PERSONAL PROFILE:



Robert Canales was born in Whittier, California in 1973. He group up in the Whittier area. He attended many of the public schools in the district as he was growing because his family did a lot of moving around. He attended Ocean View and Mulberry Elementary Schools in Whittier and South Ranchito in Pico Rivera. He also briefly attended schools in Norwalk and Inglewood. He then attended Los Nietos Middle School and East Whittier Middle School in Whittier. He briefly attended California High School in East Whittier and graduated from Whittier High School in 1992. Growing up, Mr. Canales was active in the Whittier Boys and Girls club.
Mr. Canales became active in his church in 1991 and was ordained a deacon in early 1992 at the Whittier Seventh Day Adventist Church. His religious beliefs are a very important part of his life and color his views on issues ranging from religion to politics. He is not afraid to admit that the Bible shapes many of his political views while recognizing that some people disagree with him and that some of these people have valid arguments. Hence his strong opposition to partial birth abortion, support for religious freedom, the right to choose, individual choice and responsibility, and his opposition to Proposition 187 which he believes violated God's law which gives everyone the right to seek emergency medical treatment. He also believes that Prop. 187 was a threat to the stability of the American family. Something which the supporters of the initiative apparently did not look at.
After he graduated from Whittier, he enlisted in the Army for a very breif period. After serving for only five months, he was given an uncharacterized discharge. In 1993 he began attending Rio Hondo Community College where he obtained an Associates Degree in Business Administration in 1999. While attending Rio Hondo, Mr. Canales ran for Whittier City Council twice. He also began a major study of the abortion issue and its affects on American society. This research sidetracked him from his studies at Rio Hondo. He read many articles presenting both sides of the debate, listened to television and news reports and discussed it with a couple of hundred women. During this research, Mr. Canales realized that there were several things people on both sides of the debate agreed on although the politicians used the issue to divide the people and for their own selfish political gains. He realized that the best way to start resolving it was to take the federal government out of the issue and out people's bedrooms. He drafted a constitutional amendment to do this, ban public funding of abortion, and allow the states to regulate abortion as they deem to be in the best interests of  their citizens. He believes that we need to committ funds and other resources to determining the personhood of the fetus which he believes science is close to doing. The reason he researched it, was because abortion is just another way of asking the age old question, asked by the Psalmist, "What is man that thou art mindful of him".  How do we define man. He made a discovery which when released has the potential to dramatically alter how we view ourselves as a species.
He also has drafted a religious freedom/equal rights amendment to protect the right of students to pray in school, let states implement voucher programs for poor families, and to ban denial of equal protection under the law on the basis of religion, gender, national origin, ideology, age, disability, and sexual orientation. This comprehensive amendment also addresses other important issues. If it is introduced into the Congress, it will be the most comprehensive amendment so far, clarify the religious freedom and church state seperation, and will be the first amendment to propose constitutional protections for the elderly, the disabled, and people with diverse sexual orientations. He beleives this amendment is important in light of the fact that the US Supreme Court virtually ruled recently that neither the Congress nor the President had any constitutional authority to protect the rights of the elderly and disabled.
He also drafted a amendment to ban all partial birth abortions except in emergencies. His amendment would also bar clinics and doctors from billing the woman, her family, the father, her insurance company or the government for any emergency abortion. If an abortion is absolutely necessary it must be done for free. No one should be allowed to take advantage of a life and death situation.
He has worked at various jobs. He worked at Rio Hondo as a student assistant for a couple of years. He worked for brief period at an AMPM minimart in Whittier. He worked for the Salvation Army in 1998. And his last job was when he worked for the US Census Bureau to verify addresses as they prepared for Census 2000. While he was working at these places, he met many people from diverse walks of life. He learned that one of the biggest problems faced by the nation is the breakup of the family and the decline in moral values.
In January of 1999, he began pondering a run for the US House of Representatives when he realized that the Senate would acquit Clinton just to save their political hides. In the wake of Littleton, and Clinton's blatantly unconstitutional seizure of private land in several states, to create federal parks, without consulting the states nor Congress, he came closer to deciding to run. When Clinton began the unprovoked attack on Yugoslavia, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and openly defied the Congress and American people, Mr. Canales decided that he would seek to represent his district in the US House of Representatives.