We are pleased to announce the results of the 2010-2011 Father Ted Colleton Scholarship contest. As has been the case in the past, the quality of candidates and their writing abilities have made the decision difficult. We extend our congratulations to all participants (more than 60) and to the three winning candidates. This years essay theme was: Dishonest language leads to dishonest [...]
In an interview with the CBC broadcast on Jan. 18, Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that he would go on opposing any legislative restrictions on abortion, even if the Conservatives were to win a majority of the seats in Parliament in the next federal election. “If you want to diminish the number of abortions,” he said, “you’ve got to change hearts and [...]
On Jan. 29, the National Post ran a full-page feature article on the causes of death in Canada. Most of it was a graphic presentation, using proportionate-sized circles, showing how people died in 1967 and 2007. The National Post article stated, “Death is life’s one and only inevitable event, and it comes in many ways – officially, there are 999 causes.” However, as Interim reader [...]
The Trouble With Canada … Still by William Gairdner (Key Porter, $24.95, 534 p) In print less than two years after his splendid Book of Absolutes, William Gairdner’s The Trouble with Canada…Still, his twelfth major work to date, promises to be yet another bestseller. In a country whose inhabitants are so contentedly in thrall to the “Swedish model” that they suffer both [...]
In her study, The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt notes that all declarations of human rights have overlooked the most essential human right of all, a right so obvious that it only emerged after massive numbers of stateless people appeared in the aftermath of World War II: without a nation state which could bestow upon them the rights enumerated [...]
Media gets story wrong about conscience, misses need for informed consent On Feb. 4, the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons released revised guidelines for dealing with patients who face an unplanned pregnancy. The early media reports erroneously stated that doctors who refused to carry out an abortion had to refer them to one who would. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported [...]
Fr. Raymond Gravel, a priest in the Roman Catholic diocese of Joliette, Que., has sued LifeSiteNews for $500,000, claiming that the pro-life internet news provider damaged his reputation and career as a priest by reporting on his public stances on abortion and gay rights. Fr. Gravel represented the Repentigny riding from 2006-2008, and as an Blocc Quebecois MP he defended [...]
Bernard Nathanson, a leading abortionist in the 1970s and later a convert to the pro-life cause, has passed away at the age of 84 following a long battle with cancer. Nathanson was born in New York City and graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal in 1949. As a member of the 12-person Planning Committee created by [...]
Interim reporter Pauline Kosalka interviewed Zuza Kurzawa, a Queen’s student arrested at Carleton University in October for participation in a GAP demonstration, by email. Kurzawa was a 2009 Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship winner. The Interim: Why did you enter the 2009 Father Ted Scholarship contest? What was your essay about? What especially did you want to convey to the readers? [...]
Everyone urged to get involved, even if they are not in Ottawa The National March for Life candlelight vigil will occur this year on Wednesday, May 11, the day before the annual march in the nation’s capital. “It initiates the March for Life with a gathering in Ottawa at the Human Rights Monument,” Wanda Hartlin, secretary for the National March [...]
Last May, Bill Siksay, the NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, introduced Bill C-389, a private member’s bill that would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include vague concepts such as “gender identity” and “gender expression” in the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination so that supposed offenses against “gender variant individuals” could be punished under Canadian Law. The bill, in other words, [...]
Life Canada, an organization seeking to educate Canadians about the value of life, launched a national awareness campaign in November, to coincide with the Canada’s official National Adoption Awareness Month. Life Canada’s “Adoption in Canada” campaign aims to assure 18 to 29-year-old women facing unplanned pregnancies that adoption is a “heroic” choice. According to the campaign’s website, adoptionincanada.ca, “many will [...]
An inexpensive genetic test has been developed that can detect 448 genetic childhood diseases. The makers of the test are hoping to expand this to 580 conditions within the next six months and the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation, which funded the National Center for Genome Resources research hopes that the new universal screening process will be available commercially within a [...]
A social conservative assessment Stephen Harper, the Liberals like to tell us, has a hidden agenda. Deep down in his black heart of hearts he wants to ban abortion. Yet, for nearly two decades, Campaign Life Coalition has rated him as “pro-abortion” or “not pro-life,” based on his public statements, CLC questionnaires he returned, and voting record. I’d like to [...]
On Jan. 18, the Halton Catholic District School Board caved to pressure from gay activists and rescinded its Equity and Inclusive Education Policy II-45, following a media storm over the board’s policy banning gay-straight alliances. Over the past year, public and separate school boards in Ontario have been required to implement policies in line with the province’s Ministry of Education equity and [...]