Throwing people under the bus only works when you're firmly in the driver's seat. Trudeau and Blair found themselves flattened on the asphalt when their blame CSIS ploy blew up in their faces.
Historically, at least in other countries, leaders who square-off against their permanent, nonpartisan intelligence gatherers end up losing. Governments are transitory; "the firms" are not.
One can hope CSIS continues to stand up to the bully.
Thank you, Terry for the update. My own feeling about Chrystia Freeland is that she is, at best, slightly less bad; although, she cannot be trusted any more than the rest of Trudeau’s sneak of weasels. I’m wondering why, if after what he calls only a few months Bob Pickard can determine the omnipresence of the CCP, his predecessor was unable to spot what must have been the same situation. Perhaps, Bob Pickard was the first of his kind. I’m having difficulty finding this information.
To me it says something not good about Canada today that both Freeland and Johnston wrote books about the problems we're facing (plutocrats and trust, respectively) and they go and essentially ignore what they've written. It leads me to think that experts today are not worth their salt, and this from me who has 4 degrees!
Standard operating procedure of the authoritarian left. Freeland writes a book showing plutocrats in a negative light, well we can’t have that, we will make her finance minister, and give her a cushy directorship at the World Economic Forum, where all the plutocrats hang out. Power corrupts. That is how the authoritarian left silences criticism. BTW, I have never understood how Freeland, with her degree in Slavic Studies is qualified to be the Canadian finance minister? It is a mystery.
Lametti was an outstanding and widely-respected Crown prosecutor.
Smash-cut to 2023, where evidently constant exposure to the Trudeau inner circle's smoke of incompetence, myopia, and corruption results in a contact high that turns formerly capable individuals into braying, empty-headed, lying yes-men.
It's not that unusual for people to lie about themselves and their motives. That snake James Comey wrote a book titled 'A Higher Loyalty' full of sanctimonious self-praise for his virtue. He committed crimes and tries to pass them off as righteously motivated to serve truth and justice on behalf of 'the people'. He served himself and his fellow swamp creatures.
Christia Freeland is on the board of Directors of the AIIB bank. She is , by all standards, far worse than all others. She is also on the Board of Trustees of the WEF and follows their dictate to a tee. She is one of the biggest threats to Canada and Canadian’s of all those politicians. She is the cause of our inflation and destruction financially as well.
Christia Freeland is the person with the ties and relationship with George .Soro’s who is the man who created “open Societies” and who is behind the majority of the situation to do with open borders, along with the aid of all politicians,other billionaire philanthropists, large Corporations and Tech Companies that are doing the bidding of this cabal of elites across all Western Nations and involving all Western Institutions. She is the one on the "board of Trustees for the WEF and mouths the very same words as well as launders billions of our tax dollars to aid their power grab and control of the very people they are thieving it from. So anyone who thinks she is decent, or concerned about Canadian’s or Canada, could not be more mistaken. She is one of the most dangerous of all and is attempting to erase Canada, it’s borders, and it’s history.
I think TG's praise of Freeland - even luke-warm as it is - is not warranted. She's only the smartest idiot in a room full of 'em.
Seems highly dubious to me that it only took one call with Pickard for her to demand the nuclear option on the AIIB. She knew, and she's just trying to cover her own ass, and the ass of her imbecile boss.
Same can probably be said of Pickard. Suddenly he's so patriotic that he needs to whistle-blow on a firm with which he's been intimately familiar for years? Things that make you go "hmm".
Pickard was only at the AIIB for 14 months; I think it's a stretch to say it's an organization with-which "he's been intimately familiar for years" unless you know of prior connections?
14 months is ample time for an executive to become "intimately familiar" with his firm. In fact I believe that intimate familiarity is a job requirement and is likely necessary from Day One.
But in any event he was certainly "intimately familiar" with international banking - particularly with regard to China - long before he joined AIIB, which is likely how he ended up there.
Please. Enough of supporting claims of naivety and ignorance made by LPC-connected "subject-matter-experts". "It's my first day" was a valid excuse for Homer Simpson when joining the Naval Reserve. For Pickard, not so much.
Wrong, several times over. First, your snide claim was "familiar for *years* - hard to reconcile that with 14 months. Second, no one is "intimately familiar" with any organization from day one - and finance is a difficult industry to come to grips with - particularly development finance. Third, your claim was not that he was "intimately familiar" with international banking (his work history was in general PR, lots of it in east Asia, but not in banking or PR for financial institutions, so you're probably wrong on that one, as well), but with this particular institution.
So, please, enough drive-by smears with no factual basis. There are plenty of reasons to think this government is incompetent, corrupt, and venal - you don't have to make them up out of whole cloth.
I stand corrected. Obviously AIIB hired this babe in the woods because he was unqualified and entirely unfamiliar with their field ("a difficult industry to come to grips with" as you correctly observed, albeit in a grammatically-incorrect manner) and organization.
AIIB hired him because he was a really good PR guy (successful corporations sometimes try to find those people). It took him a while to understand what was going on, and the degree of CCP influence. When he did, he bailed out. What part of that confuses you?
I smell something else. Maybe change your underwear?
"Well. That’s refreshing. Funny thing about Freeland. As I’ve noticed more than once, on those rare occasions when the Trudeau government does anything useful on the “world stage,” if I must use that pathetic term, Freeland seems to have a hand in it."
Terry, surely Freeland was on the Board of Directors (or whatever the equivalent title is) of the AIIB for many years! Maybe still is? Or is it another Chinese financial institution? No, I think it was the AIIB. How can she now suddenly pretend that she didn't know anything about the way they operate?
Methinks this sudden awakening by Freeland is a major butt-covering exercise. No? I can't give her any credit for that - in fact, it only calls to mind her acquiescence in the whole scheme until yesterday.
Totally agree re Freeland.....now that push is coming to shove with AIIB she will take action....certainly she could not have been that unaware......Freeland is well aware that her role on the Board of Directors of the WEF does not sit with many Canadians and it would certainly seem that her loyalties are divided and who would win out?? Canada or the WEF....so I don’t give her any credit as a stateswoman for Canada...me thinks she’s riding a bucking horse and is not quite sure how to dismount but would probably fall on the WEF side.
I suspect it’s because the rules don’t apply to them. Sort of like the Obstruction of Justice with SNC Lavalin. It’s outright criminal what they do and yet nada. Lucki was appointed to be Trudeaus lapdog and ensure nothing was done without his approval. Like I said it’s criminal what they have all gotten away with, including Lucki!
Can anyone name one case where the RCMP have successfully completed a major national criminal investigation with political implications? I cannot. They completely botched the Air India investigation and are incapable of investigating complex political files. I think Canadians need an independent organization for investigating politicians. And it should not include close family friends of the prime minister, or family members of his cabinet ministers.
I love your work and pay to tell you so. I would love to support Sam Cooper too but his Substack is prohibitively expensive especially when we are paying others too. I currently pay 5 Substack plus a national post subscription. I am using this format to send a message to Sam. Lower your price man!
Great point Marcie. I too am reaching the point of "subscription fatigue". I cannot justify the expense of the individually priced content from the 6-7 writers I would love to follow. Perhaps they should consider "bundling" their offerings into a single subscription entity.
Fascinating account by Bill Browder on how the Magnitsky Act came into being after his business Hermitage Capital was stolen by Russian state criminals.:
Just read Bill Browder's book a month or so ago. Incredible courage and persistence to unravel the crimes. Putin was hands off as his enemies were taken out. Then Putin became one of the criminals himself and the state apparatus moved against Hermitage. Horrifying tortures of Sergei Magnitsky and then they beat him to death.
Very interested in the podcast episode! Also interesting that Sam Cooper is leaving and then Bell lays off some high profile people. Not the same company, je sais, but it says a lot about the media landscape. Sad to see Napier, Walters, McGregor and Hamamdjian go.
Agreed. I really wish some peopIe wouldn't take such pleasure in seeing certain of their least-liked high profile journalists given the high jump. There are hundreds and hundreds of families now looking forward to an inability to pay rent and mortgages. I've got a series by a guest author on the dystopian news landscape. The Bell layoffs come at the worst time, but the most opportune time for that series.
Oh, please, spare me the tears, Terry! I take no pleasure in people being fired from their jobs; but two things stand out about this round of terminations: (1) Everyone has known for *at least* 20 years that traditional journalism is a dying industry. Journalists have had almost a lifetime to prepare for this moment. I don't shed tears for the last buggy-whip makers and the last coopers, either. Change is the way of the world. (2) Journalists as a class did an absolutely atrocious job during covid of holding the government to account for the loss of employment and livelihoods caused by the absurd lockdowns and mandates. Many journalists positively cheered with glee when the unvaxxed lost their jobs - and even lost their claim to EI as well. Journalists surely knew that the vaxxes did not diminish infection or transmission, and therefore lacked any public policy rationale for being imposed. It was a complete and utter abdication of responsibility to hold the powers that be - especially Trudeau ranting during the 2021 election campaign - to account. Yeah, I'll shed buckets of tears for the unemployed victims of the covid hysteria that was fanned relentless in the media before I shed one tear for journalists. (3) Oh, and a third point: some of these journalists are the same people egging the government on to dismantle the fossil fuel industry root and branch. How many hundreds of thousands of jobs will that terminate? It's a bloody disgrace that journalists haven't bothered to publish the stories of the vaxx-injured, the covid unemployed, the "unjustly transitioned." The stories are heartbreaking, if they weren't invisible. If journalists want sympathy from the public, they need to start showing a tiny bit of it instead of trumpeting their utterly callous narratives day and night.
Remember that Toronto Star front page headline? “I have no empathy left for the willfully unvaccinated. Let them die.” Yup, the Toronto Star said that.
The one positive outcome from Covid was a huge swath of the population finally realizing the length and breadth of media bias and journalistic irresponsibility. However, we cannot lay all the blame there. Canadians devoured the propaganda. Ordinary people who readily turned in their neighbours for having family gatherings during lockdown was eerily similar to a much darker time.
Covid exposed the darkness in the hearts of a lot of people. And media were the cheerleaders. As someone said, a third of the population would persecute a third and remaining third would watch it happen.
I've read a lot on WW2 and up until three years ago, couldn't fathom how the German people so easily turned in their neighbours. I wonder no more. Saw it first hand in Canada.
I feel sorry for impartial journalists who try to tell the full unbiased truth when reporting on a news story but have no sympathy for those who tried to push an agenda/ideology (usually leftist/woke/progressive) instead of being impartial. They have ceased to be true journalists.
The people who have lost their jobs have been around for a long time, do you know if they will receive severance packages and pensions? Some agencies are known to shuffle long time employees off in a timely manner to avoid pensions.
About those national newspaper subscriptions…I received an email from NP yesterday offering the same subscription I just renewed, in April for $104, to new subscribers for $40. Needless to say, I was on the phone to NP in short order making inquiries and ultimately cancelling with a refund and re-subscribing.
There is a market and I too subscribe to three and would like to do so for a lot more honest journalists but cannot afford it....I often wonder why more journalists don’t group together and perhaps we could subsidize several groups for a larger sum...a thought
Blacklock's Reporter is evidence based reporting. They read the government reports and the document dumps, they sit in on committees and do research through FOI, they report on bills and regulations, they don't take government money, they are independently owned and operated in Ottawa. Holly Doan and Tom Korski have a wealth of journalistic experience. Listen to Tom Korski break it all down on the Alex Pierson show - sometimes on other Corus radio shows like Roy Green.
Thanks for the plug for Sam Cooper. I bought his book.
Sam Cooper has put out his first article on The Bureau, and it is a doozy.
https://www.thebureau.news.
Throwing people under the bus only works when you're firmly in the driver's seat. Trudeau and Blair found themselves flattened on the asphalt when their blame CSIS ploy blew up in their faces.
Historically, at least in other countries, leaders who square-off against their permanent, nonpartisan intelligence gatherers end up losing. Governments are transitory; "the firms" are not.
One can hope CSIS continues to stand up to the bully.
Thank you, Terry for the update. My own feeling about Chrystia Freeland is that she is, at best, slightly less bad; although, she cannot be trusted any more than the rest of Trudeau’s sneak of weasels. I’m wondering why, if after what he calls only a few months Bob Pickard can determine the omnipresence of the CCP, his predecessor was unable to spot what must have been the same situation. Perhaps, Bob Pickard was the first of his kind. I’m having difficulty finding this information.
To me it says something not good about Canada today that both Freeland and Johnston wrote books about the problems we're facing (plutocrats and trust, respectively) and they go and essentially ignore what they've written. It leads me to think that experts today are not worth their salt, and this from me who has 4 degrees!
Standard operating procedure of the authoritarian left. Freeland writes a book showing plutocrats in a negative light, well we can’t have that, we will make her finance minister, and give her a cushy directorship at the World Economic Forum, where all the plutocrats hang out. Power corrupts. That is how the authoritarian left silences criticism. BTW, I have never understood how Freeland, with her degree in Slavic Studies is qualified to be the Canadian finance minister? It is a mystery.
She isn't "qualified". Is there a Liberal Minister who is qualified? I will grant that AG Lametti is a lawyer, which is a start.
Lametti was an outstanding and widely-respected Crown prosecutor.
Smash-cut to 2023, where evidently constant exposure to the Trudeau inner circle's smoke of incompetence, myopia, and corruption results in a contact high that turns formerly capable individuals into braying, empty-headed, lying yes-men.
I have no opinion on your assertion that Lametti was once a well respected Crown prosecutor. The final statement has my full agreement.
At a conference many years ago, a gentleman suggested “expert” be parsed (phonetically) as follows:
ex - a bit of a has been; spurt - a drip under pressure.
Perhaps he had these folks in mind with his caution about experts.
Love that! It's a keeper.
It's not that unusual for people to lie about themselves and their motives. That snake James Comey wrote a book titled 'A Higher Loyalty' full of sanctimonious self-praise for his virtue. He committed crimes and tries to pass them off as righteously motivated to serve truth and justice on behalf of 'the people'. He served himself and his fellow swamp creatures.
Christia Freeland is on the board of Directors of the AIIB bank. She is , by all standards, far worse than all others. She is also on the Board of Trustees of the WEF and follows their dictate to a tee. She is one of the biggest threats to Canada and Canadian’s of all those politicians. She is the cause of our inflation and destruction financially as well.
Check this out - https://albertaviews.ca/not-white-bread-childhood/
Christia Freeland is the person with the ties and relationship with George .Soro’s who is the man who created “open Societies” and who is behind the majority of the situation to do with open borders, along with the aid of all politicians,other billionaire philanthropists, large Corporations and Tech Companies that are doing the bidding of this cabal of elites across all Western Nations and involving all Western Institutions. She is the one on the "board of Trustees for the WEF and mouths the very same words as well as launders billions of our tax dollars to aid their power grab and control of the very people they are thieving it from. So anyone who thinks she is decent, or concerned about Canadian’s or Canada, could not be more mistaken. She is one of the most dangerous of all and is attempting to erase Canada, it’s borders, and it’s history.
I trust nothing about Christian Freeland.
I think TG's praise of Freeland - even luke-warm as it is - is not warranted. She's only the smartest idiot in a room full of 'em.
Seems highly dubious to me that it only took one call with Pickard for her to demand the nuclear option on the AIIB. She knew, and she's just trying to cover her own ass, and the ass of her imbecile boss.
Same can probably be said of Pickard. Suddenly he's so patriotic that he needs to whistle-blow on a firm with which he's been intimately familiar for years? Things that make you go "hmm".
Bingo to both. Suspicious.
Pickard was only at the AIIB for 14 months; I think it's a stretch to say it's an organization with-which "he's been intimately familiar for years" unless you know of prior connections?
14 months is ample time for an executive to become "intimately familiar" with his firm. In fact I believe that intimate familiarity is a job requirement and is likely necessary from Day One.
But in any event he was certainly "intimately familiar" with international banking - particularly with regard to China - long before he joined AIIB, which is likely how he ended up there.
Please. Enough of supporting claims of naivety and ignorance made by LPC-connected "subject-matter-experts". "It's my first day" was a valid excuse for Homer Simpson when joining the Naval Reserve. For Pickard, not so much.
Wrong, several times over. First, your snide claim was "familiar for *years* - hard to reconcile that with 14 months. Second, no one is "intimately familiar" with any organization from day one - and finance is a difficult industry to come to grips with - particularly development finance. Third, your claim was not that he was "intimately familiar" with international banking (his work history was in general PR, lots of it in east Asia, but not in banking or PR for financial institutions, so you're probably wrong on that one, as well), but with this particular institution.
So, please, enough drive-by smears with no factual basis. There are plenty of reasons to think this government is incompetent, corrupt, and venal - you don't have to make them up out of whole cloth.
I stand corrected. Obviously AIIB hired this babe in the woods because he was unqualified and entirely unfamiliar with their field ("a difficult industry to come to grips with" as you correctly observed, albeit in a grammatically-incorrect manner) and organization.
As large, successful corporations often do.
I smell the odour of an LPC Apologista.
AIIB hired him because he was a really good PR guy (successful corporations sometimes try to find those people). It took him a while to understand what was going on, and the degree of CCP influence. When he did, he bailed out. What part of that confuses you?
I smell something else. Maybe change your underwear?
"Well. That’s refreshing. Funny thing about Freeland. As I’ve noticed more than once, on those rare occasions when the Trudeau government does anything useful on the “world stage,” if I must use that pathetic term, Freeland seems to have a hand in it."
Terry, surely Freeland was on the Board of Directors (or whatever the equivalent title is) of the AIIB for many years! Maybe still is? Or is it another Chinese financial institution? No, I think it was the AIIB. How can she now suddenly pretend that she didn't know anything about the way they operate?
Methinks this sudden awakening by Freeland is a major butt-covering exercise. No? I can't give her any credit for that - in fact, it only calls to mind her acquiescence in the whole scheme until yesterday.
Totally agree re Freeland.....now that push is coming to shove with AIIB she will take action....certainly she could not have been that unaware......Freeland is well aware that her role on the Board of Directors of the WEF does not sit with many Canadians and it would certainly seem that her loyalties are divided and who would win out?? Canada or the WEF....so I don’t give her any credit as a stateswoman for Canada...me thinks she’s riding a bucking horse and is not quite sure how to dismount but would probably fall on the WEF side.
I don’t understand how Freeland can sit on the Board of the WEF. This is listed under
Prohibited Activities in the Conflict of Interest Act 15(1) (c).
15 (1) No reporting public office holder shall, except as required in the exercise of his or her official powers, duties and functions,
(c) continue as, or become, a director or officer in a corporation or an organization;
For the untutored like me, Public office holder means:
(a) a minister of the Crown, a minister of state or a parliamentary secretary;
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-36.65/fulltext.html
Maybe some lawyer-type can explain how she gets away with this clear violation of the Conflict of Interest Act? Always willing to learn new things.
I suspect it’s because the rules don’t apply to them. Sort of like the Obstruction of Justice with SNC Lavalin. It’s outright criminal what they do and yet nada. Lucki was appointed to be Trudeaus lapdog and ensure nothing was done without his approval. Like I said it’s criminal what they have all gotten away with, including Lucki!
Can anyone name one case where the RCMP have successfully completed a major national criminal investigation with political implications? I cannot. They completely botched the Air India investigation and are incapable of investigating complex political files. I think Canadians need an independent organization for investigating politicians. And it should not include close family friends of the prime minister, or family members of his cabinet ministers.
Terry,
I love your work and pay to tell you so. I would love to support Sam Cooper too but his Substack is prohibitively expensive especially when we are paying others too. I currently pay 5 Substack plus a national post subscription. I am using this format to send a message to Sam. Lower your price man!
Great point Marcie. I too am reaching the point of "subscription fatigue". I cannot justify the expense of the individually priced content from the 6-7 writers I would love to follow. Perhaps they should consider "bundling" their offerings into a single subscription entity.
Fascinating account by Bill Browder on how the Magnitsky Act came into being after his business Hermitage Capital was stolen by Russian state criminals.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84MsRuC-1l8
Just read Bill Browder's book a month or so ago. Incredible courage and persistence to unravel the crimes. Putin was hands off as his enemies were taken out. Then Putin became one of the criminals himself and the state apparatus moved against Hermitage. Horrifying tortures of Sergei Magnitsky and then they beat him to death.
Yes, Red Notice is a great read; I gave it out as Christmas presents a couple of years ago.
I’m sad to hear Sam Cooper has left Global News. I have subscribed to his new Substack, The Bureau. Looking forward to your conversation.
Very interested in the podcast episode! Also interesting that Sam Cooper is leaving and then Bell lays off some high profile people. Not the same company, je sais, but it says a lot about the media landscape. Sad to see Napier, Walters, McGregor and Hamamdjian go.
Agreed. I really wish some peopIe wouldn't take such pleasure in seeing certain of their least-liked high profile journalists given the high jump. There are hundreds and hundreds of families now looking forward to an inability to pay rent and mortgages. I've got a series by a guest author on the dystopian news landscape. The Bell layoffs come at the worst time, but the most opportune time for that series.
Oh, please, spare me the tears, Terry! I take no pleasure in people being fired from their jobs; but two things stand out about this round of terminations: (1) Everyone has known for *at least* 20 years that traditional journalism is a dying industry. Journalists have had almost a lifetime to prepare for this moment. I don't shed tears for the last buggy-whip makers and the last coopers, either. Change is the way of the world. (2) Journalists as a class did an absolutely atrocious job during covid of holding the government to account for the loss of employment and livelihoods caused by the absurd lockdowns and mandates. Many journalists positively cheered with glee when the unvaxxed lost their jobs - and even lost their claim to EI as well. Journalists surely knew that the vaxxes did not diminish infection or transmission, and therefore lacked any public policy rationale for being imposed. It was a complete and utter abdication of responsibility to hold the powers that be - especially Trudeau ranting during the 2021 election campaign - to account. Yeah, I'll shed buckets of tears for the unemployed victims of the covid hysteria that was fanned relentless in the media before I shed one tear for journalists. (3) Oh, and a third point: some of these journalists are the same people egging the government on to dismantle the fossil fuel industry root and branch. How many hundreds of thousands of jobs will that terminate? It's a bloody disgrace that journalists haven't bothered to publish the stories of the vaxx-injured, the covid unemployed, the "unjustly transitioned." The stories are heartbreaking, if they weren't invisible. If journalists want sympathy from the public, they need to start showing a tiny bit of it instead of trumpeting their utterly callous narratives day and night.
Remember that Toronto Star front page headline? “I have no empathy left for the willfully unvaccinated. Let them die.” Yup, the Toronto Star said that.
The one positive outcome from Covid was a huge swath of the population finally realizing the length and breadth of media bias and journalistic irresponsibility. However, we cannot lay all the blame there. Canadians devoured the propaganda. Ordinary people who readily turned in their neighbours for having family gatherings during lockdown was eerily similar to a much darker time.
Covid exposed the darkness in the hearts of a lot of people. And media were the cheerleaders. As someone said, a third of the population would persecute a third and remaining third would watch it happen.
I've read a lot on WW2 and up until three years ago, couldn't fathom how the German people so easily turned in their neighbours. I wonder no more. Saw it first hand in Canada.
Bingo. I could not agree more.
I feel sorry for impartial journalists who try to tell the full unbiased truth when reporting on a news story but have no sympathy for those who tried to push an agenda/ideology (usually leftist/woke/progressive) instead of being impartial. They have ceased to be true journalists.
The people who have lost their jobs have been around for a long time, do you know if they will receive severance packages and pensions? Some agencies are known to shuffle long time employees off in a timely manner to avoid pensions.
There's always a market for honest journalism. I wish I could financially support more of it but a pension stipend only stretches so far.
Agreed. I'm now buying 3 Canadian substacks and 2 national newspapers, never mind the amount paid to cable companies.
About those national newspaper subscriptions…I received an email from NP yesterday offering the same subscription I just renewed, in April for $104, to new subscribers for $40. Needless to say, I was on the phone to NP in short order making inquiries and ultimately cancelling with a refund and re-subscribing.
Oh interesting. They are also putting some articles behind a second paywall. It's annoying to say the least.
There is a market and I too subscribe to three and would like to do so for a lot more honest journalists but cannot afford it....I often wonder why more journalists don’t group together and perhaps we could subsidize several groups for a larger sum...a thought
I've thought the same thing. There are economies for groups forming to save on overhead.
Blacklocks is good.
Blacklock's Reporter is evidence based reporting. They read the government reports and the document dumps, they sit in on committees and do research through FOI, they report on bills and regulations, they don't take government money, they are independently owned and operated in Ottawa. Holly Doan and Tom Korski have a wealth of journalistic experience. Listen to Tom Korski break it all down on the Alex Pierson show - sometimes on other Corus radio shows like Roy Green.
and Paul Workman, too. Wow
Is this not the smoking gun?