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Gender and Sexuality

02 Jun 2021 Combating Human Trafficking – Bill 251 Passes in the Ontario Legislature

Posted at 18:57h in Bills and Motions, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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In 2020, the Ontario government introduced its 5-year anti-human trafficking strategy, investing $307 million between 2020 and 2025 to combat this injustice. Bill 251 expands on previous anti-human trafficking efforts, giving greater support to victims of trafficking, educating Ontarians about the issue, and providing more tools for law enforcement to crack down on human trafficking. This week, Bill 251, the Combating Human Trafficking Act, passed 3rd reading in the Ontario Legislature and will soon receive Royal Assent. The bill was initially introduced by the Solicitor General of Ontario. A few weeks...

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27 May 2021 Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation (SISE) Act Introduced in Parliament

Posted at 14:26h in Bills and Motions, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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  Today, MP Arnold Viersen introduced the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act or the SISE Act. This private member’s bill is the next step in a long history of action on the part of MP Arnold Viersen in the face of pornography and online sexual exploitation content. He was involved in promoting and receiving unanimous consent for Motion 47 in 2016, which resulted in a committee investigation of online sexually explicit content. This piece of legislation comes amid a firestorm of activity around the organization MindGeek which profits from its online pornography...

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07 Apr 2021 Preparing to Make a Defense

Posted at 15:11h in Gender and Sexuality, Public Theology 0 Comments
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As Bill C-6 (Conversion Therapy) inches closer to its final debate in the House of Commons and its likely passage into law, Christians must equip themselves on how to speak biblically and winsomely about issues of gender and sexuality. In the words of 1 Peter 3:15, “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” These conversations will not be limited to just political discussions. They will arise in our...

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29 Mar 2021 Canadians’ Views on Body-Affirming Counselling

Posted at 14:04h in Bills and Motions, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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By Mike Schouten   In the past number of months, ARPA Canada has met with dozens of lawmakers to discuss our concerns with Bill C-6, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). At numerous times during those meetings, I outlined a fictitious scenario to make this more real. The scenario went like this: “Imagine that I have a 9-year-old son and he recently came home from school expressing that he thought he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. He wants to go to school in girls’ clothes. Rather than...

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10 Feb 2021 Online porn industry under government scrutiny – ARPA submits policy brief to Ethics Committee

Posted at 11:02h in Action Items, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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The House of Commons Standing Committee on Information, Privacy, and Ethics is studying the question of 'Protection of Privacy and reputation on Platforms such as Pornhub.' As we discussed in previous posts (here from Dec 17th and here from Jan 27th), the December 4, 2020 New York Times exposé on the porn industry has brought a welcome level of concerned attention to the website and business model of Pornhub and the Mindgeek corporation based in Montreal. Parliament needs to address the fact that these sites host videos of violent...

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29 Jan 2021 Bill C-6 is rushed through the Justice Committee and comes out worse

Posted at 11:26h in Bills and Motions, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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On December 10th, the Justice Committee of the House of Commons completed their study of Bill C-6, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). The bill was rushed through committee, raising serious procedural (and ethical) questions, and was amended in such a way as to make the bill even more concerning than it already was.  History of Bill C-6 ARPA Canada has expressed deep concern over the vague drafting of this bill (see more here) since it was introduced approximately a year ago. In short, our main concern with...

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27 Jan 2021 S-203: Petition for online sexually explicit material & PornHub developments

Posted at 17:35h in Gender and Sexuality, Politics 0 Comments
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Download the printable petition! Petitions are a tool for political action. This might be obvious to some, but there are some advantages that not a lot of people know about. For example, the petition linked above on Bill S-203 - An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material - for every 25 signatures received this issue can be brought to the attention to the House of Commons with a short speech. What if you can't get 25 people to sign? No problem. Just get those in...

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17 Dec 2020 Canadian-based site Pornhub under fire

Posted at 10:29h in Action Items, Action Story, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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  (At the bottom of this article is a call to action: Please sign the petition sponsored by MP Arnold Viersen in the House of Commons asking the government to act to protect young people from exposure to pornography.) In a year where good news has been in short supply, it is wonderful to see rapid positive developments on an issue that we've been concerned about for a long time. An exposé post in The New York Times targeted Pornhub, a Canadian based for-profit pornography business. The article highlighted major problems relating...

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01 Oct 2020 Federal Liberals retable criminal ban on “conversion therapy” with major legal implications for pastoral ministry

Posted at 16:30h in Bills and Motions, Criminal Justice, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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On October 1, 2020 the federal Liberal government tabled Bill C-6 (which was before Parliament earlier this year as Bill C-8). The bill defines conversion therapy as any “practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.” In case that is unclear, let me apply it directly to the pastoral work of the church. This bill, if passed as written, would make it a criminal offence to help a person struggling with...

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18 Sep 2020 Look out Albertans! Bylaw Bob coming to a religious gathering near you!

Posted at 14:10h in Blog, Fundamental Freedoms, Gender and Sexuality 0 Comments
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By: Ed Hoogerdyk A wave of conversion therapy bans has spread across the province of Alberta. Maybe not as fast as COVID-19, but fast enough. These by-laws are harsh and heavy-handed. Yet one municipality after another passed them with relative ease. Fort McMurray. St. Albert. Edmonton. Spruce Grove. Rocky Mountain House. And finally Calgary and Lethbridge. Many concerned citizens spoke out. The largest pushback took place in Calgary. There were phone calls, face to face meetings, Zoom teleconferences, and a public hearing with a record number of oral submissions from the...

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