Conservative MPs launch fundraiser for LGBTQ+ refugees

2026/06/26 Leave a comment

A reminder of the Conservative Party’s inclusiveness and that overall concerns regarding large numbers of refugees and government management of immigration also have a softer side. Happened during my time when representation by Egale and others resulted in revision of Discover Canada to be more inclusive of LGBTQ:

Two Conservative MPs say leading a fundraising cruise for LGBTQ+ refugees is a tangible way for the party to advance the rights of gender and sexual minorities.

“We’re all God’s creatures and we’re all loved, and we all deserve to be loved and we all deserve to feel safe and secure,” Scott Aitchison told The Canadian Press.

“I believe that it’s important for all of us to — not to preach that, but to demonstrate that.”

Aitchison is MP for Parry Sound—Muskoka, a riding popular with Torontonians who own cottages.

Last Friday, he announced a July 15 fundraising boat cruise for Rainbow Railroad, an organization that helps resettle persecuted LGBTQ+ people from around the world in Canada and other countries.

In a social media video, he and Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, who is lesbian, urged members of the public to buy $150 tickets.

The video drew a mix of praise, grumblings about the affordability crisis and criticism of the party’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.

Source: Conservative MPs launch fundraiser for LGBTQ+ refugees

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Critics say Canada’s new immigration and border law puts LGBTQ+ people in danger

2026/06/15 Leave a comment

Of note:

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from other political parties came together to raise the Pride flag on Parliament Hill.

But an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the U.S says the federal government’s new border law is putting people at risk of being sent back to countries where they face persecution.

Devon Matthews, Rainbow Railroad’s chief program officer, said her organization is concerned about its working relationship with Ottawa as the federal government reduces the number of refugees it admits and cuts the organization’s funding.

She said it’s also alarmed by a new law requiring that refugee claims be made within a year of the claimant’s first arrival in Canada.

“It has nothing to do with the reasons why someone may have waited or why someone doesn’t meet the one-year bar,” Matthews told The Canadian Press…

Source: Critics say Canada’s new immigration and border law puts LGBTQ+ people in danger

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Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival 

2026/05/18 Leave a comment

Of note:

The Immigration department is piloting a program allowing transgender refugees to change their gender and name as soon as they arrive in Canada without having to clear the usual administrative hurdles, to ensure they are not retraumatized. 

In a bid to align refugee policy with government policies supporting members of the LGBTQ community, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is allowing transgender refugees to bypass long waits in Canada to formally change identity. 

The first transgender asylum seeker arrived from South America under the program in December. They were permitted to land in Canada under their preferred identity, without having to go through the usual administrative stages to change their name and gender once settled here. 

The refugees came to Canada through the Government-Assisted Refugees, or GAR, program, under which refugees are referred to Canada for resettlement by organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency, and receive permanent resident status on arrival.

An internal “flash report” from IRCC in the Colombian capital of Bogota, obtained under Access to Information laws by immigration lawyer and policy analyst Richard Kurland, reported on the successful processing of the first refugee under the pilot scheme….

Source: Pilot program for transgender refugees allows them to change identity, name on arrival

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Kay: The Tragedy of Murdered Indigenous Women is Real. So How Did Activists Turn It Into a Punch Line?

2026/04/17 Leave a comment

More on Gazan’s alphabet soup combining MMIWG and LGTBQ acronyms:

…And yet for all the report’s heft, its authors never got around to any systematic analysis of who was killing Indigenous women, possibly because the answer turned out to be off-message: A Statistics Canada analysis of court outcomes in homicides of Indigenous women and girls, from 2009 to 2021, determined that “most Indigenous women and girls were killed by someone that they knew (81%), including an intimate partner (35%), acquaintance (24%), or family member (22%).”

What’s more—and this was the disclosure that really made many Canadians wonder why we’d spent CA$53 million on the Inquiry—it turned out that in 86 percent of known cases, the person accused of the homicide was also Indigenous.

It goes without saying that a woman’s death is no less (or more) tragic when she shares the killer’s ethnic background. Moreover, even in cases where an Indigenous man kills an Indigenous woman, it is entirely possible that racism—and, yes, “colonialism”—are at play. Indigenous people have been treated in all sorts of appalling ways in Canada, and the dark legacy of past policies hangs heavily over the lives of many Indigenous communities. No reasonable person would dispute that such historical realities should be considered by any inquiry mandated to investigate the problem of MMIWG. But to pretend that Canada is prosecuting an ongoing nationwide “genocide” against its female Indigenous population is nonsensical.

But there’s more, unfortunately—and here we get to the reason why the tragedy of “MMIWG” recently became something of a punch line among non-Canadian meme merchants who have no idea what the letters even signify….

Source: Kay: The Tragedy of Murdered Indigenous Women is Real. So How Did Activists Turn It Into a Punch Line?

Source: The Tragedy of Murdered Indigenous Women is Real. So How Did Activists Turn It Into a Punch Line?

Filed under Aboriginal, LGBTQ Tagged with , ,

Ottawa Pride parade dissolves after Palestinian demonstration blocks route

2025/08/26 2 Comments

Apart from the somewhat oxymoronic name Queers for Palestine, given the lack of LGBTQ rights in Palestine and elsewhere Arab and Muslim countries, stil hard to understand how blocking route increases public support for their position.

They could have, after all, simply marched along with the others, with some signs identifying themselves their Palestinian identity:

Hundreds of Palestinian supporters blocked the Capital Pride Parade shortly after it began Sunday afternoon, demanding parade officials come down and meet their “demands.”

Protesters gathered on Wellington Street near O’Connor, dancing to music while holding up signs and Palestinian flags. Many signs said “no pride in genocide.”

A giant pink-and-black banner read “all of us or none of us” and “stone wall was an intifada.” They also chanted slogans like “free, free Palestine,” “long live the intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“We will not leave until our elected officials and Capital Pride come down and meet our demands,” said Masha Davidovic, a member of Queers for Palestine-Ottawa group.

At about 2:30 p.m., the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the parade.

The confrontation comes after Capital Pride quietly took down its statement of solidarity with Palestinians this year, sparking criticism among some members of the community.

According to a pamphlet handed out at the protest Sunday, pro-Palestinian groups want Capital Pride to host a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) townhall and support PACBI, or the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The BDS movement is a Palestinian-led movement that uses economic pressures to force corporations, banks and other entities to withdraw support from Israel.

Protesters also called on Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to “apologize for last year’s boycott (of the parade) and the call to defund Pride” and “commit to stand with (protesters) and all oppressed peoples, including Palestinians.”

Stefania Wheelhouse of TotoToo Theatre was marching in the parade with 30 other people before the event was cancelled.

She told the Ottawa Citizen that they walked for about a block and half before they were stopped.

Around an hour later, they received word from Capital Pride officials that the remainder of the parade was cancelled and they were told to pack up and leave.

“We are bummed, of course, but we had a blast for the block and a half that we walked, and everyone was so positive, so it was still a net win for us,” Wheelhouse said.

“We sang, we spread the word. It’s still been a bit sad to not get to finish the run, but it is what it is.”

Donna Blackburn, an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee, was marching in the parade with the rest of the school board.

Blackburn was previously censured by her colleagues for disagreeing with the school board’s decision to withdraw from the parade last year after Capital Pride issued a pro-Palestinian statement. She was also told to take part in antisemitism training.

In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen on Sunday, Blackburn called the actions taken by the pro-Palestinian movement “backwards” and said protesters had “hijacked” the parade.

“I have publicly stood up for the Palestinian community in a very public way, took a lot of personal heat for doing it. I’m now a target of the Zionists. They’re coming after me. But this is not the way to get people onto your side,” she said.

“Blackmailing the mayor in the middle of the parade is completely, highly inappropriate. … There are ways to lobby. There are ways to advocate, and holding a parade like this hostage and blackmailing politicians in the middle of it is completely inappropriate.

“Hopefully the rest of the day we can just go about celebrating. The community organizations are down (on Bank Street) with their booths, and I’m sure the music will be good and all that stuff. It’s just unfortunate the parade was hijacked.”

Sutcliffe, who attended the parade along with other city councillors and city staff, said in a social media statement that he was proud to join the LGBTQ2S+ community at Pride but said it was “deeply regrettable” that protesters and activists chose to block the parade.

“My heart goes out to the many people in our city who were deprived of the opportunity to participate in this celebration of joy, resilience, and community,” the statement read.

“At a time when 2SLGBTQIA+ rights are under attack around the world, it’s critical to show our solidarity with the community and honour all those who have achieved hard-won progress on equal rights.

“Ottawa should always be a place of inclusion, where everyone feels welcome. Let’s continue to work together for a better city, for everyone.”

Source: Ottawa Pride parade dissolves after Palestinian demonstration blocks route

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Yakabuski: Montreal Pride finally stands up to the pro-Palestinian bullies 

2025/08/08 2 Comments

Of note:

…The statement did not name any banned groups, but Ga’ava and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) revealed that they had been suddenly disinvited from the event. In a Facebook post, Ga’ava said the explanation given by Fierté Montréal for its exclusion was related to Ga’ava’s description of certain groups that had previously demanded the organization’s banishment from the parade. Ga’ava’s and CIJA officials had said the groups were “pro-terror” and “pro-Hamas” in a Jewish newspaper article. Ga’ava president Carlos Godoy denied those terms constituted hate speech.

On Tuesday, Fierté Montréal reversed itself and lifted the ban on Ga’ava and the CIJA. It apologized to the Jewish community, and particularly Jewish members of Quebec’s LGBTQ community, who felt it had sought to exclude them. What exactly transpired remains unclear, but it is a safe bet that government and corporate sponsors – which account for about 80 per cent of Fierté Montréal’s budget – had something to do with the move. The chairman of Fierté Montréal’s board of directors also resigned on Monday. 

Fierté Montréal’s reversal angered the pro-Palestinian groups that had called for Ga’ava’s exclusion. But it was the correct move. There are legitimate grievances to be aired about the Israeli army’s increasingly disgraceful conduct in Gaza. Yet, attacking Ga’ava appears to have more to do with the role such groups play in underscoring Israel’s protection of LGBTQ rights, in contrast to the oppression LGBTQ persons face in most Arab jurisdictions. That is not a contrast pro-Palestinian activists want to emphasize, perhaps because it exposes their own cognitive dissonance, if not hypocrisy.

These pro-Palestinian LGBTQ activists accuse Israel of “pinkwashing,” or playing up gay rights in Israel to distract attention from its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. But what they are really seeking to do is to silence anyone who suggests otherwise.

Source: Montreal Pride finally stands up to the pro-Palestinian bullies

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Judge halts non-binary person’s deportation to the U.S. as Trump dismantles trans rights

2025/07/21 Leave a comment

Conditions have changed and assessments need to be updated but with nuance:

A Federal Court judge halted a non-binary American’s deportation from Canada pending review. Advocates say the ruling sets “an important precedent” for 2SLGBTQ+ immigrants and refugees coming to Canada from, or through, the U.S.

…Jenkel was scheduled to be deported from Canada this month. But a Federal Court judge issued a stay of removal, arguing the immigration officer who examined their case failed to take into account their role in caring for their fiancé, or the “current conditions for LGBTQ, non-binary and transgender persons” in the U.S.

Advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ migrants say this could set a precedent for other cases like Jenkel’s, and help change the way Canada’s immigration system deals with applications from the U.S.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRRC) declined to comment on Jenkel’s case, citing privacy concerns.

…Deportation order ‘failed to reflect the current reality’

Jenkel was ordered to be deported on July 3 after an initial risk assessment determined they didn’t face a credible threat in the U.S.

But Justice Julie Blackhawk halted that deportation, pending review. In her ruling, she wrote Jenkel’s risk assessment was “flawed and unreasonable.”

That’s because the immigration officer conducting the review used outdated information — a government dossier on the United States that was last updated in January 2024, says Jenkel’s lawyer.

“It’s a marked recognition that the conditions have deteriorated … since the Biden administration has left office,” Sarah Mikhail, of Smith Immigration Law in Toronto, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.

“These changes are significant enough that, when assessing trans and non-binary individuals’ circumstances in Canada, this is something that needs to be taken into consideration.”

Source: Judge halts non-binary person’s deportation to the U.S. as Trump dismantles trans rights

Filed under Immigration, LGBTQ Tagged with ,

L’exode américain LGBTQ+ vers le Canada a commencé

2025/03/26 Leave a comment

To note (early signs from immigration lawyers):

Pendant que Donald Trump courtise les millionnaires pour leur offrir une carte dorée d’immigration à 5 millions de dollars, un exode certain des familles LGBTQ+ a déjà commencé. Les demandes d’Américains souhaitant déménager ont explosé depuis son retour à la Maison-Blanche, selon des avocats et des organisations, et le Canada s’impose comme une destination de choix.



« Je n’ai jamais rien vu de tel », admet d’emblée David LeBlanc, avocat en immigration et directeur de Ferreira-Wells Immigration. Il dit recevoir une centaine de demandes par semaine.



La forte hausse se dessinait déjà à la veille de l’élection décisive de novembre dernier, mais il constate que les gens sont maintenant prêts à bouger réellement, et vite.

Jusqu’à 90 % de ses clients admissibles à un programme d’immigration au Canada ont déjà commencé le processus, affirme-t-il.

Cette firme, basée à Toronto, se considère comme une « pionnière » dans l’immigration des personnes issues des communautés LGBTQ+ depuis trois décennies. Plusieurs se demandent s’ils peuvent en fait demander l’asile au Canada, rapporte-t-il, ce qui est pour l’instant improbable. « Ça devient vite le sujet le plus chaud de notre profession en ce moment », dit M. LeBlanc.


En ce moment, parmi ceux qui sont le plus susceptibles de passer de l’idée à la réalisation, les familles LGBTQ+ sont les numéros 1 », confirme aussi depuis Toronto Evan Green, avocat spécialisé en immigration et associé principal de la firme Green and Spiegel. Son équipe reçoit « considérablement plus » de demandes depuis le retour de l’équipe Trump au pouvoir, même en comparaison avec son mandat précédent, et « l’urgence » est beaucoup plus palpable.

Aucun État ne semble épargné : « Même ici, en Californie, le climat politique est de plus en plus hostile avec des attaques claires contre les droits trans de tous les ordres de gouvernement », remarque Kathie Moehlig, directrice générale de TransFamily Support Services, un organisme basé à San Diego. La plupart des familles sont trop « tétanisées » pour parler aux médias, rapporte-t-elle. Seules les plus fortunées ou privilégiées peuvent aussi entamer les démarches, notamment vers le Canada, rappelle-t-elle.

Celles dont l’un des parents possède la nationalité canadienne sont les plus rapides à pouvoir franchir la frontière, dit M. Green….

Source: L’exode américain LGBTQ+ vers le Canada a commencé

While Donald Trump is courting millionaires to offer them a $5 million golden immigration card, a certain exodus of LGBTQ+ families has already begun. Requests from Americans wishing to move have exploded since his return to the White House, according to lawyers and organizations, and Canada is emerging as a destination of choice.

“I have never seen anything like this,” admits David LeBlanc, immigration lawyer and director of Ferreira-Wells Immigration. He says he receives a hundred requests a week.

The sharp increase was already emerging on the eve of last November’s decisive election, but he notes that people are now ready to move really, and quickly.

Up to 90% of his clients eligible for an immigration program in Canada have already started the process, he says. This Toronto-based firm has considered itself a “pioneer” in the immigration of people from LGBTQ+ communities for three decades. Many are wondering if they can actually seek asylum in Canada, he reports, which is unlikely at the moment. “It quickly becomes the hottest subject of our profession at the moment,” says Mr. LeBlanc.

At the moment, among those who are most likely to move from idea to realization, LGBTQ+ families are number 1, “also confirms from Toronto Evan Green, immigration lawyer and principal partner of the firm Green and Spiegel. His team has received “significantly more” requests since the Trump team’s return to power, even compared to his previous mandate, and “the urgency” is much more palpable.

No state seems to be spared: “Even here in California, the political climate is increasingly hostile with clear attacks on trans rights of all levels of government,” notes Kathie Moehlig, executive director of TransFamily Support Services, a San Diego-based organization. Most families are too “tetanized” to talk to the media, she reports. Only the most wealthy or privileged can also start the steps, especially to Canada, she recalls.

Those whose parents have Canadian citizenship are the fastest to cross the border, says Mr. Green.

Filed under Immigration, LGBTQ Tagged with , ,

‘Everything’s on the table,’ minister says about Canada’s response to Trump’s order on gender

2025/01/24 Leave a comment

Probably not:

Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien says that President Donald Trump’s executive order that the U.S. government will only recognize male and female genders from now on is “highly disturbing,” with worrying implications for members of the transgender community.

Ms. Ien said she will be meeting with Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly on Thursday to discuss how the order will affect Canada, including whether a travel advisory should be issued to warn gender-diverse Canadians planning to visit the United States.

The two ministers will also talk about whether Canada should create a special carve-out in the Safe Third Country Agreement with Washington, so that transgender asylum seekers who come to Canada’s border would not be automatically sent back to the U.S.

Asylum seekers coming to either Canada or the United States must make a refugee claim where they first arrive, but human-rights and refugee advocates argue that the U.S. can no longer be considered safe for trans people.

“Everything’s on the table,” Ms. Ien said in an interview. “Canada already opens its doors to 2SLGBTQI+ people who are fleeing aggression. Canada already does that, and I don’t see why we stop doing that. Did we ever think that the United States would be one of those countries? I don’t know about that. That’s new.”

Her remarks contrast with those of Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who in an interview on Tuesday said that despite Mr. Trump’s measures, he still regards the U.S. as a safe place under the agreement….

Source: ‘Everything’s on the table,’ minister says about Canada’s response to Trump’s order on gender

Filed under gender, Immigration, LGBTQ Tagged with , ,

Ling: We’re terrible at talking about the Israel-Hamas conflict. I tried to figure out why. [the need for criteria]

2024/08/30 Leave a comment

Good on Ling for having these conversations.

The most recent example is that of Capital Pride provides an example of the kinds of questions that need to be raised. How should organizations like Capital Pride assess which issues to promote or protest? What should the criteria be? How should one distinguish between different atrocities and abuses? Why Israel/Hamas and not Chinese repression of Uighurs, killings in the Sudan civil war, Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Uganda’s anti-homosexuality act, etc?

So, to encourage some discussion, here are some initial suggestions of possible criteria:

  • Is the protest and actions primarily about LGBTQ rights?
  • If not, how does a country’s or organization’s human rights abuse compare to other human rights abuse?
  • How divisive will the issue/protest be among LGBTQ communities and more broadly?
  • How does the treatment of LGBTQ differ between parties to a conflict?

These have been written for the Israel/Hamas protests and thus reflect my preferences and biases. But the need for criteria, rather than event and particular group driven protests, would reduce the likelihood that some LGBTQ members and allies would feel excluded:

…At least Fogel was willing to be introspective. I suggested to him that Haaretz — the liberal Israeli paper, a fierce critic of Netanyahu, which has relentlessly covered allegations of Israeli war crimes  — could not publish in Canada without being deluged with complaints and criticism. “I don’t think you’re entirely wrong,” he says. “What passes for the norm in Israel is sometimes seen by the Jewish community here as crossing the line.”

How can we have a serious discourse with all these invisible lines? Fogel gave me a fatalistic answer: “I’m not sure you can.”

It’s a variation of an idea I heard from Toney, and Kaplan-Myrth, and a host of other people in recent months: we’re too far gone, too polarized, too emotional to be able to talk about this crisis. Many say they respect the positions of the other side, and are keen to figure out points of agreement, yet often caricature their ideological opposites as inflexible, radical, impossible to reason with.

Mediating this conflict through the body politic doesn’t necessarily mean striving for compromise or capitulation, and it doesn’t entail a return to an age of elite gatekeepers. But it has to mean engaging in discussion, debate and argument without immediately calling it all off. Enabling genuine discourse doesn’t fuel hate, and may act as a pressure release valve to actually prevent it. At the same time, we can’t accept hateful language, online or in the street, just because the author insists their side has a monopoly on morality and justice.

There’s nothing naive about this idea: It is literally the foundation of our society. It is deeply cynical to say that our ideological opposites must be silenced, boycotted, or shouted down because they are dangerous or immoral.

Polarization is not a thing that other people do to us. It is a thing we do to each other. In the same way, mediation is not something that will be done for us, but something we have to commit to and work on, every day, ourselves.

Source: We’re terrible at talking about the Israel-Hamas conflict. I tried to figure out why.

Filed under Antisemitism, LGBTQ, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

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