Mary Isabel Dool was never going to concede that only her brothers could have a vocation.

When 500 counter-protesters shouted down between 30 and 40 anti-Islam activists in front of City Hall in London, Ont., on Aug. 26, Fr. Michael Bechard proudly stood with the majority wearing a dark suit with a Roman collar.

The agency responsible for expanding Ontario’s network of hospice care wants hospice patients to have the option of assisted suicide, even if most hospices and the majority of doctors oppose it.

A $15-an-hour minimum wage, new rules to help unions organize, across-the-board increases in vacation and emergency-leave time and scheduling rules to prevent employers from suddenly cancelling shifts at the last minute are all getting strong support from churches and faith-based intervenors at cross-Ontario hearings into labour law reform.

Ontario’s Ministry of Education wants the province’s schools to step up when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and it’s putting up $200 million to support that effort.

Canada’s largest agency for homeless youth is applauding a sweeping overhaul of Ontario’s Child, Youth and Family Services Act which will now treat homeless, abused and threatened 16- to 18-year-olds as children and not adults.

In a strict party lines vote, a bill that would have shielded doctors and other health care providers from punishment for refusing to refer their patients on for assisted suicide was voted down at Queen’s Park on May 18.

OTTAWA – One community at a time, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s North of 60 project is making a difference in Canada’s Arctic.

There’s no need to push any panic buttons over Catholic school closures in the year ahead, says the head of Ontario’s Catholic School Trustees’ Association.

Ontario’s Jesuits are using retreats as a way to help homeless people build a caring community of support among themselves.

Ontario will have a one-stop-shop service for people weighing their end-of-life options — palliative care, hospice care, home care or assisted suicide — up and running by June 1, a government spokesperson has told The Catholic Register.

A balanced budget with investments sprinkled across education, health care and welfare — including the surprise pharmacare program for anyone 24 and younger — has given faith communities in Ontario plenty to chew on.

Mystics, missionaries and martyrs helped found the Church in Canada. Their lives of faith, their dreams, their failures and successes set the template for who we are meant to be. Which is why a summer pilgrimage to the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ont., can be more than a pleasant Sunday outing.

Ontario’s special needs students have received a helping hand from the Ministry of Education to the delight of the Catholic teachers’ union.

WINDSOR, Ont. – The struggles of old age have taken a toll on Our Lady of Assumption parish, but that isn’t going to stop the celebration of its 250th birthday this year.