UPDATED::Ex-pastor persisted when told 'girl' was 15 - Winnipeg Free Press

UPDATE::  Former pastor sentenced to two years for arranging lewd acts with a minor

On Wednesday, former pastor, 53-year-old Nathan George Rieger, was sentenced to two years confinement in state prison. Rieger was found guilty by a San Luis Obispo County jury in December, for arranging to meet a 15-year-old girl for lewd purposes, including intent to engage in sex acts. The Arroyo Grande Police Department arrested Rieger when he arrived at the pre-arranged meeting place in August of last year.

The Canadian citizen must serve his sentence in a California state prison. Additionally, pursuant to California law, Rieger is now required to register as a sex offender. A treaty between Canada and the USA allows Rieger to petition to serve his time in Canada, after beginning his sentence in California.

A former pastor from Winnipeg is on trial in California, facing allegations he travelled to the city of Arroyo Grande to have sex with a supposed 15-year-old girl he met online.

Nathan Rieger, 53, has pleaded not guilty to a felony count of meeting with a minor for lewd purposes.

If convicted, he faces up to four years in state prison, according to court records.

Rieger is accused of engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with an Arroyo Grande police detective, who he believed was a teenage girl.

He was arrested Aug. 10, in an Arroyo Grande parking lot, where he had allegedly planned to meet the girl.

Rieger worked as a pastor at the Winnipeg Centre Vineyard Church, and resigned after he was arrested.

Ex-pastor persisted when told 'girl' was 15 - Winnipeg Free Press

A Canadian Woman Was Just Arrested and Charged with Witchcraft - VICE

After a months-long investigation by police in a small Ontario town, a Canadian woman who sold herself as a psychic has been charged with witchcraft.

This weekend police in Milton, a small town in Ontario, arrested 32-year-old Dorie Stevenson who was running a psychic business out of her basement. She was charged with extortion, fraud over $5,000 [$3,813 USD], and witchcraft/fortune telling. If you’re thinking, whoa, Canada has witchcraft laws? Well, the answer would be yes, but they’re probably not exactly what you think.

It's covered under section 365 in the Criminal Code under the title “pretending to practice witchcraft.” It focuses on anyone who “fraudulently” gets paid to tell fortunes, “pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration,” or using their “skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science” to find where lost things are.

A Canadian Woman Was Just Arrested and Charged with Witchcraft - VICE

UPDATED::Parents face charges in connection to Calgary infant’s death | CTV Calgary News

UPDATE:: Calgary couple Jeromie and Jennifer Clark found guilty in their toddler’s death

A jury has convicted a Calgary couple in the death of their 14-month-old son who never saw a doctor until the day before he died in hospital of a staph infection.

Jeromie and Jennifer Clark were found guilty of criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessaries of life for their son John.
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The forensic pathologist's report said John was malnourished and died from a staph infection.

The trial heard that John died the day after he was brought to hospital, where he had a seizure and two cardiac arrests.

The Clarks' lawyers argued doctors at the Alberta Children's Hospital were to blame because they raised the boy's sodium and fluid levels too aggressively. They also argued he was neither malnourished nor septic.

And people wondered why, this story when it first hit the news, was such a big deal

Following an investigation into the death of a 14 month old boy in November of 2013, Calgary police have charged the child’s biological parents.

On the afternoon of November 28, 2013, the child, John Clark, was admitted to the Foothills Hospital in Calgary after his parents sought medical attention at the insistance of a family member.

John was transported to the Alberta Children's Hospital for additional medical treatment but passed away in hospital the following day.

An autopsy and additional tests confirmed the child’s death was the result of a Staph infection complicated by malnutrition.

According to police, the parents, Jeromie and Jennifer, attempted to conceal the infant's failing health.

"We believe that the family followed a strict dietary regiment based on their beliefs," said CPS S/Sgt. Doug Andrus. The Clarks are strict vegans and Seventh Day Adventists.

[,,,]
According to CPS S/Sgt. Doug Andrus, the child was not born in a hospital and received no medical attention from professionals during his brief life.

Pastor Randy Barber says the extended Clark family has worshipped at the Central Seventh Day Adventist Church in northwest Calgary for years, but Jeromie Clark and his wife stopped attending services without explanation.

"He became very radical, very controlling with his wife," recollects Pastor Barber. "They disappeared and we haven't seen them for about eight years."

Parents face charges in connection to Calgary infant’s death | CTV Calgary News

Milton, Ont. ‘Psychic’ Dorie 'Madeena' Stevenson Charged With 'Witchcraft' | HuffPost Canada

Halton Regional Police have arrested a 32-year-old woman from Milton, Ont. and charged her with extortion, fraud over $5,000 and pretending to practise witchcraft.

Dorie "Madeena" Stevenson was arrested Thursday after a five-month investigation, according to police. Officers also recovered evidence from her property after executing a search warrant.

One of Stevenson's alleged victims told police they had been defrauded of more than $60,000 after consulting with the woman, who owns the registered business Milton Psychic.

Milton, Ont. ‘Psychic’ Dorie 'Madeena' Stevenson Charged With 'Witchcraft' | HuffPost Canada

Admitted abuser removed from university post in Canada | National Catholic Reporter

A liturgical canonist and teacher who had admitted abusing a minor while serving as an associate pastor in the United States is no longer teaching at the Canadian pontifical university where he had been a full professor.

St. Paul University confirmed that John Huels is no longer teaching at the university, after Huels' victim contacted Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and NCR ran a story about the abuse.

In the article that NCR published Sept. 12, survivor Michael Bland wondered if he would find justice amid the renewed attention to clergy sexual abuse, telling NCR that he had hope but little trust. "I think I have found healing, but I have not found accountability," he said.

Now, it seems he has found accountability, too.

Admitted abuser removed from university post in Canada | National Catholic Reporter

Former Gonzaga priest and professor sentenced for child porn possession - KXLY

A former Gonzaga University priest and professor was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail for downloading and viewing child pornography.

Gary Uhlenkott, 67, pleaded guilty in February to viewing depictions of minors engaged in sexual explicit conduct in the 2nd degree back in April 2013.

Uhlenkott had been a Jesuit priest for 25 years at the time and was a professor of music at Gonzaga.

According to court documents, in October 2010, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Toronto Police Service started investigating a movie production company in Toronto, 'Toronto Company', that was the subject of more than 20 complaints of child pornography.

USPIS accessed the website and reviewed film previews, website movie summaries, and customer ordering information. When they confirmed there were videos of nude minor boys, TPS executed a search warrant at the company's business and seized hundreds of DVD movies, photo DVDs, computers, and business records, including customer shipping labels and customer order histories.

Former Gonzaga priest and professor sentenced for child porn possession - KXLY

UPDATED::Drowning of Lev Tahor leader raises fears over ultra-Orthodox sect’s future | National Post

UPDATE::  Israel offers unprecedented benefits to bring home Jewish cultists

The Labor and Social Services Ministry on Tuesday called on Israeli members of the extremist ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor, or “Pure Heart” cult to “come home,” offering each family unprecedented absorption benefits.

The ministry appealed to dozens of families in the sect with the hope they will return to Israel following the death of their leader, Rabbi Shlomo Erez Helbrans, who drowned in Mexico two weeks ago. A statement from the ministry referred to the members as “victims” of the cult and emphasized the large number of children among them.

The benefits offered include flights to Israel, immediate residency and entitlement to children’s health insurance, financial support, housing assistance for a year, the placement of children in educational frameworks, the provision of tools and skills for an independent livelihood and psychological treatment.

The offered benefits are the result of cooperation between the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry as well as the police.

Sometimes described in the media as the “Jewish Taliban,” Lev Tahor was founded in the 1980s and practices an extreme form of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. It also advocates anti-Zionism. 

_

To the roughly 200 Lev Tahor adherents who followed their charismatic rabbi from country to country, Shlomo Helbrans knew the path to eternal truth. To his numerous detractors, he was a dangerous charlatan who deserved to be locked up.

Now, after Helbrans drowned last week in Mexico at age 55, the future of the cult-like group has been cast into doubt, and a path that has jumped from Israel to the United States, Canada, Guatemala and Mexico looks less clear than ever.

“There is now a power vacuum,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania who has been watching the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect for about a decade.

She said it would be hard for anyone to replace Helbrans, particularly when his death was so sudden. “The attachment to a charismatic leader in a very isolated group that engages in illegal practices is so strong,” she said.

Drowning of Lev Tahor leader raises fears over ultra-Orthodox sect’s future | National Post

Young boy from Jewish Taliban reveals psychical, sexual abuse: Hell is real, I live there - Israel News - Haaretz.com

“I’ve lived in Lev Tahor for 12 and a half years and I want to tell you everything,” the boy says. “I’ve been living in this hell that everyone claims is made up and untrue – it is true. I want to tell you about the things that are happening in Lev Tahor.

“I wrote down on a piece of paper all of the things I want to talk about,” he continues. “Bad things are happening here. First, I want to tell about XXXX. He is a bad teacher. He does bad things to children. He hits children, kicks them and does other bad things.”

The boy continues to charge that another member of the group “killed a baby and another man. He hits and kicks all of the children.” He added that the men he named “undressed me and beat me and kicked me many times. And did bad things to me many times. At first, I thought they were good Jews. But then I saw they were bad people.”

Young boy from Jewish Taliban reveals psychical, sexual abuse: Hell is real, I live there - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Quebec spa workers heading to prison for role in extreme-sweating death of woman wrapped in mud and cellophane | Edmonton Journal

Three Quebecers are going to prison for their role in the extreme-sweating death of a woman who was wrapped in mud and cellophane at a spa.

Chantal Lavigne was rushed to hospital in serious condition in July 2011 along with another woman who was suffering from serious vomiting at the farmhouse spa.

Gabrielle Fréchette was sentenced Friday to three years behind bars, while Ginette Duclos and Gérald Fontaine were given two-year terms.

They were found guilty in December 2014 of criminal negligence causing death.

Fréchette was considered a spiritual guide and organized the personal-growth seminar in South Durham, while Duclos and Fontaine were her assistants.

During the fatal session, participants were plastered with mud, wrapped in a plastic sheet and a blanket and had their heads covered with cardboard boxes for nine hours. A coroner described the process as the equivalent of being cooked alive.

Quebec spa workers heading to prison for role in extreme-sweating death of woman wrapped in mud and cellophane | Edmonton Journal

This former ‘exgay’ leader realized she was doing more harm than good. She’s now officiating same-sex weddings. – LGBTQ Nation

For years, Wendy Gritter led the ex-gay ministry New Direction (an affiliate of Exodus International), and her mission in life was to “cure” gay people.

She eventually put the pieces together and came to realize she was doing more harm than good, publicly apologizing for the harm she’s done.

And now, she’s clearly working to right her wrongs.




This former ‘exgay’ leader realized she was doing more harm than good. She’s now officiating same-sex weddings. – LGBTQ Nation

PS::  Like Matthew Vines, who I applaud his efforts, I will give kudos where they are due.  BUT,,, I am an anti-theist and I am against any form of institutional religious indoctrination.  I struggle with this aspect being that one can assign any interpretation to the Bile one wants - pro or anti.  While I applaud both their efforts, I have reservation.

Abuse allegations in Newfoundland casting a cloud over Jehovah's Witnesses - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News

Allegations of abuse involving two members of the Jehovah's Witness religious movement in Newfoundland have emerged, though details of the charges are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

CBC News has learned that a former volunteer church elder and his son are facing charges.

The former elder is charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation relating to allegations dating from 2009 to 2012 in central Newfoundland.

According to court documents, a second man is charged with sexual assault, with the information referencing a period between May 2011 and December 2013 in a community on the Avalon Peninsula.

CBC News has confirmed that the pair are father and son.

The RCMP also confirmed Thursday that both cases involve the same complainant.
,,,

When asked about the charges, he also referenced the ongoing investigation and publication ban, but strongly condemned any abuse against young people.

"How we feel about child sexual abuse has been very clear for years now," said Picard.

"We do abhor that kind of wickedness … and we do not protect any of these individuals and we allow the authorities to do their work."

Picard confirmed the older accused is no longer a church elder, and that the church is co-operating with the investigation.

He also stressed that the Jehovah's Witnesses have measures in place to protect members of the church.

Abuse allegations in Newfoundland casting a cloud over Jehovah's Witnesses - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News

Family loses $85,000 to con artists posing as psychics | CTV News

Edmonton police are warning people about a con involving fraudulent astrologers and psychic readers after one local family was swindled out of $85,000.

Investigators say that hundreds of people have fallen victim to the fraudsters since April. Police say the suspects have duped their clients into believing that they have been cursed with black magic and witchcraft.

Many victims were "pressured" into handing over between $2,000 and $15,000 to the self-proclaimed fortune tellers, and one family lost as much as $85,000.

Police say it has been "difficult" to keep tabs on the fraudsters.

"They're in and out of town rather quickly. They're setting up shop; they're distributing posters and pamphlets in stores," Sgt. Steve Sharpe told CTV Edmonton.

They believe the con artists have since left the country.

"Often these individuals are on a visitor's visa and quickly disappear when they believe they could be caught," Const. Harpreet Jhinjar said in a statement released on Thursday.

Police say the suspects are from outside the country and came most recently from South Asia.

Family loses $85,000 to con artists posing as psychics | CTV News

Atheist minister fighting United Church’s effort to fire her - The Globe and Mail

Originally shared by Teresa MacBain, she adds The Step Beyond Fear for perspective:

One of my dear friends from The Clergy Project, Gretta Vosper, did exactly that. She is a pastor who finally submitted to what she knew was real and admitted it to her congregation. However, something amazing happened – instead of kicking her to the curb for her blasphemy, her congregation admitted that they were in the same place as she was. An entirely new journey began for them, one that is serving as a model for other secular congregations around the world today. Gretta and her congregation are living proof that you *can* continue to follow the parts of religious traditions that have value without the need for supernatural beliefs. They took that step beyond the fear, and found the ability to continue in community and fellowship. It can be done, and it’s fantastic when it works.

An ordained United Church of Canada minister who believes in neither God nor Bible said Wednesday she is prepared to fight an unprecedented attempt to boot her from the pulpit for her beliefs.

In an interview at her West Hill church, Rev. Gretta Vosper said congregants support her view that how you live is more important than what you believe in.

“I don’t believe in...the god called God,” Vosper said. “Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share.”

Vosper, 57, who was ordained in 1993 and joined her east-end church in 1997, said the idea of an interventionist, supernatural being on which so much church doctrine is based belongs to an outdated world view.

What’s important, she says, is that her views hearken to Christianity’s beginnings, before the focus shifted from how one lived to doctrinal belief in God, Jesus and the Bible.

,,,

Things came to a head this year after she wrote an open letter to the church’s spiritual leader pointing out that belief in God can motivate bad things — a reference to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.

“That didn’t go over well,” Vosper said. “(But) if we are going to continue to use language that suggests we get our moral authority from a supernatural source, any group that says that can trump any humanistic endeavour.”

Rev. David Allen, executive secretary of the Toronto Conference, said he took various concerns about Vosper to the church’s executive, which decided it wanted to investigate her fitness to be a minister.

,,,

Randy Bowes, board chairman at West Hill who led the search committee that hired Vosper, said he’s had no complaints from congregants.

People want to engage in critical thinking as they explore new ways of expressing their faith and values, Bowes said, and that conversation is “alive and rich” within the community.

Atheist minister fighting United Church’s effort to fire her - The Globe and Mail

'Spiritual' healer who asked clients to disrobe loses appeal

A faith healer who claimed he had the gift of healing from God, but who also encouraged people to be naked while he gave them the healing touch, has lost his appeal of his sexual assault convictions.

Born in Quebec, the man 'practised' in the Sudbury area and New Liskeard. He was sentenced in January 2013 to a year in jail and three years probation after being convicted on six counts of sexual assault and 22 counts of breach of recognizance and probation.

The breach of probation charges were connected to incidents dating back to 2007, after which he was ordered to not be alone with any of his clients during the healing sessions.

The appeal was based, in part, on the man's contention that the judge in the case was showed bias against him because the judge was openly skeptical about whether the man had divine healing powers.

'Spiritual' healer who asked clients to disrobe loses appeal

Toronto youth pastor charged in sex assault of teen girl over three years - Daily Courier: National News

Police say the incidents took place between Jan. 1, 2012 and March 31 of this year.

The alleged victim is now 17.

Police say the accused worked at the Keys of the Kingdom Ministries Life in the Spirit Fellowship Church in the city's northwest.

Jan Rober Ostonal, 35, of Mississauga, is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation and three of sexual assault.

Toronto youth pastor charged in sex assault of teen girl over three years - Daily Courier: National News

ADDENDUM::Canada’s Forced Schooling of Aboriginal Children Was ‘Cultural Genocide,’ Report Finds - The New York Times

“A just reconciliation requires more than simply talking about the need to heal the deep wounds of history,” the report said. “Words of apology alone are insufficient; concrete actions on both symbolic and material fronts are required.”

Justice Murray Sinclair

Canada’s former policy of forcibly removing aboriginal children from their families for schooling “can best be described as ‘cultural genocide.’ ”

That is the conclusion reached by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission after six years of intensive research, including 6,750 interviews. The commission published a summary version on Tuesday of what will ultimately be a multivolume report, documenting widespread physical, cultural and sexual abuse at government-sponsored residential schools that Indian, Inuit and other indigenous children were forced to attend.

The schools, financed by the government but run largely by churches, were in operation for more than a century, from 1883 until the last one closed in 1998.

The commission documented that at least 3,201 students died while attending the schools, many because of mistreatment or neglect, in the first comprehensive tally of such deaths.

The report linked the abuses at the schools, which came to broad public attention over the last four decades, to social, health, economic and emotional problems affecting many indigenous Canadians today. It concluded that although some teachers and administrators at the schools were well intentioned, the overriding motive for the program was economic, not educational.

[,,,]

A principal recommendation is a step that has long been a sore point between aboriginal groups and the government. The report repeatedly calls on the government to fully adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the basis of a new relationship.

Canada, along with the United States, Australia and New Zealand, has been reluctant to take that step, saying instead that the country endorses the declaration only as a “non-legally-binding aspirational document.”

The major sticking point is the declaration’s requirement that issues involving the lands, territories and resources of aboriginal people be subject to their “prior and informed consent.” The government is concerned that the requirement would essentially give aboriginal groups a sweeping veto over Canadian law.

The commission said, however, that the declaration affirmed rights already held by native groups under treaties with the government and was consistent with recent decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada related to aboriginal rights.

Canada’s Forced Schooling of Aboriginal Children Was ‘Cultural Genocide,’ Report Finds - The New York Times

Conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth to be banned in Ontario | CBCNews.ca Mobile

Ontario has given final approval to an NDP private member's bill that bans so-called conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children.

New Democrat Cheri DiNovo says therapists should not try to "fix" LGBTQ kids or subject them to what she calls unethical and abusive conversion therapy.

DiNovo says not only did Ontario allow conversion therapies to go on too long, the province actually covered the treatments under its health insurance plan, a practice that ends now.

Conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth to be banned in Ontario | CBCNews.ca Mobile

Tetanus infection in Ontario child prompts calls from worried parents - Toronto - CBC News

News that an unvaccinated Ontario boy is in hospital with a dangerous tetanus infection is prompting calls from worried parents seeking information on how to get their children vaccinated.

The Grey Bruce Health Unit has had numerous inquiries since word of the case hit the news over the weekend, said Dr. Christine Kennedy, the unit's associate medical officer of health. The health authority is headquartered in Owen Sound, about a 2.5-hour drive northwest of Toronto.

The unidentified six-year-old had been transferred to London, Ont., for intensive care. But his condition has improved and he was moved to a pediatric care bed over the weekend, Kennedy said.

The child had not been vaccinated against tetanus, which causes a painful and life-threatening condition better known as lockjaw.

Tetanus is caused by an infection with the bacteria Clostridium tetani. C tetani spores are ubiquitous, found in soil, dust and manure, and infection occurs when spores make their way into a cut or a wound.

The name lockjaw comes from the severe muscle contractions that are triggered by the toxin the bacteria produce. The spasms are so strong, in fact, that people can suffer broken bones. They can also interfere with breathing.


Tetanus infections are fatal in a significant portion of cases, with the proportion varying by the age of the person infected. In young children, between 20 and 30 per cent of infections lead to death, said Dr. Shelley Deeks, Public Health Ontario's medical director for immunization and vaccine preventable disease.

"It is a very awful disease," Deeks said.

There is no specific remedy for tetanus, though people who contract the infection may be given an anti-toxin and are often treated with sedatives to control the spasms.

Once more common, tetanus is now rare because most people are vaccinated against it.

Children are supposed to get four doses of vaccine containing tetanus protection at two, four, six, and 18 months of age, with a booster shot between four and six years old. The vaccine also protects against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), hemophilus influenzae type B and polio. Adults need tetanus booster shots every 10 years.

Everyone needs to be vaccinated against tetanus because the disease is not one where so-called herd immunity can develop, Kennedy noted.

Tetanus infection in Ontario child prompts calls from worried parents - Toronto - CBC News

Jewelry store sign prompts same-sex couple to ask for refund - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News

While the couple was not denied service as is common in the US, what they encountered was possibly worse: A bigot holding their money hostage while talking out of both sides - I hate you but pay me - at the same time.

A same-sex couple from St. John's is upset after discovering the jewelry store that sold them their engagement rings has posted a sign that seems to oppose same-sex marriage — but one of the store's owners says he's allowed to post his religious beliefs.

When Nicole White and Pam Renouf went looking for engagement rings a few months ago, the pair couldn't find anything they liked. The couple was eventually referred to Today's Jewellers in the Mount Pearl area because the store offers custom-made rings.

This sign was recently posted in Today's Jewellers in Mount Pearl. (Holly Ivany-Ryan/Facebook)

White and Renouf visited the store and later gave specifications and a price range for potential rings.

"They were great to work with. They seemed to have no issues. They knew the two of us were a same-sex couple," White said.

"I referred some of my friends to them, just because I did get some good customer service and they had good prices."

[,,,]
"It was really upsetting. Really sad, because we already had money down on [the rings], and they're displaying how much they are against gays, and how they think marriage should be between a man and a woman."

The couple went to the store the following day, and asked about the sign.

"They just said that that's their beliefs, and they think they can put up whatever they want. I just said it was very disrespectful, it's very unprofessional and I wanted a refund," White said.

"I have no issues with them believing in what they believe in. I think everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But I don't think they should put their personal beliefs inside their business."

White and Renouf hope to get a refund when the man who sold them the rings returns to town next month — but it's not guaranteed.

Jewelry store sign prompts same-sex couple to ask for refund - Newfoundland & Labrador - CBC News

Suspected Killer's Chilling Facebook Confession: 'Now My Family Is Pain Free And In Heaven'

Since he confessed does that mean he gets to go to heaven to?

Canadian authorities say they're investigating after a British Columbia man appears to have confessed on Facebook to killing his daughter, wife and sister.

An apparent confession posted to Randy Janzen's Facebook page around noon Thursday said that he'd shot his 19-year-old daughter, Emily, in the head because she suffered from migraines. The post has since been removed.

"I took a gun and shot her in the head and now she is migraine free and floating in the clouds," Janzen wrote, according to HuffPost Canada.

Janzen also admitted to fatally shooting his wife, Laurel, "because a mother should never have to hear the news her baby has died," and said he'd also killed his sister, because he "did not want her to have to live with this shame I have caused all alone."

Janzen said he was ashamed of his actions, calling himself "dirt."

Suspected Killer's Chilling Facebook Confession: 'Now My Family Is Pain Free And In Heaven'