Human rights & blasphemy laws - Nov 20, 2017 Newsletter - British Columbia Humanist Association

The bill to repeal Canada's blasphemy law has passed the House of Commons justice committee and is on track to become law by the end of this year or early next. While all parties agreed to repeal section 296 (the explicit blasphemy law) of the Criminal Code, MPs decided to amend rather than repeal section 176.

This latter section prohibits disrupting a religious service. Many conservative religious groups lobbied hard to keep it and that effort proved successful as MPs on the committee cited those letters as the reason for their change of heart.

This just shows how much more work we still have to do.

But we're getting there. Last week, I was able to present our petition with over 1000 signatures to add nonreligion to the BC Human Rights Code to the government in person. That meeting went well and you can read our full submission online.

In the meantime, help us continue to build our movement by sharing our updates with any friends or colleagues who might be interested.

Each email we send goes out to more and more supporters. When we launched our new website two years ago, our newsletter went out to 500 people. Today we can reach nearly 2000.

Winter Solstice Dinner

On December 21, 2017, we cordially invite you to join us for our annual Winter Solstice Dinner.

For the second year, our dinner will be held at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts next to Granville Island.

Tickets are $50 and available online.

On our website

News: 1000 for protecting nonreligious rights
News: Justice Committee supports repealing blasphemy law
Podcast: Muju Naeem - From Islam To Atheism

Upcoming events

Saturday, November 25, 2017 at 09:30 AM

Comox Humanists AGM & Flight from reason at Quality Foods meeting room, Courtenay