Texas Whack-Jon Republican Refuses Help for Houston From Canada!

Think it is time for “Regime change” in Texas…Time to take down the Governor Abbott and his whack-jobs

Texas “Secretary of State” Rolando B. Pablos refusing help for the victims of Hurricane Harvey

‘Send prayers’: Texas Republican turns down donated blankets, beds, manpower from Canada

Those who have been impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana are only beginning to see the way the flood waters have destroyed their homes. Many families tried to ride it out, only to be rescued when the rising waters forced them onto their roof. Thousands escaped with only their lives and the clothes on their backs, losing everything they own.

But according to Secretary of State Rolando Pablos (R-TX), they don’t need any help. As Patheos reported, they just need a little more Jesus.

Quebec’s Minister of International Relations Christine St-Pierre called Pablos to express her sorrow and condolences on behalf of the people of the Canadian province. She also offered equipment and manpower.

Pablos turned it down. Instead he asked for “prayers from the people of Quebec,” the minister relayed.

Understandably, the neighbor to the north was shocked.

“It was a conversation about how devastating the situation is and we want to express our support to the people of Texas,” she told CBC News in an interview.

This isn’t the first time the Canadians have stepped up with substantial donations. After Hurricane Katrina, they also sent the donation of blankets, beds, pillows, hygienic products as well as electricians to help restore power. Louisiana was more than grateful to accept. Texas was a no. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, by contrast, graciously accepted a generous offer from Mexico for assistance.

“He was very touched by the fact we called him,” she noted.

 

Foreign Students Flock to Canada – Leave US

With the threat of being accosted on any street corner or being assaulted by a Chumph racist bigot while minding their own business…Can you blame them?

Trump’s biggest fans? Canadian universities

Canadian universities are seeing a surge in applications from overseas students, with the country’s liberal, migrant-friendly image appearing to be an important attraction.

Students who might once have headed for the United States now seem to be reconsidering and seeing Canada as a North American alternative.

The University of Toronto, one of Canada’s top-ranked universities, has seen interest rising sharply, including a 57% increase in applications from India.

This interest has converted into acceptances, says the university – with an overall 20% increase in overseas students accepting places for the autumn.

Wilfrid Laurier University says it has had a 32% increase in overseas students and McMaster University has seen an annual rise of 33%.

This is a valuable market, with overseas students bringing in tuition fees and local spending power. A study last week suggested that overseas students were worth $36bn (£28bn) per year to the US economy.

Tolerant image

But Canadian universities are seizing an opportunity from the Trump administration in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK to present themselves as a more outward-looking alternative.

There are more than 350,000 overseas students already in Canada, with research from the Canadian Bureau for International Education suggesting that the image of a “tolerant and non-discriminatory society” is a major attraction.

Perception is a powerful force in this market and Canadian universities are contrasting their warmer welcome to international students with the tough messages on immigration being transmitted by the Trump administration.

The University of Montreal has set up its own travel fund for its international students who would once have attended conferences in the US, but now face difficulties getting into the country.

An Iranian student who says he spent two hours being “interrogated” at a US airport was among those who would be funded to go to conferences elsewhere.

International cities

Professor Ted Sargent, responsible for the University of Toronto’s international outreach, says the response of overseas students to such changes in the US has been to “go back to first principles”.

“Events in the US and the UK have reverberated around the world,” he says. “It makes people go back and think again.”

Canada can offer top-ranked universities, he says, but the country is also sending a “message about being open to the world”.

Prof Sargent says that half of the population of Toronto is non-Canadian born and that Canada’s strategy has been to “attract the brightest and the best” from around the world.

A spokeswoman for the University of Montreal says: “Of course, it is also difficult to ignore what is going on south of our border.

“The US political climate might indeed be one reason why more students are choosing to come to Montreal and Canada generally.”

The idea of an “open and welcoming city” has a strong appeal to students coming to Montreal, she says.

“They can have a North American study experience here, in a safe environment.”

Best student city

This year saw Montreal getting top place in the QS Best Student Cities rankings, replacing Paris which had been in first place for the four previous years.

Among the measures were Montreal’s access to employers, safety, pollution, desirability for student life and sense of tolerance.

Another advantage for this part of Canada is that it can offer courses in both English and French.

There is also a rising stream of US students heading to Canada.

Apart from any political considerations, those heading over the border will also be attracted by tuition fees, which can be cheaper for US students than studying at home, even at overseas student rates.

But the US university system remains a powerful magnet for overseas students, with numbers rising to more than a million students last year, with almost 330,000 from China alone.

This annual increase, up by about 7% in 2016, was valued as being worth another £3bn to the US economy.

 

Genocide in Canada

I first heard about this over 10 years ago. Native American women being raped and murdered almost at will, with Law Enforcement doing little to nothing about it – not only in Canada, but in states in the US along the border. There was a big push, a few laws were passed…Then things returned exactly to the point at which they started.

Were Thousands of Indigenous Women Murdered In Canada?

After years of stalling, Canada finally prepares to launch a national inquiry into the cold cases of thousands of murdered and missing indigenous women.

Shauna Taylor spent her teenage years hustling on the streets of Winnipeg—struggling with an addiction to hard drugs, and alcohol from the time she was 13. One night, she took a call to a client’s home. When she arrived, he shoved a shotgun in her face and said, “You’re gonna die tonight, bitch.”

It was a stroke of dumb luck that the shotgun was not loaded, and Taylor was able to run away. When she showed up alive, but without money, her pimp—who routinely took most of her and the other girls’ earnings—beat her senseless.

Taylor managed to live another day—but one of her fellow sex workers did not.

“One girl who went out that night was murdered, and it made a hole in my heart,” she said.

“We weren’t friends—we were family. Blood is not always thicker than water, and a lot of them were murdered or missing.”

Now in her 40s, Taylor has managed to get clean, graduate from a local college, and start mentoring children and youth in her community. However, most indigenous women in her situation are not as lucky. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), 1,800 indigenous women in Canada have been murdered or gone missing since the 1980s. However, advocates—and survivors like Taylor—estimate that the actual number is closer to 4,000 due to a hesitancy to report cases to the police, and the large amount of homicide or missing-persons cases that never receive closure.

“There are a lot of cold cases out here in Winnipeg,” Taylor said.

Now, those cases may finally receive some political attention.

Last week marked the beginning of a series of roundtable discussions in preparation of a national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women in Canada. While advocates have demanded a national inquiry for years, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeatedly dismissed the issue, saying it should be dealt with within the jurisdiction of the native reservations—even though a large amount of the violence occurred in major Canadian cities with large indigenous populations, such as Winnipeg.

But Canada’s new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has made the inquiry a “priority”—stating that in addition to the need for justice and answers for the victims and their families, ending violence against women and repairing the relationship with the indigenous population is crucial to the future of the country. More than 25 percent of Canadian youth are indigenous.

“I know renewing our relationship [with the indigenous community] is an ambitious goal, but I am equally certain it is one that we can—and will—achieve if we work together,” Trudeau recently said, as he announced the beginning of the national inquiry.

Advocates hope that the inquiry will re-open previously abandoned cases, and help families seek answers about their loved ones.

“There is a feeling among many that if women of other backgrounds were being murdered and going missing at the same rate, it would be treated as a national crisis,” Meghan Rhoad, a researcher at Human Rights Watch told The Daily Beast. “The government’s decision to establish this inquiry is a sign that it finally is being treated as a national crisis.”

While 84 percent of homicide cases in Canada have been resolved, almost half of the cases involving indigenous women remain unsolved—leaving the families, friends and loved ones of the missing and murdered with unanswered questions.

“Sometimes it seems like they’re forgotten, but they’re always in my heart,” Taylor said about the friends she has lost to unsolved murders, whom she calls sisters….Read The Rest Here…

 

NYC’s One Finger “Salute” to Ted Cruz

Well…Ted won’t be winning New York…

 

Canada Rejects Asylum for Kyle Lydell Canty

As reported back in September, Kyle Lydell Canty was trying to make the rather diaphanous case for Political Asylum in Canada based on his purported belief he would be murdered by the Police should he return to America. I have to believe this one was more on the “focus attention onto the issue” rather than any real expectation of being harmed – and insofar as his case has drawn a lot of press, it has been successful in making waves.

The Government of Canada isn’t buying it.

Canada rejects asylum plea from black American saying he wanted to escape police abuse

A Canadian tribunal has rejected a claim for refugee status from an African-American man who said he feared persecution and police abuse in the United States based on his race, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said on Friday.

While saying he did find Kyle Lydell Canty to have a genuine fear of returning to his home country, adjudicator Ron Yamauchi said that was not enough to grant asylum.

A string of shootings of black men by U.S. police over the past 18 months have led to widespread protests and the issue has fueled a civil rights movement under the name Black Lives Matter.

“The Act does not protect claimants from every form of ill-treatment, suffering, and hardship,” he wrote in the decision, dated Dec. 3. “It is addressed at situations of persecution, which is serious harm, an interference with a basic human right.”

He added: “There are no substantial grounds to believe that his removal to the United States of America would subject him personally to a danger of torture.”

Canty filed for asylum in September after coming to Canada as a tourist.

It was not immediately possible to ascertain Canty’s whereabouts. He has the right to appeal the decision.

“If I receive a negative decision of my asylum application, I’m already 10 moves ahead as far as my appeal process goes,” Canty wrote in November. “The United States government is always murdering, undermining and underestimating its black citizens – and I have no intention of going back.”

 

Birthers Now Go After Ted Cruz!

Getting crazy out there. Seems that the same scumbags who challenged President Obama’s have a new target – Sen. Ted Cruz who was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban citizen father. Even worse, Cruz failed to renounce his Canadian citizenship until just before he announced his run in the Republican Primary. My problem is the fact of the dual citizenship – not where he was born.

Insofar as the State Department –

The “Foreign Preference” criterion (Guideline C) of the December 2005 “Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information” makes the “exercise of any right, privilege or obligation of foreign citizenship after becoming a U.S. citizen” a potentially disqualifying condition for a security clearance. Guideline C also states:

And the Department of Defense –

The security concerns underlying this guideline are that the possession and use of a foreign passport in preference to a U.S. passport raises doubt as to whether the person’s allegiance to the United States is paramount and it could also facilitate foreign travel unverifiable by the United States. Therefore consistent application of the guideline requires that any [DoD] clearance be denied or revoked unless the applicant surrenders the foreign passport or obtains official approval for its use from the appropriate agency of the United States Government.

In govermentese that means you cannot get a security clearance in the DOD (Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard) with a dual citizenship. You must renounce your other allegiance.

Ted Cruz should have been disqualified from being a Senator. Being able to be President is absurd, regardless of the birthright claims – because at no point did he renounce his foreign citizenship…

Until it became necessary for his campaign.

Obama Birthers Now Want Ted Cruz’s Head

In 2008, they went after Barack Obama. In 2016, they’re going after Ted Cruz.

The originators of the so-called birther movement are leading a charge this campaign cycle with the same accusations they had two campaign cycles ago.

Eight years ago, the loosely-organized group came together other-izing the man who would become the first black president. Now, they’re attempting to do so with the potential first Latino one. And it’s not just isolated fringe bloggers who have taken up the mantle. WorldNetDaily, a site that has touted both Donald Trump and Cruz and been essential reading for their fans, is supporting the cause as well.

The senator from Texas was born in Calgary, Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father. Cruz released his birth certificate in 2013 and renounced his Canadian citizenship a year later in advance of his presidential campaign, in an attempt to put the issue to bed before it reached national headlines in this campaign cycle.

And that might have resolved it, if Donald Trump had not questioned his legitimacy as a candidate.

“How do you run against the Democrat, whoever it may be, and you have this hanging over your head if they bring a lawsuit?” Trump said in an interview on CNN this week. And just like that, with one question, the real estate mogul effectively brought this issue from the far-reaches of conspiracy internet sites to the forefront of American dialogue.

Trump later suggested that Cruz ask a judge for a “declaratory judgment” to definitively prove the status of his citizenship.

This, of course, would likely create a spectacle that could prove politically advantageous to Trump, who is currently losing to Cruz in Iowa, the first primary state.

“I’m doing this for the good of Ted… I like him. He likes me,” Trump asserted.

While this reads as a witch hunt to most eyes—akin to Trump’s previous efforts to get Obama’s birth certificate released—many of the original founders of the 2008 movement seem to agree with the leading Republican candidate. Unlike Obama, they like Cruz and they want him to clear the air on this birth issue before it’s too late.

“I think it does disqualify him,” said Teo Bear (an online pseudonym), who warned about the issue of Ted Cruz’s birth on his site Birthers.org in 2014. “Let me ask you a question, if you were dating a girl and you come to realize that she wanted to get serious and wanted to have children and you didn’t want puppies, don’t you think you should tell her ‘I don’t want puppies?’”…More…

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Christmas Message Welcoming Syrian Refugees

Our neighbors to the North outdo us again.

 

Black American Seeks Asylum in Canada

Bit of an unusual case…DOubt he will win asylum in this case.

Black American Seeks Asylum in Canada Over Police Brutality

Kyle Canty says blacks are ‘being exterminated at an alarming rate’ and that he’ll only be safe north of the border.

It has been nearly two months since he crossed the border into Canada, fleeing the discrimination and state violence plaguing his home country.

In seeking refugee status before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver, Kyle Lydell Canty argued that belongs to a vulnerable minority that is “being exterminated at an alarming rate” in his homeland.

Canty was referring to the United States and police brutality.

“I’m in fear of my life because I’m black,” Canty, 30, told the board during his hearing on Oct. 23, where he cited the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri andEric Garner in New York. “This is a well-founded fear.”

Canty, who was born in New York, has resided in six states over the span of three decades. He traveled to Vancouver early last month as a tourist, but says he decided to apply for refugee status shortly after his arrival. He now resides at a homeless shelter.

“When I see the police coming in the U.S., I cross the street,” he said.

In presenting his case before the IRB, Canty submitted evidence that he claims demonstrates that cops have harassed and profiled him in every state he’s lived in.

“I got bothered because I’m black,” he alleges. “This is a history of false arrest. My name is ruined because of the false arrest.”

In Canada, however, Canty says he does not perceive any existential threat from law enforcement and that he is more than comfortable interacting with Canadian authorities.

During his hearing, Canty also discussed his outstanding criminal charges in the U.S., including ones for disorderly conduct, issuing threats, and resisting arrest.

Melissa Anderson, the IRB spokeswoman for this case, told The Daily Beast that a decision regarding Canty’s application would likely be issued within the next few weeks. When asked if she would characterize this as an unusual case, Anderson demurred, but said that she is “not aware of any” other cases like this in Canada, but couldn’t be sure.

“For us, every case is unique,” she said. “Refugee protection and refugee discrimination, this is a complex issue.”

Canada has accepted American refugees before. In 2013, three U.S. citizens were granted asylum, for instance. In 2010, actor Randy Quaid applied for refugee status, claiming he was being persecuted and possibly marked for death by“Hollywood star whacker” assassins. (He later withdrew his claim.)

 

Indian Response to Criticism of Miss America

Ow!

Her real name is Lilly Singh, her Youtube name is !!Superwoman!!, and she hosts a Youtube page here. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr…

 

Mounties Flummoxed By Maple Syrup Hijacking!

Some enterprising thieves have stolen millions of pounds of…

Maple Syrup!

Gettin’ crazy out there y’all!

Police probing Quebec maple syrup heist worth up to $30-million

Quebec police are on the hunt for a sticky-fingered thief after millions of dollars of maple syrup vanished from a Quebec warehouse.

The theft was discovered during a routine inventory check last week at the St-Louis-de-Blandford warehouse, where the syrup is being held temporarily. The Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which is responsible for the global strategic maple syrup reserve, initially kept the news quiet, hoping it would help police solve the crime quickly.

About 10 million pounds of syrup was stored at the site, at a value of more than $30-million.

Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, executive director of the federation, said the organization is still trying to determine how much is missing and declined to offer an estimate. But a spokesman from the Sureté du Québec said the loss was significant.

“We know that it’s millions of dollars that was stolen,” said Sergeant Richard Gagné. “It’s a very large amount.”

All of the maple syrup inventories are fully insured, according to the federation, so there will be no loss to producers.

Ms. Granger Godbout said the theft shouldn’t put the global supply of maple syrup at risk, but warned it could allow the thief to undercut legitimate producers. The federation represents about 10,000 maple syrup producers in Quebec. “Obviously those people stole the maple syrup to sell it somewhere,” she said. “If it’s a big volume, it could be very harmful for the maple syrup industry. The companies that are working in this industry will have to compete with some company that didn’t pay for the maple syrup.”

 

Shotgun Wedding…Quebec Style

May maternal grandfather was married twice. The first time in a literal “Shotgun Wedding”, when a local Minister showed up at his door with shotgun and pregnant daughter in tow…

To encourage him to do the right thing. Family rumor has it that within a few hours of the arrival of the Minister, the time required to gather a few witnesses, and a very short guest list – the happy couple was married by his own hand.

The marriage didn’t last, they were divorced several years later after the birth of two children – and he eventually married my Maternal Grandmother.

Like any less than positive event reflecting on the character of a family member – this was hidden as a family secret for years. Leading to the invention of several salacious scenarios where he was seeing the two women at the same time, or wasn’t divorced from the first when he married the second, making lots of fun for those family members who enjoy scandal. Marriage and divorce records prove it didn’t happen that way – but what the hey!

I live in a “Common Law” state – you live with someone for 7 years and you are married by law.

In Quebec, Canada – a recent court decision may result in the largest virtual shotgun wedding in history.

I Don’t! – How a bizarre legal case involving a mysterious billionaire could force 1.2 million Canadians to be married, against their will.

Somewhere in North America, there is a place where little girls don’t give the slightest thought to what kind of wedding dress they’ll wear one day. A place where young men have never heard the expression: “why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free?”—because the milk is always free. A place where no one asks an unmarried couple expecting a baby if they’re getting hitched.

This place is the province of Quebec. The French language spoken here is no guarantee for romance. Couples are practical, and lovers treasure their individuality. Quebec has become one of the least marrying places in the world, thanks to the institution known as “de facto spouses,” But now, thanks to a bizarre legal case entangling a Quebec billionaire and his de facto spouse ,  the freedom to un-marry is under threat. More than 1 million Quebecois in this kind of relationship may soon be automatically married by the state, against their will.

De facto spouses are defined by Quebec’s law as two people who have been living together for a year or more without being married and who check the “couple” box on their income tax statement form. Quebec’s lawmakers have deliberately chosen not to give de facto couples the same rights and responsibilities that married couples have under the Law of Quebec, to preserve the freedom of choice. Upon the termination of a relationship, “no matter how long cohabitation has lasted, de facto spouses have no legal support obligation to each other, even if one spouse is in need and the other has a high income.” Quebec is the only province in Canada where spousal support payments are not recognized by law for de facto spouses.

Other countries also recognize the status of common-law couples, including France and the Scandinavian nations. In the United States, common law marriage is a legal status in a minority of states.

The very religious province of Quebec traditionally perceived de facto spouses as a threat to the social order. But the “Quiet Revolution” starting in the 1960s led to a radical rejection of the church, a decline in religious weddings, and a reform of the Family Law that introduced the notion of de facto unions in 1979. The status gained more recognition during the ’80s and ’90s, mostly thanks to lobbying by gay rights advocates.

The institution has become wildly popular in Quebec, for gays and straights. Anastonishing 34.6 percent of all Quebec couples are de facto couples, and one half of couples under 40 are not married. A full 60 percent of Quebec children are born out of wedlock. ( – More -)

 

Notorious Yogi-X Crew Drug Gang!

The Notorious Yogi-X has been in trouble with the law before. After being thrown out of New Jersey last year, he apparently immigrated to Canada, where he has formed a gang and taken over a Drug operation!

Why can’t it be a brown bear, or a Grizzly – why does it have to be a black bear?

Yogi-X (r) Stops By to Tell the Officer "You mean those were marijuana plants?"

Bears guarded B.C. grow-op: RCMP

Police in southeastern B.C. have raided a marijuana grow operation that was apparently guarded by black bears.

Officers conducting the raid two weeks ago at Christina Lake found a property with two residential buildings and a fenced-off grow-op with about 1,000 plants, police said Tuesday.

But they also found about 10 bears that the owner appeared to be using to keep people from stealing any pot plants, said RCMP Sgt. Fred Mansveld.

“[Officers] soon noticed the bears were docile and tame,” Mansveld told CBC News. “One of them jumped on our unmarked car for a while. But it soon became apparent they were habituated to the grow operation.”

It was evident the animals had lived on the property for some time, police said.

The woman accused of running the grow-op has been feeding the bears for years, one neighbour said.

Police are recommending that the woman face charges related to marijuana cultivation.

Conservation officers now have to decide what to do about the bears, which might have to be destroyed because they have become too used to human food and contact, police said.

Christina Lake is about 350 kilometres east of Vancouver.

 

Tough Times for Right Wing Propagandists

The Tea Baggers have brought a new level of comity to political discourse in this country. Right Wing propagandists and hate meisters are beginning to feel the heat – internationally.

Recently Ann Coulter reieved a “warm” reception in Canada, and now KKKarl Rove, the architecht of the Bush disaster, is finding out some folks just aren’t willing to let him sell his swill and brand it as Sweet Tea.

Here’s Awful Andy getting kicked out of Canada –

Oh! Canada… Indeed.

 

Rep. Paul Broun (R – Georgia) – Canada and England Have no Appreciation of Quality of Life

Another conservative… Another moron.

This one claims that the “Public Option” Health Care system being debated before Congress is going to “kill people”.

Further – he argues that Canada and UK don’t have the appreciation for life Americans do….