Canada
Sarnia Transit, the municipal bus service in the Ontario border town, banned a LifeCanada ad that read, “9 months: The length of time an abortion is allowed in Canada.” A female high school student complained that the city seemed to be endorsing the pro-life position and so the advertisements were removed from six city buses. The city is now considering overhauling bus advertising rules completely, with Sarnia mayor Mike Bradley saying future complaints might be forwarded to the Advertising Standards Council. Last year, the ASC ruled that the “9 months” ad was misleading … Norma Scarborough, a long-time board member of the now-defunct Canadian Abortion Rights Action League and its president from 1984-1992, has passed away at the age of 82. From 1980-1984, she also served on the board of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women … The Alberta government announced it would no longer fund “gender reassignment surgeries,” leaving Ontario as the only province to provide taxpayer funding for sex change operations. Ontario reversed its policy in 2008 after the Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered it to pay for the procedure … CBC Radio’s Anna Maria Tremonti recently hosted a discussion on legalizing incest. She interviewed a German lawyer representing a brother and sister who have are being prosecuted after having four children together … The Human Rights Tribunal of Quebec ordered Jules Bertiboni, an apartment concierge, to pay $4,000 to John Rooney, a homosexual whom he reportedly called “a fag.” Bertiboni did not recall making the comment and there were no witnesses to the conversation … No one showed up for public consultations in two Newfoundland communities – Corner Brook and Gander – on the issue of the province’s Human Rights Code. Justice Minister Tom Marshall wants to modernize human rights legislation and expressed disappointment that people did not take “the opportunity to be heard” on potential changes to the code.
United States
President Barack Obama is considering reversing conscience protection rights for health care workers that were reinforced during the Bush administration. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said, “Forcing doctors, nurses, pharmacists or others in the health care field to violate their conscience will ultimately jeopardize patients.” A poll conducted by WomanTrend for the Christian Medical Association finds that 87 per cent of Americans say it is important to “make sure health care professionals in America are not forced to participate in procedures and practices to which they have moral objections.” The poll found that even 78 per cent of those who consider themselves “pro-choice” support conscience protection, as do 80 per cent of those who voted for Obama … The Guardian reported that the Vatican vetoed three of Obama’s potential ambassador nominees to the Holy See due to their support of abortion. Among those rumoured to be nominated was pro-abortion Catholic Caroline Kennedy and law professor Douglas Kmiec, a former pro-lifer turned abortion apologist for Obama … One week after the Iowa Supreme Court imposed same-sex “marriage” on the state, the Vermont legislature overrode Governor Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill legalizing same-sex “marriage.”
International
The Global Research in International Affairs Centre reports that the Middle East is now undergoing the same “demographic transition” experienced by the rest of the world, as its total fertility rate is declining, leading to slower population growth. Among the factors in the change is increased availability of contraception and massive urbanization. Population growth in the region averaged 2.7 per cent a year from 1950 to 2000, but is now at 1.3 per cent and is expected to fall to 0.6 per cent from 2020-2050 … Nicholas Eberstadt, writing about “Russia’s Depopulation Bomb” in the spring issue of World Affairs: “Between 1976 and 1991, the last 16 years of Soviet power, the country recorded 36 million births. In the 16 post-Communist years of 1992-2007, there were just 22.3 million, a drop in childbearing of nearly 40 per cent from one era to the next” … Columnist Mark Steyn wrote at National Review Online that the reason Europeans have smaller cars is that they have smaller families: “Europeans often ask, ‘Why do Americans need those big cars?’ The short answer is: because Americans have kids and Europeans don’t. So Italians and Spaniards and Germans (and Japanese) can drive around in things the size of a Chevy Suburban’s cupholder because they’ve got nothing to put in them” … Human Life International reports that many indigenous people in the Central African Republic are “scandalized by the largely white international environmentalist groups and visitors who demand the elimination of the black human presence from” the large swaths of land used for national parks to protect local wildlife. Says HLI’s Joseph Meaney, “The cruel irony of treating humans as pest to be eradicated and animals and plants as invaluable resources is not lost on the people of Africa.”