Gambling and Drugs Tag

24 Jul 2015 Highs and Lows of the 41st Canadian Parliament

On June 18th, the House of Commons adjourned, setting the stage for an election campaign that will end the 41st session of Parliament. This is an appropriate time to look back on the past four years and see what was accomplished, especially through the lens of ARPA Canada and the issues that we focus on. Pre-born Human Rights: When the Conservatives were handed a majority in the last federal election, many Christians hoped that pre-born human rights would finally be addressed. These hopes were in vain. Although some courageous MPs stood up for the pre-born, the leadership of all the political parties in the House of Commons did their utmost to suppress these efforts.   Motion 312, championed by MP Stephen Woodworth, was the first motion that held promise. It asked that “a special committee of the House of Commons be appointed and directed to review the declaration in Subsection 223(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada which states that a child becomes a human being only at the moment of complete birth.” Local ARPA chapters hosted presentations by Mr. Woodworth on this motion and many ARPA supporters encouraged MPs to support it. But with the party leaders all vocally opposed, the motion died in the House by a vote of 203 to 91. Yet Motion 312 reignited a discussion that was quiet for too long. Momentum for addressing this injustice was building.
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21 May 2013 Toronto casino is dead!

The plans for the new Toronto casino have crumbled in a pretty spectacular way. In a crushing defeat, the Toronto casino was sent to the dustbin of history with a vote of 38-6! What is most impressive about the story is that grassroots Canadians are credited with making it happen. Regular Canadians, worried about the health of families, concerned about the ability of small and mid-size businesses being able to compete with casinos and disgusted by the cruelty of governments making incredible sums of money off of addicts, these Canadians...

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17 Apr 2013 Casinos cost more than you think Mr. Ford!

This week, ARPA Canada sent a letter to Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford and the 44 councillors urging them to reconsider the Mayor's position on building a casino in the downtown core. Mr. Ford is on record as advocating for the casino as a financial saviour of the city. Sadly, he has dismissed outright many of the social scientific evidence that demonstrates the incredible costs to the city in law enforcement and lost revenue for small and mid-size business as well as the heavy toll on addiction services and the losses...

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14 Nov 2012 URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Senate Must Exercise Sober Second Thought on Sports-Betting Bill

In a troubling twist of process, Bill C-290, the sports-betting bill, has passed from the House of Commons into the Senate without a standing vote. This Bill seeks to legalize single-sport betting in Canada. For many reasons, including the inefficient use of government funds for revenue generation, the social ills it causes (including 200 suicides a year!), the undermining of the integrity of sport, and the dubious democratic process employed in this instance, we all need to urge the Senate to exercise their role as the Chamber of Sober Second Thought, and to stop the passage of Bill C-290. This is urgent - the Senate is almost done with the bill! We've made it easy to do. Just click on read more for a sample letter and the contact information for the Senators in your province. For more background, read this excellent op-ed by Member of Parliament Michael Chong as well as this article and letter to Ottawa City Council.
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11 Nov 2012 Casino in the Capital: Short Term Gain or Long Term Pain?

The City of Ottawa recently sent a letter to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), expressing interest in becoming a host city to a large gaming entertainment centre (read: casino). You can learn more about that story here. We were happy to hear that at least some councillors were hesitant about the idea, expressing concern over the social welfare of the city. ARPA Canada drafted a letter to Mayor Jim Watson and the 23 councillors outlining the risks and hidden costs of such a project and urging caution. Often...

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21 Mar 2012 Gambling’s biggest addict

ARPA Note: Be sure to check out a witty new poem by ARPA reader Mr. A Blokhuis that speaks to this exact issue: Spin the Wheel, Suckers! By Derek Miedema, Researcher, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, March 21 2012: Who is Canada’s biggest gambling addict? As it turns out, our provincial governments. When times get hard, with deficits growing and debt piling up, governments turn to gambling to take up the slack. When regular folks overspend and go over budget, the usual response is not to open up a larger line of credit. Not so with governments. Not satisfied with high levels of taxation, and overspending at every turn, gambling took an average of $534 for every adult Canadian adult in 2011—money given directly to provincial coffers.
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29 Oct 2010 Government Gambling and Broken Families

By Derek Miedema, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada: Gambling in Canada is big business. Statistics Canada reports that gambling brought in over $13 billion in revenue in 2008.1 The decisions of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces to allow government-sanctioned online gambling are a sign that governments still want more...

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16 Jul 2010 B.C. government milks problem gamblers

National Post, July 16, 2010: The government of British Columbia has just launched an online gambling website, the first government-sanctioned online casino. The B.C. Lottery Corporation will offer 75 casino-style games for the website Playnow.com. There will be bingo, the ability to purchase lottery tickets, betting on sporting events, and all the usual games, like blackjack, roulette and poker. How this sits with the government’s mandate to enforce “responsible gambling” remains to be seen. [Read more here.] ...

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05 Oct 2009 Quality Studies on Gambling in the Globe and Mail

The Globe & Mail is running a series on gambling and its first two articles reveal some staggering statistics about the harm of the gaming industry in Canada. Click here to read "Casinos spend millions to make losers feel like winners" and click here to read "The million dollar club: losing big, losing often." Gambling is taking an increasingly large toll on the well-being of Canadians, destroying families and hurting communities. We need to be a voice in our communities to keep casinos and gaming centres away....

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25 Aug 2009 Online gambling: B.C.’s billion-dollar gift horse

By Gary Mason, Globe and Mail, August 24, 2009: In government, one never says never. Which is why politicians should always be careful about proclaiming war on potential revenue streams. A couple of years ago, the minister in charge of policing in B.C. said he was out to eradicate online gambling. But then one day, Rich Coleman switched portfolios and was suddenly overseeing gaming, a huge government revenue producer. [Continue reading this article here.]...

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