The city of Montreal will adopt a bylaw next Friday making it illegal to wear a mask during a public demonstration.

Quebec police have arrested dozens of people who are believed to be members of a Montreal-based crime network linked to an international fraud scheme.

"Canada's election fraud scandal continues to unfold. Elections Canada just matched the IP address used to set up thousands of voter suppression robocalls to one used by a Conservative Party operative, and a comparison of call records found a perfect match between the illegal calls, and records of non-supporters in the Conservative Party's CIMS voter tracking database, as well as evidence access logs may have been tampered with. Meanwhile, legal challenges to election results are underway in seven ridings, and an online petition calling for an independent public inquiry into the crisis has amassed over 44,000 signatures. The Conservative Party still maintains their innocence, calling it a baseless smear campaign."

Investors who sunk millions into two now-bankrupt Toronto investment firms are scrambling trying to find any assets.

Seaquest Corp. and Seaquest Capital Corp — led by David Holden, who once served prison time for fraud — have only $50,000 in cash on their balance sheets, said Neil Rabinovitch, lawyer for bankruptcy trustee BDO Canada, at a court hearing Friday.

“It’s fumes,” Rabinovitch said.

Previous reports have suggested that assets, including a $1.4 million penthouse waterfront condo and an executive aircraft, are for sale, but not expected to fetch much because they’re heavily mortgaged.

A Wildrose candidate in the Alberta election is apologizing for suggesting he has an advantage because he is white.

Ron Leech told a multicultural radio station on the weekend that, as a white man, he speaks to the whole community rather than just members of his own ethnic group.

"I think, as a Caucasian, I have an advantage," Leech said at the time. "When different community leaders, such as a Sikh leader or a Muslim leader speaks, they really speak to their own people in many ways. As a Caucasian I believe that I can speak to all the community."

Your support is needed today to build a broad mobilization to stop the cuts to our public services and defend our rights. The recent Ontario and Federal budgets are a declaration of economic warfare on the 99%. We need to unite to resist this. We need to do so right now. And we need your help to make it happen. Canada is not broke. It’s about priorities.

Conventional wisdom is that this is the market at work. This is not the market at work. This is manipulation of a government system of open-ended mortgage insurance that is poorly supervised. What is going on here is a deluge of hot money from abroad that is creating an artificial and potentially dangerous real estate bubble. This mania happened in several other countries — where it was shut down — and has spread to Canada. Officials here have been urging restraint but that is not the solution. A ban on foreign buying of residences is the only solution.

The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that allows police to tap telephones without a warrant in an emergency.

In its ruling, the court said that Section 184.4 "falls down on the matter of accountability" because the existing structure doesn't provide a framework for oversight of police actions.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird personally took to the phones last year to try to swing countries to oppose Palestinian efforts to be recognized as a state by the United Nations, according to newly released documents that for the first time reveal in detail how intensely Canada worked behind the scenes to block the statehood resolution.

Nearly two years after the first hearings were held in Ottawa, the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition fto Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA) released a detailed report on July 7 that found that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Canada, especially on university campuses.
While the CPCCA's final report does contain some cases of real anti-Semitism, the committee has provided little evidence that anti-Semitism has actually increased in Canada in recent years. Instead, it has focused a disproportionate amount of effort and resources on what it calls a so-called "new anti-Semitism": criticism of Israel.

The Harper government has been monitoring political messages online, and even correcting what it considers misinformation. One local expert says the government is taking things too far.

Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt.

A restaurant server has filed a complaint with B.C.'s Employment Standards Branch against a high profile Vancouver restaurant group because management required her to hand over her tips at the end of shifts.

"The last night I worked I made $320 in cash tips, and I walked out of the restaurant with not a penny in my pocket," says Charlotte Zesati.

"The manager wouldn't let me go until I put [some cash from tips] in the envelope … faced this camera in the office and put it in the safe."

Zesati says that happened after she'd already cashed out and split some of her tips with the bartender and busser. She had given each of them cash equal to one per cent of her sales.

She says she was told the money she had to put in the safe would go to "the house."

More than 200 people were arrested and four are facing criminal charges after Thursday night's protest in Montreal against alleged police brutality.

Police Chief Marc Parent said 36 people were nabbed in isolated arrests, while 190 were detained in a mass arrest at a street corner near the downtown core.

Four people, three adults and one youth, were still in custody Friday morning facing assault, breach of probation and weapons charges.

Parent said seven officers were slightly injured, as were two civilians.

The chief defended police behaviour during the protest as professional.

Vancouver’s deputy police chief was ticketed earlier this year for distracted driving after getting involved in a traffic accident while making a "work-related phone call," a police spokeswoman said this week.

Warren Lemcke was involved in the accident Jan. 4, but it wasn't made public until Wednesday, "in response to a number of inquiries," said Const. Jana McGuinness in a release late Wednesday.

Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney has cancelled a Canadian speaking appearance due to security concerns sparked by demonstrations during a visit he made to Vancouver last fall, the event promoter said Monday.

Cheney, whom the protesters denounced as a war criminal, was slated to talk about his experiences in office and the current American political situation at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on April 24.

However, Ryan Ruppert, of Spectre Live Corp., said Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth had begged off via their agent.

"After speaking with their security advisers, they changed their mind on coming to the event," Ruppert said.

"(They) decided it was better for their personal safety they stay out of Canada."

Internet law expert Michael Geist recently revealed that behind-the-scenes, Big Media is pushing for copyright legislation (Bill C-11) to include such strong powers that, if accepted, could lead to “a radical reform of the Internet in Canada”. He writes:

Taken together, the proposals would require Internet providers to block access to foreign sites, take down content without court oversight, and disclose subscriber information without a warrant.

We’re talking about mass Internet surveillance and censorship. We have to stop these restrictions on free expression, privacy, and innovation.

Manulife says Bill should have answered yes to this question about two conditions:

"In the last two (2) years, have you been prescribed or received treatment for and/or been hospitalized (as an in-patient or seen in the emergency department) and/or been prescribed or taken medication for any of the following conditions: diverticular disorder or gastrointestinal bleeding?"

...

Susan Eng of CARP, a Canadian advocacy group for people over 50, says the system is set up for claims to be denied.

"Ordinary people are out thousands and thousands of dollars because they did not get the protection they thought they had — only because they made a mistake on the form that they could not possibly have done correctly," she said.

Montreal police will investigate after a 22-year-old man said his eye was badly injured by the blast of a police stun grenade during Wednesday’s student protest over tuition fee hikes.

Alleged voting irregularities in the 2011 federal election have taken a new twist with accusations that hundreds of unregistered voters cast ballots in the Eglinton-Lawrence riding, according to CBC.

The Conservative Party has been dogged for weeks now with allegations that it was behind so-called robo-calls and other dirty tricks that critics says swung the results in its favour.

Last election, voters in as many as 45 ridings received misleading and fraudulent phone calls telling us to go to fake polling stations. New media reports show that this orchestrated attack on our democracy might have worked -- flipping seats to benefit the Conservative party and giving them a majority in Parliament. Elections Canada and the RCMP are, thus far, limiting their investigation to one riding and the members of one political party -- if we raise a massive public outcry they will be forced to expand their investigation to third parties and to dig into fraud across the country.

Four people were injured during student protests over tuition-fee hikes as clouds of tear gas wafted Wednesday over downtown Montreal.

Canada’s spy agency considers surprise workplace visits to be a “legitimate investigative strategy” despite persistent public concerns about the practice, a newly disclosed policy memo says.

The memo surfaced recently further to a complaint lodged by an Ottawa woman who took exception to being visited by Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers at her office.

The previously secret document shows that CSIS makes it a point to suddenly turn up at people’s offices in order to intimidate them, said Paul Champ, the woman’s lawyer.

A B.C. man who raises tropical fish said his home and privacy were invaded when local enforcement agencies knocked on his door while looking for a marijuana grow operation, and then forced him to pay for an electrical inspection and upgrade his fish-tank operation.

“I felt violated,” said Mike Baynes, 67, from Surrey, B.C. “When they came in here and saw no grow-op, I think they should have said ‘I’m sorry Mike,’ and then turned around and walked out.”

Baynes is one of 128 Surrey residents who don’t have grow operations, but were nevertheless subjected to searches and electrical repair orders in recent months because they use a lot of hydro.

Israel's Netanyahu warns against 'trap' of talks; wants all options on table

Most Canadians are aware of the existence of the Bank of Canada (BoC) but beyond that, very few know little more. It is assumed that the BoC is owned by the federal government, i.e. a public asset. Under Section 3(2) of The Bank of Canada Act, the BoC is described as a “body corporate”. Black’s Law dictionary, 6th edition (page 175) defines a body corporate as “a public or private corporation”. In a recent communication received from the BoC, a representative stated that the BoC “is not a public corporation.” The BoC is, therefore, a private corporation! But who owns it?

Stephen Harper is caught between two allies. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to North America in a high-stakes gambit to find political support for a strike on Iran, Mr. Harper wants to back his Israeli ally without ticking off a bigger one in Washington.

Tens of thousands of students are on the streets protesting moves by the Québec Liberal government to inflate post-secondary tuition fees by $1,625 in the next five years. A serious grassroots battle is underway as students hold major street protests, sit-ins, and direct actions.

Callers on behalf of the federal Conservative Party were instructed in the days before last year’s election to read scripts telling voters that Elections Canada had changed their voting locations, say telephone operators who worked for a Thunder Bay-based call centre.

These weren’t “robo-calls,” as automated pre-recorded voice messages as commonly known. They were live real-time calls made into ridings across Canada, the callers say.

In a new twist on new growing allegations of political “dirty tricks,” three former employees of RMG — Responsive Marketing Group Inc.’s call centre in Thunder Bay — told the Star about the scripts.

‘No doubt’ dirty tricks affected election results, says Bob Rae

Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.

The murder charge implies that the Crown believes there is evidence the accused intended to kill the victim. A homicide committed without intent to kill is considered manslaughter.

Cavanagh has been out on bail since being charged in December 2010. He has been suspended with pay.

The stepped-up authoritarian, anti-democratic manner Stephen Harper conducts himself since obtaining his Parliamentary majority nine months ago raises serious concerns about how far right he is planning to push the country in his effort to forever change the face of Canada.

Harper hates many things about Canada—most of all the moderate liberalism that a majority of people have preferred over the years. He has adopted a ‘take-no-prisoners’ attitude, rushing ahead with destructive plans never before discussed in public, as well as doubling cuts to government compared to what he said before the election.

Elected with the support of only 25 per cent of eligible voters, Harper nevertheless is running roughshod over the wishes and interests of the majority 75 per cent of Canadians.

Ben Ferrill had his Ford F-250 truck up on the hoist late last summer and was checking the brakes when he noticed something blinking at him.

It was a GPS tracking device.

I did not like to hear our race called sheep, and said I did not think they were.

"Still, it is true, lamb," said Satan. "Look at you in war -- what mutton you are, and how ridiculous!"

"In war? How?"

A bill that is expected to give police and intelligence agencies new powers to access Canadians' electronic communications, sometimes without a warrant, has been tabled in the House of Commons.

Critics of a bill that would give law enforcement new powers to access Canadians' electronic communications are aligning themselves with child pornographers, Canada's public safety minister says.

Canada's intelligence officers were given the green light to use intelligence gained through aggressive interrogation techniques -- described by some as torture -- in cases that impact upon the safety and security of the Canadian people, according to a breaking story by the Canadian Press Tuesday evening.

I have written many times about the scores of youngsters working illegally in just about every major mall in the United States and Canada. Today there is a report dealing with an even worse situation, the arrest of the daughter of Israel’s former Minister of Defence, on drug related charges…

The arrogance displayed by the Israeli government is definitely reflected by the individual arrogance and disregard for the laws of the land they visit. They come by it honestly, one can say it is the norm.

For the record, El Reg's Paper Aircraft Released Into Space team, whose Vulture 1 aircraft and Playmonaut soared to a dizzying 89,591ft (27,307m) above Spain, had the necessary permission from local authority AENA for its launch.

A federal agency created by the Harper government with great political fanfare in 2008 is costing millions of dollars to achieve pretty much nothing.

Defence experts said, given where the suspect worked, the potential damage to national security was immense.

MacKay said he would not confirm or deny reports the foreign power involved could be Russia, but a defence expert said that country is the most likely suspect, given the few details available.

“They engaged in unjustified acts of physical violence against people in their custody,” said Pearson of the defendants, drawing a vivid picture not just of rogue cops, the odd bad apple, but a gang of punks with badges and guns; a self-contained lawless posse that threatened suspects to extract information about the whereabouts of their cash and stash, to which they helped themselves, then tried to cover their tracks by falsifying notes, disguising illegal searches, withholding vital information from both prosecutors and defence lawyers, and fabricating tales in court.

A member of the military has been charged with communicating information that could harm Canada's interests to a foreign entity.

And yet, instead of continuing to serve Canadian children in need of his services, Dr Said recently returned to Israel without even a parting reference from the University of Ottawa, under whose aegis the dean of medicine, Dr. Jacques Bradwejn, dismissed him from his post after the same committee that had previously praised his work and teaching unanimously rejected Dr Said’s promotion. Dr. Said’s medical licence was automatically voided in 2010.

Twenty-nine people busted by the Canada Border Services Agency last month for illegally working in Ottawa and Gatineau have been ordered to leave the country.

“They all admitted the allegation that they were working without authorization, so that’s why the removal order was rendered for all of them,” said Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada spokesman Robert Gervais.

The illegal workers are all Israeli citizens — as initially reported by the Sun — except for one person, from France, and they range from 19 to 36 years old.

Border Authorities and detectives at the Halifax District Police in Canada arrested Israeli citizens who illegally worked in mall carts around the country, Canadian network CBC reported on Saturday.

According to a report published on the internet site of Shalom Toronto, dozens of Israelis were arrested during raids in apartments and three malls in the country, and they are scheduled for deportation. They might also be barred from entering the United States in the future.

A Canadian Border Authority spokesperson stated that the arrests were carried out as part of an extensive campaign tracking immigrants and refugees who illegally seek employment in Canada. According to the spokesperson, 10 people were arrested during the latest raid, on suspicion of violating immigration laws.

If you've got a strong constitution you may survive listening to a former, long-time CIA psychiatrist, Jerrold Post, arrogantly dissecting Syria's Bashar Al-Assad and other "rogue" leaders. The CBC's interviewer, Anna Maria Tremonti, touted misleadingly as a "hard edged" journalist, laps up every word and asks not a single challenging question.

Border services agents and Halifax police raided a Clayton Park home and kiosks at three shopping malls Wednesday in a search for illegal Israeli workers.

The Canada Border Services Agency raided eight shopping centres in Ottawa and Gatineau Monday, arresting 30 suspected illegal workers — 15 in each city — at kiosks selling beauty products.

At least five of the malls, including both in Quebec, have kiosks selling Dead Sea skin products from Israel, but authorities wouldn’t confirm the names of any businesses.

Several sources say the Seacret employees are Israeli, however, the CBSA isn’t saying where the suspects are originally from or how long they’ve been in Canada.

With global climate-change talks in limbo, Quebec says it’s going ahead with a cap-and-trade program.

Canada on Thursday urged its citizens to leave Syria immediately, saying President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime "has lost all legitimacy, and its abhorrent behavior will not be tolerated."

I have copied this email here verbatim to preserve it rather than simply post to the letters section where it will soon fade. It would appear thsat the government of Canada continues to follow the example of the United States in far too many ways, including a callous disregard for those who are injured while in uniform. Having suffered a minor back injury myself (thankfully healed, no thanks to conventional medicine) I am well aware of the inherent insensitivity of people who cannot "see" that there is anything wrong and therefore presume that back pain is "all in the head." As I understand it, this invidual is currently unable to afford legal representation in his case. If you are aware of a pro-bono legal aid society in Calary, please forward this contact information to them.

Canada will pull out of the Kyoto protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said on Monday, dealing a symbolic blow to the troubled global treaty.

Canada will become the first country to formally withdraw from Kyoto, which it says is badly flawed because it does not cover all major emitters of greenhouse gasses, notably the United States and China.

The forensic specialists are nearly definite that it’s the upper thigh bone of a small child, maybe four or five years old. This month, their tests will confirm what I felt was true when I recently lifted it from the soil near the former Anglican Indian school in Brantford: that the first of Canada’s Disappeared – the missing and murdered residential school children – have begun to come home.

Armed U.S. police officers will for the first time be allowed to operate in Canada along with the RCMP as part of far-reaching changes in Canadian-American border operations to be unveiled next week by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama.

New documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act directly contradict published claims by Stephen Harper's chief spokesman that bureaucrats have not been directed to replace the words Government of Canada with "Harper Government" in departmental news releases and backgrounders.

Archaeological surveys and test digs authorized by we, elders of the Kanien'keha:ka Nation, have been conducted at the former Mohawk Institute Indian residential school since October 1.

This past week, while on the grounds of the school, our researchers along with Kevin Annett -Rawennatshani, who acts with our approval, have unearthed what has been described as human remains. One bone among sixteen uncovered has been identified, through preliminary visual examination by a competent archaeologist, as that of a young child. This bone sample is described by the same archaeologist as “definitely human."

As the situation in Syria worsens, the frigate HMCS Vancouver will stay in the Mediterranean Sea until early 2012.

"HMCS Vancouver will be tasked, while on Operation Active Endeavour, to take part in such events as locating, tracking, reporting (and) boarding vessels of interest suspected of international terrorism," Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced after the conclusion of the Halifax International Security Forum.
The ship was already in the region following the end of her mission off the coast of Libya.

MacKay also noted a Royal Canadian Navy presence in the Mediterranean Sea would continue until the end of next year, with HMCS Charlottetown eventually relieving HMCS Vancouver.

City officials asked Crawford to submit a different piece of work.

"One sentence that really sticks in my mind is, 'Do you have anything none-naked to display?' And that got my blood boiling, pretty quick," he recalled.

Then Crawford had what he calls a "light bulb moment."

Jeff Crawford's work, entitled Emersion. CBCHe replaced the photograph with a framed pixilated black-and-white square, which some people thought was abstract art.

I have seen the best and worst of humanity. I've seen countries that no longer exist. I have seen war, ethnic cleansing, and real revolution. I have seen the death and destruction that it brings. I have seen children left behind to live and deal with the costs of our transgressions. I see where this path before us leads. I want see change before any of that happens here. My daughter deserves better.

- Don Bryce, veteran, First Special Service Forces, eight years in combat

A lawyer for Occupy Toronto protesters has secured an injunction to stop the midnight eviction of those still camped out at the city's St. James Park.

Judge David Brown granted a temporary stay of the city's eviction notice, which would have allowed authorities to force occupiers out as of midnight Tuesday.

Brown will hear arguments for and against the city's plan on Friday, meaning protesters will not be forced out of the park in the meantime. The judge is expected to deliver a verdict by 6 p.m. ET Saturday.

Dion Nordick of Grand Forks told CBC News on Tuesday he found the motion-activated cameras in June, in trees overlooking the trailer he rents. They are now in his lawyer's possession.

Nordick said he took the cameras down, removed the memory cards inside, and found pictures of himself and his friends coming and going from his trailer among the 200 images on the cameras.

There were also pictures of drug busts, suicides and assaults, "and it looked like they just hadn't been erased off the card,” said Nordick.

He said he saw a photo of a dead body and images of a woman who was the apparent victim of an assault.

Israelis are aware Canada is their new best friend but no longer care so much about Western support, says influential Middle Eastern writer Barry Rubin.

The American-born terrorism expert who lives in Tel Aviv was in Vancouver this week to launch a speaking tour sponsored by the Toronto-based Centre for Israeli and Jewish Affairs.

Israelis are "very aware" of and happy about Canada's support, Rubin reports.

Canada’s foreign affairs minister, John Baird, reacted swiftly last month when word reached him that the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to Ottawa had promoted a YouTube video in which a Palestinian girl urged sympathizers to “destroy the Jews.” Linda Sobeh Ali’s re-Tweet of the video, Baird made clear, had ended her credibility as a diplomat in Canada.

Canadian reaction did not shift when subsequent reporting clarified that the offensive English subtitle had mistranslated the girl, who actually called on sympathizers to support a war devoted to “destroying oppression and kill[ing] the soul of Zionism.” Ali herself apologized profusely, saying she had re-Tweeted the poem without actually viewing the video herself. But the P.A. was forced to call her home.

Organizers say several activists, including a Canadian, were beaten when Israeli authorities boarded a Canadian vessel trying to bring supplies to Gaza.

“There is one Canadian, from London, Ont., who was harshly beaten,” said Dylan Penner, an Ottawa-based spokesman for the group Canadian Boat to Gaza.

Activists aboard a Canadian ship trying to breach the naval blockade of Gaza were beaten by Israeli troops who intercepted the vessel, protest organizers in Ottawa and Montreal charged Saturday.

Israel has said no one was hurt in its takeover of the Canadian-owned Tahrir and an Irish vessel Friday, but organizers for the group "Canadian Boat to Gaza" claimed otherwise.

"We are not under Israel's control and we have their permission to say so!"

He admitted to downloading about nine hours of videos of sexual acts involving girls under the age of 16, saying he did it because he was curious.

The 45-day sentence, recommended by the defence and the Crown, is the minimum allowed under the law.

On Thursday, the judge decided not to add Surkis's name to the national sex offender registry.

The men said they are not vigilantes but were trying to protect their homes and help a neighbour. RCMP Sgt. Pierre Gervais would not comment on the case because it is before the courts, but he did discourage people from acting as the Burton men did.

"If you're not in danger, or you can disengage and do it safely, call the police,' he said. "We'll answer those calls and we will take appropriate action."

The Ontario Crown Attorney's Office withdrew criminal charges against a Toronto man accused of operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme partly because the court lacks resources, CBC News has learned.

Canadian troops will stay an extra three years in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday, though he promises they’ll no longer engage in combat missions and will instead focus on safer training missions.

It is really beyond the pale of understanding to see people try to ban criticisms of a state whose modus operandi is based on murder, ethnic cleansing, land theft and lying. Perhaps this is an allegory of the time in which we living.

In the final analysis, countries fall down when the level of their morality goes down. Canada ought to wake up before it is too late.

Canada loses out on Security Council seat due to Harper’s support of Israeli terrorism.

The prime minister delivered a strongly worded warning about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Canada and abroad. He said the persecution of Jews is becoming a global phenomenon in which anti-Semitic ideologies target the Jewish people in their “homeland” of Israel and uses the “language of human rights to do so.”

The federal regulator on Thursday gave Bell Canada the approval to implement so-called usage-based billing to wholesale customers — usually smaller internet service providers that rent portions of its network — within 90 days. Under the plan, Bell will charge wholesale service providers a flat monthly fee to connect to its network, and for a set monthly usage limit per each ISP customer the ISP has.

Beyond that set limit, users will be charged per gigabyte, depending on the speed of their connections.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) are supportive of legislative changes that would empower police to perform breath tests on motorists even if there is no reason to suspect drunk driving.

Officers cleared in mistaken-identity beating of innocent man