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Stories about the "Jesus sucks!" publicity stunt:
Prankster's 'crass' stunt earns scorn
Religious groups responded with anger yesterday to a TV prankster's attempt to anger Torontonians with an anti-Jesus banner. Kenny Hotz of the Showcase reality show Kenny vs. Spenny hired an airplane to carry a "Jesus sucks!" banner across the city's harbour. He and his co-star were competing to see who could make the most people angry for a segment of their show.
National Post, July 29
A bird? Plane? A massive insult?
Kenneth Joel Hotz, better known as "Kenny" from the reality TV competition Kenny vs. Spenny, makes a living out of trying to beat his best friend at stupid competitions. Yesterday, Mr. Hotz commissioned a plane to fly across Toronto harbour carrying a banner that read, "Jesus sucks!" Brianna Goldberg asked Mr. Hotz what he was thinking.
National Post, July 29
Christians: the latest easy target
Anyone who was in downtown Toronto around noon Monday got an extra special treat. Kenneth Joel Hotz, from the Canadian TV show Kenny vs. Spenny, arranged to have a plane fly around with a banner that read "Jesus Sucks." In an interview with a reporter from the National Post, Mr. Hotz said: "I guess it's freedom of speech. I'm sure people got pissed off, but I don't think it was offensive. I don't really think that Jesus sucks."
Charles Lewis, National Post, July 29
A human rights complaint has been launched against the "Jesus sucks" fellow
Dean Skoreyko of Coldstream, B.C. has launched a human rights complaint against Kenneth Joel Hotz (of Kenny vs. Spenny fame) for his "Jesus sucks" airplane-banner stunt in Toronto. . . . Even if the complaint was meant seriously (which I doubt), it won't get anywhere -- for two reasons, the first procedural, the second substantive: (1) The stunt took place in Ontario, but Storeyko's action is at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, which likely doesn't have any jurisdiction (even if the episode ended up being broadcast in B.C.); and (2) Attacking Christians in the crudest form imaginable is acceptable, even fashionable, in this country.
Jonathan Kay, Full Comment, National Post, July 30
Stories about the Vancouver Humane Society's Jesus ad:
Humane society invokes Jesus in rodeo protest
The Vancouver Humane Society is roping in religion in a bid to convince Abbotsford's Mighty Fraser Rodeo to drop what the society calls inhumane roughstock events at the annual fair. Following its success in getting the Cloverdale Rodeo to ban roping events, the society has now set its sights on the Fraser Valley fair, set to run this B.C. Day long weekend. To accomplish the goal, the society is appealing to the hearts of the valley's many Christians by promoting a poster depicting Jesus, with four graphic photos of calves being roped and flipped by cowboys.
Vancouver Sun, July 30
Vancouver Humane Society asks rodeo fans: Would Jesus walk into a ring and rope a calf?
When they killed the fatted calf, did they rope it first? That could be the topic of a sermon if Abbotsford, B.C., congregations pay heed to an advertisement that urges them to ask what Jesus would have thought of rodeos.
Globe and Mail, July 30
Stories about the federal grant for Covenant House:
Federal cash infusion to Covenant House a boost for street kids
An infusion of federal cash for the expansion of a downtown youth shelter will give more street kids in the city the opportunity to rest their weary heads. The one-time grant of $800,000 goes to the crisis shelter program at Covenant House, a privately run shelter that supports homeless youth from 16 to 24 years old, encouraging them to get off the street and into a pattern of independent living. The funding will be used to expand the shelter at 326 West Pender, providing 32 more beds for a total of 54.
Vancouver Sun, July 24
Youth shelter gets $800,000 for new beds
Boost won't help an estimated 2,600 homeless off Vancouver streets, critics say
Globe and Mail, July 24
Earlier: God cares about street kids
Stories about the church hall shooting in Toronto:
Church hall shooting victim identified
The name of a man fatally wounded at a church banquet hall near Hwy 401 early this morning has been released. Devon Wynter, 40, of Toronto, was shot following what police describe as an altercation during a party being held at a hall under the Disciples Revival Church at 30 Gordon MacKay Rd. around 2:40 a.m. this morning.
Toronto Star, July 26
Church shaken by slaying
Rev. Charles Mantey still expects the day to be filled with joy but knows his service, delivered just metres from a major crime scene, will be infused with deeper meaning.
Toronto Star, July 27
Stories about the missionary couple attacked in Kenya:
Missionary couple en route home
A Canadian missionary couple still recovering from a violent assault on their farm in Nairobi is heading home. John and Eloise Bergen are expected to arrive in Calgary this evening, after a multi-day British Airways flight from the Kenyan capital through London, England, said the president of Hope for the Nations, the charity they're affiliated with.
Globe and Mail, July 28
Family members cry out as Canadian missionaries attacked in Kenya return home
Two elderly Canadians who were viciously attacked in Kenya earlier this month returned to Canada on Monday night, met by about a dozen family members and supporters. Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word "Believe" on the front, many were in tears or cried out as missionaries John Bergen, 70, and his wife, Eloise, 65, were brought off their flight from London to Calgary in wheelchairs. Both were still visibly bruised from their ordeal.
Canadian Press, July 29
Missionaries home after Kenya horror
Two Canadian missionaries who were nearly killed in Kenya returned home Monday evening with words of forgiveness for their attackers. Still bearing visible scars and seated in wheelchairs, John and Eloise Bergen arrived in Calgary to a joyous, tearful group of family members.
Calgary Herald, July 29
Earlier: Stories about the missionary couple attacked in Kenya
Stories about family issues:
Law experts eyeing same-sex parents' spat
A long-running and fractious custody dispute between two women may determine the rights of same-sex parents when a relationship ends shortly after a child is born. The court action also raises questions about how to resolve disputes between "intended parents" and biological parents.
National Post, July 25
The changing family
An Ontario judge has ruled that children born in a marriage and those born outside of it are entitled to an equal amount of child support, after a married Toronto bus driver argued he should be paying less money for a second family.
National Post, July 25
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Stories about Islam and the West:
Muslim man of Arab descent awarded $11,000 in human rights case
A Muslim man of Arab descent has been awarded $11,000 by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal as a result of his co-workers' paranoia that he helped organize the 9/11 attacks.
Canadian Press, July 23
Tribunal says man was victim of racial profiling
A Muslim Canadian employed at a biotech company on the University of B.C. campus has been awarded nearly $12,000 after the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found he was a victim of racial profiling by colleagues. The profiling led to him being reported to the RCMP as a suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Vancouver Sun, July 24
A cautious campaign
As voter confusion reigns, Barack Obama struggles to reconcile his relationship with American Muslims
National Post, July 26
The roots of Muslim anger
Before resting its recent case against Mohammed Momin Khawaja under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, the prosecution presented Momin's former fiancee, Zeba Khan, as the final witness via a video link from Dubai. Ms. Khan reportedly stated in her testimony: "You will not meet a young Muslim man in the world who is not angry about something. Anyone who watches the news, if he wasn't mad then, a) there's something wrong with him, or b) he's ignorant." Obviously, not all angry young Muslim men are engaging in violence -- nor, of course, are all Muslims terrorists. But many terrorists are found to be Muslims. Ms. Khan's remark purports to explain the linkage.
Salim Mansur, National Post, July 29
Earlier: Maclean's little surprise
Other stories from the past week:
United by faith, surrounded by beauty
"It was beautiful!" More than anything else, that's what I heard from the pilgrims who came here last week for World Youth Day (WYD), the massive Catholic pilgrimage which Toronto hosted in 2002. I was struck by that, because the great success of Sydney 2008 could have given rise to any number of adjectives -- it was enormous, it was exciting, it was emotional, it was inspiring, it was transforming, it was exhausting. Yet repeatedly people chose to describe it as beautiful.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, July 24
Earlier: Stories about World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia
Stanley Cup used for baby's baptism
Now, as hockey's greatest prize tours Sweden, Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom has revived an old idea and deployed the Cup as a baptismal font. The forward, a member of the team that beat Pittsburgh in this year's final, suggested the creative use of hockey hardware to his cousin, Robert Sundstrom. He baptized his 7-week-old daughter, Alva Felicia, yesterday during a ceremony near Holmstrom's hometown of Pitea in northern Sweden.
Toronto Star, July 26
Sex brings christians closer to god
Professor says the relationship between humans and spirituality is essentially erotic -- some Christians even have peak religious experiences while being sexual
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, July 26
Earlier: Faith and sexuality: beyond prudish stereotypes
Liberalism: Its own worst enemy
So, is it going to be Sino-Russian autocracy versus Western-style democracy, as Kagan suggests? I wouldn't rule it out. Nor would I rule out democracy allying itself with a kind of pseudo-scientific health-worshipping eco-maniacal post-family feminism, culminating in a whopping tyranny to make autocracy, or even oriental despotism, look like a Boy Scout jamboree. Nor would I rule out crusading Christianity reverting to its medieval roots and putting itself on a collision course with the Muslim rage of fulminating Islam. Here, Tancred, say hello to Saladin! I wouldn't rule out anything, not even peace and tranquility, albeit more likely as a result of repression than of good government. I'd give individual liberty the worst odds. I think it will continue to decline in the 21st century.
George Jonas, National Post, July 26
What to wear
On another page of the New York Times (why do I read this rag?) Olivia Judson, the house cheerleader for Darwinian evolution, was trying to retire the word "Darwinist." Her typically breathless argument was that we know so much more about evolutionary processes today, than could be known in the age of Darwin, that the term has become useless.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, July 27
As gas theft rises, B.C.'s model of paying upfront generates interest
At her Shell Canada gas station in Victoria, Julie Kines hasn't had someone steal gasoline in the past five months. That's because the province made it mandatory starting in February for consumers to pay for their gasoline before they start pumping. "It took a little bit to catch on," Ms. Kines said of the new law, created largely in response to the death of Grant De Patie, a 24-year-old gas-station attendant killed in 2005 while trying to prevent a fuel theft at a station in Maple Ridge, B.C. A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case.
Globe and Mail, July 28
Earlier: Stories about the Grant de Patie case
The Secret is "Fantastic"
The Secret, the self-help book promising happiness if you just believe, is "fantastic," in several senses of the word. The bestselling title by Rhonda Byrne (below) title edged out all competition to finish as the top book of 2007 in Canada, according to BookNet Canada SalesData. It surpassed even Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 29
Earlier: Pop culture's best-kept Secret
Residential schools truth commissioner frets over government interference
The head of a commission set up to hear from aboriginal residential school survivors says he is worried about government interference. Justice Harry LaForme tells The Canadian Press he was surprised to find out that Ottawa set up an administrative secretariat for his Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a government department.
Canadian Press, July 30
Earlier: Stories about the residential schools
Evangelicals' distrust hurts Romney's chances of joining McCain ticket
Mitt Romney's failure to capture the Republican nomination for president was blamed partly on concerns about his Mormon faith. Now that John McCain is reportedly considering the former Massachusetts governor as his running mate there are renewed warnings that American evangelicals will never support a Mormon.
Charles Lewis, Full Comment, National Post, July 30
Cowering before the Sky Woman
Archaeologists believe that North American aboriginals' forebears traversed the Bering Strait when it was still an icy land mass 13,000 years ago. That's what diCarlo taught. But aborigino-centrists would prefer the folkloric notion that aboriginals were, uniquely, always here. The Bering Strait migration evidence, it is felt among some Alaskan aboriginals, may even undermine land claims. So opposition to the historical evidence is both emotionally and politically charged. In diCarlo's case, the message was perceived by the student who brought him down ("My people don't believe in what you're saying") as both racist and -- the statement being moored in scientific methodology -- eurocentric. There are more than enough ironies to savour at every stage of this story, but a humanist embodying a rigorously anti-creationist view of human origins being perceived as an agent of Christian elitism has to top the list.
Barbara Kay, National Post, July 30
Attacks in India raise spectre of renewed religious strife
India has been the target of a concerted effort in the past few days and weeks to stir up the kind of bloody religious and communal strife all too common in recent history.
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun, July 30
July 31/2008
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