Politics
Wednesday July 23, 2008
Order of Canada Advisory Committee Member Also Strong Embryonic Stem-Cell Research Advocate
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
OTTAWA, July 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The advisory council for the Order of Canada has been heavily criticised in recent weeks for its pro-abortion and far-left bias, especially since the decision to award the "centrepiece of Canada's honours system" to Canada's most notorious abortionist, Dr. Henry Morgentaler. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Beverley McLachlin, who heads the advisory council, is under severe criticism for having "brutishly" honoured Morgentaler by bulldozing the nomination through the advisory committee at the last minute.
Another member of the advisory council with connections to a major section of the anti-life movement is Yvan Guindon, the Director of the Bio-Organic Chemistry Laboratory at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), who is also a member of the board of directors of the Stem Cell Network - the government-funded research body that led the efforts to allow the creation and use of human embryos for research.
Guindon is a member of the Department of Chemistry at McGill University and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. He is also a member of the Order of Canada.
The Stem Cell Network was a major driving force behind the passage of Canada's Assisted Human Reproductive Technologies bill that allows the creation of living human beings at the embryonic stage to be used for experimental research.
Nowhere does the Stem Cell Network's ethics policy acknowledge the existence of any ethical objection to using living human beings at the embryonic stage for experimental research.
Rather, the Network states bluntly, "It is ethically acceptable to derive and use HESC lines from either frozen or non-frozen human embryos for research which aims to: develop cell replacement therapies, further other medical uses, treat human diseases, and prevent suffering."
Joseph Quesnel, writing in the Winnipeg Sun, said this week that the advisory council of the Order of Canada reads like a "who's who" of the Canadian left. Quesnel said that now that the "dust has settled" the focus of attention should be on the make-up of the Order's advisory council, which, as an independent body, may be free of "government entanglements" but cannot be considered without bias.
"While some appointments involve controversy, it is evident that the controversy skews one way... The advisory council needs some new blood or some shakeup," he wrote.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04061004.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.