Free Republic

Why Americans are more tolerant Canadians often consider themselves to be more tolerant than their "backwards" neighbours to the south. But is this simply a myth? - Pete Vere America taught me the hard way to value freedom of speech. Even speech that is hateful and abhorrent, provided it does not incite violence, should be allowed in free and open democracy. Like every other Canadian who grew up during the 1980's and 90's, my concept of ‘freedom of expression’ was vague. It was something contained in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet I was taught to subject this freedom...

Screwtape toasts the Commission My dear Luciwa, While I hope you will continue to consider me your uncle, I note you have broken up with my incompetent nephew Wormwood. Our family never understood what you saw with the lazy oaf; we always knew you were capable of much worse. And worse you have! Your cunning has sharpened since leaving the isle for its scion between the seas. The breakup and the change in scenery have obviously renewed your vigor as a temptress. Particularly noteworthy are the new commissions and tribunals you have concocted as head of The Republican Underworld Defense’s...

CHRC Spokesman Will Not Say if Christian Teaching on Sexuality is “Hate” Calgary Bishop Henry says "we're into a new form of censorship and thought control, and the commissions are being used as thought police.” By Hilary White OTTAWA, May 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A spokesman for the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has refused to say whether Christian moral opposition to homosexual activity constitutes a “hate crime”. Pete Vere, a Catholic writer who has been working on the clashes between the Human Rights Commissions and Christians, asked Mark van Dusen, a media spokesman for the CHRC, “If one, because...

When the Catholic Church's sexual-misconduct scandal became nationwide front-page news six years ago, the Rev. Philip Lee Erickson of the Archdiocese of Louisville was just 34. The young priest had just obtained the canon-law license that would let him function as a lawyer within the church's internal legal system when the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in Boston and elsewhere, mostly against boys and young men, became widely reported in early 2002. "Newly ordained, as the saying goes, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Father Erickson told The Washington Times in a telephone interview.

Catholic prelates and traditionalists from around the world are gathering at St. Madeleine du Barroux monastery in France today for the funeral of Dom Gerard Calvet, the founder of the post-Vatican II traditional Benedictine movement. Father Calvet, whose influence in contemporary Catholic traditionalism trailed only that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, died Thursday at age 80. His health had been in sharp decline since he suffered a stroke in the late 1990s.

Sault Ste. Marie is home to the 49th Field Artillery Regiment - an active reserve unit with the Royal Canadian Artillery. (Full disclosure: Although I am writing in my civilian capacity as an editorialist, I happen to be a junior reserve officer with the regiment.) Local artillery soldiers are serving near the front-lines in Afghanistan as you read this, often coming under fire from the Taliban, and and using their artillery to provide cover to front-line soldiers. If the guns fail, soldiers die. So why are we permitting the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to play identity politics with their lives?

An evangelical Christian photographer was brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M., declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the commission to be adjudicated.

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario -- Three Muslim women in Canada have filed a human rights complaint against Syed Soharwardy, the Alberta-based imam who brought publisher Ezra Levant before the Alberta Human Rights Commission after Mr. Levant's magazine republished the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Qasira Shaheen, Robina Butt and Shugufta Iftikhar filed their complaint, dated Dec. 28, with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, saying they "were treated differently from men in the following manner: Abusive language uttered towards us; Not permitted to ask any questions; Denied participation as equal members of the Muslim community; Physically and verbally threatened; Made to sit in...

Putting tribunals on trial By Pete Vere January 17, 2008 SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario Canada's human rights commissions are a threat to freedom of speech in America, says Ezra Levant, the latest in a long string of conservative writers to be brought before Canada's quasi-judicial panels for speech about Islam. But Mr. Levant is not taking it lying down and is using the Internet and his own legal savvy and flair for publicity to put the tribunals themselves on trial before the public, in Canada and elsewhere. "Although the United States has a very robust First Amendment, Canada and Britain...

Canada goosed By Pete Vere January 9, 2008 SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario An attempt to have a Canadian panel stifle Mark Steyn poses a threat to American freedom of speech, the conservative columnist says. The Canadian author told The Washington Times in a telephone interview that the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) agreeing to investigate a Muslim complaint against him opens a new front on threats to Canadians' press and religious freedom: speech that originates in the United States. "There are attempts to circumscribe the First Amendment, and certain groups have become very adept at using legal and quasi-legal methods...

USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting under fire for review of "The Golden Compass"; Director reminds readers, "We have the Church's best interests at heart." By JOSEPH McALEER Fairfield County Catholic, December 22, 2007 "Hollywood history is rife with examples of literary works that, by dint of problematic sexual, violent, or religious content have been softened to varying degrees to mollify public sensibilities." So began a review of The Golden Compass written by Harry Forbes and John Mulderig, director and media reviewer, respectively, of the Office for Film & Broadcasting (OFB) of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The...

What Part of Catholic Do You Not Understand? Someone needs to ask the US bishops conference (USCCB) movie reviewer, Harry Forbes what part of the concept “Catholic” he does not understand. Mr. Forbes gave a glowing review to the film, The Golden Compass, and put all American Catholic bishops on record as supporting the work of an atheist! Subsequently, New Line Cinema attempted to do a full-scale promotion of the movie using diocesan newspapers claiming that the bishops’ movie office had declared the film to be “entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching.” Just to set the record straight: this movie...

USCCB Reviewer Caught Okaying Another Film Celebrating Homosexual Immorality Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Pete Vere NEW YORK, December 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Harry Forbes, director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of Film and Broadcasting, has given a positive review to the homosexually-themed "Rent". Forbes, whose initial positive review of "Brokeback Mountain" two years' ago was subsequently modified by the USCCB, became the center of controversy earlier this month after the USCCB withdrew his positive review of "The Golden Compass". The 2005 movie "Rent" is based upon a musical of the same name. The movie's plot...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has withdrawn a positive review of the film "The Golden Compass," after more than a week of criticism about the church's apparent approval of a pro-atheism work. The review, which had said that the film "can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with, at its core, a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism," was not available on the USCCB.org Web site last night.

US Bishops asked to Fire Chief Film Critic over Glowing Reviews for "Brokeback" and "Compass" "Bishops horrified at what has been done in their name" By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bishops of the United States are being asked to fire the chief movie reviewer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Harry Forbes, the Director of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting, has reignited scandal by praising the film "The Golden Compass" which is based on an anti-Catholic novel. Forbes caused similar controversy two years ago when he issued a glowing...

What Every Parent Should Know About "The Golden Compass" Interview With Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, NOV. 14, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The film "The Golden Compass" isn't simply about using fairy-tale magic to tell a good story, it corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien to undermine children's faith in God and the Church, says Catholic author Pete Vere. In this interview with ZENIT, Vere and Sandra Miesel discuss the movie adaptation of the fantasy novels written by Philip Pullman. The film, staring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, will be released in the United States in early December. Vere...

Hysteria Central October 2005 Michael O'Brien is an accomplished Catholic novelist. His strength is fiction. In The Catholic World Report (April), he ventures into nonfiction, specifically political science, and what he writes turns out to be fiction as well. He writes about "The New Totalitarianism" that is already here or on its way because of "hate" crimes legislation and same-sex "marriage." The NOR has spoken out against active homosexuals (even calling them fags, rump rangers, and light in the loafers), and as a result subscriptions have been canceled. And the NOR has spoken out against "hate" crimes legislation and same-sex...

“One day, years from now, as archaeologists sift through the ruins of an ancient civilization for clues to its downfall, they'll marvel at how easy it all was. You don't need to fly jets into skyscrapers and kill thousands of people. As a matter of fact, that's a bad strategy, because even the wimpiest state will feel obliged to respond. But if you frame the issue in terms of multicultural ‘sensitivity,’ the wimp state will bend over backward to give you everything you want -- including, eventually, the keys to those skyscrapers.” -Mark Steyn This past week demonstrates why I...

Of Canons and Culture Sedevacantists at the Gates? Pete Vere Almost fifteen years ago, I assisted at a Tridentine liturgy for the first time. I was seventeen and the liturgy was offered by an old French-Canadian priest who always insisted upon high Mass. The Latin chant, the golden vestments, the rich scent of incense accompanying our prayers to Heaven – this Mass was the most reverent experience I had ever shared. From that day forward I was a traditional Catholic. Although many will find this hilarious, another year passed before I discovered that the traditionalist movement also existed among English-speaking...