Catsup Canada

 Trudy reshuffles cabinet amid soaring interest rates, wildfires, etc, but is more concerned with bashing Bebe. As goofy as his dad Pierre.

Clinics in Calgary, and elsewhere in Canada are offering membership fees and finding ways to skirt around the law. Apparently, folks are requesting ways to get better service.

Canada censors social media. Here's a line from the late Gord Downie's, "Boots or hearts". See when it starts,To fall apart, Man, it really falls apart.

Sept 20, 2023

Trudeau accuses India of involvement in the death of Nijjar, 45, in British Columbia but offers no proof. India says Ninjar was a bad guy, Both sides are goofy, so far.

Sept 26, 2023.

Hey Rota, a quick glance at a history book would've helped. Dear Canada, try vetting. you would've learned that old soldier was in a Ukranian Nazi squad.

Oct 4, 2023

Trudy's word for the day: Denialism. Good luck Canada!

Oct 22, 2023

Canada pledges additional $50 million to help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. F'N crazy!

Nov 26, 2023

Poilievre's Conservatives vote against carbon tax for Ukraine. CUFTA still made it through the committee stage.but Trudy keeps whining.

Feb 28, 2024

Trudy's Liberal pals in Canada introduced a bill claiming to combat online hate that would force major companies to quickly remove harmful content and boost the penalty for inciting genocide to life in prison. Of course, they use the cover of protecting children from online predators.

Who defines genocide?

April 6, 2024

CRA reversed a rule change just days before the T3 filing deadline, after many taxpayers already had done their (Bare Trust )preparation work.

Bare trust:  a person has legal ownership of a property or asset but doesn't hold beneficial ownership.

May 4, 2024

 Canadian police arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. This keeps getting uglier.

May 13, 2024

Trudeau Backs Away from Tax Threat on REIT s, breaking a power sharing promise to the NDP to tackle the so called financialization of the housing market.

June 8, 2024

The Bank of Canada trimmed its key policy rates to 4.75% from 5%, and is the first G7 country to do so, in an attempt to ease pressure on highly indebted consumers. 

I'm not feeling a  downward trajectory on inflation.

June 26 2024

Trudy's Liberal Party lost a safe seat in a special election.Conservative  Don Stewart won the race in the Toronto-St Paul's constituency. First time a conservative has won there since 1988.

 Election was called after the previous legislator quit.

Aug 22, 2024

Trudeau on rail freight traffic coming to a standstill over labor dispute.“It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table,”. Tiresome cliche from Trudy

(CN) and CPKC railroads both locked out their employees after the deadline passed yesterday without new agreements.

Sept 21, 2024

Trudy's poll numbers are below 30%. Trudeau's Liberal Party lost a crucial parliament seat in a special election in Montreal a few days ago.

The narrow loss in Montreal's federal electoral district of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun is the second defeat in three months for Trudeau's minority Liberal government.Liberal candidate Laura Palestini cfinished behind the Bloc Quebecois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé.

Oct 22, 2024

Some Liberal MPs  in Canada are committing themselves to trying to force Trudeau out of the party leadership. Doubt if it will occur, but it's noteworthy.

Nov 12, 2024

Health care in Canada: ER at South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver, B.C., was closed for 31 hours this weekend,  the third type of closure this month.

No clear explanations.

 earlier blog Hawaii Canada

Hawaii, Canada

 In a previous blog Cale-mut carcasses- variety pack I rambled on about the 49th parallel, the Ambassador Bridge, the Treaty of Ghent,  while discussing the history of relations between the USA and Canada. Today, I stumbled across a story about thousands of Hawaiians settling in the British Columbia’s Gulf Islands in the mid 1800s.  In the late 1850s, when the border between the US and present-day Canada solidified, many Hawaiians moved north, where they were able to attain the rights of British citizenship. The Gulf Islands in Canada are scattered across the Salish Sea between Vancouver and Southern Vancouver Island.

Dec 3

 Vancouver Police Chief #AdamPalmer pushing back against budget cuts: "We're one of the few services the city provides that is an essential service. We're not a nice-to-have, we're a must-have." More police chiefs should be that frank.

dec 9

In other news, Canadian conservatives are debating 24-7 on Bill C-7 which is supposed to bring Canada's assisted-dying law into compliance with a Quebec Superior Court ruling last fall, which struck down a provision that allows assisted dying only for people whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

Jan 6, 2020

I started reading "Scoundrels of the Salish sea" to  get more acquainted with the Pacific Northwest, and found out a little more about the Battle of Puget Sound and the Battle of Seattle, including how the courts take their time. In  December 10, 2004 a historical court convened in Pierce County, Washington ruled “as a legal combatant of the Indian War… Leschi, a Nisqually Chief,  should not have been held accountable under law for the death of an enemy soldier in 1858 and exonerated him, but did not declare that Leschi did not kill territorial militia Col. A.B. Moses. Leschi was hung in 1858.

Jan 12, 2021

 Thankfully, Trudeau doesn't get to choose if there's a snap election in Canada in 2021, and he knows his Liberals could lose. “Our priority as a government is going to be helping people get through this pandemic … it’s not in our interests to have an election,”. Polling data suggests Liberals would fall short of winning a majority.

Jan 13, 2021

Trudeau blocked Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co. from buying a gold mine in the Canadian Arctic . He got one right. Many opponents of the purchase have argued it would give China too much access to the Arctic .

Jan 28, 2021

While making my way through Scoundrels of the Salish Sea, I read a  story about the Billingsleys, a family of bootleggers from Oklahoma who used Seattle area pharmacies to circumvent the state of Washington's prohibition laws. One of those guys left a son  named Glenn behind in Oklahoma. An actress, Barbara Combes, married him. Say hi to June Cleaver of the Leave it Beaver TV show. #BarbaraBillingsley

Feb 22, 2021

On March 3 Niagara Falls will be illuminated in the Bulgarian flag colors, white, green and red, to mark  the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Canada. It can be seen during this time frame 22:00 and 22:15 Canadian time (05:00 - 05:15 in Bulgaria) from both the Canadian coast and the United States.

April 3, 2021

I finished "Scoundrels of the Salish Sea" and the last third of the book was thin on details and riveting stories about the 1930s and 40s in Washington. However, it did remind me that some things never change. For example,  a prosecutor can later become the defense attorney for someone he or she once prosecuted or vice-versa.

April 16, 2021

Oh Canada  who Can Keep Returning Asylum Seekers to the USA for now.

Sure looks like they're using the pandemic to be less friendly to asylum seekers. Many were entering the country at an unofficial border crossing between New York state and the Canadian province of Quebec where the Safe Third Country Agreement doesn’t apply. In 2020 the Canadian government tightened border restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

May 1, 2021

Part of Canada's consideration of lighter criminal sentences to combat racism includes proposed changes on some firearm convictions, such as unauthorized possession and use of certain weapons in situations not linked to organized crime. This would allow Judges to issue a sentence they deem appropriate under the circumstances.

While I think Canada's gun laws are nuts,  it's crazy that they want divide crime into organized  or individual , for lack of a better description.

May 11, 2021

Wild, wild west Canada: Man killed in gang-related violence at Vancouver airport in broad daylight. Police caught up with the getaway SUV, but the pursuing officer did not return fire from the escaping suspects in a busy area and stopped the pursuit.

May 28, 2021

Canada wants to force YouTube, TikTok, and other video- and audio-sharing sites to prominently feature it's nation's artists so here comes censorship and a less open marketplace.

aug 29, 2021

Polling shows Conservatives with a slim lead over Trudeau’s Liberal Party as Canada readies for the upcoming September 20 vote that Trudeau triggered in hopes of solidifying his power.

Sept 25, 2021

I don't know if the crossbow shooter in Vancouver was bored or mean or both when he shot a bolt from the fire escape of an apartment building and struck a man just below the knee cap. He left his crossbows, replica assault rifles, scopes, and lights and lasers and fled safely away.

Nov 11, 2021

This is going to be a nightmare: Canada Strips Military of Powers to Investigate Sexual Misconduct.

 All investigations and prosecutions of sexual offenses in the military will be handled by civilian law enforcement.

Feb 1, 2022

Trudeau calls trucker protest an 'insult to truth'. Congrats Trudy. you're now qualified to a be a fact checker for FBook.

Feb 10, 2022

Quebec MP Joël Lightbound, a fellow Liberal, criticized Trudy this week for demonizing groups that disagree with Covid mandates.

Feb 13, 2022

I missed this item from earlier this month. Quebec Premier Francois Legault dropped plans to tax unvaccinated residents amid backlash. How could he not foresee anger over this nonsense?

June 4. 2022

The Progressive Conservatives were on track to win at least 83 of the provincial legislature's 124 seats in the province of Ontario., They held 67 in the last legislature. Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives came to power in 2018 after 15 years of Liberal rule.

June 8, 2022

Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault sent a report to Canada's House of Commons suggesting it should be illegal to knowingly spread disinformation about the voting process. So he wants Canada to have a Ministry of Truth?

Sept 29, 2022

Thaw Nandar Aung, the Myanmar beauty queen, who had spoken out against military rule in her country and was left in limbo at Thailand's airport, found temporary sanctuary.  She will live in Prince Edward Island, a province off Canada's Atlantic coast, with the government's assistance, but her official status in Canada is unknown.

Nov 2, 2022

The Punjab referendum is asking people of Sikh origin in several countries whether they want the Sikh-majority Indian state to become an independent nation. It is unofficial and non-binding and is stirring up tensions in Canada which is one of the first to hold votes. There are folks waving flags of Khalistan, the independent state that some Sikhs want to see carved out of India, and the nationalists brandishing the Indian flag.  I'm not sure if the vote in Canada is being held on public or private property.

Nov 30, 2022

 Alberta's government has introduced a bill that would grant Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet broad powers to rewrite provincial laws behind closed doors in an effort to push back against Trudy and the folks in Ottawa. This should be entertaining.

Jan 25, 2023

And I thought Trudy and Biden were buds. Canada is upset that the USA plans to maintain tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber imports which are the legacy of a decades-long trade dispute over the structure of Canada's timber sector that were not resolved when a quota agreement expired in 2015.

March 23, 2023

Han Dong will be sitting as an independent MP instead of as Trudy Liberal after being the subject of foreign interference allegations including that he suggested to a senior Chinese diplomat in February 2021 that China should delay releasing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians who had been imprisoned in China from 2018 to 2021, in order to avoid benefitting the Conservative Party.

April 8, 2023

Canada will deploy Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora Aircraft to Japan to support implementation of United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea. Trudy is all over the map.

May 17, 2023

More "Chinese police stations" operating in Canada months after Public Safety Minister Mendincino claimed otherwise.

Feb 10, 2024

I missed this from 2022 land acknowledgement syllabus speech battles: Stuart Reges, a computer science professor at UW:

“I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

Cale-mut carcasses- variety pack

Jospeh Heywood's novel Red Jacket of the the labor unrest that led to the Italian Hall Disater of 1913 in Calumet , Michigan has been an  amusing read  despite some of the gruesome events because the main character Lute Bapcat, ex -Rough Rider, ex-trapper, then game warden, is a well developed  character.  Lute was an orphan and his name was short for Lutheran/Catholic/Baptist. It's disturbing to read the coal mine operators were  possibly hiring men to kill deer  and let them rot so the strikers would have less food options.  I'm midway through the book and haven't discovered if the operators were guilty

I'll mosey along to one of the starker images in  a rock & roll song. "They sleep in each other's nests like maggots in despair," from John Cale's song :

Strange times in Casa Blanca

A tune by Elephant's Memory Mongoose

shortened life cycle theme over for now

3/26/13

I finished Red Jacket yesterday. The final third of the book felt like a quick scramble to finish. Apparently, a slightly retarded  character was encouraged to scream beer which was misheard as fire and led to the stampede. Bapcat and his LEO cohorts were unable to make a solid legal connection between the "deerkillers" and the operators.

5/21/13

  How Michigan would be if the Brits had won the War of 1812  and extended the Canadian boundary further south? Siege of Detroit-1812

10/11/13

 My reading compass guided me in the direction of Canada  again, but I detoured in the fictional small town of New Bremen , Minnesota. I've enjoyed the Krueger's Cork O'Conner mystery series but his  growing injection of gun control sloganeering into his later novels was irritating. His latest effort , Ordinary Grace, is a stand alone centered around the family of a Methodist minister and WW2 vet, Rev. Drum. The narrator is his oldest son Frank  as he looks back to 1961, the summer his oldest sister Ariel was murdered. His mom 's lack of interest in God but devotion to the church choir was one one of many aspects that had me wishing for more background on her character. For my blog readers who like music, piano playing and singing were integral parts of the novel.

11/2/13

I just finished the book Black Irish by Stephan Tulty  which described smuggling IRA soldiers  in the trunk of the car over the USA/Canadian border at Niagra Falls in the 1980's, and I started thinking about how much of our vast northern border allows for free movement. I'm referring to unpaved ground.

12/22/13

I  watched a PBS program on the 1913 copper strike and saw Steve Earle covering Woody Guthrie's slightly inaccurate folk tune 1913 massacre about  the Italian hall disaster in Calumet. The show pointed out that the strike failed but Congress  was influenced to pass some legislation favorable to workers.
http://www.pbs.org/program/red-metal/

3/2/14

This entry is getting a lot of hits. I had another chuckle about the name Lute Bapcat. My German language teacher in high school used to call me RC (Roman Catholic). Of course, he was a Lutheran. I've lapsed.

7/5/14

Baltimore is gearing up for  a September celebration of  the 200th anniversary of FSK writing the Star Spangled banner. Brits  were damn close to  some revenge for the American Revolution defeat. Re-read the link on 5/21/13 post.

9/27/14

The latest  books, Tamarack County and Windigo Island, in the Cork'Oconnor series have been disappointing. The O'Connor character  had a more balanced approach  to the relations between  the whiteman and the native American earlier in the series, but now I feel like he's ready to make the NFL Redskins drop their name..  Cork's son Stephen has become an official mythological seer. It's time for Krueger to re-adjust.

12/17/14

I'm behind on this bureaucratic Detroit /Toronto battle over the bridge :

Ambassador Bridge, the aging Windsor-Detroit structure that handles nearly one-third of Canada-U.S. trade.

4/11/15

It may seem mundane but this private vs public bridge battle intrigues me. link

Before anyone gets to thinking that a new Detroit River span to rival the 85-year-old Ambassador Bridge is as good as done, Manuel (Matty) Moroun still has some legal cards to play.....has argued that the congressional act creating the Ambassador Bridge amounts to a franchise right for spans over the Detroit River.

12/22/15

This issue remains on my radar and it appears that falling concrete can't speed up bureaucrats. link

 Last week, officials in Windsor closed some streets under the bridge, saying chunks of concrete fell from beneath the 86-year-old span posing a serious danger.

2/20/16

Catching up on bridge news. The new bridge, Gordie Howe International Bridge, is a planned bridge and border crossing to be constructed across the Detroit River. When all else fails turn to hockey.

5/22/16

Mountains of the Misbegotten, #2 in the Bapcat series, looks to be a good one. The UPI region near the Michigan /Wisonsin border was /is treacherous.

6/18/16

A blurb  about the USA/Canada border in the this day in history section of the June 15 print edition of the Baltimore Sun stirred my interest. What is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and large portions of British Columbia, had been under joint occupancy- imagine that.  We (USA) settled with the Brits on the 49th parallel on June 15, 1846 because we were facing a poosible war with Mexico on our southern border.

8/27/16

Headed for Hampton VA for our annual cousins' fantasy football draft and we may take in a Norfolk Tides game this weekend, too.  Here's a memo from the war of 1812.

“Virginia . . . hangs onthe fate of Norfolk”—Gen. Robert Barraud Taylor on the Defense of Norfolk, 1812–1813 

10/23/16

I started this blog about the UPI and have meandered to Virginia.
Oct 19, 1781: #Cornwalis surrendered at Yorktown
Oct 19 1864: Union General #PhilipSheridan averted a near disaster in the Shenandoah Valley when  scored a major victory that devastated Confederate General Early’s army at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.

2/7/17

16 #plainsbison have been  reintroduced to Banff National Park in Alberta.
They were delivered by truck.

2/21/17

Read a few pages of a thick biography on #HenryClay and learned he played a big role in blocking the Brits from having access to the Mississippi River as a part of the Treaty of Ghent. Clay may have disliked #johnadams, his negotiating partner, more than the Brits across the table.

3/24/17

A story that won't fade away. #ambassadorbridge subsidiary Canadian Transit Company is being sued by homeowners.Windsor won't repair dilapidated homes or allow them to be demolished. Love  explanations from residents of the area.  ambassador bridge

7/22/17

Well, they still haven't started the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge but #trump and #trudeau

want 'expeditious' completion of Detroit-Windsor bridge

8/29/17

I know museums are careful how they display history, but  the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown's brief post  on #cornwalis ' career after his defeat at #yorktown still has me puzzled. I paraphrase: he eliminated corruption in #India.. Overall, it's a solid museum.

10/18/17

#quebec gets it. Part of #Bill62  will  stop provincially subsidised childcare services from offering religious education.

2/24/18

City of Ice, a crime novel about Montreal cops in the late 90's , by Trevor Ferguson , aka John Farrow, was both riveting and frustrating. Some situations were explained ad nauseum  while others were resolved in a sentence. The book was dedicated to #danieldesrochers, an eleven-year child killed by a bikers bomb in 1995. Cinq-Mars, the central character, was a bit too all-knowing. CIA conspiracies had me shaking my head.

3/27/18

Seeking #canadien input :  Apparently a waiter, Guillaume Rey  in Vancouver was fired for being too direct with co-workers.  I love his  explanation

" I'm not rude, just French"

6/19/18

 How will the Trump/ Trudy trade spat affect the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge  ?

8/21/18

A woman  questioning his  #trudeau 's open door policies,  asked whether he is tolerant of the "Quebecois de souche" (old-stock Quebecers). And Trudy replied "your racism has no place here." Clearly Trudy lacks tolerance  and may want to be careful piercing the French "wound" .

11/9/18

#Canada offered opening its dairy market to the USA in trade talks. The debate in Canada is: Was it a concession or compromise?

1/4/19

Will a  citizen petition to Congress  to give Canada back the #NorthwestAngle (part of Minnesota) located near Manitoba.gain traction?

2/28/19

Is Trudy in trouble in Canada? Former Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould testified that "the prime minister asked me to help out, to find a solution for SNC, a Montral based firm accused of bribing officials in the Libyan government under strongman Muammar Gaddafi between 2001 and 2011.

3/31/19

 On the tape, Wernick,Clerk of the Privy Council,  told Wilson-Raybould that the prime minister "is determined, quite firm," in avoiding criminal prosecution of "a signature Canadian firm".  Trudy's  #SNC dilemma worsens.

4/29/19

# dike bursts, and flood waters threaten #montreal and #JustinTrudeau highlighted the need to make infrastructure that was "climate resilient." Hey, I ain't making this up!

8/26/19

Another trip  to an area, the Jamestown Settlement, rich in history, and I watch  a video that labeled  #nathanielbacon, a lower class rebel  who disliked the Native Indian tribes, but I read a few of the posted information displays outside the mini theater and discovered Bacon was a property owner and his 1676 rebellion  was part of a bigger power play funded by William Drummond, a one time govenor in Albemarle County(later part of NC)  against Royal Colonial Gov Berkeley. The trio at the core of the battle had some "issues".

9/18/19

Back to Canada:  #CameronOrtis , a civilian cyber security guy in the #RCMP , faces a combination of charges which  imply he's been hacking  and/or stealing sensitive info through digital networks and passing it along.

9/19/19

#trudeau 's  re-election campaign was rocked by the bombshell report, first published by Time magazine, which Trudeau didn't refute,  that he wore "brownface makeup" as part of a costume at an Arabian Nights-themed party at a British Columbia school where he taught 2000-01.

1/8/20

 The Palace will respond to reports that #MeghanMarkle and Prince Harry are planning a move to Canada.

3/4/20

  Between Dec. 20 and Feb. 21, up to 20,000 of Tim Hortons app users saw their balances and rewards vanish and the company has been slow to address the issues.

May 14, 2020

 Calgary Zoo in Canada is sending two giant pandas back to China because it's unable to get enough bamboo to feed them. Bamboo makes up to 99% of their diet.

Jan 30, 2022

 Since I've visited Hampton, VA nearly every year since 2010, I've noticed the news that Hampton U was moving upward from the Big South to CAA in sports, just a few years after exiting the MEAC, a small black sports conference. Great to see the Pirates' move but please stop shouting about the plights of HBCUs. Opportunity calls and some answer.

Feb 8, 2022

Trudy shut down the Ambassador Bridge and a Canadian judge bans truckers from honking.