Jun 022020
 

There are a lot of places out there to help you with a better understanding of systemic racism and how you can be part of the change.  We’re listing a few, to help you get started.

Fighting For An Anti-Racist Future Together –
Includes a list of organisations standing up for black communities and where you can donate

Medium.com resource list –
Includes books to share with kids

 

 Posted by at 7:12 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 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
Apr 072019
 

Thanks to everyone who came out to our annual general meeting this past week!   We discussed quite a few things, including what types of secular causes SEA will be supporting this year, as well as discussions on how we can be better LGBTQ+ allies, and different ideas for outreach.   Overall, a very productive meeting with lots of great ideas that will be researched and acted upon in the upcoming months.

Your executive members have remained the same, as those are 2 year terms, and 4 director positions have been filled.    Your 2019 – 2020 SEA Board members are:

President: Karen Lumley Kerr
Vice President:  Alexander Delorme
Treasurer: Mark Terpstra
Recording Secretary:  Tamara Pawluk

Directors:
Rob Chamberlain
Margaret Wardell
Ashley Zinyk
Tina Dmytryshyn

 Posted by at 4:51 PM
Apr 122018
 

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Annual General Meeting and helped shape the next year for our Society.   We are adding a quarterly volunteer event at the Food Bank, we will be having a 10 year anniversary party/1 year memorial for Michael Vester this year, and look forward to continuing to share events with other local like minded groups, including the Secular Humanists, Secular Ethics group in Stony Plain, and the Unitarian Churches in the city.   We also voted to include a low-income membership, on a case by case basis.  This will be added to our website soon.

A few bylaw concerns came up during the meeting, which we were too late to vote on that night as members need prior notice, however, we did work on the re-wording and will have an General Meeting prior to the next round table event in May to quickly vote on these so they can be submitted this year with our filing.  This would allow us to implement them for next April’s AGM.
Our current bylaws allow us to have one person sit as Treasurer and Secretary, which we wanted to update.   You can find the proposed changes in red here:   2018-BYLAWS PROPOSED CHANGES (changes include adding line 34, removing line 37,  updating line 43 and adding a word to line 46.)

A big thank you to our previous board members and congratulations to your new 2018-2019 board!

 Posted by at 10:58 AM
Feb 282018
 

In the spring of 2015 my son was enrolled at Sir George Simpson school in St. Albert, and we had an email message sent to all parents about sex education classes that would be offered.   At the time, I was already aware of the issues with the Pregnancy Care Centre providing abstinence-only based sex ed classes, due to the stories out of Edmonton, where they were banned from presenting.  I immediately contacted the Principal of the school to express my concerns and to withdraw my consent from my son participating. I made it quite clear that I was not withdrawing consent because I was not willing to allow him a proper sex education, but rather that this was NOT a proper sex education and that instead I would be teaching him at home.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 5:16 PM
Oct 242017
 

Join us on Saturday October 28th, 7pm for this special event!
University Campus, Alberta School of Business
Room 1-6

Dr Elliot Hanowski works at the University of Manitoba Libraries, and will be coming to talk to us about the History of Activist Atheism and Humanism in Canada. He is one of the founding members of the International Society for Historians of Atheism, Secularism and Humanism (ISHASH) which brings together historians worldwide who are contributing to this growing field. He is also an editor with the journal Secularism and Nonreligion.

Free event, although ticket-by-donation would be appreciated (suggested: $5 students and SEA Members, $10 everyone else)

 

 Posted by at 9:40 AM