Free Republic

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been able to maintain popularity at home during his three years in office despite a challenging, at times combative relationship with the Trump administration since 2017. But amid a conservative rise at home, the young leader of the country's Liberal Party is about to face a new front from Canada's most influential province. The Progressive Conservative Party firebrand Doug Ford, brother of the late former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, will be sworn in as the premier of Ontario on Friday and assume a highly influential position in a province he calls "the engine of...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. State Department employee pleaded guilty Monday to producing thousands of images of videos of child pornography over a two-year period. Skydance MacMahon, a 44-year-old Alexandria resident, used hidden cameras to produce sexually explicit images and videos of minor children in Canada, according to court documents. MacMahon worked with a woman in Canada to produce the child pornography and distributed the videos and images through cloud storage and email. Police found pornographic images of children on an Ohio man’s cellphone in November 2017, and authorities were able to link Dropbox media of child porn to an account...

NATO allies are pushing back against U.S. criticism that they are not spending enough on defense, as President Donald Trump ratchets up pressure ahead of a summit next week. In the weeks leading up to the July 11-12 summit in Brussels, Trump sent letters to Norway, other European allies and Canada demanding that they boost spending. After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, NATO allies agreed in 2014 to end defense budget cuts, start spending more as their economies grew and move toward a goal of 2 percent of GDP within a decade. In an email to The Associated Press on...

A Christian bus driver in Toronto has been charged with a "hate crime" for distributing pamphlets saying homosexuality can lead to diseases and that Jesus can save gay people if they repent. Bill Whatcott "distributed anti-gay material which promoted hatred toward the gay community," Toronto Police Service said in a statement, adding that he was arrested in Calgary and later returned to Toronto. The 51-year-old Christian man was charged with "willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, namely the gay community." The pamphlets he allegedly distributed said homosexuality is associated with sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV of the rectum,...

Is building a wall on our border a morally good action? As a professor who has taught biblical ethics for 41 years, I think it is – in fact, the Bible itself repeatedly views protective walls with favor. WALLS GIVE PEACE AND SECURITY In the world of the Old Testament, people built walls around cities to protect themselves from thieves, murderers, and other criminals, and from foreign invaders who would seek to destroy the city. People could still enter the city, but they had to do so by the gate, so that city officials would have some control over who...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied that he groped a female reporter 18 years ago, saying he doesn't remember any 'negative interactions' from that day. Trudeau publicly addressed the groping allegations when he was hit with questions about it at a public event in Regina, Saskatchewan on Sunday as part of Canada Day festivities. The alleged incident took place back in 2000 at a music festival in Creston, B.C. to raise money for an avalanche safety charity that Trudeau was involved in following the death of his brother two years earlier. Trudeau, who was 28 at the time and...

President Trump said Sunday that he is “not happy” with the revised NAFTA deal that his administration has been hammering out with Canada and Mexico and that he doesn't want to sign any new agreement until after the midterm elections in November. The remarks were aired on Fox News's “Sunday Morning Futures” on a critical day in the U.S. relationship with its neighbors as Canada started collecting tariffs on $12.6 billion worth of U.S. products to hit back at Trump and Mexican voters went to the polls to pick a new president, who will play a key role in shaping...

Fired manager Darin Hodge said the issue erupted when he asked a customer to take off their MAGA hat. In an emailed statement, he said he would do it again. “I stand by my decision to ask the patron to remove his hat. The MAGA hat has come to symbolize racism, bigotry, islamaphobia [sic], misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia. As a person with a strong moral backbone, I had to take a stand against this guest’s choice of headwear while in my former place of work,” he wrote. Eva Gates, Vice president of Human Resources for the Sequoia Group of Restaurants...

Residents of Newfoundland, Canada, were greeted with snow and biting cold winds Tuesday morning despite the fact that July begins in just a few days. Gander, Newfoundland, reported light snow and a wind chill of 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the hours after sunrise Tuesday. The average high temperature in this city of nearly 12,000 people is in the 60s during June and near 70 degrees in July. Photos and videos from Gander and other parts of Newfoundland showed the snow accumulating not only on grassy areas but also on roads. For geographic reference, Newfoundland is a part of Canada's easternmost...

“Re-engineering Peace for Asia” is an objective that is very much at the centre of world attention these days, and for good reason. The Singapore Summit was historic if only because it brought together the leaders of the United States and North Korea for the very first time. If you believe, as I do, that personalities can influence the direction of world affairs, you will undoubtedly agree that there is now hope that this beginning will create momentum for change and for re-engineering peace on the Korean Peninsula and the Asian region. Just imagine what a lasting peace would mean...

Canada is only 2% Hispanic while the US is 18% (it was only 6.5% during the 80s, that is a nearly 300% growth in population) few know this fact-- Canada does not take in almost any south and Central Americans. (why should they have that luxury, while the world leans on us?) Canada's leadership's attitude is they can point their fingers at us, saying "take more in" while they hypocritically take in virtually none. Their justification is that we are "the first country they arrived to" so we should take them. That is flimsy at best. We should lean on...

It was the late 1990s when the Canadian man crossed the border into the United States, a visitor like millions of others, free to stay up to six months. Except that he never actually left the U.S., and never obtained U.S. government permission to stick around. He simply made a new life for himself in America. For the last 18 years, the Canadian has been an illegal immigrant. “He has a business in the U.S. and it’s active and he has employees,” says Fadi Minawi, the man’s Toronto-based lawyer. “He came to me and asked: ‘How do I get legal?’”...

Latest episode of Everything is Racist, starring Al Sharpton. On his MSNBC show this morning, Sharpton said: “I’ve not heard one word about if we find people coming across the Canadian border illegally, we’re going to grab their children. Because I don’t think America–the part of America that Trump thinks is his base–would tolerate snatching white babies from white mothers.”Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Canadians will soon be able to order marijuana through the mail as part of the nation’s new legalization of recreational pot. Lawmakers in the country passed the Cannabis Act earlier this week, setting the country up to regulate the market in the coming months. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that legalization will begin on Oct. 17. The country is the second to legalize the substance nationwide, after Uruguay. The federal minimum age for marijuana use in Canada will be 18, but some provinces are setting their own minimum age at 19, which is the drinking age in most areas....

During a visit to Ireland, fired FBI Director James Comey said Friday that he was so ashamed of current U.S. immigration policies that he considered telling Irish customs officials that he was Canadian when he arrived. Comey made the remark during a public interview in Dublin, the Irish Times reported. “I am ashamed of the way my country has acted with respect of those children. I am disgusted, I am horrified, I am embarrassed, I’m ashamed,” he said.

The database, called Tuscan, is provided to every Canadian border guard and immigration officer, and empowers them to detain, interrogate, arrest and deny entry to anyone found on it. Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the Guardian through Canada’s access to information system reveal the fullest picture yet of a database that, although employed in Canada, is maintained exclusively by the US. It contains the personal information of as many as 680,000 people believed by US authorities to be linked with terrorism, and functions effectively as a second no-fly list that is cloaked in secrecy. *** Tuscan – which...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is discussing changes to a multibillion-dollar fighter jet procurement process that could make it harder for a U.S. company to win the order as trade relations between the neighbors sour, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions said. Canada is considering whether to penalize companies from countries that have caused it economic damage, the sources said on Wednesday. While a final decision is not expected before next year and the threat could be posturing, the move shows how the Trump administration’s trade disputes are spilling over into other areas. A spokeswoman for federal Procurement Minister...

This win needs to be sipped slowly for maximum enjoyment. First, we would draw your attention to May 23rd, when President Trump announced an instruction to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to begin a Section 301 review of the auto industry a week prior to the implementation of the Steel and Aluminum tariffs. At the time when all media were discussing other ‘matters’ CTH pointed out the strategy that was visible in the Auto-Sector. China, the EU (specifically Germany), and Canada were the strategic trade targets in the approach. About a week later, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland snarkily announced her...

The U.S. is the focus of international outrage for its policy of separating children from their parents and detaining them after they cross the border in search of asylum. But Canada also detains migrant children — and in some cases, restricts access to their asylum-seeking parents — despite the fact its stated policy is to do whatever possible to avoid it. Last year, 151 minors were detained with their parents in Canadian immigration holding centres. Eleven others were held in custody unaccompanied by an adult, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. CBSA holds people who are considered a flight...

Canada has passed a landmark law that legalises the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold. Canadians will be able to buy and consume the drug legally as early as this September. The country is the first in the G7 to legalise the drug's recreational use.