Commons extends common-law status to gays in pension rules MOTION TO RULE OUT HOMOSEXUAL 'MARRIAGE' IS APPROVED M vs. H family law ruling leaves future uncertain The federal Liberals have not yet introduced legislation authorizing the formation of a police force of sex inspectors or "conjugal cops," although government critics argue that such an initiative is necessary to help them implement Bill [...]
In an article in the April 1998 issue of The Interim, entitled "Atheist Fundamentalism," I wrote about the book Deadly Doctrine by Canadian psychiatrist and humanist Wendell Watters, in which he argues that religion - especially Christianity - hurts children's psychological development and thereby leads to mental health problems in society. He suggests in the book that perhaps the government should take [...]
Some pro-lifers fear it fails to give due prominence to abortion as a defining issue Social justice issues took centre stage when a presentation in followup to the Ontario Catholic Bishops Conference 1998 document Choosing a Government was held in Hamilton March 24. A large, convention centre room packed to standing room with an audience of hundreds heard from London, Ont. Bishop [...]
Well, the big news from Parliament Hill this month is that if you are a single-income family, the Liberal Party does not want your vote. The government began the month of March with a one-two punch to all stay-at-home mums - and all Canadian families which aspire to be "wealthy" enough to be able to make the choice to be single-income families.According [...]
My husband and I have been living outside Canada for just over three years now, while he works on an expatriate assignment for the Nortel corporation, and so we are sometimes a bit behind on hearing the latest news from our homeland. And we all, of course, know Quebec has wanted to separate from Canada for a very long time now. But [...]
Chretién goverment quietly accelerates piecemeal re-definition to satisfy activists The gay-rights agenda took a giant step forward in Canada over the last few months, following the announcement of a court challenge to 58 federal statutes and what seemed to be the Liberal government's cave-in to that threat. On Jan. 7, the pro-gay Foundation for Equal Families (FFEF) began its legal challenge to [...]
The death of a child seems so unfair. Children should not die before their parents, yet there are more than 3,000 deaths of infants, children and young adults under 29 years of age annually in Ontario alone.The grief a family feels when their child dies is a normal healing process. However, the feelings of disbelief, sorrow, anger and guilt that are a [...]
Whether the child was an infant or an adult, a'a child is a child' Professor Stephen Fleming, chair of the Atkinson College department of psychology at York University in Toronto, conducted a three-year study of more than 200 families who have experienced the death of a child. His work dispelled a number of the myths surrounding the grief that follows the death [...]
Liberals promise study of discrimination against single-income families Jumping on a gaffe by a junior minister in the federal government, the Reform Party brought the issue of tax inequities between dual-income and single-income families to the centre of political attention recently. During what should have been a routine response during question period, Jim Peterson, the secretary of state for finance, put his [...]
Study intended to gauge true status of Canadian families The National Foundation for Family Research and Education has achieved something remarkably rare and refreshing: an honest and thorough examination of the economic, social, and psychological health of Canadian families. The NFFRE recently published the Family Health Index, which examines family breakdown, teen pathologies such as drug use and suicide, health care, and [...]
So what have our parliamentarians been up to in the last couple of months? With a controversial court ruling in B.C. over the possession of child pornography as the backdrop, the Hon. Lucienne Robillard, the minister of citizenship and immigration, introduces Bill C-63 to amend the Citizenship of Canada Act. Among other things, the legislation will give the government the exclusive authority [...]
A Liberal MP is working to give relief to parents who forgo careers to stay at home with their children. MP Paul Szabo (Mississagua South), is the chairperson of a Liberal caucus committee exploring ways to address the issue of unpaid work in the home. He says parents who stay at home to take care of preschool children are entitled to equal [...]
A Saskatchewan family has not let hardship and loss get in the way of their longstanding commitment to pro-life ideals. Ken and Rita Wolfe of Saskatoon are the parents of four children, the oldest of whom suffers from Nieman-Pick Type C disease, an extremely rare disorder that obstructs the body's ability to break down cholesterol. Eventually, the individual affected loses control of [...]
It's probably no coincidence that the status of fathers has declined in proportion to the overall depreciation in family life, morality and culture during the last few decades. Much has been written in recent years about the negative portrayal of fathers in the news media and in the entertainment world. Indeed, the incompetent father has become something of an icon in North [...]
CASTEL GANDOLFO - Pope John Paul II has used his last Sunday address of 1997 to speak of the threat to the family. From a villa in the countryside south of Rome, the pope said: There exist too many attacks on the family, a structure which is fundamental to a free and civil society." Celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family and [...]