The week before a parliamentary debate took place on euthanasia and assisted suicide, one of the country’s experts on palliative care spoke to a group of concerned citizens in Ottawa about the issue. Dr. Jose Pereira is a full professor and head of the division of palliative care at the University of Ottawa, medical chief of palliative medicine at the [...]
Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values by Brian Lee Crowley (Key Porter, $34.95, 360 pages) In an important new book, Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada’s Founding Values, Brian Lee Crowley persuasively argues that the future prosperity of Canada depends on a revival of marriage and the family. For Crowley, this is a new understanding. Until [...]
On Oct. 6, pro-abortion students shouted down a presentation by Jose Ruba of the pro-life Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform at McGill University, preventing most of his talk from being heard by those in attendance of the Choose Life-sponsored event. Police were called to the scene and, after repeated requests for civility, two people were arrested, although they were later [...]
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Louise Slaughter, chairman of the House Rules Committee, 183 Congressional representatives demanded that Congress be allowed a free vote on bipartisan pro-life measures that would prohibit government funding of abortion in health care. The House representatives warn that in the absence of a free vote, they will do everything in [...]
The bizarre saga of Canada’s censorious human rights commissions took another freakish turn in September, when one of its own suddenly declared the very system that employed him “unconstitutional.” Even longtime HRC critic (and victim-turned-victor) Ezra Levant was taken aback. As Levant put it at his blog when the news broke: “Two years ago, Athanasios Hadjis was a human rights hack, sitting [...]
An appreciation of the gift of being a dad The arrival of this past June’s Father’s Day caused me to reflect on what the occasion means to me. As I gazed around the table and viewed my family, I observed my partner in life, affectionately known as mom, and my children, each with his or her own uniqueness. The good Lord is [...]
On Sept. 23, the Madam Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein of the Supreme Court of British Columbia quashed polygamy charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler. The legal reasoning is rather technical and narrow – the defense claimed and the justice agreed that former Attorney General Wally Oppal had gone “special prosecutor shopping” – but that doesn’t change the reality that the decision will [...]
In early October, a former Roman Catholic bishop, Raymond Lahey, was charged with the possession and distribution of child pornography. Whether he is guilty or not is yet to be decided, but the case does look extremely bad. Beyond what he is accused of having had on his laptop computer recently, it is also alleged that he was seen in [...]
There are two rituals at the onset of every fall television season; in the first, someone looks over the crop of failed shows from the last season and announces some venerable genre – the three-camera sitcom, the police procedural – as being creatively dead, followed by the unexpected success of a show that singlehandedly revives it. The cycle’s tedious regularity is just [...]
It has taken a while but The Interim has redesigned and updated its website (viewyourenvoymediasite.ca ). It will be updated weekly with material from the latest issue of the newspaper with news stories being rolled out at the beginning of the month, followed by editorials, features, reviews and columns. Some articles will be pre-released on the website if the news is time [...]
Canada’s anti-prostitution laws are being challenged by a prostitute, a former prostitute and a dominatrix, who argue that decriminalizing bawdy houses and scrapping the law prohibiting living off the avails of prostitution will make the sex trade safer for women. Countering the sex trade activists, the Ontario and federal governments have been joined by REAL Women of Canada, the Christian Legal Fellowship [...]
On Sept. 25-27, the National Campus Life Network hosted its 2009 National Symposium in Toronto. The goal of the annual event is to provide networking opportunities, information and practical advice that will contribute to a stronger and dedicated campus pro-life movement. With the theme, “Making Waves: The Campus Pro-Life Movement,” the focus was on equipping student leaders to make an impact on [...]
A Halifax counsellor wants out of the abortion business On Oct. 15, about 400 participants in the Toronto 40 Days for Life campaign gathered together for a Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church with Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Peter J. Hundt and at least 10 other concelebrating priests. In his homily, Hundt quoted Karl Rahner, a 20th-century German theologian who predicted that “tomorrow’s Christians [...]
November is the month of fallen heroes. We honour the memory of the soldiers who fought for freedom during the violent struggles of the last century – those who died in the trenches in Europe and those who gave their lives resisting a madman’s frightening dream. But, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Canadian pro-life movement this year, we cannot [...]
On Oct. 2, Bill C-384, Francine Lalonde’s private member’s bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, received its first hour of debate. The bill was introduced on May 13 by the Bloc Québécois MP, in her third attempt to get such legislation passed in Parliament. Two previous attempts were scuttled when an election was called. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has led the [...]