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Right to life denied right to free speech
Walk against the traffic Timea Eva Nagy, a native of Hungary, was brought to Canada as a sex slave, but later founded an anti-human trafficking organization in Toronto called Walk With Me. She works with a number of government and non-government agencies, including some Christian ones. On April 15, her organization sponsored the annual Glendene and Jessie Foster Award Ceremony to honour police officers, social workers and others who have worked beyond the norm to assist victims. Her biography, Walk With Me: Memoirs of a Sex Slave Survivor, will be released later this year. Conditional rights New Democrat MLA Jenny Kwan has introduced a private member's bill to include the term "social condition" as a prohibited ground for discrimination under British Columbia's Human Rights Code. The Protection of the Homeless Act would protect those who are socially or economically disadvantaged by income, occupation, poverty, lack of adequate housing or any similar circumstance. Quebec, New Brunswick and the Northwest Territories have already included "social condition" in their human rights legislation. From the rich, to the poor Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is advocating a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) on such things as trading stocks and bonds, and foreign currency exchanges. It is hoped this would reduce market speculation. Calling it a "Robin Hood tax," Kairos said a global FTT of 0.05 percent (50 cents on a $1,000 transaction) would raise about $650 billion a year. This would be enough to fight climate change, achieve the United Nations Millennial Goals (helping the poor in developing countries), pay off developing countries' debt and repay Big plans for Haiti Julia Beazley, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's (EFC) coordinator for poverty and homelessness, has commented favourably on the Government of Canada's financial support and debt relief plans for Haiti. The Canadian government has pledged $400 million in financial support and debt relief over the next two years. The contribution means Canada will have a seat on the United Nations Interim Haitian Recovery Commission. Founded in 1804, following the only successful slave revolt in history, Haiti spent the next 122 years paying 150 million francs in reparations to the former slave owners in France. Haiti depleted its vast mahogany forests to pay this debt, leading to deforestation, soil erosion and a permanent impoverished state. The country has since incurred another $1 billion in debt, about 40 percent of it due to former dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier and his family, who ruled the country from 1964 to 1986. Canadians have contributed $220 million to Haiti since the recent earthquake, an amount that will be matched by the Canadian government. Coerced abortions Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South) on April 14 introduced private member's Bill C-510: An Act to Prevent the Coercion of Pregnant Women to Abort. Bruinooge is the chair of the inter-party pro-life caucus in the Canadian Parliament. The bill is named Roxanne's Law -- after Roxanne Fernando, whose boyfriend tried to coerce her into having an abortion in 2007. After she backed out of the decision to abort her baby, he beat her and left her to die in a snowbank. The bill would make it a criminal offence "to coerce or attempt to coerce a female person to have an abortion." The bill has been endorsed by The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), which offers a full discussion of the issue on its website. EFC General Legal Counsel Don Hutchinson stated that the bill would not outlaw abortion itself and could not be used to prosecute abortion providers unless they used coercion. Prime Minister Harper has stated that the government will not support the bill, but it was unclear whether he would require cabinet members to vote against it. |
Faith matters Canadian writer Phil Callaway recently interviewed American Christian commentator and activist Chuck Colson on 'Why faith matters.' In the interview, Colson touched on matters included in his new book, The Faith. The full interview is available on Callaway's website. Homeless no longer Menno Simons College (MSC) has bought the first two floors (16,500 square feet) of the building where it has leased space since 2005. MSC is a college of Canadian Mennonite University, but is also affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, from which it has leased space since its founding in 1990. MSC offers courses in two main areas: International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies. The purchase was made possible by a legacy from the David and Katherine Friesen Family Foundation. Christ in the darkness Seeing Christ in the Darkness, a world premiere exhibition of 30 graphic works by Georges Rouault, is on display at Regent College in Vancouver April 7-May 7. A Roman Catholic, Rouault was prominent in art circles in France in the middle of the 20th century. Influenced by his early work in stained glass and by his experience during the two world wars, his work represents Christian theological reflection on the state of human suffering and Christ's redemption. Darkness in the darkness Pop Life: Art in a Material World, a $1.6 million exhibit scheduled for the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa this summer (June 11-September 19) will feature pop art on loan from the Tate Modern Gallery in London. The show features pieces by Andy Warhol and his successors from the 1980s and 1990s, who tested the bounds of public morality. They include American artist Jeff Koons, who took photos of himself having sexual relations with Italian politician Ilona Staller; British performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti, who posed for explicit men's magazines; Italian shock artist Maurizio Cattelan, who manipulates dead stuffed animals; and Polish artist Piotr Uklanski, who has a fascination with film stars in Nazi uniforms. An image of American actress Brooke Shields -- as a 10 year old girl in full makeup, standing naked in a bathtub -- was removed by the British gallery because of complaints that it was child pornography. Two of the 11 exhibit halls will be restricted to those over 18. Gallery director Marc Mayer said there are no Canadian artists in the exhibit because "Canadian artists did not really connect to this form of art, as they were more serious and less cynical than their American and British counterparts." Muslims build Christian church Some 200 Muslims from the Darfur Students Association at the University of Juba have volunteered to help build Reconciliation Church, a Roman Catholic church in Kimotong, southern Sudan. The offer is a symbol of gratitude for the help Darfuris have received from Southern Sudanese Christians. Among those Christians is Lopez Lomong, a refugee from southern Sudan who later joined the US Olympic team; along with a coalition of other Olympic athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he publicly called for an end to the oppression of the people of Darfur. Lopez and National Basketball Association player Manute Bol work with a US-based organization called Sudan Sunrise. Manute is working to build 41 schools that will benefit all children in Sudan. Muslims from northern Sudan waged a bloody 23-year civil war against largely animist and Christian southern Sudan -- but later attacked the largely Muslim Sudanese province of Darfur. Manute lost 250 family members in the war. "We are helping build this church to show we never again want the people of Darfur to be used against their brothers in the South," said Rudwan Dawod, president of the students' association. April 21/2010
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The University of Calgary