A cloud of cynicism has settled over the Olympics – and this year the gloom is more palpable than ever (Russia about to be expelled over systematic doping practices, endless stories about Brazilian woes in pulling the Games together .…
Allyson Jule is on the phone via FaceTime Audio giving her listener an account of the pageantry of learning on display at the University of Oxford in England. Jule, professor of education and co-director of Trinity Western University’s Gender Studies…
Brian Harskamp wrote this comment July 4, pointing out some misconceptions in a recent column by CBC Radio (On the Coast) host Stephen Quinn. Dear Mr. Quinn, My name is Brian Harskamp and I am one of the kids who…
If you’re not a regular at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, this might be a good year to go (July 15 – 17). One headliner is Canadian icon Bruce Cockburn, whose music has sustained many Christians over the years. He…
This is the account of a storytelling event that brought together an Eastside Vancouver church and a First Nations community in British Columbia’s central interior. More importantly it’s the account of a 10 year old boy named Graeme who, for…
A couple of months into retirement, I was asked to cover a maternity leave in a West Vancouver high school. It included what turned into the sweetest assignment ever – teaching three young men an International Baccalaureate Japanese course. These…
A couple of years ago, neighbours reacted vigorously against the city’s Grandview-Woodland Community Plan which, in their view, involved too little consultation and proposed too much density and too many high buildings, especially near the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain Station. After extensive…
‘Medical assistance in dying’ legislation (Bill C-14) was passed in haste, amid controversy, earlier this month. The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has wasted no time in launching the first legal challenge, hoping to broaden the scope of the law…
“God, this is just too hard,” Brian Doerksen prayed. The award-winning singer/songwriter had just discovered that his year-old son, Isaiah, had fragile X syndrome, a genetic abnormality that causes severe learning disabilities. Worse yet, Isaiah’s older brother, Ben, had been…
“Religious intolerance of homosexuality led to mass murder in Orlando.” So ran the headline in the Vancouver Courier last week. Religion columnist Pat Johnson was describing anyone who believes in the traditional (scriptural) understanding of same-sex relationships. He was talking…