Latimer gets leave to appeal
Abortuary won’t give figures
Company clones goats
Morgentaler to use new method
Union threatens its negotiator
‘Pro-choicers’ shun debate
Key inquest figure dies
MDs want ‘morning-after’pill
Genereux loses appeal
Demers cites constitution
Abortion security gets cash
Latimer gets leave to appeal

REGINA – The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that it will her the appeal of Robert Latimer regarding the conviction and sentence he received for killing his disabled daughter Tracy in 1993. Latimer is seeking the overturning of his conviction because he was not allowed to argue that he had “no choice” but to kill Tracy. If that fails, he is asking the court to let stand an original, two-year sentence levied against him. After Latimer was convicted of second-degree murder last year, he was given a two-year sentence, but that was overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, setting the stage for the current legal battles.

Abortuary won’t give figures

FREDERICTON – Henry Morgentaler’s New Brunswick abortuary is refusing to supply the provincial government with statistics on how many abortions it performs each year – apparently because the government won’t fund the facility. “It would be helpful to us,” said Kerry Smith of the New Brunswick Health Department. “But I know someone who deals with statistics has asked for (the figures) and none were forthcoming.”Abortuary manager Allison Brewer said 182 abortions were performed in the last two months of 1998 and the first two months of 1999, an increase of 28 over the same period a year earlier. “I’ve never seen such a large increase over such a short period of time,” she said.

Company clones goats

MONTREAL – Genetics company Nexia Biotechnologies Inc. says it has successfully cloned three goats from the single cell of an adult goat. They are the only known mammals cloned since Dolly the sheep in 1997, and have renewed fears that human cloning may be on the horizon. A day after the announcement, the federal government said it would introduce legislation to ban human cloning in Canada. Health Minister Allan Rock said he would act later this year, but gave no details. “We began a voluntary moratorium on the practice that is still in effect,” he told the House of Commons. “Evidently, more is necessary, and I have already begun consultations with experts.”

Morgentaler to use new method

EDMONTON – The executive director of the Morgentaler Clinic abortuary here is suggesting that her facility will likely make drug-induced abortions available later this year. Susan Fox said abortuary doctors have to be trained in Vancouver first. Alberta Pro-Life president Joanne Hatton replied that it is wrong to expose pregnant women to chemicals that can cause cramps, prolonged heavy bleeding and other side effects. “Why are we encouraging women and girls to put these chemicals into their bodies?” she asked. Hatton predicted that the new abortion methods will make it more difficult to track abortion-related trends.

Union threatens its negotiator

HALIFAX – The Public Service Alliance of Canada has ordered one of its negotiators to abandon his objections to removing the word “marriage” in favour of “spousal union” in the union’s contracts, or risk being thrown off its negotiating team. Robert Davies, a teacher and counsellor with the Canadian Forces, said it is important that the word “marriage” be included in collective agreements. But the PSAC describes Davies’ arguments as “disturbing” and gave him an ultimatum to change his position. “Once the decision has been made, team members have an obligation to support all of the demands,” said union president Daryl Bean.

‘Pro-choicers’ shun debate

VANCOUVER – American pro-life speaker Scott Klusendorf charged pro-abortion advocates with cowardice recently, after they refused to debate him at a college and, in fact, said that they have a general policy of not debating “anti-choice” elements. “Abortion advocates evidently have a new strategy which uses the fascist techniques of the gay rights movement – call your opponents names from a distance, never engage them in dialogue, and treat them as intellectual outcasts and scary people,” remarked Klusendorf, who was undaunted by the debate refusal and, instead, held a lecture, followed by an open question-and-answer session, in downtown Vancouver.

Key inquest figure dies

MONTREAL – The doctor at the centre of a coroner’s inquest into his hospital’s controversial decision to remove a dying man from a respirator collapsed and died of a heart attack during inquest hearings on April 28. Dr. Allen Spanier, head of Jewish General Hospital’s intensive-care unit and co-chair of the hospital’s ethics committee, was a key player in the treatment of 76-year-old Herman Krausz, who family members say had life support taken from him despite their objections. Spanier, who was in his mid-50s, collapsed as a McGill University law professor spoke on medical ethics.

MDs want ‘morning-after’ pill

CALGARY – The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons has passed a motion to back a campaign to make the so-called morning-after pill available without a doctor’s prescription. A member of the college’s ruling council said the goal of the effort is a reduction in the numbers of abortions and unwanted pregnancies. The national Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada had asked the Alberta college for support. The SOGC intends to petition the Health Protection Branch to change the status of the abortifacient medication from “prescription” to “non-prescription,” and noted that the World Health Organization is on-side in the matter.

Genereux loses appeal

TORONTO – A doctor who tried to help two HIV-positive patients to kill themselves has lost his appeal of a two-year jail term. The Ontario Court of Appeal said Dr. Maurice Genereux’s behaviour was a “complete departure from acceptable medical standards and ethics.” Both the Crown and the defence appealed Judge Charles Scullion’s sentence after Genereux was found guilty of assisting Aaron McGinn and Mark Jewett to overdose on the drug Seconal. McGinn died, but Jewett survived after being found by friends. It was revealed in court that Genereux himself had attempted to kill himself with Seconal during his student years.

Demers cites constitution

VANCOUVER – Pro-life activist Jim Demers is citing the Canadian Constitution in his appeal of a conviction of violating B.C.’s controversial “bubble-zone” law, which prohibits pro-life activities within fixed areas of certain B.C. abortuaries. The Nelson, B.C. resident was arrested in December 1997 for displaying a pro-life sign inside an exclusion zone around a Vancouver abortuary. At the appeal, Demers’s lawyer, Paul Formby, said the Constitution gives the unborn the right to life because “Canada was founded on the principles of the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” Formby also expressed concerns about how the principle of the supremacy of God has been ignored in previous court rulings on abortion.

Abortion security gets cash