Throughout the course of 1997, and especially during the baseball season, much attention will be given to Jackie Robinson, for it was exactly 50 years ago that this gifted athlete from a poor and broken home in Georgia shattered baseball’s colour barrier and, in the process, caused a sociological revolution. On the night of April 15, 1997 50 years to the day [...]
Interim staff The new executive director of the Winnipeg-based Alliance for Life knows she has a tough act to follow in replacing Anna Desilets, a 26-year veteran of pro-life campaigns. In fact, the 23-year-old Michelle Blanchette, who officially takes over May 1, wasn’t even born when Desilets first became involved with Alliance for Life. But as organizations embrace new strategies in protecting [...]
Interim special A gentle soul with a sincere concern for others is how practically everyone will remember Mary Clarke. The Scarborough resident, who mixed pro-life work with an array of charitable and community causes, died at Providence Center March 9 after a two-year struggle with cancer. She was 74. Pro-life supporters would best know Mary as financial administrator, board member and general [...]
The end of April will put the coda to nearly three decades of frontline pro-life work for Alliance for Life’s Anna Desilets. Anna steps down April 30 after a 26-year association – the last 14 as executive director – with the Winnipeg-based educational and research organization. “It’s time for some new talent and fresh ideas,” Desilets told The Interim. “We’re hoping there [...]
It’s nine o’clock as I watch Janaya sleep peacefully. Janaya is my life, my inspiration, my daughter. Just a little over a year ago, I never thought I would ever be where I am today. For the past nineteen years I’ve wasted time thinking about all the things that have gone wrong in my life, and never stopped to think about all [...]
Interim staff Ontario's pro-life community lost two prominent supporters with the recent passing of Monsignor Ralph Egan of Toronto and Dr. Bernharda Meyer of Waterloo. Msgr. Egan, 96, died February 8 at LaSalle Manor in Scarborough. In addition to his long service in the Catholic priesthood, the monsignor was noted for his various publishing efforts, including the St. Maximilian Kolbe Apostolate for [...]
I often think of him with his cigarettes, stand there pondering things philosophically, but he was always in the action. He was a man after God’s heart.” So does rescuer Linda Gibbons describe her former colleague William de Marois, who died Dec. 22, 1996 of complication from lung cancer at St. Michael’s Hospital Toronto. He was 71. Born William Robert Fournier of [...]
The short newspaper notice announcing the death of Cathy Holt of Maple Ridge on December 9 gave no clue as to the cause of her death. It was cancer. But that tells only part of the story. It might also be said that Mrs. Holt, just 32 gave her life so he second child, Julianna, could live. It was exactly six years [...]
At a stage in life when many people might start looking to wind down, one of the pro-life movement’s more colourful figures is still going strong. Ken Campbell, the 62-year-old Milton, Ontario evangelist and founder of Choose Life Canada, is engrossed in a whirlwind of activity these days –standing in the midst of controversies over the federal government’s pro-homosexual rights legislation, Linda [...]
Many biographies of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger are extremely sympathetic to their subject, some to the point of fawning. The Sanger life is an interesting one, from her birth in upstate New York in 1879, to her death in Tuscon, Arizona in September, 1996. Whatever one’s views on abortion, contraception and family planning, there is little doubt Sanger’s formative years and [...]
When the popular pro-life writer, Frank Kennedy, was three, the obligatory public health sign went up outside his house: Poliomyelitis. Inside little Frank kept falling down and hitting his head against a table. He had contracted polio and had to learn to walk all over again. It was especially hard on his parents since they had already lost their first child to [...]
Interim staff Toronto’s pro-life community lost one of its most dedicated supporters with the October 3 death of Thomas McMorrow of Scarborough. Mr. McMorrow, 83, died of cancer after a long illness. Born November 4, 1912 in Dublin, Ireland, Mr. McMorrow came to Canada in 1931 and shortly thereafter began a small grocery store business in the Highland Creek area of Scarborough. [...]
Interim staff Alliance for Life Ontario is welcoming Chatham resident Mary Ann Miller to her second term as president of the provincial pro-life organization. Miller, a 15 year veteran of pro-life volunteer work, officially assumes the president’s position at the Alliance for Life all-Ontario conference November 1-2 in North Bay. She will work with Alliance for Life Executive Director Jakki Jeffs and [...]
I remember the time a few years ago when Jim Hughes called and asked me if I would go out to Pearson Airport, which is just on the outskirts of Toronto, the following afternoon, and pick up Joe Borowski who was flying in from Winnipeg. Joe was supposed to arrive at Terminal III for a pro-life conference and I was to drive [...]
“And all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.” It is over fifty years since I read Pilgrims Progress, but these were the first words I thought of when I heard that Joe Borowski was dead. I was sure that hosts of his Pro-Life friends “on the other side” were there to welcome him home. He was unique, a legend [...]