Author: ARPA Staff

05 Jul 2021 Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Policy Report: Executive Summary

Executive Summary Palliative care is holistic, person-centered care for people facing life-limiting illnesses or disabilities. Palliative care neither hastens death nor unnaturally prolongs life. Instead, it focuses on giving patients their best possible quality of life despite illness or disability. The Canadian Institute for Health Information estimates that up to 89% of Canadians could have benefitted from palliative care prior to death – almost everyone whose death was not sudden or unexpected. Despite this great need for palliative care, only 30% of Canadians who need it have access to palliative care, and...

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22 Jun 2021 Bill C-6 (Conversion Therapy) Passes through the House of Commons

For immediate release – Ottawa, ON June 22, 2021   Senate amendments needed to make conversion therapy law one that LBGTQ+, feminist, and religious groups can all support A majority of MPs voted in favour of Bill C-6 today, pushing the bill to criminalize “conversion therapy” into the Senate. No organization in Canada opposes the principle of banning coercive or tortuous therapies. However, Bill C-6 defines conversion therapy so broadly that some members of the LGBTQ+ community, religious groups, medical professionals, and feminists have spoken out against the bill, urging amendments. “We support a bill...

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16 Jun 2021 New Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Policy Report

ARPA Canada's newest Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Report has just been released! You can read the text of the report below or view, download, and/or print a pdf of the policy report here.   When a medical team seems to have exhausted all treatment options and a terminal diagnosis is given, a physician will too often tell a patient, “I’m sorry, there is nothing more we can do for you.” The doctor then refers the patient to hospice or palliative care, which the patient enters with the mindset that nothing can or...

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27 May 2021 A Christian Discussion Around Daycare and Child Care – Part 3

By Levi Minderhoud & Anna Nienhuis The recent 2021 Federal Budget featured a massive commitment – $30 billion dollars over five years, not including matching investments by provinces – to subsidize child care. As ARPA Canada has not addressed child care policy in depth since our coverage of the all-day kindergarten debate over a decade ago, two staff members teamed up to provide a series of three blogs to discuss this topic. Through this three-part child care series, we hope to present some ideas and questions that will get Christians thinking...

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26 May 2021 A Christian Discussion Around Daycare and Child Care – Part 2

By Levi Minderhoud & Anna Nienhuis The recent 2021 Federal Budget featured a massive commitment – $30 billion dollars over five years, not including matching investments by provinces – to subsidize child care. As ARPA Canada has not addressed child care policy in depth since our coverage of the all-day kindergarten debate over a decade ago, two staff members teamed up to provide a series of three blogs to discuss this topic. Through this three-part child care series, we hope to present some ideas and questions that will get Christians thinking...

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25 May 2021 A Christian Discussion Around Daycare and Child Care – Part 1

By Levi Minderhoud & Anna Nienhuis The recent 2021 Federal Budget featured a massive commitment – $30 billion dollars over five years, not including matching investments by provinces – to subsidize child care. As ARPA Canada has not addressed child care policy in depth since our coverage of the all-day kindergarten debate over a decade ago, two staff members teamed up to provide a series of three blogs to discuss this topic. Through this three-part child care series, we hope to present some ideas and questions that will get Christians thinking...

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01 Apr 2021 Throw Back Thursday: Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada (Part Four)

Today’s Throw Back Thursday article is the final installment of the four-part series entitled “Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada,” originally presented at a 2005 Burlington Reformed Study Centre event. The series was reproduced in the January 6, 2006, issue of the Clarion magazine, and reprinted on ARPA’s blog on July 3, 2009. Ron Gray was the leader of the Christian Heritage Party back in 2005, a position that he reliquished in 2008. He is the longest-serving leader of the Christian Heritage Party, with thirteen years at the helm. Ron Gray is...

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25 Mar 2021 Throw Back Thursday: Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada (Part Three)

Today’s Throw Back Thursday article is the third installment of the four-part series entitled “Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada,” originally presented at a 2005 Burlington Reformed Study Centre event. The series was reproduced in the January 6, 2006, issue of the Clarion magazine, and reprinted on ARPA’s blog on July 3, 2009. At the original time of writing, Ray Pennings worked at the Work Research Foundation. His comments were set in a context when many Christians were finding their political feet, deciding with which political party to support, and wrestling with the legalization of same-sex marriage. Today, Ray Pennings is the Executive Vice President for Cardus, a rebranded and expanded version of the Work Research Foundations. He continues to contribute to Christians' understanding of public theology; his 2013 article, The Devil's Advocate: Perfection Waits for Another World, builds up the article republished below. If you enjoy the article below, we encourage you to give the newer one a read as well!   Influencing for Good By Ray Pennings Introduction Winston Churchill reportedly once said that party democracy is the worst form of government except for all of the others. Reflecting on the questions provided by the organizers of this evening in their kind invitation for me to address this meeting, I could not help but wonder, “How would we respond to these questions if we asked them in the context of Winston Churchill, World War II, and the stark issues confronting Christian citizens in that time? Would we still regard Churchill with the same respect as I sense most of us do today? Would we have been active supporters of his leadership?”
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18 Mar 2021 Webinar: Christian Engagement in the Forgotten Level of Government

Topic: Christian Engagement in the Forgotten Level of Government Date and Time: March 31, 7:30 PM EST | 7:00 PM PST Christians who are engaged in politics tend to heavily follow federal politics and, to a lesser extent, provincial politics. But what about local politics? Should Christians be involved in municipal issues and public school boards? Join us on March 31st as we interview several Reformed Christians who hold (or have held) local offices and hear their thoughts about local political engagement. Register for the 7:30 EST webinar! Eastern Webinar Guests Dave Bylsma...

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18 Mar 2021 Throw Back Thursday: Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada (Part Two)

Today's Throw Back Thursday article is the second installment of the four-part series entitled “Kingdom Citizens in Secular Canada,” originally presented at a 2005 Burlington Reformed Study Centre event. The series was reproduced in the January 6, 2006, issue of the Clarion magazine, and reprinted on ARPA’s blog on July 3, 2009. The author of the second part of this series is Dr. F. G. Oosterhoff. Dr. Oosterhoff was a historian, active in secondary and post-secondary education, who specialized in European history, church history, and the history of ideas. Dr. Oosterhoff had already retired when she authored this article in 2005, and she recently passed into glory.   Christian Politics, What Does it Involve? By Dr. F.G. Oosterhoff Tonight and next week we speak about our calling as Christians in a secular society. Among the topics to be discussed are the causes of today’s secularizing trend, the strategy we should follow in trying to stem that trend, and the best means of organizing politically. With respect to the last issue, we would seem to have two options. One is to join a Christian political party, such as the Christian Heritage Party; the other is to do what many Christians south of the border are doing. It is to organize as a Christian alliance and so attempt to influence one of the mainline parties. In the United States that is the Republican Party. In Canada it would most likely be the Conservatives.
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