Author: Blazingcatfur

Bad blood, perfect luck and campaign by ‘gut’: Inside the election that surprised everyone

OTTAWA — As the federal election campaign approached its final days, the Conservative war room couldn’t help but dwell on a brutal paradox.

Inside the confines of the office where the campaign was headquartered in downtown Ottawa, insiders say the overwhelming feeling was that the campaign couldn’t have gone much more smoothly. Despite mounting criticism from pundits and even fellow Conservatives, everyone on the campaign seemed to be rowing in the same direction. Unusually, the media coverage was mostly favourable, or at least neutral. And they had entirely avoided the “bozo eruptions” that had plagued so many Conservative campaigns before.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inElection 2025

Accused in Lapu Lapu Day tragedy makes first court appearance

The man charged with eight counts of murder after 11 people were killed and several more injured at an outdoor Filipino community festival last Saturday has been sent for a psychiatric assessment.

Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, appeared by video in a courtroom at Vancouver provincial court on Friday afternoon, on a split screen with his lawyer, Mark Swartz, who also appeared via video from a different location.

Lo was wearing a red T-shirt and matching red bottoms and sat on a light blue bench in a brightly lit room at the jail where he is being held in.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Mass Casualty Event"

White smoke chimney installed as Sistine Chapel swept for listening devices

Vatican firefighters have installed a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in preparation for next week’s conclave, the secretive election in which cardinals will choose a new pope.

The installation of the chimney is a key step in the lead-up to the conclave, along with officers from the Swiss Guards and the Vatican Gendarmerie, the sovereign nation’s tiny police force, sweeping the frescoed chapel for listening devices and bugs.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCatholic Church

Alberta premier rekindles fight against Liberal ‘clean electricity’ regulations

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Smith vowed on Thursday to move forward with a legal challenge to Ottawa’s incoming clean electricity regulations, rekindling a fight with the just re-elected Liberal government over its decarbonization agenda.

“Today we are taking another step to protect Albertans livelihoods by challenging the constitutionality of (these) regulations in the Court of Appeal of Alberta, and we look forward to making our case,” Smith told reporters in Edmonton.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUncategorized

Victims were lovingly stabbed say police

Hamilton Love Crime Investigator

Three people stabbed at downtown Hamilton mosque; two suspects wanted

Police say a verbal altercation preceded the stabbing, which is not believed to be hate-related.

Three people are hurt and two others wanted after a stabbing at the Hamilton Downtown Mosque.

Hamilton police responded to the mosque at 221 York Blvd. for reports of a disturbance around 2:15 p.m. on Friday — just as afternoon prayers finished.

“From all the information I have, this is not a random altercation or incident, and I can confidently say it’s not related to a hate-motivated crime,” Callender said outside the mosque.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Not Bombed Enough

Germany defends AfD extremist classification after Rubio slams ‘tyranny in disguise’

Germany’s Foreign Office has defended a decision to classify the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as right-wing extremist, after sharp criticism from the White House.

US Vice-President JD Vance accused “bureaucrats” of rebuilding the Berlin Wall, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the designation as “tyranny in disguise”.

In an unusual move, the foreign office directly replied to Rubio on X, writing: “We have learnt from our history that right-wing extremism needs to be stopped.”

The intelligence agency that made the classification found AfD’s “prevailing understanding of people based on ethnicity and descent” goes against Germany’s “free democratic order”.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inGermany, Germany - AfD party, Germany: Not Bombed Enough?

SNELL: The train of authoritarianism is barreling down the political tracks — Smith must act

‘Prime Minister Mark Carney will probably resurrect the Online Harms Act.’

The freight train of authoritarianism and censorship under the Carney Liberals is barrelling down the political tracks — and it’s far more serious than Alberta’s discontent within confederation or a possible sovereignty referendum.

It’s highly likely Prime Minister Mark Carney will resurrect the federal Online Harms Act Bill C-63 — a terrifying piece of legislation that will drive Canada toward the U.K.’s dystopia, where thousands have been arrested for “offensive” speech violations, primarily on social media.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

The Reform revolution has begun

Victory in Runcorn and Helsby proves that Reform didn’t just get lucky in the 2024 election: it can win more seats, it could form the next government or opposition. Many prayed the constituency was immune to Farage because the old majority was so large and it’s so close to Labour-loving Liverpool – but the narrow steal indicates that, within England at least, there’s no no-go area for Reform.

Anecdotally, it seems Labour was hurt by slashing winter fuel and Pips. The problem isn’t just the cuts themselves but the perception of lying – that Labour won its majority on the promise to be different, only to reimpose austerity.

England local election results 2025

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUK

Christopher Dummitt: The radical takeover of a Canadian studies conference in Britain

EDINBURGH — Imagine the scene that would have greeted any poor Scot who wandered off the street in Edinburgh to find himself in the middle of the annual British Association of Canadian Studies conference. Yes, there really is such a thing as the British Association of Canadian Studies (BACS) and 2025 is its 50th anniversary.

BACS is the well-worn but admirable remnants of the kind of soft power Canadian governments used to try to exercise — by getting people in other countries talking about Canada and encouraging academic links across the ocean.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

Rubio: Europe Must Show “Political Will” To End Ukraine War

U.S Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged European Union member states and their allies to work towards a “lasting peace” and end the war in Ukraine. This means Europe must both commit tangible resources to the goal and show clear political resolve.

This renewed pressure from the Trump administration came in a meeting between Rubio and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Thursday, May 1st. According to Rubio, President Donald Trump remains committed to ending the “senseless bloodshed.” The two met in Washington for talks—described as centred upon advancing “on the path toward peace in Ukraine.”

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia"

Yemeni allegedly caught leaving Ontario to join Muslim terror group remains in custody

A Yemeni accused of trying to leave Canada to join a terrorist group appeared in court north of Toronto on Thursday for a bail hearing.

Husam Taha Ali Al-Sewaiee, 32, was arrested by RCMP national security officers on April 19 and remains in custody.

He has not been charged with any crimes.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

‘We fear that violence will come the way of the Christians next’

Muslims Defaced Christan Icons Maaloula Syria

The priest would prefer that the ghosts of his community’s violent past are laid to rest. Every family in Maaloula — where Christian and Muslim neighbours were riven by bloodshed — has a deeply personal memory of the civil war: a killing, an abduction, a disappearance; displacement, grief and loss.

In the interests of reconciliation Father Fadi Barkil believes it may be better to forgive and forget.

Yet as word of the latest sectarian violence against the Druze community in Syria spreads, fears for the future keep Maaloula’s ghosts of the past alive.

Share
by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Christian Persecution, Islam, Islam and violence, Syria