Michael Swan

Minimum wage debate not going away for Catholics

March 9, 2014

TORONTO - When hundreds of labour-sponsored protesters showed up at Toronto’s Eaton Centre to chant for a $14-per-hour minimum wage, the Liberal government at Queen’s Park had already decided to increase the lowest legal wage from $10.25 to $11 come June 1. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne also declared that no longer would inflation eat away at the minimum wage because yearly increases would be tied to the consumer price index.

Abuse scandal lingers a quarter century later

March 8, 2014

Twenty-five years on, the case that began the world-wide Catholic sexual abuse scandal is still crawling through the court system and still on the minds of Newfoundland Catholics.

Quebec wants own foreign aid agency

March 7, 2014

A campaign in Quebec to establish its own international development agency is being welcomed by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace as a possible new source of funding.

Think tank with Christian roots to change the lives of eight students

March 6, 2014

You say you want a revolution? The Cardus think tank wants one too, and it plans to help eight young people make it happen.

D&P launches campaign to end world hunger

March 6, 2014

If 842 million people are hungry you can’t just invite them over for lunch. But that doesn’t mean we’re helpless. Development and Peace wants Catholics to stop thinking of world hunger as a permanent condition or an unsolvable problem that will never change.

The opportunity presented by Lent

March 2, 2014

Perhaps we haven’t considered Lent in terms of opportunity. Most of us picture opportunity knocking in the form of a new job, a surefire investment, a vacation, an adventure. Fasting, penance, charity, prayer are given to us as duties, obligations, tasks.

Some reading to help bolster the Lenten spirit

March 1, 2014

If you’re not ready, you can lose track of Lent. After Ash Wednesday slips by, the Thursdays and Fridays of Lent can seem a lot like any other Thursday or Friday.

A polarized debate

February 28, 2014

The Supreme Court has given Canadians a year to figure out how they want to deal with prostitution and so far the answers have ranged from nothing to police crackdowns and new criminal laws.

Ukrainians hope their nation has a new beginning

February 24, 2014

TORONTO - As Toronto’s Ukrainians woke up to news that former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was on the run in eastern Ukraine after parliament had voted him out of office and that national elections are scheduled for May 25, they gathered to pray. At Dormition of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church all three Divine Liturgies on Feb. 23 included special, added prayers for the future of Ukraine.

Rome had the right man to bring forth historic change

February 23, 2014

Anybody who ever thought the Church never changes must have had another thought crash their party a year ago when Pope Benedict XVI stepped down from the throne of Peter.