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

• 2015

  The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the state must maintain neutrality in public affairs in the case,  Mouvement laïque québécois v Saguenay (City). The position emerges from the ruling that it was unconstitutional for the City of Saguenay, Quebec (or any level of government), to open public meetings with prayers, or to have religious symbols in municipal facilities.

• 2015

  Reva Landau, a retired business systems analyst and non-practicing lawyer living in Toronto, published Privileged Status: Public Funding – the Surprising History of Ontario Catholic Separate Schools, a 130-page book about Ontario’s history of discriminatory funding of a religious school system in Ontario.

• 2015

  Eric Adriaans, then the National Executive Director of Centre for Inquiry Canada, joined the federal government’s External Advisory Committee (EAC) on Freedom of Religion. The EAC served as an consultative body from Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom (the Office of Religious Freedom) was able to seek guidance on their mandate. Adriaans was the only secular humanist member of the EAC. Adriaans used the opportunity to advocate against Canada’s blasphemy law, Criminal Code Section 296.

• 2016

  Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was de-criminalized when euthanasia as a form of culpable homicide was removed from the Criminal Code of Canada.

• 2016

  

  James Randi (1928-2020) was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by Humanist Canada.

• 2016

  Steve Tomlins submitted the 359-page Navigating Atheist Identities: An Analysis of Nonreligious Percceptions and Experiences in the Religiously Diverse Canadian City of Ottawa to the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in Religious Studies.

• 2017

  In the summer of 2017, Dr. Richard Thain procured Winnipeg-based legal counsel, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP to represent him in a legal suit against the City of Winnipeg and Pattison Outdoor Advertising. Thain believed that he had been denied his charter right to freedom of expression.

• 2018

  Canada’s blasphemy law, Criminal Code Section 296, was repealed on December 11, 2018.

• 2019

  

  The Humanist Heritage Canada website was established as HumanistFreedoms.com.

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

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