Lynda Hurt’s May 7 column in the Toronto Star attacked the Catholic Church’s rejection of abortion (see my June article “Advocacy journalism”). She interviewed Marjorie Maguire, a dissenting Catholic with a PhD in religious studies, presenting her as a “devout and practicing Catholic, ” indeed, as a “Catholic theologian.” On May 21, in another column, she used the authority [...]
Today, almost all who actively struggle with the issue of abortion, whether for or against, realize the inescapable link between abortion and contraception. Last month, Canada’s leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail, printed a full-page article entitled “Abortion and the pill,” subtitled “When women got control over conception, why did the abortion rate increase?” The article, extracted from a recent [...]
Anti-family, anti-child pressures contrary to the good of our society and contrary to Christian and other religious convictions are mounting steadily. In big cities low-income seniors, families and single parents are pushed out of affordable housing, especially in city centres, as older, low-rise buildings are demolished and converted into luxury apartments. Another trend favours “adult only” buildings, once again [...]
Unmarried couples, single people and homosexuals have as much right to adopt children as do heterosexual married couples under the Charter of Rights. This directive from Ontario government civil servants to Children’s Aid societies was reported in Ontario newspapers on May 30 and 31. This directive claims to speak with authority. In reality it is an example of [...]
It seems that the Toronto Star allows its columnists complete freedom in whatever they write. This is creating difficulties for pro-life people as well as Catholics who find their activities and their faith misrepresented, without having an equal opportunity to correct or to rebut. The most recent example is Lynda Hurst’s May 7 column headed “Catholics question Church’s stand [...]
Radical feminist groups continue to build pressure on the PC government in Ottawa to secularize and revolutionize Canadian society and the family. NAC, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (President Chaviva Hosek; Vice-President Louise Dulude) held a three-day lobbying effort in Ottawa in May. They came armed with resolutions from a three-day conference, including a call for [...]
On May 9, 1985 the Supreme Court split sharply on how to measure pornography in obscenity trials. By a 4-3 majority, with two judges missing, the court ruled that it does not matter who the supposedly obscene material is aimed at. The only measure that counts Madame Justice Bertha Wilson said for the majority, is the national community standard of tolerance. [...]
Suicide is now the leading cause of death among teenagers, according to a federal government task force, whose five-year study is expected to be released this summer. Psychologist, Dr. Diane Syer-Solursh, head of the task force, announced some of its findings at an April meeting of the American Association of Suicidology in Toronto. Dr. Syer-Solursh pointed [...]
How may parents listen to the rock music that most children and adolescents dance to, do homework to and fall asleep with? How many parents realize that rock lyrics have become sexually explicit and background sound effects crudely reinforce the intent of this musical pornography? Prince, one of today’s biggest stars, has sold over nine million copies of [...]
Joe Borowski’s large pro-life sign, placed on the side of his Winnipeg store, was vandalized recently when someone threw black and red paint on it. Mr. Borowski did not believe juvenile vandals were responsible. “My guess is that it’s either an NDPer or an abortionist,” he said. The sign, nine foot by fourteen foot, shows a graveyard [...]
Saskatchewan Weyburn Pro-Life President, Thomas Schuck, continues to demand clarification on the 1984 CRTC ruling that TV stations showing pro-life programs must give “equal time” to pro-abortion programming. Recently the group received a letter from Mr. Marcel Masse, the Minister of Communications, in which the following paragraph occurs: However, the CRTC did not rule that any [...]
The link between the YWCA and CARAL, the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League, was re-affirmed on May 8, 1985, at the YWCA’s annual “Women of Distinction” dinner in Toronto with the presentation of an “Aggie” trophy to Norma Scarborough, president of CARAL. Scarborough, one of six women to receive the 1985 award follows six other presidents and honorary directors of CARAL [...]
The Fraser Report on pornography, with its assumption that pornography is a matter of inequality, rather than sexual immorality, is of great concern to those already alarmed at the erosion of traditional family values. We can endorse fully the committee’s recommendation that child pornography is completely unacceptable. With the exception of homosexual activists, even those advocating the most [...]
Tier 1 : Pornography using children or causing physical bodily harm The most serious criminal sanctions would apply to material in the first tier, including a visual representation of a person under 18 years of age, participating in explicit sexual conduct, which is defined as any conduct in which vaginal, oral or anal intercourse, masturbation, sexually violent behaviour, bestiality, incest, [...]
Newspaper reports on the recommendations of the Fraser Committee on Pornography and Prostitution focused mainly on its controversial proposal that brothels be legalized. The committee’s recommendations on pornography (see box this page) which established three categories of pornography, received scant attention; most newspapers reported only that child pornography would be subject to stiff penalties. The [...]