Medical matters confuse me. Among the most confusing are diseases with patients’ or doctors’ names. I didn’t know what to think when neurologists said that Lou Gehrig might not have had Lou Gehrig’s disease. I thought the disease belonged to him. Apparently it didn’t. It may belong to someone else. I don’t know who. I don’t even know whom. Maybe only medical [...]
Robert Walley (right) receives the Adam Exner Award from the Catholic Civil Rights League, represented by board members (front from left ) Charles Lewis, Alexander MacDonald, and Tanya Granic, and CCRL president Phil Horgan (back left and executive director Christian Elia (back right). Former religious freedom ambassador discusses the public square The Catholic Civil Rights League presented its 2017 Archbishop [...]
In July, 1776, the Second Continental Congress made its famous Declaration of Independence, announcing, with vehemence and fanfare, a new arrival “among the powers of the earth” with the dissolution of “the political bands” that had connected the 13 Colonies to Britain – the original Brexit. Nearly a century later, another nation joined the powers of the earth when, by an act [...]
As a number of provinces move to provide options other than male or female on birth certificates, an Angus Reid Institute poll found nearly six in ten Canadians opposed to the idea. The poll of 1,512 Canadians conducted June 8-13 found 58 per cent of respondents opposed to plans “to issue gender-neutral birth certificates upon request,” while 42 per cent support the [...]
Should We Change How We Vote: Evaluating Canada’s Electoral System edited by Andrew Potter, Daniel Weinstock, and Peter Loewen (McGill-Queens University Press, $19.99 paperback, 230 pages) Turning Parliament Inside Out: Practical Ideas for Reforming Canada’s Democracy edited by Michael Chong, Scott Simms and Kennedy Stewart (Douglas & McIntyre, $22.95, 165 pages) The Unbroken Machine: Canada’s Democracy in Action by Dale Smith (Dundurn, [...]
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dear Minister, I am writing to express profound concern with your speech on Canadian Foreign Policy, which you gave in the House of Commons on Tuesday 6 June 2017, and on which Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau further elaborated on 9 June. In it, you equated women’s rights with the right to abortion and [...]
Just at the zenith of their political, cultural and social influence, it has become fashionable to turn a corrosive eye on the Baby Boomers, that huge generational cohort born somewhere between the final years of the Second World War and the beginning of Beatlemania outside of Britain. Keep in mind that very little of this is self-critical; the generation preceding the Boomers [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell I’ve been wondering, of late, why congregants mark July 1 by singing “O Canada” at the end of Mass. I haven’t noticed legislators mark Dec. 25 by singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” at the end of their proceedings. I realize the dates are not strictly comparable. Although Canada Day celebrates the birth of the [...]
Law Matters John Carpay Rachel Dolezal made headlines in 2015 after she was exposed as a white woman who had been representing herself as black for many years. Dolezal was removed as head of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and kicked off a police ombudsman commission. She also lost her job teaching [...]
In a position statement released on May 11 concerning sections six and seven of the 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act, the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society called on the federal government to legalize the payment of surrogates and egg and sperm donors, though board member Sherry Levitan suggests placing a cap on how much money surrogates or donors can receive. The position [...]
Thanks to judicial distortion of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms over the past 30 years, freedom of religion in Canada has come under such severe restriction that an otherwise law-abiding, and conscientious citizen could now lose his livelihood or even end up in jail simply for steadfastly upholding the traditional principles of Judeo-Christian morality. Faithful bakers, florists, printers and Christian [...]
Bill C-16 seeks to amend “the Canadian Human Rights Act to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination” and to amend the Criminal Code so that gender identity and gender expression are listed under the definition of “identifiable group” for protection against hate propaganda and are listed as aggravating circumstances for hate crimes. It passed [...]
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Reginald Leger banned 40 Days for Life from protesting outside the Chaleur Regional Hospital in Bathurst, New Brunswick. Leger granted a permanent injunction against the pro-life activists demonstrating against the hospital where abortions are committed. The sweeping court order bans pro-life activists from demonstrating anywhere on the hospital grounds. Ronald Jessulat, a defendant, said members of 40 [...]
Patrick Deane Patrick Deane, president of McMaster University in Hamilton, has joined other Canadian university presidents in silencing the debate of controversial ideas on campus. University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson was invited to speak at McMaster on March 17, about freedom of speech and political correctness. Peterson has gained national – and even international – notoriety for his [...]
Light is Right Joe Campbell I was surprised to learn that Canada has no official bird, fish, flower, fruit or mineral. Officially, our nation has only three: the maple tree, the beaver and the Canadian horse. Even Prince Edward Island, our smallest province, has four. The other provinces and territories have from three to eleven each. Nationally, the paucity of [...]