Low fertility rates, not over-population, present challenge “Demography is destiny,” the French sociologist Auguste Comte reportedly said. Population trends – fertility rates, infant survival, ageing, and other facts that are literally about life and death – greatly influence the economy, politics, culture, and world affairs. Demography may not be destiny, but it is nonetheless a powerful force and one that often seems [...]
Paul Tuns, Editor of The Interim Newspaper By Paul Tuns A parable of Saint Matthew’s Gospel describes a master who, before going on a journey, entrusts his property to three servants. Their charge is not a light one. They have, after all, been entrusted with the wealth — the very substance — of their lord. The talents imparted to them [...]
Send us your Life Chain 2020 images. Email ptuns@theinterim.com
We are working to bring more graphics and make the paper more pleasing to read, and that process is underway as you will see in our centerspread story on our ageing global population. We are also going to have a redesign in the new year to make the paper a little easier to read. But the downside of making the paper more [...]
Interim writer, Josie Luetke , Talk Turkey By Josie Luetke Being somewhat of a political nomad, I was eager to read James Mumford’s Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes, published just this year, precisely because it seemed it would affirm my choice of wandering in the (metaphorical) wilderness rather than buying into one of the flawed “package deals” on offer by [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements By Rick McGinnis The term “social media” wasn’t in widespread use over 10 years ago, when I started writing this column. Back then we still worried about television and the general amount of “screen time” our children were spending on increasingly smaller and less expensive devices. Re-reading my old columns, like almost every exercise in [...]
Interim writer, John Carpay, Law Matters By John Carpay With a religious fervour, fear of COVID-19 is permeating and shaping our laws, policies, and culture. The job-killing, economy-destroying, soul-deadening, anxiety-producing, loneliness-creating, debt-incurring lockdowns, imposed on us since March 2020, have now become permanent restrictions on our Charter freedoms to move, travel, associate, assemble, and worship. Prior to Thanksgiving, Quebec’s health [...]
On Sept. 29, members of the Select Special Public Health Act Review Committee of the Alberta legislature debated adding abortion access to the province's Public Health Act. The motion was put forward by NDP MLA Kathleen Ganley (Calgary-Mountain View) and was defeated in committee the following day on a straight party-line vote, with the NDP committee members supporting it and the United [...]
By Paul Tuns Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton (PublicAffairs, $35, 320 pages). We are told, by pundits and polling data, that fewer people are practicing any religion in the West, and the secularization of America is happening at an ever-quickening pace. Recent surveys show that “religious Nones” — those who do not adhere to any [...]
By Paul Tuns One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias (Portfolio, $37, 267 pages) Matthew Yglesias is a policy wonk and political commentator for the left-wing Vox website. His new book, One Billion Americans, could have been a good and important contribution to American discourse, adding to the dearth of serious, or at least ambitious, ideas. Yglesias makes [...]
On Sept. 28, Amnesty International, the international human rights group, announced it was updating its "sexual and reproductive rights" policy, essentially reaffirming its pro-abortion position. Amnesty International had previously supported abortion in certain circumstances, although it released papers and launched campaigns that supported broadening abortion in numerous countries and circumstances. It now calls for full decriminalization of abortion. Amnesty International is "calling [...]
On Oct. 22, a coalition of 32 countries led by the United States and representing 1.6 billion people issued a declaration that there is “no international right to abortion.” The declaration explains its purpose is to express, “the essential priority of protecting the right to life” and promoting “strength of the family and of a successful and flourishing society.” It also states [...]
Disabilities group condemns C-7, EPC says safeguards are being eroded Justice Minister David Lametti introduced Bill C-7 on Oct. 5, bringing back the federal government’s legislation to broaden so-called Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD). Last September, a Quebec court threw out several provisions of the federal euthanasia and assisted-suicide law, most notably the requirement that death be “reasonably foreseeable” in order to [...]
Interim writer, Rory Leishman, National Affairs By Rory Leishman Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, has outstanding credentials as a lawyer, law professor, and federal judge. She is also solidly pro-life. But does it follow that pro-life Republicans in the United States Senate should rush through her ratification before [...]
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice who was a darling of feminists and others on the Left, passed away in late September, it set up an opportunity for President Donald Trump to leave a long-term legacy by appointing a third justice to the country’s highest court. Earlier in the summer, Trump had released a list of potential Supreme Court appointments [...]