Friday, July 26, 2019

The scandal of raking in tax dollars

UPDATE July 29: Clarification on the government funding totals. The groups who signed the letter who opposed funding to pro-life groups, received a total of  $152,471,526 in government funding. This number includes funding from the Canada Summer Jobs Program, as well as other federal government funding, as well as provincial and municipal government funding. The link below to the data identifies all of these funding details.

(This was first published July 24 at the Interim)

The pro-abortion groups who actively worked to ban pro-life groups from receiving the Canada Summer Jobs Program--strongly benefited from that same Canada Summer Jobs Program. And they benefited from lots of other government funding as well.

Last year Joyce Arthur reported that pro-life groups had received $1.8 in funding for the Canada Summer jobs program over eight years. That's a pittance really, especially since it was over eight years.

Arthur and company then lobbied to stop this funding. This resulted in the Liberal's attestation clause, which meant anyone applying for the grant money would now have to support abortion. Part of Arthur's campaign, was a letter written and signed by 91 "reproductive choice" groups.

(This letter was initiated by Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.)

Here's what Arthur said about this funding to pro-life groups:
"The real scandal is not the new Canada Summer Jobs attestation requirement, but the fact that anti-choice groups have been raking in all this taxpayer cash for years."

So how much money did these pro-abortion signatories "rake in" since Justin Trudeau came to power in 2016? Over 152 million ($152,471,526 to be exact).

That's our 1.8 millioncompared to their $152.5 million

I say at least, because the two databases I searched are not up-to-date. The grants and contributions database is currently being updated for 2019 grants. There are also grants and contributions not in the database at all. The other database is CRA's charities database. I only extracted two years of this CRA data, since tax returns are always reported well after the fact, and I only extracted records since Justin Trudeau came to power in 2016. And these numbers do not even include the funding for the actual abortions. That's millions and millions of dollars more.

It seems Justin Trudeau's abortion funding knows no bounds.

(There are other organizations who also support abortion and who also receive federal, provincial and municipal funding. That will be a project for a later date. This analysis only covers the signatories of this Open Letter.)

You will see that most of these organizations do benefit from the Canada Summer Jobs Program. Along with other federal funding, provincial funding, and municipal funding.

Pushing abortion is a very lucrative business. The money just pours out of our pockets into the pockets of the pro-abortions.


Pro-life groups receive no other federal funds, except for the Summer Jobs grants. And now we can't even receive that.


We are not "well-funded" but the pro-abortions are. Pro-life groups fund themselves in the work they do, to save lives. Pro-abortion groups are funded by the taxpayer in the work they do, to take lives. That Joyce Arthur, is the real scandal.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Jordan Peterson and the postmodernist "assault on the most fundamental principles by which the West is governed"


Transcribed from Jordan Peterson’s dialogue with Dennis Prager, on Prager U, May 23, 2019.

35.00-42.20 This segment speaks about the postmodernist collectivist stranglehold on universities, and its doctrine denying the reality of the individual.

Jordan Peterson: I think that universities do more harm than good now, and I’m very loath to say that, you know, because I’ve been part of the academy for thirty years and taught at great institutions.

But the postmodern collectivist doctrine is so psychologically and politically toxic that I think that academia now does more harm than good.

And it is not only what it teaches which is the ideology, this ungrateful ideology, which denies the existence of the individual.

One of the things I might tell you, just so you know this, is that, you know, you hear that there are debates about free speech on campus, about who should talk and who shouldn’t, and people think that that’s what the debate is about, about who should talk and who shouldn’t, but that’s not what the debate is about. You’re not even scraping the surface of the debate if that’s what you think it’s about.

The debate on campus is about whether or not a human being has the capacity to communicate intelligibly as an individual or not, and the answer for the postmodernist collective types is that there is no such thing as an individual. And therefore the very notion of free speech is absurd, because free speech is predicated on the idea that each of us have something to say that’s ours, that’s a consequence of our unique individuality, not our group identity, or the multiplicity of our group identities, but something, that’s something that we have that speaks from our spirit that can speak to the spirit of another and produce a negotiated peace, and that’s what’s being debated.

The war that’s going on philosophically or theologically in the campuses is far deeper than you think. The entire notion of the reality of the individual, which is, I think, also the entire notion of the idea that human beings are made in the image of God most fundamentally. That is what’s being attacked.

It wasn’t for nothing that Derrida called western culture, phallogocentric, phallus for masculine and logos for logos, for truth and courage, and centric for centric. That was a criticism from his perspective, the idea of the sovereignty of the individual.

If you don’t have the idea of the sovereignty of the individual ‘cause there is no individual, there’s no free speech. All you are is an avatar of your group interests and if I’m not in your group it’s not in my interest to let you speak. There’s nothing that we have to say to one other. There’s nothing but power. It’s a Hobbesian nightmare of group against group, and that’s the postmodern doctrine.

And so, it’s, to call it appalling is to barely scrape the surface. It’s an assault, it is truly an assault on the most fundamental principles by which the West is governed. It’s not surface level philosophy. It goes all the way to the bottom and this is partly why I have been concentrating on religious themes in my lectures, let’s say, because the argument goes all the way down to first principles.

Is there, is the idea of the sovereignty of the individual correct? The Western answer is, it’s the great discovery of the West, the Western answer is, that’s the most fundamental truth. That is exactly what is under assault at the universities. The reason that the collectivist types hate me is because I’ve got their number. I know what they’re up to.

And I think further that they do not wish to shoulder the unbearable responsibility of being a sovereign individual, so not only is it – and that accounts for the cowardice, and that accounts for the attempt to weaken the spirit of the people that they’re teaching by overprotecting them -- they’re not willing to take on the responsibility, and the fault has to lie elsewhere.

And I think that’s a good judge of someone, someone’s character in general. It’s like, well the world is in a messy state, let’s say, and the question is, “Whose fault is it?” And the answer is: yours. That’s the right answer.

It’s not the patriarchy, it’s not some identifiable group, it’s not some structure that’s gone wrong, even though those things can go wrong.

And that’s the other fundamental truth of the West, is that, things would be a lot better if you were a lot better. And you have to decide if you’re willing to accept that, and you have every reason not to. It’s a terrible thought.

You know, it was Solzhenitsyn, I think—this is a paraphrase but I think it’s close enough—he said that one person who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny, and when I first read that I thought that can’t possibly be true, and as I understood I thought that can’t possibly not be true because the only thing that can break the spine of a tyranny is the truth, and the only person that, and the only way that the truth can be told is that some individual tells it, and so it’s necessarily the case that tyranny is broken by the truth of the individual.

But then the question is, well is it gonna be you that’s going to do that? It’s no trivial thing. You know, people come and tell me, very frequently, and they write me, and they say well, you know, I agree with what you say and this terrible thing is happening in my workplace and, you know, I don’t know what to do about it, and I don’t want you to make my story public, and because of the potential for repercussion.

And I think, yeah, well I understand your position. It’s no joke to, it’s no joke to stand up when the amateur totalitarians are knocking on your office door, but if you don’t, then sooner than you think, it will be the professional totalitarians, and then you will be in the sort of trouble that unless you’ve tried to imagine it, you can’t possibly imagine it. So.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Quebec abortions at least 20% higher than reported by CIHI

I have good news and I have bad news.

The good news is that Quebec's abortion rates appear to be decreasing. The bad news is that what CIHI reports for Quebec abortions is under reported by at least 20%.

I did a freedom of information request of Quebec Health RAMQ. This is what I asked for:
1. The number of abortions done in a Canadian province, other than Quebec, reimbursed by RAMQ, as well as the total cost, for each of the last five years, broken down by hospital, by clinic, and by physician's office. 
2. The number abortions done in Quebec, reimbursed by RAMQ, as well as the total cost, for each of the last five years, broken down by hospital, by clinic, and by physician's office. 
3. The number abortions done in the United States, reimbursed by RAMQ, as well as the total cost, for each of the last five years.
Below are scans of what I received back. Sorry for the poor quality.

The first three scans are the numbers of abortions done in Quebec, and the last scan is of the abortions done in a province outside of Quebec.

Ignoring the 2019 stats (the year isn't finished yet) and the 2014 stats (doesn't seem to be online anymore at CIHI's site), I looked at 2015, 2016 and 2017 and compared them to CIHI's numbers.

Here they are (and for this calculation I ignored the out of province abortions so the actual abortions are even higher than this):

2015 RAMQ/CIHI 29,036/24,193 (difference of 4,843)
2016 RAMQ/CIHI 28,086/23,393 (difference of 4,693)
2017 RAMQ/CIHI 27,621/22,966 (difference of 4,655)

For the abortions done out of province, I noticed something interesting. For those done under "Services professionels" (380 of them), the average cost was about $308. For those done under "Services hospitaliers" the average cost was about $1,580. It seems probable that these are late-term abortions because of the much higher cost.

Regarding abortions done if the US, I was told:
"Furthermore, we wish to inform you that we have not reimbursed any abortion performed in the US." [sic]




Sunday, July 14, 2019

Why the pro-aborts hate the movie Unplanned

Today I saw the movie Unplanned for the third time.

I counted 54 people in the theatre; Maureen counted 60. Not a bad turnout for a sunny Sunday afternoon when most people were probably outside soaking up the gorgeous July sun, a picture perfect summer day that was neither too humid nor too hot.

Here are the reasons the pro-aborts hate this movie, in no particular order.

  • It is a movie of hope--that people can and do turn their back on their support for abortion
  • Praying outside abortion clinics can and does reduce the number of abortions
  • Women can and do regret their abortions
  • Planned Parenthood really is all about the abortions and not about other health services
  • Abortion doctors make a lot of money from abortions
  • Planned Parenthood is funded by some very big names
  • Planned Parenthood took Abby Johnson to court and lost
  • Pro-life people really do care about the women who have abortions
  • Praying for loved ones who support abortion really can and does make a difference
  • The devil may be in the details but God is in the movie
  • Pro-life lobbying finally brought Unplanned to a theatre near you--in Canada no less. Who could have predicted that? Justin Trudeau, feminist extraordinaire, eat your heart out.

And last but definitely not least--all the huffing and puffing from Canada's loud radical extreme abortion lobby helped Unplanned to succeed at the box office. I never thought I'd thank the pro-abortions for anything. I was wrong.






Thursday, July 11, 2019

Truth and lies about pro-life people

Dear Canadian media,

I wanted to give you some important truths about the leading pro-choice group in Canada, Abortion Rights Coalition, and it's founder Joyce Arthur. The media quote Arthur all the time, whether it's about bubble zones, the movie Unplanned, crisis pregnancy centres, or any other topic concerning abortion.

But Arthur doesn't exactly speak the truth about pro-life people.

You know the abortion bubble zone Ontario now has? Well it is there because of Joyce Arthur. It is not there because of any pro-life violence at Ontario abortion clinics.

Arthur began this crusade (one of many against us) by writing to mayor Jim Watson providing him with some of her "research" on the supposed need for a bubble zone. Mr. Watson then wrote to the (Liberal) attorney general who gladly enacted a bubble zone law. But Arthur's "research" didn't include any real research. Such as the police report I obtained from the Ottawa police that revealed that there were no charges and no arrests at the Morgentaler facility in Ottawa in a three and a half year period. This information does not support the need for a abortion bubble zone. In fact, when I asked the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner about possible police reports on pro-life violence in the entire province of Ontario, I was told:
"with respect to the police reports, I had followed up earlier with the ministry [attorney general] and they advised there were no police reports."
Also missing from Arthur's letter to Watson was abortion doctor Wendy Norman's own 2012 study on Canadian facilities that shows how little harassment is actually happening at abortion sites:
"Facilities reported very little harassment (Table 4). No Canadian facility reported a resignation of an abortion provider–physician or any staff member owing to harassment. Only a single facility reported any resignation of an allied health professional staff member, and in this case the facility specified that the one resignation was not owing to violence, fear, or threats. Similarly, two-thirds of reporting facilities (49 of 74, 66.2%) indicated no episodes of harassment or violence in 2012, with a further 28.4% (21 of 74) reporting solely picketing without interference. Among 7 facilities reporting “other” episodes of harassment, half specified only receipt of harassing e-mail."
Unfortunately, a lot of politicians, and even some average Canadians, believe the misinformation and untruths Joyce Arthur disseminates regarding pro-life people. She spreads a lot of untruths about us.

For some reason that I cannot fathom, politicians listen to her. I think it's because they are afraid of her.

My friend Jonathon Van Maren spoke about this lie that pro-life people are violent, recently in his podcast which is about 20 minutes long. You really should listen to it.

In particular, Jonathon discusses Ms. Arthur's fabrications that violence in Canada is perpetrated by pro-life people. In fact, it has been at least 20 years since any such violence has occurred. And all pro-life organizations and activists strongly condemn any such violence.

The flip side to this is, that there has actually been, and still is, a lot of pro-choice violence against pro-life persons. It is tragically a very common occurrence. You might say, "well I never hear about that". And you would be right. This kind of violence is almost never covered in the mainstream media. Do you ever cover that fact?

Jonathon provides us with some very concrete vicious examples of the violence we endure. In fact, it would make far more sense to have bubble zones around pro-life people, than around abortion clinics.

Joyce Arthur and the Abortion Rights Coalition do not speak the truth about pro-life people. Quote her if you must. But please, what comes out of her mouth isn't necessarily factual or the truth about us, and almost always is a lie.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Patricia Maloney
p.s please also listen to Jonathon's latest analysis on Joyce Arthur's current obsession regarding the movie Unplanned.

Friday, July 5, 2019

The wisest words come out of the mouths of pro-life people

"Post-abortive women implode, post-abortion men explode" 
"Operation rescue was instrumental in making the pro-life movement what it is today" 
"Abortion is as repulsive as cannibalism and slavery" 
Jason Jones
One of my favourite podcasts is from my friend Jonathon Van Maren's unbelievably fantastic podcast. Jonathon discusses many topics. But it's mostly his pro-life episodes that I listen to, where he interviews some of the most amazing pro-life people who live on plant earth.

I am always stunned how dedicated, insightful, hard working, and just plain interesting these people are. They blow me away. The quotes above are from such a recent podcast Jonathon had with Jason Jones.

You know if you compare what comes out of the mouths of pro-lifers, to what comes out of the mouth of the pro-abortions...well there really is no comparison.

The pro-aborts like to say things like my body my choice (a lie), women have a charter right to abortion (a lie), abortion is health care (a lie), and many other such non truths. They really have nothing of import to say at all about abortion. I guess that's because there really is nothing good one can say about abortion. So their words are empty and meaningless and chock full of euphemisms. Of course, what can one say about the killing of defenseless, innocent, tiny human beings that makes any sense to anyone? Not much.

Listening to smart people like those who Jonathon interviews, gives me hope that we will win this culture war. The United States is doing it now. We in Canada can learn from our American friends. We can do it too.