Stories about Sikhism:
Air India blast mastermind called 'martyr' at Sikh service
The mastermind of the Air India bombing was commemorated as a martyr earlier this month at a Surrey Sikh temple run by a registered non-profit society, The Vancouver Sun has learned. The three-day akhand path -- or memorial service -- was held for the late Talwinder Singh Parmar at a Sikh temple on 132nd Street run by the Canadian Singh Sabha Gurdwara Society.
Vancouver Sun, October 31
Sikh service for Air India mastermind 'wrong,' says man who lost daughter in blast
A man whose daughter died in the 1985 Air India bombing says it's wrong to honour a man considered the mastermind of the blast that also claimed 328 other lives. Rattan Singh Kalsi said Wednesday that a Sikh religious service, known as an akhand path, should not be used to memorialize someone connected to such a heinous crime.
Canadian Press, October 31
Other stories from the past week:
Canadian Jewish Congress honours TTC driver who reported vandalism
A rookie TTC bus driver who helped nab three men vandalizing a Jewish community centre was honoured yesterday by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Geovanny Hidalgo, 40, was stopped at a red light in his Bathurst route bus just south of St. Clair Avenue in the middle of the night when he witnessed the throwing motion of three individuals.
National Post, October 26
Ignoring the most important right of all
It is tragically ironic that the most vital and profound issue facing this country is considered by many of its citizens and most of its establishment to be at best irrelevant and at worst a dangerous digression championed by zealots. The issue is, of course, abortion. And Canada is almost unique in the civilized world in having no abortion law at all. In other words, any unborn child can be aborted and in most of the country the taxpayer will finance the procedure.
Michael Coren, National Post, October 26
Bye-Bye, Mr. Nice Guy
Hopes were high after Dalton Mc-Guinty's promise-breaking reign as Premier, and pre-writ polls showed a dead heat. But Tory collapsed like the others before him by running a campaign devoid of ideas. Well, except for one -- his ill-fated promise to extend public funding to faith-based schools. Conservative campaign strategists were frustrated with the media's singular focus on this issue, but the blame lay with the Conservatives themselves. They gave the press nothing else to talk about. (Not only did Tory's school-funding idea clash with the public's gradually decreasing level of faith in multiculturalism, it was not the least bit "conservative." Unlike the Harris government's tax-credit proposal for private school tuition, the Tory policy would have essentially nationalized private schools, bringing them under the purview of the public education system.)
Adam Daifallah, National Post, October 26
Earlier: Stories about the Ontario election and non-Catholic faith-based schools
Church rescinds Loney's invitation
James Loney, a Canadian Christian activist and pacifist who was held hostage in Iraq for 118 days, was told he was not welcome at a Catholic-organized conference on social justice in Winnipeg because of his criticisms of various practices and beliefs of the Church and not because he is gay, the Archdiocese of Winnipeg said yesterday. James Buchok, a spokesman for the Archdiocese, said Mr. Loney wrote an article two years ago, which just recently came to light, in which he criticized several Catholic practices. "He criticizes a number of fundamental practices and fundamental beliefs of the Catholic Church such as Mass, prayer and fasting. He does not believe in those things and does not see the worth of those things. Mr. Loney has been telling the people it's about his sexuality. It's because these other things were brought to light [that the invitation was withdrawn]."
National Post, October 27
Earlier: Stories about the "peacemaker" hostages
From seminary student to hunted fugitive
When he was a student at Christ the King Seminary in British Columbia, those who knew Christopher Neil said he kept himself hidden behind a mask. Always controlled and precise, he gave the impression of a devout student, someone who could cite philosophers in conversation, but who spoke as though reading from a script. . . . His friends from Maple Ridge Secondary School describe him as the "guy next door," a perfectly ordinary outsider who was neither popular nor unpopular, loved the music of thePogues and struggled to come out of his shell in drama class. But there was something in his past that may have provided a glimpse of his future, of the day he would become the world's most wanted alleged pedophile, a seemingly ordinary English teacher pursued by police forces across the globe, and now awaiting his fate in a Thai jail.
Globe and Mail, October 27
Funeral law fails ethnic groups
Death may be the final frontier when it comes to testing the limits of multicultural accommodation in Ontario. Rigid provincial and municipal regulations regarding funerals and burials, created primarily to accommodate western Judeo-Christian customs, are forcing faith communities to adjust to the law rather than have the freedom to practise their final rites, according to a new study from Ryerson University.
Toronto Star, October 27
Priest disarms gunman who disrupts prayers at St. Joseph's Oratory
An armed man's threat to kill himself intruded on the serenity of noon-day prayers at the fabled St. Joseph's Oratory yesterday, but a priest talked him out of it and the man surrendered his gun.
CanWest News Service, October 31
November 1/2007