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Talks to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact have effectively collapsed after Canada pulled out. +++ According to a Reuters report, Canadian Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said “a misunderstanding about the schedule” was to blame for the absence of Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. ABC reported that one official familiar with the situation said: “The Canadians screwed everybody”, and that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had walked into the meeting after a delay to announce that the planned signing of the deal would not proceed

He told The Canadian Press that his two daughters, who are 13 and 15, and his ex-wife were having breakfast with two friends — a man and his wife. The man had recently travelled overseas and brought back some tea from India. The relative did not know the name of the tea. That kicked off the “whole crazy spell,” he said. Mounties have said a man, woman and baby were forced against their will from a home in Leduc County into a BMW. Inside the car were five naked people. While the car was being driven, the abducted man, who...

Porn, spam and hate among the top reasons cited for blocking Facebook and Twitter users Canadian government departments have quietly blocked nearly 22,000 Facebook and Twitter users, with Global Affairs Canada accounting for nearly 20,000 of the blocked accounts, CBC News has learned. Moreover, nearly 1,500 posts — a combination of official messages and comments from readers — have been deleted from various government social media accounts since January 2016. However, there could be even more blocked accounts and deleted posts. In answer to questions tabled by Opposition MPs in the House of Commons, several departments said they don't keep...

Man, a woman and a six-week-old baby were forced into a car against their will, RCMP sayKidnapping charges are pending against three people arrested in the buff after a collision Monday morning in Nisku. A man, a woman and a six-week-old baby were taken from a residence in Leduc County at about 9:30 a.m. and forced into a car against their will, Leduc RCMP said in a news release Tuesday. The man managed to escape from the trunk of the moving car, police said. The woman also escaped with the baby a few minutes later. A passerby offered assistance and...

Richard Warnica: Everything I saw in person, over months, looked good for Trump. But I never fully bought into any of it — not the enormous crowds or the enthusiasm I recently found a copy of the notes I made the first time I saw Donald Trump in person. It was at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2016. Even outside, it was the strangest thing I had ever seen in politics. Hundreds, maybe thousands, were queued up in the cold. A who’s who of through-the-looking-glass Americana stretched over the yellow grass while reporters from all over the...

The Supreme Court decision on defence lawyer Joe Groia's behaviour will have a significant impact on lawyers and judicial independenceOn Monday, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case that will determine who gets to regulate a lawyer’s courtroom behaviour, which has important implications for our justice system. At the centre of the storm is a Toronto litigator named Joe Groia, who has been convicted of being “rude” — that is, in engaging in uncivil courtroom conduct — by the Law Society, the body that regulates Ontario lawyers. As a result of his conviction, Joe has been sentenced to...

Canada's wish to buy the latest version of the Advanced Medium Range Air-To-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the AIM-120D, has been granted by the US State Department. The only problem is that their current fleet of aging CF-18 Hornets would realize little from the missile's most preeminent feature, its greatly enhanced range. The cost of Canada's AIM-120D buy is no chump change. Set at $140M, it buys just 32 AIM-120Ds plus support equipment, captive training rounds, spares, training and so on. The DoD's press release reads: "The Government of Canada has requested a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the procurement of...

WASHINGTON—Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz warned Tuesday that the United States would face “massive economic costs” if President Donald Trump killed the North American Free Trade Agreement — but that Trump might go ahead and make that decision. Cruz said “NAFTA has created millions of jobs across the United States,” and he said “Texans believe in international trade.” He expressed concern that Trump, whom he generally supports, would seek to use the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation to reduce trade and erect protectionist barriers rather than to expand trade. Reducing access to the Canadian and Mexican markets, Cruz said, would “do profound...

It was just one person who refused to budge. She was not going to move to the back because she was born with the "wrong" pigmentation. No, I'm not talking about Rosa Parks. I'm talking about a volunteer photographer at a Canadian pop festival who refused to move to the back of the crowd when the singer asked her to -- because she wanted no whites up front. Then, to make things really stupid, the festival apologized for the racism ... of the volunteer (emphasis mine): A music festival in Halifax, Canada has apologized for “overt racism” following a volunteer staffer’s...

The Canadian dollar, or loonie, is trading at its lowest level since early July, down 0.46% at 1.2893 per US dollar, after Canada's GDP unexpectedly shrank in August. Tuesday's GDP report showed the Canadian economy contracted 0.1% month-over-month, making for its first negative print in a year. Wall Street economists were expecting 0.1% MoM growth. Additionally, the economy grew at a 3.5% year-over-year clip, missing the 3.6% growth economists were anticipating. The loonie has been under pressure, falling about 7%, since shortly after the Bank of Canada surprised markets with a rate hike at its September meeting. At the time,...

The Royal Canadian Mint is investigating how a sealed, "pure gold" wafer with proper mint stampings may in fact be a fake. The one-ounce gold piece, which was supposed to be 99.99 per cent pure, was purchased by an Ottawa jeweller on Oct. 18 at a Royal Bank of Canada branch. Yet tests of the bar show it may contain no gold at all. When neither the mint nor RBC would take the bar back, jeweller Samuel Tang contacted CBC news.

According to the National Post, performer Lido Pimienta, who won the 2017 Polaris Prize, frequently asks all white members of her audience to move to the back and give up their seats to non-white audience members. They must do so regardless of whether they pay more for their seating.The Halifax Pop Explosion music festival is apologizing for the actions of a (white) photographer who refused to acquiesce to Pimienta’s request during her October 19 show. Her refusal to do so was considered an “interruption” and deemed an act of “overt racism,” according to the festival’s board of directors, who are...

Official says incident shows need for open talks about policies to support freedom of expression Dalhousie University is withdrawing disciplinary action against a student over a post she made to Facebook in the summer about Canada 150 celebrations. A complaint was made against student union vice-president Masuma Khan, who posted "white fragility can kiss my ass. Your white tears aren't sacred, this land is." Over the summer, the student union voted 'not' to participate in Canada 150 celebrations. When the motion passed, Khan faced a backlash. That's when she posted her comments on Facebook. The university received a complaint about...

PARIS -- Last week, the francophone-majority Canadian province of Quebec passed into law North America's first ban on face coverings. The right says that the law is too statist; the left claims that it's discriminatory. The bottom line is that it's exactly the kind of thing you get when systemic cultural insecurity becomes unbearable as a result of leftist social engineering. Bill 62, intended to promote Canada's religious neutrality, prohibits face coverings from being worn by providers and recipients of public services, including those using public transportation. Critics say that it will ban balaclavas and ski masks on buses. If...

Up until last week, the man who first took a knee had been giving the world the silent treatment. Even as NFL players knelt in stadiums across America, as President Trump scoffed at them, essentially labelling them a "son of a bitch," and as seismic debates ensued on every network from CNN to Fox News—Colin Kaepernick evaded the bait, opting to let his charitable contributions do the talking. The onetime rising star and franchise quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers is, of course, without a job. He has been living in New York City, keeping a low profile and working...

When Caroline Zuttel heard Hillary Clinton was going to be vacationing in the Eastern Townships, she felt this was her opportunity to thank her. The Nun's Island marketing consultant wrote a heartfelt letter, jumped in her car and made the hour-and-a-half drive to North Hatley, where the Clintons were staying. "She went through so much s**t for all of us as women that, yeah, I was like I want to thank her for everything she went through," Zuttel told CBC, noting she hand delivered her message to the Clintons' security staff. When Clinton released her book, Zuttel had rushed to...

An Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate. (Odense Maritime Technology) Ken Hansen, who retired from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2009 at the rank of Commander, is an independent defence analyst and owner of Hansen Maritime Horizons. He is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for Atlantic Oceans Research Enterprise, and a contributor to the Security Affairs Committee for the Royal United Services Institute. When it was first announced in 2011, Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy immediately became the most expensive capital procurement in the history of the country. Initially estimated to cost $38.6 billion, the 25-year plan more than doubles the amount...

New information reveals how an alleged terrorist manipulated our immigration system to gain entry and remain in North America. Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, the Somali national being detained after the recent Edmonton terror attack, managed to slip into Canada despite a complicated system of biometric checks designed to stop people just like him. In 2011, Canada implemented a biometric screening program designed to stop criminals and other dangerous individuals from entering Canada. This system has the capacity to share vital information amongst our allies in a network known as the Five Eyes. The Five Eyes is a security alliance by Canada,...

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) says it is deeply concerned over proposed legislation that would ban crude oil tankers from operating in Canadian waters off Northern British Columbia. The Canadian Parliament is giving consideration to legislation that would have the effect of establishing a moratorium on the shipment of crude oil in the waters of Northern British Columbia. The proposed legislation is known as Bill C-48: An Act respecting the regulation of vessels that transport crude oil or persistent oil to or from ports or marine installations located along British Columbia’s north coast. The ICS, representing the world’s national...

Aside from the sesquipedalian Conrad Black – who puzzles me, because his own manners are impeccable and he generally loathes ignorant boorishness – just about every serious writer in the mainstream media regards President Donald Trump with disgust. Even Charles Krauthammer, whose ferociously controlled savagery toward liberals sets him apart from even his fellow columnists on the right, has called Trump a moral disgrace, among other things. Trump's fans are right: the coverage of their champion is utterly unbalanced. Not that there is anything wrong with that; "balance" is just relativism dressed in evening clothes. But it's always fascinating to...