There's a Problem, and He's It!

"Amplifying and giving reasons, partisan reasons, to mistrust the outcome of an election, mistrust the experts at Elections Canada, and in our security services, and our top public servants, who are saying that the election integrity held, that's something that we have seen from elsewhere, is not a good path to go down for society or for democracy."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, said Thursday there were “many inaccuracies” about the CSIS reports, and that he “always” worries about national security.  PHOTO BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI /Reuters

Question Justin Trudeau's lack of action, much less interest in the covert activity of Chinese agents during the last two general elections that confirmed Trudeau as prime minister of Canada and you're proving yourself Trumpian. Mr. Trudeau knows  how to categorize his critics. When legitimate protests came trundling by truck into downtown Ottawa, Trudeau knew they were up to no good, criticizing his government; they were scum, racists, white supremacists.

The 'Freedom Convoy' wanted to protest edicts mandated by their prime minister, that would refuse work to truckers who were not COVID-inoculated. They took umbrage at the government's lockdowns, isolation mandates, masking, vaccines and wanted their grievances to be heard, that they resented being labelled second-class citizens, racists and white supremacists, not the hard-working citizens that they were, exercising their Charter rights to protest in freedom of expression. 

As for Mr. Trudeau's suggestion that Canadians are losing trust in government and its agencies, it's hardly surprising. When one conflict-of-interest after another has been revealed, one instance after another of unethical behaviour by the prime minister himself, investigated by the parliamentary ethics officer who labelled them ethics breaches. From accepting the Aga Khan's island vacation retreat for his family, to applying pressure to the-then Minister of Justice to withdraw criminal charges against SNC Lavalin.

Moral breaches in groping a female reporter, then denying it, claiming that people 'see things differently'. For his personal vendetta against the former vice-chief of the defence staff, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman whom he accused of leaking confidential information to the press, when Trudeau was determined to bypass the need for a Canadian Navy supply vessel that Admiral Norman had negotiated for in his professional role. Admiral Norman was sued for breach of trust essentially by the prime minister and he was acquitted, but his career was in tatters.

Justin Trudeau's manipulations to award a 'charity' a munificent contract during the pandemic with no oversight or assurance that the We Charity could deliver organizationally on the details of the contract. The prime minister's personal involvement with the charity, its questionable practices, the fact that it paid hundreds of thousands to the prime minister's mother Margaret for promotional appearances, as well as his brother, a shabby performance overall.

“China-linked actors took an active role in seeking to influence the Sept. 20, 2021 parliamentary election in Canada, displaying signs of a coordinated campaign to influence behaviour among the Chinese diaspora.” 

Comprehensive November 2021 report by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

But it is Justin Trudeau's long love affair with Communist China, with a belligerent, aggressive Beijing, refusing to release details about why it was that two research scientists working at Canada's most biologically secure research station were suddenly escorted out of the complex, along with their close ties to the research arm of the Chinese Peoples Revolutionary Army. His trip to China even while Beijing was causing security alarm among its near neighbours, to have a trade agreement signed.

The list of his misdemeanors is endless. When Canada's federal police force, the RCMP and its signal intelligence security agency, CSIS, advised the prime minister and his office that Chinese agents were attempting to interfere in Canadian elections, nothing was done about it. Evidence was discovered that 

China had engaged in voter-suppression in areas of the country where the opposition Conservatives held seats. In British Columbia, Chinese-Canadians withheld their votes for fear that Chinese authorities would scrutinize voters lists.

More latterly, Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, and Global News television reported what was already suspected, that a Toronto-area Liberal MP benefited from assistance from the Chinese consulate. CSIS had warned the Liberals that Han Dong not be permitted to run under the Liberal label. It had already been revealed that Chinese language newspapers published in Canada influenced Chinese-Canadian voters to cast ballots for the Liberals, more friendly to China than the Conservative opposition. 

Evidence surfaced that eleven candidates for election were supplied with funding by China to aid their campaigns toward success. Although the Conservative Party won a majority of the votes, the Liberals won more riding seats, no small thanks to the Chinese Communist Party interference. While Mr. Trudeau has little option, given the evidence made public, but to agree there has been interference he contends it is limited and has not impeded Canadian democracy.

"In a free democracy it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run [for election]."

"Han Dong is an outstanding member of our team and suggestions that he is somehow not loyal to Canada should not be entertained."

:We are extraordinarily lucky and happy to have a member of Parliament like Han Dong in our midst, serving his community, serving our country, alongside Chinese Canadian MPs from different parts of the country."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

The prime minister is not the least little bit concerned that other Chinese-Canadian Members of Parliament who ran under the Consrvative banner and who were opposed to China's influence in Canada went down to defeat as a result of the CCP's manipulation from within the Chinese-Canadian community. 

 

Kenny Chiu, the Conservative Party candidate for Steveston-Richmond, who says he lost his seat in 2021 due in part due to a wave of fake social media posts that may have been coordinated through People's Republic of China consulates. Photo by Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG

"It would be beyond outrageous if the prime minister of our country was made aware that one of his Liberal candidates was compromised by the Chinese Communist Party and outright refused to do the right thing."

"It is crucial for confidence in our democracy that we know what Justin Trudeau and his government knew, and when."

"[Trudeau and his government] cannot hide any longer."

Conservative MP Michael Cooper 

 

"[A public inquiry is the right] route [for the government to take]."

“It should be given a limited mandate so that they report … well before the next election. There should be an inquiry under the Inquiries Act so that they can … subpoena people and documents if need be,”

“I can’t see any compelling reason not to do it in the public interest except some partisan considerations.”

“I think in this case, the allegations are so serious they need to be looked into,”

“I think a public inquiry is really the route to go.”

 Richard Fadden, former head, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Mining The Deep Sea

"Seabed mining should only take place if effective protection of the marine environment is provided through a rigorous regulatory structure, applying precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches, using science-based and transparent management, and ensuring effective compliance with a robust inspection mechanism."

[Canada would negotiate in] good faith on regulations to ensure that seabed activities do no harm to the marine environment and are carried out solely for the benefit of humankind as a whole."

"There is a paucity of rigorous scientific information available concerning the biology, ecology and connectivity of deep-sea species and ecosystems, as well as the ecosystem services they provide."

Jonathan Wilkinson, Natural Resources Minister

Joyce Murray, Fisheries Minister , Canada

A new species of a new order of cnidaria, a type of invertebrate, was found 4,100 metres down in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where it lives on sponge stalks attached to polymetallic nodules. (Craig Smith and Diva Amon/Abyssal Baseline Project)

 

"That was no surprise to anyone. We are not interested in that. We are only interested in our licence areas, which is in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a thousand miles off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean."

There is a crowd of people that like to get together and oppose new industries and new ideas. Some of the faces that were opposing the nuclear industry back in the '70s and '80s are showing up in this industry as well. That's what happens, unfortunately."

"You either go with a low impact and no impact on human lives, or you go with an enormous impact on the ecosystem and environment of human lives."

"The argument that we don't know enough is propagated by opponents who like to say we know more about the moon than we know about the deep ocean."

"In this particular part of the deep ocean, the CCZ, we know an awful lot. The other thing is, how much more do w e need to know? Because climate emergencies don't wait around."

Gerard Barron, chief executive, The Metals Co. (TMC) Vancouver

A sea cucumber is seen on the deep ocean floor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area of the Pacific Ocean where mining companies want to exploit polymetallic nodules rich in cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese. (Diva Amon and Craig Smith/Abyssal Baseline Project)

Canada's Liberal government has issued a decree that mandates a move away from gas-burning vehicles entirely. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, electric vehicle sales starting in 2026 are to predominate in new vehicle sales. By 2030, the mandate will hit 60 per cent of all sales and by 2035, every passenger vehicle sold in Canada will need to be electric. A primary difficulty to overcome is the shortage of the metals and minerals required to produce those electric vehicles.

 

There is a move to begin mining deep under the sea for minerals and metals. There has even been talk in the United States of mining meteorites in deep space. Russia and China have expressed interest in the potential for mining in the Arctic undersea. Territorial claims by Russia in the Arctic are spurred by both military-linked territorial advantage and the prospect of future undersea mining there. The federal government's recent position statement on undersea mining relates to its own sovereign jurisdiction.

 

Mining company The Metals Co. is not contemplating mining in Canada's territorial waters, but seeking licencing to mine off the coast of Mexico. Its CEO speaks the language of sanctimony in citing the need to respond to an environmental emergency in reference to Climate Change and the need to reduce humanity's environmental imprint. By mining undersea rather than on land, he contends, there is less environmental disruption. And the need to acquire the needed mineral/metals extraction to enable the electrical vehicle revolution is paramount.

 

Cloaking himself and his company in the white-knight costume of environmentalist, not mining entrepreneur anxious to rape the ocean and reap the rewards inherent in a profitable enterprise, claiming no harm would be done to the oceanic ecosystem. This emerging subsector of the mining industry has critics decrying the  hollowness of the federal government's order. Government is just skirting the issue of deep-sea mining and the prospect of environmental degradation that comes with it. Canada will not allow deep-sea mining in its territory, but a Canadian company mining elsewhere is another story.

 

A sea cucumber nicknamed the 'gummy squirrel' found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. While there isn't a lot of biomass in the abyssal ocean, the zone contains many species scientists have never seen before. (DeepCCZ Project)

The focus is meant to be on neutralizing carbon emissions, as a priority, while TMC's Barron argues that the experimental deep sea mining is a necessity to respond to the world's increasing demand for the metals required to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure. Nickel, cobalt and copper mining under the sea is needed for the urgent work in tackling climate change, goes his argument. A superior method of mineral extraction that does not include "ripping up rain forests", "generating a lot of waste" and "pushing out Indigenous communities". Hitting all the sacred environmental bugbears as justification. 

 

Risks to natural habitat are as great underwater as they are on land. All the more so with the limited scientific knowledge available for a rigorous assessment. Deep-sea mining relates to the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor at 200-metre depths and even greater. This is still theoretical, it has never been done. Which hasn't stopped a number of mining companies from exploring regions to test the mining process with the use of robots to excavate the ocean floor and pump minerals up to a waiting ship.

By 2024, TMC hopes it can start mining a section of the seabed situated in an area between Mexico and Hawaii that it’s currently exploring for metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese — all key inputs in the making of batteries and other technology that will be necessary to electrify the economy. Photo by Handout The Metals Co.

Waste water and debris to be returned back into the ocean; the collected materials to be processed on land  TMC is currently exploring for metals; nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, key materials in the production of batteries and other technology critical to electrify the economy. The company awaits a permit from the International Seabed Authority, an autonomous regulating body under the United Nations for the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals in international waters.

 

TMC already initiated the collection of thousands of tonnes of nodules; potato-shaped objects lying on the seabed sediment containing valuable metals. Environmentalists and scientists criticize the intention of authorities to sanction the new form of mining with the argument that insufficient research has been gathered, and more is required prior to the seabed being violently disturbed. Over 700 marine science and policy experts from 44 countries called for  'pause' to deep-sea mining citing "irreversible" loss that could be caused to the ecosystem.

 

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a collective of 100 charities, is critical of Canada's deep-sea mining statement, urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be more rigorous in his approach to protection of the environment. At the International Marine Protected Areas Congress earlier in the month the statement by the federal government fell "short of that clarity and is thus potentially open to a much weaker interpretation" they pointed out.

 

Removing the nodules, pointed out MiningWatch Canada, which take millions of years to form, could "wipe out the life of the deep seabed" and create a dead zone Most scientific papers published on the issue agree "we have just barely scratched the surface" of understanding the species that exist in the deep sea; more years of dedicated research is required to gather information on its ecosystem. 

 

Polymetallic nodules are displayed at the booth of DeepGreen Metals, now called The Metals Company, at the annual prospectors convention in Toronto in 2019. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)

 

"These bacteria are critically important, plus they have not been studied at any extent and there's so much research now on the health implications of bacteria that are being discovered now on Earth."

"Just because it's small doesn't mean that it's not important [as part of the biological oceanic ecosystem]."

"[Allowing seabed mining would create the] largest contiguous mining area on Earth [and create a] dead zone [almost as big as British Columbia and Yukon combined]."

Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch  Canada

Little Trust in Turkish Gov't Through Earthquake Relief

?There is a lack of trust when it comes to these organizations [the Turkish government's own organizations receptive to receiving charitable contributions from citizens] and people gravitate toward organizations civilians are involved in."

Gulfem Saydan Sanver, expert, political communication, Turkey

"[The Syrian humanitarian response for the year is already] severely underfunded, [with only half of what is needed funded."

"The international community is called upon to urgently increase funding so that] those affected by this emergency, within an emergency, get the support they need."

International Rescue Committee of the UN

Civil defense workers and security forces search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Hama, Syria, on Monday. (Omar Sanadiki/AP)

When the first of the February 6 tremblors hit, the major impact was in southern Turkey, and that is where about 43,000 Turks perished. In northwest Syria, four million displaced Syrians were already living in deprived conditions as a result of the Syrian civil war, a sectarian conflict which saw Syrian President Bashar al Assad, an Alawite Shiite Baathist regime, targeting Syria's majority Sunni population considering the rebellious among them clamouring for equal treatment as citizens to be 'terrorists'.

And while international assistance along with the  country's emergency services sprang into action in Turkey, no government action was undertaken in Syria to aid the refugees living in tent camps, buildings that had been bombed by Syrian and Russian warplanes, and other makeshift settlements where medical aid and the basic necessities of life were in short supply. There, the Syrian White Helmets, a self-help charitable group, did their best with inadequate rescue equipment to free people trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. 

The international community responded to the catastrophe that struck Turkey, by sending out search and rescue teams, providing winter clothing, medicines, food, but little trickled through to Syria. Turks themselves were quick to provide funding to internal NGOs rather than to their government for the rescue of their fellow citizens, and the provision of emergency supplies of food and water to  the wounded and earthquake survivors. Many of the worst-hit zones were evacuated, people bused elsewhere for safety from robust after-shocks and the danger of more buildings collapsing.

Most people in the international community sent their charitable funds to help the stricken Turks through the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and other reputable aid agencies. Turks had an NGO that was initiated by a Turkish rock star, which raised a billion Turkish lira in donations, equal to $53 million US. to help the victims of the quakes. They were openly opposed to donate to state-operated organizations.

The country's state Disaster and Emergency Management Authority with its affiliation to the Interior Ministry saw criticism by people across the earthquake-hit south for tardiness in arriving and inadequate response. Accusations of incompetence abounded. The Authority claimed it provided the correct response immediately the earthquakes struck. On the other hand, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed his own view that rescue was incomprehensibly tardy.

There was an alternative that most people in Turkey turned to with infinitely more confidence that their donations would reach those badly in need of assistance. The NGO AHSAF founded by musician Haluk Levent. Turkey's government has expressed its doubts over how the NGO plans to use those donations, and questions its mission. In giving needed aid to survivors the funding given to the NGO will find ample good use.

The sheer scale of the disaster which killed over 43,000 in Turkey alone is a difficult number to comprehend. This was not supposed to happen. After the 1999 Turkish earthquake when 19,000 lives were lost, attributed largely to the poor construction of multi-story buildings in the country whose building codes were routinely flouted, Mr. Erdogan campaigned on a promise to ensure that all buildings would strenuously follow the code for earthquake safety.

One town directly in the earthquake zone did exactly that on the initiative of the municipality itself. As a result there were no buildings there that collapsed, and there was not one death that occurred from the earthquake, while all around the town mass destruction ensued. Corruption is endemic in the country and shortcuts in the construction industry led to poor construction, responsible for the thousands of buildings unable to withstand the effects of the earth movement.

Under President Erdogan's direction authorities have charged and arrested hundreds of owner of construction companies, engineers, company lawyers and others involved in the construction trade. Facing a spring election. the current president of Turkey is eager to ensure that the grumblings of anger assailing the government's inadequate response to citizens in their time of dire need, don't stick too closely to him personally. But his office is where such decisions to enforce laws are carried out and the calamitous situation that ensued befouls him as the nation's executive administrator.

Millions of Turks are now without homes. The Turkish Red Crescent and the government AFAD received donations from within and without the country, as did smaller local charities and international organizations. 115 billion lira was raised through a television campaign and public institutions like the Central Bank and public banks turned in another 80 billion lira.

Turkish Red Crescent volunteers hand out hot drinks and food to people affected by the 6 February earthquakes. Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers arrive in an ambulance to provide urgent health assistance to those injured. Photo: Turkish Red Crescent and Syrian Arab Red Crescent

Conmemorating a Year of Infamy

"[Ukrainians proved themselves to be invincible during] a year of pain, sorrow, faith and unity."

"We have been standing for exactly one year. [February 24, 2022 was] the longest day of our lives"

" The hardest day of our modern history."

"We woke up early and haven't fallen asleep since."

"Every tomorrow is worth fighting for."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a commemorative event in Kyiv, Ukraine, on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2023.

 

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of an event no nation would choose to contemplate; much less a following year of torment, grief and misery. Ukraine's president stood on this day of commemoration reflecting the year of his people grieving irreplaceable losses, of fathers, sons, husbands, brothers. Of the destruction of a nation's infrastructure. Of the virtual Sword of Damocles ready to strike at any time. And strike it did, at  hospitals, theatres, shopping centres, apartment blocks, electricity depots and defenceless peacetime towns.

 

Tens of thousands of people dead through a catastrophic invasion whose sole purpose was territorial conquest, to satisfy the imperialist expansionist lust of a dictator re-writing history to suit his version of the necessity to 'defend' Russia against the malign plans of the United States and NATO in their bizarre proxy war to defame and destroy the Russian empire; current and nascent. 

The large and inexorably expanding death toll of both Russian servicemen and Ukrainian fighting men and civilians sees Ukrainians weeping at memorials for the tens of thousands of their dead. And fearing the reaping on the battlefield in Ukraine's East and North of the Angel of Death, scything down their men defending their freedom from a bloodless hegemonic state intent on once again tethering Ukraine as a Russian satellite .

Russian shelling of civilian enclaves is never-ending. From Kharkiv a school director muses: "I can sum up the past year in three words: Fear love,  hope". "This day has become a symbol for me that we have survived for a whole year and will continue to live", although her heart was "falling and hurting", said Tetiana Klimkova in Kyiv. "On this day, our children and grandchildren will remember how strong Ukrainians are mentally, physically and spiritually."

"Ukraine is entering a new period, with a new task -- to win."

"It will not be easy. But we will manage."

"There is rage and a desire to avenge the fallen."

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hands a flag to a serviceman at a ceremony on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP

Beijing appears to have made an effort to intervene in the conflict, calling for a resolution of the conflict, for peace to resume. A nation's sovereignty should be respected, China avers. And one's mind goes to Tibet, to Xinjiang, to Hong Kong and to Taiwan. And the fears of China's neighbours resulting from Beijing's aggressive territorial mandates for control of land, sea and air in regionally contested areas. Where there too, the United States is accused of interfering in regional disputes, while declaring its support for China's uneasy neighbours.

Above all, according to China's Foreign Ministry, an end to sanctions aiming to squeeze the Russian economy as a penalty for its military invasion, must be lifted, according to a 12-point paper issued by China. At the very time when the U.S. and European nations are discussing increased sanctions against Russia and its stakeholders.

Yesterday and today and tomorrow the minds of Ukrainians are distracted by thoughts of loss, memories of the missiles that keep striking, of the troops rolled across Ukraine's borders and the millions of Ukrainians forced to flee as refugees and displaced persons. "We fiercely fought for every day. And we endured the second day. And then, the third. And we still know; Every tomorrow is worth fighting for": their president tells the people of Ukraine.

Zelensky used the first anniversary of the war to rally his troops and renew his calls for international assistance for his country.   Gleb Garanich/Reuters

 

In Truth, There Are Consequences

"Michelle's stated desire to become transgender was never challenged and it was treated to the exclusion of her other serious mental health issues, closing the door to alternative treatment options."

"[The defendants] permitted Michelle to self-diagnose as transgender and prescribe her own treatment without providing a differential diagnosis or proposing alternative treatments."

"Michelle came to believe that her biological sex of female did not match her true gender identity of male."

"She further came to believe that this mismatch between her biological sex and gender identity was causing her feelings of depression, self-harming behaviour and unease in her body, a mental-health condition commonly known as gender dysphoria."

"However, as a result of what she read on the internet, she became convinced that she was a transgender man, and that once she embraced this new identity, her depression would subside." 

"Michelle has struggled to come to terms with the permanent changes from her hormone treatments and hysterectomy surgery have caused; a low voice, male-pattern balding, facial hair, an enlarged clitoris, a flat chest, and the inability to ever become pregnant."

"All of this has caused her to suffer from a worsening of her depression."

Statement of claim; legal suit,Ontario Provincial Court

Michelle Zacchigna, 34, of Orillia, Ont., when she was taking testosterone, left, and after she stopped, right. Photo by Courtesy of Michelle Zacchigna

Orillia, Ontario resident 34-year-old Michelle Zacchigna has launched a malpractise suit against no fewer than eight health professions. Included among them are doctors, psychologists, a psychotherapist, and a counsellor. The defendants operate out of a number of clinics and institutions in southern Ontario. Four of the defendants filed notices of intent to defend against the suit in Ontario Superior Court; statements of defence have yet to be filed.

 

"I've been under the impression that all medical malpractice suits are challenging. Doctors win the majority of cases in Canada", observed the women in conversation with news media. "It's very much a David and Goliath undertaking." 

Ms. Zacchigus narrates her early years of social difficulties forming relationships with fellow students in elementary school. She was often the subject of bullying at school. Which led her by age eleven to begin behaviours known as self-harming; cutting her arm with a knife as example, behaviours that carried forward into adulthood. At age 20 she attempted suicide and was referred for psychotherapy by her family doctor. She was treated for social anxiety and clinical depression.

None of which helped her out of her unhappy and depressed state. She dropped out of university as a result of her mental health decline. While she was in therapy she came across an online community focused on gender noncomformity. What she gleaned from the site was an insight into her dysphoria; the first indication she felt of having been born in the wrong body. Before this she had not identified as male.

"Michelle received these formal diagnoses for the first time nine years after she was formally referred to the [therapist] following her suicide attempt in 2008, and eight years after she first 'came out' as transgender in 2009."

"[The psychologist] did not analyze or consider whether Michelle met the diagnosis for gender dysphoria in her assessment reports."

Statement of claim for lawsuit

At this point she began attending a support group in Toronto for people thinking of gender transition. There a counsellor informed her of opportunities she could access to proceed through a medical transition and she was invited to apply for medical intervention in 2010. A recommendation letter written by the counsellor outlined a medical history failing to match fully her past medical history, according to the claim. Nor were alternatives recommended or encouragement to seek confirmation of her own diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

All this in a background where professional medical governing bodies, institutions such as school boards and dysphoria-counselling clinics have cautioned teachers, doctors, academic administrators, as well as friends, family members and even parents not to question people  -- including underage children -- convinced they are occupying incorrect genders and plan to transition to complete their journey through life in psychological comfort.

Her regular therapist recommended her for transition treatment, indicating that she was an 'ideal candidate for hormone therapy'. The supervising psychologist of the therapist supported the recommendations and at a Toronto health centre Ms. Zacchigna was prescribed testosterone hormone therapy following three appointments. The MD working out of the health centre then became her family physician.

"On or about November 20, 2020, Michelle began to question whether she had ever been transgender, or if she had ever met the criteria for gender dysphoria."

"Since that time, she has commenced a process of detransition toward living life as a woman again."

"The Defendants failed to investigate or failed to adequately investigate and/or confirm that Michelle's stated desire to transition to the male sex was rooted in a diagnosis of gender dysphoria resulting from other factors in Michelle's mental health including her history of clinical depression, anxiety, developmental disabilities, and social difficulties."

Statement of claim, lawsuit

According to the lawsuit claim neither her mental health nor counselling records were consulted; no screening "for any other mental health diagnoses or development disabilities" were considered. She underwent testosterone therapy for three or four years. Then, in 2012 her breasts were removed by a surgeon in Florida on the recommendation of her doctor; a procedure she paid for. She became 'disenchanted' with testosterone four years later. "She no longer cared about the ongoing masculinization of her body".

 

A psychologist diagnosed her in 2017 with several conditions, including attention defiicency, hyperactivity disorder, borderline personality, clinical depression, autism spectrum disorder, and traits of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the statement of claim. Her family doctor referred Ms. Zacchigna in 2017 to another doctor for possible hysterectomy surgery. A year later she underwent a partial hysterectomy. 

 

She now seeks $350,000 in general damages to compensate for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, as well as an undetermined amount for past and future loss of income, past and future medical treatment, along with other expenses and costs. It might seem to the casual onlooker that she could experience some difficulty persuading a judge and jury of the implication that she experienced 'loss of enjoyment' through a life fraught with psychic insecurity and unhappiness, much less loss of income.

Under current medical practise, patient insistence that they know best what they feel and how they feel and why they feel should be honoured. Doctors are pretty well forbidden from questioning the wisdom of choice of patients, suspected mental instability aside. In fact, mental instability might be viewed as par for the course for anyone seeking gender transition. Health professions committed to the concept of 'the patient knows best' have become enablers out of conviction.

“I will live the rest of my life without breasts, with a deepened voice and male-pattern balding, and without the ability to get pregnant. Removing my completely healthy uterus is my greatest regret,”

 

The Russian Public's View of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

"We ate from the same plate, fed from the same table . . . Now we are soullessly bombarding each other."

"Streams of dirt are pouring from both sides."

Elena, 40, insurance clerk, Moscow

"Would a normal person go up in arms against his brother? . . ."

"What if the red button is pressed."

"Do you think  they won't press it?"

Tokhir, 39, janitor, Moscow

"What can be the feeling when  you see entire systems falling apart before your eyes?"

"The scale and seriousness of the crisis is distressing."

"Less contacts, less chance of running into another clash of opinions. Less chance that they will get into your soul and stab you in the back."

Yuri, 59, university lecturer

"Our people could have bought the Donbas, given everyone citizenship and still had money left over for black caviar."

"What was the point of striking first?"

"1,300 people worked at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine before the start of the special operation. Who are these people?"

"I don't want this fate for my country. And I don't want it for Ukraine. It truly hurts for every victim."

Kristina, 55, financial analyst, Moscow

A view shows an apartment block with a mural depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Oct. 6, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/REUTERS)

Some experience heartfelt regrets of two nations with intertwining cultures, religious devotion, history and pride at war with one another. Few would question the interpretation of the expressed propaganda reasons given by their president to justify the unprovoked invasion. In their collective opinion it was an event that was provoked by the underhanded actions of the United States and NATO, seeking to -- as President Vladimir Putin put it -- destroy Russia, a competitor for power as Russia takes its rightful pride of place as one of two global superpowers.

 

To these Russians those of their compatriots who have fled their country of origin are contemptible, rather than be forced  into a combat role as a dispensable conscript, dying daily by the hundreds on the field of battle. Some were initially incensed by the invasion of Ukraine, that kinship had been set aside for aggression. They take care to suppress their emotions for fear of drawing attention. They may fear the Kremlin, but they loathe the United States' influence on the world community.

 

Not for them the principle that led other Russians, in the arts and sciences, those whose names are well known at home and abroad, to condemn their country for its brutality and illiberalism. They feel genuine regret and shame at the position their country now holds in the regard of the world community. They cannot express their outrage while in Russia, and cringe at the thought of how they are regarded as Russian nationals by civilized nations of the world. 

 

Public disclosures of their sympathies ensures they cannot return to their country of birth as long as Vladimir Putin is president. None have a wish to join Alexei Navalny in prison under laws that justify imprisonment for 'traitors' or those who criticize their government's decision-making in non-stop bombing of a country they value kinship with. 

 

There is no complete concensus within the Russian population, itself comprised of a minority of close to a million Ukrainians, with another 2.9 living in Russia as refugees. .There are wide-varying views on the situation among Russians, revealed in part by a recent poll of the Levada Centre. Among the population there are many who live with fears of an escalating situation with the potential of a world war looming.

 

Mobilization in both Russia and Ukraine has raised Russian anxiety levels. Ukrainians are shrugging at the excesses of Russian attacks on civilian enclaves to demoralize Ukrainians to apply pressure on the Ukrainian government to stand down, vastly underestimating Ukrainian civilian resolve to resist the violence forced upon them by the Kremlin. In-person interviews have revealed that half the Russian population oppose their president's conflict in Ukraine, but are constrained by fear of speaking publicly.

 

The letter "Z" has come to symbolize Russia's brutal military invasion of Ukraine  Alamy Photo

The suffering of the Ukrainian people is affecting those in opposition to the war. But even while they silently contest their country's aggression in Ukraine, they are completely averse to the opposition of the West and in particular the United States, to their country's war initiative. Doubling the actual number of U.S. embassy employees in Kyiv to have it appear a more sinister presence related to the U.S. Secret Service spying on Russia convinces Russians that Russia was forced to act to counteract American plans.

 

There are also fears from within Russia itself that their government could make use of nuclear weapons if a breakthrough with conventional weapons fails. Older Russians see their retirement years stressed by conflict and an inevitable decline in economic stability. Some who have the means required to leave Russia hesitate in concern that they will be viewed as a pariah in a world that has become anti-Russian. "Run away to feel like a third-class person? The whole world hates us", said 36-yer-old sports equipment retailer Sergey, whose western-made products have been sanctioned.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to call up 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, a sign of how much Russia’s military is struggling. A Moscow-based student who got his draft notice says he was shocked by the massive mobilization.

"The war was necessary, to shove U.S. interests far away."

"There was no other way out, nothing."

Denis, 42, car sales manager

 

"The United States want to maintain world dominance."

"We are taking them for a ride on their own roller-coaster."

Rodian, 41, loan adviser, Moscow

Ukraine: More Weapons to Deal With the Russian Invaders

"This is a drone war. Every drone is armed and they are used every minute of the day. Most deaths are from drones either directly or from corrective fire from mortars. We will not move without drone surveillance."

"If we didn't have them, we'd have lost already."

"I can't believe Canada opted not to send the best drones on the market and instead spent $400 million on NASMs [National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems]."

"Do you know how many drones they could have sent [instead]?"

"I know that when I see a drone with no munitions on it, the artillery is coming, so there is no standing still anymore. It has changed the art of defensive lines."

"The Russians are mobilizing and we have seen double [the numbers] in these past few days. This is a lot bigger than usual."

James Challice, Cdn.Forces veteran fighting with a Ukrainian Army brigade in the Donetsk oblast 

 

"Give us more military equipment, more weapons, and we will deal with the Russian occupier, we will destroy them."

"There were cases when anti-tank mines were detonated, and the soldiers only received contusions [in Bushmaster armoured vehicles]. There were no serious injuries to the soldiers. It has worked very well."

Dmytro, Ukrainian serviceman near Bakhmut

"Negotiations can begin when Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine."

"Other options only give Russia time to regroup forces and resume hostilities at any moment."

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

"The American warmongers -- supply weapons in huge quantities, provide intelligence and participate directly in the planning of combat operations."

Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman

A general view shows an apartment building damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline city of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 19, 2023. REUTERS/Yevhen Titov

 

February 24 draws near, the one-year anniversary of Moscow's 'special military operation' violent invasion of Ukraine. There have been ample indications on the ground of yet another Russian buildup of troops and war machinery at the border with Ukraine, echoing the earlier strategy prior to the Russian invasion. Mr. Putin is restless and inwardly raging at the lack of progress at a tremendous cost in his goal of annexing Ukrainian territory into Greater Russia. 

The buildup presages a desperate ploy to overwhelm Ukrainian forces with the sheer volume of the Russian servicemen prepared to re-invade along with a renewal of gear and above all a suspected massive air assault dwarfing in numbers the aerial bombing that Ukraine's towns and cities and civilian infrastructure have already in the past year been bombarded with as Russia deliberately and with full malice targeted civilian enclaves and the nation's energy infrastructure. An energy-deficit siege as a winter gift.

 

Ukrainian troops are doggedly holding onto Bakhmut amid fierce Russian attacks BBC/Goktay Koraltan 

 

The strategic Donbas city of Bakhmut whose original 75,000 population has mostly fled, has been under siege for months by the Russian military, with Ukrainian soldiers fighting to hold off Russia's push. Pleas for more weapons from the world outside -- from nations supporting Ukraine's existential battle against a merciless Kremlin assault on Ukrainian independence echo loudly even as senior Western leaders met in Munich for an assessment of this debilitating European war.

The obvious preparations to intensity assaults on Ukraine targeting its vast eastern geography sees Ukraine planning its response in a spring counteroffensive. For this plan to have any significant measure of success Ukraine is in need of more weaponry; heavier and longer-range weapons from its allies in the
West that have been steadily feeding Ukraine's responsive need for the machinery of war. 

Ukrainian servicemen have been impressed with the service on their freezing battlefield of Australia-provided Bushmaster armoured vehicles serving an area where Russian soldiers have been bogged down in the months of fighting in their determination to take Bakhmut. These are vehicles highly prized by Ukraine for their efficacy in shielding soldiers from bullets, enabling evacuations of the wounded, and offering cover for reconnaissance.

 

Ilya and Oleksii use drones armed with grenades to attack Russian troops a short distance away

 

Russia claims a barrage of missile strikes around Ukraine had achieved expected goals, hitting facilities that provide fuel and ammunition to the Ukrainian army. For its part, Kyiv reported that 36 missiles were fired at the capital and 16 were shot down. Ukraine's largest oil refinery, Kremenchuk, was struck by missiles. 

 

Bakhmut has become yet another destroyed city in Donetsk province. According to the Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade's press officer, Russia had paid a heavy price following waves of assaults around the city. "There are places where their bodies are just piled up. There is a trench ... They just don't evacuate their wounded or killed", said spokesman Taras Dzioba standing by a howitzer battery outside a defensive bunker.

 

Two larger cities in Donetsk further west, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are identified as the targets to follow should Russian forces succeed in capturing Bakhmut. Its possession by Russia allowing it to advance further would be but a Pyrrhic victory, according to Ukraine, in assessment of the losses sustained in the prolonged effort and the time it has taken thus far.

A year earlier, the three-day Munich Security Conference hosted senior Western officials who urged Vladimir Putin to rethink plans to invade Ukraine, warning of dire consequences should he proceed. This year sees them grappling with the consequences of the invasion, the resulting sanctions on
Russia, the near-global condemnation and isolation it now faces in Europe and abroad.

"[The battle is far from over.] Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working."

"We will not be celebrating in the near future."

"[Ukraine is] becoming more active, pulling up more and more new reserves."

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head, Wagner mercenary group

Ukrainian gunners firing at Russian positions in Bakhmut. Photograph: Adrien Vautier/Le Pictorium Agency/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock

Just Visiting Briefly

"While the president clearly intended to bolster the confidence of Ukraine, and the commitment of ambivalent Europeans and neo-isolationist Americans, his real audiences lay elsewhere, as his remarks about western strength indicated."

"Russia has cycled through a series of theories of victory in Ukraine -- that Kyiv's leaders would flee, that Ukraine's population would not fight, that its army would be crumpled up by a sudden blitz or by grinding assaults."

"It has been reduced to one last hope; that Vladimir Putin's will is stronger than Joe Biden's. And Biden just said, bydeed as well as word, 'Oh no it's not'."

Eliot Cohen, former George W. Bush administration official, Professor, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University 

"When [Russian President] Vladimir Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and theWest was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong."

"The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high. Sacrifices have been far too great ..."

"We know that there will be difficult days and weeks and years ahead."

U.S. President Joe Biden

"Of course for the Kremlin, this will be seen as further proof that the United States has bet on Russia's strategic defeat in the war and that the war itself has turned irrevocably into a war between Russia and the West."

Tatiana Stanovaya, Russian political analyst

President Biden made a 10-hour train journey from Poland to Kyiv   Reuters

 

European leaders in the past year have made surprise visits to Kyiv, to walk alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as much to give confidence and comfort to the people of Ukraine and its president, during this time of their existential testing, as to demonstrate to Vladimir Putin that his ill-considered 'special military operation' in the country has gained him the enmity and the motivation for these countries to sanction Russia and to commit irrevocably to arming Ukraine for its defence and counter-offensive.

The American president was said by insiders to be champing at the bit to do the same, and so he did just that, quietly, without fanfare, confidently and authoritatively. He surreptitiously under cover of night travelled in an American Air Force C-32 Boeing 757, not Air Force One, to Poland, leaving the White House on Sundayat 3:30 a;m. Twenty hours later he disembarked by train  in downtown Kyiv after first stopping in Poland. The first such incident in modern history when an American leader travelled to a war zone absent the U.S. military.

Over the space of five hours he met and travelled with the Ukrainian President driven in a black SUV, not the presidential imousine he is accustomed to. He was there, but his presence kept a tightly guarded confidence. Inevitably public attention was drawn to the odd presence of long motorcades and closed off roads. Soon private onlooker videos began circulating of those motorcades along access-restricted streets and people clued in to the hugely unusual presence of a primary world leader.

American surveillance planes kept watch over Kyiv from Polish airspace while Mr. Biden was in the capitl city. Centrral Kyiv was absent its usual noise of a busy population as a result of the cordoned-off streets. Through diplomatic messaging, the information had been conveyed to the Kremlin before Mr. Biden's arrival, when Moscow would be best off not to schedule any bombing raids. A small, elite retinue accompanied the U.S. president.

Among them the ubiquitous Secret Service detail, and a military aide conveying the "Nuclear football" along with a small medical staff. It was only when Messrs. Biden and Zelenskyy left the motorcade for a brief walk-about to appaoach the gold-domed St.Michael's Cathedral, strolling unconcernedly through the front gates that initial images of Kyiv hosting President Biden began to pop up on Ukrainian social media sites.

U.S.President Joe Biden walks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at St.Michael's Cathedral during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday. Zelenskyyy called it the most important visit in the entire  history of Ukraine-U.S. relations'.  Even Vucci/Pool/ via Reuters

"The West is now unified in its aims. Long gone are debates over Iraq and Afghanistan, charges of American unilateralism, and criticism of European quiescence."

"No one harangued allies about free-riding or pointed out their failure to spend two percent of GDP on defence."

Richard Fontaine, chief executive, Center for  New American Security

"We should be grateful every day that the last Atlanticist is in the Oval Office right now, but we shouldn't take it for granted."

"The outsized investment in European security right now by the US. administration will be an exception."

Thorsten Benner, director, Global Public Policy Institute, Berlin

Fake Flags in the IOC and Russian/Belarus Olympics Competition

"The International Olympic Committee is deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ukrainian figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, who had competed at the Winter Youth Olympic Games, and all the members of the Olympic Community in Ukraine who have lost their lives in this war."

"The IOC extends its most sincere condolences to their families and friends and the Ukrainian people."

"[Our decision however, to allow Russia and Belarus to compete under fake flags in 2024 is] non negotiable."

International Olympics Committee

The IOC's fake flag of 'excellence, friendship and respect'

"The Russian state has chosen the path of terror, and that is why it has no place in the civilized world."

"How many Russian athletes have spoken out to condemn the terror unleashed by their state?"

"In fact, there is almost no such condemnation. There are only a few isolated voices that are fading away."

"[The fake flag that will be flown for Russian athletes in 2024 will be "stained with blood."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

IOC president Thomas Bach (left) met Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv last July, but has not taken up an invitation to visit the war’s frontline. Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock

 

They are young and they are elite athletes and they are Ukraine's proud athletes competing in a world-class competition to demonstrate excellence in athletic prowess. And because they are young and fit and loyal to their country of birth they put on uniforms instead of sport gear to defend their nation from the vicious predation of a neighbour whose president conspired with the Kremlin to invade Ukraine, destroy it as a nation and seize its assets and geography.

While bombing Ukraine's infrastructure to smithereens and murdering civilians taking shelter in their apartment blocks, theatres, shopping malls, hospitals, Moscow has demonstrated to the international community that it has chosen to depart from civilized mores in favour of a brutalized vision of enlarging its geographic holdings in emulation of the Soviet Union's stranglehold on its near-abroad neighbours.

Ukraine's elite Olympic-class athletes, like Volodymyr Androshchuk, 22, who died of shrapnel wounds in Bakhmut and 19-year-old Ukrainian athlete Yevhen Malyshev who died in battle defending his homeland, now honoured as a great loss by the International Biathlon Union, Ukraine is losing its innocent civilians deliberately targeted by the Russian military, along with Ukrainian servicemen at a rate of an estimated 100 daily.

"The Russian state will again use athletes to bolster the war effort and distract from the atrocities in Ukraine", a coalition of Ukrainian athletes stated. In direct reference to Russia making use of the distraction provided by the Olympics during times when it launches attacks on its neighbours. The Summer Olympics in Beijing come to mind when Georgia was invaded in 2008; during the Sochi Winter Games in 2014 it was the turn of Ukraine (the Donbas and Crimea). 

Again in 2022 during the Beijing Winter Games, Russia saw fit to prepare a second invasion of Ukraine to be launched days following the ending of the Games. Yet the IOC is steadfast in its decision to permit Russian athletes to perform once again in 2024, with the artificial proviso of banning the Russian flag. This, when participating nations claiming support for Ukraine should be strenuously objecting and themselves chose to boycott the Games to demonstrate the strength of their commitment to justice.

Bakhmut's prewar population of 75,000 has mostly fled their destroyed city, now reduced to rubble, where tens of thousands of soldiers have perished in a bid to gift Vladimir Putin with 'victory' on the anniversary of the February 24 invasion. In the pursuit of which Russia's generals have forwarded waves of untrained conscripts and convicted criminals against Ukrainian artillery in an effort to penetrate its defences.

A week ago Ukraine's Defence Ministry reported that about 1,000 Russian soldiers were dying every day, along with hundreds of Ukrainians. And while Putin remorselessly sends Russians to their death and commits his country to a scorched-earth policy to break Ukraine's defence and the spirits of its people, it counts on its athletes to bring glory on the world stage finessing their specialties at the Olympics, turning the world's attention once again to that alter-ego of war; sport.

As for the proud Olympic values of "excellence, friendship and respect", there is always Russia's Sport Federation penchant for using a drug regimen on its athletes to render performances outdistancing their non-drugged competitors to consider. In every metric of human decency and human rights Russia's Vladimir Putin has proven himself to be violently at odds with the civilized nations of the world.

Shame on the International Olympics Committee. Pity that shame will never give Vladimir Putin or the Kremlin  reason for pause, since it is utterly absent in their psyches, geared to greed and violence fuelled by nationalistic fervor and a willingness to slaughter tens of thousands of people to gain their object of geographic conquest.

A serviceman, call sign 'Virus,' of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Vedmak ('Witcher') unit patrols on the front line near Bakhmut on Feb. 18, 2023.  AFP