Whether the child was an infant or an adult, a'a child is a child' Professor Stephen Fleming, chair of the Atkinson College department of psychology at York University in Toronto, conducted a three-year study of more than 200 families who have experienced the death of a child. His work dispelled a number of the myths surrounding the grief that follows the death [...]
For nearly a decade, Alberta had been the only provincial holdout in a country all too eager to endorse the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Families in Canada were dealt a death blow on Jan. 13, when Tory Premier Ralph Klein did a flip-flop on his refusal to sign off parental rights, sending a letter to Prime Minister [...]
Liberals promise study of discrimination against single-income families Jumping on a gaffe by a junior minister in the federal government, the Reform Party brought the issue of tax inequities between dual-income and single-income families to the centre of political attention recently. During what should have been a routine response during question period, Jim Peterson, the secretary of state for finance, put his [...]
It has been revealed that Health Canada wrote Exelgyn, the French company owning the rights to the abortion pill RU-486, to promise that Canada's drug-testing process will be "fair." In so doing, the federal government has tipped its hand and shown that far from being "fair," it may give RU-486 favoured treatment in the drug-approval process. The Food and Drug Act forbids [...]
Anarchists, Communists, feminists, and gay activists litter Toronto with hate propaganda The war of words started well before Human Life International arrived in Toronto for its 18th World Conference on Love, Life and the Family April 7-11. As for previous HLI conferences in other years in Ottawa and Montreal, an assortment of leftist- and liberal-oriented groups launched an array of verbal and [...]
There are two signs of old age. One is you forget things. I can't remember what the other is! With all the activity of Christmas and New Year, I had forgotten that I am supposed to write a column for The Interim each month. But a few days ago I called into the Campaign Life office and met David Curtin, the editor [...]
As I pen these words, various friends and colleagues are preparing for the United Alternative convention in Ottawa. A lot will be said both before and after the event, and I really have no way of knowing if the whole exercise will be successful. But I have some thoughts on the UA and its dangers - oh, the dangers! - which are [...]
The Rev. Jerry Falwell has been roundly ridiculed by gay advocates and the fellow-travelling liberal press for asserting that one of the characters on Teletubbies, the popular British TV show for preschoolers, incorporates pro-homosexuality symbolism. The program's producers, however, have not stepped forward to explain why, if homosexual advocacy is not their intent, the male-voiced tubby, "Tinky Winky," carries a purse and wears [...]
There was some very bad news in the February 1999 issue of First Things. Peter Singer, professor of philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has been offered the "Professorship of Bioethics" at Princeton in the U.S.A. Singer (not to be confused with the Canadian Peter Singer) has been called the "darling" of Monash's medical establishment in new reproductive technologies. Since 1980, [...]
I bet faithful readers want to know what the dirty five-letter word is. My wife Ileen was doing a crossword puzzle recently and she asked me for a five-letter word meaning "biased." Instantly, I replied, "CBC TV. See if that fits." John Grierson, the Englishman who invented the "documentary" back in the 1940s, is famous for making Adolf Hitler "dance." Hitler was [...]
Search team still working to get candidates in more ridings On Feb. 27 the Family Coalition Party of Ontario held an upbeat pre-election annual meeting in Toronto. The pro-life social justice conservative party is looking forward to its fourth Ontario election. Having survived the three great Liberal, NDP, and Conservative electoral sweeps of 1987, 1990, and 1995 respectively, it sees an opportunity [...]
THE FATHER OF MEDICINE TAUGHT THAT THE PHYSICIAN'S PURPOSE IS TO HEAL, NOT TO HARM Hippocrates is considered both the father of modern medicine, history's most famous physician and - as was common in his time - a philosopher. He gained distinction for rejecting superstition in favour of scientific observation, for classifying diseases, and for creating a set of moral and professional [...]
In five short years, the National Foundation for Family Research and Education has seen its influence grow slowly, but it hopes that a number of major projects will make it the premier provider of information on the family in the years to come. The non-profit, non-partisan Calgary-based think-tank is positioning itself to be the most quoted and most recognized source of reliable [...]
Study intended to gauge true status of Canadian families The National Foundation for Family Research and Education has achieved something remarkably rare and refreshing: an honest and thorough examination of the economic, social, and psychological health of Canadian families. The NFFRE recently published the Family Health Index, which examines family breakdown, teen pathologies such as drug use and suicide, health care, and [...]
Paul Lee wanders into the Toronto Right to Life office at around 10 a.m. He's a little late, because he spent hours on the phone the night before talking with students across the province of Ontario, assisting them with transportation and logistical planning to get to the next Ontario Students For Life conference in Ottawa. Today he has to send more registrations, [...]