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August 12, 2020

Keeping the faith

Paul Donovan, the recently retired president of Montreal’s Loyola High School, stands by the graduating class photo that contains his father Kevin, who was also a student at the storied Jesuit high school.

MONTREAL -- When young Kevin Donovan left Montreal’s Loyola High School 67 summers ago, he could hardly foresee having a son who would one day lead the school to a landmark legal victory for religious freedom.

Published in Features
April 30, 2015

The death of debate

Photo/Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

With two decisions this spring, the Supreme Court of Canada set laudable boundaries between the necessarily neutral state and the exercise of religious freedom.

Published in Peter Stockland
April 16, 2015

What exactly did Loyola College win?

Canada's Supreme Court justices pose for a photo at the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa Feb. 16. From left, the justices in the front row are: Marie Deschamps, William Ian Corneil Binnie, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Louis LeBel and Morris Fish. Back row: Marshall Rothstein, Rosalie Silberman Abella, Louise Charron and Thomas Cromwell.

Now that I am under no professional obligation to read court decisions, I generally avoid them. The turgid prose, the unctuous self-regard and the complacent sense of judicial superiority I find unpleasant and soporific.

Published in Guest Columns
April 16, 2015

Sometimes the court gets it right on religious rights

Sometimes the court gets it right on religious rights

It’s interesting how often the media picks up on bad news about religion — in particular, news about Catholic schools — and judiciously avoids some of the positive news from around the country.  

Published in Guest Columns
April 2, 2015

Faith is common life

A sign on the gate greets students and staff at an Arizona Catholic school.

The day the Supreme Court released its decision in the case involving Montreal’s Loyola High School, I thought it was merely more judicial zaniness on offer.

Published in Peter Stockland
March 26, 2015

Loyola’s victory

Former Loyola high school principal Paul Donovan, left, and Catholic parent John Zucchi, were involved in the seven-year battle to ensure that teachers could teach the ethics and religious culture course from the faith perspective rather than the secular way as required by the Quebec education policy.

Much is being made — and deservedly so — of Loyola High School’s victory on behalf of religious freedom. The Jesuit-run Montreal school deserves praise for sticking it out through a seven-year court slog that has made Canada a better place for people of all religions.

Published in Editorial
March 26, 2015

A tale of two Catholic high schools

Ontario education policy allows schools to suspend and expel students, and ultimately, exclude students from school communities, when they exhibit wrongful behaviour. Brehl looks at how a school used restorative justice to improve the school’s climate.

Recent stories about two Catholic high schools are terrific examples of how government policies can sometimes produce the exact opposite effect as intended.

Published in Robert Brehl
March 19, 2015

Supreme Court’s Loyola decision a victory for religious freedom

Left: Former Loyola high school principal Paul Donovan said that the Supreme Court’s decision confirms what the school has been doing in using a faith approach that encourages debate and discussion. Right: John Zucchi, a Catholic parent involved in the seven-year court battle between Loyola and the government, said that he is delighted that the Supreme court upheld the right for Loyola to teach the ethics curriculum from a Catholic perspective.

OTTAWA - Montreal's Loyola High School has won the right to teach its students the Catholic faith from a Catholic perspective.

Published in Canada
March 18, 2015

Montreal archdiocese restores the Catholic in new welfare agency

In response to Collective Community Services removing the “Catholic” from their name, the Montreal archdiocese created another welfare agency called Catholic Action. Bishop Thomas Dowd maintains that the two agencies will not be in competition with each other as one is faith based and the other is secular.

MONTREAL - In response to a controversial decision to drop the word “Catholic” from the name of a prominent Montreal social agency, the archdiocese has announced the launch of a new welfare agency called Catholic Action.

Published in Canada
February 5, 2015

A community withers

A community withers

The great Catholic journalist Malcolm Muggeridge said there is nothing more pathetic than a ruling class on the run. Well, maybe there is. Maybe it is  a community that lets its institutions die from the inside out.

Published in Peter Stockland
April 16, 2014

Flaherty’s Catholic heritage shaped his political thinking

Jim Flaherty, who was then Canada’s finance minister, speaks at the annual Cardinal’s Dinner in Toronto in 2007 as Cardinal Thomas Collins looks on. Mr. Flaherty died April 10.

OTTAWA - Jim Flaherty was buried out of Toronto’s Anglican St. James Cathedral in a state funeral on April 16 but the political life of the former Finance Minister was shaped by his Catholic upbringing, said former colleagues.

Published in Canada