Free Republic

An unfinished country Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 The silly name for our national holiday, "Canada Day" (imagine "Italy Day" or "U.S.A. Day") always makes me flinch. It has done so since 1982 when Dominion Day, a perfectly appropriate name for a big, beautiful country like ours, was voted into the oubliette of history after five minutes' debate without a parliamentary quorum present. "Dominion" happens not to refer to the British empire, as assumed by the bill's presenting MP, but to the 72nd Psalm: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea ?" But...

SAN FRANCISCO - A police officer who produced videos parodying life on the force was suspended Thursday after the mayor and police chief blasted the vignettes as racist, sexist and homophobic. Officer Andrew Cohen, 39, said he was suspended for posting inappropriate and unauthorized pictures about the department on the Internet. "I don't know what's going on," Cohen told The Associated Press. "I've never been in trouble before." Cohen is one of about 20 officers expected to be disciplined for video clips that Police Chief Heather Fong called "egregious, shameful and despicable." The skits featured uniformed and plainclothes officers making...

TORONTO, Sept. 28 - As one of Canada's pre-eminent historians, David Bercuson of the University of Calgary is not your average couch potato. But with beer in hand and feet up on the sofa, he watched the Olympics on television last month to cheer on the world champion hurdler Perdita Félicien to win a gold medal for Canada. When Ms. Félicien inexplicably stumbled into the very first hurdle like a rank amateur, Mr. Bercuson dashed straight to his computer. He knocked out a screed declaring that her sad performance, and that of the entire Canadian Olympic team, was just another...