Canada

A forensic analysis of Statistics Canada data on the composition of recent inflation confirms that fossil fuels haven’t protected Canadians from affordability problems. In fact, fossil fuels were the biggest single cause of those problems.

The 2022 spike in global oil prices, channeled immediately into higher prices for fossil fuel products sold in Canada, was by far the biggest single factor setting off post-pandemic inflation. From January 2021 through June 2022 (when inflation peaked), consumer prices for fossil fuels grew 81 per cent. Prices for fossil fuels used as inputs by businesses grew even more, by 127 per cent.

The direct costs of higher fossil fuels caused almost half of all consumer price inflation in that time—and more than half of inflation over the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target. Add in the indirect costs faced by businesses in other industries (from agriculture to transportation to construction) for their fossil fuel purchases, all passed on to consumers, and the dominant role of fossil fuels in the inflationary surge is clear.

This will be shocking news to Canadians who blamed the carbon tax, or immigrants, or Justin Trudeau personally, for inflation and affordability challenges after the pandemic. It’s no accident that vested interests—from the oil industry to the Conservative Party—have tried to divert Canadians’ righteous anger toward those scapegoats. They don’t want us to know where the true problem originated.

Since that price spike did not reflect fundamental economic factors (like supply and demand, or cost of production), it fed directly into the profits of petroleum corporations around the world—including in Canada. Canadian oil and gas operating profits grew by $151 billion (compared to 2019 levels) from 2022 through 2024.

They changed the headline on this article. It originally read, "Polievre launches campaign with a pitch to heal, 'a divided country'" which made me laugh because he's spent so much time whipping up the white grievance that carried Trump to power in the US and trying desperately to ride the same wave of populist bullshit with the same message as Trump. When he's railing about the, "woke" and "political correctness" that suggests that we can expect an all out assault of LGBTQ+ rights, brown people, books, and anything else they don't like.

https://youtu.be/R59JmC0u63I

Found this posted in reddit. Thought it was interesting.

https://smartvoting.ca/

Police say a woman was in the library studying when they allege she was approached by an unknown woman who yelled profanities at her while throwing objects at her head.

They say the 25-year-old suspect then tried to remove the woman's hijab while pouring an unknown liquid onto it.

Police allege the suspect grabbed a lighter and attempted to set the hijab on fire but the woman screamed for help and security intervened.

I've got a really big desire to scratch the protest itch.

Premier David Eby says the province has ‘unlimited’ potential when it comes to critical minerals. Used to make everything from weapons to renewables, critics question whether B.C.'s rush to mine copper, lithium and more could impact the environment and Indigenous Rights

Canadian banks have a money laundering problem. But it turns out there are worse operators on Canadian soil:

The Canadian subsidiary of China’s biggest bank repeatedly broke the law by failing to review risky clients, report suspicious transactions and respect police production orders despite multiple warnings from FinTRAC about its faulty financial-crime controls, according to the regulator’s findings in confidential documents reviewed by The Globe and Mail.

From the Globe.

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20250320-french-scientist-denied-us-entry-over-text-messages-criticising-trump

For anyone out of the loop certain people have latched onto this thing about Carney's possible PAST assets that isn't a standard for anyone else. What I'd like to bring up one of the people pushing this stuff out is CBC.

This is the same thing we've seen Americans news outlets do where as Trump style politics has completely overtaken the right wing politics and the Traditional Media has been trying make things look fair and balanced by artificially making the insane look sane while the anyone else is held to a increasingly high standard.

Current day mainstream media is already heavily right wing dominated.

collapsed inline media

Going back to CBC I don't understand what they're doing because the right wing thinks they're propaganda while the left has to watch them put out straight up hit pieces while begging to be saved.

I already brought this up leading up to the BC election when CBC had no real substance on a story and essentially just brought in random people to shit on the BC NDP.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-assets-questions-1.7486242

Carney announced last week that he has put his financial assets into a blind trust to shield himself from any conflicts of interest.

.....

A blind trust means Carney's financial assets are handled by a trustee who has the legal authority to manage them but who is barred from seeking his input. Carney wouldn't know what is in his blind trust portfolio, but would know what those assets were before they were divested.

Under the current government ethics rules meant to guard against conflicts of interest, Carney had 60 days to disclose his assets to the ethics commissioner upon being sworn in and another 60 days before that information goes public.

Asked Monday if he should disclose what financial holdings he had before they were put into the blind trust, Carney said he has exceeded the expectations of the current rules and is being held to a different standard.

....

"Your line of questioning is trying to invent new rules. I'm complying with the rules that Parliament has laid out and… I will continue to comply with those rules," he said.

Also whatever this is :

Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back on reporter questions about his financial holdings during a news conference on Monday.

The unnamed reported in question is Rosemary Barton - Chief Political Correspondent for CBC the same news network he works for.

"Exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws."

"Our ability to provide consular assistance in China is limited due to the level of transparency in China’s judicial system. It may also impact your ability to obtain effective legal assistance."

In China, you may also be subject to:

• severe punishments, even for non-violent acts such as financial crimes. Chinese authorities may also apply the death penalty for crimes deemed serious, including drug offences
• an exit ban, which you may only learn about as you go through customs and immigration controls when trying to leave China. An exit ban may prevent you from leaving the country if you, your family or your employer and/or business associates are involved in any open civil or criminal investigations, including business disputes

If you are a dual citizen, you should always travel using your valid Canadian passport and present yourself as Canadian to Chinese authorities. If you enter China on a Chinese passport or identity card, the Chinese government may consider you a citizen of China, and refuse to grant you access to Canadian consular services.

[...]

The US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. It was built deliberately to straddle the frontier between the two countries – a symbol of cooperation and friendship between Canada and the US.

The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side. Previously, Canadian visitors were able to enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side but were encouraged to bring documentation, according to the library’s website.

Inside, a line of electrical tape demarcates the international boundary. About 60% of the building, including the books, is located in Canada. Upstairs, in the opera house, the audience sits in the US while the performers are in Canada.

MBFC
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Canada’s largest Muslim organisation is outraged over a bill introduced by the Quebec government that would ban headscarves for school support staff and students.

“In Quebec, we made the decision that state and the religion are separate,” said Education Minister Bernard Drainville, CBC News reported. “And today, we say the public schools are separate from religion.”

But the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), who are challenging in the Supreme Court the original bill that forbids religious symbols being worn by teachers, say the new bill is another infringement on their rights and unfairly targets hijab-wearing Muslims.

“This renewed attack on the fundamental rights of our community is just one of several recent actions taken by this historically unpopular government to bolster their poll numbers by attacking the rights of Muslim Canadians,” the NCCM said in a social media post.