Classes have been under a way for about a month and across British Columbia students are building new communities for atheist, skeptic and Humanist. I wanted to give a quick update on where some of the groups are, and how the donations BCHA members made have helped us support them.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

And for the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in the newsletter and in this roundup of all the news which didn't fit within the newsletter are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.

As more and more of our fellow humans fall through the cracks in our social safety nets around the world, the idea that everyone should get a guaranteed basic income is gaining support.

By Matthew Bulger (originally posted on TheHumanist.com)

Today is International Blasphemy Day, a day when millions of atheists, humanists, agnostics, and nontheists are encouraged to openly criticize religious teachings that they disagree with and to protest the continued existence of blasphemy laws around the world.

We believe that all Canadians benefit when governments solicit, collect and use the evidence and expertise needed to make smart policy decisions that safeguard the health, safety and prosperity of Canadians. We support actions that invest in public-interest science; ensure open, honest and timely communication of scientific information; and make public the evidence considered in government decisions.

Through our weekly newsletter, we like to let you know about our upcoming events as well as a number of issues and campaigns that we think might be of interest to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to include in future roundups. Email: [email protected]

And for the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions which appear in the newsletter and in this roundup of all the news which didn't fit within the newsletter are not necessarily shared by all or even most of the members and board of the BC Humanist Association.

A Bishop has told parents that Prince George Catholic Schools will not obey government rules that allow students to consent to getting the HPV vaccine. Rev Stephen Jensen also tells parents "abstinence is the only healthy choice."

The warnings came in a letter from the Bishop that was attached to HPV vaccine permission slips sent home with students.

Religious conservatives argue that doctors and pharmacists should be able to use so-called conscientious objections to refuse their patient's access to abortions, contraceptives, and physician-assisted dying in Canada. We only need to look to our neighbours South of the border to see the harm inflicted by these restrictions on access.

In 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada struck down several of Canada's laws against prostitution. In 2014 the Conservative government introduced new laws making it illegal to purchase sexual services while it remains legal to sell them. In this article (originally published on TheHumanist.com), Clay Farris Naff explores sex work and sex trafficking from a Humanist's view of morality.

By Bennett Collins, University of St Andrews and Alison Watson, University of St Andrews

On July 9, Pope Francis stood in front of a crowd that included indigenous peoples and social activists in Bolivia and asked:

forgiveness not only for the offenses of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.

On September 23 in Washington, DC Pope Francis will canonize Junipero Serra. The Spanish monk may have been called California’s founding father, but he is also seen as responsible for a policy that resulted in widespread violence and abuse against the Ohlone people, as well as others, in his quest to Catholicize the “New World.”

“Many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God,” said Pope Francis in front of his Bolivian audience.

However, is the pope able to recognize that these “grave sins” of the past continue into the present?