There were hundreds of headlines that could have been included in a look at all things scientific and secular in 2017, but we are bringing you a smattering of them here.

International Oppression of Secularists

July: Marked the 5-year anniversary of blogger Raif Badawi's imprisonment in Saudi Arabia. Despite continual efforts by many groups, including CFI and the Canadian government, Badawi, imprisoned for blasphemy, stands merely halfway through his 10-year sentence.

June: In related stories, Pakistan saw some severe punishments for blasphemy in 2017.  Taimoor Taza was sentenced to death for committing blasphemy on Facebook , part of a crackdown by the Pakistani government on secular dissent, which can also incur non-government-sanctioned mob vigilante retaliation.

April: An example of mob retaliation is the case of Mashal Khan, who was shot and beaten to death on his university campus, by fellow students, for allegedly posting blasphemous material, which it seems was a false accusation by the school.

CFIC will continue to raise awareness about these and similar international violations of human rights. We will continue to advocate as a member of the 

Quebec 's Face-Cover Ban

October: Quebec instituted a ban preventing any individual whose face is covered from receiving or providing public service, including public transportation and healthcare. Opponents of the law argue that it targets Muslim women and therefore amounts to discrimination. Proponents argue that it targets any kind of face covering, including sunglasses, in the context of public service and therefore does not amount to discrimination.

Women's Reproductive Rights

January:  Abortion services became available in P.E.I. for the first time in 35 years.

October:  Ontario passed Bill 163, the Protecting a Woman's Right to Access Abortion Services Act, 2017. The provincial legislation, which improves access to abortion and reproductive health services, also creates safe access zones around abortion clinics.

November: Health Canada extended to nine weeks  (instead of the original seven) the period at the start of a pregnancy when a woman can use Mifegymiso, a medical abortion pill also known as RU-486. Despite Health Canada's 2015 approv al of Mifegymiso, the drug was largely unavailable until recently. Further, six provinces (Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Quebec, and British Columbia being the latest) have elected to provide the pill, which in some cases can cost up to $400, for free.

Dr. Henry Morgantaler was one of the original founders of Centre for Inquiry Canada. We have come a very long way since the January 28, 1988, Supreme Court of Canada decision striking down Canada's anti-abortion law as unconstitutional.

Pseudo-medicine

March: After a 2015, CBC exposé ab out the lack of evidence supporting the claims made on many homeopathic remedy labels, Health Canada gave manufacturers two years to meet new standards for labeling. Enforcement seems to have been a problem, however. As of March, 2017, most manufacturers of homeopathic products continued to display the offending labels . 

LGBTQ Rights

September: Although Ontario and Manitoba banned conversion therapy in 2015, other provinces have been slow to follow suit. In particular, the Alberta government has been called to task for not passing legislation prohibiting it.

Refusal of Medical Treatment

October: A  Quebec coroner concluded that the refusal of blood transfusions was key in the deaths of two mothers who died from complications involving loss of blood after giving birth. The women, Éloïse Dupuis and Mirlande Cadet, were Jehovah's Witnesses. Blood transfusions are forbidden in the Jehovah's Witness faith.

November:  A Calgary court dismissed an appeal by David and Collet Stephan concerning their conviction of "failing to provide necessaries of life" for their son Ezekiel, who died of meningitis in 2012. Instead of seeking medical assistance to treat their son's illness, the Stephans relied on so-called natural remedies.

 

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)

October: Despite MAID being legalized in Canada in June, 2016, some faith-based hospitals are making it difficult for patients to access it. One such example comes from the Misericordia Health Centre in Winnipeg. An 88-year-old patient named Cheppudira Gopalkrishna, who suffers from incurable Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS), has been asking to be euthanized. He claims his requests, though not officially denied, have been delayed unnecessarily by Misericordia staff, who won't perform such a procedure for religious reasons. They require Gopalkrishna to be moved to a separate facility for the procedure.

 

The Trump Administration

While we could have provided the entire "year in review" about the Trump administration, firing of government scientists, alternate facts, and denial of climate change, we've elected to limit our coverage to his December headlines.

Donald Trump fired the remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS which was started under the Clinton administration in 1995. This is believed to be his retaliation for a mass resignation of council members in June over disagreements with other Trump health policies.

Trump issued the third version of his travel ban, focused predominantly on Muslim-majority countries. Despite the continuing efforts of numerous organizations to oppose the ban, and while legal challenges to the policy trudge through the justice system, the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect.

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Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private evangelical Christian university in British Columbia. It has been in existence for over fifty years, and has a teacher's college and nursing school in addition to offering a range of undergraduate programs. It plans to open a law school, admitting 60 students a year, in September 2018. As a private university, TWU is immune to challenges based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; it also has been granted an exemption from British Columbia Human Rights legislation. 

 

All students must sign a  Community Covenant which, among other things, restricts sexual intimacy to married couples, where marriage is defined as between one man and one woman. A student breaching any part of the Covenant is subject to academic discipline, up to and including expulsion. 

 

The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) and the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) found the Covenant to be so repellent they refused to accredit TWU, which means its graduates would not be able to practice law in Ontario or BC. Trinity Western sued, claiming the law societies had no right to refuse to accredit TWU.  The case was heard by the Supreme Court on November 30 and December 1, 2017.

 

TWU made the following arguments to support its case:

The last two points were firmly rejected by several of the Justices.

 

The law societies made several claims: 

In addition to TWU, LSUC, and LSBC, there were 19 interveners, each of which had five minutes to address some aspect of the case. 

 

A decision is expected to be handed down later this year. 

 

You can read more details about the arguments presented by TWU, the law societies, and the many intervenors at the hearing  here.