April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

Canada

One Body. One Person. One Count.

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There is currently before the House a private members bill that “would amend the Criminal Code to allow separate homicide charges to be laid in the death of a foetus when a pregnant woman is attacked.”

This in effect suggests that a foetus be defined as a separate “person” from the mother. This definition of ‘personhood’ would immediately open the door to criminalizing abortion and those having/performing them.

This bill is being brought forward by a special interest group.

Ken Epp is a member of the Campaign Life Coalition.

As Raymond Gravel, a Bloc MP and a priest said;

the member putting it forward is part of a pro-life group, the Campaign Life Coalition, which in my view is a rather extreme fanatical group, when it comes to life.”

I for one do not wish extreme fanatics dictating my choices. Such action leads to fascism.

For more information on this bill and to take action please visit Birth Pangs.

Anti-Choice Fascism

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“The fetus is the property of the entire society… anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity.” Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu

A 1966 campaign to increase the population by banning abortion, divorce and birth control (the latter to be physically verified monthly by gynecologists) went horribly wrong after a doubling of the birth rate was not accompanied by any basic medical improvements. Babies sickened and died for lack of medical care, food, and maternity beds. Desperate women braved machine guns to flee to Hungary, leaving a legacy of millions of hungry orphans, many of them seriously retarded through neglect. In the 1980’s, the country succumbed to an AIDS epidemic of staggering proportions thanks to Ceausescu’s refusal to admit the problem existed.

History House [Read more…] about Anti-Choice Fascism

Harper is not a leader

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But he is a whiner and a bully.

Support us on Afghanistan or we’ll call an election. Support this bill or we’ll call an election.

Call me dear leader or I’ll call an election.

A leader doesn’t need to bully, threaten and carry on. A bully though…

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Senate committee on legal affairs that it should pass the bill in February. If that doesn’t happen, he said he would tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the bill is a confidence measure and let him deal with it appropriately.

“We say to Liberal senators, and we say to (Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion, tell your Liberal colleagues to push this through,” said Day.

Day called on the public to contact senators to push the bill through.

But senators counter that they don’t understand the government’s rush all of a sudden. They said they are constitutionally required to consider the bill fully and they won’t be strong-armed into speeding up their decision to fit a government-imposed schedule.

Manitoba Senator Sharon Carstairs told Mike Duffy Live that the Tory government is trying to bully the Senate.

“Unfortunately, for Mr. Harper, senators can’t be bullied,” she said.

“We want to hear from the public … particularly on two issues. I am very concerned about the impact of this (bill) on Aboriginal people. Reverse onus bail conditions, for example.”

Reverse onus would require people accused of violent crimes to state why they should receive bail, rather than put the onus on prosecutors to prove why the accused should be kept in jail.

“We do have Charter rights and one of them is to be silent, but you can’t be silent if you have to, in fact, prove reverse onus,” said Carstairs.

CTV

Free Khadr

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From the CBC;

A U.S. soldier at the battle said in sworn testimony that two al-Qaeda fighters were alive after the fatal grenade attack.

The unidentified soldier says he killed the first al-Qaeda fighter before spotting Khadr, whom he said was wounded, on his knees and facing away from him. For reasons he does not go into, he says he shot him in the back twice.

The Pentagon says American soldiers fired on Khadr in self-defence after he tried to attack them.

Khadr’s military lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler suggests that the U.S. military may have been involved in a coverup.

“The U.S. government had a problem on its hands when it found that it had a 15-year-old Canadian on its hands with two gaping bullet holes in his back that had been facing away from the fight,” said Kuebler.

{emphasis mine}

So here we have a 15 year old shot in the back, imprisoned, tortured, denied basic human rights and dignities and Harper can’t take Bush’s dick out of his mouth long enough to demand Khadr’s immediate release and return?

Harper is not a leader. He is a school yard bully who got left in charge in of the class, and it is time the class pulled their heads out of their books and got a teacher back in charge.

I’d leave off by asking that Harper look deep inside and do the right thing. But he already has his head as far up his ass as it will go.

A note to Canadian Politicians

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January 28, 2008 was an important occasion. As many know, and many read, it was the anniversary of the decision which gave Canadian women reproductive liberty.

All such momentous occasions give rise to statements from our chatty politicians. Following are the statements from the party leaders;

Harper;

Layton:

Dion;

Duceppe;

Hmmmm….seems there were no statements.

Here are the addresses of the leaders, let’s send them a statement!

Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca Dion.S@parl.gc.ca Harper.S@parl.gc.ca Layton.J@parl.gc.ca

this is the message I sent if you would like to copy and paste (though I am sure you can come up with something much more creative)

January 28th, 2008 was an important event for Canadian women. It marked the Supreme Court decision on a woman’s right to reproductive freedom.

No party in this country came forward with a statement. Every party chose to ignore this historic occasion and by association the women who fought for, support and have been touched by, this decision. (and by extension the friends and families of these women)

It is shameful that in our country politicians feel that an issue as important as this deserves no mention.

While still not leaders statements, at least two statements were made. Where for art thou leaders?

Mrs. Irene Mathyssen (London—Fanshawe, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, January 28 was the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Morgentaler decision, which decriminalized abortion in Canada. The legal decision was a victory for Canadian women. The court fully recognized that the law was unfair and that it presented unreasonable obstacles to women seeking abortions.

While the Morgentaler decision is something to celebrate, women in Canada still face obstacles in accessing abortion services. The number of hospitals in Canada providing these services is declining and some provincial governments are violating the Canada Health Act by refusing to fund clinics, thus leaving women without the right to choose.

The government is failing ordinary women in Canada by not ensuring equal and accessible abortion services. This is an equality issue and another example of the government’s disregard for the welfare and rights of women.

Ms. Nicole Demers (Laval, BQ):
Mr. Speaker, this week marks the 20th anniversary of a very important ruling for women. In the Dr. Morgentaler case, the Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion.

After a tough 20-year battle led by doctors and women’s groups, this ruling finally allowed women to take control of their bodies and their pregnancies and to have access to safe abortion. Since then, they have had the freedom to choose.

That is why any threat by this Conservative government to limit the right to abortion is a direct affront to women’s rights. Bill C-484 by the hon. Conservative member for Edmonton—Sherwood Park opens the door to criminalizing abortion.

We are against taking any steps backward. Abortion is a vested right ensuring the well-being and equality of women.

*statements via Hansard*

Right to Abortion—Twentieth Anniversary

Hon. Lucie Pépin: Honourable senators, this week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Morgentaler decision. Indeed, it was on January 28, 1988, that the Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion. This historic decision gave Canadian women the freedom to control their own fertility and it blew a gust of freedom into their lives.

We can thank Dr. Morgentaler for his boldness, courage and determination. Besides him, several Canadian women were involved in this fight, including Dr. Lise Fortier, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal. Thanks to their efforts and many sacrifices, this injustice done to women has been corrected.

This 20th anniversary is a well-deserved time of celebration. We must, however, take this opportunity to take stock. The truth is that the right to abortion remains a fragile one in Canada.

Abortion services are unevenly dispersed across Canada. Today still, women seeking to terminate a pregnancy continue to face contempt and even pressure, often from medical personnel.

Access to abortion services is already limited, and yet there are people trying to set us back 20 years by restricting a woman’s ability to choose, while others simply want abortion to be made illegal again.

All this prompts us to be more vigilant. Losing this right for which several generations of Canadians, both men and women, have fought is out of the question.

As honourable senators no doubt recall, the reason that termination of pregnancy as we know it is still possible is because, in January 1991, new legislation that would have made abortion illegal was blocked in the Senate.

It is now up to us, the younger senators among us in particular, to carry the torch. We must never forget that the fight for these rights has been long and hard, but that they could be lost very quickly.

Let us celebrate fittingly, stay vigilant and look to the future.