• To promote education, understanding and development of the principles of Humanism
• To defend and promote policies and practices consistent with these principles
• To provide opportunities for Humanist service, study and socializing
  
• To lend assistance to other organizations when their objectives coincide with ours
  
• To offer and provide members and non-members with meaningful, dignified ceremonies, free of supernatural implications, at significant times such as marriage and death.

John Robert Colombo accepted the award as Humanist of the Year from the Humanist Association of Toronto on May 10, 2009. He gave a dynamic and far-ranging acceptance speech, which can be heard HERE, courtesy of Ben Viccari.

John Robert Colombo is the author/compiler/translator of over 200 books. His current title is "A Far Cry," a collection of poems, and coming this fall is The Big Book of Canadian Hauntings. The Toronto-based author and anthologist is best known for Colombo's Canadian Quotations. For this he is known as the Master Gatherer and the Canadian Bartlett. He hosted Space Television's "Unexplained Canada" TV series. He holds an honorary doctorate from York University, is a recipient of the Harbourfront Literary Prize, and is a Member of the Order of Canada.