Issues, ethics, memory
Stephen Harper has returned from a feel-good trip to Israel on which he was accompanied by an entourage of 208 people, largely at government expense -- cabinet ministers, MPs, Senators, rabbis, officials from Jewish groups, evangelical Christians, business people and various others. There has been much speculation about whether this was a trip based on... Continue Reading →
When a male student at York University recently requested — for religious reasons — that he be excused from interacting with female classmates, it led to an intense debate over competing rights and religious accommodation. The school’s sociology professor, Paul Grayson, denied the request because he says it infringed upon the rights of his female students... Continue Reading →
In 2011, the Canadian Press reported that the RCMP security service spied on CCF-NDP icon Tommy Douglas from the 1930s until shortly before he died in 1986. But the file on Douglas represented just a tip of the proverbial iceberg, as the McDonald Commission into RCMP misbehaviour revealed that in the 1970s, the security service maintained files... Continue Reading →
Dennis Gruending writes about a community Christmas concert in his 1950s farming village in Saskatchewan.
Nelson Mandela is being remembered as a beacon for democracy, peace and decency in political life. But he also used his retirement well. In 2007, Mandela and a group of distinguished individuals created a group called, The Elders. They included Mozambican humanitarian and politician Graca Machel, who is also Mandela’s widow; former Ireland President Mary Robinson;... Continue Reading →
The big powers, led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, recently reached a deal with Iran to temporarily freeze a nuclear program that could have produced a weapon for that country. In return, the U.S. and five other nations have agreed to ease up on economic sanctions that have long hurt Iranian citizens and... Continue Reading →
On November 8, I published a blog piece that provided a description of Christian pacifism and some arguments on its behalf. I wrote it intentionally to appear prior to Remembrance Day. I wrote that "pacifism is not the chosen position of the majority but it does remain a respectable minority position, and more so all of... Continue Reading →
A friend and I taught a night course at the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality in 2012 about Christian pacifism. Had you asked me when I began if I was a pacifist, likely I would have said no. If you asked me today, I might well say yes. At the least, it has become... 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 →
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 →
Pulpit and Politics 