Samuel Wagar

Born: November 20th, 1956, Toronto, Ontario, 10:30 am

Sam Wagar has been active in the fight for human rights and religious freedoms for Canadian Wiccans for many years, as well as being a political activist and the founder of Pagan and Wiccan organizations in several provinces.

In 1982, following the death of a close friend and mentor, Wagar sought out a spiritual connection through a friend, a Priestess of the Wiccan Church of Canada. His strong feminist leanings predisposed him to a Goddess-centred religious path and he became an initiated Priest of Wicca in 1985 while spending time in New York. A year later on Mother's Day 1986 he founded his first eclectic coven. Wagar lived in various locations in Ontario before relocating to British Columbia in 1989 (and Edmonton in 2012). Sam was married in April 1987, had two sons, and was divorced in September 1999.

A close friend of Wagar described him as "highly intellectually competitive". Being well-read, thoughtful, and keeping a personal diary since 1982, Sam will often cite published sources for his arguments and documentation from his journaling. He has an MA in History (SFU 2006) and is a doctoral candidate in practical theology.

Wagar has a long history as an organizer and volunteer - founded the John Maclure Community School (1996), a branch of the Gifted Children's Association of BC (1997), and the Pagan Students Association at University of the Fraser Valley (1999), served on the executives of three NDP riding associations and the Green Party of BC Provincial Council (1996-2000).

Wagar founded the Pagans for Peace network for left-wing Pagans in 1983 and published its newsletter for twenty years until shutting it down in 2002. He is the founding HP of the Pagans for Peace Tradition of Wicca. He founded the Gathering For Life On Earth religious retreat in 1991, the Congregationalist Witchcraft Association federal church in 1991, and the CWA of BC in 2004 (assisted Alberta and Saskatchewan sister churches in 2007 and 2014), all of whose bylaws he wrote and all of which are now legal non-profit corporations owned by their membership. He coordinated the Canadian National Pagan Conference (2009) in Vancouver and served on its National Board (2007-2010).

The proudest accomplishment of Sam’s life has been obtaining the legal right to perform marriages. He professes himself to be a hopeless romantic and loves performing baby-blessings as well.

Political and Pagan

In 1994, Sam was a NDP candidate for election for Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia but was subsequently stripped of his candidacy after it became public that he was Wiccan. Wagar took the BC NDP, then governing party, before the Human Rights Council and won a full apology in 1995. He retains several books of newspaper clippings from this experience and gained notoriety for his successful fight in advancing the fundamental legal rights of Canadian Wiccans. Wagar’s legal battle has been included in various university textbooks on human rights and he takes great pride in his advancement of the human rights and religious freedoms of Wiccans in Canada. In 1996 Sam ran for election as a Green Party candidate although he's no longer a Green supporter.