Weekly Update: 15-Dec-2018 to 21-Dec-2018

Here’s your Canadian Atheist Weekly Update for 15-Dec-2018 to 21-Dec-2018.

Happy holidays, heathens! Enjoy this legal blasphemy!

• [6-Dec-2018] A Nationwide Comparison of Sex-Ed

  This is really cool; The Walrus has looked over the sex ed curricula across the country, and boiled them down to a few key concepts and when those concepts are introduced. The territories don’t do so great, and neither does Saskatchewan or – surprisingly – BC. Québec looks like the only province that teaches that sex feels good!

• [14-Dec-2018] Alberta’s Education Minister to review employment contracts of Catholic school boards

  I think I may be turning into a Dave Eggen fanboy, because that dude has a spine: he’s not shy about standing up to religious and social conservatives, especially when it comes to stopping discrimination. Last week we had several items in the Update about Catholic schools in Alberta forcing discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ covenants on employees and teachers, which threatened their jobs for their private behaviours outside of the school. Eggen is going to review those contracts, and has made it clear that discrimination will not be tolerated… not even faith-based discrimination.

• [14-Dec-2018] Are LGBTQ2+ families welcome at BC independent schools?

  Last week multiple stories concurrently broke about Alberta’s Catholic schools discriminating against LGBTQ employees. British Columbia doesn’t have a publicly-funded separate school system, but like most provinces, they do fund religious schools. So the BCHA’s Ian Bushfield decided to see how many of them were not just discriminating, but were openly discriminating. You probably won’t be surprised that he found some.

• [17-Dec-2018] Vast Majority Want Modern Sex-Ed Curriculum Back In Ontario: Consultations

  Hot damn, Ontario. While you sometimes infuriate me, when you do things right, you do it with style. 1,600 responses… and only [a]bout two dozen supported scrapping the 2015 sex ed curriculum. That’s about as blatant a “fuck you” to Ford as you can get via the medium of public consultation. Of course, it probably won’t matter. Ford isn’t scrapping the curriculum because of public concern – quite the opposite, as this gloriously proves – but rather because of his ultra-religious, social conservative base. He didn’t have popular support in the first place, so it’s possible he won’t give a fuck about it now.

• [18-Dec-2018] Naturopaths can’t suggest they’re ‘medically trained,’ New Brunswick judge rules

  The backstory here is that doctors have been complaining that naturopaths are advertising their services in deliberate deceptive ways. In some cases they have claimed to be “physicians” or have “graduated medical school”, and even when they’re not outright lying, they use vague and suggestive terminology designed to make the look like legitimate medical doctors. Well, now in New Brunswick at least – where 41% of naturopaths were using deceptive terms – a judge has put a stop to that.

• [18-Dec-2018] Opinion: Time for Catholic Church to fund its own schools in Alberta

  I don’t think readers here need another editorial to convince them that separate school systems have got to go. But read a little deeper into this one, and you may find new reasons you weren’t aware of. Turns out Catholic schools in Alberta are increasingly taking the public funds they’re being given, and diverting them to specifically religious projects.

• [18-Dec-2018] ‘This is our 21st century dilemma’: how do you recognize both atheism and faith in the classroom?

  After their absolutely disgusting take on the Bowen case (see last week’s Update) CBC tries licking its wounds a little and produces this mostly anodyne piece. I mean, it’s not anything remotely resembling an apology, and in the end it’s still just another CBC “why atheism is such a problem for Canada” piece. But at least they’re trying to come to grips with the existence of atheism, and the need for atheism to be included in the multicultural mosaic. All-in-all, not a bad piece.

• [19-Dec-2018] Police charge five St. Michael’s students in second alleged sex assault at school

  The horrible situation at St. Michael’s is not getting better. The cops are being coy about how much of it was going on, and most of the investigations have been shut down because the complainants did not want to participate in the investigation. But the most frustrating news may be that none of the administration is going to face any consequences – not even the ones who tried to bury the story. Catholic schools are all about screwing the students, one way or another.

• [19-Dec-2018] Yes, Virginia, Atheists Do Want Christmas Presents — Starting with Rights

  This is an amusing piece, and not a bad idea. The wishes are all BC-centric, unsurprisingly, but I think most are pretty universal atheist desires across Canada. I’d like to see other atheists make a list of what they want most from their governments, and maybe from society and culture in general.

• [20-Dec-2018] B.C. Electoral Reform Referendum: Voters’ motivations, and why proportional representation failed

  The big disappointment this week came out of British Columbia, where their referendum to switch to a proportional representation electoral system failed (yes, again). ARI breaks down the reasons people gave, and the loss boils down to Liberal voters and older people.

• [20-Dec-2018] Naked Trio Who Abducted Leduc, Alta. Family Had Psychotic Disorder: Judge Jacqueline Schaffter

  You remember the story of the family of naked Jehovah’s Witnesses that kidnapped a neighbouring family because they thought the world was ending (and so soon, they didn’t have time to put on clothes)? Well, there’s been a lot speculation about what the fuck set the JWs off – I’ve seen suggestions they may have been tripping on shrooms. Turns out… alternative medicine pseudoscience is to blame. They were doing something called “applied kinesiology”, a form of chiropractic. (Note: Kinesiology is real science. “Applied kinesiology” is totally unrelated bullshit.) They were also apparently doing hypnosis, and possibly other stuff. They started having psychotic incidents over a period of several days leading up to the incident, like seeing demons.

• [21-Dec-2018] Here are 6 hints that Baby Jesus stories were late additions to early Christian lore

  I think most people would be flabbergasted to learn just how little Christianity had to do with modern Christmas traditions. The tree, the gift-giving, the decorations, even Santa Claus… none of that comes from Christianity (even my favourite Christmas carol was actually ripped off from a Ukrainian pagan folk song about a bird promising a farmer that he’ll get laid). But here that idea gets turned up to eleven, because apparently the entire nativity scene is a late-stage addition to Christmas.

This will be the last Weekly Update for 2018, because I celebrate the final week of the year as a week-long bender… so I’ll be way too drunk, legally stoned, or both to manage a WU next week. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2019!

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