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Stories about Justice Harry LaForme's resignation from the residential school commission:
Courts to review resignation of chair of commission into residential schools
The head of the commission into Indian residential schools resigned Monday over what he suggested was an internal leadership struggle, and the federal government responded by saying the move will be reviewed by the courts. Justice Harry LaForme of the Ontario Court of Appeal was appointed in April as chairman of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is tasked with documenting the experiences of former students.
Canadian Press, October 20
Resignation paralyzes residential schools commission
Harry LaForme, chair of the Indian residential schools truth-and-reconciliation commission, abruptly resigned Monday, throwing the truth-gathering process into disarray and presenting a political obstacle for the newly re-elected Conservative government. Mr. Justice LaForme said he was unable to continue because an "incurable problem" doomed the commission to failure. In a letter of resignation to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, he said his two fellow commissioners didn't agree with him on the commission's purpose, and wouldn't defer to his authority.
Globe and Mail, October 20
Residential schools chair's resignation creates worry over delays in hearings
Former students of Canada's Indian residential schools are being re-victimized by bureaucracy, the head of a survivors' group said Monday following the resignation of the chairman of a commission tasked with documenting the dark chapter in the country's history.
Canadian Press, October 20
Judge chosen to lead commission into residential schools resigns
The chairman of a $60-million commission into the bitter legacy of Canada's residential schools has quit, citing "incurable problems" with respect to his two commissioners that, he says, threaten to paralyse the process and doom it to failure. Justice Harry LaForme, the aboriginal judge appointed to head the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, announced his departure yesterday in a news release that suggested he was engaged in an internal power struggle that the government subsequently said a court-appointed mediator had been unable to resolve.
CanWest News Service, October 21
Native leaders divided over future of residential schools panel
As one of the commissioners put it Tuesday, how can it be that the commission given the historic task of helping Canada toward a national reconciliation on Indian residential schools was ultimately unable to reconcile with itself?
Globe and Mail, October 21
Earlier: Residential schools truth commissioner frets over government interference
Stories about the Quebec teen desecrating the Eucharist on YouTube:
Catholics want teen's videos of host desecration removed from YouTube
A series of YouTube videos showing a Quebec boy destroying Eucharistic hosts has prompted demands for the popular videos to be removed from the Internet. The teenager named Dominique, who tags himself "fsmdude," has posted 40 videos featuring him desecrating the host, the small circular wafer that Catholics ingest during Eucharist service.
CanWest News Service, October 18
Quebec teen's YouTube videos draw Catholics' wrath
Clips desecrate the eucharist, but are they hate speech, as religious group claims?
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, October 18
Stories about the pro-gay "social justice" course:
Couple file complaint against school board
A Vancouver couple who took on the B.C. Ministry of Education and won a human-rights battle are ready to fight again - to make the same point. Murray and Peter Corren have filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal accusing the Abbotsford school board of discrimination for refusing to offer the elective Social Justice 12. The course deals with issues such as sexual orientation, gender identity and homophobia and was created after the Correns reached a human-rights settlement with the Education Ministry in 2006.
Globe and Mail, October 18
Gay couple files human-rights complaint against school board
The two men responsible for the creation of a new social justice course for B.C. high school students have filed a human-rights complaint against the Abbotsford school district for its decision not to offer the course this year. Murray and Peter Corren say the district discriminated against students at W. J. Mouat secondary when it cancelled Social Justice 12 despite more than 90 students wanting to take it. They've asked the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal to intervene.
Vancouver Sun, October 18
Also: National Post
Earlier: 'Bible belt' school district halts 'gay-friendly' course
Stories about the American election campaigns:
Some evangelicals prefer Barack Obama to Sarah Palin
A good proportion of US evangelicals, believe it or not, have a soft spot for Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. They're the evangelicals who are not impressed by John McCain's out-of-the-blue choice of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a Pentecostal. They're also the evangelicals who don't think homosexuality and abortion are the nation's top two issues.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, October 17
Catholics find a way to oppose abortion while supporting Obama
Bishop Martino has been portrayed as extreme, an unfair accusation given that the right to life is a core position of Catholic teaching, not just one position among many. However, other Catholics have managed to view the abortion issue, in the light of national politics, in a different way -- reflecting a different American Catholic reality.
Charles Lewis, Full Comment, National Post, October 22
Earlier: Reflections on collaboration
Other stories from the past week:
Quebec parents to march against controversial religious ethics course
Whenever the math books are stowed and the classroom discussion turns to religion, Sylvain Lamontagne's daughters pack up and make a beeline for a nearby church basement. It's been this way for Lamontagne's kids since the beginning of the school year, when Quebec introduced its new ethics and religious culture courses for all students except those in Grade 9.
Canadian Press, October 16
Earlier: Stories about Cardinal Ouellet's critique of Quebec society
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Two can play the multicultural ingratiation game: Rogers, you are off my Rosh HaShana dinner list next year
As a Rogers media subscriber, I was interested to hear from an Ottawa friend that keeps his TV constantly tuned to Rogers Channel 4 as he works, and who had this to say in an e-mail today, October 16: "There is a repeating salutation on the Rogers program TV listing (channel 4 in Ottawa) which has been going on [every ten minutes] for way every two weeks now. It has the various presenters offering their recognition and good wishes to the viewing public on the religious observances and occasion of Eid (a Muslim holiday) and Diwali (a Hindu holiday) with the words "happy" and "Mubarak" (?) used liberally - but nary a single world or salutation on the occasion of [Rosh Hashana and] Yom Kippur over the same period. I have been waiting and waiting for something to appear but.. nada. I guess the Jewish viewing public don't use Rogers Cable, TV or Phone services right?"
Barbara Kay, Full Comment, National Post, October 16
Time to say goodbye
The assault on free speech and press in Canada continues on many bewildering fronts. While our "human rights" kangaroo courts have suffered recent setbacks, from having overreached in their attempts to prosecute mainstream conservative journalists, their retreat is an illusion. In Ontario and other provinces, the system of "human rights" star chambers is being quickly expanded, along with the Kafkaesque investigative machinery that lies behind them. They continue their daily, quasi-legal work of undermining a free society, by suppressing "politically incorrect" thought, speech, and behaviour -- under the radar of the mainstream media.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, October 18
Earlier: Stories about "human rights" tribunals and commissions
More than religious pilgrimages
When you think of visiting Israel, you think more of pilgrimages to the Wailing Wall and Mount Sinai than boutique hotels and off-road motorcycle racing. But with the country, now 60 years old, breaking tourism records and shattering the stained-glass ceiling of religious pilgrimage, it is attracting pleasure seekers from all over the world.
Ben Kaplan, National Post, October 18
Beyond the Blue Mosque
At 5:20 a. m. my second jarring introduction to Istanbul occurred. I sat bolt upright in bed, awakened by the astonishingly loud call to prayer being blasted from loudspeakers on the minarets of the Blue Mosque. It was a nerve-racking start to our vacation, but the charms of Istanbul -- with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia, the continents are separated by the narrow Bosphorus -- more than compensated.
Loraine Whysall, CanWest News Service, October 18
A tell-all you wish would just shut up
This is Maureen McCormick talking to Today's Meredith Vieira last week, in the middle of promoting her horrifying new memoir, Here's The Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. McCormick played the sylph-like, shiny-haired meta-teen for five years (from 1969 to 1974). She has not performed as the -- to her -- torturously perfect girl for 34 years. Yet this woman was apparently haunted her entire life until she found Prozac and Christ (or rather, Christ found her: In the book, His appearance plays out like a felonious assault), and, naturally, lost a lot of weight on Celebrity Fit Club.
Lynn Crosbie, Globe and Mail, October 20
Catholic trustee worries about shuffling students to meet provincial size cap
A Catholic school trustee is echoing complaints made by parents and colleagues in the public board, after a number of schools had to be reorganized to meet the provincial government's small primary class size cap. Trustee Maria Rizzo says one school in her North York ward still faces a massive shuffle.
National Post, October 21
Boundary dilemma
A sense of loss fills the air in many British Columbia high schools and universities as a hyper-vigilant mindset takes over and teachers and professors find themselves avoiding meaningful interactions with their students out of fear of being accused of harassing them. I was reminded of this shift toward bureaucratic sterility in schools and universities when Vancouver Sun education reporter Janet Steffenhagen had a story in Monday's paper about how the B.C. College of Teachers has produced a DVD and workshops that show how to recognize "boundary violations" between teachers and students.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, October 21
'I don't think he was cowardly'
A new film portrays Pope Pius XII, who led the Roman Catholic Church during one of the bleakest periods of European history, as the victim of a "black legend" that has cast him as indifferent to, and even complicit in, the destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War. A Hand of Peace, produced by a Toronto-based Catholic media company Salt and Light Television, contends Pope Pius, who became head of the Catholic Church in 1939, was one of the few leaders in Europe to stand up to Hitler and that he saved tens of thousands of Jewish lives through a campaign of quiet subterfuge against fascist authorities.
National Post, October 22
Montreal church offers to sponsor Gitmo detainee
The Anglican Diocese of Montreal is offering to sponsor an Algerian national who has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for nearly seven years. Djamel Ameziane lived in Canada for five years until 2000 when he was denied refugee status here.
Canadian Press, October 22
British terrorist tied to Toronto 18
A man convicted in Britain on terrorism charges reportedly had links to a Canadian terrorism suspect and wanted to make Toronto a base for a terrorist cell. CBC News reports that Aabid Khan, 22, flew to Toronto in March 2006 and met Fahim Ahmad, who is an alleged member of the so-called "Toronto 18" -- a group accused of plotting terror attacks on Canadian soil.
Canadian Press, October 22
Worshipping the Habs
Back in the days of Maurice Richard, there were tales of ailing Montreal Canadiens fans who claimed they had been cured by touching his jersey. Today, the young goalie expected to lead the team to playoff glory has been nicknamed Jesus Price. That Montrealers are mad about hockey is no secret, but students at the Universite de Montreal will soon be learning that the fervour is religious. Beginning in January, the university's faculty of theology will begin offering a graduate course titled "The Religion of the Montreal Canadiens."
National Post, October 23
On the Word of God
Can the Bible be rescued from Biblical scholarship? That's putting it too strongly, but in broad terms that is the question before a major international meeting at the Vatican. It's called a "Synod of Bishops," a triennial meeting of the pope and several hundred Catholic bishops regarding matters of Catholic faith and practice. At this session of the synod, Quebec's Cardinal Marc Ouellet has the central role after Pope Benedict himself.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, October 23
A Church under siege
A $60-million bounty on a Coptic leader is just one sign of the threats facing Egypt's Christians
Michael Coren, National Post, October 23
Earlier: Egyptians arrest Canadian Coptic Christian human rights workers
October 23/2007
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