For the sake of this nation

I am appalled to hear that pro-life students were arrested at Carleton University on October 4^th, 2010 after attempting to put up a pro-life display on campus.  What is this saying to a generation of students who are supposedly in an environment where education and learning are embraced?

Pro-life groups on university campuses all over the country are being constantly silenced while groups of the opposite view are openly embraced. Universities should be allowing an atmosphere where students can debate freely those issues that can be hard to face.  Why reject all ideas that are different than those of a popular view?

Why is it that the pro-life side of the abortion debate is continually hushed and put out of the public eye?  Must we only take a position that is popular, while being forced to stay silent and hold back the truth about the issue of abortion in our nation?

Just because a view isn’t widely supported in certain arenas, doesn’t mean that it should be swept under the carpet.  Canada was built on equality and freedoms.  Most take things like freedom of expression and freedom of speech for granted until they are put in a position like these students were.  For the sake of this nation, we need to take a stand against this type of injustice.

This article was published in Cottage Country Now, Midland Free Press, The Toronto Sun, The Algoma News, and London Free Press.

Free to choose from one side…

Why is the pro-life side of the abortion debate constantly silenced and readily dismissed?

Is there a reason that the majority-backed pro-life position be forced to stay silent and held back, especially since it reveals certain truths?

Pro-life groups on university campuses are one by one being silenced.  Pro-life groups at The University of Victoria, McGill University and The University of Calgary(the list goes on) have been limited in their freedom of speech or had their club status challenged.  All in an effort to censor views different than those of a liberal minority.

What is the point of calling it a choice if public opinion overwhelmingly shows only one side of the argument? Do the pro-abortionists have more rights than me?

This isn’t about the numerous studies that prove abortion negatively affects a woman’s body and the life within her. This is about a free and democratic mainstream media doing their job:  representing the majority of Canadians and other opinions fairly, not just what they think sells papers.
I encourage the media and university faculties to put on a new set of glasses and truly represent choice.  The tragedy of abortion is no longer just the act itself, but that it’s dismissed as a ‘medical procedure’ and treated by the media like a head cold.

Canadian women deserve to be informed from both sides.  Otherwise, how can they can properly choose?

This article was published in The London Free Press, The Guelph Mercury, The Algoma News, The Cottage Country Now, The Midland Free Press, The News Advertiser, and The Southwest Booster.

Challenging the foster care and adoption system in Canada

I can feel this frustration in the belly of Canada right now over the abortion controvery and the weak hand adoption has to offer. I know that much of my generation is missing due to the choice of abortion. I know that there are advancements in technology, medicine, justice and education that will be delayed because there are individuals of potential that never made it past the womb. Because of this, I know that I am now carrying more responsibility than those who have walked before me. This is a responsibility I am willing to carry.
In this atmosphere of loss and devastation, this triumphant hero named adoption enters. From a distance, you can hear the cheering of finally finding an alternative that values life but when it arrives on the scene, it’s like it only knows how to be a hero from afar. I want to challenge the foster care and adoption system in Canada right now. It is a system with great potential and intention. But it is a system that has enabled abuse and delayed adoption while the stability of a generation is crucified before them.

I am interested in the ending of abortion, but if we bring children through the womb, only to be destroyed and neglected outside of the womb, everything we have done is in vain. I have witnessed how the little lives of kids in our day are becoming oversexualized, emotionally destroyed, psychologically manipulated and just down-right pushed into a lifestyle of fear. It is like I can hear the sound of a generation crying out, “This is what you saved me for?”

Canada, build policy that protects a generation in the womb and outside of the womb. Make it a priority to build a nation that provides a strong alternative of adoption. Do it for the ones who need it now and do it for the ones to come.

This article was published in The London Free Press and The Midland Free Press.

Photo Credit: Stefanferrero

No Child is Unwanted…

An estimated 20% of Canadian couples experience some form of infertility.  Couples who desire to adopt a newborn wait at least eight years to do so.  A Facebook Campaign was just launched this past week.  It has a message of hope and promise not only for the child whose existence is being questioned, but for the couples who long to raise and nurture a child as their own through adoption.

The Adopted Campaign states that abortion is not the only option.

On the Facebook group, “Adopted”, adopted people have boldly posted their stories on how thankful they are that their mother chose to carry them to full term and allowed them to bring hope to a family situation that embraced them as one of their own.  Though it is not the premise of this campaign, I am sure it would be powerful to hear the statements from the adoptive parents and families whose lives were truly enriched by this selfless act on the birth mother’s behalf.    I believe that if more women would choose to carry their baby for the sake of the child’s destiny, we would realize that there is no such thing as an unwanted child in Canada.

If 20% of Canadian couples have fertility issues, that is an estimated 1.7 million couples that may potentially want to adopt.  There are an estimated 100,000 abortions each year in Canada (the exact numbers are unknown as some hospitals do not accurately report their data).  Even if every single baby was born that was aborted in Canada, there would still be 1.6 million people waiting for babies.

I know dozens of couples who have been devastated by the fact that they cannot have children and cannot afford to adopt internationally.  But have you ever heard of a single instance when a mother choosing life has been unable to find a suitable home for her infant?

There is no reason for lives to be thrown away. They are wanted.  These babies should be given the chance to be loved and to live the life they were destined to live.

This article appeared in The Algoma News, London Free Press, BC Local News, The Barrie Examiner, The News Advertiser, The St. Albert Gazette, Cottage Country Now, The Estevan Mercury, The Manitouwadge Echo, The Yorkton News, Midland Free Press, The Saint City News, and The Guelph Mercury.

A Dangerous Argument

The examples Kay Parley cites in her article Remembering The Facts as arguments for abortion on demand show a dangerous prejudice. How insulting for a person who may be handicapped, a product of rape, a product of an affair, or born to a mother who struggled with low income or depression. I wonder how they would feel reading this article.

“Would anyone want to add the child of that kind of man to the gene pool”? Are you serious? We need to be careful when we decide who should live and who should die whether we would say the same thing to a person standing in front of us who may have come from that very situation.

People throughout history have already proven that where you start doesn’t determine where you finish. And just because a woman decides she can’t raise a baby, doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else who would care for it.

This appeared in the Nipawin Journal.

Unreported Serious Crime Is Not A Joke

Re: I’m A Victim Of Unreported Crime, John Moore, Aug. 9.

John’s Moore column is extremely disappointing. It trivializes unreported crime by citing three petty crimes that he did not report and goes so far as to use an example of a woman waiting 20 years to report that an ex-boyfriend was too forceful asking for sex.  When victimization reports show that less than 10% of sexual assaults in Canada get reported, is that really a small issue to be joked about?
While the debate on unreported crime is front-page news, reporters could be using this opportunity to speak on unreported sexual assaults, hate crimes, and domestic abuse and generate a debate on how these very real issues could be addressed. Instead reporters across the board are turning Stockwell Days comments into a satire because they don’t agree with his party’s solution. At least he is putting one on the table.
The fact is I have three close friends who have not reported serious sexual assaults this year because the justice system fails them before they even enter it. That is a story worth reading, and I wish someone would talk about it.
Sarah Sonne, Canwood, Sask.

This letter appeared in the National Post: click here.

Topless Guelph Women and Man’s Moral Dilemma

In response to this upcoming event.

I feel sorry for Guelph resident Andrea Crinklaw, who feels the need to parade her boobs in public, as if it’s going to somehow cancel the libido of the male species.

I have a tip for you Andrea: if you are tired of being gawked at when you take off your top to swim at the river, try putting it back on. Notice how fewer men stare at you when your nipples are hidden from the naked eye?

As a Vancouver resident, I unfortunately encounter boobs in public too often. And I can attest that when women show them off at family beaches or rollerblading on the seawall, there is a tension in the air that cannot be tamed. As a guy who does not struggle at all with pornography or some run-away sex drive, topless women in public make me feel awkward, extremely uncomfortable, and ashamed that I feel compelled to stare.

Vancouver has clothing-optional Wreck Beach for those who wish to parade their parts in the open. I wish that nudity was contained to that location and never had to disrupt my thoughts.

No matter how hard you try, Ontario, women’s boobs in plain sight will always bring out the carnal side of men.  We just weren’t created the same as women. As the hated/loved American political pundit Ann Coulter says: “Naked men don’t cause women to masturbate.” I wish seeing naked women didn’t cause this urge in men.

So for you women in Guelph that want to live in an equal society where you are not seen as sex objects, save your boobs for the bedroom. Because I promise that most of the men that come to watch your topless parade will leave with unholy thoughts about you that you may not wish for.

pic kcline

F Bombs and Potty Mouth Come Forth

Today a US Federal Court changed course on restricting foul language on broadcast television.  And since 40% the networks aired on Canadian TV are American, parents should prepare to teach their kids some new four-letter words.

While the government’s near-zero-tolerance indecency policy, nudged into law by President Bush, definitely cleaned up the airwaves, the appeals court claims it as a violation of the 1st Amendment protection of free speech.

This shift in policy should worry Canadians, as our CRTC’s laws often follow our southern neighbors soon after.  And the statement that TV stations will ‘be sensitive between 6-10pm’ should give us absolutely no hope that swearing won’t be heard.

It may seem small, but this unfortunate turn of events reveals how the people in charge of administering these laws think, and likely what other leniencies on TV (porn, sexual acts, goriness) will follow.

Conservative groups in Canada should be encouraged to activate their efforts and preserve our relatively clean airwaves.  Let’s do what we can to keep the crass locker room language out of living rooms and away from our kids.

via LA Times

Mixed Emotion on G8 and G20

Canada’s atmosphere is currently electrified with both hope and disillusionment with this weekends hosting of the G8 and G20 meetings. I find a wrestle inside of myself as to whether the G8 and G20 bring about positive contributions or not. It feels like an inner battle between the possibility of justice on global issues and an overspending that releases fear into people and thrones greed as millions of dollars are spent on one meeting. It becomes a question of whether the means is worth the end and if the proposed end, will really be the end.

Undoubtedly, I agree that it is wisdom for leaders to have a space where they can convene, discuss and make decisions collectively. It creates global community and accountability. Regardless, I do not agree with overspending and using these spaces as platforms to make commitments that are words without substance.

At times within Canada, it has felt as if we are working towards this elusive idea of justice, peace and human rights. It is this destination that we work towards but we lack understanding on what it looks like and what it sounds like. We then support institutions, decisions and processes that seem to fit with where we think we are going, when in reality, we are completely lost. This is calling ignorance, community involvement; a lie can only be lived for so long.

I do applaud the posture of Harper in making maternal and child health a priority at the G8. This is a breakthrough in the status of women internationally and a critical issue that has been demanding attention since the start of history. I am challenging the nations across the world to see maternal and child health as the enforcement of life and to not even consider it to be, the termination of life.

As for Canada, I challenge you to set the pace and lead in a model of government that chooses life before death, humility before greed and practice before talk. Canada, get to a place where your values line up with your policy before you risk losing the faith of your people and the integrity of your authority before the audience of nations.

We can win this.

http://www.bramptonguardian.com/opinion/letters/article/841428–mixed-emotions

Why is child trafficking an after-thought?

As the World Cup is happening at full force in South Africa right now with high levels of enthusiasm, similarly organizations are in an equally high state of alarm at the risk of child trafficking. The World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world and due to a lack of legal protection and unqualified set of laws; there is risk of child trafficking. Pimps are more than prepared to take advantage of this gap and  be on the prowl to drive the local sex trade to greater heights. Considering South Africa’s history of establishing itself as a major hub for human trafficking with 40,000 kids lured into slavery, the alarm is greater.

I find it frustrating that child-trafficking is always an after-thought. These international events that will create hype and profit are established and the safety of a nation\’s children is an after-thought that can be easily pushed out of the mind. For a moment, imagine you held in one arm a five-year- old girl with big blue eyes that  made your heart melt and in the other arm a bag with five billion dollars.  You had a choice to either lay that girl down and set her up for death or lay that money down to set it up for loss, whom would you choose? The human trafficking industry is on pursuit of the killing of a generation of children and the worst part is that their death is not instant, but it is a slow process where the heart dies before the body.

As the World Cup creates an atmosphere of vacation, thousands of children are left unattended and unsupervised with the potential to walk into their own enslavement. The question lingering on my mind is when did parenting quit being a calling that demands dedication into a casual title? Who granted this transition? The moment we neglect our children, we have essentially given up on life, on our planet and on the future of humankind.

Clearly, this issue does not stand alone but is connected with many others such as poverty and AIDS that have set the complex but secure foundation for human trafficking. So to blindly assume that trafficking should just not happen is like assuming that the river should just stop flowing. We need to focus our attention on the issues of our time, or these issues of our time will consume our very authority, if not our very existence.

It is time for our world to open up our eyes and see trafficking and prostitution for the organized crime that is. It is time for Canada to stop supporting movements that create a group of people vulnerable. It is time to remember that there is only one small thing separating us from them; where we were born. If we wake up to that, we will wake up to – that’s our tears in their eyes, our broken bones in their bodies, our pain in their hearts, and if we do not move, one day we will wake up, and that will be us.