National Post

The National Post mentioned that the University of Western Ontario is giving Dr Morgantaller an Honourary Doctorate. The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday that the Bank ofMontreal has been providing an anti-abortion group with access to its charity Mastercard. Both stories expressed indignation and anger that the Bank or the University would associate themselves with the person or organisation in question.

It is hard for me to believe that in Canada these stories run and that people get into such states over these things. I understand that the issue is extremely important to many people, and I would suggest that you wouldn't be a very thoughtful person if the issue did not elicit any response. It is for that very reason that I wonder why people must call for the boycoting of the bank and the denunciation of the University.

In a democracy the facilitation and the promotion of dialogue on issues - especially ones of such personal importance - is a good in itself. Providing means for legitimate groups to raise money for their causes is an important public service that banks are in a unique position to perform. Banks would cease to perform that function the moment that they begin to discriminate between which causes are worthy of support and which are not. To discriminate in this manner would be to hurt the ambitions of individuals in the pursuit of their legitimate ends. Moreover, working to stop banks from supporting charities in this manner hurts the charities that one might support. If the Bank decided against supporting the anti-abortion group, then what would they do with an application from a pro-abortion group.

As for the University, the line may be a little bit more blurry, but not fundamentally different. The honouring of individuals does not necessarily mean the endorsement of that person's opinion. Universities give degrees honourary or otherwise to people who disagree with eachother. The conferal ofa degree ought to, and for the most part does, represent a contribution to knowledge, the community or educated discussion.

In the interest of of disclosure: I have a BMO Card affiliated with a charity, but not the one in question.