Michael Swan

Real estate 'lie' killing affordable housing

May 21, 2010

Affordable housing key [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/housingkey.jpg]TORONTO - People are homeless because we’ve chosen to believe a lie, or perhaps chosen to believe more in the real estate market than the Gospel, says Dion Oxford. The first lie that rules out affordable housing is “the real estate lie,” said Oxford, who runs the Salvation Army Gateway shelter on Jarvis Street in Toronto. The Toronto obsession with real estate values and the idea that middle class families can make a killing selling their homes every four or five years is killing our sense of home, neighbourhood and community, said Oxford.

‘Nasty’ LifeSite allegations are harmful to Mexican group's cause

May 21, 2010

Jesuit Father Luis Arriaga [images/stories/canada/canada10/arriaga.jpg] TORONTO - Allegations that a Mexican human rights organization either endorsed or helped efforts pushing for expanded access to legal abortion were never true, its director has told The Catholic Register. Last March LifeSiteNews.com alleged that the Jesuit-founded Centro Pro Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez and four other human rights organizations that receive funding from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace were signatories to a report calling for legal abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy throughout Mexico. Currently, first trimester abortions are only legal in Mexico City.

Lorraine Williams' two vocations

May 19, 2010

Lorraine Williams [images/stories/arts/arts10/williams_lorraine.jpg]MARKHAM, Ont. - If Marshall McLuhan says you ought to be on the left bank of the Seine writing, perhaps you should book a trip to Paris and buy a leather-bound notebook. But that’s not what Lorraine Williams did after her famous English professor told her he thought she might have a career as a writer. Not that she didn’t appreciate McLuhan’s encouragement of her very young self as she sipped wine at a reception following graduation from Toronto’s University of St. Michael’s College in 1953.

Church must return to conservative roots, says Tom Monaghan

May 14, 2010

Tom Monaghan [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/monaghantom.jpg]TORONTO - The culture war between liberal and conservative Catholics in the United States is not a good thing, but it will only end when liberal Catholics embrace conservative principles or leave the Church entirely, says America’s richest and most controversial Catholic philanthropist. Tom Monaghan, who won a World Series as owner of the Detroit Tigers and who built up Domino’s Pizza to 6,200 franchises world-wide then sold the company to an investment firm for $1 billion in 1998, makes no apology for using his wealth to recreate the Church he remembers from the 1940s and ’50s.

Mexican cop handcuffed by immigration board

May 14, 2010

Gustavo Gutierrez [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/guitierezgustavo.jpg]TORONTO - Before rejecting Gustavo Gutierrez’s claim for asylum, a board member of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board asked the decorated police detective why he didn’t just take his concerns about death threats to a higher level of Mexican law enforcement. Months later Gutierrez is still stunned by the question.

Mayoral candidates meet with Toronto faith leaders

May 14, 2010

Toronto mayor candidates [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/torontomayorcandidates.jpg]TORONTO - At least four of the would-be mayors of Toronto want something from the city’s churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. As mayor, Rocco Rossi would ask for an inventory of all social services offered by faith groups, George Smitherman would ask for a co-ordinated effort from faith groups on homelessness, Joe Pantalone would ask faith communities for help integrating immigrants into the fabric of the city, and Rob Ford wants churches to phone and alert him of any homeless people on the streets so he can personally drive out, pick them up and take them to a shelter.

Walk with Jesus: A multi-media presentation

May 10, 2010

jesus Walk [images/stories/toronto/toronto10/JesusWalk/jesuswalk.jpg]More than 1,000 students in Halton area Catholic schools went for a walk May 6 in the first annual Walk With Jesus. It was a chance for students to absorb the Bible through their feet, according to photographer and reporter Michael Swan. His audio-visual slide-show presentation can be viewed below.

Toronto school rescues Iraqi refugees

May 10, 2010

iraqieducation [images/stories/education/education10/IraqiEd/iraqieducation.jpg]For Iraqi families that have endured months and years living as refugees in Damascus and Beirut, just landing in Canada doesn't solve all their problems. But the Ontario's publicly funded Catholic schools come close. Take a virtual visit to St. Andrew's Catholic School in Etobicoke.

Online petition calls for more study on new English missal

May 10, 2010

new Roman Missal [images/stories/misc/misc10/missal2.jpg] Larry Yakimoski could just about spit nails when the subject of the new English translation of the Roman Missal comes up. “It really seems to me that there are forces in the Church that are trying to roll back the clock,” said the layman from Saskatoon. “I was a kid when Vatican II came along. It was probably the reason why I stayed in the Church.”

Documentary shows Canadian connection in Peruvian mining conflict

May 7, 2010

Devil's Operation [images/stories/arts/arts10/deviloperation.jpg]The tale of a priest, the devil, a mine and the mine’s private army has hit the Toronto Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival just as Canada is debating whether it should give taxpayer money and government services to mining companies with poor human rights and environmental records outside Canada. The Devil Operation, produced and directed by Canadian filmmaker and journalist Stephanie Boyd, adds to a list of recent documentaries that feature a Canadian connection, mining, human rights violations and environmental disaster, including Return to El Salvador, the story of how a protester against a Canadian mine turned up dead, and Under the Rich Earth which explores the use of private paramilitary squads by Canadian mining companies in Ecuador.