Writing at The American, Ralph Kinney Bennett urges people to just say Merry Christmas: For those who tend to agree with various personal advice gurus that Christmas is (a) too commercial (b) an imposition on non-Christians (c) an unfair challenge for the lonely and out of sorts (d) a phony concoction of false merriment (e) all of the above and much worse, [...]
Both the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Campaign Life Coalition seem to take a harsher view of the Supreme Court's reference decision yesterday on Canada's reproductive technologies regulations than I did in my original post. I don't substantially disagree with their critiques, although it seems to me that their ultimate criticism is with the lack of legal protection for newly created life [...]
Having read the Supreme Court's Reference re Assisted Human Reproduction Act decision this morning, I will provide my Coles Notes take on it in a moment. A longer analysis, for which I am woefully unprepared and unqualified to write, is necessary and will appear in the February issue of the paper. Here is the takeaway: the majority of the Court have upheld most of the [...]
Canada Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, while speaking at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont., was asked by a student about abortion. “My personal view is abortion should be as rare and as infrequent as family planning, good medical care and education can make it,” said Ignatieff. Then he added: “But it should be legal.” Earlier this year, Ignatieff advocated that Canadian taxpayers [...]
For many years the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has been analyzing Canadian survey results related to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The first major survey that the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition commissioned was part of an Environics Group – National Omnibus survey in April 2001. The recent Environics Group survey, sponsored by Life Canada, shows that the EPC strategy not only convinced MPs to vote [...]
A report from the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada speculates on why boys and men in the modern world are lagging behind girls. Using a thesis put forth by scholars such as George Gilder, Margaret Mead, David Popenoe, and David Blankenhorn, the report, “The Status of Men” written by Andrea Mrozek, manager of research and communication at the IMFC, [...]
NB Human Rights Commission to examine abortion funding Fredericton -- The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission will hold hearings on whether the province’s abortion funding policy is a violation of the human rights of women. Under New Brunswick’s Medical Services Payment Act the province will only pay for abortions committed at hospitals and which are referred by a family doctor. The NB [...]
In the final days before we went to press, we had to downsize the paper from 20 to 16 pages which is always a lot of work. It is unpleasant having to cut stories -- shortening stories or taking them out completely. Still, it's a packed paper with articles on the defeat of C-510 (anti-coercive abortion bill), the report stage passing of C-389 [...]
Carleton Lifeline has been a certified campus club since 2006. That all changed on Nov. 15 when the club announced via press release that the Carleton University Student Association had decided to not give Lifeline status this year. CUSA has taken issue with section 3.2 in the club’s constitution, which states: “Carleton Lifeline believes in the equal rights of the [...]
A development that the presiding judge described as having the potential for “dire implications” scuttled an expected trial of Linda Gibbons in October. The judge made the decision to delay the trail on the morning of Oct. 29, when the long-time pro-life demonstrator appeared in a downtown Toronto courtroom to answer a charge of disobeying a court order. At issue is a [...]
On Nov. 1, Bill C-510, Rod Bruinooge’s private member’s bill that would outlaw coercive abortion, received second reading before heading to the Justice and Human Rights Committee. During an hour of debate, three Conservative MPs spoke in favour of C-510 while MPs in all four parties criticized the bill and its sponsor. Bruinooge noted that his bill is also known [...]
Yesterday NDP MP Irene Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe) once again brought up in Parliament the fact that the government's maternal health initiative proposed last January and accepted by the G8 in June, did not include abortion. Mathyssen rose in the House and stated: Mr. Speaker, 2010, like all years, has had its ups and downs, but when it comes to women's equality, 2010 has [...]
C-510 or Roxanne's Law, Rod Bruinooge's private member's bill that would outlaw coercing a woman to have an abortion was defeated 97-178. Bruinooge is quoted saying he expected only 75 votes in favour of his bill. Still, this is a disappointing result because whatever flaws the bill may have contained, the defeat of Roxanne's Law before it even went to committee will send a signal to society [...]
We have a review of A Matter of Conscience by John Haas, Douglas Farrow, Francois Pouliot, and Maria Kraw. The book is a collection of presentations from the first annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Catholic Doctor's Guild in 2009. The review is good, the book is excellent and the points both make about how conscience is formed is important. The bottom line on the [...]
Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick writes hysterically about abortion -- which is the only way Mallick writes about anything -- implying that the procedure is difficult to obtain in many places and that darn it, there are still nasty pro-lifers all across the country who disagree with the abortion license. Mallick slyly suggests that only men are pro-life by appealing to the sisterhood in the [...]