My wife and I are not fans of Dolly Parton, the amazing country rock singer of diminutive stature but huge wig, huge voice and so on. Only the wigs are fake, we learned from a fascinating documentary we just saw on Netflix, which other reviewers are describing as routine in format, but interesting, nonetheless, because Parton is herself such a sympathetic figure:  shrewd, warmhearted and scandal free. Her Christian faith did not make the final cut We thoroughly enjoyed Dolly Parton: Here I Am and recommend it for its revealing interviews with the performer herself and profession ..read more

The other day a small (but photogenic) band of protesters gathered in front of our church –St. Andrew’s Cathedral in downtown Victoria—calling for the reopening of church services by the public health authorities, and asserting our rights to worship, assemble and speak. These are all recognized by our Charter of Rights as “fundamental freedoms,” which I take to mean, they are rights fundamental to human nature, which the charter, as I said, recognizes, rather  than grants. DIDN’T i SAY WE WERE PHOTOGENIC? A young, intense woman striding by muttered, then repeated more loudly, that she als ..read more

Coming soon, as they say, to a theatre near you, but maybe not for long, is A Hidden Life, the latest work of American filmmaker Terry Malick. Not for long, despite positive reviews from Cannes and Toronto film festivals because it is so long like, Malick’s previous works such as A Thin Red Line, Tree of Life, and Badlands, only longer: three hours plus. It’s about Hanz Jagerstatter, lately, the Blessed Hanz Jagerstatter, a Catholic conscientious objector in Nazi Germany beheaded in 1943 by the German Army for refusing to serve, and beatified in 2007. It’s also likely to be a frank exposure o ..read more

Here’s a letter I wrote in response to a columnn by Trevor Hancock, a retired UVic prof. Trevor Hancock’s Sunday column, “The cult of individualism is toxic,” takes a very selective view of individualism’s negative consequences, and of the needed antidote. He blames rampant globalization of capital as the chief toxic result, causing, he claims, impoverishment in Western societies, near-enslavement in underdeveloped ones, and environmental destruction. This is very debatable, given that collectivized states such as Red China are leaders in environmental destruction and enslavement. But my ch ..read more

Here’s a letter from Gwynn Evans to the Times Colonist that leapfrogs from the complaints of churchgoers about worship lockdowns (but not restaurant lockdowns) to his own complaint that churches get special tax exemptions. Following it is my rebuttal to the TC, which they probably won’t run. There might be better ways to gather A while back, we heard people claiming a lack of consistency in the rules in B.C. imposed on church assembly restrictions versus those for bars and restaurants, claiming churches were short-changed. On the other hand, I am not aware of any churches having volunteered to ..read more

The Jenn Smith Debacle Irony and Bullying were the themes on display at the lecture that never happened in Oak Bay last week, due to the negligence of the police force that so daintily serves the boutique citylette on Victoria’s doorstep. “No call is too small” is its motto. It ought to go on, “But some are way,way too big.” The bullies were a yelling, screaming and intimidating gaggle of young ruffians of all genders and their target was small group of mostly senior citizens who had come to hear a lecture by Jenn Smith on SOGI. SOGI stands for the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity component ..read more

A wakeup call? What with the wounded, and what with the dead, and what with the lads that are swinging the lead, if there aren’t some changes round here and pretty damn soon, there won’t be anyone left in this old platoon.–Canadian soldier’s poetic lament in WW2 “Projections from our data indicate that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040,” said the Rev. Neil Elliot, an Anglican priest in Trail, British Columbia, who authored a report to the church’snational leadership recently. (First, as a words nerd, my hat is off to Elliot f ..read more

By Steve Weatherbe VICTORIA, B.C. , June 6, 2019 – B.C. education critic Jenn Smith finally got his say in British Columbia’s capital, delivering a devastating critique of the NDP government’s radical Sexual Orientation Gender Identity 123 curriculum supplement. Several weeks ago he was prevented from delivering the same lecture by a mostly chanting and shouting crowd of several hundred strong SOGI 123 supporters  led in by provincial NDP vice-president Morgane Oger, outside the Oak Bay lecture venue. Police did nothing. Inside a smaller, fractious mob,  beribboned in the colours of ..read more

By Steve Weatherbe   We all have heard of the United States’ civic or civil religion, which involves the invocation of God at public events, the use of the phrase “you are in our thoughts and prayers” in public expressions of sympathy for flood victims, the veneration of past leaders, and a vague belief that America is the Promised Land. But what is Canada’s civil religion? It is, of course, the Compact Theory of Confederation, the higher good for which any crime can be committed. The Compact Theory is the belief, held especially strongly by the Liberal Party of Canada, that Canada came a ..read more