Communion Of Fire

Ashley Linttell

December 11, 2017

"British Columbia is nothing but trees. At least to anyone with half a heart, the freeway disappears and the car sounds fall away like other people’s conversations in a Vancouver coffee shop while you’re having your heart broken. But I don’t know that yet, and anyway the mountains broke my heart first, and harder."

Nowadays, I understand a little better the anxiety of half-paid mortgages that afflicted the adults as they tried distantly to make out which familiar streets the fire had crossed and which neighborhoods it had spared In the end the fire didn’t consume our house, just kissed its forehead, but the sm...

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Treating College Like Costco

Doug Sikkema

December 11, 2017

Doug Sikkema, senior researcher at Cardus and the managing editor of our sister publication Comment, argues that until we know what higher education is for, we’ll have difficulty protecting those who toil within it

Because of the mission drift of our higher education institutions, non-tenured educators and labour unions have a much more difficult time arguing their case for fair wages and secure positions Academic research is now quantified into “publishable units,” students are thought to be “primary customer...

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Approaching

Thomas Sanz

December 11, 2017

What does water inspire in you? A sense of what - expectation? Contentment? 

This is a sacred place because no matter if we are staying in the darkness or moving toward the light, the place we’re in is hopeful and redeemable ...

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Fields of the Lord

Joanna Geck

December 8, 2017

Joanna Geck learned through personal struggle that neither failure nor success has to define her. It’s the undying love of God that defines her, and who shapes her identity. 

But in those years, I was approached by this organization known as Athletes in Action (AIA), which is Canada’s biggest sports ministry and uses sport as a language that knows no boundaries and unites cultures I ended up going to Ethiopia with AIA in the summer of 2016 as well as in 2017, which not o...

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Bonjour-Hi

Peter Stockland

December 8, 2017

A government push to stop Quebec businesses from politely using a French-English greeting for customers is more than just another example of the province's language wars. Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland argues the move interferes with Quebec's social architecture.

The first is the way language, almost 40 years after Bill 101 gave French-speaking Quebecers their majoritarian due, continues to be manipulated to foment tension and discord for shabby political gain Like the family that shouts at the dinner table because shouting is the only way to be heard, Quebe...

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Calling for the Common Good

December 8, 2017

Today, we release the final piece in our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial. 

How can the groups, organizations and institutions that produce these civil society relational goods be encouraged to continue to provide common-good resources to their communities? ...

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Hope in the Smoke and Ash

Michael Raap

December 8, 2017

Photographer Michael Raap presents a photo of hope found at the top of Masaya Volcano, in Nicaragua.

Both the mark of death and the mark of new life ...

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Jerusalem and Peace

Raymond J. de Souza

December 7, 2017

Is peace in the Middle East possible? Today Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the significance of President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

If Jordan and Iraq can live in peace, it is not because they mutually agreed upon their borders, but because they decided to accept and live with, and within, what war wrought Even the Israeli-Arab peace process is the fruit of war At the end of World War II, Poland had been “liberated” by the Red A...

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Meaning and MAID

Christopher De Bono

December 7, 2017

Today, we release the fourth piece in our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial. 

Indeed, “[t]he question of whether MAID must be provided on-site in every health care facility is not the only starting point for social policy deliberation about faith-based providers, especially when these providers reflect Canadian society’s diversity and bring added value to the health care of a...

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Called Out of Myself

Leanna Cappiello

December 6, 2017

As a cradle Catholic, Leanna struggled to find awe and wonder in the Scripture stories. Love from storybooks, the love she learned of as a pre-teen, felt like protection and comfort. There were times when her home in Caledon felt like an elevated ivory tower. Here, she could claim sanctuary from the confusing dangers of the world. Until September, 2007.

This, I thought, is the greatest love story of all time Overtime, in our openness to truth, beauty and goodness, we could recognize God (Love) between us From our first encounter to the time I learned his story, we shared many conversations about faith ...

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Religious Freedom Month

Janet Epp Buckingham

December 6, 2017

Today, we release the third piece in our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial. 

To read more of Janet’s reflection on religious freedom in Canada, read her piece Three Risks For Freedom here ...

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To the Top

Michael Raap

December 6, 2017

Photographer Michael Raap sent in this photo of the ascent to the top of Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. What awaits us at the top?

Even though the stairs are there, it’s still a winding path ...

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Desiring a Better Country

Ray Pennings

December 5, 2017

Today, we continue our series of Policy Options articles that have emerged as a response to our Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table in Ottawa last month, convened in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada’s Sesquicentennial. 

(Left to Right: Jennifer Ditchburn, Editor, Policy Options; Ray Pennings, Executive Vice-President, Cardus; Shachi Kurl, Executive Director, Angus Reid Institute ...

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Diversity and Division

Shachi Kurl, Angus Reid

December 4, 2017

Follow along as we feature a series of articles published in Policy Options that have emerged as a response to the Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table, an initiative convened by Cardus and the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada's Sesquicentennial. 

This week, we are featuring a series of articles published in Policy Options that have emerged as a response to the Spirited Citizenship: Care, Conflict, and Virtue round table, an initiative convened by Cardus and the Angus Reid Institute to mark Canada's Sesquicentennial ...

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Legal Minds Collide Over Trinity Western University

Peter Stockland

December 1, 2017

The fate of Trinity Western University’s proposed law school now lies in the hands of nine Supreme Court of Canada justices. As Convivium publisher Peter Stockland explains, the justices will render their decision in the wake of a clash between paradoxical arguments.

For example, Guy Pratte, the lawyer representing the Ontario law society, argued intensely that his client was, in fact, bound by law to deny accreditation to Trinity Western law school A canvass of existing law, he said, makes it clear nothing – including the legal obligations of the Ontario law so...

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