equality

By. Susan Delacourt, Toronto Star

Under siege for its anti-abortion stand in foreign policy and silencing of feminist voices at home, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is arguing that what women really want is less crime in Canada.

 

“Our government has done more than any other government in the history of this country to keep women safe,” says Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, who is also in charge of the status of women in the Harper government.

 

“We have introduced new laws to make sure that we keep rapists and murderers off the street and to make sure that we protect children from sexual predators. That is what women want.”

 

By: By Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service Published: Vancouver Sun

 

One in nine Canadians has been homeless or on the brink of homelessness, and in some provinces that figure is as high as one in five, as the effects of the recession linger.

 

Across the country, nearly three million people have landed on the street or come close to it — 12 per cent of all Canadians — according to a report expected to be released Monday by the Salvation Army.

 

"It certainly is sobering, it certainly is eye-opening," says Andrew Burditt, public relations director for the Salvation Army in Canada.

 

"What scares me a little are how many people are out there that are potentially one paycheque away from being on the street."

NDP

 

OTTAWA – Soaring statistics for poverty, employment insurance, and welfare confirm the recession is far from over and the government must act now or the bad times for many Canadians will only get worse, New Democrat Poverty Critic Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) said today.

 

“History tells us that getting out of a recession takes many years; these statisitcs are a recipe for disaster if the government fails to act,” Martin said. “Economists predict the next wave iof people to be affected by the recession are those who have lost their jobs, have fallen off or never qualified for EI, and are now on welfare and may be defaulting on loans.”

 

Posted By CECILIA NASMITH Northumberland Today.com

 

GRAFTON -- Justice need not be a cookie cutter, and revenge need not be our only response, St. Leonard's Society executive director Elizabeth White declared recently at St. Andrew's United Church in Grafton.

 

Appearing as the first speaker in a series of talks on how today's issues affect the Christian community, White noted that the first prisons were built by Quakers to replace physical punishment with an opportunity for repentance and reflection.

 

Today's prisons are a statement of disapproval for the offence and a return to punishment.

 

Shannon Kari, National Post

 

The tenets of a Toronto organization seeking a religious exemption to marijuana prohibitions was described by a federal government prosecutor on Thursday as a "fictitious artifice" and a ruse by cannabis enthusiasts.

 

"This is an inside joke among people who like to smoke marijuana," suggested Crown attorney Nicholas Devlin during cross-examination of a senior member of the Church of the Universe.

 

"I have heard that," said Brother Peter Styrsky, who maintained that this was an unfair characterization of the Toronto chapter of the church, known as the G13 Mission.

 

OTTAWA – A motion was passed unanimously today in the House of Commons that calls on the Government of Canada to continue speaking out against the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The motion was introduced by New Democrat MP Bill Siksay, Critic for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual issues.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is currently being debated in the Parliament of Uganda would imprison anyone who fails to report the identity of someone they know to be gay or lesbian. The bill also imposes life imprisonment, and in some cases, the death penalty, on anyone who “commits the offence of homosexuality.”