Canada

I hope they do this bit with a flight company next time.

It is YouTube, should I tag it as NSFW because of the gimp suit and the sexual theme of this sketch?

Archived link

...

The Gulf state committed to invest USD$70 billion in Canada, covering energy, AI logistics, mining and several other strategic sectors. Furthermore, Ottawa framed the trip as part of a broader pivot away from U.S. trade dependence as Donald Trump’s tariffs reshape global commerce. Carney’s government wants to double non-U.S. exports within ten years and attract $1 trillion in new investment over five years.

Carney said Ottawa is also working to finalize a USD$1-billion project that will expand Canada’s critical minerals processing capacity. He told the Canada–U.A.E. Business Council that the deal would create jobs and increase the long-term supply of minerals needed for advanced manufacturing. He suggested that more details will follow soon.

Canada’s ambitions come as global pressure mounts to diversify mineral supply chains. Many of these minerals power electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and defense technologies. However, China dominates most stages of the sector. According to the International Energy Agency, China holds an average market share of 70 per cent for 19 of 20 key minerals. It refines 91 per cent of rare earth elements. In 2024, it controlled 96 per cent of refined graphite, 78 per cent of refined cobalt, 70 per cent of refined lithium and 44 per cent of refined copper.

...

Canada operates several domestic facilities that process aluminum and uranium, and it maintains a few copper, nickel and zinc smelters. However, it has little or no refining capacity for lithium or rare earth elements. This gap presents a major challenge for any attempt to build full supply chains within the country.

...

Canada has tried to move up the chain. Its 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy set out a plan to secure supply, attract investment and expand domestic processing. The federal list includes 34 minerals deemed essential for economic or national security reasons. The list includes antimony.

...

Only eight of Canada’s 32 critical mineral processing centers are owned by Canadian companies. In addition, the rest belong to parent companies based in the United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, Brazil, France, Germany and Luxembourg.

At the end of October, the federal government announced the first round of projects under a G7 critical minerals alliance. The initiative further aims to counter China’s dominance by building supply networks among allied countries. Global News also reported that the 25 approved items include offtake agreements for a Quebec graphite mine and funding to expand rare earth processing in Ontario.

...

Canada also agreed to support a Norwegian company’s plan to build a synthetic graphite plant in St. Thomas, Ontario. Vianode said earlier this year that it signed a multi-billion-dollar supply deal with General Motors. Export Development Canada may finance up to $500 million of the Ontario project. Graphite plays a central role in EV battery anodes.

A Ucore Rare Metals facility in Kingston, Ontario, also received conditional approval for up to $36 million in federal funding. The refinery aims to scale processing of samarium and gadolinium. These elements appear in nuclear technology and MRI equipment. The plant expects to begin production in 2026.

...

Rare earth elements represent an area with significant potential. Saskatchewan Research Council officials said in 2022 that Canada holds large rare earth resources. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated Canada’s rare-earth oxide equivalent reserves at 830,000 tonnes in 2024. Meanwhile, China holds 44 million tonnes, and Brazil holds 21 million tonnes. Another CBC News report estimated more than 14 million tonnes of rare earth oxides in Canadian ground. There are 21 active rare earth projects moving through exploration and evaluation stages across the country.

Canada also currently has only one producing rare earth mine. Nechalacho in the Northwest Territories, owned by Vital Metals, ships its ore to Saskatchewan for initial processing before final separation in Norway. China operates thousands of mines, including the massive Bayan Obo complex, and produced 270,000 tonnes of rare earths in 2024.

Witnessing the ongoing public debate about fighter jets and submarines this fall has felt a lot like watching people argue over baseball, hockey or some other team sport.

Naturally, it has been particularly uncompromising online where the characteristics and quirks of each aircraft and boat have been analyzed to the nth degree with the kind of fan worship usually reserved for pro franchises.

Wrapping our heads around what’s needed to properly secure and defend the Arctic, Wark said, will be an excellent starting point for institutions that have been inwardly focused for the last several years.

“It's going to be a major defence commitment for Canada, and is going to impose all kinds of new ways of thinking about the equipment that the Canadian Armed Forces needs, the training it needs, infrastructure it needs, the planning it needs, the intelligence it needs,” said Wark, who believes the crisis in Eastern Europe over Ukraine will also force more strategic consideration.

“I think that's going to impose a lot of discipline that otherwise wasn't there.”

There was a very good reason that Germany abandonned its end of life nuclear. Refurbishing them costs a fortune for a handful of years of service. Nuclear has always been unbankable, uninsurable, and pure corrupt bribery.

Ontario Government plans to offset the rate increase through a large deficit expansion, where tax rates will need to go up if we don't choose bankruptcy.

Importing from Quebec would be much cheaper, and at begining of Ford's rule, he did cancel finished wind farms.

Cathy Woodgate didn’t live to see the outcome of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal inquiry that bears her name.

She died in September 2021 from muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle disorder that had plagued her since childhood. As a student Woodgate was the slowest in her class, and she later told her children about a gym teacher who hit her with basketballs and yardsticks when she lagged, resulting in low self-esteem and a lifelong aversion to physical activity.

The RCMP investigated the former teacher following allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by former students at two northern B.C. schools. While that investigation didn’t result in charges, it eventually led to the case now before the federal human rights tribunal. Woodgate et al. v. RCMP is an inquiry into the RCMP’s handling of the investigation, which First Nations complainants say was incomplete and racially biased.

Since the complaint was referred to the tribunal for inquiry in 2020, three of six complainants — all of whom are members of Lake Babine Nation — have died.

Newfoundland and Labrador's new PC government says it will not honour a previous commitment by the former Liberal-led government to allocate thousands of taxpayers' dollars to the Amelia Earhart statue project in Harbour Grace.

What's more, the new minister of Women and Gender Equality, Helen Conway Ottenheimer, is describing attempts by Liberal Pam Parsons — the MHA for Harbour Grace-Port de Grave — to pressure and embarrass the new government as “disingenuous.”

Conway Ottenheimer would not agree to a recorded interview, but in a written statement, said "since the statue was found and is now being restored, this funding is no longer required."

The incident prompted national media attention, and various sources — including the town, businesses and anonymous donors — raised a $25,000 reward for information leading to the return of the work of art by Luben Boykov, and the conviction of those responsible.

At the time, the Liberals were the governing party and Parsons was the Women and Gender Equality Minister.

In a recent article about the United States' strained relationships with other countries, Time Magazine included a made-up quote from Canadian satire site The Beaverton — seemingly as fact.

In the Oct. 1 article about the United States' eroding alliances, there’s a section that references U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra’s recent appearance at an event hosted by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

At the event, Hoekstra voiced his disappointment with the anti-American sentiment that's spread across Canada in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his quips about Canada becoming the 51st state.

Time quoted Hoekstra: "'A Canada that it would be very easy to target with 500% steel tariffs, or one patriot missile aimed at Parliament Hill,’ he added, rather incredulously.'"

Except Hoekstra didn’t say that — The Beaverton, a satirical news site in Canada akin to The Onion, made it up for this article titled, "US Ambassador threatens to tariff, annex, and bomb Canada if anti-American sentiment doesn’t improve."

The massacres of civilians in Sudan are being fuelled by Canadian weapons, mining interests, and refugee restrictions. It’s time for Canada to end its complicity

The Halifax International Security Forum’s main objective is to entrench faith in military supremacy among America’s allies at any cost.

Archived link

The Government of Canada has issued a travel advisory for China, urging Canadian citizens to exercise a high degree of caution due to various safety risks, including the possibility of arbitrary detention and the presence of extensive surveillance. Travelers are advised to remain vigilant and follow local regulations to ensure their safety while visiting this diverse yet complex country. The advisory, last updated on November 3, 2025, highlights several key areas of concern, including potential travel restrictions in sensitive regions like Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet, as well as the growing issue of petty crime and scams in popular tourist spots.

...

It's a diplomatic reset that would have seemed unimaginable months ago. After years of mutual hostility, Canada and China are beginning to thaw their once-frosty relationship. But **former national security analyst and policy advisor Dennis Molinaro **says Canada's failure to act on decades of Chinese intelligence warnings has hurt our country's ability to meet current geopolitical challenges. He speaks with Piya Chattopadhyay about the long and complicated history of Canada-China relations – and the lessons that should be applied to today.

This is a podacst (19 min).

Dr. Molinaro is a researcher at the University of Ontario focusing on counter-intelligence, foreign interference, the history of intelligence and the use of emergency powers in peacetime.

Dennis Molinaro also wrote an opinion piece: China’s secret war in Canada

... the West’s interactions with nation-states such as the People’s Republic of China (PRC), they have been governed by a specific delusion for half a century. Canada ... believed that if it did business with China, extended a hand of friendship, China would transform itself into a liberal-democratic country. Trade would lead to freedom. But Canada was wrong. Beijing never considered joining a liberal order and instead used Canada as a backdoor to the U.S. and as a means of exploiting resources and technology.

... The stories of secret PRC police stations in the news a little more than a year ago weren’t a new phenomenon. The PRC had been interfering and seeking to influence the political and civic life in Canada for decades. And Canadian leaders have done little to deter adversaries from operating here.

But how did such a situation arise? To date, Canadians have had diplomatic histories of the Canada-China relationship but an intelligence history wasn’t incorporated into them. That’s necessary if Canada hopes to have a realistic appraisal and understanding of the relationship.

... The China that Canada’s leaders saw and engaged with was one they invented in their own minds. They saw a potential market for wheat and potash. They saw a counterweight to the U.S. They convinced themselves that economic liberalization would inevitably lead to political freedom. They weren’t alone in this thinking, even the U.S. adopted it, though its defences against Beijing were more developed than Canada’s.

... But the truth was that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used western openness to build its economy and modernize its military. They used western universities to train their scientists. The West dreamed of partnership while China planned for dominance.

... The regime in Beijing operates on a concept of transnational sovereignty. It believes anyone of Chinese descent, regardless of their citizenship, owes their loyalty to China. By this logic, it doesn’t respect Canada’s borders as it hunts its critics in Canada. It harasses the Uyghur community, Tibetans, the Falun Gong, and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and Taiwan independence supporters. It uses threats against family members back home to silence dissidents in places such as Vancouver and Toronto.

... This is transnational repression. It’s a foreign state enforcing its political will on Canadian soil ... The United Front Work Department is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party tasked with influencing foreign elites and controlling the PRC diaspora abroad. Its goal is to make foreign decision-makers sympathetic to Beijing’s interests, and it cultivates relationships with influential figures at all levels from school boards to Parliament. In return, it expects support for China’s interests and silence on its indiscretions. During the April 2024 Hogue inquiry into foreign interference, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported that it believed China interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

...

What THE FUCK do they actually admire about Texas?

The ban on abortions?

The mass-shootings in schools, restaurants, supermarkets?

The fact it's much harder for employees to join a labor union ?

Prescription drug prices that are among the highest in the world?

The mandatory bible 10 commandments in public schools?

This crap is making me angry. Sorry I needed to rent.