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Stories about the IMFC report on broken families:

Why marriage matters
This just in: marriage is better than family breakup. No, really. A new study from the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada demonstrates the cost to governments of "non-traditional families." But it's no chilly venture into bean-counting or mean-spirited exercise in moralizing. It's about the kids.
John Robson, Ottawa Citizen, June 5

Let's have a dialogue about the benefits of marriage
Canada's marriage rate is on the decline and, when it comes to kids' well-being, this is bad news. When we published our study on the costs of family breakdown in Canada last week, we sought to highlight that broken homes are more likely than intact families to need government support. It's a difficult life, and not one many of us would choose for our loved ones. So why is it that, when presented with a factual analysis of the benefits of marriage for everyone involved, but in particular for kids, so many critics respond by invoking a fear of -- wait for it -- Ward and June Cleaver?
Rebecca Walberg and Andrea Mrozek, Vancouver Sun, June 12

Earlier: Stories about the IMFC report on broken families

Stories about "human rights" tribunals and commissions:

Rights commission rejects calls to stop investigating online hate
Report to Parliament says both the criminal code and the Canadian Human Rights Act should be used
Globe and Mail, June 10

Rights commission rejects call to quit policing online hate
The Canadian Human Rights Commission wants to stay in the business of policing online hate speech. In a report tabled in Parliament Thursday, the commission rejected a proposal to leave the task of reining in Internet hatemongers to the Criminal Code.
Ottawa Citizen, June 11

Rights commission wants to surrender power to fine wrongdoers
The Canadian Human Rights Commission says it still has a role to play in fighting hatred on the Internet, but wants Parliament to curb its powers. It says it should no longer be able to levy fines of up to $10,000 against hatemongers and wants lawmakers to provide a clear, legal definition of what constitutes prohibited hatred.
Canadian Press, June 11

Hate speech: This debate is out of balance
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Canadian society. So is the right to be treated with equality, dignity and respect
Jennifer Lynch, Globe and Mail, June 15

Appetite For Censorship
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has given itself another report card. The last one, released in November, 2008, didn't quite work out as planned: Professor Richard Moon, who was paid $50,000 by the CHRC to write a short review of its conduct, surprised everybody by calling for the repeal of the commission's censorship powers.
Ezra Levant, National Post, June 16

Jen X
"Human rights" are about rights for humans, citizens, individuals - and about restraints on government. When a "human rights" commissar complains about citizens insulting the government, it would seem to be a near parodic example of how an obtuse and ugly nomenklatura has precisely inverted the principles of human rights and turned it into a vehicle for government power and bureaucratic self-preservation. When Queen Jennifer talks about the "human rights system", she gives the game away: It's about the "system", not human rights.
Mark Steyn, June 17

Earlier: Stories about "human rights" tribunals and commissions

Other stories from the past week:

Judicial apocalypse now
Prosecutors and police are a sensitive lot. Write about failures in the schools, health care system, post office, social services or any other arm of the elephantine state apparatus, and people accept it as sadly routine -- of course there are failures, even significant ones, on a regular basis. But suggest that the same inefficiency, adverse outcomes or abuse of power are found not infrequently in our criminal justice system, and the response is vigorous.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, June 11

The Happiest Place on Earth
No. I'm not talking about Disneyland, which is Mickey Mouse in both senses of the name. I'm talking about Denmark, where I happen to be. A May poll found this small Scandinavian country to have the most satisfied people of the world's 30 major democracies.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, June 11

Continue article >>

Lennikov's wife still in 'denial stage'
Partner of ex-KGB agent says she doesn't how she and her son will cope financially and emotionally
Vancouver Sun, June 13
Earlier: Former KGB agent relies on God in church sanctuary

Born Again
Signal Hill is a group lobbying to make abortion a thing of the past. But unlike almost every other anti-abortion group in Canada and the United States, Signal Hill believes it is a waste of time trying to make abortion illegal.
National Post, June 13
Earlier: Stories about abortion and euthanasia

Not quite splitting the difference on Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a speech this weekend accepting President Barack Obama's call for a sovereign Palestinian state. Netanyahu will set some conditions for that acceptance, practical steps to safeguard Israeli security. Those conditions will get a sympathetic hearing from the Obama administration. But Netanyahu has already received his warning that he can expect very little sympathy on the most emotional issue in the dispute: the status of Jerusalem. In his Cairo speech, President Obama signalled his intent to press for some kind of international status for the ancient holy city.
David Frum, National Post, June 13

Prison service seeks Buddhist adviser for inmates
The federal prison system is looking for help to nurture more zen in the Pen. Corrections officials want to renew a contract worth up to $75,000 over three years to offer Buddhist spiritual advice and support in its prisons near Kingston, Ont.
Canadian Press, June 14

Should Scientology be on trial?
The residents of Paris have been buzzing over the trial this month against the French branch of Scientology, which is charged with organized fraud. Unlike in some provinces in Canada and in the U.S., Scientology (which includes celebrity members such as Tom Cruise, below, and John Travolta) is not considered a religion, and therefore lacks certain legal protections.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, June 14

Priceless relic swiped from Toronto cathedral
A security guard discovered the evidence between masses on Sunday, May 31, and realized the priceless relic of Therese of Lisieux, a saint who died in 1897, was gone. And when panicked staffers searched the Roman Catholic cathedral in Toronto to ensure nothing else had been stolen, they discovered two screws missing from the Plexiglas protecting their relic of St. Anthony -- the patron saint of lost objects.
Globe and Mail, June 16

Commandments lecture series: An atheist defends God as 'man's greatest idea'
Camille Paglia worships devoutly at the altar of Hollywood. She's an atheist who defiantly defends religion, articulating in punctuated bullet-like speech why she thinks religion will save great art and why the generational reverence swelling in the 1960s for religion is represented so well in epic biblical films in Hollywood.
Holy Post, National Post, June 16

Toward a more enlightened society
Spiritual leaders, scientists at Vancouver event will look for ways to make the world a happier place
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, June 16

Lessons from the world's least religious nations
Denmark and Sweden pose a challenge to the world, spiritually speaking. Their 13 million-plus residents are (arguably) the least religious on the planet. So why do polls consistently show Danes, in particular, and Swedes to a slightly lesser extent, are also the "happiest" people in the industrialized world, as my earlier posting noted.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, June 16

Accused polygamist's lawyer wants Oppal to testify
Winston Blackmore's lawyer is hoping to call former B.C. attorney-general Wally Oppal to testify during legal proceedings against the man accused of polygamy. Joe Arvay raised the option during a hearing yesterday in B.C. Supreme Court, and repeated it in an interview.
Globe and Mail, June 17
Earlier: Stories about the polygamy court case

Jewish groups call for changes at York University
York University teachers should be prohibited from expressing personal political views unrelated to the course they are teaching, according to a report from a commission of Toronto-area Jewish groups on improving campus life for Jewish students.
National Post, June 17
Earlier: Stories about anti-Semitism

'Geologian' saw beyond a human-centric view
Thomas Berry believed in a cosmology in which man was merely one part of a sacred and evolving universe
Globe and Mail, June 17

June 18/2009