Human rights and human dignity are matters with which humanism is very much concerned. The declining respect for both, especially in developed countries such as Canada, particularly among law enforcement agencies and legal systems, is extremely troubling.

In recent weeks the media has been full of the misdeeds of various police forces during the G20 summit meeting and other situations. While it is readily admitted that the police have always had a difficult job to do in controlling crime, that is neither a reason nor an excuse for abusing their powers. Particularly when we remember that in a free society, the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

In Canada honest citizens have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which, both in theory and in practice, protects us all from arbitrary arrest, search and seizure. This is the argument that will presumably be presented at the class action suit being arranged against the Toronto police for improper arrest and detention during the G20 weekend when the case comes to trial.

Why would anyone call themselves atheist when it can't be proved that there is no god.  The absence of something  or even someone, can never be proved with 100% certainty.  So wouldn't agnostic be a better description?  But consider that I can't 100% prove that my mother and father are really my mother and father - yet I go through my life assuming that they are.  I "believe" that they are; I act as if they are.  I also can't prove many other things around me - but it's not useful to make a complicated philosophy about these things.  There's no value to me in worrying about whether other people visualize things the same as I do, or whether computers really work the way I've been told.  Once things get to be highly probable, I act as if they are certain.  It's highly probable that lightning will not strike me dead in the next 15 minutes.  So I do not get my affairs in order just in case.  Life is full of these highly probable things.

Kevin Annett was a minister in the United Church of Canada and he uncovered a history of abuse and violence by the Churches in Canada against the native people.  It started with the Catholic Church and through agreements between Catholic hierarchy and government, the Church was given land and financial powers which they then used to abuse the natives in many ways.  Later, the Protestant churches followed suit so that it's not just the Catholics.  Kevin tried to point out the abuses and got fired for his trouble and now cannot make a living in Canada.  He has made a documentary movie on the subject and he is working in England to get the word out.  He feels that it is not just Canada, where he uses the word genocide to describe the Church's behaviour, but Churches in Italy, Ireland, the U.S. and the U.K. are also guilty.