The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has good reason to commend the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal in the Rasouli case on June 29, which holds that physicians have no right in Ontario law to withdraw life support from a patient without the consent of the patient or a qualified substitute decision-maker. Hassan Rasouli [...]
What will it take for Canadians finally to rebel against the abuse of power by Canada’s immensely wealthy and politically intimidating teachers’ unions. On May 4, about 12,000 unionized Saskatchewan teachers walked off the job in one-day protest strike against lagging contract negotiations. Students lost a day of schooling and parents were given little notice of the impending strike, yet picketing [...]
Every year since 1976, the United States Congress has adopted the “Hyde Amendment,” a legislative enactment banning the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. In addition, most of the states likewise ban public funding for abortions. Within the United States, these measures have [...]
While campaigning for president in 2008, Barack Obama repeatedly stated his opposition to same-sex marriage. That, to say the least, was a deception. While purporting to uphold traditional marriage as the union of a man and a woman, Obama said he would vote to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), a statute signed into law by former President Bill [...]
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. 10, Orville Nichols was in a state of shock: He knew he might lose in a ruling that day by a panel of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in the Marriage Commissioners Reference, but he probably was not expecting to lose by an overwhelming five to nothing decision. Nichols is a devout Baptist who has served as a [...]
From a pro-life perspective, President George W. Bush may have been less than perfect, but in comparison to his successor, he is looking ever better. Bush devotes an entire chapter of his compelling memoir Decision Points to the controversial decision he announced in a televised address on Aug. 9, 2001, to authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research using [...]
In unilaterally striking down three key provisions of the Criminal Code, that prohibit the operation of houses of prostitution in Canada, on Sept. 28, Madam Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Superior Court indulged in an illegitimate exercise of raw judicial power. Her ruling overturned the law, distorts the Constitution of Canada and violates the fundamental separation of legislative and judicial [...]
On May 14, a three-judge panel of the Ontario Divisional Court unanimously delivered in Ontario Human Rights Commission v. Christian Horizons another blow to freedom of religion in Canada. This ruling could have a devastating impact on Christian organizations involved in everything from providing disaster relief overseas to operating pregnancy crisis centres here at home. The complainant in this case, [...]
Under intense public pressure, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty may have withdrawn his government’s revised curriculum guidelines on sexual education for a “serious rethink,” but this battle is far from over. Proponents of ever more explicit sexual education for young school children have been quick to mount a concerted counterattack. They commend the revised curriculum for proposing to normalize homosexuality in [...]
On April 1, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had commended the Roman Catholic Church as “the conscience of the nation.” Given the record of the Brown government, informed readers might well have dismissed the story as an April Fools Day prank. Yet the report was accurate. With a general election impending on May 6, Brown [...]
Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the British Conservative party, has written a major policy paper on the family, in which he urges his parliamentary colleagues to single out married couples for special tax benefits. It’s an excellent idea that politicians in Canada should be no less eager to embrace than their British counterparts. Not so long ago, special benefits [...]
In “Christianity Lite” (First Things, February 2010), Mary Eberstadt traces the collapse of the mainline Protestant churches to Resolution 15 of the 1930 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, which broke with the hitherto universal and constant teaching of the Catholic church against any use of artificial means of contraception. Specifically, Resolution 15 provided that married couples who are faced with [...]
Why are most pro-life activists Christians? Udo Schuklenk, professor of philosophy and Ontario Research Chair in Bioethics at Queen’s University, thinks he knows the answer – the pro-life position is so irrational that it is only likely to be espoused by fanatics who look to the Bible as the ultimate authority on all questions of faith and morality. Schuklenk is [...]
On Nov. 20, Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical leaders in the United States set a splendid example for their counterparts in Canada by issuing the Manhattan Declaration – a ringing statement of resolve to resist the growing subversion of the moral order and the suppression of freedom of religion by secular zealots in legislatures, governments and the courts. Included among the [...]