"TSA says it no longer tracks regular travelers as if they may be terrorists" by Jana Winter and Jenn Abelson Spotlight Fellow and Globe Staff December 15, 2018
The Transportation Security Administration has curtailed its controversial “Quiet Skies” domestic surveillance program, following widespread criticism that federal air marshals were spying on thousands of unwitting fliers who are not suspected of any crime or on any terrorist watch list.
Agency officials told the Globe that air marshals no longer document the minor movements and behavior of these travelers, such as whether they fidget in the airport, go to the bathroom during the flight, or seem, according to the agency’s own checklist, to have a “cold, penetrating stare.”
The agency said it has also stopped following passengers through baggage claim and no longer compiles extensive reports on travelers who failed to rouse suspicions.
“Any routine passenger behaviors on a plane that would be seen as a normal behavior we are no longer capturing that,” said David Kohl, the new director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, in an interview.
The sweeping changes followed a series of Globe reports revealing that thousands of ordinary citizens had been swept up in the Quiet Skies program and subjected to minute-by-minute surveillance by armed, undercover air marshals through airports and on flights.
Targeted passengers, including a star WNBA player and a social media manager for an arts-and-crafts company, had no clue they were being followed, and in some cases were surveilled only because they had recently flown to Turkey.
Quiet Skies has not, however, been entirely silenced. Air marshals still carry out scaled-down surveillance. The agency acknowledges it will continue to monitor some travelers who have not been suspected of any crimes, but will not collect as many details about them.
The program remains under investigation by the US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and under scrutiny by the Government Accountability Office. Congressional committees with oversight of TSA were unaware of Quiet Skies’ use of air marshals and held hearings in recent months.
Time to review the stink.
TSA initially refused to acknowledge the program’s existence when the Globe inquired about it last summer, and a senior agency official denied under oath in a civil deposition in March that it collected intelligence on passengers in the airport. TSA admitted it was running the surveillance program following swift backlash from the public, federal lawmakers from both parties, and civil liberties advocates who questioned the program’s legality.....
That was when I fell asleep over the roar of the jet engines.
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Btw, the reason I stopped blogging was the endlessly insulting elitism and ceaselessly sickening supremacism that comes from the self-serving and self-centered agenda-pushing political propaganda sheet of echo-chamber comfort lies, distortions, and omissions that is now the Bo$ton Globe.
As hard as it is to believe, the paper is now worse than it was when the New York Times owned it, and has become practically unreadable these days.
Here is another example (I found this printed brief on page B2):
"About 5,000 fewer people in New Hampshire signed up for insurance under former President Barack Obama's health care law this year compared to last. Covering New Hampshire, the organization that works with advocates and health care providers to promote the law, says 44,930 people signed up for a marketplace plan during the enrollment period that ended Dec. 15. That number, which includes those who were renewing coverage, is down from 50,275 last year. Officials say record low unemployment numbers and federal cuts to funding for publicity and consumer outreach likely contributed to the dip. The declined mirrored national trends, with preliminary numbers showing a 4 percent drop....."
That article was juxtaposed and contradicted with this piece from page A2:
Obama health law sign-ups beat forecast despite headwinds, although on the negative side, premiums for Obamacare's comprehensive coverage remained unaffordable for many people who don't qualify for financial help.
The impression left by that pos propaganda is that signups for Obummercare are healthy, and as for coverage remaining unaffordable under the Affordable Care Act:
Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe
Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction regarding the new course on health care when I read the page B2 story after seeing the page A2 story, and I'm sure Democrats will fix it.
It's three strikes you're out, right?!
"John Henry, owner of The Boston Globe, has shown interest in buying a stake in Nascar, potentially adding to a sports empire that includes the Boston Red Sox and the Liverpool Football Club, people familiar with the situation said. Nascar has been seeking minority investors, and Henry is already involved with the stock-car racing organization. His company, Fenway Sports Group, formed a partnership in 2007 with Roush Racing, home to drivers such as Matt Kenseth and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Representatives for Nascar and Fenway Sports declined to comment. Nascar last month bid roughly $1.9 billion for International Speedway Corp., a deal that would more tightly combine the companies. Both businesses are already controlled by the France family, and merging the assets may make it easier for a new investor to step in. Nascar is seeking investors at a time of falling ratings and the loss of some big sponsors, including Lowe’s Cos. Drivers such as Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jeff Gordon have retired, leaving the sport with fewer superstar draws."
That buried talking point was far from the spew of the front page (btw, the reason the sky is dark is the geoengineered chemtrails that are visible in the sky every day), and there are no worries regarding climate change $cience when it comes to the Christmas lights, either!
What the hypocrisy proves is the climate change agenda that is constantly pushed in the pre$$ is not for the altruistic reasons the pre$$ claim, but for another rea$on entirely. Not $urpri$ing at all when you realize the pre$$ is written of and for that oh-so-elite cla$$ and to pu$h their agenda.
Related:
"Reitzenstein is biracial, and his politics lean left. Dewing is white, and he leans right. In today’s world, they might well have nothing to do with one another, but here’s the deal: They are very close friends. Their differing politics, like their different skin color, doesn’t get in the way of their friendship. In fact, by accepting their differences, they have become closer. Two years ago, after Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, began taking a knee to protest the treatment of African-Americans by police, the idea of protest filtered down to all sorts of teams, including the Tufts football team....."
Could someone please check the veracity of that story and see if those people really exist?
Globe back-paged these:
Illinois attorney general says Catholic Church withheld names of at least 500 accused priests
Pope ousts Los Angeles bishop after allegation of misconduct with a minor
And wiped this one of the face of the paper:
Puerto Rico Lost 130,000 Residents After Maria Hit, Census Says
That's because the water is bad, and it is the reason the number of homeless people in Mass. is up 14 percent during this unprecedented period of alleged economic growth. It's hard to track down even the tiniest of homes.
'Dead Skunk' Stench From Marijuana Farms Outrages Californians
They don't mind the brewery down the street, though.
The whole country will smell that way if the Globe has anything to say about it:
"Federal pot bills an easy bipartisan win for 2019" December 19, 2018
There may not be much that Democrats and Republicans in Washington can agree on next year, but with 31 states already engaged in the sale of marijuana in some form — medical or recreational or both — there is growing support for revamping federal law to bring the industry out of the shadows.
Credit Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell for helping to break the dam on the federal side. Yes, all politics is indeed local, and it seems a lot of former tobacco farmers in Kentucky wouldn’t mind switching to hemp. McConnell was not so generous with a Gardner-proposed marijuana amendment, which the majority leader barred from the criminal justice bill that passed Tuesday night, but House Democrats are eager to pick up the slack in the coming session.
Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston noted in a recent Globe op-ed that “because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, traditional lenders do not extend capital to cannabis enterprises,” and “because our financing and technical assistance programs use federal revenue sources, the city cannot extend its full range of small-business supports to this industry.”
He wants to set the standard.
Federal legalization would also open the door for the kind of scientific research that would once and for all answer questions about the health risks and benefits of a product we know too little about — because there are currently so many regulatory barriers to such research, and as Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern told the Globe editorial board on Tuesday, some form of legalization would clear the way for, say, the Veterans Affairs department to do similar research and to prescribe medical marijuana for vets. “It’s become clear that public opinion wants us to move forward,” he said.
So what else did he have to say?
There is a time when public opinion meets political inevitability. This is one of those times.....
Yeah, when elite agenda pushers decide to accept public attitudes it becomes a political inevitability.
The Globe must think we are all high!
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I wonder what the Globe is going to say when the tobacco companies take over the market.
As for me, I'll pass. Smoking marijuana brings me down.
Also see:
Healey rejects several local moratoriums on marijuana businesses
Boston City Council questions Walsh administration over marijuana licensing
They need to stop dragging their feet, or so I am told.
In order to avoid the long lines and wait you should make an appointment like in Salem.
Marijuana consumers spent $2.6 million in second week of Mass. recreational pot sales
They need to open more shops then.
"For pot shop opponents, Leicester’s traffic nightmare is a gift" by Naomi Martin Globe Staff December 19, 2018
The highly publicized transportation snarls have reverberated across the state, changing the marijuana debate in places such as Roslindale, East Boston, Lowell, and Cape Cod. Residents, many of whom weeks ago had never heard of Leicester, now know one thing: They don’t want to become like it.
The irony, marijuana advocates say, is that the problems were caused by the scarcity of stores — and now opponents are using those problems to argue for more scarcity.
This is the kind of "debate" we have in the pre$$, the setting up of straw men (so to speak; you know of what he is really made).
Proponents point to the no-drama opening Saturday of Alternative Therapies Group in Salem as proof that Leicester’s problems are unlikely to play out elsewhere. The cannabis store provided shuttle buses from overflow parking lots and required customers to make appointments online, and Leicester leaders say their streets have cleared. Cultivate, the pot shop there, had a line of about 25 people waiting on foot Tuesday, said Police Chief Jim Hurley, but the need for officers to be stationed there at all times dropped off a week ago. He chalked it up to the store adding more parking and the demand dropping as other stores elsewhere received approvals to open.
How much did that cost taxpayers, and how many crimes were committed elsewhere while the cops were stationed there?
“The novelty is wearing off,” Hurley said, adding that Leicester’s situation was unique because its opening marked the end of marijuana prohibition in the Eastern United States, and it was closer to the state’s more populated areas. Plus it was Thanksgiving, the busiest travel week of the year, he said, adding, “I refer to that, really, as the perfect storm.”
Yeah, 12 years of blogging about the same things, saying the same things over and over again, and reading endless agenda-pushing lies and distortions from an insultingly elitist piece of sickening supremacism, has gotten old. That's why I'm not here. Not because I'm a Russian dupe (apparently, the ability to think critically about the codswallop that is passed of as news in the pre$$ makes you a Russian dupe).
On the eve of a Dec. 5 community meeting in Roslindale to discuss a proposed marijuana store, someone taped a copy of a Globe article about Leicester’s woes to a street pole near the planned site. The Nov. 27 article’s headline jumped out: “Neighbors say pot shop brings misery to town.”
The meeting was dominated by concerns about Roslindale reliving Leicester’s traffic nightmare, said Mitch Rosenfield, a co-owner of the proposed store. He said he argued that customers coming to his business would have plenty of parking and public transit options, unlike in Leicester. Also, he added, his shop would not open for a year, by which time many other shops in the Boston area would be running.
“I had satellite maps set up showing people how the two locations couldn’t be more different,” Rosenfield said. “Leicester was a disaster waiting to happen.”
After seeing the gridlock in Leicester, Lowell officials e-mailed the 8 to 10 businesses seeking permission to open pot stores there and asked for their plans to reduce traffic and parking issues. The firms would have had to provide such plans at a later stage in the process anyway, but city leaders required the plans to be submitted earlier, said Lowell City Manager Eileen Donoghue.....
Looks like they are making a mountain out of a molehill as “not all towns are looking at Leicester and freaking out,” even if they “don’t want to see marijuana in the town of Brewster.”
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The funny thing is you flip to the next page and it's a FULL PAGE TOTAL WINE AD!
Related:
"Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle noted that her city voted overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing marijuana in 2016, and said residents there were excited about the jobs, tax revenue, and cultural boost the newly legal pot business could bring....."
They are $eriou$ about the Harvest.
Just be careful driving home:
Detecting pot use in drivers will be tricky
Sort of says it all, doesn't it?
If you can't detect it......
Mass. medical marijuana program to be overseen by Cannabis Control Commission
If Utah approved it, then there should be no concerns.
Medical marijuana is coming to Thailand
I'll bet it's good shit, but it's too far to travel.
Maryland medical cannabis grower fined for banned pesticides
Maine marijuana law gives medical pot businesses more options
Going to make it part of the school lunch program:
"A high school in southern Maine has joined at least two other high schools in the state that have pulled out of the federal school lunch program. Maine Public reports that Cape Elizabeth High School officials said that the federal guidelines are too stringent. The over 70-year-old program subsidizes meals for students eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch. About three percent of Cape Elizabeth High School students qualify for such subsidies. The federal program in recent years has promoted healthy meals by requiring more whole grains and limiting calories and sodium. Nutrition director Peter Esposito says the changes have caused Cape Elizabeth’s high school to remove food that kids like, such as bagels, pretzels and a homemade soup. School officials said some kids threw away parts of meals."
They ate the cookies, though:
"Three Cape Elizabeth High School students are facing felony charges for allegedly selling marijuana-laced chocolate chip cookies at school. Captain Brent Sinclair said Wednesday that two 15-year-old boys and one 17-year-old boy were charged last week with aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs. They were released to the custody of their parents. Police began investigating after three students got sick this month after eating pot-laced cookies on the same day the school was holding a daylong event featuring speakers addressing the school district’s guiding values of ‘‘Community, Academics, Passion, and Ethics.’’ Sinclair told the Portland Press Herald that eight students were summonsed for possession of marijuana."
They asked where the kids got the stuff.
"A drive-thru dispensary offering marijuana extract cannabidiol has opened in Vermont. The Brattleboro Reformer reports Ceres Natural Remedies opened its drive-thru earlier this month in Brattleboro. Company officials say it’s the first drive-thru of its kind in New England. Ceres Natural Remedies and Southern Vermont Wellness CEO Shayne Lynn says the company wanted to make the experience “more convenient” for customers who have mobility issues. Company spokesman Chris McCloud says CBD-only products is the first stage of the operation. Officials plan to start offering medical marijuana by Dec. 15. All of the CBD products at the drive-thru use hemp grown by the Mettawee Valley Hemp Company. Ceres Natural Remedies grows its own medical cannabis and offers capsules, oils, vapes, and edibles."
It's not going over very well down here, either, and if you do smoke please don't forget to “smell check” yourself before going anywhere:
Woman charged in death of girl in Revere
The other infant that was hospitalized died, and she also has a history of drunk driving.
Well, that just about concludes my return.
"For the first time, ‘National Returns Day’ has arrived before Christmas" by Allison Hagan Globe Correspondent December 19, 2018
As some stressed shoppers scrambled on Wednesday to put presents under the tree less than a week before Christmas, many other consumers were sending items back to retailers.
Atlanta-based United Parcel Service estimated that 1.5 million packages were being returned Wednesday, which the company had dubbed National Returns Day. UPS has been marking the day since 2012, but this year — for the first time — the designated day came before Christmas, thanks to the rise of e-commerce and the stretched-out Black Friday sales period.
“Buying habits are changing for consumers, and at the same time merchants are offering good deals earlier,” said Kathleen Marran, vice president of US marketing for UPS.
Consumers on Wednesday flooded the UPS store on Newbury Street to return Amazon packages and other products, said James Coburn, director of operations for six of the company’s Boston stores.
“The package volume has been increasing every single year,” he said. “We don’t see as much of people shipping to each other necessarily; rather, [it’s] people buying online and making returns.”
Coburn said the high number of returns coincides with the end of the fall semester for the many colleges and universities in the city, which means students are sending back textbooks to online rental companies, such as Amazon and Chegg.
“Every semester we have two to three days that are just nonstop textbooks,” he said.
Time to close this one.
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"Waiting until the weekend to do your holiday shopping? You’re not alone: This coming Saturday may be the biggest spending day of the year. Although Black Friday used to be America’s biggest single shopping day, the final Saturday before Christmas took the title four or five years ago as more retailers began their Black Friday sales earlier, said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners. US shoppers will spend an estimated $26 billion on Dec. 22, beating the $24 billion they shelled out on the day after Thanksgiving, the industry researcher said. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, 44 percent of US adults plan to shop for holiday presents or related items on Saturday, spending an average of $173 in-store and online. That’s up from the 38 percent who shopped on Super Saturday last year. Part of that is because confident customers are spending more in total this season, but it’s also due to where Christmas falls on the calendar. With Dec. 25 landing on a Tuesday, there are two full travel days between Saturday and the official holiday, rather than the one travel day last year’s Monday Christmas offered. That gives procrastinating shoppers all day Saturday to spend before packing their bags for Sunday or Monday departures."
Merry Chri$tma$, readers.
UPDATES:
With it pouring rain outside I decided to put off $hopping yet again and add to the cacophony.
Was going to go to Sears but not now:
"Eddie Lampert offered to buy Sears Holdings Corp. out of bankruptcy in a bid to salvage the failing retail empire he has controlled for more than a decade. The chairman of Sears, whose ESL Investments ranks as the biggest shareholder and creditor, outlined a $4.6 billion preliminary bid in documents released Thursday that could include a mix of cash, equity new loans, and debt swaps. Lampert would take over the whole company, rather than just buying selected stores as originally planned, and preserve about 50,000 jobs, according to the documents. It’s the latest in a long series of bailouts Lampert has provided for Sears that preceded its slide into bankruptcy this year. The new bid is designed to head off outright liquidation of Sears, which has struggled to get support from lenders and suppliers who aren’t sure that the iconic retailer can survive, and Lampert’s new bid may not quell those doubts."
It's been a wild three weeks since you have seen me last:
"The Dow’s wild week explained" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff December 07, 2018
If you were watching stock prices Thursday morning, you’d be forgiven for wondering how the arrest of an executive from a Chinese company you’ve never heard of could send global markets into a tailspin, but there were the flashing red numbers.
The day didn’t turn out to be anywhere near as bad as Tuesday, when the Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 800 points, but it was another session of sharp price swings Thursday, with the Dow at one point down almost 800 points —again — only to recoup nearly all of the drop to finish with a small deficit.
You’d be forgiven for asking, “What the heck is going on?”
Many things are roiling financial markets, and the uncertainty — investors hate uncertainty — is making for some wild rides.
Here is a look at the key factors at play.
Looks like Horowitz has moved on, now replaced by Edelman, and he says it is the trade tensions (meaning China is to blame), slowing growth, the Federal Reserve (echoing Trump there, and ultimately the bottom line.
Also see:
"On Oct. 19, 1987, the stock market crashed. The Dow Jones industrial average’s one-day plunge of 22.6 percent, or 508 points — the equivalent of 5,446 points (!!) today — immediately raised fears that consumers would retrench, the all-important holiday retail season would be a bust, and the economy would fall into recession.
What is with the exclamation points?
It was a gloomy time, but consumers didn’t run and hide, the economy didn’t tank, and by the end of the year the Dow was up 2 percent. There hasn’t been a crash this year, but markets are looking bleak. On Monday, the Dow lost nearly 508 points. This time around that was just a 2.1 percent drop, but it left the index down 4.5 percent for the year and 12.1 percent since its record high on Oct. 3. That’s what Wall Street calls a correction. I hate to be a holiday buzzkill, but I think stocks probably do go down more before bottoming out. Investors are becoming increasingly convinced that the economy will weaken, corporate earnings will slow, and the long bull market (running since March 2009) will come to an end. Do the big three indexes enter a bear market — that is, fall 20 percent from their peaks, a line the Russell 2000 index of small stocks crossed on Monday. That’s harder to say, and depends a lot on how the US-China trade fight plays out, and, most immediately, what the Federal Reserve says on Wednesday about its outlook for interest rates early next year, but stocks are just one problem making this a very nervous Noel.
Wait until you get your new 401k statement.
Consider: Russia’s expanding attempts to destabilize the United States and other countries; the worsening global warming crisis and official US climate change denial; Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the showdown with Iran; the opioid crisis, rising suicide rates, and falling American life expectancy; the loss of privacy to hackers and Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google; and the growing economic and political polarization of American society, accelerated since 2016 by a deeply flawed president with antidemocratic tendencies and serious legal liabilities.
He has everything in their but the bank$ter's $chemes, including the wars!
And let’s not forget:
He also says the housing market is softening, that Europe is a mess (Draghi disagrees), Obamacare is on the ropes, again (whatever), a government shutdown is looming, and the
bottom line again.
I think it’s unlikely that another Great Depression is in the offing. Or another Great Recession. The economy is holding its own, unemployment is near record lows, and inflation is under control, and what if we get another bear market? We are an optimistic country with a resilient economy. Let’s try to remember what happened after Black Monday in 1987 as we head into 2019....."
He put that out as Wall Street hits new 2018 lows.
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Also see:
"Stocks went into another slide Thursday in what is shaping up as the worst December on Wall Street since the depths of the Great Depression, with prices dragged down by rising fears of a recession somewhere on the horizon. ‘‘This is the classic shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later market,’’ said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Stocks usually end the year with a flourish, and December is usually the best month of the year for the market, but this month has been dismal. Without a decent rally, this could be the worst December since 1931. The S&P 500 is almost 16 percent below the peak it reached in late September. It is on track for its biggest one-month loss since February 2009 and its first losing year in a decade. Likewise, the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite is down 19.5 percent from the record high it reached in August. Investors are growing worried that global economic growth is cooling off and that the United States could slip into a recession in the next few years. The market swoon is coming even as the US economy is on track to expand this year at the fastest pace in 13 years."
Ever get the feeling that $omeone has been lying to you?
Yeah, I am tired of the whining like a baby after quarter upon quarter of over 20% profit growth, and that's funny because the report comes as other data also suggest the US economy remains healthy.
"Record imports push US trade gap to $55.5 billion in October" by Paul Wiseman Associated Press December 07, 2018
WASHINGTON — Record imports in October drove the US trade deficit to the highest level in a decade.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that the gap between what the United States sells and what it buys from foreign countries hit $55.5 billion in October, the fifth straight increase and highest since October 2008.
The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China rose 7.1 percent to a record $43.1 billion. The goods gap with the European Union widened 65.5 percent to a record $17.6 billion.
President Trump campaigned on a pledge to slash America’s longstanding trade deficit with the rest of the world. Despite his import taxes on steel, aluminum, and Chinese goods, the deficit so far this year is running 11.4 percent above January-October 2017.
US exports of soybeans, targeted for retaliatory tariffs by China, dropped 46.8 percent in October.
Trump sees the lopsided trade numbers as a sign of US economic weakness and as the result of bad trade deals and abusive practices by US trading partners, especially China.
In a meeting over the weekend, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a ceasefire in the trade dispute. Details are unclear, but the White House says it agreed to delay a planned tariff increase on $200 billion in Chinese goods for 90 days to buy time for more substantive negotiations.
Except the Deep State sabotaged his effort with the meant to embarrass arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications network equipment, and the daughter of Huawei’s founder, because ‘‘politically, the timing is corrosive, in the middle of a some very sensitive, tense negotiations, and they’re doing something that is unprecedented in four decades of US China relations’’ and because ‘‘Huawei has also become synonymous with a darker side of China’s rise, founded on suspicions that it has links to the Chinese military or security services. The suspicions about spying have their basis in the fact,’’ -- or so my lying, agenda-pushing, war-promoting pre$$ tells me as China will not ‘‘take something like this lying down and [it] could get ugly very quickly.’’
I doubt the protests will do much, and it looks like China blinked.
Mainstream economists view trade deficits as the result of an economic reality unlikely to yield to changes in trade policy: Americans buy more than they produce, and imports fill the gap. The strong US economy also encourages Americans to buy more foreign products.
US exports are also hurt by the American dollar’s role as the world’s currency. The dollar is usually in high demand because it is used in so many global transactions. That means the dollar is persistently strong, raising prices of US products and putting American companies at a disadvantage in foreign markets.....
The pre$$ only touches upon the $y$tem which enriches the Fed bankers and US elite who get cut of every transaction and exchange, thus controlling the world through banks and petrodollar (think Saudis and Russia because Saudi Arabia and Russia have largely been dictating terms with regard to production since 2016 and said they would continue to cooperate on managing the market -- and now Saudi Arabia plans to cut exports to the United States. Just going to have to drill in Alaska and the Atlantic, I gue$$).
That's why sanctions suck for the targeted countries. They can't avoid the US dollar when attempting to access the international financial system. That is also why there is a war machine. You need the threat of force to back up the threats from the looters in the suits.
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Time to stop grousing and get back to work.
"Canada presses China on ‘arbitrary’ detention of citizens" by Catherine Porter and Chris Buckley New York Times December 22, 2018
TORONTO — Canada tried to turn up pressure on China on Saturday over the detention of two Canadians caught up in a struggle between global superpowers, with its foreign minister calling their imprisonment “arbitrary” and “a precedent that is worrying not only for Canada but for the world.”
China seized the two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur and writer Michael Spavor, shortly after Canada detained a Chinese telecommunications executive at the behest of the United States. The detentions of Kovrig and Spavor have rattled Canadians, many of whom do business and have family in China, and the government stressed that it was working feverishly for their release.
“We also believe this is not only a Canadian issue,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a conference call Saturday. “It is an issue that concerns our allies.”
Canada is in a tricky spot, boxed in between its two largest trading partners and worried about having to choose sides. After feeling burned by negotiations to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, the country is trying to strengthen trade relations with China to lessen dependence on economic ties to the United States.
That shows you who really runs Canada!
Freeland said that on Friday she met with the Chinese ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, for a second time and that Canadian ambassadors around the world are rallying their counterparts for support. The US State Department, the European Union, and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt have all said they are concerned about the arrests.
Both were detained after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, a powerful Chinese telecommunications equipment company. She was arrested on Dec. 1 while she was transferring flights in Vancouver.
She is also the daughter of the founder.
Why did the pre$$ leave that out?
Canadian authorities arrested Meng at the request of American prosecutors who want to extradite her on charges of fraudulently convincing banks to facilitate transactions that breached US sanctions against Iran. Meng was granted bail after a three-day hearing, and if a Canadian court agrees to an extradition request, she can still appeal.
“Canada is a rule-of-law country and has been behaving according to the rule of law,” Freeland said. “Our allies understand what is at stake, and it was good to have them come out and say that publicly.”
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So much hate coming from Canada.
