Canadian News News

 Cheap garlic imported from China has discouraged Canadian garlic growers. But garlic doesn't produce seeds which can be stored for future use; so our special garlic must be grown from the bulbs year by year if they're to be available in the future. 

A public art installation depicting Russian Communist leader Vladimir Lenin and a feminized Chairman Mao Zedong in the heart of Richmond's business district has the whole town talking.

“When I went to the gym at 5:30 this morning it’s all people were talking about,” said Richmond city Coun. Derek Dang, who saw the piece for the first time Wednesday. “People just can’t believe it.”

Three undercover officers accused of inciting protesters to attack riot police at the 2007 North American leaders summit in Montebello are being summoned to testify before Quebec's independent police ethics committee.

The decision from the committee released this week overrules an independent review that exonerated the officers. It also comes more than two years after the black-clad trio were first exposed on YouTube.

Dave Coles, the union leader who confronted the men at the time and filed a complaint against the police, said a public inquiry is needed to determine whether they were acting on orders from federal officials.

 The revelation that the recently resigned Bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Raymond Lahey, is an “alleged” node and purveyor of “kiddie porn” should, if nothing else, finally shock all those slavish adherents of the Roman Catholic Church into the reality of the human experience.

Once again, government bureaucrats are attempting to remove the services of Lightkeepers from the Canadian people. They are working quickly to implement a plan to de-staff the remaining 27 staffed lightstations on the west coast and the remaining 9 on the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The distinct possibility that precious metals may have been stolen from the Royal Canadian Mint is "inexcusable," the federal minister responsible for the Crown corporation said Monday.

The findings of a long-awaited external audit, released earlier in the day, concluded that $15.3 million in missing gold is not the result of accounting or bookkeeping errors, raising even more questions about the whereabouts of the metals from what has been touted as one of the most secure facilities in Canada.

CanWest Global propaganda piece says all Canadians will be vaccinated (but there is NO LAW).

*snip* Gymnasiums would be used for mass school-based vaccination programs but experts say the harder to reach group will be the 18-to-30-year-olds. 

"Some of them are in school, a lot of them are not," MacDonald said. "They're very much living in the moment and don't necessarily see themselves as being at risk. We need some fast thinking about how to reach those people." 

She suggested booths could be set up outside bars for information and immunization. 

"You've got to be creative about this and really think out of the box."

Canada is now one of just three countries world-wide that oppose the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Two days ago, for the second time in 10 months, Canada’s House of Commons told Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government, including Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, to stop deporting U.S. soldiers resisting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A battle brewing over cosmetic pesticides between one of North America's biggest chemical companies and Canadian lawmakers may end up re-shaping the future of Canada's environmental policies in the years ahead.

Next month, Onatario is set to become the second province in the country (after Quebec) to ban the sale and use of most off-the-shelf cosmetic pesticides.

The Province of Quebec has rolled out its version of the Enhanced Driver License.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest proudly showed his new license, which features the number 00001, as it is the first one issued in Quebec.

"This new Driver License will allow people to have the flexibility they need to move back and forth across the border," Charest said.

The Quebec Enhanced Driver License will cost an additional $40. It has been deemed acceptable by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for entry into the United States under the provisions of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, slated to take effect June 1.

A British Columbian man has learned the hard way that you don't ask a U.S. border guard to be polite when he asks you to turn off your vehicle's engine.

Desiderio Fortunato, of Coquitlam, B.C., asked the guard to say please and instead received a face full of pepper spray.

“I just said please,” Mr. Fortunato explained Thursday. “He said 'get out of the car or I spray you' and ... I thought he was just trying to scare me off or something and I was pepper sprayed from a foot or two away.”

The increase in gang violence on the streets of Vancouver and other Canadian cities has direct ties to the grisly drug-cartel wars that have terrorized Mexico and some American border towns, say Canadian and U.S. police.

Violence has reached a fever pitch in parts of Mexico where the government of President Felipe Calderon has sent in 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to try to curb cartel activity. More than 7,000 have died in the last two years, with 1,000 deaths this January alone.

The United States has felt the impact, with the cartels sending assassins across the border and more and more cells springing up across the country to distribute cocaine from the south.

Many in the business community have criticized Canada for being too fixated on U.S. trade initiatives and not aggressively pursuing more trade and investment opportunities with other countries.  As a result, its overall global competitiveness has suffered.  Canada recently recorded its first trade deficit in over 30 years which was blamed on falling oil prices and also directly linked to the struggling U.S. economy.  In a recent visit to Canada, President Barack Obama gave assurances that he is committed to free trade and open borders.  He reaffirmed his pledge to rework NAFTA, but stressed that the current economic crisis may delay such matters.  If anything, the trade deficit that Canada posted, illustrates the need to lessen its dependency on the U.S. and further expand its trade portfolio.

On January 26, 2008, Canada signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which consists of the countries of Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Iceland.  The Canada-EFTA trade agreement is basic in nature and is not as comprehensive as NAFTA.  It does not include any new substantial commitments in areas of investment, services or intellectual property.  There are concerns about the negative impact the trade agreement could have on Canada’s shipbuilding and agricultural sectors.