The fate forced upon the 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice this month is symptomatic of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) evolving from political maleficence to spiritual malignancy.
Soon-to-be-introduced national legislation may give a boost to those battling what Public Safety Canada calls “one of the most disturbing public safety issues facing society today” — online child sexual exploitation.
Move ahead
Re: Editorial (Dec. 13):
Strange how our current political leaders can keep trying to ram through dubious legislation such as Bills C-7 and C-6 to hasten more suicides and threaten parents, yet this long-awaited bill to bring Canadian law in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People continues to face more long delays, and another three years to simply “create a plan” to align the law with the rights passed by the UN 13 years ago.
The Joe Biden era is on the launching pad in America, an era we pray will live in a spirit of reconciliation. Heaven knows, the country needs healing.
Four years ago, CBS online news posted a story about Down Syndrome in Iceland. Better put, a story about the elimination of all babies in the womb who would likely be born with Down Syndrome.
A few weeks ago, I was on an intimate online call with one of our political leaders. Well, when I say it was an intimate call, it was intimate in the way a private audience with the Pope is intimate, namely there were as many people on the call as the bandwidth could support.
Pope Francis spoke for the common good on Christmas Day when he called for the world’s nations to ensure that those who are poor receive their fair share of the vaccine for the coronavirus.
As 2020 closed, it was regrettable that the public observations of the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom (Dec. 29, 1170) of St. Thomas Becket did not take place due to pandemic restrictions.
Follow science
While most churches, synagogues and temples have followed the COVID-19 guidelines of Dr. Bonnie Henry there have been several faith communities in B.C. (and the U.S, including Trump with his rallies) who have repudiated these directives, maintaining their God-given and constitutional right to meet face to face.
In his own way, Pope Francis is developing a different kind of vaccine to battle the effects of COVID-19. This is not a vaccine developed in a scientific lab, but it may well be a much-needed antidote to some of the unseen but crippling injuries that have accompanied the pandemic.
The first haiku I ever wrote was about home. I was in sixth grade French class staring out the window as usual (zut alors!), and it came to me wholly formed, in a flash of insight.