TORONTO (RNS) If it passes a second reading, the Canadian church will join the Episcopal Church, which formally approved marriage ceremonies regardless of gender in 2015.

TORONTO (RNS) The ruling is the third legal defeat for Canada’s Conservative government on the Muslim face veil, which has become a hot-button issue in the Oct. 19 federal election.

TORONTO (RNS) The Rev. Gretta Vosper, known as the “atheist minister,” is back in the news now that a church panel will soon begin a review process to determine whether she should be removed from the pulpit.

(RNS) Lawmakers seek a $2 million for an “anti-radicalization center” in Montreal, and limit public employees and people seeiking public services from covering their faces.

(RNS) Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in Toronto this week held its sixth annual Blessing of the Bikes — a type of local event that has become more common as a growing number of churches consider the idea that protecting the environment is not just a scientific or political debate, but a spiritual one.

TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s top court ruled that the state must be neutral when it comes to religion.

TORONTO (RNS) “I believe, and I think most Canadians believe, that it is offensive that someone would hide their identity at the very moment where they are committing to join the Canadian family,” said Stephen Harper.

TORONTO (RNS) The “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act” would ban arranged marriages of minors and deport polygamists.

TORONTO (RNS) When the Aga Khan set out more than a decade ago to build a landmark museum to house his family’s collection of Islamic art, he wanted to locate it in London. When those plans fell through, he chose Toronto.

TORONTO (RNS) The open road is now closed for devout Sikh men who can’t fit a turban under a motorcycle helmet.

(RNS) In the warrants, according to reports by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a young woman in the sect said she was hit with a belt and a coat hanger. Another female, a pregnant 17-year-old, told nurses at a hospital she was beaten by her brother, sexually abused by her father and forced to marry a 30-year-old man when she was 15.

(RNS) The Feb. 2 decree from Archbishop Terrence Prendergast reminds the faithful that Catholics gather at funerals “not to praise the deceased, but to pray for them.”

TORONTO (RNS) An Ontario judge has ordered 13 children in an Orthodox Jewish sect into foster care in adjacent Quebec. But the judge stayed the order for 30 days to give the sect time to appeal.

TORONTO (RNS) Last month, about 150 members of the group Lev Tahor (“Pure Heart”) decamped from a village north of Montreal to Chatham, Ontario, about 200 miles southwest of Toronto. Comprising about 40 families, the sect fled just before a Quebec court ordered 14 children into foster care.

TORONTO (RNS) The measure would ban all “overt” and “conspicuous” religious headgear worn by public sector employees, including hijabs, yarmulkes and Sikh turbans, as well as large crosses and crucifixes.