Dr Morgentaler and the Archbishop

I couldn't help but chuckle today when I read that Dr Henry Morgentaler had told reporters he deserved the Order of Canada.

I interviewed him once for my university rag, and I found him charming, brave, but VERY blunt.

But of course he's right. He DOES deserve it. His whole life has been a struggle against injustice.

One that almost killed him. When a Quebec Superior court threw out the verdict of one jury after the other, and sent him to jail ....where he had a heart attack.

And then there is the moral dimension of his struggle. Everyone knows what Henry Morgentaler has done for Canadian women. What many don't know is how he was motivated by the horror of his Holocaust experience, to spare children from the horror of being unwanted and unloved.

"Well-loved children grow into adults who do not build concentration camps, do not rape and do not murder..."

So the award is a nobrainer. And the only thing that disappoints me is that he didn't get it sooner.

But what on earth is Thomas Collins, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, clucking about so loudly?










Canada's highest honour has been debased. Henry Morgentaler has been awarded the Order of Canada. We are all diminished.

What nonsense.

First of all, I don't think that a representative of the Catholic Church has the right to call anything or anyone "debased." Not after his Church has been forced to cough up more than $2 billion in damages...and counting... for pervert crimes against children.

And what is the Archbishop blabbing about when he says we are ALL diminished? The last time I checked 91% of Canadians supported some form of abortion rights.

Now look.... as I've pointed out several times.... I don't think that any Church or any man has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body.

Because the whole idea that they do have that right stems from the barbarian ignorance of ancient and hairy desert dwellers. Who believed that women were only incubators to hatch their sperm.

But the Archbishop is free to expound these wanker theories.... in his Church. Or the nearest insane asylum.

On the other hand if he is going to stick his patriarchal purpleness into Canadian politics.

And make incendiary comments like this one:

No person may presume to judge the soul of Henry Morgentaler, but it cannot be denied that the effect of his life's work has been a deadly assault upon the most helpless amongst us.

Shouldn't he at least pay taxes?

That bling around his neck should be worth SOMETHING.

Oh yeah These crazy fanatics can scream like banshees. Ooga Booga. But their opinions should be ignored.

Because the only people debased and diminished are themselves.

Hell is for haters.

And Henry is a Canadian hero...