Canada On March 17, the Liberals won three by-elections and the Conservatives one. Among the new Liberal MPs is former NDP Ontario premier Bob Rae, who brought in the temporary injunction against peaceful pro-life witnessing in 1994 … REAL Women is pleased with changes to the advisory board of the federally funded Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. The museum, which has received $1 million from Ottawa [...]
Canada Dr. Joseph Roncaiolo, a Newmarket, Ont. gynecologist, says he did not phone 911 when he discovered his wife dead at their home because he wasn’t sure she had stopped breathing and didn’t want her to survive “as a vegetable.” He said he did likewise when his pet was sick: “I did the same thing when my dog died – I didn’t call [...]
Canada Based on estimates as of Oct. 1, 2007, Statistics Canada says the country’s population topped 33 million for the first time, reaching a total of 33,091,200. Immigration drove the increase. The only province or territory with a replacement-level fertility rate is Nunavut … In a 400-page report, Quebec’s chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet proposed that the province examine proportional representation and [...]
Canada A Liberal party mailing from leader Stephane Dion to thousands of households in the Vancouver East riding has criticized the Conservatives for “dithering” in their handling of the InSite “safe injection” drug site and claims that “harm reduction saves lives.” Elizabeth Whiting, the party’s communications director, defended the mailing by saying InSite’s funding is a “major issue.” Earlier this year, Health [...]
Canada The federal Conservative government’s omnibus anti-crime bill includes a provision to raise the age of consent for heterosexual sexual activity from 14 to 16 … Conservative MP Joy Smith(Kildonan-St. Paul) will introduce a private member’s bill targeting human trafficking by amending the Criminal Code to outlaw sexual tourism and transmitting, distributing or advertising information for the means of sexual exploitation. Smith [...]
Canada Pro-life Conservative MP Art Hanger(Calgary Northeast), who was first elected as a Reform MP in 1993, has announced he will not seek re-election … The Montreal Gazettereported that in July, Quebec registered 7,400 births, the highest monthly total in the 2000s … A Federal Court in B.C. is considering a case brought forth by the Sex Party, a registered political party [...]
Canada 2006 census figures released by Statistics Canadashow that same-sex couples with children are more likely to get “married” than same-sex couples without children. University of B.C. law professor Fiona Kellyhas found that “married” lesbians usually cite their children as the reason for getting married … The Vancouver Sunreports fully one-quarter of clients at one unnamed fertility clinic in that city are [...]
Canada Two weeks after Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman got “married” to his male companion, Liberal MP Scott Brison (Kings-Hants) became the first federally elected politician to “marry” his homosexual partner, Maxime St. Pierre. Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory made it a point to publicly note that he sent a gift to Smitherman. Among the guests at the Brison wedding were former prime minister Paul [...]
Canada Anthony Silvestro , founder of the Ontario Alternative , says his new provincial conservative party will focus on fiscal issues, smaller government, multi-culturalism and bilingualism. Regarding abortion and gay "rights," he told the Ottawa Citizen that the Ontario Alternative is "not going to get bogged down in social issues" ... Homa Arjomand , an Iranian-Canadian activist who once worked at the [...]
Canada Testifying before an ad hoc parliamentary committee on bilingualism, Brian Mulroney’s former press secretary, Michael Gratton, condemned the Harper government’s axing of the Court Challenges Program last fall, calling the move “illegal” and “unconstitutional” ...Stephen Harper has appointed Judge Warren K. Winkler as chief justice of Ontario. Winkler is seen by insiders as more of a common-sense “country judge” than a judicial activist and [...]
Canada Maclean’s reports that this year’s Fashion Cares AIDS fundraiser in Toronto featured a striptease in a faux glass of champagne by Dita von Teese. “Sitting close enough to get sprayed” were former Ontario NDP premier and Rosedale Liberal candidate Bob Rae with his wife, Arlene Perly Rae. Also in attendance were Liberal MP and former city councillorMario Silva and his “partner” of 12 years, Martin Forget, [...]
Canada The Hill Times newspaper featured a front-page photo of Bryn Hendricks and Glenn Scott, who the paper says are the first homosexual Parliament Hill staffers to get “married.” Inside, the paper showed the newlyweds posing with Liberal leader Stephane Dion and their marriage certificate ... Dion told a 25th anniversary celebration of the Charter of Rights that he would reinstate the Court Challenges Program and the Law [...]
Bits & Pieces Canada In its first post-budget polling, Ipsos Reid found that the federal Conservatives are headed into majority territory, leading the Liberals 40-29 per cent, with the NDP behind at 14 per cent and the Greens at 7. Political observers say that breaking the 40 per cent mark, opening up a double-digit lead over the Grits and the perceived weakness [...]
Canada The Globe and Mail reports that the Conservatives are trying to engineer the defeat of their own government to force a mid-Spring election ... Liberal Leader Stephane Dion vows that one-third of the party’s candidates in the next election will be women and various news sources report that the party is trying to attract current and former NDP candidates to run under [...]
Canada Liberal leader Stephane Dion named his shadow cabinet, including pro-abortion advocatesMarlene Jennings (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Lachine) as justice critic, Bonnie Brown(Oakville) as health critic and Maria Minna (Beaches-East York) as Status of Women critic …Gai Ecoute is running an ad campaign designed to provoke discussion and reverse critical attitudes toward homosexuality. The posters include a pink and white milk carton labelled, “10 per cent homo” with [...]