A rain tax.

Seriously, they want to tax the rain.

Before we get started on the latest insanity to, um, seep out of Toronto’s municipal government, let’s give credit where credit is due, shall we? For sheer gall, for its bottomless brazen brassiness, you can’t beat this one: a tax on rain. You almost have to admire the Bolsheviks who presently run Canada’s largest city, for their inventiveness and their total indifference to the taxpayer.

Almost.

And, let’s make one thing clear: we are not making this up, Virginia.  Toronto-stan’s commissars have even issued a call for people to participate in what they call, benignly, a “Stormwater Charge & Water Service Charge Consultation.”

Here’s a few gems from their call for “consultation.” Get your smelling salts ready.

“The City of Toronto is consulting with water users and interested parties on the possible implementation of a stormwater charge,” they write, neglecting to mention that “water users” are all sentient beings living within the confines of Gulag Tee Dot.

They want to have “a stormwater charge for all property classes” – meaning, everyone will ultimately pay for the invasive wet stuff. Why? Well, just because.

Also, those pesky raindrops don’t just soak into the grass and plant life – which, last night we checked, is a good thing – they sometimes runs off into the sewers. Which, you know, were built to accommodate water that occasionally falls from the sky. But never mind.

Here in the Six, the Union of Soviet Toronto Republics, all that is now considered a bad thing. Writes the politburo:

“Stormwater is rain and melted snow. When not absorbed into the ground, stormwater runs off hard surfaces, onto streets, down storm drains and through a network of pipes that carry it into local waterways…Too much stormwater can overwhelm the City’s sewer system, which can lead to flooded basements and impacts to surface water quality in Toronto’s rivers, streams and Lake Ontario’s waterfront.”

And here, all this time, we thought rain was desirable. Apparently not. Apparently rain harms (checks notes) Lake Ontario. Gotcha.

So, the city wants to tax you for it. To calculate how much Rain Tax you will pay, the municipal apparatchiks will see how much “hard surface area” you have. They define that as frivolous and unnecessary things like “roofs, asphalt driveways, parking areas and concrete landscaping.”

The Rain Tax will appear as a separate line on your utility bill, but they won’t call it that. It’ll be called something to diminish the number of fainting spells and heart attacks it will inevitably cause. It’ll probably be located adjacent to their next proposal, “The Air Tax.”

How will the city calculate how much “hard surface” you’ve got? Good question. Knowing this crew, we’d wager they considered sending out a million New Democrat consultants with neon-orange measuring tapes, but they’re not doing that. Instead, they say they will “use aerial photography” to guesstimate how big your roof is. Sounds quite scientific, no?

“Marge, get my twelve gauge! The city’s sending spy drones over the back yard again!”

Now, before you have a stroke, the City’s overlords wish it known that other municipalities are just as insane. Kitchener, Mississauga and Orillia all have a Rain Tax, too. And, where goes Orillia, so goes the nation.

Because, make no mistake, Toronto-stan’s rulers really, really want to do this. They’ve tried it before, too. Back in 2017, city bureaucrats pleaded with council to go along with a Rain Tax, and John Tory – who, full disclosure, this writer worked for, and not just because he opposed taxing rain, but because he was an adult and a sane person – shut them down.

Figuring out who would pay a Rain Tax, and how and when, would be like “unscrambling an egg,” Tory said at the time, which was a bit of an odd metaphor, but which also makes us miss him all the more.

Undaunted, the ‘crats are trying again, doubtlessly, er, egged on by the Team Trotsky now running things.

A Rain Tax.  Seriously.

Now, before you head down to City Hall with pitchforks and torches, the Rain Taxers would like it known that they are merely “consulting” with you, to “provide feedback.” They’re even going to have some public meetings on the Rain Tax.

When? Well, in April, of course. Because, perhaps, April showers bring May flowers.

And, soon enough, a bigger bite out of your wallet.

Splish splash.

 

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Who’s the Wizard of Oz?

Everyone remembers the Wizard of Oz. In the epic 1939 film, Dorothy – played by Judy Garland – awakens in the magical land of Oz, and finds herself facing lots of terrifying and potentially-lethal threats. Dorothy ultimately pulls back a curtain, and reveals that the powerful and frightening Wizard is just an ordinary man.

Observing the anti-Israel – and sometimes pro-Hamas – protests that have paralyzed cities across Canada, the United States and Europe since October 7, that question isn’t asked nearly enough: who is the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain? Who is the directing mind of all the thousands of protests that have targeted Western cities big and small? Who is the webmaster? Who is pushing out the talking points and messaging?

It’s happened before, although not as openly. In the 2016 US presidential campaign, it was Russia. And the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal campaigns, it was China.

In 2024, which country now stands to benefit the most from destabilizing Israel and its allies?

Take it from this writer, who has helped to run many political campaigns over the decades: what is happening – what you are seeing on your TV and computer screens – isn’t “organic.” These troubling events aren’t just happening independently. A campaign this global, effective and well-funded?

It needs central coordination. It needs a Jew-hating Wizard of Oz.

This newspaper has revealed, for example, that anti-Israel groups have been paying for people to protest against Israel. We have shown that they are deploying carefully-crafted and segmented messages aimed at specific demographic categories – mainly Gen Z and millennials – using lawless online platforms.

We have reported that those social media platforms were used in a coordinated campaign to deny the atrocities of October 7 – with a barrage of propaganda that spiked online literally hours after Hamas swept into Israel. We have shown how sophisticated grassroots campaigns have been used to push countries like Canada and the US – in Canada, successfully, this week – into abandoning trade and diplomatic ties with Israel.

All of that doesn’t just happen spontaneously. It needs a directing mind. It needs someone to manage the global anti-Semitic campaign.

On Wednesday, NBC News released the result of an outstanding investigative report by veteran journalist Simone Weichselbaum. What Weichselbaum discovered is astonishing. A sampling:

• Tax filings in the US revealed “a vast network that includes left-leaning, billion-dollar American philanthropies – and collaboration with at least one foreign organization that Germany and Israel have banned for allegedly working with or supporting Hamas and another terrorist group.”
• Coordination of the pro-Hamas activity is “primarily through social media using apps such as Telegram, X, WhatsApp and Instagram.”
• As this newspaper revealed in the case of two B.C.-based groups that use charity rules to attract support, Weichselbaum found Israel-hating groups in America “use a progressive nonprofit group based in New York called Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation, or WESPAC, as their fiscal sponsor to collect and process online donations.”

Weichselbaum emphasized one of the Israel-hating campaign overseers has a Canadian connection – Samidoun, based in Vancouver. Postmedia writer Terry Glavin has previously reported that Samidoun is linked to multiple groups that would like to see Israel wiped off the face of the Earth – such as its Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and allied Palestinian Youth Movement, writes Glavin.

And, reports Weichselbaum, “Samidoun’s leadership is composed of current and former members of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” Which has resulted in Samidoun being banned in Germany – and listed as a terror group in Israel.

But in Canada, Samidoun operates openly, making use of its nonprofit status to assist others who are engaged in a campaign that can only be called hateful. As Weichselbaum reports, Samidoun’s leaders record videos where they call Hamas’  barbaric attack a “heroic operation.”

This is not to say, however, that a little-known Canadian based nonprofit is coordinating a massive global campaign. That is unlikely. Among other things, that is something that is beyond the limits of Samidoun’s budget and abilities.

No, this goes beyond just one group. Charlotte Kates is the “international coordinator” for Samidoun, and an American now based in Vancouver. She is very open about the global anti-Israel campaign. Says Kates: “What we see here is an alliance — an alliance of forces that is working together for a different future for the region that is free of U.S. imperialism and is free of Zionist colonialism.  And these forces of resistance, right now, are in the front lines.”

On this occasion, at least, Kates is probably telling the truth. Many groups are now actively involved in destabilizing and delegitimizing Israel and Israel’s allies – in the streets, online, and in many union, NGO and academic backrooms.

But what remains unclear, for now, is who is paying the shots. Who is writing the cheques for all the protesters and signs and the organizers and the websites? Police and intelligence agencies across Canada and the West are now working overtime to answer that question.

In the meantime, this writer – and others – plan to follow the money.

And most of us think the road will lead, ultimately, to the real Jew-hating Wizard of Oz:

Iran.

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Faked?

The death toll in Gaza was repeatedly cited by Canadian Parliamentarians on Monday as they voted on an NDP resolution to “officially recognize the state of Palestine” and demand an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Over and over, MPs claimed that 32,000 Gazans have been killed by Israel – most of them women and children. Over and over, they gave just one justification for recognizing a “state” that is run by a listed terrorist entity: the death toll.

But what if the death toll has been faked?

Because, almost certainly, it has been.  Five reasons.

The source. There is just one (1) source for all of the numbers cited by Canadian Parliamentarians: the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 and took over the ministry, and ensured their own people ran it.

The ministry’s erstwhile director general, Medhat Abbas, answers directly to Hamas.  Abbas has let Hamas store weapons in Gaza hospitals, operate out of them, and even keep Israeli hostages prisoner in some hospitals.

During World War II, Canada and its allies did not accept what the National Socialist German Doctors’ League had to say about casualties, because they had a vested interest in lying.  Why would Canada now accept the word of a “health ministry” run by a terrorist organization?

The precedent.  On October 17, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry declared, al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza had been bombed by Israel, and 500 people killed.  It made headlines around the world.

The problem: it was a lie. The hospital was not destroyed – it still stands – and hundreds were not killed.  And, most importantly, Israel did not do it.

The Palestinian side did.  Human Rights Watch is no friend of Israel, but it has confirmed that a Palestinian “rocket-propelled munition” hit the hospital parking lot, not the hospital itself.  On the Gaza Healthy Ministry death toll? Concluded Human Rights Watch: “[We are] unable to corroborate the count.”

Note, also, this important conclusion, which we will return to shortly: “[The Gaza Health Ministry death toll] is significantly higher than other estimates of killed-to-injured ratio, and appears out of proportion with the damage visible on site.”

The eyewitnesses.  The first casualty of war is truth, of course.  It is hard, if not impossible, to determine the truth on a battlefield.

That is the case in the Israel-Hamas war, too: neither side has permitted any truly independent body or media organization to enter the war zone.  That has led to multiple governments and media organizations simply taking the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry at its word.

Is it a good idea, to accept the word of an organization whose master carried out the massacre of October 7 in the first place?

That’s a rhetorical question.

The statistics. Abraham J. Wyner is a professor of Statistics and Data Science at the University of Pennsylvania.  Last week, he published an important analysis of the Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers in the magazine Tablet.  Wyner carefully reviewed the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll claims and concluded:

“The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters.”

Why? Wyner looked at the total number of Gaza deaths from the start of the war on October 27 to now. On a graph, the number grows by the same amount every single day, showing a perfect line going upward.  Says Wyner: “This regularity is almost surely not real. One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day…the Gaza ministry is releasing fake daily numbers that vary too little.”

The mistakes.  The Gaza Health Ministry appears to have another error that calls into question much of what they’ve claimed: the ceasefire.

Remember? There was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas from November 24 to 30.  A week, essentially, in which hostages released, humanitarian aid was received, and the fighting stopped. In that week, two strong critics of Israel – the United Nations and al-Jazeera – said two (2) Palestinians were shot and killed.

But the Gaza Health Ministry published data claiming that casualties continued to grow at an alarming pace during the ceasefire week. The ministry even claimed deaths had topped 15,000 during the truce period, and said that most of them were women and children.

How can that be? Who was killed, and where? Was the November ceasefire faked?

The fake, here, is just about anything said by the Gaza Health Ministry. And, tragically this week, many of our Members of Parliament took them at their word.

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Is Canada’s foreign policy dominated by Jew-hating bigots?

Good question. Listen to what one of our most senior diplomats had to say:

“Israelis exercise an unhealthy influence over North America. There is no other influence on government which remotely approaches the influence of the Israeli lobby. They have infiltrated government, there’s no question about it.”

He pauses.

“When I offended ZOG, it was obviously no problem whatever to have me dismissed.”

The speaker is Ian Verner Macdonald, Canada’s second-most powerful diplomat in the Middle East for many years. The ZOG he is referring to is the “Zionist Occupied Government.” ZOG is the acronym that is popular among neo-Nazis and Jew-haters to describe the democratically-elected governments of the West.

Among Macdonald’s friends – among those he’d given support to, and a place to meet and sleep – was the Grand Wizard of the Canadian Knights in the Ku Klux Klan. All while Macdonald was a senior Canadian diplomat, one who received promotion after promotion for years. One who was described by his superiors as “exceptional” and “brilliant.”

Macdonald is dead now, occupying a spot in Hell alongside his fellow Hitler freaks and cross-burners. But, when one looks at yesterday’s photo of Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly smiling and gripping the hand of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, one has to wonder:

Are people like Ian Verner Macdonald still running the place? Does Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs still have an anti-Semitism problem?

Because it sure looks like it.

This writer has long held the view that Joly is one of the the worst cabinet ministers in the country’s history. But, even for her, clutching Abbas’ hand like a child on a school trip was going way too far. The uncontradicted evidence is that Abbas is a corrupt, venal Holocaust denier who has applauded Hitler and regularly likens Jews to Nazis.

There was Joly, cheerfully clutching Abbas’ claw – Abbas, the aging Jew-hating racketeer, one who even Hamas will not give the time of day. But perhaps it makes sense.

After all, Joly is the minister who, in just the past week or so, has reinstated funding to a United Nations organization whose employees participated in the barbarity of October 7; moved to choke off the legal sale of non-lethal military exports to Israel; and whose government is trying to prevent Jews from keeping kosher religious dietary laws.

Scratch the surface in her department, and one will see there seems to be a problem within Foreign Affairs. Here’s just a few examples:

• Middle East Relations desk officer Jessica Yassine has posted on her social media platforms statements to the effect that Israel is “massacring” people, and has attacked the Ontario government for “crushing Palestinian activism”
• Women, Peace and Security Ambassador senior advisor Panthea Pourmalek, who has promoted statements that the Jewish state is in “moral decay”
• Middle Eastern Relations specialist Lamya Hussain, who has written essays for “Electronic Intifada” suggesting that Hamas-era “fallen soldiers” are “martyrs”
• Senior Gulf States Desk Officer Omar Alihashi, who once wrote that “channels should be opened between Canadian diplomats and…Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Media representatives at Global Affairs were asked if any of the above were considered acceptable by their department – and, if so, why? And, if not acceptable, what steps would be taken to discipline or remove those people from senior roles representing Canada?

Department spokesman John Babcock responded: “Global Affairs Canada (GAC) takes these types of comments very seriously. When using social media or other electronic media to network for professional, personal, or official use, employees must abide by the Code of Values and Ethics…The department is taking appropriate actions to verify and manage the situations accordingly.”

This writer authored a book about all of this in 1992, called Unholy Alliances. Ian Verner Macdonald was interviewed for it. Macdonald, who died two years ago, was always slippery about how someone like him could survive, and even prosper, within Canada’s Foreign Affairs ministry. A man who would write memos about “Negro excesses” and was investigated by the RCMP’s Security Service for passing trade secrets to rogue Arab states.

A man who even wrote that Jews exercised “inordinate and dangerous influence [in Canada’s] national and international affairs,” and who are “an alien master” who “control us through a network of agents, collaborators and sympathizers and some outright mercenaries.”

How could someone like Ian Verner Macdonald be allowed to write, and do, such things for so long at Foreign Affairs? How is that even possible?

We could ask the same question about Melanie Joly and her underlings.

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Fabric Unravelling? A Dialogue on Society’s Shift: A Fireside Chat with Warren Kinsella and Stephanie Smyth

Join B’nai Brith Canada’s Special Advisory Council to the League for Human Rights (SAC-LHR) on Thursday, March 21 at 7pm EST for a riveting virtual event. The evening will include two powerhouses, @kinsellawarren, Canadian lawyer, author, political consultant, and commentator, hosted by award winning broadcast journalist and media expert, @stephaniesmyth.

Warren Kinsella is the strategic mastermind behind countless successful political campaigns and is the president of the Daisy Group. Previously Special Assistant to the Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, he has guided the Ontario Liberal Party to victory and played a pivotal role in the Biden-Harris campaign. Kinsella has been one of the country’s most vocal supporters of Jewish Canadians and his captivating insights are not to be missed!

Stephanie Smyth, is an award-winning broadcast journalist who has been at the heart of some of Canada’s most critical news moments. As the former Managing Editor of CP24, Smyth has been the guiding force behind ground-breaking news coverage, earning accolades and respect across the nation.

Expect a night of lively discussion, deep insights, and compelling conversations that will leave you inspired and informed. Whether you’re passionate about politics, media, or the shifting dynamics of our society, this is one fireside chat you won’t want to miss!
Click here to save the event to your calendar or to register: bnaibrith.ca/eventssa/march…

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