News/Canada

OTTAWA - Andrew Bennett remains uncertain whether his three-year term as Canada’s Religious Freedom Ambassador will be renewed, but says he will continue to fight for religious freedom even if his position is eliminated.

TORONTO - Opting out of the stations you never watch or buying just the channels you do watch on cable isn’t the biggest worry Canada’s Catholic broadcasters face. The advent of the “skinny basic” cable packages — which cable companies must offer starting in March — and pick-n-pay menus that allow viewers to purchase only the stations they want by the end of 2016, are only a small part of bigger changes in how people watch television, broadcasters told The Catholic Register.

OTTAWA - Church-based charities, including the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, are applauding the end of Canada Revenue Agency’s political audit program.

OTTAWA - Legislation that tries to restrict assisted suicide and euthanasia to the terminally ill would likely fail a court challenge, a prominent constitutional lawyer told a Parliamentary committee.

In the wake of a shooting tragedy at La Loche, Sask., that left four people dead, a call for healing and support has been embraced by the mother of two of the victims and the mother of the alleged shooter.

TORONTO - For Manhal Al-Khsom, his wife and his three daughters, prayers for Christian unity are not prayers for some ideal Church of the future, but prayers for his family, his friends and for everything he left behind when he came to Canada last April.

BEIRUT - The newly ordained bishop for the Syriac Catholic Church in Canada pledged to make his first priority the suffering and spiritual needs of beleaguered Syriacs seeking refuge in Canada.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has decided that six dioceses in Canada, previously considered mission territories under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will transition to normal status.

On their 37th day in Canada, the Peters family from Liberia found themselves surrounded by Goans, carrying gifts of bread and wine up to an Irish-Canadian cardinal.

TORONTO - The 5,000 people in Toronto who will sleep outside, in church basements or in shelters on any given night now have their own lobbyist making their case at provincial pre-budget hearings.