Secular news from May 2023

The following article appeared in the June 2023 edition of Critical Links, the monthly newsletter from the Centre for Inquiry Canada. 

A roundup of secular news from the past month:

• Canada’s Coat of Arms no longer features religious symbolism. The Canadian Royal Crown that sits atop the Canada Coat of Arms has been redesigned. The new Crown features Canadian imagery (maple leaves and a snowflake) instead of religious symbols (crosses and a fleur-de-lis). While the change has little practical impact on Canadians (personally, I couldn’t recall what Canada’s Coat of Arms looked like before reading about the redesign), it’s refreshing to see Canada slowly and steadily weaning itself off its erroneous self-conception as a Christian nation. 
• Iran hangs two convicted of blasphemy. It is for good reason that “theocracy” is generally considered to be a pejorative term. Countries where religious authorities run (or significantly influence) the government tend not to respect human rights (consider Iran, Afghanistan, and Russia, among others). In the midst of an uprising wherein Iranian women are publicly removing their hijabs in record numbers (despite severe repression from government authorities), Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare were executed for “burning the Quran” and “insulting the Prophet of Islam,” according to the country’s judiciary. Fortunately, because Canada repealed its blasphemy law in 2018, Iran can no longer point to Canada for moral cover. 
• Forced-birth organization makes short list for federal funding. The Canada Student Jobs program is in the news again. In 2017, controversy erupted because federal funds were being funneled to organizations that would force a woman to give birth against her will (they refer to themselves as “pro-life” groups). The government revised the rules, but in a way that religious groups claimed restricted their religious freedom. After another overhaul of eligibility criteria, Priests for Life has recently made the short list for federal funding. Priests for Life has not yet been awarded any money, but it will be interesting to watch the government attempt to balance women’s rights with religious freedom.