[Thanos]

Long overdue, given the huge number of stuffed shirts in "sophisticated" elite of this smug silly country that have needed deflating for quite a while. Starting it off with a kickass column that appeared in both MacLeans and the WaPo today (go to the linked article for all the appropriate sub-links):

$1:

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.

Andray Domise is a Toronto-based writer and contributing editor to Maclean’s magazine.

Last week, the New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof penned a glowing column about Canada, praising our country (and our government) for moral clarity and leadership in a time of global turmoil. It was an understandable gesture, especially at a time when prominent U.S. politicians are embroiled with blackface scandals and sexual assault accusations, and when President Trump makes a joking tweet about genocide against Native Americans to take a swipe at a political opponent.

Indeed, Canada has often functioned as a sort of moral poster child for many U.S. columnists over the past few years, what with our access to universal health care, public welcoming of refugees and a charismatic prime minister who pops up randomly in selfies.

However, for anyone actually paying attention to what our government does when the cameras are off, Canada has a long way to go before claiming that moral high ground.

Moral leadership is more than photo appearances and progressive language — it’s also making sure that our rule of law is seen to be applied equitably. That includes holding our most powerful citizens and corporate entities to task.

Take, for example, the shocking cabinet resignation on Tuesday of Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of veterans affairs and former attorney general of Canada. She stepped down after the Globe and Mail published a damning report alleging that while Wilson-Raybould served as AG, she came under pressure from Trudeau or his staff to arrange a deal with engineering conglomerate SNC-Lavalin that would let it avoid criminal prosecution. The company had long been under fire for multiple allegations of bribery and money laundering in several countries (including our own), the most explosive of which was a high-profile case involving Riadh Ben Aissa, former SNC executive vice president, and Saadi Gaddafi, son of the deceased Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

In 2015, Canadian federal prosecutors charged the company with bribery and fraud related to its dealings in Libya over a 10-year period leading up to the 2011 coup. Although the Canadian government recently introduced deferred prosecution agreements to allow companies to admit wrongdoing and pay fines, rather than face criminal charges and potential bans from federal contracts — and ostensibly did so after heavy lobbying by SNC — the Public Prosecution Service instead refused to use the agreement with SNC. It was a further blow to the image of a company whose market value had already been beleaguered by fines, class-action lawsuits and a debarment from contracts financed by the World Bank.

The appearance of interference from the Trudeau’s office in a federal prosecution couldn’t have come at a worse time. At the moment, Canada’s wealthy elite and corporate interests are already under heavy public scrutiny, and government failures in enforcing rules equitably among the powerful has scraped the luster away from our recently burnished image.

When the Panama Papers scandal broke, 625 Canadian-based companies, foundations and individuals were found to have hidden their money offshore. That scandal was compounded by the Paradise Papers leak, in which the names of more than 3,000 Canadian potential tax cheats surfaced. In the nearly three years since the Panama Papers surfaced, no charges in Canada have been filed. While about $500 million in unpaid taxes have been recouped globally due to the Panama Papers leak, none of it was collected by the Canada Revenue Agency, and no updates have been forthcoming.

By no means does Canada’s double standard for wealthy end at its own borders. After Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, likely at the command of the Saudi Arabian government, questions emerged in Canada as to whether the federal government would invoke its Magnitsky Act to levy targeted sanctions against the kingdom. At the very least, it could have canceled its $15 billion contract for light armored vehicles. While Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland indicated that no new export permits to Saudi Arabia would be approved, Trudeau dissembled on the matter of the armored vehicles, pointing to the exorbitant cost of terminating the contract. “Suffice it to say,” he said in a news conference, “possible penalties would be in the billions of dollars.”

And that’s essentially what it comes down to in Canada. For those who exist outside the sphere of Canada’s political and corporate elites, the rules of our justice system apply as the laws are written. Yet for those with enough accumulated wealth and connections, there is a separate track available. One where even dedicated public servants, appointed for the purpose of seeing to our laws being carried out, may find their work discredited and their names smeared in the press by their own party members, should they prove too much a thorn in the side of those interests.

While Canada is dealing with the inability to hold our elites to account for alleged financial malfeasance, we simultaneously are failing to provide the basic necessities of life to northern communities and have so heavily bungled our data collection efforts that we can’t know for sure whether our social systems are working as intended. That, unfortunately, ought to take us out of the running for global leadership of any kind, least of all the world’s moral center.

Until Canada can prove its laws apply to all of us, and equally so, we’re going to have to sit this one out.

Getting down to brass tacks, Canada now is really no more than a bush-league version of GOP Trumpmerica, where the wealthiest just don't get away with anything they want but they now openly exult in gloating over that fact because they know the federal government isn't going to do anything at all to them. We inevitably end up following all trends that come out of the United States. The rich breaking the law with impunity is just another one, even it if is more glaring and disgusting than the other bits of garbage-Americana that we reliably hop aboard.

"The world needs more Canada"?. No, not really, not with the two-faced path this country is now spiralling down. We're merely all talk, and anyone who's ever bothered to pay attention to how things really work in this country knows that we've been all talk for a hell of a long time.

[Thanos]

Boom-chakka-lakka boom-chakka-lakka boom-chakka-lakka BOOM!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/saudi- ... -1.5096887

$1:

Canada's oil imports from Saudi Arabia have been rising steadily for the past five years, according to Statistics Canada trade data reviewed by CBC News, and a festering diplomatic spat with the kingdom appears not to have had any significant impact on Canada's appetite for Riyadh's crude.

The total volume of Canadian imports from Saudi Arabia has increased by 66 per cent since 2014, with imports rising every year during that period.

Last year, Canadian companies spent $3.54 billion importing 6.4 million cubic metres of Saudi oil, up from 5.9 million cubic metres worth $2.5 billion in 2017, before the dispute started in August 2018.

In January 2019, for example, oil imports from the kingdom were 606,000 cubic metres, up from 559,000 cubic metres a year earlier. And although monthly imports gyrate significantly — a normal trend in the oil business, according to analysts — the long-term trend is unmistakable.

"Over five years, imports from Saudi have increased," said David Hughes, a former research manager with the Geological Survey of Canada and president of Global Sustainability Research, a consultancy in Calgary. In January 2019, Saudi oil accounted for roughly 10 per cent of Canadian consumption, up from about eight per cent in 2017, he said.

Saudi Arabia is the second-largest source of foreign oil for Canada, after the U.S.

The plan is working perfectly, as per the rule of the Laurentian Consensus.

[PluggyRug]

Saudi oil does not create any environmental problems, unlike Alberta'a which is the dirtiest, pollution making, anti green, anti Quebec. red neck loving, won't flow along pipelines, filthy stuff. Oh forgot, it wears a yellow jacket.

[BRAH]

British Columbia's Hypocrisy.

[Thanos]

Bump. Not gonna deface the Military & War Thread with this outrage. More Canadian bullshit on display - our garbage submarines spent ZERO days at sea last year due to endless maintenance and repair work:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/submar ... -1.5458632

$1:

All four of Canada's submarines were tied up last year for repairs and maintenance — news that has the opposition Conservatives questioning whether the Liberal government can keep the second-hand fleet afloat for another two decades.

In response to a written question before Parliament, the Department of National Defence said the boats "spent zero days at sea" in 2019, but three of the four would return to service at some point this year.

Over the year, HMCS Victoria, HMCS Windsor, HMCS Chicoutimi and HMCS Corner Brook were in various stages of repair and maintenance. They also went into drydock for long-term upgrades meant to ensure the submarines remain operational until the end of the next decade.

The Liberal government's 2017 defence policy does not envision replacing the subs until 2040, but a written statement recently put before the House of Commons indicates the navy wants to keep the boats "operationally effective until the mid-2030s."

Conservative defence critic James Bezan said the acquisition of new submarines is not something Canada can put off for 20 years — and the Department of National Defence and the Liberal government should begin seriously looking for replacements.

The Chrétien government bought the submarines second-hand from Britain in 1998 at a cost of $750 million. Since then, National Defence has pumped billions into repairing and converting them for Canadian use.

The program suffered a major setback in 2004 when HMCS Chicoutimi caught fire on its maiden voyage, killing one sailor.

Someone should tally up the bill for these fucking death traps just to see how much has been spent on them. I wager at this point with the amount that's been wasted on them the navy could have bought a bunch of used Los Angeles-class subs from the Americans that were in better working order, three or four veteran Arleigh Burkes, or even one of the older Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.

Don't ever join the military of this country. The governments, no matter which party wins an election, and the voters that put them into office simply do not care what happens to you while you're serving the nation.

[DrCaleb]

Hey, if they aren't at sea, then they are only a risk to the safety of the dock workers and repair crews.

[Thanos]

Safety considerations for Canadian military equipment and vehicles is taken about as seriously by our governments as safety is by Mr. Burns at the Springfield nuclear power plant. Half-ass until a tragedy occurs, strike another pointless commission to investigate the "accident" (which isn't an accident anyway but instead of an easily-foreseen nevitability), then ignore the report results altogether and proceed as usual in overseeing the military as it dies out from rot.

[Martin15]

Thanos Thanos:

simply do not care what happens to you while you're serving the nation.

Or after.

[Thanos]

Yup. First to serve too often means the first to be forgotten, just for not being politically valuable enough to the bosses.

[BartSimpson]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Saudi oil does not create any environmental problems, unlike Alberta'a which is the dirtiest, pollution making, anti green, anti Quebec. red neck loving, won't flow along pipelines, filthy stuff. Oh forgot, it wears a yellow jacket.

If a refinery was to be built in Alberta then only the refined product would be piped. Problem solved.

(Look for Alberta's new refinery to open for business on March 28th, 3256)

[PluggyRug]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Saudi oil does not create any environmental problems, unlike Alberta'a which is the dirtiest, pollution making, anti green, anti Quebec. red neck loving, won't flow along pipelines, filthy stuff. Oh forgot, it wears a yellow jacket.

If a refinery was to be built in Alberta then only the refined product would be piped. Problem solved.

(Look for Alberta's new refinery to open for business on March 28th, 3256)

More like Octember 32nd. Year of the Kangorilla.

[BartSimpson]

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

Saudi oil does not create any environmental problems, unlike Alberta'a which is the dirtiest, pollution making, anti green, anti Quebec. red neck loving, won't flow along pipelines, filthy stuff. Oh forgot, it wears a yellow jacket.

If a refinery was to be built in Alberta then only the refined product would be piped. Problem solved.

(Look for Alberta's new refinery to open for business on March 28th, 3256)

You know what commonality Alberta's oil refineries have (excluding two I know of)?

US owners. They don't want to invest in Alberta refineries, when they can pipe it to the US south coast where they already have refineries.

[herbie]

Yeah thank God we privatized PetroCan so we're forced to live by their rules, eh?

$1:

If a refinery was to be built in Alberta then only the refined product would be piped. Problem solved.

For once, you and I are 100% in agreement on something.

[CharlesAnthony]

My caveman brain can still recall when filling an entire tank could be paid with 1 bill.

Now, the gas stations refuse to take the 1 bill that can pay for an entire tank.