Bc Humanists Podcast

This fall, British Columbians are being asked whether to keep the first past the post method of electing MLAs or switching to one of three forms of proportional representation. Ranil Prasad, Outreach Coordinator with Fair Vote Canada, will help us understand the reasons for the referendum, how it works and what the different options on the ballot are.

The power of fake news and anti-choice lies – how can pro-choice groups compete? Anti-choice groups in Canada get millions in government funding. This presentation will tell the story of how the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada exposed one major source of funding. Over 60 anti-choice groups were receiving federal “Canada Summer Jobs” grants to hire students. When it was revealed that one anti-choice group was using the funds to hire youth to display graphic images of aborted fetuses on city streets, the federal government responded by immediately cutting off funding for all anti-choice groups and changing the program’s eligibility criteria to exclude them in the future. But churches and religious groups created a huge backlash when they mistakenly thought the new criteria also made them ineligible. A media circus erupted, with most commentators repeating misinformation about the new criteria and drowning out fact-based corrections. Our successful effort to stop government funding of anti-choice groups w

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that law societies in British Columbia and Ontario could reject a proposed law school at Trinity Western University. The Supreme Court of Canada also ruled that courts cannot review the excommunication of a church member. Ian Bushfield, Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association will explore what these latest rulings mean for the state of secularism in Canada and where the next battlelines are likely to be.

When someone makes a claim about their health, can that testimony alone count as evidence to believe their statement? Whether we should take someone’s statements as evidence for anything is an important debate in philosophy, especially since testimony is a fundamental part of how humans interact. Some believe testimony can give a hearer knowledge, while others believe it is too unreliable to depend on. The importance of this debate emerges once we realise that, outside of philosophy, our individual stance on what counts as evidence will influence our judgments in politics, science, social interactions, and more. This talk will discuss two issues that result from philosophical discussions on testimony and its application to real-world healthcare. The first is what role testimony might have in healthcare, generally speaking. The second is what can happen to vulnerable populations if we dismiss the evidential power of testimony. Jordan Joseph Wadden is a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at the Unive

What do biologists mean when they say "male" or "female"? Well... it's complicated. We'll be taking a romp through the complexities of sex determination through a wide range of species, including our own, to see that it's not as straightforward as "XX" and "XY". Katie Marshall is an Assistant Professor of Biology in the Department of Zoology at UBC. Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at support our work at www.bchumanist.ca

In this interview, recorded on Monday, June 18, 2018, Ian Bushfield executive director of the BC Humanist Association speaks with Wes McMillan who served as pro-bono counsel for the BCHA at the Supreme Court of Canada and with Michael Spratt, cohost of the Canadian legal podcast The Docket. They discuss the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent ruling that upholds the decision by law societies in Ontario and BC to reject a proposed law school at Trinity Western University. TWU is an evangelical school here in BC that requires all students to sign a community covenant that forbids sex outside a heterosexual marriage. The law societies rejected the proposed school as a means of ensuring equal access to the bar for LGBTQ people. The decision is historic for its recognition of the importance of fighting homophobia and for the limits of what can be claimed under religious freedom. Ultimately the majority found that the harm to the LGBTQ community outweighed the impact on the religious freedom claimed by TWU and its

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: IS THE REGULATION OF ALTERNATIVE PRACTITIONERS IN BC EFFECTIVE? In contemporary healthcare consumers are constantly assailed with health advertising and claims from various healthcare providers. Additionally, the alternative healthcare sector and has grown significantly over the past two decades prompting research into the possible motivators and factors associated with its uptake. With a number of high profile cases in the media recently, there is now growing concern that the regulation of alternative healthcare providers in BC is problematic. This session will explore some of the issues that exist with our current regulatory framework, and the risks to public health this poses. Dr Bernie Garrett is an Associate Professor at the UBC School of Nursing. Dr Garrett’s current work is focused in two main camps. 1) Nursing science, philosophy, and the use of deceptive and non-evidence based practices in contemporary healthcare (including alternative medicine). 2) The use of virtual and augm

Dr Penny Gurstein is Professor and Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Centre for Human Settlements at UBC. She specializes in the socio-cultural aspects of community planning with particular emphasis on those who are the most marginalized in planning processes. Her research focuses on developing strategies and interventions that encourage diversity, equity and urban sustainability in the planning and design of communities. Her current research is investigating strategies for affordable homeownership and rental housing both internationally and in Canada. She is founding Director of the Housing Research Collaborative a community of housing researchers, providers and policy makers focused on understanding systemic impediments in the housing system and the development of models to address housing unaffordability. Previously, she was the Principal Investigator of the Future of Public Housing Project focusing on publicly-assisted housing, and co-Principal Investigator of Housing Ju

Hell's History is an in-depth publication on the USW's fight to prevent workplace deaths and injuries from the 1992 Westray mine disaster through 2016. Written by former Tyee journalist Tom Sandborn, Hell's History revisits a number of tragic workplace deaths, outlining the failures of employers to keep workers safe and the ongoing need for stronger enforcement of the Westray Law. Download a copy or learn more about the campaign at https://www.usw.ca/act/activism/health-safety-and-environment/resources/hells-history

Molly Babel is the director of UBC's Speech in Context Lab. Broadly, she is interested in speech perception and production, and there is a strong theme of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal inquiry in her work. More specifically, her research program focuses on the role of experience and exposure to phonetic and phonological knowledge, how social knowledge may be manifested phonetically, and the mental representation of phonetic and phonological knowledge. A significant portion of her work explores how interacting language systems influence one another on a phonetic level. She has investigated this within bilingual speakers (English and Northern Paiute), across dialects (Australian and New Zealand Englishes), and within dialects (American English). She also has a strong interest in language documentation and description; with colleagues at University of California, Berkeley, she conducted fieldwork on Northern Paiute (Numic; Uto-Aztecan). Note: Apologies for the audio quality in the first ~4 minutes. It im

L.A. Dixon, a writer, academic and high school history and science teacher specializing in critical thinking, discusses whether Steven Pinker's new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, contributes to or detracts from the Secular Humanist cause. Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at www.bchumanist.ca

How does Canada's immigration system work? How does Canada accept refugees? What are some of the current concerns? Immigration lawyers Steven Muerrens and Peter Edelmann are part of the team behind the podcast Borderlines that discusses these questions and they joined us to discuss them. https://soundcloud.com/borderlinespodcast Find out more about the BC Humanist Association at www.bchumanist.ca

In the fall BC will vote whether to adopt a system of proportional representation or maintain its current first-past-the-post electoral system. This week we'll have representatives from a group arguing for the current system and a group arguing for change. Arguing for "Yes PR BC" is David Moscrop. David is a political theorist and postdoctoral fellow in the Scholarly Communications Lab at Simon Fraser University. He studies democratic deliberation, citizenship, and how we communicate with one another and make political decisions. He writes for Maclean's Magazine and a few other outlets, and provides regular political commentary for television, radio, and print. He's currently working on a book about why we make bad political decisions and how we can make better ones (Fall, 2019). Arguing for "No PR BC" is Bill Tieleman. Bill is a political panelist regularly on CBC Radio and TV in BC and with other media. Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.

City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes features photographs from the collection of The Vancouver Sun and The Province which capture moments in history when Vancouverites showed up, stepped up, and made some noise—or exploded in anger— about a wide range of issues. Kate Bird is the author of City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes and Vancouver in the Seventies: Photos From a Decade That Changed the City, which was nominated for the 2016 British Columbia Historical Writing Award. Both books were published by Greystone Books. Kate is a professional librarian with a Masters of Library & Information Science from the University of Western Ontario, a B.A. in Art History from the University of British Columbia, and a diploma in photography from Emily Carr College of Art. She worked as a news research librarian at The Vancouver Sun and The Province for twenty-five years, where she did research for reporters and helped manage a large phot

Trevor Melanson manages communications at Clean Energy Canada. Clean Energy Canada is a climate and clean energy think tank within the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. They work to accelerate our nation’s transition to clean and renewable energy systems by telling the story of the gshift to clean and low-carbon energy sources. They conduct original research, host dialogues and aim to inspire and inform policy leadership. View the slides at https://www.slideshare.net/bchumanist/trevor-melanson-clean-energy-canada Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at www.bchumanist.ca

The world is becoming increasingly complex and complexity often leads to despair, retreat and believing a problem is beyond hope. But there are ways to tackle complex problems that are different from approaches that work for simple or complicated problems. We will discuss some of the characteristics that give rise to complex or “wicked” problems and how systems thinking can shift the way we approach them. "Dr Diane Finegood is currently seconded to SFU’s Centre for Dialogue where she is developing an innovative new Semester in Dialogue on health and wellness. She returned to SFU in July 2017 after a 5-year leave of absence to serve as the President and CEO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Diane has also served in other leadership roles including: inaugural Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (2000-2008), Executive Director of The CAPTURE Project (2009-2012) and Principal Investigator on the b-Cell Apoptosis Ne

M. Asadullah is a PhD candidate (ABD) and former sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University's School of Criminology, BC, Canada. Previously, he was a sessional faculty of Peace & Conflict Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley and a guest lecturer at the University of Dhaka’s Victimology and Restorative Justice, Bangladesh. Asad researches Restorative Justice, Nonviolent Communication, Conflict Resolution, Peacemaking Criminology, and Youth Justice. He enjoys supporting community-based justice organizations, and offering Intro to NVC in prison and faith-based settings. Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at www.bchumanist.ca

Audience questions & answers from Is Christianity or Secular Humanism a better foundation for human rights?: A conversation Between a Christian and a Secular Humanist This event was hosted on February 28, 2018 by Apologetics Canada in partnership with Westside Church in Vancouver, BC. Women's rights, LGBTQ rights - there is no shortage of causes vying for our attention. Underlying all such causes is the concept of human rights. Which worldview provides a better foundation for it - Christianity or Secular Humanism? Ian Bushfield is Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association Dr Andy Bannister is Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at https://www.bchumanist.ca

Germ warfare: The evolutionary struggle between microbes and mammals Dr Claire Cupples is Dean of Science at Simon Fraser University and a Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry. Dr Cupples received her BSc at the University of Victoria, her MSc at the University of Calgary and her PhD at York University. She pursued post-doctoral studies at UCLA. She has held academic and administrative positions previously at Concordia University, in Montreal, and at the University of Victoria. Her research focuses on the causes, consequences and prevention of mutations in microbes and in humans. Dr. Cupples has taught university courses in microbial molecular biology for 20 years and currently serves as President of the Canadian Council of Deans of Science and sits on the boards of TRIUMF, BCNet, Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre and the Science Fair Foundation of BC. Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at https://www.bchumanist.ca

Is Christianity or Secular Humanism a better foundation for human rights?: A conversation Between a Christian and a Secular Humanist This event was hosted on February 28, 2018 by Apologetics Canada in partnership with Westside Church in Vancouver, BC. Women's rights, LGBTQ rights - there is no shortage of causes vying for our attention. Underlying all such causes is the concept of human rights. Which worldview provides a better foundation for it - Christianity or Secular Humanism? Ian Bushfield is Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association Dr Andy Bannister is Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity Learn more about the BC Humanist Association at https://www.bchumanist.ca