Whether Henry Morgentaler is a champion of women's rights or a baby killer, there is no debate about one thing: He is now a member of the Order of Canada.

No one should freak out. The same award was given to Alan Eagleson, Conrad Black and David Ahenakew -- two fraudsters and an anti-Semite. (Though the light-fingered lawyer and hate-spewing native leader lost their medals, Connie the Con still has his, despite the best "repo" efforts of the NDP.)

Which is just to say that award-givers have been known to perform the occasional belly flop. They even do it over in Stockholm. Remember when Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat shared a Nobel "Peace" Prize?

I usually don't get worked up about who gets what in the world of public honours. Awards are usually conferred by narcissistic elites gazing into the vanity mirror of their own values and proceeding to reward the like-minded.

The Order of Canada, (along with sea trunks of honorary degrees, blue ribbons, and other proof of pedigree) is generally reserved for PLTs -- People Like Themselves. It's not exactly a blessing from the Pope, but it's not a coupon for a free Big Mac either. Think of the Order of Canada as a group hug from the Establishment. How else could Peter Mansbridge have been snowflaked and Andrew McIntosh ignored? It certainly wasn't about journalism.

By elevating Henry Morgentaler, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Co. have performed a majestic belly flop. They have bestowed a national honour on a mere personal favourite. They have also reminded us that the soft underbelly of the Establishment in Canada continues to be liberal, smugly self-satisfied, and contemptuous of those lacking in cultural evolution.

Meanwhile, the dumb old country doesn't want to give a group hug to Dr. Morgentaler.

Many doctors, including Dr. Will Johnston of Canadian Physicians for Life, have bitterly rebuked the committee's decision.

The Catholic Conference of Bishops says the abortionist has degraded society, not enriched it.

At least one person (Father Lucien Larre) is returning his Order of Canada because the club has been opened to a dubious inductee.

I think what happened here is what always happens when public honours are at stake. Interest groups who believed that Morgentaler deserved an Order of Canada kept working the system until they got the desired result.

The doctor is 85 years old and decidedly frail. His supporters wanted public approbation for his side of what is still a bitter debate in this country -- a woman's right to a legal abortion without regard for the rights of the unborn or the father.

But Morgentaler's supporters wanted more than just public honours for their champion while he is still running abortion clinics. They also calculated that a Morgentaler Order of Canada would be yet another public confirmation that their cause has triumphed and the other side has failed utterly.

The tasteless ostentation of their zeal to put a boot to the throat of the pro-life movement has done nothing but re-energize a bitter debate over the most basic issues of personal freedom and powers of life and death. Morgentaler's critics have already seen his public honour as a sign of moral decay led in part by a remorseless extremist. Not exactly the kind of emotions the Order of Canada was designed to inspire.

As a caller to my talk show put it, anyone who gets an Order of Canada should be able to have a school named after them. Henry Morgentaler High? Hmmm.

mharris@cfra.com