Why haven’t you quit the Catholic Church?
I’ve been busy helping my dad bring his music career into the 21st century, so I’m going to offer this old post I wrote. It was originally a Diaspora* post made after the FFRF unveiled their It’s time...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Saturday Cerebation: Protesters rights vs. the rights of everyone else
For those not following the situation in Québec – or for those following it only through English media, which is almost worse than not following it at all – Premier Jean Charest has implemented...
View ArticleKasese Humanist Primary School
A video made by Godless Poutine of My Secret Atheist Blog, who has been working for the last year and a half with the Kasese United Humanist Association to help create a school in religion-plagued...
View ArticleWhat Ryan Bell’s atheism experiment should really be about
The atheist world has been buzzing about the “experiment” being conducted by (former?) Pastor Ryan J. Bell, to – as he puts it – “try on” atheism for a year. Some have been positive about the idea,...
View Article13 year-old harassed for “Got land? Thank an Indian!” sweatshirt
I posted previously about the Saskatchewan girl who wore a sweatshirt to school with “Got land? Thank an Indian!” on it and found herself harassed by her teachers. Unlike previous, similar incidents,...
View ArticleThere is a buffoon on The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, and it ain’t Lang
I have a generally low opinion of most major news media. They’ve devolved to be more about “entertainment” than “news” or – one could only dream – “journalism”. CBC News is not one of the worst, but...
View ArticlePoll alert: Do you support public funding of Catholic schools?
From Canadian Atheist‘s Veronica via Godless Poutine, a poll that needs some fixin’. “Do you support public funding of Catholic schools?” At the moment the results are 60-39 for “yes”. Let’s set them...
View ArticleOn the depths an asshole can go to
So I just posted about the idiotic comments made by CBC News “commentator” Kevin O’Leary, and the viral fallout that’s lead to a petition for him to be fired, when – last night – there’s a segment on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Québec Charter of Values and secular weakness
Yesterday, Terry Firma of Friendly Atheist wrote a post about making certain forms of religious expression illegal. He was speaking theoretically, of course, but for Canadians – especially Québécois –...
View ArticleCanada Post has problems… because it’s run by boneheads
So Canada Post is in the news cycle again – specifically, concerns that they’re phasing out door-to-door delivery of mail. That’s tragic, sure, but before you shed tears for Canada Post and blame the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s the harm with metadata?
Thanks to Edward Snowden, CSEC has been outed as just as underhanded and illegal as the US‘s NSA – spying on innocent Canadians in violation of both reason and their legal mandate. But taking a page...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canadian Atheist is back!
It’s true! Canadian Atheist is back online and already flush with new posts. Canadian Atheist Unfortunately, the old blog content is not available, though that may just be a temporary problem. Also, if...
View ArticleThe Paul Calandra way of answering questions
Paul Calandra, Conservative MP for Oak Ridges—Markham, has been parliamentary secretary to the PM since just September. In that short time, he made a name for himself as a nasty, dissembling thug who...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Stupid questions
The saying goes that “there are no stupid questions”. I beg to disagree. When questions are asked insincerely – without intent to gain new knowledge – then those questions are stupid questions. More...
View ArticleBack from hiatus
No, I’m not dead! I took a brief and somewhat unplanned hiatus in February for personal reasons – nothing serious, though – compounded with the fact that I was sort of living cut off from news and pop...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Racism, gender essentialism, transphobia, and anti-science attitudes are...
I didn’t watch the Olympics. Part of it is simply that I’m not much of a sports fan, and even less of a fan of the kind of hyper-commercialized, industrialized sports that the Olympics represent. The...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: This is not an unbelievers’ world
I don’t think that anyone with a solid and sane grip on the current reality of the world can disagree that the “religious group” that is most discriminated against and most persecuted today is...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Why the Erazo decision is not really a meaningful step...
There is a lot of crowing in the freethinker blogosphere about the recent court victory by Oliver Erazo over the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Unfortunately, much of it is extremely...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Ontario and Nova Scotia bar associations deny...
In short order, members of both the Law Society of Upper Canada (the bar association for Ontario) and the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society narrowly voted to deny accreditation to the proposed law school...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Electoral reform
Everyone who follows Canadian politics closely knows how badly we need proportional representation at all levels of government. Atheists, freethinkers, and skeptics need it particularly badly. More...
View ArticleOn Canadian TV: On a show about different faiths getting along, atheism is...
You may remember that show that CBC aired a few years ago called Little Mosque on the Prairie. It caused a big stir when it was first announced, and remained a moderate hit for its first year or two,...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Do Jehovah’s Witnesses think their religion is embarassing?
My sister got stopped by a Jehovah’s Witness the other day, and handed the usual magazines, but what struck me about her story was that the proselytizer was so coy about giving away what she was – to...
View ArticlePushing Jesus
I wrote a post for Canadian Atheist the other day about Jehovah’s Witnesses handing out literature, that focused on the fact that they seem to be hiding their true intentions at first approach. The...
View ArticleVaguely rude place names in Canada
I’m a big fan of things that are informative and a big fan of things that are hilariously inappropriate, and the intersection of those sets always brightens my day. So I had to share with you the work...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Canadian atheists, your help is needed in an important...
The Supreme Court of Canada is going to hear arguments on prayer in government meetings sometime in the next few months, in MLQ v. City of Saguenay. Despite the recent loss in US courts, our chances...
View ArticleClik here to view.
IS/ISIS/ISIL, social media, and censorship – there is a solution
Shortly after the news broke about the murder of a journalist for money, and the existence of a video showing the beheading, major social media platforms flew into a panic. Their inevitable...
View ArticleOxfam Canada denied charitable status because “preventing poverty” is not an...
What if I told you that the Harper government refused to grant charitable status to Oxfam Canada? What if I told you that the reason they gave for refusing was because they objected to Oxfam Canada’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The myth of the Christmas Truce
You’ve almost certainly heard some variant of the story. In the first December after the outbreak of World War Ⅰ in 1914, in the midst of the bloody and wearing trench warfare that became the defining...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: The 2014 Freedom of Thought report
Today (10 December, 2014) is Human Rights Day, which means that the 2014 Freedom of Thought report by the International Humanist and Ethical Union IHEU is out. I encourage everyone to go take a look at...
View ArticleChristopher Hassall and Ian Bushfield answer questions about their study on...
In preparing for an article on Canadian Atheist about a recently released study on diversity in the atheist movement, I contacted the authors and asked some questions relating to the study. Both Ian...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Study on diversity in the atheist movement shows we have...
Increasing Diversity in Emerging Non-religious Communities, by Christopher Hassall of the University of Leeds and Ian Bushfield, formerly of British Columbia, who now blogs at Terahertz Atheist, may be...
View ArticleAnalyzing the 2014 Freedom of Thought report
Last year, when I was writing about the 2013 Freedom of Thought report, my plan was to do a thorough analysis of the data in the report. That didn’t happen, mostly because Canadian Atheist was shut...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: The Canadian English-language news media has betrayed...
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, news media has been predictably flooded with details of what happened, and why. What’s been noticeably missing from virtually all English-speaking media,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Entering the public domain in Canada in 2015
There’s been a lot in the news recently that’s depressing, to say the least. I’ve kept up with covering it, but I really need a break to blog about something a little more positive. So, here’s 2015’s...
View ArticleFeminist is not what I am, it is what I aspire to
There’s a post up at Brute Reason that I think every male feminist should read. The title is “The Importance of Self-Awareness for Men in Feminism”; a fine title, though it grossly understates the...
View ArticleI make public domain ebooks
It occurs to me that I’ve never mentioned this here, but I make public domain ebooks. I take public domain texts, mark them up using modern, semantic technologies, package them as EPUB ebooks, then...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: Angus Reid survey on religious identity, beliefs, and...
The Angus Reid Institute conducted a fairly comprehensive survey, commissioned by Reginald Bibby, of religious identification, beliefs, and attitudes in Canada. Much of the results won’t be surprising...
View ArticleHow right-wing bigots are ruining science fiction
I’m a huge science fiction fan – science fiction, please, hold the fantasy – and have been for as long as I can remember. One of the biggest events of the year for me is the Hugo Awards; for me,...
View ArticleVoting for pizza: electoral reform illustrated
So electoral reform is on my mind again – no, not for that reason, but because the next federal election is coming up. Last year I wrote a post for Canadian Atheist about electoral reform, and I was...
View ArticleThe stories we don’t hear: Michael Harris’s talk
I consider myself fairly non-partisan, politically. I’d vote for any party with a platform that was rational. There is no such thing in Canadian politics, of course, so I am forced to vote for the...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: What do Canadians think about publishing images of...
Shortly after the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, the Angus Reid Institute conducted a survey to see how Canadians felt about the balance between freedom of expression and religious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scott Vrooman for Senate
Following Canadian news can be a challenge and a half. Mainstream sources are easy to find, but about as reliable as a gauze condom. Alternative sources are a chore. Sometimes it takes a comedian to...
View ArticleReligious indoctrination and using children as weapons
It may not be obvious from my writing, but I am a very sanguine person. There are a lot of things that make me annoyed, or upset, and depressed, but there aren’t many that enrage me. Leave it to...
View ArticleOn Canadian Atheist: How do Canadians feel about removing prayer from...
The Supreme Court ruling in Mouvement laïque québécois v Saguenay changed the entire landscape of secularism in Canada. But how do Canadians feel about it? The Angus Reid Institute did a forum survey...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The CBC’s shitty year
2015 hasn’t been a good year for our national broadcaster. High-profile scandals among some of its biggest celebrities, and mounting frustration over its unbalanced journalistic practices have soured...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Canadian Atheist: Chevalier de la Barre Day
Canadian Atheist Most Canadians will be celebrating Canada on June 1st, but I will not. I will be raising a toast to the Chevalier de la Barre, a 19 year-old Frenchman who was legally tortured,...
View ArticleA Humanist Canada response to Japanese Canadian internment
Last month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission wrapped up its work looking into the Indian Residential School System. They released a comprehensive report that amazingly managed to be at times...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My ideal for a reformed electoral system
I’ve written about electoral reform in Canada a couple times. It’s certainly a topic that interests me. Thing is, the only thing I’ve done in my previous posts on the topic is point out the problems. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The aftermath of scrapping the long-form census
Scrapping the long-form census Of all the damage the Stephen Harper Conservative government has done to Canada during its disastrous reign, perhaps its most bizarre and capricious act was the scrapping...
View Article
