Posted on 05/07/2005 7:56:54 AM PDT by GMMAC
The movement against Morgentaler
Ian Hunter
National Post
Friday, May 06, 2005
A month ago, I wrote on these pages of the decision of the University of Western Ontario to award an honorary doctorate at spring convocation to Canada's most notorious abortionist, Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
Since then, opposition to the University's decision has mushroomed. In particular, a student-organized Web page (www.uwoprotest.com) has garnered more than 7,000 signatures.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of London, Ronald Fabbro, wrote a stinging letter to UWO president Paul Davenport calling the University's decision "inconceivable and appalling." This takes on added significance when one realizes that two of Western's affiliated Colleges (Brescia and King's) are Roman Catholic, and that the president of King's College, Dr. Gerry Killan, was a member of the Senate Honorary Degrees Committee that made the decision to honour Dr. Morgentaler. (No doubt the board of governors of King's College will have satisfied themselves on the position taken by Dr. Killan as a member of the committee.)
Bishop Fabbro wrote: "[UWO] chooses to recognize a man who has spent his life advocating that women in Canada have easy access to abortion ... As a result of his efforts, hundreds of thousands of unborn children have been killed."
Some UWO faculty have announced their intention to show up on June 16, in full academic regalia, to stand outside Alumni Hall in silent protest.
Major financial commitments (including one bequest worth about $2-million dollars -- $4-million dollars if one tacks on matching grants -- have been cancelled. The Ivey Business School, often seen as the jewel in Western's crown, has encountered significant fundraising resistance.
But these are like small arms fire compared to the bomb dropping today; Mr. Don McDougall, chair of the UWO board of governors, will release an "Open Letter to the University" in which he states: "This decision will depreciate the honour, adversely effect fundraising, recruiting of students and faculty, relationships with the Affiliated Colleges and alumni, and do irreparable harm to the reputation of the University." It is surely unprecedented that a sitting chair of a university's board of governors would launch so direct and uncompromising an attack against a decision of his own university.
Mr. McDougall points out that neither he nor the board was consulted in advance of the university's decision; indeed they were not even copied on the university's press release announcing the Morgentaler decision. He asserts that the process followed by the Senate Honorary Degrees Committee was "corrupted," and that at least one member of that committee has subsequently resigned. Mr. McDougall calls the Senate decision, and its endorsement by president Davenport, "ill-advised in the extreme," a decision that will inflict "a permanent scar on our well-earned reputation for good judgment."
Mr. McDougall asserts that the board of governors has jurisdiction to reverse a Senate decision if the well-being of the university is seriously threatened. As examples, he mentions "major financial implications," or "threats to security of persons or property." He promises that the board of governors will monitor the situation "very closely," and that they will not hesitate to overrule the Administration if that becomes necessary.
It is necessary now. Only the willfully-blind can deny that the decision has damaged, already perhaps irretrievably, Western's reputation. Prudence requires that the decision be reversed before more damage is done.
To date, Western's senior administrators have emulated the proverbial monkey who sees and hears no evil, and speaks rarely, and then only politically correct mush.
But that may be about to change.
The principled and courageous letter of board of governors chair McDougall demands response.
Over to you, president Davenport.
Ian Hunter is professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario.
© National Post 2005
"Some UWO faculty have announced their intention to show up on June 16, in full academic regalia, to stand outside Alumni Hall in silent protest."
Well, well, well. Say what you like about Canada, their academics seem to have more brains that those stateside.
I imgine if Harvard decided to give an honorary doctorate to George Tiller "the Killer", that their faculty would stand up and cheer.
This article is the best thing I've heard from our neighbor up north for a while. Good on ya Canadians!
Yeah they sure do to fight the ultra-liberal administration! If it passes, they should break away and form their own university!
It's good to see the pro-lifers rising again.
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