Wednesday March 20, 2002
See today’s LifeSiteNews stories- COMMITMENT TO VOTING ON SECOND BALLOT WILL WIN ONTARIO PC LEADERSHIP
- MEDIA CIRCUS OVER CATHOLIC SCHOOL BANNING STUDENT’S HOMOSEXUAL DANCE PARTNER
- PAMPHLET PURPORTING TO SUPPORT FLAHERTY LIKELY AN ANTI-FLAHERTY PLANT
- FOCUS ON THE FAMILY GIVES FACTS ON HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTIONS
- EVEN SOME PRO-ABORTION GROUPS HAVE PROBLEMS WITH HUMAN EMBRYO CLONING
- OKLAHOMA HOUSE PASSES LEGISLATION ALLOWING ABORTIONISTS TO BE SUED FOR LACK OF INFO
- LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
- US NEWS ROUNDUP
COMMITMENT TO VOTING ON SECOND BALLOT WILL WIN ONTARIO PC LEADERSHIP
Voting Day Details Announced
TORONTO, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Polls are now predicting a tight two person race between current Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and former Finance Minister Ernie Eves in the Ontario Progressive Conservative Leadership election to be held Saturday. Moreover, political pundits are convinced that the candidate with the most committed supporters – willing to show up for a second or even third ballot vote – will win the election.
LifeSite has learned that the first ballot vote will take place from 8 -11am in designated polling stations in each of the 103 Ontario ridings. The second ballot vote will not begin before 1 p.m. and would last one hour. Third-ballot voting would not begin before 4:30 PM and would last for one hour. (The actual start time will be confirmed prior to commencement of second-ballot voting) – If further ballots are required, details will be announced on Saturday. However, the Party has warned that there may be delays due to computer glitches with the counting of the first ballot votes.
Each riding will be worth 100 points for a total of 10,300, distributed according to the percentage won in the riding by each candidate. The winning total will be 5,151 points. Any candidate with less than 10 per cent must drop off the next ballot.
In terms of the two identified front-runners in the election, Flaherty has declared himself pro-life while Eves has declared himself ‘pro-choice’.
See the coverage of the race in the Toronto Star:
https://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=…
See PC Party press release
https://www.newswire.ca/releases/March2002/20/c2598.html
See the LifeSite PC Leadership Election page
https://www.lifesitenews.com/clc/elections/ontpcleadership2002/in…
MEDIA CIRCUS OVER CATHOLIC SCHOOL BANNING STUDENT’S HOMOSEXUAL DANCE PARTNER
Puzzling Comments by Archdiocesan Spokeswoman Lack Clear Moral Direction
OSHAWA, ON, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The media in Canada has created a firestorm over an Oshawa Catholic high school’s denial of a 17-year-old student’s request to have his 21-year-old homosexual “boyfriend” as his prom date, which is in clear violation of Catholic teaching. The story was covered by most Canadian media outlets including the country’s largest circulation Toronto Star, the Sun chain of papers and one of the national papers, the Globe and Mail.
Michael Powers, principal of Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School, told student Marc Hall that allowing a homosexual date for the prom would contravene Church teaching and school policy. The Durham Region Catholic School Board upheld the decision. Paul Prulla, the board superintendent said, “By allowing (Hall) to bring (a male date) to the prom we would be condoning a lifestyle that is incongruent with the teachings we are expected to uphold.”
While homosexual activist groups condemned the school for discrimination, the Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) commended the school’s actions. However, comments by the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Toronto seemed noncommittal.
Suzanne Scorsone, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Toronto was quoted in the media as saying: “Essentially the Catholic Church teaches that for a romantic sexual relationship to be acted out, it belongs in a marriage and the only recognized marriage is between a man and a woman. How this is interpreted in an educational environment is up to the school board to decide. It is up to school officials to decide if attendance at a prom amounts to courting behaviour of a sexual nature.”
In comments to LifeSite, CCRL President Dr. Thomas Langan, said, “The CCRL congratulates the Durham Catholic school board for being what it is supposed to be, an upholder of basic morality.” Dr. Langan noted that “The great monotheistic religions have always opposed sexual relations outside of the bond of marriage which supplies stability for children conceived from sexual relations within the marriage relationship. It is crystal clear that the Catholic Church has no reason to deviate from this clear understanding of the primary purpose of the sexual act. Consequently, genuinely Catholic institutions cannot condone acts which contradict this ancient, widely understood moral principle.”
Commenting on the fact that various students at the school were supporting Hall’s campaign to have a homosexual date at the prom, Dr. Langan said, “We simply wish that more of the students educated in the Catholic school system understood the truly loving and caring teachings that the Church offers individuals with homosexual inclinations.”
See the coverage in the Star, the Globe and the Sun:
https://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=… /Article_PrintFriendly&c;=Article&cid;=1016579096409
https://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/printarticle/…
https://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-03-20-0015.html
PAMPHLET PURPORTING TO SUPPORT FLAHERTY LIKELY AN ANTI-FLAHERTY PLANT
TORONTO, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – A controversial pamphlet, poorly produced and unsigned, has conveniently facilitated a media storm around the Ontario PC Leadership election. Under the heading Pro-Life or Pro-Death, the badly photocopied pamphlet says that candidate Tony Clement’s wife, Lynne Golding, “is a known lawyer for abortionists” and “Believes the murder of innocent children is permissible in certain circumstances.”
Mr. Clement reacted with outrage to the pamphlet. Mary-Ellen Douglas, President of Campaign Life Coalition Ontario, was interviewed by media and confirmed that CLC had nothing to do with the pamphlet and certainly would have nothing to gain from such an exercise of poor judgement. CLC has also confirmed with the various campaigns that it was not in any way responsible for the pamphlet and assured them that CLC always identifies its material.
Sources from two different camps suggested to LifeSite that this could be a plant intended to affect the outcome of the Leadership vote. The timing of the pamphlet, its unprofessional style and the fact that it was delivered to media outlets only and, not as far as is known, delivered to grassroots Tory members, all suggest foul play.
See the CP coverage:
https://www.canada.com/toronto/story.asp?id={F83000FF-BACC-44…
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY GIVES FACTS ON HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTIONS
COLORADO SPRINGS, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Following the promotion of homosexual adoptions by the American Academy of Pediatrics and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family countered these views.
Dobson, heard by 7.5 million listeners each week, emphasized the important role mothers and fathers play in parenting on his national daily broadcast this week and discussed the facts surrounding this critical matter. He said:
— The AAP’s endorsement of homosexual parenting is NOT supported by the research. Drs. Robert Lerner and Althea Nagai, professionals in the field of quantitative analysis, examined 49 empirical studies on same-sex parenting. They found no basis for the conclusion that children raised by homosexual parents fare just as well as those raised by homosexual parents. They found serious methodological flaws in each of the studies examined, including inadequate sample size, biased sample selection, lack of proper control groups and the failure to account for confounding variables. Indeed, the AAP’s own report began with this statement, “Accurate statistics regarding the number of parents who are gay or lesbian are impossible to obtain.”
— The AAP’s committee’s recommendations have ignited a firestorm of protest among America’s rank and file pediatricians. Many physicians have condemned the report, challenging its assumptions and criticizing the research cited by the committee as “seriously flawed.” Some pediatricians have pulled out of the organization and many others are threatening to as well. The AAP reportedly conducted a poll regarding the issue on their “members only” Web site, and 75 percent of those responding strongly disagreed with the committee’s report.
— Children raised by homosexual parents are more likely to experience gender and sexual confusion, more likely to become promiscuous and more likely to experiment with homosexual behavior. They are also at greater risk of losing a parent to AIDS, substance abuse or suicide.
— Children raised in a stable, married, heterosexual home do better than children raised in any other type of household. They are healthier physically and emotionally, do better academically, experience less poverty and commit fewer crimes.
— Children need both a mother and a father. Why? Sociologist David Popenoe of Rutgers University has done extensive research on the different functions that mothers and fathers play in their children’s lives. His studies show that while fathers tend to stress competition, challenge, initiative and risk-taking, mothers stress emotional security and personal safety. When disciplining, mothers provide important flexibility and sympathy, while fathers provide predictability and consistency. By nature, same-sex couples are unable to provide one-half of this equation.
See the Focus on the Family release at:
https://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/first/0319-125.html
EVEN SOME PRO-ABORTION GROUPS HAVE PROBLEMS WITH HUMAN EMBRYO CLONING
SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Over 100 liberal constituency leaders, health experts, and others have issued an “Open Letter on Human Cloning and Eugenic Engineering” calling on the United States Senate to pass legislation imposing a strong ban on the creation of human clones and a moratorium on the creation of clonal human embryos for research.
“We need to ensure that these powerful new genetic technologies don’t spin out of control and undermine social justice and democracy,” said Dr. Marcy Darnovsky, Associate Executive Director of the Center for Genetics and Society, which released the letter. “Human cloning could be a gateway to a frightening new kind of eugenics, where discrimination and inequality are permanently written into our genetic code.”
Signers of the letter are concerned that the widespread production of clonal embryos would increase the likelihood that some would be used to create full-term human clones, and that cloning technology would make it easier to alter the genetic nature of the human species.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on cloning in April.
See the full letter and signatories at:
https://www.genetics-and-society.org/resources/cgs/2002_open_…
OKLAHOMA HOUSE PASSES LEGISLATION ALLOWING ABORTIONISTS TO BE SUED FOR LACK OF INFO
OKLAHOMA CITY, March 20, 2002 (LSN.ca) – On Monday the Oklahoma House overwhelmingly passed a bill to allow a woman to sue a doctor after an abortion if the doctor does not provide enough information before the procedure. The Oklahoman reports that House Bill 2677, which passed 95-1, would grant women a “cause of action” against physicians who fail to provide information before the surgery about the physical and emotional risks of abortion.
Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, said the bill is necessary to keep doctors from “tricking” or coercing women to have abortions without telling them the ramifications.
See the coverage in the Oklahoman:
https://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=836676&pic;=non…
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
HERITAGE MINISTER SHEILA COPPS HOLDS PRIVATE MEETINGS WITH HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS
https://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=F93E3259-3886…
HARRIS CONFIRMS HE WILL NOT ENTER FEDERAL POLITICS
Bourque News quoted remarks outgoing Ontario Premier Mike Harris made on Ottawa radio this morning. “I never wanted to be a full time politician …. there are other challenges in life … I’m always going to speak out … there’s a problem with a lack of a united opposition … but I’m going to leave federal politics for others,” said Harris.
STUDY: BRITAIN SPLIT ON WHETHER ABORTION IS IMPORTANT ISSUE
Half of all British voters don’t consider a candidate’s stance on abortion when casting their ballots, according to a poll commissioned by the country’s largest private abortion agency and released Tuesday.
https://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=ForeignB…
US NEWS ROUNDUP
CLINTON APPOINTED SURGEON GENERAL TO GIVE ADDRESS AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD CONFERENCE
https://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/first/0320-109.html
CATHOLIC TEACHER SUING UNION FOR REQUIRING FEES WHICH SUPPORT ABORTION
https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,48206,00.html
CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE ABORTIFACIENT MORNING AFTER PILL LAUNCHED TODAY
https://www.backupyourbirthcontrol.org
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS BLAST ASSOCIATED PRESS ‘FETUS’ STORY
Several members of Congress are criticizing the Associated Press for its use of the term “fetus” in a news story to describe a fully-born human infant, completely outside his or her mother’s womb.
https://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=Culturearchive…