News

The Catholic school board in Hamilton Ontario has refused to participate in the UNICEF spawned National Elections for the Rights of Youth. The public school board in the area is also considering banning the vote after concerned parents expressed their view to the board noting that the children are being involved in partisan political activities that foster antagonism between parents and children.  New Hazelton Elementary School in British Columbia has suspended three boys indefinitely after their parents refused to allow them to attend a mandatory “cultural awareness” course because of opposition to the way they taught native spirituality. (The National Post)

The Catholic Register reports that last month the Supreme Court of Canada agreed that Catholic schools may give preference to Catholics in hiring teachers. A part of a 1985 law,  which took effect in 1995, banned preferential hiring for Catholics but the courts ruled the section of the law void since Catholic teachers were essential to Catholic schooling. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, unsuccessfully appealed the ruling to both the Ontario Court of Appeals and finally the Supreme Court. 

Catholic World News reported yesterday that Scotland is on the road to euthanasia with a proposed bill (Adults with Incapacity Bill) that raises the possibility of patients being deprived of food and fluids at the insistence of a relative empowered to make that decision. (EWTN)