Canadian university endorses the Culture of Death.

The institution never having distinguished itself for boldness or edginess before, many were stunned this spring when the news broke that the University of Western Ontario, in my hometown of London, would confer an honourary doctorate of laws degree upon Canada's most prominent advocate and facilitator of abortions.

Were University fund-raising programs producing the big bucks in such prodigious quantities that UWO could afford to tick off half the population in this way? Was there such an overflow of students clamouring for admission that they could risk incurring the displeasure of prolife parents and guidance counsellors who would now be inclined to direct high school grads to other universities?

While Morgentaler himself undeniably has his ghoulish acolytes, as charismatic figureheads go, he's a pretty damp squib, lacking both charm and eloquence, and given to blurting poisonous, insupportable, and self-promoting bromides about how much his work as a foetus liquidator has driven down crime rates in contemporary Canadian society.

The University of Western Ontario Alumni & Friends immediately started up a protest website, quickly gathering 12,000 signatures urging the UWO senate to reverse its decision. Joseph Rapai, director of education for the London District Catholic School Board, posted his strong denunciation of Morgentaler on the site. As one who oversees the education of some 23,000 students in the three counties around London, his displeasure is likely to have some influence on future UWO enrolment figures.

Then there was the prickly matter of the presence on UWO campus of two Roman Catholic affiliated colleges--King's and Brescia. In an open letter to UWO president Paul Davenport, Bishop Ronald Fabbro, speaking as the pastor of the half million Catholics in the Diocese of London, called the decision to confer the degree "inconceivable and appalling." Fabbro said: "As a result of Morgentaler's efforts, hundreds of thousands of unborn children have been killed."

Incredibly, President Davenport never bothered to reply to the bishop's letter, nor did he explain how an institution of higher learning could stoop to honour the intellectual credibility of a man who has routinely spouted the kind of eugenicist claptrap that got Ernst Zundel run out of Canada.

Morgentaler has repeatedly hailed the social benefits of abortion as a sort of preventive capital punishment, eliminating the surplus supply of young men born into poverty who might go on to become criminals, murderers and rapists. In a 1998 "Message from Henry," distributed by his lucrative network of eight clinics (you see, Canadians don't really mind two-tiered health care, so long as it's about killing preborns and not replacing hips), he also claims that abortion is responsible for some mythical 30-year decline in mental illness. Anyone with eyes can see that madness is undergoing a boom right now. Where is Henry getting his fatuous pseudo-scientific insights? From Jo-Jo's Psychic Network?

Within days of the announcement one donor cancelled a bequest to UWO in excess of $2-million. That gift was intended to create scholarships in three different faculties and, together with provincial and federal matching funds, represented a total loss to the university of $4-million. Don Thain, professor emeritus at UWO's Ivey Business School, called the Morgentaler debacle "the worst public relations nightmare in the entire history of Western," and singled out Davenport for nearly all of the blame. Thain claims at least two other Canadian universities briefly contemplated honouring Morgentaler in a similar way, and backed off once they saw the repercussions such a gesture would provoke.

Thain contended that four or five million dollars had been taken off the table in the weeks leading up to the convocation and "conservatively" predicted that losses to the university stemming from this one act would ultimately clock in at $40 to 50-million. University senator Joan Francolini resigned in protest from the Senate Committee that had chosen the recipients of honorary degrees. And the chair of the University's Board of Governors, Don McDougall, released an open letter calling the process by which Morgentaler was selected "corrupted."

Opposition to the granting of the degree became so widespread and impassioned that this public convocation had to become an invitation only event. At one point it was thought they might have to hold the ceremony in a more secure and controllable venue than UWO's Alumni Hall. "How about the University Hospital morgue at midnight?" Thain jokingly suggested.

Every Catholic school in the diocese observed a moment of silence at 10:00am on June 16 while the degree was being conferred. Bishop Fabbro led a special 7:30am Mass at the Cathedral Basilica and from there hundreds of protesters silently and prayerfully made their way up to campus where all the avenues leading to Alumni Hall were cordoned off by police. It looked more like a war zone than a campus.

One couldn't help feeling sorry for the hundreds of hard-working students who'd had their special day of celebration hijacked in this way But this rising generation is almost disconcertingly polite. Sure, there were pockets of people inside the hall--maybe three or four dozen--who refused to applaud or acknowledge the day's guest of honour in any way But the rest applauded on cue and even gave Morgentaler two standing ovations as he rattled on about what a wonderful fellow he was and how--wait for it--"the crime rate, especially violent crime, has been decreasing because there are fewer unwanted children."

And all thanks to that selfless, millionaire doctor, Henry Morgentaler, who ingeniously and courageously liquidates criminals before they even get born. Now that the academy has awarded this giant of medicine and ethics an honourary doctorate, can the Order of Canada be far behind?