Our arguments from Ottawa - Dec 4, 2017 Newsletter - British Columbia Humanist Association

I just got back from my week in Ottawa last night. There I was supporting our lawyers in our intervention at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Throughout the two days of hearings, I provided a running commentary from our Twitter account and did Facebook live recaps with our legal team.

You can find all of that content, along with the webcast of Wes McMillan, our lead counsel, arguing before the court on our website.

We can never know in advance what way a court will go. That said, I was encouraged by the fact many judges, particularly Justice Rosalie Abella, were engaged with the issues we planned to raise, namely whether a law school can even claim to have religious rights. No lower court has yet considered these questions in their decisions.

There's no timeline for when the Court will make its decision, though it will almost certainly be before June 15, 2018 which is the last day retiring Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin is able to contribute to a decision.

What this shows is that our efforts are being paid attention to. We were only able to do this, however, with generous pro-bono support and donations from dozens of you. Please read our 2018 case for support and consider making a donation to our year end campaign if you haven't yet.

To everyone who's supported our work thus far: Thank you.

Winter Solstice Dinner

There are only about a dozen tickets left for our Winter Solstice dinner. If you're hoping to attend, please make sure to purchase yours soon!

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.

I know a couple people have had issues with the online payment system this year. I'm still trying to sort that out but if you are having issues, let me know by email and either bring a cheque to one of our events or I can process a purchase over the phone.