NEWS DIGEST: Religion in Canada

c. 2003 Religion News Service Poll: `Broad’ Support for Stem Cell Research OTTAWA (RNS) There is “solid and broad” public support for embryonic stem cell research in Canada, as well as federal funding of such research, according to a new Pollara survey reported by the Ottawa Citizen. The survey says 57 percent of respondents approve […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

Poll: `Broad’ Support for Stem Cell Research

OTTAWA (RNS) There is “solid and broad” public support for embryonic stem cell research in Canada, as well as federal funding of such research, according to a new Pollara survey reported by the Ottawa Citizen.


The survey says 57 percent of respondents approve of allowing stem cell research on human embryos that are either left over from fertility treatments or created for such research. An even higher ratio _ 64 percent _ agreed the federal government should provide money to scientists doing the work.

Pollara chairman Michael Marzolini says the findings suggest the public is less conservative on the issue than are members of Parliament.

The poll also suggests many people are unfamiliar with the issue. It said one in five Canadians, or 20 percent, didn’t have an opinion or refused to answer.

The go-ahead for embryonic stem cell research is contained in proposed assisted human reproduction legislation. But the bill, which would also ban human cloning, is bogged down in the House of Commons awaiting its third and final reading.

It is the victim of a revolt led by Liberal backbenchers and supported by Canadian Alliance MPs, many of whom equate embryonic stem cell research to destroying a human life.

The survey of 1,375 Canadians, conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, showed men are more favourably disposed toward embryonic stem cell research than women: 62 percent compared to 54 percent.

Overall support was strongest in Quebec at 63 percent.

“Even if (Quebecers) still consider themselves very religious, they have shaken off any of the sort of church-preached morality that they might be expected to follow,” Marzolini said.

Bishops Issue Ecological Plea

OTTAWA (RNS) Canada’s Catholic bishops are urging their 13 million followers to take action to heal the Earth.


“Life on Earth today is plagued with an unprecedented and accelerating ecological crisis. Deforestation, species extinction, climate change, ecosystem collapse, contamination of air and water, and soil erosion are just a few of the enormous ecological problems which we face in Canada and elsewhere,” the bishops said in a pastoral letter released in early October.

Among the examples the bishops cite are the closing of the cod fishery in Newfoundland, urban smog alerts in Toronto and Montreal, and risks to the safety of the food.

The bishops said the ecological crisis is also a “profoundly religious crisis. In destroying creation we are limiting our ability to know and love God.”

The letter, issued by the social affairs commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops urges the faithful not only to assess the energy use of their churches, but also to contribute financially to ecological causes and take political action.

The bishops’ pastoral letter also admits that in the past “churches have insufficiently come to grips with how aspects of Christian theology and tradition are implicated in the Western capitalist development model which has led to so much ecological ruin, not to mention the ecological disasters left by communist regimes.”

Shake-up or `Coup D’Etat’ in Jewish Community?

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s national Jewish organizations are being overhauled in a sweeping bid to streamline and intensify advocacy for Israel and the battle against domestic anti-Semitism.


The birth of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, or CIJA, was announced Sept. 30 as part of a shake-up of Canada’s Jewish fund-raising and pro-Israel groups.

The new entity, to be put in place in the next three months, will act as a kind of governing council that will set overall policies and manage the budgets and activities of the Canadian Jewish Congress, which lobbies on domestic issues, the Canada-Israel Committee, which advocates for Israel.

United Israel Appeal Federations Canada, the umbrella of Jewish fund-raising groups, is to implement the new super-structure over the next month with the various groups involved.

But not everyone is welcoming the new effort. Some say it was created behind closed doors, and represents a hostile takeover by well-heeled members of the community.

It was established by a self-appointed group of 15 of Canada’s most powerful and best-known Jewish business personas, who formed an “Israel Emergency Cabinet” around 18 months ago. Members included media mogul Israel Asper, who died unexpectedly Oct. 7; Gerald Schwartz, CEO of the takeover firm Onex Corp.; Larry Tannenbaum, co-owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team; and financier Brent Belzberg.

That led some in Canada’s Jewish community to fear that the new group represented an undemocratic takeover by millionaires.


One longtime observer of the Jewish scene, who did not wish to be identified, described the changes to the Toronto Star as a “coup d’etat” by powerful financial interests who “are used to getting their way.”

Language Consultation on Yom Kippur Raises Hackles

MONTREAL (RNS) A public consultation on a major revamping of the federal government’s policy on bilingualism in Canada was held on Yom Kippur because it was the only date the nine cabinet ministers involved could be together, a federal spokesperson tells the Canadian Jewish News.

Lise Jolicoeur said her office believed it had accommodated the holiday by scheduling the session on the status of English in Quebec from 7 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 6. The first session, on the status of French outside Quebec, was held from 3 to 5 p.m., she said.

“The Jewish community was asked, and it said they had no problem with that time,” she said. Jolicoeur could not be specific on who exactly in the Jewish community was asked, but she was told that Jewish individuals taking part accepted the compromise because it was after sundown.

Jolicoeur said the date of Oct. 6 had been set at least two months in advance and is was not until it drew near that her office realized it conflicted with Yom Kippur.

David Birnbaum, executive director of Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec region, said the government showed “a certain level of insensitivity in holding (this event) on the solemnest day on the Jewish calendar. It shouldn’t have happened.”


Birnbaum said about 70 percent of Quebec Jews are anglophones, and thus have an interest in the action plan as members of a minority-language group.

Jewish Group Withdraws from Interfaith Meet

VANCOUVER (RNS) A Jewish student group has withdrawn its support for an interfaith conference after conference organizers asked city council member Tim Stevenson not to host the discussion because he is gay, reports the Vancouver Sun.

Stevenson, who is also a United Church minister, had been scheduled to host the Oct. 7 conference, “The Existence of God and Human Suffering,” at the University of British Columbia. It has been organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at of B.C., an Islamic group.

Last month, Farhan Shaheen, writing on behalf of the Muslim group, withdrew Stevenson’s invitation.

“Upon further investigation, we do not believe that he will be an appropriate representative for the ideals we are trying to promote,” Shaheen wrote.

In a letter to the organizers, the Hillel Foundation _ a Jewish student group _ said it will not participate in the conference because of the decision to exclude Stevenson.

“The purpose of this conference … was to promote understanding and foster good relations between different religious groups,” wrote Alice Baum, director of programming for Hillel.


“Councillor Stevenson is an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada. By rescinding his invitation, you are judging another religion’s right to ordain whomsoever it deems fit, the very antithesis of what your conference hopes to promote.”

Hindus Upset at Nude Photo of Goddess

TORONTO (RNS) Canadian Hindus have expressed outrage at the Toronto Star after the paper ran a photograph depicting the goddess Durga nude.

Hindus and other Indians blasted the photograph as “blasphemous.”

The Reuters photo, which accompanied a story on the annual five-day Hindu festival of Durga Puja, showed an Indian craftsman putting finishing touches to a sculpture of the 10-armed deity, which was shown nude.

The Indian activist group IndiaCause said Reuters had made available four photographs of Durga to its subscribers _ three of them depicting the Goddess of Power in “a decent and clothed manner.”

“Were they taking a picture for `religious’ purposes or for a porn Web site? Is this an error? No! An intentional effort to defame the Indian community,” the group’s Web site says.

The group wondered whether the Star or Reuters “would dare to publish a nude picture of Virgin Mary on Christmas Day.”


A column by Star ombudsman Don Sellar said the paper was “sorry if this representation of the goddess offended some readers. It was unintentional.”

The paper conceded it didn’t understand the idol would never appear unclothed.

“Still, it’s a reminder that matters of faith are delicate. Editors need to guard against insensitivity.”

Canadian Forces Have New Chaplain General

OTTAWA (RNS) The Canadian Forces (CF) have appointed a new chaplain general.

The installation of Brigadier General Ronald Bourque was celebrated Sept. 28 at Orleans United Church in Ottawa.

“Our role is to provide spiritual leadership to the men and women of the CF and their families,” said Bourque. “Through ecumenical and interfaith cooperation chaplains ensure that the spiritual needs of all members of the CF, regardless of belief or religious persuasion, are met.”

The installation ceremony was celebrated jointly by the Interfaith Committee on the Canadian Military Chaplaincy and the Department of National Defence.

The office of the chaplain general alternates between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant chaplain every two years to ensure “ecclesiastical integrity.”


Bourque, a Roman Catholic chaplain, replaces Commodore Timothy Maindonald, who is Anglican.

Baptist Denomination Marks 50 Years

GUELPH, Ontario (RNS) The 50th anniversary of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada will be marked Oct. 21.

The milestone will commemorate the 1953 merger of the Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches of Canada and the Union of Regular Baptist Churches of Ontario and Quebec.

Today, the FEBCC comprises about 500 autonomous local churches.

The anniversary will also be the key focus of the denomination’s National Convention 2003, scheduled for Nov. 3-6 at the International Plaza Hotel in Toronto.

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