Where exactly did that "Carribean" stuff come from?
This party has been around forever and it's ALWAYS been Caribana...
Not "Carribean."
Be that as it may, the Toronto Sun, flagship of the SunPostMedia conglomerate, National Post pretensions notwithstanding, is full-on with the new nomenclature, as you can see here.
And what up with those two roly-poly white guys trying to snag a few votes here?
No harm in trying, I guess...
Showing posts with label Jason Kenney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Kenney. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Bupkis; that's how much military aid Canada is prepared to give Ukraine
Defence Minister Jason Kenney came clean today about how much lethal weaponry Canada is prepared to donate to Ukraine so it can fend off the forces of Bad Vlad.
Zero.
As in nothing.
Bupkis.
Apparently the Canadian Forces don't actually have any lethal weapons, at least none that they're willing to share out to a bankrupt failed state.
Especially if that failed state is in an on-going squabble with Vlad the Bad.
Yes, Big Steve will continue talking the good talk at least till the autumn election; after all, there's a million Uke-Canuck votes hanging in the balance, and the Harper gang is doing all it can to convince those folks that it's doing all it can to repel "Russian aggression."
But they're not.
And that's probably a good thing!
Zero.
As in nothing.
Bupkis.
Apparently the Canadian Forces don't actually have any lethal weapons, at least none that they're willing to share out to a bankrupt failed state.
Especially if that failed state is in an on-going squabble with Vlad the Bad.
Yes, Big Steve will continue talking the good talk at least till the autumn election; after all, there's a million Uke-Canuck votes hanging in the balance, and the Harper gang is doing all it can to convince those folks that it's doing all it can to repel "Russian aggression."
But they're not.
And that's probably a good thing!
Monday, May 25, 2015
Harper's Canada - first among sycophants
Less than 24 hours after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter declared his disappointment in Iraqi troops, Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney announced that he felt the same way!
What a coincidence! Talk about being on the same page! One suspects they are literally on the same page, and that the actual sheet of paper containing Carter's talking points was couriered to Kenney's office immediately after that CNN interview.
The Harperite strategy of reflexive ass-kissing can leave Big Steve in the lurch at times. For example, in trying to impress the big boys in the Beltway with the sincerity of our anti-Iran rhetoric, former FM Bullshittin' Baird closed our Iran embassy.
There!
That'll teach 'em!
So two years later the Yanks are making kissy-face with the Persians, and Big Steve is outside the tent with his pecker in his hand.
Same with Ukraine. We had it pegged over a year ago here at Falling Downs; Why nobody's going to war over Ukraine. What's happening today? Nuland and Kerry were just over paying their respects to Putin, and apparently the word "Crimea" didn't even come up.
Which kinda leaves Big Steve and the Canadian Forces on their own in driving back the Russians.
Or not.
What a coincidence! Talk about being on the same page! One suspects they are literally on the same page, and that the actual sheet of paper containing Carter's talking points was couriered to Kenney's office immediately after that CNN interview.
The Harperite strategy of reflexive ass-kissing can leave Big Steve in the lurch at times. For example, in trying to impress the big boys in the Beltway with the sincerity of our anti-Iran rhetoric, former FM Bullshittin' Baird closed our Iran embassy.
There!
That'll teach 'em!
So two years later the Yanks are making kissy-face with the Persians, and Big Steve is outside the tent with his pecker in his hand.
Same with Ukraine. We had it pegged over a year ago here at Falling Downs; Why nobody's going to war over Ukraine. What's happening today? Nuland and Kerry were just over paying their respects to Putin, and apparently the word "Crimea" didn't even come up.
Which kinda leaves Big Steve and the Canadian Forces on their own in driving back the Russians.
Or not.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Canadian Forces: Strong. Proud. Horny.
The Deschamps Commission Report pulled the covers from a culture of blatant sexual harassment in the Canadian Forces today.
What did former Justice Marie Deschamp discover in her discoveries?
Why, a culture of blatant sexual harassment.
I think "harassment" is not quite the word they're looking for. When your next promotion is contingent on treating your commanding officer to a leg spread, that's a little beyond harassment.
Lawson, Kenney and the rest of the DOD bigs are of course trying to give this a viable spin.
They had no idea.
They had no idea their armed forces were all about strong, proud, and free love. Free for the big dogs, whether the little bitches liked it or not.
After all, if the little bitches wanted to get ahead in their careers, they'd go along to get along.
And they did.
What did former Justice Marie Deschamp discover in her discoveries?
Why, a culture of blatant sexual harassment.
I think "harassment" is not quite the word they're looking for. When your next promotion is contingent on treating your commanding officer to a leg spread, that's a little beyond harassment.
Lawson, Kenney and the rest of the DOD bigs are of course trying to give this a viable spin.
They had no idea.
They had no idea their armed forces were all about strong, proud, and free love. Free for the big dogs, whether the little bitches liked it or not.
After all, if the little bitches wanted to get ahead in their careers, they'd go along to get along.
And they did.
Monday, March 9, 2015
The vile anti-Muslim hate-mongering of the Harper gang
Glen McGregor at the Ottawa Citizen has exposed a brazenly cynical tweet by Defence Minister Jason Kenney wherein he commemorates International Women's Day by thanking the Canadian Forces for joining the fight against ISIS. No need to thank them Mr. Kenney. You're the Defence Minister; they're just following your orders!
So Mr. Kenney is really just thanking himself.
What's revealing about McGregor's story is that Kenney used several fraudulent photo-props that are alleged evidence of the heinous nature of the wannabe Caliphate. He tweeted pictures of Shia religious festivals during which some women participants are decked out in mock chains. In his tweet, the Shiite worshippers have become Sunni terrorists!
Guess we can't expect our leaders to be particularly discerning about who's who in the world 'o towel-heads... they're all terror suspects after all.
The anti-Islam hysteria of the Harper gang has become so obvious that even Harper-friendly mainstream media are commenting on it.
Here's a sample from the Globe and Mail.
And here's Martin Patriquin at the Harper-loving Macleans Magazine with a story called Stephen Harper and the niqab gambit, calling out Harper for his rampant fear-mongering.
Big Steve doesn't seem worried. True, the Globe and Macleans may be ideological fellow-travellers, but they're the kind of allies who can also be found giving sociology serious consideration from time to time, if not outright "doing" sociology.
They're a long way from the base that he's hoping to scare into voting for him in the upcoming election.
So Mr. Kenney is really just thanking himself.
What's revealing about McGregor's story is that Kenney used several fraudulent photo-props that are alleged evidence of the heinous nature of the wannabe Caliphate. He tweeted pictures of Shia religious festivals during which some women participants are decked out in mock chains. In his tweet, the Shiite worshippers have become Sunni terrorists!
Guess we can't expect our leaders to be particularly discerning about who's who in the world 'o towel-heads... they're all terror suspects after all.
The anti-Islam hysteria of the Harper gang has become so obvious that even Harper-friendly mainstream media are commenting on it.
Here's a sample from the Globe and Mail.
And here's Martin Patriquin at the Harper-loving Macleans Magazine with a story called Stephen Harper and the niqab gambit, calling out Harper for his rampant fear-mongering.
Big Steve doesn't seem worried. True, the Globe and Macleans may be ideological fellow-travellers, but they're the kind of allies who can also be found giving sociology serious consideration from time to time, if not outright "doing" sociology.
They're a long way from the base that he's hoping to scare into voting for him in the upcoming election.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Usual douchebags whinging about imaginary Canadian labour shortage
Jason Kenney is up a bit of a stump these days. His agenda of appeasing employers by screwing workers has had to take a detour due to the Canadian election that looms on the horizon. Can't be seen as an enemy of the working class when there's an election in the offing!
Nevertheless, the long-term agenda for the Harper gang remains as it's always been; to tilt the playing field even more radically in favour of big money at the expense of Joe Lunchpail. No government initiative in recent memory has been as effective in making Canadian workers more "flexible" than the Temporary Foreign Worker program.
Think about it; well over a million Canadians officially unemployed, another million of working age in that mysterious category of "dropped out of labour market," yet foreign workers are ushered into the country by the hundreds of thousands.
That's how you keep workers "flexible," dontcha know!
And that's how you keep wages low!
Because paying higher wages cuts into the bonus pool for the bosses, and once that happens, well, holy mother of Marx, you're on the road to COMMUNISM!!!
Can't be havin' none 'o that shit up here in the Great White North.
Today the national newspaper of record has a scary story for us, about how foreign corporations might cancel plans for new developments in the energy sector if they're not allowed to bring in their own workers.
Well, off you go then... fuck you and good riddance!
The way I see it, this is a win-win. We don't have Chinese construction workers building stuff in Canada for four bucks an hour, and the cancellation of their proposed energy mega-projects will leave those climate-killing fossil fuels in the ground.
Unfortunately, the Harper gang has entangled us in so many dubious trade agreements that we'll be subject to hundreds of years of litigation as foreign companies sue Canada for compensation for the profits they could have made here.
So it looks like, thanks to Harper & company, we'll be well fucked over no matter which way we go.
Nevertheless, the long-term agenda for the Harper gang remains as it's always been; to tilt the playing field even more radically in favour of big money at the expense of Joe Lunchpail. No government initiative in recent memory has been as effective in making Canadian workers more "flexible" than the Temporary Foreign Worker program.
Think about it; well over a million Canadians officially unemployed, another million of working age in that mysterious category of "dropped out of labour market," yet foreign workers are ushered into the country by the hundreds of thousands.
That's how you keep workers "flexible," dontcha know!
And that's how you keep wages low!
Because paying higher wages cuts into the bonus pool for the bosses, and once that happens, well, holy mother of Marx, you're on the road to COMMUNISM!!!
Can't be havin' none 'o that shit up here in the Great White North.
Today the national newspaper of record has a scary story for us, about how foreign corporations might cancel plans for new developments in the energy sector if they're not allowed to bring in their own workers.
Well, off you go then... fuck you and good riddance!
The way I see it, this is a win-win. We don't have Chinese construction workers building stuff in Canada for four bucks an hour, and the cancellation of their proposed energy mega-projects will leave those climate-killing fossil fuels in the ground.
Unfortunately, the Harper gang has entangled us in so many dubious trade agreements that we'll be subject to hundreds of years of litigation as foreign companies sue Canada for compensation for the profits they could have made here.
So it looks like, thanks to Harper & company, we'll be well fucked over no matter which way we go.
Monday, July 28, 2014
The magic of outsourcing; why Temp Foreign Workers are displacing Canadians in Calgary's Parks Department
On the face of it, you'd think Rob Ford and Naheed Nenshi would have little in common, other than having been elected mayor of their respective cities.
Nenshi is the cerebral and soft-spoken mayor of Calgary, who has done more than any individual in recent history to roll back that city's reputation as the redneck capital of Canada.
Rob Ford you already know about.
But they do have one other thing in common; they both went down the road of outsourcing public services to private contractors.
In Ford's case that was outsourcing garbage collection in Toronto. In Calgary, it was summer maintenance of the city's parks, which led to this story at CBC today.
To save the good burghers of Calgary a few bucks on their property taxes, which are already among the lowest in Canada, park maintenance was outsourced to a private contractor.
The private contractor needs to make a profit, so they offer the outsourced jobs at 25% less than what the city workers used to make for the same work. Surprisingly, they suddenly run into a worker shortage!
Not a problem; fire off a Labour Market Opinion request to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and before you can say "nay ho" you've got happy Chinese foreign workers trimming the lawns in Calgary's parks.
That's the way the system works, and it's the way it was intended to work. The hard-right Thatcherite fundamentalists in the Harper regime are firm believers in the free trade of everything, including labour.
The only reason Jason Kenney has been putting on a show of "reforms" recently is because there is an election on the horizon.
The 300,000 plus "guest workers" we are hosting are doing 300,000 jobs Canadians should be doing. If the cheap-ass employers would let the free hand of Canada's labour market work its magic, they'd soon find their employees. But they'd have to pay the wages that the laws of supply and demand dictate.
That's why they favour government intervention in the labour market; crank up the supply of labour to drive down workers' wages. And the strategy was working beautifully, until a few of the horror stories began to trickle into mainstream media.
Suddenly the TFW program is in the spotlight, people, i.e. potential voters, are getting pissed off, and just as suddenly the Harper gang is keen for reforms, or (if the polling numbers need a goosing) cancelling it altogether!
Canadian workers can vote.
Temporary Foreign Workers cannot.
Nenshi is the cerebral and soft-spoken mayor of Calgary, who has done more than any individual in recent history to roll back that city's reputation as the redneck capital of Canada.
Rob Ford you already know about.
But they do have one other thing in common; they both went down the road of outsourcing public services to private contractors.
In Ford's case that was outsourcing garbage collection in Toronto. In Calgary, it was summer maintenance of the city's parks, which led to this story at CBC today.
To save the good burghers of Calgary a few bucks on their property taxes, which are already among the lowest in Canada, park maintenance was outsourced to a private contractor.
The private contractor needs to make a profit, so they offer the outsourced jobs at 25% less than what the city workers used to make for the same work. Surprisingly, they suddenly run into a worker shortage!
Not a problem; fire off a Labour Market Opinion request to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, and before you can say "nay ho" you've got happy Chinese foreign workers trimming the lawns in Calgary's parks.
That's the way the system works, and it's the way it was intended to work. The hard-right Thatcherite fundamentalists in the Harper regime are firm believers in the free trade of everything, including labour.
The only reason Jason Kenney has been putting on a show of "reforms" recently is because there is an election on the horizon.
The 300,000 plus "guest workers" we are hosting are doing 300,000 jobs Canadians should be doing. If the cheap-ass employers would let the free hand of Canada's labour market work its magic, they'd soon find their employees. But they'd have to pay the wages that the laws of supply and demand dictate.
That's why they favour government intervention in the labour market; crank up the supply of labour to drive down workers' wages. And the strategy was working beautifully, until a few of the horror stories began to trickle into mainstream media.
Suddenly the TFW program is in the spotlight, people, i.e. potential voters, are getting pissed off, and just as suddenly the Harper gang is keen for reforms, or (if the polling numbers need a goosing) cancelling it altogether!
Canadian workers can vote.
Temporary Foreign Workers cannot.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Only a major influx of foreign workers can save Canada
( Addendum 25.08.13 The following is excerpted from a Canadian Press article. The slanty script is my commentary. Please read this for clarification.)
The Canadian Press
Published Friday, August 16, 2013 5:07PM EDT
CALGARY -- Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney says a chronic shortage of skilled trades workers, especially in Alberta's oilsands, can only be solved by a major influx of carpenters, electricians and welders from outside of Canada.
Because as we all know, Canadian teens want to grow up to be rocket scientists, politicians, and video-game designers, not carpenters, welders, and electricians. That's why governments across this land have connived for forty years to shut down high school vocational programs.
The program is aimed at people who want to become permanent residents based on being qualified in a skilled trade. To apply they must have work experience in a specific trade and meet several other requirements.
The program is aimed at providing skilled trades without having to invest in Canadians.
Kenney said one of the challenges facing Canada is that young people are not going into the trades and its creating an "acute shortage" of electricians, welders and boilermakers.
They are not going into skilled trades because they have been told for generations that a good future requires a university education. Nor have employers been encouraged to train apprentices.
"Because Canada has always been a country of immigration we believe we can use our immigration programs much better to attract tradesmen who have practical skills and can literally help us build our country," he said.
With the political will we could easily train the Canadians we need to build Canada.
"We see some of the most acute labour shortages in the construction trades in the Athabasca oilsands region because we're talking about multibillion dollar mega construction projects there. We simply do not have enough qualified trades people in Canada to fill those labour needs."
It's just so much easier to import them willy-nilly from around the world rather than invest in training Canadians.
"According to different industry councils, we're looking at shortages of hundreds of thousands of construction trades people in the next decade," he said.
We have 1.5 million Canadians unemployed. It is a disgrace to import workers. Politicians should stop short-changing Canadians and start working for their constituents.
The Canadian Press
Published Friday, August 16, 2013 5:07PM EDT
CALGARY -- Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney says a chronic shortage of skilled trades workers, especially in Alberta's oilsands, can only be solved by a major influx of carpenters, electricians and welders from outside of Canada.
Because as we all know, Canadian teens want to grow up to be rocket scientists, politicians, and video-game designers, not carpenters, welders, and electricians. That's why governments across this land have connived for forty years to shut down high school vocational programs.
The program is aimed at people who want to become permanent residents based on being qualified in a skilled trade. To apply they must have work experience in a specific trade and meet several other requirements.
The program is aimed at providing skilled trades without having to invest in Canadians.
Kenney said one of the challenges facing Canada is that young people are not going into the trades and its creating an "acute shortage" of electricians, welders and boilermakers.
They are not going into skilled trades because they have been told for generations that a good future requires a university education. Nor have employers been encouraged to train apprentices.
"Because Canada has always been a country of immigration we believe we can use our immigration programs much better to attract tradesmen who have practical skills and can literally help us build our country," he said.
With the political will we could easily train the Canadians we need to build Canada.
"We see some of the most acute labour shortages in the construction trades in the Athabasca oilsands region because we're talking about multibillion dollar mega construction projects there. We simply do not have enough qualified trades people in Canada to fill those labour needs."
It's just so much easier to import them willy-nilly from around the world rather than invest in training Canadians.
"According to different industry councils, we're looking at shortages of hundreds of thousands of construction trades people in the next decade," he said.
We have 1.5 million Canadians unemployed. It is a disgrace to import workers. Politicians should stop short-changing Canadians and start working for their constituents.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Canada must freeze immigration and kill the Temporary Foreign Worker program
Haroon Siddiqui drops the gloves on Jason Kenney in his Toronto Star column today.
That's about as concise a summary of Minister Kenney's failings as one could hope for.
Unfortunately for all of us, these failings aren't seen as such by the Harper gang and their supporters.
In fact, the reason Kenney isn't fired is because he's done Canadian employers a great service by flooding the country with cheap foreign labour.
That's not failure.
That makes Jason Kenney a roaring success!
That's about as concise a summary of Minister Kenney's failings as one could hope for.
Unfortunately for all of us, these failings aren't seen as such by the Harper gang and their supporters.
In fact, the reason Kenney isn't fired is because he's done Canadian employers a great service by flooding the country with cheap foreign labour.
That's not failure.
That makes Jason Kenney a roaring success!
Monday, October 29, 2012
Richard Falk and the New World Order
On the face of it you might expect to find a little truth behind the claims that Richard Falk is an emissary for the New World Order.
After all, he has aligned himself with such ominous sounding entities as the "World Federalist Institute" and the "American Movement for World Government."
And he is a Jew after all. While I don't spend a lot of time studying the various threads of NWO conspiracy theories I am sufficiently acquainted with their overall thrust to appreciate that the chosen people play a central role.
I am also sufficiently acquainted with the work of Richard Falk to know that he is one of those Jews that the Likud crowd love to hate the most.
He is the classic "self-hating" Jew, which of course is the fate of every Jew who disagrees with the Likudniks.
He has, in their view, violated the sacred trust between God and the chosen people by suggesting that Palestinians have rights too, a view that is utterly blasphemous among the crowd of annex-everything fascists who seem determined to drive the state of Israel into the abyss.
Just recently two of the towering geniuses in the Harper cabinet have piled onto the anti-Falk bandwagon, namely Messers Baird and Kenney. They have taken umbrage over statements made by Falk about western corporations that profit from the occupation.
Why these dolts remain in the Harper cabinet is a good question, and I think the answer is that the Prime Minister likes to keep a few buffoons around because they inevitably make him look a whole lot smarter by comparison.
While I am somewhat ambivalent about Falk's position vis-a-vis those companies, I am totally in agreement that pressure needs to be brought to bear on those who profit from the occupation. What that pressure should look like is not for me to judge, but any analysis of the situation must proceed from the fact that the occupation is illegal and immoral, which by the way is the official position of the Canadian government.
Which brings us back to the New World Order.
It seems this has become a catch-all category for a wide range of folks disaffected with the current state of things. Everything from the out-sourcing of the industrial economy to gay marriage is at some point tied into this imaginary NWO.
NWO conspiracy theories thrive in those societies wherein the working classes have suffered a roll-back in their standard of living over the past few generations. Those would be primarily the folks who took it on the chin when the Reagan-Thatcher revolution cemented neo-liberalism as the state religion in the Anglo American universe.
For over forty years we have watched ourselves get poorer while our oligarchs and plutocrats got richer, and rather than hold the oligarchs and plutocrats and the politicians they've bought responsible, we want to blame Jews or Bilderbergers or aliens or Freemasons for the problem.
Which of course is just fine with our masters.
After all, he has aligned himself with such ominous sounding entities as the "World Federalist Institute" and the "American Movement for World Government."
And he is a Jew after all. While I don't spend a lot of time studying the various threads of NWO conspiracy theories I am sufficiently acquainted with their overall thrust to appreciate that the chosen people play a central role.
I am also sufficiently acquainted with the work of Richard Falk to know that he is one of those Jews that the Likud crowd love to hate the most.
He is the classic "self-hating" Jew, which of course is the fate of every Jew who disagrees with the Likudniks.
He has, in their view, violated the sacred trust between God and the chosen people by suggesting that Palestinians have rights too, a view that is utterly blasphemous among the crowd of annex-everything fascists who seem determined to drive the state of Israel into the abyss.
Just recently two of the towering geniuses in the Harper cabinet have piled onto the anti-Falk bandwagon, namely Messers Baird and Kenney. They have taken umbrage over statements made by Falk about western corporations that profit from the occupation.
Why these dolts remain in the Harper cabinet is a good question, and I think the answer is that the Prime Minister likes to keep a few buffoons around because they inevitably make him look a whole lot smarter by comparison.
While I am somewhat ambivalent about Falk's position vis-a-vis those companies, I am totally in agreement that pressure needs to be brought to bear on those who profit from the occupation. What that pressure should look like is not for me to judge, but any analysis of the situation must proceed from the fact that the occupation is illegal and immoral, which by the way is the official position of the Canadian government.
Which brings us back to the New World Order.
It seems this has become a catch-all category for a wide range of folks disaffected with the current state of things. Everything from the out-sourcing of the industrial economy to gay marriage is at some point tied into this imaginary NWO.
NWO conspiracy theories thrive in those societies wherein the working classes have suffered a roll-back in their standard of living over the past few generations. Those would be primarily the folks who took it on the chin when the Reagan-Thatcher revolution cemented neo-liberalism as the state religion in the Anglo American universe.
For over forty years we have watched ourselves get poorer while our oligarchs and plutocrats got richer, and rather than hold the oligarchs and plutocrats and the politicians they've bought responsible, we want to blame Jews or Bilderbergers or aliens or Freemasons for the problem.
Which of course is just fine with our masters.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Canada slams door on Roma refugees
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced changes to Canada's Immigration Act today that are specifically targeted at Roma refugees.
He didn't stand up in parliament and put it in those words, of course. He's a politician.
What he did say is that there has been a surge in bogus refugee claims from "democratic" countries in the EU.
That would be democratic countries like Hungary, where the ruling extreme right coalition has declared war on the Roma population.
Which would explain the surge of refugee claims from Hungarian Roma.
But because Hungary is "democratic" according to the dictates of the extreme right government in Canada, those refugee claims are self-evidently bogus.
Ottawa had a similar policy going on in the 30's vis-a-vis Jewish refugees from Germany. Nazi Germany was a democratic country after all.
What could go wrong?
He didn't stand up in parliament and put it in those words, of course. He's a politician.
What he did say is that there has been a surge in bogus refugee claims from "democratic" countries in the EU.
That would be democratic countries like Hungary, where the ruling extreme right coalition has declared war on the Roma population.
Which would explain the surge of refugee claims from Hungarian Roma.
But because Hungary is "democratic" according to the dictates of the extreme right government in Canada, those refugee claims are self-evidently bogus.
Ottawa had a similar policy going on in the 30's vis-a-vis Jewish refugees from Germany. Nazi Germany was a democratic country after all.
What could go wrong?
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