Canada Blogger Blazing Cat Fur exposed the fact that Lee Hicks, an elementary school teacher for the Toronto District School Board, developed a 70-page guide for a new curriculum entitled “Both/and …” that encourages students to cross dress. The guide is for students from kindergarten to Grade 6. Hicks comments on some of his methods, “I ask the class members to all [...]
Canada The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada released a position statement saying they were “troubled” by Stephen Woodworth’s private member’s motion, M-312, which is passed will have a Parliamentary committee examine the scientific evidence as to whether the child in the womb is a human being with an eye to amending Section 223 of the Criminal Code definition that says [...]
Canada MP Maurice Vellacott (CPC, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) compared abortion to bullying: “In light of this new awareness of bullying, consistency and credibility demands that we tackle the most cruel and most common bullying of all – the bullying, and ultimately killing, of babies in the womb” … Halifax freelance writer Lezlie Lowe writes in the Chronicle-Herald that Mother’s Day is a great day [...]
Canada In the Alberta provincial election campaign, PC Premier Alison Redford attacked the Wildrose Party for having opponents of homosexualiy run as candidates and condemned leader Danielle Smith for being open to enacting laws to protect the conscience rights for medical workers and marriage commissioners ... Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said that once again he will not be attending the city’s Pride [...]
Canada Brian Anthony Cutteridge, a 37-year-old Vancouver man, stood trial in a rare bestiality prosecution. Cutteridge, who is alleged to have sexual relations with a Rottweiler after a veterinarian reported the condition of his dog to the SPCA, is the author of a pro-bestiality pamphlet entitled “On the legal prohibition of zoophilia in Canada and the United States,” in which he argues [...]
Canada Campaign Life Coalition launched a national TV advertising campaign on Sun News focused on the B.C. court challenge to Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide restrictions. It asks Canadians to write to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to urge them to invoke the notwithstanding clause if necessary to uphold the prohibition on killing vulnerable people ... The Supreme [...]
Canada On Nov. 24 The Brunswickan, a newspaper at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton), reported that the Student Union (UNBSU) had concerns about accrediting a Fredericton campus UNB Students for Life Club (one had been operating at the Saint John’s campus), and on Dec. 5 the UNBSU requested more information about the club’s activities including the centers the club would be [...]
Canada Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the British Columbia Supreme Court upheld Canada’s ban on polygamy on Nov. 23. The case came before the B.C. Supreme Court after charges against two men from a Mormon sect in Bountiful were stayed. “Based on the most comprehensive judicial record on the subject ever produced, I have concluded that (there is) a reasoned apprehension of [...]
Canada While Ottawa has given $6 million to International Planned Parenthood Federation projects in conjunction with its maternal health initiative, the Canadian International Development Agency has refused to give grants to MaterCare International. MaterCare, which works to reduce maternal mortality in the developing world but does not carry out abortions, was denied a funding request for the eleventh time in ten years. [...]
Canada Quebec resident Ginette Leblanc, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is challenging the federal Criminal Code prohibition on euthanasia. Her lawyer, Rene Duval, will file an application with the Quebec Superior Court asking that 241b of the Criminal Code outlawing assisted suicide be ruled unconstitutional. According to reports, Duval expects both that court and the Quebec Court of Appeal to uphold [...]
Canada The British Columbia Catholic Civil Rights League condemned the Burnaby School Board’s equity policy with director Sean Murphy declaring, “It is now time to recognize that parents are the first line of defense against the abuse of state power in education, and the first protectors, not just of children, but of civil liberties.” The CCRL’s B.C. wing released its “Declaration on [...]
Canada On July 15, the Ontario Court of Appeal extended a stay on the ruling that struck down legal restrictions on prostitution. The court will hand down its final decision in the fall, though most legal analysts expect the case will eventually make its way to the Supreme Court of Canada … The Toronto Star reports that Rev. Brent Hawkes, who preformed [...]
Canada MPs elected pro-life Conservative Andrew Scheer, a father of four, as Speaker of the House. In a 2009 with The Interim Scheer spoke about balancing his professional and personal life and how he always tried to be home in time to tuck his children into bed and not to schedule events on Sundays … The Hill Times reports that Stephen Harper [...]
Canada According to an Abacus Data Inc. poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say “we shouldn’t be afraid to debate” abortion, that 49 per cent think abortion should not be fully covered at taxpayer expense, and only 22 per cent support the status quo of abortion permitted through all nine months without limit. While 27 per cent say human life should be [...]
Canada In 2009 there was controversy when the study guide given to new immigrants, “Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship,” did not include reference to same-sex “marriage.” A new guide released on March 14 states: “Canada’s diversity includes gay and lesbian Canadians, who enjoy the full protection of and equal treatment under the law, including access to civil marriage.” The [...]