Feature Series

Dufferin-Peel adds disclaimer to Golden Compass

crstaff@catholicregister.org (Catholic Register Staff) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:12:18 -0500

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Where Halton opted for a ban, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has decided to go with a note.

Iraqi children find a home in Toronto school

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:30:54 -0400

TORONTO - Like most refugees in Canada, Khulood Jarjass appreciates her new homeland for its relative safety, the freedom, the opportunity to dream again of a future for herself and her family. But what really excites the mother of three and former high school math teacher is a free Catholic education for her kids.

“When I heard in Canada it��Ƶapp free — Oh my God!” she said. “I was so happy.”

Her kids range in age from seven to 13, Grades 2 to 7, all in St. Andrew��Ƶapp in Toronto��Ƶapp Rexdale neighbourhood. The Jarjass kids spent a year-and-a-half in crowded Syrian classrooms with a mass of other refugee students. Their teachers couldn’t help but look at the Iraqi students as an added burden and the Syrian kids saw the Iraqis as invaders in their schools. Syrian and Iraqi kids fought in and out of the classrooms.

Ontario bishops eager to consult on sex-ed curriculum

sheilad@catholicregister.org (Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:01:02 -0400

TORONTO - Ontario's Catholic bishops, teachers and trustees say they're eager to co-operate with the education ministry as it revamps the province's controversial sex education curriculum.

A joint statement issued April 28 by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association, said the three groups look forward to participating in a review that was announced earlier in the week by Premier Dalton McGuinty. A new province-wide sex-ed curriculum that was to launch in September was sent back to the drawing board by McGuinty following howls of protest from several parent groups.

School board pulls support for HPV vaccination

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:22:45 -0400

{mosimage}BURLINGTON, Ont. - Catholic Grade 8 students in Oakville, Burlington and surrounding areas won't be vaccinated on school property against a virus that causes cervical cancer. voted 5-4 to reverse last year's decision to host public health nurses giving the Gardasil shot against HPV to girls whose parents have requested it.

Province-wide teacher negotiations a no-go

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:00:39 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - Just because provincial education bureaucrats and top union officials are sitting down together in meeting rooms talking about wages and benefits with an eye toward another four-year deal doesn’t mean Ontario has embraced province-wide bargaining with teachers’ unions, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

Teachers need to form future leaders

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:58:23 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - Senator Romeo Dallaire wants teachers to save Canada. According to the retired general who led United Nations peacekeepers during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the only thing that can save this country from cynicism, apathy and petty regionalism is leadership.

Catholic system is here to stay

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:55:40 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne put a positive spin on the bitter debate over confessional education during the fall election campaign in a speech to Catholic teachers at their annual union meeting in Toronto March 9.

Neil McNeil celebrates 50 years of Spiritan way

carolyng@catholicregister.org (Carolyn Girard, The Catholic Register) — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:13:33 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - Fifty years have passed since Irish priests from the founded an all-boys’ Catholic school in Toronto��Ƶapp east end.

Deal guarantees school labour peace in Ontario

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:52:16 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - The union representing Ontario��Ƶapp Catholic teachers and the association for Catholic trustees have signed off on a new, province-wide framework agreement aimed at four more years of labour peace in the province��Ƶapp schools.

School board chair vows to stay on

mikes@catholicregister.org (Michael Swan, The Catholic Register) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:09:58 -0400

{mosimage}TORONTO - Major newspapers, the Peterborough-and-area Catholic school board and hundreds of parents have called on Toronto��Ƶapp Catholic school trustees to resign. But board chair Catherine Leblanc-Miller rejects the calls.

“If I am resigning... it will be because of the impact of all of this on my family,” she told The Catholic Register. “It will be because of the countless hours over recent weeks and months that I have neglected my family. It will not be because of any shame I feel.”