OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Federal Government
Third Time’s A Charm For Transgender Rights Bill?
A private member’s bill that would explicitly add human rights protections for transgender and transsexual persons has made it past second reading in the House of Commons this month.
This is the third time that Bill Siksay has attempted to add these protections into Canada’s Human Rights Act and Criminal Code. The previous attempts had been thwarted when parliament was strategically suspended by the Conservative Party, once for an election, and again when parliament was prorogued in January.
The bill has support from every party, except the Conservatives, who are arguing that protections for trans people are already covered by existing clauses preventing discrimination based on sex and disability. Siksay, as well as I, believe that these protections need to be explicit. This will not only remove any doubt for interpretation, should these protections ever be brought before a judge, but also sends a message to trans people that they are recognized and valued in Canada. But something tells me that the Conservatives aren’t really against what they perceive as redundancies; they just don’t typically like to be seen supporting rights for GLBT Canadians.
Having passed second reading is a really encouraging milestone, and a good indication that this bill might actually make it all the way through this time. Best of luck with the bill, Bill!
A very special hat tip goes to Slap reader Melanie for the story.
Gay Rights Deliberately Nixed From Immigrants Guide
Remember the government’s 63-page guide for new immigrants? Intended to teach potential citizens the ins and outs of Canadian culture, the guide was mysteriously missing any meaningful mention of GLBT rights.
Shortly after the final draft of the guide was released, Canada’s largest gay rights group, Egale, arranged a meeting with Jason Kenney, the Tory minister for Immigration and Citizenship in November. At the time, he told the group that gay rights had simply been “overlooked” during the design of the guide.
Interestingly enough, the Canadian Press revealed yesterday that not only were gay rights not overlooked in early drafts of the guide, but they were actually ordered to be removed by Kenney himself back in June.
The order to nix the gay rights sections didn’t go over well with civil servants, mind you. In August, a memo addressed to Kenney from Neil Yeates, the department’s deputy minister, urged that the GLBT-related sections be readded. Two bullet points from the memo read:
Recommend the re-insertion of the text boxes related to [...] the decriminalization of homosexual sex/recognition of same-sex marriage
Recommend the addition of ‘equality rights’ under list of rights. Had noted earlier that this bullet should be reinserted into the list as a means of noting the equality of all based on race, gender, sexual orientation etc.
Kenney—who fought against same-sex marriage from 2005-2006 and voted to open a debate to ban same-sex marriage in 2007—vetoed the recommendations, and 500,000 copies of the guide were printed without mention of GLBT rights.
So, I guess that’s what’s Kenney means by “overlooked.” (Perhaps he has a different edition of the dictionary that I do.)
Applicants for Canadian citizenship, incidentally, will be tested on the contents of the guide starting March 15th. So beware the Ides of March, new immigrants—and especially gay ones; your future government is the type that would censor your very first introduction to our country and culture.
Canada’s New Immigrants Guide Leaves Out Gays
The Government of Canada has released a new guide directed toward new immigrants to help them adjust to Canadian culture. Not a bad idea, actually!
Still, while the guide has entire sections devoted to gender equality and diversity, the GLBT community was somehow left out of both. In fact, the only mention of gays anywhere occurs in a section about sports, arts, and culture; tucked away in the sidebar is a photo of Mark Tewksbury, accompanied by the caption: “Mark Tewksbury, Olympic gold medalist and prominent activist for gay and lesbian Canadians.”
Surprising, given Canada’s advancements in equal rights and the exhaustive coverage of gender and diversity issues, you think there’d at least be a mention of same-sex marriage or other details of interest to gay immigrants.
Then again, Canada has an abysmal record of accommodating GLBT refugees, many of whom simply want asylum from unjust laws in their home countries. If the government doesn’t feel the responsibility to welcome those who need to immigrate the most, then why have the courtesy to acknowledge those who are coming under standard immigration circumstances?
Anti-Gay Columnist Hired To Write Harper’s Speeches
One of the hardest things about the whole same-sex marriage debate back in 2005/2006 was simply picking up the newspaper or turning on the television and feeling attacked and maligned every day. It was relentless: The gays are destroying this, the gays will undermine that, they’re worse than X, they have no right to Y… Unless you’re LGBT, I think it’s hard to understand exactly how that affects human spirit.
At the time, I was living in Calgary—home of Stephen Harper’s own riding and the heartland of Canada’s social conservatism. If you asked me to make a list of all the crazies in the media that irked me the most, there’s a columnist that would be near the top. Now, I didn’t exactly frame Nigel Hannaford’s delightfully panicked columns for posterity, but Xtra found some typical examples of his, uh, scribery:
Leave gays alone? Fair enough. But, let ‘em be Boy Scout leaders? Have each other’s benefits? Adopt kids? Marry each other? Ridiculous. Anybody seeking political office who suggested it would have been laughed off the hustings. Yet, the Liberals are ready to legalize gay marriage. How did we get to this point?
Well, guess who’s been hired as Stephen Harper’s new speech writer?
You know my email address, right? I’ll wait here for your guesses.
(So… Chilly weather we’ve been having, eh? That reminds me, I ought to buy a pumpkin for Halloween before it’s too late and all the good ones are taken. There’ll only be ones with squished sides totally caked in dried soil, I just know it.)
OK, I’ll just say it: It’s Nigel Hannaford!
He’s not the first anti-gay extremist to be given a top PMO gig, and won’t be the last. Still, this is an unusually visible position to give a writer whose opinion is held only by a small and shrinking minority of Canadians—and particularly from within a party that desperately needs to paint itself as moderate in order to win majority support.
If Hannaford’s speeches are any bit as unmeasured as his columns, well, we’ll see what Canadians think. He won’t just be speaking to the Conservative heartland anymore, after all; it’s the whole country.
(A big hat tip goes to Montreal Simon for alerting me to the story!)
Canadian Policy Changes Remove Transgender Recognition
It looks like the transgender community is being left in the dust after some government-approved language changes at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency. All occurrences of “gender equality” in policy documents have been replaced with “equality of men and women,” leaving out everyone in-between.
Lindsay Mossman, a campaigner at Amnesty International, said the change is more significant than it may seem:
[Equality of men and women] is language that was used in development circles years ago. Language has progressed for reasons and moved forward and the Canadian government doesn’t seem to be reflecting [that].
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon (henceforth known as Alien Matters Manager Orderance Trebuchet) confirmed to the press (henceforth known as the ironing) that some of the wording changes did, indeed, signal a change in policy, although he wouldn’t confirm whether this change was one of them. If this is a policy change, it has implications for immigrants and refugees, as well as funding decisions for GLBT organisations. Sneaky sneaky!
- Gay Rights Groups Decry Language Changes [Embassy]
Charitable Status Revoked From Gay Drop-In Centre
The Pride Centre of Edmonton, a non-profit organisation featuring senior’s drop-in activities, a library, mentorship program, clothing bank and youth shelter, is in serious trouble. The centre, which relies entirely on donations, had its charitable status revoked in 2004 after being declared a political organisation by the federal government.
Jocylan McDonnell, one of the Price Centre’s board members, said that they have made a significant effort to be non-partisan. Still, despite relocating twice and replacing their board and administrators, it is now ineligable to issue tax receipts.
As Montreal Simon poignantly notes, gay seniors in particular have had to endure a lot—much more than younger generations can imagine—and they don’t often have access to the peer support that today’s youth does. A Gay senior’s drop-in centre is a place where they can socialize safely and openly, but Edmonton’s is at risk while harmful, vocal, and politically active anti-gay organisations such as Focus on the Family Canada and REAL Women of Canada are still permitted to accept tax deductable donations.
Something’s awry, don’t you think?
Unless… that crafty senior’s centre is up to something that we don’t know about yet; something sinister…
Evangelical Lobbyists Get Top PMO Gigs
The Prime Minister’s office has shuffled some top positions this week, and the appointments are raising some eyebrows.
Darrel Reid, the former head of Canada’s largest anti-gay lobby group, Focus on the Family Canada, has been promoted to the Prime Minister’s Deputy Chief of Staff. While working for Focus, Reid lobbied against same-sex marriage, the adding of sexual orientation to the list of minorities protected from hate crimes, and has actively promoted the harmful and discredited practise of conversion therapy for gays. He was initially awarded a government job by Harper in 2006, and has since been promoted several times across unrelated departments.
Reid’s old job, Director of Policy, has now been assigned to Paul Wilson, the former executive director of Trinity Western who coordinated government internships for the Christian university’s students.
Well, I’m shocked—shocked!—that Stephen Harper, of all people, would be in such tight circles with the religious right. Imagine!
Government to Gays: Don’t Tell Us You’re Married
Well, it’s census time in Canada again. Ah, Cenususeses… Censii? Those dainty twice-a-decade questionnaires where you get to inform the government of all your personal relationships. But, for all the happily married gay couples out there this year, don’t be so quick to check the “husband or wife” bubble when describing your partner’s relationship to you! The government has provided special instructions for your type.
That’s right; someone must’ve missed the point of the whole equal marriage law, because the census form now instructs all same-sex married couples to check “other” instead of “husband or wife” when describing their partners. This would put your beloved spouse in the same category as cousin, niece or nephew, roommate’s spouse or child, and, of course, employee.
Naturally, Egale Canada, a Canadian gay human rights group, is disappointed.
Everyone who completes the 2006 Census will see that our relationships are segregated. We’re already getting phone calls from dismayed members and we’re concerned about the subtle yet widespread impact of millions of Canadians seeing that our marriages are denigrated in this way.
Sad. But, who knows? Maybe this new terminology will catch on—even among straight people! Everyone will dream of that special day when they walk down the isle to profess their undying love—to hear those wonderful words, “I now pronounce you other and other.” (Sniff.)
- Right’s group blasts census for advice to gay couples [Globe and Mail]
- Census error unfair to married same-sex couples [Egale Canada]
