The View from Canada: Trudeau 'whipping out' the military | The View from Canada |Axisoflogic.com

Miles Report No. 83 - Trudeau “whipping out” the military - one of several Canadian values [1]

There have been several items that caught my attention in the last short while, from democratic reform, through a ”values test”, and on into the CBC Fifth Estate The Untouchables (“... A tax dodge for Canada's wealthy dreamed up by one of the biggest accounting giants in the world …”), but the decider for this letter was today’s pronouncements by Sajjan and Freeland concerning Canada’s military vis à vis Russia.

Democratic reform
The Liberals stopped the democratic reform committee and the Cabinet Minister had her ‘action plan’ changed to no longer address the issue. Most Canadians will not really pay much attention to this until perhaps the next election, but it is a significant move by the Liberals. The Conservatives are not unhappy to see it go by the wayside either as they are the other side of Canada’s dominant (but not majoritarian) political duo.

The real reason is not as Trudeau stated because there was no consensus - which there more than likely was not, but there was definitely a clear majority opinion, that being decidedly in favour of proportional representation [PR]. PR should be a “higher priority” over other democratic reform concerns and its implementation would do more for “together and united” than any other form of government. It is less convenient for the Liberals and Conservatives for sure, but much more democratic for the Canadian citizen.

By way of comparison, take a look at Israel. Israel is touted as being a great democracy within the Middle East, the only true democracy in the region. Israel has a PR system to support that wonderful democracy (and no constitution) - and its fringe groups are often incorporated into the leading party in order for that party to remain in power. These fringes, along with the mainstream parties, have turned Israel far to the militant right. Is this perhaps why Trudeau complained about the “fringe parties” in his decision, not wanting to have to deal with them? Except that any particular leader does not have to deal with them - it is up to the party to decide with whom they are going to work with...and is it not a Canadian value to negotiate and compromise?

Values test
One of the Conservative party leadership candidates, Kellie Leitch, has indicated that a “values test” should be implemented for refugees and new Canadians. These supposed unique values are often labelled in quite nice sounding phrases, but what do they look like in action? Does it include niqab banning and police snitch lines?

I have a better idea: all Canadians should have to take a values test; and even better, all persons born in Canada should not be given their citizenship until they reach the legal age for voting (or going to war and killing others, whichever comes first). ; ) /s. I wonder how many Canadians would be able to pass the test, which leads to the question: Kellie, do you have a sample test for all of us? It is easy to politicize about this, but the words should require action, the latter not being a particularly strong Canadian value (see democratic reform, above).

Down to business…
The CBC recently showed a Fifth Estate critique titled The Untouchables, referring to the financial company KPMG and its multimillionaire clients. This is an item that neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals really would want to look into in any depth. The Conservatives had strong ties to KPMG:

The Harper government forged a partnership with a major Canadian accounting association, formalizing it as an adviser to the Canada Revenue Agency, at the same time as the group sought to fight the CRA in court to shield the files of multimillionaires who had stashed money offshore.

Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay trumpeted the alliance in November 2014 as a "new era of information and collaboration" between the Canada Revenue Agency and Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada. [2]

It becomes even more interesting when the current government offered the 26 culprits amnesty from prosecution or penalty, that the deal was to be kept secret, and KPMG is getting off scot-free except for the fees - many millions - they are collecting. Conflicts of interest? Cronyism? Another Canadian value, protect the rich and tax the poor?

To all appearances, and by all actions, the answer is ‘yes’ to all three questions, for both political parties.

Trudeau “whipping out” the military
In a brief news conference today, Trudeau sent out two cabinet ministers to announce another militant stand against Russia, a reflection in part from U.S. immigration executive order by Trump.

Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, responded to a question about Russia interfering in Canada with an affirmative comment. She then proceeded to describe government actions - allowing Ukraine to gun-up by buying Canadian armaments, and sending troops to Latvia via Poland as “sending a strong message to Russia”...to act as a “deterrence” as Russian actions were “not tolerated.” She continued saying “Russia’s actions have caused us to do this.” It is a “long term action...just a start...as Ukraine is working on reforms.”

Ms Freeland obviously lives within her own concocted world. After several decades of the western media telling us how washed up Russia was, how inefficient it was, how rusty its military was, are we suddenly to believe that they have this wonderful new power of disrupting government processes of the west, being the U.S. and NATO, and are arming up in order to attack Europe? Hogwash.

And what of actions in the Ukraine? The U.S. instigated an illegal coup to kick out Ukrainian President Yanukovich, and with the assistance of the NSA and Undersecretary of State, VIctoria “F*** the EU” Nuland, and other U.S. government agencies, installed the neonazi supported government of Poroshenko, with “our boy” Yatsenyuk leading the pack.

As a result, Russia did the intelligent thing and stopped the U.S. from taking over Sevastopol, and stopped Ukraine from once again stopping Crimea from expressing its democratic desire to be free from Ukraine central. Did they assist the Donbass rebels? Probably for sure, but Russian speaking citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk were threatened by the likes of Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Yulia Tymoshenko with ethnic cleansing at the best and genocide at the worst.

As for the Ukraine implementing reforms, that is simply a complete lie. The Kiev government has not honored the Minsk agreement in any way (signed with Donetsk and Luhansk, not Russia). In the meantime, because Kiev Ukraine blockaded the rail transport of coal to Ukraine from Donbass, Ukraine will soon be suffering severe energy shortages. Because of this blockade, several Donbass businesses were shut down, then quasi taken over by the Donetsk government to keep them running and keep people working (is that a Canadian value - keeping people working?). Because Ukraine was collecting taxes, but not paying pensions or wages, the Donbass governments have authorized the legal use of the ruble and not the hyrvnia. And because of the restrictions on Donbass citizens, Russia is allowing the use of their legal papers for travel and business with Russia.

Reforms? Sure, but all intended to destroy the civilian structure of Donbass, all of which are backfiring on the Ukraine government in Kiev.

Where else did Russia go wrong? Oh yes, the Georgian break away province of Ossetia was attacked by Mikheil Saakashvili (now a groupie for Ukraine after being charged with “multiple criminal” actions). South Ossetia, like Crimea with Ukraine, had not wanted to be a part of Georgia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. The Georgian government unilaterally abolished South Ossetia’s autonomous status in 1991, and the Russians stepped in to support the Ossetians. The Georgian government, under U.S. and Israeli training, attacked South Ossetia in 2008, apparently thinking that Russia’s weakened state would not allow it to respond and assist its ally.

That was the start of the series of setbacks by U.S. hegemonic interests. Crimea and the Ukraine situation came next. Concurrent with the latter, Russia decisively and capably stepped into the fight against ISIS, essentially demonstrating that what the U.S. was attempting was to use ISIS to get rid the Assad government.

So yes, well maybe, Russian actions caused “us” to do this, “this” being to stand by the U.S. in its hegemonic desires to control the Middle East for - as I have said many times before - control of the fiat petrodollar and the containment/destruction of the current Russian state.

Canada’s Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan, stepped in to answer a couple of questions. One of the reporters asked if Canada was taking “marching orders” from the U.S. on this. Sajjan did not answer directly but said, “blah, blah, blah, freedom, yada, yada, yada, democracy, wa, wa, wa, negotiation…”

In short, Canada has supported U.S. actions globally for many decades, and is not willing to upset relations with the U.S. as our economy depends hugely on U.S. trade and financial ties. The current situation in the above areas is simply a continuation of this sycophancy and inability to have an independent foreign policy. Our ‘tough stance’ on Russia is a charade perpetrated on an ignorant Canadian public in support of U.S. militancy globally. Canada does not take “marching orders” but is a willing participant in it all.

Both Trudeau and Harper were willing participants in U.S. global actions and there does not seem to be too much difference between the two - kinder gentler words perhaps from the Liberals, but the actions are essentially the same. [3]

And so another seemingly Canadian value exposed - whipping out the military in order to appear....subservient? Sycophantic? Idiotic?

[1] An arcane reference to a talking point against the Conservatives made by Trudeau during the last electoral campaign.

[2] “Harper government partnered with industry group battling CRA over KPMG case,”
Harvey Cashore, Dave Seglins. CBC News, October 06, 2015.

[3] Canada also deployed two destroyers to Southeast Asia...for….? So we can diversify our trade with China? So we can be once again support the U.S. in keeping the seas “free” for maritime transportation? So we can give the Chinese a good laugh as they watch our antiquated navy pretend it is defending something?