Athée Canadien
Posts tagged canada
Your last chance to help us win the internets
Jan 19th
Just a quick reminder that you only have one more day to vote for Canadian Atheist as the 2011 Best Religion and Philosophy Blog and Best Collaborative/Multi-Author Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards.
We won the Religion and Philosophy contest last year, let’s hold our title!
An update from Secular Connexion Seculaire
Jan 9th
Last August I introduced Secular Connexion Seculair, another Canadian Humanist organization. Well, after recent troubles in CFI Canada, it may be time to revisit what I then dismissed as another group in an already crowded field.
Well a couple weeks ago I received an update from SCS President Doug Thomas, who brings news about their accomplishments to date.
Hi Ian,
Some time has passed since you reviewed an article about Secular Connexion Séculaire in the K-W Record on canadianatheist.com. Since August 8 we have been active doing the things we set out to do.
Later in August, I spoke to the Liberal Party of Canada caucus regarding our concerns about discrimination in the charitable status regulations in the Income Tax Act and the National Anthem among other things. While this kind of meeting rarely results in immediate action, even if the politicians in question are in power, the people I talked to were surprisingly unaware of our situation and making them aware is a significant step. I note that the recent Liberal policy statement on their website includes a concern that the party needs to recognize the rights of non-believers. No credit claimed, but more voices can sway politicians.
We also emailed every Member of Parliament and every Senator to make them aware of the same issues.
In response to John Baird’s formation of the Office of Religious freedom, we have written him for clarification of his intentions regarding non-believer. This letter (attached) went out just before the winter break in Ottawa, so whether we get a response or not is unknown. The only guarantee is that if we don’t say anything, nothing will happen.
By the way, after investigating charitable status, and receiving a very detailed and reasoned response from one of their people (6 pages – well researched) we have decided not to seek charitable status. Among the limitations this would impose on us are: Lobbying for changes in specific legislation would put the status in jeopardy (e.g. the aforementioned income tax act), and our ability to join and vote in international organizations would be hindered (HC is an associate member of IHEU and has no vote – we want one). We feel that our effectiveness as advocates for atheist rights would be reduced if we were looking over our shoulder to protect our charitable status.
Our activities are now highlighted in the newest iteration of our website on the cycling slides and our new welcoming statement clarifies some issues as well.
I guess we have dragged some old school thinking into the notion that our forum is not really a public media, but a 24/7 plenary session for members:hence the membership fee. Frankly, there are plenty of social media sites out there, including canadianatheist.com that do a fine job of providing open forums. We are looking for the same kind of direction from our membership as one would get from a meeting in a physical locale. Oh yes, we need money too.
As for our comment about not attempting to be a "governing body" for Canadian Humanism, this is a carry over from experiences as a member and director of the Humanist Association of Canada (now HC). A number of people in that organization had a vision that it would act as a central body with local branches. I have no idea whether that is still the case since I left that organization almost a year ago.
In any case, we intend to complement, not duplicate, the activities of other Canadian Humanist groups.
Our contact with local organizations has been spotty, because we adopted the notion that if we actually did something before asking for ongoing support, we would be more credible. That is slowly proving to be true, in the trickling way that atheists support anything in this country.We intend to be much more proactive in our contact with local organizations in the near future.
SCS is definitely not perfect. Our stated goals are somewhat general out of necessity. But, I have no regrets about what we have managed since we started in May of 2011 and I look forward to making further process in 2011.
Thanks for your input and have a great 2012.
Doug Thomas
President
Secular Connexion Séculaire
president@secularconnexion.ca
Sounds interesting. I wish them well.
Feel free to give their website a second glance.
Will the Liberals become republicans?
Jan 8th
After the disastrous results in the past few federal elections, the Liberal Party of Canada is finally doing some soul searching in an attempt to figure out why they exist and what their vision for Canada will be.
A key part of this process will be the policy renewal conference to be held next weekend in Ottawa. There they will debate resolutions on whether to adopt a leadership primary system like the US presidential elections.
Of more interest to readers here though will be a resolution submitted by the Liberal’s youth wing calling for an abolition of the monarchy [pdf]:
Questions remain about the Office of Religious Freedom
Dec 5th
The CBC has obtained some information through access to information laws about the mysterious Office of Religious Freedom that the Harper Conservatives promised during the last election and established quietly.
The released preparatory interview questions show that the government expected concerns that the office would be used for partisan purposes – i.e. to win over with religious and ethnic minorities – and that it may encroach on the (unofficial) separation of church and state in Canada.
CFI Canada: Half-truths and scandal
Nov 25th
There must be something with activist freethinkers where we just love scandal and controversy. Everything from crackers and gelato to elevators and coup d’etats wins over praise and scorn from across the blogosphere. Perhaps its just the nature of blogs or just people, but there’s nothing entirely rational about our need to gossip over every issue. We also love sticking –gate on everything, which is an entirely different rant.
This isn’t to say that every issue is pedantic and unworthy of discussion. Some controversy brings out deeper issues, whether it’s anti-atheist bigotry (and how we deal with it) or our own in-group diversity issues.
I’ve been trying to keep myself from stirring more controversy with CFI Canada over the past year or more, but now it’s just too much and I need to internet rage, so please indulge me (or don’t, there’s many other wonderful sites on the web).
BC Humanists oppose Bill C-10
Nov 1st
At our most recent meeting, I passed around petitions from Leadnow.ca’s campaign to petition the government to reverse its omnibus crime bill, Bill C-10.
You only have to consider the fact that Texas is telling us this law is a bad idea to understand the stupidity that is Bill C-10. The nearly 50,000 word bill seeks to, among many things, impose ineffective mandatory minimums on a number of crimes and calls for tougher treatment of young offenders. The bill will put more people in jail with little effect on the overall crime rate.
I believe that humanist philosophy tells us that we need to base our policy on reason, evidence, and compassion. This proposed bill fails all three of these fundamentals, as it is an ideologically-motivated move to punish crime that doesn’t exist.
Based on these principles, I also asked the members if they would support the BC Humanist Associationsigning the petition as an organization, which was agreed by a majority. Here’s the text that we agreed to:
We want to make Canada safer, and agree that we need changes to our justice system. However, we believe that if the Government’s proposed crime bill, Bill C-10, becomes law then it will take our country in the wrong direction. We call for Bill C-10 to be stopped, and for the Government to establish a commission with diverse citizens and experts to create a 21st century plan for Canadian justice.
United and Unitarian churches have had the lead on humanists for a while. Humanists championed the abortion-rights movement in Canada in the 1960s-80s, but since then we’ve somewhat fallen off the map on social justice issues. Sure, we’re there making fun of fundamentalist Christians who protested gay marriage, but our organizational support was missing.
Hopefully as our movement gets going again, and as we build more communities (just don’t call them churches or PZ Myers will come after you), we’ll start to push for greater societal change. I want to see us tackle more than our standard issues – god in the Charter, prayer in schools, etc. – such as climate change, income inequality, and the right to die.
I realize that endorsing a petition is only a small step, but it’s still an important step to keep our movement growing and diversifying (remember: not everyone wants to talk about how there’s no god every week).
Humanists on TV!
Oct 14th
For those of you who still watch TV through cable, I have good news.
Humanist Canada is taking to the airwaves with a weekly TV series called Being Human (not to be confused with the sci-fi show Being Human, which was based on a BBC series). The show debuts on Monday, October 17th at 1:30PM (EST) on Vision TV. Here’s their description:
Being Human addresses social, political, economic and health topics in a lively talk-show format. Both entertaining and educational, it is produced by Humanist Canada and presents a common-sense perspective on important issues that affect everyone.
Their initial line up has already been announced and sounds pretty good:
Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 – Mary Beaty – A Humanist in Action
Monday, Oct. 24, 2011 – Matt Cherry – International Humanism
Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 – Jason Wiles – Understanding Evolution
Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 - Chris diCarlo – Good and Evil : How science helps us understand human values and actions
Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 – Agathe Gramet-Kedzior – Reproductive choice
Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 – Mike Nickerson – Sustainability: Living on the Earth as if we want to stay
Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 - Suzanne Peters – The Social Determinants of Health
Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 - Chris di Carlo – We are all African – Racism is a human invention
Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 – Keith Garebian – Humanism and the Arts
Being Human follows Pat Robertson’s 700 Club and Vision is the same network that carries James Randi’s old nemesis Peter Popoff.
There’s no official website for the show yet, and Vision doesn’t have anything about it other than the schedule listing. Let’s hope they post episodes online, or else those with cable will have to set their PVRs.
Nearly half of Canadians don’t believe in God
Sep 19th
In addition to the swath of new reality, cop, and comedy shows, there’s a new “news” show coming to Global this fall called Context.
Context promises to discuss “life beyond the headlines” (the quotes are on their Who We Are page), meaning news from a Christian world view. The show is hosted by Evangelical Christian journalist Lorna Dueck, who previously hosted Listen Up.
I was going to go through the Answers provided by Context, or how she responds to her “atheist friends” that science has disproved god but it’s fairly standard Christian mumbo-jumbo. I don’t have the will power to go through it right now, maybe I’ll pick on it later, or you can demolish it in the comments (or if anyone wants to actually read through it all, send it to me and I’ll post it here).
What’s more interesting than picking on another evangelical TV show (which shows at roughly 11:00 AM local across the country), besides the opportunity to crash her set if you’re in Toronto, is the results of the poll that they commissioned to launch their show.
They hired reputable firm Ipsos Reid, who polled 1129 Canadians earlier this month. Among their findings:
- Only 53% of Canadians believe in God. This puts a combined atheist/agnostic/unsure response rate at 47%, the highest ever reported. Worth noting is the 1 in 3 Catholics and nearly 1 in 4 who attend Church service weekly do not believe in God.
- The same number of believers also think religion is a net positive, while the remaining 47% agree that religion does more harm than good.
- Only 29% of Canadians believe in heaven, and only 19% believe in hell. So sticks and carrots aren’t dictating our morality.
- 71% don’t think that religious people are necessarily better citizens – which means sadly that 29% still think atheists are lesser than the rest.
- 64% think religion raises more questions than answers.
- Finally, a slim majority – 51% – do not think “religious practice is an important factor in the moral lives of Canadians.”
I think the TV show is trying to play these results off as demonstrating the need to evangelize more, given their tweets:
Regardless of their thoughts, these numbers show the success of the secular and atheist movements.
Keep it up!
Give early, give often
Aug 26th
Rumour has it that CFI Canada is doing pretty well on their quest to raise $300 000 by the end of the September. You’ll recall that if they reach that target, an anonymous donor is promising an additional $200 000.
This half-a-million dollars will go a long way to supporting freethought in Canada. CFI will obviously benefit, but even smaller groups will gain notoriety from access to the increased resources of a central organization.
For key cities, those with the donor base to support it, physical venues will be established. Every small meetup will have one central location in their town where 100% of the people through the door will be their target audience.
But there’s still a ways to go in this goal.
So think bigger. A one-time donation of $50 or $100 helps, but contributing $25 or more per month can go a long way to ensuring the sustainability of freethought in Canada. Just think of it this way: if you’d donate $5 at a meeting every week to help cover the costs of the space, why not guarantee that money, giving predictability to the budgets of your favourite organization.
And, as an added bonus, every Canadian resident can claim those donations on their taxes. Everyone wins!
Finally, when Canadian atheist organizations have enough money to operate, I can stop pimping out this blog asking you all for money.
Atheists welcome in Canada’s Girl Guides and Boy Scouts
Aug 17th
Guiding and Scouting are an interesting phenomenon.
It was originally designed as a gender-segregated youth training, focussed on physical, mental, and spiritual development. As it was founded in the predominantly Christian times back in 1907 (when non-sectarian was the closest equivalent to modern secularism), everyone was assumed to pledge allegiance to God (and to the monarchy in the British/Commonwealth countries).
With such conservative roots, it’s had a tough time with the inclusion of gays/lesbians and atheists. There’s even an entire Wikipedia article on Scouting controversies.
Hemant Mehta linked to the story of seven-year-old British Brownie Maddie Willett who was forced to quit her group for refusal to profess a love of God. Similar stories are frequent in the USA.
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