Good news yesterday for those who support the right of Canadians to die with dignity.

The BC Court of Appeal has upheld the right of Gloria Taylor to have doctors hasten her death.

There is an ongoing debate in the wider, online, Freethought/secular/skeptic community.

While I don’t want to rehash the specifics, name names, or argue the semantics, it does highlight what I consider to be a divide between humanism and mere atheism.

Our recent release attracted some attention of local and national press. Below are some links.

The BCHA issued the following press release after premier Christy Clark admitting to basing some of her decisions on the Bible.

While Humanism doesn’t technically qualify as a faith (i.e. a belief based on no evidence or in spite of the evidence), the BC Humanist Association was featured in yesterday’s edition of The Province on their Sunday Faith feature.

In my view of humanism, compassion and a desire to minimize harm serve as human moral foundations.

It is for this reason, I consider Gloria Taylor and the BC Civil Liberties Association’s victory in the BC Supreme Court to be a profoundly good thing. The ruling strikes down a ban on doctor-assisted dying.

On 30 May 2012, long-time local humanist Dr. Ernest Poser passed away. Glenn Hardie provided a few brief words in his honour at our June 3rd Sunday morning meeting.

In response to an extended article about a church meeting on Granville Island, Glenn Hardie wrote a letter to the Vancouver Courier that was published last week.

This past weekend, around 250 atheists, agnostics, humanists, heretics, freethinkers, and apostates gathered at the Kamloops Convention Centre for more than 2 days of heresy and community building. The entire event was a rousing success, thanks to the tireless efforts of Bill and Kathy Ligertwood of the Kamloops Centre for Rational Thought.

I’ll give a brief overview of each of the presentations below, in program order.

Last night was our Annual General Meeting. We had a good turnout and I want to thank everyone who came out and congratulate our new Board of Directors: Alan Byers, Crystal Catudal, Eric Damer, Mclean Edwards, Kathy Leavens, Heather McDonald, and myself.