News/Canada

OTTAWA – With the June 6 deadline fast approaching for the federal government to come up with a law around assisted suicide, Canada’s Catholic Primate has issued a challenge to all people of good will who know someone reaching the end stages of life.

OTTAWA – A Senate committee has recommended that the government amend its controversial assisted-suicide bill to limit access to the terminally ill and to imbed conscience rights for institutions and health workers before the legislation is put to a vote in Parliament.

The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland lost a vote at the May 11 Annual General Meeting of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Inc., but they won attention from the mining giant’s management.

It’s a question that elicits conflicting opinions from constitutional lawyers who oppose euthanasia and assisted-suicide. They are divided on whether passing Bill C-14 without further amendments is preferable to no bill at all. The Supreme Court has given the government until June 6 to pass a law.

OTTAWA – In response to news stories that chronicled several past cases of sexual abuse in the Ottawa archdiocese, archbishop Terrence Prendergast has acknowledged “the enormity of the evil” and pledged greater vigilance in the future.

OTTAWA – Canadians must be willing to reject a growing perception that religion is a strictly private matter and instead be unafraid to publicly affirm their faith, said Canada’s former Religious Freedom Ambassador Andrew Bennett.

OTTAWA – The Office of Religious Freedom is gone but it has not been entirely forgotten by the government that closed it.

HAMILTON, ONT. – A visitor to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, looking for “Fr. Reitzel,” might get this reply to their query: “Which one?”

AJAX, ONT. – Members of an Ajax parish are growing frustrated as the wait grows longer for the Iraqi refugee family they have sponsored to be approved for resettlement in Canada.

OTTAWA – An amendment to  Canada’s proposed assisted suicide legislation fails to go far enough to protect conscience rights and religious freedom, say several opponents.