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October 2006
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Fall Marriage Vote – Please Act! Working with other pro-family and religious organizations, we have done the number crunching, contacted MPs, urged supporters to contact their Members of Parliament and worked behind the scenes, to do everything humanly possible to ensure the vote to re-open the marriage issue this Fall results in a new debate. But it is an uphill battle. Almost everyone who has released their count on the MPs (CLC, the media, gay rights groups) shows it close, but with those determined to keep an honest debate and free vote from occurring so far having the upper hand. To have any chance of winning it appears we need every MP who voted for traditional marriage last time (June 2005) and every undecided or undeclared MP, to vote for the government’s bill to revisit the issue. That’s going to be difficult but not impossible – depending on your actions and that of other pro-marriage Canadians. Please continue to pray for these efforts. While we urge all supporters to contact their MP regardless of where he or she stands, we have determined which ones need an extra push. CLC has personally contacted all supporters in those ridings to make an explicit plea to visit, write or phone their Member of Parliament to strengthen their resolve for traditional marriage and to ensure that they understand this vital issue will not “just go away” as many politicians hope it will. Issues do not go away when voters insist that they be addressed. There is still time to contact your MP even if you have contacted him or her in the past on the marriage issue. If you haven’t done so in the past month, let them know that you want to see a full debate and a free vote in the House of Commons and that is only possible if they revisit the issue. The New Democratic Party should stand by its name and support democracy by allowing its MPs a free conscience vote and supporting a fully open discussion of the issue, even if the party supports marriage “rights” for homosexuals The Liberal cabinet ministers who voted for redefinition of marriage in June 2005 because Paul Martin forced them to do so, should be given the chance to vote their conscience. Conservative MPs should know that in every one of their ridings, those who oppose same-sex ‘marriage’ make up a winning plurality of the constituency and that they are more likely to vote on this issue next time than those who support same-sex ‘marriage.’ Lastly, the Bloc Quebecois members must be allowed to vote not only with their consciences and constituents, but in the province’s own interest; for a party that has nationalistic ambitions, it seems strange to embrace sterile homosexual relationships considering the province already is experiencing a culturally suicidal plummeting fertility rate. Let your MPs know how you feel about this very important subject. If the issue is not re-opened now, same-sex ‘marriage’ will end up like abortion with possibly very few politicians wanting to touch it again for years, if at all. This is our best chance to return to moral sanity and the traditional definition of marriage..
The importance of municipal elections
It is vitally important that pro-life and pro-family Canadians vote their values in municipal and school board elections. We have prepared a questionnaire for candidates for the position of Catholic school trustee and for municipal politicians. Watch LifeSiteNews.com for results or contact Jeff in the Toronto office at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358 for more information.
We examined strategies to support incremental legislation at both the national and provincial levels. We have always supported efforts to reduce abortion: from initiatives to defund abortion in the 1970s to reducing foreign aid support for abortion in the 1980s, from parental notification laws in the 1990s to the unborn victims of violence bill as recent as this past Summer, CLC has always supported principled steps that restrict abortion and save lives. There were enormous political obstacles faced in every one of these battles and the fact that they were not all won should not distract us from the fact that CLC was behind many important initiatives, sometimes from the early stages of consulting on private members bills, sometimes providing much-needed information to MPs or bureaucrats on a particular topic. What is different, though, is the increasing examples, mostly from the United States, about how effective certain incremental steps can be. An important step to reducing abortions is to get more pro-life legislators elected and the preliminary work on the federal election is underway, as are preparations for provincial elections in PEI, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and the Alberta Conservative leadership race. As well, the national leaders shared ideas about qualifying school board and municipal candidates. CLC also discussed the morning after pill, international life issues and the need to draft a policy on IVF (central to the issue of harvesting stem cells). It was a busy three days but an important and productive weekend. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes planning, long-term planning and vital information sharing that goes on at these meetings. Please pray for the successful implementation of the strategies that were discussed in Toronto on that September weekend. CLC does not pay for these weekends. They are paid by each person attending, often at great financial sacrifice. 
Pope chastises Canadian politicians Pope Benedict XVI told the Canadian Catholic bishops from the province of Ontario that while Canada seems to have sufficient efforts in the area of “justice and peace” it is sorely lacking in protection for life and family. He told the bishops “certain values detached from their moral roots and full significance found in Christ have evolved in the most disturbing of ways. In the name of ‘tolerance’ your country has had to endure the folly of the redefinition of spouse, and in the name of ‘freedom of choice’ it is confronted with the daily destruction of unborn children.”
Pope Benedict’s words were especially poignant considering that until Stephen Harper was elected prime minister in January, for all but two months since 1969, Canada has had Catholic prime ministers. In the 1960s, Pierre Trudeau legalized contraception (as justice minister) and later homosexuality and abortion (as prime minister). Catholic Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney (both Progressive Conservatives) and John Turner, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin (all Liberals) supported abortion-on-demand either in rhetoric or deed. It is likely that if any one or two of them had stood up for the Catholic principles they professed to believe, Canada would be in better shape today. The Canadian pro-life community welcomed Pope Benedict’s comments. CLC National Organizer Mary Ellen Douglas told the Toronto Sun, “I’m positively delighted ... I couldn’t be happier” with the pontiff’s remarks. Douglas criticized politicians who set aside their faith when they become legislators (“If a person, as a politician, sells their soul just to get elected, you don’t have a good person”) and hoped that some of those who do, will heed the Holy Father’s words. Fr. Alphonse de Valk, the editor of Catholic Insight magazine, said he hopes that the Pope’s correct assessment of what ails Canadian politics will lead the bishops to take a stronger stand in the upcoming same-sex ‘marriage’ debate. All around the world, pro-lifers have been saying that their greatest obstacle is the lack of leadership from bishops and other religious leaders. We pray that politicians and Canada’s religious leaders, especially the Catholic bishops, will be inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s strong words and show the much needed leadership on moral issues that this great nation deserves. If you are Catholic, call or write your bishop and respectfully (extra emphasis on that word) insist that he up the ante on the marriage debate and call to serious account all Catholic MPs who would in any way support same-sex ‘marriage’ or same-sex unions or oppose re-opening the vote. Most Canadian Catholics seem to have been conditioned to wrongly believe that it is inappropriate to appeal to their bishops to take the stronger actions greatly needed on these moral issues. Actually, you have a legitimate Catholic right and even an obligation to do so, and a responsibility to encourage and support your bishop when he does the right thing. Canada’s bishops who courageously stand for truly Catholic principles have long needed this kind of encouragement from faithful Catholics. Such Catholics are heard from vastly less than the outspoken dissidents who have had a dominating influence for the past four decades. We urge people of all faiths and denominations to contact their religious leaders encouraging them to continue to battle.
As usual, there were major battles over wording and concepts, but some significant victories were scored by delegates committed to protecting human life and the pro-life NGOs that supplied information and other support to them. The most important is an Article reaffirming the inherent right to life of every human being and calling on all countries to take the necessary measures to ensure that that right for persons with disabilities was retained. Also, the document, reflecting both the Charter of the UN and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, reaffirmed the “worth” as well as the “dignity” of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, language protecting persons with disabilities from denial of food and fluids and health care on the basis of their disability was included. The importance of family to persons with disabilities was reaffirmed and its need for protection and assistance was finally accepted; at the same time, language detrimental to marriage and the family was deleted. In what seems like a small semantic point, the phrase “including sexual and reproductive health services” was deleted and replaced by health care and programmes “in the area of sexual and reproductive health.” Twenty-three countries objected to the term and the International Disabilities Caucus dropped its support of the concept to ensure that the document would be completed before the Fall General Assembly. Pro-life nations fought hard for the change and accepted the term “reproductive health” after assurances that it did not include a right to abortion or create any new human rights. Vitally, during the course of the debate numerous delegates and the chairman stated that the term does not include abortion and no delegate stated that it did. To prevent committees responsible for monitoring the treaty and pro-abortion NGOs from using “reproductive health” to pressure states to legalize abortion, the U.S. made an important statement: “The US understands that the phrase reproductive health does not include abortion, and its use in paragraph 25 (a) does not create any abortion rights, and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion.” Unfortunately, the Canadian delegation was again on the wrong side on many of these issues. Many social conservatives had hoped that with the new Conservative government, our representatives would stop promoting a radical agenda at the UN, including a global right to abortion. But despite a new ambassador, nothing else has changed. Canada and most of the European Union insisted on the inclusion of abortion-promoting language even after other countries were willing to drop it to ensure deliberations could continue. Jim Hughes, National President of CLC and vice president of the International Right to Life Federation, says, “It seems that every convention the UN deals with, from children’s rights to rights for the disabled, has become an opportunity for Canada and its pro-abortion allies to attempt to foist abortion on those nations of the world that still value the right to life of the unborn.” He said he had hoped things would change after the Conservatives replaced the Liberals in Ottawa, but says the same radical UN delegation remains largely in place. This probably doesn’t represent the policy wishes of the government, but rather an unwillingness to rock the boat. We encourage Canadians to contact their MPs to urge greater accountability of the actions of Canada’s UN delegation before Parliament and demand that the radical insistence by Canadian delegates for abortion on demand around the globe come to an end.
Ignatieff promotes SSM, abortion In June 2005, Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde introduced a private member’s bill that, if passed, would have legalized euthanasia. It passed first reading despite concerns about it from the Liberal Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler, who in principle supports euthanasia but who had some concerns about Lalonde’s particular bill. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition warned that the supposed safeguards were loopholes, and were so meaningless that they could not effectively prevent terminally ill or elderly patients who didn’t want to be euthanized from being killed by their doctors. The bill, fortunately, died on the table when the federal election was called last November. Following the election, Lalonde vowed to bring the bill back for consideration “sooner rather than later” and that time has apparently arrived. The exact wording of the legislation is unknown and it is unclear whether Lalonde has re-written her legislation to get some of the Liberals who opposed the bill last year to sign on this time. While it is unclear how the Bloc might do it, we have also heard that Lalonde’s colleagues are conspiring to move her private member’s bill up the ladder so it can be considered sooner rather than later. Conservative leader Stephen Harper said during the first French language debate that he opposes assisted suicide and that he did not want the issue raised in Parliament. In unusually strong language for the future prime minister, Harper said, “I think it’s important to resist the idea of giving the power to kill.” He also vowed that if the issue did arise, he would allow a free vote. Yet, the Ottawa Sun reports that documents it obtained through an Access to Information search reveal the Justice Department is advising the government to enact end-of-life legislation with an eye to permitting euthanasia. The Sun reports that the documents urge the government to keep pace with activist courts that have increasingly allowed the withdrawal of life-sustaining nutrition and hydration, and possibly permit the administration of narcotics to hasten death. But Dr. Joseph Ayoub, an oncologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Montreal, says that “assisted suicide does not honour human dignity – especially now in the modern era of medicine, when there are ways to heal patients physically and psychologically.” He warned that euthanasia will open the door to untold and unwanted deaths: first permitting the killing of the severely ill, then the disabled, then handicapped children and the elderly – in fact a systematic selection of the people whose lives are to be terminated. There is simply no way that it would be limited only to those who actively seek euthanasia. In other words, euthanasia makes vulnerable people more vulnerable; those most in need of society’s protection become those most likely to be killed off.
Lalonde’s bill in any form must be stopped. There are no provisions that could make it a good bill. What Canada needs is better palliative care, not “compassionate” or selective killing. Contact your MPs today and urge them to vote against Lalonde’s private member’s bill on first reading when it is introduced.
Alberta MLA Ted Morton (Foothills - Rocky View) resurrected his private member’s bill protecting Albertans who oppose homosexual activity, from fines or discrimination charges, but it was defeated during third and final reading in the provincial legislature. It did not lose on a straight vote but rather procedural grounds as the Liberal and NDP opposition commandeered the time available for private member’s bills with procedural matters, effectively killing the bill. Morton said he was disappointed but promised to keep up the fight. He said, “I think it was incredibly irresponsible of the Liberals and the NDP to waste our time and the taxpayers’ money.” He introduced Bill 208, the Protection of Fundamental Freedoms (Marriage) Statutes Amendment Act, in April, and if passed it would have permitted marriage commissioners to opt out of performing homosexual ‘marriages’ and require schools to obtain parental permission before introducing material on homosexuality in the classroom. As well, persons would have been protected from fines or other charges for speaking out against homosexuality. Criticized by gay rights activists, Morton has said the bill is about balancing rights and has nothing to do with homosexual ‘marriage.’ Morton is a candidate in the leadership race to replace Ralph Klein as leader of the Alberta Conservatives and premier of the province. While some of his possible rivals including MLA Lyle Oberg supported the bill, the front-runner, Jim Dinning is a social liberal. Morton has also vowed to do what he can to protect the religious and conscience rights of principled critics of the homosexual agenda if he is elected premier. BC murder suicide is not compassion On August 29, John McCadden, 77, killed his wife, Lorna, 80, and then proceeded to kill himself. Lorna McCadden was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers the week earlier and was at the Penticton Regional Hospital. The media referred to the murder-suicide as an “act of compassion.” While such tragic cases are often labeled mercy killings by the media, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said that recent studies indicate that often, the partners being murdered resist being killed. Yet, the media continues to buy into the euthanasia advocate’s arguments that if euthanasia or assisted suicide were simply legalized, you would end the tragedies of murder-suicides. Pointing to a March 2005 American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry study on murder-suicides, Schadenberg said “These violent acts are based out of deep depressive conditions, or they are the act of someone who has been a controlling person all their life, and that is their attempt to control the situation.” Often the husbands have been abusers and the wives are rarely complicit. The authors of the study found defensive wounds on the wives, indicative that they fought for their lives. The study found that many are reacting not to the medical conditions of their spouses but their own changed circumstances, as the partner (usually) suffers depression and mental breakdown due to the care demands and life changes related to an ailing spouse. The authors suggested that providing better care to both the ailing spouse and the physically healthy spouse could prevent many tragic murder-suicides. Schadenberg says Canada’s health care system needs to address the care needs of both spouses if such tragedies are going to be prevented: “What our health care system has to be more concerned about is the mental health of the spouse of the person who is going through a life-threatening or debilitating disease.” He said they find themselves alone, and urged the pro-life community to stay close to their sick and elderly relatives, but also to reach out to those in nursing homes and to shut-ins to welcome them into our communities. He says that a culture of life requires embracing everyone who is vulnerable, including those who feel isolated and helpless. Doing so may prevent future tragic murder-suicides. Euthanasia movement meets in Toronto During the 16th annual World Federation of Right to Die Societies, the euthanasia/assisted suicide movement complained that Australia and other countries are banning the promotion of suicide through the internet. In 2005, Australia passed the Suicide Related Material Offences Act, which effectively outlawed suicide counselling by fax, telephone, and internet, the anonymous tools of choice employed by suicide advocates to educate and encourage people to commit suicide. Germany appears ready to follow suit. To get around such laws, Australia’s ‘Doctor Death’, Philip Nitschke, creator of the suicidal “peaceful pill,” has reorganized with the Exit in Australia group and based the group’s website in New Zealand to thwart his homeland’s tough new laws against promoting suicide. Nitschke told the conference that such laws could cut off the life-line of the ‘right to die’ movement, since most euthanasia societies rely on internet and e-mail ‘counseling services’ to explain and promote suicide. Papyrus, a British group that works with depressed people but counsels against suicide, says that there are tens of millions of web pages on the internet dedicated to promoting suicide and giving technical information and advice on how to do it. Papyrus is lobbying the United Kingdom to encourage the government to ban the use of the internet to promote suicide. Alex Schadenberg wants such bans to go further. He said countries must make the internet promotion of euthanasia “illegal on a world-wide basis” to protect the vulnerable from these deadly internet predators: “The Canadian government needs to recognize that vulnerable depressed people and troubled teens are being influenced by internet sites that are promoting suicide and suicide pacts and that the only way to truly protect people from the extreme activists, such as Philip Nitschke, who runs his own internet suicide site, is by banning these sites completely.” This would have been a more useful program to promote at the UN’s disabilities meetings, recognizing the dignity and worth of people susceptible to those peddling suicide as a solution. As disabled activist Mark Pickup often notes, able-bodied people are discouraged from killing themselves and the government picks up the tab for suicide prevention hotlines but when a disabled or terminally ill person considers death as the solution to their problems, society is in a rush to assist them and excuse their murderers. The double standard must end and the rights and dignity of the disabled and sick must be protected. National pro-life conference There is still time to get in on the early bird rates for flights and hotel accommodation for the national conference presented by CLC BC, the Pro Life Society of BC, Healing the Culture and LifeCanada. Entitled Healing the Culture: A New Beginning, the conference will take place at the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel, November 16-18. Book before October 15, and WestJet and Air Canada will discount your flight to Vancouver; also the $99 rooms at the hotel are available only until that date. There is a wide variety of speakers for all faiths, ages and interests. There are both plenary sessions and small breakout sessions. From politics to youth involvement, from media to sex education, there is something for everybody. Registration is just $189 or $229 for the conference and banquet. For more information call CLC Toronto at (416) 204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358..
LifeChain Most of you will receive this newsletter after LifeChain, which occurs on October 1. If you took part in LifeChain this year and have photos, please send them to us. Do not assume that someone else will. Our pleas and the pleas from the Interim have received a very mediocre response in the past. Some areas always respond, but we get nothing from others. No doubt, many of you assume that someone else will send the photos. So please, send photos to Paul Tuns by mailing to his attention at 104 Bond Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ont., M5B 1X9 or email them to him at ptuns@lifesite.net. Put LifeChain pictures in the subject line of the email. Include your name, the location (city and province) and, if possible, an estimate of the number of participants. Please do not delay and send them today.
Ken Campbell, 1934-2006  During the past month a number of pro-life warriors have passed on including Claire Burns and Theresa Munnelli of Toronto, while the pro-life movement of Canada bid farewell to one of its most valiant warriors when Ken Campbell passed away on August 28 in Delta, B.C. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ken fought boldly for Judeo-Christian values in the midst of an increasingly secularized Canadian culture that was seeing intensifying attacks against the sanctity of human life. He founded ministries including the pro-life organization Choose Life Canada, was on the front lines in the battle against Henry Morgentaler’s initial Toronto abortuary and was instrumental in helping establish the crisis pregnancy centre, The Way Inn, next door to the Morgentaler site.
Ken spent time in a Toronto region prison along with Fr. Ted Colleton and 7 other men as a result of their participation in a 1989 Operation Rescue. His commitment continued in more recent years, as he held rallies, ran newspaper ads, broadcast radio programs and established the Wilderness Conference and Ministries in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Campaign Life Coalition joins other pro-lifers and the Christian community at large in saying of Ken Campbell, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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He lamented the “exclusion of God from the public sphere.” He singled out for special criticism Christian politicians who check their faith at Parliament’s door, criticizing “Christian civic leaders [who] sacrifice the unity of faith and sanction the disintegration of reason and the principles of natural ethics, by yielding to ephemeral social trends and the spurious demands of opinion polls.” Pope Benedict said democracy can only succeed where “truth” and the “correct understanding of the human person” flourishes.