Things slow down in the summer months, and all our lives are touched by this welcome change of pace. The arrival of the season may herald the end of academic classes—bringing with it more precious time with children and grandchildren. It may mark a season of office vacations or adjusted summer schedules, or simply a spirit of reprieve and relaxation in the [...]
On July 4, the British voters elected a Labour 411-seat majority (out of a total of 650 seats). The Conservative Party was reduced from majority government to a party low 121 seats. Various other parties split the remaining 128 seats. Pro-life MP Miriam Cates, who lost her seat, said that her party lost because it governed to the left of the average [...]
The English phrase, a “deal with the devil,” usually refers to pragmatism pushed to the point of compromise or to an arrangement with unlovely characters, daunting costs, or likely downsides. Yet the idiom draws its resonant power from significant sources: deals with devils have been immortalized in literature by the likes of Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the image [...]
In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that has lived in infamy. Setting aside the history and traditions of that country, the longer legacies of common law, and the will of the people as established by their own legislatures, the seven justices who endorsed the majority opinion of Roe v. Wade imposed a regime that menaced [...]
Seventy-five years ago, an English poet described what he called “the modern problem:” that is, “of living in a society in which men are no longer supported by tradition without being aware of it.” The individual who “wishes to bring order and coherence” into his mental life and inner experience must therefore do “for himself what in previous ages had been done [...]
We often focus on the politics of the Conservative Party because that is where the action usually is occurs when it comes to life and family issues; the Liberals, NDP, Bloc, and Greens do not permit their candidates to be pro-life. Of course, we prefer that every party and every candidate to be pro-life. We are not there yet. But at the [...]
The writ was drawn in mid-August, pandemic notwithstanding. Assuming the electorate wouldn’t punish them and their minority government for calling an election during a public health crisis, the Liberals stood to gain a majority. But as the campaign unfolded, fortunes rose and fell. As the dust settles in the election’s immediate aftermath, it would seem that nothing much has changed; no party [...]
The writ has been drawn and just under two years into the minority mandate of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canadians are returning to the voting booth to decide 338 elections for Member of Parliament. It is useful to remember that it is not a singular election, but multiple simultaneous elections. We are not electing a prime minister to lead us or party [...]
With this issue, The Interim publishes a new (seasonal) section devoted to essays, reviews, and reading recommendations for books, current and classic. But why are we inaugurating this feature, and why now? The very same media environment which makes a book section counterintuitive—the world of an incessant news cycle fueling tweets, and likes and cancellations—is what makes this new initiative so important. [...]
Paul Tuns: From the Editor’s Desk As usual I will utilize this column to bring to your attention some stories that did not quite grow up to be full articles in the paper. Sometimes this is because of space or time limitations, sometimes because there is not much more to say about the topic. But it reminds me of something that Jim [...]
If Canadians pro-lifers want to hear some good news, they need only look south of the border. Our conscientious counterparts in the United States can boast of both substantial achievements and undeniable momentum in their noble efforts in the protection of life: promising Supreme Court justices were appointed in the previous administration; states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, among [...]
Twenty years is not a long time. In the United States, it is a period that could see as few as three presidents. Shorter than the term of most mortgages, a pair of decades is certainly not a timeframe in which one should expect, in healthy societies, radical changes to fundamental categories and definitions. And yet imagine the shock that someone describing [...]
Ken Boessenkool argues on The Line, here, that “(i)f the Grace Life (sic) (Church) leaders want to truly make (sic) their case, they should be charged.” A Canadian Reformed Calvinist,[1] Boessenkool deems GraceLife Church’s holding packed Sunday services in Spruce Grove, Alberta, as civil disobedience. He implies they are unwilling to “accept the consequences of their actions,” including trial and imprisonment. He [...]
Now that COVID-19 vaccinations are being made available across the country, Canadians find themselves facing important personal decisions about whether or not they should receive them—decisions which will require reflection, research, and prudence about a medical procedure which bears on personal physical health, social responsibility, and the inviolable dictates of conscience. From reading the headlines in the press, however, one wouldn’t think [...]
By Paul Tuns I hope you are both informed and entertained by our large feature, “20 ways COVID is changing society.” Without getting into it too much, I want to point out that most, if not all of the changes, in society are the result of the anti-pandemic measures taken by governments around the world in response to the outbreak, rather than the [...]