Constitution
Ottawa. A federal cabinet minister has applauded a Catholic Bishops’ call for a return to family-based values. Catholic bishops of Ontario are warning if the country is to survive, we must rediscover a sense of community.
Energy Minister Jake Epp couldn’t agree more. “I think the bishops have given us a good service by putting forward into the public debate what are some of the considerations in a society beyond simply legal rights, or constitutional rights, and economic union.”
Epp’s one concern is there might be too many proposals on the table already. Even so, he’s hopeful an agreement will soon be reached as the debate escalates over Canada’s unity.
Atlantic bishops
Following earlier statements on the constitution-making process from various denominations (see “A new Canada. The churches comment.” The Interim , March 1992), the RC Bishops of the four Atlantic provinces and of Saskatchewan have added their respective voices.
The Atlantic Bishops emphasize the importance of the constitutional debate. Individual bishops, they say, “may have personal views,” but “ the Church (as such) has no models to present.”
What the church does ask, they state, is that the “bread and butter” issues, the economic and social conditions, do not blot out Gospel values.
In harmony with other bishops, they plead for the recognition of the uniqueness of Quebec and the right of native peoples to some form of self-government.
From the point of view of Atlantic Canada, they emphasize the call for justice on behalf of the “weaker and poorer areas of our country” and of the “powerless.” Under this heading, the Bishops state:
“ if justice calls us, as it does, to recognize and protect the interests ok the weak and the poor and the powerless, it calls us in the pre-eminent way to protect the most vulnerable of all, the unborn child with in the womb. Human life is the first of all rights and as Christians and people committed to justice we can never rest content with a constitution that does not guarantee that right to all.”
The document is signed by 12 bishops.
The Saskatchewan Letter is a more secular document than the Atlantic one. Signed by six bishops, it calls for “ an open and truthful constitutional debate, free of manipulation and not in anyway tailored to political gain.”
It sees the debates as a “creative moment for potential growth, a time of challenge and an opportunity for reconsideration.”
Bill C-203
Ottawa: (FNIF) The Member of parliament who helped to scuttle a bill that would have legalized living wills says the idea should remain a dead issue.
Liberal Don Boudria maintains Fraser Valley MP Bob Wenmnan should drop plans to re-introduce a revised version of his private-members’ bill in several weeks’ time. “I wish that we could concentrate on legislation that seeks to enhance the value of life rather than quantifying it,” the Toronto-area MP stated from his office in Ottawa.
Same-sex blessing
Toronto. “Bless all loving couples,” declared Rev. Bruce McLeod, former Moderator of the United Church of Canada, and current President of the Canadian Council of Churches
What could be less controversial?
The trouble was that he meant it to apply to same-sex couples; ‘gays’ and lesbians had been oppressed for far too long, he said. McLeod was responding to a request emanating from Bloor Street United Church in Toronto that the national church develop a ritual for use in “the celebration of same-gender covenants.” Bloor Street’s Rev. Robert Oliphant said that the church had to be relevant and that same-sex gender covenants were an authentic expression of interpersonal Christian commitment.
A few weeks later a spokesman for the Reformed Church in Canada expressed regret, saying that there is no “biblical mandate” for the blessing of same-sex relationships.
A number of persons who do not agree with the United Church’s stand on homosexual ordination have joined the Reformed Church recently.
Morgentaler targets New Brunswick
Fredericton, N.B. Amid rumors that Henry Morgentaler has paid cash for a property in Fredericton, Justice Minister Edmond Blanchard declared that provincial laws would prohibit him from performing abortions there.
The McKenna government opposes any attempt to open a free-standing abortion ‘clinic’ and will only pay for “medically necessary” abortions performed in an approved hospital, he said.
Letters to the local papers have made it clear that Morgentaler would face a fight if he tried to establish a clinic. Even the Montcon Times Transcript, which said that it supported “the Status quo or something close to it” and which considers the outlawing of abortions repugnant, predicted pitched battles if he came to New Brunswick.
FCP-Ontario
Toronto. On March 24, 1992 the Family Coalition Party (FCP) of Ontario re-affirmed the statements of other pro-life, pro-family organizations such as Campaign Life Coalition and Toronto Right to Life in opposing three pieces of legislation proposed by the NDP in Ontario.
They are Bill 74 (Advocacy Act), Bill 108 (Substitute Decisions Act) and Bill 109 (Consent to Treatment Act).
The Bills are intended to offer protection. In reality the pose a threat to the life and security of individuals, by intruding on the rights and privacy of families and threatening to produce a quagmire of administrative, legal and moral problems.
Some dangers of the legislation, sated the FCP, are as follows:
• Food and hydration are defined as treatment and could be withheld from someone to starve him to death;
• Minors are given decision making rights for which they are neither prepared nor qualified. They could for example receive psychiatric care, be sterilized, be contracepted or give consent to an abortion, all without parental knowledge;
• Once power of attorney for personal care is given to another person it is difficult to revoke, leaving the individual in serious jeopardy.
• The rights of the family are superseded by state-appointed people. For example and advocate has broad power of entry and could enter a private house with little reason, since the definition of a vulnerable person is so vague.
• Bill 108 if effect allows living wills and there is a well-documented connection between the promotion of living wills and the push for euthanasia.
FCP presenters Louis Di Rocco and Margaret Purcell emphasized that no amendment would make the proposed legislation acceptable. They called for the complete withdrawal of the Bills.
Saskatchewan plebiscite
Regina. The R.C. bishops of Saskatchewan have expressed their concern over abortion funding in a letter to the premier March 19 stating, “ we trust that the legislation on abortion funding will be enacted according to the strong will expressed by the electorate.”
The Bishops say they hope that “the diversity of legal opinion you may be receiving will not be used to evade the plebiscite results, and that if the legislation leads to a court challenge, your government will have the courage to follow the will of the people to the highest court in the land.”
Last fall,67 per cent of Saskatchewan voters expressed opposition to government funding of abortion.
Short Bursts
Chrétien not pro-life
A Canadian Press (CP) story of February 20, reprinted in the Montreal Gazette and the (Montcon) Times-Transcript (February 23), states erroneously that Jean Chrétien “is personally opposed to abortion…”
He is not.
The leader of the Liberal Party accepts abortion on demand up to 24 weeks and abortion for specific reasons up to the moment of birth.
Ottawa RC’s
The Archdiocese of Ottawa celebrated Pro-Life Sunday on January 26,1992. A number of priests addressed the issue of abortion in their Sunday homilies. Action Life distributed 20,000 Pro-life Sunday pamphlets in 55 English parishes and a small number in the French churches. Children in 21 schools colored 15,000 bookmarks.
TV Evangelist acquitted
Pierre Lacrois, a Catholic lay preacher and TV evangelist, has been acquitted of three-year-old charges of gross indecency. A three-judge panel of the Quebec Court Appeal overturned his 1989 conviction. Lacroix had pleaded innocence throughout the ordeal.
Abortion death probe stalls
The probe into the death of 19-year-old Myra George in Mills Memorial Hospital, Terrace, B.C., last October, seems to be stalled. Myra George, a native woman, bled to death over three days following an abortion. The Terrace Standard of February 26,1992 reports that Coroner Jim :Lynch still hasn’t called an inquest.
Abortionist needs money
Calgary abortionist Theodore Bushekin is asking supporters for money to help “the anti-choice movement.” The Western Report for March 9 expressed surprise at this appeal because Busheikin “will gross a minimum of $400,000 and a maximum of $800,000” for his abortions alone. He “Terminates” some 30 pregnancies a week.
Abortionist “helps” Peterborough
Peterborough Civic Hospital has invited Nikki Coldony to help an “overworked” abortionist commit abortions in the city. The hospital had granted her “medical privileges.”
Ms.Colodny operates an abortuary in Toronto and is a former employee of Henry Morgentaler’s Toronto ‘clinic’.
As soon as the news reached them, fifty pro-lifers picketed the hospital. Again, of April 11, in one of the worst snow storms in the area, over 100 people turned out for a second demonstration.
The local R.C. bishop, James Doyle, sent a letter to all parishes in the Peterborough Diocese, in which he reiterated the Church’s teaching that “every human life from conception to natural death is to be respected and protected.”
Protest in Prince George
On March 26, one thousand pro-lifers in Prince George B.C., protested the NDP government’s decision to spend taxpayers’ money on the financing and promotion of abortion in British Columbia.
“You’re taking away my free choice,:” one young woman told the demonstrators.
“And you’re taking away the choice of the unborn when you have an abortion.” One of the pro-life demonstrators replied.
“Will you be there to look after my child and make sure it is given a normal life? she asked.
“There are 20,000 people in B.C. waiting to adopt babies. They wait for more than five years.” (Prince George Citizen, March 27,1992)
Memorial in Vancouver
On April 11, a grey stone memorial was dedicated on the front law of Gianna House. Rose bushes will be planted later on. The memorial bears inscription, “In Memory of Unborn Children Killed By Abortion Next Door.”
Gianna House in next door to Vancouver’s Every-woman’s Health ‘Clinic’ abortuary.
Vandals mess message
Four of Manitoba League for Life’s 4 pro-life billboards in Winnipeg were paint-bombed within two weeks of being put up, reported Executive Director Pat Soenen ( Winnipeg Sun, March 7).
The signs, which feature a heart and the words” Abortion-the choice that kills,” were replaced immediately.
The same ads were refused by Winnipeg Transit which had no objections to carrying pro-abortion advertisements.
