Opinion: Take aim at legal guns, too, in fight against violence

In a recent opinion piece in the Gazette , Concordia political science associate professor Noah Schwartz says calls for gun bans are among typical “knee-jerk” reactions to gun violence that “drain precious resources” that could be better invested in long-term solutions to crime and violence in Canada.

Schwartz seems to have accepted the argument — often presented by the gun lobby — that gun violence is mostly limited to criminal gangs “in specific neighbourhoods” and that “licensed, vetted” gun owners are already “heavily regulated” enough.

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Canada’s grocery chains stocked with tomato products connected to Chinese forced labour

Canadian consumers who purchase popular tomato pastes, sauces and ketchups may actually be buying products harvested and manufactured by Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities under oppressive working conditions in China, according to a CBC Marketplace investigation.

Marketplace, in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Project Italy — a non-profit media association — and The Guardian, found some of the world’s biggest grocers, including ones here in Canada, are stocked with tomato products that could be tied to forced labour in Xinjiang, a remote area of western China where Uyghurs are subjected to mass detention, surveillance and torture by the Chinese government, in what many countries have labelled a genocide.

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Trudeau vows to support greed of China class – will continue to lick Xi’s arse

Disinformation, extremism threatening democracies, global economies: Trudeau

… “We cannot pretend that China isn’t there, just cross our arms and ignore it,” he said. “It is too important a player in our economies right now.”

Trudeau added that countries like Canada and the Netherlands have to engage China constructively on trade, on climate change, while challenging it on human rights, the situation in Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Don’t worry slaves, Justin is thinking of you.

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Man making $40k/year bought $32m in Vancouver real estate via CCP-linked offshore accounts

Money Laundering

A citizen of the People’s Republic of China reported average annual earnings of $40,615 to Canadian border agents yet went on to buy $32 million worth of Vancouver real estate after moving $114 million from Hong Kong-based depositors with connections to organized crime and the Chinese Communist Party, a case study by counsel for the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in B.C. shows.

The study is one of over 1,000 commission exhibits, and it hits on a number of vital aspects of money laundering heard during the course of the 18-month inquiry, such as nominee purchases, obscure corporate structures, fraud, layering and placement of assets (particularly real estate) and links to organized crime and corruption.

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Canada urged Biden to drop a ‘Buy American’ idea. Seems he’s sticking to it

A long-awaited announcement from U.S. President Joe Biden is going to make some Canadians unhappy.

Biden released updated highlights of his key budget plan Thursday and it includes language Ottawa has been urging against: a Buy American-type provision for the auto sector.

It involves a tax credit for U.S.-made cars that the Canadian government describes as potentially damaging, and also illegal under international trade law.

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Minister formerly an activist

Newly minted Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says his agenda to combat climate change and bring down emissions from Alberta’s oilsands is not a secret.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has said Guilbeault’s appointment Tuesday to the environment portfolio sends a “problematic message” to his province about Ottawa’s plans for the oil and gas sector.

Guilbeault is a former environmental activist from Quebec who has called the oilsands “dirty” and argued that pipelines and oil and gas expansion are not compatible with meeting Canada’s climate goals.

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