NEWS photo Tom Burley

BACK UP from down under, the Dogwood Patrol returned with souvenirs and some great memories of the World Scout Jamboree held near Sydney,
Australia. Left to right are Steven Hahn, 15, 19th Seymour troop; Rick Hall, 14, 15th Capilano troop; Fraser Robertson, 14, 15th Capilano troop;
Rick Eng, 15, 114 St. Mary’s troop; Jon Elton, group leader, 19th Seymour troop; Mathew Rocksborough-Smith, 13, 19th Seymour troop; David
Moore, 15, 15th Capilano troop; Matt Elton, 14, 19th Seymour troop; Gavin Oliver, 18, 6th St, Agnes troop. The jamboree ran Dec. 31 to Jan. 10.
The scouts followed up the event with a week in Hawk's Nest spending time with Australian families.

THURSDAY’S SUPREME Court of Canada ruling that the
country’s abortion law is unconstitutional has been met with
delight and derision by North Shore residents.

Lions Gate Hospital board
member and past board chairman
Hilary Clark said Friday she was
delighted that ‘the law of Canada
has removed the punitive quality
of failed contraception...that has
(thus far) only affected women and
not the other equal partner in con-
ception.”*

She said she hoped the decision
would defuse the pro-choice/pro-
life debate that annually narrows
LGH board elections to a single-
issue abortion battle, and instead

FEI SEI A EEN ON ER ONS vine nea

help provide the board with the
people best qualified to serve the
hospital in its full range of com-
munity needs.

In its §-2 vote, the Supreme
Court ruled that the country's 19-
year-old abortion law represented
a “profound interference with a
woman's body” and chreatened
the health and security of Cana-

oaess

eines
wa

dian women by forcing them to
undergo painful) and arbitrary
delays to obtain abortions,

The court thereby acquitted
Montreal abortionist Dr. Henry
Morgentaler and two associates on
charges of performing an illegal
abortion in his Toronto clinie ia
1983,

But North Vancouver lawyer
George Carruthers, president of
B.C. Advocates for Human Life
and a meinber of the North Shore
Pro Life Society (NSPLS), sitid it
“was sud to see the demise of a
law that provided a measure of
protection for Canada’s unborn,”

He said it was tronic that the

See Ue Tne ore ane

Canadian Charter of Rights. which
he said was designed for the pro-
tection of all Canadians, including
the unborn, “‘was used as the basis
to authorize the killing of unborn
children.”

But Thursday's decision merely
leaves the regulation of abortion in
confusion, Parliament must now
come up with a constitutional law
that will plug the hole blasted in
existing levistation by the Supreme
Court's ruling.

Capilano MP Mary Collins said
from Ouawa that while she had
not had time to examine Thurs-
day's ruling thoroughly she
“agreed with the thrust of the

Supreme Court decision reignites pro-choice/ pro-life debate

decision, In that women have the
right to make those kinds of deci-
sions."’

NSPLS president: Ross Labrie
called the decision ‘barbaric, in
that it provides zero status to the
pre-born child." But he added his
organization's view that the law as
it stood was not being responsibly
applied anyway.

The NSPLS, he said, would
continue to attempt to change
LGH abortion policies through in-
formation and persuasion,

Carruthers, who, along with
fellow North Shore residant

See Abortion
Page 3

Se Rana eae ONE eee ee Pe EO