Free Republic

Passengers at airports in Pennsylvania and British Columbia were stunned Tuesday when loudspeakers suddenly blasted pro-Hamas messages and slurs against President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Videos posted by travelers showed the unauthorized recordings echoing through terminals at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania and Kelowna International Airport in Canada. Screens at Kelowna also flashed messages praising Hamas and calling for “Free Palestine,” according to officials and witnesses. Airport authorities said the digital break-ins targeted both public address systems and flight information displays — a form of cyber-vandalism that disrupted boarding and startled passengers but caused no flight safety...

Imagine a world without McDonald’s, Nike, or Kraft Foods. A world where the budget-conscious and time-strapped have nowhere to grab a quick bite, where almost no one drives a car, where television is extinct. Sound pretty bleak? This is the utopian vision of the Adbusters Media Foundation. “We will wreck this world,” Kalle Lasn declares in his book Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge -- and Why We Must. That, quite simply, is the goal of the Vancouver-based organization he founded and runs. A self-described group of “anarchists” and “neo-Luddites,” Adbusters are not merely environmentalists, animal-rights activists,...

Back in July, an idea by Kalle Lasn and his colleagues at Adbusters, a nonprofit magazine run by social activists, had started to come together. For months, Lasn had noticed among his 120,000 readers an unresolved anger that wasn’t finding expression. He observed that young people were starting to say they worried about having a “black hole future” ahead of them, and it suddenly felt, he said, “like a Tahrir moment in America was eminently possible.” So the Adbusters team tried something out. They put out feelers for a small protest on Wall Street on Sept. 17. They started a...

"I am not a bigot but we have to face facts. Working on my readers' behalf I have come up with a carefully researched list of the four most influential foreign policy advisers to President Bush. What they share in common is the belief the U.S. has the right to protect itself from its enemies. And half of them are black…" Now, no matter where a writer goes from there, unless it is some sort of lame observation about how President Bush has embraced diversity, he is going to look like a wanker. Why? Because, whatever a writer has to...

Surrounded by lush forest and built around a historic ship port, Prince Rupert could easily be the picture on a postcard. But this Canadian coastal town is now so dangerous Walmart has closed its local supermarket due to fears for staff safety. The only Walmart within a 144km radius, the budget supermarket is a lifeline for many of the low-income residents in the town, and will be a huge loss for families. Nestled between the Great Bear Rainforest and the Skeena River, the town of 12,000 has become an unlikely breeding ground for crime, drugs and homelessness. Local business owners...

This is the tale of how a footloose, unfocused Algerian boy, son of a war hero, evolved into a terrorist. How he planned an attack against Americans on the eve of the new millennium. How he nearly got away with it. And how, since Sept. 11, he has been one of the U.S. government’s best resources in the war on terror. Algerian Ahmed Ressam was captured on Dec. 14, 1999, in Port Angeles, Wash., on his way to detonate a bomb at the Los Angeles International Airport.THE MAIN CHARACTERS Several people in this story are key to understanding the roots...

At least nine people have been killed after an SUV rammed through a packed street festival in Vancouver on Saturday night. The vehicle rammed through the crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day event at around 8pm local time, leaving multiple people dead and scores more injured. Detectives said a 30-year-old man, from the city and 'known to police', was 'taken into custody by people in the crowd' before being arrested at the scene following the 'mass casualty incident'. Issuing an update on the death toll early on Sunday morning, Vancouver Police said: 'As of now, we can confirm nine people...

VANCOUVER - Liquor from U.S. Republican states is off store shelves in British Columbia in the first act of retaliation Premier David Eby has promised to tariffs announced by the United States. Walking around a B.C. liquor store in Vancouver on Sunday afternoon, it’s easy to notice many shelves are left empty with signs reading “Buy Canadian Instead” sitting on these lone shelves, reminding people about the ongoing trade war with the closest neighbour. Eby is pulling popular “red-state” American booze, including Jack Daniels whiskey and Bacardi rum, from the shelves in response to the U.S. imposing 25 per...

Scientists studying six North American volcanoes situated along the continent’s Cascade Range have found active magma underneath both active and dormant volcanic sites. Previous research has suggested that volcanoes lose significant magma volume when they erupt, and any remaining magma dissipates over time. The scientists behind the discovery argue that a better understanding of the conditions underneath volcanoes could answer several enduring questions about their lifecycles, including whether or not all dormant volcanoes contain pools of magma underneath. The researchers also believe a better understanding of these magma-filled chambers could help inform efforts to prepare for potential volcanic eruptions. Even...

At 9PM on January 26, 1700 one of the world's largest earthquakes occurred along the west coast of North America. The undersea Cascadia thrust fault ruptured along a 680 mile length, from mid Vancouver Island to northern California in a great earthquake, producing tremendous shaking and a huge tsunami that swept across the Pacific. The Cascadia fault is the boundary between two of the Earth's tectonic plates: the smaller offshore Juan de Fuca plate that is sliding under the much larger North American plate. The earthquake also left unmistakable signatures in the geological record as the outer coastal regions subsided...

Now, only 5 days after a Mag 7.0 earthquake shook the Cape Mendocino Fracture Zone offshore of the CA coast, aftershocks continue hourly. Over 420 earthquakes in this 110 km x 20 km region are already listed. More happen each hour. Why do hundreds of small earthquakes offshore of northern California matter? Nobody lives there, no businesses nor voters nor industry is destroyed. No FEMA trailers nor FEMA money is needed of the earthquake is underwater. The Cape Mendocino Fracture Zone is the southern border of three tectonic plates being pushed east underneath the US continental plate. The Gorda Plate...

In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet). The four-story wall of water was finally confirmed in February 2022 as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded at the time. Such an exceptional event is thought to occur only once every 1,300 years. And unless the buoy had been taken for a ride, we might never have known it even happened. For centuries, rogue waves were considered nothing but nautical folklore. It wasn't until 1995 that myth became fact. On the...

Wiebo Ludwig,(Alberta farmer) convicted of bombings in 1990s, says he understands frustration that leads to sabotage. RCMP called in members of a local search and rescue team on Saturday to help sift through a 300-metre debris field surrounding the second of two pipeline bombings. "It's likely we'll still be there tomorrow," RCMP spokesman Tim Shields said. Anything out of the ordinary hidden in the long grass and fallen leaves could lead them to the bomber. RCMP also released a partial description of a pickup truck seen leaving the scene the morning of the latest explosion. That blast happened before dawn...

Former CSIS strategist David Harris says a weekend explosion near the town of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. fits the description of terrorism, despite police statements to the contrary. Sometime overnight Saturday, someone detonated a large explosion next to the sour gas pipeline about 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border. The blast did not rupture the pipeline but blew a 1.8-metre crater in the ground, which was discovered by a hunter on Sunday. "How on earth anyone could declare this was not terrorism at this early stage is beyond me. Terrorism is associated with an attempt by threat or actual...

A man in British Columbia stopped a grizzly attack by punching the bear in the face. Some Wyoming bear experts say that say might work, but isn’t something anybody should try unless it’s a last ditch option. ===================================================================== A man who stopped an attacking grizzly in British Columbia, Canada, by punching the bear the face was just as good as he was lucky, some experienced Wyoming outdoorsmen said. It’s possible to fight off a grizzly with a stout punch to the snout, but only as an absolute last-ditch tactic. “By that point, a lot of things will have gone wrong,”...

A Coptic Orthodox church in British Columbia was destroyed in a fire on Monday, July 19, just days after an attempted arson attack damaged the church’s door. Local police said they were alerted to a fire at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Surrey around 3:17 a.m. on Monday. By the time the fire was extinguished, the building was almost entirely demolished and only a single wall was left standing. No one was reported injured in the fire. “While today is a day of sadness, we will not be deterred and we will rebuild,” said Bishop Mina of the Coptic...

Police arrested an LGBT pride leader Dec. 31 for alleged sex crimes against children, prosecutors informed CBC News on Monday. Former North Peace Pride Society (NPPS) President Sean Gravells of British Columbia faces charges of sexual interference with a person under 16, physical contact with a person under 16 for sexual purposes and possessing as well as importing or distributing child pornographic materials, Dan McLaughlin, a B.C. Prosecution Service (BCPS) spokesman, informed CBC News in a statement via email. Gravells has been removed from his position with NPPS since his arrest for the alleged offenses, NPPS said in a statement...

This is no doubt going to be a boon to the city. Tourists love this kind of vibrancy. Families take a look at these scenes, and it gives them fond memories they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives.

Scientists have identified a previously unknown fault line in Canada, raising concerns about a potential tsunami threat for over a million Americans in the Northwestern U.S. The fault, named XEOLXELEK-Elk Lake Fault (XELF), spans approximately 50 miles through British Columbia, as reported by the Daily Mail. The fault's discovery, made by a team including Nick Harrichhausen, a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France, highlights its potential to trigger a significant earthquake in Canada. Harrichhausen stated that the fault's structure could induce a tsunami in the region surrounding the Georgia Basin, affecting Washington State and British Columbia areas.

Archaeologists conducting surveys of retreating ice patches have found perishable artefacts associated with ancient mining activities. The study, published in the Journal of Field Archaeology, reports that the researchers have found over 50 perishable artefacts near Goat Mountain and the Kitsu Plateau, located in northern British Columbia, Canada. Among the artefacts are stitched containers made from birch bark, wooden walking staffs, intricately carved and beveled sticks, an atlatl dart foreshaft, and a boot crafted from stitched hide. According to the researchers: “Most of the perishable artefacts were manufactured from wood, including birch bark containers, projectile shafts, and walking staffs. Of...