Free Republic

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party in the Canadian parliament, has called on Justin Trudeau to accept any ethnic minority person from the United States who comes to Canada claiming asylum because President Trump has made the country unsafe. “It’s clear that if you’re Muslim, if you’re black, if you’re Latina, if you’re Indigenous, the United States is not a safe country,” alleged May, the Member of Parliament for Saanich—Gulf Islands in British Columbia. “Our safe country agreement with the United States… simply can’t stand anymore,” she insisted.

President Vladimir Putin has declared a state of emergency in a region within the Arctic Circle in far northern Russia. The move comes after 20,000 tons of oil leaked into a river from a power plant. The plant is operated by a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, a leading palladium and nickel producer. Discussing how news of the spill emerged in the televised meeting, Putin was reportedly shocked to discover that local authorities had only learned of the incident from social media two days after it happened, and he admonished the region’s governor Alexander Uss, Reuters reported.

A 26-year-old Indigenous woman from British Columbia was fatally shot by a police officer she allegedly threatened during a wellness check in a northwestern New Brunswick city early Thursday. Family of Chantel Moore say she had recently moved east from British Columbia to live closer to her mother and daughter. Her death came at a time of heightened attention on police actions and practices in the United States and Canada following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Edmundston Police Force says an officer went to a downtown apartment building prompted by a call around 2:30 a.m. Atlantic to...

MONTREAL -- On Sunday night, afIt's clearly not good for business, says a manager of Steve’s Music, a Montreal institution. But don’t get him wrong, he says: it was all worth it. “Without any questions whatsoever, it's a noble demonstration and it's clearly far overdue,” says Lenny Lanteigne. It was “unfortunate that a few hooligans turned it into a free-for-all,” he says. “It is awful. But next to what some people are going through, this is nothing.” The store’s insurance company is currently reviewing the damage, and Lanteigne isn’t sure yet how it’ll all turn out financially, he said. The...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canadians are watching what’s unfolding in the United States with “horror and consternation” and he paused for 21 seconds when asked about U.S. President Donald Trump and the use of tear gas against protesters to clear the way for a photo opportunity. Trudeau has long been careful not to criticize Trump as Canada relies on the U.S. for 75 percent of exports. But Trudeau, who is usually quick to answer, paused and struggled to come up with the right words when asked about Trump calling for military action against protesters and the...

Telus has announced that it’s partnering with Huawei rivals Ericsson and Nokia for the development of its 5G network, hours after BCE Inc. said it’s partnering with Ericsson. The news delivers a major blow to the ambitions of Chinese telecom giant Huawei to be a significant player in Canada’s 5G infrastructure. The decision comes as Ottawa has yet to announce whether it will allow Huawei to participate in the nation’s 5G infrastructure, a point of contention with Canada’s allies who are concerned their shared data could be compromised if the company has access to Canada’s network. Washington has warned partners...

A Canadian startup, Flash Forest, that hopes to [plant trees] by drone. “This industry is ripe for innovation,” said Bryce Jones, the company’s CEO. “With recent developments in lithium ion batteries, the drone industry has been revolutionized with increased payload capacity and flight time. Jones and his team plan to use drones for every step of the reforestation process. That means surveilling target areas, planting seedlings, monitoring growth, and collecting data, all from the air. The planting will use a pneumatic gun on the drone that will fire seed pods into the soil. The drones can hold hundreds of seed...

Trudeau said Canadians are watching the events unfolding south of the border in 'consternation'Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his time answering when asked to comment this morning on U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to use military force against protesters in the United States demonstrating over the death of a black man in police custody. After a 21-second pause, Trudeau avoided criticizing the president directly while taking aim at social "injustices." "We all watch in horror and consternation at what is going on in the United States," he said. "It is a time to pull people together ... it is a...

... “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States,” Trudeau said on Tuesday. “It is a time to pull people together... it is a time to listen, to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades.”

he Chinese military has said it chased off a U.S. warship near a disputed set of islands in the South China Sea, but the Navy contended the vessel was acting within international law. Senior Colonel Li Huamin, the spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command, said in a statement Thursday by official military outlets that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin "illegally intruded" into territorial waters near the Paracel Islands, known to China as the Xisha Islands, earlier that day. As a result, Li said Chinese sea and air units were dispatched to "warn off" and...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is prepared to offer extended visa rights and a pathway to citizenship for almost 3 million Hong Kong residents in response to China’s push to impose national security legislation in the former British colony. China’s parliament has approved a decision to go forward with national security legislation for Hong Kong that democracy activists, diplomats and some in the business world fear will jeopardise its semi-autonomous status and its role as a global financial hub. Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and the EU have all sharply criticised the move. Foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Thursday...

A passionate gathering to protest anti-black and anti-Indigenous racism, dubbed Justice for Regis, made its way through downtown Toronto on Saturday afternoon. Thousands of people, some carrying signs that read, “Stop killing us,” and, “Black Lives Matter,” while chanting, “Shame, shame,” and, “Say her name,” gathered after high-profile police-involved deaths of black people in both Canada and the U.S. — the latter prompting several days and nights of protests in American cities. In Toronto, the Justice for Regis protest was organized by a group called Not Another Black Life after Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, fell from the balcony of a 24th-floor...

The relationship between Communist China and the free world, particularly the United States, is disintegrating so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. Yesterday, there was a big development in the ongoing dispute over Chinese technology giant Huawei. Back in 2018, the CFO of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada at the request of the U.S. government. The U.S. is seeking to extradite her so she can face charges here for inducing a group of banks to violate sanctions the U.S. placed on Iran. Wednesday a court in Canada ruled that Wanzhou’s extradition met the standard of “double...

Beijing has removed references to “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan from its annual work report, signalling the country will take a stronger stance against the island territory. The past six work reports since President Xi Jinping took power in 2013 have signalled that any attempt to reunify Taiwan and China would be “peaceful”.

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Begin Text: Signatories to this statement reiterate our deep concern regarding Beijing’s decision to impose a national security law in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of freedom. The international community has a significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. Direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong’s own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, would...

In a closely-watched decision today, the Supreme Court of British Columbia published a key decision in the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Huawei Technologies, China’s largest telecommunications company and a frequent target of U.S. policymakers. In its ruling, the court said that the case met the standard for “double criminality,” and thus the extradition hearing will be allowed to continue. That decision represents a major blow to Huawei, which had hoped to end the suit and bring Meng home back to China.

From the beginning of the Coronavirus mass panic, one the main talking points for western governments was that “No one is immune. The disease can kill anyone at any time.” Various versions of this propaganda set piece were used and recycled across all media platforms, whereby government’s intention was actually to scare the public into accepting ‘lockdown’ or the shutdown of society and the economic, supposedly in order to “save lives.” However, after a number of weeks that fear narrative is rapidly collapsing as real data and evidence comes flowing in – which shows that the overwhelming majority of public...

A Canadian company has built the first piece of the disputed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S. border and started work on labor camps in Montana and South Dakota. But it has not resolved a courtroom setback that would make it hard to finish the $8 billion project. The 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska was stalled for much of the past decade before President Donald Trump was elected and began trying to push it through to completion... Work finally started in April at the border crossing in remote northern Montana. That 1.2-mile section has now been...

Renowned Cree artist Kent Monkman has come under fire for his new painting that shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau partially nude, on all fours, preparing for what Monkman called "a consensual act" while Indigenous women surrounding him laugh. The painting, titled Hanky Panky, has been condemned by many who believe it portrays sexual violence and disrespects First Nations traditions. But it is also being praised by some, including Ojibway Senator Murray Sinclair. Monkman posted the work on Facebook on Saturday and said the piece was meant to highlight problems with "the Canadian (in)justice system" and the victimization of Indigenous women,...

A medical doctor is expressing concern about Canadians receiving an experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed with the help of the Chinese military. Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) announced a collaboration initiative with the Chinese company CanSino Biologics Inc. on the clinical development of the company’s new AD5-nCoV vaccine, Ad5-nCoV. CanSino developed the vaccine in partnership with China’s military. Health Canada has approved the first human clinical trials that will run at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University. The company is already conducting human clinical trials for the vaccine in China. Dr. Kulvinder Gill, a medical doctor based in the...