Books of the Day: Citizen Cash: The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash Michael Stewart Foley (Basic Books $40, 355 pages) Historian Michael Stewart Foley attempts to make Johnny Cash an exemplar of the “politics of empathy” in his biographical examination of the political views of the famous country singer. Fans may recall the patriotic Johnny Cash that chastised hippies and [...]
Paul Tuns: Pope Francis created a bit of a stir after he briefly commented about people who have pets instead of children. It was two sentences in a longer address on Jan. 5 about adoption and predictably the media reaction missed the forest for the trees. CNN ran a column by Alistair Currie who complained, “The Pope’s suggestion that failing to have [...]
Paul Tuns: While supporting vaccinations for COVID, Pope Francis has urged pharmaceutical companies to pursue ethical vaccines that do not utilize cell lines derived from aborted fetal tissue in either the manufacture or testing of their treatments. Even before Health Canada approved a vaccine in Canada, Campaign Lifte Coalition urged the government to only approve ones that were sourced from ethical research [...]
By Jonathon Van Maren: Desire for a day of rest should find allies amongst labour, Christians On April 24, 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Lord’s Day Act in R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd, nullifying centuries of tradition on the ironic basis that the Act contravened freedom of religion for the irreligious. According to Chief Justice Brian [...]
Paul Tuns: In his mandate letter to the finance minister, released on Dec. 16, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed Chrystia Freeland, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister, to “introduce amendments to the Income Tax Act to make anti-abortion organizations that provide dishonest counselling to pregnant women about their rights and options ineligible for charitable status.” The mandate letter means that Trudeau [...]
Paul Tuns: The medical journal Family Practice published a report co-authored by nine researchers led by Wendy V. Norman at the University of British Columbia, that examined how physicians in Canada maintained abortion services during the pandemic restrictions and found that they were able to continue committing abortions because they and policymakers considered abortion “essential.” They found that access “was often maintained [...]
Oswald Clark Operation Rescue reports in its annual survey of abortuaries in the United States that the number of stand-alone facilities that commit abortions and the number of abortion pills distributed both rose in 2021. In a two-part report, Operation Rescue examined “The Status of American Abortion Facilities: Telemedicine’s Impact in 2021” and The Status of American Abortion Facilities: Chemical Abortions Gain [...]
By Paul Tuns: Researchers say telemedicine abortion pill dispensing put women at risk A study published in the January edition of the journal Family Practice noted that during the pandemic, many Canadian abortion providers – most of them family physicians -- moved to a telemedicine model of delivering abortion services. Telemedicine is when a doctor consults with a patient over the phone [...]