Brian Dryden, Canadian Catholic News
Groups call for emergency benefits to help non-citizens
OTTAWA -- Francisco Rico-Martinez knows that many of the people he helps at a Toronto refugee centre are worried about how they and their families could be impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis.
OTTAWA -- Canada’s Catholic bishops have joined with other faith leaders across the country to offer hope and solidarity to all Canadians as the nation faces an unprecedented health and economic crisis because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
OTTAWA -- Two Ottawa-based faith leaders have joined together to offer comforting words to Canadians during the COVID-19 health crisis that has closed most places of worship across the country.
Ottawa’s March for Life looking at alternatives
OTTAWA -- There will be some sort of national March for Life event on May 14, but whether there will be an actual march through the streets of the nation’s capital and a rally of thousands of pro-life Canadians at Parliament Hill is still to be determined.
Group claims physicians being ‘bullied’
OTTAWA -- An anti-euthanasia doctors group claims health workers are being “bullied” into providing assisted suicide.
Everyone must do their part, says civil rights league
OTTAWA -- As communities rally to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the president of the Catholic Civil Rights League said any concerns that government-mandated church closures infringe on religious freedom rights are unwarranted.
Proposed legislation bans conversion therapy for minors
OTTAWA -- The federal government has proposed legislation that would make it a crime to force anyone into conversion therapy or provide the controversial therapy to minors.
Statistics don’t tell whole poverty story
OTTAWA -- The federal government is touting recent statistics that indicate that the poverty rate in Canada is on a downward spiral, but social justice and anti-poverty groups say the statistics don’t tell the whole story and there is still a lot of work to be done if Canada is going to reduce poverty levels for Indigenous Canadians and those who live in remote areas of the country.
MP’s bill targets sex-selection abortion
OTTAWA -- Sex-selection abortion is “antithetical to our commitment to equality” and should be banned, said a Conservative MP as she introduced a private member’s bill that targets health workers who knowingly abort a fetus because it is a girl.
Government given more time to change law
OTTAWA -- The federal government’s request for a four-month extension to comply with a Quebec court ruling that struck down a key element of Canada’s legal suicide regulations has been granted.