We present a timeline of Canada’s secular and humanist heritage.

• 1966

  

  Philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge (1919-2020) moved from Argentina to Montreal.

  He was an advocate of “exact philosophy and a critic of existentialist, hermeneutical, phenomenological philosophy, and postmodernism.  He was popularly known for his opinions against pseudoscience.

• 1967

  Victoria Humanist and Montreal Humanist magazines merged to form Humanist in Canada. In 2005, the magazine was renamed Humanist Perspectives. The quarterly journal is published by Canadian Humanist Publications (CHP), a non-profit organization with charitable status.

• 1968

  The inaugural meeting of the Humanist Association of Ottawa (HAO) took place on Friday, 6th December, 1968 in the home of Betty and Bill Slade. Joan Gawn became HAO’s first president. Joan Gawn and Don Page were elected to represent HAO at Humanist Association of Canada discussions. Don was responsible for developing the HAC constitution and along with his first wife Enid, also drafted the HAO constitution.

• 1969

  Oranyu, a secular Jewish association is founded based on the cultural and philosophical ideals of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) that originated more than 200 years ago. Humanistic Judaism is unique among modern Jewish movements in combining Jewish traditions, holidays and practices with Humanist philosophy and non-theistic liturgy.

• 1970

  

  Kai Neilsen 1926-2021) joined the University of Calgary’s Department of Philosophy.

  Nielsen was a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a past president (in 1983) of the Canadian Philosophical Association and a founding member of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

  In 1973 Nielsen was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II.

  He wrote or edited over 40 books including: Atheism And Philosophy (2005), God, Skepticism and Modernity (1989), Ethics Without God (1971),

  Nielsen died in April 2021 at the age of 94

• 1975 – 1976

  The National Assembly of Québec passed the Charter of Human Rights in Freedoms. The Charter includes the statement that, “the Québec nation considers State laicity to be of fundamental importance“. The laws was introduced by the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa.

The timeline is currently under construction. Think we’re missing something? Let us know!

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