From Cork to Toronto

As someone who flies BA as frequently as I can, at least until Willie Walsh's penny pinching ruins it, I have been following the Nadia Eweida story on and off. Ms Eweida is a BA check in agent at London Heathrow with seven years service. She was wearing a visible cross in breach of BA's uniform policy for employees dealing directly with the public. The existing protocol is that all jewellery or religious symbols which can practicably be worn concealed, should be concealed. An offer of a back office job was made (and rejected) which would have allowed Ms Eweida to wear the cross externally. Exceptions are made for employees for whom the wearing of items is a mandatory requirement of their faith, e.g. Sikh turbans or bangles and subject to health and safety requirements in respect of machinery such as luggage belts. While BA is being hammered for this, other British based airlines such as Virgin and BMI have a similar policy . Ms Eweida did not demonstrate that wearing a c...

Richard Waghorne posts that Ruth Kelly is being "bored to death" by calls for her to make her position clear in respect of matters which the Roman Catholic church, of which she is a member, has declared to be immoral. This may not seem interesting at first blush if you didn't know that Ms. Kelly is the current Minister for Equality in the United Kingdom's Labour Government, and that in recent years the Catholic Church has re-affirmed the duty of opposition to laws legalising and facilitating such matters as abortion and gay unions. In 2004, the Vatican told U.S. bishops to refuse communion to pro-choice legislators , which caused a controversy involving John Kerry during his bid for the presidency. Controversy in respect of Catholic politicians is recurrent in Canada, not least because of the number of Prime Ministers from the heavily Catholic province of Quebec such as the two most recent holders. In the same year, Paul Martin was accused of moral incoherence b...

No, not the film (although I've never seen it which is weird given it's probably CanCon or something). 19 Quebec priests (including one who has spoken out in the past) have written to La Presse criticising the Catholic church's stance on same sex marriage. Personally I try and stay out of what the Church thinks, because in the main I don't think it matters unless and until they try and impose that view via the law. Sadly that is all too often the case. It will be interesting to see how the hierarchy reacts. La Presse's main article ( Google translation here ) The original letter in French ( Google translation )

In yesterday's Star, they reprinted in part a column from Faith Today magazine (www.christianity.ca) , asking the party leaders registered with Elections Canada "What role do you think faith should play in developing public policy, and what is the place of religious institutions in contemporary Canadian society?" Paul Martin: "Since becoming Prime Minister in December 2003" - yes Paul we know. What's worse, it feels like it's been ten years already. He reminds us he met the Dalai Lama , not at Sussex Drive but at the RC Archbishop of Ottawa's pad . Yes, the PM is so fearless in defence of religious liberty, his fear of losing AECL Chinese nuclear contracts and other goodies means he hadn't the stones to have one old guy in a sheet visit his own house. NEXT! Stephen Harper: "the notion of separation (of church and state) refers to the state not interfering in religious practice and treating all faith communities impartially". Well,...