Editor’s Note: There are book titles and quotes in this column that use language that some reader’s might find offensive. Despite my wife’s best efforts, I never had much time for the popular parenting textbooks that ended up on our bookshelves – the “What To Expect When You’re...” series and their like, all written in useful gulps of text, with diagrams and [...]
On Jan. 31, Walter Szetela, who edited the Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia newsletter for two decades, passed away at Vancouver General Hospital. Born in Chicopee, Mass., in 1928, he earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Michigan and a doctoral degree from the University of Georgia after serving in the U.S. army. In 1970 he moved [...]
In recent weeks, a number of scandals have beset Stephen Harper’s minority government. Rumors and reports of misdemeanors and misdeeds – and the election speculations which they spur – are an irresistible combination for the Canadian political press, and journalists have eagerly documented each new discovery in painstaking detail. But, as the media runs in the direction of the latest and loudest [...]
As we report on page three, a trio of principled pro-life Conservative MPs, all from British Columbia, recently announced their retirement from federal politics. They were each, to a man, the kind of politician our first editorial calls for: ones “who have the courage of their personal convictions, and who reject the fool’s counsel of compromise.” While we do not begrudge a [...]
When I heard the news of Myrtle’s accident, I was not prepared to have such a unique fixture in my life taken. And so, when I caught wind that Myrtle had been struck by a car and was in critical condition in the hospital, her absence along my daily route was painfully pronounced. Myrtle was one of the first people [...]
We are pleased to announce the results of the 2010-2011 Father Ted Colleton Scholarship contest. As has been the case in the past, the quality of candidates and their writing abilities have made the decision difficult. We extend our congratulations to all participants (more than 60) and to the three winning candidates. This years essay theme was: Dishonest language leads to dishonest [...]
In an interview with the CBC broadcast on Jan. 18, Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that he would go on opposing any legislative restrictions on abortion, even if the Conservatives were to win a majority of the seats in Parliament in the next federal election. “If you want to diminish the number of abortions,” he said, “you’ve got to change hearts and [...]
On Jan. 29, the National Post ran a full-page feature article on the causes of death in Canada. Most of it was a graphic presentation, using proportionate-sized circles, showing how people died in 1967 and 2007. The National Post article stated, “Death is life’s one and only inevitable event, and it comes in many ways – officially, there are 999 causes.” However, as Interim reader [...]
The Trouble With Canada … Still by William Gairdner (Key Porter, $24.95, 534 p) In print less than two years after his splendid Book of Absolutes, William Gairdner’s The Trouble with Canada…Still, his twelfth major work to date, promises to be yet another bestseller. In a country whose inhabitants are so contentedly in thrall to the “Swedish model” that they suffer both [...]
In her study, The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt notes that all declarations of human rights have overlooked the most essential human right of all, a right so obvious that it only emerged after massive numbers of stateless people appeared in the aftermath of World War II: without a nation state which could bestow upon them the rights enumerated [...]
Media gets story wrong about conscience, misses need for informed consent On Feb. 4, the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons released revised guidelines for dealing with patients who face an unplanned pregnancy. The early media reports erroneously stated that doctors who refused to carry out an abortion had to refer them to one who would. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported [...]
Fr. Raymond Gravel, a priest in the Roman Catholic diocese of Joliette, Que., has sued LifeSiteNews for $500,000, claiming that the pro-life internet news provider damaged his reputation and career as a priest by reporting on his public stances on abortion and gay rights. Fr. Gravel represented the Repentigny riding from 2006-2008, and as an Blocc Quebecois MP he defended [...]
Bernard Nathanson, a leading abortionist in the 1970s and later a convert to the pro-life cause, has passed away at the age of 84 following a long battle with cancer. Nathanson was born in New York City and graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal in 1949. As a member of the 12-person Planning Committee created by [...]
Interim reporter Pauline Kosalka interviewed Zuza Kurzawa, a Queen’s student arrested at Carleton University in October for participation in a GAP demonstration, by email. Kurzawa was a 2009 Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship winner. The Interim: Why did you enter the 2009 Father Ted Scholarship contest? What was your essay about? What especially did you want to convey to the readers? [...]
Everyone urged to get involved, even if they are not in Ottawa The National March for Life candlelight vigil will occur this year on Wednesday, May 11, the day before the annual march in the nation’s capital. “It initiates the March for Life with a gathering in Ottawa at the Human Rights Monument,” Wanda Hartlin, secretary for the National March [...]