SpankyMcFarland

I should have added above that AFAIK France does not extradite its own citizens which is a bit ridiculous. Instead they can sometimes be tried in France. Both Poland and Switzerland refused to extradite Polanski when the Americans tried. He's safe in those three countries.

Isn't trafficking any person under the age of 18 a criminal offence in Canada? https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/AnnualStatutes/2010_3/page-1.html It certainly is in the UK now. The recruitment operation run by Maxwell for Epstein's benefit does not look like a regular boyfriend-girlfriend situation. There are other potential offences under Canadian law here as well: https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201724E#a3-12

In the first instance they want him as a witness. He was a close friend of Maxwell's and visited Epstein's mansion on numerous occasions. It is pretty clear he is not fully cooperating with them. All should be equal before the law.

I agree. Polanski should have been extradited to face justice decades ago. Failing that, he should at least have been shunned by Hollywood.

She's a survivor. It must be a worrying time for his buddies, though.

It’s notable now that Harvard failed to consider Epstein’s history of outlandishly fraudulent financial deals, never mind the rumours of ‘girlfriends’ on the younger side, before pocketing millions and, even more preposterously, appointing him as a Visiting Fellow. Worse than that, he was allowed to continue an official association with the institution long after his conviction. I know I shouldn’t be naive about these things but I remain surprised by what a mega-rich psychopath could get away with at America’s, and the world’s, leading university. After considering this case, one might conclude that all the warehouses of worthy SOPs on appropriate behaviour are applied in a fashion inversely proportional to one’s wealth. But that is not the case. Right? https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/5/5/editorial-what-harvard-sold-jeffrey-epstein/

Hard to believe, but that was the style back then. Ivanka got her looks and height from both sides of the family. I can’t fault her there. By contrast, in the comeliness department, Donald was fortunate to take after his mother more than papa.

Why did they lay hands upon him in the first place? He was walking home from the store and was clearly terrified when they started grappling with him. He was no threat to anybody and certainly not the police.

I would imagine that mitigation and adaptation are complementary strategies and both will be needed. Adaptation is easier to achieve locally in the short-term to address the problems we can see already. For example, we’ve probably only seen the start of the megafire phenomenon in Western North America, storms in the East and flash flooding everywhere.

There seem to be two debates here: 1. Is AGW happening? 2. What should we (individuals, provinces, countries) do about it? I’ve just been admonished for quoting too much so you’ll have to take yourselves over to the google machine to answer question 1. Given the data available, I can’t see reasonable people coming any conclusion other than yes at this stage. As to 2, no country wants to go first, obviously. I think the private sector will tend to lead there until the consequences of continued inadequate action become more severe.

This sounds like a facility that responded well to the challenge of the pandemic:

On the positive side of things, some care homes have done well in Ontario: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/nobody-died-in-these-nursing-homes-what-did-they-do-right-1.4998204 Apart from early, thorough planning, a common theme seems to be adequate staffing.

The abolition of slavery was a good thing, no question.

This looks fairly heavy-handed. A small man by any standard returning from the shops is stopped by police for being ‘suspicious’. A struggle ensues during which he is put in a chokehold and given a large dose of ketamine. He suffers a cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and dies a week later. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8465407/Colorado-officers-involved-death-Elijah-McClain-taken-streets-DA-defends-not-pressing-charges.html

I wish all billionaires were as evil as Bill Gates.

Leaders of friendly nations often dislike each other but they try and keep such trivia in perspective and get on with their jobs.

No, I never said ‘purely mercenary’. I’m not denying the idealism of Wilberforce and Co. at all, merely pointing out the truism that motives are rarely simple in life. The Industrial Revolution reduced the demand for slave-based labour in Britain and slaves in multiple Caribbean islands began fighting back. As for global abolition, that took a very long time.

Some good sense from Mr. Pence:

The Brits did have the workforce of India to cut their sugar cane. Once they abolished slavery in their own empire, it was to their advantage to discourage it elsewhere.

I was replying to the subject of foreign investors renting out apartments which is the topic of this thread. I didn’t comment on immigration either way so I’m not really acting like it isn’t a topic. Not all immigrants go to the big city - more than 50% of my local hospital’s staff are immigrants like me - but many of them do. It certainly is a factor in increasing demand for accommodation in places like TO.

Indentureship, the institution that replaced slavery in the British Empire and supplied tropical colonies with a vast supply of inexpensive labour, receives remarkably little attention these days. The family of the great Liberal politician, William Gladstone, was intimately involved in both trades. In his maiden speech, Gladstone demanded fair compensation for slave owners, one of whom happened to be his extremely wealthy father, John Gladstone. Naturally, many of these rich individuals were worried about the transition to indentureship. Here an agent offers reassurance: The system of indentured labour was not abolished in the British Empire until 1917: https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/indentured-labour-south-asia-1834-1917

I don’t think the developers are the culprits there. The nimbys of my generation who don’t want to see their precious neighbourhood ‘ruined’ by inexpensive apartments are a bigger problem for younger people trying to stay in the city.

The Canadian firm CAPREIT owns nearly 4,000 rental units in Ireland. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/15/2034546/0/en/CAPREIT-Reports-Continued-Growth-and-Strong-Operating-Performance-in-First-Quarter-of-2020.html This is the way of the world and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I would much rather rent from a large organization than some guy with one condo, esp. if something goes wrong.

Comrade, I’m going to say a Socialist prayer for you tonight.

If an effective vaccine appears, I will certainly be taking it because I remain highly concerned about this virus.