The owner of a chain of grocery stores in Winnipeg is fighting a $10,000 fine he received for opening one of the stores on Good Friday.

Pakistan’s highest court in late January freed a woman who had spent eight years on death row after being accused of blasphemy, and she and her family hope to soon leave the country.

Westerners sometimes look at blasphemy laws as relics or evidence of religious zealotry. While there may be some truth to that, it’s also the case that blasphemy laws have a long lineage in Europe and America. It’s only recently that some have begun to fall – and in other nations they’re actually being enforced.