Michael Swan

Hiroshima Day floats light of peace in the darkness

August 10, 2010

Japanese lanterns [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/lanternfloat.jpg]Elders and survivors took centre stage at Toronto's Hiroshima Day at the Peace Garden in Nathan Phillips Square. They're asking world leaders to achieve nuclear disarmament before the generation that saw the first atomic weapon is gone. Photos and commentary by Michael Swan

All-day Kindergarten program set to launch

August 7, 2010

Aja [images/stories/education/education10/Aja.jpg]TORONTO - With the dawn of the era of all-day Kindergarten for children three-and-a-half to six years old, Ontario will begin to see how much difference an early introduction to formal learning can make in the life of a child. The program will begin in fewer than 600 schools province-wide when the school year dawns following Labour Day, but should be available in all elementary schools by 2015-2016. By September 2011 up to 50,000 pupils will be enrolled in upwards of 800 schools.

Register's longest-serving paperboy hangs up his bag

August 4, 2010

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - Hubert Krampert's 40-year run in bringing The Catholic Register to the residents of Mississauga Lifecare Centre has come to an end.

D&P, Catholic aid agencies at forefront of rebuild

July 28, 2010

Haiti July 2010 [images/stories/international/international10/haiti0710.jpg]Six months after the earthquake, nobody wants to rebuild Haiti — at least not the Haiti from before the earthquake. That Haiti was a country in which 30 per cent of its 9.2-million people suffered malnutrition, barely half the population over 15 could read and write, 80 per cent lived below the poverty line and 54 per cent lived in abject poverty. Infant mortality ran at 58.07 per 1,000 live births, about 12 times the rate in Canada.

Rising enrolment a good problem for Catholic universities

July 28, 2010

student [images/stories/education/education09/womanStudent.jpg]The latest enrolment numbers indicate good times for university level Catholic education, but that doesn’t mean Catholic colleges don’t face long-established challenges, said David Sylvester. There are no separate statistics for the Catholic institutions, but the liberal arts and humanities numbers are a good indication of where Catholic colleges stand, said Sylvester, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Canada. University enrolment grew 3.7 per cent last year to 1.1-million university students across the country.

Christian unity, Jerusalem peace linked for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

July 28, 2010

[images/stories/canada/canada10/wpcu.jpg]There is no difference between praying for peace in Jerusalem and praying for Christian unity, according to the authors of prayers for next January’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The 102nd Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be celebrated Jan. 16 to 22 in Canada. For the first time the ecumenical team that chose the theme and accompanying prayers for the week-long event is drawn from the churches of Jerusalem — the mother church for all Christians and the city that first witnessed the Resurrection.

Homeless left in the cold when it comes to getting medical help

July 22, 2010

homeless [images/stories/misc/homeless2.jpg]TORONTO - Canada's universal health care system is pretty universal — except if you're homeless, according to a St. Michael's Hospital study. One in six homeless people in Toronto, 17 per cent, say they need care for a medical condition and haven't been able to get it. Homeless women with dependent children have almost twice as much trouble getting to see a doctor as mothers generally do in Toronto, said the study by Dr. Stephen Hwang of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital. The study will be published in the August edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

Lack of census data will hurt Catholic entities

July 19, 2010

Canada 2011 Census [images/stories/canada/canada10/census2011.jpg]TORONTO - Making the long form of the 2011 census voluntary has got Catholic schools, social service agencies and Toronto archdiocesan administrators worried. Religious affiliation, language spoken at home, immigration status, marital status and a great deal more is recorded on the long form of the Statistics Canada census, which in the past was sent out to 20 per cent of the population and had to be filled out or the recipient was penalized. Religious affiliation is one of a few categories recorded only every other census, once every 10 years.

D&P apology to Campaign Life clears the air

July 12, 2010

D and P Campaign Life [images/stories/canada/canada10/dp_camplife.jpg]TORONTO - The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has formally apologized to Campaign Life Coalition for "inaccurate" statements in a memo that called the pro-life lobby part of "the far right fringe element of North American society," linked Campaign Life with violent activists and accused it of misrepresenting facts and distorting reality to serve their ends. Development and Peace formally retracted the statements in the memo and apologized in a June 30 letter to Campaign Life national president Jim Hughes.

Order of Canada recognizes nun's role in caring for humanity

July 9, 2010

Order of Canada [images/stories/canada/canada10/orderofcanada.jpg]Of the 74 people named to the Order of Canada on Canada Day, only one of them has spent a lifetime explaining to the world how to be human. Sr. Simone Roach was named to Canada's highest honour for contributions to nursing, particularly her role in helping to write the first code of ethics for nursing in Canada. But that's just one small outgrowth from decades of scholarly dedication to the subject of caring.