Sunday 10 May 2015

mother's day in canada: in thanks for your bouquet



S/he


A knife, an axe, a rope, a fist, and harsh words
These are the things that my child has reported

finding along the river
and in the gardens of the neighbourhood
at dances
at bus stops

so many Friday nights have passed
she dresses fine and then decides
to stay in the safety of an apartment that has
only family in it

So many years I bade her:
rise and shine,
sweetheart


  
10 May 2015

**********************************************************************



***************************************************************************************************************

Transgender rights bill gutted by 'transphobic' Senate...

By Janyce McGregor, CBC News Posted: Feb 27, 2015



Advocates for Canadian transgender rights legislation were set back and frustrated with what they say is a "transphobic" Senate committee amendment that limits the effectiveness of the bill.
NDP MP Randall Garrison's private member's bill, C-279, seeks to fight hate crimes against transgender individuals by adding gender identity provisions to both the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act.  
NDP MP Randall Garrison
Randall Garrison, the LGBT critic for the NDP, introduced private member's legislation to strengthen anti-discrimination protections against the transgender community. (ndp.ca)

"We still want to support the bill, because it's important for the trans community, but if it's going to have the amendment in it that restricts our use of washrooms and public facilities... no," said Amanda Ryan from the advocacy group Gender Mosaic.
"It's a bad bill with that amendment in it. We want to fight as hard as we can to have that removed," she told CBC News Network's Power & Politics on Thursday.
The bill passed in the House of Commons almost two years ago, thanks to 18 votes from a divided Conservative caucus. Even cabinet ministers were split on the issue.
On Wednesday at the Senate committee finally tasked with reviewing the legislation, Conservative Senator Don Plett introduced three amendments. 
Garrison told reporters he didn't have a problem with two of them:
  • One is a tactical amendment to make it correspond to other legislation, like C-13, the Tories' cyberbullying legislation.
  • The other removes a definition for gender identity not included in his original bill, but added by Commons Conservatives to clarify its application before passage. 
The third amendment, however, exempts places like prisons, crisis centres, and public washrooms and change rooms from the bill's provisions. That, Garrison says, is "transphobic."
"That particular amendment is deeply troubling to transgendered people," said Independent Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, who had sponsored the bill in the Senate and led senators from his party in voting against the change. 
"I want to acknowledge here, on the record, the deep pain that it causes ...


No comments: