The Morgentaler controversy could have an unexpected side benefit. With so many people quitting the Order, with the requisite big press conference, the Governor General’s office should be able to save a lot of money by recycling the ribbons, medals, and pins that are returned. Of course, the certificates probably can’t be reused since I assume that they didn’t use erasable pens. (Erasermate pens never did work properly, did they?)

For our non-Canadian readers and any Canadians who have been living in a closet for the past week, Henry Morgentaler was announced as a recipient of the Order of Canada last week.

Almost single-handedly, Dr. Morgentaler pushed abortion rights on to the national agenda when he opened an illegal abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969. At one point, he was jailed for 10 months when a lower court acquittal was overturned by a higher court. The issue culminated in a landmark ruling in January, 1988, in which the Supreme Court struck down anti-abortion provisions of the Criminal Code on the grounds they violated a woman’s constitutional right to “security of person.” (from the National Post, 7/2/08)

Prior to that ruling, women could only obtain an abortion if a committee at a hospital approved the procedure based on whether their reason was appropriate or not. This inevitably led to unequal access at the whim of the committees. Morgantaler risked his life, liberty and livelihood to ensure that women could obtain a legal abortion. No other doctors stood with him. As Dr. David Saul says in a Letter to the National Post, “How many of those doctors back then, agonizing at the stupidity of the no abortion law like Dr. Morgentaler, were willing to stand beside him and join him in jail? None. Had several hundred prominent MDs left the comfort of the hospital and home and showed up with Dr. Morgentaler on the day he was taken to prison, the issue would have been settled overnight.”

Dr. Morgentaler stood alone. He deserves the Order of Canada. And anyone who would return the honour because of who is or is not also awarded the honour doesn’t deserve to have it.