Latest Announcements

Sandra Dunham

I first learned of CFIC when I saw an advertisement for the position of “Executive Director of Development” in the early summer of 2017. I had just left full-time employment to pursue a better work-life balance and set up a small business to work with non-profits and charities to help them achieve their goals. I made a commitment to do work that was meaningful to me. 

At that time, I had never heard the term humanist. But as I read the ad and researched The Centre for Inquiry Canada, I became increasingly aware that I was a humanist and that the goals of CFIC were very closely aligned with my own. I began work as a contractor for CFIC in the fall of 2017, and through that experience, I have learned an amazing number of things and met some truly exceptional people.  

Now, it is time for me to move on to the next phase of life – retirement. I will while away my hours on the many hobbies that my flexible working life has allowed me to pursue; playing bridge (if you enjoy games and like constant mental stimulation, I recommend you find lessons and see whether you also enjoy the game), practicing yoga, curling, riding my bike, and participating in a myriad of other outdoor winter and summer activities.

It saddens me to leave CFIC. When I am working with others at CFIC, I am sure to have interesting, candid conversations that are always engaging and allow me to grow.  I am sure that I will continue to follow CFIC, and I hope to continue to contribute articles to Critical Links, as I simply have too much to say to stay quiet. However, I shall be stepping down as a paid contractor.

What are my best memories and favourite projects of CFIC? (Note that these can change on a daily basis.)

• In the summer of 2021, I participated in a meeting of the communications committee from a campsite on PEI. There, the idea of a podcast arose (thanks to Lee Shields, who nudged us in this direction). Always over-cautious, I demanded that we have a pilot project and that we not launch the podcast until we had 6 episodes recorded. I was SURE that we would run out of topics and people to interview. Now, 5 years later, Podcast for Inquiry (PFI) is always interesting and informative. Way to go, Leslie and team!
• The Cost of Religion in Canada was a multi-year, multi-article investigation into the financial cost of religious privilege in Canada. As a “numbers nerd,” I was fascinated to quantify the cost. I admit, I also learned a tremendous amount about manipulating a massive data set in Excel. 
• The evolution of Critical Links has been great to be involved with as well. I especially enjoyed changing our platform from one long-running newsletter (which ran until October 2020) to a series of articles with links to our website, which began in November of the same year. Not only did this make Critical Links easier to read, but it also means that each separate article can be found using our search engine.
• Being a part of CFIC during the pandemic was a rewarding experience. We were able to provide lots of information about COVID-19 and to offer people webinars and entertainment that helped us fill our days. I especially enjoyed our “Magical Solstice Celebration 2020” featuring our own James Alan.

Mostly, however, I enjoyed meeting and hearing from the people who make up CFIC. You are an amazing group to have a “real” conversation with, to explore meaningful topics with and to share in our goal of making Canada a better place to live. Thank you.

Richard G. L. Thain, DDS

Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC) is seeking volunteers to assist during the upcoming World Humanist Congress.

We are looking for volunteers to serve as walking tour guides on Friday, August 7. This is an excellent opportunity to act as Canadian secular ambassadors and welcome our international colleagues attending the Congress.

Volunteers do not need to be historians or prepare their own presentations. We will provide background text, talking points, route maps, and suggested commentary for the tours.

The walking tours will be approximately one hour in length, with the possibility of offering a shorter version for participants with limited mobility.

Tours are expected to run between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (ET) on Friday, August 7.

Centre for Inquiry Canada is also seeking volunteers to assist at the CFIC display table during the Congress.

If you, or someone you know, would like to participate in this interesting volunteer opportunity, please contact us as soon as possible.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact CFIC. You may also contact Humanists Ottawa at contact@humanistottawa.ca.

We look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your support.

Leslie Rosenblood

Religion on census needs a rework, group says 

Humanist organization argues question’s framing leads to an overestimation of the number of religious Canadians.

JOHN LONGHURST 

DID you get the long form of the census? If you did, then you are among the 25 percent of Canadians who had a chance to tell the government about your religious identity. 

The federal government has been collecting information about religion in Canada since 1871; it’s one of the oldest efforts to track religion in the world. 

Since that time, the religious landscape in Canada has changed a lot. Up until the 1960s, the country was mainly Christian, with small numbers of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Canadians. 

The 2026 census lists over 200 religious groups, just over half of them Protestant and Catholic. The rest are from a wide variety of other religious traditions, including six streams of Buddhism, 10 different Jewish groups, seven kinds of Islam and five different forms of Indigenous spirituality. People can also choose from Wiccan, Satanist, Rastafarian and New Age groups, among others. 

Until this year, the census included a question about religion every 10 years. 

But it was included in the 2026 census for the first time. Why the change? One reason is the rapid growth of minority religions. The number of Canadians who are Muslim, Sikh and Hindu was six per cent of the population in 2011; by the 2021 census, the last time it was measured, it was over nine per cent. That figure is expected to be much higher now due to immigration. 

Another reason is the dramatic rise in the number of Canadians who say they have no religion on the census — the so-called “nones.” They made up more than 29 percent of Canadians in 2011 and more than 34 percent 10 years later in 2021. Scholars who study religion in Canada think that the number could be as high as 40 percent now. 

That change will be of interest to religious leaders and to scholars who study religion. But who else cares if increasing numbers of Canadians are leaving religion? 

One sector that cares is the charitable sector. Research in Canada consistently shows that the more religious someone is, the more they volunteer and give to charity. Any decrease in the number of people who say they are religious will impact groups that serve the most vulnerable in Canada and around the world — a downturn in donations will, in turn, affect governments that are increasingly relying on charities to provide services to people in need. 

While the religion question has been around for a long time, and provides a snapshot about changes to the religious landscape over the decades, not everyone is happy with the way it is framed. That includes the Centre for Inquiry, one of Canada’s leading humanist organizations. 

The way the long form census poses the question is like this:

“What is this person’s religion? Indicate a specific denomination or religion, even if this person is not currently a practising member of that group.” 

The centre thinks the second half of the question skews the answer, resulting in an overestimation of how many people in Canada are actually religious. 

If you aren’t actually practising a religion, the centre says — if you aren’t attending a place of worship, for example, or donating to help others because of your faith or following religious tenets in other practical ways — can you really say you are religious? 

That’s the view of Leslie Rosenblood, the secular chair for the centre. If someone isn’t actually practising a religion, “they should say they have no religion” when answering that question, he said. Otherwise, they are just choosing the religion they were raised in, instead of representing their current status as a non-religious person. 

Because of the way the question is written, Rosenblood said we don’t really know how many non-religious people there are in Canada. “It could be by a million people, or 10 million people,” he said, adding that the wording of the question means that “membership in religious groups is overstated.” 

Rosenblood isn’t advocating for the question to be eliminated. He understands why it is important for governments and researchers to use the same query in order to compare results decade over decade. He would just like it to be more accurate. 

And that, he said, can be accomplished by changing the question to reflect a person’s current state. For example, it could ask if they currently identify with a religion, or just simply replace the phrase “even if this person is not currently a practising member” with another question: “Are you currently a practising member of whatever you selected?” 

Rosenblood hopes the 2031 census will reflect that change. In the meantime, they hope people who filled it out this year answered it truthfully. “If people are non-practising of any faith or denomination, we hope they were honest,” he said. “If you haven’t been inside a temple or mosque or church in years, I hope they chose no religion.” 

But what’s the advantage of having a more accurate idea about how many people in Canada are religious? 

“If the number of religious people is exaggerated because of the language used in this question, decisions will continue to be made that favour religiosity,” Rosenblood said, noting the government and businesses use the census data to create policy, plan programs, and make business decisions. 

At the same time, accurately reflecting the extent of non-belief in Canada “will give atheist, agnostic, non-believing, freethinking and spiritual- but-not-religious Canadians the representation they deserve to influence public policy and decision making in the coming decade,” he added. 

faith@freepress.mb.ca

Members of the Manitoba Sikh community celebrate at the Nagar Kirtan parade in downtown Winnipeg on Sunday, September 3, 2023. The number of Canadians who are Sikh, Muslim or Hindu has grown rapidly in the past decade. 

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES 

Copyright (c)2026 Winnipeg Free Press, Edition 5/30/2026

VANCOUVER / OTTAWA — May 12, 2026 — The British Columbia Humanist Association (BCHA), Humanist Canada, and Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC) are calling on the federal government to uphold the state’s duty of religious neutrality in response to renewed efforts by the Catholic Church to influence medical assistance in dying (MAID) policy.

The organizations are responding to a public letter from the Archbishop of Toronto to the Prime Minister, which urged the government to block the planned extension of MAID eligibility to those with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition. This follows a pattern of lobbying from religious institutions seeking to impose theological restrictions on public healthcare.

Decisions regarding MAID eligibility, including for mental health difficulties, should be based on clinical expertise, legal precedents, and the lived experience of patients. When the voices of religious organizations are given equal or greater weight than those of medical professionals and human rights experts, the integrity of our secular democracy is undermined.

The humanist coalition reminds the government that the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Carter v Canada established that the right to a dignified death is a fundamental aspect of liberty and security of the person. Furthermore, the coalition highlights that religious interference is not just a matter of policy debate, but a practical barrier currently preventing patients from accessing care in publicly funded facilities.

“The state has a constitutional duty to remain neutral on matters of religion,” said Ian Bushfield, Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association. “We already see the harm caused when religious hospitals are permitted to unjustifiably deny a patient’s right to access MAID. This is why the BCHA is intervening in the O’Neill case: to defend the principle that public healthcare must be governed by the Charter, not by the vestigial religious dogmas of the institutions providing that care.”

Janalee Morris, Executive Director of Humanist Canada, emphasized the importance of compassion and evidence-based policy. “Access to MAID for those with mental illness is about treating all forms of irremediable suffering with equal dignity. We cannot allow religious lobby groups to re-marginalize patients by suggesting their suffering is less deserving of the full range of legal medical options. Compassion means listening to the patient, not the pulpit.”

The groups also noted that the ongoing delays in expanding MAID eligibility have already caused prolonged distress for many Canadians, exacerbated by the “institutional conscientious objection” practiced by denominational facilities.

“The Supreme Court was clear: The choice of how to end one’s life belongs to the individual,” said Edan Tasca, President of the Centre for Inquiry Canada. “By entertaining these religiously motivated appeals, the government risks undermining the secular foundation of our healthcare system. We call on the government to prioritize the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms over the pressure of religious institutions that continue to obstruct lawful medical care.”

BCHA, Humanist Canada, and CFIC remain committed to ensuring that healthcare decisions remain a matter between patients and their medical providers, free from the shadow of religious interference.

About the Organizations:

The BC Humanist Association, Humanist Canada, and Centre for Inquiry Canada work to ensure the separation of religion and state, defend the rights of the non-religious, and promote the application of reason and evidence in public policy.

Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC) has a Discord server, a place for anyone to discuss their secular thoughts and have casual discussions about what is going on in our community, in Canada, and around the world. If you have your Discord account, you are more than welcome to join and engage with us in the world of secularism! If you don’t have a Discord account, but are looking for a community, why not join up and give it a try?

We currently have over 50 members. We would love for you to help us increase that number and beyond by sharing your goofiest memes or your deep, rational thoughts!

Head over to our Discord server link: https://discord.gg/6JtKynMkGj