U.K., Canada and Australia formally recognize a Palestinian state, breaking with the U.S.

NBC News

LONDON — The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia officially recognized Palestine as a state on Sunday, marking a significant shift in foreign policy and a step away from their alignment with the United States, with several other European nations and U.S. allies set to follow suit this week.

“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.

Canada had, moments before, become the first Group of 7 nation to recognize the state of Palestine, as Prime Minister Mark Carney promised a "peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese released a statement shortly after formally recognizing "the independent and sovereign State of Palestine."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We will have to fight both at the UN and in all other arenas against the false propaganda against us and the calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state that will endanger our existence and constitute an absurd reward for terrorism. The international community will hear from us on this matter in the coming days.”

Netanyahu accused the foreign leaders of giving a “prize” to Hamas.

“It will not happen,” he said. “A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”

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When Government Lies to You

No Frakking Consensus


Carbon dioxide is not pollution. Our planet would be a wasteland without it. 

click to enlarge

Fake news is everywhere, and governments can be a rich source. For example, a flyer distributed in the mail last week by Canada’s Revenue Agency – aka the taxman – tells us a pack of lies.

Against the will of elected leaders in four provinces, our federal government has just imposed a carbon tax. The price of gasoline has jumped at the pumps. Home heating costs have risen. This is just stage one, since the tax bite will increase every year.
The flyer begins by declaring:

Pollution has a cost. It impacts the air we breathe, our children’s health, and our economy. That’s why the Government of Canada has put a price on carbon pollution.

What nonsense. Carbon taxes are supposed to discourage people from burning fossil fuels not because of dirty black soot (sophisticated, anti-pollution technologies already exist), but because an invisible, odourless gas gets emitted whenever fossil fuels are used.

The entire climate scare rests on the idea that humanity is adding too much carbon dioxide – CO2 – to the atmosphere, and that this will hypothetically destabilize the climate.

Now is a good time to point out that the Canadian government admits this country is responsible for a mere 1.6 percent of global CO2 emissions. Between them, China (26 percent), America (14 percent), and India (6.4) are responsible for nearly half of all human-produced CO2 (46 percent).

It’s also a good time to remember that, over the past 50 years, experts have predicted one environmental catastrophe after another, none of which materialized. Even smart scientists with powerful computers are terrible at forecasting the future.

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Justin Trudeau Is Finished

Moon of Alabama

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is finished. A long simmering scandal did him in.

Between 2001 and 2011 the Canadian construction and engineering company SNC-Lavalin bribed officials in Libya with tens of millions to get contracts in that country. In 2015 the company was charged by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. It tried to avoid a trial and argued instead for a negotiated settlement since it had cleaned shop by changing its chief executive officer.

In 2016, SNC-Lavalin admitted that some former executives had illegally arranged donations of more than C$80,000 to Trudeau's Liberal Party from 2004 to 2011.

The company had revenues of some C$10 billion in 2018. Some 9,000 of its 52,000 employees work in Canada. The headquarter and 3,400 of its employees are in the province of Quebec where the Liberals need to pick up votes in October's federal election to keep their majority.

It was the task of the Justice Minister and Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to decide if the case should go on trial as the law demands, or if it could be settled out of court. A trial would likely end with SNC-Lavalin banned from all public contracts in Canada for 10 years. It would cost jobs and votes.

The company lobbied the Liberal government which brought in a remediation agreement regime in 2018 as part of a massive budget bill.

During the fall of 2018 Trudeau and his allies tried to press the attorney general, a Canadian aboriginal, to overturn the decision of the director of public prosecutions, to apply the new law and to thereby drop the criminal charges against SNC. She would not do that. In January Trudeau fired her from the justice minister and attorney general job and gave her a minor position as veteran's minister. Under solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidences Wilson-Raybould could not speak out about the issue.

On February 7 the scandal leaked from anonymous sources. Five days later Wilson-Raybould resigned as veterans minister. She hired a retired Supreme Court judge as her lawyer, to advise her on what she could say. On February 18 Gerald Butts, Trudeau's friend and principle secretary, was made the fall guy. He resigned even while he denied that he tried to influence the attorney general. Under pressure, the House of Commons Justice Committee invited Wilson-Raybould to testify. Trudeau had to wave some privilege which allowed her to finally speak out about her time as attorney general.

Yesterday Wilson-Raybould testified.

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Addressing The Rebel’s Distorted and Lying Report on The Toronto (2018) Al Quds Day Protest

Eva Bartlett

In Gaza

On Al Quds Day in Toronto, Canadians from many faiths and backgrounds came out in solidarity with Palestinians who have been and continue to be brutally oppressed by Israel. Notably, in recent months elite Israeli army snipers have gunned down unarmed Palestinian protesters, including medics, photographers, children.

Corporate media describes these as ‘clashes’ and thrusts blame on Palestinians, who are protesting for their basic human rights.

See my: Israeli violence against Palestinians will never end as a result of UN & US hypocrisy

The pro-Zionist channel, The Rebel, issued a distorted report on the peaceful Toronto protest, a protest which included numerous informative speeches–speeches not included in The Rebel’s report.

This video is my correction to some of the most egregious statements and lies of The Rebel’s report.

See Also:

Al Quds Day statement of principles:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSbR_jQNFss

AlQuds Day Toronto, Statement by Chief Rabbi Dovid Feldman (NKI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRWgdirD8c8&

Ali Mallah speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imr0DdSiEBA

Sheikh Shafiq Huda speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5dL_ccDnaM

Ken Stone speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJcd2e8odzY

Dimitri Lascaris speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpkX5R_idcg

Miguel Figueroa Canadian Peace Congress speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5buLwibZLQ

Dr Ali Tahir speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivyzSjP2WrI

Eva Bartlett speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFUnWBW-_cI

Al Quds Toronto Committee Rejects Accusations Made By Pro-Apartheid Lobby Group, B’nai Brith Canada https://www.facebook.com/events/1877678549197975/permalink/1893343450964818/

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian nurse as she was going to the aid of a wounded demonstrator in protests near the Gaza border. https://www.facebook.com/events/1877678549197975/permalink/1888023784830118/

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/my-speech-at-alquds-day-toronto/

Conspiracy Theory? Politicians and Corporations Admit to Paying Actors to Show Fake Support

John Vibes
Activist Post

In an age where most politicians have very little support for their campaigns and causes, they have been known to resort to desperate measures to improve their public image. While this practice is disregarded by some as a “conspiracy theory,” many politicians have been caught hiring actors to fill the crowds of their campaign speeches—corporations, too.

In fact, just this week in Ontario, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s campaign was forced to admit that they hired actors for at least one of their events. Ford’s staff acted like this was not authorized by them, but instead blamed a local candidate for arranging their actors. Campaign officials for Toronto Centre Tory candidate Meredith Cartwright reportedly hired the actors to support Ford at a rally in Dundas Square.

“We were very confused by this situation because we are getting record numbers of supporters to every event across Ontario. This was done by a local candidate and it won’t be continuing,” Ford’s spokeswoman, Melissa Lantsman, said in an email to the Toronto Star.

A number of these actors reached out to the press about the event to blow the whistle, including artist and performer Devanshu Narang.

Narang told The Star that he was offered $75 to appear at the rally between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. wearing the candidate’s t-shirt, but he turned down the gig.

“I was shocked to see this happen in Canada, in Toronto. I find it offensive even to the Canadian democracy. The main thing was that you know, the moment I saw that I kind of felt odd about it. You know, politicians hiring actors to play supporters is like the way it works in the Third World,” Narang said.

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Canada's gender-neutral pronoun bill should be a warning for Americans

Jordan Peterson
The Hill

 Two weeks ago I posted three YouTube videos about legislative threats to Canadian freedom of speech. I singled out Canada's Federal Bill C-16, which adds legal protection for "gender identity" and "gender expression" to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal code.

I noted that the policy statements surrounding similar legislation - most particularly those on the Ontario Human Rights Commission website - were dangerously vague and ill-formulated. I also indicated my refusal to apply what are now known as "preferred" pronouns to people who do not fit easily into traditional gender categories (although I am willing to call someone "he" or "she" in accordance with their manner of self-presentation).

These videos attracted a disproportionate amount of attention - online, in the Canadian national media, and beyond. A demonstration at the University of Toronto protested my statements. Another was held in support of free speech. The latter was met by counter-demonstrators who drowned out the speakers with white noise and assaulted a young female journalist - an act now viewed by half a million people on YouTube overall:

If you are wondering, reasonably, why any of this might be relevant to Americans, you might note that legislation very similar to Bill C-16 has already been passed in New York City.

Authorities there now fine citizens up to $250,000 for the novel crime of "mis-gendering" - referring to people by any words other than their pronouns of choice (including newly constructed words such as zie/hir, ey/em/eir and co).

"They" is also a popular choice, transforming the plural into a new singular, with its advocates arguing (misleadingly, in my opinion) that such use reaches back several hundred years. I have been taken to task for my refusal to abide by the wishes of those demanding such changes to my speech. What are my reasons?

First, most simply, are the practical problems. The Big Apple now legally protects a non-exhaustive list of 31 gender identities.  

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Video: War on Syria: Manufactured Revolution and Fake Media Narrative

Eva Barlett 
Global Research

Canadian independent journalist Eva Bartlett is the object of a smear campaign by Canada’s mainstream media.

Listen to what she has to say and then decide who is telling the truth.

The mainstream media denies the existence of terrorists linked to Al Qaeda.

According to mainstream sources, there were no terrorists in Aleppo.

Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are supported by US-NATO, Saudi Arabia and Israel. They are the state-sponsors of terrorism. We are dealing with a war of aggression. Eva Bartlett provides detailed evidence of war crimes.

The following video interview by Global Research TV was conducted in Montreal in January in the context of Eva Bartlett’s Canada speaking tour.

It is followed by her presentation at the Montreal venue. (M.Ch, GR Editor)

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Interlocking Agencies that Conspire to “Create Terror”: We Do Not Need the Police to “Create More Terrorists”

Mark Taliano
Global Research 

Unsuspecting citizens are paying for a nexus of interlocking agencies that conspire to create terror, war, and police-state legislation in a War of Deception that serves to devastate humanity.

Without its arsenal of fabricated war pretexts, and its fabricated Fear apparatus, the warmongering oligarchy would be denuded and reveal itself as the mass-murdering terrorist entity that it is.

Most recently, in Canada, Justice Catherine Bruce disclosed the true nature of an RCMP terror plot when she overturned terror convictions against two patsies – John Nuttal and Amanda Korody – who were set up by police operatives to commit a terrorist act for which they would otherwise be totally incapable of performing.

Bruce stated the obvious when she observed that,

Simply put, the world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people who have neither the capacity nor sufficient motivation to do it themselves.

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Canada’s Supreme Court Legalizes Some Sex Acts with Animals

Comment: Has it really come to this? Are we so inside our psychopathic social systems that we can't even tell the difference between what is pathological and moral anymore? It would seem so. 

---------------------- 

Breitbart 

Canada’s highest court has just ruled that some sex acts between humans and animals are legal.

In a quixotic ruling, the country’s high court ruled that a man who was on trial for raping and sexually exploiting his own daughters wasn’t guilty of “bestiality.” The man reportedly, “smeared peanut butter on the genitals of his victims and had the family dog lick it off while he videotaped the act.” 

The convicted man took his case to the Canadian Supreme Court, demanding that the bestiality charge be nullified. In the end, the court agreed.

As a result of the rape case, the court ruled 7 to 1 that humans having sexual contact with animals is OK if there is no “penetration” involved in the act.

In its ruling, the court decided that the legislature had not clearly defined the terms in the country’s bestiality laws and the way the statute is written should be read to only outlaw animal penetration, whether that penetration is animal to human or vice versa.

“Although bestiality was often subsumed in terms such as sodomy or buggery, penetration was the essence — ‘the defining act’ — of the offense,” the court’s ruling states as reported by The Independent.

The high court’s lone dissenter, though, said the ruling would mean open season for the sexual exploitation of animals.

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Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal: the issues, the method, the opposition

Tony Seed

Indepth report by Renewal Update, May 25, 2016

Demonstrations at hearings oppose the deal

 

The people’s opposition is deepening the legitimacy crisis of the institutions which advocate the neo-liberal agenda and the parties which champion it. Their attempt to use public consultations to give legitimacy to a neo-liberal free trade deal that has already been negotiated and signed behind the backs of Canadians is seriously at risk. In every city where the government’s consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have been held, Canadians inside and outside pointed out that far from upholding trade on the basis of mutual benefit, the TPP puts trade further under the domination of global monopolies in pursuit of their own private interests. It is a nation-wrecking agreement that attacks the right of Canadians to sovereign decision-making power.

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CSIS operative linked to ISIS recruiting of British schoolgirls

Brandon Martinez
Non-Aligned Media
 
The Ottawa Citizen has reported that an individual who authorities believe helped three British schoolgirls travel to Syria to join ISIS is linked to Canada’s intelligence agency, CSIS.

The Citizen noted that, “Turkish news agencies reported Thursday that a foreign intelligence agent detained in that country on suspicion of helping the girls travel to neighbouring Syria to join ISIL was working for the Canadian government.”

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the suspect in question was working for an intelligence agency that is part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, adding that it wasn’t the US or an EU member.

Turkish media reports later identified the suspect as a CSIS agent, citing sources close to the Turkish government.

Ottawa issued a prototypical denial that one of their operatives was involved.

The story confirms what many analysts have been saying all along, which is that ISIS is an elaborate Western intelligence operation.

Thousands of Western citizens have joined ISIS over the past year, but who is arranging their safe travel out of their countries of origin and into Syria without being nabbed by authorities?

As this case demonstrates, these individuals are being safely escorted to Syria by Western operatives.

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Canada’s false flag terror: fingerprints of U.S. involvement

Truth and Shadows
Guest article: Barrie Zwicker

THE “TERRORIST” EVENTS of Wednesday October 22^nd in Ottawa and two days earlier in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu bear all the hallmarks of a coordinated cross-border one-two punch false flag operation.

The first, the left jab hit-and-run killing of a Canadian soldier, would be the psychological softening up for the follow-up right cross, the killing of another Canadian soldier in Ottawa. Together they dazed the public to an extent that even the ostentatiously-iconic murder at the National War Memorial alone might not have achieved.

The context was within the intensification of the so-called “global war on terror” and in concert with the pro-military Stephen Harper government’s deployment of warplanes supposedly fighting “the terrorists” of the suddenly-emerging “Islamic State.” The first bombing sorties of Canadian F-18s took place hours after the violent acts of supposed “homegrown” and “self-radicalized” supporters of “Islamic jihad.”

Domestically the second outrage occurred on the very day the government was to introduce legislation giving the RCMP, CSIS and CSEC [CSEC is changing its name (to CSE) so that it can continue to spy – and indeed do more spying abroad – but not have the word “Canada” associated with this spying. “Spy agency CSEC says goodbye to Canada” is the headline over an October 31^st  Toronto Star story by Tonda MacCharles. (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/10/31/spy_agency_csec_says_goodbye_to_canada.html) expanded powers under decreased transparency.]

These coincidences of timing, I submit, are not coincidences at all but quite deliberately planned to maximize the intended impacts: greater public support for a new war in the Middle East, better chances for faster and less-questioned support in Parliament for the increased police and spy powers, and enhanced public approval ratings for the Harper government in the run-up to next year’s general election.

This article delves deeper into the timing including that the events happened, to the day, as military-intelligence “exercises” were taking place that precisely mirrored the “surprise” events. Other hallmarks include the prior involvement of government agents with both of the supposed jihadists, the fact that both were easy-to-manipulate “human wreckage” and the early “terrorism” branding led by the Prime Minister. Other hallmarks include the unfolding parade of memorable iconic elements and images, the “lone wolf” narratives, the dual role of the media in general to both to reinforce the official narrative and to fail to ask fundamental questions about it.

Ottawa shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, especially, is tied to the “war on terror.” At the highest level of visibility, he’s a pawn marketed for public consumption to reinforce “global jihad” rhetoric.

On a subterranean level are two sets of fingerprints. One set shows the involvement of both Canadian and U.S. spy agencies and possibly other of the so-called “Five Eyes” (the others being the UK, Australia and New Zealand), not to mention the grotesquely corrupt FBI, with its record of mounting scores of false flag ops, that will be referred to later.

The second set of prints shows the work of the agencies’ gatekeeper “assets” in the media, in this instance in the USA as well as in Canada. They manipulate “the news.”

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Chomsky: World racing towards nuclear war in 2014

Press TV

Renowned American linguist, philosopher and political commentator Noam Chomsky warns that the world is racing towards “environmental catastrophe” and “nuclear war” in 2014.

Answering a question in an interview with Salon.com about the contemporary issues which particularly concerns him, the scholar answered that there are two major problems from among a long list that are worth mentioning.

“These are issues that seriously threaten the possibility of decent human survival. One of them is the growing threat of environmental catastrophe, which we are racing towards as if we were determined to fall off a precipice, and the other is the threat of nuclear war, which has not declined, in fact it’s very serious and in many respects is growing,” Chomsky said.

He added that these threats are emanating from world’s most power countries while indigenous societies are trying to avoid them.

“It’s quite striking to see that those in the lead of trying to do something about this catastrophe are what we call “primitive” societies. The first nations in Canada, indigenous societies in central America, aboriginals in Australia. They’ve been on the forefront of trying to prevent the disaster that we’re rushing towards."

"It’s beyond irony that the richest most powerful countries in the world are racing towards disaster while the so-called primitive societies are the ones in the forefront of trying to avert it,” he went on to add.

Talking about the scope and depth of US spying scandal, Chomsky said that he was not shocked by the revelations made by Edward Snowden, a former contractor to US National Security Agency (NSA) and CIA.

“Governments are power systems,” Chomsky said.
“They are trying to sustain their power and domination over their populations and they will use what means are available to do this.”

Referring to the US invasion of the Philippines about a century ago as an example, he noted that Washington used a sophisticated spying system to suppress any possible uprising by the nation.

“…right after the US invasion of the Philippines — a brutal invasion that killed a couple hundred thousand people — there was a problem for the US of pacification afterwards. What do you do to control the population to prevent another nationalist uprising? There’s a very good study of this by Alfred McCoy, a Philippines scholar at University of Wisconsin, and what he shows is that the US used the most sophisticated technology of the day to develop a massive system of surveillance, control, disruption to undermine any potential opposition and to impose very tight controls on the population which lasted for a long time and in many ways the Philippines is still suffering from this.”

Aggression during G20 rally ‘perpetrated by police,’ judge rules

The Toronto Star

A Toronto judge has ruled that “adrenalized” police officers acted as aggressors at a peaceful political rally that led to dozens of arrests during last year’s G20 summit. 

“The only organized or collective physical aggression at that location that evening was perpetrated by police each time they advanced on demonstrators,” Justice Melvyn Green ruled on Thursday. He was referring to a demonstration at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday, June 26, 2010.

Green stated police criminalized political demonstration, which is “vital” to maintain a “viable democracy.” 

Green’s stern words echo widespread criticism of police during the G20, in which more than 1,100 people were detained in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. A Toronto Star/Angus Reid Public Opinion poll conducted on the one-year anniversary of the G20 found a majority of Torontonians (54 per cent) now believe police response to demonstrations during the summit were unjustified.[...]

Canada: 'Stop Harper' placard gets Senate page turfed from Throne Speech

The Globe and Mail

A Senate page disrupted the Speech from the Throne by taking out a sign saying "Stop Harper" in the middle of the opening of the new parliamentary session.

She was immediately removed from the Senate chamber and fired from her job.

Brigette DePape, from Manitoba, has been working in the Senate for a year. A statement issued in her name said she opposes the agenda of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which won a majority mandate on May 2.

"This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces," the statement said.

She went on to give a series of media interviews. She explained she feels the Conservative government's policies on the environment, social programs and the military are destructive, and that civil disobedience is needed to try and stop them.

Governor General David Johnston delivers the Speech from the Throne in the Senate Chamber on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Friday June 3, 2011.

 

 

"Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures," Ms. DePape said in an interview. "I think that everywhere is the right place to resist the Harper government."

One of her allies said Ms. DePape was detained by Hill security. And Karen Schwinghamer, a Senate spokeswoman, said she "is no longer in her position as a page."

According to the Senate website, Ms. DePape is entering her fourth year of studies in international development and globalization at the University of Ottawa.

From Winnipeg, Ms. DePape travelled to Toronto last summer to take part in anti-G20 protests. She was briefly interviewed by The Globe and Mail during an anti-poverty demonstration on June 25, the day before the primary protests.

After a brief scuffle between police and protesters downtown, Ms. DePape and a dozen fellow demonstrators linked arms and sat in a semi-circle in front of riot police in a bid to ensure police did not move forward and attack the rear of a column of demonstrators who were marching away.

"We're taking a non-violent form of protest - we're trying to keep the police from getting to the other protesters," Ms. DePape told The Globe. In the end, the police held back and Ms. DePape's group eventually got up to join it. 

She further described her role in the protests in an article published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

"Using brightly colored rainbow paint, we displayed our concerns with the G20 agenda on the doors and bumpers of our caravan. From "shut down the tar sands" to "sign the UN convention on the right to water", our messages expressed our beliefs that issues central to our vision of a more just and sustainable world are being ignored by the leaders of the G20," Ms. DePape wrote.

The statement that was circulated in her name suggests that Ms. DePape had planned her protest well ahead of time.

"Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation," she said. "We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations."

Ms. DePape interned at the Winnipeg offices of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last summer, working on poverty-related issues.

"She's extremely passionate about the issues that are dear to her," said Shauna MacKinnon, director of the Centre's office in Manitoba.

Ms. MacKinnon said she was not entirely surprised to learn of Ms. DePape's actions, though she acknowledged it likely went "a bit further" than she would have expected.

"She was always very engaged," Ms. MacKinnon said.