(Source: transqueery, via transawareness)
In what a London lawyer is calling a “game changing decision,” the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has struck down a rule that required trans people to undergo “transexual surgery” in order to change the sex category on their birth certificate.
As a result of the decision, Ontario now has 180 days to revise the criteria for sex designation change. The government must now present “some alternate requirement,” Nussbaum says. “One idea that is being considered is having a guarantor process, so there would be some third party guarantor confirm that a person is living in a particular gender.”
The precedent-setting decision could force legislation changes in other provinces and territories, she says.So this happened. This is fucking amazing. (Full article is linked in the title, or also here.)
This is brilliant. This will also likely have a direct, positive impact on the the travel ID rule that allows a person to be barred from flying if they do not present as the gender indicated on their travel documents. (see here to refresh your memory)
(Source: shorm)
The UN states that any country restricting a woman’s access to abortion and/or contraception is, in doing so, violating a woman’s human rights.
….finally.
So, we’ve got extremely reputable cancer-related organizations saying abortion doesn’t cause cancer or increase your risk.
We’ve got extremely reputable reports declaring post-abortion depression to be a hoax.
We’ve got extremely reputable reports showing how many women die from lack of safe, legal abortions.
And now we have the UN stating that ANY and ALL restrictions to the right to choose, to have knowledge, and to have contraception is a violation of human rights.
Your move, Anti-Choicers. Try not to use slavery, the Holocaust, or the Bible.
Boo. Effin’. Yah.
(via stfuconservatives)
I Think This Is One Of Those Posts Where I Will Finish It and STILL Not Really Be Sure About My Opinion
I received a petition from Change.org today, as I often do, about Women’s rights.
Here is the content of the email:
Dear [redacted!],
Girls in a Toronto public school are sent to the back of the room — just because they’re menstruating.
Valley Park Middle School in Toronto allows Muslim students to use the cafeteria for Friday prayer: Seventh and eighth grade girls pray behind the boys, separated by tables, while girls who have their period must sit on their own in the back of the room, not allowed to join in the prayer.
The Muslim Canadian Congress, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and newspapers both left and right have spoken out: Segregating 12-year-old girls who are menstruating sends an unhealthy and sexist message that can scar these children.
But the school still hasn’t budged. That’s why Tim Das, a father of two kids in Toronto,started a petition on Change.org calling for the Toronto District School Board to enforce its general equity policy and stop segregating menstruating girls in schools. Will you add your name now?
Tim said he started the petition because school should be a safe place for children, not one in which girls are shamed and ostracized for a natural function of their bodies — a development they’re just getting used to. “As a taxpayer, Toronto resident, and first-generation Canadian — and most of all, as the father of a sweet, spirited six year old girl in the Toronto Public School system — I was aghast,” said Tim. ”I knew I had to do something.”
Toronto’s School Board is required to promote “gender equity ideals” in “all aspects” of the city’s schools. One board member has already said he thinks the board should enforce that policy. Widespread public outcry can push the rest of the board to agree to stop segregating girls who have their period.
Sign the petition to tell the Toronto District School Board to stop treating girls like second-class citizens — and worse — in publicly funded schools.
http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-segregate-menstruating-girls-in-public-schools
Thank you for taking action.
- Shelby and the Change.org team
I don’t … know how I feel about this. I seem to have a lot of “on the one hand” opinions.
On the one hand - no, I do not think that girls should be ostracized because something is occurring in their body which they cannot control and they certainly should not be shamed for.
On the other hand - I don’t entirely feel comfortable with the idea of a public school board saying: yes, you can come in and practice your religion within these walls every Friday at lunch, oh but, we are going to dictate some of your cultural practices and standards.
To be honest, I don’t particularly like the idea of a public school permitting religion on their grounds at all (particularly if the school board and trustees start to step in and dictate based on their own views, context and policies).
But on the other hand, I can appreciate the inclusiveness and multiculturalism that the school has attempted to create given that three to four hundred of its twelve hundred students are taking part. The question of religious rights is valid, particularly since our school weeks and years are set up around the Christian religion. This would be, as I understand it, akin to allowing Christians to have a small mass on Sundays if they were also required to be in school, or Jewish students to have a place to pray during the Sabbath.
On the other other hand, I feel as if this is not the place to raise the complaint and the issue. Is the Imam who is running the service part of the same service that the boys and girls would have attended if they had needed to go off schoolgrounds to attend? If not, or if the parents of the participating children would not normally worship in a place with segregation like this, then perhaps a change in officient is in order? Or a different sort of prayer group? There seems to be other options other than handing down an edict from above.
I suppose the real reason I do not feel comfortable with this is I do not have enough knowledge to know if by signing the petition, would I be an ally in this or not? I do not know the opinion of the students and parents who are affected by this. There are a variety of opinions from Muslim groups who obviously feel that this is more strict than they agree with, however, nothing specific from those who choose to attend every Friday or their parents. And while it might seem like the simple solution is: Just get everyone to stop the segregation! I have no way of knowing the context or the affects this would have on the people who are actually impacted by this. It seems to be part of a greater picture, and really, the only outcome I can currently see if the Toronto school forbids the segregation (at least, if the parents and children are not requesting the change as well - at which point, this is a WHOLE other story) is making a lot of people who are not affected by this feel better about themselves and pictures they see on the internet.
A government study that found nearly 40 per cent of water systems on native reserves pose high levels of risk is proof Ottawa needs to act quickly fund improvements, the Liberals say.
The results of the National Assessment of First Nations Water and Wastewater Systems were released last week by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
Conducted over two years, the study looked at water systems in 97 per cent of first-nation communities in Canada and found that nearly 1,800 reserve homes were without water or sewage service. It said $1.2-billion would be required immediately to bring these systems up to the Aboriginal Affairs department’s own protocol.
“The problem is far more serious than previously reported, with 39 per cent of first nations drinking water systems rated as high risk by the assessment,” Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, her party’s aboriginal affairs critic, told an Ottawa news conference Tuesday.
“The government has an obligation to commit additional new funding to address the immediate needs, in addition to an estimated $4.7-billion over the next 10 years,” she said.
The Conservatives previously introduced legislation in the Senate that would require aboriginal communities to meet federally dictated standards for water supplies but many native groups opposed it because it provided no money for the upgrades required. It died on the order paper when the government fell prior to the election but is expected to be reintroduced.
The BC Conservative’s leader-designate John Cummins has made headlines for suggesting that sexual orientation is a choice that does not require specific protection under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
In comments to Victoria’s CFAX radio, subsequently reported by the Victoria Times Colonist, Mr. Cummins said he voted against adding sexual orientation as a ground for discrimination under Canada’s Human Rights Act when he was an MP in Ottawa.
“I’m not a scientist [but] some of the research tells me that there’s more of an indication that that’s a choice issue,” he said.
Homosexual men and lesbians already have the protection of the Human Rights Act, he said.
Asked about those comments at a political rally in Victoria on Wednesday night, Mr. Cummins said his opinions were personal.
“I’m pro-life, I’m pro-traditional marriage, that’s my view, I’m not a scientist,” he told the Times Colonist. “I’m not going to discuss that, they’re personal issues, private issues.”
Mr. Cummins spent 18 years as an MP for Delta Richmond East before he retired in March. He announced his candidacy for the BC Conservative party on March 29.
A leadership convention is scheduled for May 28 and Mr. Cummins, currently the leader-designate, is the sole candidate.
Dear Sir, If your opinions were private and personal, you should not say them on a radio show. Furthermore. You, sir, are a nincompoop. Please shut the hell up. No love, Mei
UNITED NATIONS — Canada pledged on Thursday to maintain its annual “diplomatic” assault on Iran at the United Nations — even though the world body’s Human Rights Council earlier Thursday resumed direct scrutiny of the Islamic republic after a nine-year hiatus.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told Postmedia News there would be no let-up in Canada’s successful multi-year bid to push through resolutions in the UN General Assembly deploring abuses in Iran that include public executions and arbitrary arrests.
“Canada will continue to take Iran to task for their egregious human rights abuses,” Cannon said from Ottawa. “We will do this at every opportunity, and in every appropriate forum, including in the General Assembly, until the situation improves dramatically.”
Canada’s drive annually infuriates Iran, which invariably lobbies against the measure — one year by issuing a book documenting what it described as human rights abuses committed by the Canadian government.
Ottawa launched its attacks after the Geneva-based council’s predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, went mute over Iran in 2002 as human rights “rogue” states came to dominate the body. At the same time, the European Union quit tabling resolutions in the General Assembly criticizing Iranian practices as it focused on a human rights “dialogue” with Iran.
But what specifically spurred Canada was the 2003 torture and murder in an Iranian jail of the Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. The first Canadian-led resolution on Iran emerged that year.
EDMONTON — CN Railway has stopped fighting a human-rights decision last fall that ordered the company to give two women their jobs back, but CN will continue its appeal related to a third woman.
“At this point, CN is continuing its appeal of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision with regards to Denise Seeley, but it has withdrawn its appeal with regard to Cindy Richards and Kasha Whyte, and we have no further comment at this time,” CN spokesman Mark Hallman said Friday.
The legal battle between the women and their railroad employer started after CN assigned them in 2005 to work temporarily in Vancouver. All three had young children and said they were unable to uproot their families from Jasper, Alta., and leave. They lost their jobs.
[…]
Seeley is not back at work yet and said CN is claiming she may have a medical condition dating back to 1994 that prevents her from working as a conductor. Seeley said she fainted once at home about 16 years ago and reported the incident to CN at the time. She continued to work for CN as a conductor for many years after that. Seeley said she received her medical clearance within days of a medical exam in 2005 when CN told her she would have to go to Vancouver.
Now, CN is expressing concerns the loss of consciousness indicates a health condition, she said.
