News

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

TORONTO, September 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With both Canada and the US in the midst of election campaigning, the upcoming international pro-life conference “Creating a Culture of Life” will feature a timely  political panel discussion hosted by Members of Parliament Tom Wappel and Jeff Watson and former MP Pat O’Brien.

Tom Wappel has been a Liberal member of the House of Commons since 1988, representing the Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest. He is a staunch social conservative and has opposed all of the Liberal government’s anti-family legislation.

Wappel opposed the Chrétien government’s decision to extend anti-discrimination protection to homosexuals in 1994, and was a prominent opponent of the Martin government’s 2005 same-sex marriage legislation, which he described as “discriminatory, a sham, and a hoax.” Now as a member of the Official Opposition, he has renewed his call for abortion legislation, describing Canada as “the only western democracy that has absolutely no law whatsoever when it comes to protecting the unborn child.”

Jeff Watson is the current Conservative Member of Parliament for the Essex electoral district in Ontario.

Mr. Watson lives out his pro-life convictions not only in his political life, but also in his private life, where he is married and the father of four children.

Mr. Watson has confronted life and family issues as varied as the Liberal government’s 2004 attempted censure of constitutional freedoms, when they threatened the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches’ charitable statuses for expressing their constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and, most recently, the decision to award Henry Morgentaler with the Order of Canada. About the Morgentaler decision he said, “This decision dishonours both our nation and the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada should be bestowed on those who seek to save and value life not on those who promote a culture of death.”

Former Liberal MP and now life and family activist Pat O’Brien is well know to most Canadian pro-lifers, especially from his consistent presence at the annual Canadian March for Life in Ottawa .

Mr. O’Brien was one of the fiercest opponents of same-sex marriage legislation in the Liberal caucus, along with Tom Wappel. He frequently chastised then Prime Minister Paul Martin for not allowing a free vote among his Cabinet on Bill C-38, the act to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada.

Acting on his principles, O’Brien eventually quit the Liberal Party to sit as an Independent, because of the party’s ramming through of bill C-38.

To hear these and many other bold and dynamic speakers at this year’s international pro-life conference “Creating a Culture of Life”, please register now.

Call Campaign Life Coalition at (416)204-9749 or 1-800-730-5358 or register on line at  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08072505.html