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Basic Rules for Presenting Petitions to Parliament of Canada

Petitions must be in a specific form established by Parliament. The format of the enclosed petition has been approved by the parliamentary Clerk of Petitions. 

1. You must obtain a minimum of 25 signatures showing the home address either in full or the city and province of the persons signing. They do not have to be constituents of the MP presenting the petition.

2. If you wish to obtain more signatures, each new sheet must show the subject matter of the petition

3. MPs may be requested to present a petition (whether they agree with it or not) but are not required to do so. It may be presented by your local MP or any other MP. 

4. An MP may present the petition by making a brief statement about it in the House, In which case the statement is reproduced in Hansard, the written proceedings of the House, or simply by filing it with the Clerk of the House. Ask the MP to present it in the House. 

5. The petition may not be read and no speech may be made but ask the MP to at least state that section 43 allows corporal punishment of children by teachers, parents and those in the place of parents, that the petition asks for repeal, and a brief statement as to why repeal Is requested.

6. A petition may be presented whenever an MP chooses. Ask your MP to send you a copy of Hansard showing his/her presentation of the petition. Follow up if you don't hear within a month of so. Please send a copy to the Repeal 43 Committee. 

7. The Minister of Justice must table a response in the House within 45 days. Ask your MP to send you the response and forward a copy to us ASAP. 

8. When we receive a copy of the Minister's response, we will prepare a reply and send a copy to you, the presenting MP, the Minister, and other interested parties.

Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada
Protection of Persons in Authority, Correction of Child by Force:

"Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing In the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances. R.S.C., 1985, C-46. "

Click here for printable petition (Adobe PDF file)

How to Support Repeal 43

Note: Supreme Court of Canada will hear the constitutional challenge to section 43 on Friday, June 6. This date is about 6 months earlier than expected by counsel for the application.

Thank you for caring about children and helping us to bring them equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination as guaranteed by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Kids are people too!

For further information on Section 43, please visit www.repeal43.org.

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