Links - 19th February 2026 (2 - Migrants: Canada)

Pakistani cop Canada tried to deport wins new chance at refugee status - "A Federal Court judge has given a former head constable with Pakistan’s Punjab Police Service (PPS), who was ordered deported from Canada for making ‘a voluntary, significant and knowing contribution to the crimes against humanity’ committed by the notorious force, another chance to stay in Canada.  Munir Ahmad Malhi and his wife arrived in Canada in January 2020 and soon sought refugee protection... Canada’s Refugee Protection Division (RPD) found Malhi and his wife “to be convention refugees and, that as adherents to the Ahmadiyya faith, they faced a serious risk of persecution in Pakistan.”...  Malhi “did not dispute the minister’s generalized evidence about the PPS and acknowledged that the PPS’s propensity for violence is common knowledge in Pakistan. The ID relied on extensive objective evidence filed by the minister to find that the PPS engaged in systemic human rights abuses, including torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. It concluded that these offences constitute crimes against humanity.”"

Riley Donovan on X - "Canadian Sikh Youth Federation reportedly declares that Premier Doug Ford and other Ontario politicians are no longer welcome to hold events at Sikh temples. This comes after Ontario suspended the Skilled Trades Stream over suspicions of systemic immigration fraud."
Jill on X - "This is what "diversity" actually is btw. It's bringing massive swaths of non-whites into Canada; where they do not integrate. They set up ethnic enclaves on our soil where entire neighbourhoods become infiltrated and the whites become refugees in their own country and move out.  They practice their own religion/holidays/culture/traditions. Speak their own languages. All of it totally foreign and completely incompatible with actual Canadians and our values.  Once they gain enough power through sheer numbers and political influence, they organize and box the host population out. Soon cities and towns are unrecognizable and the Canada we used to know and love is gone forever."

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Gisela McKay, de facto leader of the Orange Hats, arrived at the Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa counter protest with Grassy, who later took the lead in trying to block Canada First protesters from marching.  These actions set in motion a series of events that led to violence, resulting in eight counter protesters being arrested and charged.  Although the Orange Hats present themselves as fair and objective “legal observers,” they are active protesters. Members of the group are frequently seen agitating and inciting others, seemingly to provoke negative encounters with police. Selective clips they record are often used in anti-police agitprop.  Asking those effectively responsible for the clash between demonstrators and police whether the police response was excessive is like asking an arsonist whether fire safety regulations are too strict.  📸 Jan 10, 2026  #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Mahnoor Mohyuddin, 25, of Milton, was one of eight individuals arrested during the Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa counter protest against Canada First. Mohyuddin was charged with the following:
- Assault Peace Officer with a Weapon
- Throw Explosive at Person with Intent to Cause Bodily Harm
- Carry Concealed Weapon
- Weapons Dangerous
- Common Nuisance/Endanger Lives or Safety of Public
- Disguise with Intent
- Member of an Unlawful Assembly While Masked
Mohyuddin was released on bail with several protest-related conditions, including prohibitions on protest activity on private property without the owner’s permission, on activity intended to prevent entry to or exit from private property, and on activity that obstructs public roadways or pedestrian access. Jan 10, 2026 #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Jennifer Vong, 35, of Toronto, was one of eight individuals arrested during the Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa counter protest against Canada First. Vong was charged with the following:
- Assault Peace Officer with a Weapon
- Throw Explosive at Person with Intent to Cause Bodily Harm
- Carry Concealed Weapon
- Weapons Dangerous
- Common Nuisance/Endanger Lives or Safety of Public
- Disguise with Intent
- Member of an Unlawful Assembly While Masked
Vong appears to be a board member of the United Alliance on Race Relations (UARR). UARR president and Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) board member Nigel Barriffe was a lead speaker at the counter protest. UARR and CAHN both sponsor Community Solidarity Toronto. #Toronto #ProtestMania"
Damn violent far right! They need need to be banned for violence!

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "There is clear overlap between Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa counter protesters and the Palestine protest circuit. For example, content creator Jagbir Ghankas and the unidentified woman beside him were part of the tight-knit group that disrupted Boxing Day at the Eaton Centre and also appeared at the demonstration against Canada First. Dec 26, 2025 Jan 10, 2026 #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa activists had a wagon of eggs, allegedly “for food.” Coincidentally, eggs were later reportedly thrown at police and Canada First protesters. 📸 Jan 10, 2026 #Toronto #ProtestMania Help fund independent coverage exposing Canada’s Antifa movement"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Antifa activist Trevor Miller defends his practice of yelling “Shame!” and insults at Canada First protesters to an older woman. He explains there are “multiple strategies” for “dealing with fascists,” saying, “I’m not using physical violence, which I could be using.” 📸"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "One of the Community Solidarity Toronto/Antifa arrests appears to have stemmed from a targeted attack against my videographer.  The accused was on Bay Street and lunged over the metal barrier to the sidewalk above street level, seemingly attempting to grab and flee with my videographer’s phone.  Nearly a dozen police officers witnessed the incident and immediately intervened on their own initiative, placing him under arrest.  In the lead-up to this demonstration, a Reddit thread circulated encouraging demonstrators to target us, and stickers featuring our faces were posted in the area labeling us as “dangerous” and “unsafe” to the community—language that is used to justify violence.  Those who orchestrate such smear campaigns rely on the likelihood that an unknown individual will be inspired by their rhetoric to carry out an unpredictable act of ideologically motivated violence.  We have previously experienced unprovoked attacks by strangers that resulted in criminal charges, including being struck with a megaphone, spat on, doused with an unidentified liquid, and an incident in which my videographer’s pants were forcibly pulled down.  This pattern arguably amounts to intimidation of journalists for the act of documenting what increasingly resembles organized criminal behaviour within the protest circuit.  📸 Jan 10, 2026  #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "The same Canadian woman who criticized CP24’s protest coverage has even harsher words for CBC. She questions CBC’s decision to feature Orange Hats organizer Gisela McKay as a source without noting her anti-police stance or her “Death to Canada” rhetoric. #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Woodrow (Woody) Fraser-Boychuk was arrested while counter protesting Canada First.   Fraser-Boychuk held a cardboard sign reading “F— you Nazis” on one side and a message to my videographer on the other, apparently based on the mistaken belief that this would render our footage unusable.  Coordinated attempts to interfere with our documentation suggest an effort to conceal criminal acts from public view.  At least one other arrestee, Abe Berglas, appeared to be working alongside Fraser-Boychuk in efforts to disrupt Canada First at Yonge and Dundas.  Fraser-Boychuk was observed operating in collaboration with the Orange Hats, whose de facto leader is Gisela McKay.  #Toronto #ProtestMania"

Wiretap Media on X - "“Progressive protestors” violently attack police with weapons and Canadian media manages to blame the documentarian for catching them in the act. What a time to be alive!"

Caryma Sa'd - Lawyer + Political Satirist on X - "Woodrow (Woody) Fraser-Boychuk pursued Canada First protesters from Queen’s Park to Yonge and Dundas at the last demonstration, repeatedly shouting, “F— you Nazis” along the way.  That day, Fraser-Boychuk received and ignored a verbal caution from police but still managed to avoid arrest.   📸 Oct 25, 2025"

Meme - Marc Miller @MarcMillerVM: "Stopping immigration won't fix Canada's housing crisis"
Marc Miller @MarcMillerVM: "Ottawa cutting iim migration has eased pressures on housing and labour I National Post"

Temporary residents resorting to bribes, fake jobs to stay

Surrey restaurant forced to close due to odour complaints : r/ilovebc - "40 full time employees in a fast food joint???  Seems…excessive."
"40 lima's that all pay the owner for privilege of having a job"

Surrey restaurant forced to close due to odour complaints : r/ilovebc - "'“Today, if you call my food as an odour, that’s a disrespect to my community, to my food, to my culture,” said Nathowalia.'
I think he's playing the race card."

Toronto city manager’s rejection of ridiculous report should be applauded - The Globe and Mail - "Paul Johnson. He is city manager, the highest unelected official in Toronto’s government. He was reacting to a report from Ombudsman Kwame Addo, who plays a watchdog role down at City Hall. The report looked at a brief period in 2022 and 2023, when the city was turning refugee claimants away from its main system of homeless shelters.  Because most of the claimants were from Africa, Mr. Addo said the decision constituted systemic discrimination and anti-Black racism. Though the bias may have been unintentional, “the decision systemically discriminated on the basis of citizenship and race, contrary to the Housing Charter, the Human Rights and Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy, and the Ontario Human Rights Code.”  He recommended remedial training for city staff on why housing is a human right and how racism works, using something called an Anti-Black Racism Analysis Tool.  The usual response from those who face such accusations is to say nothing and just to go along. Better to accept the lecture and show up for the training than to make a fuss and risk someone brandishing your objection as proof of your deep-seated racism.  Mr. Johnson, bless him, is refusing. In a respectful but firm letter to the Ombudsman, he essentially calls the report nonsense. At the time, he notes, the shelter system was swamped. Staff worried that if they kept taking in refugee claimants, there wouldn’t be any space for those the system was designed to protect... It is ridiculous to argue that the right to adequate housing set out in city policy obliges city staff to find a place for everyone or be called on the carpet. As Mr. Johnson points out, the right is “aspirational,” a star to guide them rather than a club to beat them with.  He says he disagrees with the findings of Mr. Addo’s “accusatory” report and will not act on it unless city council orders him to. Mr. Addo is highly affronted by this. In a letter of his own, he says no one has ever rejected an ombudsman’s conclusions altogether. The nerve of it!"

Kirk Lubimov on X - "Can someone from the Conservative Party of Canada explain to me why they are running a failed NDP candidate, Harjit Singh Gill, as a Conservative candidate?  He is a candidate for CPC for the same riding he failed as an NDP.   Are our values not farther apart between the Parties?  Furthermore, in the riding which is just south of Vancouver - Surrey Newton, most people prefer Punjabi campaign material.  There are whole ridings now in Canada that you can't even campaign in English anymore if you want to win an election."

Tens of thousands of international students who spent years finding a pathway to permanent residency are out of options : r/canada - ""I never expected to leave Canada by the end of the period I was authorized for my stay!" says the middle-aged international student who signed a form that states he will leave Canada by the end of the period he was authorized for his stay."

Tens of thousands of international students who spent years finding a pathway to permanent residency are out of options : r/canada - "When I suggest to some international students they should learn a trade. They act as of death would be better. It's like bro CS is oversaturated. I'm in it cause I know if it goes belly up, I'll jump onto a construction crew and make ends meet. I don't know what you intend to do with 6 figures of debt refusing to work jobs you consider below you."
"I started a trade course in college last week and about a quarter of the class are Indians who are vocally annoyed that they wound up taking a trade. It's honestly kind of confusing to me, and I have to wonder how well they'll do once we need to start working on real, physical projects."
"It's a caste mindset. We have an office in India and when I visited there this year I showed them pictures of my stone interlock patio that I rebuilt myself. They couldn't believe that a white collar worker would do such manual labour."

Roberge wants to relegate multiculturalism to the ‘dustbin of history’ - "“Multiculturalism no longer applies on Quebec soil, finally! (…) It’s a model that has always been harmful to Quebec,” Roberge declared Wednesday at the National Assembly.  According to him, under that model, the state takes it upon itself to allow newcomers to retain their culture and language of origin.  “That’s Canadian multiculturalism. We live alongside one another,” he explained.  His new law — inspired by interculturalism — aims to signal to immigrants that they are “arriving in a state with its own model of integration” and that they must accept Quebec’s social contract, which is based on values such as democracy, the French language, gender equality, and secularism."  “Otherwise, well, it’s not a good idea to come here,” Roberge said."

Quebec Introduces A Per-Country Cap On Permanent Resident Invitations To Ensure "Diversity" Of Immigrants - "The trend that Quebec is reacting to is by means limited to French Canada, and is in fact very pronounced nationwide. In 2021, no fewer than 32% of of new permanent residents came from India alone. This percentage dwarfed the next countries of origin on the list for that year: China accounted for 8% of new permanent residents, and Philippines for just 4%.  The concept of national quotas, or per-country caps, has a long precedent in the history of North American immigration policy. In the U.S., only 7% of employment-based green cards can be issued to individuals from a single country. While opponents of this American policy complain that it results in huge backlogs for applicants from countries like India and China, this actually means the policy is working precisely as intended."

Romanian refugee gang behind $1M retail theft crime syndicate : r/OttawaNewsPulse - "How does one become a Romanian refugee? Romania is in the EU, and one of Canada's NATO partners."

Canada’s immigration system is deeply broken - "Seventeen thousand. That’s the approximate number of individuals with criminal convictions who were admitted to Canada over the past decade.The government has not disclosed how many of those convictions were for serious offences that could have otherwise barred entry.  This number, recently revealed by the CTV news and the lack of transparency, raises concerns of the integrity of our immigration system.  Canada’s immigration framework, once admired for its fairness and balance, has drifted into crisis. For years, policy decisions prioritized record-setting targets over planning, screening, and integration.  The result? A system disconnected from the realities on the ground — and both newcomers and long-settled Canadians are feeling the strain.  I grew up in India, trained as a surgeon in Britain and moved to Canada nearly two decades ago. As a physician, educator, father and community member, I have seen immigration enrich communities and transform lives.  I’ve also seen the toll of unchecked expansion: overwhelmed emergency departments, ballooning wait times, a shortage of family doctors, and fraying social trust. These are not abstract concerns — they’re happening in clinics, classrooms, and neighbourhoods across this country.  Since 2014, Canada’s population has grown by more than six million — roughly 15 per cent — but essential infrastructure hasn’t kept up. We are short more than 3.5 million homes. Young people are being squeezed out of entry-level roles. The youth unemployment rate is among the highest it has ever been. Many students — immigrant and Canadian-born — struggle to find not only housing but also summer and part-time jobs, once considered a rite of passage. Meanwhile, many newcomers face underemployment and are pushed into survival jobs just to stay afloat.  Some of these pressures reflect broader economic challenges. But immigration remains the hinge on which many of them turn. And under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the system became increasingly misaligned with the country’s actual needs and capacity. The international student stream, originally meant to attract talent, has become a backdoor to residency. Study permits surged, while many institutions lacked academic oversight. Nearly 50,000 students were listed as “no-shows” by the schools that admitted them. The result: overloaded housing, strained services, and thousands of students left underemployed and adrift.  Worse still, Ottawa’s enforcement mechanisms have faltered. The federal government acknowledged that Canada may now have up to 500,000 undocumented residents. Tens of thousands of people overstay visas each year without consequence. A system that overlooks such lapses is not generous — it is negligent. It jeopardizes the very trust on which public support for immigration depends.  Support for immigration still runs deep in Canada, but it’s not without limits. Canadians value immigration when it’s fair, focused and transparent. But when the system starts to look porous or easily gamed, confidence frays. And everyone pays the price: the immigrant who played by the rules, the patient waiting for a family doctor, the student without housing or work, and the community stretched thin.  Canada needs immigrants. We need health care workers in rural hospitals, care aides in long-term care homes, and early childhood educators across the country. But meeting those needs doesn’t require a floodgate — it needs a funnel. One that matches admissions to housing, health care capacity, and real labour demand... Fixing immigration is not a peripheral policy. It is the first test of whether the new government is prepared to govern for results rather than optics. The promise of immigration lies not in how many arrive, but in how many thrive. It lies in our ability to match aspiration with capacity, and compassion with competence.  Because if we can admit 17,000 people with criminal convictions, yet leave skilled, law-abiding applicants in limbo — and push even the most qualified newcomers into survival jobs — then something is deeply broken. And if we don’t fix the system now, we risk losing not just public trust, but the very foundation of a nation built on rules, trust, and earned opportunity."
Damn old migrants selfishly pulling up the ladder behind them!

Ottawa sets target to keep Canada labour force 25 per cent immigrant : r/Ontario_Sub - "https://archive.is/sfGQx  Sure, unemployment is rising. Youth unemployment is over 14%. Wages are stagnant, housing prices are sky high, and healthcare is hard to access. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING is going to stop the Liberals from bringing in masses of immigrants to keep wages low and housing costs high. So Carney, going by his two advisors from the Century Initiative, have instructed the Immigration and Refugees Canada department to ensure a MINIIMUM of 25% of our workforce is made up of immigrants and refugees.  Oh, were you under the impression they'd come to their sanity? LOL. That was just for the election!"

Canada should provide "culturally preferred food" to immigrants: study - "Just as the Liberals were announcing their budgetary plans to cut the size of government, a Vancouver-area researcher was granted $600,000 in federal monies to figure out how to ensure more African food is made available in Canada’s major cities to serve growing populations of African immigrants.  As per a press statement announcing the program, Black and Caribbean immigrants are increasingly migrating to Canadian urban centres, only to discover that it’s more difficult to obtain “culturally preferred food” such as cassava and yams. As such, Surrey, B.C.’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University is inaugurating a new position to study the “cultural, social, economic and environmental factors” of why that is.  “Some of the pilot data that has been collected tells us that food security, along with access to culturally preferred food items, continues to be problematic for this population,” said Cayley Velazquez, the university’s new Canada Research Chair in Race, Food and Health...  Kwantlen’s “Race, Food and Health” program was recently profiled in a CBC report which noted that the definition of “food insecurity” doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of food. Rather, it can also be food that is unfamiliar... this jibes with the official Government of Canada definition of “food insecurity.”...  A federal government writeup on the research similarly framed a lack of cheap and readily available African and Caribbean food as a net drain on the health and success of Black communities...  Like much of Canada’s grant-funding infrastructure, the Canada Research Chairs program has in recent years become subject to a series of mandatory quotas on race and ethnicity.  Most notably, recipients of Canada Research Chair funding must meet strict guidelines regarding the race and identity of their research appointees."
Once again, left wingers use language in a different way from everyone else
Maybe Canada can protect African immigrants by not letting them in

Halifax judge moved by handling of refugee's sentencing for assault - " Jama, 34, is a Somali national who came to Canada as a United Nations charter refugee in 2019 and has permanent resident status. He fled Somalia after someone tried to kill him by shooting him in the head, leaving him with cognitive and physical challenges. He stood trial in Supreme Court last fall on charges of attempted murder and forcible confinement from an April 12, 2024, incident with a mental health support worker who had gone to his Herring Cove Road residence to drop off some groceries. The woman testified Jama held a large kitchen knife to her throat, threatened to kill her and demanded that he be taken back to Somalia... Because of the conviction for a serious offence, Jama is considered inadmissible to Canada and could lose his permanent resident status and be deported. A sentence of six months or longer would have meant he could not appeal his removal. After considering Jama’s unique circumstances, prosecutors Sean McCarroll and Jeremy Ryant recommended a sentence of six months less a day, deemed served by the 657 days Jama spent on remand."

What Is Happening to My Profession? (Wokeness in Medicine)

From 2021:

What Is Happening to My Profession?

"Twenty-one years ago, I wrote a book called PC, M.D. How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine. One chapter explored “multicultural counseling,” a form of therapy that encouraged white clinicians to ask themselves, “what responsibility do you hold for the racist oppressive and discriminating manner by which you personally and professionally deal with minorities?” Another chapter documented flaws in research studies purportedly showing that physicians, as a matter of routine, were racially biased against their patients. I devoted another chapter to the quest for social justice in the field of public health. In the epilogue, which I called “The Indoctrinologist Isn’t In…Yet,” I cautioned: “those who care about the culture and practice of medicine must be alert to the encroachment of political agendas.”

Today, the Indoctrinologists are officially in. These health professionals argued early in the COVID pandemic that, if hospitals were forced to ration ventilators, they should ration based partly on minority status rather than exclusively by standard criteria, such as clinical need or prognosis. They urged vaccine priority for black Americans to compensate for “historical injustice.” And 1,200 of them cheered, via open letter, the message of an epidemiologist from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who told would-be marchers in the wake of George Floyd’s murder that “the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.” In each instance, the experts allowed their own moral commitments, not objective metrics of risk, to shape their advice.

The latest manifestation of Indoctrinology is a 54-page document from the American Medical Association called Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative, and Concepts. The guide condemns several “dominant narratives” in medicine. One is the “narrative of individualism,” and its misbegotten corollary, the notion that health is a personal responsibility. A more “equitable narrative,” the guide instructs, would “expose the political roots underlying apparently ‘natural’ economic arrangements, such as property rights, market conditions, gentrification, oligopolies and low wage rates.” The dominant narratives, says the AMA, “create harm, undermining public health and the advancement of health equity; they must be named, disrupted, and corrected.”

One form of correction that the AMA recommends is “equity explicit” language. Instead of “individuals,” doctors should say “survivors”; instead of “marginalized communities,” they should say, “groups that are struggling against economic marginalization.” We must also be clear that “people are not vulnerable, they are made vulnerable.” Accordingly, we should replace the statement, “Low-income people have the highest level of coronary artery disease,” with “People underpaid and forced into poverty as a result of banking policies, real estate developers gentrifying neighborhoods, and corporations weakening the power of labor movements, among others, have the highest level of coronary artery disease.”

Although the guide contains page after page of “medical newspeak,” as linguist and New York Times commentator John McWhorter called it, a solid kernel of truth lies buried within it. The guide rightly calls attention to the “social determinants of health”—the psychological, social, and cultural contexts that contribute to disease and shape people’s choices regarding their health...

The guide recklessly stretches context beyond the realm of clinical outreach. It rebuffs “programmatic fixes,” such as the case manager who arranges for a patient’s transportation, because such fixes “ignore the social responsibility of corporations and government agencies.” With its emphasis on “power relations” and its push to “redistribute power and resources,” the guide reads more like a postmodern manifesto than an actionable blueprint for physicians. 

In important ways, I hardly recognize my profession. After the death of George Floyd, however, the radical justice project caught fire. Last year, the Association of American Medical Colleges, a major accrediting body, informed medical schools that they “must employ anti-racist and unconscious bias training and engage in interracial dialogues.” One of my colleagues told me that her school jettisoned lectures in bioethics to make room for the anti-racist curriculum. “Which is ironic,” she said, “because that was where students were taught about subjects like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.” What other essential subjects will anti-racism training displace? 

The implementation of the social justice agenda has constrained collegial discourse, challenged the maintenance of standards, and suppressed honest analysis of certain problems. In her article called “What Happens When Doctors Can’t Tell the Truth?,” Katie Herzog wrote of “doctors who’ve been reported to their departments for criticizing residents for being late. (It was seen by their trainees as an act of racism) … I’ve heard from doctors who’ve stopped giving trainees honest feedback for fear of retaliation. I’ve spoken to those who have seen clinicians and residents refuse to treat patients based on their race or their perceived conservative politics.” 

Two cancellations have attracted notice. Last year, Norman Wang, a cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who expressed skepticism about mandatory affirmative action after conducting a careful review of the data was stripped by his department of his directorship of the electrophysiology fellowship and barred from having contact with medical students, residents, or fellows because his views were “inherently unsafe.” His peer-reviewed paper, ‘Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: Evolution of Race and Ethnicity Considerations for the Cardiology Workforce in the United States of America from 1969 to 2019,’ which appeared in March 2020 in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) was retracted by the journal without Wang’s consent. The American Heart Association, which publishes JAHA, tweeted that his article “does NOT represent AHA values.” The cardiologist has sued both the university and the American Health Association. 

In another case, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association was effectively forced to resignlast June for a somewhat tone deaf, but otherwise unremarkable, 15-minute podcast on racism in medicine and because of a tweet advertising it. “Although I did not write or even see the tweet, or create the podcast, as editor-in-chief, I am ultimately responsible for them,” he said in a statement. What other examples have escaped attention?...

Especially vexing, as Huddle and I have commiserated, is the reflexive attribution of group differences to systemic racism. “It’s axiomatic at this point,” said a colleague who had participated in a group discussion of stress and rising suicide in black youth. The tacit rule was that only fear of police aggression and subjection to racial discrimination were allowable explanations, not the psychological torture of bullying by classmates or the quotidian terror of neighborhood gun violence.

I strongly agree that much of black Americans’ disadvantage in health and access to care is the cumulative product of legal, political, and social institutions that have historically discriminated, and sometimes continue to discriminate, against them. Systemic racism may indeed have broad explanatory value regarding health disparities, but, as an analytic framework, it doesn’t yield realistic prescriptions. Just what are physicians supposed to do? Become activists? The AMA’s answer is yes. In a strategic plan it released last spring, the organization urged doctors to “push upstream to address all determinants of health and the root causes of inequities, dismantle structural racism and intersecting systems of oppression.”

This is no solution. Physicians cannot—and should not—“dismantle racism and intersecting systems of oppression” as part of their clinical mission. To imply that such activity falls within our scope of expertise is to abuse our authority. Doctors can reasonably lobby for policies directly promoting health, such as better coverage for patient care or more services, but we will lose our focus and dilute our efforts to care for patients if we seek to address the perceived root causes of health disparities.

After all, even seasoned policy analysts can’t readily tease out strong causal links between health and sprawling upstream economic and social factors. With so many intervening variables at play, reforms in the service of health may well create unwanted repercussions elsewhere in the system. Any physician is free, of course, to pursue progressive reform as a private citizen but, as doctors, we already have a job: to diagnose and treat...

I had my own encounter with intolerance in academic medicine... My talk was about the year I spent assisting with treatment efforts in Ironton, a small, embattled town in south-eastern Ohio that was reeling from the opioid crisis...

The residents told the chairman that my talk, coming only two days after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, “was further traumatizing to us.” They wrote that, “the language Dr. Satel used in her presentation was dehumanizing, demeaning, and classist toward individuals living in rural Ohio and for rural populations in general … We find her canon to be beyond a ‘difference of opinion’ worth debate.”  My earlier writing on health disparities was deemed a “racist canon.” They expressed “shock and disappointment” at the chairman’s failure to “take a public stand against” me and questioned his commitment to the department’s anti-racist agenda. “Will you continue to invite Grand Rounds Speakers with racist and classist mindsets, like Dr. Satel?” the residents asked.  Although they requested that the chairman “revoke” my lectureship at Yale, he did not do so. 

Academic medicine is in the midst of a risky institutional experiment. How will the AMA’s new call to “focus attention on inequitable systems, hierarchies, social structure, power relations, and institutional practices” affect the formation of trainees’ professional identities? Are we truly to believe that health is so thoroughly contingent on malign forces that doctors shouldn’t bother educating patients about how they can take responsibility for their wellbeing? And how will the adoption of a zealous social justice agenda affect public trust?

Some of the people who are refusing the life-saving COVID vaccine are alienated from mainstream institutions, which they view as house organs of the political Left rather than trustworthy arbiters of truth. They may see the AMA’s prescription as further confirmation of their suspicions.

Most important, will patients benefit when the AMA and other leaders position medicine as a vehicle for activism? We must remember that “Do no harm” is a covenant that doctors make with their patients, not with political systems and hierarchies."

 

Links - 19th February 2026 (1 - General Wokeness [including Virginia])

Meghan McCain on X - "Screw any and all of you who lied to low information voters and sold Abigail Spanberger as some kind of moderate. She’s been in office like 6 hours and is already trying to turn Virginia into Minneapolis."

Christian Heiens 🏛 on X - "Democrats in Virginia have introduced a bill to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing for rape, manslaughter, assaulting a law enforcement officer, possession and distribution of child pornography, and all repeat violent felonies."
Greg Koenig on X - ""When I attended the sentencing hearing for the man who raped my daughter, he gave a moving speech apologizing for his actions and claiming he didn't know rape was wrong. But the judge could do nothing—as moving as his words were, he had to impose the mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years.  Abigail Spanberger finally got elected to fix that!  Now, when rapists and murderers say they are really sorry, the judge can do the right thing and let them rejoin society without the long delay of a prison sentence. That's why she got my vote.""

Greg Price on X - "Democrats now control the legislature and Governor's office in Virginia. Here are just a few of the bills they've introduced
- New 4.3% sales tax on Uber Eats, Amazon, etc deliveries.
- New sales tax on admissions to a wide variety of businesses.
- Create two new higher tax brackets of 8% and 10% on people making over $600K.
- A new 10% tax bracket for anyone making over $1M.
- 3.8% investment tax on top of state income taxes.
- Raise the hotel tax.
- New personal property tax on landscaping equipment.
- Ban gas powered leaf blowers.
- Guarantee illegal aliens free education.
- Make it illegal to approach somebody at an abortion clinic.
- Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days
- Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.
- Expand ranked-choice voting.
- Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.
- Redact the addresses of political candidates from FOIAs.
- Add Virginia to the National Popular Vote Compact for presidential electors.
- Make it illegal to hand count ballots.
- $500 sales tax on firearm suppressors .
- "Assault weapons" and large capacity magazine ban.
- 11% sales tax on all firearms and ammunition.
- Prohibit outdoor shooting of a firearm on land less than 5 acres.
- Lower the criminal penalties for robbery.
- Ban the arrest of illegal aliens in courthouses.
- Remove mandatory minimum sentences.
- Allow localities to install speed cameras.
- Replace Columbus Day with "Indigenous Peoples Day."
Theo Wold on X - "Democrats running for office: "I don't know why you're afraid to vote for us. We just want to make your life more affordable."
Democrats when they take power: "We're raising your taxes, crime is now legal, illegals have more rights than you, men will be in your daughter's bathroom, and all future elections will be manipulated in our favor.""

Coddled Affluent Professional on X - "This and the slate of legislation Spanberger passed immediately after winning Virginia support my hypothesis that kleptocratic leftism is now the default modality of Democratic politics and progressive institutions.  Dems are dependent on feeding their constituencies either through black box NGOs that lack the transparency and regulatory requirements of government or through frank corruption.  Libs also depend on the illiberalism of ‘wokeness’ to enforce their prerogatives even though they have lost the public debate. The crowds are thinning for the woke spectacles and wokeness is unfashionable. Progressive cultural, social, and technocratic authority is at a nadir. However, that doesn’t mean that progressives can’t invoke woke diktats to arrogate authority and expropriate resources within institutions. Because progressive institutions are so dysfunctional, so hungry for resources, and so lacking in authority, illiberal leftism with be the default for self-legitimization and to regiment the behavior and politics of institutional inhabitants.   Because there’s less ambient woke energy Dems will play act that they’re reorienting to reasonable center left governance. However, middle aged CIA bugs like Spanberger are just a skin suit for the ubiquitous Leftism you’re going to get from Dems no matter who is elected. With Biden, the left figured out that you can just set up a prop out front and then do what you want. And so basically every Dem politician (outside Fetterman, Marie Perez, and maybe a couple others) should be understood on these terms, as props for an ascendent and ubiquitous kleptocratic leftism."

Christian Heiens 🏛 on X - "Democrats in Virginia just introduced a bill that will turn every city and county in the state into a giant California-style tent city for homeless drug addicts.  It will now be illegal for localities to do anything to fine people for setting up permanent encampments in parks, underpasses, medians, and all other public spaces."
bumbadum on X - "Years ago I used to watch Destiny's stream in an attempt to understand the Neoliberal mind.   Back when he tried to appear as a moderate, he would always say that in order to stay sane in politics you had to believe that your opposition wants to create a better world, but in a different way than you.  I have tried so hard, to believe that libs/progs genuinely are trying to make a better world. But it's impossible. No other conclusion can be made than that they just want normal people to suffer and want to destroy this country.  There is no other explanation for the mass exportation of disastrous California policy.   I have watched people die on the side of the streets of LA all because of this shit. There's a reason why reasonable people in CA were begging SF and LA to adopt San Diego's homeless policy, which is the opposite of this.   Liberals and progressive just want suffering and pain. They derive deep sexual pleasure from it. They want you to suffer, they want to make sure your gf can't walk around without fear, and they want the poor, drug addled, mentally ill, permanently homeless dreg to wither and die.   No other conclusions can be made given their actions."

Virginia senator introduces bill to criminalize Islamophobia as hate crime - "A Bengali-American state senator from Virginia has introduced a bill to criminalize Islamophobia.   The bill, introduced by state Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, would define "Islamophobia" "as it relates to the crime of assault and battery as malicious prejudice or hatred directed toward Islam or Muslims.""

David M. McIntosh on X - "Virginia Democrats are raising taxes left and right. Here are some taxes they're looking to pass:
-corporate welfare tax
-gun tax
-delivery driver tax
-investment income tax
-event tax
-electric gardening equipment tax
-gym tax
-dog grooming tax
-home repair tax
-vehicle repair tax
-dry cleaning tax
-counseling tax
-storage facility tax
-concert tax
-travel tax"

Christian Heiens 🏛 on X - "Democrats in Virginia have two bills to mandate "unconscious racial bias training" for nurses to renew their license AND to mandate a Leftist narrative about January 6 in public schools.  I remember about 10 years ago, Republicans introduced a bill to mandate teaching the Federalist Papers in public schools.   They ultimately killed their own bill because they didn't want to impose another state-mandated lesson plan on school systems from Richmond. We believed in limited government, after all.  This entire saga reveals something about why obviously Leftist-coded social mores are now virtually universally imposed across most of our institutions.   Conservatives fell victim to the myth of neutrality and so refused to impose their own conception of the good out of fear of being called statists by their own side.  Now, would teaching the Federalist Papers have prevented what we are now seeing? No. But when our "limited government" impulses tell us that the state must remain neutral between competing conceptions of the good, we forget that refusing to choose is itself a choice.  This is ultimately why the education and credentialing systems have been turned into giant factories for cultural Marxism.   Our side refuses to say "this is true and this is good, and we are going to mandate it" because we feel so uncomfortable with the "mandate" portion of that statement.  Meanwhile, Leftists feel absolutely zero qualms about mandating anything that they believe is good. And so, little by little, year by year, they take over every institution around them because the necessary defense mechanisms to keep them at bay require using a degree of power that we are so terrified of wielding."

Abigail Spanberger on X (2019) - "This is good news for Virginia and the country. Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy and it weakens the individual voices that form our electorates. Opposing gerrymandering should be a bipartisan priority."
Andrew Follett on X (2026) - "I'm here from the future...and it turns out this was a total lie. Virginia Democrats broke the State Constitution to gerrymander Virginia so that they get 91% of the House seats with just 51% of the vote!"

Meme - William Meijer: "Collectivists seek consensus, and individualists seek truth. This makes the Left unable to tell the truth, and the Right unable to work together *chart showing that there's more ideological diversity on the right than on the left*"

Meme King on X - "Some men are sick… This happened in Sri Lanka"
pilleater on X - "Some people, especially Western women, think the world is an amusement park full of misunderstood nice people, that the West is evil and racist, and that they know better, until they firsthand discover the differences that language barrier was hiding."
On the Sri Lankan guy asking that white woman travel blogger for sex

spor on X - "I’m so fucking tired man. Whatever happens this time, they’re still gonna be out here harassing people, they’re still gonna be out here terrorizing people, and every few weeks, they’re gonna kill somebody again.  And every single time, mfs on here will rise up in full-throated defense, like Karens, finding the tiniest little details to nitpick and defend the innocence of these oafs running around playing pretend cop. “Don’t resist! Don’t call them names! Don’t go out in public!” As if we didn’t live in the Land of the Free.  Frankly, I don’t need to know the details of every new public execution, because even from the beginning it’s all counter to how we do things in this country. It’s counter to a just and fair legal system. It’s counter to values of freedom and our God-given rights. It’s counter to the goddamn Constitution. For fuck’s sake, it’s counter to common sense.  So, we give these random dudes off the street guns and tell them to go harass and kill people? And for what? To defend our country from an “invasion”? Meanwhile these ICE fucks have effectively invaded and terrorized an entire state with their bullshit.  Never thought I’d see the day a government police force of thugs would occupy an American city and kill American citizens and so many people I used to respect would stand up and support it. People like you, so willing to disregard principles for party allegiance, make me sick. It’s un-American and it’s deranged.  I fear none of this is going to get any better, we’ve really crossed the chasm."
Zero HP Lovecraft on X - "so called "rationalists" when the dems don't get their way one time.  How do you think we felt when they legalized gay marriage, when california prop 8 got shut down by a court, when troon propaganda started filling every school and tv show, when companies started bringing in diversity struggle sessions to teach all their white tech workers to respect black womens' hair, when they said they would fire you for not getting vaccinated, when Biden brought in at least 7 million additional illegals (impossible to know exactly) from thirdworld countries to flood our cities and DDoS the vote?  But a few left wing terrorists get shot for interfering with law enforcement and this guy is "tired."  This is how every right winger has felt for decades. "No matter what we do, the dems are going to keep escalating their homosexual race communism"  That's how it felt.  I am tired of all of your shit and your entire team and I hate you with every fiber of my being.  I hope you never sleep again."

Raheem J. Kassam on X - "Most people who identify on the political right believe that sometimes, some cops get it right, and sometimes, some cops get it wrong.  Almost EVERYONE on the political left believes all cops get it wrong ALL THE TIME except on Jan 6 where ALL COPS GOT EVERYTHING RIGHT ALL AT ONCE AND ONLY ONCE."

Meme - Common Sense Extremists: "Third world shitholes: seethe in anger that they lost a war/resources to us decades or even centuries ago and insist that this is why their countries are currently shitholes.
Japan: haha, y'all nuked us and essentially ran our country afterwards. We're cool!"
Japan Embassy DC @JapanEmbDC: "Japan is gifting the United States an additional 250 cherry blossom trees to celebrate America's 250th birthday! We'll use this logo when celebrating Japan-US friendship!"
Japan and Germany are proof that the US invading and interfering with foreign countries is the root cause of terrorism

Liam Rose 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ FREE 🇵🇸 on X - "The LGBTQ crowd is mad because the Hawk Tuah girl is stealing their attention during Pride Month"

Cosmic Marvel on X - "Beau DeMayo has revealed that fans can visit his OnlyFans page to hear "the WHOLE truth.” He will seemingly reveal what happened between him and Marvel Studios. The subscription costs $9.99 per month."

Men Perform Pole Dance in Thongs Before Children at Berlin Event July 5, Free Tickets for 0-18, Organized by Mutti Pole Wear - "In Berlin, Germany, a pole dance event organized by 'Mutti Pole Wear' on July 5 in the Prenzlauer Berg district featured adult men performing in string thongs and engaging in sexually suggestive dances in front of an audience that included school-aged children. Tickets for attendees aged 0 to 18 were offered for free, sparking public outrage and online condemnation. Organizers have responded to the backlash, although details of their statements remain limited. Meanwhile, a German feminist publication reports that women, girls, and families are increasingly avoiding public swimming pools, opting instead to purchase private mini-pools for their homes, with sales figures rising sharply."

Kevin Bass on X - "I have a lot of former colleagues, friends, and acquaintances that hold positions at prestigious universities, in many fields. The one thing that unifies them is how much they read, write, and speak about helping the poor and how little they do it themselves. Their entire lives are a signaling game.  You can see this when Covid hit. The Covid restrictions were a massive blow to the global poor and working class. But these same prestigious signalers were either silent, or accused you of being a bad person if you brought this up. Ideology trumped an actual discussion about how these policies actually impacted the poor and working class.  You were either on the side of hysterical safetyist ideology or you were a Bad Person.  This is all very easy to understand if you think about it. Wokeism is a very shallow ideology of virtue signaling. Most people who espouse it do not think about the second- or third-order consequences. They espouse it because it is the path to upper-middle class respectability. They do not care about truth or facts, or even what is actually good for the poor and working class. They say these things because they know they have to if they want the approval of their peers.  When you have a ruling ideology that is so myopically focused on career advancement and not truth in this way, you know that the society where that ideology reigns is in serious trouble. And here we are.  Of course, if you point this out, that gets you into serious trouble. "Are you saying that my life is based on a lie?" Imagine the cognitive dissonance of people confronting this kind of claim. It's enormous. So of course they lash out emotionally. Lashing out emotionally costs a lot less than accepting that one's life is built on a lie.  That's the entire political and institutional situation today, reduced to its fundamentals.  And so on and on we go."

Rob Henderson on X - "A truly shocking finding: Graduates of top medical schools are the most likely to support vague notions of "social justice," and the least likely to actually work in socioeconomically deprived areas."

Basil the Great on X - "🚨"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY OUR ESTABLISHMENT IS SO KEEN TO PROTECT ISLAM?" - Rupert Lowe poses the question we need to answer Does Islam receive special protections in our society?"
Islamophobia!

Criticising religion should be exempt from harassment laws, say MPs - "The Freedom of Expression (Religion or Belief System) Bill would make clear that the provision of the Public Order Act does not apply in the case of “discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents”... Timothy said: “The Public Order Act is increasingly being used as a blasphemy law to protect Islam from criticism. The act was never intended to do this. Parliament never voted for this, and the British people do not want it. “To use the Public Order Act in this way is especially perverse, since it makes a protester accountable for the actions of those who respond with violence to criticism of their faith. This is wrong, and it destroys our freedom of speech...
England and Wales abolished blasphemy laws in 2008, and Scotland in 2021. Even then, those laws had not been used for decades. The last blasphemy trial took place in 1977, and the state has not brought a public prosecution for blasphemy for more than a century. However, blasphemy laws are back. In February last year, Martin Frost — suffering from poor mental health following the death of his daughter in Gaza — burnt a Quran outside the memorial for the Manchester Arena bombing victims. He will be tried later this year after being charged under the Public Order Act. And, last week, Hamit Coskun was found guilty of public order offences after burning a Quran and shouting “f*** Islam” outside the Turkish consulate in London. There he was attacked by two men: spat upon, kicked and allegedly slashed with a knife. Those men await their trial, but as Coskun was prosecuted, the judge said that his guilt was proved by the fact that he had been “assaulted by two different people”. Some say that public order offences are not the same as a blasphemy law, but the Crown Prosecution Service gave the game away when it first sought to prosecute Coskun for causing “distress” to “the religious institution of Islam”. Using the Public Order Act in this way destroys our freedom of speech. And it twists the law to make a protester responsible for the violent reaction of those who will not tolerate criticism of their belief. Some argue that while this may be regrettable, it is now an unavoidable consequence of the multicultural society in which we live today. By this logic, the state must police the boundaries between different ethnic and religious groups to avoid violence and disorder. We should, however, be clear that this means state intrusion and a loss of liberty on some occasions, and mob rule on others. This is the very essence of the two-tier policing row: rough justice for those belonging to identity groups that play nicely, and no justice for those who belong to groups willing to take to the streets and threaten violence. The judge in the Coskun case admitted this. He found him guilty because of the violent reaction of those offended by his actions. From Rushdie to the teacher from Batley still in hiding with his family, the threat of violence lies behind our new blasphemy laws. However, appeasing the mob never works. If we allow threats and violence to succeed, more threats and violence will follow until the mob gets its way and imposes its beliefs and culture even more emphatically on the rest of us. "

When Racism is Disguised as Anti-Racism - "I attended an event titled, “Students of Color Speak Out.”... I listened to students detail their daily trauma of existing on a campus that was majority white. Students representing many ethnicities repeatedly shared feeling unsafe. I was confounded because their anecdotes spoke of an experience that sounded similar to those who lived in apartheid-era South Africa or Jim Crow Mississippi — not something I remotely recognized in ultra-progressive Portland. Still, I was sympathetic and recognized that my personal experiences may not be shared by others.  My optimism was challenged once I began to pick up on the theme connecting the speeches. It was the visibility of white students, or more broadly white people themselves, that made the activist students feel unsafe and unwelcome on campus. One speaker said she feared a white gunman would imminently massacre those in attendance. The language and tone of suspicion of others was jarring to the anti-racist activism I was familiar with in my undergraduate and high school days, which sought to unify diverse students through inclusion. In-between and during speeches, students sprinkled in various chants. What I heard was a siren’s song leading us to a culture of racial division and mistrust. Looking at the event guidelines, I was surprised that white students were explicitly asked to remain silent. Several speakers demanded the president dedicate separate spaces along racial lines in the student union. He later agreed. Even though the event was billed as a day of anti-racism, what I witnessed was, quite frankly, racism. Until that day, I’d never seen people overtly dehumanized and treated as racialized objects – amplified through the use of words like “bodies” to refer to people of color. I left the event wondering if the sum of my worth was on an identity I was born into. Since continuing my education, I’ve come to quickly learn that on campuses today, racism no longer means what I understood it to be all my life. According to critical race theorists, who permeate academe and its administration, racism is not ethnic prejudice and discrimination but rather prejudice and institutional power. Because whites have institutionalized privilege, they say it is impossible for them to be victims of racism... the student paper at Texas State University published an op-ed telling whites, “Your DNA is an abomination.” The opinion columnist opens by saying he has only met a dozen white people in his life that he would consider “decent.” The opinion columnist wrote: “Ontologically speaking, white death will mean liberation for all … accept this death as the first step toward defining yourself as something other than the oppressor.” He goes on to conclude: “Until then, remember this – I hate you because you shouldn’t exist. You are both the dominant apparatus on the planet and the void in which all other cultures, upon meeting you, die.”... In elementary school, I remember when I was taught a valuable lesson on race and identity. One of my teachers pulled out an illustration showing a variety of people engage in various occupations. “What do you see?” she asked us, pointing to a person with a stethoscope. I raised my hand and said: “a black man.” She told me to try again. “Doctor,” I eventually replied. She smiled with a nod. If that lesson was repeated again today, I’m not sure my second answer would be accepted."
From 2017. Good luck if "minorities" existing makes you feel unsafe or unwelcome

Links - 18th February 2026 (2)

Husband is serving time in prison. He is being pressured to convert religion. I don't know what to do. : r/LegalAdviceUK - "My husband is currently in prison. Total time will be 4 years. We're hoping 2 with good behaviour.  He has only been in for 2 months so far and he is being targeted by a group trying to force him to convert his religion.  He told me that he has a prison guard appointed to him that he is supposed to be table to talk to about issues, but when he brought the pressure to convert his religion up with this guard the group of men somehow found out the next day. He has been beaten up twice and required stitches.  What can I do? Is this something a lawyer can fix? Could we get him moved to another prison?"

Muslim gangs ‘take control’ of drug-ridden prison - "Muslim gangs have gained unchecked control of one of the most drug-ridden violent prisons in Britain, watchdogs have warned...  throughout the year, there had also been evidence of rival gangs battling over control and drugs, racist comments and discrimination against Jewish prisoners.  Violence, they said, was a “constant theme” and the “manufacturing of bladed weapons on site is ominous”. “The comments [by prisoners] reflect a consistent pattern of serious concerns about safety, corruption and poor management at the prison,” they added... Mr Taylor revealed six inmates were assaulted or stabbed on their first night in the jail. Prison inspectors heard from inmates at the Category B jail who were too frightened to go to health appointments or use the gym because of fears of violence.  In a letter to Mr Lammy placing the prison in special measures, Mr Taylor described “very high levels of violence” as affecting every aspect of prison life, with a third of prisoners surveyed saying they had been assaulted and three-quarters reporting they felt unsafe.  Drug-taking was rife, drones were regularly dropping contraband into the prison, including knives, and inspectors also saw widespread graffiti, fire damage, broken furniture and mouldy showers."
Time to jail the watchdogs for anti-Muslim hatred

Why swearing makes you stronger - "“In many situations, people hold themselves back—consciously or unconsciously—from using their full strength,” said study author Richard Stephens, PhD, of Keele University in the U.K. “Swearing is an easily available way to help yourself feel focused, confident and less distracted, and ‘go for it’ a little more.”  The article was published in the journal American Psychologist."

Swearing has ruined the nation - "what the report fails to recognise is that in swearing – which appeals to the lowest common denominator and offers only temporary release in the most base of language – we diminish both ourselves and society.  The leap to embrace the simplest form of words, the most vulgar articulation of expression, diminishes our intellect, putting us simply on a par with an animal who can growl rather than our supposed superior species, which has developed a complex vocabulary for billions of years... That swearing now fails to shock goes hand in hand with the sloppiness so many seem to have when it comes to keeping standards. Just look at how people dress, or rather don’t dress – I shudder as I write at the spectacle of some in supermarkets clad in grey trackies. Suits are now outfits for funerals or court appearances, while hats on ladies’ heads are nothing but tickets to get drunk at the races. Likewise, our descent into base vocab is a depressing symbol of the age not helped by having a man in the White House who appears to know of no adjectives beyond “very”, “extremely”, or indeed “very, very”."

Zipcar's demise is another victory for Sadiq Khan's war on motorists - "With its fleet of mostly battery powered vehicles, based on sharing instead of owning, Zipcar was in many ways as close to a collective enterprise as a private business can get. You might think that London’s socialist Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan would be among its greatest champions. You would, however, be badly mistaken. Instead, by hitting it with extra taxes, the Mayor has effectively closed it down – and the capital’s economy will be in even worse shape as a result... It was already losing money as battery charging costs went up, and, after Christmas, its fleet will be liable for a £13.50 charge every time one of them is driven into the centre of town. This is thanks to Khan’s removal of electric vehicles’ exemption from London’s congestion charge from January 2. The numbers no longer added up, and the parent company has pulled the plug. Khan’s decision to impose what is in effect a tax on EVs has claimed its first victim, and it hasn’t even started yet. True, companies disappear all the time. And yet, Zipcar’s demise is just the latest skirmish in the ongoing war on motorists. There is hardly any form of motor transport the Mayor does not want to fine, tax or regulate out of existence. In 2023, he expanded the ULEZ charging zone to all 32 London boroughs, with charges for “high-pollution” vehicles. The main congestion charge itself has been steadily increased, and will rise to £18 a day from next month, up from £15, way ahead of the rate of inflation. He has enthusiastically encouraged “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods”, even where they are opposed by local residents. And he has allowed London’s councils to ramp up fines to such a punitive level that last year 10 million penalties were issued to drivers – more than there are people – raking in £1bn in revenue. Driving in London now means navigating a complex maze of rules and restrictions that regularly catch out the most law-abiding motorists.  If all this was matched by better public transport, it might make sense. Yet we see tube drivers holding TFL to ransom, and we learnt last week that the average speed on London’s buses has fallen to nine miles per hour, down from 10.4 four years ago. Even Lime bikes have been banned in several London boroughs. There are not yet any fines for walking but it is probably only a matter of time. It often seems as if the Mayor won’t be happy until everyone just sits at home all day.  The trouble is, it is impossible to have a great city without great transport... Khan has waged a relentless war on motorists, with Zipcar’s users the latest victims. He still hasn’t offered any compelling alternative vision of how the city will function – and the capital is starting to pay a heavy price for that."

Man who let 14-year-old girl smoke meth and sexually assaulted her gets jail - "A drug abuser allowed a 14-year-old girl to smoke methamphetamine and had sex with her on three occasions.  Muhammad Danial Hadri Mohamad Hidayat, 24, was jailed for more than five years and nine months...   Danial, then 22, met the girl online in 2023. He had consensual sex with the minor on three occasions that year.   On Jan 30, 2024, Danial and the girl smoked methamphetamine together using improvised drug utensils. He did not charge her for smoking his stash of the drug.  He was arrested at a condominium in Tampines later that day. The girl was also arrested and the drug utensils – a plastic bottle and a glass pipe – were seized from her...    Separately, Danial gave his SingPass credentials to his former neighbour, who used them to open two bank accounts in April 2023.  Danial did this knowing that the new bank accounts would likely be used to scam other people... She also said that Danial was a "serial sexual offender" given his 10 previous charges of sexual penetration of a minor...   Unauthorised disclosure of a computer access code is punishable with up to three years in jail, a fine of up to S$10,000 or both."

John Reese - Person of Interest on X - "I am old enough to remember what a big deal it was when the RNC attempted (unsuccessfully) to bug the DNC Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.  A President was forced to resign in disgrace, even though, he was not even a part of the plan to carry it out.  Now we had a President (Biden) and an Attorney General (Garland) who actually hired a Special Prosecutor (Smith) along with a co-conspirator Judge (Boasberg) who decided it would be a good idea to trap / trace the phone records of sitting members of Congress for no apparent lawful purpose."

American KitKat vs. Canadian KitKat : r/mildlyinteresting - "I wonder how Japan KitKat does it. They have the best KitKat flavors."
"Not using Hersey's chocolate helps a lot.  Secondly, The name KitKat is similar to the Japanese phrase ""Kitto Katsu" which means "you will surely win".  So they're considered lucky and are given as gifts before things like exams etc. They're very much woven into Japanese culture."
"They even often have a space on the wrapper where you can write a message to the person you give it to."

Can McDonald’s Cure Your Migraine? Debunking the Viral McMigraine Trend - "because migraines are so individualized, with each person having a somewhat unique experience with the condition, it is nearly impossible for there to be a single cure. As someone who’s had severe, frequent migraines for years (Hosna here!), I haven’t tried the McMigraine hack—not because it’s not tempting, but the nausea alone makes food unthinkable. I wouldn’t mind indulging if that weren’t the case.  The McMigraine may help individuals whose migraines are influenced by caffeine and carbohydrate intake. Caffeine can play a complex role in migraine pain management. For some, it can provide relief during an attack, and for others, it is a trigger. This is why it is important for individuals to recognize how caffeine is a double-edged sword—capable of both helping and harming, depending on the person and the context.  Additionally, Coke with its high-sugar content and fries in all their high-carbohydrate glory can help temporarily correct an electrolyte or blood sugar imbalance. For individuals who have migraine attacks triggered by skipped meals, this fast-food “hack” may just do the trick. This could be why some social media claims aren’t necessarily baseless; some people may truly find relief from this combination. But an anecdote should not be mistaken for a medically sound solution for all."

McMigraine: Does the TikTok migraine cola and fries 'cure' really work? - "For Kayleigh Webster, a 27-year-old who has had chronic migraines all her life, it's the salt on the chips that might slow down a migraine attack... She also warns that not only is fast food often ultra-processed and not conducive to a healthy diet, it can contain high levels of Tyramine, a natural compound commonly found in many foods, which can actually cause severe migraines."

The grim reason Romans couldn’t defend Hadrian’s Wall - "Defending Hadrian’s Wall may have been a tougher task than first thought because Roman soldiers were riddled with parasitic worms, a new study has suggested.  An analysis of sewer drains at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, in Northumberland, has shown that the occupants were infected by three types of intestinal parasite – roundworm, whipworm and Giardia duodenalis.  The bugs, spread through poor sanitation, would have caused outbreaks of nausea, cramping and diarrhoea, making the soldiers unfit for duty."

Loud American accents irritate Britons – but can you tell them apart? - "A 2014 YouGov survey found that just 11 per cent of Britons said they found American accents attractive – far fewer than the 35 per cent of Americans who said they found British accents sexy.  There is, however, one consistent complaint: volume. It is no secret that Americans tend to speak louder and more forcefully than some other English speakers – and, at times, that can cause issues.  Earlier this year, the British athlete and Olympic medallist Keely Hodgkinson fired off an angry TikTok from a restaurant in Tokyo, accusing American tourists of being unnecessarily loud and having irritating accents. The video quickly went viral, polarising opinion on both sides of the Atlantic. But did Hodgkinson have a point? Polls suggest she is not alone in her view. Over the summer, a cross-continental survey asked Europeans to name the traits they most associate with American tourists. Topping the list was volume, with 70 per cent of respondents saying they felt Americans were excessively boisterous.  What drives this great volume gap? “Volume is very much a cultural consideration,” says the etiquette expert William Hanson. The extent to which we raise our voices is shaped by habit. “Americans will often stand further apart than Brits when conversing, for example, so they raise their voices to bridge the gap,” he explains... Tolerance may also depend on the accent in question. Research into which American accents are considered most irritating tends to put familiar East Coast voices at the top of the list. One recent survey named New York and Boston as the most annoying, with nearby New Jersey close behind... New Jerseyans may have themselves to blame. Surveys suggest the state produces some of the loudest talkers in America, just behind Louisiana and Florida. So there you have it: not only one of the country’s most irritating dialects, but one delivered at full volume."

Husband is charged with murdering Miss Switzerland finalist mother-of-two who was 'strangled, "pureed" in a blender and had womb cut out' - "The 41-year-old, who was named in local media by the pseudonym of Thomas due to Swiss privacy laws, is accused of decapitating Kristina Joksimovic and cutting out her womb... An autopsy report also showed that Thomas had also allegedly 'carefully removed' Joksimovic's womb, which was the only organ cut out of her torso.  Some of his wife's body parts were said to have then been forced into a powerful industrial blender, in which he allegedly 'pureed' them, as well as dissolving some in a chemical solution.  Investigators found that while allegedly cutting up the mother-of-two's body, Thomas played YouTube videos on his phone... A closer examination of Joksimovic's head revealed wounds indicating that some of her hair was ripped out.  The experts who analysed the dismemberment of her body said Thomas used a jigsaw, a knife and a pair of garden shears to dismember Kristina, before either throwing 'various body parts' into an industrial blender or dissolving them in a chemical solution.  Investigators found 'a large number' of skin flaps, 'some with attached muscles' as well as 'a large number of pieces of muscle, some with attached pieces of bone'.  The autopsy revealed that before Thomas allegedly dismembered her, he broke Kristina's hip joints out of their sockets and went on to disarticulation - which is the removal of a bone from its joint, like an amputation - with her left upper arm, forearms and right lower leg.  He is then believed to have 'roughly severed' Joksimovic's upper spine to decapitate her and further split her torso in half above her pelvis... Describing what happened before the killing, Thomas said that the couple had a 'positive' conversation before Joksimovic 'suddenly attacked him with a knife'.  He had previously claimed that he 'found his wife dead' by the stairs in their family home, but later said that he strangled her in self-defence against the alleged knife attack."

How a school helped a young girl move in with 'predator teacher grooming her while keeping parents in the dark' - "A Colorado school helped a teacher allegedly groom a 17-year-old student by helping the girl move into her instructor's home while keeping her parents in the dark.   Former Social Studies teacher, Leann Kearney, allegedly groomed a then-17-year-old female student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, school district investigators said... The unidentified student was allegedly involved in an inappropriate relationship with Kearney at the time and had been working with school officials to file federal paperwork to declare her homeless despite living with her parents."

High-fat cheese linked to lower risk of dementia, Swedish study finds
Nutritional epidemiology strikes again

Pat Stedman | Dating & Relationship Coach for Men on X - "One of my (white) childhood friends got into University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering for his masters  Except he actually didn't. A few months later they said his GPA - from an elite American college that unusually didn't inflate grades - was too low, that they made a mistake accepting him, and tried to withdraw his acceptance  Moral hazard though was such that they had to honor it, since by then he had rejected other colleges  Anyway 80% of his graduate classmates were international, mostly Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese. They all cheated. He understood the material better but his grades were worse because he refused on principle not to cheat  He did fine but not enough compared to his classmates. This cost him a PhD in the field and he switched to medical sciences after graduation  A lot of stories I heard like this when I was younger I never processed. They only take on greater significance as I get older."

Ambiguous traffic signals in DC : r/CrappyDesign
Why driving in the US sucks

TIL that in July 2002, Keiko, the orca from Free Willy, was released into the wild after 23 years in captivity. He soon appeared at a Norwegian fjord, hoping for human contact. He even let children ride on his back. : r/todayilearned

The French are cracking down on nudity - "The golden era of French cinema – that is, the sun-drenched, rose-tinted idyll of the 1960s and 70s, where flesh was for feasting the eyes on, and censorship and #problematic themes were non-existent – was hallmarked by the nation’s eagerness towards disrobing. So what those icons would say today at a recent clamping down on revealing attire, even in the sultry heat of summer, would no doubt raise some expletives over the Gitanes and pastis.  A few weeks ago, The Telegraph reported that local councils in the country’s more sunkissed locales are banning exposed flesh. So our destination expert reports, it’s a problem endemic to loutish tourists and applies particularly to those who freely go undressed off the beach, with local councils issuing fines for beer bellies on display and bosoms in the breeze... a beach in the South of France ordered women to put their bikini tops back on, to huge outcry. This summer, a cloud (or rather, a long-sleeved gown) cast a shadow over the dress code at the Cannes Film Festival when it was decreed that revealing outfits would not be allowed on accounts of ‘decency’. Sacré bleu, the bare backside cheek of it all. Which is a curiosité, non? Given that French fashion’s particular nous has always been about provocation and seduction, reveal and conceal, barely there and yet unattainable, it’s strange to begin decreeing in 2025 how much flesh someone can expose... French fashion has always been enthral to a sense of seduction and the art of the titivating reveal without Eurotrash-era full frontal vulgarity... To Pauline Cochet Dallet, a French fashion PR and brand consultant (and former Paris resident), it’s a matter of ease rather than overt sexualisation; “French women tend to dress in a way that’s sexy but comfortable, in a way that’s for them rather than dressing for a man,” she says. “It’s a natural kind of seduction, rather than something that’s planned out and try hard. It’s more about bare make-up, and showing some skin by wearing a linen shirt with the bra just showing. It’s not trussed up and about being ‘done’. French women are generally confident in their skin and with their bodies, it’s about celebrating what’s natural, the opposite of vulgarity.” She also, as is the received wisdom around Gen Z, pointed to the fact that the younger generation are rather more conservative in this regard"

Thread by @rustbeltenjoyer on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Even though it's a surname and not an English word, the Quebec French language laws won't let Starbucks be "Starbucks" because it's not a French surname, so it's "Cafè Starbucks" instead. Oh, and if you were wondering, Starbucks in France is just "Starbucks" or "Starbucks Coffee"."

Daniel Foubert 🇫🇷🇵🇱 on X - "France had a competent technocratic elite.   Then they decided to create a special National School of Administration (ENA) that ruined the country by TEACHING INCOMPETENCE.  In 1945, General de Gaulle, a man who generally preferred action to paperwork, founded the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA) with a noble, republican goal: to break the nepotistic stronghold of the Parisian bourgeoisie and replace it with a meritocratic "state nobility." It was intended to be the grand equalizer of the Republic.   Instead, France accidentally invented a machine for cloning people who believe that the solution to any crisis is a well-formatted memo.  Before ENA, France was built by engineers (from the École Polytechnique) who knew how to build bridges that didn't fall down. ENA replaced them with administrators who know how to explain, in eloquent subjunctive, why the bridge was never built in the first place. The curriculum focuses less on solving problems and more on the "Note de Synthèse"—the art of compressing complex reality into two pages. The ENA graduate is trained to view the world through the lens of the "Plan in Two Parts and Two Sub-parts" (I. A, I. B, II. A, II. B). If a problem cannot be divided into two symmetric arguments, the Enarch concludes that the problem does not exist. They are masters of a specific dialect of French where verbs are decorative and accountability is grammatically impossible.  The school became a hotbed for pensée unique (groupthink). By forcing every aspiring high official to digest the same textbooks, pass the same conformist exams, and socialize in the same cafeteria in Strasbourg, the state ensured that no matter who you voted for—Socialist or Conservative—you ended up with a Minister of Finance who had the same roommate in 1974. It is a closed loop of intellectual incest. They possess a terrifying confidence derived from being told at age 24 that they are the smartest people in the room, a conviction that persists even as they drive the national deficit into the stratosphere.  Perhaps the most egregious sin of the system is "pantouflage" (literally, putting on one's slippers). This is the mechanism by which ENA graduates, having spent a decade mismanaging public funds, slide effortlessly into the private sector to mismanage shareholder funds. The state pays for their elite education, and in return, they leave the civil service in their 40s to become bankers or CEOs, leveraging their Rolodex rather than their business acumen. It created a perverse incentive where the regulator and the regulated are not just friends; they are quite literally the same person at different stages of their career.  The ultimate achievement of ENA was the creation of a ruling class that is "hors-sol" (soilless)—completely detached from the organic reality of the country they govern. An Enarch can be parachuted into a rural province as a Prefect, managing agriculture and industry without ever having grown a tomato or tightened a bolt. They view France not as a collection of human beings, but as a spreadsheet to be optimized  The story of ENA is a tragedy performed by people who believe they are in a heroic biopic. The school succeeded in its unspoken mission: to create a caste so cohesive that it became immune to the consequences of its own decisions. It produced an elite that treats the French Republic not as a nation to be served, but as a case study to be managed. They are the captains of a ship who, upon hitting an iceberg, immediately form a committee to discuss the theoretical implications of ice on maritime structural integrity, while the passengers quietly drown in the steerage.  When Emmanuel Macron—the ultimate ENA cyborg—announced the school's closure, it was the most "Enarque" move possible. He didn't actually fire the incompetents or burn the curriculum; he simply renamed the building. ENA has been replaced by the Institut National du Service Public (INSP). It is a classic bureaucratic sleight of hand: changing the label on a bottle of vinegar and selling it as Grand Cru. The walls may have a new coat of paint, but inside, the same people are teaching the same students how to write the same two-part memos and make sure France keeps failing."

Russell Crowe criticises Gladiator sequel - "Russell Crowe has criticised the creators of the Gladiator sequel for failing to understand “what made the first one special”.  The 61-year-old actor, who played the lead character Maximus Decimus Meridius in Sir Ridley Scott’s original epic, accused Gladiator II of lacking a “moral core”... Crowe recalled that, in the wake of the sequel’s release, he would often have people come up to him in restaurants around Europe to complain. He said: “It’s like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it’.”"

What music students of today could learn from my fusty Oxford degree - "It’s hard to imagine anything more apparently useless than mastering the rules of 16th-century counterpoint, or 18th-century fugue. That’s one reason why university management is sceptical about these courses. They’re hard to sell to students in search of “relevance” (actually I think it’s the management who are obsessed with relevance, not the students, but I’ll let that pass). Then there’s the emphatically Western, rational nature of these rules, and their rootedness in the Christian liturgy, both serious embarrassments to heads of department keen to “decolonise” music curricula. Last, but hardly least, there’s the extraordinary difficulty of these techniques, and their cruel objectivity. Either you get it right, or you don’t. That seems intolerable in an age when subjectivity and the proud proclamation of “my truth” are now the preferred criteria of value. Speaking for myself, I discovered that learning something “from the inside”, by actually doing it, gives you a knowledge that no amount of book-learning can ever achieve. Beyond that, it teaches you that something has a perennial value for anyone who wants to compose: musical material has a solid reality, a “grain” which you have to respect. It’s the same in every art form. A piece of marble or sheet metal or glass fibre resists the attempt to shape it, but also suggests possibilities. Human bodies suggest ideas to a choreographer, but also impose limits. This need to work within limits – real or self-imposed – is a perennial truth about creativity. This is why disciplines which you might think have been consigned to history still survive in higher education: life drawing in art schools, classical technique in dance schools, and Renaissance counterpoint in music departments of universities. Granted, the stylistic range of those techniques in my day was overly narrow: they could have benefitted from being broadened to include other styles where the criteria of success are rigorous: composing a swing variation on a jazz standard for instance, or a piece of hardcore minimalism. With a few adjustments of this kind, it would be easy to make a good case for mastering musical styles that aren’t one’s own. Doing this would be a wonderful antidote to that scourge of humanities, “presentism” – the belief that the past only matters as a way of confirming our contemporary ideological prejudices... Don’t take my word for it that these ancient techniques are in fact deeply relevant to music students, especially those who want to compose. Take the word of the great co-founder of minimalism Steve Reich, who once had a reputation as a die-hard radical. When asked what young composers should do to improve their craft, he said without hesitation “study harmony and counterpoint”. Amen to that."

Good Intentions Gone Bad (Indigenous 'Reconciliation' in Canada)

Virtue signalling has very real harms: 

Good Intentions Gone Bad - The Atlantic

"Attend a public event in Canada and you will likely hear it open with a land acknowledgment...

They are usually received by their audiences as a Christian invocation might once have been: a socially required ritual in which only some believe, but at which it would be rude to scoff. After all, what harm does it do? 

In the past few months, Canadians have learned that these well-meaning pronouncements are not, in fact, harmless. Far from it. Canadian courts are reinterpreting these rote confessions of historical guilt as legally enforceable admissions of wrongful possession.

In August, a British Columbia court ruled that the titles to public land across 800 acres south of downtown Vancouver must be subordinated to a new “Aboriginal title” belonging to a group of about 5,500 Indigenous Canadians. 

Although the judge in question has claimed that this decision does not apply to private land, the logic of this ruling has proved so muddled that it has called into question not only the private titles of some 150 landowners in the region but also the ownership of almost every piece of private land in British Columbia—and possibly all of Canada. Some Americans may try to apply this precedent to the U.S. too.

The effects of the decision have been swift and harsh. Commercial-property values have collapsed in the city of Richmond because of uncertainty over titles. A hotel valued by its lenders at more than 110 million Canadian dollars in August traded hands for $51.5 million in October. I spoke this month with a landowner who had a major Canadian lender terminate discussions on a $35 million construction loan after the decision. At least one lease on an industrial building has been called into question because the tenant no longer knows whether the landlord still owns the premises.

To offset the damage, the government of British Columbia has offered $150 million in loan guarantees to local landowners, putting taxpayers on the hook.

The dollar amounts at stake are enormous. Before the ruling deflated values, the more than 100 homes, businesses, and commercial properties in the area were valued at $2 billion. Yet because this case ostensibly doesn’t apply to private landowners—who are expected to litigate their own cases—they were denied any opportunity to defend their interests. At an earlier phase in the proceedings, advocates for the plaintiffs argued, “It foments adversity and unnecessary hostility to frame this as a claim against private property holders”—a clever move, which the British Columbia courts accepted in 2017.

Eight years later, the judge in the case continued to dismiss concerns about property rights and the integrity of titles. Such talk, Justice Barbara Young ruled in her decision over the summer, “inflames and incites rather than grapples with the evidence and scope of the claim in this case.”

In the name of justice for historical misdeeds, the judge decided it was acceptable to deny Canadian landowners basic due process before depriving them of their rights.

The decision in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada “grapples with the evidence” in ways that may seem exotic, if not bizarre, to most legal scholars. Many claims for aboriginal title in Canada turn on “oral history”—stories and songs about the past preserved by the claimants. Such testimony would normally be prohibited by the rule against hearsay evidence, which exists to screen out unverifiable statements. The judge in this case acknowledged in her decision that “the ‘truth’ lying at the heart of oral history and tradition evidence can be elusive.” Yet she allowed this “elusive” truth to become the basis of a claim for billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian property...

If the logic of Cowichan is upheld, there is scarcely a landholding in British Columbia—or much of the rest of Canada—for which ownership is secure. My wife and I own 20 acres of rural property in Ontario. Our title, like that of most of my neighbors, traces back to Crown grants issued more than 200 years ago. All of those titles could be retroactively voided if the Cowichan precedent becomes Canadian law...

In 2016, an Indigenous group filed a still-pending land claim against the city of Port Coquitlam. The members want control of much of the city’s open spaces, including the riverside parklands and the premier athletic facility, Gates Park. The Kwikwetlem First Nation is even smaller than the Cowichan; it has a registered population of 153. In an interview this month, the group’s leadership disavowed interest in private lands, but the value of the public land sought is more than enough to make every member of the group a multimillionaire.

At the opposite end of Canada, the federal government agreed in February to pay $17.5 million to two Indigenous groups in tiny Prince Edward Island. Ontario is negotiating a claim for 36,000 square kilometers, including the land underneath Canada’s Parliament buildings. In New Brunswick, the federal government paid $145 million in 2021—and now faces a demand for more than half of the province. An Indigenous group recently filed a Cowichan-like claim for much of the parkland on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, opposite the Canadian capital of Ottawa—along with $5 billion in cash.

The Cowichan decision is an extreme but logical extension of an unresisted political revolution.

Among many Canadians in positions of influence, an idea has taken hold that Canada’s founding was a great crime that must be atoned for. The term usually applied to this atonement is reconciliation. That term is misleading. Reconciliation implies some kind of mutuality, but the Canadian version is strictly one-way: Demands by Indigenous nations and affiliated nongovernmental groups produce concessions, which invite yet more demands, which beget yet more concessions...

Canadian politicians have directed considerable resources to trying to improve these ghastly trends [involving 'indigenous' peoples]. The federal Indigenous budget nearly tripled over the 10 years of the Justin Trudeau government, exceeding $32 billion a year—almost what Canada spent on national defense in the past fiscal year. 

Yet these funds are often spent without concern for how they are used or whether they help anyone. A September 2025 federal report, for example, found that from April 2020 to March 2023, an Indigenous federation in Saskatchewan received $30 million for COVID-related programs, of which nearly $23 million went to expenditures deemed “questionable.”

Is this scale of suspicious spending typical? It’s hard to say. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper proposed the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, passed in 2013, which called for Indigenous communities to publish their accounts and salary structures. The Trudeau government, elected in 2015, promptly announced that it would not enforce this law—and even reinstated funding for Indigenous groups whose funds had been suspended for past violations.

Despite this support, the past decade has been calamitous for Indigenous people. Life expectancy for First Nations people in British Columbia dropped 7.1 years from 2015 to 2021, according to the nonprofit Indigenous Watchdog. Life expectancy for First Nations people in Alberta fell seven years from 2019 to 2023 and is now nearly two decades shorter than that of other Albertans, according to the province’s health statistics. Manitoba has seen similar trends.

The principal culprit has been a surge in deaths by drug overdose. In British Columbia, Indigenous people are six times more likely to die of a drug overdose than non-Indigenous residents. In Alberta, the disparity is eight times; in Ontario, nine.

As Indigenous people’s conditions have worsened in Canada, Natives’ advocates have become more radical in their critique of Canadian society.

In May 2021, a researcher announced a terrible discovery, which the CBC reported: “Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says.” Other reports swiftly amplified this story with new grim details, including claims of about 751 unmarked graves near a different school in Saskatchewan. These reports were accepted and repeated by Prime Minister Trudeau and his government, and they triggered a spasm of national remorse. Flags over federal buildings were lowered for more than five months, the longest formal mourning in Canadian history. Provinces, cities, universities, schools, and other institutions engaged in rituals of contrition.

In 2021, Canada made September 30 a national day for truth and reconciliation. In May 2022, Prince Charles—Canada’s future head of state—visited the country to express contrition for the suffering of “survivors” of residential schools. Pope Francis visited that July to “beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians.” By October 2022, a motion to condemn Canada’s residential-school system as “genocide” passed the federal Parliament by unanimous consent.

Despite exhaustive investigations, however, no human remains were in fact found at the Kamloops, B.C., school or at any other alleged site of “mass graves.” Numerous claims of unmarked graves at other locations turned out to be nothing more sinister than rural cemeteries that had fallen into neglect.

There is no denying that abuses occurred at these residential schools, which ran from the 19th century to the 1990s and separated more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and communities to assimilate them into the dominant culture. The Harper government formally apologized for these abuses in 2008 and paid nearly $2 billion in compensation. But the more dire accusations of children buried in secret graves ultimately unraveled. Many Canadians began to feel as if they had been hoaxed. Grave Error, a book debunking the charges of genocide at residential schools, became a national best-seller.

Radicalization on one side, and resentment on the other, have grown together.

Now, in a generous impulse to share Canada’s wealth with First Nations, courts appear poised to destroy the systems that created the wealth in the first place.

The big cash transfers of the past decade proved only an opening bid for an even more audacious ambition: the redistribution of land rights from “settlers”—as non-Indigenous Canadians were invited to call themselves—to Indigenous groups. Unlike the ballooning federal Indigenous budgets of the past decade, which were approved by a majority in the Canadian Parliament, the matter of land redistribution has been left to the courts.

In the 20th century, aboriginal lawsuits typically turned on a breach of some treaty between the Crown and a Native population. In the 1984 case Guerin v. the Queen, for example, the aboriginal owners of treaty land in Vancouver sued the government over a deviously unfavorable lease and ultimately recovered $10 million in compensatory damages.

The problem raised by cases like Guerin, however, was how to win in the absence of a treaty violation. A solution was found in a magic word in the Canadian constitution: and.

The Canadian constitution assumed its modern form in 1982. Section 35 of the constitution affirms “the existing aboriginal and treaty rights” of Canada’s aboriginal population. Aboriginal and treaty rights? That conjunction has opened the enticing possibility that there might exist constitutionally enforceable aboriginal rights not specified in any treaty.

In the 1997 case Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, the supreme court approved a claim to 58,000 square kilometers of Crown land. The Indigenous plaintiffs contended that even in the absence of a treaty, they held an “aboriginal title” to the land because of their continuing relationship to the area—a relationship proved by the plaintiff group’s songs, legends, and oral traditions. Once a hazy concept, “aboriginal title” has expanded into a right with real bite. In 2004, the supreme court of Canada ruled that the government had a duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous people anywhere that aboriginal title existed, or might later be found to exist.

That is the meaning of the phrase unceded and ancestral territory in those seemingly benign land acknowledgments. The phrase is not just a well-meaning observation about history; it’s an assertion of a continuing property right.

The traditional theory of Canadian land law is that private ownership traces back to a grant or sale by the Crown. But if large areas of Canada had remained aboriginal all along—if they never belonged to the Crown in the first place—how then could the Crown grant or sell them? The whole subsequent chain of transactions must be invalid.

The invalidation of Crown grants underlies the Cowichan outcome. It is also now prompting a powerful backlash...

Once an aboriginal title is recognized, its holders can collect formal and informal rents from those who seek to develop what is Indigenous land. Such rents are now an everyday feature of Canadian life.

British Columbia will host seven matches of the 2026 World Cup. News broke early this month that the B.C. government paid $18 million to Indigenous groups in an unexplained connection to the Cup. The government and the groups offered only hazy explanations of what the payment was for, but it looks a lot like a fee to not raise objections. Another Indigenous group was offered $10,000 per person, presumably so it would not object to the reopening of a major gold mine in northwestern British Columbia.

Canada faced serious economic troubles even before the reelection of President Donald Trump in 2024. Business investment per worker declined from 2015 to 2025, the term of Trudeau’s prime ministership. Canada’s labor-productivity growth effectively stalled after 2017. According to a 2024 report for the Business Council of Canada, “The number of energy and natural resource major projects completed in Canada dropped by 37 percent between 2015 (88 projects) and 2023 (56 projects).” Also, critical-minerals production is down, “in many commodities by double digits since 2018.” Judicial decisions about the rights of these lands are not the only reason for Canada’s big construction slowdown, but they don’t help.

The uncertainty cast over private property by the Cowichan decision poses a particularly serious threat to Canadian investment and development. The judge in the Cowichan case offered little guidance to private landowners, and mostly recommended that the provincial government negotiate with the Cowichan on their behalf.

More than a few British Columbians doubt the commitment and effectiveness of their government’s advocacy for landowners. The government of New Democratic Premier David Eby has gone beyond even Trudeau’s federal government in its pursuit of a reconciliation agenda. In 2019, the province formally adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into its local law. This was justified at the time as another benign goodwill gesture. But this month, a B.C. court ruled that this law really is law. It held that the province must now consult with Indigenous groups before approving any new mining project—and potentially any new land development—anywhere in the province.

B.C.’s attorney general, Niki Sharma, insisted to me that her team would vigorously defend private-property rights in court. She vows to appeal the Cowichan decision to the highest courts in Canada. But local officials are skeptical of the province’s pledges. Brad West, the mayor of Port Coquitlam, was dismissive of Sharma’s assurances when I met him earlier this month: “Just about everything that they said wouldn't happen is now happening.”

Canada has worked itself into a box. Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in office this year with promises to accelerate the big national-development projects that stalled in the Trudeau years. But just when Canada most urgently needs to jump-start the country’s economic growth, the country’s courts are inventing new obstacles to development." 

 

Due process is only good when it pushes the left wing agenda 

Clearly, the problem is Canada is not spending enough money on 'Indigenous' peoples and they need even more 'harm reduction' like free drugs to reduce drug overdose deaths, then when more 'Indigenous' peoples will die, this will be proof of anti-Indigenous racism