It was a dramatic scene at Queen’s Park on Jan. 31: NDP Leader Andrea Horwath waving a copy of The Health System Efficiency Act 2019, a leaked bill that would see the Ontario government create a “super agency” to manage the province’s health care system.

Fluffy snow covered the sidewalk when I opened the garage door to leave for work. 

The much-anticipated Vatican summit on clerical sexual abuse of minors is still days away but perhaps the strongest declaration to be expected from this unprecedented gathering of bishops has already been made.

Winter was settling in and it was a blustery, cold evening as I walked around the streets with Tracey, a survivor of the street who for 14 drug-addled years had called the alleys and drug dens of the downtown area “home.” 

I am writing this for all who suffer and for those of your family members and friends who suffer with you. In particular, I am writing this for those who, like myself, realize that their suffering may not end soon, or ever end.

Ban the nukes

Re: Churches want action on nuclear treaty (Jan. 27):

It’s safe to say that nuclear weapons now pose the greatest threat to humanity. Rising tensions between major powers have increased the danger of a nuclear war that could end human civilization. The United States and Russia alone possess 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear arms. 

The repercussions from last month’s viral video of a confrontation between a group of Catholic high school students and a Native American man in Washington, D.C., feed into the schism of faith and politics in the U.S.

Forgiveness is one of the highest human capacities, something which might help explain why it is so difficult to forgive.

On a recent Saturday morning visit to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a person mummy-wrapped in a dragonfly blue blanket lay motionless a few feet from the corner of Hastings and Main. 

Of the thousands of words spoken last month inside a Saskatchewan courtroom, none were more profound than this simple declaration: I forgive you.