A Canadian on Politics

The federal government is cancelling the contracts of non-Christian chaplains at federal prisons, CBC News has learned.

Inmates of other faiths, such as Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, will be expected to turn to Christian prison chaplains for religious counsel and guidance, according to the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries.

Toews made headlines in September when he ordered the cancellation of a tenderissued for a Wiccan priest for federal prisons in B.C.

Toews said he wasn’t convinced part-time chaplains from other religions were an appropriate use of taxpayer money and that he would review the policy.

In an email to CBC News, Toews’ office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates.

“The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … [Christian] chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths.”

Imagine the reaction if it were suggested that Christian prisoners could receive their support from a Buddhist chaplain with interfaith training.

A spokesman for the Muslim community in Charlottetown says a series of threats that include a bottle of gasoline left on the front steps of a mosque have created fear and uncertainty.

Zain Esseghaier, who leads prayers once a week, says worshippers arrived early Thursday morning at the Masjid Dar As-Salam mosque and found the bottle of gasoline with a note that read: “Defeat Jihad.”

I’m sure that any Muslim can say “Duh” to this, but it’s important that non-Muslims know this happens in Canada, and it absolutely should not be ignored.

93 for.  203 against.

stfusexists:

I just received this submission:

The Conservative Party in Canada is trying to criminalize abortion through a backdoor trick. The article to which I have linked includes relative articles and a petition against the legislation.

Please read up on it, sign it, and reblog it. It’s the same kind of stuff they’re doing here, and it’s not okay in any country.

Just to clarify:  the Conservative Party of Canada is not trying to criminalize abortion - one of our backbenchers who is known to be staunchly pro-life is trying to re-open the debate on when life begins.  The Prime Minister has said, repeatedly, that he will not reopen the debate on abortion.  The Conservative Whip (whose quote is used somewhat misleadingly in the linked petition), Gordon O’Connor, has said this motion should be rejected.    It would be horribly stupid for them to say these things so bluntly when they’re really, in back rooms cheering this motion on and trying to sneakily arrange it.  Seriously.

This should be protested.  Petitions should be filed.  Our MPs should hear very clearly that we want them to VOTE NO on this issue.

But this should be remembered and not glossed over:  this is one Member of Parliament submitting a private motion.  He represents the riding of Kitchener.  Don’t give this guy more power than he deserves.  

One of the government’s most prominent cabinet ministers has come out in favour of studying the Criminal Code’s definition of when life begins, two days before MPs are set to vote on a motion to make it happen.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he will vote in favour of Motion 312, put forward by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth, to create a parliamentary committee to study the definition.

The vote is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Kenney says he respects the points of view of his colleagues and that the vote will be a free vote rather than a whipped vote — that is, the parties won’t tell their MPs how to vote.

“I’ll vote in favour of the motion and I respect all the points of view of all the ministers and all MPs. I think we can have respectful debates on questions like this, and like I said, the grand tradition of all parties in government is to permit free votes on questions of conscience,” Kenney said Monday.

“I think the prime minister has decided to continue with the grand tradition of Parliament, by multiple governments of multiple parties, to allow free votes on questions like this, like we did with euthanasia, like the death penalty, on questions that concern human life…it’s a tradition well-rooted in precedent. There’s nothing new here.”

Woodworth says the definition is 400 years old and needs to be updated according to modern science. Critics say the study will in essence reopen the debate over putting limits on abortion.

“When life begins” is not the right question.  It should be when do people have to abandon their bodily autonomy for others?

Britain is working on similar agreements with Australi and New Zealand.

“We have stood shoulder to shoulder from the great wars of the last century to fighting terrorists in Afghanistan and supporting Arab Spring nations like Libya and Syria. We are first cousins,” Mr. Hague said in a written statement released to the media Sunday. 

This quote conveniently glosses over that Britain was in Iraq and Canada was not.

The federal government will appeal last month’s ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court that partially struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says.

The ruling declared that the Criminal Code section targeting anyone who “aids or abets a person to commit suicide” should not apply to physicians in cases where terminally ill patients request to die.

Judge Lynn Smith halted her decision for a year to give Parliament a chance to rewrite the law, which she deemed unconstitutional because it unfairly deprives people with degenerative illnesses of their liberty, and because it discriminates against those with a physical disability who might need assistance to exercise their right to take their own life.

But she also granted an immediate exemption for Gloria Taylor, one of the women who brought the suit, and her doctor.

Nicholson said Friday the government will seek a suspension of all aspects of the ruling, including the exemption for Taylor, while it goes to the British Columbia Court of Appeal. The government believes Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code is constitutional, he said.

Of course they’re contesting it.  It’s socially progressive!

(I had the urge to end that sentence with ABORT ABORT.  But somehow the double meanings hurt and I am avoiding it and instead telling you guys in a parenthetical because EVERYONE KNOWS parentheticals don’t count)