Which Scrooge was the best Scrooge on the silver screen? Let’s start at the beginning. On Dec. 19, 1843, the first edition of Charles Dickens’s classic tale, A Christmas Carol, appeared in store windows. It’s a beautifully written story about the miserly money-lender Ebenezer Scrooge, who showed no empathy or compassion toward his fellow man – and cared not a whit about [...]
Canada Canadian International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told a family planning conference in Kigali, Rwanda, that developing countries, especially in Africa, must do more to offer “family planning services” including contraception and abortion, in order to combat poverty. The Trudeau government maintains that breaking down “barriers” are necessary for “women and girls to develop their full potential.” She complained that while some countries’ [...]
There is plenty of evidence that parents in Canada no longer have the right to direct their children’s education and their lives. In this article, we bring to the attention of parents some disturbing examples of parental rights violated and overruled. The first is the case of Steve Tourloukis, the Christian father from Hamilton, who fought for his parental rights for nearly [...]
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failureby Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Press, $37 hardcover, $14.99 Kindle, 352 pages) The reference to Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind (1987) is surely no accident. Bloom, who taught at the University of Toronto for most of the 1970s, was [...]
Because of the Irish referendum earlier this year on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, which recognized the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child, the Irish pro-life movement became somewhat known around the world. Much lesser known are the pro-life movements in other European countries. As part of a project for Campaign Life Coalition, I had the [...]
Talk Turkey Josie Luetke I was recently reflecting on Save the 1’s drawing on of the Parable of the Wandering Sheep (Matthew 18:10-14). Save the 1 is a pro-life organization advocating against the rape exception for abortion (in either our personal views or in legislation). In the parable, the shepherd leaves 99 of his herd to find the one sheep [...]
The deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research held its first annual free public lecture on Nov. 8, with inaugural speaker Andrea Mrozek, program director of Cardus Family. Mrozek’s talk was titled, “Women’s happiness, women’s health: the feminist fight against abortion.” Mrozek began by saying that, in her experience, the use of the word “feminism,” as a free-standing term is far too [...]
Mary Eberstadt Marking the 50th anniversary of Humanae vitae, the Archdiocese of Toronto sponsored a one-day conference to reflect upon Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical letter. On Nov. 10, about 125 people gathered for the conference at University of St. Michael’s College. Cardinal Thomas Collins began the day with Mass which was followed by a series of talks given [...]
Laying Down the Lawton Andrew Lawton If Celine Dion has her way, the children of the world will “be free and find their own individuality through clothes.” Clothes that pretty much look alike and are all the same colour, that is. The pop diva launched a gender neutral children’s clothing line last month, Celinununu, which supposedly “breeds equality and freedom [...]
At the Faithful to God’s Design: Humanae Vitaeat 50 conference put on by the Archdiocese of Toronto on Nov. 10, Maria Wolfs, a staff endocrinologist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, compared how estrogen sends signals to a woman’s ovaries to the way a thermostat will turn the heat on when the temperature [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman That is the best, most reliable and time-tested means of determining the difference between good and evil? According to the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon had the right answer: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight [...]
Law Matters John Carpay Last month, the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) became an intervener in UAlberta Pro-Life v. University of Alberta.This court case arose in 2015, when a small group of students received approval from the University of Alberta to set up a stationary display on campus. The display juxtaposed photos of the developing unborn child with photos of abortions performed [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell "You’re a humorist, I understand," the rights regulator said. “I’ve been accused of that,” I replied. “You amuse your readers.” “Apparently.” “Why? “I beg your pardon.” “Why do you amuse your readers?” “I’m not sure. Maybe I was amused as a child and can’t break the cycle.” “You make fun of events, issues, groups, individuals,” [...]
The Nov. 5 midterm elections for 35 of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, plus nearly 40 governors races and elections in the majority of state legislatures, looked bad for Donald Trump’s Republicans, but for pro-life voters, the results were more mixed than an outright defeat. While Democrats picked up the House and gained seven [...]