Charter rights and harm: how do we address freedom of religion?
Canada is increasingly becoming a truly multicultural society. However, while embracing diversity, we sometimes encounter challenges to our legal system. The Supreme Court of Canada has recently developed legal principles on freedom of religion, which is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter") in s. 2(a)....

"We're not trying to banish religion from public life, just from the government.".
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Annie Laurie Gaylor (1955--present) Annie Laurie Gaylor was born in Tomah, Wisconsin, on November 2, 1955, along with her twin brother, Ian. As a teenager she attended protests and rallies with her mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, a former small business owner and newspaper...

The universal declaration of human rights: still ahead of its time?
THREESCORE YEARS AGO, on December 10, 1948, fifty-three nations on the earth, scarred by a terrible war, brought forth something new in human history, a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The echoes of the American and French revolutions and of Lincoln's universalizing of rights in the Gettysburg Address suggest...

Do humanists believe in Atheists?
In reviewing Chris Hedges' book I Don't Believe in Atheists (September/ October 2008) Carl Coon acknowledges Hedges' past criticism of Christian fundamentalists and then implies that the author should be "sympathetic to the humanist cause" Coon then attacks Hedges for taking "the remarkable position that the 'new atheists' are...

Battle hymn.
Amid the jubilation of the Eastern Establishment and the proclamations of redemption for past sins, a defeated minority of Americans, myself among them, is experiencing an altogether different flood of emotions in the aftermath of the people's verdict. Bewilderment, disbelief, even shame. When the roar of the...

First Freedom First: A Citizens Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] First Freedom First: A Citizens Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State By Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy and Rev. Barry W. Lynn (Beacon Press, 2008) 216 pp.; $14.00 "You say you're supposed to be nice...

Speaking power to truth: Ontario HRC and College of Physicians assault freedom of conscience.
The success of Canada's 'Human Rights' commissions and tribunals against ordinary citizens, Christians in particular, is by now a well-established trend. No surprise then that Ontario has restructured its apparatus to encourage a twenty-fold increase in complaints adjudicated. What may be a new development is the willingness of at...

Director resigns from faith-based office.
The director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Jay Hein, has resigned to care for his ill father, who is battling cancer. Hein, the White House office's third director, will leave August 29 and return to Indianapolis, said spokesperson Rebecca Neale. Hein alerted...