The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has outlined topics it is looking to raise with Mark Carney following his election as Canada’s Prime Minister.
Among the organisation’s priorities for the new parliamentary term are issues surrounding euthanasia and the safety of children online.
Carney, the former Bank of England governor who recently replaced Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader, led his side to victory in the national election, but their 169 seats fell three short of a majority in Parliament. The result completes a remarkable turnaround for the liberals who, six months ago, were polling at a distant second to the conservatives.
Challenging euthanasia laws
While the EFC does not comment on election results, its director of public policy, Julia Beazley, told en about some of its highest priority initiatives as the nation’s new parliament takes shape. She said: “We will be calling on Parliament to repeal the law that allows euthanasia when mental illness is the only underlying medical condition. The new government must also respond to the strongly worded remarks by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its recommendation to repeal Track 2 medical assistance in dying (for persons whose death is not reasonably foreseeable), which includes euthanasia for mental illness alone.
“We will also be asking the new government to introduce measures to protect children from harmful content online … Many countries have introduced bills to require age assurance to increase the safety of young people online. It is past time for the Canadian government to require pornography platforms to put meaningful, privacy-compliant age-assurance technologies in place to protect minors from being harmed by their content.”