Articles for Month: March 1998

TORONTO, Mar 18 (LSN)  The Globe and Mail reported yesterday on a Statistics Canada study that points to a healthy change in the outlook on family values in the younger generation. The study found a statistically significant difference betwween the attitudes of Generation X (aged 15-29)  and those of Baby Boomers (aged 30-49) and Elders (aged 50 and over).  Whereas nearly half of older Canadians believed financial disagreement was a legitimate reason to break up a marriage, only 28 per cent of Generation X’ers agreed. Unsatisfactory sexual relationship with one’s partner was found to be sufficient grounds for divorce for […]

QUESNEL, B.C., Mar 18 (LSN)  Judge Robin Smith, the BC family court judge who alerted the public last month to the fact that social workers in the small B.C. town of Quensel apprehended 71 children from their parents in just two months. Judge Smith, who repeated his warning on CTV’s W5 news program yesterday, noted that in only five of the cases was the removal of the children justified.  Judge Smith detailed the horrendous result of the apprehensions of the children from their families as he indicated a possible waiting period of “a year and a half” before the case […]

TORONTO, Mar 18 (LSN)  The media is predicting radical consequences from a Supreme Court hearing beginning today on the right of homosexual couples to seek spousal support after termination of the relationship. Newspapers such as the Globe and Mail indicated that the “new reading of spouse (the court comes up with) could invalidate scores of Ontario laws (and) redefine family.”“The Supreme Court appears poised to either set back the cause of gay rights or force governments across the country to rewrite their laws to extend equality to gays and lesbians,” the paper suggested.  An “Interfaith Coalition” consisting of The Ontario […]

WEST AUSTRALIA, Mar 17 (LSN)  Two bills went before the West Australian Parliament today,  aimed at changing the law which now resticts abortion to cases where the mother’s life is said to be endangered by her pregnancy. Yesterday the Vatican issued a statement, saying Pope John Paul II joins the calls of the West Australian bishops to “defend the voice of the unborn, who have no voice of their own.”  The law has not generally been enforced, and abortions are readily available in the state

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 (LSN)  On Monday the last Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court commenced. The next stage in its evolution will be the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, set to meet from 15 June to 10 July in Rome. The Rome Conference is expected to finalize and approve a convention to establish the court, which will then be submitted to the General Assembly later this year for adoption.  Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women […]

GENEVA, Mar 17 (LSN)  Yesterday was the opening day of the six-week UN session marking the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The first speaker at the event, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, set an ominous tone as he talked about uniting the world’s religions. Havel said the anniversary session “should become the scene of a quest for a common denominator of spiritual values uniting the different cultures of the world.”  The reference to “a common denominator of spiritual values” is clearly a revisiting of the UN’s proposed Earth Charter. Unveiled at the UN’s Rio +5 conference […]

OTTAWA, Mar 17 (LSN)  Yesterday the Canadian Press reported on the case of a lesbian couple who battled in court over alimony payments. Although the dispute between the two lesbians was ended with a lump settlement which led to the forfeiting of the alimony claim,  the case will proceed on Wednesday as yet another “gay rights” issue.  Two lower court rulings found Ontario’s exclusion of homosexual couples in alimony laws to be discriminatory and in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Ontario government argues that same-sex couples don’t need the same protection as heterosexual couples since the […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Mar 16 (LSN) – Last week the Florida Legislature voted 32-7 to approve a ban on partial-birth abortions that would subject doctors who commit the crime to jail time and fines. The legislation is slated to take effect in July, but first must survive at least one court challenge. The law would make the procedure a third-degree felony unless the procedure is “needed” to save the woman’s life.

LANSING, Mich., Mar 16 (LSN) – Last Thursday the Michigan House of Representatives voted 60 to 40 to pass a bill banning assisted suicide. The move, praised by the Catholic Church, has set the stage for another legal confrontation with assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian,  who has assisted suicides without punishment for many years.  Early last week Kevorkian admitted to “assisting the suicide” of his 99th victim.  On Friday, he announced his 100th victim, 66-year-old Waldo Herman of Detroit.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (LSN) – In a press conference on Friday, the UN Commission on the Status of Women released more details on the upcoming “optional protocol” for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Aloisia Woergetter,  Chairperson of the Open-ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a Draft Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, told reporters that the latest “breakthrough” in terms of the Optional Protocol was a move “forbidding reservations to the protocol.” This would then mandate that all countries that ratified this protocol would be legally bound to uphold CEDAW in […]