Free Republic

CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut — The search for the remnants of an ill-fated British expedition that failed to cross the Northwest Passage — and a seminal moment in Canada’s history on Arctic sovereignty — will start anew. In the coming weeks, a group of researchers will scour Canada’s Arctic waters to find Sir John Franklin’s two ships, Erebus and the Terror, led by a ship named for an Arctic researcher who perished in a plane crash last year. The renewal of Parks Canada’s search for the lost Franklin vessels, anticipated last week by Postmedia News, follows three recent federal expeditions that...

TUNIS, Tunisia — Islamist extremists have targeted two Tunisian Olympic medalists for behaviour and dress seen as un-Islamic, as debate grows over the role of religion and women in the country that unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings. Radicals on social media networks called on the government to strip Habiba Ghribi, the first Tunisian woman to win an Olympic medal, of her nationality because her running gear was too revealing. She won the silver in the 3,000-metre steeplechase.

OTTAWA — In a historic vote, the United Church of Canada has elected its first openly gay moderator. After six ballots and nearly eight hours of voting at the church’s 41st general council in Ottawa Thursday, Rev. Gary Paterson emerged from a record field of 15 candidates to win the top job at Canada’s largest Protestant church. He is thought to be the first openly gay person to head any mainstream Christian denomination. The 350 voting commissioners at the general council greeted the announcement with cheers and a prolonged standing ovation, and quickly voted to make Paterson’s election unanimous. “I...

The daughter-in-law of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, who has served as a volunteer high school track and field coach in Oregon, was fired on Monday after an investigation proved that she escorted a 17-year-old member of her boys track squad to the school's prom. As reported by the Associated Press, 41-year-old Melissa Bowerman, the daughter-in-law of waffle-sole inventor Bill Bowerman, escorted an unnamed 17-year-old on the Condon (Ore.) High track team to the school's prom after the runner told her he lacked a date for the prom. Bowerman, who is married to 73-year-old co-coach Jon Bowerman and also has a...

The CBC is planning some counter-programming for female non-hockey fans who might be forced to tune into the Stanley Cup final next week. Viewers can go online to listen to an alternate commentary from Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso, who run WhileTheMenWatch.com. They describe their site as a sports talk show for women, “Sex and the City” meets ESPN, with banter “from a woman’s point of view.” “One afternoon while (our husbands) were both watching the same game on TV Jules and I were on the phone and we started just making comments to each other like, ‘Did you see...

Nelson Mandela's grandson will tie the knot with a third wife in a traditional ceremony Saturday despite a court ban on the wedding, according to a report. All systems were go for chief Mandla Mandela's union with Swazi princess Mbali Makhathini at the Mvezo Royal Palace in rural Eastern Cape province, family spokesman Sidima Mnqanqeni told Sapa news agency. "We are confident that there will be no disturbance and the marriage is on," said Mnqanqeni. Mandla is a grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela and also a member of parliament. He heads the Mandela family clan. A South...

TORONTO – A Toronto school is no longer allowing children to play with most balls during recess. Earl Beatty Public School sent a letter to student’s homes on Monday informing them of the decision to ban most balls from use on school grounds. According to the letter, over the past few weeks, there have been “a few serious incidents of parents, staff and students being hit by a hard ball or nearly being hit by a hard ball” in the schoolyard. There was no information as to injuries of people hit by hard balls. The students are still allowed to...

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia's government asked Saudi Arabia on Sunday whether its exiled former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is dead, and demanded his extradition if he is still alive, as thousands of people protested in the capital demanding that the caretaker government resigns. The 74-year-old Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, following a massive popular uprising that ended his 23-year rule and prompted a wave of protest against other autocratic leaders across the Arab world. Tunisia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had asked Saudi Arabia to provide information "as soon as possible"...

Striking down Canada’s polygamy law would make the country a magnet for polygamous immigrant families and open the door to societal harms resulting from the practice, a lawyer for the B.C. government said in opening remarks for a landmark case. “The challengers [to the law] all urge the court to make Canada the sole Western nation to decriminalize polygamy,” Crown lawyer Craig Jones told a packed Vancouver courtroom Monday. “The reasonably apprehended result would be an influx of polygamous families who are presently barred from the country in addition to the practice’s domestic growth.” Evidence to be heard in the...

MONTREAL — A man charged with uttering death threats on Facebook armed himself with high-powered weapons because he feared he was being stalked by elves, a Montreal court was told Wednesday. Quebec provincial police told David Abitbol's bail hearing that he told a friend on the Internet that his .12-gauge shotgun was just what he needed to kill the mythical creatures. A disturbing portrait emerged of the 28-year-old Abitbol during Wednesday's proceedings in which the Crown reported that an initial evaluation indicated that he was fit to stand trial. "There's nothing at this point to make us doubt his ability...

PRINCE ALBERT, SASK.—A man who sent his semi-naked wife into the cold on Christmas Day after an argument over turkey stuffing has been sentenced to five years in prison. Clifford Arnold Daniels, 52, was convicted of assault causing bodily harm, unlawful confinement and uttering threats. Crown prosecutor Maureen Longworth argued the Christmas incident was a calculated and premeditated assault that took place within a couple of hours. Court was told Daniels and his common-law wife, Beverley Ermine, argued after Daniels started drinking whiskey. At the time, she was preparing turkey stuffing for dinner the next day, but he told her...

Maclean's magazine has unleashed a firestorm with a controversial cover story -accompanied by the iconic figure of Bonhomme Carnaval carrying a suitcase stuffed with cash -that depicts Quebec as "the most corrupt province" in Canada. Politicians of all stripes lashed out at what they called a new episode of Quebecbashing yesterday, while phone-in radio shows were flooded with angry callers. The provocative article, which delved into a series of recent scandals and suggested the province is "perpetually rife with scandal," prompted Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe to send an open letter to the media, asking: "Are Canadians xenophobic?" "Unfortunately, this...

Mavis Moore was 4 years old the first time she faced the barrel of a long gun. A neighbour pointed his .22 at the girl and her mother when they stopped by to pick up a newspaper in their small Saskatchewan town. Sixty-eight years later, Moore remembers dropping one blue angora mitten in the snow as the man stood above them on his steps. “You can't imagine what it's like, this adult man having a gun on you and threatening to kill you and your mother,” she says. Moore's mother picked up her child — and the mitten — and...

MONTREAL — No, apparently, you can't blow it up. And taking it apart would be very expensive and time-consuming. So, the City of Montreal seems to be stuck with the ill-fated Olympic Stadium, an enigma and concrete representation of government incompetence, cost overruns and crumbling infrastructure, but also an iconic city symbol, a dramatic fixture on the skyline and a major draw for tourists. It's a venue vacated by baseball's Montreal Expos who decamped for Washington, D.C., in 2004 and the CFL's Alouettes, whose new downtown digs at McGill University were recently expanded to seat 25,000. The Als, however, do...

There’s a new televangelist soap opera. Reports this week suggest a still-married Benny Hinn is now romantically involved with Paula White, another television preacher with a colourful past. The 57-year-old Hinn, who began his preaching career at a church hall near Yonge and Bloor Streets in the 1970s, is best known for his faith-healing “Miracle Crusades” and his half-hour television show, This is Your Day. White, 44, is the star of television’s Paula White Today, whose ministries reputedly pulled in $40 million in donations and sales of various goods in 2006. Her website’s current offerings include the four-CD set, “Creating...

A machete-swinging man in Windsor, Ontario took four men hostage and threatened to hack off their limbs after he came to collect a debt and they didn't have what he wanted -- a 12-pack of beer. Police say the people in the apartment owed the man a 12-pack of beer and when he came to collect the debt and didn't get what he came for, he began threatening people in the room with the machete. No one was injured in the ordeal. The 29-year-old man was charged with three counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of breach...

GRENOBLE, France (AFP) - Rioters exchanged gunfire with police in the French city of Grenoble early Saturday, setting fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of robbing a casino. Youths torched between 50 and 60 cars in the southeastern French city, as well as construction equipment and two shops, while police said they made five arrests. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was to visit the city Saturday afternoon, his ministry said. The rioting started after a memorial service for 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, who died 24 hours earlier in a shootout with police after allegedly holding up...

New photographs of a smiling, tracksuit-clad Fidel Castro greeting workers at a scientific think-tank were posted on the websites of two Cuban journalists Saturday, offering a rare glimpse of the reclusive revolutionary leader in a public forum. Fidel, 83, appears slightly stooped but otherwise healthy in the four pictures, which were apparently taken Wednesday with a worker's mobile phone. The former Cuban leader is seen raising his hand to wave in one picture and apparently being led away in another. “He is thin but he looks good, and according to our director, he is very good mentally,” reads a comment...

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will name David Johnston as governor general designate, QMI Agency has learned, choosing a lifelong academic widely admired for his smarts, his ability to build consensus and - an apparent must for Harper - his ability to play hockey. Johnston, 69, is a fluently bilingual Ontario native known as "Grandpa Book" to his grandchildren because they think he reads so much. And while one of his five daughters works on the staff of Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, Johnston himself has avoided being tagged with any partisan political label during his long career as...

30 & 31 Victoria, c. 3 (U.K.) An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof; and for Purposes connected therewith [Assented to 29th March, 1867.] Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom: And whereas such a Union would conduce to the Welfare of the Provinces and promote the Interests of the British Empire: And...