Unfortunately circumstances prevented our scheduled speaker from the Metro Vancouver Alliance from speaking with us on Sunday. It did however give me the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive update on what we've been up to as an organization over the past few months.
The most newsworthy update was the BC Supreme Court ruling in favour of the proposed law school at Trinity Western University. There's more information in this post and I'll update you as we learn more.
Finally, just today the Ontario-led provincial consultation on assisted dying released its final report. The expert group's recommendations echo much of what we said in our submission. Read more.
PS Today is the last day to buy tickets for the Winter Solstice Dinner. Reserve yours now.
Meeting podcasts
While I did get a recording of my presentation on Sunday, I haven't had the time to edit and post it yet. I'm hoping to get my discussion of the TWU law school case online tomorrow morning and you'll be able to find it on our SoundCloud channel.
If you haven't yet, listen to last week's speech by John Ince on the political significance of sexuality (note that this episode does contain some explicit content).
Do you experience podcasting? Let me know if you're able to volunteer to help us edit and post audio recordings from our meetings.
Upcoming Events
On Sunday, December 20, 2015, we will hear from Tee Barnett of Charity Science on Effective Altruism.
On Sunday, December 27, 2015, we will watch a video featuring Guy Standing speaking about his book The Precariat: The New, Dangerous Class. Standing explains the situation of growing numbers of skilled and unskilled workers in the developed world who have no job security, no benefits, and are compelled to spend a large part of their free time preparing to compete for fewer and fewer well-paying jobs.
On Sunday, January 3, 2016, we will watch a video featuring Guy Standing speaking on The Precariat Charter. Standing presents a new social contract to deal with the realities of that were discussed in the video shown at the December 27, 2015 Sunday meeting.
BCHA Book Club
The January book club selection is A Fair Country by John Ralston. The meeting will be on Tuesday, January 5, 2015 at Goldis and Kirsten's home. At the beginning of the meeting we will decide on the April 5, 2016 book club selection.
The February book club selection is Believing Bullshit by Stephen Law. The February meeting will be on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at Goldis and Kirsten's home. At the beginning of the meeting, we will decide on the May 3, 2016 book club selection.
The March book club selection is With or Without God by Gretta Vosper. The March meeting will be on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at Goldis and Kirsten's home. At the beginning of the meeting, we will decide on the June 7, 2016 book club selection.
Doors open for our Vancouver meetings at the Oakridge Seniors Centre at 10:00 am for BYO coffee, tea, and socializing. Please help us welcome all attendees by introducing yourself and asking about themselves (if you are comfortable doing that). We want all attendees (and especially first-timers) to feel welcome and part of our Humanist community. At 10:30 am we start our presentation. The meetings take place at the Oakridge Seniors' Centre at the West side of the Oakridge Mall at 41st and Cambie. There is a Canada Line station which exits right into the mall.
Check the BCHA Vancouver Meetup page for more details on the meetings mentioned above and for what we have lined up into November and beyond. Also, please RSVP there, so that Meetup members have an idea of how many people usually attend these meetings. Please be aware that while we do our best to ensure that the scheduled programs go ahead as scheduled here, there are no guarantees and last minute changes may be necessary due to circumstances beyond our control.
Ullrich's away this week so we don't have our usual roundup of interesting news. Instead, check out Secular Lynx's weekly roundup.
For the latest news items, be sure to like the BC Humanists on Facebook and follow @BCHumanist on Twitter.