Posted on 03/24/2005 2:29:59 PM PST by rface
"Doctor" Henry Morgentaler Morgentaler has championed the right to have abortions, will be honoured at the University of Western Ontario's Spring Convocation this June.....“The primary focus at Convocation in June should be on the students who are receiving their degrees and it’s a time of celebration for their parents and families. We would hope people keep this in mind.”
Western’s decision to confer an honorary degree upon Dr. Henry Morgentaler has brought praise and condemnation in public reaction.
Western announced last week that Morgentaler, a pro-choice advocate who has championed the rights of women to have an abortion, is among 10 distinguished individuals who will be honoured at Spring Convocation this June.
“We have had some responses opposing this decision, but we have also had many, many responses in support,” says Western Vice-President (External) Ted Garrard.
The University of Western Ontario Act mandates responsibility for awarding honorary degrees to the Senate.
Senate’s Honorary Degrees Committee, comprised of faculty, students, staff and alumni representatives, considers many nominations made each year and its decision is final, says Garrard.
“We do appreciate and welcome the opinions of everyone on this,” he says. “People have a right to express their views. That’s what a university is all about. The decision was based on the merit of the nomination.”
Garrard says Western will take whatever security steps are necessary as a precaution for the safety of Morgentaler and to preserve the peaceful conduct of the convocation ceremony.
“The primary focus at Convocation in June should be on the students who are receiving their degrees and it’s a time of celebration for their parents and families. We would hope people keep this in mind.”
But London-Fanshawe MP Pat O’Brien is urging the university to reconsider its decision to confer an honorary degree on Morgentaler.
“He is someone who is highly controversial and who many Canadians hold in utter contempt,” says O’Brien.
Pro-life and abortion rights groups have both jumped into the fray.
A London pro-life group calls Western’s decision “unbelievable” and says conferring an honorary degree on Morgentaler is highly inappropriate. But a London pro-choice group hails Western’s decision and praises the university for recognizing a doctor “who has long been overlooked in public recognition.”
The controversy even spilled over into Senate last Friday when the honorary degree recipients were announced.
Brescia University College Academic Dean Lorna Bowman expressed her school’s disappointment at the decision to honour Morgentaler.
Sharon Sabourin, a student senator, supported the decision saying “it is a great degree to be awarded.”
Faculty senator Jeff Tennant commended the “courageous decision of the university” to honour a person he deemed “a defender of women’s rights in Canada.”
Next up for an honorary degree: Dr. George Tiller of Kansas?
Next up for honorary degrees,
JACK KEVORKIAN
and
JOSEF MENGELE
I'm somewhat shocked that my alma mater would chose Morgentaler and not some place like York or Concordia, the latter seeming to revel in controversy these days
compared to most universities, it is a conservative campus in a conservative(little c) community....or it seemed so when I attended there 1979-1985
PS Brescia College is one of the faith based colleges affiliated with the university, it is a Catholic based college, King's College is also Catholic and Huron College is Anglican I believe
And john kerry calls himself catholic also.Means jack squat anymore.
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