Michael Swan

Canada's doors opened to Iraqi refugees

March 28, 2008

TORONTO - While the Canadian government plans to increase the number of Iraqi refugees resettled in Canada by decreasing numbers accepted from other troubled areas, the archdiocese of Toronto has doubled its overall refugee sponsorship targets in recognition of the extraordinary circumstances of approximately 4.5 million displaced Iraqis.

School's out on junk food

March 28, 2008

TORONTO - Twenty-six per cent of Canadians between the ages of two and 17 are overweight or obese. That’s three times the obesity rate of 25 years ago. In 2004 eight per cent of kids were obese, as opposed to just overweight, compared with only three per cent in 1978.

Dementia sufferers need protection

March 25, 2008

TORONTO - How do you come up with a cure for Alzheimer’s if the people who have the disease can’t give informed consent to take experimental drugs that might improve their condition? Fr. Noel Simard, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and director of Saint Paul University’s Centre for Ethics in Ottawa, doesn’t think anyone is going to propose an easy answer to that question.

Threat of Iraq without Christians is real - Canada's response

March 25, 2008

TORONTO - With martyred Archbishop Paulos Rahho’s portrait on display before the altar, 1,000 Chaldean Catholics gathered at Toronto’s Good Shepherd Chaldean parish March 14 to pray the Stations of the Cross in ancient Syriac, a language directly descended from Jesus’ own Aramaic tongue.

Canadian natives wait while Aussies celebrate apology

March 20, 2008

While Canada’s native people wait for an official government apology for the residential schools, Australian aboriginal people are celebrating their government’s willingness to say sorry.

Province-wide teacher negotiations a no-go

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Just because provincial education bureaucrats and top union officials are sitting down together in meeting rooms talking about wages and benefits with an eye toward another four-year deal doesn’t mean Ontario has embraced province-wide bargaining with teachers’ unions, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

Teachers need to form future leaders

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Senator Romeo Dallaire wants teachers to save Canada. According to the retired general who led United Nations peacekeepers during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the only thing that can save this country from cynicism, apathy and petty regionalism is leadership.

Catholic system is here to stay

March 20, 2008

TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne put a positive spin on the bitter debate over confessional education during the fall election campaign in a speech to Catholic teachers at their annual union meeting in Toronto March 9.

Afghanistan vote counterproductive, say peace activists

March 19, 2008

TORONTO – Parliament's vote to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan to 2011 has not advanced the cause of peace, according to Pax Christi U.S.A. and Canadian affiliates of Pax Christi International.

Saving the planet part of the faith

March 10, 2008

Editor's note: Canada's Catholic bishops have waded into the national debate over global warming. On March 7, the social affairs commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released its new statement called Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion. In this document, the bishops insist that Christians must lead a global effort to curb mass consumption and our governments must develop concrete plans to reduce pollution. For the complete text of the statement can be downloaded in pdf format here. For our own report on the issue, read below.