Outraged priest returns Order of Canada medal

Lucien Larre, a Coquitlam priest who received the Order of Canada in 1983 for his work with emotionally disturbed and addicted youth, put the award in the mail Wednesday in an envelope addressed to Governor-General Michaelle Jean.

"I wanted to protest to the committee, because when we have the Order of Canada, it has to be given to people that most Canadians can admire and look up to," Larre said, explaining that many including himself view abortion as murder.

Morgentaler said Wednesday he was "genuinely honoured and proud" to be appointed to the Order of Canada.

"The work I've done over the years and the sacrifices and the sentence of imprisonment that I have suffered, I think that finally now the government has recognized my contribution to Canadian women and I am very proud of it," Morgentaler said at a Toronto press conference.

He said he is surprised the negative reaction to his honour from religious groups "is not more violent that it already is ... The negative opinions all come from the usual suspects: the Catholic Church, fundamentalists, women opposed to women's rights."

On Tuesday, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, said Canada's highest honour had "been debased" and called for the bestowal to be revoked.

Larre said that although he respects Morgentaler's courage, he doesn't want any association with him.

He was convicted in 1992 of slapping and choking a female, and forcing another young woman to take pills, while they were in his care at a youth home.

Is it an honour or an outrage? That's the question being asked across the country after reports surfaced that Dr. Henry Morgentaler was awarded the Order of Canada recently. In the notice of his appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada this week, he was cited for "his commitment to increased health-care opportunities for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations."

On the Morgentaler's membership in the Order of Canada. however, I feel no ambivalence whatever.

The membership of the abortion-rights crusader, announced Tuesday, is not only an affront to his pro-life adversaries, it's also offensive to a middle-ground type like myself.

If an organization representing doctors, civil libertarians or humanists were to lionize Morgentaler, fine, I'd have no problem. The organization would be private. It wouldn't be representing me.

But the Order of Canada is a symbolic stand-in for you and me and all citizens. It is the vehicle by which the state honours and celebrates what the Order describes as a "lifetime of distinguished service." I have as much trouble paying homage to Morgentaler as I would to his opposite number in the pro-life movement. He's an extremist, the most vocal proponent of one of the most socially radical causes of our time.