Rory Leishman: On Dec. 19, a six-judge panel of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts unanimously affirmed in Kligler v. Massachusetts Attorney General that no person has a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. For the United States, this ruling was not unusual. In 10 states plus the District of Columbia, legislatures – not the courts -- have legalized physician assisted suicide. However, [...]
Rory Leishman: On Nov. 29, the Toronto Star published a remarkable commentary headlined “Justice Minister David Lametti under fire for ‘unbelievable’ comparisons between euthanasia and suicide.” According to the Star’s national columnist Althia Raj, Lametti reminded her in a recent interview “that suicide generally is available to people” and explained that the purpose of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is to help [...]
Rory Leishman It is astonishing that even today so many prominent advocates of legalized abortion still think the point at which human life begins is a matter of philosophical debate and religious dogma rather than settled science. In an article entitled “Atheists and the Pro-Life Movement,” Mary FioRito of the Ethics and Public Policy Center cites the example of Justice Sonia Sotomayor [...]
Rory Leishman: In treating long-known and well-researched mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, drug addiction, and schizophrenia, psychiatrists can alleviate enormous suffering and spare their most vulnerable patients from an ignominious death by suicide. What a pity, then, that so many of these same psychiatrists are prone to embracing the most absurd psychiatric fads. A case in point is “recovered memory therapy,” [...]
Rory Leishman: In response to a leaked document suggesting that the Supreme Court of the United States is poised to overturn its 1973 Roe decision which purported to find a hitherto unknown right to abortion hidden in the United States Constitution, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a public statement alleging: “The right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right [...]
Rory Leishman: In a proposed judgment for the majority of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson, Justice Samuel Alito persuasively argued that the Court’s calamitous 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that struck down every state law restricting abortion was so completely and wrongly decided that it has no authority as a judicial precedent and should [...]
Rory Leishman: On March 31, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dealt a devastating blow to the predominance of transgender ideologues, by announcing that his Conservative government would not proceed with a promise to ban transgender conversion therapy. What can account for this abrupt about-face on a key policy issue by a government and prime minister that have hitherto sedulously courted the favour [...]
Rory Leishman: David French is senior editor of The Dispatch, an excellent, on-line, news magazine. He is also one of the most prominent pro-life lawyers and political commentators in the United States. In a recent address to conservative law students affiliated with The Federalist Society at Yale University, he recalled the hot reception he received upon arrival at The Harvard Law School [...]
Rory Leishman: Then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau promised that the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms would enhance the constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms of Canadians. Instead, the opposite is true: Canadians today are demonstrably less free than they were 40 years ago. As evidence, consider the unprecedented, freedom-stifling provisions of Bill C-4, the notorious legislation adopted in December by Parliament with [...]
Rory Leishman Judging from the questions and comments during oral arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States on Dec. 1 in the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it seems likely, although far from certain, that the Court will finally decide in its ruling in Dobbs next June to reverse the calamitous judgment in Roe v. Wade [...]
Rory Leishman As rising numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients threatened to overwhelm Saskatchewan’s intensive care units (ICU) wards last October, the Saskatchewan government called upon the Canadian military to airlift 19 of the province’s ICU patients to hospitals in Ontario. This was not an isolated incident. Earlier in the pandemic, critically ill COVID patients in some regions of Ontario also had [...]
Rory Leishman In response to an alarming upsurge in severe Covid-19 cases, the government of New Brunswick declared a State of Emergency on Sept. 24 and followed up with a mandatory order that only patrons who are fully vaccinated or medically exempt from vaccination can engage in any non-essential indoor activities. Are such restrictive orders justifiable if necessary to prevent a rapid [...]
Rory Leishman: Among the many disgraceful policies championed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his inglorious political career, one of the worst has been his insistence that a principled physician has no right in conscience to refuse to collaborate in the deliberate killing of a baby in the womb. During the federal election campaign, rights of conscience became the focus on August [...]
Rory Leishman: What can account for the unprecedented outburst of anti-Christian rage in Canada that has fueled the incineration of 20 Christian churches and the defacing of dozens more with red and orange paint? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blames the Catholic and Protestant churches that operated Indian Residential Schools (IRS) on behalf of the government of Canada. In a statement on July [...]
Rory Leishman In a pastoral letter issued on May 1, the Archbishop of San Francisco, Cardinal Salvatore Cordileone, has spelled out with admirable clarity why no faithful Christian cleric should allow a politician who aids and abets in committing the evils of abortion to take part in Holy Communion. Having earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in [...]