Rory Leishman
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Written on 22 May, 2013 at 8:59 in
Columnist, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman National Affairs Rory Leishman
In recent years, virtually every major professional association in the United States, ranging from the American Psychiatric Association to the American College of Nursing has come out in support of so-called same-sex marriage. The latest to do so is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In a policy statement and accompanying technical report on March 21, the AAP affirmed that after careful consideration ... (Continue reading)
Written on 8 Apr, 2013 at 13:17 in
Announcements, Columnist, Features, Human rights, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman National Affairs Rory Leishman
With the unanimous ruling in the case of Bill Whatcott on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada has stepped up its attack on freedom of speech and freedom of religion as never before. For faithful Christians, the implications are clear: Like Whatcott, they, too, could end up in jail as a prisoner of conscience for upholding the plain teachings of Sacred Scripture on the sinfulness of ... (Continue reading)
Written on 30 Mar, 2013 at 16:39 in
Columnist, Religion, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman Whatever happened to the valid free exercise of religion?
National Affairs Rory Leishman
In opposing the establishment of a law school at Trinity Western University (TWU), the Canadian Council of Law Deans have demonstrated once again that they, like our judicial masters in the courts, have renounced both freedom of religion and the rule of law. In a letter to the Federation of Canadian Law Societies, the deans ... (Continue reading)
Written on 24 Feb, 2013 at 19:37 in
Columnist, Marriage and Family, Rory Leishman | Author:
National Affairs Rory Leishman
In an ominous sign of the times, London’s Daily Telegraph published a joint letter to the editor on Jan. 12 in which more than 1,000 priests and eight bishops of the Catholic Church decry the onset of a new age of religious persecution in Britain.
Of prime concern to the letter-writers is the determination of the government of British Prime Minister David Cameron to enact same-sex “marriage” into ... (Continue reading)
Written on 23 Jan, 2013 at 10:30 in
Columnist, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman Shortly after Barack Obama won the 2008 United States presidential election, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan ruefully observed: “Whenever Republicans lose an election, a factional dispute arises about ‘economic issues’ versus ‘moral or social issues.’ ‘Traditionalists’ and ‘libertarians’ blame each other, each claiming Republicans would do better without the other.”
Now some libertarians are back at it again, blaming the Republicans’ defeat in last year’s presidential election on the majority of social conservatives in the Republican Party who steadfastly uphold the natural family ... (Continue reading)
Written on 18 Dec, 2012 at 8:34 in
Announcements, Features, Marriage and Family, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman National Affairs Rory Leishman
The proponents of traditional marriage in the United States suffered a major setback as voters backed the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in all four states that held referenda on the subject in the November elections. This brings to 10 the total number of states that have legalized same-sex “marriage” either by referendum, legislation or judicial fiat. Meanwhile, since 1998, voters in 30 other states have entrenched the ... (Continue reading)
Written on 20 Nov, 2012 at 11:04 in
Columnist, Politics, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman National Affairs Rory Leishman
In a combative campaign speech last December, United States President Barack Obama derided his Republican opponents as unprincipled libertarians: “Their philosophy is simple,” he charged. “We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”
Certainly, there are some selfish conservatives who think that the wealthy and prosperous should have no compunction about abandoning the poor and the needy ... (Continue reading)
Written on 19 Oct, 2012 at 15:04 in
Columnist, Rory Leishman | Author:
National Affairs Rory Leishman
United States President Barack Obama is an astute political tactician. Unlike his secular advisors, he was quick to recognize that the deletion of any reference to God in the initial draft of the Democratic Party Platform was a political blunder.
The great majority of Americans still regard themselves as Christians and expect their leaders to believe in God. In a recent survey, the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute ... (Continue reading)
Written on 14 Jun, 2012 at 10:05 in
Announcements, Columnist, Features, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman What accounts for the frenzied reaction by advocates of legalized abortion to the private member’s motion introduced by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth. If passed, M-312 would mandate a committee of the House of Commons to determine if the preponderance of medical evidence is consistent with the declaration in Subsection 223(1) of the Criminal Code that, for the purposes of the law, a child becomes a human being at the moment of complete ... (Continue reading)
What is the proper role of a judge in a constitutional democracy? Prior to the 1970s, there was no dispute over this issue within the legal professions of Canada and the United States: Almost all lawyers, law professors and judges agreed that, in essence, a judge should interpret and apply established legal principles, while respecting the exclusive authority of elected representatives of the people in the legislative branch of ... (Continue reading)
Written on 23 Apr, 2012 at 12:28 in
Columnist, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman
Over the past 30 years, freedom of religion in Canada has come under increasing attack by unprincipled judicial activists and authoritarian politicians. Now the Supreme Court of Canada and the Legislature of Quebec have taken this proclivity to a new extreme, by arbitrarily decreeing that Christian parents no longer have an inalienable right to shelter their children from anti-Christian propaganda in elementary and secondary schools.
At issue is a controversial course in ... (Continue reading)
Written on 19 Mar, 2012 at 4:52 in
Announcements, Features, Movie Review, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman The Way, a low-budget movie starring Martin Sheen, one of the most radical left-wing activists in Hollywood, has won unstinting praise from conservatives like Laura Ingraham, a prominent talk-show host in the United States. At the conclusion of an interview with Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, the movie’s writer and director , Ingraham enthused: “There are not many films that I say you must see, that you must run to ... (Continue reading)
Written on 23 Feb, 2012 at 10:52 in
Euthanasia, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman If you were incurably ill and facing impending death, would you want your medical team to continue with aggressive and painful medical treatments in the hope of a miracle cure? Or would you prefer to be placed in palliative care to help you through the inevitable dying process?
Most people would opt for palliative care. However, sometimes, close family members of a mentally incompetent patient refuse to consent to a timely transfer ... (Continue reading)
Written on 16 Jan, 2012 at 9:20 in
Announcements, Euthanasia, Features, Rory Leishman | Author:
Rory Leishman In defense of the pernicious proposition that all mentally competent Canadians should have a legal right to medical assistance in committing suicide, the “expert panel” of the Royal Society of Canada on end-of-life decision making contends, in its recent report, that: “Autonomy (or the capacity for self-determination) is a paramount value to Canadians. Respect for autonomy requires respect for competent individuals’ free and informed decisions with respect to how and when ... (Continue reading)
Written on 12 Dec, 2011 at 12:21 in
Columnist, Rory Leishman | Author:
Philip Slayton, former dean of law at the University of Western Ontario, is not now and never has been a consistent advocate of judicial restraint, but at least he displays some belated concern over the excesses of judicial activism in his latest book aptly entitled Mighty Judgment, How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life.
As examples of judicial legislation, Slayton points out that it was not Parliament, but the Supreme Court ... (Continue reading)
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