Tag Archives: Saskatoon Freethinkers

Feb 12: 2013 Darwin Day Celebration!

2 Feb

February 12th is the birthday of Charles Darwin, and “Darwin Day” is a global celebration of science and reason. This will be the 5th celebration in Saskatoon and the 3rd year that the Saskatchewan Minister of Education has recognised February 12 as Darwin Day in Saskatchewan!

The University of Saskatchewan Freethought Alliance, Saskatoon Skeptics and Centre for Inquiry Saskatchewan are proud to host the annual Darwin Day celebration in Saskatoon on February 12 from 7-10 pm.

Come and help us celebrate Darwin’s 205th birthday with 2 presentations followed by discussions. Speakers this year are paleontologist Frank McDougall and biologist Tracy Marchant. Tracy Marchant’s talk, “The Animal Tree of Life”, will focus on the changes in our understanding of evolution, particularly of vertebrates, since Darwin’s time.  Frank McDougall will speak on how the geography of the Cypress Hills Uplands area affected the flora and fauna in that area.

Birthday cake and coffee will be available and the Museum of Natural Sciences is nearby for touring and working on a scavenger hunt.

Schedule of Events (subject to change):

6:30 pm Doors open

7:00 pm Introduction & 1st Presentation

8:15 pm Birthday Cake & Coffee; Museum Touring

8:45 pm 2nd Presentation

10:00 pm Pub Discussion (anyone interested can join us for further discussion & cheer – at nearby Alexander’s Restaurant)

You are welcome to attend all or any part of the event.

Donations are welcome and appreciated. Suggested donation: $10 (not required). Charitable donations to the Centre for Inquiry Saskatchewan are eligible for a tax receipt if contact information is provided.

Come out for an evening celebrating science!

If you are not familiar with campus, please have a look at this map.
Here are some parking suggestions that are near the biology building. Most should have a maximum of $4.00 to park there in the evening.

  • Lot 5 beneath Agriculture Building
  • Lot 1 across from Place Riel
  • Lot 8 by Physics
  • F lot beside the education building
  • G lot behind Thorvalson
  • Meters will cost $1/hr with a 4 hour maximum

We are looking for volunteers to help with the following tasks:

1) Putting up posters – ASAP

2) Event set-up – 6:15pm Feb 12
3) Event assistance (e.g. door greeter, sales table, display table, speaker contact at event) – during event Feb 12
4) Event clean-up – 9:45-10:15pm Feb 12 (some may be done during the last lecture, so that we can get out and to the pub discussion promptly;)

Please email Kendra if you are able to help out in any way.

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September 18: Leaving Mormonism

28 Aug

We will have a local student, Dustin Patzer, as our guest speaker.  Dustin will discuss his journey out of Mormonism and answer our questions.  For a preview, check out I am an ex Mormon.  Dustin served as a missionary before leaving the church.

The Mormon Church is formally called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS Church for short.

Brian Dalton of Mr. Deity fame, is also an ex-Mormon and he uses the term ”Formon” = former Mormon.

Note: Attendees start gathering and visiting at 11:30 am. We begin the formal meeting (announcements then the presentation/discussion) at about 12:00 pm (after meal orders have been taken). You are not required to order any food or drink. If you do order something, please remember to tip the waitress because they have a lot to keep track of with our group and they work around our table arrangements and presentation equipment.  Also, we use the large side room at Venice House for free and they have been quite accommodating. We bring a sample of our library to the regular meetings and you are welcome to borrow something. If you have any specific requests, please contact our Secretary, Selene. We also take donations at every meeting and sometimes have items for purchase.

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February 12th: 2011 Darwin Day Celebration!

28 Jan

February 12th is the birthday of Charles Darwin, and “Darwin Day” is a global celebration of science and reason. The Minister of Education has designated February 12, 2011 as Darwin Day in Saskatchewan!

The Saskatoon Skeptics and Saskatoon Freethinkers aka Centre for Inquiry Saskatchewan are proud to host the third annual Darwin Day celebration in Saskatoon on February 12 from 1:00-5:30 pm. Come and help us celebrate Darwin’s 202nd birthday with a film and 2 presentations followed by discussions. Birthday cake and coffee will be available outside the theatre.

We are hosting this event in conjunction with The Saskatoon Secular Family Network which will put on Family Activities from 1:30-4:00 pm. Children of all ages are welcome; all minors require a guardian. There will be fun science experiments and activities for the entire family (RSVP here). This will take place in the “band room” of the school – look for the signs!

Schedule of Events:
1:00-2:30 pm Introduction & Film (part)
What Darwin Never Knew
2:30-3:00 pm Birthday Cake & Coffee; Displays and Activities
3:00-4:00 pm 1st Presentation
Prof. Larry Stewart,Department of History
4:00-4:15 pm Break
4:15-5:30 pm 2nd Presentation
Prof. Angela Lieverse, Department of Archaeology & Anthropology
5:30 pm Pub Discussion (anyone interested can join us for further discussion & cheer – location TBD)
1:30-4:00 pm Family Activities

You are welcome to attend all or any part of the event.

Donations are welcome and appreciated. Suggested minimum donation: $10 (not required). Charitable donations are eligible for a tax receipt if relevant information is provided.

Come out for an afternoon celebrating science!

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Jan 30: Annual General Meeting

22 Dec
Location: Venice House, 906 Central Avenue Saskatoon, SK
The Saskatoon Freethinkers second Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on January 30, 2011. We will review our progress so far and get feedback from members on future plans.

We’ll also be welcoming the new council members who will be elected by poll prior to the meeting. See Dale’s message board post for more details.

We still have a few T-shirts (small and medium for $25 each or $20 for CFI Friends of the Centre) and black, smoke, and navy fleece jackets (variety of sizes for $40 each).

Note that we are at Venice House over lunch, so you are welcome to eat, but you are not obliged to buy anything. If you do, we encourage to be very patient with the servers and to remember to tip them – Venice House has been very accommodating and we are using the room for free.

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November 7th Special Meetup: Justin Trottier speaking about CFI

24 Oct

Justin Trottier of Centre for Inquiry Canada will be in Saskatoon for the weekend. We will hold a public event (lecture) on Friday night and then Justin will address our members on Sunday, November 7. This is our regular meetup time and place, but it is an additional meetup to our schedule. Two weeks later, we will have our regularly scheduled meetup, which will be a General Meeting.

This event will give our members a chance to find out what’s involved in becoming a CFI Community Group and to ask Justin about any concerns or curiosities we may have related to CFI and community status. We will also learn more about what is happening with freethought in Canada and future plans.

Additional information will be provided prior to this event.

Donations to the Centre for Inquiry are appreciated and we encourage everyone to become a Friend of the Centre (or renew your previous membership). Charitable donations can be made directly to the Centre for Inquiry to receive a tax receipt. Please make a note that your donation should be directed to the costs of Justin’s trip to Sasaktoon.

Justin Trottier is the Executive Director of the Centre for Inquiry Canada, host of Think Again TV! as well as a contributor to the National Post and the Michael Coren Show on CTS TV. As an outspoken advocate of freedom of expression and inquiry, science education, church-state separation, and equality rights for non-believers, he’s appeared on TVO, CBC, CTV, Global, CityTV, OMNI and the Space Channel, among other networks. He was the chief spokesperson for the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign.

Saskatoon Freethinkers members can RSVP for this event on our Meetup site or on our Facebook page.

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October 17: “Deliver Us from Evil” Documentary

3 Oct

Announcing a new Meetup for Saskatoon Freethinkers!

What: “Deliver us from Evil” documentary
When: Sunday, October 17, 2010 11:30 AM
Where: Venice House, 906 Central Avenue , Saskatoon, SK S7N 2G8, 306-373-6666

“Deliver us from Evil“, a documentary everyone should see. This idea was posted by Claude some time ago. For our next regular meetup, we will watch the film and Claude will lead the discussion.

Director Amy Berg helms this shocking documentary [2006], which looks at the activities of a priest named Oliver O’Grady. Identified by the Catholic church as a pedophile, they allowed him to continue to work and molest children throughout the 1970s. Berg draws on interview footage of O’Grady and his victims to tell the unsettling tale.

Online Review
Deliver Us From Evil is a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O’Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O’Grady’s victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking.

RSVP to this Meetup:
http://www.meetup.com/Saskatoon-Freethinkers/calendar/14879700/

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September 19: Theo-Conservativism and the Canadian Religious Right

12 Sep
Location: Venice House

906 Central Avenue
Saskatoon, SK S7N 2G8
306-373-6666

Earlier this summer, Random House Canada published Marci MacDonald’s The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, which documents the role of Conservative Christianity in Canadian politics, with special attention to PM Stephen Harper’s government. One of our members, Tim Thibault, was important as a research source for Marci MacDonald in putting this book together. At this meet up, we have invited Tim to give us the lowdown on the book and some of the back story to the research of the book.

It would be ideal if we could all read the book for this meet up, but if that is not possible, MacDonald has also published a similarly-themed article in the Walrus: “Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons”.

Also, Marci MacDonald was interviewed on CBC’s The Current, which you can hear here. Also check out the responses to this interview here.

At this meetup, we will also allow anyone who wants to participate to Stand Up Against Poverty. It is a worldwide call to make poverty history and to meet the Millennium Development Goals. We will read a statement, have eveyone who is willing stand up, take a picture, and report the numbers.

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Separate Schools and Public Funding: August 22nd

11 Aug

906 Central Avenue
Saskatoon, SK S7N 2G8
306-373-6666

As you know, Canada has a separate school system run in the name of the Catholic religion. At this meet-up, we will be examining questions concerning religious-based education and public funding for religion.

Mainly, we will be taking a look at part of a CFI Ontario Panel Discussion on the subject. Here is the video on CFI’s You-tube channel (for those who just can’t wait!).

Cafe Inquiry Public Funding of Religious Groups

Another video with Justin Trottier on this issue:

Justin Trottier-end public funds to religious schools

Here also is an article on the subject from the Canadian Encyclopedia:

Separate Schools — The Canadian Encyclopedia

And several websites mainly focused on the Ontario dispute over separate schools from a few years ago, but with resources worth checking out:

One School System Network

Education Equality in Ontario

Civil Rights in Public Education

Please check back for further information, or RSVP for the event if you would like to attend!

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Guest Speaker Chris diCarlo: “We Are All African”

17 Jul

The Saskatoon Freethinkers are excited to announce a special public event.

When: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 6:30 PM
Where: Frances Morrison Public Library
311 – 23rd St. E.
Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J6
975-7558

Dr. Chris diCarlo will give a talk related to his recent Free Inquiry article (PDF) titled We are all African! Can scientific proof of our commonality save us?

His lecture tour We Are All African has been presented across North America and has helped raised awareness of evolutionary theory and funding for the Bracelet of Hope campaign, which is a charity raising money for an HIV awareness program and the Tšepong HIV/Aids clinic in Lesotho, Africa.

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Agenda

6:30 pm Doors Open
7:00 pm Welcome and Lecture followed by questions
9:00 pm Social

We’ll probably continue the discussion at a pub.
No food or drink is allowed in the theatre, but there will be coffee available outside the room.

Free admission (donations appreciated) – Minimum suggested donation: $10
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Short Biography

Ontario’s Best Lecturer 2008 and Canada’s Humanist of the Year 2008, Christopher diCarlo is a Philosopher of Science and Ethics whose interests in cognitive evolution have taken him into the natural and social sciences.

His personal research focuses on how and why humans reason, think, and act the way they do. He is interested in how and why the human brain has evolved to its current state and what cross-cultural and cross-species behaviour can provide insight into universally common modes of reasoning. He is also interested in the application of neuroscience (specifically fMRI work), in an effort to better understand psychoneuroendocrine feedback looping in problem solving.

Dr. diCarlo is a Fellow/Advisor with the Centre for Inquiry Canada. His most recent book (just released by McGraw-Hill Ryerson) is entitled How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Practical Guide to Thinking Critically.

He is also a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University in the Department of Anthropology and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology where he conducted research for two books he is currently writing called The Comparative Brain: The Evolution of Human Reasoning and The Evolution of Religion: Why Many Need to Believe in Deities, Demons, and the Unseen.

As an outspoken activist for freethought, humanism, and secularism, Dr diCarlo supports and is a life member of the Humanist Association of Canada and the Society of Ontario Freethinkers. He is also a board advisor to Freethought TV, an annual workshop presenter at Camp Quest Ontario, and has given many enlightening talks at numerous humanist events across the country. He was also the first Atheist invited to speak at the annual World Religions Conference in Kitchener, Ontario.

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There is an article about diCarlo and the controversy this topic caused in Humanist Perspectives.

If anyone would like to donate to this event, you can do that in person at our meetup on July 18 and you can also send mail to

Saskatoon Freethinkers
Box 31043 RPO Broadway & Taylor
Saskatoon, SK, S7H 5S8

This is a bit short notice, but was a great opportunity because Chris is driving through Saskatchewan on a lecture tour. We hope everyone will try to attend and support this event. Tell your friends and help us get the word out!

We are looking for volunteers to help out on the day of the event with greeting, set up, and clean up. Let us know if you are willing to lend a hand.

RSVP to this event on Facebook or on our Meetup site at http://www.meetup.com/Saskatoon-Freethinkers/calendar/14127550/.

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Open Thread Meetup

29 Jun

July 18th, 11:30AM to 2:30 PM

Venice House

906 Central Avenue
Saskatoon, SK S7N 2G8
306-373-6666

For July, we will have an informal type of Meetup. This will allow people to socialize more in a casual atmosphere.

We’ll suggest a few questions (e.g. What is a freethinker?) and just let people discuss those or other ideas in small groups. We’ll check in at the end to see how members like this format and what interesting things everyone discussed.

Visit our Facebook page or the Meetup site to RSVP!

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