Upon my return from a recent vacation in Ireland, I received the sad news of the death of my most valued friend, the Rev. Ken Campbell. I think most pro-life people in Toronto are aware that I am a Catholic priest and Ken was a Baptist minister. But on one vital issue, we were totally at one and that is the pro-life [...]
The contemporary disability rights movement shows a remarkable lack of coherence on life and family issues. Historically, people with disabilities (PWD) have been disproportionately vulnerable to physical abuse and sexual exploitation. They are also at risk from eugenics – through forced sterilization, genetic engineering, selective abortion and targeting for assisted suicide and euthanasia. For that reason, some disability rights groups participate in [...]
“When our three girls were adolescents, we moved to a small farm with no cable TV, gave them each a pig to raise, taught them to run a tractor and began an organic market garden.” Thus began a fascinating interview with popular Interim writer Doreen Beagan. Doreen hails from Prince Edward Island, where she was the oldest of nine children born to [...]
Interim Staff Pro-Life journalist Pete Vere, a regular contributor to The Interim, laid down his keyboard over the Labour Day weekend. “No, I’m not going to stop working for a culture of life,” Vere told The Interim prior to disappearing into the northern Ontario wilderness. “I’m just looking for something large enough to feed my expanding family,” he joked. Vere spent the [...]
Canada’s pro-life movement lost one of its most valiant warriors when Ken Campbell passed away in Delta, B.C. on August 28 at the age of 72. Predeceased by his wife Norma this past January, Campbell succumbed to a cancer that was first diagnosed in 1999 and then recurred in 2005. Friends and foes remember Campbell as a passionate advocate for the orthodox [...]
As I write this column, I am about to rejoin Newstalk 1010 CFRB, the largest private radio station in the country and one of the most famous in North America. It is based in Toronto, but has an audience throughout Ontario on radio and across the country and abroad through the internet. It is an institution, the best of its kind. I [...]
There is considerable support for the pro-life cause in the 55-seat New Brunswick Legislature, following the Sept. 18 provincial election that gave the Liberals 29 seats and the Progressive Conservatives 26. Campaign Life Coalition N.B. president Peter Ryan said that 19 of the new MLAs are considered supportive of pro-life - 11 Liberals and eight Conservatives. Ryan does not expect incoming Premier [...]
Every year, thousands of students begin their university experiences at the University of Toronto with Frosh Week during the first week of September. Each student receives a frosh kit. Campus clubs are given the opportunity to participate in these kits by submitting their materials. University of Toronto Students for Life is the pro-life club at U of T. It is officially recognized [...]
A pro-life coalition of 23 nations led by Nicaragua objected to the adoption of “sexual and reproductive health services” among the human rights enlisted in a United Nations document on the rights of the disabled. The coalition even made pro-life gains during deliberations at the first convention on the rights of persons with disabilities in August. Pro-life delegates objected to the inclusion [...]
As the leaves change color to herald the onset of fall, it’s also a signal that the annual Life Chain event is just around the corner across Canada. Scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 1, normally between 2 and 3 p.m. (specific times vary according to individual location), Canadian Life Chains are expected to attract tens of thousands of people this [...]
Sometimes, you can stop something and begin it again very easily … like riding a bicycle. Unfortunately, this is not the case when restarting a campus pro-life club. The challenges of restarting a club that had previously held official club status and was very active can be difficult and sometimes frustrating. This happened at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). The campus [...]
McMaster LifeLine is a campus club that began in October 2004. The current president and vice-president are Johanna Miller and Elaine Zettel, respectively. They, along with other enthusiastic pro-life students, started the club. What has followed has been a spectacular group that has brought life issues to the forefront at the McMaster campus community. They have built up their club membership through [...]
As families of faith prepare their children to return to school this month, parents and grandparents may be worried about what is taught in classrooms. Adults frequently consider the messages kids should receive about sex, guns, drugs and strangers – but do we prepare children for the messages they may be given on abortion? And is the totality of the messages we [...]
Numerous professions have formed specialized groups to address the pro-life struggle within their respective spheres of influence – Physicians for Life perhaps most prominently comes to mind – but one area that still needs to be focused on is the realm of teaching. A Canadian Teachers for Life organization was started in the mid-1980s by Louis Di Rocco, then a volunteer with [...]
It was a glorious summer’s day at High Park in Toronto on June 25, as pro-life university students gathered to celebrate life with friends. The University of Toronto Students for Life (UTSFL) club hosted a barbeque for fellow campus pro-lifers and newcomers. All were invited and it proved a great success, as more than 50 people arrived throughout the day. According to [...]