Toronto – Shelly Peterson, wife of Ontario Premier David Peterson, told an audience of 500 high school girls that the role of motherhood has been unfairly “downplayed” and “downtrodden.” Peterson thought women today can have both happy families and successful careers and they don’t have to be “superwomen” to do it. She has been married to the Premier for twelve years while also pursuing her career as an actress.
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Ottawa – On October 25, 1985, NAC (the National Action Committee on the Status of Women) objected to the proposed federal bill on prostitution, which the Committee representative, Jill Riddington, called a “harsh anti-prostitution bill.” Said Riddington: “Prostitutes should be allowed to earn a living by working out of their homes.”
One month later, November 20, the feminist group told a Commons committee that they favoured licensing brothers. Their proposal was backed by MP Svend Robinson (NDP Burnaby). The same day, the House of Commons passed the legislation which will impose fines of up to $500 or six months in jail for both prostitutes and their customers.
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Supreme Court Justice Bertha Wilson says that Canadian courts and law schools must adapt to the “fundamental re-ordering” the Charter has created. “Can they be expected now to abandon their narrow, legalistic habits and ‘think large’ about the kind of society Canadians want to live in?” she asked in an address to University of Toronto law students on November 27, 1985.
Madam Justice Wilson was herself active in re-ordering society before being elevated to the Supreme Court. In the sixties she helped the United Church, of which she is a member, formulate its acceptance of abortion.
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Montreal – On Sunday before the provincial elections held on Monday, December 2, R.C. Archbishop Paul Gregoire of Montreal issued a declaration to be read or distributed at the Sunday services, Politicians, he said, must take a stand against abortion.
The declaration did not discuss politics. It stated that “the right to life from the moment of conception and all other rights flowing from this…must all be part of the will to govern by those who will be elected…”
