Changes at Trinity
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Changes at Trinity

A new president, a closing Theatre department, a massive influx in international students, and, as of March, the faculty are unionised. A lot has changed in the past five years at Trinity Western University (TWU) in Langley, B.C., Canada’s biggest Christian liberal arts school. On March 10, after covid-related delays, TWU faculty finally received confirmation…

Don’t give up on downtown
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Don’t give up on downtown

For more than a decade, Lynnette Postuma walked past a massive cinder block wall on her way to work in downtown Toronto. Expansive grey walls are a staple in urban transportation corridors, but Postuma began to dream of new possibilities. In 2017, she entered a competition to paint the 12,000 square foot space. “The problem…

Are we saving lives or saving money?
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Are we saving lives or saving money?

Allen Plug is a Calvin University-trained Ontologist working for Cycorp, a company that has developed an artificially intelligent hospital advisor. Plug knows how to talk to robots, or – to be more precise – he is an expert in semantic knowledge representation. He’s also Canadian and has lived in Saskatchewan, B.C. and Ontario. Do you…

Finding the fakes
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Finding the fakes

“Computers: Are they conquering our world?” That was the title of an article published in Christian Courier (CC) more than 40 years ago. “The possibilities for manipulation of people,” columnist and labour expert Harry Antonides wrote in 1982, “by controlling and slanting information and news via the new systems of communication are staggering.” He was…

The robots are coming
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The robots are coming

Could you tell if this editorial was written by a robot? I started asking this question in mid-December right around the time my husband, Jakob was spending his evenings talking to something (someone?) who wasn’t human at all. He had discovered ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI, a company co-founded by Elon Musk….

Does life really get better with age?

Does life really get better with age?

I recently turned 30 and felt good about it. But when pushed to answer “why,” I realized that my reasoning had a lot to do with the career and personal milestones I’d managed to check off in the past decade . . . even though I knew it shouldn’t. Franciscan priest Richard Rohr would say…

The mysterious case of Marguerite Périer
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The mysterious case of Marguerite Périer

The miraculous healing of a 12-year-old girl brought the French army to a standstill in 1656. The girl was Marguerite Périer. She was Blaise Pascal’s niece and a boarding student at an abbey just outside of Paris called Port-Royal-des-Champs. Marguerite was suffering from an incurable physical ailment: an eye abscess. Several doctors had examined the…

A Red Card for Pay Gaps
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A Red Card for Pay Gaps

On November 23, Canada’s men will kick off against Belgium in our first World Cup appearance since 1986. “I think their chances are pretty good,” predicts Redeemer University soccer coach Meaghan Rudd. “They have good leadership, so it’ll be interesting to see what they can do with that.” Rudd is being kind. The men’s chances…

Eat, drink and be reconciled
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Eat, drink and be reconciled

Lisa Raven’s first reaction to hearing Pope Francis apologize on Indigenous land in Canada this summer was: “Wow. That was really powerful.” She did not expect to be moved to tears. Thirty-six years ago, Raven was a student at Saskatchewan’s Marieval Indian Residential School run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. When she first heard…

CC wins 10 awards!
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CC wins 10 awards!

On May 5, the Canadian Christian Communicators Association held its annual awards ceremony showcasing the best in faith-based writing, design and content creation for the 2021 season. Christian Courier (CC) competed against at least 18 other publications and received 10 awards, including first place in the Feature Article, Interview and Photo Essay categories. “They’ve combined…

Did anyone ask the hard questions?
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Did anyone ask the hard questions?

On May 6, the Hesed Project CRC published an open letter by Dr. Mary Stewart VanLeeuwen that gives new information about her role as promotor fidei, or “Devil’s Advocate,” on the Synodical Committee to Articulate a Foundation-laying Biblical Theology of Human Sexuality for the Christian Reformed Church of North American (CRCNA). The committee’s report (commonly…

Fears, lies and freedom
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Fears, lies and freedom

Two of my cousins were in Ottawa when the trucks rolled in at the end of January. Wayne Stronks was setting up camp on Slater street after completing the 4500 km drive from Smithers, BC. Daniel Perry was logging into work-from-home video calls, his downtown office closed amidst the uncertainty. I, like many Canadians, was…