the world’s wealthiest (and often least savory, useful, or moral) people to discuss a better way to control the rest of the world – all for the little people’s benefit, of course, and with those assembled providing the world’s leadership . . . that is, when they’re not eating caviar and drinking fine wines. Stripped of its fancy trappings, the Great Reset is simple: Socialism, sold as the answer to apocalyptic climate change.
    In this brave new world, there will be no pollution, no climate destruction, and no private property (although one gets the feeling that the movement’s advocates, people like Prince Charles, will keep their stuff). Overpopulation will also end (although, again, I’m betting that the nomenklatura will keep their procreative rights).
   At bottom, the only thing that will distinguish this Brave New reset world from the Middle Ages, given that the ultimate plan is to roll back the industrial era, will be that what little energy is still produced will be used for computers to control us. Otherwise, the world will be home to absolute monarchs and serfs.

TARGET CRIMINALS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE

  Lilley:  Justin Trudeau has spent the last five years telling the public that he is dealing with gun crime by imposing stricter gun control.

That’s a solution that focuses on the gun and not the crime. Worse yet, it focuses on guns owned by licensed and legal gun owners, not the people shooting up our streets.

But there are concrete measures the government could implement to reduce gun crime — none of which involve bans.

OTTAWA ROWING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO ALBERTA

Unfortunately, investment interest in such areas as petrochemicals and plastics recycling is now deterred by the spectre of the Clean Fuel Standard, which includes a frontal attack on the use of natural gas. According to the government of Canada’s website, “The Clean Fuel Standard regulations will cover all fossil fuels used in Canada. They will set separate requirements for liquid, gaseous, and solid fossil fuels.”

The inclusion of gaseous fuels is unique to this federal program; even California’s standards do not target natural gas. Alberta’s global energy competitors face little to none of these pressures because natural gas is generally valued as an efficient and reliable source of heat. In fact, most jurisdictions view it as a key to emissions reductions as the most effective replacement for coal-powered electricity.  Investments in LNG and other downstream uses of natural gas continue at a rapid place all over the world.

 So as Alberta leans into being a world leader in the emerging natural gas and hydrogen market to reboot the Canadian economy while contributing to global environmental gains, Ottawa is rowing in the opposite direction, threatening to become the world leader in taxing natural gas.

TWO WILD CARDS IN OIL PATCH REBOUND

 Two new forecasts show modest relief is in store for Alberta next year, with drilling activity in the oil patch rebounding from anemic levels and the provincial economy coming off the mat in 2021.

  President of The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors, Mark Scholz, said there are two wild cards to a rebound — the actions taken by OPEC and its allies to keep global oil supply in balance with demand, and the ramifications of another wave of the coronavirus. The pandemic is already closing down economies in Europe and parts of North America.

“The situation is still very precarious for the province, in the sense that with these rising (COVID-19) cases . . . this is essentially extending the impact on the global economy and global demand for oil.”

PM WALKING EAGLE'S GREEN GUANO

 But what happens if the government doesn’t achieve any of Trudeau’s targets in the climate change legislation?

Nothing. There’s no enforcement mechanism in the proposed legislation.

The only mandatory provisions are that if the government fails to meet its targets every five years from 2030 to 2045, it has to explain to Parliament and the public what it plans to do to achieve them.

SHAMELESS TRUDEAU

    Lilley:  The RCMP had been tipped off about Wortman and his illegal guns, his threats of violence against families and neighbours, and they did nothing. A legal gun owner facing the kinds of accusations leveled against Wortman would have seen their home raided and firearms seized, but nothing was ever done about Wortman.

Why remains a mystery, one we will hopefully find out more about during the public inquiry that is now underway.

Why Trudeau linked this massacre and his gun ban agenda is now crystal clear though — pure, partisan politics and nothing else. Shame on him.

OTTAWA'S ODIOUS COUNCILLOR CHIARELLI

 Coun. Rick Chiarelli was “absorbed in planning and executing volunteer subterfuge recruitment campaigns by objectifying the sexuality of his female employees,” according to city integrity commissioner Robert Marleau, who’s recommending an additional 180-day salary suspension for the councillor’s lewd behaviour revealed by two former political staff.

Marleau, in an investigative report released Friday into allegations detailed by the women, said Chiarelli’s conduct was a “shocking and astounding failure to treat the complainants with the respect they were due,” while telling Chiarelli’s colleagues to penalize him further by holding back his pay.

There’s no way to remove a duly elected council member under provincial law, unless the member is imprisoned or misses three consecutive months of meetings.

PULSE CROPS IN CONTAINER SHORTAGE BOTTLENECK

 (Bloomberg) — A shortage of containers at Vancouver’s port is slowing Canada’s exports of lentils and peas, the latest ripple in a phenomenon that has roiled trade.

Companies are rushing to get the steel boxes to Asia so that consumer goods made in factories there can be shipped to North America in time for the busy Christmas shopping season. It’s a more profitable move for the shippers than waiting for agricultural products to be loaded and sent.

As a result, tons of pea and lentil crops — known as pulses — from the world’s biggest producer remain in storage on farms and in elevators, far from the port on Canada’s Pacific Coast.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT RE COVID VACCINES

 Pfizer and Moderna said their COVID-19 vaccines, both using an innovative new technology, had proven to be well over 90 per cent effective, a tantalizing hint about how the pandemic could eventually end.

  It may surprise some that the impressive efficacy rates claimed by both manufacturers are not for the vaccines’ ability to prevent infection. Detailed trial protocols, though not the news releases, indicate the phase-3 clinical trials primarily tracked cases where participants actually developed symptomatic disease.

Studies have estimated that 20 to 80 per cent of people who contract the virus causing COVID never experience symptoms, yet can still potentially transmit the disease to others.

“The problem is that the messaging is very different than what the public is being told,” said Ed Mills, a Vancouver-based clinical trials expert and part-time McMaster University professor. “We’re told this is going to end the pandemic. It’s not going to end the pandemic. It’s going to hopefully prevent people from getting sick, but it’s not going to stop transmission. That’s not what they measured.”

JUDGE CEDES TO DEMANDS OF KILLER'S DOCTOR

TORONTO — The single most important defense witness, Dr. Alexander Westphal, supporting Alek Minassian’s claim that autism prevented him from knowing it was wrong to kill 10 people, refused to testify unless the judge guaranteed his videos of the accused are never publicly released.

Describing the witness’s refusal as “offensive” and a “ransom demand,” Justice Anne Molloy reluctantly agreed to the unprecedented demand, because without the doctor’s evidence, Minassian had no plausible defense to what is the most serious set of charges ever heard in an Ontario court.

Minassian’s lawyer, Boris Bytensky, described the videos as high-definition, close-up recordings of Minassian’s face being interviewed by Westphal and a colleague, describing his attack “in excruciating detail.”

Crown prosecutor Joseph Callaghan referred to the restrictions as an attempt to “hijack this process.”

19 PUBLIC SERVANTS WORK ON MORNEAU'S OECD BID

   Nineteen public servants at Global Affairs Canada (GAC) are working on a part-time basis to help former finance minister Bill Morneau's campaign to become the next secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to figures tabled in the House of Commons Friday.
   In a written response to a question from Conservative Saskatchewan MP Corey Tochor about how many government officials have been tasked with campaign duties, GAC said it has not yet assigned anyone to work on Morneau's bid on a full-time basis but "as the lead department responsible for the relationship with the organization, a number of officials in the department and at the permanent delegation of Canada to the OECD are providing support."
   In addition to helping run Morneau's campaign, the public servants also will continue with their "regular duties," GAC said.
   The list of 19 staffers who have been assigned responsibilities in the campaign to elevate Morneau to the top job at the OECD includes public servants working in communications and media relations, policy advisers and analysts, diplomatic outreach and protocol officers, an assistant deputy minister responsible for strategic policy and a number of GAC staff who regularly liaise with the OECD, among others.

RULED BY AN UNACCOUNTABLE ELITE

   Delingpole:  The Great Reset has been trending on Twitter. Once you’re familiar with what it means for the future of our civilisation, you’ll understand why…

Put simply, it is the blueprint for a complete transformation of the world economy. There will be no money, no private property, no democracy. Instead, every key decision — what you do for a living, how much stuff you consume, whether you can take a vacation — will decided for you by a remote, unaccountable elite of ‘experts’.

It sounds like a conspiracy theory — and is often dismissed as such by people who imagine they are being savvy and sophisticated. In fact, though, the people pushing for the Great Reset are perfectly open about their plan. Indeed, they can scarcely stop talking about it.

ALL NS SHOOTER'S GUNS OBTAINED ILLEGALLY

 Gabriel Wortman, the Nova Scotia man who murdered 22 people in April, was heavily armed with two semi-automatic rifles, two pistols and special ammunition boxes designed to carry extra bullets when he began his rampage.

Newly obtained documents also reveal all of the weapons were illegally obtained, three of them smuggled across the U.S. border.

CANADA LEADING THE GLOBAL DEBT TSUNAMI

 In a world awash with debt, Canada is now a global leader.

A new report by the Institute of International Finance reveals that Canada saw the biggest jump in non-financial sector debt this year, beating Japan, the U.S. and the U.K.

Overall, global debt has soared by over $15 trillion between January and September of this year, hitting a new record of more than $272 trillion.

TOXIC CULTURE IN RCMP SHOCKS REVIEWERS

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's culture is so toxic, the federal government needs to conduct an external, independent review of the RCMP's future as a federal policing organization, says a former Supreme Court of Canada justice tasked with dealing with the fallout from the force's historic sexual assault settlement.

"What I learned led me to conclude that a toxic culture prevails in the RCMP. This culture encourages, or at least tolerates, misogynistic, racist and homophobic attitudes among many members of the RCMP," wrote Michel ​Bastarache in his final report — "Broken Dreams Broken Lives" — which was released today.

"The problem is systemic in nature and cannot be corrected solely by punishing a few 'bad apples.'"

PRIVACY WATCHDOG WANTS CHANGES TO LEGISLATION

   Canada's privacy watchdog said today he sees the federal government's new privacy legislation as an improvement on existing laws, but he has concerns about some aspects of the bill and will be looking for amendments.
   "This ambitious reform initiative includes several significant improvements. However, the bill also raises a number of questions about its ability to effectively protect privacy in a constantly evolving digital society," Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said in a statement today.
   Therrien said he's troubled by aspects of the bill that he said open the door to "new commercial uses of personal information without consent" by placing emphasis "on the importance of the use of personal information for economic activity."

10,000 BLADES OFF BRITISH STREETS

In all 43 police forces across England and Wales, police stepped up activities to try to drive down violent crime.

Weapons sweeps, dedicated patrols and early morning raids were just some of the tactics used in the push to recover dangerous weapons and target high harm offenders.

Across England and Wales, 723 knives were seized and another 10,000 handed in to police stations and special collection points.

823,850 INELIGIBLE CANADIANS CLAIMED CERB

 A Conservative MP says Canada Revenue Agency has some explaining to do after more than 800,000 ineligible people got Canada emergency response benefit cheques.

CRA’s own records — filed in an inquiry of ministry tabled in the House of Commons — show 823,850 people who didn’t file a tax return in the past year received $2,000 monthly CERB cheques at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $1.7 billion, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

The federal government approved paying CERB to unemployed tax filers who made at least $5,000 in 2019.

The CRA didn’t explain how non-tax filers could have claimed the benefit.

AWAITING TRUDEAU'S GREEN FAIRY TALE

 Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson is about to introduce legislation ostensibly charting Canada’s path to net zero industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to human-induced climate change by 2050.

Given that the best indicator of future performance is past practice, here’s why the bill, and what it says, will be nonsense.

REPORT ON CYBER THREATS TO CANADIANS

 The second report from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security wing — looks at the major cyber threats to Canadians' physical safety and economic security.

State-sponsored actors are "very likely" trying to shore up their cyber capabilities to attack Canada's critical infrastructure — such as the electricity supply — to intimidate or to prepare for future online assaults, a new intelligence assessment warns.

"As physical infrastructure and processes continue to be connected to the internet, cyber threat activity has followed, leading to increasing risk to the functioning of machinery and the safety of Canadians," says a new national cyber threat assessment drafted by the Communications Security Establishment.

State-sponsored actors will also continue their commercial espionage campaigns against Canadian businesses, academia and governments to steal Canadian intellectual property and proprietary information, says the CSE.

PROTECTING QUEBEC'S DECLINING FRENCH LANGUAGE

Currently, most applicants must demonstrate a professional proficiency in either English or French to qualify for citizenship, but a private member's bill Bloc MP Sylvie Bérubé introduced in February would change that to require French for immigrants who have settled in Quebec.

The chance to debate the legislation comes after Montreal Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos told the House of Commons official languages committee last week that the idea of a French-language decline is a "myth." 

She reversed her comments following a social media backlash, saying in a statement Saturday her remarks were "insensitive," that French is in decline and that she hopes to find ways to protect it.

SMALL MODULAR REACTORS: NOT GREEN ENOUGH

Canadians will have to wait a little while longer to see the federal government's plan for the development of small nuclear reactors, seen by proponents as critical to the country's fight against global warming.

"SMRs will allow us to take a bold step of meeting our goal of net-zero (emissions) by 2050 while creating good, middle class jobs and strengthening our competitive advantage," said Lefebvre.

 Industry critics were quick to pounce on the government's expected SMR announcement. They called on Ottawa to halt its plans to fund the experimental technology.

While nuclear power generation produces no greenhouse gas emissions, a major problem facing the industry is its growing mound of radioactive waste. This week, the government embarked on a round of consultations about what do with the dangerous material.  

2020 WORST YEAR FOR OILPATCH DRILLING

   Mark Scholz remembers sitting in his office in mid-June and receiving his daily report on how many oil and gas drilling rigs were operating. There are more than 500 rigs in Western Canada, but on that day amid bargain oil prices, only six were actually deployed.
   "I'll probably never forget it as long as I live," said Scholz, the president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), in an interview.
    "There were periods in the summer that were very scary for this industry," he said.
    That month, the average number of rigs operating was 17, a low not seen since before the commercial discovery of oil in Canada at Leduc #1 in 1947, according to the CAODC.

PAYING FOR COVID & EVERYTHING ELSE

Lately, ordinary citizens, voters and taxpayers are beginning to worry about something that usually only ‘dismal scientists’, i.e., economists, care about: our alarming federal and provincial deficits and exploding national debt.

While putting an economy into lockdown was assuredly going to reduce tax revenues and increase transfers to individuals and businesses to ameliorate the devastation thus wrought, it only became clear this summer the extent of the fiscal damage: a federal deficit of $343.2 billion for the current fiscal year ending next March, and a federal debt exceeding one trillion dollars, or just under 50% of GDP.

Much as politicians will try to deny it, they will inevitably start to think about how to bring in more money, which has to come from individuals and businesses (which are also, ultimately, owned by individuals).

FAILING TO FILL CITY COFFERS IN CALGARY

Residents on 128th Avenue N.E in Calgary, say they're struggling to find out why their cars were mysteriously towed away in the middle of the night.

There aren't any "no parking" signs there and residents say there were no warnings or violation tickets issued.

Two weeks ago, a private towing company removed around 15 vehicles, returning to tow away more vehicles the following night, according to residents.

In an email response to the complainants, a Calgary Parking Authority employee confirmed there was parking enforcement planned in the area, but it was at a different address, two kilometres away.

TIME THEFT FROM EMPLOYERS

For many employers, remote work is quickly leading to both reduced control and productivity. This trend is rising as employees are becoming accustomed to working remotely and realize how little the employer is monitoring their activities.

Family members and pets tug at the attention of an employee ostensibly “at work.” There are the possible interruptions of a knock at the door or a call on the landline. But beyond those innocent distractions, generally understood to be acceptable because it is  unavoidable, there is a more insidious attention fiend: time theft.

 That occurs when an employee is not working despite being paid for their time. Sometimes they are doing nothing at all. In other cases, the employee engages in personal activities but does not inform their employer or, worse, intentionally misleads their employer about their activities and whereabouts.

BUYING SHIPS ASTERIX & OBELIX FOR NAVY SUPPORT

 Ottawa could buy two converted civilian vessels from a Quebec shipyard to serve as support ships for the Royal Canadian Navy for a fraction of the cost of building brand new ones, according to Parliament’s budget watchdog.

In a new report released Tuesday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux estimates the price of buying the two converted container ships from Chantier Davie would be around $1.4 billion.

That compares to around $4.1 billion to build two brand-new joint support ships, the first of which is already under construction in Vancouver and slated for delivery in 2023.

The findings follow years of heavy lobbying from Davie, which has been leasing one of the two converted civilian vessels to the Navy since 2018 and wants Ottawa to move ahead with the second. The first is known as MV Asterix and the second as MV Obelix.

NEW CANADIAN PRIVACY LAW

   Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act today. The Act will allow the imposition of fines that could run to millions of dollars on private companies that violate Canadians' privacy.
   If the draft legislation passes, companies would have to obtain consent from customers through plain language — not a long, jargon-filled legal document — before using their personal data.
   According to the wording of a government press release, the legislation also would give Canadians the option of demanding that their personal online information be "destroyed".

FORMER LIBERAL MP RIPS TRUDEAU A NEW ONE

 The problem was, while her party said it valued her unique voice and perspective, it was not keen to promote views it could not control.

While the prime minister hailed the diversity in his caucus, even naming Caesar-Chavannes as his parliamentary secretary, she was not encouraged to speak on his behalf in the Commons, or make appearances in his stead, unless it was the opening of the National Museum of African American History in Washington or the inauguration of the Republic of Ghana’s new president.

She was suspicious of his tendency to reward friends with ministerial positions, saying he was blinded by his own privilege. “When the whole controversy over his dressing up in blackface emerged in the 2019 election campaign, I thought I should have seen that one coming,” she said.

ILHAN OMAR FEIGNING MORALS

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) campaign paid her husband’s consulting firm millions of dollars during the 2019-2020 election cycle, but Omar will be cutting off the firm going forward. After Omar was caught in an affair with political consultant Tim Mynett, her now-ex-husband Ahmed Hirsi asked for a divorce and Mynett divorced his own wife. Omar married Mynett this past March.

  “So we’ve decided to terminate our contract with Tim and Will’s firm,” Omar’s campaign announced in an email to supporters, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon. “While many of our close supporters know these two well and have recommended we keep them on — I want to make sure that anybody who is supporting our campaign with their time or financial support feels there is no perceived issue with that support.”

BUSINESS AS USUAL: CHINA INTERFERING WORLDWIDE

   The new defense pact between Australia and Japan signed Tuesday in Tokyo has been dismissed as “dangerous” by Chinese state-owned media, which warns any resistance to Beijing is futile and will come at a heavy cost.
   The Reciprocal Access Agreement will enable Australian warships and aircraft to operate further north and offer greater legal protection for service personnel across both countries, offering a crucial counterbalance to Beijing’s military which has expanded and advanced rapidly in recent years.

   The vice-president of Chinese telecom giant Huawei has warned that the United Kingdom cannot afford to keep the Chinese technology out of its 5G network, arguing that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should reconsider his decision against the company following the possible ousting of President Donald Trump.

CORONAVIRUS IN CANADA

 Tracking every case of COVID-19 in Canada

CHINA CLAIMS CORONAVIRUS ON IMPORTS

Major food-producing countries are growing increasingly frustrated with China’s scrutiny of imported products and are calling on it to stop aggressive testing for the coronavirus, which some say is tantamount to a trade restriction.

China says it has found the virus on the packaging of products from 20 countries including German pork, Brazilian beef and Indian fish, but foreign officials say the lack of evidence produced by authorities means it is damaging trade and hurting the reputation of imported food without reason.

This week, the Global Times, a tabloid backed by the ruling Communist Party, suggested that the presence of the novel coronavirus on imported food raised the possibility that the virus, widely believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, may have come from overseas.

MOUTHWASH INACTIVATES CORONAVIRUS

 Over the past several months, researchers in the United States and abroad have examined mouthwashes, oral antiseptics and nasal rinses in controlled laboratory settings to see whether they can effectively inactivate the new coronavirus and other viruses within the same family.

A team in Germany found that when several products, including Listerine, were applied to strains of the novel coronavirus for 30 seconds, they “significantly reduced viral infectivity to undetectable levels,” according to a study published in July in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine recently released similar findings, reporting that Listerine and Listerine-like products could inactivate more than 99.9% of a virus similar to the one that causes covid-19 with just 30 seconds of exposure. In a study published in the Journal of Medical Virology, the scientists wrote that their results suggest mouthwash could potentially decrease the risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus and “provide an additional level of protection.”

RET'D RCMP SGT REFUSES TO TESTIFY AT MENG TRIAL

 A lawyer for Meng Wanzhou expressed concerns Monday about the refusal of a former RCMP officer to testify at the Huawei executive’s extradition hearing.

Richard Peck told B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes that retired St. Sgt. Ben Chang had retained a lawyer and sought legal advice and had notified the defence and the federal Crown of his decision not to provide evidence.

Chang is said to have emailed the serial numbers of the devices, SIM cards and international mobile identity numbers to the FBI, according to the notes of another RCMP officer.

The defence is claiming that Canadian authorities conspired with the FBI to conduct a covert criminal investigation when Meng’s arrest was delayed and her devices initially seized by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Information about the devices, including the passcodes, was turned over to the RCMP by the CBSA.

CLAIMS STAGGERING EVIDENCE OF ELECTION FRAUD

 Attorney Sidney Powell is not a crackpot, a nut, or a fraud. The distinguished and tireless lawyer who is General Michael Flynn’s attorney, and who has rooted out government malfeasance and criminality before, has become convinced that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election and she “can’t wait” to prove the voting machines used are at fault.

Powell told Fox Business’s Lou Dobbs that she’s received sworn statements under penalty of perjury and other evidence calling into question the Dominion voting machines.

She is persuaded that in every single state that inexplicably stopped counting votes on election night, Dominion machines were “updated.”

AMAZON LAUNCHING ONLINE PHARMACY

There's an old saying: Never waste a good crisis. Well, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, isn't letting COVID-19 pass without wringing all the juice from the lemon.

After years of quiet and consistent preparation, from acquiring PillPack, to filing for licenses and trademarks, Amazon is finally ready to launch its online pharmacy business. The company announced Tuesday that it will start selling prescription drugs to its prime customers, a move that was widely seen as the logical next step for the e-commerce behemoth.

INSANITY DEFENSE FOR KILLERS

 Defendants in two major cases of mass homicide are seeking a verdict of not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder.

In New Brunswick, a jury will hear final arguments on Monday in the case of Matthew Raymond, a psychotic spree killer who has pleaded NCR to four counts of first degree murder, including two police officers. Jurors have already heard he was delusional because of schizophrenia back in 2018, and that he believed his victims were demons coming for him, because he had made disordered mathematical calculations.

In Toronto, a judge is hearing the case of van rampage killer Alek Minassian, 28, without a jury. This one is unusual because the mental illness in question is reportedly an autism spectrum disorder, which is not usually associated with psychosis or losing touch with reality, but in Minassian’s case involved similarly distorted thinking, according to a defense psychiatric report described by the prosecution. No expert witness psychiatrist has yet testified.

BY 2035, NO GAS CAR SALES IN QUEBEC

 MONTREAL — Quebec will ban the sale of new, gasoline-powered cars and SUVs by the year 2035 as part of a $6.7-billion plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Premier Francois Legault announced Monday.

Legault said the new policy will help the province meet its pledge to reduce emissions by 37.5 per cent over 1990 levels by 2030. But the premier admitted that the new measures will only move Quebec 42 per cent of the way to its goal. He said he hopes technological advances and added investment from Ottawa will help close the gap.

Legault's $6.7-billion plan -- to be spread over five years -- depends heavily on the province's hydroelectric resources powering large swaths of the economy. More than half the funding announced Monday -- about $3.6 billion -- will be invested in the transportation sector, for such things as subsidies to encourage individuals and businesses to purchase electric cars, trains and taxis.

CHINESE DRUG CARTELS IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – From nondescript buildings in the industrial nucleus of Wuhan, across wavy seas to dusty tented super laboratories in the heart of Mexico, and then across the jagged southwest border and dispersing like a wild bomb ripping through every crevice of the United States, the growing presence of Chinese drug lords and cartels below the southern border is one that is killing an unprecedented amount of Americans.

According to multiple Mexico-based security and intelligence professionals, the bulk of the deadly work is carried out by the "Los Zheng" wing, identified as having "the largest presence in Mexico for the trafficking of fentanyl and methamphetamine."

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Mexico and China "are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States."

MICHIGAN TO SHUT DOWN ENBRIDGE LINE 5 PIPELINE

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney calls an attempt by the Michigan government to shutdown the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline very concerning and a continued effort to landlock Canadian energy.

The move escalates a multiyear battle over Line 5, which is part of Enbridge’s Lakehead network of pipelines that carries oil from western Canada to refineries in the U.S. and Ontario. The pipeline carries about 87 million litres of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Superior, Wisc., and Sarnia, Ont.

Kenney said the pipeline has transported Alberta oil without a “significant environment incident for 60 years.” The Alberta premier said he traveled to Michigan last year to meet with Whitmer but “she refused.”

Map showing Line 5 pipeline

ANOTHER COVID-19 VACCINE CANDIDATE

 For the second time this month, there's promising news from a COVID-19 vaccine candidate: Moderna said Monday its shots provide strong protection, a dash of hope against the grim backdrop of coronavirus surges in the U.S. and around the world.

Moderna said its vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data from the company’s still ongoing study. A week ago, competitor Pfizer Inc. announced its own COVID-19 vaccine appeared similarly effective — news that puts both companies on track to seek permission within weeks for emergency use in the U.S.

Dr. Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president, welcomed the “really important milestone” but said having similar results from two different companies is what’s most reassuring.

TRUDEAU'S EMPTY PROMISES TO FIGHT GUN CRIME

  Lilley: I’m not sure how the killers were able to get their hands on the guns that allowed them to shoot and kill a 12-year-old boy in North York last weekend.

But the two men accused of the deadly shooting — Jahwayne Smart, 25, and Rashawn Chambers, 24 — are both convicted criminals prohibited from owning firearms and the federal government banned all the dangerous guns last spring in their attempt to show they were tough on gun crime.

 I’m not trying to be flippant, I’m reacting to the fact that another innocent bystander was gunned down – this time a child walking home from a grocery store with his mom – while the Trudeau government insists they are dealing with gun crime. Of course their idea of dealing with gun crimes is to seize guns, not deal with criminals, and the only guns they know how to seize are the ones owned by legal gun owners.

SPEND IT LIKE YOU'VE GOT IT, NENSHI & CREW

 Thousands of Calgary city workers are eligible for second or third pensions, according to a new report by a taxpayer advocacy group.

Through freedom of information requests, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) found that in 2019, 2,201 city employees were set to receive a second pension, with 134 slated to get a third pension. These pensions added up to $15.1 million in city contributions.

IGNORING THE EXPERTS

 Perhaps no defiance of the experts was more audacious than Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Not only did war not break out — peace did.

Three years later, the outcome of the presidential election remains uncertain, but the predictions of the experts on Jerusalem have been definitively proven wrong. Trump’s move did not lead to another war, or even another intifada in Israel. We have one of those ongoing in Portland, but Israel doesn’t have one on its soil at the moment.

Trump pulled the United States out of the Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal, he ramped up economic sanctions on Iran, he bumped off Iran’s top terrorist general, and he pushed the Palestinians out to the periphery rather than keeping them always in the middle of everything giving them undue power over war and peace — and he did all of this in defiance of the so-called experts.