Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC)
Your humanist community for scientific, skeptical, secular, and rational inquiry.
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During CFI Canada’s monitoring of public health concerns such as anti-vaccination proponents, we often encounter pseudo-scientific claims and fears from people who either ignore or don’t understand the science behind vaccination and immunization. However, we’ve lately also noticed an increase in the troubling incursion of religion in this area of public health and healthcare.
Centre For Inquiry Canada continues to develop forward-thinking relationships to provide support and assistance for Canadian and international secular humanists. On December 22, 2014, Kevin Smith (Chair of the Board of Directors) and Eric Adriaans (National Executive Director) invited Eric Thomas (President of Humanist Canada) to participate in CFI Canada’s second meeting with Ambassador Andrew Bennett of Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom (ORF).
CFI Canada and Humanist Canada (HC) share many concerns regarding the welfare and human rights of atheists, humanists and secular humanists. Eric Thomas, of HC commented: “it was evident that collective and concerted effort towards the development of “human dignity” on the international stage is a shared objective. The Humanist Canada focus on an inclusive perspective as part of its educational mandate is well served by participating with the Office of Religious Freedom led by Ambassador Bennett. We are committed to the development of new venues as active partners. The Humanist Canada Board and its national membership sincerely appreciate the opportunity to participate.
CFIC had previously met with Ambassador Bennett in the Spring of 2013 to discuss the mandate of the ORF and CFIC’s position that atheists and non-believers must be provided the same protections as religious minorities when facing persecution by religious governmental regimes. Since that meeting, CFIC has been pleased to observe Ambassador Bennett’s support of CFI’s work to support Raif Badawi at the United Nations Human Rights Council (CFI Transnational’s Michael DeDora advocacy work of June 2014) as well as his comments on the subject of freedom from religion:
Another CFI Canada Member Inquiry to protect Canadians from pseudoscience in healthcare
Criminal Code Section 296
Ontario’s publicly funded religious education system has been cited by the UN as discriminatory