A Canadian on Politics

faineemae:

Two non-South Asian girls from a local high school decided to dress up as people of colour (PoC) for Halloween. They blacked their faces, made beards, wrapped turbans on their heads, and even found fitting outfits. They, and the supporters of the pictures that the girls posted on Twitter and Facebook, continued the “effect” further by making racist and stereotypical comments about PoC, including calling themselves “Pakis”, and “Arabs.” They also took and publicly uploaded photosin stereotypical poses, as well as stereotypical places (i.e. outside an Indian restaurant). A couple of students who voiced their offense to this brought it to the teachers, which escalated to the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRSDB). Though these costumes were not worn to school, a trend of cyberbullying started as soon as the offended girls stood up against the act. They held a restorative meeting (20 days later), and these girls were let off the hook. The few vocal students who stood up and represented their fellow offended peers were told to “keep quiet” of the situation, and swear secrecy of the result of the meeting, by WRDSB.

It’s not hard to see the injustice here. The Board failed to push the girls to simply apologize to the victims of this act of cultural appropriation and cyberbullying, but they also undermined the situation by literally brushing the entire issue under the table. The offenders were not even punished in any way, i.e. detention or suspension, despite that their own code of conduct stated that offenders should be dealt with accordingly.

You may not be a Person of Colour, of religion, or you may not even be directly aware of these offenses. It may have never happened to you at all. But there are so many students who have battled with these stereotypes, including your friends, peers, and even teachers.

We’re not going to try and explain the damage done here, if it’s not plain already. It’s a simple matter of the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.”

Racism is bullying too, and cyberbullying is a truth that surrounds our generation. Outlined in Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, and Bill 80, the Anti-Bullying Act, there are consequences associated with cyberbullying and the appropriate action must be taken by educators. 

Support us in our rally against WRDSB to take stronger action of in-school offenses of racism and cyberbullying that touch upon the most basic principles of respect, community, and security. We want to see policies in educational settings that directly address racism with no tolerance whatsoever, potentially even taking it to a provincial-wide level. This petition will be forwarded to Kitchener-Waterloo’s MPP, Catherine Fife, in hopes of addressing WRDSB and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Tweet this petition link http://chn.ge/XEmgRA and hashtag it #RacismIsBullying. 
Share on Facebook, and help spread the word. 

If you would like to share any personal stories (anonymous or not) about racism and/or cyberbullying, please email us at RacismIsBullying@gmail.com and we will include them in our letter to the MPP.

**NOTE** The picture of the two girls dressed in the costumes will not be posted due to our belief in its privacy. This petition is NOT about the girls involved, but about the way the WRDSB reacted to the situation, involving both racism and cyberbullying. 
The picture included at the beginning is part of a campaign by the Students Teaching About Racism in Society group from Ohio University. 

(Source: faineemae)

(Source: fuckyeahsexeducation, via transawareness)

bdoing:

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 federal government intends to add 30 seats to the House of Commons, a change it says is necessary to account for growth in Canada’s most populous provinces.

Half of the new seats will go to Ontario, while Alberta and British Columbia will each receive six seats each.

Quebec will be allocated three more seats, to prevent the province from being underrepresented in a newly swollen Parliament.

The government believes the “Fair Representation Act” will help ensure that Canadians in provinces with fast-growing populations get better representation.

Tim Uppal, the minister of state for democratic reform, said the government wanted to maintain the existing seats in Parliament, while addressing the seat imbalances that have resulted from population growth.

[…]

Liberal critic Stephane Dion suggested Thursday that while the government believes it has found “a balance” on how to distribute the forthcoming seats, its caucus should be prepared to have parliamentarians take a hard look at the details of the plan.

“Democratic reform is not a game and must be done in co-ordination with the provinces,” Dion said in a statement.

“Now that a proposal is before Parliament, the Conservatives must commit to allowing Members of Parliament and Senators the time to fully study the impacts of the bill.”

The increased representation for Quebec has ruffled some feathers within the Conservative caucus, CTV’s Power Play host Don Martin said Thursday.

“There’s some pushback in the caucus from this,” Martin told CTV News Channel from Ottawa.

“Some Conservative MPs say: ‘We shouldn’t be capitulating necessarily to Quebec on this.’”

Oliver said that from the point of view of some Quebecers, there may be a feeling that their influence is waning in Ottawa.

An Ontario court judge will hear arguments Tuesday about whether laws that make it a criminal offence to be nude in public are unconstitutional and should be struck down.

Lawyers for Brian Coldin will argue it should not automatically be a criminal offence to be without clothes in public and that discretion of prosecuting people for being nude should be left up to police.

Mr. Coldin has been on trial for an incident in which he was nude at a Tim Hortons and an A&W near Bracebridge in southern Ontario.

During this incident Mr. Coldin pretended to reach into his non-existent back pocket for his wallet.

Employees at the restaurants testified seeing Mr. Coldin’s genitals made them feel “uncomfortable.”

The judge in the case will rule on whether Mr. Coldin is guilty and on the constitutionality of Canada’s nudity laws at the same time.

Mr. Coldin’s lawyer Nader Hasan says they will argue on Mr. Coldin’s behalf that criminal laws are not supposed to protect the prudish.

Okay, now, intellectually, I do grasp that clothing is a societal construct and discomfort of nudity is a reaction to pushing social mores, not a situation of genuine harm, etc.

At least not in a perfect world.

In an imperfect world, someone’s genitals are frequently either taken advantage of, or used to harm others, and therefore, I think there is a form of self-protection which occurs in public, uncontrolled spaces and discomfort with nudity.

What’s more, the social mores that come from nudity are derived from the protection from the elements that people received, and not from something that occurred outside of any other influence.  

Also - I don’t know if prudishness is exactly the right word, when  99.999999% of Canadians* more than happily follow this social construct without issue or negative impact.

And FINALLY - There is a certain amount of sanitation that comes from being clothed and I, sir, do not want your nakedness near a place that makes my food!

* this statistic came from a highly scientific poll taken in my apartment.  The poll consisted of myself.  It would have included my cats but they were disqualified on the account of having fur and not being human.