Free Republic

The fuse is lit, and so begins the nightmare David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Hamas seizing Gaza is only the beginning of a nightmare. One must look at the whole Middle East to distinguish the bomb from the fuse. What Hamas will do, by consolidating its power in Gaza, and becoming a true "free port" with terrorist infrastructure for the world's Islamist networks, is to perfect that fuse. As George Friedman has argued, it creates new possibilities for drawing Egypt back into direct conflict with Israel. But also, much more. There is an interesting...

The border is an expensive barrier, new study concludes Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007 The Canada-U.S. border is not our friend. That's the conclusion of a new Fraser Institute study written by author and Simon Fraser University political scientist Alexander Moens. Canadian nationalists traditionally argue that the border is our last defence against cultural and economic absorption by the all-powerful, politically domineering U.S.A. But Moens presents a different, more pragmatic perspective, which has resonance in view of the panic associated with long waits for passports to enable Canadians to keep flying freely to their favourite...

Oilsands gain a dirty name Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Forget Canada's image as a source of secure energy to the United States. That was a couple of years ago, when the flavours of the day south of the border were indignation over soaring gasoline prices, while dependence on Middle East oil was the root of all evil, including the war in Iraq. Now that Hollywood actors are buying carbon offsets to feel even better about their air-conditioned mansions and private jets, Canada is held in contempt for being the source of the dirtiest oil...

Iran's hard line cracks down for summer'A WARNING TO OTHERS'; 150,000 people have been caught in roundup Peter Goodspeed, National Post, with files from Reuters Published: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 As the world frets about Iran's nuclear intentions, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched the most extensive crackdown on domestic dissent in 20 years. Men and women have been arrested for wearing clothes that flout Islamic strictures, students and union leaders have been jailed as national security threats, and women's rights groups have been branded a national threat. Fearing a U.S.-backed "velvet revolution" in which western governments...

Anti-war letter angers soldiers GROUPS URGE DESERTION; Direct mail calls Afghan activities 'war crimes' Graeme Hamilton, National Post Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 MONTREAL - As families on Canadian Forces Base Valcartier prepare for the departure beginning next month of 2,300 soldiers to Afghanistan, antiwar groups have sent letters to soldiers' homes comparing Canada's military activities to war crimes and urging them to refuse deployment. The letters from a coalition of Quebec groups prompted angry reactions when they began arriving in mailboxes yesterday on the base outside Quebec City, home to the Royal 22nd Regiment, or Vandoos. "I read...

So, what did you learn in school today? Margaret Wente Toronto Globe and Mail Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Shortly after the shooting death of Jordan Manners, the 15-year-old Toronto student, eighth-grade students at nearby Oakdale Park Middle School were called to an assembly. The subject: relations with the police. It's a hot issue in that part of town. The community is in an uproar over the shooting and allegations are flying that police have been heavy-handed in their hunt for Jordan's killer. But the group invited by the school to address the students weren't interested in improving relations with...

This is why people hate Toronto No, not the new ROM - but the pretentious, self-parodic ceremony that launched it Robert Fulford, National Post Published: Saturday, June 09, 2007 TORONTO -The temporary bleachers have long since been cleared away but Torontonians who attended the opening of the Royal Ontario Museum's (ROM) new addition last Saturday night are still trying to forget. It was an occasion to delight those who despise the pretensions of Toronto. No doubt they will savour, till their dying days, how dreadful it was. But we who love Toronto hope we can (as mourners are advised...

Khadr should make us ashamed to be Canadian By Doug Aldridge, The Right Side Canada Free Fress Tuesday, June 5, 2007 That Omar Khadr and his family are Canadians, is an insult to decent Canadians from ALL segments of society. Decent Canadian citizens don't sneak away to join bands of foreign fanatics for the express purpose of killing people who are our friends and allies. Decent Canadians don't cheer on the foreign fanatics when they massacre other Canadians as they did on 9/11. Decent Canadians don't show up in court as cheerleaders, to support the treasonous, home-grown, would-be-terrorists, inspired...

Guantanamo judge drops charges against Khadr CBC News Last Updated: Monday, June 4, 2007 | 1:19 PM ET An American military judge abruptly dropped all charges on Monday against Omar Khadr, although it's unlikely to mean freedom for the only Canadian at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The 20-year-old from the Toronto area, who had been facing charges of murder and terrorism, appeared before a military commission in Guantanamo, where he was expected to be arraigned. In this courtroom sketch, reviewed and cleared for release by U.S. military officials, Omar Khadr, far left, sits flanked by two...

Greenhouse grandstanding just a bunch of hot air David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Saturday, June 02, 2007 Every politician eventually enjoys his 15 minutes of media popularity, and this last week U.S. President George W. Bush got his. All he had to do for it was propose that the world's 15 major producers of industrial pollution -- recently redefined to include carbon dioxide, which is not a pollutant but one of the basic conditions for life -- should meet to decide upon emissions targets. What a brilliant idea. (Irony icon.) This will not happen at Heiligendamm, ye olde...

Gore's assault on reason Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Friday, June 01, 2007 The title of Al Gore's latest book, The Assault on Reason, says it all. Illogicalities, non sequiturs, false analogies, fallacies, ad hominem (or rather ad Exxoninem) arguments all tumble forth in profusion from its pages. But one's Spidey sense feels that something sinister lurks beneath the noble words and the plethora of quotations from Great Men. The book has one obvious target, but isn't piling on to George Bush a little like flogging a dead duck? Dubya has certainly had his share of issues. In particular,...

Combat photographer latest Canadian casualty AFGHANISTAN MISSION; Seven killed in NATO helicopter crash in Helmand Tom Blackwell, National Post, with files from Taimoor Shah Published: Friday, June 01, 2007 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A young and "outstanding" Canadian combat photographer has been killed in a fiery helicopter crash, amid claims by the Taliban it downed the chopper with new anti-aircraft weaponry. Master Corporal Darrell Jason Priede, 30, of Brantford, Ont., whose images have helped document Canada's Afghanistan mission, became the 56th Canadian service member to be killed here since 2002 and the second in less than a week. A corporal...

Al Gore's Vulcan Utopia David Brooks, National Post, page A21 Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007 If you're going to read Al Gore's book, you're going to have to steel yourself for a parade of sentences like the following: "The remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way - a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a...

A school board's message: Women good, men bad Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007Note: this column ran on hard copy's Editorial Page The Peel District School Board is one of Canada's largest, as its $1-billion budget, 13,000 academic staff, 145,000 students and 226 schools attest. Imagine the burden of responsibility felt by its trustees, knowing so many tender and malleable young minds are in their hands. So if signing off on an official school board document, a pamphlet say, tasked with guiding thousands of teachers in negotiating sensitive domestic issues with certain students, such a board...

Carson's toxic legacy Her book Silent Spring is a case study in the tragedy of good intentions Margaret Wente Toronto Globe and Mail Thursday, May 24, 2007 I was 12 when I read Rachel Carson's newly published book, Silent Spring, in 1962. Although I'd never heard the term "environmentalist," she turned me into one. I didn't understand the complicated science in it. But I was horrified by her evocation of a natural world whose creatures were being wiped out by man-made poisons - the silent spring, where no birds sang. In school, I wrote an essay praising Silent Spring,...

Turning murder into politics By Christina Blizzard Toronto Sun Friday May 25, 2007 There's nothing like an election year to force a politician to find religion. Especially when it comes to gun crime. Late yesterday afternoon, Premier Dalton McGuinty fired around an "open letter to federal leaders," calling for action on gun crime. He piously told Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, Jack Layton of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe that he's disappointed new, tougher legislation aimed at curbing gun violence hasn't yet become law. This in response to Wednesday's shooting of Jordan Manners,...

BREAKING: Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan~ CTV.ca News Staff, Updated Fri. May. 25 2007 9:32 AM ET Canadians lead major assault on the Taliban 'Hammer and anvil' operation designed to push fighters into an area controlled by coalition forces By Murray Campbell Toronto Globe and Mail Friday, May 25, 2007 MA'SUM GHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Canadian troops today launched their most ambitious assault on the Taliban in nearly two months. Shortly after dawn, a multinational force including Canadians, Afghans, Portuguese and British, began an operation designed to flush out Taliban believed to be in the area near the Arghandab River. Illuminating...

Reporters excluded from PM's visit to base By Murray Campbell Toronto Globe and Mail Thursday, May 24, 2007 – Page A18 KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper made history yesterday by going to a combat zone, but there were no news reporters there to record the event. This may have been the way the Prime Minister's Office wanted it. Mr. Harper flew on a U.S. helicopter into the forward base that the Canadian Forces have established at Ma'sum Ghar, about 25 kilometres west of Kandahar. A separate helicopter carried two Ottawa-based photographers and a videographer, but no Canadian...

Wolves guard the henhouse By Lorrie Goldstein Toronto Sun Thursday, May 24, 2007 Relying on Big Government to protect us from Big Oil is like relying on bankers to protect us from bank fees. Big Government and Big Oil are joined at the hip in fleecing us because the higher the price of gasoline, the more government makes in taxes. Clearly, the price of gas today isn't determined by anything approaching a free market. Indeed, it's amusing to watch the same oil industry shills and cheerleaders, who otherwise don't trust government to tie its own shoelaces, point to repeated...

Political correctness in a time of terror Steven Edwards, National Post Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 NEW YORK - The extent of our brainwashing by the politically correct has been exposed by follow-up reporting on the terror plot targeting a U.S. Army base. The teenaged clerk whose tip led to the arrests of six Muslim men on May 8 feared at first he would be accused of racism if he went to the authorities. Had he not overcome his initial PC reaction, the alleged plotters might well have gone undetected and succeeded in their supposed bid to kill as...