What can the Christian community do to present a more holistic approach to life? That was the theme of an address given at the ARPA Oxford AGM recently. The speaker for the event was Rev. David Lipsy, pastor of the Heritage Reformed Church in Burgessville, who spoke on the topic of “Building Christian Networks”. On the feature this week, we replay part of that speech. The full speech, which runs just over half an hour, can be heard at this link. 

In the news: 

It appears the federal government may be urging a “go-slow” approach on the euthanasia issue. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told a Montreal newspaper last week that she would like the Quebec government to delay implementation of its new provincial law on euthanasia until the federal government formalizes its response to the Carter decision. The Quebec law is set to take effect on December 10th. 

In Alberta, a new law to add “trans-genderism” as another prohibited ground for discrimination under the provincial Human Rights Act has passed first reading. We speak with Jack Fonseca from Campaign Life Coalition on the implications of this bill, which includes allowing men who claim gender confusion access to women’s washrooms and changerooms. Fonseca says this has already been tried, and rejected, elsewhere. 

After a four year review, Charbonneau Commission investigating corruption in Quebec’s public sector construction industry is out with its final report. The report outlines a litany of corruption which the National Post called a “cautionary tale of Biblical proportions”. The report also says that “it is only collectively that we will succeed in making Quebec a better society where ethics, integrity, honesty and rigour come first.” We speak with Christian scholar and ethicist John Stackhouse at Crandall University in New Brunswick about how to achieve those lofty goals in a society that has expressly rejected any moral or religious norms in its push to become the most expressly “secular” society in North America. 

Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki has claimed moral equivalence between those who are defending Canada’s energy industry and those who defended slavery in the American south more than 100 years ago. You can hear his claims here. 

This week, we talk with Dr. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation about Dr. Suzuki’s claim. The program includes a few clips from the interview; a full transcript is also available here.