Across Canada

TORONTO – Henry Morgentaler is not the only abortionist getting rent and other expenses paid for by the Ontario taxpayer. Morgentaler is halfway through a ten-year agreement with the provincial government that will pay him $5-million dollars to cover the rent on his Toronto franchise. Now The Interim has learned that five other Ontario abortuaries are at the trough, too.

Jeff Morgenstein, Acting manager of the Independent Health Facilities Program, admitted to Campaign Life Coalition representative Gerry Brosso recently that four other Toronto abortion clinics and one in Ottawa have “the cost of their premises, equipment, supplies and personnel necessary to carry out an insured service” covered by the government. This means that the Ontario taxpayer through the Ontario Ministry of Health funds the associated costs of doing abortions that were previously provided in the `global budgets’ of hospitals before the abortion clinics were moved into the community.

VANCOUVER – Pro-lifers in British Columbia and throughout the rest of Canada have raised concerns about a plan by the province’s health ministry to make the Morning After Pill (MAP) available without prescription. Erroneously described as an emergency contraception, the MAP works as an abortifacient by rending the uterus inhospitable to an already-fertilized embryo. The B.C. government plans to make the MAP available over the counter by May 1.

Ted Gerk, director of B.C.’s Pro-Life Resource Centre, said the plan is an attempt to disguise the true nature of the MAP to make it more marketable to teenagers and young women. Meanwhile, John Hof of Campaign Life Coalition B.C., said the province is allowing wider distribution of the MAP without full understanding of the health risks.

A number of Canadian pharmacists have also objected on moral grounds to the easily availability of the abortifacient. However, an official with the B.C .health ministry countered that “emergency contraception” is not a new product, and that the government’s action will allow women in smaller communities greater access to the MAP.

VANCOUVER – The British Columbia public teachers’ federation has supported a plan for the establishment of homosexual clubs at the province’s senior elementary and high schools. At a March 21 meeting, a strong majority of B.C. teachers approved a call to “actively support the establishment of gay/straight alliance support groups.” The plan is ostensibility designed to encourage improved relations between gay and heterosexual students, but the province’s only existing school-based homosexual club – the Pinetree Queer Straight Alliance in Coquitlam – is essentially a venue for the establishment of gay relationships.

The call for teacher support of gay clubs was driven by the recent suicide of a 14-year-old Surrey, B.C. student who had been teased as a homosexual by classmates. Some have suggested that the suicide is being exploited by gay activists to pave the way for the new school clubs.

KELOWNA, B.C. – Another Canadian city major has fallen victim to the “gay pride” juggernaut. Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray was found guilty in March of violating the province’s Human Rights Code, after the mayor omitted the word “pride” from the city’s lesbian and gay day. Gray, who has a moral objection to public proclamations of gay pride, said the majority of Kelowna’s 95,000 residents supported his move. Nonetheless, the human rights tribunal ruled that dropping the word “gay” from the celebration was “tantamount to a political insult.” The tribunal stopped short of ordering Gray to undergo sensitivity training, a move sought by members of the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition.

LONDON, Ont. – In a move many would argue is long overdue, the University of Western Ontario will offer undergraduate students a credit course on political correctness. The course – Psychology and Ideology: the Study of Political Correctness – debuts in September. It is believed to be the first such course offering in North America. Instructor Prof. Heinz Klatt described political correctness as indoctrination and the advancement of certain beliefs that are accepted without question. Chief among these beliefs is that there are no non-anatomical differences between the sexes. “What is at work (with political correctness) is an attempt to purify all of society under the rubric of a secular religion,” Klatt told the National Post.

TORONTO – The Globe and Mail newspaper has come out strongly in favour of reduced regulation in the area of human cloning. In a March 8 editorial, the paper said developments in cloning over the last three years suggest that less rather than more regulation is in order. The editorial was written in response to a proposed Japanese law that would make it a crime to clone a human being. “The rationale for the law seems to be a generalized feeling that there is something fundamentally subversive about genetic sameness,” the newspaper says.

OTTAWA – Canada’s Supreme Court has been asked to adopt a two-tiered attitude toward pornography, because of its integral role within the gay and lesbian community. The debate centres on a case involving Canada Customs and the Little Sisters Bookstore and Emporium in Vancouver. The store, which caters to the gay and lesbian community, imports a high volume of explicit pornographic material from the U.S. Canada Customs has repeatedly intercepted the shipments on the grounds that the material is obscene and degrading to women. Civil libertarians and gay rights activists contend that Canada Customs should not be practising censorship, especially as pornographic material is crucial to the gay and lesbian appreciation of sexuality. They believe gay porn should not be subject to the same legal standards as heterosexual pornography. The Crown however, argues that relaxing standards for the sake of the gay community would result in a flood of harmful and degrading material from across the border. The Supreme Court is not expected to rule on the case for several months.

OTTAWA – A new United Nations report suggests that low fertility rates have contributed to a population crunch in many of the world’s industrialized nations. The report, released March 21, says wide-scale immigration is one possible solution to declining populations in Europe, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. UN officials believe declining populations will translate into fewer people between the ages of 18-65 working to support social programs and sustain economies. Ironically, the UN report appears to make no mention of abortion, sterilization and contraception as factors related to declining fertility rates. Many observers have criticized the UN for promoting abortion and contraception, particularly in Third World nations.

OTTAWA – Fifty per cent of a government-funded organization that claims to represent the ordinary Canadian woman is comprised of lesbians, says the organization’s leader. National Action Council on the Status of Women (NAC) president Joan Grant-Cummings made the claim in an e-mail message to supporters. The organization later attempted to back away from the 50 percent figure, by suggesting that half its members would be impacted by the federal government’s proposed legislation on same-sex marriages. Pro-life and pro-family groups, which have long suggested that NAC represents extreme feminist views, were not surprised by NAC’s inadvertent revelation.