{mosimage}TORONTO - Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments on academic freedom during his speech on Catholic education has come under close scrutiny from Canada’s university presidents and teachers.

After the April 17 speech at Catholic University of America, they wanted to know whether the Pope would try to crack down on dissent on college campuses. To most, though, it appeared that he was encouraging Catholic universities, not criticizing them.

{mosimage}THORNHILL, Ont. — Students and staff from St. Elizabeth Catholic Secondary School will host a festival dedicated to productions by youth featuring spirit and religious faith.

{mosimage}TORONTO — The Toronto Catholic District School Board will once again offer Focus on Youth summer programs for children and youth this summer.

{mosimage}TORONTO - If you want to meet the standard for Grade 4 religion in Toronto’s Catholic schools you had better know the other name for Candlemas.

{mosimage}TORONTO - With three-years-plus remaining on the current term, Toronto’s Catholic school board is appointing a replacement trustee rather holding an election to decide who will represent Catholic school supporters between Bloor Street and Highway 401 west of Bathurst and east of Jane.

{mosimage}BRADFORD, Ont. - Catholic high school students in Bradford will get a little taste of Ontario’s $4-billion Good Places to Learn fund in the form of a $5.1-million renovation at Holy Trinity High School. And in another sign of the education boom outside Toronto, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board has named its newest elementary school now under construction in Barrie’s south end.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Toronto’s Catholic school board may or may not hold an election to replace a trustee accused of passing off personal spending as board expenses then turfed for failing to show up for four meetings in a row.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Just because provincial education bureaucrats and top union officials are sitting down together  in meeting rooms talking about wages and benefits with an eye toward another four-year deal doesn’t mean Ontario has embraced province-wide bargaining with teachers’ unions, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Senator Romeo Dallaire wants teachers to save Canada. According to the retired general who led United Nations peacekeepers during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the only thing that can save this country from cynicism, apathy and petty regionalism is leadership.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne put a positive spin on the bitter debate over confessional education during the fall election campaign in a speech to Catholic teachers at their annual union meeting in Toronto March 9.