What is ‘Just Desert’ for Drug Use? As discussed in the first article of this series, there are a few different approaches governments might use to respond to the drug crisis. Until recently, Canadian jurisdictions have focused on combatting drug use through criminalization and incarceration. However, in the past few years, our governments have realized that approach has been relatively ineffective and are instead trying different responses. Instead of incarceration and safe supply, Canadian governments should be focused on treatment and recovery. I will examine each of these options in turn ..read more

Drug users as moral agents        Increasingly, the drug crisis is presented as a health care crisis rather than a criminal one, particularly by proponents of decriminalization. After all, much of the crisis began with prescription opioids in a health care setting. The health care system helps treat drug addiction, particularly medical side effects, overdoses, and various treatment options. In many ways, the issue is related to health care because of the extensive health and social concerns involved in drug use and abuse. But does that mean we should do away ..read more

The Image of God To know how best to tackle the distressing drug crisis in Canada, we first need to have a sense of what justice requires and what (or who) man is. To do so, we need to go right back to Genesis 1: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion ….’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”[1] The Image of God and Human Flourishing The image of God has implications for how people take care of their bodies. At the same time, it points to the need to care for our drug-add ..read more

“If ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions, there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon.”[1] In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the drug soma makes the populace happy and complacent. The government of this dystopia provides it to the people and teaches them to depend on it. If any pain or distress arises, citizens simply need to take soma to escape from the difficulties of reality. But our s ..read more

Some ire has been raised by a directive issued to military chaplains regarding public prayer on Remembrance Day. The government-issued directive states, “While the dimension of prayer may occupy a significant place for some of our members, we do not all pray in the same way; for some, prayer does not play a role in their lives.” Therefore, it says, “it is essential for chaplains to adopt a sensitive and inclusive approach when publicly addressing military members.” Minister of National Defense Bill Blair has made several public statements indicating a reversal of the position, but so far the O ..read more

“Men have no right – no moral right, no positive right, no legal right, and certainly no Charter right – to obtain consent to sex or sexual touching by paying a woman or a girl or any other person to get that consent. In fact, at a societal level, when we tolerate that idea, women and girls are objectified, their bodies are commodified, and communities are harmed. It was open to Parliament to end that practice to the greatest extent possible, and Parliament has decided to do so through the PCEPA.” So argued ARPA Canada’s legal counsel in the Ontario Superior Court last October. A group of acti ..read more

As of March 2024, medically assisted suicide will be available to those with a diagnosed mental illness. Even though that’s half a year away, and a bill is in play in Parliament in an attempt to stop the expansion, doctors are already integrating medical assistance in dying (MAiD) into their patient recommendations. Earlier this summer, a BC woman struggling with suicidal ideation went to the hospital seeking help. In assessing her, the clinician asked if she had considered MAiD. How does this square with World Suicide Prevention Day, which we mark on September 10th? Short answer: it doesn’t ..read more

In Canada, our law protects an individual’s reputation and good name. If you slander someone, they may sue you. While most of us can go about our day without worrying about defamation or libel lawsuits, they do feature in our collective consciousness more than you might think. Defamation cases sometimes dominate the international news cycle. Last year, you couldn’t avoid news of Amber Heard’s defamation suit against her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also live a life laden with libel litigation. These types of cases happen in Canada too – they just create smaller headl ..read more

Activist outrage at small Ontario town for not flying the Pride flag CBC reports a “controversial decision” by the township of Norwich to fly only civic flags (national, provincial, municipal) on the township’s flagpoles and “to no longer fly the Progress Pride flag”. I could not find any CBC report on Norwich’s decision to ever fly the Progress Pride flag in the first place, which was no doubt also controversial. But wait. What, you may wonder, is the Progress Pride flag? Behold: Who is represented here? It’s quicker to say who is not, namely “cisgendered heterosexuals” (pardon my newspeak ..read more

John Sikkema delivered the following as a devotional reflection at ARPA’s 2023 God and Government Conference. The Conference theme was Imago Dei. Let’s read from Romans 6. For context, in Romans 5, Paul was just telling us about how, though all died in Adam, many are made alive and made righteous through Christ by grace. In Romans 6, Paul writes, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried t ..read more