WCR This Week

CNS PHOTO | ART BABYCH Opponents of the assisted suicide Bill C-14 rally June 1 on Parliament Hill. Canada's bishops have called the bill an "affront to human dignity."

Anti-euthanasia activist Alex Schadenberg has been honoured with the Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence in Public Life by the Catholic Civil Rights League for his ongoing advocacy against euthanasia and assisted suicide.

On June 2, Schadenberg was presented with the Exner Award at the league's annual spring dinner in Toronto.

League executive director Christian Elia said Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, could have been given this award many years ago.

But with Bill C-14 - a bill to legalize assisted suicide in Canada - making its way through Parliament, Elia said it was particularly important to make the statement this year.

The passing of Bill C-14 is a tremendous loss for Catholics, but he said the league will continue to be defiant.

"Just because we might have a law in Canada doesn't mean that as Catholics we should obey it," said Elia.

"If it is intrinsically evil, and it is, we must disobey it in its entirety. Catholic physicians, Catholic hospitals, Catholic health-care networks must not take part in any of it."

Although the battle against Canada's euthanasia laws has been lost, Schadenberg said there is still a fight to be had.

"There is no way they can control a law that is designed to have no teeth," said Schadenberg. "It's the lowest possible protection and so much so that I would say that there is no protection. This bill is a disaster."

Schadenberg said the campaign against Bill C-14 must be stronger than ever.

On June 1, the coalition organized a rally in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa to express concerns about "the illusion of safeguards and the dangerous language in Bill C-14."