Mar 172020
 

SUNDAY MARCH 22  at 7:00PM

Grab a cup of coffee or tea at home, sit down with your laptop or phone and join us for a virtual coffee meetup online.

After some research, looks like we’ll test out JITSI this weekend for our first virtual coffee meetup. You don’t need to have an account, only need a link to follow so it’s easier than both google hangouts (as you need a gmail) and discord (as you need an account).

We’ll post the link for the meetup 30 minutes before it goes live both on our facebook page and on our website. ”SEE” you on Sunday!

If you want to join from your phone you will need to download their app, but from a laptop this is not a requirement.
https://jitsi.org/?fbclid=IwAR1JhSd0z50ROOaS5CYa-mr_S4VrHFwahcVknn8q4j0CiiFKcVsnVcnfKic

Virtual Coffee Night

 Posted by at 12:46 PM
Mar 122020
 

Social distancing helps to slow the rate a disease spreads, and the sooner it’s started, the better for everyone.   Our healthcare system won’t be overwhelmed if we spread the growth out over a longer period of time, and many more people then can recieve care in order to recover.

Because our events are non-essential but also in very public places, we will be cancelling them for the rest of the month (and we will review after that time – we may possibly be postponing the AGM by a month as well) so we can help to “flatten the curve”.    Events hosted by the Secular Humanists and Westwood Unitarian will be updated if we hear from them.  For right now we are cancelling SEA hosted events.

This may seem like a hasty decision to some, seeing as only large events have been cancelled in our province so far, but with many cases still waiting for test results it’s a time of uncertainty as to how many actual cases there are here right now.   We have a few members who fall into some higher risk categories, so taking a few weeks off of some social events seems like one small thing we can do to help protect them, and our larger community as a whole.

For advice if you have flu like symptoms and think you may have been exposed, call 811.   Call volumes are high, but trying at midnight has been a suggestion.

Updated information on the Alberta Government Health Page is HERE

Canada Health advice for travel and other Covid-19 information (although it seems to be a day late in updating numbers) can be found HERE

 Posted by at 11:48 PM
Mar 122020
 

POSTPONED!
We regularly support the local chapter of Dying With Dignity in Edmonton, and wanted to give a heads up that their meeting next week has been postponed. (not updated on their facebook page as of yet, but an email was sent)

The demographic that head to these meetings are generally in the higher risk categories already, so they felt it prudent to cancel the event for now in light of the recent health situation.

https://www.facebook.com/events/492395931640631/

 Posted by at 3:55 PM
Mar 092020
 

A few years ago, we welcomed a Gail Miller as a guest speaker to our group to discuss the Critical Thinking Project (spearheaded by Christopher Di Carlo. )  Gail grew up in Edmonton (now lives in BC), and is a passionate advocate for critical thinking skills and humanist values.  Her history within the atheist movement and various related organisations goes back over 10 years!

We’re excited to see that Gail’s new venture is as a founding member of the IAA, the International Association of Atheists.

Looks like they have lots of great ideas and work planned, so check out their website and become a member if you want to help!   There are partnership options for individual groups as well, so we’ll get some more information on that to discuss with our membership.

Hoping for lots of success for this new organisation with reaching their goals!

 Posted by at 7:24 PM
Mar 052020
 

TUESDAY, April 7th will be this year’s SEA Annual General Meeting (AGM), formally starting at 7:00 pm, in the Program Room at Clareview Library.  We will be there from 6:30pm onwards for anyone that requires a membership or needs to renew.

Anyone interested is invited to attend; however, only paying members will be permitted to vote in the general election or on any other business.

  • Agenda:   an agenda will be updated and available soon

If you are at all interested in running for the Board, please take a look at our explanation of the roles and responsibilities for each position, as well as some FAQs about joining the Board. This year all positions will be available to be filled.  Please note that Treasurer requires you have been a member in good standing for at least a year, and President holds a requirement of one past year (at any time) on the board.

If you would like to see our current bylaws they can be found on the website, under “About”.  We are still awaiting approval of changes made at our past AGM, as the government is backlogged.
If you would like to propose any other changes for consideration at the AGM, they must be sent to the Board for distribution to the rest of the membership in advance of the meeting.  Please try to have those into us one week before the meeting.

See you there!

 Posted by at 9:00 AM
Mar 042020
 

From Humanist Canada:

Webinar Series 2020  Sunday March 8, 2020 – 3 pm EST

Canada’s Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) Legislation

In June 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation Bill C-14, allowing eligible Canadian adults to request medical assistance in dying. Since MAID has been legalized, more than 6,700 Canadians have chosen to die peacefully with the help of a physician or nurse practitioner.

On September 11, 2019, the Superior Court of Québec found that it was unconstitutional to limit access to MAID to people nearing the end of life. The Court declared the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” criterion in the federal Criminal Code, as well as the “end-of-life” criterion in Quebec’s provincial law on medical assistance in dying, to be unconstitutional.

The Court’s ruling will come into effect on March 11, 2020, unless an extension is granted by the Court. While this ruling only applies in the province of Quebec, the Government of Canada has accepted the ruling and has committed to changing the MAID law for the whole country.

Shanaaz Gokool, former CEO of Dying With Dignity Canada and one of the country’s foremost subject matter experts on MAID will be providing insight on the current legislation and the status of accessing medical assistance in dying across Canada. Join us to learn more about the law and what it means for your right to a peaceful death.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED:    Register Today

 

 Posted by at 8:28 PM