[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Josephus]

Yeah, it was a stupid tweet. Not one head of government would be standing out for hours. To think they would is stupid.

Jason Kenney flew to London on his own dime and stood in line for 14 hours in order to pay his respects to Her Majesty.

Head of a real government, I meant. ;-)

Seriously, Trudeau was an invited guest. He had shit to do, too, like talk with other real government leaders.

[viper37]

So, there's an election coming up.

I thought I'd vote for the Liberal candidate, since I knew him personally and he promotes regional interest.  The former CAQ candidate had to make a rapid exit just before the official campaign start due to rumours (well, more like formal accusations of harrassment and lots of rumours flying around) about her behavior, so a new candidate was quickly found to replace her, and obviously, he's not that well prepared to be a politician (she was a city mayor prior to becoming MNA, and minister before being fired due to her harrassment accusations).

Anyhow.  There were rumours flying around about the local Liberal candidate, rumours about resselling stolen material, namely a few trailers some years ago.  Didn't pay much attention, rumours always abound about businessmen in small places; I knew of the incidents, but didn't know much about his involvement at the time.  Well, turns out he was formally accused and condemned of selling stolen goods back in 2008.

Well, there goes my vote.  That'll teach me of even thinking to vote for a Liberal.

Oh, and I considered it because he had zero chance of winning and that party has zero chances of winning the election and might not even make it to official opposition this time. 

Kind of a protest vote for the boring campaign the CAQ has subjected me to.  Outside of a few untactful declarations, nothing really crunchy has come out of this campaign now. 

It's like everyone is sleeping at the wheel this time around, like they all have long-covid. Can't even count on the commies to stage a riot somewhere ffs!  

And the PQ has decided to abandon its radical leftwing shift to turn back toward the center, so I can't even rant against them.

It maakes me think I should vote for them again, if it wasn't for their stupid idea of holding a losing referendum in the first mandate.  Not that they have any chances of winning more than an handful of ridings anyway.

Ah well.  Latest polls projects the CAQ will win anywhere from 80-100 seats over 125, so there's that at least. I guess boring does pay somewhere.

The commies are expected to over around 11-15 seats, the conspiracy lovers between 1-3, and the Libs will gain every riding where a majority of people refuse to learn French, despite the presence of two new anglo-centric party, one of which is Bloc Montreal, a nearly anglo seperatist party(it's a taboo word among English Quebecers, though ), but they want to force dirty foreigners (non Montrealers) to pay 5$ per trip to Montreal, whenever they enter the city limits by car.

BB will likely remember the name of the party founder, Balarama Holness, from his CFL days.

[Malthus]

Anyone know wtf is up with India releasing an advisory warning about "hate crimes" and "anti Indian activities" in Canada?

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/india-warns-citizens-in-canada-about-hate-crimes-anti-india-activities-1.6081405

[HVC]

Something to do with the group of youths harassing a cop out in BC? When it happened deportations were brought up for the offenders and some Punjabi groups freaked out and claimed discrimination.

[crazy canuck]

Anyone know wtf is up with India releasing an advisory warning about "hate crimes" and "anti Indian activities" in Canada?

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/india-warns-citizens-in-canada-about-hate-crimes-anti-india-activities-1.6081405

The answer is in the article. It's all manufactured by Modi. 

[viper37]

Why are Chinese police operating in Canada, while our own government and security services apparently look the other way?

Charles Burton is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, and non-resident senior fellow of the European Values Center for Security Policy in Prague. He served as a diplomat at Canada's embassy in Beijing.


In China, the high-profile TV drama In The Name Of The People has become a smash hit. In that show, Chinese agents enter the U.S. posing as businessmen so they can repatriate a factory manager who had fled abroad with huge ill-gotten wealth.

But a new study by the European non-governmental agency Safeguard Defenders suggests that there might be some truth to the fiction. According to the NGO, the Fuzhou Public Security Bureau has established more than 50 "overseas police service centres" in cities around the world – including three publicly documented ones in Toronto, home to Canada's largest Chinese diaspora.

This is an outrage. Chinese police setting up offices in Canada, then "persuading" alleged criminals to return to the motherland to face "justice" – while our own government and security services apparently choose to look the other way – represents a gross violation of Canada's national sovereignty, international law and the norms of diplomacy. China is extending the grip of its Orwellian police state into this country, with seemingly no worry about being confronted by our own national security agencies.

The RCMP and politicians of all stripes routinely condemn Chinese state harassment of people in Canada, but what action has been taken? There have been no arrests or any expulsion of any Chinese diplomats who might be co-ordinating this kind of thuggery.

Beijing describes these global police outposts as administrative centres to help Chinese nationals renew driver's licences and other domestic banalities back home. But the Safeguard Defenders study found that they also hunt down political dissidents, corrupt officials or rogue Chinese alleged criminals and urge them to return home.

The summary says some of these operatives are given cover by being formally attached to local Chinese Overseas Home Associations (which have themselves largely become co-opted by the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work operations and run out of China's embassy and consulates).

This bold strategy is consistent with China's propensity for routinely flouting international laws, including those that require any other country's police wishing to gather evidence in Canada to work through the RCMP.

In the case of these "police service centres," Safeguard Defenders reports that agents press their targets to return home, including by offering vague promises of leniency or even urging families back home to encourage them to do so. The officers have taken aim at these alleged (and unproven) criminals by seizing their families' assets, denying children in China access to schools, and terminating
family members' employment, all in violation of due process.

In Canada, this has been a reality for years. In 2001, during refugee hearings in Vancouver for Lai Changxing – a businessman wanted by Beijing over accusations of corruption and smuggling – Chinese police admitted to entering Canada using fake documents, and even to spiriting in Mr. Lai's brother in an attempt to convince him to return home. Canadian authorities effectively smiled benignly at this serious breach of criminal and immigration law; Mr. Lai was eventually deported back to China.

Canada is becoming China's chew toy. Consider Beijing's alleged disinformation campaign which helped "unfriendly" Conservative MPs of Chinese ethnicity, including Kenny Chiu, lose their seats in the 2021 federal election.

Ottawa wants Canadian businesses to be able to tap into the world's largest market. But the price of this access appears to be ignoring Beijing's Canadian agenda, from military and industrial espionage to harassing Canadian Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners and ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese people who reject Beijing's hectoring that they should be loyal to China instead of to Canada.

Does Canada have no security capabilities on the issue? Our police and security agencies must surely know what is going on, but for some reason prefer to simply curate their information rather than act on it. When asked by The Globe and Mail about the police service centres, an RCMP spokesperson said the force would not comment on "uncorroborated media reports or statements." And most of the information we receive about China's illegal and "grey zone" activities in Canada typically comes from the U.S. government and well-funded security and intelligence-focused think tanks in Australia and Europe.

The more we ignore reports of China's growing presence in Canada – including its interference in our electoral process, its potential espionage in our universities and research institutes, and so on – the more emboldened and manipulative Chinese agents become. With no sign that it will be held accountable, China will only increase the size and threat of its operations, because it can.

With its seeming indifference toward China's blatant contempt for our laws and security, Ottawa is playing an extremely dangerous game with Canada's sovereignty.

Intriguing.  I don't expect the Liberals to act on it though.  They directly benefited the ousting of an "hostile" Conservative MP, after all.

[Jacob]

Apparently someone's made rape threats against Poilievre's wife, and the matter's been referred to the RCMP. As it should. We should not tolerate his kind of threatening discourse in Canadian public life.

[Barrister]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/3-indigenous-women-challenge-alberta-s-mandatory-oath-to-king-amid-lawsuit-1.6594373

So a Sikh law school graduate has filed a claim stating that it is against his right to religious freedom to have to swear an oath to HIs Majesty the King in order to be called to the bar and become a lawyer.

Then three indigenous women filed to be an intervenor in that lawsuit, saying that swearing an oath to the King smacks of colonialism, violates their aboriginal and treaty rights as well as their rights to freedom of conscience and religion.

I believe the leading case in the area is Alberta v Hutterian Brethren.  In that case Alberta was requiring all residents to get their picture taken in order to get a driver's license (there was previously an exemption for Hutterites, but the government was ending it).  In that case Alberta eventually won - while it was a violation of their rights of religious freedom, it was both a necessary and minimally intrusive one.

I'm of two minds.  First of all you know I'm a royalist, I like keeping these bits of our heritage.  It's understood by all that it isn't an oath to King Charles personally, but to our entire constitutional system of government symbolized in the monarch.  And lawyers SHOULD be faithful and uphold that constitutional system.

But on the other hand - it's just words, and why make such a big deal about it?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/3-indigenous-women-challenge-alberta-s-mandatory-oath-to-king-amid-lawsuit-1.6594373

What say you Languish?

[Josephus]

You're in Canada. The King is head of state. Swearing an oath is, as you said, just words anyway. This is getting ridiculous.

[Barrister]

Apparently someone's made rape threats against Poilievre's wife, and the matter's been referred to the RCMP. As it should. We should not tolerate his kind of threatening discourse in Canadian public life.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-threats-mackenzie-1.6595730

The threat was made on a podcast and was not coded or hidden in any way.  The guy literally said "Let's rape her".  He is of course a white nationalist tied into the anti-vaccine/trucker movement, and has charges outstanding in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

HIs defence was that he was drunk when recording and didn't mean it.

[Josephus]

Apparently someone's made rape threats against Poilievre's wife, and the matter's been referred to the RCMP. As it should. We should not tolerate his kind of threatening discourse in Canadian public life.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-threats-mackenzie-1.6595730

The threat was made on a podcast and was not coded or hidden in any way.  The guy literally said "Let's rape her".  He is of course a white nationalist tied into the anti-vaccine/trucker movement, and has charges outstanding in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.

HIs defence was that he was drunk when recording and didn't mean it.

Can that be a legitimate defence in this case.?

[Barrister]

You're in Canada. The King is head of state. Swearing an oath is, as you said, just words anyway. This is getting ridiculous.

The other thing is I know lots and lots of sikh lawyers who apparently had little problem swearing the oath.  And historically sikhs were some of the most loyal to the British Crown back in India.

[Barrister]

Can that be a legitimate defence in this case.?

Drunk?  Absolutely not.

"Didn't mean it" - Crown doesn't have to prove intent to carry out the threat (or even that the victim received the threat) - just that it was said and meant to be threatening.

[HVC]

Not politics, but canadian heritage/news. Tropical storm Fiona knocked over PEIs Teacup Rock.

[garbon]

You're in Canada. The King is head of state. Swearing an oath is, as you said, just words anyway. This is getting ridiculous.

If they are just words, why require those specific words?