Please Help: Click here to send an Easy Mail letter, inviting your MP to attend ARPA's event in Parliament. It makes a huge difference for MPs to hear the request from their constituents. Don't forget to update the action meter.

Over 40 representatives from ARPA chapters across Canada are making plans to meet in Ottawa on March 27 and 28 for meetings with MPs, Senators, and other government officials, as well as the second national ARPA conference. Thanks to the generosity of our readers, who have donated travel points, groups as far as Prince George and Smithers BC also plan to be represented.

Dr. Cornelis Van Dam will be addressing MPs and Senators on the evening of March 27 on the topic of multiculturalism. The transcript of his talk is being translated in French and will be distributed to as many MPs as possible. The invitations to MPs and Senators has already arrived at every MP and Senator's office in Ottawa. We ask our readers to pray for God's hand of blessing on the many preperations being made.

Prostitution, abortion legislation, and hate speech: it doesn't get much more controversial! This presentation by ARPA's Legal Counsel André Schutten saw our biggest events ever in BC and Ontario last fall. Now its Alberta's turn. André hopes to explain, from a biblical perspective, not only why, but also how Christians should be able to engage on these three pressing issues. There will be opportunities for questions and debate as well as a brief update on ARPA’s work in our nation’s capital.

ARPA Note: You can find our response to the "anti-bullying" legislation here. If you live in Ontario, please make use of our sample letters and get in touch with your MPP. If you live elsewhere, pay close attention to this issue as it is being pushed in other provinces and schools across the country. What follows is EFC's letter to the Ontario Legislature, dated January 24, that expresses similar concerns.

"Studies bear out that most children will participate in some type of bullying as well as experience victimization themselves. Bullying happens not only in schools, but anywhere that children gather such as school buses, the playground, sports field, after school hangouts and online. In November 2011, the Government of Ontario introduced Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, intended to “help make Ontario schools safe and more accepting places to learn.” The Bill addresses the issue of bullying and proposes several amendments to the Education Act." Keep reading

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.

Update (Jan 30, 2012): ARPA Canada's Legal Counsel André Schutten was interviewed by Capital News Online about this issue. Read their coverage here.

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.