Someday voters will decide

2020/10/27

Covid 19 has been such a news hog that many stories about people, places and events have drifted by with little or no notice.

For instance, how many Canadians knew British Columbia voters went to the polls on October 24th and elected a new provincial government? As it turned out voters elected the old provincial government and why they did is notable.

Justin McElroy, Municipal Affairs reporter for CBC Vancouver has written an interesting, enlightening report on why he thinks the current Premier John Horgan led his people back in for another term.

McElroy gives ten reasons.

His first-John Horgan. Obviously popular, polls say he’s the most popular premier in the country. He elaborates on Horgan and the others with excellent commentary but my eyes are on reason number NINE. McElroy’s list gives as the number NINE reason for the NDP victory-campaign finance reform. To my mind number NINE should be much closer in the top because BC’s campaign reform laws need to be talked about, written about and seriously considered in all provinces.

The laws passed by the Horgan government simply banned corporate and union political donations. That meant this election was fought minus outside campaign dollars, which meant the Liberals’ normal multi-million dollar advantage was a non starter. We all know the Liberal party would be brought down to the same level as the other parties if it wasn’t for the millions bagmen collect for the party. Corporate and union dollars collected solely to grease the election wheels and palms after victory.

The reform of BC election campaign financing laws is long overdue in the rest of the country and most importantly at the federal level. Opposition to this idea of no corporate and union monetary electoral support of course will be declared a non-starter. You can hear it now from Joe Slick and Guido Portano–“not going to happen.”

It should happen. Our elections are distorted by our election laws. There is no need for million dollar war chests other than to curry favour with those who have contributed the most. How do we think SNC Lavallin came so close to upsetting the legal apple cart? You know it almost happened because some very powerful political types both elected and appointed were beneficiaries past, current and future of promised largesse from the political pot that elects the pols. That attitude can only come from the money palace that distorts our democratic birthright. Another name that pops from the lobby of beneficence, Bombardier. Then there are the enormous financial arms of the unions. They contribute unevenly to all three major political parties. Why? What do they get from their elected vassals, supporting legislation? The right to charge union dues with impunity? Now so powerfully unified that no political craftsman would think of running for office without union support. And how about the banks? They add thousands to the election process. And what about the newest player – money from the Chinese with connections to the CCP. To become educated on how much and from whom our electoral process is distorted check out Postmedia’s “follow the money.” Do that and you will get a finely tuned picture of who gives and why!

There’s no doubt all the money collected by the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats distorts the electoral process.

And their war chests are distorted by another legal roadblock to honest elections–voluntary political and union contributions collected by Revenue Canada for a tax deduction. This is nonsense and should not be part of our political landscape. For that matter neither should charitable donations be tax deductable, but that’s another blog.

Suffice it to say for years millions of Canadians have been disenfranchised by our election financing laws. We need to reclaim control.

And another thing, we could start by requiring people running for office to actually live in the constituency they plan to represent. Parachuting candidates into ridings or party endorsement of a candidate who does not and has not lived in his chosen political springboard for at least a year would automatically disqualify the would-be candidate.

But priority one is campaign financing! It needs needs our immediate attention!

According to Postmedia there is no tracking of donations nationally. There are no consistent rules or penalties that cover political financing across the country. Spending limits, out of province and foreign gifts, money from unions and corporations, donations from numbered companies: in some places anything goes, in others regulations are rarely enforced.

But we suppose this is not surprising because Canada is listed as number three money laundering country in the world. I bet you didn’t know that about your country.

O CANADA

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Prime Minister, would you call the banks again?

2020/10/27

It was March 26. Canada and scores of other countries were plunged into the jaws of a pandemic. Canadian infections were reported at 3,845 up 436 in 24 hours but it was the predictions of what to expect in the next few weeks that frightened most of us because of their uncertainty.

The Prime Minister was holding numerous meetings and holding forth publicly about the rapidly moving pandemic. His daily briefings were designed to keep the nation informed and reassured. A quick World-o-Meter check easily neutralized suggestions by some medical experts that Canada would some how duck the haymaker COVID 19 had unloaded in places like New York, 35,000 infections and Italy, 92, 472 – up almost 6 thousand in 24 hours. The Prime Minister’s daily seemed to be more reassuring. He was talking about immediate Federal relief and bringing needed medical supplies (PPE) solicited from China and Australia.

He also revealed the Big Banks were going to help with corporate interest rates and yes, his office had been in touch with the BBs asking the financial giants to ease the crunch of credit cards, most of which charge between 20% and 30% a month. “Would they please reduce the interest rate burden,” he asked. The request came at exactly the time most households across the country were making plans for numerous on-line purchases, most of which required credit cards. Obviously, a windfall situation for the Bankers. Unanticipated credit card charges as thousands ordered in groceries, pet supplies,wine and beer, and so much bathroom tissue some stores ran out and others restricted purchases, all of these necessities of life paid for on credit. And how did the bankers react? As George Bailey in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life? Or as that horrible skinflint Mr. Potter? Guess!

Would have loved to been a bug in the telephone calls the Prime Minister received from incredulous bankers who I imagine declared with substantial venom, that a request asking for relief on credit card debt for hoi polloi was not on anybody’s table. Period. And Prime Minister don’t bring it up again. And guess what, he never did!

You can look it up. For their part the banks reluctantly gazed at their millions of card holders and came up with a plan. If they discussed the generous position of car insurance companies we don’t know. The insurance companies as you know without asking for proof that drivers were driving less because of the lockdowns in March and April sent along a rebate cheque representing part of your insurance premium.

The Bank’s plan was designed to get maximum publicity out of an interest rate reduction gambit. On the face of it it looked a little like a George Bailey plan but a second glance clearly reflected the image of OLD MAN POTTER.

The big 5 said they would be reducing interest rates on credit cards but there’s a catch. Card interest would be reduced by half and there could be a deferral of payments for up to six months. Doubtful you could have been granted both. The big catch of course, unlike the car insurance people, you, the card carrying sap, would have to apply for relief . And let’s face it, Covid 19 or not, calling your credit card “buddies” asking for deferment or rate reduction because of hardship real or imagined is not good optics. It might be real to you but more imagined by your lender.

As we have come to know them the Banker gives nothing away. You will humble yourself to get that interest rate relief or deferment but all the prime minister was asking the banks to do is knock off the exorbitant credit rates while the lending rates to the banks dropped to near zero.

Simple request but the banks see it as complicated because reducing interest rates frustrates the head office bean counters and screws up the bottom line. But I don’t think the bankers approved every request for lower interest and/or payment deferral. Why do I think this? Because in some cases card holders have been asking their lenders to raise their spending limit in order to buy the necessities of life. A request to raise the debt limit means re-negotiating and there could be some Bankers Covid 19 or not, would feel that is not what the Banking fraternity pledged. Raising the credit limit, lowering the interest rate and granting a payment deferral alters the stakes. It can complicate matters and you probably have first hand experience with bankers. They don’t welcome complications.

Funny how that works even in a pandemic!

The Prime Minister made his pitch to the banks on March 26. And the interest reductions and payment deferments made it to Media April 4 but with the catch.

You prove to us you need the relief.

These days we are moving into the Second WAVE with gusto but the interest reductions and payment deferrals are long gone. Now what?!?

Hello, Prime Minister, hello,hello.hello. Was that a dial tone I heard or was it a click, or both?

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…aha, the piper must be paid

2020/06/11

Just because nobody has brought it up doesn’t mean nobody is thinking about it. The coronavirus bill is going to make Jeff Bezos 252 billion dollar fortune look like chump change compared to the money going to casualties of COVID-19.

Historically it never mattered whether the ruler was king, queen, potentate, president or prime minister, each was overcome by the prospect of spending at will from the nation’s treasury. It mattered not whether the nation in question was rich or poor, there was always money for war, for friends, for the old, for the young. “WOW,” said they to themselves, we always have money and there’s even more money in times of crisis!

Examples explode. Every day Prime Minister Trudeau, like some Saudi Prince, doles out advice for his subjects along with promises of more and more cash. Today, senior citizens! Yes the same ones that have been dying in droves because of a disgraced national attitude toward residents who live in homes for the aged and so called long term care facilities. The PM says, “We must do something for them and guess what, there is money in the treasury for them too.” Of course given the number of the aged that have been claimed by the VIRUS, many dollars have been freed up for the surviving old folks. Face it, 75% of the COVID 19 deaths in Ontario are pensioners. Figure 1,856 of the current total 2,475 dead were receiving the AOS plus the supplementary, and the Ontario treasury has just added $17,817,600. Almost 8,000 have died in the country and using the same probability (75% Old Agers) the National treasury will be adding $57,600,00. The PM can luxuriate in the knowledge that while a majority of the population will applaud his generosity, the wise will see it for what it is – A Potentate raiding the National Treasury on behalf of the dead to send monthly cheques to the living . Kinda works out doesn’t it.

And before the said potentate threw morsels to the Old Folks, he trotted out an assistance plan for big businesses that may be financially in dire straits. And why not a plan for BB? Two of the Prime Minister’s favorite businesses happen to have been in financial straits for years. Could Bombardier and SNC-Lavallin be a couple of big businesses needing big help from big brother in this time of national economic distress? Isn’t that neat, there is money in the treasury for companies in bad times even though they couldn’t manage properly in the good times.

Among the daily audiences of our recent past, the Prime Minister has promised money for the Oil Patch, farmers, airlines – every commitment calculating the need in the millions. Fishing industry just landed a ten bagger, $450 million dollars! The latest budget-projected deficit for the current fiscal year is close to $300 billion. We thought last year’s projected shortfall of 20 billion was beyond the pale but that was before the Corona Crisis. Frankly, using the word budget is silly because nobody in Ottawa is working with or without limiters provided by a budget! And while we have an Official Opposition that has from time to time during this raiding of the Treasury suggested a meeting of the House of Commons, where some elements of fiscal discipline need to be explored and some fiscal questions need to be raised, the Prime Minister is opposed. He is having such a good time in mid-raid, he has said as much. Things, he pointedly declared the other day, were going just great. It was his answer to lame duck Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. A critic today, but Scheer knows with a little more work and a few more victories in October of ’19 he would be at taxpayers cookie jar instead of Fuddle Duddle Two. Do we think Scheer, instead of Trudeau, would be less enthusiastic about sending from the Treasury carloads of freshly minted millions? No we do not!

The financial abyss that has been opened by COVID 19 is an opportunity for sanctioned looting of the Treasury. A Potentate’s dream, and in this case a Prime Minister’s opportunity to distribute a King’s ransom cheered on by a citizenry hoping to share in the ill-gotten gain. The cavalier attitude of the Prime Minister toward his spending spree came early in the piece. When asked what and how are you going handle the fraud that will accompany this surfeit of millions he said we will worry about that later. When later? Chances are on the Twelfth of Never. Circle that date but wait in vain.

So now we come to the reckoning. Yes the Piper must be paid. We have taken possibly as much as a trillion dollars while the vault was open and the King was wildly distributing the wealth that belongs to the nation. It must be repaid. How will you pay? Better question, who will pay? This is about the time the Federales turn out up with the plan that re-visits that old political fallacy that divides our fiscal obligations into three neat jurisdictions: Federal, Provincial, Municipal. I’m an octogenarian and I have spent a lifetime looking for the three different taxpayers that share the nation’s fiscal burdens–that would be the Federal taxpayer, the Provincial taxpayer and the Municipal taxpayer. The bad news is two of three of those taxpayers are missing, in fact they never existed but “sharing is caring” and if we want to make it safely through this dark and miserable war we get to take up the slack and confront that question knowing the answer of course. The other two taxpayers you thought were real were just figments.

Who pays the Piper? Short answer, we do. Expect the COVID surcharge to help remind us there’s always something to interfere with the life we knew just last year. The word goes forth. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is empty. Fill it!

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Questions, so many questions

2020/05/05

This is day 50 of our Self-Isolation. Yes, I think it’s such a major event that those two words should be capitalized. So for 50 days it’s been Linda and me and the cats (Missy and Sandy) hanging out with no safe place to go. Two years ago, right about now, we were getting super excited about a planned three week trip to Italy. Italy’s current state reminds us that acting on a good idea…is a good idea. So we did. It was the best! Very timely. We had considered putting it off for a couple of years but Linda noted we might regret a delay because of life’s uncertainties. Who could have imagined rather than one of us getting sick, that whole country went to sick bay. Sometimes you get lucky.

This year all plans revolve around closer to home – Meal planning based on on-line ordering, working on a daily routine that sure seems like the same routine we worked on yesterday, and trying to keep the blood cells moving. We are so fortunate to live on a ravine that is part of the Highland Creek Watershed. It’s a migratory corridor for birds and wild animals that includes a 2 mile path for pedestrians and cyclists. I walk it everyday. And it’s on those daily constitutionals that questions keep rumbling through my head. Questions covering a myiad of topics that pop in at random.

For instance, why does the Governor of New Jersey where 800-thousand people face unemployment want to pay illegals 600 dollars a week? And why do only half the people of the United States know about Tara Reade? And how come 20% of the people in Los Angeles are illegal aliens? Why are the daily COVID 19 briefings akin to watching paint dry? The Prime Minister speaks without a supporting cast and when he’s done why doesn’t anybody ask important questions of substance? Aren’t reporters allowed in his stately presence? Here’s a question: Does Canada plan to ask China to refund the money we paid for faulty Personel Protective Equipment (PPE)? Did Ontario’s Premier move his mother-in-law out of the Long Term Care home in which she was living and infected by the Virus? Why would China threaten Australia because the Aussies were seeking truth? And recalling Mel Lastman’s query during the Sars outbreak, Who is WHO? China’s best new friend, that’s WHO!

When we started our Self Isolation 50 days ago, Canada reported 103 cases of the Virus, and today we are reporting (60,000 ) plus with a prediction that almost four thousand will die before May 5th! Remember when the country’s Chief Public Health Officer predicted we had little to fear from this virus? Do officials who make wild, baseless statements ever get canned? Probably not.

But when you walk the Birkdale Ravine everyday there are many positives. Spring has arrived. Didn’t look like it would in the middle of March when the SI started but the buds had a notion. They knew what was coming. 10 days into Isolation, the robins started arriving in bunches from the south but my oldest granddaughter was stuck in Tunisia. And our Foreign Affairs Office strongly suggested Canadians get home tout de suite – in both official languages. Isn’t that the way it goes, something good followed by some bad?

When Italy brought down the hammer, our national total was doubling every three days. Today Italy is working to re-open. Is this a good idea? At this stage many are somewhere between worried and in the fog that seems to have surrounded every statement meant to reassure and clarify. Who knew anything? Who knows anything? The Chinese knew but they aren’t talking.

The great thing about walking is how quickly you move things around in your head. The brain can change the subject in a nano second. On Tuesday, March 17, I was thinking how sad there wouldn’t be a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Takes a lot to throw a curve at an Irishman that he can’t hit. And what about baseball? I noted the Blue Jays opener is here in less than a week but file that next to no parade, no basketball, hockey, and soccer. Wow is this really happening? My friend Penner Mackay and I would not make it to the Blue Jays opener, and we would miss Jackie Robinson day in Los Angles and Brooklyn. Is this fair ball? It is not!

Sport fans are tired of watching old games and listening to old baseball games. The other day I was listening to a game broadcast on radio back in September of 1939. Bob Feller, one of the greats, was on the mound for the Cleveland Indians playing the Washington Senators. Always thought baseball was the perfect sport for radio. You? Vidiots find themselves watching shows they never heard of. Is it possible Britbox and Netflix were invented for COVID 19? What are politicians doing during these lockdowns? I know they’re not answering their letters. Somewhere in the ether are two letters from me. One to Toronto’s deputy mayor and the other to our member of the Provincial Parliament for Scarborough Centre. Answered? NO.

When I noodle some of the COVID 19 briefings by Trudeau, Trump, Ford, Tory I recall a telling quote from Winston Churchill in answer to a question by a reporter about the tendency for his government to lie about British misfortunes in a couple of World War Two battles. You almost hear his every distinctive, stentorian syllable in response: “We would never lie to you, but don’t assume we are telling you the truth.”

Today on my walk I said hello to 4 deer and blew my warning whistle at the coyote. At Linda’s insistence 15 years ago we moved from a downtown condo to life on the ravine.

Isn’t it great? No question!

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This is the face of the devil….

2020/04/20

China has revealed itself as a vile, deceptive, double-crossing, lying, citizen of the world. And who has revealed itself as China’s faithful sidekick? The devious World Health Organization, that’s WHO! The partnership could have saved thousands of lives had it extended an honest, forthright assessment of the Coronavirus at the outset of the contagion, which was belatedly assessed by WHO as a pandemic.

Now we know it would have been a gesture beyond the willingness of the Chinese communists and their buddy to extend a hand of friendship. To help others. To show decency. Because this cabal of Chinese Communists reveal themselves as people without a shred of decency.

Instead of trying to help the rest of the world avoid death and chaos and huge financial pain, Beijing gave us the back of its hand. More than 200 countries now struggle with a killer the exact origins of which we continue to debate. But like just about everything else in the stores and showrooms of the world there’s no doubt it was made in China.

As the Wuhan storm was breaking, the Chinese communist regime was asked by the world to share information that would help it meet the obvious challenge that was at the time killing only Chinese citizens. Instead the Xi regime delighted in the chaos it had inflicted and so did WHO. The communist regime told the CDC, Centre of Disease Control in Washington, to take a hike. Instead of helping it then launched a campaign of suppression and rather than protecting the world and its unsuspecting citizens, the Communist Chinese Party silenced the whistleblowers.

But it gets worse, doctors like Li Wenliang who sent out a warning were ordered by the police to “stop making false comments that were disruptive to public order.” The 34 year old ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central hospital was threatened and then forced to sign a confession admitting he was “spreading rumours” about a new, deadly virus. His reward was a bout of coronavirus and death. Young citizen journalists who managed to show the world early videos of the truth in Wuhan disappeared. Li Zehua, Chen Quishi and Fang Bin were arrested for filming officers arresting citizens who had been stricken by the virus “that wasn’t.” They remain among China’s many disappeared. Then when the truth finally emerged, the Chinese rejected offers of help. The Chinese hierarchy ordered documents relative to the first infected humans destroyed.

The US Centre for Disease Control and other international agencies were ignored by Beijing for a month and even the World Health Organization was initially sidelined! WHO is now a Beijing sidekick and some are suggesting it was compromised by Chairman Xi because it has become an embarrassing apologist for the skullduggery of the CCP and is now morally culpable for the criminality of the Chinese. WHO has joined the lies and propaganda spread by the duplicitous mouth of the Dragon.

It was the WHO telling the world in January that “preliminary” findings from Chinese officials indicated the virus was not spread from human to human contact.” The WHO, Beijing’s new best friend said the same thing on January 5, January 9, January 12. And on January 14 the WHO said “…there has been no suggestion of human to human transmission of this new coronavirus.” How then, was it infecting with such rapidity? WHO answered, ” good question.”

By January 22nd, 580 cases and 17 deaths are confirmed. By the end of the month 11,950 were infected in China and a number of other countries. The WHO in late January insisted, “global risk assessment is moderate.”

Meanwhile in the bowels of the Beijing Braintrust, the strategy was formulated. 1) Blame a wet market in Wuhan, 2) tell all who ask, including Trump, that we have this new virus under control. Not a major threat, 3) lock down all of Hubei province, 90 million people, 4) clear the streets, 5) bring in the portable crematoriums, 6) dispatch all dissenters, 7) fudge the numbers, 8) hoard the PPE(personal protective equipment) and make sure the good buddy, WHO stays on side, 9) as a gesture of Chinese humanism, offer hard hit countries some of our stockpile of PPE. It will underscore the efficiency and planning of the empire.

And as an example of point #9– Beijing’s plan to show it was a Global friend, a partner to those in need, was to tell the world it would be donating masks, face guards and testing equipment to Italy. China backtracked, quietly of course . It sold the desperate Italians the same PPE Italy donated to China before the Coronavirus invaded and killed 16-thousand Italians.

Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help protect its population. China sent some of that equipment back to Italy, but for a price. So Rome was buying from China the PPE it donated to China. Some friend! But that’s not the end of this part of the story. China has been selling thousands of other supplies and testing kits at marked up prices that have turned out to be defective.

Spain returned 50-thousand quick testing kits to China, faulty. The Netherlands also rejected made-in-China coronavirus testing kits and protective gear calling them substandard while questioning the quality of supplies Beijing is selling to the world. Turkey, Georgia and the Czech Republic complained about faulty testing kits. In some cases, instead of fixing the issue, China blamed user error. The coronavirus test kits and various equipment Britain purchased from China also have been judged unreliable.

Dr. Gordan Chang, author and media commentator makes a valid observation, “China creates the poison and sells the solution.”

But China doesn’t have the solution, the antidote, the vaccine…..or does it?

BEIJING and it’s sidekick, the WHO, have shredded truth and goodwill and by omission and lying killed thousands. We are watching evil at work.

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The Stone throwers….

2020/01/17

Throwing assorted verbal bric-a-brac at Donald J. Trump because he is Donald Trump needs comment. For one thing it’s mindless and for another they are coming from people who should not be throwing stones because they live in glass houses. They include the pejorative comments of the current Prime Minister, the former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, the Duchess of Sussex and the primary subject of this discourse, Michael McCain.

Comments by Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, underscore a misguided anger driven by his obvious hatred of the U-S president.

I don’t recall this kind of vitriol directed at McCain or his company, responsible as it was for deaths of 23 consumers of meat products sold by Maple Leaf Foods. Listeria was the killer. Death lurked in his company’s unclean meat cutting apparatus. It was the killing machine.

The blood from that scandal still stains his hands. If it doesn’t, it should along with memories of vulnerability.

So exactly what is his justification for accusing “U-S government officials and their ‘narcissistic’ leader of concocting an ill-conceived plan to divert attention from political problems at home” to the killing fields of the Middle East where the Iranians have been missile firing and killing at will?

He noted that while Iran is a dangerous State, a plan had been in place to contain it. If he’s referring to the goofy Obama gambit he is among the ill-informed. In his rant McCain denounced the “taking out” of a terrorist leader because, “there are a hundred like him standing in line.”

Does he mean we should let them flourish with impunity?

McCain blames American adventurism for the shooting down of PS flight 752 that claimed 176 lives, including a colleague’s family. That is tragic. But contrast McCain’s simplistic offering to the thousands of Iranians who marched, held vigils and blamed the evasive, lying leaders of Iran for the airline disaster.

It’s entirely possible PS 752 was deliberately shot down. It’s entirely possible that the world has given the Iranians a quick pass into “unintentionally.” You think a cabal responsible for killing scores of its own people during the November protests would hesitate shooting down a planeload of unarmed civilians as unsuspecting of danger as those who purchased Mr. McCain’s meat products some ten years ago?

I would have thought after living the listeria nightmare, Mr. McCain would have spent more time reflecting and less time throwing verbal brickbats that expose his woeful bias.

His outrage is misdirected. May his company never again have to face death in the grocery aisle.

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DODGING the BULLET…

2019/04/15 Leave a comment

“I want immunity from prosecution” is the rallying cry of today’s capitalist. “Give me of dose of DPA and fill my pockets with tax money collected from the hoi polloi and don’t worry about the fallout”. Today’s Media news outlets are unable to sustain interest in the most egregious skullduggery in the marketplace because they are suffering from informational ADD. Obviously, while the quotes cannot be attributed to a particular business person the meaning and sentiment of these words can be proven beyond a doubt.

Exhibit A: SNC Lavalin, a corporation that has been trying to convince its friends in the Justin Trudeau cabinet that it is deserving of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement for several reasons: (1) it employs hundreds of Canadians, (2) it doesn’t want to go to court and face bribery and corruption charges like the common crook, and (3) SNC has been a long time contributer to the Liberal campaign kitty! Surely even if the former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould couldn’t understand that, many Canadians, especially those unconcerned about the proper administration of Justice in Canada could see the validity of giving SNC, that “signature” company, a free pass. After all, “we are a Quebec company playing for Team Canada.”

And not surprising, there are many Canadians who support the idea that you should be able to buy Justice. They support the idea that you should be able to buy your way around charges of bribery, kickbacks and racketeering. They say, why should you have to face charges in a Court of Law when you can pay money and get a DPA. Certainly people break the law everyday. I mean look at the Prime Minister. He broke four campaign related laws in 2016 and the RCMP knew about it and they didn’t blink an eye. As a matter of fact, the Mounties covered up the details for 818 days, violating the Access to Information and Privacy Act in the process.

So if the Prime Minister and the Mounties can get away with this kind of lawlessness, why not SNC Lavalin? Besides this Lavagate dust-up will be long gone before the election. The Media in Canada tire easily, besides boasting some of the laziest members of this fraternity in the free world.

Exhibit B: What ever happened to the great Canadian bread price fixing scandal? When was the last time any major media members wrote a follow-up on a status of the unresolved Breadscam? It’s been about a year and would still be collecting mould if it hadn’t been for the recent news that Loblaw has happily been given 12 Million dollars to install new refrigerators in their stores as part of Mr. Trudeau’s carbon-tax scam-(another story, for another time). This story involves the Bread Price Fixing Seven!!!

But here is Loblaw, a company that led the price fixing of bread for 14 years, costing each home in this country an estimated 400 dollars, getting free money from the consumer. Did we just brush off the immorality of price-fixing? Loblaw, with 6 fellow conspirators, fixed the price on the staff of life, sometimes the only item people can afford to buy regularly. And now, from the very people Loblaws stole from, it’s getting 12-million dollars for fridges. Fridges that could very well hold other products subject to price-fixing that we will never know about. Further to the incredible thought of anyone in this country fixing the price of bread is the lack of outrage by the consumer. And what about the Media? Have they forced the Competition Bureau to finish the story? They have not and consequently the Competition Bureau has not. Silence is the best information killer.

Price fixers, if found guilty, face a 25-million dollar fine or up to 14 years in prison. To date no convicted price fixer has ever seen the inside of a Canadian jail. Will Loblaw, Weston Bakeries, Canada Bread, Sobeys, Walmart, Giant Tiger, Metro ever be brought to justice? Of course not because three years after Loblaw blew the whistle on its disgusting conspiracy to fix Bread Prices–NO Charges have been laid and Loblaw has been given immunity–which means they won’t be prosecuted! The status of this um…”INVESTIGATION” continues in the great state of, “LIMBO”. This is a great country, isn’t it? If you have scammed customers over 14 years for, say 5 or 6 million of them, you just blow the whistle on your little scam and kazzam you give the little people a 25 dollar certificate and daddy in Ottawa will ‘smile and nod.’ “Love this immunity from prosecution-thingy.”

Exhibit #C: We are told that Canada is on the short list of countries vulnerable to drug money laundering transactions. As a matter of fact we have been designated as a major money laundering country where foreign drug-trafficking gangs are exploiting weak law enforcement and soft laws! Are you kidding me? Canada? Oh yes, there is a problem with a lax approach to law enforcement with respect to companies trying to avoid bribery and kickback charges. And the failure to demand that highly placed-politician(s) answer to law breaking. In fact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the “national force for good” in the Country helped cover-up some law-breaking but surely that was all minor stuff. Nevertheless you know what they say–bad behavior starts at the top! An unsavory CEO usually means laxity and bad habits among the lower echelon. So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if Canada is lumped with other International money laundering tramps like Afghanistan, The British Virgin Islands, China, Columbia and Macau. A recent report confirms crime networks, trafficking proceeds from China, could have laundered one billion dollars through the purchase of homes in Vancouver in 2016. Toronto’s real estate market has also been artificially bumped. One report says some tracking has zeroed in on more than 28 billion in opaque investments. Seems a little high but it’s probable 10% or almost 3 billion represents ill-gotten gains.

Surprised that Canada is lumped in with the worst of the worst in money-laundering? Don’t be. Most Canadian provinces fail to prosecute money laundering. The reports relating to this Canadian crime infestation make it quite clear that this country is under pressure from legitimate and illegitimate actors because the word is out, oversight in Canada is practically non-existent.

Even the Prime Minister will go to bat for you if you represent a “signature” presence in the country and you have a substantial sum to spend on his party’s re-election.

Canada is a mecca for the capitalist who craves immunity!

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“they’re such liars……”

2019/03/31

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about the Prime Minister, members of his Cabinet, members of the Liberal Caucus or the people at SNC Lavalin–or Jussie Smollett.

Just last week Neil Bruce, Lavalin’s CEO, denied his company claimed 9- thousand Canadian jobs were at risk if SNC Lavalin had to go trial over the multi-million dollar Libyan bribe scandal. He said the company did not make that threat. BUT,

The Prime Minister told the world that Lavalin needed help to avoid the bribery trial otherwise 9-thousand jobs would be toast. Furthermore, Lavalin would likely leave the comfort of its Quebec domicile and move its headquarters to London England. Yea right you’re going to move your HDQs to the UK, a country that doesn’t know whether it’s coming or going. Literal hogwash! Neil Bruce says the company won’t move because SNC likes to think of itself as Team Canada!

Enter Canadian Press with Freedom of Information documents that show SNC Lavalin warned of a move to the United States, and the slashing of its Canadian workforce by two thirds if there was no deal on the court avoidance thingy. The documents show that: SNC Lavalin warned Federal prosecutors last fall about a possible plan to split the company in two, move it’s offices to the United States and eliminate much of its Canadian workforce if it didn’t get a deal to avoid criminal prosecution.

The revelations obtained by CP were part of a power-point presentation made to the Trudeau Feds as part of Lavalin’s fierce lobbying to avoid a date in Criminal court. And furthermore, the company noted, “..the Government of Canada needs to weigh the public interest impact of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin.” The presentation was made to the Feds coincidental to the 4 months that the Wilson-Raybould was being harassed by the Trudeau gang.

How does all this square with Neil Bruce’s claim that SNC had no plans to leave the country for another because it considered itself to be part of Team Canada? Given the track record of this company we should join voices and suggest that SNC Lavalin take its Team Canada logo and go. The sooner the better. The Mafia is probably a better fit.

And that’s not all. SNC is facing business troubles in South America. Chile’s state miner has cancelled a 340 million dollar contract. Codelco scrapped the deal over what it called a “serious breach of contractual milestones by SNC Lavalin”. These included, “delay in payments to its subcontractors, delays in the execution of the project and problems in the quality of the works.” These people NEVER learn. SNC reminds us of Bombardier, the corporate bloodsucker. Always in debt. Unable to put together simple things like buses and streetcars and deliver them on time. Both companies have cost Canadian taxpayers billions. And both proudly proclaim Quebec as their home. Are we missing something?

Back in Ottawa there will probably be additional handwringing over the 500-million dollar defense contract Lavalin has with the Defense department. It comes up for renewal next year—when the engineering behemoth is expected to be on trial for bribery and other misdeeds.

But there are serious ramifications of that contract, which includes the servicing of minor warships and auxiliary vessels. Look at this:
in addition to holding the defense contract, SNC Lavalin has access to a wide range of secret military drawings, equipment and intellectual property.

That gives one pause. Who would put our secrets into the hands of such a reckless, delinquent corporation with a track record of bribery and kickbacks?

You know who would defend this arrangement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the support of MP’s like Judy Sgro, the political shrew who was calling out Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpot accusing them of targeting the Prime Minister over the Lavalin scandal. Well who else should be the target, Judy? Donald Trump?

It’s instructional to the rest of us that the only complaint from Liberal caucus members about the dust-up involving Jody, Jane and Trudeau the Younger is the threat to their re-election. They are thinking only of themselves…because these days “serving the public” is not job one in the minds of most of the elected.

Another good reason for term limits…..some other time!



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Apathy then Atrophy…and then…………..

2018/12/31

Who knew that the most dangerous place in Toronto is a store owned by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario?! Remarkably neither the Mayor nor members of his 25 member City Council were aware. But while the story is more representative of Baltimore or Chicago’s South Side, this narrative in fact resides in Toronto. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) has been keeping a secret. Over the past four and a half years their stores have been robbed 9-thousand times. Let me repeat that there have been some 9000 thefts at LCBO outlets in Toronto since mid 2014. The information comes from the Toronto Police Service (an oxymoron if there ever was one–will explain that too.) And in every case LCBO staff has been required to stand and watch the thefts as they happen! The liquor agency’s policy is this: LCBO staff are not encouraged to confront shoplifters. We didn’t know that and neither did the City’s incredibly inept news media until a Toronto Star staff member happened to be at an LCBO outlet somewhere in the City’s east-end with about 40 other customers when two members of the Liquor Heisting squad arrived.

Quoting from the Star story, “the thieves, faces shrouded beneath hoodies, hats, sunglasses and zero worries about apprehension pushed their way through a crowd of customers to the aisle holding premium vodka and loaded up their four oversized backpacks.”

Customers are stunned by this grand theft larceny occurring right there in their space. Understandable. Incomprehensible is the Star’s description of the reaction of the five staff…they are not watching. Seen this so many times before, maybe? Who watches the same bad movie twice?

The thieves make off with an estimated two thousand dollars of liquor in an operation that takes barely three minutes (reporter’s estimate.)

Were the Police called? Apparently not. Police in Toronto rarely attend to a low-priority theft and never, once the thieves have ” left the building”. So if that’s a fact, then why call them? Think of that next time somebody breaks into your home and steals 2-thousand dollars. It may mean a lot to you but to the Toronto Police Service it doesn’t mean a thing! Obviously the ‘Service’ part means different things to different people in this city of close to three million.

The plain stupidity of the LCBO policy on thievery and the frightening absence of logic at the higher levels of policing in Toronto is disturbing. Let’s crunch the numbers. Averaging the more than nine-thousand liquor store thefts divided among 220 LCBO stores in Toronto we see an average of 41 thefts per store over 4 years, some 10 thefts per year. Obviously the LCBO brass finds comfort in these figures, the losses as part of doing business and the plus of not having to pay protection for the thousands of men and women who work at risk everyday in LCBO stores because thieves do not signal intent. And of course no LCBO regard for the customer!

The LCBO by concealment, aided and abetted by the Police Department and the Union (Ontario Provincial Service Employees Union-OPSEU) has committed fraud on taxpayers of Ontario.

Among the responsibilities of the LCBO is: ensuring that the LCBO provides high-quality service to the public! Obviously both staff and customer are not provided with that high-quality service when at anytime a customer and staff member can be confronted by thieves who could physically harm, discharge a firearm, seize a hostage, and worse, because there is no deterrent.

The evidence of these possible outcomes is found in the story in the Toronto Star. Read it on the front page of the Saturday Star, December 29, 2018….”the bottles go clink, clink, clink as they swell the loot bags and then….smash! A 75 dollar bottle of Grey Goose vodka slips and shatters on the floor and one of the bandits shouts a warning. Stay the f—away from us.” Welcome to the twilight zone in Toronto Ontario Canada.

You are now a witness to a daylight robbery to which not one person dares to intervene, and where the call to the cavalry will be met by laughter. Each on its own can be explained. Sometimes an intervention is impossible, but there’s always help from the police.

Here’s the nightmare, “I cannot intervene and I cannot expect help”.

The Twilight scenario is DOOM. When you read through the entire Star story you quickly come to realize we are at the mercy of some of the most incredibly inept individuals as they thrash about looking for solutions to a problem of their own making. The reaction from Liquor Control Board of Ontario is laughable. Look at this, “the LCBO has taken appropriate steps to prevent shop theft through security investments and theft protection tactics.! Made a big difference to the thieves on the Danforth. I’m sure they wanted to surrender right there but the vodka was tempting and who could turn down larceny without penalty!

The rest of the LCBO stuff is just as silly. And then when you turn to the Police Service group you see the erosion of honest police work in a city that has for decades been patrolled by esteemed guardians of Law and Order.

You have to reflect with disgust to this portion of a memo sent from the Police to the LCBO security: “unless there is a safety risk, certain crimes could now be reported online.”

To wit: if you see two thugs dressed in hoodies, and wearing hats and dark glasses carrying over-sized backpacks going into a liquor store being patronized by 40 shoppers report same to the police on line! I mean where’s the risk? In Toronto, we encourage thieves, LCBO staff and patrons to hang out! Is that difficult to understand in a Sanctuary City?

I’ve been in this city since 1966 and without fear of contradiction this city’s Police Department has never been more emasculated than it is today. The current Chief of Police is a joke. Unfortunately the LCBO story is a reflection of the kind of nonsense we knew was happening but didn’t understand why. Now we know. Apathy begets Atrophy and Atrophy invites the Apocalypse. 

Don’t take my word or it. Look it up. Start with Gibbons on Rome.

We gather that two thugs dressed in hoodies, and wearing hats and dark glasses carrying four bags into a liquor store patronized by 40 innocent shoppers must be reported on the police services line. I mean where’s the safety risk? In Toronto thieves, LCBO staff and patrons love to hang out. So what’s your problem???

“


figures

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“this is what you have become…….

2018/10/30

In the wake of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the President of the United States and the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania made this basic observation—-“this is not who we are….”  suggesting this kind of hateful aggression by an American is not the norm.  That it doesn’t represent what America is all about!

It’s quite possible both cannot see the forest.

Watching events Stateside from north of the border you see a nation in domestic turmoil. And the turmoil is so intense as to suggest irrational thought is replacing  reason.  How else can you explain the Mainstream Media blaming the President for the  massacre in Pittsburgh. The murders of 11 people on the Sabbath in a Synagogue in Pittsburgh was carried out by a man who hated Jews and hated the President because Trump is staunchly pro-Israel.  No U-S president has had the temerity to be so supportive of Israel.  In fact, his decision to move the U.S embassy to Jerusalem has made several American allies in Europe and the Middle East very unhappy.  And you can include a large number of Americans, Republicans and Democrats in that number.

We also have the spectacle of  family ugliness  that many Pittsburgh Jews ought to be ashamed of–taking up a petition telling the President he is not welcome in Pittsburgh.

It says they don’t want the President and the First Lady to pay their respects to the fallen in their midst.  You have to wonder at that kind of  bizarre thinking.  But then you knew no American tragedy in 2018 would be divorced from politics.

And there it is.  Again, ugly dissent from the Soros family, this time the old man’s son  mixing murder and politics.  His organization was the first to declare ‘we don’t want Trump in Pittsburgh’.  Others joined.  The few became a tumult.

You would suppose that most of the people in that city would want nothing to do with this mixing of murder and politics but then George Soros is a Jewish philanthropist and given, I suppose, some measure of tribal regard.

Leaving that for the moment, let’s cogitate on this unlikeliest of scenarios:  Blaming the President of the United States for a massacre as if he with malice afore-thought went to the Synagogue with a gun and shot down members at worship.

During the presidency of Barack Obama there were fourteen mass shootings.  These included synagogue and church mass shootings.  Which ones did he get blamed for?  None, of course.  Only the deranged and political dipsticks would blame the President but look at this compendium of mayhem and murder:

Orlando nightclub shooting, June 12, 2016;

Kalamazoo Uber driver shootings, Feb. 22, 2016;

San Bernardino community centre shooting Dec 2, 2015;

Roseburg community college shooting Oct. 1, 2015;

Chattanooga recruiting centre shooting July 16, 2015;

Charleston church shooting June 18, 2015;

Kansas Jewish community centre shooting April 14 2014;

Second Fort Hood shooting April 2, 2014;

Navy Yard shooting Sept. 16, 2013;

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Dec. 14, 2012;

Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting Aug. 6, 2012;

Aurora movie theatre shooting July 20, 2012;

Tucson congressional event shooting Jan. 8, 2011;

First Fort Hood shooting Nov. 5, 2009!

Now let’s return to that statement, “this is not who we are…”

American cousin look at yourself!  Look reality in eye.   This is not Fake News.  You are encompassed by violence on everyside.  Physically, politically, financially and socially.  The family is sorely divided and your enemies know it.

The President was wrong when he said, “this is not who we are.”

America, “this is what you have become.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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