Welcome to the Canadian National Multilingual News Group (CNMNG). This is a project made possible through funding by Canadian Heritage. CNMNG aims to gather news researched and written by a corps of Canadian-based journalists/writers from the country’s multilingual community groups. The overall goal is to inform, analyze and critique the issues of the day in a professional manner and to provide that to publishers and editors active in the ethnocultural-multilingual press and media whose experience provides them with a perspective that is sensitive to news relevant to their own language group.
AKWESASNE MOHAWK – The children, aged 1 and 2, both had Canadian passports and were baptized at the Romanian Orthodox Church of All Saints in Scarborough in June last year. The father, 28, worked in construction and cleaning and with his wife – the same age, both in Toronto since 2018 – frequented the parish community. But it wasn’t enough to stay in “welcoming” Canada, which expelled them. And they, in a desperate attempt to reach the United States to try to build a future for themselves, drowned in the St. Lawrence River.
TORONTO – One of our readers, Jean-Richard Pelland, sent us a comment about our article “OECTA ‘gender ideologues’ cast a pall over the YCDSB“, published on line on 29th March and on the newspaper on 30th March. We publish, below, his comment and the Publisher’s reply.
TORONTO – Canadians divided over public spending: what should the federal government focus on in the coming years? On a balanced budget or on aid for families and the economy? The Angus Reid Institute has tried to answer these questions with a survey, starting from a fact: after unprecedented spending during the pandemic, Canada has entered a phase of general crisis that borders on recession, with families in difficulty due to the rising cost of living, so much so that the federal government no longer foresees – as in the past – a balanced budget by 2028, but a deficit of 14 billion dollars in that same year. →
VATICAN CITY – “Today we ask for this grace: to know how to love Jesus forsaken and to know how to love Jesus in every one who is abandoned”. Strong words, with a clear reference to migrants, those pronounced today by Pope Francis in the homily of the Palm Sunday Mass in Vatican. A function that saw the Pope once again the protagonist, after the hospitalization that had worried the faithful from all over the world. →
OTTAWA – Finally the House of Commons of Canada has adopted the International Mother Language Day act after its third and final reading of the Bill S-214 (click here to read it) in the senate on March 30 evening local time, since it subsequently passed in the parliament on December 9, 2021.
TORONTO – Massacre in Nova Scotia: a report holds the RCMP to its responsibilities, listing a long series of omissions by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the occasion of the massacre that saw the death of twenty-two people in April 2020 (in the pic above; the last on the right is the killer, Gabriel Wortman). →
TORONTO – York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) no longer believes in its own Constitutionally mandated obligation to defend and promote the catholicity of its schools. Both the Director (Domenic Scuglia) and the Chair (Frank Alexander) have ceded responsibility for that to the teachers’ union, OECTA and its local president, a certain Mike Totten.
VAUGHAN – Great success for the first lunch sponsored by the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce with the new Mayor Steven Del Duca: 1,200 people attended the event, today, at the Terrace Banquet Center to hear the Mayor’s political programme, which is based mainly on the improvement of transport. A project divided into nine key-points, some of which already emerged in Del Duca’s intentions when he was provincial transport minister.
TORONTO – Canada is heading into a “mild” recession as high borrowing costs, an economic downturn in the United States and persistent inflation add to the country’s economic uncertainty, new research reveals. Deloitte Canada’s latest economic outlook, released Tuesday ahead of the federal budget, says tight monetary policy is set to constrict economic growth this year. But research suggests the recession won’t be as deep as previously expected, thanks to resilient labor markets, which keep incomes strong. →
TORONTO – Many teachers are paragons of virtue, examples and role models for the children under their care. They “serve” in loco parentis – our surrogates once we drop them off onto the school property. At a bare minimum, from them, we expect that they will impart values reflecting love of “learning” (critical analysis), a sense of responsibility, respect for the Law (and all that it entails) and commitment to the institutional vision of their employer… us, the parents of their students.
TORONTO – There is chaos at the York Catholic District School Board, where a real tug of war is underway between parents who do not want their children – still at an early age – to be subjected, “under the guise of inclusiveness”, to pressure on sexual orientations and the Board itself which, with trustees and teaching staff, goes in the exact opposite direction and wants to support initiatives in favor of the LGBTQ+ community. In the meeting of 28 February, two parents, Carlo Ravenna and Sheree Di Vittorio, expressed their concerns on the matter (“our children have the right to their innocence”, they said) and a climate of tension was created which culminated with the arrival of the police. Another meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, with four speeches (two for each “party”): Sheree herself had asked to be able to speak but was denied this possibility. Corriere Canadese asked her to send to the editorial office the speech she would have read and it will be published in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Italian newspaper. Here below is the speech in its entirety.
TORONTO – About 1,200 people attended the installation ceremony of the new Archbishop of Toronto, Frank Leo, in Saint Michael’s Cathedral in the city center on Saturday, about six weeks after the formal appointment by Pope Francis: Leo succeeds thus officially to Cardinal Thomas Collins, who tendered his resignation on his 75th birthday in January 2022 in accordance with a rule stipulating that all bishops must resign when they reach that age.
Leo said his appointment as Archbishop of Toronto was “a surprise, but a welcome one. I look forward to giving the rest of my life as a spiritual leader here from a symbolic and spiritual perspective. When you become a Bishop, you receive a ring and it is a spousal relationship”, Leo told Omni News. The Archbishop himself then underlined, among other things, the importance of the role played by Catholic schools, which he defined as “a gift”.
During his speech, Leo spoke also in Italian, to thank “the members of my family present here, as well as to my family members, friends, parishioners and faithful of the Italian community of Montreal who came here and then to those who follow us through social media”. And then again, speaking of the times of his enrollment in the seminary in Montreal, he recalled – also in Italian – the words addressed to him by Father Luigi Testa who, complimenting him on his choice, said to him: “There is nothing more better than giving your youth to the Lord”. “I can still hear him saying those words in Italian” said a very moved Leo.
Leo also emphasized his italian roots when he mentioned that he is “the son of Italian immigrants from the old country where respect, sacrifice, hard work, family, faith, and taking care of one another were and remain vital”.
Born in Montreal in 1971 to Italian immigrant parents (Francesco Leo and Rosa Valente), Leo entered the Grand Seminary of Montreal in 1990 and was ordained a priest for service to the city’s archdiocese in 1996. Leo has held various parish assignments in Montréal until 2006 when he accepted the invitation to enroll in the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome and subsequently in the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See (2006-2012), serving in various Apostolic Nunciatures around the world. In January 2012 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Chaplain of His Holiness giving him the title of Monsignor. Upon his return to Canada, Archbishop Leo joined the formation team of the Grand Séminaire de Montréal, teaching theology and philosophy and providing spiritual direction, formation and accompaniment to candidates for the priesthood. In the fall of 2015 he was appointed secretary general of the Canadian Episcopal Conference, a mandate which ended in the fall of 2021. Since 1 February 2022, Monsignor Leo has been appointed vicar general and moderator of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Montreal. On July 16, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Montreal. His consecration as bishop took place on September 12, 2022. He is now archbishop of Toronto.
His curriculum of studies is impressive: in addition to his in-depth university studies in Canon Law (Lateran University), Diplomacy and International Law, Archbishop Leo is also specialized in Systematic Theology, Mariology, Philosophy Classical Studies and Spiritual Direction. He has taught not only in Canada but also in Australia and the USA and speaks four languages: Italian, Spanish, English and French.
In the pics above: the new Archbishop of Toronto, Frank Leo, in Saint Michael’s Cathedral; in the pic below, Leo with Giordano Basilio (Publisher of the Italian newspaper “Cittadino Canadese”) and wife; at the bottom, the video of the ceremony
VANCOUVER – A noir story, set in Italy, written by a Canadian in love with the “Belpaese”: it’s called “Bernini’s Elephant” and it’s the debut novel by Jane Callen, a writer who lives in Vancouver but travels to Italy “every time the fate allows”. The beautiful country and its people are in fact often present in the writings of Jane, author so far of stories published in Grain Magazine, Montreal Writes, Spadina Literary Review, CV7 Short Fiction Anthology Series and White Wall Review, as well as essays published in Accenti Magazine (excerpts of her writings are at www.janecallen.ca). →
TORONTO – Han Dong has thrown in the towel. The deputy of Chinese origin who fell into the storm of “interference” announced his resignation from the Liberals, today, in tears (in the pic above): he will therefore sit in the House of Commons as an independent deputy. “I will continue to serve the residents of Don Valley North (in Toronto, where he was elected, ed.) as an independent member of this House. I am taking these extraordinary steps because sitting on the government caucus is a privilege and my presence could be seen as a conflict” Dong said, adding that he will work to clear his name in the meantime.
