Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper's Ex-Chief Of Staff, Broke Ethics Rules In Duffy Scandal: Watchdog

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Stephen Harper's one-time chief of staff was never prosecuted for his role in Mike Duffy's Senate expenses fiasco but now Nigel Wright is getting a belated slap on the wrist from the federal ethics watchdog.

In a long-awaited report released Thursday, ethics commissioner Mary Dawson says Wright broke both the Parliament of Canada Act and the Conflict of Interest Act when he personally gave Duffy $90,000 to repay the Senate for questionable living expense claims.

Chemical weapons a red line in Syria, says Macron

The use of chemical weapons in Syria is a red line for France and "would result in reprisals", President Emmanuel Macron said after meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Meeting Putin for the first time, Macron told a news conference that France and Russia must cooperate to "eradicate terrorist groups" in Syria and did not directly criticise Moscow's role there.

Unequal treatment: First Nations woman denied medical coverage readily available to non-Aboriginals

A woman from Alberta has been denied coverage for dental implants to fill gaps in her mouth resulting from a cleft palate, a denial her doctor says is the result of her being Indigenous.

"I think everyone deserves the same treatment no matter what," said Summer Dawn White Eagle, who was born with a cleft lip and palate more than 20 years ago on the Siksika First Nation east of Calgary.

White supremacists turn to Norse mythology because they’re too racist to follow teachings of ‘mongrel’ Jesus

Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists are turning to Norse mythology as the only pure religion for white people.

Modern-day Odinists, who worship ancient Norse gods like Thor and Odin, believe the “mongrelized” teachings of the Jesus — a Jew — are too passive and weak, reported Reveal.

Andrew Scheer is Stephen Harper with dimples

The Conservatives have chosen a new leader who is well known in Ottawa and among Conservative party insiders. Andrew Scheer was Speaker of the House from 2011 to 2015, the youngest person to ever hold that job. But he is almost unknown in the country.

"Who the f*** is Andrew Scheer?" wrote one Facebooker, after the Conservatives chose the Saskatchewan MP by the narrowest of margins on Saturday night.

Macron and the czar at Versailles

PARIS — You have to wonder what sort of handshake French President Emmanuel Macron has in store for Vladimir Putin.

Macron is welcoming the Russian president at the palace of Versailles Monday on Putin’s first visit to France since November 2015, the last one having been abruptly called off amid tension over indiscriminate bombing in Aleppo.

Libertarians Seek a Home on the High Seas

In 1968, the inventor and environmentalist R. Buckminster Fuller wrote an essay in Playboy envisioning the city of the future. The new metropolis would consist of a giant tetrahedron—a pyramid made of equilateral triangles—a shape that Fuller, the popularizer of the geodesic dome, admired for its stability and symmetry. Each edge of the pyramid would be two miles long; each face would accommodate dozens of detachable housing units, with sky-facing windows and terraces. Inside the pyramid, in the vast space formed by its base, a public garden would be illuminated by shafts of sunlight from openings on the pyramid’s sides. A funicular would deliver residents up and down the giant structure. And the whole thing would float on the open ocean.