Justice committee  Well, the argument of orientation was brought up in B.C. in relation to polygamy. This was their orientation. It was a part of the argument—not a major part, but it was part of the argument. This was their orientation, having several wives and that type of lifestyle. On pedophilia, those are just facts.

Justice committee  Those are customs that Canadians have developed. We don't need a law for everything we do. The custom where Canadians feel comfortable having male washrooms and female washrooms, and that people don't go in the other washroom.... It is a Canadian custom. Mind you, people would like to change that, but Canadians have established this custom and they feel comfortable with that.

Justice committee  That would definitely occur if they conflict with parental rights. For example, it's happening in California, I believe. There is an effort to prohibit the counselling of certain GLBT designations to exit those categories and to become what they would think would be more comfortable and more adjusted to their family and societal surroundings.

Justice committee  It has everything to do with—

Justice committee  —our concerns about pedophilia.

Justice committee  Thank you. I can continue, and you can consult our newsletter, if you're interested in—

Justice committee  Yes, I'll continue. Thank you very much. The conference themes were that: Pedophiles are “unfairly stigmatized and demonized” by society “Children are not inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult An adult's desire to have sex with children is “normative” —according to one of the topics of this convention— pedophiles “have feelings of love and romance for children” in the same way adult heterosexuals and homosexuals have romantic feelings for one another “The majority of pedophiles are gentle and [normal] The [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] DSM should “focus on the needs” of the pedophile, and should have “a minimal focus on social control,” rather than obsessing about “the need to protect children”.

Justice committee  I'd like to respond to some of the other statements you made. About the pedophilia, unfortunately, the definitions put forward in the Yogyakarta Principles,which are being brought forward consistently and globally, are often so open that they could apply to anyone having any sexual orientation towards anything.

Justice committee  Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for inviting us before this committee. REAL Women of Canada was federally incorporated in 1983 and is a non-denominational, non-partisan organization of women from all walks of life. We respond to the evidence that the family, consisting of mother, father, and children, is the foundation of society.

Finance committee  We believe it's very good that children be cared for properly. But what's happened in Quebec is the professionals and the higher salaried two-parent families are accessing the system and they could very well provide for the child care needs themselves. It's the lower-income families that probably could benefit from day care and they are apparently not using it.

Finance committee  When we talk about choice, we're talking about funding the parent, so that the parent has choice to either care for their children themselves, put them into institutional government care, or have them cared for by a family member, a neighbour, or a small community day care. This is what we mean by choice.

Finance committee  Our position in terms of funding organizations--and the aboriginal groups get millions of dollars in funding--is that we recommend the government monitor results. Is this leading to an improvement or is this worsening the situation? Because there's very little monitoring--

Finance committee  We believe that funding should be given fairly. But we do recognize the uniqueness of the traditional family.

Finance committee  Well, we believe in fairness, but we do recognize the uniqueness of traditional marriage—mother, father, and children. The lesbian relationship is a relatively new unit in society, and we are very interested in following the social sciences, which will tell us more about these units.

Finance committee  Well, that's being seen very clearly in the funding to women's groups. We have been a women's group since 1983. We applied for funding to the Status of Women, and there are hundreds of women's groups--