Years ago I lived in Wakefield, Que., a rural area about 40 minutes north of Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills. Many of the people who lived there plied a trade — carpenter, potter, painter and such. 

The heart of the Ottawa imbroglio over SNC-Lavalin can be found in remembering the time Justin Trudeau elbowed a female MP aside to get what he wanted.

To much of the world, Britain’s clumsy exit from the European Union, slated to begin March 29, is somewhat of a joke. But to the people of a divided Ireland, particularly Catholics and Protestants in the North, it’s a threat to peace.

Former federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has become a Canadian hero for her courage in resisting political pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to interfere in a court case against the Montreal-based contractor SNC-Lavalin.

I was recently tagged on a Twitter post in what has been called the Book Challenge. If invited, the recipient is asked to post a cover of an all-time favourite book, with no explanation or description of the choice. Just seven covers over seven days, and with each post the recipient is asked to nominate someone new to take up the challenge — a chain letter, of sorts, for the 21st century. 

In a pastoral letter on stewardship, Cardinal Thomas Collins suggests that in order to discover what is really important to us, we should look at how we spend our money.

Ten years ago, on Jan. 25, 2009, Bishop Luc Bouchard, then bishop of St. Paul, Alta., issued one of the most courageous and most ignored pastoral letters in Canadian Church history. “The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands” did create a brief firestorm before dropping out of the public eye. On the 10th anniversary, nary a mention was made of the letter.

Even before Pope Francis called on bishops from around the globe to meet for a Vatican sex abuse summit, a Toronto priest was travelling to parishes to talk about the origins of and solutions to clergy abuse of minors.

Long ago, a childhood friend and I were walking across an old wooden bridge in the small town where we lived when a car stopped to offer us a ride. The local priest was at the wheel.

It is déjà vu all over again for Canadian bishops who travelled to Rome for the Vatican’s meeting on the protection of minors in the Church.