The WTF News Files

[ueo]

Yup!

 

[George Wallace]

Where do loyalties lie?  Do National Security Concerns mean nothing if one wants to promote their own political agenda?

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre had a quiet mission to Iran, and now people have noticed
Graeme Hamilton | October 16, 2016 7:08 PM ET
More from Graeme Hamilton | @grayhamilton

MONTREAL — Denis Coderre’s city hall website provides regular updates of the jet-setting Montreal mayor’s travels. Currently, he is on a week-long mission to South America. Two weeks ago, he was in Beirut for a three-day conference of francophone mayors.

But one recent visit did not make it onto the website: an early October side trip to Iran to meet the mayor of Tehran, a prominent figure in the country’s repressive theocracy.

Members of Canada’s Iranian community learned of the trip through Iranian news sources. Some are outraged that Coderre would quietly meet in Tehran with a representative of a regime Canada has labelled a state supporter of terrorism.

“The Iranian regime is a terrorist regime,” said Shabnam Assadollahi, an Ottawa writer and human rights activist who was imprisoned in Iran as a teenager. “Why would the mayor of Montreal make quiet deals with a terrorist regime?”

According to an Oct. 2 report by the Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Coderre signed an agreement with Tehran in his role as president of Metropolis, an association of global cities. One photo shows the two smiling mayors sitting under a portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.


While the visit passed virtually unnoticed back home, Coderre’s meeting with Tehran Mayor Baqer Qalibaf was big news in Iran.

One photo of Coderre showed a desk-top Canadian flag and other coverage included the city of Montreal’s logo. The Tasnim report said Qalibaf expressed the hope Coderre’s visit would lead to “stronger cooperation” between Tehran and Montreal in “municipal and cultural affairs.”

The meeting came even though Canadian diplomatic ties with Iran continue to be ruptured. Canada closed its embassy in Tehran in 2012 for various reasons, including Iran’s nuclear program.

In June, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said official talks had begun about a resumption of ties, and last month he met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the United Nations in New York.

Payam Akhavan, a law professor at McGill University and founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, said Coderre’s visit offers propaganda value to a regime trying to overcome its pariah status.

He said Qalibaf, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2013, is seen as a pragmatist rather than a hardliner.

“He is not among the worst, but that’s a relative concept,” Akhavan said.

“The only politicians who survive are ones who are deemed to be ideologically safe, and who have compromised with the right people and the right interests. So having contact with them is nothing to celebrate.”

A former Revolutionary Guard officer, Qalibaf has called Israel “a cancerous tumour in the region” and bragged about his role in crushing student protests in 1999 and 2003.

Coderre’s office said he will not be available to comment on his Iran trip until he returns next week from meetings in Colombia and Ecuador.

Amir Khadir, a Québec Solidaire member of the National Assembly who was born in Iran, said he texted Coderre as soon as he learned the mayor was in Tehran. He asked Coderre to raise the matter of a recently imprisoned human-rights defender, but it was too late because Coderre’s official meetings were finished.

Khadir said he is satisfied Coderre has a strategy for addressing human-rights issues with the Iranians.

“As an opponent of the Iranian theocracy and dictatorship, I understand that some advocacy can be carried out despite the fact that this government in Iran is very deaf to any protests,” he said.

But Iraj Rezaei, president of the Council of Iranian Refugees and Immigrants in Toronto, said Coderre is deluded if he thinks he can prompt change in a regime that executes minors, imprisons critics and bars women from attending soccer matches. 

“The Iranian government has been there 33 years, and nothing has changed,” he sai

More on LINK.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Where do loyalties lie?  Do National Security Concerns mean nothing if one wants to promote their own political agenda?

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.


More on LINK.

This is one ex-Liberal politician I cannot stomach.  For me, he embodies what I find distasteful about the majority of them.

 

[Lightguns]

This is one ex-Liberal politician I cannot stomach.  For me, he embodies what I find distasteful about the majority of them.

Concur he is very much their poster boy, the very ethical centre of Canadian Liberalism.

 

[George Wallace]

[

This story reminds me of one I heard about Michael Kane and why he decided to leave the UK way back when.

A guy looked at my Corvette the other day and said I wonder how many people could have been fed for the money that sports car cost.
I replied I am not sure, it fed a lot of families in Bowling Green, Kentucky who built it, it fed the people who make the tires, it fed the people who made the components that went into it, it fed the people in the copper mine who mined the copper for the wires, it fed people in Decatur IL. at Caterpillar who make the trucks that haul the copper ore. It fed the trucking people who hauled it from the plant to the dealer and fed the people working at the dealership and their families. BUT,... I have to admit, I guess I really don't know how many people it fed.
That is the difference between capitalism and welfare mentality. When you buy something, you put money in people's pockets, and give them dignity for their skills.
When you give someone something for nothing, you rob them of their dignity and self worth.
Capitalism is freely giving your money in exchange for something of value.
Socialism is taking your money against your will and shoving something down your throat that you never asked for.

I've decided I can't be politically correct anymore. (I never was, actually)

 

[larry Strong]

If done postmortem as suggested, some people have a severely warped sense of humor...........

"Man found dead, bound to bench, with ham on his butt, genitals put in tuna can"

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/10/23/man-found-dead-bound-to-bench-with-ham-on-his-butt-genitals-put-in-tuna-can


Cheers
Larry

 

[Journeyman]

If done postmortem as suggested, some people have a severely warped sense of humor...........

But if alive, well who are we to judge what ol' hambutt did for enjoyment.  :nod:

 

[mariomike]

Sad demise of a Toronto trash panda.
http://imgur.com/gallery/4AMdJ

 

[mariomike]

It wouldn't be a Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC without 80 dump trucks filled with sand to protect against car bombs.
http://newjersey.news12.com/news/tons-of-security-dump-trucks-protect-macy-s-thanksgiving-day-parade-1.12657873

 

[Teager]

This one made me do a double take.  :facepalm:

UN elects Saudi Arabia to Human Rights Council, oversight on women’s rights

GENEVA, Nov. 21, 2016 – The UN just elected Saudi Arabia to a 3-year term on its Human Rights Council, and Saudi representative Abdulaziz Alwasil has arrived in Geneva to take up the post.

Membership on the UNHRC gives Saudi Arabia—which has the world’s worst record on women’s rights—the right to vote on, influence and oversee numerous mechanisms, resolutions and initiatives affecting the rights of women worldwide, including:

Elimination of discrimination against women
Equal participation [of women] in political and public affairs
Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
Accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women
The right to a nationality: women’s equal nationality rights in law and in practice
Addressing the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence in the context of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on the full enjoyment of all human rights by women and girls
Annual full day debate on women’s rights
Annual half-day panel on the integration of a gender perspective

And despite its horrific record on religious freedom and basic judicial norms, Saudi Arabia also will have a vote and oversight on:

Freedom of religion and belief
Integrity of the judicial system

http://www.unwatch.org/15032-2/

 

[Cloud Cover]

I wonder how Canada voted on that one?? The US appears to have supported it....

 

[George Wallace]

The saga continues.

A tale of two women who have become Canadian under very close to identical circumstances:

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

More on LINK.

and


More on LINK.

Questions from the Sun:  http://www.torontosun.com/2016/10/03/the-maryam-monsef-double-standard


A case of "ANIMAL FARM" indeed.

OK?

Why is Maryam Monsef still sitting in the House of Commons?

Now we see this today; under her Watch:  http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1159859

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Bill C-33: 7 Reforms to Increase Voter Participation and Electoral Integrity

The Government of Canada has introduced An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act in the House of Commons on November 24, 2016. The Bill includes seven measures that, if passed, would increase voter participation by breaking down barriers to voting while enhancing the efficiency and integrity of our elections.

The Voter Information Card (VIC) as identification (ID)

The Fair Elections Act excluded the VIC as a piece of ID a voter could use to cast a ballot. Elections Canada held a pilot project first in 2010 and then for the 2011 general election where certain polling places, such as long term care homes or seniors’ residences, could accept the VIC as a piece of ID. In 2011, approximately 900, 000 Canadians at 5,608 polling stations were eligible to use the VIC. The pilot was successful, and Canadians from these three groups successfully used their VIC to vote. The Chief Electoral Officer recommended allowing Canadians to use the VIC to vote but was prevented from doing so when the Fair Elections Act was passed. It excluded the VIC from the list of acceptable ID.

Canadians told us during the Electoral Reform Dialogue that they wanted us to remove barriers to voting. We heard stories from seniors turned away from the polls thinking they could use the VIC as ID. If passed, our bill would make it easier for people to vote by adding the VIC as an approved form of ID.

Restoring Vouching

Before the Fair Elections Act was passed voters could vouch for another eligible Canadian without proper ID. A February 2016 survey by Statistics Canada found that an estimated 172,000 non-voters stated lack of ID was a reason for not voting in the 2015 election. Indigenous people in particular were impacted by this. Canadians told us during the Electoral Reform Dialogue process that eliminating vouching created a barrier to voting. For example, homeless people without other forms of ID were unable to establish their identity or their eligibility to vote. Restoring vouching will make it easier for people to vote.

Expanding the Chief Electoral Officer’s communication mandate

The Fair Elections Act restricted the kind of public education campaigns the CEO could undertake. Currently, the CEO may only conduct educational programs with primary and high school age children. Canadians told us during the Electoral Reform Dialogue process that they wanted more done to improve civic literacy and to build knowledge about Canadian democracy. The CEO recommended his mandate be extended to undertake this kind of non-partisan public education work across Canada. Lack of information about voting can be a barrier to voting. This measure will lift this limit and allow the CEO to communicate with Canadians without restrictions.

Creating a National Register of Future Electors

Canadians told us they wanted to encourage young people to vote. Research has found that when people vote in one election, they are more likely to make it a life-long habit. A 2004 Yale University study found that one of the best predictors of future voting habits are past voting habits. The CEO recommended that one way of preparing young people to vote would be by introducing youth pre-registration. If passed, our bill would allow Elections Canada to work with young people in schools and other settings to sign up to vote. Pre-registration would be open to Canadian youth ages 14-17. They would be added to a new National Register of Future Electors, maintained by Elections Canada, allowing them access to educational resources and other information about democracy, elections and voting. When they turn 18, Pre-Electors will automatically be added to the National Register of Electors, putting them in a better position to vote.

Cleaning Up the National Register of Electors

The Chief Electoral Officer has asked for more tools to continually improve Elections Canada’s National Register of Electors, on which they estimate there is a very small proportion of people who are not eligible to vote. Our bill, if passed, would give Elections Canada new resources to clean up the data in the register. It will help Elections Canada operate more efficiently. The previous government introduced legislation to address this issue in the previous Parliament, but the bill did not become law.

Relocating the Commissioner of Canada Elections

The Commissioner of Canada Elections is a non-partisan official responsible for investigating potential voting issues such as voter fraud or financial irregularities. The Commissioner ensures the Canada Elections Act rules are followed. From 1974 to 2014, the CEO appointed the Commissioner and the Commissioner reported to the CEO within Elections Canada. The Fair Elections Act transferred the Commissioner to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Director reports through the Attorney General to Parliament, unlike the CEO who reports directly to Parliament. We heard from Canadians during the Electoral Reform Dialogue that there were concerns the Commissioner could be subject to less independence. Our bill will enhance the integrity of the election system by clarifying this situation.

Expanding Voting Rights to Canadians Living Abroad

Today, Canadians living abroad may only vote within five years of leaving Canada and must have an intention to return. These restrictions are currently being challenged before the Supreme Court of Canada. We heard during the Electoral Reform Dialogue process from Canadians living abroad who wanted to participate in Canadian elections. This proposal does not impact Canadian Forces voters. The Canada Elections Act will continue to require Canadian citizens to have lived in Canada at one time. Our bill will remove a barrier to voting and will extend voting rights to over one million Canadians living abroad.

Date modified: 2016-11-24

That this woman is still a Cabinet Minister, let alone still sitting in the House of Commons, after being exposed as entering Canada and attaining Canadian Citizenship under false pretenses, simply amazes me.  Now for her office to push to bring back a flawed procedure where someone can VOUCH for another person at the polls, seems to reek of something foul to me. 


NOTE:  CAF personnel serving overseas clause is: NO CHANGE.


I am getting quite concerned with the changes being made to Canadian Laws by this Government.  Changes have been made in reference to bestiality, age of consent, the Elections Act, and several other Acts, and I am wondering where this will lead us as a predominantly Judeo-Christian society.

 

[ModlrMike]

...a predominantly Judeo-Christian society.

Whatever represents the opposite of the above phrase.

 

[jollyjacktar]

The saga continues.

OK?

Why is Maryam Monsef still sitting in the House of Commons?

Now we see this today; under her Watch:  http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1159859

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

That this woman is still a Cabinet Minister, let alone still sitting in the House of Commons, after being exposed as entering Canada and attaining Canadian Citizenship under false pretenses, simply amazes me.  Now for her office to push to bring back a flawed procedure where someone can VOUCH for another person at the polls, seems to reek of something foul to me. 


NOTE:  CAF personnel serving overseas clause is: NO CHANGE.


I am getting quite concerned with the changes being made to Canadian Laws by this Government.  Changes have been made in reference to bestiality, age of consent, the Elections Act, and several other Acts, and I am wondering where this will lead us as a predominantly Judeo-Christian society.

Nothing more than the Lieberals showing themselves to be as dry as the underside of a snail.  Business as usual... slimy bastards.

 

[mariomike]

The first concern of the Lt. Gov of Louisiana after a mass shooting in NOLA?
That tourists will be scared away.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2016/11/28/new-orleans-shooting/94564038/

I'm sure it looked like this. 

New Orleans welcomes you...

 

[Bzzliteyr]

Nothing more than the Lieberals showing themselves to be as dry as the underside of a snail.  Business as usual... slimy bastards.

Wait, are they dry? Or Slimy? You can't have it both ways.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Wait, are they dry? Or Slimy? You can't have it both ways.

I have yet to come across a dry snail.  If you do, you'll be famous.

 

[medicineman]

Sure everyone has seen this by now...took me til today of course, but is good for a bit of a laugh, especially the Aussie Howard Cossell play by play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIRT7lf8byw

MM

 

[Good2Golf]

Wow!

https://www.facebook.com/AwarenessAct/videos/1524335194247679

 

[Jarnhamar]

"MTV News"  Probably the most racist video I've seen in a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=8Kxpm7GAjV4