'Forced to fire'

None of the shots that struck Tommy Smith outside his mother’s house among the stubbled grain fields of Arcola, Illinois, came from his own gun. During his encounter with police on a chilly evening in early January, Smith, a 39-year-old hotel maintenance supervisor, never turned the AR-15 rifle against his own body.

Yet the record books of Douglas County will state that Smith killed himself.

The US Massacre in Kunduz Exposes the Bankruptcy of Obama’s National-Security Policy

The aerial destruction that rained down on a hospital complex run by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, a provincial capital in northeast Afghanistan, on October 3 puts an exclamation point on the story of America’s 14 years of warfare in that Central Asian country. At least 22 people were killed, among them doctors, other medical personnel, and patients, including three children, and dozens were wounded in the attack.

‘Look for Hospitals as Targets’ -- The historical record suggests that the US bombing of an Afghan hospital may not have been an accident.

“Bombing of Hospitals Called Routine.” That was the August 9, 1973, Newsday coverage of congressional hearings on “clandestine U.S. air and ground activities in Cambodia and Laos”:

U.S. commanders in Vietnam placed no restrictions on ground or air attacks against Viet Cong or North Vietnamese hospitals a Senate committee was told yesterday by several Vietnam veterans.

The Hard Truths for Canada About the Trans-Pacific Partnership

The bottom line with the TPP for Canada is that it really doesn't have a choice about whether or not to join.

The Americans and Mexicans are joining and they're taking the North American market i.e. Canada's market, the source of its prosperity, with them -- whether or not Canada agrees.

John Cummins, Former B.C. MP, Says Missing And Murdered Women 'Putting Themselves At Risk'

A former Conservative MP says missing and murdered women who disappeared along British Columbia's notorious Highway 16 were "putting themselves at risk."

Eighteen women and girls vanished between 1969 and 2006 from the stretch of road between Prince Rupert and Prince George in the northern half of the province.

John Cummins, who represented the Delta—Richmond East riding for 18 years, suggested on Tuesday that the women's choices were risky.

Harper: Niqab Ban For Public Servants Would Be Considered

OTTAWA — A Conservative government would look at banning public servants from wearing the niqab, Stephen Harper told the CBC on Tuesday.

"That's a matter we are going to examine," Harper said in an interview with Power and Politics host Rosemary Barton.

"Quebec, as you know, has legislation on this and we are looking at that legislation."

Justin Trudeau's win-win election

A few days after Justin Trudeau won the leadership of the Liberal party in 2013, a senior government minister offered a private, withering assessment.

The worst critic he’d ever seen in Parliament, he sniffed. A dilettante. A poseur. A leader so inept he would drive disaffected Liberals to the dreaded New Democrats.

If Trudeau was so weak, I asked, why had the Conservatives launched attack ads the day after he was chosen? “We had to define him,” he said.

Stage is set for ‘Anybody But Harper’ voters to coalesce behind the Liberals

There’s poetic justice, if not fairness, in this interminable campaign finally resolving itself into a knock-down, drag-out grind to the finish between the old warrior, Stephen Harper, and his young nemesis, Justin Trudeau.

A review of Tory attack ads over the past three years confirms this is the final battle the Conservative leader has long anticipated. It’s also the one the Trudeau Liberals have prepared for, husbanding their ground game for a full-on, final push to reclaim their old perch as Canada’s “natural governing party.” Every recent poll suggests that epic struggle is now upon us, with Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats slipping by the day. This means the next couple of weeks will be ugly; an alley fight, no Queensberry Rules.

Vets attacking vets, unprecedented hallmark of 2015 election politics.

OTTAWA — An unprecedented political wedge is splitting the country's veterans, who are turning on each other in the countdown to the Oct. 19 vote in ways not seen in eight decades, say advocates and historians.

Sean Bruyea, an outspoken critic of both Liberal and Conservative governments, says the last time veterans were so politicized and divided was in the aftermath of the First World War.

Danny Williams: Voters 'can't trust' Harper on TPP

Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams is once again asking voters to choose anyone but Conservatives in the federal election.

The former Progressive Conservative leader popularized the term “ABC” during the 2008 election campaign, after he said Stephen Harper broke a promise on transfer payments.