The Shotgun Blog
« Tapes to be released soon, I'm sure | Main | Moral Equivalency In Pictures »
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Morgentaler and Canada' 'tolerance'
Regardless of what one thinks about the University of Western Ontario’s awarding of an honorary degree to abortionist Henry Morgentaler, any clear-thinking person should experience a degree of nausea upon learning what UWO vice-president Greg Moran said about the abortionist. Here’s how the Globe is reporting this morning’s big event: University vice-president Greg Moran, introducing Dr. Morgentaler, reminded those in the audience that debate is a key element in a liberal education and important to the formation of a strong society. "Canada is quickly becoming one of the world's most diverse and pluralistic countries, with disparate, sometimes conflicting, traditions associated with many ethnic, religious and political practices," he said. "If we are to sustain and evolve a humane, caring and tolerant society within such diversity, we will rely on open, courageous, respectful and civil debate. We could ask for no better example of the practice and success of such methods." Moran’s statement suggests that he believes Morgentaler’s courage, respectful manner and civil debating style led to the "success" of pro-choice movement, which is proof the country can "evolve" into a humane, caring and tolerant society. Give me a break. The abortion wars of the 1980s were harsh and divisive, and the wounds are still raw today. Despite what Jean Chretien said, there is no "social peace" on abortion. What’s also galling is the fact that, in the name of "choice," tolerance for the pro-life point of view is disappearing. Protesters from one end of the country to the other are severely restricted by bubble-zone laws and injunctions. The mainstream media ignore their big rallies. And I’ve even heard pro-choicers argue that anti-abortionists are, by definition, anti-female, and, therefore, should be subject to human-rights prosecutions on the grounds they discriminate against women. So much for Canada’s evolution into a tolerant society.
Posted by Terry O'Neill on June 16, 2005 in Current Affairs | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515b5d69e200d834238b5e53ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Morgentaler and Canada' 'tolerance':
» A Funny Kind of Tolerance from Fighting On the Beaches
As the Shotgun notes Henry Morgentaler has been given an honorary degree by the University of Western Ontario [Read More]
Tracked on 2005-06-16 2:53:15 PM
Comments
Mr. Moran's comments are even more galling when one considers that it is at university campuses across Canada that the efforts to silence discourse are the worst. Restrictions and financial burdens are loaded onto any attempt at expressing a pro-life viewpoint. Students are forced to mount legal challenges just to have their voices heard.
One more point about the Morgentaler award. At the ceremony he is quoted as having said,"Well-loved children grow into adults who do not build concentration camps, do not rape and do not murder," said Morgentaler, who himself survived a Nazi death camp.
Henry used his moment in the spotlight today to claim that because of his efforts Canada has a lower rate of crime, child abuse, "The most important factor is that there are fewer unwanted children, fewer children likely to be abused, brutalized or neglected ... children so victimized they may grow up for a thirst for vengeance which seeks an outlet in violence," he said.
My word. Is he saying that Canada should thank him for inflicting the death penalty on unborn criminals? It was this type of eugenic thinking that led to the Nazi death camps he most famously survived.
Posted by: Servant | 2005-06-16 11:01:03 AM
So he has only aborted future violent offenders? He must be a hero, then. But how exactly did he make sure of that? Does he have a crystal ball to tell him what the fetus would have grown up to be? Or does he simply look at the mother and conclude that she would undoubetedly raise a violent offender unless he abort the fetus? This kind of nonsensical groupthink brought this liberal-secular child of the '80s into the Pro-Life camp.
I am a Western alumni, and can't wait for the next fund raising phone call...
Posted by: NCF TO | 2005-06-16 12:01:45 PM
"Well-loved children grow into adults who do not build concentration camps, do not rape and do not murder."
Indeed. Even adopted ones.
Posted by: Chris Selley | 2005-06-16 12:38:37 PM
Shouldn't women be outraged at Morgantaler's comments today? He all but said flat-out that every (or at least most) woman who has had an abortion would not have loved their children, would have abused them, their children would have turned to violence, etc. Can you think of a more atrocious thing to say to a woman -- hell, any human being -- than that?
"If you love your child, abort it!"
Liberal thinking in action.
What a piece of trash. Glad that's not my alma matter.
Posted by: Ian in NS | 2005-06-16 12:53:02 PM
Morgentaller's comments prove that he is not simply an abortionist or a pro-abortion hero; he is a practitioner of the vile science of Eugenics. The Western administration is either too stupid to realize this, or they actually believe in Eugenics.
Sad thing is, the idiots in the anti-death-penalty camp will defend Morgentaller to the end, without realizing that Morgentaller, by his own admission, actively practices the preventative death penalty.
Posted by: NCF TO | 2005-06-16 12:59:28 PM
Returning to the issue of censorship, the pro-life movement never had a chance. Preferential access to government funding to promote the politically preferred pro-choice agenda has been as effective as legislation at directing and controlling public perception on this issue.
Posted by: BC Dad | 2005-06-16 1:08:00 PM
Michael Coren had a very good piece about H.G. Wells recently. Wells' writing 100 years ago was admired as progressive and evolved. People who read his non-fiction books, in which he advocated eugenics and openly talked about the need to rid society of undesirables like visible minorities, were considered enlightened. One hundred years later, even those who still admire Wells, keep quiet about his views as they are seen as unacceptable by today's standards and hardly progressive.
Maybe a century from now people will look back at the mass slaughter of unborn babies and wonder how such a practice was ever seen as progressive and "caring." It seems that every century has huge inconsistencies in the value systems of its people and leaders.
Shouldn't Morgentaler be viewed as anti-Canadian by the intellectual elites? After all, abortions endanger the health of women who have them. Secondly, Uncle Morgie's private clinics are hardly the stuff of utopian public health care. Thirdly, Morgie is profiting from the desparation of women who have abortions. He's a cold-hearted partriarchal capitalist.
Posted by: Michael Dabioch | 2005-06-16 1:16:29 PM
Steve Sailer and "Freakonomics".
http://www.amconmag.com/2005_05_09/feature.html
Posted by: DJ | 2005-06-16 1:36:00 PM
I'd say the abortion issue is dead in the water and only kept alive by a zany minority. The fact of the mater is Canadians have accepted that pro-choice is a good stance. Pro-choice doesn't mean you support abortion, but if faced with the conundrum they feel people will make the right choice.
The pro-lifers just want to jam their beliefs down the throats of anyone who disagrees with them. Rape, incest, physical, mental deformities they don't care. Life over common sense and humanity is the only option.
Posted by: Gamblog | 2005-06-16 1:54:11 PM
Thanks for the comments Gamblog - proves again how inane the pro-abort argruments really are.
Pro-aborts love to talk about being tolerant and wanting everyone to speak their mind on the abortion issue but working with pro-life groups at universities and colleges for over 4 years now, that's definitely not true.
They censor us, deny us funding, prevent us from speaking on campus while at the same time honouring pro-aborts like Dr. Morg.
Perhaps, if these schools really celebrated diversity, they would invite pro-lifers to receive honourary awards for their work in the pro-life movement. Better yet, they would show that graduating class exactly what abortion looks like and does to the unborn child.
If you want to talk about forcing your morality on others Gamblog, take a look at what abortion does to the unborn. By keeping abortion legal, you force your morality on them.
Posted by: Buhay | 2005-06-16 2:04:00 PM
Mr. Morgentaler is the classic case of the abused becoming the abuser. My mother grew up about 60 km from the events depicted in the film "Schinderler's List". Her hometown was about 180 km due west of Auschwitz, in effect downwind of the death camps. We won't be taking any lessons on the substance and nature of the ultimate child abuse.
You don't remove abuse by becoming the abuser!!
A rather fatal flaw in Mr. Morgentaler's de-"humanistic" thinking. The german flaw was to dehumanize a class of people known as Jews. Mr. Morgentaler's flaw is to dehumanize the unborn.
An Allied officer who was billeted in my father's, boyhood home suggested at the end of WWII: "The only mistake Hitler made was that he did not kill all the Jews." This statement was made after the news of the death camps had come out and my father was decommissioned from the Hitler Youth.
By extension Mr. Morgentaler has suggested that the way to solve child abuse; is to kill unwanted children. Hardly a compassionate response, but rather a bitter reflection of a view of human life that should have died out long ago.
The process of de-humanization is again reflected in the genocide currently occuring in Darfur, Sudan. The motivations differ, the end result is the same the destruction of human life. It is the steadfast refusal to recognize the human "other"; betrays the bankruptcy in Mr. Morgentaler's thinking and the death knell apotheosis of so called classical liberal thought in our universities.
Posted by: Hans Rupprecht | 2005-06-16 2:11:51 PM
If you are willing to kill the physically and mentally deformed before birth then why abhore their kiling after birth?
Henry Friedlander's "The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution", states "The attack on handicapped patients in state hospitals and nursing homes had opened in 1933 with sterilization and a reduced standard of care. When war started on 1 September 1939, the machinery to kill the handicapped was in place and the killings began. And just as the sterilization legislation enacted against the handicapped was followed by that enacted against Jews and Gypsies, the murder of the handicapped would be followed by the murder of Jews and Gypsies...it had become customary to refer to them as "life unworthy of life."
Only common sense really.
Posted by: DJ | 2005-06-16 2:16:43 PM
Gamblog: "The fact of the mater is Canadians have accepted that pro-choice is a good stance."
What does that make me - Mexican? This is why liberals are worse than dictators - not only do they tell you what you should think, they tell you what you DO think! If you haven't noticed, this is exactly how Paul Martin operates - he constantly tells Canadians what Canadians want (which is always what he needs to hold power).
Posted by: NCF TO | 2005-06-16 2:18:33 PM
"Fourth Trimester Abortion"?
Posted by: NCF TO | 2005-06-16 2:33:02 PM
Gamblog, wish you could be ever so slightly more thoughtful about the vomit you spew forth in these threads. Really, do you seriously mean the tripe you type?
Take a lesson in "potential." Frankly, you can apply it to anything, but nothing moreso than humanity - the infinite potential. Basically, by making such inane statements, you profess that there is NO potential to a certain class of unborn citizen, that they WILL turn out a specific way due to their auspicious beginnings, and that only the elimination of said non-potential being could be of any use due to its downstream pseudo-positive impact on a fully-formed (luckily) citizen.
I'm sure glad noone prescribed that treatment to my teenage mother when I was conceived out of wedlock. God knows I haven't contributed to society by paying an exorbitant amount of taxes and raising (hopefully) balanced children in a happy two-parent home. According to you and Henry, my situation is technically impossible. I should be off murdering people somewhere. But I'm sure I'm just in the minority...
Potential, man...it's just common sense.
Posted by: Ham | 2005-06-16 2:56:34 PM
Abortion is a dead issue in Canada. The only way left to counter it is education and options for the potential mothers. Explain the procedure - and I don't mean horrify them, but tell them what they are about to do, as with most surgeries. And offer other options, such as adoption. Abortions will never be outlawed in Canada, so we need to decrease the use of it.
Posted by: ld | 2005-06-16 4:23:18 PM
Morgentaler is an abortionist who broke the law and now gets “an honorary Doctor of Laws” from the University of Western Ontario(UWO) What does this say about UWO? Surely, to confer a “Doctor of Laws” upon a lawbreaker is to bring their award system into disrepute. Would any person of high standards of decency now wish to accept an “honorary degree” from UWO after this mockery of the degree system? Will alumni and financial contributors to UWO continue to support it after this questionable recognition of abortionist Morgentaler? The way this country is going he'll probably get the "Order of Canada" next. Oh Canada! We are becoming one sick and depraved country.
Posted by: Stephen Gray | 2005-06-16 4:53:50 PM
I am a Canadian, and a former student out at the University of British Columbia. It is one thing for a university to award degrees to those who have earned them, but quite another for a university to honour an individual by awarding them a degree. For the University of Western Ontario, by awarding a degree to Dr. Morgentaler, they proclaim that his life's work of aborting babies, is not merely a job, but rather, an achievement. Killing babies now dignifies the mission of the university.
For those who are associated with the university and disagree with Dr. Morgentaler, have a stark choice confronting them. They can, through their donations as alumni confirm the decision of the university, or they can reject the decision through withdrawing support. There is no middle ground, of supporting the university and rejecting Dr. Morgentaler. The two are now one. Dr. Morgentaler does not compel the university to reward him, rather they do so of their own free will.
I find it odd, that when every single Canadian taxpayer, has funded and financed Dr. Morgentaler's clinics, that when reproductive rights are seen as more important than religious freedom, that when a 12 year old can sooner get an abortion than an eye exam, we are becoming a depraved nation. Becoming? Nay, we already are, sick and depraved, and dying each and every day.
Posted by: Sean Ollech | 2005-06-16 5:44:02 PM
Regarding DJ's illogical rant:
"All laws jam their beliefs down the throats of others. Whose law do you think was "jammed" (read into the charter which was NOT there) to cause millions of unborn babies to be butchered? It is a scientific fact that life begins at fertilization, when an egg and sperm unite. If your mother had exercised this "choice" to murder, you would not be making such statements. As for rape... what does our society do to a convicted rapist? ...give them maybe a few years in prison. So why the do you wish to extract capital punishment on the totally innocent baby created from that rape especially in the light of the fact that there are MANY people who would adopt that baby? Of course, we are concerned for the women who are raped but also for their babies. Since when should people be killed because they are deformed? Go ask some handicapped person some time if they would rather have been murdered before birth? So just what is the "condundrum" you are talking about?
As for Mr. Morgentaler,
Our country is serious trouble when mass murder's like him are given PHD's ... but then this just proves PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper.
Posted by: Hal | 2005-06-16 7:20:39 PM
I wonder what decent, life-affirming detainee died in the camps that this piece of human flotsam managed to live out his days.
It seems he pays tribute to his surviving the death camps by following in their tradition.
I do not believe this blog allows the type of language I would need to properly vent my spleen against this creature.
Posted by: republicanuk | 2005-06-16 7:21:28 PM
The most effective way to reverse the national trend toward abortion-on-demand, is to do exactly what the anti-life lobby did:
Reframe the language of the issue. They took the word baby, which had all sorts of emotional attachment to it, and they substituted the clinical term for the same, actively divorcing the two nouns. What is inthinkable to do to a baby, (baby being that smiling cooing bundle of joy wrapped in swaddling clothes) becomes merely a 'procedure' when applied to a 'fetus'.
If we want the issue to gain traction, we need to re-couple the two words baby and fetus.
Read Orwell's 1984. Their (fictional) society REQUIRED the redefining of words.
The Liberals/NDP/and Media have known this for some time. It's about time the people on the right figure out the same thing.
Posted by: republicanuk | 2005-06-16 7:28:33 PM
"If we are to sustain and evolve a humane, caring and tolerant society within such diversity, we will rely on open, courageous, respectful and civil debate. We could ask for no better example of the practice and success of such methods." UWO V.P. Greg Moran
Moran must have been in diapers in the 1980's. This is pure fantasy. Morgentaler was in fact a provocative, rude, ignorant, and dismissive name caller throughout the abortion wars.
His discourse was the opposite of civilized. His attitude is still breathtaking. He's a hero for saving society from having to contend with the inevitably deviant and law breaking children his clients would bear were it not for him and his vacuum cleaner.
The man is a competent enough mechanic but he will go to his grave philisophically clueless. He accuses people who believe in the sanctity of life and do not approve of his dark ages method of birth control of being fanatics. He's as thick as they come.
As for UWO, I'm ashamed of my old alma mater. It is disgraceful to grant honours to a man who has made a lucrative living terminating the lives of thousands of the most innocent and vulnerable of all human beings. Those who made the decision to grant an honourary doctorate to this efficent destroyer of human life are as thick as the recipient.
Posted by: Terry Gain | 2005-06-16 7:51:27 PM
Henry talks about concentration camps, but what is an abortuary with a bubble zone (and what kind of a Christian tolerates said bubble zones?)
He also talks about murderers but he has murdered his own children, in the same way he has murdered thousands of others.
He talks about "loving" women, even Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell never dreamed of "love" like this.
Let us pray for his conversion!
Posted by: Barrie Norman | 2005-06-16 8:41:52 PM
Dewdney, the cellphone wingnut, apparently picked up a tenure at UWO for his antiamerican experiment.
Posted by: off the beaten track | 2005-06-16 10:00:23 PM
Henry Morgentaler is simply the worst mass murderer in Canadian history. Honouring this man is a disgraceful act that Western will deeply regret when abortion is finally recognized for the evil that it is.
Posted by: Marlon Bartram | 2005-06-17 1:04:54 AM
Morgertaler is an insane lunatic, who found a way to make money by murder. Simple. He is helped by people of the same thinking as those who put Stalin, Hitler and the rest of the mass murderers of the past hundred years into power. Once these lunatics get the taste of blood they crave more. Let's not fool ourselves. The judges of the Supreme Court of Canada didn't get their post by having a sober record on life or moral issues. Just look at the last two appointments to the bench by Paul Martin. They also got their rewards by toeing the pro-death line. So I am not holding my breath about abortion being illegal in Canada in my lifetime. Morgentaler has so much common with Hitler is't scary. Of course he will never see it.
Posted by: prolifer | 2005-06-17 1:56:54 AM
Isn't it interesting how Canada honours such mediocrity as excellence, corrupt ethics as ethical and superficial intelligence as wisdom?
This will stand as yet another indicator of our collective malaise.
Iain T. Benson
Posted by: Iain Benson | 2005-06-17 6:03:26 AM
Wow, there seem to be a lot of men weighing in on this issue. I'm glad you are all so passionate about controlling what women do with their bodies.
Don't you realize making abortion illegal and the welfare state goes hand in hand. Can you imagine the childcare costs of the state raising the baby of a 14 year old? How successful do you think a 14-year-old drop out is going to be? She will probably be on the dole for the rest of her life.
I understand that I'm never going to have to make the decision and therefore I cannot understand what is going through a woman's mind when she decides to have an abortion. I don't think I would ever do it. That doesn't mean I think women should not have a choice. It is their body their life, their decision.
Frankly regardless of Morgentaler's work, women would still be having abortions, only it would kill some of them. Pro-life indeed.
Posted by: Gamblog | 2005-06-17 7:19:59 AM
Still up to your illogical, ill-thought-out comments. Firstly, where has any 'man' commented on controlling women's bodies. It is so typical to trot out the "women's bodies" rhetoric and start pounding your fists on the table and telling everyone to keep their noses out of it. Can you please explain to my obviously uneducated noodle what differentiates a human body pre-natal from one post-natal? Is it the umbilical cord? So long as it is attached, it is an extension of a woman's body and can be obliterated like popping a nasty zit? What is it? And that's the crux of it, Gamblog. When you remove an entire element from the equation, you can rattle on about women's rights - but of course, the equation is still incomplete. And you refuse to comment on "potential" - in the vein of a person's ability to become more than the sum of their background, upbringing, situation. Nice of you to decide a 14-year old drop out should really have been aborted. It seems you'd be more in favor of setting a deadline for kid's to show some sort of societal contribution. What is it for you, Gamblog? 14 years - if you're a 14-year-old drop-out welfare case, society should unburden itself of you??? What are you trying to say?
Posted by: Ham | 2005-06-17 7:45:34 AM
"I'm glad you are all so passionate about controlling what women do with their bodies."Gamblog
Who would have thought you could win an argument with a stunned and ironic slogan.
Feminist logic:
1. Women who fail to control their bodies (which is their right and responsibility) have a right to annihilate the bodies of their unborn chldren.
2. Women want reproductive equality with men. A man's right to control his reproduction ends at intercourse. A woman's right must therefore continue for another nine months.
Posted by: Terry Gain | 2005-06-17 8:59:57 AM
Hey Terry,
Is that baby growing in your belly?
Feminist logic, what the hell? Why can't women look out for their own interests? They are the majority after all.
Be glad women aren't all members of the same party. They split up the vote enough to allow the conservative party to have some seats.
Look at the polls. Women’s votes are what the conservatives need to win. You can ignore the "ethnic" vote, the French vote and winning Ontarians.
I don't have the statistics, but seeing as I have only one female pro-life friend out of 20 pro-choice I'd say this is an issue you don't want to associate the CPC with.
Posted by: Gamblog | 2005-06-17 9:28:27 AM
Gamblog
You need new, more enlightened, friends.
Posted by: Terry Gain | 2005-06-17 1:09:59 PM
To Gamblog
I will pray for you and your friends.
Posted by: lovelife | 2005-06-22 1:07:23 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.