White Privilege, YES!
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Immigration or Invasion? Cancelling the Greatest Culture in the World
by Kathleen Marquardt
| Our country, our lives, and even our civilization are on the brink of destruction. And what are we doing about it? Which problem is so dire? What is the greatest threat to America? Could it be: our Marxist-driven education system? our federal government handing out billions and trillions of $ to a U.S. puppet president (put into office by a coup staged by the Deep State) of a country, to fight a proxy war for the Deep State and Global Elite? the World Health Organization (WHO), an organ of the United Nations (UN), is being used to take control over all people in all countries in the world (not all have signed on, but the few that haven’t are small and considered insignificant in the whole scheme of things)? the drive to “Sustainable Development”, another scheme to wrest both our individual and national sovereignty? Bill Gates, Black Rock, China, and others are buying up our farm and ranch lands, our single-family homes, and businesses – which take us closer to owning nothing but our thoughts, in other words, making us slaves, Our federal, democratic republic government has been torn apart and reassembled to be a uni-party, top-down, supposedly democratic socialist tyranny? No! The greatest threat is unbridled illegal immigration. I’m not addressing any of those or the innumerable other attacks on our liberty. I’m talking about one of the weapons that has been used for decades to literally destroy Western Civilization – unbridled, illegal immigration – being used in the asymmetrical warfare that is overwhelming the Western governments of the world today. What is happening today is not new. It has been going on in many places in the world for decades. When I was in Cologne, Germany, in the early ‘70s, I had a conversation with a local couple who were very unhappy with the Turks that had been brought in for much-needed labor. The gist was that the Turks did not have the same values as the natives and were not impelled to comply with German laws and mores, but weren‘t about to leave when their work was finished. And, in France in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there were areas in Paris where non-Muslim people could go at their own risk. It has not stopped, but it has gotten worse. In fact, many Parisians live in those areas – and watch as their homes and vehicles are burned. And they, themselves, are threatened or attacked for entering their own neighborhoods. And, remember this? The left-wing French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s editor Stephane Charbonnier known as Charb, and another four cartoonists were called out by name and murdered, along with three other editorial staff and a guest attending the meeting. Before the killers left, twelve people were murdered. “Witnesses said they had heard the gunmen shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and “God is Great” in Arabic while calling out the names of the journalists.” 1 There were other connected attacks (that ended with a huge police operation and two sieges in and around Paris over the next three days. The Charlie attackers were Islamist brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. “Cherif, who also went by the name Abu Issen, had been part of the “Buttes-Chaumont network” that helped send would-be jihadists to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq after the US-UK invasion in 2003.” 2 As it began, If we thought about it at all, most of us thought that it was just an unintended outcome of bringing in laborers from other cultures. Back in the ‘60s, ’70s, ’80s, it would have taken a brilliant visionary to see that these actions were the product of the conniving minds of the globalists – from Cecil Rhodes to Rockefeller, Carnegie, the British Royal Family to Kissinger, Maurice Strong, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Noah Harari, the pope, and too many others – all scheming to grab control of the world. It doesn’t help to realize that if they succeed, they will then go after each other next. Here in the U.S., it isn’t laborers being brought in; it is illegal men of soldier age and physique. Brought in by the hundreds and thousands at a time. What matters is if we allow them to succeed. This is our country, a country built upon Western culture which was shaped by Judeo-Christian concepts, including individual rights, personal sovereignty, equal treatment, and the Rule of Law. The United States of America was the only country set up to fully protect those rights. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs – moral absolutes. These values were what allowed those who came here for a fresh start to build their futures upon freedom and justice, government by the consent of the people, equal treatment, and personal autonomy – i.e., self-governed. The founders understood that we needed to have these values, attitudes, and beliefs to remain a cohesive, thriving, country. But it didn’t take long for those who would foment disorder in order to wrest control, to begin debasing those vital attributes that built this country. All the points I questioned above are just a small portion of the asymmetrical warfare being used against us. All lead to one end: the end of the United States and the end of Western Culture. As we are trying to take our country back, many yet have no idea we are under attack. Most who understand the broader picture have no idea where to begin. People are only recently realizing that the ultimate goal is to rid the world of those of us believing in moral absolutes; that right and wrong exist. Many have been too badgered to accept moral relativism, where there is no good or bad, no right or wrong. And they don’t realize that this is the key to everything we are dealing with today. It is between having a civilized world or a world run by ten rulers, and the rest of us are useless eaters, cannon fodder, or slaves. A book written in 1973 by Frenchman Jean Raspail addresses the ultimate battleground in this war against civilization. Camp of the Saints, reviled by many, 3 hits full on the pivotal issue – how do we protect Western Culture after we open the door to those whose sole purpose in life is to destroy it. In his foreword, Raspail sums up his book: In the night, on our country’s Mediterranean coast, a hundred dilapidated ships run aground, loaded with a million emigrants. Poor folds stalked by misery, whole families with wives and children, swarms coming from the south of our world, drawn by the Promised Land. They yearn. They have the strength of numbers. They’re the subject of our self-reproach and of the mushy angelism of our consciences. They are the Other, that is to say the Multitude, the Multitude’s vanguard. And now that they’re here, are we going to take them into our home, into France, ‘land of asylum and welcome,’ at the risk of encouraging the launching other fleets of unfortunates who are getting ready, out there? It’s the West, in its entirety, that finds itself threatened. Threatened with submersion. But, what to do? Send them back home, but how? Pen them up in camps, behind barbed wire? Not very pretty, and then what? Use strength against weakness? Send our sailors and soldiers at them? Fire? Fire into the crowd? Who would follow orders like that? At all levels – universal conscience, governments, comity of civilizations, and above all each in himself – we ask ourselves these questions but too late….” Saints is a book that could have been written about today. It describes the culture that almost perfectly depicts the West today: “Day by day, month by month, doubt by doubt, law and order became fascism; education constraint; work, alienation; revolution, mere sport; leisure, a privilege of class; marijuana, a harmless weed; family, a stifling hothouse; affluence, oppression; success, a social disease; sex, an innocent pastime; youth, a permanent tribunal; maturity, the new senility; discipline, an attack on personality.” 4 Julien Rose, writer at Global Research, asks a key question, “What holds mankind back from confronting the forces determined to destroy it?” 5 That is a key question for America today. And that is what The Camp of the Saints addresses. But in Saints, the enemy is not out to destroy the civilization of France, the people just need a safe place to land. They are being persecuted in their own country, India, and the European country, Belgium, that had been welcoming some in now said they were full up. Here in America, the reason behind the calamitous illegal immigration is to destroy our culture – which would take down the rest of Western Civilization. Camp of the Saints is a hard book to read, but Raspail has spelled out the dangers of a culture that does not fit with the one our forefathers spent a great portion of their time trying to give us something that would work and last. We didn’t preserve it, so we are now faced with people who are out to rid the world of the best government the world has ever seen. Many tried to expose what was coming at us, but they were silenced by those power elite who already had gained much control over the key governments in the world, while most citizens were blind to any of the deceit, corruption, and even murder that was furthering us down the road to Marxist technocracy. Early U.S. history shows that immigrants were welcomed to help settle the open lands to the west. In the early 1900s, the “Great Wave” brought in 24 million immigrants, but WWI reduced immigration to almost nothing. After that, the federal government set up quotas favoring immigrants from Northwestern Europe – those with values like those that built the United States. Immigration policies didn’t change much until the 1940s when laborers from Mexico were allowed to come for temporary farm work under the Bracero Program. 6 In the ‘60s, in order to draw skilled workers, visas were opened to Latin America and Asia – the first move away from nationalities who were raised under Judeo/Christian values and beliefs. Also by the 1970s, over a million immigrants were coming in each year, tripling the previous years. In the late ‘70s Senator S.I. Hayakawa could read the writing on the wall and tried to put a sabot into the gears. On August 13, 1982, Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California introduced an amendment to immigration legislation (S. 2222) in support of English as the official language of the United States. 7 Hayakawa’s amendment stated: It is the sense of the Congress that- (1) the English language is the official language of the United States, and (2) no language other than the English language is recognized as the official language of the United States. He noted, “Language is a unifying instrument which binds people together. When people speak one language they become as one, they become a society. “But there are more recent political lessons to be drawn on the subject of language when you think that right here in this U.S. Senate and the Congress, we have descendants of speakers of at least 250 to 350 languages. If you go back to the grandparents of just the Members of Congress, you have speakers of, I would say, at least 350 languages. But we meet here as speakers of one language. We may disagree when we argue, but at least we understand each other when we argue. Because we can argue with each other, we can also come to agreements, and we can create societies. That is how societies work. “Take in contrast to this the situation in, for example, Belgium, where a small country is sharply divided because half of the population speaks French and the other half Flemish. Those who speak Flemish do not like the people who speak French and those who speak French do not want to speak Flemish. … “Think of the recent history of India. Between 1957 and 1968, something like 1 million were killed in what were essentially language riots. They were riots about other things as well, about cultural difference, but essentially those cultural difference could not be resolved because there were a hundred languages dividing those people. So they could not understand each other and they could not come to the resolutions we arrive at daily in a Chamber like this or in the House of Representatives. “So, Mr. President, the fact that we have a common language, one language, is one of the most important things we have tying us together. Now we live in a time of unprecedented immigration. Not only speakers of Spanish, but speakers of Cantonese, speakers of Thai, speakers of Vietnamese, speakers of a variety of European languages, speakers of Mandarin – they are coming from all over the world and joining us in our society. “From the Philippines, we have speakers of Tagalog and other Filipino languages. Somehow or other, within a generation or two, we have to get them all together, talking to each other, electing each other to city councils, doing business with each other, buying and selling from each other, creating governments, creating societies. We can only have this unified society if we ultimately agree on a common language (emphasis mine)…. “If you think of the culture that we have, you think, as I said a little earlier, of the melding of cultures right here in Congress. You look at the lineup of any American professional baseball team or football team. You see all foreign names there, all English-speaking, all managing to get along, and you see what a miracle this is. The wonderful thing about the United States is that kind of cultural intermixing, that cultural melding, is possible. “When you go to other parts of the world, you find to your amazement that China is full of Chinese; that Russia is full of Russians and practically nobody else. Italy is full of Italians and Korea is full of Koreans, and so on around the world. But we are full of people from all parts of the world having learned one language and ultimately having learned to get along with each other to create institutions of a multiracial, multicultural democratic society.” Other people also were reading the writing on the wall, some even before Hayakawa: Senators Joseph McCarthy, Representatives B. Carroll Reese, and Edward Cox, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, even Ayn Rand. As noted above, our immigration policy was developed to bring in those who would work, readily assimilate into our society – those who wanted to be Americans. They had no desire to change America to reflect the values from which they had fled. Had we continued that policy, I wouldn’t be writing this now; people wouldn’t be burning buildings down and murdering people and be considered heroes for doing it. Underneath all that, as noted by the Center for Immigration Studies, “…little consideration seems to have been given to what this level of immigration means for taxpayers, schools, hospitals, American workers, national security, to say nothing of the rule of law or our ability to assimilate so many newcomers”. 8 It took well over 100 years for the machinations of the global elite to bring us to this state of affairs. In that time, just about everything our Forefathers labored over to give us the best government in history was corrupted beyond recognition by truly evil people who set up the United Nations to be the control center until they achieved control of the world – and put us into technocratic slavery. America is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world; we have taken immigrants from every corner of the earth. As we welcomed them in, and as they came to take advantage of the freest country, both welcomers and the welcomed understood that what made America so great and free is our values, attitudes, and beliefs. To keep America great, we must keep those same values. People coming in can worship as they choose, associate with whomever they want, and live their lives, but they are expected to accept our values – that is what drew them here in the first place. But those coming across our borders today are being indoctrinated into woke speak: The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is instructing Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents to ask immigrants they encounter for their “preferred pronouns” and to use gender-neutral language while on the job. The agency goes on to demand that Customs and Border Patrol agents do not use “‘he, him,’ ‘she her’ pronouns until you have more information about, or provided by, the individual.” CBP agents are also instructed to not use words like “Mr,” “Mrs,” “sir” or “ma’am.” 9 A far more nefarious activity is going on at our borders; illegal aliens, male, of military age, and strong are coming across by the hundreds and even thousands. The “silent invasion,” is being committed primarily by single, military age men between the ages of 17 and 45 who are illegally entering the U.S. They’re wearing camouflage and carrying backpacks, according to video captured by cameras placed throughout the county viewed by The Center Square. Many are armed and dangerous, committing robberies and engaging in shootouts with law enforcement.” 10 “Since Biden took office in early 2021, the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) has ‘encountered’ almost 8 million border crossers, the majority young military age males. In August alone, that number was 232,972, an annualized rate of 3 million migrants a year.” 11 Now, if you add the tens of thousands of guns that are being supplied to the IRS, one could wonder if those guns might(?) end up in the hands of those able-bodied illegals coming in. We do know that it is our Deep State and others in the government who are aiding and abetting the overwhelming masses coming through our borders. Not only are they going after our culture, but the idea is to help reduce the population at the same time. The people are waking up, but when you go visit your representatives in government, their response is most often something like, “Uh, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of this. Let me look into it.” As if they aren’t in it either by choice, bribery, blackmail, or threats. It is time to take our governments back, starting at the local level and working up. We can do it; we come from great stock |
| Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for moreLiberals Inject Systemic Self-Hatred Into The Canadian Military |
Government, Media, Education. Now, the Canadian military falls to the purveyors of systemic self-hatred. All of it one giant coincidence, eh? Consistent among revolutionary leaders of the 20th century, cultural transition existed as a core element. No finer example can be offered up than the “Cultural Revolution” as conceived by Chairman Mao Tse Tung of China. Frank Dikötter, author of a book on the period, wrote that “Mao hoped his movement would make China the pinnacle of the socialist universe and turn him into the man who leads planet Earth into communism.” Obfuscated by Canadian media is the idea that PM Justin Trudeau is indulging in a similar tactic, albeit in “post-modern” form. Revolutionary success relies on penetration of a nation’s key social institutions. Government, naturally, as well as media, education, armed forces and other core elements are targeted for transformation away from their previous incarnations. On this basis, let us consider Justin Trudeau’s “Woke Revolution.” Slow-and-steady she goes as Canada’s controlling institutions are re-imagined in post-modern fashion. Over the course of Trudeau’s eight-year reign, legacy media has been re-configured into a composite of government-funded propaganda outlets. Canadian academia were converted well before Trudeau’s tenure, as exemplified by neo-Marxist application of anti-colonialism, critical race theory, in addition anti-Anglophone animus. On this basis, it was only a matter to time before the globalist propaganda machine began to penetrate the Canadian military: “Veterans 4 Freedom president Drew MacGillivray and member Tom Marazzo reacted to an exclusive report by True North News revealing that a vast majority of the latest issue of the Canadian Military Journal was devoted to disparaging whiteness and claiming that the Canadian Armed Forces was founded on racism.” Patriots stand witness as Liberal government targeting of white Canadians is forcefully injected into our military. In reality, it was only a matter of time. “Both Marazzo and MacGillivray have a history of service in the military, holding the ranks of captain and lieutenant (Navy), respectively.” “I find it completely offensive, to be perfectly honest,” said Marazzo. What a shock this is. Since its founding, Anglo-Europeans have dominated the demography of the CAF. Now, here comes Justin Trudeau and his socialist gang of assassins to degrade its denizens. “The latest summer edition of the journal featured articles with titles such as ‘I’m Not Your Typical White Soldier’– Interrogating Whiteness and Power in the Canadian Armed Forces” and “Supporting Military Families: Challenging or Reinforcing Patriarchy?” See how the Canada-haters roll? Government, Academia, Media, Corporations, Military– roughly in that order. We recognize parallels to the application of revolutionary socialism in the previous century. Chief among them is China, a country lauded not just by Justin Trudeau, but by Pierre Trudeau before him, as well as brother Alexandre Trudeau. “Most of the issue’s authors were academics who argued that the solution to perceived problems of racism and ‘whiteness’ in the military was a program of re-education based on woke principles and ideas.” The surprise of the century this is– not. Enter reverse-racism into the ranks of our military. As rancid as it is, in truth, it’s only half the story. The other element comes in the form of LGBT indoctrination. Communist governments cannot keep their hands off any major societal institution, and the Liberals are the same. “October is recognized internationally as LGBT History Month. We encourage the entire Defence Team, from recruits and new hires to senior leadership, to take some time this month to reflect on the contributions of past and present 2SLGBTQI+ Defence Team.” “This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the settlement of Michelle Douglas’ historic lawsuit against the Department of National Defence (DND), marking the official end to the ban on 2SLGBTQI+ members in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).” One of the most successful tactics utilized by socialist revolutionaries is the de-contextualizing of history. Rhetorical messaging from the Liberal government spins “homophobia” accordingly. Canada, both as a nation and from a military perspective, is in no respect unique in this capacity. Homosexuality was considered a crime from the colonial period in Canada until 1969. In Britain, decriminalization of homosexuality occurred in 1967. In 1961, the United States began to decriminalize same-sex sexual activity. Not that you will be hearing about this from Canada’s uber-powerful pride pushers. They want what government want– a verdict of culpability in its most egregious form. The same is to be applied to accusations of racism. So now, the Canadian military is racist, and well as homophobic. After which Cultural Action Party offer a pertinent question: Why are you people running down our military? Aren’t these the folks that our citizenship relies on to defend our country? Is this situation not an example of government attacking their own?” Of course it is, because it’s what occurs within a country whose strings are being pulled toward societal dissolution, to be followed by a re-configuration of nation identity in totality. Just as Mao Tse Tung perpetrated in China. As Joseph Stalin did during the period of the Russian Revolution. Our media say nothing— just as the press did in China, and the USSR. “Although we can never undo the pain caused by the LGBT Purge, the Canada Pride Citation is an opportunity to recognize the harm experienced by current and former Canadian Armed Forces members,” said General (Gen) Wayne Eyre, Chief of the Defence Staff. “ We come to recognize the hi-jacking of Canadian society. Systemically, Trudeau and the Liberals are poisoning Canada’s controlling institutions by way of anti-Canadian animus. “The Canada Pride Citation is one way the Government of Canada has taken action to address the historical injustices experienced by LGBT military members, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and federal public servants.” Government, Media, Education. Now, the Canadian military falls to the purveyors of systemic self-hatred. All of it one giant coincidence, eh? |
Posted on January 15, 2024
FAA’s Diversity Push Includes Focus On Hiring People With ‘Severe Intellectual’ and ‘Psychiatric’ Disabilities
Emma Colton, Fox News, January 14, 2024
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.
“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which says “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.” The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.
The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is a government agency charged with regulating civil aviation and employs roughly 45,000 people.
All eyes have been on the FAA and airline industry in recent days after a plug door on a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5. The FAA grounded all 737 MAX 9 planes after the incident and is carrying out “extensive inspection” and maintenance work.
The FAA added it would increase its oversight of Boeing in the wake of the incident, including auditing Boeing’s 737 Max 9 jetliner production line and companies that supply parts to the airline manufacturer.
Following the incident, social media commenters and public figures have said that airlines and airline manufacturers’ emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has made flying less safe.
“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?” tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X last week. {snip}
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On the FAA’s website, the agency states that people with “severe” mental and physical disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the federal workforce.
“Because diversity is so critical, FAA actively supports and engages in a variety of associations, programs, coalitions and initiatives to support and accommodate employees from diverse communities and backgrounds. Our people are our strength, and we take great care in investing in and valuing them as such,” the FAA reads.
{snip}
Toronto Has the Third Worst Traffic in the World! Fallout from Massive Immigration
WOW! Toronto has for some time preened itself as a “world class city.” Well, it now has the worst traffic gridlock in North America, and the third worst in the world.The costs to motorists, both in terms of wasted time and nerves is heavy. The CP 24 (January 11, 2024), of course, doesn’t explain why. It’s simple — mass immigration, 125,000 yearly over two decades with almost no new roads built, and, all the while, the war on car and crippling of existing roads with bicycle lanes and lanes often arbitrarily blocked off with cones and no construction in sight.
“Toronto has topped the list of the most congested cities in North America, beating out both New York and Mexico City, according to new traffic data released by navigation and location technology company TomTom.
The company, which released its annual traffic index on Thursday, ranked Toronto third on a list of the most congested cities in the world, falling behind only London and Dublin. According to the index, it takes Toronto commuters an average of 29 minutes to complete a 10-kilometre trip, 50 seconds longer than it took just last year. Toronto’s drivers have only a slightly better commute compared to Dublin, where it takes 29 minutes and 30 seconds to go 10 kilometres. In London, the city identified in the index as having the worst traffic globally, it takes 37 minutes, 20 seconds to travel that distance.
Torontonians lost an average 98 hours in 2023 due to rush-hour traffic.”
Johns Hopkins rescinds DEI memo calling white, Christian, English-speaking people privileged College Fix Staff •January 11, 2024 Share this article: The College Fix on Facebook The College Fix on Twitter The College Fix on Reddit Share on Email 
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine on Wednesday rescinded an e-mail sent recently from its diversity, equity and inclusion chief that called white, Christian, English-speaking people privileged, among several other “social identity groups,” according to screenshots of the memo posted on X.
Others listed on the privileged list included: able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, middle or owning class people, and middle-aged people.
The January 2024 memo was sent Dr. Sherita Golden, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s chief diversity officer and a professor of medicine, who listed “privilege” as the “diversity word of the month.” It was sent to employees, according to End Wokeness, the X account that posted the screenshots.
The DEI memo stated in part that “privileges are unearned and are granted to people in the dominant groups whether they want that privilege or not, and regardless of their stated intent.”
Airport Degeneracy At Taxpayers’ Expense
This is the departures at Toronto Pearson airport Instead of putting a CANADIAN flag on the wall that unites us and shows pride in our country The idiots running Pearson Airport put a TRANS flag instead Canada is BROKEN
Trudeau’s Refugees May Force a 6% Increase in Property Taxes for This Sanctuary City
[Justin Trudeau has flooded Canada with refugees. A sometime drama teacher, he loves virtue signalling, the dramatic gesture. So, having welcomed the flood, he has failed to back it up with sufficient funding. Is this just incompetence or is he using the “refugees” most of whom are non-White to further replace Canada’s founding/settler people? Woke Toronto some years ago declared itself a sanctuary city, eager to welcome “refugees”, legal or illegal. Not the cost of housing thousands is coming home to roost. Bewildered refugees, often fresh from the airport, find themselves on the streets, the city shelters full to bursting. Often poor native born Canadians cannot find a bed. Toronto City Council is now facing a 6 per cent tax increase to shelter Trudeau’s folly, on top of an already crippling planned 10 per cent property tax hike. — Paul Fromm]
We have to fix things that are broken’: Toronto budget proposes current tax pain for future gain
Toronto residents could see a property tax hike of as much as 16 per cent if Ottawa doesn’t fund shelter for refugee claimants. By Alyshah HashamCity Hall BureauBen SpurrCity Hall BureauDavid RiderCity Hall Bureau Chief Wednesday, January 10, 2024 5 min to read Article was updated 36 mins ago
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This will be a painful year for Toronto taxpayers but one that will leave the city in better shape after years of neglect.
That’s the pitch behind a historic 10.5 per cent property tax increase proposed by city staff on Wednesday, requiring the average homeowner to pay close to $400 more a year, in the midst of an affordability crisis.
But this year’s $17 billion operating budget rollout also comes with a threat from the city’s budget chief aimed squarely at the Trudeau government. If the city doesn’t receive $250 million in funding from Ottawa to house the growing number of vulnerable refugee claimants arriving in the city, budget chief Shelley Carroll said she’d be proposing an additional six per cent “federal impacts levy” that would bring the total tax hike to 16.5 per cent, about $600 on average. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.609.1_en.html#goog_1855862712
“That is the potential crisis we face,” Carroll said, ahead of the spending plan being presented to council’s budget committee.
After budget committee approved the plan, Mayor Olivia Chow would not endorse or reject the 10.5 per cent property tax hike, or say whether she thought the increase was unaffordable. Instead, she said she would be listening closely to what Toronto residents have to say in public consultations before releasing her version of the budget on Feb 1.
“We have to fix the things that are broken and the financial mess,” she said, noting the city faced a $1.8-billion deficit driven largely by transit and shelter costs, which have skyrocketed during the pandemic.
The operating budget proposed Wednesday, which increased by $900 million from last year, freezes TTC fares for 2024, slightly increases the police funding (though not as much as requested by the Toronto Police Services Board) and invests in expanding a mental health crisis response service. It increases spending by $152 million for shelter, transit, emergency services and long-term care as well as increasing hours at some public libraries.
The Gaza Killing Fields — Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing
Slavery? Europeans Abolished It! — No Guilt
