ARPA Note: Keep in mind that there is a private member's bill in our Senate the proposes to criminalize most corporal punishment in Canada. Click here for more information and an action item.

National Post, January 6/2010: Young children spanked by their parents may perform better at school later on and grow up to be happier, according to a controversial new study that is drawing scorn from critics. [Click here to read more.]

By Deborah Gyapon: Canadian Christianity: THE VANIER Institute of the Family has released a study that shows divorce rates in Canada have declined markedly since the 1990s. Divorce rates peaked in 1987, according to the study, entitled Divorce: Facts, Causes and Consequences. Rates declined steadily until 1997, and have held at the lower level since then. The study shows rates of conjugal violence also declined between 1993 and 2004. [Read more].

Legalized Polygamy on our Doorstep: All the More Reason for a Royal Commission on the Family

By Mark Penninga (First published in Reformed Perspective Magazine, 2009)

Nearly hidden in the Creston Valley of South Eastern British Columbia is a Mormon community called Bountiful. For years it has been a well-known fact that polygamy is alive and well in Bountiful. The residents may have wanted privacy, but the media continually reported on the goings-on of this fundamentalist sect.

Finally, in January of this year, the RCMP charged Winston Blackmore and Jim Oler, two leaders in Bountiful, with practicing polygamy. After all, Section 293 of Canada’s Criminal Code clearly prohibits it. Why did it take so long to intervene? The BC Attorney General, Wally Oppal, knew very well that the law against polygamy may not hold up to a Charter challenge. According to an article from the Institute for Canadian Values, he stated “There's been some suggestions that if two or more women want to marry a man, or vice versa, and they all do it by consent, what business does the state have intervening in that?"

Kevin Libin, National Post  Published: Friday, June 12, 2009

They are charged with the most essential of duties: protecting vulnerable children from abuse and neglect. They will intervene in the lives of roughly 200,000 Canadian children this year. For most of us, they are generally unseen, save for occasional mentions in news reports, when they rescue children from misery. Or, as sometimes happens, deliver it. Canada's child-welfare agencies, says University of Manitoba social work professor Brad McKenzie, have among the broadest intervention powers in the Western world. Caseworkers come armed with vaster powers than any police officer investigating crime. It is an immense authority easily abused, without vigilant restraint. [Continue reading this article here.]

By Ruth Bredenhof, Bulkley Valley ARPA

Although temporarily on hold, the BC Government has confirmed that they are committed to extending Early Learning to include full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds, as well as four-year-olds by 2010 and three-year-olds by 2012.¹

The reasons given in the Government’s Consultation paper for expanding Early Learning include the following: to positively impact the children’s future success in the school system both academically and socially, for economic reasons as it will enable more parents to work, to provide parents with more options, and it will help BC to “keep up” with other countries around the world who have extensive Early Learning Education programs.²

How long will it take until the Supreme Court has a decision? Can an argument of “religious freedom” succeed in removing polygamy from the Criminal Code? Here are some answers.
by Don Hutchinson - EFC (From Christianity.ca)

Charges have been laid. Debate in the media occupies page after page, both print and electronic. The issue will proceed into the courts in a process likely to take years to unfold. Over the last few days, some of the questions most asked have been the following: [continue reading this article here.]