Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Pope Francis repeated Monday that abortion is "murder," a day after the tiny republic of San Marino became the latest Catholic state to legalize the procedure, much to the cheers of women's rights groups.
An overwhelming majority -- 77 per cent of the 14,384 votes cast Sunday in the microstate surrounded by Italy -- favoured making abortion legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion would also be legal beyond that if the woman's life is in danger or if her physical or psychological health is at risk because of fetal anomalies or malformations.
Only 41 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, but no quorum was necessary and only 3,265 of San Marino's population of 33,000 voted "No."
The Catholic Church had strongly opposed the measure. The Vatican holds that human life begins at conception and that all life must be protected from conception until natural death.
Pope Francis repeated that stance Monday during a previously scheduled audience with the Vatican's bioethics academy. He decried the "throwaway" culture that makes abortion seem "normal."
"There is the waste of children that we don't want welcome," he said. "It is really a murder."
Valentina Rossi, member of the Union of Sammarinese Women and a referendum promoter, said the vote result was "far beyond the most optimistic expectations." She said it showed that individual voters were able to make a decision that the republic's politicians had refused to take for decades, even as Italy and other European countries made abortion legal.
San Marino's Parliament must now draft a bill to legalize the procedure, and proponents called for legislation that provides appropriate reproductive health services for all women.
"With this step, we succeeded in demonstrating that citizens are for the most part with us, and that finally San Marino will have to provide an adequate law," Rossi said. "At last!"
San Marino, one of the world's oldest republics, had been one of the last European states that still criminalized abortion. With Sunday's result, it now joins other predominantly Catholic states like Ireland, which legalized abortion in 2018, and Italy, where abortion has been legal since 1978. Abortion is still illegal in Malta and Andorra, and Poland introduced a near-total ban on the procedure this year.
Giacomo Volpinari, a San Marino citizen, said the vote was historic and showed the power of a referendum to change course.
"Where politics couldn't reach, it was the people who chose to get out from a medieval situation San Marino lived in for centuries," he said.
------
Winfield reported from Rome.
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.