The media focused on a deal between anti-free trade activist David Orchard and Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay (Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough) that secured the latter's election as leader for the federal Progressive Conservative Party but brought into question the party's commitment to fiscal conservative issues. But pro-lifers lamented the lack of social conservative ideas among the leadership candidates. The race in which MacKay eventually [...]
A picture of a child in-utero accompanies the question, "Should a Fetus Have Rights?" on the cover of the June 9 issue of Newsweek. Scientific advancements and high-profile criminal cases have prompted a spate of public ponderings upon the rights of the unborn child by media outlets which, in former times, would not have broached the topic. It would seem that, by [...]
A July 19 boat cruise on the Toronto harbour will highlight the 90th birthday celebrations for Fr. Ted Colleton, one of the most energetic personalities to emerge on Canada's pro-life scene. Priest, teacher, comedian, raconteur, cheerful but firm leader, humble servant, genuinely uplifting soul. Take your pick from this melange of positive nouns and adjectives. Add your own anecdotes if you are [...]
Satire, according to the New Collins Concise English Dictionary, is described as occurring when "topical issues, folly or evil are held up to ridicule." And also "the use of ridicule, irony, etc. to create such an effect." One of the readers of my column (or perhaps my only reader) recently wrote in complaining about me badmouthing Jean Crouton. She implied that I [...]
On April 14, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) won the election with a comfortable majority (76 seats out of 125) and became the new government in Quebec. Until the middle of the short campaign, just 33 days, it was not clear which party would win. In fact, the PQ was ahead before the leaders' debate that occurred in the middle of [...]
As we report on page 3, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research has gone ahead with its own plans on funding and regulating embryonic stem cell research, despite the fact that legislation on this issue is currently before the House of Commons. The announcement by the federally funded medical research agency's president, Dr. Alan Bernstein, has been condemned in Parliament by MPs [...]
Shame on Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who recently told a Liberal Party fundraising event in Montreal that among the reasons Canada is a better country than the United States is the fact that we have legal abortion. It is sick to suggest that the slaughter of approximately 115,000 unborn babies in the womb is virtuous and a sign of superiority over our [...]
Connecticut Supreme Court rules unborn part of mother's body Successful pro-life T-shirt day in Stafford, Virginia Euthanasia in decline in Netherlands? EU to monitor pro-lifers Male mice produce eggs in Tokyo Unborn ruled part of mother's body HARTFORD, Ct. - In a decision that upset both sides of the abortion debate, the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled that an unborn baby is [...]
MAP access eased in Saskatchewan Calgaryabortuary plans stalled Breitkreuz motion C-83 debated NFB Kids' video promotes gay lifestyle MAP access eased in Saskatchewan REGINA - The Saskatchewan government introduced an amendment to The Pharmacy Act to allow pharmacists to prescribe the medication Levonorgestrel with a doctor's prescription. Health Minister John Nilson, who supported the amendments to the Act, said that the morning-after [...]
Prime Minister Jean Chretien may think that "we don't have big debates on the rights of abortion" in Canada, but some 3,500 people from across the country converged on Ottawa May 13 and 14 to send a message to him and other federal parliamentarians that the struggle to protect human life at all stages goes on. The Toronto Sun reported May 15 [...]
In the pre-dawn hours of a summer day, while most of the town slept, the surgical operating room was cold, stark and brightly lit. The surgeon placed the sharp edge of his scalpel against my mother's skin. Without hesitating, he plunged the scalpel into her body and started to quickly slice through layers of skin, tissue and flesh. The womb was quickly [...]
"Are you growing tired of the battle?" was the provocative title of the talk given by Father Tom Lynch at the London and Area Right to Life dinner on April 26, in which he challenged pro-lifers to renew their movement. Lynch, a moral theologian, dean of studies and dean of students at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, is well known in pro-life [...]
It could be argued that the traditional gentleman, who not so long ago stood at the pinnacle of the planet, has now been sent into internal exile. The true gentleman could be seen as being like the Phantom of the Opera - as recently interpreted in Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatrical musical - savagely scarred and effectively repressed into the underground (unconscious) of [...]
"Yes, this is an age of moral crisis … Your moral code has reached its climax, the blind alley and the end of its course. And if you wish to go on living, what you now need is not to return to morality …. but to discover it." Thus spake, not Zarathustra, but Ayn Rand's philosophical mouthpiece, John Galt, the protagonist of [...]
Have religious and constitutional objections to homosexuality and gay rights become unacceptable in modern-day public life? Defenders of traditional values contend that homosexual activists are attempting to enforce a pro-gay party line through intimidation, and point to recent attacks against federal Tory Deputy Leader Elsie Wayne and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum as examples. In April, Santorum, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, commented [...]