Home                                                        Oct 15-21

Back to Index

Photo by MCpl Yves Gemus Task Force Afghanistan Roto 2

Padre Robert Lauder, Anglican Chaplain serving in the Diocese of Ottawa, blesses the caskets of Sgt. Darcy Tedford and Private Blake Williamson before their final journey from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Oct. 15.  The soldiers, both members of the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based at CFB Petawawa, near Ottawa, died during a firefight a day earlier in the Panjwayi district while manning their observation post near the Panjwayi development road. (Editors: There is no charge for this photo but please include the photo credit)

	Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of  Archbishop Marcel Gervais of Ottawa effective June 30, 2007.  Canon law requires that a bishop submit his resignation during his 75th year. Gervais, who turned 75 on Sept. 21, had sent his resignation to the pope in May.
	Treasury Board President John Baird has been accused of interfering in municipal politics for refusing to hand over the federal government's $200-million contribution for light rail until after the Nov. 13 municipal election.  "Some lawyers believe that it is an illegal move by the federal government and the minister (Baird)," Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli told reporters. Baird says his department is approving the money, but on one condition -- that the new city council approves the project. The current council has already approved it.
	Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has pledged that the soon to be announced Clean Air Act will include mandatory greenhouse gas emission regulations for all industries. Appearing on CTV's Question Period Oct. 15, Ambrose also said there is a direct link between Greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. "They're not separate issues. When you attack global warming, you attack greenhouse gases. You can't separate the two of them from each other," Ambrose said. Environmentalists who obtained a two-month-old draft of the legislation said it amounts to smoke and mirrors and makes only surface changes to the status quo, CTV News reported.
	Retired Anglican Archbishop Terence Finlay of Toronto -- seen here on a visit to Parliament Hill in 2001 -- has acknowledged that he officiated at a same-sex marriage at a United Church in Toronto over the summer. It was out of a "long journey of love, friendship, support and familial relationship with this particular person and her partner" that Finlay said he "came to the conclusion that their love for one another was part of God's divine love and it was appropriate that that be deeply blessed," the Anglican Journal reported.The archbishop, who retired in 2004, also told the Journal that as a consequence of his action, he has been "admonished" and has had his licence to officiate at marriages suspended by the diocesan bishop of Toronto, Colin Johnson.
	Plans for a national portrait gallery at the site of the former U.S. embassy on Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill have been scrubbed by the Conservative government, which is considering others uses for the building. A senior Conservative confirmed the plan is dead following the publication of spending estimates in two departments that showed no further money designated for the gallery after this year, Canwest News reported Oct. 2. Former Liberal government Heritage minister Sheila Copps announced plans for the portrait gallery in January, 2001, with the price estimated at  $22 million. However, by the time the architectural design was unveiled in March, 2005, the expected cost had grown to $44.6 million
	Another Canadian "snow bird" heads South for the winter.

                                                                Photos from previous weeks