Smithers, BC – May 18 2012: The District Manager of the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has ordered  a road-side abortion memorial just outside of Smithers be removed. 48 hours notice was given, with the threat that if this wasn’t done the display would be removed by the Ministry and the costs charged to the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) who is behind the display.

The memorial consists of 100 white crosses, attached to fence posts, with small one-word signs that read “Each cross represents 1,000 abortions in Canada every year. www.TheTruthis.ca”. It was constructed by local youth who wanted to be a voice for those who don’t have their own voice in Canada. The plan was to have the display up for only about three weeks. Similar displays are located across Canada.

You may all be familiar with the graphic for ARPA's new website initiative launched in February 2012. It started first in SouthWestern Ontario and is now being advertised across the country. The graphic for that site was designed by the team at CompassCreative for the theTRUTHis.ca website and looks like this:

In an ironic sort of twist, the Globe is now publishing a series on immigration and on the need for more and more immigrants to address labour shortages and an aging population. Check out how similar the graphic is that they produced in their print edition!

I can think of one way to reduce the need for immigrants by about 100,000 a year. Should we let the immigration minister know?

March for Life 2012 was a wonderful success! Thousands of people flocked to the Hill despite the chilly winds and threat of rain. LifeSiteNews reported 19,500 people in attendance, and many Members of Parliament, religious leaders and others were able to address the crowd and encourage them to continued action.

ARPA was very happy to co-sponsor a Reformed prayer service with Jubilee Church before the March began. Over 250 people filled the sanctuary of the rented facilities downtown Ottawa – some having left their homes at 1:00 that morning, in order to attend! (Some great pictures of the service will be posted shortly)

“If society helps people who are being bullied then they should help unborn babies too. Because abortion is almost the exact same thing as bullying except it is to babies and it is a matter of life and death.” -  10 year old Chelsea’s words to Prime Minister Harper

(Mark Penninga, www.ARPACanada.ca, April 26 2012): It all started with a sermon. Chelsea, age ten, sat in the pews of the Aldergrove Canadian Reformed Church with her family as she has done for much of her life. But the message delivered that day left a mark on her heart that has moved her to bring the cause of the unborn to the highest authority in Canada.

“I was aware of abortion, but had never thought about doing anything about it prior” she noted in an interview with ARPA Canada.

ARPA Update (Thursday, May 3): Today, the Ontario Legislature voted on Bill 13 at the conclusion of the second reading debates. Bill 13 now passes (with 66 ayes and 33 nays) to the Standing Committee on Social Policy for further review. ARPA will try to present to the committee, together with other concerned citizens, to have Bill 13 amended and so alleviate our concerns with the Bill. Do continue to fill out those petitions - they are important and effective!

***

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 will be assigned to committee study soon.

Attachments:

Petition to Amend or Scrap Bill 13

[ ]

Mr. Stephen Woodworth stood on Thursday afternoon to present his Motion 312 to the House of Commons. He argued passionately and clearly that any law that says some human beings are not human beings is unjust. He called for a committee to re-evaluate our current law that says humans only become human at the moment they complete exit their mother’s womb. That definition, he states, is based on medical evidence that is 400 years old.

Check out the Facebook event page, with photos and videos and like it, invite friends and join! Also, check out these short, fun video trailers we put together to promote March for Life 2012:

"Action movie theme" promo

"Indiana Jones theme" promo

"Epic movie theme" promo

Finally, has someone told you that Christians shouldn't protest? Or are you uncomfortable with the idea? Check out the PDF article linked below for counter-point.

** Mark your Calendars! The exciting National March for Life is now less than a month away (May 10) and we want you to join us for some Reformed political action in Ottawa!

Attachments:

Protests - Legitimate Christian Activity	[ ]
March for Life 2012 Poster	[ ]

ARPA Note: Find our response to the Ontario court decision here and our policy document on prostition here.

Globe and Mail, April 25 2012: The federal government has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to put the brakes on the decriminalization of a key prostitution law. A 30-day stay on imposed by the Ontario Court of Appeal last month when it rewrote the pimping provision is due to be lifted later this week.  The provision was struck down last month by the provincial appeals court in a decision that also removed prohibitions on keeping a brothel. Keep reading

Mark Penninga (April 25, 2012): Chuck Colson's promotion to eternity on Saturday leaves a void that will be hard to fill on this earth. Not many others have so faithfully given their lives to upholding Christ in the secular West. His leadership has inspired many, including myself, to make our political lives consistent with our faith.

It was Colson's book "Loving God" that has been, apart from the Bible, the most influential book in my life. One paragraph gripped me like few other things ever have. I remember even making it the text on my computer screensaver back in my second year of university:

Update: The petitions are getting noticed by the MP's who keep hearing them get read. On April 23rd, the Gatineau MP stood up in Parliament "to denounce certain government MPs' attempts to criminalize abortion." Ironically, that same day the MP for Chilliwack stood up and read another ARPA petition calling on government to restrict abortion to the greatest extent possible.

A few months ago we urged our readers to make use of two new petitions. The first calls for Parliament to restrict abortion to the greatest extent possible and the second calls Parliament to recognize the unborn as humans under the Criminal Code. The Run With Life Blog has been doing some research and discovered that these petitions have already been read in the House of Commons 55 times! And it is rather apparent that many of the MPs reading them are from areas where there is an ARPA group. Please continue to get this filled out in your community. And please encourage other pro-life organizations to get behind it as well. Surprisingly, we have not yet found one other petition that addresses abortion directly. It is high time!

EasyMail Action Item: NDP Member of Parliament Randall Garrison (on right) has reintroduced the infamous "bathroom bill" which many of our readers worked hard to oppose in the last Parliament. Bill C-279 would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of "identifiable groups" to the hate section of the Criminal Code as well as to the the Canadian Human Rights Act. As Dr. Douglas Farrow pointed out in 2010 this legislation "will entrench in Canadian law the notion that sex and/or gender are basically social constructs, products of a series of human choices, based not in the natural order but in more or less arbitrary acts of interpretation.”

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.” -  Psalm 107:1

God & Government 2012 has wrapped up! And the experience was incredible. By God's grace, about 50 representatives from 16 ARPA groups and ARPA Canada were able to bring a Christian perspective directly to approximately 50 MPs and Senators. We were also able to host an evening reception, featuring Dr. Cornelis VanDam on the topic of multiculturalism. Perhaps best of all, we could spend an entire day devoted to meeting together as ARPAs and strategizing for 2012-2013.

As most of our readers are aware, a provincial election was called last week in Alberta, which meant that Bill 2 (the proposed new Education Act) which attempted to require all education in the province to be in keeping with the problem-filled Alberta Human Rights Act, will not become law anytime soon. Learn more about this encouraging outcome here.

ARPA readers in Alberta played a key role in this development. When we called you to action, you responded quickly. Entire churches were mobilized and, via letters, phone calls, and rallies, you ensured that the provincial government was well aware that a large group of Albertans did not want the bill passed without amendments.

EasyMail Action Item (for those with NDP MPs only): On Friday, March 30th, MP Joy Smith’s Bill C-310 was to be read for a third time in the House of Commons, voted on, and then sent to the Senate. The bill has from the very beginning received strong support from all parties. And yet, for a reason not yet sufficiently explained, the NDP rose as a block and voted against Bill C-310, against a law that would prosecute Canadians who traffick humans outside of this country. Instead of this law being passed quickly, it is now delayed in the House for at least two months and possibly won't pass through the Senate until the fall.    

On Monday, March 26th, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in the prostitution challenge. The court ruled on the constitutionality of the three sections of the Criminal Code that outlaw certain parts of the sex trade. The section outlawing solicitation was upheld. The section outlawing "living off the avails" of prostitution was amended to only apply to pimps, and the section outlawing "keeping a bawdy house" was thrown out.

The ruling has moved the discussion of this issue in a better direction than the lower court ruling; however, it falls way short of where it should be. The legalization of brothels ignores the inherently dangerous and exploitative nature of prostitution. Allowing prostitution to thrive behind closed doors does not make it safer - it simply drives the trade underground where most abuses can't be seen.

For more information about the prostitution issue and to easily contact your MP about this troubling issue, click here. Please do take the time to email your MP - this is an issue that they, and not the courts, should be engaging in.

*A deeper analysis of this judgment is forthcoming; ARPA Canada is engaged in the National Conference this week and is unable to provide a full breakdown of the judgment until a later date. The IMFC has released a press release on the subject, available here.