For Catholics and others in the Toronto area who are tired of the secularist world view peddled by the mainstream news and entertainment media, there is now an alternative on the radio. For one hour on Sunday evenings (9-10 p.m.) on 530 AM, listeners can enjoy reviews, news and analysis of current events from a Christian perspective. Fr. Marian Gil, OMI, a [...]
It did not happen. But it could have happened. It is a matter of historical record that Plato was born in ancient Greece, Aquinas in the Middle Ages, and Jean-Paul Sartre in the Twentieth Century. Yet it was not impossible, in the lottery of life, for all three of these talented thinkers to have been conceived by the same woman and, to [...]
Scholars analyze what's behind 'judicial activism' in Canada The Charter Revolution and the Court Party by F.L. Morton and Rainer Knopff (Broadview, $22.95, 227 pages). In recent years the critics of judicial activism have grown tremendously in number - theNational Post, the Canadian Alliance, various academics, pro-family and pro-life groups,The Interim - and with good reason: judicial activism is growing and consequently [...]
Anti-euthanasia leader wants a 'human rights bioethic' Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America by Wesley J. Smith (Encounter Books, $36.75, 285 pages). In Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, Wesley J. Smith, author ofForced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder and an attorney for the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, indicts [...]
A "spin doctor" is not to be confused with a public relations person. A PR person always tries to dress up the act - trying to take a non-newsy but "good news" item and blow it up into a gargantuan front-page story. If you are a PR person for a large school board you pray every day that they do not find [...]
There are some issues that rise above the inadequate and increasingly archaic labels of left and right - life and education being two of them. We have looked to various political parties for support and, whilst sometimes receiving encouraging words from some of them when in opposition, have invariably been ignored or even insulted once those organizations achieve power. When it comes [...]
Women who sell or donate their eggs and giving away a whole lot more Donating motherhood "Is this egg worth $50,000?" is the provocative title of an article in Self magazine (Nov. 2000) that takes a close look at the new world of "egg donation." According to its author, Sheila Weller, close to 4,500 American women "donate" their eggs every year. Receiving $50,000 [...]
An Alliance for Life Ontario television campaign launched last fall was so successful the organization is planning on doing it again, only this time on a larger scale. The Alliance for Life (AFL) Campaign 2000 featured pro-life television advertisements broadcast on 19 TV stations penetrating all major Ontario markets, including CTV, Global and MuchMusic. The five-week campaign ran from October to December. [...]
The new liberalism cut itself off from universal principles and focused on choice itself Once upon a time, there was a parsimonious parson who, to save money, tried to brighten the exterior of his place of worship with watered down paint. After he finished his job and saw the paint cascading down the chapel walls, he called upon God for guidance. According [...]
Candidate questionnaires help identify social conservatives and pro-lifers in new legislature On March 12, Premier Ralph Klein's Tories streamrolled the NDP and Liberal opposition taking 74 of 83 seats in the Alberta provincial election. While social issues were not a factor in the election pro-life and social conservative groups were involved in the campaign, and active informing voters about the candidates. Campaign [...]
NDP and Liberals compete for pro-abortion vote With media reports of an imminent provincial election in British Columbia - the government must call one by June - the NDP and Liberals are fighting over the pro-abortion vote, a tactic that has limited the options for the province's pro-life voters. The NDP is staking out ground as arguably the most pro-abortion government in [...]
Prominent Montreal bioethicist opposes cloning, but aims for elusive balance on abortion The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit by Margaret Somerville (Toronto: Viking, 2000). 344 pages, $33.99 CAD. Margaret Somerville, founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, says in The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit that it is time for the [...]
I get more of a laugh when I read some serious stuff than when I read the comics. (And they're supposed to be funny.) After police arrested 32 spectators recently for fighting and various drinking offenses and handed out $13,000 in fines at an annual charity hockey game between two student residences at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the [...]
American Life League uneasy about how Tommy Thompson will handle fetal experimentation Media reports in the first weeks of the new Bush administration suggest that President Bush is committed to a limited pro-life agenda. This is getting a mixed reaction from American pro-life groups. Bush signed an executive order re-instating the so-called Mexico City Policy, suggested Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy [...]
Canada's Catholic bishops have taken a stand against the expansion of abortion through Ottawa's coercion of provinces to fund private abortuaries. The January 19 Ottawa Citizen reported that Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais said Health Minister Allan Rock's promotion of abortion funding made his "blood boil" and rebuked Catholics Rock and Prime Minister Jean Chretien for their government's support of abortion. "The fact that [...]