A landmark religious freedom case arrives before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday, December 15. The court will sit as the Divisional Court, which is a panel of three Ontario Superior Court judges (as distinct from Ontario Court of Appeal judges) sitting in review of the decision of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal… Read More
If you wanted to tick off the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals while undoing a longstanding relationship that has fostered improved human rights and strengthened sustainable development opportunities around the world, what single step could you take as the Government of Canada? Until Monday of this week, that was a question… Read More
Last week, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-58, An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service. Once passed, this simple piece of legislation is expected to change the landscape (netscape) of online child porn. Child pornography is a multi-billion dollar a year industry and the… Read More
Early in the evening last Wednesday (Nov 18) Members of Parliament voted 230 to 0 – with 78 members absent, but more on that later – in favour of Motion 388. M-388 was presented by Harold Albrecht, MP (Kitchener-Conestoga) to seek clarification of the provision in s. 241 of the Criminal Code which makes it… Read More
Over the weekend, I had the privilege of attending a seminar on euthanasia. I was particularly struck by the words of two women, neither keynote speakers at the event, who shared public comment on their personal experience. First, a doctor from British Columbia noted how the Hippocratic Oath had established a foundation for medical practice… Read More
Glen Pearson, MP (London North Centre) is a Liberal and a nice guy. Former volunteer director of the London Food Bank, human rights and development activist for the Darfur region of Sudan, along with his wife an adoptive parent of three children from the Sudan, and recipient of several major “nice guy” awards, Glen Pearson… Read More
Yesterday’s Ottawa Citizen delivered the disturbing news that a 47 year old man was not going to face charges for encouraging Nadia Kajouji, an 18 year old freshman at Carleton University, to commit suicide. The facts are disturbing. The Minnesota man pretended to be a 28 year old woman who encouraged Kajouji to take her… Read More
Of course, we would have liked to have seen a unanimous vote in favour of private member’s Bill C-268, minimum sentences for trafficking of children. So, why wasn’t the vote unanimous? On reading some recent media reports, it seems that there is a mistaken impression – one I think shared by some MPs – that… Read More
Yesterday, the Federation des Medecins Specialistes du Quebec (FMSQ) released results of a survey of their membership in which 3/4 of respondents indicate support for the concept of euthanasia. The FMSQ is a collective of 35 different specialists organizations, interestingly none of them being palliative care specialists. A story in today’s National Post accurately quotes… Read More
It has been a rush since the Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism published Canadian Evangelical Voting Trends by Region, 1996-2008, a paper I co-authored with Rick Hiemstra. Since the release of the paper we have seen interest expressed in the media, the blogosphere, the Evangelical community and, perhaps most significantly, the three national political… Read More