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Email: "UK, Canada Ran Neck and Neck in 2006 Race to Exterminate Religious Freedom"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By John-Henry Westen   TORONTO, January 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The UK wins for the most bizarre case of religious repression in 2006 with the case of the banning of hot cross buns as offensive religious symbols.  Oaks Primary School in Ipswich, insisted the two strips of decorative icing intersecting in the middle be removed as they might offend Jehovah’s Witnesses who attend the school.  UNIVERSITIES  However, Canadian Universities, those institutions of higher learning which were once thought of as "bastions of freedom", have outdone their UK counterparts in anti-Christian bigotry.    A Cape Breton University (CBU) professor is the target of a human rights complaint by a homosexual student.  Comments posted by the professor at his private web site critical of the Anglican Church of Canada for its permissive and condoning stand in relation to same-sex "marriage" are the cause of the complaint.  The University of Saskatchewan student newspaper, The Sheaf, published a cartoon depicting Jesus performing oral sex on a pig with the caption reading, "Go on, it’s ok, it’s kosher if you don’t swallow".  The decision to publish the outrageously offensive "Capitalist Piglet" cartoon came after the same newspaper refused to print cartoons mocking Mohammed out of respect for Islam.  Similarly the University of Toronto Victoria College newspaper The Sheaf used the Islamic cartoon controversy to dream up a cartoon offending Christians and Muslims simultaneously.  Accompanying an article on the cartoon controversy, the paper published a cartoon of its own depicting Jesus smooching with Mohammed in the "Tolerance Tunnel".   The University of Toronto also forbade its campus pro-life club from including its materials in ‘frosh’ kits for incoming students while at the same time allowing controversial materials from the homosexual club.  Two universities in Canada banned pro-life clubs in 2006.  At the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia the student union refused to use the normal procedure to grant pro-life students official club status and insisted on a vote on the matter by the student body.  The vote was a sham however since only official groups were allowed to publicize about the vote on campus, the official group in question was the pro-abortion women’s group.    A couple of weeks later, the student union at Carleton University in Ottawa approved a motion forbidding support for any displays or events "that seek to limit or remove a woman’s options in the event of pregnancy."    At Ryerson University in Toronto there was an uproar over the granting of an award to ethicist Margaret Somerville.  The award to the highly credentialed ethicist, said the University in the wake of the kafuffle, would have been reconsidered had the university known of the honoree’s slight deviation from support of same-sex ‘marriage’.  Somerville supported legally equivalent same-sex civil unions rather than altering the traditional definition of marriage.   Somerville dared to step away from the strictly orthodox line of the homosexual political agenda, making a presentation to Parliament opposing changing the definition of marriage. Somerville supports the recognition of homosexual partnerings in a legally equivalent "civil union."  The CBC reported this morning that the university administration said they would have reconsidered granting Somerville the award had they known of her views.  The Toronto Star reports that the committee responsible for the award has said that had they known of Somerville’s stand against same-sex "marriage" it would have resulted in giving them "serious pause before approving the award."  Not to be outdone, Scotland’s University of Edinburgh officials banned students with the Christian Union from holding a six-week course teaching abstinence on campus grounds saying it was "contradictory to our equality and diversity values."  INDOCTRINATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN  In the province of Quebec, the government ordered private Christian schools to teach sex education and Darwin’s theory of evolution or else face closure.  In British Columbia it was revealed that the Ministry of Education had legally signed over to two homosexual activists unprecedented curriculum review powers.  The province signed the settlement contract with the gay couple after the couple launched a human rights complaint in 1999 which alleged "systemic sexual discrimination" in the classroom with implementation beginning last year.    Also in British Columbia, the public Teachers’ Federation urged that the province stop financing independent faith-based schools, arguing that the institutions teach religious intolerance.  On its website, the teacher’s federation published lesson plans for children promoting homosexuality based on the movie ‘Brokeback Mountain.’  In the UK a new policy was put in place ensuring all schools - primary and secondary - would have nurses to dispense contraceptives to schoolchildren and refer girls for secret abortions.  Also a Catholic school in Scotland was fined £2,000 since it forbade an atheist teacher from applying to be ‘acting principal teacher of pastoral care.’  Christian girls in various schools in England were barred from wearing crucifix chains and Christian-themed rings signifying a pledge to remain chaste until marriage.  RESTRICTIONS ON CHRISTIANS IN THE MARKETPLACE  The UK seems to have bested its former colony in this category in 2006.  A new UK law prohibits restaurants from preventing homosexuals from public displays of affection under pain of prosecution. The same law mandates that bed and breakfasts and hotels give rooms to same-sex couples or face legal backlash.  Andrew McClintock, a Christian and an 18 year veteran in magistrate court on the South Yorkshire Bench, is suing the British Department for Constitutional Affairs for discrimination against his religious beliefs.  McClintock says that he had no option but to resign when his superiors told him that he would not be permitted to refuse to place children in adoptive homes with homosexual parents.  New guidelines for doctors unveiled by the Labour Government forced doctors to comply with euthanasia directives.  Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor of England warned doctors that they may face prison sentences if they refuse to starve and dehydrate patients to death by removal of food and hydration tube. "If you are satisfied that an advance decision exists which is valid and applicable, then not to abide by it could lead to a legal claim for damages or a criminal prosecution for assault," he warned.  Nine firemen in Glasgow Scotland were disciplined for their refusal to represent the fire department at a gay pride event.  Meanwhile in Canada one of the largest unions, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) denied the request of Susan Comstock to divert her union dues to a charity, a request she made on the grounds that PSAC’s open support of Bill C-38, the bill to legalize gay marriage, went against Ms. Comstock’s personal beliefs.    An internationally noted Catholic doctor in Canada, Dr. Robert Walley, also went public with the fact that doctors who refuse to perform abortion in Canada are pressured to quit their practices.    Finally, a Manitoba marriage commissioner who lost his licence when he refused to perform homosexual "marriages" took his case to court last year.  ATTACKS ON CHRISTIAN CLERGY OR INSTITUTIONS  In South Wales, Stephen Green, national director of the evangelical organization Christian Voice, was arrested for handing leaflets entitled "Same-sex love - same-sex sex: What does the Bible say?" to festival goers attending the homosexual celebration held in Bute Park.  In Canada a Catholic hospital in the province of Saskatchewan faced legal threat for discontinuing elective tubal ligations, a procedure which is forbidden by the Catholic faith when it is performed for contraceptive purposes. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-canada-ran-neck-and-neck-in-2006-race-to-exterminate-religious-freedom/

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