Rule of Thumb
Finally, the Senate (of all things!) has caught up to that time honoured excuse for bad parenting - spanking - and declared it no longer worthy of special protection in law. Because what's spanking by any other name? That's right, it's hitting. And hitting is wrong. Parents do not have the right to hit their kids by virtue of a special relationship (i.e. they can) - anymore.
Consistency at last. Now say "thank you" to the nice Senators, kids, and ignore all those family values nuts who will continue to argue for a return to the bad old days when father knew best so hard his hand hurt.
Rule of thumb? That comes from the legal thickness of a stick with which a man could beat his wife back in the old millennium.
It'll take a while yet, but some day people will look back on spanking to exclaim, "Parents who hit their children had special protection under Canadian law to do it?!"
