Every political regime, whether ancient Sparta or 21st century Canada, contains within it a vision of what it means to be a human being. Whereas the Spartans held up the ideal of the manly warrior, it is unclear what a Canadian is supposed to be. Some say we are tolerant, but others say being tolerant of everything is empty of content and [...]
In a compelling ruling on June 18, Mr. Justice Gérard Dugré of the Superior Court of Quebec emphatically backed Montreal’s Loyola High School in its determination to uphold the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church on life and family issues over the objections of the Liberal government of Quebec. However, it’s far from certain that this fine judgment will stand [...]
The stories are familiar: funding for abortion being proposed as foreign aid, a vote on euthanasia, a National March for Life in Ottawa, university administrators harassing pro-life groups. Similar events have become a normal feature of the news cycle and, of themselves, bring no surprise to members of the pro-life movement. Although the headlines are familiar, the news is not— the outcome [...]
The so-called liberator of women has actually hurt them History The 1892 Criminal Code of Canada outlawed birth control, declaring it obscene and “tending to corrupt morals.” It also, however, left a clause that permitted the distribution of birth control if it was for the “public good.” The American Congress had already banned birth control information in 1873, citing the same reason. [...]
There are many things to deplore about the lurid sexual education component of the new curriculum which the McGuinty has proposed for all Ontario primary schools. The ideologically-motivated attempt to pervert young children in the name of “sexual health” is, indeed, deplorable, but is also predictable: for years, social liberals have taken fringe psychoanalysts as their gurus—radicals who have exchanged the ancient [...]
National March for Life 2010 photos More March for Life 2010 photos Last year’s National March for Life in Ottawa saw 12,000 pro-lifers gathering on Parliament Hill in the pouring rain before proceeding through the streets of the nation’s capital for a one-hour march to witness to the injustice of abortion. This year, with the weather co-operating, a record 12,500 Canadians took [...]
The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald (Random House, $32, 419 pages) If you deliberately set out to write a bad book you would have a hard time outdoing Marci McDonald, whose The Armageddon Factor is so comprehensively awful that there is no reason whatsoever to ever read it. The long-time journalist has set her sights [...]
Almost on its deathbed a few short months ago, Canadian Nurses for Life is back, perhaps stronger than ever, with two national co-ordinators taking the reins and ready to steer the organization through the stormy seas of pro-life activism in the medical sphere. Outgoing national co-ordinator Mary Lynn McPherson had sounded the alarm in 2009, warning that Canadian Nurses for Life faced [...]
Life is not like a baseball game with clear, clean lines The brief interim between the end of batting practice and the commencement of the game invites a moment of reflection when the spectator can look at the field of play while it is devoid of players. In this meditative moment, undistracted by the game, one can begin to appreciate the significance [...]
On April 14, Rod Bruinooge (C - Winnipeg South) tabled Bill C-510, a private member’s bill to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to outlaw coercing women into having an abortion. Bruinooge, the chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, in introducing An Act to Prevent the Coercion of Women to Abortion to the House of Commons, said, “This bill will [...]
Pro-life Conservative MP Peter Goldring (Edmonton East) told The Interim he was furious at being misled about the nature of a parliamentarians’ association he agreed to become a vice-chair for after it was presented to him as a group dedicated to population and development issues, but which turned out to be focused narrowly on abortion and contraception. On March 22, [...]
This May, thousands of Canadians will attend the annual National March for Life and numerous provincial marches for life. They will come from every part of the country and they will be members of every race and religion. They will come, rain or shine, to our federal and provincial capitals and will witness to the sanctity of all human life. But what [...]
As legal gambling becomes widespread, dangerous addictions grow Gambling has become a widespread practice in Canadian life. It may be found in the form of state-managed lotteries, casinos and even charity raffles. Every province in Canada holds a near-monopoly over the gaming industry. Lotteries, horse racing, charitable gaming, casinos, slot machines, video lottery terminals and internet gambling are all somewhere in Canada, [...]
‘The culture of death is all-pervasive’ For nine years, The Interim and Niagara Region Right to Life have been co-sponsoring the Father Ted Colleton Scholarship program. The topics have varied over the years, but they have always challenged students to think more deeply about pro-life issues and to write about them cogently. The prizes are awarded following an evaluation process conducted by [...]
On March 23, as The Interim went to press, Canada’s opposition parties sought to require the Conservative government to fund abortion as part of their maternal and child health initiative at the G8 summit this June. Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae tabled a motion that would require “the maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions” to “include the [...]