The enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 has led to a national calamity, but the fault lies not so much with the plain words of the Charter as with the arrogance of judicial activists who invoke the Charter as a pretext for arbitrarily imposing their perverse values on the laws and the Constitution of Canada. Consider, for [...]
Thanks to a draconian new Equality Act that comes into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, faithful British Christians are about to undergo much the same persecution as their Canadian counterparts. The act includes a sweeping ban on discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation.” In a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of his [...]
Alex Berenson, a reporter for the New York Times, has written a chilling and informative novel, The Faithful Spy, which raises some serious questions about whether it is sometimes right to do evil so that good might result. In the course of the novel, John Wells, a CIA agent who has infiltrated Al Qaeda, uncovers evidence that a cell in the United [...]
Notwithstanding the decision by most members of Parliament on Dec. 7 to refuse even to reconsider the abolition of the traditional definition of marriage in Canadian law, this issue is not closed. And it never will be closed, until the great majority of our MPs and judges recognize that they have no more power to change the fundamental nature of [...]
Following the tawdry example of theatres in England and the United States, the Grand Theatre of London, Ont. recently lured customers with a stage adaptation of the movie The Graduate that featured a lead actress appearing stark naked on the stage. Not to be outdone, London’s Centennial Hall has presented The Puppetry of the Penis, a play in which two [...]
On Sept. 18, Justice Minister Vic Toews provoked a national controversy by appointing a devout Catholic to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. No one has questioned the outstanding legal competence of the judge in question, Mr. Justice David M. Brown. The sole concern of his critics seems to be that he might twist the law to conform with the [...]
At a White House ceremony on July 19, President George Bush explained his decision to veto a bill to fund embryonic stem cell research. He pointed out: “Embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value.” To underline this point, [...]
In an advisory ruling on Dec. 9, 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada decreed that same-sex couples have an unequivocal equality right to marry under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Ontario government followed up on Feb. 22, 2005 with Bill 171, an omnibus act to eliminate all references to traditional marriage in 73 Ontario statutes, by replacing words such [...]
In a statement on June 27, the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, presented a plan for expelling the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States from constituent membership in the worldwide Anglican communion. Specifically, Williams suggested that any Anglican church that unilaterally flouts Anglican doctrine should be reduced to the status of [...]
Pro-lifers have good reason to be elated by the thousands of youngsters who turned out in May for the largest annual pro-life march ever to take place in Ottawa. This event is symptomatic of a persistent trend toward greater awareness among Canadian youths of the sanctity of unborn human life. The parents and grandparents of these youngsters were told in their youth [...]
It's remarkable how theologically conservative Catholics and Protestants have come to appreciate over the past 30 years, that on many theological and moral issues, they have much more in common with each other than with liberal members of their own respective churches. Underlying this church-wide dividing line is a difference of opinion on the interpretation of Holy Scripture. Conservative Catholics and Protestants [...]
Judging from the reputation of Justice Marshall Rothstein, and the answers he gave to the questions put to him in the unprecedented public hearing that preceded his appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, he should make an excellent addition to the country’s top court. Asked by Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy to state his views on the proper role of judges in [...]
Following a speech to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 3, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada was asked for her opinion on the desirability of having Parliament play a more active role in the appointment of judges. A restrained judge would have refused to answer such a politically charged question. What, though, did McLachlin do? She [...]
In a judgement handed down just four days before Christmas, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin declared on behalf of the Supreme Court of Canada that Canadians have a constitutional right to engage in group sex in a nightclub. The ruling was unprecedented. It outraged the public. And it ran clearly contrary to Section 210(1) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the practice of [...]
There is much shrewd policy advice in Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution by Tasha Kheiriddin and Adam Daifallah. However, the overall plan of the work is fundamentally flawed. If Stephen Harper and his conservative advisers were to adopt the libertarian policy platform advocated in this book, they would consign the Conservative party of Canada to political oblivion. Kheiriddin and [...]