Winnipeg police are raiding legal head shops now

Head shop owners in Winnipeg believe they are being specifically targeted for harassment by local police in the wake of yet another raid last week. Jeremy Loewen is only the latest entrepreneur to have his store — Hemp Haven, which today stands shuttered in Winnipeg’s Elmwood neighbourhood — raided by Winnipeg police, in what many […]

Poor Conrad

Jon Stewart on Ford and Bieber

Jon Stewart dove back into Canadian celebrity news Thursday by mocking the latest foibles of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Justin Bieber. He highlighted the apparent double standard of how humorously their violent outbursts get covered in the news compared to Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman’s post-game celebration, in which everyone tripped over themselves to declare him a “thug.”

Respect the ground squirrel

Move over, red squirrel, there’s a new bad boy on the rodent block: prairie dogs. Researchers from the University of Manitoba who have been studying the black-tailed prairie dog in Saskatchewan’s Grasslands National Park believe they have broken an intricate form of communication practiced by these lowly beasts. And apparently the bad boys have more in common with drunken sports fans than anyone would have previously thought.

Where is the Canadian debate about surveillance?

The U.S. reaction to NSA surveillance stands in stark contrast to the situation in Canada, where officials have said little about surveillance activities, despite leaks of spying activities, cooperation with the NSA, a federal court decision that criticized the intelligence agencies for misleading the court, and a domestic metadata program which remains shrouded in secrecy.

Majority of Canadians have no faith in safety of shipping oil by rail

A new Ipsos Reid/CTV News poll shows almost seven out of 10 Canadians surveyed see pipelines as the safest way to transport oil, with 54 per cent expressing no faith in the safety of shipping flammable goods by rail. An overwhelming majority of 90 per cent think the federal government should conduct a formal review of Canada’s rail policies around transporting crude oil by rail. [LINK]