Human Dignity

Humanitarian Crisis Adds to Burdens of Afghan Religious Minorities

Susan Korah

February 4, 2022

Media attention may have shifted away from Afghanistan, but suffering families and religious minorities remain in the country. On-the-ground relief efforts are in dire need of support, writes Susan Korah.

For Fawzia Shah, (not her real name), a middle-aged Hazara (Shia Muslim) woman from Central Afghanistan, the words “democracy”, “freedom,” and “women’s rights” mean nothing.

Those were the stirring slogans with which political leaders in Canada, the...

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True North Interview

Jonathon Van Maren

December 23, 2021

Reading the Canadian storyteller’s posthumous new book, Jonathon Van Maren retraces in imagination his travels from his own driveway to the main streets of small towns and cities across the land.

Earlier this fall, a new book by radio host, writer, and Canadian storyteller Stuart McLean was released: The Vinyl Café Celeb...

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Christian Women Doubly Vulnerable to Persecution

Susan Korah

December 6, 2021

On a day that will live in infamy to mark violence against Canadian women, Susan Korah reports on a global study of gendered religious persecution.

Aid to the Church in Need, a global Catholic charity has released a groundbreaking—and heartbreaking— report.

With the launch of Hear Her Cries—the first comprehensive report on gender-specific religious persecution—Aid to the Chur...

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The Secular Servants of Abstraction

Peter Copeland and Andrew Bennett

December 2, 2021

As Advent leads us to Christmas, Peter Copeland and Fr. Deacon Andrew Bennett map Christian clarity of the common good against secular confusions of equity and equality. Part two of three.

When it comes to the social and political spheres, the dominant secular vision of the social good is a utilitarian or egalitarian one. In the case of the former, the collective good is an aggregate of individual pains and pleasures. We ask – what does the g...

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Climate Change Making Eden a Wasteland

Susan Korah

November 17, 2021

Yesterday, Peter Stockland queried the usefulness of the COP26 conference. Today, Susan Korah reports on the urgency of saving the Garden from climate calamity.

“We have inherited a garden, we must not leave a desert to our children.”

— Statement signed on October 4, 2021 by Pope Francis and 40 faith leaders

Two countries that were consistently in th...

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Nightmare Lives of Lebanon’s Children

Susan Korah

October 25, 2021

Susan Korah reports on the grim toll the country’s collapse inflicts on its young while Canadian kids return to post-pandemic trick or treating.

“For every act of violence against children that creates headlines and cries of outrage, there are many more that go unreported.”

Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF Executive Director

As we approach the first post-pandemic Halloween, ...

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Deadline Looms to Save Hospice Society

Peter Stockland

October 15, 2021

A palliative care group in suburban Vancouver has one week to rally members across North America to protect its vision of MAiD-free end-of-life care.

Although it’s only autumn, Angelina Ireland hopes and prays October 22 will be a very good Friday for the Delta Hospice Society.

The date is the cut-off for new members to join the Society and help turn the tid...

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The Hard Truth About Reconciliation

Andrew Bennett

October 7, 2021

Healing wounds inflicted on Indigenous people by Canada and its churches means facing what’s wholly true, not what’s politically appealing, Father Deacon Andrew Bennett writes.

Let’s discuss truth and reconciliation in their fullness. How do we tell the truth, the fullness of the truth? How do we achieve true reconciliation? Both are two-way streets.

Firstly, what is truth? Pilate’s question to Christ at his passion rings d...

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Pierre’s Vision Begot a Justin Society

Don Hutchinson

August 27, 2021

This just in: the current prime minister is steadfastly refusing to follow his father’s footsteps, especially on human rights and justice. Don Hutchinson traces the divergent path.

The two Trudeaus are the only father-son federal prime ministers in Canada’s brief history. Each in their time, father Pierre and son Justin, led the Government of Canada into record ...

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Canada Fails Afghan Religious Minorities

Susan Korah

August 24, 2021

Human rights workers tell Susan Korah it’s inexplicable Canada hasn’t prioritized the rescue of Christians and minority Muslims.

Afghanistan’s religious minorities are facing nothing less than a genocide but the Canadian government has yet to make a firm commitment to protect some of the most vulnerable among them, say Canadian human rights activists.

Hazaras and Christians – ...

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We Cannot Abandon Lebanon

Susan Korah

August 4, 2021

Susan Korah reports on the desperate state of the former Mediterranean oasis one year after the blast that decimated Beirut.

One year ago today was a night of splintering glass and splattering blood.

On August 4, 2020, as the last hours of pre-sunset daylight illuminated Beirut’s skyline, a cataclysmic explosion shook the city like the blast of an atomic bomb. It turned o...

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Pearls of Wisdom on (Disabled) Daily Life

Taylor Hyatt

August 3, 2021

Reviewer Taylor Hyatt finds Larry McCloskey’s latest book the kind of irritating that opens readers to touchstone stories able to articulate the almost inexpressible.

The latest work by Ottawa author Larry McCloskey, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, reminds me of a thread with many strands. In roughly 200 pages, the author begins to explore questions of spirituality, the heart, disability, postsecondary educati...

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The Spiritual Solution to Residential Schools

Jonathon Van Maren

July 26, 2021

From a profound Christian faith, Residential School survivor Chief Kenny Blacksmith believes true healing will come not from politics but from paying our debt to God, Jonathon Van Maren reports.

Even before I spoke with Chief Kenny Blacksmith, I suspected Canadians were talking past each other on the subject of residential schools.

After speaking with him I was convinced of it, primarily because Chief Blacksmith speaks directly from inside t...

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A COVID Cold Shoulder for Refugees

Susan Korah

July 8, 2021

Susan Korah reports on the plight of global millions fleeing persecution unnoticed while our attention is fixed on the pandemic.

They are the wretched of the earth (to use Haitian writer Franz Fanon’s phrase), the world’s homeless wanderers.

Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated recently in his official Twitter account that during the past year when the pand...

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A Rabbi for the Long Way Home

Andrew Bennett and Hannah Marazzi

July 6, 2021

Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, program director for Religious Freedom at Cardus, and Hannah Marazzi, former Cardus staff member, celebrate and mourn their dear friend, Rabbi Reuven Bulka.

The just man will never waver: he will be remembered forever. He has no fear of evil news; with a firm heart he trusts in the Lord.

During these past 15 months many of us have longed for community, those places, times, and even spaces in whi...

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The Complex Web of Indigenous Diversity

Peter Stockland

July 2, 2021

The Assembly of First Nations is a national voice on issues like reconciliation and residential schools, but its July 7 leadership vote tests the strands that link Indigenous people, Peter Stockland reports.

Updated July 6th, 2021

In its 40th year, the Assembly of First Nations is in the throes of a seven-candidate race to select its National Chief next Wednesday.

But with skeletons of children being rediscovered by the hundred...

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The Devil in the Lack of Details

Daniel Dorman

June 25, 2021

Deliberately ambiguous bills such as Ottawa’s C-10 and C-6 are the political deceiver’s plaything, Daniel Dorman argues.

John Milton’s Paradise Regained (the poem which followed his great English epic, Paradise Lost) expands and interprets the gospel narrative of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4). In one particularly potent scene Jesus accosts ...

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MAiD in the COVID Shade

Peter Stockland

June 24, 2021

Peter Stockland reports on how the pandemic’s overshadowing of legislation radically expanding medical assistance in dying might reconfigure Canada’s future.

For two evenings this week, my Cardus colleagues and a panel of expert guests have engaged an in-depth discussion on YouTube on Canada’s post-COVID future.

They cov...

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Downing a Fighter for Indigenous Kids

Alan Hustak

June 18, 2021

Alan Hustak reports on the removal of a statue honouring the 19th-century priest who suffered a nervous breakdown battling Ottawa over its abusive residential school system.

The statue of a priest whose Indigenous students were originally taught in Cree, and who fought forced removal of Indigenous children from their parents, is slated for removal from a Saskatchewan cemetery.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina has...

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Yes, We Can Understand Each Other

Daniel Dorman

May 27, 2021

Restoring trust in language goes beyond improving the sad state of our political debates. It’s vital to our common humanity, Daniel Dorman writes.

Our political discourse is a demoralizing spectacle. In most public forums, and particularly in the House of Commons, we generally listen to what can’t (in any serious sense) be called ‘debate.’ Most of it is mere partisan verbiage.

Character assault...

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Overcoming Vulnerability With Dignity

Anthony Kerigan

May 3, 2021

Palliative care physician Dr. Anthony Kerigan highlights the A-B-C and D steps to safeguard the full dignity of the frail elderly and those at the end of their life.

The last year has seen two events of major concern to older persons, especially those with significant frailty who are unable to live independently. The first was the isolation forced on them by the COVID-19 pandemic and the often substandard conditions und...

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Shadows and Light on Palliative Care

Peter Stockland

April 26, 2021

Rapid expansion of Medical Aid in Dying and forced closure of a Vancouver-area hospice have raised alarm among palliative care providers. But Peter Stockland finds vital positive signs, too.

At the beginning of April, the Supreme Court of Canada finally closed the outside door on the Delta Hospice Society’s ownership of a private 10-bed palliative care centre in suburban Vancouver.

At one level, the SCOC’s refusal to grant the Society le...

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Calling Genocide By Its Name

Susan Korah

April 23, 2021

On April 24, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden will acknowledge the 1915 genocide of Armenians. Canadian descendants now want Turkey to own its historic crime, Susan Korah reports.

April 24 is a day of deeply felt and often turbulent emotions, say members of the Canadian Armenian community.

Designated Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, it brings back tortured memories of a painful past mingled with a sense of gratitude for their ...

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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.

“[The Trudeau government] is using foreign policy as an exotic stage from which to tell stories to its supporters back in Canada. This is a really cynical political move.”

It is rare for a former Canadian diplomat to speak out against a sitting gover...

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