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Stories about the lesbian couple suing the family doctor from Egypt:

Manitoba lesbian couple says doctor refused them because of sexual orientation
A Manitoba lesbian couple rejected by a family doctor from Egypt for religious reasons says Canada must better educate foreign-trained physicians. Andrea Markowski said she and her partner Ginette were stunned when the Winnipeg doctor told them during a "meet-and-greet" appointment she was uncomfortable accepting them as patients and had never treated "people like you" before.
Canadian Press, January 27
Also: Canadian Press

Lesbians a mystery to city MD
A same-sex couple has filed a human rights complaint against a south Winnipeg doctor, claiming she refused to take them as patients and told them she doesn't know how to treat lesbians. Andrea and Ginette Markowski, who recently moved to Winnipeg from Yellowknife, were stunned last week when a family doctor at Lakewood Medical Centre suggested the couple look for another physician since homosexuality violates her religious beliefs.
Winnipeg Free Press, January 27
Also: National Post

MD did not refuse lesbians, clinic says
THE director of a south Winnipeg clinic defended a family physician accused of discrimination against a lesbian couple Tuesday, saying the doctor did not refuse to treat the women. Dr. Terry Gwozdecki, medical director of Lakewood Medical Centre, sent an email statement to the Free Press late Tuesday that said Dr. Kamelia Elias "at no time refused to accept these women into her practice."
Winnipeg Free Press, January 28
Also: National Post

Stories about the bishop and the oil sands:

Bishop questions 'moral legitimacy' of oil sands
The Roman Catholic bishop for the region around Alberta's massive oil sands projects is questioning the "moral legitimacy" of their rapid development, saying their destructive effect on the environment is against God's plan for the earth. Bishop Luc Bouchard says in a pastoral letter posted to the website of the Diocese of St. Paul that the Earth is a gift that, undamaged, allows people to sense God's existence.
Canadian Press, January 26

Rapid development of Alberta oil sands can't be 'morally justified,' bishop writes
The oil sands, hated by environmentalists and buffeted by plunging oil prices, now face the opposition of a representative of a higher power. Luc Bouchard, Roman Catholic bishop in the northeastern Alberta diocese of St. Paul, which includes the oil sands around Fort McMurray, said the rapid development and massive scale of the sprawling open-pit mines "cannot be morally justified."
Globe and Mail, January 27

Catholic bishop questions morality of Canada's tar sands
It's often news when a Catholic bishop takes on a political issue -- instead of one about sexual morality. This week it's a northern Canadian Catholic bishop who is worried about the ethical ramifications of Alberta's vast oil sands development.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, January 27

Stories about the Holocaust-denying bishop:

Pope's reinstating Holocaust denier looks bad: critics
A move that was meant to heal a rift within the Catholic Church is raising questions about the Vatican's sincerity about creating better relations with Jews and the soundness of Pope Benedict's judgment. Observers said Pope Benedict XVI was more concerned about Church harmony by rehabilitating four excommunicated bishops, rather than being concerned with the fallout that would ensue because one of the bishops is a well-known Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.
National Post, January 27

An anti-Semite is an anti-Semite, and shouldn't be embraced by the Pope
For all that has been written this week about Richard Williamson, and for all the explanations being offered as to why he was let back into the fold as a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, there is still no explanation that makes sense. Why would the Church want as one of its bishops someone who is a complete anathema to the gospel's teachings about love and forgiveness? Why would the Church want someone so saturated with odious views to represent them on such an esteemed level?
Charles Lewis, Full Comment, National Post, January 27

A loathsome Catholic -- but still a Catholic
According to various headlines across the world, the Pope has "welcomed back into the Church a Holocaust-denying Bishop" and "Ripped to shreds Catholic-Jewish relations for a generation." Which says a great deal more about media inaccuracy and hysteria than it does about what has just happened within the Roman Catholic Church.
Michael Coren, National Post, January 28

The Church needs to get rid of fanatics, not encourage them.
Yesterday Michael Coren described Richard Williamson, the Catholic bishop who was recently reinstated into the Church by Pope Benedict, as a "buffoon" and an "execrable individual" ("A loathsome Catholic -- but still a Catholic"). Yet, he argued that these were not good enough reasons to keep Williamson from returning to the Church. Mr. Coren's characterizations of this crackpot, hate-monger and creepy fundamentalist were spot on. His conclusion, unfortunately, was not.
Yoni Goldstein, Full Comment, National Post, January 29

Stories about the Toronto Catholic school board:

New chair for Catholic board awaits approval
Votes cast in shadow of audit that revealed unauthorized spending on treats, lingerie
Toronto Star, January 23

Catholic school trustees regret their outbursts
Rizzo, Carroll sorry board meeting to elect chair ended up with shouting, cursing
Toronto Star, January 24

Earlier: Stories about the Toronto Catholic school board

Stories about Margaret Somerville's article on "shared ethics":

The search for shared ethics
Two topics in the news last week were the U.S. presidential inauguration and the atheists' advertising campaign, "There's probably no God." Looking at these stories together can provide some important insights.
Margaret Somerville, Globe and Mail, January 27

Faith and free speech in modern society
Whether you agree or not, it's a fascinating argument so we at globeandmail.com have decided to broaden the debate by inviting our semi-regular group of faith panelists and free thinkers to write about those issues and to take your questions on the topic. This is not one of our regular "live" discussions. Rather, each panelist will write a short essay on these questions, which will be published Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, Ms. Somerville and our regular panelists will take your questions on her column and their essays.
Globe and Mail, January 28

Continue article >>

Stories about Islam and the West:

Ball-hockey players 'targeted' over religion
Ahmed Buksh says his sons, Elijah, 21, and Izaiah, 20, were playing at the BCIT gym Sunday in a tournament put on by the B.C. Muslim Sports Association. . . . According to Buksh, the whispers and sideways glances at his boys not being Sunni turned to open hostility during the early stages of their second game of the tournament.
The Province, January 27

The younger face of Hamas: educated and unrepentant
It was impossible to tell by the bespectacled 27-year-old Al-Quds Open University student's preppy cardigan, his polite manner and the enthusiasm with which he zapped the television remote control, dialing in various English Premier League soccer matches, but to most of the world the young man sitting on the chesterfield is a terrorist. Abu Mousab -- a nom de guerre meaning Father of Moses -- is part of the engineering department of Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, the notorious armed branch of Hamas, which is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Matthew Fisher, Canwest News Service, January 27

Canadian Muslims have a fondness for democracy, peace - and sharia law
In December, 2006, the polling firm Environics surveyed 500 adult Muslims across Canada on questions relating to their experiences living in Canada. The results were accurate to within plus or minus 4.4 percentage points (in 19 out of 20 samples). The demographic statistics revealed a diverse Muslim population, belying the notion of a singular Muslim community.
Sheema Khan, Globe and Mail, January 28

Earlier: Stories about Israel, Islam and the West

Stories about Doug Todd's musings on renaming "British Columbia":

What's in a name? Does British Columbia need a new one?
Because the issue is so wonderfully incendiary, however, I'm becoming convinced it's important. Residents of the West Coast of Canada could learn about who they want to be through a respectful debate about our province's rather quaint name.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, January 23

"British" Columbia, "Salish" Sea, Mt. "Rainier" - the name game rages
A movement is afoot among some in the Pacific Northwest of the continent to update our symbols - particularly our names and flags.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, January 28

Earlier: Stories about Doug Todd's musings on renaming "British Columbia"

Other stories from the past week:

Vatican posting the gospel on YouTube
First there was Vatican II, now there's Vatican 2.0. Today the Roman Catholic Church will expand its presence in cyberspace when Pope Benedict XVI launches the Vatican's own channel on YouTube.
Globe and Mail, January 23

Hallelujah! The recession has come
Church attendance is on the rise as the economy turns down
Globe and Mail, January 23

York Region irks teachers ahead of Chinese holiday
School board tells non-Buddhists they will not have a paid day-off to celebrate their 'cultural' event
Toronto Star, January 24

As U.S. emerges from dark age, Canada's scientific edge fades
Scientists across America are celebrating the passing of the Bush administration as the end of a dark age, a bleak stretch in which research budgets shrank and everything -- stem cells, sex education, climate change, and the very origins of the Grand Canyon -- became a point of conflict.
Globe and Mail, January 24

God picks his side
Dwight Froese, the hero of Toronto-based Lee Gowan's new novel, Confession, reads a lot of Dostoevski and wishes he were a "Russian," but his true literary parentage lies somewhere off in the pine woods of Georgia with the late American novelist Flannery O'Connor. Young Dwight, a farm boy from Broken Head, Sask., would have a lot to talk about with Hazel Motes, for example, the hero of O'Connor's novel Wise Blood -- Motes is a fanatical preacher in a religion he has invented called the Church of Christ Without Christ. Both Gowan's and O'Connor's protagonists blaze with madness, and a holy and violent anger against God that is ultimately turned against themselves.
Philip Marchand, National Post, January 24

Many residential school survivors spiral downward after payments
Deaths, abuse of drugs and alcohol attributed to receiving lump sum of money
CanWest News Service, January 26
Earlier: Stories about the residential schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Ex-Montreal pastor gets five years for sex with 10-year-old 'wife'
A self-described pastor who hoped his "marriage" to a 10-year-old girl he took to bed would convince a judge to acquit him on a sexual assault charge was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday. Daniel Cormier, who was convicted last October following a lengthy trial, has a maximum of 49 months left behind bars because of time already served.
Canadian Press, January 26
Earlier: Stories about the pastor with the 10-year-old "wife"

University of Alberta works out compromise on motion to take God out of grad
The University of Alberta has reached a compromise on a push by a group of campus atheists and agnostics to take a mention of God out of convocation ceremonies. A majority of members of the campus General Faculties Council voted Monday to change the wording in the speech, a move that was applauded by the campus group that launched the challenge.
Canadian Press, January 26

Obama meets "Senator Bulworth"
One of the most important steps Barack Obama has made to reduce corruption in U.S. politics (and by extension help the rest of the world) has received little coverage in the media. Obama has started to clean up what some consider the root cause of the sleaze that directly led to the economic devastation that is emanating from the U.S. What is Obama doing that could end up being revolutionary -- ethically? He is tightening up the rules on corporate lobbying of U.S. politicians, including by campaign donors.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, January 26

Would Jesus run up the score?
Christian school under fire for winning 100-0
National Post, January 27

Red-paperclip town to star in film
These days, Mr. MacDonald is gone, back in Montreal and looking to trade the house again. But the town has found itself a friend in Mr. Bernsen, who is set to arrive in Kipling Wednesday to shoot another film, Rust, the story of a priest who returns to his hometown for what Mr. Bernsen calls a "midlife crisis of faith."
Globe and Mail, January 27

Teen accused of shooting plot at Winnipeg schools, church remains in custody
The teens, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, are accused of planning to randomly gun down people at Lorette Collegiate, Fort Richmond Collegiate, the University of Manitoba and the Church of The Rock with firearms that had been stolen from a home in Portage la Prairie, Man.
Canadian Press, January 29

More pardons
Departing office last week, George W. Bush declined to issue a series of presidential pardons for convicted felons. Perhaps he was spooked by the bad taste left over from Bill Clinton's last-minute flood of pardons in 2001, some of a dubious nature to his friends and campaign contributors. That won't be said of president Bush, who issued only half as many pardons as either Ronald Reagan or Clinton, the most recent two-term presidents. Indeed, on his last day in office, Bush formally rejected several pardon requests from high-profile petitioners.
Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post, January 29

January 29/2009