Dr. Atul Gawande is a renowned surgeon, public-health researcher and medical professor at Harvard. His latest book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, contains many valuable suggestions for improving the care and treatment of terminally ill patients nearing the end of life. To begin with, Gawande notes that as recently as 1945, most deaths in the United States, Canada, and [...]
I blame Karl Marx for a lot of things, but after inspiring some of the most destructive and blood-thirsty governments in modern history, his most abidingly destructive legacy is hobbling our understanding of the word “class.” For as long as I’ve been alive, when almost anyone talks about the class system they end up invoking images frozen somewhere in the middle of [...]
Few journalists came to the press conference held by the Coalition for Good Education which represents 200 groups opposing Kathleen Wynne's early sex ed curriculum. Religious and family values groups are condemning the secretive process used by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to foist her government’s sex ed changes on the province’s schools. While the new curriculum has not been released, [...]
The Seven Deadly Virtues: 18 Conservative Writers on Why the Virtuous Life is Funny as Hell edited by Jonathan V. Last (Templeton, Press, $28.48, 190 pages) Jonathan V. Last has collected a wonderful array of conservative writers to talk about the seven cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and charity, and how they have gone out of fashion. The [...]
In our Christmas editorial, we dared pro-life Canadians to be audacious, to hope for a pro-life future. We repeat from that editorial, our most fervent earthly desire: “What do our hearts truly desire? Even asking this feels like touching an old wound, but we must insist on the question in spite of any pain: what do we long for most? What joy [...]
Monte McNaughton Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful Monte McNaughton (Lambton–Kent–Middlesex) has come out against his party’s education critic after the latter backed the Wynne government’s plan to introduce controversial changes to the province’s sex ed curriculum. MPP Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North) said Dec. 12, that backing the Wynne sex-ed program is in the PC Party’s “best interest,” but McNaughton told LifeSiteNews [...]
Saved – By Mother Teresa by Sara denBok with Tim denBok (LifeCycle Books, $5, 22 pages Sara denBok’s story is remarkable and indeed miraculous. An orphan in India rescued by a police officer and delivered to the orphanage run by Mother Teresa. It is hard to imagine that denBok would be alive today were it not for the life-saving and life-affirming work [...]
Last month I wrote about the unease and apprehension that the internet and social media have inspired, within society and even in the precincts of Hollywood. The story so far is that, after marvelling at the massive new fortunes made by entities like Facebook and Twitter, we’ve begun worrying that moving parts of our social and emotional life online might not be [...]
14. UN condemns Vatican for Catholic teaching on abortion On January 31, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report castigating the Vatican for its moral teachings. The committee, which provides oversight to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, focused on the Catholic Church’s handling of cases of abuse of children by priests, but [...]
There are many annual Christmas traditions that families and friends share and experience together. This can include caroling in the streets, roasting chestnuts on an open fire, sharing a few glasses of eggnog, and looking at the decorations in department store windows. A popular one in my household is watching classic Christmas animated TV specials. Some of them are still in regular [...]
On Christmas morning, children in our homes—and in the homes of our grown children—will bound down stairs to wonder at the arrival of wrapped gifts. Straining at the limit of a joy which is almost pain, they will wait with infinite impatience to open them. And, with something as trivial as the latest electronic amusement or toy, these innocent recipients will experience [...]
Participants in the Fall 2014 40 Days for Life in Winnipeg. From Sept. 24 to Nov. 2, 2014, Canadians in 15 different cities across the country participated in 40 Days for Life, an international pro-life campaign that challenges participants to engage in 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, peaceful vigil outside a local abortion facility, [...]
Common Ground by Justin Trudeau (HarperCollins, $32.50, 343 pages) Liberal leader Justin Trudeau released his combination memoirs/extended campaign manifesto for the 2015 federal election. Anyone who has followed the career of Justin Trudeau will find nothing new or surprising despite the copious listicles that appeared following the book’s publication in October (the CBC’s “Seven surprising revelations from Common Ground”or CTV’s “10 surprising [...]
Rod Taylor waves to the crowd after it was announced he was the new CHP leader. (Photo P. Tuns) On Nov. 6, Rod Taylor was acclaimed new leader of the Christian Heritage Party at their triennial convention in Hamilton, Ont. Taylor, the deputy leader and western regional development director, who has run in the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley in British [...]
Monte McNaughton demanded Kathleen Wynne release details of her government’s sex ed plans. Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership hopeful Monte McNaughton has challenged the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne over its plans to introduce a sex ed program. In 2010, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government nixed its new sex education curriculum after parents and religious groups condemned the program for being [...]