News round-up

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Stories about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's psychic hairstylist:

Harper: touched by an angel while getting makeup done
It appears taxpayers may be getting a "heavenly" deal when it comes to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's image adviser. Friends of Michelle Muntean, who maintains Harper's image when he travels, say she claims to commune with angels.
Canadian Press, April 20

Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't pay for psychic advice, says PMO
The government's not getting a heavenly deal when it pays for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's image adviser, says an aide. Neither Harper nor anyone on his staff pays for any kind of psychic services, a spokeswoman said Friday amid reports that stylist Michelle Muntean has a clairvoyant gift.
Canadian Press, April 20

PM's stylist also works as psychic
Michelle Muntean helps make Prime Minister Stephen Harper look like a star, but the personal image adviser also reportedly consults with the stars as a psychic, according to CTV News.
Globe and Mail, April 20

The Prime Minister, the psychic stylist and the big flap
Michelle Muntean has painted a face or two in her life, from nervous television presenters to would-be newsmakers. These days, her challenge is to put the best possible face on the Prime Minister -- and the government's task is to put the best possible face on her employment.
Globe and Mail, April 21

Don't call me to complain, Harper says: I can just hear through mediums
Prime Minister Stephen Harper poked fun Monday at reports his personal image adviser also dabbles in clairvoyance. Harper was responding to a question by NDP MP Paul Dewar, who over the weekend urged pro-Kyoto activists to dial up the prime minister to complain.
Canadian Press, April 23

Stories about Sikhs and Sikhism:

Sikh leader fears that float had ties to terrorist group
The president of one of the largest Sikh temples in North America fears at least one banned terrorist group may be behind the possible revival of a violent movement to create an independent state in northern India called Khalistan. Balwant Gill of the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in suburban Surrey said members of another temple, considered a fundamentalist sect, participated in a recent parade to celebrate Sikhism with a float exhibiting photos of so-called Sikh martyrs.
Canadian Press, April 20

Temple defends celebration of Parmar
The president of a Surrey Sikh temple says he has no regrets about having photographs of alleged terrorist Talwinder Singh Parmar and other Canadians who died in India on floats in a parade attended by several politicians earlier this month. As controversy continues to swirl around the Vaisakhi parade, Sudager Singh Sandhu, president of the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar, spoke out yesterday for the first time about the involvement of several prominent politicians in the parade that appeared to support a terrorist leader and a banned terrorist organization.
Globe and Mail, April 23

Terrorist or freedom fighter?
Parvkar Singh Dulai, 29, was born and raised in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey. He prays at a modest Sikh temple at the end of a strip mall of mostly small warehouses. As a Canadian Sikh, he considers those who die fighting terrorism in Afghanistan to be not much different than historic figures within his religion who fought injustices, and more recently Talwinder Singh Parmar, who was part of a violent campaign in the 1980s for an independent Sikh state that would have been called Khalistan.
Globe and Mail, April 24

Stories about Jews and Judaism:

Fake identity politics
Toronto filmmaker Jamie Kastner has been asked all his life if he's Jewish. He recently started to think about what being Jewish means and why people ask, and decided to answer the question with a hypothetical "yes." He filmed the reactions and the result is Kike Like Me, which is premiering at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival. Kastner, 35, spoke with Maryam Siddiqi over the phone and discussed issues of identity and how people have reacted to his film.
National Post, April 19

Lessons from a killing spree
Some deny, some pay lip service, some pay with their lives. This could be true of many things, but I'm talking about the Holocaust. Look at the last couple of weeks. In Great Britain some schools have been dropping lessons on the Holocaust and the Crusades to avoid antagonizing Muslim students.
George Jonas, National Post, April 21

Montreal's Jewish community celebrates Israel's 59th independence anniversary
Thousands of members of Montreal's Jewish community gathered today to celebrate Israel's 59th independence anniversary. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay were among the dignitaries at the rally in downtown Montreal.
Canadian Press, April 24

Earlier: Stories about Jews, Judaism and anti-Semitism

Stories about Islam and the West:

Let hijab-wearing girls play sports, Conservative caucus chair says
The Conservative caucus chairman denounced the expulsion of hijab-clad Muslim girls from sports events in Quebec, calling it a sad over-reaction at a time Canadians should be celebrating the anniversary of the Charter of Rights and the minority freedoms it protects. Tory MP Rahim Jaffer broke his government's determined silence on the ouster of girls from soccer and tae kwon do tournaments in Quebec in recent weeks. Cabinet members and MPs have retreated down staircases, referred the matter to colleagues, said they were too busy, or claimed they were unaware of the story when asked for an opinion.
Canadian Press, April 19

Journalist, family live in terror after beating, threats for being 'anti-Islam'
A Muslim journalist beaten with a cricket bat outside a Toronto-area home fears for his life after facing repeated death threats apparently because someone has deemed his writing to be anti-Islam. Jawaad Faizi, a columnist for the weekly Urdu-language Pakistan Post based in New York, suffered cuts and bruises in the attack, which has alarmed his wife and three children and drew the condemnation Thursday of free-press advocates.
Canadian Press, April 19

'Fanatics' attack with cricket bat
Mississauga journalist Jawaad Faizi says he can still feel broken glass showering over him in his car as he fended off blows from a cricket bat in a surprise attack he blames on "religious fanatics." A writer for the Pakistan Post, Faizi said he was beaten by three men because he mocked a Pakistani cleric in a column.
Toronto Star, April 20

Canadian sentenced to life in Chinese prison
The sudden verdict shocked the wife of the Canadian citizen, imam and voice for his persecuted people, who has been denied all access to consular officials as well as his family in China and Canada throughout his detention.
National Post, April 20

Moderate Muslim activist takes message to television
Irshad Manji, the outspoken Canadian Muslim who has been dubbed "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare," has taken her message beyond print and on to TV screens across North America.
Vancouver Sun, April 21

The West is wrong about Islam -- an insider's view
After a career gathering intelligence on the stormy front lines of global Islam, Graham Fuller is not eager to disrupt the pastoral, small-town life he and his wife, Prue, have been enjoying the past few years in Squamish.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, April 21

Khan trip really cost $38,000
The fact-finding mission to the Middle East led by floor-crossing MP Wajid Khan cost taxpayers almost $38,000 because he was accompanied by an aide and a diplomat, access-to-information records show.
Globe and Mail, April 24

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past week:

Paying homage to Saint Augustine
This past week, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated both his 80th birthday and, today, his second anniversary as pope. A special Mass at St. Peter's last Sunday marked the two occasions, and the gifted pianist attended a classical musical concert in his honour at the Vatican on Monday night. I suspect, though, that Benedict will consider his visit this weekend to the Italian town of Pavia a more special gift still, for that is where Saint Augustine -- the fifth-century North African convert, bishop and doctor of the Church -- is buried. Across the centuries, one great theologian-bishop is going to visit another.
Fr. Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, April 19

Finding god in a drug dealer's den
Though I was baptized Russian Orthodox and my parents sent me to various Protestant Sunday schools to expose me to the Bible, I rejected the Christian faith and derided the faithful. By the time I graduated from college, I was "spiritual," into New Age and the occult. I embraced the 1960s hippie ethos. All that changed one night in September, 1973, when I hitchhiked to a bar in Cambridge, Mass.
Deborah Gyapong, National Post, April 19

Judge orders church election
The internal politics of a small Korean church have landed in court, for the third time. In a decision released Thursday, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered a new election for elders of the Young Kwang Presbyterian Church in Vancouver.
Vancouver Sun, April 20

Statue of patron saint of lost items vanishes
The patron saint of stolen objects has been stolen. A life-size bronze statue of St. Anthony of Padua has vanished from a grave in Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery, and relatives of the deceased are praying to the patron saint of lost and stolen items -- St. Anthony himself -- for its safe return.
Montreal Gazette, April 20

'Exhausted' pastor at epicentre of hurt
BLACKSBURG, VA. - At the epicentre of grief in this small college town is a soft-spoken pastor who is caring for everyone from police officers who first responded to Monday's massacre to the families torn apart by the gunman.
National Post, April 20

Salmon inspire Earth Day ceremony
People from a multitude of faiths gather at a Kitsilano beach to bless the fish as they go to sea
Vancouver Sun, April 23

Franciscan novice faces child porn charges
A 24-year-old man studying to be a Franciscan priest was arrested on child pornography charges in Toronto yesterday. . . . Adley Lobo, who was charged with possessing child pornography, and creating and making child porn available, has also been affiliated with St. Francis Friary in Caledon, police said.
Toronto Star, April 24

April 26/2007