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WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2009 – The demonstrated bravery and resolve of the nearly 3,000 Canadian forces serving in Afghanistan reflects the commitment necessary to achieve success there, the commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said in the Canadian capital yesterday. Canadian forces’ efforts in mentoring Afghan security forces and their work in infrastructure development projects in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province are greatly appreciated, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute in Ottawa. “The courage and determination of Canadian forces are an inspiration to our coalition,” McChrystal said, noting that Canada, with about...

The federal Liberals apologized Tuesday after posting a photo on the party's website depicting Prime Minister Stephen Harper being assassinated. The photo substitutes the head of the prime minister for that of Lee Harvey Oswald in the famous black-and-white photo that shows Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby in 1963.

Economist and author Jeff Rubin, who predicted the bursting of Canada's last major housing bubble, warns many Canadians will soon regret they hefty prices they're paying to enter the property market. The often controversial former chief economist of CIBC World Markets says there's another bubble building -- in interest rates -- which could be on the rise by the end of next year. That will squeeze homeowners who took out variable rate mortgages, betting they would stay at rock-bottom for a long time. The author of "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the...

A private Canadian company says it will plant 1,176 trees to offset the carbon emitted by Air Force One when it carries President Barack Obama to Copenhagen for the international climate conference. President Obama will travel 3,979 miles to Denmark on Friday, Dec. 18, and Air Force One will emit an estimated 196 tons of carbon on that trip, said LimeGreen Earth, Inc., in a news release.(snip)LimeGreen Earth -- a privately held company based in Saint John, New Brunswick -- specializes in offsetting carbon emissions. Among other things, it offers several packages to make personal Internet usage “carbon neutral.”

TORONTO -- The man accused of firing the shot that killed Jane Creba during a gunfight in downtown Toronto on Boxing Day 2005 is expected to plead guilty next week in Ontario Superior Court. Justice Gladys Pardu was informed of the "resolution" during a brief submission in court yesterday. A "resolution" means there has been a plea agreement between the Crown and defence. Details of the agreement were not disclosed in court and there is a temporary pretrial publication ban imposed by Judge Pardu earlier this month on naming the man and his two co-defendants. The surprising twist in the...

A sophisticated hoax has targeted the Canadian government and caused a ruckus at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) currently underway in Copenhagen, Denmark. The elaborate prank is an attempt to embarrass the Canadian delegation to the summit, which has received criticism from the world press for its allegedly obstructionist role in negotiations. At the centre of the ruse is a spoof news release in which Environment Canada announces the launch of “Agenda 2020”, an ambitious plan for reducing the country’s carbon emissions. The release in part states: Agenda 2020 sets binding emissions reductions targets of 40% below 1990 levels...

The video is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9--Zp-d5Zs

Now that it's reaching its final stages, wanna know what the celebrated two-week summit conference in Copenhagen on climate change was all about? Forget the official version: Cautious optimism, supposedly blended with the reality that the organizers foist on the world -- a last chance to save the planet, and all that with nearly 200 countries and world leaders attending. Instead, turn to Conrad Black in the National Post, writing from Coleman Correctional Complex in Florida, where he's awaiting the findings of the U.S. Supreme Court which is reviewing his convictions for mail fraud. To Conrad, "Copenhagen is the epitome...

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...

NIAGARA FALLS -- A New York State-based plan to create a high-speed rail system that could link up with Niagara, Hamilton and Toronto caught the attention of Niagara politicians this week. "I was invited to come speak about ... the potential for connections to our Canadian neighbours, and really improving inner-city passenger rail and high-speed passenger rail connecting Toronto, Montreal, New York City and the mid-west, the entire eastern seaboard," Don Hannon, director of integrated modal services for the New York State Department of Transportation, said outside the regional planning committee meeting Wednesday. He's a member of the High Speed...

That U.S. troops in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan are under the overall command of a Canadian general is a tribute to the professionalism and competence of Canada's army. Americans are traditionally wary of anyone but Americans commanding their troops. But in the present Afghan "surge," troops of the 82nd Airborne Division are under the command of Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard in the Kandahar sector. Combined with 2,800 Canadian soldiers, the "enhanced" brigade now totals some 5,000 troops to form a proposed "ring of stability" around the provincial capital which is the nerve centre of Taliban operations. President Barack Obama's commitment...

People in the north-central part of the Canadian province of Ontario are digging out after one of the worst snow storms on record. Some areas north of Toronto received as much as 100 centimetres of snow over the past three days. The main highway through the region re-opened for the first time in days, but nearly all side roads remain closed, blocked by a thick blanket of snow, in some areas chest high. More than 100,000 people have been affected by the storm, either cut off in smaller communities, or in their cottages, or stranded by the road closures. In...

Canadians like to think they would give up their Honda Pilots, air conditioning and dishwashers to save the planet. In reality, most people are prepared to make enormous personal sacrifices to live a green lifestyle, as long as they don't have to make any enormous personal sacrifices. Still, if you head up a minority Conservative government, you cannot afford to be too far adrift from public opinion on this issue, even if you remain unconvinced about the wisdom of an international climate change agreement you have previously dismissed as a "socialist ploy." There is no compelling evidence that Stephen Harper's...

British Columbia's burgeoning wind-power sector got a triple jolt of energy this week. Plutonic Power and GE Energy Financial Services announced on Friday that construction will resume this spring on Phase 1 of the Dokie wind-farm project, which they acquired after the former proponent went into creditor protection. Phase 1 involves a 144-megawatt cluster of 48 turbine towers that are 80 metres high. Former proponent EarthFirst Canada had five turbines on-site when a financing partner pulled out of the project, which is located near Chetwynd in northeast B.C. Plutonic and GE said the project will resume construction in January and...

Like most Canadians, I wish the opposition parties and the media would care as much about our Canadian Forces in Afghanistan as they care about the terrorists our Canadian Forces are fighting over there. I think Richard Fadden, the boss of CSIS, had it right when he said that there is a “loose partnership of single-issue NGOs, advocacy journalists and lawyers" who have rechristened terrorists as "folk heroes". I'd add to that list opposition MPs, especially the NDP and the NDP wing of the Liberals, such as Ujjal Dosanjh and Bob Rae. Canadian troops are operating in Afghanistan, an imperfect...

Is Canada ready to ban minarets the way the Swiss have? Not likely. What about electing members of a political party like the British National Party that openly deals in policies that are based on race? Again I don’t think so, at least not yet. Canadians are a pretty tolerant bunch, we welcome people from all corners and have for generations, but that tolerance could be stretched not by the actions of minority groups so much as the actions or inactions of government. Reading coverage of the Caledonia court case (see here and here) that pits two residents against the...

Former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is coming to Hamilton, Ont. Palin is making an appearance in April to help raise funds for the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter¹s Hospital. Gabe Macaluso, former CEO of Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, is a member of the committee organizing the visit and will release more details about the visit soon. Palin, who reportedly makes $20,000 for speaking engagements, is on tour in the U.S. promoting her new book, Going Rogue. It will be Palin¹s first visit to Canada since losing the 2008 election.

As the U.S. Senate argues about how best to take over the American health care industry, it is worth taking a look at how government health insurance works here in Canada, where I live. Judging from popular opinion, one would think Canadian health care was great. My fellow Canadians by and large love their single-payer, universal coverage, according to a recent Nanos Research poll. Fully 80 percent of the 1,005 Canadians interviewed support universal health care, with another ten percent supporting it somewhat. A mere five percent were opposed or somewhat opposed, with the remaining five percent unsure. Yet these...

The other day, George Jonas passed on to his readers a characteristically shrewd observation gleaned from the late poet George Faludy: “No one likes to think of himself as a coward,” wrote Jonas. “People prefer to think they end up yielding to what the terrorists demand, not because it’s safer or more convenient, but because it’s the right thing . . . Successful terrorism persuades the terrorized that if they do terror’s bidding, it’s not because they’re terrified but because they’re socially concerned.” This is true. Resisting terror is exhausting. It’s easier to appease it, but, for the sake of your self-esteem, you have...

Sarah Palin who shook up the 2008 U.S. election when she was picked to be the vice-presidential candidate by John McCain, is to attend a fundraiser for two Hamilton hospitals on April 15. Gabe Macaluso, a member of the committee organizing the dinner at Carmen's Banquet Centre, said: "This is quite the coup. She's one of the hottest speakers on the Speakers Bureau. The demand is huge."

Canada’s Macleans news site recently published an article titled “Darwin movie too evolved for U.S. audiences”. The article refers to the decision of US film distributors to “pass” on the film “Creation”—the dramatized story of Charles Darwin’s struggle while writing the Origin of Species. The refusal to distribute a film premiered and acclaimed at the Toronto Film Festival seems to have again roused the Canadian media’s scorn of the “backward Americans” of which—according to Gallup—only 39% believe Darwin and his evolutionary theory. It is interesting how very differently the Canadian and world media treated America during WW II when far...

Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- Canada's nationwide newspaper, the National Post, is generating controversy today with an editorial that promote China's one-child, forced abortion policy. That's the program that makes it so couples can't have two or more children and it has been enforced with human rights abuses nationwide. Diane Francis, of the Post writes today that, "The whole world needs to adopt China's one-child policy" -- calling it an "inconvenient truth."The editorial comes at a time when international leaders are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the much-disputed climate change theory."The 'inconvenient truth' overhanging the UN's Copenhagen conference is not...

Chet Baker was a leading jazz musician in the 1950s, playing trumpet and providing vocals. Baker died in 1988, yet he is about to add a new claim to fame as the lead plaintiff in possibly the largest copyright infringement case in Canadian history. His estate, which still owns the copyright in more than 50 of his works, is part of a massive class-action lawsuit that has been underway for the past year. The infringer has effectively already admitted owing at least $50 million and the full claim could exceed $6 billion. If the dollars don't shock, the target of...

Turning a dead cow into something resembling a jar of molasses may sound like a bad science fiction movie, but the reality is the groundbreaking technology should have far-reaching benefits for ranchers, packing plants and the environment. It's called thermal hydrolysis, a process that uses high temperature saturated steam and pressure to get rid of infectious proteins and other micro-organisms in animal carcasses and other organic waste. And developer Biosphere Technologies is preparing to build the world's first pilot demonstration plant at Lacombe after 14 years of research and clinical trials of its patented Biorefinex process. The resulting ooze is...

The "inconvenient truth" overhanging the UN's Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world. A planetary law, such as China's one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days. The world's other species, vegetation, resources, oceans, arable land, water supplies and atmosphere are being destroyed and pushed out of existence as a result of humanity's soaring reproduction rate. Ironically, China, despite its dirty coal plants, is the world's leader in terms of fashioning policy to combat environmental degradation,...

The gory photos of male polar bears devouring cubs, dragging shredded carcasses around and creating a bloody mess on the white snow of Canada's North have caused a stir on the Internet and in reports that link the activity to climate change. But cannibalism among the species is a natural occurrence, says one expert, disputing what is just the latest story to put the polar bear in the debate over man-made global warming. "Both Inuit and scientific knowledge show that cannibalism in polar bears happens, and it probably always has," said Steve Pinksen, director of policy and legislation for Nunavut's...

It was supposed to be a quick bathroom break at the local Tim Hortons before the bride-to-be walked down the aisle. But Nancy Rose knew her big day was about to turn ugly when she spotted an enraged woman in a tube top racing toward her, a can of spray-paint in her hand. As members of the wedding party watched in disbelief, her sister-in-law began dousing the young bride with black paint, soiling her beaded gown and veil with sooty stains. “I was blown away – I think I went into shock for a few minutes,” Ms. Rose, who didn't...

REGINA — The provincial government is axing 82 agencies, boards and commissions, saying some had already completed their work and others hadn't met in years. And while some of the boards had still been operating and incurring costs, their work had become redundant, said Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz. The discontinuations will result in savings of about $500,000, said Krawetz. "It's a half a million dollars of committees that we no longer need because their functions have either been completed or their tasks are now a responsibility of someone else," he said. The announcement Wednesday isn't necessarily a symbolic gesture of...

OTTAWA — The House of Commons on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation enabling the provinces to harmonize their sales taxes with the federal GST, clearing the way for Ontario and British Columbia to implement the HST this summer. The federal HST bill passed by a vote of 253-37. Only the NDP opposed the legislation. Both Ontario and B.C. plan to combine their provincial sales taxes with the federal goods and services tax on July 1. Economists estimate that combining the tax will save businesses in Ontario billions, because firms will no longer have to pay tax on inputs such as materials...

Mark Tijssen, a major in the Canadian military, stands in front of a meat smoker containing the remains of a pig that could cost him thousands of dollars in fines. Tijssen's family home was raided by members of the Intelligence and Investigations Section of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ottawa Police last month while he was preparing a pizza dinner for children on a Friday night. Mark Tijssen's family has been slaughtering their own animals and handing that skill from father to son for at least three generations. But changes to Ontario's Food Safety Act has landed him and...

Most parents know to screen television shows for sex, violence or other negative messaging—but what about children's shows themselves? Research by the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus contends that children's programming can carry underlying political themes that may surprise parents. After analyzing 23 episodes of Thomas and Friends, a show about a train, his friends and their adventures on a fictional island, political scientist Shauna Wilton was able to identify themes that didn't seem constructive for youngsters. "While the show conveys a number of positive political values such as tolerance, listening, communicating with others and contributing to the community, it...

A Canadian administrative judge's demand for a $5,000 penalty and a written apology from a man who criticized homosexuality in a letter to his local newspaper has been overturned on appeal, but experts on such "hate speech" disputes say the case is not a complete victory for free speech. The judgment was announced this week by the Alliance Defense Fund in the case of Stephen Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition, which had been determined by the Alberta, Canada, Human Rights Commission to have violated a "hate speech" law. Alberta had adopted the law with promises that it never would...

On Tuesday night about 1,100 people participated in a sold-out global warming debate that, in the end, turned downtown Toronto's new concert hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music into a microcosm of a larger tranformation that is sweeping the world. The debate pitted two well known global warming activists of international repute against two well-known skeptics. The skeptics won, shifting the audience's support away from the drastic global warming action demanded by activists and toward the moderate reponse of the skeptics, a move that is rapidly becoming a trend everywhere. If global warming is a problem -- and many...

NUEVO PROGRESO — Mexican authorities refused to release details Monday of the deadly weekend shooting that sent hundreds of American tourists scurrying for cover as at least two people were gunned down. No U.S. casualties have been reported in the Saturday afternoon gun battle that erupted at the end of a city-organized celebration to welcome Winter Texans back to this popular tourist spot. While two people were reportedly killed, it is unclear whether rumors of higher death tolls are unfounded or if any bystanders were harmed in the volley of gunfire. U.S. authorities offered few details of their own, saying...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lawyer for former media baron Conrad Black urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn his fraud conviction, and several justices asked whether the federal law at issue was too vague. The Canadian-born Black, a member of Britain's House of Lords, has been in prison since March 2008, when he began serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. Attorney Miguel Estrada, representing Black and two ex-colleagues who were found guilty of defrauding shareholders of one-time newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc, argued before the Supreme Court that all convictions in the...

WINNIPEG — Manitoba is spending more money to upgrade a polar bear jail in Churchill. Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie says the province is spending $105,000 to improve the jail’s walls and main entrance. The compound is used to house wayward polar bears that get too close to the town or return to the community after being scared away.

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Maria Anne Pilgrim, originally from Canada, cries as she takes the Oath of Allegiance from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to become an American citizen December 4, 2009 at Ellis Island in New York. Pilgrim served in the US Army as both enlisted and an officer as an occupational therapist, serving part of her time at Walter Reed Medical Center. Napolitano presided over the naturalization of 110 new citizens during a visit to New York.

OTTAWA — Like public health care, Canada’s tight gun-control laws help distinguish the country from its powerful neighbor to the south. But as Canadians commemorated the 20th anniversary of one of the country’s most notorious shooting sprees on Sunday, their Parliament was on course to eliminate one of its most significant gun-control measures. A long-gun registry, which requires the registration of rifles and shotguns, emerged largely from public revulsion over the massacre in 1989. A decade before the Columbine high school shootings set off a national debate on gun violence in the United States, an angry, unemployed 25-year-old armed with...

The thing to understand about the 12-day UN meeting on climate change starting in Copenhagen today, is it's not an environmental conference. It's an economic mugging. That it's not about saving the planet. It's about making you poorer. And finally, that the "solutions" it proposes to "fix" the climate, far from being intended to succeed, are guaranteed to fail. How do we know? Because they've already failed. The two major initiatives that emerged out of the UN process that created the Kyoto accord, were the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which is a multi-billion-dollar European cap-and-trade market in carbon dioxide emissions,...

SEOUL -- In the last three weeks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has touched down in India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and, on Monday, South Korea, parts of the world his government paid scant attention to since taking office early in 2006. But on the eve of the beginning of his fifth year as prime minister, Asia is the priority in his government's foreign policy. "I would not characterize this as a shift but I would characterize it as a highlighting of an important foreign policy priority," Mr. Harper said at a joint press conference here with South Korean President Lee...

There's been a SWAT raid in Toronto over a gun scare, and designer Jeremy Bell was temporarily held at gunpoint. Per the Toronto Sun: The partner at digital marketing company Teehan+Lax was surrounded by heavily armed tactical officers, cuffed and held against the wall of his Richmond St. W. office -- until, that is, the cops found the gun he had been holding in front of the window about 90 minutes earlier was a pile of blocks. The BrickGun Semi-Automatic gun (purchased online from BrickGun, "designers and builders of the world's most realistic custom Lego weapon models") arrived at Bell's...

On the surface it might seem that Switzerland's law-binding vote to ban new minarets in mosques is petty, vindictive and unnecessary. And in a sense it is, but in another way it is understandable. It's pretty hard to depict Switzerland as a red-necked, xenophobic society. It is one of the few countries in the world that demands no passport for visitors entering, and it's famous for being a meeting place of cultures. It is a functioning society that manages to exist without wars, nasty linguistic or ethnic feuds. It is a society that flourishes peacefully in times of war in...

The Canadian government says it will be following Barack Obama's lead at next week's Copenhagen climate summit – and will propose to do no more, no less. In a speech to a Montreal business audience Friday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Canada's policy for cutting greenhouse gases would be in lockstep with the United States. He also brushed off critics of his government's climate-change positions, saying he will stick to his convictions despite international pressure at Copenhagen. He cited two reasons why Canada would need to twin its policies with the United States: It would “suffer economic pain for no...

HONG KONG -- Every year, on the first Sunday in December, a few dozen veterans, military officers and government officials gather at a hillside cemetery here that is the final resting place of Canadians killed defending Hong Kong against Japanese forces in 1941. On Sunday, a Canadian prime minister attended that ceremony for the first time as the group marked the 68th anniversary of the 17-day defence of what was then a British colony by the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Les Royal Rifles, a regiment from Quebec. They arrived by boat in November 1941 and, within a month, were involved in...

Last week, I pointed out that Calgary's Official Jews invited notorious anti-Semites to co-sponsor a Jewish rally against anti-Semitism. I know, it sounds too strange to be true. But it is. One of those Jew-haters is Syed Soharwardy, a vicious, anti-Semitic bigot who trivializes the Jewish Holocaust, spreads blood libels against the Jewish Talmud, says Israel is perpetrating a Holocaust of its own against Palestinians, publicly calls for sharia law to be implemented in Canada, and participated in a pro-terrorist rally in the Jewish neighbourhood of Calgary, replete with a flag of Hezbollah. I first came to know this odious...

Despite nonsense you may have read elsewhere, the success of the UN conference on global warming, starting tomorrow in Copenhagen, does not rest with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Canada is a bit player in these negotiations -- responsible for 2% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. That's compared to 22% for China and 18% for the U.S., the number one and number two emitters in the world. Unless China and the U.S., as the respective leaders of the developing and developed world, agree on a successor treaty to the Kyoto accord, which expires in 2012, there will be no deal...

Twelve years ago, when I was toiling as the minister of natural resources, I received a briefing on the Kyoto Protocol. I wasn't impressed. It seemed to me the protocol was built on a shaky foundation. At the time the science community largely agreed the world was heating up and that emissions of gases like carbon dioxide and methane were contributing to the problem. In short, for the first time in history we could really blame the politicians for the weather. This is not particularly good news if you are a politician. But Earth is a big place and it...

With H1N1 poised to enter history as the least deadly of four global flu pandemics, some experts are calling for an end to Canada's mass vaccination program. Nature is already achieving what we would hope to achieve by vaccinating, they say. ~snip~ Fisman can't understand the rational for continuing mass vaccinations. He said that for a virus as contagious as H1N1, less than 30 per cent of the population needed vaccination to reach a critical level of immunity. ~snip~ Despite that view, Canada's top doctor this week pleaded with Canadians to get vaccinated if they have not already done so....

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,...

HONG KONG - Stephen Harper wrapped up a four-day tour of mainland China, acknowledging Canada has only "scratched the surface" on what it can gain from closer ties with the economic dynamo. The prime minister flew to Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon, ending his controversial first visit to China with a hectic final half-day in Shanghai - one where he scored some style points after receiving a scolding in Beijing. He was mobbed by curious Chinese shoppers at a local market where he made an unscheduled stop ostensibly to buy a supply of Oolong brand for his tea-loving mom. And...