Free Republic

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...

Glenn Beck apologized to the White house today for using the "Vancouver" Olympics on his TV show last night as his example of an Olympics that lost money when he meant to say the "Calgary" Olympics. I guess the White House is making a big deal out of this error. When I heard him apologize on his radio show today, I thought, I watched that show and I could have swore he said Calgary. I just went back and re watched that portion of his show and I was right, he said Calgary. Just in case somebody else already hasn't...

Health Care Systems: A return to private health care is rising from the grass roots north of the border. While we rush headlong toward socialized medicine, Canadians are saying, "No, thanks — been there, done that." We recently told the story of Ava Isabella Stinson, born 13 weeks premature at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. She weighed all of two pounds and had no time to be put on a waiting list. But there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario it seems. Canada's perfectly...

A highly-anticipated hockey video game that features realistic fighting scenarios and black eyes is a useful tool to teach children that brawls are part of the game and in some cases can help you win, says a former NHL captain. Retired Vancouver Canucks player Trevor Linden, well-loved in the city and not known for getting into frequent dust-ups, endorsed "NHL 10" Monday prior to its next-day launch across North America. "Fighting in hockey is not something you necessarily want to promote, but at the same time, you want to make children understand that it is part of the game and...

In hopes of preventing terrorist attacks, 2010 Olympic organizers will deploy 8,000 security personnel, spend as much as $1 billion in Canadian government funds and elicit help from the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD leaders are finalizing plans with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide fighter jets and radar support in Vancouver, where 5,500 athletes from 80-plus countries, including about 215 Americans, will converge in February. About 4,000 Canadian soldiers are expected to oversee ground operations, with air patrol handled primarily by CF-18 Hornets from NORAD and Canadian Forces helicopters. On the water, the U.S. will complement Canadian...

Medical Care: A leaked report shows that Vancouver's health authority is considering cutting thousands of surgeries to balance the budget. However organized, government-run health care inevitably leads to rationing.Defenders of ObamaCare continually point out that their plan is not like Canada's, that holding that country's system up as an example of impending medical doom is invalid. Canada's system is different. Instead of having a single national plan, Canada's national health insurance, a kind of public option, is composed of 13 interlocking provincial and territorial plans, all framed under the Canada Health Act. But based on a report leaked to the...

It started out with the Vancouver Sun, and it made it down to MSNBC's David Shuster and Dem Strategist Joe Trippi

Former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children say it never happened.Matthew Spencer and Kathryn Tetz, who live in Sacramento, Calif., each took the stand Friday in Clark County Superior Court to clear their father's name, The Columbian newspaper reported.Matthew, now 33, was 9 years old at the time. He told a judge he made the allegation after months of insistent questioning by now-retired Clark County sheriff's detective Sharon Krause just so she would leave him alone.Tetz, 30, said she...

The Daily Kos is scoring a lot of political points against Free Republic with the race and children cards. It was not our finest hour. But just how saintly and pure of thought are the Kossacks? Here’s the original Kos diary from Thursday that got the ball rolling against FR.The Kos diarist who posted the piece, Halfrican, closed his report on the FR thread with this wish for Freepers and their children:I hope all these Freepers have children that grow up to either marry black people or f*** them in high school. (asterisks added.)But we're the racists, right? I wonder...

Well, should've seen this coming: conservative blog Free Republic fired hate speech off at Malia Obama after this photo of her appeared, letting their commenters go to town. But the journalist who reported this as news isn't innocent, either. Chris Parry of The Vancouver Sun highlighted some of the comments on the mainstream, hard right-wing blog/news aggregator Free Republic. Among them, a picture of Michelle talking to Malia Obama with the caption: "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds." Classy. These mouthbreathing, borderline morons then kept piled on: "A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto...

-snip- *****Update II: Maybe before Shuster goes any further with this, he might want to investigate the Vancouver Sun writer's possible connection to Daily Kos (h/t NBer carolina09). "HollywoodOz" has written some pretty vile stuff at DailyKos during his tenure. These included playing a mnemonics game wherein "BUSH" was "Bloody Useless Sack Of Hatred" and CHENEY was "Can He Eat Negro Eyes Yet." He's also fond of creating Google bombs, including one in 2005 to make Bill O'Reilly look like a terrorist sympathizer. What's the connection to the Sun's Chris Parry? Well, Moxie Online has a member named HollywoodOz, real...

<p>Freepers, get the word out loud and wide. The Vancouver Sun "journalist" Chris Parry that defamed Jim Robinson and FreeRepublic is none other than radical left blogger "Hollywoodoz" at the Daily Kos. In addition to writting for the Vancouver Sun, Chris is a frustrated and failed internet entrepreneur, having launched many websites and blogs, all of which have virtually no traffic, following, or success. Chris also writes movie reviews, though these are pretty lame.</p>

Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children By Chris Parry, Vancouver SunJuly 11, 2009 11:01 AM This photo of U.S. President Barrack Obama's daughter Malia, wearing a peace-symbol t-shirt touched off a storm of epithet-laced comments on the conservative 'Free Republic' blog "A typical street whore." "A bunch of ghetto thugs." "Ghetto street trash." "Wonder when she will get her first abortion." These are a small selection of some of the racially-charged comments posted to the conservative 'Free Republic' blog Thursday, aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama's 11-year-old daughter Malia after she...

The Lower Mainland in British Columbia has become a playground for up-and-coming gangsters in the drug trade. The innocent who get caught in the crossfire are often young too.The latest mayhem started at the end of March, when 21-year-old Sean Murphy, a popular former high school hockey player, drove into a withering blast of gunfire near Bateman Park. He was probably dead before his car coasted to a stop in the weeds. That same night, Ryan Richards, 19, abruptly left a friend's house after getting a cellphone call. His body was found the next morning behind a rural produce store....

A naked man robbed a woman of her french fries at a Vancouver-area drive-in restaurant on the weekend. RCMP said Monday the woman was at a Wendy's Restaurant drive-through in Langley at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday waiting for her order. When the attendant passed her fries through the window, a naked man in his 20s ran between her car and the window and took her food. He jumped into a silver van and sped away. The victim could not describe the man and police were not able to locate the van.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News has learned that two passengers arrested at Sea-Tac Airport last weekend may be linked to a suspect's deadly plunge from a high-rise balcony in Vancouver, British Columbia during a raid. Federal sources both in British Columbia and in Seattle tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators the weekend arrest at Sea-Tac of two men on the terrorist "no-fly" list may be just the tip of the iceberg. We're told the FBI is very interested in trying to connect three separate — and recent — incidents involving Pakistani illegals. Federal sources told KIRO Team 7 Investigators that about a...

Federal agents have searched several Western Washington locations in an expanding investigation of two Pakistani men arrested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Saturday after their names appeared on terrorism watch lists. Agents also have scrutinized passenger lists for possible associates of the men on the American Airlines and JetBlue flights for which they tried to buy tickets. The men, who bought one-way tickets with cash, have not been charged with a crime and have not been publicly identified. One, a 29-year-old with a New York driver's license, had been detained and released at an unnamed airport once before and had...

Prostitutes in training for Vancouver Olympics   They'll learn how to talk to the media   May 19, 2009 04:30 AM   THE CANADIAN PRESS VANCOUVER – Vancouver sex-trade workers need to know their rights when dealing with cameras and reporters and will be offered media training ahead of the 2010 Olympic Games, an advocacy group said. The Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society, located in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside, will hold the session in November. "We just want our members to feel safe. ... Media attention to the area can be a little less than compassionate and we don't...

(1) Vienna (2) Zurich (3) Geneva (4) Vancouver and Auckland (tie) (6) Dusseldorf (7) Munich (8) Frankfurt (9) Bern (10) Sydney

The state Department of Ecology in 1996 officially declared Burnt Bridge Creek to be severely polluted with fecal coliform. The environmental regulators, it turns out, had unwittingly contributed to the problem. This week, Vancouver city workers made a startling discovery near the regional office shared by Ecology and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at 2108 Grand Blvd. At some point in the building's history, a sewer pipe that was supposed to be connected to the city's sanitary sewer main had been incorrectly connected to a stormwater line instead. "The only thing that's supposed to be in the stormwater...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11 (UPI) -- Two more people have been gunned down in the violence-wracked western Canadian city of Vancouver, raising the region's death toll to 20 this year, police said. City police were called to an apartment above retail stores in the city's east end Tuesday morning, where they found the two victims, The Province newspaper said. The city has had a spate of gang- and drug-related shootings and attacks this year but Constable Lindsey Houghton said it was too early to tell if the double killing was part of the turf war. He said officers had...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) – A surge in gang violence is hurting Vancouver's image as it prepares to host the 2010 Olympics, the city's mayor said on Friday. Police publicly acknowledged for the first time that the Vancouver area was in the midst of a "gang war" between several organized crime groups fighting over the illegal drug market. While the violence is still tame compared to that seen in other parts of the world, it is not something Vancouver is used to dealing with, Mayor Gregor Robertson said. "Vancouver has never been known for this, so in terms of our...

January 23, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/fugitive012309.htm Possible Sighting of FBI Fugitive in British Columbia The FBI is working with Canadian authorities to confirm the possible sighting of one of its Domestic Terrorism fugitives. Last November, the Bureau announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of four eco-terrorists known as “The Family.” Rebecca Rubin, one of the four fugitives, was spotted by a tipster who may have seen her near her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia. We received several tips about all of the fugitives as a result of the publicity. Some of...

Monday, January 12, 2009 Could the 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS BE cancelled? A BILLION DOLLAR BAILOUT IS NEEDED! Will RUSSIA BAIL THEM OUT? Vancouver taxpayers are on the hook for the entire billion-dollar Olympic Athletes' Village project after the lender cut off funding to the troubled development, Mayor Gregor Robertson said Friday. Now, the city is scrambling to renegotiate its deal with Fortress Investment Group before Feb. 15, when the money flow is to evaporate and construction will be halted unless a new deal is in place. "The Olympic village is a billion-dollar project, and the city taxpayers are on the...

Tuesday January 6, 2009 Outspokenly Orthodox, Pro-life Archbishop Takes Over in Vancouver Diocese By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiVANCOUVER, January 6, 2008 (LifeSIteNews.com) - The Archdiocese of Vancouver has announced that Coadjutor Archbishop J. Michael Miller will assume pastoral responsibility for the archdiocese following the retirement of Archbishop Raymond Roussin.Archbishop Miller is well-known for his orthodoxy, including on the life and family issues, and is a specialist on the Papacy and on Catholic higher education, having served as the Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, which oversees norms for seminaries, Catholic universities and colleges, and Catholic schools. He served in...

The teenager behind a "Kick a Ginger" group on Facebook is being investigated by police after reports of attacks on redhead children. Nearly 5,000 people joined the online campaign which urged members to "get them steel toes ready" for a day of booting this week. The website appears to have been inspired by a recent episode of the cartoon South Park, in which a young character called Cartman describes people with red hair as evil and soulless. Dozens of children left messages on the page claiming to have carried out attacks on "National Kick a Ginger Day" on Thursday,...

Harried family forgets tot in Vancouver airport Air Canada staff took care of boy while father flew back from Winnipeg The Associated Press updated 9:54 a.m. CT, Wed., May. 14, 2008 VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An immigrant family left a 23-month-old boy in the Vancouver airport and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of the trip. Jun Parreno, the boy's father, told The Vancouver Sun the mix-up occurred Monday as he, his wife and two grandparents of the child, J.M., were scrambling between their arrival in Canada and a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air...

Court rules BDSM case can be heard HUMAN RIGHTS / Judges reject claim that kinky sex not protected Jeremy Hainsworth / Xtra West / Wednesday, April 23, 2008 The BC Court of Appeal has ruled that the province's Human Rights Tribunal can resume hearing a complaint of alleged discrimination on the basis of BDSM practices to determine whether BDSM is protected from discrimination under the Human Rights Code and, if so, whether any discrimination took place in this case. In an Apr 8 decision, Justice Anne Rowles ruled that the BC Human Rights Tribunal was right to agree to hear...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

What do you call it when the Vancouver Public Library decides to present Felton, an apologist for the book-banning, journalist-jailing Iranian theocracy, as the featured author on the evening of Feb. 25, and as the library's contribution to national Freedom to Read Week? What do you call it when the Vancouver Public Library decides to present Felton, an apologist for the book-banning, journalist-jailing Iranian theocracy, as the featured author on the evening of Feb. 25, and as the library's contribution to national Freedom to Read Week?

The latest JFK tale tells of a tall, handsome, illegitimate Camelot kid now well into his 40s, living a life of seclusion in cold Canada. A call by the Herald to Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Washington, D.C. office yesterday was met with “nobody is available now.” Yet the New York Post reports the Bay State’s senior senator is trying to prevent Vanity Fair magazine from publishing the story of the alleged love child of the assassinated president. The Post proclaims Vanity Fair’s David Friend has been working on the article for more than a year and even sent photographer Harry Benson...

BRUSH PRAIRIE - The tracking dog Dakota was shot and killed Tuesday as teams of SWAT officers closed in on an armed convicted murderer - who allegedly had told an acquaintance he wanted to "kill a cop." Dakota, a 5-year-old German shepherd owned by the Vancouver Police Department, was shot in the head and killed about 3 ½ hours after police were called to the Lewis & Clark Railway Co. tracks just east of Northeast Caples Road in Brush Prairie....

Anti-Bush tracks among masters on hard drive that are taken The Department of Homeland Security may be substantially hipper than previously known. Chris Walla, the guitarist and producer for indie rock legends Death Cab for Cutie, says border guards seized a computer drive containing the master tracks for his upcoming solo album last month when a courier tried to deliver it to Seattle-based Barsuk Records from a studio in Vancouver, B.C. "I don't know what red flag could possibly have gone up at the border," Walla said Wednesday in a phone interview from Portland. Walla said he had been working...

Brian Baird’s statements that the surge is actually working has drawn the wrath of the Netroots. What’s striking is that it doesn’t say that Baird lied about the improving conditions on the ground. Please call Rep. Baird and thank him for his integrity and help prevent him from caving into the moonbats.

VANCOUVER -- In what Vancouver police say is likely the worst mass shooting in the city’s history, two masked gunmen burst into an eastside all-night Chinese restaurant and shot eight people in front of horrified onlookers. At least two young men died and a third man was taken to hospital in critical condition, according to Const. Howard Chow, a Vancouver Police Department spokesman. Five others were also taken to hospital with less serious gunshot wounds. The shooting happened around 4:30 a.m. local time Thursday at the Fortune Happiness Restaurant, leaving a restaurant shattered, and a city on edge. The severity...

Roy Klopp survived a shocking twist in his daily bike ride Monday after being bit in the behind by a black bear near Clinton. "It wasn't my day to die," said Klopp, who returned to his job at the sawmill last night after taking a day to recuperate from the attack. Around 11 a.m. Monday morning, Klopp, 56, and his border collies, Tippy and Chuckie, met an unusually aggressive black bear in the bushes near a curve in the walking trails above Clinton, a town of about 740 residents 380 kilometres northeast of Vancouver. Protected only by a pair of...

TORONTO (CP) - Microsoft Corp. plans to set up house in the Vancouver area this fall with a new software development centre that would attract talent without encountering U.S. immigration issues. The location will be one of only a few development centres outside the company's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., Microsoft said Thursday in a release. Microsoft added Vancouver to its expansion list, which already includes plans to build new sites in Boston and Bellevue, Wash.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - This city is in the throes of playoff hockey ecstasy, and agony. The Vancouver Canucks are in mortal secondround combat with the powerful Anaheim Ducks. Unbeknownst to many Canucks fans, there is another battle brewing, with more at stake than bragging rights and silver trophies. On the line are family connections, closely guarded business secrets, and a $250-million prize: Control of the 35-year-old NHL franchise itself, and the 18,600-seat, profit-churning arena where the team plays. A bitter ownership dispute between two wealthy Vancouver families goes to trial on Monday in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In...

If you think Greater Vancouver is ethnically diverse now, wait until 2031, when about one out of two people in the region will have been born outside of Canada. This is the region's demographic future if current trends -- strong immigration flows from Asia and a low Canadian birth rate -- continue over the next two decades, according to a new Statistics Canada report. "In 2031, about 50 per cent of the population in the census area of Vancouver will be immigrants," said Eric Caron Malenfant, one of the authors of the Statistics Canada report, called Demographic Changes in Canada...

We share common cause with the Islamist terrorists: Far from being unreasonable fanatics, the terrorists fight for the same things we do. We have a common enemy. Ian Buruma, writing in the Financial Times, reveals that “suicide bombers and jihadis” are by their very nature unreasonable. “There is nothing to negotiate with people who wish to kill as many infidels as they can to establish a divine realm of the faithful,” he instructs us. They see “mass murder as an existential act,” he adds. What source is Buruma drawing on to make these extravagant conclusions? I have been paying...

VANCOUVER -- A dozen Heritage High students were suspended today after ignoring warnings to move their early morning prayer group out of a well-trafficked area so they wouldn't disrupt education, the principal said. The students had been meeting for about two weeks in Heritage's commons before 7 a.m., when classes start at the 2,400-student school, said Principal Ann Sosky. As the group grew, other students questioned the group's failure to comply with rules for all students and clubs, Sosky said, and tensions began to mount at the Orchards-area school, which is in Evergreen Public Schools. The group was given brochures...

'Horror movie' serial killer trial begins VANCOUVER, British Columbia: Jurors who begin hearing evidence today against a pig farmer accused of being Canada's worst serial killer have been warned by the judge to expect testimony "as bad a horror movie". Robert William Pickton is charged with the deaths of 26 women, mostly prostitutes and drug addicts who vanished from Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in the 1990s. He is accused of luring women to his family's 7-hectare pig farm outside Vancouver, where investigators say he threw drink and drug fuelled raves with prostitutes. After his arrest in February 2002, health...

Tribunal to rule on guide dog vs. religion Jane Seyd jseyd@nsnews.com A case potentially pitting rights of the disabled against religious beliefs will be heard by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal after a blind man from the North Shore who uses a guide dog to get around launched a complaint against North Shore Taxi. Bruce Gilmour filed the complaint after a cab driver from North Shore Taxi refused to let his guide dog into the cab in January of this year. Gilmour, who says it's not the first time he's been refused service by a taxicab, is complaining that...

The haunts in the house By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS Even after everyone else has left for the evening, Marisa Ferrari senses she's not alone in Burnaby's historic Ceperley House. Now the site of the Burnaby Art Gallery, the ghostly spirits of the house's former residents, including a monk, a caretaker and a little blonde girl, have all been said to roam the gallery halls. But the strongest spirit arguably belongs to the original 19th century owner, Mrs. Grace Ceperley. Whatever - or whoever - it is, there are some very strange things going on, says Ferrari - items are...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Marc Crawford paid the price for failing to meet the high expectations he helped set with the Vancouver Canucks. Touted as Stanley Cup contenders in September, the Canucks fired Crawford as coach on Tuesday after missing the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. "We need some new energy, some new juice," general manager Dave Nonis said. "We felt our team needs a kick-start, that we haven't played with the fire we had been known for in the past. A change behind the bench was the first place to start." Crawford was behind the Vancouver...

Today, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan accepts the Olympic Flag during the Torino 2006 Closing Ceremony at Stadio Olimpico. These are exciting times for all of us over the coming several years, because the next Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, Canada in 2010! The Olympic Flag will be handed over to the beautiful city of Vancouver, B.C., which hosting many of the indoor events, and the Alpine events will be in the Winter wonderland of Whistler just a few miles away. Canada is a neighbor just next door, and this is an opportunity for the United States to show a...

Dubai's bid to buy ports includes Vancouver hub COLIN FREEZE From Friday's Globe and Mail On the Vancouver waterfront, it's a debate conspicuous only by its absence. U.S. politicians may be denouncing the sale of U.S. port facilities to a Middle Eastern firm, but Canadian officials are blasé about the B.C. end of the deal. “Get a grip, fellas,” is Canadian Senator Colin Kenny's message to his U.S. counterparts. The senator, who has spent recent years complaining that Canada's port security is overly lax, insists he's not at all worried about the news now making big waves south of the...

Let’s see if you can guess who wrote the statement below: "Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlements, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. Social justice, urban renewal and development, the provision of decent dwellings-and healthy conditions for the people can only...

Former industry minister David Emerson said his decision to defect from the Liberals and take a cabinet post in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government was made to better serve his constituents. The Vancouver MP and former head of lumber giant Canfor stunned onlookers when he arrived at Rideau Hall shortly before the Tory cabinet was to be announced Monday. Soon after, he was sworn in as the new Conservative Minister of International Trade and the Minister responsible for the Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010. He defended his position at a brief press conference late in the afternoon. "I fundamentally...

“Urban Agenda” the liberal Media's Buzzword for Dogging Harper’s Conservatives by Hilary White TORONTO, January 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada’s hard left-leaning mainstream media is drawing the lines of the political fight that will characterize the next few years with its flagship newspaper, the Toronto Star, leading the pack. The Star’s Royson James said, “It might be clear to party strategists that ignoring the urban agenda, or just paying lip service to it, won't fly in the GTA.” The phrase, ‘urban agenda’ was quickly coined to imply that Conservative support comes largely from rural areas and that the party must...