Free Republic

One of my mentors was a cousin by marriage who was a biophysicist, prominent too - he was terraforming Mars with NASA when he died. He and his wife Jane were founding professors at York University. Jane had travelled by bus to Idi Amin’s Uganda to research her doctorate from the London School of Economics, proceeded to a law degree, and he ended his career as head of the Royal Society. God gave me my terrifying parents, but he also gave me Bob and Jane and I would fall on them periodically, sleep in his basement study, lined with tribal...

Canada ranked last in access to primary health care in a survey of 10 high-income countries released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information on Thursday. Eighty-six per cent of Canadians aged 18 and older said they had a doctor or a place they usually go for medical care in the 2023 survey by the Commonwealth Fund. That's down from 93 per cent of those surveyed in 2016 — and means that an estimated four million Canadian adults did not have access to primary care last year, the study said. The percentage of people who had access to primary care...

In a major push to seize control of the public’s financial freedom, Canada is radicalizing its banking system by linking citizens’ bank accounts to a tyrannical social credit score.The Canadian banking system will soon be transformed by a so-called “open banking” framework.Proponents are framing this as a more “inclusive” way for banks to easily share information and access user data.However, the move will merge social standings with banking to provide governments and unelected bureaucrats with complete control over our finances.The organization Open Banking Excellence (OBE), a World Bank partner that originated in the UK, boasts that it will incorporate social...

There's some serious political drama unfolding up north in Canada. It's all eyes on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government as a no-confidence vote is looming large on the horizon, set for March 21st. Now, the mainstream media might be downplaying it as a joke, but there's a twist in the tale that could shake things up. Rumor has it that tomorrow, the Bloc Québécois might just throw a curveball by siding with the conservatives in this crucial vote. Trudeau's grip on power is looking increasingly shaky, especially with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre leading the charge. Poilievre isn't mincing words -...

Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the northern U.S. border have jumped from 916 in fiscal year 2021 to 10,021 in fiscal 2023.. HIGHGATE, Vt.—At dawn or dusk, Kristy Brow used to enjoy alone time walking in the woods on her 21-acre property in Highgate, Vermont, a small rural town near the U.S.–Canada border. Lately, however, she’s cautious—she’s worried about potential encounters with illegal immigrants along the remote logging trail. “I don’t go out by myself anymore—especially at night,” said Mrs. Brow, who runs a dog obedience business from her home. “It’s unsettling. You can’t feel relaxed anymore,” she...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose Liberals are trailing badly in the polls, on Friday said he thought about quitting his “crazy job” every day but insisted he would stay in office until the next election. That vote must be held by October 2025 and recent surveys of public opinion show the Liberals would be crushed by the right-of-center Conservatives. Pollsters say voters are tiring of Trudeau, who first took office in November 2015.

Free speech advocates around the world railed against a new Canadian law that could demand a life sentence for adults who violate speech laws on social media. Introduced last month, the Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63, would empower judges to imprison adults for life if they post views supportive of genocide. The bill would increase the maximum penalty for advocating genocide from five years to life imprisonment and from two years to five years, on indictment, for the willful promotion of hatred. Advocates of the bill say it will make online platforms safer. However, critics called the law "totalitarian"...

In the face of an alarming rise in car thefts, Toronto Police Service (TPS) Constable Marco Ricciardi has offered a controversial tip to residents: leave car keys in the front door to avoid violent home invasions. During a community safety meeting in Etobicoke, Constable Ricciardi addressed the issue, stating, “To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at your front door because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.” In short, don’t make it hard for thieves to steal your car. This is what an unarmed society looks...

Currently, only platforms with user numbers above a certain threshold, to be set out through regulation, will be covered by the billPeople blocked from posting hate speech on social media might migrate to smaller platforms not covered by Canada’s new online harms bill, minority advocates warn. Richard Marceau, general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said he supported the bill as a way to combat hate speech. But he was concerned that if the bill only included the big platforms it would not deal with “people kicked off them or active on smaller platforms.” What to know...

A proposed law in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada will reportedly allow judges to throw adults in jail for life if they advocate for genocide online.Fox News reported Thursday that the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) would permit life sentences. The article also said, “The law would also allow a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant ‘will commit’ an offense.”After Justice Minister Arif Virani introduced the bill, he said that in his role as a father, he was frightened of the dangers children might encounter online.Virani also said...

Acclaimed author Margaret Atwood has warned that the federal government’s online harms bill is “Orwellian” and its definitions of punishable hate speech are vague and could invite abuse, such as unwarranted complaints under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Ms. Atwood said she has been the frequent target of “hate speech, online vilification, lies, threats and doxxing” and is “no fan of this kind of online behaviour.” But, in an e-mail exchange with The Globe and Mail, she said she is “also no fan of unsupervised authority acting under vague laws, without any oversight.” On Friday, she posted on X her...

She also shared tips on how she looks after her emotional well-being. 'I think we need more playfulness in this world. We should be very wary of ... adults who can’t play anymore'Sophie Grégoire Trudeau said women “shouldn’t expect the minimum” in what is being interpreted as a “veiled swipe” at Justin Trudeau by international media. Grégoire Trudeau has been making media appearances ahead of the publication of her debut book, Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other, which will be released on April 23, 2024. In Abu Dhabi, she was at the Forbes and Know Your Value’s annual 30/50...

A Canadian law that aims to make social media platforms safer is getting flak for what some decry as government overreach. Introduced late last month, the Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63, would allow judges to imprison adults for life if they advocate for genocide. The law would also allow a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant “will commit” an offense – a provision Wall Street Journal columnist Michael Taube likened to the 2002 film, The Minority Report. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, has criticized the...

Canadians got their first rude awakening about the limits to their constitutional freedoms during the Freedom Convoy protests in February of 2022, when, in a crackdown on truckers objecting to draconian Covid restrictions, the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act, allowing authorities to jail organizers and seize their bank accounts. Sweeping “online safety” legislation in Canada proposed Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government threatening penalties up to life imprisonment for speech crimes, and real sentences for thought crimes, have civil rights groups sounding the alarm. The legislation, known as the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63), was tabled by Justice Minister...

The city of Toronto has a car theft problem, and it doesn't sound like police have much of a clue as to how to combat it. In a recent safety meeting, one officer even gave advice that basically boiled down to: If thieves come knocking to steal your car, just let 'em have it. As reported by blogTO, Toronto Police Service Constable Marco Ricciardi said, "To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your [key] fobs at your front door because they're breaking into your home to steal your car. They don't want anything else." On the...

The Canadian government is proposing a bill that would raise the maximum punishment for online hate speech from five years to a life sentence. The proposal forms part of the latest Online Harms Bill, put forward by Justin Trudeau's left-wing government, which seeks to its assert control over online discourse: The National Post reports: "Bill C-63 aims to force social-media, user-uploaded adult content and live-streaming services to reduce exposure to online content deemed harmful, to strengthen the reporting of child pornography and to better address hate propaganda and provide recourse to victims of hate online. "It also amends the Criminal...

A surge of Mexican nationals seeking asylum has led Canada to bring back visa requirements that were lifted nearly eight years ago. Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on Thursday that more than half of the asylum applications to the country are either abandoned or rejected. Ottawa removed the requirements in 2016 to improve relations with Mexico. Since then, an influx of immigrants has put strain on the government of Quebec and pushed it to a "breaking point".Asylum claims from Mexican nationals to Canada rose from 260 to 23,995 between 2016 and 2023, an increase of more than 9,000%, according to...

People may celebrate a 2-week improvement in survival without acknowledging costsTom Somerville's decision to stop medical treatment for his end-stage cancer was a personal one. Somerville, 62, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2021 that later spread to his liver. He had six months of chemotherapy to slow down the cancer, which he said also left him exhausted with nausea. The Kingston, Ont., resident decided to take a break from treatment to enjoy a trip with his wife to Victoria. "Things that you cherish change, right?" Somerville said. "I used to love being out in the bush, but now it...

A pair of Chinese scientists who worked in a Canadian biological laboratory were marched out of the lab in 2019 and fired in 2021. The pair, who are married, claimed they were being targeted because they are Chinese but an investigations by Canada's intelligence agency found they were sharing information with China including at one point with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Trudeau government has sat on the information related to the case ever since but finally this week some unredacted documents were released.On Wednesday, the government released hundreds of pages related to the firing of Xiangguo Qiu and...

Brian Mulroney — who, as Canada's 18th prime minister, steered the country through a tumultuous period in national and world affairs — has died. He was 84. His daughter Caroline Mulroney shared the news Thursday afternoon on social media. "On behalf of my mother and our family, it is with great sadness we announce the passing of my father, The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Canada's 18th Prime Minister. He died peacefully, surrounded by family," she said on X, formerly Twitter.