Monday, September 30, 2013

Cardinal Burke Warns of ‘Grave Scandal’ at Catholic Colleges

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Vatican prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, is warning that a “false sense of dialogue” has led to “grave scandal” on many Catholic college campuses.

Reports about Cardinal Burke’s recent interview with The Wanderer have focused largely on his statements about the Eucharist and its reception by pro-abortion politicians, but he also made important comments about Catholic college honors to politicians and the importance of teaching the truth about same-sex marriage.

Cardinal Burke told The Wanderer that it’s impossible to reconcile the Catholic identity of a Catholic college with decisions to honor political figures who have taken positions in support of abortion rights and same-sex marriage.  (more...)

THE STORY OF STUFF INDOCTRINATING YOUTH


This movie isn’t just wrong politically, it’s wrong on the facts. But it is still being shown in your local school.

Saving Our Locker Rooms


California Governor Jerry Brown recently garnered headlines for signing a bill requiring all public schools to permit students to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and other personal facilities that correspond with their “gender identity.” The purpose of the law is to ensure that transgender Californians can use facilities corresponding to the sex they perceive themselves to be, rather than the one they appear to be.

Conservatives must resist two temptations in considering this development.  First, we can’t dismiss the bathroom bill as a ridiculous “Left Coast” idiosyncrasy concocted by “Governor Moonbeam” and his crazy cabal of unreconstructed hippies. Second, we cannot and ought not assume that we can rely on disgust, discomfort, or any other visceral reaction to carry the day in opposing such progressive legislative innovations. Efforts to remove gender distinctions from public facilities are national and serious, and should be treated as such.  (more...)

Caring About University Men in a Time of Crisis

Miles Groth, Ph.D.
I was pleased to present a talk on "Caring About College Men. Why We Need Campus Centers for Men in a Time of Crisis" at the University of Toronto on Friday evening, September 27, at 7:00. Previous speakers in the series of talks by authors and academics had been harried by protesters, but, happily, with extra security in place (which cost the organization quite a lot of unanticipated expense), the event went off without disturbance.

The lecture auditorium was filled to capacity, the audience was attentive, and they had penetrating observations and questions at the conclusion. Most important, the audience included women and men who were there to reflect on a major issue on university campuses: the declining enrollment of men and their failure to complete the post-secondary degree so needed today for being positioned for successful careers and lives.  (more...)

Dispatch from the Front Lines


So, do you believe there is an unparalleled crisis in the Church today or not? If not, watch this.

India seeks to regulate its booming 'rent-a-womb' industry


ANAND, India, Sept 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a glass door.

"I can't believe we have our own child at last," said Patel, 42, gazing in wonderment at five-day-old Gabrielle.

"We are really grateful to our surrogate mother who managed to get pregnant and kept our little daughter healthy. She gave nine months of her life to give us a child."

It is the perfect promotion for India's booming surrogacy industry that sees thousands of infertile couples, many from overseas, hiring the wombs of local women to carry their embryos through to birth.

But a debate over whether the unregulated industry exploits poor women prompted authorities to draft a law that could make it tougher for foreigners seeking babies made in India.

"There is a need to regulate the sector," said Dr. Sudhir Ajja of Surrogacy India, a Mumbai-based fertility bank that has produced 295 surrogate babies - 90 percent for overseas clients and 40 percent for same-sex couples - since it opened in 2007.

"But if the new law tightens rules as suggested by the ministry of home affairs, which disallows surrogacy for same-sex couples and single parents, then it will clearly impact the industry and put off clients coming from overseas."  (more...)

Shining a light

Jimmy Savile
Simon Cole can pinpoint the moment his life took a wrong turn. It was the 1970s, and scout leader Rod Corrie, who would later be convicted of repeated child sex abuse charges, put his hands down Simon's trousers. Simon was 10 years old. Fear lodged in his psyche, where it has remained ever since. The act, the first of many, took only minutes, but the repercussions have lasted a lifetime.

Simon, growing up on Sydney's lower north shore, was academically bright and a keen sportsman. Now middle-aged, externally he has created a successful life - as a senior government policy adviser - but he is battling anxiety, depression and occasional suicidal thoughts.

Although a good-looking man who has attracted his fair share of female interest over the years, he remains single; intimacy is something he has never managed to figure out.  (more...)

Saint John police officer sexually abused over 260 children, investigators suspect

TORONTO – A New Brunswick police officer is suspected of sexually abusing at least 260 children over the course of nearly three decades dating back to the late 1950s, Canadian investigators said Monday.

After decades of secrecy, private investigators and Saint John, N.B. officials say that a lone police officer, Sgt. Kenneth Estabrooks, was behind a massive child abuse scandal that targeted vulnerable children for at least 25 years.

“Although we cannot change the past, the city’s investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against Mr. Estabrooks is about doing what we can to right a wrong,” Saint John Mayor Mel Norton said at the press conference.

“Since the new allegations were brought to the city’s attention, our main priority has remained on those affected.”  (more...)

The Crisis of the Church is a Crisis of Bishops

Bishop Dagens
From the blog of the Society of St. John Chrysostom:

The Tablet - Bishop denounces Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch

The above blog post not only reproduces the Tablet article, but also provides a detailed chronicle of Bishop Claude Dagens' attack on Patriarch Gregory III on Radio Notre-Dame and the Patriarch's response. Bishop Dagens also called for a war to topple the Assad regime, in the opposite sense of the Pope's insistent calls for peaceful and negotiated solutions.  (more...)

Why I dropped out of English


There’s a point in most fizzling relationships when the magic is gone and everyone is just going through the motions. My relationship with the University of the Fraser Valley’s English department reached that point in a Fall 2011 class when, like a threadbare superhero plot, everything just became too easy.

It wasn’t the prof. He was great. It wasn’t the material. I loved that too. I think it was the fact that I scored an A- in the course and knew I didn’t deserve it. Or that we all were scoring grades we didn’t deserve and that the department was convincing us that we earned them.

I remember my friends and I swapping stories about late nights, unfinished readings, rambling and incoherent essays. We attributed our successes to what we called the ‘bullshit’ factor. Our pride protected us from the truth: that we were victims of a system that was exploiting us for tuition.  (more...)

Political Correctness

One of the worst aspects of the education system is that it conspires, implicitly and explicitly, to indoctrinate rather than simply to educate, specifically, to create generations of left-wing voters – and it’s working.

To some extent, this is innocent and unintentional, but by and large, it is both intentional and insidious, an policy to “mold young minds” – the mold is unabashedly socialist.

Teachers, as workers in the so-called “helping professions”, tend to be relatively sensitive to the needs of other and, while that sensitivity is not the exclusive realm of the political left, teachers do tend to be drawn in that direction. Unable to be 100% impartial, they tend to impart that bias in their teaching. Combined with official Ministry and and Board policies which encourage them in that direction, they become the foot soldiers of political correctness.  (more...)

Word Is Former TDSB Chief Chris Spence Has Lost His PhD Due to Blatant Plagiarism

A little birdie (an authoritative one) told me that Chris Spence, the former head of the Toronto District School Board who resigned in disgrace after he was revealed to be a serial plagiarist, has had a "Dr."-ectomy. That is, his PhD was quietly cancelled following an investigation which uncovered evidence of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation.  (more...)

Momlessness and Dadlessness as a Way of Life

Former attorney general of Ohio Jim Petro and his wife have jumped on the "gay marriage" bandwagon because their daughter Corbin got hitched, so the fantasy goes, to another woman in Massachusetts. He joins another prominent Ohio politician, U.S. Senator Ron Portman, in recently discovering human rights our forefathers missed.

Many people don't believe two females are an authentic marriage, no matter how sincere, but the Petros are fully committed, parentally and politically, to the so-called "freedom to marry," as Jim said in recent newspaper editorials.

And he's willing to endorse the effort in Ohio to deconstruct marriage, now named "Why Marriage Matters Ohio" by the Human Rights Campaign affiliate, Equality Ohio, despite the lack of Ohio citizen support in recent polls, and also despite current marriage freedom and equality for people in Ohio. People can marry someone of the opposite sex, a right suddenly discovered by many ex-homosexuals. Same person, different perspective. Homosexual advocacy and the behavior itself are the stumbling blocks, not a lack of justice in Ohio.

Well, the Petros now have a grandson, and they are publicly cooing as most new grandparents do. Ecstatic or not, the reality is, this baby is actually the Petros' adopted grandchild -- no blood relation -- because their daughter's partner was the birth mother. The father? At the time of this writing, no one has said. Friend? Sperm donor? Who knows?  (more...)

Bully for You; Bully for Me

I hear a lot about "bullying" these days. And I've been wondering why.

Two evenings ago, cutting across a school playground while out for a walk, I wandered over to an area with lots of chalk markings. Instead of colorful patterns and hopscotch outlines, I found dozens of messages written in gigantic letters, all with the same message: "Stop bullying!"

Standing in the middle of these admonitions, I thought to myself, what is going on? I don't remember this being such a huge issue when I was growing up. For sure there were kids who picked on other kids. Some were verbally disrespectful. Others were physically intimidating. But those who picked on others were on the fringe. Most kids were just dealing with the normal challenges of growing up, which included navigating the waters of what now appears to have become a major issue called bullying.

Has bullying become more pervasive and aggressive in recent years? Or is it just reported more often than it used to be? Is something serious going on, or is it a manufactured crisis?   (more...)

Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Moral Structure of Pedophilia

The moral structure of pedophilia is simply this: the welfare of children is subordinate to the sexual gratification of adults.

Jerry Sandusky, former defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team, established a charity called The Second Mile, for boys, mostly fatherless, who were living in troubled homes. It is not clear that he did so initially to lure boys into a trap. But that is what eventually happened, according to the testimony of the men who recalled with shame and disgust their initiation into sodomy.

Raymond Lahey, former Catholic bishop of Antigonish, was apprehended in the Ottawa airport and his computer files scanned. They contained nude pictures of boys. Lahey resigned in disgrace. The Canadian press tried hard to conceal the sex of the children, and suppressed any report about the exotic destinations to which the bishop commonly flew. One isn’t to inquire too closely into travel agencies that do a hopping business flying men to places like Thailand, which teems with boy prostitutes. And girl prostitutes too; apparently Thailand is a favorite sweating-off ground for Korean businessmen.

We should be thankful that the Sanduskys and Laheys are still considered monstrous. But in contemporary America that condemnation rests on sentiment and not on moral reasoning. No one can simultaneously explain why their actions were so vile and uphold the first commandment of the sexual revolution: fulfill thy desires.  (more...)

Al-Shabaab: 'Lord of the Flies' with guns

A boy belonging to Al-Shabaab shows the wound he
suffered battling government forces in Mogadishu
(CNN) -- In the dying days of the Battle of Mogadishu two years ago, on the beachside base used by Ugandan African Union troops in their successful campaign to drive Al-Shabaab from the capital, I came across three new prisoners. Handcuffed, dirty and dejected, the eldest of them was 17, the youngest 15.

They were volunteers, they said, who had put their hands up when an Al-Shabaab recruiter came to their school. This had happened a fortnight before; they had surrendered when they became separated from their unit and ran out of bullets. Why, I asked, had they put their hands up in the first place? The boys all looked at each other. "We were given a piece of fruit every day," one of them said.

I later interviewed several Al-Shabaab deserters in a government camp set aside for the purpose, prepared for anti-Western hostility from a gang of hardened jihadist militants. Instead I found a crowd of teenagers, spirited, unruly, and for the most part instantly likeable. It was disorienting, but in their Lakers T-shirts and Nile tracksuits, they resembled schoolboys anywhere in the world. Their average age was 15; one of them, Liban, was 9.

Like so many young Somalis in this shattered country, Liban was an orphan; the militants, for whom he had already fought for two years, were his surrogate family.

"I'm not scared!" he trilled. "I'm ready to fight again -- for the government!" These boy soldiers, I found, had little interest in Islamist ideology. Most of them had decided to join Al-Shabaab -- particularly in 2011, a famine year -- simply to survive.  (more...)

Historic MHRA rally in Toronto huge success


At 11am today (28 Sept 2013) in Toronto’s Queen’s Park, for the first time, men’s human rights activists (MHRAs) gathered together as men’s human rights activists from A Voice for Men and other organizations to show their support for men and boys and to raise awareness of the crisis so many of them are facing today..

The rally followed a presentation given by Dr. Miles Groth at the University of Toronto the night before, where counter-protesters from the U of T Student Union were expected but failed to materialize. During previous events hosted by CAFE, there were strong showings of disruptive and sometimes violent protesters who pulled fire alarms and wielded ax handles and bull horns.  CAFE was fined by the U of T administration for police security just days before the event.  (more...)

Top Tory official, 75, appointed by David Cameron arrested over claims he assaulted a teenage girl more than 40 years ago

Alan Lewis, a key ally of David Cameron,
has been accused of sexual assault
A senior Tory politician has been arrested over allegations that he raped a teenage girl.

Alan Lewis, who owns the Crombie clothing chain, was quizzed at a police station in London over claims he attacked a teenage student in the 1960s.

Mr Lewis, a key ally of David Cameron, is believed to be worth around £220million.

The 75-year-old’s arrest came as the Conservative Party prepared for its annual conference in Manchester.

The allegations were brought by a married woman from Dorset who is now in her 60s.  (more...)

Nymphomaniac 'killed her two newborn babies so she could go to German swingers club'

Koppers, 24
A German nymphomaniac who allegedly killed her two newborns so she could go to a swinger club for more sex has been arrested after the corpses of her babies were found by her father.

Steffie Koppers, 24, bragged repeatedly about her visits to the sex club Kali on her Facebook page.

In one, she wrote: 'I'm in the swingerclub Kali. We are three nice ladies but we want men and there are none here!'

Another reads: 'It seems it's bad when a solo woman goes to a swinger club to get gratification from more than one man.'

Police believe Koppers, who worked for a local tourism authority, became pregnant with the babies she killed through her sex encounters at the club in Kamp Lintfort. One of the deaths occurred in November last year.  (more...)

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Police officer found dead hours before he was due to be charged with sex offences

Former PC Gareth Gricks, pictured, was
found dead at his home in August
A shamed police officer who was dismissed for gross misconduct was found dead on the day he was due to be charged with sex offences.

Former PC Gareth Gricks, 53, was found hanged at his home in Dunton, Norfolk, by a family

Norfolk Police said that he was suspected of being involved in online sex abuse of children in South East Asia, and would use forums to make contact with young girls.

He was about to be charged with nine sex offences when he was found dead on 6 August this year, an inquest into his death heard.  (more...)

Detroit's Pension Madness


I’m rarely speechless, but I’m having trouble putting my emotions into words after reading the latest report on the Detroit pension situation. Now, I admit it: I’m kind of naïve. Usually when I see an underfunded pension, I think to myself “poor pensioners -- undone by a combination ofstupid tax rules, volatile stock markets and mismanagement by trustees who tried to restore depleted fund assets with an investment approach you might call ‘desperate optimism’." Thus, I was not entirely prepared for the new revelations about the Detroit trustees’ custom of handing out annual holiday “bonuses” to workers, retirees and the City of Detroit. Between 1985 and 2008, they handed out roughly $1 billion this way. Had they been invested, one estimate says those funds would be worth almost $2 billion today -- or more than half the current shortfall in the funds.
These “bonuses” were used to lower the contribution the city was required to make, to give retirees a little something extra around Christmas time, and to fund individual savings accounts that workers are offered along with their pensions. In 2009, when the financial markets were completely frozen and the automakers were shotgunning through the bankruptcy courts, the pension trust paid 7.5 percent interest into those accounts -- which is about 7.5 percent more than they would have gotten at a bank. This while the pension funds were busy losing about a quarter of their value.  (more...)

Evidence of ‘progress’? New head chaplain of Canada’s military is openly homosexual Anglican priest

OTTAWA, September 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) has appointed an openly homosexual Anglican priest as Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces in a ceremony earlier this month in Ottawa.

According to a DND news release, Brigadier-General John Fletcher was appointed Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces in a ceremony at the Beechwood Memorial Centre in Ottawa.

The event was presided over by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, with Fletcher taking over responsibility for the religious needs of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and their families from the outgoing Chaplain General, Brigadier-General Karl McLean, who is also an Anglican priest.

General Lawson said the appointment of a homosexual will "further our inclusive, welcoming culture."  (more...)

Former Edmonton -based soldier admits preying upon boys online

EDMONTON - A former Canadian Forces soldier has pleaded guilty to 48 charges connected to Internet-based sexual crimes against boys from across North America.

In an Edmonton court Friday afternoon, 24-year-old Matthew Richervezeau admitted that he preyed upon boys he met online and groomed them for sexual purposes.

In 2011, Richervezeau met two 12-year-old boys from Wisconsin while playing online video games and their relationship progressed to Internet chats and webcam conversations.

Eventually, a “dare game” progressed until Richervezeau and the boys took off their clothes, exposed themselves and masturbated in front of webcams more than a dozen times, according to an agreed statement of facts.  (more...)

Former Ottawa bus driver pleads guilty to sex charges

OTTAWA - A prolific child lurer and former city bus driver pleaded guilty to sex crimes Friday, setting the stage for a dangerous offender hearing that could see him locked up for life.

William Groves, 50, admitted to 21 charges relating to more than a dozen girls aged 11 to 16, some from as far away as Scotland.

The charges include luring, sexual interference and possessing child pornography.

The court heard a fraction of the case against Groves; prosecutor Marie Dufort said she would present a more extensive summary of the evidence when Groves appears in court Dec. 2.  (more...)

Retired Chatham teacher faces more sex assault charges

A 67-year-old retired Chatham teacher who has already been charged with sexual assault on an under-age male is now facing more such charges after four other alleged victims came forward.

Chatham-Kent police first arrested Jim Lekavy on Sept. 11 for alleged sexual offences dating back to the early 1980s. He was charged with four counts of indecent assault on a male, three counts of sexual assault and one count of buggery. He was released with conditions.

On Thursday, police again arrested Lekavy after four more males claiming to be victims came forward.  (more...)

Friday, September 27, 2013

Billy Graham’s grandson: evangelicals ‘worse’ than Catholics on sex abuse

Basyle “Boz” Tchividjian from Liberty Universtiy School of Law
speaks during a panel titled “Investigating Religion: The
Continuing Story of Clergy Abuse Beyond Roman Catholics” at
the Religion Newswriters Association Conference in Austin
AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) The Christian mission field is a “magnet” for sexual abusers, Boz Tchividjian, a Liberty University law professor who investigates abuse said Thursday (Sept. 26) to a room of journalists.
While comparing evangelicals to Catholics on abuse response, ”I think we are worse,” he said at the Religion Newswriters Association conference, saying too many evangelicals had “sacrificed the souls” of young victims.
“Protestants can be very arrogant when pointing to Catholics,”  said Tchividjian, a grandson of evangelist Billy Graham and executive director of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), which has investigated sex abuse allegations.
Earlier this summer, GRACE spearheaded an online petition decrying the “silence” and “inattention” of evangelical leaders to sexual abuse in their churches.  (more...)

The response of the Catholic CAS to two high-risk families

Social worker Angie Martin faces
charges in the death of Jordan Heikamp
The Catholic Children's Aid Society social worker who is criminally charged in the shocking starvation death of a 37-day-old baby almost two years ago was also involved with another controversial case in which a six-year-old boy drank his father's methadone-laced orange juice and died.

The National Post has confirmed that until her arrest in August of 1997 in the death of baby Jordan Heikamp, Angie Martin was also assigned to monitor the family of Rene Williams, where both the mother and father are former heroin addicts who were then on methadone programs.

The common denominator linking the two cases is the quality of supervision -- or rather, the alleged lack of it -- that was given by the agency to two families who should have been easily recognizable as being at high risk.

Ms Martin is charged with criminal negligence causing death  (more...)

Fox News & The Homosexual Agenda


Michael Voris is joined by, founder and President of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Peter LaBarbera. Peter is a former reporter for The Washington Times and also served as senior policy analyst for the Culture and Family Institute.
[PETER LeBARBERA WEBSITE & TWITTER]
http://americansfortruth.com/
https://twitter.com/PeterLaBarbera

Children of Darkness


Children of Darkness is an Oscar nominated 1983 documentary film produced and written by Richard Kotuk and Ara Chekmayan. It explored the topic of juvenile psychiatry - an acute lack of mental health care in America for seriously emotionally disturbed youth. 

Many children in these institutions were simply warehoused and the common basic form of therapy was drugs, which didn't really help the kids but merely controlled them. The film not only uncovered the mistreatments in mental institutions but it also captured the cold realization that mental illness can happen to anyone. Public mental institutions were not just for the poor. Children from middle class families and upper middle class families often ended up there due to inadequate insurance money and dwindled savings.

Rigid Campus Feminism: Is It Forever?



Some 200 Canadian and American men's activists will gather this Friday at the University of Toronto, where they will be met by angry feminists dedicated to tearing down their posters, heaping abuse on speakers, blockading events and denouncing police as "f---ing scum" if they try to restore order. At least that's what happened last November when I spoke before the same group--the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE)--on the same campus...

Angry feminism is still in vogue at the U of T, where the student union regards men's rights organizations as hate groups that shouldn't be heard. They are charging CAFE $964 for security Friday, thus predicting feminist violence and requiring the men to pay for it.

Personally, I have trouble seeing myself as a hate-soaked advocate of rape (as a few of the more unhinged protesters kept saying). In the 1970s, I was a three-time Board member of the National Organization for Women in New York.  (more...)

Lied Middle School parents outraged by teacher arrests

Michael Barclay, left, and Alfphonso Washington, right.
Two teachers at Lied Middle School have been arrested on sex-related charges involving minors since the start of the 2013-14 school year.

The principal of the school also is on paid administrative leave, although the Clark County School District has not disclosed why.

“It makes me want to take my kids out of the school,” said parent Vanessa Orozco, while waiting to pick up her kids Thursday. She has two children in grades six and eight at Lied, on Tropical Parkway near Decatur Boulevard.

Michael Barclay, who taught history and coached boys basketball at Lied, was arrested Wednesday after surrendering to Las Vegas police. He faces two felony charges of attempted sex acts with a minor.  (more...)

Move over, abortion — men’s issues are the new taboo topics on campus

Protesters gather outside a University of Toronto lecture hall where author
Warren Farrell in giving an address in November, 2012.
The Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has released its 2013 report on the state of free speech at Canadian universities and lo and behold, the report shows egregious violations on campuses nationwide. Needless to say, I’m not surprised.

The JCCF measured the policies and practices at 45 public Canadian universities, grading them each using a five-tier letter scale. In total, 23 universities received at least one “F”, meaning some form of censorship was employed on campus. According to the “Campus Freedom Index,” the University of Ottawa and Carleton University are the worst schools for free speech in Canada. And grass is green.

The report chronicles the same sort of censorship activities we’ve seen on Canadian campuses for years: pro-life groups being forced to cover their posters or quiet their protest, pro- or anti-Israel activities being tamed or censored and so-called “controversial” speakers getting their microphones turned off before they can even begin. Unfortunately, these sorts of activities are so common on Canadian campuses that we’ve practically come to expect them.

But new to the Campus Freedom Index this year, however, is the topic of men’s issues awareness — a subject that wets the felt-tip markers of the perpetually outraged upon mere mention.  (more...)

Government of Canada Announces Internal Review of Federal Involvement in the Ernest Fenwick Macintosh Case


OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 09/27/13 -- The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Minister, the Honourable Chris Alexander, today announced that the Government of Canada will conduct an internal review of federal involvement in the case of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh.

"I am pleased to announce this review. This case has concerned me since my time in Opposition-and months after our Government was elected in 2006 the accused was extradited to face charges in Canada," said Minister MacKay. "Our Government takes offences involving child abuse very seriously and it is important to review this matter to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again."

Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh was the subject of one of the longest and most complex sexual assault cases in Nova Scotia's history.  (more...)

The Jesuit Who Humiliated the Generals

ROME, September 27, 2013 – In his interview with “La Civiltà Cattolica" that has gone all around the world, Pope Francis describes the Church as “a field hospital after battle,” where the very first thing to do is “heal wounds.”

But what changes when the battle is fully underway?

In his Argentina, between 1976 and 1983, Jorge Mario Bergoglio lived through the 'years of lead' of the military dictatorship. Kidnappings, torture, massacres, 30,000 disappeared, 500 mothers killed after giving birth in prison to children who were taken away from them.

What the young provincial of the Argentine Jesuits at the time did during those years long remained a mystery. So dense as to prompt the suspicion that he had passively witnessed the horror, or worse, had exposed to greater danger some of his confrères, those most committed among the resistance.

Last spring, immediately after his election as pope, these accusations were issued again.  (more...)

UN Agency Scolded for Interfering in UN Negotiations

NEW YORK, September 27 (C-FAM) Bangladeshi Diplomats and Ministers have charged a UN agency with meddling in their affairs and rigging an international conference. The UN ambassador from Bangladesh lashed out against the agency’s controversial actions to the press.

The agency in question is the controversial United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It has come under fire in the past because it helped set up and implement coercive population control programs in several countries.

UNFPA instructed Bangladesh’s delegation on how to vote and what to say at a recently concluded conference in Bangkok, according to the Dhaka Tribune. The newspaper reported delegates felt “awkward” because UNFPA paid for the delegation’s expenses and placed a representative of a non-governmental organization on the delegation to pressure them. The reports came from delegation members and other insiders.

The document from the conference is being touted as “groundbreaking” for declaring sexual and reproductive rights “indispensable” to sustainable development and a “key part” of the post-2015 development agenda. These terms are controversial because abortion activists and some within the UN system say they include abortion.

The reports cast a shadow over the outcome of the conference attended by 500 delegates, ministers and officials from 47 countries. It suggests some delegates were surrogates for UNFPA and did not represent the sovereign will of their respective countries.  (more...)

Wynne admits practice of seniority-based hiring of teachers needs fixing

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says a regulation that forces Ontario school boards to hire teachers based on seniority for long-term supply jobs may have been an “over-correction” and that her government is looking to change it.

The government said it introduced Regulation 274 to prevent nepotism and favouritism in hiring practices, but critics charge that seniority-based hiring will exacerbate the unemployment crisis hurting new teachers. The provision requires that principals hire from within the first five teachers on the seniority list for long-term occasional contracts, instead of simply picking the person they believe is best suited for a position. Long-term supply jobs are traditionally the steppingstone to permanent positions.

On Wednesday, Ms. Wynne conceded that the government may have gone too far with the regulation.  (more...)

Censorship: Trustee won't appeal Catholic School Board decision

Waterloo Catholic District School
Board trustee Anthony Piscitelli
A trustee with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board says he will not appeal the board’s decision to discipline him over comments he made in a local newspaper.

Anthony Piscitelli suggested the board should look at opening its doors to non-Catholic students in an op-ed piece he wrote in the Waterloo Region Record on September 18th.

He also claimed the board does not currently admit non-Catholic students.  (more...)

Related...

Ontario’s universities and student unions worst for free speech


The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom’s 2013 Campus Freedom Index highlights a disturbing trend that has been observed for many years: Canada’s universities and student unions are abysmally poor at promoting free speech and expression on campus.
The index looks at the policies and practices of universities and student unions across Canada to determine their affinity for free speech, which, unfortunately, continues to be incredibly low.  (more...)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

It’s about Math, not Mother’s Day

What we need in Ontario schools is more teaching and less co-parenting.

More concern about raising student math scores in elementary schools, where they’ve been on the decline for five years.

Less about changing Father’s Day and Mother’s Day to “Love Day” and “GAMES Day” (Grandmothers, Aunts, Moms, Even Sisters) out of respect for children who don’t come from traditional families.

This latest bit of wisdom comes courtesy of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, which says it also wants to ensure children from gay and lesbian families don’t feel excluded at school.

We’ve got a better idea. How about we let teachers teach and parents parent, which includes preparing them for life, no matter what background they come from?  (more...)

School councils must change their mandate

School parent councils in Ontario, according to government regulations, should be about "improving pupil achievement" and "enhancing" accountability. However, in reality they have not been very effective in doing either. In most cases, much of their time is spent doing fundraising, pizza lunches and improving communication between the school and the home. Principals are usually the ones who set the agenda for these councils, not the parents.

Provincial regulations state that school councils have a central role to play in trying to better both student achievement and school planning. But they focus their work instead on informing parents about school issues and community happenings. They do this through newsletters, websites and social media. The difficulties that many parent councils face is the lack of interest and poor attendance at meetings. In most schools, less than 10 people make up the council. In others it's just a few individuals, selected by the principal because it looks good to have one on paper. The work they really do is another matter. Greater parent participation is obviously necessary if the government really wants to have more parental input. To accomplish this, the process must move beyond lip service.

One of the main reasons for the poor participation surely comes from the fact that parents are not being informed about important policy changes that are taking place in education. Take the implementation the Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy which later became provincial law with Bill 13. Parent councils had very little influence on shaping the policy and in most cases they were inadequately informed or not informed at all.  (more...)

Teacher agreed to pay for sex from detective posing as a high school cheerleader

SEATTLE –  Brent Conley, a 27-year-old high school teacher, has been charged with attempted commercial sex abuse of a minor after allegedly agreeing to pay $100 to have sex with someone he thought was a 15-year-old cheerleader, the Seattle Times reports.

Fake cheerleaderConley responded to a posted ad on a “casual encounters” section of a website and believed he was talking with a teenage girl who was looking to make money by having sex. In reality, he was chatting with a detective from the Seattle Police Department.

The detective posted an ad titled “Student looking for older men” and Conley replied shortly after, according to the news report.  (more...)

Montana Rapist Freed After 30 Days


An admitted rapist and former high school teacher in Montana was released today after serving a 30-day prison sentence for raping a 14-year-old girl who later committed suicide.
Stacey Rambold, 54, left the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge after completing the term handed down by District Judge G. Todd Baugh of Billings last month for the 2007 rape of Cherice Moralez, according to the Associated Press.
Rambold's sentence triggered protest and outrage across the nation after Baugh said in a Billings, Mont., court that the victim was "older than her chronological age." Baugh later voiced regret for his choice of words, but initially stood by the 30-day jail sentence. Then, Baugh had a change of heart and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the sentence should be increased by two years.
Earlier this month, Montana's Supreme Court blocked Baugh from resentencing Rambold and voiding the 31-day prison sentence.  (more...)

Traditionalism and academic censorship - a personal experience and a very grave episode

I recently had an experience that is very informative about the current status of tradition in the Church, and that deserves to be made public. Its importance lies in its revelation of the practice of silencing traditionalist theological positions, a practice that is usually carried out in private, but that is adhered to even by the most allegedly 'conservative' theological venues.

It will be helpful to provide some context for this episode. Fr. Martin Rhonheimer, an eminent theologian who is also a priest of Opus Dei, published an article in the Swiss edition of the theological journal 'Nova et Vetera' on the teaching of Vatican II on religious freedom (a translation can be found here: http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1347672?eng=y). In it, he argued that this teaching did in fact reject prior magisterial teaching on the social kingship of Christ, but that this rejection was not an instance of the 'hermeneutic of discontinuity' condemned by Benedict XVI. Fr. Rhonheimer's position was found wanting by Prof. Thomas Pink of King's College London, and by the author of this piece, who contacted the editors of the English-language edition of Nova et Vetera and suggested that they might be interested in a reply to Rhonheimer. The editors welcomed this proposal, and encouraged me to submit a paper to them on this topic. An earlier version of the paper can be found here.

The paper disagreed with both Rhonheimer and Pink, and argued in favour of the traditional position on the relation between Church and State that was taught by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, and Pius XI. The editors reacted to the piece with enthusiasm. It was sent to referees, who reported favourably on it while recommending some changes. After these changes were made, the editors announced that the final product was of high quality and deserved publication, and stated that they would print it in Nova et Vetera. This was an important decision, because the traditional position on Church-State relations that was advocated by the paper has been denied a voice in Catholic academic circles for many years.  (more...)

PUBLIC UNIVERSITY TO LAUNCH TRANSGENDER STUDIES PROGRAM

Next fall, students at the University of Arizona will be able to pursue an education in transgender studies in an initiative billed as the first of its kind.
Administrators recently posted four job openings on behalf of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences seeking to hire professors who will teach exclusively on transgender studies in what one professor called an “unprecedented initiative.”
“Gender systems are changing rapidly worldwide, and this is a serious social phenomenon that merits serious scholarly attention; that’s why we are establishing this initiative,” Susan Stryker, associate professor of gender and women’s studies and director of the Institute for LGBT Studies  (more...)

University’s ‘Sex App’ Promotes Kinky Sex


The University of Oregon has developed some creative strategies to keep its students happy. In partnership with the University’s Division of Student Affairs, the Office of the Dean of Students, and the Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team (SWAT), among others, theUniversity Health Center plans to unveil a new smartphone app called “SexPositive” on October 15.
The sex app provides students with “sexual health information” that is “shame-free“ and “judgment-free.” It will be launched through a series of "sex positive" campus events, including a talk by Dan Savage--the sex columnist who sparked controversy in 2012 with a rant against “bullsh—in the Bible” during a speech to high school students and then ridiculed Christian students who protested. (Savage later apologized, sort of.)

According to the University website, the sex-positive approach “makes no moral judgments… and promotes all forms of sexuality and consensual sexual experience” on “equal footing” with the decision to abstain from sex.  (more...)

Ontario teachers union's plan to change Mother's and Father's Day 'quite silly'

LISA WOODS AND HER PARTNER SAMANTHA
WITH THEIR KIDS JAYDEN, 10, AND ALEXANDRA, 5.
TORONTO - Exactly who is it who wants Mother's Day and Father's Day changed to be more sensitive to families with gay and lesbian parents?

Not Lisa Woods and her long-time same-sex partner.

The Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario's (ETFO) has proposed the idea of coming up with alternative names for days set aside to honour mothers and fathers as a way to accommodate the children of same sex parents.

It "gave me a chuckle," said Woods.

Her GTA family does not need anybody to create special days to celebrate parenthood in their household.

Don't make any special accommodations for them.

"As a lesbian who has been with her wife for 13 years and married 10, with two in the public school system, I have to admit that changing Mother's Day and Father's Day is quite silly," she said.  (more...)

Wynne's pandering to teachers' unions costing our kids dearly

Premier Kathleen Wynne
TORONTO - In a bit of double-speak that would make George Orwell giggle, Premier Kathleen Wynne calls it “an over-correction.”

To those of us who’ve watched her government bow to teacher union demands, it was a massive cave-in.

She said a controversial regulation was supposed to deal with complaints of nepotism in some Catholic school boards.

What it does is force school boards to hire teachers by seniority, instead of allowing the school principal to hire the best teacher.

Tory education critic Lisa MacLeod introduced a private member’s bill Wednesday that would scrap that hiring regulation.  (more...)

Wade Vroom: "This is what we did in Health class today"

Remember Wade Vroom?


Seriously, can we send the cops to Delta Alternative school? (more...)

ETT President Martin Long Responds to Toronto Sun Article Regarding Family Days

The following statement was sent to the Toronto Sun by ETT President Martin Long in response to Joe Warmington’s article “ETFO Raising Eyebrows With Examination of Family Days”   (more...)