I am Groot

LOL. You call it courage to decrease the retirement age and not to push it back!? This is something they've had riots over in other countries! Do you think this increased Harper's popularity with anyone, much less the middle-aged and older people who are the mainstay of elections? I fail to see how letting in a lot of poor people is going to enrich this country. Perhaps you could enlighten me? Cut off the billions in climate spending. Cut off all the money going to every advocacy, lobby, and activist group in Canada, and all the 'scientific studies' for gender rice in Vietnam or whatever, and all the billions going to third-world dictatorships to pad their Swiss bank accounts. Cut huge numbers of regulations and then the bureaucrats who look after those regulations. Especially slash restrictions on developing and selling our natural resources abroad. Modernize our ports, and lay off most of the dockyard workers, drive more pipelines to both coasts. Ahh, there we have it. The way to get elected is to keep promising things that we can't afford. The problem is that eventually we come to the point where nobody will loan us any money anymore. What do we do then?

If anyone questions how hostile universities in Canada are towards anyone who is even moderately/mildly conservative, this story ought to demonstrate it. A University of Saskatchewan law student dared to mildly question DEI policies, and that began a multi-year process by the university to pillory him as an evil racist. And even worse than the university's behaviour is the behaviour of other law students, which is sort of what I've been talking about. These are the people who are going to be appointed as judges one day by the Liberal government. He mildly questioned DEI. His law school calls that 'misconduct' | National Post

No, merely eliminating your cliche'd reason to oppose it. This was recommended years ago by the C.D. Howe Institute. It's why Harper raised the retirement age to 67. It was recommended again by them earlier this year. https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/article/canada-should-raise-retirement-age-to-67-to-address-labour-shortages-report/

No, merely eliminating your cliche'd reason to oppose it. This was recommended years ago by the C.D. Howe Institute. It's why Harper raised the retirement age to 67.

Note that the US can get by with high debt due to being the world currency, and they have all manner of ways to increase revenues if they choose to. Also note that Singapore's high debt rate is an illusion. So Canada's is probably more like 8th highest in the world with few ways to increase revenue other than going against government policy and developing and exporting our natural resources.

I would suggest to you that if Denmark is doing it, this isn't just an idea straight out of the evil corporatist neocon handbook. Life expectancy has risen ten years since the introduction of the CPP. A friend of mine plans to retire at 55. Presuming they live to 86- a not unreasonable presumption - they would have spent just as much time retired as they spent working. I'm not sure this society can function like that. I semi-retired at about 52, but I can make a fairly high income off of part-time, at-home work. Few can.

There has to come a time in every society, and I think we've about reached it, where compassion for the history that led to the creation of the individual who now exists has to give way to compassion for his victims and protection of society. We have seen the courts show compassion repeatedly towards sexual and violent offenders, which has led directly to unspeakable violence against innocent people. It's not even clear whether this compassion is helping the criminals that the Liberal party courts extend to them. Perhaps a series of easy slaps on the wrist simply solidifies an offender's belief that the criminal lifestyle is an acceptable one for them. It certainly seems to function that way with their harm reduction strategies towards the illegal use of narcotics. But then, one of the problems with the Liberal party over the past decade is a lack of interest in the results of their policies vs how they can make them seem noble and virtuous before their tame media.

I've said it before. Almost no one in Canada would dispute that Trump stacked the U.S. Supreme Court to get the decisions he wanted and that this has worked well for him. Yet the left in Canada outright refuses to believe the Liberals have done the same with Canada's Supreme Court. Yes, the SC is now hopelessly biased, not to the liberal left but to the far left on social values and views. That's particularly so over native treaties and 'reconciliation' matters. The idea of even allowing, much less giving credence to 'oral history' is absurd, just as a start. And the SC has no problem at all with politically biased lawyers. It encourages it. All the law schools insist on it for admission and hiring. The law societies are now starting to demand strict, formal adherence to the left's social justice views, as well. No, the SC is okay with politically biased lawyers as long as they share that bias. It just doesn't want lawyers who might be conservative-minded. Unless, of course, they're 'ethnic'. No one thinks the social views of immigrant Muslim lawyers aren't completely governed by their own religiously inspired social values, but that's okay. The SC just doesn't want Christians whose views might be colored by their religious values.

I pointed out earlier that Canada keeps few records about immigrant performance. Those they do keep usually end at the time the immigrant becomes a Canadian citizen and don't track them further. In other countries, they not only keep stats but make them easily available. This one is from the UK.

I'm a realist. More importantly, I've met and worked with and lived among some of these people. I am regularly appalled at their ignorance, and often by their superstitious religious nonsense and openly expressed contempt for others (which I'm quite sure includes me and mine when they talk with their own kind). You routinely call white people racist for things that you would hear from almost all newcomers and just smile at. Like that appeals court in BC deciding an indigenous person had a lower level of moral culpability for violently attacking a person for no reason than, you know, a civilized person. If you were really opposed to racism, you'd want to stop such people from coming to Canada.

They did ban them. and the Supreme Court supported them.

And what glorious things has immigration for Canada's wealth and economy?

This is the most recent data. I'm quite sure it's much worse now, given the 'quality' of the immigrants and refugees we've been getting over the last five years.

They're not. Why would I 'recognize' some illiterate goat herder who can barely speak English is my equal? Why would I 'recognize' that the people who were running in the streets of Pakistan screeching for the death of blasphemers last year are now my equal because they came here through our open borders immigration/refugee system? Why would I 'recognize' a guy who earnestly and sternly tells me GOD has commanded women to cover themselves in cloth as my equal? They adapt? They adapt to the wonderful generosity of our social welfare systems. That doesn't mean they assimilate or integrate or even accept any of the precepts of our culture and values. Nor does it mean they instantly acquire an education or an understanding or even acceptance of Western culture. Really? Not one of them? The internet is full of imams and mullahs in London, in Dearborn, in Paris screeching about how all food must be Halal, and Sharia must be imposed, and how Islam must conquer the West and destroy its immoral religions and values. I can repost some if you'd like. Do they? Have you seen any statistics on how many 'newcomers' are availing themselves of social welfare programs I am required to pay for? There is one and only one group of newcomers who earn as much or more than Canadians, and that is the principal applicant in the economic category (about 14% of immigrants). All other categories are economic losses and require Canadians to support them and the services they use. What percentage are on welfare or in public housing? The government won't tell us. But if Sweden or the UK are any indication, a very, very large percentage. How many of them are out raping girls and women? The government won't tell us that. But if Sweden and the UK and Italy and other countries that do keep such statistics are any indication, it's an alarming number. Ever seen the most wanted lists for murderers and noticed a pattern of brown faces? No, probably not. The ignorance of people like you will be Canada's downfall. Your mind is still back in 1950 where all the immigrants are white Christians from Europe and fairly easily adapt to our customs and values. You simply aren't capable of contemplating that Canada is rapidly filling up with people who have no intention of integrating because they despise our traditions, values, and beliefs. Of course, that's also because our government, media, and academia are in the control of people like you, who ALSO despise our traditions, values, and beliefs.

The danger to Canada's security does not come from an unsearched box at the border but from the steady and unimpeded flow of spies and agitators from hostile foreign countries allowed to operate with impunity in Canada. It comes from the steady, relentless hacking and intrusions into our computer systems by places like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. I had dinner last night with a senior director in Shared Services, and I put it to her that in my opinion, every federal government computer system is an absolute sieve, an open door for hostile foreign actors. She enthusiastically agreed, then went on to list the deficiencies of the cybersecurity there, the lack of money available, the lack of priority from the entirety of the government. And both of us agreed that everyone outside the government has even less protection. Like your power system? Pretty sure China can crash it any time they want, probably in a way that it won't come back up soon. Same for other utilities like water and gas, the ATM network, maybe even the banks' internal computers. That's coming in the future. That and exploding drones will be the new way of war. And what are we doing about it all? Virtually nothing. It's not a priority. We'd rather send billions on a gun buyback even the Liberals know is a waste of time, and billions abroad to combat climate change and help teach countries gender neutral rice farming. Not to mention helping fill the personal bank accounts of Hamas and Fatah leaders and help them buy weapons.

I honestly don't see how they can do much else, given the absolute garbage of a postal system we have. At the same time, I have to wonder how it is that every single Western country in the world seems able to comfortably afford door-to-door mail delivery EXCEPT Canada. How have we let the postal service become so cost-inefficient that it can't operate without massive yearly losses? And since that can't apparently be fixed due to union agreements, maybe we can start up something new to replace it, maybe call it the Royal Canadian Mail. Maybe we can look at how just about any other Western country operates and do like they do.

The Charter itself, if properly interpreted by unbiased people, isn't so very bad. The problem is that's not who gets to interpret it. The problem with the Charter starts in law school. How do you get into law school in Canada? Good marks in high school? Sure, as a base. But not nearly enough. Everyone has that. No, the important part is the personal statements, ie, the letter you write "Why I want to be a lawyer", as well as extra-curricular activities and volunteer work. They're looking for a certain kind of person - someone who is involved in antiracism, say, involved in left-wing politics, volunteers at immigrant support networks, goes to Africa to drill for water, is deeply committed to reconciliation and settling treaties. And, of course, above all else, if you can demonstrate you're anything but a straight white male, you get more points. The more 'ethnic' you are, the more you can talk about your 'life experience' of being oppressed by racism and discrimination, the more you can demonstrate your resentment towards Canada and its society, the better. In other words, they want to know that you're one of them. So the law schools, who have long screened who gets hired, also screen who gets accepted as a student. Then the left-wing social activists who make up its professariate will teach those students about social justice and advocacy and activism from a legal standpoint. And every spring another troop of social justice lawyers will march out into the world. And how do you get to be a judge in Canada? You conform to the left-wing social justice beliefs of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party. Almost every judge appointed in the last ten years has been appointed first and foremost due to their demonstrated adherence to the Trudeau vision. Of course, it also hugely helps if you're not a straight white male. So you take a group already pre-screened for left-wing social activism, further screen them in university, take the worst of them and make them judges, and then promote the worst of those judges up to higher levels. That's our judicial system. These are the people interpreting the Charter.

I don't care what someone's skin colour is, but the fact is these people come from cultures that are, in many cases, very backward, corrupt and violent, and in the case of Muslims, completely in conflict with our own and unlikely to soften or bend. Indians... well, it's one of the most corrupt nations on earth, and almost as misogynistic as the Muslim world.

That seems to pretty much be the belief of our refugee determination system...

In point of fact, I have often said that I don't think the justice system is competent enough to be trusted with the death penalty. So your awareness of my ideas is as dull as your awareness of reality.

Asylum claimants in Canada no nearing 500,000. Current acceptance rate under Liberals: 87%. No Western country is higher.

Can't imagine why anyone would complain about foreign labour when rural industries like uh... fast food restaurants need them so desperately!