Globe & Mail, Jan 27, 2010: The Muslim population of Canada will nearly triple over the next 20 years, according to a new study of global demographic trends focusing on the faith. The number of Canadians who identify themselves as Muslim will reach 2.7 million by 2030, up from approximately 940,000 today, and will make up 6.6 per cent of the total population. Keep reading...
By Brian Lilley - Sun Media - OTTAWA -- Knowing what to say when it comes to religious greetings can be a political minefield, but two observers who are also in religious minorities say politicians should be straightforward. "They should wish everybody a religious greeting," said Tarek Fatah, an active Liberal and Muslim in Toronto. "I don't think there is controversy in wishing anyone Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah," said Joseph Ben-Ami, a Jew who has previously worked with the Conservative Party. Keep...
CBC.ca, Dec 17, 2010: The Quebec government is banning religious teaching at all of its publicly funded daycares, prohibiting everything from group prayers to craft projects involving religious symbols.Family Minister Yolande James released a new guide Friday to religion in subsidized daycares that comes into effect next June. As part of the new policy, daycares will not be allowed to teach prayers or any religious doctrine. Daycares that continue to do so will face sanctions including loss of their government subsidies. "We clearly say that our...
Citizenlink: Despite the nation’s atheism and suspicious nature, China’s Yunnan education ministry has embraced Focus on the Family’s abstinence and marriage education materials, to help manage the country’s shifting sexual mores and skyrocketing divorce rate. Nevertheless, “safe sex” advocates, including the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and liberal sex groups are pouring millions into China to implement “safe-sex” programs and media messaging to sway teens away from the abstinence courses. Read more here ...
Globe & Mail, Sept 1, 2010: Ottawa has quietly ordered a study of Canada’s most economically successful first nations, raising the prospect of a new approach to developing businesses on reserves while sparking fear among some native leaders that their rights to land and resources are at risk. A small but growing number of success stories are spreading across Canada as native communities break out from historic poverty thanks to millions in earnings as landlords of on-reserve condos, hotels, industrial parks and high-end golf resorts. Keep reading...
CBC.ca, August 3, 2010: Efforts to build a mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks in lower Manhattan got a big boost Tuesday when a city agency cleared the way for the construction of a controversial Muslim cultural centre. New York's City Landmarks Commission announced it would not give an old building on the site landmark status to protect it from demolition. That allows the building to be torn down to make way for a 13-storey Islamic centre that has sparked heated opposition from critics who say...
Take Action: Send a note of thanks for this brave and principled decision to Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, and Stephen Harper ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) Globe & Mail, July 22 2010: The Conservatives say race and ethnicity shouldn't enter into the hiring process for federal jobs and have ordered a review of affirmative action policies. They want to look at government hiring practices, which currently give priority to qualified applicants from minority groups. New Democrat MP Pat Martin called the move a “full-frontal attack on affirmative action.” Visible minorities, including...
OTTAWA, June 10 /CNW/ - Thousands of Aboriginal individuals are assembling in Ottawa to release this weekend the forgiveness that Prime Minister Stephen Harper requested in 2008. The Prime Minister concluded his apology for Indian Residential Schools by requesting "the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly." "At that moment" says Chief Kenny Blacksmith, "the onus was placed on our people as individuals to respond. The only way to come into our full healing as the First Peoples of Canada is to forgive. Forgiveness...
