World Media Watch

Canada Heading Toward Totalitarian State?

LIFESITENEWS.COM, Feb. 28 — The Canadian government is using the homosexual movement to impose a national ideology with state power to ensure conformity, author Michael O’Brien charged.

In an essay for the pro-life website, O’Brien said that hundreds of new laws are engendering a climate of legalism that is “directed not at criminals but at the moral structure of private life.” The new laws, far from protecting citizens against unjust discrimination, are to be “wielded as a cudgel to intimidate those who simply disagree with them and to punish those who are outspoken about it.

“In just over one generation we have been shifted from a society in which homosexual acts were a crime under the then existing law, to a society in which homosexual acts have become a government-protected and fostered activity, while voicing criticism of it ‘publicly’ has become the crime. Call it by any name you like, but this is Thought Crime.”

The homosexual revolution is only one step in the process, O’Brien said. Artificial contraception, divorce and abortion came before it, and, he said, polygamy, pedophilia and euthanasia are next in line.

Officials Call for Audit of Police

THE LONDON TIMES, Feb. 27 — Senior Church officials have requested that the Scottish police force conduct an audit of its officers amid fears of sectarianism in the ranks.

According to The Times, the officials said they received complaints from people who claim they have been victims of sectarian discrimination by the police. Police officers are also said to have claimed that they are being denied promotion because of a “stained-glass ceiling” that bars Catholics from top jobs.

The call for an audit, which is backed by the anti-sectarian charity Nil by Mouth, was first proposed during First Minister Jack McConnell’s summit on sectarianism earlier this month.

Motherwell Bishop Joseph Devine said: “Information on how successful Scotland’s police service is in creating police forces which reflect the communities they serve in terms of religion, ethnicity and age, should be made public in pursuance of the noble goal of truly representative police forces.”

Church Takes to Pay-TV Airwaves

MELBOURNE HERALD SUN, March 1 — The Catholic Church plans to make its Australian pay-TV debut on a new community channel.

Aurora TV, a Victoria-based community channel, has been included in the basic packages of two cable services, the Herald Sun reported. Catholic Church Television Australia is one of the first organizations to put up its hand to provide programs for the community channel, set up to provide a platform for community groups, social service providers and faith-based bodies.

Jesuit Father Richard Leonard said initial programs would include Mass at home and a documentary on charity work in East Timor.

Father Leonard said, “For many years now, the Church has had little direct presence on Australian television, and so the bishops’ committee for the media seized the opportunity to have access to an increasingly important television outlet where we can put to air programs from which we think the Catholic and wider community will benefit.”

Prosecutor Seeks to Legalize Homosexual ‘Marriage’

LIFESITENEWS.COM, Feb. 28 — A Brazilian prosecutor has filed a legal challenge to the country’s prohibition of same-sex “marriage.” Prosecutor Joao Gilberto Goncalves argued that the 1988 constitution, which outlaws discrimination against homosexuals, is a reason to allow same-sex couples to “wed.” A court ruling is expected later this year.

A meeting officially supported by the Human Rights Office of the President of Brazil last May called for the approval of laws sympathetic to homosexuality in the Brazilian Congress. Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul approved same-sex civil union legislation last year.

Goncalves said he also intends to file a suit challenging restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.