The fascist affiliations of our latest "media freedom" martyr

A few years ago, when Chrystia Freeland ascended to her role as Foreign Minister, a story began to circulate about the Nazi affiliations of her grandfather.

"RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION!!!" the FM squealed.

"Russian disinformation," our media parroted.

That might have been the end of it, but somehow a gang of Putinists infiltrated the ranks of the Ottawa Citizen, and suddenly we saw this headline; Chrystia Freeland's granddad was indeed a Nazi Collaborator- so much for Russian Disinformation.

Being exposed as a liar didn't hurt Chrystia's career. She is now Deputy PM, AND Finance Minister! Draw your own conclusions about what that says about the talent pool in Ottawa.

Chrystia's former department has issued two denunciations over three days re the Roman Protasevich saga, the second being a joint press release in concert with our allies. It's pretty much what you'd expect; a declaration of our virtue in standing up for media freedom in the face of authoritarian nogoodniks like Putin and Lukashenko. Bear in mind that "our allies" are the same pack of poodles who actively connive in the silencing of Julian Assange, because media freedom, don't you know!

Well, there's a lot of media in the world, and a few of them have even done some research on the background of the "journalist" at the centre of story. Seems there's a lot more to know about the guy than what the CBC or the Globe and Mail want you to know!

Such as the fact that our media freedom martyr has serious Nazi cred, and has been on the US payroll for years! On the ground in Maidan Square for the Nuland-Pyatt "Revolution of Dignity" in 2014. On the front lines in Donesk in 2015-16. On a week-long visit to Washington, where he was feted by the State Department in 2018...

Yup, that's the kind of journalist we're willing to support!

North Korea prepares to unleash secret weapon on USA

Shannon Gormley, the heavyweight "global affairs columnist and freelance writer" at the Ottawa Citizen had a global scoop today with the revelation that Kim Jong-Un has a secret weapon up his sleeve; a 6,000 strong nerd army ready to unleash cyber-mayhem on America!

Yup, a nerd army!

Be afraid, America... be very afraid!

And wouldn't you know it, they're getting help from those gosh-darned towel-heads 'o terror, the Ayatollahs.

Gormley does mention one of the flaws in this scenario, namely the fact that Kim Jong-Un is the only guy in the country with an internet connection, and the only other person allowed access is Mrs. Kim when she's buying stuff on Amazon.

So obviously that nerd army is already set up amongst us, a veritable fifth column as it were.

This got me thinking. Where are you most likely to encounter Koreans in the course of your day? Why, in your friendly neighbourhood variety store, that's where! And what are those "friendly" Koreans doing every time you walk in?... why, they're on the internet of course!

Until I read this story, I never gave that a second thought. Now I'm wondering, are these nice Korean families who work their butts off 24/7 overcharging you for everything from rolling papers to newspapers really North Korean sleeper agents? Are they part of that nerd army ready ready to spring on an unsuspecting public on a moments notice?

That's something to think about... thanks for the heads up, Shannon!

How mining companies give taxpayers the shaft

Sad story in my Globe and Mail today about the Faro mine in Yukon. Justin Giovannetti tells us all about the fallout after the world's biggest open pit mine was abandoned. It's a good story as far as it goes. As a taxpayer and a citizen it's certainly important to be informed of a major environmental threat and what the government is doing about it.

What the government has been doing about it is cooking up a remediation plan. The plan has been in the planning process for 18 years now, and get this; work should start in 2023! In the meanwhile, planning takes a lot of money - at least 250 millions thus far! And that's just the planning! The actual remediation is expected to cost at least a billion!

That's a lot of cash and a fascinating story, but what would have been interesting is some discussion about how this ended up being a taxpayer liability. All Giovannetti tells us is that "...the owner went bankrupt, dumping one of Canada's largest environmental liabilities into the lap of the federal government."

Yup, just like that!

Now the story, to my way of thinking, would be far more informative if we knew a little more about those owners who went bankrupt. Obviously, a lot of people must have made a lot of money during the lifespan of what was once the world's biggest open pit mine. Why aren't they cleaning up after themselves?

The lead-zinc motherlode at Faro was discovered by a guy named Al Kulan. He teamed up with an established American mining multi-national, Cyprus Mines, and Cyprus Anvil was born. The CEO of Cyprus Mines at the time was a guy named Henry Mudd. Check out his wikipedia page and you'll see he's mostly famous for his philanthropy; giving money away. He obviously had plenty of it coming in.

Cyprus Mines changed hands and was controlled by Amoco, the US oil giant, at the time Faro closed in the early '80s. They have plenty of money too. Most Cyprus properties eventually ended up with Freeport McMoRan, a company with revenues of almost 16 billion US dollars in 2015.

Amoco, via its subsidiary Dome Petroleum, sold the mine to a rising star in the mining industry, Clifford Frame. Frame has twice been honoured by The Northern Miner as its "Miner of the Year." Frame went on to a measure of infamy thanks to the Westray mine disaster in Nova Scotia in which 26 of his employees died. Here's a fascinating article about Mr. Frame's business practices from Paul McKay at the Ottawa Citizen. Mr. Frame is now 83 years old and fabulously wealthy. No word on whether he's kicking in a few bucks towards the cleanup costs.

Mr. Frame fobbed the Faro mine off on another Toronto mining promoter, and this is the guy who went bankrupt in Giovannetti's story. But he personally didn't go bankrupt - just the company that owned the mine! He too is fabulously wealthy and remains active in the mining community.

So this is what would make a fabulous story, or at least flesh out Giovannetti's version. Lots of folks made lots of money in the relatively short life span of the Faro mine. How do they get to keep their millions but the taxpayer gets stuck with the billion dollar plus tab to clean up their mess!

Sadly, this is far from an isolated incident. Remember Royal Oak Mines? Peggy Witte was the darling of the business pages in The Globe and Mail for a few years, a tough woman making it in the macho world of mining. She too has a "Miner of the Year" trophy on her mantle. She too left a billion dollar mess for the taxpayer to tidy up.

And then there's those 150,000 orphan oil and gas wells awaiting taxpayer remediation in Alberta alone.

That's how we roll in Canada! Some entrepreneurial genius comes up with a scheme. They get laudatory press coverage galore and oodles of government subsidies. Then, when the mine or the well is worked out and our entrepreneurial whiz kids are long gone, leaving the taxpayer holding the bag, that same press can't even remember their names.

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.

Award-winning journalist unleashes cliches of doom on Harper's China visit

The Ottawa Citizen has been a newspaper longer than Canada has been a country. It went through various ownerships over the decades and eventually ended up a Conrad Black property. In spite of that, it's never been able to transform itself into the country's "newspaper of record."

No wonder.

In one of the shrewdest moves of his ill-fated career Conrad Black unloaded his newspaper empire on the hapless Izzy Asper for top dollar just as the internet was making ink and paper obsolete. Izzy's Canwest media empire floundered aimlessly for a few years before going tits up.

Then lo and behold, a crew of finance sharpies backed by Goldman Sachs bought control of Canwest from the reciever for pennies on the dollar, and set up a "new" company; Postmedia. As a titular figure-head they brought in Paul Godfrey to dignify the exercise. Godfrey had in an ealier life made himself wealthy by launching the Toronto Sun tabloid.

The exercise wasn't about saving newspapers; it was about breathing life back into all that Canwest corporate debt they bought for pennies on the dollar. Nevertheless, they have to keep flogging newspapers to make their financial dreams come true.

And nothing moves papers like a bit of controversy.

Which brings me to Terry Glavin's opinion piece in the Citizen today.

Glavin has written a series of articles about the China menace. Seems the wily commies are taking over the world. Today he continues to work readers into a froth about the upcoming  Harper visit to China, which after the obligatory bullshit about our concern for human rights, will be nothing more and nothing less than a full-on grovel to beg the Chinese to buy our dirty oil.

In Glavin's article China's state-owned oil company is both "absurdly corrupt" and a "ravenous behemoth."

Its president is "aggressive and ambitious." If that isn't bad enough, "Sinopec provides the sanctions-busting revenues to allow the delusional mass-murderer al-Assad to hang on in Damascus."

But wait a minute! Then it gets "really ugly". Turns out those commies are now Iran's number one customer for Iranian crude! OH. MY. GOD!!!!!

So that's the big fear, that Harper is keen on doing business with people who still do business with Iran?

That's not a big story, my friend. Israeli companies do as much business with Iran as they can get away with. (see for example Achieving Peace on Earth one embargo defying deal at a time right here on this blog.)

Glavin goes on to claim that China now co-authors Canada's foreign policy, at which point I think it's fair to say he's given up all claims to any measure of credibility.

A company whose president is aggressive and ambitious? God forbid!

A major oil company that is a ravenous behemoth? Huh? There's been one that wasn't?

As for absurdly corrupt, I think in China they still make a practice of hanging their white-collar criminals.

Here we applaud them when they buy media empires for pennies on the dollar and bail them out when they get too big to fail.