BCHA Research Coordinator Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff provides an update on some of our upcoming research and how you can get involved. Volunteer Donate Join

In June 2023, Chilliwack Progress Editor Paul Henderson was fired for tweets criticizing those offering little more than "thoughts and prayers" in response to the near-drowning of a local child. In this presentation for the BC Humanist Association, Paul speaks about his firing and his time covering the religious right in the Fraser Valley. Read mor…

CONTENT NOTE: Parts of this discussion touch on child abuse and suicide. Perry Bulwer is the author of Misguided: My Jesus Freak Life in a Doomsday Cult. Misguided is a unique first-hand account of a life spent in the Children of God, a/k/a The Family, a millenarian doomsday sex cult under the sway of a charismatic leader, David Berg. In 1972, Perr…

Bettianne Hedges of Humanist Canada hosts Leslie Rosenblood from Centre for Inquiry Canada alongside Teale Phelps Bondaroff and Ian Bushfield of the BC Humanist Association, who will discuss the many ways Canada still tangibly privileges religion and its institutions over similar non-theistic organizations. Just a few policy choices cost Canadians …

Join Megan Sheldon of Be Ceremonial as we explore the foundations of ceremony, including how we can create our own rituals to acknowledge times of change in life, death, and everything in between. You will learn how to craft a ritual, design a ceremony, and mark the seemingly invisible moments that often go unnoticed in our society. There will be a…

Despite decades of calls to action, our emissions are not on a path to stave off a horrific future for our children and future generations.The BC Climate Emergency Campaign is a group of civil society organizations, anxious about the climate emergency, who are collaborating to increase the ambition of climate policy and action in BC. We are not a f…

Despite a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that prayers at municipal council meetings are unconstitutional, multiple communities across British Columbia still opened their 2022 inaugural council meetings with a prayer. This is a recording of a discussion about prayers with BCHA Research Coordinator Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff where he explores our…

The Government of British Columbia's Master Agreement with religious healthcare facilities allows some hospitals to 'opt-out' of providing patients with procedures that they're legally entitled too. This means your right to MAID or an abortion is subject to the whims of Catholic Bishops and not the rule of law. Find out about the history of religio…

The Canadian constitution does not have a formal establishment clause separating church and state as the USA does, so can Canada be considered a secular country? In this presentation, BC Humanist Association Executive Director Ian Bushfield will argue that Canada’s unique legal and political history, coupled with a forward-looking Charter of Rights…

The BCHA team discusses its newly released report: Open for Unconstitutional Business. Read the full report Donate to our year end fundraiser

In honour of Black History Month 2022 (February), we hosted “Black in British Columbia: Resilience and Erasure” presented by Kathleen Johnson (founder of the Facebook group “Critical Black Thought Society” and Alberta Representative for Humanist Canada) This talk was recorded February 22, 2022 via Zoom Kathleen shared a look at how Black settlers c…

The Government of British Columbia gives hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools in the province. Our new research shows that the overwhelming majority of these schools are for the religious or economic elites. In this talk, BCHA Executive Director Ian Bushfield and Policy Research Adriana Thom will detail where this money goes, what the…

This is a recording of a live event held in collaboration with Nonreligion in a Complex Future in March 2021.

This is a recording of a live event held in March 2021, in which our research team breaks down the BCHA's latest report on tax exemptions.

This is the recording of an event originally held on Zoom in February 2021.

This panel was originally held live on Zoom on November 5, 2020.

This is the final section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For more information about end of life, including healthcare, advance care planning, legacy projects and emotional support, plea…

This is the first section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For more information about end of life, including healthcare, advance care planning, legacy projects and emotional support, plea…

This is the third section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For more information about end of life, including healthcare, advance care planning, legacy projects and emotional support, plea…

This is the second section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For more information about end of life, including healthcare, advance care planning, legacy projects and emotional support, ple…

This is the first section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) and living with the death of a loved one, or simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For more information about end of life, including healthcare, advance care planning, legacy projects and emotional support, plea…

This is a recording of an event originally held live on Zoom.

This is final section of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please r…

This is part eight of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read…

This is part seven of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read…

This is part six of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read o…

This is part five of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read …

This is part four of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read …

This is part three of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read…

This is part two of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read o…

This is part one of our guide for anyone non-religious (humanist, atheist, agnostic) preparing for their own, or witnessing a loved one at the end of their life. This guide is also for those who are simply interested in learning more about the humanist perspective of life & death. For information and support about experiencing a loss, please read o…

This event was originally held live on Zoom on August 13, 2020.

In the wake of George Floyd's murder, mass protests and calls to action across the globe have cast a light on critical issues of systemic racial discrimination and dehumanization. In a continuation of our lecture series taking a humanist look at systemic racism and criminal justice, our presenter Corey Clay focuses in this talk on how racial dehuma…

From the Research Desk is a regular check in with our executive director, Ian Bushfield on some of the current projects that our campaigns teams are working on. This talk, recorded on June 5, 2020, is on some of our work on private schools in British Columbia. We've previously documented the background of their funding model, shown that everyone ap…

From the Research Desk is a regular check in with our research team, Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff and Ian Bushfield, on some of the current projects that our campaigns teams are working on. This talk was broadcast on May 15, 2020. In this talk, Ian & Teale talk about our work on charity law. Watch the video of this talk Join or Donate to the BC Humani…

Introducing a new virtual program from the BC Humanist Association. From the Research Desk is a weekly check in with our research coordinator, Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff, on some of the current projects that our campaigns teams are working on. Our first broadcast was on Friday, April 3, 2020. In this talk, Teale talks about our findings on the use o…

At the end of November, MLAs voted unanimously to begin every day's sitting of the BC Legislature with "prayers and reflections" rather than "prayers." The change followed the publication in September of the BC Humanist Association's landmark House of Prayers Report. The Report examined the transcripts of 873 prayers said in the legislature between…

Furquan Gehlan is currently Co-Chair of the Vancouver chapter of Canadian Peace Initiative and is also on the board of the Global Alliance for Ministries and infrastructures for peace. From 2013 to 2019 he was the National Co-chair of Canadian Peace Initiative. He is currently chapter coordinator for World BEYOND War’s Metro Vancouver chapter and i…

Via wikipedia: David Barsamian (born 1945) is an Armenian-American radio broadcaster, writer, and the founder and director of Alternative Radio, a Boulder, Colorado-based syndicated weekly public affairs program heard on some 250 radio stations worldwide. David spoke at the Vancouver Humanists Sunday meeting on October 20, 2019. Photo by Shahen boo…

AccessBC are a group of young people from around British Columbia who are concerned with removing barriers to accessing prescription contraception. Visit https://www.accessbc.org/Bree is a multi-disciplinary activist originally hailing from Dartmouth, NS. Trans-spectrum, chronically ill, queer, disabled, and experiencing poverty, Bree’s primary foc…

THE GWANGJU TRAGEDY AND HOW SOUTH KOREA BECAME A DEMOCRACY(Via Wikipedia) In May 1980, peaceful demonstrations took place in Gwangju against Chun Doo-hwan, leader of the South Korean military coup d'état of December 12, 1979. The demonstrations were suppressed by military forces, including elite units of the Special Operations Command. The situatio…

Apologies for the poor audio quality in this recording.Charlotte Ross is a nurse who recently completed her PhD Thesis in SFU's Department of Health Sciences. Her research looked at substance use practices among nurses across Western Canada.Her work highlights the prevalence of AA or 12-Step based practices, despite participants disagreements with …

Boris Reitman runs the local Atheism Q&A meetup and has a background in philosophy. In this talk he will talk about his group and give one of his presentations on the origins of Judaism.To learn more about the BC Humanist Association visit https://www.bchumanist.caBy BC Humanist Association

Lisa Shapiro is a professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University.She heads New Narratives in the History of Philosophy, which aims to develop new narratives of our philosophical past that centrally include women thinkers, and thereby to reconfigure, enrich and reinvigorate the philosophical canon, focusing on the early modern period (roughly 15…

Are some animals more equal than others? SFU Professor Arne Mooers expands on his recent piece in The Conversation to look at the philosophy and ethics underlying efforts at conservation. https://theconversation.com/losing-some-species-may-matter-more-than-losing-others-108337By BC Humanist Association

Bethany Lindsay is a CBC news reporter and former biologist. In 2018, she published investigations into bogus medical claims being made online, the lack of oversight of alternative medicines and BC chiropractors who promoted anti-vaccine messaging.She previously worked for the Vancouver Sun, North Shore News and CTV. She is the author of British Co…

Laura is a human rights lawyer and the Director of Education in Community Legal Assistance Society's Human Rights Clinic. She advocates on behalf of people who have experienced discrimination and assists complainants to navigate BC’s human rights process. Laura also has a strong interest in making legal knowledge accessible. She delivers workshops …

Nathanael Lauster is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UBC and author of the award-winning book, The Death and Life of the Single Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City (Temple University Press). His book and work investigate the regulatory power attached to the house and its impact on the shape and inhabitability of N…

2018 saw the end of Canada's blasphemy law, the rejection of TWU's law school and an easing of restrictions on charities' free speech. Building off this momentum, Humanists and secularists in British Columbia have the opportunity to make significant gains in 2019. Ian Bushfield, executive director of the BC Humanist Association, will outline some o…

Ian Waddell is a Canadian politician, author and filmmaker who served in the House of Commons from 1979 to 1993 and in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1996 to 2001. Currently, Waddell is a documentary film producer and a consultant in environmental and aboriginal affairs. In December 2013 he was appointed the honorary title of Que…