A rookie Alberta politician is pressing forward with his private member’s conscience rights bill despite controversy and an unrelated tragedy that has inadvertently impeded the bill’s progress. United Conservative Party MLA Dan Williams says that no matter what becomes of Bill 207, he’ll keep fighting for conscience rights’ protection. “I hear that every single day, wherever I go, that this is an [...]
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled Nov. 6 that the Trump administration cannot enforce a rule protecting healthcare workers from being forced to participate in abortions, claiming it was “unconstitutional.” In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized the rule, which “ensures that HHS implements the full set of tools appropriate for enforcing” laws that exempt healthcare workers [...]
MLA Dan Williams On Nov. 21, an Alberta legislative committee recommended that Bill 207, a private member’s bill that would, if passed, protect the conscience rights of healthcare workers, not be voted upon by the full legislature. MLA Dan Williams (UCP, Peace River) introduced Bill 207, the Conscience Rights (Health Care Providers) Protection Act, which upholds the Charter rights of [...]
Law Matters John Carpay What would happen if our laws reflected and applied the Golden Rule of doing unto others what we want done unto ourselves? No person wants to be forced, coerced or even pressured into doing what she or he believes to be wrong. Someone applying the Golden Rule would say: “I myself do not want the law [...]
Laying down the Lawton - Andrew Lawton A rookie Alberta MLA is taking a stand for healthcare practitioners’ conscience rights. The organization that’s supposed to be standing up for the rights of doctors is, bizarrely, fighting him on it. Dan Williams, a United Conservative Party MLA for Peace River, introduced a private member’s bill in early November that would amend [...]
We are extremely disappointed that the Alberta legislative committee that recommended that legislation proposed by MLA Dan Williams to statutorily protect the conscience rights of health care professionals not proceed for the full legislature to consider. It was an act of cowardice for the majority, including Williams’ United Conservative Party colleagues, to effectively kill the debate on this topic. Conscience rights are [...]
Sheila Harding, president of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada said her group was disappointed with the ruling. On May 15, an Ontario appeal court struck a blow against religious freedom, ruling that the right of doctors to conscientiously object to participating in abortion and euthanasia is trumped by their patients’ right to equitable access to health care. [...]
Laying Down the Lawton Andrew Lawton If you want to practice medicine, leave your beliefs at the door. That’s the key takeaway from a May decision by the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruling that conscience rights for healthcare practitioners effectively don’t exist. At least not when doctors are anywhere but in their own homes with the doors locked and [...]
Brazilian Minister of Women and Family Damares Alves. The government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, sworn in to power in January, wasted no time implementing its pro-family policies. Damares Alves, an evangelical pastor who was named the new government’s Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights, said on her first day in her new portfolio, “girls wear pink, and boys [...]
Predicated on definitions and notions drawn not from the world of science but scooped up from LGBT-driven pop-culture, the American Psychological Association (APA) – the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the U.S. – is promoting its harmful new “Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Boys and Men.” There is nothing familiar or reassuring here. The main message the APA wants [...]
Laying down the Lawton To err is human; to forgive, divine. Though no one promises the latter to be easy. When it comes to criminals, we must not only question our own willingness to forgive, but also how that squares up with our legal system and its mandate for justice. Canada’s justice system – rooted both in civil and common [...]
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition executive director Alex Schadenberg said three reports do not offer much guidance on the issue of whether to expand euthanasia eligibility. The long-awaited reports from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) concerning the possible extension of euthanasia to children (mature minors), to incompetent people who made an “advanced request,” and to people for psychological conditions alone was [...]
Irish pro-lifers erected 1,000 white crosses at Arms an Áras an Uachtar Uachtaráin, the presidential mansion in memory of the children's lives that will never be. (photo Life institute) In May, two-thirds of Irish voters approved of scrapping Ireland’s pro-life constitutional amendment, clearing the way for the legalization of abortion in one of the last western countries to resist enacting [...]
The Progressive Conservative majority defeated a private member’s bill that would have established anti-free speech bubble zones around Manitoba abortion facilities and pharmacies that dispensed the abortion pill. NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine (St. Johns) tabled Bill 200, Safe Access to Abortion Services, that would have established bubble zones of 150 meters around facilities where abortions take place, outlawing any pro-lifer from “inform(ing) [...]
Fr. Tony Van Hee, who was arrested Oct. 24 for violating Ontario’s anti-free speech bubble zone around abortion facilities, is mounting a constitutional challenge of the law. The Ontario bubble zone law, the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act, prohibits pro-life demonstrations and communications within at least 50 metres of abortion facilities in the province – abortuaries can petition for larger exclusion [...]