The British Columbia Humanist Association supports a secular society that affirms:
- the right of every individual to practice any religion or none, free from coercion by the government, private institutions or their community and
- that the state has a duty of religious neutrality, meaning it must neither endorse nor prohibit any belief or non-belief.
Open secularism is the best way to fully guarantee the freedom of religion and conscience of all citizens in a plural society. Secularism is the principle that the government should not privilege or disadvantage any religious or non-religious belief over any other.
We oppose government funding being given preferentially to religious organizations and tax exemptions that only benefit the religious (for example, permissive exemptions for houses of worship or the Clergy Residence Deduction). We call on the federal government to remove "the supremacy of God" from the preamble of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to create a secular national anthem.
Latest news
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· June 12, 2025
Alberta's provincewide review and new standards for school library books, ostensibly aimed at removing “explicit sexual content,” raises troubling questions about the true motivations behind government policy and echoes a significant past legal battle over religious influence in public education.
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News
· April 15, 2025
Today, the British Columbia Humanist Association (BCHA) is marking the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s historic MLQ v Saguenay decision with the release of its latest report, “Prayer Free BC.” This report declares British Columbia to be free of prayer in regular municipal council meetings. This landmark...
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News
· March 21, 2025
Humanists are welcoming today's unanimous BC Court of Appeal ruling that found BC's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) does not infringe the religious freedom rights of two congregations of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
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News
· March 10, 2025
A new bill before the Manitoba legislature would scrap antiquated provisions that permit religious instruction and exercises in public schools.
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· February 10, 2025
On April 15, 2015, the Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada released their decision in Mouvement laïque québécois vs the City of Saguenay. It ended a nearly nine-year battle between atheist Alain Simoneau and the City's Mayor over whether prayers could be said before a municipal council meeting. The...
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News
· February 10, 2025
The Township of Selwyn, Ontario, has agreed to drop prayers from future inaugural council meetings after a request by constitutional lawyer Donald Bur.
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News
· January 06, 2025
In December, a Parliamentary committee recommended Canada end automatic charitable status for religious groups, mirroring recommendations from the BC Humanist Association (BCHA).
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Blog by Ian Bushfield
· October 30, 2024
Lawyers argued over the constitutionality of BC's privacy law at the BC Court of Appeal yesterday in an ongoing dispute between the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC. The BCHA was able to bring the voice of those who've chosen to dissociate from...
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News
· October 22, 2024
The BC Humanist Association has written in opposition to a forthcoming City of Vancouver Council Members' motion, arguing it runs contrary to the spirit of the City's constitutional duty of religious neutrality.
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