Convivium Magazine

The High C Campaign Against COVID-19

Susan Korah

May 22, 2020

Susan Korah introduces Convivium readers to an Ottawa-based Polish opera star who has lent her voice to better pandemic communication with the world’s disadvantaged.

Now in lockdown with her family at her home in Ottawa, the charismatic diva has lent her voice to an international COVID-19 information campaign designed to address a serious gap in public health communications around the world Using her acting skills and her beautifully modulated speaking voice, Ma...

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Moving MAiD

Peter Stockland

May 20, 2020

A recent set of public demands by Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying lobby raise serious concerns, reports Convivium's Peter Stockland.

Scheidl noted the paradox of CAMAP members pressing public demands for greater MAiD access at a time when frontline medical staff have made extraordinary efforts to keep alive people afflicted with COVID-19 CAMAP believes that if necessary provincial governments should issue directives to all faith-...

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COVID in a Lifeboat

Chantal Huinink, and Jasmine Duckworth, Keith Dow

May 19, 2020

Chantal Huinink, Jasmine Duckworth, and Keith Dow consider the ethics of disability in a time of pandemic crisis.

Chantal believes that so-called pandemic ethics and fears of scarcity have the potential to further devalue the lives of Canadians with disabilities and individuals with disabilities around the world The thee perspectives shared by Chantal, Jasmine and Keith have nuances that differ from one another...

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Laws and Lawn Signs

Peter Stockland

May 15, 2020

After a two-member pro-life group was investigated for providing campaign volunteers in the 2019 federal campaign, Peter Stockland reports on a likely legal challenge under the Charter in the near future.

In fact, Albertos Polizogopoulos says there will “almost certainly” be a legal challenge under the Charter in the near future unless Parliament amends the legislation to avoid situations such as the one facing his client, the pro-life group RightNow, founded about four years ago by Alissa Golob and ...

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Let Commonality Grow

Peter Stockland

May 14, 2020

A car dealer, a psychologist, and a doctor. Three comically different individuals, one harmonious view of the current circumstances. Peter Stockland unpacks a story of community right under our noses.

The long-time family physician, a social activist who helped lead a successful fight against the Quebec government to keep his local hospital open in the face of budget cuts and is veteran agitator for properly-funded public health care, believes strongly that emergence from COVID-19 will prompt a r...

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COVID-19 and Common Humanity

Brian Bird

May 11, 2020

Convivium contributor Brian Bird writes that even within the pain caused by the pandemic we can recover our fundamental shared identity as human beings and the universal dignity embedded within it.

COVID-19 has revealed our recognition that human life is a good that has no price tag Brian Dickson, the former Chief Justice of Canada, described work as “one of the most fundamental aspects in a person’s life, providing the individual with a means of financial support and, as importantly, a contri...

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An Archdiocese Takes on TikTok

Mario Toneguzzi

May 8, 2020

The Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton has embraced the latest social media channels to spread the Good News to a wider audience, Mario Toneguzzi reports.

Ho described TikTok as a social media channel where people can post short videos between 15 seconds and one minute with the ability to mix in music They figured since I was already so active with the Archdiocese digitally through social media they suggested I make an application when the time came t...

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Futility in the Face of Pandemic

Daniel Gilman

May 6, 2020

How can we carry Christ to others when we might also be carrying the virus that infects them with COVID-19? By discerning that love requires seeking new approaches, Daniel Gilman writes.

In response to the global changes in his time, the renowned apologist and author Francis Schaeffer asked, “How should we then live?” Before we can answer that question, we are compelled to ask, “How should we first think?” With these questions in mind, I came across an article that caught my attenti...

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The Necessary and Essential Difference Between Essential and Necessary

Travis D. Smith

May 4, 2020

Of all the things the COVID-19 crisis has meant, Travis Smith argues, its means to distinguish between what we necessarily need and what makes us essentially human.

The current situation lends itself to magnifying our concern for what’s necessary, what pertains to us as animals in need of securing the basics of survival, and we may show disregard for what’s more essential to living well as human beings specifically I’d like to stay confident that the rest of us...

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Shadow and Light in the Post-COVID Church

Peter Stockland and Peter Menzies

April 30, 2020

Two long-time journalistic and personal friends, former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies and Convivium's Peter Stockland, weigh the future of faith life in a Canada where churches have been shuttered by government order.

In the column above, my long-time friend and journalism colleague Peter Menzies lays out a necessary, if disturbing, vision for the future of public faith in Canada as we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis The Church now has a powerful opening to remind the recovering world of the truth that because ou...

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Unmasking the Benefits of Globalization

Matthew Lau

April 28, 2020

COVID-19 has sparked calls to recover domestic production of goods from pharmaceuticals to personal protective equipment. Raising a contrary voice, Matthew Lau argues for recognizing globalization as the good that comes from economic interconnection.

His “shockproofing” column, which made the case for onshoring the production of PPE to achieve greater security at the expense of efficiency, prescribed subsidies and ongoing government support, as well as “managed trade” (as opposed to free trade) with China to ensure that Canada would not need to ...

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A Meeting Place of Meaning

Rabbi Reuven Bulka

April 24, 2020

Rabbi Reuven Bulka reminds us that the very search for meaning in crises such as the current pandemic gives expression to our shared humanity.

The question itself has many variations, such as, “Why is God doing this to us?” or the more theologically complicated question-challenge, “How could a caring God do this?” – the implication clearly being that there is no God At the risk of overgeneralization, one could suggest that that for the bel...

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The Invisible Persecution of Religious Women

Janet Epp Buckingham

April 22, 2020

Violent subjugation inflicted on women of faith is a global iniquity that rarely counts because it differs from the persecution of male religious leaders, Janet Epp Buckingham reports.

In many countries women and girls are subject to restrictive laws that compound discrimination The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has also recently sought attention for the huge data gap with respect to human rights issues for women But this is not the case for women facing persecution on t...

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A Life Story of Giving

Ray Pennings

April 20, 2020

The late Burlington baker's family name was synonymous world-wide with great tasting cookies, but Ray Pennings says the best things about Bill Voortman were his mentorship, friendship, and tireless gifts to build God’s Kingdom.

Usually the agenda was “How are you doing?” Bill wasn’t one to engage in formulaic conversations – you knew and felt he genuinely cared When Michael Van Pelt and I began the project now known as Cardus, Bill was among the first to sign on ...

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Celebrating Nurses from Crimea to COVID-19

Susan Korah

April 17, 2020

This May marks the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale and the start of a nursing-led health care revolution, reports Convivium contributor Susan Korah.

It is an international NGO established to “honour the legacy of Florence Nightingale and other nurses and healthcare workers who have shown, by their example, how their actions contribute significantly to a peaceful, prosperous and healthy world Deva-Marie Beck, Canadian Director of the NGO, Nightin...

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