Attached below is ARPA Canada's submission to the Ontario government in response to the legislation that aims to expand institutionalized early-learning in Ontario. Bill 242 proposes to fund full-day kindergarten and junior kindergarten (for 4 and 5-year olds) at a projected cost of 1.8 billion dollars annually. In this submission, ARPA Canada encourages the Ontario government ot abandon this legislation because it will provide minimal help for children while further eroding the parent-child relationship that is critical for effective education, all at a staggering cost to Ontario taxpayers.

Attachments:

ARPA Canada Submission - Bill 242

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Power and Rightly Ordered Love  (Part one of two)

Written for www.ARPACanada.ca by James Zekveld: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Few thoughts encapsulate the history of human political action more.  Without the seemingly natural devolvement from power to corruption, old empires might still exist, poverty might have ended long ago and communism might be a legitimate though unnecessary option in the world today.  Power among Christians is hardly an exception to this rule.  Two questions present themselves.  How do we overcome corruption and how do we minimize the potential for corruption?  The second will be left for a later article.  The first is answered through an understanding of the order God has put into this world.  To keep ourselves from corruption we must have a rightly ordered love; love that God has placed into the world from the beginning, when He created the world.

Update Two: The Montreal Gazette has confirmed that it is the CHRC itself that made these decisions.

Update: According to one source, our optimism over the closed CHRC offices is ill-founded. The Examiner notes that the human rights commission beurocracy is actually set to grow in the coming year: "While the union sees this as part of the Conservative government’s attempts to undermine human rights groups, documents filed with Parliament show the CHRC is set to grow, not shrink. Despite the looming office closures the CHRC’s budget is expected to grow from $21.5 million in the current fiscal year to just under $23 million in 2011-2012 fiscal year. The number of employees is set to rise as well from 197 full-time equivalencies to 203." Read this report here
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Update: Today Canada's Parliament voted against the motion 144 to 138! Praise be to God. This will be a huge shock to the many who assumed it was going to pass. Thanks very much to all the ARPA Canada readers who wrote to our government leaders since we first informed you about this vote on Friday evening. This is a clear example of the fact that your action makes a difference.

Click here to read some of the debate and to find how each MP voted.  Read the LifeSitenews.com report of today's events here. If you are looking for more context, click here to read a chronology of the events leading to this vote, by the IMFC.

We are thrilled to announce the plans for an ARPA event in Parliament on May 4, 2010. This year's theme is "Public Religion in a Privatized Society" and it features Ray Pennings, one of Canada's leading public intellectuals, from the thinktank Cardus.

This event is for MP's and Senators and we need your help in encouraging them to come. The formal invitations are arriving in Ottawa right now. Please send your own note to your MP (contact information here), asking them to RSVP. Here are the details:

OTTAWA, March 19 2010

That the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development, and the Status of Persons with Disabilities examine current federal support measures that are available to adoptive parents and their adopted children, recognizing and respecting provincial and territorial jurisdictions in this regard, and following completion of its study, report back to the House with its findings.
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ARPA Note: Bill C-384 took a step back after Parliament was prorogued, giving MP's an opportunity to debate it once more. As a result, there is still time to send in postcards (click here to order them from the Euthansia Prevention Coalition) and write or call your MP.

Globe and Mail, March 15, 2010, By Margaret Somerville: Francine Lalonde's private member's bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide will be back in Parliament tomorrow. For millennia, euthanasia (a word I use to include assisted suicide) has been considered morally and legally unjustifiable. People who oppose euthanasia still believe it's inherently wrong – it can't be morally justified and even compassionate motives don't make it ethically acceptable. [Continue reading this excellent piece here.]