Issues, ethics, memory
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its most recent report. The blue ribbon group of scientists concluded that is 95 percent certain that global warming is occurring, that it is caused mainly by our burning of fossil fuels, and that we will see more violent weather and rising sea levels as a result. Scientists... Continue Reading →
The recent shooting death of 13 Americans at the Navy Yard military centre in Washington D.C. is a tragic but commonplace occurrence. Mother Jones magazine says that there have now been five mass shootings in the U.S. this year, with more than 40 people injured and killed. In 2011, there were 11,000 gun-related homicides in... Continue Reading →
The Parti Quebecois government has created controversy by proposing the Charter of Quebec Values aimed at restricting public sector employees from wearing religious symbols — turbans, head scarves, skullcaps and presumably crosses — in their workplaces. The PQ claims that this would unify Quebecers behind the idea of a secular state, but Charles Taylor, the... Continue Reading →
Theologian Hans Kung once said that there will be no peace among nations until there is peace among the world’s religions and there will be no peace without dialogue. The three Abrahamic faith groups in Ottawa – Christian, Jewish and Muslim – have taken that advice to heart. On November 10, 2013 the three groups... Continue Reading →
There are many things that I don’t like about Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird as a politician, but he’s both right and courageous in opposing the persecution of sexual minorities in Russia, Uganda and elsewhere. I don’t like how Baird provides non-answers to questions in the House of Commons, preferring instead to challenge the integrity... Continue Reading →
I grew up in a small rural village in Saskatchewan called St. Benedict, which in the 1950s and early 60s would have had a population of 200 or more. There are now about 80 people living there. Twenty years ago, in August 1993, our village held a homecoming event. People who once lived in the area came... Continue Reading →
There is an important public policy backdrop to the disaster that befell the good people in Lac Mégantic, Quebec in July, when a freight train — with five locomotives and 72 tanker cars — jumped the tracks. The crude oil leaked and then exploded, killing at least 47 people, destroying much of the town, and contaminating... Continue Reading →
I read in the New York Times recently about an increasing attention being paid by American academic researchers to the history of liberal Christianity. The article says that in the U.S. the dominant story for decades has been about the rise of evangelical Christians. The Times reports that decades ago evangelicals “began asserting their power... Continue Reading →
Those of you who read the Comments posted to this blog will be familiar with the name of Dallas McQuarrie, who frequently responds to what I have written or what others have to say in their Comments. Dallas and his wife Susan are at this moment involved in an intense and profound non-violent action in... Continue Reading →
In Ottawa recently a group of Catholic parents protested to their school board over Justin Trudeau’s appearance in November 2012 to talk to students at a Catholic school about bullying. Some parents told the board this was a “scandal” because Trudeau supports same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose. According to slides from their... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 