Government Corruption

Tories call on Liberals to release taxpayer-funded hard drugs contracts

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

The Conservatives said the Liberal government’s distribution of taxpayer-funded hard drugs to addicts has failed after nine years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Since Trudeau formed government in 2015, the Conservatives said more than 42,000 Canadians have died from drug overdoses. In British Columbia, it said there has been a massive increase in overdose deaths because he allowed the government to decriminalize drugs.

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BC EXCLUSIVE: CBC editor defends not referring to carbon tax as carbon pricing

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

CBC News senior standards editor Blair Shewchuk said it uses the term carbon tax rather than carbon pricing because it is the most accurate and unbiased, according to an Access to Information and Privacy request obtained by the Western Standard.

While the carbon tax can be referred to with other terms, Shewchuk said it is most often referred to as this by economists and public policy experts across the political spectrum.

“As such, we consider ‘carbon tax’ a clear, neutral, an

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BC government launches Secondary Suite Incentive Program David Eby David Eby Courtesy Alberta Government/YouTube Jonathan Bradley Jonathan Bradley Published on: 04 May 2024, 4:00 pm The British Columbia government has started a three-year pilot of the S

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

The British Columbia government has started a three-year pilot of the Secondary Suite Incentive Program (SSIP) to what it says will build more affordable rental homes.

BC Premier David Eby said there “is an urgent need for more homes British Columbians can actually afford, and many homeowners want to be part of the solution to the housing crisis.”

“This new incentive program makes it possible for homeowners to add a rental suite to their home, creating thousands of affordable rentals,” said Eby in a press release.

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Uyghurs, Tibetans Condemn France for Hosting ‘Genocidal Ogre’ Xi Jinping

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

Human rights activists and Uyghur organization leaders staged a protest on Monday in Paris to condemn President Emmanuel Macron’s enthusiastic welcome to China’s genocidal dictator Xi Jinping.

Xi landed in Paris on Sunday for an extended tour of Europe also including stops in Russia-friendly Serbia and one of China’s most eager partners in the predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Hungary. In France, Xi held a trilateral meeting on Monday with Macron and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen that focused primarily on economic cooperation. Reports from the meeting indicated that neither Macron nor von der Leyen address the rampant human rights abuses Xi has commanded the Communist Party to commit in China, most prominently the deliberate extermination of the Uyghur people of occupied East Turkistan.

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RFK Jr. Accuses Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta of Election Interference for Censoring ‘Who Is Bobby Kennedy?’ Film

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is accusing Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta of election interference, claiming the social media giant censored the film, Who Is Bobby Kennedy? on Facebook and Instagram.

On Saturday, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Kennedy released a short biographical film about the candidate, narrated by actor Woody Harrelson, but viewers were unable to share the content on Facebook and Instagram, Kennedy’s team said.

Some social media users were told the video was spam or that the link redirected them to a malicious website. Others were told the video contained “graphic and violent content,” while others received a message from Meta saying the content violated community standards, RFK’s campaign explained.

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TikTok is suing the U.S. over ‘obviously unconstitutional’ law that would ban it Lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up a protracted legal fight

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, are suing the U.S. over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up what could be a protracted legal fight over TikTok’s future in the United States.

The popular social video company alleged the law, which U.S. President Joe Biden signed as part of a larger $95 billion US foreign aid package, is so “obviously unconstitutional” that the sponsors of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Ap

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Feds put $15M into pathogen tracking, health-care supply chain research to prep for next pandemic Funding will pay for 4 years of the study and equipment

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

A new $15-million cross-border research project is underway to monitor the movement of pathogens in Canada and the U.S. in the event of future pandemics.

The federal government put up the money that will cover four years of equipment and research.

The Integrated Network for the Surveillance of Pathogens: Increasing Resilience and Capacity in Canada’s Pandemic Response (INSPIRE) brings together 43 researchers from seven universities and public and private agencies. The team consists of biochemists, microbiologists, engineers, computer scientists, and supply chain public policy experts.

INSPIRE will partner with academics in Michigan, Ohio and New York —

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No jail time for Hamilton police officer who sexually assaulted woman he was mentoring, judge rules Michael LaCombe resigned after being found guilty of 2 counts of sexual assault

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

A former Hamilton police officer will not go to jail for sexually assaulting the woman he was mentoring as she pursued her own career in policing.

Michael LaCombe, 54, will instead serve 12 months of house arrest followed by 12 months of probation after Justice Cameron Watson found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault in January, following a trial.

Watson sentenced LaCombe on Monday at the Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, Ont., describing his crimes and the aftermath as “a spectacular and cataclysmic fall from grace” in his written decision.

“His life has taken an irreparable downward spiral. He is no longer the man he once was,” Watson wrote.

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Understanding British Columbia’s Public Management Challenge

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

Despite substantial spending increases by the British Columbia government, the province’s health-care wait times have increased and student test scores have declined.

After nearly a decade of relative spending restraint, from 2016/17 to 2023/24 the B.C. government increased program spending by 23.5 per cent (on a per-person basis).

More specifically, during that same period, the government increased per-person health-care spending by 13.9 per cent—yet the province’s median health-care wait time increased from 26.6 weeks to 27.7 weeks.

And from 2016/17 to 2020/21 (the latest year of comparable data), the government increased per-student spending by 12.9 per cent, yet since 2015 student test scores (PISA) have fallen by 20 points or more in all three categories—reading, mathematics and science.

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ALARMISMOPINION Study: Venomous snakes likely to migrate en masse amid global heating

By Valerie / May 7, 2024 /

Sell your automobile or the snakes will get you?

Venomous snakes likely to migrate en masse amid global heating, says study

Researchers find many countries unprepared for influx of new species and will be vulnerable to bites

Neelima Vallangi Fri 3 May 2024 19.35 AEST

Climate breakdown is likely to lead to the large-scale migration of venomous snake species into new regions and unprepared countries, according to a study.

The researchers forecast that Nepal, Niger, Namibia, China, and Myanmar will gain the most venomous snake species from neighbouring countries under a heating climate.

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