The Owen Sound Sun Times reports that Gus Mitges passed away Sunday. He was the Progressive Conservative MP for Grey-Simcoe or Bruce-Grey from 1972-1993. He was involved in school board and municipal politics in Owen Sound for a decade before running federally. He never once lost an election, retiring in 1993 due to health concerns. In 1981, he voted against the Charter of Rights. In 1987, [...]
Details magazine interviewed openly gay actor Ian McKellan (Gandalf). It includes this exchange: Details: Is it true that when you stay at hotels you tear out the Bible page that condemns homosexuality? Ian McKellen: I do, absolutely. I'm not proudly defacing the book, but it's a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible.
LifeCanada commissioned the Environics Research Group to do a poll on euthanasia and they found that despite the fact 61% of Canadians say they favour legalizing euthanasia, the majority of even those who support it are worried about abuses. The National Post reports: Fifty-five per cent of those who expressed strong support for euthanasia are worried that a “significant number” of people could be [...]
The Calgary Herald reports that the Crown attorney has stayed trespassing charges against six members of the Genocide Awareness Project, including five students at the University of Calgary's Campus Pro-Life Club. An Alberta Justice spokesman said there wasn't enough evidence to proceed, but I'm guessing that they wanted to avoid the embarrassment of prosecuting some brave young people for peaceabley if controversially engaging their fellow students in public [...]
In Washington, polls show Referendum 71, which would enshrine in law full marriage rights (domestic partnerships) without applying the word marriage to homosexual couples, is likely to pass. The Seattle Times recently reported that people are confused about the initiative -- some gay rights activists see it as second class citizenship while some opponents of same-sex marriage do not want to extend the benefits of [...]
Abby Johnson was director of the Byran, Texas Planned Parenthood facility until "realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure." Now she supports Coalition for Life. KWTX, the Waco CBS affiliate, has the story. At The Corner, Maggie Gallagher argues that gay marriage is different politically speaking than other socially conservative issues. Same-sex marriage is on the ballot [...]
The Daily Telegraph reports that New Zealand researchers have found that women who had an abortion suffered mental illness and depression in "proportion to the degree of distress" associated with their abortion. That doesn't sound significant but as David Fergusson, of the department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, says: “Collectively, this evidence raises important questions about the practice of [...]
Kudos to Conservative MP Brad Trost (Saskatoon-Humboldt) for promoting a petition urging the federal government to stop funding International Planned Parenthood Federation. LifeSiteNews.com reports: The goal, says Trost, is to stop the IPPF funding when it comes up for renewal, which he says is supposed to happen around December 31st. He has circulated a similar petition "on a low-key level" by word-of-mouth [...]
Here are a few rambling thoughts about what Conservative MP Steven Fletcher wrote today in the National Post regarding euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide. It is a serious article, one that no doubt will move some people on this issue. But it also begs some serious questions and concerns. Fletcher, a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair since a 1996 automobile accident, says that he would like to [...]
WorldNetDaily has a storyon the personhood movement, which is currently leading efforts in 32 states to define the unborn child as a legal person. Personhood USA says that defining the unborn child as a legal person will directly challenge Roe v. Wade. Pro-lifers can reasonably disagree whether these initiatives are the best way to advance the pro-life cause -- Judie Brown of [...]
Conservative MP Steven Fletcher, a paraplegic, has an op-ed in the National Postin which he explains that he supports the idea of euthanasia but that he is voting against Francine Lalonde's private members euthanasia bill (C-384). The Ottawa Citizen has a story about Fletcher not supporting C-384. Writing in the Marco Island Eagle, Eugene R. Milhizer, acting president of Ave Maria Law [...]
Nat Hentoff, a pro-life left-libertarian, has an excellent letter-to-the-editor in the Washington Posttoday on why hate crime laws are wrong. Earlier this week, the paper editorialized in favour of Barack Obama signing a hate crime bill into law saying it expanding civil rights. As Hentoff notes, it actually creates two classes of victims and is obviously unconstitutional by putting convicted criminals in [...]
Harry Stein writes about the popular television series Mad Men in City Journal. Stein notes how things have changed since the 1950s setting of the series: Start with family life. Back then, under 8 percent of American children were born out of wedlock annually. Today, that figure is close to 40 percent overall and fully 70 percent in the black community—which, for all [...]
As Ezra Levant notes the Canadian Jewish News ran an article about him and his crusade against the whole human rights commission industry. As Levant notes, "I just don't think that would have happened two years ago." I don't think it would have happened two years ago, either, and it wouldn't have happened today were it not for Levant's selfless and costly battle against [...]
The Economist cover feature this week is on demography, growth and the environment with a focus on falling fertility: "Falling Fertility," "The rich are different," and "Go forth and multiply a lot less." Interim editor Paul Tuns will be commenting on these stories later today. The Daily Mail reports that neither men nor women will be necessary for reproduction as scientists at Stanford create eggs and sperm [...]