In September 2015, Port Alberni mom Candice Servatius was shocked to learn that her two elementary-aged children had participated in an aboriginal smudging ceremony. The district claims that these are "cultural practices." This is true, but misses the point.

Publicly-funded hospitals are not constituted "primarily for religious purposes." All Ontario hospitals, Catholic and others, exist to deliver medically necessary services, and all are funded by provinces for that purpose. All hospitals offer the aid and support of religious counsel to families that request it. All hospitals have quiet spaces for reflection and prayer.

In a free society, the government does not try to force the "traditionalists" or the "progressives" to abandon their beliefs and practices. A free society allows TWU to form and maintain its own religious community, with its own rules and practices, which no person is compelled to join

Instead of focusing on the "stories of Sodom and Gomorrah" and using that in the same conversation about a horrific incident that has left many homeless here in Canada, you should go and find your heart because your comments are shameful and distasteful.

Unfortunately, the absence of a clearly identified clergy in the Muslim world (particularly in the Sunni world) does not favour a reform of Islam. To reform this religion, the various representatives of Islam all around the world should cooperate, coordinate their action to find common ground on major issues.

When one thinks of Jamaica, two things immediately come to mind and it's not Bob Marley and Usain Bolt this time around. Rather, it's dancehall music and homophobia -- two things which are one and the same. So it was quite shocking when Jamaicans and residents from other Caribbean islands learned that the son of Mr. Ninja Man, a popular dancehall artist, was gay.