Humanism is a philosophy of life based on reason, compassion, and hope.

Our new Humanist Action campaign seeks to put those values into action by coordinating charitable fundraisers, community cleanups, and other good works, as suggested by our members.

Today, the BC Humanist Association has responded to two consultations on how physician-assisted dying will be legalized in Canada. We are calling on the federal, provincial, and territorial governments of Canada to take a leadership role and ensure that safeguards for physician-assisted deaths do not unjustly impede access. Read our news release and response below and please respond to the consultations.

People who are suffering must not have their freedom to choose a humane and compassionate death restricted by religions who see suffering as virtuous and life as a gift from God. Our lives are our own. We must make sure the voices of reason and compassion are heard.

This morning The Vancouver Sun published our letter regarding Trinity Western University's proposed law school. Our letter was in response to an opinion article by Barry W. Bussey, Director, Legal Affairs, at the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. Read our letter below and make sure to share it.

While a private university, TWU has received several million dollars in government grants in recent years. We support the Law Society of BC's decision not to recognize TWU's law school and call on the provincial and federal governments to stop spending public money on a discriminatory organization. You can read the BCHA's position on the proposed TWU law school here.

Most Canadian doctors support requiring physicians to refer patients who with to hasten their death to a colleague, independent third party, or medical administrator, even while most doctors would personally refuse to assist a terminally ill patient's death, according to a survey by the Canadian Medical Association of its members.

The BC Supreme Court begins hearing today into whether Trinity Western University, an evangelical private university, should be able to accredit lawyers. TWU requires all students to sign a community covenant which prohibits sex outside a heterosexual marriage, thereby excluding gay and lesbian students as well as non-Christians.

Several Christian schools have the lowest HPV vaccination rates among their Grade 9 students in the Fraser Health region, according to a report in the Vancouver Sun. The Sun obtained vaccination records for schools in the region which covers Burnaby to Hope. Just 61% of Grade 9 girls received the vaccine in 2013-2014. Six of the nine schools reporting Grade 9 HPV vaccination rates below 25% were Christian.

Following a string of brutal “machete” murders of Bangladeshi writers, all of whom had blogged about humanism, secularism, and atheist critiques of religion, a ground-breaking open letter today calls on the Bangladeshi government to stop “victim-blaming” the bloggers, and instead focus on catching the extremists who are murdering them.

A British Islamist has been arrested in Bangladesh for the organizing the recent spate of murders of Humanists there.

All of the provinces and territories (except Quebec) have come together to launch a panel on assisted dying. This is good news, as the Ontario-led panel is already more credible than the one announced by the federal government earlier this year.

Read more on Dying With Dignity’s website.

British Columbia was one of the first jurisdictions in North America to introduce a carbon tax and has committed to aggressive targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. More action is needed to reach those targets and the Government recently released a consultation asking for input on what it’s priorities and strategies should be to reach those targets.