When pro-family supporters predicted that with the change in the legal definition of marriage to include gay “marriage,” the door to polygamy had been propped wide open, they were roundly shouted down as alarmists and extremists in the House of Commons and the press. During the debate on same-sex “marriage,” Liberal minister of justice Irwin Cotler adamantly insisted that polygamy would not [...]
While fierce tornadoes wreaked havoc on homes and farms across Manitoba, a spiritual tornado of sorts swept through the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada as it debated same-sex blessings in Winnipeg June 19-25. At the end of the triennial Anglican parliament, the one thing that was apparent to all was that the church they loved was deeply divided. All [...]
In response to a debate on spanking that took place June 18 before the Senate committee of human rights, the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada presented a research report indicating its disapproval with the proposed legislation. The debated bill, S-207, would take out Section 43 of the Criminal Code (allowing spanking), thereby forbidding parents from spanking their children and effectively making [...]
The Madrid-based Institute for Family Policies has issued a report to the European Parliament warning about “the deterioration of the family panorama.” Citing demographic, sociological and economic evidence from a team of experts, the IFP is calling on E.U. delegations to make the family a policy priority and promote the traditional family as an institution, recognize the fundamental right of parents to [...]
France’s highest court upheld the decision of a lower court and rejected the 2004 “marriage” of two homosexual men. The court declared the marriage annulled, finding that “under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman.” In 2004, Noel Mamére, mayor of the Bordeaux suburb of Begles, illegally “married” the two men, despite a prior warning from then-president [...]
On March 2, the opposition Tories in New Brunswick’s legislature introduced Bill 37, An Act to Amend the Marriage Act. MLA David Alward, who authored the bill, said it was an affirmation of the rights of those clergy and clerks of the court (marriage commissioners) who have conscientious objections to performing same-sex “marriages,” and was needed to prevent them from being prosecuted. [...]
Provincial Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur calls Ontario’s new child support enforcement website a “huge success,” but fathers’ rights advocates are questioning both its efficacy and its underlying ideology. The website features photographs and profiles of “missing defaulting support payors,” and offers the viewers the opportunity to make anonymous tips. Such use of public shame disturbs Stephen Baskerville, president [...]
For far too long, the interests of the “vital centre” of Canadian society have been neglected. The term vital centre, while borrowed from American liberal thought, takes on a much different meaning in social conservative thinking. By vital centre I mean the real social mainstream – those decent, honest and hardworking people of whatever class, religion or ethnic background on whom the [...]
Perhaps not surprisingly, the entity that oversees the conduct of judges in Canada – which, remarkably, is itself made up exclusively of judges – has ruled that Ontario’s chief justice did not act improperly in two matters: when he legalized so-called same-sex marriage in his province in 2003, despite the fact his daughter was involved in a same-sex relationship at the time, [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 7-2 that the federal government - that is, Canadian taxpayers - does not have to fund a lawsuit levelled by a homosexual bookstore against the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. Last April, the Supreme Court reserved its judgement in the case brought by Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium, a Vancouver retail shop specializing in [...]
Interim readers, as well as the public at large, can now enjoy a more in-depth, broadcast examination of some of the issues raised in this publication through a bi-weekly, one-hour radio program. Family Matters, as the program is being called for the time being, was launched in October and co-operates with The Interim, as well as the monthly magazine Catholic Insight, in providing content [...]
He’s done it again. Before retiring this spring at the age of 75 – despite never having even been a judge or practising lawyer before attaining the pinnacle of the judiciary in his province – Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry has taken one more kick at the traditional family structure by ruling, with Justices Marc Rosenberg and Jean-Marc Labrosse, that a five-year-old [...]
When Margaret Smith discerned her calling to teach the Creighton system of natural family planning, she declared, “If, by becoming a practitioner, I prevent even one abortion, then I’ve done my job.” Adamantly pro-life, the former palliative care nurse and sometime missionary is now an integral part of the Marguerite Bourgeoys Family Centre Fertility Care Programme, which held its annual general meeting [...]
Last Fall, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that his government intends to introduce pension splitting for seniors and that the Conservatives are open to income splitting for couples. The idea is to let couples split their income between them to pay lower taxes as a unit than the higher income earner or pensioner would individually. Presently, Canadians are taxed as individuals [...]
On Dec. 14, the Ireland High Court rejected a lesbian couple’s demand to have their Canadian “marriage” recognized in Ireland, in a landmark ruling closely watched by both sides of the international marriage debate. Justice Elizabeth Dunne decided against the claim of Dr. Katherine Zappone and Dr. Anne Louise Gilligan, who had argued that the state and Revenue Commissioners had violated their [...]