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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.

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.

As part of fostering a Humanist community, we are adding to the roster of licensed Humanist officiants in Ontario, who are trained to offer meaningful, respectful, non-religious 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 naming. If you have a member interested in becoming an officiant, we would like to connect with them.

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ONTARIO HUMANIST SOCIETY 2012 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

SAVE THE DATE!

We will be hosting our Annual General Meeting in
OWEN SOUND on APRIL 14, 2012
10:00 AM-12:00 PM

Please check our News Blog for updates, or write to us for information. Our AGM committee is planning activities around the AGM itself that will be educational and entertaining.

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President’s Message  2012

Greetings to all OHS members! OHS is starting its third year in existence, and we thank all of you who have renewed your membership in OHS.  I commend you for your commitment to our organized Humanist social movement.  And a warm welcome to web visitors.  If you have an interest in learning about the Humanist philosophy and social movement, we welcome your enquiries, and hope you will join us to add your support to the growth of Humanism in Ontario.

We also want to recognize our accomplishments over the past year, and we look forward to increasing our communication with members to energize our mandate and ideas with action.

On that score, three of our committed volunteers, Ruth Henrich, Cathy Oliver, and Michael Wheeler developed a list of OHS Goals for 2012-2013. We have also developed an OHS Strategic Plan 2012-2013. Both these documents provide a road map for our volunteers going forward.

This year our Ceremonies Committee trained and welcomed several new Humanist officiants,  who are committed to providing Humanist ceremonies for life events, and we thank  OHS member Ken Goldman, a Humanist Canada officiant, for assisting in this training.  In 2011 we welcomed new Ceremonies Committee members Sarah Messenger and Cheri Cowan. We held a successful Ceremonies Committee AGM at the University of Toronto in November, including an open Professional Development programme on a Humanist approach to compassionate care,  death and dying and Humanist Memorials,  which was also attended by Humanist Officiants from other organizations.  OHS Board member Michael Wheeler, and our Humanist Canada colleague Martin Frith contributed to an excellent discussion.

Several board members presented external programs for other Humanist Organisations this year, including speakers Mary Beaty and Michael Wheeler, and Mary and I were invited to speak to students about Humanism for the World Religions course at Durham College.  Board member Mary Beaty also filmed a television segment for the series “Being Human”  for Vision Television,  at the invitation of Humanist Canada.

Our Ethical Action Committee  highlighted events and trends of concern to Humanists this year, from Same Sex Marriage and support for LGBT youth,  to environmental concerns, freedom of speech,  One School System,  and other issues presented on our Facebook Group (‘Ontario Humanist Society’) and on our OHS Blog. OHS Position papers and Statements arising from these issues can be read on the Ethical Actions section. In the spirit of Humanist enquiry, we invite members to continue to bring issues of concern to our attention.

For me, the highlight of the year was presenting our position paper  TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF CREED to the Policy Dialogue hosted by the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the University of Toronto Religion in the Public Sphere Project.  Our paper was selected among many to be read, and will be published in the Association for Canadian Studies Journal. This will provide our Humanist insights relative to human rights and religious accommodation to a significant population developing policy in the Province of Ontario.

Board Changes – We thank all past board members, including Terri and Bob Hope and Ruth Henrich, for their service and contributions – and for organizing our 2012 AGM in Owen Sound in April.  We completed Board elections in December, as per our by-laws. To my surprise, I find myself re-elected as President of the Ontario Humanist Society for another year. This is, of course, a great honour and one which I have found to be both challenging and rewarding. Peter Moller, successfully re-elected continues in the position of Treasurer. I thank him for his experience and attention to detail. We know that the books are well in hand.  Michael Wheeler who was appointed in the last term has now been elected to a full term. He has taken the role of Vice-President and Assistant Treasurer as well as Membership Chair. Don Whitty was also elected to the Board for his first term and he is serving as member at large, as is Mary Beaty. Finally, Cathy Oliver has been appointed to the Board and she is serving as Recording Secretary and Outreach Co-ordinator.

We look forward to an other year of issues and action and dialogue, and hope that you will add your presence to the voice of Humanism in Ontario and in Canadian Society.

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

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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