OTTAWA – Canada’s Liberal government will change the controversial pro-abortion attestation on its Canada Summer Jobs applications for 2019, but some pro-life advocates are not impressed.

Last summer, Ottawa constitutional lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos and I were on Ottawa’s Sparks Street when we encountered a sign warning we were entering an abortion safe-access zone.

Sr. Vicky Nguyen was ready to profess her final vows this year and enter fully into the life of the Congregation of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, but one obstacle stood in her way. Her application for Canadian permanent residence was rejected. 

OTTAWA – The Canadian government needs to speed the processing for refugee claimants and raise the number of government-sponsored refugees, say advocates.

OTTAWA – Experts warned religious freedom is at risk in Canada as it is no longer seen as a fundamental right but something that can be trumped by vague “charter values” and partisan politics.

The phrases “hot ticket” and “religious freedom forum” appear only infrequently in the same sentence, especially on Parliament Hill where the operative word is secularism, secularism and more secularism.

OTTAWA – A government spokesperson has dampened hopes that a new Ontario policy in support of free speech on university campuses could lead to repeal of the province’s abortion bubble zone law.

Over the next 12 years the federal government promises to raise 2.1 million Canadians out of poverty and take Canada’s poverty rate from one in every eight Canadians to one in every 17 by 2030.

A new report from the Angus Reid Institute showing poverty may be a bigger problem than official statistics indicate is ramping up pressure on Ottawa to unveil a federal poverty reduction strategy.

The Church, with its long history of serving the poor and the persecuted, must play a key role in dealing with the global migration crisis.

Fr. Andrew Hogan made history on July 8, 1974, becoming the first Roman Catholic priest to be elected to the House of Commons. Better known as Father Andy, he would serve two terms before losing in the 1980 election. He died in 2002. There have been two other priests who were MPs at the same time — Fr. Bob Ogle (NDP, 1979-84) and Fr. Raymond Gravel (Bloc Quebecois, 2006-08). In 1980, the Vatican banned priests from seeking political office, though bishops could grant special permission. The Register’s Dan Mothersill wrote about Hogan’s historic victory in the July 20, 1974 issue:

OTTAWA – Storm clouds continue to gather over the controversial Safe Third Country Agreement.

Canada’s bishops typically are cautious when passing comment on public policy. So they grabbed our attention when, in the first paragraph of a recent press release, the bishops predicted Canada’s new marijuana law will have “disastrous effects” on society.

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court has opened the door for discrimination based on a person’s religious beliefs and moral values, Canadian bishops wrote in a frank rebuttal to a decision by Canada’s highest court.

Spiralling costs and mountains of red tape may force some Catholic refugee sponsorship agencies out of business and cause others to cut back on the number of refugees they’re prepared to welcome, according to the Catholic Refugee Sponsorship Council representing 20 agencies across Canada.