Cabrini, the latest movie from the team that produced Bella (2006) and Sound of Freedom (2023), opened on March 8 in cinemas across North America. The choice of International Women’s Day for the premiere was no doubt intentional, a way of telegraphing to the world, “See? See? The Catholic Church has strong, powerful women, too.” The lush biopic highlights...
Month: March 2024
The B.C. Catholic has filed a Freedom of Information request seeking detailed information about MAiD’s costs and savings to B.C.’s health care system.
‘Dead people don’t cost money’: Calculating the cost of ending 2,700 lives with MAiD
The grim calculus of tracking the cost of Medical Assistance in Dying shows that B.C. doctors receive $283.85 for every “MAiD Event preparation and Procedure” they perform. Moreover, the Ministry of Health’s payment schedule lists six specific euthanasia-related services for which medical practitioners can be paid, from “MAiD Assessment Fee—Assessor Prescriber” ($43.24) to “MAiD Medication...
St. Raphael Palliative Care Home and Day Centre in Montreal
Judge denies MAiD stay on Montreal centre
A Quebec Superior Court judge has denied the Archdiocese of Montreal’s request for a stay of the legal obligation placed on a Montreal palliative care centre to offer assisted death to its residents. Justice Catherine Piché said in her March 1 ruling that “the balance of convenience does not favour the issuance of a stay.”...
‘Graphic images’ law challenged
A Christian advocacy organization is challenging a St. Catharines city bylaw barring flyers with “graphic images” from being delivered to city homes. In a Feb. 20 application to the Ontario Superior Court, ARPA (Association for Reformed Political Action) asserted that city council stepped outside its authority by suppressing Charter-protected political speech. In September, after only...
Boxes of mifepristone, the first pill given in a chemical abortion, are pictured in a Jan. 13, 2023, photo.OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
Mail-order abortion pills sourced in Toronto
A Canadian non-profit has become a major player in the drive to help women “self-administer abortion at home” through the distribution of abortion pills by mail, all below the radar of Health Canada. Women on Web moved its operations from the Netherlands to a head office on Toronto’s Yonge Street in 2016 and claims to...
Calgary Bishop Emeritus Fred Henry has made a Catholic magazine’s Top 10 people of 2023 for challenging the narrative on graves at former Indian residential schools. (Canadian Catholic News photo)
Calgary’s Bishop Emeritus makes Top 10 list for speaking out on residential school graves story
Calgary Bishop Emeritus Fred Henry has been named one of the world’s “Top 10 people of 2023” by Inside the Vatican magazine for challenging the consensus on graves at former Indian residential schools. Henry was notified out of the blue in late February that he was featured on the cover along with Catholic luminaries such as...
June 7th saw the first Parliamentary debate of Bill C-63; The Online Harms Bill. (Unsplash photo)
Online bill could criminalize free speech, critics say
Two proposed bills, the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) and Bill C-367, have critics suggesting that if passed, they could threaten the freedom to express beliefs and convictions online and in the public square. Social media harms targeted include intimate content that is communicated without consent, sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor, foments...
The new pharmacare program’s focus on contraception is just an extension of the “culture of death” that permeates modern society, says a Campaign Life Coalition spokesperson. (Simone van der Koelen/Unsplash)
Canadian pharmacare program’s contraception focus ‘deeply troubling’
With the framework of a national pharmacare program launched by the Liberal-NDP coalition, some are finding its initial focus on contraceptives a “deeply troubling” aspect of the deal. The pharmacare program promises to improve access to contraceptives for nine million Canadians, along with medication, including insulin, for an estimated 3.7 million people living with diabetes....
Members of the Sts’ailes First Nation at Vancouver’s Holy Rosary Cathedral for the first Mass to integrate a First Nation language. Father Deacon Andrew Bennett is on an ongoing quest to reveal how Indigenous culture and Christianity coexist harmoniously and authentically. (Nicholas Elbers photo)
You can be Indigenous and Christian
Father Deacon Andrew Bennett is on an ongoing quest to reveal how Indigenous culture and Christianity coexist harmoniously and authentically. On Feb. 21, the faith communities program director for Cardus, a non-partisan think tank, moderated a panel discussion with three Indigenous Christians — Fr. Cristino Bouvette, Marsha Hanson and Caij Meloche — at Calgary’s St....
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who died on Feb. 29, is shown at a 2014 event. (Canada 2020 Photo)
Brian Mulroney’s Catholic faith forged his identity
When Pope (now St.) John Paul II arrived in Ottawa in 1984 – the first Pontiff to visit this country – greeting him in Ottawa was Canada’s 18th Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. Mr. Mulroney, one of 10 Catholics who have held that office since 1867, died on Feb. 29. The “little guy from Baie Comeau,”...