The Catholic bishops of Canada have made a “financial pledge” with a “target of $30 million” over five years “as a tangible expression of their commitment to walk with the Indigenous Peoples of this land.” Local parishes will be “encouraged” to take up special collections “to support healing and reconciliation initiatives for residential school survivors, their families and their communities.”

Alberta residents will have their say later this month on the legitimacy of Canada’s system of equalization payments to poorer provinces. The United Conservative Party government of Jason Kenney has ordered a referendum, as part of municipal elections across the province, on whether the constitutional provision for tax sharing with poorer provinces should be abolished.

Nothing really happened in the election of 2021. Except for one thing that you might have missed if you happened to yawn or blink during the English leaders debate on Sept. 9.

It’s 4:30 a.m. and I cannot sleep. I am too excited. Same thing happened yesterday. I am sitting up in bed in a Comfort Inn in North Bay, Ont. My brother is beside me, also awake. In several hours we will head into Algonquin Park back country for four days in search of brook trout. It is supposed to rain the whole time. And yet, I am still excited.

There is an old joke that asks what the difference is between a liturgist and a terrorist. The punchline: You can negotiate with a terrorist.

Last month’s federal election fell on the eve of the feast of St. Matthew the tax collector. Matthew, of course, was an employee of the Roman occupying forces in Judah, doing the dirty work of taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

“Feelings. Nothing more than feelings.” Thus went the 1970s ballad. As often happens, pop songs contain profound lessons if you take them out of context and give them meanings the songwriter never intended: “Yes, they’re just feelings, and nothing more. Don’t sweat it.”

Is it just me or does anyone else feel deeply uneasy about a minister of the Crown effectively usurping the role of a minister of the Church?

It has been a month that has reminded me of how relentlessly unforgiving the street is to its people. Like a scorned lover, it will try to grasp them from the arms of freedom to ensnare them in their old ways.

I now know of two people who ended their lives through euthanasia. They died in August and September.