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Welcome

The way we see it . . .

Humanism is a non-religious ethical philosophy, a way of life and a way of thinking, that involves adherence to strong ethics, an emphasis on human rights and respect for the Earth and its creatures. A Humanist works toward creating a more humane and responsible world, with a commitment to reason and compassion.

And who are we?

We are a group of Ontario-based Humanists with a passion for social justice,  human rights, environmental action, science, reason, and artistic expression, who have established a provincially-based organization to complement the work of Humanist Canada and local Humanist groups.

Here is our MISSION STATEMENT

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.  You are also welcome to join our Facebook Group; Ontario Humanist Society.

Please let us know if you’d like to start a new Humanist group in your area, or would like information about ‘growing’ your current group. We would like to support you.   For information on secular charities and humanist volunteering and activism, see “HumanismHelps.org“.

As part of fostering a Humanist community, from time to time, we seek to add to the roster of licensed Humanist officiants in Ontario, who are trained to offer meaningful, respectful, non-religious ceremonies and rites of passage to the public. Our aim is to train an OHS officiant for every local association, so Humanists across Ontario will be able to access secular weddings, funeral and memorial services and child namings, as well as compassionate visiting and other services. If you have a member interested in becoming an officiant, we would like to connect with them.

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ONTARIO HUMANIST SOCIETY 2013 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

SAVE THE DATE!

We will be hosting our Annual General Meeting in TORONTO on April 13/14 2013.  More information to follow.

The THEME of the 2013 meeting is “Humanism Helps“.  Please see our new website: “HumanismHelps.org”  as well as the Humanism Helps page on this site.

Please check our OHS News Blog for updates, or write to us for information.

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President’s Message  Fall, 2012
I’m pleased to report that OHS is flourishing as well on many fronts.  We have increased our membership and programs, and are actively looking for members who would like to assist in our growth.
Our Ceremonies Program is flourishing with 19 officiants appointed to our program and licensed by the Province of Ontario to solemnize marriages.  We are looking forward to training additional Officiant candidates early in November.  Our goal is to provide OHS Humanist Officiants across the province, so if local associations have a member who is interested in our program, we encourage them to contact us.
As always, our Ethical Action Committee is posting ethical concerns on our websites and blogs and writing policy and position statements.  All policy and position statements are accessible on our website as well as relevant letters written by our members and others at .  We encourage you to visit the site and take an active role by joining the Committee, providing ethical action alerts and sending us your letters for posting to our site.
Our newest program endeavor, Humanism Helps is designed to promote volunteer work for social justice and other issues of concern to Humanists.  It has evolved from the create minds of Outreach Co-ordinator, Cathy Oliver and Webmaster, Mary Beaty.  I hope all of you and  other Humanists will visit the site; learn about the program; and offer suggestions, and volunteer to build this initiative.  This program opens a space for contributing to society in many ways: through the good works that we can contribute to Ontario’s communities and residents; and in making the case that Humanists are contributing to society, which will counteract the discourse that suggests that Humanists, atheists, agnostics, skeptics and the like are immoral parasites!  We can do it! You can do it! Let’s do it!
Like any social movement, Humanism requires active support from its constituents.  We have many objectives and aspirations for OHS to contribute to Humanism,  but we are limited by the number of members who are willing to be active in contributing their time, ingenuity and energy to OHS.  Our organization relies entirely on volunteers and we need more of them!!  So consider how you might contribute to our cause because our cause is your cause!  And contact us through our website or on our Facebook pages.

Gail McCabe PhD RSSW
President, Ontario Humanist Society
president@ontariohumanists.ca
Toll Free 1-877-343-7323

What’s New??

Raising the volume on Humanist Action Issues in Ontario

 

Welcome OHS members, freethinking inquirers and web surfers!  As a relatively new association, we are working very hard to develop our web presence and beyond that promoting issues that are significant to Humanists in Ontario and across the globe.  Our aim is to reflect Humanist perspectives on social, political and ethical issues; to ensure that Humanists weigh in on the dialogues and debates that arise in our province.

For that purpose, we have added links on OHS NEWS leading to ‘Action Issues’ and ‘Position Papers’.  Of course, we have yet to develop all of these positions because no one individual can represent the totality of Humanist perspectives on these issues.  Nor have we developed strategies on the many issues that are of significance to Humanists.  For us to accomplish those issues, we must gather many Humanist voices to do the writing and add to our knowledge base. We begin with an issue identified by our members as particularly significant in the Province of Ontario – public funding to faith-based schools.

Our position on this key issue is available now at ‘Position Papers’. We have begun the process of distributing the statement to a range of groups and individuals, so the Humanist voice can be heard in the debates that will be an inevitable part of the upcoming provincial election in Ontario. For example, on March 12, Kevin Saldanha, an OHS member, President of the Halton Peel Humanist Community and a newly minted director of the Humanist Association of Canada took our statement to an Open Public Hearing addressing the Education Task Force of the Ontario New Democratic Party on the question of religious funding for education in the Province of Ontario at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto.  Kevin spoke to the meeting on our behalf representing OHS and Humanists in Ontario.  He has also been active on the One School System Network at www.onessn.org. For those of you with an interest in this issue, you can contact Kevin at hphc@humanist.ca.

We ask all of you to get active by writing to your MP and by holding politicians accountable for the misuse of public funds to support what are private and personal concerns.  If you want to take our statement further in the public sphere, please acknowledge the authorship of the Ontario Humanist Society.  We will be uploading tools to the ‘Action Issues’ webpage for you to use in order to get the word out.

Stage 2  … Depending on the resources we can muster, we will want to take positions on other Action Issues such as the right to die, human rights for disadvantaged groups and individuals, and reform of the electoral system (proportional representation).   For a list of other significant issues that have been identified by us, visit the Action Issues web page.

You, taking action … One of the issues on our list may spark your passions, your interest, your creative energy … if you write, we need writers … if you are a speaker, we need speakers.  And we need them throughout the province.  Ideally, we want local humanist groups to join us and speak out so that like-minded people will join us at the local, provincial and national level.  As one of our members says, one can have many Humanist associations.  Yes, you can!

Gail McCabe

President, Ontario Humanist Society