Author: Daniel Kanis

04 Aug 2020 CBC’s strategic attack on Redeemer University

CBC is at it again. Last week, I explained how CBC’s reporting on a videographer’s decision to decline to film a same-sex wedding was designed to advance a particular narrative: that governments and society still have a lot of work to do to combat homophobia. This week, in a piece posing as investigative journalism, CBC bolsters this narrative and suggests next steps in the progressive battle against homophobia, namely: suing, defunding, and disaccrediting Christian schools. CBC targets Redeemer University, whose code of conduct forbids sexual intimacy outside of (heterosexual) marriage. Framing...

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27 Aug 2018 BBQ Fundraiser – AB

BBQ Fundraiser On Saturday, August 25, the Neerlandia ARPA School Group joined their local ARPA chapter for a hot-dog sale at Freson Bros. in Barrhead, AB. The sale lasted three hours in which many people came past. With three ARPA school club members standing at the street corner holding a sign, and the adults running the grill, we were able to witness to many people. The most asked question asked was, “What does the ARPA stand for?” It was a moment for us to raise awareness about what ARPA does with...

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30 Jul 2018 A new assisted suicide court challenge

Julia Lamb and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) challenged Canada’s new assisted suicide legislation mere days after it was passed in 2016. Julia Lamb has spinal muscular atrophy, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, but she is not eligible for assisted suicide because her death is not “reasonably foreseeable” as required by the current law. The BCCLA asserts on Lamb’s behalf that “the federal government’s new bill leaves many seriously ill Canadians, like Julia, behind.” Lamb argues that by “leaving her behind”, or, in other words, by delaying her death, this...

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24 Jul 2018 Charities are free to do political advocacy, Ontario court rules

Implications for charities and potential charities Registered charities may issue charitable tax receipts for donations. That’s a big benefit for any donor-funded organization, if it can be registered as a charity. Canadian law says a registered charity can only engage in “political activities” that are “ancillary and incidental” to its charitable activities. Those activities will then be deemed charitable, since all a charity’s activities must be charitable. The Canada Revenue Agency sets a 10% limit on the portion of resources that a charity may devote to ancillary political activities. But on July 16,...

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03 Jul 2018 Euthanasia Rules Continue to Unravel

Peter Stockland (Lighthouse News – July 3, 2018) Two years have gone by since the passage of Bill C-14, the law that legalized euthanasia in Canada. Peter Stockland, the publisher of the Cardus Foundation’s “Convivium” magazine, marked the anniversary with an in-depth article on how the law has evolved since it was first implemented. He says it’s clear that the rules around Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) continue to be relaxed, as evidenced by some new statistics that came out just last week. “There was a 30-percent increase in the number...

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28 Jun 2018 Civil Disobedience and Courageous Leadership by Alberta Schools

by Mark Penninga Many of us are ready to disengage for the summer, leaving behind the stress of our regular lives. But before doing so, please take a moment to reflect on yesterday’s Alberta court ruling against the application for an injunction on Bill 24. This may sound like Greek, and largely irrelevant to you. But it isn’t. For starters, have a look just at page 1 of the decision. Look at the names of the schools listed in the court challenge. Do any of them look familiar to you? This may be the...

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28 Jun 2018 Trinity Western University Considering Next Steps

(Lighthouse News - June 28, 2018) Trinity Western University continues to evaluate this month's Supreme Court of Canada decision on its application to open a Law School. The court ruled that law Societies in BC and Ontario were justified in refusing to admit graduates of that proposed school to the bar in their respective provinces. The ruling said that TWU’s community covenant, under which students and staff pledge, among other things, to only engage in sexual activity inside the bounds of heterosexual marriage, was discriminatory against the LGBTQ community, and...

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27 Jun 2018 Important: Alberta Court Rules against Injunction for Bill 24

TWU ruling cited as precedent Update: We have published a new article with analysis of this decision here. Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision against Trinity Western University, a coalition of parents and independent schools in Alberta, including all of the Reformed schools in the province, has lost an application for an injunction to delay implementation of Bill 24, “An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances”.  Among other things, the law makes it illegal for anyone in the education system - be that in public, private, or parochial...

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26 Jun 2018 Important Update: Bill 24 Injunction Ruling Expected This Week

(Lighthouse News - June 26, 2018): A ruling is expected by the end of this week in the first round of a court battle over Alberta's Bill 24. That is the bill that mandates every school to institute gay-straight alliance (GSA) clubs on request from any student, and to hide information about students from their parents, along with a threat of denying funding or accreditation if they don’t comply. A coalition of parents, Christian schools (including the Reformed schools in the province), and others are taking the Alberta government to court...

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29 May 2018 Canadians losing respect for marriage

A new survey shows Canadians are less and less convinced of the value of marriage as an institution in society. The Angus Reid Institute poll  of more than 15-hundred Canadians shows more than half of them don't think it's necessary for couples to tie the knot if they want to spend the rest of their lives together, and one in six participants said they're not interested in mariage at all. Researcher Peter Jon Mitchell at the Cardus Institute says this is a worrisome trend. “Canadians seem largely unaware of the benefits...

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