Canada

Star Wants Blood: The RCMP says it’s been looking into potential war crimes in the Israel-Hamas conflict for a year. Why has it seemed so quiet?

In February 2023, less than a year into the RCMP’s investigation into possible war crimes stemming from the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Cpl. Kate Walaszczyk was trying to “manage expectations.”

It can take years before these kinds of probes result in prosecutions, she told CBC News, but the initial steps are critical. The RCMP was first focused on preserving physical and digital evidence, as well as gathering victims’ stories.

“Let’s say a conflict finishes. Individuals don’t come forward about those allegations until years later, and then evidence is lost. Memories are lost, all those things are lost,” said Walaszczyk, who was described as an investigator in the RCMP’s Ukraine war crimes unit. “We need it to be robust, so that there aren’t gaps … When you don’t gather the evidence properly, these things fall apart. And then what’s the point?”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "Oct 7 2023", Canada, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

How a CRA employee cycled through rehirings, a firing and 15 years of legal battles

15 years of grievances, lawsuits and appeals reveal cracks in Canada’s public service system

With a labour relations board decision in June, the Canada Revenue Agency took another step toward parting ways with the same employee for the third time in more than 15 years.

That employee, Mohammed Tibilla, is a former CRA worker based in Montreal. Over the years, he has launched administrative or legal actions and filed appeals against the agency, his union and his supervisors numerous times, exposing weak spots in federal systems — and underscoring the challenges Prime Minister Mark Carney faces in trying to make the government more streamlined and responsive.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

GUNTER: Elections Canada put an end to Longest Ballot Committee’s trickery

So the Longest Ballot Committee has been thwarted — sort of — in its effort to hijack next month’s byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot.

The committee’s stunt of clogging the ballot in the central Alberta riding with more than 200 names worked. By the close of nominations on Tuesday, the committee had convinced more than 200 of its supporters to let their names stand, even though most of them have never been to the riding and have no intention of campaigning.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

Jamie Sarkonak: It shouldn’t take 16 years to deport a foreign criminal

Gagandip Jhuty, an Indian national, should have been deported in 2009 due to his criminal history, but it was only this July that Canadian officials scheduled his flight out. Why? Because for 16 years, India refused to issue him a passport.

That’s how it works in Canada: anyone being deported needs to have travel documents on hand. So, if they entered illegally and never had such documents to begin with, they can’t be sent home until that problem is resolved. If a country doesn’t want to repatriate the deportee in question, it can simply ignore our requests — for years.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?

Islamophobia Tsar says Mideast war is bringing back anti-Muslim tropes from 9/11

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s special representative on combating Islamophobia says she’s alarmed by a recent revival of decades-old tropes about Muslims supporting terrorist violence.

Amira Elghawaby also said Canadians should not be reluctant to speak out for the rights of one group because of a fear of being accused of ignoring the plight of another.

“In a country as pluralistic and as diverse as Canada, we should be able to get this right,” Elghawaby told The Canadian Press.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "Oct 7 2023", Canada, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Trump slams Canada’s plan to recognize Palestinian state amid trade talks

U.S. President Donald Trump took to his social media platform just after midnight on Thursday to say he is not pleased with Canada announcing it will recognize a Palestinian state in September if the West Bank’s governing body agrees to make certain commitments.

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”

Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed earlier on Wednesday that trade negotiations have not been finalized just two days ahead of the deadline.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Israel, USA

Behind the Push to Deepen Canada–China Ties Amid US Trade Tensions

Some premiers expressed support for closer trade ties with China last week as a way to reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States amid rising tariff tensions. There have also been recent newspaper commentaries echoing Beijing’s position that Canada should forge a closer relationship with China.

Some observers say there appears to be forces pushing Canadian politicians toward China amid tensions with Washington. Catherine Swift, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada, says profit may be a driving factor as corporations back closer ties with Beijing for access to economic opportunities and lower costs.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada's China Class", "China - Communist Slave State", Canada, USA

Ford government agrees to fee cancelling $100M deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink because it’s your money and they don’t give a crap how they waste it

The Ford government has negotiated a break fee to cancel its $100 million contract for Starlink internet, Global News has learned, officially ending its deal with Elon Musk-owned SpaceX.

The now-defunct agreement between Ontario and SpaceX was first signed in November to provide satellite internet to roughly 15,000 homes in the north of the province.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Ontario's Corrupt Liberal Government, USA, WTF?

Casey Babb: Canada doesn’t need an antisemitism or Islamophobia czar

On July 17, Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, abruptly retired. Lyons, who served as Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2016 to 2020, came into this role in October 2023 — just a week after Palestinian terrorists carried out their barbaric attacks in Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking over 250 hostages. While she was expected to hold the position for another few months, until October 2025, she decided “with a heavy heart,” to step down early.

With the position now vacant, the time has come to permanently dissolve the post — as well as the position of Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia. High paying jobs that don’t lead to results are bad. Ones that continue to divide people are even worse.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "Oct 7 2023", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

John Robson: Cancellations of Christian Musician’s Concerts Part of a Troubling Trend

Mythology does not record whether Trojan priestess Cassandra took grim satisfaction in the vindication of her ignored warnings. I don’t. But I must say “I told you so” when events confirm my claims of some dangerous pattern in public affairs. Including from just last week about widespread disastrous resistance to systematic thought in Canada, from free speech to free trade, unleashing bad policy from muddled theory. Maybe Sean Feucht could sing about it… but not in Canada.

In case you had never heard of Cassandra, sister of Hector, she was gifted with prophecy, but cursed with never being believed. “Don’t take in the wooden horsey thing, it’s an obvious Greek trick,” she said, and the city burned.

h/t Patti Jo

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Canada seeks tariff exemptions as Donald Trump demands ‘completely open markets’

OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump will accept nothing short of “completely open markets” to American goods in other countries, his commerce secretary said Tuesday, as uncertainty continues over whether Canada and a host of nations can reach agreements with the United States before Trump’s latest threatened tariffs are supposed to kick in Friday.

The statement comes as Canada’s cabinet point-person on U.S. trade talks, Dominic LeBlanc, travels to Washington for the second time in recent days for what Prime Minister Mark Carney described Monday as an “intense” phase of negotiations before this week’s deadline.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

The right’s new cause, crime without punishment, and its new martyrs, the Ottawa hostage-takers

If there is one thing Canada’s Conservatives believe in, it is getting tough on crime.

Wherever there is a debate on what penalties should be imposed for criminal offences, Conservatives stand squarely and proudly for more. Whether as a matter of deterrence, or simple retribution, Conservatives almost always favour longer sentences rather than shorter.

Except, it seems, when the criminals involved are their friends. Take, for example, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, organizers of the notorious “Freedom Convoy” that took much of downtown Ottawa hostage for three weeks in 2022, and folk heroes to the populist right.

Andrew Coyne watch In effect

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", Canada

Trump Trade Deals Threaten Canada’s Vital Auto Industry

For decades, Canadians have been, by a wide margin, the world’s largest buyers of cars and trucks made in the United States. In most years, four out of every 10 vehicles that roll out of Canadian dealerships were shipped from American factories.

But being the most important overseas market for America’s vehicle industry has not insulated Canada’s own auto industry from President Trump’s move to unravel the global trading system. On Friday, Mr. Trump threatened to impose a new 35 percent tariff on Canada unless the two countries struck a deal.

But even before then, Mr. Trump’s recent trade deals with Japan, Britain and the European Union meant that their auto exports would now be entering the United States at tariff rates lower than that on Canadian cars and trucks.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

No we don’t …

We need an official policy prohibiting removal of at-risk trans and non-binary people to the U.S.

The Canadian refugee process is often praised for its fairness, efficiency and commitment to human rights. It is the main avenue for trans and non-binary people around the world to seek safety after fleeing persecution in their countries of nationality. But for trans and non-binary Americans who fear for their lives in the United States, the ability to access Canada’s refugee system is far less clear. So far, it seems, the Canadian government is less willing to acknowledge the threats facing trans and non-binary people throughout the U.S.

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