Take our 12 Step Action Plan!
5823 Letters sent via the new EasyMail!

Justice and Freedom

07 Nov 2019 New Alberta bill offers robust protections for freedom of conscience

Posted at 17:37h in Heathcare, Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
0 Likes

We have encouraging news. Dan Williams, MLA for Peace River, Alberta, tabled a bill today that would protect both individual health care providers and health care facilities from being required to provide services that conflict with their religious beliefs, conscientious beliefs, ethical judgment, or cultural traditions. One of the bill’s stated purposes is to provide certainty to health care providers and religious health care organizations with respect to exercising their Charter-protected freedoms of conscience and religion. This is greatly needed in a time when both individual providers and religious health care...

Read More

11 Sep 2019 B.C.’s highest court says 14-year-old can continue hormone treatment, despite gaps in risk disclosure  

Posted at 14:32h in Blog, Family, Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
0 Likes

by John Sikkema  The B.C. Gender Clinic’s “Informed Consent Form” for “hormone therapy” is both inadequate and misleading, in my view. Yet the province’s highest court ruled last week, in AB v CD, that a 14-year-old girl who had signed the form could continue to receive testosterone therapy despite her father’s objections. In this article, I explain that decision and what it may mean for B.C. children and families. What is the AB v CD case about? ARPA was in court last week as an intervenor in AB v CD (anonymized short forms for...

Read More

10 Sep 2019 ARPA Gives Oral Arguments in Critical Court Case

Posted at 12:53h in Family, Justice and Freedom, Sexuality 0 Comments
0 Likes

This week ARPA Canada was one of just two intervenors that was permitted to give oral arguments in a crucial and sad case in the BC Court of Appeal. We have produced a special Vlog about the case. However, due to a publication ban, we can’t share many details of what transpired in the court room. The case centres around a BC father who has been told he may not express his concerns about his 14-year-old daughter’s decision to take hormone treatments to appear as a boy. The case centres around a...

Read More

23 Aug 2019 NB: Should vaccines be mandatory? Have your say!

Posted at 11:00h in Family, Justice and Freedom 1 Comment
1 Like

Backgrounder: In June, 2019 the Government of New Brunswick introduced Bill 39. This bill makes changes to the Education Act, the Public Health Act, and the Early Childhood Services Act. It mandates that children will need proof of immunization to attend public school, early learning, and child care facilities. The list of vaccines required by law is specified in the Public Health Act. Previously, the province required proof of immunization to attend public school. The law had allowed for those with a medical exemption or for parents providing a 'declaration of objection.'...

Read More

23 Aug 2019 Ontario government releases updated 2019 sex-ed curriculum

Posted at 10:14h in Education, Family, Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
0 Likes

Some improvements made to the curriculum, but concerns remain By André Schutten & Ed Hoogerdyk The Ontario government has released its new health and physical education curriculum. The 320-page document highlights what and when students will be taught under the following four strands: Social-Emotional Learning Skills, Active Living, Movement Competence, and Healthy Living. A good chunk of the curriculum has nothing to do with sex; instead it focuses on important topics like diet, exercise, mental health, physical safety, biological development, and online safety. These basic elements of the curriculum are uncontroversial and...

Read More

12 Jul 2019 Pastor preaches gospel. People react. Police arrest pastor.

Posted at 09:19h in Blog, Justice and Freedom 2 Comments
0 Likes

by André Schutten This week (July 10) pastor David Lynn appeared in court for the second time. In early June, pastor Lynn of Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries was arrested and charged with “causing a disturbance” (section 175 of the Criminal Code), held in jail overnight, and released on bail the next morning. His crime: preaching the gospel on the corner of Church and Wellesley. The Toronto Police explained in a news release at the time (image of the release copied below) that pastor Lynn’s message was “causing alarm” in the community (the Church...

Read More

20 Jun 2019 Gender, politics, and censorship at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal

Posted at 09:38h in Blog, Justice and Freedom 4 Comments
1 Like

Morgane Oger, Vice-President of B.C. NDP and 2017 provincial candidate in Vancouver by John Sikkema There’s a recent Human Rights Tribunal decision in B.C. you should know about. It’s about gender, religion, politics, and censorship. It’s noteworthy for how the Tribunal’s religious worldview is displayed and enforced. The decision is Whatcott v. Oger. You may have heard of Bill Whatcott and his style of public engagement, which, to put it lightly, needs improvement. But for now, let’s focus on the substance of the case – what Whatcott wrote and what the Tribunal decided. The...

Read More

22 May 2019 Do Not Bow Down: What the LSO Bencher Election Teaches Us About Being a “Certain” Christian

Posted at 17:56h in Blog, Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
2 Likes

Guest blog by Lia Milousis On April 30th, 2019, the Law Society of Ontario (LSO), the body that governs lawyers and paralegals in the province, elected a new board. In this election, a group of 22 candidates took a public stand against the LSO’s controversial Statement of Principles (SOP) mandate, which ARPA has written about. The SOP mandates all lawyers licensed in Ontario “to adopt and to abide by a statement of principles acknowledging their obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion generally, and in their behavior towards colleagues, employees, clients and...

Read More

24 Apr 2019 ARPA Canada Spring Maritime Tour 2019 – Are you ready for what’s coming?

Posted at 09:43h in Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
0 Likes

Are you ready for what's coming? That's the topic of ARPA Canada's first mini-tour to the Maritimes this June. We're stopping in three provinces, holding meetings with locals, and hosting evening presentations. On June 5th we will be in Cambridge Station Nova Scotia with coffee starting at 7 pm, and June 6th we will be in Charlottetown also at 7 pm, kicking off the presentations at 7:30. It’s been nearly 50 years since Canada legalized abortion. Today, we are the only country in the world with no legal restrictions. We...

Read More

11 Apr 2019 ARPA Canada presents to Justice Committee as they study online hatred

Posted at 15:45h in Current Action Items, Justice and Freedom 0 Comments
1 Like

ARPA's Director of Law & Policy presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. The Justice Committee invited ARPA Canada to make submissions on the issue of online hatred. André Schutten was able to cite passages from the Old and New Testament to encourage the government to deal with this pressing issue properly, while also cautioning the government to not overstep its bounds and to make room for other institutions of society to play their part. You can read or listen to André's opening statement below: https://arpacanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Andre.ogg ...

Read More