10. Caitlin Jenner comes out. In June, former Olympian Bruce Jenner was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair with a new name, image, and self-identified gender as Caitlyn Jenner. It was part of what many pro-family activists see as a campaign to mainstream transgender in the culture.
9. Prince Edward Island increases abortion access. Premier Wade MacLauchlan’s Liberal government announced it would pay for Island women who obtain abortions at the Moncton Hospital in New Brunswick without a Health PEI or doctor’s referral. It also provided a toll-free abortion appointment number and increased abortion information. PEI is the only province that does not carry out surgical abortions.
8. National March for Life. 25,000 people took part in the annual National March for Life in Ottawa on May 14, and up to 10,000 people participated in regional marches for life in eight provincial capitals, to call for legal protection of the unborn.
7. Euthanasia panel calls for no limits. The Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, comprised of numerous pro-euthanasia advocates, issued its report on Nov. 30, recommending euthanasia be extended to children, that there should be no waiting period, that there be no effective oversight at the death, and that the reporting procedure is done after-the-death by the physician who caused the death of the patient.
6. Sex-ed protests. In February Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government announced it would update the Ontario health curriculum including its sex-ed component. Pro-family and parental groups expressed concern that the curriculum was age-inappropriate, violated traditional moral norms, and undermined the rights of parents as first educators of their children. Parental and religious organizations have led numerous protests including two Queen’s Park rallies, demonstrations at MPP constituency offices, and student boycotts
5. Doctors fight for conscience rights. There has been an on-going battle in both the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan to require doctors who have moral objections to certain procedures such as abortion, birth control, and assisted-suicide to refer patients to doctors who will carry out procedures or prescribe drugs. Among those opposing the college’s changes to their conscientious objection policies were the Christian Medical and Dental Society, Canadian Physicians for Life, and the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Societies. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, however, proposed draft guidelines in October that would not require doctors to refer patients for euthanasia.
4. Planned Parenthood video released. Beginning in July, the Center for Medical Progress began releasing video revealing that Planned Parenthood affiliates in several states harvested and sold baby parts in violation of federal law banning the practice. The undercover investigation took three years to research and produce. About a dozen states said they would defund or investigate Planned Parenthood after the revelations
3. Justin Trudeau elected Prime Minister. On Oct. 19 Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party took 184 of 338 seats, defeating Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. Trudeau, who in 2014 announced that no Liberal MP would be allowed to vote pro-life under his leadership, had promised expand abortion services in international aid, create a national daycare scheme, and legalize marijuana. After being sworn in as Prime Minister on Nov. 4, his government indicated it would expand abortion access in Canada and legalize euthanasia based on the Quebec model (of no limits).
2. Abortion pill okayed in Canada. Health Canada has approved the use of abortion pill Mifegymiso, a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol which terminates and extracts an pregnancy. Health Canada permits Mifegymsio for up to 49 days gestation with a doctor’s prescription. Pro-life groups had lobbied the Conservative government to block the application by Linepharma International Ltd., but then Health Minister Rona Ambrose, who is now the party’s interim leader, said the decision was made by bureaucrats.
Euthanasia decision. On Feb. 7 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code prohibitions on assisted-suicide and told Parliament it had one year to amend the law to regulate “medically assisted dying.” The decision dismissed evidence from jurisdictions that currently have assisted-suicide and euthanasia that whatever limits are initially included eventually are ignored or dismissed, and offered no guidance on how killing patients would be limited. Pro-life and religious groups called for the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to set aside the decision for five years in order to properly debate the issues and create the conditions for a constitutional amendment outlawing assisted-suicide. The Trudeau government asked for an extension to create a new law.
