Rhetoric is simply the art of persuasion. As Socrates discovered, however, to his great dismay, not all rhetoric is accompanied by knowledge. The sophists of his day made it incontrovertibly clear to him that their style of rhetoric required no knowledge whatsoever. And without knowledge, reason, not having anything to sink its teeth into, cannot operate. Socrates could not begin to understand [...]
I am 17 years old and have now attended seven election forums in my lifetime – five federal, one provincial and one partisan. At every one of them, candidates and members of the audience have brought up many different matters, a great deal of them trivial. Seldom has anyone brought up that matter which is of such importance that it can clearly [...]
On March 2, the opposition Tories in New Brunswick’s legislature introduced Bill 37, An Act to Amend the Marriage Act. MLA David Alward, who authored the bill, said it was an affirmation of the rights of those clergy and clerks of the court (marriage commissioners) who have conscientious objections to performing same-sex “marriages,” and was needed to prevent them from being prosecuted. [...]
Civil liberties association steps into fray The Canadian Civil Liberties Association unexpectedly entered a battle for freedom of speech on the abortion issue, acting as intervenor on behalf of a Saskatchewan nurse sued for demonstrating against abortion. The CCLA filed an affadavit declaring that the organization backed the rights of pro-life nurse Bill Whatcott, who in 2004 was fined $15,000 and given [...]
Negotiations went down to the wire at the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) proceedings in March, as delegations struggled to come to consensus on the final outcome document. Despite assurances from delegations such as that from the E.U., the issue of prenatal sex-selection was largely ignored within the final text. The theme for this year’s CSW [...]
Provincial Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur calls Ontario’s new child support enforcement website a “huge success,” but fathers’ rights advocates are questioning both its efficacy and its underlying ideology. The website features photographs and profiles of “missing defaulting support payors,” and offers the viewers the opportunity to make anonymous tips. Such use of public shame disturbs Stephen Baskerville, president [...]
Given our gratitude in the pro-life movement whenever a single abortion is prevented, we observed with interest two recent features in the mainstream media. Time magazine’s Feb. 26 cover story, “The abortion campaign you never hear about,” was skeptical about our cause, but portrayed the commendable efforts of some strong-stomached pro-lifers witnessing directly to abortion providers through “common ground” efforts. A compelling, [...]
This year as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms celebrates its 25th anniversary, Canadians can be forgiven if they hold their applause. That is because a document that clearly enshrines so many rights has had such a mixed record of actually defending them. Indeed, since the ratification of the Charter in 1982, some of our most fundamental freedoms have been eroded by [...]
If you think the Charter of Rights and Freedoms truly safeguards our democratic rights, think again. In fact, in one notorious case, the Charter did nothing to prevent bureaucrats, politicians and judges from squashing the most basic of all democratic freedoms: the right to free election speech. I know all about this case, because it involved my group, the National Citizens Coalition. [...]
The definitive decision on the abortion issue under the Charter of Rights was the Morgentaler case, handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada in January 1988. In that decision, the Supreme Court struck down the abortion provision (Section 251) of the Criminal Code, which prohibited abortions except when necessary to safeguard a woman’s “life or health” and after approval by a [...]
It is hard to imagine gay rights activists being so successful in getting their agenda implemented, were it not for the complicity of sympathetic courts invoking the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in various rulings to advance special rights for homosexuals in piecemeal fashion over the course of several years. Between 1995 and 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada granted new rights [...]
In 1995, Trinity Western University sought certification of a teaching program from the British Columbia College of Teachers. The BCCT governing council refused. Why? Well, BCCT did not approve of TWU’s Mission Statement: “To develop godly Christian leaders: positive, goal-oriented, university graduates with thoroughly Christian minds;” still less with its student conduct code that required students “to refrain from practices that are [...]
Niccolò Machiavelli, the teacher of modern politicians, including Canada’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau, writes that while Romulus founded Rome, the second king, Numa Pompilius, made an even more important contribution by instituting its civil religion. Numa’s contribution unified the Romans. Machiavelli also claims that by making them fearful of the gods, it made the Romans a ferocious military power, which allowed them to [...]
The enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 has led to a national calamity, but the fault lies not so much with the plain words of the Charter as with the arrogance of judicial activists who invoke the Charter as a pretext for arbitrarily imposing their perverse values on the laws and the Constitution of Canada. Consider, for [...]
Did you know.... 80% of Canadians agree that the Charter is "an important symbol of Canada." (ACS-Environics poll, 2003) But only 55% of respondents believe that the Charter unites Canadians and 39% believe it divides us. (Centre for Research and Information on Canada, 2002). More than a quarter of Canadians - 26% - say the Charter has led Canada in the wrong [...]