A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon (Random House, $38.95, 333 pages) Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard, leader of the Holy See's delegation to the Beijing Women's Conference and usually one of the clearest thinkers on the issue of human rights, has penned a fascinating but ultimately disappointing [...]
Delusions of Grandeur: The United Nations and Global Interventionism, edited by Ted Galen Carpenter (Cato Institute, 1997, $15.95) It would be no exaggeration to say that Canada's elite loves the United Nations. The spirit of Lester B. Pearson is very much alive in the natural governing party, and none of the increasingly irrelevant opposition parties have even suggested Canada should withdraw from [...]
Created in the wake of World War II, the United Nations has veered far from its intended reason for existence to mediate disputes and foster international co-operation to become a large, overbearing global entity that violates national sovereignty by promoting a radical, socially activist agenda. No longer primarily worried about mediating international disputes, it has engaged in attempts to make policy for [...]
The tragic events of Sept. 11 - four planes downed in three locations, New York City, Washington and rural Pennsylvania; a death toll near 7,000; the loss of innocence to the United States and the West in general - is nothing less than a wicked attack on human life. Despite what the politicians, pundits and public say, it was not America or [...]
UNESCO's ideology of humanity has been described as a dialectic between freedom of research and respect for the rights of persons on whom the research is conducted. The dialectic is joined to protection against discrimination based on genetic characteristics. The ideology, as described, fails to reach a true understanding of the nature of man as the subject of proposed research. In spite [...]
Farmers know full well that the operation known as castration is performed for good reasons. But why some bureaucracies choose to act as if they've had such operations performed upon them is beyond me. In Alberta, an Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been set up. Its main task seems to be to issue orders that are not worth the [...]
Because I spent the month of August in Ireland, I missed the 119th annual meeting of the Knights of Columbus, which was held in Toronto, August 7-9. But I have just been reading a report of what took place at the meeting and it has given me great encouragement. The reason for this is that I believe it was the most positive [...]
One of the best people I know turned 65 years old recently and was given an enormous party at his workplace. Not only did friends and family celebrate the event, but also the fact that this man had recently undergone major heart bypass surgery. He was back at work, looking as fit as ever. His name is David Mainse, founder of the [...]
All newspapers have a "slant." It doesn't necessarily mean they get the facts wrong - it's just how they choose to interpret or misinterpret those facts for their readers. The pro-life movement is the biggest victim of news blackouts and censorship. Who do you think would get front page coverage - 3,000 pro-lifers in the annual March For Life in Ottawa, or [...]
Pro-life Canadians could be forgiven for thinking that a combination between the Liberal Party and the Communist Party of Canada had recently co-opted the Canadian Alliance. First, on August 28, the Globe and Mail reported that Alliance MP Keith Martin was advocating for-profit surrogacy. Three days later, former Alliance leader Preston Manning was quoted in the National Post supporting experimentation on human [...]
Ontario pro-lifers are mourning the death of Eunice Morgan, whom friends and family say put the word "active" in activist. A long-time supporter of both Campaign Life Coalition and Toronto Right to Life, Morgan was famous for her monthly meetings on issues affecting life, family and faith, held the first Thursday of each month. Rachel Di Fonzo told The Interim her mother [...]
It was 1870 and the Franco-Prussian War had just begun. A 25-year-old philologist, on his way to the front, observed a cavalry battalion exhibiting impressive clatter and pomp as it passed through the town of Frankfort. Taken by the spectacle, the young scholar had a vision, out of which was to grow his entire philosophy: "I felt for the first time that [...]
What is needed today is radical insight into contemporary Canadian reality, in order to clarify exactly how precarious the situation is for 'small-c conservatives,' as well as for left-wing dissidents, from current-day, out-of-control technology and capitalism. The context today is of a Canada ever closer to becoming a post-democratic "one-party dictatorship" of the Liberals. One hopes the realization of the critical shape [...]
An automobile is vital to the work of Aid to Women, because it enables it to carry out the promises made to women considering abortion. Robert, an Aid to Women counsellor, told The Interim that many women choose not have an abortion when they realize there are people willing and able to help them. Aid to Women offers cribs and strollers and [...]
Gate Entrance A family-sized van pulled over at the curb on a downtown street in Toronto. The driver leaned over asking where "the gate entrance" was to the abortuary. Robert, an Aid to Women counsellor, responded by asking if he needed help for the woman he had just dropped off. Within hearing distance of the couple, Robert said to the woman, "We [...]