Let me start this month by introducing a new columnist, Victor Penney. His “Sporting Life” column (on page 8 this month) will look at the intersection of the world of sports and life/faith/family issues. It is a bit of an experiment but I think you might enjoy the lighter side of these serious issues (although it might not always be so light). [...]
By J.M. Glover British Catholics fight against assisted suicide bill A recent CBC online story has reported that Russian On Oct. 16, British members of Parliament began debating a Labour bill to legalise assisted suicide. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, released a pastoral letter to Catholics reminding them that “the evidence from every [...]
Josie Luetke: Interim writer, Josie Luetke, Talk Turkey Pro-lifers are normally preoccupied with the challenge of making other people pro-life. We aren’t as focused on keeping the ones we already have … we shouldn’t have to be, right? However, multiple times now, I’ve been posed the question: Why do people not stay pro-life? Many stalwarts in the movement have been [...]
Rory Leishman: It was on June 24, 2022, that the Supreme Court of the United States released its judgment in Dobbs v. Jackson that overturned Roe v. Wade, the calamitous 1973 ruling which alleged that women have a fundamental constitutional right to abortion. At the time, Dobbs was widely regarded as the greatest triumph for the pro-life movement in 50 years, yet, [...]
The World Wildlife Fund released its annual “Living Planet Report” subtitled “A system in peril.” The report states that “nature is being lost – with huge implications for us all,” asserting “biodiversity sustains human life and underpins our society.” We cannot help but wonder why there are no international organizations or agencies releasing similar reports decrying the systemic extermination of preborn children [...]
Donald DeMarco: Columnist Donald DeMarco imagines a conversation with journeyman baseball player Harry Chiti. Harry Chiti was a major league catcher who played for the Tigers, Cubs, Athletics, Indians, and Mets from 1950-1962. In his final year, he was traded from the Indians to the Mets where he played 15 games and hit a woeful .195. He was then traded [...]
John Carpay: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it, subject only to such reasonable limits, prescribed by law, as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” Thus reads Section 1 of the document added to Canada’s constitution in 1982. In R. v. Oakes (1986) the Supreme Court ruled that when [...]
By Joanna Alphonso: The purpose of abortion is to terminate the life of the unborn child. When that fails, and the child is born alive, he or she is simply left to die. This is happening right here, at home, in Canada. Canada is the only country in the Western hemisphere without a law on abortion. As a result, abortions are legally [...]
Paul Tuns: A study of abortions in Quebec between 1989 and 2021 published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that 11.2 per cent of abortions committed in the second trimester end with a live birth. The authors comment that their “findings suggest that second-trimester abortions commonly result in live birth.” Nathalie Augur, Emile Brousseau, Aimina Ayoub, and William D. [...]
Paul Tuns: NDP MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) introduced a private member’s bill on Sept. 25, which, if passed, classifies as a hate crime the condoning, denying, justifying, or downplaying the impact Indian Residential Schools (IRSs) had on indigenous people. More than 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools and an estimated 6000 children died during their stay at such schools. Bill C-413, [...]
Mary Zwicker: The Spanish Ministry of Social Rights proposed a new law to extend human rights to apes (chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas) due to their “genetic closeness” to human beings. A European country has proposed to extend certain human rights to apes while the lives of unborn babies remain unprotected in their society. In Spain, where unborn children can be [...]
Meanwhile Dying with Dignity asks courts to extend law to mentally ill Paul Tuns: On Sept. 26, a coalition of disability rights organizations and two individuals filed a Charter challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice opposing Track 2 of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, which provides euthanasia to people with a disability who are not terminally ill. The [...]
Paul Tuns: An Ontario coroner’s committee revealed that one in fifty euthanasia deaths in the province violated so-called safeguards to protect vulnerable patients and that they were not offered medical or social supports that may have encouraged people to eschew choosing Medical Assistance in Dying. The MAiD Death Review Committee is a 16-person committee of medical professionals, social workers, ethicists, lawyers, and [...]
Oswald Clark: The American Life League released a report, “Beneath the Surface: Exposing the Abortion Pill Drug Cartel” that shows that since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the two-pill regimen involving mifepristone and misoprostol — so-called “medication abortions” or “chemical abortions” – have been used to circumvent state pro-life laws that restrict or ban abortion. Since the 2022 Dobbs [...]
The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves Alexandra Hudson (St. Martin’s Press, $39, 416 pages) Alexandra Hudson wrote her book about civility after witnessing first-hand the incivility in Washington D.C. first hand while working for the Department of Education. Her hardship in government is a blessing for readers, for Hudson might not have written about civility had she [...]