Rory Leishman is The Interim's national affairs columnist, but he also pens a regular column for the London Free Press. This week he tackles sex ed, not only in elementary and high school but at the university. It is pretty shocking what the University of Western Ontario allows to go in its classrooms. Leishman notes: Sex education on the post-secondary level in Canada is [...]
The Canadian Catholic bishops have spoke out firmly against abortion in a message just days before the 41st anniversary of Canada's day of infamy, the passing of the Omnibus Bill in 1969, in which Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Justice Minister John Turner -- both 'Catholics' -- effectively legalized abortion on demand. Today, the Catholic bishops say civilization itself is under assault from [...]
It was not the “pro-African-American movement,” it was the “anti-slavery movement;” the messages have not been “pro-sober driving” or “pro-clean air,” but “anti-drinking and driving” and “anti-smoking.” For too long, many of our pamphlets have been whimsical pastels and dissembling language. We are “anti-abortion” and that’s how we should identify ourselves. Though most of us who are opposed to abortion are conservative [...]
Last October, Jose Ruba of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform visited the McGill University campus to present a display entitled, “Echoes of the Holocaust,” which drew parallels between the Nazi Holocaust and an atrocity which is still perpetrated and perpetuated today: abortion. As might be expected, Ruba’s presentation was disrupted by extremists intent on violating the rights that any university ought [...]
On April 1, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had commended the Roman Catholic Church as “the conscience of the nation.” Given the record of the Brown government, informed readers might well have dismissed the story as an April Fools Day prank. Yet the report was accurate. With a general election impending on May 6, Brown [...]
I’ve been reflecting more than usual on writing and books. What got me thinking was a conversation with a fellow author I often meet at the neighbourhood library. “My book is popular in the British Isles,” he said, excited. “You mean your self-published novel that didn’t sell?” “Copies are flying off the shelves.” “Congratulations,” I said. “You must be pleased [...]
“Frank, sit down. What can I do for you?” “Well Millstone, old friend, you are acknowledged as the greatest oracle in the Western world. I come to you for some free advice. What would you do to solve the difficulties facing Pope Benedict today?” “Frank, I’ve never accepted the old bromide that the buck stops here and by that, I mean at [...]
Early in the previous century, G.K. Chesterton observed that it is the mark of the modern that “the normative is everywhere and always being subordinated to the non-normative.” In our own age of proliferating “rights,” it is a further mark of the modern that the universal is everywhere and always subordinated to the particular. Until relatively recently, the natural rights upon which [...]
The sun is shining, or it’s raining or snowing, so it must be time for yet another attack on the Roman Catholic church. This time involving lies about the Pope, his brother and, before long, his auntie Freda and his pet cat Hans. Logical thinking and balanced thought were eliminated from this subject long ago. It’s church-bashing time and why [...]
Notably, social issues absent from negotiations between two left-of-center parties How We Almost Gave the Tories the Boot (The Inside Story Behind the Coalition) by Brian Topp (Lorimer, $24.95, 192 pp.) The coalition that almost usurped power from the Conservatives in the fall of 2008 seems like a distant memory in the spring of 2010, but How We Almost Gave the Tories [...]
Life is not like a baseball game with clear, clean lines The brief interim between the end of batting practice and the commencement of the game invites a moment of reflection when the spectator can look at the field of play while it is devoid of players. In this meditative moment, undistracted by the game, one can begin to appreciate the significance [...]
On April 14, Rod Bruinooge (C - Winnipeg South) tabled Bill C-510, a private member’s bill to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to outlaw coercing women into having an abortion. Bruinooge, the chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, in introducing An Act to Prevent the Coercion of Women to Abortion to the House of Commons, said, “This bill will [...]
Liberal MP Hedy Fry says she's wants to debate abortion. Stephanie Gray, of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, says bring it on. Of course, abortion advocates seldom actually debate pro-lifers. They typically don't want to give the pro-life side any credence. That, and they know that their arguments don't stand up to serious scrutiny.
Mark Mercer is a professor in the philosophy department at Saint Mary's University and yesterday he wrote an op-ed for the Ottawa Citizen that will make your head spin. The column is beyond excerption, but briefly his argument is this: the unborn child is a human being but it isn't a person because it is not aware of itself in the world and therefore doesn't [...]
Our lead editorial in the May issue is on why pro-lifers should participate in the national and provincial marches for life: National March for Life represents the beginning of a new, civilized chapter in Canadian history and the end of a dark age of barbarism. That this coming community is imperiled before its birth is not surprising; but, unlike so many innocent [...]