March 23rd, 2012
TO:
Member of Parliament Mr. Joe Daniel
(Don Valley East, Toronto)
La Promenade Building, Suite 850
House of Common
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

SUBJECT: VISIT TO PAKISTAN
Dear Mr. Daniel,
I have recently read an article printed in The Urdu Times newspaper dated Wednesday

The demise of Hosni Mubarak which was welcomed by President Obama remains to be a constant theme within the Obama administration towards other secular leaders. This applies to welcoming the demise of more liberal forces which have been replaced by the “radical Sunni Islamic Arab Spring.” Therefore,

No duress in matters of religion. (Koran)
Believers [Muslims], Jews, Sabaeans, or Christians whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right-shall have nothing to fear or to regret. Verse 69 of Sura 5 ‘The Table’.
Islam and Liberty, The Historical Misunderstanding, Mohmed Gharfi, p

The Very Rev. Canon Patrick P. Augustine, D.Min., Rector
Jeremiah 31: 31-34, Psalm 51: 1-13, Hebrews 5: 5-10, John 12: 20-33
Glory of the Cross of Christ
Liturgical Note: (Formerly, this fifth Sunday in Lent was known as Passion Sunday. More recent liturgy assigns that name to the day that begins

More than half of all Canadians believe Muslims can’t be trusted and nearly as many believe discrimination against Muslims is mainly their fault, according to the results of a new national survey released ahead of Wednesday’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. (What ‘rac

Some 10 million children have been orphaned by the death of a parent from tuberculosis (TB). That number is shocking, but it does not begin to account for the children, who must quit school to care for sick parents, or go to work to keep the family fed, or those who catch TB from a parent or another

Tuberculosis (TB) among children is rarely discussed. Because children, more often than not cannot speak for themselves, not much about how they're affected by the disease ever hits the headlines. This is despite the fact that TB remains among the top ten killers of children worldwide. In spite of t

Christians are a micro-minority in Muslim Pakistan. But the first anniversary of Shahbaz Bhatti’s death has evoked unprecedented interest in the martyr.
Bhatti, a Catholic who served as federal minister for religious minorities, was assassinated on March 2, 2011, for opposing the country’s draconi

In  India, virtually every second person is defecating in the open, every third person is drinking unsafe water and at least 1,000 children are dying every day due to a preventable disease like diarrhoea. This grim picture of the world’s third fastest growing economy was unveiled through the country

LOCATION: a typical urban semi slum area (in as much as the houses are not makeshift but permanent brick structures) of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, which boasts of the state of art medical facilities.
 PLACE: A brick walled house in a very narrow by lane, carefully protected from the pry

Today is March 8, and across the world the International Women's Day is being commemorated. Coincidentally, March is the global tuberculosis (TB) awareness month. The disease, which is caused by a mycrobatrium, has a major impact on women's sexual reproductive health and that of their children. For

International Dalit Soliderty Network was founded in March 2000 to advocate for Dalit human rights and to raise awareness of Dalit issues nationally and internationally. IDSN is a network of international human rights groups, development agencies, national Dalit solidarity networks from Europe, Asia

TB has been with us since times immemorial. In ancient India it was called Rajrog or the King’s Disease. A benevolent king would dole out gold coins to the poor, which raised their economic status, leading to improvement in their nutritional standards. This lead to a decrease in the number of new in

Vatican Council defines Church as “the people of God”. It is the biggest leap towards lay empowerment in the history of the Catholic Church. It introduced the practical concept of parish council and pastoral council. The idea behind it is to make the laity integral part of the administration of the

With the withdrawal of the US led forces from Iraq, Operation Iraqi freedom turns into Operation Iraqi Christians decimation.
Around fourteen months back, in November 2010, I had written about the pressures on the Christian minority community in Iraq and my fear about their extinction from their m