News

OTTAWA, May 7 (LSN) – The federal Liberal government has thwarted a popular and sorely-needed pro-  family measure proposed by one of its own backbenchers. Last Thursday, the government-controlled committee dealing with private members’ business put a stop to Paul Szabo’s Bill C-244, which would have permitted income splitting between spouses in single-income families. The measure was designed to help end unfair tax discrimination against families with stay-at-home moms.  In recent years, the Chretien government has stacked the committee on private members’ business with its own people. Pro-life observers believe the move is an extension of the Liberals’ repeated public refusal to deal with abortion, and other items of concern to social conservatives. Not only does the government refuse to address the injustice of the status quo on such issues, the government refuses to allow anyone else in Parliament to break the silence, and speak for ordinary Canadians.  Mr Szabo’s bill was the latest effort to address the widespread indignation at the anti-family inequities in the current tax code—inequities made even worse by the Liberal’s latest budget. In an eloquent speech in the House of Commons, the Mississauga South MP said his proposal was aimed at recognizing and supporting the family as the foundation of society. He also presented strong evidence of the superiority of traditional child-care arrangements over the day-care situations favoured in Canada’s tax laws.