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We are a group of Ontario-based Humanists with a passion for social justice and human rights, who have established a provincially-based organization to complement the work of Humanist Canada and local Humanist groups.
If you are concerned with Human and Civil Rights issues in secular society, such as Pro-choice, One School System, Equal Marriage, Gender issues, Dying with Dignity, Environmental justice, Science education, Intellectual Freedom and other progressive issues, we may be able to connect you with other volunteers, speakers and organizations. See our WELCOME page for more information, and also our Facebook Group, Ontario Humanist Society.
(The full statement may also be downloaded from Position Papers)
STATEMENT RE ENBRIDGE NORTHERN GATEWAY PROJECT REVIEW
“Humanism ventures to build a world on the idea of the free person responsible to society, and recognises our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world.” Amsterdam Declaration of the World Humanist Congress, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), 2002
In keeping with the above statement from the IHEU, the Ontario Humanist Society takes the position that Canadians have an ethical responsibility to preserve the integrity of our environment and the natural resources on which Canadians rely to maintain human well-being and life itself.
On that account, we have grave concerns about the environmental impact of further oil sands development and the effects it would have on human communities as well as natural resources, wilderness spaces and animals in the wild.
There is no doubt that the Gateway Project is not independent of future oil sands development that will increase the risk of deterioration to these elements and the ultimate disappearance of same. Therefore, we urge the federal government to include the environmental impact of further oil sands development in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Review.
We also call on the federal government to maintain an arm’s length position from the hearings by avoiding distracting and destructive rhetoric that confuses the issues and the process. In so doing, the federal government would facilitate the ability of the Review Panel to conduct their hearings independently with a view to fulfilling their mandate and their obligations to the Canadian people.
The people of Canada expect the federal government to put first and foremost the protection of our commonwealth, our natural resources, animal species, land, air and water from harm and degradation. The first obligation of the Canadian government is to the people of Canada.
Dr. Gail McCabe, President
Ontario Humanist Society
January 24, 2012
Egale Canada > Open Letter to Justice Minister.
(Thanks to Chris for passing this on)
Open Letter to the Justice Minister regarding swift action to resolve the recent uncertainty regarding the legal validity of same-sex marriages performed in Canada between non-residents. January 16th, 2012
Dear Attorney General:
I would like offer you my sincere thanks and commend you on your swift action to resolve the recent uncertainty regarding the legal validity of same-sex marriages performed in Canada between non-residents. I appreciate the empathy and understanding you have conveyed for the thousands of lesbian and gay couples around the world who were married in Canada and who rely on the legal validity of their marriages to acquire rights and relationship recognition in their countries of residence.
It is my hope that the process of resolving this matter may serve as an opportunity to open dialogue and build a productive relationship between the Government of Canada and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community. Already, we have convened a working group of legal experts in family law and human rights who are prepared to offer constructive measures to expeditiously resolve the legal issues with effective and appropriate solutions. In our view, the complexities unquestionably include the impediment posed in the form of the Divorce Act’s 12-month residency to efficacious dissolution of marriages performed in Canada and a statutory clarification of the validity of Canadian marriages of non-residents. We hope that the Government will move swiftly to correct these problems.
As discussed in my two previous letters to you, dated 11 May and 3 October 2011, Canada is also currently facing the question of how to recognize same-sex relationships solemnized in countries that have chosen different methods of conferring legal recognition. This, too, has caused great distress and anxiety among some same-sex couples.
Helen Kennedy
Executive Director, Egale Canada
FROM PEN CANADA: Friday, January 27, 2012, at 7pm at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St.
PEN Writer-in-Exile committee member and author of ‘Prisoner of Tehran‘, Marina Nemat, will be interviewed onstage as part of CBC’s Canada Reads ongoing events. Nemat will be talking about her life growing-up in Iran as well as bringing attention to two compelling and urgent cases of fellow Evin prisoners, Saeed Malekpour and Hamid Ghassemi-Shall. Please show your support and solidarity by stopping by.
CANADA: Opposition Builds to New “Tar Sands” Pipeline – IPS ipsnews.net.
MONTREAL, Jan 17, 2012 (IPS) – As public hearings began earlier this month into a controversial pipeline that would transport crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to tankers along the coast of British Columbia, environmental groups and First Nations communities have raised staunch opposition to the project, which they say puts both the environment and their traditional way of life at risk.
“The consensus is that there really are no benefits to us on the coast, and that the potential negative impacts could be devastating,” said Art Sterritt, the executive director of British Columbia’s Coastal First Nations, a group of 10 First Nations communities whose territory extends almost two-thirds the length of B.C.’s Pacific coast.
“We rely on that ocean area for our sustenance, for our work, for everything. The coast as we know it, with one (oil) spill, would cease to exist. All the clam beds, cockle beds and shellfish beds that we depend on on the coast – that really have been the foundation of our culture – they would be wiped out,” Sterritt told IPS.
The 5.5-billion-dollar “Northern Gateway Pipelines” project, which would be carried out by Canada’s largest natural gas distribution company, Enbridge, aims to transport over 525,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Albertan tar sands to the B.C. coast.
Challenging publicly funded Catholic education in Ontario.
(thanks to Kevin for posting this on FB!)
Ontario Catholic students fighting for equality in schools are closely watching a constitutional challenge against the publicly funded Catholic education system that was recently launched by a Toronto woman.
Reva Landau, a non-practising lawyer, filed the case with the attorney general in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in December. She says the Supreme Court should take another look at its previous decisions.
Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic school system is the relic of a deal that was struck with Quebec at confederation. Quebec no longer funds religious schools.
“So the other party [Quebec] has withdrawn from the great historic compromise,” says Landau. “The argument to continue funding the separate school board is gone. I think this should be reconsidered because it is so out of tune with the way things are today. The Charter of Rights says there should be no discrimination.”
Landau says giving aid to one religious institution that is not equally available to others violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She says there is also “appalling” inequity and “blatant discrimination” in the Catholic board’s hiring practices for teachers.
“Catholic teachers in Ontario can get a job in both school systems, Catholic and secular. Non-Catholic teachers can only apply for jobs in the secular school system,” she says. “A non-Catholic teacher can apply for a job in the Catholic system, but they have a legal right to discriminate. About 30 percent of the teaching jobs in Ontario are in the Catholic separate system; that’s a huge burden for teachers to bear.”
Schools are forcing a religion onto teachers, she says, or forcing teachers to lie.
Furthermore, Landau adds that gay-straight alliances (GSAs), or any student group that supports queer youth, are banned in Ontario Catholic schools.
Keystone pipeline proposal rejected by U.S. government – thestar.com.
OTTAWA — The White House has rejected plans for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to move Alberta oil sands crude to American refineries.
U.S. President Barack Obama denied TransCanada Corp.’s application to build the pipeline, citing a “rushed and arbitrary deadline” imposed by Congress to review the project.
‘This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people,’ Obama said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke with Obama earlier Wednesday, likely a courtesy call to give the federal government — a big proponent of the project — advance notice of U.S. intentions.
‘The President explained that the decision was not a decision on the merits of the project and that it was without prejudice, meaning that TransCanada is free to re-apply,’ the prime minister’s office said.
Harper expressed his ‘profound disappointment’ at the decision and said he hoped it would proceed “given the significant contribution it would make to jobs and economic growth” in both countries.
Harper also pointedly said that Canada “will continue to work to diversify its energy exports.
The Board of the Ontario Humanist Society, and the Ethical Action Committee have issued a statement reaffirming our commitment to equal treatment for all Canadians regarding rights to marriage and divorce in Canada. This statement OHS SameSexMarriagePolicy may also be downloaded from our Ethical Action and Policies section
The Ontario Humanist Society (OHS) , a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), notes some recent questions of clarity concerning the rights of same sex couples who have been married in Canada, but who may be resident in countries or jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is not currently available.
We trust that this matter has been, or will soon be, fully resolved by the government of Canada, so that there is no more confusion about the rights of such couples to enjoy the same legal protections regarding marriage and divorce available to all couples who are married in Canada. We also trust that there will be timely communication to all Canadians on this matter, to resolve any perception of unequal treatment.
In light of these events, however, we feel moved to restate our full and non-equivocal support for equal treatment for all couples regarding family and matrimonial law in Canada.
THEREFORE
The Ontario Humanist Society (OHS),
reminded
that the basic right to equal marriage has been established in Ontario following the June 10, 2003 Ontario Court of Appeal decision making same-sex marriages legal in Ontario,
reaffirms
Humanism’s long established support of equal rights for all persons, regardless of gender or sexual affiliation,
and states
our firm support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on the rights of marriage and divorce:
UDHR Article 16.
* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
As Canada is a signatory to the UDHR, and to other instruments and treaties guaranteeing freedoms and basic rights to all persons, we state unequivocally that the same rights regarding marriage, divorce, and family law shall apply equally to all persons in Canada.
Gail McCabe, President
Ontario Humanist Society
January 13, 2011
On Monday, January 30th at 7PM the Central Ontario Humanists will have Dr. Vincent DiNorcia talk about how our brains does the miraculous things that it does, and how the structure of our brain affects who we are and how we behave. We meet at the Barrie Public Library in the Angus Ross Room. Guests are welcome, and your first three meetings are free.
Doors open at 6:30, and the presentation starts promptly at 7 PM. As is our tradition, we will be meeting for dinner and discussion at 5 PM at Swiss Chalet on Bayfield St. Anyone is welcome to come. If you have any questions about our pre-meeting dinner, please email me and ask.
About the topic: The brain’s ‘job’ is to enable and control everything an organism does. But how exactly does the brain control so many complex tasks so well and so seamlessly every second of every day? Vincent will explain that it is the brain’s dynamic communication capabilities that explain how these processes work and why you can teach an old dog new tricks, namely how adult humans and other organisms have practical intelligences, social capabilities, and he will deal with the question of artificial persons.
About the speaker: Dr. Vincent DiNorcia has a PhD in Philosophy and is widely published on a range of topics, specializing in business/technology ethics. Most recently his article in the current Nov/Dec issues of Philosophy Now, “Ethics & The Brain” is available at Chapters if supplies have lasted. Also, he is a long time member and repeat speaker for the Central Ontario Humanists.
This Year’s Meeting Dates
The 2012 schedule for the Central Ontario Humanists is now available. After many requests we are changing our meeting day to the first Monday of the month. On the occasion where we couldn’t book the first Monday of the month the adjustment is shown in brackets.
Monday, January 30* [Last Monday of January]
Monday, March 5
Monday, April 2
Monday, May 7
Monday, June 4
Summer Solstice will be sometime August/July
Volunteers
If you would like to help run the day to day operations of the group, we’d love to have you help out on occasion. For example, having someone volunteer to help record who comes each day would be a great benefit. Contact Shawn at shawn@cohumanists.ca if you would like to volunteer on occasion.
The Humanist Association of London and Area has published a new issue of Enlightenment for January 2012. Please download and read it here:
Enlightenment 35
Highlights of the issue include:
- Aging with Optimism by Goldwin Emerson
- Review of The Swerve by Steven Greenblatt
- Information on the HALA meeting in February, which features Meg Westley, president of Dying with Dignity Canada.
Ottawa affirms legality of same-sex marriages performed in Canada – The Globe and Mail.
The federal government has quelled a growing controversy with a declaration that all same-sex marriages performed in Canada are legal.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson issued a statement on Friday that reversed his department’s earlier position that same-sex marriages performed in Canada are legal only if they are accepted as such in the home country of the marriage partners.
He said that a “legislative gap” that caused the confusion will be closed.
“The confusion and pain resulting from this gap is completely unfair to those who are affected,” Mr. Nicholson said. “I want to make it clear that, in the government’s view, those marriages are legal.”
His statement was a source of relief to same-sex couples who feared that, not only might they be unable to divorce because of a one-year residency requirement, but that their marriages were invalid. Many had lost faith in a country they had considered a beacon of social justice for gays.
“Oh my God, this is a wonderful turn of events for everybody,” said Brendan Fay, a New Yorker who came to Canada to marry his partner several years ago. “It restores confidence and trust in the Canadian government.
Mr. Nicholson blamed the former Liberal government for the problem, because, when it legalized same-sex marriage, it did not address the fact that the residency requirement was destined to leave thousands of couples unable to divorce. Former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler responded that it did not stick out as a serious potential problem.
Martha McCarthy, a lawyer for the lesbian couple whose Toronto divorce application has turned into a test case, said that Mr. Nicholson’s statement has assuaged her concern.
“Everyone who was panicked by the news yesterday can relax and forget all about the uncertainty of the last 24 hours,” Ms. McCarthy said. “You are all still married.”
Despite legal about-face, Harper has ‘no intention’ of reopening same-sex marriage – The Globe and Mail.
The Harper government has served notice that thousands of same-sex couples who flocked to Canada from abroad since 2004 to get married are not legally wed.
But speaking in Halifax Thursday, the Prime Minister said the issue was not on the agenda for his majority Conservatives. “We have no intention of further re-opening or opening this issue,” Stephen Harper told reporters when asked about The Globe and Mail’s report.
The reversal of federal policy is revealed in a document filed in a Toronto test case launched recently by a lesbian couple seeking a divorce. Wed in Toronto in 2005, the couple have been told they cannot divorce because they were never really married – a Department of Justice lawyer says their marriage is not legal in Canada since they could not have lawfully wed in Florida or England, where the two partners reside.
“In terms of the specifics of the story this morning, I will admit to you that I am not aware of the details,” Mr. Harper said. “This I gather is a case before the courts where Canadian lawyers have taken a particular position based on the law and I will be asking officials to provide me more details”
The government’s hard line has cast sudden doubt on the rights and legal status of couples who wed in Canada after a series of court decisions opened the floodgates to same-sex marriage. The mechanics of determining issues such as tax status, employment benefits and immigration have been thrown into legal limbo.
Write for Rights: Your help is needed to close Guantanamo.
Amnesty Canada is still looking for Canadians to sign the petition to close Gitmo, in advance of Obama’s state of the Union address.
Your voice is urgently needed to end human rights abuses at the notorious detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Like you, we can’t believe it’s still open, still making a mockery of human rights. Ten years on from those first detainees arriving in the aftermath of 9/11, more than 150 people still remain in captivity. Most are in indefinite detention without charge or trial.
President Obama has already broken his promise to close Guantánamo, and he recently signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows horrific detention provisions. The US government needs to meet its human rights obligations.
Ten years is simply too long – your voice is needed to end a decade of damage to human rights.Will you sign our petition today? We will deliver it to President Obama before his 2012 State of the Union address.
Human Rights and Wrongs Jan 13 2012.
Human rights and wrongs:
Religion and creed in the public sphere
1:30 – 2:30 pm
Fri Jan 13, 2012
U of T Multi-Faith Centre
569 Spadina Ave
For Directions http://www.multifaith.utoronto.ca/Contact-Us–Book-Space.htm#Directions
Contesting the boundaries for the expression and accommodation of religious/creed belief and practice in the public sphere with:
Prof. Richard Moon, Faculty of Law, University of Windsor, past President of the Canadian Law and Society Association.
Prof. Iain Benson, Senior Associate Counsel with the Litigation Practice Group and Senior Research Fellow with the Chester Ronning Centre for t
Human Rights, Religion, and the Law.
(Note: Gail McCabe will be presenting a brief on Humanism and equal treatment with regard to religion, to the Ontario Human Rights commission at this conference. )
All are welcome to join an engaging evening exploring whether religion can be defined in law and the Canadian social and historical trends that inform our understanding of law, religion and human rights.
When: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Refreshments at 6:30 pm
Lecture at 7:30 pm
Where: U of T Multi-Faith Centre
1st Floor Auditorium
569 Spadina Ave
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2J7
Directions
https://www.multifaith.utoronto.ca/Contact-Us–Book-Space.htm#Directions
With
Winnifred Sullivan, Director of the Law, Religion and Culture Program, University of Buffalo, the State University of New York, &
David Seljak, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, University of Waterloo.
Opening remarks by Barbara Hall, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Pamela Klassen, Director of the Religion in the Public Sphere program in the Department of the Study of Religion, University of Toronto.
The event is free, please register below if you are planning on attending.
Notice of the next HAO (Humanist Association of Ottawa) meeting:
Date: 13th January, 2011
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Dovercourt Recreation Centre
411 Dovercourt Ave., Ottawa, ON
Speaker: Agathe Gramet-Kedzior, M.S.W. Acting Executive Director, Canadians for Choice will speak on the Harper government’s policy on reproductive rights. All Welcome!
Regina adds funding for religious schools | Holy Post | National Post.
Saskatchewan is extending public education funding to independent schools, including private, religious-based schools, highlighting divergence in what “public education” means across Canada.
The move puts it alongside British Columbia and Alberta, but far from Atlantic Canada and Ontario, where the idea sank the electoral prospects of the Tory party in 2007.
Saskatchewan’s plan, to take effect next school year, offers funding of 50% of the provincial per-student average to independent schools that comply with certain criteria.
The province’s Ministry of Education says to qualify, independent schools must employ only certified teachers; implement the provincial curriculum; operate as an incorporated non-profit organization; permit inspection by ministry officials; and comply with ministry policy and
Schools that could benefit include two that opened this fall: the Islamic Academy of Saskatchewan, where up to 40% of class time is spent in religious studies taught in Arabic; and Mother Teresa Middle School of Regina, which uses “Jesuit philosophies, models and teaching methods.”
Another possible beneficiary is the Saskatoon Seventh-day Adventist Christian School, which features daily prayer and Bible study, and “Christ-centred educational materials.”
Independent — mainly religious — schools seem increasingly popular in Saskatchewan, expanding to more than 20 despite the previous lack of government funding.
Large Hadron Collider finds new variant of particle .
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), famously engaged in the quest for the Higgs boson, has turned up a heavier variant of a sub-atomic particle first discovered a quarter-century ago, scientists reported on Thursday.
The newcomer is called Chi-b(3P), which was uncovered in the debris from colliding protons, according to research published in the open-access online journal arxiv.
Like the elusive Higgs and the photon, it is a boson, meaning it is a particle that carries force. But while the Higgs is not believed to be made of smaller particles, the Chi-b(3) comprises two relatively heavy particles, the beauty quark and its antiquark.
They are bonded by the so-called “strong” force which also causes the atomic nucleus to stick together.
The Chi-b(3P) is a heavier version of a particle that was first observed around 25 years ago. “The Chi-b(3P) is a particle that was predicted by many theorists, but was not observed at previous experiments,” said James Walder, a British physicist quoted by the University of Birmingham in a press release….
On December 13, physicists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said they had narrowed the search for the Higgs — the so-called “God particle” that may confer mass.
The theory behind the Higgs is that mass does not derive from particles themselves. Instead, it comes from a boson that interacts strongly with some particles but less, if at all, with others…
“Our new measurements are a great way to test theoretical calculations of the forces that act on fundamental particles, and will move us a step closer to understanding how the Universe is held together,” said Miram Watson, a British research fellow working on the CHi-b(3) investigation.
The Vision TV series Being Human will be rebroadcast starting this Monday, December 19. The first episode features our own Mary Beaty. The nine episodes will air Mondays at 1:30 pm eastern time (10:30 am pacific).
Win! Ajax Ontario becomes a Blue Community.
(Hurrah for Ajax – and their adoption of the Right To Water and supporting publicly owned water systems!)
The Council of Canadians is pleased to learn that the Town of Ajax has passed a resolution banning bottled water, recognizing water as a human right and promoting publicly owned and operated water and wastewater systems.
Ajax is the fourth community in Canada and second in Ontario to adopt the project launched by the Council of Canadians and Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The community adopted the resolutions after receiving a letter from 13-year old water warrior, Robyn Hamlyn who was inspired to take action after seeing the film Blue Gold, featuring the work of Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow. The young activist has contacted dozens of municipalities across in Ontario and is speaking at city council meetings throughout the province.
The Council of Canadians thanks Robyn for her wonderful work and congratulates the town of Ajax on taking this important step.
Encourage your municipality to become a Blue Community! To find out more, visit: http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/Blue_Communities/index.html
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