Friday January 26, 2001

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SUPREME COURT REWRITES LAW TO ALLOW CHILD PORNOGRAPHERS MORE FREEDOM

OTTAWA, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today in the case of child pornography dealer John Robin Sharpe. Some pro-family groups have expressed relief that the decision upholds most of the current legal restrictions on child pornography. Others are far less positive and fear the Court has further opened the door to acceptance of such material by finding that Canadian law too severely restricts the freedom of child porn users on at least two points.

The 6-3 decision said that the current law's infringement on Charter rights are for the most part justified. The justices declared an exception regarding the "possession of any written material or visual representation created by the accused alone, and held by the accused alone, exclusively for his or her own personal use." Thus a pedophile collection of stories and drawings, including realistic computer generated images involving the depiction of young children with adults in any depraved act are allowed by law as long as they are self-produced and not distributed.

Teens as young as 14 are now allowed to photograph and video tape themselves engaged in sexual activity as long as the material is for personal use only and not for distribution, and does not involve anything illegal (sex among 14-year-olds is legal in Canada).

Real Women lawyer Gwen Landolt told LifeSite that the majority was "naïve to think such material would not be used for distribution." Moreover, police forces will now be encumbered with the more difficult task of having to prove that child pornography, of the nature allowed by the ruling, was actually meant for distribution.

Landolt said that the material should be outlawed on the grounds that it is intrinsically reprehensible and that those with pedophilic cravings for these materials should be helped out of their disorder rather than having their illness fed. The court ruling itself seemed to concur when it said that child pornography "fuels fantasies that incite offenders to offend."

The application of the ruling to Sharpe is uncertain since he was in possession of material which the court said should remain illegal. The National Post reported yesterday that there were some 100 cases involving child pornography on hold awaiting the result of the ruling. The court has ruled that the exceptions will be read into the law and thus no amendment by the government is required to comply with the decision. The only option open to the government to reverse this decision, which some critics find disturbing, is to use the notwithstanding clause to negate the read-in of the increased 'freedom' for child pornographers. The decision is the latest of many by Canadian courts citing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to alter Parliament-made law and advance the liberalization of the moral culture.

The decision is available on line at:
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/rec/html/sharpe.en.html

Canada is a haven for Kiddie porn:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/jan/0001273 .html

Rory Leishman on the Sharpe case:
http://www.lifesite.net/interim/1999/aug/1charter.html

BC Government funds child pornographer presentation:
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/1999/sept/9909292 .html

Another 32,000 signatures against child pornography http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/june/00061405.html

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CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL COORDINATES ABORTIONS THROUGHOUT BRITISH COLUMBIA

VANCOUVER, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - LifeSite has learned that the Children's and Women's Health Centre (CWHC) of British Columbia has "unique and diverse responsibilities in maintaining and facilitating abortion services throughout British Columbia." The information comes from David Loukidelis, Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC in a recently released order concerning a refused information request for determining the number of abortions performed at CWHC, as well as the gestational age.

Loukidelis agreed with CWHC that they did not have to release the information to the applicant, Ted Gerk. The Commissioner's reasoning, however, has raised additional questions because of the amount of information which was stipulated as "in camera" or secret. Gerk, the head of the BC Pro-Life Resource Centre told LifeSite that he was not able to argue his case effectively to the Commissioner since so much of the material and argumentation submitted by the CWHC was held secret. Gerk said he requested the information after learning that at least one doctor at the hospital was involved with experimentation with aborted baby body parts, having ordered aborted baby limbs. Also it was known that botched abortions had taken place there and live-born babies were left to die without medical attention.

Loukidlelis' decision is most troubling. He suggests that provision of the statistics could somehow lead to an identification of the physicians involved in the abortions. Moreover, he accepts the argument of the CWHC that once the abortionists are discovered "there is a reasonable expectation of a threat to their safety or mental or physical health harassment, threats and violence."

For the full order see:
http://www.oipcbc.org/orders/Order01-01.html

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AGING AND POPULATION DECLINE TO HURT INDUSTRIAL COUNTRIES IN 2010

ZURICH, Switzerland, Jan. 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - A major study released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies declares that global labor shortages, falling savings rates, declining asset values, escalating debt and a precipitous drop in military spending are likely to be the result of the aging of the population in the world's major industrial nations. The study, conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Commission, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said exploding pension-age populations will combine with flat or declining labor forces to create the potential for significant fiscal shortfalls in the countries by 2010.

The CSIS Global Aging Initiative notes that labor shortages likely will slow economic growth rates. After 2025, growth is expected to average substantially less than one percent annually in Japan and Western Europe; and less than two percent annually in America and Canada.

The study is available at:
http://www.csis.org

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INDONESIAN PROVINCE MANDATES USE OF CONDOMS FOR EXTRA-MARITAL SEX

JAKARTA, Jan 26, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Governor J.P. Solossa of the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has revealed that the use of condoms will be made mandatory for those engaged in extra-marital sex as a way to combat AIDS. "We will soon issue a provincial decree on the obligatory use of condoms in specific high-risk locations and areas from where the disease could spread," Solossa said. He indicated that the program would soon involve the whole province.

See the AFT report at:
http://www.news24.co.za/News24/World/Asia/0,1113,2-10-20_968915,00.html

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