Why Canadians get Thanksgiving six weeks early

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving. Our American cousins have to wait another six weeks or so before they celebrate. They usually lard it up with lots of sporting “Thanksgiving traditions” as in this year’s NFL Thanksgiving Day triple-header on November 24. Oddly enough, that day is also the 9 month anniversary of Putin’s totally unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine. We can be sure that half-time shows on NFL broadcasts on November 24 will regale us with reminders of Ukraine’s valorous resistance to Putin. A fly-by of F-35s in blue and yellow, perhaps? Which brings me to the distinction between Canadian and American Thanksgiving. The reason we Canadians give thanks six weeks sooner is we obviously have more to be thankful for. For example, unlike us, the Yanks are fated by destiny to be the LEADERS of something called the “free world.” How they can plausibly claim to lead such a thing when they have by a wide margin the highest rate of incarceration in the entire world, not just the “free” one, is a mystery to me. Fortunately, with the exception of a few over-wrought pundits at CBC and the Globe, nobody in Canada imagines we “lead” anything of consequence anywhere. Oh, the Lima Group, perhaps! Yup, that Random Guido episode was a real credit to our international profile! We also have our national public health care system to be thankful for. For all its flaws, the fact that our Covid mortality rate is one quarter that of our free market neighbors counts for something. Finally, let us not forget gun control. As a middle-aged guy with two ex-wives and a few near-misses, I’m thrilled that an angry person can’t just walk into Home Hardware and buy the tool that will blow my brains out. On this Canadian Thanksgiving, let’s celebrate the fact we’re not Americans.

Canada wants to overthrow socialist Maduro, but sends money to fascist Duque

There's a nifty half-pager on A11 of today's Globe and Mail, all about how kindly Canada is sending $30 millions to kindly Colombia to help the millions of refugees fleeing the regime of the evil dictator next door. Writer Natalie Alcoba manages to avoid any mention of America's all-out campaign to destroy the economy of Venezuela, by far the most significant driver of the situation in that country today.

Canada has been a willing junior partner in that manifestly illegal and immoral mission, imposing our own sanctions three years ago, around the time Chrystia Freeland "took charge" of the Lima Group, a smelly concoction brewed up in Washington, as everyone was well aware. We still officially recognize the hand-picked US stooge Juan Gauido as the legitimate president of Venezuela, which is a truly bold stretch of the very concept of democracy.

Alcoba mentions in passing that over 400 human rights defenders have been murdered in Colombia since 2016. That would be folks like union organizers and human rights workers; you know, the usual troublemakers. They seem to die more often in Colombia than anywhere in the world! Too bad she had to leave out the fact that these murders are carried out by right-wing death squads linked to the government.

Probably a good thing. You wouldn't want the public to ask why we'd be sending money to a country that facilitates death squads, while simultaneously sanctioning a country that had a better record of bringing masses of people out of poverty than any other in Latin American. 

It's ok for Canada to interfere in Venezuela's politics

Check out this up-beat report on Random Guy-do's visit to Ottawa today.

This is the jerk-off the US State Department has democratically anointed as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Oddly enough, the masses of freedom-starved Venezuelans have failed to rally to the Yankee puppet.

A fact that doesn't deter Justin and company from giving him a warm welcome and a vow of support.

This is an embarrassment to Canada on multiple levels. We are plainly doing Washington's bidding with our Venezuela policy. This is obvious to the entire world, and pretty much neuters any goodwill we may have stirred up as we lobby for a UN Security Council seat.

The entire Lima Group farce brings shame on Canada and shows the world we are nothing more than America's poodle.

This will be noted in all those capitals where Justin has been lobbying governments to support our UNSC bid.

All those leaders aren't stupid. They realize Canada would just sheep-dog the US agenda.

Why give DC another seat at the table?

Venezuela now has three presidents

Slide over, Juan Guido, and make room for another usurper. It's been almost a year since the "Lima Group" elected Juan Guaido to the presidency in a free and fair election that, unfortunately, didn't involve the voters of Venezuela.

They had already elected the incumbent, Maduro, to the office. That's not the sort of technicality to deter the freedom fighters in the Lima Group, so for the past year the world has seen the spectacle of two presidents claiming to represent the country.

If that's not confusing enough, today a third contender declared himself president. Luis Parra was inspired by Guaido's example. Guaido showed that anyone can rise to president just by declaring themselves so.

It's not that simple, of course. Declaring yourself president won't get any traction unless you can get some big endorsements from Washington and its flunkies. In Guaido's case, not even that was enough. By this time, Washington is probably just as tired of Guaido's posturing as are the Venezuelan people. We'll find out soon enough if DC is willing to swap out Guaido for Parra. If so, look for Juan to land in a cushy think tank role in the US sooner rather than later.

As for the "Lima Group," it's been a rather flat year. Not only have they failed in their goal to overthrow Maduro, the internal human-rights challenges of many of the member states have revealed them to be every bit as corrupt and anti-democratic as Venezuela, if not more so.


Big picture: Uncle Sam's gonna be focused on democracy in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. Venezuela will have to wait.

Four more years of Fluffy

Or maybe not... coalition governments have a tendency to die a premature death.

I'm guessing that having to coordinate policy with the NDP will put the brakes on Mr. Trudeau's authoritarian tendencies, which would be good for the country but won't sit well with Trudeau. He'll ditch that coalition the moment he thinks he can win a majority.

That would be a mistake. This campaign has elevated the profile of Scheer from non-entity to contender. In fact, he won the popular vote. A credible performance in the months ahead would boost his chances next time round. I'm sure Justin would rather share the power pie with Jag than see Scheer gorf down the whole thing.

Hopefully, we will now tone down our enthusiasm for regime change in Venezuela. Our "leadership" of the Lima Group is an embarrassment to Canada and a stain on her reputation.  Although a lot of Liberals share that view, the Trudeau-Freeland team has successfully throttled them. That won't be so easy now that Justin will have to keep at least one eye on his coalition partners, and that's where anti-Lima Group sentiment in parliament has been most frequently voiced.


If I were Jagmeet, I'd make shuffling Chrystia out of Foreign Affairs a precondition for any coalition agreement.

Another story our free press is hiding from you

We're all acquainted with the Lima Group, that confection of robust democracies spearheaded by Chrystia Freeland and including such human rights champions as Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, and Brazil. Their purpose is to restore democracy to Venezuela by ousting its democratically elected government.

By far the largest of these, with a population of over 200 million, is Brazil. What's come out recently is the extent of US meddling in last year's election, in which the Americans connived to sideline the most popular politician in Brazil, the leftish Lula de Silva, and install extremist far-right nut job Jair Bolsonaro as president.

That's how Uncle Sam's plucky band of democracy promoters roll. Democracy is far too precious to be left in the hands of voters.

For a little more background on the Lima Group, check this out.


What we should find disturbing is that the same mainstream media constantly boasting of how critical they are to the survival of democracy never seem to hold their governments to account when they are exposed as working to destroy it.

US sanctions strangle Venezuelan economy

Finally, an honest headline about Venezuela on the CBC!

Well, not quite. The full headline reads "Venezuala exodus passes four million as US sanctions strangle Venezuela economy."

The exodus.

The sanctions.

The strangulation...

Canada's shameful "leadership" of the Lima Group is aiding and abetting the strangulation of Venezuela. Does anybody think that it's Maduro and his buddies who are skipping meals because of this strangulation?

Of course not. We, the politically correct and infinitely virtuous people of Canada, are fully aboard with America's strangulation of Venezuela's economy, realizing full well that it's the little people who are most hurt by those sanctions.

Hurt enough to flee their country in the millions, according to this story.

And if we persevere, if we help Uncle Sam tighten the noose around the neck of the Venezuelan people, maybe, eventually, those desperate people will acquiesce to having a leader imposed who they never voted for.

That will be a tremendous victory for democracy and freedom!

Justin sells out his father's Cuba legacy

When you see stories like this you get a sense of which direction the winds 'o change are blowin' in.

Ever to the right, that's where.

Liberal Justin is staking out turf well to the right of Conservative Brian Mulroney, who made his mark in political history by being well to the right of Trudeau the Elder.

But that was just normal. Conservatives are by definition required to be to the right of Liberals.

To see a Lib PM so far right in foreign policy as Justin Trudeau is unprecedented.


This rotten apple fell far from the tree.


Then again, I think the entire spectrum has swung to the right. I read a Scheer speech the other day wherein he promised us tighter coordination with the US military, and by the way, we'll recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Huh?

As I said; ever to the right...

Justin Trudeau heaps shame on his father's legacy

         Justin Trudeau before becoming a Yankee stooge.


Interesting story at the CBC about how the Trudeau government has cancelled aid to Nicaragua but forgot to mention the fact to the Canadian public.

For good reason. There's a good slice of the Canadian public already uncomfortable with Canada's collusion with the Americans in their efforts to impose regime change on Venezuela. Our "leadership" of the so-called Lima Group, an amalgam of extreme-right Trump toadies from Central and South America, is a betrayal of Canada's independent foreign policy, insofar as we still have one.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the Beltway Bullies see Venezuelan regime change as part of a package deal, with the other parts of the package being Cuba and Nicaragua. Here's John Bolton talking about the "Troika of Tyranny."

And here's Mike Pompeo in a Telemundo interview proclaiming that "the US, under President Trump, is working diligently" to bring peace and prosperity and democracy to the entirety of the Western hemisphere, which will of course require regime change in the tyrannical troika. (Pompeo brings up Nicaragua at 3:12)

There's a reason Bolton and Pompeo value Canada's participation in this anti-democratic chicanery. Trudeau still has a bit of Trudeau the Elder's non-conformist aura about him, and his Foreign Minister is best known on the world stage for her grandstanding on human rights. Chrystia and Justin have a palatability in human rights circles that the leaders of our Lima Group peers like Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, and Brazil clearly do not.

Justin and Chrystia are sacrificing Canada's credibility in the family of nations to serve as window dressing for the crude power politics of neo-fascist war-mongers like Bolton, Pence, Pompeo, and Trump.


Here's a different perspective on what's been happening in Nicaragua.

Canadian military announces "Operation Absence"

Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan announced yesterday that our peacekeeping mission to Mali, Operation Presence, will continue indefinitely.

The mission, begun a year ago, saw 250 CF personnel and Canada's entire fleet of eight helicopters in the African country to deliver peace, development, and prosperity.

CF spokesperson Colonel Wanda Dunkelwasser elaborated on Sajjan's announcement in a media backgrounder; "Our analysts have determined that over the past year, our contribution to bringing peace, development, and prosperity to Mali has been precisely zilch. Nada. Bupkis. We subsequently further determined that we could find considerable efficiencies in our peacekeeping mission by withdrawing our personnel and our helicopters. Going forward, our peacekeeping mission will be known as Operation Absence."

On the same day that Minister Sajjan was updating the public on our peacekeeping mission, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland shocked the UN by revealing that "Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, 'incels,' nativists, and radical anti-globalists" threaten the stability of the civilized world.

Alas, she was not referring to those smelly, basement-dwelling, maladapted, twenty-somethings playing kill-em-all video games eighteen hours a day. In her leadership role with the Lima Group, working to free Venezuelan women and girls and resources from the grip of their elected dictator, Ms. Freeland has gained invaluable insights into the psyches of white supremacists like her good friends, Mikes Pence and Pompeo.

When Freeland talks Neo-Nazis, we'd do well to pay attention.

After Venezuela, we must bring democracy to Cuba, Nicaragua

Looks like Canada's state broadcaster is floating the idea that after the Abrams-Bolton-Pompeo "axis of virtue" succeeds in restoring democracy to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua will be next. In fact, Evan Dyer's article aligns perfectly with public statements already made by Bolton, Pompeo, and anti-Castro superhawks like Marco Rubio.

The rhetoric of Foreign Minister Freeland also aligns perfectly with the US goal of regime change in all three countries. The so-called Lima Group is little more than a fig-leaf designed to provide a facade of widespread regional support for American machinations, and Canada's participation is intended to put a happy face on what is otherwise a cabal of extreme right-wing regimes.

Relying on the expertise of "historian and democracy activist" Michael Lima Cuadra is telling. I'm not sure what makes him a historian; there is no record I can find of scholarly articles, books, or teaching posts that would justify the label.

Cuadra's "democracy activism," however,  is on display at his twitter account @ngotranslations. He obviously remains nostalgic for the setback freedom suffered at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. That CIA initiative was one of the few regime change operations in Latin America since WWII that didn't achieve its objective.


Almost sixty years later, it's still business as usual.

Doug's world

Doug Saunders has quite the wagon-load of wishful thinking on view in my Globe and Mail today. The headline gives it away; "Canada  almost saved Venezuela - until Washington crashed the party."

That's right! Canada has been working really hard behind the scenes to restore democracy in Venezuela, and we nearly pulled it off, but then "one man walked into the room, late to the party, and began shouting his support."

That man would be Donald Trump, of course, the know-nothing imbecile currently in the White House. Fearing that the deft diplomacy of Chrystia Freeland would knock him off the top of the news cycle for a few minutes, Trump elbowed his way into a situation that was none of his business, and wrecked all our hard work.

So there you have it. A peaceful transition was within reach, with perhaps a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Chrystia following soon after...

Hard to know where to begin. First of all, Trump isn't exactly late to the party. America's regime change strategy (also known as "restoring democracy," per the time-honoured US tradition we have seen applied in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Brazil, Haiti, Honduras, among others) vis-a-vis Venezuela dates back to the election of Chavez twenty years ago.

In the interval, the US has funded many opposition initiatives in Venezuela, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars through agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy. The "party" going on in Venezuela is pretty much Uncle Sam's party. It's Chrystia and Justin who arrived late.

Secondly, why no mention of US sanctions? I have no doubt that corruption and ineptitude have played a significant role in creating the current mess, but surely many years of US-led sanctions deserve some credit. Doug carefully avoids any mention of the recent Alfred de Zayas UN report on the impact of those sanctions.

Speaking of corruption and ineptitude, Canadians need to take a good hard look at our bedfellows in the "Lima Group." We've tossed our lot in with the likes of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina... any of which could give Venezuela a run for its money in the corruption department. By the way, it's worth noting that the new government in Mexico has been distancing itself from the Lima Group, an act of Trump defiance, which is the exact opposite of what Justin and Chrystia are doing.

Finally, given that Doug's column bears little or no resemblance to the actual political history of US-Venezuela relations over the past two decades, what do you suppose would be the point in writing it?

I see two objectives.

The reputation of the Freeland-Trudeau team on the world stage has taken quite a bruising after diplomatic screw-ups with India, China, Saudi Arabia, and the US. The brain-trust guiding Canada's newspaper of record may believe a little turd-polishing is in order, and what better way to signal our virtue than by taking another gratuitous kick at the Orange Ogre.

The truth of the matter is that Canada and the rest of the "Lima Group" satrapys are 100% bent on advancing America's two-decades-long regime-change strategy in Venezuela. Dissing Trump while kissing Uncle Sam's backside is what used to be called hypocrisy... and that's an arena in which Canada truly does punch above its weight.

Justin and Chrystia double down on Trump appeasement strategy

Having completely and utterly fumbled the China file, I see where our dynamic duo of diplomacy are busy trying to further ingratiate themselves with the Bolton-Trump-Pompeo combine by doing Uncle Sam's bidding with the so-called "Lima Group."

Canadian journalist Andrew Mitrovica does a nice job of exposing our hypocrisy in this story at Al Jazeera. There's a reason you're reading it at AJE and not in the Globe and Mail. Our "free press" are doing all they can to obscure the fact that what our PM and Foreign Minister are really up to is desperately trying to curry favour with the war-mongers in Washington.


Much has changed in the two years since Justin thought it would be clever to give Mafia Don a poke in the eye with that virtue-signalling tweet welcoming the world's downtrodden and oppressed. It's a complete embarrassment to watch Justin and his Foreign Minister go all-in for America's regime change plans in Venezuela.

This is not what our last PM Trudeau would have done.

Canada keen to do Trump's bidding in Lima Group

The Lima Group was formed in 2017 by those countries in the Western Hemisphere most desperate to curry favour with the USA. It's purpose is to further the US goal of regime change in Venezuela, an exercise framed as "saving the Venezuelan people from socialism."


Trump's little helper lectures Venezuela on democracy

It therefore comes as no surprise to find this headline at CBC News: Canada, Latin American countries won't recognize Maduro's new government. Nor does it come as a surprise that Mike Pompeo joined this "independent" group of countries via video link at their recent shindig in Peru.

Anyone who cares about Canada's image on the world stage should take a good hard look at who we're throwing our lot in with when we participate in the Lima Group. None of our partners make it into the top ten in the Cato Institute's Human Freedom Index. (Canada is ranked no. 5) In fact, only four of our twelve partners make it into the top fifty!

We're issuing joint declarations with the likes of Honduras and Guatemala! That's bound to make our stock go up in human rights circles! The kind of flowery rhetoric preferred by the Freeland-Trudeau team when addressing human rights concerns could just as well be aimed at most of our "allies" in the Lima Group.

What do we even have in common with Macri's Argentina or Bolsonaro's Brazil? On the face of it, not very much. (Argentina and Brazil rank 107 and 123 on the Human Freedom index and 52/102 on the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, and both are trending down)

Except for one thing; anti-Trump grandstanding aside, we're as desperate as any of those banana republics to curry favour with the Big Dog in DC.