gender

Saturday May 12, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 12, 2018

NDP suspends Quebec MP Christine Moore in wake of inappropriate conduct allegations

November 6, 2014

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has temporarily suspended Quebec MP Christine Moore from her duties with the party and ordered an investigation after a veteran of the war in Afghanistan accused her of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

The allegations against Moore are the latest to rock the third-place party. Singh expelled another MP from caucus last week following a three-month investigation that was sparked by a complaint from Moore.

In an interview, retired corporal Glen Kirkland said Moore first approached him after he testified before a parliamentary committee in June 2013, where he had been asked to speak on the treatment of ill and injured soldiers.

January 31, 2018

Kirkland was wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008 while driving a light-armoured vehicle that was hit by recoilless rifle fire. The shot killed three other soldiers and left Kirkland with severe injuries, including a damaged pancreas and right eye, crushed vertebrae, bleeding in the brain and PTSD.

Kirkland did not want to get into specifics Tuesday. But he did tell the CBC that Moore followed him back to his hotel and continued to send explicit messages, even turning up unannounced at his Manitoba home before he forcibly told her to stop.

January 26, 2018

“I’m not claiming rape or anything,” Kirkland, who is now a real estate agent in Brandon, Man., told CP. But, he said, “she was inappropriate. She used her position of power and authority to get what she wanted.”

In a statement released Tuesday, Singh said Moore will remain a member of caucus pending the results of an investigation, but that she is being temporarily relieved of her duties on committees and other party matters.

“I take these allegations very seriously and I will be appointing an independent investigator to conduct a fair and full examination,” Singh said. (Source: Edmonton Journal) 

 

Thursday March 22, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 22, 2018

Service Canada moves away from calling Canadians Mr., Mrs., or Ms.

Service Canada employees who interact with the public are being asked to stay away from terms like Mr., Mrs., father and mother, and to use gender-neutral terms in their place, CBC News has learned.

According to documents obtained by Radio Canada, the French-language arm of CBC, front-line staff must now “use gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language.”

“This avoids portraying a perceived bias toward a particular sex or gender,” says a copy of speaking notes prepared for managers and team leaders.

“It is important that Service Canada, as an organization, reflects Canada’s diverse population and ensures that the views and interests of Canadians are taken into account when we develop policies, programs, services and initiatives,” says the directive.

The new guidelines also rule out using terms such as mother and father because they are “gender specific” and say the neutral word “parent” should be used instead.

The same goes for honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms., and in both languages. Instead, employees are being directed to address customers by their full names or ask them what they want to be called.

Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, whose department oversees Service Canada, took to Twitter Wednesday to clarify that agents can still call people Mr. or Ms. if that’s what the caller prefers.

“We are only confirming how people want to be addressed as a matter of respect,” he said. (Source: CBC News) 

Letter to the Editor (Hamilton Spectator – March 28, 2018)

Editorial cartoon was tone-deaf

I can’t begin to imagine what led not only Graeme MacKay, but a team of editors, to think the Service Canada this cartoon was anything other than ignorant, transphobic and hugely problematic.

I had to read it twice because I thought I was missing something. I hoped there was no way it could be as tone-deaf as it seemed at first reading.

Since Service Canada announced its new gender-neutral directive, I’ve read and heard a lot of opinions (wholly from people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) about how “ridiculous” they find the directive to ask Canadians if they identify as Mr./Mrs. or mother/father (by extension, male/female/non-binary).

Here’s the thing — this isn’t a measure taken in service of people who have no problem being referred to by the gender they appear to have been assigned at birth. This is a measure being taken in service of transgender and non-binary Canadians, many of whom have likely long felt uncomfortable being referred to incorrectly, and many of whom may have been too nervous or exhausted to explain (judging from the landslide of negative reactions in recent days, including the Spec’s own editorial comic, it’s easy to understand that anxiety).

I’ll never be able to get my head around people who want to oppose others’ rights to safety, inclusion and non-discrimination. Unless the Spec can speak to (and meaningfully apologize for) its decision to run this cartoon, that includes this paper.

Amy Kenny, Hamilton

Letter to the Editor (Hamilton Spectator – March 28, 2018)

Cartoon played to transphobia

I’m disappointed by this editorial cartoon, which relies on and reproduces transphobia. I’m gender non-binary and I assure you that, while I can be hilarious, being gender nonconforming is not, in itself, hilarious. The federal government has a strong role in shaping society, and its recent moves toward gender inclusive language, however small, are part of making Canada actually safer for people whose gender identities, like mine, don’t line up with the bodies they were born into. This cartoon is insulting and cheap, and doesn’t pass as humour for me.

Mx. Carla Borstad Klassen (they/them pronouns)

Commentary (Hamilton Spectator – March 26, 2018)

Tone-deaf cartoon made a mockery of LGBTQI2S+ community struggles

I finally had a chance to read my Spectator last Thursday on my bus ride home after a very long day at work. A day that had me listening on my headphones while working on my computer to fellow LGBTQI2S+ activists via Facebook Live. They held a news conference at The 519 Community Centre in the heart of Toronto’s Queer Village and demanded a public inquiry into the Toronto Police Service’s investigation of a serial killer who had targeted gay men.

They protested outside of Toronto Police headquarters and demanded the resignation of Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders for his mishandling of the investigation and victim blaming of the LGBTQI2S+ community. The message was clear, the lives of these murdered and missing gay men were not valued and hence the investigation into their deaths was not taken seriously until far too late.

On this same day I experienced a tone deaf, dismissive and damaging editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay making a mockery of those in the LGBTQI2S+ Community who self-identify as transgender, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, or non-binary. In the cartoon an individual who presents as female is asked by a clerk at a Service Canada desk how they would like to be addressed. The individual gives a glib and flippant answer ending with “In Ms. Chatsworth’s Gifted Class I went by Phil.” (Continued)

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Thursday March 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 1, 2018

Canada budget holds fire amid NAFTA clouds, focuses on women

Canada’s Liberal government tackled long-term growth challenges on Tuesday in a budget aimed at boosting women in the workforce and diversifying trade, while keeping its fiscal powder dry in case of an economic shock like the demise of NAFTA.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s third budget outlined slight deficit improvements without much in the way of new spending, refusing to blink in the face of U.S. corporate tax cuts and trade uncertainty that strike fear into Canadian companies. 

“We will be vigilant in making sure Canada remains the best place to invest, create jobs and do business – and we will do this in a responsible and careful way, letting evidence, and not emotion, guide our decisions,” Morneau said in a prepared budget speech. 

The budget blueprint, which is bound to be implemented given the Liberal’s parliamentary majority, maintained a C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) fiscal cushion each year to guard against any unexpected event that could hurt the government books. 

Even with the cushion, the projected deficit in 2018-2019 declined to C$18.1 billion from C$18.6 billion forecast in October, a restrained target unlikely to have any impact on financial markets or the Bank of Canada’s rate tightening path.

The loss of NAFTA would sideswipe Canada, which sends 75 percent of exports to the United States, and the decision not to slash corporate tax rates in response to the U.S. move puts Canadian companies at a disadvantage.

The unspoken bet is that Canadian exports will benefit from a roaring U.S. economy, even if business investment is lured away by the U.S. tax cuts. Canadian growth is already leading G7 rivals, spurring three rate hikes by the Bank of Canada since July, and the unemployment rate is near a 40-year low.

The budget did not address concerns that voters could come under pressure as rising rates increase the burden of record household debt, which the central bank has flagged as a risk.

Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for maintaining budget deficits far into the future and adding to the national debt.(Source: Reuters) 

 

Wednesday January 31, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 31, 2018

#MeToo’s moment on Parliament Hill suggests another way more women could change politics

The great unravelling continues. And as it does, it reveals the difficult truths about sexual misconduct by those who occupy the institutions of Canadian political power.

Beyond the question of what might be revealed next, there is the question of what must change to ensure this moment is never relived.

At noon on Monday, a day after another report of sexual misconduct allegedly perpetrated by one of its members, the House of Commons turned its attention to Bill C-65, legislation to implement new rules and processes for dealing with sexual harassment in federally regulated workplaces.

“We have been powerfully reminded in Canada and indeed around the world that harassment and violence remain a common experience for people in the workplace,” Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said. “Parliament Hill, our own workplace, is especially affected.”

She proceeded in greater detail.

“Parliament Hill features distinct power imbalances, which perpetuates a culture where people with a lot of power and prestige can use and have used that power to victimize the people who work so hard for us,” she said. “It is a culture where people who are victims of harassment or sexual violence do not feel safe to bring those complaints forward. It is a place where these types of behaviours, abusive and harmful, are accepted and minimized and ignored.”

Three hours later, MPs unanimously agreed to pass C-65 at second reading and send it immediately to a committee for further study.

The bill is, in Conservative MP Michelle Rempel’s words, “a positive step in the right direction.” But, in and of itself, C-65 “will not correct all the issues associated with the current state of affairs,” she said. 

So more must change, including perhaps the most obvious: the number of women who currently occupy seats in the House of Commons. (Source: CBC)

 

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Thursday November 16, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 16, 2017

Canada pledges to boost women peacekeepers

Canada is also offering a total of $21 million to help increase the number of women in peacekeeping, including $6 million to help with reforms at the UN and $15 million for a new trust fund.

The fund is intended to help partner together countries with good female representation in the ranks with those that want to have more women in uniform, but are facing challenges.

The officials emphasized that such partnerships would only involve countries that are genuinely interested and willing to having more women in their militaries.

The new emphasis on women in peacekeeping and military operations comes amid growing international recognition of the real operational benefits that come from female soldiers in the field.

Canada will also make dozens of trainers available to the UN and other countries to help professionalize militaries from developing countries that are often involved in peacekeeping.

Some of those trainers will be deployed to UN centres in Africa, such as Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. But officials say up to 50 could also be sent to other countries, and may even deploy on missions with their students.

That would only occur, however, when the safety of Canadian troops can be ensured, officials said. (Source: CTV News) 

 

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