Check It Out: Legal isn’t always what’s right

By Joan Janzen

The cartoon illustration is of a balloon flying over Ottawa. “It’s a foreign spy balloon, to gather intelligence,” the elderly lady says to her husband. He responds, “Boy, did they ever come to the wrong place!”

In this place, we are receiving daily and hourly news reports from a highly government-regulated media. Consequently, their reports are presented through the lens of a liberal narrative. Bill C-11 would only serve to amplify this situation, as it would also seek to control what we access on the internet.

“Not only would people need to lobby to get their voices heard on online, It would unleash an orgy of paid lobbyists to influence bureaucrats in order to have their algorithms on the internet manipulated in their favour so they get higher priority,” Pierre Poilievre explained in an online post.

Canadians need to be free to express themselves and their concerns. One of those Canadian voices is Faytene Grasseschi, who is recognized as a mobilizer and influencer. She interviews various guests who speak about topics that are often ignored.

“Lack of awareness is why so many people were shocked when a 38-week baby was aborted in a Montreal hospital on February 2,” she said. “Both my children were born before this time and were strong and healthy. And there are so many people who are waiting to adopt new born babies. People can’t believe that this actually happened.”

Silence on this topic results in an uneducated public who may not know the whole story. In 1988 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law on abortion as unconstitutional. At that time, they commissioned parliament to bring forth a new law in light of the void created by the strike down. Since that time, no parliament has successfully brought forth a law. Therefore, in the absence of a law, all abortions become legal.

“Legal isn’t always what’s right,” noted one of Faytene’s guests, Dr. Will Johnston from B.C. “We have a society that has accepted the rational that you are declared human at birth, but if you’re two weeks away from being born that’s difficult to rationalize.”

Mike Shouten is the director of ‘We Need a Law’ advocacy group. He was also interviewed by Faytene, and noted other liberal democracies similar to Canada, have protection at some point in the pregnancy. He listed Holland, Switzerland and U.K. as examples, which have a variety of laws.

When asked why parliament doesn’t have a will to bring forth a law, Dr. Johnston replied, “Any government sees it’s such a divisive issue, so their inclination is not there; they would rather not deal with it. And yet we face a situation that is so undeniable.”

The situation may be undeniable, but it is ignored by both government and media. Meanwhile, doctors like Dr. Laura Lewis are working with pregnancy care centres, helping women who are dealing with addictions, homelessness and other challenges. Dr. Johnston said, although her organization has been incredibly helpful, it’s under serious attack. He said he found it concerning that “We have an official political philosophy that wants to persecute and degenerate these centres. People need to be aware that they need our support.”

“The fact that we need to continue to talk about having a law is outrageous for a country like ours. It’s just not a civilized country,” he said. “It would be a sad day for the Canadian public, if all physicians who had a set of principles, were presumably forced to do things they thought were greatly wrong.”

Does the recent example of the 38-week old baby fall into that category? Why are so few people talking about this? Faytene is one of the few who is willing discuss the issue.

Mike Shouten observed, “What we’re seeing here is the refusal of lawmakers to deal with this topic and legislate properly is forcing ethics committees and doctors to grapple with something they shouldn’t need to grapple with. We need to respond appropriately.”

“Take a minute to call your elected officials,” Faytene advised. “If we don’t let them know, they’ll think we just don’t care. These conversations are not comfortable, but they are critical. When people get informed and allow their hearts to feel the gravity of the situation and then take action, this is where we can truly see the change that our nation needs. Together we can have a great impact.”