Editor-in-chief Paul Tuns interviewed Against Judicial Activism author and Interim columnist Rory Leishman via e-mail The Interim: What is judicial activism and how did it get started? Rory Leishman: Judges engage in judicial activism when they presume to change the law from the bench, rather than exercise judicial restraint by fulfilling their sworn duty as judges to uphold the law as found [...]
Against Judicial Activism: The Decline of Freedom and Democracy in Canada by Rory Leishman (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006. 310 pp.) Conservative M.P. Maurice Vellacott found himself in the middle of a storm of controversy after he suggested this past spring that Supreme Court justices play god with the law. He told CBC-TV that, “Beverley McLachlin herself actually said that when (Supreme Court [...]
Pro-lifers have good reason to be elated by the thousands of youngsters who turned out in May for the largest annual pro-life march ever to take place in Ottawa. This event is symptomatic of a persistent trend toward greater awareness among Canadian youths of the sanctity of unborn human life. The parents and grandparents of these youngsters were told in their youth [...]
I have asked a number of Christian friends if they have seen the Da Vinci Code. Some have, but many haven’t and don’t intend to. Some indeed simply brush it off as being full of false teaching and rehashed attacks on Christ and so they aren’t interested. I think such an attitude is shortsighted. Christians can adopt a more positive outlook and [...]
I was at the Ninth National March for life in Ottawa recently, walking along in front of the Parliament buildings, when I spotted a familiar face pushing a small wooden white cart in front of him through the crowds on the sidewalk. He wore an oversized T-shirt emblazoned front and back: “I’M PRO-LIFE.” I called out to him: “Hey! What are you [...]
A recent flyer depicted a nesting hen saying, “We’ll pray for you,” and a pig saying, “We love you”. It described a vegetarian diet as “compassionate, noble” and spoke of “the gruesome sacrifice of billions of our sweet domestic animals.” Each year in Canada, there’s a more gruesome sacrifice of 100,000 sweet baby humans – but that’s considered a woman’s right. Promoters [...]
To those not familiar with the Gospels, the title “Doubting Thomas” may appear strange. But Thomas, who was one of the Apostles, earned it. At the Last Supper, when Jesus said to the Apostles that He was “going to the Father,” it was Thomas who said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” [...]
A music video produced by a Saskatchewan-based musician, speaker and author is promising to offer a new way to get the pro-life message out while giving pro-life organizations a unique fundraising opportunity. Lorraine Hartsook has produced Bring That Child to Me, a video filmed earlier this year in Tennessee, but based on a song she wrote about a decade ago and has [...]
A woman’s decision to abort due to gestational breast cancer is popularly termed the “hardest case,” but to pro-life researcher Joel Brind, PhD, that perception is actually the “cruelest myth of all.” Abortion has not been shown to help a mother with breast cancer, nor has a mother’s breast cancer been shown to harm her unborn child. Indeed, evidence has emerged that [...]
It was a fashion show with a difference – the 50 models walking the catwalk showed only “pure fashions.” It was P.E.I.’s second such show, a mother-developed initiative that promotes modest attire for teen and pre-teen girls, held on May 28 at UPEI. Pure Fashion began in 1999 in Atlanta, when some mothers expressed concern that the fashion world, TV shows and [...]
In September 1986, I was completing my biography of the great British author Gilbert Keith Chesterton. He had died 50 years earlier and various supporters and devotees of his work had organized a conference around the man at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. I was fortunate enough to be invited over from my home in England to deliver a [...]
An analysis of mainstream media treatment of the recent arrests of 17 Ontario residents on terrorism-related charges is a study in contrasts – contrasts, that is, with media treatment of incidents involving pro-life and “anti-abortion” figures over the years. The media took great pains to point out that the individuals rounded up after their plot to commit terrorist-type acts was uncovered were [...]
I was watching a TV broadcast of a game between the Red Sox and the Devil Rays, comfortably insulated, so I thought, from all the trouble and turmoil of the outside world, when their single avenue of invasion into my home, the telephone, began sounding its alarm. It was a long distance call from a friend who had, perhaps with some misgivings, [...]
Amnesty International Canada is joining the global human rights watchdog’s New Zealand and British branches in advocating for abortion. During its annual general meeting May 27-28, the Canadian branch endorsed a proposal by international headquarters, asking if Amnesty International should begin advocating for a global right to abortion. Amnesty has proposed actively fighting against the right to life for unborn children by [...]
The Canadian disgrace of sex-selection abortion is receiving less attention than pollution, though both may cause skewed boy-girl ratios in particular communities and both are matters of public health and justice. The normal birth ratio is 105 males to 100 females and large deviations are cause for concern. In the first grave case, the mainstream media and scientific literature have explored the [...]