Tuesday January 18, 2000
See today’s LifeSiteNews stories
SURGE IN YOUTH CRIME CONTRADICTS ABORTION BENEFIT STUDY
Violent Youth Crime Up 77% in Canada
OTTAWA, Jan 18 (LSN.ca) – Late last month Statistics Canada reported that over the last ten years, violent crime has risen 77% among youth in Canada.
The above research is at polar opposites with the American research report on crime released last fall indicating that crime was at it’s lowest in 20 years in the United States, and alleging that abortion may be the champion of the cause. Here in Canada, youth crime is up, and significantly so. Abortion can therefore in no way be touted as having any kind of positive impact on Canadian society, as Dr. Henry Morgentaler very publicly alleged upon the release of the American report. It is important that this myth be just as publicly dismantled.
The increase in violent youth crime is most notable amongst adolescent girls 12 to 17 years of age (up 127%, from 2.1 per 1000 population in 1988 to 4.7 in 1998), but the rise amongst boys is also noteworthy (65%, from 8 per 1000 population in 1988 to 13.1 in 1998).
See the Stats Can report at:
https://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/991221/d991221c.htm
(with files from Isabelle Begin)
UN RADICAL FEMINIST COMMITTEE CONVENES
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 18 (LSN.ca) – Yesterday the 22nd session of the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) convened to complete its session by Feb., 4. The Committee will review the compliance reports of eight State parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The countries reporting include India, Myanmar; Jordan; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Belarus, Luxembourg, and Germany.
Angela King, Assistant Secretary- General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women informed the group yesterday that 24 of the 165 countries which have become party to the Convention have “indicated by signature that they were considering ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol” to CEDAW. The Protocol would legally bind countries to uphold CEDAW in every detail, which would include upholding the “reproductive rights of women” (including abortion), and would also include targeting any “culture and tradition” which stands in the way of this militant agenda.
The Optional Protocol will enter into force three months after 10 state parties to the Convention have ratified or acceded to it, putting CEDAW on par with other conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
For more from LifeSite on CEDAW see:
https://www.lsn.ca/ldn/1999/dec/99120804.html https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1998/july/980725.html
See yesterday’s report from the UN at:
https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000117.wom1154.doc….
NIECE’S TRIBUTE TO MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
BOSTON, Jan 18 (LSN.ca) – Alveda King, the niece of slain Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. honoured her uncle’s memory Sunday speaking at the 27th Annual Interfaith Assembly for Life, a pro-life project of the Massachusetts Citizens For Life. The anniversary of King’s death was celebrated Saturday.
Alveda, whose father was killed a year after her uncle, is often criticized by those who attempt to hijack her uncle’s memory for causes he would disdain. ”Dr. King came from a family of faith and he would have supported life,” said Alveda. A pro-life, pro-family woman who supports school vouchers, King answers those who argue her message contradicts that of her uncle saying, “‘A lot of people say, `How can you speak for him?’ Well, I’ll tell you what, it’s in the genes.” The Boston Globe reports that Alveda is the mother of six children and grandmother of four.
For more see the Boston Globe at:
https://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/017/metro/King_s_niece_cam…
RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS CONTROVERSY HEATS UP IN ONTARIO
TORONTO, Jan 18 (LSN.ca) – In response to a UN ruling saying that Ontario’s school system is discriminatory since it funds Catholic schools and no other religious schooling, the Canadian government has urged Ontario to fund schools of all religions. However Ontario Education Minister Janet Ecker obstinately refused to consider the proposal and said her stance against religious school funding will not change. “We’ve been very clear that our goal is a good quality public education system, and the estimates of $300 million needed to fund religious schools would be $300 million that would come out of the public school system,” Ecker said in an interview with the Toronto Star yesterday.
Adding to the controversy, Earl Manners, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), responded to the federal government’s suggestion with a veiled suggestion to scrap the Catholic school system in Ontario. “The solution to the United Nations’ ruling regarding the Ontario education funding formula is not a further fragmentation of the public system,” said Manners. “It is important to note,” he continued, “that the UN decision stated clearly that there is no obligation for the Ontario government to fund schools which are established on a religious basis,” implying that the Catholic system too can be stripped of funding. Manners’ solution to the problem of religious education was to have “Ontario’s schools promoting an understanding of and celebration of Ontario’s diverse cultures through support for heritage religious courses in public schools in the same manner that heritage language courses are currently provided.”
Critics of the public education strategy note that certain policies enshrined in public school would be at odds with the belief systems of the world’s major religions. Public school education’s promotion of the equality of homosexual cohabitation with normal family life, graphic sex education, the positive presentation of contraception and abortion, and the lack of discipline are seen incompatible with religious belief and even a danger to the religious upbringing of children.
See the report in the Toronto Star at:
https://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/news/20000118NEW02b…
See the OSSTF press release at:
https://www.newswire.ca/releases/January2000/17/c0613.html
CARDINAL EXPLAINS HOMOSEXUAL ACT IS “PERVERSE”
EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan 18 (LSN.ca) – Yesterday, Cardinal Thomas Winning, the top Catholic prelate in Scotland, pledged his support for those opposing the Scottish government’s effort to scrap laws against promoting homosexuality in schools. Cardinal Winning explained that children were being subjected to “explicit and perverted material”. “It pains me to use the word perverted when discussing the homosexual act but that it what it is,” said the Cardinal.
The cardinal noted that Brian Souter, a multi-millionaire businessman, who is funding the pro-family initiative with over a million dollars (CDN), has been targeted by the government and homosexualist activist groups who have called for a boycott of Stouter’s Stagecoach company.
Responding to critics who deny promotion of homosexuality in schools, Cardinal Winning said, “Gay rights groups always claim it is impossible to promote homosexuality. That is rubbish. It is promoted every day by promoting the lifestyles of gay people.”
See the report in the Electronic Telegraph at:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001851641145319&rtmo;=kLLkZA…
LIFESITE NEWSBYTES
Canada’s laws against child pornography face a real threat of being nullified at the Supreme Court in the case beginning today since legislators at the time of the law’s passage did not understand the dangerous permissiveness of the Charter of Rights. https://www.nationalpost.com/news.asp?s2=national&s3;=reporter
Planned Parenthood of New York has launched a new institute to promote abortion. The Othmer Institute, according to PPNY “promotes the advancement of reproductive freedom and healthy sexuality through innovative programs and ideas.” The group plans abortion promoting monthly ads in the New York Times. https://www.othmerinstitute.org/
The British Department of Health consultation document proposes to restrict spanking by disallowing corporal punishment with anything other than the hand, and smacking child’s head, eyes or ears would also be forbidden. https://www.canoe.ca/TopStories/spanking_jan18.html
With $100,000 in seed money, the University of Calgary has launched a new institute on gender research, which is expected to include studies on transsexuals. https://www.ucalgary.ca/unicomm/Media/NewsReleases/gender2.ht…
Tomorrow the US Supreme Court will begin hearings in the Hill v. Colorado case dealing with the constitutionality of bubble zones around abortuaries. https://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Jan/18/national/BUBB…
Catholic News Service reported yesterday that Neighbors for Life, a pro-life group in St. Paul, Minn, has accumulated nearly 20,000 signatures on a petition asking state legislators to ban the use of state tax money for abortion. It will present the petition to legislators at the end of January.
Scientists have announced the birth of a cloned monkey using a new cloning procedure. Rather than the cell nucleus transfer made famous with sheep Dolly, the new procedure involved a single monkey embryo was split into four pieces at an early stage of development and each piece developed into a separate embryo. https://msnbc.com/news/357051.asp