Yorkton-Melville
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Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. Yorkton-Melville |
News Release |
Who Decides What is in the Best Interests of the Child?
For Immediate Delivery
September 26, 1997
Ottawa -- Today, Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. for Yorkton-Melville, renewed a pledge he made to Canadian families in the last Parliament. He re-introduced his parental rights and responsibilities motion. "Parents in seven provinces sent me 87 petitions with the signatures of more than 2,000 citizens who support my initiative. This overwhelming response made it easy to decide which Private Members Motion would be my first to introduce in this new session," said Breitkreuz.
During Question Period, Breitkreuz made the following statement:
"Thousands of concerned parents from all across Canada have been sending me petitions supporting my Private Members Motion to recognize the right, responsibility, and liberty of parents to direct the upbringing of their children and their right to pursue family life free from unnecessary interference from the government. Many parents feel their rights and responsibilities are threatened by the government’s attempts to fully implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - a UN charter that has never been approved in this Parliament. Parents are afraid that their right and responsibility to properly discipline their children is threatened by the direction the Liberal government is taking. They say if the Convention is fully implemented, government bureaucrats and the Courts will have absolute power to determine what is in the best interests of the child and parents will be powerless. The problem seems to be that the government is paying more attention to what bureaucrats and foreign politicians are saying in the United Nations than to what parents are saying here at home."
In addition to the parental rights petitions, Breitkreuz introduced seven others which asked the government to retain the current wording of section 43 of the Criminal Code which provides a defence for parents who use reasonable force to discipline their children. "All they want is for government to affirm the duty of parents to responsibly raise their children according to their own conscience and beliefs," concluded Breitkreuz.
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Note: M-300 has been re-introduced as M-33
Parental Rights Petitions available by calling:
Yorkton: (306) 782-3309
Ottawa: (613) 992-4394