Blue Like You

Great letters in today’s National Post about Morgentaler’s appointment to the Order of Canada, including one from our own Dr. Roy.

Please check them out.

This one by Michael Bliss is especially worth the read:

As a Member of the Order of Canada, I am deeply saddened by the way that our honours system is apparently being debased and cheapened by appointments such as the Henry Morgentaler one. Those of us who occasionally nominate worthy people for consideration for the Order have been told repeatedly that if they have been considered and rejected on an earlier occasion, the files are not normally reopened. I cannot understand why the Morgentaler file was apparently reopened on several occasions.

If the Order of Canada’s advisory committee, meeting behind closed doors, continues to make divisive, apparently political recommendations, it will undermine the integrity of the Order and further discourage those of us who tried to help make the system work. I am particularly distressed that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada is involved in a process the trustworthiness of which many of us now question.

And this is where the title of this post came from.

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Update: Check this out!!! Ethicist expresses empathy - Ottawa citizen:

…Dr. Morgentaler’s appointment to the order "is being trumpeted by those who agree with him" as proof that abortion is something that Canadians want to honour, Ms. Somerville said. "Obviously, people would feel the same thing about me in relation to my opposition to same-sex marriage, so it’s sort of a weird situation."

Ms. Somerville is not a member of the Order of Canada. A nomination submitted a few years ago by Anglican minister and preaching professor Carol Finlay was unsuccessful. Ms. Finlay was told it was because Ms. Somerville was too controversial.

Ms. Finlay, who disagrees with Ms. Somerville on the same-sex marriage issue, said Ms. Somerville deserved the honour because of her commitment to open debate…

…Last July, she was copied on a letter that someone had sent to the Governor General’s office expressing concerns that, if she were ever named a member, "the integrity and greatness of the Order of Canada would be undermined."

So, what do you say now, Raphael?

Kelly McParland: Opposition to Morgentaler’s Order is Wide and Deep and Intense.

From comments at McParland’s post:

by ladylawyer
Jul 03 2008
4:43 PM

I am not a church-goer, a Catholic, a fundamentalist, or a woman who opposes women’s rights. In fact, I practice family law in a small town where it is part of my job to enable women, especially immigrants and refugees, to realize the equal rights that Canada’s legal system allows them.

I used to think that having an abortion was a decision to be made between a woman and her doctor, but now I know better. My daughter was born before the end of her second trimester–an age of gestation when abortions are still routine. She is alive today because of wonderful technology and the round the clock care of the ICU doctors and nurses. She is now 29 years old, married, and has an MA in archeology.

Giving the Order of Canada to Morgentaler is an affront. If I had been awarded an Order of Canada, I wouldn’t be able renounce and return it quickly enough.

CTV - Abortion restrictions continue 20 years after ruling. (i.e. nobody wants to do it. I wonder why?)

ProWomanProLife - A callous sort of Canada.

Also please check out Joan Tintor - Bliss: Morgentaler’s OC file was reopened several times.

Saturday Update: Don Cherry for Order of Canada! - Rex Murphy.

Something tells me that if Jennifer Wright were to bluff and proceed with her plan to bring legal action against the LPC even though she can’t afford it, they’d have no choice but to fold. (H/T National Newswatch) .

More at Right on course.

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And speaking of the Green Shaft, check this out - Dion to PM: Meet me in Calgary:

…Mr. Dion says the Conservative plan is too slow, full of loopholes, cumbersome and bureaucratic, while his Green Shift is simple, straighforward and "I won’t have to hire a single civil servant" to implement it…

Seriously? What planet does that man live on?

…Mr. Dion also rejected charges that the tax would collect a disproportionate share of revenues from Alberta and send it elsewhere. Because the tax will be imposed at the wholesale level, he said, the level will depend on consumption, not on production.

He noted that 46% of industrial emissions in 2002, the last year calculated by Statistics Canada, were on goods and services exported from Canada. That means a lot of carbon tax would be passed on to foreigners, not Canadian consumers, he said.

O.K. but those are Canadian goods produced by Canadians. He’s saying they’ll be more expensive to export. Therefore we lose another competitive edge on the world market.

Therefore, jobs will be lost. Good-paying manufacturing jobs.

Duh!!!

It’s either that he’s that stupid or he thinks we are.

And he wants to debate Harper???

Friday Update: Dion still doesn’t get it. We’re no threat to firm: Dion. (Post)