It was less than 50 years ago that Pierre Trudeau declared that “there’s no place for the State in the bedrooms of the nation,” but today, the State is dictating that virtually every kind of “bedroom behaviour” has to be legitimized and even celebrated.  How, and why, did that shift take place?  

On the program this week, Reverend Joe Boot from the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity traces the history of the changes; the philosophical and worldview underpinnings of the march to what he calls libertinism.  His presentation, entitled “Sexuality, Politics, and Culture”, was given at an ARPA event in Niagara a few weeks ago.  The lecture was a full hour long.  We present a shortened version of the speech on the second half of the program.  (If you’d like to hear the full version, it’s available online here.)

Also on the program, ARPA’s lobbying efforts, (and those of others), have paid off with the introduction of a new law to regulate prostitution in Canada.  We get an analysis of the new legislation from ARPA lawyer Andre Schutten.

The Quebec government has re-introduced a bill to legalize euthanasia.  (The full English text of Bill 52 is here.)  We speak to Alex Schadenberg from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition about how Quebec is trying to skirt around the Criminal Code prohibition against a practice which – up to this point – has been considered murder.  The Coalition is preparing a legal challenge of the Bill – if you’d like to contribute to that cause, you can do so here.

 

And an update on New Democrat MP Charlie Angus’ private members motion to introduce a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.