In the recent federal and Ontario election battles, I had much more empathy for Stockwell Day than I had for Jim Flaherty, whose political position I felt was slightly to the right of Attila the Hun. Jim, unfortunately, gave the impression that if his aged mother was a bag lady he wouldn't have hesitated to hustle downtown and truck her off to [...]
As part of our continuing look back at the past during this, our 20th year of publication The Interim reprints this article, which originally appeared in the May 1993 issue. The Ontario government wants to make it illegal to counsel women or peacefully protest abortion in cities across the province. Attorney General Marion Boyd plans to seek a court order restricting pro-life [...]
"Feisty" and "dedicated" are the words being used to describe Lillian Maguire, a long-time pro-life supporter and activist from Richmond Hill, Ont., who died on Feb. 23 at the age of 81. Maguire was one of the first demonstrators when Henry Morgentaler opened his flagship abortuary on Harbord Street in Toronto in the early 1980s. In recent years, despite declining health and [...]
It started out as a typical Saturday morning for persistent pro-life activist Earl Amyotte of Windsor, Ont. Most Saturday mornings, Amyotte takes a trip to Detroit, and hikes from abortuary to abortuary to picket. But later in the day on Saturday, April 6, after a long, tough day of protesting, he was stopped at the Canadian border on his way back to [...]
In November 2001, Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced an early Christmas present for the province's most needy: a $100 cheque for every low- and middle-income working family with young children. Now, $100 is hardly a fortune these days. But this small sum of money caused quite a big stir in the letters to the editor section of the Toronto Sun. One [...]
Liberal, Alliance and Bloc Quebecois MPs on the House of Commons health committee accused Canadian Institutes of Health Research president Alan Bernstein of pre-empting Parliament when it announced funding guidelines for embryonic stem cell research in March, about two months before federal Health Minister Ann McLellan was expected to introduce legislation outlining experimental and reproductive technologies legislation. The CIHR guidelines permit federal [...]
We live in a society of opinion. It is opinions that shape our world and define who we are in relation to others. Yet, despite the declaration we make, we often confuse the difference between fact and opinion. Fact cannot be changed no matter what view is placed on it. Despite the inherent nature of a fact, many people still strive to [...]
Supremacy of Parliament replaced with supremacy of the Charter Canadians were recently inundated with media propaganda celebrating 20 years since the implementation of Pierre Trudeau's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The mostly liberal media reported poll results indicating that 82 per cent of Canadians feel the Charter has been good for Canada. The Charter has been a feel-good exercise since its inception [...]
The 20th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was cause for much liberal self-congratulation. The federal government announced it would spend $1.5 million in pro-Charter propaganda and Jean Chretien praised the document, calling it "the most profoundly democratic declaration in our history." What was curious about Chretien's self-congratulatory remark (as Trudeau's Justice Minister he was one of the framers of [...]
Should trade unions be allowed to interfere in the personal, social, moral, political and religious lives of their members, considering membership and union dues are compulsory? Any free society should say no. Today in Canada, trade unions are allowed to impose their values on their forced membership. Unions receive their certification for collective bargaining and this has progressed into collective coercion. Trade [...]
A report published in the British Medical Journal has found a link between abortion and depression. The Elliot Institute funded the report, which collected data from a national study of American youths that began in 1979. A subset of 4,463 women were surveyed in 1992 about depression, intendedness of pregnancy and pregnancy outcome. A total of 421 women either had a first [...]
U.S. President George Bush named University of Chicago ethicist Leon Kass the chairman of his President's Council on Bioethics in August. The events of Sept. 11 delayed the naming of the other 17 members, who were finally revealed in January. The list is controversial in some circles, because it is more conservative than previous presidential bioethics councils. The members include such nationally [...]
At a ceremony at United Nations headquarters April 11, the required instruments of ratification for the entry into force of the Rome Statute to establish the International Criminal Court were formally lodged by 10 nations. The deposited ratifications of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ireland, Jordan, Mongolia, Niger, Romania, and Slovakia brought the total number of ratifying [...]
Would you like to see "Timothy and the Terrorist" in your local public library? Written by John Robin Sharpe, the story deals with young white boys who are sold as sex slaves to an evil sultan, and includes graphic details of man-boy and boy-boy sex acts, beatings, and even a circumcision. Described by Sharpe himself in a letter as "sadomasochisticfaggotkiddie porn," such [...]
Pro-family advocates and traditional Catholics are worried that a student who is pushing the issue of bringing his same-sex partner to a school prom is being used by the homosexual lobby to advance their cause and weaken the distinctiveness of Catholic education in Ontario. Before Marc Hall set out to buy two tickets for the prom at Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary [...]