Monthly Archives: June 2012

News

Canadian gynecologists oppose discussion of when life begins

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Mary sent me this article from Life Site News.

Excerpt:

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) said in a position statement released last month that they are “troubled” by a private members motion that seeks to determine when human life begins.

Motion 312, proposed by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth, seeks a re-examination of section 223 of the Criminal Code, which states that a child only becomes a “human being” once he or she has fully proceeded from the womb. If passed, Parliament would set up a special committee to consider the medical evidence relating to the humanity of the unborn child.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada represents over 3,800 health-care professionals including gynaecologists, obstetricians, family physicians, nurses, midwives, and other health professionals.

The SOGC says it is concerned that if the motion passed it “would challenge and change the fundamental principle of women’s autonomy.”

“Current law makes it clear that a woman and her foetus in utero are treated legally as one person, not two,” the SOGC observes, expressing concern that if the motion passes it would “suggest that a pregnant woman serves as a mere carrier for another person with full legal rights” and that her “interests, needs, or choices” would be considered second to those of the unborn child.

The SOGC also expressed concern that the motion might restrict “women’s reproductive and sexual rights and decision-making.”

[…]Woodworth has argued that his motion is simply a response to the advances of science in the past decades which prove beyond a doubt that the unborn child is human, thereby calling into question the validity of section 223 of the Criminal Code.

“There might be some people who can convince themselves that a child magically transforms into a human being when their little toe pops out of the birth canal,” he told reporters while announcing his motion earlier this year. “However, I’ve concluded that modern medical science will inform us that children are in reality human beings at some point before the moment of complete birth.”

I bet a lot of these doctors, nurses and midwives are pro-life, but these big organizations always seem to take the leftist view on every issue.

News

How well are American schools teaching science?

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Stuart Schneiderman links to this post.

Excerpt:

The results are in and America’s elementary, middle and high school students are stumped by science.

The National Center for Education Statistics released the findings of their National Assessment of Educational Progress science exam this week and it doesn’t bode well for the state of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. While the majority of students at the fourth, eighth and twelfth grade levels could successfully complete straightforward hands-on or computer-based tasks and arrive at the correct conclusions, once additional variables or more complex calculations were introduced, their performance declined dramatically.

For example, 75% of high school seniors could successfully use test strips to test water samples for the levels of four pollutants, record the data and interpret whether the results exceeded EPA standards, but only 25% of students were able to design and conduct an investigation using a simulated calorimeter and related patterns in temperature changes in two different metals to determine which metal has the higher specific heat capacity. Results were the same at the lower grade levels, where only 24% and 35% of eighth and fourth graders respectively were able to handle the more difficult experiments. Students also had difficulty in explaining how they arrived at a correct conclusion, with only 27% of twelfth graders able to both select a correct answer and explain why they did so in one section of the test. And in another section, only 11% were able to make a final recommendation that was supported by the data they had worked with in the experiment.

[…]Currently, only about a third of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the US are in the STEM fields – by contrast, over half of Chinese and Japanese college students are specializing in STEM subjects. The economic and career benefits of STEM education are well-documented. STEM occupations are forecasted to grow faster than non-STEM occupations through to 2020. Over the course of the recession, unemployment in STEM fields has been almost half that of non-STEM fields. And STEM professionals earn, on average, approximately 26% more than non-STEM counterparts.

[…]If there’s a bright spot in the NAEP report, it’s the fact that female students are matching or exceeding the performance of their male peers in both hands-on and interactive tasks.

I always encourage Christians to go into STEM fields, especially men who have a Biblical mandate to provide for their families, if they have one. Women can be more flexible in what they study. Men are obligated to go for the bucks.

Regarding that comment in bold that I highlighted, Stuart writes:

Schools are not teaching advanced scientific problem-solving and reasoning, but they have achieved gender parity.

Is this an accidental correlation or is the connection causal?

It is certainly possible that educators have chosen gender parity over scientific excellence. If so, then that would help to explain their failure.

Educators may have chosen to close the gender gap at the expense of boys. They may have devalued certain types of reasoning because girls do not do as well on them. They may have changed the content of experiments to make science a more girl-friendly field?

We know that when boys believe that a field is identified as more feminine, they turn off and go back to their video games.

We know that teachers of the humanities and social sciences now actively discriminates against boys.

Is the same thing true of science?

If you read through the Department of Education report you will observe that the tests mostly involve girl-friendly and environmentally correct topics. They ask how sun-loving plants grow, how to test for pollution, and, how heat is conducted in frying pans.

Do you believe that ten or twelve year old boys will crank it up to study how to cook an omelet?

Sometimes the questions are directed at more boy friendly topics like electronic circuits and magnetic fields but they do not teach about cars, guns, and boats. They do not address questions about mining, agribusiness and construction.

Does it matter? I suspect that it does.

I think some combination of homeschooling and private schools is required if you expect your children to make a difference in the world. Young men especially will benefit from being taken out of the feminized public schools. That’s something I think about when dating and courting – picking the future teacher of my children.

Regardless, all Christians should be advocates for school choice. We shouldn’t be paying for a failed, politicized public school system. Give every parent a voucher and let the public schools compete for funding by pleasing customers – like every other business has to.

News

Quebec court orders Dunkin’ Donuts to pay $16.4 million to failed franchise owners

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Political map of Canada
Political map of Canada

ECM sent me this story about the most immoral and socialist province in Canada.

Excerpt:

Former Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees have been awarded a total of $16.4-million in damages from the company for losses suffered because of the “Tim Hortons phenomenon,” in which the donut shop saw almost all of its Quebec stores close in less than a decade as it lost market share, according to a superior court decision released Thursday.

The Quebec Superior Court ruled that Dunkin Donuts Canada Ltd. failed to protect and enhance its brand at the cost of the 21 franchisees and misled owners to get them to buy into a new strategy that ultimately failed.

“In this case, you have a very large franchisor with a successful chain and it’s facing a competitive threat by another large chain, i.e. Tim Hortons,” said Toronto-based franchise lawyer David Sterns of Sotos LLP. “And the judge’s view is that the franchisor couldn’t just cede the territory to the competitor, that it was incumbent on the franchisor to hold the ground for the system.”

There are currently 11 Dunkin’ Donuts stores left in Quebec, from a high of more than 200 in 1998.

In 2003 the franchisees launched the suit against Dunkin’ Brands — formerly Allied Domecq Retailing International Canada Ltd. — claiming they were induced under false pretenses to join a remodelling program that would boost sales by 15% in the first year and several subsequent years, which never happened.

The company also failed to live up to a promise to invest $40-million, half of which would come from franchise fees.

The lesson here for business owners and job creators is clear: never, ever start a business or expand a business in Quebec. They’re not just secular and anti-family, they’re socialist and anti-business.

Here’s an interesting post about Quebec’s fiscal situation:

Quebec’s austerity measures which include the raising of tuition fees for its post-secondary students have been headline news in Canada for the past month. In light of that, I thought that it was time to do a brief posting on Quebec’s financial situation.

Let’s start by looking at Quebec’s debt. Quebec is Canada’s second-most indebted province after Ontario and has the misfortune of having a bond credit rating that is in the lower middle of the pack, well below Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, Manitoba and below New Brunswick and Ontario at A+ (Standard and Poor’s), the same rating as Nova Scotia. This poor rating makes it more expensive for Quebec to service its debt. Quebec’s total debt in fiscal 2011 – 2012 is estimated to be $170.9 billion; this compares to Ontario’s estimated debt of $237.6 billion. Quebec’s debt nearly twice the size of all other provinces combined (excluding Ontario).

Quebec’s debt-to-GDP is estimated to be 51.2 percent in 2011 – 2012, the highest in Canada by a very wide margin with Ontario coming in second place at 37.2 percent and Nova Scotia coming in third place at 35.2 percent.

[…]If the Harper government follows through with its plans to wean Canada’s have-not provinces from the federal teat, Quebec may find it impossible to meet its fiscal goals. As well, when interest rates return to normal levels, Quebec’s expenditures on debt interest payments will become an ever-increasing portion of its overall spending. Since Quebec is already Canada’s most highly taxed regime, if the province hopes to meet its targets, it has only one choice – cut spending now.

It’s a worthless, backwards province that exists only by stealing money from hard-working provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan. I hope Harper cuts them off – it’s not like they vote for him anyway. Let them eat grass and leaves for a few years.