What was the real legacy of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau? That won't be discovered from the massive, adoring coverage by Canada's media since Trudeau's death last Thursday.

Pierre Trudeau is a hero of the liberal media culture which conveniently insists that morality is a strictly personal matter to be determined by each individual and about which the state and even the church should have little authority.

Although there was already a cultural Revolution underway in the west in the '60s, there was no popular organized movement clamoring for abortion rights, easier divorce or increased legitimacy for homosexuality. Still, Trudeau, as Justice Minister in 1967 and Prime Minister in 1969, imposed these upon Canadians, whether they wanted them or not. Trudeau insisted that Canada must adopt his permissive society even if Canadians did not realize where he was leading them.

The story of the change in the abortion law via the 1969 Onmibus Bill is told in the pamphlet, The Secular State, 1985, by historian Fr. Alphonse de Valk.

De Valk states, "As Minister of Justice In 1967, Trudeau personally and on his own initiative introduced the Liberal government's proposal for legalizing abortion, ignoring even the hearings which were being conducted on the subject by a joint House-of-Commons/ Senate committee. As he explained to the Calgary Herald in December 1967, he deliberately placed the abortion item amid 108 other items in an Omnibus Bill in order to weaken resistance to it".

"As prime minister, and having won a second mandate in July 1968 with slogans such as 'the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation', Pierre Trudeau pushed ahead with his reforms".

"Trudeau saw to it that the legalization of abortion was enacted successfully in May 1969. Afterwards, no opposition to the new law was tolerated in his cabinet or even from the public: a demand for a review in the spring of 1975 which had over a million signatures was buried swiftly and efficiently. A climax of sorts was reached on 22 May, 1975 when, according to the Globe and Mail, Trudeau hailed Dr. Henry Morgentaler as a 'good friend, a fine humanitarian and a true humanist'. As late as 27 November, 1981, five days before the final vote on the repatriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights, Trudeau personally and again intervened in the abortion controversy by preventing members of his party from voting for an amendment introduced by David Crombie (PC), that 'nothing in the Charter affects the authority of Parliament to legislate in respect to abortion'".

Lastly, Fr. de Valk reveals "why Pierre Trudeau, a practicing Catholic, should have been behind legislation which has created a situation of virtual abortion on demand. The answer to this puzzle can be given in two words, 'political liberalism'. It has been Trudeau's contribution to Canadian political life to articulate the view of secular political liberalism that, in modern times, God and religion have nothing to do with public and political life".

Trudeau, above all, entrenched into Canadian politics the false, new concept that public officials must not "impose" their "personal morality" (which always refers to traditional moral principles only) via legislation on moral issues. He stated on the BBC on July 13, 1970, "you can't ask the totality of the people to accept my private morality as theirs. You have to make sure that the Criminal Code...represents not the private morals of the people who happen to be in government at that time, but represents what the people feel to be the basic public standards of ethical conduct." But of course Trudeau did impose his views on the public. His private, elitist view that morality has no place in law was bulldozed through Parliament and onto Canadian society. His private view was also that Canadians must be led to want his changes, not that they necessarily wanted them at the time - and Canadians, except for a small minority, were definitely not asking for the legalization of abortion.

As a Catholic, Trudeau was tragically mistaken that such a position can be validly held by a Catholic politician. Pope John Paul II has made it clear that a politician cannot call himself a believing Christian and separate his political self from the Christian who has an obligation to act on the moral laws. Just last week the Vatican announced that on Nov. 5 the Pope will declare St. Thomas More the patron Saint of politicians. This sends a clear message to Catholic politicians that their joy should be in first remaining faithful to Christ, and the true good of the people, by always resisting pressure to politically co-operate with immorality - no matter what the consequences.

Trudeau made substantial changes to the Criminal Code and divorce law, liberalizing Canadian regulations on the matters of contraception, divorce, homosexuality, gross indecency and abortion. Abortion was permitted if it endangered the life or the very liberally interpreted "health" of the mother and only if approved by a committee of three doctors.

There was no significant public movement asking the government to make all these changes. The result of the changes was an eventual, dramatic increase in all the previously forbidden or more strictly regulated activities. Since law is a teacher Canada's entire moral foundation was undermined which led to a general collapse of the practical moral culture. That is, this radical liberalization on supposed "private" matters had enormous social, health and economic consequences.

Well over two million pre-born children have lost their lives and their mothers have suffered the consequences of abortion. Family life has been devastated by widespread marriage breakdown and the children of these marriages have suffered generations of pain and social disorientation. The birth rate has plummeted to well below replacement level and is still descending, sexually transmitted diseases have become a silent epidemic causing death, sterility, many other health complications, heartache and undoubtedly billions of dollars in health care expenses, medical research costs and lost productivity. Children have become far more sexually active and distressed by early loss of childhood and having to cope with matters too complex for them. The law's now hands-off attitude towards morality has created a climate in which media sexploitation, pornography, prostitution, and the organized crime that always follow these things, are flourishing.

Trudeau's personal reasoning on abortion was contradictory and irrational. He stated in The Toronto Star Feb. 23, 1982 "I think that generally speaking, abortion is wrong and marriage should be forever." The Star noted "Trudeau also said that although he has very strong moral values, based on his Catholicism, he doesn't feel that he can impose them on other people." Trudeau knew abortion was killing. On September 25, 1976 he stated in Edmundston, New Brunswick "... I consider the fetus, the infant in the womb is a living being, a being we must respect, and I do not think we can kill him arbitrarily. There are cases where killing is legal.... There are cases when it is legal to kill even an infant, but I am saying, when we kill... we must answer to society. That is why our Omnibus Bill requires three doctors... they are more competent than I, as regards to mental and physical health and I think it is a good law. It is easy for us men to be against abortion. I am against abortion. But I've never been pregnant, illegitimate or otherwise... I believe we must listen to the woman's side of the story".

Trudeau "personally" believed abortion to be wrong, knew it was killing, yet, as far as we know, never apologized for his actions which led to a massive amount of this killing. He persistently fought off all attempts to even modify the legislation which permitted the killing. In 1980 he still referred to his 1969 abortion amendment to the criminal code as a "reasonable" law. Not only did Pierre Trudeau change the law to permit abortion, but his Liberal government also funded this killing through federal health care. In 1972 the Liberals, under Pierre Trudeau, began many years of substantial funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada (PPF), Canada's largest abortion referral service. In many other ways the Liberal government financed, promoted and defended abortion. Pro-abortion radical feminism flourished with heavy Liberal government support and financing.

In brief, Trudeau's philosophy and the foundation of his political actions was based on his great admiration and personal exposure to leftist individuals and movements. Fr. de Valk writes "at the London school of economics in the academic year 1947-48, Trudeau met Harold Laski, the intellectual Don of British labor socialism, whom Trudeau described as a 'most stimulating and powerful influence'. Laski convinced him that Democratic socialism could answer the needs of society.

Trudeau visited Moscow a few times and reported favorably on Stalin's totalitarianism in the magazine Cite Libre. He frequently expressed enthusiasm for Mao Tse Tung and China's Communist regime, never referring to the mind-boggling number of lives that were snuffed out by that regime. He greatly admired Cuba's marxist despot Fidel Castro and publicly hugged his friend Castro during a trip to Cuba in 1976. Trudeau's shout of "Vive Castro!" at a large public event during the trip was broadcast around the world. Link Byfield, in a September 30, 2000 Globe and Mail column, stated Trudeau "was once overheard by reporters remarking to Fidel Castro how much quicker and easier it would be to run things the Cuban way".