Justin Trudeau shamed into refunding charities he ripped off.

Justin Trudeau says he’ll compensate any charitable group that paid him a hefty speaking fee to participate in fundraising events.

Only two days ago he was refusing to refund any part of his fee.

Excellent work, Jason Kenney!

FP's Annual Rubber Duck Awards for Junk Science

Dishonoured for contributions to Junk Science:

Rick Smith for Lifetime Achievement
... the inspiration for the Rubber Duckies, which are named in his honour. Mr. Smith, as president of Environmental Defence Canada, co-authored of a remarkable piece of junk science literature, the 2009 Slow Death by Rubber Duck.

New York Times
... the NYT has aimed much of its junk at Canada...oil sands and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline ... similar canards were regurgitated in a paranoid piece by Canadian academic and zero-growth fan Thomas Homer-Dixon ... On the double-standard beat, the paper nobly refused to reproduce the “private” Climategate emails ... but couldn’t wait to publish Wikileaks

The Ontario Medical Association
... Since 2003, the union managed to boost average doctor salaries by 75% to $385,000
... hectoring the public and policy makers on issues to which the OMA brings no particular expertise ... Bill to ban indoor tanning ... restaurant menu labeling for calories and salt ... Doctors are prescribing too many antibiotics to too many people ...

Bill Gates
... his father headed Planned Parenthood ... Gates plans to reduce the global population by 10% to 15%, or about one billion people through reforms including reproductive health (abortion) ... Gates says we need to get down to zero-carbon to spare us from global warming. ... he’s working to correct “the failure of capitalism,”

For Happiness economics
Rubber duckies to the government of France, Joseph Stiglitz, the United Nations Human Development Report and anti-growth activists everywhere ...

Well deserved awards, congratulations.

Prime Minister Harper's address to the British Parliament

Via the CPC:

Epic climate model failure, biased science

Roy Spencer:

... The modellers and the IPCC have willingly ignored the evidence for low climate sensitivity for many years ... The discrepancy between models and observations is not a new issue … just one that is becoming more glaring over time.

... Forgive me if I sound frustrated, but we scientists who still believe that climate change can also be naturally forced have been virtually cut out of funding and publication by the “humans-cause-everything-bad-that-happens” juggernaut.










The UNIPCC definition of "climate change":

"A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods."

The UN is only interested in human factors. And, the definition implicitly assumes that natural variability is well understood ('...nothing to study here, move along..'). The whole game is rigged from the get-go in favour of proving humans are responsible and ignoring natural variability.

Junk statistics used to justify quotas for women on corporate boards

Terence Corcoran:

Rona Ambrose, federal Status of Women Minister, says she is leading a new committee of business executives to study the issue of women directors.  Aiming for bold action, Ms. Ambrose told The Globe and Mail “I [told the committee] I  wanted action-oriented recommendations for the government to immediately act on,” she said. “We’ve had enough studies and enough reports.” [That's quite an admission.  Why bother with her phony, loaded committee?]  
 
Laurel Broten, Ontario’s Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues.  “The statistics are very clear,” Ms. Broten told a CBC Radio audience ..."... Improved financial performance is what you see in a company that has more women on their board.”

Only junk statistics could possibly justify such an obviously junk idea as quotas for women on corporate boards, or quotas for women in any other role for that matter.

And why in the Hell do we still have Ministers responsible for "women's issues"?  Talk about junk politics and a waste of taxpayers' money!

Price fixing hypocrisy - criminal charges laid against chocolate companies

The charges, laid Thursday, come ... after Canada’s Competition Bureau ...  found evidence suggesting that a price-fixing cartel collaborated, agreed or arranged to set the prices of chocolate products.

... Criminal charges have been laid against candy makers Nestlé Canada Inc. and Mars Canada Inc., and ITWAL Limited...

... “We are fully committed to pursuing those who engage in egregious, anti-competitive behaviour that harms Canadian consumers,” said John Pecman, interim commissioner of competition, in a statement.

I agree, price fixing is, or should be, a crime.  Yet, ironically,  the milk used by those chocolate companies is produced by dairy marketing cartels that engage in egregious, anti-competitive, consumer harming, price fixing with full government approval.

Maybe right 90% of the time but scumbags 100% of the time

George Jonas on the ethics of his fellow journalists:

...“‘Think dirty, and 90% of the time you’ll be right.’” ...

Reading what some of my colleagues have been saying about public-figures-turned-media-targets ... makes me wonder ... Perhaps they’ll score in the end, for thinking dirty may well make one right 90% of the time, but the parallel fact is that thinking dirty is disgusting 100% of the time. [And at least 10% of the time they're guilty of defamation].

... publishing before the evidence is in, commenting on the basis of allegations as if they were proven facts, smearing people on the basis of rumours and innuendos, piling on, attacking like a pack of jackals an unfashionable target, going after someone who seems wounded and unable to defend himself — that’s disgusting, and not made less disgusting by a subsequent consensus or endorsement by public opinion. It’s especially ugly to calumniate people, then hide behind a climate of slander that the original calumny helped create. ...

Bravo! Well said, George!