Abuse of Canada Council
Ottawa, Ont. – MP Don Boudria (Lib. Glengarry), who helped quash a bill to legalize mercy killing last winter, expressed outrage that Vancouver’s John Hofsess is using Canada Council money to promote his Right to Die Society.
In a newsletter obtained by the Ottawa Sun, Hofsess said that he wanted to buy television time to show people “the actual human face of suffering caused by Don Boudria’s policies.” He urged Right-to-Die supporters to help by lending his society money which would be repaid “when I next receive a major Canada Council installment.”
The Council confirmed that Hofsess was given $18,000 in grant money in 1991, to help him complete a book entitled Requiem: Death and Dying in Canada. Not surprisingly Boudria called this “bloody outrageous.” “He’s going to use this money to wage a political campaign against me. Is that what taxpayers’ dollars are supposed to do?”
Petition protests funding
Markham, Ont. – On Wednesday, May 27, 1992, Mrs. Ruth Cogan, Pat Redmond and Mrs. Anne Marie Johnston met with Markham Conservative MPP Hon. Don Cousins at his riding office to present a petition from the Toronto area. This petition will be read into the record at Queen’s Park in the coming weeks.
The petition, which carried over 2500 signatures, illustrates that many people in Toronto are deeply dissatisfied with the NDP government for squandering taxpayers’ money on the promotion of abortion facilities, fees for abortionists, free transportation for women seeking abortions, as well as security services and financial assistance for the building of abortion clinics.
“We want the government to stop wasting our tax dollars on such controversial, immoral projects while at the same time cutting back on needed medical services, welfare and job support, education…”
Just recently the Ontario Minister of Health, Frances Lankin, announced that she intended to reimburse Henry Morgentaler for the loss of his Toronto abortuary.
Abortion Enquiry
N.W.T. – On April 11, 1992, Northwest Territories leader Nellie Cournoyea ordered an enquiry into abortion procedures at the territory’s largest hospital after complaints that women undergoing abortions were suffering excruciating pain because their were denied anesthetics. They were told that the anesthesiologist did not believe in abortions. Some of them said they suffered such intense pain that they had to be restrained on the operating table.
Ban on Surrogacy
Toronto, Ont. – A Law Reform Commission report issued on May 4, 1992, called for legislation preventing “any attempt to commercialize surrogacy.” Though it stopped short of calling for a complete ban on surrogate motherhood, it declared that all surrogacy contracts should remain null and void, to prevent baby trafficking.
Request denied
Burlington, Ont. – The mayor of Burlington and its city council has again turned down a pro-life appeal to declare a week in June as “Respect for Life” week. Mayor Walter Mulkewich based his denial on the notion that the week was too closely linked with the initiatives of the pro-life movement. “I don’t think it would be fair to allow this group to have its request,” said Mayor Mulkewich. Gloria Lawrenson, executive director of Halton Pro-life, could only get the support of a minority of the city’s aldermen.
Pro-Lifers picket abortionist
Kingston, Ont. – On April 26, 1992, over 100 pro-lifers marched outside the office of Kingston abortionist Gael Douglas-Murray. “We’re here to witness to the fact that Dr. Gael Douglas-Murray kills babies for a living,” said Mary-Ellen Douglas, president of Campaign Life Coalition Kingston.
The picket followed examples of others which have taken place in Toronto, Cambridge, Windsor, London and Niagara Falls. First a letter is sent to the abortionist pleading with him to stop. The letter explains that he will face protests in front of his office and later his home. Then, as one picketer puts it, it is time to “put emotions aside…and push the doctors’ families to put pressure on the doctors to stop this brutal act.”
Three of the picketers, including Mary-Ellen Douglas, went up to the doctor’s office to try to explain their position. Though the doctor was not in his office, they made their intentions clear and vowed this would not end soon. “What we want to offer is an olive branch,” said protestor Earl Amyotte. “If he doesn’t want to take it we’ll picket his office, his home and his barbecues.”
Though many don’t find the strategy appealing, there is a general consensus that it may be the only viable alternative. “We will tell the truth and put this man out of business and it will stop the killing,” said Mrs. Douglas.
Mrs. Douglas added that the pickets are peaceful and orderly and are means of persuading the doctor to stop his practice rather than as a means of harassment.
Svend Robinson supports anti-Christian film
Ottawa, Ont. – MP Svend Robinson (Burnaby-Kingsway) has presented a petition to Parliament supporting Studio ‘D,’ the radical feminist wing of the National Film Board.
The petition, which Robinson had “the honor” to present, calls on the federal government to continue its funding of Studio ‘D’ (which has received just under $15 million from 1985 to 1991). Mr. Robinson made specific mention of The Burning Times, which he said “has been subject to public pressure by small groups.”
The small groups Mr. Robinson was referring to are the Catholic Civil Rights League, Catholic Women for Life, Faith and Family and the Catholic Women’s League. Catholic Women for Life and Faith and Family alone presented a petition of over 500 signatures to Parliament through MP Mac Harb (Ottawa Centre).
In May of last year the Catholic Civil Rights League presented a complaint to the CRTC describing The Burning Times as a malicious attack on the Catholic Church.
The Robinson petition was signed by residents of Montreal and Ottawa, the cities where the National Film Board has its main offices. Studio ‘D’ is located in Montreal.
Artificial insemination
Moncton – The George Dumont hospital in Moncton, N.B., has become the first hospital in New Brunswick to offer artificial insemination by donor.
The hospital, formerly a Catholic institution, orders its sperm samples from Toronto. According to the head of the reproductive unit, Dr. Alfred Robichaud, donors are required to undergo strict tests to guard against infectious diseases like hepatitis B and AIDS.
Teen suicides soaring
Vancouver (FNIF) – The Canadian teen suicide rate is soaring. The number of Canadians under 29 who take their own lives now stands at nearly three times the national average of 14 suicides for every 100,000 people.
That’s more than triple what it was thirty years ago.
Teen counselors say the recent release of euthanasia guru Derek Humphry’s Final Exit – a book which describes several ways to kill yourself – has only made the situation worse. Vancouver suicide counselor Linda Rosefeld said the popularity of the book is leading kids to believe that nothing is wrong with suicide.
“I think that hearing about the book,” said Rosenfeld in relation to teens, “possibly not even reading it, but just hearing about the book may be the thing that triggers vulnerable kids into saying, ‘OK, It’s an acceptable thing to do. I really will do it.’”
Psychologists at a recent conference in Moncton, New Brunswick, cited low self-esteem, depression, drug abuse and feeling of isolation as the leading causes of suicide.
Dr. Isaac Saginosski in Toronto said the erosion of traditional values has also had a major impact on the problem. “The down-to earth values that the people in the 30s and 40s used to take for granted aren’t there any more. Society definitely has changed. Society certainly seems to have adopted more materialistic goals.
Some experts say the reasons why teens take their own lives have more to do with losing a girlfriend or severe depression than drugs or alcohol.
Working Moms
Vancouver (FNIF) – Canadians say their children are suffering because mom is in the workforce.
Nearly 80 per cent of those who took part in a recent poll conducted by the Globe and Mail and the CBC said today’s children are being sacrificed because their mothers have to work.
They added that families were happier and easier to manage when operating within a traditional family unit.
Marie Voss strongly agrees with those findings. “My husband is a forklift driver and we’re the parents of ten children,” says Mrs. Voss, “and I stay at home and we’re able to live quite happily, quite nicely, and manage quite well by choosing priorities where the children come first.”
Mrs. Voss is happy where many other mothers aren’t. University professor Veronica Strong-Boag argues that traditional family units are only for those women in happy marriages – such as where the husband does his share of domestic work and helps look after the children.
Not so, says Mrs. Voss. She says parenting is an opportunity no woman should miss. She can’t understand how mothers can put their children into daycare centers. “They’re just missing all those opportunities during the day when little children are learning and being so pleasant and just wonderful little people and I don’t, can’t, understand at all how they could actually leave them, for nine or ten hours at a time, and then just whisk them home and into bed.”
‘Employment Equity Laws’ unjust, says union head
Toronto, Ont. – The Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) has come out against the Ontario NDP government’s plans to enact Employment Equity legislation.
“The Ministry of Citizenship’s proposals go too far and remind me of cures that are worse than the illness,” said Executive Director Ed Grootenboer.
Employment Equity laws (called Affirmative Action in the U.S.) are designed to force employers to follow hiring quotas of women and visible minorities.
In a six-page open letter to Elaine Ziemba, Minister of Citizenship, CLAC’s Grootenboer acknowledges the “lingering existence of ugly racism, sexism, and other kinds of prejudice,” but doubts that it is appropriate for government to intervene so massively in the workplace. “Employment Equity is an intrusion by government in an area where it has very limited, if any, business,” Mr. Grootenboer states.
When government prescribes good behavior (a totalitarian sin which scores of twentieth-century states have committed), the wrong addressed in one place is outweighed by the injustice done in another, Mr. Grootenboer observes.
CLAC recommends
• “ongoing government action in terms of stepped-up advertising campaigns and of publicizing discriminatory conduct in hiring and promotion policies and practices;
• “that employers, especially those operating in the public sector and with public financial support, should by law be forced to remove any existing barriers to the hiring and promotion of persons in the designated groups;
• “that the purpose of all anti-discrimination measures must be equality of opportunity, not equality of results.”
Souvenir program is out
Toronto, Ont. – The 1992 Toronto Lesbian and Gay Pride Week souvenir program is out and, once again major advertisers want in. As opposed to past years when the “festival” drew only fringe sponsors, this year’s program has received heavy backing from Molson’s, Bell Canada, The University of Toronto, York University, the National Film Board and the Digital Corporation. Obviously, there is no longer the stigma attached to advertising in such events.
