News round-up

Stories about CBC's documentary on Falun Gong:

CBC pulls film after calls from Chinese embassy
The CBC postponed the airing of a documentary about the Falun Gong spiritual movement after receiving calls from the Chinese embassy expressing concern about the film's subject matter. Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of the Falun Gong was scheduled to appear on Tuesday evening on CBC Newsworld. It was replaced at the last minute by a rerun of a documentary on Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan. The broadcaster says it changed its schedule because recent turmoil in Pakistan made the Musharraf documentary "timely."
National Post, November 8

Reworked Falun Gong documentary to air on CBC
CBC plans to air a slightly reworked documentary on the Falun Gong on Nov. 20, ending a rift that forced the film's prime-time English debut to be abruptly cancelled this past week.
Globe and Mail, November 10

Bowing to Beijing
Just imagine how easy it's going to be for the CBC to adapt to its new ownership. It won't even have to change its initials. Now that it has become the Chinese Broadcasting Corporation -- taking programming direction from the People's Republic's embassy in Ottawa -- it can still keep the old "CBC" designation it had when it was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Lorne Gunter, National Post, November 12

Earlier: Kilgour urges boycott of Beijing Olympics

Other stories from the past week:

Same-sex unions could split Church: new primate
Disagreement over whether to bless same-sex unions could result in a split in the Anglican Church in Canada, its new leader says. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said in an interview with the National Post that the Church may eventually have to face the fact it will never find agreement on the contentious issue. But, he said, some in the Church will not be able to live with same-sex blessings happening anywhere under the Anglican name and will leave.
National Post, November 8
Earlier: Archbishop of Canterbury addresses crisis in Canada visit

A thoroughly political writer
Tom Perrotta's latest novel is about the three things - sex, booze and drugs - that so fascinate the nation to the south that campaigns and religions live and die by how far they can stay away from them. Add the divorces that are always in his background, and the abortion that sometimes is, and if you're looking for a gloss on the obsessions of a global power at a crossroads, Tom Perrotta could very well be your great American novelist. . . . In The Abstinence Teacher, Perrotta gives us parents and educators who rewrite a curriculum after a teacher implies oral sex can be fun, and a pastor who figures the best way to help an alcoholic is to arrange his marriage and make him a warrior for Christ.
Globe and Mail, November 8

A crucial link between Church and State
The appointment of ambassadors can sometimes be a dispiriting affair. There are many exemplary professionals to be sure, but there are also many civil service time-servers, superannuated politicians, ruling-party fundraisers and old friends of the prime minister or president thought better sent overseas. On occasions though, a genuine superstar is appointed, one who lends lustre to the profession of diplomacy. Such was the case on Monday, when U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Professor Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.
Fr. Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, November 8

'Let's try' black school: pastor
A lively discussion among a predominately black crowd took place in a Rexdale high school last night, as parents, students and educators debated the merits of opening Toronto's first Afrocentric public school. "We discussed it and said it's about time," Pastor Andrew King told those gathered at North Albion Collegiate. "It's important to understand the word pilot, it means let's test the ground. Let's try something new because what happened before doesn't work." Advocates say an Afrocentric school will help address the disproportionate number of black students who drop out or fail to graduate.
National Post, November 9
Earlier: Stories about the Ontario election and non-Catholic faith-based schools

Continue article >>

Can Maronite patriarch halt drift toward new Middle East conflict?
Almost every hour, it seems, another motorcade of bulletproof vehicles arrives at the fortified monastery here high in the mountains above Beirut. Two days ago, it was U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman; yesterday, it was an envoy of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Before, after and in between come a steady stream of representatives from Lebanon's myriad political factions. They all come to ask the diminutive 87-year-old man who lives behind the building's white-stone walls the same thing: to intervene, somehow, and reverse Lebanon's dangerous slide toward further division and perhaps civil war. With just two weeks remaining in President Emile Lahoud's term in office, this heavily armed country is deeply divided over both who should succeed him and how that person should be chosen. Many believe that Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, the Maronite Christian patriarch, is the only man who can possibly broker a compromise that avoids violence. But with time ticking down, he doesn't sound optimistic.
Globe and Mail, November 10

The Afghanistan war is just
Reinhold Niebuhr, the most admired of American theologians, was a self-described pacifist who decided that sometimes war was justified. He applied his doctrine, Christian Realism, when Japan invaded China in 1932 and colonized Manchuria. Niebuhr urged the U.S. to bring a moral sense to this situation and yet "not sacrifice the possibility of achieving an ethical goal because we are afraid to use any but ethical means." He took the same view of fighting Hitler seven years later.
Robert Fulford, National Post, November 10

Canada's bogus welcome to talented immigrants
We're misleading too many skilled newcomers by luring them here and then denying them work in their field
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, November 10

Workers vote to end lengthy labour dispute at historic Montreal cemetery
Unionized workers at Montreal's historic Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery voted Sunday to put an end to their labour dispute. The workers voted 95 per cent in favour of a contract settlement struck between its union and cemetery management.
Canadian Press, November 11

Hillier can't hide grin as crowd applauds rabbi who says 'We love our troops'
Canadians laid wreaths to honour those slain on battlefields and during peacekeeping missions at Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country Sunday, but a thunderous response to a call to show support for soldiers currently serving injected some energy into what is normally a sombre occasion. A smattering of applause snowballed after Rabbi Reuven Bulka, the honorary chaplain for the Dominion Command, urged thousands gathered at Ottawa's National War Memorial to chant "We love our troops."
Canadian Press, November 11

Seeking the 'God particle'
Biggest experiment in the history of science goes underground in Europe
National Post, November 12

Jonathan Kay on the ruckus at Winnipeg's Church of the Rock
On Tuesday, Winnipeg's Church of The Rock prevented a troupe of aboriginal dancers from performing on church premises. "Native spiritual dancing has its roots in a different spiritual belief system that is incongruent with traditional Christian worship," Pastor Mark Hughes said. "I don't think a Buddhist temple would allow a Christian pastor to speak about Jesus." . . . This is one of those rare instances in which respect and exclusion go hand in hand.
Jonathan Kay, Full Comment, National Post, November 12

Staring down the gangs that killed an innocent son
Mrs. Mohan believes that Chris and Mr. Schellenberg of Abbotsford were not just two innocent bystanders in the gang conflicts of B.C., but kindred spirits. "I believe they are together in heaven because they are two wonderful people," she said. "I am sure they must be pals somehow." She is grateful for a note of condolence that she said Mr. Schellenberg's sister submitted to Chris's Internet guestbook, and hopes to contact the Schellenberg family soon and perhaps visit their church in the Fraser Valley to pay her respects.
Globe and Mail, November 13
Earlier: Stories about the Christian bystander killed in a Surrey gang war

November 15/2007

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