Without benefits tests for permissive tax exemptions (PTE), municipalities risk funding organizations that only provide services to their members, run commercial operations, exclude and discriminate against people or flout the law. This is exactly what the District of Saanich did at its meeting on Monday, October 25th when this municipal council unanimously voted to renew a PTE to a prosperity gospel church known for equating child disobedience to witchcraft, for preaching homophobia, endorsing and engaging in so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ and for outspoken COVID-19 denial and anti-vaccine rhetoric.

While they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, private schools in BC are excluding LGBTQ2S+ parents, families and staff; teaching creationism and even banning Halloween and school dances, according to our latest analysis.

In the first part of our three-part series, we looked at schools teaching creationism in science classrooms. In the second part, we looked at schools that exclude same sex couples by defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. In this final part, we look at various other bizarre, WTF moments.

While they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, private schools in BC are excluding LGBTQ2S+ parents, families and staff; teaching creationism and even banning Halloween and school dances, according to our latest analysis.

In the first part, we looked at schools teaching creationism in science classrooms. In this second part of our three-part series, we look at schools that exclude same sex couples by defining marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

While they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, private schools in BC are excluding LGBTQ2S+ parents, families and staff, teaching creationism and even banning Halloween and school dances, according to our latest analysis.

In this first part of our three-part series, we look at schools where the teaching of evolution is seen as optional (at best).

If you agree its time to end the private school giveaway, write to your MLA.

It's time for free prescription contraception in BC!

At its most recent meeting, the Board of the BC Humanist Association voted unanimously to lend the organization's support to the AccessBC campaign.

The Government of Canada has declared September 30 to be the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a new national holiday. The Government of BC has not formally made the day a statutory holiday but is commemorating the day and many public services and some private businesses and organizations are closed.

In August, the Board of the BC Humanist Association passed a motion to recognize the day as a holiday and our staff have the day off.

In its response to the province's Budget 2022 consultation, the BCHA is calling on the Government of BC to end the funding of private schools and property tax exemptions for places of worship 

Despite the change in government in 2017, the handout of public funds to private schools has neither decreased nor even slowed down.

Since the BC NDP formed government in 2017, funding increases for private schools have outpaced inflation every year. Further, the total growth in funding for private schools has outpaced the growth in funding for public schools.

As a requirement to show proof of vaccination at many events comes into effect in British Columbia, members of the BC Humanist Association (BCHA) are calling for an end to an exemption for religious events.

A new analysis from the BC Humanist Association shows that nearly three of every four dollars of the over $400 million that the province gives to private schools goes to religious schools; nearly all which are Christian or Catholic. And of the 19.6% of the funding ($83.6 million) that goes to secular private schools, the majority ($44.5 million or 53%) goes to elite schools.