I’ve just booked Supermarket in Toronto’s Kensington Market as the launch party venue for That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care. The bash will be March 31 at 6 pm. All welcome to help make sure March goes out like a lion.
While Europeans talk about the right to die, and Washington State voted to follow Oregon’s lead south of the border, Canadians are aggressively avoiding the subject. And don’t count on anything happening here even once Harper’s Conservatives fall out of power. Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde, who has cancer, did introduce a private member’s bill that would legalize assisted suicide in some cases, but it’s sure to suffer the same fate as a similar bill Lalonde introduced in 2005, before she discovered she had cancer.
If those of us who believe in this basic freedom want to see the law changed in Canada, we need to stop relying on politicians to lead the debate. Parliament will only do anything if we give our elected officials no choice but to do something. ‘Twas ever thus.
I am disgusted that the IOC is banning Right to Play from the Athlete’s Village at the Vancouver Games. Right to Play, a humanitarian organization that grew out of the
Olympics, works with kids in war-torn and poverty-stricken
countries, and many Olympic and professional athletes are involved.
Alas, I can’t say I am surprised by this heavy-handedness. Let’s face it, the Games are about making money, nothing more. And what’s freedom of speech when General Motors is an Olympic sponsor while Mitsubishi backs Right to Play.
It’s all just one more reminder that all this stuff about Olympic ideals is pure fiction, just marketing BS to cover the corruption, the cheating and the coziness with totalitarian governments. That’s not news to anyone, but that this censorship will take place in Canada is a disgrace.
So far 92 athletes, many of them high profile, have signed a letter criticizing the decision, according to this National Post story. Let’s hope all athletes use their outside voices to protest this censorship as vigorously as possible.
Since my wife always says I’m susceptible to peer pressure, it should come as no surprise to her — or anyone else who knows me — that I’ve started twittering. I have no idea if this will help sell books (unlikely) or just be a complete time suck (likely), but I am giving a go. You can follow me at twitter.com/timfalconer.
GM Canada turns down an emergency loan from Ontario. Is this a precursor to the company pulling out of the Great White North?
I will be in Burlington, Ont., on Monday, February 23 for a reading and talk about That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care. The event, sponsored by the Different Drummer Bookstore, will be in Centennial Hall of the Central Library at 7 pm.