On October 29, eight senators -- Liberals David Smith, Peter Stollery, Art Eggleton, Sharon Carstairs, Jerry Grafstein, Terry Mercer, Conservative Con Di Nino, independent Anne Cools -- paid tribute to one of their former colleagues, Stanley Haidasz, who passed away in August. Most acknowledged his support for multiculturalism, Senator Grafstein noted Haidasz's role in the creation of universal health care in Canada, but only [...]
The Globe and Mail reports "Low birth rates put hundreds of schools at risk of closing." George Smitherman, an openly gay Ontario cabinet minister, steps down to run for mayor of Toronto. Wesley Smith sees hope in the narrow House vote that Obamacare won't pass. Jill Stanek notes that Planned Parenthood wants Barack Obama to put pressure on Congress to remove pro-life provisions [...]
The Canadian Centre for Policy Studies will be hosting a symposium in Ottawa on free speech and liberty on December 7. Speakers include John Robson, Barbara Kay, Richard Bastien, Peter Stockland, Joseph Ben-Ami, and Gerry Nicholls, among many others. For more information visit here, where you can also register. The deadline for registration is December 2. After the symposium, there is a dinner and [...]
Canada’s anti-prostitution laws are being challenged by a prostitute, a former prostitute and a dominatrix, who argue that decriminalizing bawdy houses and scrapping the law prohibiting living off the avails of prostitution will make the sex trade safer for women. Countering the sex trade activists, the Ontario and federal governments have been joined by REAL Women of Canada, the Christian Legal Fellowship [...]
On Sept. 25-27, the National Campus Life Network hosted its 2009 National Symposium in Toronto. The goal of the annual event is to provide networking opportunities, information and practical advice that will contribute to a stronger and dedicated campus pro-life movement. With the theme, “Making Waves: The Campus Pro-Life Movement,” the focus was on equipping student leaders to make an impact on [...]
A Halifax counsellor wants out of the abortion business On Oct. 15, about 400 participants in the Toronto 40 Days for Life campaign gathered together for a Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church with Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Hundt and at least 10 other concelebrating priests. In his homily, Hundt quoted Karl Rahner, a 20th-century German theologian who predicted that “tomorrow’s Christians [...]
November is the month of fallen heroes. We honour the memory of the soldiers who fought for freedom during the violent struggles of the last century – those who died in the trenches in Europe and those who gave their lives resisting a madman’s frightening dream. But, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Canadian pro-life movement this year, we cannot [...]
On Oct. 2, Bill C-384, Francine Lalonde’s private member’s bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, received its first hour of debate. The bill was introduced on May 13 by the Bloc Québécois MP, in her third attempt to get such legislation passed in Parliament. Two previous attempts were scuttled when an election was called. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has led the [...]
41.6 million abortions annually, yet report frets about access The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion think tank, has released a study which says surgical abortions decreased in 2003 from 1995 levels, but decried that abortion was not universally legal and that many women have “unsafe” abortions due to the fact the procedure is illegal or restricted in much of the developing world. In [...]
The House of Representatives passed the Stupak-Pitts amendment which bans abortion coverage under a government health plan. The vote was a healthy 240 to 194 margin. The vote on H.R. 3962, the government takeover of health care in the United States, was 220-215 (Democrats 219 in favour, 39 against; Republicans 176 against, one for). House Republican Leader John Boehner notes that three committee chairman will not guarantee that the [...]
The New York Times has a longish Prescriptions post on the day's debate on abortion-related amendments to the House of Representatives' health care reform bill (H.R. 3962). Anne Marie Polak at the Americans United for Life blog summarizes the statements of various Congressmen during the debate on the Stupak-Pitts amendment (the legitimately pro-life amendment). Mary Harned of AUL explains why the Ellsworth amendment is not [...]
Republican House leader John Boehner has a press release entitled "Speaker Pelosi’s Government-Run Health Plan Will Require a Monthly Abortion Premium." Boehner explains: On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at [...]
There have been an incredible number of changes and articles over the past few days concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. First: Francine Lalonde (Bloc, MP) has now traded her date for the second hour of debate on C-384 twice. C-384 is the bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. The original date for the second hour of [...]
One of Pensacola, Florida's two abortion facilities, the Community Healthcare Center, closed after more than a quarter century in business because it failed to pay a $413,000 fine ($1,000 a day) for operating without a state license. The Toronto Star reports on the controversy over the use of fetal cells in the NeoCutis Bio-Restorative Skin Cream with Processed Skin Proteins and a local doctor says the [...]
Britian's chief rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks links excessive consumerism and selfishness to couples having fewer or no children. That's probably true (up to a point), but this isn't: Sacks said, "Europe today is the most secular region in the world. Europe is the only region in the world experiencing population decline. Wherever you turn today the more religious the community, the larger [...]