Weekly Update: 7-Oct-2017 to 13-Oct-2017

Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for 7-Oct-2017 to 13-Oct-2017.

This is easily the sickest burn I’ve seen from xkcd in a long time. Well played, sir!

• [4-Oct-2017] Conservative activists rail against LGBT curriculum in Abbotsford

  Religious bigots are busy with their on-the-ground campaign agitating fear, uncertainty, and doubt – and, yes, outright lies – against the SOGI 1 2 3 resources to help teachers deal with LGBT issues more intelligently.

• [5-Oct-2017] The odd, complicated history of Canadian Thanksgiving

  This is a fascinating and informative read, with an interesting perspective on the historical and cultural perspectives of Thanksgiving.

• [5-Oct-2017] Testing the proposition that lack of religion leads to violence

  It’s American data, but evidence is evidence. The only thing this article is lacking is the mic drop at the end.

• [6-Oct-2017] Hamilton Catholic students earning volunteer hours for anti-abortion activities

  In the “news that’s only news to people who don’t pay attention to Catholic schools” department, this totally unsurprising piece apparently surprised the Premier. In related news, the Premier was also surprised to learn that the Pope is Catholic. The truth is that the Catholic school system has been using public money to fund anti-abortion efforts, and has been using the students as pawns in anti-abortion political action, for many years now, and this has been reported repeatedly.

• [6-Oct-2017] Answers in Genesis Is Coming to Canada!

  AiG’s parent company – Creation Ministries International – has been in Canada for years… but now Ken Ham has threatened promised to bring the much more flamboyant Answers in Genesis brand to our neck of the world.

• [6-Oct-2017] University of Toronto Professor: Men Can’t Control ‘Crazy Women’ Because Men Can’t ‘Fight’ Them

  Can we finally write this idiot off? Or am I going to have to listen to yet another asshole telling me I just need to listen harder to “get what he’s really saying”?

• [6-Oct-2017] Quebec’s burqa-banning bill is on track to become law

  There are some arguments that the Québec Liberals never really intended for Bill 62 to actually become law. The logic goes that they were just using it to bait the more racist parties to put foot in mouth, figuring that the Québec population would sour on them once their bigotry really started to show. They even happily let the racist parties add more and more extreme wording to the bill, to the point that it is now almost a parody of itself. But apparently the Liberals may have underestimated Québécois intolerance. And now, this mind-bogglingly stupid bill – that lawmakers can’t even answer basic questions about – may actually become law. If it does, there is simply no way it will stand a Charter challenge – whether we’re talking about the Canadian or the Québec Charter… so will the Québec Liberals dare to pull out the Notwithstanding clause? Will this become the flashpoint for a revitalized Separatist movement?

• [7-Oct-2017] Natural History Museum Incident Sees Nigel Farage And Katie Hopkins Forced To Backtrack Over ‘Scaremongering’

  Farage and Hopkins are only the most blatantly ridiculous of the response to Saturday’s incident in London. My father happened to have CNN running at the time, and their coverage was self-parody: for hours Nic Roberson was grimly reporting about the incident, narrating over video of fleeing people, talking about subway shutdowns, and teasing the idea with anchors that it… might be terrorism. In the end, turned out to be a simple traffic accident. The UK is so keyed up in anticipation of another terrorist attack that it’s arguable that the terrorists have already won there.

• [7-Oct-2017] We must define Islamophobia by what it truly is

  This is a nicely balanced piece that goes back to the 1997 Runnymede report that first made “islamophobia” a widely-used term. The piece criticizes the sloppiness of the term’s definition in that report, but notes that the report did get a lot of things right.

• [8-Oct-2017] Edmonton ISIS Flag Puzzles Flag Makers Who Refuse To Make One

  I thought this was the most amusing article to come out of the Edmonton terror attack. It does raise questions that I can honestly say I never would have thought to ask: Where would an aspiring terrorist get a Daesh flag? Are authorities monitoring flag makers and tracking down people who buy them? Would you actually avoid detection if you try what the guy mentioned in the article tried: first ask for a Daesh flag, then, when refused, ask for a plain black flag instead?

• [8-Oct-2017] “Joyce Arthur – Conscientious Objections (to Abortion)”(Audio: 54:58)

  A few months ago, if you’d asked me if I supported doctors’ rights to refuse to perform medical procedures that violate their personal ethics, I would have said absolutely yes. Joyce Arthur has changed my mind, and she did it with solid arguments, and damning evidence. And this recording of a talk she gave to the BCHA pretty much packages her case up in one, nice, easily digestible listen.

• [8-Oct-2017] Convocation speech changed to be more secular

  Better late than never. Still, I recommend giving the article a read, because it really does give a good showing of what secularism should be like. Chancellor Doug Stollery makes a point of saying that there’s plenty of room for religious students at U of A, but the convocation should be as inclusive as possible.

• [9-Oct-2017] Canadian linked to New York terror plot suffers ‘serious mental health and substance abuse issues,’ lawyer says

  Seriously, nobody should be surprised by this.

• [10-Oct-2017] What does it mean to be anti-abortion in modern Canada? Coren

  I think I might actually come to respect Micheal Coren. Once an apologist for Catholicism, he’s really developed a savage edge of late. The actual story – about Racheal Harder losing the chair of the Status of Women Committee because of her anti-abortion views – is mostly a non-story, unless you’re really into Ottawa shenanigans. But Coren’s frankness about the issue is refreshing, and I particularly encourage you to read the story about his parting of the ways with the The Prairie Messenger.

• [11-Oct-2017] RCMP officers screened Quebec border crossers on religion and values, questionnaire shows

  By now it’s old news that there is a lot of backwards, ignorant, regressive, and intolerant attitudes permeating our security and intelligence services. But applying a values test to refugee claimants is supposed to be an idea so stupid it could only come from hackneyed political dog-whistlers.

• [11-Oct-2017] Woman facing terror-related charges in alleged Canadian Tire attack continues to decline counsel

  Gee, where have we seen this kind of thing before?

• [11-Oct-2017] Blessing robots: Is a technological reformation coming?

  I can’t help but be reminded of Douglas Adams’s Electric Monk.

• [12-Oct-2017] Kidnapped Canadian-American family freed in Pakistan gun battle after 5 years in captivity

  Wonderful news! As of writing this, I haven’t yet heard that they’ve arrived back in Canada (there were some earlier reports that they were in flight, but they were debunked), but they should be here soon! Check out the story of their rescue, which was hair-raising. I also recommend you don’t read or watch anything involving Trump’s take on this, because that will only raise your ire.

• [13-Oct-2017] Catholic high school teacher charged with luring, child porn offences

  When I heard this story, I was, at first, pleasantly surprised that there didn’t appear to be a Catholic cover-up. Then I learned why: They never got the chance because the police uncovered everything and arrested McGilly before the Catholic school board even heard about it.

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