TORONTO – Education Minister Paul Calandra continues to mystify public observers with his observations and actions in Education, six months after he placed four school boards under supervision. He had won public approval when, following investigations (quick “financial audits” exercised by accounting firms) into the conduct of said boards. The investigators alleged mismanagement, questionable decision-making that placed the Boards’ financial health at risk and growing deficits as triggers for Ministry intervention…
GAZA – For the second consecutive Christmas, and the fourth time since the beginning of the conflict in Palestine, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa visited Gaza. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has been among the small Catholic community of the Holy Family Parish throughout the pre-Christmas weekend, once again expressing the Church’s closeness to the Christians of the Strip (fewer than 1,000 out of over 2 million inhabitants), who have been hard-pressed by two years of war and forced to live in harsh conditions and with uncertain prospects despite the ongoing truce. →
TORONTO – There was a time when the people of Rome were subjected to love advice from a career poet named Ovid. His seduction manual “Art of Love” stirred up such a frenzy in its day, that the pious Emperor Augustus banished Ovid to the Black Sea. A harsh sentencing for the erudite poet, over some lurid love advice. How, I wonder, would Augustus have reacted to what today’s Italians are being subjected to on dating reality shows…
TORONTO – Canada’s population has declined sharply following the immigration crackdown, according to Statistics Canada’s preliminary third-quarter report. The Canadian population stood at 41,575,585 as of October 1, a decline of approximately 76,000 from July. The reason: a sharp decline in non-permanent residents, whose number fell by 176,479, the largest decline since comparable records began, the agency noted. →
BRAMPTON – The city of Brampton, home to Canada’s largest Indian community, has become a real powder keg. On one side, criminal groups like the Bishnoi Gang (an Indian organization listed as a “terrorist entity” by the Canadian government last September, as we wrote here), and on the other, the creeping, latent, but constant “war” between Sikhs (particularly, the separatists seeking independence for their region, Khalistan, from India) and Hindus, have made Brampton a high-risk place, where crimes of all kinds are increasingly occurring. And for this reason—while not naming any of the ethnic groups—Mayor Patrick Brown has decided to take up pen and paper and write to both the federal and provincial governments to ask for help.
