Health

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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Covid and the Tears of Christ

Tim McCauley

February 2, 2022

We must not let fear of this pandemic stop us from trusting God and praying through our doubt and frustrations, writes Father Tim McCauley.

Christ wept over ancient Jerusalem for the people’s lack of faith, failing to recognize God in their midst in the Person of Christ. I wonder if Christ also weeps over our culture during this pandemic. Perhaps we too fail to recognize the presence of God amo...

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Why So Vindictive, Mr. Mandate Man?

John Jalsevac

January 14, 2022

The increasingly heated rhetoric towards the unvaxxed is designed to assuage the feelings and retain the confidence of the vaccinated. At least, so argues John Jalsevac, a FAST Fellow and PhD student at the University of Toronto, who is concerned the current trajectory will not end well.

"The unvaxxed, I really feel like pissing them off," said French President Emanuel Macron a few days ago. "And so we’re goi...

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Time to Challenge and Comply

Don Hutchinson

January 3, 2022

When it comes to Canada’s recently passed ban on “conversion therapy," Don Hutchinson argues that it’s bad legislation, not good faith religious counselling, that should be put on trial.

The provisions of Bill C-4, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy), will be incorporated into the Criminal Code as law effective January 7, 2022. It may be poorly...

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The Need for A Stable Influence

Don Hutchinson

December 17, 2021

Christians who cherry-pick Scripture for particular purposes, like the politicians who abuse Parliament by rushing through legislation, need to consider what they’re celebrating, Don Hutchinson writes.

Newscasters were almost giddy introducing coverage of Canada’s social-distancing, mask-wearing, elbow-touch-greeting prime minister gliding across the House of Commons’ floor to hug and handshake with members of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. Canadians cou...

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What To Do After the Deluge

Daniel Dorman

December 14, 2021

Daniel Dorman argues each of us has an obligation, as soon as it’s safe, to assert individual freedoms lost to the pandemic.

“What? Lose our freedom and not get security in return? Why, it was only for security we surrendered our freedom at all.”

– C.S. Lewis, A Dream

“T...

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Follow the Political Science

Travis D. Smith

November 22, 2021

In the second of two parts, Travis Smith argues that our responses to the pandemic reveal a Canada progressively squeezing out its commitment to liberty.

Part One: The COVID Golden Calf

“The passion to be reckoned upon is fear.”

– Thomas Hobbes, Leviat...

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The COVID Golden Calf

Travis D. Smith

November 19, 2021

In this first of a two-part essay, Travis Smith teases out the new ersatz religiosity of our political, clinical and social pandemic responses.

Part Two: Follow The Political Science

The ongoing campaign against COVID-19 has several religious attributes and analo...

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The Contagion of Tribal Contempt

Ruth Dick

November 8, 2021

Ottawa writer Ruth Dick argues it’s time to restore political health by purging our viral responses of the urge to condemn and dominate.

Basta! Enough!

With that exhortation out of my system, let me add a suggestion that’ll go over like a lead balloon: Within the sphere of public discourse, leave those who are actively vaccination resistant alone:
Avoid sharp-p...

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The Stampede to Crush Privacy

Sandra B. Julian

November 3, 2021

Sandra B. Julian warns a basic human right is being trampled in the COVID-fed panic to digitize and QR code where we can go and what we can do based on whether we’ve had the jab.

As a bonus feature, we’re linking Sandra Julian’s article to a Long Way Podcast discussion on vaccine passport policy.

...

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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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Doctor's College Needs Political Attention

Albertos Polizogopoulos

October 19, 2021

Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos says the regulatory body for Ontario physicians and surgeons has a serious Charter abuse habit and requires Premier Doug Ford’s immediate intervention.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (“CPSO”) has spent hundreds of thousands in legal fees to limit Charter-protected rights of Ontario physicians and citizens. The Ontario government must act. It must stop the CPSO’s attack on Ch...

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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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A Liberal Dose of Compulsory Confusion

James Bryson

September 17, 2021

In the dizzying dash for vaccine mandates, James Bryson asks, what happened to the liberal/Liberal claims of “my body, my choice” that justified abortion and MAiD?

By throwing their weight behind vaccine mandates, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada have picked a strange hill to die on in the run to Canada’s snap election next week.

The Liberal support of vaccine mandates represent a 180 degree turn ...

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Separating Sheep From Scapegoats

Peter Stockland

September 14, 2021

Peter Stockland reports on writer Charles Eisenstein’s work to identify a force even more dangerous than contagious public stupidity.

American writer Lance Morrow recently identified our current moment as the golden age of stupidity.

No evidence exists that the author of America: A Rediscovery and Second Drafts of History was peeping across the border watching the...

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Taking a Jab at Religious Freedom

Don Hutchinson

September 10, 2021

Despite contrary claims, sincerely held faith is a Charter-protected justification for declining to take the COVID shot, Don Hutchinson reports.

John Longhurst’s provocatively titled column Religious leaders should make it clear faith ...

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Pushing Back Against Vaccine Bullying

Tara Vreugdenhil

September 8, 2021

In the second of two parts, Tara Vreugdenhil writes that regardless of pure intentions, many methods used in the pandemic response are classic harassment tactics.

This is part two of a two-part series from Tara Vreugdenhil. Click here to read part one: "A COVID Shot in the Dark"

The point is made frequently that hospita...

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A COVID Shot in the Dark

Tara Vreugdenhil

September 7, 2021

In this first of two parts, Tara Vreugdenhil argues the pandemic response has unleashed a contagion of fuzzy language, shifting definitions, and logic that doesn’t follow.

This is part one of a two-part series from Tara Vreugdenhil. ...

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When Pro Choice Meets No Choice

Jonathon Van Maren

August 20, 2021

The abortion question Canada’s federal leaders should address is why so many women feel they have no viable alternative, Jonathon Van Maren argues.

The 2021 Canadian election has begun, and that means that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is talking about abortion. This isn’t primarily a tactic to rake in new votes; Trudeau’s team knows that solidly pro-abortion voters are already voting Liberal, and the ...

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COVID Can’t Cancel Church in Ottawa Park

Matthew Boardman

August 17, 2021

Despite fines for congregating contrary to COVID rules, an open air church in an inner-city park flourishes by serving society’s marginalized, writes Matthew Boardman.

Recent media reports of a petition by residents in Ottawa’s inner-city Dundonald Park neighbourhood demanding more community supports for indigent users of...

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Fourteen Days of State Surveillance

Inkar Nación

August 13, 2021

As writer Inkar Nación tracked her family’s two weeks of COVID quarantine absurdities, she understood that beneath the liberty to tell the truth lies the nucleus of human freedom.

Bad law makes us all into liars, or we believe our own lies and make them truth. Such is my family’s experience with Canada’s Quarantine Act following a trip to the United States on compassionate grounds.

Day One. We cross back into ...

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Knowing the Limits of Science

Peter Copeland

August 10, 2021

Those who invoke the political nostrum “follow the science” need reminding it is an activity that’s never free of value judgement, Peter Copeland writes.

Over the past year or so, there has been continuous reference to complex social decisions as scientific, as though value judgments do not apply, or play only a limited role.

Some of the most prominent examples include the designation of types of work...

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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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Standing Up for Vaccine Skeptics

Peter Stockland

July 16, 2021

Though a vaccination supporter himself, Peter Stockland cautions against the campaign to denigrate those honestly questioning it in a world of abounding COVID absurdities.

In a recently re-opened Ottawa restaurant this week, a member of our party of five was forbidden from using a chair.

He wasn’t sitting in it standing on his head showing off some exotic yoga pose or, more pedestrianly, engaged in man-spreading to a d...

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