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Stories about the Anglican schism over same-sex blessings:
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Anglican primate blasts South American rival
Leaders of the Anglican Church in Canada and South America drew beads on each other yesterday with Canadian primate Fred Hiltz posting a letter on the Internet telling South America's Gregory Venables to stay out of the country and Archbishop Venables icily criticizing Archbishop Hiltz's manners in reply.
Globe and Mail, April 21
Anglican leader pulls rival's welcome mat
The head of the Anglican Church of Canada has told a controversial archbishop-- the spiritual head of a breakaway group of conservatives -- that he is not welcome in Canada. Gregory Venables, Archbishop of the South American province of the Southern Cone, will attend a meeting in Vancouver this week of the Anglican Network in Canada, which is opposed to same-sex blessings and liberal interpretations of the Bible.
National Post, April 22
Anglican cleric against gay unions ignores plea to stay out of Canada
A South American Anglican archbishop who adamantly opposes homosexual relationships is coming to Vancouver on Friday despite being told to stay away by Canada's top Anglican. Archbishop Gregory Venables, who claims to represent 15 breakaway Anglican congregations in Canada, will speak Friday at a gathering in Delta of the conservative Anglican Network in Canada.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, April 22
Earlier: Stories about the Anglican schism
Stories about Bill C-10:
When grassroots meet the Devil
You remember Rev. Charles McVety. The evangelist revving against Young People F---ing has scored a victory: The movie's opening has been delayed until June, the beginning of blockbuster season. As the puffy, luna-form face of the Canada Family Action Coalition, dedicated to restoring the chastity of the Canadian tax dollar, McVety this week let it be known what "price" the government would "pay" were it to cave to public pressure and excise the devious line in Bill C-10 that would place a curse on Canadian TV and movie production. He told The Hill Times, "The grassroots will rebel."
Kevin Baker, National Post, April 19
If there's money for pigs, there's money for arts
The problem with Puritanical societies is they are renowned for their chastity and temperance, but never for their art or creative leisure. The original American settlers were a noble and industrious bunch, but they didn't leave behind a decent song. Societies where the government has legislated the parameters of acceptable and unacceptable art have never flourished. Hitler and Stalin famously tried to decree a stifling mix of folkloric nostalgia and rigorously classical art. Only those artists who defied them are remembered today.
John Moore, National Post, April 22
Bill C-10: Holding artists accountable
The Department of Canadian Heritage's support of the cultural industries in Canada -- film, television, publishing, sound recording and news media, now amounts to $5-billion annually. The purpose of this funding is to encourage Canadian cultural content so as "to develop Canadians' sense of belonging" and "building the country's national identity." Regretfully, the material created by the culture industry in Canada, by way of government grants and tax credits, has rarely achieved these objectives. Instead, these grants have had the opposite effect, in that they have resulted in works that alienate and offend Canadians.
Diane Watts, Full Comment, National Post, April 22
Earlier: One feisty fellow
Stories about the Pope's visit to the United States:
Pope calls for more democracy at UN
Pope Benedict XVI called Friday for a widening of decision-making at the United Nations, saying direction at the world body was "still subject to the decisions of the few." Addressing the UN's General Assembly, the 81-year-old Pontiff also said countries have a "responsibility to protect" their populations from abuse -- and those that fail to do so should be subject to international intervention.
CanWest News Service, April 19
Pope will exclude pedophiles: Non-story of the Month
It shows a great deal about the shallow coverage of religion that journalists consider this papal statement to be "news." With so few journalists versed in religious affairs and popes never giving interviews, such strange truisms are often all the media get from the media-restricting Vatican. Tight control leaves everyone reading the papal tea leaves, leaning heavily on interpretation.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, April 19
Intervene to protect rights, Pope tells UN
Benedict warns against a 'secularist ideology'
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, April 19
Pope prays at Ground Zero
Tribute 'very healing,' says woman who lost her husband on 9/11
CanWest News Service, April 21
Benedict kept ahead of sexual-abuse issue
Pope Benedict XVI concluded his visit to the United States with visits at New York City landmarks on the weekend -- St. Patrick's Cathedral, Ground Zero and Yankee Stadium.
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, April 21
Earlier: Stories about the Pope's visit to the United States
Stories about the polygamist cult at Bountiful:
Some of the children seized from Texas polygamist compound are Canadians
The attorney general for British Columbia said Friday he was alerted by officials in Ottawa that some of the children taken from a polygamist compound inhabited by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are Canadians.
Associated Press, April 18
Texas polygamist sect accused of indoctrinating girls
A child protection official in Texas says some of the children taken from a polygamist compound inhabited by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are Canadians. Angie Voss made the disclosure Friday at a custody hearing for 416 children, seized in a raid earlier this month because of evidence of physical and sexual abuse, including the forcing of underage girls into marriage and childbearing.
Associated Press, April 18
Canadians were part of Texas polygamous community
The southeastern British Columbia town of Bountiful, a polygamous community with ties to the Texas stronghold, always suspected that their children were among those being lured to Zion, just as their U.S. counterparts were. Yesterday, confirmation came.
Globe and Mail, April 18
B.C. children may be among 416 seized from Texas cult
Attorney-general says polygamous sect 'knows no borders'
Vancouver Sun, April 19
B.C. polygamist community praying for Texas children: Blackmore
The rocky peaks of the snow-covered Skimmerhorn Mountains rise straight up to the sky to form what appears to be a natural fortress, one that protects the polygamous community of Bountiful, one of the most private and controversial locations in Canada. On Sunday, hundreds packed the community's temple to pray for their "relatives" in a related colony in Texas.
Canadian Press, April 20
DNA tests to sort out tangled families
Canadian woman says her 'step-great granddaughters' are among children seized from sect's ranch in Texas
Globe and Mail, April 21
RCMP talks to B.C. polygamist leaders about Texas child seizures
The leaders of one of the most mysterious, private and controversial communities in Canada are opening their normally sealed-shut doors to speak out against the apprehension of more than 400 children in Texas by U.S. authorities. Ultimately, the leaders of Bountiful, B.C. are hoping to protect themselves against what they fear could result in similar actions by Canadian authorities.
Canadian Press, April 21
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What's so difficult about prosecuting polygamy?
B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal is having a difficult time in dealing with the Bountiful colony. The good folk of Bountiful are, by all accounts, practising polygamy in open contravention of Canadian criminal law, but the chief law officer of the Crown does not know what to do. What's going on here?
Grant Huscroft, Globe and Mail, April 21
Raid on Texan polygamist colony puts pressure on B.C. authorities to act
British Columbia is under renewed pressure to do something about the polygamist colony at Bountiful as authorities in Texas try to sort out the complicated lineage of children seized from a sister commune there. Successive attorneys general in the province have struggled over whether to lay charges, saying they had no evidence of sexual abuse or of polygamy because no witnesses have been willing to come forward.
Canadian Press, April 22
The 'sister wife' double standard
The inference I couldn't help but draw from her extreme double standard is that in her eyes polygamy practised by white Christians is disgusting beyond words, but polygamy practised by black Muslims is just another anthropological fact of cultural life, about which it would be unseemly to pass judgment.
Barbara Kay, National Post, April 22
BC premier says province looking at options to deal with polygamist community
The polygamist community in Bountiful, British Columbia, poses a "vexing problem" for the provincial government, Premier Gordon Campbell admitted Wednesday. "I'm as upset by what I understand is happening in Bountiful as I think most British Columbians are," he said in a telephone interview. But the B.C. leader said his government has to tread carefully to ensure that it doesn't make matters worse.
Canadian Press, April 23
Politically expedient and popular but it could be a mistake
Oppal will meet with a special prosecutor before moving on the Mormon fundamentalists in Bountiful
Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun, April 23
Earlier: Stories about the polygamist cult at Bountiful
Stories about Islam and the West:
Terror training or dieting?
So was it simply a fat camp for Muslim boys? Or was it a jihadist training camp where attendees were encouraged to wage war on Canada because of its military presence in Afghanistan? Those are some of the questions that remain after a video was played in a Brampton court yesterday, in which a police officer questions a youth charged with belonging to a homegrown terror cell.
Toronto Star, April 19
The Mullahs' Achilles heel: Iran's youth
This week, Iranian Nobel peace laureate and renowned human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi announced that death threats against her have intensified. Most recently, a shadowy group calling itself the "Association of anti-Baha'is" warned her to "watch your tongue" and stop "serving the foreigners and the Baha'is" -- a reference to Iran's largest religious minority, whose faith has been described by the government as a "heresy" and vigorously persecuted. Particularly disturbing is the warning that because her daughter is involved in the "un-Islamic and Baha'i based faith . . . we will kill her."
Payam Akhavan, National Post, April 19
Can democracy and Islam coexist?
The fact that majority-Muslim countries are less democratic makes it tempting to conclude that the religion of Islam, their common factor, is itself incompatible with democracy. I disagree with that conclusion. Today's Muslim predicament, rather, reflects historical circumstances more than innate features of Islam. Put differently, Islam, like all pre-modern religions is undemocratic in spirit. No less than the others, however, it has the potential to evolve in a democratic direction.
Daniel Pipes, National Post, April 22
A fine line between jihad and insanity
By terrorist standards, the body count in Seattle was small -- just one dead and eight others injured. But Haq's trial is nonetheless a noteworthy skirmish in the war on terror in one critical respect: The unemployed engineer is bipolar, and has pled not guilty by reason of insanity. This is an extreme rarity: Most accused jihadis vigorously shun the insanity label as an insult.
Jonathan Kay, National Post, April 22
Ranks close for young jailed Muslim
Saad Gaya, one of the ever-diminishing Toronto 18 terror suspects, was up for a bail hearing yesterday and so most of his relatives -- plus many people who have previously never laid eyes on him -- trooped out to Brampton to wish him well.
Toronto Star, April 23
Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West
Stories about Sikhs and Sikhism:
Sunny Vaisakhi parade draws record 100,000
Festivities marking holiest day on Sikh calendar delight children
Vancouver Sun, April 21
Politicians delight in Vancouver Vaisakhi parade
Donning traditional styles part of the celebrations for Day, Campbell
Vancouver Sun, April 21
Sikh pride fills Brampton streets
8-kilometre march marks Khalsa holy day
Toronto Star, April 21
Earlier: Stories about Sikhs and Sikhism
Other stories from the past week:
Human rights vs. human ambitions
A civil libertarian by vocation, Borovoy is averse to suppressing what he calls "discriminatory opinion." But as a social engineer by avocation, he's not averse to suppressing what he regards as "discriminatory behaviour." Having played a pivotal role in the creation of human rights commissions (HRCs), my old debating partner is concerned that a backlash against his brainchild's encroachment on the free press -- Mark Steyn, Maclean's, Ezra Levant -- may result in HRCs being abolished so they can't encroach on the free market anymore.
George Jonas, National Post, April 19
Earlier: Stories about the Human Rights Commissions
Spirituality Inc.
Companies are hiring chaplains for heart-to-heart chats with employees. Their first challenge: skepticism
Globe and Mail, April 21
Mother unaware minister claimed to have married her 10-year-old girl
The mother of an alleged sexual assault victim says she had no idea the leader of a fringe evangelical movement claimed to have married her 10-year-old daughter. She told Quebec court today she saw the so-called minister, Daniel Cormier, as a father figure for her two daughters.
Canadian Press, April 23
Catholic board's programs for youngest take a big hit
Targets in deficit battle include literacy classes
Toronto Star, April 23
Homeless no more
Nineteen years ago, a Christian guy with a few bucks in his pocket told Smith he'd help him. Through him Smith met God and lost drugs. He spent nearly three years at the Union Gospel Mission before eventually moving away when he realized there was just too much temptation down there. He's been clean ever since.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, April 23
Out of Eton and into Africa
Born in London during Queen Victoria's reign and educated at Eton, Hatton left an indelible impression wherever he went; four decades after he graduated from Eton, the College Chronicles for May 2, 1931 asked wistfully: "Did the sun always shine at Eton in those days? Or was it only when Denys was there that it seemed to shine?" A fellow Etonian and a good friend was Ronald Knox, who would go on to become a Catholic scholar and chaplain, a priest known for bringing many converts into the Church. But Hatton was not among them. It was Africa, not the Church that called Hatton.
Ian Hunter, National Post, April 23
April 24/2008
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