Free Republic

I just can't keep it in. I know I shouldn't boast but, well, as a Roman Catholic I simply have to. We've won. I mean, we actually have won. The church founded by Christ has become the one and only institution hated by assorted Marxists, maniacs and misanthropes. In the space of a single week, we had the following: The Washington Post ran achingly predictable self-promoter and professional atheist, Richard Dawkins, writing that the Catholic Church was "surely up there among the leaders" as "the greatest force for evil in the world." He described the eucharist as a "cannibal feast"...

Toronto has won a bid to host the 2015 Pan AM Games. Just before 5 p.m. the Pan American Sport Organization in Guadalajara, Mexico, announced that Hogtown had earned the rights to host the games and the Parapan American Games. "We are thrilled,” stated Toronto 2015 Bid Chair, the Hon. David Peterson in a quick press release from Mexico. “We will work hard to stage the best Pan and Parapan Am Games ever.” The Pan Am Games are among the premium amateur athletic competitions in the world and is expected to bring 10,000 participants and 250,000 visitors from the 42...

OTTAWA (Dow Jones)--Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday G20 countries have to coordinate planning stimulus exit strategies."That's important so that one country's banking system isn't advantaged over another country's banking system as we exit from this period of stimulus, which isn't going to happen for a while," Flaherty told reporters. He expects G20 finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss exit strategies at their weekend meeting in St. Andrews, U.K. He cautioned, "Not that it's time to implement exit strategies but that we coordinate our planning in terms of exit strategies." Regarding moral hazard when some banks are...

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, November 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-lifers must be clear about the nature of euthanasia and assisted suicide, insisted Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, during an address at the Canadian National Pro-Life Conference last weekend in Saskatoon.  "If we allow confusion about what euthanasia or assisted suicide is then we lose!"The pro-life conference was held as the Canadian Parliament considers Bill C-384, which seeks to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.Schadenberg stressed the importance of properly defining euthanasia and assisted suicide, which he said are commonly misunderstood.  Contrary to the popular understanding, they are not...

Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Announces Full Deployment of Radiation Scanning Technology to the Northern Border Ahead of Schedule Release Date: November 5, 2009 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the final deployment of non-intrusive scanning equipment to detect radiation emanating from materials used in nuclear devices at all Northern border land ports of entry—a major security milestone completed two months ahead of schedule that reflects Secretary Napolitano’s ongoing commitment to strong, layered security at the U.S.-Canada border. “Securing our Northern border while facilitating...

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The lone survivor of a helicopter crash that killed 17 people off Newfoundland's east coast says he escaped the submerged chopper through a broken window, ascended to the surface and sang to himself as he waited to be rescued.

WE DID IT!BILL C-391 PASSES SECOND READING BY 27 VOTES.As you know, the CSSA/CILA has been heavily involved in both Bill C-301 (Garry Breitkreuz) and its replacement, Bill C-391 (Candice Hoeppner). We are very pleased to announce that we have a major victory under our belts as C-391 has just passed second reading in the House of Commons. This was possible due to the hard work of a lot of people and arm twisting of opposition MPs. The CSSA/CILA played no small part in this victory and took on the antis face-to-face. The opposition was showing their desperation by releasing...

Media Release Thursday, October 29, 2009 The Blair Witch-hunt Project -- Abuse of Authority? Toronto Police Chief Blair's much touted "Project Safe City" is nothing more than a witch-hunt targeting firearms owners, seizing their private property without compensation and describing them as "criminals." Their crime? Allowing their Firearms Licenses to expire. In his latest "media event," he paraded out a valuable collection of firearms seized from a collector with an expired Firearms License. Using this event as his podium, he proceeded to make very inaccurate comments about the proposed federal Bill C-391 that is scheduled for second reading next week....

Attention: Assignment Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Sports Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor ON, O.F.A.H. MEDIA RELEASE--(Marketwire - Nov. 4, 2009) - Bill C-391, An amendment to the Criminal Code (repeal of the long gun registry), passed a major hurdle in the legislative process earlier today when it was approved at Second Reading in the House of Commons. For 14 years, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (O.F.A.H.) has been determinedly fighting to scrap the long gun registry through media campaigns, rallies, presentations and meetings with public officials and politicians, and most recently, a national online petition. The bill, a...

MPs voted by a clear margin Wednesday to repeal the federal long-gun registry, signalling for the first time since the program was adopted 14 years ago that it is headed for the scrap heap, despite police assertions that it saves lives. A private member's bill, sponsored by Conservative backbencher Candice Hoeppner, had the backing of all the Tories, from Prime Minister Stephen Harper down, and enough Liberal and New Democrat MPs to clear its first major hurdle of winning support in principle. The bill passed by a surprising 164-137, winning more supporters than expected as 18 opposition MPs rose to...

Federal Liberal Party President Alfred Apps recently wrote an e-mail to top Liberals suggesting the H1N1 flu virus could be Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Hurricane Katrina. Here's my response to him. Dear Mr. Apps: You're an idiot. What's worse, you're a partisan idiot who doesn't appear to have an original idea in your head. More on that in a moment. You wrote to your little circle of "Liberal friends" that they should read an article Michael Ignatieff wrote for the New York Times on Sept. 25, 2005, The Broken Contract, in which he blasted George Bush for his dismal performance...

Private member's bill now goes to a Commons committee for review and possible amendment. ------------------------------------ The House of Commons dealt a major blow to the federal long-gun registry Wednesday night as 20 Liberal and NDP MPs broke ranks with their leaders to endorse a Conservative bill that would bring the program to an end. The vote exposed clear splits among Liberals and New Democrats along rural and urban lines, as the 12 NDP MPs and eight Liberals who voted with the Conservatives were primarily from rural ridings. Many of them had been the target of an aggressive Conservative lobbying campaign...

OTTAWA — A long-running effort by the Conservatives to kill the long-gun registry has passed an important hurdle in the House of Commons, with a majority voting for the first time in 14 years to study a bill to repeal it. MPs voted 164-137 to give "second reading" — or "approval-in-principle" - to a private member's bill sponsored by MP Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar) that calls for the repeal of legal requirements to register long-barrelled rifles and shotguns. The stage was set for the vote to pass hours earlier when Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff declared the current long-gun registry faces a...

Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest there are several bodies missing their feet. Yet another sneaker-clad foot has washed ashore in British Columbia -- the eighth foot in two years, stumping authorities in both Canada and the United States. Seven of the feet, including the most recent foot, have been found in the waters of British Columbia. The other foot found off the coast of Port Angeles, Wash. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Annie Linteau told ABCNews.com today that on all of the feet there is "no evidence of being severed or artificially removed." While Canadian authorities seem to be leaning...

Steadily rising oil prices will combine with lower costs to put some of the more than $100 billion in cancelled oilsands projects back on the front burner, according to a new study. “I think we’re going to see over the next six to eight months more projects coming on,” said research director David McColl of the Canadian Energy Research Institute. CERI’s oilsands supply cost and development projects update report released Tuesday estimates under its “realistic” scenario that $309 billion will be spent over the next 35 years to increase output from 1.4 million barrels of synthetic crude and bitumen per...

After more than a decade of public health care with mandatory coverage, so many Canadian doctors have left the practice and so many young people have entered other fields that Canada ranks 26th of 28 developed nations in its ratio of physicians to population. Once, Canada ranked among the leaders in the number of physicians -- but that was before government health care drove doctors out of the practice in droves. The fundamental fact is that we cannot cover 36 million new patients without more doctors and nurses, much less with the declining census of medical professionals the Canadian experience...

Canadians favour Prince William to become king Published Tuesday November 3rd, 2009 Poll | Prince Charles not as popular A7 The Canadian Press OTTAWA - A new poll suggests the majority of Canadians would prefer to see Prince William become King, not his father. The Canadian Press/Harris-Decima poll, released Monday, asked 1,000 Canadians about their thoughts on the Royal Family. Forty-one per cent said they would rather see Prince Charles pass off the throne to William rather than succeed Queen Elizabeth himself, while 31 per cent believed Charles should be King. Doug Anderson, senior vice-president for Harris-Decima, said it was...

According to a new Climate Confidence Monitor survey released today, support for action on climate change is plummeting in Canada. Just 26% of Canadians consider global warming among their chief concerns, down from 34% in 2008. Concern in the U.S. is even lower - just 18% , down from 26% in 2008. The UK's level of concern is the lowest of all, a mere 15%, down from 26% in 2008. Worldwide, the drop in concern over climate change has also dropped by 8 percentage points, from 42% to 34%...

Canadians are no more loving of the United States under its current leadership than during George W. Bush's presidency, suggested a poll published Monday. But they do like President Barack Obama a whole lot more than his predecessor, said the Historica Dominion Institute survey of 1,018 Canadians. Obama was viewed favorably by 86 percent of respondents, compared to only 21 percent for Bush in 2005. "What's striking about these findings is how Canadians have detached their personal view of Barack Obama, whom they quite like and respect, from the United States, which they still view with skepticism, even distrust," said...

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall arrive in St. John’s today for an 11-day visit that will bring them to Hamilton Thursday. It’s the 15th time Charles has toured Canada, but the first time with his wife Camilla by his side. One of the first things the couple must deal with is H1N1 flu... Charles is also up against an apparent apathy that could see him received with at least as much indifference as enthusiasm. A leaked poll, phone-in shows and online comments have suggested growing ho-hum feelings ... “Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse around...

How far have we come in our quest for freedom of speech, over the past two years? Quite far. Look at this story in the Canadian Jewish News, the newspaper of record for the Official Jews, entitled "Hate laws backfire on Jews, author says". That headline itself is an achievement. Here are some excerpts; I've put some parts in bold: The federal anti-hate law that “official Jews� lobbied for and got passed has, 32 years later, backfired, sowing the seeds for political correctness, media chill and censorship that have undermined the values that define the Jewish People, says Alberta lawyer,...

In September, a team of four snipers from 3rd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment (3 R22eR), travelled to France to take part in a series of exercises with the Groupe d’intervention de la gendarmerie nationale (GIGN), an elite unit of the French security forces. The idea for an exchange first came up in October 2008 when 3 R22eR snipers were at a marksmanship competition in Fort Benning in the US. The Canadians and the GIGN members connected at the event. “Since we were all French-speakers in an English environment, there was an instant connection,� says 3 R22eR master sniper Sergeant Michel...

A report by two environmental groups and financed by Toronto-Dominion Bank finds that Canada can meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets only by limiting economic growth in the oil-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The report, from the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, broadly concludes that Canada can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020 while maintaining a “strong, growing economy, a quality of life higher than Canadians enjoy today, and continued steady job creation across the country.” But the study, which relies on an economic model from M.K. Jaccard and Associates,...

TORONTO (Reuters) – Two men sought by the FBI and linked to a Detroit Muslim leader killed by U.S. authorities were arrested in Windsor, Ontario on Saturday, Canadian police said. Mohammad Al-Sahli, 33, and Yassir Ali Kahn, 30, both from the Windsor, Ontario area, were apprehended without incident on Saturday morning and will appear before an Ontario Superior Court judge on Monday to face extradition to the United States, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The statement said the two Ontario men were wanted by the FBI for conspiracy to commit federal crimes. An RCMP spokesman...

The oil and gas services industry of Western Canada hit bottom in the second quarter and is now making its slow way back, the chairman and CEO of transport and oilfield services company Mullen Group declared Thursday. But the rehiring of 1,100 Mullen employees and contractors--some 20 per cent of its staff--whose jobs disappeared in the past 12 months will not occur until "ridiculously stupid" pricing by competitors is halted, said Murray Mullen. "We have, in my opinion, seen the bottom. It is tough, at times it's ugly. It's particularly difficult on our people. But we are survivors of what...

North Dakota sits on one of the largest pools of oil in North America. The Bakken Shale Formation is estimated to hold nearly four billion barrels of oil that can be extracted. And now, a new batch of oil just under the Bakken is adding even more interest to oil exploration in the state. The Bakken Shale Formation has created excitement in western North Dakota - the kind of excitement that leads to things like bumper stickers. But even as oil companies scramble to tap into the Bakken, there's a new oil play brewing - it's called the Three Forks-Sanish...

MONTREAL — The federal anti-hate law that “official Jews� lobbied for and got passed has, 32 years later, backfired, sowing the seeds for political correctness, media chill and censorship that have undermined the values that define the Jewish People, says Alberta lawyer, author and activist Ezra Levant. Levant, who is Jewish, made the assertion in an Oct. 21 talk to a small audience at Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation about his 900-day saga of being prosecuted by the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in his now defunct magazine, the...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- For the second time in three days, a young Canadian soldier whose tour in Afghanistan had just begun was killed when he stepped on a homemade landmine. Sapper Steven Marshall had been in Afghanistan less than one week in what was to have been a six-month tour, when he died while on patrol in Panjwaii District about 10 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City. No other Canadians were wounded in the incident. "He was eager to get out and make a difference," said Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, who described Marshall as "a man...

The singer died on the way to the hospital from her wounds. The coyotes had bitten her many times and the paramedics said she was in critical condition when they found her and she had lost a lot of blood.

Now you only wait four months on average to see a doctor!  That's a week better than last year!  Reports the Fraser Institute: The Fraser Institute's nineteenth annual waiting list survey found that Canada-wide waiting times for surgical and other therapeutic treatments decreased in 2009. Total waiting time between referral from a general practitioner and treatment, averaged across all 12 specialties and 10 provinces surveyed, fell from 17.3 weeks in 2008 to 16.1 weeks in 2009. This nation wide improvement in access reflects waiting-time decreases in 5 provinces, while concealing increases in waiting times in Alberta, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and...

Here's a New Year's prediction, two months early: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is finished. The denouement will take a couple of years. When the curtain falls for him it will be swift, brutal and decisive. The resulting lurch to the right, with all the attendant cuts to public services, union unrest and so on, will look very much like Mike Harris, Part Deux. And there is very little now that anyone, least of all the Ontario premier or those around him, can do to prevent it. It's too late. Extreme? Not really. When McGuinty came to power on Oct. 23,...

DETROIT — Authorities captured the son of the slain leader of a radical Detroit-area Islamic group in Canada on Thursday, a day after the FBI arrested several members and a raid at a suburban warehouse ended in gunfire. The FBI asked for the public's help in catching two of the 11 suspects in the case still at large, and they emphasized that the group, a faction of the radical U.S. Sunni Islamic group Ummah, held beliefs that were not at all representative of mainstream Islam.... The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Mujahid Carswell, the 30-year-old son slain group leader Luqman...

The fugitive son of an Imam shot dead by U.S. federal agents Wednesday was arrested Thursday in downtown Windsor and in the custody Canadian border authorities, the FBI said in a statement. Mujahid Carswell, 30, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, was arrested by RCMP officers at about 1 p.m. Thursday without incident after police blocked off a downtown street and surrounded a house with a tactical team. He was witnessed being whisked away in a prisoner transport van and is currently in the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency on immigration violations. Mr. Carswell is the oldest son of...

With the huge UN climate change conference in Copenhagen to come up with a successor treaty to the Kyoto Accord now just 40 days away -- it starts Dec. 7 -- you'd think its supporters would be praising Kyoto's environmental achievements by now. After all, if you want 190 nations to continue the ... uh ... "fight" against global warming, shouldn't its advocates be citing its many successes? Instead, Kyoto cultists and climate alarmists are putting the "mental" back into "environmental." (A line I wish I'd thought of, but which comes from Christopher Horner's book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to...

RICHMOND - A right foot has been found inside a running shoe on a beach in Richmond, the seventh foot found along B.C.’s coast in two years, RCMP said Wednesday. Two men walking on the beach Tuesday evening found the foot in a white size 8.5 Nike running shoe on the beach at No. 6 Road and Triangle Road, the RCMP said. The BC Coroners Service confirmed the remains were human through a forensic autopsy and will conduct more forensic tests in its investigation with the RCMP. Exams by forensic pathologists and anthropologists will help determine physical characteristics, which, combined...

PASSCHENDAELE (October and November, 1917) "...I died in Hell (they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight and I was hobbling back; and then a shell burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell into the bottomless mud, and lost the light". . . Siegfried Sassoon When one ponders the waste, stupidity, mud and gross loss of human life during the Great War, it is usually the battle of Passchendaele that comes to mind. This brainchild of Field Marshal Douglas Haig – also called The Third Battle of Ypres - officially began on July 31, 1917. Examining the general objectives,...

So much for claims by hug-a-thug crowds like the John Howard Society that serious violent crimes are on the decline in Canada. A Statistics Canada report released yesterday shows serious assaults -- including assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm -- have increased sharply in Canada over the past 10 years. In fact, some serious assaults have been climbing steadily for 25 years and are showing no signs of letting up, according to StatsCan. That doesn't bode well for the John Howard Society spin we've been hearing so much of in recent weeks. Groups like the JHS have...

It was easy for 200 "environmental" protesters to disrupt Parliament on Monday, demanding from the public gallery that Canada immediately implement the NDP's Climate Change Accountability Act, Bill C-311. It was also easy for NDP Leader Jack Layton to follow up yesterday with a press release, announcing the NDP will use its opposition day today in the Commons to urge the speedy passage of the proposed law. Easy because the NDP knows it never will have to implement this bill as the government and answer for the massive joblessness and economic chaos that would result. The NDP's call for a...

Whenever politicians committed to the nanny state launch expensive, new, social programs despite facing record deficits, they always make two tired arguments. First, that "we" -- meaning "they" -- must do it for the good of society. Second, that it will save "society" -- meaning "us" -- money in the long run. Say hello to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, who this week announced a phased-in, $1.5 billion-a-year program to fund all-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. This with the province facing a $24.7-billion deficit. About 35,000 of Ontario's 240,000 junior and senior kindergarten students will...

One Canadian soldier killed and two injured in an explosive device strike CEFCOM NR - 09.026 - October 28, 2009 OTTAWA – One Canadian soldier was killed and two injured by an improvised explosive device that detonated near their dismounted patrol. The incident occurred approximately 20 kilometres south-west of Kandahar City at around 9 a.m., Kandahar time, on 28 October 2009. Killed in action was Lieutenant Justin Boyes of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, serving with the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. The injured soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to the Multi-National Medical Facility at the Kandahar Airfield...

The Alberta firm that put “fire in the ground” oil production on the map with successful tests in a Athabasca bitumen deposit opened operations in Saskatchewan on Tuesday. And what it hopes to learn at this second test site for toe-to-heel air injection (THAI) — this time in a conventional heavy oil deposit which runs south from Lloydminster into the Kerrobert, Sask. area, east of Hardisty — could help Petrobank tap into a global market. “Most of the world’s heavy oil is similar to what is found in the Alberta/Saskatchewan belt, so what we learn from Kerrobert will have implications...

VANCOUVER, October 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Unitarian Church of Vancouver has stepped in to provide a Canadian venue for Australian right-to-die activist Philip Nitschke after he was refused workshop space to hold a seminar on how to commit suicide by the Vancouver Public Library.Rev. Steven Epperson of the Unitarian church said he believes Nitschke, director of the suicide advocacy group Exit International, has the right to free speech, even if he's telling people how to kill themselves."Historically, we have provided a forum, a space, for controversial, difficult ideas to be presented," Epperson told the Vancouver Province.The Vancouver church has a...

A complaint has been filed by a transgendered substitute teacher against a Catholic school board in Canada. Jan Buterman was a substitute teacher for St. Albert Catholic Schools in Edmonton, Alberta, before announcing that she was going through the process to become a "he." Dave Quist, executive director of the Institute of Marriage and Family - Canada, offers insight on the incident.

HALIFAX, N.S. - Canada's latest contribution to the war on terrorism and piracy slipped out of Halifax harbour in driving rain Sunday on a six-month deployment to the Middle East. Before it left, family and friends gathered on the deck and in the helicopter bay of HMCS Fredericton for a couple of hours to bid an emotional farewell to the 245 crew members who won't be returning until next spring. As Evan and Bianca Entwhistle hugged, their 20-month-old son Finn sandwiched between them, it was hard to distinguish the tears from the rain. "The sad part with this little guy...

A senior Mexican senator and former foreign affairs minister yesterday called Canada's visa controls on Mexico a humiliation and questioned whether Canadian-Mexican relations will improve as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister. In a blunt speech to a Toronto business and academic gathering, Senator Rosario Green Macias detailed the information she was required to provide to the Canadian government to enter Canada – proof of property ownership, her last six bank statements, a letter from the Mexican senate stating she is a senator and personal information about other members of her family. “That has to stop,” said Ms. Green,...

Yasmin Denner remembers the tough questions when she bought her first house in Toronto in the 1990s. "I had 15% down but that wasn't enough. They wanted to know where I'd gotten the money from," said the self-employed IT specialist with a laugh as she recalled Canada's borrowing environment. Flash forward 15 years. She and her husband Trevor moved to the United States, settling in the suburbs outside of Washington D.C. where they bought a relatively spacious 3,000 square foot home for their future family of three. As the U.S. house market roared, and credit was easy to come by,...

16-year-old high school student Jennifer Rankin fully intended to unite her voicelessness with that of the unborn as part of the annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity when she arrived at school yesterday, reports Bill Henry of Sun Media, reports Patrick B. Craine, LifeSiteNews.com. She was impeded, however, by her school principal, who stated that the right to free speech does not apply on school property and who forced Rankin to remain in isolation for the entire day as long as she participated in the event.

MONTREAL — Inmates who came under a complete smoking ban on federal prison properties in May 2008 will now be able to medicate their frayed nerves with nicotine — at least outdoors. A Federal Court judge ruled Friday that the sweeping ban on smoking "simply goes too far." ~snip~ The judge gave the government 90 days to revise the smoking directive.

CALGARY -- Suncor Energy Inc. is moving forward on a new tailings pond technology that it believes will rapidly speed up its ability to reclaim the areas of northern Alberta it has strip mined as it extracts bitumen buried beneath the earth's surface. Tailings are a toxic byproduct in oil sands mining operations. They are a mixture of fine clay, sand, water, and residual bitumen that are contained in giant ponds. Before an oil sands operation can reclaim the area it has mined, the tailings have to dry, a process that now takes decades. When the tailings are dry, the...

OTTAWA — Say it ain’t so, prime minister. Even Stephen Harper’s own cabinet seems to be having trouble accepting that the man with the famously frosty relationship to the national news media doesn’t consume Canadian news. “I tend to watch American news,� Harper said this week during a question-and-answer session at a Canadian Chamber of Commerce convention in Toronto. “I don’t like to watch Canadian news and hear what Allan (Gregg) and everybody else is saying about me. My hobby is to watch politics elsewhere.� Gregg, a pollster and CBC pundit, was in the audience. Industry Minister Tony Clement was...