The Culture of Life Award that Halton Pro-Life presented to the Halton Catholic District School Board in March has made the news across the 29 Roman Catholic School Boards and five Catholic School Authorities of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association. A report on the presentation to the School Board was published in the “Good News” section of the Association’s on-line newsletter distributed to the boards and authorities across the province. Read more  . . .

Picture shows Bob Van de Vrande, Chair of the School Board, and Michael Pautler, Director of Education, accepting the award from HPL President Tom Bartlett.

A prayer campaign for life that has been launched in the U.S. invites all people of good will to pray daily using a prayer being co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Sisters of Life. For a copy of the prayer, and for an uplifting quote from the late John Cardinal O’Connor, click on my Executive Director’s blog.

Loving care at the end of life can make death a peaceful experience. Hospice care and good palliative care are far preferable to asking for euthanasia or assisted suicide. Hospice care can provide the assistance in dying that the proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide claim to offer.

Tammy Camposilvan knows that. She cared for her mother and watched her die in peace at the The Kemp Hospice in Hamilton. Teri Crockford knows it also. A registered nurse with bachelors and masters degrees, she is acting director for the hospice. Read more . . .

Bill C-384, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity), that would have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide, was defeated in the House of Commons, April 21, by a resounding 228 to 59. All four of the MPs who represent members of Halton Pro-Life voted to defeat the bill.  Read more . . .

The bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, Bill C-384, is to be debated in Parliament on April 21 and voted on April 22. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, reports that Francine Lalonde MP (BQ), the sponsor of the private member’s bill, was expected to delay the vote by trading the date with another MP sponsoring a private member’s bill, as she has done in the past, but that appears not to be the case.

Alex is asking people to contact their MPs to state their opposition to the bill and to send them a message such as:

“I am concerned that if euthanasia or assisted suicide were legalized in Canada that it would become the ultimate form of elder abuse and people with disabilities would often experience subtle pressures to “choose” to die. Please vote against Bill C-384.”

Go to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition website for more details. Also see our Euthanasia and Euthanasia Articles pages and the Executive Director’s blog for analysis and comments

Alice in Wonderland’s conversation with Humpty Dumpty has invaded the debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Open dialog on the ethics, morality and long-term societal effects of the proposed legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide is essential and urgent in view of the Parliamentary vote on Bill C-384 due for this week (see the item above). Despite this, the doctors who edit the influential Canadian Medical Association Journal have written an editorial stating that it is: “Time to move on from the euthanasia debate.” The good doctors are seriously misleading us. For my opinion on this, and Humpty Dumpty’s, please see my Executive Director’s blog.

Five people have lodged complaints with Advertising Standards Canada about “Vanished,” one of the two Reaching Minds Through Media TV advertisements that were aired by Alliance For Life Ontario for 13 weeks ending in Febuary. Vanished, depicts images of people vanishing:

• Children disappear from a group arriving at school.
• A person fades out from a picture of a group of runners.
• A bride vanishes from a wedding.

One of the complainers asserted that the ad was misleading. But all it does is to display the reality behind the Statistics Canada figure of one in four pregnancies ending in abortion. One in four people who would be living today have vanished because they were aborted. Click here to see the ad. Also, visit the AFLO  website.

Jakki Jeffs, Executive Director of AFLO, told Halton Pro-Life that Advertising Standards Canada is meeting on April 21 to discuss the advertisement and to decide whether to allow it to be run again. The ads caused visits to the AFLO to climb sharply - click here to see our report.

Join Hamilton Right to Life for a panel discussion on “Dignity for End of Life Care” at a Coffee & Dessert Evening on Wednesday April 21, 2010, at 7:00pm, in the Nicholas Mancini Centre, 44 Hunt Street, Hamilton. A Guest Panel will include:

• Fr. Don Sanvido, priest St. Basil’s Parish, Hamilton.
• Teri Crockford, RN, BSc.N, MS, CHPCN(c), acting Director for the Bob Kemp Hospice.
• Peter Boushy, B.A., LLB, a criminal lawyer and Hamilton Right to Life director.

For more information contact Sandra at Hamilton Right to Life at 905-528-3065

Message to Canada from a doctor in Oregon: “I urge Canadian leaders to reject the seductive siren of assisted suicide embodied in C-384. Oregon has literally tasted the bitter pill (barbiturate overdoses) and many now know that our legislation is hopelessly flawed. I believe Canada with its tradition of excellent palliative and hospice care should continue to strive to be a model for the rest of the world by rejecting this misguided legislation.”

That is the last paragraph of Dr. Willam Toffler’s “A message for my Canadian neighbors.” Click here to read his full message posted on the Canadians for Care website, and learn about the alarming conditions that now exist in Oregon since assisted suicide became an option in that state.