Toronto AA Intergroup Finally Lets Agnostics, Atheists Back In
The Toronto-based AA group was accused of discrimination based on religious creed in 2014.
By Victoria Kim
02/09/17
After years of trying to keep secular AA groups out of its official directory, the Greater Toronto Area Intergroup (GTAI) has lost this battle. This month, AA Agnostica reported that GTAI finally agreed to once again include agnostic and atheist AA groups in its meetings directory.
GTAI “de-listed” the secular groups, Beyond Belief and We Agnostics, back in 2011 because they removed and replaced any reference to God in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
In September 2014, a local member of We Agnostics, Larry Knight, filed a claim against AA World Services and GTAI with Ontario’s human rights tribunal, accusing GTAI of discrimination based on religious creed.
“The only requirement for membership in AA is this desire to achieve sobriety and to help others in this achievement,” said Knight in a January 2016 hearing. But GTAI clearly wasn’t moved by his argument, and said in a statement, “It is a bona fide requirement that groups that wish to be part of this intergroup must have a belief in the higher power of God.”
https://www.thefix.com/toronto-aa-intergroup-finally-lets-agnostics-atheists-back
http://aaagnostica.org/2017/02/02/toronto-intergroup-yields-to-agnostics-in-aa/
