Afederal nationalist party called The National Canadian Alliance tried to recruit members in Nova Scotia on June 22 but were met once again with heavy opposition by a counter demonstration of at least 100 people at Grand Parade Square. While counter-protestors starkly outnumbered the NCA rally, none were reported carrying weapons. No one was reported […]
Religion
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dartmouth Shambhala group downsizes
The Dartmouth Shambhala Meditation Group is giving up its rented space at the MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning and will no longer regularly bring in teachers to address a dwindling group of participants, says Margaret Angus, the group’s coordinator. Angus has been with the group since it was established in 2006. She remembers a more […]
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United by hate
Decked out in leather vests and black hoodies, the Soldiers of Odin are spreading their message of white nationalism on the streets of Halifax. At least, they were up until a couple of weeks ago. The Nova Scotia chapter of the far-right Soldiers of Odin network disbanded earlier this month over disagreements with the mother […]
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How I learned to embrace the Halloween spirit
I celebrated my first Halloween at 22. And since this is now in print, I have to publicly apologize to my God-fearing parents. Sorry, mom and dad, but I am still a good boy. Growing up Baptist in Jamaica, Halloween wasn’t really a big deal. In fact, it was rebuked. As the end of October […]
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Clouds over Buddhist Project Sunshine
Senior Shambhala leaders are now speaking out against Buddhist Project Sunshine and the multiple reports of sexual abuse that have been published over the past several months. The third report in that series of grassroots investigations, which documents several allegations of sexual assault over a period of decades, arrived on August 23 in a blaze […]
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Nova Scotia opposition parties tackle conversion therapy
Opposition parties in Nova Scotia plan to put an end to conversion therapy. Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party is putting forward a bill as early as this week to end the payment of medical professionals who bill the province for the discredited and harmful practice. The bill, which will also cover gender identity protections, essentially […]
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How many knew about Shambhala abuses?
The third report from Buddhist Project Sunshine was released this week, containing new allegations of sexual assault committed by Shambhala Buddhism’s spiritual leader and head, Osel Mukpo, known as Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. And as in earlier Project Sunshine reports, there’s mounting evidence the sakyong’s inner circle—including Shambhala’s governing body, the Kalapa Council—knew of Mukpo’s sexual […]
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Misleading billboard fuels false information about abortion
A Dartmouth billboard reading ‘Canada has no abortion laws’ is turning heads and raising ire. The sign on Windmill Road is rented on a four-week contract and paid for by We Need A Law—a religious advocacy group based in Vancouver and Ottawa. Jennifer Taylor, a research lawyer with Stewart-McKelvey was “fired up and frustrated” when […]
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Portrait of the sakyong as a fallen man
Correction: This story originally stated the Shambhala School is owned by Shambhala International. While the two organizations share a name, they are not affiliated. The story has been updated to reflect this. Rhonda Newcombe can’t look her guru in the eye. There are a couple reasons for that, chief among them the allegations against Sakyong […]
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Reintegration: A nicer word for assimilation
Afghan children are among those who have never seen an Afghanistan not inflicted by violence. As an Afghan, my children, brothers and sisters are dying. I am an Afghan youth displaced due to violence. I may have never seen the violence on the land that is indigenous to me, but it is this violence which […]
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Graphic new details emerge about Shambhala sexual assault
Allegations of a sexual assault committed 16 years ago by spiritual leader Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is credible, say investigators, and there’s corroborating evidence the Shambhala leadership knew of the incident at the time. An update released this week by Project Sunshine investigators contains new details on an attempted rape that is alleged to have taken […]
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Coming Out Ministries preys on LGBTQ+ youth through guilt and shame
I’m a preacher’s kid and I’m trans. I’m not a believer and I never was but I spent my childhood conscripted into ritual practices, performing a personhood that wasn’t mine, essentially because the family enterprise demanded it. I was expected to be what I was expected to be, not what I am. That I would […]