On August 19, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced he would prorogue Parliament, thus delaying its return until at least October, effectively killing government legislation currently being considered in both the House of Commons and the Senate. But Harper’s bringing to a formal end the last session of Parliament, may not much affect private member’s bills such as C-279, which would add “gender [...]
MP Brian Storseth introduced C-304 to help protect freedom of speech. Blogger Patricia Maloney is going to court to access Ontario's abortion information. On June 26, the Senate passed C-304, a private member’s bill that repeals Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Section 13 prohibited speech that was “likely to expose” identifiable groups to hatred or contempt and [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada asked government lawyers tough questions as they heard arguments for and against the law on prostitution. The federal Criminal Code provisions criminalizing brothels, pimping or “living off the avails” of prostitution, and communication to buy sex was struck down in 2010 by the Ontario Superior Court. In 2012, a 3-2 ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal [...]
Representatives of pro-life non-governmental organizations at the United Nations commission on women. Front row: Jean Head of Manhattan Right to Life with Peter Smith of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (U.K.) Back row: Sharon Rose Milan, Alissa Golob, and Matt Wojciechowski of Campaign Life Coalition. The United Nations held its 57th Session of the Commission on the [...]
Arün Smith favours diversity, just not diversity of opinion. So in early February he removed the free-speech wall at Carleton University – stole the paper and destroyed the frame – then, on Facebook, rationalized his violent direct action. In his incoherent philosophy, “liberty requires liberation, and this liberation is prevented by providing space for either more platitudes, or for the expression of [...]
In a 149-137 vote, C-279, a private member’s bill that would add amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and hate crimes law by adding gender identity and gender expression to the specially protected classes of people, passed Parliament on March 20 and will now move to the Senate. In 2011, a previous version of the bill passed the House but died in [...]
National Affairs Rory Leishman With the unanimous ruling in the case of Bill Whatcott on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada has stepped up its attack on freedom of speech and freedom of religion as never before. For faithful Christians, the implications are clear: Like Whatcott, they, too, could end up in jail as a prisoner of conscience for upholding the [...]
Supreme Court ruled against Bill Whatcott. The long legal odyssey of William Whatcott that began with the distribution of four flyers on homosexuality in 2001 and 2002, ended in the Supreme Court on Feb. 27, with the Supreme Court handing a mixed result for advocates of freedom of speech. After Whatcott distributed his flyers more than a decade, four individuals [...]
One small step to restoring our democratic rights The House of Commons passed Brian Storseth’s private member’s bill C-304 repealing Section 13 of the Canada Human Rights Act that proscribes so-called hate speech. C-304, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, was introduced by Storseth last October and passed third reading June 6 on a 153-136 near party-line vote. All members [...]
When Canada de-criminalized abortion in 1969, technology did not exist to let the world see inside the womb. Thanks to modern microscopic imaging and video technology, we can now see the newly created human being inside the Day 1 – Fertilization The life of each individual member of a species begins at conception/fertilization. That is when a genetically new and genetically complete [...]
The campaign to scrap Canada’s ‘hate speech’ clause moved one step closer to victory Feb. 15 as the House of Commons voted 158-131 to send it to committee. Of those MPs who voted, the bill was unanimously supported by the majority Conservative government and opposed by all opposition members, except Newfoundland MP Scott Simms (Liberal, Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor). After consideration by the Standing [...]
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt of MP Brian Storseth’s (CPC, Westlock-St.Paul) speech Nov. 22 in support of C-304, his private member’s bill to remove hate provisions from the Canada Human Rights Act. It is through freedom of speech and expression that we change governments here in Canada, not through riots and revolts. This is one of the unique factors that sets [...]
Many in the media rallied around the right for Bill Whatcott to speak freely even if they disagreed vehemently with his message, part of what the National Post’s Chris Selley called “the pleasantly broad consensus that the law shouldn’t be limiting Canadians’ right to free speech, however abhorrent.” With friends and allies like Selley … But Selley was not unique. Just as [...]
Bill C-389, the so-called bathroom bill that would add “gender identity” and gender expression” to Canada’s human rights and hate crimes laws, looks to be stalled in the Senate. As of press time, there was no sponsor to permit the process to consider the bill to move forward. The homosexualist newspaper Xtra! Reports that the bill’s House sponsor, Bill Siskay [...]
On Jan. 10, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal declared in the Marriage Act Reference that legislation proposed by the provincial government allowing individual marriage commissioners to refuse marrying homosexual couples if it violated their conscience is unconstitutional. The court rejected two proposed draft bills: one allowing commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex “marriages” and the other granting this exemption only to those [...]