News

Monday February 14, 2000


SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print ArticlePrint



FAMILY GROUPS COMMENT ON CANADIAN PRO-HOMOSEXUAL BILL

OTTAWA, Feb 14 (LSN.ca) – Bill C-23 proposed in Parliament Friday has received condemnation by most family groups in the country. The bill, “An Act to modernize the Statutes of Canada in relation to benefits and obligations,” would amend 68 federal statutes, changing every occurrence of the term “spouse” to “spouse or common-law partner.”

The Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) says the bill “is not about fairness and equality; it represents the abolition of the institution of marriage. … We anticipate that in the very near future, the courts will use this legislation to order the legal sanction of marriages between homosexuals.” Janet Epp Buckingham, of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) said her group “has grave concerns that the unique status of marriage is being watered down.” The release notes that the group “is concerned that the omission of non-sexual domestic relationships may be discriminatory.”

“If this bill passes into law, marriage will for the first time be defined by ideology – not biology,” said Focus on the Family Canada (FOTF) President Dr. Darrel Reid. “Make no mistake about it. This proposed law strikes at the root of our legal, cultural, social and moral traditions. It represents a fundamental attack on marriage and the family as special institutions in Canada.” Reid also called for national public consultations on the bill. “Such profound changes,” he said, “demand that Canadians be given ample opportunity to express their views directly to MPs before it comes to a vote.

Giuseppe Gori, leader of the Family Coalition Party of Ontario called the bill “an attack to the traditional family and an attack on civilized society. … If same-sex families were ‘natural’, mankind would be extinct.” Ron Grey, leader of the Christian Heritage Party commented that the problem “is not that homosexual couples have been excluded from the “right” to be regarded as “equivalent-to-married”; the real problem goes back to the Federal Government’s earlier recognition of unmarried heterosexual couples as equivalent to married. They’re not. … The move to include same-sex couples in that category is a classic example of “slippery slope” politics: the first mistake begets much worse later mistakes.

Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition warned that the federal government would imitate the Ontario government in ramming through the legislation without allowing for public debate or perusal of the legislation. “Likely, they will also imitate Ontario in not recording the votes so the public cannot hold them accountable,” said Hughes. (see below for coverage of the ON law)

Bill C-23 will be available in the coming days at:
https://www.parl.gc.ca/36/2/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/gover…

The LifeSite coverage of Ontario’s hasty passage of homosexual laws:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/oct/991028a.html

A brief to MP’s on a “Suggested Approach to addressing issues of extending federal legislation to include same-sex partners” prepared by the EFC, CFAC, FOTF, the Catholic Civil Rights League, REAL Women Canada, and the Home School Defense Association is available at:
https://www.familyaction.org/JointBriefMPsamesex1.doc

For an action item on this issue:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/00021102.html


UN GROUP STRATEGIZES TO PROMOTE ABORTION AT BEIJING +5

LIMA, Peru, Feb 14 (LSN.ca) – Last week at a Feb 8-10 meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the regional group agreed on the position they will take to the upcoming Bejing +5 conference. The UN meeting, to be held in New York in June of this year UN, has been labeled: “Women in 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century.” The meeting in Lima served as the region’s preparation for the June meeting and the 400 participants from 45 countries adopted a “Lima Consensus” which included the promotion of abortion and sex-education under their usual synonyms “sexual and reproductive rights.”

Of the four main points from the Consensus mentioned in a UN report on the proceedings, the first two referred to the “need to”:

Reorient public policies, placing social and gender equity at the centre of governmental concerns;

Direct State policies so as to redress inequalities and to guarantee human rights of women and girls, particularly sexual and reproductive rights, devoting special attention to the most vulnerable groups.

See the UN document at:
https://www.eclac.cl/English/research/women/conf8/conf8.htm


VATICAN BLASTS UN PROMOTION OF ABORTION

VATICAN CITY, Feb 14 (LSN.ca) – Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Holy See Secretary for Relations with States, blasted the United Nations Friday for their support of abortion in a speech to the Pontifical Academy for Life. In this watershed talk, the bishop explains in some detail the dangers of the UN international conferences and their promotion of abortion and abortifacient contraception under the guise of “reproductive health” and “rights”.

He notes that the promotion of abortion at the UN was spawned by “two factors: first, apocalyptic forecasts of a population boom exceeding the resources of the planet and, second, a radical feminist ideology calling for women to have complete control over their own bodies, including any unborn children.”

Tauran points out that the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), the Population Fund (UNFPA), the Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Educational arm (UNESCO), and the World Trade Organization have all been guilty of promoting one or more of the atrocities of abortion, abortifacient birth control, and embryo experimentation.


COURT ORDERS JEWISH PHARMACIST TO SELL CONDOMS

MIAMI, Florida, Feb 14 (LSN.ca) – On Friday, a Miami 8-person jury ruled against an Orthodox Jewish pharmacist who sued his employer for firing him for not selling condoms. Pharmacist Hillel Hellinger, a Hassidic Jew and father of nine, sued Eckerd Pharmacy for discrimination against his religion and was seeking $100,000 in damages, mental anguish and back pay.

LifeSite reported last Tuesday that according to Hellinger, “condoms are not supposed to be used by a Jewish man because the sperm has to enter the woman.” He said that the pharmacy “could easily have accommodated him by moving the condom rack to another part of the store, or by allowing him to direct condom customers … to the cashier at the front of the store.” However the jury rejected the argument, agreeing that the refusal to sell condoms would have been an undue burden on the pharmacy.

See the Miami Herald report at:
https://www.herald.com/content/sat/news/dade/digdocs/085178.h…

For background on the story from LifeSite see:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/00020803.html


ABORTIONIST CARVER SETTLES OUT OF COURT

NEW YORK, Feb 14 (LSN.ca) – Dr. Allan Zarkin, an Ob/Gyn hired on as medical director of Choices Women’s Medical Center, an abortuary in Queens, just weeks after being fired for carving his initials into a patient’s stomach, has settled with his carving victim out of court. The New York Times reported Saturday that Liana Gedz will receive $1.75 million in exchange for her dropping her claim against Beth Israel Medical Center where Zarkin assaulted her. On September 7 last year after a Caesarean section, Zarkin carved AZ into her stomach reportedly because “he thought he did such a beautiful job, he thought [that] he should sign it.”

Zarkin had worked part time for the abortuary prior to his dismissal from Beth Israel. The center’s director, Merle Hoffman, did not conduct a legally mandated inquiry on Zarkin. The medic has pleaded innocent to charges of assault for which he would receive 5-25 year in prison.

For more background on this story see:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/feb/00020404.html


LIFESITE NEWSBYTES

Catholic World News reported that two days after Scottish Cardinal Thomas Winning succeeded in leading the British House of Lords to retain Section 28 which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools, the Scottish Parliament Thursday voted to scrap the legislation. https://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=46586

Further developments in Scotland this week have the Labour government trying to establish homosexual relationships on the same footing as heterosexual marriage with a bill regarding disability benefits. (The Times) https://www.the-times.co.uk./news/pages/sti/2000/02/13/stisco…

Church News reports that Catholic Bishops in Portugal are denouncing pro-homosexual legislation in the country which puts “de facto” union on par with marriages. https://www.eclesiales.org/english/index.html#17

Today is the ninth annual “Turn Off TV Day”. Morality in Media (MIM) asks that viewers turn off the tube on Valentine’s Day to publicize “the immorality of today’s television and get people to do something about it.” https://www.conservativenews.org/ViewCulture.asp?Page=Cultur…

In a provoking commentary distributed by Pro-Life E-News Joseph Sobran compares the use of fetal tissue with the savagery of cannibalism. https://www.lewrockwell.com/sobran/sobran33.html

The Express (London) reports that Australian researchers from the Antarctic Co-operative Research Centre have found that claims that global warming will melt polar ice caps and flood much of Britain have been wildly exaggerated. https://www.lineone.net/express/00/02/14/news/n2740icecap-d.h…


US NEWS ROUNDUP

Conservative News Service reported that Pat Robertson, the director of the Christian Coalition attacked the presidential candidacy of Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday, saying that if McCain wins the GOP nomination it “could devastate the Republican Party.” https://www.conservativenews.org/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=Polit… POL20000213c.html

The Washington Times reports today that New York tycoon Donald Trump has decided against running for president. https://www.washtimes.com/national/news3-021400.htm


SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print ArticlePrint


0 Comments

    Loading...