BC Humanists Podcast

Nathanael Lauster is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UBC and author of the award-winning book, The Death and Life of the Single Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City (Temple University Press). His book and work investigate the regulatory power attached to the house and its impact on the shape and inhabitability of North American cities. He examines the transformati...

2018 saw the end of Canada's blasphemy law, the rejection of TWU's law school and an easing of restrictions on charities' free speech. Building off this momentum, Humanists and secularists in British Columbia have the opportunity to make significant gains in 2019. Ian Bushfield, executive director of the BC Humanist Association, will outline some of the BCHA's priorities in our Secular BC campaign...

Ian Waddell is a Canadian politician, author and filmmaker who served in the House of Commons from 1979 to 1993 and in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1996 to 2001. Currently, Waddell is a documentary film producer and a consultant in environmental and aboriginal affairs. In December 2013 he was appointed the honorary title of Queen’s Counsel for his merit and exceptional contrib...

Two educators behind the "Sex Ed Is Our Right" campaign talk about the importance of sexual health, sexual orientation and gender identity education in BC schools. Ghada is from YouthCo HIV & Hep C Society and Darren is from the Community-Based Research Centre for Gay Men's Health. To learn more about the campaign visit https://www.sexedisourright.ca/ To learn more about the BC Humanist Associatio...

V. Victoria Shroff is one of the first and longest serving animal law practitioners in Canada. She has been practising animal law civil litigation for nearly 20 years in Vancouver at Shroff and Associates and has been recognized for her work in animal law. She is adjunct professor of animal law at UBC’s Allard Hall Law School and is frequently interviewed by media. Ms Shroff also founded an animal...

Valorie Crooks is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. She is a health geographer and specialize in health services research. She is particularly interested in the spatial and place-based dimensions of health care delivery and receipt. She primary engages in non-hypothesis-testing qualitative re...

BC families face a crisis in accessing quality, affordable child care. Fees are too high — the second highest family expense after housing. Wait lists are too long — less that 20% of children under the age of 12 in BC have access to a regulated child care space. And too often families are forced into unregulated care, with no safety standards. The $10aDay Child Care Plan is the solution to BC’s ch...

Since 2016 the BC Humanist Association and Vancouver Peace Poppies have co-hosted ‘Let Peace be Their Memorial’, an annual wreath-laying ceremony. Held in Vancouver, BC on the afternoon of November 11, it commemorates civilian victims of war. About 200 people attended this year. This year our keynote speaker was Tima Kurdi of the Kurdi Foundation . A Syrian-born resident of Coquitlam, she has been...

The Big Stall traces the origins of the government's climate change plan back to the energy sector itself — in particular Big Oil. It shows how, in the last fifteen years, Big Oil has infiltrated provincial and federal governments, academia, media and the non-profit sector to sway government and public opinion on the realities of climate change and what needs to be done about it. DONALD GUTSTEIN i...

Dr Lynne Marks is a professor of history at the University of Victoria. She studies Canadian history, women’s and gender history and the social history of religion/irreligion and atheism. Her 2017 book, ​Infidels and the Damn Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia, looks at why British Columbians in the past have been less religious than those in the rest of Canada. This pat...

Craig Keating completed his PhD in 20th century European history at McMaster University in 1996. He joined the Department of History at Langara College in January 1992, and has also taught at UBC and Simon Fraser University. To learn more about the BC Humanist Association visit https://bchumanist.ca

"The strongest reasons that count for or against any policy are always moral reasons," wrote philosophy student Stephen Tweedale at the beginning of a six-part blog series on developing an ethical framework for contemporary progressive politics. In this talk, Stephen will summarize his arguments, covering the ideas of John Rawls, TM Scanlon, Elizabeth Anderson and Martha Nussbaum. Stephen Tweedale...

SHOULD WE FEAR DRUG IMPAIRED DRIVERS? Kyla Lee is a partner at Acumen Law Corporation in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her practice focuses on impaired driving and roadside drug and alcohol testing. She is deeply concerned by new measures to be put in place by the government to address drug impaired driving and has been an outspoken public advocate against putting regulation before science and rese...

"Our Moment of Power" highlights emerging transition projects throughout the Lower Mainland that are already revolutionizing how we live, move, work and grow. Moment of Power encourages participants from all age groups and audience types to collaborate on fresh ideas and smart strategies for their own municipalities' post-carbon future. Learn more about Force of Nature Alliance at http://www.force...

Should we send politicians back to school? If you want to be a doctor, nurse, teacher, lawyer, firefighter, soldier, or entrepreneur, we have schools for that. So, why don’t we have schools for politicians? Would you go to a doctor who had never been to medical school? Or fly on a plane with a pilot who has never gone to flight school? Of course not – so why is politics different? In this engaging...

Alyssa Low is a pharmacy student and discusses the influenza vaccine. Dr Alan Low is a registered pharmacist and Clinical Associate Professor with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Primary Care Pharmacist at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy and Manager, Reimbursement and Medical Affairs with Servier Canada. Dr Low talks about questions to ask your pharmacist, alternative medicines and overme...

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-c...

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 Cana...

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 depen...

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...

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 Ontar...

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 u...

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...

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...