Because equality for women and girls is everybody’s business

Indeed! Status of Women wants us to nominate women leaders for a Governor General’s award in commemoration of the Persons Case. Here’s the info you need to find strong women to nominate in this regard. What about Linda Gibbons, for one? Or Mary Wagner? Both strong women, advancing women’s rights in our society.

I will freely admit these women are ahead of their time, and we’ll probably only honour them after the fact, when we are likewise busy repenting of the horrors we pushed in the name of “women’s rights.” However, every small action matters, and if Status of Women receives nominations for strong pro-life women, it sends an important message: Strong, confident women are pro-woman when they are pro-life, and being pro-life is a compassionate and pro-woman stand.

Do you want your union to be spent protesting against pro-life organizations? See this press release from Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform below:

The Canadian Auto Workers’ Union Takes on the “New Abortion Caravan,” Organizes Sweeping Counter-Protests across Manitoba and Ontario

Regina, SK. The largest private worker’s union in Canada has come out against the “New Abortion Caravan,” an appropriation of the famous pro-abortion 1970 Abortion Caravan, by the controversial anti-abortion group the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR: http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/caravan).

The anti-abortion caravan has been attracting widespread media coverage on television and radio from Vancouver into the prairies, and angry denunciations from abortion rights activists. Now the Canadian Auto Worker’s Union (CAW) is wading in, promising counter-protests at each of CCBR’s presentations across the country. (http://www.caw.ca/en/11272.htm)

Julie White, CAW’s director of Women’s Programs, responded to CCBR’s caravan in the following statement: “In April 1970, the Vancouver Women’s Caucus set out for Ottawa…Their actions would lay the groundwork that would see the legalization of a woman’s right to choose. Today 42 years later, an organization known as the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform wants to take away our rights using fear, guilt, and shock tactics. Join us at the counter protests and let’s once again tell them that our reproductive fights are not up for debate” (http://www.caw.ca/en/11279.htm).

Stephanie Gray, CCBR’s executive director, responded by saying, “The old Abortion Caravan brought us abortion, which decapitates, dismembers, and disembowels pre-born Canadian children. We seek to redeem history.”

Gray also added: “I also find it shocking that the largest private worker’s union in the country is using its union dues to advocate for abortion. Participation in this union is mandatory, and yet people like CAW president Ken Lewenza are using the union dues of pro-life auto workers to advocate for Canada’s status quo as the only Western democracy to have no abortion restrictions. Canadians are forced to fund abortion with their tax dollars, and now CAW members are being forced to advocate for it with their union dues.  What does abortion have to do with workplace issues for autoworkers?   It is unfortunate that Ken Lewenza has no respect for his employees’ freedom of conscience.”

The New Abortion Caravan will be in Regina today, then heads into Manitoba and Ontario as the week progresses.  The schedule of the New Abortion Caravan’s presentations can be found here: http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/caravan/events

Brigitte Pellerin does a nice job in this video clip of explaining what happened at the Supreme Court of Canada regarding Linda Gibbons last week.

Carleton allows pro-Khomeini event:

And Carleton, like all other Canadian universities, encourages a culture of debate and free expression.”Spokesman Steven Reid said the university would intervene if an event on cam-pus was promoting hate, illegal acts or violations of the Human Rights Code. “Beyond that, we don’t step in and quash things.”

Now seems like a good time to link to the images of Ruth Lobo, Carleton student, being put in handcuffs and led to a police paddy wagon for engaging her own campus on the abortion issue. Nice try, Carleton, nice try.

Again, the only people in jail today because of abortion are those who are pro-life.

Ottawa folks: still opportunity to go see She Has a Name tonight or through June 10, a play about human trafficking. And for other Canadians, they are touring the country so check the schedule for when it hits your town.

This Vanier Institute report looks at teen mothers and the support they need. It opens with this:

Over the last 2 decades, the teen pregnancy rate in Canada has dropped appreciably, declining 36.9% between 1996 and 2006 (McKay and Barrett, 2010).

The problem is this: teen pregnancy rates are the sum of live births, induced abortions and miscarriages. And we really have no sweet clue how many abortions teens are having, because we don’t collect accurate abortion statistics. Therefore, we cannot know with certainty that teen pregnancies are on the decline.

This is not a pro-life issue. It’s a research issue.

Freedom means making good choices against the odds. What a story. Reminds me of the book The Glass Castle.

This undemocratic Act should not stand.

An article on CBC online.