Stories about religious minorities in Quebec:
Hate? Let's all take a Valium
That's a weird commission in Quebec, the one on hate, whoops, I mean "reasonable accommodation." Premier Jean Charest set it up after some "incidents": frosted glass on the windows at the YMCA so Orthodox Jews wouldn't see the spandex; something about the cost impact on shoppers of kosher food; a town council that passed bylaws disallowing death by stoning.
Rick Salutin, Globe and Mail, December 7
Quebec Liberals want newcomers to the province to sign a 'moral commitment'
The Quebec Liberals are proposing to make immigrants to the province sign a so-called moral commitment to Quebec values. Party officials told a news conference in Montreal today that such values include secularism and a French-speaking culture.
Canadian Press, December 9
Canadian-style multiculturalism doesn't work in Quebec: Gilles Duceppe
Canadian-style multiculturalism poses a grave threat to Quebec culture, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe told Quebec's travelling commission on integrating minorities on Tuesday. If Canada continues to treat Quebec like every other cultural minority, the end result will be assimilation into the dominant North American English-speaking culture, Duceppe said. "Multiculturalism as a model of integration does not work in Quebec."
Canadian Press, December 11
The medical casualties of Quebec's culture clash
In the spring of 2005, Bashkim Omeri's wife had a miscarriage in a Montreal hospital. He was told that her blood type was A-positive and that she needed "immunoprophylactic treatment." According to hospital officials, Albanian-born Mr. Omeri misunderstood them and thought his wife was HIV-positive. A week later the 36-year-old immigrant died after he threw himself before a truck. His was one of four cases Quebec coroner Jacques Ramsay made public yesterday to underline that accommodating immigrants with different cultures and languages is not trivial, but sometimes a matter of life and death.
Globe and Mail, December 11
Globe's Marina Jimenez on future of multiculturalism
What's your view on multiculturalism? Is it a failed policy of the past? Or an indispensable part of our future? Ms. Jimenez was online and took questions on her essay and on related issues.
Marina Jimenez, Globe and Mail, December 11
Bon cop, bad cop routine at Quebec hearings
Two prominent Quebec separatists had the spotlight yesterday at hearings into the "reasonable accommodation" of minorities, and their presentations amounted to an unintended good-cop, bad-cop routine. The good cop was Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois leader, who offered an all-encompassing definition of Quebecers and said the seriousness of Quebec's identity crisis has been overblown. . . . Enter the bad cop, Jean-Francois Lisee, former advisor to Parti Quebecois premiers Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard.
Graeme Hamilton, National Post, December 12
Earlier: Stories about religious minorities in Quebec
Other stories from the past week:
The spirit of gospel will move Jim Byrnes tonight -- at a casino
Having a gospel gig at a casino showroom seems a bit unusual. But Jim Byrnes thinks a gambling den is a great place to spread the Good Word. After all, gospel music isn't meant to be sung just in church, it's meant to be sung wherever the spirit moves you.
Vancouver Sun, December 6
Constitutional rights must be protected
With an anticlimactic flourish last Friday, the Alberta Human Rights Commission delivered another blow to freedom of expression in this country by concluding that Stephen Boissoin faces penalties for having exposed gays to contempt and hatred. This ruling stems from a letter written by Boissoin to the Red Deer Advocate in 2002 that took aim at homosexuality and gay activism. Boissoin claimed that gay activists were "spreading a psychological disease" and that homosexuals are "just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities." Darren Lund, who recently attacked the Operation Christmas Child project of Samaritan's Purse in the pages of the Calgary Herald, filed the human rights complaint against Boissoin, seeking financial compensation and a public apology that would reflect an understanding from Boissoin that his views were "inappropriate."
Bruce Korol, Calgary Herald, December 6
Earlier: Stories about Stephen Boissoin and the "anti-gay" letter
Salvation Army allowed to jingle all the way
The jingling of bells is returning to the malls. After five years of being silenced at several Vancouver-area malls, Salvation Army fundraisers will once again ring their bells during their Christmas kettle campaign.
Globe and Mail, December 7
Rev Jo took on city hall and won
Congrats to Reverend Joanne Sorrill. The retired United Church reverend from Whitby, Ont., stared down the petticrats at the Ministry of Transportation and made them blink.
John Turley-Ewart, Full Comment, National Post, December 7
Earlier: Stories about the minister and her license plate
Pickton guilty of killing six women
Last year, The Sun published excerpts from letters Robert (Willie) Pickton sent from prison. We couldn't print everything for fear of influencing the jury. Now we can. His shocking words provide a glimpse into what may have motivated the serial killer. . . . The second letter, written Aug. 22, 2006, is also replete with biblical references and Pickton provided his own interpretation of Ephesians 5:5.
Vancouver Sun, December 10
Also: National Post
Earlier: Murdered women not wastes of human beings
Anglican spat a continuation of Christianity's fractious history
All this high-minded rhetoric about "conservative" versus "liberal" traditions in the Anglican Church would be sad if it weren't so amusing. Sad because Anglicans are a progressive force in confronting intolerance and repression; amusing because the squabble signifies the merciless factionalism that typifies Christian history as much as forgiveness and brotherly love.
Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun, December 10
Earlier: Stories about the Anglican schism
Pastor forced sex on women, jury told
The pastor of a Toronto church, who claimed to heal people by giving them spiritual baths and naked rubdowns, impregnated two young women he coerced into having sex, a prosecutor says. Frank Seeko Lawrence, 58, ordained minister of Toronto Mount Zion Revival Church of the Apostles, fathered a child by each of the women then threatened them with death when they asked for child support, assistant Crown attorney Paul Zambonini said yesterday.
Toronto Star, December 11
Terrorist rhetoric is hate speech, Major says
Rhetoric from some Sikh extremists prior to the Air India bombing was worse that that of a notorious Alberta teacher convicted of anti-Semitic hate speech, the head of the bombing inquiry said Monday.
Vancouver Sun, December 11
Harper Takes Part In Menorah-Lighting
Prime Minis ter Stephen Harper participated in a menorah-lighting ceremony on Parliament Hill yesterday to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Last year, there were a record 11,000 public menorah-lighting ceremonies in cities around the world.
CanWest News Service, December 12
A conflict between faith and medicine
Samuel Golubchuk is 84 years old, has suffered a brain injury, can't walk, speak or eat on his own, needs a ventilator to breathe and is retaining 10 times the water of a normal intensive-care patient. Doctors say that, barring divine intervention, it's only a matter of time before he dies, and after four weeks in intensive care with no improvement, they want to remove the breathing apparatus keeping him alive. His son and daughter say that constitutes assault, and a violation of their Orthodox Jewish religious beliefs.
Globe and Mail, December 12
'A journey of faith. We prayed for this'
The story so far: This spring, four patients of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute with end-stage heart failure were hoping a heart transplant would save their lives. By fall, Jack Quinte and Brian Wilson have had transplants. Sharon Quesnel has become so sick that she is off the transplant list. Lorne Maddeaux has recovered from bleeding between his skull and his brain and has been discharged from the Heart Institute to wait at home for a heart.
Ottawa Citizen, December 12
December 13/2007
