Geoff Russ: Democracy can’t exist in B.C. as long as DRIPA is around

Geoff Russ: Democracy can’t exist in B.C. as long as DRIPA is around

British Columbia’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) is encroaching on the democratic rights of British Columbians.

DRIPA, as developed by the provincial NDP government and defended by the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), has gone beyond the process of consultation required under Canadian law. Now, it has become a vessel for co-governance between First Nations and the provincial government.

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ISIS Beatle Ringo who was part of terror beheading gang has bid to move from grim US supermax prison to comfortable British jail refused

ISIS Beatle Ringo who was part of terror beheading gang has bid to move from grim US supermax prison to comfortable British jail refused

An ISIS terrorist who was part of a beheading gang dubbed The Beatles has had his bid to move to a comfortable British jail refused.

El Shafee Elsheikh – known as Jihadi Ringo – is currently serving life in a high-security US prison after he was convicted of hostage-taking and conspiring to murder in 2022.

The 38-year-old had applied to move back to his ‘home country’ Britain so he could be closer to family and friends – despite his citizenship being revoked in 2018.

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RCMP found no evidence of foreign interference in Alberta separatist movement, minister says

RCMP found no evidence of foreign interference in Alberta separatist movement, minister says

The RCMP has informed the Alberta government that there is no evidence the province’s separatist movement has been subject to foreign interference, according to the minister who oversees policing.

Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Services, on Wednesday attributed this information to the RCMP’s deputy commissioner, noting the update landed before the government learned about an alleged privacy breach involving the personal information of 2.9 million Albertans.

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Calgary police defend Punjabi signs amid backlash over immigration concerns

Calgary police defend Punjabi signs amid backlash over immigration concerns

CALGARY — The Calgary Police Service (CPS) is responding to criticism over temporary signs that were posted in northeast Calgary in the Punjabi language as part of an effort to combat extortion crimes targeting the South Asian community.

In a statement to the Western Standard, CPS said it had placed “ten temporary signs in select northeast Calgary locations for a two-week period, which began on Wednesday, April 22, 2026,” adding that the locations were chosen based on current intelligence about extortion activity in the city.

h/t Mauser

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Trump is clinging to a mirage in the Middle East

Trump is clinging to a mirage in the Middle East

Well, well, well. For all the head-scratching that it initially occasioned, President Trump’s hasty abandonment of “Project Freedom” – his grandly titled plan to open the Strait of Hormuz – turns out not to be so mysterious after all. Trump’s reversal, NBC News revealed late yesterday, came at the behest of America’s Gulf allies, foremost among them Riyadh which told Washington that it would suspend the US military’s right to use its airspace. Now Trump, who has described his current exchanges with Iran as “very good,” is breathing optimism about a one-page peace memorandum that he claims will be completed by the end of the week. Iran, by contrast, merely says that Trump’s proposal is “under review.”


There is a lot more anti-Trump hostility in the UK press since the president’s remarks on GB’s viability as a partner.

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Ottawa to pull plug on Arctic naval facility

Ottawa to pull plug on Arctic naval facility

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is shuttering a trouble-plagued Arctic naval facility, two government sources say – a project from the Stephen Harper era that was originally conceived as a major demonstration of Canadian sovereignty in the North.

The Nanisivik Naval Facility on northern Baffin Island was first promised in 2007 by the Harper government, but cost-cutting later resulted in the project being downgraded to a summer filling station for naval ships.

It ultimately never began operations, hobbled by delays, cost increases and serious corrosion on the deepwater port’s jetty where ships are meant to tie up.

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Vatican stresses need for peace as Rubio meets pope amid strained relations

Vatican stresses need for peace as Rubio meets pope amid strained relations

The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.

Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials

Vatican video showed the first north American pope shaking hands with his guest and addressing him formally as “Mr Secretary”, to which Rubio, a Catholic, responded: “Great to see you.”

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CBC’s Rosemary Barton Has No Time for Fake News

CBC’s Rosemary Barton Has No Time for Fake News

In an era when objective truth is a nice-to-have and the bar for politicians is in the depths of hell, it’s helpful to have someone like Rosemary Barton in the mix. For more than two decades, Barton, currently the CBC’s chief political correspondent, has chatted with, fact-checked and, when the occasion merits it, borderline interrogated the country’s most consequential public figures. Lately, thanks to some unusually exciting policy shifts under our refreshingly boring new prime minister, Canada’s newsmakers are commanding global headlines. But first, they’ll probably pop up on Rosemary Barton Live.


Government bought media giving a tongue bath to government bought media.

Careful as spittle may leak through your screen.

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Price Gouging, Now Personalized Thanks to Surveillance Pricing and Collusion

Price Gouging, Now Personalized Thanks to Surveillance Pricing and Collusion

With Democrats becoming more assertive in their embrace of socialists such as Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani, the abundance and prosperity we enjoy in a free-market economy are under threat.

But free market capitalism is also threatened by the corporate embrace of unscrupulous business practices. There is a disturbing modern management philosophy that seeks to financialize all aspects of a business’s operations by mining every possible dollar from each customer engagement. This may produce short-term gains, but it destroys long-term brand equity, and more importantly, it erodes consumer trust. By treating customers as prey, unethical executives are providing ammunition to the enemies of free markets.

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The Canada Strong Fund is a debt-fuelled corporate slush fund

The Canada Strong Fund is a debt-fuelled corporate slush fund

The Holy Roman Empire wasn’t an empire, or Roman, and its behaviour definitely wasn’t holy. But the title sounds impressive.

Prime Minister Mark Carney seems to be using that marketing technique from the Middle Ages with the federal government’s latest way to borrow money and hand out corporate welfare.

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Hamas is Humiliating Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

Hamas is Humiliating Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’

Six months after US President Donald J. Trump unveiled his ambitious ceasefire and reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group remains more armed, entrenched, and openly defiant than ever. Far from disarming, the Islamist group now controls roughly half the Gaza Strip and much of its population, while making a mockery of Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative and the international mediators sponsoring it.

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Government-Controlled AI Could Enable Surveillance, Impact Free Expression: Report

Government-Controlled AI Could Enable Surveillance, Impact Free Expression: Report

Greater government control over artificial intelligence in Canada could allow increased surveillance of users and discourage people from speaking freely in private interactions with AI systems, according to a Canadian rights advocacy group.

Increased state involvement in AI systems could also lead to routine government access to private conversations and data, according to a May 5 report by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).

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