RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/canadian-minister-steps-down-amid-ethics-probe-11549992251

The biggest political storm of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s term in office escalated on Tuesday with the resignation of the cabinet minister at the center of allegations that his office interfered in a criminal case.

Jody Wilson-Raybould, who until last month was Canada’s justice minister, said she was tendering her resignation “with a heavy heart” from her post as veterans-affairs minister, in a statement released on her Twitter account. Her surprise decision, for which she gave no further explanation, is the latest development in a political uproar coming just months before Mr. Trudeau hits the campaign trail to seek re-election.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould has declined to comment for nearly a week since allegations emerged that officials in Mr. Trudeau’s office tried last year to persuade her as justice minister to drop a criminal prosecution and cut a plea deal with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., a Montreal engineering company facing bribery-and-fraud charges. She had invoked solicitor-client privilege as a reason why she couldn’t discuss the matter further, given her previous role as the Canadian cabinet’s legal adviser.

Mr. Trudeau and other government officials have vehemently denied the allegations, first revealed in a report by Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13710/hamas-war-crimes-children

It is worth noting that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad members who were killed while participating in the violence near the Gaza-Israel border did not come there dressed in military uniforms or carrying their weapons. Instead, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad men participated in the weekly protests dressed in civilian clothes. They pretended they were ordinary and innocent civilians protesting against the economic crisis in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

While they are in Cairo, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders continue to send thousands of women and children to engage in violent attacks on Israeli soldiers. These leaders do not care about the safety or welfare of their women and children. On the contrary; the more dead women and children, the better. That way, they can blame Israel for killing innocent civilians and incite more Palestinians to join the jihad against Jews.

Those who are encouraging women and children to take part in a violent confrontation with the Israeli army should be held accountable for war crimes. It is time for the international community to call on Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to stop hiding behind women and children and to stop using them as human shields in their jihad to eliminate Israel.

When Hamas launched its weekly demonstrations along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel 10 months ago, it first sent its men and their family members to participate in the protests. A few weeks later, however, Hamas instructed its men to stay away from the border after many were detected and killed by the Israeli army. Most of the Hamas men who were killed during the violence belonged to the group’s military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam. Others belonged to the military wing of another terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13716/turkey-eren-erdem

During his tenure as an Turkish member of parliament, Eren Erdem exposed ISIS and al-Qaeda activities across Turkey and often called on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to stop those activities and bring the militants to account. For that, he has been subject to pressure, investigations and trials.

In 2015, Turkey’s president Erdogan condemned Erdem and called him a “traitor”. An investigation into treason was launched against Erdem, who also received death threats over social media, with his home address posted by pro-government Twitter users, presumably to enable an attack on his house.

“On January 7, the court decided to release me by unanimous vote, as there is not a single piece of evidence against me….” – Eren Erdem, letter written from prison around January 28.

A former deputy of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Eren Erdem, who has been under arrest for seven months on terrorism charges, remains incarcerated — even though a court ruled on January 7 that he would be released pending trial.

Just before he was to be let out of prison, Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor’s office objected to his release. A higher court accepted the objection and once again issued a detention warrant against him.

In reaction to Erdem’s re-arrest despite the court ruling, his father, Hasan Erdem, said: “I’m talking to the person who is giving the instructions for this. You should know that my son and I are not afraid of you. You will not be able to bring us to our knees.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/from_paris_to_riga_to_where_else.html

Over the last two months, we’ve seen the so called “yellow vest” riots underway in France. It’s become so routine that the media is grown tired of reporting it, or maybe they don’t like to tell us how citizens are reaction to tax increases over climate change.

Over the weekend, I saw this. It looks like the vests have some imitators in Riga, Latvia, according to this AP report:

Earlier Saturday, activists in Latvia staged a picket in front of the French embassy in Riga, the capital of the small Baltic EU country, to support the yellow vest movement and urge Latvians to demand higher living standards.

The activists waved Latvia’s red-and-white flag, shouting slogans like “the French have woken up, while Latvians remain asleep.”

Very interesting. This story also reminds me of a conversation that I had a few weeks ago with a new student from Latvia attending a local community college.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/incredible-shrinking-europe-11549928481

Last week offered fresh evidence that the most consequential historical shift of the last 100 years continues: the decline of Europe as a force in world affairs. As Deutsche Bank warned of a German recession, the European Commission cut the 2019 eurozone growth forecast from an already anemic 1.9% to 1.3%. Economic output in the eurozone was lower in 2017 than it was in 2009; over that same period, gross domestic product grew 139% in China, 96% in India, and 34% in the U.S., according to the World Bank.

As its economy lags behind, Europe is becoming more divided politically. Brexit negotiations have inflamed tempers on both sides of the English Channel; Central European countries like Hungary and Poland are alienated from the West; much of Southern Europe remains bitter about the aftermath of the euro crisis; and anti-EU political parties continue to gain support across the bloc. A recent report from the European Council on Foreign Relations projects that anti-EU parties from the right and left are on course to control enough seats in the next European Parliament that they will be able to disrupt the EU and weaken it further. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The EU was founded to stop Europe’s decline, not reflect it.

http://saharareporters.com/2019/02/01/amnesty-international-reveals-boko-haram-killed-60-people-january-28-attack-rann

Sixty people were killed in Monday’s attack on Rann, Borno State, by Boko Haram, Amnesty international has said.

The agency said analysis from satellite images revealed the figure, just as it feared that camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were also affected in the attacks.

In a statement released on Friday, the human rights organisation noted that the murdered persons were people who came to Rann to seek protection.

The statement read: “At least 60 people were killed following the 28 January devastating Boko Haram attack on Rann, a border town in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, Amnesty International has confirmed.

“The organization also analyzed satellite imagery which shows hundreds of burned structures in the town. Many of the destroyed structures only date back to 2017, suggesting they were shelters for internally displaced people who came to Rann seeking protection.”

Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, noted that they had “confirmed that this week’s attack on Rann was the deadliest yet by Boko Haram, killing at least 60 people”.

“Using satellite imagery we have also been able to confirm the mass burning of structures as Boko Haram unleashed a massive assault on Rann, most of which is now destroyed. This attack on civilians who have already been displaced by the bloody conflict may amount to possible war crime, and those responsible must be brought to justice. Disturbingly, witnesses told us that Nigerian soldiers abandoned their posts the day before the attack, demonstrating the authorities’ utter failure to protect civilians,” she said.

The organisation alleged that troops withdrew, which “triggered a massive exodus of civilians to Cameroon, as fear spread that Boko Haram would take advantage and attack the town”.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13712/uk-holocaust-exhibit-muslims

The mosque that agreed to hold the secret event was in Ilford; the chairman of the Muslim Community Centre at the mosque, Bashir Chaudhry, said the exhibition was an “eye-opener” and added that he would encourage other people to see it.

A story such as this should provide the strongest possible alarm bells to government and civil society. If, in 2019, any Muslim organization wants to commemorate the bravery of some Muslims in the Holocaust, this has to be staged secretly, covertly, and in fear of some violent or non-violent backlash?

In Britain, in 2019, government and non-government figures still feel they must flit around, letting no one know of their movements to commemorate an aspect of the Holocaust. They manage to have a commemoration of the Holocaust in secret. And they think this is a victory.

Remember the Holocaust exhibition in London that couldn’t be staged last month — the exhibition at Golders Green about Muslims who helped to save Jews from the Nazis in Albania during the Second World War? The small exhibition appeared clearly intended for two reasons. First to try to build trust between a new local mosque and the large Jewish community in Golders Green, and second, to remind Muslims in Britain that hostility towards Jews is an ancient and modern evil. The intentions behind the exhibition seemed good.

Not everyone, however, in Britain’s Muslim communities approved. The radical Islamist website “5Pillars” said that there was a problem about the exhibit. They said that it had originated from Yad Vashem, a memorial and research institute. Of course, Yad Vashem just so happens to be in Israel — and any contact with the state of Israel is absolutely verboten to many Islamists, such as those at “5 Pillars” (who of course would deny many accusations of anti-Semitism). So, “5 Pillars” denounced the Muslims and others who were supportive of the Holocaust exhibition being shown in Golders Green. They said that Muslims and non-Muslims who thought the Holocaust exhibition should go ahead were “Zionists.” Then, in a demonstration of the sway that such Islamist groups seem to have in their own communities, the exhibition was promptly cancelled.