Writing, for me, is both a part of how I make my living and how I make sense of my living. My summer reading has coincidentally connected around a theme that, in the end, a life is just a collection of stories.

“For a nation seemingly set on making people have babies, we sure don’t want to invest in them.”

Knife job

The editorial, “Pick a faith lane” slyly slipped a stiletto into the theological integrity of Pope Francis.

The moment of humility and contrition Pope Francis ushers in with his visit to Canada may seem an unpropitious time to remind ourselves how great we art.

Hopes are high Pope Francis’ visit to Canada will bring about the reconciliation that leads to healing and restoration for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples alike. The Pontiff������Ƶapp visit follows on the heels of his meeting with an Indigenous delegation in the Vatican at the end of March.

The protection of persecuted Christians (and other faith minorities) is not at the summit of the Canadian government������Ƶapp priorities. This was glaringly obvious to me as I attended the Summit on International Religious Freedom, hosted recently in Washington by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Remember that old expression, “you are like the dog that caught the car?” It������Ƶapp what you say to someone who has focused so much on achieving a certain goal that they never thought about what they would do if successful. 

As a bilingual person I have often written about the joys and dangers of “linguistic passing.” Depending on where I found myself, I could remove or change my accent — speaking Québécois French when I needed to, Europeanizing my French on occasion and then making my French tones disappear in an English context. My goal was to disguise my origins if I sensed hostility, back when linguistic tensions were at their worse in la belle province. I confess to thinking that this was unique to Canada so was surprised to discover, as I travelled to over 50 countries, that virtually every place has a version of this, with dialects, patois, accents and more, either strictly regulated, judged or celebrated.

Government watch

In his June 26 article “Canada flagged for religious freedom watch list,” Quinton Amundson explains why some Ohio lawmakers want to add Canada to a list of countries in which religious freedom is at risk. The concern arose from repeated pandemic-related closure of places of worship in 2020 and 2021.

Canadians and their southern cousins who see the overturning of Roe v. Wade as tragic would do well to carefully consider where the tragedy truly lies.