Douglas Farrow

If staying in Ottawa for any period of time, one is likely to become well-acquainted with the sole steadfast protester who has worn a yellow groove in the Parliament Hill sod. Located, more days than not, to the right of the eternal flame is a man we’ll call the Loneliest Crusader. Not much of a talker, he lets a few rather graphic posters convey his rather strident objection to the practice of abortion—much to the visible chagrin of school kids who wander by on summer field trips.

Freshly returned from the Hill and just received an official-looking press release from the Governor General’s office. New Order of Canada appointments and, yes, Dr. Morgentaler is among them. Here’s the citation.

Henry Morgentaler, C.M.
Toronto, Ontario
Member of the Order of Canada

For his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations.

Obviously it’s inconvenient to impose statistics on this debate (and there’s a fine one going on over at Potter’s place), but Angus Reid surveyed the Canadian public just a couple weeks ago. Here’s what they found.

Fully 46% of Canadians think abortion should be permitted in all cases. Another 19% think it should be permitted, but with unspecified restrictions, 22% would limit it to cases of rape, incest or in order to save a woman’s life, and seven percent would allow it only when a woman’s life is at stake.

If you put the question to Canadians in terms of legality, only five percent say abortion should be outlawed. Three percent aren’t sure. No less than 91% of Canadians think the law should allow abortion in at least some form.

Strange that when Douglas Farrow decided to preemptively poo-poo this appointment he skipped these numbers in favour of some online poll at Globeandmail.com.