From The GOOD Guys...

Henry Morgentaler and the Order of Canada

(Dr. Will Johnston, President of Canadian Physicians for Life)

(July 1,2008) Abortion remains the open and running sore of Canadian civic life. There is not, at present, sufficient revulsion of it among women to eradicate it, but it is not credible that the political majority which tolerates and ignores it also wants it to be honoured. And let us be clear – to honour Henry Morgentaler with the Order of Canada would be to honour abortion, for he did nothing else of note.

In fact, he was found guilty of “not holding a valid interview before an abortion, for failing almost completely to gather a case history of his client, for failing to perform the necessary pregnancy test or blood test, for not obtaining pathological examination of the 'tissues' removed and for failing to follow up the state of health of his patients afterward." Not a Nobel prize candidate.

The news that the Order of Canada might be abused in this contentious and partisan way came to me as I was cycling on an idyllic Gulf Island with my daughter. Those thousands of little daughters made into nothing by Henry Morgentaler deserved to live as much as the daughter I love so much. And as our daughter does not deserve to live just because her parents love her, so those many daughters killed by Henry Morgentaler did not deserve to die just because they were, for the moment, not loved enough.

It exhausts my overtaxed powers of indignation to see the Order of Canada miscarried in such a way. The award was meant to be a celebration of good works in which all Canada could wholeheartedly share. A career reviled by millions as spent in the service of death is the wrong subject matter for such an accolade. It will be more than unfortunate if those few entrusted with the privilege of granting our national honours persist, through loud alarms, in such a bitterly divisive mistake.

Rumor has it that the committee which chose to venerate Morgentaler failed to achieve the normally required unanimity and, if so, resorted to overriding the dissent by opting for the brute force of a majority vote. The Canadian system of honours should be a nation-unifying institution, not a focus of strife and a vulnerable target for political manipulation. If there is a sudden enthusiasm for true democracy on the topic of abortion, how about a referendum for all women to decide whether and when to protect the unborn child?

Membership in the Order of Canada can be (and has been) rescinded. In Morgentaler’s case, there would be no other way to reclaim the honour of an Order tainted by his appointment.

But there is a much better alternative. Our love for this country, and our respect for the Order of Canada, leads us to a plea that the committee walk away, while there is still time, from such a notorious decision.

Well, they went ahead and did it. On a long weekend Friday, in the wrong city, days before an election.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING CANADA? Let the Prime Minister know why he turns YOUR stomach!