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Zak
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Posts by Zak
New series on religious freedom
Feb 22nd
Maclean’s magazine has launched a new series devoted to debating the federal government’s newly created Office of Religious Freedom.
What’s the proper place of religion in Canada’s foreign policy? Is it in Canada’s national interest to promote religious freedom abroad? Will all religions receive equal protection? Will other types of rights have to take a back seat?
First up is Clifford Orwin who argues for the office because he sees religious coercion as a special case: More >
Ontario government sponsors religious tobacco
Jan 25th
No. There is no difference between tobacco sold by big corporations and tobacco prepared for religious ceremonies.
And yet, the Aboriginal Tobacco Program is sponsored by the Ontario government. Worse, it’s sponsored by Smoke Free Ontario and Cancer Care Ontario, both provincial government agencies working with the ministry of health to prevent cancer.
Since traditional aboriginal tobacco isn’t meant to be smoked in cigarettes I doubt the practice is wide spread enough to be considered a problem on its own. Yet by sponsoring bad science claims like ‘traditional tobacco is a healer’, the government is placing the public at risk. The government has no place protecting specific religious practices, much less dangerous ones and our health officials, if they have any integrity, need to stand up and do their job. Stop sponsoring religious practices, cancel this silly program, and declare all tobacco to be equally dangerous.
God and football
Dec 12th
James Christie writes:
Denver Bronco linebacker Wesley Woodyard said it best: “For all you Tim Tebow haters: you’d better start believing.”
You can’t argue with the 24-year-old Tebow’s success – a factor which could take the devout quarterback and the Broncos all the way to the Super Bowl. He seems too righteous for the tough-guy’s game of American football, with scriptural passages on his personal website, trips in high school to work at his father’s orphanage in the Philippines and professed pride in being a virgin until he marries. In 2009, Tebow appeared in an ad funded by the socially conservative organization Focus on the Family, putting him under fire from the pro-choice set.
Dan Gardner summarizes.
Today, 2,139 people were killed by malaria because God was too busy helping Tim Tebow win another fucking football game.
Face coverings outlawed during citizenship oaths
Dec 12th
“The oath of citizenship is basically a public gesture. It is a public declaration which shows that you are joining the Canadian family and this has to be done freely and openly, not secretly,” Kenney said.
“Separating a group of Canadians or allowing that group to hide their faces while they are becoming members of our community is completely counter to Canada’s commitment to openness and social cohesion.”
The new rules will require women wishing to become Canadian citizens to show their faces at public ceremonies as they swear the oath of citizenship or remain permanent residents.
It seems cruel to welcome immigrants but then ask them to strip before a judge, especially since these public ceremonies are useless. Oaths, if necessary, should be able to be done online, by telephone, or in private.
And if showing your face at a citizenship ceremony is mandatory, what reasons are there not to expand it to everywhere else? Reasonable accommodation is a reoccuring debate within atheist circles but as someone who doesn’t see any need to ban the burqa from our streets, I can’t see why the government can outlaw them during a public ceremony. The new rules aren’t consistent. If banning the burqa is necessary for citizenship oaths, it should be banned everywhere else too.
via Toronto Star
Tough economic times
Dec 2nd
Dan Gardner pushes the case for the elimination of separate schools in Ontario.
On its face, this is absurd. Ask a thousand organizational consultants to create a thousand models for administering education and no one would suggest anything remotely like what Ontario has now.
So the obvious question is this: How much money could we save if we replaced four school systems with one?
I don’t know the answer. In part, that’s because the one school system could take many different forms and savings would vary from one to another. But it’s also because this is a question the province’s political class won’t touch with a remotely controlled bomb-sniffing robot, and so almost no one has attempted to crunch the numbers.
One person who did have a look is Gilles Arpin, a longtime French public school trustee. Arpin assumes that amalgamating school boards, and cutting their overall number to 36, would produce significantly reduced administrative costs. And because schools are, collectively, well below capacity, amalgamation would permit the closure of 10 per cent of elementary schools and five per cent of secondary schools. Net savings to the taxpayer: $1.425 billion a year.
The economic arguments are often overlooked in our battle against separate schools since most activists believe the moral case is strong enough. Yet in an era of deficit-running, governments will be more likely to consider the money issues when looking for the service cuts and duplicated, overlapping school boards and bus routes are a prime example of extra gravy that can be eliminated.
I’ve looked at the numbers Gilles Arpin proposes back when it was presented at the One School System conference last May and while I think the methodology makes too many assumptions to convince elected officials, it’s a good start and can be used to provoke further studies by any politician is looking for a wedge issue.
Religious people still don’t trust atheists
Dec 1st
Another study is released showing religious believers still don’t trust atheists.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon conducted a series of studies that found a deep level of distrust toward those who don’t believe in God, deeming them to be among the least trusted people in the world — despite their growing ranks to an estimated half billion globally. More >
Nate vs Hate
Nov 25th
CFI:Calgary director Nate Phelps is the subject of a documentary that needs your help:
‘Nate vs Hate’ is a documentary about the life of Nate Phelps, the son of Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. Nate escaped the church and family on his 18th birthday, and spent the next few decades adjusting to life and his place in it. This film follows Nate as he travels back home to Topeka for the first time in 30 years. On his arrival he gives an emotional speech to hundreds in Topeka, many from the LGBT community. Later in the film Nate even has an opportunity to confront some of his siblings who are still a part of the church and openly speak out against him.
They’re a long way from their goal and they only have three days to go so cough up if you can. They’re giving out incentives depending on your donation level.
See the film’s website for more information.
h/t Good Atheist
United Church lobbying
Nov 25th
The United Church has sent the prime minister a letter urging the government to rewrite the omnibus crime bill.
The United Church of Canada has urged the government “to reconsider the provisions of Bill C-10 dealing with the imposition of minimum sentences; and to separate the provisions of the omnibus bill to allow for consideration of the potential impacts of its component parts.”
While my position on the bill is irrelevant, it’s important to point out every time religious charities start lobbying because it could mean an end to their charitable status. Registered charities may devote up to 10% of its resources towards political activities so I doubt the United Church is violating any rules this time since a letter doesn’t cost much. Yet, if the Catholic Church wrote a letter urging the government to abolish gay marriage, I’d probably raise a stink so it’s only fair I give the United Church the same treatment. Once churches start devoting more resources (by hiring legal firms, equipping protestors, etc.) they may get close to the limit so they should be flagged an reported to Revenue Canada for investigation.
The real issue is, of course, why religions are automatically given charitable status. Organizations like CFI:Canada and a few humanist groups across Canada are defined as educational charities, much like a library, or under the tricky ‘benefit to the community’ section depending on their mandate. Religions can be granted charitable status simply for promoting the belief in a supreme being and hand out those lucrative tax credits income-earning Canadians crave so much.
CFI:Canada’s identity crisis
Nov 24th
CFI:Canada’s internal struggles are leaking out. Jacob Fortin paints a picture and does a good job explaining some of the history:
Secular organizations in this country have the tendency to implode. Although it’s not clear exactly why this happens, it my have something to do with the fact that people tend not to agree on the best strategy to garner new members. Should we be in everyone’s face? Should we employ a more gentle approach that doesn’t alienate certain groups? While we may not argue over dogma like our religious counterparts, our common disbelief is usually not enough to create a powerful consensus among members. More than likely our differing opinions often polarizes people in two basic camps: Accommodation, and Confrontation.
I don’t think CFI:Canada is facing a crisis as simple as merely accommodationists vs confrontationists but rather between those who want to build on its successes and those who want to take the organization in a new direction. The ‘new direction’ people seem to be winning at this point, so this whole spat is really just an identity crisis as CFI’s supporters decide what to do.
More >
Debating secularism at the school level
Nov 24th
The Toronto school that hosts Muslim prayers doesn’t budge. A community meeting was recently held:
The meeting of about 40 to 50 people was meant as a community discussion, but some attendees were eager to talk about an anonymously printed pamphlet titled “Segregation in Toronto Public Schools” – a reference to the practice of separating boys and girls during prayer sessions.
Gender segregation did indeed dom-inate the two-hour meeting. One middle-aged woman said she was an alumnus of Valley Park and still kept up with Muslim, Jewish and Christian friends from her school days. “I want everybody to grow up together. I want accommodation, but I want those girls up front,” she said.
An older English woman who identified herself as an unwilling veteran of countless school-imposed Lord’s Prayers agreed. “I can’t stand by and watch girls be segregated in a public environment,” she said.
I guess it’s good to see people talking about it. Unfortunately, Canada’s implied separation of church and state isn’t something that can be debated at the school level. Regardless of what parents think, hosting religious services in a public school violates our implied secular clauses, equity laws, and provincial policies which means the board has no choice but to stop the prayers. Let the kids go to their mosques on their own time and dime.
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