Politics
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Wednesday January 25, 2006
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Print- Bishop Lauds New Prime Minister's Use of "God Bless Canada"
- Sleep Disorders Increase After Abortion Says New Study
- Doctor’s Assisted Suicide a “Disgusting Publicity Stunt” say Life Advocates
- Communist Google: Search Leader Agrees to Submit to Chinese Censors
- Christian Student Union Shut Out Over Refusal to Include Gays, Lesbians
- Ontario Premier and Toronto Mayor Attack Conservatives on Child Care
- Official Conservative Party Policy in Favour of Traditional Marriage
Bishop Lauds New Prime Minister's Use of "God Bless Canada"
The Name of God is Back in Canadian Politics
TODAY'S HEADLINES
By Gudrun Schultz
CALGARY, Alberta, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The name of God was heard on the lips of a Canadian political leader Monday night, in an unheard-of departure from the recent status quo in Canada. Conservative leader Stephen Harper ended his election victory speech with the words "God Bless Canada."
The use of that phrase indicates a significant departure from the policies of the Liberal government, which has ruthlessly expunged any mention of God from the public sphere during the 12 years they have been in power.
Bishop Frederick Henry of the Calgary Diocese told LifeSiteNews today that he was "greatly encouraged by [Stephen Harper's] brief statement of prayer."
"Too many of our politicians and public figures have been inclined to be almost apologetic for professing their religious belief in God and their values," said Bishop Henry, who has been an outspoken defender of religious freedom in Canada. "Mr. Harper's comment dove-tails perfectly with his call for government accountability and integrity, as [its] ultimate accountability will be to God."
Under the Liberal government, mention of Christ and Christian prayer has been forbidden at official government-sponsored ceremonies. At the massive memorial service for victims of September 2001's terrorist attack on New York City, held on Parliament Hill, no prayer was permitted. Religious leaders, although present from many different faiths and denominations, were not acknowledged nor asked to participate in the ceremony.
The same was true for the memorial service held for the victims of Swissair flight 111, which crashed off Peggy's Cove in 1998. Church leaders were prevented from mentioning Jesus Christ or offering Christian prayers in the official service held for the victims' families.
Bishop Henry said Mr. Harper's reference to God reflected Canada's history as a nation and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom (Constitution Act, 1982), which begins "Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law..."
The first fundamental freedom listed under the Charter is the freedom of conscience and religion. The second is freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
NO PRAYER ALLOWED AS 100,000 CANADIANS ON PARLIAMENT HILL MOURN U.S. TRAGEDY
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/sep/01091702.html
Canada's Governor-General Designate Refuses to Swear on Bible
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05092603.html
Back to TopSleep Disorders Increase After Abortion Says New Study
SPRINGFIELD, IL, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new study published in Sleep, the official journal of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, has found that women who experienced abortion were more likely to be treated for sleep disorders or disturbances compared to women who gave birth.
The researchers, David Reardon of the Springfield, Ill.-based Elliot Institute and Priscilla Coleman of the University of Bowling Green, examined medical records for 56,284 low-income women in California who gave birth or underwent an abortion in the first six months of 1989. Researchers examined data for medical treatment for these women from July 1988 to June 1994 and excluded women who had been treated for sleep disturbances or disorders in the 12 to 18 months prior to abortion or delivery.
The findings showed that, up to four years following abortion or delivery, women who underwent abortions were more likely to be treated for sleep disorders following an induced abortion compared to a birth. The difference was greatest during the first 180 days after the end of the pregnancy, when aborting women were approximately twice as likely to seek treatment for sleep disorders. Significant differences between aborting and child bearing women persisted for three years.
Numerous studies have shown that trauma victims will often experience sleep difficulties. The authors believe their findings support a growing consensus that some women may have traumatic reactions to abortion.
A recent study published in the Medical Science Monitor in 2004, found that 65% percent of American women studied experienced multiple symptoms of post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which they attributed to their abortions, and over 14 percent reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of abortion induced PTSD. That study also found that 23% of the women reported sleeping difficulties they attributed to their abortions and 30% reported nightmares.
According to Reardon, a co-author of both studies, the prior study was limited by its reliance on women's self reported symptoms. "This new record- based study examines actual treatment rates for sleep disorders which have been confirmed by the treating physicians and it also has the advantage of employing an appropriate control group."
Reardon pointed out that the new study was limited by the fact that the authors did not have access to data on sleep disorders among women who had not been pregnant. He said more research is needed to see if women who have abortions are more likely to experience specific symptoms of sleep disturbance and whether those symptoms may be markers for PTSD and other psychiatric reactions.
Other recent studies have found that women with a history of abortion are subsequently at increased risk for depression, generalized anxiety disorder, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies, poor bonding with and parenting of later children, and psychiatric hospitalization.
Reardon and Coleman encourage mental health care providers to regularly inquire about prior pregnancy loss. Doing so, Reardon says, will "give women permission" to discus unresolved grief issues and may thereby improve treatment of sleep disorders, anxiety, and other psychiatric problems linked to abortion.
See the referenced studies online:
DC Reardon and PK Coleman, Relative Treatment Rates for Sleep Disorders and Sleep Disturbances Following Abortion and Childbirth: A Prospective Record Based-Study, Sleep 29(1):105-106, 2006. http://www.journalsleep.org/Citation/Sleepdata.asp?citationid=2819
VM Rue et. al., Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women, Medical Science Monitor 10:SR5-16, 2004. http://www.medscimonit.com/medscimonit/modules.php?name=GetPDF&pg=2&idm=...
Doctor’s Assisted Suicide a “Disgusting Publicity Stunt” say Life Advocates
BBC complicit in euthanasia advocacy
by Hilary White
ZURICH, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British doctor, Anne Turner, suffering from a degenerative brain disease and accompanied by family members and a BBC crew, traveled to a Zurich euthanasia “clinic” to commit suicide on Tuesday.
Among Dr. Turner’s last acts in life was to write a letter to her MP asking for the legalization of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. She had made a previous attempt to kill herself using drugs and a plastic bag.
Dr. Turner's son Edward said that although the family was against their mother’s wish to die, that they supported her decision to go to the Swiss facility. He told the BBC, “It's one thing dying from a terminal illness, but to actually choose to leave this world, and leave your family behind is an added complication to cope with.”
“It was only when she went ahead with the failed attempt that we thought there is no point in messing around, let's do it properly because it is just too cruel to do it any other way,” Edward Turner said.
Dr. Turner, described by the BBC as a “family planning expert,” was able to walk with the help of a stick, but, “faced with a future in a wheelchair” decided that slurred speech and an inability to drive and take a bath unassisted were sufficient reason to end her own life.
Alex Schadenberg, head of Ontario’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition called Dr. Turner’s act “an attack on people with disabilities.” He said “The reality is that this is how a lot of people look at people with disabilities. What she is saying and asking the British Parliament to agree on, is that life in a wheelchair is not worth living, that you’re better off dead.”
Calling Dr. Turner’s media-assisted suicide a “disgusting publicity stunt” Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews.com that the BBC is complicit in the act. “This is not the first time the BBC has promoted the anti-life euthanasia agenda.”
Josephine Quintavalle, spokesman for the British ethics-watch organization, CORE said that as a publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC had no business promoting one side in a political fight over euthanasia. “It is clear that in return for a squalid journalistic scoop the BBC have been prepared to play the game of the euthanasia lobby.”
In an email to LifeSiteNews.com, Quintavalle wrote, “On their 24 hour news coverage they only showed Dr Turner and her smiling family, providing no voice of formal opposition. Euthanasia is, thank goodness, a criminal act in the United Kingdom and it is extraordinary to see the BBC taking sides in this overt way, shamelessly promoting the agenda of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (deceptively renamed this very week as Dignity in Dying) with only token gestures towards objectivity.”
Communist Google: Search Leader Agrees to Submit to Chinese Censors
By Gudrun Schultz
SHANGHAI, China, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Google Inc. has agreed to submit to Chinese government censors in exchange for greater access to the Chinese information market, one of the fastest growing Internet markets in the world. In response the hugely popular Internet news link service Drudge Report began the title of its link to the story with the phrase "Communist Google".
On Wednesday Google introduced a version unique to China, under the country’s Web suffix “.cn”. The version omits access to information considered offensive to the Chinese government, such as human rights issues, sites on the Tiananmen Square massacre, the forbidden Falun Gong spiritual movement, or Taiwan independence.
Users attempting to access such sites are re-directed to government sites condemning the information.
The giant online search engine Google Inc. operates under the motto “Don’t Be Evil.” Officials for the company say the decision to bow to censorship demands was difficult, but they believe access to the search engine will be of greater benefit to the Chinese people than holding out against communist government policies.
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel told the Associated Press.
China has a fast-growing body of Internet users, already over 100 million. Competition for Internet service is tight between Google, Yahoo Inc and the Beijing-based company Baidu, currently China’s most popular search engine. Government blocks and slow-downs to the previous Google service frustrated users.
Google has said they will not include e-mail and blogger service to China, in order to avoid possible government seizures of users’ personal information. Last year Yahoo was heavily criticized after it released information from a Chinese journalist’s e-mail account, who was later convicted of violating state secrecy laws.
Christian Student Union Shut Out Over Refusal to Include Gays, Lesbians
76 year old group ordered to open membership to people of all faiths and beliefs
By Gudrun Schultz
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Birmingham University’s Christian Union members found themselves without funds or facilities recently, due in part to their refusal to include gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered persons in their constitution.
Christian Union (CU) members say their bank accounts were frozen and they were suspended from the Birmingham Guild of Students after they objected to making changes to their constitution. The students’ guild wanted them to open membership to people of all faiths and beliefs, and to ensure a Guild member sat on the Union’s board.
As well, they were asked to change the wording of their constitution, which refers to “men” and “women.” The CU was advised that use of the terms “men” and “women” could be seen as an exclusion of transsexual and transgendered people.
The Union is taking legal action against the Guild. Union members say they have agreed to redraft some policies, but they maintain the union should not be forced to open up membership for people who do not support their beliefs.
Andy Weatherley, who is a CU staff worker at the University, said all organizations within the student union should be allowed to restrict membership and leadership positions to those who fully share their beliefs, in an interview with the Guardian, including the CU.
“While our meetings are open to all people, believers and unbelievers, when it comes to being a voting member or leader of the Christian union we feel it is perfectly respectable to restrict access to people who call themselves Christians.”
Pod Bhogal is the communications director at the University and Colleges Christian Fellowship, which supports all Christian Unions in the country. He said the guild’s demands were “draconian” and said it was curtailing the unions freedom of speech.
“We would not dream of telling a Muslim group or apolitical society how to elect their leaders or who could or could not become a member, that’s entirely a matter to them, based on their own faith principles. The same applies to a CU.”
The Christian Union has been operating at the University for 76 years. It currently has over 100 regular members who participate.
Ontario Premier and Toronto Mayor Attack Conservatives on Child Care
By Terry Vanderheyden
TORONTO, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Toronto Mayor David Miller cautioned Prime-Minister-elect Stephen Harper to honour a promise by outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin to provide federally-funded day-care.
Miller highlighted that the Conservatives won no new seats in the major urban centres of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. “By Torontonians and people in Vancouver and Montreal voting for their cities, it sends a strong message that cities needs need to be addressed if you’re going to succeed electorally in the city,” Miller said, according to a Canadian Press report.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty added his suggestion that Harper reassure Ontarians by honouring the Liberal’s five-year commitment to expand day-care spaces.
Conservative intergovernmental affairs critic Rona Ambrose, who helped craft the Tory platform on child-care, said the Liberal’s proposal for free universal daycare was so under-budgeted that most parents would never see the program anyway. She said the program the Liberal’s envisioned would cost closer to $10 billion per year rather than the $1.2 billion they forecasted.
“They are setting up expectations that are not fair to Canadian families,” Ambrose told the Toronto Star. She said the Conservative plan to put money directly into the hands of parents was much more efficient. In addition, an additional proposal from the Conservatives offered a tax incentive to employers to build child care facilities for their employees.
Harper said he would honour the first year of the proposed Liberal deal by spending $1.9 billion to expand daycare.
McGuinty expressed doubt that Harper would be successful in his offer to reimburse parents directly with the $1,200 per child per year under the age of six, considering that they are in a minority position. “He’s going to need the support of the other parties to move that forward,” McGuinty said. “We’ll have to wait and see if in fact he can do that.”
Contact David Miller:
E-mail:
Toronto City Hall,
2nd Floor, 100 Queen St. West,
Toronto ON M5H 2N2
Phone: 416-397-CITY (2489)
Fax: 416-696-3687
Official Conservative Party Policy in Favour of Traditional Marriage
By John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, January 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - If you believe CBC News or the Conservative Party spokesman in New Brunswick prior to election day, the Conservative party is "not against same-sex marriage". In reality, official Conservative Party policy states explicitly that "A Conservative Government will support legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
A CBC News story last week, "Wayne, Conservatives disagree on same-sex marriage", tried to paint former Conservative MP Elsie Wayne, who is now campaigning for traditional marriage, as at odds with the party on the issue.
For comment the CBC went to Richard Bell, identified as the spokesman for the Party. CBC presented Wayne as speaking "against same sex marriage" and noting that "the party shared her views."
After quoting Wayne on the moral and other aspects of homosexuality unrelated to the party policy, the report goes back to Party representative Bell who told CBC "That certainly doesn't reflect anything that the Conservative Party of Canada holds as a value system, I can tell you that."
LifeSiteNews.com contacted Bell to ensure CBC quoted him accurately as saying the party is not against same sex marriage, and he said that was a fair assessment. "All that Stephen Harper has promised is that the House of Commons will have a free vote on the issue," Bell told CBC.
CBC ends with Wayne saying the party does hold a pro-marriage position without affirming that official party policy confirms her statment.
The official Conservative Party policy on the issue, passed by a 75% majority at the Conservative convention, states, "A Conservative Government will support legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
When LifeSiteNews.com read the policy to Bell he reacted saying, "How old is that?" When informed it was the policy agreed to at the founding and only convention of the new Conservative Party, Bell replied, "Yup, that's fine."
He explained the discrepancy noting he was referring to the party election platform which only emphasized the free vote promise rather than the overall support for traditional marriage stated in the Party policy book.
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