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More Highlights from Canada's Morgentaler Order of Canada Media Debate

Michael Coren writes, "Future recipients are advised to wipe the blood off first."

Compiled by John Jalsevac

July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The following are more excerpts from some of the many articles and editorials that have appeared in Canadian newspapers in the last number of days regarding Henry Morgentaler 's Order of Canada appointment.

Moral order is easy to tear down, hard to build by David Warren - Columnist - Ottawa Sun
(http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=8d8634f7-4b2d-4847-8e5b-b...)

"Now, I am a Catholic, and my Church teaches that 'despair' is a sin (since it involves the abandonment of hope in eternity).

"So I opt instead for 'desolation,' which is not a sin, merely a psychological response to everything around one being in an advanced state of disintegration. For civilization requires, among other things, a general populace with moral ideas that cannot be altered by the slightest breeze.

"Alas, it also requires constant public reinforcement of those moral ideas, or they will in fact drift - since human beings are very prone to choose 'the easy way out,' and to tolerate the intolerable rather than make a fuss…

"The sad thing is that, while all trends are reversible, the amount of labour and sacrifice that will be required to rebuild a consensus in this country, in support of the moral order, is out of all proportion to the work that was needed to overturn it.

"It took centuries to inculcate such notions as 'you must not kill people to solve your problems,' or 'freedom requires constant vigilance.'

"It takes only a few years to throw them over, and the task of Sisyphus must begin again."
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Abort this award by Michael Coren - columnist - The Edmonton Sun
(http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2008/07/12/6137486-sun.html)

"The Order of Canada was supposed to be a public recognition of service and devotion to Canada.

"In recent years it has become a way for the liberal elites to reward their friends and those activists whose politics they support.

"So in a grotesque paradox perhaps Morgentaler really does deserve the thing. Future recipients are advised to wipe the blood off first."
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Should our top judge be choosing recipients of the Order of Canada? by Clifford Lincoln - freelance writer - The Gazette
(http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=478b56b1-633a...)

"If the Morgentaler episode teaches us one thing, it is that the Order of Canada process should be made more transparent and accountable. A larger pool of credible selectors representing a broad array of Canadian opinions and values should be created, from which a regular rotation should be established, to ensure balance, objectivity and true impartiality. What our most important award does not need are power-brokers who 'drive' selections, for whatever reason.

"In the prevailing circumstances, the rejection of the eminent and courageous Margaret Somerville speaks for itself. Somerville should treat it as a badge of honour."
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This woman's right to choose by Susanne Stubbs - freelance writer - National Post
(http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=652593)

"I travelled with four others to Rideau Hall in Ottawa to return an Order of Canada medal. A big part of me really did not want to go. I'd never done anything like this before - I'm not a social activist...

"Nevertheless, I made a choice. I made a choice to responsibly represent the Catholic community I help direct, Madonna House. This community had made a unanimous choice to return the medal, which had been given to its founder, Catherine de Hueck Doherty. My conscience told me that we were doing the right thing."
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Dr. Henry Morgentaler not who Canada should celebrate by Andy Cornell - assistant managing editor - Chatham Daily News
(http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1112709)

"[Morgentaler] may have saved a few women from horrible pain and even death resulting from back room abortions. But at what price? Those who trumpet this achievement are ignoring millions of lives snuffed out in the process.

"By defending Morgentaler's life of achievement, you are placing more value on convenience, momentary relief and the health and safety of a very small number of pregnant woman over the fundamental right to protect human life. There's a whole unseen world of carnage in hospitals every year that is conveniently out of sight. Talk about an inconvenient truth.

"That's not the stuff Canada should celebrate and hold up as an example of citizenship."
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A worthless Award by Karen Selick,  The National Post - July 15, 2008
(http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=654612)

The negative attention paid to this decorous institution has led some to ask: Is this the end of the Order of Canada as we know it?

Individual recipients of the Order of Canada can resign in protest if they can't tolerate being lumped in with some new recipient, but the rest of us have no such option available to make our distaste known.

Those who nominate politicians and controversial figures, knowing that their candidates have generated much opposition during the course of the careers they are supposedly being honoured for, and those who make the awards to such people, are simply bullies, shoving their opinions down the throats of those with no power to resist.

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