News/Canada

OTTAWA - The Ontario Court of Appeal has recognized three parents in the case of a child being raised by a lesbian couple and has accorded equal rights and obligations to the lesbian partner in addition to the child's biological mother and father.

OTTAWA - The president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has written Prime Minister Stephen Harper, raising a number of concerns in the wake of a failed motion to restore the traditional definition of marriage.

What health means will be thoroughly examined by the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute at its 2007 conference in Halifax this coming May.

WINNIPEG - The first province to impose minimum labour standards for the clothes its government buys is Manitoba.

OTTAWA - Canada's Catholic bishops say the marriage debate is not over, despite the "disappointing" loss of a House of Commons motion to restore the traditional definition.

OTTAWA - The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has urged a completely free vote on a motion on whether to reopen the debate on marriage, one that would allow politicians to vote "in accordance with their conscience" on marriage.

TORONTO - Canada's shelter allowance runs out March 31, and the Catholic agencies that deal with Toronto's homeless population warn that when that happens more and more people will fall through the cracks.

OTTAWA - Politicians from several parties welcomed the recommendations Canadian archbishops presented to the House of Commons immigration committee, including the cancellation of the Safe Third Country Agreement, and the elimination of obstacles to family reunification.

TORONTO - No sooner had David Okenyi arrived in Canada than he wished he could just turn on his heel and go back to Nigeria.

TORONTO - Poverty kills just as surely as smoking or living off burgers, fries and ice cream, and the church leaders who run Ontario's food banks, emergency shelters and family counselling programs are prepared to back that claim up with science.