Two key figures in the recent Ontario Liberal Leadership race have shown their true colors on life and family issues. Ottawa South MPP Dalton McGuinty, now leader of the party, had previously tried to appeal to pro-life Ontarians. In an Interim interview during the race, McGuinty presented himself as a “moderate” on the abortion issue. Although he promised no concrete measures to [...]
Rank and file pro-lifers are of mixed emotions regarding progress in the movement in the new year. Some are cautiously optimistic that the respect for life message will gain a more receptive audience in 1997, while others speak of further inroads by the culture of death and dwindling base of front-line pro-life support. In a random sampling of opinion from across the [...]
The struggle faced by pro-life secondary students on their campuses can be frustrating and disheartening, especially when faced alone. The National Campus Life Network (NCLN) has recently been established to ensure that these young adults have the support they require to bring the message of life to their peers on their campus. On the weekend of January 10-12, a gathering of about [...]
I have just finished reading – for the second time – a very interesting and informative book. It is entitled, Toward a Culture of Life. The author is Alex Schadenberg, with Father Tom Lynch. It is published by Life Centre Books Ltd., Toronto, Ontario. I have known Alex for many years and had the honour of being the celebrant at his wedding [...]
The traffic on Eunice Morgan’s street in the Toronto suburb of Willowdale is a little heavier the first Thursday evening of each month. That’s the night Eunice hosts a gathering of like-minded Catholics who want to keep abreast of current social, moral and religious issues. While a monthly “caffe klatch” might not be big news, Eunice’s group is noteworthy for its longevity, [...]
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A May 23 fire of suspicious origin heavily damaged an abortion clinic that has been targeted twice before by arson. The clinic has been a focal point for anti-abortion protesters for years. Nobody was injured in the two-alarm fire, said Portland Fire Bureau spokesman Dave Centers, but the back of the masonry building was blackened by flames. Flames [...]
Interim special A new analysis of doctor-assisted death in the Netherlands – considered a model by some advocates of assisted suicide in the United States – suggests that doctors there have increasingly taken the next troubling step: Ending patients’ lives without their permission. The assessment contradicts Dutch government data publicized last year and widely interpreted as evidence that assisted suicide, which is [...]
FREDRICTON – New Brunswick’s highest court has ruled that a four-year-old Moncton boy can sue his mother for injuries he sustained while still in the womb. In 1993, Ryan Dobson’s mother Cynthia was involved in a head-on car collision three months before she was due to give birth. The accident left Ms. Dobson in a coma from which she eventually recovered, but [...]
Throughout the course of 1997, and especially during the baseball season, much attention will be given to Jackie Robinson, for it was exactly 50 years ago that this gifted athlete from a poor and broken home in Georgia shattered baseball’s colour barrier and, in the process, caused a sociological revolution. On the night of April 15, 1997 50 years to the day [...]
Bergen-Belsen. The name sent a shudder down my spine. It evoked unreal black and white images – images from documentaries and photographs I had seen over the years. Yet what would I find in this place of death? Would it even be real? Not alone on this venture, my 11-year-old daughter Rebecca was with me. I wanted her to see this reality. [...]
BOGOTA, Colombia (CWN) – The Colombian Conference of Catholic bishops (CEC) May 26 energetically condemned “the embarrassing and absurd” approval of a law that makes this Latin American country the first to legalize euthanasia. Archbishop Alberto Giraldo, president of the bishop’s conference, said: “Such a law is a legal absurdity and a human monstrosity,” since “no one has the right to decide [...]
Interim special The pro-life office of the Catholic archdiocese of Philadelphia has added its voice to the battle against the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure in the U.S. In a publication sent to parishioners, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia said it is important for Catholics and pro-lifers to educate themselves against “the barbaric procedure known as partial-birth abortion.” He listed a number of [...]
Interim special In the wake of the June 2 federal election, Christian Heritage Party leader Ron Gray expressed concern about whether the CHP and the pro-life movement have yet succeeded in forming a solid bloc of pro-life voters in this country. “Why are some pro-lifers not voting pro-life?” he asked. “It seems as if some pro-lifers are voting more according to their [...]
Interim staff It’s time for the Supreme Court of Canada to recognize that the right to personhood should be extended to unborn children. That is the position Alliance for Life is taking in a court submission in the case of a pregnant, solvent-addicted Winnipeg woman who was ordered into a mandatory treatment program to protect her unborn child. The woman, identified only [...]
An official with the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto took special note of the recent reuniting of singer Joni Mitchell with her biological daughter Kilauren Gibb. The story, which made national headlines in April, was heart-warming for the happy denouement among Mitchell, Kilauren and the women’s adoptive parent. In its own way the story showed the life-affirming nature of adoption [...]