Bills and Motions

08 Jun 2021 ARPA Submits Brief to Senate Committee on Reducing Recidivism

Bill C-228, An Act to Establish a Federal Framework to Reduce Recidivism, has passed second reading in the Senate and is currently being discussed at the Committee on National Defence and Security. ARPA Canada recently submitted a written brief on Bill C-228 to the Committee, and we encourage you to read the submission here or at the end of this post. Bill C-228 seeks to address recidivism, or repeat offences, by people coming out of the Canadian prison system. Currently, recidivism rates are high for offenders being released from both Federal...

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02 Jun 2021 Combating Human Trafficking – Bill 251 Passes in the Ontario Legislature

In 2020, the Ontario government introduced its 5-year anti-human trafficking strategy, investing $307 million between 2020 and 2025 to combat this injustice. Bill 251 expands on previous anti-human trafficking efforts, giving greater support to victims of trafficking, educating Ontarians about the issue, and providing more tools for law enforcement to crack down on human trafficking. This week, Bill 251, the Combating Human Trafficking Act, passed 3rd reading in the Ontario Legislature and will soon receive Royal Assent. The bill was initially introduced by the Solicitor General of Ontario. A few weeks...

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27 May 2021 Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation (SISE) Act Introduced in Parliament

  Today, MP Arnold Viersen introduced the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act or the SISE Act. This private member’s bill is the next step in a long history of action on the part of MP Arnold Viersen in the face of pornography and online sexual exploitation content. He was involved in promoting and receiving unanimous consent for Motion 47 in 2016, which resulted in a committee investigation of online sexually explicit content. This piece of legislation comes amid a firestorm of activity around the organization MindGeek which profits from its online pornography...

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20 May 2021 ARPA Submits Recommendations to the Ontario Justice Committee to Combat Human Trafficking

  Last week, the Ontario Standing Committee on Justice Policy discussed Bill 251, Combating Human Trafficking Act, 2021. ARPA Canada submitted recommendations on Bill 251 through both a written submission and an oral presentation to the committee. We encourage you to read the submission here. Human trafficking is a major concern in the Province of Ontario and preys on vulnerable people, primarily women and girls. Between 2009 and 2018, the number of police-reported human trafficking incidents in Ontario (0.9 per 100,000 population) was nearly double the Canadian average (0.5 per 100,000 population). Although...

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12 May 2021 Bill to Reduce Recidivism Passes House of Commons

On Wednesday, May 5, Bill C-228 passed third reading in the House of Commons. This bill, entitled An Act to Establish a Federal Framework to Reduce Recidivism, was introduced by MP Richard Bragdon, and has received widespread support in Parliament, passing with a vote of 297 to 32. It is exciting to see such extensive support for an excellent Bill. Bill C-228 seeks to address recidivism, or repeat offences, by people coming out of the Canadian prison system. Currently, recidivism rates are high for offenders being released from both federal and...

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05 May 2021 Ontario Bill 203 – More Than a Visitor

COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on congregate care settings, not just in terms of the rapid spread of the virus but also in the banning of visitors, including those who had been active participants in the care or support of a loved one. While exceptions have been made, the ability to visit and care for loved ones in congregate care settings has been severely hampered. A new bill introduced by Ontario NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky is looking to fix this and to set up the province for a better response...

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20 Apr 2021 Bill C-268: Protection of Freedom of Conscience Act

Since the legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016, there has been little effort to protect the consciences of those who refuse to participate in providing MAiD. The recent euthanasia legislation has increased access to MAiD, and doctors will increasingly run into conscientious problems with patient requests for MAiD. Currently, the province of Manitoba is the only province that specifically protects the conscience rights of physicians. Under Manitoba’s legislation, medical professionals can refuse to participate in MAiD if it violates their personal convictions. They cannot be required to provide...

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09 Apr 2021 Hard At Work Defending Girls

Waiting. We don’t like waiting. Waiting for an appointment. Waiting in line. Waiting for the bus on a cold winter day. Keeping somebody else waiting. We just don’t like waiting. Those fighting for the cause of pre-born human rights can relate to this. They have waited and waited and waited for this issue to be debated at Parliament. Well, the wait is over. This issue of abortion is set to be tabled at the House of Commons. And this time, it’s about defending girls. Now that's worth waiting for. What an...

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29 Mar 2021 Canadians’ Views on Body-Affirming Counselling

In the past number of months, ARPA Canada has met with dozens of lawmakers to discuss our concerns with Bill C-6, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). At numerous times during those meetings, I outlined a fictitious scenario to make this more real. The scenario went like this: “Imagine that I have a 9-year-old son and he recently came home from school expressing that he thought he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. He wants to go to school in girls’ clothes. Rather than affirm his...

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01 Feb 2021 United Nations say disability should not be a reason for MAiD

On January 25th, experts from the United Nations released a press statement declaring, "Disability is not a reason to sanction medically assisted dying." “UN human rights experts today expressed alarm at a growing trend to enact legislation enabling access to medically assisted dying based largely on having a disability or disabling conditions, including in old age… Disability should never be a ground or justification to end someone’s life directly or indirectly… The experts also expressed concern at the lack of involvement of people with disabilities, as well their representative organizations, in...

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