JAN. 19 - (Ilse VanderMeulen - www.ARPACanada.ca): CTV News journalist Jon Woodward recently investigated two Pregnancy Care Centres in the lower mainland of BC. The news item was broadcasted last night and claimed that the Centres are exaggerating the health risks of abortions when they talk to clients. The risks discussed were ranging from breast cancer to depression to fetal body parts forgotten inside the womb. Medical experts interviewed by Woodward do not deny the health risks, but call them ‘rare’ in Canada.

The media has been all over the issue of sex-selection feticide in the last couple of days, and thankfully so. Dr. Rajendra Kale, editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, published an editorial on Monday calling for doctors to not reveal the gender of their unborn baby to women until after 30 weeks. Dr. Kale argues, “a few of them [Asian immigrants] also imported their preference for having sons and aborting daughters. Female feticide happens in India and China by the millions, but it also happens in North America in numbers large enough to distort the male to female ratio in some ethnic groups.” 

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), in partnership with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and the Religion in the Public Sphere Initiative, hosted a community dialogue on human rights related to religious observance and practice. The OHRC issued a call for academic papers to be submitted on various aspects of religious human rights in order to assist in developing their policy on religion. ARPA Canada’s legal counsel Andre Schutten submitted a paper proposal arguing that greater protection of associational rights is necessary in the human rights and religious employment context.

The OHRC accepted the paper proposal and Andre attended the by-invitation-only dialogue as a speaker. Those in attendance included numerous leading academics including Professors Richard Moon, Errol Mendes, Benjamin Berger, Janet Buckingham, Bruce Ryder and Iain Benson. There was also a full complement of OHRC staff, including lawyers, policy makers and Ms. Barbara Hall (the chief commissioner) in attendance throughout the entire two-day program. Finally, there was a broad representation of various faith groups including Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Baha’i, Humanist, Atheist, Catholic, Anglican, Unitarian, Evangelical and Reformed.

Attachments:

OHRC Creed Based Rights Employment Exceptions - written submission	[ ]
Oral Remarks by Andre at the OHRC Dialogue	[ ]

There's a thin veneer called [Justice] which holds Canada as free.

Laws applied both fast or losely, most, obeyed by you and me.

There are children cast in darkness, bound and held in slavery,

Lured fom Asia, or East Europe, sold to crime and misery.

The following poem was contributed by ARPA reader Art Blokhuis, in response to the Ontario governments recent policy developments, including their so-called "anti-bullying" legislation.

Are there gender bending, message sending, tyrants at Queens park?

Are they self-professed messiahs, with a message bleak and dark?

They're the author of the daycare set? “send your small tykes to me,

We will raise them and instruct them, set from inhibitions free.”

MP Stephen Woodworth has bravely called for Parliament to address the issue of abortion and the fact that we are one of the few countries in the world (along with China and North Korea) that have no abortion legislation.

Add your voice to his! Attached is a petition calling on Parliament to restrict abortion to the greatest extent possible. Please print off many copies and distribute them at your school, church, business, and everywhere else. Also, please pass this along to your contacts and other pro-life organizations, encouraging them to do the same. The petitions can then be submitted to your local MP (no need to have hundreds of signatures - they can read them in Parliament with as few as 25). Please make this your goal for 2012. We need a loud and clear voice from Canadians in defence of those who have no voice.

Attachments:

Abortion Petition

[Abortion Petition Canada]

Bullying is a serious problem that must be addressed by children and students, by parents and communities, by government and society. In light of recent tragic events in which bullied students have taken their own lives, the government of Ontario has put forward new legislation intending to combat bullying schools. There are two bills being proposed. The governing Liberals have introduced Bill 13. A Progressive Conservative MPP has introduced Bill 14 with the same goal of combatting bullying.

Having examined the proposed amendments in Bill 13, we must conclude that it is a very dangerous and radical piece of legislation for society at large and for Christians in particular. This Bill has already had its second reading and first hour of debate on December 7^th, and is being pushed through quickly.

ARPA Note: Be sure to send Mr. Woodworth (stephen.woodworth@parl.gc.ca) a thank-you note for standing up for the unborn.

Globe and Mail, Dec 21 2011: An Ontario Conservative MP says Parliament must take another look at whether unborn babies deserve to be treated as human beings, a move that could ultimately challenge the ability to terminate pregnancies with abortion.

Stephen Woodworth, the member for Kitchener Centre, said in a news release Wednesday that a majority of Canadians wrongly believe the law protects the fundamental human rights of children before birth in the later stages of gestation.  “In fact, the opposite is true,” Mr. Woodworth says in his release. “Canadian law provides no human rights protection whatsoever for children before the moment of complete birth.” Keep reading

On Thursday, Bill C-22 came into effect, making it mandatory for Internet Service Providers to report child pornography. "Canadians are rightfully concerned that in 2010, child pornography offences were up more than 30%," Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson noted. "The sexual exploitation of children by Internet sexual predators is a very serious crime and our government is committed to taking tough action against it." Learn more here.

ARPA Canada thanks Canada Family Action for their outspoken efforts to address the horrific crime of the sexual exploitation of children. We also thank the many ARPA readers who followed up on previous calls to action to support their efforts.

If newspapers and political parties are to be believed, BC's recent move to overhaul the province's massive family law is good for everyone and long overdue. Hidden beneath the veneer however are substantial problems and a radical new understanding of family and marriage that step far away from our Judeo-Christian heritage and into uncharted territory.

In November, before the law was introduced and speedily passed, ARPA Canada was able to express our concerns about the legislation to a number of government officials. It was important to us to communicate that although aspects of the legislation may be good, the proposed law included monumental shifts in the state's understanding of family and marriage that we believe are detrimental to children and an overt violation of these institutions as God made them.

Attachments:

ARPA Submission to BC AG

[Family Law Refom]