The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failureby Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Press, $37 hardcover, $14.99 Kindle, 352 pages) The reference to Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind (1987) is surely no accident. Bloom, who taught at the University of Toronto for most of the 1970s, was [...]
Because of the Irish referendum earlier this year on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, which recognized the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child, the Irish pro-life movement became somewhat known around the world. Much lesser known are the pro-life movements in other European countries. As part of a project for Campaign Life Coalition, I had the [...]
Laying Down the Lawton Andrew Lawton If Celine Dion has her way, the children of the world will “be free and find their own individuality through clothes.” Clothes that pretty much look alike and are all the same colour, that is. The pop diva launched a gender neutral children’s clothing line last month, Celinununu, which supposedly “breeds equality and freedom [...]
Delegates vote nearly unanimously on a pro-family resolution at the PC Party policy convention. Grassroots pro-life and pro-family members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario helped pass three parental rights and anti-sex ed resolutions to become PC Party policy and then ensured that another eight pro-family policies would be considered at the 2019 PC policy convention. Campaign Life Coalition [...]
The 70th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) ought to be an occasion for celebration. Framed in 1948 in the aftermath of the Second World War, this document promised a future all the more bright for its contrast with the recent past. The promise of that future, however, has not been kept, and the rhetoric of rights [...]
Canada Canada’s Supreme Court authorised the practice of euthanasia, or medical-assistance-in-dying, in 2016 with the following exceptions forbidden by law: euthanasia for “mature minors,” i.e. those under the age of 18; psychiatric patients; and those whose illness falls beyond the ability of capacity to make an informed decision (for example, those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease). The Trudeau government tasked the Council of [...]
Joan Didion I was reading The White Album, Joan Didion’s 1979 collection of essays when I came across a passage describing student unrest at San Francisco State University in 1968. Didion admits that she had missed the really big student protests earlier at Berkeley and Columbia, and that while she was expecting much of the same at SFSU, she was [...]
Talk Turkey Josie Luetke As the story of CLC Youth Coordinator Marie-Claire Bissonnette being assaulted during Life Chain by Jordan Hunt has been covered by everyone from conservative figures like Ben Shapiro and Andrew Scheer to millennial media sites Narcity, blogTO, and Vice, to YouTubers h3h3Productions, Chris Ray Gun, and Sargon of Akkad, I felt I shouldn’t miss the opportunity [...]
When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Momentby Ryan T. Anderson (Encounter Books, $36.99, 264 pages) Ryan T. Anderson, the William E. Simon senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has written a new book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. Anderson takes a thorough look at the transgender moment, from physical, mental, and psychological challenges the transgendered [...]
Hi Education Friends, As first mid-semester marks and parent-teacher conferences are completed here is a reminder that the deadline for Father Ted Colleton Scholarship is fast approaching. Please remind interested students that applications and all other documents must be submitted by December 3, 2018. For the sake of students who do not have the actual application form I am attaching the pdf [...]
Katie Somers was assaulted at Ryerson University during a pro-life demonstration On Oct. 1, Katie Somers of Toronto Against Abortion (TAA) was assaulted at Ryerson University during a pro-life demonstration. TAA released video of a peaceful discussion between pro-life activists and a number of pro-abortion counter-protesters that was interrupted by Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective (RRJC) member Gabby Skwarko, when the [...]
Jordan Hunt was arrested and charged for assaulting Marie-Claire Bissonnette; while she participated in a peaceful LifeChain demonstration. A man in his 20s roundhouse kicked a woman in her 20s while discussing abortion during a LifeChain demonstration in Toronto. On LifeChain Sunday, Sept. 30, CLC Youth Coordinator was assaulted by a self-described male feminist for holding a sign against abortion and engaging [...]
Population Bombed: Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Changeby Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak (Global Warming Policy Foundation, $15.99 pb, $7.75 Kindle, 259 pages) Worries about over-population are a seeming constant in debates of world issues, returning regularly to stoke fear about the rising number of people inhabiting the planet. Earlier this year, Paul Ehrlich, author of the 1968 book The [...]
Canada Doug Ford, Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative Premier has announced that the province’s colleges and universities have until January 2019 to have in place a free-speech policy or face funding cuts. “Colleges and universities should be places where students exchange different ideas and opinions in open and respectful debate,” he stated. The Canadian Federation of Students slammed the move as “an unprecedented [...]
Talk Turkey Josie Luetke Hear me out. During this summer, I participated in the “Question Abortion project” on Ryerson’s campus. The project involves surveying passersby about the legal status of abortion in Canada, and then segueing into a dialogue about abortion more generally. During one hour, I had productive conversations with three “pro-choice” women. Each of them expressed their thanks [...]