OTTAWA, July 8, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Most Rev. Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Halifax, and Chairman of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF), has sent a letter on behalf of COLF to Federal Justice Minister Anne McLellan regarding the lack of Government leadership on marriage and the current legislative vacuum on the reproductive and genetic technologies.
Bishop Prendergast said COLF leaders were “very disappointed that the Government has chosen not to appeal the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal that allows same-sex partners to marry.” The letter also noted that they were “genuinely shocked at the media reports that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)” is set to fund embryonic stem cell research. “We are equally troubled that you, as the Minister of Health, have apparently done nothing to stop them when the House of Commons is in the process of deciding whether this highly controversial research should even be permitted,” said the letter.
The letter concluded, “The Government's lack of response to the move by CIHR is looking disturbingly familiar to the Government's failure to protect marriage. Once again, a small unelected body appears to be making significant social policy at the expense of the democratic process.”