COVID-19

  • You’re a Refugee. Now You Face COVID-19.

    Refugees, who face impossible situations even in better times, are being pushed beyond human endurance by the coronavirus pandemic, Susan Korah reports.

    "It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars ...”

    - Marie Colvin, correspondent for the British ...

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  • Getting Ahead of the COVID-19 Curve

    Prime Minister Trudeau announced today that nothing “is off the table” regarding COVID-19. Peter Stockland says we must consider civil liberties before the Emergencies Act is declared.

    On Sunday, the Quebec government ordered the province’s cathedrals of commerce – also known as shopping malls – to shut down. The edict followed last week’s imperative obliging all places of religious worship to lock their doors.

    Yet Prime Minister J...

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  • An Accidental Lent

    This time of distancing ourselves from the outside world, though demanding, is an opportunity to be truly together, writes Jenna Henry.

    Like millions around the world, I have been recently confronted with the reality and implications of COVID-19, as our usually predictable lives are turned upside down and the world feels just a bit off. My own life being blessedly simple to begin with, I se...

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  • Coronavirus, Sports, and Joy

    The world’s playing fields have been emptied by a pandemic but our God-given desire to play like Tom Brady can never be stilled, Father Raymond de Souza writes.

    It seems a lifetime ago, not 10 days, that I wrote here about the wholesome joy of the Brier, Canada’s national curling championship, held this year in Kingston. The final finis...

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  • Quarantine The Clickbait: From the Convivium Team

    Convivium normally refrains from publishing straightforward press releases. We’re a journalistic site, and we bring journalistic principles and practices to our work. But today’s release from the Mental Health Commission of Canada is so powerful, so timely and so clear that we’re treating as an invaluable public service announcement for our readers. 

    Funded by Health Canada, the MHCC leads the development and dissemination of...

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  • Public Prayer in a Viral Time

    Cardus Executive Vice-President Ray Pennings faced a challenge today of leading our dispersed staff in a reading of Scripture and praying out loud. In these days of isolation, anxiety, and deep need for God’s comfort, Convivium shares the answer he found.

    The responsibility of leading a group in devotions is always a significant one, but especially so in a time of anxiety and crisis.   What passage to pick?  What to say – or not say – in prayer?

    Public prayer differs from personal prayer. It is, after...

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  • Yesterday’s Buried Stories

    While our lives revolve around COVID-19, it’s difficult to remember life before the pandemic. But today being St. Patrick's Day, Peter Stockland reflects on the historic event that took the lives of thousands of Irish during the mid-19th century. 

    In mere weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has gone from media fixation to global obsession as countries around the world struggle to control infections and ward off death. Few are the media reports, or indeed the personal conversations, that don’t at least touch...

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  • Curing Our Moral Virus of Loneliness

    As Prime Minister Trudeau urges Canadians abroad to come home and his cabinet ministers press to reduce the size of permissible gatherings, Convivium contributor Keith Dow encourages us to be aware of the needs of our neighbours. 

    The other day I picked up a cheese-making starter kit for my wife, Darcie. The kit was over an hour’s drive away, cost more than I’d like to admit, and will require a lot of work to prepare. Darcie is excited to make our own cheese, though! 

    I don’t ...

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  • What The Doctor Ordered

    Instead of softening reality with euphemisms such as "social distancing," perhaps we might consider accepting quarantine as a response to the novel coronavirus, writes Peter Stockland. 

    I try to avoid euphemisms like the plague. Language that intentionally masks meaning too often becomes a toxin in the body politic. It can threaten moral and civic life.

    Watching the phrase “social distancing” spread rapidly through media reports on ...

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