Canadian News

News and events from across the country.

Transgender bill passes in Commons, heads to Senate

February 14, 2011

OTTAWA - A bill that could reshape society’s understanding of human sexuality by granting protected status to transgendered and transsexual people passed a final vote in the House of Commons and has gone to the Senate. NDP MP Bill Siksay’s private members’ Bill C-389, which would add gender identity and gender expression to the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act, passed 143-135. Most Conservatives voted against the bill Feb. 9, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while the leaders of the Opposition parties all supported it.

Supporters rally for Toronto men facing execution in Iran

February 11, 2011

[images/stories/toronto/toronto11/1scharper.jpg]TORONTO - As the world's attention is focused on the unrest in Egypt, Canadians must not forget the political prisoners in Iran, say the supporters of two Toronto residents facing execution. Saeed Malekpour and Hamid Ghassemi-Shall were convicted without a fair trial and deny the charges against them, according to their Canadian supporters. Malekpour faces execution at any moment, while Ghassemi-Shall's death sentence was commuted to a life sentence last year but is pending confirmation by Iran's Supreme Court. Some 50 people braved a chilly winter evening for a candlelight vigil outside the University of Toronto's Massey College Feb. 9 to raise awareness of the men's plight.

Canada measured by how we treat immigrants

February 9, 2011

Lois Wilson [images/stories/toronto_people/wilsonlois.jpg]TORONTO - If Scripture is a guide, the measure of Canada as a Christian country may be the nation’s immigration and refugee policies, the Very Rev. Lois Wilson told a couple dozen people gathered at the University of Toronto’s Newman Centre chapel Feb. 1. Wilson was lecturing as part of the Jesuit-sponsored Naming the Holy series at the Newman Centre. Under the title “Who is my neighbour? Immigration, citizenship and refugees,” Wilson pointed out how “the alien, the orphan and the widow” are “just all over the Scriptures.” Old Testament law regarding treatment of aliens, orphans and widows establishes the importance of the individual in Western culture and law, said Wilson. In the New Testament Jesus Himself is an outsider who scandalously communicates with other outsiders — Samaritans, women, lepers, etc.

Toronto Copts fear for Egypt's future

February 9, 2011

Egypt Protest [images/stories/international/internation11/egyptprotest3.jpg]TORONTO - As the Muslim Brotherhood spoke directly with Egypt’s government and as Christian leaders and Muslim scholars paraded together through Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Toronto’s tiny Coptic Catholic community prayed for peace and wisdom in Egypt, and for the safety of their relatives back home. “This is our part, to collect our voice and go to God,” said Magda Megalli after Mass Feb. 6 at Holy Family Coptic Catholic Church in Toronto’s west end. Most Holy Family parishioners send money monthly back to their families, said parish priest Fr. Bishoi Anis. The protests and street fighting that began in Cairo on Jan. 24 and the apparent end to Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule have left Toronto Copts feeling stunned and helpless, he said. “What can you do here, here in Canada?” Anis asked.

Family juggles family, faith and demanding career

February 9, 2011

The Cannings [images/stories/features/freature11/catholicparenting2.jpg]TORONTO - The camera zooms in on new mom Lisa Canning who beams with enthusiasm as she talks about energy-efficient decor with Toronto TV host Marilyn Denis. The 26-year-old interior decorator was one of the experts on CTV’s inaugural The Marilyn Denis Show last month. Aside from running her own interior design business, she talks enthusiastically about how motherhood has helped her mature in her Catholic faith as she and her husband, Josh, raise their two children. “When I became a mom for the first time, something shifted quick in me that I am completely responsible for the soul of this person. When I saw (my son) in my arms, I realized I have a huge responsibility,” she said. Faith has been central in the Cannings’ marriage and parenthood. The Cannings are former student campus ministers at the Newman Centre at the University of Toronto. (Josh is now Newman’s chaplaincy co-ordinator.)

1,000 years of rare Bibles on display at Toronto library until June

February 9, 2011

St. John Bible [images/stories/arts/arts11/stjohnbible.jpg]TORONTO - You don’t often get to see a Wicked Bible. There aren’t many of them left. That’s because King Charles I ordered them all burned. The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library of the University of Toronto has a Wicked Bible on display until June 3, along with dozens of other rare and fascinating Bibles. The 1631 Wicked Bible contained perhaps the most famous typo in the history of the English language. In Exodus 22:14 a compositor left out the word “not,” leaving the commandment to read, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” But there’s much more than giggles to the exhibition “Great and Manifold: A Celebration of the Bible in English.” The Bibles on display span just over a millennium, ranging from an 11th century Greek New Testament from Constantinople bearing the name “Torontoensis” to an illuminated Book of Psalms in English produced over the last decade by calligraphers and artists under the direction of Benedictine monks in Collegeville, Minnesota. Pinned to the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, “Great and Manifold” is a compact epic journey through the history of English language, politics, spirituality and culture as it relates to this one book.

Catholics protest artist's deliberately provocative show

February 9, 2011

Peter Alexander Por [images/stories/arts/arts11/popepainting.jpg]TORONTO - A private Toronto art gallery has received thousands of e-mails protesting its controversial exhibit featuring a “bullet-ridden” Pope Benedict XVI. Bezpala Brown Gallery president Darrell Brown said the gallery received about 8,000 e-mails in one hour from the American Catholic group America Needs Fatima which launched a web campaign against Peter Alexander Por’s exhibit “Persona Non Grata: The Veil of History,” running at the gallery Feb. 5-25. Brown first promoted the exhibit with a provocative press release called “Pope shot, Obama crucified at the Bezpala Brown Gallery.” “Pope Benedict XVI’s portrait is riddled with bullet holes, a less than subtle expression of the hurt and anger directed at a pontiff and an institution that has abandoned its flock, choosing to focus on dogma while its subjects suffer and, in many instances, die from its archaic policies,” the release read, referring to the clergy abuse scandal that has rocked the Church.

Assisted suicide hearings criss-cross Quebec

February 9, 2011

GATINEAU, Que. - As Quebec marked Suicide Prevention Week Jan. 30-Feb. 5, the province’s Select Committee on Dying with Dignity held hearings here testing support for legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide. The irony did not escape Linda Couture, who directs Living With Dignity, a grassroots, non-religious organization that has been monitoring the hearings as the committee travels across Quebec. The committee made up of members of Quebec’s National Assembly (MNAs) has been holding public hearings in cities across Quebec since September. Couture has attended most of them. The committee wraps up its hearings at the end of February and will then work on a written report.

Egypt's protesters want their slice of the future

February 8, 2011

OTTAWA - Egyptian protesters are mostly males aged 25-34 who are highly educated, plugged into the world’s social media and networks but frustrated because they can’t find work, said Carl Hétu, national secretary of CNEWA Canada (Catholic Near East Welfare Association). “They are now asking for their share,” he said, noting the plight of young people is similar in countries all over the Middle East. The issue in Egypt is whether the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group, will try to appropriate the movement, he said. But the Muslim Brotherhood is not the only player, he added, noting that the elite of Egypt “will not let go” and will be faithful to President Hosni Mubarak.

Catholic vote turns tide Conservative way

February 3, 2011

Stephen Harper [images/stories/canada_people/StephenHarper2.jpg]OTTAWA - As the Conservative Party celebrates its fifth anniversary in power, it is recognizing a major reason for the success: a swing in the Catholic and the ethnic vote away from the Liberals. It’s quite a change. It wasn’t so long ago that the Liberals could count on the Catholic and ethnic vote overwhelmingly going its way. In fact, a 2005 study by André Blais of the Canadian Political Science Association found that in the preceding 40 years, Catholics in English Canada were 18 per cent more likely than non-Catholics to vote Liberal. But that changed when Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives were elected in 2006 to a minority government, and returned two years later.