By John Jalsevac
July 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A political cartoon in a Canadian newspaper shows a can labeled “Canada’s abortion debate.” A hand holding the trademark “snowflake,” the physical Order of Canada award, is depicted applying the award to the top of the can, in the manner of a can opener. The message is clear: by giving Morgentaler the Order of Canada, the Governor General has opened wide the tightly closed lid of Canada’s abortion debate.
Canada’s newspapers and airwaves are awash with articles, interviews and programs discussing the pros and cons of abortion, and debating whether or not Canada’s arch-abortionist should have been awarded the country’s highest civic honour.
The following are some highlights from just a few of the articles on the issue appearing in Canada’s newspapers:
Who’s ready to return their snowflake? by columnist Colby Cosh – National Post
(https://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=630273)
“[Morgentaler’s] admission to the Order will not convince one person that he is right, nor diminish the ardour of his opponents. It can only create the impression that the Order is being used to argue for a particular position in a controversy, rather than to reflect genuinely shared values. And if this becomes its function, Canadians will be entirely right to hold it in contempt.”
Send back the pin by columnist John Robson – Ottawa Citizen
(https://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=0a0b81b3-4b1c-4330-a070-ac4ad3e5545f)
“The point here is that the real reason for supporting his award isn’t that [Morgentaler’s] controversial, it’s that he’s an abortionist. And it’s no excuse for pushing it through that he’s unwell and it cannot be given posthumously. If there is no afterlife there’s little point rushing to collect attractive coffin decorations and if there is, that little white lapel pin will not help him face his accusers on the other side.
“Sorry, was that divisive? Well, so was this award, which amounts to endorsing his position on abortion in a deliberately offensive manner…
“Feminist Judy Rebick said ‘For me, it’s got a symbolic importance that it was announced on Canada Day.’ Exactly. It symbolized a slap in the face from official Canada to millions of Canadians for whom widespread abortion is a transcendent horror.
“If you have an Order of Canada, send it back.”
A Majestic Bellyflop by columnist Michael Harris – Ottawa Sun
(https://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Harris_Michael/2008/07/04/6060406.html)
“By elevating Henry Morgentaler, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Co. have performed a majestic belly flop. They have bestowed a national honour on a mere personal favourite. They have also reminded us that the soft underbelly of the Establishment in Canada continues to be liberal, smugly self-satisfied, and contemptuous of those lacking in cultural evolution…
“The tasteless ostentation of their zeal to put a boot to the throat of the pro-life movement has done nothing but re-energize a bitter debate over the most basic issues of personal freedom and powers of life and death. Morgentaler’s critics have already seen his public honour as a sign of moral decay led in part by a remorseless extremist. Not exactly the kind of emotions the Order of Canada was designed to inspire.
“As a caller to my talk show put it, anyone who gets an Order of Canada should be able to have a school named after them. Henry Morgentaler High? Hmmm.”
Morgentaler is no hero—women who don’t abort are by columnist Naomi Lakritz – Calgary Herald
(https://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/columnists/story.html?id=68e6b899-3d11-465b-8be4-ec81faa18500)
“The melodramatic mantle of heroism that the pro-choice side drapes about Morgentaler’s shoulders is intolerably phoney. Heroes rescue people. Morgentaler, who has helped make it open season on the unborn, has rescued no one and condemned thousands…
“No – the real heroes will never get an Order of Canada. They’re the unsung women who, finding themselves with an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy, take responsibility for their actions, and either alter their plans to include a baby in their lives or give the baby up for adoption. They’re true heroes because they understand that there is a profound difference between life – and mere lifestyle.”
Today’s math quiz: How many deaths goes into an award for Morgentaler? blog post by Karen Hawthorne – National Post
(https://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/07/03/kelly-mcparland-opposition-to-morgentaler-s-order-is-wide-and-deep-and-intense.aspx)
“I get the feeling Dr. Morgentaler has a selective respect for the rights of others. The rights of women who agree with his views are paramount. The rights of unborn children are non-existent. The beliefs of women who disagree with him are to be dismissed; any religion which advocates against his views is to be disregarded; the qualms of those Canadians appalled at the carnage that has flowed from his work are to be ignored. I suspect – and I’m just guessing – that what’s important to Dr. Morgentaler is his beliefs alone. Others’ beliefs are inconsequential. Maybe this callousness is what lets him so easily take life away from so many.
“Here’s someone whose life’s achievement is in enabling women to abort their children and justify it to themselves as something other than what it appears to be. One or two other people in history have deliberately set in motion the mass termination of so many helpless lives, but outside of war they aren’t treated with high regard. Certainly I don’t think they’d qualify for the Order of Canada.”
Morgentaler’s Order of Canada a symbol of moral decay by columnist Ian Hunter – National Post
(https://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=627509)
“[Morgentaler] will not be forgotten, nor should he be, nor the evil he has perpetrated. But the greater story – even in as pathetic a country as Canada – is not his, it is Humanae Vitae (1968) and the final triumph of life over the culture of death.
“The words of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae will be pondered by those who come after us (assuming that there are any) when the Order of Canada has been mercifully and deservedly forgotten.
“‘To [governments] is committed the responsibility of safeguarding the common good … Never allow the morals of your people to be undermined. Never tolerate those practices which are opposed to the natural law of God.’”
“And – might I add – do not honour men without honour.”
Every child a gift from God opinion column by Theo Caldwell – National Post
(https://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=628496)
“At my age, and with my middling skills, I have not been graced with the time or talent to have attained such a prestigious award. But if I had, and if the same folks who honoured me then chose to celebrate a man for snuffing out little lives, I like to think I would waste no time in telling them where to stick their snowflake. I was proud that my father removed his own hard-earned Order of Canada immediately upon hearing of Morgentaler’s accolade.”
Unmasking what lies behind ‘pro-choice’ column by Stephanie Gray – Calgary Herald
(https://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=6409f554-5ef8-4dbd-bc89-f8514903cb6f)
“If this is the first time Canadians are feeling shame about celebrating Canada Day, then we have problems.
“People should have been reluctant to celebrate Canada Day back in 1969, when abortion first became legal. The problem to which our limited attention should be drawn is not awarding Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada, but the genocide of a group of people who are being denied their right to life simply because of their age. Their fate is to be dismembered, disemboweled and decapitated.
“Morgentaler’s award is simply a symptom of a more deeply rooted crisis.”
Politicizing the Order of Canada – Editorial – Calgary Herald
(https://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=e2c65f69-7ded-415b-9438-f69e5ed3e128)
“One could hardly imagine a more divisive gesture than awarding the Order of Canada to Dr. Henry Morgentaler. Canada’s highest honour is typically bestowed upon citizens who by their life and work have earned the widespread respect – and, in a very large number of cases, also the affection – of their fellow countrymen.
“That hardly applies to Morgentaler, however. He may be a hero to one side of Canada’s most controversial issue – abortion – but to the other he is a murderer of unborn babies, a man upon whose hands there is much blood.
“Why, then, would a majority of the order’s advisory council and the Governor General herself choose to mark a day celebrating national unity by deeply offending half the country?”