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Legal Cases

15 May 2018 Another win for Canadian Christians who want to adopt children out of state care

Posted at 06:00h in Family, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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By Lighthouse News There is more hope for Christians who want to adopt children. Alberta’s Ministry of Children’s Services has reversed an earlier decision which rejected an adoption application by an evangelical Christian couple because of their religious views, specifically their position on sexuality and gender identity. The Edmonton couple – who haven’t been publicly identified – had applied for a judicial review of the rejection last year. Now, rather than seeing the case through to court, the government has backed away and reversed its earlier refusal of the adoption request. Lawyer John Carpay...

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11 Apr 2018 Alberta bill blocking info on student activities from parents will be challenged in court

Posted at 13:13h in Bills and Motions, Education, Family, Gender and Sexuality, Legal Cases 1 Comment
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by Lighthouse News The Alberta government is facing a lawsuit over Bill 24. That’s the law - passed late last year - which expressly forbids school teachers, principals, or other school employees from telling parents about whether their own children join so-called "gay-straight alliance clubs". The government claimed at the time that the prohibition is about “protecting children from abusive parents”. But now, a group of 24 religious schools, eight parents and a pair of non-profit groups have launched a constitutional challenge of the law. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced...

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05 Dec 2017 ARPA Presentation to Supreme Court of Canada on the TWU case

Posted at 08:10h in Education, Legal Cases, Organizational News 0 Comments
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Chief justice, justices, I want to focus my argument this morning on section 15 of the Charter and its relationship to freedom of association as guaranteed by section 2(d). In oral argument yesterday, what is actually freedom of association has been unfairly or inaccurately described as discrimination. Whenever someone alleges discrimination, we must ask, “By what standard?” By what standard is the allegation of discrimination laid? That standard must be found in law. The law will tell us whether we are dealing with discrimination or association. The Ontario Court of Appeal erred here....

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30 Nov 2017 Press Release: ARPA Canada intervenes in TWU case this week

Posted at 13:42h in Education, Gender and Sexuality, Legal Cases 1 Comment
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For immediate release from the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada November 29, 2017 ARPA Canada intervenes in TWU case this week OTTAWA - On Thursday and Friday the Supreme Court of Canada will hear the Trinity Western University case. The law societies in British Columbia and Ontario refused to accept graduates from the Christian university’s proposed law school because of TWU’s Community Covenant, which requires students, among other things, to refrain from sexual intimacy outside of a heterosexual marriage. Trinity Western has asked the courts to overturn these decisions, arguing they violate the...

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28 Nov 2017 Ontario’s highest court: public education is not neutral

Posted at 12:37h in Blog, Education, Legal Cases, Public Theology 0 Comments
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By John Sikkema In an important ruling, a Christian father lost his religious freedom claim against the Hamilton School Board. But it’s not all bad news. The main reason for E.T.’s loss (the father’s name is redacted to his initials) was the breadth of his claim and lack of evidence to support it. He lost on the facts, not the law. E.T. wanted school staff to give him notice whenever “moral relativism”, “environmental worship”, “occultic principles”, “sex education”, or “portrayals of homosexual/bisexual conduct and relationships and/or transgenderism as natural, healthy or acceptable”...

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28 Nov 2017 Parental Rights affirmed in Ontario

Posted at 06:00h in Education, Gender and Sexuality, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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Derek Ross, Executive Director of Christian Legal Fellowship The Ontario Court of Appeal has released a decision in a case with major implications for parental rights in education. A father in Hamilton - referred to in court document only as "E-T" - had asked the Hamilton Public School Board for advance notification when certain subjects were to be taught at his children’s public school so that he could remove those kids from classes if the content conflicted with the family’s sincerely held religious beliefs. A lower court had turned down the request, and...

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28 Nov 2017 LN Feature: TWU in the Supreme Court – Why this may be the most important case of the decade for Religious Freedom

Posted at 06:00h in Education, Gender and Sexuality, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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ARPA's Director of Law and Policy, André Schutten ARPA's Director of Law and Policy, André Schutten, is due to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada this week. ARPA has been granted intervener status in two Trinity Western University appeals regarding the establishment of a Law School in British Columbia. Oral arguments in the case begin on Thursday of this week. On the feature this week, an interview with André on the event of the hearing. ------------------ LN: So, two days from now, the Supreme Court of Canada starts its hearings on the...

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21 Nov 2017 A legal challenge to the passage of Bill 24

Posted at 06:00h in Bills and Motions, Education, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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Lawyer John Carpay for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms Bill 24, the "Act to Protect Gay Straight Alliances" in Alberta, passed third reading in the legislature last week. This is the Bill that would, among other things, make it illegal for schools to inform parents if their children had joined a so-called "Gay Straight Alliance" - a school club ostensibly set up to support gay students or those struggling with gender identity issues. Just hours before the final vote, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Reforms in Calgary announced that if the...

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07 Nov 2017 LN Feature: The Supreme Court as Reformed Synod?

Posted at 10:30h in Fundamental Freedoms, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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ARPA Canada lawyer, John Sikkema ARPA lawyer John Sikkema appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada last week, making arguments as an intervener in the so-called "Wall" case. That's the one where the Supreme Court has been asked whether secular courts have authority to intervene in matters of ecclesiastical discipline. The arguments are being heard in the context of the "disfellowshipping" of a member of a Jehovah's Witness congregation in Calgary. ARPA had been accepted as an intervener in the case, and filed written arguments earlier this fall. The issue was highlighted during the...

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10 Oct 2017 Wall Case

Posted at 06:00h in Fundamental Freedoms, Legal Cases 0 Comments
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ARPA Canada lawyer, John Sikkema ARPA lawyer John Sikkema has delivered the final paperwork to the Supreme Court of Canada in the "Wall Case". That's the case involving a Jehovah's Witness congregant who wants the courts to overturn his dis-fellowshipping - essentially his excommunication - from a JW congregation near Edmonton. Sikkema says the complainant is arguing that being a member in a church is essentially “contractual”, and that courts are empowered to enforce contracts. Mr. Wall, Sikkema says, “expected (that) in return for participating in church (he would be) treated...

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