We had a successful AGM on Sunday.

We reviewed some of the highlights of the past year and Colin presented our financial position. Thanks to our generous supporters and members, we've managed to turn our 2014 deficit into a small surplus for 2015!

We said goodbye to Kirsten who is stepped down from the board. With Goldis, she will continue to host the book club though. We also welcomed Anna d'Archangelo and Dan Hanna to the board.

We're looking forward to working with our new board toward an even greater BCHA through 2016.

The BC Humanist Association today submitted its brief to the parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing and proposing amendments to the government's draft medical assistance in dying bill. The brief contains a list of amendments to the bill that would restore the "patient-centred approach" promoted by the Special Joint Committee's report.

The bill has been widely criticized for failing to meet the criteria established by the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Canada's ban on physician-assisted dying. The Court has given Parliament until June 6 before its ruling comes into effect.

By David Dunning, University of Michigan

In the hours since I first sat down to write this piece, my laptop tells me the National Basketball Association has had to deny that it threatened to cancel its 2017 All-Star Game over a new anti-LGBT law in North Carolina – a story repeated by many news sources including the Associated Press. The authenticity of that viral video of a bear chasing a female snowboarder in Japan has been called into question. And, no, Ted Cruz is not married to his third cousin. It’s just one among an onslaught of half-truths and even pants-on-fire lies coming as we rev up for the 2016 American election season.

The longer I study human psychology, the more impressed I am with the rich tapestry of knowledge each of us owns. We each have a brainy weave of facts, figures, rules and stories that allows us to address an astonishing range of everyday challenges. Contemporary research celebrates just how vast, organized, interconnected and durable that knowledge base is.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that our brains overdo it. Not only do they store helpful and essential information, they are also receptive to false belief and misinformation.

By Joseph P. Laycock, Texas State University

Robert Eggers' period horror film “The Witch” has been one of the surprise hits of 2016. It’s even gained a second wind since its February 23 release: the first weekend of April it played on 666 screens around the country, raking in an additional $465,000 USD.

The tale of a Puritan family turning on each other as they attempt to root out the supernatural evil plaguing their farm, the film won Eggers the award for best director at Sundance – and even frightened horror master Stephen King.

But neither of these accolades has generated as much buzz as an endorsement from The Satanic Temple (TST), a satanic political movement that first appeared in 2013.

The BCHA and Canadian Secular Alliance have been granted leave to intervene at the BC Court of Appeal in the case of TWU vs Law Society of BC. This means that secular voices will be at the table, arguing for the limits of freedom of religion when it conflicts with the promotion of a more just and equal society.

This is a huge opportunity for our organization and the broader secular movement in Canada to set a strong precedent to define secularism in Canadian law.

The case will be heard from June 1-3, 2016 and the hearings will be open to the public. We'll share the specifics closer to the date.

I helped out at the Vaisakhi Day celebrations with the Tarksheel Society yesterday. It was an invaluable experience. By noon we had over 100 visitors, and there were many others who gave us the thumbs up on their way by.

I asked one of my co-volunteers and he confirmed that Vaisakhi is more of a Punjabi cultural festival than a Sikh one.

Either way there was lots of good and free food, colourful costumes and wonderful folks to talk to.

The BC Humanist Association, along with the Canadian Secular Alliance, have been granted Leave to Intervene at the BC Court of Appeal in a case over a proposed law school at the Christian Evangelical Trinity Western University. Working together with leading lawyer Tim Dickson, the organizations will bring the voice of the secular movement to this case.

The BC Humanist Association today joined thirty freethought organizations from around the world to call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to recognize people with non-religious philosophical convictions.

The letter, organized by Atheist Alliance International, expresses concern that the Commissioner frequently refers to religious persecution, while not recognizing the threat many atheists, humanists and the non-religious.

During the 2015 federal election, Canada Revenue Agency published an advisory telling charities to censor partisan comments on their website, blogs and social media.

This follows the string of audits of charities' political activities since 2012. While further audits have been cancelled, active audits are still ongoing and the sector-wide chill remains in effect.

At this week's Sunday meeting in Vancouver, BCHA Executive Director Ian Bushfield will elaborate on how these symptoms are part of a system that silences Canada's civil society, including the BC Humanist Association, and how the government could instead encourage free debate.

The Federal Government today tabled legislation that would give some Canadians the right to choose an assisted death.

While the bill adopts some of the important provisions that the BC Humanist Association, Dying With Dignity Canada, the BC Civil Liberties Association and other advocates of choice in dying have called for, the government took a more narrow approach to the issue.