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December 2002
Across Canada
MaterCare denied aid funds
Nova Scotia to defend funding policy
B.C. pastor's rights upheld
Religious discrimination suit filed
Bill C-56 re-introduced
MaterCare denied aid funds
ST. JOHN'S - MaterCare International, an international charity that attends to the true health needs of pregnant women of the developing world, has been denied a a $3 million grant from the Canadian International Development Agency. MCI, headed by Memorial University gynecology professor Dr. Robert Walley, sought a grant to set up a clinic in Ghana to treat obstetric fistula, a complication that can occur during birth and which leaves women maimed and incontinent for life if untreated. Some observers are concerned that CIDA scuttled the application because MCI is composed of Catholic, pro-life doctors. Walley said, "I can only say that abortion and birth control are irrelevant to a mother who has obstructed labour or who is dying from a postpartum hemorrhage." Meanwhile, CIDA continues to fund International Planned Parenthood and recently announced that it would fund, with the United Nations Population Fund, a scheme to distribute abortifacient methods of birth control in Malawi.
Nova Scotia to defend funding policy
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia has announced it will defend itself against a legal challenge by Henry Morgentaler to its policy on abortion funding. Morgentaler is suing the province, which refuses to pay the full cost of abortions in private facilities. Nova Scotia Health Minister Jamie Muir said that Morgentaler was more interested in publicity than the rights of women.
B.C. pastor's rights upheld
VANCOUVER - A human rights complaint against a Canadian evangelical pastor of over 50 years has been dismissed after a year of hearings on the matter. Reverend Ken Campbell, a frequent speaker at pro-life events, was previously acquitted of the same complaint before the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal dismissed the complaint against Campbell's full-page ad that appeared in the Globe and Mail in 1998, which protested the Supreme Court's Vriend decision radically expanding same-sex rights. In making his ruling, Tribunal member Tom W. Patch said, "The essence of Mr. Campbell's defence is that the publication ... is an expression of his Charter-protected rights to express his religious beliefs; that is, a finding of discrimination would impair both his freedom of expression and his freedom of religion." Patch found that the "Complainant has not established that the advertisement indicated discrimination or an intention to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation." Commenting on the ruling, Campbell said, "This is a historic, precedent-setting ruling which is a triumph for freedom of expression and freedom of religion in Canada."
Religious discrimination suit filed
VICTORIA - University of British Columbia graduate student Cynthia Maughan has filed suit in in the B.C. Supreme Court alleging the university, six professors and two employees of UBC's equity office exposed her to contempt and hatred on the basis of her religion. Maughan says that a low grade in an English class was directly attributable to the regular scheduling of Sunday seminar classes, as well as numerous other incidents that led to an environment hostile to Christians,she says this violates her civil rights under the provincial Civil Rights Protection Act. The appeals process demonstrated further institutional hostility toward Maughan. The Report says that, "At a time when many Christians feel their rights are routinely ignored, denigrated or violated, the case has the potential to reverse that trend".
Bill C-56 re-introduced
OTTAWA - Bill C-56, the fundamentally flawed reproductive and experimental technologies bill that pro-lifers had been lobbying against before Parliament prorogued in September, has been re-introduced as C-13. The bill is in the same form as Bill C-56 from the first session and in accordance with a special order of the House of Oct. 7, reinstated at the same stage that it had reached at the time of prorogation. That status leaves the bill as having passed second reading and before the Health Committee.
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