Rebuking Canada’s African Colonialism

Jonathon Van Maren

April 6, 2021

In conversation with Convivium contributor Jonathon Van Maren, former career diplomat David Mulroney says Canada’s residential school past should curb its neocolonialist urges in Africa.

“As a former public servant, the problem I have with our ‘feminist foreign policy,’ in which abortion is central to our development work in Africa, is that good foreign policy and good development policy depend on actually listening to the people you’re trying to help or engage,” Mulroney explained ...

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Replacing Aid With MAiD

Ruth Dick

March 29, 2021

Expansion of medically assisted dying risks an explosive moral crisis when shortages already endemic in health care make Canadians choose death over delay, Ruth Dick writes.

So what are we to do? Only offer MAiD to those who have timely access to a full range of support services, and deny it to those who meet the criteria set out in the statute, but can’t access those services? Deny it to them because they live in small, remote communities that don’t have physiotherapy,...

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Heeding Shahbaz Bhatti’s Call

Susan Korah

March 26, 2021

A decade after the religious freedom fighter’s murder, Pakistani Canadians call on Ottawa to renew his work, Susan Korah reports.

Andrew Bennett, Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom from 2013 until the Liberal government phased out the position in 2016, highlighted the importance of bringing freedom of religion or belief to the forefront of foreign policy priorities; also, of taking action to support the human rights of ...

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A COVID Cold Shoulder for Churches

Peter Stockland

March 25, 2021

Peter Stockland reports on a group of B.C. Canadian Reformed Churches going to court to be allowed to come in out of the rain and worship together.

“We can’t use the church for the purpose for which it was built by the people: the worship of God,” Schouten points out Canada’s Charter protections for religious freedom mean the State doesn’t get to tell people of faith where and how to worship  What he and others perceive as the incongruity and i...

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Conversion Therapy Bill Off Target

Andrew Bennett

March 22, 2021

The Liberal government’s Bill C-6 aims so wide that it threatens freedom rather than criminalizing abuse, Cardus’ Father Deacon Andrew Bennett argues.

Genuine pastoral accompaniment is informed by the free will of the person seeking guidance and by the parent, pastor, priest, rabbi, imam, or counselor acting as a guide as the person navigates their beliefs and how they shape their life Let’s remember that our fundamental freedoms are grounded in t...

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Irish Eyes on Meghan and Harry

Peter Stockland

March 17, 2021

This might be the best Saint Patrick’s Day to skip the clownish caricatures and ponder the British monarchy from Ireland’s historical perspective, Peter Stockland argues.

For as Peggy Noonan perspicaciously points out from her position in a watchtower of the greatest republic in human history, the question that the furies besetting the House of Windsor raise is whether the family will escape with their skins before the institutional walls tumble down around them With...

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Chaos ’Round The Corner for CRTC

Peter Menzies

March 16, 2021

Peter Menzies looks into a planned major expansion of federal regulatory powers over the Internet. It’s enough to take your breath away, he reports.

Members of Parliament on the Canadian Heritage Committee examining Bill C-10 - which expands the authority of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to a breathtaking extent - were finally able to see the draft Order in Council expected to spell out how the regulator ...

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When A Pope Comes Home

Susan Korah

March 10, 2021

The welcome for Pope Francis on his visit to Iraq was a memorable first step. Now hope must become reality, Susan Korah reports.

A calculated risk in the face of pandemic fears and potential security threats, the visit of Pope Francis to Iraq brought incalculable benefits, say members of the country’s indigenous Christian community “When the media lights are turned off and the Pope’s visit becomes yesterday’s news, it is impo...

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HELP to Redefine MAiD

Tara Vreugdenhil

March 8, 2021

Speech-language pathologist Tara Vreugdenhil breaks down the definitions that make up medical assistance in dying and determines it’s really homicide masquerading as health care.

By these definitions, MAiD is meant to be a practice of medicine which provides medical treatment to help someone bring life to a close Investments in those programs would prevent much of the demand for MAiD requests by providing actual medical treatment which has the intention to end or reduce suff...

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Readers Respond to Sean Murphy

Peter Stockland

March 5, 2021

We asked our readers to let us know what they think about Sean Murphy’s initiative to amend the Criminal Code and make it an offence to compel anyone to participate in the act of non-culpable homicide that is currently called medical aid in dying. Here are some responses.

Health Care should be about saving lives, and in my view the moment Canada made Physician Assisted Suicide law they infringed on the rights of Canadians who feel life from conception until natural death is sacred It seems to me the government is more interested in investing in ending lives through a...

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When Covid Constraints Come to Church

Don Hutchinson

March 4, 2021

Don Hutchinson considers the complementary roles of Church and State vis-à-vis the pandemic and public health.

Third, in 2009 the Court decided the Government of Alberta was justified in requiring photographs on all drivers’ licenses because of national security concerns, even though the requirement violated the religious freedom of the Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony, Christians who believe being photog...

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It’s How The Light Gets In

Alisha Ruiss

March 1, 2021

As our pandemic winter shadows withdraw like halting springtime snow, Alisha Ruiss reminds us that even the tiniest crack in the darkness can begin to illuminate God’s promise anew.

Yet, if there is anything I can speak of with certainty, it is the heavy shadow of depression that regularly haunted me from my pre-teen years, one that seemed bent upon obscuring the desire so present at my birth: to truly see  What if hope disappoints? What if the light disappears? What if the pro...

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How MAiD Aids Ableism

Keith Dow

February 25, 2021

Bill C-7’s expansion of medical aid in dying encodes into law discrimination against disabled Canadians by treating them as less worthy of life than the able-bodied, Keith Dow writes.

Ableism is the prevalent discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities and it is like a poisonous rot that eats away at the roots of opportunity, care, and life-giving supports for the disabled COVID-19 has exposed the frailty of many of these points of connection and care,...

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COVID’s Media Monologue

Peter Menzies

February 24, 2021

Bad news sells but Peter Menzies wonders why journalists eager to echo alarms about pandemic case numbers ignore the social devastation of lockdown policies.

Deena Hinshaw (Alberta) roll out their morbid numbers and fears at daily news conferences, there has been much less frequent scrutiny regarding the consequences of their recommendations beyond the spread of the virus and its impact on health and the health care systems Much may have changed in how n...

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The Unlawfulness of Lockdown

James Sikkema

February 22, 2021

Contrary to theologian David Hionides, James Sikkema argues no one has a moral obligation to obey COVID-19 lockdown orders and that civilly disobeying them is justified.

Given that the purported benefits of lockdown are to safeguard public health at the expense of the rights and freedoms constituting the condition of the possibility of the true promotion of public health, lockdown measures are orders of magnitude less beneficial than their harms Rather than make pro...

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