An obituary about former United Church moderator Lois Wilson, a personal piece about the execution of Ramiro Gonzales and an interview with author Omer Aziz were among our top stories of 2024. (Photo: Michael Blair; Screenshot courtesy of Texas Defender Service/YouTube; Photo courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute)

Topics: Ethical Living | Broadview News

Broadview’s top 10 stories of 2024

Check out the stories that fascinated you most this year

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A brown-skinned man with short dark hair, in a long-sleeved black shirt and black pants sits in front of a garden. There are green grasses behind him.
Lawyer and author of “Brown Boy: A Memoir,” Omer Aziz. (Photograph courtesy of Harvard Radcliffe Institute)

10. Omer Aziz on the alarming rise of modern fascism in Canada

By Sanam Islam

This topical interview with author Omer Aziz, also a former foreign policy adviser for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, explores the roots of far-right ideologies, why the far-right is growing in this country and across North America, and the state of the problem in Canada. It appeared in our July/August issue, as the 2024 U.S. election campaign was in full swing.

In front, a sign that reads "St. Mary & St. George" fixed into the yellow grass. Behind it, the remains of the church. The air looks smoky.
This photograph was posted on Facebook by Jasper Anglican Church with the caption, “This is all that remains of our much loved church!” (Photograph courtesy of Jasper Anglican Church/Facebook).

9. Jasper wildfire destroys historic Anglican church

By Amarah Hasham-Steele

Our short Broadview.org story broke the news to many readers that St. Mary & St. George Anglican Church had burned to the ground, as details trickled out about the devastating fire that consumed large parts of Jasper, Alta., this summer. Some of you were also interested to learn the fate of Jasper United Church, which was destroyed too. We wrote about that church in a subsequent story.

A woman with brown skin and dark brown hair with light brown highlights dressed in a navy blue police uniform stands in front of a white and blue police car.
‘Allegiance’, starring Supinder Wraich, is available to stream on CBC Gem. (Photograph courtesy of CBC Gem)

8. New police drama ‘Allegiance’ explores how injustice can make you rethink your identity

By M.L. Witkowicz

The CBC show, which premiered earlier this year, explores identity, otherness and the ethical dilemmas of working in law enforcement. The decision to cast a South Asian woman, Canadian actor Supinder Wraich, as the lead is also notable in an industry that is still too white. 

A middle-aged white man who is balding and wearing black-framed glasses, a black button-up shirt and a brown blazer poses in front of a building.
“American Evangelicals for Trump” author André Gagné. (Photograph by Adil Boukind)

7. Why white evangelical voters back Trump

By Kate Helmore

This interview with theology professor André Gagné about some of the U.S. president-elect’s most ardent supporters was published in the lead-up to the fall election. “They need Trump,” he tells Broadview of an evangelical sect that he researches. “Trump needs them. They don’t mind that he’s not a moral man. That’s not important, because God chose imperfect individuals, and God’s will shall prevail.”

Very Rev. Lois Wilson’s decades-long ministry transcended borders and denominations, leaving an indelible mark on Canada’s ethical landscape. (Photo: Doug Camp/Observer files)

6. Former United Church moderator Lois Wilson dead at 97

By Julie McGonegal

Wilson was a significant figure in the life of Canada. Her ministry encompassed more than half a century and decades of change for the United Church. But her influence reached beyond the denomination. McGonegal’s obituary explores just how deeply Wilson left her mark.

A person wearing black top, dark grey jacket and a white priest collar in front of a grey background.
Rev. Kevin Moore of Port Hope United Church. (Photograph courtesy of Kevin Moore)

5. Port Hope United Church demands apology after touring choir removes Pride flags from sanctuary

By Ashleigh-Rae Thomas

This news story about how a church responded when a visiting men’s choir took down symbols of inclusivity really resonated with you. As the minister, Rev. Kevin Moore, said in a voicemail he left for the choir about the people who took down the flags: “They’re actually helping promote Pride awareness in Port Hope by their actions. They’ve had the reverse effect of what I think they were hoping for.”

Side profile of Celine Dion, who is facing a microphone and wearing headphones. In front of her seems to be a music stand with sheet music.
Céline Dion is one of Canada’s biggest stars. (Photographed from the film, “I Am: Celine Dion”)

4. Céline Dion’s faith shines through in new documentary

By Amarah Hasham-Steele

We published this story because of the sheer amount of interest in a Broadview story from many years ago about Céline Dion’s faith. The Canadian pop icon has never been very open about her Catholic faith, but there is an immense amount of curiosity about it. In a new documentary, she is similarly tight-lipped, but some more detail comes through.

3. Ramiro Gonzales has been executed, and my heart is broken

By Bri-anne Swan

Rev. Bri-anne Swan was death-row inmate Ramiro Gonzales’s spiritual adviser and friend, and sat by his side as he died by lethal injection this summer. Written in the days after Gonzales’s execution, her piece captured her desperate grief over his senseless death. “Ramiro has been lost to the lie that redemption is impossible,” she writes. 

Readers all over the internet who were interested in Gonzales’s fate came to our piece and maybe were moved in the process. This piece was also recently named a finalist for the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. 

Illustration of woman staring up at the sky with snow shovel in her hand. She is wearing purple pants and mustard top. Shadow of birds are reflected on the ground.
The pressure of sacrificing everything for the Kingdom of God left Sarah Bessey feeling burned out. (Illustration by María Hergueta)

2. As Easter approaches, I’m learning to embrace joy in ordinary life

By Sarah Bessey

In a message for Easter, the bestselling author and former evangelical explores how to find happiness when your life isn’t quite so big and loud, as it was for her in the evangelical church. Interest in Sarah Bessey and her work drove attention to this story, but we hope they were also inspired by her message of how “resurrection can surprise us in its ordinariness.”

For clergy, church disagreements may start with incivility, but it often ends with bullying. (Illustration by Neil Webb)

1. More United Church clergy are feeling targeted by congregational bullies

By Christopher White

One minister’s attempt to capture what he saw as an endemic problem in the United Church spoke to thousands of you, and it bloomed into a very popular webinar that we held earlier this fall. Want to learn more about how to combat this issue in your own congregation? You can still watch our webinar here.

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