Kyiv -- Washington -- We Have a Deal!

"We have formed a version of the agreement that provides mutually beneficial conditions for both countries."

"This is an agreement in which the United States notes its commitment to promoting long-term peace in Ukraine and recognizes the contribution that Ukraine has made to global security by giving up its nuclear arsenal."

"[Among terms of the agreement are] full ownership and control [with resources staying with Ukraine]." 

"All resources on our territory and in territorial waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where to extract. "

"Subsoil remains under Ukrainian ownership – this is clearly established in the Agreement."

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister (Economy Minister) Yulia Svyrydenko

 

"As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war. [This is a] historic economic partnership."

"This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term."

"And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko sign a deal that gives the United States preferential access to Ukraine's mineral resources.

U.S. Department of the Treasury/Reuters

Finally, Ukraine has signed an agreement with the United States allowing Washington access to the country's critical minerals along with other natural resources. Kyiv had long held out for guarantees of security of its sovereign territory to accompany any such agreement. And this is what it now feels it has secured with this altered agreement. President Zelenskyy refused to sign any agreement that left out the vital assurance of protection from Russia's ongoing territorial designs on Ukraine. His adamant refusal to sign anything that left out this critical assurance angered and frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump but in the end the Ukrainian demands were unavoidable and were finally met.

 

Kyiv now feels a degree of assurance that the agreement will go a long way to securing the long-term support it needs for its existential defence against Russia's territorial imperative. Previous versions of the agreement that merited Ukraine's refusal had placed Kyiv as a junior partner in the agreement, with Washington accessing unprecedented rights to Ukraine's prized natural resources. Not yet ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, the last rendition of the agreement establishes a reconstruction fund for the embattled country that Ukraine's cabinet views as a potential insurance of future U.S. military assistance.

 

The original such agreement had been upset on the cusp of being signed when a tense Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy erupted into a shouting match of accusations and protestations of intent. The undiplomatic and humiliating treatment of President Zelenskyy by his Washington hosts was unprecedented. Since then a prolonged period of adjusted re-engagement finally resulted in Washington heeding Ukraine's position more clearly and Ukraine prevailing in its efforts to have President Trump fully cognizant of realities.

 

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky openly clashed in the White House on February 28, when they were due to sign an earlier draft of the minerals agreement.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

This agreement of benefit to both sides, includes oil and natural gas along with rare earth elements, but does not include resources representing a current source of revenue for Ukraine. Where President Trump had originally demanded that profits from new investments under the deal be used to pay the U.S. for its years of material support in providing military assets to Ukraine during its war with Russia, that is no longer the case. Full ownership of the resources remains with Ukraine which will determine what can b e extracted and where it can be extracted.

 

Some 55 minerals are included specifically in the text but more can be included. Critical minerals such as titanium, lithium and uranium are included in the agreement, along with a group of 17 elements essential to a variety of consumer technology such a s cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicle production. Elements such as lanthanum, cerium and scandium are also listed. Ukraine is expected to contribute 50 percent of future profits from natural resources into a fund supported through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. 

President Zelenskyy rejected the initial Trump administration deal where Washington expected $500 billion in profit from exploited minerals -- stating he would never sign off on an agreement "that will be paid off by ten generations of Ukrainians". Ukraine's rare earth industry's potential is not yet clear since geological data has yet to be assembled of the mineral reserves scattered across the  vast Ukrainian terrain. Ukraine's reserves of titanium, a key component in the aerospace, medical and automotive industries are thought to be among Europe's largest natural deposits. As well as some of Europe's largest known reserves of lithium in Ukraine; required for the production of batteries, ceramics and glass.

 

Nothing during times of violent conflict, is as simple as it may appear. According to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank, an estimated 40 percent of Ukraine's metallic mineral resources are under Russian occupation, and therefore inaccessible. All the more reason for the United States to protect its investment in Ukraine under this agreement by enforcing a 'hands off' warning to Moscow in its intentions to continue annexing Ukrainian territory to be absorbed into Greater Russia. How and whether serious negotiations take place between Ukraine and Russia forcing Ukraine to cede territory to Russian aggression is a matter for another place and another time. 

 

An excavator mines rare earth materials in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine in February 2025, as companies continue operations despite the war.  Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

 

 

The Safety and Security of Crowds Attending Public Events

"[We offer our] deepest condolences to the victims of the Lapu Lapu Day Festival, their families and the entire Filipino community during this incredibly challenging time."

"Vancouver Coastal Health can confirm the alleged driver of the vehicle was under the care of a mental health team and on extended leave in accordance with the Mental Health Act."

"Extended leave is intended to help clients maintain their treatment plans while transitioning back to community for ongoing support."

"The care team followed established guidelines for a client on extended leave, and there was no indication this person was not following their treatment plan or presented a public safety risk."

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Vancouver, British Columbia 

"[If a] director considers that leave would benefit a patient detained in the designated facility, the director may release the patient on leave from the designated facility providing appropriate support exists in the community to meet the conditions of the leave."

Subject 37, British Columbia Mental Health Act

Police and first responders are pictured at the intersection of Fraser Street and 43rd Avenue after a vehicle struck a street festival crowd on Saturday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The day prior to a deliberate car ramming at a Philippine festival put on by a Filipino-Canadian community in Vancouver, accused mass killer Kai-ji Adam Lo showed up at the Richmond B.C. RCMP detachment in an evident state of disturbance, claiming that someone had been tossing things into his SUV. When an officer followed him outside to search the contents in the back of the black Audi, there was absolutely nothing there. This was the vehicle used by its owner a day later when he killed 11 people at the Filipino street festival.

 

As Lo drove off, the Mountie entered a report into the police computer system, known as PRIME. Following the 26 April car ramming when the 30-year-old driver plowed his SUV through a crowd of festival-goers at the Lapu Lapu event on Saturday in a psychotic rage of killing and injuring men, women and children, officers ran the suspect's name through the PRIME database that revealed the brief interaction of the day before between the mass murderer and a member of the RCMP detachment.

 

Emergency crews respond to the scene. Vancouver police say the driver is in custody. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

Now charged with eight counts of second degree murder, with more charges anticipated, Lo's mental health record may very well be used in a court of law to effectively pardon him from his unspeakable crime of mass murder on the basis of his mental condition blocking his innate and and social-values-driven prohibition against committing violent acts of gross criminality. Of the 32 injury victims of Lo's deliberate ramming of his vehicle into a crowded celebratory event of ethnic heritage and pride, 7 individuals are in critical condition while three others sustained serious injuries.

 

Kaiji Adam Lo, believed to have suffered from delusions and paranoia, had dozens of encounters with police over the years. He is now charged with driving his 2018 Audi SUV through a crowd of people on East 43rd Avenue around 8:00 p.m. Saturday at the Filipino festival. British Columbia Premier David Eby announced the creation of "an independent commission" on best practices to safely hold outdoor public events such as this one. There "will be quick turnaround, so that people can feel safe and comfortable attending and celebrating with their communities this summer", he promised.

"If you're worried that an inquiry would jeopardize this case, don't make the inquiry focused on this [tragic event], make it focused on the lack of effective intervention to prevent serious and deadly incidents in this province in the mental care system."

"Let's set this case aside then, and let's just look at the dozen -- at least -- other cases of injuries, dismemberment and even death that have occurred because of people who were mentally ill and obviously not receiving effective support."

B.C. Conservative public safety critic Elenore Sturko 

Police gather at the scene of the tragedy in Vancouver. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The Horrors of Psychotic Impulse

"The accused came up from the basement and blood was observed on the accused's body and clothing."

"[The children went to the basement and] observed their father striking their mother with an axe repeatedly."

"The cause of death was multiple sharp-force trauma as a result of the accused repeatedly striking the victim in the neck with an axe."

Assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred 

 

"The definition of femicide is when a woman is killed by a man for no other reason than the fact that she's a woman."

"A relationship, such as husband and wife, for example, is that type of situation, and should not be diminished." 

Jennifer Dunn, head, London Abused Women's Centre 

A condolence note sticks out of a bunch of flowers laid in front of a house where a woman was killed on Friday night in London, Ont. (Amanda Margison/CBC)

There are no names to be put to those involved in this tragedy. That of two teen-age siblings, a boy and a girl, witnessing their father battering their mother with an axe with the intention of killing her. Their identities remain protected for the simple reason that the children involved not have their identities revealed. Their trauma and suffering and how they will be affected for the rest of their lives takes no psychological professionalism to imagine. 

 

They can, at the very least, be spared the notoriety that accompanies such gruesome and heart-rending acts of tragic dimensions, losing both mother and father under circumstances beyond imaginable. 

Superior Court Justice Joseph Perfetto oversaw court proceedings in London, Ontario when the 55-year-old man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The Assistant Crown Attorney summed up the evidence related to the case; its immediate discovery and observations by the authorities involved. Although the family had lived at the address where the murder took place for some thirteen years, they were not known by their neighbours but for a passing recognition. 

The children, horrified witnesses to their father's deadly attack on their mother, had left the house by the time authorities arrived. The boy had called 911 to report the ongoing attack; his mother's screams heard in the call's background. The police arrival was within mere minutes of the call. The father was taken into direct custody at the scene, his blood-covered appearance speaking vividly to what had occurred.

 

It was reveled at the hearing that the man was convinced his wife had had intimate relations with another man. Before he committed the lethal act of murdering his wife, suspicion had been building in his mind for months. He felt doubtful that he had fathered his own son, attributing the boy's paternity to another man. He had earlier examined all his wife's electronic devices containing her personal data with the intention of discovering clues that would cement his suspicions of her.

 

This all culminated on the evening of March 12, 2022. At 6:10 the man and wife were in the house basement. The son, on the main floor, heard his mother call her husband's name followed by "thumping". The daughter heard her mother calling out, and when the children descended to the basement, they saw the nightmare of intimate murder unfolding. The children left the house following the call to 911.

 

When the police arrived at 6:28 p.m. and arrested the man, he conveyed the message that he wanted to speak to a lawyer, and translation would be a requirement. When two of the officers went into the basement they found the woman lifeless on the floor, severe injuries to her neck, and the blood-covered hatched near her body. 

Although the two officers made an effort at providing life-saving measures in the hope of reviving the woman, the injuries to parts of her upper body, head and neck proved to have been lethal. She was pronounced dead at the house. 

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence. But in Canada a 'life-sentence' is set at a maximum 25 years, with eligibility for parole decreasing time served, and sometimes by quite a margin. If there is ever a hint in even such cases of savage murder that the perpetrator suffered from a mental illness, they could be found not guilty of intent to kill, and/or of a state of mind unable to recognize the severity of their actions. 

The man's eligibility for parole relating to the length of his incarceration has yet to be determined. Parole eligibility can range between ten to 25 years. His wife will be  dead forever. His children's future with that memory seared like a phantom injury into their minds guaranteed to impact in both predictable and unpredictable ways. Yet Canadian law and Canadian courts are more attuned to the needs of the guilty than to their victims and how they have been impacted by the most serious of human rights crimes.

A man and woman bought this home in 2009. On Friday, the man was charged with second-degree murder in the death of the woman. (Amanda Margison/CBC)

Mind Blanking : Where Is My Mind?

"Mind blanking [is a mental state unlike a lapse of attention or wandering mind]."

"Our minds go nowhere because they seem to lack content."

"When the brain is in a high- or low-arousal state, a mind blank is more likely to occur." 

"[A part of the brain appears asleep], which may represent a state of 'local sleep', rather than outright sleep."

"The experience of a 'blank mind' is as intimate and direct as that of bearing thoughts."

Research team comprised of neuroscientists and philosophers

A new study reveals intriguing insights into what happens when your mind goes blank. Researchers discovered that brain activity doesn’t stop; instead, it enters a state resembling “local sleep. The Economist

A new review challenges the assumption that people experience a constant flow of thought in their daily lives, contending through experimentation that the human mind absolutely can go 'blank' during conscious periods throughout the course of a day. A condition that may be slightly familiar to some, as when an individual is seen seeming to stare ahead as though arrested in thought,, eyes blank and when  they're asked 'what are you thinking?', become startled out of what seems like an absent moment, to which the response is invariably, 'nothing'. 

According to new research, moments occur when the human mind appears empty of content, when people are thinking of nothing at all. A newly explored and distinct mental state identified as "mind blanking".  Researchers report that mind blanking has a tendency to occur toward the end of long and demanding tasks requiring attention, such as exams; when people are sleep-deprived; or following an intense workout. So then, mind blanking is characterized as a common, daily phenomenon with links to states of arousal.

 

PsyPost

The brain shows signs of 'deactivation' and an increase in sleep-like slow brain waves during a reported mind blank, when heart rates and pupil size decrease. The researchers speak of the experience as a "lack of conscious awareness", during which "the individual is not focally aware of any stimuli, either internal or external"; a potentially dangerous state should it occur during high-risk, inopportune moments, such as when driving a vehicle.

 

In experiments, people report feeling sleepier and more sluggish, leading to more errors on attention tasks moment prior to their minds wandering off "nowhere". Some individuals appear never to experience mind blanking, while adults and children with ADHD (attention deficient hyperactivity disorder) can frequently report the experience. One of the core symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder is that of "mind going blank". It can be related to strokes, seizures, traumatic brain injury and an "ultrarare" sleep disorder affecting teenage boys primarily, causing them to sleep up to 20 hours daily. 

What those 'blanks' represent is not entirely clear. However, "We sought to better understand mind blanking by parsing through 80 relevant research articles -- including some of our own in which we recorded participants' brain activity when they were reporting that they were 'thinking of nothing'", explained Athena Demertzi, of the University of Liege, Belgium. With a better understanding of what's occurring in the brain, an interesting strategy for dealing with anxiety negative thoughts or other unpleasant emotions could follow.

 

The review, under the title "Where is my mind? A neurocognitive investigation of mind blanking"  was published in the Cell Press journal, Trends in Cognitive Science. 

Buddhist monks meditate during Vesak Day on the steps of the Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple in Thailand.SOPA Images (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"'I think, therefore I am' and 'I am, therefore I think'; channelling Descartes' Cogito; ergo sum goes both ways.""

"We challenge the latter by showing that people can be conscious without thinking about something in particular."

"Most of the time, by definition, mind blanking will go unnoticed, since there is no content associated with it. We didn't realize there was a blank."

"But sometimes, there are moments in your everyday life where we can introspect a bit about our own stream of thoughts and we can notice that there has been a gap [as when people walk into a room unable to recall how they got there, or why they're there].

"It's pretty frequent in everyday life."

"[There are moment during the day where parts of the brain start showing signs of sleeping, resulting in gaps and moments of mind blanking."

Study lead author Thomas Andrillon, cognitive neuroscientist, Paris Brain Institute

 

Famine in Sudan: Where Is The Organization of Islamic Cooperation?!

"I think we're in dire straits here in Sudan."

"Severe acute malnutrition happens over time. It's where kids don't get enough nutrients…They're unable to fight infections like normal."

"They're unable to utilize nutrition like normal…And the majority of children who have severe acute malnutrition end up getting an infection and dying from it." 

"There was no food [his grandmother, Neamat Abubaker, told us]. At times nothing at all, not even water."

Dr. Mohammed Fadlalla, Al-Buluk Children's Hospital, Omdurman

 

"It was ground-breaking [ a channel for direct funding]."

"The only time that USAID had ever done this was with the White Helmets [humanitarian group] in Syria." 

"[Most of the kitchens had closed. Some are trying to get food on credit from local fishermen and farmers, but very soon] we expect to see a lot of people starving."

"I think we can shore up [the emergency kitchens]. But the reality is that [private donations] are going to have to do even more now, because even if humanitarian assistance resumes, it's never going to be what it was."

"These volunteers were challenging us to work differently, and we were responding. [They are] exhausted, traumatized and underfunded [and] we were scaling up to help them".

Andrea Tracy, a former USAID official, now with Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition fund

Dr. Mohammad Fadlala (left) a Cincinnati native volunteering in war-torn Sudan with the Doctors Without Borders charity, is seen treating a severely malnourished child at the Al-Buluk Children's Hospital in Omdurman, in late January 2025.   CBS News

 President Trump's decision to slash the funding available through USAID, has stark consequences in many areas of the world. None more than in countries of majority Muslim rule, where constant outbreaks of conflict impact the populations. In Sudan, the conflict is Muslim versus Muslim; the Sudanese military fighting a revolt by its former partner, once known as the horse-mounted Janjaweed Arab militias that aided the former government of Sudan in its conflict with the pastoral people of Darfur. That was a war spurred by herders using the land for pasturage, and farmers farming the land.

 

The former Janjaweed has now become the Rapid Support Forces, comprised of Islamist fundamentalists often described and for good reason, as terrorist brigades. The civil war that ensued with the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces challenging one another for supremacy is a brutal, no-holds-barred conflict, and once again the people of Darfur are faced with potential genocide. Now, in Sudan, 25 million people have been internally displaced. Over half of the population now faces acute hunger.

 

In its third year, the war is considered by the United Nations to be the world's worst humanitarian crisis and aid groups agree as famine spreads throughout the land. In Darfur alone, 400,000 people were made homeless, hundreds killed as the paramilitary terrorists raid camps for displaced people. The U.S. provided $830 million last year in emergency aid to help 4.4 million Sudanese; more aid than any other nation has provided. Since the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Khartoum's devastation was completed.

 

The community kitchens, like this one photographed in December, have provided a vital lifeline for many  Getty Images

 

Over 300 soup kitchens operated by Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteer aid workers closed. Leaving 600,000 Sudanese living in famine conditions, another eight million "on the cliff edge". According to the Trump administration, lifesaving aid is exempt from cuts. A State Department spokesperson relayed the information that four million people in Sudan, and 3.8 million refugees in neighbouring countries are given aid by the U.S. 

The question begs to be asked. Yes, the situation is horrible, dreadful, mind-numbing conditions for any population. Yet these conditions are increasingly common in many Muslim-majority countries where incapable and uncaring administrations exploit their vulnerable citizens, and focus on conflict, not civilized governance. Why is it in very particular the obligation of the West and most particularly, the United States to ensure that humanitarian aid flows to these desperate people whose governments ignore their needs and in fact, place them in these life-threatening situations?

 

Where in heaven's name is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation? A compendium of Muslim countries formed to support one another through their common Islamic roots. Surely they could organize missions, including military forces to intervene when their member-nations impose such conditions on their populations? The national collective wealth of the group alone is staggering, and why is some of that wealth not used to give humanitarian assistance to those of their member states badly in need of it? Why is it the West, democratic nations of the world, that these miserable countries at war depend on, and not their religious cohorts? 

Tigrayan refugees collect food rations from USAID at Hamdeyat Transition Center near the Sudan-Ethiopia border in Eastern Sudan on Mar. 24, 2021. After Sudan was plunged into its own intramural war, the U.S. Agency for International Development supplied food to the grassroots self-help effort known as Emergency Response Rooms. In January, President Donald Trump ordered the aid stopped. Nariman El-Mofty—AP

 

Neither Nor, But Preferentially, Both

"K.S. is pleased with the Court of Appeal's decision, which is now the third unanimous ruling confirming that her gender affirming surgery is covered under Ontario's Health Insurance Act and the regulations."

John McIntyre, lawyer

 

"[K.S., who is in her early 30s], has experienced significant gender dysphoria since her teenage years, as well as physical, mental and economic hardships to transition her gender expression to align with her gender identity."

"The existence of different techniques to perform a vaginoplasty does not affect this conclusion. It was open to the drafters of the Schedule of Benefits to describe each specifically listed service in broad or narrow terms."

"Here the description chosen, 'vaginoplasty', is broad enough to encompass different techniques."

"As the [Health Services Appeal and Review] Board put it, a vaginoplasty without a penectomy is an insured service because it is still a vaginoplasty, a specifically listed service."

Ontario Court of Appeal 

The Ontario Court of Appeal is seen in Toronto   Photo by Colin Perkel /The Canadian Press

 

A transgender resident of Ontario who identifies neither as exclusively female nor male and whose wish it is to have both genitalia in nature assigned to either a man or a woman, has had her wish granted by Ontario's top court. And now the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) has no choice but to cover the cost involved in a penile-retention vaginoplasty for this resident of Ontario, thanks to a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal which confirmed a lower court's ruling that found the novel phallus-preserving surgery qualifies as an insured service under OHIP.

 

K.S., identified at birth as a male, had embarked on a legal battle with OHIP in 2022, when the provincial health insurer refused her application for a funding request to undergo surgery at a Texas clinic which specializes in constructing vagina, and sparing the penis. This is a medical procedure not available anywhere in Canada, much less in the province of Ontario. While making use of female pronouns, K.S. identifies as neither fully female nor fully male.

 

Because the proposed vaginoplasty would not be paired by a penectomy, OHIP argued the procedure, not specifically listed in its Schedule of Benefits, was not eligible for public funding. The requested surgery, OHIP argued, is furthermore considered experimental in Ontario, which also makes it ineligible for coverage. Dissatisfied with the ruling, K.S. applied to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board. In its turn the Board overturned the OHIP refusal of coverage with the argument that 'vaginoplasty' should be covered, irrespective of whether a penectomy as a separate procedure was included. 

 

The surgery, which is not available anywhere in Canada, involves creating a vaginal canal, or opening, without removing the penis. Photo by Getty Images

 

OHIP lost once more after appealing that decision to the Divisional Court, when the panel dismissed the province's appeal, declaring the surgery an insured service. Now, finally, the latest appeal saw the Appeal Court panel reject OHIP's arguments turning down the proposed surgery because it it is not recognized as an insured service, since removal of the penis will not accompany it. 

The original request to OHIP for prior funding approval for the surgical creation of a vaginal cavity and external vulva was submitted by K.S.'s physician; a request that clearly ssated K.S. did not wish a penectomy. Her doctor stated that because K.S. is "not completely on the 'feminine end of the spectrum", it was important for her to have a vagina while maintaining her penis. The Crane Center for Transgender Surgery in Austin Texas, "has an excellent reputation" for gender-affirming surgery, "and especially with these more complicated procedures".

 

The Appeal Court added that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards of care "expressly refers to 'penile preserving vaginoplasty' as a surgical option for some non-binary people", and also notes that "vaginoplasty 'may include retention of penis and/or testicle'." In finding for the plaintiff, the court ordered Ontario to compensate K.S.'s costs of $23,250. A financial burden that will include the cost of gender-affirming surgeries at the Texas clinic that range from $20,000 to $70,000 (U.S.), dependent on procedures undertaken. 

In the Spirit of Honesty, Integrity, Transparency

"[We had a] constructive [discussion both agreeing to begin comprehensive negotiations on a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States] as sovereign nations [immediately following the 28 April federal election in Canada]."

"Look, the president says lots of things, but the essence of the [shared telephone] discussion and where we moved the conversation to was exactly what I said."

"We talked about lots of things, OK? And what's important is the conclusions of the call, the results of the call, and those are exactly the same on the American side and the Canadian side."

"And those were that it was very constructive."

"Who can stand up to President Trump, who can build Canada strong, who has the experience in order to do that?"

"That's the crucial choice that Canadians need to make."

Liberal leader, Mark Carney

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had their first phone conversation on March 28. Sources tell Radio-Canada that Trump raised the idea of Canada as the 51st state on the call. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters, Blair Gable/Reuters)

"I'm not their strategist, I'm not imagining wild conspiracies, but I can imagine that it serves them."

"Liberals are [juggling[ between pretending that Mr. Carney has extinguished the threat [of Trump annexing Canada] and regularly resurrecting that threat because fear has been their main argument at the start of the Liberal campaign."

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet 

Mark Carney, smug and self-confident that he will win Monday's general election to become elected Prime Minister of Canada, is accustomed to manipulating the truth to his advantage. He evades the truth, preferring to replace it with his version of events that are likelier to portray him as he feels he should be viewed; superior, entitled and exceptional. In that way, as in so many others he is the mirror-image of the man he intends to replace, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

Mr. Carney has already established a track record of unethical behaviour; the most notable one to be brought to the attention of an electorate prior to the ballot, is his having ethically invalidated his doctorate by the expedient of casual plagiarism. More latterly, he denied having had any hand in moving Brookfield Asset Management headquarters from Canada to the United States, at a time when he was still its head. Nor seeking out a tax haven for Brookfield to avoid paying taxes directly in Canada. 

Now it has been revealed that in his March 28 telephone conversation with President Trump, the threat of annexing Canada to the United States had come up, even as Mr. Carney later claimed publicly that President Trump "respected Canada's sovereignty". Radio-Canada had reported that Mr. Trump had indeed brought up the idea of Canada as the 51st state during their exchange. Mr. Carney sought to exploit his version of events to portray himself as a strong leader whom the American President respected enough to avoid speaking of annexing the country.

 

Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney says his phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday morning was very ‘cordial’ between two leaders of two sovereign nations. Carney says Trump respected Canada’s sovereignty both in his private and public comments on Friday. CBC News

"To be clear, as I've said to anyone who's raised this issue in private or in public, including the president, it will never happen", Mr. Carney said at an election stop in British Columbia; that under his leadership the threat to annex Canada by economic force would never come to pass. What Mr. Carney also failed to reveal about the conversation with President Trump was his having alerted the American president that as part of his electoral campaigning, he planned to use the threats as fuel to inspire fear in Canadians to enhance his claims that he was the right person to lead Canada.

 

Accordingly, in a cooperative gesture, Trump's own read-out of the call with Carney saw him dial back talk of Canada as the 51st state. And nor has he spoken dismissively of Carney as the "governor" of Canada. He obviously finds more in common with Carney's business/banker approach to government than that of Justin Trudeau's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. If nothing else, Trump reacts to blustery confidence and he hasn't done his homework on Carney for whom DEI, a green agenda and a commitment to quash Canada's natural resources in energy are a driving force.

 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied a change of stance had occurred on the annexation of Canada; that President Trump still "believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America". During a signing ceremony at the Oval Office last week Mr. Trump said that Canada "would cease to exist as a country" if the U.S. stopped buying its goods and that Canada "as a state, it works great". 

"He has these things in his mind. This is not news."

"He raises it all the time. But then the question is, what's going to be done with it? And does he understand where we stand?"

"More particularly, where do I stand? He is under no illusions."

Mark Carney, aspirant to the leadership of Canada

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that 25 per cent tariffs against Canadian-made cars could go up. He also expressed his desire to make Canada the 51st state after a period of relative quiet on his annexation threats. CBC News

 

 The latest and newest revelations of Mr. Carney's failure to respect the truth and relay it to the public at a time when voters are entitled to know exactly what it is they are voting for and for whom as a candidate most likely to act in Canada's best interests during an economic slowdown of recession proportions, during a time of provincial alienation in response to the Liberal government's decision-making impeding their decision making on energy extraction, when society in general has been politically fractured, and the country's social services and universal health care network is facing collapse, marks a failure of leadership.

 

Instead, during the campaign Carney has portrayed himself as a Canadian hero during the economic downtown of the 1980s when as Governor of the Bank of Canada, he lead Canada out of a recession; when in fact it was not he but then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and the Canadian banking system that saved Canada. During a recent press conference, the man who has never been elected to public office, but who aspires to govern a nation, when asked about the need for ethics and transparency laws in government, responded that he would have no problems distinguishing between rules and conduct:

"If there were specific proposals, obviously we would look at them."

"But what's important is bringing that spirit of honesty, the highest integrity, and my track record is consistent with that, but also that commitment that goes with it to transparency."

Liberal leader Mark Carney 

"I wasn't there [so cannot verify the heads-up Carney gave to Trump]."

"But what's clear is that we will stand up for our sovereignty, we will never be an American state, and we will focus on what we can control, which is to reverse the disastrous Liberal economic policies that Mark Carney advised Justin Trudeau to take."

Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, when asked about a Radio-Canada report saying U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned ‘51st state’ during a call with Prime Minister Mark Carney, said his Liberal rival will have to explain, and he reiterated his call to defend Canada’s sovereignty and focus on things Canada can control. Carney previously said Trump ‘respected Canada’s sovereignty’ during the conversation.   CBC News