A group of prostitutes are bringing a case in the courts against Canada’s laws on prostitution. The women want  the courts to strike down prohibitions against living off the avails of prostitution, communicating with potential clients and setting up brothels.

The courts must decide whether the current law is proportionate to its purpose, or whether it forces prostitutes into unsafe situations where they can  become easy prey of deviants and serial killers.

Do thecurrent laws target women and put women in more danger?

Should prostitution be legal?

What do you think?

At the eleventh hour in  Saturday’s health care debate the issue of abortion raised its ugly head.  The Catholic bishops told lawmakers that if any federal money was used to subsidize private or public health care plans that provided abortions, they could not support the bill.  This threw conservative democrats into a tizzy.  They checked with their bishops and got the same answer.  No federal money for abortions.  Under this unrelenting pressure, Nancy Pelosi caved.  She allowed an amendment to be brought to the floor outlawing federal money for abortions.

Commentators on both sides of the aisle agreed this wAS the biggest setback for the pro=choice forces in years.  One woman democrat elected from Colorado said ‘this is the greatest restriction on a woman’d right tyo choose in our careers.”

Should the Catholic bishops have intervened in this debate?

Should the pro=choice forces try to reverse this abortion restriction in the final bill?

What do you think?

Yesterday, on the largest American military base in the world, a uniformed officer shot and killed a dozen people and wounded 31 others.  Apparently the shooter was a Muslim and an army psychiatrist who had often denounced the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan  and dreaded ther idea of being forced to go himself.

If the US cannot protrect its soldiers on its own bases where can it p-rotect them ?  Furthermore just the other day in Af;ghanistan a rogue Afghan officer murdered six British troops.

Shouold we – military and civilians – give up more of our freedom so that our safety can be better assured?

Is there a co- relation between safety and freedom?

What do you think?

Municipalities across Canada are now beginning to demand that new public housing tenants give up smoking at home.  Peel region  took this a step further by proposing that all multi unit dwellings in Ontario be declared smoke free whether they are privately owned or not.  ad for your health

But should not government benefits like public housing be distributed fairly based on need not personal habits.

On the other hand, smoking is bad for your health.

Should not governments restrict it wherever they can.

What do you think?

The Obama government has just announced a tough new pay policy whereby companies owned by the government like AIG and GM must drastically slash the compensation for their top-earning executives.   Com pensation for the top 175 executives will be slashed by up to 90 percent and they will receive part of their pay in company stock so that it can be tied to performance.

Some compamies like AIG object that other companies are now trying to seduce their top executives away where they can earn much bigger salaries. 

This morning the Globe and Mailnom,ic writes that “this ever-deepening government intervention in corporate management is a dangerous solution for the companies involved, and sets a frightening precedent for the regimes other economic mnagement policies.”

Is this control of  salaries good politics but bad economics?

Should not the  market place set exeutive  compensation?

What do you think?

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I am off to Peterborough today for a family wedding.  Back

This morning the Globe and Mail argues “this ever-deepening government management

Today at Wembley Stadium in London there is a race pitting a man – a star rugby player – aginst Monty, a 60kg Canadian timber wolf.  They will race for 40m. to see which is faster – man or beast.

An English animal rights group is demanding the race be cancelled. They say the race will prove nothing  and will onlhy perpetuate the4 breeding and confinement of wild animals in captivity’

The race is being promoted by a company that sells footwear.   Another animal rights guy says anyone wondering how fast a Canadian wolf can run should go to Canada or watch a wild-life program on TV.

Remember when Ben Johnson raced a horse a few years back.

Do you see anything wrong with a race pitting a man against a Canadian wolf?

The Pope has announced a project to attract disaffected Anglican s – those who oppose female priests in their own church and also oppose openly gay bishops.

The pope has created a new structure in which Anglicans could defect en masse and retain some of their own  liturgy like the Book of Common Prayer.  Anglican married priests could function as Catholic priests priests.  Catholic priests, however, would continue to be celibate/ 

Some observers think that upwards of half a million Anglicans could be affected.

Do you see this move as an attempt by the Vatican to encourage mass Anglican conversions perhpas to offset world-wide defections from he Catholic church?

Do you see this as poaching?

What do you think?

Should gender equality prevail over, say, freedom of speech or religion?

If some prominent commentators in Quebec, various lobby groups and the Parti Quebecois had their way charters of rights and freedoms would amended so that gender rights would trup all other rights. 

What has brought this to the fore right now is somer mermbers of Montreal’s Hassidic community.  When applying for a motor permit, they requested a n instructor of their own gender for their practi al driving test.  The driving permit people said they woul try to accomodate them when they could..This was also supported byh Quebec’s Human Rights Commission.  However theQuebec Council of Women said that women’s rights were at stake in the driving test matter and it reitertated its stand on the priority of women’s rights over all other rights. 

Is a e a hierarchyright is a right is a right?

Or should there be a hierarchy of rights?

And should women’s rights be at the top?

What do you thin k?

A Colorado family  that reported their six-year-old son was trapped inside a balloon are being questioned again today amid rumours the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

On an appearance o n CNN the boy’s father asked him why he didn\t come out of the attic when his name was called.  Falcon, the boy, replied that “you guys said that we did this for the show.”  The father said he had no idea why his son responded that way.

The local sherriff says investigators still believe the family really thought Falconer had crawled into the balloon before it floated away from their home in Colorado.

Do you believe the family?

Or do you think the whole thing was a stunt to get publicity and money? 

e

The biggest vaccination campaign in Canadians history is on its way against the H1N1 flu.  Much media coverage makes it clear the disease is deadly and the vaccine is safe.

Yet many Canadians are not sure whether or not they want to be vaccinated.  They argue the flu is not as bad as the publicity suggests, the Prime Minister said he was in no hurry to be vaccinated, and Health Canada does not seem to be in any rush to get the vaccine out.  Britain is dealing with the same problem.  Up to one half of general practioners and one-third of British nurses say they don’t plan to be vaccinated at all.  Many of them say the flu vaccine has no been adequately tested.

So what do you think?

Do you plan to be vaccinated?

Should all Canadians be vaccinated?