On Dec. 15, CTV News in British Columbia launched a sting operation against the South Fraser Pregnancy Options Centre in Surrey, B.C., with what Option’s Centre executive director Laura Lansink said was “the hope that our peer-counsellor would give false or biased information.” The Pregnancy Options centres are associated with the Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services (CAPSS), a national, non-political, registered [...]
The Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care highlighted the problem of elder abuse in its landmark report released on November 17, 2011. The report, Not to be Forgotten, a result of the committee’s consultations with stakeholders across the country, makes policy recommendations in the areas of disability issues, elder abuse, suicide prevention, and palliative care. The report identifies elder abuse as [...]
Grassroots Liberals: Organizing for Local and National Politics by Royce Koop (UBC Press, 212 pages, $29.95 paperback) There has been much talk in the past few years about renewing the Liberal Party by focusing on its structure, from the federal executive and the provincial wings of the federal party down to the constituency associations at the riding level. Indeed, reform of their [...]
In the movie version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, there is a scene in which the captain of the book-burning squad makes off-hand comments on some of the books that are about to be incinerated. In his view, philosophy books are the most pernicious. He pulls down a book from the shelf and cradles it in his hands for a moment [...]
If you were incurably ill and facing impending death, would you want your medical team to continue with aggressive and painful medical treatments in the hope of a miracle cure? Or would you prefer to be placed in palliative care to help you through the inevitable dying process? Most people would opt for palliative care. However, sometimes, close family members of [...]
Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae, a vocal abortion advocate, is not fondly remembered for his “Rae Days” that introduced the unpopular, controversial public sector wage cuts he implemented in the ‘90s. As interim leader of the federal Liberal Party, Rae gleefully greeted Lise St-Denis, former Shawinigan federal NDP member who defected to the Liberal federal caucus because the late NDP leader, [...]
When I was a reporter, I would do anything for a scoop. I wonder, though, whether the effort was misplaced. A scoop is an exclusive story. But now that inclusiveness is in fashion, exclusiveness may be on the way out. I hope not. Being first with the news was more fun than gossip. To avoid excluding women, our academic and media [...]
I spent one night of my holidays watching the new Bluray re-issue of Meet Me In St. Louis, a film that might be the pinnacle of the MGM colour musical, and is very probably the zenith of Judy Garland’s career. I enjoyed it even more than the last time I saw it, but like almost anything from what’s called Hollywood’s “Golden Age,” [...]
As I write my first column in 2012, and I’d like to introduce a new term, a new concept into the dialogue, the narrative of the Canadian body politic and public conversation. It’s this. Shut up! Yes, I know I sound a little rude, but there we are. As someone who has laboured in the media trenches for some years now, [...]
An editorial in the Jan. 16 Canadian Medical Association Journal written by Dr. Rajendra Kale, the interim editor-in-chief, advocates for measures to curb sex-selective abortion of girls. “Female feticide happens in India and China by the millions, but it also happens in North America in numbers large enough to distort the male to female ratio in some ethnic groups,” he wrote [...]
For years The Interim has carried stories about sex-selective abortions and female feticide. In 1992, we ran an article about a woman who was doing sidewalk counselling in Calgary who was able to talk to a would-be mother of East Indian descent. She did not want to have an abortion but her partner did – after they found out that their child [...]
Radio Netherlands has reported that once again, euthanasia will be debated in late January in the Netherlands lower house. The euthanasia lobby is pushing for euthanasia to be prescribed for any and no reason. The push to expand the availability of euthanasia has been going on for a long-time. In 2006, I attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference [...]
Despite forecasts of rain, the U.S. pro-life movement came out in force on Jan. 23, the day after the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to protest the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand and urge politicians to enact protection for the unborn. While the media generally reported that “thousands” took part in the March for Life in downtown Washington [...]
I don't know how those women who have abortions can share their stories and re-live their terrible experience. I admire their courage and candour. In the February issue of The Interim we published the testimony of Dale Barr of Cornwall, Ont., who has shared her abortion experience in numerous speeches including at the National March for Life in Ottawa. An excerpt: There [...]
Banning contraception is probably certainly a losing political argument. The Pill and condoms are never going to be recriminalized. That does not mean that pro-lifers and other social conservatives should avoid making a case against contraception in general -- their deletorious health effects, their seperating of sex and reproduction, the abortifacient nature of chemical 'contraceptives' and many more arguments -- or against government promotion of contraception. [...]