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Stories about First Nations issues:

Truth and Reconciliation Commission to move west
Winnipeg will be the likely site for the authority, chaired by Justice Murray Sinclair, looking into the history of Canada's residential schools
Canwest News Service, August 28

Aboriginals, churches share a mutual respect
Christianity remains a major part of native peoples' lives, despite grim legacy, overlooked polls reveal
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 28

Earlier: Aboriginal TRC chair prepares for 'daunting task'

Stories about Toronto Catholic schools:

Immodesty kills the kilt
Hemlines have been hiked so high in Catholic schools across Greater Toronto that some schools have dropped uniform kilts altogether.
Toronto Star, August 28

Catholic school bans kilts
Scandalized by shrinking skirts among its female student body, a Mississauga high school is to limit uniforms to black slacks
Globe and Mail, August 28

Earlier: Stories about the Toronto Catholic school board

Stories about Colin Thatcher and his new book:

Colin Thatcher speaks out
Perhaps Colin Thatcher has mellowed with age. . . . Or was Thatcher, a former provincial cabinet minister who served 22 years in prison for the 1983 murder of ex-wife JoAnn Wilson, on his best behaviour this week to promote his controversial new book, which hits shelves Tuesday?
Saskatoon StarPhoenix, August 28

Thatcher's book compelling
He haunts us still. Convicted 25 years ago in a sensational murder trial, Colin Thatcher, now 70, has been paroled to the family ranch near Moose Jaw and has written a book that claims he was framed in the killing of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson. Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame hits bookstores next week and I can't put the review copy down.
John Gormley, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, August 28

Assessing the evidence in the Colin Thatcher murder conviction
He once told the National Parole Board he wanted to fade from the spotlight with his new-found freedom, but high-profile convicted killer Colin Thatcher has never left it for long.
Regina Leader-Post, August 31

Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame is the book Colin Thatcher is selling and Colin Thatcher's innocence is a story I'm not buying
Thatcher says he will profess his innocence until the day he dies, and he certainly has that right to do so. But that doesn't change the evidence.
Kevin Blevins, Best from the Newsroom, Regina Leader-Post, August 31

Thatcher: the master manipulator spins a bitter conspiracy theory
Grant Colin Thatcher at least this much -- he spins a good yarn. His self-penned book Final Appeal: Anatomy of Frame is not only the most controversial version of several books written about his conviction for the first-degree murder of his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson, but it also happens to be the most engrossing and best written.
Murray Mandryk, Regina Leader-Post, September 1

Colin Thatcher provides his version of the facts -- and settles some scores
The hardest thing about reviewing a book by Colin Thatcher is that it's written by Colin Thatcher. He is, after all, a convicted killer whose appeals were denied, and whose case has already been repeatedly examined without any change in his murder conviction. Beyond that, Thatcher's sneering disdain for all who oppose him doesn't make him a very sympathetic character.
Jana G. Pruden, Regina Leader-Post, September 1

Maybe Colin Thatcher picked the wrong province to be tried for murder
One big thing that's been going against Colin Thatcher in his decades-long attempts to clear his name in the murder of his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson is that he is, well, Colin Thatcher. Though popular enough with the constituents of Thunder River, back when he had a career in politics, and the son of a well-liked former Saskatchewan premier, Colin Thatcher cut a divisive figure.
Kevin Libin, Full Comment, National Post, September 1

Thatcher book a big, big seller
Colin Thatcher may or may not have been framed for his ex-wife's murder, but about one thing there is definitely no debate: The man can sell a book. Copies of Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame were flying off the shelves Tuesday morning, the first day the controversial publication was available to the public.
Regina Leader-Post, September 2

Earlier: Stories about Colin Thatcher and his new book

Stories about Islam and the West:

There's no fasting at Twilight
Wazeem Khan should be at home with his family, fasting for Ramadan. But he has decided that sitting on a Vancouver sidewalk for 12 hours waiting to see the stars of Twilight is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so it's goodbye to prayer time with his folks.
Vancouver Sun, August 28

Ottawa Muslims already 'belong'
I have been to Ottawa numerous times and have close interaction with Muslim Canadians. Never once have I heard them say that they felt victimized. This is, after all, the same city that elected the country's first Muslim MP, Liberal MacHarb, in 1988. . . . I decided to call some Ottawa Muslims to find out for myself what they felt about their depiction as a community living in fear.
Tarek Fatah, National Post, August 28

Shariah finance: A zero-sum game
Osama bin Laden created al-Qaeda in the belief that the West must be defeated by force. It was only after he saw the trillion-dollar-plus damage the 9/11 attacks wrought that he realized that America can best be defeated through economic means. Many Salafistrategists and Wahhabi thinkers had come to this conclusion long before bin Laden did. In fact the father of the concept, Abul-Ala Mawdudi, had written about economic jihad decades earlier, during the Cold War.
Sebastian Gorka, National Post, August 28

Space scientists without borders
UBC astronomer leads an effort to advance his field of study in the world's Muslim communities
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, September 1

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Continue article >>

Other stories from the past week:

Anthem threat leads to discharge
Mr. Millett became the focal point of a national controversy after he decided in 2007 to limit the daily singing of "O Canada" to special events only. Mr. Millett said he made the change because two families objected to their children participating in the anthem for religious reasons.
Canadian Press, August 28

Alberta will delay new sex education opting out rule until fall 2010
Alberta will wait a year to implement Canada's first legislation giving parents the power under its human rights code to pull their children from lessons on religion, sex or sexual orientation. The legislation has been widely condemned by school boards, teachers and human rights groups who say the new law is extreme because parents already have similar rights under the School Act.
Canadian Press, August 28
Earlier: Alberta human rights bill balances parental, gay rights

Vic Toews visits Paraguay to foster stronger ties
The news release also says they discussed Paraguay's 30,000-strong Mennonite community, which includes over 9,000 Canadian citizens. Toews' riding is in Manitoba, which also has a considerable Mennonite community.
Canadian Press, August 28

Proposed euthanasia bill could put doctors in a tight spot
Dr. Jeff Blackmer knows the thin line that exists between helping someone die in comfort and purposely ending their life through medical euthanasia.
Charles Lewis, Holy Post, National Post, August 28
Earlier: Stories about euthanasia and health-care debates

Invitation to Dalai Lama a nasty test for Taiwan's leader
Ma Ying-jeou and his advisers approved the visit to the typhoon-devastated south and Beijing has reacted with predictable anger
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun, August 28

Raising the question: Has 'religion' outlived its usefulness?
Despite the arguments that spirituality is somehow better, both seek to bring people together
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 29

The United Church and Israel
I am not certain what gives churches moral authority. Prof. Barry Kay's article, Palestinians pay high price for follies of their advocates, questioned the moral authority of the United Church of Canada respecting our recent deliberations on the Israel-Palestine conflict at our general council in Kelowna, B.C.
Desmond Jagger-Parsons, Full Comment, National Post, August 30
Earlier: Stories about the United Church of Canada and its new moderator

Separate church and statement dressing
At funerals, the goal is to show humility by avoiding flashy dress
Russell Smith, Globe and Mail, September 1

Kennedy and Catholicism: A Complicated Relationship
Mr. Kennedy was a Catholic, and not just a nominal one. It was no secret that he attended Mass regularly. The story has often been told of how Mr. Kennedy received his First Communion from Pope Pius XII at the Vatican in 1939; of how he prayed almost daily during his daughter's successful battle with cancer; of how he eventually sought an annulment of his marriage to his first wife Joan, to allow him to receive communion, something he did publicly at his beloved mother's funeral in 1995.
Robert Ventresca, Holy Post, National Post, September 1

Say a little prayer, hot stuff
A Roman Catholic group is asking married couples to pray together before they have sex, and has published the Prayer Book for Spouses to help show them the way
Globe and Mail, September 2

Reporting on the B.C. budget, ethically
The B.C. media's reporting on the government's budget deficit has brought out one of my pet journalistic peeves: Failure to provide crucial financial context. It's actually a bit of an ethical issue, as I'll try to explain.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, September 2

Judge refuses to let pupils drop religion
Christian parents who objected to their children being taught about other religions in a mandatory new Quebec school course have suffered a serious setback with a ruling this week that the teachings do not infringe their religious freedoms. Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Dubois dismissed a bid by parents in Drummondville, Que., who said the course on ethics and religious culture introduced across the province last year was undermining their efforts to instill Christian faith in their children.
National Post, September 3
Earlier: Stories about religious and multicultural issues in Quebec

Hutterites' drive against photo ID shot down by court
Members of two Hutterite religious communities in southern Alberta who have been fighting a legal battle against photo driver's licences are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to re-hear their case.
CanWest News Service, September 3

Manitoba priest charged with church break-and-enter
A member of the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Brandon says the accused was an assistant priest there
Globe and Mail, September 3

No good reason
What is the deeper meaning of the Michael Bryant case? With such a high-profile defendant, commentators of all kinds rushed to find some deeper lessons.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, September 3

September 3/2009