Canada Former Ontario attorney-general and chief justice Roy McMurtry has been made an officer of the Order of Canada, the second highest rank in the order. In 2003, under McMurtry’s leadership, the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled the traditional definition of marriage violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom’s guarantee of equality under the law, thereby establishing same-sex “marriage” … In [...]
Canada The gay advocacy group EGALE gave its first ever Leadership Award for LGBT (“lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender”) to Jaime Watt, co-chair of the Navigator communications firm and a long-time adviser to Progressive Conservative politicians in Ontario, including running Ontario PC leadership contender Christine Elliott’s campaign this spring. According to Maclean’s, Derek Vanstone, chief of staff to federal Finance Minister Jim [...]
Canada CLC president John Hof says that the British Columba election maintained the status quo, noting that every pro-life MLA seeking re-election won and that several new pro-life MLAs were also elected including Mark Dalton (Lib, Maple Ridge Mission) who was vocal about his pro-life convictions. Also, 61.3 per cent of BC voters opposed the single-transferable vote scheme ... Amendments made [...]
Canada Sarnia Transit, the municipal bus service in the Ontario border town, banned a LifeCanada ad that read, "9 months: The length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada." A female high school student complained that the city seemed to be endorsing the pro-life position and so the advertisements were removed from six city buses. The city is now considering [...]
Canada Campaign Life Coalition launched a petition calling for the decriminalization of abortion. It reads, in part: "Whereas it has been 40 years since May 14, 1969 when Parliament changed the law to permit abortion and since January 28, 1988 Canada has had no law to protect the lives of unborn children. Therefore, your petitioners call upon Parliament to pass legislation for [...]
Canada For the first time in 11 years, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has given its full support to the annual Canadian National March for Life, to be held this year on May 14. Six bishops, including St. Catharines Bishop James Wingle, Quebec City Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins and Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast will participate in the event [...]
Canada When Rod Bruinooge (C-Winnipeg South) wrote a pro-life column in the National Post - see page 3 of this issue - declaring that he will fight to protect the unborn, David Sweet (Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale) and Mark Warawa (Langley), two Conservative MPs who signed the CLC questionnaire in 2006 indicating they were pro-life, said that with the current economic turmoil, now is not [...]
Canada Rod Bruinooge (C, Winnipeg South) is the new chair of the multi-party Parliamentary Pro-life Caucus, replacing Maurice Vellacott (C, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin). Bruinooge said in a press release, "I am honored to chair a caucus that doesn't shy away from this vital issue." He said that pro-life Canadians' "concerns need to be represented" ... Brian Finnemore, a retired B.C. physician and a [...]
Canada After earlier asserting that infertility is not an illness, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said if his Liberal government is re-elected, it will pay for in-vitro fertilization treatments. Under his plan to bring IVF under public funding, the first two rounds of treatment would be fully covered and after that, couples could count on a 50 per cent tax credit. A cycle of [...]
Canada The British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled against two University of B.C. Okanagan campus students seeking to overturn a provincial human rights tribunal decision that dismissed their complaint that their university’s student union discriminated against them by denying official status to a pro-life club. Justice Randall S.K. Wong cited the use of offensive material, including the Genocide Awareness Project, as a [...]
Canada Campaign Life Coalition polled every Member of Parliament on the question of whether abortionist Henry Morgentaler should have received the Order of Canada. About a third (103) stated they opposed giving Morgentaler the honour, while just 35 publicly stated they supported it. See CLC’s advertisement on page six for a complete list of those opposing the award … The National Post reported that [...]
Canada Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced the government would introduce legislation that would consider a victim’s pregnancy as an aggravating factor when sentencing violent offenders. The ramifications or intentions of this bill are unclear, because the wording of such legislation was not available at press time … MP Ken Epp (Conservative, Edmonton-Sherwood Park) issued a 31-page report countering the claims of abortion advocates who [...]
Canada Andrew Coyne in Maclean’s on the significance of granting abortionist Henry Morgentalerthe Order of Canada: “It is about whether we are allowed to disagree; whether dissent on a contentious issue is respected or even recognized.” Coyne, in the same article, on the need to debate abortion within the political sphere: “Maybe, just maybe, if we start talking about it again, we might also [...]
Canada On May 8, the same day as the National March for Life in Ottawa, Fr. Thomas Lynch was named the new director of Priests for Life Canada. Fr. James Whalen, who died in February, had been the organization’s director since its founding in 1995. While in his new position, Lynch will remain pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Douro, Ont. … TheGlobe and [...]
Canada The Catholic Organization for Life and Family has issued a letter urging Canadians to do whatever is possible to support Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which is currently awaiting justice and human rights committee hearings after passing Second Reading in early March. COLF says: “Bill C-484 is a welcome development, because it recognizes, at least in the case of violent [...]