Despite an unexpected 3.3 per cent jump in the number of babies in 1988, Quebecois from Premier Robert Bourassa to singer Gilles Vigneault are profoundly concerned about a birth rate that falls far below the 2.1 children per couple needed to at least sustain the current population of 6.6 million. From an average of 7 children per family a century ago Quebec’s [...]
“The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass filled the house. Mother and father stood in the center of the room, a picture of fearlessness. But their little daughter, who stood beneath the shelter of her mother’s arm, could not suppress the tremors running through her body. Three policemen stepped quickly through the remnants of the front door. Their bulging black helmets [...]
The last essay in the collection The Issue is Life (edit. D. O’Leary, Hamilton, Welch and Co., 175 pp., 1988, $6.95, paperback) – is the best. In it, George Grant describes the Supreme Court decision in Morgentaler as almost comic – if it did not concern the slaughter of the young. The comedy arises from the fact that the judges used the [...]
Under pressure from advocates for the mentally retarded, Quebec has agreed to amend legislation that should have allowed removal of organs from healthy mentally retarded people, and children under 14, without their consent. This morally reprehensible legislation had already been passed by the National Assembly and only needed proclamation to become law when protests of outraged groups finally reached the government late [...]
The statues of Truth and Justice no longer grace the front entrance of the Supreme Court of Canada building in Ottawa. They have been taken away for refurbishing and repair. Their absence was felt to be entirely appropriate by the pro-lifers who gathered there on January 28 to mark the anniversary of the Court’s decision striking down Canada’s abortion law. The rally [...]
Who keeps the vigil at the Morgentaler abortuary in downtown Toronto? Are the picketers “religious fanatics” or a part of a “quasi-fascist movement” (Morgentaler, Toronto Star, January 18, 1989). Are they “terrorists” creating a scene like that of “Beirut or Belfast” (June Callwood, Globe and Mail, February 17, 1988)? If so, then who in the world would want to join them? Perplexed [...]
INTRODUCTION The following article deals with a liturgy or a performance – one is not certain exactly how to describe it – held recently in a Roman Catholic Church in Toronto. It was meant to be a celebration in honour of the Paulist Fathers who administer the parish. Many of those invited had no idea what was in store for them. When [...]
If your child attends a school in the Ottawa-Carleton region, he or she now has easy access to a birth control clinic. It may well be located right in your child’s school. The Ottawa Board of Education opened a clinic in Ridgemount in November 1988, and is planning to place clinics in tow other schools, one of which will be francophones. The [...]
“Peel plans to give out 15,000 kits in a campaign to promote safe sex,” declared a Toronto Star headline on January 31, 1989. Sue Monaghan, a nurse and health promotion officer in Peel County, just west of Toronto, said that too often the battle against AIDS couples ignore the simple contraceptive measures which are available. “Because no one knows anyone with AIDS,” [...]
Among groups which have let Canadian society and the Catholic community down, the politicians stand out. The Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and John Turner which legalized abortion in 1969 was in majority Catholic (245 out of 34 Cabinet Ministers). As pointed out over ten years ago, this makes Canadian Roman Catholics the only group in their Church to have this dubious [...]
I am sure it is not necessary to explain to any of our readers the meaning of “Operation Rescue.” I missed the one which they had in October but I was ready for the recent event – January 12-14. We were told to meet at an establishment in Toronto at 6:30 a.m., on Thursday, January 12. About 70 people were present. Anne [...]
Stop the Clinic-Halifax Health Minister, David Nantes declared on January 26, 1989, that the province will use every method available, including the courts, to stop an abortion “clinic” from operating in Nova Scotia. According to the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the minister has instructed staff to prepare for countering any actions Henry Morgentaler may take. In Toronto a Morgentaler spokesman said they hoped to [...]
The Ontario Legislature voted 82 to 35 on February 7, to approve two bills allowing municipalities to choose whether or not to permit open Sunday shopping. It is expected that over a period of time wide open Sundays will prevail even in communities opposed to them. Once a municipality opts for Sunday shopping, the neighboring municipalities will likely follow suit, fearing of [...]
“It’s All Right Now,” said a heading in the Toronto Star on Sunday, January 29, 1988. “Films that would once have been routinely banned or restricted in Ontario,” the paper explained, “are now passed by a censor board that has quietly cast off mid-Victorian prudery and joined the late twentieth century.” The board has not banned or snipped a mainstream movie in [...]
In 1932, Aldous Huxley published a satirical novel entitled Brave New World – a look into the future when test-tube reproduction had completely replaced pregnancy and birth. Much of what he predicted has come to pass, even if some of the details are different; the technological revolution in procreation which he envisaged is now with us. He emphasized strongly, however, that this [...]