You can hire a hit man in a Toronto park this summer. On Sunday August 10, I went for a swim at the Alex Duff Memorial swimming pool in the Toronto park commonly known as Christie Pits. Climbing out of the water I began to watch an organized children’s baseball game through the wire mesh safety fence surrounding the elevated pool when, [...]
“There aren’t enough of us to do what needs to be done…” “We have no money…” “The media isn’t fair to us…” ‘We need to renew the movement…” Long-time workers in the pro-life movement will be forgiven for assuming that these complaints were made at a recent pro-life gathering. In fact, the above statements were made by delegates to the National Action [...]
Part IV Catholics, marital status and homosexuality The struggle for truth is fought on many battlefields, religion and Christianity not excluded. Irreligion has made great advance, especially during the last 25 years under the umbrella of “the permissive society.” Parts one and two of the series reflected upon the effects of moral permissiveness within the United and Anglican Churches in Canada. Part [...]
Just about the only time I wish The Interim were published daily or weekly is when a point I wanted to make in a column is made by a more frequently-published writer. It’s a galling position but also satisfying. It’s galling because, of course, everyone wants to believe that his particular point of view is unique (and even brilliant or revolutionary). It’s [...]
When I was asked by a friend to go with her to the National Action Committee conference in Ottawa, I really didn’t know what to expect. I was a little shocked to find abortion-on-demand and lesbian rights so openly on the programme. One of the workshops was called “To involve all women in the fight for lesbian rights.” Since I didn’t know [...]
Justice Minister John Crosbie has introduced tough new amendments to the Criminal Code which would outlaw child pornography and protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. In addition, the proposed legislation precisely defines pornography, replacing the vague obscenity offences which made it difficult to obtain convictions against pornographers. Immediate reaction to Mr. Crosbie’s proposals was predictable, weighted to the point of view [...]
In a recent column, I wrote about the “unlearned lessons of history.” But there are many other unlearned lessons which have not been absorbed by society. One of them is the shocking damage which modern contraceptives have done – ad are doing – to women, particularly young women. At the 1985 National Life Conference in England, one of the speakers, a distinguished [...]
Two years after the Badgley Committee investigating sexual offences against children tables its report in the House of Commons, the federal government has announced legislation designed to protect children from sexual assault, exploitation and prostitution. The legislation, introduced by Justice Minister John Crosbie, adopts many of the Badgley recommendations and, unlike the proposed legislation to curb pornography introduced at the same time, [...]
In some medieval accounts, the Holy Grail was the platter, and in others, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper. The term therefore has suggestions of the most profound religious significance. In the Arthurian legends, only a knight who was pure in heart could attain to a vision of the Grail; sometimes this knight was Parisfal, sometimes Galahad. A journal [...]
Justice O’Connor, joined by Justice Rehnquist, prefaced her dissent with the following words: “This Court’s abortion decisions have already worked a major distortion in the Court’s constitutional jurisprudence…Today’s decision goes further, and makes it painfully clear that no legal rule or doctrine is safe from nullification by this Court when an occasion for its application arises in a case involving state regulation [...]
I agree with much of Justice White’s and Justice O’Connor’s dissents. In my concurrence in the companion case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, I noted that “I do not read the Court’s holdings today as having the sweeping consequences attributed to them by the dissenting Justices; the dissenting views discount the reality that the vast majority of physicians observe the standards [...]
In the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered invalid the duly-passed statutes, relative to abortion, enacted in 43 states, thus opening the way for over 19 million abortions. Of the nine Supreme Court Judges only two dissented: Mr. Justice J. Rehnquist (the recently-nominated Chief Justice of the Supreme Court), and Mr. Justice J. White. [...]
Earlier this year, the executive of a professional association of Roman Catholic judges and lawyers in Toronto was asked by one of its members to take a stand against the continuing illegal operation of the Morgentaler Clinic. After polling its members, the executive decided not to take a position, a decision which has concerned many of its members. The Interim has obtained [...]
Ontario In May of this year, the Justice Committee of the Ontario Legislature recommended placing “sexual orientation” under the Ontario Human Rights Act. The proposal is buried in an omnibus bill with a variety of proposed changes to Ontario Legislation in order to bring these laws in harmony with the 1981 Charter of Rights. A copy of the letter from the president [...]
Nova Scotia It really is a small world! But a very valuable one! At the invitation of friends, John and Betty Whitaker, I recently visited the city of Washington. A former aide to two American presidents, John had very thoughtfully arranged guided tours of the White House, the Capitol, and other prominent attractions for his Canadian visitor. In addition, he had asked [...]