News

OTTAWA, December 9, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott filed two new pro-life motions on Friday in the hopes of opening a discussion leading to protections for Canada’s unborn children.

The Saskatchewan MP told LifeSiteNews.com that his motions arose out of his “big-time concern” for family and for the “young ones of our nation.”

“The most basic of all rights is the right to life. All the rest mean diddly-squat till that is secure for the most vulnerable among us,” he said.

Image

Motion-482 calls for an examination of Supreme Court rulings on abortion since 1988 so as to determine “Parliament’s responsibility” in legislating on abortion.

Motion-483 calls for a determination of what “legal protections Canada ought to provide to children before birth” in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in the country in 1991.

Pro-lifers welcomed the news, saying that the motions will fuel a needed national discussion on abortion.

“The fact that this is being discussed is good,” Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer for Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com. “The legal void that we have [on abortion] has left unborn children at the mercy of people who want to destroy them, and certainly that should be corrected.”

Vellacott said his motions will educate people about the country’s highest court and international law calling for the protection of children before birth.

“We [as a country] have nothing to run from and nothing to fear — or hide from — when we’re pursuing truth and seeking out truth,” he said.

Ever since the 1988 Morgentaler decision, which struck down the scant protections still afforded unborn babies after the 1969 Liberal government’s “Omnibus Bill”, children in the womb can legally be targeted for abortion during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason whatsoever.

But the court encouraged Parliament at that time to draft a new law.

“The solution to this [abortion] question in this country must be left to Parliament. It is for Parliament to pronounce on and to direct social policy. This is not because Parliament can claim all wisdom and knowledge but simply because Parliament is elected for that purpose in a free democracy,” stated Justice Bertha Wilson, a pro-abortion advocate, in the decision.

To this day Parliament has yet to pronounce on abortion. There is no so-called “right” to abortion, as abortion advocates claim, but simply a legal vacuum.

Vellacott may bring his motions before the House of Commons sooner than later on account of his making the private members' business priority list at the end of January.

The Toronto Star has predicted that both motions are “almost certainly doomed to fail” due to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s constant refrain of not opening the abortion debate.

With Vellacott having announced in July that he will not be seeking reelection, the two motions come as his very last legacy to the unborn.

 

Full texts of Vellacott’s motions:

M-482

December 6, 2013 — Mr. Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin) — That a special committee of the House be appointed to: (a) study the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada since 1988 related to children before birth in order to understand what the Supreme Court has said about Parliament’s responsibility with respect to resolving public policy questions in this area; (b) propose options that the House and/or the government could take to address any negative impact these decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada may have had, directly or indirectly, on women, men, children and Canadian society; and that the committee consist of twelve members which shall include seven members from the government party, four members from the Official Opposition and one member from the Liberal Party, provided that the Chair be from the government party; that in addition to the Chair, there be one Vice-chair from each of the opposition parties; that the committee have all of the powers of a Standing Committee as provided in the Standing Orders; that the members to serve on the said committee be appointed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and the membership report of the special committee be presented to the House no later than 20 sitting days after the adoption of this motion; that membership substitutions be permitted to be made from time to time, if required, in the manner provided for in Standing Order 114(2); and that the Committee report its recommendations to the House no later than 6 months after the adoption of this order.

M-483

December 6, 2013 — Mr. Vellacott (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin) — That a special committee of the House be appointed to determine what legal protections Canada ought to provide to children before birth, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada ratified in 1991, which states that “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth“; and that the committee consist of twelve members which shall include seven members from the government party, four members from the Official Opposition and one member from the Liberal Party, provided that the Chair be from the government party; that in addition to the Chair, there be one Vice-Chair from each of the opposition parties; that the committee have all of the powers of a Standing Committee as provided in the Standing Orders; that the members to serve on the said committee be appointed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and the membership report of the special committee be presented to the House no later than 20 sitting days after the adoption of this motion; that membership substitutions be permitted to be made from time to time, if required, in the manner provided for in Standing Order 114(2); and that the Committee present its final report to the House no later than 6 months after the adoption of this order.