NEWS DIGEST: Religion in Canada

c. 2003 Religion News Service More Anglican Dioceses Ratify Sex Abuse Settlement OTTAWA (RNS) The residential schools accord aimed at settling a host of sex abuse cases has been ratified by more than half of the dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada amid a comprehensive information campaign by church leaders seeking parishioners’ support of […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

More Anglican Dioceses Ratify Sex Abuse Settlement


OTTAWA (RNS) The residential schools accord aimed at settling a host of sex abuse cases has been ratified by more than half of the dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada amid a comprehensive information campaign by church leaders seeking parishioners’ support of the $25 million settlement fund.

The Anglican Journal reports that as of Jan. 20 (Monday), 18 of 30 dioceses had ratified the agreement with the federal government, which caps Anglican liability at $25 million for any proven abuses suffered by native people in the national boarding school system run jointly by Ottawa and the Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches.

The remaining Anglican dioceses have scheduled special synods, or meetings, to consider the voluntary contributions. General Synod, the church’s national office, is committed to a contribution of $3 million to the fund.

Islamic Groups Oppose War

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s two largest Islamic organizations have strongly urged the federal government to dissociate this country from American war plans against Iraq.

An open letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien states that “with or without United Nations approval, President Bush’s ill-advised war will threaten hopes of world peace for years to come. Please, Mr. Prime Minister, don’t send Canadians to die for the rich and powerful.”

The letter is signed by the Canadian Islamic Congress and the Islamic Society of North America, Canada. The two groups are among more than 30 Canadian nongovernmental organizations, including Canada’s main Christian churches, that oppose Canada’s support of an “inhumane” American invasion of Iraq.

Legal Spat Highlights Hutterite World

CALGARY, Alberta (RNS) A legal battle between members of a small Alberta Hutterite colony has shone a light on the practices of the secretive religious sect.

Jonathan Waldner, 57, and his wife, Anna, have been “shunned” _ excluded _ by members of the Ponderosa Hutterite Colony, 240 kilometres southeast of Calgary, for reaching to outside courts to settle an internal dispute.

A front-page story in the Jan. 20 Globe and Mail reports that the Waldners are refusing to leave the colony and have become virtual shut-ins in their apartment.


The case goes back to the early 1990s, when the Waldners were shunned following an internal power struggle and allegations of assault and harassment.

This month, an Alberta judge ordered the colony to reinstate the couple and allow them to stay. The Waldners says they want to remain because they have nowhere else to go, but concede they are isolated, even from family members, and live as though they were under house arrest.

The case has lifted the veil on the isolated and intensely private community, one of an estimated 295 Hutterite colonies in Canada.

Baptisms Declared Invalid

MONTREAL (RNS) The baptisms of nearly 300 children at a Roman Catholic parish in Pointe-Calumet, a small town north of here, have been declared invalid because they weren’t performed properly.

For the past several years, the diocese of St-Jerome has been quietly contacting the families of 295 children, offering to rebaptize them. Starting in 1991, the lay person who officiated mistakenly let the parents pour holy water on their children’s foreheads while she pronounced blessings.

Now, the families have been told that this was an erroneous procedure and that the same person should have performed both acts. The Catholic church does not require that person to be a priest.


No one noticed the problem until 1996.

A Catholic authority, the Rev. Dan Donovan, told the Globe and Mail the parents of the affected children needn’t worry.

“In the old days, people used to think that if a little child wasn’t baptized and died before reaching the age of reason, he wouldn’t be able to go to heaven. It’s no longer part of contemporary Catholic faith,” he said.

Spying Against Accused’s Faith

TORONTO (RNS) A Hamilton, Ontario man convicted of terrorist links in France has told an extradition hearing he refused requests by two Canadian Security and Intelligence Service agents to act as an informer because it was against his Islamic faith to spy on fellow Muslims.

“I am not made for this,” Moroccan-born Abdellah Ouzghar, 38, testified he told two men he believed were secret service agents during their visit to his Montreal apartment in 1996.

Ouzghar told the Ontario Supreme Court he was asked by the agents to help them establish contact with Algerians in Montreal.

“I feel they were asking me to spy,” Ouzghar told the court. He said he could not cooperate “because my religion forbids me to spy on Muslims and I have the proof and it’s in the Quran.”


The court was told that the verse in the Quran says, “Spy not.”

Hasidim Fight to Save Bus Service

MONTREAL (RNS) This city’s Hasidic community is fighting to preserve the almost-daily charter bus service between Montreal and New York it has run for the past 20 years, reports the Canadian Jewish News.

The two major bus companies serving that route, Greyhound Inc. and Adirondack Transit Lines Inc., have told the Quebec Transport Commission that Tov Travel is infringing on their rights to provide scheduled service and is competing unfairly because it does not have a commercial license.

The Hasidim, who have strong business and family ties to New York, say they must have transportation that respects their religious and cultural needs. These include separate seating for men and women, schedules that respect prayer times, and only kosher food on board. The community is asking for a permanent permit to continue to regularly charter buses to New York.

The big bus companies say regular intercity service is their domain, and chartered service to New York is allowed only on an occasional basis. Public hearings on the dispute are expected to resume this month.

Native Healing Circle Suggested

TORONTO (RNS) A national Jewish organization has proposed halting the hate-crimes investigation into the anti-Semitic comments of a prominent aboriginal leader if he agrees to participate in native healing and sentencing circles, reports the National Post.

Leaders of B’nai B’rith Canada and the Assembly of First Nations said earlier this month that native restorative justice is preferable to criminal proceedings in the David Ahenakew affair.


Last month, Ahenakew, former chief of the Assembly of First Nations and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, referred to Jews as a “disease” and said Adolf Hitler was right when he “fried” 6 million of them.

Chris Axworthy, the attorney general of Saskatchewan, asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate after B’nai B’rith complained that Ahenakew’s rant constituted a hate crime.

Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith Canada, said the organization will let Axworthy know of its reversal “to ensure that the sentencing procedures and the healing process of the aboriginal people be the one that is pursued in this case.”

A sentencing circle is usually led by elders who decide on a punishment to restore balance and harmony in a relationship. In a healing circle, the offender speaks directly with victims. In this case, it could mean Holocaust survivors and Jewish leaders.

Pointed Questions About Raelians

TORONTO (RNS) One of Canada’s most influential financial journalists is asking a lot of pointed questions about the charitable status of the Raelians and its leader, Claude Vorilhon.

The sect, which is a recognized church in Quebec, has been in the limelight for its claims to have cloned three human babies.


Writing in the Jan. 16 National Post, Diane Francis called on Canadian police and tax authorities to investigate the status of the group “in light of the questionable claims made by (Vorilhon) and his fanatics.”

“So should Canada’s hapless immigration and citizenship system that let this unacceptable French man into Canada, despite his track record in France, then let him become a Canadian citizen?”

Francis called on Canadian authorities to probe how the “cult” became a nonprofit charity that can issue tax receipts “in return for donations at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.”

Other “public interest issues involving this nutbar and his ilk” include whether there are grounds for Vorhilon’s deportation; whether the group has ever received government assistance; and whether children in the church are being supervised, protected and educated, she wrote.

In related news, the Raelians this week denied offering a small Quebec political party $1 million to run candidates in the next election after the president of the Parti Democrate du Quebec claimed the group offered the donation.

DEA END CSILLAG

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