Free Republic

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...

SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said."

DEH-E BAGH, AFGHANISTAN–Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan pulled no punches at a hastily called meeting with Afghan village elders Monday after a roadside bomb blast sent another Canadian soldier to hospital. Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, was on his way to the model village of Deh-e-Bagh in the Dand district southwest of Kandahar city when shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade struck one of the vehicles in his convoy.

Health officials ordered an investigation Thursday into why the Canadian government sent body bags to an Aboriginal reserve in Manitoba after community leaders requested assistance to deal with an expected outbreak of swine flu.

The campaign against health-care reform fuels a huge number of hate-filled Americans who will never accept a black man as president. Barack Obama seemed remarkably upbeat the other day as he left for his first formal vacation as president. It's true that this is one of the coolest cats the world has ever seen, always apparently comfortable in his own skin, unflappable, dignified, whatever the winds swirling around him. But that doesn't mean he's always right, and there are plenty of reasons to fear that he's very wrong if he doesn't think he's in big, deep trouble. It's hard when...

To most people, Canadian Pharmacy means just another spam e-mail message promising cheap Viagra pills that is deleted in microseconds – but to David Zimmer, it's a reputation nightmare for his business. ...About once a day, Zimmer says he personally takes a call from an angry victim of the fraudsters. They've paid money and received nothing in return. When they go searching for someone to contact and blame, it's the legitimate companies they find.

Jackson, Sanford and weirdness Big government more or less guarantees rule by creeps and misfits In a lousy week, Mark Sanford had one stroke of luck: Michael Jackson chose the day after the governor's news conference to moonwalk into eternity, and thus gave the media's pop therapists a more rewarding subject to feast on – or at any rate one of the few stories whose salient points are weirder than Sanford's. Not that the governor didn't do his best to keep his end up on the pop culture allusions: "I've spent the last five days crying in Argentina," he revealed,...

Canadian scientists are breeding a special type of cow designed to burp less, a breakthrough that could reduce a big source of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Cows are responsible for nearly three-quarters of total methane emissions, according to Environment Canada. Most of the gas comes from bovine burps, which are 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Stephen Moore, a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, is examining the genes responsible for methane produced from a cow's four stomachs in order to breed more efficient, environmentally friendly cows. The professor of agricultural,...

Canadian Health Care We So Envy Lies In Ruins, Its Architect AdmitsBy DAVID GRATZER Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:30 PM PT As this presidential campaign continues, the candidates' comments about health care will continue to include stories of their own experiences and anecdotes of people across the country: the uninsured woman in Ohio, the diabetic in Detroit, the overworked doctor in Orlando, to name a few. But no one will mention Claude Castonguay — perhaps not surprising because this statesman isn't an American and hasn't held office in over three decades. Castonguay's evolving view of Canadian health care, however,...

Mom accused of sex with toddler, dog Webcast leads to arrest Trevor Wilhelm The Windsor Star Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Police call it one of the most shocking and disturbing crimes they've seen after a woman allegedly broadcast herself on a webcam having sex with her toddler and her dog. "It's one of those things that just makes your stomach roll," said Essex County OPP Const. Janet Hayes. "It's hard to believe there are people out there that can commit these despicable offences, especially against their own child. You can't comprehend someone that could do something like that." The Lakeshore...

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fraudulent Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears. The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the detective work of independent investigative journalists and imaging professionals in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate the Daily Kos,...

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Montreal coach Bob Gainey appealed to Canadiens fans to stop booing the U.S. national anthem. Gainey, also the team's general manager, said fans who booed during "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 3 of their playoff series with the Boston Bruins should find other ways to voice support for their team. "I feel like there's a confusion there with our fans," Gainey said Tuesday. "They feel like booing the anthem is supporting our team, in that the anthem represents the Boston team. "And I think if they could separate those two things, then we could respect the anthem...

Soon after Al Qaeda terrorists killed 3,000 people in the U.S., Giesebrecht converted to Islam, adopted a new name — Khadija Abdul Qahaar — a

After the United Nations diplomat John Solecki, who had forcefully converted to Islam under the doctrine of the Taliban militants, a Canadian journalist - Beverly Giesbrecht, became the latest Taliban target, with the deadline of March 30 being announced by the militants for her release. Even as the 48-hour deadline for kidnapped United Nations official John Solecki ends, the Taliban has released another hostage video, this time of a Canadian journalist, threatening to behead her by March 30. As Beverly desperately calls out for help, she says, "The timeline is very short and my life is going to end. So...

Another anti-Semitic incident took place in a Canadian university Thursday when over 100 anti-Israel activists surrounded a campus building belonging to the Jewish student club 'Hillel' at York University, Toronto. The activists pounded on office doors while yelling out racial slurs. Grim Portrait ADL sees 'pandemic of anti-Semitism' / Reuters US Jewish leader Abraham Foxman says Israel's military offensive in Gaza answered with hatred, attacks against Jews 'from Austria to Zimbabwe.' Civilized world must stand up and say 'No' to condemn 'this vicious, hideous violence,' he adds Full Story Campus security was forced to alert police to restore order and...

A Canadian citizen accused of working for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service made an initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore. Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish did not enter a plea. The 47-year-old native of Iraq is charged with conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government and making false statements, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Magistrate Judge Beth P. Genser ordered Darwish temporarily detained pending a detention hearing on Monday afternoon. Federal prosecutors plan to argue that Darwish is a flight risk and should remain in custody. According to an indictment, Darwish...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

Heads-up for all Steyn-o-philes here on FR.

We tend to focus on creeping sharia in the U.S. but Canada is not exempt from the grand jihad as this article from earlier this year indicates. With porous borders and chatter of a North American Union we should hope Canada is taking the threat seriously. David Harris. The enemy within If terrorism suspect Momin Khawaja, now on trial in Ottawa, is as guilty as Crown prosecutors say, it’ll be time to settle an important question: Was Mr. Khawaja a “Naji man”? Amid trial allegations, court details and defence objections, significant questions arise about Mr. Khawaja’s status as a consultant...

An automaker with an archaic fleet of gas-guzzlers, a collapsing share of the American market, a credit problem, a strong union, enemies in Congress and an urgent need for government support.Sound familiar? It's the story of Chrysler in 1979. How about this one?A faltering auto giant cobbled together from several different brands – many of them competing with one another, all of them failing – hundreds of thousands of unionized workers with a reputation for poor workmanship, a cash flow problem, an inability to compete with the Japanese car makers, and an inability to survive despite billions of dollars in...

Aqsa Parvez, strangled to death by her father for not wearing a hijab, is dishonored in death as she was dishonored in life.

Since Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican candidate for vice president, many people have made comments about her unusual speech, comparing it to accents heard in the movie Fargo, in the states of Wisconsin and Idaho, and in Canada. Some have even attributed her manner of speaking to her supposed stupidity. But Palin actually has an Alaskan accent, one from the Matnuska and Susitna Valley region, where Palin's hometown, Wasilla, is located.

Carbon tax to impact SarniaLIBERAL GREEN SHIFT KEY PLANK IN PARTY'S CAMPAIGN Posted By SHAWN JEFFORDS, THE OBSERVER Posted 17 hours ago Green shift or green shaft? That's what Sarnia-Lambton must decide as it ponders the Liberal Party's controversial carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impact it would have on the Chemical Valley and consumers. Dean Edwardson, general manager of the industry-funded Sarnia-Lambton Environmental Association, said he's skeptical of Liberal leader Stephane Dion's "Green Shift" strategy. "Anytime you bring a new tax in there's an impact," Edwardson said. "It's difficult to determine what the impact will be...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Republican John McCain defended the North American Free Trade Agreement in Canada on Friday during an unusual foreign trip as a U.S. presidential candidate to draw a contrast with Barack Obama, his Democratic rival in the November election. McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's White House nomination, said the trip was not a political one and declined to mention Obama by name during remarks before a group of Canadian business leaders and policy makers. --snip-- Trade is one of several issues that has come to the forefront of the U.S. presidential campaign as...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada's last known surviving veteran of World War One is becoming a Canadian citizen, the government said on Friday. John Babcock, 107, was born in Canada but became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and had to give up his status as a British subject - as Canadians were designated before Canada's own citizenship act came into force a year later. Canadian officials recently visited Babcock at his home in Spokane, Washington, to give him an award, and he told them he was interested in being granted citizenship in his birth country. "This means the last...

NEW YORK - A Canadian terrorist who briefly became an informant against top al-Qaida leaders was sentenced to life in prison Friday for plotting to blow up American embassies in Singapore and the Philippines. A federal judge in Manhattan imposed the sentence after listening to a 20-minute speech from admitted terrorist Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, in which he repudiated violence and asked to be allowed to go home to his family.

THE CANADIAN DOLLAR, OR LOONIE as it is affectionately called after the national bird, has been flying high compared with the U.S. dollar in the past few years. It has appreciated by 23% since the end of 2004 and 19% in 2007 alone. It traded through parity against the greenback for the first time in more than 30 years on its way to its best level since about the time of the U.S. Civil War. But the Loonie's glory days probably are behind it now. By some measures, the Canadian dollar is among the most overvalued of the major currencies....

MONTREAL (AFP) - Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay on Tuesday identified Iran as the origin of weapons used by rebels against the international coalition in Afghanistan. "We have asked the Iranians to deal with the problem because it is very hard to cut the supply lines when you have, in another country, people who are providing the arms for use against Canadian forces and others" in the 39-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, he said. Speaking during a visit to the military base at Kandahar broadcast on Radio-Canada television, MacKay said Canada was particularly concerned about improvised explosive devices from...

PRAY - For rancher Randy Petrich, the removal of gray wolves from the endangered-species list - a move that would open up the animals to hunting in the Northern Rockies for the first time in decades - couldn't come soon enough. Petrich has seen fresh wolf tracks almost every morning this fall - close enough to threaten his cattle. "I believe that any wolf on any given night, if there happens to be a calf there, they will kill it," ... Just 12 years since the wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park ... federal officials say the sharp rise...

Quebec's Liberal government has announced a $620 million aid package for the province's bruised manufacturing sector. The measures, to be rolled out over the next five years, will help Quebec companies and businesses adjust to the Canadian dollar's unprecedented gains. Some $256 million of the money announced Friday in Montreal is new funding. The rest was previously included in Quebec's May 2007 budget. Premier Jean Charest said the measures will help companies adapt to the rapid rise in the Canadian dollar. "That the dollar rises so quickly is brutal for the Quebec economy," he said. The upside has been lower...

An arrest warrant has been issued for another Canadian man in Thailand, wanted on pedophilia charges. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Marina Wilson told CTV.ca that officials are closely monitoring the situation. "The department is aware of reports that Thai police have issued an arrest warrant for a Canadian citizen," she said from Ottawa. "Due to the Privacy Act, no further information can be released at this time." The allegations stem from the abduction of an 8-year-old boy from the Carrefour Shopping Center in South Pattaya on Oct. 28, reports Thailand's Pattaya City News. The boy was then allegedly taken into the...

OTTAWA — The Canadian dollar has reached its highest level since it began to float freely in 1970. The loonie was trading at $1.0459 (U.S.) just before 11:30 this morning, after breaking through the previous post-Bretton Woods high of $1.0443, said Mark Chandler, fixed income strategist for Royal Bank. The main reason for today's surge is a weakening U.S. dollar, he added. The Canadian dollar was pegged to the U.S. dollar for most of the 1960s. The currency's record high is $1.0614, reached on Aug. 21, 1957. Its record low was 61.79 cents, reached in January 2002. Since then, the...

TORONTO - A Toronto mosque is telling Muslims not to say "Happy Thanksgiving" or invite friends into their homes for turkey dinner on the holiday weekend. The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque says to "avoid participating" in dinners, parties or greetings on Thanksgiving because it is a kuffaar, or non-Muslim, celebration. A two-part article on the mosque Web site says Muslims should also "stay completely away" from "Halloween trick-and treat nonsense," Christmas, New Year's, anniversaries, birthdays and Earth Day. "How can we bring ourselves to congratulate or wish people well for their disobedience to Allah? Thus expressions such as:Happy Thanksgiving, Happy...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Canadian Forces launched their biggest combat operation in more than a month early Saturday, pushing into the Zhari district of Kandahar province to clear the way for Afghan security forces to reclaim recently lost ground. Canadian troops exchanged fire with the Taliban and encountered a number of improvised explosive devices, said Lt.-Col. Claude Fournier, Canada's chief of operations here. However, no Canadian soldiers were killed or seriously injured in the early stages of Operation Khar Khowhai -- Keeping Goodwill. Lt.-Col. Fournier added a small number of Taliban were killed in the clashes, but he could not say...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Stepped-up inspections at the Canadian and Mexican borders have led to lines nearly as long as they were after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The longer lines of people driving into the United States from Mexico or Canada, some returning U.S. citizens, have appeared over the past month or two at several ports of entry. The wait to cross became so long this month at Blue Water Bridge, which connects Port Huron, Mich., with Point Edward/Sarnia, Ontario, that the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario set up portable toilets along the road. "Many motorists have become stranded in...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian War Museum has bowed to pressure from veterans and agreed to change a controversial exhibit critical of Allied bombing of German cities in World War Two. The decision had some historians crying foul that a public outcry could force a change but others said the exhibit had given an inaccurate impression of the bombing campaign, which killed 600,000 Germans. The exhibit refers to how the value and morality of the bombing campaign remains bitterly contested. The museum in Ottawa is still deciding how to revise it, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "Although Bomber Command and...

Army News video: RCA training for gun line defence SHILO, Manitoba - Royal Canadian Artillery provides fire support and defence from advancing enemy.

Middle class wants to escape drug cartels, corrupt authorities Manuel Lanveros could have come to Canada through normal immigration channels as a skilled immigrant. Instead, the Mexican citizen simply hopped on a plane and asked for refugee asylum here because, he says, he couldn't afford to risk his life on the two-year wait. An architect with 15 years of experience, Lanveros represents a new wave of Mexican refugees who contradict the desperate day-labourer stereotype: educated, upper-middle-class professionals who claim corrupt authorities are failing to protect them from drug cartels, abusive spouses or gay bashers. According to the Immigration and Refugee...

Canadian Catholic News OTTAWA, Canada (CCN) – A recent Canadian Press-Decima Research Poll shows Canadians are divided on the role God played – or did not play – in the creation of humans. But that does not mean the Intelligent Design controversy raging in the United States will come to Canada. According to the poll released July 3, 26 percent of Canadians believe “that God created human beings pretty much in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so,” while 34 percent said “human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but...

Read email before watching video These are some examples of the fight in Afghanistan.. These video shots are not made through the shooter's telescopic sight... they are made looking through the spotter's scope. The spotter lies right next to the sniper and helps the sniper to find and home in on the target. The sniper is using a 50 caliber rifle. A 50 cal. round is about 7-8 inches long and the casing is about an inch in diameter. The bullet itself is one-half inch in diameter and roughly one and one-half inches long. Pay close attention to the beginning...

Canada's foreign minister said Wednesday he has asked his American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, to ensure that a 20-year-old Canadian captive at Guantánamo Bay be granted better access to his family, legal counsel and educational materials. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said he contacted Rice last week about the case of Omar Khadr, who has been in U.S. custody since he was 15 and is accused by the U.S. government of being a terrorist. ''I asked specifically about his well-being and for a medical and psychological assessment to be done,'' MacKay said. ``We're going to continue to provide consular access as...

A bomb was detonated outside a Jewish community center in Montreal, Canada, during the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover, police reported Wednesday

Residents in Bingham County have started a local chapter of the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, which is collecting signatures to once again try to get an initiative to ban gray wolves from Idaho on the ballot. The group failed to gather enough signatures to get a similar initiative on the ballot last year. Coalition Chairman Ron Gillett of Stanley said the group's new goal is to gather 100,000 signatures. He also has instructed petition carriers to make certain that everyone who signs is a registered voter. In 2006, the group collected more than 40,000 signatures in six weeks before running out...

"MEXICO - A B.C. construction worker jailed for more than two years in Mexico over a building contract that went sour says he's been wrongly imprisoned by a corrupt system. "Get me out of here," a frustrated Peter Kimber said yesterday from his prison cell in Huatulco, where he suffers from kidney problems and other ill health. He said he has endured dozens of beatings and atrocious conditions because he can't pay bribes to get out. "I want somebody to actually help save what's left of my life," he said. "I've tried it on my own for two years and...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Immigrants to the small Quebec town of Herouxville must not stone women in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules made public by the local council. The declaration, published on the town's Web site, has deepened a debate in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province over how tolerant Quebecers should be towards the customs and traditions of immigrants. "We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here," said the declaration, which also...

NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia - A Canadian pig farmer confessed to killing 49 women and was caught before he could reach his goal of making it an even 50, prosecutors told jurors at the start of his murder trial Monday. Robert William Pickton, 56, has been charged with killing 26 women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts who vanished from Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside neighborhood in the 1990s. Prosecutor Derrill Prevett stunned the courtroom by saying that Pickton told investigators, including an undercover officer planted in his jail cell, that he had slain 49 women. "I was going to do one...

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said. The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north. Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake. (Watch the satellite images that clued in ice watchers) Warwick Vincent of...

The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday his agency will start removing federal protection from gray wolves in Montana and Idaho by January, regardless of whether Wyoming has submitted an acceptable plan to manage its own wolves by then. Wyoming's plan is tied up in lawsuits, and Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall said his agency is moving ahead with Idaho and Montana, where management plans are already in place. ( Canadian ) Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains a decade ago after being hunted to near-extinction, and now number more than 1,200 in...

<p>After a long hiatus because of a boating accident in which her fiance drowned, Loreena McKinnett is finally back with a just released CD, 'An Ancient Muse'.</p> <p>You can see streaming video footage of “Caravanserai” (from 'An Ancient Muse') performed live at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (September 2006). It’s an exciting taste of the PBS Great Performances live concert TV special to come in March 2007, 'Nights from the Alhambra'.</p>

Sunni Arab militant groups suspected of ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have established training camps east of Baghdad that are turning out well-disciplined units willing to fight American forces in set-piece battles, American military commanders said Thursday. American soldiers fought such units in a pitched battle last week in the village of Turki, 25 miles south of this Iraqi Army base in volatile Diyala Province, near the Iranian border. At least 72 insurgents and two American officers were killed in more than 40 hours of fighting. American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes while soldiers shot...