 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
October 1999
The Interim Clarification In recent months some articles have appeared in The Interim which might give the impression that it would be dangerous to be seen outside Toronto's abortuaries. Although the recent incidents of violence against pro-life picketers are true enough, let me assure you that we are able to witness outside the abortuaries on a daily basis and these incidents are very rare. Aid to Women, located at 300 Gerrard St. E., is adjacent to the "Cabbagetown Women's Clinic." on a given day at least 20 women will be seen going into the mill to have their babies killed. Our mandate is to ensure that everyone going into the abortuary is offered help. This can be done outside the 60-foot "bubble zone" imposed by the injunction against pro-life witnessing. We do it by carrying signs and handing out literature. These methods are successful. On average, two women per week change their minds. All of them testify that they are happy we were there to offer them real help. With Bill Whatcott's moving to Regina, and Tom Brown's death, we are sorely understaffed. On many days, no one is outside the abortuary, and women go in without knowing that we care. Please consider spending an hour or two in this important work. Joanne Dieleman Aid to Women may be reached at (416) 921-6016.
This letter was written originally to Ontario MPP Julia Munro (PC, York North).
Would you please press again the Attorney-General to either charge properly or not charge pro-life protesters outside Ontario abortion centres.
Your party deplored the "temporary" injunction against pro-life picketing while in opposition. After two terms, it has done nothing to remove the injunction that blatantly infringes on constitutional rights.
The Attorneys-General involved have been too cowardly to lay a single charge in five years so that the injunction's validity could be tested. In fact, when the Rev. Ken Campbell succeeded in having police charge him with that offense finally this year, the Attorney-General altered the charge to "obstructing police." This is a clear and outright subversion of the law. It is inexcusable.
Praying or carrying a placard hardly meet the standards for "obstructing police." You may recall that the response from the Attorney-General to my earlier complaint hid behind the fact that the case was before the court. I received no reply at all to my rejoinder that I was seeking general relief from this injunction that had nothing whatever to do with the specific case.
Such conduct by a series of Crown Ministers charged with providing justice to Ontarians is frightening. Surely after five years we have a right to know whether this "temporary" injunction that has survived three administrations is valid. The extremes to which learned Attorneys-General have gone to avert such a deserved test are a disgrace to the justice system. They indicate that this injunction is profoundly flawed and could never stand a court test.
Linda Gibbons has spent considerable time in prison over the same five years, falsely charged with "obstructing police" - when she is virtually incapable of doing so. She has sought to be charged fairly with breaking this "temporary" injunction, but has never been allowed her day in court on that charge. This is pure harassment that should not be allowed to continue one more day.
I trust that you will have greater success with the new Attorney-General. I await word that will restore some of my faith in the integrity of that Ministry.
Ron McCracken McKellar Re: the letters on John McKellar (Sept.). I was saddened and very disappointed by the correspondence on the above subject in the September Interim. I was particularly repelled by the sarcastic tone of Mr. McKellar's letter.
The very last thing pro-lifers need is another squabble. The pro-life movement seems to be doing a super job of self-destructing.
This has been a long, hard battle for the unborn. Let us not destroy ourselves.
Sister Lucille Durocher Quebec At the time of Montcalm's loss to Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the French Canadians of Quebec and Acadia numbered about 70,000.
Then supported by the Catholic Church, the Quebecois took the "revenge of the cradle" big time, so that by Conferedation in 1867, one-third of all Canadians were French Canadians.
In 1960, Planned Barrenhood's Margaret Sanger gave the world the birth control pill, and very shortly thereafter the "Quiet Revolution" came to Quebec. The teachings of the Catholic Church, oppressive or protective depending upon your point of view, collapsed even more completely than in the rest of Canada, so that now Quebecers have 1.3 children per completed family - the lowest birth rate in North America, and well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children.
Today the percentage of French-speaking Canadians has declined from 33 per cent to about 23 per cent of Canada's population, and it is still dropping fast.
This will heighten the concern of Quebecers to maintain their language and culture, which has lost most of its Catholic content, and-or it may mean their lower numbers will eventually result in less political power for the province of Quebec.
It's the revenge of the condom, pill, and abortion, all abhorrent to Catholic teaching.
Paul Vandervet Sin and sinner Tim Bloedow's letter in the September issue struck me as courageously written ("Biblically speaking, God ‘hates' sin and sinner"). However, in my understanding, the Catholic view is different from the Reformed understanding.
At the end of paragraph six of his letter, Mr. Bloedow implies that God "hates" (in a specific, theological sense) unbelievers, who are equated with those He has not redeemed. This use of language contrasts with that of Julian of Norwich, whose Revelations, written in the early 1400s, contain numerous references to "all those that are to be saved."
The important point is the verb tense. Mr. Bloedow suggests that believers are saved, and that unbelievers are not even redeemed. Julian, on the other hand, moves into the future tense, acknowledging thereby that she herself does not know, in specific terms, who will end up reaping the benefits of Christ's Passion.
Lise Anglin |
|||
|
