AIC Proving Last Year Was No Fluke

(photo: Russ Hons)

In response to its worst showing of the season in a 5–0 home loss to Providence, American International didn’t receive a tongue thrashing or a practice loaded with extra conditioning.

Coach Eric Lang didn’t think the usual array of disciplinary tactics would work. His team needed something different.

So, instead, the Yellow Jackets brought out their ping pong table and their paddles, set up a bracket and spent a few hours competing and hanging out.

“I think it kind of lightened and loosened the mood and maybe the tension and the pressure we were putting on ourselves,” Lang said.

All the Yellow Jackets have done since is rattle off nine straight wins, building a six-point lead in Atlantic Hockey over Sacred Heart.

Could all that winning stem from a couple hours spent playing ping pong? Senior forward Martin Mellberg said he isn’t sure, but he knows the value that kind of activity can have on a team with 34 players.

“We’re a very big squad this year, we have a lot of guys on our team,” Mellberg said. “In a way, that kind of competition is good, but it’s also frustrating for a lot of guys. I think competition is good and it fuels success, but at the same time, a lot of guys were uptight in the way they were playing. By doing more team building stuff, especially right in the middle of the season, that definitely helps.”

Bermuda’s ‘White List’ status confirmed by the EU and applauded by industry

Certainly, the decision was made by the EU Finance Ministers at the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Brussels in the morning. Bermuda’s global industrial groups have welcomed the news and applauded the Bermuda government’s efforts to ensure a successful outcome.

Likewise, the private sector worked in collaboration with government officials, together with the active participation of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, to implement reforms specifically related to collective investment vehicles (CIV).

Industry associations aware

Peter Schiff: Printing Money Is Not the Cure for Coronavirus

It should be noted that previously it was thought that the virus was only an excuse for stock market problems. Certainly, at that moment, it was believed that the market was about to fall anyway. But it turns out that the coronavirus has really helped the US stock market as it has led central banks to pump even more liquidity into the global financial system.

With this, it can be firmly said that all this means more liquidity, the relaxation of central banks. In fact, that is exactly what has already happened, except that the new relaxation is taking place, for now, outside the United States, particularly in China.

This being the case, it is necessary to indicate that although the new money is being created mainly in China, it is flowing to dollars and US stocks. Last week, U.S. stock markets once again reached record highs.

Benefits thanks to coronavirus

Derek H. Burney: Enough is enough. Clear the blockades, restore the rule of law

Mohawk people wait for Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller's arrival before his meeting with representatives of the Mohawk Nation, at the site of a rail stoppage on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, as part of a protest against British Columbia's Coastal GasLink pipeline, in Tyendinaga, Ontario, Canada February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

It has been said that the fact of eliminating blockages and also restoring the rule of law should be sufficient. In this regard, one could say that at times like this, Lucien Bouchard’s statement that “Canada is not a real country” has a strange tone of truth. Being that the demonstrators of many fringes have the advantage in the pockets of the country.

In this way, it is necessary to bring up important facts such as the fact that the railway lines are blocked and the services suspended. A provincial legislature was closed. The country’s economy is paralyzed. The national interest has no defender. And the preferred solution is not the return to order and the detention of criminals.

Everything indicates that the current government seems unable to enforce the rule of law or affirm the national interest has lost the will to govern. In fact, it could be said that he has effectively given up the right to govern. Dialogue is not a recipe for those who refuse to listen because they believe they are custodians of the only truth.

They break the laws of the land with abandonment, certain that they will not face consequences, in addition to this, many of their complaints have been dealt with extensively by the courts and the responsible regulatory agencies and have been backed by duly elected band councils.

The legitimacy that justifies the facts

Stress Less: Tech Companies In The Mental Health Space Are Finally Going Mainstream

GETTY

It is easy to feel anxious, stressed and mentally exhausted in a world of hyperconnectivity and always active media. You could say that if you are not worried about an economic recession, you may be worried if the next virus outbreak will arrive in your local city or town. In addition, it is not necessary to leave aside an extremely important fact and that is a year of elections, so all the joys of partisan politics will probably bring great emotions as November approaches.

Now, it is not surprising that anxiety affects more than 40 million Americans, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

What is more worrying is that a 2019 report cites that more than 56% of American adults who have a mental illness have not received treatment.

Competition to reassure more people

'Potential catastrophe': Rail blockades disrupt supply chains for food — which may lead to grocery shortages

Manufacturers are struggling to deliver products, industry associations are warning of the possible shortage of food, propane, and chlorine for water treatment, and mining companies are restricting production because indigenous groups and environmental activists continue to paralyze Canada’s transportation infrastructure.

Likewise, the crisis in the nation’s rail system is hitting at a particularly difficult time for the economy, already injured by the coronavirus and still recovering from an eight-day strike that closed CN operations in November. And it is that half of the Canadian exports move by rail to ports and then to world markets, and only CN moves $ 250 billion in goods annually.

Shortage of insight

Conrad Black: In her essence, Christie Blatchford embodied what's best about Canada

It has been said that the opportunity should not be missed to pay tribute to Christie Blatchford, who has described herself as a magnificent, unshakable, generous and unpretentious member. She distinguished the reports from the comments, never overwritten the stories, always saw and highlighted both humor and sadness and in all aspects, the drama of each story. She was completely genuine and his criticism of others consisted essentially of the extent to which they were not genuine.

Likewise, it has been indicated that it was somehow the essence of the best of Canada. She was from the mining town of Rouyn-Noranda, in northern Quebec, where she acquired her love for winter sports and her appreciation for ordinary and decent people, and for the pleasures of the uninhibited party and relaxed social life. She liked honesty, courage, and sense of humor, exemplified all three, and if someone was equipped with that, he was not too concerned with the rest, particularly not with the economic level or the social level.

Focus that the team splendidly

Jonathan Kay: On Jordan Peterson and his critics

Prof. Jordan Peterson in March 2018. Craig Robertson/Postmedia/File

Jordan Bernt Peterson is a clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of Canadian psychology. His main areas of study are abnormal, social and personality psychology, with a particular interest in the psychology of religious and ideological beliefs, and the evaluation and improvement of personality and work performance. He teaches at the University of Toronto.

It should be noted that he published his first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief in 1999 and is available for free on his personal website. His second book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, was published in January 2018.

He currently has a YouTube channel in which he publishes the recordings of his classes, among other content. In 2016, Peterson published a series of videos in which he criticized the political correctness and the C-16 bill of the Canadian government. Consequently, from these videos, he began to receive significant media attention.

Critics

The flu has already killed 10,000 across US as world frets over coronavirus

KEY POINTS

• The flu remains a higher threat to U.S. public health than the new coronavirus.
• This flu season alone has sickened at least 19 million across the U.S. and led to 10,000 deaths and 180,000 hospitalizations.
• Roughly a dozen cases of the deadly coronavirus have been identified in the U.S., though the number has mushroomed across its outbreak zone in China.

While the new coronavirus ravages much of China and world leaders rush to close their borders to protect citizens from the outbreak, the flu has quietly killed 10,000 in the U.S. so far this influenza season.

At least 19 million people have come down with the flu in the U.S. with 180,000 ending up in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The flu season, which started in September and can run until May, is currently at its peak and poses a greater health threat to the U.S. than the new coronavirus, physicians say. The new virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, on Dec. 31, has sickened roughly 17,400 and killed 362 people mostly in that country as of Monday morning.

Sean Speer: Are you a social conservative? You might be surprised

Social conservatives — those who embrace the traditional values of community, family and work — have been done a disservice by some fringe candidates for the leadership of the Conservative party, writes Sean Speer. Getty Images

It's fair to say that a recent series of controversial television interviews by marginal candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada has not served social conservatives very well. And it is that a disproportionate approach to whether homosexuality is an option or if gay conversion therapy is somehow an issue of moral complexity has come to narrowly define conservative social persuasion, reinforce left stereotypes and damage the position of Social conservatives in wider Canadian society.

This being the case, it could be considered that this speaks of a major problem for the conservative social movement in Canada. His critics, the leftist media and his most vehement defenders narrowly defined it as primarily about same-sex marriage and abortion. One can recognize that these are complex issues that involve a collision of competing rights and different visions of morality and still understand that social conservatism is much larger than any individual policy question.

Social conservatism is something bigger

Centaur Fund Services receives ‘signficant’ investment from US equity firm

Karen Malone, managing director of Centaur, with her founding partners Ronan Daly (left) and Eric Bertrand

FTV Capital typically invests between $10m to $85m in companies it backs

San Francisco-headquartered growth equity company FTV Capital has made what it describes as a “significant” investment in Irish hedge fund servicing firm Centaur.

This marks the second investment in an Irish company by FTV, which in 2013 provided $30 million (€27.2 million) to Apex Fund Services in return for a minority stake.

It is also the group’s second investment this week following a deal to provide £32 million (€38 million) in funding in the London fintech company Liberis.

'Unprecedented' Supreme Court decision on Trans Mountain should be message for Quebec: Kenney

The Supreme Court “came right back, slam dunk, saying that no province has the right to block a pipeline because those are, under the constitution, inter-provincial pipelines are the exclusive power of the federal government,” Jason Kenney said of Quebec's move to block the Energy East pipeline, which was subsequently cancelled. Postmedia News

It should be noted that Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney says that the “unprecedented” dismissal of the Supreme Court of Canada of the British Columbia movement to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project should “send a message” to Quebec that it cannot block the Energy East pipeline project.

Also, during a Global News Radio interview over the weekend, Kenney bluntly criticized the federal government and federal regulatory processes for important projects such as oil pipeline and oil pipeline projects. In addition, when asked about the proposed Energy East pipeline project and then retired, the prime minister joked that it has been easier for Russia to build a pipeline across Europe than for a pipeline company to build a project in Canada.

Interview

GOLDSTEIN: Climate change — a decade of broken promises and failures

In this file photo taken on July 10, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses a joint press conference with his Latvian counterpart following their meeting in Riga, Latvia. ILMARS ZNOTINS / AFP/Getty Images

Canada’s record on addressing human-induced climate change over the past decade mirrors the global record of setting unrealistic goals for lowering industrial greenhouse gas emissions and then failing to meet them.

Under the emission reduction targets set by both the Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau governments, Canada’s emissions are supposed to be 17% below 2005 levels, or 606 megatonnes (Mt) annually, by the end of this year.

Current emissions are 716 Mt annually, based on the latest available federal data which are for 2017, meaning we’re 110 Mt, or 18.2%, above where we’re supposed to be in 2020.

Conrad Black: What did Canadians do to deserve this government?

Parliament Hill in Ottawa is viewed from the shores of Gatineau, Que., in a file photo from Oct. 22, 2013. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Faced with the situation in Canada, questions arise that disturb a nation, as well as, What did the Canadians do to deserve this government? In this regard, it has been said that Canada is a great country that crosses the desert of self-chosen and wrong leadership. Likewise, it has been indicated that there is no vision except topics and quixotry.

Thus, it is appropriate to mention some main points in the resource policy, as well as, like China and India, which represent almost 40 percent of the world’s population, settled in the search for economic growth 30 to 40 years ago years, increasing the demand for basic and precious metals, energy and forest products so that they were much closer to being seller markets than consumer markets, a confluence of unforeseen circumstances assaulted the oil and gas industry. After the decisive defeat of the international left in the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the collapse of international communism and the defection of China to the virtues of a market economy, the international left, evicted from power and even from the Intellectual respectability, collected in the field of conservationists, those who cared more for the environment.

What Canada should do

Elite talent: The private school education of NHL All-Stars

Edmonton's Connor McDavid scores a highlight reel goal against Morgan Rielly's Toronto Maple Leafs. McDavid is one of 15 North American skaters named to this year's NHL All Star game who attended private school. (Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

An extraordinary proportion of players named to this year’s team attended pricey private schools

Of the 37 North American players named to this year’s NHL All-Star game or filling in as replacements, 15 — or 40 per cent — attended private school. It’s a statistic that reinforces the notion that hockey, particularly at its very highest levels, is increasingly a sport not just for those who can afford it, but for those in the highest tax brackets.

Some attended athletic academies. The Oilers’ Connor McDavid attended Premier Elite Athletes’ Collegiate, a now-defunct private school in the Toronto area with an annual tuition that ranged from $15,500 to $27,000. The Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner went to The Hill Academy in Vaughan, Ont., (where Prep Hockey tuition is currently $13,000) and later Blyth Academy (where tuition is $15,995).