The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian World by Rod Dreher (Sentinel, $34, 262 pages) Journalist Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option is a rarity: a socially conservative book urging Christians be more faithful that spurred a serious discussion in the mainstream media among pundits about the future of the so-called Religious Right and those who comprise it. David Brooks of [...]
Under Siege: Religious Freedom and the Church in Canada at 150 (1867-2017) by Don Hutchinson (Word Alive Press, $22.99, 276 pages) In Under Siege, former Evangelical Fellowship of Canada vice president and general legal counsel Don Hutchinson writes about the history of Christian churches in Canada describing how the Dominion began as a predominantly Christian nation to one in which is being [...]
Rory Leishman As recently as 50 years ago, it was still a serious criminal offence punishable by up to life in prison for anyone in Britain, Canada or the United States to commit an abortion. And much the same was true everywhere else in Western Europe where stringent laws protected human life in the womb Today, of course, that is [...]
Robert Walley (right) receives the Adam Exner Award from the Catholic Civil Rights League, represented by board members (front from left ) Charles Lewis, Alexander MacDonald, and Tanya Granic, and CCRL president Phil Horgan (back left and executive director Christian Elia (back right). Former religious freedom ambassador discusses the public square The Catholic Civil Rights League presented its 2017 Archbishop [...]
Hamilton father of two Steve Tourloukis sued his school board to uphold his parental rights. He lost in 2016 and appealed the decision. The latest battle in the sever-year war between Steve Tourloukis and the Hamilton Wentworth public school board over what the father of two claims is his right to receive advance notice when and how his children will [...]
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dear Minister, I am writing to express profound concern with your speech on Canadian Foreign Policy, which you gave in the House of Commons on Tuesday 6 June 2017, and on which Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau further elaborated on 9 June. In it, you equated women’s rights with the right to abortion and [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell I’ve been wondering, of late, why congregants mark July 1 by singing “O Canada” at the end of Mass. I haven’t noticed legislators mark Dec. 25 by singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” at the end of their proceedings. I realize the dates are not strictly comparable. Although Canada Day celebrates the birth of the [...]
Bill C-16 seeks to amend “the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination” and to amend the Criminal Code so that gender identity and gender expression are listed under the definition of “identifiable group” for protection against hate propaganda and are listed as aggravating circumstances for hate crimes. It passed [...]
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Reginald Leger banned 40 Days for Life from protesting outside the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst, New Brunswick. Leger granted a permanent injunction against the pro-life activists demonstrating against the hospital where abortions are committed. The sweeping court order bans pro-life activists from demonstrating anywhere on the hospital grounds. Ronald Jessulat, a defendant, said members of 40 [...]
The Christian Heritage Party of British Columbia is running five candidates in the provincial campaign. BC is the only provincial wing of the party. CHP-BC leader Rod Taylor said there was a need for a provincial party because, “it is important that men and women of Christian conviction: pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-free speech and pro-fiscal sanity—stand up together to raise the standard [...]
Dr. Scott Masson Dr. Scott Masson is an associate professor of English at Tyndale University College in Toronto. He was the founding chairman of the Westminster Classical Christian Academy. His articles and commentary have been published in numerous journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Masson will soon be launching a news aggregator website at www.veracrux.com He is a husband and father of two. Campaign [...]
Law Matters John Carpay Like homophobia, Islamophobia is a dangerous word. Both words are dangerous because they are ambiguous. Uncertainty about the meaning of words makes it impossible to have honest discussion and debate. Without honest debate, democracy and society function poorly. Undermining the citizen’s ability to communicate with others results in misunderstanding and fear. Dictionaries define “phobia” as “an [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell "Don’t call it sin,” he declared, and proposed that, to describe someone’s immoral behaviour, I write objectively disordered. Preserve us from word-watchers, I thought. His lecture was a reminder of how much verbal clutter irritates me. Oh, I understand why he complained. I just don’t understand why he thought it necessary. It wouldn’t bother him [...]
There’s a scene at the beginning of the season finale of The Young Pope that sums up this controversial HBO series as much as any of a dozen or so startling scenes in the previous nine hours. The titular pontiff, played by Jude Law, has just been told by his director of publicity that he is scheduled to lead a group of [...]
Liberal MP Iqra Khalid (Mississauga-Erin Mills) introduced M-103, a motion condemning “Islamophobia” and calling on Parliament to form a committee to study ways to battle “systemic” anti-Muslim sentiment. Tory MPs and conservative pundits condemned the motion, saying it was a threat to free speech, but Liberal MPs said it was necessary to combat growing intolerance of Muslims in Canada. Conservative MP David [...]