Jim Hughes Editor Paul Tuns received the following email from Joe in the middle of April. Hi Paul This is one of the most difficult e-mails I’ve had to write. The time has come, and may be well past the due date, when I must retire as an Interim columnist. I turned 92 in January and am feeling my age increasingly. Too [...]
Low fertility rates, not over-population, present challenge “Demography is destiny,” the French sociologist Auguste Comte reportedly said. Population trends – fertility rates, infant survival, ageing, and other facts that are literally about life and death – greatly influence the economy, politics, culture, and world affairs. Demography may not be destiny, but it is nonetheless a powerful force and one that often seems [...]
Paul Tuns, Editor of The Interim Newspaper By Paul Tuns A parable of Saint Matthew’s Gospel describes a master who, before going on a journey, entrusts his property to three servants. Their charge is not a light one. They have, after all, been entrusted with the wealth — the very substance — of their lord. The talents imparted to them [...]
We are working to bring more graphics and make the paper more pleasing to read, and that process is underway as you will see in our centerspread story on our ageing global population. We are also going to have a redesign in the new year to make the paper a little easier to read. But the downside of making the paper more [...]
Interim writer, Josie Luetke , Talk Turkey By Josie Luetke Being somewhat of a political nomad, I was eager to read James Mumford’s Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes, published just this year, precisely because it seemed it would affirm my choice of wandering in the (metaphorical) wilderness rather than buying into one of the flawed “package deals” on offer by [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements By Rick McGinnis The term “social media” wasn’t in widespread use over 10 years ago, when I started writing this column. Back then we still worried about television and the general amount of “screen time” our children were spending on increasingly smaller and less expensive devices. Re-reading my old columns, like almost every exercise in [...]
On Sept. 28, Amnesty International, the international human rights group, announced it was updating its "sexual and reproductive rights" policy, essentially reaffirming its pro-abortion position. Amnesty International had previously supported abortion in certain circumstances, although it released papers and launched campaigns that supported broadening abortion in numerous countries and circumstances. It now calls for full decriminalization of abortion. Amnesty International is "calling [...]
The lockdowns have now become a permanent violation of our Charter Rights and Freedom to move, travel, assemble, associate, and worship. Governments are showing no intentions of removing restrictions, even as COVID-19 deaths slow to a trickle, and are now proven to be a small fraction of the dire predictions made by politicians in March. Masks have become mandatory for children to attend [...]
The U.S. election is about many issues including the fitness of the two major candidates to lead and the president’s handling of the pandemic and the economy. A major difference between the parties and presidential candidates is their approach to abortion, which would have been important to many voters but will have a higher profile and could become the issue of the [...]
In 1994, the United States of America was enjoying peace and prosperity. The Cold War was over, the economy was thriving, and the third-youngest president in the country’s history had recently been elected; he and his centrist policies enjoyed popular support. And yet, even as the good times were rolling, a 5-foot-tall Albanian religious sister offered this country a dire warning and [...]
The annual Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship and essay contest, sponsored by Niagara Region Right to Life and promoted by The Interim newspaper is being offered once again. The essay component for the 2020-2021 edition of the contest reads as follows: Why has the womb, traditionally the safest place in the world, become the most dangerous, unprotected place in the world? Niagara Region [...]
On August 24, Erin O’Toole won the Conservative Party of Canada leadership, mostly on the strength of support as a second- or third-choice of pro-life and other socially conservative members of the party who voted for Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis. O’Toole was behind presumptive frontrunner Peter MacKay after the first and second ballot. On the first ballot, Campaign Life Coalition green-lit [...]
Social conservatives prove to be MacKay's albatross The two pro-life candidates, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan, won more than a third of the points in the first ballot, more than twice the support than the two pro-life candidates—Pierre Lemieux and Brad Trost— won in 2017. Erin O’Toole defeated Peter MacKay, the presumptive front runner, on the third ballot. The leadership race for [...]
After what seemed like an eternity – both the seven-month campaign and the six-hour wait for the results to be announced on August 23 – the outcome of the Conservative leadership campaign should not have been a surprise, even if some of us were. The “natural” strengths of Peter MacKay never materialized as he did not win Quebec as expected, his victories [...]