Paul Martin's Liberal government will give committees of MPs the chance to scrutinize judges nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada. That promise was made in January by Liberal MP Roger Gallaway, the man given responsibility for democratic reform by Martin. "What is obvious is the courts, but particularly the Supreme Court, have assumed a position of power which challenges the doctrine [...]
The Conservative Party of Canada caucus decreed in a Feb. 3 vote that former Canadian Alliance MP Larry Spencer will not be allowed back into the new party. Last November, Spencer was fired as Alliance family-issues critic and suspended from caucus after publication of a Vancouver Sun interview that Spencer says was reported wildly out of context. Following the new party caucus's [...]
In late January, newly appointed Justice Minister Irwin Cotler announced the latest action his government would take in its plan to redefine the institution of marriage in Canadian law. The government, he explained, would be adding a fourth question to the three questions the previous Chretien administration had referenced to the Supreme Court of Canada last summer in regard to the constitutional [...]
For all the talk about the democracy deficit, there is a much greater deficit in the political arena: a morality deficit. Consider just two facts (for the sake of brevity): o In 2000, then-prime minister Jean Chretien declared that Canada had "social peace" on abortion, indicating that the debate was over. The blood of more than 110,000 unborn babies killed in the [...]
There has been much talk about the "democracy deficit" recently, as Prime Minister Paul Martin championed the cause of more freedom and accountability for MPs. Of course, almost every candidate seeking the leadership of any party promises a greater role for MPs; no leader wants to be seen as being against democracy. But few have acted on those promises once they have [...]
Stalin would feel right at home with our electoral system. It can be bought, twisted and manipulated, as Ontario demonstrated recently. The truth is that people who don't vote are telling all the politicians, "None of you is worth getting off my duff to vote for!" (I'm quoting a disgruntled voter at the door.) But those people are voting. They're sitting on [...]
By Eli Schuster The InterimThe Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (OACS) and other non-Catholic religious groups suffered a setback in early December, when a provincial court ruled against a suit filed against the new Ontario Liberal government for cancelling the Equity in Education Tax Credit (EETC). The association's lawyer, David Brown, argued that scrapping the tax credit increased parents' overall tax burden, [...]
Pro-lifers suspend judgement By Paul Tuns The Interim Pro-life reaction to Paul Martin's cabinet has been muted, with leaders taking a wait-and-see approach to the coming months. As LifeSite Daily News noted in an analysis, "For the first time in many years, there are some pro-life MPs in the Liberal government cabinet." Four socially conservative Toronto-area MPs made the cabinet or sub-cabinet: [...]
Coming off a provincial election in which it garnered a significantly higher number of votes than in the previous one, the Family Coalition Party of Ontario (Ontario Coalition) is setting its sights on some ambitious goals as it prepares for the next balloting exercise several years hence. The party won over 35,000 votes on Oct. 2, representing an impressive 48 per cent [...]
While the media were proclaiming that Paul Martin - poised to become the prime minister after winning the leadership of the Liberals Nov. 18 - would lead the party in a new direction, there are many who wonder if he is really all that different from Jean Chretien, especially if one considers the elaborate web of political and business connections that both [...]
But future of bill is in doubt as Senate prorogues On Oct. 28, the House of Commons passed Bill C-13, the federal government's long-delayed and fundamentally flawed reproductive and experimental technologies legislation, by a vote of 149-109. Liberal backbencher Paul Szabo (Mississauga South), who spearheaded efforts to stop the bill and who has studied the issue probably more than any other elected [...]
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Editor's Note: These are comments by U.S. President George W. Bush, made during a ceremony marking the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington D.C., Nov. 5, 2003. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I'm pleased that all of you have joined us as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 becomes [...]
Let Terri die! No doubt, you find this exclamation surprising. It certainly surprised me when I first read it as the subject heading of an e-mail I received. Along with my wife who was nine months pregnant at the time, our family had spent the past week at a prayer vigil for Terri Schindler-Schiavo. What particularly shocked us was that this e-mail [...]
Garry Breitkreuz may be the most persistent advocate in Parliament for women's health rights - and it's all because of his pro-life convictions. For much of his decade-long parliamentary career. the Saskatchewan Alliance MP has doggedly sought to expose the dangers women face from having abortions. His recent motion, M-83, calling on the Commons health committee to study the health effects of [...]