News round-up

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Stories about the mumps outbreak and religious objections to vaccination:

Mumps outbreak nears 200 cases
With the number of confirmed and suspected mumps cases in the Fraser Health region closing in on 200, public health officials worry it will spread into the Vancouver Coastal region and are looking for ways to avoid such a daunting scenario. Since the outbreak began in Chilliwack in February, cases have been spreading like wildfire through the Fraser Valley. Medical officials say its spread has been aided by conservative Christian groups that are against vaccination of all kinds.
Vancouver Sun, August 26

Mumps traced to community in Chilliwack
A mumps outbreak sweeping the Fraser Valley has been traced to a Chilliwack community that refuses to immunize its children for religious reasons, but health officials don't think there's a risk the highly infectious disease will spread provincewide.
Globe and Mail, August 27

Schools await word on mumps vaccine for students
Ms. Bond said that, for the moment, the Fraser Health Authority is offering vaccinations to families that want them. The agency confirmed Tuesday that the outbreak started in a Chilliwack community that does not vaccinate its children on religious grounds.
Globe and Mail, August 28

Mumps outbreak raises ethical questions
There are far-reaching implications to a Chilliwack Christian group's refusal to have its members immunized against mumps, which has contributed to an outbreak of the viral disease in the Fraser Valley. The unidentified Christian community's stand against immunizations raises controversial ethical questions about religious freedom and the obligation of an individual or community to both children and the larger society.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 28

Stories about abortion, Morgentaler and religious freedom for doctors:

Plan puts medicine ahead of religion
Ontario physicians could be stripped of their right to exercise religious or moral conscience if a new set of guidelines is accepted by their regulating body next month, critics say. Doctors across Canada are now allowed to opt out of such things as prescribing birth control or morning-after pills or doing abortions when it goes against their conscience. Physicians are also allowed to refuse to do referrals in such cases. But a new draft proposal from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario could change that for doctors in the province.
National Post, August 16

Top judge didn't vote in Morgentaler decision
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin moved to stifle controversy over her role in awarding the Order of Canada to abortionist Henry Morgentaler today, saying she purposely did not cast a vote at a committee meeting where his name was proposed as a recipient.
Globe and Mail, August 16

I abstained on Morgentaler, Chief Justice says
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin distanced herself on the weekend from the controversial decision to name Henry Morgentaler to the Order of Canada, saying she was not the driving force behind the move and intentionally abstained from voting on whether to honour the abortion doctor.
CanWest News Service, August 18

Forcing our doctors' hands
If the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) gets its way, Ontario's doctors will soon be stripped of their right to follow their moral convictions or religious beliefs when treating patients. In other words, doctors will risk losing their licenses if they run afoul of Ontario's human rights police. If, out of moral conviction, they refuse to perform abortions, refer patients for abortions or prescribe morning-after and birth control pills, or if they refuse to help same-sex couples conceive children, their own governing body will take away their right to practice medicine.
Lorne Gunter, National Post, August 18

Petition calling for Morgentaler to lose Order left on steps of Rideau Hall
A petition bearing 30,000 signatures calling for Dr. Henry Morgentaler to be removed from the Order of Canada had to be left at the gates of Rideau Hall yesterday afternoon since no official was there to accept it.
Ottawa Citizen, August 21

Dion asks Harper to state view on abortion
Stephane Dion has challenged the Prime Minister to clarify his view on abortion, threatening to reignite the debate as Canada careens toward a fall election. The Liberal leader issued his challenge to Stephen Harper while answering a question at a town hall meeting on Wednesday night in Oakville.
National Post, August 22

A Ludicrous Attack On McLachlin
Last week the Canada Family Action Coalition sent a letter of complaint to the Canadian Judicial Council suggesting that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ought to be removed from the bench for "conduct that breaches the high standard of personal conduct required to be a member of the judiciary." Her sin, as you've probably guessed if you didn't already know, was chairing the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada when it voted to induct Henry Morgentaler in July.
Colby Cosh, National Post, August 22

OMA fears intrusion into MDs' beliefs
The Ontario Medical Association wants the licensing body for doctors in the province to change a controversial document that could strip doctors of their right to exercise freedom of religion when making decisions in their medical practices.
National Post, August 23

Tories abandon 'unborn victims' bill
As election speculation hits fever pitch, the Harper government has cut loose a contentious private member's bill that would have made it a crime to take the life of a fetus. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Monday that the government will draft a new bill to replace Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, so that it closes the debate about fetal rights and focuses instead on penalizing criminals who harm pregnant women.
Globe and Mail, August 25

A history of baby killing
Western attitudes toward infanticide owe much to the appearance of Christianity, which forbade infanticide, paternal abandonment and the exposure of children. While this led to the disappearance of a socially sanctioned exercise of patriarchal power -- in antiquity fathers had the power of life and death over their children, their slaves and their wives -- other forms of infanticide continued to be practised, but in a substantially changed context. Moreover, increasingly infanticide was attributed to new mothers.
Jacqueline Murray, National Post, August 25

Tory bill 'leaves no room' for fetal rights
The Harper government moved yesterday to extinguish an emerging debate over fetal rights by distancing itself from a Conservative private member's bill that would make it a separate crime to injure or kill a fetus while committing violence against a pregnant woman.
CanWest News Service, August 26
Also: National Post

A wise investigation
We thank Colby Cosh for reclarifying comments Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin made regarding her role on the Order of Canada Advisory Council. However, notably absent in his column ("A ludicrous attack on McLachlin," Aug. 22) were several key facts.
Brian Rushfeldt, National Post, August 26

Standing up for my bill
The unrelenting campaign against my Private Member's Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, has triggered the government's announcement that it will unveil new legislation -- as an alternative to C-484 -- that will include a victim's pregnancy as an aggravating factor when judges consider sentencing offenders. This response misses the entire point of my bill.
Ken Epp, National Post, August 27

The silencing of our doctors
Let's be fair about the new draft policy by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO): Does it really force doctors to perform abortions, or eliminate their right to conscientious objection? Cooler heads will admit it does not; but what it does is just as dangerous.
Lea Singh, National Post, August 27

Earlier: Stories about Henry Morgentaler and the Order of Canada

Stories about Todd Bentley:

Abbotsford faith healer proves divisive for Christians
With his full-body Jesus tattoos and facial piercings, Todd Bentley looks more like a bike-gang member or World Wrestling Federation fighter than an evangelical preacher. But in the past few months, the burly B.C. bad boy has turned into the hottest, most divisive Christian faith healer in North America.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 15

Divisive faith healer resigns his post
Revelations of an 'unhealthy relationship' with a staff member prompt Todd Bentley to step down
Vancouver Sun, August 18

Canadian Todd Bentley quits healing ministry over woman
Is anyone surprised by Todd Bentley's fling with a female assistant? Even in his unusually aggressive style of faith healing, the fellow seems to have problems with knowing when to stop. In the last few days Fresh Fire Ministries has changed its story and revealed Bentley did, indeed, have a questionable relationship outside his marriage.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 18

Bentley bends
It wasn't his outrageous claims of raising the dead that finally landed Todd Bentley in trouble. Not the contradictory sermons, or even his criminal past. Not the face piercings, the neck-to-knee tattoos, the biker-dude lifestyle. His followers could live with all that; it was part of the act. And what a performance it was: For the past few months, Mr. Bentley, a 32-year-old former drug addict from Canada's west coast, was the hottest thing going on the global televangelist circuit. A hog-riding faith healer with a devil-may-care attitude. Then he failed his flock, the old fashioned way: By consorting with another woman.
Brian Hutchinson, National Post, August 19

Todd Bentley is/was Canada's new Aimee Semple McPherson
Disgraced Canadian faith healer Todd Bentley, who looks more like a Hell's Angel than a preacher, has all the show-biz flair of the early 20th-century Canadian evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who also took the U.S. revival circuit by storm, not without her own controversy. Here's a recent piece I did on a well-done book about McPherson.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 24

Earlier: Lakeland Outpouring ends as Bentley resigns

Continue article >>

Stories about the nuns' beauty pageant in Italy:

The hottest little nun on God's catwalk
A certain Father Antonio Rungi of the southern Italian diocese of Modragone has come up with what is quite possibly the worst idea ever: A beauty pageant for nuns. The contest, dubbed "Miss Sister Italy," will be held online and the good father is expecting as many as a thousand entrants to send in their glamour shots for judging. "Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God," Father Rungi explained to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Yoni Goldstein, Full Comment, National Post, August 26

Heavens rumble over nun pageant
That sound you hear is God slapping his forehead.
Vinay Menon, Toronto Star, August 26

Stories about "human rights" commissions and tribunals:

In the dark
In the time since I last wrote on the topic, Canada's various "human rights" kangaroo courts have publicly retreated on several fronts. Several ludicrous cases, brought against Mark Steyn's writings in Maclean's magazine, Ezra Levant's editorial judgements in the (now defunct in print) Western Standard, and Fr Alphonse de Valk's in the magazine Catholic Insight -- have been dismissed by the tribunals. This, after more publicity had been given to the cases than the human rights bureaucracies felt comfortable with.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, August 20

Freedom watch
Perhaps I wrote too soon, last Wednesday, in listing the "human rights" prosecutions against various "politically incorrect" journalists that had been dismissed recently by Canada's "human rights" kangaroo courts. A new round seems to be on the way. Fresh from having one set of charges, filed against him by Islamists, dismissed by an Alberta kangaroo court, Ezra Levant has now been served with a fresh set from an anti-Christian activist through the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Rob Wells, the new complainant, is the same whose charges against Fr Alphonse de Valk and Catholic Insight were dismissed recently, after costing that small magazine a bundle. Nor was that his first use of the CHRC. Details and documents may be found through Ezra Levant's website.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, August 27

Earlier: Stories about "human rights" tribunals and commissions

Stories about Islam and the West:

Is Avril Lavigne too sexy?
Malaysia's Islamic opposition party has urged the government to cancel a concert by Avril Lavigne, saying the Canadian singer's on-stage moves are "too sexy," an official said Monday. Lavigne, a Grammy-nominated rock singer who burst to fame with her 2002 debut album Let's Go, plans to start her month-long Asia tour with a performance in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 29.
Associated Press, August 18

CSIS wants help from ordinary Muslims
Frightened by radicalization of young extremists, spy agency hopes community dialogue will help to pinpoint problems
Globe and Mail, August 25

Khawaja a dangerous zealot, Crown says
Mohammad Momin Khawaja, 29, is a dangerous Islamic zealot whose support for violent jihad was all-consuming and went far beyond his alleged role to bomb London, an annoyed chief prosecutor told a terror trial yesterday.
CanWest News Service, August 28

Moderate Muslims struggle to make their voices heard
If and when a disaster hits, there will be the usual rallying cry of Where are the moderate Muslim voices? Hello, we're here. But who's listening?
Raheel Raza, Vancouver Sun, August 28

Earlier: Stories about Muslims, Islam and the West

Other stories from the past two weeks:

Finding forgiveness through God the Papa
The Shack, a new addition to the overburdened tower of spiritual books, is first-time author William P. Young's inadvertent foray into self-help stardom.
Janine Armin, Globe and Mail, August 15
Earlier: Shack author strikes a nerve

A town with pity
The town of Postville, Iowa, population 2,000, has been turned into an open-air prison. Jerry Johnson, who works at nearby Luther College, called it something out of a bad science-fiction movie or the kind of thing a 1930s totalitarian regime might have cooked up. . . . Since the raid, St. Bridget's, with a staff of four, has raised $500,000 to pay for rent, clothing, food and other necessities of life. Donations have come from other faith groups and individuals who have read about the raid.
National Post, August 16

Soccer brings out the philosopher in us
It offers far better natural metaphors for many of the issues we face in everyday life than most Olympic sports
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 16

Theory needs a paramedic, not more cheerleaders
Re "What is it about evolution theory that Albertans don't get?" (August 12, 2008), Rob Breakenridge has cobbled together key talking points of the American Darwin lobby. The resulting column is an excellent illustration of why one should not write about big topics without basic research.
Denyse O'Leary, Calgary Herald, August 16

Faith groups plead with planners
'We feel like we're being pushed out of the city,' pastor says as Brampton reviews zoning policy
Toronto Star, August 18

Pair of fires fail to extinguish church
Dave McGinn continues on his August quest to find something new in the city's past. Today: Cathedral Church of St. James, and the Bishop John Strachan
Dave McGinn, National Post, August 18

Love the sinner, hate the sin
In the most recent issue of America Magazine, a Catholic weekly published by the Jesuits, Sister Camille D'Arienzo has written a compelling and courageous piece called Mercy Toward Our Fathers. It opens up the highly controversial subject of offering forgiveness to priests who abused children.
Charles Lewis, Full Comment, National Post, August 19

"Backward" churches led the battle against bottled water
It's always amusing when people in Canada's secular culture dismiss all churches as backward, retrograde and old-fashioned. Even though it's true of some denominations, it blinds a lot of observers to how far churches can be ahead of the cultural curve when it comes to social change. Such is the case with the United Church of Canada, which was often lampooned in the media in September, 2006, when it began a campaign to ban, or at least restrict, the use of trendy bottled water.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 20
Earlier: United Church calls for ban on bottled water

Baby Giorgia's baptism in iconic church a 'living link to history'
The baptism of a baby girl from Ottawa on Saturday -- to be held at a century-old church built in Alberta but now housed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau -- is being described as a "living link to history" as her family gathers from across the country to recreate the christening of a beloved relative more than 90 years ago.
CanWest News Service, August 21
Also: Vancouver Sun

A season of lies
Baseball is a game of memories, but at the Hall of Fame there is some selective forgetting. This is the tenth anniversary of what might have been baseball's greatest season -- the 1998 campaign that featured the home run record being shattered by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and a New York Yankees team that almost won more games than any other. It was the season that saved baseball after the trauma of the 1994 labour dispute cancelled the World Series.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, August 21

Stay away from them Catholic girls
I had my heart broken repeatedly, even took a belt buckle across the face. It took me years to learn to stop fighting the hunger for revenge and instead look for a woman who could see beyond my darkness
Joel Hynes, Globe and Mail, August 21

'Pray at the Pump' on gas price crusade
They prayed outside a Texaco station in Huntsville, Ala., then the owners lowered the price of gas by three cents a gallon. They prayed outside Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington for the Saudis to release more barrels of oil, until the U. S. Secret Service showed up. Now members of Pray at the Pump are planning to pray outside Jay Leno's TV studio in Los Angeles, after he made fun of their campaign seeking God's help lowering gas prices.
National Post, August 22

Stress on 'harmony' keeps lid on religion
It's not only Olympic sponsors like Visa and Coke that are eager to find new followers among China's 1.3 billion people. Religious organizations also want to break into the expanding market. But religion might be a harder sell than credit cards and soda pop in a country that's putting more restrictions on spirituality than it is on capitalism, nightclubs and industrial pollution.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 23
Earlier: Stories about the Beijing Olympics

Right road to 'soulgasm'
U.S. evangelicals mix hot sex at home with repressive political agenda
National Post, August 25

The Trauma of Canada's War - Was Napoleon Right?
With three more Canadian soldiers killed recently in Afghanistan, I was reminded of Napoleon's frank admission and the hard life of former Canadian machine gunner Tony Spiess, subject of last month's feature, The Trauma of War.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 25
Earlier: Stories from Douglas Todd's series on traumatized war vets

Assault on French Jewish tourist in Quebec follows host of attacks on local Jews
B'nai Brith Canada is denouncing an assault on a French tourist who was hit in the face while walking to a Quebec synagogue. The attack took place on Aug. 16 and began as the 23-year-old tourist, a Hasidic Jew, was walking to synagogue with his father and two younger brothers in Ste-Agathe, Que.
CanWest News Service, August 27

11 of top 13 Ontario school boards catholic, report says
Catholic school boards in Ontario are outperforming public ones, according to a new study by the C. D. Howe Institute that measures the best and worst school boards in the province based on standardized test scores.
National Post, August 28

Firmness of furrows
To the extent I had ever thought about ploughing fields, I thought of it more as a practical task rather than an aesthetic performance. I certainly never thought of it as a competitive venture. But this week's Canadian Plowing Championships right here on Wolfe Island have taught me something new.
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, August 28

August 28/2008

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