Despite its seeming simplicity, there are problems with the thinking that if Catholics don't like being made to accept (not tolerate, but accept) homosexuality as perfectly normal and protected, they shouldn't accept taxpayer funding for their schools -- expressed most recently by Heather Mallick but a common argument recently. First, Bill 13 is being made part of the Education Act which governs education in [...]
Bill 13 passed this afternoon by a vote of 65-36. Xtra! reported: The passing of Bill 13 will cap a one and a half year battle in Ontario that has pitted queer students against Catholic school administrators who have repeatedly denied student requests for GSAs. The bill is called the Safer Schools Act, which is ostensibly about bullying and, you know, making [...]
The Ontario legislature will vote on Bill 13 today. (See past Interim coverage of Bill 13, but especially this editorial.) Also today, Camilla Gunnarson responds in the Waterloo Region Recordto Martin Regg Cohn's column attacking the Catholic Church's moral teachings, which Gunnarson says is a form of bullying. There are some people who think the real goal of the Liberal government is to undermine [...]
C-304, Brian Storseth's (CPC, Westlock—St. Paul) private member's bill, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting freedom), is up for debate today. Here's our previous coverage of C-304. Here's Kathy Shaidle on C-304 at Five Feet of Fury and Sun News Network; in the latter (which is video) she explains that Section 13 is a poorly worded bad law because it is realistically impossible [...]
According to new Census numbers, Canada is getting older. We've written about this before -- you can't have broadly available abortion and contraception and still grow the population -- and we'll have more coverage in the July edition of the paper. But I wanted to bring this to your attention: check out the photo in this CTV story and you might understand why Canada [...]
Everyday for Life notes that between Bill 13 (education) and Bill 33 (everything else) Ontario will have acceptance of homosexuality trump religious freedom every time. Important if depressing read.
Arnold Kling points to the cleverly titled article "God and White Men at Yale" by Richard Conniff in The Yale Alumni Magazine. It's both a general history of eugenics and the work of Yale economist Irving Fisher. Conniff writes: By the late 1920s, 376 American colleges were offering courses in eugenics. The army of enthusiasts included, at various times, the presidents of Yale, [...]
Via Twitter Michael Taube brought this Gallup poll to my attention. Here is the bottom line: 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as "pro-choice" is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009. Fifty percent now call themselves "pro-life," one point shy of the record high, also [...]
Campaign Life Coalition has a short video interview with CLC national president Jim Hughes in which he reflects on the National March for Life, especially the presence and influence of the large number of youth at the event.
Kathy Shaidles talks with Brian Lilley on Sun News about the human rights commission industry and the hierarchy of official victims (whites and Christians at the bottom). Well worth the nine minutes it takes to watch. They also talk about Catholic schools being bullied into accepting gay-straight alliances and Shaidle says that "next week it will be some new thing" because to keep the [...]
An excellent column by the Ottawa Citizen's David Warren on the lack of abortion debate and how impossible it is to have a discussion on this matter, mostly due to the hysterical reaction of those on the pro-abortion side. Warren says: There is no avoiding the issue, except through suppression. The pretence that the commission of an abortion is “a moral decision” in which [...]
Lou Iacobelli at Everyday for Life Canada has some thoughts on last week's record-breaking National March for Life. Dunn Media has a short video that captures the March, both on Parliament Hill and in the streets. We'll have extensive coverage of the March in the forthcoming June edition of the paper.
The Toronto Star took notice of the growing number of young people involved in the pro-life cause with a front-page article in today's paper. Good for them. The article is fair and balanced, but there is a factual problem with the second paragraph: Pro-lifers will rally on Parliament Hill by the thousands Thursday for the March for Life, an ever-growing annual rally [...]
On the weekend, National Post columnist Andrew Coyne wrote about the need for an abortion debate in Canada. It is worth reading, especially his point that even feminist justice Bertha Wilson -- the only Supreme Court justice to say there is a right to an abortion -- could countenance restrictions on abortion. The obvious, though only implied question in Coyne's column is that if Bertha [...]
Yesterday, Stephen Woodworth's motion (M-312) had it's first hour of debate in the House of Commons. (Coverage from LifeSiteNews, the National Post, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, Maclean's, and CTV, which does a decent enough job providing the main points of view on each side). The pro-abortion side is not making very good arguments, just the same-old, same-old, so dignifying the first hour [...]