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RESOLUTIONS

ELIMINATION OF DEFENCES IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OFFENCES

WHEREAS social research indicates that paedophiles use child pornography, whether depictions of actual children or drawings or paintings of children, to encourage themselves in their unlawful activities and to show to prospective child victims in order to convince the latter that such activities are normal and acceptable;

AND WHEREAS the government has introduced legislation on child pornography whereby it proposes to substitute the defence to a charge of child pornography of "artistic merit" with the defence of "serving the public good";

AND WHEREAS the expression "serving the public good" has been interpreted by the courts to mean that the material has "artistic merit";

AND WHEREAS the substitution "artistic merit" with "serving the public good" as a defence in charges of child pornography continues to provide a loophole or defence against a charge of possessing child pornography;

AND WHEREAS the expressions "serving the public good" and "artistic merit" are vague and inexact expressions, which provide judges with wide discretion to set aside convictions in child pornography cases;

AND WHEREAS all child pornography is dangerous to children, without any redeeming merit;

AND WHEREAS society has a duty and responsibility to protect children from harm and exploitation;

BE IT RESOLVED that the production, possession and distribution of child pornography be completely prohibited and that no defences be permitted.

PROHIBITION OF EMBRYO RESEARCH AND CLONING PROCEDURES

WHEREAS science and medicine have determined that a separate and distinct human life begins at the time of fertilization of an egg and a sperm, which shortly thereafter develops into an embryo;

AND WHEREAS scientists have developed techniques by which an embryo can also be created by way of cloning process;

AND WHEREAS some scientists wish to destroy embryos, whether cloned or otherwise, to harvest their stem cells to provide a genetic match to reduce the chance of rejection when such stem cells are injected for the purposes of supposedly curing disease;

AND WHEREAS all cloning, whether for therapeutic or reproductive purposes, is unacceptable, since it creates a human life that is not protected by our human rights laws, and is used only as a commodity, valuable for its genetic material;

AND WHEREAS all embryo stem-cell research has failed to produce any benefits for human persons or cure any diseases;

AND WHEREAS research involving adult or placental stem cells has resulted in cell tissues and/or organs which, when transplanted into human persons, have been shown to alleviate underlying pathophysiologies;

BE IT RESOLVED that all research on cloning, whether for reproductive or for proposed therapeutic purposes, be prohibited;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all research using embryo stem cells be prohibited;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Canadian government support by way of generous funding, continued research on adult or placenta stem cells only.

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