PARL Alert - Thursday, November 22, 2007

[Stan]

In this issue:

Que. archbishop asks forgiveness for church's sins

Conservative Anglicans pull out of Canadian church

Muslim baggage screener files complaint after suspension for long skirt

Conscientious Objectors

Que. archbishop asks forgiveness for church's sins

Updated Wed. Nov. 21 2007 2:04 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The archbishop of Quebec City is seeking forgiveness for the Catholic Church's handling of sex scandals and its treatment of minorities.

Marc Cardinal Ouellet issued a wide-ranging mea culpa Wednesday, admitting that "errors were committed" in the past by certain Catholics and other church officials.

Ouellet's open letter was published in Quebec newspapers today and addressed attitudes prior to 1960 that he said favoured "anti-Semitism, racism, indifference to First Nations and discrimination against women and homosexuals.''

Ouellet also spoke about sexual abuse carried out by priests.

"Youngsters were subject to sexual aggression by priests,'' the letter reads.

"These scandals shook the confidence of the people towards religious authorities, and we understand them. Forgive us for all this pain!''

Bruno Roy, chairman of the committee that represents the Duplessis Orphans, told The Canadian Press that the letter was a blatant attempt to bolster the church's waning influence.

The Duplessis Orphans were children born to unwed mothers in 1940s and 1950s, during the time of then-premier Maurice Duplessis.

The children were taken in by the Roman Catholic Church and even though they were normal, they were deemed mentally deficient, so the church could get hefty government grants.

"It is time to take stock and make a fresh start," Ouellet wrote in the letter. "Mistakes have been made which have tarnished the image of the Church and for which I humbly ask forgiveness."

He said the church will seek repentance publicly during Lent.

Ouellet, once considered a possible successor to Pope John Paul, is considered to be among the highest ranking Roman Catholic officials in Canada.

In the past, Ouellet has spoken out on the issue of same-sex marriage, calling it a threat to religious freedom.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st...?hub=TopStories

Conservative Anglicans pull out of Canadian church

Randall Palmer

Reuters

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A group of conservative Anglicans has started pulling out of the Canadian organization and putting themselves under the authority of the main Anglican branch in South America, as more sections of the Anglican Church of Canada move toward blessing gay marriages.

The first move happened on Friday when retired Bishop Donald Harvey left the Anglican Church of Canada and became a full-time bishop of the more conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas.

On Thursday, he will outline plans to enable conservative Anglican congregations in Canada to join the Southern Cone under his episcopal oversight.

"Because of the unabated theological decay in the Anglican Church of Canada, many long-time Anglicans have already left their church and left Anglicanism," Bishop Harvey said in a statement.

"We want to provide a fully Anglican option -- a safety net -- for others who feel their church has abandoned them and who are contemplating taking the same action."

The move prompted sharp protests from the Anglican Church of Canada against what it regards as unwelcome intrusions onto North American territory.

"We cannot recognize the legitimacy of recent actions by the (Anglican) Province of the Southern Cone in purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders," the Anglican Church of Canada said in a swift reaction over the weekend.

"We call upon the archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) to make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism."

Bishop Harvey said yesterday that 18 to 20 Canadian congregations were considering joining the Southern Cone.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=abb62877-61d6-4cf6-b00e-f03382f38d98

Muslim baggage screener files complaint after suspension for long skirt

Allison Hanes, National Post

Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007

An observant Muslim woman has filed a human rights complaint after being suspended without pay from her job screening passengers and baggage at Pearson International Airport, for lengthening her skirt out of religious conviction.

Halima Muse, 33, felt the standard-issue knee-length skirt was not modest enough. So after five years of feeling ill-at-ease working in slacks, she made herself an ankle-length skirt out of nearly identical navy blue material and wore it for almost seven months before catching the eye of an operations manager.

On Aug. 11, Ms. Muse was sent home and has not been allowed to return to the job she held for almost six years with private security firm Garda, X-raying hand luggage and waving a metal detector over travellers. Garda is contracted by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA).

Yesterday, Ms. Muse filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging discrimination.

"I practise my religion and I have to wear a skirt because it's a religious issue," she said.

"It's not that I like it. I have to - it's my religion."

Ms. Muse, a single mother of a 14-year-old son, does not understand why the permission she is seeking is such a big deal when some of her colleagues hem their skirts shorter, and such religious garb as turbans, kippas and headscarves is permitted as part of the uniform.

Ms. Muse's union and the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) are also perplexed. Both groups are supporting Ms. Muse's fight.

Ed Hawrysh, a trustee with the Teamsters local 847, said the union filed a grievance with Garda, but CATSA determines uniform policy.

"Look at the RCMP," Mr. Hawrysh said. "If the national police force can accommodate that type of religious belief, I can't understand why CATSA can't do something even simpler. We're talking about a skirt. This is an issue in CATSA where they've made a decision and they're not prepared to move, right, wrong or otherwise. I think it's totally ridiculous."

James Robbins, Ms. Muse's lawyer, said the courts have repeatedly ruled in favour of accommodating minority religious rights as long as the concession is reasonable and does not constitute an undue hardship for others.

"It's seems pretty reasonable to let the poor woman lower her hemline a few inches," he said. "The accommodation she's looking for is trivial from CATSA's perspective."

Garda, the private security firm, says it was just enforcing CATSA's rules in suspending Ms. Muse, and even approached the agency to find out if it would make an allowance for her longer skirt.

"What they came back with was that they felt that the current policy they had with those alternatives addressed the concern that she had, and so for that reason they were not making a change to the policy for a longer skirt length," Garda spokesman Joe Gavaghan said.

"The situation we find ourselves in is that when you have a contract with a customer, which is what CATSA is, you have to fulfill the requirements that they set forth."

Yesterday, a representative for CATSA said this is the first time the agency has dealt with a request for more modesty since the uniform for screening officers was unveiled in 2003.

"It's important to stress the importance of the uniform and uniformity. The reason it was rolled out was to have a credible and professional corporate identity," spokeswoman Anna-Karina Tabunar said. "We're treating it not just as an issue of a new skirt, we're treating it as a broader issue, a policy issue, and as such CATSA has to gather all the facts to evaluate the different aspects of the request and the impact it's going to have on CATSA's uniform and uniform policy."

She did say for the first time yesterday that CATSA is prepared to ensure Ms. Muse "will not be financially penalized" as the organization contemplates her request.

"If the screening officer and the screening service provider come to an arrangement, then CATSA will provide the money," Ms. Tabunar said.

Mihad Fahmy, a human rights lawyer with CAIR-CAN, said that whereas turbans worn by Sikhs were the flashpoint in a debate over public expressions of religious freedom a decade ago, the dress of some Muslim women is often the focal point of discussion today.

"I think part of it has to do with the public's perception about Muslim women and about the hijab," Ms. Fahmy said. "I think a lot of it is not about safety concerns or business interests. I think a lot of the reaction has to do with assumptions about whether [the] hijab fits within modern society."

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news...3ea&k=36231

NOTE: Apparently Halima Muse has come to some arrangement with her employer that will allow her to continue working until the uniform policy gets - shall we say "ironed out."

Conscientious Objectors At War Time

I am currently researching Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objectors in the Canadian military. If you or a family member was a military conscientious objector please forward to me their story. My email is bbussey@sdacc.org.