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Canada condemned on Monday a series of elaborate hoax emails and a fake website story that claimed the country would cut emissions of greenhouse gases by a much greater amount than previously announced. Officials said they believed environmental activists were responsible for the hoax... Canada is under heavy fire from green campaigners... The initial email, purporting to come from the federal environment ministry, said Canada would set binding emissions reductions targets of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050. It also announced Canada would give billions of dollars to African countries for emissions-reduction...

OTTAWA — The United States Embassy has confirmed that negotiations are underway to see if the massive concrete barriers on the perimeter of the property can be removed without jeopardizing its security. The city wants the barriers on Sussex Drive and MacKenzie Avenue replaced with bollards and lanes freed for traffic, and an embassy spokeswoman said talks are going on with the National Capital Commission and the city about the projected road improvements. Sophie Nadeau would not discuss details of the planned changes to security arrangements around the embassy, which were put in place in 2003 after the 9/11 attacks,...

Bishop John Chapman has given a church in the diocese of Ottawa permission to begin offering a rite of blessing to same-gender couples who are civilly married. The Church of St. John the Evangelist could offer its first blessing as soon as a married couple asks. At least one person in the couple needs to be baptized. “Same-sex couples who are civilly married and seek the Church’s blessing of their marriage must be welcomed with the same care and solicitude that the church would extend to any other of its members,” Bishop Chapman wrote in his charge to the recent...

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man convicted of stealing manhole covers from Ottawa streets after he failed to show up at court for his sentencing. Timothy Argiropoulos, 43, pleaded guilty in May to theft and mischief endangering life after being charged last July after 25 manhole covers that went missing from the Smyth Road and St. Laurent Boulevard area. Argiropoulos was also supposed to deal Friday with unrelated charges for dangerous driving and theft of copper wire. Argiropoulos has an extensive criminal record, which includes multiple convictions for theft and other property offences. .... The charges were...

.... Plans for a monument on Parliament Hill to honour the estimated 100 million or so innocent men, women and children killed at the hands of Communist regimes around the world, on the other hand, have hit a snag, with the NCC worried that a "Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarian Communism" risks giving offence to communists. At a public meeting last week in Ottawa, members of the NCC's board approved the plans for a monument "in principle," allowing that the submitted application for the memorial "largely meets" the commission's criteria for a public exhibit on capital land. But several...

So there I was, on my way to the grocery store this morning to pick up a nice one and three quarter inch thick T-bone for a BBQ this weekend. The store is on the corner of Bank and Somerset - pretty much the nexus of all things left wing in Ottawa. With construction shutting down car traffic on Bank Street all summer, various stores are offering up promos to help with business. Just as I turned to enter the store, the attached Quiznos sign caught my eye - or rather, something *on* the Quiznos sign. Dear Leader! Blasphemed! I...

A young Mississauga man has pleaded guilty to intending to cause an explosion, the first time a member of the so-called Toronto 18 group has admitted the existence of a bomb plot. At a trial last year of a co-accused, prosecutors alleged some of the group's members were planning to bomb sites such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, RCMP headquarters in Ottawa, the Pickering nuclear power station and the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency, located next to the CN Tower. In an unexpected move, Saad Khalid, 22, entered his plea on Monday but Justice Bruce Durno banned publication of...

The ObamaTail's newest fan just might be the man it is named after. President Barack Obama shocked workers and patrons of the ByWard Market yesterday afternoon by jumping out of his motorcade for an unscheduled stop in the Ottawa landmark to "buy Canadian" for his daughters. Among his selections were some Maple Leaf shortbread cookies from Le Moulin de Provence, a keychain with a moose on it, and an example of Ottawa's legendary BeaverTail pastry -- this one named in his honour. When Mr. Obama got out of his armoured Cadillac just before 4 p.m. he was handed a crispy,...

He had us at merci. Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa Thursday was a six-hour romance with a country eager to return his affections. Indeed, the whole nation seemed weak in the knees. It was easy to forgive the little slip at the beginning of an afternoon news conference when he started to explain what a “great pleasure it is to be in Iowa, er, Ottawa.” How could we not adore him when he followed that faux pas with a mention of his Canadian brother-in-law and two Canadian staff members and declared: “I love this country and think that we could...

OTTAWA -- Let the love-in begin. With stars and stripes flapping in the wind, enamoured Canadians will line the streets of Ottawa today trying to catch a glimpse of Barack Obama as he touches down for a premiere meet-and-greet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But with heavy security measures locking down much of the city core, they could be disappointed. Key streets around Parliament Hill will be closed off as Obama makes his way in an armoured car to private and official meetings with the PM followed by a luncheon with a tight circle of guests. After a brief news...

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper give a joint news conference at 1445 Tuesday. It will be held in Parliament's Centre Block. Though there are roughly 300 or so members of Canada's Parliamentary Press Gallery, just 40 will be allowed inside the press conference room. And even though (or so we are told) there are 70 members of the White House Press Corps travelling with Obama tomorrow, they too, will only get 40 seats. I can tell you that dozens upon dozens of Canadian journalists from outside Ottawa asked for accreditation for this event, most of which will...

It's going to be a doozy of a welcome for a very special guest who is pretty much guaranteed to be a no-show. Bus trips have been organized in Montreal, Kitchener and Toronto. Hotel rooms are booked, Facebook groups are buzzing and websites have sprung up to give visitors all the latest information. They're coming to wave signs on Parliament Hill -- if security allows it -- and to cheer at a church rally, where the poet Oni the Haitian Sensation will be performing. Mayor Larry O'Brien might be part of the action, though he hasn't confirmed yet, and a...

It's a visit that promises a little of the glamour that swirled through the streets when John F. Kennedy and his wife arrived for a state visit in May, 1961. U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive at the Canadian capital in the morning of Feb. 19 and could be home before dark. There will be no state dinner or eloquent speeches to the Canadian people. And his wife could well stay home. But Mr. Obama's visit still promises to dazzle a mostly adoring country. Ajay Puri and other members of Canadians for Obama plan to be part of it. "C'mon,...

..."My job is in Barrhaven. I work nights. I must walk 18 kilometres to work. It takes six hours. And then I must walk six hours home after I work all night. I am nearly 60. "This strike shouldn't happen," she says. "I come home, I rest for a few hours. Can you imagine to work all night and after to walk 18 kilometres home and then, sit down for two or three hours and then walk back and work all night again?"...

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...

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s archbishop would like all parishes in the sprawling diocese to kneel at the same time during the Mass. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast said he is implementing what the Canadian bishops had decided a few years ago would be common practice throughout Canada when the new translation of the Roman Missal comes into use. He never expected his request would become a front-page story in the Ottawa Citizen, describing the move as “authoritarian.” “It didn’t strike me as controversial,” he said. “But you can always line up people on either side of an issue.” “It gets the message out...

The Detroit Three automakers are seeking a total of $6.8 billion in loans and credit lines from Ottawa and Ontario, saying they need some of that money before the end of the year as they struggle with a worsening economy. While only Ford Canada officially released its dollar figures today, The Canadian Press has learned that Chrysler Canada asked for $1.6 billion in emergency loans, while General Motors is seeking $2.4 billion in repayable loans. GM is also seeking $800 million immediately to get through their liquidity problems, a source said. Ford Canada said it was seeking a $2-billion standby...

The University of Ottawa Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) has cited the Jewish student group Hillel's "relationship to apartheid Israel" as a reason for turning down a request for funds to sponsor a speech November 20. The speech was given by Israel Sariri, but it had nothing to do with Israel. Sariri is the head of a Ugandan group working on sustainable development projects in the African Jewish community. Not only was the speech apolitical, in fact it was a multiculturalist's dream theme: about schools that feed and educate 500 Jewish, Muslim and Christian children studying together, and open to...

Police put in tight jam Cellphone jammers might silence annoying public chat, but they also risk officers' safety By BETH JOHNSTON, SUN MEDIA The Mounties have warned every police agency in the country about cellphone jammers after two Quebec officers were left with two suspects and dead radios on a darkened highway shoulder last month. It was Oct. 15 and the Quebec City police officers had stopped a car whose occupants they believed were connected with organized crime. When they approached the car, they saw "a suspicious device" on its door, police sources said. The suspects told police they bought...

Until last year, Hassan Diab was leading the quiet life of a Canadian sociology professor. Prof. Diab was teaching at both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, was said to be a popular colleague and teacher. After leaving the violence of his native Lebanon and earning his doctorate in the United States, Prof. Diab, 54, received his Canadian citizenship and appeared to settle into Ottawa. There, friends said he was a secular man with an interest in sociology and Middle East studies, and was not without a warm side. "He has a great rapport with students," said Carleton professor...

An Ottawa university instructor has been arrested for the infamous terrorist bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980 that killed four people, injured scores of others and put synagogues around the world on a tough new security footing. Hassan Diab, 54, was arrested by the RCMP at Gatineau residence Thursday morning as he was getting dressed, and placed in custody at the RCMP's A division on McArthur Road, said his lawyer, René Duval. He is to appear in an Ottawa court on Friday.

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

OTTAWA - Momin Khawaja, the Ottawa computer specialist who plotted jihad from his government desk at foreign affairs, has been found guilty of five terrorism related charges. Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford ruled Wednesday that Mr. Khawaja, 29, played a significant role in a plot to bomb sites in London, England in 2004. Mr. Khawaja, the judge concluded in his verdict, was not guilty of the two most serious terrorism offences connected to his building of a radio-frequency device for London terror cell. The judge, however, found Mr. Khawaja guilty of two related, lesser Criminal Code offences. Mr. Khawaja,...

A Quebec man has posted messages on the Internet encouraging Al-Qa'ida to attack Canada, the latest in a series of similar sentiments that are worrying counterterrorism officials. The author of the messages, who uses the pseudonym Altar, praised terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and asked why Al-Qa'ida was focusing its efforts only on Europe instead of Canada. "Allah is great and may Allah bless Sheikh bin Laden. May the sword held by the hand of Al-Qa'ida hit not only Europe, but hit all our enemies. Wherever they are," he wrote in a Sept. 25 posting. "Me, I live in Canada...

Ottawa recovers from near-record snowfallThe Red Cross has set-up cots in the Ottawa airport for the hundreds of people stranded there today, after more than 50 centimetres of snow fell on the capital city during this weekend's massive storm. Meteorologist Paul Delannoy happened to be stuck at the airport, waiting for his wife's flight to arrive. He spoke to CTV Newsnet Sunday afternoon. "There's hardly anything moving at the Ottawa airport," he said. "There are people sleeping everywhere, piles of suitcases and lots of people waiting for in-coming passengers who aren't coming." Ottawa now has had 410.7 centimetres of snow...

New Pembroke Bishop: "Pro-life is an incredibly important issue for us in the Church today" Adds, "It's a difficulty that's reeking havoc in our spiritual lives, in our nation and throughout the world" By John-Henry Westen and Steve Jalsevac PEMBROKE, ON, September 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Immediately after his ordination today as the new bishop of the Catholic diocese of Pembroke, a small diocese in Canada's Ottawa Valley district, Bishop Michael Mulhall emphasized that the pro-life issue is a very high priority for him. During a brief meeting with the press after the ordination LifeSiteNews asked the bishop for his...

An unfinished country Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 The silly name for our national holiday, "Canada Day" (imagine "Italy Day" or "U.S.A. Day") always makes me flinch. It has done so since 1982 when Dominion Day, a perfectly appropriate name for a big, beautiful country like ours, was voted into the oubliette of history after five minutes' debate without a parliamentary quorum present. "Dominion" happens not to refer to the British empire, as assumed by the bill's presenting MP, but to the 72nd Psalm: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea ?" But...

Calls for speedier regional economic integration between U.S., Mexico WASHINGTON – The controversial "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007," which would grant millions of illegal aliens the right to stay in the U.S. under certain conditions, contains provisions for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a plan for North American economic and defense integration, WND has learned. The bill, as worked out by Senate and White House negotiators, cites the SPP agreement signed by President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada March 23, 2005 – an agreement that has been criticized as...

Everyone is talking about a huge Sabres brawl. Many fans say it was the wildest game they ever saw! Here's how it happened Thursday night at HSBC Arena against the Ottawa Senators. It all started in the second period, when Buffalo Sabres captain Chris Drury got injured after taking a brutal hit by Senators forward Chris Neil.

Victim seeks approval for class-action lawsuit MONTREAL -- Five decades after unwittingly participating in brainwashing experiments that were funded by the CIA and the federal government, 78-year-old Janine Huard went to Federal Court yesterday to try and persuade a judge she is entitled to compensation. "They demolished me," Huard told reporters yesterday before her court hearing. "They gave me terrible drugs, electroshocks and made me stay in a bed with a mask over my face listening to recordings for hours." Huard had entered Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute in 1958 after suffering postpartum depression following the birth of her second child....

Radical Islam’s War Against the West to be screened in Ottawa http://www.judeoscope.ca/breve.php3?id_breve=3043 Wednesday 10 January 2007 Wednesday 10 January 2007Radical Islam’s War Against the West to be screened in Ottawa According to the Montreal Muslim News site, Obssession. Radical Islam’s War Against the West, will be screened in an Ottawa movie theatre on January 29, 2007.Unsurprisingly, the MMN site - which has a history of promoting conspiracy theories disculpating radical Islamists for the 9-11 attacks - takes issue with the film calling it “hate filled and Islamaphobic�, despite the fact the film merely examines radical Islamist ideology, its profound enmity...

The Canadian edition of Time Magazine has chosen Syrian born Maher Arar as its Newsmaker of the Year. The Ottawa Ontario resident landed at JFK International Airport in New York in September 2002 after returning from Tunisia where his wife has family. The Canadian citizen was detained in New York and then shipped off to his native Syria where he was detained and tortured for over a year before being released. After returning to Canada, Arar chose not to blend into the woodwork but forced the Canadian government to hold an inquiry into his arrest and detention and to examine...

If Canadians require further evidence why our allies in the war against terrorism no longer trust us, they need look no further than the Maher Arar case. This is the man U.S. authorities apprehended at Kennedy airport in New York last September, alleging he was an al-Qaeda operative. Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen, but he also is a citizen of Syria and as such under U.S. immigration law -- Canadian law has a similar provision -- was subject to deportation to either Canada or Syria. U.S. authorities chose to send him to Syria. We can only guess why. At...

Letter to churches targets candidate's sexual orientation Wed Nov 8, 1:57 PM OTTAWA (CBC) - A letter highlighting the sexual orientation of mayoral hopeful Alex Munter was distributed to churches around Ottawa this week, and church leaders say it was an attempt to stir up bigotry. The letter claimed to be from a group called "Homosexual Supremacy" and arrived by regular mail to a number of churches on Tuesday, less than one week before the Nov. 13 municipal election. Recent polls show Munter is leading the race to become mayor of Ottawa. The letter calls Munter a "proud Homosexual" and...

Alleged Canadian al-Qaeda 'sleeper' agent set to testify October 25, 2004 OTTAWA - A man accused of being a member of al-Qaeda appeared in an Ottawa federal court Monday to fight deportation to Algeria, where he fears he may be killed. Canadian authorities arrested Mohammed Harkat nearly two years ago on a national security certificate, which allows Ottawa to deport non-Canadian citizens considered a security risk. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says Abu Zubaydah, a senior al-Qaeda member now in custody, told American authorities he helped train Harkat in Afghanistan. CSIS thinks Harkat was sent to Canada as a "sleeper"...

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian lawmaker resigned his job as the opposition's assistant foreign affairs critic over comments last week touting dialogue with Hezbollah that sparked a furor in Ottawa. Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj proposed during a visit to war-torn Lebanon that Canada should try to negotiate with the militant group to secure a lasting ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

The Israeli ambassador is taking Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe to task for participating in a pro-Hezbollah rally. Alan Baker has written a sharply worded letter to Duceppe, saying the Aug. 6 march in Montreal was a glorification of Hezbollah, which Canada considers to be a terrorist group. Liberal MP Denis Coderre also marched, but Baker aimed his complaint at Duceppe, a party leader. The ambassador says he has no problem with demonstrations or with people expressing their opinions, but he says glorifying Hezbollah is wrong.

Ottawa Pride saved from untimely demise CAPITAL PRIDE / Not-for-profit fronts $20,000 for struggling Pride fest Jefferson Mendoza / Capital Xtra / Monday, July 10, 2006 A unifying moment for Ottawa's queer community occurred today when it was announced that Capital Xtra -- under the paper's parent company Pink Triangle Press -- will be providing the emergency funding of $20,000 to the Pride Committee Of Ottawa-Gatineau. Representatives from both organizations shook hands at the Human Rights Memorial, just in front of city hall, during the announcement. The 2006 Pride festival will be renamed Capital Pride, not inspired from the paper's...

Barring a miracle, there will be no Pride Week Festival in Ottawa this year, festival organizers say, after city council rejected please for emergency funding yesterday. Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes asked councillors and the mayor to grant $20,000 to help get this year's event - the 20th anniversary edition - off the ground. But the plea fell mostly on deaf ears, and the move was defeated on a vote of 15 to 3.Ms. Holmes then tried to get councillors and the mayor to agree to give organizers $12,000 to pay for insurance so a small-scale festival could be held. This...

Ottawa police are appealing for help from the public to find out who is cutting cables and damaging cable boxes around the city — and why. Police say there have been 13 incidents since May 23, the last one just last week. The cables were cut at several government buildings, and at some strip malls and stores. There have been 13 incidents since May 23. Const. Isabelle Lemieux said the cables or boxes are usually located in isolated or unlit areas. Telephone, internet and electrical services have been affected by the vandalism, she said. "The tool they are using appears...

Demise of multiculturalism can help root out terrorism Jonathan Alter - For the Journal-Constitution Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Multiculturalism, rest in peace. There may have been no obituary for the notion that every group and every belief in a multiethnic society is deserving of mutual respect and tolerance. But thanks to jihadism, multiculturalism and moral relativism --- its necessary counterpart --- are now 6 feet under. Signs of multiculturalism's demise first began to appear in Holland, a nation that officially embraced its precepts in 1983. In theory, the Minderhedennota, or minorities policy, extended the Dutch tradition of tolerance to a...

We have a real opportunity to turn a city around FOREVER here and embarrass the heck out of the gay lobby. As a previous post mentioned, the Ottawa Pride parade and festival was NOT granted the money it requested by the committee. Now it goes to full City Council on Wednesday. The gay lobby is stepping up and pushing Council to grant the necessary money, as they have struggled to get the money needed with little corporate support. If it does not come, the event could be PERMANENTLY lost. It would be the second large North American city to watch...

Ottawa pushes for arrest of Iran chief prosecutor Canadian Press Updated: Fri. Jun. 23 2006 GENEVA — Canada's diplomatic battle with Iran reached a new intensity Friday as the federal government said it is seeking the arrest of a senior Iranian official implicated in the death of a Canadian. The government wants charges brought against Iran's hardline chief prosecutor, who has been tied to the arrest of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist tortured and killed in Tehran in 2003. Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Friday that the government asked German authorities this week to arrest Saeed Mortazavi if he stopped...

Pride Festival Denied Funding Josh Pringle Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Organizers of Ottawa-Gatineau Pride Week say the future of the festival is in jeopardy. The comments were made after a City of Ottawa committee rejected a request for 20 million dollars in emergency funding. The Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee did approve 30-thousand dollars in city services and debt forgiveness. Vice-Chair of the Pride Week Committee Tamara Stammis says the board will have to meet to decide their next step. Stammis says the cash request was an important element for the festival. Councillor Diane Holmes tells CFRA News "is...

More density needed in Ottawa's centre QUEER GEOGRAPHY / Cover parking lots with highrise apartments Jamey Heath / Capital Xtra / Thursday, June 08, 2006 ICONIC LANDSCAPES. Downtown Ottawa is covered in empty parking lots, writes Jamey Heath. More density, and a more fun downtown, is a queer issue, Heath argues. (Pat Croteau) Ask a friend from toronto or montreal to join you in ottawa for a weekend and you'll likely receive a sneer in return. Sure, we have a great hate-crimes unit and some terrific bike paths, but for a gay weekend getaway-or one at home-let's face it, we...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Some children in Canada are so well-off and so keen on current affairs that they donate thousands of dollars to politicians -- at least, that's what one contender for the leadership of the opposition Liberal Party seems to believe. Former Immigration Minister Joe Volpe hit the spotlight this week after it emerged that a pair of 11-year-old twins and their 14-year-old brother had each donated C$5,400 ($4,900) to his leadership campaign. The parents of the children -- who also donated C$5,400 to Volpe's campaign -- are related to the chairman of generic drug maker Apotex Inc. In...

Canada would lose international credibility and the ability to influence future climate-change negotiations if it withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, say briefing documents prepared for Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. "Given the Kyoto Protocol's international profile . . . withdrawal from the Protocol would have important foreign policy implications," says the document, marked "secret." The analysis could explain why the Conservative government has chosen to remain within the protocol despite having fought it while in opposition, and despite deeming its targets unrealistic. "Canada would also have difficulty contributing effectively to consideration of possible future commitments by the developing countries, like...

Pride far from alone in financial woes OTTAWA PRIDE / Festival board will ask city for large grant James Moran / Capital Xtra / Thursday, April 13, 2006 YEAR OF PLATINUM. Mayor Bob Chiarelli and Councillor Diane Holmes helped Darren Fisher cut the cake marking the 20th anniversary of Pride in Ottawa on Apr 5. Will council be there for Ottawa's queer c (Pat Croteau) While the Ottawa-Gatineau Pride Committee shoulders a $178,211 debt and lurches toward their sponsorship deadline and an uncertain future, a city of Ottawa committee has suggested bailing out the financially imperilled Canadian Tulip Festival and...

Pride gives itself April deadline PLATINUM PRIDE / Platinum Pride goal is $50,000 -- or else James Moran / Capital Xtra / Thursday, March 23, 2006 PAIRED UP WITH CITY COUNCILLORS. John Gazo, chair of planning for the Pride committee, says city hall needs to give more money to all local festivals. (Pat Croteau) The cash-strapped Ottawa-Gatineau Pride Committee has given itself a deadline of Apr 15 to line up support for this year's platinum anniversary festival. If the target of $50,000 in sponsorships is not reached by then, the festival could be cancelled. And Pride is telling creditors if...