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Monday, October 27, 2025

Links - 27th October 2025 (2 - Mark Carney)

Meme - Aide: "IT'S A GIFT BASKET FROM Mark CARNEY"
Trump: "OUR MOUNTIES ARE RED, OUR LABATT BEER IS BLUE, I WOULDN'T BE PRIME MINISTER IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU."

Meme - Jesse Allen: "If you really need this explained to you, I will. You insufferable dumbasses. When Trump began threatening Canada, Poilievre sold his international funds/ stocks and bought Canadian ones (CARNEY WOULD NEVER). One of those Canadian investments (Vanguard FTSE Canada Index ETF) happens to contain Brookfield among its holdings. This is called a PASSIVE INVESTMENT. He has no direct control or active role in Brookfield. In contrast, Carney served as CHAIR of Brookfield Asset Management, a senior leadership position where he had significant influence over the firm's strategic decisions. He holds significant stock options valued at approximately USS6.8 million and potentially tens of millions in carried interest from clean energy funds he helped manage. He put these in a blind trust to try to avoid ethics violations. See the difference? Jfc liberal voters are the most retarded people on the planet."
Left wingers don't understand how index funds work. Or indeed conflict of interest

Carney agrees to ethics screen for 103 companies - "The screen means that Carney cannot be involved in “any official matters or decision-making processes” that would further either his or the interests of the 103 companies, many of which operate in the renewable energy and real estate sectors.  “That’s the largest scope I’ve ever heard of,” commented Ian Stedman, a government ethics specialist who previously worked for Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner.  “I think that they’re going to have to get creative to make administration of this screen efficient,” added Stedman, now an associate professor at York University."

Mark Carney's ethical guardrails more of a smokescreen - "If Prime Minister Mark Carney is truly serious about making sure he does not breach the Conflict of Interest Act then he is going to be exiting cabinet meetings on a regular basis.  Carney has pledged to literally leave the room if a discussion starts involving matters that he has placed behind a conflict-of-interest screen. But the 103 companies behind that screen are extensive and have tentacles stretching far and wide in the business world.   And it is not just the screen that is problematic, but also a blind trust in which Carney has shares in hundreds of different companies, a full 16 pages worth, everything from Adobe through to Zoom Communications... worryingly, Carney in his statement to the ethics commissioner’s office, has inserted certain caveats that could act as loopholes...  When asked in March about Brookfield moving their headquarters to New York from Toronto, the prime minister essentially said it had nothing to do with him — before it was revealed he played a key part in the decision.  Again, in March, Carney’s transition team was playing coy refusing to reveal whether he still had any assets with Brookfield...  “The loophole is that as long as the decision applies generally or affects a broad group of people or entities, then PM Carney is allowed to participate in the decision even though it will affect a business he is invested in, and even though he can profit from the decision,” says a statement from Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, an organization devoted to government accountability.   This is no way to run a conflict-of-interest screen. Canadians are supposed to be able to trust public officials are not abusing their position... “Prime Minister Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Trump, and his blind trust isn’t blind at all because he knows what stocks he put in it, including stock options he will definitely own for years, and he chose his own trustee and was allowed to give the trustee instructions such as don’t sell anything, and his trustee is allowed to give him regular updates on his investments,” says Conacher.  For Conacher the answer is for Carney to sell, sell, sell as “the only effective way to end the serious … financial conflicts of interest caused by his investments in more than 550 companies.”"
Of course, Trump is full of conflicts of interest, but Carney is not, because tribal loyalty and polarization mean logical consistency is bad

Nine companies Carney had disclosed investments in have lobbied his office

John Robson: Carney's conflict-of-interest falsehoods part of a long history of mistruths - "When accused during the election campaign of a conflict of interest over his extensive holdings, he declared indignantly: “I own nothing but cash and personal real estate.” But he lied. As he did about his “blind trust” being blind. As Democracy Watch notes , “he knows what he put in the trust, chose his own trustee, was allowed to give the trustee instructions such as ‘don’t sell anything’ and the trustee is also allowed to give him regular updates.” As Norman Spector wisecracked, it’s a “venetian blind trust.” Incredibly, it gets worse. Carney actually holds shares in over 100 firms, from Amazon to Uber. When former finance minister Bill Morneau forgot he owned a French villa, per Jeff Foxworthy’s “If you’ve ever mowed your lawn and found a car, you might be a redneck,” if you ever cleaned up your desk and found a villa, you might be an aristocrat. But Carney’s a liar. He owns extensive investments, mostly American, on which the potential conflicts of interest across the board, from net zero to tariffs, is glaringly obvious . Including on the digital services tax . It’s to prevent exactly this kind of thing that we have conflict-of-interest rules, however feeble. (Remember when Paul Martin gave his shipping company to his sons to sidestep them?) But Carney doesn’t care. Do we? Watching the prime minister, who’s notoriously irritated at being questioned in any way, tell a lie to brush off a challenge gives the impression that he’s one of those people whose internal syllogism runs: “I am great; that claim makes me look bad; therefore it is untrue.” And bam! Out it comes without any pause to ponder whether factually speaking it might be true, let alone whether someone is bound to notice. Like Bill Clinton and, yes, Trump. Which surely also raises concerns about his management style. We saw it during the campaign, repeatedly. He said Canada avoided a recession in 2008 thanks to his brilliant leadership at the Bank of Canada, which … um … declared a recession in 2008. He “suspended” his campaign to deal with big grownup issues then went on “Tout le monde en parle.” He blustered about sweeping measures to implement internal free trade, then blustered about preserving supply management . And when asked why the Communist Chinese Politburo wanted him to win he babbled, “I have absolutely no idea, and yeah, I have absolutely no idea, and, well, I’ll leave it at that.” Hardly a trifle, that last one. Like saying “I know” when a protester accused Israel of genocide and then claiming he’d misheard... remember how he claimed the formal decision to move Brookfield’s headquarters to New York from Toronto was made after he left the company, even though he’d written a letter as board chair encouraging shareholders to support it? And how he’d “resigned all my roles, cut all my ties” to run for Liberal leader while still among other things chairing the Group of Thirty? He lies chronically, casually and recklessly on everything from personal gain to big political issues and now, we learn, their problematic connections. How can we trust him on anything, from balancing the budget while running deficits to ethics or even climate ? Of course, given Carney’s record as a “chancer,” including leaving the Bank of Canada to collect a record salary from the Bank of England for muffing inflation, then failing upward to multimillionaire “International Man of Green” not “International Man of Unemployment,” you could suppose his vociferous lucrative net zero advocacy was more about elevating Mark Carney than saving the planet. Especially given his oil company holdings. But if it was all fakery, we are entitled to disregard anything he says about anything. And if not, his current economic plans are fakery, so again we’re entitled to disregard anything he says about anything"

Poilievre says Carney lied about conflicts after ethics disclosure reveals investment portfolio - "during the election campaign, Carney claimed that he had only cash and real estate holdings, and it turns out he held hundreds of stocks, stock options and deferred profits from Brookfield and other companies. In the early days of the election Carney said he had set up a blind trust. “I actually don’t own – directly – any stocks in those companies,” and “I own nothing but cash and personal real estate,” Carney said at the time. Carney also said then he no longer had any financial connection to Brookfield Asset Management and that he didn’t know what was in his blind trust"

Mark Carney is a misinformation machine - "Carney is unique in that he is a virtual fountain of claims and comments that are easily disprovable.    He’s not a typical politician who bends the truth, he breaks it with a frequency and level of comfort that’s rarely seen in Canada. On Thursday, it was revealed that during Carney’s phone call with Donald Trump, the U.S. president did, in fact, bring up his desire to annex Canada and make it the 51st state, contradicting Carney’s claim that Trump “respected Canada’s sovereignty” during the call.   Also this week, Carney claimed that it was “a fact,” not merely “an accusation,” that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would use the notwithstanding clause to override abortion rights. Poilievre has, of course, said he would not seek to restrict abortion.   Liberals have long tried to argue that their Conservative opponents wouldn’t protect abortion rights, or stand up for the right to choose, or otherwise imply that Conservatives want to make “The Handmaid’s Tale” a reality. Yet rarely have Liberals made such a pointed and false claim as Carney did — or one that could so easily be shown to be wrong. It wasn’t enough for him to say he doesn’t trust Poilievre to respect abortion rights, he had to say it is a “fact” that the Conservative leader would use the notwithstanding clause to restrict abortion, which is obviously false. This approach has become something of a habit for the Liberal leader. When running for the party leadership, he tried to say he had nothing to do with Brookfield Asset Management’s decision to move its headquarters to New York from Toronto. Carney, who served as Brookfield’s board chair until January, told reporters in February that the “formal decision” was made after he left the company. “I do not have a connection with Brookfield,” he said at the time.   While the move may have officially happened shortly after Carney resigned, he wrote a letter to Brookfield’s shareholders on Dec. 1, encouraging them to support the move, and noted that the board, of which he was the chair, endorsed the decision.   Also when running for the leadership, Carney claimed to have resigned from all his roles before throwing his hat into the race, even stating on Jan. 16, “Just to be clear: I resigned all my roles, cut all my ties. I am all in.” However, this also proved to be untrue. According to reporting by National Post’s Ottawa bureau, as of Feb. 28, Carney still had connections to at least five organizations, including as president of Chatham House, a British charity that claims to help “governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world,” as a board member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and as chair of the Group of Thirty, an international non-profit, among others...   When Carney was heckled at a Calgary event about the false claim that a “genocide” is taking place in Gaza, he said, “I’m aware,” only to later claim he didn’t properly hear the heckler. During the French Liberal leadership debate, Carney similarly said that he agrees “with” the terrorist group Hamas, but later claimed he intended to say that he agreed “with no Hamas.” He was also caught telling western audiences that he supported pipelines, while appearing to tell Quebec audiences the opposite, that he would “never impose (a pipeline) on Quebec.”   In another time, any number of these gaffes and lies would at least have dented a politician’s popularity, if not ended his career altogether. But in this day and age, where reality is a matter of politics, Carney is getting a pass, riding on the myth of his presumably impressive pre-politics career, but even here the truth isn’t what it seems.    During the English Liberal leadership debate, Carney said, “It was my privilege to work with Paul Martin when he balanced the books — and kept the books balanced,” a statement that is, at best, highly misleading. Martin balanced the budget as finance minister in 1998, and Carney didn’t join the finance department as a senior bureaucrat until 2004. Yes, that was when Martin was prime minister, but it was long past the time when he balanced the budget, and the finance department would have reported to the finance minister of the time, Ralph Goodale, not the prime minister.   Carney is most happy to let people believe that as governor of the Bank of Canada, he, practically alone, steered the country through the 2008 financial crisis, when in fact, the crisis barely touched this country thanks to a long history of aggressive bank regulation (some might say overly aggressive). He lowered interest rates, but so did every other central banker in the western world.   The Liberal leader’s aversion to the truth is so blatant, it is almost refreshing. A more experienced politician would spin. Carney does exactly what he wants to do, and that doesn’t involve telling the truth."

Mark Carney's Trumpian moment - "For Canada, the opportunity was not only to develop the natural resources we have allowed to sit idle for years, but to forge an alliance of free-trading nations that could act as a counterweight to Trump’s protectionist policies.  Carney is not only squandering this unique opportunity, he’s introduced policies that will only serve to broaden the global trade war.  This week, the prime minister announced a series of measures intended to protect Canada’s steel industry after Trump increased tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to a punishing 50 per cent. Some of the more sensible policies include a pledge to use Canadian steel for domestic infrastructure projects and funds to help retrain affected workers.   But Carney also announced sweeping tariffs on foreign steel imports, including from countries that Canada has free trade agreements with. Going forward, the tariff rate quota will be set at 50 per cent of 2024 levels for countries that don’t have trade agreements with us and 100 per cent for those that do... Carney is all but inviting our trade partners to bring in retaliatory tariffs against Canadian products... The worst part is that Carney’s tariffs are also being imposed on countries that have free trade deals with Canada, which will surely violate the spirit, if not the text, of those agreements.  If any of those countries are found to be dumping steel into Canada at below-market rates, the proper course of action would be to use the dispute-resolution mechanisms contained in our existing agreements, rather than imposing blanket tariffs on everyone.  When he made his announcement at a steel company in Hamilton, Ont., on Wednesday, the prime minister said that, “Moving forward, we must diversify our trade relationships.”  But who’s going to want to do business with a country that stabs its closest allies in the back? And how are we going to entice more countries to open their markets to Canadian products when Ottawa has shown that it can’t be trusted?...   Yes, he travelled to Europe in June and signed a security and defence pact with the European Union, but it merely reiterates our commitment to the free trade deal we signed in 2016 but still hasn’t fully come into force because not all EU member states have ratified it.  If Carney can’t even convince his pals in Europe to ratify an agreement that’s already been negotiated, it’s hard to believe he will have much luck convincing other potential partners to cut new deals with us.  Especially given that one of the first things Canada’s 45th Parliament did following the spring election was pass a law protecting supply management from future trade negotiations"
The Master Economist strikes again

Here's what we know about which U.S. goods are still subject to Canadian tariffs - "While it’s tough to say exactly why some decisions were made by the federal government, Stillo has a hunch: There are some goods that are easily replaced. For example, Canadians can buy Canadian chicken instead of American chicken. Or chicken could be sourced from other countries. This is similarly true with all sorts of food and all sorts of cosmetics and clothing. However, there are some goods and materials moving through North America’s heavily integrated supply chain that can’t easily be swapped out... fundamentally, the United States has an effective tariff rate of 14.1 per cent on Canadian goods, while Canada’s effective tariff rate is more like 2.8 per cent, if you account for all the tariff relief."
Some Carney supporters were claiming that the tariff exemptions were fake news and they were minor exemptions. The narrative is strong indeed.

Jack Mintz: Mark Carney’s conservative progressive government - "We are witnessing the rapid transformation of the federal Liberal party from NDP-lite to something much more like Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government. Whether with a newfound love for energy development or deep cuts to federal spending, Mark Carney is making clear there’s a new kid on the block running Ottawa. I don’t mean to disparage this shift. Far from it. There’s good precedent. Back in 1995, the Chrétien government took a hatchet to federal spending once it realized it could have trouble selling more Canada bonds. It also encouraged energy development with a 1997 incentive package that sharply boosted oilsands development. After balancing the federal budget, the Liberals then gradually cut personal and corporate income taxes, starting in 2000. Canada’s per capita economic growth recovered, helped along by further tax cuts by the Harper government. In the two decades from 1995-2015 Canada benefited from what were in effect two right-of-centre governments. Though social programs were largely maintained, the federal tax burden fell from 17.4 per cent in 1996-7 to 14 per cent in 2014-5. (It’s now 16.2 per cent.) The government’s gross debt declined sharply — from 78 per cent of GDP in 1996 to 51 per cent by 2014. (It was 61 per cent in 2023). Despite the 2008 financial crisis, the Harper government ran an essentially balanced budget in 2015. Actions speak louder than words so it’s way too early to stamp the new government as Conservative-lite. And although Carney deserves credit for shifting the Liberal campaign focus from social programs to economic development, the party platform still reads like the usual profligate Liberal budget, with tens of billions more in deficit spending over four years — not to mention a carbon plan that would hamstring the oil and gas industries and much of manufacturing. But recent announcements suggest a stronger shift right is in the cards. A cumulative cut of 29 per cent in federal operational spending over the next three years would be a welcome change after the Trudeau government’s 40 per cent expansion of the civil service. But the extra $70 billion in spending needed to get defence and defence-related expenditure up to five per cent of GDP has to come from somewhere... One bright spot is the prospect of new resource development in Canada. The government has reached out to the private sector to encourage proposals, enabled by Bill C-5, which provides a five-year holiday from Trudeau legislation and regulation that effectively blocked new ventures. So far, there is provincial support for a B.C.-Hudson Bay corridor for LNG and other resource exports. Although opposition in Quebec likely will block an east-west oil pipeline, Ontario is interested in a pipeline to Sarnia so western oil would no longer be routed through the U.S. Though an oil pipeline to the West Coast would have even greater value the Eby government remains opposed. The project might gain “social licence” if it transported “decarbonized” oilsands product: the oil itself still contains carbon but any carbon emitted by the combustion of energy in its extraction is sequestered. The Carney government may even relax the Trudeau-era prohibition on using sequestered carbon for enhanced oil recovery. Energy development won’t succeed, however, unless Ottawa rescinds the regulations currently blocking development, including the oil and gas emissions cap, the B.C. tanker ban and the project-killing Impact Assessment Act. Temporary regulatory relief provided by Bill C-5 won’t provide certainty for future investments. If the Liberals really are shifting to the right, that could cause problems for true Conservatives, just as the Chrétien government’s rightward move ate into the Reform Party’s vote. On the other hand, the Liberals and Conservatives could differ in many other ways: on DEI, health and social policy reform, the Middle East and how tough to be on crime, to name just four. And there’s still a big difference in their policy philosophies. Carney focuses on government-led growth “catalyzed” by investment subsidies. A sizeable number of Conservatives would still favour removing obstacles on the private sector to enable growth by, for example, reforming, simplifying and lowering taxes. The Carney government’s focus on economic growth rather than new social spending is consistent with what Canadians tell pollsters they want. Ontario Premier Doug Ford always seems to have his finger on the public’s pulse. Mark Carney’s first months in office suggest he may, too, but only time will tell for sure — especially his first budget."

Tasha Kheiriddin: A Carney pipeline means an angry Liberal base - "First, Carney has a very verdant past. He is a longtime climate finance evangelist, promoting green energy projects as chair of Brookfields, authoring a book on “value(s),” arguing for ESG investment frameworks, and serving as the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance. Will he turn his back on those beliefs — or find a way to reconcile them with pro-development positions?   Second, the Liberal Party’s green flank is likely to see red. Former and current environment ministers Steven Guilbeault and Julie Dabrusin are part of the anti-oil crowd, as are many rank and file members of the party in urban Ontario, Quebec, and B.C. Until now, they called the tune: under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals were the party of carbon taxes, not carbon capture, of emissions caps, not Energy East.  Third, there are potential roadblocks that are out of Carney’s control. Opposition is brewing among environmental and indigenous groups to his recently passed Bill C-5, the “One Canadian Economy Act,” which promises to streamline approval for resource projects. Canada has seen civil disobedience before, when members of the Wet’suwet’en band blocked railways in early 2020 to protest pipeline construction: a sequel could be coming to a rail line near you, and it’s not clear how Carney would respond.  So far, Carney has stickhandled these issues by avoiding specifics. He hasn’t said which pipeline, or where, or when. But when plans start to firm up, maps are drawn and suddenly a pipeline is running through someone’s back yard, he’ll have to make a choice — and that choice will have serious political implications for both his party, and others. For the Liberals, it means possible internal rifts, as cabinet minister are asked to fall in line. For the NDP, Carney’s embrace of energy infrastructure could boost the green left, as the party prepares to choose a new leader and possibly new direction. For the Conservatives, it could deny leader Pierre Poilievre his monopoly on “common sense” jobs-and-growth politics.  But in some ways, Carney doesn’t have a choice. As with everything else these days, policy is being dictated by what’s happening south of the border... Meanwhile other markets, in Asia and Europe, are looking for stable suppliers of oil and LNG.  Diversification isn’t just a buzzword; it’s survival. In the end, Carney may find that the green that speaks loudest is in Canadians’ wallets."

Dan Knight on X - "A Predictable Retreat- Canada Reversed Course on the Digital Services Tax
Warnings were clear from experts, industry, and trade partners—yet Ottawa moved forward. Now, with negotiations at risk and tariffs mounting, the government is walking back its digital tax policy.
It’s official, Canada just folded. The Trudeau-Carney DST, the retroactive digital tax on U.S. tech giants that triggered a full-blown trade crisis, is dead. Gone. Rescinded. And not because of some multilateral agreement or smart diplomacy. No. It’s gone because Donald Trump walked away, shut the door on trade negotiations, and dared Canada to blink. And blink they did.  The news dropped like a stone out of Ottawa: Canada’s Liberal government—now led by Mark Carney, the global finance technocrat turned Prime Minister—announced it will halt collection of the Digital Services Tax and bring forward legislation to formally repeal it. All to “support negotiations” with the U.S., now aiming for a July 21 deal. Carney was sold to Canadians as some sort of economic savior—a sober, seasoned banker who’d deliver Harper-style fiscal resurgence. People thought they were getting 2008-era competence. What they got instead was a recycled globalist who walked straight into an avoidable trade blunder with the DST that nearly torched Canada’s largest economic relationship.  Turns out the suit doesn’t make the man—and the buzzwords don’t build the economy. But let’s be honest—this was inevitable. Carney’s tax was a political vanity project from the beginning. A 3% levy on revenue, not profit. Retroactive to 2022. Aimed squarely at American companies. And everyone saw where it would lead: retaliation, tariffs, trade breakdown. Trump made it clear. The business community warned him. Expert testimony in Parliament predicted it word for word. But Carney, like Trudeau before him, pushed ahead with ideological arrogance and zero economic sense.  Now they’re backpedaling—hard...  Let’s be honest—this tax wasn’t about “standing up” for Canadians. It was a copy-paste EU policy, inspired by the bureaucrats in Brussels who’ve spent years trying to kneecap American tech because they can’t compete. And what did Ottawa do? They followed Europe right off a cliff—without the economic leverage or tech sector to back it up.  And now? With Trump threatening to torch trade negotiations? Where’s the EU? Nowhere. Silent. Not a word. No coordinated defense. No solidarity. Because they’re not the ones getting hit with 25% tariffs on auto parts and steel—Canada is. That’s what you get when you hitch your policy wagon to a continent with no skin in your game.  Here’s the truth the Liberals don’t want to admit: they’re mad that Canada doesn’t have a homegrown Amazon, Twitter, Uber, or Netflix—but they wouldn't know what to do with one if they did. Why? Because the second it got big, they’d tax it to oblivion.   Instead of fostering innovation, streamlining regulations, and letting competition thrive, they attack success with punitive taxes and endless red tape. Canada is anti-competitive by design—a country where the market is controlled by monopolies, protected incumbents, and a government that punishes growth instead of enabling it.  That’s why we don’t have global tech champions. It’s not a lack of talent—it’s a lack of freedom. The feds don’t want innovators. They want tax targets.   Don’t believe me? Look at the Shaw–Rogers merger. The federal government signed off on one of the largest telecom consolidations in Canadian history—shrinking the number of national wireless providers and handing even more market power to an already dominant player. How is allowing less competition better for consumers? It’s not.  And the results? Exactly what you'd expect. The Competition Bureau has flagged concerns that Rogers is failing to offer pricing comparable to the affordable bundled plans that Shaw Mobile customers once had, especially in Western Canada, where affordability was already a concern.  The data backs it up. In June 2025, Rogers rolled out a revamped set of mobile plans—with higher prices across the board... You don’t slap a retroactive tax on the biggest, most powerful companies in the world—companies headquartered in your largest trading partner—and expect it to go unnoticed. You certainly don’t expect it to go unpunished.  But here we are.  I’ve seen incompetence before. I’ve seen arrogance. But this? This was willful ignorance wrapped in ideology and sold as economic policy. Everyone said this tax would have repercussions. Business leaders. Trade experts. Even Canada’s own financial institutions. It was all on the record. And yet Carney and the Liberals plowed ahead like nothing could go wrong.   Well, it did. Canada got hit. Trump walked. And now the same people who dragged the country into this mess are congratulating themselves for cleaning it up.  And here we are. Wreckage everywhere.  This wasn’t just predictable. It was inevitable."

The West is tolerating Third World behaviour. No wonder it’s in trouble

The West is tolerating Third World behaviour. No wonder it’s in trouble
Ironically, countries that are increasingly intolerant of free speech are ever more tolerant of real standards slipping 

I was on a panel recently talking about work visas and immigration policy. Despite some disagreement about tactics, we agreed more than I expected on policy. Something else struck me, too. We didn’t interrupt each other. We spoke in turn, deferred to each other, and otherwise behaved civilly.

These days, that seems rare. The Left-wing broadcast media is increasingly intolerant of particular views. A recent report from the Media Research Centre, for example, found that the supercilious CNN host Abby Phillip interrupted liberal guests three times but conservative guests 127 times during a “random sample of 10 episodes” of her news show. In that, she was perhaps just mirroring the West more broadly, in which supposedly “offensive” speech on subjects like gender or race is ever-more heavily policed.

At the same time, however, we are overly tolerant of behaviour that is unravelling our society.

We tolerate crime. Woke theories like “abolishing carceral society” (not just prisons but every “institution of oppression”, including deportation centres), and “restorative justice” lead to policies that put dangerous recidivist criminals back on the street. Several US states are developing a system of two-tier justice, where some defendants are treated more lightly because of their perceived racial oppression. The UK and Canada are accused of doing much the same.

We tolerate vulgarity from our media and elected officials that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Some of our fringe politicians have discovered the joys of swearing like the middle schoolers I once taught, but without the opprobrium.

Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic member of Congress from Michigan, said in 2019 that “we’re going to impeach this motherf—er”, referring to President Trump. At the People’s Conference for Palestine, she recently told a “genocide enabling Congress” to “look at this room, motherf—ers – we ain’t going anywhere.” She said the country she lives in was “built on slavery and rape and genocide and oppression”. Bleak, as well as vulgar.

Late-night host Stephen Colbert said “f— you” to Trump on his (soon to be cancelled) show. A few weeks ago, Senator Adam Schiff, famous for making “Russiagate” claims without evidence, told Trump to “p— off” on Colbert’s show.

We tolerate plagiarism. The likes of former president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, have been convincingly accused of using the work of others without credit. She denied the allegations, only then to step down amid a wider controversy over Harvard’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus. A limited review of Gay’s work, instigated by Harvard, seemed to broadly exonerate her, while expressing concern about a pattern of repeated language.

But others, instead of resigning in disgrace, have blamed the accusations on racism or sexism. Often, their institutions have supported them. Universities have to claim they hire on the basis of merit, even when hiring academics who demonstrably have less illustrious careers, publications, and research records than their peers. To concede that some of their diversity hires built their careers on plagiarism would belie that pretence.

We tolerate corruption. In the 18th century, bribery, peculation, and nepotism were the norm in the British Empire and United States. It took two centuries of progress before we expected probity from civil servants and ethical conduct from businessmen. We don’t always get it from native-born Americans, and I could cite many recent examples. But to assimilate recent arrivals to our norms, we need to be especially vigilant about corruption and punish it swiftly and fairly. We’re failing on many levels.

First, immigrants have been implicated in cases of fraud of a type more common in their home countries. In 2025 so far, dozens of people, many of them Somali immigrants, have been convicted in a massive scam that stole $250m from a federal child nutrition programme in Minnesota from 2020 to 2022. A couple of months ago, the Department of Justice filed charges against a ring, comprised of both immigrants and native-born, who had defrauded the federal “food stamp” programme.

One could see immigrants acting according to the mores of their native lands rather than their new home as a sign of failed assimilation. Or worse, it could show that American standards are slipping.

There is evidence for the latter. Lisa Cook, a governor of the US Federal Reserve Board, has been accused of mortgage fraud. She is alleged to have falsely named two houses as her primary residence to secure better mortgage terms, but denies wrongdoing. The Left-wing national media has rallied to her cause; even if she had done what she is accused of, they argue, it’s no big deal. Everyone does it. But so-called occupancy fraud “allows riskier borrowers to obtain credit at lower interest rates”, and “these fraudulent borrowers perform substantially worse than similar declared investors, defaulting at a 75 per cent higher rate,” according to a Federal Reserve report.

So even if it’s true that many mortgage applicants lie about their primary residence, shouldn’t we stop it? And why not start at the top? Cook is one of the few people setting interest rates for the entire country. If she knowingly cheated on her mortgage applications to get a lower rate of interest, she has no business policing others. The strong appearance of malfeasance alone should make her resign. But her allies seem to object even to the idea of her being investigated.

Also accused of mortgage fraud is New York Attorney General Letitia James. As she foretold in her election campaign, James used her office to prosecute Trump. The perplexing case she brought was that Trump committed civil fraud by over-valuing his properties when obtaining loans from commercial banks. Even though the banks did due diligence, and were happy to lend the money, Trump was fined nearly half a billion dollars in what many see as an unprecedented, purely political prosecution. That award was overturned, but James is now spending precious time and money appealing to get the penalty enforced.

Ironically, James has now been indicted for mortgage fraud, with prosecutors alleging she misrepresented a property as a secondary residence instead of a rental property in order to secure lower interest rates (James denies any wrongdoing). When announcing a win in a case involving real estate title theft, James had previously vowed “to use the law as both a sword and a shield to stop these despicable crimes”. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

With the bulk of our national media obsessed with finding any splinter in his eye, Trump doesn’t get a pass on anything. The same needs to apply to all public officials. Americans need to be tolerant of free speech, but intolerant of conduct that is illegal, immoral, or unethical in our public life. That’s what separates the First from the Third World – for now.


Links - 27th October 2025 (1 - Left Wing Economics: Canada)

B.C. budget deficit jumps to $11.6B, upward trend now expected to continue : r/ilovebc - "And Eby started w a surplus too lol. Brutal."

The mystery of B.C.’s darkening debt outlook - The Globe and Mail - "The finances of British Columbia have taken a stunning turn in recent years. The province’s debt load, which had been relatively stable, is soaring, outpacing economic growth.  As the accompanying chart shows, the dollar value of the province’s debt is projected to more than double over a half-decade, rising to $208.8-billion from $89.4-billion. And the ratio of debt to the province’s gross domestic product will surge as well, nearly doubling over that same span. Unsurprisingly, the province’s credit rating has been downgraded repeatedly. What happened in Year 5 to trigger this fiscal calamity, you might ask? Perhaps the economic crisis sparked by the pandemic? Or maybe it was Donald Trump’s global trade war?  Neither – the answer is the arrival of David Eby as Premier in the fall of 2022, succeeding John Horgan. That year, fiscal 2022-23, was the last year of the relative fiscal sobriety of Mr. Horgan’s BC NDP government. Now, British Columbia is on a dangerous fiscal path, as last week’s release of the fiscal 2025 public accounts makes clear. Under Mr. Eby, the NDP has lost its hard-won reputation as a competent fiscal manager.  Under the late Mr. Horgan, the NDP most certainly spent but did so with an eye to fiscal stability, a sharp contrast to the big-deficit ways of 1990s NDP governments. The pandemic, of course, resulted in a big deficit in fiscal 2021-22, but the provincial government returned to surplus the very next year.  Mr. Horgan bequeathed a solid fiscal record to his successor, including what should have been a substantial surplus in fiscal 2023. But Mr. Eby has squandered that inheritance, beginning with a reckless decision within months of taking office to hurriedly spend $3-billion in the spring of 2023. Otherwise, horror of horrors, those billions would have had to gone to paring down the province’s debt... In response to the dismal fiscal picture emerging from the public accounts, the Eby government essentially shrugged... Even worse is that the government has no plan, at least not one shared publicly, to reverse course."
Left wingers keep voting left wing and blame things getting steadily worse on the right

B.C.’s biggest deficit ever is nothing to brag about - Business in Vancouver - "There was precious little to brag about in the province’s year-end financials Thursday, not that it stopped the NDP government from trying.  “It's our approach that we are focusing on protecting services for people, the services that are most important to them, while still bringing down costs,” said Finance Minister Brenda Bailey.  The largest deficit in British Columbia history. Debt up 50 per cent in two years. A structural deficit no one’s even pretending to control. Emergency funds raided for day-to-day spending. And multiple credit rating downgrades...   The 2024-25 fiscal year closed with a $7.3-billion deficit. That’s a tad less than budgeted, mainly due to investment earnings in places like ICBC. Yet it’s still the largest ever—blowing past the $5.5 billion in red ink the province ran during the height of the global emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  It’s a wild turnaround from just two years prior, when a departing John Horgan left Premier David Eby a $6-billion surplus that fuelled an Eby-style spendapalooza. The numbers show it hasn’t stopped since. The resulting overspend on programs and services is now baked into the annual budget, leaving it decoupled from the realities of the provincial economy.   To illustrate that point, look no further than the $3.9 billion in contingencies the government set aside for 2024-25.  Typically, contingencies are used to fund emergencies, like wildfires, as well as case pressures in areas like social assistance and child welfare. Just $769 million went to wildfires. A staggering $3.4 billion quietly kept ministries afloat after they overspent or underbudgeted, with no debate in the legislature, no vote by MLAs and no real explanation.  The Ministry of Citizens’ Services ate up $20 million for “enterprise services funding model” and $14 million for “government wide information technology costs”—core functions of the ministry that should be in its budget.   The post-secondary ministry spent $48.5 million on its “Future Ready Action Plan” while the public safety ministry needed $65.5 million extra for “policing and security programs,” but neither were explained to the legislature because contingency funds are just dispersed in secret by cabinet.  And then there’s Government Communications and Public Engagement, the most bloated and hyper-partisan corner of the government, which somehow managed to blow through its $31.6 million budget and snag another $8.8 million from contingencies. The 28 per cent budget overrun was buried in public accounts as vague “staffing pressures” and “operating pressures.”...   The contingency fund reads like a fever dream from the premier’s office, where political promises, panicked backtracks and policy pivots are all funded with zero scrutiny.  Bailey at one point pinned the blame on U.S. President Donald Trump...   Trump was only president for the final 10 weeks of that fiscal year, ending March 31. The damage was already done through government decisions in the 42 weeks prior.  The financial situation is only going to get worse for the Eby government. The first quarter update for the current 2025-26 budget is set to land in September, where a projected $10.9 billion deficit is expected to balloon due to a $2.8-billion revenue hit over eliminating the carbon tax, a collapsing real estate market, and actual U.S. tariffs.  Bailey said she’s on track to find $1.5 billion in efficiency savings in the budget over the next three years, during which time she’s also budgeting $31 billion in deficits. It’s like bailing out a flooded bathtub with a shot glass while the tap is still running full blast...   At this rate, the BC NDP doesn’t just need multiple years. It needs divine intervention."

Rising debt interest adds $11.8B burden for B.C. residents - "Government debt is draining thousands of dollars from British Columbians each year—in interest alone, warns a Vancouver-based think tank.  B.C. will spend nearly $4.4 billion in interest on provincial government debt in the 2024–25 fiscal year, or 5.3 per cent of its revenue, according to the Fraser Institute’s Federal and Provincial Debt Interest Costs for Canadians, 2025 edition, published last week.  On top of nearly $7.4 billion in federal interest costs, the combined total reaches $11.8 billion, the third highest in the country... The report noted that B.C.’s provincial interest costs exceed the province’s planned 2024–25 spending on child welfare ($4.3 billion), and that the combined federal and provincial costs surpass what the province expects to spend on social services this year ($10.8 billion)."

Vaughn Palmer: BC debt skyrockets in first two years of Eby government | Vancouver Sun - "John Horgan faced no small challenge through the pandemic. He still managed to get the budget back into balance and leave behind a $6-billion surplus, which Eby promptly spent. Bailey suggested that much of the debt went to building schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and transit lines, as well as other capital infrastructure.  The public accounts told a different story. The New Democrats projected a $14-billion capital plan for building infrastructure. They spent only $10.4 billion.  The debt went in the other direction, up $10 billion more than what was forecast at the beginning of the year. How was it possible to borrow and spend less on infrastructure and end up with more debt?  The answer was on the operating side...  Well-managed ministries would have anticipated those costs and covered them out of their annual budgets by setting priorities and reallocating funds. But you don’t need to spend much time with the financial statements to realize that managing spending is a foreign notion for the Eby government...  In the first budget introduced by Horgan’s finance minister Carole James, there was $550 million for contingencies. Over this year and the next two, Eby has budgeted $12 billion in unallocated funds.  Sounds like a job for the auditor general — examining this level of unallocated and undisciplined spending, and reporting on any abuses."

Debt Accumulation by Premier: British Columbia (aka "Per-person (inflation-adjusted) provincial government debt increased faster under Premier David Eby than any other B.C. premier over the last 50 plus years")

Geoff Russ: First Nations let down by David Eby's anti-oil dogma - "Anybody claiming or celebrating that First Nations are some sort of obstacle to resource development is ignorant, ideological, or both. Indigenous communities and leaders are among the most enthusiastic backers of natural gas facilities and oil pipelines in B.C., and they are as badly let down by this provincial government as anybody else. The NDP have been in power since 2017, and have long abandoned any pretence of vision, direction, or adaptability, which has resulted in real economic and social harm. This tendency was on display again last week when Eby and his ministers refused to endorse another oil pipeline to the coast at a meeting of the premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney. Until 2025, resource development had been a fraught and fiery topic in Canada. Debates over costs, consultations, and climate goals slowed down and killed major projects like Energy East, Northern Gateway, and more. Then U.S. President Donald Trump embarked on his quest to use tariffs to remake the global commercial order and threatened to escalate a trade war against Canada. Suddenly, every government in Canada, conservative or progressive, began admitting or alluding to the necessity of diversifying the trade of Canadian energy, our single largest export. Even Quebec Premier François Legault signalled that he was open to the possibility of building new natural gas facilities and pipelines in the province. It is rare that Alberta, the federal government, and Quebec agree on energy, and it would be a historic and actionable opportunity if the B.C. NDP were not so determined to scuttle it. A quick overview of the B.C. NDP’s anti-pipeline history will make it very clear that this government has no love or desire for such undertakings. Under Eby’s predecessor John Horgan, the B.C. NDP fought tooth and nail to stop the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Despite the clear economic, social, and political advantages of expanding TMX, the NDP had to be crushed in the courts in 2020 before waving the white flag. To Horgan’s credit, he accepted the defeat with grace... From Horgan, Eby inherited a burgeoning energy industry built on natural gas and the transport of oil from Alberta. The results speak for themselves: thousands of jobs , new and powerful Indigenous economies, and a huge boost for the provincial and national economy. It is a strong foundation for B.C. to become an energy powerhouse among the provinces. Instead, Eby appears content to rest on Horgan’s laurels and drag his feet on the building of new energy projects that the rest of the country is begging for. He could not even make an appearance at a critical meeting in Saskatchewan between the premiers and the prime minister. Instead, he delegated that task to his deputy premier, who signalled that the province would not support another pipeline through northern B.C... Beyond doubling down on disastrous safe supply programs and record debt spending, Eby’s government seems to have no further ambitions beyond ballooning the province’s bureaucracy. Indeed, the provincial government has turned itself into a sort of welfare program for the urban and educated, with the public sector doubling in size, which has done nothing to halt the decline of education and health care in the province. Eby’s refusal to endorse transformative projects like new pipelines is indicative of the B.C. NDP’s shift from a genuine workers’ party into a vessel for managers and bureaucrats. Constructing energy infrastructure is one of the most reliable ways to keep northerners and rural British Columbians employed. The NDP’s neglect of the wider resource sector led to them losing many of their blue-collar ridings in the 2024 provincial election. The consequences of this change in the party’s culture now expand beyond provincial considerations, and could cripple the rest of Canada’s ambitions for a stronger economy."
Almost losing the last election hasn't dissuaded him from pushing the left wing agenda ceaselessly. He thinks voters will either forget or are too partisan to ever not vote for him

John Rustad: It's time to end David Eby's nation-building blockade - "The Canadian Pacific Railway, as it eventually would come to be known, was Macdonald’s path to quelling American settlement desires in the west, expanding the dominion, and entrenching Canadian sovereignty. Today, we sit at a crossroad that is eerily reminiscent of those times. The American president continues to openly muse about the annexation of Canada. There is a desperate need to build projects of national interest that grow infrastructure, trade corridors and access to international markets. And collectively, we are facing grave internal threats to preserving the sanctity of Canadian independence, national unity and social cohesion. I am sorry to report that the B.C. government now stands as the country’s largest impediment to tackling these dire challenges. More specifically, Premier David Eby is openly demonstrating that he and his cabinet are more concerned with playing divisive politics than doing what is best for the country as well as British Columbians desperate for an economic buffer to their gross fiscal negligence. More concerningly is how they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths in doing so. The prime minister and all of Canada’s thirteen premiers just wrapped up a summit in Saskatoon, concluding with a joint statement that committed to “work urgently to get Canadian natural resources and commodities to domestic and international markets, such as critical minerals and decarbonized Canadian oil and gas by pipelines” which are “crucial for driving Canadian productivity growth, energy security, and economic competitiveness.” B.C. was a signatory to the communique. Yet two days later, Eby trotted out his Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix to assert that the idea of a pipeline “doesn’t make sense to us.” Dix went on to declare that “we have a different view” and emphatically confirmed that “The premier has expressed very clearly his view of non-support for that.” So, in front of a national audience, the government formally agrees to engage with the rest of the country in fast-tracking energy projects of national significance. Yet when speaking in B.C., the premier has his lieutenants march forth with messages of staunch opposition to any pipeline being built to the province’s northern coast. When reached in Japan, where the premier is visiting as part of a trade mission, Eby doubled down on his agenda of division, stating that it was “not (his) job to come in and tell (Alberta) Premier Smith that her vision for a North Coast pipeline is many years off and there is no proponent at this point.” This stunningly petulant response perfectly encapsulates the downward spiral of project-killing brinkmanship that Canada has experienced over the past decade. Building energy infrastructure takes time, investment, and political will, and in spite of Eby’s glibness, he is well aware that private-sector proponents will not step forward when faced with the kind of obstruction his government now embodies. It must also be noted that, in spite of his rhetoric about the importance of tearing down interprovincial trade barriers, Eby hasn’t made any tangible progress on this initiative since being elected in October. Meanwhile, provinces like Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are actively signing agreements that will increase cross-Canada market access for businesses within their respective jurisdictions. Which is why B.C. is about to be bypassed in national discussions on implementing the distinctly different aspirations of new Prime Minister Mark Carney. He is in support of establishing a trade and energy corridor that sees provinces, territories and Indigenous partners come together in support of expanding Canada’s domestic and international economic footprint. This is an approach that is long overdue, and the fact that B.C. now stands as the country’s lone outlier to this vision is beyond comprehension."

Eby's CleanBC initiative a greater hit to economy than Trump's tariffs - "Open any book on politics and you will find that, in Canada, the NDP stands for the New Democratic Party. In British Columbia under David Eby, the acronym needs to be updated to — Not Delivering Prosperity. Since Eby and his government took over in 2022, British Columbia has been an economic basket case. The deficit projection for 2025 was revised upwards in March to $10.9 billion, a record, which followed hot on the heels of the 2024 deficit of $9.1 billion — also a record until 2025 stole the deficit crown. The result in April was a downgrade to B.C.’s credit rating from AA to A+. By any measure, the outlook is grim, as total debt for the province is predicted to soar by 70 per cent over the next three years. The ruling NDP and Premier David Eby have been quick to blame economic woes on Donald Trump and his tariff policies. While tariffs are no doubt hurting B.C. — as they are all of Canada — this tactic is already tired. In truth, the damage appears to be mostly self-inflicted, caused by poor budgeting and economic policy driven by ideology rather than actual economics. At the B.C. Chamber of Commerce AGM on June 4, Ken Peacock, the former chief economist at the Business Council of B.C., presented analysis indicating the NDP’s CleanBC initiative has actually been a far greater hit to the province’s sputtering economy than any tariffs. From 2019-2024 it cost B.C. $29.3 billion in lost GDP and is projected to cost the province a further $109.7 billion between now and 2029. That’s David Eby’s economic leadership in action: ideology torpedoing economic prosperity for hard working British Columbians... Bill 15 does not reignite B.C.’s economy by streamlining regulation for private enterprise; it merely allows cabinet to pick and choose which projects it will decide to ram through without any further regulatory oversight. This is ripe for abuse and political interference. It is a pay-to-play system where randomness and arbitrary decisions based on cabinet’s whims, without clear process, will become the norm. Eby’s NDP claim the bill brings investment clarity, in fact, it does anything but. The vague backroom modus operandi of the NDP is, however, consistent in one way. They echo the closed-door decision-making attempts and history of the NDP when deciding how the province’s crown land will be used; something essential for investment and resource development. This important process has been shrouded in secrecyon multiple occasions. The latest announcement in this regard covers all of Northwestern B.C. including the mineral-rich Golden Triangle. As a result, nearly a third of British Columbia is now subject to a one year pause on new mining-tenure registrations. This is the exact of opposite of what attracts investment to the province and will send the critical dollars B.C. needs to friendlier investment regions. David Eby’s NDP has bankrupted the province and has no plan back for the simple reason that they cannot trust the free market to do its work."

1 in 3 Metro Vancouver workers don't earn enough to cover basics : r/ilovebc - "“Every night I sit in my 100 sq ft bedroom in my house with 6 roommates, I eat my ration of 1 ramen pack per night , look out the window at a junkie ODing on the street and I thank god I’m not in a Conservative province. Just paid 1.80 for a litre of gas, life is good“"
"Look at this guy, he can afford a car, obviously we aren't taxing enough, we need to raise taxes! (/s if it isn't obvious)"
"You know, I’ve battled with this thought. 45% of my income goes to taxes, which means I’m keeping most to myself. I feel selfish"
Clearly, this is proof that the BC NDP is really a conservative party and that BC needs even more left wing policies

1 in 3 Metro Vancouver workers don't earn enough to cover basics : r/ilovebc - "If a plurality of Metro Voters keep voting for status quo with Team Red federally and Team Orange provincially, do they really have a problem with it?"
"anecdotally it seems that people do have a problem with it but are under the belief that the alternative would be worse and this is just the price they have to pay for living in a "civilized" culture."

Retreat brings 'tough' decisions, tariff relief and 'diet' government - "A day after Carney promised an austerity budget, the head of the largest federal public service union finally responded. And she was mad. ““Let me be clear: Prime Minister Carney’s austerity agenda is lazy, reckless and short-sighted and puts everyone in Canada at risk,” said Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) President Sharron DeSousa. “Carney’s government has a choice — it can be forward-looking and a model employer that creates good jobs to strengthen our economy and build a resilient Canada, or it can continue to use old-fashioned, ineffective and lazy approaches like austerity that just don’t work.”"
Time to increase government payrolls, because that's the way to grow the economy

Ontario gas prices climb, erasing consumer carbon pricing repeal savings : r/ontario
The comments are mostly left wingers who didn't read the article and claim it's due to corporate greed and that there was no point in ending the carbon tax because gas prices are now the same as they would've been with it, and they're worse off because there's no rebate cheque. These people are really unable to consider counterfactuals - they don't know how they'd feel if they hadn't had breakfast today
Now that the price has fallen again they need to look for a new cope

Ontario gas prices climb, erasing consumer carbon pricing repeal savings : r/ontario - "I for one will sleep well tonight knowing some obscenely rich group of fucks are getting even richer because we got rid of the carbon tax. Lets face it folks, they work so hard and they deserve it. /s (in fact, heavy /s...)"
A left wing motivation for carbon tax - to destroy the economy so rich people become less rich

Canada's budget will focus on austerity and investment, says PM Carney : r/worldnews - "This is a tired argument. Investment occurs where there is a market for it. It’s no more complex than that. Corporations will pack up and leave the moment there is no market for them. They are not our friends, and as such, should at the very least pay the same taxes as us. Nothing is trickling down, and they’ve been laughing at us for decades while they stuff their pockets."
"You are scarily uninformed on how this works. Canada is famously prohibitive to business investment. We have cartels running each major industry, 2-5 of them per industry more or less, and they are protected from competition via legislation which creates the environment where business investment does not occur. Increasing taxes on corporations exacerbates the issue by increasing the barriers to entry for any foreign business or even your own Canadian startup, and it’s also a relatively small cost to pay for a Canadian legacy corp who already owns a massive market share and therefore has no incentive to add value to Canada. So bottom line, if you want to make money, one of the last things you will do is start a business in or move operations to Canada with our current economy. Increasing taxes makes this already dire issue even worse.  By your own logic, there is no market for investment in Canada, because there is essentially no investment at the moment. So I don’t think you even understand what you’re trying to say lol."
"I work in Mineral Exploration. We wouldn’t exist without foreign/domestic investment.  The red tape, government oversight and Native land disputes is whats dragging the industry and scaring further investment."
Canada's budget will focus on austerity and investment, says PM Carney : r/worldnews - "If you’re unwilling to respect environmental laws and the rights of our First Nations, this would make you the problem. Pedal your self entitlement elsewhere."
"You can think what you want but im actually in the industry experiencing it first hand. You will be pleased to know there is an unbelievable amount of environmental regulation, of which all has a purpose. Its the filing and administrative requirements that I have a problem with.  The government oversight is their inability to secure permits in time for us to actually raise money for the summer field programs. Their red tape and lack of transparency means your guessing when you will be able to work and cant make commitments for investors.  As for First Nations land use. They all have overlapping claim boundaries. The property I work on has 4 different bands saying its theirs. Do you know how complicated that is? These bands wont talk to each other or recognize the govt. So, you have to message each one in writing, create agreements and hope thoes bands dont have historic feuds(Which is often the case in the arctic).  Its is extremely complicated to get projects going in non Treated provinces. We actively scare investment with how poor our system is operating."
"Just hang in there and wait for it to trickle down… Any day now…"
"You seem desperate to create some sort of Strawman to argue against."

The amount of wealth leaving Canada would be eye-opening for many Canadians - "More and more successful Canadians are continuing to leave this country. Many tax practitioners have long been aware of this phenomenon. For example, in the first 23 years of my career, I worked on about a dozen tax cases involving Canadians leaving this country. But the number of files that my colleagues and I have worked on in the past 10 years has skyrocketed to almost one thousand. In 2015, 68,945 people permanently left Canada, according to Statistics Canada estimates. The next year (the first of the new Liberal government), it was 97,473 — a staggering increase. In 2017, it increased again to 104,013. Departures dropped to a low of 60,407 in the COVID-19 year of 2020, but it has been increasing ever since. For 2024, departures were at a 10-year high of 106,134, and 27,086 left in the first quarter of 2025... The amount of wealth leaving Canada that I’m witnessing would be eye-opening for many Canadians, even to those who seem to love bashing the so-called rich and are not shy about telling them to not let the door hit them on the way out... Economic policies set by governments matter. In the past 10 years, there is little doubt that it has had a negative impact on retaining successful Canadians. With skyrocketing federal spending currently happening, it appears that Canada is headed down a further economic path of increased taxation that will be inevitable to pay for such spending. The C.D. Howe Institute recently predicted the federal government’s cumulative deficits over the next four fiscal years could be a staggering $311 billion. That is fiscally irresponsible, and future generations will pay greatly through higher taxation loads and a poorer standard of living. One way to deal with this is to develop tax and economic policies that make it enticing for successful Canadians to stay in Canada and to risk their capital for the benefit of all Canadians. This would also help attract new successful Canadians as well. Canada’s future prosperity depends on policies that reward ambition rather than punish it. We don’t just lose tax dollars when we drive away successful Canadians; we lose innovators, job creators and the very people who can help build a better future. It’s time for leadership that sees this clearly and acts decisively."

DeepDive: Canada’s natural resources are a long-neglected ‘golden goose.’ It’s time to change that - "Her basic insight is that a combination of economic forces and policy-induced harms have undermined what her colleagues Philip Cross and Jack Mintz have characterized as the country’s “golden goose” and that this has significant explanatory power for the overall decline in business investment, productivity, and economic activity... The natural resource sector is a major driver of Canada’s economic activity. In 2019, according to estimates by Cross and Mintz, natural resources accounted for 14.9 percent of Canada’s gross domestic product. This percentage has fallen in recent years, after peaking in 2008 at 19.5 percent, when the commodity cycle crashed in 2014-15... Overall, what is clear is that notwithstanding the 2014-15 drop in commodity prices and the harms to the sector from government policy, natural resource development continues to be a major source of economic output in Canada... Not only is the natural resource sector a major source of total employment, but the distribution of its employment is highly advantageous too. The geographical distribution of natural resource jobs diverges from the concentration of employment in a small number of major Canadian cities. In fact, a 2021 Natural Resources Canada report found that in more than 1,800 rural and remote communities across Canada, most of which have populations of 10,000 or less, an average of 30 percent of jobs in those communities were dependent on the natural resource sector. Mineral deposits, managed forests, and oil and gas reservoirs are dispersed across the country and generally located near rural and remote communities... Natural resources also employ people across the skills distribution, including large numbers without post-secondary credentials. In fact, more than 40 percent of those employed in the sector in 2021 had a high school diploma or less... the natural resource sector has protected Canada from middle-class erosion experienced elsewhere... Incomes are higher in the natural resource sector than most other parts of the economy. The average gross weekly pay in the mining and oil and gas sectors has been consistently the highest in Canada since 2007... The natural resource sector’s wage premium has been especially beneficial to Indigenous Canadians... According to the Indigenous Resource Network, the Indigenous workforce in forestry, mining, and oil and gas is higher than its overall share of the population and quite a bit higher than the percentage in the federal government... Natural resources also dominate Canadian overall business investment. In 2023, capital investments in the natural resources sector were estimated to amount to $109.0 billion or 43.6 percent of all business investment in tangible assets such as structures, machinery, and equipment. At the height of the commodity cycle that coincided with a large upswing in the sector’s capital expenditures, natural resources accounted for as high as nearly 60 percent of all business investment in 2014... Although Canada is in the midst of a productivity crisis in overall terms, the natural resource sector is something of an outlier... Energy products alone are Canada’s most lucrative export sector, outearning every other subsector, including, for instance, commercial services and motor vehicles (see Figure 4). Added together with mining and forestry, these three natural resource subsectors have made up about 30 percent of total exports since 2017. They are critical building blocks of a stable Canadian economy. Additionally, they offer a unique geographic-based value proposition because they cannot be outsourced to other countries... Even as it has faced headwinds (discussed below in more detail) it has generally outperformed other parts of the economy. It stands to reason, therefore,that if Canada has a more hospitable policy environment for natural resources, then they can play a key role in boosting overall economic output... resource investment actually fell between 2014 and 2022 by as much as $52 billion. Today annual investment in mining and oil and gas is about half the level that it was during the Harper government... since 2015, Canada has seen nearly $670 billion in natural resources projects suspended or canceled... the Trudeau government has enacted a series of policies that have harmed the investment climate for resource projects. These include: The Impact Assessment Act, which further inserted the federal government into resource project approvals, the oil tanker moratorium, the moratorium on offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, industrial carbon pricing, the UNDRIP Action Plan, rejection of the Northern Gateway pipeline, methane regulations, Clean Fuel Regulations, the proposed Clean Electricity Standard, and now the proposed emissions cap for the oil and gas sector. Evidence from the Fraser Institute’s latest survey of energy sector executives indicates that these policies have had a deleterious effect on the investment climate by raising costs and contributing to policy uncertainty. The emissions cap is a good example. This is a policy that specifically targets Canada’s biggest source of exports with greater regulatory stringency than any other part of the economy... At a time when policymakers are concerned with boosting economic growth and Canadian living standards, it stands to reason that one of the most impactful steps that they could take is unleashing the natural resource sector."
Time to tax companies more to pay for a bigger public service, and for even more regulation to protect the environment and indigenous peoples

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Links - 26th October 2025 (2 - Star Wars)

The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "Rarely is an organization in cinema made to look so utterly dumb and incompetent unfortunately. Besides the general lack of information the movies give on the background of the war between the First Order and the New Republic.  So the FO somehow managed to build up a huge military machine under the noses of the New Republic and the New Republic did nothing. While the FO were actively invading planets. And the only explanation we are given for this is that the New Republic was corrupt and the military industrial complex was supplying both sides.  Okay. But that does not explain why the New Republic does literally nothing against the FO at all. After all, that same situation already happened during the Clone Wars. Hell, the Trade Federation maintained a seat on the council duirng the Clone Wars WHILE actively supplying the Separatists with ships and battle droids. And it did not stop the Republic from actively opposing the Separatists.  The only ones that oppose the First Order is Leia and her Resistance. Basically a non-government militia group. All because the directors desperately wanted to force the plot into this Rebels vs Empire/David vs Goliath situation. Even though it made no logical sense within the context of the overall plot.  And how did the First Order manage to build a planet sized superweapon without anyone finding out? Does the New Republic not have any sort of military intelligence services?  But okay, the FO use the Starkiller Base and destroy the New Republic capital system. And then the New Republic just gives up... And the Resistance remains the one ones actively opposing the FO.  And the explanation we are given for this is that the New Republic was intimidated by the power of Starkiller base into surrendering. But why?!! The Starkiller base was destroyed not half an hour after it fired. Whatever intimidation factor it presented is gone. There is no logical reason for the remainder of the New Republic NOT to now declare war on the First Order. Again, the New Republic is made to look incompetent and cowardly, in order to force the plot into a David vs Goliath situation that mirrors the original trilogy. Even though it makes no sense. It made sense when it was the Rebels against a galaxy spanning Empire. But it makes no sense when it is a galaxy spanning Republic against what is essentially a terrorist group.  The New Republic has been marginalized to such a degree that even if you remove it from the story entirely, the overall story barely changes at all! In fact, the story would make MORE sense if the New Republic did not exist and the Starkiller base destroyed some Resistance homeworlds instead."

The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "Even worse. The New Republic actually voted to completely dismantle its military (under the leadership of bloody Chancellor Mon Mothma no less). Wtf is this stupidity of eliminating their own military knowing that there are still plenty of Imperial loyalists just biding their time to strike?!?"
"Wow, that's a character assassination of Mon.  Can we please just declare the sequels non-canon?"
"I'd feel bad for the actors, but Abrams' creative bankrupcy and allergy to world building have done serious damage to the franchise.  Even good projects like Andor suffer because you know what all those characters did was for nothing.  In another franchise that could fit, but it's just way too cynical for Star Wars to go "in the end all the heroes failed at everything they tried and then died of old age.""

The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "Now just remember all the effort and sacrifice it took for the rebellion to overthrow the Empire shown in three movies a spinoff and a TV series, all that so the new republic would fall so easily in a pathetic way with all those dumb faces looking up like “oh we’re gonna die why”"
"yeah, this didn’t make any sense, especially after the world wide reaction to the 9-11 attack. If a terrorist faction bombed Washington DC, London and Paris, I guess everybody would just shrug and go, “oh well, guess they are the boss now…”"
The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "But when we’re talking about the mainline movies, they have to hold up on their own without a bunch of armchair lore being explained to back them up.   On screen, this looks like a hunch of characters we’ve never seen before (we were supposed to know who they are but scenes were cut), dying to symbolically undo the original trilogy’s entire payoff.   It’s about 7 seconds that totally disrespects the OT"

The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "Unpopular but I have absolutely no patience for people who say shit like “well this random tie-in novel addresses a 400 million dollar movie’s glaring plot hole”  The movie needs to stand on its own"

The New Republic was done so dirty in the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "As a person who studies media, mostly film and TV, it does make me chuckle when people like you use the term "media literacy" and use it wrong. Media literacy is about how people take a message away from a film and what they do with it. Just because you align something in the ST with something else in your life, doesnt mean someone else takes the same meaning.  Media literacy implies independant critical thinking of a subject and is meant to allow freedom of though. Everyone has a different experience so the way they percieve something will be different. You see how the ST is about fans who dont like it, while others may see it differently. You lack the foresight to allow an open discussion as does anyone who uses the term media literacy in order to justify their point being correct."

Meme - "Your face when some uppity sexist male pilot tries to mansplain space-war tactics, when your liberal arts degree clearly qualifies you to command a space battle group *Admiral Holdo/Admiral Gender Studies*"

thatstarwarsgirl on X - "Watched Andor season 2 & yep it’s real. An imperial officer tries to grape Bix. Using the power dynamic that she’s an illegal & he can deport her. It’s beyond fucking retarded & doesn’t belong in Star Wars"

Instagram - "Puppeteer and filmmaker Frank Oz brings Yoda to life in this clip from Light & Magic, now streaming on @DisneyPlus."

Meme - "EVERY STAR WARS FILM IS MISTITLED
EPISODE I - The Phantom Menace > THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
EPISODE II - Attack of the Clones > REVENGE OF THE SITH
EPISODE Ill - Revenge of the Sith > ATTACK OF THE CLONES
EPISODE IV - A New Hope > RETURN OF THE JEDI
EPISODE V - Empire Strikes Back > THE FORCE AWAKENS
EPISODE VI - Return of the Jedi > THE LAST JEDI
EPISODE VII - The Force Awakens > THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
EPISODE VIII - The Last Jedi > A NEW HOPE
EPISODE IX - The Rise of Skywalker > THE PHANTOM MENACE"
Han Solo: "He's out of line but he's right"

Andor should have been a Game of Thrones-size hit – why isn’t it? - "Star Wars has, it seems, lost its magnetism. Disney has fumbled its multibillion-dollar baby; now all it can do is watch as it drifts off into space. Think back not to such a long time ago, or indeed a galaxy far, far away, but to Los Angeles in the autumn of 2018. It was in November that year that Disney first announced Andor. At the time, it seemed like the folly of a studio drunk on its own hype, the worst sort of franchise bloat: a superfluous prequel to an already-rather-superfluous prequel, spinning off a character that didn’t really “pop” in the first place. At the time, Disney was going all in on Star Wars, trying to expand it into a Marvel-style cross-medium universe. Over the course of a few years, a slew of films were announced, many of which never came to fruition, alongside a run of TV series. The quality of the Star Wars streaming slate varies wildly, from the genuinely fun (The Mandalorian seasons one and two) to the middling but turgid (Obi-Wan Kenobi; The Acolyte) to the downright abominable (The Mandalorian season three; The Book of Boba Fett). Andor is so far ahead of these series – on pretty much every level of craft – that there’s little point in comparing them. But the sheer glut of unremarkable Star Wars content has done Andor no favours whatsoever: it has been dismissed by association. Disney had, in other words, bitten off more than it could chew(bacca)."
Time to shame the fans again, repeatedly, until they start watching once more

JJ Abrams was the absolute worst choice for the sequel trilogy. : r/StarWars - "While there’s a lot of blame to go around for the total mess the sequel trilogy turned into(and I would generally blame the Disney execs for wanting a completely original trilogy as soon as possible that ignored the EU and Lucas treatment), handing over the reigns to JJ was one of the worst choices Disney made.  Firstly, he made no secret of the fact that he hated the prequels. That’s fine, they’re by no means considered sci-fi classics, and it was something that made many people hopeful that we’d get a better film because of it.  But there’s loads of things that SW fans liked about the prequels - the worldbuilding/expansion of the galaxy and how it felt as a place(this wasn’t limited to the 3 films, there were some excellent TV projects and games set before the OT around that time that helped).  JJ ignoring anything from the PT - to the point where they had to move the galactic republic to a new planet because Disney wouldn’t let him destroy Coruscant - made it feel completely disconnected from the place the previous films took place in.  He didn’t seem to think much of the OT either considering he was essentially happy to disregard the work they put in to ending the empire and get it back to the status quo immediately. In general he has no patience for setting up a story and following through(the empire are just back, Rey simply knows they force) which is terrible for a sci-fi epic like Star Wars because it stops feeling like a real, functional place.  He also seems to really struggle with how big space is - a base that can destroy multiple star systems at once that would be light years away stretches credibility even in the Star Wars universe. He had a similar problem in ST2009 with a supernova that “would threaten the entire galaxy”.  I thought TFA was a fun movie when I saw it but really it’s clear that the ST never really had a chance to be a satisfying trilogy, and JJ is one of the biggest issues with them."

To This Day I Do Not Understand how THIS GUY can be the spy : r/StarWars - "If only Hux had access to tons of resources to try to assassinate Kylo...oh wait."
"No man we needed to have a slow wounded battle cruiser chase plot in a universe with hyperspace engines and automatic repair robots. But also some of the crew take a lifeboat to have a casino heist sub plot."
"I'm still confused how they even had time for the subplot. Even with FTL capabilities, it still takes time to get to the planet, find who they had to, convince them to help and fly back all in less than 18 hours. That's assuming everything goes smoothly which it didn't."
"I was a defender of TLJ, but more and more I dislike that whole subplot, especially when the result of their goofy adventure is failure and the ships that were escaping are picked off, killing a lot of people."
"I was a defender of TLJ as well and I rewatched it recently and it's actually just awful in almost every way. I don't know what I was smoking."
"But as Rose literally said, it wasn’t worth it…until she took the bridle off the horse thing, then it was worth it."

To This Day I Do Not Understand how THIS GUY can be the spy : r/StarWars - "Oh no, that's all Abrams. He loves a mystery box, but when he actually has to put something interesting in the box he starts grasping at straws. All sizzle, no steak."

To This Day I Do Not Understand how THIS GUY can be the spy : r/StarWars - "The thing about subverting people's expectations is that the thing they get has to be just as, if not better than the thing they were expecting, otherwise it's just another name for a letdown."
To This Day I Do Not Understand how THIS GUY can be the spy : r/StarWars - "subverting expectations for the sake of subverting expectations is shit storytelling and the reason why so many modern movies and shows are trash.  Audiences are better able to predict stories so writers and producers feel they need to throw in 50 million twists to make sure they dont."

Why Do Stormtroopers Have These Small Plates With 0ll on Their Back? - "As a Star Wars fan myself, I’ve always been intrigued by a particular feature of the Stormtrooper armor – the ‘OII’ plates on their backs...   These plates house a power pack and a small air supply."

You ever think about how Luke gave Jabba the Hutt more chances to do the right thing than his own nephew? : r/StarWars
"I’ll never get the decision to make Kylo a Vader fanboy when the ghost of Vader could actually show up and tell him to stop being an asshole any time"

Meme - "You know that Disney Star Wars is in trouble when they start stealing from Spaceballs *Rey Last Jedi cave scene* *Spaceballs Now scene*"

Daisy Ridley takes social media break after gun violence post - "Daisy Ridley has left Instagram, and taken a break from social media after a backlash for sharing a post about victims of gun violence"
From 2016. Of course, all the fandom haters claimed that it was due to Star Wars fans bullying her, and that they were the fandom menace

Meme - "*Jake Lloyd* Quit acting due to bullying for his role as Anakin
By classmates, not fans
*Ahmed Best* Nearly committed suicide over backlash to Jar-Jar Binks
By media, not fans. Never mentioned until 2019.
*John Boyega* Endured boycott of the movies just for being cast
Not boycott: Fans were confused because Stormtroopers were supposed to be clones
*Kelly Tran* Deleted her Instagram account due to harassment
No evidence presented. Kelly never claims this in any interview.
*Daisy Ridley* Deleted her Instagram account due to harassment
No evidence presented. Daisy never claims this in any interview.
*George Lucas* Sold his franchise becouse making them wasn't fun anymore
No evidence presented. George never claims this in any interview.
I think this is why Kylo Ren is such an interesting vilain He's a whiny, selfish, old school worshiping, angry cosplayer
This argument was only made by shills after The Last Jedi tanked
And when he throws tantrums, that's DISNEY saying...
Mickey Mouse holding up mirror: THIS IS YOU.
Again, this argument only surfaced after two movies"
When you hate fans so much you blame them for everything, including what the media did
Ironically, in Kelly Tran's article, she only blames the media for making her feel bad, not fan "harassment"

Meme - "padme_the_pornstar.jpg
>noooo Anakin, you can't be attracted to me, you are a Jedi and I'm a senator
>now please excuse me, I must change into something more alluring to look more like a luxury escort while I continue why we can't be together
what was her problem?"

Meme - "No wonder they kept letting Cassian leave Yavin. Every time he returned they gained a new hottie
*Bix Caleen, Mon Mothma, Kleya Marki, K-2S0, Jyn Erso*"

Meme - *Kombucha Girl*
Disney: "Calling it Slave One"
Disney: "Rape"
On sexual assault in Andor

Weird Al’s Phantom Menace Parody ‘The Saga Begins’ Was Recorded a Month Before the Film Released, Managed to Almost Exactly Piece Together the Plot by Researching Rumours Posted on Star Wars Fan Forums - "We all know Weird Al Yankovic is a musical genius when it comes to parodies, but did you know he actually pieced together the entire plot of The Phantom Menace before the movie even hit theaters? And he did it without an early screening or any insider knowledge from Lucasfilm...   Of course, there were a few minor inaccuracies. For instance, the song suggests that Anakin was already a Jedi when he first met Padmé, when in reality, he was still just a kid on Tatooine. But let’s be honest—getting 99% of the plot correct just from internet rumors? That’s next-level dedication."

Why did Luke go to Ahch-To for his exile? He said he went to "the most unfindable place in the galaxy", but why does "the most unfindable place in the galaxy" have a map leading directly to it in his droid and is literally the first place his friends, family, and enemies think to look? : r/StarWars - "TFA: Luke Skywalker disappeared and is looking for the first jedi temple, his droid has information that leads to him
TLJ: Actually Luke doesn't want to be found but left a trail in his droid, go figure
Edit: yes I'm incorrect in suggesting Luke left a trail in the droid, I apologize."

Disney’s hermit is not my Luke Skywalker | Facebook - "One of the saddest results of Disney’s sequel SW trilogy is there’s no sign of continued relevance. They’ve been over for nearly six years now and almost exclusively the only way I see them referenced is in fans wishing they’d just be discarded.  Kids don’t watch them and largely seem barely aware of their existence; this is a first in the series. Even though the prequels were hated by older Gen Xers in particular, younger Gen Xers and Millennials grew up with them and understood them despite seriously questionable directorial decisions—not so with the sequels; they’re now just irrelevant."

Meme - "Can we please talk about the irony of the slave leia costume?  It is undoubtedly THE most popular star wars costume amongst women, yet Disney is determined to bury it. What's ironic is that its not men pushing it. Its women themselves who get into Star Wars and choose to wear it. No one's forcing them. They just like wearing something thats fun, iconic and sexy  Far more women choose the slave Leia outfit over dressing like Rey"

Meme - "Critics: It's gross how Star Wars sexualizes woman, but not men
What they see: *Slave Leia, midriff-baring Padme in arena, Aayla Secura*
What they don't see: Shirtless Anakin, Sexy AF Obi-Wan, Half Naked Watto, Thicc Palpatine, Fully Naked Jabba, Shredded Dexter, Bare Chewbacca, Sleeveless Jar-Jar, Smoking Hot Grievous"

Did anyone else think Holdo was going to be a traitor? : r/StarWars - "I saw The Last Jedi in theaters when it came out, and the entire movie I thought Amilyn Holdo was going to be a twist villain who would be a minor threat in Episode 9 for a pretty long part of the movie actually. I thought the reason she didn't tell Poe her plan was because her plan would be too obviously a trap, and that the reason the First Order was tracking the Resistance through hyperspace is because she was leaking them the coordinates. And I really thought the reveal would be during the bit where she was like "Yeah, I'll stay behind on this ship alone while you sneak off onto this planet. Yep! I'll definitely die here." Before she'd turn around and be like "Haha I Did It!"  Anyway, I was wrong, but I can't be the only one who thought this, right?"
"Poe was literally the one they entrusted to get the “map to Luke Skywalker” and now he’s suddenly thought of as a spy lol. Still can’t believe the trilogy didn’t have a storyboard or arc"
Did anyone else think Holdo was going to be a traitor? : r/StarWars - "The problem is, if your fleet is slowly being gunned down, and you are doing nothing but sitting around and watching it happen, there will be a mutiny. You have to relay that there is a plan other than slowly all dying from encroaching enemy forces if you are to have your forces continue to fight. Otherwise you will have troops fleeing (which was what Rose had to be deployed to stop), and possibly have your troops mutiny in an attempt to come up with their own survival plan. This is why the 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad, because even though high command told them not to, without any plan of rescue, they had no hope of survival if they continued to fight.  Hell Holdo’s plan wasn’t even implemented well. The fleet didn’t have the fuel to all make it to their destination, so all of the fuel should have been siphoned off to two ships so that they could make it there rather than only one making it because two didn’t have enough fuel. The A Team has less convoluted plans than Holdo."

Meme - Obi-Wan Kenobi: "I'M WARNING YOU, DARTH. IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN I SHALL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE."
Darth Vader: "YEAH, FORCE GHOST. I KNOW."
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "YOU... YOU DO?" Darth Vader: "YEAH DUDE I'VE BEEN CONNECTED TO THE FORCE MY ENTIRE LIFE, I'M AWARE OF THE CONCEPT OF FORCE GHOSTS"
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "WELL THEN, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN'T KILL ME!"
Darth Vader: "I DON'T NEED TO." *cuts his hands off*
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "AHHH! HOLY SHIT!"
Darth Vader: ""FREEZE HiM IN CARBONITE, KEEP HIM ALIVE. FOREVER."
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "SHIT SHIT SHIT, WAIT."

Why Are the Irish Media Ignoring an Apparent Islamist Knife Attack?

Why Are the Irish Media Ignoring an Apparent Islamist Knife Attack?

On July 29th 2025, a member of the Irish police (Garda Siochana) was attacked by Abdullah Khan, a second-generation Pakistani Muslim immigrant in Dublin city centre. Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTE, in the immediate aftermath of the knife attack was quick to assert that the attacker had Irish citizenry: “The man, who is an Irish citizen and born in Ireland, can be questioned for up to 24 hours.”

However, those of us of a more cynical disposition across these islands have noticed in recent years that when the media rush to assert the Irish or British identity of a violent criminal, it usually signifies he’s from a non-European ethnic minority background. If last week’s Dublin knife attacker had been an indigenous Irish man, we wouldn’t have been informed of what passport he’s entitled to or where he was born. Similarly, the Welsh choirboy status of the Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana would never have been immediately asserted had he been a Welsh choirboy. Unfortunately for Ireland’s biased liberal-Left media and political establishment, there’s a thing called reality that people can now record on smartphones and see with their own eyes. So, as footage emerged online of last week’s knife attack, people noticed that the perpetrator wasn’t ethnically Irish and they pointed this out on social media. The media and police response was to accuse the people who noticed that the man wasn’t ethnically Irish of spreading misinformation.

It would appear that our governing and media elites only want us to notice ethnic and cultural diversity when they want us to regurgitate the diversity is our strength mantra. Last week’s knife attack by an ethnic Pakistani Muslim is an example of diversity not always being a strength and so the political and media establishment has pretended not to notice the ethnicity of the attacker and the culturally specific nature of what appears to be an Islamist style attack that is alien to Irish culture.

The cognitive dissonance of the open borders liberal-Left demands that diversity is a strength while simultaneously reacting to expressions of cultural incompatibility by insisting we are all the same.

Focusing on Abdullah Khan’s passport as opposed to his cultural identity is a way for the media to sidestep dealing with inconvenient truths that conflict with their pro-migration biases. According to the liberal-Left mindset, being Irish, British or European is just a matter of having the correct paperwork in order. While I’m not an ethnic nationalist, being of mixed ancestry myself, at the very least I expect ethnic minority citizens to fully integrate into the culture of their host society. They also need to remain firmly in the minority so that there’s a dominant, indigenous culture with which to integrate.

Two days after the Dublin knife attack, new footage was obtained and broadcast by the independent, conservative leaning media outlet Gript.

It showed the seconds leading up to the attack in which Abdullah Khan is seen running from behind towards the Garda while shouting “Allahu Akbar“. This is an Arabic phrase shouted by every Islamic terrorist during a terrorist attack.

The mainstream media’s response to this new footage has simply been to ignore it. It’s quite bewildering that in the days since Gript released updated footage that there hasn’t been a single article anywhere in the Irish media responding to recorded evidence of what appears to have been an Islamist terror attack in Dublin city centre. The mainstream media, the entire political class and the state appear to be content to leave it on the record that Abdullah Khan is just an ordinary Irish person who engaged in a violent attack and that the motive is so far unknown. When a Muslim from a migrant background living in any European country plunges a knife into someone from behind while shouting an Arabic phrase that precedes every jihadist attack, it’s a giveaway that he most definitely hasn’t integrated into his host culture and society. What’s more he clearly views his host society as his enemy. We should view him and his ilk accordingly. He is not one of us.

It is an egregious dereliction of duty for the Irish media not to query the apparent Islamist dimension of last week’s stabbing. Islamist terror is a significant threat right across Europe and has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years in brutal attacks. Had Abdullah Khan successfully immobilised the two Gardai, there’s a strong probability that he would have continued his attack on members of the public, as usually occurs during Islamist knife attacks. Several years ago, it was revealed by the UK authorities that approximately 40,000 potential Islamist terrorists are being monitored by the security services. Alarmingly, several high profile Islamist attacks were carried out by individuals not on the watchlist, which indicates that the figure of 40,000 potential Islamist terrorists in the UK is an underestimate.

Given that the Republic of Ireland shares a common travel area with the UK, any Islamists with a UK or Irish passport can move freely between both jurisdictions. In the aftermath of last week’s apparent Islamist stabbing, the media should be querying the extent of the Islamist terror threat in Ireland. However, to probe the Islamist terror threat also raises questions about Islamic immigration more generally and its overall compatibility with Western liberal democracy. This is a conversation that pro-migration zealots in the Irish media and political establishment are unwilling to have.

Any honest appraisal of mass Islamic immigrat

The fact that many Muslims are genuine moderates has no bearing on the very many who have views that place them on the extremist spectrum. The inconvenient truth for our political and media elites is that as your Islamic population grows so does the security threat posed by violent Islamists, along with the prevalence of cultural practices and value systems that are directly opposed to liberal democratic values. In 2016, former UK Labour Party politician Trevor Phillips conducted an opinion poll for Channel 4 which revealed that a range of extremist views incompatible with liberal democracy are widespread within Britain’s Muslim population. In fact, many Muslims living in Ireland also hold views that place them somewhere on the extremist spectrum, even if they don’t support terrorism in Western countries.

As I wrote for pieces in the Conservative Woman, I encountered such extremist mindsets in both Dublin and Manchester as well as detailing how Ireland’s largest mosque has close ties with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an affiliated organisation. Most people in Ireland are completely unaware of the extent of extremist views among Muslims living in Ireland. This is hardly surprising when the political and media class chooses to pretend that an ethnically Pakistani Muslim shouting Allahu Akbar while stabbing a Garda is as culturally Irish as making small talk about the weather. At some point, the Irish media and political class is going to have to engage with reality and the negative consequences of its preferred immigration policies.

What we see in trends right across Europe is that the threat from both violent and non-violent Islamism and cultural tensions related to mass Islamic immigration are only going to worsen. Pretending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away.

ion would reveal that Ireland, like other European countries, now has to contend with the threat of Islamist violence and other social pathologies from the Islamic world that were absent from our societies a few decades ago. Nowhere in Europe had female genital mutilation, forced marriages and people in hiding for contravening Islamic blasphemy laws before mass Islamic immigration. It doesn’t matter that most Muslims aren’t violent jihadists or that FGM isn’t practised by all Muslims (although Somalians do have a 99.2% FGM rate). 

 

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