Queenmandy85

No, that is not what I said. We know China interferes and spies on Canada and has done so for years. Canada does the same. So does Russia and the US. However, going all the way back to the creation of Mi6, espionage agencies have employed the most unreliable agents you can imagine. Sidney Reilly, the "ace of spies" for Mi6, who never set foot outside of Russia and never did any spying. Mata Hari who was the mistress of a French policeman, who when his wife found out, claimed poor Ms. Zelle was a German spy. The Venlo incident where two British agents were kidnapped by Walter Schellenberg is a story of two wannabee spies who were not British agents, who ended up in a concentration camp. Sir William Stephenson and Bill Donovan lived in a fantasy world. James J. Anglton wrecked the CIA with his paranoid hunt for moles. Some intelligence agents live in a fantasy world. Canadian intelligence agents have a history of screwing up. They failed in the Air India disaster. The dirty tricks campaign that resulted in the MacDonald commission. The Mahar Arar affair. There are actual intelligence groups that do shine brightly, such as GCHQ in the UK and the CBNRC in Canada. To be fair, I have met with two CSIS members who seemed to be stand up guys, but I have no way of knowing if their work was any good. My point is, I am skeptical. This could be a guy in CSIS who hates Prime Minister Trudeau and decided it would be a good idea to leak some unverified low confidence ideas to embarass the Liberals and destroy a man's life in the process. With what little I know about Liberals and spies, if I had to chose whom I believed, I would believe a Liberal.

While interferance from China, Russia and the United States is concerning, I am even more concerned by the apparent politicization of CSIS. Why are we giving these leaks so much credence. Are rogue members of CSIS trying to interfere in Canadian politic? I remember and article by John Starnes written after he retired from the RCMP Security Service. He had a completely warped political outlook, giving a hint as to the genesis of the RCMP dirty tricks campaign under Starnes term. If these allegations about the activities of China prove false, they will have destroyed the reputaions of several people. Intelligence agencies have never had even a medium level of competance and reliability. To paraphrase Gwynn Dyer, if you can't take a joke, you should not have an intelligence agency.

Stick to tradition. Actually, I think they should extend the summer vacation from June 15 to Sept. 15. Kids need the opportunity to get out and play. While in class for the rest of the time, improve the math, science and geography curriculum. One of the improvements they could make is to explain "why." I learned how to solve a quadratic equation, but nobody told me what it was for for twenty years after I graduated.

That is why I specified bank stock. When the NDP whines about banks making obscene profits, you are looking at an investment opportunity. Banks don't lose money. The time to start accumulating is when you are young, when you are unencumbered by marital partners and children. You can avoid tobacco and beverage alcohol, and, if you live in a city with public transit, you will save several thousand dollars a year without a car.

If you buy shares regularly in the Royal Bank, and BMO, and reinvest the dividends in more bank stock, starting when you are 25, by the time you are 60, you will be able to live off the dividends without selling the shares.

The drop is likely due to Covid. Over a 25 year period, you stock in the Canadian banks is going to pay off very well. If a Canadian Bank were to ever fail, no investment is safe. I agree, mutual funds are a poor investment. Banks pay very good dividends. If you start buying bank stock in your early twenties, and and invest every month, you will retire comfortably. If you have over $100,000 in a single account, you are not earning anything. unless it was in a GIC purchased in Feb, 2023. Never leave that money sitting in an account doing nothing. Donald Smith came to Canada at the age of 20, as a clerk in the Hudsons Bay company. He ended up a major stockholder in the Bank of Montreal, and controlling interest in the CPR. He became Lord Strathcona.

So, it is okay for the Americans and the Russians to be interfering in Canada but not the Chinese? Ottawa in particular, has been an espionage hub since the Second World War. Traditionally, it is the one place where every major player has an embassy. The US administration used its influence and strategic leaks to bring down the Conservative government and help the Liberals win the 1963 election. The GRU and the American opposition forces are currently bombarding Canadians with misinformation in social media. Those same American opposition groups aided the illegal occupation of Ottawa last year, donating hundreds of thousands of US dollars (US3.62 million) . A significant portion of that came from anonymous US donors. China views Taiwan as part of China in the same way Canada views Alberta as part of Canada. If another country actively supported Alberta's independence, that would be a threat to Canada. Of course, if China became a free democratic country, Taiwan might not object to re-joining the mainland. We are right to try to minimize foreign interference, but there is only so much we can do. China has mastered the craft of acquiring influence around the world. If the western powers ever came into direct confrontaion with China, we could be in for a nasty surprise. The best response is to emulate them in establishing bases of support around the world, and working inside China to build a network within the Communist Party. The thing about spies is they will turn on a dime. Every spy the Germans put into the UK in WW2, was discovered and, either turned, or replaced with an imposter. (The XX system)

That is the best arguement for buying stock in a Canadian Bank. I do not understand why people whine and complain that a bank is making high profits, but don't by stock to take advantage of the high returns. The banks deserve high profits because they keep your money safe. When you go to a Canadian bank to make a withdrawl, you can have faith that your money will be there. When you own stock in a Canadian Bank, you can expect a good return on your investment. That is why your pension plan has bank stock in its portfolio. Large profits are a wonderful thing.

It is my understanding that the "United Church of Christ" in the US has no relationship or similarity to the United Church of Canada. I may be wrong about that, but that is my understanding. We need to educate people on why some people are transgendered. I see demonstrations on this forum every day that many people have no understanding of the differences between transgender, cross dressing, drag and transvestitism.

Whoa, the Queen and now the King are CANADIANS. When you serve Canada, you serve the King of Canada. The King may reside in London, but so do many Canadians such as Ralph Goodale. We are Canadians, not British. I for one, thank you Doug. Back on topic, we need to be conscious that throwing around accusations against an MP who may or may not have known they received support from the Chinese government, claims they are Chinese agents when nothing has been proven, is a bad practice. Questioning anyone's loyalty without proof is a stupid and cruel thing to do. None of us have any actual knowledge of what has occurred. We have to be conscious of that fact before we throw wild accusations around. including tossing accusations about any of us on this forum.

You are incorrect. I have been a Progressive Conservative activist since the Diefenbaker era until Peter MacKay sold out the Conservative Party to the Socreds. With regard to China, we all know how the Chinese Foreign service works. They go to a pariah nation like Zimbabwe and become their friend. They tell the pariah government, if they need any help, Bejing will be there for them. All they ask is that, some day, and they hope that day never comes, they may ask Zimbabwe for a favour in return. China does this all over the world. They are there to help you. There is always a huge price for their help. We see you are in a tight election race. Perhaps we can help. We see there are questions about rumours we helped you in the past. If these rumours were found to be credible, it could harm you. How can we help? Espionage is not as glamorous at it is in the movies. In the 1970's I learned of a British super spy in World War One. Sidney Reilly infilltrated the Imperial German General Staff and was on the staff that planned the great German offensive in 1918. In 1920, he went to Russia and was arrested 12 hours after he entered the country. No fewer than six young women showed up at the jail to plead for his release and vouch for his innocence. In 1923, he returned to Russia and was never heard from again. There is evidence he was executed. Neat story, eh. Except it is all untrue. Sidney Reilly was a Russian Jew who never set foot outside of Russia. Solomon Rosenbaum made a living raising money to resist the communists, which he spent on himself. He was a brilliant liar. Wikipedia has lots of information on his British service record, none of which is true. He never worked for the British in any capacity. A lot is made aof the exploits of Willaim Stephenson and Bill Donovan. Stephenson made up most of the story he related in a Man Called Intrepid. He lived in a fantasy world and claimed credit for other people's work. There have been a few legitamate spies. The Russian agent Richard Sorge comes to mind, but most spies are not reliable. You are sitting in CSIS HQ and a report comes in from Vienna. It is solid gold. Your second response is, is this real or misinformation...a plant. You never know whether you should act on it or not. I've met two CSIS members in my life. Both of them seemed pretty good. One was a recruiter. (No he was not interested in me.) The other was monitoring international students at the university. The students lived in groups and each group contained a political officer. The university also intercepted thousands of probes to the computer system every week. Canada could emulate China's methods of acquiring influence and information in the world. Rather than treat a disreputable country like something to scrape off your shoe, maybe ask, "Can we help? We can make you a better deal than those guys from Bejing. "

Their own interests. Intelligence agencies are always looking for enemies to justify their existance. CSIS viewed the end of the Cold War as a threat, as did the CIA, MI6, and the DGSE, so they turned to industrial espionage. China and Russia have done CSIS etc. a great service. The one thing they all have in common is incompetence, though I expect China is not as incompetant as the others.

While I don't deny that China has been very astute in its foreign policy over the last few decades, I am also concerned that CSIS has members who are leaking classified documents. If CSIS has become politicized, Chinese infiltration is not our only problem. CSIS, like the Police, the military and the professional civil service are supposed to be apolitical / non-partisan. It is perilous to have CSIS taking a political stand. They are tasked with gathering intelligence and providing the information to Government. It is the Government's job to decide what to do with it, not CSIS.

If he thinks NATO will do nothing, will he be able to resist the temptation to get the glory of resoring the evil Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact? President Reagan's genius was his ability to convince the Soviets that he was crazy enough to destroy the planet if they stepped over the line. Chamberlain's folly was he could not convince Hitler that the west would stand up to his quest to restore Greater Germany. I don't want to die in a nuclear holocaust, but we need to convince President Putin that that is how he will die if he crosses the NATO boundary. The same goes for President Xi.

I don't know how you could interpret what I wrote as rushing to WW3 or bellow for total war. I said we must give the Ukraine the tools they need to deliver a decisive defeat on the Russian invaders. If this results in a war between Russia and NATO, you and I will die unpleasantly. I would rather die peacefully in my sleep, not screaming in fear and terror like the passengers in his car. What do you think is going to happen if the Ukrainians are defeated and Prigozhin's private army is turned loose on the population? I do not advocate NATO moving into the Ukraine and taking over. If the Ukraine wants to apply for membership in NATO, they will need to expell the Russians first. Your knowledge of history is probably better than mine but Hitler cited the fact that many Czechs living in the Sudetenland spoke German as his excuse to march in to Czechoslovakia. Are you saying the Germans did not take over Austria? Russia and the United States gave the Ukraine a guarantee of their independence and sovereignty.