Link Byfield Link Byfield, the long-time socially conservative editor and publisher of Alberta Report and a founding influence on both the federal Reform and Alberta Wildrose parties, passed away Jan. 24 after losing his battle with stage IV cancer of the liver and esophagus at the age of 63. Byfield was named publisher of the conservative weekly Alberta Report in [...]
Lorraine Williams On July 4, Catholic and pro-life writer Lorraine Mary Williams passed away at the age of 82. She passed away in the palliative care unit of Markham Stouffville Hospital after a long battle with cancer. Her obituary read: “Her unbounded love of her family was but a reflection of her deep respect for the dignity and sanctity of [...]
Bishop Pearce Lacey The Most Reverend Pearse Lacey, auxiliary bishop emeritus of Toronto, died on April 2 at the age of 97. Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes remembered Lacey as a late-comer to leadership in the pro-life movement, but said once he came on board he was a staunch friend to the cause. Born in Toronto on November [...]
Joseph Cassar On April 19, Joseph Cassar passed from this earthly life, succumbing to heart disease. His inscrutable but faithful approach to promoting the pro-life cause will be sadly missed by his friends at Campaign Life Coalition in Toronto. Cassar, born in Malta in 1919, arrived in Canada in the early 1950s. He had served in the British merchant marines, [...]
Michael Doyle fought to uphold pro-life principles in Toronto Catholic schools. The oldest of seven brothers, Michael Doyle passed away peacefully on July 27, 2013, after losing a battle with cancer. Born and raised in Dundrum, Ireland, Michael, and his wife Anita, immigrated to Toronto in 1968. In addition to being a husband, father of four and grand-father of six, [...]
Bette Hamon Elizabeth “Bette” Hamon, a long-time, stalwart pro-lifer, passed away at the age of 89 on Mother’s Day, in Brantford, Ont. Hamon was the founderess of Halton Pro-Life in 1974, and the organization met in the basement of her home for many years. She spoke in schools and other venues, initiated a Mother’s Day walk at the local hospital, [...]
Barbara Willke Barbara Willke, the wife of Dr. Jack Willke, passed away at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinatti at the age of 90 after sustaining a head injury in a fall. The Willkes, who would have been married for 65 years in June, were pro-life leaders even before the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. He was an obstetrician and she [...]
Stephen Woodworth Seldom do Canadians discuss the status of preborn life. Parliament has not examined issues associated with abortion or matters related to or touching upon it, in a substantial way, since Brian Mulroney was prime minister. But thanks to the efforts of a Conservative backbench MP, for nine months, Canadians, their political representatives, and the media talked about whether [...]
Pro-life heroines Linda Gibbons and Mary Wagner received medals from the Governor General of Canada this week in recognition of their “contribution to Canada.” The activists are internationally renowned for having been arrested and jailed numerous times for violating abortion facility “bubble zones” while peacefully seeking to counsel abortion-bound moms to choose life. Wagner is currently in jail following her arrest in [...]
Father Alphonse de Valk God gave us heroes, not for us to merely admire them, but to learn from their example. We at The Interim were fortunate that we could learn from Fr. de Valk – a former Interim editor and the long-time editor of Catholic Insight – not from afar, but just on the other side of the wall [...]
Helen Gurley Brown, the famous former editor of Cosmopolitan, has passed away at the age of 90. As the Wall Street Journal reported, “Cosmo, as it was called, became the sex and style Bible of single girls worldwide.” Both admirers and critics would agree with that assessment. Donald DeMarco wrote about Helen Gurley Brown and her legacy as an architect of [...]
On July 31, Brad Mattes, executive director and cofounder of Life Issues Institute, won his second Regional Emmy Award. Mattes is host and executive producer of Facing Life Head-On, a project of the Life Issues Institute, that is broadcast to 100 million homes in the United States and Canada, and the show won its second Emmy in three years. On July [...]
Here is THE LINK to purchase or donate a seat for the dinner. Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the Feb. 1991 Interim. Since then he has added another 20 years to being a priest, left The Interim to found and edit Catholic Insight for nearly two decades, been the subject of a human rights complaint, and much [...]
On August 13, Nellie Gray, founder and chief organizer of the annual March for Life in the American capital, was found dead in her Washington home. She was 86 and lived alone. But every Jan. 22 since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, tens and hundreds of thousands of Gray’s pro-life family joined her to [...]
Fr. Lawrence Abello was a Jesuit missionary, working in Canada as a voice for the unborn before relocating to Calcutta where he collaborated with Mother Teresa on life issues. Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes recalls the first time he met Fr. Abello. “He, accompanied by Fr. Ted Colleton and Fr. Alphonse deValk came into my office for a ‘quiet [...]