At the end of October, a significant case came before the Supreme Court, which once again, brings the legal status of the unborn child before the nation’s highest judicial body. In 1985, a baby which British Columbia midwives Mary Sullivan and Gloria Lemay were delivering dies from lack of oxygen. The baby’s head had emerged, but its body had not. The women [...]
Allen Linden, LRC chairman since 1983, has been appointed to the Federal court of Appeal by Justice Minister Kim Campbell. Under Linden the Commission did the groundwork for a revision of the Criminal Code according to secularist principles. Two of the LRC’s contributions to the secularization of Canadian law are their recommendations on euthanasia suicide and abortion. The LRC’s new chairman is [...]
In Britain, the House of Lords passed into law the Human Fertilization and Embryology bill, October 18. All eleven Anglican Bishops present in the Lords voted against it. The Bill includes wide-ranging amendments to the 1967 Abortion Act, removing the last vestiges of protecting the unborn child. In a joint statement Baroness Cox and the Duke of Norfolk, whose restricting amendments were [...]
In late June 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Antonio Lamer, 57, Chief Justice of the supreme Court of Canada. Lamer describes himself as a “libertarian” (Toronto Star, June 30). Mr. Justice Antonio Lamer was the one justice (among seven) who fully concurred with then Chief Justice Brian Dickson’s January 1988 ruling in the Morgentaler case. The ruling abolished the 1969 abortion [...]
Almost a hundred years ago in an Encyclical letter to the American bishops, in 1895, Pope Leo XIII wrote a glowing tribute to the American people. In it he praised “the great Washington.” He recalled that President’s statement that religion and morality are indispensable for democracy’s survival. Added Pole Leo: “And not without cause, for without morality the State cannot endure…But the [...]
In March of this year the European Parliament passed a resolution which called for abortion to be made readily available as a woman’s right in all countries of the European Community (EC). The move caused a tremor of concern in pro-life groups in each of the 12 European countries which make up the Community, and brought renewed international interest in its Parliament. [...]
In the famous Baby M case settled I 1988, the child which Mary Beth Whitehead had conceived through artificial insemination was taken from her and awarded to the father, William Stern, and his wife Elizabeth. A New Jersey court ruled on what it considered the best interest of the child: the Sterns could offer it a better home. But the court also [...]
On December 10, 1990, over 100 Toronto CLC activists honored well-known pro-life writer and researcher. The Interim editor, Father Alphonse de Valk, first at a Mass and then a luncheon, celebrating his 25 years as a priest. Acknowledging tributes paid by National President Jim Hughes and Father Ted Colleton, Father de Valk, who has spent time in jail for picketing outside of [...]
Winnipeg On the first weekend of October, about 400 young Catholics assembled in Manitoba’s capital for The Way, the Truth and the Life Conference. They left ready to tackle the significant spiritual and moral issues of contemporary society. A few young adults in the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Winnipeg, under the guidance of Fr. Michael Kwiatkowski, are credited for kicking off the conference [...]
Labrador City, Newfoundland Sixteen hundred chocolate bars and a bake sale. That’s what it cost about 20 kids in Wabush-Labrador City to send a delegation to a youth rally promoting chastity, sponsored by the interdenominational Canadian Youth Pro-Life Organization (CYPLO), held here September 28/29. Labrador City has a population of 10,000. Nearby Wabush has 4,000. About 20 young people aged 12-18 form [...]
Last December Joan Rysa, a grandmother volunteered to sell Cistercian monk’s Christmas sakes for the first time at her church, St. John the Evangelist, in Whitby outside of Toronto. She loved the experience and met parishioners she had not known before. Moreover, she felt she was spreading a different kind of Christmas spirit – selling cakes for life. Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) [...]
In its April 1990 budget, the Quebec Government continued its payment of $500 to couples for a first and $1000 for a second. It upped the money for a third child from $4,500 to $6,000. Births in the province rose by 5.7 per cent last year, bringing up the rate from 1.41 per family to 1.52 – still well below replacement level, [...]
Jim Wood, of Deep Brook, N.S. has been asked to step down from his appointed position by State Deputy Caesar Lalo. Mr. Wood had reproached the Knights of Columbus at the Nova Scotia State Convention in May of this year for not being militant enough in their opposition to abortion. An active member of his Council, Mr. Wood had also opposed (U.S.) [...]
The Moral Question of Abortion by Stephen Schwary is an excellent book. The author is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island and a pro-life activist. He deals with every aspect of the abortion issue, arguing in great detail that the child in the womb is a human being from the moment of conception. He devotes a chapter to showing [...]
When people see an article headed “birth control” or “population crisis” I imagine they immediately think of the teaching of the Catholic Church. If the writer is a priest, the suspicion is strengthened. I am not only a catholic, but a priest and I am, here and now, writing an article on the falling population in Canada and all over the Western [...]