A storied Canadian frigate from World War II has become a popular tourist attraction for London visitors, but not for the reason you'd expect.

As Postmedia News reports, the HMCS Stormont joined a D-Day armada across the English Channel, becoming part of the fleet that helped the Allies liberate Europe. But it wasn't until the Canadian government sold the boat to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in the 1950s that the vessel gained true notoriety.

Onassis spent $4 million refitting the yacht to his tastes, rechristened it the Christina O. (after his late daughter, Christina Onassis) and used the boat to host glamorous parties on the high seas. As the article notes, everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Princess Grace to Sir Winston Churchill took in the Mediterranean sun from Christina O.'s polished deck. The yacht also became the place where Onassis courted opera star Maria Callas and wooed Jacqueline Kennedy, who would later become his second wife.

Since late January, the boat has

When Niagara Parks Commission awarded the lease for its boat tour operations to a California-based Hornblower Canada, many started wondering about the company that will soon be ferrying passengers through the Niagara Gorge.

Hornblower Canada replaces Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company, the Canadian-run, American-owned ferry service that has operated at the base of the Falls since 1846. The new tour boats are scheduled to start running in 2014.

Reader reaction indicated that many felt the Parks Commission should have given the new contract to a Canadian company, even though the Glynn family of Lewiston, NY, has owned Maid of the Mist since 1971.

On the phone from the San Francisco headquarters, Hornblower spokesperson Tegan Firth hoped to clarify some of those details.

"The parent company is based in California, but Hornblower Canada is a Canadian company," she told Yahoo! Canada News. "The vessels will be Canadian vessels and all of the economic benefit, all of the taxes we pay, all of

Cruisers line up at Toronto police's 43 Division with suspects from Project Whiplash.Police and insurance industry experts have exposed an elaborate scam that resulted in dozens of bogus auto-insurance claims costing upwards of $4 million.

Toronto Police dubbed the operation Project Whiplash, and working with the Insurance Bureau of Canada and Ontario's Financial Services Commission, launched predawn raids on 50 Toronto and area homes Thursday that netted 37 arrests and 130 charges.

"The numbers are staggering," Detective Sergeant Cameron Field of the Toronto Police financial crimes unit said in the National Post. "This was basically about staged motor-vehicle collisions, and then the ensuing health-insurance frauds."

Investigators allege the group was involved in faking or staging as many as 77 traffic accidents.

"People would agree to allow their names to be used as persons in a car that was allegedly hit," said Field.

"Then they would work with a number of bogus health clinics that we're alleging made fraudulent insurance claims, billing for work that was never done

Its official designation was the First Special Service Force, a prosaic name that hardly begins to describe a unit that served as a model for the Green Berets, U.S. Navy Seals and Canada's Joint Task Force 2.

Perhaps you know them better as the Devil's Brigade.

The joint Canadian-American unit cut a legendary swath through German forces during the Second World War's Italian campaign, and later France and Germany.

They earned the nickname "black devils" from their enemy because of the stealthy attacks the soldiers with blacked-out faces made behind the lines. They covered themselves in glory with the capture of the supposedly impregnable Monte la Difensa bastion.

The unit came to wide public attention thanks to a 1968 Hollywood movie staring William Holden and Cliff Robertson.

Now Canada is putting its weight behind an effort to have the force recognized with a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, a rarely bestowed honour whose recipients include aviation pioneers the Wright Brothers,

Actor Liev Schreiber is shown in a poster for the movie "Goon".Irish writer Brendan Behan famously said "there is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary."

Most recent example: The new hockey movie Goon profiting from a fresh wave of notoriety over a sexually suggestive poster on the eve of its opening.

The comedy, written by and co-starring Canadian Jay Baruchel, with Liev Schreiber and Sean William Scott, was already being debated over its sympathetic depiction of hockey enforcers at a time people are learning more about the brain damage a career as designated tough guy can produce.

Outdoor advertiser Astral Media has removed more than three dozen posters from Toronto bus shelters Wednesday, just as the film held its gala premiere at the city's Scotiabank Theatre, the Toronto Star reported.

The reason was public complaints to Toronto City Hall about Baruchel being shown making a suggestive gesture with his tongue and two spread fingers that is generally recognized as signifying having oral sex with a woman.

"Today of all days,

The CBC's Rick Mercer, well known for his vocal stances on certain social and political issues, has spoken out against the controversial online surveillance bill.

The Conservative bill would permit Internet service providers to give sensitive information on customers, including IP addresses, to police without a warrant.

Here's what Rick had to say on the issue:

The outcry against the bill, defended by Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews, has been swift and forceful. The Canadian public has lashed out at Toews through Twitter, in the form of #TellVicEverything and @Vikileaks30, and through scathing commentary. Mercer is just another voice in a long line of Canadians outraged at the prospect of having to share pertinent information with police and government without some form of due course being in place.

Mercer sums up in his video what many other Canadians have expressed when defending the right to keep their personal information online private:

"That doesn't make us criminal. It

British Columbia teens looking for a mid-winter glow may soon find it easier to opt for a tan in a bottle.

As the Vancouver Sun reports, the B.C. government plans to bring tighter regulations into effect regarding tanning-bed use among the province's youth.

B.C. Health Minister Michael de Jong announced on Monday that his department was currently deciding whether young folks under the age of 18 will be banned outright from strapping on a pair of tiny goggles and soaking up the UV, or if they will simply require parental consent. Both options, as the article notes, will require a new set of regulations.

"I think it's clear that there is a strong desire to regulate the access minors have to tanning beds. I think that debate has evolved to a choice between requiring specific parental consent, or an outright ban," de Jong told the paper, adding that he would like to have the final decision within a few months' time.

The move comes on the heels of increasing pressure from medical and health

Torontonians will soon have another chance to chow down on delectable treats curbside when food trucks invade part of the city.

The craze that is sweeping through the U.S., has been slow to enter Canada, but the popularity of past festivals has groups working to organize a fourth event in the city.

Food Truck Eats and the Toronto Underground Market will be teaming up to host a Street Food Block Party at the Don Valley Brick Works on May 5.

And this time, possibly because of previous success, they will be selling tickets.

Food trucks in other Canadian cities

Organizers for the festivals in Toronto expected 750 to show up for the first one and were astonished when 3,500 hungry people arrived.

At the Nuit Blanche food truck festival early last October, scores of people lined up in the freezing cold to taste burritos or grilled cheese and then huddled under a propane heat lamp to stay warm and eat.

The Brick Works festival has only been posted on Facebook for a few hours and almost 800