Compromises needed to get necessary support Interim Staff Raising the age at which children can legally consent to sex, from the current 14 years of age, is something Conservative MPs, such as former Calgary police detective Art Hanger, have been pushing for since many of them came to Ottawa as Reformers in 1993. Right now, adults 30, 40 or 50 years old [...]
The current, troubled moral state of the Western world vindicates the predictions of the late Pope Paul VI in the 1960s concerning what would happen if the use of contraception became widespread, says one of the world’s leading scholars on the issue. Speaking at the Humanae Vitae 2006 – A New Beginning conference in Ottawa, staged by The Rosarium organization May 12-14, [...]
As we celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19), I thought this great saint would be a suitable subject for this month’s spiritual reminder. Who was Joseph? The first time we hear of him is in the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 1. We are told that an angel appeared to a virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph [...]
Interim Staff The Winnipeg Free Press reported that convinced that that the morning-after pill or so-called emergency contraceptives can cause an abortion, some Manitoba pharmacists are refusing to sell them. The paper contacted pharmacies to discover if they carried the drug levonorgestrel, better known as Plan B. Somewhat surprisingly, the paper found that while pharmacies near smaller Mennonite communities such as Steinbach [...]
A spike in sexually transmitted diseases is being described by Canadian gynecologists as an “epidemic.” The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada has highlighted alarming statistics from Canada’s Public Health Agency, indicating that since 1997, there has been an 80 per cent increase in gonorrhea, a 70 per cent increase in chlamydia and a staggering 908 per cent increase in syphilis [...]
Interim Staff In front of a classroom full of University of Toronto law students, Rebecca Gomperts, founder and director of a mobile abortuary, declared: “An early, legal abortion is safer than using a tampon.” Seated in the front row, Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s most infamous abortionist, nodded in agreement. In October, Gomperts was in Toronto to speak about her work with Women on [...]
Tony Gosgnach The Interim The alleged importance of “sexual and reproductive health” and “gender equality” to the alleviation of world poverty was a point constantly hammered home like a mantra when the release of the annual State of the World Population Report by the United Nations Fund for Population was heralded at a press conference in Toronto Oct. 12. Paddy Torsney, parliamentary [...]
Dina Kok The Interim In early August, a group of young Americans presented a petition to movie executives in Hollywood, Ca., signed by thousands of young people, asking the executives to make cleaner movies. The petition, drafted by a teen member of the Youth Advisory Council of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, was part of the “Light, Camera, NO Action” conference that was held [...]
John Jalsevac Special to The Interim A press release issued on July 29 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization, declared the little-publicized classification of combined estrogen-progestogen oral contraceptives as carcinogenic. The IARC placed the contraceptives into their Group 1 classification, the highest classification of carcinogenicity, used only “when there is sufficient evidence of [...]
Dina Kok The Interim Depo-Provera, an injectable method of birth control, has recently received a health warning from Health Canada. According to recent studies, women who use the progesterone injection for more than two years have a significant risk of bone-density loss that can be irreversible. The warning follows the findings of two clinical trials of 12 to 18 year olds and [...]
Doreen Beagan When the environment in which we live and work and socialize is drenched in sexuality, does “innocence” still have meaning? Is “wholesome” understandable any more? There seems to be a frenzied urgency in the drive to fill even the youngest Maritime minds with unnecessarily explicit sexual information, while simultaneously stripping away their traditional protections. The goal, supposedly, is to give [...]
Paul Tuns The Interim (Editor’s Note: There are graphic descriptions of the effects of the disease and the behaviour that spreads it. Readers are warned to use discretion before proceeding.) A potentially deadly type of chlamydia rife in Africa, Asia and South America has made its way to North America through Europe. The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported 22 cases [...]
Doreen Beagan The Interim Editor’s note: This story contains material that is not suitable for younger readers or those who are offended by discussion of sexually related issues. On April 5, New Brunswick’s Education Department announced it had revamped its controversial sex education program in response to parental pressure. But parents are dismissing the changes as inconsequential. Merely dividing the curriculum into [...]
Tony Gosgnach The Interim Despite expressions of concern from a cross-section of Canadians, the federal health agency on April 20 approved the immediate dispensation of the so-called morning-after pill levonorgestrel – or “Plan B” – on an over-the-counter basis, without a prescription, in pharmacies across the country. Pro-life advocates regard the MAP as an abortifacient because, at least part of the time, [...]
Sex Education: How to Guide Your Child Through the Minefield by Jan Bracken (Essence Publishing, 244 pages, $19.95) Alex Schadenberg Sex education in the public schools has caused many Christian parents to become concerned with what and how their children are being taught about sex. Many horror stories have been heard about teachers who have taught their students inappropriate information in the [...]