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Really, if you could live in Calgary with its fairly mild winters, closeness to the Rocky Mountains, professional hockey team, and citizens who shower, who the hell would choose to live in Toronto?

The Supreme Court of Canada transformed the country's libel laws Tuesday with a pair of decisions that proponents say will expand the boundaries of free speech. The court ruled that libel lawsuits will rarely succeed against journalists who act responsibly in reporting their stories when those stories are in the public interest. It also updated the laws for the Internet age, extending the same defence to bloggers and other new-media practitioners. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said that Canada needs to keep in step with several other Western democracies that have provided greater protection to the media. “Freewheeling debate on matters...

How sure are you about the gold in Ft. Knox? For those of you who are obsessed with gold accounting -- and there are a lot of you; rumors about improper counting of gold bars in Ft. Knox are legion -- a fresh report from the Royal Canadian Mint about how it miscounted .3% of its gold, and lost $20 million should be interesting. The Times Colonist (via JohnLothian.com): A series of miscalculations and blunders in the mint's gold refinery dating back to 2005 were responsible for 17,500 troy ounces — a system of weights for precious metals — of...

A fundraising gala, set for April 15 in Hamilton Ontario, was initially to be held to benefit two local hospitals; the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter’s Hospital were to be the recipients of the funds raised. The organizers thought that they had struck gold when they booked former Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the main speaker. They should have known. Shortly after Palin’s presence but made public, Hamilton Health Services began to receive nasty telephone calls and emails. Some people who contacted the organization described themselves as donors and indicated that they would never ever donate again if Palin...

One of my favorite pastimes is fishing. Ever since I was a young boy growing up in Northern Minnesota, I have enjoyed the leisure sport of fishing. In the last 5 years I have taken up the sport of fly Fishing and found it to be even more enjoyable then fishing with a reel and worms. I have fished many rivers and in many states across this vast country, but I have never ventured outside of America to fish. I always thought that someday I might like to fish in Canada. Then after watching this video and seeing how they...

COPENHAGEN -- Green groups on Friday named Canada "Fossil of the Year" -- an award that carried the additional honorific of "Colossal Fossil" -- for what they said was a strategy to sabotage efforts to tackle climate change. "Canada's 2020 [emissions] target is among the worst in the industrialised world, and leaked cabinet documents revealed that the government is contemplating a cap-and-trade plan so weak that it would put even that target out of reach," said Climate Action Network International and Avaaz.org. "This government thinks there's a choice between environment and economy, and for them, tar sands beats climate every...

One of my favorite pastimes is fishing. Ever since I was a young boy growing up in Northern Minnesota, I have enjoyed the leisure sport of fishing. In the last 5 years I have taken up the sport of fly Fishing and found it to be even more enjoyable then fishing with a reel and worms. I have fished many rivers and in many states across this vast country, but I have never ventured outside of America to fish. I always thought that someday I might like to fish in Canada. Then after watching this video and seeing how they...

I had never heard of KAIROS until I read Colby Cosh's analysis of their partisan politics. That led me to some further reading, and I discovered that KAIROS had issued a denunciation of Alberta's oilsands, and then they went on their fact-finding trip to Fort McMurray. One might have thought it would have been in the reverse order. A quick visit to KAIROS's website shows that their most important goal now is not actually anything to do with religion, let alone with Christianity. It's about getting back to the taxpayer trough. I say let them raise their own money through...

A Toronto Liberal MP is calling on the federal health minister to take steps to regulate the adult sex toy industry in Canada. Carolyn Bennett sent a letter to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq this week saying that chemicals used in most sex toys pose a potential health risk for women.

In being witness to the plight Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has found himself in, I cannot help but recall the final year or so of the Bush administration.

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...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 14, 2009 Terrorism Defendants Sentenced in Atlanta Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced. "With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people...

Proponents of nationalizing the US health care system assiduously point out how popular Canada’s single-payer, government run system is. Polls show that over 80% of Canadians are happy with the system. Poll respondent, Emma Linger rhapsodized about her own experience with the National Health Service. “You just go in whenever you want,” she said. “You don’t even have to bring any money. The doctor writes you a prescription for antibiotics, tranquilizers, placebos or whatever you need and you’re off to the pharmacy.” Linger admitted that the prospect of long waits (an estimated four months—on average) to see specialists might be...

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...

For days now, the health care legislation in the Senate has been stalled. Democrats are divided over a proposed amendment that would let consumers buy pharmaceuticals from abroad. During the presidential campaign, Obama promised to allow such purchases. But earlier this year he announced his opposition in return for pharmaceutical companies promising to spend at least $150 million, and possibly as much as $200 million, to push his health care legislation. President Obama obviously faces a dilemma: either he keeps the campaign promise he made to voters or he keep his later promise to drug companies. Passing the proposed drug...

If Obama's Whacko Health Blanket smothers America, the US will not have enough doctors.

Higher exports of precious metals, especially gold, pushed Canada's trade balance into surplus in October against all expectations after its economy was flattened by the US recession, a government agency said Thursday. A 3.4-percent rise in total exports combined with a slight 0.8 percent drop in imports in October to unleash an unexpected turnaround trade surplus of 428 million Canadian dollars (408 million US), said Statistics Canada. It was only the fourth month since the start of the year that Canadian exports -- which largely drive its economy -- outpaced imports, the agency said. "Industrial goods and materials led the...

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....

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...

A recent headline in the British Columbian newspaper The Globe and Mail reads “Amy Goodman’s Border Woes Have Americans in a Tizzy.” Really? Because this is the first I’ve heard of it. Don’t know who Amy Goodman is? You’re not alone. As host of the television/radio program Democracy Now! (undoubtedly the most ironic misnomer in the history of news media), her activist-style “journalism” has kept her operating on the periphery of mainstream media. Fact is, a quick Google news search shows that the only U.S. news outlets to report on her “ordeal” have been, well, Amy Goodman for Democracy Now!...

Hate mail from Nisar. (See posts below)

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...

Nineteen Greenpeace activists have been arrested after breaching security and climbing the roofs of two Parliament Hill buildings this morning to protest climate change. But red-faced police and parliamentary security representatives have offered no explanation as to how the activists were able to so easily walk on to Parliament Hill laden with gear, scale the Centre Block and West Block buildings and unfurl large signs and banners. Some of the protesters stayed atop the West block for almost three hours before they were removed and arrested. “That’s not something I can talk about right now,” said RCMP spokeswoman Caroline Poulin,...

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...

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...

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...

The City of Calgary introduced its blue box, curbside recycling program this year, and there was rejoicing. Calgary, the last major Canadian city to offer it, had, until recently, asked citizens to deliver their own recyclables to green bins located every few blocks, or to hire, at $10 a month, a private pickup service. To those concerned about environmental appearances, it was embarrassing. "It means something to me that we're the last large city in Canada to implement curbside recycling," said Druh Farrell, the alderman championing the program. Approving the $50-million plan (plus another roughly $50-million a year recycling tax...

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,...

Friday December 4, 2009 Pastor Boissoin Exonerated: Judge Rules Letter on Homosexuality Not "Hate" Speech By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiCALGARY, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Christian pastor who was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT) for writing a letter to the editor on homosexuality has been exonerated by a Court of Queen's Bench judge who ruled the letter was not a hate crime but legitimate expression allowed under freedom of speech.Pastor Stephen Boissoin told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he was "overjoyed and relieved" that the lengthy, stressful and expensive seven year legal battle over his letter to the...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's national security advisor said on Friday the United States hopes Canadian troops will "stay as long as they possibly can" in Afghanistan and encouraged NATO nations to avoid "summary announcements of total withdrawal" from the war zone. But retired General James Jones did not say if Washington had asked Ottawa to extend the Canadian combat mission past July 2011, the date on which the U.S. expects to start withdrawing its forces. "Canada has made such a huge contribution to the mission in Afghanistan for so long that it is a charter member of the effort. So...

Housing markets in the United States and Canada are similar in many respects, but each has fared quite differently since the onset of the financial crisis. A comparison of the two markets suggests that relaxed lending standards likely played a critical role in the U.S. housing bust. Despite their many points of similarity, housing markets in the United States and Canada have fared quite differently since the onset of the financial crisis. Unlike the U.S., Canada has not experienced a dramatic increase in mortgage defaults, nor has any Canadian bank required a government bailout. As a result, observers such as...

The relations between Russia and NATO have been put to the test. One of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance – Canada – blocked the approval of all documents which were supposed to be discussed at the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia and NATO members on December 4...

Well, it finally happened. Much of Canadian media broke radio silence on Climategate today. There really wasn't much choice but to report it, now that Environment Minister Jim Prentice had officially described the allegations as "serious", coupled with the day-old news that CRU head Phil Jones was "stepping aside" in preparation for his encounter with a double-decker. As of this evening, there are 23,100,000 Google results for "climategate" - and exactly one on-air report from the CBC. It's been 14 days since the cork was pulled from FOIA 2009.zip And as it turns out, the concerted efforts of a protective...

I will preface this editorial by saying that I REALLY don’t like Barack Hussein Obama. No secret there. I didn’t like him when he was running for the leadership of the Democratic Party. I liked him even LESS when he was running for the Presidency. And now that he’s the President, I thought it would be near impossible for me to like him even LESS THAN THAT. BUT I DO. This insult to the Presidency of the United States of America and pretender to the title of Commander In Chief and World Leader has REALLY pissed-me-off. Let me tell you...

When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world's peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country's government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee's tea party. So amazingly destructive has Canada become, and so insistent have my Canadian friends been that I weigh into this fight, that I've broken my self-imposed ban on flying and come to Toronto.

Bishop John Chapman has given a church in the diocese of Ottawa permission to begin offering a rite of blessing to same-gender couples who are civilly married. The Church of St. John the Evangelist could offer its first blessing as soon as a married couple asks. At least one person in the couple needs to be baptized. “Same-sex couples who are civilly married and seek the Church’s blessing of their marriage must be welcomed with the same care and solicitude that the church would extend to any other of its members,” Bishop Chapman wrote in his charge to the recent...

World powers united in condemnation of Iran's nuclear activities yesterday in a rare show of international consensus on the threat posed by Tehran's continued nuclear defiance. China and Russia joined the United States, Britain, France and Germany in backing an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution censuring Iran and ordering it to halt construction of a secret uranium enrichment plant. The resolution, the first since February 2006, passed with 25 votes and six abstentions. Only Malaysia, Venezuela and Cuba supported Iran. ...China, which has shared Moscow's reluctance to take a hard line with Tehran, was reportedly persuaded to support the resolution...

Retired climatologist Dr. Tim Ball joins us to discuss the significance of the recently leaked emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University which expose deceit, duplicity and collusion between climate researchers to maintain the fraud of the man made global warming theory. These emails reveal stunning behind-the-scenes details about how this fraud has been developed and perpetuated, and Dr. Ball shares his insights on what they show.

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Twenty-four people have developed a side effect known as anaphylaxis from new-flu vaccine in Canada and one of them has died, Canadian health officials said Wednesday. The fatality was a man in his 80s who was suffering from an underlying disease, the officials said, adding they are investigating a possible linkage between the H1N1 flu vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc which the man was administered and his death.

Region QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS REGION Distances 250 km (155 miles) SSW (197°) from Prince Rupert, BC, Canada 315 km (195 miles) WNW (303°) from Port Hardy, BC, Canada 331 km (206 miles) S (178°) from Metlakatla, AK 662 km (411 miles) WNW (302°) from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.5 km (3.4 miles); depth +/- 10.5 km (6.5 miles)

Video at site. RCMP have solved a bizarre mystery: How did $15.3 million in gold vanish from the Royal Canadian Mint? And while their report is still two weeks away, CTV News has learned the answer. "Senior government officials say there was a colossal error at the mint itself," said CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife on Tuesday night. Mint officials double-counted some gold bullion they sold, and also underestimated the shrinkage of the gold during processing. The federal government had withheld bonuses for mint executives until the mystery was solved. It's unclear whether those bonuses will still be paid...

LONDON — Canadian doctors have been advised not to use a batch of 170,000 swine flu vaccines after six reports of serious allergic reactions among recipients, but there are no similar reports from other countries, pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Tuesday. Authorities routinely monitor vaccines for any signals of problems, such as the allergic reactions that do occur, rarely, every year. Company spokeswoman Gwenan White said that GlaxoSmithKline advised medical staff in Canada ast week to refrain from using one batch of the vaccine while they look into reports that that it might have caused more allergic reactions than normal....

LONDON — The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline says it has advised medical staff in Canada to not use one batch of swine flu vaccine for fear it may trigger life-threatening allergies. GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Gwenan White said Tuesday the company issued the advice after reports that one batch of the swine flu vaccine might have caused more allergic reactions than normal. She says the affected batch contains 172,000 doses of the vaccine. She declined to say how many doses had been administered before the advice to stop using them was given.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s office is “looking into” the possibility of removing embattled attorney Scott Rothstein from the state’s Judicial Nominating Committee. Rothstein has offered to surrender his license to practice law. But, he may remain a member of JNC unless, or until, he’s charged with a felony crime. Gov. Charlie Crist named Rothstein to the JNC in August 2008. “Typically, the governor would only step in when felony charges are filed against a public official,” said Sterling Ivey, Crist’s spokesman. “Whether we will act before that point in this case is not clear yet. Our legal office is looking into...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- An attorney who was a major fundraiser for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist allegedly conducted an investment scam that cost investors millions, a lawsuit alleges. A group of investors said in a suit filed against Scott Rothstein that the co-partner of the Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler law firm took part in a scheme that cost the plaintiffs more than $100 million, The Miami Herald reported Friday.

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

WASHINGTON — The government is to review an air defense system established after the September 11, 2001 attacks to determine whether the costly program is still necessary, the New York Times reported Friday. The review is expected to include a complete reassessment of the threat of a terror attack by air and will consider the cumulative effects of various security measures taken since the 2001 attacks. The review was ordered by Major General Pierre Forgues, the Canadian who currently heads the North American Aerospace Defense Command, commonly known as Norad. "The fighter force is extremely expensive, so you always have...

SNIPPET: "Counterterrorism officials are investigating a group of youths who allegedly left Canada for East Africa two weeks ago, amid concerns they may have gone to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabab. Two sources familiar with the case said investigators had been canvassing Toronto's large Somali-Canadian community for information about as many as five men who departed Canada together in early November. They are believed to have flown to Kenya, the sources said. Kenya borders the region of southern Somalia controlled by Al-Shabab, an Islamist militia aligned with al-Qaeda and sometimes likened to the Taliban." SNIPPET: ""Radicalization within the U.S....

An Ottawa man has been granted refugee status after an immigration board panel ruled he would be likely be persecuted if he returned back to his native South Africa — because he is white. ADVERTISEMENT A Canadian immigration and refugee board panel ruled Thursday that Brandon Huntley, 31, could stay in Canada because he presented "clear and convincing proof of the state's inability or unwillingness to protect him." "I find that the claimant would stand out like a 'sore thumb' due to his colour in any part of the country," tribunal panel chair William Davis said in his decision to...