Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Mark Warawa Backs Stephen Woodworth's Motion 312 On Rights Of The Unborn

Tory MP Mark Warawa has released a video in support of a motion to study the rights of the unborn in Canada.

In the clip, the Member of Parliament for Langley, B.C., backs fellow Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's Motion 312, which calls for the formation of a parliamentary committee to study questions related to the definition of a human being.

"The definition of human being, should that begin maybe before complete birth?" Warawa asks. "We need to take a new fresh look at this."

Warawa twice says the committee would look at scientific evidence to make its determinations and wonders if Canada's current "400-year-old definition" of a human being meets our obligations under the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child.

A vote on Woodworth's motion was to have taken place in June, but has been delayed until September. Woodworth told the Catholic Register the postponement was due to his mother being ill, but some have speculated the delay was strategically aimed at keeping the issue of abortion in the news throughout the summer.

The motion is now scheduled to be debated on Sept. 21, with a vote on Sept. 26

This isn't the first time Warawa has voiced support for Woodworth's motion. In May, he rose in the Commons and petitioned Parliament to "speedily enact legislation that restricts abortion to the greatest extent possible," chiding Canada for keeping company with China and North Korea in having no laws restricting the practice. Fellow Conservative MPs Harold Albrecht, Dean Allison and Kevin Sorenson presented similar petitions on the same day.

While Warawa has been openly against abortion for some time, he used to support his party's official stance that debate on the issue should not be reopened. In 2009, Warawa told the Langley Advance that "Canadians want us to focus on the economy," rather than on abortion.

As Warawa makes a fresh push for debate on the rights of the unborn, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has rejected Woodworth's motion as a "backdoor path to enacting restrictions on abortion," according to the Globe and Mail. The CMA represents Canada's 76,000 doctors and medical students.

Abortion was also back in the news last week as the Ontario government acknowledged it has begun limiting public access to records relating to the practice, according to the National Post. The government said the information is "highly sensitive," but others questioned why Ontario is restricting access to information necessary to determine how many procedures are being done when the province can both protect the identities of individuals while also releasing basic statistics.

While MPs will be free to vote their conscience on Woodworth's motion, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already said he will vote against it.

"This motion was deemed voteable by an all-party committee of the House. I think that's unfortunate. In my case I will be voting against the motion," Harper said.

Without support from the PM, the motion is likely to fail. But while the debate may not continue in the halls of Parliament, it's clear Woodworth, Warawa and other anti-abortion MPs have succeeded in bringing the issue back to the forefront of public consciousness.

Original Article
Source: huffington post
Author: Michael Bolen 

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