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05 Aug 2021 Cash rewards for identifying hate speech? More restrictions on Canadians’ freedom of expression proposed in Bill C-36

Posted at 13:55h in Blog, Fundamental Freedoms 0 Comments

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” – George Orwell, 1984 In George Orwell's famous dystopian novel '1984', the Ministry of Love – a government entity of the fictional country Oceania – controls every aspect of people's lives. They control what citizens are permitted to say, do, and even think. To achieve this level of control, the Ministry pursues practices of intense intelligence gathering and monitors every moment of their citizens' lives. It seems the Canadian federal government has taken...

20 Jul 2021 British Columbia’s Sesquicentennial: What’s Special About British Columbia?

Posted at 12:57h in Blog, Politics 0 Comments

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Sesquicentennial. Now that’s a word you don’t hear every day. Sesquicentennial is the celebration of the 150th anniversary of something. Depending on your age and your interest in political history, you might remember some recent sesquicentennials. On July 1, 2017, Canada celebrated its 150th anniversary, complete with fireworks, festivities, and a hockey rink on Parliament Hill (upon which, to many Canadians’ chagrin, no hockey was actually played). British Columbia also has celebrated some sesquicentennials in recent years. One can make a strong case that there are three dates that mark British Columbia’s...

08 Jul 2021 God’s Care

Posted at 17:18h in Blog, Fundamental Freedoms 0 Comments

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I love Manitoba. Of course, I’m biased. I lived there for four years. My wife grew up there. Many in her family still live there. If you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to visit. There’s more to Manitoba than skeeters, winter, and the Jets. And if you check out the Reformed Churches in the area, you’ll love the people. Friendly Manitobans. Hard-working folks with a heart for service and community. But their strong sense of community was rocked recently because of a tragic accident affecting so many families and...

25 Jun 2021 What does it mean to be a good citizen? Disagreeing well… even on abortion

Posted at 11:08h in Blog, Public Theology 0 Comments

3 Likes

Last week a student from my church invited me to present to her high school civics class on the question, “What does it mean to be a good citizen?” Since I work with ARPA Canada and interact often with the civil government, she thought that I would know something about – or at least have opinions on – the topic. I love giving lectures to high schools and university groups. It’s a highlight of my job. But what made this invitation a little more unique is that the school is a...

23 Jun 2021 Unanticipated opportunities and overflowing support: reflections on a decade with ARPA Canada

Posted at 16:21h in Blog, Organizational News 0 Comments

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By André Schutten Photo: Mark Penninga, executive director of ARPA Canada, presents a plaque to André Schutten on the occasion of his 10 years with ARPA. I started my first day with ARPA Canada as Ontario Director and Legal Counsel on June 22, 2011. My office was a single room on the upper floor of an art gallery, managed by my wife Karyn, nestled in the picturesque hills of Gatineau Park. The day before I started, I was called to the bar, officially becoming a fully licensed lawyer. One of my first...

21 Jun 2021 Book Review: Them Before Us

Posted at 10:36h in Blog, Family 0 Comments

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We live in a society that prioritizes choice to the extent that marriage has become whatever you want to make it. Children are subject to this redefinition of marriage and family structure and are impacted the most by the breakdown of a marriage and the biblical family. Many times, our focus is on the importance of traditional marriage for adults (and that’s a good focus). Katy Faust & Stacy Manning, in their book Them Before Us, shift focus away from adults and instead examine the impact that broken or redefined...

18 Jun 2021 Respecting Seniors Beyond Senior’s Week

Posted at 11:25h in Blog, Elder Care 0 Comments

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The first week in June every year is Senior’s Week in British Columbia. As proclaimed by the province, one of the purposes of Senior’s Week is to recognize that “seniors are a diverse population within a society that supports its members throughout the life continuum, and recognizes individual rights to dignity, respect, autonomy, and choice.” This recognition is more important now than at any time since the proclamation of this week almost two decades ago. In the past 15 months, our most vulnerable seniors living in long-term care homes across the...

14 Jun 2021 The Erosion of the Family that Christians Aren’t Talking About Enough

Posted at 17:18h in Blog, Family 0 Comments

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By Levi Minderhoud Orthodox Christians are champions of the family. And rightly so. Stretching back to the beginning of history and the creation of the world, marriage (and, by extension, the family) was the first institution that God created (Genesis 2:18, 24-25). Chronologically, the family supersedes the state, the church, and any other institution in society. For that reason, Christians often call the family the “basic unit” or “basic institution” of society. Inseparable from the concept of the family is the principle that parents have the primary responsibility to care for the...

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

Posted at 10:17h in Blog, Family 0 Comments

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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...

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

Posted at 10:04h in Blog, Family 0 Comments

1 Like

Blog

05 Aug 2021 Cash rewards for identifying hate speech? More restrictions on Canadians’ freedom of expression proposed in Bill C-36

20 Jul 2021 British Columbia’s Sesquicentennial: What’s Special About British Columbia?

08 Jul 2021 God’s Care

25 Jun 2021 What does it mean to be a good citizen? Disagreeing well… even on abortion

23 Jun 2021 Unanticipated opportunities and overflowing support: reflections on a decade with ARPA Canada

21 Jun 2021 Book Review: Them Before Us

18 Jun 2021 Respecting Seniors Beyond Senior’s Week

14 Jun 2021 The Erosion of the Family that Christians Aren’t Talking About Enough

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

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

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