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For Whom the Polls Toll

Don Hutchinson

October 26, 2020

Fixated as Canadians are on soundings of popular opinion that foretell who will govern us next, Don Hutchinson writes, the only poll that counts is in the booth where we mark our ballots on Election Day.

In Canada’s 39th Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative minority government introduced legislation to establish a fixed election date for federal elections, the third Monday in October in the fourth year following the previous election Whether by lost confidence vote in Parliament ...

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The Human Face of Health Care

Timothy deVries

October 23, 2020

Through the painful season of his wife’s death, Timothy deVries saw past caricatures of faceless health systems to recognize the rich culture of care surrounding patients, families and medical professionals.

In fact, and as I learned since Danielle had been a nurse as well, there is a rich culture of care not only between patients and their caregivers, but between health care professionals themselves, with their patients, with their patient’s families, and with the communities of which they are a part H...

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Crescendo of Critics Denounce MAiD Legislation

Peter Stockland

October 22, 2020

Experts in law, medicine and disability advocacy are joining the chorus calling for the withdrawal of the Liberal government’s bill to expand medically administered death, Peter Stockland writes.

No longer limited to hastening death, Bill C-7 embraces MAiD as means of terminating an otherwise viable life – but only the life of someone with an illness or disability for whom death is rendered an appropriate therapeutic response to suffering,” the lawyers’ letter says “Suddenly, a lethal injec...

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Hitting the (Ouch!) Bumpy (Owww!) Post-Pandemic (Ooof!) Road

Robert Joustra

October 20, 2020

CNN celebrity thinker Fareed Zakaria maps 10 potholes from here to post-pandemia. Reviewer Robert Joustra, as if channeling the Tao of Eeyore, isn’t sure the ride’s worth the ruts.

Finally, Zakaria says, the natural world, which has only barely begun its tempestuous revolt against our fast and open lifestyles, kicked up the Great Pandemic Zakaria boils down our post pandemic world to three options: (1) the pandemic will be the hinge event of modern history, forever altering ou...

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Canada's Complicity in Nagorno-Karabakh Bloodshed

Susan Korah

October 19, 2020

Most Canadians would struggle to find the remote Caucasus region on a map but that doesn’t mean our hands are clean, Susan Korah writes.

“We (Middle Eastern Christians) stand in solidarity with Armenians, because Armenia welcomed and sheltered many of our people when we were driven out of our homelands by ISIS and other extremists” Nuri Kino, a Syriac Christian journalist with roots in Turkey told Convivium in an interview from his h...

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Of Hope and Home Runs

Joseph McDaniel

October 16, 2020

Non-fans often deride baseball as large men in pyjamas standing on lawns, but Blue Jays’ fan Joseph McDaniel finds in the game stubborn wisdom from deep in the human spirit.

So, when I say to myself, “they’ll be back,” when I say “yes” to the hope of a playoff run next year, it’s a reminder that even coming up short right now was utterly gratuitous: to even be playing the game, to be in a position to lose today’s game, could very well not have happened at all In a world...

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Faith Leaders Fight Back Against Expanding MAiD

Peter Stockland

October 15, 2020

The Liberal government’s proposed Bill C-7 has drawn multifaith ire across Canada and a sharply-worded public call to immediately halt the legislation, Peter Stockland reports.

More than 50 leaders across the faith spectrum warn the Liberal government’s changes to Medical Aid in Dying legislation will pressure vulnerable Canadians to opt for “lethal procedures” over living with illness or disability ...

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Testing COVID for Positives

Ray Pennings

October 14, 2020

Cardus Executive Vice-President Ray Pennings says 2020’s hardships, and concern for what’s next in 2021, can refocus our vision and practices at the personal and social levels.

The government, like many around the world, responded immediately with emergency financial assistance and loan programs, whose acronyms became quickly familiar to those in need: CERB (Canada Emergency Relief Benefit), CEWS (Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy), and CEBA (Canada Emergency Business Accoun...

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ABCs of Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith

Raymond J. de Souza

October 12, 2020

Failure to understand deeply religious people will underlie a lot of words thrown at the U.S. Supreme Court nominee this week, Father Raymond de Souza writes.

Indeed, People of Praise, while largely Catholic, is not officially Catholic; it is an ecumenical community of Christians who seek to live more intentionally their faith in a common, charismatic fashion Today, they join the myriad of new communities – often called in Catholic parlance “movements” – ...

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No Easy Solutions for Journalism’s Woes

Daniel Proussalidis

October 7, 2020

Cardus’ Daniel Proussalidis marks National Newspaper week by speaking with independent journalist Jen Gerson on what the future holds for newsgathering in Canada.

But Gerson doesn’t see non-mainstream media as a perfect solution to the problem Gerson also points to a different facet of media freedom that she now enjoys by being working away from a mainstream outlet “I think there's been a dramatic narrowing of what is acceptable to be talked about in mainstre...

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What Donald Trump Says About Us

Ray Pennings

October 5, 2020

In his October 3 Insights newsletter, Cardus Executive Vice-President Ray Pennings warns that even as we disdain the President’s politics of authoritarian preening, we must look for them in ourselves.

President Trump has cozied up to and appears attracted by authoritarian leaders, whether it’s Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, or Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan The polls continue to confirm that there is a significant audience for leadership that “gets it done, doesn’t matter how”...

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Trumping the Will To Power

Tim McCauley

September 29, 2020

Leading into the 2020 US Presidential debate, Father Tim McCauley sees in the U.S. President a Nietzchean superman wanna be taking advantage of a context where truth is understood as subjective.

But what kind of power? Is it military might? Or the power to do good in promoting democracy and human rights throughout the world? And how does Trump himself understand power? When Christ took on our human nature, He emptied Himself of power and chose to be weak However, we will not discover the ul...

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Debunking the Myth of Meritocracy

Robert Joustra

September 26, 2020

Agree or disagree with Michael Sandel’s new book, reviewer Robert Joustra writes, it makes an eloquent case that Western society is in desperate need for grace.

It’s catharsis and catnip for our meritocratic age, says Michael Sandel, in his new book The Tyranny of Merit: the idea that people get what they deserve, or should get what they deserve, is baked deep into the dish of our social subconscious It was one thing, says Sandel, when the upper stratus of ...

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Lest We Forget Lebanon

Susan Korah

September 25, 2020

Despite historic pacts between Israel and its Arab neighbours, Middle East peace remains a chimera if Lebanon is left behind, Susan Korah writes.

In a region that is notorious for authoritarian theocracies that violate the human rights of their minorities with impunity, Lebanon, despite its many faults, is the lone flag bearer of democratic values and freedoms including the right of freedom of religion and belief in the Arab world “The weake...

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Steady As She Goes

Ray Pennings

September 24, 2020

What Canadians heard in Wednesday’s throne speech might not be exactly what the government intended or even exactly what they said. Communication is difficult, especially when swimming in COVID-infested political waters, Ray Pennings writes.

The throne speech and the prime minister’s national address missed its chance to bring key social institutions, such as civil society and charities, family, faith communities, or even organized labour in a grand national project of rebuilding Canada Maybe Prime Minister Trudeau was smiling under his...

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